Fabric covered hangers

**Edited to say**
How about putting these in baby shower gifts?! Thanks for the idea Modgirl!

Haley's dress up clothes were out of control, they were always crumpled up in little balls on the floor, getting stepped on, and just torn up in general. So I had this grand idea to install the curtain rod on the wall and hang the dresses up on pretty hangers. Do you have any idea how much pretty hangers cost?! A LOT! The alternative was to make my own, and although they aren't padded and silky, they turned out just great for what I wanted.

I chose three coordinating fabrics and cut them into 1/2 inch strips, and they are about 12 inches long. I bought the cheapest hangers I could find, and some super-glue. If you can find hangers without the shoulder-strap holders, that would be even better.

Tie the strips together until it looks long enough, you can always add more or cut some off at the end.


Also, that little thing in the middle needs to go, otherwise when you are wrapping the fabric it looks really sloppy and is hard to finish it off at the end. I won't tell you that I cut it off with a box cutter, because if I did, and you got hurt, you might sue me. So you will have to come up with your own, very safe way of getting rid of that thing.

Put a little drop of super-glue here.

Glue one end of your fabric strips to the end of the hanger. (DO NOT pinch the fabric to the hanger with your fingers, super-glue can heat up when you are gluing on fabric and burn you! Isn't that amazing, it says it on the bottle, and I have a scar to prove it!)

Just keep wrapping and wrapping and wrapping, it didn't take that long, probably a couple of minutes per hanger.


When you are all done, put another drop of super-glue here, do one last wrap and glue the fabric back to itself and trim off the extra. This also produces quite a few of those little stringy things from the unfinished edges and you will need to trim those as well.


The finished product could be dressed up quite a bit more, but I wanted the colors to be the standout feature on these.

I have much bigger plans for this corner, and will be posting pictures of the whole wall again soon. Yet another project on my list. I am going to paint the curtain rod pink. And I am working on some silhouettes of the kids for their walls, which will also go here. I have seen those vinyl wall stickers everywhere lately, and I could totally do something here with those...

Lil' fire fighters

This was something I picked up last summer, I think from Family Fun Magazine, but not sure. Either way, I drew a raging fire on the patio while the kids were napping (clearly, I am no artist!). Then they got to use the garden hose to "put out" the fire. They have a lot of fun with this, and what you don't see is Jeremiah running around getting sprayed by big brother and sister!

He's Bad to the Bone!

Family Friday!

First up this week, is our new nephew. Isn't he sweet?! This little boy was brought to us by Michael's twin sister who lives in Kansas. Even though she is far away we hope to see him ASAP!

Jeremiah is at that age where one minute he is super cute, and obedient. And the next minute he is getting into something he shouldn't be.

Mikey went to get his pajamas on tonight, and thought he could keep his feet warmer by putting on every pair of socks in his sock drawer! Not kidding, he put on 8 pairs! The other picture is him worn out from VBS this week. The kid hasn't taken a nap in about 6 months, so when he fell asleep on the couch we were kind of surprised!

Sorry, no pics of Haley and Ella this week. Maybe we will do a special feature of just them sometime soon!

My cool apron

Each month I go to a cook night at a local church, you prepare between 5-20 meals and then bring them home to put in the freezer. It is quite a production for the gals who run it, but for the rest of us, it is such a huge time and money saver!

Last month I was admiring an apron that another gal was wearing. She said it was super easy to make, even for a beginner sewer. (is sewer a word?) And she was right! I got the pattern, chose some fabric and sewed it right up! It would've taken me about an hour, except the tension on my bobbin was messed up and I ended up having to rip out almost every seam at least once!

The pattern is called "Four Corners Apron" by Vanilla House Designs, you should try it!

We talked to Dave Ramsey, we talked todaveramsey, WETALKEDTODAVERAMSEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!

Okay, not we, but Michael, got to talk to Dave on the phone today! It has been my dream to talk to DR, or see him live, since we got started on our Total Money Makeover. With his impending decision to get out or stay in the Air Force, Michael thought he would just talk it over with DR. So we dialed and dialed and dialed, once we got through Michael had to be screened and then sat on hold for almost an hour for his turn. But it was so worth it!!

If you want to hear the clip I can email it to you, I don't know how to post it on here, maybe someday I will figure that one out.

What kind of boys are we raising?

If you can't see it Mikey has a fishnet on his head, he looks like he is about to rob a 7/11! And Jeremiah was walking around for a good part of the afternoon with Haley's plastic high-heels on. What a pair!

Scissor practice

Mikey and Haley need some serious scissor practice, Haley still tries to hold her scissors with her wrist all twisty and her fingers in the top hole, which won't fit so she holds them upside down. She is only 3 so we will cut her some slack, but at the same time we will continue to practice! I drew some large shapes onto some craft foam and let them cut cut cut 'til their hearts were content. This is like a 10 on the easy scale for me, and the craft foam is easy for them to handle so they like it too. I am going to glue the shapes to a paper, hang it on the bulletin board and then revisit foam shape cutting in a few months to see their progress!

Cutest VBS craft ever

Our church is doing VBS this week, and the theme is WANTED:Children After God's Own Heart! Which has this whole cowboy/western thing going on. On Monday I went to pick the kids up (I usually work VBS, so it was hard to leave them, which is weird, because I am not an over protective type) and they were wearing these vests made from grocery bags! The possibilities are endless in my mind, construction worker, pirate, life jacket (pretend, of course)...

The joy of motherhood comes in moments

One of the things Michael and I try really hard to do, is foster a great friendship between all the kids. We want them to grow up as buddies rather than rivals. So when I heard the following conversation in the backseat of our van today, I was thrilled!

Mikey: Tomorrow is Wednesday and we are going to the YMCA for swimming!

Haley:Yeah, I love to swim, but I won't jump in.

M:I'm gonna jump in, I'm not scared because I like it when my feet get at the bottom.

H:I am scared of by myself to jump in (notice the three year old grammar!)

M:If I hold your hand, we can jump in together and then you won't be scared Haley, can I do that to you?

H:Sure Mikey, then I can jump too, will Daddy be there?


AWWWWWWWWW, my heart melted.

Project #1...Check!

This was project #1 on my crafty to-do list, and when I first put it up on my TV cabinet, I hated it. But it grew on me and once I decorated around it, I quite like it! I used a power grinder to remove the surface rust (I used it for about two minutes, and then Michael finished it for me), then spray painted it white, then antiqued it with some dark brown acrylic paint. The sanding and the spray painting were easy, but the antique-ing was really a tedious process. I think it was worth it though! I love the little birdie.

I done did read these...

Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan
While in prison for conducting church services without the permission of the state John Bunyan had several visions, out of which this book was born. It is an allegory of the Christian life and our journey heavenward. I can't say what Bunyan's intentions were when he wrote the book, but I was so encouraged to keep pluggin' on in my walk with the Lord. Even though it is an allegorical book, the parallels to everyday struggles are easy to recognize and the way out of those struggles is even more clear. Focus on the Savior, he will give you what you need to get through it. There is not even a hint of "prosperity doctrine" in this book, it never says or even hints that becoming a Christian means your life is going to be easier, from beginning to end it is about the trials that come simply because you are a Christian, the trials that come from the world, and the trials that come from within our sinful selves. And from beginning to end the main character, "Christian," is delivered from his trials by provisions from the Lord. I thoroughly enjoyed the read!



The Pact by Jodi Picoult
This is the book I got in my favorite things package. Here is what the little ditty on the back has to say:
"... a riveting, timely, heartbreaking, and terrifying novel of families in anguish--and friendships ripped apart by inconceivable violence. Until the phone calls came at 3:00a on a November morning, the Gold and the Hartes, had been inseparable. It was no surprise to anyone when their teenage children, Chris and Emily, began showing signs that their relationship was moving beyond that of lifelong friends. But now seventeen-year-old Emily has been shot to death by her beloved and devoted Christ as part of an apparent suicide pact--leaving two devastated families stranded in the dark and dense pre-dawn, desperate for answers about an unthinkable act and the children they never really knew.

I never would have chosen this book for myself, it is a little too dark. Although, it is a thinking kind of book, you are always wondering what was going to happen next, and when I was done, I was analyzing the morality of it all. The opening line, riveting, timely, heartbreaking and terrifying, describes it very well. There are some very worldly elements in the book, and it wasn't an uplifting kind of read. It is a weird feeling to finish a book and enjoy it, but not necessarily want to recommend it to others. Maybe you should read it and draw your own conclusions??

The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Who doesn't love The Little House on the Prairie series? We are reading through these with the kids right now, and I love the stories as much as they do! It was such a different time, and a different life altogether, but the principles taught in the stories are timeless.

Christmas in July!

I made these! Actually I made six of these! Three red for the girls and three green for the boys! Most exciting of all, is that it cost me the same amount to make all SIX of these as it would've for ONE of them from the Pottery Barn catalog! WAHOO!

Special thanks to MaryKay Burgess who held my hand through the whole sewing process, this was my first big project and she showed me step by step how to get it done! Granted, we started last December and I got the three red ones done just in time to hang up for Christmas Eve, literally, just in time! This week I got a wild hair to finish the green ones. Someday I will make a matching tree skirt, someday.

More Family Friday

There was a base wide picnic today at Miller Park. They had face painting, t-shirt painting, match-up games, and tons of other stuff, plus FREE FOOD! Mikey and Haley got to do a climbing wall and I thought you would enjoy photos!

TGIF

We had a long week, but hopefully productive for training?! Mikey struggled with bad attitudes ALL week long. Yesterday I was at my wits end, and instead of a "soft answer to turn away wrath" I lost my temper, big time. So I had to do some apologizing, and asking for forgiveness. Mikey is definitely a strong-willed child, one of the ones who is going to go off like a rocket someday, I pray constantly that God will show us how to point him in the right direction for blastoff.

This is Ella's attempt at escaping from the bouncy chair! She learned to roll over from her back to her belly this week!

If you click on the crib picture you can see Jeremiah standing with his foot through the slats, his attempt at climbing out of the crib before I came to get him this morning! And I filled the sink up to keep him occupied while I did dishes, bad idea, he dumped water ALL over the counter, the chair, the floor, EVERYWHERE! You live and you learn!

Haley in Daddy's "soldier hat." I will have to do a whole post about Haley someday, she is quite possibly the sweetest girl on the planet!

She had the idea to build a "fork" (aka fort) this week so we did. When Mikey and Haley were smaller we used to build them a lot, and then sit under them and read books. It was fun to do it again and remember those times.

Hope your week was wonderful!

Coin sorting

I have been checking out this blog lately Laugh, Learn, Love. Each Monday they post a theme challenge and then you link your ideas to their post. The whole blog is about playing with your kids. When you check it out make sure to read what Erin and Deneal wrote about themselves in the left-hand sidebar. Can't you relate?

Anyway, this week the theme is currency. So the kids and I did some coin sorting last night. I got our spare change bowl and labeled some jelly jars and they went to town sorting out the coins. It wasn't as easy for them as I thought it would be. But they did have fun.


Some other things might be coin cleaning, I think I will send them outside today with an old toothbrush and a bucket of soapy water and the coins...that will keep them busy for sure!

A good counting game is to roll dice and then they have to count out pennies in the same number as they roll on the dice.

Or roll the dice and stack that number of coins each time until the stack gets tall enough to fall over.

How about making patterns with the coins, or lining them up by sizes?

Check out Laugh, Learn, Love, they have some great ideas!

Giveaway

I found a giveaway here. To enter you link her giveaway post in your blog and then leave her a comment. It would be perfect in the girls' room, here's hoping!!

Had to add this...

Jeremiah had a marble in his mouth this morning, which Mikey discovered and frantically came running to tell me. So I fished the marble out of his mouth, and instructed him that marbles are "no-no's."

For breakfast we ate grapes and dutch babies. Jeremiah kept asking for more marbawas. I couldn't figure it out, but he was so sweet with his little sign language more and please over and over, so I was trying to understand. Finally it dawned on me that he was calling the grapes "marbawas" or in Jeremiah speak--marbles!

Family Friday!

Hello again to my family and friends! We had one of those weeks, that went by really fast, but we didn't do anything super exciting. I love being able to go outside ALL the time and let the kids eat outside, less vacuuming!

We have a fun jar, we pull pieces of paper out of it everyday with some activity for us to do. Yesterday we got "Videotape the kids giving tours of their bedrooms." And so we did! I was going to post them here, but 45 minutes later, the first one still hadn't finished uploading.

So, pictures only this week.

Last night, the kids and I came home from swimming lessons and the door was locked! I was kind of confused, but there was also a note on the door. It said:

CLUE HUNT!
Daddy is hiding and you must find him. Read the clues and follow the hints to find him.
Clue #1
I have a clue in my pocket. I am a very important jacket worn to work in. A pet might have seen me worn by my owner, I have red buttons and am greenish blue in color.

This clue led us to a dress-up veteranarian's jacket that the kids have, and that one led us to some hot wheels tracks, and that one led us to the computer printer, and that one led us to Michael, hiding in the backseat of his jeep! The look on the kids faces, especially Mikey, when they found him was terrific!

I know I brag about Michael a lot on here, but really, what an awesome idea. And what a great daddy!