oh are ee oh

Anybody want a cookie?

The girls are loving these, even though one has a bite missing.

Low in calories, high in fun.

weeds at the park

I'm being an ADD crocheter right now. About half-way through a giraffe and wanting to make play food now instead. And then there's Quintin the over-grown baby blue bird who needs only a few feathers atop his head. *sigh* I'll get back to them soon, I promise!

more hair pretties

For my sister's birthday, I made these:

Although her birthday was earlier in the week, I haven't given them to her yet.

Why?

Oh, because she's been on a fancy European vacation.

And she gets home today.

I'm only a liiiiiittle jealous.

Love you, Sissy.

PS the adorable model is my Mikay

cold

It's super cold here. So yesterday I made chicken and rice soup, from scratch. And sugar cookies. Although the soup was very, very good, I only took a picture of the cookies. I used my mom's recipe. They are the best I've ever had, hands down. Doug told me over Christmas that I was a lucky child, indeed, if I grew up eating those cookies. He's right. I tried to call my mom to ask about sharing the recipe but was unable to get a hold of her. I'll keep trying, but in the meantime, enjoy the pic... mmmm...

Field Trip!

So ... here's a new to me idea, blog field trips! Jax from Aly&Ash and I swapped blogs for the day. I love her blog, she's so crafty! Today I'm posting over there, how super generous of her! Aaaaand without further ado, here she is:

Crochet Flowers & Card Making

Hi I'm Jax from Aly&Ash! I'm excited to be posting over here today! Today I wanted to show you some adorable flowers my mom made me recently for card making! The center are brads which make attaching to cards easy peasy!

Aren't they adorable!
Here are a few examples of cards I've made using them!

The stems and leaves I just hand stitched with a little embroidery floss!
Well thanks for letting me guest post today! Come by Aly&Ash to check out other cool crafts plus a week of Father's Day gift ideas! Here are a few of my recent favorites!

www.alyandash.com

the year of the water bottle sling

turns out that's what everyone is getting from us/me. if you're on the list, please pretend to be surprised!

end of the year teacher gifts

For our teachers this year I made water bottle slings, except for Birdie's 3 male teachers. For them, she made chocolate chip cookies.

This year brought new things into our lives:

Children in two different schools; one in jr. high, three in elementary.

All kids gone all day.

Our baby learned to read.

Our oldest earned a national math award.

And became a teenager.

Also some not new, but still exciting things:

State projects

County projects

Art projects

Field trips

Spelling tests

Math tests

And always, of course:

Teachers who give of themselves with their motive being making better the lives of children.

Perhaps my favorite moment of the school year was about a month ago when I picked Birdie up one day and asked, "What was your favorite thing you did today?"

Her answer came thoughtfully, "Probably the test we took in algebra."

We've been blessed.

shelves, after

Remember my $4 thrift store shelves before? If not, I'll remind you:

Ugly, no?

How about now? ...

We started by removing the back, then we washed and sanded everything. I bought the paint at Walmart. The shelves are Mediterranean Teal and the back is Jalapeno (though I've never seen a real jalapeno this color, it looks more like a banana pepper to me).

I love the arches and poles (columns? sticks? what would you call those?)