State Fair 2010

A few moments from our trip to the state fair yesterday. Long day, but always fun.

Cool free pin, that'll be perfect for the scrapbook.

Silly photo of me and number three.

Yummy blue ICEE.

Lots and lots of water. We really lucked out though, the weather was perfect.

Loved the weather vane on top of the horse stable. I also liked the graduation of colors.

Number two in the cockpit of a replica Thunderbird jet.

Number one in the cockpit of a "real" jet, with Papa and a docent explaining what does what.

Nana and number three in the shade.

Almost complete family photo (Hubby was taking the picture). Can you tell we're having fun yet? Actually we were, the kids just weren't cooperating for photo op time.

All in all a good day. Lots of food, sun and fun.

Random Moments

Meet my new kitchen faucet, her name is "Fairbury". I don't really like that name, so I'll be renaming her. She reminds me of a goose. Maybe because it's a "gooseneck" faucet? Anyways, I'll be thinking of a fun new name for her. And yes, she is a girl. Anything that I use the majority of the time is automatically a girl. Since I am chief dishwasher in our house, her and I will be clocking lots of quality time together.

Read this great post this morning about remembering that blogging is just that, blogging. It's not a popularity contest. Or a who has the most followers contest. Or a who has the most giveaways contest. Or a who has the best linky parties contest....you get the idea. A MuSt read for anyone in bloggy land. http://www.incourage.me/2010/07/if-blogging-makes-you-feel-small.html

Took the kids to Target this morning. Oldest had $1 from the "tooth fairy" that was burning a hole in his pocket, so we went to the dollar bins there. While there I decided to check out the school supply section. I LoVe school supplies. I don't know what it is about them, I love shopping for them. On a side note....24 count boxes of Crayola crayons are only $0.25!!

Ok, so this is what happened while we were there. We were walking down the main aisle, and we passed an end cap stocked with wines. Just as we were passing by, the top shelf buckled and 30 or so boxes of wine came tumbling down to the floor. Stocked under were glass wine bottles, which I was waiting for the boxes to take out on the way down. Thank you Lord, they didn't. First words out of number one's mouth? "Mommy, I didn't do it!!!". I was so relieved he didn't.

Fifty Is Fabulous!!

Yeah!!! As of today, my little blog has reached fifty followers! I am so excited, and humbled that fifty of you would want to read my thoughts, ideas and more.

Thank you my fab fifty followers!!

Scrapbook Weekend

I was able to go scrapbooking both Friday and Saturday this weekend! Between the two days, I completed thirty pages!! So excited. Here are some that I did.

My First Two Wheeler

Tag, You're It!

"Goggles"

"Aaargh, We're Pirates!"

"Run 4 Fun"

You are Loved

"Fire!"

First MLB Game

"Pool Party"

Please click on "Linky Parties I Love" to see where I'll be sharing my work.

"I Free Years Old"

Happy third birthday my littlest! I can't believe how fast the time has gone by, it really does seem like you were just a newborn baby. Now you are no longer a baby, but my big three year old boy.

You love Bibleman, John Deere and swimming in our backyard pool. You adore your oldest brother and love pestering your big sister. You are a kooky clown who loves to say that everything is "stinky".

You love having a story read to you, and love playing in the bathtub. You love your Daddy and love to say, "Go Cubs Go!". You love your Grandparents, and your uncles and aunts. Uncle "Spency" holds a special place in your heart.

You love popsicles and cereal, and would eat cheese non-stop if you could. You are our special blessing and we couldn't imagine our lives without you. Happy Birthday my little "Pupcake".

Kitchen Drawer Shadowbox

I was at the Habitat Re-Store a few weeks back and happened across two old kitchen drawers, priced right at $2 each. They were sturdy, solid wood, big but not too big and had adorably chippy cloud blue paint on them. Home with me they went, not sure what to do with them but knew that they would make a good project.

I was reading one of my fave blogs Funky Junk Interiors (Donna is an inspiration, a repurposing guru) and it had a challenge on using old drawers for projects. Perfect, just what I was looking for! After looking at several link ups, I had an idea. BTW, if you want some more inspiration for uses for old drawers look at her blog
here .

Here's what I came up with. I took the drawer and painted the inside of it with my trusty Kilz in "Antique White". The "Home Sweet Home" is a vinyl decal that I picked up from Joann's for only $0.50!! I mixed up a few different colors of craft paint to come up with the brown that I used for the border.

I had bought this huge roll of beautiful vintage ribbon awhile back at my favorite thrift store. It's really thick, and it fit perfectly to line the inside of the drawer! I love how it looks, I am so glad I was able to use it here.

I took sandpaper and roughed up the edges pretty good, leaving it chippy and scratched up. I wanted it to look somewhat worn and aged.

I'm still playing around with the vignette for the inside. I do like the hanging silverware, almost reminds me of a mini chandellier. The silverware is a mix of my MIL's and an old vintage silver baby spoon my Mom gave me. I love the look of old and new. I'm kinda irked by the outline of the vinyl decal, so I will probably pull it off and cut it out with an exacto knife and reposition it. But for now it'll stay.

All in all, I'm excited with the results. $2.50 in new supplies, everything else I already had on hand. Please click on "Linky Parties I Love" on the right to see where I'll be sharing my latest creation.

Lots of Layouts

I've been on quite a scrapbooking kick lately, and I'm loving it. I feel like I've finally made somewhat of a dent in my photo boxes (although I just ordered 544 more prints, yikes!!!). Anyhoo, here are some layouts that I've recently done. I'm not sure what is up with the blueish tint to them, my camera obviously wasn't liking the lighting.

Pirate themed LO, #3 was sporting a pirate headband so I went with that.

LO from a trip to a local children's museum, I tried to match the papers somewhat to the colors from the pictures.

Oldest's 5th birthday. I used buttons to make the number 5 in the upper corner, although it's hard to tell from the photo angle.

Bzzzzzzzzzzzz LO, number three was having fun in his honeybee costume.

"Best Buds" LO with number one and three. They are really good friends, they love being together (or love fighting together).

"Park Days" LO with number two. I had this beautiful floral tape that I wanted to use here, I really like how it looked against the solid paper.

"Princess" LO. Number two loves dressing up as a princess, we have countless photos of her in dress up clothes. The "medallion" like embellishment in the bottom corner is actually a felt coaster that I dressed up.

"All Together" LO. This is all three of the kiddos hanging out on the couch. Since number three was wearing a Hawaiian shirt, I decided to go with a beachy theme, explaining the palm tree papers. I LOVE the shot with all of their footsies! Don't you love how my cat snuck in the picture?

I've finished quite a few more LO's, maybe I'll get around to posting some of those soon! Click on "Linky Parties I Love" to see where I'll be linking up.

Glass Shade Garden Lantern

So I happened along this awesome molded glass shade when I was at the Habitat Re-Store a few weeks ago, I paid a whopping $0.10 for it! It's heavy and I love the chunkiness to it. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it but I couldn't pass it up. I was looking at a magazine the other day and came up with the idea to hang it outside.

At first I wasn't sure how to hang it, but then I remembered that I had some wire I had bought for another project and decided to try it. Just simple 26 gauge wire from the hardware store, nothing fancy. It worked!

I just took the wire and wrapped it several times around the shade. This worked because as you can see from the picture, the shade had a lip around it to hold the wire in place. When looking for a shade, keep in mind that you'll want one with a lip. I then left enough slack to rig up a "hook" and just slipped it over the tree branch. Easy as pie!

I'm really happy with the look, I think it blends in nicely as well as stands out in the tree/bush I hung it in. I've not really seen the sun hit it right on yet, but when I do I bet it'll look beautiful! It would also look great with a lit tea light, but I wouldn't use a candle larger than that unless you knew you had a tempered glass shade (which most aren't).

Please click "Linky Parties I Love" on the right to see where I'll be sharing this inexpensive and easy idea.

Household "Hyacinths"

So lately I'm really all about finding "Hyacinths" for my soul. What are they you ask? Special little somethings that really make you happy, speak to you or just bring you joy. My Momma introduced me to this concept, and I'm all over it!

So from time to time I want to share my special things and hear about your special things! Today I wanted to share my "Hyacinths" for the house. Things I use while cleaning that make me happy, or make my life easier. Here they are, in no particular order.
So I discovered Caldrea products, and they are amazing! Target sells their line, a more budget friendly option. I bought their hand soap, in an awesome scent called "Olive Oil". It smells nothing like olive oil, but it does smell amazing and makes me sigh a little sigh every time I wash my hands at the kitchen sink. Oh, and did I mention I hide it from the other little grubby paws in the house and hoard it all to myself?

Hands down, the best dishwashing liquid ever. We have the top of the line dishwasher in our house, me! So I am always looking for a yummy smelling but hard working dishsoap, and this one definitely fits the bill! I have tried a few different scents of theirs, my favorites are "Geranium" and "Basil". Heavenly smells I tell you, I have no problem zoning out when doing the dishes while using this stuff.

Ok, I have a confession to make. I'm freakishly kinda neurotic when it comes to cleaning the bathroom. I like it to smell like a hospital when I'm done. Yeah, I'm sure that I'm killing lots of brain cells in the process but I like it to smell "clean". Lysol sells this super concentrated cleaner, one bottle will last you a year (seriously, if not longer). It cleans every gunk and gook you can find in the bathroom and you will be left with a both a clean and a clean smelling bathroom.

I am gonna say it, judge me if you will. I would give a long, lingering kiss to the person who invented this thing if I ever met them. The "magic eraser" is a gift from above. I cannot even begin to describe what I've gotten off of walls and floors with this thing. I cannot imagine my life without it, and that is not even a slight exaggeration.

I finally broke down a few years ago and asked for this for my birthday. I know, what a gift! But it actually has ended up being quite a gift to clean my floors. We have yicky old linoleum floors that have lots of nooks and crannies, perfect for collecting all sorts of creeping crud. That and my kids are the messiest eaters on the planet and my floors are always sporting whatever they've had for their meal. I love how easy this is to use, and while the refills are pricey I've found a way around part of that by figuring out how to refill the cleaning bottles with my own solution.

So there are my household "hyacinths". I'd love to hear about yours, I'm always on the lookout to add to my collection!

I am not being compensated at all for endorsing any of these products, they are just ones that I truly enjoy using!

Oldies But Goodies

Going through my parent's computer finding old pictures of the kids. After a few, three actually, complete computer crashes at home we've lost a lot of pictures that thankfully my parents have. Going through their files, here are some favorites of mine.

My last official "pregnant" picture with my third. He was born a few weeks later.

Oldest at my sister's college graduation three years ago. Wow, he's changed SO much since then.

Number one and number two three years ago. They look so little!

Number two as a "princess" when we had our Happy Harvest party. She was adorables, still is!

Number three, about 9 months old. He used to be such a chubber. You'd never know that was the same kid now, he's skinny as can be.

Good idea to go through old pictures from time to time, reminds me how fast these "stages" go. Even though sometimes when in them it feels like they last forever, they don't.