Last year, we moved from California to Kansas and in the process we learned our finances were a mess.  We ended up having to short sale our house, and the process was less than fun.  The long and the short of it, I felt irresponsible, even though we did everything “right”.  I am a lot of things, but irresponsible is not one of the them.  I knew something had to give, and that this was the time to do it.  The upside of the whole situation was that it made my husband and I take a long, hard, look at our money and where it was going.  That was by far the hardest part.  Once we sat down, and got everything in order, it was easy to make a plan.  We decided to make a goal of being completely debt-free.  We enrolled in Financial Peace University, and it was the best thing that we have ever done.  For our family, and for our future.

We make a monthly budget, and use cash for everything.  We know where our money goes, have been paying down all of our debt, and working on having a sizable emergency fund.  But, being the way that I am, there is no reason why my budget notebook and envelopes cannot be cute, right?  I used the same idea as my kitchen journal, and printed out envelopes from this template.

My best friend is also on this journey, and we help each other stay motivated, and accountable.  Sort of like a workout buddy, who cheers you on when you reach goals, and kicks your behind when you lose your way.  I made a set for her as well, and now we are budget buddies.  We keep track of everything in our notebooks, and use the envelopes to keep track of how much we have spent and where we have spent it.

Instead of dreading making a budget, and spending our money each month before the month actually gets here, it is something that I look forward to.  It is now the highlight of my month.  Seeing the progress that we have made, and how each month, we get closer to reaching our goals, is almost like a game.  I get a thrill every time I get cross a debt off our list, and when I put a certain amount of money towards a goal.  We are winning this game, and know that our future is much more secure, and we are changing how our family treats money.  One month at a time.

My dad turned 60 last year and my sister and I were determined to do something fantastic to celebrate. A party didn’t seem like quite the right thing this time. So we put on our thinking caps and I remembered something a group of my friends had put together when one of us turned 30 several years ago. It was a puzzle, made up of pieces from friends and family around the country. Each piece would arrive in the mail in the week leading up to the big birthday and in the case of the original recipient, the final image was a bright and colorful birthday message. For my Dad, I knew we could step it up a notch.

My Dad has had a life long love affair with Geography. That seems rather strange for his daughters who might not even be able to place all 50 states, but we went with it anyway. In addition to his affection for maps and the like, my Dad has also lived all over the world during his 20 years of Navy service. So I called up my Mom and asked for a list, with years, of all the place my Dad has lived. (Thank goodness for divorced parents who can actually get along.)

I spread that great big map on the floor and got to work. It was amazing for me to see how my Dad literally criss-crossed the globe in his younger years. I found myself with a new appreciation for what 60 years really means, and a new dedication to filling my life with all manner of travel and adventure.

After decorating the map just so, I set to work cutting it into 30 even pieces. Then my sister drafted a letter to be sent out to 30 friends and family members…

She explained what the project was all about, and the timeline in which we hoped our Dad would receive his puzzle pieces. Each piece was placed in manilla envelope, with a Dad-addressed, stamped envelope for forwarding the piece on to him. All the recipient had to do was turn their map piece over, write a message of encouragement, a fun memory, or a kind letter on the back and then send it on.

Needless to say, as those puzzle pieces started arriving at my Dad’s house the week before his birthday, he was thrilled! It took him a day or so to realize what was going on, which was part of the fun!

Now that the map has been completed my Dad plans to tape it together and laminate it so he can see both sides whenever he’d like. The front is a reminder of the places he’s been, and the back is a testament to the lives he’s touched.

And I’d say that’s pretty darn cool.

A few things we learned along the way that might make your own puzzle project a bit easier:

- Keep track of who you sent the pieces to. This way you’ll know who to hound if a piece doesn’t get returned. Someone in our group wasn’t careful about this (hanging head) and we ended up chasing our trails trying to figure out who had the two missing pieces.

- If there are people on your list who are (ahem) less than reliable, give them the edge pieces. There’s nothing worse than finding out you’re missing the Southeastern half of the United States when it’s all said and done. (Go ahead, make a joke about the South right here. This Alabama girl can take it.)

- If you’re worried about getting all the pieces back, be sure to create your puzzle using something that can be replaced. In our case, we bought a replacement map and cut new pieces when two people didn’t participate. (losers!) If you paint or draw your puzzle be sure to take a picture before you cut it so you know how to recreate the missing pieces.

From visual inspiration to a brand new logo: The Art of Creating a Brand.

Bree and her creative team first approached me to redesign their logo in November, and I was thrilled to tackle the project for them.  We began where I have every client begin: doing their homework.

Creating a brand, or rebranding your business isn’t necessarily an easy task.  It’s one that requires a lot of work.  But if you’re invested in the process and put the necessary amount of time into providing the clearest information possible to your designer, the journey will be a smooth one.  That’s exactly what the team at The Creative Mama did.

This is what their logo was when we began the redesign process:

The pros of the design:
- clean and feminine
- the brand itself is easily carried through other avenues with the script font

The cons of the design:
- the fonts are unchanged and not customized or edited, much like a photograph displayed straight out of camera
- anyone could recreate the design once they know the fonts used

The vision behind the new brand was to create a design that can be used across many genres and applicable to anything from food pages to DIY projects.  This is visual inspiration they provided us with:

And this is the color scheme we were given to work with:

With that information, combined with a completed comprehensive questionnaire, we set to work on their new brand.  We explored every company they listed as inspirational taking note of their branding style, color scheme, images, and fonts.  Then we created four unique initial concepts based on the patterns we saw.  Starting with the very first step in our exclusive 4-Step Logo process, we presented our ideas strictly exploring fonts and color scheme:

Right off the bat, the middle two concepts were ruled out.  And they also knew immediately that they wanted to pursue the green shown in the first concept.  They were just left them torn between the first and last designs.

Usually step 2 of our process explores the more whimsical part of the logo: building the mark or adding a border.  But since we knew that this logo was going to be text-only, we took some time show different combinations of concepts one and four together to help get a well-rounded idea of all the possibilities:

By the time step three came around, we had narrowed down the eight colors we started with to two final colors and decided on a modern sanserif font to pair with the custom illustration within the brand.  The process was so smooth that we didn’t even need to reach the fourth step of final polishing!

The result was a new custom brand the entire team loved featuring a custom illustration that can’t be recreated with a simple font:

Bree’s notes:

Developing a brand was a more involved process than I thought that it would be.  To get a finished product that you love (and I am in love with our new branding), you need to invest some time in the process.  Finding inspiration and deciding what you want to project with your brand.  Does it fits with you and your vision?  Does it look like you?   These are things that you really need to consider when it comes to finding the right designer, and when developing your brand.  Working with Jane was a pleasure, she really helped us focus on the little details that make our branding different from everyone else.  Ultimately, we changed the final color scheme, and as you can see, it reflects the vision that we have at The Creative Mama.  We could not be happier with the final result.

Jane Johnson Photography and Branding Design

Jane Johnson Facebook Page

When this wreath came across my blog path a few weeks ago, I knew I had to give it a try- the old Holiday try! I liked it so much because its simplistic, modern and most of all, easy! While I love her rainbow version and I was really itching to go neon holiday craze, I stuck to my ol’ traditional green and red with bits of shimmer.

Supplies:

Grapevine Wreath
Embroidery thread or yarn in multiple colors
2 pairs of scissors
Quick dry Superglue

I know you’re wondering what in the heck I’m going to tell you that you don’t already know by taking a quick look at the wreath but trust me, I have a few helpful hints I learned on the way that’ll save you some time.

- First off, if you decide to use metallic embroidery thread, know ahead of time they are a little bit more of a bother. In my opinion, they are totally worth the extra time for the little hint of glimmer they add to your holiday. To keep them from unraveling, once you cut off you desired length, make sure to knot the end.

- Grapevine wreaths are STRONG. I mean, weirdly strong so before you end up with scratched up like knuckles like I did, use one of your pairs of scissors to prop up the vine your working on- especially the thick ones. Your wrapping will go so much faster!

- To start a section, choose your color, cut about 8-12 inch long strip of embroidery thread and tie a knot to your selected vine. Go ahead and slide your knot to the back of the vine so its facing away from you. Give a teeny squirt of Superglue, give it a few seconds to set dry and wrap until your heart’s desire! This little trick with keep your thread from rolling around and giving you any trouble.

- From that point, just continue around the wreath wrapping your desired colors where you see fit!

And no, you’re not mistaken. I did design a wreath instead of cleaning the mass fingerprinted playroom slider. Priorities…

Ever since he saw the first decorations for Christmas, back in October, my 5 year old has been asking, ‘How many days until Christmas?’  Now, with Thanksgiving over, and the Christmas push in full gear he is asking even more often.  Time is such a hard concept to explain to a child that is wrapped up in the excitement of a coming holiday.  Usually, we do a traditional advent calendar to countdown the days, but this year I opted for something different.

For the month of November we had ‘The Thankful Tree’.  With hopes of recycling those branches into our Christmas decor I came up with a new idea for our Advent calendar, an Advent Tree.

If you’d like to make one of your own, here’s what you’ll need…

Small-medium branches, spray painted white (painting optional)

Base for the branches–I used a large Mason jar, but a vase would work as well

24 cardstock tags

24 festive stickers

string or ribbon to tie tags to branches

Lightly spray the branches with white to give them a more seasonal feel.

On one side of the tag write the date, on the other side write an activity, scripture verse or conversation starter related to Christmas.

Tie the string/ribbon onto the tags and hang them on your branches.

Each day, take a tag off, read it and follow whatever the directions may be.

This came together easily in an afternoon and I even enlisted my 5 year old to put on stickers and write a few dates on the tags. At first, it was a little overwhelming to come up with 24 activities, but after getting started, ideas just kept coming.

Here are a few ideas for your tags…

Christmas scripture

Walking the neighborhood to look at holiday lights

Making hot cocoa and reading your favorite Christmas story

Making salt or cinnamon dough ornaments

Writing/making a Christmas card to send to someone special

Taking a bag of food to the local food bank

Doing a craft together

Making a Christmas playlist

Playing ‘I Spy’ for signs of the holidays when on a road trip

Lighting the candles for each new week of Advent

Choosing a favorite Holiday cookie/treat to make

How do you countdown to the holidays?  I’d love to hear your ideas!

I am not a formal diner. I love casual, cozy meals and the energy that surrounds them. I love a table with handmade elements and special touches that make it feel like home. Thanksgiving is such a special time of year & the Thanksgiving feast lends itself to the most warm and beautiful decor of the year. I thought I’d give you a few last minute ideas in case you remembered the turkey…but forgot about the table. ;)

Burlap is BIG this year. BIG BIG BIG. & the wonderful thing is that it is cheap & readily available. The Pinterest rumor mill even says you can find it at Home Depot. If you read my blog this week, you know I asked you to grab a couple of yards to prepare for this article, so you had supplies on hand. BUT you can use any fabric you have laying around to use a couple of these ideas. Or…you can just sit back, enjoy the eye candy & be thankful someone else is hosting! (’cause let’s be honest…most of us who are cookin’ aren’t the ones reading, right?!)

My table includes lots of natural stuff this year–a fairytale pumpkin as the centerpiece (nice & low so you can chat over it) along with mismatched burlap, gourds, candles & my everyday white crate & barrel dishes, set with some cute little accent plates from World Market (purchased a few years ago).

The napkin rings I usually use for Thanksgiving felt stale, so in keeping with the burlap love, I made some of my own. Here’s how, quick–cheap–easy!

If you’ve never worked with burlap before, just know it is messy. You can easily cut it with a scissors & the charm comes from the fraying. You can do as much or as little as you like. I tend to like things a wee bit messy. Stuffy is not for me & I’m letting go of perfection these days.

These are my everyday candles, tied with a bit of burlap. They are mossy green in real life, and tend to coordinate with EVERY holiday! The candle holders are from the Pottery Barn Outlet (years ago).

For the centerpiece, I took a plain white cake stand (that I used for the ginormous baby shower I threw last spring) and covered it with about a yard or two of burlap, and tied another piece of burlap around the cake stand stem. Now it looks a little more like fall. :) I let the ends of the long piece of burlap flow along the length of the table, but wrapped all other corners under, so it isn’t as wide as it is long.

& my casual place setting! The pumpkin plate becomes the bread plate. & here’s a great tip I use all the time to help me remember what goes where:

Hold up your hands. Keeping the rest of your fingers outstretched, touch each thumb with the pointer finger on the same hand. Your left hand will make the “b” shape and your right hand will make the “d” shape. YOUR bread plate will always be on the “b” side, and YOUR drink will always be on the “d” side. Nifty little trick! ;)

Need a last minute place setting diagram? I’ve got you covered. Hope you have a LOVELY & SPECIAL Thanksgiving filled with all of the friends and family you love and enjoy!

One of my goals as a creative mama, especially at this time of year, is to make sure my kids realize their blessings. The weeks before Thanksgiving are perfect to focus our attention on being truly grateful.

Of course, we read about the pilgrims and the first thanksgiving. We talk about how God has blessed us and how fortunate we are. But, to really get the kids involved, we go hands on. We have done different fun projects over the past few years that have made us reflect on what we are thankful for.

The kids and I made a thankful pumpkin last like this from PlayfulCrafts.com one last year. We kept it and brought it out this year to remember blessings of the past.

We have done a thankfulness tree like this one from SimplyVintageGirl.com. The kids enjoyed gathering sticks for this project from the woods behind our house. They got so excited to see the tree fill up with leaves as we added more as the weeks went by.

The Thanksgiving bracelet we made like this one from Ramblings Of A Crazy Woman was a hit with the kids because of all the colored beads. I loved it because of the story we told as we made the bracelets and that after they were finished, the kids could use them to tell the Thanksgiving story themselves.

Those are a few of our family favorites. What do you do to help your kids count their blessings?