A Couple Weeks Late

I took this picture on August 20th. She'll be 6 weeks soon. The time is going sooo quickly. I've been a little distracted with life so finding time to blog has been more than challenging. I've had a lot of thoughts for a post but little time with two hands free to type. Often while I'm nursing the baby I'll type one handed quick responses on facebook or browse blogs without typing any replies. Mostly I just love to cradle her, caress her hair and that soft spot on her head and soak in this time. As I look at my 6 and almost 4 year old kids I am quickly reminded how fleeting this time is. Those little tiny toes and fingers will never be so small again.

Introducing...

Miss. Delilah Brooke

7lbs 14oz, 20.5inches

July 20, 2010

Happy Fourth of July

Scrap {& stuff}

It's time for Sunday Scrappin' again! I was reminded this morning that we've got one month of summer vacation done. Here that means halfway, wow! It goes too quickly. So far most of our summer activity has included the pool in the backyard, sunscreen and shade. Much of my time has been spent  cleaning, decorating and preparing for baby's arrival. As usual I have plenty more on my lists and a couple projects in limbo - almost done but not quite. I'll share those next week.

Ta-da!:

And I think my collage is finally done. I moved the ballet slippers, not sure if I'll move them again. I still need eggs for the nest {painted that purple so it pops more than the yellow} but I'm really happy with it. I finally got to the butterfly project I was waiting to do using an empty frame I wasn't using in the living room, painted it and put a piece of cardboard with a textured pattern paper and butterfly printouts that I cut. I love how it turned out but can't take credit, totally copied the idea from something I saw on Etsy but mine is slightly different. One sleepless night I found a cute bird image, printed it & mounted on a 'quilted' background {cut squares of two papers and arranged like a patchwork quilt} and painted the empty frame. Lastly I added a little canvas I found at Hobby Lobby for $1.50 - score on the clearance shelf! You can click the first picture to enlarge & see it - it's orange with a bird cage and says "live laugh love", just ignore that the lettering is completely crooked.

This project isn't exactly scrap but reminds me of a scrappy layout. Before my grandparents visited {a couple weeks ago} I finally got another project finished. I've had these boards painted for a while, they would move from the table to my bed between meals and laundry time. One night Shawn hung them and the next day I arranged frames & stuff on them. The idea is to have pictures of all of our immediate family members in these frames, some as you can see are still empty and others need to be updated. I'm happy with how it looks {minus the crookedness of the black frame, it refuses to stay straight} and like the pop of color in our  mostly neutral living room.

To-do: 

• Hang project in waiting & hope it doesn't fall apart.
• Order photos to finish Lydia's album.
• Finish Lydia's album {though with delivery of pictures that may not happen until after the baby comes}
• Journal family pages
• Organize scrappy stuff
• Work on baby bedding - finish baby's quilt!
• One more decorative project for baby.
• Go shopping for still needed baby supplies....oops!
• Clean & organize house 10 times - that just seems to be the way around here nowadays lol.
• Have baby - sooner than later so I can sleep again and be rid of heartburn. :)

36 weeks ♥

{bird} Nesting!

Oh yeah baby, I tackled it alright! Lately my posts have been all about scrappy stuff and household projects. Aaaand that's pretty much what I've been up to. Fortunately for the kids we've also thrown some fun in the pool & free summer movie time in buuuut mostly it's projects and checking things off of my page long to-do list.

One big project that consists of lots of little projects has been taunting me and it's finally {just about} done!

I SO wish this was my project but it's not. It is the inspiration for my room which I'm just as happy to have used. :)

This is {a bad photo of} my {just about} finished project! I'm really happy with how it's coming together, even more happy that it's all together on the wall instead of parts and pieces everywhere around the house halfway done. I made a birds nest using a basket I wasn't using, hot glue & decorative spanish moss. For some reason I painted the basket a creamy yellow...not really liking the look of it so I may grab another unused basket and try a redo. I still need to glue birds eggs into the basket. The sideways family photo isn't part of the decor. I put it there in place of a project that is in the works {paper is chosen} but I wanted to see a finished product, even if it was only almost done.

The last piece to do was the window frame. It used to have glass buuut one broke and that looked funny, then another fell out and it looked really funny so I just popped them all out. I actually like it better without the glass. I tried hand sanding that sucker (3-5 layers of paint) and my kind husband took pity on me and introduced me to his power sander. There was still some hand work in the details but by that time I was okay with there being some paint left. I painted it blue and distressed the edges some then stapled some wire to the back for hanging.

And here's a close up of a couple other pieces I made. My hubby screwed a hole for the doorknob and screwed in some hooks on the top for me to attach ribbon for hanging. I still need to add the girls' initials to the bird houses.

Not quite so exciting but last night the husband and I rearranged furniture. And by we I mean he moved stuff while I swept, tilted my head to the side & directed traffic. The new set up has a much better flow, even though it's still too much furniture in this small space - if we weren't so close to moving into more space I'd pare down. What's more exciting is we'll be hanging pictures soon - I had some up but didn't like the arrangement and took them all down - it will feel like home again...and another thing will be checked off the list!

I also made progress on my scrapbook list you can read about here if you'd like. Other things accomplished but not exciting enough to write a full post on - updated my photo back up, sorted through old photos and scanned 400 so my sister & I could both have copies, organized the husband's closet {even got rid of some shirts he's held onto for FIVE years!}and have a couple things in a bag ready for me to take to the post office. :D Have I mentioned that checking things off my list makes me giddy?

This week I'm still working on the baby's quilt and checking more things off of my running list!

Sunday Scrappin

Time to share scrap again! It's been a few weeks since I've had something to share. I've been distracted busy obsessing over checking things off of my before baby comes list & crafting with my sewing machine. You can check out what I've been up to here {tutorialish} and here if you're interested. Still plenty of household projects to work on but they're mostly smaller projects so I should have more time to focus on my scrappy list again. Plus I need the hubby to put the crib together before I can start making her bedding. Less than 60 days until baby's estimated due date!

Ta-da!:

• So no picture to show for it but I caught up on some of my journaling this week - 16 layouts, sixteen!
• Again, no picture but two or three weeks ago Lydia's second album came in the mail and I got all of her pages into a page protector. Almost all of the pages are organized chronologically too!

To-do:

• Complete more journaling in Lydia's album.
• Make list of topics left to scrap for Lydia's album - I lost the list I had :( but with her albums organized it shouldn't be hard to figure out. My guess is there are less than half a dozen topics left.
• Start to catch up on journaling in family album - esp older pictures before I was blogging, this blog will pay off big time when I'm journaling events from 2 years ago!
• Scrap!

I did find a list of topics for Lydia's album I wrote up about 18 months ago. I can happily say that several are now crossed off my list. Even more happily I can say that I've done several more topics that aren't even listed - crawling, first steps, mommy and me (a few layouts), everyone loves lydia pages, first pony, swinging @ park, first smiles, pb&j, blue eyes, several hospital layouts....ahhh feels GOOD!

• 3 month photos (only professional ones taken TO DATE)
• 6 month photos
• 9 month photos (LOVED the ones I took but they've been in computer jail)
• 12 month photos (camera was on the FRITZ and I never scheduled that appt. - here's hoping!) and I don't have any '12 month' photos, just what was taken on & around her birthday...maybe I'll find some cute ones from the next month or two?
• 1st birthday{s}, I had a little celebration at home then a party at my dad's house
• first baby food/real food (I may not do both)
• baths in the sink (I have some that I just LOVE so I must - she was a sink baby for a LONG time)
• first Christmas (I have one Christmas event scrapped but nothing else)
• summer time/outdoor pics (I *think* I have pictures jailed up that I really liked) these may be done?
• pictures with Shawn in Class A's not sure...
• d-day pictures (she was 11 months when he deployed and I think we're in the Army for the long haul so it will hold some significance for her later) Not doing these, going to leave that for family album.
• Below are pages off hand I know will need to be done.
• Opening page
• Closing page
• Daddy love page(s) - I've done several with mom and daughter pics, those two definitely need their own.

To get inspired by other scrappers or share your own projects visit the Sunday Scrappin blog!

Since I don't have any scrappy photos I wanted to share a picture of my kids at the strawberry farm yesterday. They had fun, the strawberries are really good and I want to make strawberry jam today.

There's Always Room For Dessert

When I was a kid there was often the same conversation at the dinner table. I'd tell my parents I was full {I'm sure some of the time I really was} but then they would ask if I had room for dessert - of course I always did - so then they would explain I must have room for the rest of my dinner. I would explain that I must have a smaller stomach just for dessert. They didn't buy it and now as a parent neither will I. It's the circle of life. My freezer is much the same way, plenty of room for dinners and still, always room for dessert.

Last week I talked about once {twice} a month cooking/freezer cooking/bulk cooking/marathon cooking also known as one day of torture vs. 15 or 30 {give or take}. Well I finally did make that trip to the grocery store, list & coupons in hand, and survived. You really never know when shopping at the commiscary so close to payday and all. ;)

The next day after taking Michael to school I pulled out the recipes I printed from planning a few days before, strapped on my apron and got to work. After approx. 6 hours and many glasses of wine water I had 17 meals in the freezer, tortilla soup in the crock-pot {half for dinner, half to freeze} and still room in the freezer for; two loaves of bread, one pack of hamburger buns, 8 cups of chicken broth {homemade & bagged}, 6 bags of veggies, a bag of shrimp and chocolate ice-cream. Oh & we have one of those ice-maker things so there was the tub of ice, if that wasn't in the freezer we would have 1/3 more space on the top shelf.

I have pictures & notes to share with you. Actually, much of the time I was slaving away over the hot stove cooking, I was thinking about what I could improve next time and did my best to remember so I could share my tips with all of you {my lovely readers}. So when/if you have your own day of massive cooking you can learn from some of my mistakes.

• When shopping for such a big cooking day double triple check your list compared to your recipes & your pantry. This is no time for thoughts like "I think I have a jar of diced tomatoes somewhere back there" or "We should have plenty of Italian seasoning". No. This my friends is a time for certainty. Otherwise you may get to a recipe and realize {hopefully before you start to cook} that you're missing an ingredient or two...which could leave you a meal or more short of what you planned.

• Also when shopping for a day such as this do your best to not have a headache or whiny three year old with you, or a whiny any year old. Self explanatory.

• If you're unsure of the amount of meat you need, buy a little extra just in case. If you end up not needing that extra pound or two for a recipe you can throw it in a bag with some marinade and have it ready to thaw & cook up {on the grill if you have one} later in the month.

• Take advantage of sales on meats & produce. Like the above, if there's a great sale on ground beef cook it up and make batches for tacos, sloppy joes, burritos, etc. If it's steak or chicken you can have meals ready to go like fajitas & shishkabobs {sp?}. If you can find fresh produce at a price lower than frozen then freeze it yourself for later use. I bought too many onions so I'm going to chop & bag them to freeze for future use, this way they don't go bad before I cook again.

Now for the show & tell portion of today's lesson. ;) I'm sure I'll remember more tidbits as we go.

I didn't take as many pictures as I originally planned but I was a little intimidated with the whole thing and didn't want to lose focus. There were 2-3 meals going at a time...which can get a little confusing. One thing that helped me out {no picture} was to tape my recipes to the cabinets by my stove, I had one on each door, if there was a third meal going it was on the counter.

This is a picture after the first 'round'. I started out with my dishes with ground beef since I could easily cook that meat up on the stove. But before I started cooking the beef dishes I put all of my chicken breasts in a baking sheet and put them in the oven. This was a great way to multi-task and it benefited me later. In this picture you see Dr. Pepper Spaghetti {I put it in two separate bags but probably could have done four} and Sloppy Joe Pitas {also split into two bags}. I bought my pitas but didn't know when I would be using them so I stored three in two quart size freezer bags. This way I don't have to make a trip to the store just for pitas {when do we ever leave with just one thing?} and my pitas wouldn't spoil before using them.

This is a snapshot of the stove part way through. I realized later that this was all one meal but at various times I had two skillets with two different dishes and another pot with something else or something cooling on the side. I think when I had this going {Mac & Cheese} the Chicken Pot Pie filling was waiting for me. Speaking of chicken, since I had it baking first thing by the time I got to those dishes I was able to chop it all up and use as needed. If several recipes call for the same ingredients {onion is a big one!}, cut up a lot of that ingredient and take from the bowl as needed. One onion = about 1 cup measured. And when I was measuring seasonings for a dish I would put all of those seasonings into one small bowl then put them in my pan/pot. This helped me to keep track of which dish I was working on.

And here is a picture when all was said and done. 17 meals. ready to pack in the freezer. I was a little unsure if they would all fit but the great thing about storing in plastic bags is they are flexible and stack easily. The pot pies & mac & cheese froze in their tins/dishes and before going to bed I took them out, made sure they were sealed up and put them back in the freezer without the dishes. When it's time to cook I'll put them in the dish to thaw {same shape} and cook/heat up.

And here is a bit of the mess when I was done. I didn't clean my stove between meals - I knew it would get dirty again. I did wash pans/bowls between meals when needed and still had quite a bit at the end - but it's still less than washing all those dishes daily for 15 days. After clean up I put my feet up and relaxed. It was well earned.

And this is my freezer - see the ice-cream on the door? I have a regular sized freezer plus that ice-maker so if I can make extra meals fit anybody should be able to. If I had a deep freezer I would be cooking two days in a row and have 30+ meals at the end of it. I would be a cooking fool! For those two days. Until then every two weeks will do.

Here is a list of the rest of the meals I cooked with links to recipes:

• Pineapple Chicken
• Mandarin Orange Chicken
• Chicken Enchilladas
• Chicken Chili Casserole {ran out of chicken & forgot ricotta cheese so this didn't get made this time}
• Salsa Burgers {forgot wax paper for flash freezing so this hasn't been made yet}
• Taco Meat - no recipe, just use directions on seasoning packet
• Tortilla Soup

So far I'm enjoying the benefits of cooking like this. This morning I decided we would have sloppy joe pita pockets so I took the sloppy joe mix & pitas out of the freezer to thaw in the fridge, later I'll heat up the mix and toast the pitas...add some chopped tomato & cheese and voila! Dinner is done, less clean up.

I'll keep you posted on how it's going and what benefits my family sees from this.

Peek A Boo Baby!

My Mistreated Window {and new obsession}

I hope that I can stay focused enough to finish this post with some coherency. Between preggy brain & my excitement I just don't know...oh look something shiny! Wait that's just my hair in horrible need of a shower. Yesterday I finally read a post & watched a video on Big Mama all about her mistreated windows and easy they were to do. Her post led me to The Nester's blog. And I fell in love. Not just with her mistreated windows but with her motto about homemaking & decorating and I quote, "It doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful". So true and so simple and yet how many of us mom's strive for perfection.

In a conversation with my best friend today this came up. We all too often put pressure on ourselves, our spouses and our children to live up to some standard of perfection. They/we must always be all that we/they expect of them/us. Though, I would argue that the expectations we think they (spouse, children, friend) have of us is really our own expectations put on ourselves but we reason that it's not us it's them. Does that make sense? I think coherency just went out the window.

Speaking of windows. Along with Nester's motto that helped to refresh my perspective I was super motivated to finally treat my windows, er mistreat them. I say super motivated because I stalked scoured her blog yesterday and this morning I went to the store to hunt out a good deal on fabric, trim and get myself a glue gun. I'm 27 years old and have never had a truly 'dressed' window or owned a glue gun. The personal growth is astounding. After gathering supplies I did a little cleaning and got to work. Lydia was my little helper/company/endless talker throughout most of it and my husband gave me a few strange looks. At the end I'm very happy with the results and can't wait to share it with you. If I can do this, anyone can.

 

I must confess. Before going to the store I fretted over measurements...and at the store I was still fretting - I mean, what if I didn't bring home enough fabric? But then I remembered it doesn't have to be perfect and continued on. I was hoping to find a great pattern but the store I went to didn't have much selection and the patterns there wouldn't compliment my kitchen.

 

I have another confession. I hemmed the cut edges of my fabric. But in my defense it was fraying fabric, very fraying. One thing about the mistreated window idea I love is the fabric isn't custom fit to any window so if you move or change your decor it's much easier to use and reuse and re-purpose. How could I move it easily if it was fraying all over? Plus that could be messy  in the kitchen. So I dug deep and remembered all my grandmother taught me about sewing, then ignored half of it when I left the raw edges of the fabric raw. :gasp!: My hems were by no means perfect but that was okay because I knew they would be gathered up.

And here's my new glue gun. Rather than sewing the trim on it's hot glued and you can't tell the difference when looking at it. If someone were to come over and inspect my windows that closely I'll let them make treatments for the rest of my windows. I doubt that will happen and if it did I'm sure they'd stop complaining.

  

And this is just about the finished product. I say just about because I decided to add ribbon across the top and I'll add two more tacks where it's sagging. I'm also going to use her safety pin trick for the gathering and trim the excess ribbon. I can mistreat windows but there are some things my CDOness just can't handle. I do wish I had been bolder in my trim choice but like I said....I was fretting. The fabric, trim & ribbon cost under $20 for two windows - I only took a picture of one. The investment in the glue gun, glue sticks & tacks will be used for several mistreatments to come.

Yesterday we found out that it will be a little longer than I was obsessing over hoping to get into a new home with 4 bedrooms and other perks that our current home doesn't have. So rather than whine, mope and worry over it, changing nothing in the process; I resolved to enjoy and make the best of the home we are in. Nester's blog is filled with decorating ideas that I'm already making lists/adding to my lists of things to do around the house.

Thanks for visiting, I hope you also visit The Nester and maybe you'll be inspired by her motto, simple decorating ideas or both!

I can't wait to show you what I have in mind for some old plywood, paint and picture frames.

My ♥

Snow Day = Scrap Day

And I'm not complaining. We were anticipating snow since Thursday night and it finally started falling Friday afternoon. I made it home from my doctor appointment before it got too bad...which I was thankful for because I'm still not very comfortable driving in the snow. By Saturday morning we had 6-10"+ throughout the backyard & field. Shawn & I got the kids ready and took them out for some snow play. A couple hours later I was introduced to the tallest snowman I've encountered yet.

The kids were all bundled up & so excited to go play.

 

 The dogs had just as much fun as the kids did. Jackie looked like a bunny hopping through the snow since it was as high or higher than her legs.

  

And here it is, the biggest snowman I've yet to see in person and definitely in my backyard. Daddy outdid himself. Today Lydia wants to make a snowgirl & I told Michael we could attempt a snowdog.

So with all that snow I wasn't going anywhere and my plans of having a couple friends over for scrapping were foiled I decided to scrap alone with my best friend via telephone. After cleaning up around the house I found out she was game and we got to work. I'm still working on Lydia's album and making progress.

Tada!:

 

This one is self explanatory. She was 9 mos old when I finally got a pony in her hair. 3 years later it's still hard to actually keep one in her hair. ;) I used my Stampin Up catalog again for inspiration. The page shown in the catalog only had one book & more scallops but I made adjustments for my pictures.

 

These next two pages aren't finished and may be completely redone. For my son I did an "Everybody Loves Michael" spread (well 2), it just has pictures of  family members holding Michael when they met him. I decided to do the same for Lydia. I was getting tired last night so I left them alone & will revisit when I get a chance to scrap again. Hopefully today, otherwise definitely this week. I recently ordered more prints through a sale at www.snapfish.com and got the rest of the pictures I need to finish Lydia's album and even some pictures for family albums. I'd LOVE to make a lot of progress on that as well before the new baby comes.

To-do:

• Revisit the last two pages
• Scrap pictures that are already sorted
• Finish up incomplete pages {some are missing pictures, title, journaling and/or embellishments}
• Sort new pictures that come in the mail
• Get a second album & lots of page protectors for Lydia's album
• Get two new albums for Michael

To see what other scrappers are up to or join in the fun click the button above. Have a great week!

Catch up in photos

Well hello there blog world. I've been pretty much absent for almost two months minus my scrappy updates. Not for lack of thoughts but lack of time, focus, energy & funny. In fact I'm not quite sure I have the 'funny' yet but I'll give it a go. I am in my second trimester of pregnancy (YAY!!!) and excited, very Very VERY excited to be done with the 'morning' sickness that seemed would never end. So how about we catch up in bullets & photos and then my ocdness will be satisfied and I can try to go back to my regularly scheduled blog program. ;)

Since January is nearly over we'll just start with the happenings after vacation & the end of morning sickness since nothing happened around here that first week or so anyhow. And there's a lot and not much to catch up on with December - we flew, we visited, we conquered, we returned.

So first order of business after getting home was to pick up Jackie & the new pup - Luna - from our friend's house. Luna is already bigger than when we picked her up & we haven't had her a full month yet. They get along like siblings - they snuggle, play, love, argue & fight...and {more than} occasionally poop or pee in the house. They are adorable and snuggly though so we keep them around.

About a week after being home {I was still sick most days} we got a little snow. Not enough to really play in...only an inch and a half or so. But the ice was enough to put us on a 2 hour delay for work/school one day. This Cali girl finally drove on snowy/ice roads and didn't hit anything so I call that a win.

One of Michael's gifts was a shaving set. It's a cute 'razor', foam & foam brush. Daddy helped him shave one night & of course I had to take some pictures.

One night I was short on dinner ideas but had a craving for Mexican. I was thinking enchiladas but we were out of tortillas. Then I remembered a meal from a dinner out in Cali & thought it would be fun to try out our own. We made loaded nachos - cooked up chicken & added enchilada sauce, refried beans, bell pepper, onion, olives, tomato & of course added the cheese while toppings were hot. We all dove in and the kids loved it.

Over Christmas Lydia added to her baby doll collection. She was a ballerina mommy this day with two babies...maybe three? She has grown up so much and is loads of fun to play with.

And here she is posing after making herself 'pretty'. She likes to put on jewelry and bows in her hair and do the same to mommy. It's cute.

The dogs really are like having two more kids around the house. When Shawn comes home he has the kids excited to see him and the dogs jumping up to get his attention too.

This week Shawn had a staff duty day {24 hour shift} so I made myself busy. That morning Lydia & I went out a did a little shopping, came home & fixed up their rooms a little. I've been wanting to get canvas bins for her shelf since Shawn made it....some months ago, but like many things on my 'lists' never got around to it. A little birdie told me that K-Mart had good bins for a good price I jumped on it. I was happily surprised to see they were on sale! Only $2.50 a bin and now Lydia's toys are more organized and easier for her & me {when I help} to clean up. She was so excited she emptied one of them and was playing with just the bin - I may go and get her another at that price. I also got the kids new bedding. Lydia finally has twin sized bedding - she chose princess and Michael was stoked to see Transformer sheets. I also found a great steal at Target - twin down comforters for only $15. I'll share more about my thoughts of decorating a kids room in another post but these blankets will make things much easier for me.

That same day we were treated to some interesting Kennessee weather and a rainbow - two actually. There is a very faint one to the right of the brighter one. If I were an old wife I would tell people that seeing two rainbows when you're pregnant means you're having two babies. But I'm not, so I won't. ;)

And that pretty much sums it up. Between housework, the kids and the dogs I try to get in some organizing {because it makes me all kinds of happy} and some scrapping. I have to get more lists going so I can really finally finish the kids' room before the new little one{s?} arrive and/or we move just for me to do it all over again {but know what I'm doing that time around}.

PS - Only 11 days until LOOOOOOOOOOST....have you caught up yet??