Paint Date

Today, Blakely and I had a painting date.  She absolutely loves to paint and asks to do it every day but since I am such a mean mommy she doesn't get to do it as much as she would like.  ;)  

But since my girl was out of MDO today I decided to surprise her and let her go at it.  The reason we don't do it every day will become very obvious very soon.  

We started like this.

Once we finished making Valentine's for all of her friends (thanks for the great idea Sarah!), we moved on to more intense painting...

tongue out due to major concentration 

And after that things got real.  As I knew they would.  

scoop the paint out...

rub together...

show mom...

then slap 'em down.  

Repeat 487 times for maximum fun!  

We had a blast and I know I should let her do it more.  And bonus!  Bubble baths in the middle of the day.  

Countdown update!

Since we have marked a few things off of the countdown I thought it was time to do a little catch up.  

I posted the full countdown list here but I also added it to the bottom of this post as well with some of the activities marked off.   

We sent a shoebox for O.peration Chr.istmas Child.  Blakely went with me to pick out all of the toys to put in our shoebox.  I explained to her that we were going to send some toys to a little girl who didn't have any toys.  She said "me sad" and did really well picking things out.  When we got home and started packing up the shoebox, well, that was another story.  She wanted to play with everything and was saying "me new toy"!  So yeah, we are working on that.  But all in all it went well and I am glad we did it.  I think we will do something else similar this month too.  And I have no pictures of this one...I was too busy making sure she did tear open all of the stuff!  

We decorated Blakely's Christmas tree.  2 things come to mind when I see these pictures.  One is that this child has grown up so much in a year!  

And two is that she needs a bigger/better Christmas tree.  After Christmas I will be hitting up Hob Lob to get a new one for her!  

We also painted some ornaments to give to family members.  I don't think I have mentioned this but my girl is obsessed with painting.  OBSESSED.  They paint occasionally at school and now that is all she talks about.  I swear she would have sat in her chair and painted all day long.  You should have seen the struggle it was to get her to go take a bubble bath....her second favorite thing to do.

During her nap one day I decided to make her a felt Christmas tree.  I was going to have her cut out snowflakes and decorate the windows with them but I quickly found out that she can't be trusted with scissors juuuuust yet.  Also, I have a ton of felt in my craft closet so it was easy peasy to whip this right up.  She thinks it is awesome and plays with it every day.  I highly recommend doing this with your littles!  

We have also made pine cone birdfeeders.  She wasn't all that interested in this but I think it was because I had it all set up for when she woke up from her nap.  She was still a bit cranky and only wanted to eat the peanut butter!  She really loves checking to see if we have any birds though.  So far we don't but my mom said it can take up to a week for the birds to find new feeders.  We shall see.  

sneaky grin...

She is really enjoying the Christmas activities.  I have a bunch set up for this week.  I don't do one a day I just do one when we can.  Lonnie is off next week so I am saving quite a few things so we can do them as a family.  This time of year is just magical and I can't help but walk around with a smile on my face.  I am so lucky.  

1.  Go to a Christmas Parade.

2.  Go to Garvan Gardens and see the lights.

3.  Make some treats for some special people.  (Can't be too specific!)

4.  Fill a shoebox for Operation Christmas Child

5.  Open an early Christmas present

6.  Make a pallet on the living room floor and watch Christmas movies. 

7.  Make hot chocolate (with lots of marshmallows) and sit by the fire.  (NO TV)

8.  Make a Christmas craft for family.

9.  Decorate Blakely's Christmas tree.  

10.  Go to the Arlington and see the life size gingerbread house. 

11.  Color another page in her Christmas coloring book and date it. (same book from last year)

12.  Daddy/daughter date night.  

13.  Spend the night with Gran Di. (because we all know she will have fun Christmas stuff for      B to do!)

14.  Get pictures made with Santa. 

15.  Decorate cookies and leave them out for Santa

16.  Read 'Twas The Night Before Christmas.

17. Do three random acts of kindness

18. Make a red and green lunch or dinner.  

19. Cut out snowflakes and decorate the windows with them.  Changed to make felt tree

20. Decorate a gingerbread house.  

21. Make a pine cone bird feeder.  

22. Make apple cider and read Christmas books before bed

23. Drive around to see Christmas lights.  

24. Make or pick out gifts for her teachers.  

25. Go to a Christmas event (Santa story time or Christmas craft) at the library.

Pumpkin painting time!!!

I wrote this post a few days before I had Blakely and forgot to publish it.  But I wanted to share my pumpkins with you all so I am publishing it now :)


Have I ever mentioned that I love fall?  I really love spring better but it is pretty close.  My friend Sarah and I started painting pumpkins a couple of years ago around this time.  We have gotten progressively better at it each year.  This is because we learn new and easier ways to decorate the pumpkins.

We have such a great time doing it.  We spend forever going to buy the pumpkins...they have to be perfect and all go together!  Oh and we always paint real pumpkins.  Then we come to my house and decorate them...this is an all day event.  Well this year I wasn't sure if I was going to be up for painting pumpkins.  I thought about just letting her paint one or two for me.  But I was at Walmart 2 weeks ago and the pumpkins just kept calling my name.  So I bought 5 of them.  I thought I would try to paint them but if I didn't then I could just set them up outside, unpainted, and that would be that.  Well I got crazy and decorated them.  I swear my version of nesting is crafting.  I have been all over some crafts!  

So I want to show you some pics of what I did but first I will show you my pumpkins from 2009.  That way you can see what I mean by we get better at it every year!  I did these the fall that I was redecorating our living room.  The colors in my living room are brown and turquoise...not quite as bright as these pumpkins but that was my inspiration.  I don't know why I didn't take any pics of the pumpkins when they were set up everywhere but oh well.  I did keep these inside on my shelves and as a centerpiece for the kitchen table.   

2009 Pumpkins

So a few things that I learned that year

1. Spray paint your pumpkins!

2. Ribbon is so much easier than trying to paint a strait line!

3. Glossy paint looks so much better than flat paint.  The brown and cream are glossy and the blue is not.  Looks ok but just doesn't pop as well.  

So in 2010 I really wanted to do Halloween pumpkins.  We change our theme every year and I was really into Halloween and I wanted to do the arrangement outside.  

2010 Pumpkins

A few things that I learned that year.

1. Bigger bows are better.

2. Stickers rock!  (The bats are stickers and that is my fave pumpkin....maybe of all time)

3. Hot glue is your best friend.  (The rhinestones on the little black pumpkins are hot glued, the black dots on the yellow pumpkins, and the orange dots on the silver and black pumpkins are hot glued on and so are all of the bows)

4. The crazier the pumpkin stem the better.  I also like to paint the pumpkin stem but if you wanted to leave it au naturale then you could just cover it with foil while you spray paint.

This year I have really been into fall colors and decorations.  So I wanted to do my pumpkins that way!  I also saw some pumpkins on pinterest that were done using mod podge so I decided to try that as well.  I think they turned out pretty good.  There are things that I would add or do differently but I was just worn out and wanted to be finished with them.  

2011 Pumpkins

A few things I learned this year

1. I want to decorate some fake pumpkins in the fall colors to put around my house every year.     Then I can paint real pumpkins however I want

2. Mod Podge is super awesome and so so easy...I think I will try to do more things with it next year.  

3. Even though the pumpkin is already orange...paint it anyway...it looks better!

So there you have it!  All of my pumpkins :)

Best friends, baby gifts, and emotions

Just a little warning, this is a totally random post!

I'm not sure if I have mentioned this but I have the bestest best friend EVER.  Her name is Sarah and we have been friends since 8th grade.  Since I have been totally nesting and wanting to clean out everything in my house, she volunteered to come over and help me!  There are many reasons I love her BUT one of the main ones is for her organizing skills and her craftiness.  So, she helped me clean out my craft closet today.  She pretty much did everything...I just told her what to do!  This is what the closet looked like before....

We took everything out of the closet and put it on the floor in the spare bedroom.  Then we organized everything into plastic tubs and put it all back.  Here is the after pic...

I had to force myself not to use my label maker and label all the tubs...since I can see what is in them!

If you are wondering what all the junk is here is a small list :)

-scrapbook paper

-scrapbook supplies

-markers

-crayons

-fall decorations

-spray paint

-regular paint

-paint brushes

-candles

-candle holders

You get the idea right???

Anyway, so happy to have this done and can't wait to move on to the next project!  I am in a holding pattern on baby girl's room until the shelves are installed so I am working on everything else I guess.  

The baby gifts are starting to arrive.  Lonnie came home from work this week with this sweet little white blanket that a lady that works for him made our for our little princess.

Quick backstory.  There is a girl that I went to x-ray school with but lost touch with her after we graduated (2004).  Last year one of my husband's partners was telling me about a girl who was working at another hospital they cover who was having problems with infertility.  He asked me if it was ok to give her my email address so she could ask me questions since I was very knowledgable (unfortunately).  It turned out to be her.  So we have been talking and I told her everything I knew about everything....at that point we were on a break before starting IVF #3.  She has had 2 ectopic pregnancies so both tubes removed...only IVF for her. We will call her A here because I am not sure she would want all that announced to the world!  

My husband came home from work yesterday with another gift and it was from her.  She made this blanket and this adorable sock monkey!

Let's all cross our fingers for her and send A some baby vibes.  She has been saving up for IVF for a while and they are about to get started.  She has been on Lupron and about to start stimming.  I really hope this works for her...she deserves it so much!

This brings me to my last topic.  I am an emotional crazy person.  I cried when I opened both of these gifts.  I cry when I see commercials on tv..especially the Pampers one.  I cried when I realized I could no longer see my vagina the other day...a happy cry, of course, but going to have to figure something out on that front.  I cried when my husband killed the wasps on our dock the other day...what if that was a mommy wasp????

I will leave you with this....

You know you are way too emotional when you cry every time you see roadkill...

again that could have been a momma possum???  TEAR.....

Mosaic

A few years ago me, my  mom, and my Grand started doing mosaics.  There is a place here in town where you can go and she has all of the tools.  She also has a bunch of glass, tile, plates, old mirrors, etc that you can use.  You just pay depending on the size of the object (window, piece of wood, mailbox, tabletop, etc) you are going to mosaic.  


After we started doing it my friends started going as well.  Once you pay you can go back as many times as you like to finish up your project.  We haven't been in about a year.  I haven't been because last year was a pretty rough year for me and I was not very social.  But we have all been talking about getting back into it and starting a new project.  I figured I would do something for baby girls room.  So me and my friend Sarah went this morning.  I can't stop thinking about mosaicing!  I am back to being addicted :)


I bought 2 picture frames that I am going to put her newborn pictures in and hang on her wall.  When I finish them in a week or so I will post pictures for you.  In the meantime I thought I would show you some of the stuff that I have done.  

This is the first one that I did.  We use it to hang our keys on when we walk in the door.  

This is the second one that I did.  I wanted something to put in our bar and a martini glass seemed perfect!  This was in the beginning...I outlined the glass and the whole board in cut up mirrors.  Then I got some metallic foil and glued it where the martini glass was.  

Then I glued bluish tempered glass to make the glass.  I used green and red glass for the olives and then black glass for the background.  

Instead of just randomly putting the black glass on the background I made a design...just to give it some depth.  

This is with all of the glass glued on but without the grout.  

And here is the finished product....hanging in my bar!  I love it!

This is one that my mom did on an old mirror.  I don't have a picture of the final product but you get the idea. It hangs in her house on her sliding glass door and the sun shines through it every day.  So pretty!

The last two sections she did in red....

This is a mirror that I did for my guest bathroom upstairs.  I just got a large board, glued a mirror to it and then did all the mosaicing.  

Final product!

My friend, Sarah, did this one for her classroom.  She is a second grade teacher and the schools mascot is the wolves.  This one is amazing!

I love doing this.  It is so relaxing.  I can't wait to show y'all the picture frames I am making for baby girl!

Valentine's and Orange Juice

First of all, I want to thank all of you who commented on my last two posts.  It really means a lot to me to hear from you girls that are reading my blog.  I love y'all!!!


Hope everyone is having a great weekend.  I know I have because it has been 60 degrees and sunny here and that always helps.

I have had to work all weekend but the guy we just hired took my night time call last night and tonight....I really heart him!  It is pretty super working with a guy (hard to find a male in my field) that just got out of school and is totally gung-ho about taking call as much as possible so he can save money.  That ship has totally sailed for me.  I want to work my hours and then be done.  I would be ok not taking any call but I don’t have that option where I work.  I am on call every 7th weekend and every other Thursday, which I know is not bad AT ALL (compared to what I did when I was full time), but I despise call.  Getting out of bed and driving to the hospital multiple times a night gets old really fast.  Not to mention it is usually to scan a pregnant girl, who is 17, has a baby with her, and reeks of cigarettes.  This is not good for an infertile girl......I have had to bite my tongue many times and I have also cried on the way home multiple times.  Seriously, there are so many stories.  Sometimes my profession is absolute torture....but I do love it most of the time! 

Sooooo.....tomorrow is Valentine’s Day.  We don’t have big plans at all.  I think we are going to go out to dinner because, honestly, I don’t want to clean the kitchen.  I mean....I like it when we cook together but we don’t clean together and this girl is tired.  I am not a big fan of going out to dinner on Valentine’s because of the crowds and the prix fixe menus but I think I’ll make an exception this time!  Last Valentine’s Day my honey cooked me an awesome meal and we drank lots of wine....

Rigatoni pasta with sausage and peppers

Terrible picture but here we are!  I look like I have been crying and probably was.  This was just after our first IUI had failed and I had been convinced it had worked :(

So we drank tons of this!

The year before that (2009) I was really into making cakes (which I want to get back into) so I made him a cake.  It was presh....

Cake next to the pink roses he got me

All I really want to do this Valentine's Day is hang out with my honey.  He has been so busy at work and I have been so flippin' crazy through all this IVF stuff so we haven't really gotten to spend quality time together.  I want to go out and eat yummy dinner, come home and watch a movie while we snuggle on the couch with our sweet baby(ies).  This sounds ahhh-mazing to me!  


Speaking of baby(ies).....this is what is sitting next to me as I type this....

This stuff is my best friend.  I can not get enough!  It's not a craving but I am just so thirsty all the time and water is getting old.  I have never been a huge fan of OJ but it looked yums at the store so I made the purchase.  Pumped that I did because it is rocking my world!  Oh and I don't have a glass next to me....I have the whole container :)


Hope y'all have a great day tomorrow with your sweeties!!

What I like

So, what do I do in my spare time before I had a blog?  Well, let’s see.  

I really love to scrapbook although I haven’t made one in a while.  The last one I made was for my friend Keisha when she had her baby girl.  It was a month by month (up to 1st birthday party), ready made book...so all she had to do was put the pictures in.  Because what mom of a newborn has time to make a scrapbook?  Her sweet baby was born at 29 weeks and spent a while in the hospital, so I was glad I went ahead and made the book for her instead of just buying her the stuff so she could make her own.  Here are a few pics of it......

place for a birth picture and one month picture

 2 and 3 month 

8 and 9 month

and a place for a mommy and me picture on her 1st birthday

I have been making a few photo books online though.  For our third wedding anniversary last October I made Lonnie a book of all of our travels together.  We have been together five years and have been quite a few places.  I have an album of each trip but I wanted something to set on the coffee table that was like a summary of our first five years.  I love it!!!  Here are just a few of the pages....

Another thing that I like to do sometimes is puzzles....like jigsaw puzzles.  I know, super nerdy, but I have liked them since I was a kid.  I swear they help me relax!  I mean, I love nothing better than sitting at my kitchen table with a glass of wine doing a puzzle.  It is awesome.  Oh and by the way.....I am awesome at it!!  Like I could probably win some sort of competition...not even kidding.  On occasion I can get my honey to do one with me.  I think he is starting to like them and appreciate the relaxation that they bring.  We shall see....  Just for fun I will post some pics of a couple of them.  The first two are 2000 piece and the last three are just 1000 piece.  

A few other things that I like.....

• super hot bubble baths
• hot chocolate
• diet sprite with strawberry from Sonic
• popcorn with M&M’s
• shoes...ALL kinds of shoes
• running (although I haven’t done that in a month or so because I was sick and then IVF started)
• playing fantasy football (me and all my girlfriends play in a league together...never cared a thing about NFL football until we started this league...I’m very competitive!)
• playing cards with my mom, aunt, and grandmother (we have tournaments)
• hanging out with my girlfriends
• the Razorbacks
• watching movies with my husband
• the beach
• traveling 
• Lupron....JUST KIDDING!!!!!  HA!
• and now blogging!