summer and family

celebrating my dad's birthday w/ my sis and family-yikes, so many little kids! :)

madeline showing off her precociousness during lunch

Will and his Nana before their annual bull-fighting/rodeo date

Sophie doing what she could do ALL day long as long as someone was available to give her constant high pushes.

visiting A's grandpa Sam- his last living grandparent

ta-da!

well, here they are...i'm sure you could hardly wait. :)

On one of the sewing websites i gleaned some info from the gal remarked that in her opinion there was nothing more satisfying than looking at curtains you have made yourself. i must agree- no matter that it took 3 weeks to complete and more brain confusion than i'm used to AND that both panels have completely different dimensions or that my husband had more innate knowledge about the project than i did, i still feel very happy each time i open and close these thick, cheery, light-proof,  ruffled curtains. :)

and a big thanks to Andrew for hanging the curtain rod...that job definitely would've put me over the edge.

Madeline enjoying the view...

happy sophie

A. and i are going to try and hang some stuff on the wall tomorrow...progress!

3 week curtain project is complete!

As you might remember, I'm in the middle of a huge list of goals to complete before baby #4 arrives beginning of October. As much as my scatter-brain HATES to complete a project before starting a new one, i've made myself keep working on the twins' room. First on the list were curtains since the poor, poor girls have had towels and blankets over their window for at least several months. Anyway, before i get your hopes up, i don't have any pictures of the final project but i thought i'd post a couple of the process that only took....3 (!!!) weeks to complete!oh brother.

This picture was taken the first day i bought the fabric and the black-out lining, laid it out on the ground and then left it for a whole day because i absolutely did not have the SLIGHTEST clue how to start. I'm not much of a sewer, i've never made curtains before and certainly never lined curtains.
It was at some point during this day that i sought sympathy from my husband as i complained that my brain hurt from thinking ....he responded with, "well, meagan, that's probably really good for your brain." Apparently it did do some good because that evening i FINALLY had the idea to google it- such a brainy thought.

 this was a nice, easy part of the project- no measuring and cutting (2 things i'm just horrible at!) just painting. i knew i wanted the curtain panels to hang  by rings like these from Pottery Barn
So, i was so excited when i found a pack of 7 unpainted at Hobby Lobby for only $3.99.

Of course, again i hadn't the slightest idea how to attach them...this very simple question bothered me for at least a full week and it wasn't until i again mentioned it to my dear, smart husband that he casually informed me that i needed "curtain hooks", of course. don't ask me how he just knew that i didn't... he's just great like that.

During the whole process i got bitten by the ruffle bug...i've seen them all over the place in blog land but had never tried to make them myself...do you know how easy and wonderful it is to make ruffles?! It makes me want to put ruffles everywhere and on everything...seriously, the hardest part was figuring out how to make my machine sew a stitch that resembled a basting stitch. It probably took me 45 min.of trial and error before i found the perfect tension/stitch length but once i did it was easy, easy and the end result is great fun.

Here's an almost finished picture- showing where i attached my wonderful ruffle...

 And here are the lovely curtain hooks or "pin-on hooks" as the package reads...it was incredible satisfying to simply pin them into the top hem and then hook them onto the eyelets of the wooden rings...no sewing involved and very little measuring... ;)

I'll try to take a nice picture of the final outcome soon...

Cow Appreciation Day

 Today was Cow Appreciation Day which meant if you dressed up as a cow you got your food free! That equals out to $25 worth of food for the 5 of us! I spent naptime today quickly cutting up old black t-shirts and sewing spots onto 5 old white t-shirts then made little felt ears to go around the girls' pig tails. We all had a blast. The girls "mooed" all the way to Loveland and didn't want to take off their cow shirts or cow ears at bedtime. Thank you Chick-Fil-A!  If you have a Chick-Fil-A near you mark this day on your calendar for next year- you won't be disappointed....that is, if you like chicken and all... :)

 p.s. if we look a little stressed here, it's only because a bit of wind/rain storm suddenly attacked us as we got out of the car:)

here's Will mooing after dinner...

more mooing...

Monogrammed Pillows

We celebrated my adorable twin niece and nephew's 1st birthday this week...they were actually born in december but my smart sister decided to celebrate on their 1/2 birthday- much less stressful and more energy to focus on the cuties.

SO, here's what i came up with to give them: Cuddly monogrammed pillows! And since i'm sure you're all DYING to know exactly how i did this (very easy) project, i'll give you some step by steps.

Supplies needed for one pillow:
-14 inch square pillow insert (you could just use some loose stuffing but i thought the insert gave it more structure)
-15 inches of Flannel- for the front
-15 inches of soft, bumpy fabric for the back
- approx. 10x10 strip of white flannel for the letter- this depends on how big you want your letter
- enough heat and bond to attach to your white flannel
-thread

1. First print out a letter from computer. i used regular ole Times New Roman in 600 size font in bold. I did add a bit more to the skinny parts of the letter so there would be a little more to sew on top of. Cut it out.

2. Attach the Heat and Bond to the white flannel- follow easy instructions on pkg.

(try to take a picture without your baby belly in it)

3. Next place your letter BACKWARDS on the paper backing side of the white flannel. (you might be able to see that i didn't follow this advice the first time...) Trace around your letter. Then cut it out.

4. Cut out "front" flannel into a nice 15x15 inch square. (if you're like me, it will take you cutting out one whole pillow before you remember you have a handy rotary cutter and plastic ruler in the basement just dying to get used) Calliope's pillow is sadly misshaped due to this brain lapse! :)

5. Remove paper backing from letter and iron it in the middle of your square

6. Sew around your letter to make it stand out and to further secure it.

7. Cut out the bumpy fabric into a 15x15 square

7. Round the edges of both the front and fabric fabric- i didn't do it scientifically at all- just kinda eye-balled it and it worked great. (this helps the points to not pucker and look weird)

8. Pin the 2 sides together (with the right sides inward) and sew a 1/4 inch hem. Leave a small opening to flip it right side out and to stuff your pillow in. ( Maybe 5 inches?)

9. Flip it around, stuff pillow and then slip stitch the opening. voila!

Here you can see the cozy back

Btw, "G" is for Gideon

and "C" for the lovely Calliope

And just because you're lucky, here's a picture of these adorable children from their birthday party....

linking to....

the 3rd of july!

 Will is usually very understanding of his dad's crazy pilot schedule and just goes with the flow, but for some reason when he heard the news that A. wouldn't be here for the parade (which was on the 3rd this year) he was heartbroken. The schedule news had come up during A.'s part of the bedtime routine several days before and by the time i got upstairs to say goodnight, poor little Will was sitting in the dark crying to himself (enough to break your heart, right?!)  Andrew came back up when he realized Will was upset and tried to console him. A. had already unsuccessfully tried to drop his trip, so we knew the only way he could get out of it was if by some unlikely chance another pilot would want to switch trips. Anyway, God must love little Will because a couple days before the 3rd someone posted a request to switch a trip he had later in the week with any other trip- even one starting on the 3rd of july! Andrew took it right away and made a little boy (and his mom!) very happy! :)

the kids especially love how the parade starts with the huge heard of long-horns

one of Will's favorite floats

Here Nana was passing on her love of pistachios to the girls. she couldn't open them fast enough of these two

more twins! sweet cousins, Calliope and Gideon

here Madeline was scavenging again- after everyone else was finished she and her cousin Calliope tried to eat the left-overs on everyone's plates

 mommy! sister! yay!

living room gets a make-over

before

This was definitely a bigger project than we anticipated but since this room has been bugging me for the last 2 years, we decided it was now or never to do something about it.

what i liked about the room: having built-in shelves, and a fireplace/mantel area.
what bugged me: the dark wood, dingy-colored brick and the over-all drab and dated look the 2 created

So, bless Andrew's heart  for jumping on board with my vision while we both tried to ignore the feeling that we were committing a major crime by painting so much solid wood and brick
But all the other woodwork in our house had been painted white by the previous owners, including the kitchen cabinets which made us feel a little more justified.

The BEFORE:

And the AFTER:

- For the shelves, we took them down, sanded and primed them with at least 2 coats of Zinsser 123 primer, then painted at least 3 or more coats of Behr's Ultra White in Satin. It seemed to take forever to get a good cover...wondering if i should have used a different kind of paint- anyone know?
Here's a great tip i got off of  just a girl - she uses a small foam roller when she paints furniture to get a nice, even finish. We used a brush to cut in around the shelving and mantel but other wise we used the roller and it really did make the finish smooth and more uniform looking.

 BEFORE of the brick

 AFTER

 For the brick we pretty much did the same thing except instead of sanding (ha!) andrew cleaned it with TSP cleaner. (another great tip from JAG) Then we put 2 coats of the primer using a regular roller and then painted it the same color as our walls. I had a really hard time deciding whether to paint the brick white or the wall color. We already had a bunch of the wall color paint on hand so we decided to try it, figuring i could easily change it at another time.
however, here's a pic right after i started painting the color on. i meant to take one before i began so i could get a feel for what it would look like just white but i forgot.
Any opinions??

 Oh, also A. spray-painted the fireplace cover using Rustoleum's High Heat spray paint and it worked great.

Well, there you go- probably way more info than you wanted to know but you got it anyway :)

p.s. just as i was finishing this post my sweet little 5 yr.old design star informed me that he "actually really misses the old brick color AND the old cabinet color. Mom, did you hear that? i really miss the old color- the brown AND the old brick"  gotcha man- I'm taking note.