You Know You've Been Too Busy When....

WHEW!

It's been chaos around here lately......

You know you are WAAAAAYYYY too busy when you find THIS in your fridge...

Just. Plain. Disgusting.

Sadly, I don't even know WHAT this was.....

We've been so busy with end of the school  crap activities! 

In the last week we have had an awards ceremony, 2 gymnastics/dance recitals, jewlery party, hosted Bunko and 2 end of the year parties......not to mention I have been working on things around the house...(more on that later)

Miss B had her dance/gymnastics recital this week.  She's just 3, so there isn't much "dancing" going on... it's more along the lines of "dress them up in their costumes and watch them stand there and pick their nose".....but she was still cute regardless.

Big Sister was selected as "Student of the Month" in her class, and was recognized at an awards ceremony earlier this week. We are so proud of our frst born. She's a smart kid, and her teacher described her as a patient child and always a team player!!!

 Everything seems to come easy to her....and always has...check out these weekly test papers.

All 100's!!!!

That's what I like to see....and fortunately, with Miss F, we have seen these great grades all year!!! Good job!!

Miss B had her last day of preschool for the year this week.

Check out this pic of her on her first day of school back in September...

And look at her now....on the last day of school...

It's amazing how much they grow in a school year....

Big Sis had her gymnastics recital this week too....

She's my little tumbler...she really likes gymnastics, and is good at it.  We are currently working on her back handspring....I can't wait for her to get it!!!

Last night, I hosted Bunko at my house...11 teriffic ladies joined me for a luau themed Bunko....what a blast! These gals are such a blast to be around....we always leave with sore ribs from laughing so hard....I just love that feeling!!   I should have taken more pictures, but I only managed to get one of the whole group....aren't we all so cute in our luau attire???

One more week of school here and then summer begins....I can't wait to sleep past 545am!!! Did you know our school bus comes at 645am??? Seriously, that's insane....

I am so looking forward to NOT getting up before the rooster crows...however, I have a feeling with my 2 little early birds in the house, 7am will be about as late as I will be able to sleep this summer....are your kids early birds too??? It can't be just mine...

AND, as promised, I will be sharing Miss B's big room reveal on my next post....it's complete...well, I still have a few tweaks here and there, but overall it's COMPLETE!!!! YAY!!

Want a quick peek??????

Here ya' go...

Lots of cute room reveal pics coming up.......

So check back...

Happy Friday Everyone!!

Stay sane...summer's almost here!!!

Deployment Project #2 - DIY Ruffled Pillowsham

I made a new pillowsham for B's bedding last week.  It's soooo much cheaper to make it than to buy it.  

First, I cut 2 rectangular pieces of fabric.

One measured 31" L x 25" W

The other is 40" L x 25"W

If you want a ruffle on the edge of your sham, then you will also need a yard of a coordinating fabric, cut in 5" strips (that you will fold in half making a 2.5" ruffle around the sham).  The number of strips depends on how tight you want the ruffle...tighter/fuller ruffles will take more fabric.....I believe I used about 5 or 6 strips.

First you will make your fabric strips into ruffles. Fold your strips in half and iron them so you have a nice straight line to work with. You can make a ruffle by setting your sewing machine at the longest stitch and slowly sewing all the way down the length of the strip....the raw egde side, not the folded part. (sorry, no pictures of this)  If you want the ruffle to be tighter you carefully pull on one string at the end of your strip, which will tighten the look of the ruffle. **Don't pull too hard, though**...or you will break the thread and have to start over.   No fun.

Sew all of your strips together at ends, so that you have one big 2.5" strip that will go all the way around the sham.

Next you want to pin the ruffle all the way around the shorter piece of fabric...the 31"x25" piece.  Be sure to pin the ruffle pointing INWARD....I know, it looks funny, but once you sew your sham together and turn it inside out, it will look right, I promise!

Once you have the ruffle pinned, sew your ruffle on the sham.

With the larger piece of fabric (40" x 25"), fold it in half and cut, so that you now have 2 pieces of fabric 20" long.  This will end up being the back of your sham.

Where you cut it in half, fold in the edges and sew to cover the raw edges.

One at a time, pin and sew your 2 pieces, right sides together, onto the front of your pillowsham (the side you just sewed your ruffles on). Remember to put them on right sides together!!! The second piece you sew on will overlap the first piece.

Turn your sham inside out.

Measuring about 2" from the edge, sew all the way around your sham. This creates the "border" of the sham.

Press.

You're finished!

Insert pillow and enjoy your fancy-cheap-but-looks-expensive sham!!!!!!

Hoping to reveal B's room later this week, or this weekend.....stay tuned.....

Linking To...

Deployment Project #1 - A Scalloped Wall...

I am so excited to get started on my deployment projects!! My blogging friend, Amy, gave me this idea for doing projects while the Major is deployed. I think it's going to keep me occupied & hopefully make the time go by faster! (Thanks for the idea, Amy!)


I am getting soooo close to finishing B's room....I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!

I can't remember where I saw it, but someone had done a scalloped look in their daughter's room.

I thought this was a little different than a chair rail or board and battan.... so I decided to give it a try.

First, I took a level and drew a line all around the room. I chose to do this one at waist level since it would be flush with the bookshelves, but you could do it at any height.

Next I took a bowl...but you can take a plate or any other round object that has the circumference you want....obviously, the larger the bowl, the larger the scallop...

I put a piece of tape around the bowl so I would know exactly how to measure each scallop.

Then I carefully traced half of the bowl all around the wall.

After that, I took 2 different sized paintbrushes and carefully handpainted each scallop....

Yes, my back is still hurting from sitting on my knees on the floor for several hours....but, oooh, so worth it!!

After applying 2 coats of paint with the small paintbrushes, I used a roller to paint the bottom part of the wall...I used 2 coats as well.

Lastly, I used a Q-Tip to make the small circles at the point of each scallops. 

TaDa!!!! I'm finished!

I erased the pencil line I drew when I started, but for some reason you can see it in this picture....

I can't wait to show you the rest of the room....I am SOOOO close to finished!!!!! I just have a few more accessories to work on over the next week, and I can finally show you the entire room!

Stay tuned for the big reveal soon!!!!

HAPPY THURSDAY!!!!!

Family Portrait Time!

We had family portraits done last week before the Major left for his deployment.

My friend, Kristen, of Kristen Pace Photography did our photos.....

and let me tell you what a talented photographer she is!!

I love her style...her edited pictures are fun, funky and whimsical.  I like the way she distorts the colors just enough to be different, yet not take away from the beauty of the photos.

I got the proofs recently....and WOW!

 I was blown away!!!

Take a peek at her work....

I can't wait for her to do our portraits again!!!

HAPPY WEDNESDAY!

Our Sunday afternoon....

After church the girls and I threw on our swimsuits and headed to the beach.

The girls LOVE playing on the beach.

They hunt for seashells...

....play in the waves....

Laugh together....

...and find starfish...

And best of all, a few hours at the beach ALWAYS means an early...

Happy Sunday!

A New Chapter Begins...

Much to my dismay, May 1st is here....

My new normal begins today.....

My hubby has officially left for what will be a 14 month deployment away from home....

Soon he will be in Iraq, fighting along thousands of other selfless soldiers, helping to make this place safer for you and me...

Until July, he will only be a few hours away working at his Army headquarters, but only having the chance to come home 3 weekends out of the next 8.....(but I'll gladly take all the time I can get with him.)

We've done this once before.

Back in 2004 he left for Iraq for, what turned out to be, a 14 month deployment...
(This photo was taken hours before he left)

...and 14 months later, he returned home....

( I just LOVE this happy picture of our first hug)

YAY! Happiness again!

Five years later, we are a family of 4......our first born is now 7 years old and we have a 3 year old too....

Today the new normal begins for our family.....

I must say, I am ready to start looking forward to those homecoming pics like the ones above....

But until then, I am fousing on lots of fun crafts and projects to do around the house, and making sure my girls get through this okay too! With the first deployment, our oldest was a baby and didn't understand what was going on....now we have 2 chidren and they are both old enough to be affected by their Daddy's absence. 

I'm praying time flies by fast...real fast!

Hoping to have my first deployment project done soon....I will keep you posted!

Have a great weekend!