Staying Home Sawyer

Real Life Living on a Real Life Budget

DIY

Printable Bible Verse Notecards

Free Printable Bible Verse Notecards

And just like that, I’m back. Back to the grind, back to the desk. Back to the Bay, back to my fat cat! I spent quite a bit of time relaxing on the beaches of south Florida and the Virgin Islands. I’m jealous of my own life right now, wishing I was still sitting on said beaches with a cocktail in my hand. I can’t even look at my own Instagram without feeling a little bit of beach envy.

Printable Bible Verse Notecard

I am the first person to tell you that I am one lucky traveler. I don’t ever take a trip for granted; I try to enjoy every second of every vacation we are blessed enough to take. Even when we were in the middle of a hurricane in Playa. Even when my cell phone was magically whisked away in the back of a cab in Mazatlan. Even when it’s a lightning storm on the beaches of Florida. You don’t always get the best luck, but being there in the first place is such an amazing life experience, you can’t take it for granted.

That being said, I had quite a serious experience on my most recent trip to Florida. Let’s just say that I had a blatant reminder that life is short. Hug your husbands tighter, kiss your children more, and tell your family how much you love them. You never know when you’ll get another chance.

Because of that experience, I tried to take a little extra time to thank God for everything in my life. Because I’m a huge fan of daily affirmations, I wanted to create something that would remind me to live life to the fullest. You may have seen my Police Officer Bible Printables a few weeks back, and thought to yourself, “Gee, I wish I had my own Bible printables.” (Or at least in my dreams that’s what you thought). So for the rest of you, I created another set. This time they’re just a generalized set of uplifting, supportive Bible verses. Some are perfect for your spouse, some are perfect for your friends. Leave them around the house, the office, or even send them in the mail.

Printable Bible Verse Notecards

You can download them here. Show me how you used them on Instagram! Tag @raeofsparkles in your photos!

 

DIY

Vacation Ornaments

DIY Handmade Ornaments from Vacation

Being that I’m about to take off on another vacation, I thought I’d share with you a project from the last one. On every vacation we take, we get sucked into souvenir shop after souvenir shop, looking at all the crap. The more you cruise the aisles, the more you convince yourself that you need at least a handful of new shot glasses, a new souvenir plate, and countless keychains. Thankfully, early on, we figured out that we were going to collect ornaments from our travels, which if I’m going to be honest with you, has got to be the best souvenir you can buy. Mainly because they are put away for most of the year, but then come out and turn your Christmas tree into a story-teller. But also because our house doesn’t look like a frat house with 200 shot glasses displayed year-round. Which it probably would with the amount of traveling we do.

DIY Ornaments from your beach vacations

Since we are always on the lookout for the ornaments while we’re on vacation, we did the same thing while in Moorea. However, due to the fact that it’s a tiny little island with not much more to purchase than great seafood, we found nothing. So what do you do when you can’t find said item? You make it. Obvi.

DIY Ornaments from your vacations

I brought sand and seashells back from the beach in Moorea with me, so I ordered some glass vials online (couldn’t find the right sized ones at Michael’s), and painted “Moorea” on each one. I know they’re not perfect looking, but for me, this paint job has got to be museum worthy. I am the worst at hand-painting. This Moorea paint job is definitely in competition with the Mona Lisa, no?

When they dried, I filled the ornaments up with sand from the beach at our resort, put a tiny seashell in each, and tied them off with some twine. They’re going to look beautiful on our Christmas tree, if I do say so myself.

DIY Ornaments from Vacation

What kind of souvenirs do you collect from your travels?

DIY, Holidays!

4th of July Framed Prints

4th of July Free Printable - Stars & Stripes Forever

I’m going to let you in on a little secret. I’m not very good at decorating. I like to pretend, and every once in a while, I’m able to pull a fast one on my husband. I wish I took after my mother; the woman could have trained Joanna Gaines for heaven’s sake. When we bought our house, we asked her to kindly come out and see our First Home, with no intention whatsoever of hoping she would decorate it for us. Which she did. Promptly. Probably because she saw my incredibly horrible sense of decorating and knew something had to be done immediately. On the bright side, I’m better than my husband, which is something. If I let him, he’d hang a framed photo of Rambo in our living room. Love you babe.

4th of July Free Printable

When it comes to holiday decorating, I’m always so jealous of those beautifully decorated homes. The ones that elicit fabulous feelings when you walk through the door. The ones that proclaim, “I hired professionals.” But because I can’t fly my mom out here for every holiday, I guess it’s up to me to put up a half-assed attempt at decorating.

I always start with the same thing. Holiday prints. I have go-to frames that I use to change out holiday prints, and I’m always looking for new printables. Because of this, I scammed my cousin into creating a few 4th of July prints that I could use. Since she graced me with her design abilities, I thought I’d share them with you too.

Because two prints are never enough, I also did a little DIYing…which I’m sure surprised you. I printed a map of the USA on cardstock, cut it out, and applied glitter to the entire thing. I glued it to a piece of decorative paper, put that baby in a frame, and voila! A little handmade magic.

DIY 4th of July Framed Map of USA

Print the Stars & Stripes Forever print here.

Print the Land of the Free print here.

DIY

Take a bite outta Shark Week!

Shark Week Treats - Free Printable

I’d love to tell you that the only reality TV I ever watch is a little thing called Shark Week. You know, the week that graces us with its presence once a year, filling us with all kinds of warm and fuzzy shows about how sharks will rip you apart if given the opportunity? Yeah, that week. Since it’s the only reality television that I give any attention to (Teen Mom, who?), I thought I’d add a little Shark Week treat for your viewing pleasure. And your eating pleasure too, because who doesn’t love sour watermelon sharks? Probably those crazy Teen Mom watchers, that’s who. They obviously have nothing better to do.

Shark Week Treats

For those of you that do have something better to do, this is just one of those easy-peasy crafts that you can make for your single cat-lady friend that may be planning to sit on her couch all week watching Shark Week by her lonesome. And if you don’t have one of those friends, you can put one together for me. I blew through both of these bags right after I finished photographing them. You will definitely find me sitting on my couch all week watching Shark Week all alone. When you bring over your treats, please supplement them with a bottle of wine. A girls got standards.

Shark Week Free Printable

All teasing aside, I will definitely be catching some shows this week on Shark Week. I mean, I’m clearly a shark person. I swam with them in Moorea, I think that makes me an expert. If you have any questions, you just ask. I’m basically a shark whisperer. I touched five of them and they didn’t even bite. Beat that Shark Week guys.

Shark Week Printable

Save the BITE tag here, or the Shark Week tag here. Print them, pop a hole in the top, and tie them to your shark treats!