Saturday, December 31, 2011

new fabric

fun new fabric on the piano bench
these chairs were bought with the intention of recovering them (so i've had them like three years, i make snap decisions). found some modern fabric and got to work.
with the extra fabric from the piano bench i made matching pillows trimmed in the grey/white fabric. they look great with the sherwin moody blue walls.

when drawer pulls break

this could also be subtitled "why you should wait for paint to dry". so there is this dresser i worked on during the summer, sanding and painting, only to not like it in the room. so i started over again, sanding and painting. once the girls started using it, the antique drawer pulls just did not hold up ~ probably all that time in a hot attic finally got to it. so using fabric i had on hand i improvised. trying to decide whether i like the knot on the outside or inside (i think on the inside). any opinions?


Friday, December 30, 2011

little man is nine

serious denial taking place that i have a nine year old... we will be in double digits next year.  don't even start about driving and dating.  having a birthday close to christmas is hard on those you invite and family so we find that simple is better around the holidays.  the girls and i baked up some colorful cupcakes. 

we had family over and three friends from school.  the boys play on the same basketball team and are also in class together (pray for their teacher, will ya!)  john david is their coach and he had them running some practice drills (outside in december) and taught them some plays they would be executing once their season starts in january.   
 little man's friend calls me his other mother!
the plan: for john david to take the boys to an odu basketball game after dinner.  what actually happened: john david started not feeling well and ten minutes before they were supposed to leave he told me i was going to have to take them.  thank you to allysia, nana and my parents for putting my kitchen back in order and getting the girls in bed.     
we had a great time cheering at the game.  the cameraman loved the boys and they were featured dancing and jumping around (basically acting like crazy nine year old boys) on the jumbo-tron a few times.   oh, and if odu wins (they did) and scores more than 75 points (they did) the next day you can get a 24 oz. smoothie from tropical smoothie cafe for 1.99.  count us in! 


Tuesday, December 27, 2011

the christmas story ~ luke 2


meredith luke 2:1-15 from sandi on Vimeo.
this is all memorized... no looking at scripture. i. love. this. sweet. girl! hey, i cannot figure out how to turn the video correctly... any pointers?

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

kids liked it ~ adults loved it

the muppets movie... caught myself singing along with miss piggy and kermit while enjoying this fun movie over thanksgiving. the children liked the music and dancing ~ the adults liked the nostalgic references to the show from our youth. fun afternoon.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

broken

we have had numerous things broken around our home in the last six weeks... just to list a few: my car that got crunched up in an accident (now replaced with an 08 honda odyssey), the dishwasher that was out for 14 days waiting on an ordered part (yep, hand washing breakfast, lunch and dinner dishes, pots and pans, cutting boards, etc gets old quickly), the leaky disposal that had three cracks in it while i was hand washing all those dishes, our back door dead bolt that would not open, my laptop that died in mid-october has now been replaced with a black friday bargain, the top of our 15 year old christmas tree finally fell off after two years of being held in place with the blind cords, the dresser drawer pulls on the newly refinished piece of furniture in the girls room, and the light on my sewing machine. seriously crazy!

Monday, November 21, 2011

great wolf lodge






the monday before thanksgiving we pulled the children from school and headed to great wolf lodge with jd's college roommate's family.  not too many pictures... too much time spent having fun!

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

praying for elana

m1 has a friend in her second grade class named elana, who was born without one of her ears. she has had several major surgeries in the last few years and the doctors have constructed one for her. i love the way her mom is proactive with approaching the class when elana is going to miss school for a surgery. she visits the classroom, gives details and answers questions about what their friend is going through. on thursday november 17, elana will have her last and most important surgery... this one will allow her to HEAR out of the constructed ear. how amazing is that?!?

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

halloween

m1 was a rock star ~ her dress actually belonged to my great grandmother. sister and i have both worn it to costume parties.  
little man was a cowboy although most people thought he was indiana jones.
and the uncooperative one... my sweet raggedy ann. guess she's going to need a real costume next year. i sewed this when m1 was about two and it has worn it each year since.

Friday, October 28, 2011

guess who?

little man: i live in the ocean, blend into my surroundings and am small.
m1: shrimp
me: oysters
m2: fish
m1: seahorse (ding ding ding)

m1: i live at the lake, make noise at night and am green.
little man: tree frog
me: cricket (ding ding ding)

m2: i live outside, i am green, i am a frog.
mommy: ummmm, what is a frog?
m2: yea for you mommy you guessed my guess who.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

banned from the trampoline






based on this incident last year my husband banned me from the trampoline at this year's family reunion. luckily the children had a ball and i was glad to see m1 face her fears and hop like a champ. she had been voicing concern all week about whether she was going to be brave enough to try it again.

what the children do while i am painting


the past few months i have been painting a lot. so, how do the children entertain themselves while i am in project mode?

why?

why does a smoke detector battery die at 2:38 in the morning and not 2:38 in the afternoon?

Monday, October 10, 2011

so (kinda) ugly it's purdy

have you ever fallen in love with something on the third glance?
this was definitely not love at first sight, but after walking by a few times it blossomed into, ummm, something. and i thought it was sort of cute and comfy. sister loved it!
oh, and it reclined.

so it went home with us... in the rental we picked up a few hours ago (due to the accident).
sister pulled out the manual to figure out how to move the seats around.
this day was actually starting to have potential!

my car is crunched

after dropping the children off at school on monday i went to visit my crush, sherwin williams. six paint samples later i was happily on my way home. at a busy intersection my light turned green so i drove... the car coming from my left failed to stop and zoomed through the red light. my car went crunch, the air bags deployed, the other car went spinning and ended up facing the wrong way up on the sidewalk.

four things to be thankful for ~ m2 was at home with my sister and her children (they are tracked out and visited for a few days). three witnesses stopped, one called the police before i could even exit my car, two stayed and gave their names and number to the police saying that my light was green, one left her name and number as she had to get to work. a friend stopped as he was driving home from working the night shift (he is a fire fighter and his son has been in little man's class the last four years). i was searching for my registration and insurance information when i heard his familiar voice ask if i was okay. of course it was once i saw a familiar face that i started to cry... he gave me a hug and offered me his older sons jacket that was in the car. he also stayed until john david and my sister arrived. no one was hurt (only minor cuts, bruises and soreness).

i am now in a rental... it has all the bells and whistles ~ automatic sliding doors, seats that fold down into the floor with the flip of a switch, cd player, direction thingy, leather seats, hidden storage. seriously, everything! i asked the rental guy if they had a ten year old car like mine with doors you had to open yourself, a cassette player and windows that squeak when opened. i am going to get really spoiled during this whole process.

Friday, October 7, 2011

paint paint and more paint

this was a plain wooden table that has been in our foyer for years... i got tired of it blending into the floor. glossy black on the top with some fun turquoise legs makes this pop when you walk in the door. although the legs could be a tad darker to match the picture (which reminds me of paint cans ~ fun fact: i own more paint cans than shoes!)
this desk was on a neighbors driveway... she begged me to take it away along with two other dressers (i had to leave those too many projects at one time). i had fun with this one... shameful that it is in a closet! but it was a perfect fit for my sewing closet.
every four years or so i change our colors up... john david jokes that by the time we move the square footage will have to be adjusted to account for the smaller room size. the walls were grasslands (sherwin) the new color on the bookshelf wall is hardware (sherwin). the hubby left to play tennis on tuesday evening and this wall was 75% painted by the time he walked back in. (i have some family pictures to hang in the middle section)
random colors from my "i need to lighten the walls and bring in more accent color" phase. which lasted less than a day ~ some of the lighter colors seemed like a lack of color if that makes sense. these pictures of all white houses are beautiful but just not for me. chatroom (sherwin ~ seriously, who else) will be the wall color for the other walls. and yes, we have had our small group bible study meeting here and each week there are a few more samples on the wall.


so, who's up for some painting?

Thursday, September 29, 2011

i like accessorizing

 m2 thought i needed additional accessories for our grocery store run. my choices were silly bandz or a ginormous primary colored wooden block necklace. i think i made the correct choice.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011