Holidays are fun fun fun!!!!!

 It has been so long since I have posted; I have been sewing, quilting, crocheting, and crafting, but most of it is all for Christmas presents so I can't share it all yet because I don't want to ruin any one's surprise. The good news is that I have a lot of plans for this holiday season so I will be posting more. In a perfect world I would post almost everyday, but my kids probably won't allow that to happen, so I will try to post every 2 or 3 days. Every year we do advent calendars for Christmas, my mother was born and raised in Germany so advent calenders were a big part of my Christmas's when I was growing up. In addition to the chocolate calender we are also doing a Christmas activity calender, everyday the girls will open a numbered bag, every bag has a piece of paper in it with a fun activity on it.

I have a garland hanging across my living room, I thought this was a good place for the bags to be on display, but high enough that my almost 2 year old couldn't reach them.

The beautiful bags are made and sold here. She has all sorts of different styles; and the rest of her store is pretty cool too.

I'm really excited about the holidays this year and I am looking forward to sharing our fun with all of you!

Art Wall

One of the things I finally got around to putting up was our Art Wall in the kitchen. When Amalie started pre-school, I noticed that my refrigerator was drowning in art work; while I do love seeing the pictures she draws it was very annoying when I would open the fridge and everything would fall off the doors. And then there were meltdowns if Delanie managed to reach one and completely demolish it. So I got 4 clipboard and nailed them to a wall in the kitchen. I bought the sign from a wonderful "deal a day" site: www.pickyourplum.com.

Now when the girls have something new to put up they have to pick something to take down first.  

Working it Out!!!

So I'm just going to say it how it is. Like most women, I have hated my body since I was a teenager, and even more now after having 2 children. I'm not under any impression that I am going to feel comfortable in a bikini again. It's bad enough that stretch marks are inevitable during pregnancy, but then you have to deal with the weight that hangs around. And does that weight ever go to the right places? No, it doesn't, it just deposits around your waist like some permanent god awful flotation device. Well SCREW THAT! I'm getting rid of it, and I'm lucky enough to have a friend who feels the same way. My friend, Sarah and I decided to get together during the week while our kids are in school to work out. We have been at it for 2 days. I think it's going well considering every muscle in my body hurts.

My before picture, hopefully I'll have a decent after picture soon.

Just so you know this woman is crazy, and I think she might be a sadist. But she does produce results, so I guess I can deal with it

And lastly, this is my inspiration, my Halloween costume.

It's been a long while; so lets play catch up....

So it's been a busy month and a half around my house; at the beginning of July we found out that my father's lung cancer had spread to his brain. My father decided that he was going to fight on, and asked me to shave his head to prepare for radiation.

George W. Nehr: April 14, 1956-August 3, 2012

My dad always made sure to put on a brave face for us; I know he must have been scared... I will always admire him for this. He was getting radiation every weekday. On Thursday, August 2nd, my father needed a ride to his radiation appointment, so I took him, he seemed better than he had been, and I am happy that he got one last good day. The next morning at around 9:30 in the morning I got the phone call telling me that my father passed away. With the help of my husband and despite my grief, I called Jessica (my sister) and my Aunt Heidi; luckily my aunt took it upon herself to call the rest of my father's siblings. After everyone got into town we all decided that we weren't going to mope, we were going to celebrate him, we were going to enjoy stories about him, we were going to laugh; and we did. We looked at every picture in my house and my mother's house, and rediscovered so many memories. Looking at pictures of my father with me and Jessica, and with Amalie and Delanie, I see so much pride and love in his face. We had a celebration of his life with his coworkers, friends and family. I miss him everyday, but I'm starting to consult Google for the home improvement questions I would normally ask my dad.

Since my father's passing I have been trying to occupy my time with projects, cleaning/organizing, and getting Amalie ready for Kindergarten. 

Here she is with her schultute (German school cone)

Her first day of school board.

Right before we left the house. She has been loving school, but not the homework.

I also got most of my sewing room finished, I just have a few small things to do to finish up.

I got the shelves up and storage boxes labeled. (I know it looks kinda messy, but I know where everything is so it works for me)

The opposite wall has my cork board and magnet boards I made out of old cookie sheets.

This is the beautiful sign my very talented sister-in-law, Marina, made me for my birthday.

The only thing I have left to do is put down a transition strip for the doorway and then it will be done. There are many other project I have completed around here but I will get to those at another time. See you later!

My Amalie is 5!!!!

I know, I know....I haven't been on here for ever, between starting school shopping for Amalie, working on my sewing room (almost done!!) and dealing with the stress of worrying about my dad (he is fighting lung cancer) I just haven't had a chance to write a post.

July 20th is my oldest daughter's birthday, and we celebrated for 2 days. We woke up bright and early to open star wars pancake molds. 

She was very excited.

We made some cake better pancakes because she had to wait for the 21st to have birthday cake.

She took pictures of me while I was cooking.

She also took pictures of herself and her sister eating.

Later that day my sister, who is visiting from Texas, came to get Amalie for lunch at McDonald's and to go watch the new Ice Age movie, so that gave me the opportunity to make her cake, I couldn't make it in front of her because I wanted it to be a surprise.

I made rainbow cake!

I needed two layers.

And here is her cake all decorated, i put the two layers together with butter cream frosting and put a thin layer of frosting on the outside of the cake, and then covered the whole thing with whoppers.

Today we had grandparents, and 2 aunts over. We all enjoyed pink and green spaghetti with red sauce.

Then it was time for presents. Amalie got her first sewing machine and she can't wait to try it out.

She got a Leapster 2 and a few games for it.

Oma and Opa got her the Tangled game for her Leapster

Delanie loved the wrapping paper.

Auntie Jessica got her a La La Loopsy Carnival set.

She was also very happy about her Hello Kitty earrings. She also got a bunch of the Junie B. Jones books from Grandma and Grandpa, and some cool building squares that lock together from Aunt Casie. She was very happy with all of her gifts

Then it was cake time. She had no idea what the cake looked like on the inside.

But she was very impressed, and she actually ate the cake this year (she usually doesn't). I had no idea it would turn out this pretty on the inside, I was very proud.

This is just a funny picture of my sister rocking the Pride and eating rainbow cake.

We had a fantastic celebration for Amalie's birthday, and had a blast with family. I can't wait to play with Amalie's new toys with her, and I'm really excited about teaching her how to sew.

Happy Father's Day!!! (a little gift tutorial)

Have you ever noticed that finding a nice craft for your kids to do for father's day is nearly impossible? I thought of this one a few years ago for my and Chris's dads, and I decided to do it again this year for Chris from the girls.

What you will need:

*a wooden handled hammer, i got the cheapest one at Home Depot

*sand paper, I chose the 150 grit

*paint brushes

*acrylic paint

*and some spray-able clear coat.

Start out by pealing off the stickers off the hammer as best as you can, and then start sanding the finish off of the hammer, I couldn't get the stickers all the way off so I just sanded over them until they came off, it took about 10 minutes for the whole hammer (I would do the sanding outside).

Put something down on the table so you don't get paint on the table, I used an old Halloween vinyl table cloth, and start painting.

I let Amalie pick the colors and paint it any way she wanted.

They can paint the whole hammer or just one side, if they want to paint both sides make sure that it is completely dry before you flip it over.

I painted "Father's Day 2012" on the back. 

After its done drying take it outside and spray with your clear coat. Allow it to dry according to the directions on the clear coat. Sorry I don't have a pick of me spraying it, the gift is for my camera man, and we had to keep it a secret.

Another Sewing Room Update; Almost Done!

It has been quite a while since my last update, so here it is:

 

I ripped up the base boards and started to lay tile, my husband helped me grid the floor and we started to lay tile.

We layed most of the tiles in about 1 hour and 30 minutes, I had to run by Home Depot to get another box.

Here is the finished floor.

I helped Chris cut the base boards, and I painted them while he was at work, and he put them in for me.

I put together my sewing table and started moving things back into the room.

Here is the sewing table open. We still have to put in shelves on the opposite wall so I can't put too much in the room yet, but we are almost done.