Day 30

 

This is my favorite picture from yesterday... just one of those moments when i'm so glad I had my camera in my hand. Little Maddy was just sitting at the table, eating her ice cream and cake, with her cute little legs crossed, dangling from her little chair.

Here's my hopeful next craft.. i have some small ones in mind, but this one might take a while.(It's pretty big), I will need some particle board or some type of wood to paint on and stencil these exact sayings.. (or close).  I can do it!! It doesn't seem hard at all.. I just need motivation and time, which is hard to find most days. But since I am posting it, you have to ask me if I've finished it and hold me accountable!

Rule of Three

Becky at Farmgirlpaints has a blog that gives simple photography advice... with a photo challenge each week. This week it's all about ISO and Rule of Three.... I am submitting this picture, and hoping like mad it's correct! If you put a grid on this picture, I think you could have three main things to focus on.... my daughter,  the little boy, and the bubbles.  She also talked about how you can make a photo more interesting in just how you center or off center a subject.  Here is a photo i took of Kate (not the best focus) but i think it is interesting... also shows the difference how editing can make a picture look better/different.

Out of the house

I feel like this photo a day thing is taking up a lot of my free time!! Oh well... it is still fun. :)  The last couple days have been super fun (and tiring) - going to Fargo. Monday I tried to do as much cleaning as possible in my own free time, and I got to make/finish a bib and start on a craft. While in Fargo the night went well, and even went swimming in the morning yesterday! I realized my phone was dead, which was NOT good, but it worked out anyway. I was afraid i would not be able to connect with Peter when he needed to get picked up or etc.  We went to the mall first, and spent about an hour or so there. We played in the play place for a bit, and then packed up, and got peter at the hotel, went back to the mall, and then packed up again, dropped him off, and I went with the kids to a few other places.  I stopped to look at an elliptical and I found one!! We're hoping to pay for it over the phone and then go pick it up sometime within the next couple weeks. Kind of a drag but, hopefully it will work out. I really need to start working out. I think i would feel much better-- it just is too hard to find time to go to a gym having to find another babysitter and pack them up, etc.  Hopefully this is a good investment.

I went to a thrift store and got one skirt to make Kate a dress out of, and then a pink sweater to make some slippers out of.  I hope I can do these crafts!! If not, they were only a combined total of $7. Here's some pictures from the last couple -three days.

Bib

Today went well.... i got a bib sewed and started on another fun Vday craft I plan to post soon. Here's how i did it:

 Wash, iron and cut your fabric.  You'll need one piece of fabric 1 3/4" wide by 30" long. My front and back pieces are 8" width along the top, 10" width along the bottom, and 10" in length.  I used two different fabrics: floral for the front and white for the back.

I also added a piece of batting to make it extra cozy. Put your back piece front side up, your front piece facing down (wrong side up) and your batting on top. Pin and sew bottom and both sides together.

Turn inside out.

 I took my 30" piece and folded 1/4 inch on both sides and ironed.

 Fold in half, and iron again.

I don't have a picture of the next step, but I folded my already sewed bib in half to find the center point. Mark with a pin. Next i unfolded part of my long strip and placed in the middle as best as I could, and put the top 1/4 along the backside of the bib. Pin, and sew along the folded edge. (this is my back piece)

Then I folded the material to the other side and did the same thing. (Wrap around the top of the bib) Sew all the way from one end of your tie, across the front of the bib to the other end. 

Done!  Sorry, this is poorly explained but hope you get it anyway!

Cupboard cleanouts

I am linking to a kitchen clean up party-- Even though this does not look very tidy and neat... its what I can do with the small baking space I have.  It has been SO helpful, to put all of my baking spices together (nutmeg, ginger, poppy seeds, baking powder, cinnamon, etc) in one little bin. The next bin is my baking chocolates, m&ms, coconut..)   the second shelf is jellos/puddings, most liquid things like molasses, extracts, etc.  The top shelf is baking mixes, food colorings/gels, decorating tips and more.  That's how I've organized one cupboard.  Now when I need to make cupcakes, i can pull out a bin and it is all conveniently there.

banner

Here's a photo of something i'd like to try for Maddy's party.. fabric banner. It might take a lot of fabric but i bet it could be easy.  I have a bunch of ideas that I dont know will happen but it is nice to think about. I am tossing around the idea of making a dress for Maddy. That'd be fun, but I know i'd need lots of help. I hope to get started really soon with that.  I have a cake in mind which would be really easy...all pastel colors and some cute paper flower pom poms. I don't want to show pictures to ruin the surprise, but I am really looking forward to this fun, easy birthday party! I just googled shabby chic birthday and got tons of ideas.

aw, weekend!

Not that it *really* matters to me if it's the weekend or not, but typically the weekend means family time, finally. It seems even though it's winter, and usually Peter has more time off, he's always going to meetings or leaving to go here and there. Tomorrow he's going to Fargo for a meeting and then after that we're invited to a couples home in Hallock...... game night! Saturday we're staying home but excited b/c my sister's coming over to visit. Sundays are always fun because that means church, and of course our weekly 'roast a marshmallow' night.  We're going to fargo Tuesday night into Wednesday and I hope it will be fun with the kids. I don't really need to shop, though there's some stuff i'd like to get while i'm there, but I want to mostly let them have fun at the hotel. Kate loved staying at our hotel in December, so i am hoping it will go well again this time around. 

I have been reading lots of blogs lately and a fun thing popped up on one of them.... a vintage shabby chic birthday party.  So, that's what I'll do! Not sure if it will be for Maddy or Kate... maybe both. I know last year I was thinking of doing an ice cream cone themed birthday party for Kate... and that could be cool since it is in June.. but since Shabby Chic is my FAVORITE decorating style, i thought it'd be fun. The cake would be super easy and I've got a lot of cute ideas. For me, it is better to start thinking about it a few months ahead so I can get things ordered and made in time. That's just how I roll.


Today was pretty productive... I had voice lessons in the morning and we got to sing some Kari Jobe... yay! and then i cleaned most of the kitchen up. When peter got home from his meeting, I asked him to be with the kids so i could clean out our linen/medicine closet. It really feels good to get things thrown out and cleaned up a bit. Hoping tomorrow won't be a terribly long day -- needing some new ideas for the kids. We're getting so restless being stuck in the house. Til later!

changes

Not much time to write....this evening we finished cleaning up the bedrooms from the huge mess of putting foam into the cracks under the trim boards...and then peter finished putting plastic on our windows (bedrooms) until next year when we can hopefully get new ones. Tomorrow he's going to tackle trimming the window upstairs in my scrapbook room.  I am hoping to go through most of the cupboards/closets around here and re-organize. Tonight I did my room.. not a deep clean but I organized pretty well.   Here's some pictures from this week.

Monday

hello all, today is monday! busy monday.  clothes-washing monday. in our house lately we have been crossing things off our to-do list like crazy. It is really nice. I have been trying to stay motivated to get as much work done as I can, and of course to stay on top of my two bible studies I am in.  During winter, it is definitely hard to stay motivated. Because I am not as active with going for walks, etc, it is hard to find the energy.

Today I made a turkey for supper and some lemon bread. I washed a bunch of clothes and cleaned up mess after mess after mess. I did a lot of dishes too. This week in our house Peter is working on lifting up some of the carpet from the trim boards in all the bedrooms downstairs. He will spray some insulation foam to insulate the cracks under the baseboard trim.  There's about an inch + gap and cold air is coming in !! It gets so cold in all three rooms. I once put a wet towel on the floor by the trim board and the next morning it was hard.... like almost frozen.  Disgusting right... $$ out the door. So last week when I proposed a list get worked on, this was #2.  Anyway. I guess there is hardwood in Kates and our bedroom, pretty positive about the front living room too, which is really exciting to me. Peter would rather have carpet.... i'll try to change his mind! Here's some pictures edited recently:

 wedding scrapbook mess:

in love!

These beauties were taken today! I was so excited to edit them and post. They were taken in our spare bedroom.. I got our bedding last weekend (Shabby Chic) and put our footboard as the headboard until we can make something work. I still need to paint a slightly dark/rich shade of blue.. and new curtains, and i'm done! Better go, it's date night!

Winter Fun

The only good thing, to me, about winter, is that we get to go sledding. That's really about it.  These pictures are from a few days ago.. I am having trouble finding time to edit. There's still more but I will get to those later.  Today was the one year anniversary of the earthquake that hit Haiti. Today was a special day of prayer and fasting and I hope some of you were able to stop and pray for those affected by the earthquake. This week, a girl named Marlene is on my heart.. and others who have been at the rescue center for some time, gaining weight and getting better -- They are now at home with their family. This should be a joyous time for them, but I can't help but wonder if they can provide for them again.