Mirror Redo

Before

Jason thought it would be great to take a picture of me lining things up for the nails.

After

We had this mirror from when we first got married. It had hooks along the bottom and we used it for the longest time to hang our keys. Well, in the move to Othello one of the hooks broke and we've just been storing it. I almost got rid of it when we had our yard sale. I'm glad I didn't. I took the hooks off, filled the holes, sanded it down, painted it brown, distressed the edges and then hung it up to enjoy. It's another one of those things that brings me joy just to look at it.

Chinese Food Hide and Seek

We had Chinese Food for dinner. What a treat, I know! I made Macaroni and Cheese for the kids because they aren't too keen on the stuff. Well I should have known that my daredevil eaters, Benjamin and Claire, would want to try some and mooch off of our plates. This is how I found Benjamin later getting into the cashew nut chicken. I couldn't find him anywhere in the house, but I kept hearing him respond to my calling his name. Apparently he just needed a little more of the goodness that is Chinese food.

Cinco de Mayo

In Emma's class at school they made Pinatas. She was so excited to bring it home and break it with the family. She knew exactly how many pieces of candy were inside and related the process of making the pinata with a balloon, newspaper, and glue mixture twice, just to make sure I understood. :) Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Another little project

So I found these shutters when we moved into this house in the shed out back. I was so excited about them because they were just the thing that I wanted to find and redo as a memo/inspirational quote type holder. Martha Stewart gave me the idea a while ago. So when I found these, I knew my chance to try out this project had come.

They were a really ugly brown color and I painted them cream. Only I never put them up because they didn't seem finished. Around yard sale time I decided that I would paint them red and use them or toss them. Well, I love them in red! I'm so excited to use them. (The pictures aren't all that great, but you get the idea.)

Then I took binder clips and covered them with scrapbook paper to make a cute way to hold papers, pictures, etc. onto the shutters. Fun, fun, fun! I think they'd look really cute with a shelf underneath to set blocks or willow tree angels on. I might also add embellishments in the corners like Martha's link has or I even thought of putting decorative knobs across the bottom of both shutters to hang keys or whatever else. We'll see.

Carnival Fun

We got to go to a carnival today. We were invited to help our friend Isabel Gentry celebrate her 12th birthday. The kids were so excited. We got tickets to go to the booths and get our food. We had hot dogs and slushies from a real snow shack (yes, I was in heaven). They got cotton candy and little gumball machines as prizes. Sooooo much fun! When I was telling Paul about the carnival on one of the many occasions that he asked about it he couldn't quite understand how they were going to set up the carnival rides in their back yard. I thought that was funny. The carnival was recently here in town and Paul had seen our neighbor's would need a whole lot more room than their back yard for those big machines.

Storm Trooper Claire

We went and had a BBQ @ Uncle Wade's house today. The kids had a lot of fun seeing their cousins again. Claire found a Storm Trooper helmet which made her look like a live bobble head. We tried to get her to give a thumbs up, but we got a number one instead.

Slushies

I have become addicted to apple juice slushies. I pour some into a cup, stick it in the freezer, and then break it up and eat it once it's frozen. I love the cool taste of the broken up frozen juice. It's not the crunch I crave, but the cool taste on my tongue and the feel of it on my throat. At first I would make one and have the kids share it. They love them as well as I do. But lately, I have to admit that I make them and eat them secretly so that my children will not want them. Isn't that terrible? Now you know my terrible secret indulgence. :) This is one of the many empty apple juice containers we've had of late. I dare say this could be classified as a craving.

Claire's Faces

Marker Face: Claire decided it would be a good idea to mark up her face with markers. And the funny thing about it is that she did some of it sitting right in front of me on the table. By the time I looked at her and realized what she had done it was too late.

Then she came out of the bedroom covering her face like this. That's when I knew she'd added to her masterpiece while hiding away in one of the bedrooms.

Nutella Face: Around our house, a toasted Nutella and peanut butter sandwich really hits the spot. I was making one for Emma and this is what I found when I came back to the counter when the toast popped up. I guess Claire really likes it too!


Craft the Night Away Spring 2010

Craft the Night Away went really well tonight. Jason and one of his Deputy friends helped me set up all the tables and chairs. That was so nice. They did it so fast and put them right where I wanted them. I set out all the orders and supplies last night and so things went a lot better this time around. I was so grateful for all the help of others being in charge of crafts and helping clean up and put everything away. It was a fun night!

Who's Erin?

We had to do some last minute errands today for Craft the Night Away. When I told the kids Paul questioned, "Who's Erin?" Ha! "No, errands," I had to clarify.

Here we are at Ace trying to find gel stain. Aside from Paul poking Benjamin in the eye with a dowel, we had a pretty good time.

This is after the dowel incident

Me and photo a day

This is how I see life lately - from behind my camera. Not that I'm claiming to be anything but amateur level. I do enjoy thinking each day of how to capture the little things that make up our daily activities.