Thank You Carol

Carol is the coolest person. Apollo and Annie adore her and so do we. Carol made this darling tutu for Annie along with two little rose clips to match. My sister made this onesie that says "little mama"-this is what Carol always calls her. It's two strips of Velcro and letters glued to the back of glass beads. She sent me a bunch of letters that make up names we call Annie.








Carol is amazingly talented. I love these little clips. I put them on some tights. I cut off one leg of white tights and tied a knot at the bottom of her head and just let them hang. I didn't even sew it-it just kind of rolled a little.






Here's a back shot of the skirt.





I checked out Google and they have tutorials on how to make these if you're looking for a darling gift. We love you, Carol. Annie looked like a little princess today. You made my day!!

Weekly Challenge #26

Be Grateful. Write down or just think about 3 things you are thankful for each night. I used to do this with my roommates each night before bed.


How did last week go getting and giving a full body massage? I could do this one every week.

Weekly Challenge #25

Give and get a full body massage. This challenge comes from Heidi. I'm lucky that my husband likes to give but not get massages. I'll have to come up with something.


How did last week go eating fruits and veggies? We should do this every week and not just for the challenge-good reminder.

Weekly Challenge #24

Eat your fruits and veggies. Fruit or veggie with/for every meal/snack. I'm not doing so well with this and want to be better.


How did last week go expanding your vocab, trying two new words? It was easy and fun. Now "affinity" and "scuttle" can be used in my every day language. I think this is a good family tradition. I might just put the words on the fridge each week.

Kid Games.


I'm so excited about my new book my friend, Jill gave me. There are all sorts of easy games that can be done with kids and a lot without much effort. My mom is super creative and we always played silly games. We do the same thing in our house now.

Best Chocolate Chip Cookies. This is the real name of the recipe and they live up to their name.

My husband found this recipe the other day from allrecipes.com. My sister first told me about the website. You can find anything from light meals to frosting and since they are all rated you can pick the favorites of people that try the recipes.

Carleton likes his lightly brown and a little crispy on the edge:






I like my cookies like hard dough. We are dough lovers in our family. I remember having one of those little cooking kits with the packets as a little girl and my mom asking if we could just make dough out of one.



These both came from the same recipe but if you like them doughy like I do, just take them out a couple minutes early. My mom always got rave reviews from her chocolate chip cookies and her two secrets are: take the cookies out of the oven a couple minutes early and use milk chocolate instead of the semi-sweet.

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons hot water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate and white choc chips)
  
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (I left these out-we're not nut in cookie fans around here)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Cream together the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Dissolve baking soda in hot water. Add to batter along with salt. Stir in flour, chocolate chips, and nuts. Drop by large spoonfuls onto ungreased pans.
3. Bake for about 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are nicely browned.

Enjoy Cameo and everyone else that loves a good chocolate chip cookie. Would love to hear what you think.

"New" Book Shelf.

I bought this book shelf at a furniture thrift store for 15 bucks. It had a flimsy back that we took off. I had a great pantless model to show the before pictures...




...and a shirtless one for the during.




I grew up with my mom refurnishing furniture and I love to do it now. I got some advice from the home depot guy for painting a wooden piece:

1. Clean it off.

2. Give it a light sand to rough it up and help the paint stick. He recommended a 200 grade sand paper.

3. My mom suggested getting something that already had the primer in it so I wouldn't have to paint an extra coat. I just picked out the color I wanted and they put primer right in it without changing the color. So I did two coats of the paint and primer in one (semi-gloss). I worked on it during the day outside while the kids played and at night while my husband read our book we'd been reading together.



4. Organize the shelves.



I love these vintage books I found at thrift stores. I also enjoy finding fun activities to do with the kids-one was called Exploring and the other was called, get this- Fooling-how cool is that (it's a bunch of magic tricks for kids). Then, I decorated the the shelves with the model cars and trains Apollo painted from Michaels (I saw some the other day for 50 cents and the kits come with the wooden parts, paint, paint brush, sand paper, and glue).





My mom saw these cars and thought she could make them herself-she did an amazing job! She cut the cars out of wood, painted them, and added wheels.





Here's some more pics. Most of the Dr. Seuss books came from thrift stores or gifts.








My mother-in-law let me borrow some of her books from when she was young and let me have some others-the book shelf is a fun place to show them off. We found Treasure Island in a thrift shop. Apollo looooved it.




Here's the finished product for Apollo's room. We bought a street lamp a few years ago that was plastic and white. We bought a pewter paint kit and Carleton did it over the plastic. Fun for a kid room.

Weekly Challenge #23

Expand your vocab. Pick two new words that you don't use and use them at least once a day. I talked with someone today that said I can tell you have an AFFINITY for children. What a cool word-I've heard it but don't use it. Here are my words for the week, you are welcome to borrow them or go to dictionary.com for one of the words of the day.


affinity: a natural liking for
scuttle: to run with quick, hasty steps; scurry



How did last week go planning for Father's Day? It's nice to have it planned.