BarelyControlledChaos

It has been a long week.

No really. A loooooong, never-ending, why-isn’t-it-just-Saturday-already kind of week.

I guess it technically isn’t even Friday yet – still Thursday night, but after I magically post-publish this, fall into bed and get a good night o’ sleep, it will indeed finally be Friday.

I mercifully just shut my oven off. It had been on and baking away for nearly 3 hours and now we have over 7 dozen cookies (three different types) for the Pajama Party at Em’s school tomorrow night. I thought how nice it would be to bake them afterschool tomorrow so that they would be fresh and gooey for the party, but it just isn’t going to happen. For as crazy as the past four days have been – tomorrow is even worse.

Em had a lot – A. LOT. – of work to do this week. Just normal homework, a special little book club, the first part of their habitat diorama project, and her showtime are all due tomorrow. (Yes, this is first grade, folks!)

Granted, we have known about her “showtime,” since last week. And I was very worried and kept suggesting ideas for her, for they are supposed to take 5 minutes and teach the class how to do something.

“How about doing some ballet?”
“No. I don’t want to dance.”
“How about doing some magic tricks?”
“No. I don’t want to. Eric already did one.”
“How about how to draw an animal?”
“NO! Mom! I’ll think of something. Don’t worry.”

Ahem. Ok, then. Of course I did still worry, but then she decided she was going to talk about why plants are important and show the class how to pot a plant. Nice! I can help with that! We can make posters and visual aids and plant some flowers!

Now, while I am very, very good under pressure. When I have a time crunch or a lot of things on my plate, I can shine. I can pull it all out and make it look relatively easy.

Emma? Not so much. She has not yet learned the tricks of the trade, multi-tasking shortcuts and such. In fact, when she has a lot of things to do, she actually moves slower. Like snail pace. I have been Nelly the Nag all week long and it is exhausting.

But I must say she has practiced her show a few times for me, once for Addie, and even once over Skype for Daddy (traveling again – yes, over the weekend! Boo.) and she has it down. She is pretty darn good. I’m excited to see how she pulls it off tomorrow. Oh, yes…I will be videoing it.

And at the other school, we have a Pancake Breakfast fundraiser on Saturday morning that I was “helping” with, but have kind of ended up co-chairing, I guess. I love Addie’s school and think it is a very worthwhile cause, but there is always something to be done. I can’t wait til Spring Break when the somethings are all done!

I am actually working on a website for our friend and realtor. So that really hasn’t left much *free* time for doing things like, oh, say…laundry? I used to have this great schedule and by Thursday all of the laundry would be done. But these days it seems to just be on a continual cycle. Literally. Our washing machine is constantly on. Or has clothes in it to be moved over. Or clothes on top of it to be put in. It is never-ending.

If we can get through the busy-ness of tomorrow (today) and get through the Pancake Breakfast on Saturday, I have promised the girls some beach time on Sunday afternoon. So we’ll more than likely see you back here on Monday. Have a great weekend!

Wow! We are on week 7 already? I should hardly be surprised as quickly as our days, weeks, months fly by around here lately.

But it is Team-Up Thursday time again and my turn to choose. I chose Friends. Thought I might be able to catch a few shots since we had Addie’s friend staying with us last week. I failed miserably on that front. But then I realized that I could just swing a camera around in any room in my house and be able to capture the sweetest image of friends.

And I figure most of you have been around here enough to know that I’m on the bottom and the deliciously dynamic other half of the duo, Kimberly, is on top.

Can you see the cool texture her photo has? I love that our shots are so similar and work well together – but they have just little glimpses of contrast. We both have two subjects, but she has boys, I have girls. Clearly chilly sweater-type weather and shot outdoors, but hers has definitely a darker, “boy” colored tone to it, and mine is like a rainbow exploded all over. Her guys are off in their own little world, my girls are looking directly at the camera. This is all really fascinating to me. And a very fun exercise even if I always leave it to the very last possible second. (Sorry K.!)

Check out what others are up to over at -

Hosted by Megan and Hip Momma

…might as well join ‘em!

And this is how you spend your precious free time on a Sunday afternoon when you are surrounded by nothing but girls.

He did a great job, though, eh? Note there was even nail art stickers…

And a very happy Tuesday to you all!

Hope you all got some time last week to get your craftiness on.

I had a tiny little bit of time, and made a ruffled skirt for Addie.

And I “fixed” one of Addie’s stained shirts, too. I did it after she went to bed, so she was pretty excited when she came down.

The ruffles are still a little bit off, lengthwise, but it sure is fun to guinea-pig on the girls.

And over the weekend we trekked to the flea market where I hit the mother lode at my linen lady’s booth. Look at all the lovely pillowcases I ran off with…

I will have dresses in the etsy shop soon! (I hope.)

AND, then…I also got some great vintage aprons from the same lady. She gave me a great deal on them…

And I have a great idea for them. We’ll see if it works out. Look at the sweet detail on the aprons…

Just imagine cute sundress-y sort of goodness from these. I’ll keep you posted.

How about it, my crafty friends? Have anything good to show today?

Our little birdy is ready for kindergarten.

Not that we needed a preschool conference to tell us this, but they did indeed verify that we have another little miss smartypants on our hands. And…she is most definitely ready for kinder in the fall.

Her teachers also said she is a “pure joy to have in class” and they have apparently never experienced a classic Addie complete meltdown.

Uh huh.

At any rate, Addie was most excited to tell any, and every one on Friday, “Miss Jayne said I can go to kindergarten now!” Guess who was most excited for her? Yep, Emmy Gracie.

Yesterday I snuck in and grabbed this photo while big sister was coaching her baby sis. Em was helping Addie with her k-garten workbook. Reading the directions to her. Applauding her when she figured out the right answer.

This was my most favorite moment of the weekend. I also decided in that moment I experienced one of the “top five” feelings a mom can experience. Pure pride at having not one, but two, fantastic, smart and caring girls.

Uh…maybe she has been watching too much Project Runway with me?

I mean look at that pose! She was totally workin’ her new outfit yesterday.

And then Miss Ad had to get in on the action.

Yes, of course she wore the tiara to school. Why wouldn’t she?

I’m intent on cleaning up my fabric stash around here. The girls are enamored with skirts, and it is hard to find really cute ones. And when I do find cute ones my first inclination is to turn over the price tag and scoff. “Pshaw! These are so easy to make!”

Er, right. But actually finding the time to make all those lovely skirts is another thing. But, like I said…I have the fabric – so we are on a mission for some skirts!

Em has been eyeing this purple/pink flower material in my bin for awhile. So I finally got it put together and sewed the elastic in it last night so she could wear it to school.

(She totally had a different skirt on with this t-shirt and these boots yesterday and slid this skirt on over her leggings so I could snap a pic…I’m working on a coordinating shirt for her new skirt, so don’t worry! Although the boots have been a constant in the wardrobe lately…they may stick with the skirt.)

I used this twirly skirt tutorial but didn’t have quite enough material. So it isn’t quite twirly. Unfortunately I told Em it was a twirly skirt and the minute she put it on she twirled and she was a wee bit disappointed in the “twirl-ability” of the skirt. I promised her that the next one would be a little fuller.

Now, I need to get back to the school newsletter and some other little artsy things that I have to do this week so that I can get back to our twirly skirts. For there is another little someone waiting (not-so) patiently for her skirt to be done, too.

***Edited To Add****

Ok, I got to thinking  and was a little concerned with what Em would want to pair up with this skirt tomorrow and I had a white long-sleeved t-shirt that had a spot on the front so I decided add a little flower to it to go with her skirt.

It would have been better if it was a purple or pink shirt, or if I had appliqued it in purple or pink…but we are talking 10:30pm project here. You get what you get.

I haven’t talked much about Ad’s school lately. And we actually have two days off this coming week for conferences. Yes, conferences…for preschool! What are they going to tell us? “Well, she doesn’t eat as much glue any more, she is progressing nicely?”

Maybe I’m feeling a little snarky because this week is the week. THE week we register her for kindergarten in the fall. I can hardly think of it without getting a giant lump in my throat.

But much like my hesitation at first in sending her to preschool, I know deep down that come fall it will be time for her to move along. She is so ready, and so very excited. While she might not have the…ah, shall we say school acumen that her older sister has, she shares the same excitement about going to school. And she still asks every single day, “On this day do I get to go to school?”

This past week was her 100th day of school so they were instructed to bring in 100 somethings. It could be anything. I was pulling for Cheerios, or stickers, but Emma pipes up with, “Hey! We should get jellybeans! That would be fun!”

And since our little “never-met-a-candy-she-doesn’t-like Sugar Bear” thought that she might get a few jellybeans on the side, she heartily agreed that it must be jellybeans.

So she counted out her 100 jellybeans…

And then had to recount them, since some of her piles seem to be down a few…

And then after about a dozen of the beans, she declared, “I don’t think I really like these jellybeans, Mama. They taste like crayons.”

How she knows what crayons taste like? We’ll never know. But I do know that I love these sweet cheeks with all my heart.

(And yes, there is a definite quota each day on how many times I need to kiss them.)

If there is one thing I hate more than photos of myself, it is a self portrait. Of course, I agonized over what to do and how to shoot this for so long, I literally had a 10-minute window to try to get something this afternoon, just so I could send it to Kimberly in time. So while Kimberly looks all glam in non-mommy clothes, make-up and all – you get me how I usually look on any given Wednesday. T-shirt, jeans, no make-up…and like I am many days, peeking out from behind my camera.

(We still make a pretty sweet looking duo though, huh?)

Stop over to see all the faces behind all of the Team-Up Thursday pairs today.

Hosted by Megan and Hip Momma

Little light here for CT today.

I have this little dress – horribly and quickly – photographed before we finally got to deliver it to our sweet little 1-year old friend.

This is one of those projects that started out with an incredible vision, and then fell apart incredibly quickly. Pretty much everything that could go wrong with this little dress….did. This is actually the 2nd dress – there is a first version that is going to be adapted for Em’s American Girl doll…it wasn’t even able to be salvaged.

It was supposed to be reversible…finally I gave up on that. The inside lining that light blue color in a cotton/linen, which come to find out is kind of see through. And why…oh why(???), did I think it was a good idea to put buttons on this? I hate buttonholes.  But, it is done, I do love the birdy fabric and Elizabeth seemed to like it just fine. I’ll get better photos of it on her some time.

And that, my friends, is all I have this week. Yikes. That sicky illness last week kind of through my crafting out the door.

But wait! I do have another little crafty tidbit I can show. I think I can probably show.

I didn’t get permission from my mom – but she doesn’t have a blog, and I’m pretty certain she won’t mind if I show off her Valentine card for a minute or two.

So check this out… (again, sorry for the crappy photography – in my dining room at 8pm at night…lovely 1970s chandelier lighting!)

So it looks like a simple little V-day card, right? Then you open it…

Can you see all the cutout folds? You can’t really get the full effect in this crummy view – but trust me, it is really, really cool. It got “whooaaa’s” from the whole family. So thanks, Mom! They had to have taken a long time.

And with that, what does everyone else have for today?