… when you miss your daughters it helps to redecorate.

My last daughter left for college a few months ago, and it's been hard for me sometimes to be the only girl in the house.  So, what was I to do? Redecorate!  It was fun to make the new "guest room" anticipating my girls (and my son in law) to come and be our "guests" and enjoy the newly decorated room.

I loved doing the bee stenciling! I think it turned out pretty great, and it went really well with my Grandmother's headboard. 

The window is from my mother's house, and I thought the diamond pattern went well with the stencil.

There was only problem with the room. Can you see it in the next picture?

No? How about in the next one?

Yep. A hand drawn height chart on the original wall color.  My kids were keeping track of their growth for 13 years on this wall and I couldn't leave it (ugly) but I couldn't paint it over it either.  My solution, which is brilliant if I do say so myself, was to have Lowe's cut a pine board to size, and my hubby put on sunken hinges (that's surely not the proper carpentry term) and we hung it on the wall with a cute little brass latch and I painted it.  I love it! Now we can just never move.

some bandwagons are fun to jump on

The Elf on the Shelf for example. This is one worthwhile bandwagon. So fun. I won't go into the details of how it works, you can find that a million different places online, but we got our own elf rather than the "official elf" and here's what he was up to tonight...

Sick Pillow

Ty came home sick from school today. We're leaving for Texas on Friday. As soon as he started throwing up, I started panicking, and disinfecting. I want him to be comfortable, but I looked at his pillow and thought "What if someone else grabs that pillow later to use before I get a chance to wash it?" I needed to identify it as "the sick pillow" and leave no doubt that it's germy. I drew a picture on it and wrote "get well soon" on the side. Turned out cute and made Ty feel like he got a special present, while protecting the rest of the family.  All it took was an old pillowcase, a google image for inspiration, some sharpies, and about 2 minutes. I'm sure if you did it when your child wasn't actually sick, you could spend more time on it to make it fancier.

it's nice to have talented friends

My friend Chrissi took the best pictures of me and my girls while we were out together one day.  I regret not having her take a family picture before she moved, but at least we got these! She's such a talented photographer.

Check out her other work at http://www.chrissirichards.com/

My Hallway Signs

I copied this fabulous idea from Destiny at http://www.aplaceforusblog.com/ .  I get so many comments on them from people who come into my house. I think they're adorable. And I LOVE everything on that blog! Not to mention, she loves everything I love! Her mom, Marshall's, TJMaxx, Ross. We're like "Sisters from another mister". Okay... I don't think that's a real saying, but you get the idea.  I had to turn my wrought iron hanger things on their side and mount them to the ceiling because they wouldn't fit above my doors the other way. That was my mom's genius solution while I was standing there totally disappointed. :) I also handpainted the signs as I don't have a silhouette machine.

you need to get away with your spouse at least once a year.

We went to San Luis Obispo and Cambria for our anniversary. What a great time we had. Wish we'd taken more pictures, but here are a few.

A gorgeous little garden right on Main Street in Cambria.

Would love to have this sign. Too expensive.

There were hundreds of elephant seals on the beach.

He didn't really have anything to give him. What a tease.

Not a great picture, but this is our view from our room in Cambria.

We walked this trail along the cliffs in a nature preserve. So much fun.

kids love to bake!

So, it's a cold, drizzly spring break and my kids needed a break from video games, and I needed a break from the noise. I found this blog... http://brandyscrafts.blogspot.com/2011/03/rainbow-cookies.html, and decided to try it! The kids LOVED it!

Not only were they pretty, but they were delicious! Great recipe link on the blog I got the idea from!

when you see a chandelier you love that costs $4000, make one yourself!

My mom helped me duplicate a chandelier I saw online that I LOVED.  Well, we didn't totally duplicate it, but we used it as our inspiration.  Here is a link to the original... http://www.deannawish.com/ccbran_briarw.htm . I'm not sure how much it cost, but I've seen similar cost up to $4000, and I thought "I could totally do that!" So, my old brass chandelier got spray painted white, I cut some branches off the tree in my front yard, wired them on with the help of my mom and her designer eye, spray painted the whole thing and voila!  I think I love the result and it cost me less than $20 (spray paint isn't cheap and I used 5 cans). 

... I love to throw a good "themed" party.

Preston's 10th birthday party was today.  He has the nicest friends and they had a great time.  We started out handing out Birthday Bucks for the kids to buy food at the concession stand.  We had nachos, hot dogs, popcorn, candy, and soda. All the best movie theater foods!

They walked the red carpet to get to our front door.

After stocking up on junk food, they settled in to watch a movie. Quietest birthday party ever!  They were totally engrossed in the movie!

For the cake, I ordered a "transformers" cake from Sam's club, took off the mask they used for decoration, and added a popcorn bag with marshmallow "popcorn".  Turned out pretty cute.

...it's so fun to have the whole family back together.

We miss Paige so much when she's away at school.  I can only imagine what it will feel like when all my kids are off on their own and come back together!

...it's good to stop to play in the leaves.

I had company coming for dinner in 20 minutes, I had to go pick up Conner from his friends house and finish cooking, but when I heard my kids were playing in the leaves I stopped everything to go take pictures.  I've learned that these moments are fleeting.

... Cub Scouts LOVE a raingutter regatta!

So, I'm a little late in posting this, but Preston finished 1st place in his cub scout raingutter regatta, and earned 7 pins (merit badges? I don't know what they're called), but he had a blast! He and his dad spent hours working on that boat, and Travis had him working out all the math to determine the dimensions, etc.  Didn't look like much fun to me, but Preston loved it!

...putting extra effort into a cupcake is worth it!

I decided to make s'more cupcakes!  I thought it was a brilliant, original idea, and then I found recipes for them! I did end up doing my own version though.  Here it is...

S'More Cupcakes

Crust:

1 sleeve graham crackers, crushed

1/2 stick butter, melted

1/2 cup sugar

Place 24 paper cupcake liners in cupcake tin.  Put a rounded tablespoon of crust in each cup, and press onto bottom of liner.  I used a glass that fit in the tin to press it down.

Fill with devil's food cake batter (I used duncan hines prepared per box directions), leaving about 1/4 inch space at top of liner.  Bake per box instructions, and let cool.

Filling:

1 bag semisweet chocolate chips

1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup powdered sugar

Pour chocolate chips into medium sized bowl.  In a small saucepan, heat whipping cream over medium heat until just boiling, stirring constantly to prevent scorching.  Pour hot cream over chocolate chips, add vanilla and stir until chocolate is melted, and it's well mixed.  Refrigerate (or freeze) until mixture is very cold.  Put mixture into bowl of kitchenaid (or use hand beater with whisk attachment) and whisk until lighter brown and somewhat fluffy. 

Cut a small hole in top center of each cupcake, not going all the way through the bottom of the cupcake.  Put filling in a gallon sized zip top bag, cut corner, and pipe filling into center of each cupcake.

"Marshmallow" Frosting

1 cup white sugar 1/3 cup water 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar 2 egg whites 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a saucepan, stir together the sugar, water, and cream of tartar. Cook over medium-high heat until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is bubbly.
In a medium mixing bowl, whip the egg whites and vanilla to soft peaks. Slowly drizzle the hot sugar mixture into the egg whites while whipping constantly until stiff peaks form, about 7 minutes.

Fill gallon sized ziploc with frosting, cut corner, and pipe onto cupcakes. 

Use a butane torch to toast tops of cupcakes, and top with graham cracker piece.

...everyone looks forward to the first day of school.

We had a big day today! Ty's first day of kindergarten, Conner's first day of junior high, as well as Preston going into 4th grade, and Madison starting her sophomore year in HS.   The day started out well.
Ty was so excited to get on the bus that he let out a little shriek of excitement when he sat down.  The bus driver whipped her head around, afraid he was getting upset, and said "Oh! That was a happy sound!"

Then I drove to the school to meet the bus, and get him settled, and he had fun playing on the playground.  Then... the teacher said "Okay boys and girls, it's time to wave goodbye to your moms and dads!"  Ty wasn't thrilled.

  6 hours later, he reported that he had a good day "but it wasn't THAT fun."

Conner enjoyed his first day at junior high, and said it wasn't as hard to find his way around as he thought it would be.