a few things we've been doing

A short update on what we've been doing for the last month or so!

The two pictures on the left (both top and bottom) are of our discovery of a "new to us" park in town that the boys have officially dubbed the Rainbow Park!  We stopped and played tag, ate ice cream bars and let them burn off a little energy before bedtime the other night!

The rest of the top row pics are at our first visit to a newly opened spray park in town.  I picked a cooler night (high 60's) and slightly drizzly and figured there wouldn't be a soul around!  We are originally Western Washingtoners after all and can handle a little rain and low temps...I was right in my prediction  about there being no one around, but my boys have acclimated to the warmer weather more than I thought!  They played, but they froze.  Phoenix just asked to be "cozy" the whole time and snuggled up in the towels and laid on the bench!  Seriously, who's kid is that? 

Oh, and snuck in there on the top row is a pic of a shelf I built on a Tuesday night (while Hayden was at youth group) out of some scrap wood.  It's rough, it's ghetto, but it's sturdy and will hold some shoes on the back porch until I can find another solution!  I was pretty proud of myself because I used a circular saw for the first time.  WOW!  That was pretty fun.  I'm looking for more scrap wood to cut now. :)

The two fishing pictures are of us at one of our new favorite weekend hangouts.  There is a great local family fishing pond in the next city over that is free for the kids to fish at and stocked with some pretty decent size trout.  We have spent quite a few afternoons there over the last few months!  It's been a fun "in town" getaway!  Just don't ask how many fish we've caught.  That's not really the point of being there!

In the middle right side of the collage is a pic of a dessert I made for our church's Memorial Day picnic.  I found the recipe on epicurious.com, one of my favorite recipe collections online.  It's a White Balsamic Custard Tart with Fresh Berry topping.  It's simple to make and really delicious!  I loved the combo of the balsamic and the berries.  It was supposed to be done in a tart pan but I didn't have one big enough so I did it in my pie plate and it turned out fine.  I would like to try it again in a tart pan though!

And the last two pics are of us camping Memorial Day weekend.  We only got out camping once last summer and we are determined to go LOTS more this summer.  We found a park about 20 minutes away from our house and managed to get the last campsite for the weekend!  We had a great time relaxing, hanging out with my awesome sister Katie and just getting some good down time away from home. 

One of my goals for summer is to make blogging a more regular thing!  Sorry for the looooonnnngg delays between posts!

On my to do list this week

These are so cool! I can't wait to see how they turn out!


http://boulderlocavore.blogspot.com/2011/04/naturally-dyed-easter-eggs-and-best.html


and these too - although we might have to find something to replace the herbs...I think all I have on hand is cilantro!

http://adventurescooking.blogspot.com/2011/04/herb-stenciled-easter-eggs.html

dollar store ornaments

Shortly before thanksgiving, I hit the Dollar Tree looking for some inexpensive items I could turn into fun Christmas decor. 

I came across a whole section of treasures (that were upgradeable) for .50 and .25.  I don't think I've ever seen stuff at dollar tree for less than a dollar. I ended up buying about 6 12-pack boxes of silver plastic ornaments, green felt garland, pine cones, snowflakes ornaments, icicle ornaments, a few wreath forms, popsicle sticks and a few other ornaments that i can't remember right now.


I invested in some spray paint to transform my items and ended up with the following (some altered, some not)

 this is an attempt on a "tassle" ornament made with a cheap silver plastic ball and some old book pages and ribbon (all of which I already had)  the jury is still out on the results.

 these little snowflake were white with glitter on them and I hit them with a shot of orange spray paint to bring them into my color scheme for the tree

 i bought popsicle sticks at the dollar store and put the boys to work making me snowflakes out of them.  i think they made about 20 and i used 14 to make this wreath and then used the leftovers to make the ornaments shown below

 i just glued some ribbon and a bead on to make them a hanger, i really liked the natural feel they bring to the tree

 my little vintage tray needed something so i didn't do anything to the pine cones on the top, but i spray painted more of those little silver balls for the bottom...i have some more turquoise balls that i will be adding with the orange

 one of the nights i was working on the big paper wreath i previously posted about, i was so frustrated with not "finishing" something, i took a break and made this little ornament with mini versions of the flowers.  it felt really good to accomplish something.  these are just hot glued onto another one of those silver ornaments.

this is totally unrelated to the dollar store but i used more vintage book pages to make this little "Merry Christmas" sign in my dining room

this is at the top of the advent calendar i made for the boys this year.  it's just fabric (i already had) wrapped around the wreath, tied with a ribbon, hook inserted into the middle and this is where we put our countdown days to Christmas.  i printed off these free little labels from here.  she has some other great free downloads for Christmas.  i only wish i had some better paper to print them on.

a friend of mine sent me a pic of a little theme tree she was working on.  the theme was coffee and cupcakes and this idea instantly came to mind.  i used more of those cheap silver ornaments and hot glued a bunch of old coffee beans on them.  i love how these turned out.  their matte color is a nice break from all the shimmer, shine and glitter on the tree and they slightly resemble a pine cone from a distance.  i took one and glued it inside a paper cupcake liner and did a swirl of white glitter to make it look like a cupcake with icing also...it's not my style, but it totally fits her sweet, fun personality and was really fun to give her for her little theme tree!

that's all for now.  i will be doing a post on my advent calendar, my tree topper and the garland i've been making out of......you'll never guess.  vintage book pages.

(i apologize for the run on sentences in this post.  thankfully we're working on this with the boys for school, so you should see some improvements in my sentence structure soon!)

our nativity

In the ten years we've been married, I've been on a seasonal hunt for a nativity that reflects my style.  I have yet to find it.  The kids have had their own cute little plastic one by Precious Moments that my sweet Aunt Carol bought for them; but, baby Jesus has disappeared from the display!  They love having a nativity to play with though, so this year, I decided to get creative.

I went to the Goodwill and bought a used, cheap, ceramic, pastel painted and small nativity for $2.50.  That same day I found a great little display box to showcase it in $2.00. 

I bought some black and yellow spray paint.

I proceeded to spray all of the non-Jesus participants black.  I painted the display box all black.

I then took the pastel, blonde hair, blue eyed baby Jesus and spray painted him bright yellow!

The boys and I had a talk about the significance of Christ in the nativity and the fun of everything else being subtle and having Him stand out.  I was excited, they caught on to the "deeper" meaning behind the color choice. 

I also found a star at Wal-mart for $1.00. 

This is how it turned out....it's hard to get shots of, since it's all black so I took the pieces out so you could see them individually and IN the box as well.  I have had this low enough for them to play with for a couple weeks but Phoenix keeps taking off and losing the pieces.  So, now it's higher and they can play with it if I know they're playing with it.

Ta-da! 

I will continue my hunt.  But, this will suffice for now!

Merry Christmas!

girly

sewing project.  go easy on me, i'm still working on finishing details...i'm a newbie.

Calendar Project

Okay, this is my first project post and it's extremely simple.  I apologize for the awful picture, I'm missing the memory card for my camera!


Since we moved I've been trying to find a place for my white board calendars.  I don't especially like having them out for all to see so I've been looking for a place I would see them and could access them easily without them plastered on my living room wall.  I don't care if other people do it, it's just not my personal style! 


I decided the inside of my closet door would be a great place for them.  It's right next to my bed, the first thing I see in the morning and the door is usually open.   Yet I could close the door and have them hidden when necessary.  


I found a table runner on clearance at Target for $1.75ish a few weeks ago.  I liked the colors and knew I could use it for a project somewhere!  Alas - I found my project. 


I stapled the table runner to the back of both calendars and then stapled the top of the table runner to the top of the door (out of sight).  The table runner looks like a nice big ribbon and voila - it's done.  Now, we'll see how practical it is.  I do have a light in my closet, so I'm thinking it might be a great spot for phone calls when I need to get away from the kids. :)

Projects Galore

There is something about all this great sunshine that makes me think I'm going to have boundless energy to actually accomplish all of the wonderful things running through my head all the time.  Things like, making the kids an outdoor table to match the darling clearance umbrellas I found them at Lowe's, sewing curtain panels for the basement to block off the soon to be "living area," acquiring a beautiful dining set that needs lots of love and attention before replacing the one in our dining room, and also a desk that I will be converting into a vanity for my room because our bathroom is a tadge (and by that I mean, massively) smaller than our last and I need a place to get ready.....not to mention the laundry, dishes, vacuuming, butt wiping, etc....not exactly projects though.  I'm not really sure what I was thinking, taking all of these on.  Oh.  Dear.  Now I'm remembering, I still haven't unpacked the kid's toys, books, or half of the bathroom.  Hmmm.  Hard to decide how to prioritize.  So, what did I do tonight after the kids went to bed....dishes you say, maybe switched the laundry and laid clothes out for church?  No.  Instead of scratching a project of my list or doing something productive for our home, I decided to sew myself a new skirt with some sweet fabric I found at value village for $1.99.  It's so cute, I might have to make one for my sister before she gets here next weekend.  I'll try to get a pic when I wear it to church tomorrow and post it here.  I guess I'll just have to add it to my "to do" list and then cross it off!