Tackling The Shoes Blues - Ha ha!

I wanted to say thank you to anyone who reads my writing. It means a lot and I do appreciate all of your comments. 

Over the weekend I HAD to do something about the family's organization of our "kicks". Ha ha. Seriously, one thing we find challenging each morning is getting the kids ready for child care and having to locate their shoes before getting out the door. I know it sounds silly but it is a small issue for us. It's the little things yet again and I'm trying to conquer this one before it drives me batty. 

When I get the baby out of the car each night after work, one of his shoes may fall off in the car and then I'll carry him inside and the other one will come off at some point, then the next morning neither shoe to the pair is anywhere to be found. Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance so I went to Garden Ridge and purchased this clear plastic over the door hanging shoe organizer! I know it's silly! I used this type of thing in college and have had one before but not in a while. Anything to help keep our shoes together!

I think it's going to work well. We can fit plenty of our shoes in it and store them on the back of the door when we're at home. So leave it to me today to forget to take my oldest child's tennis shoes to the daycare so he could change into them after water play! GRRR! I ran myself like crazy at lunch to get him his tennis shoes. Anyhow I hope this finds everyone enjoying their week! 

I've got lots of home decor projects that I can't wait to share with you, I've just had several sleepless nights lately due to a certain tyke. Hope you have a great rest of the week!

C-you later! 

Kitchen Is Back In Order

Hello all! The weekend is winding down quickly. Hope you had a great weekend and were able to do something fun. I, for the most part ran myself ragged trying to play catch up on the essentials. Saturday seemed like another day of nothing but WORK. It was full of chores from grocery shopping to straightening up the whole house, dishes, 5 loads of laundry, taking care of two young children... I didn't even sit down until after 4:00 and even then it was STILL folding laundry, which I highly detest. 


In a world where we had money to spend on something remotely luxurious, I think I would hire a maid. Or I wish I would. Even if we had the money to spend on that I don't know that I would. I would be too embarrassed to have someone clean after me. Although it might motivate me clean up better since someone would be coming in the house regularly. It's a terrible thing to feel like you'd be too embarrassed to have someone who cleans houses for a living see your mess.

For the past couple of weeks our kitchen has been a mess because our faucet has been broken. We tried to fix it because we just replaced it a few years ago. It's never fun when you have unexpected expenses. We were forced to buy another one because we learned quickly that the piping inside had become corroded and was causing it to leak - A LOT! Unfortunately there was no fixing it.  Fun-filled. Soooo we bought another one and we finally have a working faucet again now. You know how it is when something in the kitchen breaks... the kitchen tends to be the center of the household and when something stops working, the rest of the house seems all out of whack. Finally though I have my kitchen back!   

We had a pull out sprayer before but now we've got one of those goose neck pull down jobs which is getting the job done. One thing the sales guy suggested with these types of faucets is to purchase a well known brand and to get one that has the magnets so the sprayer head will click back to the "goose neck". Never thought I'd be so happy about a kitchen faucet. YAY! 

So Super Psyched About CARS II

In relation to the Disney Pixar CARS II movie I was told I have to add this funny little tidbit to my oldest child's baby book so I'll share. Kids say the darnedest things! 


Let's just say that our four year old LOVES CARS, especially cars with eyes = Lightning McQueen, Sally, Doc Hudson, you get the drift! His room is decked out in CARS gear (which I was hesitant to do at first b/c of my dislike of themed rooms, especially character themes) and he seriously wanted us to name his baby brother after a very important CARS character played by Larry the Cable Guy. He told everybody he wanted his little brother's name to be Gabriel "Mater"! Anyhow the little story I was told the other day was this. My son got in trouble at his child care center for putting his hands on another child and hitting so he was taken to the front office. There he sat with one of the directors, a thirty something woman and the co-owner, a fifty year old man. The two discussed CARS with my son to try and help him settle down and as upfront as possible, he told the man that he reminded him of Tow Mater because he was old and rusty. They both sat there and the woman said they laughed so hard she was crying. Kids just say what ever comes to mind!


On that note I wanted to do a little something special for our son since the next CARS movie is coming out towards the end of this week. I really want this movie to be an event for him. He's even more excited now with the addition of this easy project of window flags!

I let him pick the fabric and I purchased one yard. It contrasted well with the room so I thought it would be great! He did a good job!

 We ironed and measured out triangles. They were 7" high and 5 " wide, I believe. You can wing that part. 

 I cut out the triangles using a good pair of sewing scissors! 

Using fabric glue I glued seven triangles to a ribbon at one inch apart. I scattered the designs so they would have an even flow. I played around with placement but it's so easy and not perfect.

 

Here they are and it adds a little character to the room. Get it?!?!? He loves it and they're just a fun layer to the simple navy curtain.

Kitchen Is Back In Order

Hello all! The weekend is winding down quickly. Hope you had a great weekend and were able to do something fun. I, for the most part ran myself ragged trying to play catch up on the essentials. Saturday seemed like another day of nothing but WORK. It was full of chores from grocery shopping to straightening up the whole house, dishes, 5 loads of laundry, taking care of two young children... I didn't even sit down until after 4:00 and even then it was STILL folding laundry, which I highly detest. 

In a world where we had money to spend on something remotely luxurious, I think I would hire a maid. Or I wish I would. Even if we had the money to spend on that I don't know that I would. I would be too embarrassed to have someone clean after me. Although it might motivate me clean up better since someone would be coming in the house regularly. It's a terrible thing to feel like you'd be too embarrassed to have someone who cleans houses for a living see your mess.

 

For the past couple of weeks our kitchen has been a mess because our faucet has been broken. We tried to fix it because we just replaced it a few years ago. It's never fun when you have unexpected expenses. We were forced to buy another one because we learned quickly that the piping inside had become corroded and was causing it to leak - A LOT! Unfortunately there was no fixing it.  Fun-filled. Soooo we bought another one and we finally have a working faucet again now. You know how it is when something in the kitchen breaks... the kitchen tends to be the center of the household and when something stops working, the rest of the house seems all out of whack. Finally though I have my kitchen back!   

We had a pull out sprayer before but now we've got one of those goose neck pull down jobs which is getting the job done. One thing the sales guy suggested with these types of faucets is to purchase a well known brand and to get one that has the magnets so the sprayer head will click back to the "goose neck". Never thought I'd be so happy about a kitchen faucet. YAY! 

Hats Off!

Hats off to celebrations! Last weekend I attended a friend's baby shower that had on the invitation to wear a hat. Dress in your finest and wear a hat! I found this to be a perfect opportunity to come up with something on my own! I'm not a hat person unless it's a ball cap on a sunny day and this was a cheap way to come up with a hat since it's sort of a one time gig!

 

 

I found a brown dress that had some white polka dots. I was kinda going for the "Julia Roberts at the horse race in Pretty Woman" look here. Can you believe that movie is over 20 years old now? Holy moly!

 

I purchased a straw hat, wide ribbon and paper flowers at the local craft store.

I played around wrapping the ribbon around the hat. The hat had two holes and I wound up using them to help hold the ribbon in place. I used fabric glue as well to attach it. I tied the hat underneath in one knot and glued it to hold the ribbon in place better.

 

I took two pieces of ribbon to make a flat bow. 

 

 

I looped them loosely in a cross and glued them to each other

 

 

I glued the bow to the back of the hat.

 

I glued the flowers in a pattern all over the hat but not on the top.

I think it turned out very cute! It'll look cute hanging somewhere in the house too. :)

Freshening Up With Framed Fabric!

Give Me A "T"!  Give Me A "G"!  Give Me an "I" and an "F" What Does It Spell??? Ahhhhh! Lots of exclamation points today because it's Friday!

Okay so I resorted to chanting. Really I'm glad that it's Friday but I went to work this morning only to be called an hour later by my child's daycare center that he had a fever. Darn it! After a fit-in at the doctor's office and a prescription run, I'm home for the day with a sickling child. Cutting molars bites the big one, get it? The double whammy is the double ear infections on top of a tummy bug that I'm sure is all linked. Poor little thing. The meds finally kicked in and he's at least smiling again. Hoping for a solid nap but can't be too pushy.

I'm on the computer and looking at some freshly framed art, I mean fabric on the wall!!! I have a stash of different fabrics in the linen closet that I am in love with! Okay now just so you know I am not a "material" girl. I am not in LOVE with "things", I just merely like to make the house look nice and fresh and attract the eye, that's all. There is lots of freshening up to do around here! 

These two pictures have been hanging in the kitchenette for a few years now. They were very reasonably priced prints that I bought at a chain store somewhere because they looked like they would go with the sage color scheme of the kitchen. 


A few of my friends have asked ask why I don't hang my own art on my walls. Well I would but a lot of my artwork is from college and specific assignments and either over-sized or subjects I wouldn't want hung on the walls in the house. I haven't made the time to do a lot of art to hang but one day I will try and get back to that. Painting and drawing are two things I love to do, especially listening to good music!

So as for these two wall hangings I pulled the pictures apart with tools. I used a razor blade to cut the square out of the brown paper backing.

Then I pried the nails out with pliers and was able to pull the cardboard, matting and picture out. I had some cardboard sheets that I cut to fit the size of the glass. I cleaned the glass, ironed the fabric and moved the wooden frame around on the fabric until I got the images I wanted to frame. Then I placed the cardboard on the backside of the fabric and taped the backing down. I taped the cardboard to the back of the frame and then took brown paper and glued it down to the back of the frame and used Mod Podge to glue the brown paper to the back of the frame to cover the tape. I hung it back up and they are more vibrant than the old pictures. 


It's a feminine, whimsical looking fabric but I think that even though I'm outnumbered by males in the house, they can handle just this one bit of floral! Framed fabric is a super simple way to achieve a new fresh look in any room of the house! I like matted art but I like this even though the mats are gone! I think I'll keep it for a while.