Friday, March 26, 2010

5 for Friday- Things I love to do with my kids that make me feel like a kid again


We recently bought a bike trailer off of craigslist. I am in love with it.  I've been trying to go on little rides every day with the babes, to strengthen my leg muscles so I can go on longer rides soon. I thought this pic was funny, because this is oft how I feel we look!
I love fingerpainting with the kids.  We go in the back yard and have at it!!

Do you play tag with your kids?  I was playing yesterday at the park with mine...They were chasing me round and round the play structure. Then I spun around and "got" them. I love their shrieks and squeals!!

Our backyard needs some improvement. We used to have dogs, and they picked up goat head stickers in their paws when we would take them on walks in the "mesa" so they'd bring back the seedlings and we seriously had a major infestation in our backyard of goat heads. Needless to say, I wanted the kids to have a sandbox to play in, so we filled up their tiny pool with play yard sand. I love to go out there and let them dig. and bury cars!! It's loads of fun.


This last image is a coloring sheet..so have at it.  I love to swim. I really love to swim with my kids.  I don't really love my post kids body, but I sure don't mind playing in the pool with those babies. What fun!!

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Did I tell you what happened in the drive thru banking line?

No? Well let me.

I pulled up to the bank to find that a van which had previously been in one line had reversed and was sitting far back mostly in another lane.  they were "hovering" to see which lane emptied first.  i don't have time for that, so i just pulled into the lane she had been in previously.  she got mad. pulled up to the passenger side of my truck and had the angry smile going on. I had my two babes with me so I wasn't in the mood to argue with her. i looked up from my paperwork, noticed her "smile" and smiled back, continued to fill out my transaction form.

She still was fuming, but I really didn't care, she reversed again and pulled up to the front of the bank to go inside to finish her transaction. me? I'm not going in with two babes in tow. it's just not fun.

I noticed it is taking a RE AA  AAA LLLLLLL LLLLLLLLL YYY long time. like a really long time.  I notice the mean van lady speed away, after slowing down to gloat that her transaction was finished. whatever.

And I am still second in line and it has been at least 15-20 minutes.  There are now quite a few cars behind me and i am getting a little bit bugged that it is taking this long.

and then the cop car pulls up in front of the car in front of me. with lights on. the officer gets out and starts walking to the car in front of me.
MY HEART IS POUNDING....Is she trapped? Is she going to back into me?? I put my truck in reverse...but the ding dong behind me didn't notice. I was trapped between a bank robber and an idiot.
She revs up her engine...Oh my gosh it's gonna happen. (Lord help us) She somehow finds a way to screech around the cop car and speeds away. Cop runs to his car and radios it in...then speeds away.
I AM SHAKING. then I pull into the booth and deposit my cash. just like nothing happened. It was crazy.

You know what is even crazier? I sat behind this woman for around 20 minutes and I could not, for the life of me, tell you what the license plate was or even what kind of car it was!!

okay, and I guess it is a little crazy that I did stay in line that long, too.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Do You Want to Win A Pair of my Slippers??

Well, then, head over here and enter!!!

They are finished!!



This project was a lot of fun. A lot of work, but a lot of fun too!!  I hope the new owners just love their u900 duo!!


Sunday, March 21, 2010

u900 bunny


Is coming along nicely. I even made fingers on his hands. I think I will make a tutorial for making fingers because I couldn't really find anything that had to do with what I needed.

Friday, March 19, 2010

Five-Things I need to do for myself more often...

As a mom of tots...I get into the habit of doing for others, a lot.  I've found that there are some things I just forget to take care of for me.  Here are five of them.

1. Get or give myself a pedicure. Seriously.

2. Get a haircut

3. Put on make-up more consistently

4. Spend quality time with my girlfriends more often/not neglect my friendships

5. Find a good book and read it.


Are you finding yourself in need of some TLC? What are some things you need to do for YOU?

Tea for me...



Had a lovely time with my longest standing friend...(seriously, I met her when I was 3). We've begun a tradition to celebrate our birthdays at a date between both of them...at the tea room. How I love High tea. it's quite delightful. :)

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Here he is so far...


I'm so excited. I revamped his arms and lets from the pics I originally showed you. I learned a new technique for joining his arms called a thread joint...and am super duper excited about how he is coming along!!

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

I've been commissioned

To make these cuteness little guys. and i am freaking out a little bit. i have looked EVERYWHERE for a pattern...and there's not one. so i am winging it. this is what I have so far.
I think once I stuff him i will have a better idea of how it's really going or not...i think i need pipe cleaners too?

Monday, March 15, 2010

Her Kicks

His Uncle bought my son these shoes for his first birthday, he's since outgrown them. Abuelita (grandma) brought these pink laces for my little buggieboo...ta-da!!

Friday, March 12, 2010

Again?

Another Friday, and I got nuttin'. Well, nothing for Five for Friday. You don't know how I actually do rack my brain over FfF..I could show you five stacks of folded clothes, or five dirty pots and pans that need washing...but instead I will tell you about a few things going on over here.

Last Saturday, we celebrated my littlest munchkin's birthday. I can't believe how fast time flies once you have kiddoodles.
Check out my little doll's dress my mom made for her when I found out I was going to have a girl. Long story short...I cried at the U/S because I wanted another boy, and I think my mom was trying to make me feel better about the whole girlly thing. It is absolutely precious on...and I've been doing doodlebug's hair up in two sloppy buns on either side of her head...and it rocks. She is such a stinkin' cutie if I do say so myself. Anyway, she's helping her daddy open up teabags for iced tea. such a helper.
My boy is all about telling jokes now. He heard one on PBS and now he is all over them. Here are a sampling of the jokes he tells..

"Why did the chicken cross the road?"
"Why?"
"Chicken nugget."
~~~~~~~
"Knock Knock"
"Who's there?"
"Boo hoo why you cryin'?"
~~~~~~~~~~
"Why do chickens sit on their eggs?
Because they don't have any chairs!!"
~~~~~
On my daughter's true birthday this week, we went to the local bakery/diner, and I bought her and her brother a cupcake each. We had such a fun time together. Last night we were at the grocery store, and I picked up a couple all natural products that were on clearance...a cake mix and a frosting mix.
My boy said, "Mom when we gonna make that cake? That's a good idea." today at lunch, so I decided, heck, that was a good idea.
Best.cupcakes. eva. The frosting is really just a chocolate buttercream...two sticks of butter, a dribble of milk and the mix which was simply made from powder sugar, cocoa powder, and sea salt. Kinda made me wonder why we settle for tubbed frosting with 50 ingredients we can't pronounce.
Have a happy weekend all!!

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Things I've learned being married to a musician

I always wanted to marry a guy who played guitar...who sang? bonus. So I of course met my husband with a guitar strapped around his neck.

Here are some things I have realized or learned, or just plain observed over the years.

*When you are married to a musician, they are a musician everywhere. even when not playing their instrument. they hear music everywhere. even in their heads. and dreams. (so they better keep a notebook nearby so they can write down said head music so as not to forget it.)

*your musician will not hear you when you decide to have a conversation with them as they are practicing their instrument in front of the television while you are crocheting. they may nod their head or even say, "yeah" but they didn't hear anything. so save the big stuff for later. or now.

*you will never, ever listen to an album in its entirety ever again. ever. you may never listen to a song in it's entirety ever either. said musician will know within seconds if he likes the song that begins to play or not...even before you get a chance to like it or not.

*your musician may or may not refer to his guitars as babies.

*your children will become music snobs even as toddlers. full on screaming and crying in the car because they DO NOT like the song that you are playing.

*Your musician is always most certainly looking for the perfect tone. he may have 3-4 guitars already, but he is always looking for the next one. always. that goes for pedals as well.

*you will hear new wave on the radio and think, "huh, oh ya, I used to really like this stuff."

*You will become a music snob too!! yup. it's true.

Friday, March 5, 2010

5 for Friday-making our earth fingerprint a little smaller

I'm not as crunchy or granola than some, but I do try to do my part to make our life a little greener.

I used to buy sponges for the dishes ALL the time...and where did they end up? In the garbage. Now I make our sponges and dishcloths...and they work great, last a LONG time and are made of cotton instead of whatever chemical compound those packages SOS sponges where made of.
When I clean, for the most part, I use Vinegar. I kind of love it. For mopping, I use hot water, vinegar, and a touch of dish soap...and a couple drops of essential oil.

We use our reusable bags everywhere...I mean EVERYWHERE!!! We empty them then set them by the door to put back in our vehicle so we will always have them. I love that almost everywhere offers 5 cents to 10cents off per bag you use. Even Target!!
We used to buy bottled water ALL the time. And we had plastic bottles everywhere. I hated finding them under my bed, in the car, on the sofa. So about a year and a half ago, we bought a Brita. It took some getting used to..(remembering to fill it up with water all the time) but we love it. No more plastic bottles for the trashcan!!
And lastly, a little less than a year ago, a drugstore was built on a corner about a quarter mile from my house, and a few years before that a grocery market was built a mile from us. When the weather is nice and we need a few things, I load the kids up in our duo glider, and hoof it. No gas used, and I get some serious mileage in!!
In what ways are you green...or greener?? I'm always looking for new ideas.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

For Her...


Since your response was OVERWHELMING when I asked what you thought I could be making with the cotton yarn...I thought I would just come out and tell ya!! Better yet, show you. There are a few modifications I need to make first, but I think I'm onto something here!! :)

Super cute for the summer, no??

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

inspired

a virtual friend of mine posted a picture of shelves filled with yarn stacked upon each other...probably in a store somewhere. i loved it.

soon after, i was showing my mom my newly improved craft room. she said i should have shelves in there. i thought about it, and remembered this post with the picture of the shelves. i asked my dad if he would build me some shelves. he went to Home Depot and found some closet cubby shelves premade, and he installed them in my craft room!!

and I filled them!!
yummy. now i can see which yarns i have, need and want to work with.
yay!!

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Yarn junkie...

Okay, so I am working on something so cute right now I can hardly stand it. I'm using these yarns right here...and no, it's not a dishcloth, scrubbie, potholder...or anything else your mind goes to when you see cotton yarn.
I bought a grab bag (okay two) from Peaches n Creme a couple weeks ago, and got a couple balls of this lemon lime yarn. I saw summer right away!! My mind has been reeling.. in fact, I could hardly sleep last night because I was putting together my little project in my head.
I'll give you a clue...it's for my daughter.
So, what do you think it could be??

Monday, March 1, 2010

Keep It Simple Silly...Toddler organization

So my son has always been the type to like a tidy room, tidy house...all that jazz. All I have to say to my little man of barely three is, "uh oh, our house is not happy. Let's clean up." and he is throwing toys in his toybox and shoving books into his bookshelf faster than Lightning McQueen can say "KaCHOW."

My daughter on the other hand is a little bit of a tornado. She moves stealthily and quickly...and rips apart a closet, a bedroom, the living room, her room in a matter of seconds.

So for her, I tried something different. Something very simple and very effective. She is keeping her room more organized, when I tell her to clean up, she AND her brother both utilize my little organization system. And here it is.
One big box for pretty much all her toys
One bucket for all her dollhouse dolls and ponies

And one bucket for all her kitchen supplies and fake food.

I know it doesn't seem like much, but it has really help keep things a little less crazy in her room. :)

Gracelaced Winner!!

And we have our winner, chosen by Random.org.


Angela, #6 said,"hearted her on etsy" and she did!!


Thank you to everyone who participated. With such affordable prices, we are all winners, so stop on over at http://www.Gracelaced.etsy.com and pick yourself up a special treat today!