My life "in quotes"

I read somewhere that my generation is a group of people who speak in movie quotes. I cannot speak for everyone here,but I think I might be the epitome of this thought. Pretty much anything someone says to me will be filtered by move lines and then (whether I say it or not) a movie line comes to my mind. Case in point: My sweet Lylah loves to rhyme now. She really has the concept down pat and she can rhyme anything. Sad though, that at school the other day our Librarian was reading a book called Rhyming Dust Bunnies and asked, "What rhymes with dog?" My kid said blog!! Oh my!!

Anyway, back to my point. She begins to rhyme and I immediately jump to The Princess Bride. Anyone with me? I know you are!

I thought it might be fun to list some of my favorite quotes and see how many of the movies you can guess. some will definitely be easy and others maybe not so much. No Googleing or whatnot. Ah, the Game is afoot!

In no particular order:

1.We're not going anywhere...Hey! Where're you going?
2.It's precisely the point of a loooong dining table.
3.Oh, isn't butter divinity!
4.Be gone J.Evans Pritchard PhD!
5.Don't you think daisies are the friendliest flower?
6.Sorry I lost your set of steak knives.
7.I do not think you would accept my help since I am only waiting around to kill you.
8.Would you like to partake of the pecan pie?
9.I'm exhaustified of being the boy.
10.I fear I am ill qualified to recommend myself to strangers .
11. Allow myself to Introduce...myself...
12.They should be playing "furry furry rabbit" or tea party or something/ What's "furry furry rabbit?"/ It's a game isn't it?
13.It's all those lobsters Isn't it? scads of lobsters in a tank.
14.Nothin' important...That is to say I heard a good deal about a ring, a dark lord, and somethin' about the end of the world, but...
15.She hadda go baffroom
16.I service society by rockin'...Rockin' ain't no walk in the park, lady.
17.I'm in the only room in the house where a boy of 9 can sit in privacy and decode.
18.That's what I said "booty traps"
19.You look good wearing my future.
20.Don't move until you see it./I can't see it./ Don't move until you see it.
21.There's a monster outside my window. Can I have a glass of water?
22.You know, I don't think that teaching is a "fall-back" position, and I grow nervous around those who do.
23.We are M-F-E-O... Made For Each Other.
24.Taste that Milkshake. There's real milk in there.
25.There are two kinds of people in this world: Those who like Neil Diamond and those who don't.
26."My lips hurt real bad!" and "Nobody wants a round-house kick to the face when I'm wearing these bad boys."
27.What would you give me for a basket of hugs?
28.Out of the way! We are in the throws of an exceptional emergency!/Is someone in need of medical attention?/ This is no time for sport! There is lace at stake!!
29.Practically perfect in every way.
30.Does little Snookums Wookums want a bony wony?..../ Little pinky pooter.
31. I am never in the depths of despair. To despair is turn your back on God.

There are 3 movies represented more than once. I could not help it. Oh I could go on and on and on with the quotes. It's quite addictive once you get started. Leave me a comment and your guesses. You can even leave me a quote and see if you can stump the chump. Fun times.

Gingerbread Hair Clip

Grammy is a shopper and blesses us with all manner of cuteness from her clearance finds at Gymboree and various other places. This year Lylah has gotten about a hundred "wearings" out of a sweet Gingerbread jumper and sweater and tights from last years line of cuteness at Gymboree. She loves to wear the tights and the sweater. In fact, they have been on her more than not in the past few weeks. They are her official holiday attire this year.

Since gingerbread stuff is so cute and we make such a big deal of gingerbread stuff at our house at Christmas time, I thought I would make a little gingerbread clip that she could wear with her favorite sweater and jumper. It's felt with sequins and stitching. (Pictured here on top of a ribbon bow because she had too much hair for a single clip this day. It's really a clip with pink around the clip part.)

It was so fun to make! I wish I had started my Christmas crafts earlier in the season. I might have linked them to a linky party or tried to put them in my (non-existent) shop--or sent a couple to cousins. But as it is, we have one, and only one.

I promise to post about paper gingerbread Lylah and our gingerbread houses making. Here and here are last years'. This years are sweet and fun too. I am finding myself too busy to post as often as I want. I am so blessed to be doing things I love and spending time with my precious family. Christmas has been a blast this year. Simple and unadorned. I am loving the season. More on that later....

p.s. Happy 100th Post to me!!

"Come On Annie, Let's Go to the Movies!"

"Let's go to the Moooo-oovies....Let's go see the Star-are-are-s!" Oh how I love when a post comes with a song. I could do it every time, but that would get tedious, no?

Lylah and I went to see Tangled over the weekend. She loved to go to the movies and eat the popcorn and M&Ms. I brought a couch pillow for her to sit on so she would not fold up in the chair and she fit perfectly. The movie was so fun and funny and so very cute. There were some confusing conflicts for a 3 year old...like why is the Mother the bad guy and kidnapping and so forth, but really it was a great movie and we both enjoyed it.

My favorite part was seeing the floating lanterns. It was quite a beautiful and sweet scene in the movie. But right next to me was an even sweeter sight. Little Lylah, completely enthralled in the movie, had slid down off her seat and was reaching out with wide open arms to catch a 3D floating lantern. I loved that part the best.

And now...Enjoy a piece of my movie history. Please know that I am dancing in my slip and swinging my hair...right now. I believe that I "performed" Annie every afternoon for quite a while in the neighborhood growing up. I, of course, was Annie and I believe my little sister was required to be Sandy (the dog) pretty much every time. Sorry, Sarah. Drama queen. Can't be helped!



Coming soon: Christmas decor, finished Christmas gifts, a sweet gingerbread hair clip, Lylah's Christmas singing at school, and more movies!!

Halloween 2010..a little on the too late side

Lylah was a storybook princess for Halloween. I wanted her to be Olivia. She said she wanted to be Billy The Exterminator (which would have been to hilarious.) But then she changed her mind. She was convinced that she had to be a princess. So I used a very sweet dress my mom bought Lylah on clearance at Target for the base of the costume. I had saved the dress for her to wear in a professionally taken picture, but I never got them taken. So the dress had never been worn and it would soon be too cold.

I made a little cape/wrap and added the jeweled clasp. I also MADE her gloves. It took a lot of work, but I learned how to do new stuff on the machine and I could make gloves much easier next time. I found some gloves for sale for $8 (too cheap to buy those) and I made mine for about a dollar and it only took about 6 hours--(cough, cough) But like I said, I learned something. And they were cute.

My favorite part of the costume was the scepter. It is made from an over-sized Christmas pencil, a mirrored Christmas ornament, sparkle ribbon, hot glue, pearls, and white duct tape. It only took about 5 minutes and I love its awesome authenticity.

Add a little drama with a major make up job and face jewels. Add a feathery and sparkle covered tiera and a large purple "diamond" ring, and you have one storybook princess.

She was so excited and so proud of her look that she could hardly stand it. She was embarrassed and excited to see how amazing she looked. She glided everywhere and loved the costume!!!

The bottom two Pictures are of her at American Family Insurance where the preschool Trick-or-Treats every year. They are so sweet to us and the children are always VERY loaded when they leave. Lylah is tired after carrying her heavy bag "by my own". Maybe I should have called her a Drama Queen rather than a Princess.







Happy Halloween, Princess of Drama. I have no idea where she gets it.....he he he

Blueberry Mufffins with Almond Crumble or My Bakery Best

Never have I made a muffin that was pretty enough to look at AND yummy enough to eat until now. I was on a quest for an easy and mostly good for you breakfast that Lylah can take in the car on our way to school. Because, lets face it, I cannot manage to keep myself in order for more than 2 days in a row. So as great as waking up early and getting dressed and making breakfast for my child (and self) sounds, it's just not gonna happen. But I can sometimes muster the energy to cook in the evenings. Such was the case on Tuesday. I made amazing blueberry muffins with almond crumble on top. Even though I am breaking my own "fruit rules," I ate one, and really enjoyed it.

Here's the recipe. BLUEBERRY MUFFINS WITH ALMOND CRUMBLE
Ingredients

1 1/2 C flour
1/2 C white sugar
1/2 t salt
2 t baking powder
1/4 veg oil
1 large egg
1/2 C milk
1 1/2 C frozen Blueberries

Crumble;
1/2 C sugar
1/3 flour
1/4 C melted butter
1 t Almond Extract (or a little more)

Preheat to 400 degrees F. Line muffin cups. Combine sugar and dry ingredients in a bowl. Combine wet ingredients and mix until combined. Pour the wet into the dry and mix until just combined. Fold in the thawed, rinsed, and drained blueberries. Scoop into muffin cups and fill until almost to the top. Batter will be very thick. Top the muffins with the crumble mixture. To make the crumble: Mix all ingredients with a fork and sprinkle on top of the muffins. Bake for about 21 min. (but my oven runs hot)
See! Yummy enough to eat.

Here is my sweet Lylah singing one of our favorite preschool songs. The words are: There were 3 little muffins in the bakery shop. (You know the kind with the honey and the nuts on the top) Along came a child with a penny to pay and eh bought a muffin and he ran away.....then there were no little muffins in the bakery shop....and he said What no muffins today!!!



Silly good times. P.S. She loves them so it was a success!!!

Pig Pen's Chair gets a makeover

Well, one could assume that after 7 solid months, I was never going to post here again...but one would be wrong.

I have a simple Before and After to share.

Please know that I love my blog and I love to share here, but life has been a little hairy in the past few months. A lot of good and sad things have happened in the life of our family. Maybe I will post about some of those things in the near future, but for today, I will post a Before and After to wet my crafty blog feet and then see how far I get this week.

Oh, the ideas and the fun I have in my churning little mind! Oh, the bloggy plans I have concocted and the posts I have worked up in my brain! You might be surprised that only a couple have to do with anything remotely related to Chick-fil-A.

I digress....

Now the Before and After:


The before is Lylah's chair at the breakfast table. It is a very old chair I was given when Glen an I got married. It's from my mom's old stash. I have covered it about 4 times since owning it. It now is Lylah's seat and, as you can see, she has wiped paint fingers (and countless food particles) all over the seat. GROSS right?! This is all despite wearing a paint smock and being a lover of the use of napkins. Anyway, the chair has seen better days so I knew we needed a more durable cover that would be very washable. And fun couldn't hurt either.


The after is the same chair covered in a fun pink polka dot oilcloth material. The top of the seat is a few different pieces of scrapbook paper and a magazine add for a fun fabric line all cut up and pieced into the look I wanted. I then ModPodged over the paper pieces to make sure it was all secure. No more messy fingers residue! I love the look because it is so fun. Of course Lylah likes it because it has enough pink for her princess heart.You may not be able to see the detail here because my picture quality is so poor, but the little birds are holding a little cherry between their beaks and sitting on top of cute cupcakes. The little birdies are from one of the papers I used to recover Lylah's name letters for her new big girl room redo. I can't wait to show you the fun things we are cooking up for the space.

Hope you liked the Before and After. Feels good to be back in the game!!

p.s. Do you like my sweet squirrels on the kitchen table? Glen picked them out and surprised me with them. I LOVE squirrels... and acorns... and fall-ish stuff...and....

An excuse for an obsession

OK. I have said it before. I am obsessive. I obsess over movies, people, SMELLS (good or bad),food, crafts, babies, music, and the list goes on. You name the topic and I can tell you what I am currently fanatical about related to said topic.

Wanna play? Oh goodie!

Music: Right Now...Natalie Merchant Leave Your Sleep (I'll have to do a whole post on it soon. it would be a shame to talk about it now when I am SO OBSESSED I could talk a lot more)

Movies: Well Pride and Prejudice silly that you did not get that one before me. I have also added Cranford to the list. Maybe it's own post too. LOVE it!! And many many more of all kinds. My conversations are all made up of one movie quote after another...I have no original thoughts.

Smells: Love the smell of clean laundry and soap and freshness. Love the smell of 'right before the rain' dirt. Crazy for it really. Hate (and smell often because of all of our rain lately) the smell of worms. Maybe specifically worms cooking on concrete. Hate to smell most perfumes and air fresheners. Oh and many more. This may be my biggest obsession. Just ask my poor husband who gets to hear about each one...in detail...goes beyond "pregnant nose". I have the condition for life.

Food: I could go on and on. But, currently it's spaghetti. Had it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner on Saturday and only lunch, dinner, and a nibble of a snack on Sunday. Having it for lunch tomorrow too! Can't wait! Oh, and then there's Chick-fil-A...

Sweat: Why is sweat an obsession, you may ask? It's because I hate it so bad. Because it was 105 with the heat index today. Because it was 105 and the air in our car is broken AGAIN!!!!! ( to be fixed this week hopefully for the 10th and final time--by a new shop) Because it makes me feel gross, duh. And because I seem to do a lot more of it as a pregnant person. Oh how I hate to sweat. Maybe that's why I am a bit on the heavy side. I can't bear to sweat. No jungle environments for me please. I would be pleased to live at the North Pole. ( Come to think of it, the whole Christmas year round thing is absolutely perfect for me. Great idea!)

Sonic Ice: I try to enjoy a Sonic Iced Tea or Diet Coke(sometimes with lime) everyday. Now, I realize that this is not thrifty. I do try to go during Happy Hour when I can get the beverage 1/2 price, but if I don't make it, well....I might still get a drink anyway. It's the ICE!! I am obsessed with the ice. I am a serious ice snob. And for me, Sonic is about as awesome as it gets (except the ice machine at my church growing up--I could have sustained myself on ice alone my whole childhood).
The other day I got a big bag of ice from Sonic. Glen feels that this is an utter waste of money because he is not obsessed with ice. I, however, know that this $2 bag of ice, while more expensive than some crappy ice you can get elsewhere, will be the agent of giant amounts of savings. Just think...I spend $2 a day on an awesome beverage. That is about $700 dollars a year. I predict that my one bag of ice can last me 3 to 4 weeks. That is $24 dollars a year for ice. I can drink my own awesome tea at home. It is currently brewed with mint leaves and Lipton Decaf and a little Splenda. Awesome and nearly free. I say Glen should chill out about the ice and realize what kind of savings I am adding to the budget. With that kind of savings I should probably hit the fabric store and the craft store. I could use a few spools of ribbon.....
Look at that inviting glass of tea and yummy bag of 100 calorie popcorn. Tea that good deserves Sonic Ice. I will now enjoy a nice drink and a favorite snack and an Episode of Iron Chef America. Oh the OBSESSION with Iron Chef....but I will spare you the details ( because that would waste my time and my ice might melt)


EDIT: When presented with the evidence and the numbers, my dear husband agreed that Sonic ice is a good thing and "far be it from him to deny (me) such a small thing that brings (me) so much joy." Yippee!! No more hard sell for the ice of my dreams....literally. Pregnancy dreams are a hoot. I should write these puppies down.

Where HAVE you been?

Well I cannot say I have been any place exotic or spectacular. But there have been a lot of happenings since I blogged last. Let's scroll through a few in a nice easy list.

1. Parent/ Teacher Conferences at school= stress

2. End of school stuff like a Bar B Que and play night and getting my loose ends tied up for the end of the school year.

3. My Mom came to visit! We had tons of fun, but the week before she arrived Glen and I were very busy trying to get the house ready for a visitor. Above is one of my favorite pictures from the visit.

4. We refinished our dining table and 6 chairs. I slapped some fabric on them for chair covers that still need to be replaced with my beautiful fabric I bought 3 years ago for this project.

5. Major MAJOR progress on the craft room. Even set up a little place for Lylah to craft along side of me. She loves it! A little paint and a lot more tweaking still left to do, but I'm getting closer.

6. Lylah's 3 year old birthday!! Can't believe she is three. She seems to have grown up all of a sudden. she's pretty good at doing things, "By My Own"

7. Found out I am pregnant again!!! So excited and pretty much have had a distracted mind since that point. I am getting better. I am not COMPLETELY freaked out all the time as I was in the beginning. I have some pretty bad history with missed miscarriages ( meaning the baby dies and your body pretends to still be pregnant giving you no sign that the sad thing has happened until you go in for a Dr. appointment and try to hear a heartbeat and there is none).

8. Started our summer school session. My summer kids are so fun! I am really glad to have a fun summer. I don't think I could have handled a rough one. My mind is not capable of too much more than making it through to the 12 week doctor visit on July 2nd.

9. Refinishing Lylah's big girl bed. She wants it pink. I am not sure if that means I will paint it pink after Glen finishes stripping all the gooey drippy varnish someone before us poorly applied, or if it will just be pink bedding. It IS pink bedding already (Thank you Grammy for the delicious bedding). Maybe a pink bed on top of pink bedding is too much. Probably not for Lylah, though. she is all about pink with no encouragement from me. I love it too, but I am more partial to blues and greens. Here is Henry sitting like a person on some of the bedding . Lylah thought this was very funny.

10. Trying to cook at home in ways that are healthy, yummy, 3 year old friendly, and not spaghetti every night--although right now I could bathe in it and be a happy person. I guess you could call that a "craving', right?

11. Currently in the throws of a MAJOR sinus infection/summer cold that I can only take wussy Tylenol for. I am not complaining that I am pregnant and therefore cannot take meds, I just wish the 'OK for growing babies' meds were better at making me not feel like "Moaning Mertal"

So there it is. The things that have kept me away. Since the beginning of May I will say it has mostly been tiredness (from growing a baby) and anxiety (from not knowing what is going on in there) and doing a lot of projects for home and school. But I am going to blog more often...WAY more often.

If anyone is still here to read the end of this long and boring post, here's the deal:
I almost chose to not blog again. Not because I hated it or did not have the 'readership' I needed, but because I began to look at my blog as a tool for MY PRODUCTS rather than what it is. What is it? A way to connect with my family long distance, a memory keeper and a chronicle of our life now, maybe a tool for marketing (if I ever get that ETSY shop going), and mostly a fun way to share stuff and be connected with my people. I got a little worried that I should have my blog be a 'ministry' or that I should have some product line or brand to promote and I should be ultra crafty and witty and wise and sage. But, truly, I just gotta do what I love and the blog will be what it will be. Is that a song?

So... here's to beginning the blog again.

A Little bit Funny

I went in to kiss Lylah goodnight and found this sight. Poor Strawberry Shortcake! She's been eaten by a flashlight lion!

I giggled and then went for the camera.

Today I was asking Lylah about opposites. She is a little young to understand the concept still, but a friend was talking about it so I thought I would quiz her and see if she had the idea yet. It went like this:

Me: Lylah, what's the opposite of stop?
Lylah: Hmmm?
Me: What's the opposite of stop?
Lylah: Hmmm? ( this happens ALL THE TIME. She answers most everything with "Hmmm?")
Me: You can stop or.... ( with a leading tone of voice)
Lylah: Hmmm?
Me: If you don't stop you... (again with a leading tone)
Lylah: If you don't stop, you go to time out!!
Me: Big laugh!!!

I have bee informed that the baby in Lylah's tummy is not Orange Blossom any longer... It's Baby Jesus.

She helped me with making dinner tonight and said, " I love to help you, my Sweetheart Mommy." And, "oh, yum, yum. I love this dinner. It smells so tasty and lovely."

Lylah gave Henry a pet the other day. "Here's a puppy for you to love and sit with you in the window, Henry. You're welcome."
My silly girl.

Could You Add Some More PINK?

I am finally posting the pictures of the little dress I made out of a favorite pin-tucked ruffled shirt. I asked Lylah if she would like mommy to make her a dress and she said yes and she wanted it pink. I had my eye on the cutest fabric at Joann's and used a coupon to get it 1/2 price. So excited about that!

So I got the fabric and sewed all night...literally. I went to bed at 4 am!! I sewed a skirt onto the top to make the dress. I put in tiny box pleats and made a little belt finished off with vintage yellow buttons. When I got Lylah up the next morning she was tired and less than impressed. I showed her the dress and she said, "hmmm. Could you add some more pink?"


Unfortunately it was too baggy and needed to be taken in a smidge. So I had to take off the whole skirt and belt, take in the top, add darts on the back, and sew the skirt and belt back on.

I also made knee high socks from a too small pair of tights. I used this tutorial from Ruffles And Stuff.

Here's the reveal.

The favorite shirt that was too short to wear anymore.
Added the box pleats and skirt. Added hot pink buttons and a ribbon belt but thought it looked too country.



Took off the country parts and added a belt and vintage yellow buttons. oh how I love vintage buttons!! Perfect!

Lylah wearing the dress and socks after the re-re-do. The shirt was taken in and darts were put in the back.