Busy Days

It has been a busy couple of weeks. I was thinking about it the other day, and really, it doesn't seem like there is ever a NOT busy time these days. Ella is sick today. I kept her home from preschool so she could rest. It started yesterday, when we were supposed to go to the apple orchard. We could tell pretty quickly after we woke up that she didn't need to be out in the cool, breezy fall air. She started running a temp last night, around 102. Today her fever is hanging in the 100 degree range, which is better. It has been a lazy day at home, which is nice. Hopefully it will help us rev up for the busy week ahead. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays are always a bit hectic as they are the days where Tom and I are both at work and Ella has dance (Tues) and gymnastics (Thurs). She is also in preschool Mon, Wed and Fri from 8:30-11:30. We are hoping to get to the apple orchard this Sunday. And then we want to hit Oktoberfest at church in the evening for a family style dinner with some friends. Oh! And I am hosting a Thirty-One party on Friday evening which should be super fun. I totally love having people over and doing the "hostess" thing. Just makes me happy :)

So, over the past couple of weeks I have been working on a project I saw on Pinterest. Oh, and by the way...if you haven't checked out Pinterest yet, you MUST!
The idea is to make a coat/purse rack out of an old wood pallet. Well, Tom just happened to have a few out in the shop that weren't really being used, so I decided to give it a try. Here it is before:

And here it is after painting. All I did was spray paint the boards different colors to match my house. Most of them I already have, because I have the same pallet of colors throughout the whole house. This is after spray paint, but before the poly coat (also spray paint).

This is after the poly spray paint...but you can't really tell in this light.

The next step was to hang it in the entryway, and put some fun hooks on it. I thought this would be the easy part, but as it turned out, this thing is waaaaaay heavy so it took a little more planning (mostly on Tom's part....bless that man!). He actually took a couple of the boards off the back to bring the weight down a little. He hung it yesterday while Ella and I were at the movies, (Dolphin Tale-SO good!)so I came home to this:

Yay! Then I had to hang up a few jackets to make it look more official :)

I love, love, LOVE it! And seriously, it was super easy. Like I said....the hanging part was the biggest pain. The painting part was just fun. Have I mentioned that I love spray paint? Seriously, that stuff rocks. I need to get a few wider angled pictures of the entryway, but you get the idea.

I hope you all have a great week. I think I will take some extra pictures of things this week...
like Ella in her dance and gymnastics outfits. It's seriously the cutest thing ever. And Noah.....oh my word. That boy has his momma so totally wrapped it isn't funny. Ok, they both do. But I am happy to oblige :)

Trying Something New

Let me just start by saying that I am not crafty. At all. Even a little bit. But lately I've been trying out a few things just to see what happens. I made Ella a bow last weekend for the Cards game and it was actually wearable and pretty cute. Definitley not ready to sell them or anything, but was pretty proud of myself.
So today I decided I was going to make a hairbow hanger/holder for all of Ella's bows. We've been keeping them in this plastic rubbermaid container, but the bows are starting to get smooshed and mis-shapen. At first I looked around for one, but then saw one at a local children's boutique (that they were using to sell the bows they had) and decided it would be SUPER easy to make....even for me.
It seriously took all of ten minutes. All I needed was ribbon, scissors, shower curtain rings (yes!) and for a little extra cuteness I picked up some wooden flower pieces. Look and see.....




Aren't they super cute? I must say I am pretty proud of them :) The only thing is that she has so many bows, I made need to make some more becuase these are all filled up.....and we are always buying cute new bows :)

Anyway, hope you all like them! We are gearing up for a good weekend around here. Doing a lot of hanging at home and with family. Sounds perfect :)

One of Those Days

Wow. It has been one of those days. Nothing big, no life changing events of any kind. Just the little things. Ella melting down (big time) right as I was leaving the house this morning (over her shirt, no less). I hate leaving for work when one of my kiddos is unhappy. I know it is totally unrealistic to think that they will always be smiling and waving as I head off to face my day, but it is hard enough on my heart to leave them AT ALL, so when they are upset......so am I. :(
Next it was the lady that thought the speed limit out our highway should have been between 35 and 40 mph. Not the 55 mph that is posted (after all, that's just a suggestion....right)? Then I decided even though I was pushing it on time, I needed (read: deserved) an iced coffee from McD's. They were rude. And my order was wrong. Shocking.

Made it to work. Relatively uneventful, so I got some wind back in my sails. After work, got Ella to dance, quick grocery store trip, then home for dinner. Ella had another meltdown and a temporary moment of insanity in which she was waaaaay disrespectful to Tom and I (not really like her), so we sent her to bed early and (gasp!) took away her dollhouse. It always makes me sad when she acts like that, just because I know what a good girl she can be and normally is. Don't get me wrong, of course I know as a 4 year old, she is entitled to her occassional meltdown. We don't expect her to act perfect all of the time. But her going to bed early as punishment meant I didn't get to spend much time with her tonight. Noah, however was in a super happy mood tonight, so after his bath, we had some fun play time. He is so funny. So much fun. And SUCH a snuggler. LOVE!!!

So, while our day wasn't one filled with rainbows and unicorns, that was ok. A day of little inconveniences and mishaps pales in comparison with what some people deal with and go through on a daily basis. We are all healthy. We are together. And that makes me happy. No matter what the day held.

I think I will go catch an episode of The Office with my husband. :) That will have me belly laughing as I lay my head down tonight.

Have a good night everyone :)

Re-invention

I decided it would be fun to open up the blog again. I wanted to re-invent it a bit. I thought it would still be great to have a place to document my babies as they grow, but to also have a place to jot down my thoughts. However random they may be. And I warn you, folks. I am no writer. I'm hoping for it to be a fun place to come. For me to write, and for you to read. We will see. At the very least, it will be a place I can always look back on to see my kids and their stories over the years. If it serves only that purpose, I will be happy :)

And the name......one of my favorite quotes. Ever. Thank you Dave Matthews Band.

Talk to you guys later!