curtains tutorial

As I've mentioned before, we have been working on the house. The goal is to get all the little projects done before baby makes his grand appearance...which will be any day now. I wanted white curtains with a bold orange pattern on them for my front room, but I couldn't find anything close to what I had in mind. I had white curtains in the office, and red in the front room, so I did a switch, and dressed up the white curtains a little. Hind sight, I would have chosen an even bolder pattern, but they still look good.

Curtains Tutorial (my first tutorial I think)

You will need:
1.curtains
2.a stencil
3.fabric paint (I used the same paint we used on the orange wall because I wanted a perfect match, but now I will have to hand wash the curtains. fyi)
4.stencil brush (I liked the foam ones better, and they were .89 for a two pack)
5.tape


step one:
Lay out your curtains and figure out what pattern you are going to use with your stencil. practice on a scrap piece of fabric to get the hang of it. When you are comfortable, tape your stencil to the curtains starting at the bottom of the curtain (so if you make a mistake it won't be as noticeable)

step two:
dip the end of your stencil brush in your paint, and begin to gently fill in your stencil by using a dabbing motion.

Step three:
after the stencil is filled in, remove the tape, and slowly peel the stencil up. Rinse the paint off your stencil, and repeat steps 1-3 in your desired pattern.

Step four:
When paint is dry, hang your curtains, dish yourself a bowl of ice cream, put your feet up, eat your ice cream, and admire your mad crafty skills.

smooshy faces

My little Chicky's could not seem to live with each other, or without each other. Every time I separated them, one would sneak into the others room, and the teasing would continue. I did what any good Mother would do...I locked them out of the house! It was actually a genius idea! you see, they had to work it out themselves, and I didn't have to listen to them in the meantime. Win/win.
As I went about my tasks inside I would periodically check out the window to make sure they were staying in the fenced backyard, and this is what I saw...





Yay, friends again.

I have a little tutorial coming up on how I made my designer front room curtains, stay tuned.

sword fight

This is what happens when you sword fight with your big brother...and his stick is twice as big as yours!

I was making cookies, off in dreamland, when Carter came running inside and slammed the back door. As I snapped out of my dreamy mental state I noticed Layla's faint cry coming from the back yard. I asked Carter to open the door so she could come in, thinking her being outside by herself was the cause of the crying. Suddenly Layla appeared on the deck, and that is when I noticed the guilty look on Carters face. Layla had blood running from the top of her nose, all the way down her neck.
It was terrifying!
After I got the cut cleaned up i could see it wasn't as bad as it originally looked, and I got the story of what happened.
Carter- "we were sword fighting with sticks, and mine was this long" as he stretched his 5 year old arms as wide as they would go, "and hers was this big" as he bent his elbows and put his hands straight out from his sides. As I talked to Layla about it, I soon realized she wasn't crying because her nose was cut and bleeding like crazy, she was crying because she lost the sword fight! Typical Layla right there.

pictures

The kids outfits just happened to match on Sunday, and I didn't even plan it. They were playing together in the back yard after church, and I couldn't resist capturing how cute they were together.

Layla had a birthday

Layla had a birthday shout hooray! About a month befor her actual birthday, Layla asked me if she could have a lady bug birthday party, I said "sure" with little thought, and went about my way. The next day we saw my dad, and Layla said "gwanpa, I'm dowin to have a lady bug bowfday paw-o-ty", and that is what she continued to tell everyone we saw for the next four weeks. She is amazing! She knows what she wants, and she makes a plan to get it...no matter what. That could be a trait that will be a major benifit to her someday, so I don't want to squash it...except when she wants something I don't want her to want. But seriously, she is one determined little angel, and you just can't help but love and adore her.
I love the way she wispers sweet nothings in my ear, and asks for butterfly kisses when I tuck her in at night. The way she kisses my belly, and talks to her baby brother. The way she asks for help with saying a prayer, and then says what she wants anyway. The way she follows Carters every move, but isn't afraid to make her own path sometimes. The way she twirls her hair between her right hand fingers, and sucks the fingers on the left when she gets sleepy, and most of all I love the way she makes us all feel happy when we look at her. Layla, you are my sunshine!

petting zoo

The other day we went to the local petting zoo, and the kids were absolutely adorable with the baby goats! Our little adventure was cut short when a cute little girl had an accident...that fell down her leg...out the pants...onto the ground, and into my shoe (or maybe my shoe went into it..either way, eewwwww!).







We have had the CRAZIEST weather in Idaho. We've had so much rain that the grass and trees are actually green, which is a really big deal for us! My guy and I went for a little drive the other day, and we were pretending to be somewhere exciting and green. It was fun. i think that's as close to a vacation as I will get this summer with babies arrival creeping up, but that's OK, I will always have my dreams.

Have you seen my spoon?

My guy and I recently did some work on our kitchen... as in we totally gutted it and started over. Our little 2 week project ended up taking 5. five weeks with no kitchen is like 5 years in mommy time. I didn't have a sink to do dishes in, and it was too awkward to do them in the bathtub, so we resorted to paper plates and plastic utensils temporarily.
(side note, part of the project was installing my first ever dish washer.7 1/2 years of sweet marriage bliss, 2 1/2 kids later...I was more than ready. give me a
hall-a-lu-ya for that)
We all got in the habit of throwing everything away after we ate...a habit that has proven to be hard to break. I found a spoon in the garbage can one day, and than again the next day. This continued for some time, with me finding the spoon, removing it from the garbage, placing it in the dishwasher, and wondering which of my little shorties kept tossing their spoons. Until the other day, mystery solved.
My Guy dished himself a bowl of plain old Albertsons brand Vanilla Ice Cream...his favorite, sat down to enjoy it, stood up, walked to the trash can, and tossed his spoon in...right in front of my suspicious eyes. Ah Hah.
We found our spoon tosser, but in the mean time I'm down to seven spoons, and we are back to using the tossable kind. I'm sure there is a valuable lesson to be learned here, but I'm just telling you the story because I think its awesome.