Hands Free Mama Book Chat: Introduction

I have been trying to nail down a good book to read for quite some time now y'all.  I feel like every book I've picked up in the last month, I read a couple of chapters or even just a few pages, and I just couldn't get into it.  This happens to me from time to time with reading.  I can't find a book that satisfies the need I'm looking to fill.  Recently I've picked up everything from self-help to sci-fi to romance to biography, and nothing seemed to fit!

A couple of months ago, I was in the grocery store, and a book caught my eye.  It was called "Hands Free Mama".  Can you guess why it did?  That's right y'all, I am addicted to my phone.  Not that I look at it all the time (okay, okay what's your definition of "all the time"?), but I have to have it with me.  If it's not with me, I'm in a state of panic to find it to make sure I haven't missed any calls or texts or heaven forbid any snaps.  Needless to say, the whole "Hands Free Mama" enticed me.  

So I bought it.  I drove back home from the grocery store, and opened it up to get my read on.  And of course, I liked what the book had to say.  The introduction talked about how to be a Hands Free Mama in our "fast-paced, overly pressured, media-saturated world."  I found myself nodding my head, and as I read on, I thought, "Well that's a nice thought," or "Good for her for doing that."  

At that point, the Hands Free Movement didn't mean anything to me quite yet.  I bought the book because I knew I liked the concept of what she was trying to say, but I wasn't ready to commit to this whole Hands Free Movement quite yet.  

So I put the book on our bookshelf, until last week I picked it up again and knew without hesitation...I was ready to commit.

Life ever since Todd started school again has been hectic to say the least.  Usually by this time in a new semester, I feel like I've adjusted to his new schedule (our new schedule) and have a pretty good handle on things.  Not so much this semester.  I feel like Todd's busier than ever, I'm busier than ever, and our lives are a constant high speed.  From work responsibilities to church responsibilities to home responsibilities to family responsibilities and all the random stuff that fills every nook and cranny possible, we're both worn thin.  I often ask myself (like someone made mention in LDS General Conference), "Does my family receive my leftover efforts as a parent?"  

When I thought about whether or not Reese gets my "leftover efforts" as a parent and if Todd gets my "leftover efforts" as a wife, I did some serious digging and felt that it was time to resurrect "Hands Free Mama" by Rachel Stafford.  After reading the first couple of chapters, without trying to sound too dramatic, I was left in a puddle of tears and really felt like I was ready to commit to taking charge of my life again.  Not so much cutting out social media for good because let's be real, it also brings me so much joy to document our life through blogging and Instagram.  I love capturing moments with my family that I can look back on and relive forever.  But there will be balance.  And it will not be the most important.  

As I've thought about this, I thought sharing and recording my journey through this book would be more fulfilling to me and make it more meaningful.  It would allow me to look back on my journey and see how I've grown.  Plus any time I've made a significant effort to pursue a change or some sort of growth, it always seems to go better and stick longer if I do it with others.  Which is where you come in!

I want to extend the invitation to YOU.  This journey is not just for those who feel they are consumed by a media-saturated world.  This is a journey for anyone who feels like their life has lost its savor and maybe a little meaning.  Or that you've lost the ability to see its meaning and beauty.  This is a journey for anyone who is ready to "let go of perfection to grasp what really matters"!  

I will be having weekly posts about my progress.  The sweets of the journey and the sours of the journey.  The things that are easy and the things that are hard.  I'll be sharing personal insights I get from the book, and I hope you will join in some of the conversation!  If you're really feeling dedicated to the change, you can get the book here.  You can also check out Rachel Stafford's blog on being a Hands Free Mama here.  She is one heck of a woman, and her blog is inspiring.  One definitely worth your time to read.  

"May this book be your tool to start digging.  Digging for the life you want to live now, not someday."

When I read this at the end of the introduction, my heart surged.  Seriously.  It was on fire.  I knew I needed this in my life right now!  

Are you ready?  Ready to commit to letting go and embracing what matters most?  If you feel so inspired, join me on this journey!  I'd love to have you.  Here is the Hands Free Mama Pledge that I vow to hold dear to my heart.  The pledge that holds hope for the future and a promise that life is to be lived and to be lived whole-heartedly.

{via}

I hope you have a lovely day y'all!  Cheers to letting go.

❤, Ashton Tilton

DIY: Holiday Banner Frame

Happy Halloween!  I've been in a bit of a crafting, decorating, DIY mood the past few weeks and there was an empty frame on my gallery wall that I'm revamping, so here we are!  Follow through the pictures for the how-to process because I'm too lazy to write out detailed, step-by-step instructions haha, but I think it's self-explanatory.  If you have any questions or want some tips, feel free to comment at the bottom of the post, I love to hear from y'all.  Hope you enjoy this DIY, holiday project! Make it your own, and have fun with it!  It's fall, my favorite time of year (until summer hits again then it's my favorite time of year lol), so be on the look out for all sorts of fall-inspired DIY projects and activities!

Happy crafting y'all!

❤, Ashton Tilton

DIY: Family Photo Banner

DIY Family Photo Banner:  Y'ALL.  I have been wanting to do this project for a while now, and I finally buckled down and did it!  And two greatest things about it is that it was easy and cheap.  My favorite route in life!  Haha.  But seriously, this was a fun project and not as intimidating as it may seem.  I'm going to walk you through what I did personally, but there are so many variations and ways to do this.  I'll give you some even cheaper and quicker options along the way as well.  But most important thing is be creative and do your thang!  Your style may be different than mine, so dress it up or down as you please.  For example, I think I'm going to dress it up for the time of year it is.  Rotate different pictures throughout the year, and in blank spots, I'll clip up pumpkins for fall, ghosts and bats for Halloween, and maybe Christmas trees for Christmas, etc... Have fun with it!  If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment at the end:).  Cheers to a happy, handmade home!

Step 1.  Gather your supplies

>>Print Works Matte Photo Paper was no more than $8 (I meant to keep the receipt but forgot!).  I got it from WalMart.  Love this paper.  You get 80 sheets and am also using the paper to print off art for our gallery wall in the living room.  So many uses for this paper!  Also great for scrapbooking.  
>>Recollections larger clothespins for $3 from Michaels because I used their weekly 40% off coupon for one regular priced item.  Turns out these clothespins were too large and heavy to hold up my pictures.  The pins covered up most of the picture, so I returned them and bought instead...
>>Recollections mini clothespins for $3.99 a piece, BUT I used the 40% off coupon again, and got one for half off.  Depends on how many photos you want on your banner.  I printed 40 photos, and these came in packs of 30, so I needed one more.  ***Price tip:  The regular mini tan clothespin cost less for more. 
>>Baker's Twine was $2.99 from Michael's.  You can find smaller amounts of it at Target for cheaper as well.  Or just use any kind of string you might have laying around the house!
>>Not pictured:  I forgot to include how to hang the string, but you can use nails or the fancy nails with the circles on the end (don't know what they're called! lol).  They're shown in pictures below.  I had them laying around the house, so I used those.

Step 2. Instaport and BeFunky 

Want to know my secret for the squares?  It's probably not a secret for some of you, but BeFunky.com!  Go to www.befunky.com, click "Create Collage."  On the left hand side, there's an icon for "Templates".  Click it.  Then click "Grid" style.  I used the 4-square grid template, and my pictures are about 3x3 inches.  There are also grids with more squares though if you want your pictures smaller.  You can upload your pictures to drop into the squares.  Once I used 4 pictures, I saved it to a folder on my desktop for this specific project.  Once saved, I hit "Clear All" above the collage I just made, and deleted those four pictures on the left hand side of the screen, so I could keep better track of what pictures I had used.  

All of these pictures are pictures from my Instagram.  If you're like me, that's how I scrapbook!  I've found it's easiest for me to record the happenings of our little fambam.  So how do you download all of your Instagram photos in less than 3 minutes?  Instaport.me!!!  How had I not known about this all along!?  You can download all pictures that have a certain hashtag or pictures in between certain dates or just all of them!  Once I had those downloaded, I uploaded them on BeFunky.com and got to work!  I heart instaport.me if you couldn't tell.

Once I saved all of my photo grids, I put that printer to the grind!  If you don't have a printer at home, you can just upload them all in an email to your local printing shop.  Before we had a printer, FedEx Office Print was my best friend.  ***Price tip:  You could probably get even cheaper prices at your local, small printing business.  I just like FedEx Office Print because I can upload and email them all my files to print in one easy sit down.

Step 3.  Get to cuttin'  

I used good old fashioned scissors which get the job done perfectly, but if you want to cut your time down even more, you can get a handy-dandy scrapbooking paper trimmer, for $13 from Scrapbook.com (click here).  OR you can find one at Michaels for an even better deal using the 40% weekly coupon.

  
Step 4.  Hangin' time 

Now is the fun part.  You get to hang all of your memories!  I did mine in a timeline.  I mentioned at the beginning of the post that it might be fun to hang some holiday theme things on the banner too.  I might even add a fabric banner above these photo banners the says, "Remember When".  "Remember When" is kind of a special thing for Todd and I.  When he proposed, he put a sign on the door that led downstairs to my basement apartment that said "Remember When".  When I opened the door, he had a sign on each step with a different memory he had of us while we were dating.  He did it when we had our first anniversary too.  Such a cutie.  And way more tender-hearted than he would ever let on.  Anyways...have fun with the photo banner, and make it any way that suits your fancy!  Like I said earlier, I used the circley-screwy-naily thing-a-ma-bob.  But run of the mill nails are perfect!  Space out your twine depending on how many pictures you have total.  I put all the nails up first, spacing them out evenly, and then I hung the string.

Step 5.  Sit back and reminisce!

I'm so glad that our kitchen wall is no longer bare!  This was a relatively quick and really cheap way to decorate an empty wall in your house.  It was driving me crazy, but I didn't want to spend a lot of money on frames.  So now here I am with a wall displaying photos of my family, reminding me of special memories, and it only cost me less than $20!  Boom baby. 

Happy crafting!
 ❤ , Ashton Tilton

  
P.S. Here are some of my other favorite ways to display instagram photos that I found pinteresting.  Follow my boards on Pinterest and see where I get a lot of my inspiration by clicking here.  

{via: A Beautiful Mess}

{via:  A Mac Life}

{via: Life's Little Moments}