A Toddler's Solution

Syd's little body is so cold all the time so when the rest of us are in a light-weight t-shirt, she's bundled up in layers, I guess that comes from not having much fat on her... yes, that's a nice problem to have. At breakfast lately, she's been saying, "Can't eat, I'm cold." So I'd tell her to hurry and eat so she can get warm. She must have grown tired of my response so she solved her own problem this morning. It did land her blanket a guaranteed wash but I think it's a rather smart solution, what do you think?

When You're Small...

...you can hide anywhere. It took me a minute to find these sneaky little girls but when I found this mess...

I knew where they were.

A New "V" Addition

This is the latest addition to my collection of "V's." I found a 12x12 piece of wood at JoAnn's and mod podged scrapbook paper on it then painted and sanded my letter and screwed it onto the board for added durability.


And I found this "V" tile for .80 in Hobby Lobby's 80% off isle along with this urn-looking accessory next to it for $2.50 (does your Hobby Lobby have an 80% off isle too!?) along with this frame that I didn't know what to do with because it was broken (hence the reason for its' markdown) so I brought both treasures home and put two and two together... literally. I just glued my "V" tile over the frames' glass and painted the outer edges of the frame black and waa laa, another "V" to add to my collection.

Farewell to Our Car of "Firsts"

Cam traded in his Jimmy over the weekend for a Honda Accord-a smaller and more reliable car. So we bid farewell to this wonderful car of "firsts" for us. It witnessed our first date, our first kiss, part of our engagement, it was the car we brought our first baby home in and we made many trips with this car across the U.S. We thought it wouldn't last a week past our honeymoon and six years later, it's proven us wrong! Thanks for hangin' in there dear old Jimmy... we'll miss you!

My Valentine

Even though it's expected every year, I still love that Cam makes the effort to show how much he cares. I woke up to this beautiful bouquet of flowers and he had scattered hugs and kisses candy in every place I would be that day which the girls and I had fun finding throughout the day. I love you Cam! Happy Valentine's Day!

I Lied...More Crafts

Okay, this really is the last craft idea I'll share. Cameron's getting worried that this has become my way of dealing with the stress of moving..maybe so, but look on the bright side, we get to take these things I make with us! Okay, not really a reason to continue doing crafts, I know since my house is being neglected because of it; but... look what else you can do with styrofoam balls! I just covered the balls with that fake moss you can buy at the store for around $2 a bag and used it on top of a small vase like this...


Or you can use it in bigger bowls like I have here on one of my favorite pieces of furniture...


I can't take credit for this next idea, but I have a couple of glass wide mouth vases that I want to display but don't really know what to do with, so I saw the idea of using black beans, kidney beans, navy beans or dried peas inside the vase turning it into a useful candle holder. It would look even cuter if you tied a simple ribbon around it with a tassel or an old-fashioned key hanging off it. And while you're looking, do you see my new "find" at the thrift store? (it's the cream colored vase) Isn't she a beauty?

Itch No More

My itch to craft ended last night as Cam went on a "guys night out" and I stayed home and made this for Valentine's Day. I got the tin can from Target's dollar spot (love that place!). Here's the tutorial I followed...

I also made these rosette balls for Syd's room (I really should move her out of the "baby nursery" since she is almost three, but then that means my baby is actually growing up... I'm not quite ready for that)...

and then I stumbled upon yet another crafty blog (and she's an avid thrift store shopper for cool decor and trinkets... music to my heart!) where I made this incredibly SIMPLE monogrammed platter in less than 3 minutes... no joke! Here's the tutorial for the platter...



Instead of buying and spray painting a cool platter from the thrift store, I just used one of my excess chargers that we have for fancy occasions. The font I used was Monotype Corsiva in MS Word with a font size of 600. But you can always download cool free fonts here as well. Then I did just as the tutorial said, and glued it on using nothing other than a basic glue stick! Of course this is for decoration only, but how simple?

Anyway, I've scratched my crafting itch for now, thanks for admiring my proud crafts with me!

My Itch to Craft

I look at some of those creatively cute "crafting" blogs online and wish I had the creative juices (and time and energy) to create a blog and cutesy decorations like that but I just don't. However, I am really good at copying and recreating ideas like those on the "crafting" blogs so my friend, Ginny lit a spark under me and we got to it. She found these awesomely cute rosette balls for Valentine's Day online and we got together last night and made a couple. Here is the tutorial we followed to make them. They are pretty easy to make and are a no-brainer (and cheap!) project, however, it took about 2 hours to make this lovely big rosette that I used on top of my candle holder like so...

And here is Ginny's beautiful red rosette. Aren't they cute!?


I also attempted the Idea Room's Be Mine frame with a different twist. Instead of doing the 3D affect on the letters, I took the lazy way out and used a scrapbook sticker. Then I painted a wooden frame (from the $1 Tree) black first then white so after sanding it, you could see the black paint as well. Here's the tutorial for that and here's my finished product...


This is what I'd like to attempt to make next. In case you're wondering, I found the scrapbook paper for the framed rosette heart at Michael's in case you're itching to craft and wanted to try it!

And this craft finished off my "itch to craft" for the week. Short and sweet but so darling above Syd's crib...
I'm feeling another "itch" coming on, so if you have any more cute crafty blogs up your sleeve... please share!

Bathroom Remodeling

We re-tiled the bathroom floors upstairs back in December, and I realized I never posted pictures of our strenuous project as we ripped up the old vinyl tiling (what a PAIN!)



and then we put down the new tiling (sigh) doesn't it look so much better!? Now hopefully that last updating project will help the house sell a little quicker :)


Here's an "after" picture of the kids' bathroom...


And the "after" picture of the master bathroom... we've since painted the walls too a couple shades darker and we're happy with the way it turned out...

Caught!

Puppet Show

Hallie got a cool puppet show theatre and puppets for her birthday and the girls love playing with it. The puppets have velcro pieces (props to the GENIUS who invented that! You just saved me hours and a couple burns from having to hot glue all the pieces together) so their clothes and faces are interchangeable. In case you want to know where this ingenious gift came from, Grandma said she got it from Tuesday Morning.