I'm not a hoarder, really.

Does anybody ever watch Hoarders ?

It is relatively new on my Netflix, and I am addicted!

I can't tear my eyes away.

Every episode gets worse and worse.

They found about 75 dead cats in these peoples house.

How do you not know you have 75 dead cats!!!

This show makes me want to get rid of everything.

Seriously.
There are days that I feel like a fabric/clothes hoarder.
Lately a furniture hoarder.  I keep buying dressers, but the problem is that we all already have one.  I plan to refinish them, and put them....well, somewhere.
Do you know that we all have enough clothes to not do laundry for about a month.  It's crazy.  I told my daughter that we needed to cut down on her clothes, so she gave me 2 pairs of jeans and one shirt.  That means she still has too much.  Maybe stuff will just disappear into the black hole of the basement...Sad to say that even when I give stuff away we have too much, still.  She just looks cute in everything.
So, I'm not a Hoarder, really....

I have come to terms with my shopping addiction, but I also have a "Give it all to Goodwill" mentality.

The more I buy, the more I get rid of.  And now that I have an etsy shop, where I specialize in upcycling stuff I have even more reason to go thrifting, right?  :)

Well, according to my husband, wrong.  He just doesn't understand.  I made my daughter a St Patty Day dress today for about $5.  I upcycled a tee shirt that she loves, with some cheap fabric I got at the devil. (really Wal-Mart, but I can't stand that place for lots of reasons)

She is so excited to wear this to school!

And it was the easiest thing ever to make!

Hooray for easy(and Fast!)

And I can't believe that I'm so motivated this year!

I also upcycled a woman's skirt into a skirt for her.

I'll post pics tomorrow.

So, dinner is ready, Shepard's pie, a version of my own creation(not the healthiest, but it does have veggies). Yum!  Maybe I'll share that tomorrow too.

:)

~~~Happy Heart Day~~~

See how cute they looked for pictures?

I'm going to try to do this for every shoot from now on!

I hope everyone has a lovely Valentine's Day!

I'm off to attempt to not eat a whole box of chocolates

(that I got for my mom, but opened anyway)

I'm a sucker for a chocolate caramel.

Much love.

oxox

I. Am. Out. Of. Control.

Really.

I am.

I guess the stress of my life is finally catching up to me.  And I've seriously developed an Internet addiction.

It's very debilitating.

I spend all day online, doing nothing.

NOTHING.

I just can't seem to figure it out right now.

I'm letting the laundry pile up

I ignore the dishes,

the grocery shopping,

the house cleaning,

my kids...

and here I am, up in the middle of the night, after my daughter puked all over everything...everywhere.  The bathroom is nasty.  :(

And I can't sleep.

I've been ignoring the gym because of the Internet. I only made it there 12 times last month. That's pathetic. In Dec, I joined on the 10th, and I was there more times. :(

Is it stress?

You betcha.

After I took over all the household finances I thought it was going to be easy, but then stuff creeps up on you, and you overspend, and voila!  No money=stress=overeating and sleeplessness.  It really blows.

Literally(my daughter, not me).

On a lighter note, I'm doing well at not drinking soda.  I got some of those water enhancers from Aldi(like Mio, but waaay cheaper) and it has been pretty easy to use at work.  It fits in my pocket and I can add it to any cup of water I get.

Which, at a hospital is plentiful.

The Aldi's has the berry pomegranate and also a strawberry watermelon flavor.  It's pretty good, since I hate the taste of plain water.

Soooooooo,

starting tomorrow I will be different.  I'm setting up an Internet restriction/limit for myself.

I get to check my email and fb and esty in the morning, with my coffee.  Then I have to stay off til I get at least one chore done.

(Hopefully once I start chores I won't be able to stop, right?)

Then I get more time online.

Sounds reasonable right?

Let's hope it really works, because if not, I need to get some professional help,

really.

Story of my life....

Damask Valentine's Dress

Here is the dress/tunic I made for my daughter to wear for pictures.  This is a pattern of my own design.  I've been sewing dresses like this for more years than I care to admit!

I haven't shown it to her yet, but she will love it!

It's super simple to make, and only took me about 2.5 hours! Yay!

(I can post a simple tutorial if you want)

Just leave me a comment!

Here's a picture of it with a flower hair clip between the straps...looks so stinkin cute!

Sometimes I wish she was still smaller, so I could dress her like this all the time.  Now she has an opinion...

But I like it, she's very original and colorful.

Here's the shirt and tie side-by-side.

They're wearing them with jeans and bare feet!

I can't wait to see how cutie patootie they look together.

She could always wear them as a set?

Maybe not...

Thanks for reading!

Valentine's Damask Tie

I got started on my kids Valentine's outfits.  They are getting their pictures taken on Saturday morning, and yesterday I came up with the great idea of making them matching "somethings" for their pictures.

The problem with that is there is such a big age gap.

2 and 9. Boy and Girl.

What do you make for a boy and a girl?

Well...

I had this very pretty damask fabric.  It's not super girly, right?  I actually have it in pink and red!

Yay for preparedness!

So I was trying to decide if I wanted to do a tie shirt, or a tie itself...I decided on a real tie. 

How handsome.

I found this super great tutorial at

The Purl Bee

I printed it out and got started.  And then I figured out that I'm not much of a hand sewer.  :(

In fact...

I kinda dislike it intensely.

Good thing I don't have to make a bunch of these ties!

Maybe Easter...and Christmas

(I could always re-use this one)

I put the pink on the inside...looks pretty cute if you ask me! (I know you didn't, and I'm not sure if I care.)  :P

He's going to look super cute in his pictures.

Mohawk and all!  He looks like Puck on Glee

(my favorite character)

Shhh, don't tell anyone.  :)

Tomorrow I will post my daughters shirt

After I finish it...  :)

Sparkly Valentine's Garland

This year I decided I needed to actually decorate for Valentin'e Day again.  I haven't for a few years now, either because by the time I thought about it I was too late, or I was just too lazy to bother.  :)

So I got these felt hearts with grommets on clearance last year.  They were like a buck or less at Hobby Lobby

(gotta love Hobby Lobby)

Anyway, I had no idea what to do with them...then I found these glitter glues that someone had given me (free, yay!)

So I preceded to slop a whole lot of glitter glue on the middle of each felt heart, I spread it around, strung it on some pink satin ribbon I had on hand, and TaDa!

Sparkly Valentine Banner!!

It looks great in my living room, and is the perfect length.

Almost like it was meant to be. See...

 My husband only barely hits his head on it...sometimes.

You can make one too!  Here's what you need.

• felt hearts(you can cut them out of any color)
• glitter glue(or glue and glitter of any kind)
• ribbon(on hand)

That's it!

Have fun making your own banner, the kids could even help you paint the glue on the hearts.

Have fun!

:)

Hooray for Small Victories

Here's to small victories!

Hooray!

A couple of days ago I made a decision to stop drinking soda.

I am sad, because I truly love soda.

Truly and deeply...

So for me to tell you this is inspiring to me.

2 days...

without soda.

This has been the hardest 2 days of this war so far.  The true test of time is work.  I usually drink a 20 oz when I first get there, then I get a 32 oz fountain soda that lasts me until I get off.  Last night I went for 4 hours without drinking anything.  It was torture.  My mouth was so dry.

Like the desert.

First thing I did, was hit the gas station for some Propel Zero.  It's not very good though, so I don't recommend it.  It has a nasty aftertaste.  But I drank it all, then had the other one...

Today will be the true test, an 8 hour shift.

I will let you know how I do.

Tomorrow e are going to our favorite indoor water park, for some much needed family time.

All of us, in the car together, the small hotel room together, eating meals together...maybe I didn't think this through all the way. (Oh well.)

It'll be fun anyway.  Grizzly Jack's here we come!