Saturday, January 28, 2012

One of my very favorite projects to date is the kiddo kitchen nook. Not only has the table been the perfect place for Kendry to sit for a quick snack or complete a craft, but we love the chalkboard. Kendry practices his budding artistic skills now and then, and at other times I use it to write something fun.

In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, this is my current message:

Best kiddo book ever, right?

The table has also worked perfectly as a kiddo seating area when we have dinner guests.

The only drawback is that we only had the little bucket seat.

I'll be the first to admit that as cute as this bucket seat might be, its not the easiest for kiddos to sit on. Its just a wee bit tall for kiddos, and if you don’t sit on it just right it can get a little tipsy.

So even before I finished the nook I was searching for more seating.

I found this little cutie at my neighbor's yard sale last June for just a couple bucks. It was just the right height for our kiddo table.

Can you say ‘meant to be’?

But the roses weren't really doing it for me. And Kendry is a boy, after all.

So I slapped a little paint on her.

Then, to give it a little more character, I drafted my own subway art in Microsoft Publisher, printed it out and stenciled it onto the seat using this method.

Time consuming, yes. Particularly when you don’t have a fancy set of fine-tipped artist paintbrushes. But it was worth every painstaking minute because the words turned out just as I had envisioned.

Here she is at home in the nook.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

{1}
For those of you still waiting to receive our Christmas card...
you will be waiting a long time...
as in next December.

What can I say?
December got busy and my super cool Christmas card idea was thwarted at the last minute.
THIS was as close as I got.

Sometimes you just have to know when to throw in the towel.

I'll do better next year, I promise.

{2}

I have this thing about reading the book before I see the movie.

Chalk it up to my Type A personality.

More often than not I am then disappointed by the movie ("The Notebook" anyone?), but thats fine.

Its a good thing "The Help" is already out on DVD because I finished the book this week and can't wait to see how the movie plays out.

Very, very good read.

{3}

And speaking of books...
I got myself a Kindle Fire!

I feel so hip.

This weekend I made a simple cover for it. It didn't turn out quite as I would have liked - I screwed up the elastic a bit - but it is still cute and will work for the time being. Plus, I already had all the supplies so it was free. Yeah, baby!

Did you notice the cute little pocket on the left side?

I followed this tutorial.

{4}

Picnik will be no more come April.
I am so bummed.

{5} and {6}

The cutest baking partner ever,

and my super-cute (albeit ancient) KitchenAid beautified by the decal my sister bought me.

Love you, Jaim!

{7}
Buttermilk is my new best friend.
Not only does it rock my Red Velvet Cake recipe, but it makes the yummiest coffee cake and incredible homemade pancakes. I can't believe I am 31 and only now realizing one should always have buttermilk in their fridge.

{8}

I attended a baby shower this week and had so much fun trying out a new gift idea I found on Pinterest.

My inspiration:

(source)

Those are baby wash cloths rolled up like lollipops and stuck onto a baby spoon.

So. Very. Cute.

Mine:

{9}
I love my evening craft time but boy does it make for lousy lighting in my pictures.
Sorry, folks.

{10}

This Week's Blessing:
Our local library has gone digital!
This means they do ebooks.
Yippee!
{A little shout out to Cassie for notifying me of this development. Thanks, Cassie!}

Monday, January 23, 2012

Stubborn to the Core

THE SCENE:

Its just another relaxing Sunday afternoon when the kiddo gets a little attitude and is instructed to spend some time in his room until dinner is ready.

We shut the bedroom door behind him.

He opens the door.

We shut the door behind him again.

He opens the door again.

This act of defiance happens two more times before he finally grasps that Daddy means business when he says "Keep this door shut."

Five eerily quiet minutes later we notice this.

Do you see it?

How 'bout now?

He obeyed Daddy and kept his door shut alright, but I'll be darned if he wasn't going to find some way to defy us by getting at least part of his body on the other side of that bedroom door.

To top it off, he was tapping his little fingers as though impatiently counting down the seconds until freedom.

That kiddo has got some will.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

The One With The Tin Foil

When I first saw this technique used I was a bit skeptical...

...and yet intrigued.

Could it really be that simple to create such a neat texture using tin foil?

Yes.

Yes, it is.

Mandy over at Vintage Revivals did this to a nightstand of all things!

Miss Mustard Seed did it on a frame.

Me?

I chose this simple urn I found for a few dollars at my local thrift store.

My first instinct was to paint it a bright white and use it as a vase. I could see it stacked with beautiful tulips on my dining room table. But I was also feeling the itch to try something new.

First I gave the urn a coat of light gray paint I had from another project. I didn't want the ugly brown paint and flowers showing through if I ended up with any gaps in my layer of foil.
{no offense to the original artist}

After letting the paint dry, I proceeded to cut approximately 5x5 inch squares of my household tin foil.

I wrinkled up each square and then flattened them back out. Then I Mod-Podged each square individually onto the urn, painting another coat of Mod-Podge over the top of the squares once they were applied.

I applied only one layer of foil over the entire urn and lid, trying not to overlap the foil too much.

After this first layer dried I gave the entire urn one more coat of Mod-Podge to help truly secure the foil.

This was followed by a light coat of my Valspars Antiquing Glaze.

How amazing is that texture?

Much better than plain old white.

Since its only January I had to use some artificial foliage, but come April she is going to look stunning filled with tulips.

Friday, January 20, 2012

Christmas in Alaska

Happy New Year, everyone!

Now that we've been home two weeks and are somewhat back in to the swing of things, I can feel my blog mojo returning in full force. In case you didn't already know, 2012 is going to be fabulous!

A year ago I asked Justin if we could please make it work to spend our next Christmas with my family in Fairbanks, Alaska. The last time we were home for Christmas was right after we were married in 2005. My oh my, how six years passes quickly!

And we made it happen. On the evening of December 22nd we boarded the plane in Lewiston, officially Alaska bound. We had been counting down to this day for several weeks and Kendry was so unbelievably excited. We even bought him his own tiny backpack for the plane, but failed to take a picture of him wearing it. Doh!

Upon locating our seats on the plane Kendry promptly popped his head over the back of our seats and informed the nearby passengers "We're on the plane!"

"We're on the plane!"

He really said it three times like that.

In the span of twenty seconds.

The novelty wore off one hour into our Seattle to Fairbanks flight - when we still had another two and a half hours in the air - at which point I was kicking myself for forgetting the Children's Tylenol.

We arrived in Fairbanks around midnight and were met by my parents and temperatures hovering around zero degrees. And what do you think I did first? Well, after sleeping, of course. I was in my parents' hot tub by 8:30am, having an early morning coffee date with two of my sisters and my sister-in-law. Sub-zero temperatures or not, we were starting this trip off right.

If you know my family and how crazy busy we get when we're all together, particularly with thirteen grandchildren running loose, you know there is no possible way for me to capture all the details of this fun trip. So allow me to summarize the high points for you:

Our first day (December 23rd) was spent primarily with my sister Stephanie and her family since they left the following morning for a three week vacation in Chile. That evening the entire family congregated at my sister Jaimee's house for our main celebration: dinner, singing a few Christmas carols, a white elephant exchange, and the cousin gift exchange.

Here are the Binder women in attendance:

Here is our little man at the end of a very busy first day.

{Why does our kiddo wait until just days before prime photo opportunities (Christmas, birthday, etc.) to bruise that forehead of his into submission?}

A big thank you to the Coon Family for hosting! Everything was beautiful!

Christmas Eve involved a few last minute errands throughout the day, an easy dinner of various appetizers, and opening presents with the kiddos. With a church service on Christmas morning we knew it would be difficult for the kiddos to open their presents before church. And when I say kiddos I mean Kendry, my sister's three, and my brother's four.

It was a busy scene.

Kendry made out like a bandit and got four play guns for Christmas this year.

On Christmas morning Justin, Kendry and I opened our stockings together.

Kendry and his first train whistle.

The rest of Christmas day included church, dinner at my parents' house, presents for the adults and a fun time simply hanging out as a family.

Against my better judgment, I will give you one peek into my first DDR experience. I was the brave soul who volunteered to go first. We played it a few more times during our visit.

Even with Christmas over there were still good times to be had.

{Quick, name that movie!}

Justin took Kendry sledding in the driveway and for a quick ride on my parents' 4-wheeler. At this point it was at least -10 degrees; do their pink cheeks give it away? Kendry didn't last long.