Monday, Monday

I was singing this song as I made my latte this morning:

After I made my coffee, I got to cleaning. Why does the house always spin out of control over the weekend?? Anyway, in order to keep the kids from making a mess as I was cleaning the mess, I gave them each a wet rag and told them to have at it :) They thought it was great fun--I'm hoping they keeping thinking that for a very long time!

So, how do YOU clean??? One room a day? One floor a day? One task a day? All on Saturday??? Our house is somewhat large (to my, anyway) and I don't feel like I've gotten a handle on the housework yet. I spend so much time keeping the stuff picked up, that it's challenging to find time to do the actual cleaning (mopping, bathrooms, etc...) SO, in the comments, please, please, please, tell me what works for you!!!!

I almost forgot about these!!

I went scrapbooking last Friday night and my lovely friend Angela reminded me today that I didn't post the pages I made! So, I'm doin' it now :)

Aw, itty bitty Layla.

The further behind I get (actually, I don't like to say I'm behind on scrapbooking--maybe I'm just ahead on life, ha!), the more nostalgic I get when looking at these pictures. While we were at Archiver's, Becky asked if it makes me want another baby and I said, HA! No, but maybe it makes me want to freeze them where they are a little bit :) Just for awhile?

Mama loves coffee

Last year sometime, I showed you how I make a yummy latte at home. But, did you know you can make your own coffee syrup too??? For a long time, I used to buy the Archer Farms coffee flavoring from Target. It says "sugar free", but what that really means is that it contains Aspartame, which is even worse than sugar if you ask me and since that bugged me, and because I couldn't be bothered by ordering syrups on the internet, quite awhile ago I found out how to make my own syrup at home.

Isn't it pretty?

All you have to do is boil equal parts sugar and water and then flavor it.  I do a cup and a half of each, plus two teaspoons of vanilla (I've used both imitation and real vanilla extract and real actually does taste better). I've experimented with a few other flavors too, but can't seem to master peppermint, which I always have a hankering to try when the amazing peppermint mochas come out at Starbucks before Christmas. Peppermint extract is just super strong. I'll keep practicing :)

I made a tutorial once...

Hey! I hope you all had a wonderful long weekend :) I did. Although, Layla threw up a couple of times yesterday. BUT, she did it in the toilet!!!!! Well, she did it once on the floor too, but then she puked in the potty. I've never had a kid puke in the potty before. It's much less traumatic for everyone, let me tell ya.

Anywaaaaay, I was thinking I need to whip up some tutorials. Then, I remembered that I did actually write a tutorial of sorts quite awhile ago. I bought a pair of pants for Kelby at the consignment store, not realizing that the elastic was shot. I came up with an easy solution and he wore those pants lots and lots. I wanted to share it with you again and I also would like to draw your attention to my new sidebar button over there, under "my tutorials". Yes, plural, in that I'll hopefully be making some more in the future :)
Just click on that fancy button and it'll take you right to it!

I've been quilting away today, while my kids play happily outside. Ah, the weather, I hope it lasts :)

It's turning out quite pretty! I also made Natalie a dress last week, but keep forgetting to take a picture of her in it, even though she's worn it four times since. Have I mentioned Natalie is turning SIX next Wednesday???!!!! I know, hard to believe :)

That's all for now!
Cheers :)

Brilliant!

Recently, after untangling my ear buds from the mass of chargers in our desk drawer, I decided I'd had enough of that mess and googled ways to organize them. I took a before picture of the tangled mess, but lost it with my computer. Here's the after, though!

Genius, right!? Our basement door is right by our computer desk area, so this is perfect. (It's an over-the-door shoe organizer, if that's not clear). I hung it on the inside of the door, so it's all hidden away, then I labeled everything and am soooo happy with this new system!

This weather puts me in such a good mood--here's what I was enjoying a few minutes ago:

I love sitting on the porch swing in our backyard. The mature trees in our neighborhood make it so beautiful, any season, any time of day. I snapped this picture from my sliding door a few nights ago:

Beautiful.
I can't wait to deck the yard out this Spring! I'm gonna go get my gardening books out--I know it's still winter, but a girl can dream, right?? :)

Coming right along!

I hinted at my efforts to spiff up my living room a little bit a few posts ago. When I came home from doing some shopping on Saturday, I found Casey putting the cut-off legs back on my repurposed coffee table--what a guy :) A few months ago, this is as far as I'd gotten with the living room:

Here's what I have now!

And, a view without the kid stuff in the corner, haha:

This little table was given to us when we first got married and was our dining table when we lived in Georgia, where I painted it in our living room (while Casey was in Iraq), while watching The Princess Diaries over and over :) Now that we have a family it seems sooooo tiny to be a dining table!! Anyway, I'm so glad we kept it, since with shorter legs, it makes a perfect, super-sturdy coffee table. Next I'm going to try to make that kids' corner more attractive. I saw some really cute bins at Hobby Lobby, so I'm waiting for those to go on sale. I'm working on some fun artwork too--I would really like to get some vintage book covers scanned and then frame them. Like this one:

Any ideas on how to do that and how much it might cost??? Someday maybe that kids corner will be a reading corner or something, but for now, it's full of toys and that's okay by me--I have little kids, so why would I try to make my house look like I don't, huh?????

Cheers :)

I Heart Valentines Day!

Aw, I just love a celebration, don't you? We haven't done anything major for V-Day in several years (well, since having kids, actually, ha!) but I love it still--the simple exchange of cards and gifts from husband to wife, wife to husband, Dad to daughter, Mommy to kiddos, etc..is enough for me. Each kiddo got a long-admired plush from the Disney Store and I couldn't resist a photo op.

Then I poked Kelby in the eye...whoops, sorry Buddy:

But, it's okay, he's a thumb-sucker. Ya gotta love a good self-soother :)

Happy Valentines Day from our gang to yours!!! 

Starting Over

Well. The loss of my computer caused a big loss of photos. BUT, thankfully, since I put so many of my favorite pics on this here blog, so many were saved!! But, still. Today I got busy with the camera and started cataloging some everyday moments.

Mr. Mischeif in the pantry. (side note--I bet you can tell a lot about a person by what's in their pantry, right?)

And.... target acquired:

I printed the girls some paper dolls off of Marilee's Paper Doll Page. Kept them busy for quite awhile :)

Kelby wears these light-up Spider Man boots all. the. time. They wouldn't have been my first choice, but they were on clearance. And he loooooves them :)

This is the face I get when I tell him to say "Cheeeese" when he has Quaker rice snacks in his mouth:

Aw, what a cutie :)

I took this one of Natalie yesterday. Soooo pretty. And look, her eye is in focus! I don't always manage that, but I've been workin' on it. 

I got an early Valentines Day present from Casey yesterday! The little card made my day :)

I know this is a lot of pictures. I have I-didn't-back-up-my-computer-in-way-too-long-and-then-it-got-puked-on remorse. Maybe some of you have been there :) My last post was actually not the end of my crazy puke day. Kelby threw up two more times after that--both while sitting on my lap. The first of those times, I was so startled, I accidentally shoved him face-first into the ottoman. Whoops! Then I went upstairs to change my pants. As soon as I took my pants off...the doorbell rang, of course. As I scrambled to get my pants on, the kids opened the door, then went back to watching TV. So, when I got downstairs, the mailman was standing outside not really sure what to do, haha. 

BUT, my sister sent me an email about her own puking experiences of the last few days and it is too hilarious not to share!! Jana, hope you don't mind. 

"Elijah starting throwing up on Sunday night.  In the middle of the night, he woke me up by yelling my name.  I go in to his room to see what he needed, and he says, "Am I going to school tomorrow?"  I was like, "Elijah!  Why did you wake me up just to ask me if you were going to school tomorrow?"  And then all of a sudden he starts puking all over his bed!  I said, "Elijah!  Hurry up!  Go to the bathroom!"  So he runs to the bathroom, but before he could get to the toilet, he pukes all over the floor which splattered on the wall, and all on the side of the bathtub.  So then I said, "Elijah!  Go put your head over the toilet!"  I guess it never dawned upon me to give "How-to-throw-up" lessons to my kids, but after this incident, I think it may become necessary, because he's just standing over the toilet with his head way over it...not close to it like your supposed to.  So incidentally, throw up went all over the sides of the toilet!  Keep in mind too, that I was holding Andreas this whole time since he was NOT happy about being woken up by Elijah, and trying to tip toe around on the very rare patches of non-thrown-up-on flooring in the bathroom.  Anyway, that's why I commented on your blog about puke and getting up in the middle of the night being the worst combo...but I think a MAC and puke combo definitely is the worst.  So yesterday (Wed.) Hannah threw-up 6 times...but at least she can get it into the trash can with no mess.  And speaking of puke,  Abby is actually puking right at this very moment...if you can actually believe that.  WOW!  At least she did it in the toilet...which is why I'm happily continuing to type on while chuckling.  This makes #1 for Abby...I'm crossing my fingers that there will be no more.  We'll see what Julia does tonight...she didn't eat her dinner because she said that her tummy hurt.  Gosh...I hope I don't start throwing up...I'm definitely sick with something...but hopefully it won't lead to you-know-what!
Well...it looks like we're in the same boat!"

Okay, in case you're tired of reading about puke :) I made this pillow this week. I am working on getting the living room all pretty and not so sparse, so I did manage this pillow. 

I used this rag-ruffle pillow idea. Cute, right? Now, hopefully Casey will get off of work in time to cut the legs off a little table we are going to convert into a coffee table! (Yes, he's working on Saturday, boo.) I also have some ideas for artwork in this room. But, alas, so many projects and so little time. 

Please leave me some comment love and tell me I'm not the only one who has failure-to-back-up regrets!!!!

Comedy? Satire? Tragedy of Shakespearean proportions?

This day has been so bad, it's almost comical!! We had our little Valentines Day party today for play group, during which Angela took lots of pic with my camera and all the kids had a blast. After that, things started to go downhill. Layla lost her appetite and came down with a high fever and laid on the couch pretty much all day. Kelby woke up from his nap crying because he had puked all over himself. Cleaning up chunky throw-up is one of the worst parts of motherhood, I dare you to argue! :) Later, I loaded the pics from this morning on my computer, with Kelby on my lap and started looking through them. He puked all over my Mac. It won't recover. It survived the root beer incident, plenty of falls and Kelby's curiosities, but sadly, this was the end. :( So, I have no pics to share today, obviously. Don't worry, though, Casey has a laptop too, so I guess we'll be sharing for awhile. Oh, I almost forgot, a few minutes ago, I spilled a glass of milk inside the fridge. HA!

Snow Day!

I declared a snow day today--the fun kind, where ya don't do school and you eat ice cream in the middle of the day and watch a movie with popcorn :) Snow and cold have been ours in abundance and last week we stayed in all week, which made for some crankiness for all of us. This week I didn't want to do that, so we ventured to Cherry Creek Mall (because they have a parking garage and I could go from garage to parking garage without worrying about coats and boots). We had a coupon for Build-a-Bear. I got some Starbucks. We played at the almost empty play place. And I scored this table cloth at Anthropologie for TWENTY DOLLARS!!!! (Regular $100, if you can believe that.)

It was a good day and it did wonders for our moods :) Not that we haven't found plenty to do around here. This has been the common view from my kitchen window lately:

Yep, Kelby's wearing pink gloves--don't tell Casey.

Look, Mom, I'm a human tunnel!

The Thomas track would be more fun with a couple more trains and maybe a bridge set. His birthday's awhile away still, though, so he's making do.

Natalie designed this awesome outfit out of the tissue paper from my Anthropolgie bag and some ribbon she snuck out of my sewing room:

What a clever gal :)

I've been collecting some inspiration for my sewing room! I can't do the sewing room until I do the upstairs bathroom, which I'm dreading because of all the dreaded wallpaper, but these photos are helping motivate me to just get 'er done!
This is my favorite:

(source)

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Watcha think? Bet you can't guess what my wall color is going to be, hahaha.

Housebound

I know we're not alone in this deep freeze. I'm sure a lot of you have been spending a lot of time inside too :) Casey has been taking our Trailblazer to work because the truck won't start due to the cold, so it's made for a little stir-craziness here at home. It's currently snowing again, but at least tomorrow should be a little warmer and the kids can go play in it! I can't very well let them out when it's below zero. Soooo, here's what's been goin' on.

I finished the girls' tent. It's one of those projects I really don't want to look at anymore now that it's done, if ya know what I mean.

But the kids really love it, so I suppose it was worth it. Of course, I left out the windows (because it was time-consuming enough as it is!) and the first thing they said when I hung it was, "Can you put some windows?" I said no way :)

I have a little mischief-maker here lately:

He's keeping me on my toes, to say the very least. I'm going to buy several of those child-proof doorknob thingies tonight to keep him out of the pantry, the linen closets, the bathroom and the basement. He's done a couple of funny things to Casey's computer too. One time he somehow made it to where a voice dictated every key Casey typed. It was annoying. Then, he somehow changed the screen to a photo negative effect. Both times, it took forever to figure out how to undo it. It's funny now, but Casey was a bit irritated at the time :)

But hot chocolate keeps the little guy happy! Even if it's from a purple cup--please don't tell him that's not his name on it.

And Woody and friends joined us for breakfast this morning:

Here's to a warmer tomorrow. Balmy 40's, here we come!!!

Kate

I'm excited about this post. I promised I'd share who the little hat is for and I'm making good :) Kate is the 4-year-old daughter of a friend (Amanda) of a friend (Julie) of mine (I've only met Amanda twice in person, but I consider her a good friend anyway!) Kate was diagnosed this past week with Wilms tumor, a cancer of the kidneys and is beginning what will be a long process of chemo treatments. Julie asked if I could make a few hats and I was elated about the idea because my heart was so burdened for Amanda and I wanted to help, but didn't know how. So I got to work.

I made a couple hats and a flannel pillow case too.
But, I couldn't leave out Kate's little brother :)

 As I was finishing these up, I thought of something I can make Amanda too. That's how projects pile up on me, haha.

The reason I am excited to share this with you all is (first) because this precious family would covet your prayers for Kate! And for the rest of the family too. And (second) because I was reminded through this process that God can use the most unrelated and smallest of our gifts and talents to help others. Money is not always required to bless someone else.

I pilfered this picture from Facebook, so you'd have a mental picture when you're praying :)