Monthly Archives: April 2013
my weekend in photos
greg met his bro up in the dc area this weekend to visit the fam.
the gilbertson men reunited.
saturday morning, kenley and i really tried hard to make it downtown in time for the march of dimes walk,
but since they decided to start early we just missed the start.
regardless, we represented jack’s pack while the fam was walking back in indiana.
we had our own little walk around lake eola and played at the park,
we weren’t going to let the beautiful morning go to waste.
first nap in the big girl bed looked like this.
she fell asleep as soon as she got back into bed, thankfully.
greg and the boys hit up the nationals / reds game at nationals park.
we hit up the splash pad for the first time this summer,
and kenley loved it. i foresee a lot of splash pad in our future.
having fun in the wa-wa
i saw on pinterest this week to put tea bags into your toms to make them less stinky.
the pin didn’t have a link attached to it, so i was skeptical, but let me tell you…
worked like a charm! i’ve worn a hole in my toms i’ve worn them so much and
they now don’t smell at all…other than a little like apple cinnamon tea.
***
we had a good weekend, but we are happy to have daddy home.
but, he had a wonderful time with the fam.
how was your weekend?
{diy} headboard
We watch a lot of American Pickers at our house. Greg is really into the show,
mostly to see the unique stuff they stumble upon. I could take it or leave it,
mostly because I kind of get grossed out if the person is a big hoarder, but I’ll watch it with him.
Imagine my excitement when I got home later than usual (on a school night),
and see a door sitting out in our neighbor’s trash to be picked up the next day.
I immediately knew what I wanted to do with it and went inside to tell Greg to go get it.
Since he was already asleep, he was way less excited than I was, and reminded me
that it would probably be there the next morning and he would get it then.
I thought it would be more stealth-like to get it in the middle of the night,
but I agreed and went to bed. He marched over there the next morning in the broad daylight,
and brought the door back… way less dramatic than it would have been the night before,
but whatever.
The door would be turned into a headboard for our guest bedroom upstairs where we have a king size bed,
and the inspiration can be found here.
The door was pretty dented on the white side, but it good shape on the blue side,
so we decided that we would sand it down, clean it up, and paint it, but we weren’t sure what color.
We debated on the color we would paint the door, sanded it down a little, then it sat around while
we got preoccupied with other projects, and life in general.
We finally got back on the ball and started working on the door again.
It must have been a much-needed break, because after Greg (and Kenley) sanded it down again,
we both realized how much we really liked the original color of the blue.
I really wanted to do a color because we don’t plan on painting the walls any time soon,
and we are going with a blue tones-beachy-map-world theme in the room anyway.
How’s that for a theme?
Since we decided to keep the color, we only needed a few more supplies.
We got one piece of crown molding, since we love using crown molding for anything.
See our other crown molding projects here and here.
Greg affixed the crown molding to the door with molding glue and added a piece of wood on top,
so it could act as a shelf down the road, see the inspiration here.
To mount the door to the wall, we used an 18″ picture hanging system.
Keep in mind that this door is metal and relatively light. If this were a solid wood door,
we would have done something different because I don’t think that little sucker would hold it on the wall.
The total cost of this project:
Crown Molding – $18.98
18″ Hangman Picture Hanging System – $10.88
1 x 4 x 8 Piece of Wood – $2.06
For a grand total of about $32!
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.
Right?
my weekend in photos
this is what our friday night consisted of, much like the rest of america, i’m sure.
as soon as kenley went to bed, we sat ourselves in front of the tv, computer, twitter screens,
watching the events unfold. much love to the people of boston and watertown.
saturday morning began bright and early at ikea.
i’m happy to report the piggy-tails lasted the entire trip!
errands continued saturday. this is what happens when you have a crappy cart,
and are shopping alone with an 18 month old…just have it. ha.
we headed to sea world sunday morning for the first time!
we chose not to touch the sting rays this time.
she loved the dolphins!
watching the dolphins from below.
intrigued!
so awesome!
kenley talked about the “big turtle” later in the day.
hanging with daddy.
this was the best picture i got of them, being twins!
first ride! i call it a merry-go-round, while i’m pretty sure the rest of the world calls it a carousel.
18 Months!
Yet another big milestone.
In honor of 18 months, here are 18 fun things about Kenley.
1. Kenley loves washing her hands. She asks for soap in the bath and just lathers it in her hands.
She is also very good at pretend washing her hands in her little kitchen sink.
2. She can identify Mickey & Minnie Mouse and Goofy on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.
Donald & Daisy Duck are still “quack” and Pluto is “dog”.
3. She is really into babies right now. She opens her book to the page with a baby and will
kiss it repeatedly. She’ll hug, pat, and put her dolls night-night. Her teachers say she does the same at school.
*I was stopped at a very long stoplight while I was taking this video.
4. Likewise, she loves looking at pictures on my phone of “baby” (which is really her).
As soon as she sees my phone, she immediately says “picture, picture”.
If you ask her who the baby is, she’ll say Kenley,
but I think that’s only because we’ve told her so many times that it’s her.
5. She loves Publix & free cookies. So much so that now whenever she is placed in a shopping cart,
no matter what store it is, she starts saying “cookie, cookie, cookie” x 5.
She had a couple customers at Hobby Lobby laughing last weekend.
6. She is eating so so so well right now. She loves broccoli, both talking about it and eating it.
7. She is constantly talking about her friends, both at school and outside of school.
8. She’s scared of the garage door closing and the vacuum.
9. Her most favorite word right now is “no”. We’re back in the “no no no” phase.
10. She loves to take the garbage and put it in the trash can.
The first time she did it, Greg & I were in shock. She picked up a Cheerio off the floor,
walked right over, opened the pantry door, popped the lid to the trash, and threw it away.
She says “garbage” very well.
11. If we have a couple extra minutes in the morning when I drop Kenley off at school (I drop off, Greg picks up),
I will let her walk in, rather than me carrying her.
Now when we pull up, she says “walkie, walkie” and practically sprints to her classroom
when we get in the door, saying “hi” and “morning” to everyone.
12. She’s starting to say “I love you.”
13. She loves shoes… much like her mama…and her grandma…and her great-grandma. She gets it honest.
Just yesterday, she threw a royal fit when I went to put on her shoes only because she wanted to wear another pair.
Really, already?
14. She is in almost all 2T clothes, with just a couple lingering 18mo outfits, and in size 5 shoes.
15. She loves to “clean up” her bath toys… but she won’t even think about cleaning up the toys in the playroom.
16. She sings the ABC’s (somewhat in order) and counts to ten (not really in order at all). The other day we had the news on the TV, as most of us have, and she pointed to the scrolling news bar on the bottom of the TV saying… “A” “B” etc. Too funny.
17. She knows the difference between open and closed; and up and down.
18. She weighs 26 pounds 4 ounces and is 32.5 inches tall.
Happy half birthday Kenley Dee!
my weekend in photos
after being on the wait list for five days, i got my mailbox on friday morning!
#nerd
trying to embrace the camera more. being silly on friday night.
after running some much needed errands on saturday, we went for a walk.
she really did enjoy it. and the shades lasted a whole three minutes.
we ended up doing so many house projects this weekend.
i’m excited to share them soon.
i understand it may have snowed in some parts over the weekend,
but we were reminded that summer is just around the corner. it was hot.
but, we played outside anyway.
***
we had a majorly productive weekend. i promise to share more photos soon.
how was your weekend?
my weekend in photos
friday lunch at the new lazy moon! it’s back and better than ever.
friday night these ladies and i had a long overdue dinner date.
she’s ready to take a trip. where we going?
bubbles!
kenley loved having meemaw and grandpa back for their last leg of spring break.
we loved it too!
i mean, let’s be serious, how cute are they?
our community had a block party saturday night, which was super fun.
rice for dinner. just saving some for later.
kyler and kenley had a great time riding around together.
hugs goodbye.
i said smile, and she actually did. this was a proud moment for me.
someone reeeeeeally liked ikea today.
***
we had a wonderful weekend with family & friends.
how was your weekend?
Quilting
You may remember I mentioned I was working on a quilt block recently,
or that one of my goals this year was to make a quilt.
Well, I’m working towards it and wanted to share my progress,
as well as what I’ve learned so far (which is a lot!).
After I got a new sewing machine for Christmas from my awesome hubster,
my friend Sally thought it’d be fun to do an online class to make a quilt.
The beautiful thing about this class (besides the fact that it’s free!) is
that you do two squares a month and by the end of the year, you have a quilt.
I figured it was definitely manageable and a realistic way to make a quilt this year,
especially considering I have NO IDEA what I’m doing.
Sally, Lindsey, and I enrolled in the Craftsy Block of the Month 2012 class.
This is the class from last year, so all of the monthly videos are already posted,
so I could start working ahead, but ain’t no body got time for that.
January
My first block was kind of rough (left). The second one was slightly better, but not by much.
The biggest thing I learned this month was to press to the dark.
Yes, I realize that seems so simple, but I didn’t know it.
You can tell that I pressed to the white on the first block because my white fabric is sheer enough.
I also learned that you are just using your iron to press, not actually ironing (back and forth).
Overall, I wasn’t too upset with the blocks this month. I know they aren’t perfect, and that’s ok.
February
These blocks were a little more time consuming and complicated, but I liked doing them.
The videos for the course are so easy to follow along with, which make it so much better.
I love the chunky chevron on the right, it’s so fun!
Sally did her squares before me this month, and made sure I knew about a scant quarter inch,
which of course, I did not. I also learned more about my machine this month.
No joke, I realized that there is a handy little thread cutter actually ON THE MACHINE.
Who knew? (Obviously, not me. Ha!).
March
While these may have looked like the hardest blocks thus far, they actually were just the opposite!
There really was no rhyme or reason to the size of the scrap fabric or pattern,
so I was just grabbing strands, sewing, and pressing.
I was pretty impressed with how they turned out.
It’s amazing how much easier sewing is when you know about seam allowance,
and where you should be looking on your machine when you’re sewing.
I’m excited about the quilt so far, and we’re only six squares in.
Another plus is that I haven’t had to buy any fabric because I am using all the fabric from Kenley’s weekly photo project,
so it’s going to be a wide array of colors and patterns, but I think that will make it fun.
So far, this is the most intensive project I’ve attempted,
much more difficult than burp cloths, birthday party bunting, and crib sheets,
but I know it’s not going to be perfect, and I’m learning as we go.
I definitely couldn’t do it without the Craftsy class and my crafty friends!
my weekend in photos
part one: we made some improvements to our laundry room! i’m hoping to get it finished next weekend & share soon.
part two: freshly stripped diapers. so fresh and so clean.
enjoying time with meemaw and gee-paw before they departed on their second leg of spring break.
brunch at keke’s. yum yum yum.
alone time at target. it never gets old. never. ever.
lots of march madness. and i’m ok with that.
although, it would have been more fun watching the hoosiers this weekend :: sigh ::
checking out what the easter bunny brought!
sporting her new backpack before church.
lowe’s was empty on easter sunday. who would have thought?
he is risen! he is risen indeed!
***
we had a wonderful, easter weekend with family & friends.
how was your weekend?
The Gilbertson Family 