$10 - Paint Stick Mirror

Over the weekend B went on a shed hunting trip with his friend Bodey so I decided to go on a crafting frenzy Friday night through Saturday morning. Here is one of the projects I made!

Total side note - me and my cute friend Jacee (who is Bodey's fiance) went to dinner and saw the movie The Loft Saturday night. Can I just say WHAT THE HECK! Dinner was great, we ate at Rumbi Grill, but the movie was so weird. It was -okay- and definitely entertaining don't get me wrong, but it was so strange. Kind of like going to Gone Girl without reading the books.. We both left the movie and were like um... what? Haha!

I purchased this circular mirror, which is about 8" in circumference, from Michaels Crafts for $3. I had a box lying around that I used to cut into two same size circles. I hot glued the two cardboard circles together to use as my base. I decided to use two because it was a little bit sturdier, but totally up to you! 

I got 50 paint sticks for FREE from my local Walmart. I went to Home Depot first to get them, but they wanted to charge me  $0.20 a stick which was stupid because everywhere else gives them out free. Walmart did not care at all, they even helped me count them out and put them in a bag for me haha! I laid them out on butcher paper, purchased at the dollar store, in my garage. 

I than sprayed one coat of this Rust-Oleum Metallic gold spray paint and let them dry for about 15 minutes. I grabbed one stick to do a tester sample to see if I wanted to do 1 or two coats. After seeing the sample stick dry I decided to go with two coats. I sprayed the second coat and let them dry for about 15 more minutes. The sun was directly on mine which made them dry so fast!

I counted out 25 sticks (1/2 of what I have) and took a heavy duty scissor and cut right before the handle grooves. Which I'll be honest - totally sucked!! I highly recommend using like a electric saw to cut these. Scissors suck even if the wood is super thin!

I set out the 25 longer sticks evenly spaced apart with grooves in the center on the very edges of the cardboard base. I than picked them up one at a time and started hot gluing them onto the cardboard. 

Once they were all glued on I went around and filled in any gaps with hot glue. I did this to make sure everything was securely on the cardboard. 

Once that hot glue had dried I went and laid out my shorter sticks on top of the long sticks. Once they were all laid out how I wanted them to be I would put some hot glue on the end of the stick and push it down to the card board. I wanted my shorter sticks to kind of stick out to give it dimension so while pushing the inside down I held the outside above the long sticks about a finger in width. Once all of the shorter sticks were done I went through and filled in any gaps with hot glue, just like the long stick layer. I let that sit for a few minutes to dry and than glued the mirror on the top of the sick layers.

This mirror was relatively easy to make and will look so cute hung up in my house! All together with supplies it costed $10 - CRAZY CHEAP and CUTE!

Paint Sticks - FREE

Mirror - $3

Cardboard - FREE

Spray paint - Mine was about $4

Butcher paper - $1

Hot glue sticks - $2 worth

If you recreat this mirror for yourself please tag it #MakeItLively - Thanks!

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Cooookies!

Peanut Butter Cookies... YUM!

Ingredients :

1 cup sugar

1 stick butter (1/2 cup)

1 egg

1 cup Jiffy Peanut Butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 cup flour

Directions :

Preheat oven to 375

Cream the sugar and butter together

Beat in one egg

Mix in Peanut Butter

Slowly mix in vanilla, salt, and baking soda, and flour

Roll into 1 inch balls

Coat the ball in sugar (I just rolled it around in a small bowl)

Place on a greased baking sheet 

Take a fork and flatten the cookie down till its about 1/4-1/2 inch thick

Bake for 10-12 minutes

These cookies turned out SO yummy! The recipe is extremely easy too. Enjoy!

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December / January Photo Dump

Before I get into my photo dump I want to re-explain why I created this blog. I have the attention span of a child, so I often find myself forgetting to share things with my family and friends. I easily get caught up in family activities, Brayden, hanging out with friends, camping, shows, etc that I forget to send someone a quick text updating them on life. Which is kind of bad, I know. 

A month or so ago I received a rude message in regards to my blog. I'd be lying if I said I didn't get offended by it, which I’m sure has aided in me avoiding my blog for so long. After I put some thought into it I have deiced to keep my blog. My blog in a way is my journal, a journal that family friends and the public can choose to read/follow. I in no way created this blog to brag about the things that I do have, nor complain about the things that I don't have. 

Now that thats out there, onto the good stuff! (;

(Far right Sandra (my birth moms mom) - me - my mom - Wendy (my birth fathers mom) - my dad)

Sandra and Wendy live in Logan UT which is close enough that we get to get together sometimes. We all deicded to meet up for dinner at Market Street Grill one night. It was really good to get together with them. I love my birth families! One day I will get around to writing up my adoption story, I promise!

Brayden and I had a game night at my sister and her boyfriend Shaun's house, so fun!

Brayden, Santa, and I at the Warner family Christmas party. Since the Warner family is so big they hold the Christmas party at a nearby church gym. PS, how cute is this backdrop?! One of Brayden's aunts photographer friend made it. It was so cute for all of the Santa pictures!

At the Carling (B's mom's family) party everyone wore homemade ugly sweaters. This is what B and I came up with. (The deer is pooping on a picture of his brother in law haha!) 

B's sister Sierra and me hanging out at the Carling Christmas party.

At the Carling christmas party they have a traditional white elephant gift exchange. This was my win this year and I absolutely love it. It is so ugly yet so cute. I cannot wait to use him in my house! My mother and father thought I was insane.

B got this gnarly tooth issue over new years week right before he was going out of town. It caused his face to puff up like a balloon. We of course had to take a picture to document it! (Update - he actually ended up having to get a root canal in mid Feb). 

Brayden went to Arizona over new years week with his good friend Tyler. Tyler's dad recently passed away so B, him, and a few others went down to keep the tradition of going alive. They went down to hunt Javalina (spelling?)! His face looks a lot less swollen here.

Since B was gone in Arizona over New Years I went over to his aunts house and hung out with his moms side of the family. His little brother, Jaxson, was loving on me all night so of course I had to snap a picture. I hope he never grows up :(

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