a good day

The other day Jack asked if he could look in my jewelry box. It's a pretty cool box Dan got me for Christmas a few years ago and it's got lots of compartments and cool drawers. Everyone was soon interested and trying things on.

After that (which lasted around an hour) they all wanted to make their own jewelry. So we got out the craft box and went to work. Charlie has worn his bracelet and necklace since he made it, even to bed.

This is the kind of summer day I've been dreaming of. Getting creative with everyone, everyone getting along nicely. Hopefully we get at least one more day like that this summer. (I have not been feeling so wonderful and have been mostly reading and laying around). Anyone have any suggestions for easy crafts with kids? What fun things have you been doing this summer?

where have I been?

Thanks for asking. I've mostly been here, watching The Tour. Anyone else out there watching Le Tour de France? Go Andy! Andy Schleck is in the photo below (left) with his brother Frank (who crashed at the beginning of this tour and broke his collar bone pretty badly). Right now Alberto Contador is in the yellow jersey and I'm hoping Andy can get it back in the next few days. Only 4 more stages to go!

Also - my mom and dad took my 3 oldest kids for 10 days, so I was working on house projects. No time for blogging.

And then - we went to pick the kids up and spent a week in Spokane. We went to the lake and I met up with a few friends for lunch.

Hopefully I'll get around to blogging at least some of it!

a zig zag quilt

First of all - thanks for all your well wishes for baby boy #5. We are excited for his arrival and to see what he'll look like!


And also - thank you for the potty training advice. I'm debating whether to start now or to wait until Luke is 3. I can imagine he'll want to do it right when the baby arrives.


I have been wanting to make a zig zag quilt ever since I saw this one. I also had to have that fish fabric when I saw the same quilt and now it can't be found (unless you're willing to pay an arm and a leg or unless you have something good to swap.) Lucky I got it when it was affordable.





And here is the back. I guess I went a little overboard when collecting my yellows and oranges. I probably have enough to make another twin sized quilt. And in case you're wondering - this quilt is staying with me. Orange is my favorite color and orange and yellow is one of my favorite color combinations.

potty training again

We just bought a slew of new undies and Luke is currently naked from the bottom down. I know I should be a pro at this after the other 3, but it's hard. I just checked out several books from the library to get some more help (hopefully). I was just wondering if any of you have any good tips, or if you recommend any great books.

Did you potty train "in a day" or over a longer period?

Did your child become night trained at the same time as day trained?

How old was your child when you started?

Was it the hardest thing you've done as a parent so far? Maybe I should be thankful if I think it's the hardest thing so far. And this time, I do have to say, it is easier (but I guess we'll see how long it actually takes before I say how easy it is).

p.s. remember when little Luke looked like this? I barely remember.

I love cake

Cake the band, I mean. Dan introduced them to me the summer we met and I have loved them ever since. On Saturday, we got to go see them live! It was so much fun. They are a great concert - so if you ever get a chance to see them (and you like them) then you should go. (And they still have a lot more tour dates left).





p.s. does anyone know where i can get a vibraslap? because i really, really want one.

well . . . . . .

It's a boy! Of course it's a boy. What did you think it was going to be?

watermelon sorbet and a failure

Last week I told you I was going to make watermelon sorbet. I looked online at a few recipes and just decided to keep it simple. My watermelon was a bit old (not the best texture) and not super sweet. So I cut it into chunks, blended it up, strained it, and added 1/4 cup sugar for ever 4 cups watermelon puree. If your watermelon were sweet, I don't think it would need any sugar.

Then I put it in my ice cream maker, and we ate it. If you don't have an ice cream maker, you could just freeze it in a casserole dish, take it out, leave it out for a few minutes, and scrape it with a fork to make it like a slushie. The kids loved it!

As for the failure. I thought I'd try to make a skirt, a pregnant skirt. So I used some fabric I already had and made it, remade it, and still hated it. It's horribly ugly. I can't even show it to you. So frustrating to spend even a few hours on something, not to mention a bunch of fabric, and then hate the result. So I'm ordering one from Old Navy soon. Somehow I got rid of all my pregnant clothes from last time, except for 1 shirt, which is way to big for me this time. Weird.

Also - I made my appointment for my ultrasound for this Friday. I'll be letting you all know as soon as I can!

hexagons again

Started sewing my hexagons together finally! I have 93 of those flowers - so not enough for the size of quilt I want yet. But that's okay because I like making them.

Here is a tutorial which is pretty close to the way I do it. But I may do my own tutorial - what do you think?

I used paper pieces from here.

These ones are 3/4 inch (measuring 3/4 inch on one straight side).

There is also a good post about hexagons on The Sometimes Crafter with lots of other good info.

question for you

I really love these orange accents and polka dot bedding. Also the grey walls.

The kids's rooms both need some serious help. There are 2 rooms: the downstairs room and the upstairs room.

Downstairs has dark blue walls with nicks all over every wall. The nicks need to be filled and the room needs to be painted. Besides that the ceiling is a filthy mess. How does that happen? I'd really love to install a hidden camera in there sometime.

Upstairs has yellow walls that I've never liked. Besides that - as soon as I finished painting it a few years ago (could be 3 or 4 years ago now) Sam and Jack wrote all over the walls and I couldn't get all the writing off. At that point I vowed never to put any effort into decorating their rooms.

Other things they've done to damage their rooms include: tearing mobiles or anything that hangs off the ceiling, touching/moving/hitting /throwing things at pictures - so there are no pictures on the walls now, ruining curtains, blinds, anything hanging in the windows.

Besides the fact that these boys destroy lots of things, they are always switching around who sleeps in which room. Upstairs used to be Luke and Charlie, downstairs Jack and Sam. Now Jack and Luke sleep upstairs and Sam and Charlie sleep downstairs. It has probably changed 4 or 5 times in the last 3 years.

Here is my question: Is it worth painting the rooms and trying to decorate them?

I am always trying to think of some sort of boy proof curtains. I've already thought of a few boy proof ways to decorate the walls.

I'd also have to pick similar color schemes so that if anyone swaps rooms, their stuff can all fit nicely into the new room (which presents a problem with the quilts I've made each of them, but I can always make new quilts, right?)

Obviously I am not going to go to too much trouble because I have a billion other projects I'd like to complete before baby cinque (think italian - chink-way) arrives. Such as the hall (which I have been working on the past few days and am very proud of my progress), the stairwell, the basement, the living room. Basically everything needs new paint - we'll see how much we can really get done. Those are only the inside projects.

I just hate the rooms looking so drab and boring. I'm not someone who's going to want to redecorate every year or even every 3 years, so I'd like to come up with something that will work with all the boys' ages. I'd also like to keep it simple. And inexpensive.

Any ideas for boy proof things will be very appreciated, as well as how far you would go or have gone to decorate your childrens' rooms.

again, love the orange, the simple pictures and how they're hung, the grey walls.

I don't think I'd ever paint the walls white, but I like how everything in here goes nicely together without matching. Especially love that patchwork quilt that would go with anything.

all images from ohdeedoh kids' room tours

these days

Wow - today I'm 17 weeks. I get to find out what I'm having next week! (I will let you all know as soon as I can get home and type up a post.)

I have been getting some spam comments. So I did enable those stupid nonsense words that help reduce spam. Just in case you wonder.

I haven't had a headache in a few weeks! woohoo!

I've been reading books. But I'm on the lookout for some more good titles, any suggestions?

Last day of school today. I'm so happy not to have to drive kids in the morning or wake them up and pester them to get ready. SO excited.

Along with the last day of school I'm looking for some great summer things to do with the kids. Any ideas? I'm thinking craft ideas, or other making stuff ideas.

Making watermelon sorbet today. I'll let you know how it turns out.

The glue I was cleaning off the ceiling (from 2 posts ago) was from the wallpaper that had been there since this house was built. And I finished cleaning it off. So now I'm trying to get myself to fill all the cracks and holes and then I can paint the hallway! I just need to get a bit more motivated to get it done.

That's mostly it. What are you up to?