Splendor Towels

Each night our room attendant would make us towel animals to greet us at bedtime. Here are photos of just a few!

Wordless Wednesday #48 ~ Molly's Summer Collar

Pretty bows for Molly!!

Easter Bunny Bread!

This bread turned out SO CUTE, but the pictures are so bad. I took 2 loaves of frozen bread dough, thawed it out, shaped it into a bunny, let it rise, baked it, and cut out the tummy for dip and veggies. It was actually fairly simple.

Sun Catcher

Last night Nathan decided he wanted to make a Sun Catcher. We have a bunch of art materials here that my Dear Friend Barbie gave to us before she moved to North Carolina, so we got it out and he made this beautiful teapot. It's a beautiful sunny SoCal day today.

Fun With Chalk

Today Darrell, Nathan, and I went to the Chalk Festival in our city. It was amazing what these artists were creating with chalk. They had food, music, and various city organizations. We live in a great place, the weather was beautiful! This boy, Michael Chen, lived nearby and went to my Mom's school. He passed away recently, but had participated in this event for many years in the past. The entire festival was dedicated to his memory.

The colors and shading are unbelieveable. These are beautiful, brightly colored roses.

There were over 100 artist in attendance. How can so many people be so creative?

Some were cartooney (is that a word) and some were more realistic looking...all were amazing!

Look at these colors. My back would be killing me if I tried to something like this, and I bet my fingernails would not be happy.

I made Nathan sit on the other side so you can see the size...you can tell he is really happy to be there.

Two of the loves of my life. The third on is too cool to go to Art Festivals with us.

$2 Frames

I got these frames at a garage sale a few months ago for $2!! They are from Pottery Barn Kids and are supposed to be used for school work, changed frequently. However, my kids don't do that much artwork anymore and the frames were a little scratched. What did I do? Same thing I always do...paint them black and distress them! I took these photos and had them printed at Christmas when I had my cards made. They look so cute upstairs in Molly's Bedroom.

Easter Decorating

Okay, so here are my Easter decorations...STILL IN THE ATTIC!! I have been so busy, and tired, and had so many distractions, I decided NOT to decorate this year. I know...I can't believe it either! You know how I love to decorate for every holiday, but something had to give. Nathan, My Mom, and I are going to Kansas for the week anyway, so we wouldn't be here to enjoy all the decorations and I'm not entertaining, so no one will really notice. When I pack away my holiday decorations, I usually have one "open" box or basket to put things that I buy on clearance after the holiday or thoughout the year at garage sales or thrift stores. These bunnies were actually packed away in Nathan's room, and I thought they would be cute decorations for Easter with some cute bows around their necks...next year!

I'm lucky to have a huge attic, with a pull-down ladder, to store all my holiday stuff and the kids schoolwork as I keep everything!! I also have misc furniture, decorations, camping gear...all that junk that you use, but not very often.

Have a great week. By the way, it is beautiful weather here, and Kansas is under Emergency Advisory for snow...yikes. Who knew we'd hit snow in Kansas in Spring?!

Before and After ~ Kitchen "Office"

I know I have not posted a blog in over a week, it's been crazy at our house. Baseball EVERYDAY...I am not exaggerating! It's fun, but I don't get any of my regular stuff done. I have been organizing my kitchen "command center" this week. What I thought would be a few hour project turned into a few day project, after I decided to repaint stuff, replace baskets, and the like. You know I can't just re-organize anything without making it pretty. So, here are the pictures... The cabinet, below, was out of control! I had vitamins in there that had expired in 2004.

An upclose photo of the counter top.

An upclose shot of the cabinet...ugly!

It's much better now! Although, when I get busy, this is always the area that takes the hardest hit. By the way, Jill do you see the little porcelein cup in the back? You gave it to Kyle when he was born, and I use it for my jewelry...love it!!

Have a great week. I am going to try to post more this week, if I don't my family (uh, Hi Larry) gives me a hard time. I'm glad they're interested in my blog.

A Holly Day

Eldon and Holly (our neice and nephew) came over yesterday afternoon. Holly is such a girly-girl, however she does not take any crud from any of the boys. She is the only girl in our family, so we do all the "girly" stuff when she comes over...and I love it...probably more than she does!! We made cupcakes! Funfetti with heart print papers and white icing.

The boys and Holly eating dinner. The girl has a great appetite, and is still thin as a greenbean. I guess she doesn't take after me!

She read me a book. She loves to read. Notice how she crosses her legs...so girly and cute. Look in Eldon's hand at his "homemade paintball shooter." That's another story...we won't go there.

Here is Holly after she organized Molly's toys. A girl after my own heart...she loves to read AND organize! Last time she was here she organized all of my utensil drawers...I am not kidding.

Licking the beater after we made cupcakes...the best part!

I always have crafts for them to do. These are Easter frames ready for my Easter mantle. Nate made one too, but Eldon refused...too busy.

Holly playing Teacher. Hmm...maybe we'll have another teacher in the family some day.

We made meatloaf for dinner. Holly would not touch the raw meat or the egg...

Sick Boy = Time for Crafts

Look what I did today...They turned out SO cute...if I do say so myself!! Okay, um, these pictures posted in backwards order. So, I am going to leave it...work with me people. These are two Easter/Spring signs that I made today. Again, I got the wood in the "cut wood" bin at Lowe's. 71 cents each. I used paint that I already had (thanks Barbie!) and bought a few pages of scrapbook paper and some wooden letters.

This is what my kitchen table looked like all day. I mod-podged the paper to the front of the letters and sanded around the edges to take the excess paper off. Time consuming...yes. Difficult...no.

Some of the raw materials before I began.

Here's my sick boy...feeling better now. Hope he sleeps okay. He's such a trooper, basically he just laid around and watched movies all day. Love this boy so much, I always just wanna hug him and kiss him and tickle him. Even though he thinks he is too old...I'll always hug, kiss, and tickle him.

Wordless Wednesday #15 ~ February Front Porch

I LOVE VALENTINE'S DAY!!

Decorating With HEARTS!!

This week I have been decorating for Valentine's Day. I decided this year to do a "pink, hot pink, and white" theme. I usually opt for red,so I had to make a lot of new things. It turned out cute...if I do say so myself.

My entry table. The frames with the words are just frames that I had and I printed the words on pretty scrapbook paper. Easy and cheap!

Another small table in my front room. Will you be my Valentine?

Nathan's Room~ There's No Place Like Home

The new shelves...

The "Beast"...

His bed...I made the sign above his bed a couple of years ago.

SOME of his trophies, books, bouncey ball collection, baseball collection, Gameboys...you know all the important stuff!

This basket is FILLED with doggy beanie babies. When Nathan got his tonsils out, our dear friend BARBIE sent these to him. He loves them. I should have him count...I bet there is at least 60 of them, and he knows most of the breeds. Love you Barbie!

The weeks following Christmas is my "deep cleaning" time of year. I go through EVERY drawer, cabinet, closet, nook and cranny. I throw away stuff, give away stuff, organize stuff, and take everything to the sink to be cleaned or outside to be hosed off. I know it's a lot or work, but I love having a clean and organized house. Those of you who know me, will not at all be surprised by all of this...right?

Because Nathan got drums this year, his room needed a major overhaul in order to accomodate the giant loud beast! I took out several small pieces of furniture and made shelves that fit perfectly out of wood planks and cinder blocks that I painted. This was an idea that I saw on one of my favorite blogs...The Homesteading Housewife. Total cost...under $40. It turned out great, so much stuff fits on the shelves, and plenty of room for the drums. Here are a couple of photos for you to see.

We're having our family over for New Year's Eve tonight...gotta chill the champagne!