An afternoon at our house

usually involves a costume.

It may also involve riding a bike with a Star Wars character.

Just maybe.

It might also involve a mommy and daddy, sitting together on a metal glider, who are so grateful for the little people playing in the driveway.

And for the gorgeous day.

And for the fact that they both happen to be home at the same time.

And then maybe,

just maybe,

those little people might ask to play in the water,

and the mommy and daddy will oblige.

One of the little people may also ask to strip down to their skivvies so as not to get their Dorothy dress wet.

And the others will probably want to do the same.

And before long,

the mommy and daddy will have 3 very muddy little people to take inside,

and hose off bathe,

and feed,

and tuck into bed.

And what a lovely afternoon that will be to reflect on.

(happy thursday friends)

recent pics of the kiddos and a bit of craziness

It's been a while since I've posted any recent pictures of all of the kiddos and I just so happened to have captured quite a few blog-worthy ones recently, so

here goes.

*****

Also,

while I happened to be checking my blog stats yesterday,

I thought I'd also check to see what kinds of searches were landing people on my blog. I don't do this very often, so you can imagine my shock when I saw this list on the screen:

Mathews Family Happenings-

yup, that'll take you to my blog.

Behr asparagus-

that's the color of our walls.

definitely mentioned it on the blog several times.

cricut projects-

got tons of those.

pennant banner target-

does a day go by when I DON'T mention Target?

big booty in music studio-

what whaty in WHAT?

when have I EVER mentioned a big booty in a music studio?

hmmm?

If I have, and I've just forgotten, please let me know.

That would mean I'm losing my mind.

You'd think you would remember writing about a big booty in a music studio.

I mean,

you'd THINK.

boy pop balloon-

a bit odd, yes, but I've talked about balloons and I have a boy.

vintage Barbie cakes-

I did an entire post about a vintage Barbie party. Completely logical.

vintage photos of family nudity in the home-

I read this two, no THREE times just to be sure I'd read it right.

Nudity?

Really?

And not just any nudity, but VINTAGE FAMILY nudity?

I mean, that's got to be the worst kind, right?

What in the what what what WHAT??

*****

And lastly,

for all you Tuscaloosans-

Michaels is up and running in its new location.

(the old Old Navy)

It's huge,

everything inside is now in a different place,

but everything is also clean and bright and shiny.

I still miss hob lob, but a brandspankin new Michaels in a closer proximity to my house ain't too shabby.

I'll take it.

Happy Thursday to ya!



Playroom pillow talk and the evolution of a sofa

Happy Wednesday friends!

If you read THIS post, you saw some new additions to the playroom/living room (that I happened to have made myself the night before the girls' party last week because I'm crazy anal like that)

What am I talkin' about?

pretty pretty pillows...

I made the green/white chevron pillows and the pink elephant pillow using fabric I ordered from fabric.com.

Anyone else shop from there? The site is FULL of the most beautiful fabrics, AND

the prices are outstanding,

AND

they also sell patterns,

AND

every order over $35 ships for free,

AND

It's never taken more than 3 days to receive an order from their site.

(yes, I've made quite a few orders now)

Anywho...

I used what I like to call the 'envelope' method to make the pillow covers. No idea if there's an actual name for this, or maybe it is indeed called an envelope pillow since the finished product resembles, well...

an envelope.

Why a removable pillow cover instead of a sew-and-stuff pillow?

I've got 3 kiddos.

I love the fact that I can pull off the pillow covers and throw them in the wash to remove strawberry poptart goo and boogers and apple juice, which is also why I made the slipcover for the sofa.

They were super-simple to make and maybe took me 45 minutes, TOPS, for all 3. (And that's including stopping every few minutes to pour more juice into a sippy, or to find a missing blankie, or to retrieve a chewed-up piece of book out of the babes mouth.) Planning to post a tutorial within the next couple of days since I'm currently working on a few more for the master bedroom.

Also-

I purchased two of the pillow inserts (which are all 18' square, by the way) brand new at Hancock fabric, but the insert I used for the pink elephant pillow was actually a down pillow that came inside a red silk pillow cover that was used on our bed 2 comforters ago. The thing was beautiful, but, hadn't seen the light of day in a while since our master bedroom color scheme has changed twice now since it was first used.

* That's a great tip-

 before you go out and buy new pillow inserts, check your house for decorative pillows that maybe aren't being used anymore! It will save you some moolah and will also give some poor, sweet, non-used pillows a second lease on life!*

And, just to give you an idea of what the sofa looks like on a normal basis:

yep.

that's life at the Mathews.

And now...

a look back at the humble begginings of our armless sofa,

because it's come a long way, baby.

This is the 1st photo I have of our sofa, taken in the furniture store before I purchased it. It was love at first sight, not only because of it's price ($75), but because I loved the fact that it had no arms and looked a bit retro-vintagey. Yes, vintagey.

circa Sept. 2008

I kept the original pillows on it for about a year and then swapped them out for some black/white pillows my grandmother made and a red one that was a gift from my mum.

Couldn't resist sharing this pic of the babe asleep on it.

And no, internet, I didn't leave her alone asleep like that. I just hopped up, real quick-like to snap the picture and then returned to her side.

In March of this year, I made a slipcover for the sofa out of canvas drop-cloths. My *biggest* sewing project to date.

ATTENTION: I'm not a trained seamstress.

I don't even know how to make a button hole, so when I say this is something you can tackle with even limited skills,

I mean it.

You can find all of the details on how I made the slipcover HERE,

as well as how I made the cute red/white pillow out of a kitchen towel I found on clearance at Target.

And now-

3 pillows made by me,

and 2 yellow rosette pillows by Dwell Studio for Target.

**those yellow Dwell Studio Target pillows are actually kinda famous, as in, TONS of bloggers use them in their homes which may or may not have led me to throw two of them into my red buggy several months ago**

case in point-

via 6th Street Design School

via The Brightsides

and,

my favorite blogger of all:

Becky Higgins

and folks, if it's on Becky's sofa and it came from Target, well I reckon it'll be on my sofa too...

I've linked this to:

Weekend Wrap-up at Tatertots and Jello,

Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch,

Tutorials and Tips Tuesday at Home Stories a 2 z,

What we've been up to besides throwing parties and ripping up the kitchen

Yes,

we've actually had more going on than just a kitchen reno and 2 birthday parties in 1 (here and here), so I'm going to play a little catch-up...

***
Sunday night-
2 kiddos wanted to camp out in the foyer-

1 of those kiddos didn't quite fit inside the tent...

****

Swimming lessons continued last week for O.

He's become a total fish-

love love love that he's enjoyed swimming so much this summer.

****

morning cartoon time-

babe in the pack-n-play,

E and O watching from the ottoman.

O is adjusting his swim goggles backwards on his face-

only he knows why...

and see those pretty new pillows on the sofa back there?

I made 3 of them- post on that coming next week!

****

Did a lil' swimming on the 4th at Clay's aunt's house-

MM did a lil' swingin' with Maw Maw-

and a lil' loungin' in my lap-

And here's what the 45 minute car ride was like-

O had a swim meet + family night on Tuesday-

SO proud of all he's learned this summer.

Also loving how cute he is in those goggles that smoosh his ears down...

****

We drove straight to the ballpark after the swim meet (with a quick stop at Little Ceasar's for some $5 pizzas in between) to catch Alberta's last game of the season.

They took home 2nd place!

Great job guys!

Here's a team pic without big giant cardboard heads...

Here's a team pic with big giant cardboard heads in air...

and here's a team pic with big giant cardboard heads in hand.

And there's one of my lil' cuties holding Daddy's hand.

Two very cute behinds right there folks.

****

And today, O had his last swim lesson of the summer.

Wowza how the last 3 weeks have flown...

And that's what we've been up to.

 

Now if you'll excuse me,

I've got to get back to tearing apart the kitchen...

 

Happy Friday, friends!