Aprons for the kiddos

Aside from my home makeover projects, I've been getting my craft on too.  :)  I bought an apron pattern a while back that had one for mom and one for little girls.  I had a couple spare hours a couple weeks ago and made Delaney's first.  It turned out so cute.  There are a few mistakes, but overall...cute.  When Luke saw I was making one for sister he, of course, wanted one too.  The only problem was the pattern was quite frilly with a gathered waist and stuff so I altered it a bit to make a straight apron for him.  It was quite simple.  I used the largest child size pattern top and instead of making the bottom bigger to gather I just pinned it the same width as the top.  Also instead of cutting the pieces out separately, I pinned them on the fold right next to each other and cut it out as one big pattern.  Then I could just hem and sew on the apron string casing as I did for Delaney's.  For Luke's I thought it would be fun to use some canvas I had laying around and then paint a character of his choice on the front.  He first said batman, then changed his mind to Mario and Luigi when I showed him a cool picture of them high-fiving each other. 

Here's a picture of the finished projects on the cutest kids in the whole wide world.  :)

Tearing up the joint!!!

Lance and I have discussed on several occasions replacing our vinyl flooring in the bathrooms, laundry room and kitchen pretty much ever since we moved into our house.  It hasn't really been on the top of our "to do" list until I stumbled upon an impassable deal.  You see, it was a late night...close to midnight...when I felt like I should get on Home Depot's website and see what they had in various flooring options.  When I began my search on tile, I clicked several options narrowing my search down to 16x16 residential tiles then sorted my options from lowest price to highest price and BAM! Up popped this 16x16 tile for 8 cents/sqft.!!! 8 CENTS!!! I couldn't believe my eyes.  The tile wasn't available online, but only in stores so I printed the page and decided to go in first thing in the morning.  When I got there the next morning a very friendly associate helped me locate the tile only to find it was actually 77 cents/sqft.  That was quite a huge price jump in comparison for the amount of tile I would need...around 500/sqft.  So the associate paged the manager over.  The manager couldn't believe her eyes either when she saw my computer print out.  She was very apologetic but said there was no way she could possibly sell me the tile for 8 cents.  I figured as much before I even went to the store, but I was still wondering if they would work me out some kind of deal.  So I asked just that, "What can you sell it to me for?"  I was hoping at least half the original price...fingers crossed... "I can sell it to you for half price," she said.  WAHOOOO!!!  Happy day!  "I'll take it!"  So I bought the 30 cases we would need to do all the areas of tile we wanted.  What would have originally cost over $400 dollars cost half as much!  My dad and brother drove down to help me load it up and now it's sitting in the garage.  But.... 

This is what I've been up to lately...

I consider myself to be quite the handy lady.  I took the toilet out all by myself and by some miracle was able to get it into the bathtub without making too much of a mess of things (thanks for the newspaper in the tub for the waxy toilet ring thing, dad).  I then proceeded to take up the base board and was able to salvage all of the pieces except one short piece that I started with before I knew all the tricks to cutting the caulk and being more patient with my prying.  I then started pulling up the vinyl.  Which...I tell you what...is a work out!  I had a handy pole scraper thing my dad lent me which helped immensely, but the true trick is...after the vinyl is up there's a papery backing that is glued to the floor.  If you soak it in water and let it sit for about 5 minutes, it'll peel right up with the scraper. 

So...after that was done....my dad and hubby tiled!

Now we just need to grout.  We were going to do it this weekend, but didn't get around to it.  I'm thinking it can't be that hard to grout so I might give it a try while Lance is gone this week.  :)

We plan on doing the master bathroom, laundry room, then we are going from the front entry of the house and cutting the carpet out of the heavy traffic area all the way to the kitchen and tiling all that as well.  I can't wait for it to be finished. It's going to look so great!  After all the tiling is done, we'll start looking into carpeting options.  :)  Hurray for a much needed house face lift!!!  Anyway, that's what I've been up to.  More of my home makeover project posts to come.  :)

Oink! Oink!

Lance and I decided to make jobs the kids could do around the house so they could start earning and learning about money and paying tithing.  We made jobs aside from keeping rooms clean, beds made, and regular household chores because we think they shouldn't get "paid" to do those things as they are things they should be doing anyway.  At any rate, this put me in the market for a couple of piggy banks.  My friend Gwen had posted on her blog an adorable little ballerina piggy bank she made and I felt inspired.  :)  So I wandered over to Hobby Lobby and picked up a couple of ceramic piggy banks for $4.00 each as they were 50% off! Woot!  Woot! I also purchased some enamel paint to paint them first, but ended up liking them white with a couple embellishments.They are quite simple, but I think they turned out pretty cute, and the kids love them! 



Delaney's piggy bank.
 I made the bow and glued some little pink gems in the shape of a "D" on the side.
Sweet and simple, but seriously made me go "Awwwww."  :)



Luke's piggy bank.
I was giggling like a little school girl when I was making Luke's.  I had left over material from when he was Mario for Halloween last year so I sewed a tiny Mario hat and cut out a bushy mustache.  Call me crazy, but the idea popped in my head and I just had to try it!  I don't know who was more excited about it...me or Luke?  :)

Wasn't it just yesterday???

 Why does time pass so quickly?  Weren't these my babies just yesterday?

I am having a real...where-does-the-time-go...moment tonight. 

Mommy's little man.

Daddy's little princess.

It's hard to believe that this is my last year with Lucas home.  He starts Kindergarten next year and in Texas, Kindergarten is ALL DAY LONG!  It's going to be so weird not having him around.  I'm already thinking about it a lot and it's a whole year away! 

My baby girl is starting to potty train!  She wore big girl underwear all day today with only one accident. She just barely turned 2, but she wants to be such a big girl already.  :(

Definitely a where-does-the-time-go moment.