Thursday, June 25, 2009

Random Things That I Love

I was thinking the other day about some of the odd things that I get a kick out of and then I figured we probably all have them. So since I am thinking about it, I thought I'd share them with you.

I love the smell of Scotch tape (talking about it makes me want a sniff right now)

I love exclamation points
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (My old boss was an English professor and told me that people did not know the real use of an exclamation point and that a person should use maybe a total of three in their entire lifetime. I say you don't know my life, it's very exciting!)

I love Crazy Core Skittles
(I eat handfuls of them daily. It keeps me skinny. :)

I love closed captioning/subtitles
(I make my husband watch every movie/television show with them on. I'm addicted. You'd be surprised at the things you miss without them.)

I love houses that smell good. (Like mine - it smells like Black Raspberry Vanilla - yum!)

I love free babysitting (Enough said - who doesn't?)

I love making handmade gifts for other people (well, people that I like at least!)

What are some random things that you love?

Sunday, May 31, 2009

My balanced diet

So a friend of mine recently told me that she was missing my posts on here. Which is funny because I didn't realize anyone actually read the posts on here. Besides me, of course. But since I've been enlightened I thought maybe I'd put a little Sunday goodness on here. This is for your Marie. Unless of course you're disappointed by the content and don't at all enjoy reading it and in that case, it's just a random post and the next awesome one is for you.

I guess I haven't been blogging on here because there hasn't been a lot that's "blog-worthy" going on with me. Although, I think I may have a new Laundry Chronicles edition for this week. Right now I'm sitting here trying to figure out how to get myself to stop eating these little bad boys. I had one when I made them, one as a pre-dinner snack, one as a post-dinner treat (a compensation if you will for eating all those vegetables in my salad), another one to reward myself for putting Pumpkin to bed successfully (sometimes I wonder why I don't weigh 300 lbs), and two more because................................hmmmmm when you run out of reasons maybe it's time to stop eating them. Although if you can come up with 4 reasons, maybe you're in trouble to begin with. And yet here I am, wondering how I could justify one more. Although it's just now occurring to me that I need to back away, back far away. Because there's only two left.

If I don't stop soon, what will I eat for breakfast?

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

I'm just sayin...................

If you're going to buy a 10-pack of Baby Ruth's and you don't want to eat all of them, you probably shouldn't hide them in a secret place that only you know about. I'm just sayin..........

Friday, April 3, 2009

The words of a child

Out of the blue words from the 2 year old I am babysitting today:

2yrold: My mom says we don't eat diarrhea
me: What?
2yrold: We don't eat diarrhea, we don't eat poop and we don't drink pee.
me: Okay. What do we eat?
2yrold: Food.
me: (being facetious) What about boogers? Do we eat those?
2yrold: No.......but just a taste.
me: Just a taste?
2yrold: Yeah cuz boogers is tasty.

And now you know.

Monday, March 9, 2009

Proof is in the Pudding Pictures

I have been a blog slacker, I admit it. The last time I posted was, well I can't even remember with looking it up. But, in my defense, I haven't been just sitting around twiddling my thumbs. I have been BUSY. And I have pictures to prove it. So hopefully I'll be forgiven for not being around for awhile. Here's the story. A friend of mine is having twin baby girls and my friend Tracey and I decided to make her some cute hooded towels and one thing turned to another and pretty soon it was way more than hooded towels (though we did those too). It was a good thing I didn't get into it by myself because I seriously couldn't have done all that sewing without Tracey around to chase after Ava quite a bit. So without further ado, here ya go:

The Booties...............why is everything cuter when it's tiny and in pairs?


I posted these before but had to include them again as part of the whole package.

The onesie dress

And the culprit that started the whole project - the hooded towels! It's hard to tell from this picture but they are very shabby chic.......it even said so on the tag.

And then you put it all together and it looks like this: Or this:

So now that that's over I should be back with some regularity at least. And at the request of Marie, in the next week or so I will post the instructions for how I make the hooded towels, even though it's nothing fancy.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Girls gotta stick together

So, here's a blog you should visit: annakarli.blogspot.com because she's having a contest with her husband to see whose blog gets more traffic. And you know, us girls gotta stick together (if you're a boy reading this, you can stick with us too). Go Karli!

Monday, February 23, 2009

Work of Art Wednesday

Apparently I need to go back to the grade in elementary school when you learn the days of the week because since I started this "work of art wednesday" I have yet to post my projects on a Wednesday. Hmmm.... sorta says something about the chaos that is my life sometimes. But I really have been a little tornado of craftivity lately which is the reason I haven't posted in a week. So since my project list is still pretty long, I thought I oughta drop in and let you see some of the things I've been working on. I did finally make some of those marble magnets (that the rest of you have been making for 10 years) as well as a couple of hooded towels. And since one of my good friends is soon having twins, these are my most recent project to be added to the "welcome babies" package. The twins are supposed to be identical, thus one bow on the left, one on the right just in case they need a little help telling them apart. Back to the craft room!

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Lucky Lady

You know how you know that life is good? I'll tell ya. When you have fresh flowers on your kitchen table for a month because the "welcome home" flowers your hubs gave you went ahead and kept on living clear up until the "happy valentines day" flowers from your dad arrived on your doorstep. Bliss I tell ya!

Friday, February 13, 2009

San Francisco Summary

The rest of the trip went a little something like this: puking baby, Chinese New Year parade, puking mommy, food poisoning, Alcatraz, Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman's wharf, H&M, puking baby, dinner with a fabulous friend, home. All in all a good trip, San Francisco is a beautiful place......even if you are seeing it mostly from the window of a hotel room. Hey, at least we were on the 29th floor!

Saturday, February 7, 2009

San Francisco: Day 1

Flight delayed an hour
Uber cranky flight attendant
Arrive in San Francisco
Dinner with hubs and Pumpkin
Bathtime and Bedtime
Dreaming that Pumpkin is screaming "mommy"
Realize it's not a dream
Spend the next 3 hours changing multiple pairs of pajamas and cleaning up vomit.
Apologize continuously to the housekeeping staff for having to request a 3rd set of sheets
Secretly grateful that I'm not the one that has to do all the laundry from this
Back to bed at 4 am

Looking forward to Day 2.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Work of Art Wednesday

I didn't mean for these Wednesday posts to be the only ones that I do but it seems that life has gotten the best of me the past week. Anyway, as previously mentioned, these "works of art" are not always going to be some elaborate craft project. This week, in fact, it is these delicious cinnamon rolls made using a white cake mix (and a few other ingredients). I've been making cinnamon rolls for quite a few years now but have not found a recipe that I love. The dough is either too dry, or not sweet enough or a slew of other things. These ones are pretty incredible. The dough is just a little sweet because of the cake mix and pretty moist as well. Nuke them in the microwave for a few seconds and they are pretty fantastic the next day also. You can find the recipe here. I didn't do the thing she calls for at the end where you dip the rolls in butter and then sugar. I just can't imagine loving unfrosted cinnamon rolls. So I topped mine with some cream cheese icing (powdered sugar, milk, cream cheese, vanilla) and they turned out so yum.

So next time your sweet tooth is calling (which is daily for me), give these a try! Feel free to link in the comments to any of your own current "works of art" for the week. By the way, sorry the picture makes it look like a cake. I had frosted them before I thought to snap a photo.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Work of Art Wednesday (or Thursday)

So I've recently discovered that one of the things that keeps me out of my ruts and keeps me being nice is having a current project going. It's something about that creative spirit that flows through you when you're making something with your hands. Anyway, so I've decided to start doing what I'm gonna call "Work of Art Wednesday" where I weekly post some pictures of my current favorite project. I'm sure that some weeks the thing that I make might be my bed (if I'm lucky) but the idea is that having to post about it every week will keep me motivated to come up with new projects which will keep me "rut-free." Feel free to add a link in the comments to your own "work of art" post on your blog. Here's to the creative spirit! And here's the first installation even though today is Thursday.

So I'm really into making baby booties right now. I have a friend who just had the most adorable little thing and I decided to try to find her an outfit that went with some of the booties that I have already made but I didn't have any luck. So instead I bought her this outfit that I liked and then used this template I love by Heather Bailey and added ribbon and buttons to make them match the outfit. (they are stuffed with tissue paper) I made a few pairs of these the past month when I was visiting my mom. I found that the hardest part was trying to figure out what color I wanted them and all the embellishments. This way was a lot easier because I already knew the colors I needed and I had limited embellishments that matched. I also made the headband. Hopefully my friend isn't reading this or the package that's about to show up on her doorstep will be a little anti-climactic!

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

A little present

So one of the things I do that drives my hubs crazy is pull things out of the microwave before the time has run out and I don't clear the screen. He is constantly going over and clearing it and giving me a look like "you did it again." And one of the things he does that drives me crazy is put his empty Coke cans on the counter right above the recycling bin instead of opening the door to the cabinet and putting them in the bin.

I've been out of town for a couple of weeks with Pumpkin and when I returned hubs had several special things waiting for me: a spotlessly cleaned house, the television moved to the room I wanted it in and out of my living room, the good mattress pulled from the guest bedroom (sorry guests) and put on our bed, a bouquet of beautiful flowers, and this little joke:
That would be all the Coke cans from the entire time I was gone stacked on the counter waiting for me. And see that garbage can? That would be the recycling bin for cans.........just below.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Tracking Numbers

My husband and I are going to San Francisco in a few weeks. Well hubs is going for work and Pumpkin and I are tagging along. When hubs and I were talking about me following him there I told him I would not go unless I bought a new stroller. For the past year and a half I have been lugging around the huge stroller that came with my original travel system. It is big and bulky and does not maneuver well. With all the traveling we do I have decided that I need something more compact, much more lightweight, with better maneuverability. And I found it, on a great deal no less. After becoming bleary-eyed from reading/watching so many reviews on the internet, here is the stroller I bought:
I just know it's going to be fabulous (remember all those reviews I read) and I'm so excited for it to arrive. Just yesterday I got the email with the subject line "UPS Ship Notification"
and I got all giddy. And since then I've been obsessively checking the tracking number to see where my package has arrived to or departed from. Isn't it fun? Of course, being able to track it across the country takes away the fun of forgetting you ordered anything and then having it arrive on your doorstep. But me, I love tracking numbers, I love being able to see the progress of my "new thing" as it slowly works its way towards my greedy, outstretched hands!

Thursday, January 8, 2009

So distracted

So sorry I've been absent. It appears the holidays have gotten the best of me. And you know, I have always struggled getting back into the swing of things after a vacation/holiday/break. So in tribute to that, I have extended my holiday season and am spending two weeks with my sisters and my mom. Today I got a chance to run down to my old college campus and have lunch twice w/ two different sets of friends. So much fun. I expect the rest of my time here to be just as enjoyable. So if you don't hear from me, know that I'm thinking about you and I'll be back before you know it.