My little ones have the snifflies

...so we decided to stay home from church. 

Using our extra hour as a blessing sleeping in late and eating a big breakfast together.

{yes I am wearing footie pajamas}

We went out in the {melting} snow for a little bit, but not too long cause I don't want us to get sick{er} 

Trying to make today a Reverent day so I am going to make a Thanksgiving tree. 

Want to make one with me? 

I went outside and gathered some branches, which I am going to paint but you don't have to.

I am going hot glue them together wrap them in twine and put them in a vase.

Later, together as a family we are going to cut out leaves from card stock and write down the things we are grateful for and hang them on the branches.

As the month goes by I am going to think about those things, write a few more, and make an effort to appreciate them and keep them in my Heart.

Hooray for another Jones and TheSpanishLady family tradition.

Almost finished product

Textured wallpaper for the Kitchen

I want this wallpaper for an empty wall in my kitchen. Except I want it to paint it in Jade.

Yup

Fabric Cars and parenting.

Yesterday I spent a good part of the day making these fabric letters with my kids for their room. They love them and loved helping me make them. After Breakfast this morning I was laying down with Alfy when C walked up to me with a pencil and told me "don't worry I put the numbers on the race cars." 

oh no. 

all day he had told me they needed numbers and I had told him we would make them another day. I should have known he would take matters into his own hands.

The picture doesn't show it very well but all the cars are covered in scribbled headlights, windows, lines on the wheels.

So now my question was what do I do about it.

I was bummed that our cool cars {my cool cars} looked sloppy and dirty, and he definitely got in trouble for drawing on something without permission, but should I attempt to erase them as part of his punishment, or should I just accept it and the fact that they are in his room.

Plus I am kind of worried that erasing them will ruin them.

Am I being too much of a perfectionist in wanting them to not have pencil scratching on them!?

What my house looks like right now...

 Today was a cleaning day. We are trying to get the house cleaned up so we can go to CA for Grandma's funeral and come back to a place that feels like home.

Pipsta asked for some pics of our new place so I thought perfect, I will clean up and wait for the perfect lighting and take pictures. When the perfect lighting came however my house wasn't quite ready. I decided I didn't care. These pics will make for a good before and after experience :)

So here is our Tree House

{Kids Room}

 {Dining Room}

 {Bathroom and Hall}

 {Kitchen}

 {View from Kitchen to living room}

 {living Room}

 Which also happens to be our bedroom.

 See these white walls? they all use to be brown, a brown cave. In the process of painting 2 more walls and wall to wall bookcases!!                           Before the paint

 My favorite moment: photo by hAha in awesome frame.

 {and the view from my bed}

SBug said it reminded him of a European apartment, which was exactly what I thought, plus I love that because it is upstairs and all you can see is tree tops out the window, it feels like we are in a tree house.

More awesome moments to come and so many projects to complete, for now I just gotta make it through another road trip and more suit cases. Wish me luck, heck send me your prayers, I could use them.

Sloppy fun sewing and some other stuff

I just want to say thank you for your lovely comments about my Postpartum body post, 

and also thank you to my husband, who always thinks I am beautiful and tells me constantly, helping me to believe it. 

And thank you hAha for making me feel comfortable in front of a camera. You always help me to capture these memories and make my vision a reality in your photos.

Today my sister in law Miss Pipsta blogged about her awesome homemade laundry detergent. I want to make some of that myself! Who wouldn't want to save money on something you use daily! if you are interested in her recipe check it out here.

So glad you started a blog girlie, you've got so much to give!

SO over the weekend I stole Pip's sewing machine and set out to make a few things.

I chose simple projects, that I could complete quickly during the few moments I might have free hands. It still took me forever and was some of the worst sewing I have done in a while but it was good to have my hands busy doing something other than rocking a baby.

First I took an old black cardigan of mine and chopped it up to make a sweater for Alfy.

It was really easy, the hardest part was working with the knit.

It is so cute on him, and that makes up for all the crooked seems and rough edges.

Next I made him a pair of little shoes, from scrap pieces of fabric using a pair hAha made as an example.

And then I took a pair of 0-3 mo jeans that were about as wide as I am and took them in to fit my baby boy. Voila quick cute outfit.

Do you remember my post about Urban Outfitter's pillows?

Well I decided to make my own. I used a white flat sheet, charcoal grey fleece, and light grey felt, to make these...

By using fabric that doesn't fray at the edges it made this a super simple project that just adds an element of fun to our bed. 

Yay for getting my sewing fix in!!

Tober Cake is sick and needs extra love and attention right now, meaning every time I can put Alf down I must so that she can crawl into my arms. My back hurts, my house is a mess and one kid is almost always crying.
I think it is safe to say I check the clock often to see if it is almost time for Jones to come home! :)

{Tober buckled her bear into Boo's car seat.}

Lemon Squeezy inspired pillow, and my Poang

During Christmas time the wonderful Christy at A Lemon Squeezy Home made this beautiful Poinsettia pillow inspired by a Pottery Barn pillow.

The tutorial is great, you can find it HERE. Christy is a great source for Tutorials, particularly if you are a Mama. She makes all kinds of cute things for her kiddos. I knew I wanted to make one, but did not find the time during the holidays, however I did manage to buy some fake poinsettias at Joann's for 10 cents after Christmas and Yesterday I finally made my own.

In the process of trying to find my happy I have been lightening up my house quite a bit, adding more white where I can. So I decided that my pillow would be all white.

I think it goes perfectly on my new Poang chair from IKEA. 

I read all kinds of review to find a good rocking chair for me.

A lot of people had said that the Poang was too deep and hard to get out of, however I am pretty tall so it works perfectly for me, and although the bouncing isn't quite the same as rocking or gliding I find it comforting enough. Plus I love how baby friendly it is, pretty impossible to hurt little curious fingers.

The thing that completely sold me on it was being able to buy the super plush grey cover. Reminds me of a black sheep, and we are pretty big fans of sheep here.

Paper Tree

It has been far too long since I last blogged and now I am at the point where I am not sure where to start up again. I have a lot to say about my Grandfather's funeral  but that will have to wait for when I have the time to do the experience justice.

So We will start with my Mom coming to visit and some of the fun we have had since She's been here, like making my kids room look like a kids room.

This is an idea that had been forming in my head for a while but it wasn't until my mother in law made me a paper leaf wreath that I knew I was actually going to do it.

So here is my brown paper tree.



I bought a giant roll of post office brown packaging paper and with the help of my Mom crinkled and stapled it to the wall until we had a very awesome tree. I wish that I had a more creative solution, than using a staple gun but I didn't.

Caught in action, that rarely happens!

Then I took About 7-8 different kinds of scrapbook paper ad cut out various size leaves and stapled them to the tree in satisfying adorable bundles. {good trick, pick double sided paper}

I love what it does for there room. It adds that element of fun!



Next I have to make the japanese paper lantern I got from World Market into a Sun, and make a few paper birds and their room will be transformed!

I hope you are all having a wonderful season so far.

 {peanut butter Kisses!}

Pine Cone Christmas Tree

I know I know it is a little early to be setting up for christmas but when you are sick like me there is no time to waste!  A couple of weeks ago I went on a scavenger hunt for pine cones in my neighborhood because I wanted to make a pine cone wreath. I couldn't find any! But last weekend there was an insane wind storm that left the ground covered in these beauties.

So I put on a hood and dressed my kids up real warm and went to go pick hundreds of baby pine cones. The cold air and being outdoors felt so good, I forget how much nature heals me.

My goal this time however was not to make a wreath. Instead I found myelf in love with the many various pine cone christmas trees you can find at Target. I knew I could make my own and it would be a fun/cheap project to start off the holiday decorating.

I had to bake my pine cones in the oven for a while so they were dry because the poor things were soaked threw.

I just set my oven at the lowest setting and kept checking on them to make sure they didn't burn. It made the house smell so good.

Next I grabbed an old cereal box cut off the tabs on the top and bottom and curled it up to make a cone shape. I had to cut off the bottom to make it flat .

A little bit of masking tape to hold it together and voila! I have my base. The next step was a monotonous one but well worth the work. I took a hot glue gun and starting from the bottom working my way all around layer after layer glued eah individual pinecone on.

I layed the pine cones on flat so that as much surface area as possible made contact with glue. I pointed them all down and slightly ovelapped each layer.

This is the result!

Now comes the fun part. You could just leave it like this it is very pretty afterall, but since my Christmas Decor is silver and gold I decided to take it a step further.

Taking some metallic spray paint and a little bit of glitter...

I originally intended to use laquer but never did.

 

I took it outside and using my favorite spray paint box gave it a good 3 layers. After letting it dry I layed it on its side and spayed the undersides of the pine cones. Right after the last layer, before it was dry I sprinkled the glittler on top giving it this affect.

And there you have it, even including the price of spray paint and glitter which I already had my total would come to about 3.50, plus I get the satisfaction of knowing I made it!!

Next a trip to Good will to grab some candlesticks. I have also been eyeballing these beauties at Target but can't/wont afford their price tag of 12.99-16.99 ea. So I found these for 1.99 ea and gave them the same vintage spray paint treatment.

One silver and one Champaigne gold! I love them. All I need now is a deer and my mantel will be complete!

 * Other ideas for a pine cone christmas trees
Red berry and rafia tree
pearls
lightly spray white spray paint to give it a snow affect
Really the possiblities are endless.
Also if you are looking for a craft you can do with multiple people at a church event or house party you can pick up party hats for pretty cheap and use pinecones or dried leaves. Layer, paint and decorate! it is a great gift for the holidays!!