It Was Bound to Happen

Sooner or later we knew that Jackson was
going to have some type of injury.
By this age, Austin had already had stitches in his chin
from a fall in the bathtub and staples in his head from
a fall at preschool...so I knew Jackson's days were numbered.

Jackson is our child that goes wide open all the time.
He doesn't walk anywhere...
well, a few weeks ago he fell and hit his mouth
on the hardwood floor.

We didn't think much about it.
He came and whimpered for a few minutes
and then was back at it again.
We usually say
"No Blood, No Foul"
and since his mouth didn't show any sign of immediate damage
we didn't think anything else about it

and then it happened...
one day he looked like this...

Minus the wild hair...

Two pearly white teeth in front...

To one pearly white tooth and one gray tooth...

Dr. Beitel said that it may turn a little lighter

and told us the signs to watch for to make sure

it is not getting infected, but other than that...

it is what it is.

Good thing it's a baby tooth...

it will come out...

this is a little thing in the grand scope of things...

Is it Spring, Yet?

Today when I was waiting for Austin after school

I noticed that the buttercups around the 

Gazebo out front were popping up out of the ground!

Oh...can Spring be close by?

We do not seem like we have had much of a Winter.

It has not been too cold and no snow like we had last year.

This Winter has actually seemed more like Spring...

Tornadoes and all...that part I think I could have done without.

But the rain and clouds have hung around for weeks and today

is the first day of sunshine that we have seen in a while.

It was so nice to open the blinds and actually 

have light fill the rooms.

And I noticed last night at 5 o'clock, it was still light outside.

Sometimes it's the little things that can change your mood.

The boys were sick the end of last week

and with the weather, we have not been out and have not felt 

like doing anything...but today my thoughts have

changed to warm weather and longing for Summer...

Outdoors...grilling out...running through the grass without shoes!!!

With grilling out comes eating outside.

That gave me ideas for new and fun tablescapes.

And that gave me the idea to get a little crafty.

Have you seen these?

 

The Original Redneck Wine Glass.

You can buy them 

here

pretty funny, huh?

Mom and I saw these on a recent trip to Bass Pro Shops.

I think it all started as a funny little idea and has now grown

into a booming business.  These bad boys sell online anywhere from 

$8 to $15 .

In the South you grow up drinking out of a Mason Jar.

So why not put a stem on it...

it's always more fun to drink from a glass with a stem, right?

Of course, we always thought it was fun to drink just from the jar!

So...I already had the jars and knew the little candle sticks

could be found at my local Dollar Tree...

The craft was on!

I gathered all of my things together.

Four Pint sized jars for our "wine glasses"

which will actually be used to sip sweet tea from

on hot Summer days.

I scuffed the top of the candle stick with some 

sand paper that I found in the garage 

and then cleaned them off with a little alcohol.

I wiped the bottom of the jars off as well and let them dry.

I put E6000 glue on the rim of the candle stick 

and then stuck them to the bottom of the jars.

I also had a package of these smaller jelly size jars,

so I figured that I would make us some "champagne" glasses as well.

But our will be used to hold fresh fruit or yummy 

homemade Ice Cream.

I did the same thing with the smaller jars and then

put some weight on them to make sure they stick.

Now, just add a little ribbon to dress them up and we are 

ready to go for summer...

OK, so maybe not the bow....

I can see my boys asking why I had to "girl" them up.

I am so out numbered in this house.

I pulled out a place mat that I had gotten on summer clearance
to see how they would look.
Now all they need are some sweet tea and homemade ice cream.
Bring on the summer!

Finishing up...

Jackson and I spent some time downstairs today

finishing up working in my scrapbook room.

OK...I worked and he played with all of the

toys in Austin's old play room that he has been trying to clean out.

That's another project in the works...

toy room turned into teenage music room.

YIKES...I just admitted he is about to become a teenager.

OK...moving on

Scott finished up my shelves

and  got them installed this weekend.

I told him when they were up that the space

seemed like it grew...A LOT!

But more storage is always good...

Simple but fabulous on function

He finished painting my table, too.

He had a really hard time painting that oak table

and I thought my brother-in-law was going to have a

heart attack when Scott told him he was painting oak.

I called yesterday about having a piece of glass cut to put on top

to protect the paint.  Hopefully we can get that done in a week or two

I tried moving some things around.

I thought the gift wrap cabinet might work in the corner,

but it was a little too big to fit in the corner.

So, on around the corner it went...that sucker is heavy!

Ignore all of the junk piled up on the left hand side.

I would move furniture, then move junk, move furniture

then move more junk...vicious cycle

I think it's going to stay there for a little while.

At least until I paint the room.

Then I'll have to move it.

But the fewer times it has to move, the better.

I moved all of the empty scrapbooks over above the desk

so they are there and ready to be filled.

As I was moving them over I was thinking to myself...

"Hoard much?"

I think my plan is going to be to actually move

these up a shelf and put the books that are

works in progress on the bottom shelf.

That way they are easy to grab and get to work

I have put a lot of money into supplies and tools

over the years and now I need to get back to actually using them. 

My goal is to get caught up on some of my

scrapbooks and use up the supplies I already have

before I spend another dime on a piece of paper.

Not to mention all of the umpteen zillion ways that I can cut out

a letter or shape...

You know, I like to make fun of Scott every time he buys a new tool,

but I am just as bad.  I can scrapbook 10 ways from

Sunday without ever stepping out of this room.

I had originally thought that I would make a skirt for this table

and then store my two plastic drawer carts under the table.

When I told Scott this plan he said

"So you are not planning on every sitting at this table to work?"

He tried to tell me that those two carts would not fit

under there and have any room to put your feet.

I didn't listen to him, but today when I actually put them

under there I had to admit that he was right.

Hate it when that happens.

Truth be told, it happens a lot.

But that doesn't mean I have to like it.

I still think I will make the skirt just to add

a little more of the colors to the room.

Besides...I already have the fabric!

I plan on making a chair cover for the oak chair to

coordinate with the colors in the room.  I really do not

feel like paining that chair and I think if I asked Scott

to paint it for me he might just flip.

So, it is slowly coming along.

Work spaces are now cleaned off to where I could actually

work in here.  Things I have been waiting on to be built,

have been and tables painted.

The dark wood chest of drawers will be moved

out and used in Austin's new music room and I would

eventually like to buy a big fluffy chair to put there.

I'll have to see. 

I would like to buy some new lamps for the space and

I need to add a few decorative touches too.

Maybe a rug...a big cork board over the table...

always lots to do.

Oh, and Scrapbook!

There is still a lot of organizing to do on that front.

I have boxes of stuff that I have separated out for Austin's

school albums...I even found where I had printed out all of his

photos from 4th grade.

Ummm, yeah....he's in 7th....

Just a little bit behind.

So another goal is figure out a better way to

store my works in progress...

because I have a few...

I did buy these photo storage boxes at Costco

a while back that have 12 individual cases inside.

I plan on using these to sort the photos of the boys

and keep them in order while they wait to be scrap-booked and stop

the unorganized mess that I have going on now.

Somewhere in this cabinet is enough photos and

memorabilia and paper to scrapbook

two separate summer vacations...and possibly a couple of

Austin's school years.

And there are a few cabinets in here that are

full of "stuff" that has nothing to do with

scrapbooking...

Lots of work left to do,

but a step in the right direction.



Cold, Creating and Cleaning

Well....

our weather has finally changed.

Yep...

this was a picture taken out my back door

yesterday around 3 o'clock.

I jokingly called my friend Bonny and

asked if she thought we'd get out of school on Friday.

We had a nice little dusting

and then as soon as it began, it was gone again.

But as funny as my conversation with Bonny was,

guess what...

We got to go in TWO HOURS LATE!!!!

I love snow in the South.

In our defense...

there are a lot of students that travel quite a distance

to school so it is always better to be safe than sorry.

And I am never one to turn down going in late!

But our snow is gone but the COLD remains.

I was glad that Scott was off today so he could take Austin to school.

And...

He also was able to finish my Christmas present.

Which I think is totally awesome!

It is going to add so much storage

and will be a fun place to decorate as well.

Look at all that space to store scrapbook supplies.

I'm so excited.

He let me pick out all of the trim to make it "pretty"

and it figured it all out and put it together,

primed and painted it.

I really like the rope detail on the trim.

Scott also put adjustable shelving so I could move the shelves

up and down to accommodate my different storage needs.

I jumped right on loading it up and trying to get

my room organized so I can get back to work

on my scrapbooks.

Of course, as I started placing things on the shelf,

I also started coming up with more projects.

I want to paint or cover the photo boxes so they will

coordinate with the colors in the room

(Mr. Potato Head came to help me work...

he was wearing Goofy's hat and eating a slice of pizza...)

I spent a couple of hours this morning

organizing and clearing things out.

I worked on getting supplies stored in the cabinets

and not on the table and countertop.

I had so much stuff on the workspaces

that I didn't have any room to work.

I have been wanting to paint this table for a while.

Today it got two coats of primer and the first coat

of crisp white paint.

My plan it to make a skirt for this table

so I can store some things underneath.

Scott is also making two shelves that will go between

the run of cabinets on the wall.

It's coming along.  I still have lots of organizing to do

and clearing out.

And a little decorating...

The little golfer men are on their way out...

and some "girly" colors as Austin would say.

Periwinkle and Apple Green.

I'm still trying to figure out the perfect paint colors

to go with my fabric.  But it's coming together. 

Getting a little more organized

and hopefully I'll be able to use the room to work

and not just to hoard scrapbook supplies.

It has felt like Saturday all day to me.

I don't know if it was because we slept late this morning

or if because it was Scott's Friday off,

but I have been off all day.

We were able to get a lot accomplished today

and now it's time to call it a night.

I'm going to curl up in a blanket and try to stay warm...

did I tell you it's cold...

We even had snow!



Blue Skies....

It is still raining....

Oh, how I am ready to see blue skies again.

We have had rain and fog all week long.

Today we have had thunderstorms...

that woke the entire house up

(and all three of my men sleep like ROCKS)

But this is what woke us up this morning,

Hail...in January...and a whole lot of it.

I had heard the rumble of thunder heading our way,

but at 5 AM the bottom fell out and this is what piled up outside.

The hail was small in size but there was a TON of it.

Our front door faces south and I promise you that stuff

was hitting the front door and was so loud that I thought the

door had blown open and it was raining in the house.

Our roof has a very high pitch to it, so we don't usually hear

the rain...too much space up there, I guess,

but we heard this!

On the roof, on the front door and poor Austin though

his front window was about to blow out!

Like I said, the storm came through around 5 am

and this picture was taken about Noon.

It is still everywhere!

There are little piles of it at the end of neighbors drain pipes

and along the side of the road.  Weird....

The rain is suppose to be tapering off through out the day,

and I will be happy to see it go.

Although, the weather man said it

is suppose to get colder and he also said

the "S" word...you know the one that sends

Southerners to the store to strip the milk cases

and bread shelves.

It is only suppose to flurry, so hopefully we'll be safe.

We do need milk though, so I'll be one of those that looks like

I am in an all out panic to get it before we are snowed in

by a 1" blizzard.

(You think I'm kidding....oh, no...it's that bad)

So, since it's so nasty outside today,

I decided to try and make it a little brighter inside.

My sister-in-law, Ann, bought me

two new place settings of Peacock Blue Fiesta dishes

for Christmas.

I decided to set the table with them today.

As I was thinking about what all I wanted to gather,

these round place mats came to mind.

I thought that they probably would not match, but pulled them out and

they were perfect.

I had bought these at Kmart last spring

when their Easter things were on clearance.

I picked them up really cheap and figured that I would just

use them with my white plates, but now I have two

uses for them...even better.

I only have 2 place settings of each color of my Fiesta,

that I started getting last year.  I decided to mix the new

Peacock dishes with my Chocolate brown ones.

I love how they look together.

I found my candles yesterday at Hobby Lobby

on the clearance isle.  I couldn't figure out why they were on clearance,

they were not scratched up or anything, so I put them in my cart and

brought them home with me.

When I took the labels off, I guess I found the reason.

Can you see the faint faded line around the middle?

Oh well, I figure I can get some pretty ribbon and tie

around them to cover that up.

I really like the texture of them.

And they matched my new plates...perfectly.

I used my everyday Oneida "Julliard"

stainless flatware.  I pulled out the soup spoons,

I figure that soup might warm us up on this cold and dreary day.

I just grabbed some candle holders from the foyer

to set the candles on.

I also played around with some of the extra pieces

of Fiesta that I have in the Chocolate color.

Below, I layered the Peacock dinner plate,

Chocolate luncheon plate, Peacock salad plate,

and topped it off with the Chocolate fruit bowl.

I really like the luncheon sized plate.

It's perfect for little boys and for smaller dinner portions.

The fruit bowls are perfect for, well, fruit...

and may have been known to hold a "just right"

amount of ice cream around this house.

I would like to get 2 luncheon plates and fruit bowls

in Peacock. Kohl's just happened to send me

a coupon in the mail yesterday for an extra 30% off.

I'm thinking I may need to make a trip to Kohl's.

(Unless we are snowed in, ha ha!)

So there's my Blue Skies table for today.

Maybe it will bring some our way.

Hope the sun is shining on you!

I'll be joining up at

Between Naps on the Porch

for Tablescape Thursday.

Be sure and check out all of the other beautiful

tables that are being set.

I am off to put a little one down for a nap

and continue to work on my scrapbook room

project.  Hopefully, Scott can get

my new bookshelves

finished and put in place.  He has them painted

and just needs to attach the adjustable rails inside

and move it in the room.

I can't wait!