Power Tool Time!

O.k........
I went a little overboard and decided to jump into the boys room and re-arrange a few things. I took down the bunk bed and made it into 2 twin beds, I changed shelves, moved furniture and it's a huge mess! Can't take pics yet because it looks terrible. I got POWER TOOLS for Christmas.....going to put them to good use. :)

A challenge

4 places to organize in 4 days....... I'm challenging you to find 4 places in your home to organize in the next 4 days. It can be small, large, a room, a drawer, whatever needs to be done before the new year.

I thought of this because my bathroom drawers are so bad I can't open them! I wonder how many of you have a place like that? We can't start the new year off with clutter in our lives!! Are you with me?

My 4 places will be:

1. Bathroom drawers

2. Caitlin's closet

3. Laundry room

4. under kitchen sink

Now, I'm not sure if I can be brave enough to take pictures of the before, but after might make the cut. :)

How in the world!

Leave it up to Dawson to get his hair stuck in my paper punch! I had to take the whole thing apart to get his hair out of it! Don't ask what he was thinking about when he did this.....Boys! My husband said when he was younger with braces he hid in the closet and put a 9 volt battery to his teeth to see what would happen.......

The ONLY thing Caitlin wanted for Christmas was a "pink singing bunny". Kind of hard to find. So, two days before Christmas I found this pink stuffed toy that talked and giggled. At midnight on Christmas eve I made two bunny ears and hot glued them to the toy.

Looks like a bunny to me.......

Caitlin wasn't falling for it. She liked the toy but it definitely wasn't a bunny!

She got barbie dolls too. I'm thinking of taking the hot glue gun to them also. She is always losing the shoes off the dolls. That won't be a problem much longer.

The boys got some transformers they have been wanting. Troy said every toy that beeps and buzzes should come with an earphone jack. :)

Now lets get to me.....POWER TOOLS! Woo Hoo! So Happy:) Lowe's had a deal for a jigsaw, palm sander, drill and light all battery powered for $39.00.

I took the kids to the mall to get something for Troy. They picked out a shirt and a chair massager. I had a gift card from J.C. Penny that I had for 3 years! I know....I just don't like to shop. We used it for Troys gifts.

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve.....

It's Christmas Eve and two of three kids are sleeping, I have cinnamon rolls rising, and I'm going to start wrapping soon.

I vow every year to do things sooner and have everything done early, but, that never seems to happen. I had a list that just kept growing. I did manage to make the kids P.J.'s that turned out so cute!

I had a busy month with sewing and crafting and baking! I made dozens and dozens of cookies and had fun being with friends at parties. Looking forward to tomorrow and hanging out at home.

The one kid is still up, she better get her visions of sugar plums dancing in her head or it will be a very long night!

Santa

We went to see Santa the other night.

I told Dylan we could go Monday, but he thought we were running out of time. It was raining and late, but when Dylan pulls out those puppy dog eyes....well....we went to the mall.

Santa was the very best! He HoHoHo'd, he sang to Dylan, "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth". When Caitlin pulled out her list and gave it to him, he started reading a "to do" list. Pick up the dry cleaning, wash the dog, do the dishes.......Caitlin laughed and said, "nooooo, it says a pink bunny!" Santa HoHOHo''d again. He said he would fax their lists up to his elf's. Dylan could sleep soundly knowing his list was in good hands. :)

My scanner is off right now, but I will post the picture of them on Santas lap later. Right now I'm in the middle of cooking 5 doz. cookies for a cookie exchange tomorrow. pics of those to come too!

Merry Christmas!

getting ready....

Sorry about letting another week go by without an update. I have tried many times to sit and write a post but it just wasn't happening.
This week I finished up some embroidery orders and next week is for my family orders. Troy thought it would be a nice tradition to start making the kids P.J's every year for Christmas eve. I got some cute flannel at the store and it's just waiting for me to cut it up.
I went to some Christmas parties this week. One for my ladies prayer group and another a home schooling group. I have another cookie exchange next week too......I'm beginning to not fit in my clothes. which leads me to........
My New Years Resolution.........
Oh how I love to get e mails from long lost friends who talk me into getting "active" and training for a half marathon! ( And I hear she has started without me)
Yesterday Troy was looking through the ads in the paper and showed me someone walking on a treadmil and said, " OH LOOK! That's what it's for!"
So I thought I would have a section on the side of my blog to keep track of my time and miles. If anyone would like to join me....consider this your official invitation. I'm thinking of starting a little earlier than New Years, just to get in the habit. How about Monday. Who's with me on this? :)

christmas pictures

Taking some pictures next to the tree was today's slip in the calender. Here are some of them....

Updating the ol blog!

Thought I'd get up to date on here.

We put up our Christmas Tree. We are going to have to get 2 trees next year to hold all our ornaments. This tree is pretty packed solid!

We have our school room up to date and cleaned out for our second quarter. I made this cute calender with little pockets. I put a paper tucked inside, that has something fun to do as a family for each day leading up to Christmas.

Other than school and working on little bits for The Pink Blueberry, I have been watching Christmas shows with kids and playing games with them.

This is one of my new additions to TPB blog....

I had Dawson take a picture of Sam in his new "coat"

Now, before you roll your eyes, It got pretty cold here a few nights ago and this little guy was warm and cozy in his Christmas green crochet jacket! I made another one and gave it to my friends dog, they thought it was great. So many people have been telling me to open a pet collection. So here it is! You saw it first. :)

cute idea

I thought this was the cutest idea! A homemade lunchable! I took a muffin pan and put portions of food in each cup. The kids thought it was fun to eat out of it. I'm thinking of making one a taco theme with each section taco toppings, or a sandwich wrap with deli meat and cheese. It's great for vegetable portions and dips. I'll have to get creative and maybe try baking a section with meatloaf and corn and then fill up the rest with a roll and a dessert. ( like a t.v. dinner ) What would you do?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thankful for so many things this year. I was on a roll of having a stress free Thanksgiving until about 45 min. before everyone arrived. That's when I decided to peel the potatoes and put all the peelings down the disposal. All the sudden the other side of the sink filled up with yucky water. I turned everything off and waited for it to drain. It started coming up the other side of the sink. I turn the disposal on again......the other side of the sink fills up with yucky water again. We ( you know I really mean Troy ) had to tear out the pipes under the sink and clean out all those potato skins I peeled. He didn't get too mad at me, he always tells me what I should not put down the disposal. I guess potato peels are on the list now :)


We started off the day with homemade cinnamon rolls. The recipe is actually called, "clone of a cinnabon" and it's right on! The kids LOVE them! Look them up on "all recipes web site."


Had beautiful weather, we ate outside on the back porch. A great Thanksgiving!


I finished my red blocks last night........




love these!

These are just too cute!

Next are red ones that say, "Let it snow".

Happy Thanksgiving!! I better go clean and put my crafts away :)

four-T-one

I'm officially in my forties!

And no better way to celebrate than with 3 little kiddos who love me dearly! Every time I turned around they would tell me, "Happy Birthday!" Dylan kept asking when everybody was coming over for the party. :) I told him, we're all here!

Since Troy had to help a friend build a deck, and I had some things to get done, we will celebrate after Thanksgiving. ( with a cake ) Notice in the picture a candle in a pizza. Caitlin wanted to light a candle and put it in her mashed potatoes.....

Can't say I'm excited to be 41, but, very thankful to get here. Let's see what this year has in store.....

Job 14:9

This is the only thing left in the garden. This one lonely tomato. I haven't watered it, or moved it to get the best sunlight, I haven't fertilized it or pruned the plant for months. In fact, this plant was from Troys upside down garden he had started. The plant died out months ago. We took it off the post and just left the bucket by the fence. We cut off all the dead branches and that was that.

When the plant started growing from the dried out, cut off twigs that were left behind, I would say to the kids, " should we let this plant know it can't grow here?" Then it started to flower. I thought there was no way we could get a tomato. I don't water it and it hasn't rained in forever! It was even in the shade of the fence.

At the scent of water it will flourish

And put forth sprigs like a plant.

Job 14:9

This is now more than a plant for me. It's God telling me, " Look what I can do with nothing." What I see on the outside as dead, dried up, and finished (aka my life sometimes) God took with just a scent of water ( aka a prayer? a little faith? ) It will flourish. ( notice it didn't say, might flourish, could flourish )

Now I have to say, to me, this is a God thing, because I have tried to root very healthy plants last year with absolutely no success. I couldn't make it happen on my own! Leave it to the Lord to show me such a valuable lesson in leaning on Him right in my own garden!

I no longer joke about telling the plant it can't grow where it did. I now look forward to seeing this little tomato ripen up.....right where God put it!

Consider it all.......

O.k as you can tell I'm getting into this whole shabby chic thing.

This time, it's with some scrap wood that was going to be thrown away.

The first thing I did was sand it down a little. Then I spray painted it white and distressed the edges with sand paper. I didn't take a picture of the step where I covered the white paint with some stain and wiped it off. It kind of warmed up the white. Then I stenciled the letters on in black.


This picture is two stories in one. I put my blocks outside on my front porch on this rod iron corner shelf. This will be my next project. Troy found this at the thrift store a couple days ago and surprised me with it. He actually said, " I thought you could shabby chic it". I was totally floored by his comment, but happy with his great find of only $4.00! You bet I'll shabby chic that up!
So I have been wondering what this shelf would hold. then I saw this picture....

http://thecreativecrate.blogspot.com/2009/11/thakful-blocks.html

I would have loved to do that, but, it was all about what I already had. This project cost nothing. I had everything on hand. I really like the way they turned out too. I'm thinking a little greenery and some votives and I have a cozy little welcome at my front door.

DIY #3

I take terrible before pictures. I'm just so excited to start I forget to do that step. That said....

This was a dresser that Troys Grandpa gave us a while back. It has two drawers on top that I took out. I sanded down the grain and painted it white (of course) and painted the handles that were bronze, a hammered black color.

This is the almost finished project. I want to line the back board with burlap and add some of those cute Pottery Barn lined baskets. I really wish I took a before picture with all the drawers in it. This looks much better! It took a couple cans of white spray paint, the black we had all ready, so I just used it. Total cost about $6.oo. It's going into the boys room.

Fun stuff

http://thepinkblueberry.blogspot.com/

DIY project 2

Troy found some shutters on craigslist for free. I wanted to make Caitlin a headboard out of some of them. (weeks go by) and we finally got around to painting them and getting them up.

Here is what they looked like before

We painted them white and then I distressed them a little around the edges with sand paper. Troy put some wood on the back to hold everything together and then he hung them on the wall.

I love the way they turned out!

It's not completely done. I have been making pillow shams out of her old crib sheets and I don't have enough pillows. ( can you really have to many pillows? ) The pink pillow in the center is one of them.

So total cost was just a few dollars for spray paint. Shutters free, wood free! Happy MOM!!

Shout out of thanks to my husband who made it all perfect!!

Halloween 2009

We started off Halloween with Dylan loosing yet another tooth! That would be all 4 front teeth gone!

We made Carmel apples and pumpkin sugar cookies.

Caitlin was the only one sold on the apples. Of course it was difficult for Dylan to bite into one, he might have liked it if he didn't have to work so hard at eating it. :)

I made a stuffed Pumpkin for dinner....I love these, you really can't mess one up.......unless your me, and leave the house with it in the oven and burn it! :) It should be nice and golden color. The insides are what counts.....and they were fine!

I left, to take the kids up the street to a trunk er treat. We decided to go at the last minute. There was no doubt that Caitlin would be Cinderella, Dylan had an old star wars costume to wear but Dawson had nothing. We looked around the house and he ended up going as a basket of dirty laundry. :)

A good day for everyone. I'm glad to be home in my pajamas right now. We are getting ready to play some board games to top off the night. Happy Halloween :)

Have you been wondering where I've been? HAHA


Sometimes I'm on the ball and sometimes, not so much!





It's been late nights of sewing around here. I'm enjoying it! I'm hoping to get something in my etsy store next month....fingers crossed!





I've got some DIY projects that I'm working on too......


Troy found some shutters on craigslist ( for free) and I'm going to make Caitlin a headboard for her bed out of them.


I've also been taking her old crib sheets and making pillow shams out of them. I kinda like that shabby chic look for her room. ( love having a girl! )

This pic was my inspiration for the pillow shams.....


I'll take pictures of mine when they are all done... :) I finished one and I love it. I have at least 4 sheets so it should fill up her bed nicely.

Well I'm off to work...... :)

The Pumpkin Patch

Today was a beautiful day to go to the Pumpkin Patch! Cool, crisp air and sunshine! We've been waiting all week to go.

I was hoping to have a pumpkin or two in the garden by now but I pulled out the plant a few weeks ago because it just wasn't blooming. It was turning brown and dying. :(

Having fun with these pumpkins :)

The big deal!

Troy loves going to the thrift store. He will go and take pictures of things and send them to me on his phone. I usually say no way, we don't need it, don't bring it home with you!

He went the other day and sent me a picture of this armoire. The problem was I didn't get the message until later. Way Later! He told me that it was for sale for $18.00 and that it was from PotteryBarn! It was 5 o'clock and I sent him back to the store to get it, praying nobody snatched it through the day.

I was so excited to hear it was still there and we have it in the playroom now. It just tickles me, I've wanted one for so long! Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you your hearts desire!

http://thepinkblueberry.blogspot.com/

workin for a livin :)

My DIY

I've been looking at some great Do it Yourself blogs out there that take old furniture and turn it into something totally cool. Well I thought I'd try it in a small scale. Here is my first try......don't laugh :)

This canvas and candle holder I bought at the thrift store for a whole dollar. If you look up 12 x 12 canvas, they run around $25.00 so at .50 it was a bargain.

First thing I did was paint the canvas white.

Then I had a boutique kinda painting idea come to mind......This is what I came up with.

It now has a home in Caitlin's room.

Halloween Pasts

Sorry about the delay in posting this week, minor scanning problems...

I am going out of order again....

As I was looking at pictures this week end I came across some Halloween ones of the boys.

Dawson wore the pumpkin costume when it was his first Halloween, I pulled it out of storage and put it on Dylan for his first Halloween.

Dawson loved dinosaurs. We found this alligator costume at Costco one year but they didn't have his size. We bought one that was 2 sizes too big for him. He wore that thing out! He thought he was a T-Rex!

This was our last Halloween that we went Trick or Treating. When we lived in our apartment, we always went to a friends neighborhood to go out. When we bought our home I thought how nice it would be to just go around our own block and be done with it. I remember trying to get the boys dressed up, and kids were all ready coming to the door, I didn't have my candy ready to pass out, it was chaos for a while so I told my mom to take Dawson and start without me, I was just putting Dylan in his stroller and I would catch up. Dawson went to our neighbors house and then started walking to the next house. I come out see where they were and started heading that way. I just caught up with them when he rang the doorbell. The kid that lived there opened the door and screamed at Dawson with one of those ghost masks that they wear in those scary movies. Dawson started to cry and cry! The mom came to the door and tried her best to make him feel better. Dawson said that was it.....and we went home. Never went out again.

At least we didn't have to walk far. :)