Oh Harold....

why can't you resist the markers, paint, crayons, pens, pencils, etc...?

Garden Markers

Well the garden is slowly coming to life. Its taking a bit longer I think because I started everything outside, but its starting to make its way to looking like something! 

This year I wanted something cute to tell me what was dying...I mean growing out there, but couldn't really find anything 1. cute and 2. in my price range. Then I thought "Rebecca. Make them."

Let me rephrase that. My husband can make them. He cut out some wood and I glued them on some flat sticks and then, the boys and I took the cutter over to our friend Kelli's.  She was brave and spread out some newspaper in the kitchen and let all three boys paint the markers. 

If you can handle crazy Harold in your kitchen...you are a true friend.

After blood, sweat and tears (just from my two), we cleaned up and took over, finding that its not as big of a sin as we thought to mix the colors. 

The cutter came in handy to cut letters from vinyl. Then they are sealed with some uv resistant gloss sealer.

You could get really fancy with these..modge podge paper, paint fancy designs, etc...but I really like how the solid (the mixed paint colors by the 3 year old and the scribbly 1.11 year old) markers look. I still have more to do, but here are a few:

Publish Post

What size do you scrap?

When I first started scrapbooking, I was an 8 1/2 x 11 scrapper. I always said I was never going to do 12x12. I would turn up my nose to 12x12 and scoff at the ridiculousness of that size.

Well.....then I had my first baby and couldn't figure out how anyone would possibly ever want to scrapbook at 8 1/2 x11. "Ugh. thats so small...and old school."

Turns out, I like to vary it up a bit....4x4, 6x6, 8x8 and 12x12. But still no 8 1/2x11..until now. I am thinking about going back to my "roots" if you will. Its a bit cheaper as you have the scraps from the 12x12 paper and a bigger space saver (which I need.)

I don't know. What do you do for scrapbooking size?

New Blog Look!

Thanks to Houseof3! What a cute little blog facelift! I thought it would be more fun to do one already made than to try to tackle making my own. It was so fast and easy to do.

However....I accidentally deleted all of my links on the side bar....I still have every single one of them in my Google Reader though *which is what I use to keep on everyone's fun blogs! So if there was a link here you need, just let me know!

Page Kits at Devine Memories

Avaliable soon!

Freezer Paper Stenciling

Last week, my sister in law Melissa and I tackled freezer paper stenciling. Not only was it a lot of fun and the results were great but it is very addictive!

We used my cutter to do the designs. I didn't get pictures of what she did but here are some of mine:

First, I tried the robot. My big guy loves Plex from Yo Gabba Gabba so this reminds him of that (he always talks about the heart on the robot that Mommy put on)

Then I mixed it up a bit and did some tools for my mischievious little guy that is always hammering and trying to fix something

Then later, my husband wanted to design some too so he came up with these two (he was just the brains of the operation ;))

Monkey Chicken (what our older guy used to say for "Micah Jaden")

And we all know and love Harold...and his purple crayon

I even got my sister in on the fun and she did this one later:

The possibilities are endless and there are some great examples on flickr too for more ideas. I can't wait to do one for my little guys second birthday in a couple of weeks!

Busy Busy Day!

Today was a fun and crazy day with canning and food preserving! My friend Kelli and I went in on a 40 lb case of pink lady apples and 140 lemons. 

The 4 kids all played well together, the smallest ones would occassionally sneak an apple and we got a lot accomplished! 

We made:

 

7 jars of applesauce (plus a half quart with uncooked apples)

7 jars of pie filling (2 of the jars were pints)

and each took 23 apples for our family.  (46 left over!)

Lemon bars--SO good. soo good.

Lemon Sorbet-to cleanse the pallet (:)) Used my ice cream maker and it was lightening fast.

after we made these, we then split the remainder of the lemons (which were a lot) 

I juiced my portion and ended up with up with almost 3 quarts of lemon juice! (plan on using the lemon rinds too)

Its a lot of work but always worth it in the end. I plan on juicing and dehydrating the apples from my half and she will be making apple butter. yum!

warning. all about my kids alert!

Jackson loves lemons but not on his pacifier (BoBo, as we call it here.) Please ignore his pantless self..he hates pants and eventually you dont fight it anymore.

...and Jaden imitating his baby brother:

Jaden's new hat

So I saw this tutorial over the weeked and thought I would give it a shot. Jaden has been wanting a green hat, and i figure my first attempt wouldn't be perfect, so he would have a "play hat" (This is my child that sleeps with a baseball hat on. He loves hats.)

I like how it matches his eyes. Next time, I WILL get the pleats right :)

Blanket for Hillary Jane

So excited to make this for a mama who had two boys and now its time to frilly it up! 

I made her brother one last year (its an alien blanket with soft blue fuzzy goodness on the other side..yes! an action shot!)  and I hear its still a hit:

This time I was told definitely PINK with oranges, greens, etc.

I hope she likes it!

Pink and Green Nursing Cover

...for Bella. And I liked the fabric so much that I made one for the etsy shop too! (I needed to add something new in there!)

Dehydrating everything in sight!

I have been loving this dehydrator I begged off of my mother in law (thank you! thank you!). Yesterday we made fruit leather with strawberries and peaches and today I dehydrated corn:

I dont think I ever want to be without one again. Next on the list: Roma Tomatoes!  And stay tuned..in the next couple of days, will be preserving pink lady apples and lemons!

Paint Brush Organizer

I have a lot going on my head right now. Lots of crazy nonsense. Some good...some bad. I have a billion things I want to work on today to push it all out. Random nonsense here, I know.

Anyway. Wednesday (I think?) I made this paint brush organizer to keep my brushes all nice

 and in one spot. I customized it for me and put a snap pocket inside too. I still didnt make it big enough (I have a lot of the plastic scrapers that came in a pack) but I told myself that not everything and the kitchen sink has to be in there. Just focus on the brushes.

Each pocket is different sizes because that way the brush is held in better. Its a lot snugger than the crochet hook organizer I made (which I dont think I ever posted, did I? Its cute).

And now I am going out to breakfast. Its rare when my husband is home on a Saturday morning, not at work! Its even more rare when I have a babysitter sleeping on my couch and we can sneak out while the kids are sleeping!

Photo Tile Coasters

Decorating tiles isnt a new concept, but I liked how these turned out. I used modge podge, my own photos, ribbon, rubons and a matte spray. Tiles were 38 cents a piece at Lowe's. All those trips to Lowe's lately wasn't a total loss. They look pretty all stacked up in the living room too!

Cool Photo Find

on Yahoo. My husband sent me this photo this morning and I thought it was so neat, I wanted to share!

Barn and Stars

It looks like a painting. And the stars are wild!

Fabric memory lane...

....because I want to and I can.

I need to make a paint brush holder and am thinking of using the rest of my favorite fabric if I have enough. Then I was thinking how I keep talking about what I have done with this fabric in the past. So I thought I would post it here:

• Diaper and Wipes Cases
• Camera Strap
• Sadly I dont have one of my tool organizer I sold awhile back.
  

I also have baby pictures of Jackson in his boppy and his sling and didn't want to dig them out, so I did new ones today. (Jaden took the sling pictures. :))

I did a lot (and sometimes still do) of baby wearing. Remember the mei tai I made? I have so many fun pictures of carrying both boys. I did more with Jackson because I learned more about baby wearing the second time around. It makes me look forward to one day doing it all over again :)

And my boppy cover. The back is a soft black material with a black zipper. My first every zipper!

Ok, ok....since I am going down this little memory lane trip...here are some old action shots.

Pregnant and looking horrible while carrying my handsome Jaden, (it can hold 30 pounds!). The sling wasnt sized right here but I was excited I made it.

....and when Jack was a baby, I still needed to adjust it...but he is so sweet :)

So sweet. I just want to kiss those lips.

The Chupacabra's Spring Haircut.

It's that time of year again, folks!

The Chupacabra's Spring Haircut. (and this may or may not have to do with the fact that he dug up my newly planted garden yesterday morning.)

Viva la chupacabra!

Another sweet baby blanket...

I always love creating and seeing the finished product of these baby blankets (the messy middle part isnt too fun, but its always worth it when its finished..tell that to my furry contacts right now :))

This one is a gift from Micah and I for someone that Micah works with. They didn't find out the gender and its their first baby. Their colors in the nursery are brown and turquoise, so I am hoping this matches to their liking. Micah and I went and picked it all out together, so I thought that was kind of neat.

My favorite part of this is the ribbons. Really wide and fun ones with brown velvet mixed in too! Its 36x36 so its a good size square blanket.

Now its back to my housework. Which is definitely not sweet....and to clean my contacts from silky fleece!

Whew! I am TIRED!

Warning! This is probably a very boring post to everyone. Its more for my own peace of mind and ramblings.

Today was supposed to be a productive day. Actually, so was yesterday. We have four trees that need to be planted, a vine that is waiting to be planted, a fence in the backyard that needs to be finished (half started), another that needs to be built, other odds and ends with the sprinkler system, the grass needs work, etc. And thats just outside.

Did anything get done? No. After church, we spent the day doing errands that needed to get done, and then had dinner at my parents' house. When I got home, of course I started into something completely not needing to be done right now.

I just wanted to see how i am doing for my February goals, as we are halfway through the month. Lets see here....here's what i have finished

• start a new Bible study. - not necessarily a new Bible study...but a lot of questions are being answered.
  
• update my etsy...sick of seeing christmas stuff on there, time to put fun new things in! -i have started with the wipe cases. got more fabric today to make more crayon rolls.
  
• make Jack's pillow-waiting for the stuffing to go half off at JoAnn - done and i found a bag of stuffing so it was free!
  
• build and stain Jack's dresser -skipping this. bought plastic (gasp. i know i am horrible.) drawers for closet instead today. i think i am much happier this way. who knows how long he will be in his crib and in his current furniture state anyway. and the drawers were clearanced at lowe's.
• put the boxes in the attic from christmas so that I can have the patio back (not my job. i did my part before 2009!) - you better believe thats done. woo hoo!...now its got tools and such on it for fence in progress.
  
• start 2009 garden - done for now!
  

Ok...about half way done! And of course, I keep adding to the list. I have a feeling that its going to run into March...and I am ok with that...March's list is already crazy!

My Valentine's Gift

I gave him the painting...he knew I had painted something but had no idea what it was. It was a really touching moment. He told me that it was a true Valentine's gift because I painted what he loves. (well ya know...besides me of course. wink wink)

Jackson's eyes are so blue. Just thought I would throw that out there.

Micah is already trying to figure out where to hang it.

(I dont think he knew the camera was taking his picture too. (and now that it has dried, the background on the painting doesnt look so crazy weird in spots.)