Basket Painting

My week has been crazy busy, mostly the past 2 days. For some reason my motivation is at an all time high and I'm embodying the Goddess of home improvement. So much getting done! Cupboards painted. Ba-bam! First born's room painted. Ba-bam! Back door painted. Ba-bam! Check me out.

So basically I've been doing a lot of painting, haha! That's exactly what I'm going to talk about. It's a tutorial of sorts but I mean, it's not really. Just kind of something to throw some inspiration for others out into the ether.

My Mama brought me some nifty little baskets that will be divine for organizing odds and ends (the picture with my yarn sitting in it is one of those baskets!) and I wanted to jazz them up a little. The easiest way to do that was a quick and simple paint job! I am still unpacking various crafty odds and ends so my paint supply was rather limited but I did have a bright lime green and a pretty turquoise that I thought would be perfect.

I started with a plain basket, some paint and a little paint brush-

 

I wanted the turquoise to be kind of a white wash. Very subtle and with some of the basket weave showing through-

 

 

I wasn't terribly worried about neatness.

 

 

I decided to paint the bottom of it and then random stripes at the top and I quite like how it turned out!

 

 

I also painted my yarn basket in the lime green-

 

 

This one I painted a strip of the bottom and the rim and then dashes along the handle. It's so bright and happy!

 

 

 

 

 





 





That's my little side project for the weekend! So happy with them. 

Toddlers are Crazysauce

A Tale of a Broken Wrist

This will be a Mama post. To begin I would like to go back about 18 years to 8 year old April (that's me!) and retell the story of how I broke my first bone. Walking my Chihuahua down a hill, I tripped over him and broke my wrist. That's right. A Chihuahua caused me to break my wrist. You can laugh. It's okay. That was just the beginning of my bone breaking journey through childhood. From the age of 8 until I was 12 I broke about 8 bones and as an adult I've broken some toes and fingers but thankfully no more major bones. I have broken each wrist and ankle twice, though. Some sort of record right there. I was just a really adventurous child and I liked to try awesome things like tying a towel around my neck and attempting to fly off of our back porch. Looks like my daughter is following in my foot steps.

I give you exhibit A-

Baby girl the day she had her splint put on, which was last Friday. The story of how it happened is actually quite dramatic! Thursday night she and her big brother were playing and she managed to fall incredibly hard. A boom that shook the house. My first concern was that she had hit her head and then I realized she wasn't using her left arm at all, she wouldn't even raise it. Now, my child is a tantrum thrower but a crier she is not. She is tough as nails and so when she was sobbing for 20 minutes without pause, I knew something was up. She was also acting a little dizzy and then suddenly she was nodding off. My brain jumped to concussion and I called 911 in a very calm panic (parents will know what I mean!). The paramedics were actually not very nice but I won't get into that so much. I'll just say they made me feel like I worried for nothing and then told me she couldn't possibly have a broken arm or concussion and she was fine and then rushed off to what seemed to be a more exciting call. I considered them medical professionals and took that advice but my gut was telling me something was wrong. She was acting fine again but she still wouldn't use her arm and I just knew that it was broken.

Long story short, Miss Alice saw the pediatrician first thing the next morning and yep! A hairline fracture and a break in her left wrist. Both aligned perfectly and only needing a cast to be put on. So for the weekend she was at home with a splint of bright green, which she said is her favorite color. She was immediately back to her shenanigans. Climbing on top of couches and jumping, trying to tightrope walk across every piece of furniture and surf on every table. She got along quite well with the splint. It wasn't going to keep her from doing what 2 year olds do! She is a very fierce lady.

She even insisted on putting her own shoes on.

And going to the park and sliding on every slide.

Monday she was able to get a cast and she chose dinosaurs because she is gnarly like that. She sat like a total angel and didn't even blink while the cast was put on although she did give the stink eye to the doctor the whole time. She liked the end result though-

She is now showing off her dinosaurs to everyone.

So that is the long and scary tale of the broken wrist, but it has a happy dino clad ending. I do foresee a few more broken bones in our future. Two and a half and already 2 broken bones. She's hitting those milestones so early. *sniffle*

Welcoming Fall

Today is the very first chilly day of the season. Still not cold enough to make us turn on the heat, but enough that the kids needed a sweater going out today. It's also a very blustery, rainy day. I've enjoyed having that noise all day, the pouring rain outside and occasional rumbles of thunder and wind blowing leaves all over the street. It's a perfect lazy day.

My basket of yarn and a mug of warm cocoa with cinnamon are all I need. I am a lover of all seasons (although summer will always have the number 1 place in my heart) and I really enjoy these first hints of autumn. Warm drinks in pretty mugs, cute sweaters, leggings and tights, crockpot soups and most of all crocheting for the cold months ahead. I have been in a hat making frenzy! I made a ton of hats for people and then realized that I needed one for myself and so-

Tada!

 

 

My first hat just for me! I am in serious love. I've had some massive hat envy over Mary Margaret on Once Upon A Time! I spend the whole time I'm watching the show drooling over her wardrobe. Yummy stuff. Now I have my own chic crocheted hat to quell my hat lust. But not for long. That pink creation in the works in the first photo is going to be my next hat just for me!

 

 

In case anyone else is suffering from hat envy and wants to partake in their own crocheting hats adventure, here is the link to the 8 round hat I'm wearing-

 

 

8 Round Hat- So quick and easy!

 

 

So welcome Fall! Welcome beautiful hat season and colorful leaves and pumpkin everything! 

Onward to one of my favorite holidays- Halloween!

My Saturday

 

 

A lot of lounging on the couch, watching Once Upon a Time (me, a fairytale buff, only just discovering this show!) and crocheting my very first blanket. I am loving this granny stripe pattern and the deep charcoal with a gold accent color.

Hello!

Kairos time- God's time.

The moments where time seems to stop and you can feel your breath and the blood drumming in your veins and you think to yourself 'this moment is one that I need to remember forever'.

This blog is my way of recording. Life events, thoughts, crafting endeavors, household projects, my children and their doings, etc. I've thought about doing this for years and am only just now making the plunge so right up front I think my procrastination is obvious. I'm dipping my toes in now though.

A few random facts about me-

* I am the mother of 2- a nearly 6 year old sensitive soul named Oliver and a 2 year old ferocious lady named Alice-Mae. They are very opposite to each other but have been best friends from the moment they met.

* I am southern and I don't think I could ever live anywhere else. I'd be a popsicle up north.

* My very favorite craft is crocheting. It's kind of an obsession, really. I sew and make jewelry and collage and all sorts of stuff as well.

* I just celebrated 5 years of marriage with my beautiful partner, Peter. We are best friends.

* I love growing beautiful things in pretty pots.

* Walking is my favorite exercise on a chill, sunny day.

* I have a cat named Norman and a jack russel named Mattie and they are both my 4 legged babies.

* I am still a die hard Backstreet Boys Fan, even at the ripe old age of 26.

* My dream life would be staying at home with a house full of kids on a cute little piece of property and having a mini farm, sewing and crocheting clothing for my kids, taking care of chickens and dogs and babies and making jam and preserves.

I am hoping to use this space as a way to create and reach out and most of all to record life. It is a blog and a diary and a photo album. I hope that whoever is reading this is touched by something wonderful today. Blessed be, cupcakes.