Trying to get better!

I really am trying to get better at posting more often starting today!  This weekend has been a lot of fun, celebrating my friend Sarah's birthday.  I got to go out with her for dinner Friday, shop and party on Saturday; it was lots of fun!  I also enjoyed this weekend because I got to be crafty making Sarah's present and bake and decorate some yummy cupcakes!

I decoupaged the box and put some fun little things inside, and I loved it so much that now I have to make one for myself! 

Happy 26th birthday Sarah!!

(more later about some of my nanny projects!)

I love my chalkboard paint!

I really wish I could find the time to blog during the week, but I come home hungry (so we make dinner), and tired (so I take a shower and go to sleep).  Sadly that means that my nanny adventures have not been getting the attention they deserve.  To resolve some of that tomorrow I am planning on writing a post about some of our projects, schedules, and my resources that I have been using to help me.

Today I am sharing my light bulb that went off about what to do with our little kitchen bar.  And yes chalkboard paint was involved- it is my new love :)  I got a really cool bottle from a party last week and I have been trying to decide what to do with it.  It occurred to me that I could use it and some other bottles I had been saving for a little display by painting them with my chalkboard paint.  I also came across a little frame in the closet that was destined for the paint as well and voila....

Le Petite Cafe is born!

Chalkboard paint has become my new go to for all my projects.  I can't wait till I get my own house so I can paint a wall or cabinet or something with it and be able to write lists and doodle on it!  I think it adds some nice cohesion to my display on top of the cabinets as well.  And it's fun because I got to doodle! 

Stay tuned for my nannying adventures tomorrow!

Sunday Funday

I've been pretty lazy today, so continuing that trend I will tell the story of my day mainly in pictures.

I decided to make some cake batter blondies today. Ummm can you say delicious?

They were very yummy and I got the recipe here, thanks to Gracie at GML for the awesomeness!

I started a little project with some canister for the kitchen for the sugar and flour yesterday and finished them today.  Gotta love that chalkboard paint!

And finally a little thrifty find from yesterday- my $7.00 apron from Marshall's.  I love a good clearance find!

The End! :)

Long time, no blog

So I haven't blogged in a while because I've been busy, tired, frustrated with one thing or another, etc., etc...  I'm a bad blogger :(  But here's to trying again, trying to be better!

We have started a new chapter in our nanny chapter: Nate started kindergarten this past week.  He is loving it! He has come home everyday with a smiley face  on his chart and a new book to read to us.  So it has been a little quieter during the days but I think that Abby is enjoying her one on one time with me- not having to share the attention with anyone for once.  She is doing very well with her lessons that we've been working on.  This week we focused on the letter A and kept working on her numbers.  She's doing really well, we made our own salt dough play dough to help in shaping and recognizing the letters and numbers.  And finally, as a treat on Friday we made our own ice cream when Nate came home from school and it was 100+ degrees so it was the perfect treat!

This weekend I was determined to fix the somewhat precarious hanging of my stained glass that my grandfather made, but apparently the fates are against me.  Their is something in the wall where I want it hung above the window that is preventing the anchors from going all the way into the wall.  So, sadly I've had to just set it on an end table against the wall, which looks good, just not where I want it.  We also got some curtains for the living room, pretty, blue, I like.  And then I made a cover for a body pillow to add to our bed.  I think it looks pretty cool, honestly the bedroom just looks better and better with each new addition. 

That's all for now, more adventures to come!

A little bit of this and a little bit of that!

Today I wanted to make a doily t shirt that I saw a tutorial for here.  It turned out really cool, thanks to Rachel at Maybe Matilda for the tutorial!!

I am so pleased with the results, so cool!  I am very inspired by different blogs that I have been reading lately.  I haven't come up with any new projects of my own but so many from other bloggers that I love and can't wait to try!

I also got some scrap booking done today.  Still trying to catch up, and now I have even more photos I need to print out and scrap book... Will I ever catch up?


I wanted to make something new and interesting for dinner and found a recipe for chickpea patty pitas with tahini sauce.  I really liked that patties but I think next time I will have to tweak the sauce, it wasn't particularly to my liking.  Here's some pics of the patties and the final result.

While I made dinner Joel made us some awesome margaritas because he is so awesome :)

I also made some cupcakes for dessert.  And why make cupcakes the regular way when you have....

Food Coloring!!!!!!!!

And that was the excitement of my Saturday.  Stay tuned for more adventures!!

Nifty Thrift Store Scores!

Today made me wonder: have I gone DIY crazy?

The answer is most certainly NO!!  Joel and I visited sever thrift stores and one antique gallery today.  It was so much fun! I spent only $20.00 and got all of this:

Plus one more mirror that I forgot to photograph for the before pics.  I am absolutely in LOVE with those jars!!  I loved the antique gallery as well but most of the things there were out of my price range and already done, therefore no fun for an enthusiastic DIY-er such as myself :)  (although, I did find a beee-autiful set of nightstands that were $120 for the pair (!!!) and I was seriously tempted)

So then it was on to the makeovers of my new finds! After reading a bunch of cool chalkboard ideas this morning I had no choice but to go buy a little jar of chalkboard paint for my little project.  The jars were a great addition to my kitchen cupboard decor!  The frame, mirrors, and tray are destined for my dining room wall with the tray being turned into a chalk board. And here are the results for the jars in the kitchen:

My favorite is this blue jar:

The little etching on it says that it is a celebration of the USA's bicentennial, so I'm assuming it was made in 1976, pretty cool? I think so!

And here are close ups of the other two jars, I am definitely beginning a collection of these, I must say I love them!! (again) :)

Next we are on to the dining room wall and let me say that it may be my favorite wall in the apartment and that is saying a lot, because I am seriously in love with our master bedroom wall that has our DIY headboard, my french post cards and some decoupage art that I made myself.  So the results please....

These were the perfect addition to the existing decor!  And I love (yes I know, I use the word love too much) the chalk board, and the frame which I put some fabric in as the "artwork".  The blues all look really good together and add a really cool effect to the wall.  Here are some close ups:

That was my DIY adventure of the day, stay tuned for more!!

Fort Worth Field Trip

Joel and I took a little day trip to Fort Worth today!  First stop: Kimbell Museum.

We went specifically to see the Picasso and Braque exhibit, and then toured the museum's permanent collection as well.  The Picasso and Braque was very interesting- it showed the two artists' work side by side in the development of their artistic style.  There were some very cool pieces and it was very interesting to see the way their work progressed in similar directions and the influence that they had on each other.  I think that some of my favorite pieces were the ones that they did on oval and circular canvases.  It was amazing how the different shape of the canvas gave the piece a whole new level of intrigue.

I also got to see a few Monet pieces and a Matisse that I really love (I'm more of an Impressionist girl than a Cubist) in their permanent collection.  Over all, it was a very fun and impressive excursion at the museum :)

Then it was on to the Water Gardens.  I found pictures online yesterday and I was super-psyched to go see them, especially the one you get to walk down into with water falling all around you.  Unfortunately the water wasn't on today, so instead it looked like this:

But I still had fun, especially at the quiet pool.  The pool there and the trees were beautiful!

And the tree roots around the trees were just tooooo cool!!

We think that they poured the concrete in a circle around the tree forcing the roots to grow up instead of out, however it happened it is awesome and the same thing was going on around the edge of the pool.

And I couldn't pass up putting a pic of Joel and I up :) We're just so cute, I know ;)

There was another pool with what looked like fountains, but again they weren't on sadly.  There was also a little maze to walk through and chill in the shade.

Even with the lack of water at the gardens it was still a lot of fun, and I got some cool pictures.  I can't wait until my dad finds a lens for his old camera and I can start using it! I want so badly to take better, more interesting pictures and learn a new hobby of course.

Stay tuned for more adventures!

Inspiration

Inspiration!
This is something I've been lacking for the last week or so.  But...
I've been reading a lot of other blogs and I want to make my posts similar to those and they have inspired me!  They have inspired in my blogging format, new ideas, and inspired some new creativity.  

I had to write some lesson plans this week while the kiddos were on vacation and reading blogs by moms, teachers, and other nannies helped me so much on my path!  I found loads of activities, recipes, lessons, and (my favorite) crafts to keep me going, to keep me Inspired for quite some time, and to create new ones of my own!

On that note, my Inspiration for toady's project were the rosettes from my previous tank top and tote bag project.  Not completely new and inspirational but I feel like at least I'm getting back on track. 

I have many other project ideas that I want to try and hopefully will branch out farther than my current rosette fixation! 

And since Joel managed to score the day off tomorrow, we are going to the Kimbell Museum of Fine Art in Fort Worth to see their Picasso and Braque exhibit followed by a trip to the Fort Worth Water Gardens.  I think I will be able to find more Inspiration from there!  So look forward to lots of pictures and hopefully new and exciting arts and craftiness coming from the newly inspired Lindsay!

And as always, stay tuned for more adventures!

Time Travel Tuesday

Today we time traveled our way back to Ancient Greece in our spiffy cardboard time machine.  I dressed the kids in togas and we made some little leaf head dresses (still not really sure what those are called...)

When we arrived in ancient Greece we had a little geography and history lesson.  I showed them where Greece is, learned about the people, their cities, etc.  We also learned about the original Olympics, the games and then in the afternoon had our own Olympics.

We also learned a little bit about the Greek Alphabet and made some Greek Alphabet cards.

Today was somewhat of a frustrating day though.  I had this whole ancient Greek thing planned and it seemed like the kids fought me the whole way on it, like they didn't want to have fun.  It was very frustrating.  Combine that with the lack of listening and attitudes that seemed to be contagious today... well it was frustrating.  I just try to remind myself that this happens with kids and tomorrow they will most likely be happiness and sunshine so I should just keep on trucking...

Stay tuned for more adventures!

Math Monday

Today I decided to start something new to keep things interesting with the kids.  I developed a subject for each day of the week and random activities to do on each of those days that the kids can choose from.

We did the counting with food for Math Monday.  We counted and added craisins and cheerios! Lots of fun.  Tomorrow they have chosen their time travel to be to Ancient Greece so we will see how that goes tomorrow!

Stay tuned for more adventures!

Sundays are awesome!

Today was a particularly awesome Sunday because Joel and I went to go see the final installment in the Harry Potter saga.  It was a really great movie, and I'm not just saying that because usually I find every little flaw in those movies that is just the tiniest bit different from the books.  Of course there were inconsistencies but I thought they did a really good job tying everything together and giving it a good ending.  Any who enough of my dorkiness.  :)

I finished off one of the boxes I was working on yesterday and decided to put it on the wall.  And when I put it on the wall I saw how cool it looked, I decided that I must get more and make a little collage of them, I think it would be really cool.  Here are a couple different angles:

I also used some of the rosettes that I made yesterday to decorate a plain canvas bag.  It looks really cute, and I still have more rosettes to use!

I found a recipe for a drink called "Junk Hunter's Juice" in Disney Fun Magazine and it looked really yummy.  It was with an article about going antiquing and thrift store shopping.  It has raspberry tea and limeade concentrate in it.  I made some and it was delicious!

I also made some cinnamon streusel muffins for my employers for being so awesome last week with my car troubles!

And that was my Sunday, not too stressful, not too boring!  Stay tuned for more adventures!