update on computer crash...

So we've had a busy couple of weeks around here!!! We went camping with the boys last weekend... and it was actually fun! An all around success! Dare I say we might try again later this summer :) JDub is a whiz when it comes to computers... one of the many reasons I love him :) He managed to get the thing to start up... but the virus was still on there apparently stealing passwords or something.... who knows... so after getting all my documents off, he is now trying to reformat or something... I dont know the technical terms. I was able to get on it yesterday... but the Internet Explorer 6 was outdated and my email account and other random things just looked weird... So yea its still in the works but I think I might be back up and running soon... Other news my mom did lend me her old computer but we've been busy with softball, vacation, and all around other stuff that we haven't gotten that one all figured out just yet either! JDub's got a friend coming over tonight for dinner... he's also a computer whiz so maybe 2 heads will be better than 1! Let's hope anyway :)

I have a shirt I just finished up but need to get JDub to take the after photo... so hopefully will have a new post here soon.

Safely driving me crazy

Why is it that the things in our life that are there to protect us.... drive me CRAZY?! Case in point.... the smoke detector.

The dreaded beep always comes in the middle of the night. Not during the day.... its NEVER at a convenient time... but instead in the middle of the night! Its not enough I'm half asleep... and already been woken up by Ceej throwing his paci out of his crib and then having a fit b/c he doesn't have it anymore! It's right beside our carbon monoxide detector that also acts up so I figured it was that beeping in the night! I'm not tall enough to reach the smoke detector... and don't even know how to get the thing to open! Then I have to convince JDub to deal with it who's mad at me b/c of course he was sleeping through the whole ordeal! How can men sleep through anything?! Its not fair.... he's snoring away while I'm trying to ignore the high-pitched BEEP... that echoes throughout our hallway at weird intervals.

Have you seen that episode of friends where Phoebe is messing with her smoke detector? OMG hilarious... I totally know how she felt ... been there... done that... several times :) Although at least I didn't smash mine to pieces......... sure felt like doing that though!

Then there's the carbon monoxide detector..... I kid you not, I threw the thing outside a couple winter's ago. I am not one to waste money... at least not on purpose... but the stupid thing was beeping uncontrollably one day. JDub was at work..... It was freezing and snowy out I couldn't go anywhere to get away from it.... So I put the stupid thing in a Ziploc baggie and threw it out in the snow! I tried my best to get it to be quiet but it was not working. So yea... that's how I deal with things sometimes... but JDub figured it out and put it back in after it thawed out :) No money wasted afterall... just my sanity gone for a little while...

computer crash

Ugh... My laptop has crashed... JDub and I aren't sure how... but somehow we got a virus and the thing with not start up. It just goes straight to a blue screen. The hard-drive isn't crashed.... so I could possibly take it somewhere to get files taken off.... but that would cost money. And apparently I need to spend some for a new laptop!!!??

JDub got it refurbished online... it was a Dell... I liked it in general. But now I'm wondering if I should go new instead. Considering this is the 2nd time we've had issues...... The first time it WAS the hard-drive and I lost numerous photos. You would think I would learn and would have backed everything up every week or day or whatever... but yea I didn't. I think I even lost my book I wrote about Bubba! :( I may have a copy of the original lying around... lets hope so.

Anywho... I'm in the basement on our desktop computer as we speak... I don't get in our office that much (too much paperwork and what not for boys to ruin) so I'm not sure how much I'll be posting until we get this laptop thing figured out. Its amazing how hard it is to do without something when you are so use to having it?!

Artwork

I have no artwork in my house. Actually there's really not much on my walls to speak of at all. A few photo frames, some stars..... Its not that I don't love art?! I mean I do. Its great.... art is beautiful, its inspiring... all that good stuff. Its just too much money for me. I am a cheapo!!! So when I saw this lovely piece of artwork in the bathroom of a yummy little coffee shop in town (Heeeeeeyyyy Witte's End) I was inspired. I snapped a photo of it and decided I'd try to make my own!


Original inspiration!!!

Now its hard to tell, but this is a rather large canvas... I already had some smaller canvases that were previously painted. I decided to put a fresh coat of white paint on them and went to town from there....

After I painted two coats of white you could still see the outline of the original painting on there!! I went ahead and painted the whole thing brown. Then I used the brush in the corner of the photo to kind of "sponge paint" around to create different textures.

I used some red, orange, and a little white to create some flower petals. I forgot to look at the original inspiration before I started........ I wish now I would have done six petals instead of just the five.... but oh well. If the paint was too bright I would just throw a little more brown on top. I acquired some paints from my mom who is remodeling her kitchen and a bedroom (yay free stuff!!!).... and it happened to have some glitter in there too!! I still like the original painting better. The glitter in the middle is darker and therefor more subtle. Maybe I will try again since I have 2 more little canvases to work with!

While Ceej was napping Bubba and I worked on these :) It was fun and after Bubba finished I decided his looked like a tornado. So that's what we went with. He wanted me to color the different rectangles in the corners too.

I still think it will look pretty neat in my living room :)

old navy tank

BEFORE

So I bought three of these.... they were all on sale at the time, and I needed something to wear under a short sweatshirt for an 80's night!!! I wasn't sure what color I wanted... and I got mediums without trying them on cause I figured that would be good. Well they're a little big! They're almost too big... So I was trying to figure out how I could get them a little more fitted. I tried just taking the sides in a bit on the green one I bought.... but to be honest you can't even tell I did anything. So this time I decided to try something else!

80's night! JDub would prolly freak if I showed
all of him but he was looking good in a track suit :)

Gettin old

So its my birthday! Yep... I'm gettin' old... Turned the big ol' 27 today!

As you know I've been playing softball with my church league. It has been a lot of fun! I am hit or miss every week... but I have fun either way! I think I've acquired the nick-name "Lightning Laura" b/c the only way I can get on base is by running crazy/fast!! A team-mate of mine actually mistook me for another Laura that goes to our church... A Laura who just graduated high-school! HA! He pretty much thought I was 10 years younger than I currently am.... pretty funny... I use to get so annoyed of people thinking I was so young... but I have to admit its kinda nice!

In honor of my bday and my teammate... here are some photos of me when I actually WAS 17 years old :)

Aww the good ol' days of high school! Gotta love it :) Honestly that first pic I might be older than 17.. but not by much!!

p.s. you should enlarge that 2nd photo and look at my sweet tiger striped nails!!

Print off coupons kinda suck

Ok I get it... you don't have to pay postage... you don't waste your money/time/effort on printing them out yourself... but do you have to make it so difficult?! It's gettin ridiculous. I know they do it just b/c they think you'll be like forget it!! I just wont get the coupon... and you'll pay full price. Gordman's is by far the worse... they are SOOO annoying when it comes to coupons... there's barely an item you can use a coupon on!

Is it that hard to make sure your coupon will fit onto one page... not mostly on one page and then 3 lines on the next... not only wasting another piece of paper but more ink from my printer. Do you have to make them ginormous so they take up the entire page... wouldn't it be sufficient to just have it take up half of the paper? Do you have to make them ridiculously colorful to waste all my colored ink? (yes I know you can do grayscale but the odds of me remembering to do that are slim!)

Case in point... Cold Stone Creamery... Yes I love your ice cream.... but it costs WAAAY too much. Its ridiculous... That's why I signed up for your birthday club... so yea you send me one free ice cream for my bday... but wait!!! You don't even do that anymore... you send me a buy one get one... so I have to spend money no matter. You sneaky little punks... I know I know... I'm still getting something free! But jeez... its more like a discount.

ULTA... once again... love your stuff... but you cost ALOT. I took my coupon to use on concealer b/c I was out... and what do you know... the lady says "Oh you can't use the 20% coupon on smashbox brand... sorry" Yea right. I'm pretty sure you're NOT sorry and you just like to pretend you are... At least they had crackle nail polish and I COULD use the coupon on that... I wish they would have had a different color than red though....

this is my tribute to ISU!!! go Clones!

Companies are just getting lazier and lazier... Technology is helping them become even more lazy...

LBD (Little Black Dress)

So as many of you may already know... I had this old choir dress from my college days :). It wasn't necessarily "ugly" but its not very flattering either...... The bust portion is made of velvet, while the skirt is more of a layered chiffon material... at least I think its called chiffon?!

First thing was first... take off the sleeves! The sleeves were sooo tight I couldn't even lift my arms all the way above my head?!

Oh wait I suppose I should show you the before just in case you don't remember it!!

Initially I wanted to have it sleeveless with a poofy shorter skirt.... something kinda like this...

So I took some old elastic... from some undies again... haha! And I zig-zag sewed the elastic onto the hem of the dress... I had pinned the bottom hem onto the elastic in gathered sections...

I figured I could pull the bottom of the skirt (that now had elastic attached) and figure out at what length to sew it to the rest of the dress.... but it didn't work out that way... it was too much fabric underneath and it didn't lay right. It looked all lumpy and weird... It made me look fat.... and then I discovered shirring!!!!

Coffee pillow

So I have been working on this pillow FOREVER.... it is going to be the death of me...

First I took some extra fabric I had and made a pillowcase! I just put the "right" sides together and sewed around three edges leaving one edge open. I was going to put buttonholes on the one side and have buttons on the other to close the pillow up.... but making the buttonholes on my machine just was NOT working out. It was probably some error I was making myself... but I tried 4 times and gave up.

Then I decided I would go with snaps! I saw them at Hancock Fabrics and figured I'd go for it... But once again... I had issues! I bought these kind...

You attach these with a simple spool and hammer... but apparently I cannot line things up correctly... and they did not work... they came off when I tried to unsnap them :( So going the cheap route didn't help me out.. it was just a waste of $...

With my third attempt I decided to try this type of tool....

You just need a hammer to use this. And the black part helps everything stay aligned... The woman working at Hancock Fabrics said she's used this in the past and had no issues... 

I made sure that the 4th flap on the pillowcase had extra fabric b/c initially I was going to fold it over for the buttons... but I'm glad I had extra b/c the heavy duty snaps aren't for flimsy fabric. I was hoping the lightweight fabric folded over twice would be ok! I also had to buy some heavy duty snaps to use...

5 years of bliss

At first I think I can't believe its been 5 years?! But then again I think yea.... it has...

JDub and I have officially been married for 5 years today :) Most of them have been bliss.... which is a lot like bless... which is exactly how I feel. I have been sooo blessed these past 5 years. Well I've been pretty blessed most of my life really. But back to the reason I posted.....

I love you so much JDub! You are and continue to be a wonderful husband/friend/companion year after year. Sure, sometimes you snuggle with our cat more than me....



Mango is actually snuggled on JDub's legs here :)

 And 9/10 times when you do the laundry it sits in baskets for days before actually making it into the closet or dresser........

Big Ed's Pizza

The sewing machine is back up and running thanks to some TLC :) (and a little goof off and oiling)

Here's today's before photo!!

Sorry I didn't get a photo of this one on... I barely got JDub to take the after ones! But it was a Large t-shirt. Big Ed's is a yummy pizza place down in Oak Ridge, Tennessee!! That's where my parents are from so they grew up eating it. We try to go whenever we visit down there :) I acquired this shirt from my sister! She was cleaning out her and her hubby's closet and her hubby didn't need this one any more... sweet deal for me!

Initially I wanted to have this shirt resemble another shirt I got from good ol' Wal-mart!!! I HEART this shirt... I pretty much wear it whenever we're going out somewhere :) Here it is laying on top of the Big Ed's shirt....

I kind of mimicked the shape of the shirt by using my marker and tracing around the edges then cutting the shirt. I had to eyeball the neckline myself... but later tweaked it one I had tried it on...

I mentioned initially I wanted the shirt to look like my other one... but then I remembered my other one has a spandex quality to it... and this one doesn't!! Too bad I realized that after I already cut the other pieces off! So instead of sewing those pieces back on I thought I'd rummage thru my scraps and see what I had!

Jesus loves the little children

How is it that an almost 3 year old already knows to call people a poopy-face..... I know for a fact I haven't called anyone a poopy-face in this house... I'm pretty sure JDub hasn't either.... I know he's around other kids at MOPS.... and grandparents.. but jeez... Its like they know when it comes to poop and pee they have to try and make it funny.

How is it also that once kids are mobile they go straight for the TV remote... or the clicker as I prefer to call it. How do they know its something they need to grab and push buttons? They even know to point it at the TV!?

Kids catch on quick! Sure certain things like obeying and showing respect don't come as easy.... they might need a friendly reminder... but there are times when they get it and they remind you as well.......

I'll admit I am quick to over-react at times... I'm human... especially if I haven't had much sleep! So the other day I'm playing Super Nintendo. Yes you heard right! Super Nintendo :) Super Mario World with Yoshi and everything! I have to say the purple Yoshi that flies is my favorite...

Anyway its just me and the boys. Bubba was watching pretty intently... but Ceej just felt the need to crawl all over me, take my controller away, and block the TV! I was getting pretty frustrated. Finally Ceej did it... he messed with the game console and the game when black (or blue technically). I freaked! I went "CEEEEEEJ! AAAAAAHHH!!" To which Bubba calmly responds... "It's ok Mommy! Ceej didn't mean to, it was an accident. We can play your game again later." And thankfully I realized what a baby I was being and I said "Yep, you're right! Thank you."

Proverbs 14:29; 15:18
14:29 The one who is slow to anger has great understanding, but the one who has a quick temper exalts folly. 15:18 A quick-tempered person stirs up dissension but one who is slow to anger calms a quarrel.

Mark 10:13-16

The Message (MSG)
13-16The people brought children to Jesus, hoping he might touch them. The disciples shooed them off. But Jesus was irate and let them know it: "Don't push these children away. Don't ever get between them and me. These children are at the very center of life in the kingdom. Mark this: Unless you accept God's kingdom in the simplicity of a child, you'll never get in." Then, gathering the children up in his arms, he laid his hands of blessing on them.



It's no wonder Jesus loves little children so much. And hey its nothing like having a 2 year old put you in your place either....

refashions on hold...

Well I made an error in judgement over the weekend...... While trying to re-do a mirror for the car I decided to sew through Velcro... which wouldn't be a huge deal if it was sew-on Velcro. This happened to be the sticky-back kind...

See I bought it initially to Velcro some boxes to the TV.... see there's really no where else to stick them (the entertainment center is full of pic frames and our DVD player) Mango likes to sit on top of the TV and knock those down... until now :)

So when Ceej (the destructor) broke our other mirror, I thought I could fix it to work another way! But when using the Velcro... I didn't think about the adhesive and now my machine is out of commission :( I am hoping a little bit of Goof OFF will work and I'll be back to sewing in a jiffy... but who knows... I'm sure I'll have to oil the machine and all that jazz to get it back in working order.... So for now I'll be doing some hand-sewing... mending if you will on some clothes I know that have some holes!!!


at least this mirror works now...

IN OTHER NEWS.........

Ceej received his first official haircut over the weekend! He is no longer my baby... but my little boy *tear*.

I am now addicted to Cheez-IT DUOZ, the Sharp Cheddar/Parmesan (thanks a lot Mom....)
*Not to be confused with the smoked cheddar/Monterey Jack those are nasty.......

I should have another creation to show you soon if I can convince JDub to help me with it tonight :) No more sewing required for that one!

We are still kicking butt at my church softball league! I have to Ump tomorrow though... a little worried about that one...

Please be praying for my friend Laura, she is in surgery as we speak for a lumpectomy for breast cancer.

Brown Crushed Velvet

So back in the day... I had a pretty hot little body. Of course I didnt think that at the time.... I always thought things were too small... or too big... or whatever! I acquired this dress from good ol' TJMaxx!! Man I love that store! I haven't been able to get to it nearly as often as I wish, but I got this back in college when I was out shopping with my sisters. It was on clearance if I recall... and needed to be tweaked a lil to make it wearable.

My oldest sis... FF... did the first restoration on this bad boy... she added a button up top and hand-stiched some of the beadwork that had come off. Anywho, here's what she looked like after FF's restorations.. but before my current alerations!

Before babies I was able to wear this thing sans bra... obviously not anymore... so try to image w/o the ugly white bra straps hanging out! And yes... that is BATMAN on the floor :)

First thing was I had to make the straps around the neck more sturdy.... They were strictly just the beaded strips... and they weren't long enough for the top part of the dress to sit just right on top of "the girls". The beadwork sat a little too high on them for my taste! As you can see in the back there was another string of fabric coming up from the sides to attach to the halter-like portion around my neck. I cut that off and hand stitched the orginal halter part to that. It reinforced the strength (to ensure no wardrobe malfunctions) of the halter and eased up on any discomfort from beads jabbing into my neck! (p.s. the yellow stitching you can see was actually from FF's original alterations :)


Toilet Paper

So I use to use Charmin... or Quilted Northern... but then I heard how bad they are on your plumbing?! I figured our house is old and we have enough issues going on with our pipes needing cleaned out every year from roto-rooter so why add to it.

I tried Scott... but made the mistake of buying 1 ply. Do people really like that?! Are you kidding me? Its like industrial grade... I'm pretty sure convicted felons are wiping their behinds with better stuff! Who wants to wipe to have their hand get wet? Um yea... NO THANKS!

So now I'm back to square one... oh wait... I'm not really b/c I bought waaaay too much Scott's I'm going to have to use for a while... Hopefully it will go fast considering how much I have to use to actually feel clean... I suppose I could donate it to church or something... here have my crappy TP that I can't stand using... I'll only use it once a week!

I found some random site that rated some TP and I'm thinking of trying these kinds... The links are to the site I mentioned :)
marcal-small-steps-bath-tissue

seventh-generation-100-recycled-bathroom-tissue

So the bad thing about recycled TP's is apparently they aren't as soft.... but honestly aren't we all just doing the job and flushing it anyway?.... Do we really need "virgin" trees for that job? As long as its 2-ply I think I'll be all right... And I guess I have quite a while to figure it out considering how much TP I have to use up.... whatever you do DONT TRY 1 PLY SCOTT'S.....

What brand of TP do you use?!