March photo challenge

I totally missed out on January and February's photo challenge from Fat Mum Slim.
BUT! I'm going to [try] to do March.

via Fat Mum Slim

So, I put it on my google calendar (which syncs on my phone) to remind me of this challenge... I'm going to try my best to take a picture a a day.

Who's with me?!

Etsy Treasuries

I feel SO incredibly honored to be in three treasuries today!  Please stop by and check them out! :)


Thank you to Connie for including my paisley everyday handbag in this paisley beautiful treasury!


Thank you to Kitty for including my dots on green zipper pouch in this fun pink and green treasury!


I'm am so honored to be part of KCEtsy! Thank you so much Cindy for including me in such a talented treasury!


Thank you so much!

Design Sponge's Penny Wall

If you didn't know, one of my favorite metals is copper. I love the color of it, I even like it when it turns to the color green (that's a chemistry lesson for another day).

well anyway, Design Sponge created a wall full of pennies!
Click on the photo to take you to Design Sponge's blog post!

Now my mind is working... where can I put pennies on in my house? lol

Spoonflower contest - bicycle

This week's contest (submission due 2/21/12) is bicycles, only 3 colors.  I used gray, yellow, and lavender.

I have called this one Bicycle Built For Two. Reminds me of the song "Daisy Bell"

What do you think?

Go vote for your favorite bicycle fabric!

Happy Mother Challenge - Day 5

LOL, I have no idea why it took me this long to realize that I've been typing "day" instead of "week"... oh well, might as well stick with the "day" but you get the idea, right? :)

Happy Mother Challenge - Day 5 -- *snickers*
CHALLENGE:
The next time you want to open your wallet to buy something for one of your children, stop. Ask yourself what your motive is. Do you think your child will love you better because you’re buying him or her the latest game for their Xbox? If you realize that you are doing it to feel better about yourself as a mother, don’t spend the money. Challenge yourself instead by giving your child something more long-lasting. Carve out an evening the two of you can spend together.
Then do a test: see how you feel about life the next day. Chances are excellent that you will feel a deeper sense of satisfaction about life and about yourself.
Spending time (not $$) is the only authentic, lasting way to improve your relationship and make lasting, fulfilling memories with your children.
Remember to focus on providing love, attention and your time. Nothing that you can purchase can come close.

I grew up pretty frugal. We were definitely not rich, but lived by with what we can. I started buying my own school supplies, clothes, etc. the moment I could work. So, saving money and putting it in good use is important to me.
This may come by pretty silly, but my dad would always tell us that if we're going #1, use 2 squares of toilet paper, and we're going #2, then we use 3 squares of toilet paper. This is so instilled in me, that now, I still count the toilet paper, but I thin I now go up to 4 squares! LOL
So, ok... where I am going with this? LOL... no idea, just wanted to share my toilet paper story! haha

I think I do pretty well for this challenge. We have a budget for our kids when we buy for them, like $30 per child for Christmas and $30 for their birthday. I'm sure this will change with the technology and how every one of their friends has this and has that. They do not get presents for small holidays, like Valentine's day or first day of Spring.
There is no denying that I do buy stuff for them when I am out shopping. They are usually craft supplies, like paint, construction paper, coloring books, etc.
I think this challenge is for us to turn off the TV more often (D loves to watch Team UmiZoomi and Super Why) and spend quality time with them.

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Not sure what I'm talking about? Meg Meeker, MD's 10 Habits of Happy Mothers - Happy Mother Challenges Click here for my Happy Mother Challenges.

Spoonflower contest - Jellyfish

I created a whimsy jellyfish and friends design for the Spoonflower's Jellyfish contest - this is part of their weekly contest.

Introducing Jellyfish and Friends:

update: #149 out of #226

Happy Friday

I totally forgot about last week's Happy Friday. Oops!

So, I'm going to try to remember and combine what I can.

1. I bought myself a ticket to see Amy Butler in May. I am super duper super excited!

2. My conversation with D (child #1) one cloudy morning in the car taking the boys to daycare:
D: where is the sun?
Me: it's hiding behind the clouds.
D: what are the clouds and sun doing?
Me: I don't know
D: what are they eating?
Me: I don't know, what are they eating?
D: chicken nuggets, yummy yummy chicken nuggets.

3. C's (child #2) been teething (again and still), poor little guy. He just makes me laugh. He'll do things that he's not suppose to do, like drink his brother's juice (especially if he's not feeling well). I'll say, "C!" ... and he'll drop whatever he is doing, and start strolling away like he did nothing wrong. When I say strolling, I mean strolling. He'll walk with his hands back, and walk and not look at you this whole time. Then after he strolls away, he'll stroll back and do something else.

4. S had an extra monitor that he didn't want (I don't remember why he didn't want it, I think it was not a good one or something like that), so, it's been sitting in the closet. On Wednesday, he helped me put it together with my laptop! Now I have dual monitors!!! Yay!

5. It snowed here in Kansas City Monday morning (13th). D (child #1) ran to our room and said "It's winter time! It's winter time!"

Quilt of Valor part 3

I finally finished the back of the quilt. I made a mistake by not purchasing enough of the blue fabric. I went back to the store, and of course, they are sold out! bah!! I picked out the green fabric, and I think it turned out pretty well. I can't complain really. It's not ideal, but it's not bad.

Next week, I'll need pin the front side of the quilt, batting, and the back side.

I'm excited. I am not fully committed to the original idea of the v-shape stitching, because I'm not sure how it'll work with the stripe on the back. I was thinking of just 'stitch in ditch'. I'm going to keep thinking about this one. Do you have any thoughts?

Tutorial - Pin-It Button in post footer

Ok, so here's a little more info on how to add your very own Pintrest button to your post footer on Blogspot. I have no idea on Wordpress or other Blog sites.  If you know how, please let me know and I will link you to my post.

We're going to edit the post template, and if you're not comfortable monkeying with the nuts and bolts, you might want to take a deep breath, meditate or what ever you need to to do to prepare yourself, cause we're going to be editing the raw HTML.  Don't worry, I'll hold your hand through this.

Click the 'Edit HTML' button and 'Proceed' right through all the warnings.

Make sure the  "Expand Widget Templates" is checked.

Now the tricky part... you'll have to find the place in the HTML to copy the following script.

<a href='javascript:void((function(){var%20e=document.createElement(&apos;script&apos;);e.setAttribute(&apos;type&apos;,&apos;text/javascript&apos;);e.setAttribute(&apos;charset&apos;,&apos;UTF-8&apos;);e.setAttribute(&apos;src&apos;,&apos;http://assets.pinterest.com/js/pinmarklet.js?r=&apos;+Math.random()*99999999);document.body.appendChild(e)})());'><img alt='Pin It' src='http://passets-cdn.pinterest.com/images/small-p-button.png'/></a>

Since we're going to drop the new Pin-it button right next to the other social media links, look for the Orkut button in the post footer widget template.

Do a search (ctrl+f on PC) for "Orkut"

You'll want to place it directly after the </b:if> tag, and before the next <b:if> tag that wraps the Google button.

Now save your template, and enjoy your new Pin-it! button!

It should look something like this:

I hope this was easy to follow tutorial on adding your own Pin-It button in your post footer! Let me know if you get it added! I want to see! :D


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I added this to some link parties:

Everyday Love

If you did not know, I am not the type of person who is into the "small" holidays (i.e. Valentine's day, st. Patrick's day, etc.). I may have cared about Valentine's Day when I was single, when I called it "Single Awareness Day", but I usually just hang out with friends or hide in a book.
For [every] Valentine's day, I actually request that S not to do anything special. It should not be the only day where we show love to each other. Shouldn't everyday be Valentine's Day?


I do want to list a few things how I know that S loves me :

1. He lets me sleep when the boy(s) wake up in the middle of the night. He would do this the moment our children turn four months.
2. He lets me sleep in the morning when D (child #1) comes in our room letting us know that his Tot Clock has turned yellow. D is our alarm clock.
3. He gets the boys changed, dressed, and the bag packed with their breakfast for school in the mornings while I shower and get ready.  The moment that I come downstairs, the boys are ready (except for the coats).
4. He supports in everything that I want to do. Even if I get all defeatist (which is often), he still supports me.
5. He cooks. 90% of the week, he cooks. ... and I eat.
6. He watches the boys while I run (for training and race day).  He entertains the boys while I'm running the 'race'.
7. He folds laundry.
8. He made me my craft table (which I need to post updated pictures) and stenciled the craft/office wall.
9. He listens, and gives me feedback (positive and negative)
10. He is always warm and lets me snuggle on him even if my fingers and toes are frozen.
11. He always tells me how much he loves the boys and me, at least once a day.

I'm sure I could go on. I sure got lucky!

Pinterest

Have you been on Pinterest yet?

I try not to hang out there too often, I get sucked in like it's a black hole!

But if you have, come hang out with me, follow my pins!



There is also a button under every post with a small square P that you can pin my posts too! How cool is that?!

Quick Chocolate Sheet Cake

It's difficult to make cake sometimes during the week night, but I wanted some chocolate cake.

This is probably one of the quickest chocolate cakes you'll ever make!

Chocolate Sheet Dense Cake

Preheat oven to 400

2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 sticks unsalted butter
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 cup water
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla

Icing
1 stick butter
1/4 cup (heaping) cocoa powder
6 Tbsp. milk
1 lb powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chopped pecans (optional)


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1. Grease a sheet or pan (you can use a sheet pan, it just depends on how thick you want your cake to be. I used a 9x13 dish.  Just remember, the thinner your cake the faster it'll bake!)
For the cake:  Mix flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl.
In a saucepan, combine butter, cocoa, and water. Make sure you stir it occasionally to ensure that the cocoa mixture doesn't burn on the bottom.  Bring the mixture to a boil and pour the cocoa mixture into the flour mixture. Mix it enough to cool the chocolate because we're going to put the eggs in! We want the chocolate to cool so it doesn't cook the eggs!
Grabbed your measuring cup, measure the buttermilk, and just put the eggs in there.  Beat the eggs with the buttermilk, then add the baking soda and vanilla into the measuring cup.

Pour the buttermilk mixture in with the cocoa mixture.
Mix well.

Pour batter into pan, and bake for about 20 - 22 minutes (this is for 9x13), if you're using 11x15 - bake about 18 - 20 minutes. Of course, always check with a toothpick.


While the cake is baking....... icing time!!!!

About 10 minutes before the cake is done, start the icing! If you have lots of helpers, like I do, you might want to start a bit sooner. :)
Mix powdered sugar, vanilla, and pecans (optional) in a large bowl.
In a saucepan, combine butter, cocoa, and milk. Bring it to a boil. Since this does not have water in it, you'll need to stir it more often. it gets a bit thick and coats the bottom of the saucepan.
Pour over the sugar mixture.
Whisk to mix!

Pour the icing over the cake while it's still hot! Since both icing and cake are hot, it should help spread it over the cake pretty well. You probably won't do much work on the spreading, but if you must... please make sure the icing is covering the cake, because all cake needs icing love.

We started to eat it about an hour after everything. It was still warm, and it was delicious.
Cut your cake, and eat it too... with milk, because this is one rich chocolate cake!

You should totally make this for your sweetheart, and it doesn't have to be valentine's day either! ;)  Any day of the year is a perfect day for chocolate cake!  And then impress your sweetheart with these awesome chocolate facts.

- Chocolate is made from the kernels of fermented and roasted cocoa beans.
- Chocolate was sweetened with cinnamon and vanilla by the Spanish in 1500's.
- About 1700 the English improved chocolate by the addition of milk.


Oh yeah, so hawt. You know chocolate facts and made an awesome cake. 

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I omitted the pecans because D (child #1) has a nut allergy, so we don't make anything with nuts. And pecan is the only nut that I'm not allergic to.

Sherwin Williams' Chip It

This must be one of the coolest things I have seen this week!

Sherwin Williams have a new online color tool called "Chip It".  It is an online color tool that gives you Sherwin Williams paint colors that coordinate with any picture on the web. This is pretty neat too because I don't have to take out my giant paint chips and see which color matches.

I am using my Outdated Technology fabric as an example:

Pretty cool, huh?

Happy Mother Challenge - Day 4

Happy Mother Challenge - Day 4

"We must refuse to compete with our friends, acquaintances and even strangers. The first step is to think about what you are jealous of and admit it–out loud. My friend once admitted to me that she was jealous of a woman at the gym that worked out in a sports bra and had a stomach that was flat as a board. My friend knew she was irritated about this woman and her ugly feelings towards her wouldn’t go away until she admitted it out loud.

Think about that person (or people) that gets the green eyed monster stirring in you. Now, simply admit it, no matter how silly you feel. Tell it to your best friend or even your husband. Saying it out loud releases the power that the jealousy holds over us. It provides a some perspective and I guarantee that admitting it will make you feel like a load is off your shoulders.

Now, be generous with praise for others. That woman at the gym? Tell her she looks great. I know, that makes you cringe at the thought. But forcing yourself to say nice things, praise other mothers and encouraging each other whenever possible changes us. The jealousy will go away.

Next, focus on yourself.  Count your blessings and celebrate your achievements.  Write down your blessings and positive thought patterns will become more routine, more second nature.

Get off the competitive train, Moms.  Take the hard road and confront what makes you feel jealous, even if that doesn’t feel good at first. Rise above it.

I expect this week’s exercise will be a difficult one, Moms. Do you find yourself competing with others on a regular basis?"

I will agree with Dr. Meeker that this is a difficult one. There is no denying that I get jealous or even envious of other people.

Couple nights ago, I had talked about this with S. One of the things that he knows that I get jealous with is other mothers that have more time than me. I don’t remember saying it like that… haha, but it’s true, I’ll read blogs, see crafts, and other things that I will tell him, “I wish I had time to do all these things.” It took me awhile to realize that my “wishes” is a sign of jealousy. How I wish I could do this and that, and all these other mothers get to do it, and I don’t.

I’ll admit that I’m jealous of the stay-at-home moms who get to spend time with their kids, blog about life, make crafts every day, etc. I really should not be jealous. I do think it’s great that they get to be home with their kids. I realize that for us to live the way that we do and to do things that we want to in the future, I need to work full-time. If we want more kids, I definitely need to work full-time (to cover daycare costs).

Something else that I’m “jealous” about, it is a complete 180 from stay-at-home moms, that  I make excuses for myself, I’ll tell myself, “They can do that right now because they are not married, they do not have kids, etc.”

Does it matter if he/she is single? Does it matter if he/she does not have kids?

It shouldn’t, but I let it bother me and somehow it’s supposed to make me feel better, when it doesn’t.  I should be happy at where I am in life. I have a wonderful, supportive husband, and two handsome boys.  It just means that I need to work a little bit harder to achieve what I want in life. I need to prioritize my wants and needs, and make the best out of it. I need to do things for myself and not compare myself with other people.

After writing this out, I realized that the consistent thing with everything I’m jealous about is time.

Is there anyone in this world that can tell me that they have all the time in the world to do what they want?

So, time management is an issue. What I want to do and what I can do is making better use of my time, and putting things in order.

Since I had discussed this with S, it really puts things in perspective for me. I am happy that I am working (especially in this economy), my kids get to learn new things at day care, they get to play with their friends, I get adult time, I am consistently learning new things in my field, and there is nothing wrong being a working mother. 

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Not sure what I'm talking about? Meg Meeker, MD's 10 Habits of Happy Mothers - Happy Mother Challenges

Click here for my Happy Mother Challenges.

Foam Soap Recipe

pic via bottles and foamers

We use foam soap for our boys, it seems that it gets to all the little spots,... since they don't exactly rub their hands together very well when you ask them to wash their hands.  Do you remember how you used to have to sing a song when you wash their hands?  My boys aren't old enough to memorize songs, but they like to play in the water. So, maybe that helps wash away the germs? haha.
It also doesn't seem like many companies sell foam soap refills, and I just find it unnecessary to buy a brand new pump every time I need new soap!

So, here is the "recipe" I use for the refill foam soap!

1/4 cup of liquid hand soap (I use soft soap)
2/3 cup of warm water

Gently mix both together.  I know you're excited, but make sure you don't shake it or you'll make it all bubbly! It's not a bubble bath in a cup right now!

Happy Friday

It's been a rough week. I haven't been getting very much sleep. ... and now, I have a sinus cold allergy and all that other gross stuff. I think it really hit me couple night ago. And now, I feel like it's dragging me down!

1. I finished my submission for Art Gallery January Project - Shoulder Heat Pillow with tutorial.  I just realized this could practically be one of my goals of started & completing a project every month.

2. Ran my first 10k!

3. I will have to thank God for this one. I went running couple night ago after work. I was in such a rush because it was getting cold, and I just wanted to get home. I was crossing the street, and I only looked at my left side, but not my right... it wasn't until I almost hit the sidewalk was when I felt a car coming. I am very frustrated with myself that I didn't look. Therefore, I am thankful to God for watching after me.

4. Snuggles. The boys have been in snuggling moods. So, I'm okay with that. :)

Valentine Cards

I put together two Valentine's Day cards for the boys.
If you click on the photo, it'll take you to the picture without myfamilywall.blogspot.com on it. :)

These are all 4x6 with 370 resolution.

One robot (for D, of course)

I used Cricut Robotz. The background is binary code for Happy Valentine's Day.

Steve thought the "Happy Valentine's Day" was too boring.

So, we changed it to this:

 

And a monster (for C):
I used Cricut Mini Monsters

If you found this to be helpful for you, please take the time to let me know by leaving me a comment. Your comments give me the encouragement to continue creating for you!