A new look for A Couple More Hours

Things look a bit different around here, huh?  I have been working behind the scenes on the re-design of this here blog. I'm quite happy with how it turned out!  I hope you like it too. The first thing I did was go through all 1,190 posts from when I began this blog in 2007 and I re-tooled all of my tags. My tags were a mess. Now they're all organized. I have 14 main tags/categories now. My 11 main categories are now featured on the right hand side of my blog. If you click on the picture it will take you to the category.

Here's a breakdown:

• I make stuff: I make lots of stuff. This category will house the stories and photos about my various projects.
• Tutorials: I have five tutorials in this category now. I hope to do more soon!
• Connect: Ways to reach me. {that picture slays me!}
• About me: Includes a list of 30 random things about me.
• Family life: Stories about the kids and everyday life at home.
• Our home: Photos and stories about our new house, projects and decorating.
• Occasionally I bake and cook: I do, really. Sometimes I cook!
• Parties: I do awesome parties for my kids.
• Holidays: This category is heavy on Halloween, of course.
• Etsy Favorites Wednesday: I curate a list of favorites each week.
• My Etsy Shop: Stories about new items for sale in my shop and new projects in the works.
• Give-a-Ways: I have done some stellar give-a-ways. I plan to do more.
• A Couple More Hours: These posts are general posts about me, about every day things or about things that I find on the internet that inspire me. This post category is the biggest.

There are also a couple of series of posts that are their own categories but they're not linked on the sidebar. Those are stories about my daughter's tip-toe walking and my series about infertility and IVF called To Be Called Mommy. I also have a category called handmade skirts which houses the series of posts in did in 2011 about my summer wardrobe of skirts!

My goal is to grow this space ... not sure exactly how I will accomplish that, but, I want to put more crafty projects on here and definitely more tutorials. I'll still keep up with the photos and stories of my kids because a lot family members read this blog for updates on my little sweeties. Plus they're pretty entertaining kids.

So, onward! More blogging!  More crafting!  More tutorials!

New spectacles

Arlene got new spectacles! She's such a cutie.

How's your week shaping up?

Original artwork by Arlene and Lydia!

This week is a slow and steady week for me at work and at home. Not too much going on and I'm grateful for it. We don't have any after-school events or evening meetings and my schedule at work is pretty tame, no major meetings or deadlines this week. 

It's going to be a good week! I'm finally feeling better after having a cold most of last week and last week was busy busy busy in the evenings. It's nice to have a break!

I'm looking forward to this weekend too, because we don't have anything planned, which means I'll have lots of time to work on some crafts on my to-do list. I've got an owl-themed baby shower to plan for my cousin and I'm quite excited about getting started on making stuff!

What's your week like? Anything going on?  Anything you're looking forward to?

Kid thoughts and drawings

The girls are expressing themselves through words and drawings these days and it's quite fascinating to see what they come up with. 

Lydia writes notes all the time to us. Little post it notes. Little cards. It's so very cute. I save all of them and I have quite a drawer full. One day she had gotten into trouble and was sent to her room. After she got out of her time out I got this card:

The front

The inside. Notice the RIVER of tears flowing down from her? And me? With the TWO STARS on my dress?! Oh how precious. Her text above the people says, "I am sorry. I was taking care of my markers." You see, she was in trouble to begin with and was sent to her room but was taking a loooooong time to get up and go to her room, so she got into more trouble. But her explanation is that she was taking so long because she was taking care of her markers. Teehee.

And this is the back!  She was forgiven, of course, and I told her that really, she doesn't need to be THAT sorry for it. It wasn't a big deal!

Both of the girls write journals at school. Those are always interesting. This comes out of Arlene's latest journal:

To translate: "I had a TV dinner last night. I had a corn dog. We watched the Adam's Family. It was fun! I liked it."

How HILARIOUS is that? It just cracks me up. This was a Daddy day care night {I think I had a late meeting for work} and indeed, the girls had TV dinners and watched a movie. I can assure you they have only had maybe ONE TV dinner in their entire lives. Not knowing this based on Arlene's text, I wonder what the teacher thinks of us?! Haha! What's funny is that whenever Daddy is home with them he lets them do cool stuff like eat dinner in front of the TV. Arlene's illustration is spot-on. They are lying on blankets in front of the TV. The person she drew inside the TV cracks me up too. 

Lydia made this little note for me at school one day. I hung it up in my office:

The line "just remember I love you" is something she's been writing on a lot of things lately. Isn't her handwriting neat? She's been working on it. The "your's truley" slays me!  She's such a sweet kid. Both her and Arlene are very detail oriented - notice the drawn Mommy has green eyes and brown hair and the drawn Lydia has blue eyes and red hair.

I absolutely love the little stories, notes and drawings they come up with. They just warm my heart!

Meanies being mean to sweeties

As we eat dinner, we go around the table and share our best and worst parts of our day. It's a fun way for the girls to get a peek inside our days spent at work and it's a really interesting way for us to learn about what they did at school because each day when we ask them, "how was school?" their response is very non-detailed. Usually these table talks give us more insight.

Last week when we went around the table Lydia told us that the worst part of herschool day was dealing with a mean girl, who for the purposes of this story we'll call Sally. She said that Sally was being mean to her, and that Sally told Arlene on the playground that she, Lydia, was a brat. What?! Why would she say that?! We asked more questions and found out that this Sally character is not a nice little girl. She had no grounds for calling Lydia a brat. Sally calls people names, and Lydia told us she uses the word "ain't" a lot, and as Lydia says, "Ain't is NOT a word so I don't know why she says it!" True that, little girl.

We told Arlene that if someone ever says anything bad about her sister, she needs to stick up for her sister. Because that's just not cool. We told Lydia that she's not a brat, and that maybe Sally is the one who is a brat, and she's been called a brat so maybe that's why she's calling other little girls a brat? We told Lydia should just stay away from her. That response seemed to work, both girls agreed.

Fast forward to this past Tuesday. Lydia came home with a scraped hand and chin. Guess who tripped her on the playground?  Miss Meanie Pants Sally!!!  I had to watch what I said in reaction to this news. What I wanted to say is "Miss Meanie Pants Sally is MINE and that little shit is going to be into trouble with me!"  But what I did say was this, "Did Sally get into trouble from the teacher for tripping you?" Lydia said she did. "Good. You need to stay away from Sally. Ignore her. Don't talk to her. If she does mean things to you, you need to tell your teacher, okay?" Lydia agreed whole-heartedly.

Etsy Favorites Wednesday

Etsy inspires me to create new things and inspires me to open my wallet and buy new things. Each Wednesday I curate a list of the top five things in my favorites folder on Etsy. This week's list is a smattering of things I've had my eye on. {All images displayed here are from the Etsy listing and each link below the photo links to that listing.}

Quilted table runner - I've been wanting to dive into quilting and I think this will be my first project: a quilted table runner. I really like the simplicity of this table runner. Its square blocks looks easy enough! I don't have a fancy quilting machine though, so I'd have to be creative with my top stitches. 

Grouping of frames - I like the look of mismatched frames grouped together on a wall. This set would be a quick and easy way to achieve that look!

Felt food - A while ago I made Arlene a sub out of felt. Felt food cracks me up - I think it's perfect for child's play and it's really cute too. My girls are too old to play with felt food, but I want to make some felt food for someone! Check out this pattern for a felt toaster and breakfast items! 

Frame wallet - from the colors, to the design, to the rosette and ruffles on the front, I am in love with this wallet.

Vinyl sticker - I think this sticker would look fab in my new craft room, don't you think?

I made a purse, again

I made a purse this weekend! This is the fifth purse I've made out of this pattern. {This was also the first project I did in my awesome new craft room! Heaven! It was heaven. I had so much room to spread out and I could find everything that I needed thanks to my organized boxes of supplies. Aaaaaahhhh!}

I added a doily to the outside of the purse because I'm quite fond of doilies.

I added a key fob to the inside of the purse so my keys don't get lost.

The inside lining of the purse is a coordinating fabric with the outside. 

This past fall I had made a Halloween-themed purse, but I don't have a picture of it! Drat.

Previously to the that one, I made an owl purse from the same pattern:

I had made one out of sewing themed fabric:

I originally made a Christmasy one: 

I love the purse because it's big and squishy and holds all that I want it to hold. Plus it hangs just right on my hips so it doesn't get in the way when I'm out and about and I can wear it as a cross-shoulder bag if I want to, too. It's been fun to customize it to my needs also, like adding a bigger inside pocket and adding the key fob. 

I had originally gotten the pattern off of the Oh Fransson! blog. The pattern is no longer available on her blog but you can purchase it here.  

Girlie girlie hair do's

The girls decided last week that they wanted to cut their hair. We had a tiny bit of hair drama with Lydia's hair. {I'm sure this hair drama was only a taste of the hair drama we'll experience as the girls get older!} 

They both said they wanted "inches and inches" cut off their hair. 

Arlene before:

Back of Arlene's hair before {it's not usually that curly - she had it up in a bun that day}

Lydia before: 

Arlene was way into the hair style books at the salon!

Arlene during her cut - she sure did get "inches and inches" cut off! She missed being able to donate to Locks of Love by two inches.

Arlene after her cut! I just love her hair! I'm jealous of it! She used to have a short bob like this when she was about three years old. It suits her!

Lydia after her initial hair cut ... 

Now, sure, she's incredibly cute. But, the back of her hair wasn't laying right at all. Once we got home and I really looked at her hair I realized it was flipping out in all different directions and it appeared to be uneven and some parts were textured and some were not. So, the next day, I took her to my hair stylist to get it cut again. {Originally we were at a walk-in salon.} My stylist worked wonders!  Also, Lydia got bangs again!  She had been growing them out for a year and it was going great, but she decided she wanted them again. 

Lydia during her cut at my salon:

Some fooling around at the salon:

Arlene got some special treatment at the salon too - a braid and some curls!

Here's the after shot! Such cuties! They both love their hair cuts and so do I!  Lydia's hair is still long enough to be put up in a pony tail or a braid, which is what she wanted. Lesson learned: the girls only get their hair cut maybe twice a year - splurge and take them to the real salon!

Oops

Well, crap. I have been doing some behind the scenes editing to my blog and my old blog posts. While I was working on stuff I accidentally published a post that was NOT supposed to be published. I caught it and deleted it but if you read my blog through Google reader then chances are, you saw it because the reader kept the post.

So, if you did read it, please delete it from your memory! Please don't comment on the contents of the post because the subject matter is delicate. If you'd like more details feel free to email me.

My new craft room

When we moved into our new house my craft room was a room I knew I wanted to spend some time unpacking and decorating. I set up the rest of the house first and then before I knew it, five months had passed and my craft room was a disaster zone. It had become a grave yard for discarded boxes and junk. Finally this past weekend I dove in. 

When I had packed up my old craft room I didn't really go through and organize stuff as I was putting it into boxes. I pretty much just shoved things away. Which made it interesting when I began unpacking the boxes!  I uncovered stuff I forgot I had, I uncovered lots of old photos of myself and my kids, and I kept finding gifts for everyone. My dad got a pair of pliers I had borrowed a long time ago and neglected to give back; my mom got some books and I also found a piece of jewelry of hers that I had meant to repair but never did; my kids got countless sticker books and blank notebooks and envelopes and paper; my husband got some CDs that we didn't even know I had stored in the craft room boxes; and I uncovered for myself all of my husband's writings, which was a real treat. {my husband is a writer/poet and when we first started dating and early on in our marriage he would write the most beautiful poems and letters to me. I saved each and every one over the years!}

Here's the view from the door:

Here's my work table and shelves which hold supplies and photos and miscellaneous stuff:

 I'm in LOOOOVE with my work area. We had purchased that vintage formica table to be used as our kitchen table in our new house, but we ended up getting a new table. I had listed the table and chairs set on Craig's List and someone bought the chairs but not the table. Meant to be! I moved the table from the basement to my craft room. The table is sturdy and provides a ton of work space, which I was always lacking in my old craft room. 

{And yes, that's Edward Cullen. I got him a couple years ago and he was put in my craft room when we moved. I decided to keep him around, for now.}

This wire holds pictures - my little artists need to get busy!

Close up of the shelves above the table:

I half-splurged on an Ott Light for my space. I say half-splurged because the Ott Lights were half off at JoAnn Fabrics this week! That light is intense. This photo doesn't do it justice. 

This shelf holds all of my shop stock:

I had made those lollipops for my kids' birthday party a couple years ago. They had been sitting in a basket tucked away but I like them so much I wanted to display them. I stuck them on the wall with double sided sticky tape. The mustache prints are actually postcards I had purchased on Etsy; the same with the crochet prints.

I decided to organize my craft supplies in my closet into the different types of crafts. 

I used a few plastic tubs that I already had and bought some new ones and wrote on sticky notes the contents of each box. Now, when I want to do a particular craft I can grab one box and then put it back once I'm finished. That's the plan anyway.

I also realized in my unpacking that I have quite a lot of fabric. Really it's too much. I have a ton. I filled up two huge plastic tubs of colored and designed fabric and one plastic tub of just white fabric and felt. 

I'm very happy to finally have this room done. I am inspired to make stuff! I have a mile-long projects-to-do list! 

Excuse my absence (subtitle: back in the saddle again!)

With a snap, the holidays zoomed by, then New Year's came and went, and now it's the middle of January and I haven't posted anything on my blog for almost a month. Please excuse my absence. I'm back at it now though. Expect to see more frequent updates, a new design, and some new crafty projects!