Christmas ideas part..ONE.

So I thought it would be fun to do a little series on Christmas gifts. I was going to start with a sponsor-ified one but then, the Heavens alined and  Nester is doing a favorite things linky so, let's go with my favorite gifts first, yes? Yes.

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These pants.

I first read about them on a Mommy-type message board and everyone raved over them. I didn't order them but I thought about it, you betcha--But I'm cheap. ha.

One day while browsing Targets clearance though, I got lucky and found a pair for 3.00 or something ridiculous. Then I was hooked, they're seriously like silk. I got over my cheapness and bought a few more pairs at regular price, which okay-- it's not a bad price at all but when I wasn't sure if I loved them.. well you know. I bought some for my cousin for her birthday last year and she said the same thing.

They're HEAVEN on your tush.
There I said it.
You will too.

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I finally kicked my nail biting habit, for now. And, I'm definitely digging being able to paint my nails. I've been changing them weekly and right now, I have *two* favorites for neutrals. They're just too pretty not to love right?

 (Marshmallow)

(Bubble Bath)

I get the Essie colors at Target and the OPI at the salon. I also saw those cool nail sticker things and I could be wrong but I think they're one of my BFF's favorite things. Maybe she'll chime in for us and tell us how they work!

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I have horrible skin. Okay, let's get that out there. It's bad. It used to be really oily and then I had babies and they both sucked the nutrients out of my body ;) And, now? It's dry as hell okay. Like, flaky by the end of the day. GROSS. So, I think it was Kandee Johnson who told me (Yes just me.. Okay no, it was on a video, she told everyone. We're not bffs......yet) to get this stuff.

Hello soft skin, I've missed you!

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Oh oh oh.. One more!

This movie. 

Oh my gosh ya'll. I don't think I've met anyone who didn't like it but I could watch it 100 times. Maybe more. I love it. It's probably on the pricier side for a favorite things party (which, btdubs is an AWESOME idea) but I've seen these on Amazon for cheap. So you could get them for 5 people and it wouldn't be too horribly expensive. Ryan wants you to, okay? Try and tell him no.

So there you go. Some fun, affordable things that I can promise you, you'll love. And your gift recipient will love too. If they don't you can cuss me out, but it wont happen. Pinky swear! I'll be back later with a sponsor-themed gift guide. Can't wait. Totes in the Christmas spirit I am.

Home-made Christmas gift part two!

I'm back with another from the heart Christmas gift, woo-to-the-hoo right? Right!

This one is a little more expensive than the fridge board, but it's ohsogood.

First things first, you need this.

Obviously you could get any brands you want but these are my personal favorites

*side note I actually didn't use the pudding. I remembered seeing on pinterest about putting chocolate pudding in hot chocolate mix to make it extra delish, but then I couldn't find the pin and wasn't sure how much to put in. Second guessing myself wasn't fun so I skipped it.

Cost breakdown was really affordable.

2.00 for the box of candy canes and I only ended up needing 5 of them, I have a whole box left! 

2.00 for the jar, Hobby Lobby has glass 50% off right now! If you decide to get it when it's not on sale it's still only 4.00-- good deal right there.

5.00 cocoa mix from Target

1.99 chocolate bar..I'm partial to Dove so you could get a cheaper kind or go all out and get some Godiva.. Yum.

Put your candy canes in a plastic bag and crumble them up. I had a helper do it for me, a tiny hammer and a cutting board.

While she's making tiny slivers of delicious peppermint, it's time to cut up your chocolate. Take 2/3rds of it and leave the rest for later. Because, well you'll want to eat it. Trust me.

Take your giant murder scene looking knife and chop up your chocolate. It's easier if it's room temp, mine wasn't and I had to let it warm up a bit from the fridge.

Then layer it. Cocoa powder, chocolate and peppermint.

Glorious. 

There you have it! Super affordable, cute and yummy. You could one up a notch and give it with some mugs and a spoon.

*Second note* It'd also be really cute to add another layer of marshmallows if you like those in your hot chocolate, I personally dig the whip cream so I opted out of that, but while I was making these I thought it would also be equally as delicious to do a white chocolate version, yes? Yes. Think about it! And, one more. Don't fill it up quite to the top, leave a little room so they can shake it up so the chocolate and pepper mint are equally distributed when they get it. It tastes better that way but isn't as pretty. ;)

Want to see Christmas gifts part one? Check it out here! 

Linking up to the Weekend Wrap up Party!

Home-made Christmas gifts

We're a few days away from the (suggested..Psh! I've been rocking Christmas scents and music for a while now) kick off to the holiday season so it's time to think about gifts! And, what better gift is one that's hand made..with love.

The first one I want to share is a fun little memo board that I saw floating around on Pinterest. I don't have any ornate vintage frames but I do have a Wal*mart and they're cheap. 4.00 cheap. Yes, please.

I bought some yummy spray paint colors but I actually ended up liking this one the way it was. Since, it's for my kitchen and all. I used brown painter paper from Home Depot for inside the frame. I really dig brown and black together, classic and neutral but you could do anything inside these! Scrapbook paper, fabric, a photo, the possibilities are endless. That's the beauty of this.

I bought the paper for our Thanksgiving tablescape so technically it wasn't in the total cost of this project but if you want to add it to it, it was 10.00 for a HUGE roll. Awesome for coloring at the table for kids, seriously.

I wanted to use magnets but, let me tell you about these suckers.

They were a dollar something at Wal*mart and to put it bluntly they suck. I put about 100 of them on the back of the frame and they still didn't hold it up. Boo! I could have went to Michaels and used the heavy duty ones, because I have before for other projects and they do rock the socks, but.. I didn't want to waste the gas driving there. Hello, I'm Rachelle and cheap.

Next best thing, these velcro command strips. I can't rave enough about these things! I used them in the playroom makeover to hold up all the girls art on the walls and they're still going strong. If you're giving these away for gifts you could buy a pack of these and just put two on the back and leave the paper on the strips so they don't lose their sticky, and it's great because of the velcro you can still take it off the fridge to write on.

Which leads me to my next point, I'd wrap up a sharpie with the gift. Get a pack of 6 or whatever they come in for 5 bucks and tie it with a ribbon, instant cute! Bonus is with using a sharpie rather than a dry erase marker, if you bump it while you're writing on it, it doesn't come off but, it does come off clean with windex or a baby wipe if you're like me and always have them in the house for messy faces and what not. Love those things!

So there you go.

This was a pain in the butt to photograph because of the glare but you get the gist. Super cute, super cheap and everyone would use it. If you wanted to go up one notch you could always order some cute vinyl and put the families last name on it, or something equally as cute like "Meal planning..Calender..To Do" Like I said.. Possibilities? Endless!

I'll be back all week sharing fun handmade gift ideas, woohoo! See you tomorrow!

*Also I'm joining Chris at Just a Girl for her Handmade Holiday party! Check out all the fantastic links won't ya?*

On marriage and divorce.

How's that for a title, eh?

Okay well I really don't know where I'm going to go with this and it might get wordy or it could be simple. That's the best part I just don't know yet. And, I'm going to try and not edit it down much, because you all want my raw emotions right? Thought so.

Very slowly over the last few weeks I've hinted that things were getting better between my husband and I. Thank the Lord on that one, right? Yes. And, for some reason I wanted to jump for joy and share it sooner but I was completely terrified to jinx it. How ridiculous right? Like, if I admitted it out loud that he came home he'd change his mind and then I'd have to tell everyone again, "Hey guys, um. He moved out...again" Not a fun time.

I kind of felt like I was living in a cave, with a new secret boyfriend that I didn't want to tell my family or friends about because well, a lot of things happened that I didn't blog about that I didn't want to be judged for taking him back. Does that make sense? I was scared that people (in my family..in my circle) would hate him forever because of xyz or they'd say "That Rachelle, she's one big ol' dummy" I mean, I'm sure more than one person did say that a time or two but then Jami who takes exactly what I'm thinking and is able to articulate it better than I, wrote this.

"well we aren't in this to look good or to "save face". we don't care to keep it secret. what holds us back from letting the secret out? really, ask yourself. because you care about what others will think of you. not what God thinks of you. we care about glorifying ourselves, not glorifying Christ. we are unsure where our identity lies, and so we hold back for fear that God is not bigger than our secret."

See.. I can't even explain why that makes so much sense to me but it does. And, if what my husband and I went through can help even one person go through a similar situation in their life, well then I did the right thing by sharing it. If Jami wouldn't have shared it on her blog, you know what? The night he left I wouldn't have emailed her at one o'clock in the morning with the words "So, my husband just left me. Asked for a divorce, what are you doing" Or something as equally stupid and nonchalant because that's what I do when I'm having an emotional breakdown and try to make light of the situation when really-- I was on the cliff, with one leg off, ready to jump.  I would love to share with you the other emails and stories I received from other women saying "Me too" Oh how I wish I could hug each and every one of you because I know that hurt. I know that horrible pain that can't go away because it's not a physical pain it's inside and it's an awful thing to go through, and if my story of HOPE helps one person cope. Then well, God had a plan for me to deal with months and months of crap to help someone else.

With the holidays coming up I'm having an extra hard time for some reason, I think mostly because this summer I had set my mind up that I was going to be a single Mom for Christmas. That in February our divorce would be final. That chances are, he would have another woman in his life. That the girls would have another woman in their lives. Makes me anxious typing out but it's whats on my plate right now. It would have been really easy to walk away and let him go. To wash my hands clean of the situation and start new with someone else and not have to work through the emotions of regaining trust, learning why it happened and what we can do together to avoid it happening again. To stop the mind movies of what happened while he was gone and to quit listening to the voices in my head that say "He's going to leave you again." Goodness gracious I wish I could get those nasty things to quit it. But all the zoloft and xanax in the world can't do it. It's talking about it, it's working through the shit (Jami's words, I told you..She's my mentor..and the divorce whisperer..Knuckle bump) so that we don't end up there again. It's HARD I can't stress that enough. I can't stress what God's doing in my heart and in my life right now and what the last few months trying to work our way uphill have been like. Amazing because we're together and working for the goal, but damn hard. I wont lie.

So.. in a nutshell. That's what's going on right now. How's that for Friday night entertainment. Life is crazy, crazy hard. But we're working through it. God's working through us. Together. I have no idea what could happen, could he leave? Yes. But like my therapist says, I could also get hit by a bus tomorrow-- I'll never know. As annoying as it is to have no set in stone answer to the rest of my life it's the best that I can do. Just have enough faith that whatever happens, it's meant to and the big guy has it all planned out for me..us.

Kitchen Backsplash

Oh how I wish I had some before-before-before pictures of this kitchen! You know when it looked like this:

But before that it was some gnarly lovely thick baby blue wallpaper which was used to cover up a horrible plaster job. The walls were pretty damaged and uneven but we lived with it for as long as we could before it was time to cover them up. (Three years later,*cough..cough*hey! Life happens)

Tile would have been nice but I wasn't up to fixing the uneven plaster job so bead board it is! Plus it was so cost efficient it's ridiculous. Something like 20.00 a sheet and we only needed two. Yes please!

Builder Dad came over and lent a hand with everything. He forgot his saw horses, but you know what? We improvised. ;)

This time we went for the thicker bead board, I like the look of it and it breaks up from the thinner bead board that goes along the sides of the cabinets.

Some plastic trim caps it off and there you go. It's lovely. Well, this wall is lovely, the other side of the room.....

That's another story. I can't even go there with you yet. Ha! Anyone else out there decide to go with bead board over tile back splash? Share your links in the comments!

Kitchen Shelves

A while back we added a couple Ikea shelves to the kitchen (after I drooled forever over them in Emily's Kitchen) and I figured they weren't exactly blog material but you know what? Today they're going to be.

Well, more so the knock off Anthro letters that I made this weekend. I kind of have a crush on them, a big ol' one.

 

They were inspired by these beauties

Source

Anyway, back to the fridge and all it's boring glory.

Our fridge floats by itself in our kitchen and it annoys the heck out of me so I thought some shelves would help anchor it a bit. The wall is too small for a built in enclosure and this seemed like the next best thing. A little illusion if you will, yes?

I threw the Pepsi crate up there for some vintage love, and I'm digging all the different textures together. Creamy white dishes (Because they wouldn't fit in the cupboard and we don't drink coffee at home) metallic letters, dusty old books and aqua ball jars.

I like mixing items that have a touch of masculine and feminine (metal & flowers) old and new. Go with it. 

My helper decided to get in on the action too, with some left over Halloween candy in her mouth. Who the heck told her she could get so big? Pretty sure I JUST had her. 

Feature Yourself Friday

Friday Friday! It's a winter wonderland here in the mitten, and I'm definitely feeling the Christmas bug to decorate and listen to holiday tunes. But, I'm trying to hold off, I can't promise much longer though. haha

 All found via Pinterest

The Scentsy giveaway is still open and if you're thinking about ordering anything I have a party open still since I can't decide on a scent to order myself! Order some deliciousness, wont ya?

Let's just jump right into the party shall we? Yes.. We shall!

Basement

If you follow me on Facebook you might remember we had a leak recently. Actually, two leaks. Then the sewer outside got clogged and made all the nasty junk come up from the basement floor.

Basically I'm saying our basement is a mess.

Insurance came to dry it out once, but then it happened again and well..Now we have to change up our game plan a bit.

Demo started.

And, to put it lightly. It's Hell. But it has to get worse before it gets better, I know this. 

So if you're wondering what's going on at casa Fingerprints that's basically it. Lots of dust, lots of clean up lots of gross.

But I did make an impromptu trip to Hobby Lobby today to work on a small project

*gasp*

I know, I'm seriously lacking motivation and inspiration lately and something had to be done about it. I let my creative side come out a tad, let's all cross our fingers I finish it tonight so I can show ya'll tomorrow! :) Whoop to the whoop!