old GRE study pages

make great snowflakes...

never too early...

to start thinking about christmas gifts...
(or procrastinate studying for the gre)

homemade nutella...

{oh, yes.}

found here.

baby legwarmer pattern...

{legwarmers to match holl's hat?}

buy the pattern or the legwarmers here

cute little clutch tutorial...

{little homemade cuteness for christmas?  just takes a few scraps of fabric!}

tutorial here

***this concludes my little session of christmas shopping***

maybe

maybe because i'm crazy, or maybe because i'm just an overachiever in the getting-ready-for-the-2-days-it'll-be-under-40-degrees-this-winter department, but i made a hat & scarf set this weekend.

i've learned how to knit about 15x, but it never seems to stick with me. if i take a few days off, i go back to staring @ those needles thinking, "so the yarn goes where? & i do what with it?"

somehow crochet seems to make sense to me.
a few youtube videos & i'm hooked (get it??! hooked!! haha!).
i can only do a few B A S I C stitches, but i guess that's enough to make this gal happy...

serious cuteness.
if we're still here this winter, we'll @ least have fun playing dress up :)

ps: i still need to add a little length to the hat (i believe i've mentioned my children have head sizes off the percentile charts) & add the little circle flower & we'll be ready for winter playtime.

once upon a time...

debs (my mom) bought two really ugly frames from an estate sale.

she brought them to my house & i rolled my eyes.

she said they had potential.  i wasn't so sure.

{one of the two identical frames}

then we hung them in hudson's new room & i had to eat my words - red mat & silver frame matching the room's red drapes & silver lamp. 

they looked great. 

you know, minus the random kids' drawings.

we brainstormed about what to put in the frames & what to do about the plaques.

then i had holland.

& the frames hung in hudson's room for an ENTIRE YEAR, which lead to a few funny conversations when people wondered how my 3 yr old drew those oil wells. 

ha!

so i finally got around to the frames last week.  here's the makeover for frame #1...

i found these maps in an old encyclopedia @ goodwill.  sweet!  hudson digs maps these days & these kinda echo the globe & canvas US map already in the room (which makes me think i should do a hudson room tour). 

they're 2 book pages that i cut out with an exacto knife & taped together.  not perfect, but costing about $3 :)

and frame #2 tomorrow...

spring project

i'm needing a little decor change around here. 
i was thinking about getting my easter stuff out a little early, but did anybody realized easter is at the END of april this year?  what, what??  isn't that late?
since i don't want to recreate this disaster, i'm thinking about making a version this wreath...


cute, huh?
kinda reminds me of my halloween wreaths...

here's the spring wreath close up...

photos from: the lettered cottage

i'm not really a gerber daisy gal, & the buttons are not really me, but i love the idea of wrapping the twig in yarn.  maybe a "yarned" twig & some different kind of flowers...
perhaps like these...

photo from:  made by lex

or these felt flowers in some cool colors...

photo from:  julie gillrie

good tuesday morning thoughts, eh?

***wreath tutorial found here @ the lettered cottage (a darling blog, btw)***

wednesday morning scrubbing

it's weird how non napping children can throw off your whole week.  that might sound ridiculous, but it's true. 
i haven't done half of what i was planning to do this week, but i DID make a homemade body scrub.

random?  yes, but totally necessary.  i love this scrub.  1.  it leaves your skin really soft, infused with oil,  2.  it's not very $$, & 3.  how cool that what you're putting on your skin is so natural, you could eat it.  i mean, gross, but cool - you know?

not pictured:  salt (already in the scrub!)

all you need is a glass jar (i found this one @ the dollar store for, you guessed it - $1), some sea salt - i like the salt to be a little bit coarse, but not so much that it would irritate your skin, & sunflower oil.  on the salt & oil - you can probably find these @ your grocery store, or even places like marshall's.  it's going on your skin, so the higher quality product you can find, the better.  you can also use sugar & there are all kinds of oils that work - just google "homemade body scrub" & you'll find tons of ideas.  okay, & lastly, it's not necessary, but you can use an essential oil.  my favorite is rosemary oil.  it has a fresh, eucalyptus-y smell.  i got this @ our health food store.  using an essential oil makes the scrub smell amazing, which is a big plus for me, but again, it's not "essential" (hahaha!).

1.  throw in your salt.  you'll probably end up with equal parts oil & salt, but 2.  start with about half the amount of oil, stir with a spoon & add little by little, mixing up until you have the right consistency.  there's really no right way to do this, it's up to you.  i had to let my inner "first born child & i'll do everything EXACTLY right & by the book" self go on this one.   3.  last step is to add a few drops of your essential oil.  i add 2-3, mix & then add more if i want.

& voila!  you have a body scrub. 

you may now scrub all of your cares {crying baby} away :)

wednesday morning deja vu

gah.  this morning is just like yesterday's.  i'm still not together, holland's still wailing away in her crib, & i still have nothing to post!  sorry.

here's my morning plan...
force myself not to go rescue that child from her bed - she's GOT to take a morning nap, for pete's sake!
get a grocery list together (i'm thinking about THIS for dinner)
listen to a little npr
finish the monogrammed tea towel for my mother-in-law's birthday
wrap & mail birthday presents

2 things: 
1.  i need more coffee
2.  being "together" is overrated :)

here's a (terrible) pic of the tea towel i'm working on...

post script:  i finally just had to go get her :(  a whole hour in there & not one wink of sleep.  gah.

valentiMes

does every little kid say "valentiMes"??  so cute :)

here are hudson's...

a few bigger ones for his teachers...

they turned out pretty cute & would have been pretty easy except that our hole punch is janky & you have to squeeze the daylights out of it to work.

this is a great beginning sewing project for little ones, but start it early if you have several to do as it's hard for them to do very many @ a time.  learned that one from experience :)  hudson did about 5 of these & i did the rest, but i think he would have done a few a day if i had had them ready in time.

all we did was cut out hearts from posterboard, punch holes, & lace with yarn.  i added some tape to the end of the yarn hudson used to make it easier for him. 

also, half way through, i realized you can teach different stitches using this project...

this is the blanket stitch, for example.

obviously this would be for older kiddos.  hudson was just trying to get the yarn in the holes :)

& that's it!

happy almost valentiMe's!

too

and after her jane fonda workout, she might want to do some pirouettes, you know.
and how is that possible with out a pink tutu?

i love how this turned out, though i had a hard time getting a good picture - it has just too gloomy here for a good shot, i guess. anyway, i think you'll see it again soon in baby girl's newborn pics. i'm already dreaming them up now...

so everything that HAS to be done, is done. but i just keep thinking of ooooone more thing to do. i think it's my anxiousness :)

...so that's when this tutu was born.

& i made a fun little "happy birthday" sign for the hospital.
then i decided to make a little "please knock" sign for our front door.
and a couple of scrapbook pages for people to sign when they come to visit.
then a last canvas for her room...
and i have an idea for another tiny one.
but first i need to whip up a last minute blanket idea i had (already have the fabric, so i HAVE to do it!).


is this crazy?? :)

in case she wants to do a jane fonda work out video...

baby girl is set!

heehee! aren't these hilarious??! i'm not sure i fully captured the 80s goodness - it's late & so there's no possiblity of good lighting for pics, but i had to share these! i was just playing around - not thinking my playing would amount to much, but i ended up really liking the "fonda" vibe :)

one problem: the headband is a little small & if she has the head of her father & brother, i better snap a pic of her in it on day one because that's the LAST day it will fit!

speaking of, have i ever told you that hudson loves to say to say "i have a large head!!!"??!
it's pretty funny.
he usually declares it anytime clothes are being pulled on or off his head (mostly because we're always laughing @ the sounds of perpetual seams ripping as we struggle to get things around that massive noggin!).
seriously - his head is off the percentile charts.
...which always helps me feel better about the whole csection thing :)

anyway, 8 days to go...

***nursery update: pretty much finished! since we have time, we decided to go ahead & paint the walls (pink, of course!), so i'll take pics after that. i hope i like the pink - i realized pinks are hard! we're going with "chalk pink I". i can't decide if it's too chalky, or if i just think that because of the name.

crap

if i were sesame street, i'd choose this as my word of the day.
i've felt super tired all day & low on patience & hudson has felt uber cranky all day & high on tantrums.
rough combo.
he literally cried for 20 minutes because i took my jacket off & he wanted it "ON!". mmhmmm. yeah. and that was just one of his episodes.
whew.
THEN this super fun craft project i just KNEW would turn out soooo adorable turned out soooo not! i hate when that happens!!
i had seen THIS tutorial for making your own wreath with acorns & thought it was so cute, but then i saw THIS one & thought - okay, yeah, i could really do that, since i'd just have to buy a bag of lima beans & not collect acorns. i swear i saw another tutorial on some site for a hot pink lima bean wreath, too.
anyway so i stayed up waaaaaay too late last night hot glue-ing limas (and my poor fingers together - OUCH!). i thought it was going to look cute until i got out the pink spray paint this afternoon. and yeah, it didn't exactly "come together" as i was planning. somehow it just ended up looking like... well, spray-painted-lima-beans-hot-glued-on-styrofoam.
here it is in the trash can...

there was just no hope for it.

BUMMER.

so, now i'm off to make dinner & hope that turns out okay :) one plus of this whole situation? when i went to get the lima beans, i remembered to get that curry paste i had forgotten to buy last week, so we can finally have the yummy curry tonight!