Quick Fall Updates

It’s in the air & I couldn’t be more thrilled. Fall.
Mmm… oranges & reds, pumpkins, wool socks, scarves and snuggling.

Yep. It’s pretty awesome.

So, I didn’t feel it was fair for only the outdoors to celebrate Fall. The indoors needed some excitement too. Hence a few seasonal house swaps… free ones too! 🙂

The table needed a new centerpiece. I had a leftover canvas in my laundry room, some Halloween ribbon I purchased several years ago & a printable pumpkin monogram pattern from here that I pinned on Pinterest. After I printed this one, I decided I liked the look of the single “S” better than N, H, S. So I eliminated the first name initials.

I just used some tape to tape the monogram paper to my canvas (so I can remove it later and reuse my canvas.) After taping the paper down, I used my low-temp glue gun to cover up the taped edges with my festive ribbon. I am rather fond of my free update!

Then the chalkboard got some seasonal love. Last night I was getting rather frustrated with my lack of freehand artistic abilities. I had fiddled with the chalkboard but couldn’t land on anything I liked. So I went to bed…and woke up to this.

What a sweet man I have, right? He even swagged the leaves all on his own. I think I am “falling” for him all over again… Ok, too corny? 🙂

The front door got some attention:

And my favorite spot in the house- my new dresser-turned-console got some sprucing. I love the warm coziness of it all!

It isn’t much, but my goal this year was to spend no money, but still feel like Fall had arrived. And I feel successful.

How are you prepping your houses for Fall? Any good freebie ideas I can steal from you? 🙂

Batman Pirate Mommy

Me and the boy, we’re warding off some colds that are trying to sneak up on us.
So we’re having a stay at home & play day-playing pirates of course!

Ship= Couch
Baseball Tee & Train Whistle = Oars
Mother’s Day Card = Treasure Map
Baseball Cap = Steering wheel (not sure why we have oars & a steering wheel…I just take orders. He’s the Cap’n.)
Trains & 1 Cushy Ball = Treasure
Blue rug = Ocean (infested with one large shark that will.not.go.away.)

A few minutes ago our steering wheel lost power. He leapt off the couch ship and flew across the ocean. As he did, he looked back and said,
“I’m ok! I am Spiderman Pirate Lije! And you are Batman Pirate Mommy!”

Can’t argue with that.

The pirate steering our ship.

Secret Project

I am working on something… and this is what it looked like when I got it:

The green was super cute in the previous owner’s home but didn’t really jive with mine, so here’s where we are now:

I am dyyyyying to put it all back together again with some pretty teal knobs & style it up so I can show it off!

Whaddya think??

PS: I had to prime/paint even the insides of the drawers because this poor dresser had lived near a kerosene heater in a past life…. odor blocking primer coat #2 or #3 (lost count) and I think we’re good!

PSS: Primer coats 2 &3 also left their mark on my nose hairs. I thought you might like a shot of that too 😉

Yep. Not my most flattering angle.

Come back next week for the reveal! 🙂

How nice.

I just die every time I read this. Hilarious!

If you are a man reading this, I’ll throw you a bone- this is Kate Middleton’s mother… you know, Kate. The Princess. The one whose wedding your wife/girlfriend woke up at 4AM to watch. The one who actually grew up to be what every little girl dreams of growing up to be.

Ahh, fairytales!

All I can say is “Wow!”

Let’s play a little game of “connect the pictures…”

I got this box in the mail:

 

Inside it was this card…

Underneath the card was a package from Dick’s Sporting Goods… you guessed it! My sweatpants!! (Sorry for the terrible picture. My husband is gone, so this is my pitifully self-taken picture.)

One of you awesome readers has truly knocked the socks off of this girl! I wrote a post a few days ago, and mentioned a pair of sweatpants that I was really wanting. And, completely in jest, I mentioned that someone could buy them for me if they’d like :)! So, to receive a box in the mail with the most deliciously comfortable sweatpants was just the most wonderful surprise!

AND I got the sweatpants on the same day that we got our first snow of the year…so lots of couch snuggling in comfy sweatpants ensued.

Thank you, whoever you are, for this special blessing. I am humbled and so thankful!

My Blog- 2012 In Review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for my blog. It’s so cool! 🙂 Check it out!

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 6,700 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 11 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

ABC- for YOU from ME

Several months ago, one of my nieces had a birthday…as in she was born.

Then the next month another one had a birthday…as in she turned another year older.

Then several months later, another niece had a birthday…again, another year older.

Those three nieces have two things in common with each other (well in reality, they have many things in common, but for sake of this post, follow along. please.)

1. They are sisters

2. None of them received gifts from me ON their birthdays.

I know. I felt terrible! When Baby was born (the 1st Girly birthday of the year,) I knew I wanted to do something for the “Girls Room.” A door sign or something to celebrate the addition of more girliness to the family!

So I asked my Big Sis what colors she was going to use in the girls room. She told me. And I did nothing with the info. I just couldn’t decide what I wanted to do!

Out of desperation, I turned to Pinterest… and it didn’t fail me! I found several of this type of art from several Etsy artists.

I’m not uber-crafty or anything, but I decided I had to at least TRY to make one of these myself… But due to my procrastination, I had to make 3 instead of just 1 🙂

So without further ado, my take on the Alphbet Art. For the girls room. Complete with some sparkle, because, well, because they’re sparkly, fun girls…or “goyeuls” as their cousin Elijah would say.

I bought 3 inexpensive wooden frames, spraypainted/craft painted them in the desired colors… then glued on the coordinating initials. I then, very simply, just used Microsoft Word and played with the layout of my letters and colors until I found the look/size I was going for.

They can keep their Alphabet Art, or just have some bright fun frames to display their artwork or pictures of their beautiful selves.

And evidently my string of inefficiency is still in tact because I seem to have forgotten to photograph Miss Charlotte’s “C” frame. But just scroll up to the picture above and squint your eyes to remove the other two…you’ll get the idea :).

Be inspired! These would be a very simple gift option for a couple that is expecting a little one too!

Taco Shells

In case you’re new around here, this is me in a nutshell: a girl who grew up in Africa, learned to make lots of the stuff the “homemade” way and never quite got over it.

One of the recipes we made nearly every week while living overseas was our homemade taco shells. We didn’t come up with the recipe- in fact I have no idea where it originated, except that it was in our “Wild Boar on the Kitchen Floor” cookbook (I think- right Mom??) There are just NO store bought taco shells, no restaurant shells, no other kind that compare to these shells- in my mind.

And with a toddler who loves to “hep” in the kitchen, the rolling out part is less of a chore and more of a memory. Hope you like ’em!

Homemade Taco Shells

(Makes 16 Shells)

5 cups Flour

2 1/2 tsp. Salt

5/8 cup Oil

1 1/4 cups Lukewarm Water

Get a flat skillet heating at medium heat on the stove top. Mix flour and salt well. Add liquids. Stir until well combined. Roll into 16 balls (or however many you’d like- depending on the size you want them to be.) Roll each ball of dough into a 6-8″ circle, as thin as possible, without getting so thin that the dough tears when lifted. Place the rolled out dough onto your DRY preheated skillet (No oil, no cooking spray, just dry.) When the dough begins to bubble slightly, flip and cook the other side briefly.

These shells are delish if eaten right away with some homemade refried beans, avocado, taco seasoned beef, tomatoes, you name it! However, they also freeze well, and can be easily reheated in a microwave, with a damp paper towel over top to provide some steam.

If you like them half as much as I do, you’ll be glad you tried them!

DIY Accessory Storage & Someone Else’s 17th Birthday

So remember when I told you in this post about how my sister-in-law turned 17, and I wanted to make her something personalized for her birthday, which resulted in this “zebra-fied” nail polish shelf?

Well that put me in a bit of a quandary. See, I have a baby sister named Katie (who looks a lot like me I might add…) who also just turned 17,  has a bedroom with zebra print accents, AND has quite the collection of nail polish.

Katie & I at “Awana Twin Night” when she was 10 or so! 🙂

Not one to give the same gift to two different people, I started brainstorming, and called the only other spy, I mean sister, still left at home for some help on ideas. I knew these things:

-Katie doesn’t have a lot of wall space free in her room

-She has lots of jewelry/headbands/nail polish/accessories in general

-She is starting to phase out of the “teen” style stuff and more into sophisticated black accents (she is SO like me ;))

SO, we decided that an “accessories stand” was the way to go. A storage option for different things, not just limited to necklaces, nail polish, etc., but that could be used for whatever she chooses, and that would sit on top of her dresser.

I found some inspiration on Pinterest, and went to town. No literally, I went to town- you knew I live in the boonies, right? 🙂

I went to the Dollar Tree, and for $5 total, bought 3 lightweight metal trays and 2 glass candlesticks.

Then I went to Wal-Mart and bought some black spray paint.

Once I got home, it was as simple as spraying each piece of the stand (multiple times in light, even layers- front and back/top and bottom,) and then gluing them together.

Voila! This was my staged shot, with all my stuff on it…

But of course, it looks even more snazzy all decked out with her bling and in her room!

I have GOT to stop making these things for other people- I want to keep them for myself 😉

Happy Birthday, KK! We love you lots!

Target Beauty Bag

I told you here that I’d let you know when Target put out more beauty bags.

Well, they’re going fast, so hurry and claim yours!

It’s a facebook offer – so get on it!

To {hopefully} Snag a Bag, click here!