Category Archives: straight crafty

Amazingly Normal

It’s hard to believe that what I’m about to share is any semblance of normal, but considering the last 2 weeks? This weekend was as close to normal as it’s been in a very long time.

And it was perfect.

Friday afternoon I saw SUN! And since we were going on over 48 hours of no power, we decided to BBQ some dinner. Ry & I swung into the store to grab some chicken breasts, fresh bread and a pineapple. It was such a nice change from fast food/takeout. We rounded out the evening by cuddling up on the couch and watching a movie on my laptop.

Saturday morning Ry & I were munching on some stale bagels while Andy snoozed on the floor of the living room. All of a sudden we heard the beep of the microwave. Finally! After 72+ hours of no electricity, we had POWER! Hooray! No joke, within 45 seconds of realizing we had power, Rylee asked for Saturday morning cartoons.

We were still lazing around all in our PJs. No teeth had been brushed. We still had no water, so no showers were taken. Heck, I hadn’t even put a bra on yet. When we hear a car pull down the driveway. The medical examiner for our life insurance was here! We had completely forgotten about our appointment. Dishes were STACKED in the sink & on the counters of our kitchen. Blankets were strewn all over the living room from sleeping near the wood stove for the 3 previous nights. Our house, and we, were a big fat hot mess. Thankfully I at least had time to put on a bra before the guy made it to the front porch. Andy met him outside and warned him. He was totally cool about the whole thing, but, seriously, talk about embarrassing!

After we peed in our cups, had our blood drawn and went over mountains of paperwork, our plumber friend was over to officially fix our water system! Power and water? In one day!? It was like a dream come true. And just like that, I was no longer feeling like Laura Ingles Wilder. I did dishes! I started a load of laundry! I showered!

After a quick trip to Target, we spent the afternoon doing more laundry and dishes, I cleaned out the fridge…that was depressing, and then we started getting Rylee’s new “big girl room” ready for the big move! I even got to cook dinner that night…using my oven. Seriously, it was a good day.

Depressing empty refrigerator...

Sunday we hit Costco and the grocery store and spent a small fortune restocking our fridge. Then the rest of the afternoon was spent doing more laundry and finishing up Rylee’s room. We still have a couple of projects to “officially” complete her room {I’ll do an official post on all the details then}, but for now here’s a quick sneak peek…

Dinner last night consisted of grilled cheese sandwiches with avocado, bacon and tomatoes. Oh.my.gah. They were so good! Andy and I both agreed we could have another. {For the record? He already had 2 and I already had 1 and a half…they were that good}

Oh, and while cleaning out what’s now Rylee’s room, we needed some storage tubs so instead of buying more, we decided the most logical thing to do was to start getting the newborn clothes out to free up a tub. That didn’t start freak me out or anything…homegirl still has no name, but has a dresser full of clothes…

Power. Water. Big girl room. Family time. All in all? Awesome weekend.

How was yours!?

On the Agenda

It is downright gorgeous out right now. I just had to run an errand for work and I seriously contemplated getting lost on the way back to the office.

While I was driving, I was mentally making a to-do list for this weekend.

Of course there’s the typical things on my list…laundry, dishes, menu planning & grocery shopping, etc…yawn…

But there’s also some other, not-so-typical things on my list…

Brushing your teeth using water leftover from the day...it's just like camping! Only...NOT.

#1-FIX THE PLUMBING PROBLEM! Yep, we’ve got an issue. And not just us, it effects our rental house too. JOY. Country living at.it’s.finest, folks. Typically our water filtration system goes through a cycle every 3-4 days where we completely lose water pressure for about 20-30 minutes. Sometimes an annoyance, but usually no big deal. It’s always done it. So yesterday morning when we lost water pressure before I left for work, I thought nothing of it. Then Andy called me last night, upon beating me home, our renter came out of the house to tell him they’d had no pressure all day long. Awesome. We called a guy…yup, we’ve got a guy for plumbing because we’re cool like that. Anyway, we called him up and he & his family literally dropped everything to come out and help us. They got it fixed. We cheered. Then took them out to dinner as a thank you. By the time we got home? No pressure again. WOMP. Needless to say, our guy and Andy will be back out there this afternoon to try and really figure out what’s going on.

#2-GO TO THE HOMESHOW! It’s supposed to be all crappy and rainy this weekend so we figured to help combat the cabin fever we’d head down to the fairgrounds to visit the homeshow. We have no money to do any renovations but it’s always fun to dream…new patio out back…with a built-in outdoor kitchen, of course. New flooring throughout the house. What do you think about a big pond out back with a firepit? Heck, let’s build a new house while we’re at it! Andy loves this type of stuff and we always pick up good ideas along the way, so why not?

#3-COOKING! My sweet friend Lindsey just gave birth to a beautiful little girl in the wee hours of this morning! So, to try and help them out a little I figured I’d whip up a couple of freezer meals for them. And I may or may not want to love on a fresh baked baby if I get the chance. 

#4-GO TO MICHAEL’S & the thrift store! We’re planning on moving Rylee into her “big girl room” during Andy’s spring break. Well, that’s at the end of this month which means I need to get started on a plan. Her favorite colors right now are pink & orange so I’m using that as my inspiration…but planning things that can be easily changed because I know how my girl can change her mind. Ry has asked for pink bed sheets so I’ll pick some of those up at Target or something. My mom’s making her a quilt and I’ve enlisted her help on a Roman style shade too. I’ve been pinning ideas on Pinterest and what not, now I just need to put those ideas into action. {That’s 90% of the problem with Pinterest, am I right!?} I need to pick up some pink paint, some yarn, some glue, a couple of larger size picture frames and whatever else I see that tells me to buy it. Here’s some more of what I’m thinking…

 

 

 

What’s on your agenda for the weekend!?

Where I go and get all sorts of crafty. It’s OK to be jealous.

Saturday afternoon, we set up some of our Christmas decorations. Sunday morning, within seconds of waking up, Rylee wanted to see what Santa brought her in her stocking…because NOW IT’S CHRISTMAS TIME!!!  !!   ! {seriously, she was that excited at 6:57 AM}

To keep from having to explain that every morning for the next 3 weeks, I devised a plan.

I pretty much amazed myself with what happened next, so I thought I’d share.

We did a craft.

Then I took photos along the way so that I may share with you.

Please note, that while my photos look to be amazing, professional grade material, I did in fact take them with my phone.

Like I said in the title…it’s OK to be jealous.

Here’s what you’ll need:

  • Construction Paper, your choice of color(s)
  • Scissors
  • Glue
  • A cute little helper, still in footie PJ’s, if at all possile

Step 1: Gather your supplies and take them to your official crafting space. {Or the floor in front of your wood stove. Whatever.}

Step 2: Cut your paper into the required number of strips. Since we made this on Sunday, we needed 21 strips…because there were 21 days until Christmas. Get it?

Step 3: Glue your strips of paper, ring style. Continue until you’re paper is gone.

Step 4: Hang up and admire your amazing creation. Then tear off one ring each day until Christmas is here!

Truth be told, I had big plans to make some awesome Advent calendar complete with fun Christmasy activities. Much like this one…

 

Then…well…life happened and this is what we ended up with.

The good news is, my kid LOVES it and doesn’t know the difference.

Uff Da! Rocks my socks! Again.

It’s no secret how much I love Emily and her awesome creations over at Uff Da Designs. Rylee loves her Uff Da goodies too! If you don’t believe me, just go here, here and here.

I think she should offer a headband punch card or something…buy 5 get 1 free or something. Because I’d be on my way to getting a free one. {Let’s keep that one between you and I and leave Andy out of it, mmkay?}

Anyway, a couple months back Emily put it out there that she had an idea for a new product and if anyone had a birthday coming up she’d like to send a product in exchange for some pictures. Um, DUH!

And so ladies and gentlemen, we have the Felt Banner…

I am kind of in love. The colors went with the theme perfectly! It was fun and festive. It is very well made, like everything Emily does, (duh!). And the best part? It’s totally going up in Ry’s room now…Two for one!

She’ll have them available in her shop soon.

Also?

I may have had her make me a matching headband just for the party…Shhh…

And for the record, doing a little review had nothing to do with the reason Emily originally sent us the banner. My thoughts are all my own, I just love her and her little felt creations that much!

Sweet and Simple 3rd Birthday!

When I first started thinking about Rylee’s birthday party there was the great debate of is she old enough to throw her a “friends” party? I had this whole big Dora themed, DIY adventure party planned complete with star catching. Alas, we decided to wait at least another year before we do the two party thing.

So I stuck with a semi-Dora theme…think stars and a lot of pink and orange. And since my kid is CRAZY and doesn’t like cake, I opted to go for an ice cream sundae bar and cake balls. Success.

The afternoon was filled with family, friends, love and laughter.

Again, I saw…success.

1. Home made cake balls. Recipe founds HERE. I used Wilton’s vanilla flavored candy melts instead of chocolate. The picks I made with colored toothpicks, Dora stickers from the dollar store and scrapbook paper. The “cake stand” I threw together with a couple of platters and a vase stuffed with leftover pink, orange and yellow paper scraps that I had. 2. Some sundae toppings! 3. Close up of some cake balls. Even went for some star shaped sprinkles! 4. Ry’s uh, cake? I found these star shaped candles at the store on a whim. HAD to have them!

1. Homemade birthday banner. Which I may have saved from last year. 2. Fruit Kabobs. Because duh, I bet Dora loves pineapple. 3. Some favors: I used the leftover candy melt and made some star shaped candy. Put them in some green favor bags I had left over from Christmas and tied them off with some pink ribbon. Stuck them in a fish bowl on top of more leftover fun colored paper scraps. Which I might have forgot to give anyone which is why they are sitting on my kitchen island. Whoops. 4. A pretty orange and pink bunting sent just for Ry’s party courtesy of the lovely Miss Emily over at UffDa Designs. (more on this later!) 5. STARS! Made them with orange, yellow and pink scrapbook paper and stencils I had on hand. Strung them up with pink and orange ribbons. 6. Raspberry lemonade to help quench some thirst. Plus it’s yellow and pink. 7. Food. Just kept it simple with some veggies and chips and salsa. Again, I bet Dora loves salsa and guacamole. 

1. Ry enjoying her birthday sundae and people making their own sundaes! 2. Rylee not so sure about everyone singing her happy birthday. 3. Connor’s a fan of the cake balls.

1. Ry and Kian testing the awesome-ness of her new bubbles. 2. Papa showing Ry how to cast her new fishing pole! 3. “Here kids, get together and say cheese!” Yea right. 4. Connor’s so cool he doesn’t need pants to ride a horse. 5. Mama & Ry self portriat. 6. Ry showing Tussin Tonner how to use the bubbles. 7. Family pic! And, if you didn’t notice, I totally may have had Emily at UffDa make me a poppy headband to coordinate with the party. Maybe.