Nothing new....

There is not much going on in our household these days!!! So that is why I have been a little m.i.a. in the creative blog world.

I have been working on things for Ceej's upcoming 2nd birthday celebration! Here are the invites I made :)

Can you guess what theme I'm going with?! These little buggers took me forever... but hey they are pretty cute right?!

I found these adorable shoes at Old Navy the other week....... I just couldn't pass them up; check out the clearance price!

So you can expect some fun projects coming up after the birthday extravaganza (I sure hope the weather is nice cause Ceej just loves water balloons :) )

Kosama before and after

I completed my 8 weeks at Kosama!!! And I'm still going :) It is rather addicting.... I just feel so good after working out there, and I'm LOVING the results I'm seeing physically. I am stronger. There is NO DOUBT about that. Before when I would lift Ceej and Bubba out of a shopping cart, I would be struggling... now I can fairly easily lift them up and out w/o problems (unless their little shoes get caught on something!). I can see and feel the difference in my biceps. I went from only being able to do 18 push-ups..... to now being able to do 33 in a row w/o collapsing! I lost 5 inches in my waist, 1.5 inches in my hips, and I lost 2 whole pounds of fat!

this is just what 1 lb of fat looks like..... 

JDub is being a little protective of my new hot bod..... so I'm just showing my before and after photo of my back. (if you're my friend on facebook you can see the others :) ) This is really where you can see most of the difference anyway!

I know... some of you might not see that much of a difference..... But I sure can. And that was only 8 weeks! Imagine what a year could do.... well I didn't sign up for a year, but I want to get my body swim-suit ready! So I'm staying on for a few more months....

You should find a Kosama near you if you're looking for a new workout. Its a group atmosphere... you never do the same thing every day.... its AWESOME! http://kosama.com/ I highly recommend it :)

St. Patrick's Day 2012

Gingers reunite everywhere!!!! I really don't like being referred to as a "ginger" it sounds degrading... but if another ginger calls me one its ok... ya know? It's like we have our own little club. Any who, this year I was pumped St. Patrick's Day fell on a Saturday! That meant JDub would be home and we could all go to the parade together! In preparation my mom found me this nice green shirt at Goodwill. I don't know the exact price she paid... but it was cheap I'm sure...

Initially I saw this on Pinterest and thought it would be cool to try....

So I tried eye-balling my cuts...

I ended up trimmed a bit more off to get the fit just right.... I took the scraps and tied 3 little knots on each side.

I wanted to go with the racerback style shirt... but then I didn't want to ruin the Bible verse on the back. And hey there were A LOT of people out and about over the weekend..... and I'm sure a few of them could use a little Jesus too :)

I ended up with this!

It was just too hot to wear a t-shirt... I'm glad I altered it to get a lil more sun!

What's with boys and their forts?

Ok so I semi get this one... I mean if I were to have a "fort" it would look something like this!

Of course that won't happen b/c they would destroy all my hard work in about 5 seconds! But they have to have a fort everywhere! Just about in every room?! What is up with that?

this is the one in the basement

daddy constructed this one after an order from diapers.com.......
 this was at Christmas and don't worry it is still in the house :(

That is what JDub constructed while I was away... its apparently how he wants to spend his day off.

this is Bubba's bunk-bed fort

I don't mind the forts....... not really..... but Bubba's bed fort was becoming a problem!!! JDub decided to start this trend (thanks a lot) and then he wanted it all the time. The only problem was it kept falling... usually (conveniently) in the middle of the night and during nap-time. Bubba would scream bloody murder until someone would fix it. Initially we were shoving the blanket underneath the mattress of the top bunk. But that just wasn't covering it. This is an old-school electric blanket (that doesn't function as it was originally intended) that's kind of heavy due to the cords woven inside. I wanted to throw it out, but it is the only blanket that will cover the entire length of the bunk beds w/o "cracks" of light as Bubba calls them. So I did a little sewing :) Nothing special really.... but so far it is working out great!

I had these black strips of fabric leftover from my t-shirt quilt!!

t-shirt quilt! this was before the backing was added...
I sewed all this and took it to a professional for the quilting part

these strips were already cut! I'm so glad I hung onto them :)

Then I made them into straps! I tried to measure where they'd need to be to go around the side railings and all... my measurements were a bit off but hey... it works!

No more falling fort! For now anyway... Hopefully the straps will hold up. :)

Butterfly kid craft

So I like getting crafty... hopefully that's pretty obvious from these posts... I get a little bored sometimes and want to make something! Originally I had planned these butterflies as an easy craft for my niece's rainbows-and-butterflies-birthday party theme.... but when Bubba came down sick, and he was really the only child who could participate for longer than 2 seconds (Ceej just has no patience for crafting....) I decided to try them out one afternoon.

I already had the googly eyes, pipe cleaners, and random poofs for the noses from when I did my reindeer beer birthday present for my father-in-law.

And I also had clothespins and coffee filters from my turkey place setting back on Thanksgiving.....

Its always funny how these crafts start out as something for the kids.... but then I end up doing most, if not ALL, of the work on it... oh well it keeps them entertained for a time and I have fun doing it usually :)

After I made noses on the butterflies, Bubba informed me that butterflies smell with their feet... so maybe the noses were unnecessary....

I cut the circular coffee filters into butterfly wings.... colored with marker.... sprayed with water (Bubba's favorite part!) and let them dry. That way they look sort of tie-dyed! Then scrunch the filters into the clothespin and there you go!

After the party of course I realized I had pinned this on Pinterest a while ago..........

That would have been a perfect party favor full of skittles! A little "taste the rainbow" action.... oh well :)

New Kitchen Floor

Oh fake parquet flooring..... how I haven't wanted you since we moved into this house many moons ago (approximately 5 years ago...). How I've hated watching your ugly, icky peel-n-stick fake tiles bubble and chip...... how I've tried and tried to clean you but you still looked dirty after my hard work... enough is enough! Out with the old and in with the new I say!!!

this was our kitchen when we purchased the home... I have to say we have not done much, just changed out the fridge, dishwasher, and the knobs (who really wants green nobs/handles AND hinges?! Weirdos....)

Isn't Mango pretty?! (not the ugly flooring....)

We began by ripping out the old.... we found that they had linoleum flooring underneath the peel-n-stick tiles. I was worried we were going to have to rip up EVERYTHING..... the glue from under the linoleum and all..... But since we were installing what they call a "floating" floor... we just ripped up what we could and laid the nice blue foam stuff down and started snapping in the new "wooden" floor! I know easier said then done... and while I am great at ripping stuff up, I am not so great at measuring and all that. So I left the meticulous part to JDub. :)

slow going at first.... and w/o a stove for a couple of days...

Rainbows and Butterflies birthday

I thought I'd post a few pictures from my niece's birthday party :) My sister did most of the work... but I did help with a few things!

I found the idea for the hanging mobiles on Pinterest (I know... you're SHOCKED!!) You can find the link to the tutorial here... diy modern paper mobiles I have to say it was kinda hard to find the special "vellum" paper. I wanted to use all the colors of the rainbow... but Michael's was pretty limited on their selection. I'm sure you could buy some online if you have the time though!

* While they looked cute for a while... the paper did start to curl and not look so cute. I substituted washers for the fishing weights... and my thread broke while trying to sew 2 of them (hence the shortness on a couple of them!!!) It was my fault for buying cheap thread (you think it won't matter what thread you use but it really does!)

*I also started cutting the paper in strips on the longer end at first (11 inches vs. 8.5) So then I cut those in half (instead of having a 1 in x 8.5 inch like the site called for..... I had a 1x11 which I then cut to two 1 x 5.5 inch strips). I have to say the paper curled less with the shorter length... so if I try these out again I'd go for the shorter length ones! They don't curl and still look pretty cute. (you can see the shorter one on the end there in yellow and green)

Rainbow shirt with scraps

Tomorrow is my niece's birthday!!! She is getting sooo big and walking too! My sister said she wanted a "rainbows and butterflies" birthday for her. I'm planning on having a post later with all the yummy details of the party decor... but for now I thought I'd show you the present I made for her!

This is what the shirt looked like before.......

I believe there's a little bit of chocolate milk and a whole lot of spaghetti sauce going on... its a size 2T-3T Boys Hanes t-shirt. I took my handy-dandy bottle of RIT Dye in Fuchsia and.........

While I was hoping the dye would take care of everything.... you could still see the grease stains!!

JDub's Iowa State Birthday

Ok... so those of you who might not know... my husband (aka JDub) is a big Iowa State Cyclone fan. Being a Cyclone fan can be kind of rare in these parts, (the Cedar Rapids area... being as it is so close to Iowa City, with the Hawkeyes) which can play to my advantage. I actually found an old-school Cy-the Cyclone- shirt from Old Navy for $2.97......... can you believe it?! I was going to take a picture of it... but JDub enjoyed it so much that he wore it right out of town yesterday afternoon. But it does look something like this!

He is an alumni.... which plays a big part on his passion for the Cyclones. So in thinking of what he might want for his birthday....... I made him a couple things.....

Yep that's right... with movable beak!

Bubba and Ceej are also big Cyclone fans.... mainly because they are too young to know any difference! But Cy -the Cyclone- is also pictured as a cyclone, or a tornado....

This is of course Bubba's favorite portrayal of Cy -the Cyclone. So this is why I chose to make JDub this.....

Now this was no easy task.... what I thought was going to be an easy boxed cake mix.... turned into quite a nightmare. I was able to salvage it! (Oh yee of little faith MOM!) But this cake was originally supposed to be the entire size of that plate.... around 9 inches.... When I went to take them out of the pans I not only dropped one of them (mostly on the counter top..) but it crumbled all over the place! Half of it was stuck to the inside of bottom of the pan (and YES I did use butter and flour to try and keep it from sticking.... I know , I know... I should have used shortening...) But the other cake shortly started to crumble along the way as well.

What I found myself doing was carving the most crumbly part out and trying to keep the surviving cake in one piece. Lets just say there was a lot of cake that didn't make it......

Its too bad I had a heavy whipping cream layer inside b/c I probably could have made cake balls out of it!

Any who, I think for the disaster this cake started as.... it turned out pretty good. Did I mention JDub bought me cake decorating nozzles for Christmas? I took it as a hint I needed to be making more cakes... Maybe I'll have to make one from scratch one of these days!

Monkey Pants

So there they are. My comfy, cute monkey pj pants. I have had them forever... but honestly they are pretty thin and the drawstring was kind of annoying me... I had to have the drawstring tight enough so when my boys decided to tug on my pants that they didn't fall down....... but then the string was always too tight to where I had to undo it every time I had to go to the bathroom! I hadn't worn them in a while and I had the idea to make my boys some matching pants!

Well that was the idea... but I got one pair finished and I couldn't wait to post! So here it goes...

I laid the pants down and realized they had 2 seams on each side... I figured my boys are little enough and these wide pants were wide enough that I could seam-rip the seams and sew me some new pant legs!

After semi-measuring Bubba and seam ripping........ I turned the pants inside out and pinned the new inside seams of the newly-formed legs. And sewed! I made sure to reinforce the seams with a zig-zag after I stitched a straight-stitch.

Then I cut across the top to make the new waist of the pants.

Bubba is so tiny I knew I'd have to adjust the top of the pants a bit.... I was really hoping to not have to put any elastic in there but I ended up cutting a strip of fabric and sewing it to the top.

Then I threaded the elastic through with a safety pin attached........

Here are the new mini-monkey pants :)

I think they're pretty cute... but JDub has informed me they are a little "girly"..... He says he's not sure if its b/c they used to be my pants... so he's seen me (a girl) in them.... or what... But I might have to find a girl to give them to.... I still have the other pant-leg to work with for Ceej, and I could maybe even keep the rest as capri's or shorts! We'll see :)

Week 4 Kosama and other Updates :)

Ok... so I have officially completed week 4 of my Kosama challenge..... its going well! I still really like it. I work really hard the hour long workout..... and I've been doing my best to eat better and to drink lots more H20. I have to say its been a little hard with things like this staring me in the face.......

mmmm have u tried these kettle cooked sea salt and cracked pepper chips?!
SOOOOOOOO GOOD (and so very bad at the same time)

But I'm doing it. The Kosama instructors sent out emails talking about becoming an "alumni". Which basically means you sign on to stay another 8 weeks or longer.... I have to say I would really like to stay on for another 8 week session... but I just don't see it happening ($$$$). I can definitely see changes in my physical body... as well as just feeling better in general. My only drawback (besides the cost) is that I could easily go to bed at 8:00 pm every night.... getting up at 4:30 am 5 days out of the week (and 5:45 am on Saturday) I am exhausted by the time the boys' bedtime gets here. I do feel like I have more energy during the day... as long as I keep motivated and moving. If I sit and cuddle for too long........ I am ready for a nap! My initial thinking for doing the early session is to get it done and out of the way for the day. I don't have to worry about finding a sitter for the boys...or taking time away from family once JDub is home from work..... but I have been waking JDub up earlier, and I'm just too tired to stay up late. I'd love to see how another 8 weeks could really improve my physical appearance more though.

check out these guns!!! ask to feel them in person too.. they are solid! :)

Another thing that was really draining this week was the food poisoning I endured last Sunday... and into Monday... UGH. I mean at least it wasn't the stomach flu... but it was still pretty bad. Here's the kicker too....... I ate a salad and fruit for lunch that day.... and that's what got me sick?! Seriously?! Poor JDub had to stay home on Monday b/c after puking (and other things) my guts out all day Sunday I couldn't handle dealing with the boys by myself. Once again even though it sucked... I am blessed to have a nice hubby who stayed home with the boys while I rested. After weighing myself on Monday and being pretty excited with the result (I weighed less than my husband for once.....) JDub declared "See you didn't need these fancy workouts after all....." Yea apparently I just needed to get food poisoning...... haha....

In other news.......
I officially registered Bubba for preschool in the fall! Its hard to believe he will be 4 in August. I have to admit I am a little excited for him to go though. Not only for his socialization and structure, but for a little more one-on-one time with Ceej. He will be 2 here soon!!

Ugh.. the dreaded potty-training.... Ceej has managed to take an interest in the potty.... sometimes... He has in fact pooped on the potty (just once) and he pees pretty much daily on it as well. It is, however, not consistent, and pretty much at the most inconvenient time (while I'm cooking) that he wants to go "paah paah" as he calls it. Ceej refuses to wear a pull up... so I find myself trying to pull the diaper down and back up while trying to adjust it correctly and not rip it apart while he wants to sit on the potty and stand to get dressed... to only want to sit on the potty again the instant I have him re-dressed. He usually goes through this routine (of de-pantsing, getting dressed, getting naked, getting dressed, getting naked, getting dressed) at least 4 times (and sometimes more!) until he feels he is "finished" going. I say "finished" because most of the times he sits nothing comes out or its only a few tiny drops of pee and then he proceeds to flush. I keep telling him he can't flush until he fully goes potty... but that just makes him throw a tantrum! But alas, there are actual times that he sits and truly lets it all out and he's very proud. He's not 2 until April (Bubba was wearing underwear the whole day on his 2nd birthday) so I am not pushing the whole potty thing... but hey if he's showing interest I will entertain it for the most part :)

JDub has informed me that I am "out of control" with the amount of clothes I have... I know... its bad... I'm fully admitting it... but.... and yes there is always a "but"........ I really like re-doing clothes! I don't want to throw away any scraps I might be able to make something out of later! I keep trying to tell him I need to just organize everything and it would be so much better. So any volunteers? I want to take a trip to the Container Store or IKEA again and get something figured out....... cause I love crafting but JDub is fed up with it being EVERYWHERE.

I did get rid of 2 plastic grocery sacks worth of clothes to goodwill today :) So its a start.... I have some cute monkey pants I don't ever wear any more that I am going to try and turn into matching pj pants for the boys. Hopefully I'll have a post on that soon. Who's excited for the Super Bowl tonight?! (And by Super Bowl I really mean the commercials!!) All the yummy food is going to make me pay tomorrow though!!!