I love Giveaways

Check out this fabulous Giveaway from Isabella & Max here she has these awesome pillows on there.

On a roll baby

I have been busy... My Etsy shop will open soon, by the end of the summer....

I knew I wanted to do this when I found the paper on my trip to Wisconsin

I am making this frame specifically for my dad since he is in the taxi business, I'll let you see more when I am done personalizing it

I made this for a co-worker's niece who was born on Monday

I have others done but I thought I would show you the things I did this week.

Where's My Baby?

After I returned from my jog and shower, my son Sam asked where his sister was.  I responded, she should be in her room, go look.  Now I am in a panic as to where could she be, didn't I realize that the house was quiet?  No chatterings of my princess?  My mind was racing (literally a half of a second but you know what I mean).  He says, "Mom, she is in bed with her animals."  So, I throw on my clothes and go into the room and there she is

She really loves all her animals, dolls and etc.  She had leis, beads and necklaces on them.  She even had little dolls in the brown bag on her bed. My little girl is so sweet.  Night, night my little one.

I did it!

I started jogging today!  I have been wanting to do this for months and today I finally did it.  I have been looking up "learning to jog/run programs" and even had one bookmarked for the longest time.  Today at camp I picked up a pedometer to try and do at least 5000 steps a day, well I did 7503 after my jog.

So, this is how I did it.  I started out of the driveway at a quick pace and The Kinks playing in my ear.  Midway down the block I started a jog and continued.  I would say I did half jogging and half quick paced walking.  Now the program called for 20 minutes of quick walking but I broke it up today.  I did 10-15 of walking and jogging.  Tomorrow I will do quick paced walking.  I am very excited to do this.  I was very hot when I came back so I had a cool shower with some awesome sugar scrub from Bath and Body Works. I feel invigorated!

Here's to tomorrow!

I Want To Build Something

So, my plan to have the counter put up in my house went down in flames, for the moment.  As I pondered over the idea of the counter I thought of other things that I may like and I thought about a simple wood table the same length of the would be counter just wood, and built by me.  How hard could it be?  I think I want something simple like 3 six inch planks put together and then a simple 3 inch trim with counter height legs.  Sounds good right?  Sounds inspiring, right?  Sounds Crazy, right?  I want to do it and I am going to figure out how.  BUT, should I perhaps start with something smaller?  Most people would say yes.  Then I got to thinking, maybe I would start with a vanity table.  I really want one for the the nook/dormer spot in my bedroom that is SCREAMING, "VANITY HERE!!!!!"  I have been thinking of something for that spot and can never find something to fit my budget.

It would be pretty cool.  I thought about something along the lines of Pottery Barn like this

Or something like this from Crate and Barrel.

I was thinking of something with the cross legs or the legs that are used holding wood when cutting, I think they are called horse something.  They look like a V upside down.  SO I will research this one out.

On another note, I am almost finished with something I am working on for my Etsy shop.

(Any thoughts or ideas for my tables would be appreciated and welcomed)

How gorgeous is this?

How nice would it be to visit such a beautiful place like this? It is absolutely gorgeous.  After a day of rain, and I do mean a DAY of rain - nonstop.  I dream of going to a beautiful place like this, then my family and then my girlfriends.  Heck who's kidding I would love a getaway with anyone! (all pictures are courtesy of  The Mirror Lake Resort & Spa in Lake Placid).

 

How about a sunrise here?

This would possibly be my favorite place to stay

I love porches, something about them.  The thought of being able to sit there in the am with my coffee, in the afternoon with my cocktail or just plain hanging out with my friends or a good book.  I love them and always have.  Enjoy!

Look Mom I am Flying

My baby girl went flying today.  Cam as this really cool activity called Zip Line.  Last year she backed out of it because she was a little frightened but today she came over to my area and said,"mommy, I am doing the zip line."  So, I grabbed my camera and off we went.

Getting ready

Stepping off the platform

Flying over the lake

Ahh Safely back on the dock

Headed back to solid ground

I am so proud of her, this was a challenge for her last year and a few weeks ago when her group did it she didn't want to.  I told her to do it when she was ready and today she was.  She did inform me that she will be taking the deep water challenge tomorrow (she is a good swimmer, just needs the endurance for the treading water part).

My baby girl is growing up, and fast!

Fabulous Party

The Birthday Boy himself

So, this past weekend I had a birthday party for my hubby, Ken.  It was/is his 40th birthday today and we had a Kenstock themed party.  It was so much fun.  For the first time ever I did not cook the food. Ken is a chef and usually we cook all sorts of food, but 1. we don't have a grill (until today since Ken's parents bought him an awesome grill for his birthday and 2. I am tired of doing all the cooking that I miss the party.  We decided to go with ordering the food from this local gourmet/italian market.  We have had the food before at friend's houses and we personally do like this market.  The food was fabulous and we still have leftovers for the week (you know they tell you a tray of chicken is for 8-10 people and clearly it served 23 people, same for the eggplant rollatini).  

We had some old friends show up, new friends come and family (just our siblings).  My parents had the kids for the night and Ken's mom had a stem cell transplant almost a year ago and she really cannot be in situations like that (besides we knew we could get "silly" and didn't want the 'rents there).  

We had an awesome time.  I paid for it today but it was a good time.  Everyone hung out on our screened in porch, I had the food in the kitchen, not set up on my new counter since I could not find all the supplies needed at Lowes (Henry tells me to go to Home Depot a REAL hardware store).  So we will try again soon.

This was our first party in our new house, well we did host Thanksgiving about a month after we moved in but this was a Party.  Then my in laws came over today to celebrate Ken's birthday with him.  They bought him a nice new grill!!! We are so excited.  Then my husband and his father went to Lowes to get a mat for the grill and hooks to hang the mirror I got from Home Goods.  That makes me SOOOOOOOOO Happy I LOVE IT!

So EXCITED!!!

I will be getting that counter I have wanted for a while in my kitchen!! My friend's husband is in construction and he and my hubby are very good friends SO tomorrow they will be putting up my counter for me.  I have a blank wall (6ft) in my kitchen and my sister in law gave me an idea to put a counter there.  Henry came by yesterday and gave me a nice little list of what to buy and he said that he and Ken will put it up on Thursday - just in time for Ken's party!!!!

I am so excited!! More counter space, a place for the kiddies to eat and do work.  Now off to Lowes after camp today.  I just don't think that I will get the legs painted by Saturday.....hmmm.

We'll see, I have Lots and Lots to do by then.

Have a great day (I know I will it is carnival day at camp)!

Decorating MaDnEsS

As I have told you I am planning my husbands party, so I have been busy hanging lights up in the screened in porch (my inspiration to finally hang them came from the lovely Simone and her post on lighting ), buying some decorative touches, cleaning and constantly coming up with more ideas.  I snagged this one (for fun) from an activity at camp 

Hey let the adults have some fun too.

I am debating buying the counter I really would like to put in the kitchen.  I know if I go to Lowes today I will be broke, or nearly broke.  I want to put a carpet in the screened in porch and the counter in the kitchen, which is more important?  It is almost an equal issue for me.  Which project it is easier to do - carpet- just lay it down (it's indoor/outdoor) or the counter - having a friend come over to help install it, paint the legs, and whatever else comes up.  Hmmm, it's a tough decision.  I also have to tye dye shirts, download music and buy my husband a gift.  Where do I find this time?  I will be Uber Busy this week.  I did buy a nice mirror for my dining room at Home Goods yesterday.  I will show you after it gets hung today by my husband and his friend.  I cannot wait.

Perfect Places

This time last year we found our dream home.  We were looking for two years and while we had the usual list of wants I always wanted to live on a street like this

And we were lucky enough to find a street like that and I love it.  It is actually three blocks away from my parents and I sort of secretly hoped to live on the street I live on.  It is tree lined, family friendly and just so nice.  My backyard is surrounded by trees, which is very nice.  While I grew up in the town I live in now I also grew up in Southern California and obviously where I lived there really were no trees like here in the Northeast.  I always loved the tree lined streets in all the movies, to me they represented something, and no I do not have a white picket fence.  My street doesn't even have a sidewalk!  And I actually live on a street in my town where the mailman has to walk up to the door to deliver my mail rather than stop at the end of the driveway, I was told we were "grandfathered" in to that "old fashioned" service.

Have a great day....

Camp

I really need to bring my camera to work tomorrow to show you the wonderful things I have been making at camp.  Today we celebrated 35 years of the camp owners owning the camp.  Now I went to this camp many, many , many years ago.  I went there and worked there and then was away for a while until my own children were set to go there and I could work there.  You see, many moons ago I met my bestest friend at this very camp.  I can clearly recall the day she walked into our bunk, up on the hill and history goes on from there,  I love my friend and love the camp that joined us.  So, now my children go to this camp and I work there.

I had some significant memories at this camp and funny as I work there I see people who never left, people who came back as I did and people who send their children there.  It's truly amazing how this camp has touched so many.

I have fun with my projects and today I made a really cool message center for Maya and her room (I just have to add some letters for her name) and all other things.  I even got a really cool idea as I write this post, I think I will get, from as many people as I can their memories of Ramaquois and make a scrapbook, since my area does that.  We will work on that.  I will let you know how that goes....

MIA

Hey, sorry to be MIA.  I had a few things going on, first the holiday weekend and then being totally sucked into the Twilight books.  You see, back in May when we were stuck in an airport for a delay I bought the book, figured let me see what all the hoopla was about.  I maybe read 40 pages, you know I got busy.  Well, about a week ago I decided to pick it up again and I never put it down along with the other three books.  I plowed through these books like nobody's business.  I do that, I read like crazy and then stop.  each book took me between 24-48 hours to read.  The books are something like 400+, the last one being 752 pages or something like that.  I pushed myself to stay up until 1:30 am just to have to get up the next day for camp.

I loved them!  They were wonderful.  I truly enjoyed them, they captivated me and kept me interested.  Hell, I was on the boat and I was reading!

So, that is why I have been MIA which leads me to my next thought, I love to read.  As I was reading my book one night, at about 10:30 pm Sam my son was next to me reading as well.  He looked over at me and said, "mom, isn't it great how we are reading together?"  I looked at him as proud as ever of my boy and said, "Yeah, it really is."  What a mom

ent.  In fact a few moments later he asked if we could stop and go to sleep.  We did but I do have to say that there was a great lesson here.  One, I was sharing some nice time with my child and Two, I was showing my child that I read which was instilling something so powerful in him.  Reading is not always a favorite past time of all people and for some it is dreaded but it is important and I am so happy thta my child loves to read for pleasure as well - he finished his 217 page book in one day!

So, along with planning the party for Ken I will be looking for my next book and catching up on my blog.  See you soon.

I Love Mail

I got my prize!!!

I will post in the AM my awesome flag sign.  I need to take a picture of it.

Thank you to Christina from Signs of Obsession

Bugs

My little girl LOVES bugs.  The bigger the better.  Caterpillars are her favorite.  Last year at camp a counselor found one of these:

And she currently has one of these in her Bug Shack:

It is quite hilarious that my girlie girl 

loves bugs so much yet she is the picture of girlieness. The dresses, the shoes, the hair, you name it.  In fact this week, for camp she stated she wanted her ponytail to the side.  That is something the big girls do and now she is becoming one of them, UGH!  

And the other part of it that is so funny is that her older brother hates bugs.  He was stung by a wasp or hornet a few years ago and now is TERRIFIED, even of butterflies.  Quite sad actually but we have been making progress.  He collects bugs with her but does not help to collect them - no touching them at all.  Crawling bugs don't bother him mostly the flying ones.  Maybe this weekend we can get him to collect light bugs. They fly but they are cool.  We'll see.

Planning

So, I think I may have mentioned planning a 40th birthday for my husband.  He doesn't want to plan it, doesn't want a surprise but keeps telling me what to do, UGH!!!!

I think hot food, he says a huge hero.  I like 70's music but he is a Dead Head (i.e. the reason the party is named KenStock).  Anyhoo, I have to hang to string lights today in the screened in porch after I buy an extension cord.  My flag that should arrive today will also be a great addition out there.  I am doing little trivia cards and mini postersscattered about:

I am trying to come up with some sort of logo, my sister in law suggested this K40 thing in a circle as to not make it too obvious.  I think I will do tye dye shirts and have a circle with the K40.  Maybe an iron on?

So, today being the day I am home from camp I need to get busy.

I will hopefully update later on my progress today.  Any suggestions would be welcomed.

I Won! I Won!

I cannot believe I actually won something!

Christina from Signs of Obsession let me know today.

How awesome  is that?  I am so excited. I never win anything, or at least I have not won anything in a long time.

Yippee.  I cannot wait for it to arrive!!!!!

Than you Christina.