A Couple More Hours

January photo a day: set one

2012-02-02T09:45:00.000-05:00

For the month of January I participated in the Instagram daily photo challenge. Here were the prompts:

You don't have to have Instagram to play along, you can take photos and post on your blog, Facebook or Twitter account. Click here to read a post about February's photo challenge. I'm doing the February challenge too!

Here's my January photos, set one, up to 16:

Me & Lydia in the car

Breakfast of champions

Something I adore: fudge.

Letter photos from our Michigan vacation a few years ago

I wore my robe for two days straight in January because I was under the weather.

Photo on the right is our wedding cake topper.

My favorite time is craft time with my girls.

My sky, outside my bedroom window.

Daily pills!

I was such a cutie pants.

Yes my bed usually does look this unkempt.

Fabric from a dress my mom made for both of the girls.

Not too much baggage.

Look at my sparkly nail!

Happiness is a huge cheap table bought off Craig's List

Morning dancing

Second set will be posted tomorrow!

Etsy Favorites Wednesday

2012-02-01T10:30:00.000-05:00

Why hello there and happy Wednesday to you! Let's dive into this week's Etsy Favorites Wednesday finds!

Tattooed Lady print - I am in awe of this print. So detailed for a linocut!

Ric rac - I've got a think for ric rac. I love it and I need more of it.

Paper owls - I may be hosting a baby shower for someone and the theme may just be owls and I may just purchase these adorable paper owls.

Nail transfers - I've been taking vitamins so my nails are super strong. I'm obsessed with nail stuff now a days. I've never tried nail transfers. These are super cute! Wouldn't really be appropriate for me to wear to work but would be perfect for the weekend or a special event.

Heart ring - I want this very badly.

A new look for A Couple More Hours

2012-01-31T19:19:00.000-05:00

Things look a bit different around here, huh? I have been working behind the scenes on the re-design of this here blog. I'm quite happy with how it turned out! I hope you like it too. The first thing I did was go through all 1,190 posts from when I began this blog in 2007 and I re-tooled all of my tags. My tags were a mess. Now they're all organized. I have 14 main tags/categories now. My 11 main categories are now featured on the right hand side of my blog. If you click on the picture it will take you to the category.

Here's a breakdown:

I make stuff: I make lots of stuff. This category will house the stories and photos about my various projects.
Tutorials: I have five tutorials in this category now. I hope to do more soon!
Connect: Ways to reach me. {that picture slays me!}
About me: Includes a list of 30 random things about me.
Family life: Stories about the kids and everyday life at home.
Our home: Photos and stories about our new house, projects and decorating.
Occasionally I bake and cook: I do, really. Sometimes I cook!
Parties: I do awesome parties for my kids.
Holidays: This category is heavy on Halloween, of course.
Etsy Favorites Wednesday: I curate a list of favorites each week.
My Etsy Shop: Stories about new items for sale in my shop and new projects in the works.
Give-a-Ways: I have done some stellar give-a-ways. I plan to do more.
A Couple More Hours: These posts are general posts about me, about every day things or about things that I find on the internet that inspire me. This post category is the biggest.

There are also a couple of series of posts that are their own categories but they're not linked on the sidebar. Those are stories about my daughter's tip-toe walking and my series about infertility and IVF called To Be Called Mommy. I also have a category called handmade skirts which houses the series of posts in did in 2011 about my summer wardrobe of skirts!

My goal is to grow this space ... not sure exactly how I will accomplish that, but, I want to put more crafty projects on here and definitely more tutorials. I'll still keep up with the photos and stories of my kids because a lot family members read this blog for updates on my little sweeties. Plus they're pretty entertaining kids.

So, onward! More blogging! More crafting! More tutorials!

New spectacles

2012-01-31T10:04:00.000-05:00

Arlene got new spectacles! She's such a cutie.

How's your week shaping up?

2012-01-30T12:38:00.000-05:00

Original artwork by Arlene and Lydia!

This week is a slow and steady week for me at work and at home. Not too much going on and I'm grateful for it. We don't have any after-school events or evening meetings and my schedule at work is pretty tame, no major meetings or deadlines this week.

It's going to be a good week! I'm finally feeling better after having a cold most of last week and last week was busy busy busy in the evenings. It's nice to have a break!

I'm looking forward to this weekend too, because we don't have anything planned, which means I'll have lots of time to work on some crafts on my to-do list. I've got an owl-themed baby shower to plan for my cousin and I'm quite excited about getting started on making stuff!

What's your week like? Anything going on? Anything you're looking forward to?

Kid thoughts and drawings

2012-01-27T10:00:00.000-05:00

The girls are expressing themselves through words and drawings these days and it's quite fascinating to see what they come up with.

Lydia writes notes all the time to us. Little post it notes. Little cards. It's so very cute. I save all of them and I have quite a drawer full. One day she had gotten into trouble and was sent to her room. After she got out of her time out I got this card:

The front

The inside. Notice the RIVER of tears flowing down from her? And me? With the TWO STARS on my dress?! Oh how precious. Her text above the people says, "I am sorry. I was taking care of my markers." You see, she was in trouble to begin with and was sent to her room but was taking a loooooong time to get up and go to her room, so she got into more trouble. But her explanation is that she was taking so long because she was taking care of her markers. Teehee.

And this is the back! She was forgiven, of course, and I told her that really, she doesn't need to be THAT sorry for it. It wasn't a big deal!

Both of the girls write journals at school. Those are always interesting. This comes out of Arlene's latest journal:

To translate: "I had a TV dinner last night. I had a corn dog. We watched the Adam's Family. It was fun! I liked it."

How HILARIOUS is that? It just cracks me up. This was a Daddy day care night {I think I had a late meeting for work} and indeed, the girls had TV dinners and watched a movie. I can assure you they have only had maybe ONE TV dinner in their entire lives. Not knowing this based on Arlene's text, I wonder what the teacher thinks of us?! Haha! What's funny is that whenever Daddy is home with them he lets them do cool stuff like eat dinner in front of the TV. Arlene's illustration is spot-on. They are lying on blankets in front of the TV. The person she drew inside the TV cracks me up too.

Lydia made this little note for me at school one day. I hung it up in my office:

The line "just remember I love you" is something she's been writing on a lot of things lately. Isn't her handwriting neat? She's been working on it. The "your's truley" slays me! She's such a sweet kid. Both her and Arlene are very detail oriented - notice the drawn Mommy has green eyes and brown hair and the drawn Lydia has blue eyes and red hair.

I absolutely love the little stories, notes and drawings they come up with. They just warm my heart!

Meanies being mean to sweeties

2012-01-26T09:46:00.001-05:00

As we eat dinner, we go around the table and share our best and worst parts of our day. It's a fun way for the girls to get a peek inside our days spent at work and it's a really interesting way for us to learn about what they did at school because each day when we ask them, "how was school?" their response is very non-detailed. Usually these table talks give us more insight.

Last week when we went around the table Lydia told us that the worst part of herschool day was dealing with a mean girl, who for the purposes of this story we'll call Sally. She said that Sally was being mean to her, and that Sally told Arlene on the playground that she, Lydia, was a brat. What?! Why would she say that?! We asked more questions and found out that this Sally character is not a nice little girl. She had no grounds for calling Lydia a brat. Sally calls people names, and Lydia told us she uses the word "ain't" a lot, and as Lydia says, "Ain't is NOT a word so I don't know why she says it!" True that, little girl.

We told Arlene that if someone ever says anything bad about her sister, she needs to stick up for her sister. Because that's just not cool. We told Lydia that she's not a brat, and that maybe Sally is the one who is a brat, and she's been called a brat so maybe that's why she's calling other little girls a brat? We told Lydia should just stay away from her. That response seemed to work, both girls agreed.

Fast forward to this past Tuesday. Lydia came home with a scraped hand and chin. Guess who tripped her on the playground? Miss Meanie Pants Sally!!! I had to watch what I said in reaction to this news. What I wanted to say is "Miss Meanie Pants Sally is MINE and that little shit is going to be into trouble with me!" But what I did say was this, "Did Sally get into trouble from the teacher for tripping you?" Lydia said she did. "Good. You need to stay away from Sally. Ignore her. Don't talk to her. If she does mean things to you, you need to tell your teacher, okay?" Lydia agreed whole-heartedly.

Now, this is our first experience with another kid hurting our kid. And I really hope this is an isolated incident and that Meanie Pants starts being nicer to Lydia. I don't feel the need for parental intervention at this point, but I will go all out if something else happens. The girls are in first grade. How can other 7-year-olds be this mean, at this point in their lives? Maybe I have an altered, rose-colored glasses type of outlook here, in thinking that little kids can't be mean until they are older, say maybe 10 or older? For sure teenagers will be mean. But 7-year-olds? My girls are not mean, at least not to other kids. {They can fight with each other pretty darn good, but that's someone ok, they're sisters.} They know not to be purposefully mean to others because we have taught them that. Obviously Sally needs some more parental instruction.

It's hard to not be with the girls at school and not being able to protect them at all hours. But that's part of parenting, you have to let them go. The girls get on the bus in the morning and they're gone ... at the mercy of other kids and other adults and you just hope and pray that their day is a happy one and a good one and one where no one is mean to them.

Lydia didn't seem affected by Sally's actions on Tuesday. She was upset it happened, sure, she cried because it hurt and I think she was scared because it hurt her, but she brushed it off pretty quickly. I think she was more just surprised that it happened. My girls are always surprised when other kids do bad things. I hope that they're always like that. I hope good behavior is just the norm and that bad behavior is something they rarely experience. I remember other kids being mean to me in school, but I remember it happening later, say middle school. Schools are full of bullies, I get that, but that doesn't mean I'm okay with it when a bully is hurting one of my sweeties.

Do you have any experiences with other kids being mean to your kids? How did you react? What advice did you give your kid?

Etsy Favorites Wednesday

2012-01-25T12:45:00.000-05:00

Etsy inspires me to create new things and inspires me to open my wallet and buy new things. Each Wednesday I curate a list of the top five things in my favorites folder on Etsy. This week's list is a smattering of things I've had my eye on. {All images displayed here are from the Etsy listing and each link below the photo links to that listing.}

Quilted table runner - I've been wanting to dive into quilting and I think this will be my first project: a quilted table runner. I really like the simplicity of this table runner. Its square blocks looks easy enough! I don't have a fancy quilting machine though, so I'd have to be creative with my top stitches.

Grouping of frames - I like the look of mismatched frames grouped together on a wall. This set would be a quick and easy way to achieve that look!

Felt food - A while ago I made Arlene a sub out of felt. Felt food cracks me up - I think it's perfect for child's play and it's really cute too. My girls are too old to play with felt food, but I want to make some felt food for someone! Check out this pattern for a felt toaster and breakfast items!

Frame wallet - from the colors, to the design, to the rosette and ruffles on the front, I am in love with this wallet.

Vinyl sticker - I think this sticker would look fab in my new craft room, don't you think?

I made a purse, again

2012-01-24T10:00:00.004-05:00

I made a purse this weekend! This is the fifth purse I've made out of this pattern. {This was also the first project I did in my awesome new craft room! Heaven! It was heaven. I had so much room to spread out and I could find everything that I needed thanks to my organized boxes of supplies. Aaaaaahhhh!}

I added a doily to the outside of the purse because I'm quite fond of doilies.

I added a key fob to the inside of the purse so my keys don't get lost.

The inside lining of the purse is a coordinating fabric with the outside.

This past fall I had made a Halloween-themed purse, but I don't have a picture of it! Drat.

Previously to the that one, I made an owl purse from the same pattern:

I had made one out of sewing themed fabric:

I originally made a Christmasy one:

I love the purse because it's big and squishy and holds all that I want it to hold. Plus it hangs just right on my hips so it doesn't get in the way when I'm out and about and I can wear it as a cross-shoulder bag if I want to, too. It's been fun to customize it to my needs also, like adding a bigger inside pocket and adding the key fob.

I had originally gotten the pattern off of the Oh Fransson! blog. The pattern is no longer available on her blog but you can purchase it here.

Girlie girlie hair do's

2012-01-23T10:00:00.000-05:00

The girls decided last week that they wanted to cut their hair. We had a tiny bit of hair drama with Lydia's hair. {I'm sure this hair drama was only a taste of the hair drama we'll experience as the girls get older!}

They both said they wanted "inches and inches" cut off their hair.

Arlene before:

Back of Arlene's hair before {it's not usually that curly - she had it up in a bun that day}

Lydia before:

Arlene was way into the hair style books at the salon!

Arlene during her cut - she sure did get "inches and inches" cut off! She missed being able to donate to Locks of Love by two inches.

Arlene after her cut! I just love her hair! I'm jealous of it! She used to have a short bob like this when she was about three years old. It suits her!

Lydia after her initial hair cut ...

Now, sure, she's incredibly cute. But, the back of her hair wasn't laying right at all. Once we got home and I really looked at her hair I realized it was flipping out in all different directions and it appeared to be uneven and some parts were textured and some were not. So, the next day, I took her to my hair stylist to get it cut again. {Originally we were at a walk-in salon.} My stylist worked wonders! Also, Lydia got bangs again! She had been growing them out for a year and it was going great, but she decided she wanted them again.

Lydia during her cut at my salon:

Some fooling around at the salon:

Arlene got some special treatment at the salon too - a braid and some curls!

Here's the after shot! Such cuties! They both love their hair cuts and so do I! Lydia's hair is still long enough to be put up in a pony tail or a braid, which is what she wanted. Lesson learned: the girls only get their hair cut maybe twice a year - splurge and take them to the real salon!

Oops

2012-01-20T16:47:00.001-05:00

Well, crap. I have been doing some behind the scenes editing to my blog and my old blog posts. While I was working on stuff I accidentally published a post that was NOT supposed to be published. I caught it and deleted it but if you read my blog through Google reader then chances are, you saw it because the reader kept the post.

So, if you did read it, please delete it from your memory! Please don't comment on the contents of the post because the subject matter is delicate. If you'd like more details feel free to email me.

My new craft room

2012-01-20T09:09:00.000-05:00

When we moved into our new house my craft room was a room I knew I wanted to spend some time unpacking and decorating. I set up the rest of the house first and then before I knew it, five months had passed and my craft room was a disaster zone. It had become a grave yard for discarded boxes and junk. Finally this past weekend I dove in.

When I had packed up my old craft room I didn't really go through and organize stuff as I was putting it into boxes. I pretty much just shoved things away. Which made it interesting when I began unpacking the boxes! I uncovered stuff I forgot I had, I uncovered lots of old photos of myself and my kids, and I kept finding gifts for everyone. My dad got a pair of pliers I had borrowed a long time ago and neglected to give back; my mom got some books and I also found a piece of jewelry of hers that I had meant to repair but never did; my kids got countless sticker books and blank notebooks and envelopes and paper; my husband got some CDs that we didn't even know I had stored in the craft room boxes; and I uncovered for myself all of my husband's writings, which was a real treat. {my husband is a writer/poet and when we first started dating and early on in our marriage he would write the most beautiful poems and letters to me. I saved each and every one over the years!}

Here's the view from the door:

Here's my work table and shelves which hold supplies and photos and miscellaneous stuff:

I'm in LOOOOVE with my work area. We had purchased that vintage formica table to be used as our kitchen table in our new house, but we ended up getting a new table. I had listed the table and chairs set on Craig's List and someone bought the chairs but not the table. Meant to be! I moved the table from the basement to my craft room. The table is sturdy and provides a ton of work space, which I was always lacking in my old craft room.

{And yes, that's Edward Cullen. I got him a couple years ago and he was put in my craft room when we moved. I decided to keep him around, for now.}

This wire holds pictures - my little artists need to get busy!

Close up of the shelves above the table:

I half-splurged on an Ott Light for my space. I say half-splurged because the Ott Lights were half off at JoAnn Fabrics this week! That light is intense. This photo doesn't do it justice.

This shelf holds all of my shop stock:

I had made those lollipops for my kids' birthday party a couple years ago. They had been sitting in a basket tucked away but I like them so much I wanted to display them. I stuck them on the wall with double sided sticky tape. The mustache prints are actually postcards I had purchased on Etsy; the same with the crochet prints.

I decided to organize my craft supplies in my closet into the different types of crafts.

I used a few plastic tubs that I already had and bought some new ones and wrote on sticky notes the contents of each box. Now, when I want to do a particular craft I can grab one box and then put it back once I'm finished. That's the plan anyway.

I also realized in my unpacking that I have quite a lot of fabric. Really it's too much. I have a ton. I filled up two huge plastic tubs of colored and designed fabric and one plastic tub of just white fabric and felt.

I'm very happy to finally have this room done. I am inspired to make stuff! I have a mile-long projects-to-do list!

Excuse my absence (subtitle: back in the saddle again!)

2012-01-18T16:08:00.000-05:00

With a snap, the holidays zoomed by, then New Year's came and went, and now it's the middle of January and I haven't posted anything on my blog for almost a month. Please excuse my absence. I'm back at it now though. Expect to see more frequent updates, a new design, and some new crafty projects!

Holiday Greetings!

2011-12-21T11:14:00.000-05:00

Photo house tour!!

2011-12-16T11:22:00.000-05:00

I realized that since we've moved more stuff into our new house and I've decorated more that I never gave a proper photo tour! So here you go! And as an added bonus, you can see our Christmas deco!

The P homestead. We have a three car garage - our driveway is to the right and the garage is side-entry.

Standing from the garage door. We have a laundry room right as you walk in which opens into the hallway leading to the half bath, Mike's study and the kitchen.

Half bath.

Mike's study, still in progress! My dad is building wall shelves so Mike's massive collection of CDs, records and books can be displayed nicely.

This is the view looking into the study. Isn't that desk cool - it's an antique. Once the shelves are done and the room is complete I will take pictures of it.

View looking from the study into the kitchen and great room.

Part of kitchen and great room. To the left is the breakfast nook.

Breakfast nook.

Kitchen!

Another view of the kitchen. You can also spy the front room, the "parlor" as it's called, with our white Christmas tree.

This is the chalkboard I made! I made it from a frame, a piece of wood and chalkboard spray paint. This area is grand central. I organize all of the girls' school stuff here and keep our schedules organized.

The great room. We spend all of our time in this room. I love how cozy and warm it turned out. I wanted it to have an "autumnal" theme. Our couches are just awesome; I love them so very much!

Another view of the great room.

Yet another view of the great room.

TV console and our tree. It's a live tree - we cut 'er down! I can't believe it but I had plenty of bulbs to decorate two trees. I even had some leftover!

Another view of the tree.

The fireplace.

I made those little trees out of paper doilies (was inspired by something I saw on Pinterest!) At night they glow and flicker because I have little fake candles under them. I also made the star garland. I cut out star shapes and sewed a straight stitch on my machine.

Another view of the great room.

Looking from the great room toward the front door. The door on the left is the basement door. We have a full basement that's unfinished. Perfect for storing stuff!

The day we moved in my dad gave this to us. He PAINTED it! It's the front of our house. Scroll up to my first picture and you will see just how exact it is! It is a gift we will treasure always. It sits upon my printer's tray in the foyer.

Parlor room. I still need to get a couple of end tables to go on either side of the couch.

All of my toys are inside this case.

I love my collection!

The white tree - this it the 'girl tree' as we called it this year. It's all pinks and purples and sparkles and ribbon!

View from the parlor room looking toward the front door.

View from the foyer.

This is our dining room. We don't have a table yet. We put up a folding table and the girls and Mike are putting together a puzzle right now.

Another view of the kitchen and breakfast nook from the dining room.

Standing at the front door, stairs are up, parlor room to the left, dining room to the right, great room straight ahead.

Upstairs now! This is the loft. It's the girls' play room.

Girls' bathroom.

Arlene's room. Her room looks huge because her bed is up against a wall. Her room is total diva. Black and pink. Ha! I think I may get her a rug to put by the bed, to break up that expanse of carpet.

Hee hee - you can never be too careful. This is my craft room, which currently Santa's workshop.

Craft room/disaster zone. I haven't done anything in this room except make a mess. My sewing machine is set up and most of my crap is tucked away in the closet. It's a pretty big mess though. The door stays shut all the time!

View from the girls' bathroom looking toward Lydia's room on the right and the master bedroom straight ahead.

Lydia's room. She got a double bed, so her room doubles as a guest room.

Other side of Lydia's room. Her room is very cozy and sweet.

Master bedroom.

Seating area.

Looking into our bathroom. My walk in closet is the closed door.

Master bathroom.

Another view. We have his and hers sinks. Mike's is to the left, mine is to the right. Mike's walk in closet is in here too, to the left, and we have a little room that houses the toilet.

Tub. Favorite spot!

Walk in shower and my vanity.

Another view of the steps and the loft.

Steps, railing, loft and front door. That window is huge and it's a bit daunting at night because we don't have a shade on it. I used to be nervous about people looking in, but, there's no one directly across from us. It wouldn't look right covered up anyway. I've gotten used to it. I figure, if someone sees me in my PJs, oh well! And we've taught the girls not to run out of the bathroom naked after their baths!

Stairs, front door.

And that concludes the tour! We are in deep love with the house. I'm STILL amazed it's ours. It's been so much fun getting settled in and decorating. There's still stuff to do but we're taking it slow and taking our time. We are so blessed and lucky to call it home.

Hope you enjoyed the tour!

Etsy Favorites - Merry Christmas to ME!

2011-12-07T15:35:00.000-05:00

As it turns out, I've made a few sales in my Etsy shop lately, so I decided to buy some stuff for myself!

Moveable doll - I have been admiring this artist's work for a very long time! Happy to finally get one of her creations. She also creates personalized paper dolls - how cute would that be?!

Vintage doll parts - I know these probably look really gross, but I like them. I'm not sure where I'm going to put them, but I have a few ideas. I have a printer's tray that they'd fit into perfectly.

Letterpress recipe book - I am most excited about this! I have been cooking a lot more lately and I've for ever and always wanted a cool recipe holder/book thingie. I have various recipe cards and with this book I have a place to put everything.

Plastic doily - Had to have it. What will I do with it? Not sure but it'll look fab.

Hair clippies - Bought these for the GIRLS! These clippies by my pal Shannon are so great. The girls already have some of her clips and these (I bought four!) will add to their collection. Well made and super cute!

Gingerbread house making!

2011-12-05T13:03:00.000-05:00

The girls made Gingerbread Houses with Girl Scouts on Saturday - they had so much fun! Their little houses came out a bit wobbly and we had to do some repairs to them when we got home (both of their roofs fell off, oh no!) but they came out cute none-the-less! The girls wanted to EAT them! I was aghast - NO! They can't EAT their creations! I put them up on the counter and we're all going to just admire them until they get all hard and crusty and fall apart again!

Holiday sale in my Etsy shop!

2011-12-01T09:55:00.001-05:00

I am having a HOLIDAY SALE in my Etsy shop! I have marked down everything 25%!

This sweet little holiday doll is now $15! Isn't she sweet?!

And, just so you're aware, I will not be making any more dolls. I've decided to discontinue the line. So, what you see in my shop is it, there will be no more!

My house pillows are now all $16.50!

My little bunnies, which would make great stocking stuffers, are only $7.50!

There's lots more in the shop - check it out!

29.0 days of this here blog

2011-12-01T09:45:00.000-05:00

This year I participated in the stupidly-named blogger challenge, NaBloPoMo = National Blog Posting Month. Basically, post once a day during November. I *almost* did it. I missed ONE DAY because we were extremely busy that day and not home all day and once I did get home I was too exhausted to blog about anything.

To be honest, my heart just wasn't in it this year. I didn't do a lot of the posts that I was planning to do, like interviewing my kids and my husband and posting pictures of our house and etc. etc. I just ran outta time and the energy to do it. I thought a lot of my posts were lame.

I'm glad NaBloPoMo is finished because every day in November I had a panic moment where I thought, "I HAVE TO POST ON MY BLOG!" and then I'd scramble to come up with something that wasn't too stupid.

I'm glad that pressure is off. I'll still be blogging, maybe just not as regularly!

Etsy Faves - ornaments!

2011-11-30T10:19:00.000-05:00

Some creative ornaments to adorn your tree!

Wood snowflake - so ornate!

Personalized house ornament - I might get this to memorialize our first Christmas in our new house.

Felted acorns - woodsy!

Wooden initials - I think this is cute - and would make a good gift for newlyweds!

Quilled snowflake - how pretty!

Golden Girls - for that special lover of Golden Girls.

Flashback

2011-11-29T12:34:00.000-05:00

My husband keeps this picture of me on his desk. It was taken in college. I was such a skinny thang!

Sickies, be gone!!

2011-11-28T16:31:00.000-05:00

Sickie central

The girls have been ill for what seems like a month now! I *think* we're nearing the end. Gawsh, I hope so! Their sickies started out as colds ... and they seemed to last foooooorever. After two weeks of the snots and coughing, I took them to the doctor last Monday. Lydia had a sinus infection, and Arlene had a double ear infection and needed a breathing treatment because she was wheezing. Since being on antibiotics Arlene has been feeling much better but Lydia wasn't getting much better. Last night, Lydia started coughing about 10 p.m. and never really stopped. Her cough was like a bark and she couldn't catch her breath. It was scary! I don't think she got more than four hours of sleep. I kept her home from school today and took her back to the doctor - she has croup! The doc gave her a new antibiotic so hopefully that'll kick on. I'm hoping we all can sleep tonight and that the sickies are leaving our house for good!

Oh Christmas tree!!

2011-11-27T19:59:00.001-05:00

Eureka!

2011-11-27T00:03:00.001-05:00

Check out this ornament I found today!

Whoops

2011-11-26T11:16:00.000-05:00

I'm part of the blogging-once-a-day challenge and I failed because I didn't blog yesterday. Whoops. We were too busy. We bought a new car! It took forever. By the time we got home I was exhausted. Oh, well.

Counting my blessings

2011-11-24T10:31:00.000-05:00

Image credit

This Thanksgiving, I'm thankful for the bounty of blessings that are in my life; so many so that I have a hard time keeping track. To count my blessings it to make my heart explode with joy and happiness.

Etsy Favorites Wednesday

2011-11-23T12:30:00.000-05:00

Hello and welcome to another edition of Etsy Favorites Wednesday, where I pick five of my current faves from Etsy and feature them here. This week's edition is just a smattering of stuff that I like. I sold a doll in my shop so I've got Etsy money burning a whole in my pocket. I want to buy one (or all!) of these things:

Stems painting - this would go really good in my kitchen or great room.

Moustache booties - I believe every baby in America should be decked out in a moustache. Because babies with moustaches are funny.

Doll legs - I know it's weird but I like these doll legs. Just by themselves.

Owls - aren't they sweet?

Christmas angel - I really love these a lot.

Under a spell

2011-11-22T09:30:00.000-05:00

At the beginning of summer, I had the idea that I'd re-read ALL of the Harry Potter books. I'm happy to say that I finally finished them! {To backtrack, I actually never read all of the books ... I never read Deathly Hallows.} It was so much fun reading the books again, from the beginning. They kept my attention for five months! I read them slowly because I read in bed at night - and usually I read only a few pages before nodding off to sleep. But there were some nights when I read late into the night because exciting things were happening! Harry Potter got me through living in our terrible apartment and moving out of it, then living with family which was ah-hem, worse than a Avada Kedavra curse! and I finished the books in our new house!

Overall? The books are excellent and I cannot wait until the girls are old enough to read the series. I was SO SAD when Dumbledore died! I was happy when Snape died - and glad that he redeemed himself. I'm glad Ron and Hermoine realized they liked each other, and how cute is it that Harry and Ginny end up together?! I was slightly unimpressed with the final fight scene with Lord V. I thought it would be more fighting and curse throwing, when really it was just Harry talking to Lord V. Oh well. At least Lord V is gone for good!

Now, I'm watching all of the movies ... I've seen through Order of the Phoenix. This weekend we're going to watch Half Blood Prince and the two Deathy Hallows, yay!

Christmas craft idea OVERLOAD!

2011-11-21T11:28:00.000-05:00

I will admit that I'm getting into Christmas. Gaaaasp! I usually hold out Scrooge style and refuse to even discuss or think about Christmas until way after Thanksgiving. But, this year, I've already purchased the supplies to make a door wreath, and I plan on making it tonight and actually hanging it up BEFORE Thanksgiving! What?! Yes, I'm into it this year.

I've been seeing so, so many Christmas DIY ideas on Pinterest that my head is spinning. I told myself that I need to reign it in and make a list of what I want to make and give myself a reasonable timeline to get it all made. Here's some ideas that I really like: {each project is linked}

Snowflake - since I'm already making a wreath for my door, I thought these would look neat hanging on the walls, either inside or out. And they appear pretty simple to make.

Fabric coasters - these would be cool to make for friends and family. And it would be a good way to get into quilting/piecing fabric together, which I've been wanting to do.

Potholders - I think these are just too cute! I want to make some for myself, but would also be good in a handmade basket of home goods for friends/family?

Stockings - I'm making new stocking for us this year - I like this tutorial.

Lipgloss - these would be fun to make and would be good stocking stuffers!

Doily trees - I *need* to make these.

Pom pom garland - I'm going to have two trees this year and I'm thinking I'm going to make some ornaments and garland for both trees. I like the idea of yarn pom pom garland.

Rice hot bags - These could go along with a handmade basket ... I used to have a rice bag similar to this and I loved it.

Pine cone garland - another garland idea. Would be inexpensive!

Gumdrop wreath - I have always wanted to try to make one of these gumdrop wreaths!

Felt garland - what can I say, I've got a thing for garland.

So, yeah, that's quite a list ... I doubt I'll get to all of it, but I want to try!

What are you planning to make for Christmas - any crafty/sewing projects or decorations?

Free hugs PSA

2011-11-20T22:29:00.001-05:00

I love the message in this - pay attention to the very last few seconds:

Ummmmm ....

2011-11-20T21:45:00.001-05:00

I saw this (singing?) (screaming?) (blowing bubbles?) lady at the store and I was skeeeered. The photo doesn't do her justice. She's about four feet tall!

Think what you will, I love Edward

2011-11-19T22:42:00.000-05:00

We saw Breaking Dawn tonight and it was FANTASTIC! I love the whole franchise, the books, the movies, and my little plastic Edward. Yes, he went with us. Yes, I'm 33 and have an Edward doll. It's all in good fun.

It's a bit bright out here, ma'am. I may start to sparkle.

We went to Carrabba's before the movie. Eddie didn't want to dazzle anyone too much so he stayed in my purse. He escaped once, got a whiff of garlic, and went back under cover.

Edward by some pretty flowers. Awwwww.

In all seriousness, the movie, in my opinion, was the best in the series. There's a stupid part where the wolves are "talking" and it sounds a bit Darth Vader-ish, but, other than that, A+ in my book. Bella gets knocked up and is really gross looking toward the end. The director did a good job at that. Their wedding was beautiful. I am not ashamed to admit that I got a tear in my eye. The honeymoon? Oh boy. Steamy.

I'm putting Edward back into his hiding spot* now, fun's over. See you later for Breaking Dawn Part 2 Eddie!

*He's actually not hiding, he is in my glass-fronted display cabinet in my kitchen. Peering out. Sparkling now and then.

Quack quack reading!

2011-11-18T10:10:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I wrote about Arlene reading her sight words. As promised, here is a video of Lydia reading her book from school. It's the first time she has read the book, and she didn't have to stop and ask about any words! Go Lydia!

(This video is too skinny - I think I need to flip my phone horizontal when taking video! Duh!)

Traffic light sight words

2011-11-17T12:08:00.000-05:00

My girls are becoming really good readers and spellers. First grade has been a lot of fun so far! They have spelling tests every week and my favorite part of the evening is testing them on their spelling words. It just gives me joy! Is that weird? Anyway, they also are doing a lot of reading too. Arlene has to read five books a night! Lydia only has to read one book from school but she usually ends up reading a book or two that we have at home, too.

Arlene's newest activity is called "traffic light sight words" - she has a whole slew of sight words. If she knows the words right away, by sight, they go on the green part of the traffic light. If she hesitates but gets it, they go on the yellow part. If she has trouble and can't sound it out, they go on the red part. Last night was the first time we played. She did great!

I was so surprised at the words she knew already!

She knew "something" right away! Whoah!

This was her traffic light when we were finished - she had a lot more in the green than in yellow or red, which is the goal!

I took a video of her trying to read a few words: (the video is skinny for some reason!)

Tomorrow I'll post a video of Lydia reading!

Etsy Favorites Wednesday - a guest favor-er

2011-11-16T10:56:00.000-05:00

This week's Etsy Favorites Wednesday list was curated by my pal Amber! Thanks Amber! Enjoy her finds!

BB {Amber's son} has always loved books. Like, LOVED books. He reads first thing in the morning, throughout the day and last thing at night. Lately, he's taken to reading to himself and reading to us. He starts every page with, 'One upon a time', it's adorable. So, I present a book-themed Etsy Favorites Wednesday on this fall day. 'Cause I don't know about you, but reading is one of the best ways to spend days like today.

A good read - This is totally what I look like when I am into a book.

Linen Bookmark - Bookmarks are kinda going by the wayside, thanks to Kindles and the like, but I love them. Sometimes, the story they tell is as good as the book they're in. That strawberry Starburst wrapper still tucked in an old Stephen King book? Totally from a boy I liked in high school.

Book bag - BB loves going to the library (like his mom!), but he doesn't have a library book ... bag! I could totally make this! (I think.)

Book journal - Back in the day, I used to read A LOT. Two, three, four books a week sometimes. At least a hundred a year. So to keep them straight, I wrote them down. If I went to the library without my list, I always brought home at least one book I had already read.

Back in the day - Not only is this is a great quote, it's from the best movie ever!

Nurturing a positive self image

2011-11-15T11:59:00.000-05:00

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If there's one thing I'm most scared of in raising girls it's the responsibility of nurturing their positive body image. I want them to be happy with themselves and who they are and what they look like, no matter what. And it scares me, because I see little glimpses now of things they're starting to think about.

One day, my 7-year-old Arlene weighed herself, and she asked me, "Mommy, am I fat? Because I weighed myself and I weigh more than the last time I weighed myself. It says I weigh 43 pounds." Uhhhh, I replied, "NO! You are not fat! You weigh more because you're growing, your arms are getting longer, your legs are getting longer and your head is filling up with all sorts of smarts!" She said, "OK!" and skipped along. But it scared me. It's not that I think she's concerned, because I don't, it just scares me for what might be to come as the girls get older.

I try so very hard to emulate happiness with myself and my body shape and my face and my hair because I've got two little girls that mimic me in many ways. It's daunting. They're concerned about their hair (it has to look perfect every day for school!) and I let them wear eye shadow sometimes if we're just hanging out around the house or going to the grocery store, and they looove to get their nails painted. I'm not a girly girl to begin with, but I've become more girly with the girls. I'm a confident woman, most of the time. I try to convey that to them. But the truth? I'm not completely happy with my body shape as it is right now, but, I'm happy as a person. I had twins, I'm getting older, and I'm choosing to eat popcorn on the couch in the evening while watching TV instead of going outside and going for a walk. So, I'm heavier than I used to be, but, life has happened, and if I'm wearing the extra pounds of life, then I can't complain much because life has been pretty good. While I'm not always happy with myself, I try to not let that show to the girls. I want to teach the girls to be happy with themselves, no matter what their jeans size.

It scares me what sort of images will invade the girls' brains as they grow older and how those images will shape their own body image. They don't watch a lot of TV, but they are aware of popular culture figures. They play with dolls, they like the Disney princesses, and they play with Barbies.

Unattainable Beauty

Perhaps most disturbing is the fact that media images of female beauty are unattainable for all but a very small number of women. Researchers generating a computer model of a woman with Barbie-doll proportions, for example, found that her back would be too weak to support the weight of her upper body, and her body would be too narrow to contain more than half a liver and a few centimeters of bowel. A real woman built that way would suffer from chronic diarrhea and eventually die from malnutrition. Jill Barad president of Mattel (which manufactures Barbie) estimated that 99% of girls aged 3 to 10 years old own at least one Barbie doll.

That came from this web site, which discusses media and the impact it has on shaping young girls' images. {It's an older article, but it's a good read.} Isn't that scary about Barbie? I played with Barbie when I was young, and I don't think I consciously tried to look like Barbie, but I do remember thinking that Barbie was lucky because she had huge boobs, and I was a late bloomer. Arlene used to really like the princess mermaid Ariel, because she liked that Ariel had boobies and wore a bikini top! Lydia likes the princesses that have beautiful hair and beautiful singing voices. What if, when she gets older, her singing voice isn't the best? What if her hair (which IS beautiful!) loses it's luster and she dislikes it? Will the girls compare themselves to the imagery of the princesses that they liked so much? I'm not going to shelter them from playing with their princess dolls or from watching the princess movies, but, it does make me wonder what sort of body images those princesses are subconsciously telling them are "beautiful."

That same web site also quotes that the average model weighs 23 percent LESS than the average woman. Yet those super skinny women are what we see everywhere. It scares me! What can I do to teach my girls that super skinny is not healthy?

I want to do it right, to teach my girls to love themselves and their bodies. I have to keep reminding myself to not bemoan my own insecurities in front of them. To be happy with myself, inside and out, and to keep reminding them that no matter what, they are beautiful, inside and out.

If you have daughters, what advice can you give me? Is this also an issue with young boys?

My fall soundtrack

2011-11-14T12:07:00.000-05:00

I really, really love Radiohead. I first got into them (very late) when their Kid A album came out. I got the album in October 2000 when it came out, and I burned through that CD, listening to it over and over. No matter what time of year I listen to it, it reminds me of fall.

{Image credit: this is a print by artist The Big Harumph on Etsy. I have been eyeing it for awhile and just bought it!}

Radiohead's first song on the album, called "Everything's in its right place" is really resonating with me now too. Life is just grand right now. Everything is right. We're settled into our house, the girls are happy in school and just learning so, so much, I love my job and my husband's happy at his. Life is just good. It's pretty darn great, in fact.

Here's the song:

"Everything's in its right place. Yesterday I woke up sucking a lemon." Yup - pretty much sums it up. I was always so sad and pissed about our living situation - when we couldn't sell our house and then when we did and lived in that stupid apartment, and then with in-laws which was not a fun time, and now, it's all just RIGHT. We're in our dream house.

I really like Radiohead's newer album, The King of Limbs, too. It's more dancy and faster-paced and just gets me going. I like to listen to it in the car on the way to work. I especially like the song, Lotus Flower. Check it out:

It makes me smile - I love Thom York and his funky dance moves. He's so fantastically weird.

What's your favorite album, or, an album that reminds you of a certain place or place in time?

Timeline photos

2011-11-13T18:44:00.000-05:00

For an assignment at school the girls needed to bring in timeline photos of themselves - them as a baby, toddler and now. It was really fun looking through old photos! Aren't they just precious?!

This makes me want to start stitchin'

2011-11-12T14:52:00.000-05:00

I think it would be really neat to tag a public place with knitting or crochet work. Who's with me?!

The woolly-walk-along from Michael Cannon Miller on Vimeo.

The cutest chair completes the room

2011-11-11T19:01:00.000-05:00

We ordered new furniture for our living room and it's been coming in at different stages. First our entertainment came in about six weeks ago then our couches and end tables came two weeks ago, and today, our chair and ottoman arrived. We had that pair custom made. I love it!

I also bought some artwork for the room. We've got an autumnal theme going on.

I will have to take pictures of the rest of the room soon!

Little kid journals

2011-11-10T14:03:00.000-05:00

Each week in school the girls write journal entries. Sometimes they have free reign as to what they get to write, other times they get prompted with a question to answer or a topic to write about. This is all very new and exciting for them, to actually be able to write out words. They are trying their best to spell out words. Their little imaginations are so great! And their little drawings? Adorable!

Arlene's - it says, "I once went to DQ with my mom and dad and my sister it was fun."

Lydia's - it says, "My birthday is coming up and it is going to be a LaLaLoopsy birthdy and I love LaLaLoopsy and my mom does too." Sure thing! She knew that I was going to make her a LaLa birthday cake out of the ferris wheel we have - so she drew that. How cute!

Arlene's - "When someone went to my door and they left a goodie bag on my door and they ringed my doorbell." She's talking about the time we got Boo'd for Halloween! I love her illustration of our house - it's pretty darn accurate!

Lydia's - "I like rainbows. You can only see them when there's rain and sun." Very true! Her purple sun cracks me up!

Arlene's - "On Saturday I went to my mom's friend's house and we carved pumpkins and it was fun." She's talking about when we trekked to Toledo to see Amber.

Lydia's - "One time I got to ride on my uncle's motor cycle. When we were camping." This is hilarious that she wrote about this - it must have been memorable. She rode Uncle Jeremy's cycle around a cul-de-sac while we were camping. Her illustration is pretty spot-on!

Arlene's - "Once upon a time there was a witch and she was cooking a stew for her and her cat in a building." I love that the witch is "in a building" - hah!

Lydia's - I lost 4 teeth and 2 teeth are wiggly. My sister lost 5 teeth. She lost more teeth than me." The simplicity of this just cracks me up. But! Lydia lost another tooth this week, so now they're even!

It's such a treasure watching the girls expand their vocabularies in print and learning how to write. They are tasked this year in first grade to be able to write paragraphs by the time the year is over. Fun stuff!

Etsy Favorites Wednesday - what inspires me

2011-11-09T10:03:00.000-05:00

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I'm wanting to find a new something or other to start making. I have some ideas kicking around in my head. I was looking through Etsy for inspiration and found some lovely things:

Table runner - I am interested in quilting - maybe starting small with a table runner would be a good start. (Also, check out this table runner! I want it! Incredibly cool!)

Quilt postcard - another avenue to break into quilting would be quilted postcards. I guess you can really mail these?

Santa art doll - I have featured this artist's work many times. I'm continually inspired by her.

Crochet hair bands - one of these days I'm going to bust out my hook and yarn and crochet!

Linocut - this is GORGEOUS. Last year I dabbled in linocut and I want to get into it again and get better at it.

A crafting crisis and possible shop shutdown?

2011-11-08T11:00:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm in a pickle. When we moved out of our house last year, I had packed up all of my sewing stuff including all of my doll-making stuff. For an entire year while we were in temporary living quarters I didn't sew any dolls and I thought that I really missed it. Turns out, I didn't.

This past weekend I made two dolls for an auction basket for my aforementioned work event. I had decided that I was going to change up my doll pattern a little bit. So I worked up a new design: the dolls had skinnier legs and arms and a different backside. I changed up my pattern because how I was making them before wasn't quick and it wasn't always fun. I used to sew the dolls all together inside out, then flip them right-side out to stuff them and then I would sew up a little "zipper" in their back. Like this:

That gray seam up her back is a bunch of hand stitches of embroidery floss. I started to not like that process, because it was often difficult to stuff her arms and legs inside her body then sew around the seams then flip her back out. I started to not like that seam either ... I didn't like how it was so noticeable.

So, with my new pattern, I made the arms and legs thinner and decided I was going to machine sew the bottom of the dolls shut. I *hated* it. HATED IT. I was getting soooo angry while I was making the dolls then I was getting mad at myself for getting so angry then even madder at myself because I always told myself that once I didn't like making the dolls, I had to stop. I realized I had reached that point. Sadly, my time away from the dolls didn't make my heart grow fonder.

Here are the dolls that I made this weekend:

It's supposed to be a boy and a girl but they don't look all that different! I do like their arms and their legs, but their butts, I don't like.

It wasn't easier to stitch them up by their butts as I thought it was going to be. And I really don't like how it looks - it looks unfinished. That picture makes it look nicer than it really looks in person.

See my dilemma? I dislike the back stitch look and I dislike the butt stitch look and I don't care enough to try to work it out into a way that I DO like. I just need to BACK AWAY FROM THE DOLLS! I'm not 100% satisfied with my end product so I need to stop making them. My heart's just not in it anymore.

This is our donation basket - it's quite cute even if I am mad at my dolls. The monster dude is from my friend Abby.

So ... ho hum. I'm bummed about it. It's not that I'm sad about not making them anymore, that's a bit of a relief. I'm just sad about losing interest. On the other hand, I started making the dolls because I made my first two for the girls when they were younger. They loved their dolls back then. Now that they're older they've lost interest.

On a related note, I may close my Etsy shop. I've realized lately that I just don't have the time to spare to keep it updated nor do I have the desire anymore. I haven't made a decision about it either way ... but the thought of closing it is niggling around in my brain and it won't leave. I know I'll come up with something else to make ... I'm not going to stop making or sewing. I just don't know if I'll ever make large quantities of something again... I dislike feeling like an assembly line and that's often how I felt when I was preparing for a craft show and making up 25 dolls to sell. And then the letdown and great disappointment of not selling my stuff is just too much. I haven't had an Etsy sale in a long, long time and I'm indifferent about it, because I know I haven't been marketing my shop. That doesn't bother me much. But there's been plenty of times when I've gotten excited about a new product or a craft show and I worked myself up in a tizzy creating and sewing stuff, only to be disappointed when nothing sold. I kinda just don't want to play that game anymore.

Sad times. But, I know something new and exciting is around the corner. I just haven't discovered it yet.

A bazillion sparkles

2011-11-07T10:05:00.000-05:00

This weekend I was tasked with making a mirror ball trophy for a work event - we're hosting a Dancing with the Stars dance competition this coming weekend. It's our major fundraiser of the year and I've very excited about it! {It's a formal affair and I found the perfect outfit - a sequined skirt! I will have to share photos.}

The trophy came out just as gaudy as I thought it would!

The box was white - I spray painted it glittery. The styrofoam pieces were white also - I painted them black.

Claaaassssy.

Gluing all of those fricken jewels on took FOREVER.

Gaudy as it is, it'll serve its purpose!

My new bench

2011-11-06T20:53:00.000-05:00

When we were deciding on a floorplan for our new house we had one condition: we wanted a front porch. And we got it! And now, thanks to my very talented uncle, we have a brand new bench adorning our porch.

The bench fits perfectly between our two windows. It was designed that way - isn't my uncle talented?!

I gave the bench a light white-wash stain.

I made pillows for the rocking chair and the bench. The doily in the middle of this pillow is one that my great-grandmother made.

I love handmade treasures!

Today was a really big day

2011-11-05T19:27:00.000-04:00

The girls got their ears pierced today! They have been asking to get them pierced for a few years now. Daddy was reluctant to let them do it, but, he had told them when they turned seven they were old enough. They were both very nervous!

Lydia wanted to go first, which was surprising because she's usually not ok with anything potentially painful.

They both look so nervous!

Really unsure at this point ...

Double guns! Pierced at the same time.

Ahhhhhh!

Trying not to cry. Trying not to cry.

Pretty big girl with pink diamonds in her ears!

Arlene's turn! Um, yeah, so ... not so sure about this.

Really not sure.

Double guns!

She was concerned but didn't really flinch.

Done, phew! She got little sparkly flowers. Cutie pie!

They did so great getting their ears pierced. I was very proud of them. No tears at all. And now they're talking about other things that could be pierced, like their noses, eyebrows, and tongues? Oh yeah man. They're pros at this now, you know.

They were FREAKING OUT over the plethora of choices of cool earrings! Gifts for birthdays, holidays, any days? Jewelry. {Good lord, they are so grown up!!!!}

Ohh emm gee look at all of this GIRLIE STUFF!

Lord help us.

My stitched Iphone case

2011-11-04T10:38:00.000-04:00

I accidentally dropped my beloved Iphone a couple weeks ago and its case cracked. Oh noooo! Thankfully the phone itself was spared any damage. As I was looking around for a new case I remembered that I had seen a post on the Craft blog about stitchable cases. Um, yes please. I ordered mine from this site and it came relatively quickly, considering it was shipped overseas.

I downloaded a blank cross stitch grid and I came up with a cute little house design!

Here it is, my new case!

Owl luminaries

2011-11-03T13:08:00.000-04:00

For trick-or-treating the girls and I made owl luminaries out of paper bags. They were so easy to make, and fun! I got the tutorial from a great blog called My Owl Barn, but I can't find the tutorial to link to. {The blog has a bunch of really cute owl stuff!} The luminaries were so simple; here's the supplies needed:

Paper lunch bags

Construction paper in fall colors

White cupcake liners

Buttons

Glue

Sand

Tea candles

Instructions: Cut the tops off the paper bags. Glue down two cupcake liners as eyes then glue buttons inside the liners. Cut 2-inch strips of construction paper the length of your bags and cut fringe onto the bottom of each piece. (We used four pieces of fringe per owl.)

Glue the fringe down, starting at the bottom row. Overlap each piece by about half an inch to an inch. Let dry. Add sand inside the bag and a candle.

The luminaries lasted all night and didn't fall over. I couldn't capture a decent picture of them glowing at night, but take my word for it, they were cuuuuuute!

We lined the walkway with them. Each one was different!

Etsy Favorites Wednesday - fall jewelry

2011-11-02T10:22:00.000-04:00

While Halloween is over and I'm sad about that, I am happy that it is still fall and that the leaves are still changing where I live. We have warmish days and crisp days - it's not winter yet!

Sterling leaf earrings - elegant and simple.

Stacked rings - while these aren't necessarily 'leafy' the colors do remind me of fall. There is a tree that I pass on my way to work that is a spark of color - the brightest yellow.

Leaf branch earrings - I love the pearl.

Wood leaves - I am so impressed with hand-carved wood.

Silver leaves - another simple yet beautiful design.

Halloween hangover slash coma

2011-11-01T11:47:00.000-04:00

Bleerrrrrrg. I'm tired. So tiiiirrrreeedddd. Last night's Halloween was awesome. Our neighborhood is just awesome. We've always wanted to live in a place that celebrates Halloween like we celebrate Halloween and we were THERE. I got a little misty eyed on multiple occasions last night. It was just overwhelmingly awesome to see all of the little kiddies out in the neighborhood, the neighbors chatting in the yards, kids running from house to house, their candy bags flapping behind them. Aaaaaaaaahhhh! It was awesome. We went trick or treating with one of the neighbor girls that the girls are friends with. We walked practically the entire neighborhood with them and our 'hood is quite large. We were surprised the girls had the stamina to walk as far as they did but there was candy involved and candy is a good motivator.

Halloween was indeed happy!

The girls went as Monster High girls. Lydia was Dracu-laura and Arlene was Frankie-stein. Their friend was another character which was super cute, they were a trio of little monster girls.

Awww, our front porch - we just love our front porch!

Why hello, mister pumpkin with a 'stache!

Daddy is "examining" the candy aka "eating the gross stuff" aka "picking out his own stash." I grabbed my stash of grape Nerds from their bags already and have them hidden on top of the fridge, because, you know, grape Nerds are poisonous.

"HUH? Candy?! Give me moooore CANDY!!!"

"I just love Halloween!"

How was YOUR Halloween?

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

2011-10-31T11:40:00.001-04:00

Pre-Halloween ghoulish delights

2011-10-31T11:13:00.001-04:00

The P family just loves Halloween! It's a family affair and we go all out. Each year we have a pre-Halloween feast of GHOUL-ash the night before Halloween. {We order pizza the night of Halloween - it's quicker and easiery prior to putting on costumes and going trick-or-treating!}

The table was set, the lights low, and ghoulish music was playing in the background. Yes, that's a severed hand.

Each P family member had name tags by their place. Lydia's said "Lydia from the Lagoon" and we had "Absolutely Freaky Arlene" and "Wicked Witch Wendy" and "Monsterly Mike." Bwah hah hahhhh! Don't you like the green glasses? They are apothacary jars.

The bow tie GHOULash looked sorta brainy, we thought. Mmmm, brains!

My minions, happily enjoying their pre-Halloween feast.

Tonight is trick-or-treating! We bought a metric TON of candy. Our neighborhood is huge with lots of little kiddies and we've heard rumor that trick-or-treating is quote "insane" - we are ready and we are EXCITED!

A fair warning about a lot of rambling to come

2011-10-27T11:05:00.000-04:00

I've been in a bit of a funk about this here blog. Well, I wouldn't necessarily say a funk, because it's not a bad feeling I have about A Couple More Hours, it's just, well, I've been ignoring this blog lately. I haven't been posting as much lately and when I do post I just don't think my posts are that noteworthy or great. Dull. Boring. Ho hum.

Last year, I participated in NaBloPoMo, which is a really fancy pants way of saying that I wrote a blog post every day during the month of November. {It stands for National Blog Posting Month and lots of bloggers participate.} There's a web site here. I really enjoyed last November. A lot of my friends participated too and I felt a sense of community through our blogs, a sense of connectedness. It was nice.

So I'm diving into it again this year. I'm going to write one post each day in November. Even weekends! And what can you expect from A Couple More Hours this NaBloPoMo? How's about some stories and photos of our new house? I've been decorating it and it's lookin' gooood. How's about some stories about the girls? Raising twin 7 year olds is a trip, I tell ya. How about some stories as a working mom? Not the hot-button type of story debating who has it worse, moms working out of the house or in the house - I'm talking about just a story about how sometimes it's just draining being a mom, plain and simple. How's about some stories about family drama, about family members who cause troubles but think they do no wrong? No? You don't want to read about that? Sure you do. I know you do. Well, I can't say for certain that I will write about that, but I want to. I want to dive into the depths and write about family member drama and how it affects me. Perhaps I will. You'll just have to wait and see. I plan on unpacking and setting up my craft room in November, so I'll be sharing with you that process. And I plan on making stuff in November, of getting back into the swing of things on the 'ol crafty bandwagon. I'll share my projects. I'll interview my kids or maybe even have them write their own blog post. They type stories onto the computer at school so they're up for the task. I'll interview my husband again. I did that last year and I got a chuckle out of it. I've been cooking a lot, which, to anyone that knows me, knows this is a S-H-O-C-K. I'm not a cooker. Not in the least. But, my new kitchen kicks ass and I loooove it. It inspires me to cook! I hardly won't even let my husband cook anymore. And I surely won't let him unload the dishwasher; he puts things away wrong! How's about some stories about my job? Not specifics, because I don't talk about my job in specifics here, but how's about some stories about how my job inspires me? How it makes me happy and sometimes sad? How's about some stories about body image - about how I'm struggling with being happy with myself and projecting good body image thoughts onto the girls? That's the one thing that scares me the most about raising girls. We will discuss.

Yes, let's do this! I'm ready. And you've been warned. My brother jokes with me that I go on and on and on and on and on sometimes with my blog posts. I admit, I do. I'm a bit of a rambler. But that's just how I write. A lot of it is stream of conscience. I've tried to keep this blog light and airy but there are topics I want to write about that are somewhat heavy and really honest, and, I want to write about them. I'm nervous to write about some stuff because I don't ever know who is ready this blog any given day, but I've decided that I don't care. You've been forewarned.

I also implore my readers to comment, if you agree or disagree with me or if you just want to say hi or whatever. In the hopes that more people will comment, I have disabled my old commenting system called 'Intense Debate' and I've reinstalled the Blogger commenting system. I think the Intense Debate system was a little cumbersome to some people. Doing so deleted all of my past comments. Bummer. But, oh well. Now, moving forward, you can comment at will, comment anonymously, whatever.

So. There. 30 posts in 30 days. Starts Tuesday, November 1. 

{If you're a blogger and you're also doing NaBloPoMo, please let me know. I am going to compile of list.}

Etsy Favorites Wednesday - Halloween, last one!

2011-10-26T10:02:00.000-04:00

This week's Etsy Favorites Wednesday list is all Halloween-ish stuff. It's the last Halloweenie list of the year!

Zombie Gnome - hahahahaaaa! Check out the artist's other gnomes too!

Shoe wings!

Sugar skull coloring sheets

Pumpkin pattern - I'm making a few of these next year for sure.

Zombie magnets!

The most awesomely awesome Halloween house EVER

2011-10-25T11:34:00.002-04:00

A friend of mine sent me the link to this video - it's been circulating through the internets because it's just so dang awesome. I about peed my pants at the 1:10 mark. I want to construct a talking pumpkin onto my house for next year!

Zombie Daddy and his undead girls

2011-10-24T15:46:00.000-04:00

Zombie Daddy had a birthday this weekend and we went to a Halloween party.

Zombie Daddy is a distinguished zombie with his moustache!

Zombie Daddy and his undead girls.

Zombie daughter #1, Draculaura, daughter of Dracula, from Monster High

Zombie daughter #2, Frankie Stein, the daughter of Franken (also from Monster High)

Kiddies, be scared! Zombie Daddy is going to get you!

Run, run! He want to eat your brains!

Zombie Daddy had as much, if not more, fun than the kiddies dressing up!

Shop name/address brand awareness

2011-10-21T11:12:00.000-04:00

My Etsy shop is called Two Stars and has been called Two Stars since I opened it in 2007. Until very recently, Etsy had a rule that your shop address had to be the same as your sign in name. When I signed up for Etsy I didn't know I'd have a shop called Two Stars, so my sign in name was "wendykayp" ... when I later opened my shop, my shop's address was/is "wendykayp." So, my shop's address is www.etsy.com/wendykayp/ or http://www.wendykayp.etsy.com/.

Well, now Etsy has changed the rules - you can change your shop's address to whatever you'd like, as long as the name isn't already taken. I'm not wanting to change my shop name, since it is and always has been Two Stars, I am just considering changing its web address.

I wanted to change it to 'twostars' but it's taken, of course. Wouldn't it have been cool to have http://www.twostars.etsy.com/ as my shop address? Yes. {The person that has 'twostars' doesn't even have anything in their shop! Draaaaat!}

My branding of Two Stars as my shop is a work in progress. The tags I put on the back sides of my dolls have 'Two Stars' on them:

My business cards also say Two Stars on them and have my shop address as 'wendykayp.'

If I change the shop address I can get new tags and new business cards. Not a big deal.

I want to create more sense of cohesion with my brand and my name ... but I don't know if it's entirely that big of a deal and/or if it would just cause confusion if I change my shop address?

I have a couple options and I'm looking for your opinion. These names are a variation of 'twostars' and are currently available:

2stars
wendystwostars
starstwo
twinstars

Do you like any of those? Should I change my address to one of those, or just keep it as it is?

Etsy Favorite Wednesday - BOO

2011-10-19T15:16:00.000-04:00

Hello readers. This is not Wendy because Wendy is not here. I am from the nether regions, the after life! Yes indeedy. Wendy is otherwise ... ummmm, detained. But I am here to deliver to you this week's Etsy Favorites Wednesday list. Joy.

Self portrait. Better keep your lights on tonight kiddies! But I will turn them off once you're asleep.

Wendy wants me to tell you that she really likes this doll. I don't care.I think it's ugly.

Another cutesy cute happy little ghost! Stupid.

Ghostly portrait. Ha ha yeah right. Fake.

Yes, you will have nightmares. You're welcome.

And as my parting gift to you, this:

Announcing the give-a-way winner!

2011-10-18T10:34:00.002-04:00

Eight lovely ladies entered my give-a-way!

I used the Random Generator and it picked ...

And the winner is .... 6! Sarah! Who writes the blog A Random Sampling! Congratulations Sarah! Send me your address and my little housey-house is going to make its way up north to your house!

Thank you to everyone who entered!

NaBloPoMo bloggers

2011-10-17T11:17:00.007-04:00

Who's in? Who's posting every day in November? These delightful bloggers are. Read them!

Grumbles and Grunts
Happy Hopefulls
Write Here Write Now
Athena Bees
Life with Ladies

My Etsy shop is open - and a GIVE-A-WAY!

2011-10-13T10:21:00.000-04:00

My Etsy shop is FINALLY back open!

I had closed it earlier this year while we were moving house. But now it's open, yay!! I've got dolls for sale, house pillows, stuffed bunnies, a stuffed fox and camper pillows. Lots of lovelies! I'll be adding more stock soon, once I get the rest of my craft room unpacked.

To celebrate the grand opening of my shop, I'm doing a give-a-way! I'm giving away one of my handmade house pillows!

The house was made from a hand-carved linocut block. I stamped it onto fabric with heat-set permanent textile paint. I embellished it with little embroidered flowers.

It can be used for a pillow or as a decoration. It measures 12.5 inches by 6.5 inches and has a black spiral fabric on the back.

How to enter:

Leave a comment here on my blog. If I don't know you, be sure to leave your email address, or a link to your blog (or other online profile) where I can find your email address.

How you can get extra entries:

One additional entry: link to my give-a-way from your Facebook page.

One additional entry: like my shop's Facebook page.

One additional entry: write a tweet about my contest with a link to this post.

{If you do any of the extras, be sure to let me know in your comment so that I can record it!}

Give-a-way contest ends Monday, October 17 at 7 p.m. when I will draw a winner randomly!

Don't forget to shop at the Two Stars Etsy Shop and good luck!

Etsy Favorites Wednesday - Halloween, again (duh)

2011-10-12T15:38:00.000-04:00

Another Halloween Etsy Favorites Wednesday list - of course! I just love Halloween! AND I haven't told you that our neighborhood is THE MECCA of Halloween decorations! People are out-doing us - and we put up a lot of decorations! We are actually going to go buy more. We cannot be outdone, no siree! Anyway ... this week's list!!

Moustache on a stick - moustache and vampire teeth: win win.

HP tea cup - the grim!

Skull earrings - I'm digging the colors of these skulls.

Zombie - brains!

Skeleton clutch - I really love this.

My two dearest stars

2011-10-10T16:03:00.000-04:00

A letter to my two dearest stars, my twins, Arlene and Lydia,

I cannot believe that you are seven years old. I mean really, stop growing up already! You're getting too old, you don't need me much anymore, sniff sniff! Each year on your birthday I've written you a little letter and posted it upon this here blog. I'll probably stop doing so eventually, because at some point you'll probably ask me to stop writing about you on my blog. But, you haven't asked me to stop yet. This year, I'm really late with my letter - a whole week late! But, life's been pretty busy lately, and I wanted to have time to sit down and write you a letter that somewhat expresses my thoughts in a complete way. I didn't want to rush it.

First, in alphabetical order, my dearest Arlene,

You, my little one, are hilarious. Always the happy one, always the care fee one. You're a delightful little spirit, you are. I find your humor both hilarious and also a little maddening. You make people laugh at your no-nonsense take on things. For example, when we were moving into our new house, Daddy and Papa were moving in Daddy's big huge desk into his study. They were trying really hard not to scuff up our new floors, so they kept putting pieces of cardboard down where they'd be walking. They had to cut a couple pieces to fit into some spaces. After the desk was moved in the cardboard was going to be thrown away. You walked into the room, holding up a piece of cardboard and asked if you could have it. It was an oval shape. Papa asked you what you were going to make out of it, and you said, quite simply, "A taco." And we all howled with laughter. That's about the last thing we all expected you to say. Sure enough, you folded that oval in half and colored a taco, complete with meat, lettuce, cheese, tomatoes and sour cream. You're so creative. Your humor is also a big maddening at times, because you tend to be loose with your bodily functions, much to the laughter of your Daddy, much to the annoyance of me. Kid, you can fart on command. You've been able to do it since you were four years old. Your Daddy is so proud. You're momma's embarrassed. So you're sister, for the record. Your sense of style is quite catching for a seven year old. I like to take you shopping with me because you actually pick out some really good stuff, and if something doesn't look right, you tell me. When you and I were furniture shopping a couple weeks ago, we were looking for fabric to cover a chair. I was looking through one book of fabric, you were looking through another, and I and getting frustrated because I couldn't find anything I liked. You told me that you found a good fabric in your book, and my goodness, you did! You found the most perfectly perfect fabric. We went ahead and purchased that fabric to cover our chair. Good choice! You, my dear, are a little social butterfly. You talk all the time about your friends at school and we think you may be a bit of a ring leader. But what's awesome is that you have a good mix of shyness and leadership. You're not overbearing, you're just right. You step up when you want to, lead other kids in a fun game, and also play along with other's games. You're so full of energy. At least 30 million times a day I tell you to calm down because you're like a pinball, bouncing from one thing to the next, jumping up and down, feet in the air, hands in the air crazy pants dancing running running. Your energy is refreshing and also exhausting! You are a sweet, sweet soul and I'm so proud of you and so happy that you're my daughter. You're becoming a grown up little girl, full of ideas, full of your own style. Your a little cutie-patootie with your cool little glasses and your sassy little smile. Your creativity makes me so proud. I love you.

My dearest sweetheart Lydia,

You are the sweetest of girls, Lydia May. You are the happiest of happy, the sweetest of sweet, and nothing pleases me more than to see you open up presents. It's just awesome. At your birthday party, you'd start to rip open a gift, peek to see what it was, get a big huge grin on your face, run up to the person who got it for you, give them a big 'ol hug, then go back to the gift, open it all the way, exclaim how it was JUST WHAT YOU WANTED!! and then give the gift-giver another hug and a kiss too. You're so sweet and kind. You make people happy because you show genuine emotion. You give hugs like nobody's business and your favorite thing is to snuggle. You crawl up on your Grandma's lap and settle down for a good snuggle and we joke that you'll be trying to do that when you're 16 too! Your legs are so long you no longer fit on our laps but we make you fit because we all just love some Lydia snuggle time. You've got such a kind big heart, my child. You take great care of your sister and you look out for other people too. You love animals so, so much and I'm sorry that I won't let you get a dog. I know you'd be a great animal caretaker. Someday, I promise. For now you can surround yourself with all of your many stuffed animals and you can pet our neighbors' dogs to your little heart's content. You have such a carefree, easy going attitude. But it's not so carefree that you won't assert yourself. We love that. Pretty much all the time you'll go with the flow, go along with what we're doing, but if you don't want to do something, or don't want to eat something, you let us know in no uncertain terms, and we just have to let you have your way, well, because you're so emphatic and because you usually DO just go with the flow. When we were buying stuff for your room you wanted a owl pattern from Target and the rest was up to me. While your sister (ahem!) was quite insistent about having certain things and certain colors in her room, you told me all the time, "I don't care what you do Mommy!" and we went with it. Together we put together your room and it turned out so sweet, just like you. Your room is a mix of florals, a mix of pinks and oranges, owls, hearts, stuffed dogs and kitties, and an antique shelf full of stuff from my childhood, your grandma and great-grandma. Sometimes I think you're an old soul inside a little kid body, my little Lydia. Your Daddy and I trust you quite a bit - we always have. If there's something we want help with, you're the first person we call. And you help us with a smile, which is always nice. You're only one minute older than your sister but you're wiser and older acting, not in a boastful way, but in a good, older sister type of way. You take care of Arlene and you always will. You are a sweet, loving kid and I'm so proud of you and so happy that you're my daughter. I love you, Lydia.

Both of you are such treasures, such good little kids. You're polite and patient and kind. We've had quite a busy year, but you've gone with the flow, done what needed to be done, all with your smiling, happy happy happiness that just swells up our hearts. We moved out of our old house and into an apartment and you got to share a room with a bathroom attached and you thought that was just the coolest thing ever. You loved your room in that apartment. When we moved in with your Grandma you loved that too, all of that extra attention. You have positively flourished in the short time we've lived in our brand new house. You each have your own room! We weren't sure how that would go - but you both have embraced your rooms as your own, and you enjoy finally having your own space. You kiss each other goodnight each night and after we put you to bed and we retire to the family room downstairs, we can hear the pitter patter of your feet going back and forth from each other's rooms. You've made friends in the neighborhood - you're not shy to scooter down the street or drive your little Barbie car. You're just so stinking resilient! It's been so great, and very easy on your Daddy and I. We were worried about you starting a new school, learning a new routine. Silly us. You're old pros at it all!

You are the greatest things to ever happen to your Daddy and I and each and every day we love you more and more. Keep growing, keep learning, keep loving and keep up the greatness that is you.

You're loved so very much!

If I had a couple more hours

2011-10-06T10:59:00.001-04:00

If I had a couple more hours in my day, then I'd be able to soak in the tub under candlelight, reflect upon my day, and relax. Instead, I hastily wash my face right before bed, take a deep breath, and call that good enough. If I had even 15 more minutes in my day, then I'd be able to read more than 20 words of my Harry Potter book, taking in the story and immersing myself in the land of Hogwarts. Instead, I read 19 words, eyes half open, drifting asleep. I've had to re-read the last page of my book for five nights straight because what I am reading isn't really sinking in.

If I had a couple more hours in my day, when I sat down to do homework with the girls, I'd have patience. I'd patiently sit and listen to them sound out words in their books, finger pointing at each word, little brains running quickly on trying to figure out what sound 'ow' makes and learning words like 'skate' and 'evening' and 'behind', instead, I only half listen to what they are reading, my mind racing, thinking of the million other things I should be doing at that particular moment.

If I had a couple more hours in my day, I'd be able to finish settin' up the house. While I want to be finished right now at the same time I also want to take my time. I want to take my time and put things up on the walls exactly where they should go, exactly where I'd want to look at them for years to come.

If I had a couple more hours in my day, I'd utilize my brand spankin' new kitchen to its fullest, bringing out the Betty Crocker cookbook, finding the perfectly complex recipe to figure out how to make for dinner. And dinner would be served not in haste, but in three-course fashion, complete with the fancy paper napkins and the nice silverware. Instead, we've eaten out two times this week so far and had hotdogs on paper plates the night we were home. If I had a couple more hours in my day I'd have time to sit down, make some popcorn in my new air popper, and enjoy some moments of complete mind-is-blank-let's-enjoy-the-show movie time with my husband. Instead, we watch about 20 minutes of TV before becoming too tired to even keep our eyes open.

If I had a couple more hours in my day, then I'd be able to write a blog post about my girls turning seven. Problem is, I want to get photos of them to accompany that post, and I haven't even had a chance to snap any photos of them, so I'm waiting. The post will come soon. Until then, I'll write this post about how crazy life's been.

If I had a couple more hours in my day then I'd be able to find our winter coats, which are hidden in one of the 1,857,343 boxes in our basement. I packed our house and apartment in such gleeful haste that I didn't label any of the boxes. At the time I was just shoving things in to the brim, taping it shut, and off it went to storage. Well, now it's kinda hard to figure out what is what. There's a few mysterious things missing ... our coats and also I know I have a box of sweaters somewhere, and a box of scarves, not winter scarves but fancy scarves that I can wear on crispy fall days. I'm also missing a bunch of bathroom stuff, the stuff I know I packed away thinking I wouldn't need for awhile, but now I'm wanting that light purple eye shadow and can't find it. Soon, soon. I'll have time to go into the basement and open up all of the boxes, figure out what is what, and label.

If I had a couple more hours in my day then I'd be able to force my kids to relax, to take a breather, to watch My Little Pony, cozy on the couch in PJs with their woobies. My kids haven't watched TV in the longest time! They need relaxation time. They're tired and while they're trying very hard not to be crabby, they're getting crabby, and our patience is thin and therefore we are all snapping at one another and throwing each other glares. Everyone could use a good, long nap.

If I had a couple more hours in my day then I'd go to Home Depot like I've been meaning to for the last two weeks and buy one of the big huge orange mums they have out in front of their store, and I'd plop that mum on my front porch, then take pictures of it because I know it'd be just the prettiest fall picture.

* * *

I don't have a couple more hours in my day. And while it's tiring, while it's exhausting, I wouldn't change a thing. I know relaxation time will come soon enough. I know this flow will soon be replaced by an ebb and I'll be wishing the days would go by quicker. I'll be bored, wishing for something to do. I know we'll settle down soon, the kids will be fully rested, we'll catch up on reading and movies. We'll eat bigger and better meals.

We absolutely and completely love our new house and while the last two weeks of unpacking and settling in have been super crazy, they've also been the happiest in our lives. I still cannot believe that we are in our new house, that the house is ours, that we've got our own place, a place to call our home. I still cannot believe that we made it home.

So, life's nuts right now. But, life is life and life is full. Life is grand and life is flowing full force but will soon settle back down to the lazy, comfy routines that we're used to.

Etsy Favorites Wednesday - it's October!!!

2011-10-05T11:36:00.000-04:00

It's October! It's October! It's October!

I love October.

I love Halloween.

Here are this week's Etsy picks!

Metal Bat - my porch needs to be adored with this bat.

Jack postcard - Eeeee! I SO BADLY want to get out my lino blocks and MAKE STUFF!

Spider doily - I have commissioned my mom to crochet up a similar spidery doily for me.

Pumpkin wall stickers - Would look lovely in my home!

Halloween Owl - this little guy is precious!

A LaLaLoopsy Birthday Party!

2011-10-03T10:26:00.000-04:00

My little girls are SEVEN! How did that happen?! SEVEN!? I kept telling them all weekend that they needed to just stop growing older!

We had a birthday party for them at our new house! Crazy times! Actually it was a lot of fun! We had plenty of room to spread out, and, there were no major spills or catastrophes. There were lots of grubby handprints on the walls, but, Mr. Clean Magic Erasers are my new best friend! Everything cleaned up really nicely.

The girls had decided that they wanted a LaLaLoopsy Birthday party. I could totally get behind that! Now, admittedly, this year's party wasn't as produced or done up as in year's past, but, given that we had just moved into our house, I cut myself some slack!

My mom made the girls little dresses so they looked like LaLaLoopsy dolls!

Arlene was Crumbs Sugar Cookie:

And Lydia was Bea Spell-A-Lot:

Umm, adorable!!

Table decorations: ric rac and paper buttons, and the random mini LaLaLoopsy doll!

{Eeek, that tablecloth needed an ironing, oops!}

I made button sugar cookies!

And I MADE THIS CAKE! I was so proud of myself.

Isn't it adorable?!

Big seven year olds. Sniff, sniff ... tears!

What?!

Opening up gifts.

I love this picture of Lydia.

Eee! Eeee! What is it?!

Look at Arlene's face, haha!

Rollerskates!

Arlene on her skates, carrying her sassy new bedroom lamp.

Make a wish!

The girls had the happiest of birthdays with our friends and family. They are loved so so very much!

Pictures of the new casa

2011-09-26T12:10:00.000-04:00

Before we started moving in all of our stuff last Tuesday, I went through the new house and snapped some pictures. They're in this slide show, and also here if the slide show doesn't work on your computer.

Seeing these pictures now makes me realize how much we've unpacked so far! It's been really super fun unboxing all of our stuff - stuff we haven't seen for a long time. The girls were squealing with delight when we opened up their toy boxes!

We've still got aways to go before we're completely unpacked. I go through bouts where I feel incredibly overwhelmed because the house isn't settled yet. But then I realize, it's a big house, I'm not going to finish it all right away! I need to practice patience.

We ordered furniture for our great room - it will be in toward the end of the month. The girls loft/play area is all decked out now - I'll have to take pictures of that later. We have our TV hung on the wall in the great room! That's most important, according to my husband, and I must admit, it IS kinda cool.

The house feels like HOME even though we're still unpacking. It's SO GREAT TO BE HOME!

As a side note, um, the girls SEVENTH birthday is SUNDAY! We're having a party Saturday! I plan to ramp up birthday preparations toward the end of this week! Eeeeek!

Home Sweet Home

2011-09-21T09:58:00.000-04:00

Ahhhhhhhh.

You hear that?

That's the sound of my total, utter, complete, contentment.

Ahhhhhhh...........................................

We're in our new house, and I was going to post pictures, but left my camera at home! I'll post some this weekend, after we get internet hooked up at the house.

I seriously think I'm still in shock. Our closing went off without a hitch. The house is perfect. The house is HUGE. The neighbors are all so incredibly nice. The house is us, it's perfect, perfect, perfect. It suits us to a T!!

But it all feels unbelievable! It hasn't sunk in yet that the house is ours. I think it may sink in once we get stuff unpacked? I'm still in shock that we were able to get such a nice house. The market was very favorable to us! We had to sludge through the trenches to get our old house sold, but we benefited on the other end.

The house is truly our dream come true. I mentioned the neighbors! The neighbors! OMG! We had met a couple of the neighbors on previous trips to the house while it was being built. We met this one family who was just bubbling with happiness and kindness. They were the nicest family we have ever met! They live two doors down from us. Last night, our doorbell rang at 8 p.m. and it was the neighbors right next to us. They had brought us homemade cookies with a "Welcome to the neighborhood!" note! It almost made me cry! Everyone is just so, so, so nice. I was invited to a book club already! Yes please!

This morning the girls rode the bus for the first time in almost a year. They loooooooved riding the bus at our old house. Arlene especially, she was all smiles ear-to-ear. I can't wait to see them after school today to find out how it went! There were half a dozen moms at the bus stop, all super nice. I had to run off to work after the bus came but they stayed and chatted at the bus stop - I think most of the moms are stay-at-home moms, which is OK. It means we have lots of options for potential babysitters if we need one!

My drive to work is fabulous, smooth sailing all the way, hardly any traffic. I drive a little bit farther, but it's worth it, living where we live.

Someone pinch me! Really. Pinch me. I cannot believe that this is all happening. It HAS happened. I can't believe it!

I'm taking time off work in the next week and a half to unpack and settle in. I'm so looking forward to unpacking, to putting things in their final place. We don't ever ever plan on moving, so where ever I decide to put the silverware, that's where the silverware is staying forEVER! I can't wait to decorate either. I have to force myself to be patient, and I think it's going to be really hard for me. We are going to tackle one room at a time to decorate. We're doing the great room first because we will spend the majority of our time in there. We're buying all new furniture for that room - I have my eye on a couple of couches and chairs I want to buy. The girls' rooms are coming along too! We bought some wall art for both of their rooms this weekend. Miss Diva Arlene's room is going to be quite snazzy, and Miss Sweetie Lydia's room is going to be very cute!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! EXCITEMENT!!!

Tomorrow! Tomorrow!

2011-09-19T09:56:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow is moving day! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

Seven days, I can do seven days, right?!

2011-09-12T11:33:00.000-04:00

We have seven days* until we move into our new house! SEVEN DAYS! Cannot believe it and cannot wait! I fear this may be the longest week ever!

We have a walk-through tomorrow morning, to learn the in's and out's of the house (how to operate the furnace and stuff like that) and then we close on September 20. We plan on sleeping at the house that night, even if it's on the floor on sleeping bags.

Things have not been going well with our current living situation. I don't want to air dirty laundry on this here blog or vent about specifics, just trust me, it's been reallllly reallly tense and bad. We deeply regret our decision to move in with a family member. We had no idea it would be as bad as it has turned out to be. We feel foolish for thinking it would be alright as a temporary living situation. But then, we tell ourselves that no one could have predicted the craziness we've had to endure these last eight weeks. It's almost over though! ALMOST OVER!

Come September 20, a huge weight will be lifted off our shoulders. We'll be HOME!

I plan to take plenty of photos of the new house to share. For now, here's a few of our pretty landscaping!

We just love those little pointy bushes by our front door. They were a surprise! We didn't know what type of bushes we were getting.

Side view ... we'll be getting sod in the front yard this week.

Basically the only thing that is left for them to do is put sod in the front yard, put grass seed in the back yard, install our blinds and deliver our fridge. Other than that, the house is DONE! I actually promised myself that I'd stay away from the house after we are finished with our meeting tomorrow. It's gotten to the point where I just don't want to leave once I'm there!

*Technically, it's eight days until we move in, but my blog counter thingie is counting it down by the hour, so really it's like seven days and 21 hours or something like that which is almost 8 days, but I like the sound of 7 days, so that's what I'm counting on.

Etsy Favorites Wednesday - it's not too early

2011-09-07T10:44:00.000-04:00

It's been cold and dark and dreary and misty the past two days and ooooooohhhh I LOVE IT! I got a Pumpkin Spice Latte yesterday morning. That means fall's arriving and I couldn't be happier. I absolutely love this time of year. I also absolutely love Halloween. I promise to not fill all of my Etsy Favorites Wednesday lists from here on out with Halloween stuff, but this week, I indulge.

Pumpkin head melts - Their expressions crack me up.

Pumpkin head prim - I'm going to make plushies like this this year, mark my words.

Pumpkin head - yes, it IS a pumpkin head. I think this is creepy. Creepy cool.

Garland - I can't get enough garland. Like seriously, I can't. I want to make lots and lots of garland.

Ghost earrings - Want.

Oh, Harry

2011-09-06T13:14:00.000-04:00

Oh, Harry Potter. How I have rekindled my love for your valor, your honor, your strength. Your stories, they captivate me, even the second time around. Hermione? I wish I had a Hermione in my corner, always ready to provide a quick and clever solution. And Ron? Fiercely loyal Ron? You're a charmer, you are.

Why am I going on about Harry Potter? Well, because, two months ago, I decided to re-read the entire series, cover to cover, and for two months I have been immersed into Harry Potter's saga. For two months I've been at Hogwarts, giving Snape the evil eye, giving Hagrid the thumbs up, looking to Dumbledore for advice. I LOVE the Harry Potter series. And I'm not even done with it yet. You see, when Part 2 of the Deathly Hallows came out in the theaters earlier this summer, I had this lofty goal of re-reading the books in time to see the last movie while it was still in the theater. When the books were first published I had read all of them except Deathly Hallows {for some reason I just never got around to reading the last book.} Now, I'm only three quarters of the way through Order of the Phoenix. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading the books again! I remembered the general plot line of the books but forgot a lot of the little details. I only have time to read before bed, so while I consider myself a fast reader, it's taking me quite a while to plow through the books. I'm not going to meet my goal of seeing the movie in the theater, but we own all of the HP movies, so when Deathly Hallows comes out, I can watch all of them in marathon fashion!

It has been hard NOT finding out what happens at the end! I put my fingers in my ears and say LALALALALAA whenever someone starts talking about it. Does someone DIE?! I heard that someone died. Don't tell me! (But I do want to know!) Is Snape truly horribly evil, or does he turn out to be a good guy?! He's a total tool right now in the story. Does Ron ever get a good dose of self confidence? I do hope so, that chap deserves it. Do Ron and Hermione fall in love?! EEEEP! I want to know! {DO NOT TELL ME!!}

Pinterest Challenge: button flowers!

2011-09-02T16:58:00.002-04:00

This week the gals and I did another Pinterest Challenge.{Huh? Not sure what I'm talking about? Read about our first one here.}

Jill over at Happy Hopefuls hosted this week's challenge.

You can see the results of my challenge and everyone else's over at her blog.

I made Button Bouquets! This was my inspiration:

And the result!

Dyeing Queen Anne's Lace

2011-09-01T12:10:00.000-04:00

The girlies and I took a little walk in the field behind Grandma's house the other day and we found a whole bunch of Queen Anne's Lace. I remembered as a kid dyeing it with food coloring. The girls were excited to give it a try.

{This was not posed - they walked hand in hand. Cuuuuuuute!}

Adding food coloring.

Giving it a good stir.

Making sure they're in the vase just so.

Stir, stir!

Arranging.

This was my vase - will they turn red?

Will Arlene's turn purple?

Will Lydia's turn orange?

We set the vases in the sun and it was really hot so they got a little wilty, but, after two days, they changed color!

Mine turned a shade of pink!

Arlene's turned blue! We figured the blue dye was stronger than the red dye in her purple mix.

Lydia's turned a shade of orange, yay!

Etsy Favorites Wednesday - kitchen wish list

2011-08-31T09:10:00.000-04:00

I will have a glass-fronted cabinet in the new house, and I want to fill that cabinet with all sorts of pretties. I have a wish list:

Friendship bowl set - I have one piece of this Pyrex collection, called Friendship. I want to collect more.

Salt and Pepper Shakers - I love this green milk glass.

Vintage milk bottles - I am keen on using these as flower vases.

Mug - just cuz.

Dessert plates - so dainty!

The house is a house

2011-08-30T13:28:00.000-04:00

It used to be that whenever we visited the new house, something else had been done to it. Something new was installed or finished. Now, when we go to visit, really nothing new has been done. Now, we're gettin' down to the wire! It's almost move-in time! Now, the house looks like a house! It's practically finished, apart from a few clean ups and the yard needs to be put in. And when we go visit it makes us too wishful - we'd so like to just be living in there NOW! We'd gladly live there while they finished installing all of the electric outlets. We wouldn't mind the siding being put on the side of the house while we lived there, no siree! Alas, we have to wait. Actually, we have less than 20 days to wait. We have a walk-through of the house on September 13. Everything will be finished by then. During our walk-through we'll see if there are any last minute fixes they need to do. Those fixes will be completed that next week and we close on September 20.

The good news is that the correct carpet has been installed! And it looks wonderful! I only took one picture of the carpet - I think because I was just so overjoyed that it looked EXACTLY how I had pictured it to look, I didn't think to take any more pictures. Yay!

Check out the comparison. Now, I admit that the carpets don't even look THAT much different. Trust me, in person, they are vastly different.

The stone on the fireplace was up!

And the stone on the front of the house was complete!

Come on September 20, get here quickly!!

Phone photos

2011-08-29T13:10:00.001-04:00

I recently updated phones - I didn't want to lose all of the photos I had on my old phone, so I uploaded them all to my Flickr account. I enjoyed looking through them. Memmmorrreeeeees!

Care to see them? I created a slide show:

They're also here on my Flickr account.

{That clown? Love him. He's packed away. Can't wait to get him out for Halloween.!}

How to: puffy felt heart garland

2011-08-26T11:57:00.000-04:00

For the Pinterest Challenge I hosted last week, I made this puffy felt heart garland:

I had originally pinned this idea from this web site. Their tutorial was very good. I thought I'd make my own tutorial too, since I had taken some in-progress shots, and I have a couple of tips to share.

Here's what you'll need to make these puffy felt hearts:

* 6 or 8 sheets of felt depending on how many hearts you want to make and how long you want your garland to be. Get at least two sheets of each color. *

{You will be doubling up the felt sheets and cutting out two hearts at a time, a front and a back.}

* White cotton yarn *

* An air-erase tracing pen *

* White DMC floss - get the big roll *

* A stitching needle *

* A plastic needle *

* Fluff to stuff your hearts *

* A heart pattern *

* Scissors*

First, make your heart pattern.

{I made my own heart pattern - just draw a heart and cut it out - I cut my pattern out of a file folder. You could trace a heart cookie cutter too.}

Then, trace your heart pattern onto one piece of felt. Get as many hearts onto one piece of felt as you can, leaving yourself room to cut them out. My pen disappeared quickly on the felt, so I only traced one sheet at a time.

This is important! Make sure to cut out two hearts at a time, the front and back, by cutting through two sheets of felt at a time. At first I was cutting out all of the hearts individually and then matching them up, but they weren't matching up exactly right due to imperfections in my cutting. It's easiest just to cut out the front and back of the hearts together!

I doubled up my floss and used a blanket stitch for the hearts. {for a great blanket stitch tutorial, watch this video}

Hide your starting knot inside the heart and stitch all the way around, until you have about a one-inch gap - which is where you'll stuff the heart.

Stuff your heart. Stuff it just so that it's a little plump. My hearts were just a little squishy. Stitch up the remaining hole and tie off the floss. I hid the knot inside the heart when I was all finished.

Stitch and stuff those hearts!

{I stored mine in a plastic bag}

Finished hearts!

Once they are all stitched up, figure out how long you want your garland to be, and cut a piece of the cotton yarn that length.

Figure out your pattern if you've made different colored hearts, then thread the cotton yarn through the plastic needle, then poke it through the top of the heart, through the heart, and out the other side. There is no need to tie knots around the hearts, they will stay put on the yarn.

{I ran my yarn through the top of the heart so that they would lay flat and not twist around.}

{Also, the great thing is that you can re-string the hearts if you want to make a new pattern or make the garland longer or shorter.}

String up all the hearts, then admire your garland!

Another Pinterest Challenge!

2011-08-26T10:30:00.000-04:00

We're doing another Pinterest Challenge (see this post for our first Challenge!)

This time Jill is hosting it. Go on over to her blog to read all about it!

I'm going to be making these button flower bouquets!

The results will be posted next Friday!

First day of first grade!

2011-08-25T20:04:00.000-04:00

I cannot believe that my babies are in first grade. I know that sounds so cliche, but I really do mean it. They're almost seven. What?! They're in first grade. What?! Not possible!

Yesterday we went to their school to meet their teachers. We loooove their school. {They are able to start their school year in our new district, which is just awesome. We are going to be driving them in to school each morning and picking them up until we move into the new house.} Their school is almost brand new, and it's a building-level school with looping classrooms. Which means the school is for grades one and two, and the girls will be in the same room, with the same kids and the same teachers, for first and second grade. {The girls are in separate classes - we purposefully requested that.} Their teachers are so nice and so eager to get to know the girls. We're happy, happy, happy!

Because the girls are "car riders" for now, they get dropped off in front of the school and they walk to their classroom, which is kinda a far walk down a couple different hallways, making a few turns. I asked them if, on the first day, could I walk them back to their classrooms? They said, "No MOM, we don't need your help!" What?! What?! Sniffle sniffle. I started fake crying and I told them that it upsets me that they're growing up so fast and I got the whole "geez Mom, OK FINE you can walk us the first day!" speel, meaning "FINE mom, if you're gonna cry about it, then FINE!" {teehee} I kinda wasn't faking it though - they don't even need me anymore! Tears!

Today was their first day! Nerves! Excitement! I took off the whole day from work, just in case they needed me. They didn't. They were fine!

Just look at these bright smiling faces. They were so thrilled to start school. They got up early and got ready super fast. They couldn't wait to leave.

The bright new shoes must be pointed out. How niiiiiice!

AND, wouldn't you know it, as we were pulling into the school this morning, I was asked, in timid little voices from the back seat, "Can you please walk us in today?" What? SURE! We started walking and they both slipped their little hands into my hands and I gave them a little squeeze. {Aaaahhh! I had a moment. But I held it together!} Honestly, I was so nervous for them. I was trying to hide it but I was really nervous for them. I wasn't even sure what all to do, but we did it all right. We walked in the right door, stood in the right line, and then we walked down to their classrooms. They knew just what to do - put their backpacks in their cubbies, get out supplies, put on the board if they packed their lunch or they're going to buy, etc., etc., ... they were old pros at it all!

This school year is different for Mommy and I'm trying to just be OK with it. Last year I took them to school every morning, watched them walk in, 'OK they're in, all's good,' and then I went to work. My parents picked them up each day, which worked out perfectly. This year - Grandma is going to be taking them to school each morning because I can't take them and then make it into work in time. I'm sure I'll get used to it, but it's just different. I don't get to see them walk into school. And, I can't pick them up after school because they get out too early for me. So, Daddy is going to pick them up. Which I'm totally OK with, it's just different. I don't get to see them until I get home from work. However, when we move into our house it will be a little easier because I'll be seeing them off on the bus in the morning and they'll get off the bus at our house.

I'm so proud of them. Just so proud. We've put them through a lot of changes this past year. We moved out of our house, into an apartment, then in with Grandma, and now they're in a brand new school in a brand new area and they will be making brand new friends. But these girls? They just go with the flow. They are such happy go lucky kids. I love the little stinkers so much!