Children, class, computers, and chaos....what a cluster....

It's been 6 months since I've had a chance to write. Where does the time go?? Mine has gone through baseball season....lots of travel....to Chicago, New Orleans, Tennessee, New Orleans.....now back to school for me and the boys and even Mr. Loud......football, soccer, and fall baseball.....and tons of chaos and confusion at work. When life gets so busy and the running around is incessant it becomes so easy to lose focus of whats important versus what's just happening, whether you participate in the event or not. So many days these last 2 years I have missed a ballgame, or a school function, or even just being home to watch TV with Mr. Loud. I've put in loooong hours at work or traveling around the State. Remember I'm a Nurse Champion....working on a huge EHR shared between the other 10 State hospitals. I've been so busy trying to make sure my hospital is taken care that I've let my family life take 2nd place. I have a good friend from down South who told me the story of a sticky note a friend left for her at her desk when she had alot going on in her personal life and was finding it hard to juggle home and family and work. We often lose sight of the main things we need to always keep our focus us. The main thing often becomes what is actually not main at all. Our focus should always be on home and family....because when work is over that's what we go home to.....that's what we wake up to.....and that's what is there to pick us up when we fall down. From here on out I'm going to remember that sticky note my friend still has stuck above her desk acting as a gentle reminder when work gets in the way.......ALWAYS KEEP THE MAIN THING THE MAIN THING........yep....sums it up doesn't it? So with that I think I'll go hug and play with my main things.....and I hope y'all do the same! 

Baseballs and dangling eggs.....

     This time next week we will have just finished our 1st baseball game of the season. This is my most favorite time of the year! I love watching my little boys play baseball. Big C absolutely LOVES it, and Little C, well it's growing on him. Big C is so competitive on that field. He's one of those kids who can think quick about the play that needs to be made and get it done. He's never been one of those who have played with grass in the outfield or kicked the dirt. He listens to instructions and does as he's told and as he's been coached. He's always had his head in the game and his eye on the ball. What he lacks in strength he makes up for in agility and speed of the play. His strength is his focus. He never loses sight of the ball and where its going. He's quick on his feet and quick on the play. But every now and then he needs a little refocusing. He'll get a little lazy and not pull the bat back as far as he needs to and good ol Momma will have to yell "bat back"!! Gotta get that bat back so his timing will be right and he can smack that ball. I told him to tell himself "bat back" every time he walks up to the plate.Mr. Loud told him, " Son, you might as well do what Momma tells you to do because she will be at every game you ever play in for the rest of your life yelling, so might as well make it easier on yourself". And that's why I love Mr. Loud, he see's things my way. He supports me, just like we support our boys. We all need support and refocusing from time to time.....someone yelling "bat back!" so we can get our timing right and make that hit. We know our strengths and think we are playing hard but every now and then we get a little lazy and our timing is off. Maybe off with our spouse, our kids, our coworkers, our projects. Every now and then it's nice to hear "Momma" hollering at us from the stands of life. From time to time we all need to hear "bat back"! I know I do. I think that might be my next crafting project....a baseball that says just that....."BAT BACK!"......a little reminder is a good thing!


     This past weekend I was in a full blown crafting frenzy! My bff Cathy has an Etsy site and I've been coming up with inspirations for her to make and put in her Etsy store. Your welcome Cathy!! The link to her store is here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/cathyBs?ref=shop_sugg. So I found these cute painted baseball door hangers. I had Mr. Loud cut her a circle to see how they would look hanging on the door. The first one was 23 inches. WAAAY too big, so I thought. Soooo as not to be wasteful I decided to paint this one myself for my own front door! Meanwhile, Mr. Loud cut her 8 more 18inch circles so she could get started on her new project. 

1st I painted it white, 2 coats using craft paint and a sponge brush. Mine will be hanging between my door and a glass door so it will not be exposed to the outside elements. If hanging on an exterior door then you will need outside acrylic paint or some other exterior paint.( Notice I had this laying on my washing machine to dry. This is the one place I knew the boys would not go near since they had no desire what so ever to learn about laundry!)

After letting it dry I outlined it in a thin little line/dot pattern.....just to define the shape a little. 

Next I added some grayish shadowing to it to give it a little 3 dimensional ball shape.

                                      

Next I added the stitching. I just took a deep breath and made the red lines. Thank goodness they turned out even! Then I had to go look at the baseball and check the direction of the stitches. 

Stitches finished!

It actually looks like a baseball! (Yes, I was surprised! and ignore the messy shelf behind the ball!)

I even shadowed under my stitches for a little extra dimension. 

I noticed my crafting partner was not right under my feet as she usually does when I'm in my crafting area, so I went looking for her and this is what I found.....absolutely pathetic isn't it?! This is her chair in our computer room. Notice the edge of the chair? This is why I'm considering declawing her....but in the meantime I trimmed her nails....better, but she still likes to scratch this chair!

Ok....back to the project. Next I printed out a font that I liked. I used TEAM JORDAN so it would represent both boys.....with 2 playing we go with the TEAM approach. When Big C first started playing me and Mr. Loud were the coaches. My family had t-shirts that had TEAM C on the back...now that there are 2 it transformed into TEAM JORDAN.....cause that's how we roll around here.....total support in everything each other does! Gosh I love my family!!

Then I taped it down using painter's tape. I used an exacto knife and cut the letters out right on top of the wood. It didn't mess up a bit of the paint. 

Then I painted right over my stencil 1st with gray paint, and followed by black paint, then carefully removed the stencil.

Since I don't know the boys team colors yet I added the red bow. Mr. Loud and Big C both had something smart to say about how boys don't have bows on their baseballs....soooo....since it got a rise out of them I think it'll stay on there for a couple more days till I find out team colors. Cause that's how I roll.....it's just me in a sea of testosterone.....throw Momma a bow every now and then! But it came out pretty cute indeed. It will hang out on my door throughout baseball season.

I made this little cute letter complete with paper flowers and a stamped on "BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE IN THE WORLD" for my soon to be 20 year old step-daughter. She's in college and making that transition into adulthood beautifully. 

I made this pretty letter for my recently turned 18 year old step-daughter. She'll be graduating in a couple of months and heading to college in the fall.  She has grown into such a smart and responsible young lady. I am extremely proud of both of them. I made these letters for their brother's to take to them when they take them out to eat soon. It's hard to make a dinner date with busy young ladies!

One of my friends birthdays was on St. Patrick's Day. I told her I will not buy one single gift for friends this year. Every gift will be hand made! She laughed and said no way will I keep that up! So for her birthday I made her a monogrammed t-shirt with clover fabric. I cut the W out using curlz font and double layered the fabric, ironed it on, and sewed around the edges on my machine. I left the edges raw and when I washed it they frayed and puffed up. I added 4 leaf clovers on both sides and ta-da!! One super cute and homemade gift for a special friend! She couldn't buy that in any store....which I reminded her of....and she loved it! Now that's a thoughtful gift. Can't wait till another friend has a birthday....this is going to be fun!

Now being Easter I couldn't let it go by without having an Easter Egg wreath up! Soooo I saw a super cute wreath on Pinterest and went to Wal-Mart, bought $8 worth of iridescent eggs, found an old wire wreath shape, got the trusty glue gun heated up and went to work! I arranged them all going the same direction in 2 layers and added a 3 layer between the 2 bottom rings. I then poked grass between the spaces to fill in the gaps. I added a simple little bow hook and ta-da....a cute Easter Egg wreath....or so I thought.....and then we left home and went to baseball practice. 

As we are driving up our driveway....this is what I see! Lesson learned here: you need more surface area to glue the eggs to...the thin pieces of wreath are not enough!!! Mr. Loud was trying not to laugh too much because I'm fairly certain I said every dirty word I knew when I saw my wreath I had made only 3 short hours before with eggs dangling !!!

Soooo.....after I cleaned all of the old hot glue off of those $8 worth of eggs I cut some cardboard into a circle and reglued them on. Now this wreath is hanging on my office door and not one egg has fallen off....if you don't count that one I knocked off when I hung it up! (But thanks to keeping a glue gun in my office that was quickly fixed!) 

And this is the other one I made for my front door. It's lacking the grass, but the bright colors make up for it. Plus my house sits way off of the road so you can't really tell anyway! ;-)

Oh...and look who showed up today.....Hank Hops Alot! He comes to see us every year 2 weeks before Easter to help teach the boys about the true meaning of Easter. He hops around every night and he brings a new card each morning for the boys to read after they find him. They have been asking about him for a month! Little C found him today and was jumping up and down yelling "I FOUND HANK"!!! How cute is that?! I'm loving their pure and unquestioned faith in Hank returning every year. As Hebrews 11:1 reads: Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. God definitely can move us through the actions of children. Hoppy Easter everyone! 

Sweets for the sweet

Wow! Time flies!! I've been sooo busy lately I haven't been able to blog. School....work....laundry......93 year old grandfather....not mention those 2 little boy chillins of mine sure do keep me running! But let me tell you, all of my little sweet things for my Mr. Loud were soooo much fun! The night before V-Day he shyly looked over at me and said, "so I guess this all ends tomorrow huh?" At which....in all of my infinite sarcasm (yes that's what he's used to!) said, "well duh.....I can't let this go on forever, you would grow to expect waaaay too much from me!" lol! But, I think I might just throw him off every now and then with a little sweet "just cause" gift. Gotta keep em guessing girls!

Update on the goldfish......there is a strong possibility that I ate every single one of these.....but of course when Mr. Loud asked about them I blamed the boys. It's really convenient having children to blame things on.

And of course I couldn't go to work on V-Day empty handed. I made this cute little candy stand with $2 plates I got from Target and a $1 candle stick from The Dollar Tree and with a little hot glue, ta-da...one super cute candy stand! I even got all of my staff, and a few other peeps, a cheesy heart shaped box of chocolates. I also made little gift tags for them out of some old blank business cards that I use for tags when the boys take goody bags and such to classmates/parties.

And all of those little sweet 14 days of Valentine's for Mr. Loud paid off...cause look what was delivered around noon. He always sends pretty roses though. He says that's the one thing he knows he can always pick out without needing a size or preference. He knows I don't like red and he always sends beautiful colors. He started that on our wedding day and hasn't stopped yet. After a while I told him to quit buying them and get me a rose bush instead that I could plant and always keep. The next occasion I got roses....again....but this time with a gift card to Lowe's for a rose bush too! LOL! Gotta love him.

 

Then I got crafty...again! We have a running joke at work among myself and 2 coworkers. We are knee deep in a 2 year IT project that has us about to pull our hair out and think about joining AA (ok so that's not gonna happen because I really like, I mean LOVE wine....and Strawberry Harvest Abita....and Purple Haze too). But anyway, we always chant, I LOVE MY JOB, I LOVE MY JOB, PLEASE REMIND ME! So I had an idea. I would make us reminder shirts! I just used Microsoft Word and created a line, printed it onto Avery fabric transfer paper for light fabrics, cut it out, and ironed it on! By not using the Avery template the image did not get turned around and stayed in the format as it was designed. 

And ta-da....when you look in the mirror your reminded....I love my job!! Yep...I know....BRILLIANT!!! We wore it to an administrative meeting....everyone wants one now! I may have started something. 

And of course I wrapped my 'work boysfriends' t-shirts up so they got a little V-Day gift too. I have not only 1 but 2 work boyfriends! At least that's what me and Mr. Loud and the boyfriends joke about! The 3 of us travel alot on business trips and spend an incredibly crazy amount of time together at work...and I'm extremely nosy and into all of their business....so it really is like I'm their girlfriend! Plus....they carry suitcases for me, buy me supper, and have even been know to hold my purse while I got to the bathroom....gotta love that! And their sweet wives laugh about it too. I am really blessed to really enjoy my job and get to work with great people! (and I really really DO LOVE MY JOB....just some days are better than others)

My step daughter had a birthday the other day, so I made her a little gift for her brothers to take to her when they all go out to dinner soon. They were so proud, they love their sisters and miss them terribly. They are growing up and 1 is busy with college and work and boys and the other one is having a busy senior year, work, and of course boyfriend....and unfortunately don't spend much time with the little boys. Maybe when they get older it will get better. 

Check out that cute little paper flower. That would be from the new Sizzix die I just picked up with my 40% off coupon from Michael's. I print a few coupons each Sunday and stick them in my car...you never know when Michael's or Hobby Lobby might call my name!

Oh and as you can see....I'm still trying to learn to sew! I printed a fleur de lis out that I like....cut it out, pinned it to fabric and cut the pattern out. Then glued it to my shirt and rough stitched it to my t-shirt!

But then I didn't like the black thread I used so I added some gold fabric glitter paint to the whole fleur de lis and I like it better. Not perfect...but not too bad.....I ended up with a little gaudy Mardi Gras shirt....but hey....Mardi Gras is gaudy itself so I'm thinkin I did good! Ha!

And I made some ugly cake rocks...I mean balls....for V-Day. Well it turns out you aren't supposed to use the whipped icing....and that is what I used! It doesn't hold together......who knew?!!?! 

So i decided to try it again....this time with the right icing!

This time I used dark chocolate cake and classic chocolate creamy home style icing. After mixing the baked cake and icing in my mixer I covered the bowl and left it in the refrigerator over night. The next afternoon I used a 1/2 tbs to scoop the balls out and rounded the tops. Placed them on a cookie sheet then threw them back in the freezer to reharden. 

Then I melted some chocolate almond bark in the microwave and dipped each ball and layed it on waxed paper. After the chocolate harded I drizzled some extra chocolate on top just to make them a little more purty!

And look how much cuter these are than the 1st batch!!!!! 

Mr. Loud and the boys ate a dozen before I ever made it to work with them. Needless to say, they didn't last long there either! 

Cococat wasn't the least bit interested in the cake ball excitement that was raging through out the house!

Turns out Big C is an artist! Check this waterfall scene out! Not bad for a 9 year old!! He started art class this year after school with a local art teacher. He LOVES it!

This was his 1st painting. He actually wanted to give this to his TEACHER for her BIRTHDAY! Well Mr. Loud had a little talk to him and explained that isn't something to give to his teacher, that that was something his Momma would want to keep forever, and get teary eyed when she looked at it when she was 90ish. There may have been some bribery involved because he still wanted to GIVE IT AWAY for a few days until Mr. Loud had another talk then, funny thing, I never heard anything else about that teacher getting it! Good choice Big C!! No teacher will ever appreciate your art the way your Momma does! (but wasn't it precious he wanted to give it to her?!)

Does your cat smile in her sleep? Pretty sure Cococat is a happy spoiled cat. 

This is what you end up when you carry all of your plastic bowls to work and don't bring them home then need to take some dirty rice to work for a going away lunch for a coworker! Desperation breeds creativity. I just didn't want to take a heavy glass dish to work....so I came up with this idea! I cut the tops open, cleaned out the bottles, put the dirty rice in them, taped them back up, and put them in a plastic bag and easily carried them into work. Oh crap...this was AWESOME!! Everyone was like...."unbelieveable! " Pretty sure I started something at work.

I got some new stencils and another Sizzix die.....so I made a little sweet springy colored frame for one of my nurses for doing a project....I'm thinking I'm going to do this monthly for a job well done. We'll call it team building and appreciation, because not only do I LOVE MY JOB...but I REALLY LOVE MY STAFF!

Have a good weekend.....unfortunately the books and a paper are calling my name tonight!

Cake, bats, and alot of heart.....

So this past Friday night was my Daddy's birthday. The boys had to light the candles....at least 3 times.....and then even blew his candles out! But Daddy didn't care, he even told them to do it. My boys love them some Papa....even though Nani spelled his name wrong on the cake and Big C called her out for it! Papa just aggravates them to no end...but they love him dearly. Big C still crawls up in his lap to have his back scratched every afternoon after school....and Little C loves to harass and irritate him....just cause he can. I'm so glad my little boys have a buddy in their Papa....cause God knows he loves them too!

And these 2 little beauties.....these are Big C's and his BFF JD's new baseball bats for this year! Me and his mom ordered them together and got a pretty good deal on them....now if they'll just knock it outta the park they will be soooo worth the money! Ok....it doesn't have to go out of the park.....they can just knock it way out in the outfield! ;-)

Ok...so now I'm thinking I can sew! I got my sewing machine working....even had to get the instructions out. And let me tell you that I H-A-T-E instructions! But....turns out I had the bobbin thing in wrong....go figure.Anyway, I was in need of a shirt to wear on Valentine's day...so I sucked it up and read the directions for the machine and got my sewing groove on! One of my staff is a sewing godess! She has thousands of dollars invested in all of her equipment....so I took a few notes from her....and cranked my $100 machine up....got some fabric out of the scrap bin at Hobby Lobby and got creative! (Notice the wine in the background....it fuels creativity...in case you didn't know.)

Thanks goodness for the internet and free images.....just printed up some different hearts and got to cutting.

And played around with some different ways to lay them out.....while of course getting some input from my friend Sewing Godess via multiple text messages and sending pics.

And of course I didn't have any of that iron on stuff the you secure the fabric on with so I used glue....yep....plain old glue to hold it in place.....don't judge....it worked fine and washes out. But while I was waiting on the glue to dry I finished up the necklaces I made for the boys teachers for Valentine's Day....aren't they just too cute?! They loved them! And the boys took them to them on Monday so that they would get to wear them for 2 days. They were so excited to take their teachers something special.

And after sewing those layers down and adding a cute little coordinating bow I successfully made my 1st applique tshirt....yay me!!! Not too bad for a first timer!! I proudly wore it with my own wire wrapped necklace on V day.

Now aren't these just the best?! I went to a family painting party Sunday at my husband's cousins house and this is the snack I took.

Notice all the extra rice krispy treats I had left over? Can you guess where that went?! haha....no leftovers what so ever. (me and Little C finished those off!)

As if just heart shapes weren't cute enough....I blinged them out with drizzled DARK chocolate and sprinkles.

Swwwweeeeeeeet!!

And don't forget Mr. Loud....he's still loving his 14 days of Valentine's. And ya know what.....so am I!

And finished these individual treat bags for the boys V Day parties at school at 10:30pm....and finished up there individual V Day cards the morning of at 7:15am...cause that's how we roll......last minute finishers. But we got er done!