Thrifty McThriftster

I had high hopes for this post but they all came crashing down when all of the dumbphone pictures I took on my quick 20 minute  thrift store run (without twins in tow) were accidentally erased while being transferred to my comp…  Needless to say I’m ANXIOUSLY awaiting April 8th, when our current cell phone contract ends and we can move over to a better deal and for me, a new SMARTphone.  Yip to the yee!

Anyway, Mary over at With My Sisters is having a great link-up where all you have to do is write up your best thrifting tip and share your wisdom with the web at large.  My plan was to hit up a thrift store (check), take pictures of home decor and clothing items I spied that were great deals (check), and show them to you all with notes on what you could do to each to make it even better (foiled).

So, in lieu of my thrifting experience by way of poor quality pictures gone missing, I give you some words to thrift by:

1.  What Mary said.  If it doesn’t “wow” you 100% in the thrift store, it’s going to “wow” you even less when you try it on or set it in your own space.  Then you’re plum outta luck because most thrift stores have a no-returns policy.

2.  Learn to sew!  It opens up a WHOLE NEW WORLD of possibilities and options…seriously!

3.  Be creative.  Snatch up a few boy’s belt to wear as waist belts.  Love the shoes but want to spice them up?  Take some spray paint to them!  Love the fit but not the color?  Dye it!  Wish it wasn’t so plain?  Add some studs, ribbon, leather pieces, rhinestones, etc…  As far as home decor goes, think outside the box.  Used, clean throw pillows can serve as inserts for new covers.  Fluffy comforters can be padding under fabric for headboards and cushions for whatever might need a soft place to land.  Curtains can be made from sheets, duvet covers, tablecloths, and vice-versa.  Old lamp shades can be reupholstered and set on a lamp base or attached to a ceiling fixture for a modern update.  Old coffee tables can be turned into new ottomans or benches.  Entertainment centers can be turned into storage meccas.  Chairs can be painted and their seats reupholstered.  I could go on and on.  And always my main mantra stands - spray paint can make anything new – baskets, wooden plaques, picture frames, lamps, ceramic animals, figurines, vases, desks, shelves dot dot dot 

4.  Pretend you’re not in a thrift store.  I can tend to see something that I would love if I saw it in say, Target or in a Pottery Barn catalogue, but since it’s in a thrift store it’s really not that great.  For example, I found this set of 12 green, quality drinking glasses shaped like pineapples and they totally looked like they came straight from Anthropologie.   If we didn’t already own too many glasses, they’d have been mine.  But, with a “thrift store” mindset, I might’ve passed them off as old, used glasses someone didn’t want so why should I.   However, the other extreme is also true - you see something you might use and since it’s only $1, you buy it, even though you wouldn’t even give it a second glance in a department store.

I did walk away from my quick thrift excursion with a few things.  I’ve been itching for some printed cardigans but my usual haunts, clearance racks, are turning up short.  Lucky for me, I found a couple of sweaters and one XXL cardigan (total spent: $9) I’m planning on transforming into cardigans made for mwah:
 

I’ve already taken a scissors and machine to this one:
 
You’ll have to stay tuned for that tutorial.  :)

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Happy thrifting everyone!  Remember, “One (wo)man’s trash is another (wo)man’s treasure”! 

P.S.  I’m spending Holy Saturday with family and the dude in the tomb so I won’t be posting but I’ll be back next week (with a possible WIWS appearance Sunday) with more of the same DIY stunts I’m liable for!  Happy Easter in advance!

WIWS – Clash of the Fathers

So I wasn’t going to post what I wore today because we weren’t home and weren’t on our usual Sunday schedule so I didn’t get a picture of the threads.  On top of that, we hit up our high school’s (ours as in the one associated with Anthony’s youth group) campus ministry retreat Mass, which I wasn’t planning on going to but then did, but didn’t really have Mass-appropriate clothes to wear to it but wore what I had anyway…yadda, yadda, yadda.  Whatever, right?  Right.  No big deal/bigger deal made by me.  So, no Mass attire still-shot to share with the web.  But then I remembered that our fave padre with the white collar  instagrammed a little shot of our fam + him (he’s the Godfather of Cecilia so it was a little “Godfamily” portrait) and so I stole it. 

Don’t mind my humidity-struck mane, the blinding sunshine over-working our eyelids, or my sloppy, stretched-out tee (thank you week 33).  Do mind the fact that my outfit is a perfect clash between Anthony’s and Fr. Dan’s…totally not planned.  Now that’s a family portrait done right!  :)

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Annnyway, I just got back from the Mass I was planning to go to (I won’t let you think I’m that holy though – I had to sing) and my left arm skin is slowly being ripped off by a twin who needs her nails cut (I swear I just cut them!) and my right is cradling her passed-out elder so I’m going to skidaddle.  But not before I link my red and gray up with Fine Linen and Purple!  Head on over and see “What I Wore Sunday” done right!

Happy Palm Sunday everyone!!

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Sorry, one more thought before I click “Publish”.  Don’t you always feel like a jerk on Palm Sunday while reading your part - “Crucify Him, crucify Him!” – in the missalette?  I do.  Big jerk.  Sad thing is, we (I) do it everyday.  Nothing like that to strike a chord in my heart.  Thank God Easter is next weekend!  I’ll be needing a big pick-me-up after this sad week!

Painted Glass

Our first order of hanging-business in the twins room was getting the big painted window pane up.  A friend gave it to us for the nursery and so we couldn’t wait to get it up.  I even had the perfect spot…

…and then the stud-finder shattered my decor dreams by telling me there wasn’t a stud dead center in the middle of the far wall.  Ever had that happen to you?  You want to hang something heavy somewhere, you go to find a stud, and the only one is like a foot to either side?  It’s one of my decorating pet peaves.  Either way, my two options were 1) rip out the wall and put a new stud where I wanted it or 2) improvise.  After pleading my option #1 case to the handy man around here, I took my shut-down to option #2.  I know what some of you are thinking, “Why didn’t you just use a heavy-duty dry-wall anchor?”.  If you came over and lifted this thing, you’d know why.  It’s a beast!  To be honest, we probably could’ve gotten away with a super-super-super duty anchor but I wasn’t taking any chances.  The last thing I want is a glass angel crashing into me while I’m rocking away. 

So, back to option two – improvising.  That’s exactly what we did when we added these Target shelves I found for $3 (at Dirt Cheap) to the left side of the painted window last weekend: 
To accessorize them I just used things we had laying around – a St. Philomena statue (love that girl), a candle from my sis, a piece of fabric I cut out from a tablecloth, metal l-o-v-e letters I found at Goodwill for a few cents a long time ago, a candle votive and vase from my mom, a tissue paper pouf (good tutorial here) made for my baby shower by my friend Jenn, and a jazzed-up Dollar Store frame showcasing some homemade, 10-minute art.

Today you’re gonna get to know the art and how that all went down.  You see, when we put these shelves up last weekend, I needed an easy way to fill the frame so I simply place a few sheets of tissue paper inside and then painted the girls’ initials onto the front of the glass with the same gold paint I used on the mirror over their bed and the corners of the frame, which I’ll get to later.  I got the idea from it’s side-kick, the angel painted on window, and thought it’d complement her by copying.  Not to mention that down here in the South, monogramming is the bees knees so I figured I’d semi-cave to that trend.  At least everyone knows now that “s & c” live here, right?

 

But, I wasn’t in love with the way the initials turned out – I meant to make them smaller – but this was a late night project and I wasn’t in the mood to re-do them.  So, the next day I snapped some pictures for the Fresh Coat of Paint feature and went on my merry way.

A couple of days passed and, perfectionist being my middle name, I had to do something about my frame art.  Since I had just painted right over the glass, removing the initials was as easy as spraying some glass cleaner and sliding the paint right off with a razor.   

This time around, instead of trusting my free-hand again, I went to work on Word where I simply typed up the girls’ names (free font:  Porcelain), printed it out…

 

…cut out each word, and taped them underneath the frame glass to be painted over like so: 

Then I got out a smallish paint brush and started painting right over the letters.

Ten minutes later it was done and up.

And, once again, I wasn’t satisfied.  "Seraphia” was a tad crooked and the whole thing a tiny bit off-center, and all-in-all a little fancier than I thought it’d be.  So, a glutton for painting, out came the glass cleaner and razor for another go at it and off I went to Word, where I created these two new designs:

After  much debate (inside my own head of course), I ended up going with… 
…option #1 (free font:  Matilde except for the ampersand which I randomly picked).  I painted it on the same way I painted the previous design, but instead of cutting each word out, I stuck the whole document behind the frame to make sure everything would be nice and straight.  So easy and just imagine the options.  You could print just about anything, paint over it, and have some great looking art…and then you could get out the glass cleaner and do it all over again, and again, and again…fun, fun, fun.

And that’s that…but wait!  The frame.  I could’ve sworn I took pictures of how I painted the corners of my $1 frame, but alas, they are not to be found.  Either I hid them from myself or I’m just losing my mind.  Probably the latter.  But, in case you’re interested in knowing, all I did was lay pieces of tape a couple of inches from each end, painted within the taped areas, and removed the tape (while the paint was still wet to reduce peeling).  I whipped up a little diddy in pixlr.com for ya below to further explain:
The blue lines represent where I taped.  It was a super-easy way to dress up a frame and I love how it turned out.  I’m thinking I might have to do the same elsewhere in our abode.  Maybe a whole gallery wall?  Who knows. 

Anyway, that’s the story on the shelves and their contents.  My nervous twitch cause by the off-center angel is now settled and it’s on to the next (and final) wall of the nursery – the one over the dresser.  It’ll have a frame collage with a side of unconventional art.  Stay tuned to see how that turns out!

Until then though, I’m off to brush my teeth, put some real clothes on, tame my hair, etc… (the stuff I should’ve done before I sat down to blog… lucky for you, we’re separated by a whole world of web) before the twins wake up from nap numero uno. 

Have a great weekend y’all!!!!

P.S.  I’m back (still have to do the aforementioned things) to tell you that you have to check out my Godchild, you simply have to.  If you need a smile, you’ll find one, an ab work-out/laugh, you’ll get it, fashion ideas, you’ll get them, a sense of care-free living, you’ll get that too.  Go!  I promise you won’t be disappointed!!!!!!!!!!!!  (Just one more.)  :)

Bean Sprouts: 8 Months

Eight?!  EIGHT?!!  You can’t be serious!  Our little bean poles are EIGHT months old?  I guess time flies when you’re having/or have had babies (Ana hit the nail on the head with that one)!

Milestones, personality traits, what have you, here’s what we know so far:

-After exclusively breastfeeding the girls for their first 5.5 months of life, they now enjoy a wide variety of pureed people food – apples, bananas (an unfortunate source of much constipation), pears, peas, squash, sweet potatoes, avocados, carrots, rice, and oatmeal.  I’m still nursing but we’re down to four to five 10-minute sessions per day, a welcome change from the 7+ I spent doing the same thing during their first few months of life.

 

-We’re still riding the cloth diapering train.  In the beginning, we’ll admit it was a little rough/inconvenient, but know it’s all we know and we’re LOVING the extra $700+ we’ve been able to keep in our bank account because of it.  By the way, I’ll spare you the details but solid food, so much easier to clean off.  Praise God for that.

 

-Both girls are still small for their age width-wise but average to above-average for height.  As you can imagine, this makes for lots of clothing issues.  They’re currently sporting three month dresses as tops and pants as capris, some newborn tops, six month onesies, and six to nine month footed onesies.  It also makes for a he**ish time sorting clothes.  I’ve pretty much given up.



-Seraphia is chomping down with two teeth with two on the way while her toothless sister looks on in complete admiration and love.



-Both girls are sitting up unassisted.  Seraphia gets up on hands and knees and rocks and dances the army crawl slowly but pretty well but Cecilia seems content on her butt or belly, until bedtime, when she thinks I’ll let her stay up if she gets up on knees and elbows to practice this thing her sister is so good at…

-Cecilia is still chillin’ every second she can, in case you were wondering.



-Cecilia still has eating at the top of her list of priorities.  When we feed them people food, we alternate girls – three bites to S, three bites to C.  During Seraphia’s three bites you can be sure Cecilia is letting out a guttural growl in frustration and impatience.  It’s really quite impressive.  I’m not sure yet if I should be worried about this little act or not.  It’s as scary as it is cute.

-They both love getting out of the house which is awesome for this mom.

-Very saintly sprouts have we when it comes to napping.  Six out of the seven days in every week they nap at the same time and they take two naps a day lasting at least an hour each.  Tons of people ask me how I have time for all this DIY and blogging and well, that’s how.

-As of three weeks ago and minus a couple of nights in between then and now, the girls have been sleeping around eight hours straight every night.  If it wasn’t Lent I’d let out a big ‘ole A!!&!$^@.  I’m finally sleeping long enough to dream!



Bonus Video!!! 

If you’ve been following the twins monthlies, you might’ve noticed we’ve had a change in venue.  Monthly photo shoots were taking place on the (still) unfinished loveseat in the living room.  Well, sorry to say but we sold that dadgum thing – unfinished and “as-is” – but we sold it!  It got to the point where it just became a big weight on my shoulders.  Every time I walked past it I thought of all the work still left to do and how I needed Anthony to do all of that and how he’s too busy right now to work on it with me and blah, blah, complaining blah.  So I petitioned Sir Craig and his list just to see if there were any takers and before it was posted even an hour I had at least three interested peeps.  Out the front door it went the next day and now two swings occupy it’s previous spot.  I was super sorry to see it go but super happy about the fact that we picked it up (off a curb) for free and sold it for a profit.  Once the twins no longer are interested in their swings, we’ll probably fill that empty space with a couple of small comfy chairs or a buffet/dresser of some sort.  Time will tell…and so will I, you can be sure of it.  Over-sharing comes with the blogging territory.

Until tomorrow then, we bid you good day!

Five Things You Might Wanna Know

Taking part in the “5 Things” chain, courtesy of Lauren, just in case you didn’t get enough of me in my Liebster facts.  :)

1 – I’m an Irish twin.  My mom was notified at her post-partum exam post-me that she was in fact pregnant with another little nugget, later known as Farrah.  Needless to say, 1983 was a busy year for mom.
 

2 - I grew up on a farm.  Not just any farm though, a BEEEEEEG farm with 15 times more cows than the population of the town (321, to silence your curiosity) we called our own…no exaggerating.  If anyone told my dad “It smells like sh&!”, he said “It smells like money”.  As long as I didn’t smell like “money”, it didn’t bother me none.

3 – I went to the same school for all twelve years of elementary, middle, and high learning with the same 18 people every year plus and minus a couple newbies once in a great, great while.

4 – After graduating third in my class (impressive if you didn’t read #3), I went on to Franciscan University and started a rap group with two guy friends.  I sang, they rapped - think Black-Eyed Peas-esque.  Our name?  E.O.S., short for End of Silence.  Believe it or not, we were actually pretty popular on campus.   We stepped behind the big, glass window to record our first (and last) album my sophomore year.  Twas a good time, a real good time…chicka chicka, wha?!

5 – I was training for the potty marathon when Anthony was born.  Robbing the cradle?  That’s me.  But for some reason the vivid second grade memory of learning that the average life-span of a male is 73 and of a female is 76 came swarming back one day shortly after we met and somehow it all just made sense…  Two of the cutest little sprouts later, and it still does.  :) 

Tag Ann, Lizzie, Audrey, Mary, and Natalie!  If you haven’t already been tagged, sit down and (pretty, pretty please) gimme five!  :)

Boo Google. Yay Blog Lovin'!

Hey all!  I'm sure I'm not the only one saddened by the somewhat sudden discontinuation of Google Reader.  For a minute, a depression settled over me as I tried to grasp the meaning of this digital tragedy and searched for another way to get in my daily dose of my fave blogs.  That's when I signed up for Blog Lovin'. We'll see how it stacks up but all I know is that I'm happy I was able to move my dailies over to it relatively easy and without much work.  I'll be sure to put up a social network button in my sidebar in case you want to follow Bean here in Blog Lovin' land, but until then, you can click this link:

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Have a great day!!!!  I'm trying to play catch-up with some drafts that have been longing to be posted so I'll be back tomorrow with some more words 'o wisdom in the form of some more random facts.  Ta-ta for now!

The Cheapest Mirror of Them All

Before I dive into the details of this mirror on the wall, Deme is featuring the girls’ nursery today over at her blog, Fresh Coat of Paint!  There’s some never-before-seen shots of their room and a few updates that we spent last weekend completing!  You should go check it out…but make sure you’ve got some time on your hands when you do because you’ll get sucked in to the all of the beautiful details of her home and all the diy that goes on over there just like I do!  My favorites are the curtains she made from a duvet cover, her stenciled and painted interior door, and her polka dot closet.  Needless to say, she’s making me seriously consider switching out our plain curtains for some bold black and white’s, every door in our house is yearning for some tape and paint, and you might venture over to see the girl’s closet dotted with gold one of these days.  :)

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Remember the $8 mirror I found at a thrift store while on an excursion to visit my sis? 

Well, it lost the dull and took up the glam in a whirlwind diy project that took me much, much longer than I anticipated…or that I wanted.
  
Big change, huh?  The hours of naptimes and bedtimes spent working on this thing paid off!

To get it to where it is now, I first had to rip off all the tape holding it together and rip out the staples that someone thought would maybe hold the back on…they obviously didn’t hence all that tape. 

Then I gave the frame a good scrub down and the two of us took it outside where it got a coat of primer (Rustoleum)…

…followed by a few thin coats of white spray paint (Valspar   cZ VJ UMMMMMMMMMMMMM—>thank you Seraphia—in a satin finish).

Then I got my inner King Midas on and gave the recessed area of the frame a few coats of gold.

All thanks goes to Deme, who introduced me to this maaahvalous paint from Home Depot:

(Speaking of gold, Anthony once told me, during a conversation about investing in a house, that “You can build a house out of solid gold but that doesn’t mean you’re going to get every penny you put into it back out when you sell.  It all depends on the neighborhood.”  Well, we’ll see about that mister.  You might come home to a gold house courtesy of Martha Stewart and her metallic paint one of these days.)

Anyway, there’s more gold in the imminent future so keep reading. 

Next up was hatching a skewer-to-mirror plan.  I wanted to do something unique to the recessed area, something on top of just painting it gold so, I went to the local grocery aisle #8 and picked up some 12 inch skewers.  Of course I couldn’t do anything with a whole twelve inches of bamboo so I cut them into four inch pieces.  Using one, cut skewer as a guide, I laid out a bunch of full-sized ones in a row with the rounded ends against a picture frame, laid a ruler over the top of them, and penciled a line along them.  It went a little somethin’ like this:    

Then I painstakingly cut along the penciled mark on each skewer (and cursed myself for having and executing this idea in the first place) until I had over 300 four inch pieces of round bamboo. 
(Side note:  Take a hint from this smarty pants here and, if you ever decide to use short pieces of wood to adorn anything, go buy yourself some toothpicks on Amazon…they come in lots of sizes!  Until you do, I’ll be shaking my head at my impatient and desire to do it the hard way.)

After I had all of my skewers cut (and a case of pre-arthritis setting in), I did a dry fit onto my mirror frame to make sure my idea would actually work and look decent (translation:  Anthony was skeptical and made me question myself).  For a little flare, I laid each skewer at an angle so that each end was touching the edge of both sides of the recess, like so:

So, hour 53094 into this crazy project and here I was, needing to paint the skewer pieces.  Are you surprised?  You didn’t think I was going to leave them did you?  I debated staining them a deep, dark brown but, oh no, I love that gold paint to no end.  However, it’s the littlest bit opaque when it goes on and so, to save me the insanity that would’ve been brushing 3+ coats of it onto hundreds of small bamboo rounds, I first coated them with a layer of gold spray paint followed by Martha’s tub ‘o goodness.  Tony the Tiger helped with this step.  I used his box to tape three strips of masking tape upside-down to which I stuck the skewer pieces to hold them in place while painting.  It worked GREEEEAAATTT!!  (Cheesy?  Yes, that’s me.)  

Last and late last Friday night, I used regular old Elmer and his glue to attach my gold sticks to the mirror frame.  I made sure to only place the glue close to the inner edge of the recess, where the sticks were closer together, lest it be seen through the spaces towards the outer edge.
My initial thought on using Elmer’s glue was that it’s washable so, in case the desire strikes to ditch the skewer pieces someday and go with something else, I can simply pluck them off and wash off the dried glue residue.  However, after seeing the finished product, I don’t think those skewers will ever be coming off.  :)

So, after attaching every last stick and letting the glue dry overnight, Anthony attached the mirror to the frame with some caulk (we would’ve used glue but the mirror is relatively light and I like the idea of having it semi-removable in case I have the urge to re-paint the frame someday…) and then attached the frame backing with three screws drilled into the back of the frame.  We hung it centered over the girls’ cribs, where there wasn’t a stud (grrr…) so we made sure to use a heavy duty drywall anchor.  Luckily, the entire frame + mirror weighs around 15 lbs. so the super-anchor is a little overkill but it’s better to be safe than sorry when you’re dealing with cute, little chicklets?  Am I right or am I right?

What do you think?  The pictures don’t do the glorious shine of the gold any justice but I absolutely love it!  I swore to myself over and over and over that I’d never do something like this ever again in-process but after seeing the show-stopping result, I’ve changed my mind and just might be crazy enough to take another stab at it someday.

And, as the title alludes to, here’s the jar-full of change it put us back:
Mirror:  $8
Skewers:  $4 (two packs and we still have half a pack left for summer shish kabobs…yum)
Gold Paint:  $6 (not even sure this counts since I used like 1/20th of the jar)
Spray Primer:  free (already had)
Spray Paint:  $4.50 (still have over half the can)
Grand Total:  $22.50 (or $14 if you subtract my actual usage of material)

I think “The Cheapest Mirror of Them All” about covers it, huh?

 

Anyone else tackled a mirror revamp lately?  How about using skewers as decor?  Fallen in love with gold metallic paint?  Crazy mom of two or more hopelessly addicted to decorating and doing?  Anyone…?  Anyone………….?

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P.S.  It’s party time!!  I’m pulling this one out of the archives and linking up with East Coast Creative’s Upcycle link-up! 

Score One For the Teeth

I have no finished project ready to go for the reg Saturday post because I got my butt kicked by three (possibly four) tiny teeth this week.  Want to know what’s worse than teething with one kid?  Easy.  Teething with two.  Running against the bulls might be a good comparison.  However, I took the treasured time after bed last night (bed meaning the couple of hours of alone time Anthony and I had before Seraphia woke up for the first of four times) to work on the mirror I’ve been working on for the past two weeks and another little frame project.  I stole Anthony’s phone while he snoozed last night so check out our Instagram feed in the sidebar or follow us at beaninlove to see a sneak peak.  Until then, I’ll leave you with reassurance (that really only I need right now) that our little sprouts really are happy little mice most of the time and that teething is only temporary.  By the way, if I ever complain about the woes any future, singleton baby brings with it, please reach your hand through the web and slap me. 

 For lots more adorable, comical, and cute, check out our Vimeo page by clicking the link in the sidebar.

Have a great weekend!

P.S.  A few of you sweetly mentioned you’d like to hear more “twin prophecies”.  That’s a post I’ve been wanting to write but it’s a story that’s going to take a LOT of words.  I will write them though and hopefully soon so keep in touch!  :)

Liebster Awards

A few weeks ago, Liz and Mary nominated little Bean and her blog here for a Liebster Award.  Liebster is German for endearing, valued, and/or lovely so I was quite honored and humbled to be thought of.  :)  A Liebster Award is presented by a blogger to other bloggers, recognizing them for doing a great job entertaining the rest of the web with their blog.  So sweet! 

To accept the award one must:
1.  Post 11 random facts about oneself
2.  Answer the questions your “nominator” has asked of you and then create 11 new questions to pass on to…
3.  Bloggers (with less than 200 followers) you’d like to nominate for a Liebster who…
4.  You should notify of their nomination via a comment on their webpage and a link on yours
5.  And you shall not tag back

So, if you didn’t already know, you now know that:
1 – I can count on both hands the number of times I’ve gotten my hair cut in a salon.  Growing up, my mom wielded scissors on it, my sister cut it in college, and when I’m not visiting Farrah, I do it myself these days.
2 – I also cut Anthony’s hair and I never mess up…and even if I did, you’d never notice because he’s got this great curly hair that hides everything. 3 – I was super-super-skinny growing up and I hated it.  I used to drink Wrestlers’ Weight Gainer in powder form to pack on pounds…but my metabolism always won and I stayed skinny.  Never in the whole wide world was there a girl more happier to welcome that freshman fifteen in college, let me tell ya.
4 – I’ve never broken a bone…tap on a tree.
5 – I have an inch and half wide scar across the front of my neck caused from the surgical removal of a Thyro-Glossal-Duct-Cyst when I was a teen.  However, I usually tell people I was once an attempted murder victim…it makes for a much more interesting me.
6 – I had braces twice growing up for a cumulative time of four years as a metal mouth all because…
7 – I was born without an adult tooth therefore I’ve got a fake.  (When the baby tooth was pulled because it just wasn’t coming out, I didn’t have a tooth to replace it.  It’s the small one to my left of my front tooth.)
8 – If my mom put her left foot next to my right and vice-versa, they’d look like they were a pair.  :)
9 – My siblings names are Farrah, Raquel, Preston, and Parker…also known as Peach, Rock, Booguy, and Oink. 10 – After Anthony I got hitched, my grandma would pray and pray we’d one day have twins (she’d tell me and I’d just laugh it off) and lo and behold…twins.
11 – The day I was going into my ob/gyn’s office to take the “let’s make sure you’re pregnant” test, I came thisclose to running into a statue of Jesus holding up his two fingers in peace, except I remember seeing them as I contorted my body around the statue, barely missing it, and thinking not “peace” but “two”…coincidence?  I think not.  But that’s a whole ‘nother story for another day.  :)

Since two people nominated me, I’m going to pull the fair card and answer the first five questions from one and the first six from the other, and then I’m gonna pull the lazy efficient card and pass the leftovers on to my nominees.  :)

From Liz:
What magazines, if any, do you subscribe to?
Better Home and Gardens because I got it for el cheapo last year.  I was gifted a Real Simple subscription that I LOVE and I’m super tempted to snatch up a year of HGTV’s glossy so I don’t have to stalk my friend Lauren’s.
What made you decide to start a blog?
Lots of time and thought chaos in the brain.  While Anthony was studying for his Masters’ (still is) way back when, blogging was a great way for me to get my ideas and thoughts out and fight boredom.
When you aren't blogging, what's your favorite thing to do?
Oh that’s easy, chill with my hoodlums.  When they’re passed out, it’s painting/creating/getting my hands dirty all the way.
What's your favorite room in your home?
Hmmm…I guess I’ll have to say the nursery because it’s the closest to being “finished” and it’s just so darn happy.

 Where is the one place you'd love to travel?
Europe, again.  I don’t think you can ever get enough of that continent.

From Mary:
What is your least favorite book?
Not sure but if I have to guess, it’d probably be one of the college education variety.
What is your perfect day?
Allow me to be cliche…any day with my loves.  :)
Who is your greatest inspiration?
Mama Mary all the way.
What is your favorite song?
Oh gosh, I have too many “favorites”.  Right this minute it’s “10,000 Reasons” by Matt Redman.
What is your go to dinner?
Enchiladas with cream cheese on top, yum.
Can you name a current event that has changed the way you think?
Besides the snazzy, new item which is Sean and Catherine totally renewing my faith in the whole Bachelor/Bachelorette crazy thing on the tube, I’d have to say the impending election of our new Pope.  I’m waiting for that smoke in high suspense…so exciting!

”And the nominees are”…(drumroll please):
Lauren – I love your stories, especially when you write about Emma’s outfits-of-choice.
Ana - Your girls crack me up!
Farrah - I know you’re on a blogging hiatus, but I love your blog even still and I wish you’d put those fingers back on those keys!
Allyson – You inspire me like no one has and your writing makes me holier.
Bridget – I’ve always thought if we knew each other in person we’d make great friends.  And your instagram posts are theeee best!
Gabby – The Pinterest Queen!
Jess – The blogger with phenom post pictures…must be those cute kids…and the great photographer!  :)
Lizzie – Laughter is the best medicine so pretty please get to typing, okay?  And while you’re wrangling those soon-to-be-three kiddos, get some more projects done, will ya?
Maureen – The first blog I ever read and in one word, hilarious.  You are such a good writer!
Natalie – Would you please move down here and be my personal stylist?  Did I mention that the name of your blog is one of my faves?

I know it takes a little bit of time to accept this highly prestigious award so don’t feel bad if you can’t spill out a hundred web words to do so…you’re still a fab blogger in my blogging book.  :)  I also will understand if you just answer these questions and then pass them on to make life more simple like me! 

So, ladies…
1.  What blog inspires you the most?
2.  When you go shopping for yourself, what's the first thing you buy?
3.  What's your favorite t.v. show?
4.  If/when you go to Target, what area of the store do you spend the most time?
5.  What is the best book you have read?
6.  What is one food you could eat every day?
7.  Name the funniest movie ever, of all time.
8.  Coffee or tea?
9.  What is most misunderstood about you?
10.  Which city in America do you like best?
11.  What do you appreciate most about your life?

Happy Liebstering!

What I Wore Sunday: Newly Minted

Here I sit – the husband is out youth ministering, the babes are sawing twigs, there are cloth diapers that need to be washed, and toys, clothes, dishes, and Lord knows what else that needs to be put away – but first, I must blog.  Empty my noggin to you unsuspecting, sweet folks. 

I’m trying to think of some sort of deep reflection I can type out, something that struck me in Mass but I’m coming up short.  The only thing on my mind tonight is how busy Anthony is.  I’ve gotten used to mornings, noons, and lots of nights with just me and my girls and as much as I love that time, I miss ‘just me, my girls, and my man’.  I love when he’s home.  Everything just runs so much more smoothly and is so much calmer.  He doesn’t even have to be doing anything; both girls could be screaming at the tippity-top of their little lungs and the peace that hangs around while he’s here is intoxicating.  I love it.  He brings it in with him the moment he walks in our side door and out it goes when he does.  I feel like the Prodigal Son’s father so often…I get so excited the minute my love returns; the minute I hear his key enter the lock before he comes in.  I don’t always rush to meet him (and maybe I should…or maybe it’d freak him out) but it’s there the minute he is – the absolute joy and audible “Thank God”. 

And so here I sit – waiting for that key in that lock, the quick pick-up of my heart beats, the opening and shutting of that door, his face, that peace.

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But, until then, what’s a Sunday post without an outfit, huh?  Let’s pick up the mood.  Here’s what I wore to meet my other love:
 
Mustard, mint, and tan:  Target
Scarf:  gift from my madre  :)
Shoes:  Gabes (sniff, sniff…miss you Gabriel Bros.)

I looove pleats so when my friend Callie texted me a picture of the above pleated, mint top on the clearance rack at Target (online too, but not on clearance) a couple of weeks ago, I dropped the girls in their car seats and out we went to obtain one.  They didn’t have one in my size so I grabbed the next size up and got to sewing.  The fit wasn’t all that bad but the armholes were just a tad too big.  So, I took in the top of the shirt and let the bottom be.
 
You can barely tell the difference, I know.  I should’ve taken a side pic.

And because I have way too much time on my hands after bedtime, here’s a little diddy I whipped up in photoshop to show where I stitched:

(Pretend that the arm seams on the right side are lined up too.)  One straight stitch along the yellow line, a zig-zag next to it, and pinking shears to cut off the excess fabric and I’ve got me a new, cheap top.

I hope you had a great Sunday!  I’m off to wash diapers and put those toys, clothes, and dishes away before Anthony gets home and thinks all I’ve done all night is mess around in photoshop (well, technically pixlr.com) and blog.  ;)

Oh, one more thing…linking up with Fine Linen and Purple.  You should too (ahem)!