Tuesday at Home

 I find it so wonderful to be at home some days.  Yesterday was spent out almost all day.  After those busy days, an at home day feels so wonderful.  I just wanted to share some tidbits of the day ...

First, my baby cat all tucked up at the foot of my bed.  She always looks so cosy that it is really hard to disturb her to make the bed.  But, I love to stop when I find her here just for a quick snuggle.  A small moment of calm in my day.  She is snuggled up next to me now as I type.

Nothing quite so nice as a cat to snuggle with!

And here is another "calm" moment from today.  Tea at 4pm with Dawn.   

Of course, as it goes in this house, I no sooner was snuggled and comfy in my chair with my book then I found my lap covered in children with their own books and wants for cookies.  So, my tea turned into our tea, and I still haven't had a chance to read any of my book, but it was a wonderful time to focus on those little ones while watching the light fade outside and a nice way to welcome the end of the day.

And lastly, on the menu today, skillet beef stew.  Wonderful on a blustery day like today!  (I think it was a freezing 55 out there today!  ;)  Well, I'm off!  My turn came to bring Downton Abbey home from the library and while I've seen all the episodes, I'm super excited to watch the special features!

Take care!

K

Tuesday Tea

This is fabulous. I'm over at Dawn's today, and every day this week, for teatime at 4pm. A scheduled break from the hustle and bustle of the joys of the holiday season and, for me, a moment to reflect on the reason for it all.
My teatime today consisted of a cherry Pepsi, the classic "Meet Me in Saint Louis", and two kids snuggled up next to me on the couch. Doesn't get any better than that!

Til tomorrow!

Blessings be to you.

This Moment

Inspired by SouleMama...
"{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment to pause, savor and remember."

Homemade butter. Fun!

Headbands and Babies!

The day after Thanksgiving Joann's had a great sale, so I went and picked up a rotary cutting system (LOVE IT!!!). I had been lusting after them for a while! I HAD to play with it when I got home (of course!) so I chose to make some headbands for my baby (for Christmas and such...) based on the wonderful tutorial from Raechel at finding my feet. These sewed up so quick and easy it was fabulous!

They look great when lounging around the house, running quick errands, or when looking cute while asleep at church. ;) They also stay on tight when attempting to steal all your brother's toys, an added benefit!

The only problem I had with them is that they could not keep up with the growing-up-too-fast-ness that is my baby girl. By the time Christmas came around, she had already grown out of them!!! Of course, that just means I have more sewing to do, so really that's a blessing in disguise! =)

This Moment

Inspired by SouleMama...
"{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment to pause, savor and remember."

Happy Friday!!!

Creating for My Girl...

Hi! Alison at oopsey-daisy is celebrating her 1 year blogiversary and is having a linky party of everyone's favorite projects. Now, if you do not know oopsey-daisy, you must run over there and check it out! It is one of my favorite crafty blogs and I am a daily reader. She has some fabulous ideas and links to more great ones. And a lot of those links and projects that are doable with young kids, which in this house really makes my day!
I thought I would join her celebration and do a post about a project I worked on a bit ago for my baby girl's bedroom...oh, how much fun is it to have a girl to craft for?! Anyway, I was looking for a lamp and saw a picture of a butterfly mobile and decided that I could easily craft one myself. I loosely based it on a tutorial I found here.

75 hand cut butterflies later...I love it! My baby love loves it. And it entertains her when I have to change the diaper, which is always a good thing! =)

Thanks Alison for your blog and for your inspiration!!! Here's to another year of craftiness!

I am also linking this post up at Just A Girl. If you have not been over there to see all the goodness, you have to check it out! Her painting tips are encouraging me to tackle something I would never have thought about doing otherwise...paint a big Ikea desk I scored on Craigslist! I am sure my husband only wishes she had tips for procrastination...I've been "painting" this desk for 4 months now...(my procrastination comes in the form of an adorable 9 month old...so her cuteness takes the sting off a bit!)

Have a great weekend. I'll be painting and scrapping! My idea of heaven. =)

Scrapbooking

I am taking the Ordiments of Everyday Life class at Big Picture Classes. I have to say that the first couple days I hated it. The first few assignments are to gather specific products and put them aside and then gather specific photos and put them aside. You do not know which products go with which photos and how until the page ideas come later. This is totally different from the way I scrapbook (photos+color) and totally different from the way I want to scrapbook (photos+story), but after seeing my tray fill with color I got excited!

And realizing that I was pulling photos out that I would NEVER scrapbook if it weren't for this class (but that I would like scrapped) got me addicted. This is the first layout done for this class with this method...

Love it! Can not wait to see what else comes of this and I am actually quite enjoying being so far out of my comfort zone! Love BPC!!!

100 Things

100 Things I am Unendingly Grateful for:

(encouraged by Karen G.)

1. My family
2. Our house
3. My husband’s job
4. The ability to be a SAHM
5. Creative pursuits
6. Warm comforters to snuggle under
7. Thick, warm socks
8. “Coffee”
9. Living in the city, but having a nice piece of nature too
10. Big Picture Scrapbooking
11. Blogs—a constant source of encouragement and inspiration
12. Facebook
13. Friendships that last
14. Skype
15. My kind-hearted nature
16. Books, Books, Books
17. My new stroller
18. Our van. God thank you for our van
19. New years, new days, new beginnings
20. Pictures
21. Our camera
22. Hobbies
23. Organization
24. Kelly Green
25. Bright Orange
26. Turquoise
27. Pink
28. Christmas
29. Lights on the house
30. Lights on the tree
31. Plan Toys road and rail system. Love it!
32. Wooden blocks
33. Space for imagination
34. Knowing how it is that I want to raise my kids
35. My mother and all she does for our family
36. Rain
37. Sunshine
38. A good cry
39. Heat—especially the moment when it first kicks on
40. Food
41. Dishes that need to be done, bills that need (and can) be paid, toys that need to be picked up, laundry that needs to be washed.
42. Remus
43. Memories of childhood
44. Notebooks
45. Great pens
46. Scrapbooking
47. Bird stickers
48. Time spend discovering me
49. Time shared discovering everything
50. The beauty of a good whale show
51. Sign Language
52. Christmas carols
53. Warm sweaters
54. Hot Chocolate
55. Christmas movies
56. My dining table and all the stories it could tell
57. My computer and the cool things it will let me do
58. The Box and the ability to handle all my photos
59. Picasa. Could not function without it!
60. Ali Edwards
61. Karen G.
62. Stacy Julian
63. Becky Higgins
64. Project Life and the husband that got it for me
65. The magic in the everyday
66. The ability to document the magic in the everyday
67. Gratitude lists and the attitude shift that comes with
68. My Library of Memories
69. The state of my savings account
70. Plane tickets home
71. Sunsets
72. Mass
73. The ability to meet God where HE is at sometimes
74. Pre-made baby food and disposable diapers!
75. Music and songs that speak to the soul
76. Flowing water
77. Time spent writing down, mapping out, and dreaming of where we are headed
78. Good conversations
79. The fact that my family always has to be together—usually in four square feet of space
80. Television and the ability to lose myself sometimes
81. Heroines that inspire and live lives that I dream of living
82. Intelligence
83. Culture
84. Education
85. My unused (as of yet) Master’s Degree
86. The Bible
87. Magazines
88. Amazon
89. Paint and its possibilities
90. Possibilities—a whole world of possibilities
91. Volunteering
92. Learning something new
93. Spending time with those I love
94. My children
95. Holding my baby in my arms
96. Hearing my son say “I love you, mommy”
97. Nursing
98. My protective and sweet dog
99. A full day’s work
100. Snuggling up with my love at the end of it

Happy Christmas to all and to all a great New Year!!!

December Daily

It may be December 8th (well, December 6th when I started working on this...) but I am totally jumping on this band wagon. I discovered December Daily last year, again at the beginning of December, and was blown away with Ali's design, the colors, the simplicity, the photos, the journaling. I began to put together an album, but it was too late and I was making things way too complicated. This year I vow to do simple, simple, simple, to leave the ideas that stretch me (like baseball card holders? Where do you get those anyway! or painting, or figuring out the whole digital aspect of things.) til next year when I can start earlier. I don't really want to spend any more money then I already have (on some new paper and embellishments) which means that my album will be focused mostly on the photos and the stories. Documenting our life and this season this December. And, well, that's the whole point anyway! =)

Gratitude Tree

I am just now starting to feel better from the cold I got before Thanksgiving, and as our Christmas tree is still tucked away in the garage and is not anticipated out anytime soon, (at least not until the rest of the house is feeling better) I thought I would share this tree instead... A sweetly simple gratitude tree inspired by other similar ideas I have seen on blogs. The leaves were done with a MS punch, and the tree hand drawn and then cut out of scrapbook paper and glued onto a blue sheet of card stock. It is taped into a 12x12 frame with more scrapbook paper as a background, and measures 8.5x11 so that when done decorating my kitchen I can pop it into our family scrapbooks to look back on. A quick, fun project and a cute reminder of all we have to be grateful for!

Right Now 10.18

HEARING—the Super Readers solve a super big problem.
SEEING—Muddy dog prints on my floor. Hello rain!
COOKING—I don’t know. Probably got to figure that out by dinnertime!
CRAFTING—A photo album scrapbook of a trip to Mexico—a very fun project!
THINKING—I’ve got to get orgranized!
PLANNING—To spend the day doing just that!
HOPING—To accomplish a lot today!
OUTSIDE—Dark, rainy, and cold! It feels like fall…I love it!
INSIDE—A mess! Beween the painting projects and the rain my house needs some love!

Happy Monday!!!

This Moment

Inspired by SouleMama...
"{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment to pause, savor and remember."

A Clean House...

If the secret to a constantly clean kitchen is that you don't cook or eat in it, does that mean that the secret to a constantly clean home is to not live in it? =)

Pillows!

Well! I had no internet all day yesterday and all day I went around going "I wish I could look this up online...Oh, I want to check this out online...Oh, I wonder what that is, I could look it up online..." Then, when the internet was finally fixed, I spent ten minutes on it and thought "well, that was fun, now I want to do something else"! It is amazing to me how much the internet becomes a part of life, and in the end, how very unimportant it really is!

Anyway, now that I am back online, I thought I would share some sewing...we just got a new couch, and every new couch needs new pillows! So, I went to the store and bought two beautiful, expensive, silk, embroidered, down-filled pillows. My the were expensive! My they were beautiful! Even DH liked them! (Shock!) I brought them home and put them on the couch...and they didn't seem right. That's when I realized, I don't have a "beautiful, silk, embroidered, expensive pillow" life! =) I have a "two babies who aren't potty trained yet, play dough and cheerios, dog who eats everything" life! So, the pillows went and instead I created these:

I made inserts with old sheeting, and the covers are made from a curtain panel and a ripped duvet cover.

That's much better!

They needed a throw to go with them, so I put this lap quilt together and now I am happy and comfortable on my new couch!

Right Now (10.11)

HEARING--The twang of a table saw—at 8 am. Ugh!
SEEING—A sewing machine on my table and a blue room in my house!!! Blue!!!
COOKING—Probably nothing today! Painting is more important!
CRAFTING—Some things for my home and some Christmas presents. Completed 13 scrapbook pages this weekend. That’s CRAZY!
THINKING—I am a happier person when I have a project to work on.
PLANNING—To finish painting and maybe go to the store later.
HOPING—To be able to do some painting tonight, but I doubt that will happen.
OUTSIDE—Sunshine-y and bright…gonna be a hot one today.
INSIDE—We are all UP! Time to get moving!!!

Happy Monday!

{THIS MOMENT}

Inspired by SouleMama...
"{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment to pause, savor and remember."

Have a great weekend!

Quotable...

My life may seem SMALL by the world’s standards…
But the joy it brings is HUGE!
~Kristie Hunt

Cereal Bars and Life

I made these cereal bars, from Everyday Food, the other day and they were a big hit. Sweet and tart, and very gooey! Made me reminice about making treats with my mother and just childhood in general. Its fun how something so simple and easy to do makes such a big impact.

Cold and rainy here today. I love this weather, but am too emersed in life to appreciate it. We are in the throws of teething and getting little sleep. I will be so glad to see teeth!

Happy Wednesday!!!

Tuesday Tip--The Dishwasher

Small things that make life better, easier; what could be better then that! Here's a small thing to make loading the dishwasher quicker!

I pre-rinse my dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. I use both sides of my double basin sink to do this--I rinse the dishes on one side and then stack them in the other before putting them in the dishwasher. This way, I don't leave the water running while I am bending over to put the dish in the machine, and its quicker too!
Less time with the dishes means more time with the times I love. That's always good! =)

Right Now...

HEARING--The hum of the washer and the buzz of the dryer. Gotta love a good wash day!

SEEING--My dog standing at the back door whining to be let out so he can bury his bone. Not gonna happen!

COOKING--Mac and Cheese for dinner, I think!

CRAFTING--Piecing a quilt top for a Christmas present! Never too early to start thinking about Christmas.
Also working on a photo album scrapbook of our trip to Japan.

THINKING--That if I want to live a more centered and mindful life I need more quiet and solitude in which to process and think through things. Hmmmm, where am I gonna get that!?!?

PLANNING--A shopping trip and getting ready for Halloween!!!

HOPING--To be able to go to the lake today for a walk and to see the ducks.

OUTSIDE--It's gray and foggy right now, but I bet that will burn off by this afternoon. Perfect morning for getting things done!

INSIDE--The house is still waking up and greeting the day. There's a nice peace in that!

Happy Monday! =)