paper heart

With a busy birthday weekend (elyott) and a sick sick baby, I don't think i have even one shirt without snot/vomit/drool on it. Needless to say, i haven't had much time to implement any of the fancy ideas i had for this week. However, Elyott and i ordered this cute book online with her birthday gift cert (we are similar in that we like to make stuff, but we need major start up support to get our wheels turning)...

Here are a few paper projects that have inspired me lately.

paper:
sail
props
 dolls
shadow puppets

garland
flags

team Boo ♥'s you

Candyland finale

Behold the cardboard candy wonderland! Complete with "peppermint forest", "gumdrop mountains", "gingerbread village" and "chocolate swamp". My favorite part was the game pieces on the ground. Thanks to everyone who helped make it happen! Did i mention I never want to touch a piece of cardboard again in my life? well i don't.

team Boo ♥'s you

gift in a jiff.

you know how a quilt is time consuming and may sit in squares for like two years before you finish it? this is my perfect solution. It's all the scraps from the cutting (of said squares) made into a mini quilt (that baby won't drag all over the ground and refuse to let you wash) that I can make in a couple hours! And I'm not a "sewer"...remember the pillow? 

It makes a great baby gift when you have no money (which is still most of us, right? RIGHT!?) The "lucky" recipient of my mediocre skills was Lucy, my new adorable sweet little niece (that's a lot of adjectives...and i haven't even met her yet! so you know she's cute ;)

team Boo ♥'s you


*p.s. head over and officially "meet the team" by clicking our family picture on the top left

look how amazing i am, i'm playing with my kid...

 (okay, that title sounds bitter. I promise i'm not. K maybe a little. Just kidding, that would be lame. Even if i were bitter, I wouldn't tell you. Actually i probably would....shut up, your face is bitter!)


I've seen this project like a bajillion times, so i thought we'd give it a go.
Don't be fooled by the pretty colors...cause it may not be all its cracked up to be (hint: it's not). I think it caught on because people probably want to look all artsy and hands on, but what they're not telling you is you will most likely get stuck at the counter peeling 95% of the 200 broken crayons cause your kid is being a spaz about having "yucky hands."  Your thumb will be throbbing for three days from the rainbow of wax jammed under your thumb nail...it will also ruin your cute little heart rubber ice trays. 


It was, however, a good way to get this kid to stop changing his clothes 27 times a day, stop flipping off the furniture like a maniac, and just kick it with his ma. So i guess it was a success after all :)

this weekend:

high: I ran 12 miles on Saturday, hooray!

(buuuut...now my toenails are falling off)

high: My hair is finally starting to stop falling out in clumps. super nast. (hair in everything. you can't hide from it. its a post pregnancy nightmare)

(but...also, someone left me a comment to let me know i looked like "FLO the progressive insurance lady". sweet. I used to cringe when I got "Amanda Bynes" who isn't bad but all i hear is "hi, you have chubby cheeks". Sorry "Mr. Apricot"...this is worse)

"bitterness on aisle three"

team boo ♥'s you

team building. {closed}

 "walking a thousand miles always begins with one step" 

(im so bad at remembering quotes or funny lines in movies, just ask Adam. he knows cause he watches me crash and burn all the time when i'm trying to tell a funny story, and then he saves me because he remembers EVERYTHING. except to throw his trash away) Anyway, this got me thinking instead of wishing i had a USB port in my head to download skillz, i actually have to start them...and be bad at it for a little while. I hate this cause I am SO lazy when i'm not good at something right away.  Remember i'm a half doer.


But persistence pays my friends. And i know, for me, having a tangible thing at the end makes me much more likely to follow through. For instance, I was never a runner before my adult life. I played sports, but never ran more than a mile. Then i signed up for a full marathon on a whim, and three months later I did it. I was a real bona-fide runner, with good shoes and running shorts and everything (instead of ugly pajamas shorts or something) And almost 4 years later i am still at it, the only difference is now i look forward to running instead of wanting to set the gym on fire every time i think of going.  See?...persistance guys. powerful stuff.


Which brings me to this: I'd like to be better at sewing. Not like start-my-own-craft-blog-and-give-all-my-stuff-away kind of sewer, but the kind where i think of something and it won't take me 3 years of it sitting on my living room coffee table before I look up how to sew a hidden zipper. So I went and bought some supplies with the idea in mind that i would give the fruits of my labor away as my "tangible end".  The project is relevant, but not so hard that I will throw up a little in my throat when I give it away. Behold the teamBoo pillow (angelic music plays):

...and here is where I bribe you: It is here for the taking! It's not a masterpiece, but it is freeee. To enter to win this bad boy you can do at least one of the following:

1. post my button (its in my sidebar) to your blog page and leave me a comment with a link to your page professing your blog love.

2. Join the team! become a follower and shout it from the ROOFTOPS!!...or, you can just tell me about it in a comment.

3. Post about the contest on your blog. Then leave a comment adding a link to your post.

Just in case you fell asleep a few paragraphs ago, thats 3 possible entries folks. (you'd think this pillow were stuffed with diamonds or something...don't get carried away)


If you are already have one or all of these things in your cyber life then just leave me a comment telling me so. Eeets so simple! Giveaway ends Friday September 10th.


Thanks for not losing respect for me for trying to force you to be my friend. It is the only logical way to do a giveaway though, is it not? This way I am taking the steps to hone in on my craftiness, and the secrets that you keep...when you're talking in your sleep will be about LOVE (what's cuter than that? nothing.) win: win.

team boo ♥'s you

global warning.

Snowglobes: the most whimsical yet frustrating souvenir trick.

they are glass

you can't play with them

they are the biggest/weirdest mess when they break

they are a cheesy eyesore

kids always want them.

So instead of spending 15 dollars a pop on some nerdy teddy bear santa clause, we made our own. Free, custom, plastic (for the kids who manage to fall about every fifth step: sheamus) and come apart when the kids want their beloved McDonalds toy back.  

EETS parfect!

Your move hallmark.

team boo ♥'s you

(but not snowglobes)

this is me NOT blowing myself to the moon...

Instead of explaining the blackening of my soul that has been my last few days, I am going to pretend like my kids aren't currently pounding on my bedroom door taunting "you wanna piece of me!?" for no good reason...and instead *inject some sunny memories into my ice heart.

(plus then if my kids are reading this somewhere down the line they can remember the times mommy wasn't scary or threatening to tape their faces shut)

...as luck would have it, a few days prior to the few days that have turned my heart to stone, the kids and i decided to "embrace" the sun rather than resent it.  At 113 degrees the embracing was short lived, but we had fun experimenting with its ridiculously unrelenting rays.

*insert happiness here...

FYI: they just picked the lock.
aaaand i'm back.

team boo ♥'s you

(and my kids...usually)