This Post is NOT About Easter. Okay, So It's About Easter

 Hahah, sorry for the enormous post title. I love after holidays when the sidebar lists of blogs are riddled with similar or identical post titles...so I thought I'd mix it up a bit. :-)

We had a great Easter this year. The sun came out and decided to warm us up a bit, which was a very welcome treat. With church being at 9 am, we told the kids we'd have to leave the eggs hidden by the bunny outside until after church, and it nearly killed them to wait. They did, however, have some special treats on the couch when they woke up, which helped prevent any mourning over the delayed egg hunt.

Luckily, Brett didn't have PEC due to the holiday, so we had a little time to spare before heading to church (for the first time since our time changed!). This allowed us to get pics of the kids in their GORGEOUS new Easter outfits that Aunt Jen bought them. These were NOT saved for the Easter bunny, because I wanted the kids to be able to tell their auntie thanks for the spoiling. :-)

Look how ridiculously cute Brianna is in this bonnet! I couldn't help using it...I thought it made her look like a Cabbage Patch doll. :-)

Unfortunately, our little setup left Ky's dress completely hidden, and I didn't have time to try another pose. This pic below is the only one I could find of her dress...totally goofy pic, but you have to see the dress!

 

 Finally, they got to put on play clothes and hunt for eggs...it took them all of 30 seconds to find the lot...I think next year might be time for some harder hiding.

The dress Ky is wearing in the next two pics, and the one Brianna is wearing below, as well as Aedan's Spiderman tie, are the ones I made them for Easter the Easter bunny left.  The dresses don't quite fit perfectly, since I couldn't try them on as I sewed, but all in all they turned out pretty dang cute!

 

Once in awhile Brett gets a hankering to play with my camera, which is the ONLY time a photo of me will be seen. :-) I'm not entirely sure what Ky was doing in some of these. Check out Brianna's face in the last one. :-)

  

 All in all, we had a great Easter. I hope you enjoyed your holiday too!

Family Home Evening, and More Projects!

Our family home evening last night got a bit rowdy. It all started when Aedan spent his $5 on a set of Spider Man games. That led to:

The making of Tootsie Roll ropes...

'M' is for 'McDermott!'

Tootsie Roll rope tug-o-war...

Measuring of the Tootsie Roll rope...

 

Eating the Tootsie Roll ropes...

 

A couple rousing games of "Go Spidey"...

  

Or in Aedan's words..."Go Spicey"...

 

Where the kids learned to keep their cards close...

  

Happy kids...

 

And lots of debris.

 

All in all, we thought it was a success. The kids decided it was a party, and I think it was the best FHE we've had in awhile! So if you get the chance to play Go Spidey, jump on it!

Now for a few more projects. I've finally decided what I want to do with my living room (miracle of miracles) and have started slowly incorporating the colors. First up, a mirror that's been hanging in my hallway since we moved in...we've had it since we got married. This is it with the mirror already taped up.

 

This is an after shot of the mirror. I painted it in light blue, and lightly sanded the edges to darken it up a bit. This is a terrible photo of it though.

 

Next, another frame that is home to a picture of the Savior. I got this frame from my great-aunt Fern when I was baptized. I've put a new picture in, but kept the frame. I decided it was time to update it to match my LR.

This "Families are Forever" sign is a lot smaller than it looks, so it's almost anti-climatic in it's size. It's a dark blue/almost black color, which went well with my previous black-on-brown scheme, but I'm tired of living in the dark. I thought I'd try to keep the face of it the same and just paint the border.

 

These two turned out....I dunno...jury's still out. They need something, maybe a dark wash, and I think the matte around the photo needs to be painted now, but something. Any ideas??

 

I got three of these frosted glass bowls on clearance at WalMart for $1 several years ago. They haven't really had a home, so it was nice to find a place for one of them. The glass vase is one of several that has been kicking around for years, so again, nice to find a home.

 

Ta-da! A few coats of spray paint and the glass has taken on a whole new look! They are now front and center on the entertainment center, next to my spiffy new art work! The vase will hopefully soon be sporting some "cherry blossoms."

I had this frame on my plant shelf in the dining room, with a pretty photo of a barn. I think I'll make a beadboard frame for the barn and use this frame in my living room. This is a nest "specimen". Specimen art has become pretty popular, and I actually didn't like this at first, but it grew on me and I had the supplies, so it made the cut. I still need to get some fake robin's eggs to go in one of the nests.

This next piece is something I got from one of my good friends and her mom at my bridal shower...a long, long time ago! I've always loved it, but I'm tired of the colors and the phrase is very much overused now. It's been on the shelf in my coat closet for awhile (a fact made very obvious by all the dust!), and I think it needs to be rediscovered. I was originally thinking I might paint the three sections in the yellow, green and blue for my living room (and ditch the raffia!). But I don't really have any place for it to hang there, so it might become an Americana themed heart to go in my dining room. Now I just have to 1) do it, and 2) decide if I'll put any words on it. Any good ideas?

 That's it for now. I have tons of stuff I'd like to finish for Easter, but we'll see if it happens. This is turning into a week from...well, it's a week. Wish me luck!

Projects

I've been having a blast lately with various projects I've taken on. Most have been small projects - something I can work on when I'm not in class or doing homework. Somehow I think all these fun little things have helped keep me sane this semester...which makes them priceless. :-)

First up, I made a garland out of mini tissue paper pom-poms. They are made with the same technique I used for the big poms from Kaili's 18th birthday party. They can be a bit frustrating, but I think they're so pretty and fun that I get over the frustration pretty quick. This is hanging in our front window, and while it's not as noticeable from outside as I would like, it adds some fun color to our living room.

I've been searching for quite awhile for an idea to hang bows/clips/headbands. There are tons of ideas, but I hadn't found any I really liked yet, until now. I love the idea of this tutu bow holder. This is the first one I've made, and I gave it to my neighbor for her new baby girl.

 The bows clip on to the ribbons on the skirt, and at the very bottom are velcro loops for headbands. When I make mine, I may have one entire ribbon of loops because we have so many headbands.

 Not exactly a project, but still fun. My birthday was a couple weeks ago, and it was pretty low-key. Brett bought me a reflector/deflector for my photography, but he gave it to me early so I could use it right away. My friend, Jolene, brought me this absolutely AWESOME painting she did just for me. She knew how much I loved the quote, and I'd even told her that someday I was going to "commission" a painting from her with the quote. She went ahead and surprised me with one for my birthday. I love the texture and the colors of this little beauty!

 

My sister, Amy, made me this awesome table runner (of sorts) for my dining table. We've both been admiring this circle runner  for sometime. The reason I call it a runner of sorts is that we made it in more of a square shape, rather than long and skinny, because we thought it would work better on my square table. Add a pretty little bowl and it really brightens up my dining room! Now I just need to decide what to put in the bowl. :-)

 

 This project was a bit more involved and took a couple weeks to finish. I've loved seeing the alphabet bean bags in blogland, and decided I wanted to give them a try. I decided to do both capital and lowercase letters on one bean bag (cause that's a TON of bean bags!). I also made a set of beanbags with all of Kylee's sight words from school. All FORTY of them. Yikes. It really was a simple and fun project, if just a little redundant after awhile. :-) I used the freezer-paper stenciling method for the letters and words and I LOVE the colors! I just used scraps for the bags and it was nice to cut back hardly any of on my scrap box.

 Aedan was so excited to have his very own alphabet letters!

 I also made these fun bags that cinch at the top and have a vinyl "window" in the front to hold all the bean bags. They were super easy and I think I'll make some more this summer to help organize the kid's rooms. Aedan's bag was made out of some black fabric with bright green shamrocks (I've had it since I made blankets for him as a baby!) and lined the inside with a tan fabric with gold threads running through it. I thought the gold and the shamrocks went nicely together. :-) Kylee's bag is the one below, with pink gingham (used to be curtains) and the inside is this fun butterfly print (used to be a shawl) that is sparkly and shiny.

And, last for this post, I made myself a couple skirts! I've tried sewing clothing before and was not at all satisfied. But with the emergence of blogland, sewing has become a much easier and more enjoyable task for me. This skirt is called a circle skirt, and it's so super easy it's ridiculous. I'm finishing a couple more, and this is the first one I've actually been able to wear so far. Sorry for the dumb pic...kinda hard to aim the camera from ten feet away. :-)

 I love this print...I keep thinking I should make some pillows or something out of it...it's just fun!

That's all for now. I'm working on some decor for my living room today, and lots of projects for the Easter bunny, so there will be more to come!