Warmer Color

I've got the painting bug! Reed wanted me to go to Ace hardware store with him so I went along....and had my paint swatches in hand. I've been looking at this color for a while to help add warmth to the great room. It's not a huge change, which is what I wanted. It adds a suddle difference to the room without giving you whip lash. I absolutely love how it turned out. It warms up the space so much. I just need to rehang my black & white picture wall. I think I might change that wall a little bit on how I hung the pictures. I guess I'll have to post when I get everything hung back up on the wall.

Oh, the funny things kids say!

I just had to share this funny comment made by Abbie. I was making dinner and had some music playing. Abbie started moving to the music as she is sitting on her bar stool. I was movin' to the music and had my hands in a bowl shredding chicken. So, we are both swingin to the music and Abbie points at me and says, "MOM, you are dancing with the chicken!" We both started laughing. Sometimes kids come up with the funniest things to say! Love ya Abbie....you made me smile today!

Superhero

I couldn't wait to do this layout. It was designed in our design meeting for the April '09 kit. I knew I had these pictures of Abbie on her scooter in her superhero cape. The title of the page is "explore & delight in life". I loved all the pink color with the blues and greens but also the fun pom pom wire. The pom pom looks really dark in the picture but it's more of a cranberry color in real life. I love when a page comes together, it's cute, and is fairly easy. I was waiting to do these pictures and I am so glad I had the perfect page to put them on. I really like how it turned out. I had to change the layout a little bit from how we designed it to fit the pictures I had. So fun!

My Man's Birthday!

Happy Birthday to my Man!! I love you so much and really had such a great time celebrating your birthday yesterday! You are the best father and such a great husband! I decided to keep this birthday to just our little family. The kids were super excited to wrap your presents, help make dinner, and bake you a cake. I'm sorry you had to go to a staff meeting but, it gave me a great block of time to do all the baking, wrapping, and cooking. I've never seen the kids so excited to give you their presents. I don't know who was more excited...them or you! The dinner was so yummy and the strawberry drink was delicious! Abbie finished drinking hers and we got such a laugh out of her nice mustache. So cute! I even think Kaden got to unwrap more of your presents than you did! You are so patient and great with the kids! It was so fun to be able make the day special for you! I love and greatly admire you! Happy Birthday Reed!

More Green

No, your eyes don't deceive you...and it's not St. Patrick's day but, I did add more green to my kitchen. After my interior design team came and gave their professional opinion (my friends and family) they helped me decide that I should continue into the corner with the green. I have never had a great room before and those of you that have one, know it's hard to paint. Where do you stop? What will look good? So, I had painted the two safe walls and with an overwhelming concesus to continue...I did! Thanks everyone for your vote of confidence! I love it! I just love how the green helps POP these beautiful cabinets. I am so glad I could have my design team over to help me decide where to start and stop the green. You guys are all the best! Thanks for helping me see green...in a good way of course!!

What a Weekend!!!

I had one of the best weekends!! My sister...ALL of my sisters...came out to scrapbook USA. They came from as far as Colorado. We love to go to this expo but, we really love having a great excuse to get together. I worked in the Heartstring design booth at the expo until noon. With everyone driving in..they didn't get there until I was almost done with my shift. Then we all hung out and shopped. We found great deals and had even more fun hanging out. Even my friend Mandy was able to meet up with us at the expo. She got everything on her list for a great deal! Jennie even had time to do her scrapbook page for my mom's grandma book (you do a page for everyone of your kids every year) we do every Christmas (aren't you a little late, it's March isn't it?) We all then went to a late dinner at Cafe Rio! I haven't laughed so much in a long time. We all drove over in Nichole SUV and it was like hanging out back in high school listening to music and laughing together. Such great memories! I know you would think our night was over but, it was just getting started. Twilight was being released at midnight. So, we all went back to my house in Syracuse and brought luggage inside and finished food preparations. Then just before midnight we went to the Syracuse WalMart for the movie release. You would thinkk that a rock star was there to sign autographs. It was that crazy. We went in the food center side and the line wrapped clear around to the other side of the store. I took a picture because we were laughing the line was so long. They had announcements over head that there were only a limited supply of the two disc dvd but a lot of the single disc. We just wanted the movie...I guess people had started lining up over seven hours earlier! Did they have nothing better to do like hang out with their friends and family! There was a little trick, if you went to the parking lot to the Mountain Star Blood services blood mobile truck..you got to go to the front of the line. We were teasing that we should have brought out coban!! Oh well, the line went really fast and we got out movie. We even took pictures in front of the walmart to prove we had gotten our movies! We're so funny! Then back to my house to watch the movie. (We left Walmart at 12:27 a.m.) We all changed into our pajamas and then started the movie just after 1 a.m. Some of us got a little tired. Mom slept through the middle action scenes. She got to see the front and some of the middle and then the ending. She is the only one that hadn't read the books so, she says she will have to watch that again when she's a little more awake! LOL We finished the movie and then watched the extended scenes portion of the extra stuff on the dvd. We went to bed around 3:30 in the morning. I was up at 8 a.m. making pancakes, bacon, eggs, and orange juice for breakfast. We ate together then headed back to our families. I am so glad that we get these little bits of time to be together as a family, especially reconnecting as sisters. I know we talk on the phone A LOT but, it's great to hang out without all the responsibilities of being mom's. This was the first time in a long time that someone hasn't had a nursing baby and had to bring them along. Wow, that probably won't happen for a long time! I guess we'll just have to enjoy it while it lasts. Thanks Everyone for making this a GREAT weekend! Love you all!!!

Blue Mirror

I know I have seen blue mirrors everywhere!! I find these gorgeous mirrors, look at the price tag and usually gasp. $400 to $700...this is a little out of my price range. Okay, really I don't know if I would ever spend that much on a mirror. Well, I really liked the mirror so I've been keeping an eye out for a mirror that has great structure just not the right color. I knew I could remake it to what I wanted. I found my beveled mirror with a fat frame for $15. That is definetely more reasonable. It still had the protective cardboard corners on it. It was brand new. I didn't love the gold color and faux bamboo design in it. So, I painted it blue and then added pitch black stain over the top. I finally got my blue mirror!

Spring Soccer

Isaac started Soccer last night. He really had a great time. He was a little confused with all the gear he had to wear. He kept asking "what is this for?" We told him so he wouldn't get hurt if someone kicked him in the shins. I guess he was a little concerned that we would put him in a game where people would be kicking him. As soon as we got there...the coaches had them stretch then started drills. He warmed right up and I think he enjoyed soccer even more than basketball. Because Itty Bitty Hoops (basketball) plays after the junior jazz season..soccer and basketball overlap. I didn't know this when I signed him up and will know to choose one or the other at this age...next time. Isaac scored quite a few goal and really was a natural at this. I guess I should have figured because the kid really loves to run. I love to see him enjoying the sport so much. Great job Isaac!

Spring Grass Project

Isn't this such fun Easter grass! It's real!! I grew wheat grass in pots and baskets for an Enrichment night. It's a really inexpensive way to add greenery to a table without the cost. A basket, a little potting soil, and then soak the wheat to help it sprout. It's apparently really healthy but, I think it's really fun to have just as basket of grass. You have to mow it just like outside because it grows so fast. It smells like fresh cut grass and really makes me itch for spring. We used lanterns on the table with the grass and then a picture of Christ with women on each of the tables. The night turned out great! The grass was a hit and I sent people home with it because let's face it...nine baskets of grass is a little much for one little window. LOL

Itty Bitty Hoops

Isaac is now playing Itty Bitty Hoops for Syracuse City. It is a recreation program for Kindergarten age kids only. The coaches teach the kids for the first thirty minutes how to play and then the last half hour is spent playing a game. If you can call it a game....double dribbles every five seconds. The coaches did so good at helping the kids learn to put their arms straight up to defend. They also had on wrist bands that matched a person on the other team. That was the person that you want to defend. Teaching man on man in a visual impact sort of way. It was so funny to watch the kids dribble toward the basket, then due to the congestion of kids decide the other (wrong) basket looks better to shoot at and turns and starts going for the other basket. SO CUTE!! Isaac thoroughly enjoyed it!! He shot the ball four different times but didn't make it. He was a little sad because he said, "I practiced all afternoon." Which he had done because he was so excited to go to his first basketball game. The season is only 5 weeks, and then next year they can play Junior Jazz. I am really glad that the city offers this great program. It teaches kids the fundamentals of the game and then they don't keep score. All of the coaches are on the coart helping the kids dribble toward the correct basket and really the only time it is stopped is if the ball goes out of bounds. I am so proud of you Isaac and hope that you will remember to keep trying even if we don't make a basket everytime. It's much more fun to play the game and enjoy it! The pictures are taken after we got home...I forgot my camera for the game. Oops, I'll take better pictures next time.

Dressers

I finally finished my dressers. They were great dressers but, the original peach color definetely wasn't my favorite with bright gold hardware. I did a base coat on the entire thing(except the marble top, in a "fossil" brown color). A lot of the time was in each step drying. Stain takes a long time to dry. I also did a base coat of black on the dresser fronts, then used crackle paint with a blue over top. And any of you that have crackled, it is pretty easy but does have some dry time involved. So, a lot of the reason this has taken so long to post is that they took so long to dry. After the crackle, then I wiped stain over the top to make the blue a little more subtle. Then I did the patterns. On the diamond pattern dresser, I had to tape..do the crackle finish. Then wait a day for it to dry thoroughly. Then retape over the part I had just done to get the diamond next to it. I know that sounds confusing but, the tape was in the way so when you got through taping, only every other diamond was exposed. Therefore you had to do half of the project then wait for it to dry then do the other half. Both dressers used the same paint colors and same base colors but, I wanted the pattern on the front of the dressers different. I wanted them to match but, not identical. The dressers are being used as side tables. This makes the room have a lot more space. Reed's dresser has a diamond pattern in it which is more of a masculine and then the scroll pattern is on my dresser which is definetely more feminine. They both turned out great!! The tops of the dressers are a rough marble. It is polished on the top but, I love that it's not perfect. What is? The colors in the dresser are brown, slate blue, and a black (the only black part you see is what shows through under the crackle of the blue. So, it is very subtle). I would love to hear what you think and I hope the steps I explained weren't too confusing. Most of you can probably just look at the pictures and tell what I did. I love how all the steps came together to create such unqiue and fun dressers.

Kitchen Wall Color

I have COLOR!!! Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, I have wanted to take out the backsplash and put in candy apple green tile but, that's not happening. I love the white subway tile that is already the backsplash so, I decided to add color around on the little bit of walls by the cabinets. I love the addition of the color. What do you think? It's such a happy color. I want my kitchen to always be the heart of the home and I think this definetely makes me happy, so that's a good start.