Refashion a chipped mirror

Okay, so I started and finished a project in 1 hour. Victory! I picked up this chipped mirror at Goodwill a few years ago and had this idea in mind...3 years later, I've finally finished it.

See the chipped top left corner?

This fake flowered girly mirror is now hanging about one foot off the ground so Blair can check out how she looks in her dress up clothes. I hope I'm not creating a monster!

There isn't any special tricks in creating it, but here are a few tips:
1. Buy your flowers at the dollar store. I got 7 bunches of various pink roses for $1 a bunch.
2. Add some variation in size and shade of color. I tend to like going monochromatic when creating with fake flowers. I think an array of rainbow colors might be a little much for the eye!
3. After popping the heads off each stem, snip the ends of the stem off of each flower so that it's nearly flush with the petals. You'll find that you'll need to add a dab of hot glue on the end of what's left of the stem so that you can avoid this. (see photo)
4. Same some smaller flowers for the end. You can fill exposed gaps in between the larger flowers.

You can see my progress with the following pictures. I will also post some pictures of Blair and London's bedroom. We just moved London into Blair's room yesterday to make room for Uncle Paul (he's moving in with us in 3 weeks). It's turned out pretty cute. Much of my crafting energy was put into this room. Somehow setting up a pretty little girl's room was a top priority when we moved into our house-- Tim says there is no way our girls will be tomboys sleeping and playing in a room like theirs....What can I say? I love pink!

Enjoy!


Dollar Store Roses

Secure stem base so flower doesn't fall apart!

Rows of Roses!

Finished Project!

New focus?

It's been a long time since I last posted! In fact a few weeks ago, I pondered abandoning this blog thing all together. That would be just like me. I tend to love the hunt of a new hobby, enthuastically jump in head first and then burn out after a month or so. It's one reason i have a "craft room" full of unfinished projects. I was talking with one of my girlfriends about how she seems to have time to pursue all her interests and stay motivated to continue them. In complaining to her about my lack of follow-through on just about everything, she asked me a thought-provoking question..."What motivates me?" In general, I would say I'm not a "goal-orientated" person. I just don't really giggle under the satisfaction of reaching a self set goal. I was kind of discouraged realizing this-- being that "setting and reaching goals" seems to be the #1 reason for success among highly published self-help authors! I also don't seem to thrive under pressure--not that I don't feel comfortable under pressure...it just doesn't toot my horn to imagine that I'm gonna get axed to death if I don't complete "this one task"--plus, what pressure do I really have as a stay-at-home mom with a loving, laid back, completely accomodating husband. In thinking through the question, I think I determined that I'm a "deadline" person that thrives under accountability--meaning, if I set an end date for my task to be completed, preferably short-term, I'm much more motivated to stick with my project and even complete it, especially when someone is counting on me to see it through! This has definately proven true in my fitness regime, among other things. I have found that if I sign up for a road race a few months away and ask a friend to train with me, I force myself into continuing a running regime up until that race. Usually the week after the race, I won't make it in the gym once, being that there is no race looming in the near future.

So, why do I waste 30 minutes of time explaining all this in a blog I haven't touched in 4 months?? Because in an effort to be more productive and faithful in my follow through, I'm going to be changing the focus of this blog a little to more of a track sheet of completed crafty and home projects with lots of before and after pictures that'll hopefully inspire you, my accountability readers! I do still hope to post about funny one-lines of my girls, updates on our family and little "favorite things" or ideas I've found or discovered here and there. So, hopefully, it'll be worth your time reading--if not, hopefully I'll get something completed for once! Either way, I'm going to try and live by with one main rule of thumb....I can't post about a project until I've completed it and I'm going to try and post once a week. There--I have a deadline and some accountability. Ready...Set...Go!

Changing subjects again...here are the latest two one-liners from my 3 year old:

1. Tim has made Blair grilled cheese sandwiches for breakfast (yes...for breakfast)and after finishing his, he takes a bite of Blairs.

Blair: "No Daddy, you can't eat mine. These are not "boy cheese", these are "girl cheese" sandwiches.

2. Blair saw a commercial for Chuck-E-Cheese's, a local kids restuarant. After being mezmorised by the commercial of kids playing and laughing, she quickly turned around and said, "Dad, I wanna go to Chick-en Jesus" too!"

Until my next completed project,
Jessica

I got Walgreens figured out, baby!

Okay, So my latest obsession has been clipping coupons. That sounded a little too much like something my Great-Aunt Irene would say (R.I.P. Auntie), but it's true. I've been at this so-called hobby for about a month and a half now and the payoff has been well worth the daunting task of scissoring through the Sunday newspaper. Since starting this little money-saving venture, I've found many "super saving sistah's" come out of their dark corners and expose their own nasty little secrets in the world of couponing. For example, let me hear a shout out if you go to Kum-N-Go three times every Sunday and fill your car up with only $10 worth of gas each time, in order to grab 3 copies of the "free Des Moines Register with gas". Maawahahaha!

While this make no sense to some of you who haven't yet dived in to this sub-culture, let me spark your interest with a picture of my latest shopping spree to Walgreen's. In the picture above you'll see the following items and their sale prices:
Olay Body Wash: $2.99
Olay Body Lotion $6.29
BioInfusion Conditioner $9.99
2 Glade Fragrance Collection candles $5.00 total
2 Toberlone Candy Bars $3.00 total
Schick Women's razor $4.00
Dulcolax $7.00
2 Russle Stover Santa ..58 total
2 Oral B Sesame Street kids toothbrushes $5.00
2 Crest kids High school Musical toothpastes $5.00
Complete Multipurpose Contact Solution $7.99
2 Oral B Satin Floss $5.00
Gilet Fusion Men's Razor $8.99

The total for these items was $70.83 (**tax not included)

But what did I pay, you ask?

$6.44!!!
Yep, that's it.

Oh, the beauty of coupons!
Anyway, I don't post this to brag (well...maybe just a little), my true intention to inspire all you readers to start finding ways to save your hard-earned money! And, if you're local and would like a beginners lesson on using coupons and Register Rewards at Walgreens, please contact me, I'd love to take you with and show you how it's done!

That's it for now!
Jessica

An end to summer...bummer.

Summer has officially ended. And I could make a pretty good case that Fall is long gone as well. Winter began in my mind the day the high didn't get above 40 degrees in late September. We've been chilled around our house because we don't have a furnace! Yet another thing that needs replacement since we moved to our new house. We love our house so much, though, that we're willing to put up with a little teeth-chattering until our new one gets put in next week.

These days we're enjoying going to Paul's final season of cross-country meets. Blair is in love with her uncle Paul so you can imagine how exciting it is to see him run by her at an unspeakable speed. London is enjoying her first season of cross-country too as she's learned how to clap her hands when we cheer!

Life group has started again so we're excited to be back amongst our best friends for one night a week of uninterrupted fellowship and discussion! I use the word "uninterrupted" liberally, however, because usually I hear the echo of London's wails from the other side of the church and need to rescue the babysitters. It's all worth it, though, to bounce ideas about the Word off our friends and learn about God's grace in each of our lives. It's my dose of encouragement each week!

My little London is much different than Blair was at her age. London likes to cuddle in our arms, while Blair has always been Miss Independent (cue Ne-Yo). London devours her food, while Blair still eats like a bird. Blair is a girly-girl to the extreme enjoying anything dress-up, Barbie related or make believe, while London is showing early affection for playing "catch" with anything round.

My girls are healthy and happy though and I'm excited to watch them grow in relationship with each other. I've been surprised so often to see how they "play" together already. Most often, though, London makes Blair get the unstoppable giggles as she makes funny faces at her, blows spitty bubbles, splashes her in the bath and steals Blair's paci any chance she can. It joys my heart to see them love each other so naturally.

Blair is obsessed with anything purple these days. She has a purple mermaid Barbie creatively named "Purp", she only colors with purple markers, she has refused drinking any juice that's not purple and points out any character in her storybooks wearing purple, stating "that's me, mommy." She's very verbally advanced and often tells me how to drive, how to hold my pen, how to eat my food, how to change her own diaper. (Hmmm...I think it's time we got her potty trained.) Her latest funny involved her tire swing. I couldn't figure out why every time I pushed her in her swing she would close her eyes and pretend to be asleep. I figured it was because the swinging motion was so relaxing she couldn't help it. But I realized the real reason a week ago when Blair told me she wanted to go in her "tired swing". Ahhhh.... so cute.

Well I better wrap up this post, but should have more to come in the near future with London's first birthday in a few weeks, my 27th birthday and trick-or-treating pictures.

I'm enjoying a new short haircut and feel good about where God has brought me this year. I'm feeling more at peace in my body than I've ever felt and even starting to get an itch to think about baby #3. ;) Don't get too excited though, we're committed to making it through a single summer where we're not pregnant or moving.

God's grace until I write again!

The Thrill of Road Kill

Wowsers! It's been awhile since I last blogged and a heck of a lot has happened since then! We've officially moved in to our new house after a long 3 months of a knock-down, drag out plight (literally) to get this home in good working order! We literally gutted it. New floors, New ceiling, Entirely new kitchen, Every room painted, New mainfloor bathroom, New roof, 3 new toilets, 2 new sinks, New electrical, New sliding glass door, etc... It's been really hard work, but we're totally blessed and enjoying the fruits of our labor (and all the labor of our hardworking friends)!! I will, hopefully, remember to post some pictures soon (as soon as I unpack my camera)! Our Roosevelt house is sale pending with a closing date sometime before September...we'll keep our hands folded in expectation that God will allow our buyer to come through.

In other news, I've titled this post the thrill of road kill for a most important reason. Lately, our little fiesty Blair has been challenging us in multiple ways, namely not obeying our directions. So, Tim took her for a drive the other day and showed her a racoon that got hit by a car laying in the road 1/4 mile from our house. It was a fresh one because it's tail was still rythmically flopping up and down the first time they looked at it. In that instant, however, Blair's world once again became bigger than she and for the next 4 days that's all we've talked about--the raccoon that didn't listen to it's mommy and crossed the street without looking and is now squashed, guts spuewing out all over Eisenhower Ave. Blair has made us walk past this disgusting thing every day since. Last night, she asked if she could pet it. I'm not quite sure what the long term affects of this little lesson will be, but let's hope it doesn't involve counseling.

Finally, our London is crawling! Hooray and Yikes at the same time! She's got 2 bumnps on her forehead and I'm anticipating many more. She's outta control--trying to climb on everything and away from me, outta sight within seconds of setting her down. Life just entered a new demension for me but none too soon as we've got a fully carpeted room with lots of safe space to roam in this new house.

Not much else going on. Blessed and Thankful my family is in good health and spirits. Looking forward to our August 20th anniversary trip and a mini-vacation to Chicago with my mom in September!

More later!

Housal Abuse and other stuff

Life has been crazy around here for us these days. We're one month into a double mortgage, as we purchased a foreclosed home the first of May. We got a heck of a deal but the home had been vacant for two years. Which everyone knows leads to a whole lot of "issues". The house had been built in 1978 and not updated a single time...so yeah, we walk in and are staring down orange vinyl flooring, wallpaper with wheat pictures on it and yucky wooden cabinetry with black hardware that looks seriously phallic. We have our work cut out for us but have already done an exhaustive amount of updating in the last month, including tearing out the kitchen and putting in new cabinetry and countertop, new laminate flooring throughout and had all our ceilings re-textured and painted. (it had popcorn texture ceilings) We fell in love with the house for the layout and space. It's 4 bedroom upstairs and a really open, spacious floor-plan on the main level. Twice the space for less money.

On the other hand, we've finally made the decision to list our current home with a realtor. We've had it fsbo for 2 months now. I've been close to a nervous breakdown a few times as getting the house spotless for now 30 showings with two mess-makers. And then there's the kids! :) There has been times where I've gotten the place clean, ran out and strapped the girls in their car seats and then run back into the house 3 minutes before the showing to pick up and put away all the stuff Blair got out on our way to the car!

I should quit complaining though. We're excited and think the new house will be a real "pad" by the end of the summer.

Blair is the ever-independent, vivacious, ball of energy she's always been. It's evident she's a perfectionist with a wild imagination. Two months ago, when we were getting our house ready for our first showing, I overconfidently packed up 90% of her toys and moved them to the new house thinking we'd have ours sold in a few weeks. So far, I've refused to go back and unpack them, but really considered it a few weeks ago when I saw her playing "house" with a screwdriver and a ballpoint pen, making them talk to each other.
Speaking of pens, she's entering the stage where I've always got to keep one handy as she says the funniest things. A few days ago at Lowes a man passed us with scraggly brown hair down to his shoulders with a mustash and beard and wearing a baggy white t-shirt. She excitedly pointed to man and said, "Mommy! That's Jesus!"

London has made a 180 degree turn from where she started 7 months ago. I remember noting that it took a solid 4 months until we could put her in her carseat and drive somewhere without her screaming the entire time. I really thought I had the touchiest baby on the planet as I struggled through our first 16 weeks. But you'd never know it now. She is so easy-going and happy, smiling and laughing all day, rarely crying and soothing herself to sleep at nap and bed time. She watches Blair like a hawk and is always most comfortable in my arms. She is already over 20 lbs and wearing clothes that Blair wore just last summer! She's definately more affectionate than Blair, loves being kissed and held. Her hemanginomia is big, obtrusive and hard to cover up with skimpy summer dresses so we often find ourselves on the recieving ends of stares from people in public or being questioned about whats on the back of her neck. It's humbling, but could definately be worse...some kids get these things on their face!

Everything else going well. It's just starting to get hot in Iowa, so I'm looking forward to days in the sunshine, sitting on the edge of our city wading pool watching the girls splash around.