New life for an old table

We had an old T.V. tray table. It was left at my apartment in college by the girls who lived there before us and honestly kind of sat in the corner gathering dust over the three years we were there.

Once we moved to the Lou, we used it a bit in the basement as a catchall once again and then it got moved outside where it turned into a plant stand. And began to look like this:

 {sorry for the weird angle, it won't turn for me...}

Not looking so great anymore. So to help it out from the eye-sore state that it had found itself in, I decided to paint {and do a little mod-podge action}.

Now it's really cute.

Now I'm not so embarrassed to own it. Or display it inside my house for a change!

keep it simple.

Snacks

We made mud. More to come later.

Restoration of Heart and Home

We have a little family project going on right now:

And for said project we have a new blog to document all of the process. We will try to keep it updated, so please check it often and leave some comments! We would love to hear everyone's thoughts!



keep it simple.

Ugly Lamps

We have a lamp in our living room. It's not very pretty. It was from growing up, and it was free to us once we got married. It's just your basic floor lamp, but hunter green.

It could be worse I realize, but I have had enough of it. Which takes me back to the 'I'm painting everything' stage that I'm going through. So ugly green has turned to a nice hammered bronze:

It looks much better in our living room now. Flows with the color scheme and such. At least my nice newer looking lamp only cost me about $9 for the can of spray paint and about 30 minutes of my time. Win!

keep it simple.

Unexpected Three Day Weekends

Normally I love having a three day weekend. They are full of relaxation and rejuvination that is greatly needed. I would have loved it this weekend too, it was the Greentree Festival in Kirkwood, which is a fun Arts and Crafts event that takes over the park. I always have so much fun going and walking around, but I just wasn't feeling quite up to par on Saturday, so I decided to lay low and go on Sunday.

Then the rain started. And it didn't stop.

Not that the rain was the main reason my plans were ruined. I wasn't feeling any better, so decided to bite the bullet and go to the doctor to make sure I wasn't really sick.

I knew it wasn't strep. I was positive. I thought it was just a sinus infection, but working with kids I needed to have that reassurance from a strep test to know I wouldn't get them sick.

Throat swabbed.  Six minutes to get the results.

Positive for strep {and I was right, I had a sinus infection too.}

Dang-it. At least they can give you meds for it. But I think I waited just a tad too long to head in to the doc because I was miserable Sunday night. And Monday. Nothing like laying around the house all day with a sore throat. They're the worst, right? I would have rather had the flu. My throat was so swollen and painful, but after that 24 hours of meds it did start to feel better. So back to the grind today.

The boys had their second full day of school. And they LOVE it. I barely get hugs when we get there, they just run in and tell me to take the Chunk home. Fine by me. Better that than leaving them in tears everyday.

Hope you had a great, strep free weekend!

keep it simple

Refreshing

I've been on a serious painting kick recently. Nothing in my path is safe. If it seems like it looks funny, it's probably going to be redone {even if it is the light hitting it in a strange way.}

I've been making serious progress on everything too. The problem is a bit of adult ADD that I appear to be suffering from that has caused about six projects to be three-quarters of the way done right now. That just means I'll have a lot done all together, right?

Anyway, I thought I would share a piece that I have finished. It was finished, but I decided to give it a little update and tlc because I wasn't digging the blue anymore {it was fun, but the sports zone that is our basement needed a little beauty thrown in with it.}

So just to remind you what we started with:

And now:

I love it. The Mr. thinks I'm crazy. You probably will too once you see how many things I have actually painted in the last couple weeks.

keep it simple.

Easily Entertained

{I would like to go on record as saying that the last post was not being mean and teasing the puppy. I happened to be enjoying a pumpkin muffin, and the puppy decided to sit right there and stare at me. Camera was right next to me, I couldn't resist.}

Thank goodness that children are easily entertained. We have been in major potty-training mode on the job front {for the boys, not me, before you make the joke that the Mr. always thinks is so funny.} They are actually both doing really well, which has been great, because changing three diapers all day long was tedious. There were days where it felt as though the only thing I was doing was feeding children and changing them.

Their ever so important treat for going on the potty is getting an M&M. It's cute how special they think it is. Can you imagine getting one M&M as a reward for doing something difficult? It would be such a let down.

One of the toughest parts of getting the boys to the potty is what to do with the little one. He has become a master-crawler and is such a speedy guy that I can barely turn my back on him. Unfortunately he loves the little training toilet and the stairs, which both turn out poorly if left alone for too long. So while trying to keep him from pulling Curly off the training toilet, falling down the steps or knocking the toilet paper off onto the Blonde, I decided to see if he liked playing in the sink.

Success.

{NOTE: Although it does not appear that I am holding the Chunk up I am. The top picture you just can't see my hand behind him and the bottom picture I was only away from him for about 5 seconds to take the picture and was ready to catch him should he decide to jump. I promise no children were harmed in the taking of these photos}

The only problem with this mode of distraction. He doesn't like leaving the water so much. Results in some tears and what I can only assume are choice words he has towards me.

keep it simple.

Not for Puppies

Easy Pumpkin Muffins

I love to cook. The problem with that is having enough people to feed. Since it's just the Mr. and myself, it seems that I am giving away food to anyone who will take it. Which I love to do as well. As I have said before, I love taking care of people, and to me cooking and feeding them is a great way to start.

I'm taking advantage of this by cooking for my family while visiting their house a bit. The siblings both go to school in town and are home too so it's fun to have the five of us together.

I kept seeing this recipe on Pinterest {or the most addicting website out there} and decided why not try it now? It seems that a habit on Pinterest is pinning things and then never doing anything with it, so I have tried to be very proactive in actually trying to create things that look neat. So without further ado, let's start the most simple muffins ever!

You will need:
-1 box of yellow cake mix
-1 can of pumpkin

Yep, only TWO ingredients!

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Mix together the two ingredients {this does seem a little strange at first, but it actually comes together quite nicely after a couple minutes}

 

After all of the cake mix is stirred into the pumpkin, start spooning the batter into a muffin tin.

{seriously, one extra?}

Put the muffins into the oven and cook for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Then to make them oh-so-beautiful, go ahead and sprinkle them with a little powdered sugar.

{yes, those are Valentine's Day cupcake liners. we can love all year folks.}

Then dig in and enjoy!

Delicious. Even the least experienced chef can make these. And you should because they are quite the treat {as judged by about half of them being gone already, and I took them out about 20 minutes ago}.

keep it simple.

Exciting News

One of my very best friends in the entire world just got ENGAGED!!

{Excuse my horribly manicured nails and pay attention to her BEAUTIFUL ring!}

I'm so happy for you guys and can't wait for your wedding and new life to start together!

keep it simple.

Beautiful

I woke up late today. I didn't sleep well, the big dog was very protective last night, which I am always okay with, it just makes for an early morning. Thankfully I was greeted by this awesome sunrise:

It made waking up a little bit easier. Not much but I'll take what I can in my no-caffeine drinking life.

I have lots to post about, but it will be coming at a later time. The Chunk is not adapting well to switching houses for nap. He's fallen asleep sitting up on several occasions after crying himself to sleep. Keeps you pretty tense when you have a screaming baby.

keep it simple.

New Earrings

A while ago I was at Tuesday Morning with my mom and we found a whole basket full of jewelry making goodness for next to nothing. So obviously we bought a whole bunch of it. And of course because it's the way my mind works, I forgot about it for a while, and didn't even think about making something for a while {serious scatter-brain}. That is until recently and I thought to myself, some new earrings sure would be nice!! So how about a little crafty tutorial?
{it's super easy, anyone can do this!}


Step one: Gather some supplies. They don't have to be anything fancy, just something that you like. I found these pearls in gray, pink and white.

Step two: Attach the first pearl to the earrings.

Step three: Continue attaching pearls until you have the desired length and fullness for your earrings.

Step four: Wear your new creation and be prepared to start fielding questions about where you got your new earrings =)

not a bad nap-time craft!

See, I told you they were easy to make! No need to pay so much money for fun earrings when you can make them yourself for less than a dollar!

keep it simple.

Washington, D.C.

We took a little vacation out to our nation's capital, which resulted in a bit of a break from the old blog. So there will be plenty of posts this week to catch up =)

Last year we took a fun trip to West Palm Beach, FL, and because we had terrible luck with our flight getting out of StL (as in the flight crew decided not to show up so we missed our connection and were stuck in ATL for 11 hours) we got a pair of free round trip flights to try to make up for it. At the time we thought it was a pretty good deal, but after booking our trip and not paying for the flights, we were all the more pleased with how things worked out.

We have terrible luck in airports the ATL airport. In the last two year we have gone on three trips, that all had connections there, and all but one of the flights have gotten messed up or delayed. There was the fiasco discussed above. Over Memorial Day we went to see our friends the Vieux's out in Charleston and when we landed in ATL, our flight was canceled. No explanation just said canceled. We finally made it there, but still. So when our flight left on time from StL, we were excited but leery of what would occur once we got there.  Everything appeared fine and we were on the runway (waiting, which even when your flight in on time, you seem to do a lot of there) and the captain came on and told us there were severe thunderstorms so we wouldn't be taking off for a bit. Which turned into us going back to the gate, and actually getting off the plane. Yep, they unboarded the plane. Not a good sign. We finally got to D.C. about 3 1/2 hours late to learn from my cousin (who lives about three miles from the airport) that it hadn't rained at all. Regardless, we made it and that's what counts!

Our trip was fantastic. It was so neat to see D.C. and spend time with the Mr. away from work and reality. We went out to visit my cousin and his new wife and really did have such a blast. I don't think I have ever been so touristy in my entire life, but what else are you going to do in D.C. I suppose. We averaged walking about eight miles a day, so we were nice and worn out by the end of the trip and took a four day weekend to rest and recuperate before heading back to work today.

And now for a nice little photo gallery of our trip, enjoy!

 day one: White House

 day two: Air and Space (my Dad was on the project that built this one!)

 view of the courtyard at the National Portrait Gallery

day three: WWII Memorial, 4,048 stars each representing 100 American casualties

 Lincoln Memorial

U.S. Capitol

day four: The Hope Diamond

 Mary Lincoln's dress

Arlington National Cemetery

Tomb of the Unknown Soilders

I couldn't get over the size of everything. I knew things like the Capitol would be huge, but I wasn't expecting the museums to be so big that spending four hours in them felt like we had barely scratched the surface. 

Such a fun trip (another big thanks to Will and Jasenka)! I hope we can go back again and explore some more!

keep it simple.

Visitors

I love visitors. Like really love it. I always hope that my friends and family know how welcome they are in our home and that their presence fills my heart with such a joy {no matter how scatter-brained I might seem during it all}. I love to fuss over people {maybe that's why I've enjoyed nannying so much}.

A few weeks ago, my Lawrence family {you guys are family, deal with it} came through to visit us. Catherine {she's superwoman, just wait...} took their four {soon to be five} children on a road-trip across the country to visit family and friends. That's right, she's preggers and she drove from Charleston, SC to Lawrence, KS and OK by herself with her four kids. It makes me tired just thinking about it. Lucky for us, StL is on the way back from Oklahoma, so we were fortunate to get a long weekend with them.

We got lots of fun StL activities in while they were here:

The Magic House!

Dr. Monique

Aden showing off his catch 

Nathan enjoying the slide

  President Annabelle in the "Oval Office"

 Climbing the beanstalk

Grants Farm:

Silly boys in the stables

 

 Carousel

Water fun:

It was after all boiling the weekend they were here. Of course after they were in the yard playing in the water it started to rain, but they didn't mind, water is water, doesn't matter where it's coming from!

We had so much fun with the visit, it made us sad that we don't live in the same town anymore, but that always makes visits so special. I can't wait to see you guys again soon, hopefully the entire family which will be SEVEN at that point! I can't wait to meet the little one, only a few more weeks til the arrival, maybe I can convince the Mr. to let me fly out to Charleston in the winter =)

keep it simple.

The Thunder Rolls!!!

YES! RAIN! I was beginning to forget what it was.

I took a bunch of pictures of my wildflowers, that despite the heat are doing pretty well. I'm shocked that any of them came up, let alone bloomed and now I am thankful that the rain is here, providing nourishment to them.

I'm sure the only person who will really care about seeing these is my mom, and that's a big reason why I had to document them. She's up in Iowa this weekend at a tennis tournament {dominated today I might add, keep it up Mom!} I didn't know if this rain would actually come and I couldn't risk the flowers dying before she got back.

 {please ignore the bear ruining the picture...}

  

 I realize it doesn't seem like much right now, but there is more to come. At least I'm hoping there is. So much of it is grown up and they appear to be waiting to bloom, so I'm staying hopeful.

In other news, our dear friends, the Vieux's are coming to visit us this weekend on the tail end of their trek across the country.

I'm so looking forward to spending some quality time with the kids and Catherine {hope you get to join next time, Adam!}

Hope you have a relaxing and wonderful weekend!

keep it simple.