Keeping them occupied - HELP!

Summer: I had grand plans. However, on Tuesday during a simple gardening moment, I threw out my back and have pretty much been vertical since then. Grrrr. I hear a lot of "I am booooorrrred." Seriously? I mean, come on. Where's the imagination, kids?! What they want is for me to say, "go ahead, play Wii." And I am not going to. This is summer. Wii is not a beautiful outside summertime toy.
Help me! What can I occupy them with?? Crafts they can gather themselves? Ideas?

Babies, Circa June 2005

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Wow. This seems like just yesterday. Where did these babies go? I know at the time, I was crazy nuts, just trying to hold onto my sanity with a string that was unravling. But the pictures remind me of happy memories. So it couldn't have been so bad, right? ;)

Little things make you happy

Like fudgesicles. And messy faces with said fudgesicle on them. And happy babies, I mean, kids. And summertime.

I was just playing around with Lightroom. Fun stuff. Another happy.

My girl

Last night when I was tucking Norah in, she said, "Mama? Sometime can you and me go on a vacation, just girls? Can we go on a scrapbooking vacation?"

That was just so freakin' awesome to hear her ask that. I'd take her on any 'just girls' vacation. Ok, well almost any.

back...

Lots to post about, but I need time!!!!

But first....new life for an old door. That's right. I was inspired by this post I saw at the Pleated Poppy, and so yesterday, when I saw a similar (and green!) door parked on the side of the road, I made poor Chris go get it. He complained and said, "what are you going to do with this door??" I wouldn't tell him. I just said that I had a vision, and besides, have I ever let him down?
He said he felt ghetto dumpster diving. lol.

Happy Mother's Day!

Um, ok. So 1/3 of my children are missing from this photo. Which means, as usual, I've failed to get a photo of myself with my kids on Mother's Day for the 3rd year in a row, I believe. This is better than nothing, though. So let's just pretend that the ZhuZhu pet is actually Elliott, who was actually with daddy, who went to see his mother. My consolation is that I am told that by 6pm, Elliott was pining for his mama because he missed me so much (although I was with him until 1ish). Makes a mama feel good to be missed. Although I do wish he had chosen to spend the entire day with me. Oh well....

Scrapped Tots

Some are old and some are new, but the ones at the end of the slideshow are the ones I did last weekend :)

Warning:This Family May Contain Traces Of Nuts

WarningThisFamilyMayContainTracesOfNuts.JPG
Originally uploaded by flabonganator

So....does it describe it accurately?

Help with paint color!

This weekend, we painted our upstairs hallway Benjamin Moore's Palladian Blue. (the photo I am linking to is a pretty accurate representation of how ours looks).
I really like it - it makes the hall, which has always felt like a cave, more airy and bright. However, because its got a hint of green hue in the blue, it could be construed as an old person's color (ie: the color you'd find in a retirement home in florida )
Its a color I see popping up more and more. But I've never done 'beachy' before. I see lots of this kind of blue, accented with golds and greens, or browns. We'll be painting the trim a white this weekend. But other than that, I don't know WTH to do. The hall is long, so I have lots of room to hang photo frames (which I have a TON of, and was planning on spraypainting all the same color). I also have room for 1 or 2 tables or smaller dressers in the hall upstairs, which I am on the hunt for. I'd like to find somehting I can paint.

WWYD with this color???

Papa

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Cool Giveaway!

Now this I can get behind! Super cute! Jen of Tatertotsandjello is hosting a giveaway from DownEast. The clothes are not only super cute, but they are inexpensive. And they come in my size!!
Its going on till Sunday. Check it out!

Funky Bunnies

Easter cupcakes. They started out as dough. Natch, they are colored...purple, green, yellow, and blue.



But they ended up as funky bunnies. I say funky, because I realized that I really needed some sort of tweezer for decorating. Its too difficult to place individual jimmies and sprinkles on a mountain of frosting.


The ears are made from marshmallows that were cut and dipped in pink sugar. The rest are jimmies/sprinkles.

Hope everyone had a happy Easter!

Egg Wreath

I got this idea over at Frills, Fluff & Trucks. Perfect for us, since I have to have that balance of decor that I like, yet decor the kids really love (like the annoying singing Easter bunny).

I followed her tutorial. Only I had to get my styrofoam wreath from JoAnn, and they didn't have the circular ones left, so I had to grab one of the flat front ones, which made it a bit more difficult to cover up the white spots. In hindsight, I'd have wrapped it in ribbon first. This took 2 bags of eggs, with 48ea, from Target's dollar spot. I think they were each $1.75 or something close to that. I already had the ribbon, and I went through an astronomical amount of glue sticks.

Burlap

What's up with all the burlap in blogland lately? I am just not feeling it.

Shake, Rattle & Roll!

Every year, our school has a Sock Hop, complete with a DJ, hula hoop contest, bubble gum blowing contest, and a contest for the best costumes. Its a fun time.

(and a big thank you to a little girl in the Pacific NW for lending Norah her skirt and glasses! i tried to get my daughter to wear a cute white blouse, but she wasn't having it. she was going to be "too sweaty". hence the white t-shirt that is now retired)

Our Chicago Trip

We had a great time. What an awesome city. We went to the Children's Museum, swam in the hotel pool, went out for pizza and southern food, hit the lego store and American Girl, and saw the famous green Chicago River. We ended our trip with a day of the Museum of Science and Industry -- a truly amazing place. We got to see trains, planes, chicks hatching (literally!), a working coal mine, and a U-505 submarine that was captured in WWII.

Do you have a picky eater?

I was relaying a story to my husband last night and it involved telling him what Bean requested for dinner last night. She wanted a salad. This salad was huge...a large soup bowl. And it had on it, a hard boiled egg, black beans, peas, carrot, tomato, and cucumber. He said, "You have to knock that off and feed her normal stuff. She needs more protein. She's starting to become such a picky eater!"

I think I had to pick my jaw up off the floor before I responded to him.

A picky eater?

Huh? More protein? What exactly is the egg and legume then?

What, dare I ask, am I supposed to feed her? Should I instead force her to eat "kid foods"? I am so proud that she is such an adventerous eater. I am so happy that I can take my kids to dinner and Elliott requests catfish instead of anything off the kids menu. Don't get me wrong...they like the occasional macaroni and cheese or french fry (not Aidan. he doesn't like fries), but hands down, they prefer tasteful food over anything else. Ask them what their favorite food is, and among the ones they list, Elliott will tell you pot pie and Norah will tell you gnocchi and Aidan will say crab (the *real* kind from New Orleans, not the imitation crab.)

Buffet Help pt II

Requested photos....

The buffet (with the lamps I returned)

*side note: should I paint that inside area arch (the 'ceiling', if you will) the ceiling color? Or the cream of the arches that separate the rooms?*

Ideas...

Tall grasses?

Vase w/ tall berries?

Smaller uplight lamps?

Something else?

What else....

Buffet Help!

And I don't mean the edible kind. This girl needs some serious decorator help.

A few weeks ago, I yanked down everything that was up on our buffet in the DR and had an idea for lamps. I went out and found these at Kirklands, but they just don't do it for me.

Do I need something more candlestick like (smaller)?

Do I need an uplight-type fixture like that or this?

What do I put in the middle w/ the lights there? Do I leave it naked?

Or do I just skip the lights all together and do something else up there?? Something tall on the sides, but different on each side? And something in the middle?

Two things to keep in mind:

1) This area is a catch-all for my wonderful husband. I hate that he loves to pile carp here and I need to stop that!!

2) Our home is mainly mission style/craftsman-ish.

sewing help :)

I got me a sewing machine!!! In all actuality, I've owned a sewing machine for roughly 11-12 years now. I last used it in 1999 when I tried to hem some curtains that I made and failed miserably...something to do w/ the damn bobbin. I called my gramma and cried and tried to get her to help me over the phone and finally, I just packed up the machine, put the curtains in a bag, and gave them to her to hem. The machine has not come out of the box (portable machine) since then. Its moved 2 houses w/ a box of accessories I've never opened, too. I inherited the machine from my other grandma, who used to make all of my clothes for me when I was a little girl.

Yesterday, my grandma gave me her machine that she got roughly 7 or so years ago and has used but once to hem a garment. I am afraid to use it. I am a smart girl - I should just open the book and try the darn thing out on a piece of material. But today I am going to pick up the phone and call some stores and see if there's a beginning class I can take.

However...if anyone can give me tips....books or... I don't know? Whatever! I'd appreciate it. All I want to be able to do is simple hemming and making simple patterns for my girl.