Staying Home Sawyer

Real Life Living on a Real Life Budget

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Introducing My Blogging BFF

Breakfast With Bentley - Hair ElasticsWell well well…look who it is. It’s me! I’m back after quite a hiatus, if I do say so myself. I wish I could tell you that I spent the last two weeks wandering around an island somewhere, in a bikini, with a cocktail in my hand. In reality, I was sitting on my couch, in my pajamas, with a bottle of wine in the recycling bin. Okay, okay, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. We don’t have a recycling bin.

It must be something about fall. The weather, the darkness, the pumpkin spiced lattes. Who knows. But it seems to have put me in a bit of a rut. When I get home from work I don’t feel motivated to even start making dinner, much less get started on creative projects. Which is just perfect too, because I’d really like to get started on a few Christmas project craft ideas. Not to mention, that Reuben (our Elf on the Shelf) is right around the corner. He better start getting some ideas on paper, because this girl doesn’t have a whole lot of spare time for him.

Breakfast with Bentley - Hair ElasticsIn the meantime, I figured I should stop neglecting you guys, and start sharing instead. So without further ado, I present to you: my blogging bff, Kristine from Breakfast with Bentley. We both started blogging around the same time, and quickly realized we are pretty much sisters from another mister. Well, with the exception that she’s a dog girl and I’m clearly an old cat lady. Other than that, we are basically twins.

Breakfast With Bentley - Hair ElasticsSince she’s my fake-twin and all, she’s clearly amazing. We have that in common. What we don’t have in common is that she’s following her entrepreneurship ideas and is getting right on the track to making herself some serious cash. She started with these invitation ornaments, and quickly expanded into selling these elastic hair ties as well. They’re so cute, and the perfect birthday gift for that friend that has everything else. You can buy your own in her Etsy shop, since I was lucky enough to be gifted my own set! I mean, we are blogging besties after all.

Elastic Hair Ties - Breakfast With BentleyNow, if I could only follow in her footsteps and get myself going on my own Etsy shop. I’ll just add that to the list of everything else I need to get done.

DIY, Holidays!

Count Your Many Blessings

Thanksgiving Banner - Countdown to Thanksgiving

I was all on board with welcoming in Thanksgiving season with open arms. And then Daylight Savings happened and my holiday happiness came to a sudden halt. Can you tell me what is worse than sitting in traffic for an hour and a half (each way) every day? I can. Sitting in traffic for an hour and a half in pitch black darkness. I didn’t think my commute could have gotten any worse. It’s a good thing my car has hidden snacks in every small compartment, because my boredom overtakes my diet every night.

Count Your Many Blessings Thanksgiving Banner - Countdown to Thanksgiving

Not only is my commute a lot less bearable, but since it’s a blackout by the time I get home at night, I can’t photograph any of my projects. This becomes an issue because I am a huge procrastinator, and don’t typically have 3 projects ready to photograph over the weekend. Hopefully I can get into the swing of things soon, otherwise you won’t be hearing much from me for the next few months. I know how devastating that may be for you, so I’ll try my hardest to keep it up.

Thanksgiving Banner - Countdown to Thanksgiving - Count Your Many Blessings

I might not have a handle on my projects, but The Dating Divas sure do. They created this Count Your Many Blessings banner, and it couldn’t be more perfect for our household. I love to get into holiday spirit (for every holiday), and this banner is perfect for that. Each day has it’s own little act of kindness on it, so you can really appreciate Thanksgiving by the time it rolls around at the end of the month.

Thanksgiving Banner - Count Your Many Blessings Countdown to Thanksgiving

DIY, Holidays!

Wrapping up Halloween

Halloween Mummy Treat DIY Felt Mummy Treat

You know how I’m always telling you to live in the moment? Not to be in a hurry to move on, not getting caught up looking towards the future and instead enjoy now. Enjoy today. This moment.

You have over 24 hours to enjoy 2015 Halloween festivities. So carve your pumpkins, go trick or treating, eat Halloween candy to your hearts desire. Don’t worry about work on Monday, don’t think about Thanksgiving in a few weeks, and definitely put Christmas plans on hold for one more day. You have a few more Halloween moments left, so make the most of them.

Before I get busy living in my Halloween moment, I want to share with you this little mummy guy I made for my sister. I stuffed him with candy corn as a little surprise, because when she gets really hungry, she’ll bite your head off. So this way, when she bites his head off, she’ll have a mouthful of candy corn.

This is my template for the mummy body. I sewed strips of white felt onto the front of my mummy, then cut the edges off (except for the two head strips). Then I sewed the front body to the back body, and stuffed with candy corn. Very easy….very time consuming. It was a good thing I was still into Gossip Girl last week. I think this mummy took three full episodes to complete. I could still shed a tear just thinking about GG being over, but I can’t live in the past. Time to live in the present: I’m off to carve pumpkins!

Halloween Mummy Treat DIY Felt Mummy

DIY, Holidays!

DIY Cheeseburger Costume

DIY Burger Costume

It’s no surprise to any of you that I am obsessed with cheeseburgers. I’ve been on a quest for years to find the best burger in the world. So far I’ve only found the best in the Bay Area (self-proclaimed), but I am determined to travel the world eating cheeseburgers until I find the best one. If I could just get someone to fund my travels and cheeseburgers, that would be great. Can you recommend anyone?

While I’d love to have my own traveling, cheeseburger eating television show (seriously, could there be a more perfect job for me?), for now I will just keep eating the cheeseburgers in my area. And making Halloween costumes to match my infatuation.

DIY Burger Costume While I’d love to claim originality with this costume, I cannot take the credit. I saw this costume on the blog Studio DIY. I would have re-created her costume exactly, had I wanted to spend that much on the outfit. But seeing as how I am going to be holed up in my house on Halloween, not even handing out candy to the adorable little witches and goblins (we get NO trick or treaters!), I didn’t want to spend more than $20 on a costume for work.

DIY Burger Costume In N Out
(Do you think I can model for In N Out?)

I found this dress at Forever21 for $12.90 (only in stores) – could that be any more affordable? I followed Kelly’s steps almost to a T (using brown felt instead of a belt), except I added onions to my burger. I mean, what’s a burger without onions? If you answered anything other than “crap,” we can’t be friends. I also created a headpiece to act as the stick that holds the burger together (see the first photo). I’m not entirely sold on wearing it, but it added a cute touch.

DIY Burger Costume

Sorry for the overflow of photos, but for once in my blogging life, my husband actually agreed to take photos of me, and I had to take advantage. It’s not every day that you get to have your own mini-photoshoot. And, if I do say so myself, he did an excellent job!

Now I’m off to eat as many juicy cheeseburgers as I can get my hands on. Or just one. I still have to fit into this dress on Friday. When I come trick-or-treating to your house on Saturday, please give me cheeseburgers instead of candy?

DIY Burger Costume