tripletasking

WOWZA!  I have about a million things I'm in the middle of right now.  I debated all night long whether to blog or to project.  So, I'm currently in the middle of my second project tonight and going to get a quick post in there.

I attempted to make a mod podge canvas tonight...inspired by a little bird canvas from PB Kids that was displayed in Addie's room.  We'll see how mine turns out.  I took a small 5x5 canvas and mod podged a piece of cute bird scrap paper to it.  I wanted to use fabric, but haven't been able to locate a sweet bird fab I like yet.  I'll keep looking.

I'm also in the middle of a darling little yarn project...inspired by my fave store of all time.  Anthro.  It looked beautiful in the store.  We'll see how my version turns out.

I also managed to do a little thrift-tiquing this weekend...with the whole clan.  So that lasted about 15 minutes.  I was able to score a vintage Pyrex dish.  Sooooo cool.  It's white with an orange geometric pattern on it.  Love it.  And I purchased an old mayonnaise jar full of vintage spools.  Pretty cool.

Also, I got my lovely necklace, I ordered on one of my online sprees, tonight in the mail.  Did I mention I love getting packages in the mail?  It is perfect.  And it's personalized with "Mama", which is what my little sweeties call me.

This was a whole lot of randomness.
Happy last day of January.

XXOO

Ear Mups. Slathes. Chickmunks.

Little words like these melt my heart.  Am I a terrible mother because I don't correct these...cause I think they sound sooooo darn sweet and innocent when they say these things?!  Yesterday we went thrifting...the whole fam, and before we went in Add asked me if I had my ear mups!!!  : )  Love it.  I bought these ridiculously HUGE furry ear muffs from Francesca's (without trying them on before purchasing) and they look just that.  Ridiculous.  On me anyway.  They look pretty darling on everyone else...but me.

Then my little miss proceeded to discuss the "slathes" on our way out of the store.  Or as the rest of us may refer to them, slaves.  : )  I have absolutely no idea how she got onto this topic...I vaguely remember discussing Abe Lincoln.  I believe her daddy gave her and Lamb a penny, and ol' Abe sparked the conversation of "slathes".  As it was the holiday for MLK on Monday, she had lots to share with Grahm that she learned, about the 60's.  She amazes me every day.  Oh the things she is learning!

Saturday night we spent the evening at the good ol' Dreamland movie theater.  Hadn't been there since I was about 11.  And now we've started making the trek into Carson on a frequent basis to see a show.  20 bucks.  The four of us to get in, three popcorn, three beverages, and four candies.  CAN'T BEAT THAT!  We saw Alvin and the Chickmunks.  Again.  Apparently I was dozing periodically throughout the first showing cause there were a few scenes I didn't recall!

Our Sunday has been pretty perfect.  I spent the better part of the morn trying to repair the stupid bobbin in my sewing machine.  Again.  Grrrrrrrr. And I sewed Addie the cutest little owl pillow, but my machine broke before I could get Grahm's horseshoe pillow done.  He was more than a little devastated.  The kids have played all day, we snuggled in bed watching movies, and I enjoyed a late afternoon of reading blogs and drinking coffee!

We've had a reallllly good weekend.  Just being lazy and hanging out.  We need more of these.

What did you do all weekend?  Suz?  Les?  ; )

xoxo

What's For Din-din?

This is by far, theeee most stressful part of my day.  Is that silly or what?  I can feel the anxiety rising up in me as I scrounge around to make something everyone will eat and enjoy, meanwhile trying to entertain and/or listen to my kids and the 300 questions they're asking me.  Frazzled much?

I even re purposed a cute little chalkboard (that I may or may not have "borrowed" from school) and my plan was to use it as our weekly menu board.  As you'll notice, it says pizza roll-up for Friday...I think that was on there from December sometime.

We spent most of the weekend at home, for a change, so I did try out a couple of new Pinterest recipes.  Friday night we had Sour Cream Noodle Bake.  And Saturday a.m. I baked a pumpkin loaf.  They were both tasty!  Sadly, I managed to scarf down most of the pumpkin loaf on my own.  Good thing it was supposed to be low-cal!



Saturday morn, my children were up at the crack of dawn, (which was waaay out of the ordinary for them) so we spent a little while snuggled in bed.  Any other "school day" I have to peel them out of bed and beg, plead, and bribe them to get ready, but not on Saturday!  Trying to catch a smidgen more shut-eye, while they watched t.v., was virtually useless.  So at 7:45 we headed down to the kitchen.

And as promised, it was even better the second day.

I don't know why I can't get myself more organized for dinner time.

Apparently I must like that feeling that my chest is going to explode from pressure.
Goal for this week.
Plan meals.
Eliminate nightly stress.
What do you make for dinner?

xo

P.S.  Gotta full menu ready to go.

Mini Home Tour

Here are some random shots of our home.  We live in a verrrrry old house...it was my great-grandparents house and there are some great vintage things that were left behind!

The "island" in out kitchen was in the basement.  It was near the "coal closet".  Told you it's an old house.

This chest used to be my parents.  Check out my new Holga camera I purchased this weekend.  It's mint.  I'm interested to see how my shots turn out.  I only ruined one role of film trying to load it.  It's probably been roughly 10 years since I worked with real film.  I'm also loving my pitcher collection.  My mom and I went to Midwest Pickers on Friday night and found some old tin cups and a green tin pitcher.  We're going to have to fight over that pitcher.










The "new" trunk in the living room that is now our coffee table was out in one of the old out buildings.

    

Love the color of green.

Also picked up another vintage camera at Midwest Pickers too.  Another one for the collection.

And the bedroom.  Here's the new king.  Don't mind that it's not on a frame yet.  I'm actually debating now because I think it will be too obtrusive for the space, whether or not to put it on a frame or try and do something with pallets?
Here is the bunting.

XO

muffin morning

Today is Sunday!  But it's really like our Saturday because we have Monday off for the holiday!  Wooooohoooo.  I'd like to extend my personal thanks to Martin Luther King Jr.  For several reasons, of course.

My hubby had to work today, and when I was awakened by a pretty little owl eyed girl this morning at 7:30 (Grahm Robert was already snuggled away in bed with mama), she declared she wanted muffins this morning!  Who doesn't love breakfast cupcakes?  So I "rested" my eyes for a few more minutes and then shimmied downstairs in search of my favorite box mix of oat bran muffins.  No dice.  I did stumble across a package of Betty's chocolate chip muffins...from 2009.  So now I was up a creek.

I quickly got on the iPad and searched the net for an oatmeal muffin recipe.

ingredients

 

soaking the oats

                      

                           going in

finished product

And then when my sweeties and I were enjoying our oatmeal muffins (and their S'mores pop tart) I happened to run across this great little muffin cookbook I had stashed away.  This is what I'm planning on for our next muffin morning!

Oh, and this week, Addie was studying M at school, so I got an invitation from her to eat breakfast.  Muffins for Moms!

Paper Chain

I have a long weekend!!!  Soooo, that inevitably means a long weekend of projects.  I purchased a couple of new sewing books so I could figure things out.  I started with the Idiots Guide, and found myself rereading the first chapter at least 4 times.  It was just the basics.  Eeeek.

In my wonderful new sewing book there are some cute and fun little projects to get me going on my new adventure.  My first sewing project, (not really sewing at all...  But, still fun and crafty.)  A cute little bunting with adorable paper.  My favorite is a darling piece with the owls and baby deer.

I finally finished and hung my fabric looms...check out this pretty fabric.  I am slightly obsessed with purchasing fabric recently.  This afternoon I am going to attempt to cover a pillow, possibly pillows.  For the living room I got a pretty deep blue velvet and some other floral fabrics.  So lovely.

I'm also attempting some DIY artwork...but my stickers aren't sticking.  Bummed.  My grandma painted a lot and I (so lucky) got several of her paintings!  So, I picked one of them to put one of my most favorite sayings on.  Must get to craft store and get some stickier stickers asap!

The other night I stenciled a baby blue heart on a canvas tote.  I.  Love.  It.  I'm using it to tote school stuff to all my meetings.  I'm going to make a larger one too.  I call it my Blue Valentine bag.

 And last...I have promised my children I would construct an a-frame tent for them!  They are sooooo excited and I think I can do it.  Luckily my dad had some scrap wood and a dowel, so yay!  I'll let you know how it turns out!

Flashy

I have been experimenting with some flashyyyyyy tights the past couple of days.  They were both pretty eye-popping...  And, today I wore a beautiful sweater skirt that my hubby got me for Christmas.  It was not only pretty, but it was comfy and cozy, and I got quite a few compliments on it.  He done good!














Here are a couple of cute new accessories I've been sporting too.  Two store bought and one DIY.  Enjoy.

Waiting Patiently...Kind of.

Well, the teaching thy self the sewing is a sloooooooowwwww process.  Things went ok the other day, and Add was very excited about her new headbands (both of them).  That's all I attempted.  I'm going to keep at it though.  I bought some more adorable fabric that I'm going to whip into darling headbands.  You'll see.



















Also, I am itching to get thrifting.  Some of my gal pals at school introduced me to a new place.  It sounds amaaaahhhhzing and I think there are going to be lots of vintage finds.  I.  Cannot.  Wait.  To.  Check.  It.  Out.  My mother swears I have tooooo much junk crammed into my tiny house, but I can't help it.  My wish list includes:

1.  a vintage head/foot board of some sort...however we just purchased a new king sized bed, and I'm pretty sure those didn't exist back in the ol' days.  Might be out of luck on that one.
2.  a pretty set of drawers
3.  rotary dial phone
4.  vintage prints
5.  vintage fabric for covering some pillows
6.  chairs...can't have enough of those, right.  I might be a hoarder of chairs, like my grandfather was of desks.

I am also suppppper excited to get my photos in the mail that I finally ordered online.  I need to add that to my list of 2012 Goals.  PRINT PICTURES YOU TAKE.  I take a million, but never print them.  Duh.
I purchased a few ceramic containers from Anthropologie, that resemble little produce baskets, to store my photos in.  I'm also saving up for a Fuji Instax camera.  Soon.  It will be mine.  Oh yes, it will be mine.

XO

Holy Craft!

Lots of little projects going on today.  First and foremost...first attempt at teaching myself to sew! I'm going to attempt those darling little fabric headbands for Addie.  And of course, a few for myself.

                                

Picked up some cute fabric from my fave place...Hobby Lobby, and I am excited to get going.  I'm also planning on making a little fabric display with some darling swatches and looms.



Ugh.  Unfortunately I had some not so fun tasks to take care of first.  Had.  To.  Clean.  Out.  Kids.  Toys.  And my dreaded closet.  Yick.  Took me the better part of the afternoon to get through the bottomless toy boxes and to organize my closet.  Good news is, I have two LARGE bags of clothing and two medium sized bags of shoes to donate!  Room for new stuff I guess.



Sewing tomorrow!

a few of my favorite things

I am beat.  First day back to school since Christmas (it's a two day week this week) and I am exhausted!  I am sooooo ready to do nothing but hang out this weekend.  One major project looms ahead of me though.  Must.  Clean.  Out.  Closet.  I have so many pieces of clothing hanging in my closet (which is actually housed in Addison's room because we live in a 500 year old house and there are literally 2 closets in the whole entire house...  Sorry, I do love my old house.) that the bar fell about a month ago so there are approximately 350 shirts/sweaters/dresses/pants/cardigans laying on top of at least 20 pair of shoes in my daughters room.  Must.  Donate.  ASAP.  It's been on my to do list for at least a week, but I just can't make myself do it.

On the upside...I got my new Minnetonka fringe boots yesterday in the mail (love getting packages in the mail) and I could wear them every day!  I love 'em.

And, since I've been making all my 2012 to do lists... I have to show the most prettiest little notebook I got at, what Addie would refer to as "my favorite store", Anthro.  Love the cover and the golden leaf print on the pages.

And last but not least.  Leg warmers.  It has been a ridiculous 55-65 degrees here.  In Iowa.  All through the two week Christmas vacation.  It felt more like spring break!  I want some snow (better now than in May when I'm yearning for pedi's and strappy sandals).  Also, so I can whip out my leg warmers.  Mine are still a work in progress...a little DIY project, if you will.

Here is Add before dance lessons the other night.  Like mother; like daughter.  

Better get to bed.  It'll be 45 minutes earlier than last night.
TGIF tomorrow!

twenty twelve

I had decided my NY's resolution was going to be to learn to sew this year.  Since I typically have about 2 or 3 resolutions, and never ever seem to stick with any of them, I thought hey, I'll give sewing a try.  Especially now that I'm sooooo into crafts and DIY projects.  (Thank you Pinterest.)  But now that I've been scoping out some great blogs recently, I got the idea to do some goals for 2012 instead of resolution(s).

Not sure if there's really a huge difference, but calling them goals makes them seem more obtainable.  Makes me feel like they're things I can work towards and maybe follow through with!  There are quite a few, but I have high hopes.

Oooh, I just thought of another one to add to my list.  Get to bed a little earlier...this mama needs to be gettin' some more beauty sleep since I'm getting up there!



Of course, my sweet little pumpkin Addie, had to come up with a few lists of her own when she saw mama was making one.  Here are her "goals" for 2012.  Love her!

Nighty night.

Addie + Grahm = Love

Look how they've grown.  I couldn't help myself but give a little glimpse of these two sweetie pies.

Sew What...

That is a great question!  What am I going to sew?  Well it's 2012, and typically my NY's resolutions never seem to stick...but since my goal in my 30s is to become a DIYer, my res this year is to learn to sew.

First step:  Gotta get a sewing machine.

I have dabbled in this craft before (with the use of my mom's sewing machine) and have made many a pillow; but that is absolutely as far as I've ever gotten.  I don't have any idea of what it is I'd like to learn to sew, but I think it'll be fun.  Now, remember...this girl can't really even fix a missing button with thread and needle, so cross your fingers.

My first projects are going to be
     1.  headbands for Addie (thank you Pinterest)
     2.  slip covers for my 1960s computer chairs
     3.  mend up the curtains I just went ahead and chopped off with scissors the other day.

Sew, now that I have a sewing machine on my wish list, I've got to convince somebody to get me one.  Or just steal my mom's again.  Think she'll notice?