Felt Flower Headband for Fall

I couldn't resist making some more of these sweet felt flowers. With Fall right around the corner I decided to go with earth tones. This one is about half the size of the original one I made and is attached (via hot glue gun) to a cloth covered headband. It will be perfect for those crazy-hair mornings dropping the kids off at school.

I made a few changes to the pattern this time. Instead of having the sharp corners like this that the original tutorial called for...

I cut the petals a bit rounder or softer like this. I think it makes a nice difference in the finished product.

I also made them smaller because I don't really want to wear a ginormous flower on my head like a hat. Although if I'd been invited to the Royal Wedding I would definitely have worn one.

"Reuse" is his favorite "R"

Each summer Super Uncle comes to help us tackle our ever-growing home improvement list, and each summer I'm left in awe of his problem-solving skills and ingenuity.

The first summer he was here we met the bears and Super Uncle built Bear Proof Trash Corral 1.0 complete with wood from our scrap pile and hinges we found in a pile of old hardware left by the old owners.

Several patches were made prior to the newest release. Squirrels were getting in through the slats and there were bigger openings up top where raccoons and skunks could shimmy through.

Our little baby bear has grown much stronger over the past three years and ripped this to shreds last month, thus Bear Proof Trash Corral 2.0 was born...

The boards on the front are newer - left over from another project this summer - and much stronger. He drilled down through the decking and inserted a piece of copper pipe - left over from a plumbing project - to keep the heavy door in place. It's supported by a wheel that came from the gate we took down and some brackets that were on the deck we remodeled. Total cost: $0.00. The bear tested it out. He lost.

Though most of Super Uncle's ideas are very good, he sometimes likes to tease me. We recently canceled our satellite TV service and purchased an antenna so we could pick up local stations. The first day the antenna was up I came home to find this...

That's a fan without blades. It was hanging by that pole from our vaulted ceiling. We replaced it last summer, but he dug it out of the "one-day-we'll-order-a-dumpster-and-get-rid-of-all-this-construction-debris" pile.

Genius? Yes. Attractive. No. Luckily I found this improvement several days later.

He removed the satellite dish from the side of the house, disassembled it, and reused the arm to mount our antenna. Much less obtrusive.

And, speaking of the "one-day-we'll-order-a-dumpster-and-get-rid-of-all-this-construction-debris" pile. Look what's currently in my driveway!

You will never find a girl so happy to have a giant red dumpster in her yard!

Felt Flowers - my favorite project of the year!

This adorable felt flower is - by far - my favorite project of the year. Just imagine the things you could do with some of these: headbands, brooches, gift toppers, itty bitty magnets, a giant holiday wreath for your front door, glue them on picture frames...the list goes on and on. This is the first one I've made, but I'll be sure to overwhelm you with everything I glue them to in the near future.

I originally saw this on Pinterest (can you say obsessed?) linked to a half-arsed how-to description. I used that and my own creative genius to recreate this one. The felt is made from recycled pop bottles.

After burning my fingerprints off with a hot glue gun all evening, it suddenly dawned on me that I could actually look for a tutorial...but what's the fun in that, right? I was able to find these amazing versions on Flickr by Coco Rose1~

Love, love, love the brown/green/orange one at the top. Did I say L-O-V-E!?

{Photo: Megan Reardon}

From there I found the original tutorial on Holidash by Megan Reardon. (Next career: P.I.)

My dahlia has been sewn to this throw pillow to cover a certain little boy's slobber mark. The pillow actually goes on my bed, but it's way too messy to photograph up there. And I'm having fun admiring it in the living room today.

 Off to rummage through my felt stash so I can make these in mass quantities!

Give a three year old a blow torch...

Judging by the number of things our three year old has broken, we're pretty sure he's going to be an engineer. He's not the kind of kid who maliciously, say, runs over things with a bicycle to break them. He's more of the "I wonder how this works? Maybe I'll take it apart to see. Huh, too bad it doesn't go back together again." type. So when hubby tackles a project he brings the little guy in and explains step-by-step what he's doing in hopes of encouraging his little mind. I love him for that. (Among other things, of course.)

I also love a man with a blow torch...

When I heard him explaining to the three year old what a blow torch is I thought "This sounds dangerous. I better get my camera!"

That's our master bathroom by the way. If all goes according to plan - and, trust me, it never does - it should be done in about a week.

Things NOT to do when someone is in the hospital...

Good Monday morning friends!

This weekend was no fun at all. My dear mommy had an outpatient surgery done last Monday and was finally beginning to feel good at home on Friday when her body crashed. She began shaking, had a rapid heartbeat, shallow breathing, and her speech began deteriorating.

Her doctor sent her to the emergency room where test after test was done. The good news is that it was not a stroke, seizure, or anything else they could think of. The bad news is that they have no idea what it could be. As of last night all of the other symptoms were gone, with the exception of the speech issue, which has improved slightly.

To say the least, it's been an interesting few days. She has seen an outpouring of love, support and prayer from her friends and I've learned a few things about hospital etiquette in the process. Here are some rules you might find sarcastic helpful.

Things not to do when someone is in the hospital:

1. Don't stop by unannounced. The person you're visiting feels bad, looks bad, and probably smells a little bad too. She might be trying to nap since the hospital staff mission is to keep people awake all night long with poking and prodding. Or, 87 other people might have decided to drop by at the same time.

2. Don't come by and get chatty with someone who has a sudden-onset speech impairment. It's like asking the paralyzed guy next door to dance.

3. Don't insist that you are kept up-to-date with every piece of information. That's for family. As much as you love the patient, it's not really information that is mandatory for you to know.

4. Don't insist on receiving a phone call the second she knows something new. Eighty-seven other people have also insisted and there's no chance I'm calling all of them.

5. Don't call every hour because you haven't gotten a phone call. This is a hospital, nothing happens quickly.

6. When you come by, don't insist on knowing every detail of what has transpired over the past two days. The story has already been told 87 times.

7. You don't know the answer.

8. Your brother/aunt/cousin/next-door-neighbor didn't go through the same thing.

9. Your tales of woe don't make anyone feel better. (What's with all the people who come visit someone in the hospital just to tell them a horror story of their own.)

10. Don't be melodramatic. Unless the doctor tells you "Your friend/loved one is definitely going to die." you don't need to cry. It's just not right for the patient to have to comfort the visitor.

Anything I've missed here? Please feel free to add it to the list. Hospitals seem to do strange things to people.

Little tiny baby lettuce...

There was an "incident" with a deer in our greenhouse a while back. As a result we had to replant a good portion of our veggies. At this rate it might be Fall before I have my first garden salad. But it will be so worth it.

Our new retaining wall & garden plot!

We (and by "we" I mostly mean Super Uncle) have been busy all summer with home improvement projects and the outside of our house especially is starting to look so nice. The leaning tower of Pisa, also known as our retaining wall, had fallen so far in the past two years that it had broken one of the outside outlets and was threatening to block the entrance to our basement.

I don't seem to have a good "before" photo of the wall, but you can see the lean in this photo. Now picture the wall being 3 to 4 railroad ties higher than that. It was a disaster just waiting to happen and not good at all for resale.

With a little - and I do mean little - help from the hubby and a bit of interference from the kids, Super Uncle tore the wall down, then rebuilt it in a design that would withstand a bit more pressure from the mountain above.

The mister planted some little shrubs at the bottom, chives and rosemary in the middle and English ivy at the top, which he hopes will spread (I, on the other hand, foresee it taking about 10 years). My real desire would be to fill all three areas with veggies and herbs, but the deer and rabbits dictate what goes where around here.

At the top of the wall is a path that leads from the greenhouse and area where we park, up to the house. It was just dirt and weeds at one point, but now looks like this~

I'm afraid once all the work is done, I'll never want to leave!

Pretending to be classy with glass bottles

These French-inspired glass bottles are my new favorite possession. They close like an old canning jar with a stopper on top and read "Limonade - Aux Extraits Naturels De Citron - France."

I picked them up at Sunflower Market (for the bargain price of 2 for $4!) for our Forth of July picnic because they had red and blue-ish juices in them...

But I couldn't bear to throw them in the recycle bin once they were empty, so I've been filling them with juice and pretending to be French and fancy.

Beauty Without Cruelty

If I could change one physical feature, it would be my hands. I have grandma hands. They're the bane of my existence. My fingers are long and skinny and my knuckles are big and boney. My veins are bright blue like a road map and the skin on my hands is always dry, no matter the season. In the winter it's not uncommon to see me sporting band-aids on three or four fingers where my skin just pops open for months at a time.

As a kid I always got comments from people who said "Look at those elegant fingers! You should play piano." But I always knew they were really thinking "Look at those freakishly long fingers. Hello E.T.!"

Over the years I've tried every brand, feature and price point when it comes to lotions. The cheap ones are usually too thin or greasy and wear off quickly. The expensive ones usually don't do enough to justify the cost. Recently though, I had the opportunity to try Beauty Without Cruelty's Fragrance Free Hand & Body Lotion and I am a convert!

"For over 40 years BWC has been a company with a mission - ethical, cruelty-free products that are made with natural, safe ingredients, are superior in performance, and are an exceptional value."

Indeed.

It may not magically make my fingers shorter or my veins disappear, but the skin on my hands went from looking like plucked chicken skin...

{Embarrassing. Seriously.}

To looking semi-normal. It's hydrating without being greasy and it lasts for a long time. With other lotions I apply them every few hours.

I actually received the lotion from BWC at the end of the winter (and, yes, have taken until now to write up this review...bad blogger) and I have to say that it was a life-saver in our ultra-dry winter weather. Within a few days of using it, my fingers were band-aid free.

If you suffer from dry skin this is a really affordable option (currently $10.99 with a buy 2, save 20% deal on drugstore.com) that I really think you'll love.

In addition to lotion, BWC offers an extensive product line of other beauty products from cosmetics to hair care products to make up removers. All of their products are vegan-friendly,  most are gluten free, and none are tested on animals.

{Disclosure: Beauty Without Cruelty supplied me with free samples to test out for this review. I was not compensated in any other way, or asked to write a glowing review. That part was all me.}

Fletcher's Star Wars Lego Birthday Party

When Fletcher got old enough to start requesting themed birthday parties I was afraid I'd be resigned to the party aisle at Target. So far I've been able to placate him with themed plates and napkins, while adding a DIY element of my own.


This year he requested not a Star Wars or a Lego party, but at Star Wars Lego party. I think he's testing me.

I made these Star Wars Lego tickets / invitations using my very limited talents with Photoshop Elements.

As we started planning the actual party though it began to stray from the Lego theme and move more towards Star Wars. It could be due to the fact that the entire 6-movie series was on TV recently. (About 87 hours of my life that I'll never get back. And I still don't know a wookie from a hole in my Death Star.)

I was able to find loads of Star Wars party ideas online and openly admit that everything we did was lifted from someone else.

We made pool noodle light sabers a la Aimee Austin Designs, but Googling "light saber pool noodle" with give you images of many, many different designs. The only thing we did differently was to put PVC inside the noodle, sticking out the end about 6 inches so that the kids could hold them with one hand instead of two. It also made them a bit stronger when it came time to smash the pinata.

The Jedi robes I planned to make ended up being Jedi vests, since I didn't start working on them until 8:00 pm the night before the party. For spending about 3 minutes a piece on them they turned out cute and none of the kids seemed to mind their simplicity.

The kids had full Jedi lunch of Obi Wan Pepperoni Pizza, Wookie Cookies, Jedi Juice, and Yoda Soda...

Followed by Federation Space Cakes for dessert. There are a lot of printable cupcake flags floating around online, but our printer isn't working, so these had to suffice.

I found the electric blue foil cupcake papers and these straws at The Cupcake Social. I wasn't really happy with the way the glasses looked but, without a printer, I wasn't able to print cute little tags for them. I did find some crazy sparkly ribbon at Hobby Lobby...

I missed getting a shot of them filled with the green Yoda Soda (lime sherbert & Sprite) but they looked pretty neat.

I made all of the signs using the free Star Jedi font by Boba Fonts. I printed them as photos at Walgreens then mounted them on Lego scrap book paper (found at JoAnn Fabric).

We accessorized with Star Wars toys, graciously given to us by a friend. And, by the way, Star Wars toys are totally different than Star Trek toys -- don't make that mistake unless you want to get a huge eye roll from your children and husband.

For more Star Wars party ideas, check out Tip Junkie who has a nice round up.

Our new(ish) deck!

Our rickety old deck was one of the first things we wanted to replace upon moving into our new home three years ago. Today I can report that it is finally done! Such is the story of my life. When you're a DIY family though, things don't always run on schedule.

Here are some Before photos. The deck was definitely a 1974 DIY project. The paint was peeling, boards were loose, safety rails (if you can call them that) were all different sizes and sporadically placed. It was a disaster - a decksaster - we knew we'd have to replace it for resale purposes, but we wanted to enjoy a nice new deck ourselves too.

Knowing we couldn't afford $10,000 to $20,000 or more for a new deck, we decided to strip the existing boards and see what we were dealing with. Surprisingly - and contrary to our usual luck - they were beautiful!

After staining the decking, Super Uncle pulled down all of the railing, which was too damaged to reuse on this project, and built new railing. We decided to paint it green since it was pressure treated and the decking was not...we just couldn't get the two to match with the stain we had. I really like it green though.

We found solar post-top lights at Home Depot for about $4 each.

And Super Uncle designed and built these benches. I just have to find the time to sew some cushions for them now.

Don't you want to come over for a margarita now?