Kids Christmas Decorations

 

The above decorations are for and by my children. They really like to move things around and put their stamp on their surroundings. Wonder where they get that from? Anyway, I am trying to keep track of everything and I think blogging is an excellent way to preserve memories. My brain isn't holding up too well. I went to the grocery store this morning and as I was checking out, gleefully watching the total tick down from my coupons and store card, I discovered that I did not have my wallet. I didn't even have the kids with me... In my defense, my baby boy kept me up all night sniffling and snorting. So pitiful. Bless his little heart.

The kids tree is crammed full of ornaments they have made and things that I have bought that reminds me of them. Each tree also has picture ornaments of them too, hence the need for a bigger kid tree. More kids=bigger tree. I really am a sentimental dork and this Christmas has really shown me just how dorky. Last year, I was so emotional because I wanted a baby so badly and this year its because I love him so much. I know all my friends would probably enjoy visiting with me without me turning into a blubbering mess. Sorry guys!

This will wrap up my series on Christmas decorating (kidding). See you next year.

christmas 2010

 

My family is so blessed! In 2009,we prayed and prayed for a new baby. We found out were were expecting right after Christmas last year. Fast forward (which my life seems to have permantely stuck in) to this year, we have another little boy to celebrate with. Drew is such a beautiful sweet little bundle. He is not feeling very well, he has a case of the sniffles. His big brother John, on the other hand, has the flu. He is being such a trooper, but he is the "worst sick you can get." Even sick, he has to compete. Sam and Jack are feeling o.k, praise the Lord.
This Christmas is kicking me in the teeth, though. I truly do not like leaving my house anymore, the whole day is gone by the time I get back. My ability to nurse discreetly in public has diminished, so I really don't want to go anywhere. By the by, if you are male and you happen to "accidently" see a woman trying to console a screaming infant in the confines of a dark resturant booth by nursing it, avert your eyes. Its the polite thing to do, especially if they are trying valiantly to cover themselves.
Back to the Christmas teeth kicking I am experiencing... I am really feeling super stressed, this is not from God! It should be such a joyous time celebrating the birth of our Saviour. I have a new favorite song to help remind me, its 'How Many Kings'by Down Here. I am brought to tears almost every time I hear it. Thank you God for sending your Son to die for my sins.
My husband shared an amazing parable that he heard on the radio.
A man and his family attended church regularly. As they were getting ready to attend the Christmas service, he couldn't bring himself to go,so he told his wife to take the kids without him. He was just going through the motions and he felt like a hypocrite. He had heard the story of Jesus's birth plenty of times and he just did not get it. So as he sat at home all alone, looking out the window at the freezing cold day, he noticed some birds. The birds were trying to find shelter from the weather and they kept flying into his plate glass window. After hitting the window, they would wander around aimlessly and disoriented. He knew if he didn't do something they would freeze to death trying to make their way. He rushed outside to try to help the birds. He tried several different ways to direct them into his nice warm barn, to no avail. For all his efforts, he could't make them go to where they needed to go. Finally, he thought if only I could only become a bird and show them the way. At that moment, he understood. God sent his Son to be a man. Human like one of us. To lead us and to show us the way. So simple and so true. We struggle and struggle trying to make our own way, we get hurt doing so and we just can't seem to get it right. Praise God for his gift to us, Jesus.
I am including some shots of our festive Christmas decorations. I was on a plaid kick this year, very traditional. Plain old christmas green and red. I normally try to go outside of the box with my colors, but shuga lime green and red have become a "fad". Of course, I had succumbed to the fad years back and have tons of lime and green for my kid tree. Next year, I am going to go smaller on my "adult" tree and bigger on the kiddy one. So I am going to hit the sales after Christmas and try to get a bigger fake one. This year I attempted to flock the kid's tree myself. My flocking took forever to dry and has since been leaving a lovely bit of dandruff on the tree skirt. My reasoning in flocking it was so it would look less fake, yes, I even typed this thought. Artificial tree, artificial snow, indoors... Probably should've kept that one to myself.
Any old way, ta da... Christmas at the Malone House. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

applique madness

 

To say that I enjoy making things is an UNDERSTATEMENT. Last week, Sam actually said "I love it when do home made projects it is so much more fun than just buying things" as we were spray painting his store-bought costume gold. I have taught him well, I say the same thing about shopping in thrift stores. The excitement of discovery. Our latest project was making Sam an Ares costume for Greek Day at his school. Every year they have a new theme day that coincides with what they are studying in history. He attends an awesome school. Parental involvement is highly necessary as well. Which is cool, I just am soooo scatter brained these days, its hard for me to keep track of all we have going on. John, my kindergartener, had a bug party last Friday as well. Somebody silly did something with Sam's dragonfly costume so we had to start from scratch almost. He wound up with a very pitiful costume, wings and a mask from Dollar Tree. It reminded me of my childhood. Bless his heart, I told him that he had no choice but to be Ares when he got to the third grade. We will never get rid of another costume. Unfortunately, when I got to the school on Wednesday for Greek Day, the memory card wasn't in my camera, so no photos. I did have it on hand for John's party, but I am so embaressed by the sorry costume I can't bring myself to post it. I really enjoy making costumes, I just need about 6 months to get it done. Not so good on timelines. If I wasn't on a budget that would be a different story. This budget has dampened my creativity and mood big time!
I have gone applique crazy. I have had an embroidery machine for quite some time. I have been appliqueing the fire out of some Wal-mart t-shirts. So no photos of my kids, but the t-shirts are posted. Its nice to see that my priorities are in order. I have got to get on some kind of schedule. Drew is helping me, he is a great sleeper. He even takes decent naps. I don't know what to think about a napper. The other punks cat napped and would not be put down. I do type one handed most of the time, though. There is only so much I can fit in to naptime.
Next on the agenda is Christmas cards...

kissable

 

Couldn't you just bite him? I could-he is such a blessing.

What's old is new

From time to time I become a little dissatisfied with the decor of my home. Especially if I receive a catalog or magazine that features a style so radically different from my own. In an effort to remain content and unstressed, I think it is better just to embrace whatever you've got. For instance, I have a lot of "old" stuff, some antique some just old junk. I have noticed the abundance of painted furniture, mainly gray, in most publications these days. I really love this look, it seems so calming but much more modern. I have said this before, most of my furnishing are tan or brown and very traditional. While I appreciate having nice things I do feel like it can be somewhat of a "mature" look that I have accidentally gotten myself into. I don't particularly want my home to be a revolving door for "stuff",either. I LIKE that my junk has a story even if it is a short one. My bed is a "mahogany" sleigh bed, Andy and I found it, minus the side rails, at this now closed store in Foley called Returns for next to nothing. About six years later, we realized that they sold a similar bed at Big Lots and the rails were sold separately. Now the bed is complete. The Devil, the author of decorating magazines(discontent),keeps showing me killer upholstered headboards everywhere. Will I get one? Absolutely not. Number one, I am lacking the funds to do so, but I am trying to be content and patient. As soon as I get an new upholstered bed, Pottery Barn or some other publication I admire will return to sporting sleigh beds. To further prove my point about what's old is new again, have you seen the deluge of brass accessories everywhere? Notice the fabulous photos above. Didn't we all just move away from this terribly 80's kiss of death. I see it everywhere and think it looks awesome. Eddie Ross does fantastic things with it as seen here. If you haven't seen his work, check out his website, he has awesome ideas. He has really inspired me lately. I can't wait to dig around in some thrift store looking for brass objects. Actually, I had already been doing this but I was painting it. He paints some and leaves some depending on the condition I suppose. I found a pair of brass ginger jar lamps at Goodwill and attempted to create a hammered copper finish, some things just can't be duplicated with spray paint. I am going to paint them a color next, thank goodness spray paint is cheap.
I have a little Eddie envy, he gets to prowl through really awesome thrift stores for a living.
Perusing through junk stores for my lamps and accesories is to me an acceptable way of changing out things and updating for a more current look(sounds like an oxymoron-updating with old stuff). The antiques that have been given to me or we have bought I wouldn't dream of painting,but a Goodwill table, I can't get to Lowe's fast enough for the spray paint. So I think I have figured out a way to compromise, it involves fabric too... By changing out the pillows and lamp shades for fun and current fabric, you can have a new look fairly inexpensively. Keep your old stuff and stories that come with it. A little paint and fabric can jazz up most anything.
When it comes to being truly content,the heavenly Father is the best source. So whenever I get the latest Ballard or Pottery Barn catalog,my best course of action should be to take it to the trash can and got get my Bible instead. It is a hobby of mine to redo, but if makes me have that antsy,can't stand everything I own feeling-I need to run away as fast as I can. So if you get that feeling like I do sometimes, do a little online window shopping and blog hopping and you will see that some small changes can make a big difference.

photo credit left image Hillary Thomas design.com,center Eddie Ross.com, right photo Robert Allen Fabrics.com

Frye fantasy

I love boots! Almost as much as blue jeans. I have been really jonesing for a new pair after I fell in love with a pair of $300 Frye's I saw in this month's Country Living here
This was not the photo I saw, the ones I saw were the dark brown Campus boots. I had to do a little research for that. I barely missed a pair on ebay, but the timing was off and I would still have to blow half my grocery money.
I found some knock off harness boots on Target.com which by the way has some really good looking boots. Can you guess which ones are from Frye?




I did buy a pair of gray suede lug soled ones for 39.99 a steal compared to the Frye's. They are very comfortable. I tried to get on board with the jeans tucked in look. I feel kind of "fancy" like that in high heeled boots. So I wore UGGs to death last winter. I may be a little allergic to wool because my legs kept itching like crazy. Socks would have solved that little snafu but they are waaay too warm. Anyway, I have a pair of ankle boots that look a lot like the Fryes that I have had about 12 years. I thought if I had kept them around that long the Frye's would be worth the investment.
After looking and sighing a pretty good bit( all day)I have compiled my Frye fantasy list. Drumroll please.




These red cowboy boots might become mine. They are currently on ebay, so do not snake them from me. My two followers have smaller feet than me, ha! The purse costs as much as the boots. The brown boots are the aforementioned campus boots, so fine! I think I need to change the name of this blog to "Expensive Stuff I Will Never Have". Catchy isn't it?

Sleepy days

I don't want to rush Drew's babyhood by one second(most of the time). I am trying to relish it all,all to often I am reminded of how fleeting time is. All I have to do is look around,catch one of his big brothers and I am reminded of how big they are in contrast. These past few weeks have flown by. My baby boy is now 7 weeks old. He is very cute and sweet. I love him so much, however I am growing impatient with the weight loss. Even though I have read on numerous websites that you should wait 2 months to begin dieting, I have to get in gear. Please don't barrage me with give it time comments (you two followers). I love fall clothing and I am NOT going to buy a new wardrobe to suit this bod. So the bod is going to have to get into the existing wardrobe. I wanted to be nice to myself, so I have been wearing maternity jeans (brutal), thankfully they are too big now. I have lost 30 lbs, but the other 25 are taking their sweet time. For you math whizzes out there, I gained 45 lbs, again, but need to lose more. I really tried to eat more reasonably this time, much to my chagrin the weight gain remained the same. Soooo... I am going to work hard and maybe by Christmas I will be able to fit into my clothes. Anyways...I truly am not as bothered by it as this sounds. I just want to buy a pair of boots and only have white skinny jeans that I can wear...I don't think that is the look I am after. You have to be on your thin side for white skinnies. Maybe I need gray ones. Or a dark wash. Whatever.
Did I mention how cute my boy is? I wouldn't trade him for a skinny bod any day.
His big brother,Jack is not feeling well... As you can see, he is under the table asleep. Cue the Dave Matthews.
Obviously, the "tree hugger" in me hasn't quite disappeared. The Frye boots, the Dave...I like to refer to this tendency now as bohemian. I do not follow bands anymore just trying to follow the Lord. That sounds pretty cheesy.
I have been working on some fun stuff lately. I made Drew a new sling, I re-invented Abby Kate a pair of pants and shirt(added a ruffle to walmart leggings and appliqued the shirt) recovered a lamp shade, and painted two lamps. I failed to take a pic of the outfit. I think I will do a separate post on the redo's. I have ran out of patient babies.