Pinterest.

You really are in awesome site, I freaking love you!

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you've got to check it out!

Pinterest, it's an online pinning board,

so much better than having a ton of book marks in a file labeled "future projects" or "inspiration". Which brings me to my point.

Christmas is fast approaching,

I have lofty dreams of presenting numerous family members with lovely handmade gifts.

Many of which I've found inspiration for on Pinterest.

But...I waste too much time sitting there pinning when I should really be crafting!

Ah the dilemmas of my life!

So...I guess I should stop blogging,

 pinning,

watching The Nate Show (my new obsessions)

and getting to craftin' huh!

Ok

Ok

I've talked myself into!
If you need me...I'll be crafting!

Flower Head Band

There so many adorable flower head bands out there these days it's almost overwhelming!

 I made Sydney this simple sinlge felt flower head band in no time!

If you want a tutorial on it let me know!

 It was super easy and I think it turned out super cute!

She wasn't in a picture taking mood, can you tell!

She was much more interested in that ball!

Oh well!

Macadamia Nuts...

Macadamia nuts?

Who knew that those brown & green "ball" things that Nathan is always playing

 with on the back bank were actually macadamia nuts!

Alex's favorite nut!

The other afternoon Nathan was playing out back like always,

when Alex noticed that Nathan had some form of a nut in a pile.

 Upon further inspection we discovered that they were indeed macadamia nuts.

And that there is a tree full of them at the top of the bank!

Who knew!

This yard we bought has been so plentiful!

We are always finding new and exciting things!

Even after almost 3 years of being here!

It's become our little farm!

We're loving it!

To read more about our "farm"  check here & here.

So I think that I'll look up recipes with macadamia nuts,

I know that I'll be making chocolate covered ones. 

 What other options are there?

Suggestions??

Avocados Avocados Avocados!!

Sydney is still small, size wise.

But don't you worry that small little bundle can pack quit the attitude!

She doesn't seem to enjoy eating too much.

She just puts food in her mouth, plays with it, them spits it out.

 It's frustrating, to say the least!

The one thing that she eat, devours actually every time...

AVOCADOS!

Thank goodness we live in California and have numerous trees full of avocados in our yard!

Cuz this little girl could, and would eat one for every meal!

Her hair is going to be beautiful if nothing else!

Now, you would think that eating avocados all the time would plump her right up,
yeah not so much!
She is still chill'n off the bottom end of the size charts!

Oh well!

She is happy and thriving and that's all that matters to me!

Yummy!

Tree House

Alex is still a kid at heart in so many ways.

He wanted to build Nathan a tree house, he wants Nathan to have all the "fun" stuff.

So he found the prefect tree in our yard and got to work.

 It was a gift for Nathans 3rd Birthday!

 He did an awesome job!

It has a wobbly rope bridge from our grass to the tree which Nathan loves to run a cross.

From the deck he has a view of his chicken house, his play set, and it's just hidden enough in the tree branches that he was a birds eye view of the whole yard yet it's hard to spot him up there!

So fun!

My favorite part!

Nathan and Sydneys hand and foot prints,

and a Duke paw!

Dear Anthropologie

I love you!

Really I do, you are full of wonderful beauty.

I could browse you for hours on end, and spend... well lets not go there!

  I go there for inspiration, knocking your beauty off is a fabulous pass time.

 It is rare that I actually buy things, but I have been eyeing this adorable egg dish for months.

Since we got the chickens I've been thinking that I needed it.

You know cute country charm!

My aunt gave me a gift card, so why not!

It was $14.99, that's all i purchased.

I strolled out happy as a calm, adorable sky blue egg crate in hand.

Fast forward to today.

Today I met my mom for lunch, and after lunch we walked a crossed the street to Ross.

Ross is such a hit or miss, but today while strolling the "kitchen" aisle,

there it was a stack of 5-6 ...

my egg dish!

The egg dish I just bought from ANTHROPOLGIE yesterday for $14.99.

There it sat on the Ross shelf with a $2.99 price tag!

The EXACT same dish.

I could have died!

So lesson learned Ross and Anthro at times carry the same items!

I'll be headed back to Anthro tomorrow to return my $14.99 egg dish,

 which has been replace by a $2.99 one!

It's seriously the exact same dish, both have the same stamp on the bottom.

Anthro I still love you, but I'm a bit let down.

I'll browse you again, but for now I'll watch the Ross shelves with a much wider eye.

Crab Cake

We had Nathans 3rd birthday party a few weeks ago!

He was really cute and everyone had a great time!

We had original planed on having it at the beach,

but that ended up posing one to many problems for this age group.

Maybe in a few more years!

So we had a beach themed party at out house.

Which called for a crab cake!

I made it (with help from my sister)

Nathan loved it!

We had shark cupcakes for all the party guest so that once the candles were blown out

all the kids could just go to town on the crab!

They couldn't believe we were letting them!

Watermelon

So it's October.
 But here it's still warm and we are enjoying a few last "summer" activities!

 Like watermelom!

Nathan is a huge watermelon fan!

And if you don't believe me...

Any one want a bite?

Carmel Apples!

Yummy I mentioned here that we went up to Julian for the Apple Festival and apple picking!

Well what better to do with apples then make Carmel Apples!

Yummy!

 These did not last long!

My Birthday Cake in...October!

So yeah I'm a little late with this post!

But when I get writers block I scroll thur picture's on my computer looking for inspiration,

 today I came a crossed all the picture from mine and Nathans birthdays.

Which I never shared, because well I'm a slacker!

So... today I thought I would share the cake I made for my birthday.

 I know, I know you're sitting there thinking,
"Wait, you made your own birthday cake? "

Well, yes I did!

My mom made me a wonderful dinner and I offered to bring dessert.

I had seen a cake recipe that I wanted to try out!

 I of course can't seem to find the site now,

so I'll just explain it.

But this was from another site, sorry!

Ok it was super easy with great results! I'll for sure do it again next strawberry season!

You'll need:
1 White Cake Mix box
1 Red Velvet Cake Mix box
2 cups chopped strawberries
1 large container Cool Whip


You just bake a white cake mix in two 8 inch rounds and a red velvet cake mix in 2 eight inch rounds. Allow to cool, then layer every other using cool whip and chopped strawberries between each layer. Then take the cool whip and frost the whole cake! Decorate as you desire! Super easy! Super yummy!

**I added 4 kabob sticks to the center of  my cake for stability on the drive up to my parents house!

DIY Baby Leg Warmers

Sydney started crawling a few months ago...wow where is time going!?

She just wants to go where Nathan is!
 She has become a very fast crawler,
the down side is our house has wood and tile as well as carpet floors.
Her little knees where getting so red all the time that I felt bad.
 I looked into Baby legs, but they just seemed pricey to me.
What can I say I'm cheap! So i restored to a little DIY.
This is by no means "my" idea and I'm sure millions of moms have been making these in their own ways for ever! This is just how I did ours.
So that being said, if you have a crawler and hard floors,
this was a super quick and easy project!
First I went to target and grabbed a few pairs of knee high women's socks.

Then I cut it at the ankle, above and below the heel, and then right at the toes!

at this point you can toss the "heel" and the "toe" pieces

Then take the middle piece of the foot, fold it on itself in half

Now take it (folded like so) and slip it over the bottom of the leg of the sock.

Then just stitch it with a simple straight stitch all the way around,

make sure to catch all four layers. And that's that you're finished!

See super easy!

Slip them on your crawler and away they go!

We got chicks!

Yup thats right folks!

I'm a country girl now!

I am the proud momma of 6 baby chickens!

They are so cute, which is going to be short lived but of well!

 Nathan is so excited about his chickens!

He holds them daily!

There are fresh eggs in our future!

Bath tub Glow Sticks

This has been a crazy few months for us.

 Alex's work is hectic and busy, which has resulted in numerous 14 hour days,

and on top of that he is going to school right now.

So...we have been seeing Daddy a lot less then we would like to.

 I've been trying to come up with creative and fun ways to keep Nathan busy, and not missing daddy!
 My father in law sent up a few packages of glow sticks
he picked up at Home Depo that he thought Nathan might like.

I got to thinking about fun stuff we could do with them.

Some nights it's a bit difficult to get Nathan to take a bath.

He is no fool, he knows that bath time is the start of his bed time routine!

Alex usually bathes him so that makes it twice as hard for me some nights,

because he realizes that he will definitely not be seeing daddy today.

As any mom knows, that can go downhill fast.

So, the other night I filled up the bath tub, turned off the lights and tossed in 5 or 6 glow sticks!

When Nathan came in he was amazed at the fun glowing tub, he couldn't get in fast enough!

He played in there for a long time with them!

It was a hit!

 It will be a special treat I do for him every once in a while.
I've seen glow sticks in the dollar spot at Target before and even at the Dollar Tree if you want to try!

I'm working on my photography skills!

Ruffle Leg Onesies

This is a twist on the ruffle butt onesies, instead of a ruffle butt, why not ruffle legs! 
I laid the onesie unsnapped and measured the leg hole opening, then doubled that length. I cut two pieces of the doubled measurement long by four inches wide.

Folded it in half, (hot dog style) and sewed it.
Turn and press.
Then I simply began to create an accordion style pleat around the leg hole.
Pin and stitch it in place.
Quick and simple!
I liked the look of the accordion pleat, more uninformed and orderly in my opinion,
 but you could certain try it with ruffles or anything really!

Play Kitchen

Remember this post 

that ugly old oak entertainment center

has been transformed to...

 

I got inspiration from all the awesome transformations

 I was seeing all over blog land and pintrest.

This is my version of a play kitchen!

All in all it was about a $60 project!

Alex helped a TON!

He did all the wood working

(I don't mess with power tools)

We tried to make it seem as real as possible.

"Stainless steal" appliances,

working microwave keypad,

spilt fridge and freezer,

turning knobs on the stove.

real sink faucet.

It was a ton of work

but I love the out come!