InstaFriday - with a quickness!

 1.  Masking Tape works every time for a salad bag that pops open on your way home from the grocery store, Wonton Tacos = deliciousness (click on the name, it will take you to the recipe), Oreo got a new treat, Lola told me she was ready to go to school in those heals, prepping for our Sunday dinner of Spaghetti and Meatball dinner with our golf buddies - Kyan loves to mix the meatballs (again, click on the name of the food and it will take you to the recipe, that one happens to be my Aunt Jan's secret recipe for her meatballs and sauce)!

2.  More prepping - this time it is chocolate chip cookies (Aunt Heidi's secret recipe, also shared if you click on the food title!), Merchant Square flea market - serious junking went down, pedi/manicure - how I love shellac, emergency clutches for Kyan's teacher!

3.  Chocolate Chip Cookies done and ready for ice cream, mail worth opening from Lisa Leonard Designs (I LOVE her work, added to my collection), "you can fly" necklace by LLD, downloaded Justin Bieber's new song for Lola, listened about 85 times the first night, after talking all week about our golf buddies coming over for dinner, poor girl crashed about 45 minutes after their arrival and slept right through their two hour dinner/visit, she was sad when she woke up!

4.  Dinner for the gold buddies!

5.  Love dressing for Spring, I have been using some of my dresses that are too short to wear to school as skirts, easy conversion, Mrs. Ashby hair according to Lola and how she insisted on wearing it to school, she loves her teachers, saved 30 cents per gallon on gas and filled my tank for $35, head massage and hair brush - was so worth letting her stay up past bedtime to do, Justin Beiber has entered the building in the form of Lola's first poster - she was so happy when she unfolded it!

Sorry for it being so short, big decisions being made over here, hope everyone had a great week!

Linking up with Jeannett over at Life Rearranged!

(to follow us on Instagram:  jenni_roseland)

InstaFriday

We had another wonderful week, that is for sure - best part, it seemed to fly!  Happy to report that we are one step closer to summer break over here {yes, I am counting!  Nine weeks to go until I am enjoying that backyard with the kids}.

For part of this post, we were still on Spring Break!  On Friday, Chad took the day off of work and headed to the Phoenix Zoo with us!  We hadn't been in quite some time {only for a birthday party and we didn't really explore past the area it was in} and I the kids had a blast!  They walked the entire time {without complaining}!  A major highlight for Kyan was riding Isaac, the camel!  He was so excited!  After watching him, Lola decided that next time, she would be brave and try too {yeah right, we'll see about that}!

Friday evening we met Grandma Donna for dinner after she got off work and had her therapy {hip replacement a few months ago}!  Yummy Mexican food at a local restaurant by her house!   The kids were very excited to get to spend their evening with her!

Saturday morning, Lola and I did some serious shopping together!  We started garage sale-ing, but really there wasn't anything around our 'hood that we were finding, so we hit up TJ Max and Old Navy, where we found some smokin' deals!  Plus, everything at Old Navy was 17% because of St. Patty's Day, so double smokin' deals!  My favorite thing I picked up were those Steve Madden shoes and my maxi skirts {yes, I bought it in three different colors}!  After our shopping day, I came home and played around on my sewing machine for a little bit and got an idea {that I am sure has been done before, I just hadn't seen it} and created a skirt out of an old t-shirt!  You can find the tutorial here if you want to make your own and have 10 minutes to spare!

Saturday night we met the Swishers for dinner at BJ's restaurant, a great spot as they have something for everyone!  We love those kids and Uncle Frank too and did some seriously laughing at the table!  And as you can see above, Lola decided that she wanted to eat her Spaghetti diner noodle by noodle.  Not kidding, she slurped them up one by one.

Sunday I finished making my first LilBlueBoo Sienna dress!  It was so much work and I become one with the seam ripper for sure, but I think it is safe to say that Lola LOVES it!  Not sure if I will be making another one anytime soon, think I will stick to those skirts, but it is something I can say I did!!!   I also did a little bit more shopping - I needed some Mac foundation, so I slipped on another maxi skirt from my shopping trip the day before and headed to the mall!  When I got home the kids went over to the neighbors to play and headed down in the rain and got about 10 feet before Lola came screaming and crying back inside, followed by Kyan and the umbrella.  It stood no chance in the crazy wind/rain we had!  I had to drive them down so they could play!

Monday was a sad day.  I had to head back to work and it was a long one!  But, neighbor Kelly had that Twix Brownie waiting for me when I drove past her house {and her kids' lemonade stand}!  It was delicious, but oh so rich.  I had a bit and had to put it down.  I spent Monday night on the couch, watching The Voice, working, all while bundled up in my snuggie!

Tuesday I finished up Delany's crib skirt with my friend Camille {if you click on her name, you can see the maternity shoot I just finished with her and stay tuned for pictures of her new baby girls room}!  I hope to get a tutorial up on that ruffled crib skirt soon, even though we didn't really measure much!  It was fairly simple, just a lot of hemming, ruffling, pinning and more pinning!  It does look beautiful and I can't wait to see it on the crib in person!

Wednesday was finally warm again and I sported my new shoes to school!  I paired them with an H&M dress I got this past summer, before I headed to Jamaica!

Thursday morning Lola woke up with the cutest grin on her face and came barreling into the bathroom while I was getting ready...

Lola - "Mom, I just had a dream about Justin Bieber!"  

Me - "Oh yeah?!  What was he doing in your dream?"

Lola - "He was singing to me!"

Me - "One Less Lonely Girl?"

Lola - Blushing, "Uh-huh!"

Me - "What was he wearing, his purple clothes?"

Lola - "No, his white ones!"

Too much, for real!  She is in LOVE!

They let me snap a new picture of them before they headed off to school!  I told them if they had good days, we could make our own pizza for dinner!  With a sticker on Lola's sheet and an excellent report card for Kyan, pizza makin' they did!  They loved them and ate every last bite.  They were actually begging for more and I didn't have any, but I know for next time!

Linkin' up with again over at Life Rearranged!  

 Hope every had a great week and has an even better weekend!

Recycled T-Shirt Skirt

 In the midst of all of the sewing I have been doing over spring break, Lola needed a little green to wear for St. Patty's day and an idea came to mind last minute...use one of the t-shirts I just bought from Saver's {I bought a bunch of fun colors to use for the Sienna Dress pattern by lilblueboo}!  I wasn't sure if it was going to work, but I did happen to snap pictures while making it, just in case!  Good thing for me {and now you too}, it did!  I can't wait to raid the house for more t-shirts to use on these super simple skirts for Lola!

What you will need:

an old t-shirt {I used an XL}

elastic

matching thread

Measure approximately 15 inches of the t-shirt and cut {adjust accordingly if you are making for someone smaller, but this worked perfectly for Lola}!  Make sure you use the bottom part of the t-shirt, this eliminates any hemming later on, it is already done for you!

 Leave it in one big piece, don't cut it!

While inside out, iron out any wrinkles.

Measure your child's waist {I wanna say Lola's was about 16-17 inches} and add one inch of elastic.  Lay down the elastic to see how much you need to fold over to make the waistband.  Iron and pin without the elastic inside {you just need to elastic for this part to see how much to fold your fabric over}.

Sew almost all the way around.  Leave approximately 2 inches to pull the elastic through.

Put a safety pin on one of the ends of the elastic and pull through.  Make sure to hang on to the other end so that it doesn't go through too while pulling.  Pull out both pieces of the elastic and overlap them.

Sew the ends together.  Tuck into the fabric and finish sewing the top closed.

It is seriously that easy!  Ready for Lola to wear to our St. Patty's day dinner!

She loves it and it really is the perfect length for standing or sitting!

But especially for playing in!  So comfy and all in about 10 minutes!

Ready. Set. GO make a few of your own!

 Linking with these fabulous parties!

InstaFriday - Spring Break Edition!!!

I love my iPhone, and I might have been a little picture happy this time around, as we {the kids and I} have been on Spring Break this week!  

Yearbook deadline wasn't technically due until March 12th, but I wanted to hit the final submit button before I went on break!  So Friday, after school, I made a few final tweaks before I submitted the entire book!  Wow, what a relief that was!  To celebrate, I went to the local wine bar and shared a bottle of wine with my friend!  It is funny, now that I like wine, all of my friends are very concerned about what I might like and very willing to offer their suggestions!  Holly recommended Stella Rosa and she hit the mark!  Was perfect!

Saturday morning Lola and I met up with some of our favorite girls for a mani/pedi.  Getting girl time with these two is very special to us!

After we were a little more put together from our morning of pampering, we headed as a family to watch Xavier play in the championship football game out in Gilbert!  Was very much worth the drive, the Sun Devils won the game and the kids were so excited to high five, hug, and take their picture with their favorite player!  Lola has the biggest crush on him in the world, Xavier is right up there with Justin Bieber!  We all like to tease her about it!

We were outside all day, running around on the field after the game and it made for some very dirty kids!  They were pooped by the time we got home and you can see how thrilled Lola is to have to get in the bath!

Sunday was a pretty chillax day!  I picked up a new skirt for Lola while I was out and about.  She is obsessed with skirts and tanktops right now.  It is all she wants to wear.  The kids attempted to sleep at the neighbors house, but only one made it the whole night...I bet you can guess who ended up back at home with me around 9:30, while I worked on editing wedding photos?!  Yep, she didn't last too long at all.  Right about time the movie was over, she just couldn't shut those eyes and needed me!  Ha!  It was a nice try though.  Kyan, of course, had a blast!

Had she not come home though, I wouldn't have got to see this sweet little face Monday morning when I rolled over...on the floor, to my right.  Nine out of 10 times she winds up there.  One day I know she will grow out of it, so for now, I just let it happen.  I woke up with what I thought was a nasty sinus infection {been battling it for a few days actually, just thought it was finally at sinus infection point} so I went to the doctor.  Turns out I didn't have one at all, just a reaction to all the Afrin I squirt up my nose.  I know it is bad, but I do it because it helps, I just do it too much for too long and it wasn't working like it was supposed to anymore.  I was given strict instructions to get off the stuff and squirt Flonase instead!  I also was given a steroid shot in the butt to help open up those airways and it huuuuuuurrrrtt!  Now everytime I want to use the Afrin I think about the burn that sucker left me and just deal.  So far, no squirts!!!

Chad took the day off of work Monday to spend with us, so after the doc appointment, we headed to the Goodyear Ballpark and watched the Diamondbacks play!  While in the bouncy play area, Chad got hit by a fly ball, so we took home a souvenir!

After the game, we did a little shopping.  Kyan needed a cup {so he could play catcher, in the big boy league now} before practice started!  Lola fell in love with that cute little hat!  Think I might have to go back and get it for her!  After practice, I had to meet up with my uncle, which cut into the Bachelor Finale!  I did make it home just in time to see him make the worst decision ever.  The Final Rose show was even more confusing?!  Hate that I can't tear my eyes away every single season.  Monday also marked the first week of vitamins and eating better and feeling good about me.  Whew, what a day!

 Tuesday I spent it crafting {unfortunately I can't show you, a surprise for my girlfriend's baby whose shower isn't until the end of the month} while my kids played with the neighbor kids!  They were so good!  Morning/Noon/Night, Kyan is playing catch with himself or anyone else that will toss him the ball!  I made him switch to tossing socks when he is in the house.  I made my favorite bell peppers for dinner again, this time using gold peppers instead of green!  I also forgot to take the sticker off one of them, but turns out they were still delicious as ever!

Wednesday morning Lola slept until after 9!  She is taking full advantage of Spring Break and was so tired from all of her playing the day before.  Camille came over for a crafting time, where we ruffled our little hearts out!  I am helping her make a crib bed skirt for her soon to be new baby girl's room!  Kyan played so good with Lola and Avery, I called him the babysitter, while we crafted, that when they left, I made sure to play catch with just him.  We were outside for over 45 minutes and having a blast until he took a shot to the head, when the ball bounced off of his glove.  Nothing a little frozen veggies can't fix!  After a little bit of rest, it was time to go to practice!  He was the only kid who wore his cup, so he was the only one who got to put on the gear and play catcher!  He had been waiting all day for that moment and was grinning from ear to ear the entire time he was wearing it.  Check out his form too, looks like he has been playing for years, you would never know it was his first time behind the plate!  He was on cloud nine from practice, so I figured I would keep making his night and served him dinner in the bath!

On Thursday, I spent some time contemplating whether or not to try the Sienna dress pattern by lilblueboo.  I have gotten as far as cutting out the size 4T size for Lola, but that is it.  Hoping to work more on it...soon!  Camille came over for about an hour and we got a few more layers done on her crib skirt!  She was also very sweet and brought me a new bottle of wine to try and this cute little Chirpie Wine Pourer!  I have been without wifi for about four days, something about the modem wasn't talking to the router {'cuz you know they have to do that?!}, and after being on hold with what seemed like forever and then following very specific instructions from Cox, I was able to fix it all by myself!  Can't believe how much I depend on the convenience of wifi and how annoying it was to be without it.  We enjoyed lots of time outdoors today too, at the park and riding bikes!  I love how sweet Kyan is to his sister.  When she needs help, he is always there for her!  I tried a new recipe too, Avocado Chicken Salad that I had pinned earlier in the week!  Has two of my favorite ingredients ever, cilantro and lime, of course it was yummy!!!

 

Mannnnn, what a week we have had!  We have had a great spring break so far and I look forward to finishing up the weekend strong as ever!  It has been so nice to play with my kids and get to know my sewing machine so much better this past week!  How close are we to summer vacation?! 

Faux Chenille & Minky Blanket

I am in love with faux chenille blankets, like serious love with them.  They are so soft {and get even softer the more you wash them}.  I knew after I made one for a baby shower last year that I just had to make Lola one of her very own too!  

Fast forward about 9 months later, 'cause that is how I roll around here, I finally got around to making her one.  Only hers wasn't just faux chenille on one side and cotton/flannel on the other, as recommended, but rather cheetah print minky fabric!  I wasn't sure if it would even work, based on everything I read about minky {first time sewing with it was on this project btw}, but I knew that it would take my already favorite blanket to make to the next level if I could get it to work!

Let me start off by saying that YES, sewing with 4 layers of cotton to make the faux chenille side and one layer of minky works!  Just be prepared to triple, if not quadruple, the time it typically takes to make this blanket {which is about 8 hours}.  You can also expect to discover muscles that you never knew you had before while sewing!  I wish I would have had someone take a picture of me while sewing this bad girl {yes, it is a girl blanket}, because I literally had to plant my left let against one of the legs on the chair and brace myself as I pulled the five layers through the machine!  I am sure I looked ridiculous, but I was determined to make this work!  I also used a standard foot on my machine, so nothing special is needed!

I am not going to try and do a tutorial on this or how I made mine, but rather direct you to where I go for directions when I make these blankets.  Dana, who blogs over at Made, has an incredibly easy {and free, 'cause she is awesome like that} tutorial to follow and I highly recommend you go there for this part if you are interested in trying to make your own!  Seriously though, if you can sew a straight line you can make this blanket {with or without the minky}, just be prepared for how much time they take!  I promise you that I am no where close to being any kind of expert sewer, I really know just the basics.  If I can do it, you can too!   If you decide to use minky fabric, click here or here for helpful tips!  The only thing I have for you is...

Thirty-two hours later {or something like that}, I LOVE how it turned out and I am pretty sure my cheetah print lovin' little girl agrees!  

I also love its versatility and how different and beautiful it looks on each side!

On the left is how it typically looks when her bed is made {which is like never...okay, I take that back, when my mom stays with us it is made then}.  On the right, I laid it out on top of her full sized bed so you could see how big it is!  I think it ended up being about 1 and 3/4 yards and was 52 inches wide {pretty sure standard size is 45 inches?}, no reason really, just liked how it looked!

I couldn't find binding that matched, so I ended up making this myself?!  I went to just about every quilting store in the valley and it just wasn't the right color or size.  Finally, the sweet ladies over at Mulqueen showed me how to do it on my own!  I think they could see I was about to cry real tears.  I could do it again, but don't ask me to explain it right now!  I am sure there is a great tutorial for this somewhere!  They told me to hand stitch it, but I didn't listen.  Way too much work!  Honestly, you can only tell it looks a little bit crooked when you look super close, but thought you might wanna still see that it is not perfect!  I am a firm believer that imperfections happen to be beautiful and give things character! 

My crooked lines don't seem to matter to her either!  Whew!  She LOVES her blanket!!!  I love that it is one that she will be able to grow up with and when she gets too big, it can easily become a throw blanket for her!

 Sharing with my favorite party peeps this week!

Oops, I did it again...

{Please tell me you started singing Brittney right there?!}

Ugh, said I wasn't going to go another week and not do a post or two in between InstaFriday posts, but I just can't keep up right now.  Yearbook deadline and grades are both due today, before we live for Spring Break, and between that and a wedding to edit, my iPhone is the only thing that keeps me connected to the outside world I guess?!  So happy that I have it, it is always so much fun to reflect on what we did!

On Friday my pants wouldn't stay zipped to save my life!  No worries, my black tank top layered under my t-shirt saved the day and no one ever noticed {or at least they didn't say anything to me if they did!?}.  Dinner for Kyan was Burger King, he LOVES their seeded buns and the new crowns that come with their kid meals, while I indulged in a glass of wine for dinner!  This Moscato D'Asti wine happened to be the first bottle of wine that I have ever purchased that I planned on drinking myself!  I enjoyed every last drop of it.

On Saturday I worked from sun up to sun down, but found myself with a little bit of me time sprinkled in there too!  Left my babies in their pj's and returned to them in a different pair.  Daddy held down the fort so that I could work.  On the camera?  A wedding and a family reunion all in one day!  The wedding took place in Cave Creek, not anywhere close to home, but close to where Brion now rests.  I was running very early and stopped off to say a prayer before the day even began.  It was one of the best starts of my days in a really long time.  In between the wedding and the reunion, I was also able to sneak to my girlfriend, Candis', house, where we relaxed by the pool and caught up on life.  When I got home from work and after I tucked the kids into bed, I spoiled myself to a nice hot bath {with a glass of my new wine of course}!

On Sunday, I made sure to spend the entire day as a family, especially since I had been go all of Saturday!  Lola and I started off at the grocery store shopping for the week, in our pj's!  I braided her hair later in the morning, but was only willing to show you one of the two sides!  The other one didn't look as pretty, but she loves it like that so I will just continue to practice!  I went on the hunt for Skylanders figures for Kyan's new game - I have become obsessed over them actually!  As soon as I figured out how hard they are to find, I have made it my personal mission to find every single one!  I gave Lola a mani/pedi, only to have it chip off an hour later!  I need to do a bottom color and then the glitter on top {I even knew that going in} but was lazy and just went straight for the glitter?!  We watched TV Sunday night as a family, two weeks in a row watching Hillbilly Handfishin'!  Chad says he can't believe there is actually a show about this on TV and then he continues to say that he really can't believe we are watching it!  Have you ever seen it?  So gross, but so...so...I don't know, but can't stop watching!  The kids must have missed me a lot, because they ended up in our room, snuggled on the floor together, in the middle of the night at some point!  They looked to adorable to move back.

Monday I went on a bike ride with kids after work.  Lola made it around the block twice and then went in to watch cartoons!  Kyan and I rode all through the neighborhood for another 30 minutes or so!  Then, I began to edit photos from the weekend and started with my favorite picture of the day!

I had been anticipating this Tuesday since I ordered my new case from Uncommon last week.  When I opened it, I had hearts in my eyes, I loved it...but then turned it to see the front and realized that the ring around it is black, not white and doesn't go with my white iPhone at all.  How did I miss this?  I thought the design wrapped all the way around.  I jumped on their website to check to see if I missed an option, but turns out, I didn't pay attention.  It is clearly black and that is the only way it comes!  Wouldn't be so bad if the design had a little black in it, but it doesn't!  That or I am just way too picky?!  Because it is a custom case, it can't be returned.  However, I was able to find a friend, who owns a black iPhone, that is going to buy it from me.  I now get to drool over her case and am on the hunt again for a new one.  Uncommon has great customer service and if they ever change options and make a white front available, I would absolutely order from them again!

It was cold on Wednesday, but because it was Spirit Week last week at school, I skipped Dress Wednesday with the girls, and knew if I skipped again I would be in trouble...so I wore another long dress, jacked from my mama's closet!  I was excited to see that one hanging in there, she never wears maxi dresses and I knew that would be any easy one to score!  I realized about half way through the day that the price tag was still on it!  So itchy!!!  The emergency clutch came in handy once again when one of my students got red pen on her skirt {yes, skirts are allowed on Dress Wednesdays too}!  She knew about all of the life saving items in it for a girl and was able to put it to good use!  Wednesday also marked the first day of baseball practice for Kyan!  He is so excited to be playing on a team this time around where most of the boys that play with him attend his school!

While looking through Lola's folder before school on Thursday, I saw the picture she drew of her and Justin Bieber!  Girl has the fever like no other!  I also finally got around to hanging the Spring Door Decor  when I got off of work and was excited to see that it made it through the year {so delicate with the branches and birds and eggs, I was kinda worried}!  Remember when I was complaining about having grades and yearbook and editing to do?!  Well, I soooooo should have been doing that instead of playing around with my silhouette, but I couldn't help it.  I had a need to CREATE and hope that I can pull off what I started - but I promised myself everything had to be done that concerned school before I could do anything.  That and I have until March 31st to make it happen!  So I saved my page and then posted my grades.  Now I only have to finish yearbook and I will be good to go!

We ended our week with armpit farts!  It was awesome and the kids giggled like crazy!

Happy Friday!  

 

Linking up with Jeannett once again this week!  If you want to see what we are up to already this week, follow us (@jenni_roseland) over on Instagram!  On the verge of Spring Break, it is gonna be a goooooooooood week!