Elf on the Shelf

I was bound and determined that Snarf the Elf was not coming back to our house. But things never seem to go how you plan them where children are concerned. Our neighbor, a.k.a. E's best friend, busted through our doors December 1st wanting to know where our elf was.

Ahhhh!

My plans were foiled. The kids started freaking out because they couldn't find that Curs-ed Elf, and I wanted to scream. That was one more thing I had to remember, and I am truly running out of room in my brain at this point.

So Snarf made his debut a day late. The kids were so excited, and it really has been fun finding new things for Snarf to get into every day. I see a smile every morning, and sometimes hysterical laughter when they see what Snarf has done...especially when he drew on the kids' faces with a dry erase marker.

S.R. talks to him just about every day. 

She loves him, and even made a special cupcake for him, which he thoroughly enjoyed.

Snarf became the Amazing Spiderman one day. 

And he was caught roasting marshmallows over a battery operated tea light. 

(E kept asking if he could eat the marshmallow.)

I'll keep you posted on what else Snarf gets into on Facebook

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Christmas Decor 2014

This year I decided to do things a little different when it came to decorating for Christmas. Not only did I change the color scheme, but I didn't put nearly as much out.

Mainly because I am lazy. 

I have found that with homeschooling, I just don't have the time to do what I used to do. My priorities have changed drastically, and the things I used to think were important, aren't as important now.

 So we have the main tree in the living room, and the kids have their trees in the bedrooms.

The hubs wanted some color on the Christmas tree this year, and color he got.

This is definitely much different from our tree in the past.

Our Home in 2011

Our Home in 2012

Part 1

Part 2

Our Home in 2013

And now our tree in 2014.

 I really like it. It's fun, and cheerful. 

It sort of reminds me of Thing 1 and Thing 2 from Dr. Seuss. 

We had a little red from last year, so all I needed to do was add a little turquoise.

We have had so many compliments on our tree.

I made this wreath two years ago, and have slowly added more items to it. Last year, I had it on the front door. I didn't want to spend any more money on Christmas decor, but I needed something on the mantel, so I moved the wreath inside. I think it finishes off the whole look. 

I didn't do any greenery on the mantel this year because it felt a little cluttered. 

I did a little decorating to the front entry table, but again, it's very minimal.

 We have been doing a Christmas craft a day in December, and the kids made stained glass ornaments the other day. I found this craft kit in the clearance section at Target after Christmas last year. They had fun making them, and I think they turned out beautiful.

We are focusing on service projects for the month of December. We are going to be sewing and baking, and visiting. 

The kids are really excited about all of it.

In my next post, I'll share what our sneaky elf, Snarf, has been up to.

Thanks for stopping by!

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Easter Happenings

Hey Y'all! I have fallen off of the blog postin' train once again. To tell you the truth, I haven't really been all that motivated when it comes to crafting, and D.I.Y.'ing...GASP!! 

I know, right?

The horror!

Well, I have been working on our "school room" a.k.a. our bonus room. It's been a work in progress for 4 years now:o) Anywhoodles, it's FINALLY organized, so now I can pick a paint color, paint, build, paint, pull my hair out because of all the painting, decorate, and get hair implants to replace the ones that I will most likely be pulling out:o)

I have been up to a few other things as well. If you follow along on Facebook or Instagram, then you already know that I got a new sewing machine.

IT'S.DA.BOMB.

Just sayin'.

It is an embroidery sewing machine, but it does soooooo much more than my last one could ever dream of doing. Speaking of my last machine, it found a new home last Friday. The lady who purchased it from me was beyond excited to get it....if I weren't so jazzed about the new machine, I might have felt a little more sad to see it go.

So with this new machine comes lots of fun! I have been able to monogram and applique to my hearts desire. I have made some gifts for my kiddos and for a few others as well.

I made some fun shirts for the Giant Easter basket. 

Why, yes, my Easter basket is finished. BAM!!

Am I always on top of things like this..Nay, I say!

 The Giant Easter basket was used for our Easters as kids. My mother gave it to me to use with my kids, and I think it even came with the "original" plastic-y grass....it's probably laden with some nasty form of BPA;o)

Anyway, here's a closer look of the shirt for E. We're BAMA fans in this household, and if you don't know what RTR means, not to worry. "Roll Tide Roll" is what that stands for. What does "Roll Tide Roll" mean? 

I have no idea. 

I am a BAMA fan by proxy. The hubs cheers for BAMA, so that means I do to. No sense in borrowing trouble;o)

For some reason the thread looks orange in this picture, but I promise it is a deep crimson red...roll tide.;o)

I didn't get a good close up of the Anna shirt for S.R., but if you visit my Facebook page, you can see one there. 

I appliqued a dress for S.R. today. I'm thinking this will be her Easter dress. Last year's dress was much fancier, but I don't have fancy in me this year.

And it's not like she'll remember that 2014 was the year that mommy decided to get all kinds of lazy and not make a fancy dress.

This one will do just fine!

I may make E a bow tie to go with his new $2 yard sale suit he got last weekend. Yes...I said 2 bucks for a really awesome little boy's suit. It fits like a dream and he looks adorable in it!!

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 So with great machine comes great responsibility. 

I am officially selling monogrammed and appliqued items, and to kick things off, I am hosting a sale. You can head over to my Facebook page to see what items I have to offer for applique. If there is something you'd like but don't see, message me, and I will see what I can come up with!

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100 Days of School Projects

Are you all staying warm? We are making a go at it. 

We got a little more snow this morning along with a 2 hour delay for schools because of the frigid temperatures. What a weird winter it has been this year!

Today was class picture day, so I grabbed a quick shot of the kids with the snow. Can you tell they were freezing?!

Last week, the kids hit a milestone for the school year. They hit the 100 day mark. To celebrate, they had projects for homework. Gotta love it, right?

E had a Krispy Kreme doughnut hat that he had to glue 100 items on. He decided to be a parrot. We glued the feathers on, and colored a picture of Blue off of Rio...I know he is a blue macaw, but it worked for what we were doing. Unfortunately after gluing all the feathers on, we realized that the hat wouldn't fit his big noggin'. 

But he still looked cute!

 S.R. wanted to make a baby doll blanket for her 100 Days project.

She actually helped out quite a bit in making this blanket.

 She got this sewing machine for Christmas, and was super excited to finally get to use it.

She did a great job keeping a straight line, too!

 The quilt has 100 circles, in case you were wondering;o)

They were very proud of their projects and grateful for the help I gave them. It always makes my heart proud when my children show gratitude!

And speaking of projects, I am finally tackling the playroom. We are turning it into a home-school room for next school year...yep, you read right. We will be homeschooling...ahh! 

So, there are a lot of projects that need to be done, and I am going to hopefully get most of them accomplished before school ends for the summer.

I'll share what all we have planned for the room in my next post.

Until then, stay warm!!

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Sewing Projects-A Tooth Fairy Pillow & Monster Doll

We had a very laid back weekend. The kids officially started their basketball season on Saturday. I wish I had pictures to share, but I don't.  I am coaching both teams, so I couldn't keep up with my big ole wonkin' camera. I got a few with my camera phone, though. 

The kids play back to back, so it's fairly exhausting to scream for 2 solid hours. We had fun...but after all that excitement, afternoon naps are usually on the agenda...for me that is;o)

Today I want to show you some of the sewing projects I completed last week.

I made E a monster doll. I will have the tutorial up in a few days. It was a simple project. Nothing but straight lines. He loves it, and that makes for one happy momma!

 I also made S.R. a tooth fairy pillow. You can find the tutorial here. The instructions are easy to follow, and you can bang one out in no time.

 The tooth fairy pillow was made just in time too. S.R. lost her first tooth Saturday evening. She fiddled around with it all day...even during her basketball game, which I thought was kind of gross. Kids are gross, though. Anyway, she came running and shrieking at the top of her lungs out of my bedroom, nearly giving me a heart attack, until I realized they were happy shrieks:o)

She was so proud to finally lose her tooth.

Our tooth fairy brings $5 for the first tooth because it's a BIG deal to lose the first one. She also brings gold $1 coins for the subsequent teeth.

So what does your tooth fairy do that's special or unique? I would love to know. It's always interesting to hear other families' traditions.

I also want to take a moment to say thank you for the kind words expressed by some of you over my last post. It was difficult to write, and even more difficult to hit the "publish" button. Thank you for being so sweet and encouraging!

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New Chore Charts

Now that summer break is here, I decided it was time to reinstate the chore responsibilities for the kiddos. Last year, I made a chore list, and my intentions were to teach E and S.R. responsibility and the value of hard work, but my system was truly broken and our excitement for it lasted all of one week. 

Expecting my kids to do the same things over and over again day after day was just expecting too much. I certainly don't do the same things day after day. We all need a little variety, right?

So to fix my broken system, I searched on line for age appropriate chores. 

It's truly amazing what little ones can do...we really don't give them enough credit. If you check my Pinterest board, you can visit the sites where I found my ideas...

This particular idea came from the Martha Stewart website.

 Thankfully this little project was mostly free to me. I had one sheet of magnet paper left. I printed the kids' pictures and the chores with the money value on them(in 25 cent increments). I had blue card stock, and cut it down to size and put the kids' pictures on top and made little button magnets to hold the bottom in place. 

The paycheck pad is something made on publisher. I used Vistaprint to print the notepad. Once it arrived in the mail, I attached magnets to the back.

We are now on week three and still going strong. The kids get to pick some of the chores to do and I delegate some as well. Saturdays are for make up work because sometimes we are gone and they don't get the chance to really make any money those days.

It is amazing how much cleaner my house is now. If you haven't started making your kids do chores, you are truly missing out....and so are they!

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Wash, Rinse, Repeat-Free Bathroom Printables

Here are the bathroom printables I promised. I have wanted to use the old phrase from the back of a shampoo bottle "wash, rinse, repeat" for quite some time now, but I was waiting for the right fonts to come along. I have fallen in love with all of the chalkboard fonts available. I think they are so fun, and they look really cool. 

I found exactly what I was looking for at A Nest of Posies, and played around with the fonts until I got the prints just right. I am so excited with the results, and happy to share. They are set to print as a 5x7. 

To download each print, just click on the names below.

Wash

Rinse

Repeat

Enjoy:o)

To see the full bathroom reveal, click here

Partying Here:
Six Sister's Stuff

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Cottage Style Kids' Bathroom

Last Saturday, while the hubs was hard at work in the backyard, I was wasting the day away indoors. It dawned on me that I have started SEVERAL projects over the last few months, and haven't finished ANY of them. 

I decided that since hubs was working so hard, I probably should get with it, and do something myself:o) So, I finally finished the kids' bathroom.

Our kids' wipe their little paws all over the walls, and leave the paw prints behind. We needed a solution where we wouldn't be using a Magic Eraser on our walls every other day.

I had noticed a lot of magazines using horizontal boards as a wall treatment, and I knew that would be the perfect solution to our dilemma. 

I happened to be in Lowes one day, and these boards were marked down significantly...and in my van they went!

 I have gotten the hubs do so many wood working projects over the last 10 years, that he has gotten really proficient at it;o) Mad skills I tell ya.

He's not a fan of miter cuts, but he did a fantastic job in this bathroom!

There is a lot of storage space in this Jack and Jill bath. This closet was only holding towels, so I decided to make it into a little nook for taking shoes off. 

 It was full of wire shelving, so we had to rip those out and patch a lot of holes. I really like how cute it turned out. The fabric for the seat cushion and curtain came from Hobby Lobby. The basket was a Marshall's purchase.

I found this cute little hook at Hobby Lobby. They were 50% off this week, so it was around $4. This is where the kids hang their towel while taking a shower. Notice that awesome mitered corner?...mad skills..I'm telling ya, mad skills;o)

 I spray painted this coat rack a metallic silver, and now it serves as a towel rack.

The art work is something I came up with. I'll share how I did it in my next post, so stay tuned!

I'm so glad to be able to check this bathroom off the list. Now to finish S.R.'s quilt, and the playroom!!

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$4 Console Table

I told you a few weeks back that the hubs was working on some built-ins...well, he has been doing a great job on them!  Since he was in the building mood, he decided to make a console table with all the scrap MDF he had laying around to hold extra toys. We found our inspiration Here..there were plans, but we didn't have enough MDF to make the exact same table, so there was some improv building. The reason it's a $4 table is because I had to make a quick trip to Lowes to get one 1x3 board. 

I helped a little(held things in place, painted, moral support), but he was definitely the brains behind the job:o) I'm so proud of my little handy man:o)

The canvas baskets came from T.J. Maxx. 

The rug is from Marshalls.

I found this cute little owl and the sign at Marshall's too.

 Lamps and lamp shades(clearance find) from Walmart.

 And here are the beginnings of the built-ins. We recycled our entertainment center, and attached it to the wall. Then the hubs made the window seats. He finished it out with trim across the bottom. Eventually there will be more added on, and the whole thing painted white, but right now he needs to focus on his thesis.

 Hasn't he done a fantastic job?!? 

 I hope that you all have a wonderful holiday weekend. We have ours filled with food, football, friends and family...it doesn't get much better than that!

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Lazy Days of Summer

Good Tuesday to you all. We are having a great rainy summer afternoon. This is the first time I have felt semi-normal since last Thursday. I had to have two hernias repaired in my belly button, so I am slowly recovering. Today was the first time that the kids and I were home alone, so I needed to find things that wouldn't require any heavy lifting, and that would keep us busy.

Painting is always a good go-to for kids. And I haven't picked up a brush in quite some time.

This morning we worked our magic on some canvas.

 Here is a closer view of what I came up with...a little lamb..or sheep..whichever:o) He is perched upon the mantle for now. 

 After painting we made homemade ice cream in the living room with an ice cream ball. I was quite impressed with this little contraption. It actually works:o)

 You can find one of these Ice Cream Balls Here. We got lucky and found ours at a yard sale for $5...still in the box:o)

After naps, we went outside just before the rain came, and dug into our yummy afternoon snack.

 Smiles all around:o)

Just so you all know, I am jumping back on the crafting wagon again now that things have been forced to a snails pace...just the way I like it. We only have 6 weeks before school starts and I want to take advantage of the time I have with my kids and their creativity. So stay tuned for crafty kid fun:o)

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