Pinterest Projects 12 for 2012 {REVISITED}

So earlier this year, I posted a 12 in 2012 Pinterest Project Goal Post. I started the year off strong, but life has taken over and birthdays and anniversary celebrations and the day-to-day have gotten in the way of my plans! Isn't that life? So...I thought I'd revisit this post today and update you on what I've done and also switch out a couple of the projects for the year. Here's hoping I can get one project done this week! I have the materials, just need to sit down and do it! :) 

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There are so many pins that I want to do so I decided that 2012 would be a perfect opportunity to start making and creating! Some are homeopathic and some are decor for the home. I figure I would set up 12 that I really want to do this year and of course, allow myself to add more as I can and want to.

Here are the 12 I'm doing. I would love to have you follow me on pinterest and share the things you're making at your house this year!

I already ordered my vanilla beans here They always have free shipping on vanilla beans!

You can see that post HERE I actually just started my second batch last week as the first one is almost gone!

I'm very excited to try this out...really hoping it works!

I finished this in February but unfortunately it gave me a rash. Hubby is using it though and really likes it. I'm back to using Toms of Maine...You can see my tutorial HERE

thought this would be fun as we celebrate 10 years of marriage on March 23!

I will be doing this one this week hopefully, although with a bit of a different twist. Stay tuned for that post!

right now my necklaces get hung on a large frame we have on our dresser. Obviously I need something better!

antiseptic cream perfect as the weather will be getting warmer with the kids outside more

I'm actually not sure I can wait until June to make this! I might have to do it now!

This made so much soap! I have a gallon bucket full! :) See my tutorial HERE

hopefully by July, we'll be in our new apartment in NYC and I'll have space to decorate. I love this!

I still love this, but I think instead of doing it on the wall, I'd rather do it on canvas instead. I love this one! 

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another thing for bare walls

since homeschooling will be starting up, this will be perfect to display their work

as the weather gets colder, I want to have my homeopathic remedy stash much stronger than I did this year

so beautiful!

I just love this! It would make a great gift as well! 

But I also am loving this! Not sure when I'll do it, but I've already gotten the paper for the clocks!

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january

february

march

april

may

june

july

august

september

october

november

december

Linking up with the Pinning Party today with Courtney and Kimberly.

Also linking here:

WIW: Our Wedding Day

I'm excited to link up with Megan over at Absolute Mommy today for their 7 year wedding anniversary! Happy  Anniversary you guys!! Here's to many many many more!

In honor of her anniversary, she's hosting a "What I Wore on my Wedding Day" linky party and I couldn't resist participating, especially since I just got to go through all my wedding photos and our story last month in honor of our 10 year anniversary! :)

So here we go...what I wore to our wedding :)

Because we had such a long engagement, I had been trying wedding dresses on for years! :) Besides, its so great to go do that with your bestest friend, that we both had so much fun doing it. I had a few dresses that I loved, but one day we stepped inside this boutique bridal shop and I tried on this dress. They say you know it's the one if you cry...that's exactly what I did. I immediately fell in love with it and could picture myself in it on our wedding day. Thankfully, I didn't buy it there as it was over $800. We had found a bridal shop that carried everything for much cheaper so it ended up only costing $430!

It's hard to see from my ancient pictures, but the trim and bodice of the dress were beautiful champagne colored flowers. I loved that my dress had that detail in a separate color!

My mama made my bouquet. I didn't want real flowers for my bouquet so that I could keep them forever. I think she did a pretty good job! 

I got my jewelry on my spring break trip our senior year when my bestest and I went to Colorado. We found the jewelry at a little shop in Breckenridge and with the pearls being the same champagne color, I knew they would be perfect! I spent $75 total on earrings, necklace and bracelet!

My ring was his grandmothers. There are two rings there and the inside, white gold ring is my engagement ring and the outside yellow gold is the band we had made to match it and fit around it perfectly. I love love love that no one else has a ring like mine and I love that it's two-toned as well! 

Our photographer was pretty great and even did some digital pictures for us (yes we're that old!) but this is by far the most awkward picture of the group...notice his hand is through my arm (not vice versa) so awkward! And my eyes...freaky looking, wouldn't you say?

ah...much better! :) 

Happy Anniversary again to Megan and her hubby!! Thanks for letting us party with you! 

highlights: Yankees Game and Photo A Day Challenge

Hubby and I got to have date night last night at the Yankee's Game! Go YANKS!! It was actually a birthday present that he got back in March and we've been counting down the days. We don't get to the stadium very often but we're both pretty die-hard Yankee fans! So this was fun!

Yankees WIN! 7-6, bottom of the 9th. Perfect end to the game! 

 I'm also super excited to announce that I'll be participating in Fat Mum Slim's Photo A Day Challenge in May. I've becoming slightly  addicted to taking Instagram photos so I figured having a daily challenge would be super fun!

Here is the list for the month! Love Instagram? I'd love to have you follow me. I follow back! @mama2sillysophia 

Linking up here:

Also, don't forget about Kimberly @ A Night Owl's fun instagram hop every Tuesday! She's added a weekly giveaway to that hop! You don't want to miss it!! 

Button Swap/Sponsor In May

I would love to have you consider swapping buttons or "sponsoring" my blog in May!

Right now, all my spots are FREE so you don't want to miss this opportunity!

Here is the breakdown on what would be included with each button size. I hope to hear from you!!

I have 1,337 twitter followersandover 1,500 Facebook followersI also more than doubled my GFC following this past month.

Contact me

**Please note only family-friendly, clean and non offensive blogs will be accepted**

Want to do a giveaway or have me do a product review? I'd love to do that for you! Just email me and we'll set it up!

God our Provider

While I try to be as careful with our grocery budget as possible and be frugally organic, eating the way we do has increased the amount of money we spend each month on groceries. More so, since we started GAPS.
Last summer, my old employer contacted me and asked me if I would be willing to do some advertising for them and receive compensation. I was happy to do it and having that extra bit of spending money was so great!

October rolled around and the person who had replaced me for the bookkeeping/payroll aspect of my job resigned and they needed someone to cover while they found a replacement. They worked it out so that I could handle everything remotely and as this was right around the time our diet changed for Lucas, the extra money was such a blessing! I covered through the end of January, but when they told me they'd found someone else, I was both relieved (as it was taking up a lot of my time) and worried as that extra money had greatly helped out with other expenses that had come up.

I hashed it out with God one night and gave him a figure. It was more than the compensation for just advertising had been but less than what I'd made doing payroll. I asked him to provide that amount each week through advertising and ad hoc work that I would be given.

That was February. Each week, he has met me at that number and exceeded it. Each week! Not once has it just been that amount. It's always been more and each week I'm humbled and amazed; grateful and awed.

This last week, it was such a quiet week that by Thursday, when I'd only had one extra thing to do, I was thinking that maybe this would be the week I wouldn't quite make it to that figure. I was $30 short. As I went to the farm with the boys on Friday, I wrestled a little bit with God in my heart. Acknowledging that he had more than provided each week up to that point but also recognizing that this might be that week where I don't meet the figure I'd asked for and he might show up in a different way. It was hard...that trust...but somehow I believed I would reach that number and that somehow before the end of the day, I'd have it.

I checked my email when we got to the farm and there was exactly $40 worth of work waiting for me in my inbox. God is so amazing and so good!! That figure I came up with was all me...me just asking him to bless us with that amount so that eating the way we eat wouldn't break the bank. Each week he's blessed us with more. I'm so humbled and thankful...

...thankful that we serve a God who clothes the lilies of the field in such beautiful majesty. A God who cares about my $30 even though we'd still have been ok with out it. I'm so thankful that he loves us so much and blesses us in such amazing ways, both big and small!

What a mighty God we serve!

Linking up here:

I'm married to the American Dream!!

When my hubby moved to the US 10 years ago, he spoke very little English. The first 4 months of our marriage, he didn't have a job as we waited for his visa paperwork and Green Card to come through. While he was home during that time, he taught himself English by watching day time television and hanging out with as many of our church friends as he could.

By August when he found a job, his English was remarkably better and he was able to do just fine at work. He moved from that entry-level position as a stock room associate at a large, members-only buying club called "The Flower Factory" (think Hobby Lobby), to working in construction with a guy from our church. As he has in each and every thing he's ever done, he excelled every place he went. His bosses could say nothing but good things and he continued to find favor with management.

We were crazy, but knew we were supposed to be in NYC, so in the fall of 2003, we moved out here with some savings and that was it. Neither of us had any prospects for employment and neither of us had any idea what we'd be doing.

I quickly found a job as a temp employee at Snapple and he found a job as a stock room associate at J. Crew at their Rockefeller store (largest store in the company). It was a seasonal job for the holidays with the promise that if he exceeded expectations, he might be considered for part time employment after the holidays were over.

That January, he was offered a position to help open the new Columbus Circle location. It was definitely a offer for permanent employment and he received a raise on top of that. I couldn't have been prouder.

Over the next 7 years, he went from part time associate to full time to assistant manager to manager and then ended up full circle back at Rockefeller Center as their Visual Merchandise Manager. On the level of merchandising at the store level, he'd reached the top of his game!

Two years ago, he was approached by the Corporate office to join their merchandising team and manage women's accessories on a national level. It was the ideal job as it went from a 6:00 a.m.  to 3 p.m. and overnights at least 4-5 times per month job to Monday-Friday, 9:00-5:00 p.m. and off all major holidays instead of working, job! It was what he'd been working for the past 7 years at the Company.

Two weeks ago, he received another promotion and raise. This time to take over merchandising at the corporate level of all their specialty stores nationwide. It comes at a perfect time as we'll soon be moving in to the City with added expenses.

He is living out the American Dream and it's so exciting to watch him!

What started out as a seasonal, part time position has turned into a career and he keeps growing in the company.

I couldn't be more proud of my man!!

recipe of the week: guacamole

I originally posted this last Fall, but it's so simple and so delicious, thought I would share it again! Avocado is one of the things that we love to eat on GAPS. It's so delicious and easy and I like giving it to Lucas as it has all that yummy fat in there that he really needs! 


Let me know if you try it and like it! And here's a little photo of my silly kiddo LOVING it today for lunch! :) 

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Ask anyone who knows me and they will tell you I'm a no-nonsense girl. I love to cook and bake and experiment in the kitchen, but I get easily discouraged if there is a long list of ingredients. I just don't like using more than 1 bowl, dirtying more than a couple of dishes and taking all day to make something. It's rare I will try a recipe, even if it looks amazing, if I think there are too many steps.

This is one of the reasons I love this guacamole recipe I recently put together quickly to complement the wonderful tortilla chips I try to make a couple times a month. They are so yummy by themselves, but they explode with flavor when there's a dip with them! I had an avocado, but no tomatoes but really wanted guacamole. There's a restaurant up the street from our home that I think has the best guacamole I've ever tasted and so I decided to recreate that. Its so easy you might just run to your kitchen and make it now! :)

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No-nonsense Guacamole
2 medium to large avocados
juice from 2 limes
1 small onion, diced
salt to taste - make sure you're using REAL salt! None of that pure white, chemical stuff will do :) you can find real salt here

Blend all ingredients together in a food processor (I use my immersion blender). I like my guacamole smooth and creamy. If you prefer chunks, just make sure you don't blend it quite as much. And that's it. You're done. Don't forget to lick your fingers (and bowl you serve it in) So good and I don't miss the tomato at all. And except for the cilantro that the restaurant by us adds (I'm not a huge fan), to me this tastes just as good.

And, seriously, with just 4 ingredients, it's so simple you almost have to try it!

"Pinning" Frames

I have several empty frames sitting in my bedroom, just waiting to be used. I'd like to do something fun with them and here are some of the ideas I'm come across.

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 1 2 3 

4 5 6

I cannot wait to try some of these ideas in our new apartment! We move in 2 months!!! Crazy!

Which is your favorite?

Linking up with these lovely ladies today

Courtney @ Baxtron{Life}

Kimberly @ A Night Owl

Also linked to

Versatile Blogger Award

I was tickled pink to find out that Jessica, over at Vintage Mauve had awarded me as a

 

These past couple of months have been so fun as I've been able to dedicate a bit more time to my blog and am now getting to know some amazing women! Thank you, Jessica!! xoxo Check out her fun blog HERE

So here are the rules of this award:
*Thank the person who gave you the award
*Include a link to their blog
*Select 15 blogs/bloggers that you've recently discovered or follow regularly
*Nominate those 15 for the Versatile Blogger Award
*Finally share 7 things about yourself
*In the same post include this set of rules
*Inform each nominee with a comment on their blog

Ok...so here are some of my new and old favorite bloggers. I've included new friends and long time friends. I would love for you to go check out their blogs!! These women are amazing and I'm so blessed to have known them for a while or recently get to know them!

Baxtron{Life}

Singledou[b]t

Royal Daughter Designs

The Floyd Boys

My Beautiful Crazy Life

A Night Owl

Every Day is a Country Song

The Foley Fam

Absolute Mommy

My Reflection of Something

One and One Equals  Twin Fun

Ava Grace's Closet

My Dishwasher's Possessed

Imprintalish

Pamela's Heavenly Treats

Ok...7 things about me:

1. I battle with being both extroverted and introverted all at the same time. I'm very comfortable when I know you, but the fear of running out of things to say to someone sometimes stops me from introducing myself to new people

2. I've always dreamed of being suzy homemaker and a mama to a bunch of kiddos. I never though quite understood how challenging that could be. It is however, very rewarding!

3. I'm a sucker for anything with chocolate. Add peanut butter and I cannot resist! :)

4. I love days when the weather is perfect to roll down the windows in the car and blast some music! I love even better that my kids love to join me in singing and being goofy! 

5. I'm obsessed with taking pictures. I can easily snap more than 1000 pictures in less than a month! 

6. I love my coffee. It's not so much that I need the caffeine. I just love the idea of coffee and drinking it in the mornings and smelling it brew. Have I mentioned I love coffee?

7. My kids make me smile. Even at the end of less-than-perfect days, my heart swells with thanksgiving and joy when I think about them and how much they bless our lives!

So there you go. Thanks again Jessica for the fun award!! Please go check out the blogs I nominated...they are awesome ladies!