Easy winter craft...

As I mentioned in my last post, J was home sick for a good portion of the week.  He was recovering from pneumonia, so while he needed to be home, he also wanted something to do.  Luckily our new issue of Family Fun arrived the first day he was home.  After he looked through the magazine, he asked if we could make the winter sun catcher together.  I looked at the directions and it looked easy enough, so we began. (I tried to find an online picture, but no luck!)

The first step was making some colored ice cubes.  Since we have an automatic ice maker, we no longer have any ice cube trays, but we do have a silcone mold for making Valentine's crayons, so we filled that with water and added food coloring.

After the ice cubes were frozen, we filled a cake pan with water and set a plastic cup (filled with water) in the pan (to make a hole for the ribbon)  We added the colored cubes (hearts) to the cake pan and froze again.

Here is our finished product, hanging on the back deck so we can enjoy it (until the pouring rain expected tomorrow and Monday) from the breakfast table!

A fun and easy project to keep someone entertained (and more importantly, not exerting himself too much!)

a little of this, a little of that...

Today is the first day this week that both boys are off at school!  It was a crazy morning, but it is great to be able to get out of the house again. :)

This is what both boys have been doing most of the week.  Poor guys. :(  Feeling better today and went off to school ready for jeans day! Oh, and Uno's lunch day!  I LOVE Fridays!  If we can't have a chef, Uno's is a great thing.

This was my attempt to recreate the dinner I had in NYC.  What I made was yummy, but not quite the same thing.  Shrimp, sundried tomato risotto (made with fish stock, thanks Shan) and broccolini.  I think the shrimp needs to be grilled with more herbs.  A project to work on!

And this is my new obsession.  I received a Cuisinart from my darling husband for Christmas and have been having fun attempting to make the perfect loaf of bread.  Again, another fun project to continue.  My oven cooks pretty hot, so I am working on figuring out the ideal length of time to bake the bread.

I need to go to the Mill Store (unfinished furniture) to pick something up for a client and to look for a new TV stand for our playroom.  I think we are going to upgrade to a flat screen down there and re-locate the wii.  It is currently in our family room, and I'm not sure I like it there.  Not sure I like the idea of having it in the playroom either.  Any opinions out there??

Have a great weekend!

xoxoxo

Tickled Pink Tuesday

I am getting back to work with my hand painted children's furniture business Tickled Pink Designs and thought I would feature a different piece/design idea every Tuesday.

This week we have the monogrammed table and chair set. This set can be customized to match any decor.  Let me know you saw this on my blog, and receive FREE shipping when you order!

Martha Stewart Show recap - FINALLY!!

Pots and Pains and I arrived bright a early last Thursday for the Martha Stewart Blogging show.  We had to be there by 8:30 (so we got there around 8:00!)

Here is the studio before the show started.  Notice the bags on the rug to hold it down.  I just loved the lighting in there.  I wish I had kitchen lighting like that!

Here is the audience getting ready.  We were all to be live blogging/twittering from our seats, so there was plenty of tech support around to make sure everyone could connect to the proper router.  These women in purple and orange got to pose with Martha at the end of the show.  I overheard that they have a vineyard...

Here we are in the FRONT row!  The camera was never on us though.  Oh well, I certainly enjoyed our seats!  I kept feeling as though my computer was going to slide off my lap!

oh how I love this faucet.  And the marble counter top.  I would like both please.

It was hard to blog and pay attention, and since I only had my phone camera (these are shots that P & P took) I couldn't upload anything during the show.

Brian Williams was originally supposed to be the main guest, but I am assuming he was in Haiti. (and if not, it wouldn't look so good for the NBC anchor to be on Martha!) So Martha's daughter, Alexis was on with her friend, Jennifer Koppleman Hutt.  I have to say, Alexis was extremely rude.  I have a few other choice words to describe her, but I won't. Let's just say that if I were Martha, I would have thrown her off the set. Jennifer was hilarious though.

The show went by really fast.  There was some cooking, baking, and a craft.  Oh, and Martha's shoes!  I must post a picture of Martha's shoes....

We had a great time in the city.  It was fun to get away for 24 hours.  Pots and Pains really knows the city well after living there for 3 years, and I don't know the city at all, so it was nice to have her take me around.  Like we said after the show....

Let's do this every week!!!

To see more about the show (guests etc) click here.

And we're live!

Post 100 - Live from The Martha Show!!!

Y'all, I can't believe this is only my 100th post, but it is!  How fabulous that it is from the Martha Show??  I am tickled pink.  How fitting!  In case you aren't following me on Twitter, we are in the front row.   Pictures will come later, pinky swear!

Waiting....

Here is Pots and Pains/ Pickle Chatter and myself in the waiting room...

NYC!!

We had a great afternoon/evening in the big city. We arrived smoothly
and my lovely Joy tunic was at the front desk waiting my arrival. I
like it better in real life!

Sent from my iPhone

The Martha Prep continues...

I spent the day yesterday shopping with my mom for an outfit to wear on Thursday. (So much FUN!! - I hadn't been shopping in a long time -trying to be frugal after all).  We ended up at Nordstroms.  I have avoided Nordstroms in the past because I thought it would be just too pricey.  Well, what a great experience we had there!  I found a short sleeve, dark pink, rufflely sweater (I will take a pic) that was on sale and quite reasonable.  The closure hook was not quite in the right place, and the sales associate called the alterations dept. who came right up and fixed it!  At NO additional charge.  I am SO shopping there more often!!

So that is ONE of my options.  With a black shirt underneath and black pants.  And a lime green necklace.  or maybe my pearls....hmmm. 

My other option is this

I purchased this from Persnickety Palm in Leesburg VA.  I just discovered this store, and this piece from Shopaholic in Alabama .   It was on sale, plus and addtional 20% off!!! Oh, Linda at Persnickety Palm was SO helpful.  So helpful in fact that she is overnighting the shirt to my hotel in NY.  I had left a message on Sunday, but they were closed Sunday and Monday.  She isn't even charging me any additional shipping!!  Now that is FABULOUS!!  I think my lime green necklace will look good with this too.  Will wear with black pants.

Today I am trying to get the house ready for my departure.  I am heading to the grocery store momentarily.  I have been cleaning and doing laundry.  Still need to make up some pizza dough for Thursday night.  I will be home, but will arrive so close to dinner that I won't have time to make the dough then.  And the of course I have to host the JAS meeting here tonight!  AGH!  I don't have time to host a meeting!  I need to pack!

Martha Stewart here I come!!

My friend Pickle Chatter and I are off to NYC next week to go to the Martha Stewart Show!!!  I am SO excited! It is a blogging episode, so we will be blogging live from the show.  Anyone else going???

Now I need suggestions about WHAT TO WEAR!!!!!  Aghhhhh!  I think a shopping trip is in order....

Suggestions more than welcome!  (Please, I'm desperate here, I NEED suggestions!)

Thank you!

Thank you for all the well wishes as the boys and I embarked on a road trip to Philadelphia to attend my grandmother's funeral.  The travel went off with out a hitch (we made it in 5 1/2 hours!) and the boys were phenomenal.  Movies in the car certainly helped, but J in particular, was extremely helpful.  John was able to fly down and join us Wednesday night, and it was great that he could make it.  (and drive home!!) 
How amazing that my boys got to know their great grandmother for as long as they did.  She lived in the same town as my parents for the last 3 1/2 years, so J and C were able to see her on a regular basis.  J (who is 8 1/2) was much sadder than I anticipated during the service.  He is REALLY going to miss his Nonna!
As my mom mentioned at one point over the passed couple of days (hard to believe we were only gone for 36 hours!) My grandmother lived until she died.  I can only hope that someone can say that about me someday!

my CVS trip

Well, I have been reading some "frugal mom blogs" recently and decided it was time for me to give this whole couponing,  CVS thing a try.  Why not?  I have the time, and if we can save money this way, it is silly not to right?  I spent Sunday evening with the paper (the circulars and coupons that is, John actually read the paper part!)  I also had $7.50 in ECBs (extra care bucks for those not familiar with this whole thing) from my fall spending. 
I actually broke my transaction up into 3 (yes, there was NO one else in line!!)

Phew!  So I got about $78 worth of items for about $33.  Not $500 worth of items for $2, but not too bad for a first start!

It's SO quiet around here...

Good Morning!  Happy New Year!  Merry Christmas! (It's been awhile since I've blogged, hasn't it?)
My boys (and John, my third boy) all headed back to school and work after two weeks of being home. It's SO quiet here this morning.  It's great!  I have to admit, while the second week of vacation was WONDERFUL, the first week was a bit not.  I yelled.  A lot.  At the boys (not John so much!)  The week before Christmas.  ugh.  I didn't want to be so stressed, and really, I wanted to enjoy having everyone all together, but it was crazy the week before Christmas.   We were able to really relax and enjoy ourselves the second week.  Maybe playing wii together helped...I rock at archery!  And we went sledding!   Even me.  And even though we didn't go anywhere (not the norm here in our small coastal town) I know the boys had a great break. (I only know this for sure because they actually told me!)  So apparently memories of Mommy yelling have gone to the wayside. But it did happen.

And then we have this morning.  I wanted so badly to have everything all organized for them to head back to school (John is on his own on this one!)  I put their snow stuff in the dryer so it would be ready for the morning (you know, one less thing to worry about, yay me), made sure everyone had school appropriate clothing to put on (dress code) and went to bed.  Only to be woken this morning by "Sweetie, what time do you get the boys up?"  "Um, 6:30, why?"  "it's 7:06"  "Oh, S%#@"  NOT the way I like to start my morning!!!  So much for a stress free first day back. I did manage to get the 2 very tired boys off to school on time and they were even fed and had their hair brushed (phew) and once more I am SO wishing their school had a chef.  Packing lunches is really the bane of my existence. (I love this phrase!  My great friend W used to say it all the time)  And I did remember to restart the dryer, so they were able to head out in warmed up winter gear. ;) (muttering the whole time about how they don't really like school all that much and they want to stay home, C even started to play the I don't feel well card, but I think realized that wasn't going to get him anywhere!)

Can you tell I'm trying to be a bit more real here this year?  I do love to cook, bake, craft, decorate etc.  But I also oversleep, yell and tell my boys to stay in the playroom while I work on other things.  And while I do think our boys are cute and all around good kids, we certainly have our issues. Maybe this all leads to some of my goals for this year...(in no particular order, blogging is certainly NOT my top priority!)

Be more real here
Yell less
Excercise more (more is used loosely here, it's been a while since I exercised AT ALL)
Be more present with J and C (and not just for the great blog photo opps!)
Listen more

I think that is enough for now, don't you??  I'm off to attempt to "CVS" (you know, get $200 worth of items for $2.00 - I'll let you know how successful I am!)

xoxoxo