Wordless Wednesday; Tombstone, AZ

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY: Tombstone, AZ

Up-cycled Holiday Wreath

Yeah, I know if you are like me, you fully INTEND to take the re-usable canvas bags with you every trip to the grocery store, but 9 times out of 10, you forget and end up using the awful plastic bags.  Also, if you are like me, you hate throwing them away, so you save them.  I mean, they make great liners for the bathroom trash bins. And they come in handy when cleaning out the cat's litter box.  But honestly, you will use.... what... 3 or 4 in a week, but bring home 18 more from your next trip to the grocery store.  These things MULTIPLY and before you know it, the pantry is overflowing with plastic bags, you finally get frustrated and throw them all away, only to have 30 more sitting in a chair in the corner a week later.  That is, hypothetically, if you're like me.

So here is a super-easy, cute holiday craft idea to use those plastic bags.  This isn't recycling, this is UPcycling!  Because this is WAY better than using the bag to line the bathroom trash bin and putting it in the trash after saving it because you didn't want to throw it away....

You will need;
An old wire coat hanger
About 25 - 30 plastic shopping bags
Scissors
Tinsel
A nice pretty bow.

Here's how to make it;
Bend an old wire hanger into a circle. Or you can use any other type of wire that is sturdy yet can be shaped into a circle.   For mine, I simply twisted a wire hanger in half and bent it into a circle, leaving the hook on the top.

 

About 25 plastic grocery bags.  Any color will do, most are white or brown.  I had a bunch of the brown ones so that is what I used.

 

Scissors.  Cut each plastic bag into 4 strips.  Cut from the bottom of the bag to the top, and leave each strip folded in half the way it was when you cut it.  (so it's a double layered strip)

 

Tie each strip around the circle part of the clothes hanger or wire frame.  One knot is enough, and the ends will be sticking out.  It doesn't look pretty... yet.

Every 4 bags I tied a little piece of tinsel.  You could also add bells or other ornaments.

 

Once you have tied all the plastic strips all the way around the wire frame, trim the ends off.  I ended up cutting 2 or 3 inches off of the end of each strip.  Then you kinda "fluff" the edges out.  We added this pretty bow to the top.  Bend the hook of the clothes hanger down a bit, it's now the hook from which you hang your wreath!

 

If you wanted to get really fancy, before adding bows you could spray-paint the whole thing green or gold or whatever color you want.  But we were happy with ours just like this.  (my 13 year old daughter did most of the work on this one)  These would make great gifts for the kids to make for their teachers or grandparents!  More decorations could be added to make them more festive... use your imagination!  But hey, a great way to use those grocery bags!

Thirteen Vacation Memories

It's time for another Thursday 13; a list of 13 things (anything!) on a Thursday!  (Yeah it's not Thursday yet!  But I missed last Thursday because it was Thanksgiving and we were ON this vacation!) Since we just got home from our wonderful family vacation, I thought it would be cool to share with you 13 of my favorite pictures/memories from our trip!

 

Our Thanksgiving Family Vacation! 2012

Brother & sister reading books in the car!  this was the longest road trip they have ever taken!  6 hours in the car is a LONG time!

Along the way we stopped in Cabazon, CA to see the big dinosaurs on the side of the road!

We arrived in San Pedro, CA and settled in to our cottage where we spent the next 3 nights!  It was so lovely!  Plenty of room for all of us!  The kids played kick ball in the front yard for awhile, they needed it after the long drive!

"Girl Time Bonding" with my mom!  We traded socks, now she has one of mine and I have one of hers.  Our "mismatched" pair of socks will always remind us of this vacation!

Thanksgiving Day, we walked to a park where some very fat squirrels would come right up to us for some bread crumbs!

There was a beautiful pond with lots of ducks to watch and feed!  And some very noisy geese as well!

Taking a walk around the neighborhood with my uncle.  My youngest son really bonded with his great-uncle, it was so sweet!

 

Waiting for the Thanksgiving Feast!

Day after Thanksgiving; Cabrillo Marine Aquarium.  At the "touch tank", petting some starfish and sea anemones!

more fun at Cabrillo Marine Aquarium!

Daddy and Daughter in the ocean!

Exploring the tide pools at Cabrillo Beach!  We found some really cool shells, starfish, sea-slugs, and had a great time!

We had some car trouble on the way home!  But it's just another memory... an "adventure"!  All worked out okay!  Being stuck in the desert was no fun but it just made us all the more grateful for our wonderful, safe, happy family vacation!

Tired

TIRED.

This ever-working, always-moving, on-the-go
mother
is tired.
My core aches and even when I
stop to rest,
I feel the Earth is moving still-
spinning, orbitting.
It will pass me by if I don’t move with it.
Look, another year
another candle on
another birthday cake,
and children run, laugh, scream
and pass me by.
Stop.
Let me hold you,
look at you,
cradle you one more time
before I’m too tired
to remember.
If I could stop the Earth’s rotation
and just float
with you in my arms,
sleeping and laughing and smiling
I would never grow
tired.

Wendy J. McDowell
August, 2010


Looking through some old files, I found this poem I wrote back in 2010, and wanted to share it here.  I hope to maybe find some more of my old poetry to share here as well...

Home Organization Challenge - The Kids' Closets (week 8)

So I have been loosely following along with the 14 Week Home Organization challenge over at A Bowl Full of Lemons.  About 2 weeks ago I did the Kid's Closet Organizing Challenge, but hadn't posted it on my blog.... until now!

Check out the great advice and beautiful inspiring pictures at A Bowl Full Of Lemons - Organizing The Kid's Closets post! 

And here is what I did with my kid's closets!

My son's closet;

BEFORE

AFTER
bought some hangers and hung up his shirts on one side, and his sweaters/jackets on the other side.  On the top shelf is one pair of shoes that are too big for him (in the box), and the other box is empty.  There is a duffel bag/backpack (empty) on the top shelf also.

The Bottom portion of his closet - BEFORE
Pay no attention to the big white stain on the carpet.  A bucket of paint got spilled after we painted his room.  But this picture is just to how you the mess... as a boy... when he is told to "go clean your room", it involved picking stuff up and throwing it into the closet!

The bottom portion of his closet - AFTER
I got him some bins to keep things in.  The plastic drawer thing used to hold his clothes, but we moved a different dresser into his room for his clothes and this one is now used for toys.  Each drawer holds a different kind of toys... green is the play tools and play dishes for playing house.  Red holds all his toy dinosaurs, and yellow drawer is just all the various small plastic toys.  On top of the dresser are two other boxes... one holds toy cars (Hot wheels/Matchbox) and the other one holds plastic army men.  The large bin on the right (behind the pirate ship) holds all his larger toys that are too big to fit on the drawers or small boxes. 

 

Two weeks later - he is still doing a great job keeping his room clean, with some gentle reminders from us of course!  But when he does clean up, he is putting everything in it's proper box!

 

The girls' closet.

My two daughters share a bedroom.  This "Before" picture isn't really the Real Before Picture.  This is after the girls, myself, and my husband had to go in there with trash bags and clear out their room because no one could walk through it.  It was a complete disaster... so this "before" picture doesn't look too bad considering the room had a major overhaul the week before!  But there was still room for some improvements!

Girls' Closet - BEFORE

Girl's Closet - AFTER
moved the metal bed frame to the back yard.  Got some more plastic bins for their smaller toys and organized them.  9Barbies, Barbie clothes, ponies, tea party)  Went thru the boxes and threw most of the contents away, filed the rest.

Girls' Closet - top shelf BEFORE

Girl's Closet - top shelf AFTER
Hmm... lots of room! All that remains is one box with some keepsake school parers, and I moved the sheets that the girls use on their bed to their closet, freeing up more space in my linen closet!

 

Fellow Procrastinators, listen up! These projects took A LOT LESS TIME than I thought they would.  I was able to complete both projects on my day off, just working a little at a time until they were done.  Once again I revisit the lesson that it always looks worse than it is, and doesn't take much time to fix once I focus and just do it!

 

 

 

 

 

Xander's Birth Story & the past 7 years

Today we are celebrating the birth of my 3rd child, my son!  I can still hardly believe that it has been 7 years since he was born!  7 years ago at this time, I was checked into the hospital and going through the process of induction.

I had been having Braxton-Hicks contractions on a regular basis for the past month, and at my last check up I was already 4 cm dilated.  My doctor suggested that I be induced because I was steadily and continually dilating which meant a couple things; 1) I could "pop" at any time and then we would have a mad rush to the hospital while in labor.  2) being dilated left my cervix open and increased the chance of infection... to both me and Xander.  So I (happily) agreed to go in and be induced 2 weeks before my due date.

When I checked in, I was already 5 cm dilated, which is considered "active labor" even though I wasn't having any contractions.  They hooked me up to a low IV drip of Petocin to get the contractions started, and then took me down the hall to get my epidural, which I had opted for.  My oldest child was born sans-meds and I am sorry, but once was enough for me!  Unfortunately, the anesthesiologist had trouble getting the epidural in, and it must have been crooked or off center, because the left side of my body went numb, but not my right.  I could move my right leg, but not my left.  I couldn't feel the contractions on the left side of my body, but I COULD feel them on the right.  Very strange sensation!  We gave it some time, but nothing changed and I could still feel contractions on my right... though the contractions were very mild.  By this time I was 7 cm dilated and they felt it was too late to try and fix the epidural so we all just agreed to move forward.

My doctor came in and told me she was going to break my water, and then she was going to go have lunch.  I told her I didn't think that was a good idea.  She said she would be right downstairs and not to worry.  Lady, this is my 3rd child!  First of all, with my previous two children, once my water was broken, things moved along very quickly!  Secondly, this is my THIRD child, so I am expecting things to go a bit faster than before!  But she insisted that I would be fine, AND that she would have time to eat lunch. HaHaHa!  As she left the room I told her, "You're not going to have time to eat lunch."

She broke my water, checked my cervix and everything again, (still 7 cm) and left the room.  Right after she left, I had three HUGE contractions.  I knew he was coming.  My husband went and got the nurse, who came and checked me... and guess what?  10 cm dilated and the baby's head was crowning.  They paged my doctor, who had just gotten off the elevator on the lower floor at the cafeteria.  When she came back into the room to find me surrounded by delivery nurses who were scrambling to get everything set up, she said, "Wow, you weren't kidding, were you?"

I only had to push 3 times, and Xander was born.  7 lbs, 0 oz, and 19 1/2 inches long.  He was just beautiful!  We looked at the clock and it was 1:00 pm... only 15 minutes had passed between when my doctor broke my water and when my husband cut the umbilical cord.  I realize I am blessed with quick, easy, uncomplicated labors!  And I continue to be blessed in many other ways in my life every day!  Here is a look back over the past 7 years of Xander's life....



Me, Hubby & brand new Xander

Little Baby Boy!

6 months old - chubby crawler!

Age 1 - swimming



Age 3

4th Birthday

Age 5 - doing some preschool homeschooling

Age 5 - starting Kindergarden

Age 6 - Graduating Kindergarden

Age 6 - this picture was taken just a couple weeks ago.