Today's Win

 I awoke this morning, late for work, to discover I now have the day off. This is wonderful because I spent the weekend with my family and for the love of god I need a rest. Green Tea a hot shower and ghost TV and, of course, napping. I have been fiddling around on my computer, looking for a free or cheap photo editor. Everything I found was way too... cartoony or had so many buttons and options for things I would never use that I couldn't figure out how to use it. Then.. I found it!

DARKROOM! really cheap for some reason so I download it click start and I am on the move again. This is the program I used when I worked at the Portrait studio and I trained the new staff on how to use it and make it efficient. So off I go. I find some old photos that a photographer friend of mine had done of my daughter and added my little yweak to them. Yup I haven't lost it.

This is my rugrat having her cake at her first birthday.

So granted I don't have a great camera but where my camera lacks I can make up with proper editing equipment. So off I go to kill some time waiting for the house closing and practice with my own little munchkin. Very exciting, wish me luck!

Handmade Gifts For Boys

So I was given an impromptu vacation. This happens sometimes with child care, the family takes a vacation and you are workless until they return. Fortunately I still get paid when they take time off so I still get a little money. Fortunately, this gives me some time to finish up some gift wrapping and getting a few of my little DIY gifts complete so I am excited about that. Not to mention all this one on one time I get with the little one, (she spends most of her time playing with the boy I nanny and rarely has time for mommy.)

Now that my scarves are done, (check my last post for more on that,) I have time to get the boys fort kit done. These clever little things go for anywhere between 30 and 40 bucks. I'm not terribly certain its worth all that so on Black Friday we went out and got just the pieces. I have two nephews so everything is doubled.

I grabbed:

• Two flat sheets. (I got twin sized just because of limited space and I know their families will have old sheets that can also be used. 
• Clothes Pins (You can get a ton for very little money)
• A mini child's flashlight
• Last but not least a book to curl up with in there. (The boys are pretty big on books so we play that up where we can.)

All you really need to do is cut a piece of burlap about double the width and length of the bags the sheets came in. You just want to make sure everything is going to fit inside. Fold over the long sheet of burlap and sew the sides. Turn it right side out and there is your bag. I took another strip of burlap very narrow and pretty long. Putting slits in the top of the burlap bag to weave your 'ribbon' through as a sort of tie.

These are the pieces all pulled together.

This is the final product. I'm going to embelish the front with some paint so it says Fort Kit and tie the top again to make it look a little more polished. I will update as it becomes completed.
I hope the boys like love them and have lots of fun.

If you liked these projects follow me for more great DIY on a budget.
See you soon.

While I Was House Bound

Here in New England our winters get pretty brutal and we are all mostly used to it. It is common to lose power a few times. Well, we got hit early this year and had some down line and bitter temperatures. Regardless we cooked Thanksgiving dinner on the grill, you read that correctly, on the grill. The sides were all done on little propane camp stoves and we warmed the appetizers in ceramic dishes on the wood stove. To top it all off we had frosty cocktails and a little warming brandy to snuggle up to. All in all it was a pretty cozy evening. Even the baby didn't seem to mind since all the attention was on her and not the iPad or the TV. Anyway, since all the crummy weather came through it has been too cold to go outside so I decided to keep myself busy with some inane project. I cant really work on my furniture indoors and we are still working on the offer for the new house so I needed a relatively short project.

Crochet! Time consuming while still being productive. Well after about 45 minutes and two inches into a blanket I needed something a little more..... fun. Arm knitting seems to be the new fun thing so I figured if I do well I have holiday gifts and if I mess it up I have dog blankets. Win, win!

I am pleased to announce.... It worked beautifully and they look nice rather than like a child knotted a bunch of strings together. (I have a habit of busting out some epic pintrest fails from time to time.)

 I will warn you, as I quickly found out, one pull on one of the chains and you will never get it back in the right place so try not to let little hands grab at them. The cuff with the button was just a quick single crochet stitch with a double crochet at the end to make the hole. This thing works great for hiding the seam where the ends are stitched together. These took about 15 to 20 minutes each and together they used about 2 and a half skeins of super bulky and bulky yarn. Make sure you get the fluffy stuff to fill in the holes a little.

Any of my projects you would like to know more about feel free to message me or leave a comment. I don't mind doing tutorials if you need one. I'll be back soon with some more projects as the Christmas gifts start coming together. Thanks guys!

Food For Tiny Fingers

It's official, my daughter is 1 year old! 

We celebrated her birthday over the weekend followed by my husbands party and it went very well. This morning my husband asks me, as he is making her bottle, "Aren't we supposed to be weaning her off of these soon?" Crap, he's right. That means more finger food, relatively scheduled meals, make ahead breakfasts. (I am out of the house by 6am and home with the other little one but 7am so breakfast is already a pain.) Then I start wondering where am I going to put all these meals and tiny tupper ware containers. Well, I think I've got it.

So There are several things I pick up for my lil munchkin to eat. 
Cut up green beans, peas, carrots, broccoli chunks, any frozen or canned veggies really. Throw some in a cup and microwave or grab a small pot and toss in your veggies. Storage is simply your pantry or canned goods cabinet and they take seconds to make. Pair them with some fruit or pretzels.

I will hard boil some extra eggs and throw them back in the fridge for a pre-made breakfast or an afternoon snack.

Cook an extra chicken breast or meatballs when you make dinner. Bonus: split it with the kids and make some quesadillas for lunch or a salad and you got your lunch too with little work.

I am a big fan of chunks of block cheese with some fruit and crackers or cheerios. All very easy things to put together.

With all these little finger foods filling up the fridge and pantry I decided to throw together some Martha Stewart and Betty Crocker and up-cycled some old formula containers to use as storage.

After you pull off the label you can spray paint it with plastic paint. Then I decorated it with some washi tape. The one on the left I use for storing crafts like beads, pom poms, washi tape rolls, etc.

Using small zipper bags and mini storage you can set these up for where ever you need them. For instance one will have small bags of cheerios, (instead of bulky boxes in the pantry.) pretzles, fruit snacks, snack pouches, really anything. 

For the refigerator snacks like fruits and veggies I have small storage boxes,

The white one you see here houses small tea boxes, instant coffee and all those rogue k-cups and kool-aid packets that make such clutter in your cabinets.

One of these little guys can slide out of one side of your fridge and all your toddler to-go bags remain contained in one place.

Last thing I am trying to do more of is making foods ahead, as I mentioned cooking a little extra the night before so you are all set for lunches and snacks the next day but I also like to load up the freezer. (Depending on space you can use those containers above to hold bags of freezer food.)

I like to make french toast sticks, mini pancakes, mini muffins etc. Its a good project for a lazy Sunday when I have an extra pair of hands for the baby. You can make up a ton of them in the time it would take to make a regular breakfast and on those busy mornings you toss 'em in the oven or microwave and the kids are happy. Not to mention all that breakfast stuff will make your house smell all yummy!

A new one I want to try is yogurt bites. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and use an icing bag (or a ziplock with a hole cut in the corner.) and make dots on the paper. Freeze them and pop them into a bag for a cool summer snack.

Anyway, off I go to start cooking then off to work so my husband can clean the kitchen. ;) 

What time saving tricks do you guys have?

Jewelry Box DIY

So last week I posted the beginning stages of the jewelry box refinish project I was working on. This was sort of a trial run to see how well I did with this to determine weather or not I should attempt refinishing some old furniture. Well, despite the few touch ups I will have to do when this rainy fall is all done, it turned out beautifully. Keep in mind I have not put the poly-urethane coat on yet so it still looks a bit dry but....

 Before:

   

 Ugh, just a bit too pink for me.

After:

I also relined the drawers,

So all in all it took about two days simply because I ran out of free time and cost me about 12 bucks. Less if you already have sandpaper and or stain.
The procedure: It was really as simple as it looks. I sanded off the varnish and as much of the previous stain as possible. Then I used about three coats of ebony wood stain, took fifteen minutes. I "carefully" ripped out the pink felt lining and simply wrapped it in some contact shelving paper. Same with the cabinet walls and the stained glass front. Super glue the pieces and put them back in place. Use a small screw driver to tuck the edges back in.
Used some plastic spray paint to change the color of the carousel in the top of the cabinet. 

Screw everything back together and tada!

I am in the process of house hunting for the next couple weeks so I'm not sure when I will have time for more projects at the moment but my daughter's birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks so I guess it will have to be decorations and making goody bags. 

Mmmm, more coffee needed, off I go. Until next time.

Upcoming Projects

Ah Mondays, that oh so wonderful day that reminds us just how short the weekend is. Mondays are also my two job day and both of my morning kids are teething. Hooray! They also have discovered that they prefer solid food so I share every meal I make. All these things are manageable but my daughter has suddenly decided she doesn't like her crib anymore so when we try to put her to bed she screams bloody murder. I am hoping this is simply a phase but I will tell you, we are exhausted.

The joys of parenthood. This all being said we did have a very fun weekend at the Fair on Saturday. Daddy and the boys heard the call of the man and had to show off the tractor pull to his little girl. The sound of engines is the male mating call I think as every time you heard one in the distance the boys noses went up in the air trying to locate that particular truck like dogs trying to catch a scent. Quite comical actually.

 Me, personally, I am a bigger fan of the rides. I was a bit of a thrill seeker before  children so when my husband and best friend declined climbing into one of these rides by informing me, "These were built three days ago, I'm not climbing into that death trap." This made me think a second but decided.. Well that's part of the thrill right? All in all it was a lovely trip to the fair. Over priced food and all.

This week I have a few new projects to get working on. One of which is to look for a local Realtor. That's right! We were prequalified for a loan and we are ready to start house shopping! I am so excited I'm ready to start packing but I am aware of the home buying struggle so I am attempting to keep my radical impulses to a minimum. That I believe will be mostly e-mails and phone calls so I have room for a few more projects on my agenda. 

I found a perfect recipe for french toast sticks that are freezable so I'll be making some more of those for a quick breakfast. 

My landscaper friend gave me some tips on my little indoor garden and offered to help me build the greenhouse by the porch so looks like I'm going to have to be a little crafty. We have one of those screen tents and we never use it so I was thinking I can cut out the mesh and replace it with clear plastic sheeting. Maybe remove some squares in the roof and reinforce the plastic to prevent collapse in the event of heavy snow or rain. (Don't really need to shock the warmer plants by snow leaking in.

I have a bunch of pallets and boxes that are begging to have something built out of them. Sadly, I don't have any power tools at home so I have to wait for my husband to get home, at which point it's time for dinner and to give our daughter a bath and boom... It's our bed time. So who knows when I will get to that.

I also a few pieces of furniture that I will be sanding and re-staining, (super excited to turn an old hand me down armoir we have had for year into something modern and beautiful.) So I think this will be one of my first to begin. This project will be something I can do when the babies are sleeping. Photos and results to come.

I feel the more active I am, the more productive I am and the happier life feels.   

Where Do I Begin?

Where do I begin?

So I suppose this would be my introductory shot at blogging. I am a big fan of writing but never really got into the whole blog thing. It's sort of like I decided that blogs would be a short lived fad like online journals and tamagotchis. Alas, like the skinny jeans, I was wrong.
Anyhow, adventures as a mom and the many hats I wear in my life. I am an amateur photographer, a nanny, a mother, a wife, an outdoors woman, a prepper, a coupon clipper, a shopaholic and a variety of other hobbies I attempt everyday.
I have a beautiful daughter of my own that will be turning one in October so prepare to see lots of planning and decorating going on. I was recently married to her father, we have been together seven years now and we haven't killed each other yet and I think that is merely due to the fact that we are much too tired. I kid, we get along very well and I am super excited for the adventures we have to come. Alright enough about me, there will be lots to see later on.

Fall! It's what everyone is talking about right now. Me, I'm excited, one of the cool things about living in the northeast is that once you get sick of one season here comes another. He had had just about enough of the humidity and baking heat and boom. It's fifty degrees in the morning. So I couldn't wait to get the simmering potpouri on the stove. Find a fun burlap project with some leftover scraps I had laying around.

Maybe even make some of those cool luminaries I keep seeing on Pintrest.

I had lots of left over material from my recent wedding, such as tulle and mason jars. The wreath was my husbands idea and I just loved it, which is ironic because he is forever making fun of my Pintrest escapades. 

Anyhow, today my attentions have been turned to rearranging my house so I suppose I ought to get back to putting the living room back together and get the kids fed and off the their homes. As I encounter more adventures I will share them with you all as well as some experiences that I love to reminisce about. Until next time...