Orange Odd Job Tool

First you need to know that I love those little info-commercials showing you a ridiculous problem and the fantastic way they fix it with this new thing.  Here is my latest favorite about ear wax removal.  

This is the Odd Job Tool and Hubby got me this for Christmas.  It is the perfect gift me for me because I am always using the screwdriver as a hammer.  

It has gotten a ton of use this week because we got our IKEA furniture delivery the day after Christmas.  We have been slowly putting things together in the basement.  We have a few more pieces to put together and then we can put all our stuff away!! I can't wait!! We also got PB's big boy bed delivered and are going to be working on his room soon, we just have to clear out the old stuff.  

It has been a while, so here is a pregnancy update:

This is my 31.5 week belly.

How far along: 32 weeks tomorrow 

Total weight gain: 14 pounds 2 weeks ago but this was a tasty week filled with cookies :)

Stretch marks: Not yet

Sleep: Not getting much of this! I wake up a ton.

Best moment of this week: PB calls me "Pregnant Mommy" whenever I talk about eating food.  He also calls the baby "my baby."  It's so sweet.  

Miss anything: Sleeping on my stomach

Movement: TONS! I think the baby is trying to break out!

Food cravings: McD cheeseburgers, french fries, cookies, tacos, spicy salsa.  Basically I just want to eat junk all the time.  I don't, but i want to.

Anything making you queasy or sick: Lettuce, all veggies, chicken that isn't fried and hummus

Happy or moody most of the time: Pretty happy 

Feet?: I have a total eclipse of my feet.  PB and Hubby help me put on my slippers :)

We really have nothing ready yet.  We still do not have a good list of names.  My Mom checked 2 name books out of the library for us and I have been browsing but not loving anything. This weekend we are taking PB on a tour of the hospital.  We still have not taken any of the clothes out of storage or set the rooms up, but I am hoping some of that gets started this weekend.  The first bin of clothes we have from PB has a lot of white and yellow in it so if this one is a girl, we will be ok for a while.  

I hope you all have a great weekend!!

Scrabble pillows

This is the only Christmas gift I made this year that I managed to get a pic of. I didn't make too many gifts this year.  These Scrabble pillows are definitely the one gift I made that is worth sharing.  

I made them using this tutorial by Kimbercrafts.  I sent them to my brother, SIL and nephew so I used their initials for the pillows.  These were pretty simple to whip up. Once the letters were appliqued on there, the rest was really simple.  I serged the inside seams of the pillow.  

Here you can see the back fabric.  I made an opening so the pillow form could be removed for washing. Since I was mailing these, I just sent the pillow cases with a gift card to get the pillow forms. 

I can't wait to facetime with them and see how they look stuffed! 

Basement Progress: Baseboard Molding

This weekend we made some progress on the basement.

I got to play with my favorite power tool, my chop saw.  I am seriously awesome at measuring and cutting, there I said it! I might be a little too pregnant to do it, and was so sore when we were done, but it was really fun.  

Here is how it looks against the carpet and wall. It really finishes off the space nicely.  We chose wide baseboards instead of the standard size that usually comes in your house.  We also chose to use pre-primed MDF instead of wood molding.  The MDF cuts so much nicer.  My Mom is wonderful and was nice enough to paint the boards so all we have to do is fill the nail holes and touch up.

If you have never installed baseboards before, then hit YouTube up for some videos.  I have done it one time before and I watch a hilarious amount of HGTV and DIY shows that have taught me how to do it.

I am awesome at measuring and cutting but there is one thing I am seriously terrible at, hammering. Hubby did all that.  One day we will get a nail gun and then watch out world! But until then, I need someone to hammer. I caulked the top of the molding where the MDF meets the wall but only in the office area.  I still have the rest of the basement to do.  We also used corner pieces to make our lives easier. They are totally worth it and they look like we are trying to be fancy, not lazy :)


We got most of it done while PB napped but he did come down for the end of the project.  When he saw me cutting wood and Hubby nailing, he proclaimed us to be AWESOME! PB watches a lot of HGTV with me and I guess he never thought he would get a little live demo at home.  He even got his toy hammer out to help.

Well, this is it from me until next year.  We are having some IKEA furniture delivered this week for the basement and PB's big boy room!! We are also going to enjoy some family time, I am going to meet up with an old friend and hopefully Hubby and I will get a movie date in.  I have one post scheduled sharing a gift I made for Christmas but other than that, it is going to be pretty quiet around here.  Maybe I will pop back for Orange Friday, depends on how much fun we are having :)

I hope you all have a wonderful week!!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Orange Surprise

We ordered our Christmas cards from Shutterfly this year.  When they came in the mail, I got a fantastic surprise...

LOOK AT THAT BOX!!!! It's so orange!!!!!! My favorite part is the box says, "Good things come in orange packages." That is so true!!! I am really happy with how our cards turned out. 

Here it is:

I ordered it in a matte finish, which I absolutely love.  I took some of our best pics from the end of the year and took a few new ones.  We lucked out and got a little snow flurries one day and PB was more than happy to go smile in the snow.  I am really looking forward to next year and doing a card with the baby.  It will be fun to have 2 kiddos on there!!

There are so many fantastic websites to order pics from.  I picked Shutterfly because I had the best discount coupon codes. I like their quality and I love getting a deal.  But now that I know they will send me an orange box, I might just have to keep ordering from them :)

PB had his Christmas Program at preschool yesterday. It was the cutest thing seeing all those little kiddos singing and doing hand gestures to the songs.  The teachers worked so hard to teach them and it was so good! This is a busy weekend for us, we have a fun visitor today and then we have a ton of baking to do this weekend! Have a wonderful weekend!!

Hustle and bustle

We have had a crazy weekend and there is a more crazy week ahead of us! I thought I would share some pics I took.  I actually had my DSLR out to play this weekend :)

We had breakfast with Santa.  PB was very excited, he wanted to dress up!

Then we went to pick out and cut down a tree.  PB helped Hubby by holding up the branches.  

Then we decorated the tree.  I felt the same way when it was done.  I could have taken a nap under that tree!

I also did some baking! These cookies are for PB's preschool party today and I made a lot so some are for his holiday program too later in the week. 

And this is the most exciting part of the week and it happened yesterday:

We had a picnic at my Mom's new house!!! She signed the papers yesterday!!! Now for the best news... it's 2 blocks away from my house!!!! Can you believe how lucky I am!!! She went from living across the United States to 2 blocks away.  I am beyond excited!!! Her stuff is coming this week so combine that with holiday baking and Christmas prep, it is going to be one crazy week.  So sorry if I duck out for the rest of the week, there is a ton to do around here :) See you for some orange on Friday!

Orange iPad stand

Hubby got me this last year for Christmas.  When there is no iPad on it, it just looks like an orange dish.  But pop out the little drawer and you have an iPad stand.  I only use the iPad like 1% of the time.  My laptop sits on our coffee table so I am usually on that.  

But when I cook or have to use a recipe online, this stand is seriously useful.  It holds the iPad at the perfect angle to sit on my counter and tell me what is next in the recipe.  The stand is called the Nest and it is from Blue Lounge.  If you are looking for a last minute gift for someone with an iPad, I highly recommend it!

I was not compensated in anyway nor will I be compensated if you buy this awesome product.  I just love it :)

I got some projects sewn this week and even got to serge a few things! I am almost done with my Christmas shopping (YAY) and not finished with wrapping.  It is hard wrapping pregnant :) especially since I like to wrap sitting on the floor.  

We are cutting down our tree this weekend and decorating it! I will also be making a ton of cookies for PB to take to school next week.  We volunteered for cookies at his class party and cookies for the holiday program.  I figure if I am going to make cookies, I might as well make a bunch! Have a great weekend!!!

Black Friday loot

I just realized that I didn't share any of my Black Friday finds! Sadly a few things have been sewn and wrapped, they were fleece.  They were for a white elephant I went to last week and the others are teacher gifts.  I a made a bunch of Deep Pocket Scarves with the fleece.  

This is fabric for one project.  You will have to wait until after Christmas, I don't want to spoil the surprise :)

Snuggle flannel was on sale so I did a stock up.  The mustaches were an impulse buy.  They were just too cute to pass up! The others I am going to make some baby accessories with, like burp cloths.  The orange is for me :) but the purple is for B! (Hey B, don't forget that you never saw this, you weren't there when I bought it, and act surprised!)

I went back to Joanns to take advantage of the Super Saturday sale on fabric.  I am having a thing with grey right now.  I am especially loving grey and yellow.  One of these is going to be my new nursing cover.  I am not sure what I am doing with the rest yet.  

I also got a 3 pack of canvases to make some art for PB's big boy room and some batting to make a quilt for the baby.  Some of those grey fabrics up there might make an appearance!

I am working on 2 projects this week that I can share soon.  I have been a little side tracked by the basement and haven't been cooking anything new or making new projects.  We did place an order with IKEA for some storage in our basement.  There maybe something large and orange coming with that order too :) I can't wait to share!!

Orange scoop

When I cook or bake, this is the orange scoop that helps me measure out the flour.  My Mom got me a set so I use one in my sugar container too. 

This has been a crazy week! We started with getting new carpeting in the basement! YAY!!! I keep forgetting about the new floors and every time I open the basement door, it is a wonderful surprise to not see that awful red carpet anymore.  We have not worked at putting the space back together yet.  My Hubby works at home in our basement which means work time on the basement happens on the weekend.  I also sewed a little this week.  Nothing too fancy.  Just some gifts, I'll share pics soon.  

I hope you all had a wonderful week and you have a great weekend!!

Advent calendar

I FINALLY got my advent calendar hung.  It has actually been finished for a few weeks.  I followed this tutorial by Skip to my Lou.

Before I show you the finished project, I wanted to share a big fail with you all:

I tried to use garland I had in my decorations bin to hang the tags.  I really thought this would be awesome and hold just fine. I also liked that it was free.  Well it broke within 5 minutes of the candy being in there.  So I had to go out and get some ric rac.  Confession: it stayed on the floor like this for 2 days and PB just looked in the pile on the floor for the day :)

Here it is all finished and hung properly! The ric rac worked much better.  I used those 3M hooks to hold it up on my kitchen wall.  It is a long advent calendar, I had a hard time figuring out where to put it.  This wall is 90 inches and is the only place it would work all hung together.

Here is a close up of the tags.  Making these weren't too bad.  It was very repetitive and I kinda felt like a little sweat shop when I was making them. I definitely recommend doing each step to all of them at once, it seemed to go pretty fast.  Shout out to my Mom for ironing them, I was going to skip it but she insisted and it does look so much better.

My Mom and I decorated the inside on Saturday and we did outside lights yesterday.  You know how we had an extra week this year between Thanksgiving and December?  Well I had all these good intentions of getting Christmas stuff done but I did none of it! We did work on the basement so it's not time wasted.  I haven't started my holiday sewing yet and today is the day! (Today has to be the day, I need something finished for Friday :)  )

Do you do an Advent Calendar? What do you put in yours? We did mini pb cups.  Second confession:  I may have accidentally eaten a few from the end of the calendar, whoops!!

Basement progress: Carpet is in!!

This is what the basement looked like at the beginning of the day yesterday:

The crew came nice and early and ripped out all the carpet.

Here is the pile on our driveway.  I came home from Dropping off PB at preschool to find this pile.  It was a relief seeing that pile! In a matter of hours, the room was done!

Here is the finished carpet:

It is a lovely sea of soothing grey.  You can kinda see the cork in the far corner of the room.  That area isn't fully finished yet, a threshold piece has to be put in between the carpet and the cork.  Hubby already set his office back up and my sewing area back up.  He also carried down all my packed craft area boxes! I am all ready to unpack!! 

We are going shopping at IKEA this weekend to pick up a few things and to pick out some book cases for the space.  Hubby is getting a new desk and I get his old one!!! There is the perfect amount of space to put his desk next to mine so I will have one long mega desk :) I am beyond excited about that and I know Hubby is excited about his new desk.  I am sure my craft area will be the first thing finished in the room.  I'll share some pics as we finish things up!

Have a wonderful day!!

Orange Blob and a video!

apparently Blogger decided to post this early :)

I was going through some old pics in iPhoto this week trying to make some space on my very full computer. I found this pic of PB when he was about 2 months old. He is lounging in our very large, round, orange chair.  It is filled with foam.  We used to have it upstairs in our living room but it has found a new home in the basement. 

It is large, that blue ball is an exercise ball.  After our basement is complete, it will be the only seating down there for a little while.  

But this is really why I wanted to share the orange blob this week.  I came across this video of me and PB playing peek a boo. 

 He is 5 months in the video.  

Tomorrow I will be 28 weeks pregnant and I will admit that I am starting to freak out a little.  This pregnancy has gone by so fast and we aren't ready to bring this baby home. PB still needs to move over to a big boy room and then we have to get the nursery ready.  I think I will feel better once we get some furniture home for PB's big boy room. Even if it is just in the garage and not set up yet, I will feel better.  But right now I feel overwhelmed. We don't have a good list of names yet.  We are struggling with boy names and I have a feeling this is a boy.  I also haven't sewn anything for this baby.  So every week that ticks by and I have nothing accomplished feels really scary. I know I won't get anything done this weekend because we have to get ready for the carpet to be installed in the basement.  But hopefully we will get to IKEA next week and will start collecting things.  Maybe if I focus on sewing and decorating for Christmas I will feel a little better.  Thanks for letting me be a Debbie Downer on a Friday.  

I do have to share the pile of stuff I picked up at Joann Fabrics on Black Friday. I'll try to get that ready to share early next week.  I hope you all have a great weekend!!!

Basement Progress: We Painted!

We made some major progress on the basement this weekend.

On Friday after I did some Black Friday shopping with my BFF, B, my Mom and I went down and got my craft area all cleared and taped.  My mom taped the rest of the room over the past few days. She is awesome.  I couldn't have stood on that ladder and taped.

Hubby worked on his space in the afternoon.  So this was all of it before it was cleared out some.  To prepare painting Hubby and my mom moved a bunch of stuff from the basement and took the railings down in the stairwell.  

We painted the room Olympic's Gray Ghost from Lowes. We chose the paint and primer in one that was Low VOC in a flat finish. I thought the big 5 gallon bucket would be enough for this space and most of our bedroom.  We have less than a half gallon left, so it looks like we bought the right amount for the room. The three of us painted the whole room and the stairway all day Saturday.  We painted the stairway ceiling the same color as the walls.  I am glad we made the push and all worked hard to get the room done in one day.

Here is the room after we painted: 

All of the craft shelves went back up and we left the desks there temporarily.  Hubby works from home so he can't take that down until next weekend.  Our carpet is being installed on Monday.

This is the pile that has to be moved to the garage. You can also see the doors here are white, my Mom painted them. It is Olympic's Ultra White paint from Lowes.  That one you can just buy off the shelf. The doors were unfinished wood.  Really makes the room look more finished.  

You can see most of the space here.  Look at all that murder red carpet!  Our large table is gone and so is a bunch of other furniture. My Mom called some guys to come pick it up.  It was a relief to get rid of those things. Now we will be able to have a play space for PB.  Hubby and I have been waiting for the day when legos will be in the house.  We are going to make a lego station down here so the baby can't get into them.

My Mom spent all day Sunday painting doors and woodwork on the stairs.  Here you get a better idea of the paint color.  It is a soft grey that just warms the space up.  I am the door and woodwork painter and if she wouldn't have take over that task, they never would have gotten done. She rocks!!

Sunday I pulled tape down and put some of my craft space back together.  I was very sore on Sunday and could barely lift my legs.  I definitely over did it painting that room on Saturday.  I finally feel good today.  I might be a little too pregnant to do this much of a project.  

This week Hubby and I are going to get the baseboards and my Mom has offered to paint them on Sunday when we are at a family function for Hubby's side.  We need to get that baseboard installed in the office area or it will never get done!!

We are far from finished.  Now we need to get some furniture from IKEA.  We are going to make a trip down there in the next 2 weeks to order it.  I also have to order the furniture for PB's big boy room.  I just figures out that I am in my 3rd trimester and I am starting to freak out.  We barely have a list of names, and none of the rooms are ready.  I know it will all come together, it is just a little overwhelming right now.  

Orange cheese turkey

I hope all you Americans out there had a nice turkey day! 

I had a little too much fun with cheese :)  Cooking yesterday was awesome. A little tricky because of how pregnant I am but my Mom was a huge help.  I also sat at the table to chop all the veggies and potatoes and that helped a lot.  

My mom is the cutest!

We cooked a 20 pound turkey... for just my Mom, Hubby, PB and me.  We have a ton of leftovers :) I also made 9 pounds of mashed potatoes.  Did I go a little over board? Maybe.  But I won't have to cook for the next 4 days! It's leftover time!!

My guys carved the turkey.  It turned out perfect. My secret is a thermometer you stick into the turkey and then sounds an alarm when the turkey is done.  Works every time.  

PB loved the meal! So did everyone else :) 

Right now I am out shopping with B, my crafty BFF.  We go our shopping on Black Friday every year.  We don't do the midnight thing though, we get up early.  My list for Joanns is mighty.  We are both shopping for fabric for our babies too!! B is pregnant and due a month after me!! I am so excited that we are having babies at the same time :) 

I hope you all have a great weekend.  I will be alternating painting walls and laying down :) 

Happy turkey day

Happy Thanksgiving!!

PB and I made these turkeys the other night to decorate the table.  We were watching Giada and she made them.  PB is my little foodie who loves to watch the food network.  He especially loves Paula Dean :) 

I am thankful for so many things this year.  I am so thankful my Mom has moved here and is staying with us until she finds a house. I am very thankful for the health of my family.  I am thankful for this baby in my belly and for PB being such a fantastic, smily kid.  I am so thankful to have such wonderful friends in my life.  I am thankful to have this space to share and awesome readers.   And I am most thankful for my wonderful husband who works so hard for our family.  He is amazing and just the best partner in crime.  I am looking forward to us having fun and being together this weekend even if the fun is us painting the basement.  

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Good luck to all the cooks out there :)

Basement progress

The Cluttershark is here busting my butt to bust some clutter :) We are getting closer to having the basement ready for carpet.  This project was supposed to be done a few weeks ago, but it is taking a little longer than we expected.  Right now the carpet won't be installed until half way through December.  Nothing like adding to the holiday stress :)

  Here are the before pics.  When I see those pics, I realize that we have gotten a ton done even through it doesn't feel like it.  Thanks to my Mom we are much closer to painting and having the space cleared.  

This weekend we spent 2 mornings in my craft area. We went through every box, every shelf and every container and changed things up a bit. We got rid of "weird" containers.  That is my mom's way of saying ugly.  So everything is in a plastic bin or a orange box and looks much more uniform.  The few things that aren't in bins are display items or are my utensils.  The way it looks in this pic, is not the final reveal. Everything has to be moved so we can paint the walls.  So stuff will be put back right when we are done painting. There is more space on the shelves now and I am pretty excited about that.  

I will admit that I had somethings on those shelves that made it through 2 reorganizing sessions.  It was stuff I wasn't using but never got rid of it.  Well, I got real and got rid of it.  No more hoarding weird craft supplies.  

Here is the rest of the room, just a few more things to be carried upstairs.  I have been patching and sanding the walls.  I just need to prime and we are ready to paint!!  I think we have picked out the perfect grey for the walls and we just have to go pick it up! 

I have to say that my Mom has been a huge help the last 2 weeks she has been staying with us.  She is also super awesome and made a bunch of trips to goodwill for us. Although I still think she tricked me into getting rid of stuff and then quickly brought it to donate so I wouldn't have a chance to think about it :) Maybe that is the key to getting rid of stuff, you need someone to force you to get rid of it and then make it disappear.  

Orange spicy sauce

The orange cravings are still going strong.  I have blogged about my problem before.  

My new thing this week is dipping my grilled cheese sandwich in hot sauce.  And not just any hot sauce...

A spicy tasty hot sauce.  I am craving spicy lately, and it has to be set my mouth on fire spicy too.  I saw this on the shelf at the store and the baby made me buy it and does crazy dances in my belly when I eat it.  I have eaten it in a normal way like as a buffalo chicken sandwich. I have been tempted to drink it out of the bottle.  I am pretty sure this sauce could make cardboard edible.  Oh and I have had no heartburn so far and I got it like twice the first time.  PB was super bald :)  I am seriously lucky!

  Frank's has no idea I am shouting from the mountain that I love this so much.  But Frank, if you are out there, send me some sauce! The baby wants it!! I have been eating more orange food than I usually do, I am starting to think the baby might come out orange :) 

The cluttershark (my mom) has been busting my butt to get some clutter busted this week :) It has been nice, and it definitely looks much better in here.  She is always in clutter attack mode at my house.  Probably because there is so much "chum in the water." I have lots of little clutter piles everywhere that just make the cluttershark crazy.  We are also planning Thanksgiving day eats.  We are going to do appetizer lunch and then the full dinner.  I am close to finishing the advent calendar too! I made some major progress last night. I have also been browsing the Black Friday ads online and started my lists.  I can't wait!!!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!

I-spy swap and WIP

Last week I got my i-spy fabrics in the mail from the Crafterhours i-spy swap 3!!!

I am going to make a quilt for the baby.  So I am going to make 2 piles of squares, one girl and one boy since we don't know what we are having.  I also really want to get all the other fabric to finish the front of the quilt and get it all cut.  Then once the baby is here, I can just pick the back fabric and the binding.  I think I am going to go with grey and white again like I did for the one I made PB. But maybe change it up with the back a little bit and add some subtle color.  

I also started a project that I wanted to finish last year. I actually bought the fabrics last Black Friday.

I am making this advent calendar from Skip to My Lou. I did some cutting over the weekend and got some sewing done this week. I just have to pick up some numbers from Michaels.  I am excited that this project is going to finally get finished!! 

I have enough left over that I can make some pillows using the orange Christmas fabric with it!! I hope I get to make those this year :)

Have anyone else started projects for the holidays?

Winter Card Swap

We had our card swap last week.  I love going to card swap! I think this time the ladies out did themselves.  There were some really awesome cards!!

This is the card I made.  I used that Orange Christmas fabric I found at Joann. 

Now for the rest:

Great job ladies! Can't wait to use these!!