Mel-o-drama

Hello June....

♥hello green grass...
and pretty new green ballet flats.
♥hello warm weather...
and flowers on my deck.
♥hello spelling bee....
and class trips.
♥hello to the last few weeks of school...
and all of the wonderful craziness it will bring.
♥hello to the end of my son's elementary years...sniff* sniff*
and to new beginnings and schedules in the fall.
♥hello to no schedule at all for the next couple of months...
and to basking in the sunshine with no place that we have to be. 
♥hello summer full of epic vacations...
and getting lost on some highway to somewhere with the people I love the most. 
♥hello to splashing in pools...
and throwing water balloons. 
♥hello peonies on our table...
and little pink flowers on the tree outside our window.
♥hello to barbeques with friends...
and playing with our cousins.
hello ♥ hello ♥ hello....
please go slow.

Hello June....you♥are♥my ♥favorite:)

Worktable Wednesday....

Hello friends!!
So sorry to have been absent from this space for so long but...
we had an issue with our internet service that turned into a nightmare and a blessing all at the same time.
It is all fixed now but man was I having serious withdrawls.
I had to like....pay my bills with a check and stuff!?!!!
The blessing part was that without it I actually organized my entire house.
Out with the old...in with the summer clothes...sweeping...and mopping...and putting new (and hopefully more suited to our growing children) organizational systems into place for the family.
Feels great to have this place all ready for summer fun.
As we all know summer is fleeting and I don't want to waste one little drop of sunshine on cleaning.
Hoping this new system helps our house to run like a well-oiled machine.
Hey a Mom can dream right?
Anyway....the whole no internet thing was also good in that it forced me to sit and create instead of just look at all of my friends pretty creations on Pinterest:) 
I've got a few cards to share with you today....


Supplies used: Patterned Paper- Prima Ruby Violet/ Tapes- Bella Blvd, Smash, & Love my Tapes/ Flower- Prima Ruby Violet/ Twine- Etsy/ Letters- My Little Shoebox/ Bling- Queen & Co.


Supplies used: Patterned Papers- Dear Lizzy Neopolitan/ Embellishments- Pink Paislee, Prima Ruby Violet/ My Minds Eye, Memory Makers & Pebbles Inc. / Twine- Etsy/ Letter Stickers- October Afternoon and Doodlebug Designs (you)/ Other- Crystal- Walmart

It's that crazy busy time of year were we need a bunch of Thank You cards for teachers, coaches, the nice neighbor lady who brought us cookies the other day etc...
So over the last few days I have spent some time creating a nice little pile to grab from.
I will share some more in the next couple of days.
Thank you for visiting today...
emailing to ask where I am...
and for being patient until I came back:)
You are the bestest bloggy friends a girl could ask for.
Happy Wednesday!!

inside out...

it was a busy weekend around here!

Outside we....

Did a whole lot of hiking...with plenty of stopping to snap pics.

 
Inside we....

taught the boy (well let's be honest I taught myself too) to make Enchilladas.


Outside we....

Casted our cares away.

Inside we....

Found a few quiet moments to create.

Outside we....
Got our hands a little dirty.

Inside we....

Celebrated Cinco de Mayo with a little homemade Fiesta!


Outside we....

stood in awe of Spring's splendor. 

Inside we....

planned, plotted, and pieced together our summer.

Outside we....
 
watched as the painters transformed our yard into a construction site.... 
BUT...a freshly painted house (our 16th anniversary gift to each other...yes we celebrated that this weekend too) is so worth the couple of weekends of messy lawn....right? 

It was a special weekend indeed....
filled with all types of exploration and celebrations...
big and small...
and togetherness...
and smiles that came from the inside out. 

hello...

happy National Scrapbook Day!

Supplies used: Patterned Paper- Bella Blvd./ Embellishements- Prima Ruby Violet & Dear Lizzy/ Ink- October Afternoon
I made this simple little card for one of the many FANTASTIC challenges going on over at  For the Luv of Art this weekend!  Come on over and play along with us!

Worktable Wednesday...

I have an actual mini worktable makeover to share with you today....

except that I cannot find which of my 5000 discs of pictures the before picture of said mini worktable lives on.
Soooo....now this post will just be less a makeover post and more a final result/ major rambling about why procrastination is bad post.
If per chance you would like to read without the ramble...
just skip the fine print below...
but if for some reason you get a kick out of crazy ladies...
then by all means read this post in it's entirety.
*sigh*
I am usually an organized person.
I swear....BUT...
this is what happens when you procrastinate people.
You see I bought this little worktable at a yard sale well over a year ago.
FIVE BUCKS...so you know I couldn't pass it up.
Afterall....the seat lifts up and you can store things inside...
plus if you've been a follower for awhile you know I sorta have a thing for cheap chair makeovers.
Anyway...I took a before picture right away because....
I was SO excited to re-do it.
You will have to just trust me when I say...
it was a REALLY ugly brown and...
it had a really filthy gold fabric covered seat on it....
because well...you know the story about the before pic:)
That is totally what happens when you are really excited about something right?
You get so excited that you bring it home....
clean it up...
take a picture (with big intentions) on some disc somewhere...
and then use the chair (minus the filthy seat) that you couldn't pass up to pile things on in your room for a year before you've finally stubbed your toe on it enough to make you finally want to get it out of your room and into the room that it was originally intended for? Of course in that time you take no less than 10,000 pictures and the picture that you need for a blog post that doesn't ramble on about your crazy disorganized way of keeping pictures becomes buried in a sea of other far more important pictures of your adorable children and then you spend an hour searching through that stack of discs only to get sad about how quickly your kids are growing and changing and cursing that damn before picture for making you feel so disorganized and sad and for turning a blogpost that should have taken all of 5 minutes to write into an all day rant all while pledging to never procrastinate and to totally get a different system for organizing those thousands of pictures like tomorrow. *sigh again* Please tell me this sort of thing happens to you too.

I promise I am sane...
although I'm pretty sure that line shouldn't enter a blogpost...
at anytime...in the history of ever.
Here's the meat and potatoes of this post....
Hubby cut a new seat out of plywood.
I sanded and painted the chair a pretty coral color...
and then painted the new seat with some leftover chalkboard paint that we had sitting around from projects past and ta-da!
Here you have it...

proof that you should not put off until tomorrow a year from now...
what could be done in one afternoon:)

p.s. if you are STILL a follower after reading this post please note that these were sneak peaks of the Girl's entire room makeover which I will be sharing a full reveal post on soon....like definitely within the year:)

Today....

she wanted to try on her first pair of dangly earrings.

Today she looked every bit of 16 and still like my baby at the exact♥same♥time.  
Today she made me remember why I need to soak in the little (but really HUGE) moments like these.
Today she took FOREVER plus one day to get out of bed and get ready for school.
Today she wore my favorite green shirt.
Today she reminded me to slow down...because it all goes by way♥too♥fast.
Today she wore mismatched leg-warmers and watched Fraggle Rock.
Today she still played with her dolls.
Today she said "Mom can I?"  30 gazillionty times.
Today she made this face...
 
and told me it was her "model-look."
Today she did her chores without me asking.
Today she wanted salad as her after-school snack:)
Today she made certain tasks infinitely more challenging than they should have to be.
Today she got out of trouble with a giggle-fest that only the hardest of hearts could have stood strong against.
Today she flew through her math homework.
Today she made me a friendship bracelet and pinky swore I was her best-friend.  
Today she was super sweet to her cousins and brother.
Today she flipped and flopped and stalled bedtime by 15 minutes like only she can do.
Today she stole a little more of my ♥.
Today she made me love her even more than yesterday....but as the song kinda-sorta goes....not half as much as I will love her tomorrow.
***************************************************************
Today I actually got to scrap a picture right away!!

Supplies used: Patterned Papers- Recollections, Bella Blvd, Echo Park/ Washi Tape- Love my tapes & Bella Blvd./ Embellishments- Prima Ruby Violet line/ Button on left side of page- Bella Blvd/ Letter stickers- Bella Blvd./ Spray ink- Inkadinkadoo

Thanks for visiting TODAY:)

Worktable Wednesday.....

working on a custom set of paintings today.
The clients wish is my command so....
she wished for coral backgrounds with 3 different peacocks in aquas, greens, teals, gray, and touch of purple....
and this is what I came up with....


What do you think?

Worktable Wednesday....

a wee bit late:)
I only have one little card to share with all of you today.

Supplies used: Patterned Paper- Dear Lizzy Neopolitan/ Embellishments- Studio G, Dear Lizzy & Making Memories/ Ribbon- Maya Road/ Thinking of you sentiment- Doodlebug designs/ Other- Pink paint

We have been on spring break here in NY.
Which translates into we have been super busy.
Break? What break?
Oh who am I kidding....I wouldn't have it any other way:)

There have been peeps to visit....


and forests to explore...


and cars to wash....


and things to prettify...


and mountains to climb...


and eggs to eat....


and rocks to collect....


and fish to catch....


and still MORE eggs to eat...


and appointments to keep...
and miles to put on our bike tires...
and crafts....OH the crafts....
and...and...and....AND.
Yes we have been B to the IZZY....
and loving every minute of it.
Hope your Spring is off to a wonderful start too.

Warning photo heavy and WORDY Birdy post...

One of the great joys of Spring here at our house
is the return of the birds to our feeder.
The kids love them and have even named a few of them.
The giant downy woodpecker is "Old Red"
The Blue Jay who attacks all of the other birds and our hefty bag if it is sitting on our porch for more than 3 seconds while the Hubs gets his boots on to take it to the curb...yeah that blue jay is called..."Trashy"
and the chickadee who persistently pecks at the reflection of the suet feeder in our picture window before he actually locates the real thing giving new meaning to the term bird-brain...
Oh his name is "Dunce."
My daughter is especially attached to the birds...Ok all living things....she is attached to ALL living things....
and by attached I mean we cannot even swat a fly or even think about squashing a spider in her presence. No Sir. No Ma'm.
Anyway...I digress.
Here's the story...
A couple of afternoons ago life was be-bopping along beautifully.
Dinner in the crockpot.
House all cleaned.
I had spent the morning chatting with one of my favorite Ladies in the world and holding the most adorable newborn baby. Hello fresh outlook on life.
The kids had gotten off of the bus happy and ate their snacks while telling me about their day.
The boy's homework was done and he was outside playing.
It was still 75 degrees out there at 4pm..in MARCH!!
The Mr. was coming home soon.
The girl was actually doing her homework with a smile on...
and I had just gone downstairs to fold my LAST load of laundry for the day.
Hello empty hamper:)
Ahh...life was great....
when suddenly I hear Miss M shriek in horror!!
I honestly thought someone had broken into our home it was that LOUD...
AND believe me that startling.
I flew up the steps to find her crying her eyes out.
She turns to me and I hear
"chickadee....thumped...really loud... something...something....something...AND....sniff...HE...sniff...HIT THE WINDOW....AND...*screaming now*...sniff...HE IS TWITCHING...DOWN THERE!" *points out the window*
Sure enough there he (or maybe she) lay.

Just great...the ONE night Mars is doing her homework willingly...really?
I took a few seconds to hug my girl and gather my wits about me.
All while admittedly watching that damn bird from my upstairs window and silently pleading with him to just get his tail feathers up and fly the hell away. PLEASE bird!
before you all criticize me for lack of compassion...please read on.
Then I decided that I needed to "prep" my girl for the very probable death that was about to put a severe damper on this otherwise perfect day.
Her response to that prep-talk was "well can we take a picture to remember him by?".....she is totally MY daughter.
So we grabbed the cameras.
It's what we know.
Our comfort if you will.

for the longest time we just sat with him....
listening to E's scientific analysis of why he probably wasn't going to make it....
and what was probably going on inside of his body right now....tenderly whispering the worst parts to spare his sensitive Sister the details...but ya know not quite tender enough to just think it and not say it...he is afterall...all boy.
All science-y and circle of life-ish and whatnot.
Oh have I ever mentioned that my children are polar opposites?
M cried the entire time and kept saying "isn't there someone we can call?
something we can do?
somewhere we can take him?
a bandaid?
Ice?
anything?"
E and I did our best to love her through it....
we were just about to call the time and...well..you know the rest...
when just as quickly as it all happened....
the chickadee's eyes flew open.

I was certain this was the end.
He had been out for over 10 minutes.
We could tell he was trying to chirp...but nothing was coming out.
A few minutes later E grabbed some gloves and stood him upright...

It was immediately apparent that his wing was JACKED UP.
Luckily he had a Mother-Hen watching over him...

She brought him suet...

but he just slept.
For quite awhile.
Finally the littles decided that they should bring him up on the porch so he could be safe from predators for the night.
Thank goodness they were thinking because Mama surely was not.
Hey...I am many things...but bird whisperer I am not.
Anyway...we grabbed a doll blanket and slipped it under him....

and we hoisted him onto our makeshift stretcher (snowsaucer)...
all while wearing Daddy's gloves...
and we brought him up onto the porch....
and then my girl looked at me with tear-streaked cheeks....
and puppy-dog eyes....
and then E gave me the "I don't want him to die alone" line....
and don't you know that freakin' bird made his way right inside my front door.
I know. I know.
temporary insanity on my part...
see I told you I am compassionate...I brought a wild bird into my house!
but my children...who clearly ARE unbeknownst to me bird whisperers...convinced me it was what he needed.
He sat right next to the door on our desk...
They turned on a lamp to warm him.
I probably shouldn't mention how many diseases I could feel us catching right? probably takes away from the whole compassionate thing?
Mars would finish a math problem and offer him a spoonful of suet...

which he would promptly reject...
at which point she would depressingly sigh...
and start another Math problem and...you guessed it...
offer more suet which he would promptly reject.
As if doing math wasn't tedious enough.
Somewhere around the 20th math problem E decided that we should leave the front door open because a bunch of chickadees had gathered at the feeder on the porch and surely they were THIS chickadees long lost Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents, cousins, friends, Great-Aunts twice removed...whatevers...and CLEARLY they were here to pay their last respects.
Ok kid...you had me with the description of how his little birdie pancreas was probably injured and shutting down but REALLY? You're losing a bit of your credibility here.
Nevertheless...open the door we did....
and just as my boy reached the threshold of the door....don't you know that "injured" little chickadee flew right off of that saucer and into the sunset with his entire family....without giving us the chance to take a single picture of his departure?
The nerve of some houseguests!
Luckily we will always have the memory of nursing a chickadee who...bird whisperer or not...I am CERTAIN was the one named "Dunce" back to health.
It reminded me that some memories cannot be captured but just have to live on in your heart.
It reminded me to slow down...
and take in the little things...literally.
It reminded me to enjoy every last bit of this fleeting season...
to be meticulous about nurturing injured chickadees, imaginations, and youthful hearts.
It reminded me that everything thrives with a little love.
It was a Spring miracle....
and indeed the PERFECT ending to our perfectly happy to be interrupted day.

Worktable Wednesday...

I have a couple of quick projects on my worktable today.
First up a quick chair fix.
I'm afraid that quick is all that I will have time for this week...
and probably next week too:)
Afterall...I plan to thoroughly enjoy all things Spring Break with my 4 favorite Bunnies.
You see this ugly chair?

We bought it for a buck at a flea market.
Why?
Well...because it was functional...albeit SUPER ugly.
BUT...you can't pass up a chair for a buck right?

I left the brown paint as it was found....(although it may get a coat of a deeper brown soon)...
and simply covered that ugly almond vinyl...that all of the clorox wiping and deep scrubbing in all of the land could not take the grime off of...in my current favorite pattern in fabric...brown and cream chevron.

I have to say I LOVE the result.

Oh and did I mention that the fabric was $4.95 plus $1.00 shipping on Etsy making this little project's grand total $6.95 and 10 minutes of my time?  I love little projects like that!
The other project I managed to get done today was this little banner.

which is admittedly not cooperating in the photography department.
So much cuter in person I promise.

I took pics of it in every room of the house until...ugh...I gave up.*Hangs head in shame*  
I guess those little elephants are just camera-shy?

Happy Wednesday friends.

Hello Spring....

Hello friends!
Just wanted to pop in quickly to share this little card I created for the Hello Spring Inspiration challenge over at For the Luv of Art! 

Supplies used: Patterned Papers- Dear Lizzy Neopolitan line, Heidi Swapp/ Letters- Lawn Fawn/ Embellishments- American Crafts Delights Paper flower & Studio G buttons/ The little bunny badge actually came in a pack of pins from the Easter section at Walmart. The pinback comes off and they make great scrappy embellies!

It is loaded up with all new goodies from CHA.
Ahhhh...new scrappy product flooding into stores...
just one of the many reasons to LOVE spring!
Hope you are having a great day!

Worktable Wednesday...

My worktable has been home to a bunch of projects this week.
The problem is that this little card is the only one I have finished and photographed....

Supplies used: Everything on this card is from the new Bella Blvd. Baby Boy line except for the gray ribbon which is from the Dollar Store.
The good news for the blog is that I will have lots more to share here soon.... 
Ya know...just as soon as I focus and stop bouncing from project to project.
Although...I AM kinda partial to bouncing:)
On that note it's time for me to bounce on outta here.
Hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday!
Thanks for visiting.

mixed up monday....

This morning I woke up all mixed-up inside.
You might say I had a slight case of the Mondays;)
The weather here is not the best so I knew pretty quickly that it would be an inside doing laundry sorta day....but in between the not so fun housework I knew I kind of wanted to craft a little too. Afterall...crafting always washes all of my troubles away.

should I paint something?

or play with some pretty paper, scissors, and glue?

or maybe break into those fun  Prima Ruby Violet embellies?

Hmmm....decisions, decisions....
In the end.....I decided to do a little of everything...
a little laundry...
a little painting...

a little sweeping....
a little cutting...
a little dusting...
a little gluing....
see I told you I was having a mixed-up day:)
In the end it turned out to be a good thing because...
the laundry is done and all put away....
kitchen floor is swept and mopped...
kids rooms are dusted....
Monday seems more manageable to me now...
AND in the midst of it all Pixie the Peacock was born....  

Supplies used: Patterned Paper- Bella Blvd, Amy Tangerine for American Crafts, Basic Grey/ Embellishments- Ruby Violet by Prima Marketing/ Other- Buttons, Jewelry supplies/ Bling- Queen & co.
Sometimes mixed-up turns out just fine.

around here...

we are golden.
Around here spring is finally poking her head in to say hi...
and Mr. Golden Sun has followed suit.
My kids couldn't be any happier to be outside for hours on end soaking up every drop of sunlight and warmth that March will bestow upon us.

The girly has been busy....

"panning" our stream for gold.
All of the best miners use a frisbee to pan you know....oh and PJ's...yes PJ's are the latest in miner fashion.
 
He...yeah...the cute boy in the background who is attempting to pop into all of the pictures....he lives to pester the gold miner....

occasionally taking a break from all of the pestering to give instructions on how to create a water filtration system....thank you 6th grade science class:)

He will also do some of the dirty work for her...because what self-respecting boy doesn't love an excuse to dig in the mud?
or bury his boots in it for that matter?

they make quite the team when they work together....
and this little stream has provided HOURS of play...


and hours of extra laundry for their Mama...
but it is worth it because.....

she is convinced that she will find some gold in our little corner of the world...
she believes it with such a passion that I start to believe it too...
but then I instantly remember that I've already struck it rich....
I am the luckiest Mom around.
Living at the end of a rainbow...that's me:)