boo

BOO!

It's Lincoln's first Halloween today and I'm pretty sure he couldn't care less. He's actually napping right now, which if I had any smarts, I would be doing the same. 

Halloween is my FA-FA-FA-FAVORITE! So of course I wanted to have the BESTEST costume for Lincoln and do all the spooktacular things involved with Halloween. I tried my best to decorate our little home with painted pumpkins and cut-out bats on the wall.... BUT there's been a lot of things going on this past week....blah blah blah, so unfortunately, 2 top priorities were put on the back burner: Lincoln's costume and going to the pumpkin patch. I have to slap myself and say, Stop putting more on your plate than you can eat! There are some things that aren't worth being squeezed into "to-do's" just to say you did it..... it'll end up giving you gray hair and a heart attack because of the unneeded stress it put you through!! Take a deep breath, Elizabeth. 

Anyhoo, 

No apologies, Lincoln, for not having you in an extravagant costume or taking you to a "real" pumpkin patch farm for your first Halloween. Instead, you have a simple ghost onesie your unstressed mom made for you out of LOVE that only took 20 minutes. And instead of driving you to the pumpkin patch that  mommy REALLY wanted to go 40 minutes away, you were able to cruise in the comfort of your stroller (instead of that stupid car seat) and enjoy the view on our 10 minute walk to the most humble road-side pumpkin patch instead. And guess what? You pretty much had that WHOLE little pumpkin patch to yourself!! I think your first Halloween turned out better than what I had originally wanted.... silly mom, when will I learn. 

stars and (tie dye) stripes

who doesn't love tie dye? okay, i actually know a few people...they really do exist. I'm not one of them though--- and until Lincoln is able to voice his opinion, he's not one of them either. In celebration of my favorite holiday coming up, I made some tie-dye for the boys and I to wear.

We'll be spending the 4th on the ranch in Colorado, which will be a first for me. I'm pretty stoked because this year, we'll have our own private show put on by the Pyromaniac Shideler boys themselves.

1. White onesie (or whatever item you're dying)

2. Fold accordian-style and secure with rubber bands (or hair-ties in my case)

3. Soak in warm water and dye (I used a large kitchen bowel and a cap full of Rit dye. Depending on what you're dying, the water and dye will vary but directions will be on bottle).

4. Rinse thoroughly until water turns clear. Remove rubber bands. (You'll want to wash separately in washing machine before washing item with other clothes.)

 

Now I must finish packing. Lincoln and I are headed to Idaho for a week long family reunion and then flying to Colorado to stay with Ryan's family for another week. 2 weeks of packing for me and the baby?? yah, a little stressful. On a positive note: Lincoln's clothes don't take up much space. Negative: I'm not sure how he'll like being dressed every day for the next 2 weeks. That's a lot of "naked-time" out the window.

a potato for our trip to idaho

this saturday will be a first.

Lincoln and I are flying to Idaho for a family reunion.

First time Lincoln flies, and first time I fly with Lincoln.

Let's just say, the flying alone will be quite an adventure. We'll be in Idaho for a week, then we'll fly to Colorado to meet Ryan and his family for another week!

 

Cooler weather for 2 weeks? Yes please and thank you.

 

Lots of traveling, which means 2 weeks of not sleeping in his crib.

SO. We wanted to buy a travel crib and have him start taking naps in it to get used to a new a new sleeping arrangement. We won't have any problems. This boy sleeps anywhere.

 

I found this beauty for him to use and it's perfect for traveling. It folds up small so I can easily carry it in the airport with baby in tow. And because I'm in a stenciling/stamping mood lately, I stamped this beauty with a potato. yes, a potato. I'm confident the new design upped it's resale value. :)

 

tips: cut the design deep and dab with a napkin to get excess moisture out. Use right away or cut edges will start to turn in.

roll out the red carpet for these beauties

today was one of those days where you finally buckle down and do that project you've been meaning to accomplish but lack of supplies keep holding you back. I went to guy buy the supplies but of course forgot one small item, which inevitably delayed the project again. UGH! When a project is as simple as this and doesn't require much, you almost want to say FORGET IT! BUT, a trip a few days later to buy that silly $2.50 item was totally worth it. :)

karn came over today and she worked on her super cute

diy printed sneakers.

WHITE TENNIS SHOES - $15

STENCIL- free! (homemade)

FABRIC MARKER/OR PAINT- $3 (depends on what you use)

She made these shoes for her trip to Spain this summer. If you think the heart stencil looks great, I won't hesitate to take full credit. I made the stencil myself, thank you very much. But if you think the heart looks messed up.... well then, I'll just say she bought it.  

 

She traced the stencil with pencil where she wanted them, then went over with with marker. You could always use fabric paint too, but the markers are just way too easy.

 

book of cards

and while she drew away, I fumbled around punching holes in Lincoln's baby cards. Oh yeah, that one item I didn't buy, a whole puncher. Kinda important to have one of those. But I did buy the clasp rings!

HAND PUNCH $2.50

BINDER RINGS $2.50

I was pretty happy with my project. I do have carpal tunnel now, but what a small sacrifice for a well organized book of Lincoln's baby cards. After I have corrective wrist surgery, I'll tackle our wedding cards. :)

and the real beauty of today: of course is this baby :)

turn that frown upside down

A miracle happened this weekend.

 

This weekend I got what every mother wants. A weekend full of sleep. I'm not talking a cat-nap here and there; I'm talking about full on sleep, 3 nights in a row. Lincoln has transitioned to only one middle-of-the-night feeding! This is HUGE NEWS PEOPLE--- like, ALERT THE PRESS news.

 

It could have been a weekend fluke, tonight we'll know for sure. But this mommy is being optimistic. I'm attributing Linc's success to his 2 month birthday today. That second month is full of milestones. Not only is he sleeping more at night, he's cooing full-on novels, grinning his gummy smile every chance he gets, and is officially... a thumb sucker (with an occassional pointer finger too).

Is there anything this boy can't do?!?

And onto a personal milestone...

 

my first FINISHED refurbished furniture.

 

Ryan is a pretty conservative guy when it comes to decorating our home. Let me rephrase, yes he is conservative in style, but his idea of a well-decorated home is one that's somewhat clean. When I ask him if he likes this-or-that for the home, he responds, "Whatever you like." Sigh---I love this man.

 

Truth is, if he really allowed me to have whatever I liked in the house he would start caring. A pink retro fridge, a floral 50's couch, a turquoise kitchen table.... yah, that wouldn't happen. So when it came to picking out colors for our TV credenza, I chose a conservative gray for Ryan, and a pop of color for me. And who says I don't know how to compromise. :)

he's wishin' i was workin'

Since we've moved into our first home, I'm determined to have our home look complete. And if it can look appealing to the eye, well now, that's just a bonus.

 

My mindset has been, while living the apartment lifestyle, "Why decorate when we won't be here long?" No more excuses! First on the agenda: our living room. We spend most of our time here and when I look at our TV sitting on an itty-bitty table with cords overflowing in every direction, I get a headache. That's where craigslist comes into play. Man, I love me some craigslist. One day last week, I found a dresser and mirror, nightstand, and bedframe I LUUUVED and bought them all. 90 bucks. Yes please. I was so stoked with my find I started looking for a credenza for our TV. Bam. Found one I LUUUVED and bought it the next day. 45 bucks. Yes please.

I texted hubby and told him I had good and bad news... which do you want first?
Bad news: I bought some more furniture (Which really isn't bad news --- all part of my plan to lessen the blow I spent more money.)
Good news: I got a great deal on it and we won't need to buy anymore furniture for the house. :)

When he got home he saw the credenza plopped in the garage. I asked him what he thought and he said, "That's what you bought?"

I guess the sight of credenza was the bad news for him--- a piece of furniture that needed some TLC. I'm sure he was wishing I was back at work making money instead of spending money on used run-down furniture. He has little imagination for what this piece can offer. I'll show him!

retiring

Here's my china cabinet!!! Remember what it looked like before? Like this! My first project will be the longest.project.EVER! And it will stay in my parent's garage for probably another year. But at least it's not such an eye-sore to whoever parks there car in there. It has some work to be done but I'll get around to it when I get around to it.

So I just got off the phone with Grandma. The one-sided conversation was me venting about having to work SUCKS and how Ryan and I want to retire ASAP and grandma laughing hysterically the entire time. She was able to get a few words in every time she would gasp for air saying, "oh my poor baby." Let's just say I'm not feeling much better about things.

Last night was a late one. We were viewing some houses and had car problems. So it was Ryan and I hanging out in a QT parking lot with an AutoZone employee working on our car until 1130pm last night. Ryan had to get up at 4 this morning and I was up at 5:20am. I'm typing this with my eyes closed right now; THAT'S how tired I am. Blah blah blah. Elizabeth, stop complaining. Ok. I guess we can't just be billionaires magically. And Grandma's tough love taught me, "Be grateful you have a job." And reality is, we are grateful for our jobs. But still, early mornings and running low on sleep SUCKS.

Anyhoo.

So, here's dinner for us tonight. No idea where I got the recipe but its got the perfect KICK. BOO YA! And it will be an early-bird dinner for us so we can get in bed and have a 12 hour sleep to be well rested for Friday's work day. :)

20-24 raw shrimps;

1 finely chopped small onion;

1/2 cup olive oil;

1 tbsp lemon zest;

3 gloves garlic, minced;

1/2 cup lemon juice;

2 small red chillies, seeded and finely chopped;

1 tbsp grated ginger;

1 tsp turmeric;

Mix all the ingredients other than the shrimps together in a bowl, add the shrimps and cover over night. When ready to cook, remove the shrimps from the marinade and stir-fry them until crispy with clarified butter or coconut oil. Once ready, add the marinade to the wok and bring to a boil while tossing.

Project update

Ok. Slowly this is getting completed. It's been like two weeks and I'm still not at the point to start painting the cabinet. In my defense, the dresser is at my parents house so it's not like I have time to work on it every day and be like "Bam! Done!" I'm just saying, ...slowly.....but.....surely.......I....will..... Finish!" Oh yah, another excuse is I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the cabinet. Maybe pinterest will help this girl.

And thanks to Pinterest, I happend to find some inspiration for the final "Ta-Da" finish.

overdue attention

My mom bought this to display my dolls in when I was a little girl. Let's just say, my dolls were never even saw the inside. This cabinet has been in our garage since....well, forever. It needed to be stripped and repainted and some major TLC but it never received this slightest attention...That is, until today.

I decided, this baby has potential to be great and i'm going to help it grow into a thing of beauty.   I'm crossing my fingers because this is my first refurbishing project and it will be quite the learning experience. You would think I would start off small like stool or something......nah....... go big or go home is my motto. (Wait, this cabinet is big AND at home?) Anyway....Stay tuned to see what beautiful disaster I create.