Another Weekend Has Ended

Monday, why do you do this to me every week?  Can't it just been perpetual weekend?  (with paychecks still please).

This weekend my mom took Addison for the whole weekend so that they could spend time with her and I could accomplish some kid free things.  It was a craft-tacular weekend around here!

Friday before my mom got out of work, Addison and I spent the day doing a little errand running/garage sale shopping and playing in the yard (well I tried to read while she played but that didn't work too well)

When my mom got out of work I met her in town to do a kid exchange and then decided to do some kid free shopping.  I was impressed with the number of stores I could quickly cover without a toddler in tow.  For real it was mind blowing and I have forgotten how nice it is to run errands alone sometimes without a time limit!  I almost always feel as if I am being rushed, rushing to finish, rushing to get somewhere on time.  I need a few chill pills.  After my errand running I came home went for a little run and then plopped myself in front of the tv to watch "What to Expect When Expecting" with a can of stain and I got to work on staining what will be new shelves for my bathroom.  Oh yeah, and a bird, and a "treasure chest" for Addison's B-day party.

Saturday morning I painted a few more birds (so I could have a little flock), shot a family session, did some thrift shopping where I found this cute little trivet that I will add to my collage wall.

To paint, or not to paint?  

I also found a 3.99 desk at goodwill that will be perfect for Addison (or another kid if I decide once I refinish it that I don't want to keep it seeing how I have another desk waiting to be refinished in the garage)

And this little spice rack which I'm pretty sure I will use to hold nail polish and possibly hang necklaces from for my bedroom. (it's yellow now)

Then I started the refinishing of these last three chairs for my dining room (if you remember...last fall..I got one of them done and had been waiting to fix the match to that one and looking for another set of two, I wanted two sets of two so they match the chair opposite them but not all 4 matching)  This process takes forever because 1. I do not own a paint sprayer, so brush it is.  2. Primer coat, Paint coat, Paint coat, Distress (sand), Stain, Polyurethane. (FOREVER!!!).  But I LOVE how it looks when it's done so the effort is worth it in the long run. 

this is usually when I remember my before pictures.

Primered

one painted, two to go!

Soon after the 1st coat of paint color it was time to head to Milford for my friend from works Wedding Reception. So I tried to scrub off all my war paint and we headed out for a little bit.

When we got back I stayed up far to late at night working on pictures and caught a one night early "supermoon".

Woke up Sunday morning to an absolutely beautiful day,

I was slightly ADD with my plans for the day, I planted the last of the flowers/bulbs that I had bought already this year, moved some of my garden ornaments around.  Started working on the chairs again and noticing how badly the green algae growth & bug bits on the side of the house were looking so I unburried the powerwasher, found some gas and started spraying.  while I looked like a hot mess afterwards, the house looks 1000 times better, even though its no where near finished! 

yuck

By the time 3:30 rolled around and it was time for me to hop in the shower to make it to my 5pm photo session I looked like this:

Ooops, shoulda remembered that sun screen.

But my chairs were finished!!!

I'll definitely have to do an updated post on the entire project, table, chairs, and a price breakdown.  But first this need time to air out and my house needs cleaned!

I also started working on a few more craft projects for Addison's B-day party.  Hello this is me going overboard on the details.  Every year I do her age in a 8x10 frame that sits out at her party and on her dresser after her party for the rest of the year.  I got that painted and embellished, except I'd like to find some pirate paper instead of the blue stripes to mount it to.

 And then my little peanut came home and is seen here making "noodle & sunburn soup"  sounds delish.

Mom sent me home some dinner and fresh made strawberry shortcake from the berries that they went and picked this weekend.  It was amazing!

And that, my friends, is how you do a kid free weekend.  Also, I am so sore and old today.

Addison's New Blanket

Addison has an obsession with her farm animal blanket that we got to go with her bedroom set.  It one of the kind that are velour on one side and soft fleece on the other side.  She is in love with it, she seems to love to rub the side with the velour.  She calls it her B and asks for it when shes tired and has some days where she doesn't want to leave without it.  So I figured I would make her a second "B" and hope that her attachment was to the softness and not the animals on the first blanket.

I bought a yard and a half of each velour and soft fleece and some matching rolled binding to put between them.  I have never done binding like that before so I was kind of nervous as to how it would turn out.   But rest assured I am the master of making stuff up as I go along and it turned out fantastically.  She loves it and immediately called it "B" also.  Success!  It should be big enough for her to use when we move to a toddler bed or a twin size!

Tattered Flowers

While reading through my favorite blogs I came across these gems I have seen them other places like my other favorite internet waste of time Pinterest so I figured I could give them a go.

First I found some random pieces of fabric that I had lying around the house that were at least 40 inches long (I didn't want any extra work having to patch smaller pieces together, I tend to be a quick and easy type of crafter)

Then I cut about 2 inch strips out of each print.  Again being quick and easy (lazy)  I didn't measure or make sure I had straight lines, they are tattered anyway right?

next I folded them in half wrong side in and did a quick basting stitch about 1/4 in from the fold,all the way down the strip of fabric.

(check out the straightness on that cut!)  Next I pulled the bobbin thread and made the whole strip ruffle.  You can do it as loose/tight as you want your ruffle to be.

next, I started to roll my fabric up like a snail shell, using and hand needle and some thread to stitch it in place around itself.  Make sure to keep the folded edge up to where you are stitching, the bottom cut edge will become your flower.

roll up the whole flower, making sure to stitch it well around itself so it stays together nicely.
Flip over and fluff to get your flower.

Remove extra stringies from fraying if you want it to look a little less tattered than it currently does.

Add an embellishment to the middle if you would like.  I thought adding a button to it made them look more finished.

Use a safety pin, barrette, alligator clip, hot glue whatever you wish to attach it to whatever you would like to embellish.  I'm thinking hair, so I attached mine to a headband.  But you could attach it to a shirt, purse, really whatever you can come up with!

Watch out sewing machine, I see many scraps of fabric coming your way!

second hand plans

Today has felt like a Saturday, all day long I have had to remind myself that it is only Friday.  Reason being, I am lucky enough to have a job that allows me to take family care days when I need them.  So I spent my day with my poor sick little peanut who ran a fever all yesterday afternoon and into this morning.  New sitter with new kids = new crud.   

poor stuffed up baby

the blank stare of sick and sleepiness makes me feel so bad for her.  

We got lots of extra cuddle time in and some extra much loved bath time.  Around 11 this morning she started feeling better, her fever was gone and she wanted to play some.  Still fountains of snot but at least shes  less cranky happier!

I made a run to the Lumen Christi Catholic High School's annual rummage sale that started today.  The place was a mad house, I had to park about 1/4 a mile from the building to even find a spot.  But, I finally found a frame like I had been in search of for the past few months.  (well finally found one that I was willing to pay the price tag of. 5.00 woot!)  It didn't have glass or a back to it but I didn't want those things anyhow.

Big plans for this guy, Addison needs a hair bow holder, not sure just yet what color the frame is going to end up, but I assure you all 16x20 inches of it will rock!  

I also snagged up these little guys:

I'm thinking about redoing some of the collage frames on the wall and just making a whole frame wall collage rather than 2-3 large frames many smaller ones high lighting my favorite pictures.  I'm probably going to paint these all the same color, most likely white, maybe one or two black.  Going to try an accumulate as many neat looking 2nd hand frames as I can find this garage sale season.  Think:

 

Something like that with the hopes it looks a little organized and a whole lot eclectic.  

Other than the frames I got a ton of used new books, and a couple pair of shoes for Addison.  It was very hard to move in that place but I only spent 17 bucks and I can't complain about that,and neither can my husband! :)

Baby, Baby, Baby, everyone's having Babies!

My past two weekends have been filled with baby showers.  Everyone is having babies!  At least thats how it has seemed for the past year or so, someone is always sharing the newly found news of their pregnancy or we are buying gifts for another baby shower.  For some reason an over abundance of babies and baby showers is far less annoying to me than the overload of weddings you get some years.  I swear I went to a wedding every weekend last fall.  (I don't love you people who got married last fall any less for it but gees did you all have to pick the same year and the same fall? Some of you the same damn day?!? :)  )  

Back to the baby showers, Addison went with me to both parties, where she recieved many compliments on how she was such a good baby.  Don't we know it!  She did great at both no crying fits and was happy for the whole thing both times.  I think shes going to be a show off attention hog anyway, she just eats up attention from anyone all the time!

all dressed up and ready to party.

Last weekends shower was for a friend of mine from high school, her and her husband got married in July of 2006 (same year as us).  This is going to be their first baby and baby 'G Unit' (as they are referring to her as their last name starts with a G) is due at the end of March.  

I couldn't decide what to buy her as I feel like now that I am a mom I should have some wonderful idea of what people really need at these things instead of buying clothes which are so cute and hard to pass up!  But I don't all you really need is a box of diapers, wipes and some boobs in the beginning anyway.  So instead I went the route of a personal gift and decided to make a no-sew baby blanket.  I love the one that I got at my shower from one of my friends and you can never have too many blankets!  Addison's hand made blankets are my favorites.

I went to Jo-Ann's and found some adorable, girly, 'I love mommy, I love daddy' fleece:

And a coordinating purple color to go with it for the backing.  From looking at her registry's I assumed that she was a purple kind of girl momma rather than a pink one.

After I got it all cut and tied i placed it in a cute basket that I found at Michael's.  The liner say's Baby all over it in different colors, who can't use an extra basket with a baby around?  I also made her a headband with an obnoxiously large flower (see leftovers flowers from Addison's 6 month photos which I bought a small bouquet for)  

And because all babies need to be read to I threw in a good book:

Addison says enough with the pictures what is this THING on my head?!  I can't help but giggle when I see this picture