Owl Always Love You

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Today's post is all about one of my favorite animals, the wise o'l owl!

Please enjoy the following owl madness.

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Happy Birthday Mike!!!!

Happy Birthday Mike!

I really really really wish that I could spend ALL of today with you and celebrate but we'll be together soon I promise...

I want you to know that I love you more than I ever thought I could love another person. Random smiles splash across my face when I think of you during my day. It can be while I'm pulling into work, or while finishing up washing the toddler's sippy cups. The thought of you warms me and provides a boost of energy every time. 

People thought I was crazy when I fell for you but now they see that you're the perfect fit for me. You really are my other half and I'm happiest when you're standing next to me. I look very much forward to marrying you!!!

I miss your fingers wrapped around mine, and I miss seeing that twinkle you get in your gorgeous eyes moments before cracking a joke. 

I can't wait to see you again.

Happy Birthday to my sweet love!

P.S.

Wanna see what I got my Dr.Who fan?

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Old Books Centerpiece

I love old books.

I love walking to old bookshops and being overwhelmed with the smell of old books. 

Recently, a friend of mine gave me about 100 of her used books. I was thrilled!

Not only could I get some good reads out of the pile but also had pages and pages to use for crafts!

So I made this vintage/antique store centerpiece a few Sundays ago. The bunny and doilies are my mothers so I'll have to buy some of my own once I move out. The mason jar is from my collection of wedding centerpieces.

I tore the cover off of two of the books and gave them an older/antique look by staining the pages with coffee. I bent the binding a little and scrapped away at some of the pages with a pair of scissors. I was really rough with the poor things and even set them outside, sitting wide open, to dry in the sun.

I really love how old the books looked when I was done abusing them. I tied the little one with twine and added a paper doily just because I have so many sitting around.

What do you think I should make with the other books I have laying around?

Showing Off My Crocheted Bowl

Good Monday morning!

Today is a special day because its the last Monday I will be working at my daycare in Canada. This is my last week of work before I get married, move, and start my new teaching job in Vermont.

I'm very anxious, excited, and nervous all at the same time. 

I've always said that crocheting calms me down, so here's a little show off I made a few Saturday's ago. If you follow me on Pintrest, you've already gotten a glance at this bowl.

I made this cutsey little guy out of a t-shirt I scored in a free box at college. 

Sometimes I would grab a big o'l tote bag and go dorm hopping looking for free boxes. Sometimes I walked away with some really neat stuff and other times all I got was a work-out. 

Sigh...so many stairs!

This bowl took me a little over an hour to make and gave me a nice little handcramp along the way. 

It was totally worth the pain...don't ya think?

The plan is to display my bowl on my teacher's desk next to my owl candy jar. 

(they'll make the perfect couple!)

I can drop in my keys and cell phone in the morning before the little munchkins swam the place. I can't wait to give up the excavation process currently required to find these life or death items in my giant purse. 

How am I doing

Hey Guys,

So I just wanted to give another little snapshot into my heart today about Dad's cancer.

He's cut off all of his hair since it started falling out with the treatments. He's gone to doctor visits with Mom all of the time and Mom had turned into a pretty good nurse.

You should see the box of pills and things she has Dad tightly schedule on. She's also gotten pretty good at giving him those injections. Personally, I hate needles and leave the room the moment that thing makes it's grand entrance. 

So how am I dealing with this. I obviously can't ignore the fact that my dad has cancer anymore. He's bald for one thing, and second...he's in bed a lot thanks to the treatments. To be totally honest, I can't look at him sometimes. I'm trying to trust God...but it's really hard sometimes. 

I love my Dad. I don't want to see him like this. I don't want to see my mom like this. Sometimes I just have to look away, or lock myself in my room.

I throw myself into wedding plans, teaching activities, or pintrest. Sometimes I just need to break away from the real world and not have to think about the pain.

I know I should be praying more than I am...but that also forces me to think about the cancer that's trying to kill my daddy.

I can almost feel God's arms wrapped around me, trying to comfort me, but I think that my struggles to escape reality are also pulling me away from the comfort he's trying to give. 

I can't lie and say "Oh yeah, I'm doing fantastic! I'm actually on a spiritual high right now" because I'm not always doing "fantastic". 

Sometimes I'm screaming inside, sometimes I'm whimpering, and sometimes I'm just silently pushing it all away.

I'm so sorry I can't share happier news about what's going on in my heart. 

I guess I'm just trying to let things out before they take over, and desperately asking you to pray for my Dad, and to pray for me.

So Excited!!!!!!!!!!!!

Guys I'm so excited!

Next month I get to marry my best friend!!!!!

Please excuse me as I run around my room screaming like a freak....

Honestly, some of my friends thought I was a little crazy when I feel head over heels for Mike. But now everyone see's what I saw about 5 years ago.

Yeah we're total opposites at times, and our personalities don't match but it's basically a perfect fit. We balance each other out and he just makes me so terribly happy.

He makes me laugh and gives me that tingly little feeling in my stomach when he smiles. He's honest, loyal, and so selfless. 

It's crazy how many times out paths crossed in the past and we never really got the chance to even say "hello". We've always seemed to be that person the background somewhere catching each other's eye just for a second. 

Mike, I'm so lucky to have meet you and fallen in love with you. You're absolutely perfect for me and I know our friendship will grow every day we're together.

Wedding Nightmares

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Good Monday to you,

I've thought about writing this post for quite a while now, and finally got my fingers typing. 

I'm not sure if every bride goes through this during the months of wedding planning, but I've been having wedding nightmares. They started off once every two weeks or so, but now I get them every night.

I've never dreamed my wedding without some sort of disaster. I'm not talking "Oh the flowers aren't just right", I'm talking "Where's the groom?" "You can't fit in your wedding dress, just wear this black one." or even "Grandpa just had a heart attack before you walked down the aisle." 

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Yes, I've had so many horrible dreams about my dress. Most of the time I'm too fat to fit and end up getting married in my blue jeans or even a black dress. Sometimes something even gets spilled on it the second before I walk. 

Sometimes my dress fits fine, but my hair has suddenly all fallen out! Once, I even had my hair up in a pony tail and the elastic broke. I asked for help from my Mom to fix my hair and she said "Oh no, you're fine" and I had to walk with that ugly bump you get in your hair after wearing a pony tail all day.

Other times I dream about makeup going wrong. My hands suddenly lose all coordination and I smear powder, lipstick, and mascara ALL over my face. Of course everyone else is too busy talking to hear me ask for help and I always end up in a panic sitting in front of the mirror. 

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Sometimes my nightmares give me the false sense of security.

I get ready, my dress fits, my hair looks great, I even make it down the aisle without anyone in the church having a heart attack. Then I see the back of Mike's head and think to myself "That's not quite right", and he turns around.

It's not Mike!

Other nightmares have me driving around frantically trying to buy flowers, finish making the favors, and find the church all at once. Of course all this happens on the day of the wedding, hours from the "I do's". Talk about high stress levels...

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The majority of these nightmares leave me feeling tottally overwhelmed. 

The decorations aren't finished, the food still has to be cooked, and the guests have not where to sit because the chairs haven't been set up yet. 

I almost always find myself frantically running around trying desperately to finish everything while all of my friends and family stand around and watch me. 

I never get any help from anyone in my dream and I wake up freaking out thinking its the day after.

All I can do is take a deep breath, tell myself it was all in my head, and I've still got time to get everything ready. It's not the morning of the wedding, there's no need to panic.....yet....

My Very Hungry Caterpillar

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Any professional child care worker who cares enough to stay up to date on children's literature will be very familiar with this book by Eric Carle. 

And any crafty professional child care worker will love these Very Hungry Caterpillar craft finds from the one and only Pintrest.

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If you got your hopes up the second your eyes scanned that image, you won't be disappointed. Here is a link to the printable story board . Awesome, I know.

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I would just LOVE to have a Very Hungry Caterpillar week in my preschool room next year. This giant caterpillar picture frame is a definite must!

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Now you know that we can't just leave the little caterpillar there in his cocoon. He has to turn into a beautiful butterfly! 

Awww!

What a cute little guy. Who made you out of 20 something recycle egg cartons? Whatcha say there little guy? 

Miss Yellow Shoes made you?

Well how crafty is that, and how neat that will look on a bookshelf...my my

DIY: Teacher's Gift

Hey Guys, 

So I'm not going to make all the 'I'm so busy with wedding stuff!" excuses as to why I haven't posted in a while. You've all heard it before and I'm sure you're all tired of reading the same explanation over and over again. So here's a little tutorial I made to keep the crafty inspiration alive!!!

You're gonna need...

1. Skinny milk carton

2.Glue Gun

3.Scissors

4.Pencils...lots of pencils...

First, you're gonna need to cut the top off of your milk carton. It's a good idea to make it shorter than your pencils, but tall enough to give some strength to your final piece.

Fire up your trusty glue gun. 

Now start gluing the pencils all around the carton. I applied the glue directly to the carton itself and then stuck on the pencils. This way I didn't have to guess where the carton stopped and didn't have to deal with left-over glue on my pencils. 

I made all of my pencils face the same direction for a more uniformed look, but you could alternate the sides of the pencils to make a pattern if you want. Using colored pencils could look really cool for an art teacher. 

I would not suggest sharpening your pencils. It might seem like a cool idea, but honestly you'll lose the uniformed height and you don't want to stab your teacher either!!!

Make sure you're gluing the pencils super close to each others. Gaps are icky icky!

Tada!!! Check out your super cool, super handmade teacher's gift!

Go on and add a bow and some pretty flowers. An awesome filler for this vase would be those flower pen things that you make with the green tape?

What teacher wouldn't want this on her desk?

Because I used a milk carton, this vase is totally liquid proof!

You heard me, you can actually give real life flowers with this thing!

Flowers in a vase...who would have thought huh?

If you loved this easy-peasey tutorial then share the link on facebook. Didn't like it? The please comment bellow so I can improve my posts.

Thanks guys!

P.S. Don't forget about contributing to July's Craft Month. I need YOU!

Craft Month?

So would anyone be interested in helping me plan a month full of crafts in July?

I'll be crazy busy with wedding things, so I need you to "take over" and show off your creativity here on Miss Yellow Shoes.

Just shoot me an e-mail at Brittany_Girr@hotmail.com if you would like to be featured on the blog next month!

You can submit any crafty tutorial and sure to receive the spotlight. 

I can't wait to see what you come up with!

Printable Vintage Bookmark

Oh Yay, I'm so happy you came back today!

You wanted to see what that freebie button was about yesterday didn't you?

Well lucky you! I made you all of you (my favorite readers ever) a pretty little vintage bookmark!

I have this thing for paper dolls and vintage floral.Obviously you can all see that in the bookmark. All you have to do is right click the image above, save to your desktop, and print as many as your little heart desires!

Take this as a "Thank You" from me being being the best blog readers ever. But don't be so shy! Leave a comment once in a while. Let me know what you like and if you have anything you want me to try and diy.

I looooove feedback!

Monkey Pizza Bread

Good Sunday Morning Readers,

With Mom and Dad running around to hospital visits, I've had more then the opportunity to take over the family kitchen. I've been able to cook a few meals and thankfully they haven't ALL been disasters. Yesterday I tried making this Monkey Bread Pizza for my family. I originally found the idea online and Mike even made me some while I was still in school. 

So yesterday, I gave this creative pizza a shot.

I used bacon and cheese for inside tastiness, but I would love to try this again with other pizza toppings.

It's a great finger food and totally worth the prep time (almost 25 minutes). I can see myself making this for a movie night or party with friends.

I used lots of garlic and Italian seasoning in the melted butter and brushed it on each pizza ball for a great flavor in every bite. I also added garlic, Italian seasoning, and lots of parmigiana to the tomato dipping sauce. 

Soooo gooood!

The only thing I got wrong when making this meal was to remove the pan from the oven too soon. I suggest pulling off on of the balls and testing it before flipping the whole pan into a presentation plate.

Mine didn't turn out at gorgeous as the one on this blog did, but my family raved about this creative pizza.

Oh, what's that up there? 

Does it say "Freebie?" 

Oh! I guess it does...hmm...You should check back tomorrow to see what this printable freebie is.

Maybe it's something vintage? Maybe it's super cute! Maybe It's awesome!

Top Knot?

Ok so when these "top knot" hairstyles started coming out last summer I really didn't think that they would catch on. I mean...it's a knot on top of your head bobbing around all day!

Now I must admit, I was one to throw my hair up in a knot when brushing my teeth, washing my face, or just needed it all out of the way while crafting. But I was never one to walk out of the house with the thing bouncing around on my head!

Now, I see them everywhere and I honestly think its a hit or miss hairstyle. 

In my opinion (which I'm sure you're all DYING to hear), it either looks like you just rolled out of bed, or you look like you actually took 5 minutes to make your hair look presentable. 

No, I'm not always put together every day. Sometimes my clothes clearly do NOT match and I regret it. I'll admit it!

I do try to learn from my mistakes and look presentable for my adoring public. I mean, honestly, you never know when that pesky paparazzi is going to swarm!  

Ok, maybe that last bit was just be dreaming about being famous...but seriously?

Are we all trying to look like we don't try anymore?

So many of these gorgeous girls are taking the attention away from their jaw dropping smiles and making us all squirm with these yucky knots. If too many people make it look sloppy, then the top knot won't be around for long.

I'm not saying that women shouldn't throw their hair up in a high bun. The trend has caught on quite drastically. Hey I've even been caught in the trend! I just think that we should all try to make it worth having around. Trow on a bow or flower or something. At least puff it up a little and make it look neat.

That's my opinion for the day. I don't make many posts like this, so take it or leave it.