That Chinese fabric.

One of the things I sought to find in China was some cool fabric to make drapes for two rooms in my house. I wanted silk drapes, on the cheap. At one of the markets we went to I found the perfect fabric for both rooms. After haggling my price, I paid $15 per meter for both sets of fabric.



The first room to experience my gold mine of a find was my guest bedroom. I found the swags you see in the photo at Ross for $2.99 a piece before I left for China, but they did not quiet cover the entire window. So I knew I wanted a coordinating fabric for side panels, when I stumbled across the perfect brown and blue stripe. I added trim on the end, because I did not get enough to go all the way to the floor. (My bad, I didn't measure before I left and eyeballed it, but my good, the color was an exact match.)

Next it was on to my bedroom. A few years ago I made a duvet for my bed with some steely blue fabric I found on clearance, for $2.00 a yard, at a home fabric store. I have to say I was before my time, because I purchased the fabric before the color and style came into vogue. The fabric sat in my sewing room for about a year before I finally tackled the project, and it was about that time that home interior styles were changing. Again when I purchased the fabric I did not measure, I just guessed. I had plenty for my duvet, so I used the remaining fabric for curtains.

The curtains have always bothered me because they did not go all the way to the floor. So while I was in the middle of trying to haggled down my brown and blue fabric, I ran across this stripe that was PERFECT. It has the steely blue of my duvet and curtains, the sage green of my wall and the cream of my carpet. I took the stripe and added it to the bottom of my already existing curtains, and added trim to connect both pieces.

I had enough fabric left to make coordinating European style pillows for my bed. It completely looks custom made, well...because it was!

Mark

I have a serious "man" crush on this boy. Ladies watch out, he is mine, all mine, I say! (I am sooooo unwilling to share!)

Highlighters.

For those of you curious about how I spend my time when I am not being a mom, or crafting up some cute new project, I do actually have a job, as in a job where they expect me to use my vast array of legal knowledge for the betterment of mankind, or at least for those who have filed for unemployment insurance benefits in the state of Utah.

This used to be a nice cushy job, back when the unemployment rate was less than 3%. But now with an unemployment rate approaching 7% its a little more demanding.

These are my case scheduled for this week. I have 38 for those of you counting. Which is four less than the 42 I had the week before, and two less than the 40 I had the week before that. Each case has a transcript of the hearing, the exhibits from the hearing and the written arguments submitted on appeal. Justice demands that I read all this material. (Law school did not do my eyes in, but the last year on this job sure has...I know I am headed to the eye doctor soon, can't hardly see a blasted thing anymore.)

With all that reading, comes a lot of note taking, but more than note taking comes highlighting. As a result I am consumer of highlighters. Trust me, you will never find anyone that highlights more on a weekly basis than me. I have been down the school supply isle, I have tried them all, and my recommendation is any highlighter that is in liquid form. The color is vivid, it does not dry out, and you know when your highlighter is out of highlight. This is the "house" brand from Staples, retails for $3.99 a pack. Sharpie also makes a liquid highlighter that comes in a bevy of colors, however their highlighters for a similar pack retails at $6.99. I have used both and there is no measurable difference in the quality between the two products.

So the next time you are looking to highlight important information that must be easily recalled, liquid I say, liquid is the way to go.

Color me mine!

The rule in our house is every other year you get to have a "friend" birthday party. Technically this year was Lauren's year for a friend birthday party. However she had other plans.....

Lauren has been wanting to go to this place called "Color me mine." Its a place where you paint ceramics and then pick them up in a few days once they have been fired in the kiln. She wanted to do this activity with me, Linda and Courtney.

Well whom am I to tell my child "no" on her birthday? Besides soooooo much easier than planning and executing a children's birthday party. Although not necessarily cheaper....the experience set me back $77. I assumed we would just pay for our ceramics and included in that price would be the paint cost and the cost of the kiln firing. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Noooooo, you pay for your overly marked up ceramic, and in addition you have a studio fee of $8.00 per person for the privilege of sitting in their business, using their paints, and having them fire your art project in their kiln. Alright enough about the price, after all it was Lauren's birthday and it was about the experience.

Lauren carefully selected her paint.

Lauren and mommy, before we started painting!


Linda, the perfectionist, making sure her mug is "just right."

Lauren and Courtney

Our semi-finished products, prior to the kiln firing. Linda did the mauve mug, Courtney did the black and white mug, Lauren did the cupcake and mine is the vase.

Alas, after spending time roasting in the kiln, here is the finished product. Look what wonderful artists we are! Best part of not having to host a birthday party, and best part of this experience, NO CLEAN UP. On that note alone, my money was very well spent.

My own twist

Here is my own twist on a craft idea I saw at Swiss Days. I saw these three coordinating boards with a flower cut out on each board at Swiss Days. To make it my own I chose a leaf pattern, and painted my board black. I cut the leaf out of coordinating scrapbook paper using my Cricket matching. A little Mod Podge, and I was good to go. Each board cost me $2.60. The "home" sign I found at the scrapbook show for $3.00, frame included. So the whole cost for redecorating my wall was a little under $12.00

Poo

Lauren's dance studio is in an industrial area in Pleasant Grove. It is also near an open air sewage treatment facility. What does this mean? Depending on how the wind is blowing, you can smell the lovely intestinal delights of those who live in Pleasant Grove.

Mark, who frequently accompanies me to take Lauren to dance, has become quite fascinated with this..... We started talking about the sewer and that when you poo it gets flushed down the toilet and into the sewer where all the sewage is treated. For the next week every time Mark made poo he asked me if it was going to the sewer. I assured him that it was. Then one day after I had exited the bathroom, and confirmed to him that my poo was safely in the sewer he asked "Mommy does your poo get mixed with mine?" I told him "yes" I could see his the wheels in his mind turning trying to decided if that was a good thing or a bad thing......

Birthday Presents

No birthday is complete without some presents, and in fact if you ask Lauren she will tell you it is the best part of a birthday!

The before...

A fun new movie.

A fun new stuffed animal.

A ton of clothes, and somewhere in there are a few more movies and a video game or two....

Bring on the singing!

Blow them out and make a wish!

All got blown out, hopefully all wishes come true!

Birthday Dinner

There is a long standing rule in my house that when it is your birthday I will either make your cake or cook your favorite meal, but I will NOT do both. (I mean really, between three small kids, a much too large house to take care of, and a more than full time job, doing both would surly push me over the edge, and I am already much too close as it it....)

Needless to say my kids ALWAYS chose the cake option. Can you blame them??? Seriously it's custom made to any desire or whim they might have. Plus there is a good chance that a couple of weeks after their birthday if they beg for their favorite meal they will likely get it anyway, after all I do have the nagging moral obligation to feed them daily.

For Lauren's birthday she chose California Pizza Kitchen, and we were joined by Jeff, Linda, Courtney, and Brian. (Its a good thing Linda is so agreeable, and likes that restaurant too, because Lauren basically dictates all birthday activities and food despite the fact she shares her birthday with Grandma.)

For some reason on Monday night they were exceptionally slow, it took 30 minutes to get our appetizers, so Rick took it upon himself to provide entertainment for Mark and Katie. Only problem, after seeing daddy put crayons in his ears, Katie thought that might be a good idea....need to be rethinking entertainment options....

Mark found a rubber band amusing. Toward the end of our meal Mark's drink was running low and he wanted a refill. I told him we had to wait until our server came around again and then we could ask for a refill. Well Mark being the determined soul that he is, followed the server with his eyes until she could feel the gaze of one small subject. Once he caught her attention he began moving his empty cup up and down on the table to signal her that her service was required. She came to the table laughing at the creativity of my child, and he left her totally charmed by his whit.

Finally at the end of his meal he announced to the table "I had some drink and I farted."

The birthday girl, giddy with delight at her delicious food.

My yummy BBQ chopped chicken salad...umm my mouth is still watering.....this is why it is good to be the mommy on your child's birthday! (After all who did all the work, then and now????)

Happy Birthday Lauren, the cake...

Its birthday time! That means mommy makes a really cool cake! On Sunday night after putting Mark and Katie to bed, (inviting them to help with cake making would only just be asking for trouble, but also guaranteed to provide good blogging material, so it was a tough choice....) Lauren helped me make her cake.

If its your birthday you get to lick the bowl.

The cake is cherry chip with chocolate frosting in the middle and cherry frosting on the outside. Of course I had to "bling" out the cake with edible glitter and edible pearl dust!

The finished product.

Is she excited or what???!!!

Celebrate LOVE!

At Christmas time I took a very large wreath that hung over my fireplace and moved it to my guest bedroom to make way for a Christmas picture I had. I decided I really liked the wreath in my guest bedroom, and did not want to move it again. This left an empty space above my fireplace.

When I put up my Valentine decorations, the empty space became very obvious. I needed something fun and fanciful in the space, but I also did not want to spend a lot of money.

I started out with a plain wood frame, a mat, and I purchased a gift bag to use for the background because it had the print I wanted. I had some coordinating scrapbook paper.

I painted the frame black.

I cut the gift bag up and used it behind the mat. I used my Cricut to cut out hearts, added a little glitter to "bling" them out, and I ended up with a really cute and inexpensive piece of art to fill up my empty space. (The picture really does not do it justice. I couldn't get a decent picture because the light kept reflecting off all my "bling")

I also decided my mantle needed some more fun decor, in the form of wooden blocks.

I painted the blocks black.

Then I added scrapbook paper, and used some fun embellishments to finish them off.

I also used my Cricut to cut out some of the embellishments.

Finally I found this kit that you could make these cute decorations. Best part it was 40% off and the paper in the kit coordinated with the paper I purchased for my blocks.

Finally, here is the overall look, I am very happy with how it turned out!

Hummm....not exactly what I had in mind....

Last Saturday I instructed Lauren to clean her room. Basically it was a disaster area, and I was not really sure what color the carpet was, because it had been a while since I had seen it....

Much of the mess was Lauren's clothes. Usually when instructed to clean her room, Lauren takes all of her clothes and dumps them into the hamper regardless of whether or not they are dirty, because, well it is easier than sorting out clean clothes from dirty clothes and then having to put clean clothes away.

I am tired of washing clean clothes so I told Lauren I expected her to sort her clean clothes from her dirty clothes and put away her clean clothes. After working on her room for about an hour she pronounced it clean. I went in and inspected and sure enough it was clean and not all the clothes were in the hamper.

A day or two later I was in Lauren's bathroom and what did I find in the bath tub? Her clean clothes.....not exactly what I had in mind when I said put your clean clothes away.....

I have a secret admirer...

I have a secret admirer, who made my my bed and left me a sweet treat! Don't you wish you had a secret admirer???!!!

Still cutting hair.....

For those of you afraid I have given up my job as hair stylist, never fear, I still cut hair. (Although for liability purposes I limit myself to members of my immediate family...)

Lauren's very long and uneven hair.

Lauren's shortened up and even hair. Good news, less tangles in the morning, which means fewer tears, a plus for both Lauren and me. Next goal, trim Katie's hair.....that will be a bit more of a challenge.....she is a moving target.

Its dance time!

Lauren's birthday is one week from today! I can't believe I am going to have a nine year old child? How is that possible? I need someone to explain that to me, ASAP!

In honor of Lauren's upcoming birthday, this weeks posts will be all about Lauren and the stuff, both good and bad that has recently happened in her life.

To start with, yes its DANCE, Lauren's favorite activity. At the end of January her dance studio put on a production entitled "Move" and which featured big time names such as Mark Ballas, Derick Hough, and Chelsie Hightower. Lauren's group danced in the pre-show.

Lauren's ballroom group in a pre-show meeting.

Dancing away.

Its the Jive!

For a treat after the show Lauren and I went to In and Out for a wonderful dinner of burgers and fries!

Lamp for Katie's room.

Ikea, one of my favorite places in the world...fun home decor stuff, not a huge investment. I found this lamp for Katie's room that perfectly matched her new decor of pink and orange. I added the ribbon and the crystals at the bottom. Its a floor lamp, where you step on a switch on the ground to turn it on. Not sure how much Katie cares for the actual decor of the lamp, but she sure does like that switch.

The Hula Queen.

Meet the hula hoop queen.

As a young child I recall that my mother bought me a hula hoop, after all it was the 70's and they were all the rage. I never could get that silly thing to work. After about two times around my waist, it inevitably fell to the ground, resulting in my opinion that hula hoop is hard and not a very fun toy.

Lauren, clearly not learning from my hula experience, wanted her own hoop. Well I figured what the heck, its a cheap toy, and as I know from my own experience if the hula thing doesn't work out, there really are a million and one other uses for that hoop, like marking your territory for those that can be in the hoop and those that must remain out.....(think little brother, sorry Jeron....)

As of yet Lauren has not had to find ulterior things to do with her hoop. She uses if for the designated purpose. The girl move her hips and hula hoops like no one's business. Her current record 32 minutes and 9 seconds of uninterrupted hula hooping. She is hoping to break that record this weekend.....

UPDATE: For those of you curious as to the success of the flower bow selling at the third grade sale, well Lauren sold out less than half way through the sale! She was quite pleased, and now sees her flowers being worn in the hair of girls all over the school. Her class made quite a haul, taking in $315 to put toward their field trip. (Geezz, in my day you were lucky if you got $30 at your bake sale!)

A chip off the old block.....

Many people at my dad's funeral were struck by the picture of my dad as a young child and how Mark is the spitting image of his grandpa. Something that in my family, we have know for quite some time. I have always thought that if my Grandma Hales was still alive she would really enjoy seeing young version of my dad. But not only does Mark look like my dad, he has similar interests. He loves trains, cars, and anything mechanical. The only love of my dad's he has not acquired yet, is that of airplanes and flying, but give him time.....

When we were up in Idaho for my dad's funeral, Mark discovered this old radio that was my dad's but originally belonged to my Great Grandpa Bunderson. My dad LOVED this radio. First because it belonged to his grandfather, but also because he grew up on radio programing. I recall the day when I was a teenager that my dad brought this radio home when his grandparents house was being cleaned out. The radio was proudly placed in our basement family room. None of us as kids were ever that enamored with it, but my dad loved it, and would turn it on every once in a while and tinker around with it. Mark was completely taken with the radio and all of its button and features. I practically had to drag him away from it for fear that he would break something in his enthusiasm to figure out this new, fun and fascinating object.

In the nature vs. nurture debate, I am firmly in the nature camp. As for me, whenever I am missing my dad, one look at my boy, and I know I have a little piece, or probably a big piece of my dad with me everyday. For that I am very thankful.

Just playing catch up.....

In the haste that was the month of December, complete with several unplanned activities, including my dad's funeral, (Doesn't he know that these sorts of things MUST be cleared with my schedule in advance????) there were several pictures from that event that did not make it up on the blog.

Cute hugging cousins.

Lauren, with those two, unpredictable, but terribly cute two year olds.

Ummm....is anyone wondering why Colin and Ciarran don't have kids??? I can answer that question, they spent the afternoon with Kallie, Katie and Mark. No better birth control.....

Of course a tea party was a must.

Well a tea party was must, until Kallie discovered a box, which of course made Mark jealous, because he thought the box looked pretty cool, and then the fighting began..... Kallie won, Mark was removed to another room. Yes we still are struggling with sharing...