it's a sickness...

seriously...i can't stay away from fabric..buying fabric i mean. here in mesa, the humanitarian center for our church (LDS) is moving so they are selling all their fabric...they told me about this at church and i just had to go and see! they have TONS of fabric...and quilt tops and backs but i wasn't going to venture there:)i got lots of gingham (lots of purple in this box...it was sold by the box and then i added some things in:) so if you like purple call me:)

the helicopters and the dotty one next to it are flannel...lots of flannel, like 2 yards each i think

so many checks so little time! and look at that bandanna print! so awesome!

and these...how could i leave them there? vintage snoopy and mickey? come on!

i am so happy...and how much did it all cost? $10. ten bucks!!!!!!! the flannel alone would have been $10 or more full price! yikes!

i did have a purpose in buying this though...some of this fabric is going to make pillowcases for craft hope.

for kids with cancer...join in if you want! they have to be done by sept. 15 so i need to get cracking!

Reusable snack bags...

i have been wanting to make some of these bags for a while...and last time i went to SAS (love that place!) they had ripstop nylon on sale for $1 a yard! gotta love it! so i fired up the sewing machine on saturday night and made some little beauties...

i first saw this tutorial on babycenter and then subsequently found this one, and went more of this direction because i liked that there were no exposed edges in with the food in that last tutorial. just a personal preference. and of course i used the ripstop nylon on the inside so it is wipeable and the entire thing is washable.

it's closed with velcro that is cut in half lengthwise so it is easier for small hands to open.

the kids loved them...they were new and distracting for church:) the only downside is that it isn't airtight, obviously, so food can't stay indefinitely in them or it will get stale. but i am hopeful that this will help cut down on our ziplock bag consumption which is getting a little silly!

around here...

this is what's going on...

(she's got good form, don't you think?)

(sitting in the shoe basket...she wears this dress at least once a day)

(he's asleep on the couch...experimenting with the flash on the new camera)

(still SO HOT! yikes...come on october!)

(little man is sick AGAIN! had an ear infection...then it turned into that nasty chest cough and congestion...so now he's on a steroid they give to people with asthma...awesome! he loves that tylenol bottle though:) and he's up to 17lbs. so great!)

avery's party...

avery had her friend birthday party this past weekend...it was a lot of fun. we did it at a pool by her grandma's house and we started at 9 am...because it was already 100 degrees at that time! yuck! any other people born to our family have to have a birthdate between february and april...i could maybe do may but that's it! no more summer birthdays in arizona ( mine is may, ethan's is in july, kendall and avery both in august and blake in october)! it's stinking hot.

i digress.

the party was lots of fun! kids swam and played. we had a pinata, muffins and fruit, fish cupcakes and cookies to take home! thank you to everyone that was able to come and help us celebrate our little girl! we love you for doing that for us on such a hot day and we love our girl!

i made the cookies as take home gifts and i used the CD envelope idea to package them and of course made some stickers for them because sticker paper is now my new favorite thing...ever! i used this recipe {it's betty crocker}

3/4 C. granulated sugar

3/4 C. packed brown sugar

1 C. margarine or butter (can decrease, and i did, to 3/4 C)

1 tsp. vanilla

1 lg. egg

2 1/4 C. flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 bag (2 cups) chocolate chips

mix sugars, butter, vanilla and egg, beat until creamy. this is an important step, the sugars need to be beat and mixed well, it really makes a difference! stir in flour, baking soda, and salt. stir in chocolate chips. drop about 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet, bake 8-10 minutes, centers will be soft, cool 1-2 minutes on cookie sheet then remove to wire rack.

i did three different kinds of cookies: chocolate chip (2 cups), white chocolate chip macadamia nut (1 bag white chocolate chips (2 cups), 1/2 c. bag of macadamia nuts, chopped up), and m & m's (2 cups).

i used my ice cream scoop to make these that has the little lever that pushes the ice cream (or dough in this case) out of the scoop. much easier and more uniform! the bigger cookies need to bake longer, 12-14 minutes, will vary by oven i am sure.

Before and After...{finally}

here are some before pictures of the table, chairs and bench...

(table without a leaf; it came with two additional leaves)

the chairs: the colored ones (4 total) were out on the side of the road of a neighbor's house, so they were free and the black metal ones (3 total) came from DI, $3 each.

these are the cushions before they were recovered...the turquoise stripe was a "first edition" of the seats...didn't like it, so went with some vinyl...

:DURING:

the chairs and table got spray primed with rustoleum gray primer...i spray primed the bench white (no pic) with kilz spray primer....i think spraying the primer on made that process go faster.


my painting helpers!

the table and bench were painted by hand. i wasn't confident enough in my spray painting skills to spray the table and i already had the paint for the bench from a previous project so that had to be brushed on. i used foam brushes to paint it on and for the black for the table i used Behr premixed gloss black paint. i ran out of painting by hand mojo and sprayed the chairs...it worked okay but then i had to go back and touch up a bit. i used minwax polycrylic in gloss to seal everything.

:and now the AFTER:

i am really pleased with how they turned out...we used them yesterday for the first time at avery/daddy's family birthday party and everyone could sit together at the table, it was great! yahoo! glad that project is done! (mostly: i have one chair that needs it seat recovered still...i ran out of vinyl on the last one!)

linking:

notes to self...

*post recipes for: mini cheesecakes and coconut cream pie

*post AFTER pictures of table/chairs! YES THEY ARE DONE!

*go to bed, it's 1:57am !!!!!!!!!!!!

happy birthday little lady!

today is avery's third birthday! the time has gone super fast! her start as an infant was a little rough...she was very grumpy for a while...she had reflux and was angry but then once she was close to a year she got super happy and snuggly:) we just love you to pieces little missus! you are a bright shiny light in our house! your passion and sense of fun are infectious and we love that you love babies and blake, and daddy and playing outside and making maps and art and anything you can draw with a pencil (it all looks like squiggles right now but that will change one day!) she got a little play kitchen...i think they love it! i also got her something to contain her "work." she always tells me how she's going to work and she is constantly carrying around a pad of paper and a pencil...and then leaving them all over the house in random places so i thought this might help to contain our "work" and to give her an "official"-ness to her work:)

daddy had a birthday!

kendall turned the big 2-9 on saturday! he celebrated by taking the two elder children on a church campout on friday and getting back around 2:30pm on saturday! what a brave guy:) little man and i stayed home, this was always the plan...baby in a tent? what about the crying and all the other tents? then what do i lean up against when i have to nurse the baby in the middle of the night cause we don't do nursing laying down...then what if we wake up the other kids in the tiny tent on the two blow up mattresses? needless to say i got a headache thinking of it not to mention blake in the car trying to get 2.5 hours away and home again in a day and half time period...so we stayed home...and we both were sick so it worked:)

happy birthday to kendall! he's a great guy, a great dad and he loves pie! i asked him what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday and he said,"who says i have to have cake?" yep, a pie man through and through. coconut cream being the fav. this one was store bought...i'll be making one for the family birthday party which is next sunday; a combined party for kendall and the little lady. her birthday is this thursday...we are in that season!

happy boy after camping

dirty dirty feet kids!

on a health update:

we paid three doc. office co pays today:

blake: ear infection, nasty cough, fever, yuck!

avery: virus, but is running a fever and says her throat hurts. doc says virus for now...wait for it to turn into something if it is going to...awesome.

me: sinus infection (with a sore throat that kills, a cough that is ragged and if i sneeze i may die) (again! jackie i feel your pain!) and the doctor sent my antibiotics to who knows where...not where i told her and there's no after hours number to reach a doc...so cool!

ethan: says his throat hurts but mom thinks it was a ploy to get gatorade!

kendall: nothing yet...

again??????

how i get tired of typing it...but i am sick again! yuck! and blake has got something as well...lame. i need to finish my chairs and if i'm hacking up a lung and feel like i have knives in my throat...that's not going to happen in the over 100 degree weather!

yuck-o

peek...

update in pictures...

what we've been up to lately...minus the painting pictures (because those deserve their own post:))

we made cookies using our letter cookie cutters and i find it oddly satisfying to spell things with dough...

this picture was taken this past week...she is wearing long pjs and a JACKET! it's got to be over 90 in this picture...i couldn't get her to take the jacket off...but she did come in pretty soon after...

cute little man, feeding himself...my how the time flies..he's 9 months old now!

kendall revived the age old tradition of building chair/blanket tents with the kids this week. they loved it. avery is tickling ethan's toes in this picture.

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on a separate note:

i {heart} craigslist!

i do. i stalk craigslist when i need something...that is not a surprise (i got both the table and bench from CL) but we just had our first successful selling something on craigslist experience. the table and chairs that i am replacing needed a new home so i listed it today thinking if i got an email or two in the next week that would be great...about an hour after i listed it i got an email and about 3.5 hours after i listed it, it was gone! amazing...what else can i sell????