Vanilla Bean

Gearing up

2012-02-24T21:26:00.000-08:00

Over the next few weeks you might see the old blog get a little nutrition heavy. . . I'm gearing up for my next and hopefully last round of HCG! If you follow us on Pinterest, I'm sure you've noticed the "beauty and fitness" board getting full the last couple days!

I was a total "cheater, cheater, pumpkin (pie) eater" on my last round and I didn't maintain the full three weeks after the round like I should have, and over the last 5 months or so, I put on the 15 pounds that I had lost in that last round! I'm still maintaining the 30 pounds that I lost the first 2 rounds, but I'm totally kicking myself for wasting a month of the diet because I didn't maintain right. What loser, I know!

Well, enough time has been spent wallowing in frustration, so I timed my next round for when we get back from Vegas next week!

For those of you that don't know about HCG and all the wierd stuff that's involved, maybe this will be enlightening for you, or maybe you're already doing it, and you'll be my accountability partner! That's really my main goal! If it's just me doing it, and I'm alone in my kitchen, I'm totally prone to cheat, and that's no good! But, if I'm forced to account for everything that I've done each day, then I'm way more prone to behave myself!

The first two days of taking your HCG drops, you have to binge like crazy (it sounds wierd I know, but it's all in Dr. Simeon's book if you're curious) so I figured Las Vegas buffets are the perfect place for that to happen! I'll start the 2nd phase the following day we get back from our trip!

Let's hope for better success this time! Keep me honest guys!

(If you're already doing HCG or have been thinking about trying a round, please do plenty of research and consult your doctor, especially if you're hypoglycemic or diabetic! Any other questions, feel free to email me! This is a program that works amazing for me - when I stick to it - but everyones body is different!)

Featured Food Friday - Banana Bread

2012-02-23T20:38:00.000-08:00

One of my girls FAVORITE things to make is Banana bread! They will literally refuse to eat the bananas I buy at the store so that they will go bad and I'm forced to make banana bread or muffins on the weekend!

Last weekend we had power "issues" at our house and the electric company had to come out and work on the lines leading into our house! It was a full day of power going on and off, on and off, literally every 5-10 minutes! I got about 30 minutes that they left power on for us while they went to take a lunch break, so I broke out my new mixer and whipped up some banana bread to throw in the oven. Not realizing of course that our stove PLUGS IN!!! Duh, Ellie! The guys came back from lunch and started working on the house again, with my oven going on and off every 5-10 minutes! I literally sat there staring at the oven watching my bread warm and cool in the oven, and I swear. . . . .it's been the best banana bread I ever ate! LOL! Mr. VB said next time I make it, he's NOT going to stand outside turning the power off and on so I can have moist bread!

Here's the recipe for my mom's banana bread. It's the same that I use for the muffins, but I just bake them in a loaf pan instead of muffin cups. And the brown sugar glaze really is phenomenal, but I don't do it for the bread because it's just too messy!

Tales of a Homeschool Thursday

2012-02-22T21:16:00.000-08:00

Miss Boo Boo girl has a love for all things animal!

Every other week or so, I give each girl a "special project" of their choosing. So far, Boo Boo has chosen zebras, hawks, bugs, butterflies, etc. I'm just waiting for the day she chooses "puppy" and asks us to get her another one!

I found the most adorable printable for an animal book that she could make herself. I handed over the craft supplies and let her at it!

There's several pages, and each one has a classification for the animals, ie. mammals, reptiles, birds. We were able to talk about what all of the animals in each classification had in common, and why they were grouped together that way. I can't really say that her 6 year old mind grasped it all, but she seemed to get the overall idea of it. She kept wondering why they can't all be on the same page because they all have eyes! LOL! What a cute little stinker!

What to do Wednesday - Finger puppets

2012-02-21T20:46:00.000-08:00

While we were working on the house this weekend, we asked the girls to come up with a craft or activity that could hopefully keep them busy for a couple hours. Lil' Boo Boo girl had an idea to replicate something that a helper in her Sunday School class had done!

Finger puppets! I'm sure hers are not as refined as the teachers were, but I figured for a 6 year old armed with toilet paper and scotch tape, they're not too bad!! This 5 minute project of hers turned into a HUGE fiasco that kept her and her sister busy for the rest of the day and even on into the night! They decided to use a shoebox, with the back cut out, and a little bit of fabric stapled from the top as a theater. Freckle even made a few more characters on popsicle sticks and started writing out a script on note cards. They ended up making tickets, a ticket booth, and a full-on finger puppet play for "Hansel and Gretel!" What a fun day they had - AND what a lot of work daddy and I got done while they were busy!

I told the girls we'd look into doing some more finger puppets, but a little more fancy next time. Amy, at The Idea Room, does some amazing finger puppets! Check out the picture links below for her tutorial!

Animal Puppets

Star Wars Puppets

Nativity Puppets

Totally amazingly creative, right?! I love all those!

I even checked out Wild Olive before I left the office today and found some printable paper cut-out finger puppets that I printed black and white, and I'm going to have the girls color them so that they can put on another finger play this weekend for Alice in Wonderland! Too cute, right?!

Printable from Wild Olive

Tuesday Tutorial - Quickie painters trick

2012-02-20T21:14:00.000-08:00

Almost 3 years ago when we bought our house, we were in a huge time crunch with moving out of our old place and into this one that wasn't even ready yet! No kitchen for three months, only concrete under our feet until the floors got installed, and the only "sink" we could use was our upstairs bathtub! Ick!

The one thing I WAS insistant on was the paint and carpet! We did carpet in the bedrooms and hired painters because NO WAY was I going to be moving the kids all around the house to make room for painting one room each weekend myself or rearranging furniture to have carpet put in the rooms after we had already moved in! Every couple days or so, we'd go by the house and check on the progress, and I got all kinds of painting tips from the painters!

For instance, you know how hard it is to get a straight line along your ceiling when there's textured walls and ceilings?

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Here's their tip: Run a line of caulking along the corners of your ceiling, smooth with your finger, and then when you go back to cut in your corners, it'll be a piece of cake for your brush to follow the smooth line of the caulk! yup! Totally works on baseboards too! I've never had to tape in this house, not once!

I ran into this particular problem above, when I was trying to paint the front living room of our house this weekend. Last May, we had new windows and a back door installed. What I didn't realize until this weekend was that the installers used a clear silicone to seal the windows. . . . but it's not paintable! You could totally see the dark color underneath! No bueno!

I figured I'd do the painter's trick on the windows and used a line of caulk around the edges.

Since I had a smooth line to follow, I simply ran my brush down the edge and cut in the huge living room window in just minutes! If you have a really good angle brush for cutting in, you should never have a need to buy blue tape again! I only use a Shur-line brush that's 1 1/2" and it's been perfect!

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Husbands get no say-so!!

2012-02-19T22:11:00.000-08:00

I honestly have no idea how our living room/bathroom/laundry room flood turned into me repainting the dining room, but it has. Maybe I figured, hey, might as well while I have the brushes out! Remember the lighter and brighter kick I'm on lately? Here's some dining room inspiration that I've been checking out!

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After our tussle about the paint color yesterday, I finally DID give in to my loving Mr. VB, instead of screaming, "Husbands get no say-so in decorating!!" like I really wanted to. But, I bit my tongue like a good wife and headed back to visit his mistress, Home Depot, with my little vanilla beans this morning. Miss Boo Boo girl walked out of there with more than just a handful of paint chip cards. I don't think she'll ever be happy with the paint colors I pick for the house unless the rooms are painted to look like cupcakes! But. . . she did finally admit that our new color was "much more prettier" than the old one I had picked. Traitor!

This is the color swatch for "Parchment Paper" by Behr. The first color I chose. Funny, it doesn't look anything like this in person! It's really just a very light cream color. Just a shade darker than an off white.

Here's the compromise color we ended up with, and I must confess, it actually does look really great.
"Sand Motif"

Just a couple shades darker, but in person it's more of a camel color. It had a bit of a yellow undertone, which I didn't really think I'd like, but I actually do! I'd say the dining room is coming together pretty well. I just need to decide on the window treatments and one day, I'll even manage to talk Mr. VB into letting me refinish the dining room table into something interesting, but I think that's a long time coming!

Parchment Paper

2012-02-18T13:07:00.000-08:00

* Hubby: "Why are you painting it white?"

*Me: "It's not white! It's cream! It's called Parchment Paper!"

*Hubby: "Well. . . . . it still looks white."

*Me: "This is only the first coat, and it's up against a dark color. It'll dry darker!"

*Hubby: "Let's hope so. . . . cause it looks white."

*Me: "Sigh. . . . why must you always doubt my genius. . . ."

Featured Food Friday - Healthy snacks

2012-02-17T09:42:00.000-08:00

I always try to time my HCG rounds for when I have no special occasions coming up that I might have to attend a get together for. Each round that I've done, I've been able to get off about 12-15 pounds, and keep them off, so I don't want to take the chance that I might be tempted! My last one, I totally forgot about my little bro's graduation party that I had to cook for, and it was torture!

I'm starting my next round after our Vegas trip next week, so I wanted to spend these next few weeks eating my best and trying to get off a couple extra pounds before I start, so that this can be my last and final round! Hoping! So. . . . .I guess I need to cool it with the burgers and fries, huh?

Here's 10 healthy snacks I think I might be trying!

Double Dark Chocolate and Ginger Biscotte

Savory Yogurt Dip

Pumpkin Butter

Dark Chocolate Nut Clusters

Cinnamon Chocolate Frozen Yogurt Sandwiches

Orange Almond Cupcakes

Quick Lemon Mousse

Raspberry Lemon Whoopie Pies

Focaccia with Dried Fruit and Rosemary

Papaya Berry Yogurt Parfait

Tales of a Homeschool Thursday

2012-02-15T20:31:00.000-08:00

The girls belong to an awesome homeschool group that meets twice a month. Some of the moms act as teacher on these days and cover subjects like writing, science and P.E. My girls usually brag about the P.E. and the fun games they played, but this particular week, they were so excited to brag about their science class! Their teacher had them working on anatomy books the last couple weeks, and they finally got to bring them home!

No, not a chapter on vomit. . . .it's labeling the taste buds! I know, I had to get a second look at that one myself!

What to do Wednesday - Get Fancy

2012-02-14T23:24:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, just for the heck of it, my little beans get it in their head that they need to get all dressed up and have a fancy dinner. We like to have theme nights sometimes, like "Italian restaurant" night, "romantic candle light night," "breakfast for dinner night," etc. Just for fun, the girls run around the house gathering candles, cloth napkins, fancy wine glasses, and most times, they even make little place cards for everyone!

Just to break the monotony of a weeknight dinner, GO GET FANCY!

I wanted to show you the fancy night the girls put together for our Valentine's dinner.

I had a little "happy Valentine's to me," party because my mixer finally came! I told the girls the first thing I wanted to make them was fresh whipped cream!

SOOOOO yummy! And nothing goes better with fresh whipped cream than fresh waffles to put it on! We made them heart shaped in honor of Valentine's Day of course!

The girls set out pieces of my Valentine's scrapbook paper as quickie placemats and they even found some red plastic cups that matched our theme. We heard grandma was coming for dinner too, so I helped the girls stitch together some place cards for everyone.

Everyone got dressed in their heart covered clothing and we got to enjoy the yummiest waffles and fresh cream!

Sometimes it just pays off to get all dressed up!

Tuesday Tutorial - Ruffled Lampshade

2012-02-13T20:15:00.000-08:00

I've always LOVED the ruffled lampshade look!

I wanted to make one for my master bedroom, so I was on the look out at thrift stores for a while! I found the perfect lamp for only 4 dollars! It needed to be repainted. . . . the bottom was rusted pretty bad, and the lamp itself had some scratches.

Mr. VB took it apart for me so that I could sand the whole thing and spray the bottom a metallic silver, and then sprayed the lamp a sunny yellow, which is going to be the accent color for my room. The rest of the room is in grays, black, and white.

The lampshade itself is a large drumshade that I found on clearance at Target, again a steal at only 7 dollars!

The ruffles are easy to make, just super time consuming! I don't have a ruffle attachment for my machine, so I had to do all of them by hand.

If you're a novice sewer, don't be scared by ruffles, they're really easy.

For this project, I wanted a ruffle down the middle so that the edges would ruffle up in both directions. I used a white, queen sized flat sheet, cut into strips about 2" wide. Then I sewed a long line down the middle of each strip. To make ruffles make sure your stitch length is set as high as it can go, and that your stitch width is set to as low as it'll go, for mine, that's a zero. Just use a straight stitch and go all the way from one end to the other and leave a long string at the end. DO NOT do a backstitch like you normally would when sewing something.

When you have all of your strips sewn, you get to begin your ruffle-a-thon! You'll hold onto one string, while pulling the strip down a little at a time. You can make your ruffles as tight or loose as you want. I didn't do mine that tight, and I still had a few strips of cloth left over. If you make really tight ruffles, you'll definitely end up using the whole sheet. When you have the whole strip ruffled the way you want, tie off each end so they won't come undone when you're gluing.

For attaching the ruffles to the lampshade, I used a hi-temp glue gun. So far, I haven't had any problems with the lamp getting the ruffles or glue hot and melting it. Simply run a short line of glue and then attach the middle of the ruffle to your shade! After a few nights of working on it, I had this!

pillow Love

2012-02-13T04:15:00.000-08:00

I've slowly been trying to redo our master bedroom. A couple months ago, I stripped it bare and started working on things. I managed to find this gorgeous, plain, gray duvet cover for our comforter and wanted to make some pillows to match. (Perhaps you remember our messy house tour video, where I showed it.)

Did I mention the duvet cover was on clearance for only 17 bucks?!!

Steal of the century! And I also found the softest, furriest, white blankie to cuddle with!

I wanted all the pillows to be different sizes, shapes, textures, etc.

Okay, so this is a totally false picture of what things look like. As I said in the video, I never, ever, ever, make my bed unless people are coming over. I'm really only ever in my bedroom from about midnight til 7 am when the kids get me up, so I really don't see the point in remaking it everyday when I'm just going to get back in it! LOL! I know, I'm a bad example for the kids!

Dress up. . . cupcakes. . . and journaling

2012-02-12T10:07:00.000-08:00

Freckle and I wanted to avoid some of the construction mess yesterday so we sent Boo Boo girl on a play date and hung out with Grandma Honey to do some big girl shopping. . . . .and dressing up obviously.

You know your man really loves you when he's at Home Depot, but spots a Cupcake book for you!

I'm sure you all know my love for doodles and Art Journals, but I'm not so hot at the writing kind. I did finally decide to get my bootie in gear and finish up Boo Boo's pregnancy journal! From 6 years ago!! Man, what a slacker!

Pinterest's greatest hits

2012-02-11T09:02:00.000-08:00

You gotta love Pinterest huh?

And not for the reasons you would think! Sure, it's awesome for finding amazing inspiration for your home projects, but it's also great for spreading your projects around blog-land!

Every now and then I'll take a look at the "stats" page on my blogger dashboard and see what everyone has been checking out the last month or two, you know, what the most popular posts were, what the referring website was, etc. I never really wanted to start blogging so that I could have the most followers, or the highest numbers.....I just wanted to get everything out of my head and onto "paper" so that I could vent or share a little bit with anyone that would be interested.

And along came Pinterest! I started getting emails from readers saying they loved a project here and there and they were going to "pin" it. I always wrote back and thanked them for saying so. We all love comment love, right? But then I started noticing my "stats" page going all wonky! Projects from months and months ago were starting to get really high views and I would track the referring site to find it was Pinterest! You silly Pinterest, you get me all confused!

I have to LOL sometimes, really, because a project that I feel so insecure about even sharing with readers because I took a bad picture, or it "wasn't my best," ends up being something that gets so many views on my stats page! See, ladies? Insecurity sucks!

Nonetheless, I thought you might enjoy seeing some of the projects that made me chuckle when I saw them on Pinterest! I went from highest to lowest ratings.

Easter Egg Wreath - all time highest views! LOL! Even with a blurry picture!

How to get the perfect French Toast

Bernie's cake tips - hints from my cake instructor about decorating and baking

Beach Cottage Shell Mirror - easy tutorial to make your own

Itz Fitz Style Fall Wreath - how to DIY a reusable yarn wreath

Sewing Pins Block - DIY craft with styrofoam and cork

Handpainted Stencil Art - how to make your own stencil

Master Bath Reveal - 2 years of hard work finally coming to an end!!

Waxing Poetic

2012-02-08T21:27:00.000-08:00

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I've never really been one to wax poetic about my lot in life. I'm usually so busy with the day to day operations of working full time and running a household that my thoughts never get too deep. However, the other morning, I was in my new master bathroom, enjoying the warmest, steamiest, early morning shower and I couldn't help but let my thoughts wander. I normally use this time in the shower (my only quiet time away from the little ones) to go over my mental list of things that I need to do that day, or what I may have forgotten to take care of the day before. Lately, I've decided that those 5 or so minutes could really be used more productively as a quiet time of prayer. This particular day, while looking around at my new gorgeous bathroom, my prayers were running into the "being thankful" category, and my mind wandered to past trips where I had been witness to those who have so little.

Years ago, as a teenager, I went on a few missions trips with our church to the Navajo reservation in Arizona. Our family also used to sponsor a few kids that were in different parts of the world through Compassion International. We would write letters back and forth and send extra donations at their birthday or Christmas so that their local workers could buy them something nice. It really was a great learning experience. For instance, being out on the reservation. . . . middle of the desert, nothing in sight, no running water, no electricity, no bathroom, sleeping in tents for a month. . . . you get my drift. We only got to go into town once a week for showers and groceries, and to call home to check in. During the week, we stayed on the reservation and led a little Bible class for the kids.

So there I stood in the shower, newly tiled and gorgeous, thinking of all the things I needed to do that day, like talk to hubby about flooring and paint, and possibly a trip to Vegas at the end of the month to stay at our time share, go to work, and go spend money at the craft store on my lunch break - and it hit me! How can I possibly think about all these things, when there's those that struggle just for food to feed their children. How can I think about trips to Vegas and Disneyland, but deny others that chance to provide medication for children with AIDS, or those who need mosquito nets to stop malaria? I enjoyed a hot shower before heading out to a job I'm very fortunate to have and still be stable in. I enjoyed a hot cup of coffee and breakfast, and hopped into my new car that runs great, and chatted with a friend on the blue-tooth during my drive about some fun crafts that we were going to do later on in the week.. . . . . I think you get where I'm going with all this.

I've written before about these trips, and how I sometimes feel convicted to do more for others. Why have I never taken action?

True, many would consider my job to be its own type of "ministry," especially because my foster care/adoption agency is a faith-based one. I do derive an immense amount of spiritual fulfillment being able to work with so many children in need of permanent, loving and adoptive homes, and being able to match them with those homes. But I get paid to do that work. Sure, it's fulfilling, but what am I actually giving of myself to do it?

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A few nights ago, I caught a show on the Oprah Network about a young girl who just knew that God was leading her to open an orphanage in Haiti. She was 11 at the time. Her family literally sold everything they owned and moved there to start one. 8 years later, Oprah was there to interview this young teen girl with such an old soul. How can a young child know where they're being led, but as adults, we turn our back on those paths because of our own selfish desires like Vegas and Disneyland?

I've decided it's time that we get back into the idea of giving to others before we keep giving to ourselves. Perhaps that will mean cleaning out our closets for warm clothes to donate in winter, maybe bagging up unused toys to take to a shelter. I'm not completely sure what sort of road this will take myself and my Vanilla Beans on, but for now, I'm listing below some great places that you can get involved yourselves if you'd like to!

Compassion International: Sponsor a child from anywhere in the world

Sari Bari: Purchase home goods made by women who have been rescued from the sex trade in India

Nothing but Nets: Donate mosquito nets around the world to stop the spread of malaria

Cure Afghanistan: help pay for much needed surgery to repair cleft palates and other medical needs.

Aid for AIDS: Donate to help send AIDS medication to over 35 countries world wide.

Reece's Rainbow: Help provide funding to allow waiting families adopt Down's Syndrome babies

Doctors Without Borders: Donations help bring medical treatment and medication to impoverished countries around the world

Dentists Without Borders: Donations help bring dental treatment and medication to impoverished countries around the world

These are just a few of the organizations that I've heard of or worked with in the past. I hope you'll take the chance to get involved and help others in need. Please, if you know of any other great organizations that you're part of, send me an email, and I'd be happy to add it on the list!

Awesome-ness

2012-02-07T22:08:00.000-08:00

I don't think it would shock people I know in" real life," for me to say that I'm a "color within the lines" type of person. . . . I'm a total rule follower, I believe in right and wrong with very little room for gray. I have a very low tolerance for frustration. I don't like to step out of my box or challenge my comfort zone boundaries. I'm a total homebody and creature of habit. Literally, I'll go to a restaurant and order the exact same thing every time!

But. . . every now and then, my creative, rebellious streak will come out for a brief moment and come up with something great. That's probably the side of me you see on the blog; me with my hair a wreck, no make up on, paint brush hanging out of my mouth because I just had to stay up until 3 in the morning to finish a painting, or I'd lose the image I had in my head.

Yup. . . something along these lines. Me smearing Mod Podge all over my arm cause I always have my brushes hanging out of my mouth!

As structured as I try to be, you know, like sticking to a lesson planning schedule, blogging schedule, dinner and bath time schedule, sometimes I just need some randomness to fall into my lap and give me a LOL moment.

Do you guys follow my "Awesome" board on Pinterest? Here's a taste. . . all the things that give me a LOL moment and leave me chuckling "awesome. . . " under my breath.

And last but not least. . . . .

The shirt I will soon be making my two little Vanilla Bean Girls!

So there you have it! Hope I lightened the mood for ya a minute and you got to LOL a little bit.

Need an invite for Pinterest, just let me know!

12 of the lightest and brightest

2012-02-06T21:58:00.000-08:00

I really need to get out of my "construction zone" funk!!

I know it's kind of sad, but we're pretty much used to living in a construction zone around here, and every room has a major project going on from time to time. Last up was the leak, before that, the master bath renovation, before that, our awesome bookshelves/mantel in our front living room. . . . There's just always something being worked on! I need to find some inspiration to get me looking forward to all the gorgeous things I might be doing next week when we get the check from the insurance company!

I think after hearing from everybody, (and Mr. VB of course!) we decided to go with the lighter vanity from Martha Stewart. We just have to make sure the plumbing will fit right. There's a narrow space in the back between the drawers that seems a little funky to me.

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I'm still not too sure about paint colors, but I went on Pinterest trying to inspire myself to get going, and here's 12 great spaces and inspiration for you as well! Maybe you'll see where I'm going with this "lighter and brighter" kick I'm on lately.

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As promised!

2012-02-04T20:41:00.000-08:00

Awesome hubby spent today working on restoring our wood floors. Love that man!

Here's what our living room looked like before he started.

We pulled out a few rows from the wall and used it to fill up some of the rows in the front, and then thought we'd use the new box to make the first couple rows up against the walls. Apparently no two boxes of wood floors will be the same color or look because they all come in "lots" so we needed to have the new ones in a row up against the wall where no one will really see them. BUT. . . . of course, he ran out of wood halfway through the last row and now we have to wait for it to come in from the supplier in a couple days.

These are the downstairs bathroom and the laundry room that are behind that wall. The contractors took out two feet of drywall from the bottom because it was still wet, and then took out the wall and some of the ceiling in the bathroom because it's where the water had leaked down and warped it.

The leak actually happened up in the girls bathroom where all those pipes are. This wall was the one that tested positive for asbestos, and since it was cut into to fix the plumbing, they had to come and contain the contamination. (See the video below)

You'll see in the video below what I mean by the plastic and tape, but when they pulled the tape off the walls and stairs, they pulled the paint right off the walls, and the stain right off our glossy stairs! They're going to send a crew to repair everything, but I'm wondering how we'll be able to get up our stairs while it dries! Off to a hotel again, I suppose?

I grabbed the camera to take a video for the girls to see since we didn't let them come back that night with us. I thought it might be fun to show you guys, but you have to pardon how I look! I just got home from work and hadn't worn any make up or really fixed my hair that day - I've been a bit stressed as you can imagine!

Did you guys check out yesterdays post? Help me pick some design elements to put this place back together!

More house reno. . . . of course!

2012-02-02T23:57:00.000-08:00

Argh!

Just when I thought we were so close to finishing up this house, we had our crazy leak upstairs that traveled all the way downstairs and caused a WHOLE lot of damage.

(I do have a video that I shot of the house, but as I'm so technology challenged, there's no way I can possibly upload it, so I have to wait for hubby to have some free time tomorrow.)

We're meeting with the contractor and insurance adjuster today for a "walk-through" so that we can get an estimate of how much it will cost to replace everything. Tonight, hubby and I took our own "walk through" Home Depot, our home away from home, or his "mistress" as I like to call it when he takes off for a few hours!

We're toying with the idea of replacing the wood with tile, or replacing the kids vanity with a new one since it was damaged when they removed it. I also have to find a whole bunch of new paint colors because our walls got all scratched up. Here's some of what we've been thinking about!

Vanity possibility

Other Vanity Possibility

Tile possibility?

OR keep the wood floors?

And since I really want to lighten up this cave. . . . Here's a few paint options!

"Cornerstone"

"Toasted Marshmallow"

"Wax Scupture"

Below is what we currently have in the back living room, so you can imagine how dark it gets in that room! No wonder it seems like a cave! It's a gorgeous neutral gray, but we really need to lighten things up!

"Elephant Skin"

I think it would be really great in a room where you have loads of natural light coming in, but in our back living room, we only get light during sunset, so it's usually pretty dark!

Okay everybody! Time to weigh in! Mr. VB will definitely get the veto vote, but I'd love to hear what you have to suggest for us!

PLEASE!

I wanna see some major comment love below!

Travelin' Girls

2012-01-31T20:35:00.000-08:00

We're homeless!

Heading to a hotel for the next few days, and leaving all my craft supplies behind.

Super sad face.

Because of the water leak upstairs that we had last week (that traveled downstairs, ruining our wood floors and walls, ceilings, etc.) we have to have crews in here the next several days to remove all the drywall and wood floors and replace everything. This old house has asbestos levels in the drywall so they have to section everything off with plastic and wear hazmat suits and the whole nine yards just to get it out of here and then do a big clean up!! We gave up trying to work around things and decided just to head out somewhere more peaceful! Hoping to be back in a few days and up and running!

I'm sure I'll be on Facebook all the time, but as for blog posts and crafts, I'm kinda stuck I think.

Miss you guys!

Tutorial Tuesday - Valentine tutes

2012-01-30T18:57:00.000-08:00

Here's 5 of my fave tutorials right now that I want to try!

I'm going to have to do the last one for sure because making a purse/bag/tote is on my mid-life bucket list!

Applique Petal bag

Cereal Box Valentine Holder

Crocheted Hearts Tablecloth

Valentine's Angel

10 Tote Tutorials

I'm no better!

2012-01-29T22:53:00.000-08:00

Oh come on Mr. VB! How am I supposed to find a screwdriver in garage like this? Maybe we should talk about some organization!

Okay, . . . . . . yah, so I'm no better apparently!

I guess I'll have to do some of that organizing too, huh?

Master Bathroom Reveal!

2012-01-27T20:26:00.000-08:00

I can't tell you how long I've been waiting for this bathroom to be done. . . Okay, that's not entirely true, it's been 2 1/2 years! I'm so very excited, and words can't even express it! Not a good thing for a blogger, so I guess I'll just have to leave it to the pictures!

First up is my AWESOME walk-in shower!

Gorgeous right?! I'm so in love with it! We did the glass mosaics as a border and on the ceiling, and then flat stones on the bottom that feel SO great on your bare feet!

You can see the tutorial for the stenciled wall art here. The medicine cabinet we found at Wal-mart, the large mirror was from Home Depot, and instead of hanging it, we leaned it on the counter, next to my new gorgeous orchid from there as well! The dark wood floating shelf and wicker laundry basket came from Ross of all places, for only 9.99 a piece!

The wicker baskets came from Target, and so did the towels! We attached them using wall anchors, screws and washers, and then I painted the screws and washer a dark brown to camouflage them.

Wanna see the gross before picture? This is the only one that I managed to get! Hubby beat me to the house that day and had the sledgehammer swinging!!

I think the only thing I still need is a floor rug to finish it off. I'm on the hunt for a huge one, like 4 x 5 feet, and I'm thinking that I really want one that's fluffy and white shag. What do you think?

Featured Food Friday - Valentine Treats

2012-01-26T19:17:00.000-08:00

I will never be a food blogger.

Don't get me wrong. . . I'm not upset about that. It's just the facts of life.

Do you remember the ramekin rainbow cakes I made for Mr. VB birthday last year or the lil' pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving?

I totally love my ramekins, so why not use them for Valentines too?!

I set about making a white and pink polka dot cake - basically a white cake with a pink dot center. My main goal was to make something simple and quick that the girls could decorate on their own. . . . AND that I could cut in half for pictures to show you all the center!

Baking fail. LOL! I stuck it in the freezer for a bit to harden it up, making it easier to cut in half, but when I tried to lift it out of the ramekin, it came totally apart of course. Oh well. You can see what I was going for I suppose!

Until I can be a better food blogger. . . .

Here's some great ideas for other Valentine treats!

Samoa Blondies

Strawberry Fudge

Lemon Berry Poundcake

Tales of a Homeschool Thursday

2012-01-25T21:39:00.000-08:00

Pottery with kids

Have I ever told you all how much I loved art school?!

Well I did. A bunch. And I totally miss spending every waking moment in the studio creating whatever came into my pretty little head. But. . . . I had to grow up and pay the bills! What do I get to enjoy now? Sharing everything I learned in art school with my crafty little vanilla beans!

One class that I really enjoyed was ceramics, and I've been wanting to teach the kids for a while. "Santa" found this kids pottery wheel on clearance at Kohl's and left it for us under the tree. It comes with all sorts of attachments that the kids were eager to try, but no way! I'm teaching them old school and making them do it freestyle to perfect their skill.

Not too bad for their first time!

What to do Wednesday - Clubhouse Time!

2012-01-24T21:59:00.000-08:00

Do you remember being a little kid and throwing a sheet over some propped up chairs to make a tent?

We gotta go a little nicer at our place, apparently!

The propped up chairs aren't going over so well with our little vanilla bean girls anymore, and I had to put an end to them taking over the closet under the stairs when they kept rearranging all my stuff!

The kids room has a gigantic, and I do mean GIGANTIC closet. They've been begging me to make a clubhouse out of it, so until we do something a little more permanent with drywall and paint, we stole a few extra curtain panels from the play room as well as a random curtain panel from our old house.

I cheated a bit with hanging them, like I did in our craft room. I simply bunched them up and hung them with a staple gun. We did the center panel a little shorter than the others because the kids wanted a little "doggy door" for Cutie (and themselves) to come into their clubhouse! LOL!

I think my favorite part, aside from the fact that it keeps the kids entertained for hours, is that the curtains actually hide a lot of the mess in their rooms, so until I find some amazing storage for the kids shelves, I can hide it all!

I searched around Pinterest for ya and found these other great reading spaces/clubhouses!

Reading Nook

Reading Tent

Reading Loft

Closet Reading Nook (via OhDeeDoh/Apartment Therapy)

Clubhouse Roller Shades

What was your favorite clubhouse/reading space as a kid? Did you have an actual space, or just some propped up chairs and sheet?

You know those big refridgerator boxes were the best!!

Tuesday Tutorial - Handpainted "stencil" art

2012-01-23T21:39:00.000-08:00

As we've been putting the master bathroom together, I've been contemplating some different artwork for the space. Of course, for me, I'd never buy! I can always make it myself!

And so can you!

Tools needed:

Tracing paper

Graphite paper

Image to be transferred

fine point pencil (I like mechanical pencils)

Your project surface, for mine, 8x10 canvas

acrylic paints and paint brushes

You can always paint on any type of background. . . for this project, I wanted to do it on canvases that I could just hang directly on the wall. Problem is, where do you come up with the stencils? Sure, I could just run to the store and see what they happen to have on hand, or even special order some online. Maybe someone will have the stencil I want, but usually not! But being the instant gratification girl that I am, I like to utilize the Internet whenever possible! Enter Google images!

Bring up the design that you like and then zoom the page size so it ends up being the correct size for the project. (Don't worry if the whole design doesn't fit on the screen. You can always scroll down the page and move your paper.) Next, grab your tracing paper and literally trace it right off your computer screen.

For this particular project, I painted the canvases with a gray background to have them prepped for the stencil design. To transfer your stencil, place a sheet of graphite paper on top of your canvas, then the stenciled tracing paper on top of that, and then use your fine point pencil to trace the design onto your canvas.

You can always use a paint brush to fill in your design, but for your designs with tiny details (like my nursery art you've seen before on the blog and Etsy; remember the skateboard?!) I'll fill you in on my little secret!

Fine point paint pens! To do the black outline you saw on the nursery art, I even use an ultra fine point! To fill in the larger stencils you see on the top and bottom, and the stems of the flowers, I used a medium point. I usually use Elmer's brand of paint pens because they have such a selection of sizes, but in the past, I've used the Zig painty twins pens. . . . but just remember the Zig's are oil based and not acrylic!

Perfectly stenciled paintings for those of us without a Silhouette or a stencil!!

The Vanity Save

2012-01-23T06:28:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned before, our house likes to leak on us from time to time!

Because we weren't using our master bathroom while it was under construction, we didn't realize that the wall valve had been leaking until it started coming through the ceiling of the craft room closet! NOT COOL!

We bought this bathroom vanity raw and then had it stained before the granite was installed. But because of the leak that went on for probably a week before we discovered it, the bottom was completely water logged and warped! We talked about maybe taking it out and replacing it. . . yah, like we're made of money, right? Nope, we had to try to save it!

We washed the insides with bleach to kill any nasty germs that might be trying to grow in there, and then I used some of the leftover paint from the walls to paint the inside of the cabinets.

We found some peel and stick tiles that looked like bricks that we cut to size with scissors and stuck to the bottom for a slick finish.

MUCH better, yes?!

Our relaxing weekend. . . .NOT!

2012-01-22T11:26:00.000-08:00

This is how we spent our weekend. . . .

I've come to the conclusion that there's NO room in this house that won't leak water from somewhere! In trying to finish my master bathroom upstairs, we realized that if we turn on the faucet upstairs, it makes water bubble up like a geyser from the unfinished shower downstairs! Our whole downstairs bathroom flooded!

I'm so very thankful for a handy hubby and a father-in-law who lives just a few streets over!

Still. . . . no woman should have to see her bathroom being torn apart like this with sewage and mud being pulled out of the wall and onto her new vanities!

Where's my bleach?!!!

Featured Food Friday - M&M Valentine Cookies

2012-01-19T18:13:00.000-08:00

Have you guys ever made "thumbprint" cookies?

These are my faves at Christmas time, and my mom uses white icing with the green and red M&M's, but honestly, you can tailor them to any holiday or special occasion!

M&M Thumbprint Cookies

1 c. softened butter

1/2 c. brown sugar

2 eggs (separate the whites and save for later)

1 tsp. vanilla

2 c. flour

1/2 tsp salt

finely chopped walnuts

1 can frosting (or you can use this recipe for my buttercream frosting)

M&M candies for decorating

Cream your butter, sugar, egg yolks, vanilla and salt together. Once mixed, slowly add your flour. Dough will be a bit crumbly, but roll them in bite sized balls and set aside. After all your dough is rolled into balls, roll each one in your separated egg whites, and then in the chopped walnuts. I like to squeeze them so the walnuts will be sure to stay in. Set them on your cookie sheet and press your thumb into them to make a little bowl. The cookies won't spread, so you can place them pretty close together on your cookie sheet. Bake at 350 until golden brown, about 12 - 15 minutes. Set on a rack to cool. Just before serving, place a scoop of icing in the middle, and embellish with an M&M or other candy if you'd like.

I love to make a huge batch of the cookies ahead of time and then freeze them. Whenever I'm ready for company, I can just pull out a few and put on a plate with some fresh icing!

Tales of a Home School Thursday

2012-01-19T06:51:00.000-08:00

For Boo Boo's first grade History, we're learning about the discovery of America and how maps are made. Let's face it. . . 6 year olds are just a BIT geographically challenged! How are you supposed to teach them that the N-E-S-W from the book can be translated into real life?

We figured out that Boo Boo girl needed to have a fixed point on the wall to hold onto and then showed her how to point to different areas and explained that they correlated to different directions. For instance, the wall would always be the North wall of our house. The mountains she saw outside the window will always be to the East, etc.

Then, as a practice exercise, she got to draw a map of her room and place all the furniture. By the end of the day, she totally understood the concept and could name the four directions and point to them everytime!

A few sneak peeks!

2012-01-18T23:38:00.000-08:00

I literally couldn't fall asleep the other night because I was so excited about my new bathroom! Every time I kept closing my eyes, I kept staging it in my head!

But we're getting close!

I just have a few finishing touches that I'm still working on around the outside, but today I got to break in my new shower AND my new toilet! TMI, I know, I know! It was just way too weird! We bought a three bathroom house, but have only had the one to use for the last 2 years because the others are under construction!

Here's a few quick sneak peeks for ya!

What to do Wednesday - Mini Golf

2012-01-18T06:39:00.000-08:00

Is there anything as simply satisfying as a round of mini-golf?!

I know it sounds so very easy to suggest taking the kids for a game of mini-golf, but I swear it's something that always slips my mind!

I SUPPOSE I could remind all the mommies out there that it helps with hand-eye coordination, gets the kids out of the house breathing fresh air, and allows them to practice patience while waiting their turn. . . . but let's face it, it's just FUN!

20 bucks, an hour later, and our kids couldn't have been more excited if we had taken them to Disneyland!

Tuesday Tutorial - 10 of My Faves!

2012-01-17T06:35:00.000-08:00

After working on the house non-stop this weekend, I realized there are still SO many things that I want to do to this place! Isn't that always how it goes! I spent a little time this weekend going through some of my favorite tutorials of all time that I want to try still. Some big, some little. I love all the inspiration that other bloggers offer in their tutorials, and even though I normally share my own project, today, I wanted to share some fantastic ideas from others!

Remodelholics - Headboard for only 15.00!

Wood Slice Mirror - That's My Letter

Silverware Starburst Mirror - Flamingo Toes

Drum Shade Chandelier - At the Picket Fence

Stenciled Ceiling - Not Just a Housewife

Gallery Wall (for our stairway) - Signs By Andrea

Build a Rock Wall - Elizabeth & Co.

Paneled Wall - Decor Chick

Kitchen Organization - BHG

DIY Fire Pit - Always Chasing Life

You can obviously see why we're constantly working around here! I've got some big plans for this place!

10 Valentine Wreaths

2012-01-16T06:03:00.000-08:00

I put together a few wreaths for our Etsy shop, and then thought Duh! I should see what else has been going on Valentine's wreath-wise on Pinterest!

Here's some great inspiration for you all!

Source

Hugs and Kisses!!!

Faith

2012-01-14T22:53:00.000-08:00

We all just need a little bit of faith sometimes!

(8 x 10)

This is one of my favorite all time quotes! I made it into a printable for you all! I'm planning to frame mine for my master bathroom when the construction is done. It gives me a way to remind myself every morning as I head out; "Your faith will be tested." "Growth is always a good thing!"

painted skateboard

2012-01-14T08:57:00.000-08:00

I totally forgot to show you this!

I was going through my memory card and realized that I forgot to show you guys the painting I did for my friends daughter!

Her daughter wanted to learn to skateboard, so she wanted a custom board for her. She simply bought a blank board for me to paint on. Obviously her daughter's nickname is "Abby monkey!"

Featured Food Friday - Valentine's Treats

2012-01-12T21:06:00.000-08:00

I did manage to get my head together the last couple days and made some yummy treats for Valentine's!

I'm still working on my Valentine's Day menu for the girls, but in the meantime, we spent a day decorating some delicious cupcakes!

We used pale pink frosting (recipe) and made some purple fondant decorations. The girls are getting pretty good at it, actually! Their favorites were the ruffled hearts.

But my faves were the big X and O!

You can't ever separate hugs and kisses, so I think that means I have to eat them both, right?!

Boo Boo girl made some flower gardens.

Aww. . . . Big hugs and kisses from my vanilla beans!

Tales of a Home School Thursday

2012-01-10T23:23:00.000-08:00

Lesson Plans!!

When I first started home schooling the kids, it was something almost spur of the moment that we had to get started on. Not a great way to start off the school year, but we managed to get ourselves put together pretty quickly. One of the things that helped us immensely was lesson planning!

The first few weeks we tried a few different techniques and landed on a very simple form with just the basic info on it. Simply their names at the top, the date, and rows going down with the subjects and blank boxes to the side where I can write in the kids assignments.

If you're considering becoming a home school mom, or just a more organized one, lesson planning is a necessity! Here's some great places to check out!

Have Fun Teaching has several kinds of lesson plans available for printing, including a single subject lesson plan, or multiple subjects, and even simple ones that go by days of the week for your younger kids.

Word documents has another version here that you can print out

I think the best place you can visit for lesson plans, aside from designing one for yourself, specific to your own needs, is Lesson Depot!

They have lesson plans arranged by both grade AND subjects! The lesson plans range from the very simple, to very specific and detailed.

Something else that one of my school teacher friends told me about is "backward lesson planning." I tend to just go along with the curriculum I order, you know, chapter 1, chapter 2, etc. However, she taught me that it might not always ensure that my girls are meeting all of the standards that they should be! Backward lesson planning keeps the end goal in mind, and then you form your lessons in order to get there. For instance, what do they need to understand by the end of the lesson, what would they do to show that they understand the lesson and are competent in that area, etc.

What to do Wednesday - Make family traditions

2012-01-10T21:59:00.000-08:00

Our girls are finally getting old enough that they remember things we've done in previous years and are realizing that some families have certain traditions they do every year. This year we wanted to try to solidify some of our own. Every year we've been going along with what we've always grown up with, everything that our parents have had us doing all our lives.
But now, it's time for our own little family's traditions!

We talked with the girls about things we've tried before - things they liked and didn't like. The one experience they were dead set on was spending New Year's day down at the Mission Inn at the Festival of Lights!

Last year we were in the area on New Year's day, and hadn't taken the girls to see the lights yet, so we just stopped by spur of the moment. The girls LOVED seeing all the lights and various vendors that were out there. Especially the ones that sold yummy treats like hot coco and fresh donuts! During the spring and summer we even go down there on Saturday mornings because they have a farmers market!

You can always find downtown Riverside in the winter because of the giant Christmas tree they have on display!

The Mission Inn looks so amazing at night with all of the gorgeous lights they have on display!

Miss Boo Boo and her new photography passion - with a fake camera! LOL!

Ice skating was a little out of the question this year with my broken toe. Frankly I'm surprised that I made it so long with just the walking around!

But of course after an hour of walking around, the kids get tired and you have to start carrying them!

What are some of the family traditions that you all have been making with your families?

Tuesday Tutorial - Setting up shop

2012-01-09T21:59:00.000-08:00

I don't know about other bloggers out there, but I constantly hear the statement, "I just don't know how you do it!" Usually the person is referring to time-wise, they don't know how I accomplish so much when I work full-time, home-school our kids, and still have time for marriage, chores, and all the other daily life. Let alone adding on crafts, blogging, or an Etsy shop to keep stocked! My answer?
Insomnia.

It works really good in my favor most of the time. Who wants to lay there staring at the ceiling? I'd rather just stay up later and get some work done!

But, there are those times when people literally mean, HOW do you do all that?! In real life, I'm a person that still has trouble trying to figure out how to put columns and rows into a report that I'm writing, so I completely understand when people are in awe that I can manage to write a blog and set up shop in Etsy. This answer?
It's just really NOT that hard!

Etsy is a great site that allows people to sell their homemade items or supplies to make crafts. The premise is pretty simple. . . . take a picture of the item and then post it on your shop with a listing price. Then, whenever it sells, just ship it off!

However, there are some steps in between there that I had to figure out!

The first step to setting up shop with Etsy is signing up, of course!

Go to Etsy and click the REGISTER button up top to get started. (Whether you set up shop or not, you'll need an account to purchase.)

You'll be asked to fill out some info about yourself, and you're also able to sign up for their newsletter emails they send out with all sorts of helpful selling advice.

Once you're registered with Etsy, you can begin to buy and sell, but first, you'll want to make your shop look appealing! Usually, you do this by creating a "banner" to go above the shop. Sometimes it's people's photo of themselves, their logo, or sometimes it's pictures of things they sell in their shop. Here's a few examples from my favorite shops:

(Click the picture to be connected to their individual shops)

If you're gifted in the area of photography or graphic design, you can always make your own, or you can have a designer do it for you, like I did!

You'll want to upload your banner by making sure it's the correct size. Standard size for Etsy banners is 760 X 100. It needs to be a .jpg, .gif or .png , and no bigger than 2 MB. You'll upload it by going to your shops page, look to the left and scroll down to "Shop Settings," "Info and Appearance."

You'll also want to upload a profile picture. Some people use their own photo, which I used to do until Lindsay made me a "button" to use!

You can upload your profile picture or button by looking at the top of your screen and finding the "Your Account" link. Use the "Public Profile" page to place your picture and write a little bit about yourself. Don't forget to save your changes as you go along, like I always do!

Now that your shop is all set up, you're ready for selling!

Once again, go to your shops page and click on the link for "Add New Item." It'll be at the top of the list to the left. Etsy has made a few changes to their listing a little while ago, but this is how the current form is. You'll need to list the item in the certain sections it goes under, for instance, who made it, when was it made, what type of item is it, etc.

Then, upload some of your photos (make sure you use natural light and have some good close ups of it so people can see what they're buying) and decide on a price. You may want to cruise around Etsy looking for some of those same items so you can see how other people are marketing it, what they charge for shipping, etc. I'd also encourage you to be creative in your description. For example, don't just say that you made a ring to sell. Specify to the buyers that your ring would be a great birthday or Christmas gift or how you'll expedite shipping to make sure it arrives in time for Valentine's Day. Use a lot of descriptive words!

You also need to remember to "tag" your item with key words or phrases so that people who are searching for the item will be able to find it. So if you're listing that ring, you might tag it with words like "jewelry," "ring," "adjustable base," "pink," "flower," "gift," etc.

The other great thing I love about Etsy is that they allow you to specify shipping to certain regions. For instance, you might live in the continental US and want to ship something in that same region, estimating 5 dollars. But to ship to Hawaii or overseas elsewhere, would cost you 8 dollars. You can specify what areas cost how much, and even give the buyer a discount if they purchase more items that you can ship along with it!

Etsy is a great way to make a small living if you're a stay at home mom, or if not, a fun way to still make some crafts and earn a little money on the side like I do! I doubt I'll ever be able to stay at home full time with my girls without pulling my hair out, (sometimes I enjoy going to work just to escape the house!) but Etsy is a fun way for us to make our crafts together and then recoup some of the expenses so that we can keep creating more!

The girls and I have decided that we want to work on some new crafts and take our Etsy shop in a little bit of a different direction, so for now, we really need to clean out our stockpile! We've repriced our shop items clearance style and we're offering another 15% off at checkout if you use the code :
VBG15

Come help us clean out our closets and then go set up your own shop! Have fun!

More of my awesome shelves!

2012-01-08T20:55:00.000-08:00

Yes, I know. . . . more of my awesome bookshelves!

Can I just say for the millionth time how much I love my hubby! He gives me endless projects to work on!

We de-Christmas'd the house and I needed to figure out what to do with my new awesome mantel and bookshelves now that I didn't have the Christmas decorations up! More of a daily look for us. As usual, gotta stick to the budget - in this case, ZERO! Puppies need to get fixed, trucks need to be worked on, master bathroom flooded when a valve broke. . . and it goes on and on. Sometimes you love family life and other times it just bites you in the behind!

I went around the house stealing items here and there that I could spare to decorate the shelves and then had to piece everything together. One of my favorite things to decorate with is BOOKS! I have so many left over from all those years in college!

Funny side story. . . . the summer after I graduated I literally ordered almost every book on Oprah's reading list from amazon for like a penny each! I figured I had been reading boring psych and medical journals for the last 8 years, and I was gonna just read for fun now.. . . yah, and I still haven't read most of them 9 years later!

Nonetheless, I piled them all up and organized them according to the colors on the spines.

Then I literally spent the entire day staring at those bookshelves; placing a couple things and stepping back, then rearranging one shelf, stepping back, then adding something or moving something and stepping back.

It's a LOT of shelves!

I made a coffee filter wreath for the center, as well as a family rules subway art that I ordered from Etsy (the shop is now closed or else I would give you the name. . . )

All my scrapbooks now have a great shelf to live instead of being shoved in random places around the house. I even used my beach cottage shell mirror as a decoration!

My new favorite store just down the street from us is Access Home. Totally great things that I can find there for really cheap. A lot of the vases and candlesticks you see I found there for only 15-20.00, like the big turquoise one on the mantel!

I'm still kind of debating if it's too busy or not. Mr. VB votes no, that it's perfect the way it is, but I'm kind of leaning towards the "it's too busy for me" side. I figured that maybe we should just live with it for a little while and see what we think.

Your thoughts?

I finally finished my bucket list!

2012-01-07T19:58:00.000-08:00

This year instead of doing the traditional "New Years Resolutions" like we worked on for the kids, I thought I would FINALLY, yes FINALLY get around to finishing up my mid-life bucket list!

35 things to do before I'm 35!

I started one several months ago and have even been able to finish off a couple things so far, like make a craft room and take cake decorating classes! However, now I'm down to just under two years to complete my bucket list! I gotta get moving!

I put it on display in our empty frame, creating TONS of questions from the kids, which gets just a tad annoying. . . . but they DO keep me honest!

I just did a simple, quick water color checkered background and then wrote my goals on top. I even numbered them all out of order just to mix things up a bit, since I know I'll be doing them all out of order anyhow!

Some of them are places I want to go, or experiences I want to have. I tried to keep them pretty budget friendly, cause you just never know! Others are tasks that I've always wanted to do, but I have to keep myself accountable to finish them up! Take, for instance, the "catch up on scrapbook" idea I had. . . . yah. . . ummm. . . . so, with my scrapbooking, which I do chronologically, I'm at the part where I just brought lil' Boo Boo girl home from the hospital. I know. . . . a whole six years ago! You can imagine the piles and piles of pictures I have stacked up in the craft room! Big frowny face. My poor kids will be doing baby books for their own kids before I ever finish theirs!

busy day

2012-01-07T10:55:00.000-08:00

We've been keeping busy lately around here!
Lil' Boo Boo girl kept herself busy with her makeup today. . .

And decided to clean out our downstairs closet with her sister RIGHT before guests were coming over. . . .

(You have to admire their love of organization. . . . )

But they did help me move the bench out of the way so I could rearrange our living room furniture with my slow moving broken toe!

And then we got to the bottom of who left the top off the highlighter and ruined one my couch pillows!

and of course, being the creative girl she is, Boo Boo discovered that holiday wrapping makes great headbands!

Awwwww. . . . . I just love to brag about these crazy little ones!

Featured Food Friday - Valentine Treats

2012-01-05T18:06:00.000-08:00

I have to be a little honest. . . . I struggle so much as a blogger around holiday times!

In order to get projects and posts done in time to give you all some great ideas, I need to do everything weeks in advance! But then I end up with entire batches of cookies and cupcakes and cakes, and all sorts of other random treats that I either need to save and freeze, or eat them all (NOT good for my thighs. . . ) and do yet another same batch for the actual holiday so I can celebrate with my own family! Sure, I could take them into my work, but lets be honest - they're always on a diet just like me and then they curse me for bringing in treats to tempt them with!

Enter Pinterest! If you're not already on there - you're stark raving mad! It's just about THE most awesome place to get ideas for projects, AND food, AND everything, so I'm hoping it will help me share some great ideas with you all for Featured Food Fridays, as well as give me some ideas as to what I want to do for the holidays with my own family!

So, I've already started planning my Valentines Day menu for the family, and I'm tossing around a few different ideas that I want to share with you over the next few weeks of Featured Food Fridays!

For breakfast, I wanted to start with these Red Velvet pancakes!

Followed by a craft for the kiddos that they can give away, like these treat bags!

And perhaps some bacon wrapped grilled chicken for lunch or dinner that's something along these lines

And maybe wrap up dessert with these little cookie treats from Amy!

Good eating, yes?!

Tales of a Homeschool Thursday

2012-01-04T20:37:00.000-08:00

Miss Boo Boo girl has been a bit slow to get reading. She still mixes up her letters and sometimes even spells her own name wrong. Honestly, I haven't been too very concerned about it, because every kid will learn at their own pace - one of the great things about homeschooling! I mean, it's not like she's going to graduate high school not knowing how to read!

Nonetheless, I figured I should probably try to help her as best I could, so instead of the usual flash cards, or sounding words out, I went for these phonics flip books! They're available online, but I actually found them at a great sale that Lakeshore had!

They're all organized by phonic sounds, making it easy for your young reader to practice one area at a time!

But being the crafty moms we all are. . . . I also found THIS great do-it-yourself flip book tutorial that you can make! It's PDF and perfect for printing!

What to do Wednesday - Bean bag toss

2012-01-03T18:08:00.000-08:00

Boy,. . . .Papa has really outdone himself this time! For Christmas, he wanted to make the girls a fun game that they could take home with them!

BEAN BAG TOSS!

Papa made them a portable bean bag toss game, with a handle to be able to move it, and painted with colored strips so you could keep score.

Grandma Honey put her sewing skills to work by making the girls some simple bean bags to throw.

Too much fun! Papa made ours out of some plywood, with a large hole cut out of the center, but I'm guessing you could easily make one of your own out of a cardboard box cut at an angle along the sides! I bet those big screen tv boxes would be perfect!

Tuesday Tutorial - Zuppa Toscana

2012-01-02T20:10:00.000-08:00

I hope you all have an Olive Garden around you! Maybe you've tried this soup of theirs before, but if not, you have GOT to give it a try! I've always enjoyed it when I've gone before, but the other day, I went over to Grandma Honey's and she had made some up for us! I knew I had to share the recipe with you!

Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana

1 lb. ground Italian sausage

1 1/2 tsp. crushed red peppers

1 large white onion, diced

4 Tbsp. crumbled bacon pieces

2 tsp. garlic puree

10 c. water

5 cubes chicken bouillon

1 c. heavy cream

3 large russet potatoes sliced thin

1/4 of Kale bunch

Saute sausage and red pepper in pan and drain off fat. Add raw bacon and onions to saute for about 15 minutes. Mix together bouillon and water in large soup pot. Bring to a boil and add potatoes. Cook another 30 min. or so until potatoes are soft. Add cream and the sausage mixture. Add the kale just before serving.

Our Year in Review!

2012-01-01T22:38:00.000-08:00

Here's some of our favorite projects from the last year!

Obviously, my personal favorite is my new built in shelves and mantel that my awesome hubby built me!

But here's all the rest of ours separated in project types for you!

DIY Crafts

Sewing Projects

Recipes

Kids Projects

2012!

2011-12-31T23:59:00.000-08:00

HAPPY

New Years!!

2012!!!

Coaster Gifts

2011-12-30T20:44:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine from work got married last week. They just put their living room together and she remarked how she wanted a set of coasters like the ones I've had on my Etsy shop! Perfect idea! She had put up some of their engagement pictures on facebook, so I was able to just print them out the correct size and put them on some standard 4 x 4 tiles from Home Depot.

I've done them before by using mod podge, but this time I actually used matte medium, and they went on so much better and way less sticky! I did a coat of matte medium first, and then several coats of mod podge on top so they'd be water proof and have a glossy shine.

On the back, I usually use cork instead of felt, which you can buy in big rolls from the craft store. I've done them before with one big cork square covering the whole back of the tile, but it doesn't seem to stick too good and you have to keep hot gluing it! This time, I stuck with just four small cork pieces and they seemed to stick much better!

To package them, I've had to learn the hard way that you need to put pieces of wax paper in between the tiles otherwise they end up sticking to each other, no matter how long you let the mod podge dry! Then I wrapped them up with a purple fabric ribbon, the color of her wedding, and put them in a pretty package for her gift! Perfect personalized gift for someone you love!

Resolution Printables

2011-12-29T18:35:00.000-08:00

This year I wanted to actually work with the girls on making and STICKING TO New Year's Resolutions!

I made up a few printables for us and thought you might like to share! I figured the little ones would be good for lil' Boo Boo girl, but the bigger rectangle ones would be good for Freckle who's older and can write bigger words and paragraphs!. . . . And even for me, yes!

Tales of a Homeschool Thursday

2011-12-28T21:16:00.000-08:00

We're still technically out on Christmas break another couple days, but of course. . . mommy demands educational toys! LOL! My family is very pro-education, and we always buy all the kids loads of books and educational games and toys for their presents!

Someone gave lil' Boo Boo this adorable mosaic craft that I thought would be great for practicing her numbers! She still has some trouble remembering numbers and will write them backwards or get confused about their order. This craft was perfect for her! It was all different shapes and colors of te stickers - which of course kids love - and it was awesome to have her focus on finding all the 1's, then the 2's, and the 3's, and so on.

I've seen them before in all different board pictures, like various animals, flowers, etc., and at all kinds of craft stores, and even Target and Wal-mart.

Adorable-ness!

Papa

2011-12-27T20:16:00.000-08:00

We apologize for interrupting our regularly scheduled broadcast. . . .

You may notice me in and out over the next several weeks. I do have some posts already scheduled, but if you notice me gone for a few days, here's why:

About 8 years ago, my dad had quadruple bypass. Then, about 3 years ago, he had a stroke. His brain swelled so much from the damage that they needed to remove a portion of it that was already damaged to allow for the swelling. He spent four months in the ICU and then a rehab facility before coming home. Thankfully, it was in an area of the brain that didn't effect motor function or speech, so he's been able to be pretty active, all things considered.

He's been feeling a little sluggish lately, so they scheduled an angiogram this morning to check on things. Sure enough. . . . one of the arteries was 100% blocked again, and another was 98% blocked. However, after the procedure he was acting odd and his memory was impaired, indicating that a piece of the blockage had likely broken loose and caused another stroke. He's gotten better throughout the day, and his memory appears to be coming back a bit, but we're awaiting MRI results to confirm things and see how extensive the damage was. He's also going to be transferred to another hospital in the next day or two so that he can have two stents put in to take care of his clogged arteries.

I'm also imagining that I'll have difficulty getting around, since in my rush to the hospital, I slipped down the stairs at work and fractured my big toe. . . . yes, I know, I'm just so graceful! Probably not the best idea to wear slippery flip flop sandals when you try to run down stairs while talking on your cell phone! (Luckily I was already on my way to the hospital and the ER was right across the hall from the cath lab where Papa was!) Some of our house projects might have to be postponed a bit until my foot stops throbbing!

I already know how awesome all of my readers are, so I'll thank you all in advance for all the prayers you'll be sending up! I'll keep you all posted when there's any new news!

Just a few

2011-12-26T23:20:00.000-08:00

Just a few random shots from our Christmas weekend!

Christmas Eve we went to grandma Honey's to have dinner with the family. The girls love hanging out with my little brother, Kiefer!

Everyone kept taking off with my camera, so I didn't get any really amazing shots, but I found the most adorable ones of lil' Boo Boo and her new 3D art project on my memory card! She was just too adorable with the glasses! You can see how Mr. VB is trying his hardest to hide his laughter!

We got back SO late from grandma Honey's and still had to bake our sugar cookies for Santa, but it all paid off because he left nothing but crumbs! We found the most adorable letter for Santa as a free printable.

In the morning, the kids actually let us sleep in JUST A BIT since we were up so late the night before, and they very patiently waited for mom and dad's coffee to brew!

Of course, our kids always get loads of craft presents, so lil' Boo Boo decided to bejewel her face!

How was your Christmas?! Loads of family fun?

And now it's time to take all the decorations down and get ready to stay up all night to watch the ball drop! Nothing like sugared up kids staying up late!

Holiday Blankie

2011-12-23T23:53:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas Eve!!

Tonight we will be feasting it up at Grandma Honey's, and in the morning, we'll be having breakfast at Grandma Honey Bunny's, so I guess I won't be having a festive table scape to show off for you this year!

I do, however, have an adorable, easy holiday blankie that you could make for anyone tiny in your life!

Remember I'm on this kick that I want to use up all the supplies in my craft closet before buying more stuff for projects? Well, I also wanted to try my hand at making a little blankie for my cousins baby! Okay, so she's three now, and would STRONGLY debate that she's a baby, but she's the youngest in the family, so until another one comes along. . . . she's the baby!

I found this adorable fabric for the top that seemed very "holiday-ish" as well as some really soft pink fabric for the bottom. I didn't have any batting, so I just added another cotton fabric underneath the top fabric. I laid all three fabrics out, 1 1/2 yards each, and squared them up. I debated on having a square corner or not, but ultimately used a big serving bowl as a template to curve the corners. I figured it would make it easier when it came time to do the binding.

To put it all together, I stitched the two patterned cotton fabrics together by making a diagonal line from one corner to the other. (remember I only used the middle green and pink fabric because I didn't have any batting that was long enough, but this is where your batting would go.)

Then once I had a diagonal line, I kept sewing diagonal lines outward, and I was able to just use the foot as a way to keep the lines all even.

Trust me, it's a sewing marathon, but it's super easy work! No crazy patterns, just plain old, straight lines over and over again!

When you have them all sewed together, (I chose to work from the middle out, . . . down one side, and then back up the other so that my lines went outwards evenly on each side) then you'll lay the fabric together with the bottom piece, the soft pink fabric, WRONG SIDES together. I pinned all along the edges and then sewed them together.

After the two sides are sewed together, I made some quilt binding like I did for the kids apron biased tape, and then pinned it all around the edges and did a double stitch around the edge for decorative effect.

Super adorable, and you could put it together in just an afternoon! I have some more fabric on hand, so I've promised one to Freckle and Boo Boo since I'll be home from work for a few days over the holidays!

Featured Food Friday - Holiday giveaway treats

2011-12-22T21:22:00.000-08:00

I was PLANNING on making some oreo cakester Santa pops for my co-workers like Amy from the Idea Room did. . . .

The lady is the queen of 'pops' can I just say!

Of course, 11:30, the night before I'm supposed to take them to work, I open the pantry and find all the cakesters gone! Hmmmm. . . . wonder where they could have gone?! No oreos on hand either!

I did, however, have some marshmellows, so I just went ahead and dipped those in the chocolate! I also had a little bit of leftover candy canes that I crunched up to top them with!

I also spent yesterday making some hot coco on a stick like Make and Takes did! I love this recipe! SOOOO yummy and you have to try! It makes the perfect gift for neighbors or co-workers, but I even made them for the family we were going to see during the holidays. I didn't get the chance to take some pics, but here's what theirs are like! Totally cute, yes?!

Best thing about these two ideas is that they're super quick! I didn't end up doing the homemade marshmallows, but I used the store bought kind instead and they were still adorable!

I checked around blogland to find some other great giveaway treat ideas for you and here's some amazing ones I came across!!

Meg's Glazed Apple Bars

Lindsay's Rolo Cookies

Six Sister's Chubby Hubby Buckeye Peanut Butter Treats

Simply Designing's M&M Bottle

Bird's Hot Coco Mug

Happy Holidays everyone!! Eat it up!

Tales of a Homeschool Thursday

2011-12-21T19:38:00.000-08:00

Well I can't really say that we've been "schooling" this week, and I know for sure we won't be next week. Gotta have some time off for the holidays, right?!

But I still wanted them to have some "learning time", so what better to teach them about than the Nativity story and the legend of the Christmas tree?!

I found a legends website that had explanations of various holiday legends like the Christmas tree. Then we found some extra green felt in our craft room and used an old poster frame to make one that they could decorate with painted ornaments and presents that they painted with puffy paint!

I also found a great children's version of the Nativity that I could review with them, and the website even had free printables and craft ideas! But I already had one planned!!

At the dollar store, I found these plain, wooden Nativity backdrops that the kids could paint themselves, and then they made some clay characters. Joseph, baby Jesus, Mary, and even a lonely sheep and the angel!

I'm totally in love with that silly sheep!

My very first ever Christmas mantel!!!

2011-12-20T21:35:00.000-08:00

I literally cannot explain how very excited I am to have a mantel this year! I know it doesn't seem like too much to some people because their house already came with a mantel and their house was move in ready,. . . . but my house came like this:

Funny thing is that this picture was taken AFTER the realtor had the brick painted white from neon orange, and Mr. VB had broken up all the neon orange tile! Decorating tip: bright orange is rarely a good thing in large quantities!

However, because he LOVES me so much, and wanted me to have a great decorating time this year, he decided to take a few weeks out of his life and build me an amazing mantel to decorate! I had the best time! I think the only thing that would have made things better was if I had an unlimited budget to work with! But hey, wouldn't that make everything better!

Tuesday Tutorial - Wrapping for Dummies

2011-12-19T21:53:00.000-08:00

Okay, so maybe that's a little meanie to say. . . . .maybe not dummies, but for the "wrapping challenged!"

For years I never knew how to wrap properly, and my gifts didn't look too hot! My dad has given up all together and has taken to wrapping his gifts to us in brown grocery bags stapled shut! LOL!

So, . . . for those who are wrapping challenged, here's the DIY basic tips!

#1 - measure your paper by ensuring it meets the bottom of the gift on the sides.

#2 - Always fold your paper under for a clean edge before you tape it down

#3 - Make sharp creases in your paper. The thicker the paper you use, the easier this gets for me. Fold it down to the bottom in the middle and then push it with your hand over to each side and make a stiff crease on both sides. If you need to, sometimes I even tape the bottom of the package to make sure it doesn't move around on me.

#4 - Fold each side in and do another stiff crease along the bottom side that's folded in. Again, tape the side in at the bottom if you need to.

#5 - Do the same for the other side. If you've measured correctly, you should end up with a perfect triangle at the bottom. If not and you have a little hanging over, you can just fold it back a bit to make it a perfect triangle.

#6 - You should end up with all stiff creases looking just like this before you make your last fold. I usually do a small piece of tape in the middle to make sure it doesn't come undone when I fold the last piece.

#7 - and lastly, fold the last triangle up and tape it in the center. See: Perfect triangles!

For bows, I prefer to use wire ribbon whenever I have it. It just makes for a nice puffy bow!

#1 - For the basic bow, place the middle of your length of ribbon on the top of you package. If you need, use a little tape to secure, and then wrap it around to the bottom.

#2 - Flip your package over, and on the bottom, bring your ribbon pieces together, and then twist them so that they form an X and you can go back up the other side with your ribbon to have them all meet up at the top of your package.

#3 - At the top of your package, run your ribbon under the first center point of ribbon that you used in step one, and then tie the first part of your bow.

#4 - This is where having wire ribbon comes in really handy! While tying your bow, be sure to twist it while you're tying so that the fancy side is always showing. Once you have a bow, be sure pull and twist so that it's even on all sides, and then just keep fluffing until you get it as poofy as you want. Wire ribbon will hold it's shape, and you can curl the ends that hang down!

DIY Easy Gorgeous!

And there's no need for staples or brown paper sacks anymore!

DIY oranments

2011-12-18T21:37:00.000-08:00

This year I was bound and determined to take my tree back from the kids! For the last 9 years, I've let them do whatever they wanted to do for the tree. We've had egg carton ornaments, all kinds of classroom ornament crafts, any little thing they wanted to put on.

This year, I'm taking it back!

Money's a bit tight, so I decided I'd check out the dollar store, and anything else, I'd just make myself! I found some glass ornaments, big and small sizes on clearance and filled them with drops of paint and then swirled them a bit to get a cool effect. I actually ended up putting some matte medium in there first and it gave it the most awesome frosted look!

When I had them the way I wanted, I drained the excess paint out and let them dry.

I also found a ton of clearance wooden ornaments at Michael's in the dollar isle and painted and glittered them the colors I wanted! Super cheap!

Decorating on a dime

2011-12-17T22:29:00.000-08:00

We've all had those times in life where we've had to pinch pennies right?! Well this year, ours landed right at Christmas time, of course! But I've been determined to keep things going and told the kids we're still going to decorate, just on a budget! Being my girls, of course they're into bargain hunting!

We made almost all of our own ornaments:

With just a couple additions from the dollar store.

We used some ribbon from the dollar store to dress up our tree:

And used the last few years' ribbon to decorate our chandelier, paintings, and lamps

and we even made our own garland for our chalkboard with dollar store foam shapes

At Target's dollar section we found some cute little signs to dress up the front yard too! Boo Boo girl had the best time trying to figure out what direction to point them - poor thing was so confused!

I love being thrifty and looking for great finds, but even more, I love teaching the girls that we don't have to have everything name brand and pay full-price for things we like. I enjoy teaching them to be careful with their spending and saving, and showing them how our money can go a lot farther if we do some shopping around! So far, they appreciate my thriftiness, but we'll see what happens when they become teenagers!

True Love

2011-12-17T02:08:00.000-08:00

Do you know how to tell if your man loves you?

When you're first dating, you'll know if he buys you these,

or later on, he'll buy you one of these!

After 10 years of marriage, you know your man STILL loves you if he spends two weeks building you these!!

Yes! Floor to ceiling built ins! And a gorgeous mantel too!

My mantel woes are finally over! Merry Christmas to me!

He started off building the shelves on the ground so all the fronts would be level and then we lifted them up and secured them to the wall. For the back of the shelves, we used some panel board that we glued and screwed to the wall. Then we just caulked all the corners and gave it a few good coats of a glossy white!

I love all the details he added in, and it was just some crown molding and door trim kit around the side!

I especially love all the storage it offers, as well as a big area to hang a great painting that I'm still on the look out for!

Next up is Christmas decorating! Mr. VB said he actually can't wait for me to decorate so he can see what it'll all look like! WHOA! Shocker!

Here's our Before:

And he took it to this After!:

Aww. . . . he really DOES love me!

December Giveaway Day Winner!

2011-12-17T00:06:00.000-08:00

Oh how I love doing giveaways! They're just too much fun!

Congratulations to Emilia!

Reply back to our email with your address, Emilia and your prizes will be on their way!

Congratulations!

December Giveaway Day!

2011-12-12T05:59:00.000-08:00

Earlier this year we participated in the May Day Giveaway! It was sooooo much fun! The girls had a blast picking out all the things to giveaway to our winner.

We heard that Sew Mama Sew was hosting another giveaway, so we wanted to sign up of course!

The girls and I picked out some of our favorite supplies that we like to use around here on a day to day basis and put them together for you!

We put together a scrapbook kit, a painting kit, a kids project, and some felt for you guys to make your own felt flower wreath!

We included a canvas and the girls favorite colors they picked out.

A fall/school themed scrapbook kit. Aren't the brads too cute!

A kids craft apron that you can make for them, or even let them paint their own!

And a gorgeous stamp for your crafts!

Because I have awesome readers!!!!

The giveaway will be up until Dec. 16th, 5 pm PST and I will be picking the winner at random by comment # below.

I'll be posting the winner the very next morning, Dec. 17th, so don't forget to check back!

Prizes can be shipped anywhere in the world so there's no excuse not to enter!

TO ENTER:

Simply leave a comment below with the best home made craft you've seen around blog land lately! If you happen to have a link, please share with all of us!

Thanks for being some awesome readers! Can't wait to see who wins!

Butterfly Birthdays

2011-12-10T21:46:00.000-08:00

What a full house we had yesterday!

Most every year, we have a joint birthday for our girls, since their birthdays are just a couple weeks apart, and right in the middle of the holidays! No need for family to make so many trips if we can help it!

A while ago, we had decided on a light blue color, and butterflies. Thankfully the girls are finally growing out of those cartooned themed parties!

We made some more of our cupcakes (which I was still piping as our guests arrived! ACK!) and added them to our whole dessert bar! We had lemon bars, cookies, more cookies, chocolate dipped pretzels, and loads and loads of candy!

The night before, Mr. VB had finally finished up building our cabinets, and I stayed up until 3:30 in the morning, the day of the party, trying to put a couple coats on them before our guests arrived. Hmm. . . .Somehow I always paint with my hand on my hip like I'm fencing or something!

The girls also wanted to play games with their friends for their first birthday slumber party, so we did a "pin the wing on the butterfly" game. Silly monkeys!

We also had a lot of the treats packaged up so that people could take them home - by the end of the night I was begging, PLEASE take them with you! Don't leave them here with me!

Awwww. . . . yet another year older!

Visit here for the recipe for the icing - and visit here for cupcake decorating tips and icing flowers!