~ outage ~

A
few weeks back, our power
went out for about two or
three hours. We had already
had dinner and I had just got
done making rice crispy treats.

The timing of the power outage worked out perfectly.

It was still daylight out so we all got our shoes on and took some cookies
to the newer neighbors across the street and then when we got home and after the kids played for about an hour, the sun had went all the way

down and the house was pretty dark.

One of the best things about the power going out is
lighting candles and doing things by candle light only.
::sigh::
LOVE it.


When we were little girls, mom would round up the candles and we would get them all lit up and then we would play games, visit or sing.

As it got dark the kids pretty much had to stay in the same room as the candles
and then I remembered that our lab top probably had some battery left in it from being charged up before the power went out - so I set the kids up with 'Finding Nemo'.

One of my all time favorites.

The kids were so excited to watch a movie on the laptop as if it is more special -
more fun or something.

I  can remember thinking that way when I was little, can't you?

 (the pic above was with no flash and the one below was with the flash - crazy huh!)

All three of their faces in this picture cracks me up  - especially Sweet Pea's. Lol!

 Casi serenaded me on the guitar - she is getting so good at the guitar!
So proud of her!

Isn't it weird that we can enjoy this kind of thing every night but far too often,
we get caught up in what's on the tele, and we send our kids to go play with their toys in another room
or set them up with a cartoony away from us when really we know the good memories and precious family time is just a light-switch away.

Why do we wait for the power to go out to spend this type of quality time together?

Ben has a sister that once a month - they have "Amish night".

They turn out all the lights

and play games by candle light.

Good idea, huh!?

I think it is time our family adopts some type of tradition similar to "Amish Night".

What kind of fun things do you and your family do during a power outage?

or just to be together?

*happiness in housework #1*

This.

is the kind of organization

that makes my heart

skip-a-beat.

 Friday,

I sent Pauly to go round-up

ALL

of our Daddy's ties.

He took his little Home Depot kids' toolbox

and load by load
 brought me all the ties, well he could find :)

He was so proud.

and SO adorable, I might add.

I moved around Ben's clothing and combined his underware and t-shirt drawer
by transferring his old grey t-shirts to the "rag stash" -
Thank you, Jesus those are gone.
and I established a drawer just for his ties.

I put in cardboard inserts to help keep things

organized and tidy.

It turned out perfect and oh so perty!

It.
is
happiness in housework.

Now if only poor little William could of stayed awake to see the happy ending...

informal introduction.

CrAFtINg iN tHE raIn

(Yes that title is to be sung to the tune of "singing in the rain" IF you're wondering. :)

It's a raining day here in Idaho!

&

I.

Am.

Loving it!!!!

I've confessed before that Fall is my favorite season.

In the Fal,l there are those sunny days when it is gorgeous out and

you can't wait to get outside and

play in those crunchy leaves!

Then there are other days that you are excited to stay in all day and

light a nice pumpkin scented candle,

put on a pot of yummy soup and set the kiddo up with his paints

and craft your little heart away all afternoon.

But before I get out all that stuff -

I've got to introduce...

Annikke!

Annikke is the mom to 3 adorable kiddos - Spirit, Lefty and lil Lady Bug

and wifey to Mr. Man!

She is super mom!

She has a super cute blog called:

Mom is in the Fishbowl

(Don't you just love the name? Fits me on a daily basis!)

She works and keeps the three kids, hubby

and the house

right.

on.

track.

I adore reading her

Friday Recipe

like

here and here,

along with her

Meal Planning

like

this one and this one .

She shares her lessons learned about raising kids,

funny stories about her kids and things they say and do

& the challenges with being a working mama.

All the while, it is all super entertaining!

In the spring she did a fabulous Flip Flop Swap

(that honestly it was so genius my husband was like - too bad that wasn't your idea - need to thump him more often)

and I loved her

letter to

the man who borrowed her pen.

I died.

Hilarious!

The whole time I was picturing her face looking at his items and then glancing to him and then her pen...

thinking, Dear Lord - please don't let him try and give that pen back to me...

Too funny!

So onward to good times Miss Annikke!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Welcome to our "home".

So glad you were able to come and join me today.

First,

before we start crafting -

I was thinking you and I should go and do some

twirlin' in the rain!

I don't care if you are only wearing your flip-flops!

DO IT!

weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Okay! Back in the house!

brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

So. First we definitely need something warm to drink...

Want some tea?

I happen to adore! Chai Tea.

Wanna try some?

Perfect.

I hope you'll love it.

Since I'm on a diet and have been trying to avoid sugar -

I actually drink my chai tea just plain.

I love the spicy deliciousness of it.

It tastes like Christmas.

Christmas tastes good!

~~~~~~~~~~

Here we go.

I got an idea when I opened that scatter brained tea drawer...

MAN! It needs organized! Let's see - I have this old tin - coincidentally it is an old Christmas tin.

Ha!

I think I will totally paint it up cute and put my tea in it!

What'cha think?

Cool!

Let's do it!

First, I'm going to spray paint it white...

Okay.

While that dries let's eat tomato on toast.... yummmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!

These are tomatoes from the garden. Even though I am on a diet, not usually eating wheat or fats for that matter - you gotta get in at least one of these... right?

thank goodness it is nap time -Now,

I think I'll use a pencil for a little designage...

(yes, I just made-up that word)

now paint time...

and

I think I will give it some bumps and bruises to make it look "aged", cover it in a clear coating. organize, and

Walah! tea for two...me & you.

Well - the monster is awake.

Annikke,

I just wanted to say that I appreciated you coming to visit me today

and every time you get a chance.

I love your blog

& I love hearing from you - you have the sweetest comments and great feedback.

I believe we could be

kindred spirits.

&

if you ever make it to

Idaho

- let me know...

I think we could probably find some trouble to get into.

Especially if we bring Misty!

*wink*

God Bless you and yours.

♥Hearts♥

P.S. Thanks to all of you for dropping by today

& don't forget

Wednesdays are "informal introduction day"

and the only way for me to pick you is if I know you are out there -

So leave me a comment - I'd love to know who is stopping by.

x0x0

wreath bunting.

About two weeks ago I put up my fall wreath.

This is a sweet little wreath I got from my Grandma and Mom.

They brought it to me when I had Pauly.

I love putting it up - it reminds me of that sweet weekend when they came to visit -

Grandma Pattie took one peek at Pauly and tears ran down her cheeks.

"Oh, Sam!", she said.

I'll never forget it... she made me feel like I was presenting her with

a precious little contribution to

her legacy... and she was thankful.

I figured this year I would do something little different,

and add some "bunting".

I say "bunting" because I actually used to call these little flags

- pennant garland -

but how boring is that?

compared to "bunting" which I learned from this gal

and I totally told her I was going to steal it

this new term so

all.

is.

good.

:)

BUT

it all started with a bow.

I had some crappy plasticy paper ribbon that was from

my wedding actually -

I made a bow out of it by just using some florist wire weaving loops back and forth.

(look it's actually uneven and I noticed this when I was all ready finished with it

but I don't think Martha Stewy will be by to visit any time soon.... ffhew!)

Now, where was I.... oh - yes.

I made the bow, put it on the wreath and thought...

Needs something

MORE!

so off I went to find some crafty paper and I pulled out colors that
would coordinate with fall my wreath, and the door.
(Yes! I still haven't painted that hideous front door. Boooo! It's Halloween worthy, I figure.)

Anyhow, I cut little diamonds out of the paper
and then
I had to find some type of ribbon or string to make the "bunting"
and attach the diamonds to.

This ribbon was obviously NOT going to work.

and I have done ran out of jute string,
as my husband used it in his garden.

Thank you, husband.



So. I stole kite string from my boys' kite!

I took the string folded the diamonds in half around the string and glued it up
with craft glue.

I'm a HUGE fan of "bunting" - I might even go as far as to say addicted!

I used it in my boys' room here.

It was not the best sew job ever but hey! I'm learnin'.

I took the bunting and looped it from each side of my wreath

and

Ta - DAR!!!!!

I LOVE it.

Hope you do too.

Happy Fall decorating! & don't forget the bunting!!

Happy Day.

anniversary brunch, Football! & Sadie♥

we had a pretty great weekend.

Saturday was our anniversary.

we got SUPER spoiled with lots of beautiful cards tucked with a little dinner money from Grandmas and Mimi's.

Granny watched both boys Saturday afternoon and then also took Pauly all weekend which was a lovely gift for us to celebrate our 6 years of wedded bliss.

we kicked off our "date" by going downtown and walking through the Farmer's Market & then I saw this...

growing up, us girls, had a little hatch-back Ford Escort - his name was "Buck Snort" and

I'll-be-darned

if I didn't see a sign that said Buck Snort Rootbeer.After we got our fix of organic jams, handmade aprons and garden-fresh turnips - we made our way to a little bistro called the Red Feather Lounge.

I had only been there one time before - far before I was a mother - it was in late hours of the night and we were just stopping in for a drink.

I didn't know they had an upstairs so when the hostess started heading up a flight of stairs I was excited to see where she was taking us.

There was only one other group up there and they soon left which left the whole top floor

all.

to.

us.

Moi

& Moi ♥ we loved the glasses.

they were made out of used wine bottles.

got us thinking about reusing, recycling and so on. we also loved their wine cellar.

very cool.

we had mimosa (cocktail with champagne or white wine and oj) &

we decided to split our meals -

so i ordered a delicious apple pecan salad

and

Ben ordered ham and eggs benedict.

mine was divine

and

i kinda regretted doing the "split" part of the deal

and

so did Ben.

next time, no splitting :)

(sorry, no pics of the food - i was too busy devouring it) but none of it was near as cool as paying for your anniversary brunch with this.

just the two of us. then we went home to watch football,

GO BSU!!!

cheat on my diet with some subpar chinese food

and rescue this little darling.

this beautiful female golden retriever was walking up and down the road

near our home.

i had seen her when i was in my kitchen and she was walking along with a family and i thought, why is that family taking their dog to the football game? weird.

sure enough about 5 minutes later a gal knocked on our door asking us if she was ours.

the gal tried to get humane society on her cell, but it was Saturday afternoon -

so there was no answer.

long story short - i told the lady that i would take care of her

and after the game my hub went around to the neighbors

and thank God we found her daddy.

it was precious when he came to get her from our backyard - with Ben leading the way, i saw the man behind him and then i heard him call her name... Sadie!

i could see her eyes lighting up,

she loved him and he loved her.

i couldn't believe her name was Sadie.

Sadie, was the name of my sister and brother-in-law's golden that passed away last year.

in my heart of hearts,

i totally believe that little Sadie,

in her own little sweet way,

came by to say hello to us on that beautiful Saturday afternoon.

Rest in Peace, Sadie Brown