old

busy these days.



aren't we always, though?

we've been doing some major cleaning out. and i'm finding things that i just love.

bright colors. chipped things. old wood. flowers. timeworn treasures.

gifts 2011

UPDATE: Hate when I realize a month later that I've typed a post and not posted it or ever remembered that I typed it at all. This one should just go down as long and boring now that I reread it. Oh well. It's done and it makes me look like I actually keep up with the blog a little bit more. ;)


This year, to be economical as well as thoughtful, I made many of our Christmas gifts. I'm from a family of 4 as well as my husband and we also have 14 nieces and nephews! And grandparents and tutoring students- just makes for a lot of gifts!


For my tutoring students, I made personalized clipboards. These turned out great and didn't take much work at all. I spray painted the clipboards purple and then cut out the names with yellow vinyl using my Silhouette. Then I sprayed a coat of glaze/spray lacquer on the clipboards and while it was still wet, sprinkled glitter from about 4 feet above so it would land randomly. I think they're precious and my 10 year old girls loved them!


















This gift was one of Henley's "pocket gifts" this year. A Christmas tree shirt. Just cut out a tree, used Heat-N-Bond to make it sticky. Ironed that on, the got to using the sewing machine to sew on the tree. Whew- that was TOUGH! Haven't figured out how to sew backwards or just turn off the feed dog (the thing that automatically pulls the fabric forward?) so I did a lot of using the backwards stitch feature. Then I sewed on a couple red/brass buttons with gold thread. Cute, huh? [Totally being lazy by not re-uploading this picture rotated correctly.]














My dad, also known as Pop around these parts, is a meticulous breakfast eater. A bowl of cereal, an orange, a banana, a cup of coffee- probably in that same order, every day, always, always. He eats at the same spot at the table with a dishtowel in his lap. We made him some dishtowels to make each day great. I cut each design out with the Silhouette and weeded out the actual design so the outside was left. Then I stuck that on some flour sack towels from Walmart and painted a base coat over it. Left it to dry mostly and then, Henley came along and painted over it. Mostly it just added color to the base color. Looks cute and she loved helping. We did the design on both ends of the dish cloth and then I sewed another layer to make it sturdier with a zigzag stitch.




















This project is the most sentimental one for me. I had worked and worked up to the last minute to give this to my mother-in-law who ADORED her grandkids. She has my 2, two adopted from Russia from another family and 3 biological and 6 adopted and one in heaven and 2 more on the way from Ukraine from another family. Whew- that's a bunch. I made this from Pinterest inspiration but knew I would have to modify because of the number of kiddos! I painted a canvas green and waited for that to dry overnight. I cut the letters out with vinyl and applied them. Then I sprayed the whole thing generously with spray glaze. I was worried- the spray clouded up and it looked like i had ruined it but it dried clear. I took 20 clothespins- we could be adding more, right? And I glued buttons and scrapbook paper and ricrac and gold glitter glue on them. Then I glued the clothespins on with E6000 glue. It turned out really cute. So sad that she never saw it- she passed away the night before Christmas Eve. We ended up using at the memorial service and people loved looking at all the adorable kids on it. It hangs at the family ranch now and will be something special for me to remember her legacy everytime I look at it. I know she would have LOVED it.

11 from 2011

11 from 2011:

1. My sweetest Mia was born. Ringtail tooter, bulldozer, pork chop, sensitive Sally- call her what you want.... we love this girl.

2. Fabulous trip to the coast with my favorite people. Little girl with a wedgie running in the surf, sweet husband fishing and holding my little snoozer. Couldn't be better.

3. I decided to stay home with the girls. Yahoo- so fun!

4. We got a new car- my Suburban! LOVE that thing!

5. Henley talked our ears off, got a Gator and tons of new shoes, embraced playgrounds everywhere.

6. Got a free season pass to Sea World and went a bunch! Thanks Sea World, we loooooved our times!

7. Started up tutoring sessions with local kids. Love teaching... a bit- without the hassles of grading and parent conferences and paperwork.

8. Still living on the old homestead. Changes to come but happily living here in the country.

9. Tons of family and friend get-togethers. Delicious food, lots of laughter and love. So lucky.

10. My sweet mother-in-law passed away unexpectedly. She was a wonderful lady and amazing Nana to all her grandkids. I'm so sad my girls won't get to have her around anymore- they loved her like crazy.

11. resolutions: 2012 promises to be a year of healthier living, kids running around, cleaning up and out for a simpler life, and embracing each day.


sorry for not posting in a while. be back around here more often, promise.

whatshappeninroundhere

feeling as if i'm abandoning my poor little blog. i hate when i check and i haven't written a post in 2 weeks. ugh. just a list for ya to prove i'm somewhat productive some of the time

1. cleaned out the dyson. i mean, not just dumped it out either. took it apart and whoa, it was disgusting. used this guys directions and basically HOPED it would work when it put it all back together. we vacuum almost daily and it would have stunk if it didn't work.

2. worked on handmade Christmas presents. almost 2 year old + acrylic paints = hazardous to my favorite nightshirt/wear it all day shirt. sewing and silhouette vinyl and hot glue and squirt bottles. oh my. will post pics of the final products. feeling pretty good about giving someone something thoughtful.

3. our weather has been so cold at night! i love tucking my littles into bed in fleece jammies. i saw some footie jammies in 5T yesterday! i doubt i'll be making Henley wear footie jammies much longer. but there isn't too much cuter than a clean little girl with fresh combed hair and footie jammies walking to her room.... ah. this growing up breaks your heart, doesn't it!

4. as i type this, a man has been perusing the dvds at the library one by one. seriously, flipping through them and looking at the back of each and every dvd in the section. his wonderful, sweet son just stood by him, patiently, paaaaaaaaaaaaaattttttttttiiiiiiieeeeennntly waiting for him to finish up. i mean, seriously, sir. he deserves a dr. pepper.

5. i've been at the library a bunch in the after school and those middle-schoolers. they all walk across the street to hang out and wait for their parents to come pick them up. i hardly even know what to write about middle-schoolers. i HATED middle school. all the hormones and cool kids and pranks and flirting and trying too hard to be cool- trying to fit in or at the top of the food chain or at the bottom... - whew. it's rough. and apparently, still is. it's almost like i am back in middle school with them around- feeling uncomfortable, like i need to watch my back. or that they are talking about me. i always admire MS teachers who can tolerate them. and you know, when i taught my 5th graders, they were almost middle-schoolers. and then they become someone else entirely. ENTIRELY! (rereading this paragraph makes it painfully obvious i have unresolved middle school issues. sorry. carry on.)

6. a church in town had the camels come this week. i drove by them without the girls and screamed "AUGH! CAMELS! I LOVE THEM!!" out loud in my car with a giant grin on my face. then looked over and someone was watching in the car next to me- i felt like a ginormo dork. but those camels were cute.

7. have you seen these grownup "elf on the shelf" scenarios? hilarious. our elf, Lucy, doesn't do anything fun. just hides. these elves are peeping toms, or kidney thieves or makes grilled cheese sandwiches. I love it. people are so clever.

8. needing to leave the library and the super fast wifi. roast for dinner. yum. and then more sewing and drilling and spray painting.

9. having some willpower issues. this about describes it.













dessert picture

p.s. Chickie news: Mia can hold her own bottle- finally! And Henley has graduated from saying "Deedoo" for Dora to Dora Bora (Dora the Explorer). Major news.

happy

happy about:

* finding forgotten about Christmas t-shirts bought last year for $2 at Old Navy

* little girls who look cute in said Christmas shirts

* yogurt covered pretzels

* handmade gifts in the works- so excited to give a thoughtful gift

* cool weather to come

* a brand new pack of Sharpies in a backpack- score!

* naptime

* little one sleeping from 8- 8- all night long

* Parenthood on Tuesday nights and Modern Family on Wednesdays

* $5 generic prescriptions

* glitter sign- pics coming soon

little things. happy for my blessed life.

Christmas pockets

Advent Calendar (or what we're calling the "Christmas pockets")

In keeping with tradition, I had to have an advent calendar. My mom had one. Hers was from the Current catalog, and she probably might have picked something a little more substantial if she realized how long she would be doing it. It was a chimney and the bricks were made of 24 little paper boxes. Every day, a box was opened and something fun was inside. Christmas socks, candy, a note that hinted to a fun adventure later that day. Since there were 4 kids, we each opened our own box every 4 days. And maybe, just maybe, there were some occasions when Mason and I slid out the boxes to snoop at our upcoming surprise. Mom was sneakier. She didn't do anything the until the night before. (Of course now I see that she just probably had one day at a time figured out- just like me.) We looooved our "boxes" and Mom even continued the boxes while I was in college- either mailing me little gifts or waiting until I came home from break and having a bunch of days for me all in a row. Eventually, we all got older and moved out (and in some cases, moved back) and the boxes got put away. Those little things were squashed and torn and had been loved for years!

I knew I had to have an advent calendar. And there were some precious ones out there!! Pottery Barn had an adorable one a few years back. I was going to make one out of little boxes and magnetize them and have a cookie sheet... Big plans. But with have two littles under 2 and didn't have the motivation/time/energy. Thanks to Pinterest, I was already defeated before beginning- too much inspiration!! :)


During Thanksgiving, my sister, Molly, insisted we make one. We went to Micheal's, picked out the fabric and stayed up late making it a couple of nights. Turned out pretty cute!

Basic steps- sorry, no great tutorial. Uploading pics is taking FOREVER!!! You need to know that we love to craft but our sewing skills, measurement skills- heck, most everything needs work. Our mantra was "That's fine." So- for all you Anal Annies, or Perfectionist Paulas- you might want to skip my directions. (Eww- Anal Annies sounds so gross.)

1. Buy a variety of fabrics. You'll need about a yard for the background and 6-8 different fabrics. The least Micheals will let you cut is 1/8 of a yard, which is enough for 3 or 4 pockets. Our fabric total was about 10 bucks because most was on sale. Most of the patterned fabrics were 44 cents!! The denim background only cost 99 cents, which HAD to have been a mistake but there were 8 people in line for Blanca to cut their fabrics after me, including one VERY serious quilter, and I didn't want to make anyone mad.



2. Iron your fabrics and make the little pockets. I used a piece of cardboard to make sure they were all the same size. We ironed inside out and then folded the top flaps down. The just used the sewing machine to hem the front and back and then zipped right up the sides. Very simple pockets.






3. Lay out all the pockets in the order you want them.... This was kinda like one of those move-one-square-at-a-time puzzles until the picture is finished. Super frustrating to me, because I would get it all arranged and then step back and have a row of all polka dots.


















4. Pin the background to fit with some space around the pockets and hem it up.

5. We added ribbon to the tops of all the pockets. We used fabric glue right on top of the stitching in the front and wrapped it around the back, pinning it until it was dry.

6. The pockets were just tacked on in the top right and top left corners. We figured that was so they could hold something bigger without as much bulging. Plus, it was 11:30 and we wanted to go to Black Friday sales at Wal-mart. Big mistake. Crazyville.


5. I made little tags using my Silhouette machine. Cut out the numbers using the font Impervious onto glittery green vinyl. I cut the circle tags with the machine, too. I used a red stamp pad to make a ring around the tags and added the numbers to each one. (I used Press-N-Seal to transfer my vinyl- it worked great! ) Punch a hole, string it up with yarn. Tada!


















6. I just pinned the tags on the inside of the pockets with safety pins. For one, I'm not crazy about the tags and if I'm out to Micheal's or Hobby Lobby, I'm going to look for something I like more. Just couldn't make myself drive into SA just for tags.... I also added some ribbon at the top, but don't love it, either.... A work in progress.


















Basically, I had to get it up and finished because we start it tomorrow. I have already learned I need to have it up higher. Pocket 23 is full of raisins and #19 is holding Barbie's shoes. I like that I can add more to it later- thinking ric-rac and jingle bells.

Love it for now. And especially love that it's finished.

lunch ladies

I love when people ask, "Are you enjoying staying home?"

Is the sky blue? Are poopy diapers stinky? Do I love bean and cheese tacos?

OF COURSE!!!

Loving NOT waking up at 5:30.
Not missing getting to talk to babies in the mornings.
Not having to write those $300 a week checks to daycare.
Not coordinating who was going to drop off the kids when David was out of town.
Not feeling like an hourglass was draining away each evening from 5:00-8:00 bedtime.
Not ever staying up past 10 on a "school night".

We are having a lot of home staying home. Mostly wearing only diapers. (Them, not me.) Playing outside, watching some Dora, or taking a good nap. Laughing. Making tunnels. Throwing around balloons. Sandbox fun.





















This is my favorite time of the day, though. We crank up music. Dance around in the kitchen while I make lunch. And two little girls gobble up everything I put on their plates. We laugh and chow down. Together. I love, love, LOVE it.


On this particular day, lunch was chicken taquitos, cheese dip, peas and carrots, jello and grapes. And a little Billie Jean was playing in the background.