*Bama Bows* Roll Tide Roll

So since I'm not a huge fan of NFL football, I found Monday night to be the perfect time to make bows while the girls are sleeping and Jason is occupied. =) Tonight I made 2 Bama Bows. I think I may try and find a cute A or a small Elephant (maybe a button) to glue in the middle. I can't wait to stick them in Micaila and Ryann's hair. They were so excited that I was making them new bows!

I bought a whole roll of the crimson ribbon at walmart for 2 dollars and I bought a whole roll of the white ribbon and also black for 47 cents each. Obviously I didn't use all the ribbon but if I were to stop there I basically made to really sweet bows for 1.50!

I also think they will look really cute on the black crochet beanie's that I bought from my friend Amanda at Precious Petals.

All dressed up Bama Style

This is the best I could do at getting pictures of the girls in their Bama gear. Enjoy ;)

I can hardly keep from laughing after all those pictures..... my girls are so cooperative with the camera.... HA!

Boy was that a close game! I almost was afraid to walk out of the house dressed like this but thank heavens we pulled it together. Whew! Better keep it together next week against them Gators. Roll Tide Roll!

Painting with.....

Found a great fun way to use those Jelly jars when you eat it all up. Let your kiddos paint them! But make sure you don't get finger paint because as I found, it peels off. I believe some sort of non toxic acrylic paint (if they have that) would work well. But Micaila still had a lot of fun painting and then we stuck a flower in it! I think I might do a piggy bank next go around. Start teaching the kids, saving, tithing, and being good stewards of their money! ;)

I had to throw this picture of Ryann in there. She was asleep through the whole painting process and we took this that night after bath time. New PJ's! I just love her sweet smile.

Fun with food coloring

So lately I've been trying REALLY hard to get creative with the girls. Since I started this "Pre K homeschooling" (thanks to a blogger I follow and all her postings) I've been trying my hardest to think outside the box (and the house!).

I have learned that once you step into the "creative realm" it really does come easier to you. I never considered myself to be artsy or crafty or anything like that but I really think I'm getting there. And the girls are liking our little "projects" and I'm not gonna lie, its been kind of fun for me too. Which is just great because I want to be involved and investing in my children's lives. Not that I feel like I wasn't before but I just know this is (next to being a wife) the most important role God has called me to. And I want to glorify Him by loving my children the way he wants me to. It may seem silly, to some, that sitting down and coloring with your children or reading with them, or getting a bit more crafty then you've ever thought you could, is important to Him but it is! So, for His glory...... playing with food coloring =)

I read online that you can buy white carnations, put them in water, dye the water with food coloring, and the flowers will soak up the water and turn to that color. I thought this would be a fun way to incorporate learning colors with the girls lesson. And they just loved the whole process of going and buying the flowers, dyeing the water, and now waiting and watching for the flowers to change colors.

Micaila picked Green, because it's our color for the week, and then Ryann picked Blue and I picked Yellow. Unfortunately, the green is not having great results.... But here is the blue. You can see the little bits of blue on the outer edges.

The yellow has been the most successful and I think it's because I had it in a vase where the water came up very high on the stem. I'm assuming it must have been able to soak it up faster to the petals being closer to the petals???

Anyway, if you want to try it I recommend cutting the stems shorter and filling the vase up full with food coloring and water. It might work faster that way. =) It's super fun though and kinda pretty too!

Pine Cones

Yesterday the girls and I went for a bike ride. Well they road, I walked. We spotted some sweet pine cones in one of the neighbors yards and decided to grab them and make the infamous bird feeder. I like making these things a lot because they are easy and FUN. The girls really enjoy it too. It's cool because they like the whole idea of feeding the birds (and squirrels) and maybe even catching them in the act! Yum Yum....

Here are the pictures from our little adventure.

On our ride home

Peanut butter pine cones ;)

You know you'd lick it too!

Gotta get those seeds on just right.

The finished product, up close and personal. Looks pretty tasty huh??

All cleaned up and ready to hang the feeder. Ryann was REALLY excited lol.

Hanging in the tree, waiting to be eaten =)

Matchy Matchy

I had enough material to make Micaila a similar dress to sport on Ryee's birthday. It looks super cute on her too. I'm still going to get a new applique for Ryann's dress. Micaila specifically told me that she did not want a dog on hers. As if she has a choice. Wasn't planning on putting one on hers anyway because that's what will make Ryann's special. I mean it is HER birthday... Micaila doesn't seem to get that concept. Anyway, just thought I'd share my 2nd official sewing project! yay!

Ryann's birthday dress

Okay, let me just start this off by emphasizing that I am not a sewer. When I was little I used to sew with my grandma some. I made a few sweet vests, that I proudly wore to school in 2nd or 3rd grade. My mother in law made all of Ryann's bedding and I did play around with her machine some. Enough to make a diaper and wipe case, that fell apart within a few weeks. So that is the extent of my history in sewing. So please keep that in mind, and no making fun. Atleast not to my face =)

My daughter Ryann's birthday is Saturday and for quite some time now I have been racking my brains on what to do for her birthday and what to kind of "theme" it around. I don't like throwing big parties. Especially when they are so young. But I do like to make them special. Last year I baked my first cake EVER and it turned out pretty awesome. Just sayin. I used fondant icing and it was beautiful. Not great to eat though. So THIS year I figured Ryann would be in to something. Micaila LOVED the Backyardigans so I did that theme. So easy. But Ryann..... well.... she just loves dogs. I'm like, ugh, puppies?? Puppy decor is so...... well they are dogs. In person yeah cute but wheres the pink?? Where's the bright colors and the fun music and sweet balloons. I don't want my parents house covered with fur balls. We have two real ones taking care of that. But Ryann has not developed any new interests so dogs it is. Thus, this dress I made.

I went to Jo Ann fabrics, me and the girls, which by the way is a whole blog in itself. (Not fun!) Mainly because it took me forever to pick out the fabric, find a cute dog to go on the dress, the ribbon, the thread... I had no clue what I was doing. And holy moly! Sewing is not a cheap hobby. So of course I had to go with paisley, I just love paisley, it's so adorable. And I think this stuff was like 4.99 a yard, so compared to some of the other fabric it was cheap.




I had spotted this fabric and I thought I could do a little bit of it at the bottom of the dress to really get that doggy feel, lol.


And this was the only puppy applique that I could find that wasn't a poodle and was big enough.



So I did all that shopping yesterday morning. Wednesday. I got to Jo Anns at about 9:30 and got home after 11:00am. Oh and that's when I started making my bow. Then I went to my mother in laws and picked up her sewing machine. We sort of went over the basics but I pretty much forgot everything she said. I remember her saying not to touch a specific dial lol. That's about it. So when I started sewing this morning I had to go online and find a manual for this super old Singer. Thank you http://www.sewusa.com/!

I had decided on the "pillow case" dress but obviously I wasn't starting with a pillow case and who buys patterns?? I figured this dress would be a breeze, it looked so simple. And for the most part it was. I only had to de hem like 3 times.... So after much trial and error, I finally got it together. And here it is =) It looks pretty cute on "Bootsy" but I wont post a picture of her in it till after her bday party.

Notice no puppy applique..... yeeeaaah I sort of melted it with the iron and need to get another one. I guess I didn't read the directions right, or maybe it's just I don't really know how to use an iron. I'm just glad it didn't mess the dress up!

All the bows you'll ever need

My VERY first bow. I think I did alright =) And it's going to go perfect with the party dress I'm making Ryann.

Thanks to this youtube video I was able to make my first bow EVER. I'm pretty stinkin excited too. Thank you so much to JessaBailey. See below and make some of your own =)

Beach babes

Nothing like a little sunshine to brighten my day. Especially if it's sunshine ON the beach. I'm not much for playing outside in 100 degree weather unless I can be wet at some point. The beach is probably one of my favorites places on the planet. Truly, I would be a beach bum if I had it my way. Me and my entire family. I come from a long line of beach bums. My family's vacations consist only of sand, sun, and water. That's all I remember my whole life growing up. And it just so happens that I married a guy who also has quite the family of beach-aholics. They even own a beach house in Alabama. We have made that 8 hour trek MANY times for a taste of the sweet Bama shores. So as it would play out, our daughters are turning into little beach babes. And I love it! I love their sweet little swim suits and their bare rear ends in the ocean. I love how they can play in the sand, lay in the sand, and eat the sand without a care in the world. Nothing like goldfish and a fist full of sand in your mouth. Yum Yum. Or peanut butter SANDwiches. (I know, I'm so original)

Here are some pictures from our most recent trips to the beach. Oh yes, one more thing I love about the beach, the pictures I capture with my DSLR. It's always perfect lighting! So I don't have to know what I'm doing I can just snap away. Love it!

Beach babe #1 She is officially un afraid of the water and waves. And now I am very afraid of them for her.

Listen I just know we can BOTH fit in this thing!

Move over sister!

See, it's not to tight at all. Just right.

Painting stripes continued.....

Don't laugh at the fact that I have only gotten three stripes on the girls wall. I didn't really think through the whole idea of trying to paint with two small children. And not just painting a big wall one color but painting something somewhat abstract (atleast for me!) I didn't consider the fact that they might try and pull the tape off the wall or that my 3 year old would ask me over and over if she can help me paint or having 3 cans of paint out at once being a temptation for them to stick their tiny hands in and put their own spin on my idea of art. Nope didn't think of any of that. So needless to say, I have to take things REALLY slow. Thus, my three beautiful stripes.

When I got the red and yellow up I was getting nervous about my choice of colors but once I put the pink in it really tied it all together for me. So far I'm really liking it. And remember I still have to touch up those stripes and don't forget that we're going to put chair rail up too. Wish I could get some new base board, something bigger. That would look so good. Plus, it would be an easy fix to the mistakes near the bottom, haha. More to come..... in a few weeks!

When you're bored~pAiNt =)

Atleast when I'MMM bored I paint. My next project is the girls bedroom. When we first moved in with my parents 3 months ago, I told myself I wasn't going to put TOOO much into there bedroom since it was going to be,.... ya know.... "temporary". BUT considering that we have had zero luck finding a home, I figure, what the heeecck, it'll give me something to do. Plus I LOVE change. At least in decor. ;) So here are some current pictures of their bedroom.



Note: I like to take very realistic pictures. ie; their room is NEVER clean. haha.


lol, Micaila and our monster horse/lab Jake. Ugh... I don't even want to talk about that dog!


Okay so we did fully intend on putting chair rail up between the colors and we still will. Just after I get done painting some....... StRiPeS!!!!!! Here is my inspiration for colors.


I absolutely LOVE the RED with the green. I didn't want to have to re-paint all the walls so I was trying to find something that would work with the colors I already had. And I didn't want to do pink this time. (Well not all pink) I'm such a sucker for pink! I wanted it to be a little different.

I didn't pick exactly that red.... and of course I'm going to throw in a little touch of pink ;) here are my color samples.

PS: they look better in person. Still trying to figure out how to take good pics with my DSLR camera. ;)

I'm going to put stripes on the bottom, darker green portion of the wall. I intend to have a bold red stripe and then smaller yellow and pink stripes to soften it. I'm no interior decorator, and I've never painted stripes before, so this is new for me. Can't wait to update you.