Savers: Part Two. a Star Sighting

Today the two girls and I went to Savers to take my old light fixture ( see Savers part one).  Emily wanted to go inside to look for a vanity.  So we're in there and Isabelle and I are looking at the girls dresses and skirts.  Isabelle gasps and nudges me and tells me she sees Cory McCloskey from Channel 10.  I say "What"? and I look up and there he is!  And like a dummy, I point at him and say "You're Cory McCloskey".

  I tell him how he interviewed Isabelle about her missing teeth at her school when she was a first grader.  He tells us how he pulled a kid's tooth on TV once and how he got alot of emails over that.  He asked Isabelle her name and shook her hand.  He was just in there shopping with his wife like a regular guy.  What's weird is that I walked right past him a couple weeks ago at the Phoenix Open too, just one of the crowd talking on his cell phone.  Anyway, needless to say, Isabelle was so happy.  Ever since he came to her school and talked to her she has thought alot of him and now she meets him again at Savers of all places!

Savers: Part One

Yesterday I popped into Savers to see what I could see.  I found some good treasures.
 First, I saw this little beauty:
It had good bones and I knew I could do something with it.  The ivey and little pink flowers had to go.  But it was in a nice pot and had a good grapevine cone shape.

So after I got it home, I took everything off of it and turned it into this:

Just jute or twine wrapped around it.  I didn't even glue it anywhere.  Here it is in it's new home.  I even recycled the ivy.

I also found four white plates to use around the house here and there.
 And then I saw this light:

It looked like it had all it's parts and was in very good condition.  And the best part is that it was only $20!

I've been wanting to replace this light above our kitchen table:

I'm going to replace everything brass in this house if it's the last thing I do!  So I bought the light and brought it home.  Dear husband happened to be home and after some grumbling, he started to work on putting it up.  So here it is in it's new home.  It may not be the new trendy chandelier rage that's going on right now, but it's a heck of a lot better than I had.  And for only $20!!!

I also got two very cute skirts, and a small glass jar to hold q-tips in the bathroom.   So that's a topiary, four plates, glass jar,  light fixture and two skirts for $45.

A good day.

What we gave, what we got.

Valentines is fun.  An excuse to give little things that say I Love You to the ones you love.  Here's how our family surprised eachother this year:

Emily worked in her room for a couple hours the night before to create one of a kind Valentines for each of us.  They were so cute.

She decorated this flower pot for me with a candy bar inside.

Isabelle made these suckers for her class.  Lips for the girls and mustaches for the boys. They're cute because when you have the sucker in your mouth it looks like you have big red lips or a black curly mustache.

She made extra ones for us.

These are the flowers I made for the girls.  I saw this on another blog.  They're easy but a little time consuming.  Different sizes of fabric cut out with corners rounded and curl the edges above a candle flame.  Then layer them on top of eachother and stitch together and add the pearls.  I made some with hairclips on the back and some with pins to go on clothes.

This is what I made for Phillip.  I had a brain freeze what to get him.  This is what I came up with.  I'm sure he would have liked a box of golfballs better.  But I'd rather be creative.   He asked me if we were still in high school.

And this is what he got for me.  Along with his helper Isabelle, they picked this out.  He smuggled it into the restraunt in his sock.  As we were enjoying our appetizer bread and talking about our day, he slipped it onto the table somehow without me noticing.  It was several minutes before I saw the box.  It was just like a commercial or movie!  I got to open a jewelry box in an Italian Restraunt.  Nice!

Lovely.  What a guy!

Hope you had a nice Valentines Day too.

Martha May Toast

So it is the day of Love.  Amore.  Sweethearts.  Romance.  Valentines Day.  I helped Isabelle make cute little valentines for her class.  Maybe there is a special boy in her class she is hoping will give her a special valentine.  I don't know.  I know I always hoped the boy I liked would give me a special valentine.  Sometimes it happened, sometimes it didn't.  I think the anticipation is almost as fun as the actual getting.  Young love is so cute.

Skip ahead to a marriage of almost twenty two years.  Yeah, not so cute.  It's familiar.  Comfortable.  Predictble.  But not cute.  I know he'll get me something for Valentines Day.  He's good about that. Whenever he takes one of the kids with him to "GolfSmith" the Saturday before Valentines, Mothers Day, Christmas or my Birthday, I know they're shopping for me.   He even had the forethought to make a reservation online to a restraunt for Valentines.  Predictable is good.
  He came up with a new nickname for me today.  In the past few days my hideous feverblister has made me look like I'm from whooville.  He thought I should be the hot, talented whoo so he called me Martha May.  And my hair soaks up any smell from what I've cooked that day.  My head is at nose level for him so he always smells my hair.  It usually smells like toast for some reason.  So Martha May Toast was born.   I wasn't mad or upset.  It's Familiar and Comfortable.  It made me laugh.  It's what we do.

Happy Valentines Day.  I hope you get that Special Valentine.

Yes, I like Golf.

Yesterday my beloved and I went to the Waste Management (Phoenix Open) in Scottsdale.  We had tickets to one of those boxes on the 16th green where some scantily clad girl brings you a bloddy mary at 10:00 in the morning if you want her to.  Or all day food and drinks.  We got there early and made our way around to the box.  We had a hot chocolate and high taled it out of there before the swarms of people came and the real drinking began.  The 16th green is a frenzy of fans who will boo the players if they come up a few yards short of the hole.  Fans who place bets on which caddy will make it from the tee to the green first, and scream and shout at the top of their lungs while watching it.  It was entertaining.  But not us.

It has taken me a LONG time to appreciate golf.  I should have had a clue it would be a part of my life before I was even married, I was driving the golf cart while he played.  And then it became something I resented because it took him away for several hours at a time while I tended the homefront.  But after many years of watching this man try so hard to get good at this game, a game that takes great skill and dedication if you are to be truly good at it.  A game that has probably saved his sanity in many ways.  I finally get it.  Golf is discipline.  It's mastering something that can never be mastered.  It's getting out in the fresh air and excersise.  It's relaxing and exciting to watch at the same time.  And there are worse things than playing golf (or driving the cart) in Hawaii, that's for sure.

We walked the course yesterday, looking for the big names.  Phil Mickelson and Bubba Watson have quite a following.  It was crazy.  But it was fun to see the golfers we watch on TV.  I know alot of them, actually.  We left just as the bus loads of people were coming in to party.  I wondered how many of them in their high heels and cleavage were true golf fans.  So we went home and watched it on TV. 
I don't play, but would like to learn someday.  It's part of his life and so it's part of mine.

  Until then though, I'll just be happy to drive the cart. 

Sick Days

What do you do when you're home sick for four days??  ( I told her to look extra sick for the picture)

You make tissue paper flowers for your room

this one is her favorite

a nice pop of color for her walls

You also play with your Polly's.  That Ariel sure can cook!

Dopey is pretending to be the baby

And you play LOTS of card games with your Mom outside in the sun.  And you watch LOTS of movies.  And eat popsicles.
That's what you do.

Thrifty Valentines

What could this be??

a cute and easy Valentines banner I made with paper doilies.

I had fun making these Valentine decorations with things I found at the 99cent store.  This is a glittery heart from a gift bag that I cut out and glued to some cursive writing scrapbook paper and put into a frame I already had.

This cute little diplay is in my entry way in the darling tray from my sister.  The homemade Valentines are the creative genious of my mother and the rose hearts are from the 99cents store this year and the be mine is from last year.

                                                                                   I WAS going to put some cinnamon candy hearts I had been saving to put in the silver dish (from Savers), but Logan saw them lying there untouched for a few days still in the bag from the store and naturally figured they were meant just for him.  He ate the whole bag.

I love decorating and creating and thrifting.   So much fun!

Love is in the air

Valentines is a fun Holiday.  Whether you believe it's a made up Holiday for commercialism or not.  I still like it.  A time set apart just to be lovey.  It seems to come so fast being in the middle of the month.  So I'm giving you a jumpstart into Valentines.  This is what my little sweetie Isabelle left for me after her shower this morning.

Love.

What is a Homemaker

First of all, I love blogging.  It kind of gives a purpose to what I do day to day.  A computer journal of sorts.  Second of all, I LOVE being a homemaker.  I have never ever once thought I'd like to get a job in the real world.  There have been times when I thought maybe I need to get a job or maybe I should get a job.  But never I want to get a job.  There's just too many things to do at home!  I iron and clean toilets and do laundry, yeah, yeah.  But I also get to make my house a Home.  Like turning this:

Into this.  An inspiration message board for my family.

Or turning these:

Into this.  Get out of town this juice is amazing!

I have many rosemary bushes in my yard.  They're about the only thing that isn't brown and crunchy right now.  So I snipped some and brought it inside to make my kitchen smell wonderful!

Yes I love it all.
 How do you make your house a home???

This Girl

This girl has got it together.  She's starting up her 4th semester at GCC on a scholarship.  She has all her schooling mapped out down to the classes she will take each semester until she can apply to MidWestern for the Pharmacy program.  She will have an A average when she applies.

She's worked at the same place for four years and worked her way up the ladder.  She currently works customer service at Fry's.  She bought herself a car just before Christmas.  She's letting Emily make payments to her while Emily drives her old car.  She helps Isabelle with her homework and takes her on hikes and to lunch for her birthday.  She gave me a PotteryBarn giftcard for my birthday and a fabulous purse for Christmas.
AND she cooked me an omelet for breakfast this morning!

I think she's turning out pretty good, if I do say so myself.

Christmas

Just getting started Christmas morning

She's happy she got her tetherball.  Still figuring out the camera and redeye.

   after the fire filled the room with smoke, it was nice.
We stopped opening presents for a bit to watch Emily's choir on Fox 10.

 The kids got quilts from Grandma

 Look at the determination on her face!

 Even Zero got "wrapped  up" in Christmas

 And my favorite part, everyone but me cleaning up the kitchen after Christmas Dinner!!

Little Miss Iz

Just some random pictures of Isabelle:

Giving Zero a kiss

                                             Not too happy about wrapping presents for me

 Chopping up some onions for me thinking the sunglasses will keep her eyes from burning.

 Our new favorite thing to do is bike ride through our neighborhood at night looking at Christmas lights.

Posing for me at the Ward Christmas Party.

Cutie Patootie Pie!

Cooks are rockin' the house!

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

My Christmas present

You may have heard me whine and complain about my camera before.  Yeah, I whined and complained.  So I finally ordered myself a new one.  It's my Christmas present to me.  I've been playing around with it and trying to figure it out.  Here's some shots I've taken: 

Trying to get all creative with the tree in our backyard

Isn't it gorgeous?

My cute little man, Zero

close ups of flowers!!  close up!

Yes, that's a hummingbird.  I'm thrilled I could even get this!

And my favorite subject!

Isn't it fun learning new things?