The Best of 2011

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I often find myself thinking. WHAT THE HECK DID I ACCOMPLISH TODAY??? Usually the list is LESS than impressive.

My kids are fed and (moderately) happy.
My house is still standing, although tentatively.
I am not wearing sweats.

Yep. That is pretty much the list.

SOOOO I have decided to make a list of the top 11 posts and projects of this year. Now I know my posts are all quivering with excitement wondering which ones will make the list….this is how I decided. 1. Top viewed links. 2. Top commented on links. 3. MY favorites  :)  Because my opinion matters ON THIS BLOG!! So here is the BEST of HANDYPANTS for 2011.

1. From Onesie to Diaper Cover—For the 2nd year in a row, this is the number one viewed link on my blog. I guess re-purposing old onesies into NEW dresses with matching ruffle butt diaper covers is popular these days!!!

2. Dora Backpack—Another re-purpose. Using an old sweatshirt to make a new FABULOUS Backpack. Perfect for all of those EXPLORERS out there!!

3. Scarlett O’Hara skirts—Just like Scarlett, I re-purposed curtains to make some cute little girl skirts. No hemming!!! So simple!!!

4. Shortie Skirt and bandana shorts---Just like last year I could not stop sewing with bandanas. I am glad I looked back to remember this one because soon it will be skirt weather again and I will need to make A BUNCH of these skirts with built in shorts---perfect summer attire for a 3 year old. (Although THIS summer she will be FOUR…sniff sniff!!!)

5. Peppermint Sugar Scrub (with Printable Tags)

6. Re-purposed Winter Attire—This post was 3 re-fashions in one. How to make a cowl scarf from a thrifted sweater. How to make faux leg-warmers from sweater sleeves. AND how to re-fashion a winter hat. BTW…I am still LOVING my leg warmers…best re-fashion for mommy YET!!!

7. Easy re-fashioned skirt

8. Maternity Sweat Pants---because sometimes even SWEATS just are not comfortable enough:)

9. How to clean a flat top stove---There must be a LOT of messy cooks out there JUST LIKE ME..haha!!

10. Toddler Sheet FIX. How to add elastic to a toddler sheet so that it WILL STAY PUT!!! Can I just rant here for a second…oh right…it is MY blog. I had to change the name of this post AND edit out a few words because I was noticing that Dirty Pervs were finding this post by typing inappropriate searches into google. Totally makes me both ANGRY and SICK. I mean seriously… (rant over)!!

11. AND finally….The Vested Onesie. This was not my original idea, but it is by far my FAVORITE creation of the year (besides the cute little guy wearing it…that was a pretty good one too!!)

AND because we cannot craft ALL THE TIME…here is the MOST VIEWED NON-CRAFTING post. LIFE IN THE MOTHERHOOD, my rant opinions on MOTHERHOOD. Just in case you need a good New Years LAUGH:)

GOODBYE 2011…Its been fun!!!

In case you missed out on last years fun…here is the top 10 of 2010!!!

Life in the MotherHood!!

I often times find myself thinking back.  Back to when things FIRST got started.  You know...when the wedding bells stopped ringing and I spent an hour picking bobby pins out of my hair.  I remember those days.  How I thought that marriage was filled with laughing, happy days and nights.  Spending unlimited hours together talking and going on fun trips.  And then the babies.  I pretty much thought having kids went something like this...

You got a cute baby basketball bump that looked super sweet as long as you wore leggings and a smile.  Then you had the baby and came home wearing your old jeans.  Once the baby was home there were a few months of waking up at night, but then the baby would start sleeping well.  Once that happened the sweet little babe,  (who always smells like baby powder) would wake you up each morning with sweet baby babbling while she played with dollys in her crib.  Then you would get the kids up (I wanted 6 of course) and dress them in the cutest matching outfits and head out for a day of shopping.  You would buy AMAZING decor for your AMAZINGLY well decorated AMAZING home in a sweet neighborhood where your neighbors stopped by to chat and borrow eggs.  Then you would come home, let the kids nap (they put themselves down of course) and then you would watch Grey's Anatomy in your perfectly sparkling living room.  Of course you would have to then make a wonderful healthy dinner and eat as a family...at the table...and have a nice conversation.  Followed by Family Game night (oh how fun).  Then after a long day, you would tuck those beautifully  clean babies (all in the cutest handmade matching pajamas) back into there beds, where they would stay until morning.  When they would wake up to the smell of freshly baked bread and bacon cooking....WELL you get the idea.

 I was TERRIBLY un-informed:)


Nobody told me that pregnant REALLY looked like THIS...

NOT this....

I can honestly say that I had NO idea what it would REALLY be like to try to get a kid to sleep in their own bed.  OR that the job would continue WELL past the first few months and then YEARS of their lives. 

And babies are sooo demanding.  THEY want to take everything from you.  Your sleep, your pride, your waistline....and THEN they still wanna eat your yogurt.  They are like little mini thieves.  They follow you everywhere you go and then want EVERYTHING you have.  Even if you feed them....Even if you feed them A LOT!!!  They will still steal every crust of bread RIGHT out of your mouth. 

They call it borrowing.  Yeah right.  We know how they borrow.  The last thing they borrowed was my body for 9 months....AND WE KNOW THEY DID NOT RETURN THAT IN THE SAME CONDITION THEY "borrowed" IT IN. 

And did ANYONE else picture their kids ALWAYS looking like this (even if your husband is white)????? 

 And then you had kids and realized that they REALLY like to stay in their pajamas all day and spend much of their day looking something like this....

Which is one of life's great ironies....they wanna stay in their pajamas ALL THE TIME...and yet they NEVER want to sleep....Oh the lack of sleep.  That is pretty much the clincher.  The mind boggling, bone crushing, turn your brain to mush lack of sleep. 

How is it that you and your baby are up TOGETHER all night. And yet in the morning when YOU feel like you downed a round of tequila shots and then got hit by a bus....

They seem fine?????  Like maybe lack of sleep is THEIR super drug and YOUR kryptonite???? 

Somehow they have MORE energy.  Like maybe while YOU were half asleep rocking endlessly in the rocking chair watching Season 2 of Gilmore Girls and wondering WHY Luke and Lorelai cannot just get together already....They were sneaking into the pantry for a little snack....????

I mean you really start to wonder if your kids secretly HATE you. 

Like maybe it is all just an evil plot by the babies of the world to cause their mommys to have a mental breakdown and turn control over the planet to the kids. 

It is a perfect plan.  They rip out all of your hair, get you in a pair of spanks, and turn you into a mental case.  They WIN!!!  And REALLY...they could rule so efficiently....BECAUSE THEY NEVER SLEEP!!!  How Clever!!!!

BUT Just when you think you will NEVER sleep again....

and like you should NEVER eat again...

and like you just might crawl under the bed and hide from your kids with the cat....

Something happens. 

Something magical!!!  Something that takes all of the craziness and makes it sound....WELL CRAZY. 

Something happens that reminds you what it means to be A MOTHER.

Sometimes it just a big gummy smile.  Or sometimes it is watching your babies first steps; with his arms held up in the air and his stiff little legs moving at MORPH speed.  And sometimes....just sometimes it is a quiet moment. 

A moment when sleep finally comes and your baby holds on to you for dear life.  When they find that spot where they fit JUST right.  Legs wrapped right around your waist.  Arms tight around your neck.  Fingers twisted up in your hair.  And their soft little head right in that spot.  You know...THE SPOT right between your shoulder and your chin.  The Spot where they can nuzzle in and you can smell their sweet baby smell and hear their sweet baby noises.  Nobody else gets that moment.  That moment is pretty much ON RESERVE just for mommies.  That moment is what makes the rest disappear.

And you can stop looking back to your happy, wedding, skinny, smiling, pretty hair pictures with envy and start remembering when your life REALLY began.  When you stopped being a person and became A MOTHER. 

When it STOPPED being about you.  When THEY became the center of your universe and YOU became theirs.  Of course they want to see you in the middle of the night.  Hello---you are their universe!!! 

SOOO  nobody told me about the stretch marks and the contractions, but they also forgot to mention that you literally give away a piece of your heart the moment you hold that squishy little bundle. 

You become a part of something BIGGER than you.  Weird that something so small can do that. 

So even though I still think that in my next life I would like to be a FATHER (mostly the same amount of good stuff, but with more sleep), I am SOOOO glad I get to hang out with my two MINIS.  Because life was pretty fun when I was a size zero and could stay up all night doing Who Knows What with Who Knows Who and eat WHATEVER I WANTED!!!  BUT somehow it just does not compare to watching my 3 year old sing JINGLE BELLS while ACTUALLY jingling bells with her pre-school class.  

OR watching Thing One and Thing Two become friends.

I guess this is what growing up feels like!!! 

I guess I should start being MORE thankful for the things that really matter and complain less about the stuff that doesn't.

I guess I need to remember that life has been pretty good to me and that there are much worse things in this world than NOT SLEEPING. 

I guess I should get off this darn computer and get to bed.  Because Soon....VERY SOON.... I will get the call.  The little voice over the monitor asking for HIS UNIVERSE to come and get him and bring him into HER bed to snuggle.  And perhaps I will get the OTHER call.  The call from the side of the bed that wakes me from a dead sleep.  The one from HER.  The one where she wants to be part of the party too. 

 I guess what those people....you know the ones with all of the marital advice...should have told me on that day with the flowers and the cake.  They should have given me the advice of all advice.  The piece of advice that would SAVE marriage.  The advice to save the world from being taken over by the little people.  Here it is.  Are you ready????  BUY A KING SIZE BED.  Buy a KING sized bed and LET THEM COME!!!!

A few Thanksgiving memories...

I had a few successes (is that a word??) this Thanksgiving, so I want to put the links here on my blog so that I can find them again next year.  I hate when I have to search and search for the links that I have used in the past---darn that internet is a big place:) 

FIRST OFF...I have to admit something a little embarrassing.  I MADE HOMEMADE ROLLS by myself for the first time EVER!!!  I know...hard to believe for a 30 year old housewife.  BUT I have always let others do it, or been happy with the lovely rolls from the store.  BUT I saw this recipe (on PINTEREST of course) and got it into my head that I wanted to bake.  SO I DID.  It was so easy and actually kinda fun.  NOW if only bread didn't make me gain weight just by having it in the house...

 Just a warning...these have butter in the mix, then have butter spread onto the rolled out dough, and finally melted butter smeared on top. YUM!!! 
Now I realize I am the youngest child in my family and that by law my family cannot put me down.  AND I know that my family would praise me for bringing canned olives to dinner.  BUT despite that, they did ALL tell me how good these were.  SOOO I am pretty sure they meant it:)
These were seriously easy enough that my happy helper got to roll a few up.  AND she got to eat the first one (and she liked it)!!!

OK...enough about the rolls.  Another link I want to hang onto is for some Thanksgiving printable placemats.  I printed these up, cut them out, and glued them onto cardstock.  There were lots of different free printable mats, but these were the only ones I found that printed on regular 8.8x11 papaer.  Cannot beat that!!!   I took them for the kids table and they super enjoyed coloring away....worked like a charm!!!  BUT there were tons more free printable on the site...napking rings, centerpiece, banner, tons of stuff.  Next year I think I need to go all out.  Since I don't EVER have to cook the turkey, I should be in charge of something (besides canned olives). 

SOOO Thanksgiving is over....is it really time to take down the cute Fall decorations I just finished getting up????  Good thing decorating for Christmas is SOO much fun:)

NOW Fall is here!!

I made the first pumpkin cake of the year last night....SOOOO that mean Fall is officially here.  I know I share this recipe every year, but it is so simple and yummy.  2 ingredients and topped with whipped cream.  PLUS it makes your house smell like a dream.  And since it is made with pumpkin (a vegetable??), it must be super healty too:)

A few moments of craftiness

Amongst the crazy candy-ness of Halloween, I did have a few (precious) moments to myself.  Usually after midnight and in the dark, but still happy

Some of my free time is spent on Pinterest, which I love.  The only problem…I see what other people are doing and then I WANT TO DO IT.  I start to feel that my friends, teachers, kids, and Mia Maids must be suffering compared to others in other places.  Like all of those amazing places on the internet..haha!!!  So then I feel that I have deprived others of cuteness and start feeding my own inadequacies. 

WELL thank goodness I had a pirate party at my house this week because my church girls FINALLY got some of that Pinterest cuteness for themselves.  Our lesson was on virtue.  I found the quote first and then decided upon where to put it.  AND I was lucky enough to have chocolate gold at my house…pretty handy.  SOOOO I threw some gold in the bag, cut rectangles of scrapbook paper, folded them over the top of Ziploc snack bags, stapled the sides, and glued on the quote (which I had just typed up and printed on my computer).  I am not a scrap booker, so I just used scissors, Elmer's glue, and a stapler.  Nothing fancy here (actually most of it was a bit crooked and wrinkly).  BUT at least I felt like I accomplished something…like those amazing Pinterest folks always do

  I had the same idea for the ladies I go visiting teaching to.  The idea was from PINTEREST.  I couldn't find black kisses, so I settled for purple, but I figured the witches I stole the hats from were just more stylish than those silly black Pinterest witches.   I also do not have a circle punch…nor do I know what one is, so I cut the old fashioned way and glued the circles to some card stock.  I am not gonna lie…I pretty much love the whole candy bag thing right now!!!

And another small victory at our house…the soap dispenser.  I have also seen lots of monogramed and decorated soap dispensers on—you know where.  I don’t need my name on my soap, but I DOOOO need something cuter than  a dawn bottle on my counter.  I am CONSTANTLY cleaning bottles and HATE getting under the sink for the dish soap.  Sounds dumb, but with child proof cupboards, it causes me great anger.  SOOO I spray painted my dishsoap.  SERIOUSLY.  I just took it into the garage and spray painted it.  I didn’t do anything else they said…no primer, no taking off the stickers, nothing.   Just painted it.  It still isn’t pretty, but now it kinda just blends in.

And another success.  The drying mat.  I was sick of either my counter being wet, or using all of the paper towels, so I made a drying mat.  I just sewed together some fabric and then sewed it to a super absorbent drying towel.  I got mine at WALGREENS for a dollar.  Perfect for all those darn bottle parts. 

SPEAKING of the bottle parts, I finally figured out a way to clean out DR. BROWN bottles.  We lost the little brush that came with them, and it was traumatic (for me).  I   used my somewhat unused brain and decided on PIPE CLEANERS.  SOO  if you are like me and need to clean the gunk out for your DR. BROWNS.  GO buy some crafting pipe cleaners (mine are sparkly halloween colors) and they work perfect.  TRUST ME.  I googled it and couldn’t find an answer….THIS IS THE ANSWER!!!  

 

SOOO that is all the boringness that is our crafting life over here.  I am super glad to be moving PAST halloween though…now on to tackling some Thanksgiving crafts on my to-so list!!!

Pirate Party EXTRAVAGANZA!!!

 

SoOOO Halloween has come and gone, but the mess of my house STILL remains.  We had our 2nd annual HALLOWEEN party at our house.  A dozen little kiddos running around eating candy and playing with swords.  Did I mention it was a pirate party???  THUS the swords.  BUT still….crazy!!!  I really wish there was a holiday where CANDY was not involved.  I bought NON chocolate this year so that I would not eat all of the candy, but it backfired.  NOW I just realize that I also love Banana Laffy Taffy and Twizzlers. 

The Pirate Perkins plus one beautiful Rapunzel.

Rapunzel had the BEST DAY EVER!!!!  We have pretty much been watching this movie EVERY day at least once (sometimes 4 times) a day for a few months, so for her to be Rapunzel was PERFECT!!!  She was happy…I was happy.  That is UNTIL she wanted mommy to make her costume.  I learned A LOT because 90% of the instructions for this costume were things I had NEVER done or even heard of.  I also learned that next year we are going to the Costume store FIRST and then if we cannot find the costume we want, we MIGHT head to the fabric store.  LESSON LEARNED!!!

Although I planned to make Ethan’s costume using THIS tutorial, I caved.  After all of the time and money spent on the PRINCESS dress, I headed out to buy Pirate Parrot Boy!!!  My sanity is WORTH 15  bucks

NO party is complete without decorations and activities.  Here are a few of our Piratey Fun Times!!!

Indoor Bounce House---best kid pleaser EVER!!!  And the Jessica Pleaser…A little Johnny… 

We had a couple of crafts from Oriental Trading (they rock).  Check out the duel Rapunzels…Little girls love their crafts.  I am pretty sure the boys were all out gouging each other with swords and sticks and such.  

The best part of the party (based on the amount of squealing and laughing) was the TREASURE HUNT. 

I drew up a map of the house on some burlap, burnt the edges on a few fun clues, and filled an old treasure chest with…well treasure!!!

I spotted this great trunk in my grandma’s shed and asked VERY NICELY if we could borrow it.  Then I filled it with all sorts of fun stuff.   This picture is AFTER the kiddos plundered all of their treasures.  They got loot bags filled with a compass, gold coin candy, a pirate sucker, some pencils, a couple tattoos, ring pops, and a blow out party favor.  They also got a Capri Sun and a Pirate dress up kit (courtesy of the Dollar Store). 

Because the Treasure didn’t contain ENOUGH candy, we also had a treasure chest pinata (Oriental Trading). 

Decorating was my favorite part.  I will spare you the details, but everything was from Oriental Trading and the Dollar Store.  No need to spend too much.  There were a FEW things that I really wanted.  One was a plank.  I settled for a 2 by 4 on the floor. 

I also wanted a SHIP centerpiece.  I somehow only got a picture after the kids had cleared and the mess remained, but at least it was still standing.  I tried to find some sort of ship building demo online, but nothing fit what I wanted.  I didn’t want to build an ACTUAL ship.  So I made it up as I went.  I placed a cardboard box upside down on the counter with the flaps all flipped out and laying on the counter.  Then I cut a small hole in the tape on the bottom of the box and shoved my broom through. For some reason the bristle part of the broom kept the pole from tipping over…it balanced right on the counter.  NOT SURE WHY.   My broom had a small hole in the tip, so I put a wood dowel through the hole and hot glued it in place.  Then I used twine to tie some black plastic for the sail.  Then I covered the box by cutting a plastic tablecloth halfway up the middle and wrapping it around the pole.  Then I used a straw and two pieces of paper to make a flag.  Low budget, not TOO pretty, but PERFECT!!! AND much better looking without all of the crap piled around it…oops!!!

I thought the bats were lonely, so I gave them some rat friends to play with.  Rats courtesy of MarthaStewart.com.

I found these plastic apples on…wait for it…Oriental Trading, and KNEW I wanted them.  They come pre-filled with a treat, but I loaded them up with Rolos…cause I couldn’t find any more gold coin candies  My little helper REALLY likes these.  The day after the party I filled the bowl back up and threw the apples back in and kept him busy for a good hour. 

That smile is WELL WORTH the money!!!!

Emersyn is planning next years party already and all of the kids left with a smile, so I guess we will plan to have a 3rd annual party next year.  Maybe my floors will be cleaned by then…haha!!!

Well Me and Mr. Bones are POOPED!!!!  We need a holiday from our HOLIDAY!!!!