Back to Craftin'

I finally caught up on my scrapbooking!! I am very happy about that. Brad's birthday was a big one, and that took awhile. But I am good all the way to July 4, and I don't foresee any events coming up that will require more scrapping soon. Except maybe replacing the flooring....we'll see!

So now that I can clear the scrapping stuff off of my craft tables, that means I can get back into sewing crafts! I have seen lots of cute ideas on the web lately, and some of them are very inspiring. I recently found two more blogs that are awesome so I am "following" them now. One idea I saw was an apron made from a terry cloth hand towel. I thought this was a good idea because it allows you to wipe/dry your hands while you are bustling around in the kitchen without constantly having to keep track of your towel!

I embellished it with vintage wide lace all around the edge, 3 handmade yoyo's on the corner, and coordinating ribbon along the top for the ties. I am happy with how it turned out, but there are probably a few things I will do differently for the next ones. I'm sure a few people I know will get one of these for Christmas....

And speaking of Christmas...I have been on the ball lately and already have over half of my presents bought! As the days go by I get little ideas here and there for things to make for people. I need to start a list so I don't forget! I usually like to have all of my presents bought and wrapped BEFORE the end of November.

I went and hung out with my mumsy for a couple hours today, and she ran with me to a baby consignment store. While they were going through my clothes, we were going through theirs! They had some of the CUTEST tops for little B! He pretty much doesn't need a thing for this winter, but I found a super cute long sleeve shirt with an old muscle car on it that I knew Nick would love to see so I got that. I also got him some really nice polo shirts for next summer and a pair of nice jean shorts. Oh and I got him a couple ADORABLE little man sweater vests!!! He is going to be the cutest thing. This winter is going to be so fun with him because he will be able to run around and play in the snow (hopefully we get some!) and open his own presents on Christmas morning.

That's all for now. The 3 of us are going to a friend's baby's first birthday party tomorrow afternoon before I go back to work. I am so ready to go back to my Friday and Saturday shifts! I had a solid routine going there where I had time to do stuff during the week. But when I work 2 here, 3 there, I have to spend a whole day recovering then catch up before it's time to go back to work. Ugh! Working is for the birds. Just a few more months till Nick graduates college then he will be working.... :)

Family Picnic at the Lake

Yesterday I finally got a day off, and HUBBY came up with the idea to go to the lake! He is usually a homebody, so I jumped on it before he could change his mind. We usually pick up some fried chicken and such at KFC, but we couldn't remember where it was. We drove around a bit, then ended up stopping to get gas and ask. Evidently the one by us is closed for business! So we compromised and got Jack in the Box. They had mini funnel cakes so I had to try one of those!

We took our fold up chairs and other things and set up shop on the hilly lakeside. It was hot, but we survived in the shade.

After eating, we moved our stuff closer to the water and put little B in a swim diaper. We let him float around in the waves to cool off while we waded with him. The water was very warm!

We could see dark storm clouds off in the distance, but I think they were all too far NE of us, and we never got any rain.

After we got done, I pulled out of the parking lot and got PULLED OVER by a park ranger for going the wrong way!!!!!!! What???? I was so upset. He took forever to do whatever it is they do in their truck with your license (meanwhile Brad was getting upset sitting still) then finally came back and said he was just giving me a "warning". I told him it was pretty ridiculous because the stupid lot I pulled out of wasn't marked at all and how I only come here like once in a blue moon...ugh. Wanted to say some other things about how I was probably the only legal citizen there and the only one with car insurance, but I kept those evil thoughts in my head ;)

Hubby Turns 29!

My darling husband Nick is now only one year away from being a thirty-something! I tease him, but age is just a number. Especially when it comes to him and I. Since we've known each other for almost 15 years and been together over 8 of those, we don't think of our age difference at all.

For this year's celebration, I secretly scheduled him to have a one hour Swedish deep tissue massage first. While he was gone at that, everyone showed up for his party and I had the house decorated and table full of food. Those who came were my brother Eric+Teri, my mom, my dad, and my friend Sara. Unfortunately none of Nick's family came to celebrate with us....heck they barely remembered to call to at least say they were "too busy" to come up. No card, no nothin. Humph. Well that's okay because MY family was there, and they are the ones that love him like their own son.

Anywho...after Nick returned from the massage, our friends and family were waiting and we all dug into the food and talked. Then I brought out his candlelit cake and we sang Happy Birthday to him. Then he opened presents. Brad was napping through all this so I went and woke him and fed him a bit. After that, my mom and dad came with us for the second part of Nick's celebrations--go carting! There is an indoor go cart track on the north side of OKC so we all carpooled there and mom watched Brad while the 3 of us buzzed around the track. It was bunches of fun, and I'm sure we will be returning in the future!

Now for looking back at Nick's birthday LAST year....

Catching Up

I went a bit long between posts again! I apologize. Time gets away from me. Since I've been doing overtime this summer, I jam my off-days full of things to do. My free time is elusive and far between. I have however gotten caught up (almost) completely on my scrapbooking, finished building my second shelving unit for the garage, bought our new flooring for downstairs...see--I've been busy!

One thing we had done last week was we had a brick mailbox built! Our neighbor had an estimate done on one for her, and since our old mailboxes were right next to each other, she asked if we were interested in using her guy. Since we did, he cut our price down. He built it in one day, and took down the old ugly one. I like it!

Here is little B watching cartoons on his toy car his grandma Penny got him for his birthday.

And here is my handsome boy and his blue eyes today after we had lunch with grandpa Tony!

In other news, some girls from work and I were all planning to float the Illinois River tomorrow. After I got home from doing laundry, I had a text that said it was canceled because half of the people changed their mind. Soooo......I'm going to try and make the best of it tomorrow and enjoy my day off with my family. I'm sure I can find something to do around here....oh and Wednesday is Nick's 29th bday! Looking forward to festivities.

Garage Sale Day

Sorry for the hiatus, I have been working my tail off! I am very ready to go back to two shifts per week. Anywho, Saturday morning when I got off I finally made it to the Norman Farmer's Market! There was tons of produce, herbs, and vendors. They had a huge flea market there as well, and I enjoyed browsing all of the odds and ends there. I picked up a couple books for Brad and a Raggedy Anne decoration I'm going to try to resale on Ebay.

Today I was a very busy girl because my mother and I had a garage sale. The last time we had one was the day before I found out I was pregnant almost 2 years ago! We didn't have too much stuff; just enough to do a one-dayer. I woke up super early this morning to load up a few things and head over there to set up. We ran it from about 7am-3pm and it was HOT. I think 95 out. Unfortunately I got another sneaky sunburn....can you see the burn AROUND my pearl necklace I had on?

But to kill time during the slow parts, I painted my nails for the first time in ages! You like?

I also redid my toenails, and when I got home I added polka dots!

To end with, here are some pics of my little angel....

Happy Independence Day

We had a wonderful day today with our family! After sleeping a bit today from working all night, I got up and spent some time with my boys. Then we met my dad and brother in Newcastle to get dinner. We were supposed to have Mexican, but the restaurant was closed! We resolved to eating at Wendys where my little boy had his first ever happy meal!

Don't worry--I didn't get him fries and pop! He got a hamburger, mandarin oranges, and a chocolate milk. The milk he loved, even though it was cold! As for the burger, I just ripped it into chunks and he probably ate 75% of it. He did keep trying to steal grandpa's fries though.

After that we battled the crowds at a big fireworks warehouse in Mustang and got our yearly bounty of ammo. Then we headed back to my dad's house in Tuttle where my sister-in-law Teri met us for the festivities!

It has been raining off and on for the last couple of days, and it poured like crazy right before we left our house. Thankfully God saw fit to clear it up just in time to celebrate! While we were waiting for it to get dark, my brother Eric got out some guns to pass the time...

Why question them? As long as they are having a good time I guess....anywho! Here is our table of fun :)

As it got darker we all rotated popping our fireworks and sometimes coordinated it and all 3 fired our big ones at the same time.

We did have a minor mishap where a Roman candle may or may not have tipped over in it's holder and shot a rocket right towards Brad's stroller and the table of fireworks....but not to worry! Nick was holding Brad and dove out of the way in time :)

I usually get a bag or 2 of smoke bombs every year just to light them and watch the colorful fog fill the yard....

There were a lot of skeeters out tonight so I doused Brad and I in OFF.

Towards the end of it, Brad was getting very sleepy so he took a little nap in my arms!

One last thing: today while Brad squeezed in a nap before we left, I whipped out a new craft I've been wanting to do! This is just the prototype, but it is a reusable and washable snack pack! I have seen things like this for sale but they are so expensive. It is waterproof material on the inside and cute fabric on the outside with velcro closure.

Foray Into Carpentry

I don't recall if I have talked about wanting to build something...but I've been wanting to! We really needed shelves in our garage, and even small simple plastic ones are expensive at the store. I've been looking online for ideas/pictures and never really saw a plan that I felt was right. What did I do? Drew up my own! Here is one of the finished shelves:

I basically worked the dimensions around the size of the plywood because it was the biggest and I had the store cut that. So it is 4ft wide, 1ft deep, and 5 ft tall with four shelves. There is a support in the middle so I don't have to worry about the plywood sagging at all.

Now keep in mind this is my FIRST raw constructed item. Like, I bought a jigsaw, gloves, safety goggles, and a level and went to it! I didn't really see any instructions that applied to how I put it together so I just had to wing it. I am happy with how the shelf part turned out, but it was verrrry hard to get them level when nailing on the 4 corner support beams. So with the second shelf I'm finishing up tomorrow, I am going to try it a little differently. Same end result, just different path.

Oh and another realization learned? Nailing is HARD. I thought it would be the easy part! Nope. Sawing things is easy. Too easy. Nailing? BAD. For most of it I used 3 1/4" long nails. I can't tell you how many of those God-forsaken things I had to have Nick help me get out b/c they bent halfway through. Ugh. So my first nail=bent and pulled it out. Second nail=slammed the hammer down on my left pointer finger:

OUCH. Yeah. I think it is going to look a lot worse tomorrow b/c it has swollen more and the bruise is pretty big. So on the third nail, I thought to try to predrill a hole THEN drive the nail in. And that worked out pretty well! Didn't start having trouble again until I got to the 4 corner beams. All in all, not bad for a first-timer doing it blind! Not including the investment of power tools and nails, the wood only cost about $23/shelf. Yay me! Next project: Sofa table.