Weekending...

This weekend I...

Sewed my very first Barbie dress (as an adult) and I am fairly certain that the girl and I will be spending a whole lot of time designing and stitching more tiny little ensembles in the near future (it was pretty fun and I particularly loved working with fleece for this little number):

Built a new shelf in the kiddos' closet (it really does help a lot with keeping things tidy and organized... though it did not save Big Bear from his current cramped quarters on the top shelf... poor Big Bear!):

Washed and folded many loads of laundry and put said laundry away!  And two days later, the couch in my office/laundry headquarters looks like this again (I think it might be time to read, Hand Wash Cold again!):



Whoo whoo!

Charlie Ann: knock knock. 

Me:  Who's there? 

Charlie Ann: Whoo.

Me: Whoo who? 

Charlie Ann: Are you an owl?! 

Me:  HA HA!

We  really like owls (and knock knock jokes) around here... 

"Sam" the menacing owl.

Who we hope will keep the chickens off our patio.

Aden's owl pillow.

Charlie Ann's owl pillow.

Our new owl duvet cover!

Fingers crossed...

We planted the garden on Sunday (the weather was gorgeous... sunny and in the 60s)!  However, I didn't realize that it was a full moon (not great for planting), I'm still in denial about the mole situation, and it has been pouring down rain all day today (to the point of pretty much flooding our yard).  In addition, we have some very cold nights on the horizon.  So while I was super excited and optimistic about the whole endeavor on Sunday, I am now feeling a bit more apprehensive.  I did save half of my seeds so I figure we can always start over in a few weeks if it all goes to shit.  The kids did help some this year with planting, but mostly Charlie Ann was interested in planting her own seeds in a clay pot and Aden busied himself digging in the one free bed (saved for summer tomatoes!).  Their biggest contribution was helping me find the big poles in our woods that we used to construct our peas/bean pole!  I'm not sure how it will all play out, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed...

Chicken love...

I just had to show off the amazing transformation of our little miss Lovie Lee.  When we first got her, she was severely lacking in feathers (she had been picked on and was in pretty rough shape... she was possibly the ugliest chicken ever!).  We named her "Lovie" because Charlie Ann said she needed some extra love (that is a serious understatement!).  

Here is her before shot (wasn't she just pitiful?!):  

And here is what she looks like now:

Isn't she so pretty? And she is absolutely the sweetest old chicken you could ever meet!  I'm not sure that she's ever given us a single egg (she's been working on those feathers since the day she got here), but she's still our favorite.  

And while I'm at it, here is a quick chicken related/before shot of the garden (I'd like to get started planting pretty soon, but I'm worried about a mole who is wrecking havoc in the beds--any advice would be very much appreciated!  And I did tell the chickens to enjoy these final days in the garden because as soon as we plant... they will be banished!!):  

A room for two...

The kids have been begging us to put the bunk beds back up (we took them back down a while ago... I think because of some sort of bad bunk bed related behavior or another).  So we took a cold, crummy day and worked on their little room (we were all sick, but a bunk bed project seemed to cheer us up a bit... and it definitely kept our minds off of our various aches and pains!).  

Here is what it looks like all freshly rearranged and spruced up a bit (with the exception of the closet which is definitely on my spring break to do list!)...   

A few notes... the white book shelf is a recently acquired hand-me-down.  The purple and dark blue shelves and rocker are all repainted thrift store acquisitions (amazing what a little spray paint can do!).  The doll house on the dresser (which is another hand me down) was from a consignment store.  Charlie Ann's "desk" came from a flea market in Asheville and the chair was from a local preschool liquidation sale.  I made the pillows (with Charlie Ann's help) and the comforters (I used an old comforter we had on hand, cut it in half, and covered with fleece fabric and flat sheets... so cozy!).  I think the beds are the only new pieces of furniture in the entire room!  

We're givers...

If ever you happen to be invited to come to our house on Valentine's day (or any day in February for that matter), you should say, emphatically, "HELL TO THE NO!"  Because if you do come, you'll get more than a heart bracelet and some pretty sugar cookies... you'll get GERMS... lots of them.  I actually did not plan a Valentine's day party this year, but it just so happened that we were helping out a couple of friends with childcare so I figured surely we could have a little valentine's day fun!  And we did have a grand time, but then Mr. Aden woke up later that night with a fever (of course!).  So our little friends got a little more than they bargained for.  What can I say... we're givers!

And here is the little germ sharing villain...

P.S.  His mustache was attached to a dum dum... how cute is that for a simple valentine?!  The other favorite valentine we received was a whoopee cushion (with a note that said, "Whoopee... It's Valentine's Day!").  By the way, whoopee cushions are absolutely hilarious for the four to six year old set!!  And an ingenious way to share and spread germs ;)

P.P.S.  The heart bracelet idea came from here!

This is fucking awesome!

Enjoy some hilarious hip hop thrift store love...