Spring Decorating

Better late than never, but I finally got around to posting about my Easter/Spring and month of May decorating:

Every month my antique cloche has something new in there. For April I had plastic eggs and twine wrapped balls. Thrift stores always turns up the cutest junk to be stuffed somewhere fun:

My antique ball jars has wheatberry seeds and bunny tag that was saved from an Easter toy last year:

My antique gum ball machine has a little plaster bunny with Easter Egg candies:

My soda crate gets changed every month. Here is the Easter version with scrappy stuff I had around the house:

The month of May I picked up moss balls and fake green apples at 50 percent off from Fry's. I spread the green apples around the house for fun hints of green:

So that's it. Just changed a few things here and there in different containers. That's my style of decorating lately: container decorating.

Back To Life

So I have been gone up north in 4 different states for 3 weeks and just got back on Saturday, so I barely got to acknowledge this in the middle of frantic packing after a frantic month of May before leaving at the beginning of June:



















Happy 16 Years!

I Had a Free Afternoon? I Made Something?

I can't believe it. This is more rare than an eclipse happening twice in one day.

I had a free afternoon. I almost forgot what a free afternoon feels like!

At 2 pm I made my own coupon organizer and finally got everything ready for future shopping trips.

Then I got my daughter from tutoring at school by 3 pm.

Little son and daughter had no games/practices or anything.

Silence in the house for 2 hours while my youngers played at the park from 3:15 to 5 pm.

My husband and son had baseball practice at RVMS and were done early by 4:30 pm. They went out to celebrate at Chuys because my 12 year old maintained his high honor roll GPA for the first progress report of the 4th quarter.

Then my high schooler son texted me and asked for a ride home at 4:30 pm because baseball practice ended early.

4:30 pm and I don't have to be running and driving around until 9 pm? I am in shock.

My 7 year old son made his own dinner by 5 pm. Yes peeps, MADE HIS OWN DINNER. He heated up 5 frozen taquitos and sat down at the table with a glass of milk.

Whoo hoo. (jumping into a break down routine here)

Then my hubs went upstairs and took a nap for a couple hours.

Then my high school son takes my 9 year old daughter on a BSD by 6 pm, a brother sister date. My daughter got a BSD coupon for her birthday yesterday. They both rode their bikes to the Fry's area and went to Carls Jr for dinner and were gone for a good hour.

So what did I do from 3 to 8 pm?

I sewed! I crafted! I altered my top from Old Navy that I got two months ago so it would fit me better. Then I took the leftover fabric and added other leftover fabric and made my daughter a bohemian style skirt. I am nearly done. I even made a fabric flower clip to go with it. Pictures to follow soon.

So crafting and no cooking for a family of 6, no running around, no driving and rushing, no homework, and no one knocking on my door and bothering me this afternoon. Even my dog snoozed all day.

It was really nice. Everyone did what they wanted to do today.

What do you do with a free afternoon?

Lucky Late than Never

So this is supposed to be a craft blog, and I barely post anything crafty here...blame the time game on that one.

So here is some tidbits from my March Lucky decorating. I kept it simple: changed out the jars in my soda crate hanging on the wall in the lobby. Every month it has a different look and theme. This is March's look. The top row has thrifty paper crinkles that I made myself from lunch bags. The second row has wheat berries and cupcake lucky charms inserted. The bottom row has green polka dot scrapbook paper and chipboard letters that I had on hand spelled "luck." The top of the shelf: I shopped my house and put them on there:

I collect vintage Ball jars, and change up things inside them all the time:

Plus my favorite decor item is my gumball machine. The month of March had the thrifty shredded paper cut from a lunch paper bag, crunched up, thrown it, and added some shamrocks I had on hand:

I let my kids use the cupcake shamrock toothpicks I had leftover and they stuck them all over the place. Here is a few in my antique milkvase with the new sprigs of spring grass growing it in, from wheat berries:

I added a bit more green on my piano. I have two antique milkvases on it, and I am always trying to come up with ideas to fill it up with something cute. The weather got weird in Feb and Mar: superhot, supercold, superhot, supercold. I decided not to plant my mints in March and temporarily put them in the vases for instant lucky green:

This thrifted makeover shelf has something new hanging from it or on it every month. The month of March had my lucky star charms I made last year hanging on it:

So that's it. Very very simple. Being a busy mom who lives in her car only allows me a tiny bit of decorating in the house lately. Keep tuned in for April/Easter decorating that I did.

What was I like as a kid?

This post is a copy/paste that was saved in my personal folder on my desktop. I needed a place to put it.
This is from July 2009, and I think it was for my Mom's genealogy project. The last two questions have not even been answered yet.

What was your best subject in elementary school? Recess

Jr High?  English

High School? English and Dance Class

What was your ambition in Jr. High? To just make it through with good grades and upgrade my social status

High School?  Graduate and go to college, get a boyfriend

What did you want to accomplish? Good grades, college, be self-supporting, travel and better education opportunities, be independent, be able to read and write, and speak well enough to pass off as a hearing person

What were your Hobbies? 

From younger to older:

1974 to 1979: playing dolls and “house”, playing with girlfriends, circling around the neighborhood block with my bike over and over while avoiding the “lines or cracks” on the road, being with family, outings, camping, hooked braided rugs, collecting stickers, , reading Dr Seuss and Disney books, playing fort in the basement, playing on the swingset outside, helping parents with the garden, playing with worms and potato bugs, avoiding the neighborhood bully named Jason, Moppet Dollhouse set, Sesame Street Clubhouse 1979 set, playing hide and seek, looking forward for a babysitter named Casey to come over, writing stories and drawing pictures, playing office with Dad’s junk mail, sneaking into the Nestle Quik chocolate powder

1980’s: teen friends, reading Trixie Belden, music that I sneaked out to listen with friends outside the house (Def Leppard and other rock and roll), tanning outside, Charms necklace, Levi skirts and jackets and focusing on the latest 1980’s fashion complete with big hair, brooding, dancing (at home), avoiding like the plague any kind of domestic arts/crafts/sewing that my mom tried to teach me, Looney Toons, Slumber parties complete with soda, pizza, and music, and not sleeping a wink all night,  YW camp and Youth conferences, going to the University Mall, going to the Scera Water Slides and the Scera theater for movies, Friday movie nights with the family complete with homemade CCC’s, French bread pizza, Twizzlers, and popcorn.

1990’s: fashion, keeping fit, tanning, changing hairstyles and clothing style, attempting to learn to sew, getting a boyfriend, HS football games, and HS dances, dance classes, working out, going dancing at the clubs such as the Palace, the Edge, and a country club for country dancing, getting good grades, going to the mall, wondering about college, trying to find ways to avoid being home to babysit younger siblings,

What was your favorite music and music groups? LDS hymns, pop rock, rock n roll, Paula Adbul, Michael Jackson, Bryan Adams, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Meatloaf, NKOB

Favorite sport(s)? absolutely no interests except Powder Puff football my senior year, and watching HS football games, (as a social status thing to check out the cute boys and make friends)

Major interests in Jr. High, High school? (see hobbies)

What did you do in your spare time as a teenager? If I had spare time, my mom made sure to fill it with chores and babysitting my younger sibs. Otherwise I would just disappear in my room on the top bunk and read.

What do you remember most about your Jr High and High school years?

How did you meet Ryan? 

Heather Says: It was an Assident.

Recently I was told by my husband that I have been pronouncing the word "accident" incorrectly.

I swear it was an assident. I mean accident. I had no idea.

All these years I have been pronouncing accident as "ass-sid-dent" instead of AK-cid-dent."

So peeps: when I mispronounce something, TELL ME SO!

Don't let me babble on like an idiot.

We all know what assume really means. Meaning you made an "idiot" out of you and me.

Don't assume that I know how to say some word if I am repeatedly saying it wrong. Don't assume that someone else will tell me and help correct me, because they most likely won't because they are afraid to assidently hurt my feelings. I mean accidently.

I may be a real good "talker" for a deaf person, but dang it, I still make assidents. I mean accidents.

The letter K in the middle of most words is usually prounced from the back of the throat with some tongue pressure. It's something I can't "see" while lip reading and definitely don't always hear. Therefore I don't get that reminder on how to really say a word.

The only exception is the silent K such as know, knew, and knee.

My hubs had to ASL sign the word "accident" out phoenetically in segments until I got it right but pronouncing it over and over. I kept assidently saying assident a few more times until my kids fell in a heap of giggles on the rug. (I mean accident)

I don't know how hubs missed this word over the years, but I can say he was too busy helping me with my other mispronounced words. There was this one word I was saying that sounded too close to the F bomb, so I think that word took priority over assident. I mean accident.

Well, that's the most swearing I have ever done in a post. I need to look for a bar of soap for my mouth, but my kid probably stuffed through the shower drain trap tonight and will tell me that it was an assident to avoid getting in trouble. I mean accident.

Hey! This could be a potty talk post! There was this one time back in high school when I used to say com-poo-ter instead of com-pute-ter....

The Many Measurements of Merry

My daughter's Measurement Report for School in the 3rd Grade:

She chose my dog Merry.

1.      Her belly is three candlesticks long.

2.       She is 4 pencils long.

3.       Her ears are two bouncy balls wide.

4.       Her legs are 3 ½ inches long.

5.       Her head is 5 inches long.

6.       She is 14 inches tall.

7.       She can run 138 feet in 17 seconds.

8.       Her temperature is 99.2 degrees Fahrenheit from under her armpit.

9.       Merry likes her bath water at 105 degrees Fahrenheit.

10.     She eats ½ cups of food per day.

11.     Merry drinks 2 or 3 cups of water per day.

12.     She is heavier than a small pumpkin, but lighter than a large pumpkin.

13.     Her hair on her body is 99% white and 1% black.

14.     Merry is ½ poodle and ½ Shiz Tzu.

15.     She eats 2 biscuits per day for a total of 14 biscuits per week.

16.     She weighs 11.6 pounds.

17.     Merry is 99% lovable and obedient. She is 1% naughty.

18.     Merry’s eyes are ½ inch wide.

19.     Her biggest tooth is 7/8 inch long.

20.     Her smallest tooth is 2/8 inch long.

21.     Her paws are 1 ½ inch long.

22.     Her nails are ¾ inch long.

23.      She jumps 16 inches high when she puts her paws in the air for a high five.

24.     She can shake her paw with your hand at 6 inches high from the ground.

25.     When I was done with my report, I got a handful of M&M’s and they were ¼ inch long.