Around here...
Around here, fall festivals have started. We have two months of pumpkin patches, hay rides and face painting to enjoy!
Around here, a little girl who could barely throw a softball in March now plays catcher for her team and can hit a double, steal to third and slide into home.
Around here, I've been making faux mercury glass bottles for my upcoming Stampers5 Halloween Workshop. Very soon they will be labeled with potions labels for our Halloween apothecary.
Around here, my studio is an absolute mess. Nancy Drew Date Books, my upcoming Be Merry Holiday Organizer kits, Halloween goodies for my workshop and the handful of birthday cards I am trying to get out this month have taken over my workspace. Is it time to spring clean again?
Around here, my girls have been studying Japan after school. We recently learned about Japan's Children's Day and the girls made watercolor carp kites. Both girls loved the project (I even made one myself). We're using a great homeschool course to study world geography. Even though we do not homeschool, we use the curricculum for afterschool projects. I love the fact that both my kids can name all seven continents and the oceans. My 7 year old can show you where the Prime Meridian, Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn are on a globe. It has been a wonderful experience for our entire family.
Around here, we lost a beloved family member. Our house seems a little emptier and quieter and my feet are a little colder at night now that my sweet Magpie is no longer with us. She was a great cat for 16 years and we will miss her terribly. Of course, now the kids are begging for a dog....
Baby A. finally started pre-school this morning, so we held our Back To School dinner for her last night. Mexican food was her cuisine of choice (that's my girl) and we celebrated with sparkling apple cider toasts and her very own KinderCone:
Baby A. wanted a "rainbow" KinderCone,, but I struggled to find rainbow gift wrap. Darn you, Target! I came up with a brightly colored yellow/pink/green theme and (fortunately) she loved it.
I filled the inside with Disney 101 Dalmations figurines, Lego minifigures, workbooks, a light up pen, a cute t-shirt and a puzzle.
Want to see my other KinderCones?
Baby G - 2012
Baby A. - 2011
Baby G. - 2011
You'll find the tutorial for making a KinderCone here
You can purchase the bare cones to make your own KinderCone here
Before:
(Note: This was for Baby A's first birthday party -- a ladybug theme. I did not live with black polka dotted walls all the time!)
See that kitchen island above? Hideous!! Absolutely hideous!! My kids loved using it for drawing and we used it for food prep, but it took up a huge chunk of walking space in my house. It was builders grade and falling apart. When Baby G. had her birthday party this summer, we needed more space. 18 kids + rain + a small house = chaos! Hubby moved the island out to the garage and we collectively breathed a sigh of relief. The house seemed so much bigger! And our gorgeous new cherry floors became the focal point.
However, when we moved the island out of the kitchen we lost storage space and a place to set food during our various parties. I knew I wanted something smaller and more vintage (I'm working on a farmhouse-feel for the kitchen). Hubby and I started scouring Craigslist and local antique stores, looking for the perfect sideboard. At the end of July, I found this:
And hubby sanded/primed/painted it into this:
And this is what it looks like under my new chalkboard:
So much better!
Fall Ball has started around here. Baby G. has changed so much since opening day last Spring. She's pretty bad-ass, isn't she?
So far this summer...
We joined 200,000 other Girl Scouts to Rock the Mall in Washington D.C. It was hot and humid and absolutely amazing.:
I've loved watching my daughters and their best friends get absolutely filthy at day camp:
I've learned to make homemade jams and pie filling with cherries I picked with the girls:
We rode every ride we could at the fair:
We spent the day at the lake:
Happy summer!
Last week, before the storm:
I'm obsessed with Pinterest and a couple of months ago I stumbled across the idea of building a raised garden using discarded pallets. I asked a friend with a hubby in construction for a couple of pallets (thanks Amy!) and had my hubby whip me up this beauty. I've been planting lettuce seeds in a new row each week and I was absolutely thrilled with the results. We had fresh lettuce from the garden on Thursday night. I was feeling completely Mother Earthy and very proud of myself.
The following night, a derecho destroyed our area and this is what I was left with:
Yep. Big tree. Once we finish removing all of the debri (which also took out the rest of our garden), I will rebuild!! There's still a couple months of summer left, right?
Happy Valentine's Day (a day early, but I can't help myself -- these pics are too cute to not post right away)!
photos by Melanie Zajicek
I was sorting through pictures this week, getting ready to upload to MPIX for my upcoming crop, when I stumbled upon this shot. This is my Scottish Fold "Magpie", the older of my two cats. She is hands-down the prettiest cat I've ever seen. She has the personality of a bitter 70 year-old chain smoking waitress with a Brooklyn accent, but she's gorgeous to look at.
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