This Christmas...

Um, let me just share what is possibly the yummiest sandwich I've ever had. Minus the heartburn it gave me, it was a grand experience. And those of you who aren't 25 weeks pregnant should enjoy it even more! Buffalo Chicken Sandwich...........................




Yes, please!

   This Christmas...

I'm learning what it truly means to be grateful for what we have. I know I've written a few blogs on this type of thing before, but since my blog really has no one objective, I figure what the heck!

Being a seminary couple, combinding a teacher and a Young Life leader's salary doesn't exactly equal livin' the high life! (and yes, I did say Young Life leader! My hubby is now an awesome YL leader in Forney, Tejas, where he gets to do what he does best and hang with teenagers and make a difference in their lives, as well as build really awesome t-shirt guns).

Therefore, and also because of slighly different income levels this year, we have begun the Layton Budget-o-rama. Little did I know how much I really spent without realizing where in the world it all went. Don't get me wrong- I've always loved and stuck with good deals, but I never felt limited in my good deals!

Can I just say, it has been HARD, and super annoying, especially when I get in my selfish moods? Is that allowed? It sucks having to limit your spending and realize that money in one category (say, Carol's decorating budget) is gone until next month, or the next, if you went way over...ooops. However, never in my whole adult life have I experienced God's goodness and provision than I have in the past few months.

I have several stories of miraculous shenanigans happening to us, ones that you only hear about, that I never thought I'd be able to experience. One being that we were the beneficiaries of a couple who was given money by their church to bless someone with, who chose to give it to Chris while he was working at Chili's. Things like that that blow my mind. Why Chris? Why us? Because God knew we needed that exact amount to pay Chris's school bill the very next day.

Things like that I never would have recognized if we weren't being uber-responsible with our money.

Another pretty cool story is that when we first sat down to do our budget, I, being the stingy and sometimes doubtful Thomas that I sometimes am, was hesitant to give a full 10% of our income to the "Tithe" category. I looked at the scary numbers and made Chris delegate 5%. Lo and behold, when Chris finished our budget, we had enough leftover un-used money that pretty much added up to that last 5% I was holding out on. Funny, God.

So, long story short, being on a budget is hard, but it also is one of the best growing experiences I've ever had. I truly have come to appreciate the money God allows us to have, and it really makes you think twice about what you spend His money on. We as humans are so entitled to what we think we deserve. We work hard so we've earned this Mercedes, or that Coach bag, or the 3,000 sq ft house. (Or more Carol-level: I've earned that darn necklace from Loft, PLUS it's on sale!) And for those that this doesn't apply to, it may be you think you deserve to be happy, or deserve to be healthy, or to be high and mighty with people around you.... whatever, it is, most people think they deserve something!

Truth is, we don't deserve anything. It's by God's grace that we have what we have, and to not recognize that has got to be one of the saddest, emptiest feelings on earth.

I love the story of Rick Warren, an author and pastor of Saddleback Church in Orange County. Over the years he's made so much money that his family decided to live off 10% of what he makes, and give away the other 90%. What a testament to truly blessing others with the wealth God has given you. I hope that someday we can bless others with what God's given us, through probably not in the same way good ol' Rick does! ha ha

With Christmas coming up super fast, I thought I'd share some of my favorite budget-friendly pinterest DIY projects with you!




Tape lace over mason jar, then spray paint! Remove lace immediately. Add candle. Enjoy :)




Apply chalkboard paint to a mirror, add cute lyrics, and sing away!




Roll up cute scrapbook paper and hot-glue to a canvas.

 Check out my pinterest site for links to these ideas!

Have a merry Christmas, everyone, and don't forget to stop and think about who all our "stuff" really belongs to!

My life, organized.

The title of this post=me+wishful thinking.

As I'm sitting here, enjoying the peace and quiet of a sleeping baby, classical cello music playing in the background, and a yummy bowl of hamb. helper stroganoff (I know, what??), I'm thinking about everything in my life that is, or rather, needs to be, organized.

My house.
Asher's toys.
Chris's electronic gadgets and cords and plugs and chargers, etc...
Kitchen tupperware.
Bills.
Socks.
Cleaning supplies.
Budget.
Photographs.
Purse.
What am I missing?

Oh yeah, my brain. If I don't have my thoughts in order, it's virtually impossible to organize anything else in my life. Sometimes I feel like my head is in a million places at one time. Looking inside one of my purses is probably a fairly accurate picture of what's going on inside this ol' pea brain of mine.

Ex. 1: Carol's purse-brain

There are few things I've stumbled upon that really help in the area of organization. Today's ramblings feature Dave Ramsey's budget buster. Chris and I took his Financial Peace University class as newlyweds, and as of today, we're $400 away from paying off $18,000 of debt! That doesn't mean, however, that we're budget experts. Far from it. Due to a huge income decrease recently, we are seriously budgeting every night. Not fun, especially when the decorating bug hits me like a freight train, but we can DO IT! Live like no one else, so that later, we can live like no one else.

Get yours here!

Since I no longer have the insane luxury of a house cleaner (almost wish we'd never gotten one, so I wouldn't know what I was missing!), I've starting using this here mom-friendly guide to cleaning your entire house, 15 minutes at a time. What a life saver. There's no such thing as "cleaning day" in this household. Not enough time, not with a toddler running around!

Print me!!!

Long sentence alert. And for all those THINGS in life, like hair appointments (which in reality are few and far between since I only use groupons for such things!), doctor appointments, bug infestation treatments (yes, unfortunately we have to allocate a fist-clenching sum of money every 3 months to keep the gross country critters out of our house), grocery shopping/husband babysitting-worthy errands, weekly goals (like maybe work out/eat right? Jilian Michaels would have a heart attack if she opened our fridge), etc, these FREE printable lists are a life saver! No more spending $15 on a calendar from Target! If you have a printer, and you have some ink, do yourself a favor and print these babies!

Get yours here!

Last but not least, I need to remember to take a moment to just sit. Not think. Not plan. Not worry. Relax. Relish the moments even if in the mess. Thank God for giving me all the things I have to organize. For giving me the sweet baby boy and wonderful husband to clean up after. For making me ME- one very messy yet willing to try woman!


In the words of Asher, "nat night, mama, dada, cup, moooooo, night night"

Pinterests

It's easy to spend hours "pinning" and imagining all the wonderful things you can do and recipes you can make, without actually doing any of it! Thanks to the wonderful world of pinterest, I no longer feel the need to blow 5 bucks on a magazine for inspiration photos.

Here is my pinterest account.

If you haven't jumped on the P train yet, do it! You'll never want for yumm-o recipes or birthday party ideas again!

Here are a few pinterest ideas I've brought to life in our home...

Frame your thermostat eyesore!

via

Here's my version:

iPhones don't take good pics without decent lighting. It was a bummer the light switch was right below the thermostat. Oh well... it's a bit cuter now then it was. :) I bought a $3 frame from TJMaxx, spray painted it white, and hung it on a nail. Quick and easy craft- yes please!

Homemade Girl Scout Samoas:

via

My version:

via

Go ahead, snicker at my less-than-pinterest-worthy version of these Girl Scout gems. I opted for the "bar" version of the cookie. Supposedly it was easier. I would beg to differ. This was a very laborious (yes, that word makes me laugh) task. I spent more than three hours straight on my feet, carefully following all the crazy steps, and was highly disappointed when my chocolate drizzle didn't turn out beautifully like the first picture. 3 hours, sore feet, sticky messy kitchen, and ugly bars to boot. Won't make these again, even though they TASTE delicious. I think I'll gladly shell out 4 bucks for a box of the real mccoy.

The ever-popular wall gallery:

Check out my version of the ever-popular wall gallery, which just happens to be one of my fav spots in the house! I can't take credit for it, though. One of my best friends Elizabeth, who I must say has a gift for hanging pictures, graced our new house with her mad skills. :) I do love all things white. I'd fill all our hallways with white framed pictures if I could. The problem is the little word called "budget." I gathered all the frames from our old apartment and decided to combine them all into one lovely collage. I kinda love the mis-mash of wood/brown/white/cream frames.

Wow...should've straightened them before snapping the shot. O Well.

Here are the pinterests I'm currently working on or wishing I had time for!

One of many projects I want to do for Asher's room. Quick trip to Lowe's and $3 bucks on a 1x6.

via

Doing one row of this in the laundry room. Have the stuff, just need the hubby to secure it to the wall!

via

Planning on doing this in the living room behind the couch. I love the rustic/chic look it adds to the room. 

via

Time to call it a night. Enjoy pinning!

Life as I know it

Being a mom is hard. THE hardest thing I've ever experienced.

I thought being pregnant was hard- all the nausea, heartburn, ill-fitting clothes, and constant energy drain. Then I thought labor was hard. 25 hours of pain.... But even after that, I thought recovery was worse. Different kind of pain, baby blues, saying goodbye to sleep, and freedom, forever.

None of that even compares to having a 1 1/2 year old. I'm still experiencing the lack of sleep (though not as severe), energy drain, and lack of freedom. But above all that, the responsibility of raising a son. Decisions about discipline, day care, doctors. The routines of bedtime, nap time, play time. The eternally messy house. The continual re-vamp of the monthly budget. To TV or not to TV? How to help him learn to control his temper. Working on controlling my temper. Finding mommy time. Never daring to take my eyes off him. The need for constant attention, lest ear-splitting wailing fill the air until mama comes back. The list could go on and on. My days are much harder than they ever have been. Full time wife, full time mom, full time teacher. Did I mention full time house keeper and cook? Let's not even mention all the new home appliance warrantee registrations I still have yet to mail in. Exercise Much? Such things have no hope in making it to the top of my list.

If anyone had told me all this before, and had I truly grasped the full picture, I might have gotten my tubes tied that very moment. But thankfully, it doesn't work that way. I never would have truly understood what it meant to be a mom until I actually became one.

But despite the walls stained with blueberries and peanut butter, the carpet littered with a conglomeration of every board game piece known to man, and that stinky smell that insists on lingering throughout the house despite several expensive constantly-lit candles, my little boy is still the light of my life. My little sticky-fingered joy.

And STILL, even more important than that, my true purpose here on earth is a much higher calling that one I can create or control on my own. Although I constantly fail at my feeble attempts to control or succeed at my job, in my home, with my son, I will never give up, because I know I'm exactly where I need to be. Right where God put me, doing exactly what he designed me for, singing and praising his name, living my life in worship.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (The Message) "So we're not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There's far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can't see now will last forever."

The Adventures of Asher and Food

The Adventures of Asher and Food

Apparently he wasn't done with dinner. Crawled right up in there and stuck the tray on his lap, waiting for me to serve him up some more chow. Love that little man. 

belle fille!

Random thought of the day: I really wish I could speak French and not have to resort to translation.com for common French phrases. Maybe, someday, when I'm spending my retirement in good ol' Paris, I'll learn la langue. :)

A friend of mine asked me to design her soon-to-be daughter's nursery. I jumped at the chance to do something so special for her!

We decided on a teal/pink/gray color scheme with accents of yellow and gold.

Design tip: stick with three main colors, then work in little accents here and there of different shades of those 3 colors and one or two other colors. (Sometimes your accent colors won't be incorporated into the room until you find that random can't-live-without-it piece at the thrift store or whatever store your heart fancies. Then you'll realize- wow! I really love that gold antique mirror against my teal walls.)

Our statement piece and big pop of color is going to be a pink dresser. We are going to sand and re-finish an old honey-colored dresser and coat it up with some lovely poly to give it that lacquered shine. I suggested Benjamin Moore "rosy blush"- it's not too pink but makes a very girly statement. :)

Here is the design board. Let me know if you'd like links to any of the items listed!

Some of the decor includes:

Paris dessert map!

set of Paris photo postcards- framed in white!

adorable bicycle pillow

While I'm still in design-mode, I'd better finish up this crazy wall-stenciling I've got going on in the entry way! It's turning out to be quite the project. 

Have a wonderful wednesday! 

Sneak Peak: C&C Home Tour!

                                                  http://theperfectshadeofgrey.blogspot.com/

Katie is a good friend of mine who happened to come over at just the right time- shortly after I {almost} finished my stenciled wall. She is an up-and-coming star photographer in Dallas and took some awesome shots of my painted wall. She is going to come back someday when I've finished decorating more of our new house, but for now, she's blogged a "sneak peak" of our house! I'm so flattered! Thanks Katie! :) You can find her blog here!

I must bid farewell for now, for an 18-month-old little boy is crawling all over me and is about to spill his sippy cup of apple juice all over my hubby's prized mac.

Can't wait to share pics of what I've crafted, sewn, and etsy'd lately!

Father's Day

Ok, so I found so many awesome free Father's Day ideas that I couldn't keep them to myself. And since I'm throwing a Father's Day party on Saturday and Sunday (one for each side of the fam!), I thought this would help motivate me to get my lovely rear in gear and clean the house to get ready for these awesome decorations.

Candy bar wrappers

jelly bean dad

cute quote print

photo collage

free card printables

candy bar wrapper (I'm using this one, since his dad day present has to do with biking! Can't say in case he reads this)

Have fun saving money and being creative!

Awkward and Awesome Friday

Fridays are now my goal for keeping up with this blog. My brother thinks blogs are stupid. And he makes fun of me every time we talk. After every sentence I speak, he'll say, "Did you talk about that in your blog today?" Hah! Well, my wonderful brother Ken, this blog tradition is for you. Awesome and awkward Friday. (Click here for my inspiration for this blog idea-I decided Thursdays are too awkward in and of themselves to have as my goal day)

My sweet little bro and I on June 28th, 2008! (I guess this pic could fit under the just a little awkward category...)

Awkward: (let's change it up a bit, esp since my awkwards are a little fewer and far between than my awesomes this week. *note- this is NOT usually the case)


We finally had our garage door installed and were enjoying it greatly, until said garage door was "slightly" damaged (completely destroyed) when it was accidentally closed on top of sawhorses that were left in the wrong place at the wrong time. Chris went to Lowe's, and they assured us it was covered under warrantee (OH YAY- we all know what that means)... So the garage door guy comes out yesterday and we tell him how UNACCEPTABLE it is that the garage door  wasn't tripped when it felt something was in the way. I added in the sure-fire fix-our-door-for-free-and-apologize-a-lot comment of "What if it had been my SON?"  He does his thing, then comes to the conclusion that it was our fault, since the garage door was already manufactured to trip when something gets in the way of it closing, but the sawhorses don't count since their legs were on either side of the laser sensor thing and didn't trip the door. DID HE JUST SAY THAT? (we still haven't heard back whether or not Lowe's will cover the cost of a new friggin' garage door). 




Awesome:

Lately I've had too many ideas. They keep me up at night. So annoying. I work from home, so my home is my office. I have to stare at the blank walls and plain white couches all day long, and it's driving me ca-razy!

So last night I went a little crazy with buying pillows from my favorite "store" ever!, the point being to add some color to my otherwise white on white family room (which happens to be right across from my office, so it stares me in the face like an albino that hasn't seen the sun in six years). Here are the 8 I finally decided on.......

THEN, I couldn't stop thinking about the ridiculously white walls (I've never been a fan of no color, but I'm scared of painting before I decide on overall design), so I decided on curtains. I've already been through 2 sets of curtains (both returned when I realized how little I actually liked them-much to my husband's chagrin).

I finally bit the bullet and bought MORE fabric from fabric.com. My first two orders came in really late, and the hand-sewn curtains for the living room took FORever, so I swore I'd never order any more fabric or attempt to make more curtains.

Well, after a quick looksie on Etsy and their custom curtains, I realized I was NOT willing to pay someone $300 to make curtains I could make for $76 (cost of my fabric. Sweat and tears are well worth it to save more than $200.  who would pay for this???

Here's the exact same fabric I got-  click here! which will make 4 beeauuutiful hand-sewn curtains by muah. Maybe I'll pay myself the difference and take Chris on a mini-vaca to Six Flags. :)

Everything I bought should go with the stenciled wall I'm working on in the entryway. Here's the blog with the tutorial: stencil tutorial!

So far, mine looks exActly like hers! I wasn't expecting it to look as good as it does. It's a great idea for adding some drama into a room without having to splurge on wallpaper or pick a solid color. So far about 1/3rd of my wall is painted. It took about 3 hours of straight stenciling, then a good 4 hours of painting and erasing pencil lines, and I'm 1/3rd done. Aghhh! My arm about fell off, and it hasn't told me it's ready to start again. We'll see what said arm decides today. I want to get it done- I have too many unfinished projects going on.

My next project will be this! Total anthropologie-inspired budget-friendly art for the fireplace mantle.

Most recent finished project:

Kitchen art. I bought 6 wood frames, painted them white, distressed them with some sandpaper, and filled them with cute Etsy artwork, including these adorable numbers:

                                                                       Get it here

and...

                                                                      get it here.

Tune in next time for a picture-filled update of casa de Layton! And if anyone has any lovely awesome or awkward moments they'd like to share, carry on the new A & A Friday tradition!

projects out the wazoo

I haven't had much time lately to sit down and blog. I have so many projects and pictures I want to share, so it's going to be hard to talk about one thing at a time!

First, let me start with a pic of my favorite little poopy booty boy! He is growing up so fast, I can't believe it! I'm loving being at home with him and watching him do his crazy half-head-stands.

Lately, I've been working on:

an upholstered headboard for our master bedroom
silhouette paintings for the bedroom
stenciling the entryway wall and painting in the lines!
painting the dining room wall
finishing up the living room curtains and roman shade
sewing pillows
making gutter bookshelves for the playroom

The not-so-fun-stuff:

sealing all the grout in the house (ahhhh!!)
staining the fence
weeding the lawn and garden
cleaning after each project, which takes almost as long as the projects themselves!

...All while working from home, taking care of Asher, and trying to keep up with all the ins and outs of homeownership (changing our address on everything, paying bills, endless housework, disposing of various and sundry bugs and spiders, organizing endless amounts of junk). Take that, real housewives of wherever, with your four nannies and five maids and botoxed foreheads.

I'll leave you with a picture of the new headboard- It's now cut out by my wonderful husband (of almost 3 years!!!) and waiting to be foamed and batted by muah.

1 wife with lots of design ideas + 1 husband with manly tools and manly muscles=lots of really cool thingamajigs

Off to cook some yummy Asian noodle salad (from e-mealz-highly recommend!) and caramel apple cookies. Weird combo, right? I found two yummy recipes and have the ingredients for both, so why not make a meal out of it? I'm a pioneer woman in the making. Oh yeah.

mi casa

So the house is a-comin' along! So far I have the kitchen completely unpacked and organized, our his and her closets organized, and Asher's room set up. There are still boxes taking over almost every room of the house, and on any given counter or floor you may find a random box of nails, old baby announcements that I forgot to send out that Asher found and spread around the house, receipts, sonic cups, etc... It's a mess!

I guess it's a good problem to have, but it's really stressing me out to have so much empty wall space. I can't fill the walls with pictures yet, because I have yet to decide on paint, or stenciling, or what I actually want to hang. I have so many projects to do that I've lost count. I have a ton of furniture to paint, a few art canvases to paint, bookshelves to buy, stripes to paint in the nursery, stenciling to do in the foyer....it goes on and on.


Half the boxes that are left can't be unpacked, because there is no where to put the stuff! We still have to build a built-in in my office for storage, which means our bills, paperwork, office stuff, and art stuff are ALL over the floor and completely unorganized.

I'm also finding that I'm making at least one trip a day to Walmart. The more I unpack, the more I have to buy! It's crazy.... I'm so over my original budget it's not even funny! (Well....not so over that I can't laugh about it a little...it was crazy to think we wouldn't need to buy stuff coming from an apartment to a house).

Sorry if that post was stressful! It stresses me out just reading what I wrote! :p  HOWEVER, despite all that, I am LOVING living in 4 x the amount of space we had before. I love having my own laundry room!!!!! Not having to get fully dressed, lug baskets of laundry across the hall, share washers and dryers with people who may or may not have taken their own clothes out of the machines, it's divine.

My favorite thing so far: Having a living room and a family room/play room. My living room can stay my own. It can look pretty. Before, our living room WAS the play room, and it never stayed nice. Now we have a place of our own. I did decide to call the play room a "family room," because it really bothered me that the first room you see when you walk in our house is a "play room." I picture a play room as primary colored-messy-toys everywhere-looking room. A "family room" is like the kids' living room. I got 2 white/ivory slipcovered couches for it, and an awesome yellow polka-dotted pottery barn rug, so it still is homey and inviting when you walk in the house.

Here are some pics of the house (before we moved in, without mess!)

Entryway. Family room to the left

Other side of the family room. We replaced the light with a fan

Guest bath

Master bath

Master bath

Breakfast area, door to master in the back

What really sold me on the house- the kitchen!

Kitchen. Huge skylight goes up 20 ft and is sooo pretty!

I actually have a cabinet for baby bottles! And Christmas dishes. And vases. Pinch me now

Living room, bad pic

Master window- I'm making a pillow for the window seat :)

Backyard. There's a really random playground right behind our yard-so fun!

Office- built-in will be done soon in that random empty space

Doors to the office, right off the family room

Just a few decor pics: 

Mantle :)

Mantle-mirror will probably not be there next week-doing a painting instead. New chair=love!

Asher's bathroom. When I saw this Anthro shower curtain on sale, I snatched it up!

Things I didn't know about buying a house:

1) Whatever your budget is, add $2000. At least.
2) Find out what day trash gets picked up. We missed it and had to store a week's worth of trash in the garage. GROSS. Quite different than having a trash chute at the end of our hall in Swiss Tower!
3) Garages come empty. Duh, I knew that, but I never put much thought into where things go, like all your tools, lawn mower, bikes, hoses, hugemongous trash bins, etc.... Craigslist shelves have become my best friend!
4) How empty your house will look with furniture from your apartment. I knew we'd need a lot more, and I'm thankful that we had furniture stored at our parents' houses and in storage.
5) All the small projects- we bought a new home, so we had to install blinds, seal all the tile grout (since apparently they don't DO that!?), install garage door openers, install a peep hole in the door, figure out the sprinkler system and AC unit (the first night we were here, it was SO hot, and we found out the next day that there was a switch in the attic that had to be turned on for the AC to work- NOT fun!)

I am so thankful for our home. It's been a long time coming- 4 years living in a college dorm room/house with roommates, 3 years living in a tiny apartment, and 7 years later- a house! It was perfect timing- we didn't rush things, we didn't feel like we HAD to get a house the minute we got married, and we had time to save up, and Chris will graduate this winter, and our baby is getting to the point where he needed more space to run and be crazy.

I can't wait to have the house ready to invite people over! Chris and I both want our house to have open doors and for people to always feel welcome. :)

3 day weekend, here we come! Have a great one!