A Few of My Favorite Things: Home Edition

I recently was given a china cabinet from my mom. It has very quickly become one of my favorite pieces of furniture! C was worried, (and legitimately so), that it was going to become a messy catch all. I am not an organized person by any means, so of course it's had its messy days, however its the one item I seem to keep cleaning and reorganizing. I just took all of my Christmas decorations down  this week, so that meant I got to redecorate it again! I thought I'd share it with you.

The star was a Christmas gift from my 13 year old nephew who made it out of Saguaro ribs. Also, one of my favorite items! 

I love living in Central Phoenix and one of the perks is the old houses. We live in a house that was built in the 30's, and love it! We've talked about moving and looked at new homes, but they just don't have the old charm that this house has. Of course, it would be nice to have some of the amenities that go with a new home... like a dishwasher. :) Here are 2 things I love about our old home: 

Isn't that cool?

Our Beautiful front door. I know, its just a door, but it has so much character and totally reminds me of  cyclops with a mustache. Being an AZ girl, I have to point out the copper piece in the window. 

Last year my oldest nephew made us this for Christmas:

I'm not sure what it's called, but he said this is how people used to make guitars- he tuned it and everything! I love it! 

And here's another gift- from my brother. He made them for Albs; they are Sesame Street records that he framed. So cool and such a great idea! 

And then there's this:

C traced this saucy vixen and painted her one day when she was feeling artistic. At first I was not super crazy about her (the vixen), but that's when we had white walls. Now that we have super bright walls, she actually fits in and I love it! 

I wanted to share my excitement for my China cabinet, and show you some of the things that help give our small, old home character. While doing this post I realized that the boys in my family are good gift givers! I need to step up my game! 

Thanks for stopping by, hope you're having a great week! 

Tuesday Silliness

 I was a little stressed out this morning, due to lack of sleep and a sick little boy, but these made me smile so I wanted to pass them on...

I'm a sucker for bad puns and for overalls...purrfect! 

(I couldn't help it)

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I also saw this awesome giveaway from Cougar Town and an app called Drync. 

http://www.drync.com/cougartown

The giveaways are closed for today, but they are giving away 2 bottles of wine to 350 people a day until 01/13/14. I'll be entering this tomorrow morning! Let me know if you enter and win, I'm rooting for you! 

*Disclaimer- I have not used the Drync app at all and just learned of it today. I'd love to hear any feedback if any of you have used this app. 

Have a great week! 

Morning Routine

This morning I reflected on our morning routine and I have to say, I have a sweet life! Albert and I get up and I put on a pot of coffee, get him a cup of milk (this morning it was half almond milk, half whole milk and some chocolate syrup) and then make us some toast. Albert enjoys his toast, with fruit and sometimes cereal while watching PBS and I enjoy my coffee while reading blogs and articles online. Of course there are interruptions and it usually only lasts about an hour, but I get about an hour to enjoy my coffee and toast! There are some days that I feel guilty about not working and staying home with our little man, but I have more days and moments, when I am so thankful that I get to stay home with this kid! He's pretty much the Cat's Pajamas! 

Anyways, here are 2 articles that made me happy. Silly? Yes, but so am I, so happy reading!  

I've got adoption on the brain! http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/13-famous-people-who-were-adopted.htm#page=0

I have an irrational fear of natural disasters. Living in Arizona is perfect for me because we don't have tornadoes, hurricanes, or earthquakes, however we do have some pretty wicked lightning storms. This article made my cup of coffee even better! http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/01/02/22143525-lightning-strikes-killed-fewer-americans-than-ever-in-2013

Also, check out this blog! http://www.733blog.com/ the free printable section caught my eye! 

Looking forward!

2013 was an incredible year for us! We met our little boy, fell in love with him and are now blessed to be called his moms! It has been an incredible ride and more than I could have ever asked for!
 I have never really made New Year resolutions before, however this year I have a few things I would like to accomplish:

1.) I would like to travel a lot more. San Francisco, Tennessee and Maui are at the top of my list, but I also want to visit more of beautiful Arizona. I love the desert, forest and canyons and need to see more! We are constantly trying to support local, so that should include our travels.
b.) I want to shed some pounds. Drop some weight. Adios the love handles...I think you get the picture.
3.) I want to make things. I sometimes get intimidated by crafting ideas so I don't even try. This year I'd like to try some of those ideas- even if it means I'll fail.
4.) More time with my family and best gal pal.

Also,  I'm looking forward to a very big event this year:

ADOPTION!! Hopefully we will be adopting our little man very soon!

Do you have any New Years Resolutions this year? If so, what are they?

Pinterest Success!

 Yesterday, while on a cleaning frenzy, I was able to test one of the "uses for everyday items you never knew about" theories. You know, there are multiple pins out there with crazy ideas like applying salt to mosquito bites for relief or using dryer sheets for everything from cleaning water spots to curing the bird flu. I decided to try using toothpaste to clean crayon marks off of the wall. In the past, I have not been able to get the red marks off, so I figured I had nothing to lose but a little bit of toothpaste. I applied the toothpaste to the crayon marks and let it sit for about ten minutes then wiped it off with a warm, wet cloth. It worked!! I had to put in a little elbow grease, but the marks are gone! I was so excited! I read that it had to be toothPASTE and not a gel, so that's what I used...I wonder if the gel would work the same? Have any of you tried using the gel or any other of these theories?

Upcycled Leg Warmers

Hello! Less than a week until Christmas and of course, I'm just still working on some of the presents. This was so easy and fun for me because I got to embroider (yay!). I had a sweater that no longer fits me, but I just love it and its over sized buttons, so I decided to make leg warmers out of the sleeves. I've never done this before so it was a trial and error for me... I used a seem ripper to remove the first sleeve from the shoulder area , but once I got it completely off I realized It was an odd shape and I had to cut it.  I simply cut the second sleeve off starting at the arm pit seem and cutting a straight line up. It was much faster and looked the same as the other one.

 This is what the sleeves looked like after I cut them off. You can see the raw edge where they were cut...it's not cute at all and honestly reminded me of 80's gym attire :) I sent a picture to my mom who suggested I do a blanket stitch on top to church it up a little. If you don't know how to do a blanket stitch, you can watch this tutorial here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXkSE2TTF4ss it is a very simple stitch and very cute. I picked a peachy color of embroidery floss that I already had.  Again, this was trial and error for me- I tried to do the blanket stitch on the raw edge and it just didn't look good at all. I found it was much easier and looked much nicer after I folded the edge over, pinned it in place and then did the blanket stitch. Once I finished the embroidery, I removed two of the buttons from the sweater and sewed them on with the embroidery floss. I was very happy with the outcome and hope the recipient of this gift will be too!

Now I've got to decide if I'm going to use the left over sweater for an ugly sweater party or attempt to make boot cuffs out of it. Every time I look at it I just wanna throw on a mullet wig and rock this at a party! 

Thanks for stopping by and if I don't post again before Christmas, then I hope you have a wonderful holiday surrounded by people you love. 

My Favorite Wreath

I was a little later at getting my Christmas decorations out this year. I finally have the inside of my house all decorated, and need to do the outside lights. However, the first thing I put up this year was my wreath. I love wreaths and love putting them on my door for every season, but THIS wreath is my favorite. Last year I wasn't happy with the one from the year before and I really wanted to use some old lights that my mom gave me. I found an old bike tire in our back yard and thought it would be the perfect wreath and even better it was free! I used some of old ornaments my mom gave me to church it up a little and this is the outcome.

There is even still dirt on the old tires. 

This is not a super bright and crazy wreath, but its different and it fits our personalities so well! 

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from my family to yours!