Spice girl?

Do these not make the cutest spice jars? I think so.. Ive been working on a project for Christmas that includes these..(these are my smaller size) I saved,washed and removed the labels from baby food jars, spray painted the lids..and here you have em.. homemade spice jars! I love being able to see all the colorful spices, rather than in its original ugly plastic container, don't you? But what would spices be without a spice rack?

The painted lids were painted with chalkboard paint, so I will be writing which spices are which with a chalk pen, then if you ever need to switch out the spices you can do so, wipe off and re-label.  I'm so excited, and happy with how its turning out, so I had to post about it before its complete!

*Project completion soon to come. *

P.S. the spice rack itself  was designed by my dad, and is too complicated to tell you how it was made.. although if you want one it can easily be arranged! :)

Just because..

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Its finally up!! Not just the stockings, but the whole thing! I'm happy with how it looks too. 

 All the stockings are hung.. the last one is for decoration.

 Our cute snowman couple! 

 Harps stocking.

 Michael's. 

 Mine! 

YAY for Christmas!!

P.S...

Coming soon.. my awesome homemade spice rack.
With the help of my awesome dad!
Homemade gifts for Christmas are soo fun! 

Driving.... me crazy.

"A backseat driver is a vehicle passenger who is not controlling the vehicle, and seems to be uncomfortable with the skills of the driver and/or wants to tutor the driver while the driver is at the wheel." -Wikipedia

I'm about to retire driving all together, which I'm sure most men would wish their wives/girlfriends would. Trust me, its not just funny jokes on TV, or movies, it happens to me in real life.. the boyfriend, back seat driver that must have been a drivers education teacher in a past life.. ugh! Let me just humor you all for a while.. here's what I generally get told while driving, keep in mind, and this is no exaggeration, this happens all within 10 minutes of being in the car together.
-Get out of this lane
-Get over!
-Don't follow too close
-Don't follow behind this car/truck/van..(whatever car is in front of me)
-Go the speed of traffic
-Go faster
-Slow down
-(some form of grunting or sighing comes in)
-Pull over so I can drive
-Watch where your going
-Turn your music down
-Its too hot in here


Very excited for our 10+ hr drive to Montana the day after Christmas. Ill be eating every crunchy snack imaginable. (He hates the sound of crunchy food being eaten). Success.

New blog.

You likey?
Me likey too. So I'm going to share all my wonderful tricks with you... OK not quite tricks, just awesome websites where you can get cute backgrounds, headers, and add photos! I get most my backgrounds at:
Thecutestblogontheblock.com
Shabbyblogs.com
and I made my cute header at fotoflexer.com There is a tutorial video on this at the shabby blog. I also have edited them at picnik.com uploaded the header, added text, and tada! These photo editing websites are free too! I have a lot of fun with picnik, and edit all my photos there, they have such fun stuff, and for $4.95 a month you can get access to all the extras! Here are just a few things Ive made with picnik.

Also how cool is this? Eventually I would love to do this for Harp. How cool that she could sit down and read about all our adventures with her, and how much we love her! You can edit it to your liking too! 

That is all for today, Enjoy!

P.S
This blog is no longer called "the beginning of a new life" It is now...Harpendarp. That about sums our life up. haha Poor harper and her nic-names.

New thing.

Homemade Organic Baby Wipes ala White House Black Shutters

Im going to attempt this...eventually. Ill let you know how it goes! 

8 Months!

A few nights ago when I thought Harper was going to sleep, I walked in to this: 

Harper found out how to pull her self up to her knees, and also that she can now pull down the crib bumper, which we had to remove last night because we had 2 nights of this, staying up til 1am.. if she could talk she would say "party at my crib" haha. We literally stood and watched her for a good 10 minutes, because how can you be mad, when everything she does is sooo cute? haha Eventually we will have to enforce bed time "rules" but for now we will enjoy this funny phase she is going through.

Harper is now 8 months, she is getting so big! I cannot believe how big she is getting!! She is crawling, babbling, saying Mama and Dada, and getting the cutest, and somewhat "diva-ish" personality.. oops, my fault! She now is eating her baby "num num" crackers(that's the actual name) cheerios, baby graduate puffs..which she loves, and she had toast for breakfast the other morning! Its so funny to watch her try new foods, and eat her little snacks! Of course, we had to spoil her one night, and let her have candy.. I know, shame on us.. but look how cute!!

Harper also got to see Santa a couple days ago.. we went to the Harley Davidson shop in Salt Lake, we waited in line for 1 hour! But she did soo good, didn't cry, and took a cute picture, I will update with a picture as soon as we get our copy! But here is a preview of her cute Christmas outfit.

Looks just like daddy here! 

I used my "crafty" skills and made Harper two Christmas bows! I was so proud of myself! For a few bucks, and a few minutes they turned out pretty good! I bought 1 dollar fake poinsettias at walmart, they came in a bunch of four flowers, but I layered them and ended up with two different ones. I bought some plastic jewels to glue in the center and glued the flower to one of my hair clips from hair school.. I think I'm going to start making more, because they can get a little pricey!

*side note... I was interuppted by Harper waking up.. exploding poopy diaper, and a bath at 11:30 pm.. no problem.
Harper has a case of the poop monster...AKA constipation.. again! Grrr. So I gave her the laxatives that were prescribed last time, hence the exploding diaper.. oops.

Anyways... onto more fun things.. Christmas is around the corner, which means family time, which means Montana time! Because both me and Michaels family's are split up we have a lot of visiting to do!! Until next time.. :)

Check it out.

Of course, this year my gift ideas for Harp are a few fun things here and there, and of course the practical needs. Being only 8 months old, she has no idea how fun Christmas is yet. I came across this awesome Travel highchair, which is just what we need! Its really awesome... but if you want to check out what I have to say about it, you can just go here, because I got to write a short piece about it!!! How exciting to contribute to the aol shopping blog again!


But enough about me, haha Really tho how cute are these things?

DIY.

Lately Ive been really into DIY(do it yourself) projects. Ive always loved the idea of handmade crafts, and home decor, but never really could put ideas together, or i got bored and frustrated and didn't finish a project. I guess I really never knew how much you could do with stuff around your house, thrift store/yard sale/other peoples junk.. its amazing how you can vamp up something old to look brand new! My dad is really into antiques, and refinishing them.. he also has a "wood shop" my dad probably has every tool you would need to build, well anything!! My goal is to make something on my own, with my dad helping me learn how to use the tools! I'm mostly excited to try out the lathe, maybe make some awesome vases, or matching bowl set for my kitchen.. ohh the possibilities. I figure with money being tight, and the many expenses that come with having a baby, my wanting to have a decked out, fully decorated house, will be a slow process, plus I cant get too crazy in my tiny apartment, but I can try! Ive been lucky enough to inherit some lovely things from family, like my cute 2 person table, my mirror/minnie mantle, that's what ill call it!( My plan is to get it up before Christmas so I can hang our cute stockings)

 My couches...

which I no longer have because I finally got my sectional!! If you remember my list from this previous post It was one of the items on my wish list.. lets just say it was an early Christmas present, it makes my apartment feel more "homey" and definitely puts me in a good mood! Here are a few things I'm working with.. excited for the end results! Baby food jars make great DIY projects, well so Ive seen, hopefully ill have some success with them!
Also check out these websites/blogs that I have been into the last few weeks.
Great DIY ideas, decorating ideas and tips, recipes, and more!

Young House Love
The little apartment
Madigan Made
Apartment Therapy

P.S

I got bored one night and made this cute little picture frame.. i think its cute and girly and will be cute on Harps dresser... then again I might just use it ;)

I just used an old frame I had, used magazine pages and mod podge! pretty easy Find tons of things to mod podge here!