Funny Boy Books & Custom Moleskine Journals with Steel Letter Stamps

My kids do and say the funniest things I have ever seen. Also, I have a terrible memory. I will without fail forget every single one of these funnies if I rely on my tired brain alone. So Husband came up with a super easy way to record these funny moments through the years. Thank you, Husband!!! I call them the Funny Boy Books. You know, because it's where I write all the things the funny boys do.

We wanted to make them a little nicer than just a plain notebook since we're hoping to keep them around a long time, so we ordered some Moleskine notebooks to use. Then we used our steel letter stamps to customize the cover of each book. It's a fast and easy way to make their books a little more special! Plus it's great for making customized gifts for new parents.

We used our letter stamps to imprint "funny boy book" on the cover of each book (and added their names so we know who they belong to). I keep them on my nightstand so every night before bed I can jot down any favorite funny moments or milestones from the day. I also have a note app on my phone where I write down anything I want to remember to put in the book later.

You need just a few simple supplies to make custom journals for your own funny boys (or whatever else you need a journal for!):

• Moleskine journals
• steel letter stamps
• fine tip sharpie or permanent maker
• hammer
• masking tape

Hello 2015 {and the best of 2014}

Happy 2015, friends! We enter this new year full of thankfulness. Thankful for dear friends, wonderful family, our sweet boys, food on our table, and so much more. So we want to kick off 2015 with a great big THANK YOU. Thank you for hanging with us through the past year. Thank you for sharing our planning and trying, our success and our major fails. Seriously. Thank you.

We can't wait to see what 2015 has in store, and we have a few new projects planned for you guys! But before we start the new, we took at look at our top posts from the last year. Some of the most popular posts really surprised us! Here's a peek at our top posts of 2014, followed by most popular of all time. If you're looking for a new project in 2015, this is a great place to start!

So let's start with the top new posts of 2014:

#1 - The time I dyed our favorite baby wrap. It won as the most popular post, and as the most surprising underdog! We never would have guessed! 

#2 -The tutorial for how we hacked our Ikea Kura bed tent during the boys' room makeover.

#3 - The wooden animal treehouse we made for Big Brother.

#4 - My easy baby doll ring sling tutorial.

#5 - Our favorite, oversize, cozy fleece blanket tutorial.

#6 - The stroller-friendly diaper bag pattern and tutorial.

#7 - Our easy and affordable faux brick backsplash tutorial.


#8 - The 2x4 garden fence we built to keep the bunnies at bay.

#9 - My tutorial for turning a regular slip into a pretty lace skirt-extending slip.

#10 - And finally one of our favorite DIY new baby gifts - taggie teething toys.

And these are the top ranked posts of all time:

#1 - The intro to our series 31 Day of 2x4 Projects is our most popular post to date. It's full of great, affordable projects!


#2 - The outdoor sectional we built entirely from 2x4s.

#3 - Our plans for a 2x4 casual desk that's super easy to build. Check out the great project photos submitted by readers!

#4 - The Rhyan coffee table. It was our very first furniture plan and first building project. There are some amazing photos that have been submitted by readers who built variations of this table! Check it out! And thanks to everyone who has sent in pictures! :)

#5 - The plans for a simple chair made from 2x4s.

#6 - Our concrete countertop tutorial - we still love it!

#7 - Another 2x4 project! This time the simple modern bed featuring an oversize headboard and built-in nightstands.

#8 - Plans for an outdoor storage bench (plus planters and a regular bench to make a full set).

#9 - This 2x4 chunky bar stool is great for an eat-in kitchen!

#10 - Last but not least, a DIY shoe rack that is probably the fastest, easiest plan we've made.

Thanks for reading, and we hope you had a great year with lots of DIY! What was your favorite post or DIY project in 2014? What would you love to see this year?

My Favorite Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread Recipe

Over the last couple months I've started making my own bread from scratch. It was one of my goals for 2014 to both save money and make healthier choices for my family. I don't like serving a lot of mystery ingredients and since homemade bread only takes four or five ingredients it seemed like an easy way to cut out a processed food. I started with whole wheat bread but after reading the book Cure Tooth Decay I decided to give real sourdough bread a try.

Here's the trouble with bread (and grains in general) - the tend to have properties like phytic acid that prevent them from being digested and more importantly block your body ability to absorb nutrients from the foods you eat. Yikes. Based on what I've read I actually think grains are a big cause of cavities and other dental problems. If you haven't read this book and have any kind of problems with your teeth you need to check it out! The kindle edition is only $10 on amazon! The way around this is to do one of the three S's - soaking, sprouting, or souring. Basically you're breaking down the bad stuff before you even eat it! I tried a couple soaked bread recipes that didn't thrill me and sprouted flour is expensive! So that left souring.

2014 Year in Review

I was just looking back at some of my posts from the year and came across list of goals I wrote way back in January. My initial reaction? "Oh. I made goals? Oops." So... let's see how it went and if I'll be trying again for these goals in 2015!

Bake Bread - Success! I remember a slow start, making just a couple loaves in the first half of the year. But this fall I really jumped in and now make my own sourdough bread using a sourdough starter I made myself! We haven't bought bread in a couple months! The key for me was finding a really easy, doable recipe. I'll share it later this week!

Eat Whole Foods - Semi-success? I think we're definitely doing better than the beginning of the year, definitely more produce and more homemade food, but I hope to improve more still. I think an important step for next year will be meal planning or having easy, ready-to-cook meals in the freezer. Being unprepared is my bane, and many times we resort to fast food just because I don't know what we're going to eat for dinner.One of my favorite new recipes this year are runza pocket sandwiches, and one of the great things about them is that they are great for the freezer!

Teach Big Brother Letters - We didn't work very hard on this, but he does recognize the first letters of names for both of our families, and numbers up to 5! (see how I made his dinosaur birthday crown here)

Play Outside - We definitely hit this in the summer by playing outside and gardening every day. Our DIY sprinkler arch was a big hit! Winter is already a major fail though. We barely leave the house when it's cold. Brrrr. 

Time with My Boys - Work in progress. I think I'm doing better... but still working toward a better balance. The book Hands Free Mama has helped so much.

Read - I guess I am reading more but not int he way I planned. I've been reading to the boys a LOT more. Some of our new favorites are Pete the Cat, Skippyjon Jones, and Big Brother is really into Magic School Bus right now. 

I completely read The Hunger Games and Unglued (we did this one in mom's group and it was great!). I started the Allegiant series but didn't finish the third book, and started Cure Tooth Decay and Hands Free Mama (I'm almost done with these two). And I've flipped through Backyard Homestead and Four Season Harvest. So basically I finished five books. In a year. I'm hoping I just forgot some.

Garden - We tried really hard and had a big beautiful garden... and the squirrels still ate almost everything. I don't know what to do. We even started our own seedlings, made a mini greenhouse, and fenced in the garden. I did manage to freeze and can a little from our garden and from my grandma's garden so I guess it wasn't a complete loss. :)

Take Walks - We did a good amount of walking this summer. And Big Brother did a lot of bike riding. We even took pictures on one of our walks to make this custom storybook. I think family walks are very underrated and we highly recommend them!

Save $$$ - We haven't really saved much, but it's because we've been putting any extra on our student loans so we still feel pretty good about it.

Organize the Basement - miracle of miracles, this is mostly done!!! My mom and sisters came for a weekend and helped me knock most of it out. Only my sewing corner still needs a little clean up. Whew.

Family Devotions - It's been hit - or miss. Big Brother got a new Bible storybook and has reminded us most nights for the last month.

All in all I'd say we were pretty successful this year. In spite of forgetting about our list!

How about you guys?  What were your goals in 2014? Did you stick to them or totally forget?