It's Gonna Be a Good Year!

My birthday was on a fun day this year -- 10/11/12.  I turned 31.  I'm almost positive this will be an amazing year.  Not only did I have a cool birthday, but I think all numbers that end in one are lucky.  Always have.  I read a few years ago that another culture -- I think it was Indian, but I could be wrong -- also believe numbers that end in one are lucky.  I'm pretty sure I must be part Indian (or whatever culture that was that I read about).

On 10/11/12 I woke up to Tralee handing me her gift.  She made me a necklace out of fall leaves, and tried her darnedest the night before to keep it a secret.  Sweet girl.  She asked me to help her tie the string she used for the necklace, but I had to tie it with my eyes closed so I couldn't see what it was.  I heard the leaves crinkling next to each other as my fingers made the knot.  I also helped her find some paper to wrap my gift in, but the rest was all Stinks.  She even drew pictures on the wrapping paper.  I loved it!  When I saw the perfect red leaves she chose, carefully placed on the string, my heart melted.  I told Tralee a few days before how much I love fall.  I love it!  I love the smells, colors, weather, tastes, sounds, everything about it!  We had a conversation about how pretty the fall leaves are, especially the bright red ones, and wouldn't you know it, I got a handmade necklace with the prettiest red leaves!  Thoughtful girl!  I wore it most of the day, and by the end all the leaves had fallen off.  Tralee told me each leaf that fell meant another one of my birthday wishes came true.

The second awesome part of my birthday included a bath.  I got out the bath salts and essential oils for this one.  My moment of solitude lasted a good five minutes or so before Hunty sniffed out the oils.  It took about 1.4 second flat for him to strip down and hop in the tub with me.  It wasn't quite as relaxing as having the tub to myself, but I didn't mind.  As far as bath company goes, he's a favorite.  Another few minutes after Hunty joined me, Tralee discovered us.  She wanted in too.  At this point, I decided to forfeit and let the kiddies take over the tub.

  

After bath time my friend and neighbor came over.  We packed some lunch, and took the kids to a nearby park.  Tralee didn't have school, so we got to spend the whole day together.  Both of my babies had a great time running around the park with their friends.

After picnicking and parking it up for a bit, we came home, baked a cake, and Tralee decorated it for me all by herself.  She picked out decorations earlier from the store, and I decided to let her have full control over the proceedings.  I, once again, wasn't aloud to look at her creation until I got the say-so.

My friend/neighbor took the follow pics of Tralee decorating and surprising me  with her cake creation.

The cake turned out beautifully, and not only that, but my friend Janessa, also brought me over a cake.  Two cakes on one birthday!  It can't get any better than that!  Also, did you know that calories don't count on your birthday?  I had no problem eating a slice (or two) of each cake.  They were both yummy!

Later on that night Tralee and I made some veggie soup and rolls.  Both were delish. 

So, to sum it up, my day was exactly wonderful!  The only thing that could have made it perfect-o would be Jim's presence.  He was away on business, but I still spent my day with my favorite littles, I talked to family and friends, I blew out candles on--not one, but two--cakes, and it all ended snuggling on the couch with my favorite peeps.  The only thing missing was my hubster.  I know we'll catch up on celebrating when he makes it home.

So. . . . 31 

It's going to be an amazing year!!

Projects -- YAY!

I finished a few projects lately.  All these pics are from my phone, if you follow me on Instagram or are a friend of mine on Facebook, some of these will be repeats.  Sorry about that.  I'm pretty excited about how some of my latest projects have turned out.

I finally printed up and put up the prints I made.  I also hung a butt-load of bats throughout my house for Halloween.  You'll see them through several more pictures.  The bat idea wasn't mine, I got it here.  I didn't use her template though, I made my own and had my Silhouette machine cut them out for me.  It was a major time saver!  

Red shelf is now hanging in the entryway.  This will be the new seasonal shelf.  My goal is to keep it updated and decorated with the seasons/holidays.  That way, at least that part of my house will decorated accordingly, and when people stop by they'll think I totally have my house together.  Wink.

Front door.  I still need to find a doormat.  Imagine this picture with a cute welcome mat of some sort.

I painted my green mirror black.  Can you see the print reflecting in the mirror?  I also made that and had it printed out.

I made a new frame for a piece of artwork I painted earlier this year.  Yes, I ACTUALLY made this frame!  Nail gun shootin' and everything!!

I saved the best project for last.  I saw a similar frame on Pinterest and wanted one for my very own, so I came up with these.  Jim helped cut them, I did the rest.  Actually, Jim helped with some of the chevron stripes, but I got fed up with how long it was taking to measure the grid lines, so I ended up just eyeballing them towards the end.  I actually like the imperfect stripes better than the measured ones.  Since all of these frames were distressed, I liked the funky imperfect look better.  I actually love them all!

Another frame view.  I had glass cut for the frames from a local place around here.   It was totally affordable!  Love it!


That about sums it up.

Happenings

We've been busy around here. Thus the lack of blog posts. Jim's been gone a lot, so I've been rockin' the single mom lifestyle as of late. He did manage to fly in for a day and half, and take our favorite girl to Donuts with Dad at her school early Friday morn. She was SO excited to show off her school to her daddy! I was SO grateful he made it home for this!

Before leaving for Donuts with Dad

I've also been channelling my inner Martha Stewart. I not only visited an orchard with my new friend and neighbor (she's super awesome AND we trade babysitting services! Double awesome!), but I also froze, canned, and dehydrated my way through over 60 lbs of produce. I'm totally an official domestic diva now. Move on over Martha, there's a new homemaker in town - Booyah!

My produce

A pic my friend took of me at her place being all domestic-y and stuff

Hey fellow moms, do you ever get so caught up juggling through all your jobs/hobbies that sometimes you neglect your most important (and cutest) responsibilities a bit, and then feel guilty so you put on your I'm-a-fun-mom metaphoric shoes and plan a super fun/messy activity to do with your lil' pretties to appease the guilt of said semi-neglect? Then do you shamelessly post your super fun/messy mommy-and-me craft project on instagram/facebook to convince the world (and maybe yourself) that you are an awesome mom all the time. Me? I NEVER do this, but if I did, my super fun/messy activity of choice might have been painting rocks with the wee ones. And they might have turned out a bit like this:

In other news, Tralee, my social butterfly, is the "it" girl in her class, so I've been told by other moms. There have been boys fighting for her attention, yeah, I KNOW! Crazy! I don't hear I word about it from her either. I get all my info from talking to other moms in the school yard. When I ask Tralee about what I hear she just giggles or blows it off like it's no big deal. Silly girl! Stinks also joined a play group, and loves every second of it. As soon as I drop her off all the girls announce to each other, "Yay!! Tralee is here!  Tralee is here!"  She is such an outgoing, friendly, kind-hearted little girl that she makes friends fast, and always has a grand ol' time wherever there's fun to be had.  I'm so glad!

My kids and my friend's kids watching The Little Mermaid

Hunter and I have been enjoying our one-on-one time together while Tralee is at school. I have to say, it's quite nice to have a little time alone with my favorite lil' boyfriend. He's such a fun, silly, happy, sensitive little boy. Oh, and he sure LOVES his momma! He loves me so, and I feel like the luckiest lady in the world!

I really am a lucky lady! I love our new home and neighborhood. I have a hot hubby who gets me, and still loves me when I act a bit crazy. My kids are adorable, fun, smart little cutie pies! And even though I have my anxieties/stresses/bad-mommy moments on a daily bases I can still find joy in the things that matter most (most of the time).  Life is rad.

Craft Fair

I did a craft fair this last Friday and Saturday.  Here are some of the things I (I'm using "I" lightly, Jim did a lot of the work too) made for it.  We made crown molding shelves, various art and printables that we framed (Jim made all the frames and I painted them), and other little cutsey decor items.  I think we had a lot of fun stuff. 

Jim made the barn door display for me using an old door we came across, and some old barn wood.  I think it was a really cute display.  So cute in fact, it was one of the first things I sold on Saturday morning.  I had to rearrange the rest of the stuff after the door went bye-bye.

We got a good booth space with a bulletin board behind us.  We were able to hang up more stuff than we thought!

This was one of Jim's favorite creations.  I told him to make me a barn wood shelf to display some pictures in, and this was the outcome.  Cute, if I do say so myself.

Red crown molding shelf.  I love red things!

I made The Family:  A Proclamation to the World printable, and Jim made the awesome barn wood frame to put it in.

This little dity was a popular seller.

Framed printable

More stuff.

This shelf was one of the first things that sold.  

I don't know if you can tell, but there are little jingle bells in the frame.  This thing sold pretty fast too.

That's about all.

Overall, I can't say that the craft fair was a huge success.  There wasn't a whole lot of traffic coming through.  Several of the vendors were pretty bored, and I think we sold the most of our stuff to each other.  I haven't done a craft fair in several years, and I guess the market for it has changed a lot.  I talked to a lot of vendors who said they used to do 90+ craft fairs a year, and now they only choose a select few to do.  I guess I picked a not-so-great one to display my items, but it was still a fun experience.  I also have a good amount of stuff to start my Etsy shop with.  Yup, I'm going to give Etsy a try.  I like to make stuff, but I only have so much wall space, so I guess Etsy will be my crafting outlet.  Once I really get my shop up and going, I'll set up a link on the ol' blogaroo.   Until then. . . Adieu!

It's Halloween It's Halloween. . .

 . . .cute festive decor in my house can be seen!  Hooray!

Below are a few projects I've done either this year or last year to add a bit of Halloween flare to our house.

It took me about a billion years to roll each of these roses!  Good thing I love the outcome!  If you want a closer look, just come knock on my front door!

Here's our entertainment center with all the festive decor.

Close up of the garland.  I made the leaf garland with a few bunches of leaves I got at the dollar store.  I took them apart with my wire cutters,  then wound them back together to create a garland.  Total cost:  $3!  I made the "Happy Halloween" banner using various black and white papers.  Super cute, I think!  I'm also thinking of cutting out a mask to put (temporarily) on my kids' faces in the pictures above.

I think these two little pretties are my favorites!  The Bride of Frankenstein and the Frankster himself.  I cut them with my Silhouette, glued them onto some orange paper, then put them in some dollar store frames.  The little figurine was from the dollar store last year, and the old books are courtesy of my many trips to various thrift stores.

I love my little witch frame.  I bought a cool oval frame from the thrift store, spray painted it black, and then cut out the witch and letters with my good ol' Silhouette.  The pumpkin was a Craft Warehouse purchase.  I just decoupaged some cute paper onto it.  The old books are from a thrift store, and the vampire is a dollar store find!

I found the tutorial to make these little lovelies here.  Super cute idea!  Added bonus, I already had all the jars and lights.  I just needed to make a quick trip to the dollar store for my tissue paper!  I used my Silhouette to cut out the faces.

You've seen the pics above before.  I had them printed out (thanks Costco), put them in some dollar store frames I spray painted black, and cut out some vinyl letters for the wall.  The plate was a thrift store find, the bird and spider in the frame are vinyl I cut with Sylvia (my Silhouette).  The rest of the items are dollar store finds.

Who doesn't love a good Halloween song?  My kids love this witch one.  So, I used my handy computer to create this printable, put it in a frame I already owned, added a few dollar store and craft store finds, and WHA-LA!  Cute decor!  The printable is below, if you would like to use it:

The kids and I made these ghosties last year using cheese cloth, balloons, and starch.

All and all, I love my little decorations.  I always get overwhelmed when I look through home decor magazines and people's entire houses look like a catalog.  Then it hit me:  Just add a few new holiday decorations each year, and before you know it, you'll have a festive house in no time!  Right now just my front room looks like Halloween.  I'm sure in a few years, splashes of each season will be spread throughout my home.  If not, no worries.  It's always fun to do crafty projects that add a little flare to the home.