Monday Funday

I am so lucky, I always get a Monday Funday after my Sunday Funday. 

This Monday started out with a 7 am grocery shopping trip.  It was not my proudest moment, but I will share with all of you to save you a possible embarrassing situation.  FYI they will not sell you alcohol before 8 am.  Not even boxed wine.  Yeah, I had no idea and I felt like saying, "I promise I won't start drinking any of it until well after 8 am."  But I refrained and just went on my way. 

Then, I saw this school bus in the ditch.

Then, Sully got to meet Harper!!  Remember Harper?

As you can see, she is doing FANTASTIC!!  They were so cute.  Sully did so good, no baby stomping or anything.  He layed there so nice and even offered up his thumb for Harper if she was interested.  It was very cute!

After Harper and her mama left and Sully woke from his nap, we tried out the sled.  Lets just say some one LOVED it!

And finally, I wanted to redo the pinterest inspired print I had made a little while ago.

Here is what it looked like the first time.

And here is the redo.



Much better.  I had to do it on Picnik.  You can find the instructions here.

It was a busy day!

Mostly refreshed.

The quilt is done!!!  Here is the room, mostly refreshed.  I say mostly refreshed because I want to get a new light fixture and also do something with the lamp shades but that will come later.  See the before here.

(Ignore the dog toy graveyard in our room)

Extreme close up.

Some personalization...

Since the quilt is queen-sized and I just have your standard sewing machine, there was no way I could finish the quilt any other way than with the ties.


And here are the skulls.  They are so festive, they just love Valentines day!

Looking forward to Sully meeting Harper tomorrow!!  Woot woot!

Letter to myself

Dear Me,

It is totally ok if your son does not want to eat food right now.  He will not starve himself, no matter how many days it seems it has been since he has eaten more than 2 bites of anything for any meal.  He is still happy, energetic and naughty.  He is fine.

His refusal to eat is not a direct reflection of you as a mother not offering foods he might like nor is it for lack of trying to present a variety of foods for him to sample.  Don't take his disinterest in food so personal.  You are just fine, too.

However, you need to get over it and stop getting so frustrated about it.  Stop doubting yourself and stop letting others comments chip away at your confidence.  Have more patience with your son right now because it may be like this for some time, like, maybe until he is 8.

You can do it, and you will.

Love,
Me

Do over

We moved into our house 6 years and 3 months ago.  Our bedroom was the first room I painted and "decorated".  Since then, the wall color and furniture has stayed the same but the comforters and room arrangement has changed.  I finally found a comforter I liked last winter.  But now, I am bored with the room.  Here it is...

See nothing wrong with it.  It is a perfectly good room.  But we have lived in it for 6 years.  So I need a change.  I would love to say I am going to do a full "remodel" of the room but that would be exaggerating.  I am not going to be adding any architectural features, bumping out a wall or even repainting.  I am going to add some color.  This brown and blue palate needs wake up.  So this is more of a bedroom "refresh".

So here is what I have been working on...

Quilt:

Yeah, I am loving it.  I am still working on getting the layers together though.  I have had a few hiccups but I will get it eventually.

Wall art:

Ok, this is going to be unexpected so just bear with me...



Yikes!  Right?  Yeah, I wanted to use some antlers for an art project for above the bed.  So what do I do?  I call my mom.  She was able to round up some discarded, unused carcasses deer skulls.  And then we made some deer hair broth.  Well, we just needed to get the meat and hair off of one of the skulls so my dad boiled it on the grill for about 20 minutes.  (Don't you love it when you parents share that same enthusiasm for your delusions ideas?)

And the cleaned products.

So those two along with one from my parents were spray painted white.

Then my dad whipped up a board to display them and I polyurethaned it today.

Looking at the skulls, they seemed a bit too literal and raw to me.  So I wrapped them with some yarn I had laying around from my knitting days and this is a more abstract version that will be mounted on the wood panels.

Curtains/drapes:

Not sure yet.  I have some ideas but nothing concrete yet...

I know, you are thinking I have really lost my mind but I assure you, I have not.  Hang in there and don't judge it until I show you the final product.  I am hoping to get it done sometime in February so you won't have long to wait!

Back to normal

I am coming down. You know, from that early January high I get every year. This was year was especially just-smoked-a-bong-like but without the awareness of your body weight and the paranoia that follows. I think my head was literally spinning with the hope, promise and ideas for what this year would hold. There are so many things I want to do and try but I need to remember I have the whole year to get these things done.

Slowly, as the routine of life resumed, I was brought back down to reality. And that is ok. Having you head spin for longer than 2 weeks is exhausting! Life is back to its normal pace. Without any vacations or time off to look forward to (or to just live to get to). But I plan on changing that soon. Just not today.

We are headed to Motown for a showdown. Not really. It is for my nephew Jerry's Baptism. I love going "home" to see my family. I really do. But it takes lots of effort. I am always amazed at (sorry guys who actually read my blog) a man's inability to multitask and not get caught up in distractions. This morning, the task at hand was getting out the door and on the road. This entails the exact same details and duties every.single.time. We have kinda fallen into our set "jobs" when getting ready to leave town.
Me: pack for myself, pack for Sully, pack for Turbo, and make sure I have my camera and anything else we need for that particular trip.
Hubs: pack for himself and make sure Lita has food, water and clean litter.

I had all my tasks done, had fed the boy, dressed him. But the hubs was still trying to decide what he was going to pack to wear for the next day. Sigh. After a short debate with me, he decided to pack both jeans and dress pants, because he still had not decided. Cool. He is packed. So all the bags are by the door and it appears like we are ready to leave. Oh no. He forgot about the cat. So he takes care of that then comes upstairs singing a song about an ortho and a gyno getting together and making an albino. Seriously? Yup seriously. Sigh. So I ask him if he has packed this and that and he looks down and says yes then slinks away to go gather the things I listed. Really? Doesn't perform the standard duties to get the show on the road but has time to make up a song about an ortho, gyno and albino? Sigh. Yes, life is back to normal.

Pinspired

I have been wasting spending a lot of time on Pinterest the last few days.  I am using Pinterest to create some idea boards for our bedroom and Sully's toddler room re-design.  I am finding lots of great ideas and am so excited!

I have also been finding lots of other ideas...


And here is my Sully version that I whipped up on Word this morning and then printed out on photo paper...

Then I saw this pic and just had to try to recreate it...



So I got right on that this morning with my favorite subject...

(Don't worry, no baby was hurt in the taking of these pics.  I tested the mirror, all is good.)

Of course, I could not stop there.  Don't you think these bibs are too damn cute??

And then an update of Sully's new favorite feats...

On

Off

We have never turned our tv on or off that way so I have no idea how the kid figured this out.  Ridiculous.

 And then there is this...

Poor Turbs, she is at the mercy of this little creature as to whether or not she can leave her kennel.  She is a good sport about it though.

Happy Monday!

The List

I really an not much of resolution maker but I do have a list of things I would like to get accomplished this year.  Here it is...

1.  Finish my first quilt!

2.  Start knitting again.

3.  Convert Sully's room into a toddler room.  I have already started collecting items for this and have an idea for adding some quilt strips to a plain twin comforter.

4.  Re-decorate our bedroom.  This was the first room in our house that I painted and decorated.  It has been 6 years and it needs a new identity.  I plan on using the quilt I am making on our bed.

5.  Replace both sets of sliding doors in our house- they suck.

6.  Run Crazy Legs again.

7.  Take at least a 3 day vacay with just my hubs.

8.  Make and install shelving in our dining room and Sully's room.

9.  Get to a Brewer game this year.  I can't believe we didn't make it to ANY last year!

10.  Enjoy my family, my life, myself.

Ok, than last one is a bit lame but sometimes I need to remind myself not just to check things off of a list but be more present in the everyday and not be in such a rush.  Live in the moment and not just hurry to the next big thing.  Do you have a list?  What is on it?

Grandma Groth

Yeah, just call me Grandma Groth.  Why?  I am making attempting a quilt.  Up until very recently, I would not have thought twice about a quilt.  Not even considered trying to make one (or even buy one for that matter).  However, as I age grow wiser, I am finding that I am starting to appreciate and like a whole world of things I have never thought I would be in to.  Also, I have truly been inspired by other hip, young mamas out there who are just so damned crafty.  I am jealous of their talents and their creations.  Such as this one here.

In typical Tara fashion, I told myself, "don't just sit there and be jealous of their talents, teach yourself how to do it."  Because, in my own head, I really can do anything (slightly delusional?).  If I can't find a book around with the instructions I need, I just head to the next best thing, Google.  So Google and I are going to attempt this quilt thing.

I had a bunch of fabric fat quarters as I would occasionally buy them when I saw some I liked in the fabric store.  So I (and Google) decided to go get a rotary cutting tool, ruler and cutting mat. And I started cutting away.

I am using 4 1/2" squares.  Google and I looked up lots of potential patterns but I decided we would just do your standard patchwork squares for this one.  Obviously, I am not a fabric hoarder so I did have to order some fabric online.  And let me tell you, it is awesome getting fabric delivered to your door!  Anyway, the fabric in the above pics is the stuff I ordered.  What you see below is the fabric I already had that I cut and sewed into strips before I even got the above fabric.

Yes, there are lots of different patterns and colors but I love all of them and I wanted the quilt to be lively.

So there you have it so far.  I hope to have a decent final product to show you soon.

Also, don't you think January is the best month to make a quilt?  It is just asking for something cozy.

Harper update

Harper made it through the surgery and she is doing great!  Thank you for all the prayers and positive thoughts, it must have helped as she did fantastic!  Now she is in the recovery stage.  I have a feeling she will really come alive now- laugh harder, eat more, grow faster, breathe easier and even cry louder.  Get ready Kaiti and Andy, she will keep you even busier! 

Here is my favorite pic of Harper:



Isn't she a doll?

I will be back later with a post about quilting.  That's right, quilting.

Harper

Hey, this is Harper.



I just stole this from her mom, my friend's, fb page.  She may not need your help because she is quite the little fighter but why don't you help her out anyway?  You see, this little bean was born August 30, 2011, to my friend Kaiti.  You can read her birth story here.  She is a very special girl in so many ways but mostly because she is my friend's baby bird and she makes lots of people very happy.  She will be having open heart surgery tomorrow to fix a heart defect that she was born with.  Even though, the odds are in her favor to make it through the surgery and recovery process alright, that is not enough.  I don't think that would be enough for any Mama who is having their little 4 month old have open heart surgery...

So if you are a pray-er, please say a prayer for her.  If you are a positive thinker, please think positive thoughts for her.  Please think about her and her family tomorrow.

Harper, I know you will do great.  You are such a fighter.  I only hope your Mama and Daddy can make it without too much worry and anxiety!  I will be thinking about all of you tomorrow!

Twenty twelve

We rung in the new year at home and it was perfect.

This was just minutes into the new year, just after Clayton's new year speech involving pets and other randomness...

Happy New Year!!