Veterans Day

Because it's Veterans Day today, i thought i'd just share how thankful i am for all the men and women who have fought previously, and who are fighting for us today.

"only two defining forces who have ever offered to die for you, Christ, and the american soldier. one died for your soul, the other died for your freedom." 

i took this picture a couple weeks ago when i went to visit my sister at college at BYU-Idaho. this is the Rexburg temple and there was a flag pole right in front of it and there was a beautiful breeze blowing the flag and i just had to take a picture with Moroni in it. :)

 hopefully we can all make it a bigger part of our lives to be thankful for these brave men and women. happy veterans day!

xoxo CPTVPT

Newspaper Nails

okay, so i know these are kind of everywhere at the moment, but i heard about them a couple days ago when a friend told me how to do them! 

 (excuse the sloppy paint job, i took the pictures before i used remover to make them look a little neater)

these are super easy! you just need white or light-colored finger nail polish, newspaper, and some rubbing alcohol!

tip #1: let the polish dry ALL THE WAY before doing the rest

tip #2: cut the newspaper you are using into squares about 1"X1"... this will make it MUCH easier to put them on your nails (i just had the huge page and it kept getting in the way)

tip #3: just use a q-tip to apply the rubbing alcohol and then immediately put the paper on top and press down (more pressing if you want it darker, less pressing if you want it lighter)

that's it! super duper easy peasy! :)

xoxo CPTVPT

Snow!

...i've had such a busy week! our volleyball team went to state, and did NOT do well. we lost both our games so we are out of the tournament. it stinks but to be honest, i'm glad it's over. my experience with school volleyball has NOT been a good one this year.  

but oh well... did anyone see the SNOW?!!?!? wow, i was not expecting it!

even though the weather report said it was going to...i'm sure it will probably melt before it starts to really snow, but it just gives me a warm fuzzy feeling that the holidays are near!!! i love this time of year!

xoxo CPTVPT

Fall :)

have i ever mentioned how much i love fall? because i do. this is my nephew...

 look at the pure joy...

 ...all from a pile of leaves

 tossing

 sitting

 relaxing

being tossed

yeah, i love fall.

xoxo CPTVPT

Renewed Table

this is the beginnings of a project mostly for my mom. basically all the wood furniture we have in our house is this orange'y color. now, i don't know about you, but i have never really loved orange. especially wood... part of that furniture is a set of two tables and a coffee table that we've had for a long time. so, at first we thought we would paint them. but my dad said he really likes the texture of the wood as seen below...

 so, we compromised, we're re-doing them but will probably just stain them a darker brown so you can still see the wood but the awful orange tone is gone...

 so i got out the electric sander and sanded down the tops of all of them...i had volleyball later so i could only get the tops of all three tables done, now i just need to finish the sides and probably insides and then we can stain them, and we'll have some lovely, new-looking furniture! :)

xoxo CPTVPT

this is the little witch broom that i made! i went out and gathered sticks for it and then while i watched General Conference, i put it together. I actually tried to just slap the big stick in between two bunches of the small ones and tie it on but it did NOT work. 

instead i duct taped little bunches of eight to ten sticks together, then duct taped them around the big stick, then wrapped around the duct tape with hemp rope. Please ignore the two white strings on it. there were some seriously out-of-control sticks so i had to tie it down for a while to bend them into shape! :)

I hope you are all having fun with all of your own Halloween'y crafts, because I am having a blast! :)

xoxo CPTVPT

Mah-bad...

...so it's been like, a week. ahem...maybe more, i don't know i can't really remember....anyway. i made this cute little sign to go along with my witch broom (which i have yet to show you) i think it turned out pretty cute...

do you get it? because my mom didn't, and i got a little frustrated thinking that i had failed and then my brother kindly explained it to her and she got it...i think. so i have this awesomely cool witch broom that i made and this sign goes with it, because when the broom is here, so is she, so it says "IN"...ya know? okay.

well, i'll be posting about the broom this week sometime so don't you worry (since i could tell you were really stressing that you might not see it)

Happy October! (Yay for fall!)

xoxo CPTVPT

RAIN!!! :) :) :)

rain is something that will always make me smile because...

i can wear my hair like this. and...

i can wear my awesome silky-on-the-outside-fuzzy-on-the-inside pajama pants and my way-to-big-for-me man sweater, and cuddle up and watch a good movie, or read a good book...

or do the homework that i've been meaning to do...but who wants to ruin a good movie session with homework?... :)

xoxo CPTVPT

Witch hat!

i made this witch hat and even though it's pretty simple, i think it turned out pretty well. to make it wrinkle and stay stiff, i just sprayed it with some trusty clear Krylon with a satin finish. there's a little cat bell hanging from the tip...

you can't see it too well in the pictures but there's spider webbing on it and around the lace to make it seem a little more "witchy"

...a little bow with a purple spider ring holding it together in the middle. :)

xoxo CPTVPT

Halloween Decor!!! :)

okay, so i gotta admit that i never was the biggest halloween lover. but all of a sudden i've gotten this kick and i am loving all of the ideas there are for decorating!!

these are my cute little punkins that i made!  i just sliced up a bunch of 1-inch pieces of paper, glued their ends together, and voila! :) 

it's kinda hard to see, but the stems are some gold ribbon that i had rolled up. i know this is a crime, but i have NO brown paper that i could've used for it... :(

happy punkin patching!

xoxo CPTVPT