No Internet, can't post, be back soon :-(

Brag About Friday

Zachary caught a fish!

Do you have something to celebrate today?

Wanna play along?

Sign Mr. Linky below.

Tutu Giveaway

My friend Monica is giving away a tutu and I would love to win one. Go to her blog Jonas - Life with Twin Boys and check it out.

Brag About Friday

The fact that I am sitting in front of my computer when I should be packing is more of a confession than a brag. Gary's mowing and I REALLY should be doing something.

I am doing a bullet list today because that is how scattered everything is feeling.

~ OMG! The amount of stuff we are packing for a week away is amazing. And we keep remembering things, like the humidifier that is the white noise machine in the girl's room. We can't go without it!! Booster seats, pack n plays, boppys, stroller ( and which one??), toys, blankies, cups, bottles ( we are working on nixing these ), oh my!! I am having a hard time figuring out how many diapers to pack, in different sizes no less since they are wearing 4 and 5. 10 a day? So I am packing 160 diapers??? And that is just for babies.

~ Where are my sweet babies? And who are these monsters someone has left me with? The whinning, the "eh eh eh eh eh EH EH EH EH!!!", the fits, the crying, the crying with no tears, the hands over faces in dramatics! Save me! I know they are teething molars, but I am about the pull my hair right out! I cannot take 2 steps away from them without one or both getting upset.

~ Zachary is such a help...but sometimes...he is just as annoying as the babies with his energy. No wonder teaching this age gave me hives!! Plus, we are getting into attitude and trouble with getting along with others. Ugh! Parenting is hard! He has always been such a great kid that needed little to no discipline even in those terrible 2s, 3s and 4s. So we are experiencing the terrible 7s. He is still a great kid but really testing the limits of how to talk to us and be respectful.

~AAAaaand...I have to go pack, Gary is going to get me if I don't get my act in gear. He goes into this go go go mode when we have something to do, which I love but I pretend it drives me crazy. I even try to distact him with kisses sometimes, but he waves me away :-)

~One more thing, I am going to adding some background posts to later be put into a toolbar so ignore some posts that might pop up in your reader. Yay for new things on my blog!

Vacation!!

We are heading out of town for a week to Arkansas!

Hopefully I will post a few things from our cabin by the river, but well...come on, I'll be at a cabin by a river.

::sigh::

I am still putting some tweaks into my blog, but I am pretty happy with the way it turned out. Thank you Heather and Jennifer especially for sharing parts of their templates with me. Love you girls! And thank you to those of you who suggested different sites. I love you, dearest readers.

Have a great week!

Blog work

I am working on my template today (finally). Thank you to everyone who offered advice especially Heather and Jennifer (you guys rock!). So if things look funky, just bear with me. Hopefully I will have everything set by tomorrow.

Makes My Monday

Feel the Love

Abigail and Olivia have started loving on us and each other in the last month. I love it!

I love Olivia's face here.

Abby was being VERY tolerant of Olivia's loving. Wanna know why I don't have any pictures of Abby loving Olivia? That's because Abby is rough and tough with her love. I am right there ready to intervene if she gets too carried away. I can't take the time to run get the camera or wounds might happen!

Here Zachary is getting some major lovin' from both girls. They were patting and hugging and just loving all over him. And he doesn't like it one bit ;-)

Abby loving on my nephew, Cameron

Play along with Cheryl over at Twinfatuation!

Blog Template Problems

I have been playing around with my template the past week and I am about ready to PULL MY HAIR OUT!! I cannot get the spacing right. CAN. NOT.

So I look to you, dear readers. Do you have a favorite sight to get free (I really need it to be free) 3 column templates? I really like how my background shows through all the way around the post and sidebar columns. And I like that they are in their own cute little boxes.

I really am at my wits end here, people.

Brag About Friday

Ponies!!

We got 'em

DIY - Wall Sayings and Name Plaques

I got crafty! I fed a much dormant side of myself and did these projects before the girl's party.

#1 - The Wall Saying

When the girls were tiny we would rock them to sleep while listening to lullabies. One of the songs was the Dixie Chicks "Lullaby". I would sing it to them every night. If you scroll all the way down to the bottom of the blog you can activate my playlist and listen to it. The chorus line is one of my all time favorite sayings so I had to have it on their wall. I priced several different places online and was slightly horrified by the price of custom vinyl letters. So I happen to read this on one of my favorite blogs Thrifty Decor Chick and decided to try it. Notice that she started out with, like, 3 words. Can I do that? Oh no! I have to do a whole blasted paragraph!

So here's what I did.

~First I scoured my fonts. I am pretty much one of those people who have to try out every single one of anything I am looking for. Yes, the 15th one would have worked, but what if the 22nd one was better? I used LibbyScript2 in font size 250 for the first part of the words. The Loved, Forever, Never, and Ever are Palace Script MT. Loved, Forever, and Never are font size 400 and Ever is 500. I printed them on regular paper, but next time (Lord, did I just say I would do this again??) I will print it out on cardstock.

~I used an exacto knife to carefully cut out each letter ( and each middle parts also ). And you must keep every tiny little middle piece as well. It was a long and grueling process. I mean, take a look at all those swirly (sworly?) lines!

I have to stop here and say that I know I should have taken pictures of the whole process. Sarah actually did and that's probably why she has 1400 followers. Yep, she is just that good, folks. Maybe I will take pictures next time.

~I cut and taped each page together to make each line of words. Then I taped it all up with double sided tape. I used white sticky tack for the little middle parts of the O's and E's and such. Those 3 sentences do not do justice to the careful process this took. I used a level and everything! When I was finish I had my own stencil on the wall.

~Then, I used black stencil paint and a stencil brush to dab and hit the paint on right over the paper. Even as flimsy as the regular paper was, there are very few outside-the-lines mistakes and none that you can see across the room. I should have done question marks at the end of the first 2 lines and I should have done Cause instead of because, but...I am pretty happy with the final result.

All in all it was well worth it, especially since instead of spending between $75-$100, I spent about $6 on the paint and brush, both of which I will use again. Most rewarding is the fact that Gary is impressed. I have to say, I shocked the crap out of myself, too.


#2 - Name Plaques

So many things just came together to work for this. I have to give my mom most of the credit here. I had the ideas but she actually did the work while I ran around doing other things for the party.

~I bought the wooden plaques for .50 cents each - half off at Hobby Lobby. The ribbon was also half off. The letters are from DCWV - Once Upon a Wall. And the ladybugs and trim? Those are from a wallpaper border.

They are the same little bugs that are everywhere in their room.

~She painted them blue using the same paint that we used for the wall border. You can see that in the picture at the top of the post with the Wall Saying. She painted the grass on the border so I thought it best for her to also paint the grass on these so it would match.

~We cut out each ladybug, flower, and dragonfly from the border. That black and white trim on the bottom is also from the border. We added that at the last minute for extra snazz and it really made it. We glued them all on with craft glue.

~The letters were white and I was going to exchange them for black, but mom ended up painstakingly painting each letter that pink. (WOW!!) I would not have had the patience for that, but once again, it really made it.

~She painted a coat of Modge Podge over the whole thing to seal it all in.

~Then she hot glued the ribbon on the back

I wasn't really sure what I was going to use to hang them. I was thinking little nails. With pictures, frames, or anything I am putting up on the wall, I always use pushpins first so that if I have to move it then it is not a hole, just a tiny pin mark left behind. I found these ladybug pushpins I bought ages ago in my drawer of pushpins (I love when I am organized enough to benefit from it!)

~So then we used a level again to make sure it was all straight and used the ladybug pushpins and AGAIN, they really finished it off.


LOVE IT!!

P.S. I bet you didn't believe I would ever post this, did you? Hmm?? I know, I have promised so many posts that never saw the light of day. As I said, I am back :-)

Way Back When-esday

Dateline: March 2007
Age: 4 years old

His first hotel stay.

His exuberance about jumping on the bed was priceless.




Wanna see more great pictures from way back when?
Play along with Cheryl over at Twinfatuation

Faux Painting

There were several several things on my list to do before the girl's birthday party to pretty the place up.

Here is my front hallway.
(taken with old camera)

And the wall next to the front door.
(cluttered, ugh!)

So bland! I wanted to try my hand at a faux painting technique my friend did in her house. I used this glaze from Lowes.

I rolled it on and then blotted it off with rags...then I wiped a little...blotted some more...put some paint back on...blotted again...until it looked right. There are some dry lines here and there.

I had to add the iron thingy to cover up a huge line that was there.
It started out black, but I spray painted that bad boy.


This is also a new addition and I LOVE it!

I got it from The Lakeside Collection online, but don't even bother looking it up because I already went to post the link and they no longer have them. :-(

Also a new addition

I love how this turned out. I am REALLY having to restrain myself from putting a saying on every available wall space. This saying is the vinyl ones from DCWV Home - Once Upon a Wall. I actually found mine at Hobby Lobby, but there are others on this site. However, you can do this yourself...AND I DID (!!) in the girl's room and I will SO show you how to do it, too.

Ok...the door...

Yeah, so I totally dripped glaze all the way down the door...all.the.way.down. So as I was frantically trying to wiped it off, the glaze settled into the wood and didn't look half bad. So I just did the whole thing and this is what I got. I really like it and went back later to paint the trim. I am not so crazy about the color of the frame. That may change.

This is the wall that you see to the right in the first picture.

You can really see the lines where the paint overlaped here, but it is all apart of the art of it. At least that is what I tell myself. However, this will be our family picture wall. This is my next project. I am getting all black or dark brown frames to hold the pictures. This was supposed to be done before the party, but well, after staying up to finish cake balls until 4:00 a.m. (oh yes, I did, and no, it was SO not worth it) some things had to wait.

Other things on my list are:

Paint here

I wanted a really bold color like red going up the wall, but I like this leaf hanging too much to have it blend into something. Now I am thinking a nice medium cocoa color (??). I know it sounds like it may blend in too, but actually I think it may work.

Another thing that had to wait -

Can you tell I meant to have this done too?

This will be our kid display area. It will hold art projects, certificates, and other treasures from the kiddos. Right now it has the few things from the dining room that we moved here away from little hands when we baby proofed. The tree, table, and candlesticks will all go away eventually. I am (of course) painting this area. I am not choosing either of these colors, but a chocolate color. I am going to put empty picture frames all along these walls with decorative binder clips inside. This way it can be an ever changing wall of art projects. They want one up? Fine, which one will come down? Believe me there will be plenty. I got this great idea from Family Fun magazine awhile ago. I tried to find the project on their site online, but was not successful.

So as you can see, I will be busy busy for awhile.

P.S. I'm back - full time...pass it on

If you need to catch up, I actually posted some pictures from their party and a video of Olivia walking so check out below.

Makes My Monday

Good-bye old friend.

You...well...you sucked, especially toward the end. Your movies were dark and your flash over zealous. I will have fond...no...can't say that. I will miss...umm...ok how 'bout this; You were there for Zach's first day of school. You were there for Abigail and Olivia's first moments of life. You captured many of our happiest memories. And well, you did your best. ::pat pat:: Alrighty then buh-bye.

Hello gorgeous

Oh your 10.1 Mega pixels, your 10x optical zoom, your 3" LCD screen, your smile detector shutter, your intelligent scene recognition, and oh oh OH your many settings, including a soft focus background one and a food one!!

Aww yeah, people! Happy Birthday and Mother's Day to me!!




Play along with Cheryl over at Twinfatuation