Summer Reading List

Let summer reading begin...

The Poisonwood Bible

by Barbara Kingsolver

This one has been on the t0-read list for a while now and is borrowed and ready to be read.

The Help

by Kathryn Stockett

I've just started this one and it's so far living up to all that I've heard.

Belong To Me

by Marisa De Los Santos

I picked this one up at Costco without any recommendations and am going to give it a go.

Making the Cut

by Jillian Michaels

Recommended by a friend, I'm hoping to use some of the set workouts to help with the bathing suit bod.

Day-votions for Mothers

by Rebecca Barlow Jordan

This was a Mother's Day gift from a sweet friend and I'm already finding daily inspiration from it's short daily stories/prayers/focus.

This Is Not A Book

by Keri Smith

I'm so excited to locate this book and unleash some creativity in this family.

E is for Ethics

by Ian James Corlett

I think summer will be the perfect time to read this with my kids and start some good conversations while they're all mine!

Tear This Book Up

by Keri Smith

If it's in the American Girl library, it's got to b good (at least by my daughter's standards)!

Mrs. Pigglewiggle

by Betty MacDonald

I loved these books as a kid and am looking forward to reading them aloud as a family. We've got the treasury on loan as we speak.

Pocket Doodles for Kids

by Bill Zimmerman

I picked this up for my daughter as a little quiet time activity (Hoping to get a few mommy-minutes during naptime/quiet time).

Oh, and they'll be lots of magazine reading... I'm over-subscribed right now, thanks to the Amazon $5 deals and some gift subscriptions, and loving every page of it!

What books are on your summer reading list?

Check Out These Shops:

I thought this was a neat idea and a wonderful way to spend some time on this long holiday weekend. So many new shops to peruse...

Won't you join in?!

Happy Memorial Day!

Overheard At My House: Oh girl!

Here's the scene: My 2 1/2 year old is in that stage where he's a human parrot. He likes to copy what you do and everything that you say. His favorite person to copy: his big sister. She thinks it's pretty cool, most of the time, to have a little one looking up to her. Sometimes she gets a bit tired of the whole routine though...

Little Gal: "Mom, can I play on the computer?"

Little Guy: "Mom, can I play on the computer?"

Little Gal (in her most exasperated voice): "Oh boy, Here we go again!"

Little guy (in his most exasperated voice): "Oh girl, Here we go again!"

Made me smile.

{via here}

Easy Silhouette DIY

Check out my "new" little corner of our family room. It got a facelift with a new chair and a couple of silhouettes. I purchased the chair on a whim (okay, I deliberated over it for days, with it in my virtual cart, waiting for it to go on sale) and am in love with it! I also got around to making silhouettes of my children. I've had it on the list of things I wanted to do. I actually had big plans of creating something like this, but I decided to take the easy (right now) way out and use Photoshop.

Here's my cheater's version to get from picture to silhouette:

1. Take a profile shot of your subject. This will work best if you set them up in front of a solid, light-colored background. My make-it-work trick for my 2 year old was to stick a piece of painter's tape at eye level and tell my him to stare at it. If the angle didn't look right, I just adjusted the tape.

2. Convert your picture to black and white. I used Elements so my instructions are based on this program, but I'm sure you could modify it to work with others.

3. Adjust the brightness/contrast by increasing both.

4. Select the background using the magic wand tool. Fill it with white (or whatever color you'd like). With the background still selected, choose "inverse" from the select drop down menu. Fill it with black (or whatever color).

5. Smooth out the edges. I just did this with the polygonal lasso tool and deleting, and filling the odd areas. I'm sure there are many ways to get this done, but this was the quickest and easiest route for me.

6. Resize or crop and print.

You could also play around with different colors and patterns.

And here's my finished product. I'm happy with them and am thinking that they'll do for now, until I get a bit more ambitious:

I'm happy to answer any questions, if my instructions were not so clear. Have fun!

Enjoy

As much as I've been trying to be goal oriented, I'm thinking the in-between is what I need to be focussing more on. How about you?

Enjoy your weekend!

Big-ger Girl Room: The After!

It's finally finished (aside from still needing/wanting to recover a chair)!

Her room has looked somewhat the same since we transformed our extra bedroom into a nursery over seven years ago in anticipation for our first baby. It was pink and light green and vintage-y sweet. Here's the room we decorated for her when she was born. Her crib was on the opposite wall with matching bedding. I loved this room:

Well, she's 7 years old now and oh-so-cool. Pink is her least favorite color and turquoise reigns as #1 now. She wanted nothing more than to have turquoise walls. We made a compromise, with me agreeing to a color as dark as I was willing to go and her relenting to as light as she would be happy with. We settled on Sherwin Williams' Reflecting Pool. I have to say that even though it still shocks me a little when I walk past her doorway, it's growing on me. And she's thrilled, so that makes it a bit easier to love. (Like the color? Definitely check out this blog: House of Turquoise.)

I won the letters on I heart handmade from this talented lady. I am so impressed with them and think that add so much to her room!

Here's her little reading corner:

We've corralled all of her tchotchkes in photo boxes and bins and found a home for her growing rock collection in some glass jars. I already shared with you about the bulletin board. The chair is just draped with fabric, but I plan to recover it soon. (Ha! I've had this chair for abt 10 years after we picked it up at a garage sale for $20. It's been on the to-reupholster list for as long. Hubby is happy to have the "turd" out of our family room. Too much info?!). The shelf is from a garage sale as well and the corner shelf, formerly pink, was a baby shower gift from my sister.

This is my favorite part of the room:

The armoire was in her room prior, but was a peachy-pink color. I had plans to distress it, but the little gal just really didn't want that to happen. She was happy with the 3(!) coats of white paint, so we left it at that. The frames are filled with little friend quotes (More on that soon) .

It's also her favorite part of the room, only for a different reason:

She loves the $2.50 mirrors we got in the dorm section at Walmart. We hung them on the inside of the armoire, near her karaoke-style cd player. She personalized them with stickers, spelling things like "rock and roll" and "QT" (seriously. at seven?), and now spends many an afternoon singing her heart out while gazing at her reflection. It would be scary if it weren't so darn cute.

So that's that. It's done and I'm happy with how it turned out. Most of the things you see in her room resided there before. The bedding, pink lamp, and little b&w frames were purchased new at Target. The throw pillows were a steal at Ross ($3.99, 4.99 and 5.99!). And all the fabric came from Joann's. I didn't total it all up, but I should because I think I'd impress myself!

Sooo, dare I ask? What do you think?

Mother's Day Download for YOU!

I thought this little quote was so sweet and such a spot-on sentiment for so many women out there. (Of course, I might just share my pie... I do love pie!) It screamed to be made into a card! I have to admit that this little guy makes me chuckle. So simple, but it makes me smile. Feel free to download below it for a special mom in your life.

{Mother's Day card and envelope liner}

Just click on the link above to download and then print. The first page is the folding card. Just cut around the outline. The second page is meant to be an envelope liner, to turn a plain ole A2 envelope into something special. Just trace your envelope in its open position, but rather than cutting along your trace line, cut a bit inside your line. Slide this inside your envelope and fold the flap down. Secure the liner with a dot of glue or double sided tape on the flap part.

Happy Mother's Day!

{For personal use only}

Weekly Meal Plan

{ Click to enlarge and/or print}

Last week we did a little menu shuffle and the Mexican Lasagna got bumped to this week. I would like to have saved it for Cinco de Mayo (complete with a pitcher of ritas!), but I'm worried my chicken won't last, and I do love to start the week off set and ready to go! I had a couple of people inquire about what the heck Mexican Lasagna is, so here it is. I don't know the original source, but the version I printed out was titled "Layered Chicken and Black Bean Enchilada Casserole". That was too much of a mouthful to remember, so we changed it up. It's super-yummy and can be varied in so many ways. We tried this one a little while back and it was scrumptious too!

Monday/Tuesday:

Mexican Lasagna

Wednesday:

chicken salad on bed of baby spinach

fruit salad

Thursday:

chicken salad sandwiches

fruit salad

Friday-Sunday:

undetermined... We're still trying to hammer out Mother's Day plans so I'm waiting (and hoping not to cook, at all).

What's cooking at your house?