If were going to be bff...

I was so inspired by Ashley over at Little Miss Momma's candid approach to blogging and most recent post "Things you should know about me if we are going to be bff..." that I thought I'd come up with a little list of my own!

I am an only child. 

Sometimes when eating and talking I wave my fork in the air. Not like "look at me here I am" but sort of straight up and back and forth like tapping, my elbow is usually resting on the table. It makes the hubby crazy!

I love animals....sometimes more than people. 

I hate folding laundry, doing laundry, putting laundry away. Anything laundry irritates me....

I use ... way too much! haha

I am addicted to blogs and facebook. Seriously addicted.

I LOVE to create but it's hard for me to focus when the house is messy.

I get really anxious when there are lots of people around. Especially with the babes. I hold their hands and wrap my fingers around their wrists. I am really scared someone will try to steal them. Have been since they were born...

I've been pregnant 5 times. I have 2 children. 3 miscarriages. I dont know if I'll ever try to be pregnant again. It might literally break my heart in two if I loose another one. 

I rarely drink. I'd rather waste my calories on dessert!

I was never really a "teenager". I graduated at high school when I was 16 and started college immediately after...still don't have a degree. Maybe I'll work on that this year. 

I had Hailey when I was 20. My Mom had me when she was 20. Kinda funny :)

I get my feelings hurt easily, but am hard to offend. Does that make sense?!

I would much rather give than receive.  Seriously.

I let the babes wash my feet during bath time. It's relaxing. 

I think Bailey (our first born {dog}) must be a human reincarnated. She has way too many human characteristics! 

I am a perfectionist. 

I love making lists. I love finished lists even more. 

Clutter makes me crazy. So I put it in the office or the bedroom and close the door, to take care of when I "have time". It's still there and making me crazy!

I failed my first written drivers test. Something about pedestrians not in crosswalks...to this day it is sort of the running joke. "your not in a cross walk I don't have to stop for you..." haha I wouldn't actually hit you!

I love and adore my husband. But sometimes don't show it. I'm really trying to work on this.

When 7pm rolls around {bedtime} I have usually lost all patience and am ready to sit and veg I mean all out vegging TV, computer, and some form of dessert!

A little more about the above. I wait to eat dessert until after the babes go to bed so I don't have to share. 

So what do I need to know about you if we are going to be bloggy bff's?

Just in case you missed it here is a link back to the original post. Ashley has quickly shot to the top of my "check blog list". BECAUSE she is so candid. It is so refreshing to know there are other SAHM out there who often struggle with the same things. Not everything is peachy. Sometimes I get really frustrated and irritated and wonder if I am really giving my children the best they deserve. I wonder if I'm doing enough, instilling enough, teaching them enough, playing with them enough. To know we are all in the same boat is a really incredible feeling. We'll all sink together! haha j/k We'll all survive together is more like it!

Love and Hugs, 

PS. I dont hate comments or followers...in fact they usually make my day!

Merry Christmas!!

Yesterday was a whirlwind of a day! It started at 7am which was surprising in itself. I thought Hailey would have woken us up significantly earlier. But I sure am thankful she didn't! We waited for Belle to wake which wasn't long because Hailey was so excited she would randomly squeal just looking at the gifts santa left her and her sissy.

Then sissy woke up and she was grumpy!!

Until she realized these were for HER too!

Then she was in full excitement mode being her usual happy, bubbly, laughing Belle self!

Hailey unwrapped meticulously (which really is no surprise) and was very methodical about what she would open and when. She went from smallest to biggest!

After the girls had wrapping paper strewn around the entire room I thought it was my cue to bow out and start Christmas breakfast while the hubby helped clean up the wrapping paper and started opening packages.

Usually I make a breakfast casserole involving eggs and sausage. But this year I decided I wanted to make these Gingerbread pumpkin waffles with fresh whipped cream and homemade buttermilk syrup. They were divine! If you've never had buttermilk syrup you really do owe it to yourself to go make these. Maybe a good night for breakfast for dinner! And I got to use some of the pumpkin puree I made back in October.

Also while making breakfast I threw together the bulgogi for our Korean Christmas dinner later on in the day.

With breakfast out of the way came assembly of toys. I assembled and assembled and assembled until I finally decided they had enough to occupy them while I snuck away for a quick shower. After showering we headed to my brother in laws for our Korean Christmas dinner of bulgogi, grilled hot ribs, egg rolls, kimchee and rice! Yummy!! Luckily here in AZ it was perfect grilling weather with highs in the 70s! Sorry had to rub it in a teeny bit :) Followed by another session of gift giving and receiving.

Hope you all had as much fun as we did yesterday! Now as if my living room weren't already pink enough, I am off to assemble more pink toys.

Love and Hugs,

72 lunches

So this is what 72 lunches looks like...

Only half of what we attempted to hand out yesterday morning. We did it before Christmas which was goal number one. And we doubled what we did last time which was goal number 2. Although this time we had our work cut out for us. When we showed up to the park we went to last time there was hardly anyone there. Which really makes me sort of thankful. It was really cold and rainy the night before so I think everyone was in the shelters.

We gave out some lunches to the people who were there. Then we headed downtown and handed out a couple on the way. Hopping out periodically to make sure everyone got one. Gave away some more downtown and headed to a couple other parks. At this point we still had about half of what we came with and were starting to wonder if we'd ever give them all out. So we headed back to the original park we stopped at which also happens to be kitty corner from The Guadalupe Mission. Now that the storm had cleared and it started to warm up there were significantly more people there and we ended up handing out most of the lunches.

What we weren't able to hand out personally we left with another very generous man who had set up a grill and was grilling for the people at the park. So that they could have a hot meal right then and there and save our sack lunch for later in the day when they started to get hungry again. The gentleman who was grilling also had some very useful things with him like beanies, toothpaste, and gloves all free to anyone who needed or wanted them. Seeing that someone else was out there and that we weren't the only ones who had the initiative to feed the less fortunate really warmed my heart!

Merry Christmas Everyone! God Bless!!

Love and Hugs,

Matching cosmetic bag!

I've had this Clinique cosmetic bag since I was...oh maybe 15 years old!

I remember my bff Teresa gave it to me. I LOVED that it was bright bright pink. I loved that it zipped closed and as a 15 year old I didn't have nor need all that much makeup. Now that I am a grown Momma and have lots to hold it sort of needs to be a bit bigger. See..I LOVE these palettes from Urban Decay and I would kind of like them to fit inside. Not that I use them everyday I just like the option to have them at my fingertips instead of having to dig into the "surplus" makeup drawer bag. I make it sound like I have tons, not at all. It just kind of irritates me that it is all thrown into a drawer because it doesn't have "real" home.

Here is what I came up with!

So apparently my camera or my computer lost the images of the step by step so I'll walk you through it without pics. If you have any questions feel free to leave them in the comments!

All you need for this bag is...
a bit of velcro (sew on or iron on works!)
2 scraps of rectangular fabric one for the lining one for the outside (mine measured (18 x 20 I think and its a bit big...)

Start by placing the lining and outer pieces together right sides together. Stitch down the 18" (shorter sides). Turn right side out and press.

Then you can either iron on (what I chose because I had it on hand) or stitch on your velcro to the 18" sides. Leave about 1/4-1/2 inch on each side for your seam allowance.

Fold the fabric in half outsides together and stitch the short sides without velcro. Leave it lining side out for the next step.

We want our bag to have some dimension so we need to put the side seam and the bottom crease together to make a triangle. I measured 3 inches down the seam and marked a line then stitched along it on both sides. Then you can pink off the extra or zig zag it and trim.

Finally turn right side out and fill with your cosmetics!

I LOVE that this bag holds everything! AND if I am going on a trip I could even throw my cleanser, toner, and moisturizer in there as well. Probably my travel shampoo and brushes too! haha it did turn out quite large which is ok with me, it just means that I get to buy more eyeshadow palettes to fill it up!

I've been eyeing this one ,this one, and this one!

Love and Hugs,

PS. If you ever need any makeup help/advice check out these two lovely ladies and I'm sure they'll have an answer for you!

Ms. Becki from Whippy Cake who also has really great hair tutorials.

Ms. Kandee Johnson from Kandeeland. She really is fun to watch! Dontcha think? She is responsible for my cheshire cat and queen of hearts makeup as well!

Project "Toddler" Runway try-outs

So, I'm trying out for Project "toddler" runway over at Schwin & Schwin.

I think the idea is a really awesome one and I'd love love love to compete! I feel so honored to even be in the top 15, but I want to play too! The catch? So far it looks like I'm not really in the running :( You see, only the top 10 get to actually compete in the fun little competition.

So head on over and check out the competition seriously there are some talented ladies up there! You can vote for your favorite 10 in the right sidebar. I just hope my Queen of Hearts dress is one of them!

Here is another link...just in case!

Love and Hugs,

It's her birthday!

Oh my goodness! I cannot believe my baby girl turned 5 years old yesterday! Seriously it blows my mind how time has flown. I know it sounds cliche but it was just yesterday I was snuggling her in my arms.

Some fun facts about you right now:

• your a major Momma's girl
• you love to cook, clean, and fold laundry and in your words you are "learning to be a Momma"
• you can draw, color, paint like no one's business! 
• you are very creative and are always making something out of fabric scraps and notions

• you love animals. Not just our animals, ALL animals (something you've inherited from me!)
• you say you don't like school but when I pick you up you are having a blast with your friends
• you are incredibly intuitive. You always know when anyone is upset.
• you want to learn to sew. 

• sometimes I think you don't like your sister then I catch you being nice to her and it makes me smile!
• you "mountain bike" down the hills in the backyard "just like Daddy"
• you love to play outside, swinging, sliding, making sandcastles and sand cakes!

Happy Birthday sweet Hailey! I love you so incredibly much and am so honored to be your Momma!

This Weeks Bounty!

This week will be our last bountiful basket pickup until after the New Year. So I wanted to be sure and get a pic of it as well as a meal plan to make the best of what we got. Whenever I have to actually purchase produce I never know what to get, I feel sort of lost. I have to make a meal plan BEFORE going to the store instead of making it around our produce. It seems I've gotten used to the co-op! I am also not nearly as adventurous when I have to pick it out myself!

In our basket this week we received:

2 LARGE heads of romaine lettuce
1 small butternut squash
1 bag of red grapes
1 - 3 lb bag of fuji apples
9 bananas
5 yukon gold potatoes
8 sweet potatoes
8 roma tomatoes
2 large and 1 small zucchini
5 pomegranates
6 green chilies
1 honeydew melon

Our meal plan for the week will look something like this:

Sunday (today): Spaghetti with turkey sausage and whole wheat pasta.

For spaghetti I usually add in TONS of veggies since marinara sauce disguises the taste and I can get some extras into the babes! SO I added a yellow squash (from last week), an onion a zucchini, and all of the tomatoes. Everything is diced up finely except the tomatoes, we like it kind of chunky! For the actual marinara I used some that I canned over the summer. If I didn't have this on hand I'd use Trader Joe's tomato basil, and if I couldn't get to TJ's (its about a 45 min drive for us) I'd use Newman's Own plain marinara (sold at any major grocery store). I started the sauce today around lunch time so all the veggies get really soft and palatable. Later tonight when I prepare dinner I will cook the sausage and slice it and serve it all over whole wheat thin spaghetti.

Monday: Left over night

Tuesday: Chicken stir fry- using the other zucchini, an onion, green bell pepper (from the store).

Wednesday: Left over night

Thursday: Alysa's Black bean sweet potato enchiladas. With the addition of some shredded chicken and red enchilada sauce. No need for a side with this dish, everything is all wrapped up! SOOO delicious!

Friday: Christmas Eve. Not entirely sure yet. We don't have plans so maybe I'll get a small ham for just us and do a small Christmas Eve dinner. Fresh green beans, mashed potatoes and gravy.

Saturday: Korean Christmas dinner with my husband's family. I'm in charge of the bulgogi!

Sunday: We'll probably have leftovers from Christmas and/or Christmas Eve.

All of the fruits will get eaten as snacks throughout the week. If we get to the end of next week and I've still got apples left I might try making apple butter. I still have a drawer full of honeycrisps, as well as almost all of the apples from last week, plus 3 more pounds this week!

Not entirely sure what to do with the butternut squash, I don't really care for squash nor do the kids or the hubby so we'll see what i come up with!

What are you doing with your basket this week?

Love and Hugs,

Family portraits 2010

This weekend my cousin, the family and I headed out to finally take our holiday pictures. She shot all of the "family shots" (anything I was in) and I shot anything I was not in. She really did an incredible job and I am so thankful she didn't get irritated with me yelling "zoom in!", "get this!", "get that!", "No, move a little this way.", "get lower", etc. I suppose I was sort of a backseat photographer so to speak! Anyway we had a lot of fun and got some really incredible shots along the way!

This was Hailey posing for me! See hand on the hip foot turned out...

I think we found the only tree in all of Southern AZ that is actually changing color!

Throughout these pics you can see all of my hard work in creating all of our portrait pieces and how they all came together in the end! Sunday morning (the day of the shoot) I realized I had forgotten to make hair pieces. So I threw our hair pieces together. I like how they came out and if you are unsure about any of them I'd love to show you how. They literally took 30 mins for all three. The most time consuming part was choosing how it all went together!

This one's my fave!

Sweet Sissies!

Precious Belle looks like a big girl!

uhm..yeah! They look like their Daddy! Isn't he handsome!?

Story of my life!

Ok so I know I've been a bad blogger. I never posted the tutorial for the makeup bag hopefully I can get that up tomorrow. But for now I'm going to try and fold my way out of this laundry pile that keeps building up walls around me!


Love and Hugs, 

Makeup brush roll

I finally got my act together yesterday and actually created something. Yippee! I know the idea isn't exactly original (basically an adult version of a crayon roll!) but I made it my own and used whatever supplies I had on hand. I'm actually quite proud of myself because I've been in a bit of a funk. This would make a good neighbor/teacher/babysitting/hairdresser gift, and if you are anything like me you have amounted quite a mass of hoarded fabric! haha And thats about all ya need!

Want to make one?

You'll need:
2 pieces of fabric 15 x 17 "
some ric rac or ribbon
matching thread

Take your two pieces of fabric and place them right sides together. Pin and stitch around both long ends and one short end. Leaving one 15" end completely open.

Turn right side out, press, and topstitch around those three edges.

On the unfinished edge press about 1/4 inch towards the "lining" piece of fabric and stitch down.

Then put some ric rac, ribbon, or even bias tape if you want over that stitch line.

Then fold the fabric up enough to cover the handles of your brushes. You can press this if you like. I just pinned it and it was fine.

Grab some more ribbon (or whatever embellishment you chose) and snip a pretty long string fold in half and tuck under (and pin) one side of the short ends. I chose the right side. Stitch down the two short ends to make a pocket and secure your tie.

Finally tuck all of your makeup brushes into the big pocket and pin in between them. Then remove the brushes so they dont get caught up in your machine. You could use a disappearing ink pen to draw lines if you want but I just eyeballed and stitched it.

Then snip your strings, put your brushes back in and wrap it up! Easy peasy, right?

Fold the top over to keep brushes clean.

Then wrap it up!

I made mine in vinyl covered cotton left over from this post. Sometimes ::cough cough:: the bottom of the makeup bag can get kind of dusty from shadows and powders. I thought the vinyl would keep the brushes nice and clean and wipe off easily. You could definitely do this in cotton it might just need to be washed every once in awhile which isn't a problem because it is totally washable!

A friend of mine suggested to put the vinyl on the inside because the brushes are dirty when you put them away. For me this ins't an issue. I wash them after every use because I have super super sensitive skin. If I didn't I'd get really bad breakouts. But by all means if you like put the vinyl on the inside! It is a very good idea if you don't obsessively wash your brushes like I do! haha

Be sure and check back tomorrow for a matching makeup bag! 

Love and Hugs,

Rest In Peace Grandma Bunny

Wednesday morning I got the call. The call I knew was coming. The call I was dreading. The call that my beloved Grandmother had passed. Fondly referred to as Grandma Bunny. I think I'm ok though. I mean not ok ok, not normal I am sad, very very sad. My heart is broken. I miss her so so much. But she was in so much pain the past couple months and it broke my heart each time I saw her little face wrench. It broke my heart to see her slipping away.

I know that she is in Heaven now, resting peacefully, and watching from above. I know that she is an angel watching over me and our family. I especially know she is watching the babes. She loved them so much. Even in the end when she didn't remember their names she continued to ask for them to come and visit. When she was healthier she would go to bingo at her assisted living home and win them beanie babies so they'd have something to play with when they came to visit.

My Grandmother was an EXTREMELY creative person. Which in turn led to my Dad being so amazingly creative. Therefore forcing me to be creative in some way or another. I see alot of my Grandmother in myself. She was an incredible artist working in mediums such as paint, drawing, sewing, quilting, sculpting, etc. the list truly goes on and on. She taught me to sew when I spent the summer with her. We made this adorable Winnie the Pooh pillow. It was a picture of Pooh appliqued onto a cloud fabric and made into a pillow. It was adorable and I promptly lost it on the flight home. I had to only have been about 11.

I now see a lot of my Grandmother in Hailey. She is incredibly creative and truly amazes me with her drawings, colorings, ability to read people, and general intuitiveness (is that a word?!). Belle is a bit young to recognize any of these things but she too loved her Great Grandma Bunny. Towards the end we would visit and Belle would crawl in bed with her and just lay. Not move, not wiggle, not babble, not irritate, not laugh, just lay. Very unusual. Very unusual indeed. In hind sight I wonder if she understood. I wonder if she knew Grandma was close to the end? Hailey was unusually intuitive about the entire situation as well. One day as we were walking in she says to me, "Mommy is this where people come to die." It hit me like a ton of bricks, I didn't know how to respond. I told her something along the lines of when people get older they need help with things. Like when your kids you need your Mommy to fix you meals, clean your room, and remind you of things that need to be taken care of. She understood why Grandma needed me there. I would comb her hair, put lotion on her hands, chapstick on her lips, and hold her hand for countless hours while she slept. Things that a Momma would do. I will never forget her asking me that. I dont know if she understands death and dyeing. Obviously not because when I told her Great Grandma passed she said she wanted to go to Heaven as well. I told her absolutely not!

Grandma as I remember her. So full of life always smiling and beautiful!

So I am taking a bit of time to gather myself. I know that she would want me to continue to be creative, which I will eventually do. But it seems like every time I start to do something I am grief stricken, the tears come and I have to stop. Obviously since it took me 3 full days to get all of this written...

Love and Hugs,

Burberry headband

So awhile back I entered this giveaway from Sewing in No Mans Land. Never, ever, ever do I win ANYTHING! But to my surprise this time I actually did! I got Kelly's package a couple months ago in the mail. The napkins are to die for! I'm kind of afraid to use them though because they are so pretty. The cupcake wrappers are perfect but I've yet to make cupcakes to fill them. Something to do with trying to loose a bit of weight...

Anyway she ALSO sent me a bit of scraps that she had left over. I seriously almost cried when I opened the box with tears of joy! I immediately thought of this headband Ms. Disney made awhile back for Ucreate. Scroll down a bit....see that one?! The plaid kind of burberry looking one! I've been coveting that since this was posted. So I made it! We'll I didn't follow the tutorial per se. This is how I did it.

You'll need:
2 Small strips of fabric (mine was 1 1/2 x10)
Bit of elastic (9 inches or so depending on the size of your head)
button (if you like)
matching thread

Start by cutting your fabric. Ms. Kelly included some of the lining for the Burberry so I used that as my underside. Put them right sides together and stitch 1/4 seams.

Turn right side out using a safety pin.

Press your seams and tuck in the little tails.

Cut your elastic and pop one end into each end of the headband.

Pin or hold in place and stitch down.

Finally add a button if you want and hand stitch it on. I grabbed this one from my stash!

I think if I did this over I would make the fabric a bit longer. As it is it just barely comes to the edge of my ears. But I'll just cover it up with some hair. Maybe next time I'd make it 13 inches of fabric and 7 inches of elastic.

Love and Hugs,