Joy's Fun Stuff

What are some ideas for decorating on a budget that don't take a miter saw or a zillion hours to pull off? I'm so glad you asked!

New Year's is rudely too close to Christmas. But these easy party ideas will help you rock the night. We're talking decoration and a

If you enjoy crafting AT ALL a Cricut will make all of your wildest dreams come true. If you have a parent/adult child/spouse/whoever that l

My oldest 2 boys may not have a single patch sewed on their scout uniforms, but I do Halloween Gingerbread Houses with my kids. As a mom, I cannot do it all and I'm happy to fail at the scout patch thing as to make more room in my life for sugar glued to sugar using sugar. Because, well, priorities. This is one of those fun traditions that the kids get REALLY excited for. But can you blame them? They get to create/gorge themselves with treats and make a spooky project that th

Decorating for a party doesn't have to be expensive. It does take some planning ahead and a little elbow grease, but this Harry Potter party for my 3rd kiddo turned out pretty fun and hardly cost a thing. I know it might seem like I'm a bit obsessed with the Dollar Tree (see here, here, here, and here) and that they must sponsor my life (I wish), but it's just that they have so many great things for so dang cheap. And for the record I actually purchased some of this party stu

Kid's birthdays are easy, but I have struggled with the old birthday for my husband, poor guy. It's silly because he's an amazing man who loves me and our kids. But I have struggled. While marriages are complicated and all different, these are some truths I've (slowly) discovered through the years for me with my husband, mostly through trial and error. The emphasis here is on the error. *Disclaimers: 1. Not everyone fits into these generalities but maybe this will give you so

Yesterday I got my oil changed, which is not really noteworthy or anything. But Matt kept the kids and I had a whole hour and a half to my lonesome, and THAT was exciting. Being the wild woman I am, I seized the day and walked a block to the Dollar Tree. Carpe diem, baby. Couple Points here: 1) If you're interested in reviewing my somewhat creepy fascination with this store, Part 1 is here. 2) The Dollar Tree is NOT sponsoring this post. I'm not cool enough for that reality.

Our second was baptized this last Saturday, and man, was this kid excited. The next day he tried to convince us it was really Saturday so that he could get baptized again. He is a character for sure. I've learned a few things on the whole deal and thought I'd pass it on. Purpose First off, as fun (or stressful, depending on your personality type) as it is to do all the extras, baptisms are about being baptized. Wow. So insightful, I know, but it's so easy to forget that. The

We have a trickster Leprechaun that comes here every year. He does all sorts of things here while we're asleep and causes mass excitement. Lucky has done some really great tricks through the years, mischief that has endeared him to my kids and helped placed St. Patrick's Day as one of their favorite holidays. The thing he's most famous for with our family are his decorations. This pic is from a few years back at our old house. We called it the Barney Room. Painting the walls

15 minutes. That's how long this bad boy took me to make, and that included googling "hand lettering love" for the cheat on those words. So easy and fast. I like to keep a small stockpile of poster boards in my stash (love you Dollar Tree!) for impromptu projects like this, but this idea would totally work with construction paper or even lined paper torn out from that old notebook in the church bag. Basically, this is a place for each member of the family to write things they