Today Is A Good Day

Why today is a good day:

• I won a bag! I will definitely post pictures when I receive it!
• My parents are home! I don't have to cook, grocery shop or even babysit.
• I'm excited about this weekend. I have babysat all day for the past 3 weekends. Finally I am free and I actually have plans. The last time I was excited about a weekend was right after my birthday and we all know how that weekend turned out. This weekend I get to go shopping, to a play, out to dinner with friends and possibly even more!
• I'm healthy. For once I do not have a headache, I'm not too tired, and I actually feel good!
• My boss just told me that the company really wants me to keep working for them so they are going to work around my tutoring schedule this fall!
• My weekends are booked straight through for a month. This may sound like a strange reason to celebrate but it makes me super happy.
• I might get to have lemon basil pasta for dinner. I'm trying not to get too excited about this one cause it might not happen.
• I get to leave work in only 39 minutes.

Recent Find

I love etsy. I don't usually buy things off of etsy, but I love to use it to get ideas. Recently, I stumbled across an amazing website called estygiveaways. Check it out. It is a blog devoted entirely to giving away etsy products.

Here are some good ones:

This soap is from Karess Krafters. They have the most interesting kinds/scents and they also look really pretty.

These super cute cards are from Paper Lovely. I love how whimsical they are.

Finally, check this out. Totally rad paper/book art from Simple Joys Paperie that you can find over at Rikrak studio. They have this totally amazing Eiffel Tower bracelet that I love. I really want to learn how to make their wreaths. They would be great decorations! I especially love how they recycle/upcycle. Amazingness.

Continuing on in a series of before and afters

A while ago, the babies and I went outside to collect blackberries. We were amazed at how many there were. Instead of just a small handful, there were actually 2 whole cups. What treasure! So instead of eating them on the spot like usual, I decided that something must be done with them. I added some blueberries and strawberries and here is what happened. I'm not really sure what is up with the funny spacing on the photos.

Sara's Birthday Present

Here's a little something I cooked up for Sara. In case you can't tell, it is a message/poster board.

Before:

After:

Bag full of goodness

Remember this?

Well with a little brain power and hard work, it became this bag. The hardest thing about making it was that I didn't have a pattern. I saw a picture on etsy.com, made some adaptations and here it is. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

Adding to my resume...

A few days ago, one of the higher ups buzzed me over the phone:
HU: Lindsey, could you please come into my office and give me advice on something?
Me: Sure.
Meanwhile, I was frantically running through my brain anything that could possibly need my advice. Hmm, maybe he needs help picking out a tie. No, he doesn't wear a tie. Maybe he need help on the placement of a picture. No, he doesn't really hang pictures. I headed into his office rather baffled.
Once in the office, he holds up a black and white rendering of a house.
HU: Does this look like it should be called "The Hampton" or "The York."
Me: Uhhh....
How does one know what a house is to be named? I understand that big, grand estates need names. Pemberley would not be Pemberley if it had a different name. This wasn't exactly a grand mansion or even a villa. It was just a smallish brick house. I'm sure it was a nice house and I don't mean to hurt its feelings, but I'm still not convinced that it needed a name.
Me: I'm going to go with "The Hampton."
HU: That is what I was leaning towards. "The York" sounds like it needs to be a big, impressive sort of house.
So world, take note. I am now adding a new line to my resume: "Proficient at naming houses."

I thought weekends were supposed to be restful...

Here list to give you an idea of what my weekend was like:

• Bella-boo woke up at 6:15, 7, and 8 on Saturday morning. She wanted to get out of bed to go see Mom and Dad, but M&D are gone.
• French toast for breakfast.
• Clean the house.
• Make others clean the house.
• Wipe the kitchen table for the first time.
• Deal with fussy children.
• Make lunch
• Wipe the table again.
• Clean bathrooms and make others clean bathrooms.
• Pick blackberries and make a pie.
• Wipe the table again.
• Make homemade pizza.
• Wipe the table again (notice a theme?)
• Play games with a very energetic bunch of kids.
• Do the dishes
• Take a van load of people to church.
• Hold a sleeping, drooling 2 year-old during the church service
• Deal with nosebleeds and stains on white dresses.
• Take another van full of energetic children back to church.
• Play 4 square.
• Collapse in bed exhausted only to have to get up twice in the night to stop more nosebleeds.

Ya, so what did you do this weekend?

Updates

Yesterday, I had nothing to do at work. So guess what? I made some little updates to my blog.
1. You can now comment even if you don't have an account.
2. You can also participate in my handy-dandy little poll.

Don't miss it. Exciting stuff. Right here.

My favorite person...

At work, I answer the phones all the time. You might say that it is my primary job. Anywho, my favorite person to talk to on the phone is Joe Billy. No seriously, his name is really Joe Billy. This is Kentucky after all. Since we work in close contact with his company, he calls and drops by the office regularly. I am convinced that he is the most naturally cheerful person I have ever met. He starts about 2/3rds of his phone calls with the same bad joke and yet it makes me happy every time. After telling the aforementioned joke, he breaks out into loud laughter. Actually, he uses any and every opportunity to break out into loud chuckles. Whenever he comes into the office, he is always whistling. Oh, and he smiles constantly.
People like Joe Billy are the reason I like saying I'm from Kentucky.

Current project list:

• Stephanie's birthday present...which I just realized needed to be sent out today in order to ensure its arrival on her birthday. Hopefully, it will get sent tomorrow. I can't say what it is here on the blog cause she might read it.
• Sara's birthday present...shh, she doesn't know she's getting one. I have one piece of it bought, but I still need to get the fabric and ribbon.
• Denim apron...made from recycled fabric.
• Red checkered table runner made from old fabric I found in my mom's attic.
• Baby present for little Philip Mark...which I have yet to start. At least I know what I'm making.

Hmm...now I just need the time and motivation to actually get some of it done.

P.S. Kelsey, what should I make for your birthday? I need to be thinking about it now so I'll be ready when it comes time.

What to do with a bunch of crazies?

My parents are preparing to take their whopping huge 25th anniversary trip. Guess who gets to babysit? Abner and Sara are covering days, but I'll be on duty evenings, nights and weekends. I was theoretically ok with this a couple of months ago, but now that I work 8 hours a day, it just sounds really hard. I walk in the door around 5:30 all tired and ready for dinner. For the next while, I'll walk in the door hungry and tired only to discover a whole crowd of starving, but energetic children all clamoring for me to make them dinner. Fortunately, mom is going to buy some frozen/easy dinners like spaghetti and frozen lasagna.
Anywho, I'm looking for fun ideas to keep crazy children busy and fed. As of right now, we have plans for homemade pizza, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief (which I read aloud to them last summer), and a possible picnic in the park. Does anybody have any good suggestions?

Did I mention I have to do the grocery shopping...

Pom-poms...

I was just reading this post about pom-poms on L. Tolly's blog. Aren't they amazing? Why have I never made one? I think it is time to put the past in the past and move on. From now on, I will decorate using only pom-poms.

In case this post inspires you, you kind find the tutorial on Martha's Stewarts blog. There is a chance I might be throwing a baby shower next month and I think these would be absolutely perfect.

Arts and crafts in action

Here is a shot of my linen flowers in their natural habitat. As a side note, I don't usually look
this glamorous. Sara photoshopped
me. I also recently attached two of these
flowers to the bag I made.

Flower power

So here is my new favorite flower. It is pretty easy to make and involves flames! Exciting stuff! I like them because they look fairly realistic. Check out the tutorial.

After making the flower, you can pin it on to something or you can hot glue it on to a hair clip. I did the latter and it works great!

July...

What to post about...? I don't really have any exciting news to share. I've still failed to get a picture of my flowers. I've been working on my new fabric, but it still needs a lot more time and genius (which I am severely lacking in). Since I don't have a pattern, I had to make one using wrapping paper. The hardest part is figuring out what parts to sew first. I'm afraid that I'll start at the wrong end and then have to take out the stitches in order to attach something that should have gone on first.

Last night, Jubilee wanted me to explain to her how far away my birthday was using the distance between her fingers as measurement. She held her two pointer fingers about 6 inches away from each other and asked, "Is this how long until your birthday?" I wasn't quite sure how many days or hours it equaled so my answer was rather vague.

Since the 4th of July is right around the corner, I get a 3 day weekend! Hurrah! I plan on going to a bonfire, setting off fire works, hiking, possibly making homemade jam, leading a book group, and maybe even stopping in at a luau.

In other random news, I went on a lunch date with my Dad today. He knows how much I like Greek food so we went to a Greekish resturaunt (not really Greek, but the owner is Greek and so he has some Greek food). We each had a gyro and split some Baklava (which was not as good as mom's). Mom is making me chicken crepes for dinner. How nice to have a family that loves you.