some domestication going on up in here!

Hey friends

Every year our PTO has a cookie exchange. This will be my first year to participate in it and I took some liberty to stretch what "Cookie Exchange" meant. Cookie - Candy - they're both sweet and desserts so I decided to go with candy. I found an awesomely easy soft chew caramel candy recipe from Your Homebased Mom. It was wonderfully easy and people that don't even care for caramel said that it was awesome and delicious. I've never made any candy in my life, much less caramel. I will say patience, patience and more patience - oh! and definitely a heavy gauge pan, mine started to scorch before I could get to 243 degrees but it still set up wonderfully. Here is the finished product:

 

I doubled the recipe to make sure I had enough for the exchange for generous portions and my hubby is the "Caramel Monster". I ended up with 133 pieces, although if I had uniformly cut them I would have probably gotten at least 150. It was late and it hadn't cooled completely but it was midnight and this momma has to get up at 6am for work and Buckeroo for school, so I spooned them.

Hope everyone's holiday is going amazing, mine is and I'm so excited about getting back to blogging this year. I'm been declining volunteer requests, offers, etc to make sure that there is time for my family and myself. At first it felt weird and completely uncomfortable, but now that I'm starting to have some reward for that weirdness and uncomfortableness it's nice and I will continue to do it, more on that later.

Much Luv,
Michelle

Friday Fanatics {or i think I'm loosing my mind}

Good Morning Lovlies!

Thank Goodness it is Friday! Although I don't know why I say that because the weekends around here are just as crazy. I guess at least it's one less crazy (work) to deal with.

We had meet the teacher last night, and I just know that we are going to have a great year! I'm sad because I'm loosing my room-mom bestie  - we've been together since kinder! But we're great friends outside that and PTO Board Members so I'll get to see her a lot anyways :) Cor's teachers seem very sweet, down to earth and gentle. I know that's a strange description but he is really sensitive and shuts down with gruff people, so my heart is soothed.

We have our first scrimmage without coaches on the field football this weekend, so how I'm not sure that I will survive this weekend. We have to be at the field at 9:30am, the big opening day stuff from 10-12pm, game at 12:30pm and I then have concession duty at 2pm for a maximum of 2 hrs. If you're quick at math that equates to about a 7 hr day at the ball field, but I get my concessions over with.

Cub Scouts is been crazy with all the stuff I have to do this year, but at least I have about a one to two week reprieve until leaders meeting. Which I am so very thankful for since I need to get Cor ready for school MONDAY! My sweet boy is a THIRD grader and they are changing classes this year - say what?! yes my baby is a) in THIRD grade and b) CHANGING classes!

Operation  Birthday 9.0 has suffered greatly this year, I am just NOW getting the invites done! We have two weeks till his party! I've never been so far behind, thank you sweet baby Jesus, that he wants a party at the local Incredible Pizza (although my budget doesn't think so, my sanity does). I have to make the cake, as I have always made his birthday cakes. Although in all seriousness he doesn't care one way or another, so that baby night get bought this year. It was totally different when he wanted to make the cake with me and we picked out all the décor togather. He's not into that so much anymore. With the package we chose I'm not doing party bags (each kid gets a $5 game card, a game of lazer tag and 1 hr of unlimited video game play, buffet and drink) plus I would imagine the mommas would be grateful to not get a bunch little toys. I'll be sure to post pictures when it happens.

I've been so blessed with my PTO Board friends the end of last year and the beginnings so far this year. Things have been crazy and they love me anyways and let my craziness slide. I promise ladies I will get better and be there more often! Thank y'all from the bottom of my heart for being so understanding and loving.

Today is the last day of summer for us (besides the weekend but I don't count that because we would be off anyways) and I'm wishing I had taken the day off to do something extra fun with my Cor.

I hope everyone has a great day, weekend and beginning of school!

Much Luv,
Michelle

Monday Mania {or week recap of 08/11-16/14}

Hey Hey Hey Guys!!

How is everyone doing? Have your littles started back to school yet? My not-so-little little starts a week from TODAY! Say what?! When did summer even come much less go?!

We've had a really nice summer to be truthful. Although with football our summer really ends the beginning of August as camp and practices start the second week.

I meant to have this recap up Monday morning, but being the last week before school starts I have a dozen fires in the oven. I should be sewing hanger helpers, but I want to keep my streak going, lol!

Without any more yacking here's what filled our week!

 A huge, MEGA-HUGE, goodwill drop off.

#noshamesoproud

 

Rock out Job Momma!

 

 My car is usually too nasty (yes nasty) for me to every want to post a picture. BUT this weekend I actually vacuumed it after cleaning it out for the Goodwill trip. I have no shame in saying that I will gladly pay my $35 to the car cleaning place, but I have a patience problem so I grabbed the shop vacuum, rag and cleaner.

 

One of my BFF's, Jeri, she is my sister truly.

#solucky

 

We had a girls night out, I can think of two I've had in my entire life, this was the second. We had dinner and closed the mall down! I used to be the 'shop till you drop' gal of my friends - but I have met my match, lol! I got some really nice stuff, Jeri has an amazing eye for fashion, and what fashion that looks good on people. I walked blisters on my feet!

Photobomb Daddy!

We had our first real scrimmage against another league team this weekend. We had two actually, we won both. Cor plays both offense and defense, he's a beast, he got one sack on the quarterback, two recoveries and two stripping the ball. I don't know much about football to be honest, but I love our coaches. Yes, one I'm partial to, Jeff is the defense coach, but in all seriousness, our head coach has taught the boys how to play as a true team, to not compete with one another but to compete together against the opposing team.

 Complete total pinterest FAIL!

 

A partial pinterst fail.

 



The weekend was full of pinterest major fails and a partial fail. The partial fail wasn't too bad or even a fail per say, just not what I'm envisioning.




 

What were you up to this week and weekend?

 

Much Luv,

Michelle

If You Build It They Will Come {or Hubby Building Out My Closet Shelves}

Hello Lovies!

It seems that we are being pretty productive lately, and it's nice!!

This past weekend, actually about three hours on Saturday afternoon, hubster built out closet shelves.

For a while I've waffled with the idea of selling our present home and building from ground up to have a home that would work best for our family. Our current home is a two story home with the master bedroom downstairs and four bedrooms located upstairs. When we had first looked at the home and decided to purchase it, my Cor was six months old and we had dreams and plans to fill all these rooms up with kiddos. I'll post one day about that when I want to delve into major emotional stuff, but that ain't today sisters, lol!

But Cor won't sleep upstairs by himself (no I'm not going to make him as I still go and have a sleepover at my momma and daddy's when Jeff is out of town and there ain't no shame in my game!). So we had made the formal living room into his downstairs bedroom, but then there wasn't any real room for a game room. So I told Jeff, we have to use the space to our advantage or sell and build. Don't get me wrong I LOVE my home, it's what I've always dreamed of having (well besides it not being old enough but that's another post), but the space was just all configured wrong for one story living which is what we were trying to do.

So anyways, we decided to stay put and change some of the rooms functions. Our upstairs has one room that is considerably bigger than the others, we decided to make that the master bedroom. Yes, you heard me right, I lost my mind and made it so that we have to walk up the stairs at least twice a day, and we got some steep stairs. The closet is a bit weird, there are two, one has a bifold door and the other a regular door. I had Jeff hang another rod in the bifold closet so that we each had one rod a piece (if you're counting this is the SECOND time I lost my mind going from a walk in closet to one {ONE} rod). He then graciously got tired of hearing my nagging voice built out my shelves in my regular closet door. I'm really lucky, he is such a jack of all trades guy, and he normally doesn't mind all my "Come on babe, it'll be really easy!" pleas.  So with out further ado:

Here's the before picture, it had one wire shelve across the top. We had already removed it for another closet redo in Buckaroo;s closet.

 

We figured out how high we want the bottom shelve and then placed the other shelves from there. We decided on 20" from the bottom for boots to fit, and then 16" from then on. I'm going to be using it with baskets, shoe boxes, purses and jewelry containers. We went from having a five drawer chest of drawers each to three drawers in a dresser. We did purge but I have a lot of tank tops that I wear under my other shirts for modesty, these will all be placed here. Jeff screwed back and side supports of 2 x 4's for each shelf.

 

Yes this is the top but it was the best angle for pictures. I always have Jeff add a shelve in every closet above what they have. I love how older and European homes have closet usage all the way to the ceiling, it's a great use of previously wasted space. This top shelf will be used for the keepsakes really, since they will seldom be brought down.

 



 

He then ripped the 1/2" plywood to 12" wide pieces, then cut them at 35" in length, and screwed them down. He said 1/2" plywood would be fine for strength since it was such a short span across. You can see the shelf and how high it is compared to the door jam.

 

Here is the finished product! Yes it needs paint but we didn't have any white paint and it needs bright white since there is not a light in the closet. Honestly though I will roll with it like this for a year (ok fine yes probably a couple years). I've been thinking of adding one of those LED click on lights. Have you used one? Is it worth the money?

 

So one more time:

BEFORE

AFTER

 

 

So tell me what you think? I'm about to gather my unused baskets and fill 'er up! I'm enjoying getting all these little projects finished that I've been wanting to do. But there is always a dozen more to complete, but that is half the fun right??

 

Post a link in the comments (no I still haven't figured out how to do a linky thing) of what you've been working on.

 

Much Luv,

Michelle

 



Just Hang In There {or my hanging tabs for my hand towels}

Hey Ya'll!

An issue that I've come across when I use my hand towels is that I have to leave them folded up on the counter. While it is not a huge ordeal I just really like clean counter tops. My stove has a cute embroidered one that one of my best friends made for me that hangs on the oven handle.

 

I thought about it and thought if I could have a tab on them it would be perfect for the hooks that I already have hanging. I looked at Joanne's for something that would have a snap but couldn't find anything, so I made my own out of ribbon.

 

First choose ribbon that fits your colors and décor, cut it long enough to loop it.

(Yes, I'm a total retro babe and have had these colors for about 3 years.)

 

I then tacked each loop before sewing it on the hand towel, it was much easier to work with.

 

Make sure that you trim the ends so that they look nice and neat.

 

After you tack the ribbon and trim the ends, sew the tab to the middle of the side of the towel (I did this so the towel wouldn't dust the ground). One piece of advice make sure you put the tab on the correct side (the under side) so that the ribbon shows correctly and all the sewing lines on the tab.

Here's a picture with the tab done correctly.

The finished product! It took me probably 20 mins to do my six hand towels. The only thing I would do differently is to do these tabs sooner and make sure the ribbon was facing correctly.

 

 

Let me know what you think!

 

Much Luv,

Michelle

Monday Mania {or what we did last week and weekend}

Hey Everyone!

How were things last week and weekend? I hope this week is even better!

Here are some pictures to show what our week and projects consisted of.

 I tweaked my command center some more, although this is not the final picture.

 I added some ribbon taggies to hang my hand towels I use daily.

 My hubby installed shelves in our upstairs master bedroom.

And just because I can't resist these handsome guys!

 

(Yes that is a Buckee's Christmas shirt and it is August, but to my little man if it's hanging in the closet it's fair game!)

 

 

I'll have a complete tutorial on the hand towel tabs on Wednesday, I hope you'll come back and check it out!

 

Much Luv,

Michelle

My Brain Outside My Skull {or my DIY Planner}

Hey Y'all!

How is everyone doing? I hope y'all enjoyed my being real post over at Danielle's, I enjoyed writing it and being real for like minded people. It was refreshing.

So in being real, I have to confess I have no memory, zip, zero, zilch, nada, nothing. It's been hard for me since before I was pregnant I could recall anything it could be the most insignificant detail from five years beforehand and I could recall it. It's.....insane, and I mean that seriously, it was driving me insane. So I went to a neurologist just to make sure I didn't have early onset dimentia as it runs in our family. Her and my regular doctor said the same thing after running tests, you are too busy and too much on your mind. Their remedy was for me to cut back on things and obligations, but y'all know that wasn't going to happen. So I decided to quit obsessing about my missing memory and decided to do brain dumps into my planner.

Except one thing, I could never find a planner I really liked or worked well for me. There was always something. I really didn't want another thing to carry around , so I tried all the electronic planners. Well, that just doesn't work for a non technical person like myself, as much as I would love to be able to understand technology I just can't.

The paper planners were too small, too big, not enough room for notes, etc. I didn't want to carry a book for a planner, a book for notes, one for church, one for PTO, one for Cub Scouts, one for football, etc etc etc. So I came across this wonderful post over at Jammerill Stewart's "Free HomeSchool Deals", so I'm not going to go over the 'how-to' since she did an amazing job just my details.

This is the almost finished project. When I was in MOPS (a GREAT organization if you have preschoolers) we did the same thing except we used it only for a notebook. We had a clasp for it but I can't remember how it was done, and mine has long since been used up and disposed of.

Here is some personalization I did for mine. I probably didn't need to cover the inside since I will most likely have it covered with pictures but I love a pretty background. On the front page I glued a pretty background (see?) and I'm writing my favorite or meaningful to me quotes.

 I love how the squares are big enough to see at a glace and still have room to write stuff if multiple things are going on one day. I didn't use a page for a weekly break down as I just needed more of a monthly calendar and a place for notes.

Since I don't homeschool I changed mine up to fit me and my lifestyle. I need a place to dump EVERYTHING, yet have some organization to it. My only regret is not leaving another empty page after the above breakdown page for room in case of a meeting or whatever comes up. But I will just add some tabs to the back with PTO Board, Cub Scouts, Football, Work, Blog, Church, ETC and use that as my more in depth note needs.

 

(Funny side note can you see where I was working on this blog post above?)

 

So tell what you think? Also do you have any other ideas? I'm always open for anything to help me remember stuff, be more organized, etc?

 

Much Luv,

Michelle

 

PS. I would love to see your planners leave a link in the comments!

A Day In the Life of Me {not being SUPAanything}

Hey Y'all!

Here's the direct link to my post on Danielle's blog, please check it and her blog out!

Let me know what you think!

Much Luv,
Michelle

What's happening HotStuff??

Hey Ya'll!!

Do y'all know what movie the title post is referencing? A virtual $10 to the first person to guess, lol!

Here are some pictures of what we've been up to, and the how to posts will be coming next week and the week after.

This is "Tweet Tweet" I've been enjoying being able to create.

 



 

This is "Roberta" it has my favorite Robert Frost quote on it.

 

 

My self made planner - I came across this idea on another blog and I luv it!

 

 

We've been up to Cub Scouts, football and school starting to gear up, I can't believe it! I miss that summer is almost over!

 

Football camp was all last week and practices start Monday!! But we WILL have at least one more mini vacation before school starts!

 

School supplies and needs shopping has already commenced, say what?! I know it's cray-cray.

 

This past Saturday we had our yearly planning meeting for Cub Scouts, I just can not believe that its almost here!!

 

Our PTO stuff is starting to gear up too, although a bit more slowly than the rest, lol! thank you Tracy!

 

***Don't forget!! I'll be at Danielle's blog this Sunday at 1 pm, (say what?! I know!!) please come over and check it out***

 

Much Luv,

Michelle

GUESS WHAT?!?!

Hey y'all

Guess what?? I'm going to be posting over at Danielle's Blissful and Domestic this Sunday, August 3 at 1 pm.

I am so excited about being there, I luv luv luv Danielle and her blog, if you haven't checked it out you really should. She posts great ideas and ones that we can really use to stretch  your budget. This is a serious called "A Day in the Life of Her" it's a volunteer posting series, but it spoke directly to my heart when she asked for guests and what the series would be. It's about how we aren't Supermom/wife/employee (whatever just fill in the blank) and that it is OK. Actually it's more than ok, it's truthful, pull the layers back, rip the bandaid off truthful.

I've been calling it "Keeping It Real" photo drops on my Facebook. It's so nice to strip away the pretenses. So come on over and read my post on Sunday, and see my 'behind the scenes' life.

Much Luv!
Michelle

Yes our blood is blue but not for the reasons you think...

Hey Friends!

As you know we are trying to do little projects here and there to do finishing details on rooms (I say that tongue in cheek because I am NEVA finished!). So you know we moved the master upstairs right {if not, we did, I'll do a post on that later, ahem}? Well now boy child, better known as Buckaroo, will sleep upstairs {no I don't blame him I wouldn't want to sleep up there by myself either, just saying}. But we needed décor, come in posters from many, M-A-N-Y book fairs at school, and Hob Lob's famous 50% off sale for the poster frames (yes I must have frames for posters - it stems from child hood my momma wouldn't let us tack up posters with push pins too many holes in the wall and tape ruins the paint). Plus they just look nicer and feel more important. Anywho, Buckaroo's room has two windows, one normal and one well not so normal. I already had the curtain material just no confidence to make them. I have a friend that is a wonderful seamstress that can rework or make anything, enter Bonnie and her trusty side kick, her machine.

Here are the results:

Here are the bare windows (although I did have a sheet hanging up before privacy, because a) that's how this momma rolls and b) it looked better than aluminum foil {yes, I DID just say that}) before:

One thing I can't stand is to look in from a window and see unfinished looking curtains (yes I have lots of issues, ha!) so almost all my curtains are custom made double lined. Buckaroo's are no different:

Now, in reference to the post title, we at this home (as much as this momma who only watches sophomore league football because Buckaroo is playing) have Cowboys blue running through our veins. My mom in law started Hubster on it the minute he was brought home.

I have lots more in store for y'all, but we are going on vacation this week so I'm not promising anything but most likely I will have at least one more post this week.

Much Luv,
Michelle

Hey Y'all!! I'm still here and kicking.

hey yall!! I know I know I don't know why I do this to myself. I take a gazillion pictures to make a post later on but never get to it! So here is a really quick one.

We've been doing some little and BIG projects around the house and here is one:

Ok so this is the before pix - yes we had the same blinds in the big window I just didn't think about a pix until after we had it down. Hubster wouldn't rehang it for me for photo ops, wonder why?

And here is the after. I really wanted the curtains to be mounted INSIDE the windows but I could find rods that would work as the tension ones are too heavy for the length I needed for the big window. but later when trim out the windows with wood (I do NOT like bullnose edging - UGH!) hubby said he could just flatten the mounting brackets out with his vice (YAY for jack of all trades hubbies!). But I'm still in TOTAL love with them!

And here is the view as you walk up our driveway. Y'all the reason I choose this house is because of the farmhouse style of it. This is just exactly what I pictured in my head 8 years ago when we bought this place. I have some wild flower seed pads I'm going to plant this weekend in the kitchen window area (the space behind where the tree is).

I need to find a group of friends that want to publish posts but only about one or two a week so we all take turns posting (5 days a week 5 people) and still feel like we have time for our families! Any takers? Yes, I am being serious, let me know.


Much Luv,
Shell

PS. Yes that is a library chair on my front porch that has been there since we roadside rescued it (for FREE!)  a couple months ago. I'm gonna make it over for hubby but haven't gotten to it. Maybe this weekend we have freeway closures EVERYWHERE for our big Grand Parkway coming in.