the good life link-up

I am sad to say that we are no longer going to be doing current weekly link ups of "the goof life".

I have had such a great time meeting and linking up with fellow Nebraska Bloggers.

We will still do the link up but just not on a weekly basis.  

Kelsey and I are going to take a small break and then we will start back up with another link up.

It may be monthly, by monthly, etc.  We are not 100% sure.

So be sure to follow both Kelsey and I to see when and what the new link up will all entail.

august cara box reveal

I did the Cara Box Exchange again this month.

THIS MONTH WAS AWESOME!!!!

I will definitely stay in contact with both of these women!!!

I was paired with an amazing women to send too!  

Her name was Nicole.  She was SO FUN!  

She blogs over at Adventures of a Semper Fi Family

I am so glad to paired with her.  

I had a great time getting to know her and buying for her!

AND The women who send to me was also awesome! 

I told you it was a great exchange this month!

I was lucky enough to be paired with Amber over at Life Will Never Be The Same

We have so much in common!!!

She asked me questions and snooped around my blog to find items that I would love.  

AND I DO!

She knew I was an accessory junky.

She got me this amazing scarf, (I LOVE IT!!!!!)

a set of bracelets, (SO ME!!!)

and 2 bottles of nail polish (in super fun colors).

She also gave me a candle. 
It SMELLS AMAZING and PERFECT FOR FALL (my favorite season)

She picked me up some new pens and a note pad to keep in my sub bag.  
PERFECT!!!

And lastly she included some chocolate covered sunflower seeds.

I cant wait to try them!!!

LOVE IT ALL!!!!  She did GREAT! 

I love that she took time to get to know me 
and made a box that will filled with "Suzi" Stuff!

Check out what other received HERE.
I hope you are all having a great week!  

back to school teacher gifts

It is that time again.  

You see photos all over facebook of kids heading back to school.

My oldest cowgirl is no exception.

Tonight  we have an open house at her preschool {school starts tomorrow}

So today we whipped up a few gifts to take to her teachers tonight {She has 3 teachers}

I found some little polish and let her pick out color for each teacher.

I then came up with a saying to make them a back-to-school gift.

I came up with,

"I had a great summer, but now it is time to POLISH up on my schooling"

We them packaged them up.  It was SOOOO EASY!

All you need is some snack bags, stapler, and make a 'tent' out of cardstock. 

{I made mine in a WORD doc, nothing fancy}

You simple staple the bottom of the tent to hide the seal on the plastic snack bag.

And you are DONE!!!!  It is that easy!!!

We love her preschool teachers!!!!  We are so blessed!

You can see the May Baskets we made the teachers last year here.

Pallet sign

I was asked by some lovely ladies from the local MOPS organization 

to make a sign for them to display at the meetings.

They wanted something that would portray the theme for the upcoming year.

They wanted a hand painted sign that was somewhat rustic.

They gave me no real guidelines other then the wording.

This is what I came up with.  

What do you think???

I used a small pallet and used 4 of the slats and attached them together to make the sign.

I then freehanded the words.  

No stencils for me {That is to many rules for me to follow} 

I like just filling the spaces as it is needed.

I am often asked how I do the wording all freehand. 

Well the secret is...............

CHALK!

I write all over the board with a piece of chalk to set out my guide lines and the word spacing.

It looks like a mess but it does the trick and wipes of clean with a damp cloth!

 I can't wait to show the ladies this.

It was so fun to do and I am honored they asked me to do it! 

The man behind the blog link-up {anyone can join in}

ANYONE CAN JOIN IN!  NOT JUST NEBRASKA BLOGGERS!!!!

Once again we are linking up with "Nebraska Bloggers Connect" bloggers.

Kelsey and I are excited about this one!!!!

This weeks theme is...
The Man behind your blog 

I have posted few questions for "the man behind your blog" to answer.

The man can be ANY MAN IN YOUR LIFE!

Dad, grandpa, husband, boyfriend, best friend, coworker

Ask the man behind your blog these questions….

1. Do I use her real name on the blog?
2. If you had a blog what would it be called? 
3. Do you ever feel ignored because of my blog?
4. What is your favorite post on my blog?
5. How has my blog evolved or changed over time?
6. How often do you read my blog?
7. What are some of your hobbys?
8. What would your dream job be?
9. What is your favorite thing about me?
10. Share 3 random facts about you…

Now share a picture {or a few}

Rules: 
1. Follow the hosts:
Kelsey (+Kelsey Homolka) from Keeping Up With Kelsey &
Suzi (+suzi campbell) from Chores & Chandeliers 
2. Write a post pertaining to this weeks "theme" 
3. Link-Up the LINK (not your whole blog) 
4. Hop around and check out other's posts 
5. Add the button so other's know you're linking up with us! 
{ANYONE CAN JOIN IN, EVEN IF YOU'RE NOT FROM NEBRASKA} 

Next weeks theme will be....
Search keywords in your blog
{we will explain how next week}

***************MY TURN****************

I asked the questions to the hubs.

{Yesterday was our 8 year wedding anniversary!!!}

1. Do I use her real name on the blog?
   What else would you use?
2. If you had a blog what would it be called?
   I wouldn't have a blog.....but if I HAD to "affordable fixes"
3. Do you ever feel ignored because of my blog?
   Not really.
4. What is your favorite post on my blog? 
   The coop one, because its one of the few I get any credit for. {You can see it here}
5. How has my blog evolved or changed over time?
   ummmm...has it chenged???
6. How often do you read my blog?
   Once every 3 weeks
7.  What are some of your hobbys?
   Golf, Building stuff, Fishing
8. What would your dream job be?
   Mowing fairways in the morning, and golfing all afternoon
9. What is your favorite thing about me?
   Your creativity
10. Share 3 random facts about you…
    I have broken a lot of bone
    I was the new years baby (born Jan 2nd)
    I  can not wait for Football season to start!

{A few pictures}

Our wedding day August 13, 2005

Fathers Day 2012

Link up below

100th post!

WOW I can not believe I made it this far.  

Less then a year ago I started this blog.  

I had thrown the idea around for a while but HAD NO CLUE HOW TO DO IT!!!!  

I still don't know everything {actually I don't know 1/2 of it}  

But I have enjoyed the whole process.

THANK YOU FOR TAKING THE TIME TO READ MY BLOG!!!!!

I have really enjoyed connecting with my readers and fellow bloggers.

So what do I write about on my 100th post???

It should be really great, huh?

Something special!

Something worthy of 100th post status.

Well sorry to disappoint you but I am at a loss...

So that means you are going to get some random rambling from me.....

• I am super excited I am heading back to school this year weighing 20+ lbs less then I did at the end of the school year. {I am a substitute teacher}
• I am planning a joint birthday party for the cowgirls this Fall.   Their birthdays are a little over a month apart.  I love Fall so we are doing a fall themed harvest party.  We planted pumpkins and they are getting big and we have a ton so we will do a pumpkin carving party!  I am sure there will be a post or 2 about the party.
• My 4 year old cowgirl took these pictures.  Not to bad for a 4 year old huh?
• I am addicted to Instagram! Do you follow me? If not you should at chores_chandeliers
• Heck you should follow me on Facebook too :)  facebook.com/ChoresChandeliers
• S {my step son} is leaving tomorrow to head back to his moms for school.  It is sad to see him go.  We have had a great summer.  He is a great big brother, the cowgirls will miss him a lot {So will the hubs and I!!!!}.  He is such a hard worker and has been such a huge help out here this summer!!! 
• I am working on a new blog layout for my 1 year blog anniversary (October). It is so hard to come up with a great layout.  There are so many fun ones out there. Trying to find the one that represents me and my blog is hard, since I am a little bit of everything.  Not one set direction.
• I am excited to start selling stuff at craft shows! {blog post to come with some of my 'goods'} I have been wanting to for quite some time but I never have the nerve to just do it.  Recently a friend asked me to do a booth at a local show.  That was the nudge I needed.  Now time to start producing!!!  *excited*
• Yesterday I posted that I had been waiting since Spring for my wooden screen door to be installed, well last night the hubs came home and HUNG the door!  I LOVE IT!!!  It is not complete still but it is UP! *success* {here I am posing next to the screen door. Sorry it doesn't show more of the door but like I said the 4 year old cowgirl took the picture}
  
  

What was your favorite thing about the blog so far?  

What do you want to see more of?

hang wreaths on your shutters

Yesterday I gave a tour of our place.  

You can see it HERE.

I was reminded once again that I have been wanting to share my shutters for some time 

but I've been waiting till the new wooden screen door goes up.  

WELL....that STILL has not happened.  

So I figured today is the day to share my shutter wreaths.

I have hung Christmas wreaths on them in the past 

but this Spring {Yes Spring, I've been waiting that long for my new screen door} 

I decided that I needed to add something for non holiday. 

I picked up some grapevine wreaths for 50% off at Hobby Lobby.

4 of them {I have 2 front windows with shutters}

I used burlap to hold the wreath in place.  

I simply looped the burlap through the wreath {2 times on top and bottom} 
then stapled the burlap on the top and on the bottom of the shutters

and ticked the ends behind the shutters.

I love Shutters and a window boxes.

They work on SO MANY styles of homes!!!

They are EASY and a fun addition to a FLAT BORING front.
You can see the whole front HERE.

The front of our house has NO architectural interest so it needs some pzazz 's

{FYI, Pzazz is my oldest cowgirl's favorite word}

Ever wonder where bloggers live?

Do you ever wonder where bloggers live?

Well today on "the good life" link up we are doing just that.

We are giving tours of our neighborhood, farm, ranch, town, etc.

Week 12
"Give us a tour"

I live down a dusty dirt road in the center of Nebraska.

This is view from the road.

We have a lot of shade trees around the house which is really nice.

Outbuildings/barns/corn crib.

Front of our house.

Next to our house we have a cute little tire horse swing {the cowgirls love it}

Out back I have a clothes line which I LOVE and use often!

This is one of my gardens,  I plants peppers and leaf lettuce in an old feed bunk

{the other Garden is by the chicken coop, you can see the coop in this picture}

We also have an unfinished play set out back

{I hope it is done for the girls birthday party: Sept/Oct}

Here is the fire pit {filled with branches from the yard}

We have an old foundation out back also that we use as our patio

In this picture you can see how they all relate to each other

I hope you enjoyed the tour of our place!

It is nothing fancy but it is home and has CAME A LONG WAY 

since we bought the place almost 3 years ago! 

Please link up at the bottom and give us a tour around your place.

Rules: 
1. Follow the hosts:
Kelsey (+Kelsey Homolka) from Keeping Up With Kelsey &
Suzi (+suzi campbell) from Chores & Chandeliers 
2. Write a post pertaining to this weeks "theme" 
3. Link-Up the LINK (not your whole blog) 
4. Hop around and check out other's posts 
5. Add the button so other's know you're linking up with us! 
{ANYONE CAN JOIN IN, EVEN IF YOU'RE NOT FROM NEBRASKA}

Next weeks theme will be

The Man behind your blog

Next week we will post a few questions for "the man behind your blog" to answer.

The man can be ANY MAN IN YOUR LIFE!

Dad, grandpa, husband, boyfriend, best friend

Do you have a theme suggestion for an upcoming week?

If so PLEASE shoot me an email at chores_chandeliers@hotmail.com


Link-up below

Sunday Social

1. What are 3 items you can't live without on a daily basis (water, food, shelter, and clothes don't count)? 
Hair products {I have CRAZY hair, it needs tamed!}

Deodorant {everyone appreciates this too!}
Accessories {I need at least one a day or I feel naked: hat, jewelry, scarf, belt, headband, etc}

2. What is your all time favorite book? Why?
I'm not going to lie, I'm not much of a reader {boring I know}.

3. What is something you'd like to accomplish before the end of 2013? 
Lose 50lbs.  I am working hard on it and making good progress! {I'll post my progress soon} Then CLEAN out my closet with ONLY clothes that fit!!!!!

 

4. If you could go back and relive any year of your life which year would it be?
I would relive to my freshman year of college,  IT WAS A BLAST!!!!

5. What do you wish people knew about you without you having to tell them?
I am very self conscious about my scars on my shoulders and back {I use to have a bunch on my chest too that I've had A LOT OF cortizone shots to shrink them} and I don't like when people stare!