Merry Christmas!

I thought (wrong) that it'd be fun to take a picture of our card for you all but as you can (or can't) see, it's a little indistinguishable   Yes, that is our little fam buried in the sands of the southern shore line.  No, it's not really "real" but only photoshopped "real".  The point is, Merry Christmas y'all and Happy Birthday to the Big Guy!

Almost every family member (about 9) singing pat-a-cake got us this gem after mass last night:

And, our tree this year:

The same as last year and the year before - fake, pre-lit, and wrapped with even more lights by light-lover me, adorned with our swelling stash of ornaments (thanks to gifts and an ornament party) and a $3 handmade star (tutorial found at Love Maegan) atop it's point. 

Merry, Merry Christmas!  

Just The Lid

Thought I'd had enough with spray paint for awhile?  Never.  If you have had enough of me not having enough with spray paint then I'm sorry, but I just can't quit it and I'm gonna slide in this last post about the stuff until I finish some other projects because it's a quickie and I've only got a quick minute and because I've been sewing and your gonna get the deets on that next week.  Aaanywho, we have this jar:

Plain, simple, and I'm pretty sure at least as old as me since it appears in my childhood memories..not to mention abundant in many forms in every thrift store I've ever been.

Well, as it happens I still have mucho of the same gold spray paint that I used to make my cap toes and jazz up my Mama so:

 

Bada bing, bada spray...not so plain and not so simple anymore.  Ready and willing to assist in keeping our ears clean.

Speaking of clean ears, make sure yours are because hooves will be hitting roofs this week and lucky is the person that hears 'em.  Merry Christmas and Happy, Happy Birthday Jesus!

In Living Color

It’s been five long/short months since the twins entered this the world and five long/short months since I stopped documenting the bump they gave me.  A couple of months ago I started to construct a collage of the belly pictures I took to show just how ginormous I got week-by-week.  I had this great idea to turn all of the weekly pics to black and white photos except for “the bump”, highlighting it’s presence…as if it’s size didn’t do that already.  Great idea, a long time to accomplish with my current job as mother keeping me on high alert.  Then Natalie posted a fantastic collage a few weeks after her son was born and it really lit the fire under my bum to finish mine.  :) 

So folks, here we have:

Born on their 37 week in-utero birthday, you can read Seraphia (5 lbs. 13 oz.) and Cecilia’s (6 lbs. 14 oz.) birth story in four parts – Part I, Part II, Part III, and Part IV, if you’re interested in that sort of thing.  Then, get a load of their cuteness at 1 month, 2 months, and 3 months…I’m a smidge behind on posting their 4th and 5th but who can blame me?  I’ve got twins.  :)

.           .           .

P.S.  I used pixlr.com to create the colored bump effect.  First I opened a belly pic, duplicated it (duplicated the layer…not sure if I’m speaking technically correct), turned the duplicate (on top of the original) black and white by desaturating it, and then erased the area over my belly to reveal the still-colored photo underneath.  Easy peasy.  It’s such a fun way to edit a picture! 

Bittersweet

There are no words to describe the sadness in my heart and every heart after Friday’s shooting.  The only thing we can do is pray.  Pray for the victims, the families, and for the world in which we live.  I find so much comfort in the fact that heaven is many souls richer after that day with the souls of these children and adults.  I hope that I too can live my life in a way that brings me to that beautiful place as well. 

A good friend shared this photo (she found it here) on Facebook and every time I look at it the heaviness in my heart is lifted a little bit more.  I thought I’d share it with you in hopes that you may see the profound beauty and reality in it.

May God bless Newtown, our country, and our world.

Project “Add Some Color”

You might remember that a few months ago we gussied up our kitchen with white paint, new countertops, a new sink and faucet, a newly installed microwave, and a subway tile backsplash. 

It looks mighty fine and we love how bright it is now, but it’s lacking some serious color infusion.  Well, I started that infusion with a few tweaks involving spray paint.  For example, see the dark brown spoon holder to the right of the stove in the photo above?  No?  It’s there.  It’s just melded into the color of the cook top, no individuality whatsoever. 

Well that spoon holder’s singing a new song these days to the tune of “Lemon Grass” by Rustoleum:

If I’ve written it one time I’ve written it a thousand buuut, all I did was spray each of my items to be colored with a thin coat of primer, let that dry, and then sprayed them again with a few thin and even coats of color, making sure to spray at every side and angle of each item to get full coverage. You might’ve noticed my multi-tasking as I primed up Mama Mary at the same time.

So there we have it, a leedle bit more color in our stark white kitchen.

The best part about this whole paint party is that it only cost me $4 for the spray paint.  I already had some spray primer on hand and the napkin, spoon, and paper towel holders were wedding gifts from Target five years ago.

Still on my back burner are a hand-painted/stenciled runner, some colorful cookbooks, random decor here and there, and maybe a spray-painted coffee maker?  Not sure about that last one but I’m not going to lie and tell you I positively won’t do it…

Happy weekend!