Thankful for Day #7

... for crafty time. I love it! I love that I have a little room full of all my favorite scrapbooking supplies that I can sneak off to every now and again to create something. It's therapeutic. Admittedly, creating can be overwhelming, but it is ALWAYS fulfilling. No matter how late I may stay up to finish a project.

Thankful for Day #6

... wine! Wine makes anything better. Not that I am advocating alcoholism or anything. But earlier today I was feeling a bit anxious about some things and after a glass of wine (yes, I am a lightweight) I am finding it was all for naught.

Thankful for Day #5

... for Grape Pedialyte:

and Grape Children's Motrin: to help ease my 5 year old's aches, upset stomach and fever. Yes, this is the same 5 year old that just 5 days ago, I claimed I was thankful she was healthy. Life!

Thankful for Day #4

... for a husband that despite a recently torn ACL, will still dance and be silly with the girls. He's awesome!

Thankful for Day #3

... a sweet little 2 1/2 yr old girl who races down the hall each morning to climb into bed with me. I love it! My oldest never did this.

Thankful For Day #2

OK seriously I don't know why this picture is turning on its side. It does not look like this in my photo editing program.

Today I am thankful for these legs and feet and the fact that they can still run and allow me to train for a 1/2 marathon.

Back in August 1998 I suffered a compound fracture to my left tibia and fibula. Basically the whole lower half of my left leg was nearly severed when a sea-doo crashed into mine. I won't bore you with the details, but I was helivacked (sp?) out of the lake and taken to Loma Linda University Hospital. Fortunately they have a wonderful medical program and by the grace of God, one artery remained in tact and they were able to reattach my leg and restore it. I am sure that most of my family never thought I would be able to once again walk normally, play soccer, hike, and run. But here I am today. A few nasty scars but a fully functioning leg.

So I snapped this picture of my feet right before I headed off on one of my training runs. The only thing that would make this post better would be if I had reported my best time to date, but sadly it was my worst performance in this training regimen. Oh well. I could very well not have any leg at all on which to run. So I am thankful!

Things for Halloween I didn't get to this year ...

... but will make for next year.

These awesome fabric pumpkins by Danielle Flanders.

And I also plan to take these bottles and jars I tucked away this past month and turn them into witch's brew and magic potions. Along the lines of these from here:

But ,y jars vary in size more. I have some pasta jars, one wine bottle, a small emptied Bath and Bodyworks candle jar, etc. I can't wait.

Thankful For Day #1

I am thankful for a healthy and happy 5 year old who passed her 5 yr check up with flying colors. This year the doctor said she was back on track with the BMI chart. Last year Hannah had edged upwards when most 4 year olds were edging down. The doctor got me a little worried and I was dreading hearding today that she was still high in which case I am sure I would have gotten an earful about how I need to watch her food intake more closely and possibly think diet. All of which I would have ignored because my child is by no means sedentary, lazy, or unhealthy in her diet. But no parent wants to hear stuff like that from their doctor about their child, especially when it's a girl. So yay for you Hannah. I love you and am so very proud of you!!!

October 2010 Catch Up Post

So I managed to go through the entire month of October without one blog post. TERRIBLE! No other word for it. I certainly was busy. I had goals of getting more than I actually did done, but oh well. Gotta leave something for next year right?

So the first thing was Hannah's 5th birthday party. It was Candy Land themed. We tried to go all out but stay within a reasonable budget.

Here's her cake which I made myself. The biggest expense was the cake pan. I tried to make it resemble a game board.



Here are how the tables were set up:




Here are some of the things we had around the yard:

Then the husband and I hosted Fancy Dinner #3. It's a new tradition we've started with 3 other couples. Every couple of months, a couple hosts fancy dinner at their house. They provide everything. It's so fun! Next year we've decided the men will be in charge of it all. Which means BBQ's and sporting events on the TV but as long as we wives can drink and not have to worry about meal planning, table setting, and cooking, we're GOOD!



FIRST COURSE: bacon wrapped scallops, shrimp ceviche in cucumber cups and grilled prosciutto wrapped shrimp for appetizers. SECOND COURSE: Gazpacho soup with avacado creme fresche THIRD COURSE: scallop, mango and avacado salad FOURTH COURSE: seared beef tenderloin with cilantro & shrimp served with mashed potatoes for the main FIFTH COURSE: cookie dough truffles and peach cake with vanilla bean ice cream for dessert.

Here's a mini album I did for my youngest daughter's first 3 Halloweens. She loved looking at her older sister's mini album that I just didn't have the heart not to make her one of her own.

Here's a Halloween banner I did for our mantel:

Did I mention we had the fireplace area redone? Here are before and after shots of our fireplace area. We had it all made to look like a built in as you can see in the pictures.

The girls in their costumes:

Our carved pumpkins:

Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas


Jack from Nightmare Before Christmas:

Another version of Jack from Nightmare Before Christmas:

Zero from Nightmare Before Christmas:


Here are some super cute milk jug ghosts I made for our front lawn (got the idea from here):

Hair Thingy Box

I don't know what else to call this thing. But it works like a charm. Having two girls means having lots of hair clips, hair elastics, head bands, brushes, combs, etc. I was getting very irritated having them all in a messy pile on the counter (their bathroom does not have drawers). I had purchased a drawer kit from Ikea ages ago thinking I would use it for scrap supply storage. (can't come up with a link to it, but I think they're FIRA and I am sure they're still in the store - I hope so). Never happened. Finally this idea struck me and I am so pleased with how it turned out. I used BoBunny's Alissa collection for this. My Silouette helped me to print and cut the drawer labels. The black swirls of crystals are from Prima.

To adhere everything, I used Mod Podge in matte. There were a few places where it bubbled. Then miraculously, when it was completely dry, the bubbles were gone. There were also a few places where it bubbled and dried bubbled. Of course that would be on the very top. {sigh} Oh well.