giveaway for a great cause:

http://www.modsblog.com/

no excuses.

My list of excuses for not blogging:

1. kids.



2. facebook.



3. chores.




4. tv: my new found love.

5. laziness.

Hopefully this post will get me back into the blogging mood and I'll start posting more. I have some home improvement projects I'm hoping to accomplish this summer, so maybe I'll get around to posting about those too.

So, what's new here? Well, my babies are getting bigger, smarter, and more demanding. Jackson will be three soon and Mia had her first birthday in January. That Mia is a sassy one! I have no idea where she could have picked up that sort of attitude. I like to blame it on her teething.

Right now I'm working on a birthday wreath for my soon-to-be Birthday boy. He's all about birthdays now and the poor boy has been waiting patiently for months now for his turn. One more month Jackson!

I'll post more on the wreath once I finish it. It's fun and super easy to make!

gO grEEn.

We painted two of our living room walls green and I lOve it. I've started noticing how much green things I have... green purse-green stroller-green shirts-green towels-green sheets... Mia's pretty green baby peacoat. What can I say? It's my color.

Behr paing- Asparagus #410D-4

(I just love the faces my model is making.)

Now we get to decide what color to paint the rest of the walls and the kitchen... any suggestions?

Halloween

It's been too long! I should really stay on top of my blog, rather than facebooking.

Anyways, Halloween was spent with family and friends.... had some chilli and corn bread... carmel and apples... brownies... purple punch... good stuff.

Jackson was a bear (sugar bear),

Mia was a peacock,

Maddy was a rockstar,

and Fisher was the cutest little deputy ever!

I love how Jackson actually got the whole Halloween thing this year. He was amazed by the fact that he could knock on people's doors and they would hand him candy. It was so funny watching him run from house to house saying, "get more, get more". Poor thing was up late that night with a tummy ache.

I also really enjoyed decorating the house. I love how my newspaper bunting (inspired by Maya*Made) turned out. Then I made some bats from cardboard, so easy.

Now I can't wait to get started on Christmas decorations. I love being a homeowner.

new again

I've seen lots of blogs with tutorials on this, but I never imagined it would be this easy.

I've brought back the little shirts that Mia has grown out of by simply attatching some length of fabric to the bottom of her old shirts. I also attatched some sleeves since it should be cooling off soon... hopefully. I'm so excited with the possibilities!

I also attatched a little patch of fabric behind the buttons.

This one is my favorite...

repurposing old maternity shirt

I used one of Mia's shirts as a template. It's a 18-24 month shirt, so Mia can't model it yet. It's not exactly what I pictured in my head, but I still have the other half of the shirt to make a better one.

Now that we've moved into our new house, I just don't have the time to do things anymore, much less blog about it. =(

What's new in my life?

• We bought a house! We close on the 24th of this month and I couldn't be more excited! We'll be sad to leave my parents, since they've been so good to us and I'm sure they're going to miss the babies, but we're just a 10 minute drive from them. The house is absolutely perfect for us and I love everything about it. Only 1 1/2 weeks....

• Jackson is such a sweet, curious, mischevious, and playful little two year old! I spend my days chasing after him, cleaning his messes, and making sure he's not getting into nail polish when he's too quiet. This "terrible two" stage is no joke! We're trying to potty train... off and on. He uses the potty about once or twice a day and I usually have to ask him if he has to go. But hey, it's a start. Hopefully once we get settled in the new house, we'll go hard core and be done with the diapers. Well, for Jackson at least.

• Miss Mia is getting bigger and cuter by the minute. She's now eating rice oatmeal, apples, bananas, pears, sweet potatos, and her favorite is peas. She doesn't have any teeth yet, but I'm sure they're on their way. Just today she started pushing up on all fours and rocking back and forth. Then she just plops down on that cute, round little tummy of hers. Oh, and I swear she calls me mama! Sometimes in the mornings, she'll pick up her little head and look around with those big brown eyes and yell "mamamaaaaa". Makes me melt.

Well, that pretty much sums it up. I'll post more pictures of the new house once we get in there.

shop update

I finally got around to updating the shop. I've been making things here and there, but I've just been lazy to post them. (Isn't it funny how I can spend hours blogging and on facebook, but I don't have time to post things) There are a couple of new bags, a couple of burp cloths, and bibs in the shop! I'm pretty excited about the bibs. Since Mia is eating oatmeal and baby food now, I am in love with these bibs. They really are the perfect size and they're not too stiff or chunky. I have a few more things I need to photograph and post... maybe tomorrow.

Olde Apple Tree Soaps

My good friend Tara just opened her Etsy shop to share her awesome soaps with us. They smell yummy enough to eat and they leave your skin as soft as a baby's bottom! Stop by and check them out...

Olde Apple Tree Soaps

elastic laces

This is what you do when you're lazy and you want to buy your two year old cute shoes with laces, but you don't want to tie them for him two hundred times a day.
{sorry some of the pic's are blurry, I was trying to do this with a two year old and a puppy running circles around me... guess I shouldn't have been working on the floor}

1. You'll need some elastic and a needle and thread.

2. I cut my elastic about a foot long and Jackson wears a size 8 shoe. You may need to adjust the length for bigger sizes.

3. Thread the elastic through the holes like this:

4. And then like this:


5. Keep going and end up like this:



6. Then take the "tongue" and pull it through the middle of the elastic:



7. Your shoe should look like this:

8. Now you're going to stitch the two ends of elastic together. Make sure you stitch well so it won't come apart when you stretch it open for those chubby toes. (Jackson has really wide and chubby feet)

And there you have it! Cute chucks without the laces! Like my model's cute chubby legs?

Wall art under $10

I found these semi-ugly wall hangings at HL on sale for $3.20 a piece (they were $15.99 reg.). I bought three of them thinking that I could transform them into something pretty. (They had these weird crowns on them with some little sayings, not my style)


So I brought them home, taped around the edges with masking tape, and painted a couple coats of some latex paint that I had laying around. (You'll see why I had that paint laying around in a future post.)

Then I looked around for some inspiration. Etsy is a great place to find some (inspiration). I drew out my picture and painted with acrylic paints.

I thought I would make one picture using the three seperate hangings.





I like the way it turned out... especially since it all cost under $10. Now I just need a house to hang them in. Hopefully we'll get that call soon.