sister love

The girls turned 3 yesterday. I have many hopes of more love, sweetness, patience, hugs, kisses, potty in the potty and quiet bedtimes for this year. We sure do love them [even if they do drive us a teeny bit crazy at times].

mmmm, enough to melt this momma's heart

 These are the little skirts i've been dreaming up for the last month and thankfully the girls wore them without a fight yesterday. They'll be wearing them again this weekend with a little shirt i made to along. Pics to follow soon!

 All ready to go on their birthday date with daddy...

ben

Before all the pink, girly birthday craziness takes over this week I thought i'd share a couple of ben photos. He really is the sweetest, most wonderful little thing i've ever seen. We just can't hardly get enough of him. Even the girls will stop what they are doing when they walk by him to squat down, squish his cheek and with an even higher and more squeaky voice say things like, "oh baby ben, oh, oh, oh,baby ben. Mommy, LOOK at baby ben! he so cute. oh, oh!" it's pretty funny and pretty sweet.:)

so happy.

Do make sure you check back soon as i hope to have lots of pink and girly decorations, crafts, clothes and other party craziness to show you. Wish Will luck, this birthday week is always a little tough on him.  :)

quick ruffled tote

Here's a quick gift idea: get one of these lovely totes from Michaels (make sure you print off a 40% off coupon from their website!) then put some ruffles on it!

Here's the tote before ruffles, still cute but kinda plain

Sew three strips of ruffles by setting your machine to a basting stitch or as the case with my machine, i don't have a basting stitch so i had to figure out the secret tension, width and length combo to create perfect ruffles every time. btw, this took a lot of trial and error but once i figured it out i wrote it on a index card and have kept it safe ever since.

Next, pin them on the bag and sew away.

Ta-Da! My sister and i were giving this as a combined gift so she added some goodies inside: some Tazo tea, a couple of fun magazines, a cute journal, gum, and  
this notepad, which was kind of my favorite part of the whole gift. definitely good for some laughs.

new dollie

there's a new little lady in town. go visit the "my shop" page to see more pictures or HERE to purchase. thanks! : )

tooth fairy

So our sweet Will lost his first tooth this week. He was super excited when he discovered it was loose but when it came time to pull it out he completely surprised us. He was devastated and acted betrayed and not because it hurt (because it didn't!) he was just mourning its loss, i guess. Andy and i just stared at him in wonder for a few moments trying to figure out what had just happened. Anyway, he definitely was NOT interested in giving it to the tooth fairy that night so we told him he could give it to her whenever he was ready. What's funny is that he knows who the tooth fairy is. he asked us straight out- the same way he did w/ santa claus and we told him the truth. that they weren't real but that it is really fun to pretend that they are. Regardless, he was very hesitant about entrusting his beloved tooth to her. Gradually he was able to "let go" and even happily gave it up last night. And scored a dollar in return! 

Anyway, since i know there are 19 teeth left to go for him plus the 20 in each of the girls' mouth, i've been thinking it would be fun to have a special toothfairy pillow to pass around. Here are a few I've come across.

 

http://www.etsy.com/listing/55492768/pirate-ship-tooth-fairy-pillow?ref=sr_gallery_19&ga_search_query=tooth+fairy+pillows&ga_page=2&ga_search_type=handmade&ga_facet=handmade 

This gal sells this one and a more girly themed one on her etsy page.

http://thelongthread.com/?cat=255 

She has a tutorial for this one on her blog!

http://www.landofnod.com/all-toys/toys-gifts/the-tooth-fairy-was-here/f7586

this one is really cute and classic from land of nod. And even though i don't knit i think i could find an old sweater, maybe felt it and then sew one up?!

http://www.etsy.com/listing/66278623/elephant-tooth-cushion-pattern

she sells the pattern for these on her etsy page

 

i couldn't find the source for this one, but they reminded me of the miniature rainbow-colored plastic treasure chests my elementary school had for us if we lost a tooth while at school. i distinctly remember loosing my first one in kindergarten. it was right after recess, i had been wiggling it while swinging, then i went into music class and pulled it out. it bled quite a bit and the teacher, in front of everyone, made me hold my mouth over the drinking fountain to wash out the blood. then i got to go to the nurse's office and pick out a treasure chest... : )

 http://mmmcrafts.blogspot.com/2009/02/tooth-pillow-revisited.html

She has a tutorial for this one on her blog!

The BOY

My list of projects to make is growing by the minute thanks to this month-long salute to all things BOY hosted by MADE and Made by Rae  Happily, i have two of my own little boys to try things out on.

mmm, mmm, chocolate and coconut!

Here's a cake i found today on epicurious and will hopefully bake tomorrow for a family birthday party. I've always loved german chocolate cake but this one sounded extra wonderful with all the extra chocolate on the outside. Here's the recipe if you're interested in giving it a try too! Inside out German Chocolate Cake

This is what my house looked like at 10:30pm last night....

I'm pretty sure i have a disorder that prevents me from getting work done until i really feel the pressure. I have always been this way and am not sure how to change. It's like i don't have any good ideas or any motivation or enthusiasm for a job until i feel pressure. Case in point, last night. All day i knew  handy andy (my super organized, plan-ahead, list-making, make-it-happen husband) was out of town and so it was up to me to get everything ready for the valentine's party i planned to host at 10am the next morning. I needed to clean the kitchen (as you can clearly tell), decorate, make cupcakes, get craft supplies together, set up the table, make little favors... but it wasn't until about 10:00pm that i realized i had better get with it. i will say in my defense, that between 8 and 10 i was fairly consumed with my girls; returning them back to their beds multiple times, wiping them and will in turns, praying for the multitude of owies that afflict my girls every.single.night, and just giving the girls comfort in general as they are currently going through paci withdrawal plus getting ben fed and to bed. Fortunately, i'm a night person. : )

here's how it looked last night:

I will admit i was a little tired this morning but it was well worth it since we really had a great time.

the girls loved decorating cupcakes and were very particular in the way they frosted, sprinkled and ate them. the boys, on the other hand, really didn't have time for this, they were too busy running, chasing, "fighting bad guys", "finding treasure", and "accumulating weapons"-all very lovely valentine's day activities.

my madeline

little caroline

sweet Hope- sister to 4 brothers!

 my sophie

 gideon, one of my adorable nephews

 

will was finally persuaded to frost a quick cupcake between battles

after cupcakes, we decorated bags to put valentines in, played outside (yay for warm weather!), and exchanged valentines between the kiddos. such fun.

simple little hair clips for all the girlies to take home

happy heart day DIY

"LOVE Bunting" Supplies: -2 different shades of textured cloth- I'm not quite sure what  these fabrics are called but i found the darker of the 2 at joann's and the lighter i already had. Neither are real heavy or coarse. The biggest thing is that its smooth enough to allow the fabric glue adhere to it.

           -a swatch of red fabric to cut the letters from

           -fabric glue

                       - bias tape 

 Simply cut out 8 triangles, fold and pin the bias tape over the tops leaving a good amount extra on either end to tie, then sew along the bottom edge of the bias tape.
Apply glue to the letters and allow to dry. Hang!

3D HEART art Supplies: - piece of back-ground fabric the size of frame you plan to use
                             -scrap book paper in 2 shades cut into hearts
                             - frame and piece of cardboard or card stock cut to frame size
Simply sew by hand or machine the paper hearts onto the fabric. Then wrap the fabric around the cardstock/cardboard and tape it to keep it tight. fit into frame (with the glass removed) and put the back on.

While i was working on my Valentine decorations the kiddos were doing some of their own

Madeline and Will's philosophy were similar -"who needs paper when you can make your body into valentine decoration?"

Sophie on the other hand, would have nothing to do with the body art and kept her paint exclusively on the paper. at one point i found her staring at her brother and sister in amazement/disgust and then announced "i DON'T want to do THAT."   : )

a

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

welcome to ben's room

As a welcome to the new site i thought i'd finally post some pictures of baby ben's room. i am well aware of the fact that i tend to be great at starting projects and terrible at finishing them. however, in this case i really wanted the nursery to be ready before Ben arrived. When Will was a baby we were living in a tiny apartment and so i couldn't do much in the area of nursery decorating and with the girls, they were born a month early which meant we ended up closing on our new house the day they were released from the hospital and barely had a pack n play set up in time for them to come home to!

  So even though i had badly procrastinated, was induced a week and a half early and only had a day's notice of the fact, andrew, my mom, sis and i were able to put the final touches on his room just in time for me to go to the hospital. that said, Ben turned 4 months old a few days ago and i've just now finally got around to posting some pictures. :)

here's the lovely "before/ in progress" shot:

And now....... the "after"


* take notice to the orange shelves- i took pictures on a couple different days which captured the ever-evolving shelf displays. In fact, i just added to it again today. :)

Here's a rundown of the what and wheres:

Paint color: Made by Me :) from lowes. this old post chronicles our attempts at finding the perfect blue.

Rug: Target on clearance

Crib: Thrifted

Changing Table: bought for my oldest child (5years ago!)from Target. I repainted it using zinnser oil-based primer (best stuff.ever.) and then a nice gloss white latex on top

Green Storage baskets: Target

Chair: old rocking chair with a new slip-cover made with the help of 2 sweet and talented friends

Bumper pad: found it new at goodwill but is an earlier model of this one

Crib skirt: made by me using this girl's fabulous tutorial

Curtains: made by me using this fabric from fabric.com

Foot stool: one of these cubes with a reupholstered top and a white skirt stapled around the outside. Most of this work was compliments of handy andy

mobile: made by me here 

shelves: spray-painted with gloss pumpkin orange

pole lamp: Target clearance with a recovered lamp shade made here

Dresser: Given to us from my dad with new knobs from hobby lobby

Clock: Target 

Green Elephant: Clearance at Hobby Lobby painted with a curtain color matched green

Linking tofriday fun finds Frugal Friday