What a Week End!

Word to the Wise. Do NOT try to make Cinnamon Rolls with out Cinnamon. It's not the same.

But DO buy this Williams Sonoma cook book if you can. I made 3 recipes out of it this week end. Cinnamon Nutmeg Rolls, homemade strawberry pop tarts, and.......you'll see. :)

The many moods of my son in (I promise you) the space on ONE minute. First up, Mad Carson.

Content Carson

Extremely Happy Carson

This is Kitty Kat Kate. Kate's favorite thing to be when she is make believing. Here she is giving me her best meow!!

Lately, Carson has taken to drinking out of a coffee cup. It's quite cute.

And he knows it.

We got a new friend this week end. He's our Elf on the Shelf',  Buddy. It's been so cute to see the kids looking for him in the morning and then saying "There he is, there's Buddy!" I thought they would have a big problem with the #1 Buddy Rule:You can't touch Buddy. Amazingly Carson has really taken to it. Telling Kate over and OVER "You can't touch Buddy Kate. That's the rules!"

Monster Truck tattoos. :)

Twin Beanie Heads!

Not many people know this, but there is a monster living at out house. he wears a stylish dish cloth mask and rides a pink motorcycle. He likes to follow me around when I'm cooking or when I'm trying to get something done really quick.

I made this delicious and scrumptious yet very ugly looking Carrot Cake this week end. Just for me. Homemade everything. Yum! I plan to have a slice everyday. Tis the season...for getting fat!

I'm in training for quilt making. I made this mini quilt last night. See how those corners match up and come together evenly? That's happiness in the quilting world.

Quilting makes me happy and turns out to be quite therapuetic.

Ordered this amazing gorgeous fabric this week end. Can't wait to get started!!!

I used this power tool a lot this week end on a VERY  BIG home improvement project I am working on. I am loving it and hating it all at the same time. Me with a power tool? Who would have thought? Definitely to be continued.......

Who Wants Free Cash???

So I have been on this kick lately of earning cash back on everything I buy. I ditched Bank of America and signed up with Perkstreet . I earn 2% cash back on everything I buy and (very important here )it is NOT a credit card. 2% cash back on a Debit Card!! Woohoo!! I earn cash back on purchases plus the bills I pay online. I have been with them a month and have already earned $35 cash back and counting. :)

The second way to earn cash back I wish I had found out about  sooner.As in before I finished my Christmas Shopping.  Ebates.com  is simply amazing. You get cash back for shopping online at every store. Tonight I made a purchase at one of my favorite stores Sephora (an early Birthday gift:)) and earned 10% cash back and then if you add in my 2% I am already getting back from my bank account at Perkstreet that's a total of 12% cash back!!!! It's totally free and I figure why not earn cash back for things you were going to buy anyway! Click Here to Start earning cash back:)

The Product That Changed My Life.....I Mean Stairs

Our house has it's own little quirks like any house. But the one I could not understand from the day we moved in was the different color wood on our stairs. We have dark mahogany cabinets in our kitchen  but this blondish looking wood for our stair rail. I remember asking the builder about it and he kind of shrugged at me as if to say "look lady we're not changing it. Do you guys want to buy the house or not." Well, ever since then I have wanted to stain the stair rail dark to match our cabinets but I was always advised I would have to sand first and then stain.Yuck!  And then I discovered Polyshades. :) It's a stainer and top coat all in one. It allows you to stain wood over your existing finish. NO sanding required. I was a tad skeptical but even though I am cautious in almost every other area in my life I am a rebel when it comes to DIY. I will try almost anything. So i went to town. No testing a inconspicuous spot first.  I went full boar head on into it and I'm so glad I did. What I got was a complete transformation. Blonde wood to a rich dark shiny mahogany finish. See for yourself.






Before: Boring Blonde




After: Rich vibrant mahogany in 2 hours



I'm Thankful for Turkey Pops

I am so bummed this year because the kids school does not allow homemade treats to be brought in for parties. Poo on them I say! So this year my creative efforts will be enjoyed (hopefully) by my wonderful coworkers. These people are so much fun to work with and are a big reason why I never get the Sunday night blues. They are so hilarious and we have a lot of fun at work. Which is nice, because I spend the majority of my day with them. So it is only fitting to give these to them. I really am thankful for them. Although I do expect some of them to say "Betsy what the $%^$ are these?" Yes some of them curse like sailors, but believe me their hearts are big and are made of gold.

On a total side note from Turkey Pops, tonight Kate was singing a song that we hear a lot on this CD that I play ( I love Gateway's God Be Praised Worship CD). The real words are "Praise Him! Praise Him! Let all the people praise Him." But Kate sang"Taze Him! Taze Him!" I can't help but think of an episode of Cops. Anyway, she cannot be convinced otherwise so if you hear her singing just know that we are not teaching Kate to "Taze" God. And now for the pics.........

I assembled the faces before I dipped the pops. That's an orange M&M, a yellow starburst rolled out and cut into little triangles for the beak  (thank you leftover Halloween candy! I only used one for all of the pops) and edible ink for the eyes.

These were probably the easiest pops I've made yet.

Gobble! Gobble!

Peace out Turkey!

Mimi and Kate

My Mom lives far away and we don't get to see her that often. So it makes capturing moments like these between her and my favorite girl priceless! When they get together they are like peas and carrots. :)

My Favorite

Turkey Shirts.....Gobble Gobble!

Ever since I saw the Turkey Shirt Tutorial over at the Cottage Home web site, I knew I just had to make them  for my little turkeys. :) I loved everything about this project. From using all of my beautiful scraps, sewing on the turkey applique (I'm slightly obsessed with applique recently) to hiding Thomas the Train amongst all of the feathers. I even did a little bit of embroidery to make the faces. I think I've had this project rolling around in my head for awhile and finally made them last week. Just in time for Turkey day. :)

Do you see him? It took Carson forever to find him.

A Blanket for Hollis

My brother Burke and his amazing wife Stacey are having their 2nd girl in February. Her name will be Hollis Adelaide. I love that name! I decided to make her a little blanket early this time. For her big sis Marin I didn't have her blanket finished until she was about 6 months old! I didn't have as much time with Hollis' blanket as I did with Marin's but I still wanted to do something special for her. Her cousin Kate actually picked out this fabric. It was just this fabric laid over some minky dot fabric and then I bound it around the edges and corners with some blanket binding. With every project I do I try to learn something new. This time I learned how to do a properly mitered corner (as opposed to awkwardly shoving the binding around the corner:))  



I loved the fabric on this blanket so much I thought about keeping it. But then I realized that nobody in our house had a name that starts with "H" Just kidding. This blanket was meant for Hollis.



My properly mitered corner. Yes, i am a sewing nerd.

Sister and Brother

I caught this one right before we went to bed the other night.

Week end Projects

Here are some things that the kids and I enjoyed doing this week end. So simple and fun!





A little pumpkin redo. Kate spotted these Dora and Diego stickers for $1.00 at the Dollar Tree and the pumpkins were embellished again.

What is Carson so curious about????



Bubble Magnets!!!! So simple and easy to make. The best part is that you can use all of the magazines that are coming in the mail at this time of the year for the images. I used images from the kids Wish book magazine from Target and since I will never be able to afford anything from Pottery Barn Kids I was glad that I could get some use out of their catalog!



Some of the kids favorites. There's Elmo, Buzz, Spiderman, Lightening McQueen and Elmo in there. All you need is Mod Podge, Crazy glue, Glass rocks, and magnets. I learned how to make these bubble magnets HERE 

My personal favorite. :)

These are strips from a jelly roll. It is a form of precut fabric strips. It will eventually turn into a Jelly Roll Floor Pillow and I am so excited about it. It will take some work but it will be done. I just love all of the different fabric that I get to use.

This is my beginning. I love it so far!

Play Doh project for the kids.

As always with carso it has to involve cars in one way or another.

These are my future projects.
http://thecottagehome.blogspot.com/2010/11/gobble-gobble-turkey-shirt-tutorial.html

and

http://www.modabakeshop.com/2010/11/just-growing-quilt.html#more

I day dream about making this quilt. And with 3 close friends pregnant and due with in a month of each other I just might get to make it. :)

Happy Howloween 2011

If you love my kids AND pumpkins you're gonna love these next set of pictures.

And now introducing Carson as Diego!!! I sewed this Diego Rescue vest for him and it only took me 2 Spiderman episodes.....I mean 40 minutes to make it. :)

A close up. I tell you there is nothing better than showing  this vest to Carson and his face lighting up saying "Mommy! You made me a Biego vest!!! My Biego vest!!!!!!"

I loved this project. I had to bring some treats to the kids' school and it had to be store bought. I was in a pinch until I found this creative idea from the Disney Family magazine. Store bought and it satisfied my need to be creative. I was up until midnight making 40 of these little critters....I was in heaven!

Who knew pipe cleaners, googly eyes, and a tootsie pop could turn into a spider

Biego spiky hair courtesy of Daddy!

And Miss Dora.

Grumpy Biego

Next year I promised Kate she could be a princess.:)