summer bliss

the Burlap JunKtion booth is looking good for summer bliss at Vintage Market South.

if you're in kansas city, come and check us out!

view photos of our booth here.

back to reality

still shaking the sand off of everything .
update from our holiday on captiva island
coming soon. 

{photo from here}

a post . . . finally

hello hello hello. . . are you still there?  

so sorry it has been so long since my last post. 

and don't you hate it when people say "i have been so busy" ?

so i am not even going to say that, because i think that no matter how busy you really get, you should still make the time for those you care about.  which includes my blog readers!

so what has kept us so out of the loop lately? 

we have been doing lots of swimming.  this is not our backyard pool, but wow do i wish it was!

{photo from athome.kimvallee.com}

we have been doing some camping.

again, not my camper but so wish it was.

{photo from blog.freepeople.com}

and this isn't our tent either.  but we do camp in a tent . . . a bit nicer than this.  but what really makes sleeping in the tent really nice are the 1000 thread count sheets i bring along.  {i think i have told you before that i am a sheet snob}

we have been doing lots of celebrating . . .

celebrating birthdays . . .

soccer game wins . . .

going to baseball games

lots of gardening . . .

and just enjoying the summer . . .sleeping late, staying up late, playing, taking it easy, no real schedule, low key summer.  just the way we like them.

oh, and i finally opened a booth to sell some of my junking finds at!  so i have been doing lots of junking, cleaning up, painting, and tagging items to sell.  you can read more about that over on my Burlap JunKtion blog.

i big huge thank you to those that read my blog, and come back time and time again. 

my blog entries may be few and far between this summer . . . because you know. . . i will be busy.  ;)

but check back because we do have some exciting things happening this summer! 

teacher gifts

my children love their teachers.

and i love that their teachers are so patient, helpful, and kind. 

i mean really . . . just how do you get so many patience to keep up with those kids all year?!

i love every chance we get to shower them with a little something.

these are our end of the year gifts.
(i found the idea here and just tweaked it to make it my own).

i found the coffee cups at the dollar store.  used some scrapbook paper i had and then added the poem.

the poem reads:

thanks for your:

commit-'mint' to help me learn,

encourage-'mint' to always do my best,

involve-'mint' in my life,

invest-'mint' of time and energy to make school such a great place to be.

thanks for making each day an enjoy-'mint'.

everything you have done this year has really 'mint' a lot to me!

then i signed my sons name.

and inside the cups are an assort-'mint' of candies.

easy, peasy, frugal and loved by the recipients!

i have an eight year old

just how do they get from this . . .

to this . . .

so quickly?!

has it really been eight years?! 

happy happy birthday to my eight year old ROCK STAR!!

i love ya darlin!

what makes a house a home?

the writing on the wall.

the thomas the train growth chart was a bit to young for my almost 8 year old.  so i transferred all the heights to a door way in our hallway using a sharpie marker.  i will forever treasure this.

what is this?

i found this yesterday at an estate sale.
what is it?

with this cute little scoop is it for sugar or salt?

i am using it to hold my business cards. 

i love the floral detail on it.

cheers!  to the weekend!

leave me a comment if you know what this is.  thanks!

a little bird told me . . .

that living in a pasta nest is best!
these little nests turned out adorable, and yes, they are made out of pasta!
these are the perfect "i made it myself" gift for children to give for mothers day.

i was having trouble finding eggs for this project. 

 i ended up just buying the paper mache eggs at hobby lobby. 

 i also bought some paint and thought i'd spend an afternoon painting 20 of them. 

 but when i got them home i noticed that a few of them had some blue spots on them. 

 i took one and soaked off the brown craft paper.  and did you know. . . that under that brown paper are beautiful blue plastic eggs??!!  who knew!

  i love accidental good finds!  especially ones that save me time from painting!

just look at all the beautiful blue shades.  these are exactly what i was looking for!

get your crafty crown on . . . here are the easy steps on how to make these adorable nests.

step one: pour  1/4 cup of glue and a couple squirts of brown paint into a plastic container.

  butter bowls work good or what ever size you want your nest to end up.

  stir the paint and the glue all together until it looks like chocolate milk.

step 2:  you will need some pasta.

  i was lucky to find these small bags and the pasta was already broken into little pieces.

  perfect for this project! 

step 3:  measure one cup of pasta and pour into glue/paint mixture.

step 4:  using a plastic spoon, stir the pasta.

  be sure to get all of the glue mixed in with the pasta.

step 5:  once all the pasta is coated with the glue shape your nest.

  using the plastic spoon, smoosh to the sides of the dish, be sure to leave some pasta in the bottom, you don't want a hole in your nest. 

step 6:  let your nest dry, in the plastic bowl for about 10 minutes.

  then squish the sides of the bowl until the nest is easy to pop out.

   it should look something like this...

step 7:  let the nest dry over night.

  i flipped mine several times to make sure the bottom was dry.

step 8:  once dry:  fill your nest with feathers, write something on the tag for the recipient and an egg.

good luck, hollar if you have any questions!

today's happenings

what a perfect day today.
it was cool in the morning and turned out warm and sunny by mid afternoon.
just absolutely lovely. 
i am having coffee with a sweet friend tomorrow. 
i wanted to take a little something with  me (i love every reason to take a hostess gift!)
so a- thrifting i went this morning,
and i found this coffee pot. 

then stopped off at the garden store and picked up some thyme.
tucked in a stick from the yard to hold my tag and tada...
a lovely little something for my sweet friend.

i also put a few other pots together for may day on friday.

it is the only time i let the boys ring the bell and RUN!

aaahhh...my favorite color of blue...swimming pool blue!
our pool was opened today and that means summer is right around the corner.
i can hardly wait to sip cocktails by the pool all afternoon while my pool boy fans me with a banana tree leaf. (ahem...you know i'm kidding, right?!)

i even had time to mow the lawn for the hubby today.
that should get me a few points!  (he hates taking care of the lawn).
exhausted from the day, this was all i was in the mood for at dinner.
more of an appetizer, but i like appetizer dinners! 

oh, and look who didn't even make it to the dinner table. . .

guess helping mom and playing was too much for today. 
hmmm...this also means one thing.
that someone is going to be up with the sun in the morning!
hope your day was happy, creative, and exhausting!

41st symphony designer's showhouse

if you live in the kansas city area, you won't want to miss the 41st symphony designer's showhouse.

i've set up a booth in the boutique with my friend joan.  check out extra photos of the Burlap JunKtion booth over at our blog. 

the showhouse is open until may 16th.  you do not need a ticket to shop the boutique.  check the sypmphony site for hours and more info.

benefits the kansas city symphony and it's youth programs.

earth day

our family:
uses reusable water bottles,
takes our own bags to the market,
does not use styrofoam plates,
uses reusable containers in daily lunch boxes,
uses cloth napkins at the dinner table & in lunch boxes,
planted a garden,
has a rain barrel,
recycles.

our family needs to work on:
turning off lights when we're not using them,
mulching more yard clippings instead of bagging them,
walking to the store more.

on earth day and every day
what is your family doing
to save the earth?

mom of the year

it is national turn off your t.v. week.

and i am making our family participate.

and because of this,

i just know,

that i will be nominated for

mom of the year. 

i am excited for this challenge,

but know, that for the rest of my family,

this will be a very long week.

are you unplugging?

time flies

it has been a week since my last post.....wow time flies when you're playing in the garden!

just love this time of year.  we are outside just about all day long.

digging in the garden,

planting vegetable seeds,

yard clean up,

reading books in the hammock,

barefeet,

and lots of popcycles.

these little gnomes are hidden in our flower garden. 

the boys love finding them, and rehiding them.

lots of herbs,

several kinds of lettuce,

spinach,

carrots,

peppers

and soon tomatoes.

 

and we noticed today that our lettuce is already sprouting up! 

what's in your garden?

simple enjoyment {white wednesday}

good morning!  i am linking up again this week with faded*charm for white wednesday.
  
WELCOME if you are new to my blog, i hope you will add yourself as a follower and come back often!

i am a stay at home mom to two fantastic, fun and funny boys.  M is in school all day, and C is home with me, with the exceptioin of two mornings a week that he's at preschool.
 
instead of just throwing down the same lunch, on the same counter everyday....
i try to switch things up from time to time (if you know me...this is no surprise to you!)

we do have the traditional quilt on the ground picnic...often.  but sometimes we have lunch at a (as C calls it..) fancy table.  we talk about gross boy stuff,  i answer lots of 'why' questions and we also talk about manners.  because is it not my job to make sure these boys are upstanding citizens?!

for this table we used my large platters for our plates and talked about them being big huge plates for giants.

we also use just regular old clothespins to hold our table cloth down on a windy day.  this is an easy, and enjoyable job for C.

and then probably my favorite simple thing to do after lunch is to crawl up into our fort to read a few books.

we could spend all afternoon reading and chatting. 

so tell me girls . . . what simple enjoyments do you put into your day?

cookies and questions

i was not going to make easter cookies.
but it is cloudy and stormy here today and well...i love to bake when it is raining.
i will deliver most of these to the neighbors because when i have cookies around i eat them.  and i am really trying to be good these days.

while decorating the eggs and rabbit cookies M, my seven year old, comes into the kitchen and surveys what i am doing.  then he simply says "why is it an easter bunny that brings the eggs?  don't you think it should be an easter chicken?  afterall it's the chickens that lay the eggs."  
sometimes being the mommy is hard....i had no answer to his question and just said "do you want a cookie?"
and then there is C, my 3 year old, who doesn't care anything about bunnies, eggs or chickens. 
he just loves his mommy's cookies!

easter blessings to all of you!

hello to my new followers this week and thanks to everyone that has left comments lately...i love reading them!

oh, and if YOU know why its an easter bunny instead of an easter chicken....please leave your answer in my comments.  thanks!  ;)

easter treats

easter treats for preschool.
we can't do homemade treats at our preschool and at times it is difficult to come up with something that is healthy.
with it being easter week we decided on something festive.

eggs filled with cereal and some baby carrots.  easy, healthy and the kids loved it!

master redo ~ white wednesday

i am joining in on white wednesday over at Faded*Charm today to show off my master redo.  i used cloud white (benjamin moore) on the walls.  it was just the color i was looking for...white yet warm.  and i used glass of milk (martha stewart) for the trim.
on with the photos shall we?

i played around with moving my bed.  but think it just works best on this wall so that we can both have bedside tables. 

i love the tree branch above the bed.  i wanted something besides a large picture, collage, ect.  so free always works for me.  tucked in a few photos just because.

shouldn't every bed have a coffee bag pillow on it? 

bedside tables unmatched on purpose.  they were both brown before so i just painted the bases and left the tops. 

a super bright and sunny day here today so this photo has quite a glare.  but wanted you to see this side of the room.  this old shoe rack (a garage sale steal at $30!) has always been in my garage.  i use it when i have shows to display my trays.  not sure that i love it here, but at least it is out of the garage.  now her function is to hold books and seems like she's a clothes rack at times too.

a few pretties up on top.  love the large basket that i scored last week for $3.

another view, this one looking into the master bath.

my all time favorite cabinet.  purchased when we lived overseas.  it holds all sorts of things.

i originally was playing around with some lovely fabric for the curtains, but they just seemed to dark.  so i went with white and i think it's ok for now.  come winter though i may have to switch out for something a little cozier.  a grayish velvet maybe?

so that's it.  so glad to have this project to this stage.  love that it is bright,white and oh so clean.  i think it's one of the reasons i am always painting. . . it's the best way to get everything super clean!

now to get some easter decorations out!

oh and if you're new here today for white wednesday please leave me a comment so that i can 'meet' you.  AND if you're feeling crazy today. . . add yourself as a follower!