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....

weekend recap

Happy Monday to ya, friends!

Hope you had a fab weekend.

I suffered a bit of heartburn and nausea and diarrhea and I think I may have also developed an ulcer after watching the Tide on Saturday night.

Heartbreaking loss.

Heartbreaking.

But life goes on...

Roll Tide, y'all.

As I've mentioned here before, as the week goes along with me teaching full time and mom-ing full time and sewing full time and making sure something gets into the bellies of my family, I lose more and more sleep. Fridays are the worst. The worst. Sometimes I feel like I could fall over at any moment and I'm sure I would, if not for the huge quantities of coffee I drink throughout the day. On Friday as O and I walked through the door from school, I had a hankering for some rice. Quick rice. Throw-it-in-the-microwave-and-eat-it-90-seconds-later rice. I pulled it out of the pantry, threw it in the microwave, and listened to it explode 60 seconds later.

When the kind people at Uncle Bens tell you to rip the top off of the package before cooking, they mean it. I was too tired to even follow the directions on a bag of rice y'all.

sheesh.

Thank goodness for Saturday, and thank goodness there was nothing on my schedule early in the wee hours. After sleeping as late as the girls would allow, I headed to a craft fair I read about on facebook. It took place in the gym of the church where we are currently holding services and while I didn't take any pics, there were lots of goodies there. I came home with a fabulous scarf and a little girl. Because I'd taken her with me. I didn't steal her.

After MM and I left the craft fair, we headed to- where else....Target.

I have to share one small glance at how crazy-packed-with-people my town was over the weekend.

This was the lot next to Target and the mall-

campers and RV's as far as the eye could see.

They were also packed into several other lots that are now vacant due to the tornado. They were everywhere.

Everywhere.

The 'game of the century' draws quite a large crowd.

Moving on.

I tried desperately to get a decent picture of the kiddos in their church clothes before nap time yesterday, not just because they're pretty darn tootin' cute, but also because the girls were sporting their Missoni for the first time.

If I've said it once, I've said it a gajillion times-

It's flippin hard to get a pic of these 3. Two seconds after I'd snapped these, MM was climbing backwards down the steps, Oliver was running to the backdoor, and E was soprano singing and twirling.

Valiant effort though, right?

Last night, we turned to TBS just in time to see the twister knock Dorothy onto her bed. Once E realized what we were watching, she made a mad dash for her closet and retrieved her Dorothy dress. Because that's the only way to watch The Wizard of Oz. In your Dorothy dress and sparkly shoes and a stuffed dog under your arm. Good gravy she may look just like her Daddy, but that girl is MY child.

The 4 of us sat and watched the movie while we waited for Daddy to get home from his. Several of the men from our church went to see the film Courageous yesterday and hubs raved about it when he got home. So glad he was able to go. Have any of you seen it?

****

I'll be attending 2 more craft fairs in the near future and once I have all the details, I'll share them here for those of you who are local.

And....

Don't forget that you have until Thursday night to enter my current giveaway for a $30 shop credit! I'm celebrating reaching another milestone here at the blog, and as a 'thank you' to YOU, my readers, one of you will win your choice of some goods from my shop. Just go to THIS post and leave a comment telling me something that you're thankful for. That's it! You can come back each day and enter, but all entries must be on THIS post to count. I'll be choosing a winner Thursday night via random.org and will post the winning comment on Friday (11.11.11). For extra entries, you can also tweet or facebook about this giveaway- just be sure to leave another comment telling me which one you did.

Happy Monday!



weekend recap and a new shop item

Hello friends, and happy Monday to ya!

I hope you all had a fabulously mahvelous weekend.

Mine got off to a little bit of a slow start as I was

incredibly, insanely, overwhelmingly tired from the happenings of the week.

Do any of you experience that?

Monday starts off well enough, but if you go to bed the SLIGHTEST bit late, you're in trouble. There's no catching up on Tuesday, for Tuesday has an agenda of its own, and Wednesday? Fuh-get about it. No catching up then, and Thursday and Friday?

They just laugh at you.

"What? You think WE'RE about to give you a break? Cut you some slack? Not only are we NOT going to give you the rest you so desperately need, we're gonna take away even more of your sleepy time/sanity."

That Friday is a booger. Since Saturday is the ONE day of the week that doesn't have an early call, Friday is all like, "Stay up late with me! Drink coffee all night long and read those magazines that you've been piling up because Monday through Thursday don't give you time for such nonsense. I'll give you all the time you WANT for your Elle Decor and Traditional Home and Lucky and InStyle. ALL the TIME YOU WANT."

(Sometimes I just want to punch Friday in the face and go to bed at 6:00pm)

Sorry.

I digress.

As I was saying...

My boys were both up early, the older one went to church to help build a pavilion (more on that in a sec) and the younger one was ready to fly spaceships in a galaxy far, far away. After a bowl of oatmeal of course.

Since our church is running a distribution center now, it was decided that a permanent pavilion-type structure should be built in the parking lot. And for those of you wondering why my church would need a structure in the parking lot with a roof, THIS post will explain why. The needs of the community around my church are still great and so many are still volunteering their time and donating their goods to make sure those needs are met. On Saturday, my hubs was one of several men who made 8 wooden posts sunk into the ground go from this:

to this:

to this:

and if I'm remembering correctly, all that's left to do is to finish out the roof with shingles. Once that's done, the pavilion will serve as a permanent structure under which tables can be set up for the distribution of goods, as well as the occasional meal. Awesomeness.

While hubs was busy with the hammer and nails, I was able to check a whole slew of things of the ole' to-do list. Yes, I totally just said slew.

I fed the girlies breakfast, cleaned out their closet, listed some much-too-small-for-MM clothes on the facebook garage sale, cleaned out the fridge, fed all 3 kiddos lunch, washed the dishes, put the girlies down for a nap, cut some fabric,and took the quickest shower EVAH because the girlies didn't even nap an entire hour. (boo)

I was thankful for enough time, however, to cut these out:

Yes, I do feel like I owe a bit of an apology to Halloween and Thanksgiving for putting my thoughts on Christmas so early, but I jotted "Houndstooth stocking" on a piece of paper at school this week and simply had to make one. I used the same pattern I made for my burlap stockings last year and I'm tickled pink with how they turned out.

Yup.

Pink.

They'll be listed in the shop as soon as I have etsy-worthy photos of them.

And speaking of Houndstooth and Crimson and Roll Tide and whatnot...

these babies, as well as the solid crimson and the houndstooth/crimson hybrid flowers, are totally for sale at Alabama Express on the strip (as well as 3 other locations in town). So, for all you locals, you can totally see and purchase my flowers at an actual store. I mean, they'll be hanging in there. On the wall and stuff. And you can buy them. Did you hear me, internet? My stuff is available at a brick and mortar other than my house.

Thanks go to David for thinking they were cool enough to sell in his shop.

And speaking of my friend David....

he ran lights and sound for Tuscaloosa Children's Theatre's production of Thoroughly Modern Millie this week.

The hubs and I were able to see the show Saturday night and it. was. fab.

Kudos to their director, Drew, and to Rosie and Nick who were absolutely superb as Millie & Jimmy. The entire cast and crew should be extremely proud of their production. Also, kudos to Callie and Tim for their phenomenal cameos. Did you hear that Callie and Tim?

That's a total shout-out.

And now, here's a few more things you might need to know, or might care to know, or might not give a rat's tooty about:

1. I'm currently cooking supper.

In my crock-pot.

This is huge for me since I really don't cook.

(It's in my bio)

Thanks go to Judy for giving me that chili recipe on a blue index card a couple of years ago. It's the only thing I make that hubs will eat.

2. I'm taking the kiddos trick-or-treating on sorority row tonight.

Any of you ever done this?

Taken your kiddos to sorority houses to trick-or-trick?

Most of the fams at my church do it every year-

not quite sure why I've never gone before.

Oh yeah, I was probably in rehearsal for something.

Anywho, I'm pumped.

Should be a good time.

I'll report back tomorrow.

3. Did I hear that Kristen Chenoweth was going to be on DWTS tonight?

Can anyone confirm?

I heart her.

4. All Missoni for Target items that happen to still be in Target stores are now 30% off.

Did you hear that internet?

30% OFF.

Run, don't walk.

5. And is there anything funnier than a babe in a curly gray wig eating a pop-tart?

I think not.



weekend recap

Howdy friends!
I'm back with a quick look at how we spent parts of our weekend.

Happy Birthday Elizabeth!

The kids and I went to my cousin's daughter's 4th birthday party on Saturday morning. The theme was Candyland and the decor + food was pure awesomeness.

Just check out the food table and this cake-

made by my Aunt C.

Looks just like the board game and the picture it was inspired by on Pinterest.

Source: 3.bp.blogspot.com via Mary on Pinterest

The birthday girl blowing out her #4 candle

Baby girl devoured every bit of that chocolate covered oreo in her hand. Well, all but the 40% of it that ended up on her face + hands.

The kids ran off lots of their sugary energy in the gym at my cousin's church-

See?

After a full morning of playtime + cake, I brought the kiddos home, put the girls to bed, and Oliver and I started tackling

this...

heinous, ghastly, scream-inducing mess of a playroom.

more ghastliness...

(sheesh-a-mundo)

Our biggest problem, besides the awful mess of it ALL, are the books that end up everywhere.

EVERYWHERE, I tell you!!!

The little basket I bought to keep board books in on the coffee table wasn't cutting it anymore.

The books were multiplying.

(Like rabbits, if you will)

So...

I worked on a solution to solve the book issue that I'll share tomorrow.

The rest of the mess, however?

Well that took LOTS of bending down and picking up and repeating...

(OY)

Of course, my workspace wasn't the tidiest of spots either.

Workin on it...

Sunday night, my friend Christa came over with these, ummm,

pretty pillows.

Wait,

did I say pretty?

Sorry.

I meant pretty ugly.

(sorry Christa)

They're made of a velour-ish material and she herself admitted that she never planned on using them again,

however,

they were COVERS, which means they had perfectly good pillow forms inside.

She had also purchased some gawgeous fabric from fabric.com and was hoping to get 4 pillows out of it, but it was a bit pricey so she only purchased 1 yard.

(wah-WAH...)

Not enough fabric for 4 19 x 19 pillows UNLESS we used some other material for the back.

Enter pretty ugly pillows again.

Once we removed the pillow forms, we realized that the OTHER side of the fabric wasn't half bad. Instead of being ALL velour-ish,

only the leaf shapes were velour-ish.

Make sense?

So we started ripping seams.

And ripping,

and ripping,

and ripping.

And after a bit of ironing and pinning and stitching,

(There's me doin the stitching. {grin} Thanks Christa for snapping my pic!)

We had 4 lovely pillows that looked like this on the back:

and this on the front:

Didn't I tell you they was gawgeous??

I, of course, had to try them out on my own sofa first, but check out how great they look in Christa's turquoise living room on her sofa:

Don't they just make the wall color POP?

LOVE how fabulous they turned out.

She has more fabric to add some accent pillows, so we'll be stitchin' again soon.

Until then,

I'm off to finish wading through our mess of a playroom.

Anyone else feeling like tossing 90% of their kids toys, or is it just me?

hmmm??

weekend recap

Happy Monday to you friends!

How was your weekend?

Mine was full of playtime with my kiddos with a Girl's night out on the side.

Lovely.

Our restaurant of choice for Saturday night was Chuck's, which is downtown.
Not taking into account that it was rush weekend,
and there was a talent search going on at the theatre 1 block down,
and Steely Dan was in concert at the amphitheatre,
and downtown is already a pretty happening place to be...
our wait time for a table was an hour + 45 min.
(But it was totally worth it)

Here's our group outside.

Waiting...

(Lisa, MK, Renee, Jamie T, DeJuana, Jamie H, Melanie, Kathryn + Annie Ruth)

Thanks to the gal who took our pic who also happened to be waiting for a table.

More people.

Waiting...

See the gal in black?

To the far right of the photo?

She yelled at us for sitting in chairs.

That's right folks.

There are tables right outside the restaurant where some folks were sitting as they waited, and once their name was called, they offered the tables + chairs to us.

We had our bootys in them for all of 3 minutes when that woman came out of the restaurant next to Chuck's and began yelling at us for sitting in her tables.

Didn't we know they were for HER customers?

Not Chuck's customers??

Well, no.

We didn't.

Hence the sitting...

Lesson learned.

Don't even think about sitting in those chairs if you're waiting for your table at Chuck's.

The view inside.

More people.

Lots and lots of people.

Most of them waiting.

And this, my friends, this is part of what made the wait totally worth it-

Uptown Shrimp.

Sorry for the dark photo.

I detest flash.

And this bacon avocado roll.

Also worth it.

Yum.

And this bread pudding.

Totally worth waiting an hour + 45 min.

Totally.

Before leaving, we were also treated to several outbursts of,

"ROLL TIDE", from another patron who had maybe had one too many.

He became a bit perturbed when not everyone in the entire place yelled it back at him.

Ah...the joys of living in a college town with a top-ranked football team.

Such a fun memorable night that was, right ladies?

Can't wait til next time!

Fast-forward to Sunday morning...

The Sunday School classes at church all promoted last week so Oliver is now in the class where I help with opening assembly.

 Such sweet kiddos in our class.

Can't believe that when he leaves this class he'll be headed to the youth group.

(gulp)

After church we had a delicious meal at my grandparents house and then headed home to put the girls down for a nap. Oliver and I watched Up!, and I must admit- it was the first time I'd seen it. I have no idea why I'd never watched it before, but oh golly goodness what a sweet story! (And when I say 'sweet story', what I really mean is 'tear-jerker'. Am I right?)

Still waiting on a kitchen sink.

Still rinsing sippies in the bathroom.

Still tracking dust through the house.

Still holding on to my sanity though...

just barely.

Hope your Monday is awesomesauce!



weekend recap

Happy Monday friends!

How was your weekend?

Ours was crazy busy, as usual.

Here's a bit of what we were up to over the past few days-

O finished up his first week of 1st grade.

The verdict?

"It's so much easier than kindergarten"

(I told him to give it time...)

MM had her first pigtails on Saturday. After seeing me fix E's hair, she brought me a ponytail holder and leaned her head over towards me as if to say, "my turn now".

How could I resist?

Went thrifting Saturday morning.

Thrift store was THE most crowded I've ever seen it.

Full post on what else I grabbed while I was there coming later this week.

Went to a beautiful wedding Saturday night-

Congrats to Amy and Adam!

The reception was in Smith Hall on UA's campus.

Gorgeous locale for a party-

My fam-

since the hubs was working (boo) I went with my parents.

My seester was a bridesmaid.

Loved the floor-length navy bridemaids dresses.

My seester and her beau.

Best reception band. EVER.

Fab getaway car, no?

These cute favor boxes were on a table at the door, and this was inside-

yum

and just look who was still awake when I got home and more than willing to help me eat it

The kitchen is painted!

Wa-to the-hoo my friends!

We're definitely starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

For anyone who'd like to know-

we went with Natural Gray by Behr from Home Depot.

And, just in case you were wondering, I went through about 43 shades of gray before deciding on this one.

So ready for our dining room to be pretty again...

Cabinets are being installed today (sqee!)

and

our laundry room doors should also come in today.

More updates soon!