Story of Easter Countdown

I love Easter, but not for the 'normal' reasons.  I absolutely LOVE the fact that there is a holiday centered around the resurrection of {Jesus Christ}.  He lives--- and because He lives we will live again--- how fantastic is that?!?!

Anyway, I enjoy the bunny, candy, egg-boiling/dying/hunting/deviling part of Easter too, but we try to focus on the Savior.  That is why my {Easter Subway Art} is focused around the reason we have Easter.

With that said, we (Mr. Nag & I) wanted to do something to help our family remember Christ as we approach Easter each year.  Enter the fabulous idea of The Story of Easter (through Eggs) Countdown--- I really need to work on the title.

I saw this idea last year, in multiple ways and places around the blog-o-sphere and worked on ours just in time to finish for Easter day, so I didn't want to post about it until y'all had the opportunity to create your own.

Gather It:

• 12 plastic eggs
• Something to put the eggs in
• vinyl or permanent marker to label eggs (if you have a silhouette, I'll email you the file)
• The daily symbols
• scriptures for each day

 Create It:

Scripture Cards--- Print these out :)

1. Our local grocery chain (shoutout to HEB goers) has clear egg cartons.  I thought it would look great to use those, so I took my goo-gone and went-to-town on all the 'These are eggs, in case you didn't realize it' stickers.  This was honestly the most time consuming step, which wasn't too bad.
2. Using vinyl (or permanent marker), label the eggs 1-12.  You can also label the container too, if you so desire.
3. Print & Cut out scriptures for each day.  The picture is a 5x7 (you need the individual cards to be able to fit in a little plastic egg)
4. The top of the scripture cards, tell you which symbol to put in the egg with it.  So, now your job is to scrounge around for each symbol.  I found all of mine lying around the house (except for the sacrament cup, which I had to remember to keep--- being a Mom of little ones, it was hard to get one of these to survive the whole meeting block).
5. Put the scripture & symbol in the corresponding egg.

Using It:
Starting on March 28th (for the year 2012), open one egg each day, leading up to Easter.  Read the scripture associated with the egg and talk about the symbol.  At minimum, we'll read the bold scripture and *IF* the kids sit still, we'll read the others.


I hope this adds a little bit more to your Easter celebrations!

St. Pat's Subway Art: FREEBIE

Happy Leap Day, everyone!  I hope Leap Day William came to see you!  Anyone a fan of 30 Rock?  Seriously funny show.

Since I'm in a festive mood, I thought it was about time for me to share my latest holiday subway art... just in time for March:  St. Patrick's Day!

It's 8x10 or 5x7 (if cropped right) size.  Click on the picture to save.  My favorites on this one are the little leprechaun clip art and the Irish Blessing poem I found online (isn't it great?).

As always, we love to share printables, but remember to let others know where to get it.  And, if you're not a follower, yet, please do so, before you save your freebie!

My Pantry Makeover

It's time for me to show you one of the deep dark secrets of my house: the pantry.

I know, not very shocking to most, but to me it was.  Once upon almost three years ago, Mr. Nag and I were looking to buy our first house.  We wanted a house to knew we'd be in for 7+ years, a house to grow into.  One thing on my must list was a nice-sized pantry, if we were a growing family I needed a pantry to be ready for when we're 'grown'--- a must for the Mister was a 'build-your-own' home.  This was hard to do in the area we wanted to stay in.  So, since marriage is about compromise, I sacrificed pantry square-footage, to build the house we wanted.  I did so knowing that we would do something about it later.

Later has come, my friends.

I wasn't able to add a magic-extending spell, I wish (like Hermione's bag-- Harry Potter 7).  However, I was able to do the next best thing which was ORGANIZE.  I know that's a dirty word to some people, but it's seriously easy and addicting once you start.  Let's go outside in.

OUTSIDE

First off, your eyes don't deceive you, it is a Magnetic Door.  In order to make this you need: metal (from the roofing section-- it comes in rolls), cabinet trim (you can even have them cut it there, if you don't own a saw-- we do, so I had to let Mr. Nag use his tool), and calk for windows and mirrors (in the calking section).  You also need a little patience to let everything dry (overnight-ish, each time).  Basically, cut & mount the metal, let dry.  Then, repeat with trim.  Put a lot of  weight on the metal, so it doesn't dry wavy.

1. Days until countdown:  I saw this idea floating around the web & pinterest, on a board painted with Chalkboard paint, so I thought it would be great to put it on the door.  Yes, Mr. Nag has a BIG birthday coming up. :)
2. Remember:  This is our little reminder section.  Reminder for anything... including being awesome. ;)
3. What's Cooking:  This is how I meal plan.  I like to look more than just a week ahead, so I printed off a 2012 calendar half-sheet size & plan as much as the upcoming month as I can.  Days get switched here and there, but overall, it works well & cuts down over-shopping at the grocery store.
4. Our Week:  The most recent week in our lives.  This is where all appointments, meetings, parties, nightly dinners will go.  It's dry-erase vinyl.  Yes, I know Wednesday is missing.  This was the first time Silhouette ever played with DEV, they didn't get along, until I sweet-talked (i.e. fixed the settings on the machine).  Unfortunately, I only had a couple of sheets, so I ran out before I could finish Wednesday.  This will soon be remedied, as I bought a roll of DEV at Hobby Lobby today. :)
5. Love Notes:  Another idea I saw around, I think the original was at {Kiki Creates}.  Basically, it says, I love..... because....  The idea is to think of random reasons for loving family members.  The one in the picture says I love the hubs because he made breakfast and lunch; he also made dinner later that night.  My guy is amazing!
6. Mail Organization:  I was sick, sick, sick of seeing mail and other random papers sitting around on our counter.  One trip to Target later, I came home with the mesh magnetic basket, the mail sorter, and chalk marker holder.  Sweet!  Not sweet, Mr. Nag is still getting used to this and that little Netflix envelope sat there for THREE days--- it's okay though, he does other good things (like make the aforementioned meals).

INSIDE

1. Over the Door Organizer:  If you're pantry is smaller than you want it to be, the first thing you need to do is buy one of these.  It instantly adds so much space.  We bought this one on {Amazon}.  This is where we put boxed goods & other random things.
2. Dollar Finds:  I found these mini-baskets in the Dollar Section at Target.  Perfect for storing plastic cutlery (and chalk markers on the door).
3. Backsplash & Cereal Organization:  The backsplash is actually painted fiberboard.  Every shelf has one, the top shelf's is wider.  I'm not going to lie: it. took. forever.  BUT, it was worth it.  I cut out a stencil from my Silhouette, stenciled it on, then painted every little section.  Each time I finished a section was a victory.  Add, it's easy to change.  Not like that's going to happen anytime soon, though.  We got the cereal containers at Target; easy to figure out which cereal is which.  FYI:  Chalk Markers are GREAT for labeling.  I can use them on chalkboard (vinyl), plastics or metal.  So, I wrote the kind of cereals & snacks for the snack shelf.  Fantastic!
4. The Basics Shelf:  I <3 IKEA.  It's not a small heart, either, it's rather large.  Every room in our house has a little bit of IKEA in it; it's like our extra family member.  This pantry reorganization would have crumbled to the ground without IKEA.  All of the silver-lid & blue-lid containers came from IKEA.

5. Snacks & Baking:  When we get home from the grocery store, we immediately get rid of anything self-packaged within a box.  This saves a ton of space.  This is especially true for the snack shelf.  Bigger snacks have their own blue-lid container, while small snacks are group together in a Target-It-so skinny tray.  Then, I have a green tray with all our Drink Mixes in it.  The shelf under snacks has two baskets, one for extra (or random) condiments and the other for Baking Goods.  If all of my similar items are together, then I don't have to hunt for them when in 'kitchen' mode.
6. Cans & Floor Level:  Target rescued me on this shelf.  Three-tiered organizer so I can easily see everything.  The floor level has a closet container from IKEA; it contains my foil, wraps, paper products, and extra snacks.  Anything on these two shelves is shatter-proof, since little hands can touch.

It's amusing to me how much this has made a difference.  If Mr. Nag has to make dinner (which has been a lot lately, sorry, babe!), then he knows exactly where to look.  He's still getting used to having a place for the mail, but he's allowed a little bit of a learning curve... only a little.  I'm excited for when the kids get older and we'll be able to have the weed laid out for us, or have a random love note from one of them.  This was definitely a for a future project... I just hope that future includes Wednesday. :)

I link up {HERE}.

The Greatest Thing: Free Printable

One of my all time favorite chick-flicks is {Moulin Rouge}. I love everything about it: the music, the theatricality, the romance, Ewan McGregor's singing, the immorality... okay... maybe not everything...

I absolute LOVE the line: "the greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love & be loved in return."  I love it so much, Mr. Nag & I hung it up in our bedroom.  Seriously, what a way to sum up how we should live!

Since it's the time to share LOVE, I wanted to show my love for our readers & create a printable with this fantastic saying!  Bonus:  I made multiple versions  (they are 8x10).  If you don't have a place to put it, this would be a great wedding gift (that's what I did for the last wedding we went to).

cream

blue

grey

pink

purple

red

Enjoy!  Share the love & don't forget to follow us!

I link up {HERE}.

Attaining Your Goals: FREEBIE

At church, I have the responsiblity to help plan & execute meetings to help the women in our congreation.  I have a few creations from the recent future that I want to share with you.  It's up to us what we want to talk about & this month we decided to focus on GOALS.  It always seems to be the topic of choice for this time of year.

I researched & researched because I really didn't feel like blowing it in front of a group of women whom I respect & revere.  So, I found LOTS & LOTS of information & attempted to gather it into one coeasive book & a couple goal-making worksheets.

We wanted the women to realize making & keeping goals is really easy (okay... who's still reading?) as long as you keep them SMART.  Resource {HERE}.  So, I made a booklet gathering all of the sticking points of the SMART system & combined it with quotes I found from some of our Church Leaders, & highlights I kept on seeing when researching.  I also used AMAZING printables I pinned on my {quotes pinterest board} for extra words of motivation.

Click {HERE} to download the book.  Remember to print it like a book. (not speaking from experience at all... when the book appeared upside-down on one side... yikes).

After you know WHAT kind of goals to make... then you make them!  Write them down using these FREE to download creations--- all I ask is to follow Mule 'n Nag, get us known, please!

Yearly Goals: break down goals into these four catagories and put this somewhere you will see it ALL THE TIME. FYI:  it's meant to be a 5x7 (or 4x6--- can't remember) size, so remember than when printing out. ;)

Monthly Goals:  THEN break down the yearly goals into easy to reach monthly goals (you don't have to work on all four yearly goals every month--- that's why you have all of the months in front of you--- to plan it).

Goals Breakdown:  I got this design/concept/idea from {Buttoned Up}.  I absolutely LOVED how it was laid out, however, I wanted something with a little personal flair & less words on the top.  Break your monthy goals into weekly tasks--- so you can check them off even more.

Even if you don't reach your goals--- you tried--- the journey is worth taking!  Tara over at Tales of a Trophy Wife is spending this whole year doing a {40 by 40} list, she's inspired me so much that I am going to write (and post-- and update) a 30 by 30 list.  I may not get all of it done, but I'm so excited for the challenge!

I link up {HERE}. 

FREEBIE: Forever Family Printable

FYI: There are a couple typos in the advent calendar--- it's hard to find ALL of the footnotes at midnight! I got them & re-uploaded (if that's even a word) them. Sorry!

Need a last minute Christmas gift?

It's so hard to believe how FAST December has gone by, my in-laws are coming in town in two days, so I've been working my tail off to get prepared. (It's also the first time anyone is coming to visit OUR house for Christmas, so I'm trying to not freak out too much).

Anyway, I, like a lot of you, have been doing a bunch of gift-making. One of the gifts was inspired by something I found on {pinterest}-- serious addicted to that site-- sheesh!

I loved this & knew I could recreate it with my computer skills for simple Christmas gift.

It's sized for 8x10. Print it out anyway you want & grab a frame to go with it. And you're done!

Merry week-of Christmas! Enjoy it all!

Guest over at Tales of a Trophy Wife

I'm posting over at {Tales of a Trophy Wife} today as part of her {The Best Thing I Ever Blogged} series. You can even see a couple things I haven't blogged about yet!

Trophy Wife is incredible & I'm stoked she wanted me to participate on her blog! Thanks, Tara!