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Tuesday, February 28, 2012

My 100 Comments Post!

Well, here it is - my 100 Comments On my Blog.  I was all excited when I decided to join everyone else in this challenge, but then of course came the big question - "What was I thinking?"  Well, I wanted the top to be big, I wanted it to be interesting, and I wanted you to want to help me get to 100 comments by commenting on this post.  What better topic than what's going on in my life?

The highway to our new home
We have just moved, so I am in need of changes on my blog, changes in my Etsy Shop,  and possibly a move for my blog. So here's the topic of my Big Post:  What should I name my blog and Etsy store?  So many people have such clever titles and names for their blogs and their shops, and I want to come up with just the right one!  So here's where you come in - I need your help (and your comment) to help me come up with a name.  Obviously, I can't keep my blog and shop name of Sparta Savings, since I don't live in Sparta anymore (I'm sorry to my readers who read me only for my Sparta hints.)

I want to write about things that are going on in my life on my blog.  I want to include ways that I save money, craft, recipes and anything else that interests me in the moment.   In fact, I feel like I have maybe limited myself too much in the past by naming it Sparta Savings.  I know you are supposed to pick a direction for your blog, but I think this time around, I can't make it quite so specific. Here are some of the thoughts that I have that are important to keep in mind about me when naming the blog:

  • Mother of 5
  • Homeschooler
  • Sewer (I hate to seemstress, because that makes it sound like I fix things, which I hate mending!) - Sewing is probably my favorite craft!
  • New Resident to the Camas Prarie in Idaho
  • Airstreamer
  • Scrapbooker
  • Love to decorate
  • Favorite style - shabby chic crossed with funky junk
  • Christian
  • Things I like to make: baby bibs and accessories, hair pieces and pins made with flowers, bows and feathers, table runners, pillows and Christmas stockings
  • Restore found "junk" into a new life
  • Couponer
  • Love Freebies!
I thought I'd make a top ten list for you on the names that I have thought of (in no particular order):
  1. Junkture ID (Idaho)
  2. Camas Creations
  3. Creative Camas Life
  4. Prairie Life Creations
  5. Prairie Junk Life
  6. Prairie Scraps
  7. Relife Idaho
  8. Westward Scraps
  9. CP Junkture (Camas Prairie)
  10. You Name It!
Camas Prairie
I feel like this is such huge commitment that I can't make up my mind, and really, I'm not sure that I've hit just the right one!  This is where I need your comments (and hopefully 100 of them!) to help me make up my mind.  Maybe because I am so emotionally attached, I just can't come up with a name.

Oh, I thought I would leave you with a photo of the area I am now living in.  Thank you in advance for your assistance!  Please share with anyone you know and visit those in that right bar that I love to link up to!


15 Minutes from town

Thursday, February 23, 2012

100 Comments On My Blog Post Event!

I am taking a challenge and following all the advice this coming week to get 100 Comments On My Blog on March 1, 2012!  This is a big event that blogelina.com is hosting.  In doing this event - I am going to need all of your help to achieve - yes, I will NEED you all to come over the week of March 1-8 to comment on my blog post that week!

This week I am going to be putting all I have into this post to make it the best I've ever done.  Please spread the word and mark your calendars, because it's going to take everyone of my friends, family and fellow blog-lovers to get to 100!  Whew!  That's a lot of comments!

Monday, February 20, 2012

Happy President's Day!


I was extremely excited to hear that the state we just moved to actually has school off for President's Day!  It's unheard of in Wisconsin to take the day off of school for our forefather's rather than for the Teachers and the Teacher's Union.  I thought in honor of the day, I would do a study on Presidents Lincoln and Washington.  I just wanted to share with you the freebie I found to go with it!  Click this link for the Study: President's Day Freebie.   Just be sure that it says free before you check out.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Big Move!

I am sorry to those of you that are regular readers for my lack posts in the last couple of months, but we had a big event happen - we have moved!  A job was offered to my husband across country and after trying to say no, we couldn't resist!  Everything fell into place for the move, so we made very quick preparations to move across the country.  

Aside from a little bump in the road on the way to our new home (we blew the engine in our truck), we are happy to report we have made it and are starting to settle in. By settle in, I mean that we have gotten back to school, bread is being made and I have meals frozen in the freezer.  On the other hand, I have piles of boxes in every room of the house that seem to never get unpacked!  

Well, my first goal this past weekend was to get all the boxes out of the living room and pictures up on the wall.  I wasn't totally successful on both fronts (there are still some boxes), but I did get a gallery wall up in my living room!  I am so excited about it too!  I've wanted to do a gallery wall for about a year now, but didn't know where to start.  Moving helped, as I was able to bring all my pictures and knick-knacks together in one place and decide what to do.
 I am trying to move my style over to more of a junk style, but I struggle with it looking cluttered, too.  This  is really my first attempt at using some of my favorite junk to start my wall.  I decided to choose the things I really loved first and then added to it to make it fit together.  I used The Nester's awesome living room wall as inspiration.  I also tried to go on Pinterest for other gallery wall ideas, but decided that I just plain love The Nester's wall! (On a side not, I need those tan and white striped curtains, too!)
 The pieces that I started with are the big "&" sign that my friends gave to me as a going away gift - thank you Rachel & Stacy, the type set drawer on the right, the whit screen and the Airstream picture on the lower right corner.  I hadn't planned on putting any photo pictures up there, because I have heard that you shouldn't have photos in your living room, but I ended up putting pictures that I really love and have a lot of meaning.
So to give you the whole story behind everything, the pictures on the top and middle left are my Great Grandfather as a semi-pro baseball player.  The bottom left picture is my Grandparents' wedding photo.  My favorite "&" sign and below that, my kids.  I used an empty frame to make a picture of Mr. Right and my honeymoon picture.  Below that is a wooden white "S" for our last name and an antique mirror that I was going to paint, but just can't bring myself to do that yet.  Then to the right of those are my white screen with a lathe star that we made (and I will be selling on my Etsy shop soon - that is as soon as I get the boxes unpacked enough to list them! lol).  On top of that are three aluminum plates that Grandfather made.  My typeset drawer which I got at a rummage sale for only $2 is on the top right, with a few small antique pots and pans for a doll stove that my Grandmother had.  The bottom right picture is our first trip with our 1953 Clipper Airstream several years ago.

I also got this little corner of the living room  set up.  That bookshelf in the corner has all of our albums that I have made.  I used my "crate" window and replaced the kids pictures with maps of the state we moved from and the state we moved to.  I have sort of a map theme here, I have the globe in the corner and a glass globe bowl on the shelf too.

I hope I didn't bore you with all of the details, but thought you'd like to see what I've been up to in the last few months.  It may take a little bit to get extremely regular in my posts again, but please bear with me.  I'm also considering a name change and a new Etsy shop name, too - so stay tuned for more exciting changes coming soon!

Don't forget to stop into those blogs that I love to link up to over in the right column.  As always, I love to hear your comments!