Pictures from January 2010

I have all sorts of random pictures so I'll load them up in this post....

Here are some beautiful roses that have been in my house this week. These flowers were just the perfect shade of the palest pink you ever saw. I hate to see them go. Had to dispose of them yesterday. So sad! Why do floweres have to die? Why do we have to die? Let's get deep....

...or not.....

If you remember my posts from Philadelphia's Longwood Gardens here and here and here, I am obsessed with taking pictures of flowers. They are stationary and they're usually very well lit. Perfect conditions for an amateur photog........

Kyle and John chillaxin' on a Saturday afternoon watchin the Ags play basketball.

GIG 'EM!
Ridin' the new trike!

When Mom is too busy to feed Anna, we put brother to work!

Reminiscent of the 101 Ways to Have Fun With A Burp Cloth post from Baby John days, here is

Anna dressed as Mary, the young mother of baby Jesus, and the bride of "Jofus" (as John says when we recount the Christmas story)
Watching the big kids play at Pump It Up

Portrait time with the camera. Too bad she had a rashy mouth this particular day

I have FOUR teeth! Seeeeee

John is teaching his sister the proper way to conduct a ride-on train. What else are big brothers for?

Couldn't resist this sweet little puckered face!

The Craft Machine Keeps on Whirring....

OK, I know some of you readers are bored to tears with all my crafty blogs lately but I've really been hit by the bug for some reason....and it is MY blog after all.

After my proclamation of taking a break I decided to hit the sewing machine again (no surprise here). It's like crack, I tell you! If a loaded sewing machine and pretty fabric are within arm's length, I just. can't. help. MYSELF!

So a little background...this summer, I made this makeshift-mud-room-shelf-thing from a $35 Ikea open box item I picked up. I spray painted it, distressed it a bit, added a cushion and upholstered the top of it with this pretty toile fabric and nailhead trim.

At the time I was obsessed with ruffles (I'm actually still obsessed with ruffles) so I dug through my fabric scrap drawers and added a little white linen ruffle to it. Too lazy to even trim the ruffle so I just stuck it on with frays and all but I kinda like the look....

Voila! A place to store our 1000 bags o' crap that seem to accumulate throughout the week

Back to today: Our back door has always bothered me because it has a HUGE window pane and I always feel very exposed at night--especially if my man is gone and I'm home alone. As you can see, any ol' bad guy could just come up to the window and see what I'm doing here.

BOOOORING

So after seeing this post from Thrifty Decor Chick and realizing that I can use MAGNETIC RODS to hang a window covering on a metal external door, my whole life changed....magnetic rods...oh my word! I didn't even know such a thing existed!

After this epiphany I finally had the courage to proceed with my whole master plan for the breakfast room....

BEFORE

AFTER

"PINCH PLEAT WINDOW VALANCES!!!", she exclaimed madly

Uh-oh....living room curtains, your days might be numbered, darling.....

Camila's Room

So here's the other reason December/early January has had me a teeny bit busy

Camila's room!

Here's the story:

The little girl who lives down the street has a full time nannny named Mary. Mary and I have developed a special friendship over the past 2 years. We share impromptu playdates sometimes when it's rainy or cold outside or if her and Gabriella happen to be walking by our house.

(Side note: You'll remember Gabriella was the recipient of the famed Nap Mat Project.)

Mary is close to my age and we have lots of things to talk about. She has always loved Anna's room and asked me if I would help her decorate her nursery when it came time for her to have a baby. Well, she is expecting a little baby girl at the end of the month and several months ago she commissioned me to make some crib bumpers, crib skirt, window curtains, basket liners, and a few other small crafty things for the nursery. I also helped pick out the paint color which is a nice muted, soft green. It's hard to tell in the pictures but it looks very sweet and light and girly.
I was excited to help and have finally finished it and went to her house to put everything in place.

I went out on a limb and tried this applique letter on the minky cream fabric. My first time to do it and I'm glad I didn't screw it up. I'm going to have to applique more things now! Seriously, the night I did this I actually couldn't sleep. My mind was so revved up thinking about all the things I could possibly applique...onesies, lampshades, pillows, OH MY! That's how sick I am! SICK, I tell ya!

She brought me a hand-me-down lamp whose base was speckled blue and had a weird lace-ish lampshade. I spray painted that sucker, slapped some of our leftover pink and white dot fabric to cover the shade, and added some fuzzy trim for some extra razzle dazzle and we have a whole new lamp! (that matches our scheme, thank you )

Bought these letters at the HobLob--50% off--holla! Spray painted and added the ivory dots to match the fabric on the crib bedding. This was my gift to Mary at her baby shower. She had wanted some letters for the baby room but we hadn't really pursued anything because I had this idea in mind....

The last minute project I did for Anna actually turned out to be a hit with several people who have asked me to make them for their girls...

Not sure why this picture keeps coming in sideways but it's a bow holder...

Phew! As quickly as I went into business I am retiring....at least until the kids are in school and I have waaaayyyy more time to devote to projects like this. Since I can only work during nap times (when they coincide) and in the evenings it has taken me fooorrrrevah to get this thing done.

But the most thanks goes to my amazing man who is very supportive of my crazy crafting hours. He corrals the kids and fends for himself when it's dinner time and I've completely neglected my family because I'm so into the work that I forget there's people that might need to eat a meal even if I'm blazing through. This project gave me a great appreciation for all those stay at home moms who, on top of their home-managing duties, manage to have a business selling hand-made goods on etsy or ebay or just moms who work anywhere really. Managing the house and kids is a full time job in itself and doing that and another job is super-hero status.

OK, excuse me while I go sit on the couch and EXHALE.......

I Lub You, Tunder Ties

Have we done something wrong here? Our son is telling our daughter "I love you, Thunder Thighs"....but I must admit it's one of the cutest things ever to hear him love on his sister so much even if he's calling her Thunder Thighs, that's our fault!

On Sundays Kyle usually retrieves John from his Sunday School class and I retreive Anna from the nursery and then we all meet up somewhere to go to the car. Last Sunday when I rounded the corner and John saw Anna and I he ran up to us full speed and I knelt down with Anna and he turned to her first (forget me) and said "I missed you today, Anna!" and today when I picked him up from school Anna was with me and he ran up to us and said the same thing. And Thunder Th....uh, I mean, Anna just squeals and smiles at him like he is the funniest thing she's ever seen.

Another Blog Lift

Can't a girl just pick one look and be done with it? nope. no sir.

...the old blog was feeling too summery and the cold weather is making me feel muted and neutral....check it out

Happy New Year, everyone!

I have disappeared from the blogworld but that's ok because all my faithful and loyal readers have been here in town with us these past few weeks so they all know what's been up with us...ha!

We hosted a rockin' Christmas week with Phillip, Cami, & Nathan coming into town the Monday before Christmas and staying with us through Christmas Eve. Kyle's parents came in Monday night and were here for about a week. And Granny, Papaw, and Clifton were here for a few days around Christmas. We hosted Christmas at our place which was nice since we have the kids and it's always nice to be on your own turf when you have kids. Between our kids and cousins Nathan & Sadie we usually had 4 kids under 2.5 years old in our house at any given moment. At times there was crying, at times there was playing, and at times there was quiet when everyone was napping (rare but it did happen). It was amazing to think that last year at this time Nathan, Anna, & Sadie were all still buns in the oven.

Amid the hecticness, it was truly a blessing to get to celebrate with everyone who came in from out of town (minus Justin and Erin and the boys of course--we missed you all this year after that great surprise last year). And it was great to celebrate with both sets of parents together on Christmas morning!

After all the festivities with Kyle's family on Christmas Eve we did Christmas day lunch with my uncle, aunt, and cousins. You can see all our Christmas pictures here

Oh, and I forgot to put this up but I can't NOT mention it because it's Anna's first picture with Santa!

John was skeptical but he managed to eek out a terrified fake smile and I'm convinced the only reason Anna isn't freaking out is because she saw that John was right beside her because she was giving Santa the stink eye for a good while. And there's that crafty Christmas dress again! I got A LOT of mileage out of that one, as you'll see in the Christmas photos.....

Happy New Year!!!!!!