Archives for August 2011

Top 3 Things That I Was Most Excited About For The Weekend:

1)  Flea market time with my mom on Saturday morning

2)  My first Titans football game Saturday night with Josh

3)  And my nephew Cooper’s Warrior Dash birthday party on Sunday.

Did anything disappoint?  Heck no!  This was the kind of weekend we love.

Flea Market:  So great.  Best way to do the flea market…leave your house at like 6:30 am, eat some breakfast and get on down there.  Works great.

I snagged some great items for super cheap.  Sadly enough, I think my favorite item was the Buzz Lightyear napkins for .50 cents.  Huddy smiled as big as day when I showed him.  If you need party supplies, head to the flea market.  Odd, I know.

My favorite find were all these old letterpress blocks.  The man who had them was so interesting to talk with.  Said he bought all the blocks 40 years ago and forgot about them.  Just recently found them and he said he can’t stop selling them.  I was sad not to find a big “K”.

My mom found some earrings she had been looking for.  They were 50% off and then she got to spin this cool wheel and won an additional 10% off.  The flea market is like the gift that keeps on giving.

We did so much walking and sweating…my feet looked like this on the way home.  My mom said, “There is no way I would post that on the internet.”  I just could not, not share how nasty they were…it was too funny to me.  I keep it real around here.

My 1st Titans Game:  Totally and completely fun.

We got off to a late start, so had to snag dinner at Hardees…did I just hear some internet gasps?  Their chicken tenders are totally delicious.  Don’t knock em’, till you try em’…Josh and I always split this.

Our best and oldest friend Tyler and his girlfriend Alison asked us to go.  Thank you guys so much…especially Alison…they are her dad’s season tickets, so that is pretty awesome.

And the Titans won and the seats were great…we could see everything.  I definitely want to go back for a season game.  Everyone told me that they are way better than pre-season and I thought the pre-season game was pretty fantastic.  And not sure who this guy is, but he was excited too.

Warrior Dash Birthday Party:  Off the chart fun.  Coop’s best birthday ever.

Josh and I are doing the Warrior Dash in September.  I told Coop, a while back about it and he was so funny.  He says that when he turns 18 he is totally doing it.  I think I shall join him…7 years from now.  I told Jen how excited he was about it and that we should have him a Warrior Dash birthday party.  And there you have it.

Josh’s parents live on some good land that was perfect to pull this off.  We roped off the entire course with caution tape and inserted our obstacles…large slip N slide (Josh affectionately called it the slip N bleed),

hula hoop jumps,

see saw walk,

cones downhill,

off the dock jump into the lake,

uphill run,

rock climb,

mud pit find,

refrigerator box crawl,

rope swing,

string web

and ended with a fire jump over the finish line.

Yes, you read all that right.

We did 3 heats for the course…the kids started us off first…

I can’t say how much I love this picture of Lyla, Campbell and Harper taking off…so stinkin’ cute.  The guys were next…they were hilarious…

and the ladies went last.

We had a fourth and final heat where the winners from each heat battled it out against the birthday boy.

And we ended the party with a pinata full of flour.

Hands down…BEST.BIRTHDAY.PARTY.EVER.  It was so so fun and once I got home and had a chance to look at the pictures and videos…Josh and I were crying we were laughing so hard.

Here were a few of my faves:

And the winner for “Best Picture Of The Day”, in my personal opinion, was none other that this little jewel:

Happy Birthday Coop!  We love you tons and tons.  Can’t wait to run the real Warrior Dash with you in 7 years 🙂

Happy Monday!

**I’ve had several emails asking for other party details…what were the cupcakes and if we did treat bags and if so, what were in them.  Coop wanted chocolate cake with chocolate icing.  One of the trademarks for the Warrior Dash is the viking helmet and for Coop’s invitations he was sporting a big viking helmet.  For the cupcakes, I dipped bugles in white chocolate and added them to the sides of the cupcakes, like viking horns.  Jen did all the treat bags in brown paper lunch bags.  They had band-aids, bandanas (which we were all wearing through out the pictures), tattoos, glow sticks and some candy.  Hope this helps.**

I do love Fridays.  They may be my favorite day of the week…I just like them.

So have you seen those super fun feathers that lots of women and apparently little girls are wearing?  Well my niece Campbell came over yesterday evening and informed me that she thought they were so very cool!  I suggested we go get some and she was totally game and rather excited about it as well.

They were so easy to put in and super quick.  Campbell was crazy excited…I love doing stuff like this with her.

I asked the lady after she had finished Campbell’s if it was totally lame that I wanted one as well…of course she said no.  So I got one.  A bright thin teal one…I’ll be honest…I really like it.  Guilty as charged.

I wasn’t exactly ready for pictures…it had been a long rough day…the kind of day you do not want to recap AT.ALL.  A  lot going on and stuff I just don’t want to deal with.  But a little teal feather and some time with Campbell made it all okay.

I made up some fun key fobs last night and gave them away on my PPA Facebook page today.  I like giving things away…it makes me feel good.

This is what I have been working on lately…

That my friends is a whole lot of girl scout key fobs.  Still have to add the troop # to each, add some hardware and I will be done.  They are oh, so cute.

We ate lunch with Campbell today at school.  We love to do this and often.  I like watching my kids watch all the other kids…very entertaining.  We visit their school pretty often, so their friends know who we are.  Last time we ate with Cooper it was just Sol and me…you would have thought Sol was a mini celebrity.  All of Coop’s friends from last year’s class were coming up to him to get high fives and fist bumps.

The boys will not stop shaking this crape myrtle tree.  They love how it “snows”…I’m afraid they are going to kill it.  Rest In Peace my pretty crape myrtle.

We are still waiting.  Waiting and waiting and waiting some more.

You may not want to look directly at the boys guns…they are quite intimidating.

And top 3 things I am excited about for the weekend:

1)  Flea market time with my mom tomorrow morning

2)  My first Titans football game tomorrow night with Josh (Thanks Tyler!)

3)  And my nephew Cooper’s Warrior Dash birthday party Sunday.  We worked all tonight on the big obstacle course…it is going to be so much fun!

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Maybe my #1 question I get in emails is how I get stuff done with 3 small kiddos.  I mostly give the same answer…Naptime and Bedtime are crucial…I mean crucial.  And my mom often accuses me of staying up way too late…I won’t admit to anything 🙂

With the orders that have spilled it…THANK YOU AGAIN…I have had to get busy…no time to waste and I have milked nap time for every bit of what it’s worth.

This sweet little bird shirt was ordered by Shannon in North Carolina.  Thanks so much Shannon and hope your little girl loves it.

This 8×10 Names of Jesus canvas was ordered by a sweet man at our church.  I donated 2 of these to a recent silent auction at our church and last Sunday he told me he had tried to win one for his wife…how stinkin’ sweet.  He then ordered one for her birthday.  Thanks so much Mr. Gabe and hope your wife loves it and your thoughtfulness.

This next order was placed by Jennifer in Missouri.  Jennifer needed some sweet diaper bag name tags and some fun key fobs.  Thanks so much Jennifer.  Hope sweet little Hollis makes his debut in a very uneventful way 🙂

These key fobs are headed to Karly in Arizona and Carrie in Tennessee.  Thanks so much ladies and hope everyone loves them.

Lastly, this 8×10 Proverbs 31:10 canvas was ordered by Heather in Tennessee.  Totally appreciate it Heather and hope this looks perfect on your desk.

And I do love a good product when I find one.  I found this little gem at the Etsy store QTPI WORKSHOP not long ago and it just kept calling my name.

I finally broke down and bought it and I am so happy I did.  It came all the way from Hong Kong and I could not be happier with it.  Definitely check out her shop HERE…you will not be disappointed.

And vacation is coming…we could not be more excited!

Happy Thursday!

I officially re-opened for orders yesterday and I am overwhelmed with gratitude.  I cannot put into words the thankfulness I have.  I have been swamped with emails and orders and it feels OH.SO.GOOD.

My mom said to me this afternoon, “It would make me feel so good to know that my work was in so many peoples homes.”  To that:  It absolutely does and I give God every single bit of glory for it.  He is good!

So THANK YOU!  THANK YOU!  And again, THANK YOU!

There have been so many orders placed, that I am going to be closing new orders this coming Monday, August 29th.  I hate to close again already, but if I told you how long my order list was at this point, your would probably pin me a liar 🙂  And I have to balance this whole wife/momma/artist/family member/friend thing and sometimes that just gets real hard.

I will re-open again for more Christmas orders, but if you already know what you are wanting and can order, please go ahead and do so.  Last year I had to turn down a lot of orders, due to timing around Christmas and I hate to do that.  So please be thinking about Christmas…I know it sounds crazy.

And can I just say, I love to get to do what I love and in turn it puts money in our adoption fund.  I can’t explain how good that feels.  So THANK YOU…again!

And speaking of my mom.  My mom is an avid yard sale, flea market, estate sale kind of lady.  Sometimes she snags the absolute best stuff and other times I think…”What was she thinking.”  This was one of those times.  This past weekend she brought me a box of 48 fish ornaments…that were all exactly the same.  When she saw me taking pictures of them she said, “You’re going to blog about this aren’t you?”  I said, “Absolutely.”  Thanks mom…now I will never be short on fish ornaments.  Love you.

The sock situation in our house is still a bit alarming to me.  The shoes issue is kind of getting to that point as well.

Harper is the art queen in our house.  The kid draws and colors and cuts and glues way too many hours in the day.  She’s an addict and I suppose she comes into it naturally.  We cleaned out her art basket this weekend and maybe she is an art hoarder as well.  Picasso we may have a problem.

All of the above was in one little basket and turns out, according to Harper, every single piece was intended for someone.  So that led us to here:

All of that art baggied up and ready for it’s rightful owner.  If you got a bag, you are one lucky recipient.

Yesterday was my niece Meiya and my nephew Cooper’s birthdays.  We got to hang with Meiya at her house some…you know, eating icecream and crafting….just the necessities around here on birthdays.  We love you Coop and Meiya.

And Sol is really embracing his being home alone.  Today we made cupcakes.  When there are only 2 beaters and 3 kids it’s usually a bit more difficult to make sure each kid gets equal lick time, but when you are the only kid home, you get your very own beater and look cool licking it in your boots as well.

I also made up a few things over the weekend.  I can’t post one just yet, but this 8×10 canvas headed to some super good friends who have been crazy supportive and helpful with our church’s carepoint, Ngungwane, in Swaziland Africa.  I wanted something that I could give them to say thank you.  They really are awesome people.

And this canvas was ordered by Erika in Hendersonville, Tn.  Erika has this amazing heart and I wanted to be a part of where this canvas was headed.  Thanks so much Erika.

So today I feel blessed, I’m thanking God lots and lots and I am ready to tackle this order list that sits before me.  And please remember, I will be taking no new orders as of Monday, August 29th.

Thank you again for the overwhelming support.  So crazy excited.  God is truly, truly good.

I really cannot say thank you enough to everyone who entered our 9 Month Waiting giveaway.  Thank you for sharing a piece of your story and thank you for helping us spread the word.  Really, really, really Thank You!

And now for the winner…

#14 Ashley Baker.  Super congrats Ashley and check your email for a message from me.

This week we have been playing with Lincoln Logs a lot.  Like a ton.  Everyday.  I had them put up for a while and then Harper asked about them.  So out they came and the play began.

I have decided that Lincoln Logs kind of perplex my brain currently.  The instructions that came with the set have long been torn up by two small boys who shall remain nameless, so figuring out how to make the cabins, forts, etc kind of blew my mind.  We only managed one small house.

Harper made her own fenced in area for the horses and cows.  Her imagination at work with these was quite interesting to watch.

The boys moved on after their fort was demolished by a giant fire truck.  They said the fort was on fire, so they did what any good firemen would do and smashed their firetruck into it.  Makes total sense.

The kids also love Hide-and-Go-Seek.  I laugh every time we play.  Harper is a great, quiet hider, but the boys not so much.  I usually laugh when I find them.

We are also gearing up for a little vacation in a couple of weeks and Huddy’s 3rd birthday.  He is smitten with Buzz Lightyear and truly think he can really fly.  Buzz party it is.

And Monday I will re-open for custom orders.  I think there is going to be quite a wave of orders that day, so please be patient with me as I respond to emails.  Also please remember that all orders are completed on a first come, first serve basis.

So excited for Monday, but a little nervous to get back into the swing of things.  Going to enjoy my weekend.

Happy Saturday!

If you haven’t had a chance to enter our 9 Months Waiting Art giveaway…there’s still time.  You can CLICK HERE to enter or scroll down to the post below.  Up for grabs is a 10×10 “But as for me, I will always have hope.”  Psalm 71:14

Giveaway ends tomorrow, Friday the 19th, at midnight.

And if you don’t want to enter, I would at least recommend heading over and reading the comments.  I have read every single one of them and they are amazing.  I had a long time friend tell me that she was moved to tears because of some of the comments…they really are good…such testaments.

And thank you to everyone who has shared.

I’ve been thinking about this 9 months…August actually marks our 1 year into this journey…we submitted our application last August…wow!  A year seems just like a blink and in other ways like a crawl.  Usually I do our monthly giveaway and just quietly move on.  I don’t want to dwell on how much I hate not having my son home.  I do the giveaways because I once read something a long the lines of, “If you’re feeling down, give something away.”  Although I am excited and want to celebrate each month being closer to him, it still sucks not to have him home yet.  I’m not sure if anyone can really understand this feeling of having a child, but not knowing who he is or where he is or what circumstance he is in, but knowing he IS out there and you feel like absolutely going crazy while you wait to bring him home.  You feel nutty sometimes.  You don’t even know this child yet, haven’t even seen his face, but God has so tightly bonded our hearts to his.  I think it’s hard for others to understand unless they have walked in these shoes…just like there are many things I try and understand, but really I cannot even imagine how people feel in the situation they are in, unless I have actually been there myself.

I have a dear, sweet friend who recently lost her daddy.  Myself and another friend have really talked through how we are going to pray and be very specific about this time with her and what all we need to do for her to be supportive of her and her amazing family…not just now, but a year from now and 2 years from now and so on.  We talked about how we cannot fathom how she feels, but that if it were us, how would we want to be treated and loved on.  It was a big slap in the face for me, in the fact that I need to do this all the time, with everyone.  More than anything I want to love God and love others.  And God put it ever so clearly in His word,

Mark 12:28-31 “…he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”    ²⁹ “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.^{[a] 30} Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’^{[b] 31} The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’^[c] There is no commandment greater than these.”

And I don’t like ending on sad or thought provoking words, so how about some complete random junk to get you back on track…you know this is how it is around here.

I am avoiding Harper’s quilt like the plague.  IF.I.ONLY.HAD.A QUILTING.MACHINE or a magic genie or just a bigger work space.  Twin sized quilts (or any size for that matter) that are ready to be quilted…top, middle and bottom ready to go are terribly not fun to move around and are awful to try and squish under your tiny sewing machine.  So this past weekend I painted.  Like I said, avoiding like the plague.

1 table, 6 chairs, one long church pew and more mason jars equals lots of sweat in this Tennessee heat.  But the end result was well worth it and I avoided all eye contact with Harper’s quilt.

I cannot imagine why, oh why, they literally drive her bonkers sometimes.  They are never in her personal space at all or underneath her heels all day long.  Ever.

My friend Brea (who needs to start blogging again) gave me this…

She really rocks and I may owe her big time now.  She also recommended that I go see The Help.

Absolutely amazing movie, but a terrible choice for an emotionally unstable momma.  Literally sat in my car and sobbed afterwards…we’re talking the big ugly cry…you know the kind.

And Mother’s Day out has turned out to be a Huddy love.  On our drive home, after picking him and Harper up on Tuesday, he said, “I decided not to fly home today because I liked it.”  Good thing it was not because he realized he couldn’t really fly 🙂  And today was great too.  Not one tear and he didn’t even look back.  Sol and I had our first official day completely alone.

And he loved it.  And I loved it.  It is so great to spend this time with him and he just talked and talked to me today.  He had a lot on his little mind.  Things like, “Mom, I’m Woody and Huddy is Buzz.  Harper is Jessie.  Momma you be Zurg and Daddy can be Bullseye.”  Deep thoughts people, deep thoughts.  And I took him out for lunch.  He picked Chick-fil-a and he was so dang persistent that we ate lunch at like 10:30.

  And he even got chocolate milk.  The kid ate one fry and then hammered his chocolate milk.  I think he’s only had it once before, so he may be jonesen for some more tomorrow.  He even called Josh and proclaimed, “Dad I’m at Chick-fil-a by myself.”  Which sent Josh into, “Is mom with you?”

It was a good day.

A sweet day.

A day I needed.

And I kind of think Sol liked it too.

Happy Thursday!

Today is Harper and Hud’s first day of school aka 2-days-a-week Mother’s Day Out.  Huddy has never gone before and has told me countless times, since I broke the news to him, that he was just flat out not going.  He even goes into great lengths explaining how he going to fly home if he has to go…first on his wings and as I break it to him each time, “You don’t have wings”, he changes it to something new…rocket, airplane, hot air balloon.  It really is a completely pointless conversation because he really thinks he is going to fly home…one way or another.

I literally laughed out loud when I saw this picture.  He looks like the captain of the All Male Cheer Team.  Josh would not be happy with this.  Gooooo Team Kelley…I really wish he was making spirit fingers as well.

So this morning we ventured out to school and it was, for the most part, a success.  There were tears from Huddy, but he got over it even before I left.  Harper was a bit apprehensive, but she put on her brave face + she was made for school.  She adores everything about it, just takes her a minute to warm up.

And then there was ONE!  Oh my.  Sol kept saying, “Me go to school too.”  He was so quiet, no tears, but just so very, very quiet.  I am so excited about this time we are going to have together.  I’m thrilled to just hang with him.

We did get to play a bit with our friend Josh.  That was nice for Sol.  They were the biggest hoot at Kroger together.  And cookies always make things better.

We have been talking this day up as much as possible and last night as Harper was going to bed, she asked if I would make her a special shirt with a bird.  Well, how could I not.  This morning, the very first thing she said, “Mom did you get a chance to make me a bird shirt?”  But of course.

I also made her little friend Trace, at school, a cowboy tee for him to sport at his cowboy birthday party.  Hope he loves it Kristy!

And as of yesterday we have officially been on the waitlist for 9 months.  As always, we are celebrating being another month closer to meeting our boy with an art giveaway.  The number 9 was hard to work with.  I could not find a verse or quote that I liked that included the word nine, so I went with a verse I love that has 9 words…”But as for me, I will always have hope.” Psalm 71:14  Seemed ever so appropriate for this time in our life.

I also included the definition of ‘hope’…I read it over and over and over again.  I would like this permanently engraved in my mind.

This is a 10×10 canvas and as always, we will ship it straight to the winner.  I’m pretty excited to see who wins this one.

As always there are lots of ways to enter to win this piece.

PLEASE leave a separate comment for each entry.

-Leave a comment about something that has given you a bit of hope lately

-Blog about the giveaway

-Share the giveaway on your Facebook

–Share the giveaway on your Twitter

–Become a fan on Facebook HERE

–Follow on Twitter HERE

-Subscribe to receive PPA updates by email in the right side bar

Please leave a separate comment for each entry.  Giveaway will end this Friday, August 19th at midnight and I will announce the winner on Saturday.

Happy Tuesday!

**Giveaway is now closed**

Our 9 Months Waiting Art giveaway will be posted on Tuesday.  Ideas are already running through my head.

I will re-open for orders on Monday, August 22.  If you decided to place an order, just shoot me an email at that time.  If you decide to order, please be patient with me, while we have a few things planned for our little family in the upcoming September month 🙂

I’ve made quite a few pieces lately…one for a graduate, a few for friends and some for our church’s silent auction.  That’s a quite random assortment:

8×10 canvas Proverbs 31:10

5×5 Today I will Choose Joy

8×10 canvas Courage from To Kill A Mockingbird

12×12 canvas Names of Jesus

8×10 canvas Names of Jesus

We got Harper’s passport this week.  She is for real going to Africa with us and I could not be more excited.

We got a big gallon bag of socks at a yard sale.  They have taken over and I’m just not quite sure how I feel about it.

I took the kids to our church’s consignment sale one afternoon.  I got a big round wooden frame, a small metal folding chair, a gallon bag of antique clothes pins and 1 book.  The kids got cake balls…can’t decide who came out better.

And yes Harper wore her tiara…in public and Sol is sporting the lime green socks with the bows on the back from the above sock picture…I was choosing my battles that day.

Both boys fell asleep in the car.  Never, ever, ever have I been successful with just plopping them down on the couch from a car fall asleep…however, this day equaled success.

I am THE person advertisers make commercials for.  It’s sad to admit, but they get me every time.  I have shed tears over commercials, bought things at 3am when nobody in their right mind should purchase ANYTHING and fallen for their fun jingles and crafty advertising.  For example:  I saw an IHOP commercial…oh my…the pancakes…you know I love pancakes.  And turns out, I just may be an emotional eater and I am any food advertisers best friend right now.  I’m a bit unstable…NEED MY KID HOME LIKE NOW!  But I am also cheap, so what lured me in with the  IHOP commercial was all the “Kids eat free” talk.

I thought “WOW, that’s awesome.”  This little family of 5 is going to eat out for like $15.  Ummm, No!  IHOP “Kids eat free” lurkers, Beware.  It is actually, one free kid meal with each adult entree purchased and unlike most every where else where the kids drink is included with the kids meal, IHOPs kids drinks are like $2 each.  Whammo!  We got slapped with this $30 bill (with tip) and I made a big sad face and felt like I have just been punked.  Note to self:  Don’t ever fall for the “Kids eat free” jingle again.

This is what I found when I walked out the door on Saturday morning…

Good parent or bad parent…I’ll let you be the judge.  I will also let you guess which parent approved this…cough, cough…Josh.

I like this guy.  I like that he says, “Happy Christmas” in lieu of “I love you.”  He has been doing this for about 9 months now.  I sometimes have to say, “Sol, say I love you momma” and then he will say “I love you momma.”  But even when I check on them sometimes before we go to bed and he wakes up…he whispers, “Happy Christmas momma.”  Makes me smile.

Happy Sunday!