$1.00 Valentine's Day Gift

Jimmy and I really don't do gifts....like ever.

That is not our love language; quality time and words of affirmation are.

With that being said, we live by the moto that if you really want something and it's not going to push us out of the budget, then buy it for yourself.

We're going skiing this weekend with my family and leaving tomorrow.  Last night while we were sitting in church, Jimmy leans over and whispers in my ear that he'll just buy me a lift ticket for Valentine's day, and really, that is fine with me.  Our money is combined, so the lift ticket would be bought anyway, but the fact that he knew he didn't have to go out and scour the aisles of department stores trying to find "the gift," just gives me one more reason to buy that watch I've been eyeing for a year :)

Valentine's Day is tomorrow and to us, that's just another stupid holiday to drain the bank account in an effort to keep up with the Jones,' but in this post you'll see that I utilized The Dollar Tree to create a unique gift that can be given, and re-given almost anytime of the year.  

Even though gift giving is not the norm for us, I had a plan and I waited all week for Thursday to roll around so I could go forward with my early Valentine's Day surprise.  My grand plan involved 75% execution outside and when I wok up to this gorgeous scene, I just had to shrugged off the disappointment and realize I could execute that part of my plan in better weather another time!

Even though we don't do gifts, I was walking down the candy aisle at our local Dollar Tree and a Valentine's Day gift idea was born!   I wanted to surprise Jimmy at work on Thursday by doing a little outdoor decorating and then deliver his gift inside.  The plan that was formulating gave me the perfect reason to head over and see him at work where he wouldn't suspect me at all!

Jimmy and I are self-proclaimed geeks and are always laughing at stupid things.  

We have inside jokes for days and can look at something, laugh, and know what the other one is thinking, look at them in the eye, replay the thought, and laugh again.  We're weird, we know.    

Below you'll see how you can create a really unique gift for $1.00 an item!

Find pieces that you can create a saying with, that serve as in inside joke, or a compliment you want to make.  

Print the sayings and find some card stock, or durable paper to back your saying/lines with.  

You'll also need tape and scissors - fancy and regular.

For this project I had a helper [Zeeker the Cat.]  He felt slighted.  I could tell.  

Take your sayings and glue them down on to your chosen color of card stock, or thick backing paper with a glue stick.  

This is not in the "instructions," but you know when you need something thick and sturdy to write on, hold something up, etc. you just grab what's on your coffee table or desk.  

This book was my material.

True.  Farm.  Wife.  Here.

[He's already studying up for his next year cattle herd plan]

I digress.  

I chose to cut out my sayings with regular scissors and then cut the backing paper/card stock with 'fancy cutters.'  These were purchased at The Dollar Tree years ago, or even at Target in their $1.00 front bins.

Zeekey Boy has a mustache too if you look  real close :)

After I was finished with my sayings, gluing them on to the backing, and then taping them onto the corresponding item, I was finished!  

This project took all of 10 minutes, excluding the shopping.  

This one's my favorite and it's the truth....I am BAZOOKA over Jimmy!

Now, to place it in a box for delivery.

You can use a box, a bag, a basket, whatever you choose!

The sayings I chose.  

Now a few of these - well, most probably - are pretty corny, but they're us!  

As I said before, this was going to be a surprise.  

I had today off and I traveled over to Pomeroy where Jimmy works to surprise him with this gift and my visit.

This was his excited and surprised face when he came into the patient room where I was waiting.  

Our visit lasted a total of 2 whole minutes, but it was the thought that counted!

It's the little things....

And from this famous Jimmy-camera-selfie, I think he was rather pleased!

Note:  This gift idea cost $13.00 (+ .06% sales tax), probably $3.00 in gas, and $0.00 in other supplies.  I just used what I had laying around my office.  And no, The Dollar Tree is not paying me to do this blog advertisement for them, but if they would like to (or strike up a partnership) then I'm all for it!  I shop there all the time!

New Year, New Us

Wow.  What a year, year and a half it has been.

Jimmy graduated from nursing school and has continued to be promoted in his job at Holzer Medical Center in Ohio.  

I followed in my mother's footsteps and became a court reporter, working for her firm Realtime Reporters.  

*Yes, she was taking down a job via headphones while being driven by me in the car.  She's amazing and no, I could not do that.**

We finally took our honeymoon cruise to the Caribbean and enjoyed ourselves so much we would take another one tomorrow.  That trip - being by ourselves for 7 days - really rekindled our love and although I love Jimmy everyday, I don't think I could have ever loved him more than on that cruise.  There was something in the air and we soaked it up!

We bought our first home and moved to Ravenswood, WV.  

And about five months after buying our Ravenswood home, we also bought our old home, another home, farm equipment, and land in an estate sale offered to us by our old landlord.  

Along with the estate purchase, we were able to rent out our old house to a wonderful family almost right away, but we had to clean-up and renovate the older home that was also on the property.  

Let's just say it was a huge undertaking and a very long and detailed blog post will be devoted to our "Rental Flip" but we learned a lot about each other in that time working together almost every day we had off for six months straight.  

Here are a few before and afters.  

Garage clean-up and tree cutting.

Outside with tree removal and inside clean-up to be done.

These "afters" don't do this project justice without all the other photos and details, but be assured, the post will come soon!

Because both of our purchases this year required a lot of work, we practically made ourselves cut out time to go on a motorcycle ride here and there to wind down.  

I spruced up our back patio with some new fabric and outdoor furniture.

We spent many a nights and cool mornings spending time under our Outdoor Oasis.

Also,  in our Outdoor Oasis we entertained our neighbors with a "We're new and we want to get to know you" party!

My very best girlfriends came over one evening and that's where we were all asked to be a party of Molly's wedding.  Her wedding is scheduled for Memorial Day weekend this year, so Jimmy and I are looking forward to a week spent with friends in St. Augustine, Florida.  

Where we live in Ravenwood, we're about two miles from my grandparents farm and we loved getting to see their "works of art" firsthand!  

We spent time with friends by the fire and laughed, reminiscing about the old days.  

Even though we no longer live on the farm, Jimmy is still being able to exercise his love of hunting at our new home.  

This ground hog had its' last day!

We got a friend for Baker.   Zeeker is his name and they're best buddies.  

(No, we won't be getting any more cats.  We've loved and lost too many.  These two are our babies now)

My brother and sister-in-law had a baby and named her Milaney!  She's such a doll!

Then soon after Milaney arrived, we found out that we're going to be an aunt and uncle all over again on Jimmy's side of the family.

His brother, Jon, and his wife, Stephanie, will soon have a new little boy or girl joining their family at the end of March.  Below is a present I made for their little girl, Charlotte.  She turned two just recently.  

Jimmy and I were in a wedding together this winter where we were able to see one of our greatest couple friends get married!

- Darci & Daniel's wedding - 

Soon after their wedding (December 14th) the craziness of Christmas hit, then January 1, 2014 rolled around.  

It was then that we both decided we were making a drastic change this year.  

Jimmy and I looked back on all we accomplished this year and felt proud, but we knew we both couldn't keep up the pace we were keeping and be fulfilled and happy.  

So we had a very open conversation about, "What would you like to do differently this year?"  

His answer was to farm more.  

With buying our old farm, being so close to my grandparents' farm now, and still having his parents farm up and running, his farming options are unlimited.  So this year he'll be spending more time adding to his cattle herd, preparing ground for planting, harvesting the corn and soybeans, and tending to the ground that will be used for hay production.  

My answer to the question posed was to blog more.  

I am not sure if you could really even call me a "blogger" before as I did a few posts and then got busy and quit, but in this past year there hasn't been a day that I haven't thought about blogging, titles, content (stories), videos, etc.  

If you know me well, you know I don't do anything halfway.

After the family discussion was had, we then had our plans and I started to research more about the bloggers that I've followed for the past year.  How did they do it so well?  What was their inspiration?  Did they have their blog streamlined?   Question, after question came and I started to feel overwhelmed.  

Was I doing this for my own gratification?  For a memory keeper?  What? 

Was this passion to blog (story tell) something that I have conjured up, or did God place this passion inside of me?  

Am I getting in the way of His plan by making my own? 

What did I need to streamline my blog to; what topic?

What would my name be?  I had to have a blog name, right?

All these questions kept coming to mind and the only answers I had were this:

God would never give you a desire so strong, if it wasn't part of His plan for your life.  Even just a recreational, fun part of your life.  My blog will not be streamlined.  I love talking about my farmer husband, our cattle herd, our motorcycle adventures, my Goodwill Goddess transformations, sewing and creating runway looks, a new fun nail polish, makeup techniques, Chic of the Week (fabulous fashion finds for CHEAP), taking designer items and finding budget conscious replicas, and there's much much more. 

I'm not doing this to get 100s of 1000s of views a day, to become a famous blogger, or to someday receive an invitation to New York Fashion Week so I can blog about a specific designer(s).  I'm doing it because I love it!  I am a story-teller.  My blog is a way to express the loves of my life (God, Jimmy, Fashion) all in one place.  This blog will serve as my handwritten journal for our children someday, for our out-of-town family, and friends who we only get to see every once in awhile.  I live my life out loud and my blog will just serve as the front row seat into the life I'm privileged to lead; one of created happiness in everything.

[See below just some of the updates from this past year]

A Memorable Birth

It's that time of year again!

Calving time.

Jimmy loves farming and he says that the calving time is the most exciting because you really get to see the full circle of farming as his mamma cows bring forth new life.  Last year one of Jimmy's faithful cows (he's had her since he was 14) had a calf and I got to document it all with my camera.  You'll see below that she practically had the calf right on top of us.  It was a birth I'll never forget! 

We started out the afternoon smiling as it was cold, but not windy and we were bundled to the nines!  Pictured, is my favorite Will cat, Miss Kitty and I think she's pretty smitten with me too :)

This was a boots kind of day, as my husband keeps his cows in one area of the farm for the winter.   The feeding pad is where the cows eat...and they also discharge there as well. 

You may be asking why I'm detailing this, but you'll see as you scroll! 

Many cows go off by themselves to have their baby, but not this one.  

She wanted to be front and center for her birthing show!

Meet our brand new baby!  

The mother is on the left and she and her cow friend try to lick the baby dry.  

As you can see, the left handle of the four-wheeler is in the photo too.  

That's how close we were!

Jimmy cleans the calf off with some hay, because as you'll remember my detailed description of the feeding pad, she had her cave right in the muck!  Let's just say even a mother couldn't lick this cave dry with its' outer contents!  

I'm sitting on the four-wheeler and this is how close I was to the whole experience! 

And these gals and babies were lined up, front row, and center, for this special mamma's show!

A calves first instinct right after it's born is to eat.  Jimmy was trying to get this calf to suck, but he wasn't having much of it.  This can be an issue with new babies and they just need a little help from Farmer Jimbo!

Because there was an sucking issue and such an audience standing around - plus, not to mention the area of birth - Jimmy decided it was best to get this baby on clean ground and try to work with him there.  His mother....well, she knows Jimmy well, but wasn't happy about her baby being taken away.  All documented below :)

Now again, this calf was born last year and the cycle of farming for my hubby is to birth in the winter and sell in the fall.  In all his years of farming, this calf - even with its' weird bulging eyes (look at above photos) - sold for more than any of his other calves ever have.

We know how to grow them on the Will Family Farm!

Clean of the boots and wait for the next round of calves!