A few days ago in a state far, far away...

...an awesome girl named Ali mailed a couple of packages.  She was determined to bring her friends to the dark side.  She was convinced swans were the new owls.  So she mailed out two little white swans.  One to me and one to Cassie.  Her forces have prevailed and I am smitten!! How could I not be...

Isn't it adorable?  So thank you Ali for bringing me over to the dark side ;-)  Aren't blogging friends the best!?

And speaking of blogging friends.  I told you about my swap with Nicole @ My House of L and how she sent me a zipper pouch and a posy clip.  Well I wore the posy clip to a birthday party at one of those indoor inflatable slides, bouncy castles type places.  And I lost the posy clip.  Oh the shame.  I was heartbroken.  I told Nicole that I had lost it and would be buying a new one from her shop ASAP.  But Nicole being so sweet offered to send me a new one!  Here it is...

She even added a pin so I was less likely to lose it. ;-)  And look at all that aqua!!  Love!  Thanks again Nicole!

I am a bad blogger

So I don't know about you guys but I was raised to treat others the way you want to be treated.

Like it was drilled into my head.

So I make a point to do just that in real life and on this blog.  And when I don't I feel just awful.

Why am I telling you this?  Well yesterday I got a comment from Valerie @ As Our Time Goes By saying that she had given me an award.  I was beyond flattered as always but then I remembered...someone else had given me one a few weeks back and I never blogged about it or even said thank you!!!

Not good.

So I frantically have been going through my emails trying to find who gave me the award so I can hopefully fix this faux pas.  But I have searched and searched and I can't find it!!  So if the sweet person who was thoughtful enough to give me an award is reading this please email me so I can apologize and then publicly say thank you.

Okay I feel a little better.  Thanks for listening.  Now back to the award I received yesterday...

It comes with some rules but  I mainly just want to say thank you (hope that's okay) for thinking of me and my blog, Valerie!  So THANK YOU!!

Crafting with kids-pinecone feeders and a bird house that would make any bird jealous!

So after Saturday's adventure I just wanted to relax on Sunday and do some crafts with Natalie.  We had gone on a scavenger hunt around our neighborhood last week and found all kinds of neat stuff.  We found a ton of pinecones and I told Natalie that it would be fun to make them into bird feeders.  I'm sure you have all either made your own or have seen them before.  You just take some twine and tie it on one end so that you can hang it up.  Then you spread peanut butter all over the pinecone. (I just bought cheap peanut butter at Target that we will use only for bird feeders.)  Then you roll the pinecones in bird seed and hang them up outside.  Here are the two we made....

Natalie keeps checking to see if any birds have had a nibble yet.  So far no takers.  Maybe they are peanut butter connoisseurs and can smell the cheapo peanut butter a mile away.

Our second project was a birdhouse.  We bought a kit at Lowe's the other day.  It was a lot of fun to put together.  Natalie learned the proper way to hold and use a hammer.  After we got it nailed together Natalie got to work on painting it.  She decided on a different color for each part. And a rainbow on one side of the roof :-)

And I added a little message around the "front door"...

The plan is to hang it on our fence in the backyard.  Hopefully when the birds are out shopping for new digs this one will suit there fancy.  If I was a bird I would total live here!

Local bloggers brunch and some impromptu sightseeing

Happy Sunday everyone!
Hope you guys had a wonderful weekend and are ready for the week.
My weekend started out with a trip to Arlington, Va for a local bloggers brunch.  Melissa at HOUSEography opened her beautiful home to us.  She even gave us a tour!!  You can check out her home tour here.  I pretty much wanted to move into her master bath.  The tile...amazing!

The rest of our time there was spent eating yummy food, sipping mimosas (YUM!) and lots of chatting!  It was so great getting to know other local bloggers.  Here's a picture (thanks Cassie!) of all of us minus Danielle of Fresh Quince who left early to see family who were in town visiting.

Photo courtesy of Cassie @ Primitive and Proper
Back Row: Katelyn, Kyra, Shannon, Kathy, Angie, Me, Felicity
Front Row: Cassie, Amy, behind Amy is Renee, Sarah, Laurie, and Melissa

Time flew by and before we knew it was time to go.  Our hosts, Melissa and Cassie gave us these awesome mustache mugs with yummy biscotti!

Courtesy of Cassie @Primitive and Proper

And you know I am a big fan of the 'stache!

And well folks that's where the fun ended.  Renee and I rode together.  We came through a not so nice part of DC on the way to the brunch and had hoped to avoid it on the way back.  And also the National marathon was that morning and we weren't sure if some of the roads would still be closed.  If I was running 26.2 miles the roads would STILL be closed...haha!

Anyway...in a nut shell we got lost.  Like super lost.  Like we need to stop and ask that nice police officer how to get the heck out of here lost. Like it took TWO HOURS to get home when it should have taken 45 minutes lost!! I felt like I was in a National Lampoon's movie, "Look kids it's the capital!"  I should have had another mimosa!  After this experience I am no longer in denial.  Hi my name is Andi and I am directionally challenged.

Hand drawn Easter printable for you {because I'm cool like that}

So I used to draw...a lot.  Then I decided that I wanted to go to school for art.  After almost completing the program I decided not to finish.  I had started to hate drawing.  It was a hard decision because I hate quitting anything.  And until these last few weeks I haven't felt like drawing.  ( I quit art school about 5 years ago) But for some reason it has become fun again.  Even relaxing.  So after throwing some ideas around I came up with this...

Jane of All Crafts 2011

It's my version of specimen art.

It turned out better then I had imagined!  And I thought I would share it with you guys!

So here you go!*

Jane of All Crafts 2011

Jane of All Crafts 2011

I'm also including a black and white version in case you want to color your own or print them out for coloring pages for the kiddos.  Enjoy!

*To print images just right click to save to your computer and then open to print as an 8 1/2 x 11 image.  Any questions please email me! And please use for your personal use only.  Thanks!

Social Slacker

So um did you guys know I was on Facebook?

...Twitter?

Yeah me either...because I CONSTANTLY forget I have a fan page and a twitter account.

source

I am so ashamed of my social slacking.  I blame it on the fact that I don't have a smart phone or a phone with the internet (yes I know you can update your status or tweet with SMS but don't tell my hubby ;-D) but I think the reality is that I am really not that fascinating people.  I post links to my blog posts on Facebook (rarely on time though) but that's it and tweeting does not come naturally.  I think I would bore people to death.  I'll give you some examples of what could be my future tweets:

Folding 3 loads of laundry...I am on a roll!
Diaper changing olympics Me-0 Lily-1
They don't call it a magic eraser for nothin'!

I got bored just typing them.  I'm just a wannabe, poser if you will.  I want to be on Twitter but I guess it's just not in me to "tweet".  Insert super sad face.  So what to do?  I have no clue.  I could sit here and say that I am going to tweet dangit! but I know I won't.  So for now I will still have a twitter account and you can follow me if you want but I doubt there will be many tweets, at least for now.

As for Facebook...I am going to try to post on a more timely manner and maybe try to update my status more often.  At least until I forget I'm on Facebook again.

The Purple pill and some file labels

I got very little accomplished today.  Turns out I have acid reflux...maybe.  A month or 2 ago I had this weird thing happen.  Intense aching in my back and chest that radiated up my jaw into my sinuses and ears.  There was also a feeling of my throat closing and a burning/cooling sensation.  And this may be TMI but I couldn't stop salivating and gagging.  It was AWFUL!!  It hurt so bad but after a couple of hours it went away.  I told myself if it happened again I would got to the doctor.  Well on my way to trader joe's for some much needed groceries, it started.  So I detoured to the doctor.  They gave me a sample of Nexium and ordered some blood work.  Well I took a Nexium when I got home.  I'm better but it STILL hurts.  Not sure if I'm sold on the whole acid reflux diagnosis.  If it is reflux, I send out a huge hug to all you sufferers...cuz this sucks!  

Since I didn't get anything done today I thought I would show you something I've been meaning to share for awhile.  Way back in January I participated in the 21 day organizing challenge.  Day two's challenge was to organize your desk top.  I don't really have a desk so I organized our household info hub.  Since then I have been looking for a filing system to hang on the wall so that each member of the family has there own slot.  Well while at the container store I found these...

source

Not only were they inexpensive but they were sturdy and easy to put up.  I also liked the idea of being able to personalize them.  So I put my silhouette to good use and made some vinyl labels...

 I used one of my favorite fonts, pupcat and ivory vinyl.  I kept it simple so I could showcase my awesome file folders!!!

birds...of course!!! :-D


P.S. Did you notice my new countdown widget? hee hee!

An unexpected surprise

Last night my hubby surprised me with something that I have been wanting since I was about 11 years old.  And I am so excited that I can't stand it and had to share!!
He bought us tickets to see New Kids on the Block!!

Seriously people I can't even express how excited I am!!  Although the number of exclamation points may be giving you a hint!!!
Once they started touring I joked that I wanted to go and that it would be fun re-living my tweens.
But no one would go with me.  :(
But looks like my hubby has had a change of heart.  Yay!
I haven't been to a concert since before kids, let alone a date with my husband.  Add New Kids to the mix and I can't stop smiling!

Day of Silence for Japan

Thanks to my friend Cassie and her latest post, I am now taking part in this...

So tomorrow there will be no posts from me in honor of Japan and the devastation they have endured.  I'd love for you to join me.

And I ran...{I ran so far away}

Ahhh Flock of Seagulls...this song always makes me think of two things, 1. the video for this song and their crazy hairdos and 2. The flashback episode on Friends were Chandler had the Flock of Seagulls hairstyle! Ha-larious!

So why am I singing this song?  Well because I started running again.  This morning was my first in at least six months.  And people it was brutal.  I ran about half a mile pushing a double jogger with a 42 lb kiddo and a 25 pound kiddo.  Needless to say I am already sore.  I ran a lot last summer and was running about 1.5 miles in about 10 minutes.  Not bad.

I have decided to run my first 5K, actually my first race ever.  I'm racing for the cure in DC on June 4th and couldn't be more excited!  I'm running with some fellow bloggers including Kate and Cassie. Our team's name is Paint the Town Pink!  I'm adding a widget to the top of my blog if you would like to donate to the cause.  If you are in the area and would like to join the team you can go here. The more the merrier!

Let's hear it for the ta-ta's!!

An egg-cellent project {Fabric covered eggs}

Earlier today when I showed you my Spring wreath I also showed you sneaky peek of one project I'm currently working on and told you I had another to share.  Well here it is, fabric covered eggs...

Aren't they cute?  Want some?  They are super easy and cheap (yay!)

Here's how I did it:

I bought some of these mini eggs at Hobby Lobby...

then I took some scrap fabric left over from these pillows and ripped them into thin strips...

And then I cut those strips into about 2 1/2 inch long pieces...

Then I slowly started adding strips with hot glue...

(this girl could use a manicure!)

Then I trimmed off some of the stray threads and here is the end result...

 And here they are on my shelf in my kitchen...

I couldn't get into St. Patrick's Day crafts this year for some reason but Easter...pffft, it's on!  

firefliesandjellybeans show-off-your-stuff-party