My Husband is A-Mazing!

We are gearing up to start our school year in a couple of days and I had an epiphany...well, of sorts.  The kids usually end up all bunking in the same room, so I thought to myself that it would be nice to turn the other bedroom into a homeschool room.  As usual, I'm flying by the seat of my pants trying to get it done and I've been toying with the idea of a triple bunk bed for a while.  So, Sam went to help our friend move this morning and when he came home, he found me eye deep in pondering how I could possibly turn the boy's current bunk beds into a triple bunk.  Didn't want to spend any money, you see.  Just wanted to use what we had on hand.  He said I was crazy.  He's starting to come around to my upcycling obsessiveness.  Well, after much collaborating together, we came up with a plan and we (read mostly Sam) went to work on it. :)  Poor man is now pooped, but looky at what he built!

The kids are giddy with excitement!  They are loving it.  We have a few more boards to add after some more money gets allotted for this project.  I'm also going to put up curtains on rods for the two lower bunks and a tent for the top.  We had all that wood on hand and the two upper bunks are the same metal bases from the previous bunk beds...Now, I need to figure out what to do with the head and foot boards from the other bunks.... ;)
I so wanted to paint the kids' room today.  I have some paint out in the garage and was sorely tempted, but I figured I could get to that another day.... I might paint the school room first since it will be mostly empty for a split second before I start setting up shop in there...  All I know is that it will feel better in both rooms once the unfortunate colors get hidden under much more soothing neutrals.  I think almost 3 years is enough time spent with those colors. :)

Shirt Reconstruction and some blingy-blang!

I've been on Pinterest waaaaay too much lately.  I'm highly involved with wanting to makeover my wardrobe.  I've got some skirts and shirts that are on my hit list.  I've already turned a sweater into a skirt.  I found a shirt at Academy that I altered and then I had this shirt that a friend of mine gave me that was too big on me and totally not my style, but I love the fabric. The stripes have a shimmer.

 I came across this amazing blog:  brassyapple.blogspot.com and saw this shirt recon:

Um, yes, please!  So, the blue shirt became this:

(I'm a wanna-be poser;)

I intend to tweak the sleeves a little more so that I have more range of motion.  I have several more reconstructions on my agenda,mostly from brassyapple's site, but there are a few more on my pinterest board awaiting my attention, too.  Love tweaking stuff that I already have!

I'm not one to hop onto fashion bandwagons usually, but I love me some shiny stuff and the jeweled jeans have caught my attention.  Now, anyone who knows me knows I will not spend money on something like that.  I will, however, trot on down to Hobby Lobby with my 40% off coupon and buy a case full of different sized acrylic gems and bling my jeans myself.  Yes, yes, I will.  (Me, trotting...funny visualization.:)

So, here they are:

(Pay no attention to the downward gravitational shift of my bum.)

I honestly don't think there is enough bling on them, so I intend to outline the entire pocket.  SHINY!

There was this shirt that I spray painted MOM to the 4th on and it didn't quite turn out as hoped, so I thought it could use some shiny, too.

I also put some gems on my shoes, but there was an incident involving me holding Brea and tripping over Ailey when she decided to swerve into my lane.  Some of them came off and I haven't fixed them yet.  

I have more bling sessions in mind, but for now I think I'll take a break before everything I come into contact with gets a shine enhancement. ;)

Poser Christmas Tour 2011

  So, I have noticed the web version of the Christmas Home Tours and I really enjoy looking at some of them and getting ideas. ;)  I thought, well maybe I should do one of my house.  Not because it is tour-worthy in any stretch of the imagination, but because it appeals to my sense of humor to do so.  So, without further ado, here we go:

 This is the living room.  I really should have a taken a picture of the other side of the room because it was a mess.  I basically just picked up in front of the couch for aesthetic purposes.

 This is the heavily-ornament-laden Christmas tree.  I plan to add some more to it each year.  Maybe one of these years, I'll have Sam fashion a metal cage shaped like a tree with tons of slots for hanging ornaments and we can just forgo the tree.... :)  I'm thinking  this might be our last year doing the fake tree.

 This is my nod to an artistic shot.  I laid down on my back on the floor and took the pic upside down.  We were considering getting a new tree this year because we really have a hard time fitting the width of the tree in our little living room, but I just couldn't see spending money on a new fake tree, if I could possibly use the one we already have!  So, I just left the bottom section off of it and put it up on our side table.  Works for me!

 An overhead shot.  Yep, I still haven't done any more to the wall since the starburst mirror project. :)

I got this idea from Apartment Therapy...see?  I think I may spray paint the stick white, so you can actually see it against my wall.

 This is in the bathroom.  I'm not crazy about it and I actually rearranged a bit after I took the pic.  It is still bothering me and I think it is the napkin turned table cloth that is under it all.  Its too dark and everything is blending together.  I'll figure something out. Sam is calling it my little shrine to Christmas....now I'm definitely changing it!!! :)

 A closeup for better observation. :)

 This in 2D looks like a hodepodgy mess.  In 3D, it looks only slightly better.  I think what really makes it all come together is the messy table and Ailey's addition of some building blocks and jingle bells, not too mention the reflection of the school wall in the mirror.

 This is supposed to be our Advent Calendar, but seeing as how I didn't even get it put up until around the 8th and its on a hands-off mirror, I didn't bother this year trying to make that work.  I've got to figure out a better place to put it.

 I got one shelf decorated for the season.  The rest...well, they didn't make the cut this year.

Thought it would be enjoyable to view the whole, um, scene. 

 I cleared the table just for this photo.  I have tried to decorate with things that I can use year round.  Since I have an obliging backyard with trees that don't hesitate to share their branches with me, I went outside and cut this one off of a MUCH larger limb.  Come to think of it, it might have been attached to the stocking "rod"....

I think the bright orange paper lantern lights in the background really add a certain ambience....don't you? 

 This is my wanna-be mantle that is really the top of our bookshelf, that is really supposed to be an entertainment center.  I'm totally not in love with this set up and I will probably arrange and rearrange it until it is time to put everything up.  I have a couple of ideas and it involves taking lots of things off and putting some white stars up there.  Along these lines:

and these:

from besthomeinteriordesign

We'll see....more project craziness. :)

 Yeah, there's a whole lotta no inspiration here....

 The top of the computer cabinet.  I'm completely underwhelmed.

This sits in the dining room next to the entryway to the kitchen.  Again, a whole lotta underwhelming inspiration going on here.

In addition to all the other paraphernalia going on in the above pics, I do have a wreath on my front door that I don't care for.  I would like to chuck it and do something like this:

theoriginalpopupshop

and/or this:

offthewallexpressions

sistersally's

I also like these for all the time:

grassrootsmodern

domesticfluff

CB2

I want to make this one only in the same way as the ornament ball wreaths above.  I want to get lots of clear and frosted balls in different sizes and make one and then I could just change out the ribbon I hang it with to go with whatever season all year long!

the nesting place (I really LOVE visiting this site! It pops up in the majority of my google searches.;)

Here's another one from the nesting place and I really love how large it is and how you just use paper....

Okay, I'm done.....end of tour...

For now....:)

Crafts and Craziness and Monsters, OH MY!

I worked my first Farmers Market yesterday.  Craziness, I tell ya!  I was a Momma Monster the week leading up to it trying to get all my crafts finished and prepped and the table "scape" prepared.  I have been in many conversations with God through the whole process and I kept asking if I should be doing this.  Did He want me doing this?  Had He made this the path He wanted me to walk down?  I wasn't really getting a clear answer to be honest, but I will tell you what I was getting.  Agitated.  I wanted to have certain things made and prepared and ready to go and it took away from my family, made me into a bit of a Momma Monster and as a result, my family suffered.  The night before, I presented a request to my Father in Heaven in much the same way Abraham's servant did when he was in search of a wife for Aaron.  I asked God to make it abundantly clear whether having a booth at craft fairs on a regular basis was something He wanted me doing.  I asked that if this was a green light, that all my stuff would sell...every single thing...nothing left.  If I had even one thing left, then I would know it was not a go.  Haha!  God totally answered.  I had all of some things and just a few of others left over.  I do believe I now know for sure! ;p

My dear friend Lucy went with me and totally blessed me with her time, company, help and previous fair expertise.  She helped me set up, took turns holding/feeding/entertaining Brea and just hung out with me.  It really was lots of fun, but it was lots of work for little return as far as the business side of it goes.  We did get to meet some interesting people and got to get back into the practice of saying MERRY CHRISTMAS!  Many people thanked us for saying that instead of Happy Holidays.  :)  We also came across plenty of people who were doing whole body cleanses and so did not partake of the tempting samples we had laid out.  I thought that was particularly interesting.  Especially at this time of the year.  Here is what our booth looked like at my house the night before when I set it up to see how I wanted everything:

 The bumbo in the background was not a part of the display...;p  Everything was squished at the house, but not at the actual event.

 I love that I got to use my Pampered Chef stands and platters for my display.  Those things are mighty handy and can be used for so many things!  Hey, hey!

 I put my business cards on the stems in the vase.  I saw it while googling and really liked that idea.

You know those cube shelves you can get at Target and they click together with the little discs?  That's what the display stands are.  I just used silver twisty ties to connect them.  Ghetto, but effective AND nothing a little ribbon or lots of scarves won't hide! ;)

Here is what our booth looked like at the market:

 That is my beautiful friend Lucy back there.  She's feeding Brea while I take pics.

I was rather surprised at what sold and what did not.  I only sold one bag of chocolate chip cookies!  What?!  That was unexpected!  I really thought those would disappear.  You never can tell, really.  I really didn't expect the tutus to sell and they didn't.  The lip balm sold rather well.  The bread sold pretty well and even some of the apple butter found new homes.  No jewelry was adopted and neither did the flower bow/pins take new journeys. :)  They will be going on the website.  I will also list some of the lip balm, although some of it will be going in stockings. :)  I don't think I want to mess with trying to package and shipping the apple butter.  Those will be given away, I think, along with the cookies as Christmas goodies for the neighbors.


After it was all said and done, I came home with stocking stuffers, bread to eat for breakfast and some things with which to set up my online store...finally.  I have decided to go ahead and actually do something with the business fb page and blog that I started over a year ago.  Yeah.  I started setting it up yesterday afternoon and even listed a couple of things.  I was going to list some things in my Etsy store, but found that it had been suspended.  I found out why this morning and it has now been reinstated, but I don't know if I want to mess with Etsy for the time being.  I am able to have paypal on my business blog and people can buy it directly off of there instead of me having to mess with listing and selling fees on Etsy.  We'll see.  I still have to link my fb and blog pages together and also finish listing all my stuff.  Once that is done, the bulk of the work will be done and I can just list stuff as I randomly make it.  I've also decided to take custom orders on a limited basis for now.  This is a much more do-able format for me than booths at a market or fair.  I think it would be fun to do that occasionally, but only if I have plenty of things already made up and I have a friend to make it fun.  I would also want to look at it as a ministering opportunity.  If I don't ask God into all that I'm doing, then what is the point?!  I'm still learning to do that and it is just so lovely when I do and He is there with me in all of the details!  So neat!  When I get everything listed and linked, I will put a link on here as well as my usual fb page and see what happens from there.  It should be interesting at least. :)

A Different Conclusion

As I stated in a previous post, I have not been a fan of hot tea.  I have now come to a different conclusion.  After consuming my body weight in tea the past couple of weeks, thanks to my over-active allergies, I do believe I like it.  BUT, I have figured out that I like only certain kinds.  Shocker!, I know.  In the past, the kind I had was types either my mom had on hand in the house or the kinds Sam preferred.  I know for a fact that I DO NOT like mint in my tea or any form of menthal-y flavor or smell.  Ew.  I do not like super strong tea, especially the black variety, unless it is sweetened and cold, which is the way it was meant to be, I assure you. :)  I do not like lemon in my tea...at all, and that is coming from an unabashed citrus (with the exception of grapefruit) lover.  I just don't believe it belongs in tea, hot, cold or otherwise.  I like fruity teas and I like teas, red, white or green, with cinnamon in it.  I like a good vanilla flavor, as well.  After trying several flavors, of my choosing ;), I find that I prefer white or rooibos teas with the aforementioned flavors.  OH and I like a little tea with my honey. :)  Its similar to the way I drink coffee, too, about half a cup, or less, of coffee and the rest creamer or milk and sugar.  Don't judge!  Its the way I shuffle.  So, in conclusion, a whole other world has been opened to me.  The end...or is it just the beginning?!  *pinky poised dramatically at the corner of mouth, single eyebrow raised questioningly*

For Reina: Stir Fry from scratch and Red Velvet cake turned trifle

A while back (at least 2+ mos. ago), I mentioned on fb that I made a stir fry from scratch (usually its in a bag or box or Panda Express...;) and I promised to post pics.  So, here they are, late as usual!

 I took this on the same day.  I was excited to finally have a terra cotta brown sugar keeper.

 This was leftover from friends coming over to our house for dinner and I decided it could be repurposed for our home group potluck.  I was going to make cake balls, but that would have been more work than I wanted so I went with a trifle.

 This was the sweet and slightly spicy sauce I made for the stir fry.  It was pretty yummy.

 I had all these veggies hangin out in my fridge, which is why I was going to make a stir fry in the first place.  They needed to be used before they all shriveled up and made my fridge stinky!

Now that I've made this, what I will tweak next time is when I add the sauce to the veggies and chicken.  I didn't drain off the liquid that came of the chicken and veggies reducing, so it was rather soupy and the sauce got way too diluted.  Next time I will drain the liquid off and then add the sauce.  Much better!