Tis a sad, sad day

Dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum.

If you were able to figure out that was the death march by all the dums listed then, well, you're smarter than me. Either that or you would kick booty on that game show Name that tune! No matter, it's been a sad morning. I must say goodbye to a friend. One that's "stuck" with me for quite a few years now. One I would reach out to when a situation needed some umph. The bond we had was hot and well, he shall be missed.

Goodbye dear gluegun. So long. Farewell. I shall miss our days of glueing and getting burned so bad my finger prints are now gone. I tried to save you, Tried taking you apart to see if I could mold you back to the glory days but alas, I was wrong. You died in mid project and I will never forget your eagerness to eat my glue stiks and lend a hand.

Sigh.



Another sigh.



Wait, I have a coupon for JoAnns.

Is that school supplies I smell?

Pre-K. It's kindergarten with training wheels.

Miss Little started school this year. This is the first learning enviroment she has been in other than the chaos I call home and I'm so excited for her! She dressed in her most comfy and most adorable outfit and was ready to go.

If you hadn't noticed, she's a fan of Hello Kitty.

She was so kind to answer a few questions for me before we rushed out the door and though I snapped this shot,

She had another list she wished to share with me. It was Things I want to learn at school:

1. To read
2. Write my name
3. Sing new songs
4. Learn new dance moves

Ok there were about 7 in all but they were repeats of the first four. She also shared what she wanted to DO like color and paint. Granted, color and paint are way cool and way fun and deserve attention BUT she is already super duper awesome at it.

When we got to school there were no tears. All smiles and the excitement this little girl had was off the charts! She let me take a shot with her teacher, Mrs. Peterson. I just KNOW these 2 will be fast friends.

IS it me or does she look older in that picture? Hmm.

She gave a quick hug, a kiss and a high 5 before she took off to the playground with the other kids. Last thing I saw was her ponytail flopping in the breeze. My little isn't so little anymore. Heavy sigh. Sad theme music in the background. Mom walks slowly away and turns to look back. Nope. She's off on the slide. Have a blast little girl and learn lots!

Noah's rule of life #27

When you've had a bad day and things seem despiciable.

Have a sucker. Preferably grape.

Not only does it make you smile but it taste good. It turns your tounge a different color and makes your breath smell like Kool-Aid.

What a party!

Well, as you know, Mr.Little is now 2 and we had his party on Saturday, August 20th. It was a hot day but man it was fun. Good food and friends and family. What more do ya need? We grilled the traditional hamburgers and hotdogs and had stuffed jalapenos as well. Side dishes were baked beans, potato salad, pasta salad, all the fixin's for your burgers and dogs, chips and salsa and bags of kettle corn. The cake was vanilla with cream cheese icing and the cupcakes were chocolate with oreo cookie icing. YUM-O! So in haste, I snapped a few pics of the decore (all made by yours truely) and of the party itself to share with you guys.

Talk about score! I nabbed the chalkboard from Goodwill for $4 and the frame I already had. So fun!

Just follow the railroad tracks for fun.

The thank you station with paperbags filled with goodies for all of Mr. Little's friends.

The big hit with the kiddos were the sugar cookies!

I had found this old HO train on Criagslist MONTHS ago. Since Noah loves trains it was cheap and I had an idea in mind to make it more personal for him. Wanna see it?

YEP! I tagged it with our last name!

This old suitcase is a metal one in such great shape. When I laid eyes on it I KNEW it had to be mine. It's another purchase from Goodwill ($5) and it now holds all of Mr. Little's train tracks and sets. Right here though, it holds bags of kettle corn for guests to nosh on while they mingle. And the conductors hat that Little wears EVERY-SINGLE-DAY!

And of course, the birthday boy himself. He was such a happy and excited little man.

He had tons of fun and enjoyed his cake!

Although, I think his favorite part of the day was opening up the gifts!

I hope that while looking at these you got the feeling of family and home and fun. Afterall, at the end of the day, all you have left is your family. Oh yea, and like Dorothy said, "There's no place like home".

Holy Guac-a-mole-E

Well, here it is. August 10th and I have only 10 more days left. For what you ask? To prepare for Mr. Little's 2nd birthday! I can not believe he will be two! I need to make his banner, his cupcake toppers, his table decorations, his thank you gifts and possibly a train out of a huge cardboard box that the kids can play in. I saw it on Pinterest and it is so cute but yea, that's a huge task and I'm not sure that one will get done. I hope so but at this point, I'm not thinking so. Can you say glass half empty? I know. I'm happy and excited about the party even though I haven't done ONE SINGLE THING to get it started. I have no idea what to make food wise either. Good grief Charlie Brown. So here I sit, staring at the computer wishing that things would come to me and I could finish this party decor faster than you can say minute miad!

Sigh, I shall return. If I don't get burried in scrapbook paper and glue!

Shut the front door!

OK, I have had WAY too much time on my hands today and so I took advantage and sat my booty infront of the computer. I lurked on so many blogs that I had never seen before and laughed and learned a thing or two. There is really a great amount of cool people out there! Anyway, on one of my favorite alltime blogs Mrs. Layla posted about this!

OH! EM! GEE! Now, I'm new to Pinterest and I have to be honest, I have pinned close to 40 or so things already! Umm, and did I mention I've only been a memeber for a week? Yea, I am THAT crazy inspired! So anyway, when I saw this challenge I knew I had to give it a shot. Wanna see what my inspiration is?

Don't ya just want to swoon? I have it pinned in my "cool ideas to try" board. Well, since the excitement hit me like a ton of bricks I got started right away. With this.

YEA BABY! YEA! The 70's are back! Love the yellow glass and nasty shade? Me neither. So that's why I HAD to resuce her.

I went to Goodwill and scored on an old tablecloth. It's $5 price tag had me stall but then looking, it was the right color, no stains and TONS of it so I grabbed it and ran to the register. I then went across the street To Ace Hardware and bought some spraypait in a gloss white. SCORE! That baby was on sale for $2.50. Paid and drove home ready for my challenge. First step was prepping the glass with 80 grit sandpaper then cleaning the surface of all dirt and debris. Then I taped off the cord and the light socket to protect it from the spray.



She took her paint well and after she dried, I brought her in.

Now as far as the shade goes, I have NEVER covered a shade in fabric before so this was a learning experiance. I ripped off the old cover but then the inside wanted to crack so, I just removed the top 2 layers and ribbon trim. Once that was done and the dust (litterly) settled, I got to ironing my Goodwill pruchase. I hate ironing too. I don't know why. It doen't take a lot of enery or thought but I find it boring. AND, there was a ton of fabric to iron too. Sheesh! Next, I took my glue gun and glued it on the shade and then glued the top and bottom by folding it underneath.

Those who know me know that I sew with my glue gun. So, imagine my delight when after I googled how to make no sew fabric flowers saw this tutorial. Thanks Brook! BTW, your lamp turned out FAB! Same wave length you and I.

I made these fairly quick and the only boo moment was well, the entire time I touched my glue. I now have no fingerprint left on my left thumb.

So all in all I'm pleased. Very cool lamp with very little spent. I'm down for that! Once I put her all back together, I placed her on the old hope chest my Grandma had given me and viola! There she is. In all her glory.

And don't forget to check out all of the Hosts of the challenge!

Sherry from YoungHouseLove.com Katie from BowerPowerBlog.com Emily from StyleByEmilyHenderson.com and Lana from Making A House A Home


So yea. Whatcha' think? Did I sink or swim? Were you worn out by the end of this one or were you inspired? I hope it's the latter. If so, please show some love here. I'd enjoy seeing what it is you challenged yourself to create from a "pin".

Specially created for tired, maturing skin.

Yep, you read that right!! While visiting another blog I absolutley pos-o-tootly adore, she informed her readers about the Anti-Ageing spring chicken serum. OK, if the name doesn't spark curiousity then mabye you need to check your pulse. I mean, seriously, spring chicken? Laughing out loud doesn't cover it.

Anywho, y'all can buy it from the lovely people at The Coop Keeper here. COME ON! Check out that description. I must have it. I need it. Hmm, I have leftover Birthday money. I think I just might!

If your not blogging....

than you're doing right?

So this morning I was in a mood and decided I'd take it out on the free wooden palllet my Brother-in-law had given me. He was happy to get it out of his yard and I was happy for the wood. Now, I didn't really get a good look at this thing until this morning and well, it was in rough shape. More so than I had thought.

Do you see that grey stuff? Yea, that stuff. It's stucco. The pallet had bags and bags of the powder stuff stacked on it for a long time. Then, it rained and it turned into a fine cement style gunk. Sigh. This was gonna be tough but I was tougher. No gloves people. I was ready! I took my trusty hammer and started to pry the first board off just to see what I was dealing with. Then, this happened.

Oh great! This was not gonna be as easy as I hoped. The wood split and seemed so brittle. AND THIS WAS ONLY THE FIRST PIECE!

So I ditched the hammer and grabbed this handy dandy tool.
Umm, remember the description I gave you earlier of what that grey stuff was?

Yea...Mr. Saws all wasn't sawing anything. It wouldn't go through that to save it's poor little life. I think I even smelled the faint smell of burnt motor. OK kidding. I didn't smell the burnt motor smell but I half expected too.

Alright. This. Means. War! I put away the childish toys and brought out the big guns; the circular saw.

Mr. I look good in orange. He did the trick and did it well. Unfortunatly the wood was crap so I was only able to get a few pieces and none of them were the same size.

I put them together on the ground in a design I liked and this is what it looks like for now. I really like it to be honest and think I'll continue on with the idea I had in mind for this. Next step is to sand it down and stain it. After all that, attach it and add some design to the front. Instant and almost free wall art for Noah.

So yea, little ol' me did all this this morning in what had reached 90 degrees in shorts, a tee shirt and flip flops. Normally I would NEVER do that. Safty first and all but I was lucky and only walked away with a small cut. And believe you, me it hurts!