We've Moved!!

Web addresses, that is. Please check out the new digs over at the new McchesneyMoments Blog.

See you there!

Black and White Stenciled Plate

You know that I LOVE crafty home magazines and I was so excited when the newest issue of Do It Yourself came out last week.

As you can see, one of the focuses of the issues is painting all sorts of fun things. There are some really cute ideas and one of them is to paint plates and hang them on the wall. If you look closely at the cover photo, you can see two bright pink plates that are painted and hanging on the wall next to the lamp.

I think that they are so cute! After reading more, I found that they gave the plate a base coat of pink spray paint, and then used a stencil to add the white details. I love the concept so I decided to give it a try. I headed over to the Dollar Tree to see what goodies I could find, and as always was pleasantly surprised. I got a great plate to use and a set of stencils!


Here is what I used to make my own stenciled plate:

1) white plate ($1.00)

2) flower stencil ($1.00)

3) black spray paint ($4.00ish)

4) white acrylic craft paint ($1.97)

5) sponge paint brush (free-I already had this)

I started by giving my plate a black base coat with black gloss spray paint.



Next, I cut out one of the flowers on this stencil and began using the white paint to stencil the flowers on in a pattern.


I did make a few mistakes and luckily I was able to correct most of them because I used acrylic paint. I was able to wet a q-tip and correct my mistakes. I'm not sure where I'm going to hang it yet, but I think it turned out super cute! I think I will make a whole set using the different flowers on my stencil. How fun!

Bookshelf Sneak Peek...Ascend

I just wanted to give you a quick sneak peek of what I am reading now, and what my next "From the Bookshelf" post will be about.

Ascend by Amanda Hocking

This is the third and final book in the Trylle Trilogy. It was just released on January 12th and I can't wait to see how the series ends!

Valentine's Day Subway Art

Every time I go blog-hopping I see cute examples of subway art. It seems to be such a popular trend right now and I love it! Creative people all over are making fun pieces for all of the holidays as well as just everyday decor. One day, during one of my blog-hopping sessions I came across a post where someone made a Valentine's Day subway art piece using stickers, scrapbook paper and a cute frame. So one day while at Joanne's I headed to the sticker aisle to see if I could find some fun/cheap Valentine's Day stickers. Of course I was in luck!

Here is what I used to make my variation of Valentine's Day subway art:

1) 1 pack of V-day stickers ($2.99, plus 1/2 off)

2) 1 piece of white vellum paper ($0.69)

3) black frame with frosted window ($8.99, plus 1/2 off)

I started by cutting out each sticker and arranging them in the shape of the square that would show through the front of the frame. This was probably the most tricky part. I was trying to fit in as many stickers as I could. I had to play around with the arrangement a bit. It was almost like doing a puzzle!

Note: There are sunflowers painted on my craft desk. These are not part of the project.

Next I stuck the stickers onto the vellum and cut it to fit in the frame. Then I put the stickered-up vellum in the frame and ta-dah! This was really such a simple project that took all of about 10 minutes to put together.



I think it looks really cute on our shelf!

From the Bookshelf #1: Insatiable

Today, I am starting a new collection of blog posts about the books that I am currently reading. I'm calling it my "From the Bookshelf" series. Sort of sounds like something Oprah would do, right? If only I were as cool as Oprah. Anyway, I will blog about current books that I am reading... even if they are stinkers.

So, my first book post is about Insatiable by Meg Cabot.


Let me just start by saying that I am obsessed with Twilight. So, somehow I am now automatically drawn to anything involving vampires. This book proves that theory once again. Yes, it is indeed about vampires.

One night, Trav and I were looking around Borders and I wandered into the fiction section, searching for a good book to download onto my Nook later that night. I came across Meg Cabot's books and saw this one. The cover caught my attention right away because the color scheme is very Twilight-esque. I first came across Meg Cabot with The Boy Next Door, which stood as my favorite book for a number of years until I read The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. Anyway, I love Meg Cabot and when I saw that she had written a book about vampires, I thought "I must read this!"

Here is a quick book description blurb from the publisher Harper Collins:

Sick of hearing about vampires? So is Meena Harper.

But her bosses are making her write about them anyway, even though Meena doesn't believe in them.

Not that Meena isn't familiar with the supernatural. See, Meena Harper knows how you're going to die. (Not that you're going to believe her. No one ever does.)

But not even Meena's precognition can prepare her for what happens when she meets—then makes the mistake of falling in love with—Lucien Antonescu, a modern-day prince with a bit of a dark side. It's a dark side a lot of people, like an ancient society of vampire hunters, would prefer to see him dead for.

The problem is, Lucien's already dead. Maybe that's why he's the first guy Meena's ever met whom she could see herself having a future with. See, while Meena's always been able to see everyone else's future, she's never been able look into her own.

And while Lucien seems like everything Meena has ever dreamed of in a boyfriend, he might turn out to be more like a nightmare.

Now might be a good time for Meena to start learning to predict her own future. . . .

If she even has one.

Source: http://www.harpercollins.com

I just finished it last week and I have to say that I really enjoyed MOST of it. I love it when characters fall in love with "Mr. Perfect" only to find out that they are actually vampires! The vampires in this story were different, and probably more traditional, than my beloved Twilight vampires, which was fun to read. The main character has a very different opinion of the whole vampire, pop-culture, phenomenon, which I couldn't personally relate to but enjoyed reading about anyway.

There was definitely a section that took me days and days to read and it really wasn't a long part. It was the big "vampire war" climactic scene and for some reason I just couldn't get into it. All leading up to it and then after, I could barely put the book down, but that one part seemed to drag on for too long. There was a bit of a love triangle and who doesn't love that? Overall, I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to other vampire lovers.

My New Love, My Nook!

This past Christmas, Trav got me THE gift of all gifts... a Barnes and Noble Nook Color! Reading is my all time favorite hobby and relaxation strategy, so this was the PERFECT gift!

When we moved, Trav was less than thrilled with moving all of my books, but I refused to give them to GoodWill. They are like my own personal trophy collection (I have never been very athletic, hence I have no actual trophies, so I take great pride in my books :-). We also recently found ourselves bargaining over who gets to use the computer in the evenings. We both love to surf the internet. My surfing tends to be the blog-hopping variety.

Before Christmas we found out that the Nook Color has an internet feature and we joked about how this could solve a couple problems for us. Number one being that all of my new books would be electronic and not actually take up any physical space. Number two being that I could stalk my favorite blogs on the Nook, leaving Trav with free reign of our laptop. Plus, Nook books are cheaper than regular books. The more we talked about it the better it sounded.

I hoped he would get me one, but I didn't know for sure... until Christmas morning. I was so excited when I opened it! What a great hubby he is!!! We have found that it comes in really handy for even more than we originally thought. It has a couple of games like crossword and sudoku puzzles. We have found that we love to work on crossword puzzles together while we are driving, or waiting for our food in a restaurant. Do we sound like senior citizens? Yikes!

Here is a photo of my new beauty.

I bought this lovely green cover for it. I just love it!!!

The cover has this cute quote on it.


I just wanted to share my bliss over my new obsession and mention that I have decided to take breaks from project posts and throw in posts about my reading list from time to time. How fun!