So my shirt can be a This House Original, but only because the hubs thought it up. :)

I had planned on putting up a mock definition of baseball widow, but the definition ended up being on the longish side and Stephen made mention that they'd have to stare at me in order read the whole thing, so he came up with something much simpler. :)

So here's my very first t-shirt that I've altered for me. :)

Ok guys here's the hubs shirt!

Like I promised yesterday, here's Dev-O!
If only this shirt were true, because {and he's going to hate that I'm sharing this when he's older} his feet sweat. You guys wanted to know this didn't you? Truly, I feel sorry for his future significant other. Ugh. He's only 5 and I'm already saying this. He may need to start washing his own socks - next year. :)

So Friday is opening day for the Red Sox. The boys are playing the Rangers, I'm getting ready to don my mourning colors, because I will once again be a baseball widow. I really hate April through October, because the conversation will now include the highs and lows of every Red Sox game/player/injury and error. LE SIGH


However, the men of the house are very excited about the game similar to Rounders and in their outnumbered honored here is the beginning to a week long tribute to them.

So cruising a discussion group for crafty moms and a question was posed as to whether or not your Mom was crafty, so I got the thinking. How did we all first get into our crafts?

My mom and grandmother taught me to sew, but my great grandmother also sewed and she got her skills from her mom (my great-great grandmother) who was a seamstress in the early 1900's.

So that's how I got into crafting, that and a need. Clothes are expensive, so are bed linens and table linens and curtains! :)

How did you guys get into your crafts?

I'd like to give a shout-out to my very good friend, Sally, for the fantastic Christmas gifts she sent me.

Among the gifts was a wonderful set of cookie cutters...ninja cookie cutters!!! It doesn't get much cooler than that. :-) Thank you, Sally!

So remember this post? You know the one where our evening went to hell in a hand basket in about 5 minutes. So the next day was the zoo. It was an epic fail. I mean like #fail. We were there a total of 2 hours. There was no parking, we ended up parking in a residential neighborhood and hoofing it. Then it was packed. P-A-C-K-E-D. DC schools were out and everyone was at the zoo, so we saw the big cats. That's it before our good mood was shot and we said...we'll try again in a week or two. But here are some shots of our short 2 hour visit.

So I know you guys like to scour the internet for the best craft sites, and I just want to throw some of these sites out there for you guys to explore!

Here are some of the best recent articles on Crafts:

Origami Craft Ideas: Origami Wedding Craft Ideas via Craft Supplies

Customizable Cross-Stitch Projects: Cross-Stitch Projects via Martha Stewart Crafts

Fun Spring Crafts for Kids: Spring Theme Crafts via Toddler Crafts

Have fun surfing these sites guys! :)

Well I mentioned yesterday that I was altering two lamps at the same time and here's the 2nd one. :)

We've had a wonderful chrome floor lamp for a few year now and I still love the lamp, but the hubs never really liked where I put it in the family room. It blocked a speaker {the horror}. ;-)

So when I found this pretty glass number at the Salvation Army a few weeks ago, I knew just what I was going to do with it. Paint it!

I've been neglecting a problem for a little while, only because it wasn't warm enough to spray paint, and I'm lazy, but then we had a few warm days and I went spray paint crazy! I altered two lamps at once, well almost at once, but today I'm going to share with you the lamp I altered for Devlin's room.

You see he used to have two lamps, but then he wanted  to get  rid of the baseball theme, which included a lamp that was made out of  baseballs. Thats when the darkness descended on his room, because unless the sun was shining into his room the lone little lamp we left in his room was not enough light.

So this is the lamp I started with:

Heather's already spoken about her feelings on St. Patty's day. I have not had the same experiences that she has had, so my outlook is somewhat different, though no more or less valid. Different things, different people, as I like to say. Anyway, I always like to do something to celebrate St. Patrick's Day in a big way. I don't really know why I like this day so much. We do have Irish blood in us, but we have a lot of other nationalities in us as well, so it's an unsolved mystery. Let's chalk it up to my intense interest in other cultures for now.

Anyway, I always make a lot of food for our greenest of holidays, usually breakfast for my co-workers and then a semi-traditional Irish dinner. No, we're not talking corned beef and cabbage. I find corned beef very salty, but I love cabbage. There was a time in Mike's and my marriage that he actually put an embargo on the transport of cabbage into my house because I was making it so much. Cabbage is really cheap and really tasty; what's not to love? Anyway, so if we don't have corned beef, what do we have? Lamb! Scrumptious, tender, delicious lamb. If you've never had lamb, you don't know what you're missing. If you don't like lamb, then you need to try my recipe. You may change you mind.

So I have another reason to not like St. Patty's Day. It will probably be a funny story tomorrow. Well maybe  not, but maybe on Sunday it'll be funny. I'm sharing/venting so bear with me. :)

Today was cleaning day. Top to bottom cleaning day. So I had just given the upstairs the final stamp of cleaning approval when I started vacuuming the stairs. When I made it down to the first landing the vacuum decided to viciously attack me, probably because I made it clean up the dogs' bed area. Well I dodged his attack, yes our vacuum is a he, and knocked him to the floor, but also screamed like there was an eight foot boa constrictor coming at me.

Said scream draws the attention of the hubs who comes to the bottom of the stairs to make sure that I'm not strangling the vacuum, and I inform him that I'm fine. What we both missed was that Harrison had come up behind Steve right next to the corner of the stairs, and Steve turned and H fell and knocked his head on the corner of the wall busting his eyebrow open.

So I know I've mentioned that I'm not a big St. Patty's Day celbrater, but here's why - 24 years ago on March 18th my great-grandfather died. I will never forget that day. I know some of you will say...wait....you were only like 5 years old then, but I remember. Vividly.

It was a bright, sunny day. Gorgeous out, but I wasn't outside playing. Nope. I was being bitten by my little sister. She was going for and drawing blood. I, in turn, started crying and ran up the stairs to tell Mom.

This is the part I will never forget. The sun was streaming, I mean like blindly so, in the 2 front windows of the sitting area in Mom and Dad's bedroom. They had turned it into their shared office/sewing room, and Mom was sitting at Dad's desk and crying. I didn't see the phone in her hand, but then again she was facing west and had her left side towards me. I stopped crying and hollering, which I'd been doing all the way up the stairs, and in a very small voice asked her what was wrong.

She turned towards me with tears running down her face and just opened her arms. I ran to her. I remember wondering why she was crying, but more importantly just feeling safe and hopefully making her feel better, because her hugs always made me feel better. Mom, for her part, did finally realize that I was bleeding and returned to Mom-mode in a blink, but I wouldn't let her. I asked her why she was crying, and that's when she hesitated. She told me that Pe' had died.

Everything after that was kind of a blur. I know I started crying and Mom started again, and she was trying to bandage my arm, while fussing at Nicole, Dana was flitting around and Dad came home early. Up until a few years ago, I still had a scar from that bite and a reminder of that awful day.

I'm thinking of you today Pe Pe.

Hey guys! How ya doing? Did you like the shirt posts? I did. The boys did. At least I think they did. Oh well if they didn't. One of the perks of being Mom, I get to tell them what to wear {for now}. :)

Anyways, I'm over at Craftoholics Anonymous today! Totally psyched to be guest posting on Linda's blog today. We're sharing our craft spaces. So go check it out!



Have a great day guys. I'll be back tomorrow with a tribute.

Who doesn't love the smell of primer in the AM?

Ok well usually I do, but oil based primer has a distinct smell that I cannot get out of my nose! Oh well the two nightstands will thank me tomorrow when I start putting on the actual paint.

Time to go look for some knobs.....any one have any favorites?

So yesterday I showed of H's shirt, today is Dev's turn! His shirt is so totally  punky like the boy who wears it.

He's a menagerie of faces and he exhibits them all in a range of like 5 minutes. One moment he's thoughtful and somewhat introverted and other moments he's loud, obnoxious and out-going, but he's always photogenic. :) So with out any further ado - Here's DEV!

So this week is St. Patty's Day, as if we didn't all know that already, but what you may not know is that I don't usually honor this holiday. We used to go to St. Patty's Day parties, but I don't drink much so yea....really I'd  just be extorting people with photos I took at the party. :) Ok so I wouldn't do that. Maybe I wouldn't.

Anyways, I'm sure you guys  have seen the button in my sidebar about the Let's Hear it for the Boys Party over at I Am Momma, Hear Me Roar. Its a shirt party. A shirt party for boys. And how lucky am I that I have three boys to outfit? Very. Well I'm going to show off two this week and then the hubs shirt will be shown later, because  I can do that. Its my blog after all. :)

Let me just begin by telling you how dorky Mike and I are. There have been duck jokes in my house for about two weeks now, ever since I decided to do this dish. This is actually what I wanted to cook and write about last week, but, as I mentioned in last week's post, my day fell apart last week. Not this week, though! It all started when I went looking for just duck legs. I couldn't find them anywhere, so I decided to get a whole duck at that point. When I went back to Publix, however, they were all out of whole duck.

Me: "What the duck, Mike? They're all out of it."
Mike: "Looks like we'll have to go to the other Publix to get some ducking duck."

So it might have been like a year ago that I bought a broken tiered copper serving dish. Yes, I said a year. What's worse was that to fix this poor dilapidated thing was easy. Easier than easy. I know we've all seen them. Glue a candlestick to a couple of plates and voila! Instant tiered serving dish. I know..I'm lazy. I've accepted  it. :)

I may have also added a finial, but only because my copper plates had holes in the center of their plates. :)

So I started with painting the candlestick and the finial and then the glue came out. Let the gorilla gluing begin!

So I'm sure some of you have seen this hair band around bloggy land.

I love the simplicity of the design, but not the hair wrap part, so I put my version on a headband. :)

Well like I said in yesterday's post it was high time that February left my house. Well, per my usual routine, I couldn't very well  decorate the dining room and not the mantle family room. So without a lot of chatter lets just jump in. :)

By the way.....Picture laden post. :) Oh and I couldn't make up my mind about my paper cone wreath. You see my mantle was actually done for a week with a bare wreath. I didn't want to share the mantle with you till it was perfect, but then one morning the light was perfect so I snapped some shots. Then that evening lightening struck and luckily the next morning we had lovely lighting again. So here are my shots of both mornings.  And I do believe the theme for this month's scapes is Family or moving all available picture frames out of the reach of some small fry that is now enamored of climbing.

So as most of us have children, small children that is, we know what its like to constantly be on guard or at least exercising our peripheral vision. While I was trying to dress my dining room for March, it was high time February left, I was having to keep one eye on Harrison.

Why do you ask?

Because he's an imp. A quiet imp. A quiet imp until he wants to be heard. I will now share with you my March tablescape and why it took me twice as long as normal to set up. Commentary to commence. :)

I joined Networked Blogs!

Sometimes its easier to get updates on Facebook....cause I live there. Well, I don't really, but I am on a lot.

Don't get me wrong I still love Google Reader, in fact right after I check my emails I hit up Reader, but then its Facebook. Right after that initial Reader hit I don't usually get back there until the evening, but I check Facebook {a lot} so I figure it was just a simple jump to add the ole blog to another syndication service.

So if you don't like Reader or don't use it, or if you just want to see that much more of me and Dana, then hop on please follow us on networked blogs. :)

Thanks guys. You're the best, but you knew that already didn't you? ;-)

Oh by the way....Thank you to everyone who has commented on today's earlier post about my island design dilemma. I've gotten some really terrific ideas for it, but I also keep getting distracted because of things that would work really well in my bathroom as well. I really need to learn to focus. :)

TTFN!

Ok guys....I know you're going to help me out here. I really really really hope that you do, because I am having a problem with my kitchen island, especially since getting the back splash done.

You see its bugging me. Its boring. And I don't like that.

It needs something more. It needs to stand out a bit. It needs presence.

There's a catch. I can't do anything to the cabinets per the hubs. Yes...I'm annoyed at that. Very annoyed, but there's not much I can do and he's not budging. Grrrr. We wonder why Harrison growls. He gets it from me! I growl in person too. :)

If you guys have been keeping tabs on this little ole' blog then you know that we've been tiling our backsplash in the evenings. After the kids go to bed. Not the best way to do it, but its the time we had. I wanted to share with you guys today what I learned about tiling with this adventure.

Now this is not the first time I've tiled.  It's the 2nd time. It makes all the difference in the world. Ok. I'm lying it doesn't. This time round was definitely harder than the last time we tiled. Maybe it was because we were working with natural stone. Or it was on a wall rather than lying flat. Or it could be a combination of both things. Either way we learned a lot and I am going to share what we learned with you!

These lessons are in no particular order other than how I thought of them, so one is not more important than another.

Well what started as a 3 (ha!) day project has finally ended. 7 days later. Ugh. I have never been so glad to finish something.

Not only was this project long but it was messy and tiring. So very worth it though! So without much ado, lets get this motor started!

Here's the finished product, nothing like starting with dessert. :)