Oh the Yin-Yang

WARNING:  Explicitly cheesy content of my love for my husband and his buns in this post, as well as the typical, incorrect use of grammar.

It has been foevvaaaaaa.  To save you a lengthy post (which this might actually end up being anyway), life for the past couple of weeks has been CRAY.  For no reason in particular, other than ever since getting back from Tennessee to visit my parents (more on that at the bottom of the post!), I have been utterly epic failing at getting back into the routine of daily life.  But man oh man was it worth it.  

For quite some time, I'd really been missing my parents.  I guess that's an always thing, but for the past couple of months it's been "bad real bad, Michael Jackson."  I wish we lived closer.  And that's that.  So Reese and I flew to Nashville (Reese's first flight! a.k.a. the flight from hell...only because wrangling Reese was exhausting, but at least she was all smiles!) and had such a great time hanging with her Grandma Lynn and Grandpa D!  More deets of the trip in the Weekly Yin-Yangs at the bottom of this post. 

If I had to sum up the past couple of weeks in one word it would be...progressive?  Thought-provoking?  Incredibly...ponderful?  Haha, idk, none of those are really hitting the nail on the head, but I guess I've just been continuing to learn about myself as a mother, wife, and friend.  Just tidbits.  Things that I feel that I'm good at.  Things that I really, really suck at.  Pardon my french.  

I've realized that I absolutely, 100% married the man of my dreams, best friend, and tell-it-like-it-is stud that gets my blood pumpin'.  

Todd and I went on a hot date to the Sundance Halloween chairlift this weekend, and words can't describe how much I needed that hot date.  Note to self though:  Bring a blanket!  Holy hellfire, it was chilly at some points in the ride!  But we got to snuggle, laugh at all the corny, scary Halloween scenes below, and talk about every stage of our relationship and life together from beginning to now.  We talked about a lot of fun memories that neither of us had thought about in a while, and it made me want to jump his bones buns (see WARNING at top of post).

Communication y'all.  Make it happen in your marriage. (Since I have such experience under my belt to be offering advice....HA ) It's one of those things I can really, really stink at sometimes, but whenever I take the time to talk things out (typically encouraged by Buns), it's usually always worth it.

>>Yins:  Unpacking // Not being able to take my parents with me back to Utah // Not being able to take Buns with me to Nashville // Wiggly, no-nap church on Sundays forcing us to take her out to the grass to get some fresh air // "judgementalness" // neverending dishes // neverending laundry // getting back into the routine of work and home life // trying to contain Reese on the plane (she did GREAT actually...it was me who didn't do so hot) //

>>Yangs:  Celebrating my brother Todd's 23rd birthday bowling with my fambam // Visiting my parents in Nashville!! // movies with momma // BYU football with dad // chats for daaays with momma // pizza date with dad // Martinelli's with momma // just spending time with them in general was much needed // Reese spending time with her Grandma Lynn and Grandpa D // Jakers pumpkin patch with Barrett cousins // happy baby girl // Sesame Street // pumpkin cake // Jakers take two with friends followed by the best cazookie I've ever had in my life // game nights with friends // our church primary program that always brings me to tears (sweet merciful, I'll be a mess when our kids are actually IN it) // shopping with momma // Sundance Halloween chairlift with Buns // tender mercies delivered in the form of laundry // newlywed sister and bro-in-law // in-laws // pumpkin decorating //  people that love Reese almost as much as I do // baby rolls // Reese's curly lips // "days that allow bras off, hair up, sweats on" // Roni baths with Grandma Lynn // workout music // coming home to find Todd's leg stuck in the window trying to get in because he was locked out (priceless! )...had to snap a shot before I released him // workout music // Claire Wilson // seeing Buns after getting off the plane // hugging the crap out of Buns after getting off the plane // kissing Buns after getting off the plane // holding hands with Buns after getting off the plane //

Have a great week 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}