Inspired by Pinterest

I was totally surpised to find out (after going through a lot of posts) that I hadn't already posted this. I was inspired by this creation on Pinterest.



It originated over at From Gardners 2 Bergers. I though this would be a nice anniversary present for my husband. You know a gift of my time, low-cost since the anniversary that we celebrate (the date we met in real life for the first time not our wedding date), is just 3 weeks before Christmas. Besides which my husband is almost impossible to shop for. Usually if there is something that he really wants, he just buys it when we can afford it. The couple of really big things that he's wanted, I've already bought him for Christmas or birthdays in the past. I was surprised at how easy this was to do. The original is matted and framed, but I followed the directions at another website for creating a canvas print (sorry, I can't find the link at the moment, if I find it, I'll update my post.) I created my image in Photoshop, since that's what I have, and printed it at Clark Color Labs. Before going to Clark, I went to eBates. This was awesome, as eBates gave me a cash rebate on my print, and they also had a coupon for free shipping. Double win!

I bought my canvas at Hobby Lobby with a 40% off coupon (you can even print the coupons on their website), along with a small bottle of black acrylic paint. I had another coupon that I used for some Mod Podge, and some foam brushes in my craft stash. I just painted the edges of the canvas black, allowed them to dry, applied Mod Podge to the canvas, and positioned my print. Waited for it to dry, and applied several coats of Mod Podge to the print allowing it to dry in between coats. I used the matte finish, but if glossy's your thing, that would be incredible too. And here's my finished picture.

Sometimes I think that I carry frugal too far, and that I should make a bigger effort to find something to buy him. On the other hand, I also think that it's special when someone goes to the trouble to make you something (and has to hide it during the creation stage.) Do you ever find yourself in this situation? What do you do?

I linked up at:  

I Can Eat!

I went back to the dentist on Monday. I was kind of nervous, because last week's visit wasn't all that I had hoped for. This week, I got the same person who took my initial impressions for my actual dentures. She is incredibly kind and patient, and she is my favorite, because of this. She had to do multiple tries this week to get it right, but she never got impatient or told me that I had to get used to it. She looked at where they were rubbing, and told me she could fix it and that is what she proceeded to do.

After that, I went to the fancy grocery store that they have in Tyler. It's called Fresh and it's owned by a local chain as their one and only upscale store. It's a trial run and if it goes well here, they may expand that branch of their company. They have the most incredible food there. I bought hummus and gluten-free crackers, some rare roast beef, chicken salad, and some sliced turkey. The store is one giant sample-fest. I swear that with little effort you could easily eat your entire lunch there without visiting each sampler more than once. I had a sample of turkey (yay! meat!), steak (that was a little ambitious, but I did it!), a cheese cracker with a schmear of flavored feta, and a bite of bread (just one!) It is amazing being able to chew again. I am forever astounded at the number of things that we take for granted in our lives. Simple things like being able to walk and talk and eat, lose the ability to do any of these things and then re-gain the ability and your life is forever changed.

Last night I ate a chili dog from Sonic. Just the 6 inch. I cut it up and ate it with a fork, but being able to eat meat again is wonderful. I'm giving myself a small break from worrying about what I eat while I continue to learn how to eat and have a small respite eating somethings that I thought I'd never be able to eat again. And don't worry, few of them are carby. Mostly I've missed eating meat and salad, but a taco might find it's way here as well.

One More Try

It's been a week since I got my teeth. Due to an adjustment that didn't go well on Monday, I still am not wearing my lower teeth. Now fortunately (?) my lower teeth were the to go, so I've had a lot of practice smiling and talking without my lower teeth showing. So as long as I have my top plate in place, no one is the wiser. But this has meant even more time on the equivalent of baby food. I have another appointment for this Monday, and hopefully they will get it adjusted correctly so that I can start learning to eat.

I'm hungry.

It Starts With a One

After spending the majority of Saturday in my room (I worked for two hours, did my homework, and slept a LOT - I also didn't want to eat or drink in front of anyone until I had a handle on the situation), I was more than ready to get out of the house on Sunday. We wanted to go to the movies. The husband and boy wanted to see War Horse, and I wanted to see Joyful Noise. We decided to eat first, and it took me so long to eat that we missed the start of the movie, so the husband suggested that we go to the outlet mall instead.

There is a new store there that has lots of bling and some really cute clothes in regular and plus sizes, and bonus! adorable little girl clothes too. My husband came and dragged me out of there (I didn't even get to show him the leopard blouse I found), and down the way to Van Heusen. They were having one of their mega sales, with sale prices as much as 80% off and another 30% off on top of that. It's hard to turn down $70 items as low as $15 - $20! I've been shopping there for a couple of years now, and I've been limited to their xxl t-shirts and xxl sweaters. The largest pant size they carry is an 18, and I've resigned myself to not being able to get pants or woven (no stretch) tops there. My husband had dragged me over to see a beautiful plum colored blouse in a size xl. It was a woven top. I didn't think it would fit, but I decided to humor him and try it on. He started handing me other clothes that he liked, and just for laughs I grabbed a pair of trouser jeans in size 18.

They fit. All the clothes fit. Except for the xxl t-shirt and tank top. They were TOO BIG.

Clothes that I tried on. Were. Too. Big.

If you're like me, you've always had to send out for a larger size, never for a smaller size. Now I want to go into every store that I see that carries size 18 to see if it was a fluke.