New Spring Crafts!

T-minus two days 'til Easter!  And I just (as in about an hour ago I was glueing on the the final feathers) finished up a couple of fun Easter/Spring crafty projects - ha! 
I had big plans for having a craft day with friends on this one, but it just wasn't coming together with my schedule/time.  I did, however, manage to coordinate some crafty time with one friend over a couple of days this week (this kind of thing ALWAYS takes longer than expected - especially when it requires use of a jigsaw, which I don't think I've used since middle school shop class!) and I'm happy about that.

We ended up with a trio 2x4 Easter animals (original inspiration for these cuties found here)

 (the rabbit is my favorite!)

and a pair of fun flowers in pots.  (original inspiration found here) You can't see the detail very well in this shot (I know, I know - I rushed the photos, but if I hadn't I probably wouldn't have managed to blog about them at all) but we cut the flowers out of bead board with the jigsaw - all by ourselves! :P - and the centers are fabric rosettes.  Now I just need to figure out where to display them...
(it won't be that hard - I haven't taken the time to set out any of my spring décor yet *sigh*)

Ready for Easter?

We're getting all prepped for Easter here!  Well, mostly prepped.  I'm not sure if any of my spring decorations are going to make it out of their boxes this year.  But all of the "important" stuff has had some attention.

We spent a good chunk of time working on Tyler's hat for the kindergarten Easter hat parade.  He wanted a fire hat and I have to say, I think the end result is pretty creative :)  We used one of his plastic fireman hats from the dress up box.  Used cereal boxes to create a hat band with "burning buildings."  The fire is obviously tissue paper, with some of it pulled through a few of the "windows."  And Tyler insisted he needed a road (electrical tape with the lines drawn on with chalk) and some cars.

I'm a little sad as I post these because the hat parade is this afternoon and my little guy won't be going.  He started throwing up around 8:30 last night and it continued every 20-30 minutes until Sam took him to the ER at 2AM.  I'm told they were quick to give him anti-nausea meds and he was eating a popsicle and flirting with nurses by the time he headed home.  He's ok, but obviously we are all exhausted and he is spending the day at home on the couch.  He was upset about missing the parade but I told him I'm sure the teacher will let him show his hat to his class when he goes back to school.

 

Anyway - I was talking about Easter prep :)  The kids really enjoy the lunchbox jokes so I printed out a set of Easter ones and a set for Spring (I used the ones here).  I also plan on putting their entire lunches inside plastic eggs on Friday - doesn't that sound fun?  Cut the sandwich in pieces so it fits in a couple of eggs and stuff others with grapes, pretzels/goldfish, etc.

 

My husband has mentioned more than once in the last few weeks "you aren't going to go overboard for Easter like you do every year, right?"  Haha.  Isn't that my thing?  Well I completely had to laugh the other day - he had the day off on Wed and did a quick lunch date then decided to finish getting Easter stuff with a quick trip to Target.  And wouldn't you know it, there was my husband saying things like "oh I think we should get them a new bat and wiffle balls" or "we need some more Robin Eggs."  So I hold him fully responsible for aiding and abetting my with the Overboard-ness this year :)  Want to hear what we got them?  Kaitlyn was trying to talk her grandma into mailing her the roller skates they use there (our old skates from when I was a kid).  I told Gma to hold off and ordered the kids each a pair, along with knee/elbow/wrist pads.  For the baskets we also got them each a pair of flip flops/sandals, a giant bubble wand (I'm still amazed by how much fun the kids have with bubbles), and a smaller toy.  We tend to use Easter as a way to stock up on things we think the kids will need for the summer.  And I have these great sets of giant eggs that I like to use for larger items.  So in one I have the wiffle balls, in another a child-size football.  Swimming goggles, sand toys, and jump ropes round out the fun collection this year.  We also have mini juice boxes and a variety of candy for the small eggs this year.  Oh - and did I mention we have been trying to stock up on dog toys for the puppy and Target had some great ones so she will be getting a small basket too?  :D

 

I took the time to stuff everything in eggs and set up the baskets earlier this week.  So now it's on to finishing up plans for Spring Break which starts with a half-day on Friday...

March

 

(I had to make it great big so you could read it)

This is my horoscope from this month's Family Fun magazine (I think?).  Once in a while they really hit the nail on the head, and this is one of them - so I saved it :)  Except so far I have neglected to make health and fitness a priority - much as I keep telling myself I need to!  Instead of working out first thing as I often promise myself I will do, my To Dos have been so big lately I jump right into the ones with the biggest priority each day and skip the workout completely.  Bad habit.  Gonna change it this week (truly - someone hold me to that!)  But the high levels of work and the stress - yup that's my month.  I'm trying not to complain because really it means I have a very full life and a successful business (which I still insist on thinking of as a hobby lol) but I do wish I could figure out how to slow things down just a little bit.

 

This month included the end of the Girl Scout cookie sales for the year (phew!), a new personal high for drying racks finished and sent out in one week, and on St Patrick's Day...

a new puppy!  We've been promising Miss Kate for years that we would get a puppy when she was 10 years old.  Since she turned 9 in October it has hit us that 10 quickly approaching so we seriously started talking about the prospect a few months ago and decided Spring might be a better option for a new puppy than fall, what with the prospect of puppy potty training and all.  And once we finally started looking into actual options online it went pretty quickly.  Very quickly actually.  As in telling the kids we were thinking about it, to having a brand new puppy by 1:00 that afternoon :)  Eeek!  I'm still asking myself if we truly knew what we were getting into.  A new puppy is almost as labor intensive as a newborn, including waking up many many times in the middle of the night and constant monitoring.  And just when I was starting to feel the freedom of having both kids in school *sigh*  But she's here to stay, hard or not - because truly how could you not be glad to see faces like this on your kids every day?

Oh and in case you were wondering.  She's 7 weeks old (well I guess almost 8 weeks now).  A golden retriever.  And her name is Bambi.

 

My Disney Tips

We love, love, love Disney!  And I've got a few great tips for you and your next vacation.  As you may have noticed I am in the process of transferring posts from this blog to my new blog format.  This post along with all of the great tips and photos can now be found HERE.  Please click on over to see all the fun.

Pallet Wall Art

This post has been a long time coming.  The project itself was a series of starts and stops over a period of months, then once I got it finished it sat for weeks before we mounted it on the wall and then the photos have been waiting to be blogged for quite a while now.  So before I get distracted again, let me share the latest addition to my craft room.

It all started with a stack of wooden pallets that the builders in the neighborhood abandoned.  And like a lot of my ideas lately, I had seen a number of fantastic Pinterest projects using those weathered pallets - everything from outdoor coffee tables to flower boxes.  I found myself drawn again and again to the pallet wall art and finally I decided that the perfect place for some wall art of my own would be above the dresser I refinished for my craft room.

Have you ever tried to pull apart a wooden pallet?  Geesh!  Those babies are built to last! LOL  Eventually the husband got sick of watching me struggle with them and helped me pull them apart.  I have a phobia about bugs, and since moving to North Carolina it has only gotten worse.  So I laid out all the pieces on the patio and hosed them down.  Sprayed them with bug killer and let them sit.  Did it all again when I decided they had been sitting too long.  And one more time before moving them into the garage.  Just for good measure, right?

Eventually I found a day when the power tools were out and I used the nail gun to attach the weathered wood pieces to some newer 1x4 scraps.  Then realized that the finish nails, though well hidden weren't going to keep it all together well enough.  So I added some screws, stained it to bring out even more of the character in the wood and left it to sit again while I decided which quote I wanted to display.  See, this is where the perfectionist in me rears its ugly head.  Was that one too cheesy?  Did this one fit the feeling of what I had in mind for the room?  It took me weeks to come back around to my original thought of simply using the word Create.

 

It was a pretty simple matter to cut a stencil using my Silhouette.  A bit trickier to get it all lined up right and keep all the edges of the contact paper down while I added the paint.

In the end, I was very happy with the result, but it felt like there was a bit too much "white space" now.  So I free-handed some swirls.  Then let it sit in the garage for a while longer before I decided I liked the swirls and could finally recruit the husband to hang it on the wall. 

Oh wait!  We were out of picture hanging supplies! LOL  Eventually though it did make it onto the wall and I get to admire it every time I use my printer. 

Catching Up

Miss me?  We hit the GB limit on our internet hotspot (yes I run it through my phone - I'm going to explore other options but it was the only option during the move and the first months in the house) for the first time ever!  I'm blaming it on the little one's discovery of YouTube on his new Ipod lol.  Whatever the reason, I forced myself to not use the internet on the computer except when absolutely necessary and since I can't blog through the data on my phone... Needless to say, I've missed it!

 

The last couple of weeks have been busy, as usual.  I thought there were be a lull in orders through the Etsy shop after Christmas, but that wasn't the case.  In fact, I've been too busy to list any of the new items we've been working on (stay tuned for that one!).  Our new Girl Scout Troop has started in on it's first cookie sale - lots going on there! 

I've been working on getting the house and routine back to normal after the holidays.  For the first time I actually followed through and did something cute with the cards for the year.  (Idea found through pinterest, printable found here)  And I even managed to go through the financial files for 2012, switching them out for the new year and shredding everything I didn't need to save (thank goodness the youngest one likes to use the shredder!) and am all set to work on taxes as soon as the W2s and so on arrive.

We also made it through Kaitlyn's first science fair project - woohoo!  I can't be the only parent out there that wishes that all these great "learning experiences" for the kids didn't involve quite so much parental time and involvement, am I? :)  She didn't win, but she really enjoyed doing her project and putting together her presentation board.
We are now coming off a super-long weekend (this one boggles my mind.  Two weeks into school after the holiday break and we end up with 5 1/2 days off?!) and I'm ready for life to return to normal - or at least our latest version of normal.  I have lists, lists and more lists, and a million ideas and projects swirling around in my brain...it's going to be a great year!

My Word for 2013

Good morning!  I'm feeling chipper today but not quite motivated to do anything tangible and productive yet, which usually means it's a great time to blog :)

With the holidays behind us and the new year begun, I have done my share of thinking about goals and plans.  For the last few years, one of the things I have been using to solidify my resolve and remind myself of my goals throughout the year is Ali Edward's One Little Word concept.  Basically I pick a word for the year that best fits what I want to focus on for the year.
I love the way Ali describes it.

 "You live with it. You invite it into your life. You let it speak to you. You might even follow where it leads. There are so many possibilities."

If you want, you can see the words I used in previous years (link here). 

In the past year, especially the last few months, I felt a bit like life was galloping along and I was kind of just along for the ride, holding on for dear life at some points.  (Ok, maybe not quite that extreme but it's a nice visual, right?)  And what I would truly like to work on this year is figuring out how to make the days more...mine.  To feel less like life was quickly passing by and I wasn't getting what I wanted to out of it.  And it wasn't necessarily about control.  I think I'm pretty good about setting priorities, saying "no," delegating, making sure most things on my list get accomplished, planning some fun things and down time when needed, etc.  I ran through a bunch of words to try to describe to myself what it was I wanted.  Simplify.  Revel.  Savor.  Explore.  And the word I kept coming back to was

Choose

Not the most exciting word as words go but a very versatile one when it comes right down to it.  By definition Choose means:

1. to select from a number of possibilities; pick by preference:

2. to prefer or decide (to do something)

3. to want; desire.

To me that means taking the time to be more aware of what I am choosing to do with my time and how it will affect my life.  Take spending time with the kids.  I ran across this quote by Anna Quindlen this morning and thought it was great.  "...when in doubt choose the kids.  There will be plenty of time later to choose work."
Some other great quotes from Pinterest

 

(photo found here)
Perfect right?  One of the things I try to work very hard on is my attitude and perspective on anything that is currently going on in my life.

 (photo found here)
For when I doubt myself.

(photo found here)

And for when I need a little reminder to prioritize or not try to add anything else into a packed schedule.


So I'm wondering, does anyone else have a word for their year?