Shelly

April Goals

April_featureApril means ‘play outside every time it’s sunny’ and so we will. Last month I talked about staying busy to help the winter pass more quickly but I think we were too active. March flew by so fast I can hardly remember what happened.

Before getting into my April goals, let’s see how I did on my March goals. We did not meet our goal of 40 days of no spending but spent pennies compared to our normal spending. I have to admit, it didn’t even bother me to not be able to impulsively buy. We were great about putting our wants on a list for later purchasing and the only extras we spent were on entertainment. I wasn’t able to do the full #40bagsin40days straight through but the amount of decluttering and organizing I did makes me proud.
We also did not make our monthly ‘date in a box’ (which reminds me to make one for April)! We were a week short of the Whole30 but have been great at keeping a Whole30 regime during the week and being more lenient on the weekends. I did not swim twice per week but I either ran or swam three times per week!

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I’m also happy to say that I had my first sponsored post and even happier to say it was a Disney product! My social media goal of increasing each by 50 followers was pretty good. I raised Pinterest by 203, Twitter by 147 and Facebook by 18 (womp womp). I’ve never worried about my social media numbers until I monetized last month. I have been studying and asking fellow bloggers all month and Facebook seems impossible. Some companies require a certain number of followers before they work with you so I’ll continue to work on all three. I read Paper Towns and Wonder this past month, both of which I really enjoyed.

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April Goals:

Family

  • More patience towards Sophie
  • Date night with Jeffrey
  • Play outside everyday (weather permitting)

Life

  • Swim or run 3x/week for the 5k on April 25
  • Organize all video to date
  • Meal plan every week

Blog

  • Do a sponsored post
  • Re-work drafted posts in que
  • Every Sunday schedule week of Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest posts

I’ve made my April goals pretty simple because we have some secret behind-the-scenes stuff that we’re working on that I will share with you in time! My big goal for this month is to be present and be happy with my present. That’s true success. What about you? did you make any goals for this month??

Page Turners Book Selection: May

Hello bibliophiles! Lisa and I are so happy to announce our book selection for May! We wanted to give you plenty of time to get your hands on a copy. So, without further ado, our book selection for May is:

Mindy Kaling
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling

This is Mindy Kaling’s memoir. After reading a few fiction books we wanted to mix in a funny but 100% true story. I’m a fan of most memoirs (Yes Please, Bossypants and Neil Patrick Harris
were awesome) so I’m looking forward to reading another. So hope you’ll join us in reading this!

Mindy Kaling
We’re so happy with the turn out so far with all of you who have joined in reading along with our book selections! Don’t forget, we’ll be discussing The Martian on May 1st. Lisa and I will have separate questions on each of our blogs so you can participate in either or both discussions.
Page Turners book club by Expandng & DIY Mama


All opinions of the books I review are my own. If you choose to purchase a book through the links I’ve provided, I will earn a few cents per purchase.

Lets DIY

It’s FRIDAY! All week has felt like Saturday to me though because we’re on vacation! We’ve gotten lots of projects done, but more importantly, we’ve gotten lots of play time in as a family. We stayed in town and checked out a new park that we’re now in love with. Jeffrey and I also went on a date and found our new favorite restaurant in town! I wish this week could last forever because Soph and I both love having Jeffrey around to play with.

DIY Craft Projects
Here are my favorite DIY projects for this week: Continue Reading about Lets DIY

Our Montessori Life

We are in the beginning stages of learning the expansive world of Montessori. I wanted to share with you our experience with this way of living and why we’ve chosen to incorporate this lifestyle into Sophie’s childhood.

Montessori Life
A lot of people ask ‘why’ when I tell them about the practices we’re using with Sophie. ‘Why would you put her in a big kid bed at age 15mo?’ ‘Why would you put all of her stuffed animals out of reach in her room?’ ‘Why would you take away toy boxes?’ Our answers: Continue Reading about Our Montessori Life

DIY Easter Bunny Wreath

It’s hard to believe Easter is this weekend! I feel like we just had St. Patrick’s Day and it’s still super cold outside! I usually stick with a happy yellow forsythia wreath for our front door throughout spring but was in a wreath making mood so I whipped up this simple Easter Bunny wreath.

DIY Spring Easter Bunny Wreath
Materials needed:

  • Basic wreath
  • Silk flowers
  • Foam board
  • Mini Easter eggs
  • Pipe cleaners/straw
  • Hot glue gun

Boxwood Wreath
I started out with a simple leafy wreath. I love boxwood wreaths but found this guy on sale a few years ago and rotate him through the seasons by switching out flowers.

Bunny cut out
Searching ‘bunny silhouette’ in images online, I found this perfect cartoonish looking bunny. I traced him onto my brown foam board and cut him out. His name is Franky, in case you were wondering.

Easter Bunny and Eggs for Wreath
To make Franky easy to stick in to the wreath, I hot glued a straw, knowing it would be stable enough to hold his weight. I used pipecleaners as the sticks for the mini Easter eggs but a twist tie would work as well.

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Sticking Franky and his eggs into the wreath was extremely easy. I twisted the pipe cleaners slightly to make sure they wouldn’t fall out.

Easter Wreath
I snipped the tops of a few stems of flowers to fill in the rest of my wreath. I went with happy spring colors to keep the dark green light and airy. Make sure to leave enough stem on the flowers to stick through the branches of the wreath. If you use your front door a lot, be sure to twist the stems or use a twist tie to fasten the flowers.

DIY Spring Easter Bunny Wreath
Cute. Franky is so happy to greet our friends and neighbors when they come to the door. This wreath was extremely quick and simple for how much impact it makes on my front door. My favorite part is that I can store away the props with my Easter decor and re-use my wreath next season! Do you have a wreath or sign on your front door? Would you ever consider DIYing your wreaths? To purchase a wreath of this size would cost $40-$50 at a hobby store already decorated. I made it custom to my taste and saved money!

For more Spring and Easter ideas, check out my Pinterest board!
Follow Shelly @ DIY Mama’s board Spring Decor & Recipes on Pinterest.

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