One year ago today, after the most amazing epidural in all the land, Harper Kimery was born. And last week we tried to have her first birthday pictures done. A couple turned out okay, but most did not.
Some times I'm surprised she's survived the first year. Especially after reading this post again. That poor little baby.
That's supposed to be a shout-out to Pinterest, but sort of looks like perspiration. So this is either a post about pinning or sweat, guess you'll have to stick around to find out. (Who's hoping it's sweat???)
Okay {dramatic pause}, it's Pinterest.
I pinned an Easter wreath from Electically Vintage (LOVE this blog) because I thought it was something I could make fairly easy and quick. Plus, I don't really own Easter decorations and have wanted something to hang on the front door. Sounds easy enough, right?
Wrong-ish.
I accidentally bought the chicks instead of the rabbits (which bummed me out because I like the rabbits better...apparently I need to pay better attention while shopping) and the instructions on the website said insert a toothpick and then push in the Peep. Mine didn't stick once I held the wreath up so I had to take them off and hot glue them back on. A little more time consuming than I planned, but in the end it turned out well.
I had the wreath and ribbon already, so I just had to buy the (70) Peeps which means I spent $7 total for this Easter wreath. According to comments on the original blog post, I don't need to spray it with anything, they'll harden on their own and should last a couple years if I wrap it in plastic when I store it. Which makes me glad I don't like Peeps.
The only downside was I used every single one of them and Ellie was highly disappointed that she couldn't eat a Peep. So it looks like I'm going to have to buy some more. Maybe I'll get the rabbits this time.
On the spring break to-do list: what-we-eat project. Specifically, trying new foods and new recipes.
I'm really good at making the same 15-20 foods for dinner and while I try to mix it up every once in a while, it's really easy to do the same things. And so I made a point to seek out new foods and different recipes this week. Here some of the things we tried:
fixings: corn, mini pepperonis, black beans, onions, cheese, salsa, Skyline chili
(My plan with this meal was Ellie got to pick her toppings and then she'd eat dinner which she hasn't been doing recently. This plan was a fail.)
Turkey cobb salad sandwich
roasted asparagus
cantaloupe
Most of the recipe ideas came from this cookbook:
I hardly ever follow a recipe one hundred percent. Depending on what I have in the kitchen or what we do/don't like, the recipe gets tweaked or changed but I used the Fresh Food Fasy for a jumping off point.
It was a good food week. We're still eating the soup and we had leftover reubens one day and they were just as good on day two. We're also trying not to eat out which is saving us some cash money.
Today I am using power tools, painting a door with magnetic blackboard paint, and having some fun with Our Reflection's Meet and Tweet. Come and join us (for any of the above).
Among other things, spring means the return of my favorite rummage sale.
The Catholic church in our town holds a sale every March (and again in August). Parish members donate items to help raise money for the school.
And while I'm not Catholic, I do love a good cause so I make it a point every sale to try to find something to buy.
It's never very hard.
Here are some of the things I've been forced to buy for the sake of the school children:
Vintage children's books, the complete set. I use them as decoration in Harper's room.
Wall decor: they were an orangey-brown wood that I spray painted white and hung above the bed. I'm not a big fan of headboards.
Old soda crates (7UP and Pepsi) that I use to hold plants and all our remotes in the living room. I was especially giddy when I bought these crates. I paid $1 for both. Even a year later, I still can't believe that happened.
The kindergarten class got new furniture so they sold the old, solid wood little chairs for $1 a piece. I bought two of them at a sale before Ellie was born, painted them green, and we've used them in different spots in the house ever since. Currently, this one is sitting in Ellie's room with her vanity that she uses to hold her piano for jam sessions and dance parties.
Ugh, these chairs. Chris bought them for his music room downstairs. They were brand new circa-1970 and someone finally redecorated and decided to get rid of them. Bless their little hearts. I think Chris paid $10 for the set. He loves them in all their green and brown glory. They're in the basement so I don't really have to see them which works out well for me.
The next sale is on Saturday. I can't wait.
I've also picked up tons of books for my classroom and games for the girls.
(skirt: Old Navy, shirt: Target, belt: Kohls, sandals: Target, ring: NY & Co., necklace: gift, clutch: thrifted)
Spring break is exhausting...a first birthday party, a quick trip to Ohio for an anniversary party, painting trim, painting doors, spring cleaning, working in the yard, thrifting, cooking/baking, refinancing our house, working on photo walls, shopping, cleaning out, painting, painting, and painting. And it's only the third day.
We're on such a roll that I'm slacking on the blog front for a bit--but don't worry, I'm taking lots of pics and have some cra-zay stories to share.
Good thing I get two weeks off so I can recover from this first week of our extensive to-do list. Whose idea was this anyway??
Harper's first birthday is on Saturday the 31st. Since my niece, Adalynn, was born on March 1st, my sister and I threw a joint first birthday party this weekend. It was crazy, chaotic, and perfect.
I hope your weekend was wonderful. Ours was jam packed and exhausting so today is a lazy day at home. And it's my first day of spring break so we're allowed to stay in our PJs all day. But tomorrow, it's time to tackle that list.
I found this on one of my favorite blogs the other day and can't believe I've never heard of it before! And I'm trying it tonight on Ellie (Harper might just poke an eye out...). Go check it out--and let me know if you try it.
If you are sooo sick of hearing/reading about The Hunger Games, please stop reading now. I won't be offended (or know, actually...) and you can come back tomorrow to learn about toothpicks.
Oh, good, you stayed. I am so happy. Did you hear the The Hunger Games movie comes out today? No? That's weird, you must live under a rock or something.
I first read the series a couple years ago and then shared them with Chris. Since then we've been counting down the days until the movie opened. And today is the glorious day.
I reread the first book this week in preparation for the movie tonight. Yes, I understand how cool that sentence sounds. If you haven't read the books, I beg you to please read them (or at least the first one) before seeing the movie. Reviews have come back saying the movie is great for lovers of the book or people that haven't read them, but you really should read the book first.
I'm a little leary of the movie hype because I don't want this to be just about the movie(s). I want this to be about an amazing book series that turned into movies that made people want to read the books for the first time (or again). The English teacher in me wants this to be about the reading. Big wishes, huh?
Katniss, Peeta, Gale, Haymitch, Prim, Panem, the revolution---I love them all. The good and the bad. I really hope that the movies don't spoil that for me. It's one of the reasons I never read or watched The Twilight stuff. I was so turned off by how commercialized it was that I couldn't just read the books and love them for being books. I had to love Robert Pattinson and Kristin Stewart in real life too and care about their dating lives. And, really, I just don't care. (FYI: I just had to Google them because I didn't know their names...that makes me happy).
Driving in this morning, NPR interviewed Jennifer Lawrence who plays Katniss and producer Gary Ross. They sounded in love with the story, in awe of unlikely hero Katniss, and spent more time talking about the books than the movie. I immensely enjoyed the segment.
And that's what I hope--that people remember these are books. When we talk about The Hunger Games it's because of the book that became a movie, not just this movie they made.
My book review was a little different today--sorry if that's not what you were wanting. But read the books. They're amazing on so many levels. And then go see the movie, eat lots of popcorn, and wear your mockingjay pin because that's what I'm going to do.
So when my friend/hairdresser Jessica raved about these amazing curls you can get from sleeping in a headband with damp hair, I was willing to try because it sounded easy. She and her sister (who is currently living for a year in an RV with her family and documenting their cool adventure--make sure youcheck it out) started doing them recently and were hooked.
Here's the tutorial I watched to learn the scoop:
It seemed easy enough.
I grabbed a thicker knit headband than they recommended and went to rolling. (Yes, I'm purposefully cropping my face out--it was like 11:00 at night after a shower and things were not at their best.)
The next morning it looked like this:
Obviously, I sleep on my right side. I'm a pretty violent active sleeper (just ask my husband) and surprised it looked this good after a night's sleep.
Once unrolled from the headband, it was pretty curly.
The right side less curlier than the left because of all that fell out while I was sleeping.
I was worried at first about how to do my hair with all these curls. I felt like a cross between a Toddlers and Tiara kid and a Hee Haw performer (did I just show my age with that second reference? No, okay, cool). I didn't really know what to do with it at first so there was a lot of standing in front of the mirror and staring. I eventually decided to pull it half up to calm down the fluff and make it less big. I brushed out some of the curl and pinned it back.
-I need a tighter headband to hold my hair in (I have a lot of hair).
-The rolling was really easy. While watching the video, I doubted my rolling abilities, but it really was not hard at all (this coming from someone with no hair styling abilities).
-I need to be more consistent with the amount of hair I grabbed to roll. It made a big difference in the curl size and was kind of all over the place because I was just grabbing sections haphazardly.
-I blew dry my hair and left it just slightly damp before rolling it. Jessica lets hers air dry and the video just says spritz it with water but that wouldn't have been enough for my thick hair.
-I'll do this again. Success! It wasn't time consuming, wasn't hard, and made me look like I did my hair like a fancy person. And for this lazy-hair person, that is major.
What do you think? Have you tried this before? Did it work? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
