The "Perfect" Housewife

I've always dreamed of being the perfect housewife... I know, I'm a stereotype straight out of the 1950's. Hopefully I'm not the only one? Now of course I don't want to be the ruthlessly submissive, not have my own opinion housewife... I just want to make fantastic meals, have an awesome garden and a somewhat clean house where I throw dinner parties and cookouts. Am I an awful stereotype?

Speaking of 1950's... look at this retro article I came across (sorry it's so small - click to enlarge):

Is this not absurd?  It gets really ridiculous in the second half.  Tell me... what's your 'favorite'?

It's not too late to link up at this week's Ten Buck Tuesday!

Ten Buck Tuesday, 12!

Happy Tuesday! Happy TEN BUCK TUESDAY! :)

Has anyone else been hit with massive amounts of rain? The flooding is crazy in Kentucky and apparently the rain is not stopping anytime soon.

Last week, Michelle at Delicate Construction made this adorable Rosette Bracelet:

Craft Mummy made these amazing coasters:

Kalie at Pink Ink Doodle made this cute rosette headband:

And our Guest Blogger Kassie at Truly Lovely made these awesome Rope Vases:

Last week was a great week! THANK YOU ALL FOR PARTICIPATING! Email me at: youngnester(at)gmail(dot)com and ask for the code for my "I was featured" button! I would love for you to show the world I love you!

NOW ON TO THE FUN PART!

LINK UP YOUR $10 CRAFT OR RECIPE! Please play fair and copy the Ten Buck Tuesday button to your blog when you link up! The link-up will be open until next Monday at 11:59pm (EST)! No shops or main pages; please link up the specific post of your project.

I CAN'T WAIT to see what YOU are making this week!

Guest blogger: Kassi from Truly Lovely!!

I am SO excited to be blog swapping with the lovely Lauren here today!!
If you're having Lauren withdrawals (as I'm sure you are...)
You can visit her over on my blog, Truly Lovely, 
today where she is guest posting as well!

In the meantime, I am Kassi from the blog Truly Lovely!

I am right in the midst of my wedding planning for our June 2011 wedding!

If you'd like to follow my wedding planning in more detail,

I have a 'just for the wedding' blog over here. :)

A wedding craft that I did just for me, just for fun, was my Bride Bag!

Every bride needs a handy little bag to carry around the wedding planning essentials!

So...

I am so excited to be able to share my Bride Bag tutorial with you today!
The same concepts can be applied to make a Momma Bag, Shopping Bag, or perhaps in Lauren's case... a WINE tote!! ;) etc...

Materials Needed:

• Plain Tote
• Sticky backed Vinyl or other stencil
• Fabric Paint
• Iron on embellishments (I used my wedding flowers, daisies)
• Cute little craft iron... Or a regular iron will do ;)
  (All these materials were Christmas gifts from my sweet sister, so thanks Miss Kayli for gifting me some awesome craft supplies!!)

First, I used my new Silhouette SD (Christmas gift from the hubs-to-be) to cut out the lettering, "Kassi's Bride Bag June 2011".

Next, I pulled the cutout lettering away from the vinyl sheet.

This became the stencil.

Then I peeled the backing off of the vinyl and stuck it to the tote.

*Tip - Sticky backed vinyl is great because once the backing is removed you can stick it onto pretty much anything and it'll last long enough to work as a stencil.

The only fabric paint I had at the time was puff paint... but that wasn't the look I was wanting for my bag... So I improvised...

I just used a small paint brush to brush the puff paint onto the stencil... I used pink and turquoise paint, my wedding colors of course!

It took a few coats of the puff paint to get it dark enough on the black tote to pop, but once I got those coats on, I just left it to dry overnight.

The next morning I simply peeled the vinyl stencil from the tote and walla, insta-tote wording!! :)

To spice it up a bit, I ironed on a few daisies (my wedding flower of choice) using my nifty little craft iron! (Again, thanks Kayli!)

The next, and final step is to fill your new Bride Bag with all the wedding planning essentials!!

In went my wedding planning notebook, wedding ring brochures, hand written guest list draft, and our engagement pictures CD.

I literally carry this bag with me everywhere I go!!

At less than two months til the wedding, it's so nice to have everything I need right on hand in my handy little Bride Bag!

 This picture was taken by my Maid of Honor, Miss Kayli of course, after a LONG day of trying on wedding dresses!!!

As you can see, it'll wear a girl out! ;)

But the Bride Bag in tow means less stress for the bride-to-be!!!

Thanks again to Miss Lauren for having me over!!! :)

Always happy to share with my bloggie besties!!!

And the winner is...

The winner of My Girlish Whims GORGEOUS necklace is...

CONGRATS, Jessica!! Be on the lookout for an email from me to get your address!

Hope everyone is having a great day!

Ten Buck Tuesday 11!

I hope everyone has entered the My Girlish Whims necklace GIVEAWAY! It closes tomorrow (4/20) at midnight (eastern time)!

Is everyone ready for Easter? I feel like I haven't had a weekend to relax in forever. I just want to stay at home one weekend and do stuff around the house. Does that make me incredibly lazy?

Moving on to more exciting things...

Last week, Mel at Last Minute Mel made these adorable No Bake Marshmellow Lamb Cookies (how cute are these!):

Lesley at Fabulously Flawed made this incredible Bird Wall Art:

Mel at The Crafty Scientist made this awesome Button Initial wall art:

Jenna at Sew Happy Geek made this cute Padded Camera Strap Cover (and we all know I'm obsessed with these):

THANK YOU ALL FOR PARTICIPATING LAST WEEK! Email me at:
youngnester(at)gmail(dot)com
and ask for the code for my "I was featured" button! I would love for you to show the world I love you!

NOW ON TO THE FUN PART!

LINK UP YOUR $10 CRAFT OR RECIPE! Please play fair and copy the Ten Buck Tuesday button to your blog when you link up! The link-up will be open until next Monday at 11:59pm (EST)! No shops or main pages; please link up the specific post of your project.

I CAN'T WAIT to see what YOU are making this week!

My Girlish Whims GIVEAWAY!!

I am so excited to share with you all a GIVEAWAY from one of my favorite bloggers, Rebecca at My Girlish Whims! Who doesn’t love her? If you haven’t been to her blog and shop, you need to go now. Right this second.

She’s been featured TWICE on Young Nester for her laptop vinyl and sheet music roses!

Rebecca is graciously giving away a BEAUTIFUL necklace to one of YOU!

Isn’t it gorgeous? I just love it! She is so awesome she is even letting you pick the color of crystals you want!

We’ve giving everyone a TON of ways to win so get excited! Please leave a separate comment for each entry below:

REQUIRED
-Stop by Rebecca’s etsy shop and tell me what your favorite item is!

ADDITIONAL ENTRIES
- become a follower of YoungNester (current followers count too!)
- become a follower of My Girlish Whims (again, current followers definitely count!)
- “Like” YoungNester on facebook
- “Like” My Girlish Whims on facebook
- Follow YoungNester on twitter
- Blog about this giveaway! (limit once - leave the link to your blog post in your comment)

Giveaway is open until next Wednesday, April 20th until 11:59 PM. Random winner will be announced on Thursday, April 21st!

OK, GET SET.... GO!! Good luck!!

Ten Buck Tuesday 10!

WOW! It's already time for Ten Buck Tuesday #10! This week has flown by! Last week was Spring Break from the middle school so I did a whole lot of nothing ;) The weather was perfect here in Kentucky (I wish I could say the same for the past 24 hours... torrential downpouring now)! T's 27th birthday was on Saturday and we went to Louisville to hang out with his family and friends. We also took a daytrip to Cincinnati to visit Ikea (who doesn't love that place??) and Jungle Jim's.

I've also become obsessed with the idea of coupons. Notice how I said the idea of coupons. Although I know I will never be able to shop like the people on TLC's Extreme Couponing, I know that I can cut back tremendously. Any other couponers out there? Any great sites or tips?

Moving to the good stuff... last week, Katie at Eye Spy DIY showed us how to make amazing fabric piping:

Kitty at A Law Student's Journey made this gorgeous tshirt camera strap cover:

Shawna at A Very Dandoislion Life made all these cute ribbon flower hair ties:

And Char at The Starter Home made some stylish silverware art:

THANK YOU ALL FOR PARTICIPATING LAST WEEK! Email me at youngnester(at)gmail(dot)com and ask for the code for my "I was featured" button! I would love for you to show the world I love you!

COME BACK TOMORROW FOR A SPECIAL GIVEAWAY FROM REBECCA AT MY GIRLISH WHIMS!!! SO EXCITED!!

NOW ON TO THE FUN PART!

LINK UP YOUR $10 CRAFT OR RECIPE! Please play fair and copy the Ten Buck Tuesday button to your blog when you link up! The link-up will be open until next Monday at 11:59pm (EST)! No shops or main pages; please link up the specific post of your project.

I CAN'T WAIT to see what YOU are making this week!

Ten Buck Tuesday 9!

It's that time again and I'm finally back to normal (mostly)! I've not been that sick in ages.

I've got a lot of crafts lined up to get me back in the swing of things! Get excited! :)

Last week Jaclyn at Simply Cadence made this adorable fabric basket:

Rebecca at My Girlish Whims wowed us again with her Sheet Music Roses:

Lindsay at Lee La La made this amazing No Sew Burlap Pillowcase:

A Little Bit of Everything made these delicious Hostess inspired cake balls:

THANK YOU ALL FOR PARTICIPATING LAST WEEK! Email me at youngnester(at)gmail(dot)com and ask for the code for my "I was featured" button! I would love for you to show the world I love you!

NOW ON TO THE FUN PART!

LINK UP YOUR $10 CRAFT OR RECIPE! Please play fair and copy the Ten Buck Tuesday button to your blog when you link up! The link-up will be open until next Monday at 11:59pm (EST)! No shops or main pages; please link up the specific post of your project.

I CAN'T WAIT to see what YOU are making this week!

Don't be late for the Ultimate Blog Party

I'm starting to feel better... finally! Thank goodness it's Spring Break at the middle school so I get a week to get back to normal.

I am currently procrastinating from completing 3 exams online for my own classes that are unfortunately not on Spring Break. Someone motivate me (and keep me off Twitter)!

April 1-8 is the Ultimate Blog Party at 5 Minutes for Mom! A TON of amazing prizes plus hundreds of new blogs for us to check out :)

What are you waiting for... go find some new blogs!