Follow the yellow brick road

I'd like to once again thank the creators of Picmonkey for giving us an editing site that is so incredibly easy to use and reminiscent of its former counterpart which is now deceased and rhymed with Schmicnic.

Because of Picmonkey, I'm able to take this picture:

and turn it into this picture:

which is clearly more authentic since we all know the bricks were really yellow. Never mind that a few of our sidewalk bricks are especially dingy and look a little black. Just ignore those.

I took this pic of my girl on her birthday and it totally defines what she's into at the moment. I need to blow this up poster-size and frame it immediately.

Like, right now.

But this post isn't really about Picmonkey, although it is complete and total awesomesauce. It's about the fact that I am in party.planning.mode. In the party 'zone', if you will. I've made lists of things to make, lists of things to buy, lists of recipes to find, lists of things to sew. Hello, my name is Mary Kathryn and I'm a list maker. I am so stinkin excited about putting this party together that it's like having a Christmas in May. That's right. If you want to give me a present, just ask me to throw a themed party. Dina and I would totally be BFF's if we knew each other. Totally.

If you follow me on Pinterest, you've probably noticed that I've been pinning

Oz-ness like crazy. You can check out my party board HERE, but I wanted to share a few of my favorite ideas that I'm planning to use for the girls' party. And yes, that's plural because we'll be celebrating both our girlies at this party since they are both major Wizard of Oz fans at the moment, and they also happen to have birthdays 13 days apart.

I love the party favor baskets that Kate found at Michael's:

Source: mykidseatoffthefloor.blogspot.com via Mary Kathryn on Pinterest

(from my kids eat off the floor)

Love the yellow bulletin board paper turned yellow brick road for this party:

Source: catchmyparty.com via Mary Kathryn on Pinterest

(from catch my party)

Love these apple tree centerpieces I found on Kara's party ideas:

Source: karaspartyideas.blogspot.com via Mary Kathryn on Pinterest

Love these Louboutin's:

Source: weheartit.com via Mary Kathryn on Pinterest

Oh wait, how'd those get in there?

Back to the parties...

The absolute most spare-no-dime-on-the-party-and-send-all-the-guests-home-with-a-truckload-of-stuff would have to be this one:

Source: karaspartyideas.blogspot.com via Mary Kathryn on Pinterest

Not only is it beautifully styled, but each of the party guests went home with a Dorothy dress, a pair of ruby slippers, a stuffed lion, tinman, scarecrow, and Dorothy, a stuffed Toto in a basket, and, hmmmm... I've probably left something out. You'll just have to see it for yourself, and know this: while we won't be sending everyone home with a duffle bag full of Oz swag, the bar has been set very very high and I'm going to do my best as a mother and a human to at least reach some level of amazingness akin to this party. As God as my witness....

And good gravy please tell me you noticed the party guests plates were each on a piece of tree trunk. Sheesh.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some party prep to attend to. And please, for the love, someone buy me those shoes cause I needs em.

Love day inspiration and a lil' secret

Happy Thursday friends!

If you haven't already, I urge you to take a moment and educate yourself about new legislation regarding the internet. This video is the best I've seen explaining the details.

Make your voice be heard.

Now, onto other matters at hand.

Like "love" day.

Like, "really wish I could go on a date with my hubs and no kids" day.

Like, "haha....that's not gonna happen" day.

I digress.

Of course, Valentine's Day is a day to celebrate those you love, not that you shouldn't do this EVERYDAY, but Hallmark is counting on you to celebrate on THIS day more than others. And really, it's hard to resist pink and red lovelies strewn about your mantel and door and where ever else it is you like to strew lovelies, because....well,....it's pretty. Today I want to share some of my V-day crafts from last year as well as some of the brilliance I've seen on the internets as of late.

First up is my "made from junk I found in my house" heart wreath:

wreath tutorial HERE

Foyer decor from 2011

Links to printable vintage V-day cards, 'Love one another' printable, and subway art printables all found in THIS post.

Love canvas tutorial HERE

And now, some of my faves from the internets:

FREE printable patterns.

SO many uses...

Source: hostessblog.com via Mary Kathryn on Pinterest

Free V-day printable:

Source: proclamationpictures.blogspot.com via Mary Kathryn on Pinterest

Such a clever way to make an envelope- perhaps out of free printable paper?

Source: fortyweeksandthensome.blogspot.com via Mary Kathryn on Pinterest



You know that I love some book page crafts. This would be so easy-peezy:

Source: luxefinds.com via Mary Kathryn on Pinterest

Fabulous Valentine printable suitable for giving to your sweeties:

Source: onecharmingparty.com via Mary Kathryn on Pinterest

and an uber-simple paper chain made of hearts:
may have to string one of these up in my classroom...

Source: mangomommycrafts.blogspot.com via Mary Kathryn on Pinterest

(these and other fabulous Valentine's day crafts can be found on my

Pinterest board.)

Now, for a lil' secret...

an editor of this website contacted me yesterday.

I almost peed my pants.

Don't know details of when it will happen, but they've asked if they could share something I made.

I told them I'd have to think about it.

Just kidding.

I answered with a giddy 'yes'.

Will share more when I have the deets.

Adieu for now my friends!

9 things from my weekend

1. Yesterday, E wore panties ALL.DAY.LONG. with no accidents. I was even brave enough to take her out, away from the comforts of our house and her little pink potty seat. Super Girl was amazing and she made it through an hour and a half of running errands with not even a drop of tee on her princess undies. This is one proud mamma who's not afraid to admit that she's already dreaming of what she could put that diaper moolah towards now that we'll only be buying half as many....

2. I got hooked on Downton Abbey over the weekend. Do you watch? It's a Masterpiece Classics production on PBS and it's amazeballs. Seriously. If you're not watching, you should be. Season 1 is now on Netflix so I watched the first 5 episodes Saturday & Sunday and then cheated and watched parts of the first 2 episodes of season 2 while also keeping up with the Golden Globes Sunday night. The writing/directing is superb and if sleep was something I could do without, I'd have finished the entire season already. The show won the globe for best television mini-series and airs Sunday nights on PBS.

pssst- just realized you can view full episodes of season 2 for a limited time on the link above. Don't jump ahead if you've not seen season 1 though-
do as I say, not as I do.

3. I read the first page to Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 5 times over the weekend. That is all.

4. I took the Christmas cards off of the cabinets and the Christmas wreath off of the front door yesterday. MEH, however, is still on the roof.

5. I cooked. Actual food. In the crockpot and in the oven. Can you even believe it? No microwave involved. I've been pinning recipes like crazy but never actually used any until Saturday. We had this for dinner:

Source: myrecipes.com via Mary Kathryn on Pinterest

this for dessert:

Source: eatatallies.com via Mary Kathryn on Pinterest

and these while we watched the Globes:

Source: jennasjourneyblog.blogspot.com via Monica on Pinterest

I also made the Zaxby's sauce from the recipe on Pinterest and goshgollygee is it good. All of the recipes above can be found on my recipes board HERE, and just for the record, crescent rolls are my new BFF.

6. While watching the Golden Globes, E came running towards me with a distressed look on her face. She started crying, saying that she needed to poo-poo, but once she was within 3 feet of me I could already smell it. The poor girl was beside herself over the fact that she'd pooped in her princess panties, and really- who could blame her. I'd be distressed if I'd pooped in my panties too. We all would. I calmly but somewhat hysterically asked her where she was when she'd done the deed, knowing that if she'd been sitting on a white bedspread in her room, chances are some poop could've squished from the sides, but then...

I saw it.

And friends, lemme tell ya, I've never been so happy to see something like this before.

Rabbit pellet poo.

On the floor behind her,

down the hall to her bedroom,

in her bedroom floor,

and then all over the bathmat when we took those soiled princess undies off.

If you're a parent, or a human, you know rabbit pellet poo.

It's small, round, and hard, which makes it super easy to pick up- should you ever have to.

So there I was, watching the second most prestigious awards show of the season with all this glitz and glamour oozing from the screen and walking along, picking up rabbit pellet poo.

Our little Super Girl still won't poo in the potty. Number ones all day long in the loo, but no number twos.

7. I feel as though I've blogged about E way more than my other kiddos lately, and I have- what with all this potty training and whatnot. I'll have to correct that soon.

8. I'm working on lots of new goodies for the shop. Pics to come.

9. I have to share my faves from the Golden Globes and also tell you that I think a couple of my twitter friends nailed it when they said that Tilda Swinton looked like she was channeling David Bowie. What would we do without the Tilda's and the Bjork's to liven up the awards shows, hmmm?

My fave of the evening was Kate Itshouldbeillegaltobethisgorgeous Beckinsale:

(yes, that's her real middle name in case you wondered)

also loved Emma, Heidi, and Debra,

as well as:

Viola, Kristen, Sofia, and Kate.

And now, for those I lovingly refer to as the crazies who really give us something to talk about:

all photos found here and here

Tilda Swinton a.k.a. David Bowie

Jessica Biel in a 1980's promslashwedding dress

Kelly Osbourne as a futuristic Jeston's-ish mermaid

and Madonna in one glove and a dress that was just...heinous.

Who were your bests and worsts of the evening?
Or are you not an award show junkie?
Have you ever had to pick up poo before, or is it just me?

Do tell....

A Pinteresting Chalkboard

I mentioned in Monday's post that I was able to mark a few things off the ole'

 to-do list over the weekend and I wanted to share a couple of those today. I also wanted to be able to link up with Sherry and Katie (as well as the other hostesses, Ana and Erin) because I think they're the bees knees and whatnot. They announced last week they'd be hosting a

'Pinterest Project' link-up today, and well-

I love Pinterest and link-ups like I love salad dressing and QVC.

Capiche?

My inspiration was a simple kitchen chalkboard, like this:

via Pinterest, via lemonademakinmama.com

Since it's been on my to-do list for quite a while now, you can imagine my excitement when I happened upon this beauty a few weeks back while thrifting-

The price tag stated that it cost a whopping 14.95,

however,

a thick wooden frame measuring in at an impressive 26" by 32" was well worth the hefty thrift store price tag to me. Not to mention the fact that it also came with a perfectly nice piece of glass.

hahaha...

I just said, "nice piece of glass".

Sorry.

I also had another project I wanted to check off of my list at the same time as the chalkboard, ya know- kinda like a two-fer?

I got this filing cabinet for free from my friend Melanie by way of bartering.

Is that what we did Mel?

Bartered?

Goods for goods?

I took the picture apart first and grabbed the can of chalkboard spray paint I'd bought the day before at Homey D's. Since my nice piece of glass didn't take too long to cover, I was able to put two coats of the stuff on it in less than 10 minutes.

For the filing cabinet, I grabbed some primer that I already had on hand-

and quickly ran out it before I even had 3 sides covered. Since Homey D's is closer to the Mathews residence than Michael's, I ended up with Rust-oleum's primer to finish the job. I'm including this incredibly dull part of this makeover story to say that Rust-oleum's claim on the can to,

"cover 2x more than the other guys"

is absolutely true. Not only did it go a lot further than my can of Krylon, but it also went on much smoother. I mean, does anyone really like streakage?

After fixin' up some fine Boston butt sandwiches for the fam's lunch (thanks Kara!) and putting the kiddos down for a nap, I began the long, tedious task of turning that filing cabinet into one huge honkin' chalkboard. The process took 4, yes FOUR cans, and I think I may have inhaled at least half of one of those. I was also so excited to get started that I neglected to put gloves on and subsequently ended up with a black thumb and finger:

After putting the first two coats of chalkboard paint on the cabinet, the girls were awake and my painting came to a screeching halt. It was just as well though because they needed adequate dry time, so...

I picked up again on Sunday after church. After a 3rd coat of paint on the cabinet, it looked like this-

Yes it looks a bit uneven, but the chalkboard paint was a booger at times. It did NOT go on as evenly as it's primer cousin.

No. No it did not.

Perhaps because it's not regular paint?

Who knows.

After a 3rd coat onto the piece of glass, it looked like this-

And no worries-

those dark spots were just wet.

They totally dried.

By Sunday, I was also wise to the goodness of gloves.

I just so happened to have a pair of lovely pink plastics under my sink.

See that black finger? All went on the glove this time.

As per the instructions on the can, I waited til both pieces were dry as a bone, took some chalk, turned it on its side, grabbed my 6-year old, and we got to chalkin' up that cabinet.

I let him go crazy at the bottom because, why not?

I also chalked up that nice piece of glass, threw it back in its frame that I'd painted white, and that my friends was the birth of our very own kitchen chalkboard:

Here's a closer look at this week's menu.

You're more than welcome to join us.

As for the filing cabinet,

she ended up nestled in next to my craft cabinet where I promptly slapped a basket o' fabric on top and some numbers on the front.

I know you're probably wondering why I'd take the time to paint that sucker with 3 coats of chalkboard paint when I can't even see 3 sides of it...

I wasn't exactly sure where it would end up.

Our broken and much-too-small 2-drawer cabinet lives in the man cave, and quite frankly, hubs didn't like it in there. Messed with the 'cave' vibe I guess. So, she ended up in the corner of the dining room which is not ideal, but when you've got no craft room slash office-

you do whatcha gotta do.

SO-

did any of YOU participate in the Pinterest challenge?

I can't wait to see what everyone else links up-

and by the by, I feel I must mention the fact that our school's server now BLOCKS Pinterest from our computers.

Do they realize they've stripped me of my lunchtime activity??

And do they even realize what a valuable resource Pinterest is for teachers?

I'm serious here-

thousands of great links and websites on there to enhance their child's education, but they TAKE IT AWAY.

sorry for the rant.

I guess I'm just afraid to see what they'll take next.

Here's hoping YOU have full access to the inspiration that awaits, and if you're not on Pinterest yet,

what are you waiting for?

If you need an invite, let me know-

I pass them out like candy on Halloween.

p.s.- this post is also linked to the Weekend Wrap-up at Tatertots and Jello

Happy Wednesday!

Now there's two studs in the bedroom

First off, thank you SO much for all of your kind words about my new venture. I'm pretty excited myself and have already made several sales, and for that I am SO grateful. God has provided a wonderful way to sell stuff to the internets for those of us who, well.... just can't seem to stop making stuff. And no, I didn't list any of my other goods yesterday because a) it wasn't prime picture taking weather, and b) I played with my kids instead. Maybe today...
Now- onto the subject at hand.

yup.

that's right.

hubs is no longer the only stud in the master these days.

meet Moe:

Ever since I developed a love for white ceramic animals, I've had my eye on this guy. We have this blank wall space in between the two closets in the master that was screaming out for....something. I could've gone the way of the ever popular sunburst mirror, but I couldn't get Moe outta my head.

Why Moe?

 Couldn't say.

He just seemed like a Moe to me...

So, I'd love to know-

The whole deer head/antler trend going on right now-

are you yay or nay?

for or against?

friend or foe?

amigo or, ummm...el enemio?

(Laura, you'll have to tell me what enemy is en Espanol)

For some of my favorite examples of deer head/antler use, please observe the following:

via abodelove.blogspot.com

As part of a gallery wall?

Yes.

Gawgeous.

via meohmymama.blogspot.com

Above an ikat bookcase from IKEA?

Oh yes.

Beautiful antlerage + organization= fabulousness

in my opinion

And here's my favoritest example of all time,

and yes I know favoritest is not a word.

Sometimes you just need to use it when something is so awesome.

via bowerpowerblog.com

The nursery that Katie designed for her offspring.

Now, tell me-

doesn't that white deer look amazing on that pallet wall?

Love it.

I mean, love. it.

So- what's the concensus?

 Love it or leave it?

Because I'm lovin' mine...

It's a craft fair and Ima have a BOOTH y'all

I've always wanted to go to one of the craft fairs I read about in blogs.

I dream of how I would set up my own booth,

with lovelies and pretties galore.

I even created a board on Pinterest to collect inspiration pics,

so when my Aunt told me about a craft fair in town this weekend,
and
"Would I like to have a booth?"
I said 'yes' faster than the Missoni goods flew off the shelves at Target.

Here's the info for the fair, and while I know a lot of you are not in town,
many of you are,
so,
please come.
Pretty, pretty please.
There will be lots of pretties and lovelies to see and buy,
not to mention all the yumminess that will be there to eat.

yes, I put this on my fridge and snapped a pic because I don't know how to work my scanner.
What of it?

I'll be posting pics throughout the week of things I'll be selling in my booth. Right now, my head is so full of what I WANT to make and I have SO MANY ideas floating around that sometimes I exhaust myself just thinkin' about it. I plan and plan and plan, but don't actually leave enough time to DO what I've planned. Friends, episode 35. Anyone? Anyone?

Here's a little taste of what's on my craft fair board-
p.s.- have any of you ever attended one of these?
Do any of you go to these to sell your lovelies?
I'd love to know.

Source: kirstyfish.blogspot.com via Mary on Pinterest

Source: thefinderskeepers.com via Mary on Pinterest

Source: ohhellofriendblog.com via Mary on Pinterest

Source: ohhellofriendblog.com via Mary on Pinterest

Friday inspiration via Pinterest

happy Friday friends!

Thought I'd send a little inspiration your way today via Pinterest.

You can find my boards HERE.

Source: jesustotheworld.tumblr.com via Mary on Pinterest

Source: etsy.com via Mary on Pinterest

Source: quadrangleme.tumblr.com via Mary on Pinterest

Source: flickr.com via Mary on Pinterest

Source: modernemotive.com via Mary on Pinterest

Source: weheartit.com via Mary on Pinterest

Source: icanrelate.info via Mary on Pinterest

Source: media.photobucket.com via Mary on Pinterest

Source: typeverything.com via Mary on Pinterest

Have a lovely weeken