Quickies

I woke up today singing the Gummi Bears theme song. So random! I haven't even thought about that song in ages.

We are finally getting back to normal around here after being housebound for Monday and Tuesday. Power was out in some of the elementary schools, so I ended up being off Wednesday too (Isaac had a 2 hour delay). We weathered the storm by watching a ton of movies, clearing out the DVR, organizing closets, FINALLY catching up on the laundry, and cooking and baking. I was so lucky that I didn't lose power at all as we have during previous storms.  We also got our pumpkins carved (in the living room, so as not to miss any of the NBA game)

We didn't even really have damage to anything either. Before the storm Isaac pointed out that our little tree in the front yard had one little leaf clinging to it. We were definitely tickled to see that it hung on after the storm.

Halloween was a big success.  Ryan agreed to hand out my candy this year, so we didn't have to be the super lame people with a bowl of candy left on the front porch. 

 

 

He even rigged up a whole Halloween scene complete with spooky music and sound effects and a fog machine. 

I was impressed!  My little werewolf Isaac got a whole pile of loot, and as usual, about an hour in declared he had enough and was ready to go home.

 

 

You would think only having to work two days this week would be a piece of cake, but it was a particularly rough day back.  We were supposed to have a potluck lunch.  I showed up with my plate of deliciously decadent cookies, only to discover I had misread the email and the potluck had been rescheduled to NEXT Thursday.  So I had no lunch.  I was forced to go out for lunch (which is always an adventure when you only have 30 minutes), but due to a long series of unfortuneate events I had no access to any of my money, so I wasn't able to buy any lunch.  Also, earlier that day my Albright advisor showed up at school and yelled at me about some paperwork which was really a big miscommunication, but still left me in tears.  Needless to say, I packed up my stuff and pretty much RAN out of the school building. 

I finally made myself go out to Kelli's to stamp last night. I have only been once since the school year started, but after my terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad-day at school, I decided to go. Look at these cute cards I made!

If you are lucky, maybe I will send you one.

Happy Friday everyone!

 

 

 

 

Pinterest Success!

I finally did something I pinned on Pinterest!  

(Well, not counting this fairly disastrous crockpot meal, which people only ate to be polite....) 

I have been cleaning my closets out and there were several items that were too worn or stained to give away.  It called to mind a bunch of headband tutorials floating around Pinterest so I figured I would give it a try. 

Why not, right? 

 I made this cute T-shirt headband (please excuse my horrible hair.. I was so excited to take a picture of the headband, and I didn't realize how wild the rest of my hair was... oops). 

I followed this tutorial from Sugar Bee Crafts.

Well... Actually... at first I attempted this one (pinned several gazillion times)

so I decided to try to create the five strand head band like this.

Mine... was not *quite* so successful....

I did use a T-shirt but it seemed more ribbed or textured or something than the fabric she used in her tutorial, so when I stretched it, it never formed the "yarn".  Also, I just couldn't seem to get the hang of the braiding.  Some of it looked acceptable, but some was puckery and "off".  I will revisit this one in the future, but in the meantime, I figured I better start with something more basic. 

So I found this pin and decided to give it a shot:

I am not going to lie.  It took me about ten tries before I got the hang of the knot, watching her video over and over.  

THEN, when I finally got the hang of it, I realized I had made some of the strands way too small.  There was no way it could go around my head... AHHHHHH.

Third time was a charm though and I think my headband looks almost exactly like hers.

Then there was the matter of the ends.  None of the tutorials really explained how to attach the strings and cover them nicely.  Mine ended up being kind of a mess...

Overall though, I think it is super cute, and I am excited to bust it out next week at school.

yeah sunglasses tan line...

P.S. You can follow me on Pinterest if you like, but my boards are nothing special. 

Rambling on about various things...

Gah... I stayed up/slept way too late this weekend. Now it's 11 and I'm wide awake. Getting up tomorrow should be a disaster.

I need a few cards for different things, so I pulled out my stamps and papers over the weekend and got busy. I actually didn't end up making any of the cards I will need soon (typical), but I did make these: It's not totally clear, but the card base is black. It gets lost against the black table. The onesie was my first attempt at using the blender pen.

You can't see very well from the picture but the top part is grey cardstock dry embossed polka dots leftover from another project. I did a few different variations of this one with different sentiments. The sentiment stamp was a buck from Michael's.

(this one kind of drives me crazy if I look at it too long because nothing on it is cut straight or centered. But I really loved that stamp-- another dollar bin find at Michael's.)

I had a great weekend. Friday night my parents were kind enough to keep Isaac overnight so I could have another date with Perfect on Paper guy. Then Saturday Isaac's dad asked if he could take him for the afternoon/evening even though it wasn't his weekend because he wanted to take Is to a birthday party. So I ended up with an unexpected Saturday night to myself too. I went to University City and (after trying to park for seriously like 40 MINUTES) I met up with my friend The TrueDeeva... and we had a great time catching up. I will go into more detail about my date and my visit with her in a another blog post. Oddly, they will be somewhat related. It was great fun, but on the way home I got a text message and was reaching for my phone to glance at it. I must have swerved off the road a bit when I was reaching it and the next thing I knew, there were lights behind me. It's actually been quite a while since I've been pulled over. I got off with a warning, thankfully. I definitely left my phone in my purse and threw it in the back seat for the rest of the way home.

In other news, how adorable are these:

shoes that we got for Isaac's baby brother? I know his dad will like them, because he used to buy Isaac ones that were very similar. I used to get so mad at him when Isaac was a baby, because I would need diapers, formula, etc and he would always show up with fancy sneakers. When we were at the Puma outlet I couldn't resist the chance to bring it full circle.

feeling crafty

Last year I bought this cute little buckets in the dollar section of target but had no idea what to do with them. When my friend Diana loaned me her big shot die cutter to make all those bridal invites Isaac and I decided to play around with it.

We made this out of things completely around the house. I just used a cereal box with the flower die cut and then modge podged random scrapbook paper on. I used a straw with a pick up stick inside to jab into some craft foam and then I just shredded the leftover scrapbook paper to cover up the foam. The ribbon was leftover from the curtains in my office.

P.S. Last day of school today!!!!!

Easy Christmas Craft

I meant to blog about this a while ago. I went to a Stamping Up demonstration a while back and made these candles. They are so cute and so easy! To make them you need:

• Tea lights
• Tissue paper
• A circle punch
• A small hole punch (like on the cropadile)
• Small stamps/markers. The ones I used of course were from Stampin Up.
• Embossing heat gun.

Cut your tissue paper into strips. Fold your strip over so it is four layers thick. This is important, otherwise you won't be able to punch anything out, the paper will be too thin.

Use your circle punch to punch out as many circles as you have for candles.

Use the cropadile to punch a hole in the center of each circle.

Stamp the design on each circle. You will see the tissue paper has a dull side and a shiny side. Stamp on the dull side.

Slide the wick through the hole of each circle.

Use the heat tool to melt the wax of the candle. The circles will look like they are disappearing into the candle leaving behind only the design.

You can burn these candles. They are supercute and easy! At the demonstration we made little paper boxes to put them in (you can see mine got a little crushed on the car ride home. I gave mine to my Secret Santa at work.

This has been a super productive weekend. My brother Joe asked me if he could pick Isaac up from school which was fine with me. When I came home he was doing my dishes and entertaining Isaac. What a welcome! We ended up getting in my car to head to Lowe's to pick up a few more strands of lights. When we were there we saw they had decent sized Christmas trees for only 19 bucks so we decided to get one too. We had taken my car instead of Joe's truck, but we managed to cram it in the trunk and then just drive along really slowly with the trunk door bouncing up and down. Fortunately, I live pretty close to Lowe's and we made it with no trouble. Joe put up the Isaac lights along my garage and above the front door. It looks great. He also helped me get the tree on the stand and put the lights on it. I will try to post some pictures soon. Isaac and I decorated it today and so far so good with the cats. They like to sleep underneath it on the soft velvety tree skirt but no attempts to climb it or take the ornaments off so far this year. I just have to figure out how to set timers on everything and then I'm set. Today we slept in (sort of, Isaac is never one for staying in bed for long) and lazed around for a while. We ran some errands, I met up with my mom for a bit and went to a Party-Lite party hosted by a coworker while I dropped Isaac to be babysat by my fabulous single mom pal. When I came to pick him up she had made me my very own pie pan full of fruit crisp. It is amazing and I have already eaten quite a bit of it. Once we were home we settled in and watched movies all day long while trimming the tree, cleaning, organizing, catching up on laundry, addressing Christmas cards, etc. I also finished about ten of these: My mom and I working on them together as an easy Christmas gift for all of the teachers, day care people, etc. who we want to remember for the holidays. I'm still debating putting Christmas fabric on the tops, but I feel like it might push it too far into the holly hobby relief society craft day look that I try to avoid. My house is still not entirely in order but it is getting there and I did cross off some household chores/projects that I have been putting off for a while. It feels good! On the dating front, I didn't blog about it much, but I dated a guy this summer. I wasn't sure where it would go, but it didn't end up lasting past the back-to-school/wedding fiasco that was late August. He said he just wasn't ready for a relationship with anyone (You know how it goes. Say it with me now : "it's not you, it's me, for real", [except he would never say for real]). Anyways, I confirmed, via internet stalking of course, that he is now "in a relationship" with a 20 year old undergrad of a local college. I'm not going to lie, it stung a little, but I supposed it's for the best. He never came out and said it ever, but I'm a girl with a bit of intimidating baggage who is looking to settle down, which I get is a lot to handle. If he isn't ready for that, then perhaps an adoring college coed in a completely opposite point in her life would be a better fit. At 29, I can't imagine dating someone who was still in middle school when I was graduating college who couldn't even go to a 21 and up concert with me, but hey, whatever floats your boat. In other news, we are having interesting discussions about Santa around here. I am fully preparing to be flamed but.....

I never told Isaac there was a real Santa or encouraged him to believe.

I still remember how betrayed I felt when I found out as a kid. When I thought about pushing Santa on Isaac, it just felt like lying. Sorry if that makes me the grinch but I can't tell my kid with a straight face that a man in a flying sleigh somehow made his way into our chimney-less house and filled his stocking. Anyways, we have talked about how Santa is a Christmas tradition and how some kids believe and other kids don't and that's okay. He has always been fine with that. Until this year, when he has taken it upon himself to adamantly believe despite what I say. When we were hanging up our stockings he wanted his to be closer to the door so Santa would fill it first. I reminded him that it is isn't Santa who fills the stockings, but he said "just in case.". Okay, I also reminded him that we would not even be home on Christmas Eve, that we took our stocking with us when we sleep over at grandma's. He has informed me several times since then that there is a Santa because all of the kids at school say there is and since I don't believe I will get no presents. I'm just leaving it alone for now. It is innocent and sweet and I don't want to entirely deprive him of suddenly wants to believe in so badly, even if it is a bit off putting to me.

Anyways, that's all for now. Enjoy your weekend.

Everything but the kitchen sink

Thanksgiving was lowkey and relaxing. Isaac and I went to my parents and my one brother joined us. I got two random "Happy Thanksgiving!" texts from phone numbers I didn't recognize. Wasn't sure what to do with that. Isaac had his heart set on playing football but it was very cold and rainy so we had to settle for indoor activities. Dinner was delicious. We played some gin rummy and then we sacked out on the couch for a while wasting away in front of the TV. My dad and I watched the Zumba infomercial for like 20 minutes. I think he secretly wants to do it. Which he totally should. It's so fun!We drove home around eight and Isaac was snoring within minutes of pulling away. He woke up when he got home long enough to ask for some dessert and to declare "I wish we could live at Grandma's forever!"

Black Friday I went out in the city with some girlfriends, which was supposed to be a late birthday celebration for me. (Oh yeah, my birthday was the 17th, but I have been celebrating for pretty much the whole month of November. 29 is great so far). We went to Tria and I had my favorite thing on their menu (after dinner, of course): Nutella Panini. If I had to only choose one food to eat for the rest of my life, it would be Nutella Panini. I was about halfway done with it when the waitress came over, and stuck a candle in the remnant of my sandwich, which was cute.

Most of the talk that evening centered around my one girlfriend who has recently gotten very serious with the guy she is dating. They are talking marriage and she is about to buy a house and officially move in with him (she's not LDS, fyi).... AND his twin ten year olds. Although she adores the two kids (a boy and a girl) she shared some of the issues they are encountering as she essentially takes on the role of step mom in a household where the kids are pretty much running the show. I mostly sided with her (ten year olds with ten thirty bedtimes? I don't think so). I found myself biting my lip on some topics though. There are some things about having kids that you just don't understand if you don't have kids yourself (example-- she was repulsed by the fact that he let his son sleep in his bed all day when he was home from school sick. It made total sense to me. Isaac often sleeps in my bed when he is not feeling well too. I think it's comfort thing).

It was interesting to imagine being in that situation though. I would certainly want my partner to feel comfortable dealing with (minor-type) discipline issues and I recognize how important that would be in a blended family or step parent situation. But if I had to be totally honest, I think I think a little part of me would balk a little bit. Even now I feel defensive if one of my brothers disciplines Isaac. It would be a hard thing. I am interested to see how it all plays out for her.

Anyways, before dinner we also oogled clothes and household items we can't really afford went shopping at Anthropologie. My friend briefly contemplated an 18 dollar hot pad. I told her I could make her one FOR FREE and she agreed. I went home and made these in about an hour with some scraps I had from other fall projects. If you remember, I have LOTS of heat resistant batting from another potholder project, so everything was ready to roll.

I also decided to make a matching hot mitt. I didn't take a picture of it, but it turned out pretty cute. The potholders I just sort of did myself but the oven mitt I followed this tutorial.

It was very clear and should have been easy to follow, but it my eagerness to finish, I would forge ahead after only skimming and then discover I had made a mistake and then would have to go back and start over. Totally reminded me of that saying "haste makes waste". I gave them to her today and she could not believe I made them myself. I think she really liked them. Maybe there is a hope for this undomestic goddess after all. Saturday my friends (a girl I work with and her husband) invited me over for dinner and a game night. Backstory: In October they had taken me and another friend to a Halloween party where I briefly met another one of their friends. I will refer to him as FOF (Friend of a Friend). Afterwards apparently FOF got in touch with my coworker and asked about me. So anyways, when she invited me over Saturday she said she was having some people over and that FOF would be there. Okay, whatever. Of course, I show up and it is just FOF. No other people. HELLO awkward setup. We drove to Chile's and there was this moment of hesitation as we approached the booth. She even joked about should I sit with her or with FOF? I ended up sitting with FOF. And he ordered the exact same thing as me: chicken club tacos without the bacon. He was a nice enough guy, he really was. And our evening was enjoyable. Dinner was good and we played all kinds of fun games. However, to my friends' dismay, FOF is not the guy for me. I hope this doesn't sound snotty, but I will explain why.

• Strike one: over dinner passionately talked about his love of black metal music for about 20 minutes and various experiences seeing bands with names like Dying Fetus in concert.
• Strike two: at some point it came out that although he is no longer collecting unemployment while working at Gamestop, he still lives in his grandmother's attic. Seriously? SERIOUSLY?! I don't want to sound like it's all about money or anything like that, but by mid thirties you had better be in your own place paying the bills.
• Strike three: Okay, this is the one that I feel really mean revealing. But here goes: We were playing Scattergories and he hardly ever came up with anything for any category, any round. I mean, "name something in the room that starts with c"? "name a four letter word that starts with a"? Nothing... It was a little alarming. I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, but then we moved onto Uno. He had no frame of reference for the game Uno, which I just found to be frankly, odd. After we explained the game and started playing he still couldn't get the concept and was just throwing out cards randomly. We would have to stop and explain it to him again. I mean, really, the premise of the game is just matching colors and numbers. I will let you draw your own conclusions to avoid spelling out what I feel is too mean to outright say.

So anyways, it was an enjoyable night, but I don't see much of a future with FOF. It has been quite a while since I was blindsided with an unexpected set up though, so I give them props for that.

We've started decorating the house for Christmas. I dug out the huge two tubs of Christmas stuff but I haven't unloaded them all the way yet. One is pretty much all Christmas ornaments and I'm still not sure what to do about a Christmas tree. Last year my brother loaned me a tiny fake one. It was supposed to be three feet tall but it was actually more like eighteen inches. The cats had a field day with it, knocking it over and batting the ornaments all over the house. I want a real one this year, but only if the cats can behave. Anyone have any tips for cat-proofing the tree? My brother is supposed to make an appearance this week to help us put some lights up outside, so I'm looking forward to that.

Tomorrow is back to school officially, although I was in for several hours today. I felt unprepared to start the week, and it was a good thing I went in. The more I started to do, the more I discovered needed to be done. (Hello IEP meeting after school tomorrow. Didn't remember you were there!) I have been feeling a ton of anxiety about the month of December. It's such a crazy time at school, with so many things that need to be crammed in before break. There is also so much going on outside of work: parties, get togethers, plays, family commitments, stores, crowds, things to be bought, wrapped, mailed and of course money stretched thin. All of it good stuff but it is a little overwhelming to coordinate it all.

Anyways, I should go. Feel free to leave comments and have a lovely week!

Obligatory Halloween Blog Post

Here's my handsome Buzz Lightyear. My mom bought him a really nice Iron Man costume back in, like, early September, but when Halloween finally rolled around his insisted on wearing this old outgrown Buzz Lightyear costume we had in the toy closet (sorry Mom). It worked though. We stopped by several of my coworkers houses and did about 1/2 of my neighborhood. I left a bowl of candy out on the porch and when I came home it was totally empty. My neighbor said she had 118 kids come by her house. Last year it was pouring rain and we only had a few kids, so I didn't know what to expect. New hair color Highlighting my hair was getting expensive, and boring. I decided to go for a darker do that will hopefully be less maintanence. It's not all the way as dark as my natural color (which is super dark brown and really drab) but it's a step in the right direction.

Started with this one, then realized *DUH* I should take my sunglasses off my head.

Overall much darker but still some sort of lighter coppery highlights to break it up. I'm happy with it, which I feel like never happens when I go darker. I'm also incapable of taking a picture of myself where I am making a normal facial expression. Random Productivity

Today Isaac's school district had an inservice day because they use some of the elementary buildings for polling. I took a sick day and we had a lovely day together. We packed away all of the Halloween things (including some clearance stuff I found at Target for next year that is SUPERCUTE), voted, did some errands that have been hanging around on my to-do list forever, talked to my aunt on the phone, got my flu shot, squeezed in a game of bowling (we had a coupon for a free game and as usual Isaac totally beat me), raked swept the kitchen floor , baked some cupcakes and Zumba'd. I even squeezed in some time for some crafting, which felt very overdue.

I finally finished this little pillow:

I started it about a month ago and I was worried it would be winter by the time I finished it. I just followed this tutorial pretty much exactly. Next time I think I would use a lighter thread and probably a zig-zag stitch but I am happy with how it turned out.

I can't think of much else to write about. Happy November everyone!

whippin out the sewing machine

The directions for blogger's mobile photo uploader thing are kind of confusing. I haven't had too much luck with it yet. I can be really slow with that kind of stuff though. Anyways, here are some crappy cellphone pictures of my latest crafting adventures. I'm on a banners kick lately. It started off with this cheerful happy birthday one. My house is the most centrally located and has the biggest kitchen, we tend to have celebratory birthday dinners here. Occasionally, I try to be domestic and decorate. Last year I made a really cute paper happy birthday banner for my brother's birthday. It didn't store well though and got kind of crumped and I thought it would make more sense to have a fabric one handy. I just followed the tutorial I found here. I didn't bother using the tiny iron to press open the seams though. I don't have a tiny iron and I find ironing seams open to be extremely tedious. Anyways, there are also cute tutorials for other variations found here and here.

I don't think my poor quality pictures do justice to their utter adorableness, if I do say so myself and they are wicked easy to make.

I just picked up some fun fat quarters for the little pennants, some bias tape, some wunder under. The letters I cut from an old pair of jeans.

I decided I was so happy with the way that came out, I bought some fallish fat quarters and made one for fall. Then I made two more for gifts.

I don't even have a mantle. My brother helped me put up this shelf which serves as sort of a makeshift mantle between two of my windows.

Hopefully next time I am out in Lancaster I can pick up some little pumpkins or something to beef up the mantle a little.

we have...

a kindergartener in the house!

I couldn't get him up this morning. Suddenly it hit him and he sat straight up and was like "It's my kindergartn day!" He was so excited to head off. He shouted to the cat in the window as I made him pose for this picture, "Bye Cody!! I'm a big kindergarten boy. I'm going to learn to read today and when I come home I will read you a story!"

He wasn't too talkative about his day but it seems like he enjoyed himself.

I decided to be a kiss up mom and we whipped this up yesterday for his teacher:

I used a template and the directions found here. It was super easy and quite cute, if I do say so myself. I'm definitely going to keep it in mind for my secret Santa this year at school. All in all I declare the first day of kindergarten A SUCCESS!

"I kill people and I eat hands... that's two things"

I've been very busy lately. With what? I'm still not sure. But anyhow, I'm catching up on my 30 Days of Me. Whatever Tickles My Fancy: This video. It is sort of twisted but Isaac and I have watched this video probably 75 times today. Everytime there is a quiet moment Isaac will quietly say "Caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarl!" A Talent Pounding out IEPs at the last minute in a single sitting. A Hobby Yoga. My favorite new hobby/obsession. =)

A Recipe

This was Becky Moulder's Fabulous Raisin Swirl bread that we made one of our "get domestic" tutorials.

Perfect Swirl Raisin Bread 5 ½ -6 cups bread flour 1 packet (1 tablespoon) dry active yeast 2 ¼ cups milk ¼ cup Crisco/shortening (butter flavor or regular) 1/3 sugar 2 teaspoons salt 2 cups raisins 2 tablespoons cinnamon ½ cup sugar 4 cups powdered sugar (6x or 10x is fine) ¼ cup milk ½ teaspoon vanilla Combine 2 ½ cups flour and yeast in a large mixing bowl. In a 1-quart glass measuring bowl or microwave-safe bowl, stir together the milk, sugar, shortening, and salt and heat in microwave for about 3 minutes on HIGH until shortening is melted. The milk mixture should be about 100-110°F (bath temp). Let it cool for a few minutes if it is too hot. Add the milk mixture to the flour and yeast and stir well. Mix in the raisins and enough flour (generally another 2-2 ½ cups) to form a slightly sticky dough. Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface and knead for 3 minutes, adding more flour as needed. You usually won’t need all 6 cups. The dough should feel smooth and elastic at this stage, like a baby’s bottom.

Cover the dough with a clean dish towel and allow it to rise in a warm area until doubled in size, about 45 minutes. Once the dough has doubled, punch it down and divide it in half. Use a rolling pin to roll out each piece of dough into a rectangle measuring about 16” x 10”. Sprinkle each rectangle with a teaspoon of water and spread it evenly with your fingers (this helps the sugar and cinnamon to stick). Sprinkle each rectangle evenly with 1 tablespoon cinnamon and ¼ cup of sugar, making sure to spread both to all edges. Be liberal with the cinnamon; that’s where the elusive perfect swirl comes from! Carefully roll up each rectangle lengthwise, starting with one of the longer sides. Tuck the ends underneath the roll to form a long loaf and ensure that the seam is on the bottom so that the bread doesn’t unroll while baking. Transfer both loaves to a lightly greased baking or cookie sheet. You can also place the loaves on a lightly greased sheet of parchment paper before putting them on the baking sheet to save some cleanup time and make sure they don’t stick to the pan.

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Allow the loaves to rise again in a warm area until doubled in size, this time about 30 minutes. Bake the loaves in the center of the oven for 30 minutes or until nicely browned. The bottoms should also be slightly brown and the bread should sound hollow when tapped. Allow bread to cool. In a bowl or large plastic Ziploc bag, combine powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla. Mix or squeeze well to make a thick, but still pourable icing. Add more milk or powdered sugar as needed to get this consistency. Spread the icing over the cooled loaves using a spatula or cut a small hole in the corner of the bag and drizzle the icing over the loaves. Enjoy! You’ve earned it! A Website This cute tutorial for crayons letters...

That should catch me up for now. I'll post a life update soon.

love this

I saw this tree in Rittenhouse Square this past weekend when running around with my girlfriends. So I googled the story. Thoughts?

look what I made

I subscribe to a ton of blogs. Single gal blogs. Crafty blogs. Single mom blogs. I kept seeing projects like this popping up all over and I thought even my undomestic self could pull it off. I bought two shirts of the same color from the 3 dollar spot in Walmart: one to wear and one to cut apart. Buy the cut apart shirt in the largest size they have. You get more fabric that way. I studied up on tutorials like the ones found here, here, here and here. I used circles for petals and just kind of tacked them on. As the one tutorial says, if you can sew on a button, you can do this project.

I had a hard time getting a picture but I think you get the idea.

(Editor's Note: I'm actually not a miserable person. I just appear to be one in this picture).

I also bought two red shirts so I can make another one. Maybe something like this or this.

Obligatory Blizzard Post

I'm seriously craving some time at the Jershey shore. I don't need a tropical island. I'm content to take a ride down the AC Expressway to sit around in Ocean City.

And to my neighbor's-- it's time for you to take down your "Welcome Fall" flag. You know, since it's buried under 2 feet of snow.

I can't take anymore of weather like this:

Shoveling sucks. There is at least two feet of snow on my driveway and I gave up after about 45 mins. I'll go back out later...

Maybe....

Isaac is at his dad's for the weekend and since obviously I am not going anywhere I've been trying to not go crazy here. Other than the nieghbor's kids that rang my bell to offer to shovel my driveway (sadly I had no cash...) I haven't seen or interacted with another live person in over 24 hours. Lonely...

I've been quite lazy today. My attempt at organizing the office was thwarted when I inspired to make this:

I really need a mantle for projects like that.

Cheap

Decorating on a (ridiculously tiny) budget... These were from Kohl's. Aren't they cute?

Thrift store find! This cute little trivet.

s I was inspired by this post but I had no marbles. I grabbed the frames at the dollar store and used pink scrapbook paper I already had. Just ran the paper through the printer and cut them to size.

My new collection.

Also, see my new paint color? Although you can't tell from this particular picture, I did do the whole living room. I inherited a gallon of that color leftover from my brother's house. We bought one more and went crazy. It makes the whole room so much more cozy. The stairwells will eventually be done in a complementary color.