October Catch Up!

Um....I'm clearly in over my head.  It recently occured to me that I haven't updated in a "little while."  Now I get on here and see my last post was September 4th.  What the whaaaa??  My apologies.  Allow me to catch you up!

We've been busy.  Like, crazy end of the year, holiday season, hooray fall is here, kinda busy.  I love it!  First up-September started like this.

Why yes, yes that is a giant tree laying in our yard.  One of our pecan trees was just overloaded with pecans and had a very large dead "limb" that fell right next to/on top of our back deck.  I was standing in the kitchen when it happened and saw it coming.  Not cool.  Luckily there wasn't any damage...just a lot of clean up!!

Next we took the kiddos to a Carolina game.  It was Walker's first game and he loved it!

Next on the agenda was the annual Heart Walk in Charleston!  All the money raised goes to the American Heart Association to fund research for congenital heart defects!  In the 2 years we have participated, our family has raised $1750.00 for them!!

 The next fun thing we did was surprise the kids with a trip to see The Fresh Beat Band in concert!!  They had no idea where they were going and didn't figure it out until the band ran on stage! It was a blast!!  And yes, I sang every word to every song.  Don't judge.

In early October we joined my inlaws on our annual mountain trip!  We stayed in a cozy little cabin and enjoyed the pretty leaves and crisp cool air!

We went on lots of walks.  This girl thinks she is a model...

                 I did lots of this....

We took the kids fishing again this year and Walker got to fish too!  Audrey is a pro and caught 3 fish!! 

By the way, can someone please tell me how in the world she got so big?

This picture is one of my all time faves of my men.

Mountain beauty.

The next week was the state fair.  The kids had a blast and rode everything they were allowed to!!  Walker's favorite part was the snow cones....

We did some punkin picking...and carving!

Jessie and Woody had a blast TRUNK or treating and TRICK or treating!

 

Holy cow, I am tired just looking through this post!  I think this may be the longest post in history!  With every single free second I have had, I've been sewing, sewing, and sewing some more to prepare for our craft fair on November 9th!!  If you are local, please come support my sister and I as we launch our new sewing business!! More to come on that!  Hope you all had as wonderful a September and October as we did!!  Happy November!!

Playroom

Welcome to our playroom!  Finally!

I had the hubs hang some roman shades on the insides of the doors for one purpose only-hiding the mess! :)  It works like a charm.  Until I open the door and nearly fall to my knees in horror at the mess, or a neighbor comes in and says, "Oh what lovely doors, may I open them?"  No.  No, you may not.

When the doors are opened, this is what you see.  Well, after I spend an hour cleaning up that is.

I painted the walls a nice light aqua blue.  I believe it is called Tropical Spray?  Or maybe Island Mist?? I've forgotten already, but it's a Valspar paint from Lowes. :)

In the corner tucked behind the doors to the left is their easel.  I hung the handprint canvas' we made at Audrey's 3rd birthday party.

In another corner we have the art table that came from Ben's grandparent's old house.  The benches open for storage of coloring books, paper, crayons, stickers, etc.  They love to color!

This is the little kitchen area.  The bins beside it hold the play food, dishes, and kitchen utensils.  They also love to cook! :)

I got some vinyl stick on letters at Target and made a cute little alphabet wall. 

These cubbies came from Target and house most of the small toys.  I mean, the quantity of toys in this household is just insane.  See the canvas bins?  Yea, they pretty much empty every single toy out of these.  

Ok, now prepare yourself for what you are about to see.  The sad part is, I can't even blame this on the kids.  This would be my mess.  Here we have my craft table I built with my dad, and some storage units.  This hot mess is a compilation of scrapbooking supplies, school supplies, sewing supplies, and pretty much all craft items I have.  Surprisingly, it is actually organized, it just looks messy because I have more stuff than I have room to store it.  So....it piles up. I'm working on this.  

You'll also notice our art wall.  I've always planned to have a place in my house where I display all my kid's artwork.  Well, not ALL of it, but the favorites that they are proudest of, or that mean the most to me.  

I still need to add one more frame in the upper left corner.

You may be noticing the clothespins.  I removed the glass from all the picture frames, and hot glued two clothespins to each frame.  I did this for two reasons.  

1.  Have you ever watched kids play with balls in the house?  If you have, then you've probably also witnessed them bouncing/throwing the ball way too hard, sending it flying to your picture wall and knocking the frame off the wall into a shattered mess on the floor.  I didn't quite think that was safe for the playroom.  So....no glass in these.

2.  If you have kids, you know the amount of art projects they make.  Both of my babies love to paint and color, so I wanted to be able to switch their masterpieces out quickly and easily.  Now I don't have to remove the back of the frame to switch a picture.  I don't even have to take the frame off the wall!  Just slip it in the pins!  It's working great and we all love seeing their precious masterpieces on the wall.

One little funny to add.  Here is a picture Audrey Grace did for her dad for father's day.  It is a picture of him.  See the 2 circles on each side of his head??  Those are ears.  And the one circle right below his chin?  That's his belly.  hahaha!!  I love little minds.

I was quite impressed with Audrey's version of Rapunzel.  She forgot arms, but she got the purple dress. :)

Our playroom also has the calendar and weather charts that I use with Audrey.  We don't do very much scheduled school work yet because she's still 3, but we do try to talk about the calendar and the weather each day.

So that's our playroom.  I'm still debating window treatments.  I love the natural light, but the windows do look bare to me.  I don't want blinds or anything hanging down that the kids can get ahold of, so I may do some sort of valance.  It's not a priority though.

This room does give me hives because of the constant mess and clutter, but I'm still really glad we did it.  They spend hours in there each day, and I like that it eliminates toys and clutter from spilling into other rooms of the house.  I'd rather have one crazy room than 4 rooms with toys and clutter in all of them.  I saw a quote somewhere that said, "Please excuse the mess, the children are making memories."  I'm thinking I may paint this above the doors outside the playroom.  Or come to think of it, maybe just outside my front door before people even enter my house. :)

Wall hanging

Hey!  I've been busy on a little project that I first saw in an open house for a house my parents have for sale. I loved the look of it and decided I had to have it hanging over my bed, as I've been wanting to switch things up in our bedroom anyway.  Here's the finished product.  I still haven't decided if I like the frames "scattered" and crooked like this, or if I want to connect them on the backs so they all hang straight.  Right now, this will do.



It's cute, right?  So if you want to make one, here is what you need:

Hooks of your choice.  I used 4 and got them from Hobby Lobby on sale for $1.99 each.

You'll also need a 2 X 4.  I used one we had in the shed and just painted it white.  It's a little under 3.5 feet long.  You'll need the same amount of frames as hooks.  I used 8 X 10 frames and 5 X 7 pictures.

I got this rope at Lowes for hanging the pictures.  It's 50ft and was about $6.  You can have them cut some off a big roll for much cheaper, but I just went this route because I knew I would use the leftovers for another project.  Oh-and because I had Walker with me and he was freaking out in the cart and I wanted a quick exit.

                                You'll need a drill and screws to secure the hooks to the board.

I attached 2 of these hooky things to the back of the board to hang it on the wall.

So basically just line up your frames under the board to get your spacing right.  Then center the hook on the board above each frame and screw them in with your drill.  Measure how far you want the frames to hang under the board and cut your rope.  I actually taped the rope to the back of each frame! haha!

So there ya have it! A quick and easy way to display some pictures! :)  Hope you're all having a great week!

Oh me oh my!!!

Oh hi?  Remember me?  I hope so!  I am so overwhelmed with constant thoughts/ideas/plans in my head that I'm barely sleeping!! So let's see what I've been up to, shall we?

1.  We started a new school year.


No, I don't have school aged children, but I watch 2 children whose mothers work in schools.  So, we measure our years from August-July instead of January-December!  This year I have my Audrey (3.5), my Walker (1.5), boy #1 (almost 2), and boy #2 (1.5).  Four little ones 3 and under.  Oh, and 3 of them are boys.  I could just stop my list here with the reasons I've been overwhelmed! :)  (honestly...the babies I keep are very sweet and have become part of our family....it's just very little "me" time!.. ok NO me time....but I digress...)

2. I've started a real homeschooling curriculum with Audrey.  Right now, I'm still on the fence about whether or not we will homeschool.  I do know that while I have her home with me, I want her to learn as much as possible so that if/when she goes to public school, she will knock their socks off!  :)


3. We've been sick.

Walker had a random fever last Sunday that turned into an upper respiratory infection, which then passed to Audrey...and then Ben...and then me...and then the other baby I keep.  It's been rough folks.

4.  Cleaning/organizing.  With so many kids in here, organization is crucial.  I have 3 different sets of diapers.  3 different napping areas.  3 different boosters/highchairs.  Countless amounts of sippy cups. I HAVE to have things in order, or my day is even more chaotic than normal.  And that's bad.  I've been doing my best to get up early and get things in order for the day, and then keep up with them as we go.  It's a learning process, people.

5. Weight loss.  Some of you may know one of the wonderful things about breastfeeding is that you burn a ton of calories everyday just by feeding your baby.  Both of my babies were great eaters, and I never had trouble getting rid of the "baby" weight.  However, Walker stopped nursing almost 2 months ago, and man oh man, my body is really feeling the extra calories no longer being burned!!! I think I have gained about 10lbs in the last 2-3 months.  I hate it.  It makes me grumpy.  So....it's back to the treadmill I go.  

6.  This is probably the biggest reason for the thoughts spinning in my head.  My sister and I have started a sewing business.  I am SO excited.  And SO overwhelmed!!!!  This is something I have been thinking about for a long long time, and I've finally pulled the trigger!!!  I have SO many ideas and dreams for this business, but considering I watch 4 children during the day, there's not a whole lot of extra time to get those ideas done.  So, I've been staying up late and working my little fingers to the bone.  We are working on getting a website up and running, and I do hope you'll all venture over there to check out our stuff!!  The business is called Southern-Sewn, and we make boutique style children's clothing, burp cloths, bibs, appliquéd items, aprons, tea towels, and more!!  We are just getting things started...so look for more info on this to come!!

I'll do my best to update again soon!