Foto Friday..Thinking outside my box.

This week's Foto Friday theme was Red. I tend to use my children as subjects quite often in our weekly challenges. Rebecca reminds us weekly to be artistic, creative, and think outside the box. This week that is exactly what I did. I decided NOT to use my children as subjects on purpose even though I had a couple cute ones of Christiana on our red slide. I wanted to put effort into doing something just a little different. I couldn't give up my nature shots though..sorry about that! :) I tried to mix it up just a little and challenge myself. I think I did allright, at least I tried :)

To join in or see other's perspectives on Foto Friday, visit my sister Rebecca at Renaissance..You'll be glad you did!

Yellow Nature Study (and more) :)

This week's Foto Friday was Yellow, which was super easy, all I had to do was walk out of doors (well, I cheated and looked at some other Foto Friday participants before I actually posted mine (I didn't take any ideas though, I promise) and saw that many of us were on the same wavelength this week..How could you not though, the Forsythia bushes are in full bloom, tulips are gorgeous right about now, and the dandelions are showing their beautiful color (sorry, I have never thought dandelions were a pest, in fact I've always liked them! :) ) I focused mostly on flowers this week, but I couldn't resist throwing a few of my littlest picking flowers for mama though- she has learned the art from her big brother who has been picking me flowers since was old enough to walk. :) Oh, and I know that the blue flowers are mostly blue, but there is yellow there too :)

I lost my grandmother in March of last year, and she was the floral gardener of the family. She loved flowers and her flower gardens were proof of that love because each blossom flourished under her tender loving care. I've always loved flowers as well, but ever since she passed away, I have become even more enamoured with them because they remind me so much of her and I miss her. I guess I would love to be able to "take her place" so that when people come to visit they can enjoy pretty blooms at my house just like I did at hers. I've planted lilac bushes this year, Pleaded with Bob to make me a flower garden and each week I scour the grocerers floral dept for discounted bulbs so that even though I may not enjoy them this year, I can plant them and enjoy them next year. The family who lived in our house prior to us planted a lot of bulbs in the back yard in strange places, so I've spent numerous hours digging up bulbs and replanting them in the flower garden.

I will also be filling up the fronts and sides of my house with flowers and flowering bushes as well. I have to do these things a little at a time, because if I did it all at once it would cost a pretty penny for sure, but little by little I hope to have a simply blooming home...A home blossoming with children, blossoming with love, and blossoming with pretty flowers :)

If you would like to participate in this week's Foto Friday, please visit my sister at Renaissance :)

Transformation Thursday

Parenting.com sent me a link to a blog with the coolest (and super easy) eggs, so I just had to try it! I've already posted this but I wanted to share it for Transformation Thursday too.

These eggs are pretty enough to be displayed almost anytime of year.

I showed step by step how I did it, now here is a brief description on how to do these beautiful eggs....

1. get in your hubby's tie collection and the ones that he never wears, see if they are silk and snag a few- or go to Salvation Army and grab some cool ones (they are super cheap there) just make sure they are silk (sometimes there is a tiny tag that will say so, so look carefully) Cut them apart, I ripped them and cut them directly on their seam in the back so I could use as much of the fabric as I could. Wrap your eggs up tightly in them, making sure the outside silk design is directly on the egg. I had mostly brown eggs so I took a chance with them, they are pretty, but you could see the design better on the white ones just so ya know :) Tie them at the top with string, twistie ties, or I used fuzzy pipecleaners cut up because they were what I had available (they looked cute too!) I only used two ties, because I raided my hubby's ties, but the more designs the better :)

2. Find some white cotton fabric, an old sheet or old pillowcase works great (I used an old pillowcase) Once again, Salvation Army is a great place to grab these if you dont have them on hand. Tie each egg up the same way you did with the silk tie fabric.

3. Using an enamel or glass cooking pan cover eggs with water, add 1/4 cup vinegar bring to a boil, then boil for 20 minutes (don't use a regular metal pan, it doesn't work well.)4 let cool down on a towel or a colander and once cool enough to handle unwrap to see your hidden treasure, you will be pleasantly surprized how amazing these look.The downside, you shouldn't eat them because the dye of the ties is probably not the greatest for you, and the vinegar saturating the egg might not taste too good either, and it takes a little while.The upside, these will make a beautiful Easter centerpiece (as I am using for Easter) and they are so fun to make. They are completely worth the time, and are very easy to do. Just make sure that silk is snug and secure around your egg, the better it is put on the egg, the better the design will adhere.

Foto Friday- Blue

This week's theme for Foto Friday was Blue. One of the first flowers of the season in our yard was a bluish purple and so I thought it fitting to use it (and it worked so perfectly next to my jeans. I am proud of this shot, everything is so clear and detailed~ The second isn't fully blue, but I love my white and blue teacups and they have become my displays for the flowers Samuel picks for me on a daily basis. Flowers are slim pickings still, but forsythia blooms look so pretty in my makeshift vase for flowers with no stems :) I was really blue one day, and ironically enough I thought of this Foto Friday so I grabbed two shots of myself. The first I tinted blue to artistically portray how I felt...The second I decided to keep color so you could see the red rimmed eyes..Not a beautiful shot of me, but pertinant to what I was feeling at the time. Please join my sister Renaissance for Foto Friday either to look at other perspectives, or participate.

Beautiful Nature...

A few photos from this past week. You cannot go wrong with Natural Beauty :)

Foto Friday, almost didn't make it in time!

I was so excited to do this weeks Foto Friday, but for some reason Picasa and Blogger were both working against me, so I wasn't sure if I would be able to make it in time. This weeks theme was eggs. Appropriately enough, parenting.com sent me a link to a blog with the coolest (and super easy) eggs, so I just had to try it!

I showed step by step how I did it, now here is a brief description on how to do these beautiful eggs....

1. get in your hubby's tie collection and the ones that he never wears, see if they are silk and snag a few- or go to Salvation Army and grab some cool ones (they are super cheap there) just make sure they are silk (sometimes there is a tiny tag that will say so, so look carefully) Cut them apart, I ripped them and cut them directly on their seam in the back so I could use as much of the fabric as I could. Wrap your eggs up tightly in them, making sure the outside silk design is directly on the egg. I had mostly brown eggs so I took a chance with them, they are pretty, but you could see the design better on the white ones just so ya know :) Tie them at the top with string, twistie ties, or I used fuzzy pipecleaners cut up because they were what I had available (they looked cute too!) I only used two ties, because I raided my hubby's ties, but the more designs the better :)

2. Find some white cotton fabric, an old sheet or old pillowcase works great (I used an old pillowcase) Once again, Salvation Army is a great place to grab these if you dont have them on hand. Tie each egg up the same way you did with the silk tie fabric.

3. Using an enamel or glass cooking pan cover eggs with water, add 1/4 cup vinegar bring to a boil, then boil for 20 minutes (don't use a regular metal pan, it doesn't work well.)

4 let cool down on a towel or a colander and once cool enough to handle unwrap to see your hidden treasure, you will be pleasantly surprized how amazing these look.

The downside, you shouldn't eat them because the dye of the ties is probably not the greatest for you, and the vinegar saturating the egg might not taste too good either, and it takes a little while.

The upside, these will make a beautiful Easter centerpiece (as I am using for Easter) and they are so fun to make. They are completely worth the time, and are very easy to do. Just make sure that silk is snug and secure around your egg, the better it is put on the egg, the better the design will adhere.

Hope you enjoyed my Eggs for Foto Friday, I know I did yours! :)

Transformation Thursday Part 1

This is not creative, nor is it beautiful to the common viewer, however to me it is a wonderful beginning of it's transformation...We are still in the chrysalis stage, and in order to turn it into the butterfly I know that it there, it will take some more elbow grease, paint, etc..but I still wanted to share the progress because I am happy about it! :)

For this Transformation Thursday I started to transform our basement. We moved into our new home 2 months ago. When we first moved in I worked very hard to get the house looking nice upstairs. I was so motivated, but once the important things were unpacked, the less important sort of just sat in the basement scattered around, boxes and boxes of it. My home looked nice upstairs, but no one came into the basement anyhow! I had planned a small party, and most of the people coming had children while the forecast said the inevitable- rain. I need extra playing space..Yes we have bedrooms, however there were to be ALOT of children here for hours. I spent literally all day getting our basement whipped into shape to be turned into a playroom/gameroom. I moved regular boxes to the other side of the basement so now they are all located together instead of scattered. I left the plastic bins on this side so that until we can find cheap bench seating down there (I'd like to get a few bench seats like you see in restaurants for down there, I've seen them on craigslist before, and hopefully will see them again.) we can use the bins to sit on. I laid the carpet I kept that had been ripped out of our living room before we moved in. We had replaced the carpet because it looked very dirty, stained and shabby. You cannot believe the different vacuuming made! Our home was a HUD home, and the people who owned it had large dogs (we do too) but they never vacuumed! It took me forever to vacuum because I would only get a few feet done and then the canister would be full and I would have to empty it. I'm still glad we put new carpeting upstairs, ours is MUCH BETTER, but this carpet is AWESOME for our game room. I also tacked up a few curtains that I wasn't using at this house, and an old quilt comforter (the back of it) to cover up the bare spots..My hubby and my plan later on are to replace the actual walls down there with large sheets of plywood to correct the spots where the wood is gone, but till then we have some "fabric walls" :) Once this room is done, it will have new walls, new paint (I am planning on painting a mural on the far wall as well as regular fresh paint) The oak cupboards on the one side will be gone- they will be mounted in my kitchen as soon as my hubby gets to it. We have already added our dart board (after picture was taken) and a stair stepper machine as well as a stereo so I can listen to music while we work out. We may change out the stair stepper later to a new elliptical machine or treadmill, but for now, it is perfect! :) We also put the little kids big bin of blocks down there so they can build huge towers. The little glider rocker is a project of mine. I bought it for 3.00 at a yard sale and have big plans for it :) There are things for little kids, big kids and grown-ups to do down there- I love having a playroom/gameroom down there. It is perfect for anytime, but especially when I'm doing laundry down there! :)