Girly? Me? Hmmm...It could happen.

I've always said what a bizarre twist of fate it is that I, only sister to a single brother, went on to have six daughters. I'm soooo not girly. At all. Not a tomboy really either. I like beautiful things. I've just never been into fashion, shoes, fussy hairdos, jewelry, make up, etc. You know, girly stuff.
But lately I've been moving ever so slowly towards it.
I'm sure all those daughters would have appreciated it if I'd taken an interest a little sooner. Like around the first prom date maybe.
Oh well...better late than never.
In anticipation for our vacation to the beach I've been thinking about ways to wear my hair up.
Which I can actually do now that that blasted pixie cut has finally fully grown out. Did I blog about that? Probably not. I knew right away that it wasn't the cut for me.
Anyway...this morning I studied video tutorials to learn how to make a "messy bun". That says BEACH to me!
And I think I figured it out. But I also wanted a pretty thing to put in my hair.
So I grabbed this fabric that was cut off of Shorty's Kenzie's prom dress last year.

side note: The nice little Asian seamstress at the dress shop said I was silly for wanting to keep the scraps. According to her, those of us who like to sew are too quick to hang on to little scraps of things and then we never use them. I'll show her!

I used it to make myself a hair pretty with the help of a neighbor who gave me some hands on tips and the pictures and tutorials to be found all over the internet.
What do you think?

Maybe I need some new shoes now, huh? ;)

Fringy Summer Scarf - maybe?

Maybe you are someone who would chop the top half off a brand new tank dress to make yourself a skirt.
And maybe you'll put the red skirt on and find out that you don't really have anything to wear with it. Except maybe a blue shirt.
And maybe blue and red go just fine together but you decide the ensemble needs....something.
And maybe you happen to have a HUGE PILE of various t-shirts from company sponsored charity events hanging out in your closet. And maybe one of them just happens to be the exact same color of red as your hacked skirt.

Maybe you remember a little thing you "pinned" a while ago.
So maybe, while the kids are waiting patiently to leave for some summer fun, you grab your rotary cutter and scissors and go a little crazy on a few inches off the bottom of that shirt.

 10 minutes later you might have this.

And maybe you kinda like it and your 12 year old and her friend say it looks kinda "pioneer-ish but cute".
So you load up the children and head to the Days of 47 Float Preview Party where you notice several people noticing your fringy summer scarf.
Maybe they think you've dressed especially for this patriotic occasion.  And you're a dork.
Or maybe they think you're pretty clever with your funky fringy summer scarf.
Maybe?

In case you think this is not dorky kinda clever and want to make one for yourself: Cut the hem off an extra large t-shirt. Then cut a 5 inch strip off the bottom of the shirt. Using scissors make 1/4 wide fringe a little more than halfway into the band. Then give a good tug on each of the fringy pieces to make them skinnier and well... fringier. Then stretch the whole thing like it's a giant rubber band. Then decoratively loop it over your neck.

Beth Anne really likes balls!

You know, the decorative kind.
And she doesn't like for you to call them spheres or orbs. They're balls.
I was invited to her surprise birthday party last Friday and I knew that balls would be the perfect gift.
So I stalked her blog to figure out a color scheme since I've never been inside her house.
She's been in mine. When it was a disaster and I was in my pajamas. I hope she is never inspired to make me a gift based on that experience.
Anyway...I made Beth Anne some balls for her birthday.
Nothing too fancy. Styrofoam balls, torn strips of fabric and a hot glue gun.

And taaaa daaaaah!
Balls for Beth Anne!

 I think they turned out great and she seemed to like them.
Happy Birthday Month, Beth Anne!

This and That

So....I know I said I'd be back with recipes. And I will. I promise! But I've had a busy couple of weeks.
I did indeed refocus on my Weight Watcher's journey. I'm loving the new program. It's like a new project for me again and it's all fresh and kind of fun again. And I've already lost around 7 pounds in the first two weeks.
Because I'm back on the WW wagon I've renewed my commitment to ordering from the Bountiful Baskets and Utah Food Co-ops again.
Still happy as ever with what we've been getting although I'd be fine if they'd just give up on the tomatoes till after winter. They're not even good in the stores right now. Blech!

Last week I ordered their gingerbread house kit and Emily and Jaxon and I had a great time decorating that. Best gingerbread house I've ever had the pleasure of helping to construct!

Jaxon was surprisingly patient at building it. He meticulously placed almost every one of the roof "shingles" by himself, even carefully breaking them for the halves that were needed.
And Emily put the Smarties "siding" on 3 sides of the house before she ran out of Smarties. I finished up the 4th side after a trip to the store for a few more rolls of smarties.
If you look closely you'll see a little gummy bear replica of our family (the ones who live here anyway).
Emily chose the candy strips for the lawn and we added some snow drifts around the edges. All in all, it looks a lot like our yard with the warm weather we've been having.
I've taken Jaxon to storytime at the library for the past couple of weeks.
The first time he sat on my lap with his hands over his ears during the songs. He said they hurt his hears.
And he refused to sing or dance along.
The second time he sat beside me and even scooted forward next to some other boys for short periods of time. He also got up and danced as long as I did it with him. Baby steps I guess. We still have several months to get ready for kindergarten. LOL.
He checked out a great pop-up book about dinosaurs and has spent every waking moment studying it. Some of his sleeping moments too.

Maybe Santa will be inspired to bring him his own pop up book since he loves them so much.
Of course there has been some crafting related to Christmas decorating. Mostly taking 20+ year old stuff...

stripping it nekkid...

and rebuilding it.

Speaking of crafting, there was a Holiday Lights contest in our neighborhood and my friend, Summer, nominated little old me to create a tacky trophy to be given to the winner. I'm not sure why she thought I would be particularly suited to tacky trophy building, but whatever. ;)
Here's what the lucky winner gets to proudly display on their mantle.

I know, you're jealous right? Guess you'll just have to move here and compete for it next year. ;)
And, on a random note, we got the sad news that a recent storm took out the beloved globe willow at our old house.
That tree was a canopy for weddings, receptions, a few pet funerals (shhh...don't tell the new owners!), thousands of days of playtime in the shade.
Marsha loved it too. When she came to visit she would sit at one end of our dining room table and just watch that tree sway back and forth in the breeze for hours. :(
Just look at it now.

So sad.
Well...that pretty much sums up what I've been up to the past two weeks. I have made a few vegetarian recipes from that new cookbook I mentioned. Two of them were just okay. Nothing special. But one was pretty good and I'll be sharing it here tomorrow.

Major Fall Wreath - Minor Price Tag

Isn't she pretty?

Wanna hear the story of her life?

I bought these floral bushes a few weeks ago. 

I spent $8 and figured I could find a way to make a wreath for our front door out of them.

But I couldn't find anything at home that was big enough to use.

Heaven forbid I hang a puny wreath too high  on our door! 

I wouldn't be able to live with the embarrassment.

Heather needed to get some work done on her car yesterday so we hung out for a bit while it was at the shop.

We went to the DI that was in the area. 

I thought maybe I could find a grapevine wreath that needed a new life there.

But there wasn't a single one on the craft aisle.

Weird. Usually there are at least a half dozen circa 1980 wreaths that I could tear apart and make over.

I did find these "Jute Leaf Bags" in the craft section. $1 each.

When you open them up they look like this

I guess you're supposed to put your raked up leaves in them and then...I dunno.

But I liked the texture of them, kind of burlap-y, so I thought maybe I could bend a couple of wire hangers to my will and wrap them in this stuff to make a wreath form the size I wanted.

But then we went to the "Yard Area", where they keep the bigger stuff, and I found THIS!

A tired, old 24 inch Fall wreath that has seen better days.

For THREE DOLLARS!!

I couldn't get home fast enough!

I stripped her bare...

Threw away what couldn't be re-used

Saved what I thought I could re-use

I cut the sides and bottoms off the jute leaf bags and wrapped them around the straw wreath form

And then everyone wanted dinner, and help with homework and clothes for school.

*grumble*grumble*grumble*

So I put it away until this morning.

With the help of heavy duty wire cutters, jute string and hot glue, I finished her up in no time.

For 14 bucks, I LOVE her!

She could use a little more purple.

But what couldn't?

Now to dig up the rest of the Fall decorations.

An Emily Post

 

 First day of sixth grade.

 Emily took an interest in dollhouses after we went to the copper mine a couple of months ago. She saw a miniature display there and got really excited about it.

So we found her a good beginner dollhouse kit to put together and we've been working on it during her off track time.

She's been very patient and is really doing a good job on it. But she is excited to get to the decorating. Can't blame her there. That's the fun part after all.

We've also been working on small projects in her room.

She really wanted to paint each wall a different, BRIGHT, color. Oy!

I can't handle that yet. I'm still basking in the nice, clean, neutral walls.

She also really admires the umm...shall we call it...eclectic wall decor at places like TGIFridays and Buca de Beppo.

I am trying to find ways to bring in all the bright colors she wants and a slightly toned down eclectic look.

Here's what we've accomplished so far.

We found a way to hang her purple guitar on the wall.

The rooster is a wrapped canvas print that I had made of a photo of a mural that was in her room at the old house. Phew! 

The rooster has great sentimental value to her as it reminds her of her Grandma Marsha and their phone conversations when Emily was too little to talk on the phone yet. ;)

I made the memo board from an old picture frame we had hanging around.

 Emily bought the red lips bean bag chair with her birthday money.

 I think that the bed net and the sheers on her window satisfy her need for lots of bright colors without involving any paint. Win/win.

 A couple of weeks ago we bought some orange fabric with white circles on it to make a pad for her window seat. I was going to wait to make this post until we got that finished but time is slipping away.

Take, for example, the fact that Emily is in 6th grade already. Where did that time go?

Projects for 3 bedrooms over the past 2 weeks.

Sorry for the long absence!
I've been busy, busy, busy with bedroom projects and haven't even taken the time to blog them. Bad blogger!
I'll catch you up now. Might take a minute.
hmm..where to start? It was a kind of circular process so I'm not even sure where the beginning really is.

Let's start with the master bedroom.
We got a new bed! YAY! My back is so happy! All new mattress, box spring, comforter and a beautiful new sleigh bed frame.
And I finally got some pictures up on the wall in there. I am getting tired of all the blank walls now. It was kind of visually restful for a couple of months after we moved in. But now I need some stuff to look at!

Kenzie got our old bed. It was a big improvement over the one she had been sleeping on.

There was a problem though.

Remember when I reupholstered our old headboard last year? With that yummy purple fabric? Remember?

Pretty! But it doesn't work for Kenzie. She has her own ideas about decorating her room. The nerve!

So I reupholstered it again. This is the third time. We've gotten a lot of mileage out of that FREE headboard.

I covered it in a blue fabric with brown flecks to match her room.

And while we're on the subject of Kenzie's room...
She had a Walmart Fall Apart dresser that, well, fell apart.

So we brainstormed a way to store her clothes in a way that takes up less space in her room, since it's a little crowded.

Roger and I followed THIS PLAN for a 3 cube bench on Knock Off Wood and we built it. Ourselves! Go us! 

It isn't perfect. We learned even more than we did when we built the spice rack a few weeks ago. But Kenzie loves it and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

I painted it with Benjamin Moore (Mink) which I got for free with a "Welcome to the neighborhood" coupon that came in the mail.

I upholstered the top of it with the same fabric as the headboard. Trimmed it with some jute braid trim.

Tah dah!

The whole thing cost us about $40 and $20 of that was for the baskets. Can you even get a Walmart Fall Apart dresser for $40 these days? I don't know. Don't care. This is cuter. :)

After some long overdue repairs to the broken box spring (bad parents!), Jaxon got Kenzie's old full size mattress and box spring set. 

Remember last year when we changed his crib into a toddler bed?

Aww....*sniff*. 

Well, not even a year later and his head and feet are nearly touching each end.

For the past year we have been moving along, fully confident that when the time came we could convert that toddler bed to a full size bed, AS ADVERTISED when we bought the crib. Which is, incidentally, the most expensive bed frame in our house. Counting the new one we just bought for ourselves.

But guess what? A full size mattress and box spring DID NOT fit. It was too big by about 1 inch.
By the time we figured that out, all the other beds had been re arranged and Jaxon had no place to sleep. grr! With no money to buy him a whole new bed, and realizing that we would not be able to use the bed frame anyway, we decided to put our new found woodworking confidence to work for us and we altered the bed frame so it would work.

Ahhh....that's better. Makes him look tiny again too. Bonus!

You can see the strip of wood where we altered the frame. I need to stain that to match. For now, I covered it with a dust ruffle that coordinates with his room. So now no one will even know. Except me. And all of you.
Notice how he immediately welcomed the new bed by sprinkling his toys all around it? Nice.

That concluded the great bed shuffle of 2010. 

Emily got robbed. Her words.

But I did do some work in her room in the past couple of weeks as well. I'll share those in another post.

I've been creating new stuff from old stuff

I turned some old ratty bath towels

into pretty dish drying mats. I just cut a bath towel into 6 big squares and covered each square with some cotton fabric. Now I have 6 pretty dish drying mats.

There always seems to be 2 or 3 items each day that can't go in the dishwasher and this is prettier than a traditional dish drainer sitting out all the time.

I also turned a pile of glass bottles that were headed for the trash into new treasures.

Quart sized peanut butter jars became canisters for my pantry and craft room.

And a giant pickle jar became a pretty Pottery Barn knock off vase.

It's been fun finding new ways to use old things.

Joining these linky parties...

Show and Tell Fridays at My Romantic Home