The loop.

Happy Friday friends!!! I plan to resume with my Friday's Etsy Faves post next week, I've been lagging on my Etsy browsing lately but plan to get back to it soon. We are preparing for a rainy weekend here in SoCal and my kids are getting the house ready. First, I know I have never really done a "home tour" on this blog. Honestly, my house is just never ready for a tour. Ha ha. Take my word for it. Maybe someday I will get my act together. Anyway, we have kind of a strange layout in our house. There is a random open "den" in the center of the house and then the rest of the rooms go around it in a loop. Random? Random. Noah and Hayden, on the other hand, think it is awesome!
Here is why (pic from my front door):

(living room on the left, "den" on the right, kitchen straight ahead).
See that train track on the ground?? I will be stepping over it ALL weekend long. Let's follow it.

If you notice, the covered bridge is preventing me from opening our pantry door all the way. Not frustrating at all....nope. NOT AT ALL. Moving on...

Rounding the corner and down the hall towards the bedrooms. The first door on the left is the bathroom, and the next door is the master bedroom. On the right is a broom closet and the furnace.
Turn the corner again...

This is the hall that leads to the kid's rooms and the garage. First Hayden's door on the left (not pictured), then Noah's comes next, then the garage is straight ahead. Last turn around the corner....

Back into the "den" and back to the beginning. That's it. Our loop. Such a strange layout, huh?! Like I said, a rainy Saturday is in the forecast so this train track will stay around for a while. Noah gets so proud of himself that he can make the track go ALL the way around the house. Ha ha, silly boys!

I stopped by my florist (aka Trader Joe's) and bought these to brighten up my gloomy weekend :)

...and these.

And while my kids got the house ready for their version of rainy day fun, I spent my time writing the rainy day rules on the wall....

Ha ha! We shall see how it goes!
Happy weekend everyone! Make it a happy & safe one :)

My sweet girl.

My sweet baby girl turned 3 today. What the!!?? How is my tiny baby 3 years old?!? I blinked and 3 years went whizzing by. {Sigh}. My emotions are all over the place. Happy, sad, confused, over the moon! We had a wonderful day at Chuck e. Cheese's yesterday and then came back to the house to celebrate with family. Here are some pictures from Hayden's happy day :)

The b-day girl got to go in the ticket blaster for the first time ever.

Click on this link if you want to laugh:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoE5yiZ-NxQ

(look at her face in the one below. Ha ha!!!)

Happiness...

Once we got home she opened all of her presents. She got this awesome princess carriage fort that she can color on :)

And we had more sweets :)

Then last night while she was sleeping, Josh and I did a balloon sneak attack in her room.

When she woke up this morning as a 3 year old, her and Noah had a blast kicking them around :)

Yay for happy balloons!!!

It was a wonderful day and my sweet Hayden had a blast! "Make a wish pretty girl, you are so so loved!"

Have a great week everyone!

Invisible Children.

(written last night before bed)

As I am typing this, my babies are warm and cozy in their beds. When I wake up tomorrow, we will go through our morning routine...get dressed, breakfast, brush teeth etc, and I will take Noah to school. He will play and learn and grow while he's there. Hayden and I will have some time together playing and eating and snuggling. Just a happy usual kind of day. Sounds simple enough, right?

I had 27 minutes to spare tonight so I watched this video.

http://vimeo.com/invisible/kony2012

Our regular old day seems not so simple anymore.

If you have 27 minutes to spare now and haven't seen it yet, please watch it. If you don't have the time now, come back later and watch it. Share it. Sign the petition here. Donate a few bucks if you can. If not, spread the word. That's worth much much more.

Thanks for your time in reading this. I know I don't usually get "heavy" on the ol' blog, but I thought this was important to share.

Happy weekend to you.

Another bunting...shocker.

As I previously mentioned, I'm in the craft zone. My kitchen looks less like a kitchen and more like a craft room (sorry to the hubby on this one). Anyway, I mentioned yesterday that I was making a second bunting out of my vintage sheet. Here's what went down:

First, I printed some letters off of my computer...

I decided I was going to make a "happy" bunting. I plan on giving this one to my awesome friend Kelly to use as a photo prop. I am kind of her "prop stylist" and I thought this bunting would photograph really well. Anyway, the vintage sheet I'm using is sort of see-through so it was super easy to trace the letters right onto the fabric.

After I traced the letter using a fine tip sharpie, I filled it in using a small brush and black fabric paint.

Once it was dry, I used the same technique using my heat and bond iron on tape and a seam binding (see yesterday's post here).

Here she is :)

Close-up...

I think I would be the happiest person alive if I had buntings and pom poms strung up all over my house :)

I may have to make a couple of these for the shop! It's just soooo HaPpY :)
It's almost Friday, are you hangin' in there!? Hope so!

No-Sew Spring Bunting

Happy happy Wednesday everyone :)
Lately I have been a crafting fool! Mostly trying to load up my Etsy shop using the supplies I have on hand (my craft cabinet literally won't close so this shouldn't be a problem). Last night I made these beauties...

Rainbows! They make me smile :)

I also made a fun no-sew spring bunting for myself. As I've mentioned before, I plan to become friends with my sewing machine this year "Plan." At the moment, I'm still sort of phobic. ha ha! Not really, but I do tend to avoid it. Anyway, I have pre cut a bunch of triangles from my pretty vintage sheet and couldn't wait to get crafty. It helps that I also have quite a large stash of fun fabric too...

Step one: I free-handed the letters S-P-R-I-N-G on the different fabrics with a fine tip sharpie, then cut them out. Not perfect by any means, but good enough for me.

Next, I got out my heat and bond iron on tape (purchased at WalMart in the sewing section) and cut pieces to fit each letter.

(I just followed the directions on the package)
You place the tape on the fabric with the paper side up. Then you lightly press the iron on it for 3 seconds. After that, you peel the paper off, stick the letter on the bunting triangle, and iron over the top.

Once I did this to all of the letters, I used a seam binding to string them together. I cut a strip of heat and bond to fit the top of the triangles and sandwiched them inside the binding. Then I just ironed over the top.

The next time I make one of these, I am going to make sure to use the brightest colors for each letter. The "S" and the "R" are kind of hard to see because they are too light. I still like how it turned out though. You??

(Josh is not a fan of having to duck when he walks through here, but who told him to be 6'4" anyway?!)

Super ready for Spring over here! Yep! Ready!

Oh, and here's a sneaky peek of another version I'm working on...

Stay-tuned-people :)

Flower, fleas, and a birthday

(happy fleas from the flea market, not the icky little black ones)

Happy Monday everyone! It was such a sunny and beautiful weekend here in SoCal (like 84 degrees) and we definitely took advantage . First up today I would like to wish a super duper special and happy b-day to my sweet husband!! 35 never looked so HOT! I love you babe, you make my world go round!!

(Noah picked out the balloons last night and we surprised him this morning...and the Snickers - it's his fave).

Hayden and I went to the florist today (aka Trader Joe's) and got some pretty flowers. It's definitely feeling like Spring in here :)
Hayden picked these out for for her daddy. She told me that pink was his favorite color like hers. Sweet!

and I picked these pretties out for myself...

Mmmm....Freesia. They smell soooo yummy!

I also snatched up this cute pail-o-daffodils :)

This flower is the definition of Spring beauty to me. SO pretty! Can't wait for the other buds to bloom.

I also wanted to share a couple fleas I picked up yesterday at the flea market. I went solo this time because my sis is still in Ollie land, and my other peeps were busy. It was fun to just silently wander around (in the 84 degree heat) and have some quality "me" time. ha ha! I even sat on a bench in the sun and ate an ear of fire roasted corn on the cob from the neighboring farmer's market. Mmm mmm. Just me, the food, and the fleas :) Anyway, I got this super adorable piggy bank for $5. I'm pretty much in love with her. Can you see why??

Oink oink :)

I also snatched up this milk glass bowl for a few bucks. I usually go for more decorative ones, but I like this large sturdy bowl. I may plant a succulent in it or something. We shall see :)

So, there you have it. Flowers, fleas, and a birthday!
May you all have a fabulous week! I plan to ;)