The Good Stuff

I've been a busy girl this summer. Lots of changes and fun and crazy moments. A lot of tears and sad times too. There were days I didn't think I would make it through the night. There were nights I wished would never never end. I tried new things. Things that scared me, things I was told {somewhere along the way} that I could not do, things that made me laugh until I cried and things that made me cry until I had to laugh. It was awesome. And when I think back to all these wonderful little memories, I could see them all in my head. Like an old movie reel....

So I opened a Word doc late one night. and I started to jot down things that made me smile. And then, I realized that some of the things that made me cry.....became a part of something bigger and more wonderful. So I added them too. Soon, I was looking a pages of black and white memories that all made me smile. Except....it was so....plain. So I looked at what I had written....and I fonted and colored and sized and I came up with this. I had the pages printed on cardstock, cut them to size and mod podged the poo out of it onto a canvas board. I started to use a brush to spread the MP, but the crazy little artist that lives in my head tossed that little brush over her shoulder and used her hands. My piece is not 'to scale' and it isn't perfectly aligned, but you know what? Neither is my LIFE! And the best way to get the most out of anything thing is to get you hands in there and make it happen.

It was a lot of fun to do and my girls want to do some too now. I bought smaller canvases and boards for them to play with. Hey, anything to keep their minds open to the wildly creative side of life, I am all about. Hope you all have had a wonderful summer...and this fall is looking pretty darn great too!

Thanks!

Emily  

Back to WHAT!?

Summer is in full effect in our tiny nook of the world with lots of changes for our family as well, and quite frankly....it has been CRAZY! I decided to head back to work {after 5 years at home} and why did I decide to do this over summer break? Umm yeah. Anyway...the kids are doing great with our mix it up sitter schedule and granted, it is only part time, and they {we} enjoy the break from each other. But it really has put on hold a lot of my crafty creative~ness at home. My garden is weed-ridden and the flower beds...well...I keep hoping those really tall things BlooM!! Perhaps part of our new outdoor jungle growth is because we have been enjoying our summer to the fullest. Lots of pooltime, water toys, sprinklers, late night fires & smores, catching fireflies and many many suppers outside. Which is why, I had a *smallish* freak out realization the other day. Did you know the stores have their Back To {GASP!} School things out!? How did this happen? I am the crazy lady with my kids backpacks packed and ready to go, like...a week after school is OUT. I am seriously torn between giving in to my sadistic obsession of smelling pencils and filler paper or continuing my frolicking good time summer. And I want to call out the stores and say, NO! You are wrong! We still have blah blah blah amount of time before we need to worry about that, but guess what...it's like 5 weeks away. So, I'm sitting here blogging, eyeing the Lands End 'BTS' catalog and rocking out to some summer tunes. I think I will choose to live in denial for just a bit longer....after all, They are only kids ONCE : )    

There are times I am 'SO' on the ball, and other times {like lately} where I can't seem to get anything right. Saying this, I cannot find any 'before' pics. Grrr. So, imagine, a white ladder back chair with a light oak seat.....the boring plain-ness of it. Ahhh...but then...Cherry Red spray paint {can you hear the angels singing?} and yes...mod podge and sheet music fabric. Yes. A perfect combo for my daughter's new desk chair. She loves it, I love it and it only cost $2 for the chair. SWEET!                      

Simple Soap

I do a lot of laundry. Laundry is my addiction. I actually LIKE to do laundry on most days. It is the easiest chore to do and you get instant results. My 8 year old lil curly redhead has allergies to lots of chemical based things. We have worked out most of the bugs over the years, but sometimes we goof up and she {unfortunately} ends up covered in hives. Laundry soap is no different. Yes, it is so much better now that there are more 'sensitive' and 'allergen-free' options, but sometimes they can be rather costly, and like I said...I do a LOT of laundry. So, a friend of mine hooked me up with a homemade laundry soap recipe. I have been using it for over a month now and the verdict is....I love it! So, I wanted to share it with you. Trust me, it is so easy. I make a double batch....you know....because I do a lot of laundry.  : )



Grate one bar of soap. I use Ivory {allergen free & non drying} but you can used whatever you prefer.



My soap...all grated and in a food processor. I mix this all in the processor because my friend had soap flake issues on her laundry and honestly, that would drive me nuts. So, a kitchen power tool to the rescue!  : )

 

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Add one cup each of washing soda and Borax {about $3 a box and you can find them in the laundry isle}
 and blend away! The food processor breaks up all the shavings and leaves the mix very fine.  

 

I dump it in a container and use 1 or 2 tablespoons per load. I haven't figured my costs out, but I know it is way cheaper for me to make my own than to buy it now. And the bonus...no HIVES!!



Frame It

All you need is a frame, fabric and Mod Podge...

I had a plain frame sitting around, waiting to be made into something...fun

I roughly trimmed the fabric to a lil larger than the frame and trimmed the photo opening as well. Brushed Mod Podge on the front of the frame and slapped the fabric on top, smoothing it out and folding the edges and corners over to the backside. I brushed more Mod Podge on the edges to keep them secure.

Let it dry and that's it! Easy. Easy. Easy.

Creatively Stressing or is it Stressing Creatively?

There are two things you can always count on living in Ohio. The first is that you can never predict the weather. This particular subject is causing quite the ruckus in our parts. Blizzard warnings which turn out to be nothing but a forecast of a few measly few inches of snow and a light dusting turns into 8 inches of thick and heavy snow. Oh! and did I mention the ice?  Added to the wonderful decision to cut our school calamity days from 5 to 3...well, you get the picture. I love my kids, they are wonderful little beings of pure energy. That being said, my recent {non-life threatening} ice injury has left me hobbling around with YES three wildly homebound creatures that used to resemble my children. Mix in my inability to carry laundry baskets either up or down steps...sigh...I need a release of some sort.

Which brings me to the other thing you can count on in Ohio. Now, I know it is February. The Super Bowl was just a few short weeks ago. We are still watching basketball and hockey and low and behold...some even like racing. But. The one sport Ohio holds above all else is......yep. Football. The best thing about Ohio is college football Saturday. EVERY Saturday during college football season, you can find somewhere to go and eat awesome food, drink some ice cold beverages, hang out with your friends and just enjoy some ball. There is one small misconception about Ohio. Did you know, not everyone is a Buckeye fan? GASP! It's TRUE! In my little corner of the world, we have the biggest mix of football fans. Our conference is one of the best in the nation, and I don't {fully} mean by winning records. {this is the part where I step back to say, this is not a post about the awesomeness of the Big 10...I really do have a more inspirational point than that!} If you have ever watched a pregame segment, you know it is more than just about the game. Players' lives, good and bad, are showcased, coaches thoughts, opinions and backgrounds are discussed. There are wonderful stories of overcoming the odds on every team. This past season was no exception. Now, I admit, it has been a tough few years for my college football team. When this idea came to me, I just couldn't even imagine plugging in any quote from Rich Rod. {hee hee} So, I went with a quote from Mark Dantonio. Yep, that would be Michigan State's head football coach. And if you aren't familiar with his story, I strongly suggest you Google him and learn for yourself. So here's what I came up with...

I found the quote online, put it into a Word doc and played with it all for a while. Sent it to the printers and picked it up in less than 2 hours. Total print cost... $0.50. Sweet deal. I now have ideas for Penn State and I MAY even hook up a couple Buckeye fans I know. {and that is sayin' a lot!} I hope you like this quick little project. I bet you could even get your kids to do this...how about a Disney Princess?     

Brain Freeze

Wow. It has been well over a month since I have blogged anything. Maybe it's because it has been so stinkin' cold lately and I can't spray paint anything... A few weeks back, I had about enough of this cabin fever and I grabbed a chair and the paint brush. Soon after, I remembered WHY I like spray paint and WHY I don't paint in the house. This chair is special to me. When I was expecting my {unexpected} third child, my friends and I were strolling around downtown after lunch and I spied this cute little chair in the window of an antiques & collectables shoppe. In passing, I said how a lil chair like that would be nice to set in the bathroom, next to the bathtub. Ideally to relax in and read a book while the kids bathed. Fast forward a few weeks to the lunch my friends brought me to meet our new addition. The last gift I opened was this chair. What a unique gift, and so thoughtful too.  

So when cabin fever kicked in and the lack of sunshine started making me feel 'blue', I grabbed my can of paint, paintbrush and some odds and ends I had around the house.

I attempted to remove the seat base from the chair, but years of rust and previous paint layers hindered my not so muscular upper body. Lucky for me, I have  a wonderful woodworking friend who whipped me up a perfect circle to set on top of the chair. I covered it with batting and fabric and glued the whole thing to the seat. Perfect!

The chair, however, is now in my kitchen as the kids are loving the new-ness of it and fight over who gets to sit in it. The weather is improving and I am hoping to bust out the spray pain in the next few days. Hope you all are having a wonderful winter : )  

Whatchya see....

and......EXHALE.....

Christmas is over. A mixture of happiness and sadness for many. What a beautiful time of year and an amazing season for those that celebrate the birth of our Saviour. This year was a bit more difficult for me. Things have been a little stressful around the homestead and quite frankly, time just got away from me. For the first time in.....forever {?} I didn't send out Christmas cards. Last minute shopping was something I can honestly say I don't ever want to have to do again! Sometimes what you see isn't always how things are. My point being this...many of my friends think I am an organized freak of nature. While, at times, this can be true, most days I am just winging it! I have some of the BEST inlaws ever. At Christmas, I struggle to come up with unique gift ideas for them. In typical last minute fashion, and yes, I mean on Christmas morning, I came up with this...

I took an old window for our neighbors remodeling job.

I copied a scroll from a free scrapbooking site online and inserted a 'C' in the font I thought looked best using my photo program on the computer. Then I printed it out and taped it to the back side of the window. On the front side of the window, I stuck a big piece of clear contact paper. Using my craft knife, I cut / traced the design. Originally, I was going to have the design look etched, but I reversed my thought and I like the outcome. 

This is the pane before it was spray painted. I used a flat clear spray paint, three coats and let it dry completely. After it was dry, I peeled off the contact paper and this is what I got...



Forgive the dirty door and not so great pictures...like I said, this was done after the kids opened their gifts and before we left for lunch with the family. I was nervous with this being the first time I had tried this. My goal was to use etching cream, but never fail, I could'nt find any in town. I am happy to report they liked it and I will be trying my luck at a few more. It was so easy!  

Well, I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and were able to spend it with the people you love. Best Wishes for the New Year! Cheers! Emily



Book of the Month..or Every Other Month..or Quarterly..

See! I told you I had 'hopes' of getting a book suggestion every month, but that I was sure I would slip. Well, let me tell you why. I bought this book for my BFF last year for Christmas. Her lovely mother had been ill and had Alzheimers as well. When I saw this book, I had to get it for her. She loved it. In fact, she gave it to me to read...and I loved it too. When I returned the book to her, she gave it to her sister. Sadly, their lovely mother passed away in September. The book has sat at the sister's house, unable to be read at this time. I am suggesting this book because it's a deep and beautifully written novel, and no matter your family structure, you will be enveloped into this story. Yes. You will probably cry. But who doesn't like a tearjerker every now and then?  For me personally, the dynamics of each relationship in this book, pulled something from my own life. I lost my grandma two years ago during a very stressful time for our family. She was my 'mother' every summer until I was 9 years old. {I was raised by a single working mom, she needed a break too!} She was sassy and funny and you always knew where you stood with her. She didn't fear telling you her thoughts on anything. Sometimes you liked it, most times you didn't. But she loved me so. She would randomly tell me things, just so out of the blue, and I remember these things nearly every day. I wish my girls had these memories. I wish my little man could have met her. Months before she passed, I was alone with her in the hospital and I told her good bye. I knew she understood, she was still sparkly-eyed but she also knew her time was coming. As I sat there telling her my heart, she had a tear roll down her soft cheek. My grandma rarely cried. Forever I will remember that night and I will always remember what she said. It is mine to hold. When she passed away, I wasn't with her. I was with my mom, fresh out of her life saving and life altering surgery. I told my mother her mother had passed away. The events of that time are burned into my heart forever. I hope you give Things I Want My Daughters To Know a chance. I haven't read a novel yet by Elizabeth Noble that I didn't like! As always, let me know what you think! Thanks and happy reading... Emily

Bring Back Thanksgiving!

Perhaps our family is freakish. (seriously...we are) But REALLY? Christmas stuff comes out before Halloween is even over? Did 'they' forget about Thanksgiving? I will admit, our personal holiday decorations are lacking in the Turkey Day decor, but this year.....I kicked it up a notch.

The hubby's birthday is at the end of November. Every few years, Thanksgiving falls on his birthday, or visa versa...whatever you choose. When the little red-headed curly girl was about 3-ish, said holiday did just that. And so it began. Turkey Daddy. Since that fateful day many years ago, turkeys have crept into our lives. And this year, I want to share with you... 

The Turkey Wreath!

Oh be still my heart : )

Honestly, I set off to find a feather or fur boa at Joanne's, but that didn't happen. I DID find funky fur yarn on sale and I. Fell. In. Love. Wrap it up with a $2 bag of feathers and a clearance turkey for a buck. Yay! I had a styrofoam wreath form which I spray painted a coppery color, but you could wrap it with ribbon or fabric if you had it on hand. I like cheap, I had the paint ; )   The only 'problem' I ran into was the yarn was so 'stringy' it knotted up as I wrapped. So, like every other mom, I used what I had on hand...a can of soup. Perhaps 'knit masters' have special 'tools'....I am not one of those gifted people (hee hee) But, it worked for me and that's what I did today.

I hope you like our newest turkey and I hope you take a few spaces in your life to be thankful for all that you have. I won't fib and tell you our Christmas tree won't be up by Thanksgiving, but the 'big' deco has to wait until after we give thanks for all we have. Love & Thanks, Emily



Well, Hello!

Yes, I know...it's been a while. But, the flu has struck our home, the mean laundry fairy came and dropped an unbelievable amount of dirty socks and school uniforms, plus it seemed like a {wonderful} idea to paint the front two rooms of our house....and the porches.

I. AM. DONE.

So, instead of sitting in front of the tv and catching up on football, I have decided to blog. Perhaps a bit of normalicy for the day? We shall see.

Do your kids pack their lunch? Do they bother you to pack their lunch? You want a new approach to lunches? I am with the majority of the vote which thinks school lunches are not what they 'should' be. However, I also do not have the time for creating anything better, so...most times, pizza dippers it is! (honestly, our school's lunches are not too bad. Check out other school websites and you will be amazed! For a while we had tossed the idea of relocating to another state, I checked that area's school lunch menu and I was shocked. Eek!)

 My BFF bought a really cool magazine for me back in August which had a section on bento boxes and lunch ideas. I found a great website and ordered one for each of my girls. You can google or web search bento boxes if you choose, but I just wanted to say, they are a hit in our house. It has cut down on the 'crap' you might normally be guilted in to filling your normal lunch box. Additionally, the reduced amount of waste is a big selling point to me and my girls as well. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle! I pair up the boxes with a thermos for drinks (we don't normally buy juice boxes, but from the pictures, you can see dad did the shopping lol) and we also have a hot food thermos for soup, spaghetti o's or mac & cheese.

They all fit in their lunch bags, with no spills, no mess, no worries.   



My kids LOVE deviled eggs. So, to make them a fun packable item, I add cooked diced chicken or tuna. Fill the egg halves and make a little sandwiches. You could go so many ways with this, diced ham, veggies, cheese pieces. I was nervous the first time I tried this but my little red-headed curly girl said some one tried to trade for them and she said no way! {score one for mom!}



Those little silicone baking cups sweeping the fancy cooking stores really come in handy too. I picked a pack of heart shaped ones up at Goodwill for $2 a few weeks back. Put one in your bento box and fill with grapes or berries or freeze applesauce or yogurt in them for an instant ice pack. This is wonderful for kids that don't like their food to 'touch'.  



So, this is the final lunch. My kids do eat cheese sticks like they are going out of style. Yes, it produces waste. Yes, I hate it. But until I can carve mozzarella into the wonderful 'peel-y' strips that cheese stick are, this is what we get. The boxes have a rubber seal around the locking lid. We have not had a spilled lunch yet.
{I just think they are super cute}
; )



So, I hope I haven't bored you. I guess I was a bit wind-y today lol. Chalk it up to being locked in the house for a week! I do have a few ideas brewing for Halloween and looking ahead to Thanksgiving. I am praying we are on the upswing of the illnesses and can get back to creating soon. Do you have lunch ideas? I would LOVE to hear them! Leave me a message!

Love, Emily 

Mod Podge, Paint and Glitter...OH MY!

Yep. It's that easy.




Linked to Tatertots & Jello Celebrating Autumn

Finally, a wreath (or two) for me!

I have been checking out ~a lot~ of Blog Land Fall deco ideas this past weekend. I am not normally too big of a wreath person, but I found two I just had to try. All of the material used, I had on hand, except the eyeballs and I stopped at Goodwill and found a baggie full of golf ball cupcake sticks. For $1. {woot woot!} I had taken a lot of pictures to show my wreaths before and after, but my memory card took a poo and all you get is the completed pictures. Errr. The black one was an already decorated fall wreath. I just took off the styrofoam pumpkins & goards and sprayed away! I am sure the pumpkins & goards will pop up soon elsewhere. ; )

Lace Wreath

Eyeball Wreath

Yes, I must be a loser because I cannot figure out how to grab buttons or any of the really cool Linky things. But here is my attempt to link to the blog where the wreaths came from (under the picture). I am LOVING Craftily Ever After She is 'new' to Blog Land is has me truly inspired. Also, as always, Jen at Tatertots and Jello rocks. Hope you are all enjoying the cooler weather and maybe I can learn to decorate my own blog soon enough! Thanks All!

Love, Emily

A bit of 'Tweaking'

Have you ever set up a system, be it pantry, bill paying or otherwise, only to find that you out grow the system? My school paper organizing has been operating like a well oiled machine......until this year. I am not sure if it is because we have three kids in shool or the homework and papers coming home is higher this year or what! But it just.wasn't.working. So, in typical 'Emily' fashion, I decided to tear apart our pantry and REVAMP the shelving and storage area. Then...in typical 'Emily' fashion...I got bored. (hee hee) So I went outside during nap time and painted some more window trim. By the time the kids were home from school, I had the 'new' shelf up and running in the kitchen. 

I use crockpots about 4-5 nights a week. It is essential they be in my kitchen. I have tried to store them out of the way or in the pantry, but it just irritates me, so they are back for good. The girls are starting to pack their lunches a bit more regularly and everytime we opened the previous cabinet where we stored the supplies,most of the stuff fell out and, yep, you guessed it!...it irritated me. : ) So, I put it all in a basket on the shelf and viola`! Happy place.

To keep the paper clutter in control and help reduce the search time of supplies I put a wicker type tray I had laying around to use and a plastic storage box. I went old school with stickers and card stock for simple labels. It sits high enough on the shelf so my lil man can't attack it, but low enough for my 5 y/o to put her papers in place.

Something fun I have started with the girls lunch packing this year in the use of bento boxes. Silicone muffin holders are a huge help in keeping things seperated in their lunches and you can also freeze applesauce in them and use them as ice packs within the lunch. I stopped at Goodwill today and found a full set of heart shaped one for $2. I nearly did a happy dance.

Here are a few other items I found that just make me smile. The glass dome has been on my mind for a while and normally they are about $2 at Goodwill, but today it was marked for $1 and it was the 'special color' sticker sale, so I got it for 50 cents. Woot! The dish is just a pattern I really love and keep hoping I run into a full set some day. I don't have any mini loaf baking dishes but I do now and it only cost me $1. My Goodwill trip today totaled $6 and some change. It included a foam wreath form and part of my 8 y/o's Halloween costume as well. It was a good day.  

The busy-ness of the weekend is upon us and I 'suppose' I should finish putting the pantry back together. I hope you enjoyed my rambling today, and hopefully you'll stop by again!

Love, Emily

Salsa - Round 1

45 pints and 18 quarts of salsa.....just the beginning for us! Gotta love homemade salsa.

Do you cry over spilt milk?

To be honest, I haven't been doing much inside lately. Since painting the exterior of our house, I have been acting like a kid in the candy shop. It seems our house is a big white canvas and I have been trimming windows and spray painting flower pots for fall. Sadly, the rain this week and part of last week, has sent me into a tizzy. So, I am here to show you my ceiling fan 'redo'. It was a very nice old school white and gold fan.

I am picking out colors to paint the living room and I am leaning toward browns. So, I thought I would paint the fan brown and cream. On the globes, I used Mod Podge and food coloring to give them a swirly glass look. The picture really doesn't do it justice, but it gives a very warm glow now, and I love it.

Since I had most every thing on hand, this was a very cheap overhaul. I like cheap. : )

It is raining again today so I am working on a few freezer meals and laundry. This morning as we were getting breakfast around, my little man (17 months) tried to help by grabbing a full gallon of milk from the stool I had 'temporarily' set it on to get my 5 year old a box of cereal down.....

Yep. It exploded on the floor. He cried, as it scared him, but the older kids grabbed the rags and we had it all cleaned up in a jiffy. What a way to start the day! It made me laugh out loud on the way to dropping the girls off at school. Usually it is a glass of milk....not a gallon. (Especially at $4 a gallon!) But, what are ya gonna do!? Hope you have a great day and don't sweat the small stuff. ; )

Love, Emily

Happy Birthday to my Baby Plum!

My sweet little girl is turning 5! Forever I wanted a baby in September. Now, I wonder WHY I would ever had wished for that. She is the youngest in her class, back to school season, fall sports all start and our church festival just wrapped up. Most years, she is honestly lucky if I can remember to pick up supermarket cupcakes or cookies for her to take to school. Well, this year I 'googled' school friendly birthday treats and came up with this...

I would like to share a link or something, but I don't remember the site (it wasn't a blog, just an article) and plus, there were no pictures. But here they are! I took a cardboard juice case container and flipped it upside down. Cut 12 'X' shapes and poked my fingers through them. Wrapped the box in wrapping paper and poked a knife through said holes. Then I just took napkins, wrapped the sugar cones in them and poked them into the hole. I filled the cones with gummi bears and mini marshmallows. Whipped up a batch of rice krispie treats, let it cool for a bit, then rolled 12 balls and spinkled them with sprinkles. Viola! A 'less than messy' ice cream treat and NO frosting or crumbs. (We really like our teachers and TRY to keep treats neat lol...wink wink) I am so happy with the outcome and it was SO quick and easy. Now I just hope they pass the taste test ; )

Happy Birthday to my little Plum!

Love, Emily

Welcome Fall

I really {did} think fall would be a less hectic time for our family. I was SO wrong! This weekend we are neck deep in our church festival and last week we painted our house. Not to mention, school, football and daily occurances. Not much time to blog, but I did want to show you a little before and after of our front door. What a crazy time, hope you are enjoying your 'slow time' ;-)

Love, Emily

Before

After

First Full Week of School Project

Well, three out of four kiddos are off to school fulltime this year. What is a stay at home mom to do with just ONE little man? Hmmmm....I know! I could paint those kitchen cabinets which have been driving me nuts for 5 years.

Please excuse the crap all over the counters....just be happy I remembered to take a 'before' picture!

You can see against the wall I painted a few different colors, so I could 'adjust' to my new colors slowly. After a week, I was set on black. Satin finish. I know the after pictures look glossy, but they really aren't that glossy. I bought a little thing of oil based paint for $8.50, a can of spray paint in 'nickel' for $3.50 and two new cabinet door spring-y thingies to make my cabinets actually close properly for $3.18. I cleaned all the cabinet hardware and spray painted them. Even the screws (frugal vs. cheap?)

My kids thought this was 'really smart'....their father might have a different opinion...

I painted all the doors and trim, reattached all the hardware and that was it! It was very easy. I wish I had done this before. You may notice I left the upper cabinet doors off. I just like it better that way. 'SOMEDAY' when we actually figure out what we want to do with our kitchen, this will all be gone, but for now, I am enjoying my {NEW} kitchen cabinets. And I am also ordering pizza tonight! ;-)

Take Care, Emily

A Lil' Nibble

Not much time today but I wanted to share the link to a BTS binder for Mom's. I am very happy to have completed mine and it is ready to go for tomorrow. I used to have a binder for each kid, but Lordy that was a pain to keep up with! I hope you like her link, she also does a lot of digital scrapbooking ; )

Also, a little fun thing our family learned when the red-headed curly girl started school was this...

A full box (24 count) of crayons will fit into a travel soap container. We use this for school as well as the baseball-bag-which-is-now-a football-bag for the kids to take to games. A bonus is if they melt in there (like THAT would ever happen!) it cleans up sooo much easier than the original cardboard box. Ok, so I gotta get back to triple checking the schedule for tomorrow morning! YAY! Back to school is upon us!