As the page turns

It seems a lot has changed since my last post.  We're in a new city, have a new home, a new dog and a new-ish baby added to our family, and a new blog name (formerly 'Just Everyday').

I've been searching of ways to capture our 'everyday' aside from just the regular Facebook or Instagram stuff I do already.  I wanted to be able to chronicle our family life and the special memories we create with our kids.  I saw a post my sister in law started a while ago and really liked her idea.  The 52 project, which has you post weekly on what is going on in your world.  A great way to document the kiddos weekly with their big milestones or happenings along with a picture of them.

I'm still deciding where I want to go with this blog.  I'm sure it'll be a catch all of things - kids, crafts, photography, recipes.  I've found that if you do what you love, things will come a lot easier to you.

Week 1 - My Bro-Man has really gotten into this whole 'stick' thing.  I don't know what it is, but he is always on the hunt for the biggest stick in the yard and then uses it like a bow staff.  He also loves to wear his soccer jersey.  He is really looking forward to soccer in the fall, it'll be on a big kid team instead of the pee-wee soccer.

Week 1 - Oh Henry, he has gotten to be so independent.  I guess that's what happens when you're the third kid, parents are more relaxed and you learn a lot by watching your older siblings.  H was mesmerized with this stump by the garage and insisted on using it as a seat.  He made many attempts to perfectly place his tush on it and got super dusty.  Along with his independence, he has shown that if he doesn't get his way, he's not afraid of throwing himself on the ground in protest.

Week 1 - (I cheated with this one, it's about 2 weeks old from her school pictures).  Miss S. is kind of in the in-between stage of kid/tween.  She spends a lot of her time outside in the woods behind our house with her friends building fairy gardens and villages.  She is so motherly with her brothers (good and bad) and has definitely staked her spot as Mother Hen.

DIY your "Elf on a Shelf" for $5 or less...

Last year I remember seeing all the "Elf on a Shelf" pictures and stories all over facebook and pinterest.  I searched for the "Elf kit" at Target and couldn't believe it was $25+ for the book and the elf.  I figured I would wait another year since the kids would be a year older and more into the whole elf thing.  Well, it's almost Thanksgiving and Christmas will be here before I know it.  I though I'd get my stuff together for the holidays and plan out a 25 Days of Christmas for our family.  I always wait until the last minute to put things together, but I didn't want to do that this time around.  One of the first things on my list was to make an elf myself for less than $10.  I googled 'DIY elf on a shelf' and came up with so many great ideas of inspiration.  I ended up doing something similar to this elf  http://bubblynaturecreations.com/2011/12/diy-girly-elf-on-shelf.html

My supplies were:  $5 Barbie like doll from Dollar Deals, a pair of old Christmas socks, red and green felt (1sheet each).  The only thing I had to buy was the doll.  Bam, I had all ready met my goal of making an elf for under $10!  The most difficult part of the whole thing was sewing the pieces.  If sewing isn't your thing (I'm not an expert seamstress or anything), you can certainly hot glue or even hand sew the pieces together.  Here are some photos of the whole process:

My supplies

First I cut the fur cuff of the sock

Then I sewed it, but had to redo

After undoing the cuff, I sewed part of the sock for the top and attached them to each other

Her fancy elf dress, but I didn't want her to have a wardrobe malfunction

In comes the addition of the halter strap.  I machine sewed one side.

Put the dress on the doll and then hand stitched the other strap

Very cute, but she might get chilly traveling back and forth to the North Pole every night!

Perhaps some arm warmer sleeves could work!  Just sew tubes for the sleeves.

She needs some for her legs too.  Here's a shot before I turn her pants inside out.

Now she's looking more like an elf on the go.

I really liked the idea of doing the arm sleeves in the sock material, but it was all ready unraveling.  I decided to go with the red felt instead.

She's almost finished, just missing her elf cap.

I still had some of the 'fur' left over and decided to do an ear muff head piece instead of a cap.

I used enough fur to cover the top of her head and used green felt for the strap to hold it in place.

This little elf needs a place to sleep until her reveal so a shoe box and some fancy dish/hand towels should do.

I finished the box off by wrapping it in Christmas paper and tucking her in!

I think our sassy little elf will be loved by both my little girl and little boy.  If they love the elf adventures, maybe she'll come back with a little friend next year!  I'm going to enclose a letter from Santa as well and I used this one for inspiration http://followinginmyshoes.com/elf-on-the-shelf-letter-from-santa/.  I loved how Jesus and Santa were paired together in this letter.  Sometimes people forget the real meaning of Christmas and this was a great example of reminding us that it's not all about Santa and wanting.  I also enclosed the story of the elf from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elf_on_the_Shelf

I hope this has inspired you to start your own traditions with your little ones.  My biggest challenge is always following through to completion with my endless array of ideas.  I'm a few steps ahead of myself this year so I think we're starting off in a good spot!  Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Elfing!

Kitchen redo, done...

Well, it's almost done.  All the hard stuff that I can do myself is complete.  Now it's just a matter of what to choose for the countertop.  Do we go with tile or granite?  That is the question!  I'd say the whole process from start to finish took less than 7 days.  Here's how it happened:

Here's a before shot.  With the cabinets and hardware removed, sanding has begun.

I didn't remove the dishes or put up a cover to keep the dust out.  This was my biggest pain.  Nothing wrong with rinsing dishes and wiping up dust.

Another before shot, notice the wood color trim along the top of the cabinets, blech!  The vanilla colored cabinets and beige walls weren't bad, but boy does the new color look great!

The growth wall for the kids.  I had to transfer all their notches to a piece of scrap wood from my bathroom redo.  This was the saddest for me.

We now have a growth stick with the kid's measurements color coded

Can you tell what's new and what's old?  Obviously the drawers are the old paint color.

Almost complete!  You can see how yellow and dingy the counter tops look against the fresh white paint.

Hardware can get pricey so I sanded all of it and used Rustoleum spray paint.

I put the screws through a piece of card board to stand them up so they could be sprayed.

Make sure you put ALL the hardware and screws in the same spot.  The last cabinet is missing 3 screws.

After shot, doesn't it look beautiful?  Now, time for a new countertop!

 

 

Completion time:  about 5 days.  Lots of sanding and spray painting.  Cost of the project was about $50 for paint, paint supplies and sand paper.  What did I do with my children throughout this project?  They got to keep themselves busy with toys, coloring, dancing and some tv.  They were great supporters and told me several times in passing that I was doing a great job painting.  Oh, and if you're wondering what paint colors I used: cabinets are Glidden's 'white on white' and the wall is Glidden's 'dove white.'

Wax tarts from candles...

This morning I was on the hunt for my electric tart warmer.  After 10 minutes of searching, I found it hiding in a closet.  I didn't have any summery scented tarts left, just winter holiday ones.  Bummer!  I really didn't want to get the house smelling like Christmas yet and I didn't want to go out and buy more tarts.  Those little things add up, you know!  So I thought about it and remembered a post I had seen on pinterest.  It was one about what to do with all the left over wax in candles and how you can make a new layered candle from all the leftover wax.  I thought, I don't need any wicks for the tarts, so how about I just remove the left over wax from the jar and put it straight into the tart warmer.  That was exactly what I did and it cost me nothing!

One of my favorite scents, Glade's Angel Whisper

Scrape the wax out with a knife, or you can microwave a few seconds to soften the wax

The wax removed and ready for the tart warmer

A clean candle holder waiting for a new use

Voila, a new tart for my warmer and it was free!  The tart warmer is from Yankee Candle, not Scentsy

A happy girl am I...

One of my favorite things to do is visit our local Goodwill and Habitat Restore stores.  I've been drooling over this buffet/tv console for months and have been teased by the different blogs I follow.  A few days ago, on apartmenttherapy.com, there were probably 4 or more posts that had pictures of the console I've been on the hunt for.  That's a lot of posts!  Almost a month ago, I inquired about a console for $15 on craigslist and sadly did not get a response.  I knew I just had to wait and be patient and maybe eventually I would score my deal on this console.

Great storage for board games, DVD player and game system

Plenty of drawer space for our DVD's and games

I love the detail on the back of the chair

Today was my lucky day!  I had 3 things on my list that I was on the hunt for: the console, a chair for my desk, and a small round side table for my nightstand.  I scored 2 of the 3 today!  The chair for $6.25 at Goodwill and the console for $79 at Habitat (I've seen this console listed at $400).  I love that the chair has some of the accents that work with the desk and the console was exactly what I was hoping to find.

While at Habitat, I texted my hubby and told him I'd found my console and sent him a picture.  I was so over the moon that I found it I was looking like a crazy person roaming the aisles waiting for a response from my honey.  He never did respond (he does that thing called work) so I went ahead and  purchased it.  Then there was the matter of fitting it into the Vue.  After folding down a seat, the associate and I were able to slide it right it. 

It's funny because when I find a deal that I've been on the hunt for I get giddy and giggly and remind myself of "The Excited Southerner" from Adam Sandler's cd skits.  It's hilarious and my hubby thinks it's a riot.  I'm even more excited because I'll only have to do work on the chair, just some sanding and painting and replacing of the seat cushion.  The console is in pristine condition minus one scratch on the top.

I also found some goodies inside under the drawer.  An autographed picture of Vincent Edward (played Ben Casey on a tv show), vintage baby shower wrapping paper, vintage birthday paper, an A&P bingo sheet, and a receipt.  I love finding stuff like that!

An afternoon at Stumpy Lake's Nature Area...

 Today was our first visit to the fishing area at Stumpy Lake's Nature Preserve.  The kids loved running up and down the 'boardwalk.'

 I loved how her hair looked when she turned away from the water.

 Although it is the middle of winter, we enjoyed a mild 50 degree day.  Unfortunately, there were no fish or turtles to be seen in the water.  The kids loved looking for them anyway.

 This little guy loved climbing the benches and riding the 'horse' (the top of the bench).

 Isn't she sweet?

 One of my most favorite photos taken, it looks like glitter above the water.  Just a new setting I discovered on my camera.

 Every brother and sister has their ups and downs.  These two have their moments, but they love each other very much.

This picture says it all.  A great afternoon with my little loves.