Top Ten Favorite Things...Week of 11/16

TOP ROW
1. First trip to the Please Touch Museum...had a wonderful time w/my brother, SIL, and nieces
2. This is super nerdy but my free Color Deck fan from Sherwin Williams is one of my favorite things EVER
3. Getting to meet Olaf
4. A real girls night out with some of my favorite ladies!
5. No more Mr. Wobbly legs - my GOB is a walking machine (here he is getting some help from big bro)

BOTTOM ROW
6. Blake's been learning about one letter a week and bringing them home...so glad I finally got around to hanging them up....I have no idea what happened to the F, and the J is MIA
7. Soccer Season is over, but Blake came so far and I think had a great time with his dad
8. My new-sew Roman shade for the bathroom...once again thank you Young House Love
9. The Wegmans driving carts are perfect for shopping with both boys....I just wish they had more of them
10. Storytime at the Doylestown library 

Thanksgiving Craft time with Blake

Getting this one up before I have a chance to forget!  Since it's been way too cold to go anywhere, Blake and I took Tuesday to work on our Thanksgiving craft (before, you know, Thanksgiving).  I wanted something pretty simple, so I settled on this easy painted tree from Pinterest.  We traced Blake's arm in the morning, and then he actually was good long enough for me to paint the tree (!!), before he got to fingerpaint the leaves after lunchtime.

As you can see, Blake is more of a "march to your own drummer" kinda painter, so it didn't turn out exactly as I was thinking but hey - It does look like a tree!  Now it's chilling on the mantel w/some corn and pumpkins.  I asked Blake how it looked and he said "It looks GREAT mommy!" so I call that a MomWin

**Side note - one of the best recent purchases I've bought was a huge plastic table cloth roll from Party City for GOBs bday.  Now I just whip it out for craft time and throw it away afterwards.  Double MomWin!

In my last craft post I mentioned that I was trying to work on decorating my front door more, so that's what I'm calling my Thanksgving craft for the year.  I picked up these beautiful lanterns at AC Moore and sprayed them with Rust-O-Leum rust proof spraypaint since I don't think they're necessarily meant to be outside.  Blake and I went a little crazy at the pumpkin patch, where I also got a pretty purple Mum - note to self: next year get a heavy pot to put it in...it's looking a little worse for the wear after being blown off the porch MANY times this fall.  The thing I'm most proud of is my little box crate - which was my first attempt at staining something.  It was leftover from Blake's bday so I used some never used stain I had in the garage, stole from sealer from my dad, took an afternoon, and Voila....I love how it turned out and it's held up great throw the weather.

So that wraps up my fall crafts....next up - cooking Thanksgiving and then onward to getting ready for Xmas!

Top Ten Favorite Things - MEGA SIZED EDITION

I've been collecting favorite things for the last month and a half but just haven't gotten a chance to blog any of them....so here is a mid-fall dump of all the things that have made me smile recently : )

Back to the weekly updates next week - PROMISE

 

TOP ROW
1. Enjoying the beautiful fall weather by doing super Fall-ee things w/the Blake Monster
2. My dad's new frequent trips to London = lots of Cadbury chocolate for me
3. Mr. GOB learning to stand up
4. The beautiful red maples they planted outside of my house
5. Cash's decision to take up residence in the circus tent

2nd ROW
6. Having a fence!!!!!
7. Picnics outside the Doylestown Library....I used to go there when I was young so I love that I can take my boys there now
8. Celebrating GOBs bday at Chuck E Cheese...he was a little confused by his cake
9. Bare Essentials Eye Shadow - got a new 8 pack from my awesome mom...best eyeshadow I've ever used hands down
10.  Halloween w/the Monkey and the Lobster

3rd ROW
11. Craft Saturdays w/Blake - nice to spend 1:1 time together each week
12. Having a garage door opener!!!!
13. Awesome new hair color by my favorite stylist ever...when I get a chance to blow dry it it looks GREAT
14. Creepy Rob Lowe - just when I thought my love for him couldn't get any greater
15. Night out with Jon at this DELICIOUS restaurant in Doylestown.  Decided to be classy for once and not take pics of all of the food, but the B.E.L.T (pork belly, roasted tomato spread, grilled sourdough served over an Ostrich Egg Yolk!!) still makes my mouth water

BOTTOM ROW
16. I have been waiting since I started playing TAPPED OUT to have the catapult in my town square to launch cats from...and yes, that is George Washington chilling in the bottom corner
17. The day GOB was so tired he fell asleep sitting up, and then fell over
18. Finally getting some art up on the wall in GOBs room
19. Blake's new favorite saying - "I like you mommy"....heart melts every time
20. GOB's new favorite game - playing hide and seek in the tent....heart melts every time

What's For Dinner - Late Summer / Early Fall Roundup

Here's a few of my favorite bites from the last few months....going to be cooking Thanksgiving for me and the boys next week and very excited to try out a things I've never made before (+ the most amazing Pumpkin Pie ever)

Spinach and Artichoke Rollatini	Slow Cooker Hoisin Ribs w/Bacon Cornbread
Chick and Biscuit "Pigs in a Blanket"	Ruben Dip
Crawfish and Grits	Roasted Apple Pies
Chicken Milanese w/Bacon and Pancetta Potatoes

GOB's Big Top Birthday

The rain kinda washed out our plans of setting up a fun, sunny circus in our backyard....but Grayson's first birthday still turned out being a lot of fun.  I cooked up a big batch of chili to keep everyone nice and warm and we moved the carnival games to the garage.  I didn't capture as many pics of the day as I would have liked to but here's a few of our Big Top touches, and of the cutest ring master to take the stage!

Was really happy with the invites I whipped up for this one and for the teal/red color scheme

All of those empty boxes that had been taking up residence in the basement (which I totally cleaned up for the party - one stone + two birds = Booyah) came in SUPER handy for building our carnival games.  The kids got all tatted up and our tattoo parlor...I think Blake had 6 at one point

Jon did an awesome job building this great train out of some more boxes....the best find was a $20 pop up circus tent that I found at Ikea....it now lives in our living room and as you can see the Jerk Dog has decided that it would make the perfect home for him

And of course, here's my happy baby enjoying his BDay cake

I know I said it before but thank you to everyone who came out to make the day so special.

Getting Crafty

A big part of my New Year's March resolution was to start crafting things again.  It's been too long since I've sunk my teeth into these fun projects and it's time to start again.  I know it's not everyone's thing, but for me it's a real stress relief and gives me a much needed dose of self-accomplishment.

So I've set two goals for myself that I got to take for a spin over the last few months:

Goal #1:  Start to give people more hand-made presents.

My mom saw these cute pottery barn chalk tags in their catalog one day, so I thought - "Hey self, you can probably make those!" and got to work.  I think they turned out pretty cute...can't say that I saved that much money on them compared to the PB ones, but I got to test drive chalk board paint for the first time and was very happily surprised with the results!  Can't wait to put up a big chalk board in the mudroom for the boys to destroy

For my niece's bday, I stole borrowed this idea straight from my favorite DIY site (which, side note, they are discontinuing and I am still in deep denial about).  I bought her a Tinkerbell tea party set last year, so I thought this cake stand would be the perfect compliment.  I decided to stick to her favorite colors and I'm really happy with how it turned out.  It also gave me the excuse to set up my new table saw....turns out I LOVE POWER TOOLS.  I forgot to get a really good picture of the whole thing together before I gave it to her (of course) but got a good close up of some of my favorite cakes

Goal #2:  Take on one craft project each holiday/season for the house, and one with Blake

This fall, we went a little pumpkin crazy so we have quite a few painted pumpkins around the house that Blake made, and we took a craft class together - so I'm checking the second half of that one off the list.

For my project, I found this picture on Pinterest....fast, cheap, easy = GO.  So I took one slow morning, a lot of googly eyes and a glue gun and churned out this for my front door.  I've had a few eyes fall off on windy days, so in retrospect I should have used super glue from the get go, but have been able to get them all back on with no problem.  I'm also really concentrating on putting together simple but pretty arrangements around the front door.  I never really concentrated on that in the Townhouse besides hanging a wreath, but this new house deserves the finest in life!

So that's my early fall craft round up;  I've got a few more brewing already for the Thanksgiving season....now gotta push myself to remember to blog about them earlier!