It's a little late, but here's to a wonderful Christmas and wishing you all a Happy New Year as well........Cheers!

Want a fun gift wrapping idea? Burlap. It's super cheap (like $3/yd at JoAnn's) and I love the rough texture.

Every year our family looks forward to the Holidays and the different traditions that go along with it. Leaving cookies and milk for Santa is a must. Now that the boys are getting older they've started thinking about the reindeer too. So in addition to leaving a bowl of carrots for them, we have started the tradition of reindeer food as well. It was a hit last year and we will definately be doing it again this year.

Delilah. The newest collection of fabric by Tanya. These are only a handful from the collection. Can you tell the pink and red colorways are my faves? I can't wait to get my hands on some of this. Can you just see Delilah being made into sweet ruffle pants, vintage looking pillows, buntings, aprons and more? Love!

What started out to be this kind of day.......you know the one where it's overcast, everything goes your way, the kids get home from school just as you are pulling the pumpkin bread out of the oven. You ice it and make hot cocoa to go with it, turn on the tree lights, cue up the holiday music. Well, today was not that day. That day was called Friday.

Today is the day where I am finally trying to get some blogging done, crafting done...etc. and all I can hear during naptime is MAMA...MAMA.........MAMA! This I am actually used to. Trying to get Lola to nap these days has proven quite tricky. So I let her talk/whine it out for a while and go in to check on her a few times, and then finally commit the mama no-no...I gave her a bottle of milk. (I know, I know all about bottle rot. The 4th child is the only one we have done this with. And we make sure to take it away after she falls asleep and we usually brush her teeth after.) Well, today I went through all the usual steps of getting her to sleep (check on her, check on her, give bottle, wait, take it away, wait) and finally, after a prolonged period of this whining I went in to check on her. By the way, my definition of whining- making any one syllable word into two. With Mo-om being the top contender.

When I walk in, she is standing up saying "I poop"! (I'll spare you the pictorial) Diaper is off and planted dirty side down onto her pillow and it looks as if this pint size Picasso has fingerpainted the crib, bedding, clothes....etc. So I take the soiled clothes off and run her to the tub. I start the bathwater and say "hold on" to the side of the tub while I get the wipes. I am gone only a few seconds and upon my return, I hear a soft little voice say "oh no" as I look down to see her riverdancing in a puddle of urine. I clean her up and the floor up and get her settled in to her bubble bath and against my better judgement utter the words "I'll be right back" as I dash down the hall to her room to grab the soiled items and throw them in the wash. Poke my head in the door to check on Lola again. She smiles and says "hi". I start the laundry then return for operation: clean up baby. As I'm going to pour the shampoo/bodywash into my hand nothing comes out but some water which someone has tried replacing the real deal with. "What happened to the shampoo?" I ask. This cute little munchkin face looks up at me with a great big smile and says as she points "Down there". Lovely.

If rainbow leggings could solve the world's problems it would be a more colorful place. Thankful today that they solve this little girl's. If she is grumpy, fussy or tired, I'll reach in my bag of tricks for this instant pick-me-up. I am rewarded with a great big smile every time.

Are these not the cutest picnic boxes you have ever seen? Boxsal picnic boxes are eco friendly, modern day, reusable picnic boxes. I'm crushin' on the Todays Date (shown above). I have just added fall picnic to the top of my to do list!

Still decorating for Halloween? Here's a simple inexpensive banner tutorial that will have your house looking festive in no time at all. Don't sew? Omit thread for hot glue and and you can join in the fun too!

This weekend flew by much too fast, but I made sure to bring the camera to remember the awesomeness. The boys spent the weekend with their cousin which left two little girlies, Karl and I. Wow! We had forgotten how quiet is is with 2 out of 4. It was almost like we were on a date. Almost! Well....since the movies were out of the question, we decided what to do with ourselves. Since we all adore shopping (I am lucky to be married to a man who loves to shop as much as I do) we decided to hit the mall.

Esther's cupcakes are my fave. All the yummy frosting and the way they melt in your mouth. But of course my absolute fave's are the cocoa velvet. And I would gladly make a cupcake run because no matter how hard I could try, mine would never taste this good. It must be the special magic sprinkles they put into them. (the same kind that go into restaurant hamburgers and steak......oh, and Chinese food)

You know when things have been out of sorts for a while and little by little they start falling back into place (no matter how significant the circumstance) a return to familiarity/normalacy feels good. You can sit back, relax and say...."it's been a long time coming".

Such as this blog post. Having to deal with a dead computer, rehabilitating a spare and fixing blog issues, this blog is finally appearing back to normal on my monitor so I feel as if I can once again get my groove on.

When looking through our beach photo's, I came across this one which reminded me of my favorite poem.

Happy Friday!! Here's to hoping your weekend is filled with ferris wheels and cotton candy.

Last weekend we went on a mini getaway before the kids start school. Driving around town was easy peasy now that we don't have to mapquest everything ahead of time.....thanks to GPS! We can be spontaneous on the fly! One of our favorite finds was this little place in Los Gatos, CA. "Nothing bundt Cakes". Hmmm....can you guess what they sell? The little tiny ones above are called bundtinis. I want a whole dozen of them on top of a cake stand on my desk. I could eat them at my leisure all day long with a cold frosty glass of milk.

And with flavors like white chocolate raspberry and my personal favorite....red velvet, it's a good thing there is some distance between us, otherwise I might end up being another "Biggest Loser" success story waiting to happen.

Thought I would share a few shots from the fair last night. Then I thought I would turn them into polaroids. I found the perfect polaroid frame here. So fun! It even adds a slight discoloration to the photo to make it more polaroid-y! It's a zip file, so you'll have to use WinZip to open it. You can get a free trial version on their site. Then you open the unlocked version with photoshop. Sounds complicated......this is where a techie husband comes in handy. If you don't have one of those, check out this site.

Here's a few of the shots that are makin' me happy today.

We have been moving the past week, so all craftiness has been on hold. Now that we're getting settled in, I'm looking forward to decorating the new house, coming up with new color schemes, sharing new tutorials with you all.........but for now I am still trying to locate my blow dryer, make up, glue gun, dishes..................well, you get the point. I am really excited, however, about my new work space which is going to be a formal dining room (who uses those anymore....right? well at least when it's carpeted..and you have 4 kids) converted to art studio. I'll have to share before and after pics once the project is completed.

For now it's off to find a charger to charge a camera battery for tonights trip to the State Fair! Yay! Better make sure to find the camera while I'm at it!
p.s. lovin this pic of Luci with the "oh my" look on her face....perfectly describes me this week. ♥

Hi everyone. A Happy Circus is sharing a tutorial today over at Blue Cricket Design. If you've never been to Blue Cricket Design you will want to peruse all of Becca's awesome tutorials. Go check it out!!



Also linking up here today:

I wanted to have a go at this belt again and found the perfect neutral material just lying around my house. An old pair of blue jeans! I just love to be able to repurpose something old to make something new. And denim goes with everything right? I cut down the leg of one and then another and sewed them together to make my long strip. When I was finished with the belt part it looked like it needed something more, so I cut off the tab front of one side of the jeans. The belt loop then became the perfect center for the bow. Soo cute! My to do list this week consists of shopping my closet for more blue jeans to repurpose. I've got big plans for these. Happy Friday!!!

Hi everyone. I'm sharing one of my tutorials today on Blue Cricket Design (an awesome site with lot's of tutorials). The hair pretty organizer. So stop by, visit Becca and check it out when you get a chance.

Happy Friday everyone! I am guest posting over at Tatertots and Jello today so stop on by and learn how to make one of these while you're at it. The ruched rosette belt. Super cute, super simple.....okay, I know I say that about every project, but seriously (sewing-wise) it's nothing but straight lines.

Apparently our trip to the thrift store this weekend was quite successful. Not only did we score tons of books, practically brand new for the kiddos (at only 38 cents each), but I also became the proud owner of all of this trim goodness, pretty vases and lovely little pedestal dishes. I already have plans for some of that trim. And the dishes would be cute for holding scrapbooking thingies such as colored paperclips, brads and embellishments.

The best part was the price. Because it was a 1/2 off sale the dishes were 99 cents, the vases were 49 cents and the trim was $2.49! I also scored a cute yellow purse for $2.49, boxed puzzles for the boys .25 cents/each, movies for the kids .50 cents/ each, silk Ann Taylor head scarf for under $2, and a cool chair for $2.50. (Next time, I'll have to check for vintage linens.) How exciting! Who knew you could find such cool stuff at your local thrift store.

ps. Hope you all had an awesome 4th of July! There was supposed to be this fun, patriotic food related dessert picture on here yesterday... with a little note from me to you wishing you a wonderful holiday. Unfortunately, I never got around to making that dessert.....after all, it is the thought that counts. ♥