this n' that

Crazy things have been happening to me lately....good and bad...so today's post is just a mish mash of things I haven't had time to think about until now :)

My first yarn letter..."A" for Avery.  I got the idea on Pinterest :)  

This project took a lot longer than I expected, but I like how it turned out.

I'm working on a "J" for Jubal right now, but it's giving me fits...the "G" will probably be tricky, too!

Avery finally got to meet her new cousin, Maria.  It was love at first sight ;)

Avery at Crate and Barrel (a first for us both!).  She made herself right at home on a blue

velvet chaise lounge chair...I can already tell she has expensive taste!

And this is another new addition to our family!  

My younger brother got this adorable red healer pup for my Dad yesterday.  Her name is Heidi :)

The kids are thrilled!  And I'm thrilled we have two new lovely ladies that I can spoil and then send back home!  Ha!

Happy Wednesday!

a little turkey

My Thanksgiving was not a traditional one (as far as our family Thanksgiving traditions go) but it was definitely the best one I've had in a long time!  Garrison (my oldest) and I got to spend some time with my sister, her husband, and their new bundle of joy in the hospital for turkey dinner yesterday...

Maria, Garrison, and me

Turkey dinner, Yum!

We're a happy bunch!

This is what it's all about, folks...

I hope everyone had a safe and happy Thanksgiving :)

introducing...

We have a new addition to the family...

This is my beautiful new niece, Maria Rose.  She was born on 11-21-11 at 7:47 p.m. weighing 6 lbs. 10 oz. and was 20 1/2 inches long.  She is a little bundle of blessings!

 We got to ride in the elevator with her to the nursery :)

 She's perfect!

Just look at those little piggies!

Sadly, due to an unexpected emergency c-section, I didn't get a chance to hold her so I'll be making another trip over there real soon.  I can hardly stand it!

Congratulations to my sister Melissa and her husband Jeff on their new arrival!  Maria Rose is a lucky little girl with a wonderful and loving family.  

karma?

Wow!  These past few days have been a whirlwind of crazy, amazing, scary, busy, and uncontrollable circumstances!  And I'm not exaggerating in the least. Here's a quick rundown...

Sunday - prepare bathroom for suspended ceiling installation which meant moving EVERYTHING into my craft room while I'm working on about five different projects :( ,shower handle breaks off in our main level bathroom

Monday - got the baby call at 6:00 a.m. from my sister and her husband in St. Louis, travel there with my parents to meet my new niece, waited patiently for baby to arrive, baby arrives via emergency c-section at 7:47 p.m.  Mama Mel and baby Maria Rose are doing great!

Tuesday - grocery store run, flooring store run, deliver laundry to my mom's, bathroom ceiling installation completed, spend ALL day cleaning every square inch of the bathroom (ceiling tiles are super messy!), prepare to move everything back into the bathroom, hubby decides to fix shower handle in main level bathroom, instead of fixing the handle he causes a MAJOR water leak in the house causing the main level bathroom and the basement bathroom to flood...yes, the one with the new suspended ceiling that was just installed only hours beforehand...if anything else goes wrong around here I'll be getting and address change.

Today - Have no running water, all the kids are home for Thanksgiving break, and tomorrow's Thanksgiving

I sincerely hope everyone else's week is going a little more smoothly then mine...although I'm still counting my blessings and thankful for so much this Thanksgiving ;)

I will post baby pics soon!  I would've posted flood pics, but I was too busy crying my eyes out and creating my own flood!

thankful journal part 3

I didn't think I'd get to sit down and work on my thankful journal today, but I did :)  My craft room is now housing ALL the items from our basement bathroom/storage space so the construction crew could work on the ceiling today.  My basement is a crazy mess, but I'm seeing some progress so that's something.  On the boo side of things, my washer and dryer are being delayed another two weeks (uggghhhh)!  No fear because I'm going to turn a negative into a positive and get the laundry room repainted (which is much needed) and maybe get a few cabinets put in :)  As good friend would say, "all will be well"!  And it will!

 I used some Tim Holtz crackle paint on these frames. 

 How cute is that bow?  You can find the tutorial for it at www.makesomethingsplendid.com.

I think this page is my fave.  I love the gray, lacy flower trim!

One more week and it will be Turkey Day!!!  I'm ready :)

splish splash

Jubal's room got painted yesterday...I absolutely love the results :)

Now all I have to do is find new window treatments, some wall decor, and a few pieces of furniture...I'm exhausted just thinking about it :)

Happy Hump Day!

I finally received my hardware from Ikea the other day so I grabbed the hubby and got to work on Avery's play kitchen some more this past weekend...

We already had the faucet and the sink was a bowl I found in our lazy susan.

I love how great the sink turned out!  Thanks again Jeff!

It was a no-brainer to use the armoire for the fridge...the hardware definitely helped us get the "right look" :)  Plus, it has a TON of storage for all the play food and kitchen accessories.

So now all I have left to work on is the stove and oven.  Hopefully, I will get that checked off my list this week!

Can you guess what these 99 cent coasters from Wal-Mart are going to be used for?

Happy Monday everyone!  Can you believe that Thanksgiving is a week from Thursday?!?!

thankful journal part 2

I got to sit down this afternoon and work on my Thankful Journal for a bit :)

One of the pages is vellum and I love the see-through effect it gives off, don't you?

This pic is one of my all-time faves :)  I printed a 5x7 photo out and then cropped it to a 5x6 so I could have room for the journaling spot at the top.

On this page, I followed the online video tutorial to make that awesome paper flower and I cut some felt to look like a strip of fringe and then rolled it up to make the pom-pom flower.  How cute is that miniature glassine envelope pocket?

I can't wait to make some more awesome pages this week!  Check out the website at www.makesomethingsplendid.com!

Happy Sunday everyone!

thankful journal

Happy Veteran's Day to everyone and happy 11-11-11!  I'm taking an online class that started yesterday from www.makesomethingsplendid.com and we are making a Thankful Journal.  You've got to check out this website...so many great online crafty classes are offered on it :)

This was the Thankful Journal kit I received in the mail.  It has everything you need to make the journal!

This is the front cover I just finished!

The classes for this journal are self-paced which is great for me because I've got a TON of things going on right now :)  (Hopefully I'll be an aunt again real soon!)

TGIF!

a cow in the window

Jubal got his new big boy bed today!

The delivery team dropped it off bright and early at 8 o'clock this morning!  The painter is coming Tuesday to paint his room so I need some advice on color choice...(all colors are Benjamin Moore)

This is my color scheme/palette that I'm going with (obviously the orange is covered by way of his sheets :)  So my question is, do I paint three walls in "golden waffle" and one wall in "splish splash", or do I paint them all in "splish splash"?  I was initially thinking 3 and 1, but now seeing the bed set up I'm wondering if just blue would be best...to really make the orange pop...I don't know.

I have until Tuesday to figure it out, so any thoughts or comments you have would be greatly appreciated!

Have a great day, did you spot the cow?

a messy Monday

So we've decided to give our basement a makeover/facelift if you will.  Nothing major, just some new paint, furniture, and a whole new play area for the kids.  It's going to be part of their Christmas this year.  The electricians came today to do a little work so we can move our TV to a different area, next Tuesday the painter should be here.  Things are moving along quicker then I expected and I'm a bit overwhelmed by the mess (if you know me then you know I have OCD when it comes to cleaning and organization).  

Here's a peek at the BEFORE part of this project:

I know it doesn't look too bad, but my vacuum cleaner just broke so...

 Here's two of the four holes I now have in my ceiling :(

Ugghh....

On a happier note, my wonderful brother-in-law came down this weekend and helped me start construction on my daughter's play kitchen.  I just wished he and my sister lived closer because I could probably give him a part-time gig with all the projects I want to create :)

 This is going to be the sink.

 My hubby and brother-in-law working hard on the faucet :)

This chest of drawers will be the stove and oven.

I also have an armoire that will become the fridge, I'm just waiting on the hardware to arrive from Ikea...

Lots and lots of things going on around here...and just in time for the holidays :)

Happy Monday!

dress up

Avery recently started playing dress-up and taking an interest in watching me put on my makeup, fix my hair, etc.  She really enjoyed walking around with my high heels on and was pretty good at it!  I'm so thankful I have a little girl to teach all these fun "girly" things to!  It melts my heart :)

Happy Saturday everyone!

a wedding and a baby

I have a few events coming up that required some card makin' so I jumped in my craft room and started creating.  I'll admit it took me a while to get back in the swing, but I think these turned out pretty well :)

I was super excited to post these pics because I got to use my new homemade light box my mom helped me fashion last weekend...I think it made a HUGE difference!  Thanks Mom!  If you want to make one for yourself you can find the tutorial on this great website www.digital-photography-school.com.

Have a super great weekend!

jubal's leaf

It's been another crazy week around here...will I ever get a break?  My washer broke, vacuum died, and I've been trying to clean out closets this week to prepare for colder weather, only to have smaller messes pop up everywhere!  Yikes!  Did I mention I haven't even thought about Christmas shopping yet?

I know it will all work out, in it's own way, I just have to be patient :)  I just want to get in my craft room for a few hours, is that too much to ask?  Ok, enough of my rants, I had to share this pic with you...

My youngest son, Jubal, found this huge leaf while we were waiting for my oldest son's class to parade down the sidewalk in their Halloween costumes.  He was so proud!

Have a great day, hopefully I'll have some cards to show you tomorrow!

a bird, a cat, and a skeleton

Holy cow, it's November 1st!  Where did October go?

Here are a few pics of my kiddos before we went trick-or-treating last night...

 

 Hello Kitty, a Skeleton, and an Angry Bird, oh my!

The kids had a great time trick-or-treating, got enough candy to last until Easter, and I'm glad I don't have to think about Halloween for another year :)  I'm ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas!

Happy November everyone, it's here!