Flower Power!

So I told you I'd give you little glimpses of my shower handiwork......

I'm pretty happy with how my little felt flowers are turning out!

They're going to look so pretty on Baby Girl's sweet little head...

But lets be honest,

behind every pretty little craft

usually lies one very messy craft table...

There is definitely no 'dining' going-on in this dining room!

My husband, who is always looking for an 

opportunity to make some extra cash,

 is quite impressed with 

my recent crafting rampage, and is

 getting all kinds of ridiculous ideas in his 

little head....

most of which include me having an

internet start-up business making, sewing

and selling my goods...ha!

I'm quite happy punching a clock and

crafting for friends, thankyouverymuch...

But I'd be more than happy to show you

how to use the sewing machine if you're so inclined...

More to come!!

Megan got hitched!!

                        

     In February, our sweet friend Megan 

  and her husband Ryan got married

  on Captiva Island in Florida.

    (And P.S. I'm pretty sure their wedding pictures

          are some of the most amazing, idyllic images

   I've ever seen!!)

So yesterday, they hosted a reception 

back here in K.C. for their local 

family and friends that couldn't make it 

to their intimate ceremony in Florida.

Roy was working, since

the bad weather was holding off,

so I was flyin' solo to the reception.

Luckily I had lots of good friends

 to sit with!!

Alicia, Rachael and myself

All the girls from work

What's wrong with this picture??

Oh, wait... Rachael is holding

MATT's baby bump!! 

Here we are with the lovely bride!

Alicia's husband stayed home too,

so I made her my stand-in date.

Megan did a great job putting everything

together and I know how relieved

she must be to finally have

all the wedding stuff behind her!

Help! I'm in a blue/green hell!

There is a giant box of paint supplies in our office that is begging to be carried downstairs to the storage room....
What's the hold up you ask?
Well you see, I'm having THE hardest time finding a color to paint our guest bathroom.  It's the last room in the house left to paint, and go figure it's been the hardest to decide on.
This bathroom has a cooler/cleaner feel than the rest of our house, and I wanted it that way...but now that it's time to paint I'm finding myself turned off by all the icy cool blues and more modern grays that I thought I would like.
Everything either looks too gray, too 'baby boy' blue or too sea foam green....ACK! Help me!!
I've wasted purchased no less than 5 paint samples.  Initially when I slap them on I think 'oh, not too bad...maybe this is the one!'  but as the hours and days go by I slowly decide that I hate it :(

It doesn't help that the lighting in this bathroom is a disaster.  We've tried to solve this problem by buying a bazillion different light bulbs....which leads me to the question...Have you tried to buy lightbulbs recently?? What the crazy is going on with the light bulb industry? I felt like I needed some sort of degree in electricity to figure out what # of 'lumens' 'watts' or 'volts' I was needing....Do I need soft white? warm white? Natural light? Day light?
But no matter which ones we've bought the room either looks like someone peed yellow all over the walls or resembles the fluorescent glow of a jail cell....barf.   I just want bright white light!! Not yellow! Not neon fluorescent! Geesh!...ok anyways, here a few pictures of the smurf-tastic walls that we're currently sporting...

A few of our paint samples....please note the lightbulb assortment

that is happening in the background.

The big guy on the far left would be great if we wanted to 

take a trip back to the dingy 80's, while the little swirly guys

are great for pretending you're incarcerated...bah

Ick! What is happening here???

Sad day. These look even worse on camera

than they do in person, which is making me 

even more disheartened...

Anybody got any great ideas? I still want to keep the cooler overall feel of the bathroom, but I'd like the paint color to lean a little more towards the traditional side of colors versus something uber modern.

I'm picturing this....

See?? Now how did they manage to make this bathroom look so cool and clean while still feeling traditional? And their blue walls don't look like a little boys nursery at all!! Maybe I just need to pick one and hope that when the accessories are all in place it will come together....

Thoughts? Advice?

Busy Days...where does the time go??

These spring days are flying by!! How is it already April??
As of late my days are filled with....

• Working...extra shifts will be the death of me I'm certain...  

 

• Family time...I had to work on Easter Sunday, so our family celebrated on Saturday. My parents, my sister and her friend Jackson came over and we grilled out.  It was pretty laid-back, but fun none-the-less.  I was lame and took absolutely no pictures...fail.  The weekend before I went over to my friend Lillie's house for an Easter BBQ...it's always so good to spend time with old friends.  Holidays like Easter and Christmas always leave me thinking about the traditions that I will one day want to have with my own family...I find myself already overwhelmed by the responsibility of having children and teaching them the importance and magnitude of days like Resurrection Sunday. I know I have plenty of time to figure these things out and there will lots of learning along the way, but I just want my kids to know the real reasons we celebrate these holidays....I of coarse want their memories to be fond ones filled with fun-times...but it's even more important to me that they know it's not about bunnies in baskets or brightly colored eggs.  How do you find the balance thats right for your family?? I'm sure when that time comes, there will be lots of praying and seeking done on my part!

                                                             

• House cleaning and sprucing up for spring....well, let's be honest...I'm barely keeping my head above water in the house wife category.                                                                                       Roy is back to work, so I've lost my live-in 'Man-Maid'....oh, hello laundry piles and dirty dishes...I so didn't miss you  :(  But what is it about the spring that makes you want to re-landscape your entire yard, while washing all your windows and redecorating your entire house? Maybe it's because the spring always seems like such a fresh start...but, unfortunatly for me... we're trying hard to reign in any extra spending these days so we can pay off some bills, so for now, I will just have to drool over pictures of beautifully landscaped yards and decorated homes.

• Sewing!!  I'm loving sewing even more than I thought I would...unfortunately most of my projects so far are for my best friend who also happens to be my only blog reader :) Hence I will not be posting many pictures of my masterpieces until later...

•  Cooking dinner and packing lunches...something I've never been too great at.  But it turns out that when you're trying to save money, cooking and packing your (and your husbands) lunches becomes part of the deal.  Doesn't sound like too big of a burden, but when I get home from work at 8 in the morning the last thing I feel like doing is putting together some semblance of a decent lunch for Roy.  Alas, I will push-on!!

• This is off the subject....but have you seen the new FOX comedy 'New Girl' with Zooey Deschanel?  It's hilarious...and I'm a tough crowd when it comes to comedies.....but  I don't go a single episode without seriously cracking up and several episodes have had me to the point if tears. Not sure what strikes a chord with me, it's just quirky and often inappropriate in the most hilarious of ways....watch it!! 

• Shower Planning!! As previous mentioned a zillion times already, my best friend Rachael is having a baby in June!! Myself and our friend Alicia are throwing her a shower for all of our co-workers in May. I'm being a psycho and unnecessarily stressing out and putting way too much pressure on myself...but I just want her day to be everything that she deserves!!  At first I just had a bunch of jumbled ideas, but no real plans, but as the weeks have gone on we've gotten a pretty good idea of what the party will be like. I'm feeling slightly less stressed and much more excited.  Part of what has me stressed is just the fact that it's going to be held at my house. I've never had a big party at our house!!  I feel WAY pressured to have our home looking perfect...which is just ridiculous and is NOT going to happen. I should just get over it...No, Beth, we are not going to be buying new living room furniture and painting the house for Rachae'ls shower!! Sheesh...I really think I need some Xanax sometimes!!  I'll try to keep the blog updated on my progress without revealing too many details!

Sew I think I'm gonna like this!!

I'm learning to sew people...
and I'm pretty freakin' excited about it.
Score one more point for actually tackling
my new years resolution list!!

My motivation is solely being driven by my
excitement over Rachael's baby coming in June...
I keep finding fun projects that I want to make
for little Baby Clark
(formerly known as 'Keeks'...but we can't
call her that anymore :)
I'm sure once the baby comes I'll be able to find
tons of projects for our own home...
but baby things just seem so much more fun right now.

Oddly enough, Rachael is also the poor soul who's
having to teach this schmuck how to sew,
Atleast she will hopefully be reaping the benefits from
teaching me...
(assuming any of my projects actually turn out!)

Anyways...my mom got me this new sewing
machine for Christmas, but it's been sitting upstairs
in the guestroom for 3 months just calling out to me-
 I was too intimidated to sit down and attempt to
re-teach myself how to work the machine...

Enter: Rachael the sewing queen.

I lugged my machine over to her house Friday and we
had a little watch and learn lesson...
This was awesome-but unfortunately we didn't get too
far into my lesson before we realized that my sewing
machine was lacking some essential pieces...
say like..... half of it's parts

(Where did you say you got this machine again, Mom??
Sears?? Ummm no....I'm thinking more like a flea market.)

It was okay though, Rachael let me use her machine to
make my first project since 7th grade home-ec...

modeling my diaper cloth

Yay!

I feel all kinds-a domestic!

I just ordered all the missing parts for my machine,

so hopefully I will be up and sewing in

no time!!

Keep your eye peeled for future 

projects!

St. Paddy's Day weekend and baby shower fun

Happy Belated St. Patrick's Day!

I'm about 1/64th Irish so I'm totally

validated in wearing green and speaking

in an Irish accent, right??

Actually....in all honesty

I could kind of care less about

St. Patrick's day...I'm not one for

the bar scene...

or beer in general...

but I am a fan of dying your food green

and Corned Beef & Cabbage.

So, In celebration of corned beef & cabbage

I invited my parents and sister over for dinner

Saturday evening. 

My mom volunteered to cook the meat...

Thank God, cause the first and only time I tried

to make corned beef it turned into some semblance

of charred jerky.

It was such a beautiful evening

so we had dinner out on the deck and the

food turned out delicious. I had hoped we could

play some games and hang out awhile after dinner,

but my parents scattered like roaches when the 

clock struck 6:45 pm...wah

oh the trials & tribulations of having old fogey parents

that live in tim-buk-tu....nobody ever wants

to stick around into the evening.  Ohwelll

I didn't take any pictures of dinner..oops.

Today I had fun plans to go shopping

with Rachael and to attend a work friends

baby shower. 

It's so fun to see your friends going through

these amazing stages of life...watching

them and their families change.

Having worked at my job for almost 5 years I've

seen plenty of girls get engaged, married and

start having babies.

I work with such generous people who do a

really great job of showering new mommys with

lots of gifts, despite the overwhelming amount

of pregnant women we work with.

This shower was for a sweet girl, Michaela who

Rachael knew previous to her working with us.

She is such a kind-hearted and caring person.

They are having a little boy that they're naming Jonah.

She'll be an amazing mama and I can't

wait to see this little guy!!

Here's a few pictures from the partay...

Rachel, Aja and Laura holding Laura's twins

Ava and Jackson. 

Aja is holding sweet baby Claire who is 

only 6 weeks old!

Beautiful mommies-to-be!

Rachael and Jenna.

The guest of honor, Michaela!

She looks so great!

I insisted on 'fluffing' my hair prior

to taking this picture...

in the future I think additional fluffing

of my fro will be avoided..eeek

Belly comparison...

Rach still has a ways to go!!

The three bump-eteers!!

(corny-ness is a struggle for me...I apologize)

Rach and I.

Again, I just had to show baby girl some

attention with a little rub..

Can. Not. Wait. for this little one!!

And BONUS...

I found a super-cute pair of skinny

jeans and even a cute pair of shorts

(which is a miracle in itself)

at The Gap today!!

Yay for 30% off coupons and jeans

that fit!!

Summer, you are officially welcome 

to make your appearance!

Overall a great weekend!

Is it safe to say it's spring??

Can you believe this weather??

 I don't care who you are...

there's no way you can walk outside into

this beautiful spring weather without smiling.

There's just something about the spring

time that leaves you feeling renewed...

Makes me feel so happy and alive.

And happy to BE alive!

I've had six of the last seven days off,

(halelujah!!)

And I've spent them all trying to squeeze

in as much fun as I can!

We've rented lots of movies,

spent time with family, gone out to dinner 

(a few too many times...eeek)

slept in late and stayed up even later!

Roy's off-season is quickly coming to

a close, and although I'm so

grateful to have a husband who works hard, 

I know that our late night runs to 

Wal Mart for a movie and snacks are

going to be few and far between.

It's good though.

And with that being said, I'm definitely 

feeling good about 2012 

and whatever it may hold for us.

Here's a few pictures from the week...

Breakfast in bed!!

Roy is far from a romantic...

which makes sweet unexpected

moments like this mean so much more...

Trying to teach myself to sew...

from a book...

it's not 'sew' easy...

Playing 'airplane' in the kitchen...

cause that's what you do when you're

27 and it's 3:00 in the morning!!

(Roy would kill me if he knew I posted

this picture of his ashen-gray feet!!) 

haha!!

Gettin' my walk on!

I haven't forgotten or abandoned

my new years resolution to

get healthy... 

It's a slow & steady process, people!

A Saturday shopping trip with mom leads to a 

weekend project of hanging some

SUPER CUTE solar lanterns on my deck!

I love them!! 

The best part is I don't have to WATER

them like the stupid hanging baskets

that I've tried (unsuccessfully) to

keep there the last 2 summers!

I'm hoping that they'll look cute for a

baby shower I'm going to be hosting

for a very special baby girl and

her mommy in May!

Visiting my sister at work...I never seem to 

wear the appropriate clothing here...

Note to self: when you visit a farm, wear

clothes that can handle cow drool, goat milk

and goose poop!!

It's back to work tomorrow 

for 3 nights, and then I spontaneously

decided to invite family over on Saturday

for St. Patrick's Day dinner....

Corned Beef and Cabbage?

Yes, please!!