iPhone Customization...Finally!!

Youuuuu guyyyyyys.  I found the COOLEST pin on Pinterest the other night.  Seriously.  The. Coolest. 

I've been a proud iPhone owner for awhile now, switching over from an Android.  I never held any affiliation toward any specific brand of phone.  If it called, texted and Facebooked, it was good enough for me.  But y'all.  I LOVE my iPhone.  Love it.  But I don't love how I can't really customize it.  On my old phone, I could put whatever in the world I wanted on my home screens...specific pictures, photo albums, different commands (text Marty, call home, etc.)...it was 100% customizable.  I knew that my phone didn't look like a hundred other phones out there.  Then I switched to the iPhone, where everything is pretty much standard on every single phone.  UNTIL TODAY.  Y'all ready for this (cue Jock Jams music)??

To quote my favorite race car (Lighting McQueen)--KACHOW!  Omgeez.  This makes my little creative heart so, so happy.  The original pin that I found was written kind of confusingly and it took me awhile to wade through all the information and what I thought the blogger was trying to say.  So, I'm going to tempt to explain it in a MUCH easier way (I hope....)  Wanna know how to do it?  Good thing I'm a giving person...because I'm gonna share the steps!  Ready??  (WARNING:  ABOUT TO BE A PICTURE OVERLOAD)

First, go to the App store and download the app "Cocoppa."  IT'S FREE.  Yeehaw!

When you have the app downloaded and open to the home screen, it should look like this:

I'm 99.9% sure that this was originated somewhere in Asia because a lot of the apps are in an Asian language.  But don't let that scare you off.  I'm going to walk you through! 

First, let's tackle an easy app like Facebook.  Make sure that your screen is displaying "Icons."  You can check at the top where it reads: "Icons" "Wallpapers" and "Stamps."  "Icons" should be in dark pink if selected.



Next, scroll down all the way to the bottom.  Don't even bother going through the "search" options they offer....I think lots of things got lost in translation and everything except "Search by colors" is SUPER confusing.  I just decided on which app I wanted to search for.  So, let's search for "Facebook" icons.

On the next page, you'll see tons of icons pop up.  Choose your favorite (and that could take scrolling through several pages to decide on one) and click on it.



Once you've clicked on it, it should take you to a new screen.  Click on the banner that says "Set up link."



Next, you'll be setting up the app to go with your new icon.  In this case, when we're using an app that was downloaded from the App Store, so hit "App Search."



Now, Facebook is super popular so it pops right up first thing.  But you can also search for your app in the search bar too.  That takes a little digging.  In this case, click on the Facebook icon.



Next screen, you'll put the name of your app in the box and hit "OK."



Next, you'll want to open the link in Safari to be able to add it to your home screen.  So, hit "Yes" when the box pops up asking you to go to Safari.



After you hit yes, it will take you to a new Safari page.  You'll want to hit the "Share" button at the bottom to be able to add the icon.  It looks like a box with an arrow coming out it it.  Hit it.



Finally, a box will pop up.  Hit the icon that says "Add to Home Screen."





Name that little app whatever your heart desires.....

And voila!!  There she is, my friends.  Your pretty, new personalized icon for you to enjoy.

 



FYI.  You do have to keep your old icon for you to still have the actual app.  So I put all of my old icons together in a folder** (which I aptly named "Unpretties") and put on the last "page" of my home screen so I wouldn't see them.  **You can create a folder by holding one app and putting it over another.  That creates folders which can hold multiple apps at a time.  Example:



Now, this post will be one of several explaining how to make your iPhone prettier by using this app.  Use this post to download new icons for any app you've downloaded from the App Store.  But, be warned:  since Cocoppa is obviously from Asia, a lot of apps aren't available to make "prettier."  So just play around and see which apps they offer and which ones you're stuck with. 

In my next post, I'll explain how to make icons for some of the items that came pre-downloaded on your phone like your Music, Photos, Safari, Videos and so on. 

Happy customizing.....

Disclaimer:  I do not own the Cocoppa app.  I am simply doing a review of the app and how it works on my personal phone.  I am not responsible for the app or how it may work on your phone. 

What Did I Buy Today?

Don't worry.  Despite my temporary weak moment in Target the other day, I'm still on my shopping ban and Penny Pinching Living journey.  Which is why I did break my ban for a teensy tiny second to buy this:

Buy yours from ModCloth

I know what you're saying...."You BOUGHT a book to tell you NOT to buy things??"  Hear me out.  Just like my Mom's Journal I picked up to keep track of my weekly menus, I like to have things written down, in person so I can look at them frequently.  Having something written down seems so much more tangible to me.

I keep track of our checkbook register, but I usually don't check it faithfully every single day.  I know a running total or how much I think we have in our account, but I don't worry about writing everything down while I'm spending it. I guess because the checking account is mine and Marty's both.  I can't keep track of everything he's spending as he's spending it.  But I can hold myself accountable.  I can keep this book and write down every single thing I've purchased that day.  Let me explain this book a little further....

When you first open the book, there's two pages:  on one, you write down your checking and savings totals. And if that isn't depressing enough, then you have slots to write down all your debts:  credit cards, mortgage, utilities, phone, TV, Internet, travel expenses, loans...*sigh*  It's nice to see everything in one place so I know what I have to conquer.  Of course I know all my debts and who they're to, but to actually see the entire totals written down all in one place is a scary thing.  It makes me want to knock all my debts out.

Then, the next pages are my favorite.  Goals.  One page is for small goals.  Easy things I want to accomplish quickly.

This is the spot for my goal to stop eating out more than twice a week (that includes getting a McDonald's Dr. Pepper).  Save money for a rug for our living room.  Save money for a couch.  Little things.

Then there's the BIG goals.

Save money to build my dream home.  Pay off credit cards.  Pay off loans.  Become debt-free.  I have lots of goals.  But they're all just floating around in my head.  Writing them out makes them "real" to me.

The rest of the book is filled with pages to write down my expenses.  Who it was to, how much--and my favorite--enough room to write WHY I bought it.  I've talked about it before...I'm an impulse buyer.  I convince myself in the second that I NEED that item.  I can't live without it and it will enhance my life in one way or other.  This book helps me write a reason for why I bought the item.  If I can't think of a reason, it goes back.  Plain and simple.  Or if the reason isn't convincing enough, it goes back.  The end.

I have a feeling this book and are going to be the best of friends.

An ode to Threshold

Have you guys been in Target lately? (Yes, I broke my 90 day shopping ban and went in...shame on me.) They have the CUTEST home stuff right now. Have you seen the Threshold brand? I could make a serious dent in my bank account if I bought everything I wanted that I saw yesterday. It's like Target looked into my brain of all the home decor styles I love and then created the line of Threshold products. Drooling right now. I resisted sooooo many temptations. But I did make it out with these:

Love, love, love this rug. Before I had a small little kitchen rug in front of the sink. This rug is over-sized and it just makes me darn happy. Also, it was only $13. Which brings me to another thought...who in this world decided that rugs should be so flipping expensive?!? I found one for my living room yesterday that I loved, but it was $129. Which is CHEAP for a 5'x7' rug. But I'm not paying that much. It's ridiculous. Guess Marty will have to win the lottery before I can afford a rug. *sigh*

I found this little beauty on the clearance rack and almost squealed (actually, I think I may have really squealed. Out loud). I have a tiny obsession with keys right now. .And it was $5. What can I say? I'm a sucker for clearance stuff.

before:

after:



Dear Target, quit tempting me.

New house, new me.

I'm ashamed to admit it....but before we moved, I cannot remember the last time I actually made a dinner for my family.  I threw together spaghetti every once in awhile, but I hadn't done actual meals for Marty and Avery in a very, very long time.  And I'm not really sure why.  Sure, a lot of our stuff was packed because we were moving.  Sure, I was exhausted and overwhelmed.  Sure, after getting off work, going to whatever babysitter's house Avery was located that day and then driving the Bluegrass Parkway to get home, I had about an hour before Avery's bedtime to get things accomplished--and taking that time to cook a meal didn't seem appealing in the least.

Those are all things of the past.  We're moved.  Our house is a wreck, but we're moved.  I'm actually sleeping at night--hallelujah!  I am home within 30 minutes of getting off work, as opposed to the hour to hour and a half after I got off when we lived in Bardstown.  It's time for me to bring back my "Proverbs 31 Project" and get back in touch with my inner culinary diva.

I love cooking.  I'm not fantastic at it, by any means.  I can't look at ingredients and throw them together to make a tasty meal...as much as I would LOVE to be that person. But I can follow a recipe and I can substitute things for other ingredients I like to eat.  More than that, I love being able to provide for my family.  As much as I want to pretend I'm an "independent woman," inside I would love to be the stay at home, June Cleaver type of mom that has a hot meal on the table for her husband and kids every night.  So I'm going to take baby steps to get there.

Menu!  Recipes!  I'll be posting my menu again and I'll be featuring some of my favorite recipes here on the blog.  Share the wealth, right?

Monday--Ham and cheese sliders with poppy seed sauce (detailed recipe below) and asparagus
Tuesday--Relay meeting--no cooking from this mama!
Wednesday--Church dinner (we went to church to celebrate Brooklyn's fantastic news from surgery!)
Thursday --Stop and go sweet chili (posted on my blog a couple of months ago)
Friday--Garlic bread pizza 
Saturday (tonight)--Leftovers
Sunday--My speciality!  Chicken Stir Fry
Monday--Taco night with Spanish rice
Tuesday--Relay meeting (again!)
Wednesday--Hamburgers, tater tots and corn
Thursday--Tortellini with Alfredo sauce (Marty LOVES this stuff...he'd probably eat it once a week if I made it)
Friday--Homemade ham and pineapple pizza
Saturday--Leftovers

As you can see, I'm starting off slow.  A lot of the meals I have planned are pretty easy, slap 'em together and put 'em on the table kind of dinners.  I hope to get in the hang of cooking dinner again and then start busting out the hard stuff again.  They say it takes 30 days to make something into a habit.  All I have to do is make it a month!!

To make it a little easier, I picked up a "Mom's Journal" when I was in Walgreens the other day.  It was on the clearance section for like $1.50 or something like that.  It's kind of like a monthly planner, but instead of slots to fill in appointments and stuff, it has spots for your weekly meal plan and the grocery list to go with it.  Voila!  I'm a planner, a writer, so this seemed like the perfect solution to me.  Problem?  It's totally "mommy-ish":

Lame, right?  And it comes with stickers.  Gah.  I'm currently trying to think of ways to make it stylish and not so "HEY EVERYONE! LOOK AT ME!  I'M A MOM!!"   You know?

Back to the food.  On today's post, I'll be featuring the recipe for ham and cheese sliders with a poppy seed sauce (modified from this recipe).  Holy geez, these things are good.  Make them....you won't regret it.  And since Easter's coming up, you guys are going to need a lot of uses for that leftover ham.  :)

Ingredients:
Package of 12 original Hawaiian Rolls
Thinly sliced honey ham (or whatever ham you prefer)
Swiss cheese
1/3 cup mayonnaise

Poppy seed sauce:
1 tbsp poppy seeds
1 1/2 tbsp yellow mustard (may do less if you don't like the taste of mustard)
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1.  Cut each Hawaiian roll in half.  Spread mayonnaise over each side of the roll. 

2. Put honey ham on each bottom roll.  I put a piece and a half of ham on each of my sandwiches.  You can add more or less, depending on your love of deli meat.  I won't judge :)

3. Put Swiss cheese on top of ham.  I bought the Walmart brand Swiss cheese slices...and those suckers are ha-uge.  So I folded them in half and put a half a slice of cheese on each sandwich.  Again, based on your love of cheese, you may wanna do more or less.

4.  Close each roll and put in a baking dish.  Place them close together.  I use a small baking dish that they can all fit into snugly.

5.  In a separate bowl, whisk together ingredients for the poppy seed sauce.  Pour evenly over the tops of the rolls.  I use every last drop of the stuff because I know how fantastic it is.  That's your call.  Drown 'em or just brush the tops of them with the sauce. 

6.  Bake in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes.  Take them out and devour.

I can honestly say that these sandwiches haven't passed "the husband test" yet because he hasn't been hungry both times I've made them (is that a man thing?  I'm ALWAYS hungry).  Which is completely fine with me because I want to hoard them all to myself.  Two of these sandwiches fills me up, so there's PLENTY of leftovers.  I've eaten them every day since I made them Monday night.  I love them. 

Thursday, I made my "stop and go sweet chili."  Marty said it was better than the first time I made it and...Avery ate it!  My little girl went from eating everything in sight all day long to picking at her food and barely eating anything for dinner.  All in all, I'd say it was a dinner win for this Super Messy mom. 

Happy cooking (and eating) y'all!

Welcome to my new home!

Several of you have told me that you can't wait to see pictures of our new house after I've decorated it.  Well, if that's the case, you'll be waiting for months :)  I'm still wading through boxes, piles of things that I don't have a place for yet and items that don't have a home.  It'll be a looooong time before this house is decorated the way I want it.  Plus, I don't want to rush and throw up a bunch of stuff on the walls just for the sake of having decorations.  I want to take my time and make sure that I'm putting up stuff that I really love that makes my house look good. 

With that being said, here's a little sneaky peek of some of the things that I have done, that I'm really super happy with....

Growing up, my mom had a "country/antique/Americana" kind of style.  And I HATED it.  If I never saw another antiqued piece of furniture or gingham print, it would be too soon.  Then, I got married and had a house of my own to decorate.  I found myself gravitating towards..... *gasp* .....antiques.  And rustic-y things.  And old wooden items.  Shocking, I know.  Right now, I'm really obsessed with window panes, old keys and wooden shutters.  Expect lots of those as I take you on a tour of my home in the future.  For now, here's a picture of our dining room wall and parts of my kitchen.

Gah.  I'm so in love with this navy wall.  When we moved in, this wall was yellow on top and a striped wallpaper on the bottom.  My future idea is to add wood to the bottom part of the wall to resemble bead boarding (found on Pinterest, of course).  That's a future kind of project, though. 

Now, the kitchen.  This kitchen is about to be overhauled.  In the very near future.  But for now, I'm working with what I've got. 

Cookbooks, farm animals, antique coffee tin and a rustic white picture frame?  I am my mother. 

SO excited about this one.  I've had this Dr. Pepper (my favorite drink) crate for practically forever.  I never really knew what to do with it.  In our old house, it sat above our cabinets, doing nothing.  In this house, the counter space in this kitchen is ridiculous.  Thus--a spice "rack" to hold my alphabetized (I hear you judging me) spices!  Hooray!  Also, Hammy the pig likes to watch me cook.  He was one of two animals in the clearance area at a local restaurant.  My sister took the sheep and I couldn't leave poor Hammy there by himself.  He's my kitchen friend....just not when I'm making bacon :)

 Lastly, the toaster oven my Meemaw bought me last year.  I LOVE it.  Doesn't it just SCREAM retro?!?  May seem silly to you, but I love the design of this toaster oven.  So cute.

That's it.  The rest of my house is a complete and total, undecorated disaster.  But I promise, the second I decorate it, you'll be the first to know. 

Color Runnin' It. {part 2}

My favorite ideas are ones that come together with excitement and enthusiasm in a short amount of time.  That's the way this Color Run idea has happened....I posted on my blog yesterday afternoon about doing the Color Run, and within a couple of hours we had 8 members, costume ideas and possible team names.  I. Am. SO. Pumped.  Do you even realize?  Not only am I getting to do the Color Run (which is on my bucket list), but now our team is DISNEY THEMED.  With DISNEY COSTUMES.  Cue the Hallelujah Chorus.

Here's what we've decided on:  our team name is going to have something to do with Disney....like the Dashing Disney Divas or something along those lines.  We're each choosing a Disney character.  You have to wear a white t-shirt (as required by the Color Run) and we're all wearing tutus to go along with our character.  This isn't a character that's been picked yet, but you get the idea:

via

Belle!  So you get the idea!  We're still playing with logos, but this seems to be the favorite so far:

Here's our team and characters chosen. 

If you can't tell, I'm EXCITED.  And our team is still open!  If you want to join, we're going to sign up online....if we sign up before April 1st, we get to register for $35 ($10 off the registration price). 

Here's a new development.  I've talked a lot about Brooklyn and all the amazing fundraisers that are happening to help out her family.  One of those events is a marathon, with all entry fees going to Brooklyn.  In addition, there's a 5K in memory of Addison Jo Blair--another little Elizabethtown girl that lost her battle with the same cancer that Brooklyn's been diagnosed with.  Another girl on my Color Run team thought that we could support these two local families by running (a.k.a. probably walking) these marathons as well.  Bonus?  We get to wear our super sweet outfits more than once.  Win-win people. 

If you're interested in Color Run-ning, running for Brooklyn or Addison and wearing AWESOME Disney themed tutus, let me know.  We'd love to have you :)

Ready to {Color} Run!

I've needed a swift kick in the bee-hind to get back on the fitness track.  I've said I'm going to watch my weight, I'm going to count calories again, I'm going to eat healthy breakfasts, blah, blah, blah.  Haven't done any of it.  I needed a motivator.  And I think I've found it:

via

Whaaaat?!  The Color Run?!?  Only the "happiest 5K on the planet!"  Seriously, they say so:

via

I've reallllllly wanted to do a Color Run for awhile now.  Really bad  (said like Kid President). We're talking "on the bucket list" kind of stuff here people.  And it's coming to a city near me (Cincinnati to be exact).  On August 24th.  I'm doing it.  Not even kidding.  Have fun, get colorful and check an item off the Bucket List?  I'm there.

via

Is this something you're interested in?  Because they offer a registration discount for teams of 4 or more.  We can come up with a sweet team name and maybe even do costumes (I'm feeling tutus...or superheros....or Disney Princesses *gasp!*).  Totally serious.  If you want to run with me, let me know and we can get a group to go.   We have plenty of time to train.  That's where my original thought was....do a 5K and have to train for it.  My sights were set a little higher--like the Disney Princess Half Marathon or the Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse Royal Family 5K or the Disney Family Fun Run 5K.....but the Color Run will do :)  So, starting April 1st (I'm giving myself time to hopefully move in our new home and get settled), I'm going to start training.   I've downloaded the "Couch-to-5K" app on my phone and created a "Ready to {Color} Run" playlist on my iTunes with kick-butt workout/running songs.  Join me?  (Seriously.  Let me know if you wanna!)  If you join my team, we may or may not make a trip to IKEA while we're in Cincy...that's worth doing the race alone.  :)

Control Freak.

It's funny how God has a way of reminding me that I'm not in control of anything.  Nothing at all.  As much as I try to control my life, my husband, my child, my corner of the world, I can't.  Nothing made that more clear than the events of this weekend. 

You may remember that we were supposed to move this weekend.  SUPPOSED TO being the key word there.  We didn't, obviously.  To make a long story (that ends up with a violently angry me) short, we were told that we can't move into our new home until an appraisal is done.  An appraisal that will take another 10-14 days for someone to come out to the house and do.  10-14 days.  That's TWO WEEKS.  Which basically means that I've busted my rear this weekend to get our ENTIRE house packed into boxes for absolutely no reason.  And when I say that I've packed everything, I'm not exaggerating.  I've packed our medicines, pajamas, our shoes, our pots and pans, our underwear....everything.  So I'm going to have to go through every single box, figure out what I need to take out to live on for the next two weeks....only to repack it again in two weeks.  When I found out this news on Friday, I was angry.  Violently, break something, scream and shake my fists angry.  I'd had a headache for going on a week straight, stressing about packing, moving and unpacking.  Now I had a headache for an entirely different reason.  Talk about a complete and total inconvenience.  My weekend was completely ruined.  Not to mention the next two weeks being a pain in the neck.  Until this morning's sermon at church.  The message that was given was on John 18:1-11 and Jesus' betrayal and arrest.  Out of every situation you can think of Jesus being in during his lifetime, you would think that during his arrest, he would have been completely out of control of the events going on.  His friend, his disciple, was betraying him, turning him over to be sacrificed.  You would have thought he would felt out of control of his situation, his circumstances. But he isn't (You need to hear the entire message.  I can't do it justice.  So go here---www.youngerscreek.com--and click on the online messages tab.  The date is March 3rd, 2013).  As I sat, listening to my preacher, I was reminded--I can't control everything.  I can't even try.  Instead, I need to remember that even when I'm not in control, God is.  Even when it feels like my best laid plans (aka moving this weekend into a new home) are falling apart, God is there.  He's in control.  So instead, I need to trust Him and look at the bright side of things.  I've never been a "glass half full" kind of person.  I want to be.  I want to be an optimist and look at the silver lining, but I tend to focus more on the negatives and the things that aren't going right.  I'm going to try to be the "glass half full" kind of person.  Instead of focusing on not being in my new house right now (like I should be this very second), I'm going to think about the extra two weeks I have to slowly move the things into my new house.  I can visit the house on my lunch breaks from work and slowly unpack things.  I can have my "office/art room" set up and arranged before we even move in.  I can have clothes in the closet and medicines and bathroom stuff put away.  I can stock the cabinets and put away our dishes.  Then, I can have those empty boxes to pack the remaining stuff at our "old" house.  This will work out for us.  This will make me a more patient person.  Plus, it gives me two extra weeks to come to terms with my emotions over moving and say goodbye to our house.  I'm going to remember that even when I'm not in control, God is.  And he knows what he's doing.