7 All Together

Last Day of Summer.....

2011-09-21T19:31:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe that today is the last day of summer. Even harder to believe that the last time I blogged was before summer even started!

It's been a fun, busy, crazy summer.

Trips to the beach, camping, relaxing at the pool, summer basketball, two trips to the emergency room, 5 kids home, not much crafting and lots of peanut m&m's!

We started off our summer right away with camping and then a trip to Hershey Park.

Suddenly I'm craving a little chocolate!

Followed right away by a trip to Washington, D.C. Was it hot!

My kids have only been back in school for a couple of weeks. They didn't go back until after Labor Day this year. My oldest started high school and my youngest preschool. Yikes! Tough mom day!

I'm still kinda in summer mode and feel like I can't get back into our school routine.

It's still sad driving up and down our road. The scenery had completely changed and the view is entirely different. We could never see any other roads because of all the trees on the side of the road and now we can see them all. Our communities are still pulling together to help out those affected and it's good to see houses starting to be rebuilt. Sad to see those that have been knocked down and probably won't be rebuilt.

My kids and I just talked to my friend who lost her house-they've rebuilt their garage and will start their house soon. It was amazing because my kids were expressing their concerns and fears to her about the tornado and she was reassuring them and was so positive. I wonder if I could be as strong as some of the people around here who lost so much.

The tornado really affected my kids too. All summer, when we met anyone, the first question my 6 year old asked them was "did you have a tornado on the first day of June?". They are petrified any time it rains, thunders, gets windy.

Hope you all had a wonderful summer and Happy Fall!

So Sad

2011-06-07T06:35:00.000-07:00

My blogging vacation was a bit long than I planned.

Last Wednesday night, my area was hit by a tornado. I had no clue it was even coming. I never watch the news with the kids around and they were watching Disney because it was raining out. We had just been out playing in the sprinkler because it was so hot and humid and had come in because it had started to thunder. My husband called a little after 4 and said he had just got in the car to come home and the radio station was reporting tornado warnings for our area. He wanted me to get the kids in the cellar to watch TV without warning them. My husband is so not an alarmist but I still thought nothing of it.

We went down cellar and continued watching Disney until the power went out. I still thought nothing of it. I saw that it was dark out when I went to get flash lights but didn't stay near the sliding glass door. My friend down the street texted me after a while and asked if we were ok. Still thought nothing of it, and said fine, just no power.

She said they were fine but the tornado had touched down there. She said they had lots of trees down and wouldn't be going anywhere for a while. At that point, I still thought nothing of it. I couldn't wrap my head around it then and still can't now.

I live right on the the town line and the tornado went right through the town next to me-5 minutes down my road-total, total destruction-so unbelievable. We are fine, but I have a friend who lost her house-it's just gone. So many houses are gone or unliveable. We spent the weekend helping out down the street and I wish I could do more.

My thoughts and prayers have been with all who have suffered from tornados in the past few weeks. I've seen the pictures on the news but I don't think I truly knew the real damage or suffering until I saw what I have seen over the weekend.

We got power back late Friday night and phone and internet yesterday-I can not believe how fast it came back. Thank you to all the workers who came from all parts to help us out. They were so kind and nice to us. Our community has banded together and it is wonderful to see.

Please pray for the people of Massachusetts and all tornado victims.

Mini Bloggy Vacation

2011-05-04T10:43:00.000-07:00

Well, hopefully, it's a mini one.

And although we're super busy with sports and had a beautiful First Communion this past weekend, that's not the reason.

My computer is down. You'd think the screen going blank while you were online and the funny noises coming from the hard drive might have been a little clue. No really, we've known it was going for awhile and have been thinking about what we want to do. Right now, the computer is in my son's room-it used to be the sun room and we did it over, but never moved the computer. We're still debating about where to put it or if we should just get a couple of laptops. Good news is, since we knew it didn't have long, I had already copied all my pictures onto disks.

So, I probably won't be posting for a bit longer and I'm so missing all my favorite blogs. This old computer is so, so, so slow, that even if I wanted to catch on my bloggy reading, I can't. Either it takes way too long for a page to load up or it doesn't load up at all. I just know I'm missing a great tutorial or recipe!

I hope to be back soon. Can't wait to visit you all and leave some comment love!

{Easter Weekend}

2011-04-25T10:39:00.000-07:00

Some egg coloring

some egg finding

(don't you just love that morning hair)

some required family photos

(don't let my 5 year old fool you-she was having fun and very excited to wear her fancy dress and hat although you'd never know from the pained expression on her face)

(and yes, my son wore his fanciest clothes to celebrate Easter, it only took him about 1/2 a minute to take off the polo shirt I chose)

more required family poses

(minus the two who didn't agree with mom that we really should be taking pictures of all 5 kids)

and lots more egg finding!

We had a wonderful Easter weekend with lots of eggs, friends, family, food and way too much chocolate! The girls went back to school today after Spring vacation and those baskets were taunting me all day!

I hope you had a joyous Easter!

A {Very} Simple Skirt

2011-04-15T09:28:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, I saw the cutest skirt over at Made. Perfect for spring and summer, playing, twirling, school and home and for just being comfortable. Dana was kind enough to give a tutorial for the skirt and I quickly added it to my want to make list.

Dana says

"seriously. it's the simplest skirt you'll ever make. ever."

And, oh yes, this is so true.

I wanted to make something special for my 5 year old's best friend's birthday. Which is today. So, of course, I started last night. I would have loved to make the two layer skirt but figured I'd better go with the basic one. You know, seeing as I needed it for today. I did take Dana's suggestion and sewed around the hem twice-an easy special little touch. I wish I had taken her advice for creating the waistband. Oh well, live and learn, mine was a little too small and although the elastic fit, it was a tight squeeze.

I started last night and finished this morning. And that's was with the kids all around and my son thinking that pressing the sewing machine pedal while I'm sewing is a new, fun, fun game.

I had the fabric in my stash and I had gotten it on sale so another quick, easy and cute project!

I'm definitely going to make some more of these for the girls!

I'm linking up to Amanda at Serenity Now's Weekend Bloggy Reading and The Weekend Wrap Up Party with Jen at Tatertots and Jello.

Didn't you know I called in sick??

2011-04-07T10:56:00.001-07:00

Oh, what's that? I don't get any sick days?? Are you sure? Isn't that in my contract?

Guess next time I sign a contract, I'd better read the fine print. No sick days for moms.

And I could have used a few this past week.

It's April, the temperature is finally warming up, all the kids are healthy and I get sick. Strep throat and a nasty cold.

I'm starting to feel better. I think. Not as good as I'd like to feel.

And I'm so behind.

Enough said. Or I guess, enough shown.

2011 Ultimate Blog Party with 5 Minutes for Mom

2011-04-01T05:50:00.000-07:00

It may be cold and snowy here......brrrr

(~note to Mother Nature-it's April 1st and my kids should not be having a snow day)

but it's warm inside and the party has started!

5 minutes for mom is hosting their annual Ultimate Blog Party! Join in and meet some new friends, find some great new blogs and maybe win a prize.

For those of you visiting 7 All Together for the first time, I've been updating my blog recently, but still working on my about me page. I'm Dawn, mom of 5, ranging in ages from 14-3, 4 girls and a boy. I've taught both junior high and elementary school but I've been home with the kids since my oldest was about 6 months old.

Although peanut m&m's are what help me get through the day, I also {love, love, love} all that is quick, easy and inexpensive. Anything to make my day easier! Quick and easy dinners, a dessert that can be whipped up fast, gifts you can make when you find out the birthday party is tomorrow, cute crafts or costumes I can make no matter what else I have going on to surprise my kids. Love to share what I find and also little bits of my life with 5 kids.

Thanks for visiting!

{Weekend}

2011-03-21T10:15:00.000-07:00

uh, first day of spring.......

Guess we got spoiled last week and over the weekend. By the end of last week, our temps were in the 60's. Now that I can take. My kids were pulling out their flip flops and shorts and two tried to escape from the house in bathing suits! The weekend wasn't quite so warm but we spent lots of time playing outside.

First weekend in a long time we had no basketball games. Well, I should say no basketball games that we had to go to. Basketball was on the TV pretty much all weekend.

Saturday we snuck in some shopping.

My 5 year old ~~pulled out her second tooth to get more money~~ lost another tooth. She had been waiting all week to go to Walmart to buy a new Barbie doll. The older girls and I went shopping with friends on Saturday night and then out for a yummy dinner.

Yesterday we visited with family and were treated to another yummy dinner of cornbeef and cabbage.

And, in between all the outside playing, shopping, basketball and eating, I finished that book I got at the library last week.

It was so good! Sad, happy and hard to put down. I'd definitely recommend it.

Hope you all had a nice weekend and have a great week!

No Pinching Here.....

2011-03-17T09:00:00.000-07:00

Don't want to risk any of my kiddies getting a pinch today......

so last night (and yes, this morning) I made the girls some rosette hair clips for St. Patrick's Day.

I had some green gingham fabric in my stash and made the rosettes just like the one I made for the ear warmers. We had some metal clip type barrettes and I used hot glue to attach the rosettes to the clips. Super easy and quick!

Now, you might have noticed my son is wearing yellow instead of green.

Don't worry, he's got himself covered.

This is his idea of wearing green for St. Patrick's Day.

Notice A Change?

2011-03-09T10:03:00.000-08:00

Anything different?

There's been a little spring rearranging going on here at 7 All Together.

I've been wanting a new look for my blog for awhile. Something different, all my own, special.

But, since I know zilch, zero, nada about all the stuff that's makes up blog design, it wasn't happening.

Until this weekend. I stumbled upon Making Cute Blogs. Oh boy, free tutorials with no professional software needed for anyone who wants a cute blog....raising hand, wildly waving, that's me!

I used the tutorial for making a custom header using Picnik. So easy, so quick and so free! The tutorial is very clear and understandable with lots of pictures. I kind of started on a whim thinking it would be over my head and I wouldn't be able to figure out how to get it into my blog. Nope. I followed step by step. Never had a question. No what the heck does this mean moments. And as you can see, I got it into my blog!

I wasn't quite sure what I wanted for a header so I made two different ones.

I'd love to hear your thoughts....what you like, don't like, what you think of the ideas and colors.

Now on to adding some pages.......

I'm linking up to Weekend Bloggy Reading with Amanda at Serenity Now and Round Robin with Amy at Keeping up with the Schultz Family

Ear Warmer Alert

2011-03-01T17:00:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to let everyone know, I was in Walmart today and they had the ear warmers I used on clearance for 70 cents. Now $1.50 was a good price. 70 cents is an awesome price. Can't beat it. And if you can't beat it, put a pretty flower on it.

I picked up a few more. They'll be nice to have on hand for gifts. Or just in case one of ours gets misplaced. Or as Yvonne at Styleburb suggested, they would be great as gifts after a girls' party-love that idea!

"I am love.....each other"

2011-02-28T06:36:00.000-08:00

A nice surprise on a cold, rainy, icy Monday morning.

My girls are featured over at I am..... today!

I am..... is a new blog recently started by Megan of Brassy Apple.

In Megan's own words.....

"I felt the tug inside to share bits of my life. To connect through photos with other women and what they wanted to share - to be seen, to create, to capture life, to capture the everyday. To connect, to uplift to embrace, to empower and to relate - all through a single colorful snapshot."

There have been so many beautiful pictures shared this month. Most made me smile. Some tear up.

Megan is going to have a theme each month. The theme for February was Love-I sent in my picture because my girls have been loving the snow and each other. March's theme is Survivor. Love the picture of the laundry room. How did she get in my laundry room??

Maybe I should take and send in a picture of all my spices my son just dumped on the kitchen floor while I was writing this post........guess I'm moving vacumm the kitchen floor to the top of my list this morning. Oh, and adding buy all new spices to my grocery list. A 3 year old's (yes, it's his birthday today!!) idea of fun is waaayyy different from mine!

Check out my girls and I am...... and Brassy Apple.

Both really neat and fun blogs!

Exciting Teeth Happenings!!

2011-02-23T05:27:00.000-08:00

Since February is Dental Health Month, I think it's appropriate that we've had some teeth happenings in our house.

We've got our first set of braces in the house.

Way different from when I had braces. Oh boy, I used to rock the "Tin Grins Are In" tshirt!

So glad the band doesn't wrap all around your front teeth anymore. I still remember having those put on-ouch! You get to pick your own rubber band colors now too. Guess that makes braces a fashion accessory. No more boring clear colored rubber bands.

The breakfast of champions the morning before the big braces day. Her favorite candy that she won't be able to eat for awhile.

Her sisters certainly enjoyed that!

Last week, we had our second big tooth happening. My 5 year old lost her first tooth-very exciting!

It had been a little loose for awhile and then got real loose.

Now, not much grosses me out-especially since having kids-but a real, real wigglie tooth. That gives me the heebie jeebies. I'm not sure why, but I don't do wigglie teeth. That's my hubby's department.

He took care of the tooth and we had another visit from the tooth fairy and a very excited 5 year old who's got some money burning a hole in her pocket!

Keeping chilly ears warm is necessary....

2011-02-21T08:15:00.000-08:00

when you wake up to more snow!!

I picked up some grey knit ear warmers at Walmart a few weeks back with plans to dress them up. After I made the scarves from the Target throw, I thought I'd use the leftover fleece to fancy up the ear warmers.

On the top one, I made a rolled flower using a strip of fleece. There's so many great tutorials on rolled flowers, like this one and this one. I sewed the flower together instead of gluing it and then sewed it on the ear warmer so I'd be able to wash it.

For the bottom one, I wanted something a little bit different so we wouldn't ~~be fighting every morning~~ have any problems knowing whose was whose. I made a cute flower that I had seen over at Twelve Crafts till Christmas. I used the pink fleece and alternated it with purple jersey from one of my oldest daughter's old tshirts. It only took me about 10 minutes to make.

Quick and easy. Very cute too.

And of course, my third favorite.....inexpensive!

Ear Warmer from Walmart $1.50 (now only $.70)

Throw from Target $2.50 (but I made 2 scarves and then the flowers from the same throw)

For a grand total of less than $4.00!

And yes, those are bathing suits they are wearing with their ear warmers. They're playing "beach". Guess they'd like some warmer weather too! Got a little nervous when I heard the word water wafting up from the downstairs playroom. Relieved to find out they are only using their blue sleeping bags.

I'm safe. And lucky. I've been invited to join the beach club and offered one of the beachside condos.

Quick and Easy Scarf

2011-02-18T06:08:00.000-08:00

I was in Target on Tuesday.

Now ~imagine a group of angels above me ~singing a chorus af Halleluiahs.

I was there to buy Pull Ups and undies for my soon to be 3 year old! We've been a long time in diapers in our family but the end is here.

Of course, I had to check out the Valentine's Day markdowns.

I found this cute fleece throw for 50% off making it only $2.50.

Would you believe the candy was only 30% off. Target why must you play with me?? You know I bought my peanut m&m's though. Gotta keep up the stash.

I immediately (thanks to all I've learned and discovered from all the great blogs I read) thought that would make cute scarves.

I laid out the throw, with the cute design at the top and bottom, measured about 10 inches from the side and cut all the way up. The reason it was almost 10 inches was because I made sure I didn't cut through one of the hearts or circles.

Just a little project that's great because the girls love their new scarves and it was quick, easy and inexpensive.

I picked up some ear warmers at Walmart too. I'll be sharing how I dress them up with the fleece I have left next week.

I'm linking up to Weekend Bloggy Reading at Serenity Now, I'm Loving It at Tidymom, Friday Link Party at Creation Corner and Weekend Wrap Up Party at I Heart Naptime, Weekend Wrap Up Party at Tatertots and Jello.

We disagree again.....

2011-02-15T15:59:00.000-08:00

In the past few weeks, my son and I have had a slightly different opinion of what makes appropriate winter outerwear.

Well, for the past few days, we haven't been seeing eye to eye again.

I want to take his picture.

He doesn't want me to.

It was never easy to get take his picture, but he would sit and smile. I would just have to be very quick and have the camera ready because he wouldn't sit and smile for long.

These past few days, he won't even smile for me.

Or he gives me the cheesy grin.

And teases me.

Buzz and I understand each other though. I can take as many pictures of him as I want.

And don't think I'm making this up when you see this cute grin. I was really taking a picture of his sisters and he jumped right in front of the camera and gave me a big ol' smile.

I think he's playing with me.

{Happy Valentine's Day}

2011-02-14T09:00:00.000-08:00

and for some {Happy 100's Day}!

My daughter chose to do 100 pom pom's for her 100 Day Project. Of course, we had to work Valentine's Day in too!

She's loving her duo celebration shirt. Even though she didn't totally get it.

I made a shirt for my 7 year old too.

I hope you all have a fun day. We're spending a very romantic Valentine's Night in the school gym at a basketball game.

Linking up to the Valentine's Exchange at Following the Footsteps.

Basketball Valentines

2011-02-13T07:53:00.000-08:00

I wanted to give the girls on my basketball team a little present for Valentine's Day.

Thought it would be kinda of cute for it to have a basketball theme.

image source

I started off trying to find a basketball shaped as a heart. No luck. I did find just a basketball graphic and remembered the picnik website. I was running out of time, so I figured I'd just add some text and print out a valentine for the girls. After loading up the graphic, I totally lucked out. Under the create tab, I found {love flair}. Oh, so perfect. It adds a heart silhoutte to the middle of your picture. Just what I wanted. I added the text and my valentine was complete.

My daughter and I made chocolate covered pretzels with m&m's. Sampled a ~~bunch~~ few and then put them in baggies. We attached a valentine to each bag with a ribbon.

Quick and easy!

My girls are also giving these to all the girls on their basketball teams and their classmates.

I know it's late, but if you'd like a copy of this, please let me know. I'd be happy to send it to you.

I'm linking up to these parties Weekend Wrap Up Party at Tatertots and Jello, Weekend Bloggy Reading at Serenity Now and Weekend Wrap Up Party at I heart Naptime

Show the {Love} for 100 Days T Shirt

2011-02-11T17:08:00.000-08:00

There is going to be some serious partying in kindergarten this Monday.

Not only is Monday Valentine's Day. A celebration in and of itself. A celebration that by itself could make a whole class of 5 and 6 year olds's giddy and make the teacher ~~want to call in sick~~ ready to share the love.

It's also our school's 100th day.

This may be a first. I'm not sure if they've ever landed on the same day before. I hope they don't mind sharing.

So, an extra special occasion deserves a special t-shirt.

I just thought of this yesterday. Wish I had thought of it a bit sooner but it didn't take long to make. Perfect for me, quick, easy and inexpensive.

I had the fabric in my stash and used a t-shirt my daughter already had. It looks red in the pictures but it's really hot pink.

I freehanded the hearts and the one and sewed them on the shirt. I only used a straight stitch because I figured it's only going to be worn once.

After I showed my 5 year old the shirt and she tried it on and jumped around saying she was wearing it to school on Monday, I heard her say to her sister "why is there a 1 and two hearts?". My 7 year old very patiently explained that the two hearts were the zeros of the 100. My 5 year old then said "oh yeah, they do kind of look like zeros".

Linking up to Weekend Wrap Up Party at Tatertots and Jello, Weekend Bloggy Reading at Serenity Now, Friday Flair Linky Party Valentine's Edition at WhipperBerry, I'm Loving It at Tidymom, and Round Robin at Keeping Up With the Schultz Family

Shutter Love Tuesday-Eyelashes

2011-02-08T09:43:00.000-08:00

I always check out the pictures at The Trendy Treehouse on Shutter Love Tuesday but I've never entered a picture before. Each week there is a different theme and this week's is eyelashes. Perfect timing! I was just looking at this picture of my son. He definitely lucked out in the eye lash department!

If you'd like to vote this week, stop by Shutter Love Tuesday

we're number 46!

Snow, some ice, the stomach bug and more snow......

2011-02-04T07:33:00.000-08:00

Lots and lots and lots of snow!

And it has it been crazy around here!

Who would have thought when I wrote about the Storm of 2010
and the Storm of the Lost Cupcakes
that pretty much all I would have been writing about in 2011 would be snow!

So, in between shoveling and snow days and a week of the stomach bug traveling through our house and kids home every other day, I haven't gotten much accomplished at all. Let's just go with nothing accomplished.

I sure hope that ground hog was right about spring coming early!

Although, I'm kinda doubting that ground hog right now. I'm thinking he just couldn't see his shadow because of all the snow!

We're already being warned we have more snow coming next week. The storm has been dubbed the "Beast of the East".

So I guess I better keep my shovel handy................. and my patience.

We kinda, sorta, don't agree......

2011-01-19T06:22:00.000-08:00

This is how my son would prefer to go outside.

Well, I should rephrase that-if he really had his choice, he'd be outside in shorts, a t-shirt and flip flops or crocs.

He must take after his dad, cause it's certainly not after me. I'm the one who's always freezing with socks and sweatshirts and piles of blanket.

I've stopped fighting with him. He's old enough to take off what I struggle to put on him and I ~~lose anyway~~ guess you have to choose your battles.

It is embarassing in the grocery store though when every other person makes a comment about your son and his shorts and how he must think he lives in Florida not the freezing Northeast.

We've come to a semi-compromise and he's been ~~humoring me~~ wearing his fleece jacket outside.

Not my first choice but I'll choose my battles and he'll come in if he's cold.

and linking up to Weekend Bloggy Reading with Amanda at Serenity Now

Never leave your cupcakes unattended....just saying....

2011-01-13T05:10:00.000-08:00

We woke up last week to alot of snow. Alot, alot, alot of snow.

Like where are we going to put all this snow when we shovel and plow?

The kids had the day off. First snow day of the school year. We ventured outside for a bit, but boy, that snow was deep. The kids had a tough time just walking around.

My little guy wasn't even chancing it. He didn't go much further than the front steps and then turned around to go back in the house.

We spent the day in the house. Playing, crafting and baking. My 10 year old wanted to make cookies but I ~~had a craving for cupcakes~~ reminded her she had a new decorating kit to try out. So cupcakes it was!

And they were yummy. Hit the spot.

That is until my 2 year old tried to get one on his own.

Ouch. I found this when I went into the kitchen. On the floor.

Never leave your cupcakes unattended.

New Year's Eve......

2011-01-04T16:27:00.000-08:00

Happy, Happy New Year to all of you!!

I know. I'm a bit late. Between staying up late on Friday night, a few sick children, more Christmas celebrating on Sunday and the kids going back to school yesterday, not only am I a bit late, I'm a bit behind!

Every New Year's Eve we celebrate with the other 3 families that make up our camping group. Fun times-dinner, games, the kids play-very relaxing. We used to put the kids to bed early but that's not happening anymore. All the kids made it to 12:00 this year, even my 7, 5 and 2 year olds. I thought for sure they'd crash!

We rotate houses each year and this year it was our turn. My 10 year old was in charge of decorations. She made a countdown for our wall. She pulled one down every hour until a minute before midnight.

The theme for the night was nice and easy. Chicken parmigiana, spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. So easy to prepare ahead of time and have cooking on the stove and ready to pop into the oven.

Keeping with the easy theme-ice cream for the kids for dessert. My girls made oreo balls and chocolate covered pretzels too, and we had pies for the adults.

My friend took this picture of our front door. The kids had gone out to play in the snow and this is what we found when they came back in the house. And yes, that is a pair of crocs in the front. My 2 year old thinks it's still summer. He still wants to go outside in the short sleeve shirt and sandals. I had to hide all his shorts.

12:00 midnight-not a tired child in the bunch!

but a few minutes after 12, it's a different story.....

and as I came back into the living room after saying goodbye to our last guests at about 12:30.......

Happy 2011 to you and your families!!!

Wordless Wednesday.....

2010-12-29T07:27:00.000-08:00

One tired little guy, with his two favorite presents, who couldn't quite make it through Christmas Day without a little nap on the floor.

Blizzard of 2010

2010-12-27T11:01:00.000-08:00

"If I live to be 100, I'll never forget that big snow storm a couple of years ago." ~Sam the Snowman, narrator Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

Who knew he had a name??? and am I the only one who always thought it was Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer???

Yep, it's the first big snow storm here on the East Coast. Last night as the wind was howling away and the snow was blowing and every weather forecaster was talking about blizzard conditions, I couldn't get the beginning of Rudolph out of my head.....you know, where it's real windy and stormy and all the packages and ornaments are being blown all over the place.

The kids were excited to go outside this afternoon. With it being so windy, I figured they'd be in the house quicker than it took to put all the snow gear on, but they surprised me. All the struggling with snow pants, boots, hats and mittens was worth it!

Lots of fun in the snow!

A little angel making......

Some sledding.....

They had a blast until a huge gust of wind sent them back in the house for some hot cocoa time!

Merry Christmas

2010-12-24T05:27:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Dishing It! Party ~~~ Christmas Traditions

2010-12-15T17:08:00.000-08:00

I think the nasty, Grinch like cold that has lived in all my children for the past month is almost out of our house. Cheers all around! A few coughs here and there, but nothing like it was, and everyone seems to be feeling better.

So, today's it's time for some fun! Amanda at Serenity Now is hosting another Dishing It! Party. A special December version all about Christmas traditions. Time to share our traditions and meet/get to know some new friends. Grab your cup of cocoa and join in the fun!

~Do you have any specific traditions that your family looks forward to each Christmas? My girls love to pile into the car one night, after dark, with some popcorn and drinks, and drive around and look at Christmas lights. They talk about this all the time.

~Is your tree real or fake? We have a real tree. So lucky, my brother-in-law has a tree farm and lives about 5 minutes down the road from us.

~Do you have any favorite ornaments? I love the ornaments we've bought while on vacations, but my favorites are definitely the ones the girls have made themselves.

~What's your favorite Christmas treat? Hands down, Christmas cookies!

~Coolest crafty thing you made or home decor thing you tried this Christmas season? Ahh, nothing. Which I hate because I had so many ideas. But, see first paragraph.

~Your favorite Christmas movie? Love The Grinch-it's a family favorite! I also love to watch It's a Wonderful Life-can you believe I had never seen it before meeting my husband!

~Most difficult person you have to buy for? The older girls are getting a bit tougher. Their lists are just as long as the little ones, but their requests are much more expensive!

~What's the number one thing on your kids'/husband's/wife's/significant other's list this year? All the kids want Pillow Pets!

~If Santa could bring you one big surprise this year, what would you want it to be? It would have to be the Coach purse that ~~my husband doesn't know he's giving me but has already been purchased~~ I've been eyeing.

My go to meal......

2010-12-10T06:21:00.000-08:00

Chicken
Chicken Broth
Frozen Veggies
Rice

These four items are always in our house.

Permanently on my shopping list and definitely stocked up on when I find them on sale.

For those nights when the kids are cranky, or we have multiple basketball practices, or we get home late, or I'm just plain unprepared, those four items can quickly be whipped up into a chicken stir fry dinner that is easy and everyone loves. Well, ok, I can't say they all love all of the meal, but I know everyone will at least eat the chicken and rice part of it! And for my house, if everyone eats at least part of the meal, that meal's a keeper.

I don't really look at the recipe when I make this anymore so half the time I forget the ginger-still tastes the same. I've also started using 2 cans of chicken broth and doubling the soy sauce and cornstarch to make more sauce for us. I've used lots of different vegetables to make this too-I usually just use whatever frozen vegetables I have in the freezer, sometimes a bag of stir fry vegetables, sometimes I just cut up onions and peppers and throw them in.

Easy, quick and yummy!

.

"Community-Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas"

2010-12-09T06:21:00.000-08:00

It's Thursday night! The one night my husband and I definitely sit down to watch some of our favorite shows on NBC. Often, and don't ever tell my kids, with a pizza from our favorite pizza place...... pizza with carmelized onions.....my favorite!

Tonight on NBC, at 8:00 EST ( oh, wait until you see this episode, you won't ever want to say standard again!) "Community" airs their brand new Christmas special. It may not seem as if it's new though. It's an all stop-action animated episode just like all the Christmas specials when I was younger -songs and all.

When Abed (Danny Pudi) wakes up in stop-motion animation, he takes it as a sign that he and the group must re-discover the meaning of Christmas. Meanwhile, Jeff (Joel McHale) and Britta (Gillian Jacobs) become growingly concerned about Abed's mental health and enlist the help of Professor Duncan (John Oliver). The group undergoes hypnosis to explore Abed's winter wonderland and soon unravel the truth behind Abed’s madness. Chevy Chase, Yvette Nicole Brown, Donald Glover, and Ken Jeong also star.

I had a chance to preview this episode yesterday. Love the ending and how Abed's friends stick by him. Laughed out loud all by myself at some funny one liners. And as I said above, I'll never say Eastern Standard Time again!

"Community-Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas" air tonight on NBC at 8:00 EST/7:00 CST.

This review is my own opinion. I viewed this episode through One to One Network. No money was received. My post will be entered into a drawing to win a prize.

I have become a human tissue....

2010-12-02T09:46:00.000-08:00

for this little guy....

who's down and out with a nasty little cold. A cold that has invaded our whole house for a couple of weeks now. A cold that is so bad, if it were a Christmas cold, it would be the Grinch cold. A cold that has morphed into a sinus infection for one of the 7 and a respiratory infection for another.

So, between the coughs, when his nose is running, he has decided that my arm or my shoulder or my leg - really, whichever body part is the closest and available - make a wonderful tissue and swipe, there goes his nose across my arm or shoulder or leg.

The sad thing is -that in my sleep deprived state-I think gross, yuck, but then think oh well, and go on my way. Whoever would have thought that before having kids.

2010-11-27T18:15:00.001-08:00

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and if you ventured out yesteday, I hope you found all you were looking for.

We have a nasty virus hanging around our house so my 9 year old and I stayed home for Thanksgiving and feasted on ice cream and Cake Boss. My little guy started with it today. I am not thankful for nasty viruses!

Since the kids weren't feeling well, I hadn't made any plans to go out shopping on Friday and stayed home in my comfy pj's. It was a perfect day for online shopping-well, what day isn't perfect for online shopping-and I got a good deal on some sweatshirts at American Eagle and 77 Kids.

We only had one small tragedy this holiday weekend,

source

my handmixer gave up on me in the middle of a batch of chocolate chip cookies. Guess the cookies were too much for her to handle.

So now, I've added to my Christmas Wish List, this baby

source

Probably not in red, but I think she could handle a batch of chocolate chip cookies just fine. Along with all the cakes my 9 year old is planning on baking a la Cake Boss.

I am participating in Infarrantly Creative and Tatertots and Jello’s Blog Hop for a chance to win a Mint Cleaner. It is the revolutionary machine that cleans your hard floor surfaces for you.

Click here to join the blog hop and a chance to win!

The Mint Cleaner is available at the following places:

Amazon
The Mint Cleaner

HSN

Bed, Bath & Beyond

I {Heart} Cupcakes

2010-11-12T06:00:00.000-08:00

and since the kids were home yesterday, I thought is was the perfect time to try out The Perfect Cupcake (using a mix) recipe I found at Tidymom.

I had an assistant who was more than willing to ~~lick the bowl along with me~~ bake cupcakes with me.

and another assistant who decided he needed to have the dozen of eggs on the counter and climbed up while we were filling up the cupcake pans.

needless to say, he wasn't very happy when I removed him from the eggs and refused to participate in any more cupcake baking.

I'm very happy to say that The Perfect Cupcake does live up to its name! And to make it even better, it was no harder or longer to do than using a cake mix and following the instructions on the box. The batter was much thicker than the batter made when just following the directions-noticably thicker. Taste is yummy, yummy!! I cooked mine a tidge too long so next time I'll grab them out of the oven a bit sooner. Other than that......quick, easy, delicious=no more just following the instructions on the box for me!

The ladies at eighteen25 have started a new linky called Snapshots of Life.

They post a specific time of the day on Wednesday for you to then take a picture on Thursday to then link up on Friday. Cute!

This week the time was 10:00 a.m.

Usually it would just be my son and I at home at 10, but since the kids had no school yesterday, at 10:00 a.m. my 10 year old was getting ready to go on a bike ride with her friend. At about 9:55, I was none too happy that my husband had hung all the bikes up in the garage (still don't understand why but I'm not asking) and I had to finangle to get hers down!

Linking up to eighteen25 Snapshots of Life, I'm Loving It at Tidymom, Round Robin with Amy at Keeping up with The Schultz Family and Weekend Bloggy Reading with Amanda at Serenity Now

Shutterfly.....Christmas Photo Cards Made Easy

2010-11-04T10:17:00.000-07:00

Well, ordering and receiving the cards will be easy, I can't guarantee the same for the picture taking!

Even before Halloween was over, my kids were already anxiously figuring out how many weeks and days until Christmas. If it didn't take so long, they'd probably know the minutes too! The calendar has been poured over, the Toys R Us Toy catalog is in tatters and I hear almost daily "8 weeks until Christmas"!

Aaahhh! 8 weeks!

Definitely first on my Christmas list-cards.

Love, love, love to send and receive photo cards-my kids too. They can spend hours looking at all the pictures of their cousins and friends and it's a great way to catch up with everyone, especially those who don't live close by. The past few years I've ordered my Christmas cards from Shutterfly and personally, I've had a great experience. Easy to order and quick to deliver. I've never had a problem.

Shutterfly has some beautiful new holiday cards this year-I'm thinking maybe choosing may not be so quick and easy-I'm loving quite a few of them!

Loving the blue and red together......

and the bright colors......

more blue and red.......

Love all three of these photo cards!

I have to admit, I usually stress myself out each and every year trying to find the perfect picture for my cards. Every year, I say to myself I'm not going to, but I do! I'm so glad that now there is the option to put more than one picture on a card-just brilliant!

If I can't get a picture of all 5 of my kids together-where one of them isn't looking the other way....or making a goofy face....or jumping up so they just look like a blur.....I'm going with this card. I know there are 6 openings but I saw a great idea on the Shutterfly site. In the 6th opening, they just had a Christmas kind of picture-like a picture of one of the kid's hand holding an ornament. More brilliance and no stress for me!!

If you want to get a jump start on the holidays and cross some things off your to do list Shutterfly is offering 20% off all holiday cards.

Disclosure: This is my honest opinion about Shutterfly's Holiday Cards and my experience with Shutterfly. I am participating in a holiday promotion with Shutterfly and they are providing me with free Christmas cards.

Too. Much. Candy.

2010-11-03T10:07:00.000-07:00

My sentiments exactly!

Although my daughter wasn't saying she didn't want any more candy.....

oh, no, quite the opposite for my kids...they are loving it!

I on the other hand, have eaten more candy in the past few days than I do all year.

And that includes all the peanut m&m's I keep hidden away for those moments when I need to sneak away for a bit of alone time.

My kids had a blast on Halloween. It was a bit chilly but we beat the rain and didn't miss trick or treating at one house.

This was about all my son wore his Halloween costume for-just a few pictures. He trick or treated dressed as himself.

No problem wearing his sister's costume though!

Hope you had a wonderful Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T04:57:00.000-07:00

May you have all treats and no tricks!!

Enjoy!

Easy Last Minute Halloween Decoration.........

2010-10-29T09:43:00.000-07:00

Getting ready for our school Halloween party today with my little helper.

A package of fruit snacks makes things easier for mom-uh, I mean much more fun!

A few years ago, I was looking for some easy and inexpensive ways to decorate our school gym for the Halloween party-nothing scary, just something to make it look a little less gymish and a lot more fun. We try to keep the budget low for the party, but I wanted something fun.

I found a great idea on Martha Stewart's website

Witches Curtains

Easy, quick, inexpensive and the kids love it.

So perfect it's scary!

Please ignore the mess on my stairs in the background-it's been a party getting ready, cupcake baking, crazy kind of day.

Grab a trash bag and a pair of scissors and you're ready. Hopefully, you can find a pair of scissors without searching through the whole house like I did! I use any kind of trash bag I have-I don't think I've ever used a heavy duty one like suggested.

I follow the directions here. I usually start by cutting up about a 1/2 inch in on one side and then all the way across the top. Don't pull too hard after you've cut your strips or the strip will tear. No worries if one does though, just adds to the spookiness. The one I made about still needs to be stretched out a bit.

The kids love walking through this to get into the party. We have three doors to get into the gym and I usually put them on all the doors and then put spider webs all over the tops and sides of the doors. Some of the strips get pulled off during the party, but I've never had alot. The kids just like jumping up and touching them as they walk in.

Have a great Halloween Weekend!

I'm linking up to Weekend Bloggy Reading with Amanda at Serenity Now

Great tween/teen costume idea...

2010-10-22T04:11:00.000-07:00

that's quick, easy and inexpensive!

Columbus Day Weekend is the start of the Halloween season for us-we camp that weekend and it's a huge Halloween party all weekend. We're usually camping with up to 5 other families so between Halloween and great friends, it's a blast.

The last couple of years, all the kids in our group have been planning....starting in the summer.....to dress up together in a group costume. Better odds in the costume contest and it's just plan fun to do it all together.

Last year, all the girls were flowers and my son was a bumble bee-too cute. We decorated the wagon like a garden and he sat in it while all the girls pulled him around. It's fun to dress up yourself but double the fun to dress up as a group.

This year my neice saw an awesome idea in American Girl magazine. I checked their website but couldn't find it online. This year the 5 tween/teens went as a Pile of Magazines.......

All the girls picked their own magazines. My oldest was Seventeen and my 10 year old was Sports Illustrated. Guess you can tell what they both love-although, my 13 year old doesn't read Seventeen, she loves anything fashion. We also had a Glamour magazine, a Kids National Geographic and a puppy lover's magazine.

The girls really enjoyed working on their costumes and thinking of all the catchy phrases for the front covers.

We used foam board for the covers-my sister thought of that-I was going to get poster board, but I'm glad I wasn't in charge of purchasing supplies, poster board would have been too floppy. My brother-in-law cut a hole in each foam board so the girls could put their face in it. We used the computer to print out the titles of the magazines and make them larger and used different fonts and colors to make all the phrases. We cut those out and glued them on. We traced one of my 5 year old's shirts for the body and colored them in.

Easy, quick, inexpensive, fun and creative!

and they won Most Original!!

I just love that this costume was age appropriate and they had so much fun creating it and they'll always remember when they dressed up as magazines.

So excited too-the Lady Bug Costume I made for my 5 year old was featured on Tatertots and Jello. Be still my heart-there was just a bit of jumping and screaming in the house this morning......oh, and the kids were real excited too! They loved seeing their sister and she looks so cute if I do say so myself!! Just a bit biased you know!

I'm linking up to these parties

Weekend Bloggy Reading at Serenity Now, Look at Me Party at Fun to Craft, I'm Loving It Fridays at Tidy Mom, Weekend Wrap Up Party at Tatertots and Jello, Categorically Crafting at Someday Crafts-costumes

Lady Bug Antenna and Wings....

2010-10-19T17:11:00.000-07:00

or is it antennae?

I used 2 strips of fabric from the top of the tshirt and a plastic headband.

and just wrapped the strips around the headband. I used my glue gun at the beginning and end and in the middle when I ended one strip and started another.

I then took 2 black pipe cleaners and wound them around my thumb. I glued 2 black pom poms on the end of each-only used 2 because Walmart didn't have the bigger size pom pom.

I just wrapped the end of each pipe cleaner around the headband and twisted the ends together. Quick, easy and cute!

At this point in my lady bug costume making, I was beginning to run out of time. I also had to pack all our clothes and the camper. Although I would have loved to make fancier wings-and probably will for Halloween-I decided clothes and food for the weekend were more important.

I decided to make a pair of wings out of cardboard and decorate them. I grabbed a cereal box for the cardboard, traced a wing shape using the side of the box as the middle of the wings and cut them out. Now, when you hold the wings by the middle piece (the side of the box), they are not flat but point outwards and also flutter back and forth. Yeah, I planned that.

I attached the wings, after they were decorated, to the back of her lady bug dress using ribbon, but need to find a better way to attach them. I'm thinking velcro.

A cute, fast, easy and inexpensive costume idea! Next this week, a great idea for tweens/teens that's also cute, fast and easy. And doesn't cost a lot of money or need a lot of supplies.

Super Easy LadyBug Costume......

2010-10-14T09:55:00.000-07:00

I was knee deep in Halloween costumes last week.

No, I'm not super prepared and early.

We went camping this past weekend and the campground has a huge Halloween celebration-trick or treating, costume contest, games, the whole works.

So, instead of being super prepared, I was last minute as usual.

Not my fault though, I'm totally laying this one on my kids, they were changing their minds everyday and couldn't decide.

My 5 year old, with a little help from mom, finally decided she wanted to dress up as a lady bug.

Cute as a bug! She looked adorable!

The costume was super easy too and mostly made with what I had around the house.....easy and cute and inexpensive.....even better!

The PolkaDot Chair has a cute pillowcase shirt tutorial that I've been wanting to try and thought it would be perfect for this project. I started with a red men's tshirt and pretty much followed the tutorial along with some shortcuts.

Since the the tshirt didn't have side seams I figured I'd save some time and work, I just cut the length of the shirt and left the sides and hem of the tshirt.....score one for quick and easy! I followed the tutorial to cut the armholes but because the tshirt is jersey, I didn't put any bias tape around the arm holes.......score two for quick and easy!

I turned over the top edge of the shirt 3/4 of an inch but didn't turn it 1/4 first....score 3 for easy! I threaded in my elastic-I ended up cutting the elastic 1/2 the measurement of the top edge-and sewed in my ribbon.

I then took a old pair of black jersey shorts and used a cream cheese container to trace circles. I sew about 7 on the front and 5 on the back.

Since it was a little chilly, we paired the shirt up with a long sleeve red shirt and black leggings.

She loved her "lady bug dress" and even wore it the next day!

Since this is getting a bit long, I'll share how I made the headband antenna and a trick I accidentally discovered while making the wings over the weekend.

Next week I'll share a quick, easy, inexpensive, fun costume for tweens/teens that can really express their personality!

I'm linking up to these parties

Weekend Bloggy Reading at Serenity Now, Friday Pity Party at 30 Days, Look at Me Party at Fun to Craft, I'm Loving It Fridays at Tidy Mom, Weekend Wrap Up Party at Tatertots and Jello

PERFECT...Yes, they are....

2010-10-12T17:11:00.000-07:00

I love cookies.

My favorite is chocolate chip. A chocolate chip cookie (or 2 or 3 or 4) and a glass of milk=a wonderful snack.

So, when I saw a recipe for the PERFECT Chocolate Chip Cookie on How Does She? I couldn't wait to try it.

Oh yummy chocolate goodness! I almost didn't get this picture because these cookies didn't last too long in our house.

The cookies were delicious, easy to make and hours later still soft and chewy. They were quick to mix up but you do have to let the dough sit in the fridge for an hour before baking. Luckily I had nothing planned that day because I totally missed that when reading the recipe and drooling over the pictures. Also, take the first suggestion and get all your ingredients together before you start baking. You know, just in case you finished your vanilla the last time you baked and have to run down cellar to get more while you leave your 2 year old with a bowl of cookie dough..... just saying.

My son was happy to help with the most important part of the baking process-eating the chocolate chips, but not so happy to have his picture taken.

This is the response I got when I asked him if I could have a chocolate chip. His hands very slowly slid over and covered his pile of chocolate chips. No chips were leaving his pile.

The best part of making chocolate chip cookies!

Linked to Wordful Wednesday at parenting BY dummies

Safe eating.....

2010-10-06T09:40:00.000-07:00

No new healthy eating habits here.

Or new ways to cook food.

Just found this as I was going through old pictures today.....

I'm assuming my oldest daughter did it.

My morning giggle.

Please be safe today as you snack!

I linked up to Wordful Wednesday at parenting By dummies

An apple a day....

2010-10-06T08:52:00.000-07:00

But I think I have enough for a few months!

This past weekend was chilly but sunny and bright...a perfect time to be outdoors...so we headed over to the apple orchard.

We had a fun afternoon picking (and eating) apples.

I think this picture has Christmas card written all over it!

My oldest daughter wants to make an apple pie-her favorite-she's just waiting for mom to get the pie crust ready....i.e. get to the grocery store and buy one. One day, yeah, one day, I'll try crust from scratch

Since I don't think we'll ever be able to eat all the apples we have, I was looking around for some other goodies we could make and found some yummy ones! Like oh I wish I had these ingredients in the house yummy!

Like This recipe from How Does She? . Sounds so delicious. I'm almost afraid to make it. I might eat is all. But I have to. It sounds just too good. Anything that is described as dipped in heaven is my kind of goodie! I've never made carmel sauce so I can't wait to try it.

And this recipe for apple crisp. Right up my alley. I don't really care for apple crisp with oatmeal in the topping. Now if you made if for me I'd eat it but not my favorite. There's an easy apple sauce recipe too.

And a recipe for a different take on the classic apple pie at Hoosier Homemade. Yum for walnuts.

Oh, and apples are great for breakfast. I'd love to wake up to these apple strudel muffins. With a cup of coffee.

I'm linking up to Weekend Bloggy Reading with Amanda at Serenity Now.

Old Shirt = New Skirt

2010-10-01T09:22:00.000-07:00

I've been hanging around you bloggers for too long.

But, that's a good thing!

This shirt was in a pile of clothes that was being given away.

A few stains, a bit stretched out, nothing too horrible.

As I was folding it, I thought "Boy, the bottom of this shirt would make a cute skirt!"
Which was immediately followed by the thought "and I wouldn't have to do all the gathering!"

I am constantly blown away by all you bloggers who refashion shirts, dresses, all kind of clothes, into some other beautiful item to wear. Then you share them with all of us and often tell us how you did it.

Just because.

So, I decided to try it.

First, I cut the bottom off of the shirt. I left enough fabric so I could fold it over to make my waistband. I first thought about adding on my own waistband but then figured I was just making work for myself.

I do have to admit, yeah, just keeping it real. I did mess up this step a bit. I was using 3/4 inch elastic so I brilliantly said "ok, my waistband needs to be an inch wide and I need about 1/4 to sew with." I then proceeded to cut up 1 1/4 inches totally forgetting that I had to fold over the fabric and it should have been 2 1/4 inches. Well, I really wanted to use a smaller elastic anyways. Chalk it up to rushing and the kids playing all around me.

I folded over the fabric I had cut, sewed close to the edge and then threaded my elastic through.

You know my mantra....quick and easy and my daughter loves it! A great skirt for the fall.

Now to use the scraps to fix up a shirt to match. The shirt had ties in the back that I removed so I have those, the trim around the neckline and the plain brown knit. I'd love to hear your ideas and suggestions.

Friday is a busy day for parties-I love, love, love to see everyone's projects and ideas.

I'm linking up to these parties
Weekend Bloggy Reading at Serenity Now, 30 Days Pity Party Friday, Look at Me Party at Fun to Craft, I'm Loving It Fridays at Tidy Mom, Weekend Wrap Up Party at Tatertots and Jello

Unwanted visitor and a fun tag!

2010-09-28T10:00:00.000-07:00

All craft organization has been put on hold for the present time due to a much unwanted visitor, at the way too early hour of 5:00 am, while I was just sleeping away and dreaming of how organized I was going to be!

picture source

I woke up to a strange noise that I first thought was the alarm clock and then realized it was the cat in the corner of the bedroom. I quickly retreated to the bathroom, closed the door and said to my husband "I think the cat has something". I stayed out of my husband's way, in the bathroom, while he took care of our unwanted visitor and sent it out the front door. My husband thought maybe the unwanted visitor hitchhiked a ride into the house in my tool storage case which had previously been in the garage. It's on the porch now and I think I'll wait until my husband checks it out and/or finds out how this unwanted visitor really got in the house!

Now, on to more fun thoughts, Amy at Keeping Up With The Schultz Family tagged me for a cute 8 question game. It's always fun to get to know other bloggers.

What was the last thing you ate? Aaahhh, I knew I should have done this before I finished lunch! The last thing I ate was 4 chocolate chip cookies with a cup of coffee-after I had my wrap and some chips.

What is one of your best childhood memories? Playing hide and seek in our neighborhood with all the kids. We had 5 families that lived next to or across the street from each other and base was the telephone pole in the corner of our front yard-fun times!

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you were older? Something to do with fashion. Course if you saw how I looked most days, you'd never guess that!

Do you paint your toenails in the winter? No, not usually. I'm lucky if they get painted in the summer.

Do you watch any reality television? If so, what show is your favorite? Yes, my daughter loves Survivor and Dancing With the Stars so I watch those with her. We also watched Master Chef over the summer. I used to love The Apprentice but haven't watched the new one yet.

What were some of the "trends" when you were a kid? Definitely preppy-that was big when I was in high school-oxfords, fair isle sweaters, penny loafers. I used to have one of those pocketbooks with the wooden handles and you buttoned on different covers to match what you were wearing.

What is your favorite time of the year? Why? Spring-you know summer's coming but it's still not too hot out.

Do you have any hobbies? Sewing, reading, coaching, blogging.

If you'd like to play along, I'd love to see the answers to your questions!

Although I'd like to deny it.....

2010-09-25T13:18:00.000-07:00

and with the warm weather we've been having...... yes, we were sweating at soccer today..... it just doesn't seem possible,

but when I see this as I look out my kitchen window,

and come into my living room to find that my 5 year old has decorated for me,

I have to accept it, fall is here!

I've started working on organizing all my crafting goodies, but was itching to do something crafty yesterday. My 7 year old's applique shirt with her initial on it-that she wears all the time-is getting to small for her. I found this tshirt at Target on clearance and with a scrap of fabric, dressed it up a bit. Quick and easy and cute!

I'm linking up to Weekend Bloggy Reading
with Amanda at Serenity Now

Must. Get. Crafting. Again.

2010-09-23T10:24:00.000-07:00

I can't remember the last project I worked on. It's been waaayyy too long. My fingers are itching to sew and I'm missing my glue gun.

And although my lack of craftiness can partly be blamed on a busy summer and crazy kids' schedules, I (head bent in shame) have to take some of the blame.

A big part of the reason why I haven't worked on any projects is due to my unorganization.

Embarassing, but this is one of my craft drawers....

The corner of my bedroom and my closet shelves look pretty much the same.

Hard to work on a project at night when you know you're going to have to search for the supplies you need before you even begin.

So, I'm determined to become more organized or, well, at least know where all my craft supplies are at any moment.

Enter this cutie....

I got it from a friend who already had one and my husband is all set with his tools (yes, he has a workshop and has a garage for his stuff, but I don't resent that, not too much at least) and doesn't want it.

It has some really neat compartments and drawers that I think will be great for crafting supplies.

I can see all my bobbins in one place, scissors in another. Thread, beads, scrapbook paper, all with their own special place.

Sounds lovely.

And I can bring it around with me from place to place and store it out of site when it's not needed.

How perfect is that!!

I'd love to hear your ideas on how I can girl it up a bit-let me know what you think. I'll share again once I've got it all filled up with fun crafting lovliness.

Just one of those weeks.....

2010-09-15T10:12:00.000-07:00

Yes, this past week has just been one of those weeks.

Just plain craziness with the back to school schedule, lots of meetings for me, some cell phone problems, a microwave malfunction, a washing machine that sprung a leak and my 10 year old broke her arm playing soccer at school.

Luckily, most of them were little annoyances.

Thankfully, my daughter is ok. Could have been worse and I'm just glad she's fine. After a trip to the emergency room followed by a trip to an orthopedic doctor, she's sporting a splint and sling. She's still in some pain and can't write because it's her right arm, but she adjusted to doing most of the things she needs to do and is getting more frustrated as the days go by that she can't play soccer for a bit.

And, since our laundry is piling high and ready to take over, brand spanking new today to my laundry room....
this baby, with the matching dryer. I'm not sure if I'm going to be doing laundry or taking off for the moon with all the buttons and lights and controls!

Back to School

2010-09-01T10:24:00.000-07:00

School started this week.

Not a very good week to start school.

I was hoping the heat would break before school started but the summer weather isn't ready to start school yet.

Neither am I!

It's my first experience with full day kindergarten too and I so wish our school still only did half day kindergarten.

It's been a bittersweet, nostalgic, feeling like somethings out of place kind of week for me....missing the girls during the day and wishing school hadn't started....... .but then secretly being a little thankful for school when I'm enjoying the afternoon while my son naps and after they've been home for 10 minutes and already fighting with each other.

So...the baby and I have been hanging together.

Playing outside, taking walks, flying through the grocery store with just one child contained in the shopping cart.

He's happy he doesn't have to share any toys during the day.

But cries when we drop the girls off.

Kind of like I want to.

Oh So Perfect!

2010-08-23T15:08:00.000-07:00

Yes, this is perfect for me.

I was tagged over the weekend by Amy at Keeping Up With the Schultz Family.....

and that's usually what it's like around here...more like a triple scoop!

Thanks for the award Amy and here's my answers to the questions that go along with the tag.

1. What is your signature color? I don't know if I have one-I like yellow but I don't wear it that often.

2. Your most embarrassing moment? Definitely hitting reply on an email instead of forword....I don't think I need to go into details but it's still following me around!

3. Would you ever get anything pierced other than your ears? Nope, too chicken.

4. Are you a social butterfly or a homebody? I think I'm more of a homebody.

5. Are you done having babies or do you want more? I think we're done.

6. Are you loyal to your hairstylist or are do you tryout every salon in town? Just finally found a hairstylist I like (my last one kept cutting my bangs too short!) and I'm sticking with her.

7. How many times have you moved in your life? I think 8 times.

8. If you could plan your dream vacation with just you and your love where would it be? Definitely somewhere tropical and warm! Although, we haven't been anywhere in awhile by ourselves and any place would sound good!

If you'd like to play along, I'd love to see your answers!

Weekend Wind Down

2010-08-14T16:23:00.000-07:00

Weekend time....ahhhh, my husband's home, laying low, my oldest is at my mother in law's, some school shopping, haircuts....yikes, it's going by too fast!!!

Time for Weekend Wind Down......
This week's question is when & where was the last time you went to an amusement park? Did you ride on a roller coaster?

We tried a new amusement park this year and had a blast. It was a perfect park for us because it had rides for all ages-rides scary enough for the older girls and gentle enough for the younger ones. I think my son broke the park record for the most rides on the fire trucks that just went round and round and round!

I did not ride on any of the roller coasters and have only ridden on a coaster once.......when I was in about 5th grade.....and I closed my eyes and prayed the whole time....I hated it! I've never been back on and I don't see a coaster ride in my near future either.

My husband and I have an amusement park agreement that keeps everyone happy.......

I do the twirly rides......
He does the coasters......

These are the important things you need to work out before you have kids.

These are really pictures from our visit to Hershey last summer.....once again, I left the camera memory stick in the computer and I think a certain 2 year old has it hidden in our house somewhere......keep your fingers crossed I find it....there wasn't a lot of pictures on it, but I'd be bummed to lose them.

Dishing It-Summer Rewind

2010-08-11T15:36:00.000-07:00

Party time again!! Time for the August edition of Dishing It! with Amanda at Serenity Now. Such a nice way to meet and get to know some other bloggers....join in if you'd like!!

This month the topic is Summer Rewind. I know alot of schools have already started, but my kids don't go back for two weeks....two more weeks of no schedules and pretty lazy days....and I don't want to think about the summer ending! I think this has been the hottest and most humid summer for awhile so we've had some cranky days......sorry kids, mom doesn't do well with real hot weather.....but it's been a fun and busy one. I love a chance to remember what we've done and the fun we've had!!

~Best activity you participated in this summer. Did your family go on any trips this summer? Which was your favorite?

I had to put these two together because I just can't pick a favorite activity or trip! We've gone camping for two weeks and had a blast both times-great weather, friends, foods.....just fun the whole week. We've also done some day trips to a new amusement park and the beach.

We've had some great times hanging around the house too......playing in the rain, making our own WipeOut course, teaching my husband how to play cribbage and sometimes just being lazy. They're all my favorites!!

~Most exciting thing you've done this summer.

I don't know if this qualifies as that exciting but I called my sister one morning and asked her if she wanted to meet half way for dinner. She was free, so we met, shopped a bit, ate, laughed, laughed some more. It was such a nice night.

~Coolest crafty thing you made or home decor thing you tried.

I haven't been to crafty this summer but I am working on my older girls' bedroom. We painted and now it's time to decorate. I made my youngest daughter a sundress for her preschool graduation and I'm trying to redo a tshirt for myself right now and add some rosettes to spice it up a bit. I've been wanting to try them and wish I hadn't waited so long, they are fun to make! Can't wait to make some more and use them for headbands.

~Best book or magazine issue you read.
Definitely Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah! Such a good book-a little slow in the beginning, but once it gets going, I couldn't put it down. I just read and cried.

~Coolest new (to you) blog you've found.

I just found a cute new blog the other day-Two Little Bug Clothing-I saw her very neat Anthropologie inspired headband on One Pretty Thing and immediately went to check it out-great tutorial and now there's another item on my crafty to do list.

~What's left on your summer to-do list?

We still have two more camping trips to look forward to-one next week with my sister and her family and one over Labor Day Weekend. My husband has the week before the girls go back to school off so we'll probably do some day things while making sure everyone is ready for school......I'm sure there will be some shopping trips in there somewhere!

Say Cheese......

2010-08-10T16:03:00.000-07:00

It's National Smile Week!

I'm celebrating with my great smilers!

Just back from a week camping at the beach-great time with great friends, I'm still playing catch up and trying to get through my laundry.......

I may be stuck in the laundry room for days!!!

Little late......

2010-07-30T10:05:00.000-07:00

but I made it to the party!!

Amanda at Serenity Now is having another party.......a Show Me The Progress Party! Time to share any project that you may be working on that's not finished. It's fun to see what everyone is working on and how their projects are coming along.

We've been working on my older girls' bedroom-they're 13 and 10 now so it was time for an update. I kind of did the re-do a bit backwards. First, I found comforters I liked that were on sale-green on one side and blue on the other. Then we matched the paint to the comforter and for a first for us.......painted the walls two different colors........you know you're talking to a girl who has lots of white walls in her house so this was a major step for me.

The bottom of the wall is the blue color and the top the green color. It came out great-my husband and dad did a nice job with it-and the girls love it. What a difference it made in the room-I want color everywhere now!! This is my oldest daughter's bureau-I think it was the only neat place in the room to snap a shot!!

Only after we painted the room did I started looking for fabric for curtains.....this is where I think I was a bit backwards. I wanted to bring in some other bright colors too and after a few trips to the fabric store to bring home samples, I found this fabric......

Both the girls liked it....score! It's perfect too because the blue and green match perfectly and I can bring in bright pink and bright orange-just what I wanted.

Now to find time to sew the curtains.......I'm thinking that won't happen until school starts!

Weekend Wind Down

2010-07-24T05:27:00.000-07:00

It's summer time and the living is easy!!

After another busy week, it's time for Weekend Wind Down.....we're just laying low again this weekend. I think our major goal is going to be to stay cool.....it's going to be a hot one!

This week's question has to do with your summer wardrobe.......

What's your favorite clothing combo during the Summer??...Skirts & Heels, Shorts & Tennis Shoes, or a Sundress and Flip Flops?

I'm a shorts, tshirt, flip flop and I gotta have my sunglasses kind of girl......longer shorts and mostly short sleeve tshirts-I think I only have one tank top. I've been thinking I need a few skirts in my wardrobe for when I need to go out somewhere and I really wish I was a sundress kind of girl....so many cute ones!!

Out of the mouth of babes.........

2010-07-19T15:56:00.000-07:00

and a girl after her mom's heart.......

this weekend as we're driving from my mother in law's to my mom's

we passed a Dollar Tree

and from the back seat

I hear my 5 year old say

"A Dollar Store, I adore the Dollar Store"

Weekend Wind Down

2010-07-17T04:34:00.000-07:00

Pretty low key weekend for us......just working around the house, relaxing and staying cool!! I found out about a fun new linky party last weekend-Weekend Wind Down and I'm joining in again this weekend!

This weekend the question is....... on a hot day, do you prefer the ocean, the lake, or the pool?

B.K. (before kids) my answer, hands down, the ocean! My husband and I used to go all the time-many fun memories. A.K. (after kids) .....totally different answer-definitely the pool. It's so much easier and closer....no traveling.....no sand.....no waves to knock down the little ones. The kids love it and will stay in all day playing! We still love to go to the ocean and we camp down there for a week each August, but for a hot day, with the kids, the pool wins!

Dishing It! with Serenity Now

2010-07-14T10:16:00.000-07:00

Party time again!!! Time for July's Dishing It! with Amanda at Serenity Now.

This month's topic is "Your Summer Reading List".......perfect, love, love, love to read and have since I was younger. I don't have as much time to read as I used too-hhmmmm, wonder why??-but I still love it and it's a great way to relax especially before bed. I've also gotten really good at reading while I'm cooking, I figure I'm just standing there and have to be in the kitchen anyways-might as well enjoy it a bit!

Now a days, I'm usually reading light fiction because I'm either a. too tired to really concentrate or b. the kids are running around and I can't concentrate. It's hard to get into a book with a complex plot and lots of characters when you're falling asleep or stopping every few sentences to help someone out. I get a few magazines in the mail like Parent and Good Housekeeping and my guilty pleasure is definitely the People magazines my sister in law passes on to me.

I'm really looking forward to lots of reading this summer. On my Top 5 List right now are:

1. Private by James Paterson and Maxine Paetro
I don't read many mysteries but I have pretty much loved all the James Paterson books I've read. I love his Detective Alex Cross Series and his Women's Murder Club Series.

2. The Secret by Beverly Lewis
Last summer I read one series by Beverly Lewis and really enjoyed it. Her books mainly focus on the Amish Community. This book is the first of another series that includes The Missing and The Telling.

3. While My Sister Sleeps by Barbara Delinsky
Another author that I'll get a book by even if I don't know what the book is about. This one is about two sisters and sounds interesting.

4. The Pact: A Love Story by Jodi Picoult
Love this author too! Never been disappointed with one of her books.

5. Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer
This book is on my oldest daughter's summer reading list so I want to read it too. She already finished it and liked it.

Time to go to the library!!

I'm melting.......

2010-07-11T07:57:00.000-07:00

Wow! It was a hot one last week! There were some cranky kids and a probably even crankier mom here at 7 All Together! The heat did us in!!

We spent a lot of time in the pool and in the sprinkler. On Friday night, my kids brought it up a notch and made their own Wipeout course. Too funny!! My older girls love that show! I personally don't understand why anyone would want to get covered in foam and bounce off those big balls and try to conquer all the parts of the course that just look impossible to me! Not my idea of fun by a long shot!

My oldest designed most of the course with some help from her dad. This was some serious planning. The buzzer went off at the swing set slide with the sprinkler close by.

After you navigated the slide/sprinkler, you had to shoot two baskets.

You then has to climb the stairs of the Little Tikes slide and slide down onto my picnic table cloth aka "The Slip and Slide". Oh yeah, and no Wipeout course would be complete without foam.....one whole can of shaving cream went into this Wipeout course.

Then it was on to the teeter toter portion of the course-our Little Tikes picnic table rose to the challenge and bravely stepped in!

The kids had a ball designing and completing the course. My husband acted as spokesperson and timer!

What a great way to stay cool!!

Chic Click Carnival

2010-07-11T07:39:00.000-07:00

Bloggers are wonderful people-I've learned so many new things from different blogs-everything from new recipes to clothing patterns to ideas for decorating my house. So much sharing in the blogging world! I love to find new blogs and am excited to be participating in the Chic Click Carnival this week!

For those of you who may be stopping by from the carnival my name is Dawn and I'm a SAHM with 5 kids....4 girls and a boy from 13 down to 2. I love to sew and craft and with 5 kids I'm all about quick, easy and inexpensive!

I think my favorite post changes all the time but right now I love the one about the Wipeout course my kids created. Right up my alley, fun, quick, and inexpensive-they had a ball just running around the yard with the sprinkler and staying cool!

My favorite peep of the week is Moms by Heart. Her tag line is "raising rascals on a dime" and with 5 kids every penny counts. I love finding out about new deals and coupons and Lori makes it so easy for me. Her newest post is adorable-a free picture of you child with the tooth fairy. She lets you know about all kinds of bargains like those on prescription glasses, address labels and Thomas the Train toys and great printable coupons like this one for Diet Coke. She also goes through all the best deals at different stores each week-makes my shopping much easier!!

Check it out-it's a great way to find new blogs!

Big, Big Day!!

2010-07-08T18:25:00.000-07:00

Kindergarten Step Up!

I don't remember my other girls being quite so excited, but my 5 year old was beyond excited about her Step Up Ceremony.....preschool to kindergarten.....

Course she was mostly concerned that there were going to be snacks there.......yes, a girl after my own heart......but she was also very excited about being on stage singing her songs!

She asked my everyday how many more days there were until Step Up and we had to name the days and then she would wake up the next morning and ask if Step Up was today (and if there would be snacks!).

I told her I'd make her a new dress and it's so cool to see how excited she was about that!! Makes those late nights staying up sewing at the last minute all worth it!

I saw this fabric at JoAnn's and loved it right away. I used the boutique halter top tutorial from Trotter Sweet Peas Boutique-I was lucky to win it in a giveaway and had been wanting to try it out. We both loved how it turned out and she looked adorable!!!

A special dress for a special day!

First Camping Trip of the Summer!

2010-07-07T08:59:00.000-07:00

Hope you all had a great 4th of July!! We got back Monday from our first camping trip of the summer-down by the beach-great week, great weather-wish we were still there!!!

Lots of relaxing........

spending time at the beach.....playing, swimming, looking for shells and sea glass........

a few tantrums because we were so tired from all the fun and staying up so late..........

but they didn't last too long and then we were happy again.......

a visit to Newport, Rhode Island to visit one of the mansions and walk the cliff walk........here's the back of the mansion.....

and here's the front........absolutely beautiful......very hard to believe people really lived there at one time.......I definitely know I'd never want to have to clean it!!

great tree for climbing right in our camp site......

celebrated a few birthdays......I forgot candles so we celebrated the first birthday with paper umbrellas........

and the second with the top of the 9 candle that was still in the camper from last year........

Fun, fun week!! We're still trying to get back into the swing of things and get caught up on the laundry that is threatening to take over our whole house! Hard to try to get things done though-it's so hot this week! I think the saying about being able to fry an egg on the pavement could really be true this week!!!

Have a great one!!!

We have a winner!!!

2010-06-24T17:30:00.000-07:00

using my super duper technological number drawing system....ok, a bowl with all the numbers written on pieces of paper, I have chosen a winner for the GeoSafari SeaScope!

And the winner is Jen of Jen's Uncharted Territory -Congrats Jen!!

Thanks to all who entered the Giveaway and thank you again to CSN Stores.

It's Summertime...........

2010-06-23T10:46:00.000-07:00

and the living is easy!

Well, most of the time easy, we've had our first summertime injury and some first summertime loving sisterly quarrels......but, most of the time, oh yeah, the living is easy!!!!

Time to play in the sprinkler with the sun shining........

lazy mornings to read on the porch swing.......

fun stomps through puddles......

no need to use cups.....yes, I found him on the kitchen floor drinking out of the orange juice carton........
just playing outside........having fun.......

aaahhhhhh!! Summertime!!!!

Summer Giveaway Update

2010-06-16T15:43:00.000-07:00

Sorry I'm late with the Summer Giveaway Winner.......we're experiencing technical difficulties here at 7 All Together.......our telephone and internet has been down since late Monday night.....so thankful it's not our electricity too!! We're suppose to have it back up and running by late Thursday night so I'll get to the Contest on Friday-I apologize for the delay and thanks to all who entered!! If you haven't entered yet, go ahead and I'll count you in!

Wordful Wednesday

2010-06-06T18:47:00.000-07:00

Just sharing a last few birthday party pictures!

Lots of balloons! The girls picked pink balloons and bright pink, green and blue streamers.

Two of the three birthday girls celebrating outside. We had set up tables and chairs for everyone to eat outside but it was a bit too windy. All outside decorating was moved indoors where it wasn't blowing down the minute you taped it up. It was a beautiful day though-sunny and warm.

Love, love, love this picture!! I didn't really post about the vanilla cake with pink frosting that my soon to be 5 year old finally decided on but she knew right from the start, she wanted High School Musical-my mom bought her a bunch of stuff and she decorated her cake herself! As you can see............she likes to decorate..........

and does not appreciate good singing!

Fun day with friends and family!

Yummiest Chocolate Cake

2010-06-06T17:51:00.000-07:00

mmm, yum, if you're looking for a delicious chocolate cake recipe, Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake is it!

Topped with "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Frosting......delicious

.....and, of course,

Quick and easy......

the perfect combination!

My soon to be 10 year old knew exactly what she wanted for her birthday cake-no waffling on her part!! Lots of happy party guests enjoyed if with her!

I've made this cake lots of time and it always comes out yummy-I've also used the same recipe to make cupcakes....just as yummy!

Fruit Pizza Yummy Yummy

2010-06-04T09:44:00.000-07:00

Three of my girls have birthdays in June-one at the beginning of the month and two at the end. This past weekend was party central for us as we celebrated all three birthdays.

Last year, we had a beach theme party and they all loved it. This year, they couldn't decide on the same theme with my soon to be 5 year old the biggest waffler-she was changing her mind daily, if not twice a day! So, they all went with what they really wanted and were really happy and that's what matters!

My soon to be 10 year old (yikes, double digits!) wanted chocolate cake with chocolate frosting (more about that cake in another post), my soon to be 5 year old wanted vanilla cake and finally decided on pink frosting-although, she wouldn't have a piece of hers at the party, but had a piece of the chocolate cake and wolfed it down like she hadn't eaten all day! My soon to be 7 year old just couldn't decide what she wanted but knew it had to be something special. I suggested a few things that just didn't fly and then remembering her love of blueberries and strawberries, suggested a fruit pizza-oh yes, score, one for mommy.......she loved the idea.

I've never made one before so we searched online and found a recipe-oh boy, couldn't have been easier, didn't take much time and was delicious! You know how that all rates in my book!

I have to admit...... I used the refrigerated cookie dough.......but I do want to try to make the crust myself soon. The combination of the crust, frosting and fruit was delicious. We even used the extra frosting as a dip with the extra fruit. My daughter arranged all the fruit herself and you can't see it, but the blueberries make a smily face in the middle of the pizza.

Great dessert for any summer parties you might be having or attending!

I love me some coupons!

2010-06-02T10:29:00.000-07:00

yes, I do!

I love clipping them, organizing them......I know, call me weird, but it's relaxing, easy to do and when I'm done, I know I've accomplished something.

Best of all, though, is using them!! I love to check and see how much I've saved and what I would have paid if I had no coupons. Even if it's not a lot...... better in my pocket than someone else's!!!

I used to have a coupon holder but in all the craziness and unorganization in my house, I lost it. I held out hope that I would find it, but no such luck. After I got over the shock of losing some good coupons I knew I had, I pulled out a trusty white envelope and used it for my coupons. Not such a good idea, though, I was just shoving coupons in, no rhyme or reason because I had no categories to go by. I also left it in the car a few times and brilliantly thought, I'll just get another trusty white envelope and then ended up having two very unorganized envelopes. I know I missed a lot of coupons that could have saved me money-bummer!

Since I'm trying to save money by using coupons, I didn't want to go out and buy another holder, so I searched online for coupon holders and found just what I was looking for on A Happy Little Family. Oh yeah, a great coupon holder - good size, great directions and free printable dividers to go along with it-perfect! It took no time to make - I think it took me longer to print off the dividers because I can only put one piece of paper in my printer at a time or it sucks them all in and makes a mess!

Here's my new holder looking all pretty and just waiting for coupons.......

and here it is with coupons, ready to shop.......

I'm in business again and in my never ending quest for organization, a bit more organized!

Celebrating June with a Giveaway

2010-06-01T09:21:00.000-07:00

Happy First Day of June!!!

I'm celebrating with a giveaway from CSN Stores. Oh boy, there's nothing like shopping in the comfort of your own home - it's heaven for me..........
no getting dressed.....no loading all the kids into the car...no making sure everyone has gone to the bathroom...no rounding up shoes and drinks and snacks....no keeping track of everyone while I try to remember why I was going shopping in the first place! CSN Stores have just about everything you could want or need from toys to lights for your house to bathroom vanities.

CSN Stores has sponsored a giveaway for my blog before and I was very happy with both their customer and delivery service. The giveaway item was delivered very quickly.

Now.......on to the giveaway! To celebrate the first day of June and the quickly approaching summer season, one lucky reader will have a chance to win a Educational Insights GeoSafari SeaScope. I've never tried one but it looks real cool and I think my kids would love it. Great toy to put in the camper or take on hikes. I just saw it in Parents Magazine in an article for cool summer toys and decided to check it out.

You can use this 4x telescope to view distant objects on land or attach it to the water-resistant SeaScope to magnify life in streams, ponds, lakes or tide pools-sounds cook! The Aqualite™ flashlight attaches to the SeaScope for viewing in dark or murky underwater conditions.

Features:
~Built-in ruler allows on-the-spot measurement of specimens
~Thermometer strip determines the temperature in or out of the water
~Requires two AA batteries
~Grades 1+ / Ages 6+
~Dimensions: 3.3" H x 9.2" W x 17.3" D

If you would like to enter this giveaway, leave a comment below. I will pick a winner from the comments on June 15th.

I would like to thank CSN Stores for providing the GeoSafari SeaScope for one of my readers. I did not receive anything from CSN Stores for this giveaway and provided my honest opinion of their customer service and delivery.

So Simple and So Yummy......

2010-05-14T05:48:00.000-07:00

so quick and so easy....

need a quick gift....have company coming over......

way back when I started my blog, I talked about my quick and easy chocolate candy recipe. It really is the easiest thing to make and I don't even know if it qualifies as a recipe. If there are recipe rules, I don't think this one would make the cut!

All you need is a bar of almond bark-I get the chocolate one but it comes in white too-and a jar of peanuts-you could use other kinds of nuts too. I always keep these two ingredients in my house. All I do is microwave the almond bark-I usually cut it in half first-at 30 second intervals in the microwave. You could do the whole double boiler thing but.... why? After the almond bark is all melted, you dump in the jar of peanuts and stir it all together. Then you just take cookie sheets covered with wax paper, take a spoon and plop spoonfuls of the chocolate/peanut mixture on the cookie sheet-no forming, no worrying about shapes, no measuring, just plop. Put it in the fridge to let it harden. It doesn't take long.

Once the first batch is ready, you are going to want to start again at All you need is a bar of almond bark because it's so yummy and needs to be sampled and sampled again and again and before you know it, the first batch is gone and you still need one for guests or presents!

I made this for Teacher Appreciation Week last Thursday and I have never had so many people ask me for a recipe. They all loved it. Of course, everyone thinks you spend a lot of time on it, so I made them sweat it out a bit with the recipe sharing-haha, not really, I love to share all that is quick, easy and not that expensive, but seems the opposite.

Teacher, Teacher Can You Teach Me?

2010-05-04T14:13:00.000-07:00

image found here

I'm a little unprepared for Teacher's Appreciation Week this year which in no way reflects how I feel about my girls' teachers........

We love our teachers!

We are so lucky in our town-we have a great school with such loving, caring, dedicated teachers........yes, we'll drive by on a Friday at 5ish, or a weekend afternoon or even in the summer and see teachers' cars parked in the lot......our staff gives their all -all of the time.

Teachers really deserve more than a week!!!

Our school PTO usually does something small for our teachers each day and then holds a luncheon for them on Friday.

In case, you're an unprepared and late as me, here's a few ideas......

Yesterday, I wrapped up some yummy m&m's-aahhh, you knew there had to be some chocolate involved, didn't you?-tied the bag up with a pretty, springy yellow bow and added a tag that said "We think you are mavelous and magnificent! Thanks!". I took a picture to share but then realized I didn't know how to blur the name of our school so I didn't use it-darn! I found the idea here-there's lots of other sayings too.

Today, I'm going to make a fruit platter with dip to put in the teacher's room at lunch-most of our teachers are watching what they eat so I know they'll appreciate this.

I'm not sure what I'm going to be doing tomorrow-as I said, just a tad bit unprepared!

I love the Teacher Appreciation ideas on eighteen25-so many great ideas I couldn't hit my Favorites button fast enough to save them for next year-great ideas for everything, not just Teacher Appreciation Week. I'm thinking that their "you are o-fish-ally the best" saying with swedish fish may be my idea for tomorrow-so cute, with.....{insert drum roll}...... a free down load!! I've said it before and I'll say it again, bloggers are the best!!!

Dimpleprints also has a cute free download for unprepared mothers! There's two different tags and a thank you card-very bright and cheery! I think I may print out the thank you cards for my girls to write some notes to their teachers.

Thank you to all our teachers!

Everyone's invited to another party......

2010-04-21T06:05:00.000-07:00

RSVP and BYODD

(Bring your own decorating dilemmas!)

Amanda at Serenity Now is having another party!

I thought I was going to get my house soooo organized after basketball was finished and I had more time-ha! We moved right into softball, soccer and lacrosse with not even a week's break. My house was really, really, really neglected during basketball season and it shows-stuff everywhere and cabinets and closets a mess-so much so, there have been a couple of things I have not been able to find-that's bad!! With the kids off for spring break this week, I still haven't been able to get much done but that's my goal for the next few weeks!!

Right along with organization, my house needs a pick me up! I haven't decorated much since my first daughter was born-we've gotten a few new rugs, new drapes for the living room, painted the half bath and my older girls' room but that's it!! We still have mostly white walls, hardly no pictures on the walls and I'm getting tired of the curtains that have been up since we moved in!!

So...........since I love a party and I definitely could use some decorating advice..... I present my foyer

boring! This is view to the right of the door when you enter. I thought I'd start here-it was a tough choice-which dilemma should I start with!!! My question is what should I put in the space next to the door? The space measures 56 inches (from front door to corner) and 11 inches to molding-14 inches including molding. My problem is I don't want anything sticking out into the doorway to the dining room (the molding starts the entry way to the dining room).

Here's a picture from the stairs. I hung a old map of our town up above the light switches because there was a nail there-I'm never sure how to place items on the wall when there are light switches.

This is the view when you walk into the foyer from the front door-just in case you want to see the rest (and possible add any other suggestions you have!) The whole foyer is about 9 ft by 14 ft. Forget the plant that you see on the bureau-my daughter just knocked it down and I don't think it's going to make it. I think it needed to go anyway!! I definitely want to keep the bureau there-fits perfectly and it's great for storing mittens, hats, etc. I do need to spice it up a bit and stop leaving our library books on it.

Ok-this has nothing to do with the foyer but as soon as my girls see the camera.... Happy girls playing on vacation!!

I'd love to hear any ideas, suggestions-I'm excited to see what everyone thinks.

A Happy Little Momma.....

2010-04-16T10:45:00.000-07:00

My 4 year old was a bit concerned that her baby didn't have a diaper yesterday. Guess she wasn't cleaning up after any accidents. She started off trying to use some of her brother's diapers and was a bit distressed when I told her they weren't for play-she wasn't buying the they are to expensive for play explanation. She then asked if I could make one and I had a very happy 4 year old when I told her I thought I could. Ahhhh, crafting is a wonderful thing! A happy little momma makes a very happy big momma!

I searched for baby doll diaper tutorials and found a tutorial for the simple baby doll diaper that sounded right up my alley!! I had some white fleece and velcro so we were all set-quick, fast and easy!! I had to adjust the pattern because her baby doll was much smaller. I cut out the original size and then just altered it by trying it on the baby. I eyed the velcro, sewed it on and we were in business!!

I'm not quite sure I'm this happy when I'm changing diapers!!

My daughter has been changing lots of diapers since yesterday afternoon. She keeps putting the diaper on the edge of the couch and then saying to me "could you get me a new diaper please?" Guess what I always forget to grab when I'm changing the baby!

Dishing It with Serenity Now.......

2010-04-14T10:53:00.000-07:00

totally by accident yesterday- or is it on accident?? aaahh mommy brain-in my anticipation for the new season of Glee

I met a fellow Gleek who's having her very first blog party today

Gotta love a party!! What a fun way to get to know other bloggers, meet some new friends and find some great blogs to read!!! Amanda will be partying monthly over at Serenity Now and I'm joining in today! This first month is kind of a get to know everyone and why they started blogging. Here's my why.......

~How long have you been blogging?
I started blogging in November of 2008.

~Why did you start blogging?
I was lucky to get chosen to participate in the YCMT Thrifty Under Fifty Challenge. I started this blog to show the gifts I made for the challenge.

~Tell me about your blog's title. Why did you choose it?
I chose the title because we have 7 people in our family so we're 7 all together. I know-very original, but I've since read it's good to have a number to start your blog title so you show up first in ABC order-yeah, I knew that.

~What do you blog about?
I blog about our family, my kids and my sewing and craft projects.

~What is your favorite thing about blogging?
My favorite thing about blogging is how much bloggers share with each other-information, tutorials, advice, the list goes on and on. I also love that blogging gives me a bit of adult conversation-there are days when my reading my comments is the only adult interaction I have-and boy, do I need it!!

~If you had to choose one famous person to become your blog's next devoted reader, who would you pick?
I'm not sure on this one-I have some great followers now.

Easter Share

2010-04-06T10:13:00.000-07:00

Here's a bit of our Easter weekend........

It was such a beautiful Easter here.........we couldn't have asked for nicer weather......

to enjoy a soccer game, a birthday party, playing outside, Easter Egg coloring, visiting with family and a huge outdoor Easter egg hunt!

Hop, Hop, Hopping Along......

2010-03-24T09:33:00.000-07:00

on the

Hershey's Better Basket Blog Hop........

oh. chocolate. yumminess.

I guess you know if it involves chocolate (even virtual chocolate)...I'm there.....

even better because it benefits a great cause...

The Children's Miracle Network

My friend Amy at Keeping Up With the Schultz Family passed on this yummy looking virtual Easter Basket to me...oh I could go for some of those Reese's right now!

Now it's my turn to pass it along to my friends to keep this basket hopping along and helping out a wonderful cause.

"This Easter season Hershey is all about helping you to create Better Easter Baskets with their special limited edition Easter candies found at Walmart.
More importantly, Hershey wants to promote the idea of going good in our own communities. The Hershey Company is committed to making a difference in the communities where we live in, and has a heritage of giving back to the community."

Thanks to Hershey's and 20 different bloggers looking to blog for a good cause, baskets like the one above were created and given to charities of each bloggers choice to spread Hershey's ongoing message around: We are ALL working together to do good in and out of our own communities!

In addition to those 20 baskets donated to charity, Hershey's is also sponsoring a Better Basket Blog Hop where Hershey will donate $10 per blog post entry for the Children's Miracle Network, up to $5,000.
How fantastic is that?

If you want to be apart of the blog hop, here are the rules:
Copy and paste these rules to your blog post.

Create a blog post giving a virtual Easter Basket to another blogger – you can give as many Virtual Baskets as you want.

Link back to person who gave you an Easter Basket.

Let each person you are giving a Virtual Easter Basket know you have given them a Basket.

Leave your link at BetterBasket.info/BlogHop comment section. You can also find the official rules of this #betterbasket blog hop, and more information about Better Basket with Hershey’s there.

Hershey’s is donating $10 per each blog participating to the Better Basket Blog Hop to Children’s Miracle Network (up to total of $5,000 by blog posts written by April 4th, 2010).
Please note that only one blog post by each blog url will count towards the donation.

Ok, now it's my turn to give away some virtual Easter Baskets-I know I just tagged some friends for another fun game-and I usually don't do this alot-but I thought this was for a great cause......hope you'll hop along!!

Juliana at A Blonde Walks Into a Blog

Rhonda at Little Bug Moments

Courtney at Sister To Sister

Carrie at Little Llamas

Katie at Katie's Nesting Spot

Lana at I Love My 5 Kids

Sara at Happy Brown House

Lisa at All That and a Box of Rocks

Tag....You're It......

2010-03-16T06:51:00.000-07:00

you didn't touch me.....no tag backs......you can't guard......I was on base.....there is no base........

oh, wait a minute, I've been tagged and I'm playing....not my kids!

I've been tagged by Amy at Keeping Up With the Schultz Family

It is a Photo Tag:

The rules are:
1. Open your 1st Photo folder.
2. Scroll to the 10th photo.
3. Post the photo and the story behind it.
4. Tag 5 or more people

Following the directions like the good little blogger I am......Here's the picture I found......

I love this picture!! This was taken last fall when the leaves had started falling but it was still warm and beautiful outside. We raked up a big pile of leaves and were jumping in them. I took a picture of all 5 of the kids this day too and used it for my Christmas card. So glad I was tagged so I could think about that day again!!

If I tag you and you do not want to play along no worries.
If you do the tag please let me know.

Lisa at All That and a Box of Rocks-another mom of 5-love that title!!!

Nicole at DustinNikki Mommy of 3 -a mom of 3 who loves scrapbooking!

Halley at Mission Driven Mom -mom of 4 with lots of helpful hints!

Lana at I Love My 5 Kids -guess how many kids? and just started another blog

Sara at Happy Brown House -mom of 1 who is so happy to be staying home with her little guy and sharing how she does it with all of us....who sent me the nicest email reply today!!

Keep Holding On......

2010-03-13T08:12:00.000-08:00

my oldest daughter is singing this song right now.....

and it's what my 3rd/4th grade girls are doing in their basketball tournament!!!

We've been in the tournament all week.....

we started with a loss and have come back with 3 wins....

we play our last game tomorrow afternoon....it'll be a tough one

I am so proud of them!!!!

Have a great weekend!!!

Busy, busy, busy.....

2010-03-08T11:11:00.000-08:00

oh boy, life has been crazy this last week or so.......so much going on.......

March is National Craft Month and guess who hasn't even taken her sewing machine back out after the birthday parties??? It's day 8, but no crafts here....I'm going to make up for it next week-I'm looking forward to it.

this kicking my butt cold is still hanging on and I'm pretty sure it's morphed into a sinus infection-yuck!! Can I call in sick today??? Gotta try to squeeze in some time for the doctor's.

The kids seem to be feeling better though, so things are on the way up in our house......this beautiful sunny, warmer weather is doing wonders for everyone too.....it's so great to be outside and whenever we were home this weekend, that's where we were!

We did manage to sneak away with friends last weekend and had a wonderful time....it went by way too fast but was so relaxing. The kids had an awesome time...... the hotel had a wave pool, found lots of sand dollars on the beach, penny candy store, huge scavenger hunt, out to eat........just a whole weekend of fun.

We celebrated my son's 2nd birthday when we got home. No more baby...sniff, sniff. He did blow out the candle this time all by himself and then had a great time with his new train set.

My oldest daughter had her first show choir showcase on Friday night and competition on Saturday. Her group did great and brought home a silver medal.

Lots and lots of makeup for the bright lights!

We also had a basketball tournament that continues tonight and a basketball party.

I'm ready for next weekend already!! Have a great week!!

Two Birthdays.....Twice the Fun

2010-02-26T09:48:00.000-08:00

In between the yucky stomach bug our family had and the double yucky, kicking my butt cold that my family now has, we celebrated some birthdays - my oldest and youngest. It was touch and go for a bit and I was holding my breath - I was afraid it wasn't going to happen as my husband was sick the day before, but he pulled through and we had a great time with family and friends.

My oldest daughter turned 13 on January 19th-wow! 13......hard to believe.

She doesn't really like cake and cupcakes-she's not a frosting person

(and yes, she really is my child!)

I just happened to see a truly wonderful recipe for candy pizza and she loved the idea so we ran with it!!

It was really easy to make and very, very yummy!! I was afraid it was going to be too sweet, but it wasn't. It was a huge hit, everyone loved it, wanted a piece and wanted the recipe.

We went with cupcakes for my son-very easy..... especially since my mom made them! He was not sure at all about all the singing and candle lighting-I don't think he knew what hit him when the whole room started singing to him. No blowing out the candle for this boy-guess when we practiced we should have really used a lit candle.

He was a bit tentative with his cupcake at first......

but quickly realized how wonderful the whole birthday thing really is!

Have a wonderful weekend!!

Vacation Week

2010-02-20T09:00:00.000-08:00

It was vacation week here in our house but unfortunately my kids were down with a yucky, coughy, croupy, sore throat kind of a cold.

We pretty much stayed at home as it moved from one child to another.........

In between the coughs, sneezes-bless you's as my 4 year old calls them, grouchies and small fights that erupted, we spent some time in the snow.......

played lots of Polly Pockets, Little Ponies, animal vet.....

had a spa day......

made some forts......

and did lots of crafts, played lots of card games and baked some yummy chocolate brownies.

Valentine Headbands

2010-02-12T09:52:00.000-08:00

My girls are celebrating Valentine's Day at school today.....last day before February vacation too.......... doubly exciting!!

They've worked hard on their Valentine's (or Valentime's as my 4 yr old calls them) all week and were super excited to be bringing them into school.

Here's the headband I made my 6 year old yesterday-little late but that darn stomach bug has had us down all week. I got the idea from Disney at Ruffles and Stuff. She made hers in browns and greens and it's so cute! She was inspired by a tutorial over at 3 Sweet P's. Cute and easy.....and she loved it!

My other two got all ready for Valentine's with some hairbows and a headband I made a couple of years ago. The headband pattern is free on YCMT....I just used elastice in the back instead of the velcro.....also easy and cute!!

Just checking....

2010-02-11T06:47:00.001-08:00

Just checking to make sure that I sent out the love heart file to everyone who wanted it. I think I got everyone but it's been a crazy week-we've all been down with a stomach bug......3 weeks of this between all of us with most of us getting it this week-yuck!! If I missed you, I apologize and please send me another email and I'll get it right out to you.

Secrets Revealed and Another Win for Me....

2010-02-05T09:13:00.000-08:00

The secret has been revealed....wasn't what I guessed but just as good!!

Kim of YCMT and Kris of JesseKate Designs and YCMT have started a new DIY site....

how awesome for all of us!

The DIY Dish.....creativity served

I can't wait to see what they have planned-I know it's going to be great!!

They will be "dishing out” brand new DIY projects in sewing, crafting, scrapbooking, home decor, kid projects, machine embroidery, hand embroidery, and more! It’s going to be all videos......for free .....can't get much better than that!! Again I say, how awesome for us!!!

To celebrate the launch of their new show, they are giving away not one but two Janome machines...one sewing, one embroidery. Oh, how I would love an embroidery machine. Check out their new site for all the details!!

Luck is with me again.....I won another blog contest-yeah!! My husband keeps asking how come I've been so lucky, I just tell him they picked my name and leave out the details about how many contests I've entered! Katie of Katie's Nesting Spot

had a giveaway for 5 Olive Kids placemats and we received them yesterday.

My son (it's so hard not to still say my baby, sniff) loves his placemats. Here is looking at the Heroes placemat. He loves trucks, trains, anything that moves so this is perfect for him. I also got him the trucks and trains one and a dinosaur one. I got my two youngest girls the mermaid one. They are all personalized and very brightly colored. He's been carrying his around since I gave it to him and loves pointing at all the pictures. Thanks Katie and Olive Kids.

They've got a secret....can you guess what it is????

2010-02-02T08:20:00.000-08:00

youcanmakethis.com has a secret they've been keeping from us........

it will be revealed soon......hopefully, real soon,

can you guess what it is??

All the these pictures are clues to the big secret.....

any guesses????

Visit the YCMT blog and comment on what your guess is and you'll be entered into a random drawing to win a bag of all kinds of DIY goodies including fabric....

what an awesome prize and I can't wait to find out what the secret is!

My Love, Love, Love Heart

2010-01-28T05:09:00.000-08:00

Let the Valentine decorating begin.....

(yes, hanging my head, I did just take down my Christmas card garland and put my nativity set away yesterday)

I started this last week but just put it together yesterday and I can feel the love! It looks so cute in the entryway.

It took a little while to make the heart but it wasn't difficult. I did it in Microsoft Word and just played around with the spacing so it would look like a heart. I used all different fonts and tried to space out the ones that were bolder. I started off with 20 for a font size because I had an 8x10 frame that I was planning on using. The heart by itself looked really lost and blah in the 8X10 though and since I couldn't get out to check out any scrapbook paper or embellishments - my 4 year old has been down with a stomach bug all week - I made do with what I had. I changed the font to 16 and went with the 5x7 frame and some cute Valentine Day fabric.

I can't take credit for this idea-wish I could, but I know I saw something like this on another blog. I'm pretty sure it was on one of the blogs that lets you link up your projects every week (love those link ups) - but I've tried to look for it and I can't find it anywhere. This is why I really need to put a notebook by my computer so I can jot ideas down. That or I really need to start marking my favorites more often. I always think oh I'll remember that.......yeah, right! I have no memory after 5 children. The project I saw had 3 small frames with I love you each in a different frame. The love part of the saying was a heart like I made-I'm not sure how it was made, I just saw the picture and thought it was cute. If this is your project or you know whose blog it is, please let me know so I can link up and give you/them credit.

Edited to add.....I found where I saw the heart to begin with.....it was at The Stories of A to Z. Beth has been having a mantel party on her blog every week and I saw the heart when she showed us her Valentine's Day Mantel. Her mantel parties are every Friday and another great place to get some wonderful, creative ideas. She did print her heart out and it's way cute! She just tweaked her mantel for the holiday and you can see it here. Glad I finally found it so I can give credit where credit is due. Thank you to all who share their creativity with all of us daily.

In honor of Valentine's Day and love and sharing (both of which my children are having trouble with this week!), if anyone is interested, I'd love to send this file to you. Right now, it's saved in the size 16 font but it's easy to change to make smaller or bigger. Send me your email address or leave a comment here and I'll send it out as soon as I can. If you do use it, I'd love for you to leave a comment with a link or send me a picture so I can see what you've done and we can share all the projects.

I linked up to Weekend Wrap Up Party at Tatertots and Jello, Strut Your Stuff Thursday at Somewhat Simple,

Get Your Craft On at Today's Creative Blog,

Show and Tell at Blue Cricket Design

and

Show Off Your Stuff at Fireflies and Jellybeans.

How to make your mom feel old.....Part 2

2010-01-25T06:38:00.000-08:00

With my daughter's birthday last week and my son's coming up, the girls and I were chatting over the weekend about birthdays, when they were all born and when I got married.

My 6 year old: I can't believe how young you was when you were married.

(I was 24, turned 25 on my honeymoon.....oh a birthday in Hawaii-how I'd love to do that again some day.!)

My 9 year old: Yeah, you were so much younger when you got married and had a baby.

Me: What, you think I'm old now.....

My 9 year old: No (slight pause)- not old, just not that much younger anymore.

Good way to try to make nice to mom!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm very honored and excited to be featured today on Somewhat Simple

Steph is highlighting Baby and Kid items and she featured some of the baby bibs I've made for gifts!

WOW!

Big Happenings at our House......

2010-01-20T09:57:00.000-08:00

we've had a busy few-and emotional for mom-days at our house

On Monday, my youngest (I need to stop calling him the baby) got his haircut for the first time...sniff, sniff. I really resisted this and put it off for probably waaaaayyyy too long. Not probably, yes, way too long-oh boy, I had such a hard time with this. After he was called a girl again last week, I bit the bullet and while the girls had school off and my husband was home on Monday, we went to the hair salon. I had a knot in my stomach the whole time.

Before.....

During.....
After.....
He looks adorable but so different and of course, older. He was so good and the hair stylist was so fast. As you can see, she gave him a lollipop and he was happy as can be!

The girls loved their lollipops too-they were so excited to see him have his haircut-I'm glad we did it while they were home.
and as if the haircut wasn't enough for me.....my oldest daughter celebrated her 13th birthday yesterday-sniff, sniff, sniff!

13
Wow!! Aaahhh!
I'm still trying not to think about having a teenager!!

It's hard to believe that 13 years ago, I was just starting off with my first child, but what a wonderful 13 years it has been.

We went out to Red Robin after the haircut and had a fun dinner. The birthday person always gets to pick where they want to go for dinner. We celebrated again last night with some more ice cream sundaes-she doesn't really like cake/cupcakes-and presents.

Happy, Happy 13th Birthday!!

My thoughts and prayers are with all the people of Haiti and all those families who have relatives in Haiti. My girls' school is collecting money for the Red Cross. When you donate money, they are putting your name on a set of hands and posting it in the hallway to show the kids how much they can all do by working together. They went way above their desired goal the first day! and have collected way more than they ever thought. Although it's easy to feel helpless, it's wonderful to see our community and other communities across the United States doing whatever they can to help out.

We have a winner!!!

2010-01-19T11:18:00.000-08:00

and the winner is #6!!!

Juliana from A Blond Walks Into a Blog.......

who can now say she has won her second ever giveaway-she's been very lucky lately!!

Thanks to all who entered-I love doing giveaways-I'll have to plan some more.

Juliana-send me your address and I'll get the notebook cover out to you.

I love tshirt re-purposing.......

2010-01-13T10:03:00.000-08:00

Love, love, love it!

My 4 year old fell in love with this Princess shirt at Walmart.....on clearance-yeah!.....her present size-yeah!......short sleeves-boo! I knew it wouldn't fit her in the spring/summer.

Ashley from Make It and Love It to the rescue! I again used her tutorial on taking a shirt from short sleeves to long-easy, peasy, lemon squeezy!!

That's my 6 year old's favorite new saying but I'm not sure where she heard it!

The now long sleeve Princess shirt that my daughter wore on Sunday. I forgot to take some pictures of her so please excuse the wrinkles and possible stains. I used an older pink tshirt of hers that was too small for the sleeves and ruffles.

I decided to fancy the tshirt up and put a ruffle around the neck. I didn't have much time because my daughter was jumping around my sew maching waiting to put her shirt on, so I didn't pregather the ruffle, I did it just like this.
Very simple and quick!

Once my daughter wore the shirt for the day, I thought the sleeves were a little too short so yesterday, I cut a 2 inch strip from the same pink tshirt and sewed it around the bottom of the arm. I didn't gather it at all, I just stretched the arm of the shirt but did not stretch the strip of fabric and it kind of gathers on its own. I just realized looking at the picture that I need to trim those arm ruffles a bit to even them out. Someone has moved my sewing scissors again so I was just using regular craft scissors.

I'm linking up to Show and Tell at Blue Cricket Design,

Strut Your Stuff Thursday at Somewhat Simple,

Show Off Your Stuff at Fireflies and Jellybeans and

Today's Creative Blog Get Your Craft On

Check out these blogs for lots of great ideas!

First GIVEAWAY of the new year

2010-01-11T09:40:00.000-08:00

and my second giveaway ever!!

Remember the fabric notebook covers I made for the girls' teachers? Well, it was just as easy to cut fabric for two as for one so...... I ended up with an extra notebook cover.

I'm giving away one fabric notebook cover -complete with notebook-to a lucky winner.

If you'd like to enter this giveaway, leave a comment telling me how nice I am-just kidding, just leave a comment and I'll pick the lucky winner on Sunday, January 17th!

T-shirt Transformation

2010-01-04T10:04:00.000-08:00

My last project of 2009 (of course, watch, next time I write the date, I'll put 2009 instead of 2010 and I've been so good!) was something I've wanted to try for awhile......but wasn't quite sure of........ repurposing a tshirt.

I'm a sucker for t-shirts on clearance........and you know, with 5 kids, I'll use it sooner or later ..... someone's good tshirt will get one of those mysterious stains that won't come out or I'll need a last minute birthday present. So, I had a short sleeve, boring, grey t-shirt just hanging around....... begging to be refashioned.........waiting for a child to wear it.......no, really, my 9 year old just needed some more long sleeve shirts for winter. I remembered, a while back, Ashley at Make It and Love It took a short sleeve shirt and showed how to change it into a long sleeve shirt -awesome and easy!! Great idea and so many, many possiblilities!!!

I used a pink t-shirt of mine -I never wore it because it was too long- for the sleeves and the ruffle on the front. Very satisfying to use something that you probably would have gotten rid of any way. I'm looking at t-shirts in a whole new light now. I think the toughest part was measuring the short sleeve to see how wide to cut the longer sleeve. I ended up having to cut the long sleeve smaller and pinning it a couple times until it fit.

I wasn't sure what to put on the front because I've seen so many neat ideas. My daughter picked ruffles on the front. I gathered my strip first though, right down the middle, and then sewed it on to the t-shirt right along the gather stitch. I may add one on each side of the current one, we haven't decided. Another thought was for a flower on the front of the shirt like this or a bunch of flowers like this.

Great project-quick, easy and fun!!

edited to add I linked up with Today's Creative Blog Get Your Craft On

and Blue Cricket Design's Show and Tell Wednesday

and Somewhat Simple's Strut Your Stuff Thursday and

Round Robin at Keeping up with The Schultz Family

Check out all these blogs for some great, creative ideas! Thanks to all who share their wonderful ideas with the rest of us!!!

Happy New Year!!

2010-01-01T17:32:00.000-08:00

We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day.

~Edith Lovejoy Pierce

Wishes for a happy, healthy New Year!

Christmas Fun.......

2009-12-28T06:41:00.000-08:00

What a busy, fun, happy weekend!!

After lots of Christmas Eve baking and dinner made by hubby, we had a special Christmas Eve snack....yummy vanilla ice cream with pieces of peppermint candy we crushed ourselves....a wonderful idea from Heidi at Blue Eyed Blessings!

We put out our cookies and milk for Santa and carrots and reindeer food for the reindeer and soon, all the children were nestled all snug in their beds and fast asleep-except the baby, who didn't feel too well on Christmas, he had a tough Christmas Eve night.

(yes, I know the reindeer food is in the house, my husband and I obviously didn't think that one through when we did it the first time with my oldest and then couldn't change it the following year, newbie mistake)

Since then, it's been lots of opening, eating, visiting, eating, playing, eating........the kids are having a ball and I'm in chocolate heaven!

Rocking out with the Barbie guitar my two youngest girls got from their cousins.

Love these paper dolls-I ordered them for my mom to give to my 6 year old-great present!

My 12 year old's favorite gift-this was a tough one for us but she loves it and while I'm in chocolate heaven, she's in texting heaven!

Trucks-need I say more.......

Not a present but she loved the wrapping paper-she was easy to shop for!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

Merry Christmas....

2009-12-24T12:10:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!

Many wishes for a peaceful Merry Christmas!

Enjoy!

7 All Together

Last Day of Summer.....

So Sad

Mini Bloggy Vacation

{Easter Weekend}

A {Very} Simple Skirt

Didn't you know I called in sick??

2011 Ultimate Blog Party with 5 Minutes for Mom

{Weekend}

No Pinching Here.....

Notice A Change?

Ear Warmer Alert

"I am love.....each other"

Exciting Teeth Happenings!!

Keeping chilly ears warm is necessary....

Quick and Easy Scarf

We disagree again.....

{Happy Valentine's Day}

Basketball Valentines

Show the {Love} for 100 Days T Shirt

Shutter Love Tuesday-Eyelashes

Snow, some ice, the stomach bug and more snow......

We kinda, sorta, don't agree......

Never leave your cupcakes unattended....just saying....

New Year's Eve......

Wordless Wednesday.....

Blizzard of 2010

Merry Christmas

Dishing It! Party ~~~ Christmas Traditions

My go to meal......

"Community-Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas"

I have become a human tissue....

I {Heart} Cupcakes

Shutterfly.....Christmas Photo Cards Made Easy

Too. Much. Candy.

Happy Halloween!

Easy Last Minute Halloween Decoration.........

Great tween/teen costume idea...

Lady Bug Antenna and Wings....

Super Easy LadyBug Costume......

PERFECT...Yes, they are....

Safe eating.....

An apple a day....

Old Shirt = New Skirt

Unwanted visitor and a fun tag!

Although I'd like to deny it.....

Must. Get. Crafting. Again.

Just one of those weeks.....

Back to School

Oh So Perfect!

Weekend Wind Down

Dishing It-Summer Rewind

Say Cheese......

Little late......

Weekend Wind Down

Out of the mouth of babes.........

Weekend Wind Down

Dishing It! with Serenity Now

I'm melting.......

Chic Click Carnival

Big, Big Day!!

First Camping Trip of the Summer!

We have a winner!!!

It's Summertime...........

Summer Giveaway Update

Wordful Wednesday

Yummiest Chocolate Cake

Fruit Pizza Yummy Yummy

I love me some coupons!

**Celebrating June with a Giveaway**

So Simple and So Yummy......

Teacher, Teacher Can You Teach Me?

Everyone's invited to another party......

A Happy Little Momma.....

Dishing It with Serenity Now.......

Easter Share

Hop, Hop, Hopping Along......

Tag....You're It......

Keep Holding On......

Busy, busy, busy.....

Celebrating June with a Giveaway