Friday, March 11, 2011

Keeping it real

Today, my bloggy friend Jennifer Juniper posed the question ~ are you keepin' it real?

I've seen this very topic blogged about before and know one blogger who has a weekly link up to "picture me {im}perfectly"

Anyway, the whole point is to share your mess.

As bloggers, we tend to just show the things that are pretty and pleasing to the eye.

But is that really how we live?

If you do, I admit I am a bit jealous. However, the fact that there are dishes on the counter and  toys on the floor make me smile (um.. as long as I am not stepping on them).  Because for me it means, I have spared moments of cleaning and perfecting to do the things I enjoy ~ playing with the kids, spending time with my hubby and friends, working out, creating, planning........

Today Jennifer challenged us to keep it real, to show the messes in your life ~ to not stage, to not be fake, to be yourself.

Here are my messes of the morning:


Hello dishes that either need to get washed 
(umm... yes, that is my wine glass from last night) 
or get put away



Oh messy, messy mud room ~ you are the first room I see when I walk in the house and between the coats, boots and laundry, you do not make me smile :)

(and no my walls are not purple, although they look like it???)



And my lovely guest room/clothes line ~ luckily you are not needed until next weekend, 
but I will clean it sooner if anyone wants to come and stay :)

Today, I'm keepin' it real!  

Are you?



Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Sassy and her 544.......


I've mentioned before  that my Sassy girl loves to read.

She doesn't just love to read, she LOVES to read.

Friday she came home from school with this book


by: Brian Selznick

 


She was finished reading it come Monday.


All 544 pages of it.






54.  Reorganizing
55.  that I am able to help
56.  A sequined deal :)
57.  The help of my parents
58.  A dinner invitation
59.  A day of nothing

Monday, March 7, 2011

Centerpieces ~ All 24 of them

If you read my blog, you already know that I was co-chair of a fundraiser.  If you don't, I was :) (you can click here or here to see/here more)

Anyway, I had ordered some centerpieces online,  for our event.  After I ordered all 24 of them (for a FABULOUS price)  I received an order confirmation and everything seemed good to go.  That is until I received a phone call a week and a half later (about the day I expected them to arrive) from the company telling me they no longer had them in stock.

UMMMM WHAT!!!!!!!  

This was about 3 weeks before our event.  Not much time to 1. find anything substantial for a super price (we had about $0 to work with, and the ones I had ordered were 12" tall, Hollywood themed fountains for .96¢ each) and 2. order them and get them delivered in time.

What's a girl to do?

Enter smallish boxes (think kid's shoe boxes, kleenex boxes and girl scout cookie boxes)



A few trips to the Dollar Store
Spray Paint
and
GLITTER


(DISCLAIMER ~ I did a poor job taking pictures of the process, 
as I was trying to get them finished as quickly as possible)


I started by cutting holes into the bottoms of the boxes if they didn't already have holes (kleenex boxes) or were already open (shoe boxes).

Then I wrapped each box with wrapping paper  ~ since our theme was Hollywood, I used gold, silver and black (8 boxes of each color)

Once the box was wrapped, using a small blade, I cut a small  on the top of the box  (you'll see why in a bit)

Once all my boxes had holes in the bottom, were wrapped and a small star cut in the top, it was time to accessorize them.

Here's what I used:



feathers
black plastic table cloths (clearance at target ~ otherwise I was going to use black tissue paper and I think the table cloths ended up working better!)
gold and silver mylar tissue paper
red cellophane
star garland
decorative grass (it did have some substance to it)
spray paint
glitter
black, gold and silver stars (some I cut out of card stock, some I purchased) glued onto the bamboo skewers painted in the same color
Silver garland
Black, gold and silver pipe cleaners

First I spray painted the grass ~ I painted some silver, some gold, and some black.  When the spray paint was wet, I sprinkled them like crazy with glitter.

Then, I cut the tissue paper, table cloths, and cellophane into squares (or rectangles, whatever ). For each  box, I used about 4 squares and alternated the colors.  Once I layered them, I grabbed the pile by the center and pushed it through the shape on the top of the box.

Then it was time to add the bling.

For most of them I inserted a star (attached to a painted bamboo skewer), and added some of the glittered grass.  Then depending on the box, I usually decorated the box with some type of garland or feathers.

Here are a bunch of them line up on the tops of my kitchen cabinets:





After I took these pictures I actually added some more bling to them.

I was worried about running out of materials, but once I had them all made, I went through and added more grass and garland.  After all, our event was held in a school gym, so I wanted some substance, and we were working with a Hollywood theme ~ the more bling the better :)

Here are the centerpieces at work:




Ok, that has to be the longest tutorial in the history of centerpiece tutorials!


Anyway, These looked fabulous (way better in person) and could EASILY be adapted for ANY party theme.  






Tip Junkie handmade projects





Sunday, March 6, 2011

Something to Think About Sunday


"if you love somebody better tell them so 
'cuz you never ever ever no when they gonna go, 
if they love you back, just give thanks, 
can't keep love like money in the bank.


Life in the City 
by:
Michael Franti and Spearhead




Saturday, March 5, 2011

Wishful Thinking

The other morning, I was trying to get out the door with Smiley to go to the health club.

The temperature as we were about to leave was this:


I asked her to go and get her shoes on so we could leave.

She came out of the mud room with these:


and these:


I finally convinced her she needed boots 
Snowboots ~ NO
Rainboots .....  whatever :)

(She was still crabbing for her flip flops and began to try to shove both of her feet into one boot)


Finally the boots were on and it was time to convince her to put on her hat.

Backwards....

I don't care, it's on :)


Then she went back to her cubby to get her......

She should be getting her coat.

(Love the pony tail sticking out from the back of the backwards hat ~ at least her ears are covered.)


Nope, just to be a little stinker she had to put on another 

HAT.

Because it was so fun to convince her to put the first one on.


Oh Spring and your warmer temperatures,
where are you?





49.  warm temperatures ~ even if they are short lived
50.  quiet work
51.  The excitement of a sibling slumber party
52.  The men who have led our country
53.  our snowblower

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Embrace the Camera


Remember when I asked all of you for your suggestions regarding what movie star couple hubby and I should dress up as? 

You all came through :)

I heard a lot of 
Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck
Sara Palin and her hubby
and
Ben and Jen

In the end it was decided, along with the couple we were co-chairing the fundraising event with that we would just dress up and not as someone in particular (the theme was Hollywood).

So here are Hubby and I 

7am

Sunday Morning



Nothing like sequins at 7 :)






Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Hello... Any IDOL dorks out there????

Here is the dealio....

My friend, the one and only Jennifer Juniper from Hope Studios and I have formed our very own American Idol Fantasy league.  Weird, NO!  We are not weird!  We just know how to have a good time :)

See here were are judging the contestants:


Man we're hot (in a creepy weird sort of way)!

Anyway, now all we need are a few good players!

And like her darling hubby, "The big guy" mine is also not allowed to play!  

Why?  He makes fun of me for watching,  while he prefers to watch boring stuff like sports or Fox News.  And even when did watch (as in, when he was forced to because I was completely in control of the remote and he wanted to hang out with me), he could not focus on the music because he was too busy going coo coo for 

Miss Pia  Toscano

and Miss Julie Zorrilla


Really, he just can't be trusted to judge music!



ANYWAY, I hope you come over to fantasy land with us!

VOTING STARTS TONIGHT, so hurry up and
Send me an e-mail at
ordinarymol@hotmail.com
then, I will get you the link and instructions to sign up!

***Oh, and one more thing... it is completely free to sign up and the grand prize for winning? 
Pride! 
 Pure Pride :) ***