~my closet-copy cat style~

 Although I feel like it some days, motherhood

hasn't COMPLETELY taken over my life.

Aside from my Family Fun magazine subscription

I have managed to cling onto my InStyle subscription.

I love the day each month when I receive

it in the mail. I usually wait until that night

to read it, when I can draw a nice hot bath,

crack open a beer and read it in 

PEACE AND QUIET

after the kids go to bed.

One of my guilty pleasures :)

My favorite feature of InStyle mag

are all the pages with outfit ideas.

I saw an outfit idea that I LOVED in 

my most recent issue and was thrilled

that I had almost the exact same outfit on

hand in my own closet. The only difference

was the color of the jeans.....in the magazine

they showed green jeans. I thought it would look

just as cute with my bright blue jeans.....

and I was right. 

            Rockstar blue jeans- Old Navy

black peplum top-Worthington- JC Penney  

belt- vintage Levi (have had forever)

leopard ballet flats- Target

earrings- JC Penney (gift)

Lucky bracelet- Macey's (gift)    

I loved the bright, bold color with the leopard print.

I'm smack dab in that bizarre stage of

a woman's life when clothing options seem

either "too young" or "too old".

You know, I don't want to seem like I'm trying

to look 20 but I also don't want to look like I'm

dressing as a 50 year old. With this outfit

I felt it was a perfect combo of age appropriate

style, with just the right amount of edginess.    

~turquoise in all shapes & sizes bracelet~

 I love making these bracelets.

I find it so fun and rewarding to

arrange and design each individual bead

and layout of each bracelet.

A good friend of mine had a birthday last week

and I made this for her:

   She told me specifically that she needed some turquoise

colored jewelry, a wish I was delighted to fill

because turquoise is my favorite color of

jewelry to wear and work with.

I decided to make her a pair of earrings too.

Both pieces will work well with additional

gold or silver too.  

It ended up being a nice little set 

that I think she will wear often.

      

~spring flowers~

 It's been a month hasn't it?

Got to the point where you thought I was

done having a creative outlet and 

blasting it all over this here blog?

I almost thought so too.

It's been busy around here.

I started a job, working from home.

It's minimal hours each week but still

has been an adjustment for us.

The job itself is stressful and there is A TON 

of information and computer programs to 

navigate. I'm not gonna lie.....after each shift

I find myself thinking, "What the hell was I thinking?"

It's not like I HAVE to work. Truth be told,

my husband would rather have me not work so we

don't have two schedules to work around.

I'll give it ample time and see how it pans out.

It was a good opportunity, just maybe not the

most opportune time.  Is it ever though?   

   

We took the kids on vacation for spring break.

A week long trip in California.

Was wonderful.

Had guests at our house.

etc.

etc.

You know how it goes.   

Anyway.....something that is definitely 

a welcome sight right now. 

Our flowers.

Praise God.

Or rather I should say, praise my man.

The fruits of my husband's labors from last fall

have paid off and our bulbs are coming up 

strong and thick right now.

Here's my first arrangements:      

    daffodils. 

They seem like such happy little flowers :)

A daffodil represents new beginnings.....

very appropriate that it's the first flower

that blooms in our yard each year.  

 Look how far this tulip opened.

I've never seen one open so wide without the 

petals falling right off. 

 I've done a few projects in the past month,

just haven't had the time and energy to 

photograph them and blog about them.

I have a long list of things from the past

couple years that I STILL HAVEN'T shown you.

Eventually......I promise.

Hope you are enjoying the spring time.

Here's to new beginnings :)      

~our leprechaun trap this year~

 Our leprechaun trap is ready!

We'll see if we can catch the little bugger this year.

 This year we're trying a lean-to type of trap.

The gold is attached to a string that is tied

to the stick that's holding the lean-to up. Once it falls,

the trap door will come down and he'll be trapped.    

 And just for added security this year,

my son says he will be placing his Lego guys around

it to guard the leprechaun once he's trapped. 

 Have a rockin St. Patrick's Day.

 

 

~comin up~

 Spring is starting to peek it's head out of the wintery 

clouds and snowdrifts. 

The green popping out of the ground in the spring

is such a glorious change from the dreary

snowy landscape I get accustomed to seeing

by this time each year.    

 Our first blooms of the year :)

lovely littles.

That's not the only thing blooming.

I get the pleasure of gazing at these 

beauties each day now that sit on my kitchen shelf:  

 I'm not sure what this is.....a Christmas cactus maybe?

Whatever it is, it's blooming again and it's a 

beautiful bright orange.

BUT.....the real gem is this lady:  

 MY ORCHID.....

the first orchid in 10+ years that I have EVER

got to re-bloom. I was THRILLED to see 

the new chute and blooms grow. 

Orchids are my FAVORITE flower and this particular

plant is one that my husband gave me about a year

and four months ago......I think now I've figured 

out how to make them re-bloom....

patience is the main thing :) 

Welcome Spring!     

~personalized memory game for kids~

 Do you remember the game "Memory"?

When I was a kid it was my favorite.

I remember the year us kids got a game for 

Christmas.....I could spend hours playing that

and I did. In fact, I ended up playing it alone

many times because I couldn't get any of

my siblings to play it as often as I wanted to.

My kids love it too.

I saw this idea on someones blog awhile ago.

I wish I could remember who's blog it was so

I could give them credit but I can't find it.

I finally got around to making it for my kids

for Valentines Day this year.     

 We had a couple different Memory game sets

so I took one of them and covered them with our own

pictures. I'm telling you right here at the beginning......

this is not a quick project.

It's easy, but VERY time consuming.

I worked on it, on and off for about 3 weeks.

  First thing you need to do is pick the photos you want to

use and print them up. I printed them from my

computer onto card stock. I printed a wallet size.

You have to remember to print TWO of each.

Once you get your pictures printed, you will need

to use a card to trace around the part of the

picture you will be cutting. This is what takes so long.

Cutting them out......woof.     

     

 Once you get them cut out you'll go ahead

and mod-podge them onto your memory cards.

Once it dries, go ahead and put a layer of 

mod-podge over the top of the photos to seal them.

That's it.

Let them dry and stack em up!  

 I will say, this is one of those projects

that I knew the SECOND my kids opened it.....

that it was worth every minute of time I put into it.

They loved it!

We have so much fun remembering the moments

captured on the cards as we are playing.