a happy dance

first full day of school. both mom and boy are doing a happy dance. it's amazing how much you can get done when you don't have a kid in tow. errands, exercise and even blogging. have i mentioned the boy no longer takes naps. so any mommy time i did have has been non-existant the last few months. hopefully i'll get some crafting done. already started with the boys new big boy room. i'll hopefully be sharing the transformation going on in there in some upcoming posts.

off to pick him up and hear how his day went. i'm super excited to hear how much he liked it. at least that's what i'm hoping.

shirt:  crewcuts  ||  jeans:  gap (similar)  ||  shoes:  converse  ||  hat:  born to love

* shoes were bought used through ebay and hat was bought through babysteals

first day ever

yes, i'm still around. busy as always. i thought i'd take a minute and give you a picture update of the boy. he's growing up way too fast, so i've got to take pics to capture all these milestone moments.

today he started school. although the sign gives the impression he's starting pre-k, he actually started pre-pre-pre-k. today was an ease-in day and he only went for a little over an hour. he did great. even got a sticker for using the bathroom on his own. love this little guy!!

well equipped

a good biker needs some fabulous accessories. i usually don't splurge on anything. most of what the boy has/wears is bought secondhand, on sale or a gift. for instance, shirt, helmet and bike all gifts.

when the boy first started riding his bike he would occasionally stop and pretend he was getting a drink from a camelbak. one, i was surprised he was pretending to do anything and two, i couldn't believe he remembered drinking out of one once as opposed the millions of times he's drunk out of a sippy cup. so when i saw this little camelbak at REI this past weekend i couldn't resist. the boy was very excited when we pulled it out for him. he immediately put it on and was off. i have to say it was a perfect gift for him!

shirt: gap  ||  shorts: carters  ||  shoes:  vans 

helmet: bell  ||  bike: chicco  ||  backpack: camelbak

swim fan

i'm pretty sure i've gone swimming more this year then i have any summer of my life. i'm just not a fan of the pool, the sun, etc. i was a weird kid. the boy on the other hand has become a great big fan of the water. pretty big change from earlier this summer. i'll have to post some pool shots but here's the boy after a day at the pool.

t-shirt:  american apparel  ||  cover-up: circo  ||  shorts:  mini boden  ||  shoes:  gap

i wanna be sedated

i got this onesie a while ago at tj maxx, i'm pretty sure it was before the boy was born. i'm not quite sure why it's a onesie since it's made for a 2-year-old. and for some odd reason it's made for a child with a huge head. if he didn't have an undershirt, he would be sporting an eighties off-the-shoulder look. the boy hasn't worn a onesie since pretty much birth, so he wasn't a fan of the snap crotch. he did allow me to tuck the back in so he wasn't sporting a butt-flap. i may somehow modify this to make it more like a tee. but it doesn't look too bad in it's current condition.

sweatshirt:  joah love (similar)  ||  onesie:  sourpuss (similar) 

cut-offs:  osh-kosh  ||  socks:  diy  ||  shoes:  converse

* shoes were bought used through ebay

hotter than you know what

all i've got to say, it's good to be home. we survived 10 days of vacation together. ;) 7 days at the beach, 1 family reunion and 2 days at grandpa's. we've been on planes, trains and automobiles. ok, no trains but we'll count the shuttles as our trains. we endured 100+ temps in the midwest. i have no clue how i ever lived there. i'm sweating just thinking about it.

wondering where tuesday's post went? yeah, i'm pretty sure the boy wasn't wearing anything due to the wicked heat. we are completely spoiled in the mountains and i love it. today's high in boone: 84, carbondale's high: 106. thanks but no thanks.

shirt:  old navy (similar) ||  shorts:  polo (similar)  ||  shoes:  gap

rolling with the fishes

spent the day at the nc aquarium. loved the new playground equipment. the fish were cool too! ;)

t-shirt: zulily (similar) || shorts: carters (similar) shoes: converse || hat: new era

* shirt was bought through zulily

b is for bob

we are on vacation! connecting to the internet is hit or miss. so i'll keep this short and let the pictures do the talking.

tshirt:  gift (found here)  ||  swimsuit:  h&m sunglasses:  julbo  ||  hat:  coolibar

district 12

yesterday, the boy and i traveled down to hickory, nc to do a little shopping. although we have most amenities on the mountain we do lack some staples. a target being one. and i definitely need a target fix every couple of months.

in order to get some cooperation from the boy, i.e. you behave and you’ll get rewarded kinda thing, i decided to take him to a playground when we were done shopping. when searching for a nearby playground, i remembered a friend recently posted a pic of one of his boys at a nearby movie location. i did a quick search and found it to be less than five minutes away. what movie you ask? yeah, the hunger games! i will admit that i have not yet jumped on the tribute bandwagon so all the buildings and references have little bearing on me. but i know i will eventually get around to reading the books and seeing the movies. and i certainly know A LOT of my friends have read the books and seen the movie so i thought this would be a great location to take some blog photos. (here is a link if you’d like to see a few pictures of the location from the movie.) all the boy cared about was throwing his frisbee around so he was quite happy.

and yes he is sporting the socks i mentioned making. i ended up using and old pair of socks, masking tape and some fabric paint i had on hand. they aren’t perfect but they give me the effect i wanted. i don’t think a tutorial is necessary but if you’re interested i’d be glad to make one.

*i reblogged this from my mybabykins site. it's been two whole months and this poor site hasn't seen an ounce of love. i've got some projects to share. and now that i know that i can stick to a schedule i should be getting better at posting. 

stopping to see "the guys"

yes, the boy has a love affair with the dog at old navy. i shouldn't post this because you'll now know how often we are there. (not necessarily old navy but the mall.) but any trip to the mall involves a stop to say hi to the dog and "the guys." i refrained from taking a pic this afternoon but we did stop to say hi.

friday pin | buffalo chicken cupcakes

yes, i pin. in fact i pin a lot. i thought i'd designate fridays as my "i pinned this and actually made/did/created" it day. i actually have a few of these things already under my belt. most pertain to the boy and consist of crafts and activities i've found to help occupy his short attention span. i've quickly discovered the attention span of a toddler is equivalent to that of a gnat. i have found a few things that will get him to sit for a minute or two.

anyways, i'm quickly getting off track. this is not the first food recipe i've gotten via pinterest. (see spicy goodness.) but it is the first one i've shared with people outside my household. (yes, my family has become human guinea pigs as far as pinterest recipes go. some have been great and others...not so much.)

for my first venture i chose to do something insane. super bowl party = chicken wings + crazy = cupcake topped with a chicken wing! this is what i pinned. and below is the end result. although it looks weird it tastes great! somehow the flavor combinations just work. i only made ten for the party but could have easily made more. i'll definitely make them again next year.

quick side note: little man saw these (sans chicken wing) on the counter and asked for one. i told him they were spicy but he insisted. i gave him a bite and he quickly told me it was spicy, then took another bite, then started crying and again told me it was spicy, then took another bite. it was just too funny cause he couldn't stop eating it cause it was that good but it just had that kick to it that made it a bit too much for him!

my babykins

a friend and i created a new blog, my babykins. basically we're just documenting what our kids wear and where you can find those items. kinda like "what are you wearing" on a small scale. she's doing the girl's side and i'm in charge of the boy's side. it's still in early development and we're hoping it takes off. i definitely want to do a "look for less" section, "what mom crafted" etc. i'm open for any suggestions.

i linked my shop on the blog. i'm hoping by doing so it'll motivate me to get more crafting done. i actually do have a lot to add. i just need to take pictures and post them.

so long snow

so this was the one "big" snow we had this month. seriously if you blinked it was pretty much all gone. with march around the corner it seems kinda pointless to wish for snow. i'm pretty much in spring mode now and ready to be outside enjoying the weather. as i'm sure everyone else is.

motown in the mountains

currently working on this among other things. i'm selling tickets if anyone is interested. i'll have a website link in the upcoming days.

it's february and we're doing what!

hello bloggy-blog, i've neglected you long enough.

we are having such a mild winter here in the mountains that we really don't know what to do with ourselves. i have to admit keeping the boy occupied has been somewhat easier with outdoor activities still an option. just this morning we blew bubbles on the deck and played in his sandbox among other things. but it's freaking february and i was really hoping we'd get to do some winter activities. especially now that the boy's at an age where he can enjoy them. fingers crossed we get some snow. yes, i'm one of the crazy ones who loves the white stuff.

a shirt for a buck

holy cow what a busy, busy holiday season it's been. lots of overdue posts but thought i'd start with an easy/fast one.

rarely do i find anything cute and adorable for the boy. i saw this and knew he had to have it. right when i was about to click on the "buy me" button it dawned on me that i could possibly make something similar at a fraction of the price.

i found and modified a deer silhouette. used this technique from a few years ago. made a quick bowtie and done.


and here it is on the boy. spiffy huh?

wired wednesday

first facetime

steampunk duo

the first suggestion husband had for our costumes this year: dolly parton & kenny rogers. me as kenny and him as dolly. as much as i know he wanted to dress as dolly, i had absolutely no desire to dress as kenny. i love making an effort with my costume and kenny seemed didn't seem like it be much of a stretch. suit, wig and beard...boring. maybe we'll save this one for another halloween. anyways.

husbands next suggestion: steampunk. (steampunk: works of steampunk often feature anachronistic technology or futuristic innovations as Victorians may have envisioned them, based on a Victorian perspective on fashion, culture, architectural style, art, etc.) yes, we would be explaining this to pretty much everyone who asked what our costumes were. our best explanation, "have you seen wild, wild west or the league of extraordinary gentleman? we're sorta like that."

so once we knew what we were gonna be, we scoured the internet for ideas and photos. here's my main inspirational photo.


we hit up the local thrift stores and even went to mountain city, tn to hit up an army surplus store. luckily we found bits and pieces at each place and our costumes started to come together.

breakdown of my costume. jacket: $8 off ebay, hat: borrowed from a friend, goggles: $7 off ebay, white shirt: mine, corset: borrowed from a friend's wench costume, green skirt: mine, white petticoat: $4 at goodwill, belts: $2 at goodwill, utility belt: $5 at army store, canteen: $3 at goodwill, skirt hikes: homemade, spats: homemade, shoes: mine, hair: $9 extensions, gun: $1 at goodwill.

i would breakdown the husband's outfit but i don't know what he paid for everything. most of his costume is also from his own wardrobe. i know i paid $3 for his nerf gun at goodwill and he paid $2.50 for his goggles at the army surplus store.

i think we both were really happy with the end result. the husband went so far as creating alter egos for each of us and coming up with a history for his own character. i know - NERD!

as you can see from a previous post, the aviator costume the boy wore sorta tied in with ours. this was the main reason i decided to make his costume this year.

next up: pumpkin carving party.

wordless wednesday

boy and his new hat

transformation

luckily we figured out what we were gonna be for halloween early on and i was able to search high and low for costume parts. 75% of my costume i already owned or made but there were a few things i had to purchase. this post will be about the transformations i performed on two pieces of my costume. this is my $8 ebay find. super bright but perfect in every other way.




a quick dye job and the color issue was resolved. unfortunately since the thread was coated it did not pick up the dye. i ended up taking a sharpie marker and just coloring the thread. i'm sure there's another method to fix this issue but i knew it would be dark at the party and i didn't want to spend too much time worrying/fixing it. although coloring thread took a lot longer than i initially thought.

the second transformation was my weapon for the evening. a $1 goodwill find.



i'm really happy with how this turned out. a total transformation. it's amazing what a little paint will do. i added some nuts, bolts and gears and about a million layers of paint. tomorrow will be the costume reveal.