Food

Here's the truth, I like food.

You would think I'd be over the novelty of it by the end of the day after feeding Spencer, getting breakfast, lunch, and dinner on for five people, assembling snacks, sneaking in a handful of treats every now and then, but I'm not. By the end of the day, I'm hungry.

Food I could eat my weight in:

1. Rice Krispie treats



2. Whoppers, the hamburger, from Burger King, and not the junior version either



3. McDonald's french fries



4. Fried chicken from Albertson's, or anywhere, really



5. Snickers



6. Cottage cheese and canned pineapple



7. Chocolate milk, apparently I'm adding beverages now, too



8. Root beer



9. Homemade rolls with freezer raspberry jam



10. Canned grape juice



11. Homemade tomato soup



12. Or canned tomato soup with grilled cheese sandwiches



13. Chocolate chip cookies



14. Egg rolls



15. Swedish fish



16. Avocados



17. Cereal, not really particular about what kind



18. Fresh pineapple



19. The samples at Costco, if it wasn't so awkward to go back for seconds



20. Steak



21. Cotton candy



22. Any beverage from Sonic that I purchased for 1/2 off during their Happy Hour



23. Pizza



24. Last but not least, pretty much anything I don't have to prepare



25. That was the last one, till I was proof reading my post and realized I left out the all important potato salad

What about you?

Katie

P.S. A bit of blog business: since I have some new followers, and I know when I find a new blog, I want to check it out first, I added a label cloud where you can click on the word and then find all of the associated posts.

A Series of Letters: Part IV (four)

Dear Toilets:

If you want to be clean in the near future, you may just have to do it yourselves.

Dear Neighbor-Across-The-Street-With-A-Steady-Stream-Of-UPS-And-FedEx-Trucks,

I'm sorry that I thought you were dealing drugs instead of running an on-line store of sympathy baskets and baby gifts, but the idea of living near drug lords is a bit more exciting....

Dear Meg,

It is almost impossible to put together a post while you are awake.

You also send mixed messages when you throw all of your blankets onto the floor soon after I put them on you and then the next day, when I get smart (let's pretend I'm always smart, shall we?) and decide to just leave them on the floor rather than cover you, you climb out of your crib and haul all three blankets, plus the pillow, back into your crib and cover yourself up.

Dear Bryce,

I cannot be held responsible for what happens to your tooth brush if you leave it out.

Dear American Idol,

I only suffer through you while I'm waiting for So You Think You Can Dance to start.

Dear Friends on Facebook,

If you were really my 'friends' you wouldn't be so annoyingly optimistic on Monday mornings.

Dear Whoever-Is-Inviting-Us-To-Come-Visit-Over-Memorial-Day-Weekend,

Thank you, and we accept.

Dear Painting-Bryce-Bought-At-A-Gallery-Auction-On-A-Cruise-Because-He-Thought-I-Said-I-Liked-You, But-I-Don't, It-Was-The-Print-BEFORE-You-I-Liked....Not-You,

It's not me, it's you.

Dear Adeline,

I look forward to the time when you are a teenager and I have to go wake you up at 8am rather than you waking me up at 6am.

Dear Hair,

You're in desperate need of a cut, please advise.

Dear Disney,

Making Barbies that sing with just the press of a button and that have no volume control is pretty close to the worst.idea.ever.

Dear Barbies,

Please keep yourselves modest, we have a boy in the house now.

Dear Person-Whose-Bid-Was-$3000-More-Than-A-Competitor,

That's horrible business.

Dear Spring in Medford,

We are NOT friends.

Katie

meaning something that — maybe slightly melodramatically — ruins one’s life

Bane of my existence

And I still have to bind the thing

How to make one:

• 
  
  
  Look through a quilt book with your husband



• 
  
  
  Ask him which one he likes best



• 
  
  
  Tell him there's no way in heaven you would make something that complicated, even for the love of your life



• 
  
  
  Look at the pattern for a year



• 
  
  
  Finally give in and start making it - it's the least you could do for the guy who will carry $200 worth of fabric up various sets of stairs 13 times



• 
  
  
  Cut out twice as many pieces as you need because you're a dork like that



• 
  
  
  Have two kids in the mean time



• 
  
  
  Decide to make up your own pattern thinking that's the only way you're going to get the darn thing done in this lifetime



• 
  
  
  Put it together



• 
  
  
  Wait months and months and months trying to talk yourself into quilting it, ignoring not-so-subtle hints from your husband about when it will be done



• 
  
  
  Convince yourself to try a new way of binding it, telling yourself it will be worth it



• 
  
  
  Whine and complain like you are the victim

Have a pleasant weekend.

Katie

Reading Between the Lines

Before the skirt and nice wire basket to contain all cleaning supplies necessary for doing laundry, even though I still end up throwing clothes away because they're stained. I never said I was good at everything...

This is the fabric choice up close.
(She was not this cute yesterday...)

I'm choosing to post another project that my mom did while she was here visiting rather than telling you about sleep-deprived-back-talking-mess-making-unappreciative-fighting-bored-muddy-whinny-eye-poking-kicking-refusing-to-drink-their-milk children.

*Please note, Spencer was not harmed in the making of yesterday's day and one can assume he is not one of 'those' children mentioned above.

My mom made that cute little skirt for the cement sink, which I love, now that I am using it more. That totally makes me sound like I don't know how to use a sink for washing anything, which, for the record, is not true.

I would tell you how she did it, but I have no idea. I gave her the fabric and told her what I wanted. The end.

Thanks to Roeshel from The DIY Showoff for the feature today, and welcome all new comers, it will be 'fun'.

Katie

Completely Floored

Introducing the new sun room floor:

BeforeBefore

AfterAfter

After

This last picture shows the actual color of the floor the best.

All I did was prime the floor, paint it, and seal in with three coats of polyurethane.

Unfortunately, it hasn't been warm enough to actually use the sun room, but don't worry, I've slowly been accumulating furniture and ideas about how best to decorate it.

I eventually want to put a round, pedestal table in there and a day bed.

It's a good thing it's a sun room because it has no lighting and no insulation. And it only gets the sun for about 2 hours a day....

Sorry this is a weekend late, but blogger was being s-t-u-p-i-d on Friday and by the time it was finally working, I wasn't.

Katie

A Pep Talk

Does it really take 30 min. every morning to shower and get ready?

No, no it doesn't.

It does take 10 min. to shower and get ready and 20 min. to sit in the shower letting the hot water run over me and give myself a pep talk.

"You can do this. You're going to get yourself ready and you're going to go parent.

"You're going to be calm, loving and patient. But most of all patient. Never mind the fact that you've never been patient or even claimed to be patient. You can change, because you are great.

"You want to know how I know you're great? Remember that one time, your sophomore year of college in your biology class? You were sitting next to your friend who was a pizza delivery guy and he bet you pizza for you and all of your roommates, six at the time, that you wouldn't ask the teacher why it is that sometimes 'guys shoot blanks'? Sound familiar? And then you, yes you, you less-than-average attractive female, raised your confident hand and asked the teacher. And the most impressive part, you didn't even smile. Magic, I tell you.

"You're going to go out there and ignore the fact that your two children have been fighting over one of three magna doodles for the past two days.

"You're going to ignore the fact, that indeed, every time you wake up to feed Spencer in the middle of the night that Bryce is obviously on your side of the bed, having crossed that imaginary line that is more important than the equator.

"You're a confident 20-something female with an eye for a good deal and you're going to conquer or die trying, hoping it's not the latter.

"And, Katie, it's OK if you put your girl's hair in pigtails if you think it will increase your patience because they're just that much cuter.

"And one other thing, if you happen to be driving behind someone going substantially under the speed limit, you're not going to cuss at them in your head. It's juvenile and it needs to stop.

"Now go get 'em."

Sometimes....

(This is my grandpa, wasn't he handsome?)
I still wish I was little because then:

• I could pretend I was married to Prince Eric from The Little Mermaid, but if I really had a choice it would be The Beast...post beast phase.





• I could push around a silent baby in an oh-so-cute stroller in the grocery store and never hear a peep.





• I would never have to change said babies diapers, clothes, or hair.





• I could go to Hawaii, whenever.





• I could be absolutely horrible to my mother on Mother's Day, and the next day she would still love me - not that this took place yesterday or anything like that.





• I could eat whatever plastic food I wanted, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, ice cream, peas, in minuscule portions, and never gain a pound.





• I would only care about the big things in life, like making my sister cry by not waiting for her before I went downstairs.





• I could have two friends over for a play date and someone would fix us lunch, probably with a juice box.





• if I was hungry, at say, 3am, someone would feed me.





• I would still think Barbie and all her associates were rock stars.





• I would never get tired of someone reading the same book over, and over, and over, and over again, approximately 231 times a day.





• when I watched a show and three pebbles balanced the weight of a car, I would believe it.





• I wouldn't care that my mom combined all of the Easter candy, and then she and Dad ate all of the candy because I forgot about it completely.





• I could tell my parents that I wanted to wash dishes for my chore instead of clear the table, I would try it out for a day, decide I didn't like it, and never have to wash dishes again.

Here's to being a responsible adult...

Katie

Playing Catsup

There's a town here that has a massive community garage sale once a year and it happened to be this last weekend. I picked up this chair for $5. One good thing about a $5 chair....you can't really go wrong. I conned my friend Beth, who came to visit, to help me re-upholster it. The best part, we didn't once consult the internet for advice.

It took us three days, did I mention we have six kids between the two of us?

Not that I'm an expert, but if you plan on doing this in the future, do it with a friend and then call me for some tips. You can learn quite a bit just by doing it one time.

We got on the band wagon and re-upholstered it in a drop cloth. The piping is done in a purple floral that I got at another estate sale. We switched the five button tufting for just one big, fatty button in the middle.

I think it was a smashing success.

I have been super, super busy the past couple of weeks with a new baby, sleep deprived children, a sleep deprived mother, a patient husband, nice weather outside, a birthday, Easter, lots of great company - including my mom and my best friend - and a load of projects that got accomplished.

I'll just put a stop to the enthusiasm right now and tell you, it will be one project post at a time. I have to draw out the goodness. That sounds really self absorbed, doesn't it?

Did I mention I hit a rock star of an estate sale and picked up a load of great stuff? More to come....

Project posts for later dates: sun room floor, laundry sink skirt, pillows, quilt tops, a dresser, and...I think that's it.

Have a great weekend.

Katie