A week ago . . .

Ava was just getting back from camp.  My sister's husband is a pastor at their church and he took the youth.  We thought this would be a great opportunity for Ava to go to camp and have an adult family member with her.  That way we didn't worry as much she would feel more comfortable being away from home.  While they went to camp, Adrianna was with my Mom visiting my sister for the week.  I missed them so much! 

Aaron and I were able to catch up on some movies and TV shows that we don't watch when the kids are around and I got to spend some time in my craft room :)

Pillowcase with crocheted trim

I stopped by the Hospice flea market one afternoon. . .

Got a red Pyrex bowl, mini salad spinner (Yay!!) and a teacup.  Not sure why I bought the teacup but it was only 50 cent.  The salad spinner was $2.00!  I couldn't believe it.  I had just told Aaron I would like to have one.  And I can't remember what I paid for the Pyrex bowl. . .

Adrianna came home the day before Ava did . . .

She had so much fun with my Mom and sister but she was glad to be home.  My Mom brought her to me at work and she jumped in my arms and gave me the biggest hug when she saw me. 

My neighbor shared some squash, cucumbers and tomatoes from her garden with us that evening.  She let Adrianna pick the cucumbers.

Adrianna and I had a lunch date with while we were waiting on Ava to get home that Friday.

Ava had tons of fun at camp!  I was worried about her going and she did have a moment of homesickness before she actually got to camp but quickly got over it when camp actually started.  She had a blast!

But she was really tired when she got home!

This past weekend we decided we would take the girls bowling and let them use some of their free bowling passes they earned at school.

We really should go more often!

It was kinda late when we went . . . Ava was tired

I took the girls to the fireworks Wednesday night.  The Mr. had to work so he missed it.  We decorated our own 4th of July t-shirts the night before.  You can see them in this post.  I didn't want to fight the crowd and traffic at the Arts Center where the fireworks were going to be so we did the same thing as last year and found a good spot in a parking lot close by, set up our chairs, and enjoyed the show from there.  Then we packed it up as fast as we could and high tailed it outta there and beat all the traffic leaving!  Yay!

Today the girls and I spent 5 hours shopping.  Not sure how that happened and we didn't even get much.  But we rewarded ourselves with a Mocha Coconut Frappuccino from Starbucks while we were in Barnes and Noble.

Anyway, that's what's been going on in my (instagram) life!

I still need to blog about what I did for my birthday!  I'll get to it!

Natalie

Living on the Edge

That's right.  We were brave this weekend.  Well, Adrianna was brave.  She has been begging Aaron to take her training wheels off of her bike.  We've been putting it off because this girl has no fear and we could foresee terrible accidents, scraped knees and elbows.  I had a feeling she would do great actually riding the bike but knew she would get too comfortable too quickly, hence the avoidance.

Aaron had promised he would take her training wheels off this weekend.  He avoided it for most of the day.  She didn't let him forget and reminded him every once in a while about taking her training wheels off.  So he did.  And she did great!!  

She was so excited!!  I grabbed my camera to document this milestone and ran outside.  When she saw me she was smiling and laughing.  Instead of watching what she was doing, she kept looking towards me to smile for her pictures which in turn made her wobbly and lose control.  No accidents, Aaron was there to catch her, but seeing that I was a distraction I went back inside.

A little while later she was flying down the road!

Poor Ava was sick all weekend :(  She spent most of the weekend on the couch watching movies.  The first few days that she was sick, I was tethered to the other couch so I got a lot of reading done on Friday and Saturday.

By Sunday, Ava was feeling better so I decided to live on the edge as well.  Crochet edge, that is.  I had started pillow cases for the girls with intention of putting a crocheted edge on them.  I finally spent the day in my craft room working on these.  I just love them, they are so pretty and girly :)

 The pillowcase has a pocket on the open end to hide your pillow that is stuffed inside ;)

backside of the pillowcase

 I had enough fabric to make two of each of these!

Well, that's all for now!  Nothing else really exciting here . . .

Natalie

 

 

Mother's Day and Sugar Scrub

I'm at home with a sick girl today so I thought I'd write a "little" post about Mother's Day.  I know, I know, Mother's Day was a few weeks ago but it really seems to be the trend that I write about things that happened 2 weeks ago.

So here goes!

Let me start with the fact that I totally missed teacher appreciation day at school.  I don't know how that happened but I guess I had my focus elsewhere that week.  So I decided that I would make some lemon sugar scrub for the teachers, my Mom and MIL for Mother's Day.  This actually worked out well and the girls took the gifts to their teachers on the Monday after Mother's Day. Not too late!  Adrianna helped me make the sugar scrub and I failed to get pictures of her doing that.  Another example of my absent mindedness.  But here are the finished products!

Don't they look pretty!

I got the sugar scrub idea from Pinterest.  I have pinned several different versions of the sugar scrub but didn't follow any one version by exact directions.  The ingredients I used were:  Sugar, Olive Oil, and lemon juice.  I started by measuring ingredients but found that I needed way more sugar than called for.  I ended up filling the jar up to about an inch from the top with sugar then adding olive oil (again, no measuring) and about 2 Tbsp of lemon juice.  I basically went by looking for the consistency I wanted and feel.  Adrianna's job was to stir it up then we put the top on and tied some twine around it.  We had so much fun making these that we made 3 more for the ladies that I work with for Mother's Day gifts for them.

If you want to see the sugar scrub versions I went by from Pinterest, you can click my "Follow me on Pinterest" button to the right.  I think I pinned all of the sugar scrub ideas to my "make" board.

For my Mom, I decided that I would make her a set of 8 cotton dinner napkins and embroider something pretty on them.  I decided on a Celtic knot "S" for her last name.  I started by cutting my cotton fabric into 16 - 13"x13" squares.  I transferred the "S" onto 8 of those and got busy.  It didn't take me long to hand embroider those and as soon as I finished I sewed them all together.  The only problem was I didn't have matching thread for my sewing machine and I wanted a pretty border around the edges.  No problem, just hand stitch the border.  That's all fine if you didn't wait until the week before the big day to even start on these things.  I searched ideas for hand embroidered edging and decided on the fly stitch.  It looked pretty and is a fairly easy stitch.  It is an easy stitch but as I found out, very time consuming.  So with all that being said, I was able to complete 5 of the napkins to give to my Mom and am still trying to finish those other 3.  I'll get them done, I promise. 

The finished product!

All eight five napkins wrapped and ready to go!

Mom loved the napkins and was understanding about the ones yet to be finished!  She and my MIL also loved the sugar scrub :)

To celebrate Mother's Day, we went to my Mom's to hang with the family and cook out.  We were excited about a spur of the moment visit from my sister and her family!!!  But before they got there, my kids had to test the pool out.  Just to put this in perspective, it was not a pretty day.  As a matter of fact it was a gray, cloudy, rainy, overcast day.  Also, the pool temp had not warmed up yet.  No stopping these girls . . .

After they turned blue, we made them get out.  I'm joking!  They weren't all the way blue.  We had a great time.  After lunch, we had ice cream and played outside in the sprinkling rain. 

Noah and Isaac getting their ice cream.  This is the best picture I got of them.  They aren't still long enough!

Mom and Ava also played their instruments for us as Clara danced . . .

Mom playing the Mandolin and Ava playing the Violin

My niece, Clara, dancing

Badminton, anyone?  In the rain?

Or how about a game of air hockey?

Me, Mom, Jenna

We had a great time at Mom's for Mother's day.  I forgot to take a picture of the gift Adrianna made me.  I'm actually wearing it in the above picture.  It's a medallion with her finger print pressed into it and strung onto a necklace.  She made it at school and it is so precious!  She also made me not one but TWO cards :)

This says "You are the best Mother.  You are nice.  You cook good."

Awww, so sweet!  She thinks I'm nice and I cook good.  Those are such great compliments!!  Ava also gave me a card and some flowers she planted.

I took this last picture with the iPhone app instagram.  If you have a Droid or an iPhone, this is an awesome camera app to have!  I'm a little obsessed and like to document my life in instagram photos.  You can follow on instagram, search @nataliebg. 

So that was Mother's day.  It was a great day spent with my family :)

Natalie
 

Soccer, bubbles and paint

We have had some beautiful weather here the past few days!  My kids LOVE playing outside!  Me? Not so much.  I really don't like to get sweaty or dirty.  However, I have really enjoyed getting outside with the kids lately.  The time change has been nice also.  A little extra daylight means more time to play outside.  I also have been running with the New Runners Club and am loving it.  I actually look forward to running and feel a little lost on my off days.  To curb that "lost" feeling and keep me on my path to getting in shape, I have been doing some quick workouts that the hubby has helped me with on my off days.  

 

We've had a lot going on lately.  Adrianna started her first season of soccer!  She had one practice then the next day had a game.  We loved watching her play.  She did really well for not having played before and was the biggest cheerleader for her team.  I just loved watching her jump up and down while she cheered her team on from the sidelines.  It was cold and rainy for her first game and we were miserable but she loved it!   

Looking like a pro already ;)

We got some things done around the house this weekend.  One of those thing was replacing the flowers in the flower boxes on the front porch and potting a few other flowers.  

 

The past few weekends Aaron had been helping me get my sewing room ready.  A lot of the things I am using in my sewing room I have had for a long time.  Just waiting to put it all together!  There were several things that needed to be painted and one big item got an overhaul!  

A few weeks ago we got a new TV and had to replace the entertainment center.  The new TV wouldn't fit in it.  Before we got the new TV stand Aaron suggested that he do some cosmetic surgery on our ginormous one that we had and try to use it instead of buying new.  After a few measurements he decided it wouldn't work.  This entertainment center is the one that had been in my house as I was growing up for as long as I can remember.  It was passed down to me and Aaron and we have used it ever since.  I wanted to sell it but Aaron wanted me to keep it to use in my craft room.  Well, this thing is really big.  And really tall.  I argued that it would be too big and over power the room.  He argued all the storage potential it had.  It didn't go with my room.   He again mentioned he could cut the top off.  I was kinda coming around to the idea then my friend Erin came over and said, "You should cut the top off and just have the drawers.  Paint it!"  So guess what . . . you ready to see the before and after pics?

BEFORE

 Here is the monstrocity of an entertainment center before.  (Please ignore all the junk, we were moving things around)

AFTER

 And after a facelift, here we are!

With plenty of drawer space for fabric and other things!  My Mom came over and helped me move all my fabric from the hall closet to the drawers.  It was a two person job.  There are 4 drawers of fabric.  I think I have a problem . . .

A nice little cubby.  This is probably my favorite thing about this piece of furniture.  My sister and I used to hide in this hole when we were little. (the shelf is removable)

 A place for my thread on top!

 I have been so excited to have a place for my thread.  You just don't understand!  I bought this spool rack about a year ago and painted it a pretty shade of blue and it has been sitting in the garage ever since!  Every time I need a different color of thread I had to go in the garage to get it.  

 My sewing desk.  Obviously I haven't used it to sew on because my sewing machine is in it's case on the floor to the right of the table!  I bought this table at a yard sale a few years ago.  I wanted it really bad but got it for Ava.  I painted it the color the I wanted to paint it and it has been in her room until we repainted a desk that was my Grandmother's and switched them out.  Actually, my Grandmother's desk would have been more suitable for sewing but I love the lines of this one!

This little corner isn't quite finished.  I really need to find some type of shelving to go to the left of my desk.  I have a pretty yellow lamp that needs a home and I think it would work perfectly there if I can find the right type of shelf . . . may just have to make one . . . The three pieces of art hanging on the wall there are all painted by Adrianna.  I'll  have a place for Ava's as well.  She just needs to paint some pictures for me!

 Here we have a reclaimed piece of trash!  Sometime last year my friend Erin and I went walking while the kids had choir practice.  She got to church before me and spotted this piece of trash.  Of course it was minus the blue paint and chicken wire but she saw potential and new I was looking for stuff for my room.  So I loaded it in my car and hauled it home.  I wish I had taken a before picture but it was just some kind of particle board used for packaging.  Now it's a place to clip fabric swatches and yarn for color stories and ideas and pictures my kids draw!

 I have had this shelf for about 2 years.  Just sitting in the garage.  So not too long ago Aaron took it to Goodwill without asking me.  When I noticed it was gone I was so upset.  He thought since it had been sitting in the garage for 2 years I wasn't going to use it.  So, he went to GW to see if it was still there.  He was so lucky it was still there.  He had to buy it back for $3.99.  What a bargain!

So, my room is getting there.  Slowly but surely!  I'll post more pictures as I get more of it finished.

Today we enjoyed more beautiful weather and the girls played outside with chalk, bubbles and basketball.

Love this face!

Now I am going to get the girls ready for bed!  I won't be too far behind them.  I'm tired!

Natalie