My definition of failure has changed.

Welcome to my house. Behind these doors is where my definition of failure has changed. Dramatically. It's true.

 Years ago- last year, even- I would have considered finishing Fin's Christmas stocking on the day AFTER Christmas a failure, but now not so much. Now I say: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. Job well done. Way to go, Ryanne! You're a rock star. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a tad, but really, when I finished, instead of thinking, "ugh, finally. Sucks that I didn't finish 2 DAYS AGO!" I thought, "Awesome. Done and done!" Who cares if it didn't go up this year. I feel like having 2 small and demanding children and a puppy (I consider the older dog and husband to be a wee bit more self-sufficient) increases the level of difficulty of pretty much everything I do. So on a scale of 1 to 10, I'd say to all you (what, 5 people??) reading that this stocking project is a level 2 in difficulty (and only a 2 because it requires the use of a sewing machine). Unless you have a child. Or a puppy. Or even worse, children AND puppies, then I'd say level of difficulty: 8.
But HOORAY for cute polka dot stockings with ruffle trim for my dear sweet daughter (deer- get it??)! For those of you that got one of my cheesy Christmas cards, I apologize for my overuse of this homophone.

sparkletastic stocking stuffers

My girlfriend, M, sent me a link to an easy earring tutorial and I picked up supplies on my last trip to Michaels (3rd trip of the week...)  It doesn't get any easier than this folks. And cheap affordable, too! The clip-on earrings I found were $2 for 14 pieces (7 pairs) and the pack of rhinestones was $2 or $3 for 55 pieces- with the discounts Michaels always has, I ended up making 14 pairs of earrings for less than 35 cents a pair- you can't beat that! I plan to put a few pairs in Fin's stocking and give a few to her friends, too. It took me all of 5 minutes to make these, but I had the most fun with the tags- not that Fin or her friends can read, but whatever :P  

Merry marbled ornaments, oh my!

Sooooo, I love my kids. Really I do. More than anything on earth, but sometimes I can't wait for them to grow up. I know, it's not right. They'll grow up before I know it and I'll wish they were little again, etc, etc, but really- I'd like to sleep through the night. Just once. And not have to be constantly concerned with Wyatt choking or falling or otherwise getting into trouble. And I'm really looking forward to crafting with Finley. I'm sure she'll be completely uninterested by the time I can trust the girl with a pair of scissors, but I have this vision of us hanging out, chatting it up, crafting our hearts out. And she shows potential- really she does. Well, we did some crafting yesterday and aside from a bit of paint on her shirt. and the counter. and the floor. It went pretty well!
My friend, Jen, is pretty awesome. She's one of my most favorite people. She's super quirky- in a good way. She's really into Christmas. She's had a big beautiful wreath on her front door since before Halloween. If you ask her, she'll tell you it's a Georgia Bulldog wreath- not a Christmas wreath, but it's totally a Georgia Bulldog Christmas wreath. And she's gone a little nuts shopping for her two girls. But her tree. Well, her tree is sadly neglected. Well, the majority of the tree. The bottom is adorned with a super lush tree skirt. SUPER lush. Gorgeous. Fantastic. Skirt. And then she has white lights, a star on top and about 10 ornaments. Yeah- 10. 10 ornaments on a 7 foot tree. I know! So, Fin and I decided to make Ms. Jenn some ornaments. We picked up some of the clear glass ornaments, popped the tops off and squirted in about a tsp each of red, white and green paint. I taped over the opening and let Finley go to town shaking and swirling the ornament until the inside was completely (err, mostly) covered. We placed each upside down in a dixie cup so the excess paint could drip out and let them dry (err, mostly) before putting the cap back on each. It gives the ornaments a marbled look.
 If you add a tiny bit of water before it's fully coated and shake it up, you'll get a speckled effect:

We did another six with blue, white, and a metallic pewter. 

 Fin and I had a great time and Fin can't wait to give Ms. Jenn her new ornaments! Now she'll have a whopping 25 ornaments on her tree! Woot!
This is a great craft to do with your kiddos- and turn out pretty fantastic looking. Soooo, if you're looking for a gift for Grandma and Grandpa from the kiddos, give it a shot :) Not that they don't deserve sherpa slippers or a cashmere throw, but if you're looking for something sentimental, this is great- and won't fall apart like the sandpaper gingerbread man with googly eyes or clothespin Rudolph- although, they're pretty dang cute, too.
Merry Christmas, y'all!

No, I didn't forget my password!

I'm just super lame and lazy and I haven't done too much of anything lately other than chase my crazy kids around :D But, I'm feeling a productive streak coming on again, and it started with finishing my coffee table- yea! Woot, woot! Woot, woot! Yeah, that's right. It's been about 3.5 years since we've had a coffee table, so even my husband was excited about me finishing this project. I don't know why it's been so long, I just couldn't ever commit. Remember I took the big plunge a while back and bought a hideous set of two end tables and a coffee table?? How could you forget? It was the last post I made. A loooong time ago. So, maybe you did forget. Anyhow- here she is before:

And here she is now:

Yea for coffee tables! I decided to go with a creamy off white and some distressing, which you can't really see all that much in the photos, but it's there. I purchased a buffet/dresser thing yesterday, so that will be coming up soon in the same color to house the tv- I'm super excited!!
Okay, that's it. Have a great day :)

An end to the end tables. Finally.

A couple weeks ago I purchased some really ugly end tables and a coffee table off of craigslist. I'd been looking at garage sales, which I'm new at and I feel really really awkward doing. So really we just drive around looking for people that have furniture outside, and none of them do and then we cry a little and go home. I gave this up pretty quickly and stuck to looking at bookoo.com and craigslist. Anyhow, here they are:

Yes. Hideous. You're just jealous. Of course a couple days after I purchased this set, I got an email from the company that does estate sales and they had a set that I liked better AND it was cheaper! D'oh!! I was a little sad and lost momentum, but I finally got around to finishing them. They are done, finished, in the house. Yea!! We have tables!! We've never had end tables. I just couldn't a) commit or b) dish out the cash for something I really liked.  We haven't had a coffee table for 4 years, either, so that's in the works too- on the agenda for this weekend.

I know, the top pull on this one is a little cock-eyed. Didn't notice before I took the picture. Oops :/  I sanded them down, primed them with a brown primer, painted them an olivey green, did a little distressing and a poly coat. The pulls were an old set of bronzy looking things that I spray painted black.  I'm pretty pleased :) That is all. 

I'm a luminarimaniac

I've been informed that I'm slacking. I didn't think anyone would notice. I'm pretty sure the only people that read my blog are my friend Megan because she genuinely loves and misses me, my mom because she also loves me, and my friends here in Jacksonville because they are fully aware that they may be quizzed at anytime on the content or they're scared that I might become a sobbing hot mess if I find out they're not reading.  Oh, and Megan in SA because she's just awesome. But for the sake of keeping up the blog and appeasing my adoring fans, I thought I should blog about something, so here it goes, my latest obsession: jars.

I would love to tell you that this is a picture of my jar room, the room where I store my hundreds of jars, but it's not. And if it were, I wouldn't have a story to share with you.
And I guess my jar love isn't new new. I've made a few cowboy cookies since moving here and I tried to convince my husband to let me pick up a giant jar on the side of the road- I'm pretty sure if it's on the curb it means they've disowned it and you can take it, right? (The girls from bible study are laughing right now for sure). He didn't think it was close enough to the curb to count as trash and he's not so hot about my excitement for rescuing things from people's trash to begin with.  I tried to get him to pull over so I could leave a note on the jar asking them to call me if it was indeed trash, which he thought was completely ridiculous, and sure enough, the next day gigantajar was gone. We'll never know if some other trash rescuer took it or if it wasn't actually trash at all. Hmmmmmm.
Anyhow, jars, yes, we were talking about jars. So, I was asked to come up with a craft for MOPS last Wednesday. Something "fallish" and something cheap. Like $1 per person. Something I could pull together in 6 days, during which I was going to a Lynyrd Skynrd concert and making baby shower gifts and attending said baby shower and Pumpkin Palooza! Hmmm.
I was looking around google images because that's how I roll and I found these luminaries or Jar-o-lanterns!  

So cute, right?? I love them all lined up. I typically like things in 3s, but 7 is good, too! I love their nutty little faces. I also figured we could do a fall luminary with leaves. There are SO many beautiful fall leaves in my yard. And if the jars are free (they're everywhere- storing pasta sauce, salsa, pickles, jam, all kinds of things), then really, all we would need is modge podge, tissue paper, brushes, construction paper, tea lights and ribbon (most crafts need ribbon). We're looking at like $0.65 a person. Awesome. Well, except that there is no way I could eat enough pasta sauce and pickles to collect 30 jars in 6 days.
So I posted a notice on facebook that I needed my friend's jars. I expect to be overwhelmed with jars. I envisioned each mom making 2 or 3 jars. It was going to be fantastic. Except nobody brought me any jars. Sniffle, sniffle. Really people?? No jars??? Some people mentioned that there might be some in the mysterious craft room, which I had never seen, but nobody could tell me for sure or what type of jars they were. I had 5 jars, but I had to make examples, so that cut me down to 3. I only needed like 27 more! Ugh. I kept hassling people and the MOPS hancho came up with 8 or 9 and a couple more here and there. I started to panic. Poop. My first craft was going to be a bust! I started to get desperate.
My friend Erika informed me that is was recycling day in her neighborhood on Tuesday morning. Yes, the day of the mops meeting. So I got my kids straight out of bed and into the car and headed out early Tuesday to rummage around in other people's recycling bins. What I didn't count on was the moms out on the streets with their children waiting for the bus. It's one thing to rummage around in people's recycling, it's a whole other to have captive audiences of 8 to 15 people at each stop. Awesome. There are a RIDICULOUS number of children and bus stops in Country Club Hills. Seriously. What I also didn't count on was the size of these recycling bins!!!

I was expecting this:

What I encountered was this:

Talk about awkward!!! AND to make it all more fun, not all people clean their recycling before putting it out. WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?! Seriously???? I'm confused. I thought it was all supposed to be rinsed out. Milk cartons not rinsed out and left in a bin in the sun for up to a week. WOW. WOW. Just WOW. It's just wrong.

ANNNNNNNND- NO JARS. About a dozen bins and no jars. Am I total freak for having jars? So, I quit. I gave up. I'd just buy some jars from WalMart. I don't care about the cost anymore. Then I got a phone call from Maghan. I love Maghan. She's fantastic. 

See? See how great she is? That's a fertility guy- whole different story. But, Maghan had jars for me. Maghan had emptied the contents of jars into tupperware just so I would have some jars. That's a friend. 

So I was en route to Maghan's house when a creepy beat up suburban pulled up next to me. He rolled down his window and started smiling at me. And winking. And smiling. Ummmmm. Driving faster now. Diverting eyes. Much faster. He was very persistent. He kept right along side me, window to window. Topping off at 85 on Hwy 17 people. I finally broke as hard as I could without endangering us or anyone else and was able to tuck in behind some cars behind him. Ummm, yeah, because my morning wasn't exciting enough digging around in bins, being watched by scared moms with confused kiddos, I had a crazy man encounter on the Hwy. Of course I did. 

I picked up the jars, rushed to WalMart for back up jars and then I found out jars are only about $7 a dozen. What?? Really?? Yes really. Why was I digging around in recycle bins?? Why did nobody intervene?? Where are my friends?? 

AND, while at MOPS, which I arrived at on time and out of breath, I found the craft room. And guess what was in the craft room... JARS. LOTS OF JARS. Mmmmhmmm. 

But all ended well, except that there wasn't much time for the craft, but whatever, I give up. Here are my jar-o-lanterns or luminaries:

How was that for reading material, Sanae? I find it nearly impossible to tell a short story. 

So, if anyone is new to modge podging, wash your jar, remove the label. Using a paint brush or sponge brush,  cover your jar in modge podge (glue basically). Then take cut strips or torn pieces, whichever is more pleasing to you, and place it over the glue, working in sections, covering the whole jar. Then apply your faces cut out from construction paper or your leaf or whatever. Make sure to smooth it all out and then go over the entire thing with modge podgy glue again, covering all paper and the leave. It will look like a hot mess until it dries. I like to tie a ribbon on the top to give it a clean look. 

We had a few left over jars so I started another project. Here's a preview:

Unless I find more jars, I'll just be giving this holiday season. No thanks, just give. I need 6 more jars. Anyone?? Anyone? Anyone give a hoot? Give a care? I missed recycling day in my neighborhood. Maybe I'll finish this next week ;) 

A rosette dress and the ramblings of a sleep deprived mama...

I'm a sucker for a deal. I am. If it's a good deal, I'll buy it. I've been known to buy a pair of shoes a whole size too small just because they're soooooo cute and SUCH a good deal. Not really a good plan. I'll also buy clothes that I don't really love just because they're on sale for a great price and then I end up with a whole wardrobe of affordable clothing and nothing to wear. Also not a good plan. Well, when I saw this little dress on clearance for $10 at Marshalls, you know I couldn't just leave it there!!  Look at the potential! It's a blank slate. Dress it up, dress it down. Pair it with a cardigan? Sure. Add a chunky necklace? Why not! Boots? Yes! Sandals? Yes! Does it fit me? NO. No, of course not. For $10 on clearance, of course it wouldn't fit. Do you see the cut of the top of this dress? Of course it doesn't fit. Agh! Guess what. I bought it anyway. Of course I did. It's hanging in my dining room.

Of course it wasn't exactly in perfect shape, hence the markdown from $50 to $40, then $30, then $20, then $10! I love it when they leave ALL the stickers on- can you see the stacking of the stickers? Love it. It's kind of like the sad little crooked tree at the Christmas tree lot- back in the corner all by itself, about 4 ft tall, hunched over, no fluff on it's back side. It almost looks like it's crying. Yeah, this dress was that tree. And if you know me at all, you know I'm the person that buys THAT TREE. You know NOBODY else is going to buy it. It's like my civic duty to step up and be the hero to the tree. This is the same situation. I had to be the hero to this dress. 

I purchased it with plans of repairing it and embellishing it and finally putting something in the pile for my shop.  I have big plans to take a trip with my mom in February- NO KIDS!!!!!- so I desperately need to open shop to fund our adventure. I thought a fun project like this might be motivating. Apparently, it wasn't that motivating because it sat in the closet for over a month. But something AMAZING happened the other day. Wyatt took a nap in his crib. AWESOME.  AND, he did this at the same time that his sister was taking  a nap!!! So, I finally had some motivation to get busy. 

Sooooo, the top part of the dress had become un-attatched in several spots- and the neckline was also coming apart. All in all there were about 6-7 "holes" in the dress.  So I started my little project by repairing the holes, simply doing a top stitch around the elastic belt and the neck. Voila! Fixed! 

Now for the embellishment! It took me a while to find the right fabric and decide what I wanted to do...

I have a couple tubs of fabric I've collected over the past couple years, but nothing was really jumping out.  Then I was thinking maybe I should jump ship altogether and start my rag rug when it occurred to me to go look in my pile of goodwill clothes! Yes!! Now this shirt was one of those purchases that I don't really love, but it was on sale for a great price and I talked myself into thinking I could love it. I love it in theory. My favorite color- not red, not pink, kinda coral. Cute cut and shape. It fit. BUT, it's that cotton modal stretchy fabric and it has two layers and they just STICK to each other, so it is perpetually wrinkly and I always look disheveled when I wear it. Like I've been sleeping in it for days. Yeah, right, like I get any sleep- but this shirt would make you think I did. Loads of it. All in this shirt. So I decided to scrap it. Literally. I cut it into usable portions of fabric, then started cutting smaller pieces to shape into circles of varying sizes.

I also brought out the dark grey shirt from the "dirty shirt" I made for Megan (above), which is listed in my first blog post ever. You know, also the longest blog in the history of blogging, yeah, that one. I cut smaller pieces from the remains of this shirt in the shape of little leaves and pinned them around the hemline of the dress. I then stitched them on. 

Then I places my circles, stacking 3-4 circles at a time. Starting on the outer edge of the circles, I stitched my way inward. Now this is a stretchy fabric, so as I stitched around, it pulled and gathered, which I found annoying at first, but then I really really loved the effect. 

See how it's got some dimension! Love it! And I went ALL the way around the bottom of the dress, so it's cute from behind, too! 

So, I continued this all around the bottom and added a brooch like flower pair on the top. Maybe that was overboard? I dunno, but I love it! Like a lot. Obviously, I need a better picture, preferably on a human instead of a curtain or a floor before I list it in my shop, but I think it's my most favorite project ever! Again, I can see this with a little white cardigan and some girly sandals or some distressed brown leather boots in the fall! Oh, how I wish you fit me little dress!!! But then, if it fit, I wouldn't be listing it in my shop and my shop wouldn't be opening. Must. fight. urge. to give. to friend. I can see it on Erika with a cardigan and boots in Sunday School, nah, maybe too girly for Erika, but definitely quirky enough for her... or Jennifer with sandals, yep, for sure... Ah!! No, then if they don't like it, it's that awkward, "ahhh, thanks...." and then they never wear it and I'll miss it and think about it... If I put it in the shop, then someone that loves it will buy it and love it and wear it on a first date, maybe! I hope it's a good first date. Not a horrible one. Maybe they'll end up getting married! And they'll look back fondly on that night remembering her in this dress! Oh, the dreams I have for this dress, lol. Wait a minute, the pink sweater I was wearing the day I met Shannon got chucked. Well, it was cheap and it pilled. But I still remember wearing that sweater, my R necklace, my favorite dojo jeans, I was so nervous I about barfed in the bathroom at the airport, so romantic... Okay, I've got to open shop at some point- into the pile it goes!  

So shiny and new ♥

Oh, silver shoes, how I love you. You put a spring in my step and a smile on my face. I knew from the first time I saw you that we would be the best of friends- your crackled metallic leather and flirty little wooden button, the sweet little strap that says "I'm a Mary Jane, but cuter." I love you. But lately, well, lately, let's be honest. You've lost some of your shine. You've become dull. I know I'm to blame. I've worn you every where. Not because I don't love you, but BECAUSE I love you. It's true.  I've searched near and far, all the corners of ebay, amazon and google and I can't find another you. So I'm spray painting you. And staining your button.

Tada!! I love spray paint. I especially love that here in NC, spray paint is not locked behind bars. I do not need to await assistance and be watched as I pick out my perfect can. I can shop at leisure. The cans can breathe. It's fantastic. Yea for NC spray paint freedom!! Yea for silver shoes!!