24 Olive Street

almost November???

It seems I find myself saying this every year...it's the end of October already??!!

I think it's just this season of life...multiple kids, sports, school stuff, family stuff, etc etc etc.

I know 20 yrs from now life will slow down and I'll be saying "I'm bored!!"

Actually, I hope not. I hope to have more time to do even more of the things I love to do...crafting, sewing, traveling. And hopefully one or more of my kids will still want to hang with their old mom ;)

But for now it's the busy life. Always.

I went to a craft weekend with Olivia a week and a half ago. I'll be honest, I didn't get a ton done but it was still a great weekend. Candice always hosts a great weekend :)

While I was there I got a call from my husband saying they went bike riding and my son crashed his bike and he thought he broke his wrist. It wasn't awfully bad so he waited til I got home on Sunday (of course!) to decide whether or not we needed to take him in. So when I got home I decided that yes, he needed to be checked out. Turned out that he did, in fact, break his wrist (along with some nasty road rash on his other arm).

At least they were running a Harry Potter marathon while we were sitting in the ER!

So after hours in the ER and multiple dr visits throughout the week (to get a 2nd opinion later in the week) he ended up with 3 sets of x-rays, 2 different casts, and an exhausted mama.

I have so much more to share and I'm really hoping to get back in the swing of blogging. I kinda fell out of it over the summer and can't seem to get my mojo back! But thankfully this is my absolute favorite time of year so there's so much to blog about! And, it's almost time to start prepping my December Daily.

...I guess that means I should finish up last year's, right?? lol

goodbye September

Hello October!

One of my favorite months for sure, especially now that we live in Washington. There's nothing like pumpkin picking, apple picking, fall leaves crunching beneath your feet, and a hot chocolate on a crisp morning to get this girl in a fall mood!

We're wrapping up the end of fall ball.

This boy has had a bit of a hard time the last season or 2. He's playing with and against kids who are a year or 2 older than him, more experience, faster pitchers, better players. It's hard to adjust sometimes. I took him to batting lessons over the summer which has helped.

At last weekend's games his team was playing against 2 really good teams. But it didn't matter cause he was on his game. Everything seemed to click. First, he caught a ball to left field. Oh man, it was awesome! I couldn't help it, I jumped up and cheered so loud!! Both times during the first game when he was up to bat he got out but it didn't matter cause he went down fighting and managed to get one of his players home. That's all that matters. So good to see that!! I think he's got his groove back :)

I've been thinking about Halloween & fall decor & working on some stuff to take to my booth at Paint In My Hair. Noel Mignon DT member Britt shared some fun fall inspiration over on the blog yesterday. Definitely gonna use some of those ideas!

Speaking of ideas, I've been working on my Disney photos. I just uploaded a whole bunch to Persnickety Prints for a retreat I'm going to next weekend. I'm hoping to get most (if not all) of that album finished and that's going to be my main focus for the weekend.

It was so fun going through all of those photos and reminiscing...although it made it difficult to get things done when the kids kept coming by and wanting to reminisce with me ;)

I've been sketching out most of my layouts which I've found helps immensley when working on projects like this (esp when they're pocket pages). It's a little time consuming but worth it in the end, especially since you won't waste money on printing photos that won't work the way you want them to.

I also have lots of goodies to play with lately.

I just got my Early Autumn kit from Noel Mignon the other day.

{{swoon}}

Time to pull out all of those fall pics for sure!!!!

Sadly, if you wanted one they are sold out. But....

Noel just opened up subscriptions for the Jan-June term. The bonus is that you get a discounted rate and you don't have to worry about a kit being sold out. It automatically gets delivered to your door each month! And let me tell ya, Noel has some great plans for upcoming kits so you don't want to miss out!

You can check out all of the details here!

summer art

Lately it's been so hot that the only thing most of us feel like doing is hanging out and trying to keep cool.

I saw this idea over at Eighteen25 and thought it would be the perfect summer art project. These days it's sometimes hard to find stuff that all of my kids will like given the age differences (toddler, 10 yr old, pre-teen).

This project was perfect for all 3 of them.

I opted for masking tape because the only painter's tape I had was really wide & we didn't think that would look as good.

I let the older 2 pretty much tape however they wanted (with a little direction).

My daughter opted to pretty much stay with similar 3 colors.

My son went with bolder colors.

Originally we started this when my little one had fallen asleep. But then she woke up, saw what we were doing and wanted to paint.

At first I thought this was going to be super messy but she ended up doing a really great job with minimal mess.

I also waited til everyone was done before letting her paint so that she could mix paint colors and it wouldn't matter.

Hers turned out pretty good!!

And here's mine...I was going for a sun-looking painting :)

Such a fun - and easy - project for all of us to do!! In fact, my son wanted to do another one with the last canvas.

The only thing I would suggest is to make sure that all the tape is adhered to the canvas. I thought all of my son's was on but when we took off the tape we saw this smudge.

No biggie. His canvas still looks great. Just something to keep in mind.

Cost wise this wasn't too bad as well. I bought a 5 pack of canvases at Michaels on sale for $14.99 and also some paints that were on clearance to add to the paints I already had. I also used a 25% off entire purchase so this project was super affordable.

You could also get these canvas packs at Hobby Lobby and use a 40% off coupon.

And that's one more thing to check off our summer list!

three

We are back from our awesome trip to Disneyland! The kids had their last day of school last week. And we had company in town that just left today.

Whew.

I'm tired!

Right after we got back from our Disney trip my littlest turned 3 yrs old.

We did celebrate her birthday a bit while at Disneyland.

We had her birthday lunch at Ariel's Grotto with the princesses.

She enjoyed that cake for sure! As you can see in the photo, part of the "Happy birthday Addie" was smudged cause she couldn't wait for me to take a pic before she dove in! haha

For those who are interested, I got the cake by ordering through Disney Dining (from the main Disneyland page). I got to choose what kind of cake, filling, icing, princess, etc. It cost about $35 and they have it waiting for you at whatever place you have your dining reservations at. We also did this at Disneyworld for my oldest when she turned 9 and it's pretty similar there, too.

I promise to share lots of our Disneyland pics once I've gotten through them (you can see some on my Instagram acct) but I'll share a few from Addie's birthday lunch. The food was good (a bit pricey at $40pp +tax & tip) but our waitress was not the most personable (which always sticks out like a sore thumb at Disney since most cast members are so awesome!). Despite that we had a nice lunch and we got to meet Ariel, Belle, Snow White, Aurora & Tiana.

Ariel gave the most interaction as did Snow White who made sure to warn us about those poison apples! Tiana was the only one that got a big grin from Addie :)

That Belle costume Addie's wearing I have saved since my oldest was 2 so it's over 10 yrs old. I haven't had the heart to get rid of any of our Disney costumes and I'm so glad I kept them!

It was a nice lunch but honestly it was the least impressive of all of our meals at Disneyland. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad we did it but for the price we probably will skip this one next time.

So since we did her lunch at Disneyland we kept things pretty low key when we got home. I made her cake using my favorite recipe.

The birthday girl was mighty happy :)

She had definitely had a magical time turning 3!

bad doggy

We've had a problem with counter surfing in my house. And the overall chewing of things when I'm gone. Never when I'm home...always when I'm gone. Even if I only leave for 15 minutes.

For the longest time I thought it was Copper (my golden). Because Tucker (my lab) has never done that before.

Until now that is.

I ran out for about 15 minutes the other day and came home to a package of flour on the living room carpet (that he grabbed off the kitchen counter).

And Tucker with his mouth & nose full of flour.

I have to say, it was the funniest thing I'd seen him do in a long time!!

I couldn't be mad at him cause I was laughing too hard!

Oh man, this still makes me laugh!

And thanks to this little fiasco I was able to nail down the real culprit...and he now gets to be in a crate when we're gone :(

But don't feel bad for him, it's only temporary. And honestly, he kinda likes it.

I also got some help cleaning up the flour :)

I sure wish that Minnie Mouse vacuum actually cleaned up the floors cause she loves helping me clean!

**********

I was up in Colville for Junk Drunk last weekend. Great show as always and I had great neighbors from Nebraska Lane. Check out this bag I bought from them.

Totes ma goats!! haha Had to have it!!

It was a great weekend. I wore my apron from craft weekend :)

My hubby made this bench for me out of a headboard. He's made a few now so he's getting pretty good at it! I painted it in Annie Sloan Duck Egg paint.

I got this old table from a sweet customer at Pickin' on the Prairie last year. She said "I know you can do something with it!" Yes I can!

I had my hubby chip away at some of the paint but I left some of it on there (hello, green & blue chippy paint?? Swoon!!). I sealed in the chippy goodness with some poly & added some old fence boards for the top & sealed those with poly as well.

I was a little sad to see this table go because I envisioned it as my new gardening table in my backyard but it went to a super sweet new owner :)

And my son came with me as my helper for the weekend so that made it even more fun :)

This is a dresser I dropped off at the store before heading up to Junk Drunk for the weekend...and my son's photobomb :) This piece actually used to be my oldest daughter's dresser and then we used it as an entertainment center before redoing the new one. I painted the exterior in a mixture of Provence & Pure White (Annie Sloan chalk paint) and it's sealed in clear wax.

After a few days away I couldn't wait to get back to this little one!

Cause these days of craziness and preteen hormones, this little one likes me best :)

And now it's back to baseball, soccer, flag football...and getting ready for the Fancy Farmgirl Vintage Market (name changed from "Chic" Farmgirl) on May 10th!!

this, that...and the other

I'm back from Craft Weekend. I literally had to take all of Monday to stay in my pjs and be lazy (with the exception of running to McD's to get the kids pancakes for breakfast). Cause I wasn't cooking after getting home at 1am.

The boy & I (and the pups) watched Back to the Future 1&2 and I fell asleep halfway through the 2nd movie. At, like, 2:00 in the afternoon. I was sooo tired. Spending 12hrs in an airport will do that to ya!

I don't want to share too many photos here cause I'm planning on doing a separate post on Craft Weekend....cause it deserves it :)

I had fun. And met a bunch of great people.

But as life goes I had to jump right back into things...soccer practices, baseball practices & lessons, vet appts...

A self-imposed time-out...cause that's apparently better than mom giving her one??! She screamed at the top of her lungs several times. At our vet appt. I'm sure the entire place heard her.

{sigh}

That's her latest "thing"...she's mad about something, doesn't get her way, you won't give her what she wants, whatever...she screams. And she.is.loud.

So now when I say "if you do that again you're getting a time out!" she pouts, shrugs her shoulders, crosses her arms, at puts herself in a time-out. Kind of like a "I'll show you" kind of thing.

Toddlers are fun!!! haha

Junk Drunk is coming up this weekend!

So excited for this show. I met so many great people last year!

My son is coming with me as my helper and we're gonna stay the weekend instead of driving back and forth every day like I did last year. That was too exhausting since it's over an hour just one way.

And they serve food. I love a show that has food ;)

I've been working on a lot of furniture for the show, my booth and my house.

Finished up the toddler bed for my little one.

Got this bed for 25 bucks at a consignment sale. But it was wood and the girls have white furniture in their room so I painted it with Pure White (Annie Sloan chalk paint) and used clear poly (I was not waxing all of those slats!).

Turned out cute! And Addie loves it :)

I also took a new vanity down to the store yesterday.

Originally this piece was going to go in my girls' room. But sadly it was just too big. It has a huge mirror on it which I just love! I sanded and refinished the top and painted the rest in Duck Egg (Annie Sloan chalk paint).

(I used the same paint & stain as I did with my entertainment center redo)

I also have a cute little vanity chair that looks cute with it!

So that's what's going on....lots of painting & getting ready to set up for the show tomorrow in between normal life stuff!!

it's been a while...

since I've blogged.

Busy, busy, busy. Typical life, right?!

I had started a post last week. After we lost power on Saturday, then subsequently the modem went out & we were without internet til Tuesday evening.

But then I got busy with other stuff. Ya know, typical life :)

Oh, and then my little one got up from her nap and I noticed her entire hand was blue.

Blue.

What the crap??!!

And I went upstairs to find this...

You see, my 2 yr old and my 12 yr old share a room.

And someone...ahemthe12yroldahem...left an entire pack of Sharpies within reach of the 2 yr old. So she apparently had a little fun during nap time.

I wanted to cry.

This was the dresser that I had just refinished for their room. Thankfully most of the "painting" was contained the one drawer front. And while I got a lot of suggestions facebook on how to get it off none of them really "worked".

Magic eraser took off the marker but also rubbed off the finish. Alcohol was less effective in getting the marker off and rubbing off the finish. And since I wasn't going for a distressed look for this piece it will need to be repainted and re-waxed.

Oh joy.

Cause I don't have enough to do!

The marker eventually came off her hand...after many washes.

And speaking of furniture, I've been working on lots of new stuff for my space at Paint In My Hair (as always) and one for myself.

I originally picked up that buffet to refinish and sell but we're in desperate need of a nice piece of furniture for our family room. So once this is finished it'll be our new entertainment center. I really didn't have the time to work on something for myself between working on furniture for my space, 2 shows coming up (see sidebar -->) and going out of town for Craft Weekend in - eek!! - less than 4 weeks. Not to mention sports that are starting back up.

But it was taking up valuable space in my garage so I had to work on it to get it out of there. I shared a work in progress pic on facebook yesterday. I can't wait to share the after pics!!

When a dresser has great wood drawer fronts this is my favorite thing to do. The "shell" was painted in graphite with dark wax.

This cute vanity is painted in Paris Grey with clear wax.

There's also a cute chair :)

I also added some more of my flower clips. These are pretty popular. They're great for your hair, clipped on a hairband, on a bag, wherever! There's also a few new bags in some fun fabrics :)

I'm hoping to open my etsy shop back up & I'll be adding cute stuff like these bags & flower clips along with other goodies!

We had some nice weather over the weekend (mixed in with rain) but today is all rainy so I'll be working on a cabinet/hutch that *fingers crossed* will be in the store tomorrow!

snow day

I didn't even realize we were supposed to get snow this morning.

But there it was!

Not a ton, and certainly not enough to call off school, but fun :)

So while the big kids were off at school Addie & I went outside to have a little fun!

It wasn't good packing snow so no snowman. Boo!!

And I'm so thankful for my neighbor that took his snowblower down the entire sidewalk. Cause I really didn't feel like shoveling it!

birthday girl

Over the winter break my oldest had a birthday. And since we did the whole big sleepover party thing last year I told her this year she could have a very low-key party this year...aka a few friends hanging out & eating some cake :) Thankfully she was totally on board with that idea!

I'm not sure when it happened (maybe with the explostion of blogging & Pinterest) but I've noticed a trend to not only throw big birthday parties for kids every single year but to also have an awesome theme complete with matching decor, party favors & gifts. I'm here to tell you I am not one of those moms. Oh sure, we've had some fun themed parties & we've all enjoyed them. But I don't think it's necessary to do every single year to ensure my kid feels special.

I discovered several years ago that cupcakes are definitely the way to go when it comes to parties. I'm going to admit, as much as I like making and serving healthy, homemade foods to my family, I went the easy route for this party. Last year I baked cupcakes. This year I bought them at Safeway...partially to make it easier on myself, partially because I knew if I made cupcakes I'd have a lot of leftovers...which I would then eat!

Simple table with cupcakes, a few treats & some homemade pompoms...and one of our gingerbread houses we actually made after Christmas :)

The suckers I found at a candy shop at the mall & put them in a jar with some gumballs. Each girl got to take one home. The gumballs ended up in my daughter's gumball machine.

I made up simple gift bags...kraft bags with a notebook, pencils, cute post-its (all from Target), mini Jelly Belly's, fun chapstick (candy store in the mall).

For lunch I kept it simple - homemade subs, pretzels & chips, root beer & cream soda. The smaller plastic buckets I picked up at Target a while back. They're perfect for parties. The bigger one was from a party store. The white trays are from Joanns years back. And the big white metal bucket that I used for drinks was also from Target several years back. I have 2 of them and they are perfect for holding drinks for a party/get-together.

The only other decorating I did was some banners. The "Happy Birthday" banner was from, you probably guessed, Target! The doily banners I made myself by simply folding a doily in half over some bakers twine.

I also found some cute star garland in the clearance section (Christmas) at Target.

Yes, I do a lot of my shopping at Target! haha

The girls ate lunch, did the cake & presents thing, played Just Dance 2014 & karaoke (my daughter got a karaoke machine for Christmas so we hooked it up to the tv) and hung out in her room.

Simple. Laid back. Fun.

apples, pumpkins & pony rides...oh my!

Saturday we headed up to Green Bluff to do some apple & pumpkin pickin'.

I love it up there. Love.

So first we went to Walter's Fruit Ranch do some apple pickin'. I had ulterior motives for this as I knew they would also have pumpkin donuts ;)

And Addie got to take her first pony ride...she loved every minute!

We picked red & golden delicious and granny smith apples. About 60 pounds worth!

After that we headed over to Eleven Acres to go pumpkin pickin'. We go there every year because they have a huge pumpkin patch. But in hindsight we probably should have just stayed at Walters since a lot of the pumpkins were already picked over & many were rotted. I guess that's what we get for waiting til the weekend before Halloween!

But there were still some good pumpkins to be had & we found some great ones. And now I have lots (and lots!) of apples to skin, core & package in bags for the freezer along with some freezer apple pies.

And tonight I think we'll carve up those pumpkins!