Family Bike Rides

I grew up riding a bike.  I can't always say I loved it - but I do have fond memories taking family bike rides with my parents.  We would bike to a local state park and ride around the lake.  On the way home we would have to ride up a HUGE hill home. (Insert the times I hated riding my bike.)  I would yell "CLAW" and my Dad would come behind be and put a grip around the back of my neck and help push me up the hill.
I am now forcing biking upon my children.  Brice hated riding his bike at first and now he rides his bike home from school everyday.

For my first Mother's day as a Mother Adam bought me a bike and a trailer for the baby.  For Adam's first Father's day I bought him a bike.  Ever since we've been a bike riding family.  Now with Kortni part of our family - bike rides look a little like this . . .

Thankfully Kortni felt pity on Adam and bought herself a bike.

Meet My Friend the Ruffler Foot

I love ruffles.  

Yet, somehow despite watching a million youtube videos I could never figure out how to  make a uniform ruffle using the gathering stitch on my sewing machine without the thread breaking!  So, I bit the bullet and bought a ruffler foot for my sewing machine.  It took a few hours, three ruffler foots and many broken needles to finally figure out how to work it properly.

My inspiration for my first project came from here:

 http://jonesdesigncompany.com/create/5-days-of-favorite-projects-day-3/

I decided to convert a clearance pillow from Target into a ruffle pillow for my desk chair.  

                         Before                                            After

 Tada

I LOVE it!

 Here are a few things on my ruffle list:

Ruffle Lampshade:

http://www.craftytexasgirls.com/2011/05/crafty-how-to-ruffled-lamp-shade.html

Ruffle Table Runner:

http://emmalinebride.com/how-to/decorate-wedding-tables/

and who can resist a ruffle skirt for a little girl?

http://quelinda-crafts.blogspot.com/2011/09/ruffle-skirt.html

Wish me luck!!

When You Live in Florida You Get a Lot of House Guests!

We have had a VERY busy Spring Break with LOTS of Spring Break house guests!
First on our guest list was my Minnesota friend Gina (who now lives in Texas) who came for a visit with her friend Amy.  We had a great time re-connecting and had lots of girly nights painting our nails and watching chick-flicks.  We watched one of my favorite movies Baby Mama which is a must see for all you Mommies out there!

Our next visitors were Kortni's family!  (For those of you reading this who are not familiar with our living situation - Kortni is Adam's cousin who lives with us.) Kortni's family didn't stay at our house but we had fun spending time with them while they were in Florida! While they were in town so was Kortni's college friend Brett who DID spent the week with us.  While Kortni's family and Brett were in town Adam's brother Zach, his wife Crystal and their two precious girls came for a visit!  We were so honored they took their vacation to spend time with US!  Everyone all happened to be together on Kortni's birthday so we had a great time out to dinner to celebrate Kortni's 24th birthday!

After everyones departure my parents came for a visit!  I am so thankful that my Mom is a teacher and has a Spring Break to be able to spend with us in Florida!  My parents got to experience a little of my 'normal' life since the boys were still in school.  They helped me drop the boys off in the mornings and we were able to spend one on one time with Elizabeth! 

At the tail end of their visit my brother, his wife, nanny and five kids drove down from Washington DC.  The Saturday they drove in Florida had a monsoon!  I was so worried about having all of this family in town and not be able to spend time outside.  Yet, when they pulled into the driveway Saturday night the clouds literally rolled away and not a sprinkle was to be had the rest of their visit!  We spent most of their visit at the pool yet snuck in an amazing day at Busch Gardens.  The two nights my parents and Ben's families visit overlapped we had a whopping 15 people sleeping in our 3 bedroom home!  I loved every minute of it!  Being far from family I cherish these times!  Sneeking glimpses of the cousins sharing secrets and telling jokes made the longs nights of all sleeping in the same room totally worth it!

Now, it is back to the six of us for two more weeks until the next visitors arrive.

Strawberries Galore!

Elizabeth and I joined a few friends for some Florida strawberry picking the other week!  Growing up my Dad always had raspberry bushes and my grandparents home was surrounded by blueberry bushes so I grew up picking berries.  My favorite book as a child was even Blueberries for Sal  about the adventure of a mother and her daughter berry picking with a mommy bear and baby bear.  So, it was such a joy to be able to take my little love Elizabeth on her first strawberry picking adventure!

 Once home I was neck deep in strawberries!

I made LOTS of jam.  Strawberry jam, strawberry pineapple jam, strawberry rhubarb jam and strawberry blueberry jam!  I followed this recipe.

 I froze about half of my pickings for smoothies

 I even made homemade fruit roll ups from this site!  Sadly my boys still preferred the processed kind yet I think it may have to do with the Star Wars characters imprinted on them!

Strawberry Rhubarb crisp - my FAVORITE

I even made self proclaimed rhubarb haters into lovers of this unique vegetable!

Cannot wait for Blueberry season!

Don't judge.

This is how cheap I am.

I reuse swim diapers.  

If you live in a climate where it is HOT and you swim on a regular basis you aren't going to want to shell out $1.50 for every diaper you put on your child while in the pool.  You can rinse them out and hang them out to dry and reuse!  We were up to about six uses on this bad boys pictured above when my husband made me give it the old heave-ho.  Some of you may not know that swim diapers do not hold pee.  When a child is in a swim diaper it only filters out the poo so beware if your child is wearing it on dry land!  (This is why I think it is okay to reuse because the diaper itself isn't holding any urine.)

I must admit when my friends first caught me doing this I believe a few called me cheap and laughed.  Yet, I've made them into believers and last time we were all together all of our babies were rocking used swim diapers!

I have an addiction . . .

 I have an addiction to Craigslist.  Almost every piece of furniture in my house is from Craigslist.  Don't believe me?  My kitchen table, dining table, coffee table, hutch, desk, daybed, tv cabinet, elliptical and rocking chair I bought off people from Craigslist.  I even found this beautiful house we are renting from craigslist.

I am also a very thrifty craigslist shopper.  I am 'that' person who offers half of what the seller has it listed it for.  Doesn't hurt to ask!  For all my worried family and friends I am also a safe craigslist buyer and seller.  If I am buying I usually send Adam in our truck (aka van with no seats) or if he is working or out of town and I need to pick it up I ask the seller to put it in the driveway.  If I am selling I put the item in my driveway or garage and then ask the buyer to call or text when they arrive and I meet them outside. 
I am also addicted to thrift stores.
Salvation Army is half off on Wednesdays. This is where I buy Elizabeth's clothes.  She probably has around two outfits I purchased new and the rest are hand me downs or Salvation Army purchases!  The wonderful thing about girls clothes in Elizabeth size is that they are practically new!  Sadly for my boys I must buy new because well . . . they are boys.  I almost cried looking in their drawer and noticed they don't have one pair of jeans that don't have a hole in the knee!
Goodwill just opened one of their biggest stores right down the street from my house.  I go there at least twice a week because they have cheap furniture.  I now have almost painted every piece of furniture in my house.  I am re-hauling my warm Minnesota design style for an airy cool Floridian style.
I often warn Adam if it isn't nailed down I am going to sell it on Craigslist and if it isn't painted it will be!

$5 Goodwill bedside table

$30 dresser 

(Shoved in the corner of my super organized garage)

While living in Minnesota Adam and I purchased a bedroom set from a model home.  It came with a dresser, mirror, two bedside tables, bedframe, headboard, mattress and boxspring, pillows, sheet set, comforter and bedskirt all unused for $300.  It was an amazing deal but I hated the set.  It was a faux wood.  I hate faux wood.  So I sold just the headboard, dresser and bedside tables for $500 on craigslist!  I found a dresser and nightstand at Goodwill (shown above) spruced them up and a new headboard from craigslist and they now are beautiful pieces in my newly designed master bedroom!

old set

   new set

I actually made money on this bedroom transformation!  That is the best kind of room makeover!

I'm Back!!

I am BACK!!  I took a year (or two) off of blogging and now I am back with a new twist to my blog!  I was going to start blogging about my Etsy shop yet as of a few weeks ago I was contacted by an attorney of a popular children's product that I was in breach of their patent on a product.  So I have an empty Etsy shop with nothing to blog about!  So I changed the theme of this blog and it will be around the crazy silly things that happen to our family mixed with the creative projects I am working on!   I hope you enjoy!  

Here are a few pictures of a baby shower that was thrown at my house a few weeks back.  A wonderful friend Jenny is having a baby boy and the ladies at our church Aletheia threw her a "little man' baby shower.  My friend Pam and I had fun decorating the house full of bow ties and mustaches!  

The party was so rocking the police showed up.  Yes, I throw that good of a party.  (They showed up at my last Mary Kay party too!)  No, they don't show up because of the loud music or crazy uncontrolled parties inside -they come because of all the cars parked on the street. Apparently if you live in my county you are NEVER allowed to park on the street.  You must park at the clubhouse a mile away and shuttle people.  Ridiculous.  When he knocked on the door we were all praying for Jenny or else I would have invited him in and asked if he'd like to wet his actual mustache with some lemonade and take a group photo for us.  I also regret not getting his picture with Jenny.  It would have been a keeper for the baby book.

Here are some of the fun pictures taken of the decorations and beautiful ladies!

Me with the beautiful Mommy of the hour!

Fun way to use chalkboard paint - spray paint the glass of a frame with chalk board paint and voila you have a chalkboard frame!  These now reside on my kitchen wall with the bible verses the boys are memorizing for the week.    

Bow tie onesies were used as decoration and then taken home by the Mommy!

 What a beautiful fun group of amazing women!

(This picture is awkwardly taken because the police man didn't take it and we had to use a self timer.)

Excited to meet you baby Joshua!