BarelyControlledChaos

I didn’t do too terribly much crafting around here last week, but I managed to get one little project for me, off of the list.

I have wanted to vinyl-up some of these jars for a long time. Birdie #2 and I made the monthly pilgrimage to the mecca (Hobby Lobby) last week and all of the glassware was 50% off, so perfect time to stock up on jars.

And then we just cut some tags out with outdoor vinyl (so we can wash the jars!) and one project done!

I hadn’t washed them yet, so that is why they are still hanging out on my table, but they look cool, huh?

Now the girls were plenty crafty for Mother’s Day. This is what Addie gave me on Sunday (well, Saturday night because they couldn’t wait!) -

And inside the bag was a silhouette her teacher did -

I put it in a frame so I can hang it, and I also took a photo of Em yesterday so I can do one of her. I love these! And the silhouette really does look like Ad’s profile.

And Em brought home a handmade gift, too – my most favorite gifts in the world.

And a close-up of the letter than accompanied the coupons -

“A multi-tasker and classy.” That is what I am to my girl. Eh. I’ll take it.

And the other present they brought out, although it isn’t handmade or crafty -

It does make rockin’ ice cream. I think we are going to have some fun coming up with our own homemade treats!

Any Mother’s Day craft goodness that you can share today?

Lucky ducky me. My birthday and Mother’s Day are always within the same week, so I end up getting treated pretty much like Queen Carrie around here for a good week or so.

I thought that the week couldn’t get any better after my birthday weekend, but then my birthday present from my sister came, as in…literally came via airplane from Michigan, on Friday. My sister flew out for a mere 24 hours – but we made the very best of our very short time together.

Massages, a picnic lunch on the beach filled with lots of girlfriend talking time, and then margaritas and dinner at Mijares with J. and the girls. It was a much needed reality check and special time with my girl. Thank you Meesh and DJ, thank you so very much!

A few other birthday treats that I’ve been using this week and LOVE -

Ceramic lovelies that I have been drooling over at Anthropologie for many months. They make my kitchen just a little cheerier.

And these are also looking to help me out in the kitchen, hopefully!

And when I am ready to pop out of the kitchen, I have these to inspire some creativity around here.

Plus I have $$ to spend at Sew Mama Sew on some fabric! I feel some summer skirt making coming on very soon.

And all of this? It was just in celebration of my birthday. Today I got in the car to run to church and my car was full of gas and squeaky clean courtesy of my sweet husband. That right there is just pure heaven. After church, we hit Disneyland. It really was the perfect way to end MY week.

Watching these two together…

…I’m yet again in awe of the fact that they are mine. I’m so thankful God blessed us with these two beautiful girls. I adore them. And I think I fully appreciate the awesomeness of my job. It truly is the best job in the world.

I’m a lucky, lucky ducky.

To my Mom, who taught me all I know (and loves me no matter what shenanigans I’ve thrown her way over the years), to my sister who is the best friend to have in this world, and all of the moms in my life who have supported me in the path of motherhood and inspired me to be a better mom…I can’t say thank you to you all enough. I think the girls probably say (sing) it best today.

Happy Mother’s Day!
Love,
Care

Pretty much all I have been able to fit in around this here blog…little lists with some snapshots thrown in. It is crazy busy around here, but I really am loving every minute of it. And so, me thinks this is a good day to do a Friday Love…

Things I’m loving today:

Top of the list…my sister is coming to see me. To my house. Here in California. T-O-N-I-G-H-T! Woot! I have no idea what I’m going to do with her for the 24 hours (she is literally here for just only 24 hours!), but I’m hoping she is not planning on sleeping because I am going to soak up every minute I can with her.

Right behind my visitor excitement is the fact that we have a handyman who is pretty much tearing through my project list. Tomorrow he is coming to install all of the baseboards in our bedroom that he cut yesterday. After a year and a half (?) – we will finally have a finished bedroom. I can’t tell you how excited that makes me.

The baseboards needing to be painted today, also forced me to finally find a color for our trim. We had a little paint Goldilocks going on around here…”That one is too white! That one is not creamy enough. That one is too yellow.”

And I think…we have finally found one that is juuuust right! Benjamin Moore’s Chatsworth Cream. It’s pretty. Not that you can see it in my horrible florescent lighting in my garage, but trust me…I’ll take photos once it is up in our much better lit bedroom.

Other things my handyman completed…hooking up my new fridge and range! We are now cooking with gas – look out! And even though these beauties were really all I wanted for my birthday, I was treated to some other lovely gifts, too.

Sometimes I just wander into the kitchen and stroke my lovely double ovens, or give the fridge a loving pat and whisper kind words into it. There is nothing like making you feel truly like a grownup than buying new appliances. Even though we have bought 2 houses, these are the first REAL appliances we have had to purchase. So you can imagine my angst and the months of research and shopping. The dishwasher (the appliance that started the whole waterfall effect!) is on the list…J. just found it on a super sale! Then the appliance trifecta will be complete!

Our house has become a lego minefield. But I’m really loving it! Em is obsessed with the Harry Potter legos. (All you who sent her gift cards…this is what she combined them for!) I thought we were going to bypass the whole lego stage, but it is here and in full force! And it keeps them occupied for hours.

I have been putting away all of my awesome birthday gifts and snapping photos all week to share with you, but I almost think that deserves a post of all its own. So, maybe I can squeeze that together later this weekend after my sister leaves…oh, I did tell you, right? My sister is coming todaaaaay!

And last but definitely not least, it is Friday. If that isn’t reason enough to be filled with love, I don’t know what else is.

Happy weekend, everyone. And to my most excellent mom, my mother-in-law, my sister and all of the lovely moms in my life – I wish you a day filled with love and peace. Happy Mother’s Day!

So, I turned 40 today. I think there has been a little trepidation of the big 4-0 for the past few weeks. I really liked being “thirty something.” Forty…40! It just seemed kind of…well, old.

But then I had a lovely “last night of being in my thirties,”  and I woke up to affirmations from my sweet husband that he “kinda liked having a 40-year old wife in bed next to him” and I realized that I didn’t really feel any different today than I did last week, or even last year.

So we started on with our day and went to get coffee and bagels. As I sat with our friend Mike, who we like to call our “California Dad/Grandpa,” I realized that I think we look forward to Saturdays with Mike and Zee as much as they do, and we are so incredibly lucky to start each Saturday out with them.

We went to pick up the girls who were staying with Aunt JB & Uncle Jeff while we went to the Coldplay (awesome!) concert on Friday night. And I thanked the luck of the universe that we have them to jump in when we need a little extra support, that they could offer the possibility of a sleep-in (even though we were both up before 8am!), and then they presented me with their most excellent “tower of 40″ gifts. (And pretty, pretty flowers too!)

I now have gift cards to spend at each of my favorite stores and awesome little gifts from each as well.

J. and the girls gave me their sweet cards and presents. And even though we were “doing the kitchen” as my birthday present, a few little gifts slipped in – including a little blue box. I didn’t…couldn’t…complain too much.

I was overcome with love just watching the girls in their pure excitement for me to unwrap “their present now!”  How grateful I am for all three of them. And how lucky I am to be so loved by them.

I have been facebooking about the 40 card project that my friend Jamie (in cahoots with J and my parents) had masterminded and executed with such care and love. Today I received many more cards and I continue to be in awe at the friends and family who took time to send me such great memories and love.

I’m up to 23 cards in…including some serious ones that qualify as works of art – not even in the same category as other cards! My mom and dad’s is like a mini-scrapbook! I’m so thankfuI to them since I know how long something like this takes to complete.

We arrived home after lunch and a movie to an entire basket of 40 different chocolates and more love from a dear friend.

Just when I think the day is complete perfection, J. whisks me off to a friend’s home where an entire intimate dinner party is waiting for me. My favorite people and an entire night of perfect fun.

We started and ended with a cake of some sort. The “cheese (birthday) cake.”

Every detail beautifully tended to.

Great food.

40…yes, FORTY little thoughtful gifts.

All my favorite kids joining us for the most amazing dessert…it has moved to top of my all-time list.

The evening ended with a launching of my very own “wish” lantern. Just like the lanterns in Rapunzel.

My one short day of being 40 has taught me…that I really like being 40. Really. It has taken me 40 years, but I finally feel like we are right where we are supposed to be. Here with my family, surrounded by loved ones, in our beautiful little community of friends. I have arrived, my friends, and while it has been quite a ride, I’m so happy to finally be here.

It was only 64 degrees this morning when she woke up!

She was mad that I wouldn’t turn the “warm air up,” so she had to put a jacket on to eat breakfast.

What a kid!

Oh, hallelujah…the variety show is over. Not only was Em in the show again this year with her best friends, but Addie decided she was going to be in it, too. And not just one act – but she was in two different ones. And Mama was co-chairing and organizing the whole thing. Yes, many lessons learned – and many things we will NOT be doing next year. I’m lobbying for skipping a year and just attending the variety show as an audience member next year!

At any rate – the girls were fantastic! In retrospect, it was so fun and I was incredibly proud of the girls.

Addie and her friend Emma Jean sang and danced while dressed up as – what else? – CATS!

I give you the Stray Cat Strutters…

Then she had a quick change and she joined her other four friends to be a Lollipop Doll… (Addie’s the second from the right – turquoise leggings!)

And then Em and her girls kicked off Act II. They called themselves En Fuego…

All in all, I’m pretty impressed with all of the girls. There is NO WAY that I’d get up there and sing and/or dance in front of a PACKED auditorium. But it didn’t even phase them.

I’m just so thankful that it is over and to have one more thing done and checked off our list of to-dos. Bring on May!

(Thank you, J. for taking photos and videos of all of it while I ran around and tried to herd cats…er, I mean…children. Thank you too for the flowers and for being my rock when I’m about to crack. You are MY superstar!)

Thanks to the beautiful sunny weather sprinkled with some rainy days, Addie’s and my garden is booming. Our tomatoes are just hanging out waiting to ripen. Makes me happy this lovely Sunday morning.

Okay. So we had a lot of last minute craftiness going on last week. And when I say “last minute,” I mean we were literally crafting up to the very last minute before kids starting arriving for Em’s party on Saturday.

So you saw the invite last week. When the kids arrived to “Kings Cross” to find platform 9 3/4, they found this…

If you’ve read the HP books, you know that the witches & wizards must run into the wall between platform 9 & 10 at the train station (platform 9 3/4) and they will magically be transported into the other world. So we set up a “fake wall” that the the Hogwarts’ students could “run into.” The brick fabric is gossamer that I got from this place. I had intended on putting it all over the dining room and hallway to turn it into a castle. But, I ran out of time…and realized that our house, with the brick and stucco walls was close enough to a “castle” for a 9-year old’s party!

Once all of the guest arrived, we had a sorting ceremony where all of the kids put on the sorting hat and pulled out a card telling them which house they had been placed into. I just made up cards for Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff because Em was adamant that none of her friend would want to be a Slytherin. Our lovely Professor McGonnagal (Audrey’s older sis, Yvette) helped “sort.”

Addie was so excited to be a Gryffindor!

Then each student got to pick a wand.

J. and I made wands using this tutorial. And we also handed out their textbook – which was full of the most crucial Harry Potter spells…

and some potions and ingredients…

I found a similar book and copied the idea. I collected the pieces, laid the booklet out in InDesign, printed it on fake parchment paper and then just “bound” it together with some twine. It was a huge hit. As we were walking to school this morning one of the kids ran past and tried to cast a spell on Em. Apparently we turned out some pretty good students in our short little day together.

Once we had our supplies and were sorted into houses, the students got their schedules for the day.

Then they were off to class. In Prof. McGonnagall’s Transfiguration class they practiced casting spells. Then each of them were “transformed” into a character from Harry Potter. They had to ask their classmates questions to try to figure out who they had been turned into.

And then they moved onto Herbology with Professor Sprout. There they learned about an important potion ingredient, and planted some ginger. (It was the weirdest plant/seed/root I could find for them to plant!)

And finally, they went to everyone’s favorite class, Potions with Professor Snape. We had the most fun coming up with all of the potions.

All of the potion ingredients were edible. Not necessarily delicious…but edible! We had a lot of gatorade, lime drink, strawberry syrup, dark syrup, coconut, cherry juice, pixie sticks…oh, and POP ROCKS!

A few of the bottles I borrowed from friends, but most of these bottles I have collected over time. I used labels from DreamLoft on Etsy and just added text in Illustrator and printed them on adhesive backed paper so they were like real labels.

Most of the kids actually tried their potions. Although, I’m not sure I would! They were all very pretty and colorful, but I’m certain didn’t taste as pretty as they looked!

(Charlie came straight from a baseball game, so he was a little smudge-y!)

After classes, there was a final exam (it wouldn’t be school without a test, right?!) which I am pleased to report ALL students passed.

And then we had ButterBeer (delicious recipe here!) back in the Great Hall…

And Cauldron Cakes…(cupcakes dipped in chocolate with caramel – gold – frosting!)

And, to top it all off? A little bit more sugar. We re-created the Honeydukes Sweet Shoppe that the characters in the books visit on their Saturday trips to Hogsmeade.

The students got to “shop” and fill their goody bags to take home. (Again with the label paper. I printed out the Honeydukes logo and we stuck them onto small white craft bags.)

Of course we had chocolate frogs…

And Bertie Bott’s…

We also had Acid Pops, Fillabuster’s Fizzes, Professor Sprout’s Magic Mushrooms and Dumbledore’s lemon drops!

It was a little too hot for a quidditch match, so we finished with a little viewing of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. The planning and execution of the party was so much work, but so very fun. All of Em’s friends are so sweet and ensured me that it was the “best Harry Potter party ever!” And that made the birthday party hangover on Sunday, all worthwhile.

We inherited a rose garden full of very old bushes. In December I chopped all of them back, kind of half hoping that they would finally give up the ghost and I could plant some new ones…but they all came back with a vengeance. Each bush has 12-15 blooms on it. I guess they just needed some tough love.