projects finished

made out of vintage fabric... i call her " with a splash of lime" and she's available in my shop.

it's been a while since i made the little one a dress. this one makes me happy. yellow just seems happy doesn't it?

yes, it's made out of a re-purposed sheet)

this cute little ironing board was plain wood when i bought it. i painted it and put a cover on it. now i just have to decide what color for the iron...i was just going to go with white...but then i thought red...then i thought BLUE. and so there it sits because i CAN'T MAKE UP MY MIND. yet again.

go on...give me your suggestions.

is anyone having de-ja-vu?

we had visitors this weekend. my sis in law and her family came to spend time with us. we hiked, ate, laughed, ate some more and watched 4 boys run as a pack together everywhere they went.

the.house.shook.

i don't even want to know what it's going to be like to have boys once they hit 15+ years of age.

i mean can a house handle it?

organizing 101

Where Do I Begin? in the past 7 years, i've helped people organize their houses. first thing most people want to do is go out and buy all new containers and storage bins...i tell them to hold on to their britches cause we aren't at that point yet. first, we are going to go and peek into your closets and drawers. because lets face it that's where we store most of our unused, and unwanted...crap...mixed in with the stuff we use on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.
so here's your organizing 101 for the day. your first step to getting organized is:
GET RID OF CRAP.
a good place to start is your closet.
*get rid of clothes you don't wear
*get rid of clothes that don't fit you
*get rid of your old glory jeans from 1998. trust me even if you could fit into them again you wouldn't want to.
***but you have to honest with yourself. you can't just say "oh but i'm going to wear that." or "i might need that." if you haven't already worn it in the last 6 months or last season...you ain't going to wear it. and if you haven't needed it in 6 months you ain't going to need it anytime soon. GET.RID.OF.IT.
***so here's your challenge. pick a closet, or drawer, take out it's contents and only put back what you use. box the rest and take it to your local goodwill store. go on... you know you want to. and if that feels good...go to the next closet and drawer. it can get addicting.
have a great weekend.
see you monday.

tutorial: fabric covered eggs

a great craft to do on any day of the week with kids...AND cute! first get you some lovely yummy springy fabrics. these i got as a swap from this lovely gal

then you'll be needing some plastic eggs (i got mine at walmart they were $2)

first cut your fabric the width of your egg in the middle (where it splits open) and the length should be just long enough to cover the top and bottom of your egg. my measurement was roughly 6" by 4 1/2" (but i would just wrap it around your egg to get accurate measurement 'cause egg sizes vary)

********

then you want to cut strips like a comb on both sides of your fabric (the sides that will be on the top and bottom of your eggs) do not cut all the way through you want it to stay in tact in the middle.

next get your modge podge.

here's where the kids go to town and have some fun. modge podge your egg. slime it up a bunch!

wrap the middle of the egg with tightly and then gently start pushing down all the strips so that they overlap each other a little (add modge podge if needed...we did)

do the same to the bottom.

and keep going with all the colors. you will end up with a super cute basket full of eggs!

(this tutorial was inspired by my fabulous friend who just so happens to be a professional quilter. thanks F for the instructions over the phone so i could make it into a tutorial.)

how to build a strong marriage

marriages have ups and downs do they not?
but even with the ups and downs you want to continually work on building a stronger relationship.

working together as a couple on things and complimenting each other on the job well done is a great way to build a stronger relationship.

let me do a conversation with the husband if you will.



setting the scene: GI joe husband and i are in the pasture and while i break up the mule poop, he shovels it and spreads it by tossing it all over the pasture.



GI Joe husband: (throwing a shovel full of mule crap off the far side of the pasture) you are doing a really good job of breaking up the poop. (no i'm not kidding people)

me: why thank you...pausing and thinking...i think your poo throwing skills are awesome.

GI joe husband: thank you.

and there you have it. now go break up some crap and throw it around...guaranteed to make your marriage a strong one...

btw: my husband who is no longer GI Joe actually does this for a living now.

so you should TOTALLY listen to me when i talk about marriage.

before and after

found at the second hand store for $25. i saw some potential.

sand it down, primer it, and spray paint it.

Editied: okay i can't stand all the "white" so i'm changing the pillow covers

and now it can be found in my laundry/mudroom...husband painted the laundry/mudroom this weekend. i went out on a limb and bought "blue-ish" paint. it was rather frightening to me when we were applying the paint how "periwinkle" blue it looked. husband assured me that it was going to darken and change as time went on. if i were to do it again i would go for a slightly darker shade...but all in all i like the color and how cheery my laundry room is now. so i should totally think that laundry is a cheery thing to do now...well another cold day in hell will happen before i associate "cheery" with laundry...

also husband would like to know why on earth i would put up baskets on the wall. i told him that i thought it looked cute...he said "whatevah"...and so they stayed up on the wall.

it's full speed ahead spring

we had a lovely celebration of "oh my gosh i can't believe you have made it 11 years of waking up with my crazy butt every morning." he even bought me the movie. we havn't watched it yet...oh but we will...we will.
friday and saturday were beautiful and spent outside...i got to paint some too...more to come on that this week. prepare to be amazed...okay maybe not amazed but maybe have a little "ooh" moment. because the sun was out, i was wearing capris and in celebration of tanner leg season approaching i made a few springy broaches (coming soon to an etsy store near you). duh mine.i also started on a new tutorial for the moda bake shop using this honey bun...any guesses?
this weekend was also spent spring cleaning. we finally burned the last of our winter wood and that means i can finally dust and know it will last more than a nano second... it now last three nano seconds. oh exciting. and on a random note...

i eat cereal in the morning...

i don't really have great luck with cereal and yet i still eat it.

like.every.dang.morning.

this post is the perfect example of what i mean.

well as i'm pouring out my "honey buzzers" (yes we are cheap-os and buy the big bags 'o cereal over here) anywho...i was pouring out my cereal when i did a double take..."whaaaaat...is that a FACE?"...i then started searching the whole bowl and sure enough there are like 50 little creepy faces staring up at me...none of them smiling mind you. what the ...i hope my cereal isn't trying to tell me something...

recap:

*great "i can't believe you still love my crazy butt after 11 years" anniversary

*painted and spring cleaning

*tanning legs season=spring broach

*tutorial in the works

*creepy emo-faces staring at me in the morning

sounds like we're going to have a FANTABULOUS week in blogging. also look for your first 101 this week. i have to figure out when...but it'll happen

what i'm crushing on right now

i'm so in love with cath kidston. it all started when i ordered Cath Kidston's In Print: Brilliant Ideas for Using Vintage Fabrics in Your Home from amazon
so of course i had to get the catalog for her stuff. and the pictures are so inspiring even in her catalog.

i just adore the cute ironing board and those huge bags...wouldn't they be so sweet for a weekend bag or a beach bag? sigh to live near the ocean again... i love floral prints as much as i love polka dots, so you can only imagine that cath and i would have much to talk about if she were to ever come out to the middle of nowhere and have lunch at the local cafe with me.

most of you know when i say i love something...that means i'm knee deep in "already working on" something ...yes i am loveing all the ideas in my head (does yours run at full speed as well?) and have already started on a few of them. can't wait to show you. perhaps next week.

have a sweet weekend.

man formerly known as GI Joe husband and i will be celebrating our 11 year anniversary this saturday.

i can't believe he's made it that long.

what a good man.

see you monday.

you all keep asking the same questions

so many of you keep asking who did my header: well i have to thank EMILY JUNE DESIGNS for my fabulous new headers (she did my etsy one too!) and button.
i have bling now, and now you can have it on your blog as well! wear it proudly friends!





second off i have to tell you that i love getting your emails. really i do. and just because i don't get back to you right away doesn't mean i don't want to get back to you all. it's just life you know...kind of happens. and i promise i will get back to you all soon.

one thing i've noticed though through your emails is that even though you don't know each other (well some of you do) i keep getting asked the same questions from different people. so i've decided that instead of answering the same questions over and over i'm going to address them in posts broken down into two different categories:

ORGANIZING 101
where we will touch issues like getting rid of junk, simplifying your lives, having your kids help with thier rooms, clutter control and scheduling your house cleaning ...i'm sure the list will expand as we keep going.

and
DECORATING 101

where we will tackle things like the correct placement of pictures on a wall, grouping, and cheap and easy decor.

now keep in mind this will all just be V-isms and nothing fancy. i have helped people organize their spaces and time before, and i have helped decorate houses, but by no way am i saying i'm a professional...so there you go...my disclaimer. so in the near future start looking for 101's.


now if you have anything you want me to talk about go ahead leave me a comment or email me and i'll see what i can do! also if there is anything that i cover and you have MORE info on it go ahead and leave me a comment or email and we will work it into future 101's.



here's to making our home's sanctuaries one organizing or decorating project at a time!

a small before and after

there's no secret about it, i REALLY like stars. but this one didn't really have a place anymore because i want the boys' room to be a little more plain and just have one BIG star in it...oh and a poster of a star wars clone trooper, but it has to be "cool"(can star wars be cool? according to my boys it is.), so i'm still on the look out.

so i got some "ballet slipper" pink and went to town on the star. a few coats of this and let it dry...

and a few coats of this...have you seen this stuff? this spray glitter is amazing and quick to dry...but i think i'm going to do my own glittering so that it shows up more.

and now it's in the little ones' room. because i still have say in her room for a few more years.

****

the sun was out...

and so were we.

the kids were home yesterday... and what better way to spend a beautiful, sunny, lazy day then outside in the back yard doing "hand sewing work" while the kids enjoyed the sun and outside toys (and some man tools that the boys are so fond of for thier digging). i worked on some new things for my etsy store, i worked on more rag rugs, i even started working on my new embroidery patterns, it's been a while since i've put new things in quilt stores. it was a good day, and a nice reminder of what our summers are like.

my pasty white legs can't wait for more days like this.

seriously, i must be one of the whitest hispanics out there right now.

sad.

loving weekends again

before the deployment the weekends were my happy makers. i looked forward to them like a kid looks forward to a trip to a candy store.

after a year long deployment and re-adjusting to life with the husband home... i can finally say that i love weekends AGAIN.

********

our agenda this last weekend

*saving the lego star wars republic on the PS3

*enchiladas and roast

*worked together as a family in the yard (the husband's favorite past time)

*worked together as a couple in our home on little fix ups. (my favorite past time)

*relaxed and chated...finished up Chuck with chips and popcorn after the noisemakers were in bed (now we are watching past episodes of "How I Met Your Mother"

*****

and yes my Sundays don't suck anymore.

weekends make me super happy again...now that he's home.

******

ps:thank you for the kindness on the moda tutorial.

yes, more tutorials over there by me soon, i'll keep you posted.

also i'm working on adding more white...maybe i'll be done and show you soon.

*****

hope you had a great weekend...we have a long weekend over here so all the kids are home, so tomorrow it's back to the daily grind and making it through the week with projects and homework and putting out fires here and there. here's to a good rest of the week...do you have anything special planned?

a before and after

remeber last week i said i was painting and organizing? (and failing to file my taxes)

this is what i did last week: have you ever noticed that i try to strategically take pictures so that i don't show you this area? well there's a reason. first off the red table bugged me...never liked the red it turned out in the first place...and well, what can i say? uh... i've been busy creating and making things and never had enough time to clean up (so i keep telling everyone and i'm sticking to that). instead i was stuffing and pushing anywhere i could find a slot.

remember how i said i'm adding more white? well here you go. my first wave of white completed. and now i can hide crap under the skirt and not feel bad about it...AND it also serves the purpose of a FORT for clone troopers, a CASTLE for tea parties, and a HIDING place for wild jungle beasts (aka the cat). who knew.

thankful for my noisemakers

my friend maggi who took our family pictures (and the picture on my profile) sent me an email to look at a blog of a little girl she took pictures for.

i cried and cried.

and then i thanked the Man Upstairs for my wonderful noisemakers and for their health.

some of these little special people who come into this life and bless those around them for such a short amount of time i believe, is because they are so darn awesome that they only need to be here for that long.

go take a gander at their blog give them some caring words and then go call or hug your kids.

tutorial: fabric easter basket

oh i think you are going to like this one.

go check it at the moda bake shop! AND LEAVE ME SOME LOVE!

in the works

have i been working on:

A)organizing

B)painting

C)being sick

D)a tutorial

E)trying to be a good mom and wife by cooking every darn night

F)getting my part of the stupid taxes done

E)all of the above



E. would be the correct answer. but see this is how i roll. i put a bazillion things on my plate and get about half of the things done. this year i've been trying to start and finish one thing at a time...i'm royally screwing up. so i'm really trying hard to finish this list before i start yet another list. see baby steps.
*"we've" (the little one likes to think she's part of this)been organizing. every monday i have put it upon myself to do one organizing project while the boys are at school. it can be huge or small. but by golly i will reclaim my organized life once again...i feel like we've been rolling in un-organization for too long. so i am instilling what i used to do and pick one day out of the week where i organize one thing. this week it was my fabric area (the one you can see, not the monster of a disaster in my closet...that's for another day.)
*i've been sick. so i'm in the works of trying to get better. (coincidentally, my rice bag feet warmer/neck de-crinker works awesome for sinus infections! it's been on my face constantly for the past two days and has dislodged...well i'll spare details)
*i've been painting...not anything huge but it's white and i'll show you next week
*and i've been busting my butt cooking. this one has to be the hardest for me. but the husband and kids are not complaining (well the kids are but the husband is not) and it's been good for me to move out of my comfort zone of the 5 dishes i KNOW how to cook without a recipe and actually use a cookbook. oh and cooking sometimes means calling in a pizza.
*i'm also in the works of a new tutorial. so you'll want to come back on tomorrow for sure.
remember:
tomorrow=tutorial
come back

i'm obsessed

yeah you would think this picture is from a magazine. it's not. it's my good friend's house who just happens to be an AWESOME decorator, but even better, she's pretty rockin' with man tools. she made this hutch by HERSELF. she's the one who helped me with my little one's wood kitchen. the woman is pretty much the shiz in my book and she inspires me every time we talk.(btw totally want to steal that bench...but that's totally against my religion. if it weren't, that bench would be sitting pretty in my house as of a long time ago and i would totally hide it when she were to come over). her whole house is amazing but i wanted to highlight the "white's" in her house. i'm obsessed with white. i love it in magazines and i love it in person. of course i always throw in some color to mess up the whole white scheme but that's just my spicy hispanic side coming through. i'm in the process of adding more "light" and "white" into our home. so naturally i turned to my fabulous friend for inspiration. after taking pictures i came home and started working. i'm still in the middle of it but get ready to see what i've done with my inspiration!

blowing out eggs for spring

spring means decorating with eggs.and my friend that every one thinks we're related because we kind of look alike has chickens. and one of her chickens has decided that it likes to lay 1 sort of blueish colored egg every day. (you can't tell from the pics as well but they are blueish i swear) so this friend decided to keep the blueish looking eggs and blow out the yolk so that she could put them in a hurricane for easy decorating using nature for the season. i of course thought that was super cool and wanted to do it as well. here are my first two eggs of more to come as the days pass by.

first i poked a hole on either side of the egg. make sure it's a little bigger on the side you are trying to blow out the stuff from. yolk is not as watery as you think! (so i have figured out through this little process)

next blow out the yoke. see now, this sounds easy in theory, but really it's not. i'm just saying, when you start feeling light headed and like your belly button is about to pop out...you know you're working it. this so was the case for me. my husband of course walked in as i was trying my darnedest to get the crap out of the egg only to chuckle and say "let me show you how it's done."

gladly i obliged so i could take a moment to push back in my egg blowing hernia.

so here's your next step: look totally incompetent so that the man of the house wants to "save" you and let him turn all blue in the face and light headed.
we did find out that if the egg is room temp,if you poke the yoke a few times during the process it's a lot less hernia making.

they sure are going to look pretty when i have a bunch! i can't believe my husband has to blow out like 10 more of these babies. thank heavens the chicken only lays one blueish egg every day. otherwise i don't think the husband would be able to do it.