When is cheap okay?

I grew up with a mother that lived by the motto, "more is more".  

That nearly always translated into, "quantity not quality".

When I was a teenager and then into my "spend like crazy and worry about it later" early twenties I purposely defied these rules and bought only the very best my credit card could accommodate.

Since then I've become a bit more real.

And while I still would always choose fewer nice things over quantity, I can now appreciate the need to buy less than the best.

Lately I've been thinking about things that you can get away with going cheap on...and things you can't.

For instance, I would never recommend buying off brand Q-tips

masking tape, toilet paper, 

laundry detergent, peanut butter, 

bar soap or glass cleaner...

But store brand kitchen garbage bags meet our needs...

and my kids don't seem to notice a difference when I buy the no-name fruit snacks.

A few other things on my "okay to go cheap" list would probably be liquid hand soap, 

pudding mix, body lotion, 

snacks in bulk for the classroom, 

jelly and, (don't crucify me for this one), milk.

What things would be on your lists?

here's to you, my sweet girl...

Today is my sweet Soleil's 9th birthday.

I can hardly believe that I've been mothering that long.

The day she was born certainly changed my everything...forever.

As a tribute to her, and as a memory aide, I thought I'd list some things about my daughter:

1.  For her birthday dinner she chose pizza and french fries.

2.  She adores rootbeer but is only permitted to have it on special occasions.

3.  She describes herself as a "sporty girl".

4.  She has proven time and time again that she can be successful at anything she commits herself to.

5.  Taylor Swift is her favorite musician.

6.  Her favorite color is "electric blue".

7.  She gets the hiccups when she laughs too hard.

8.  Her dream vacation would be a trip to California.

9.  She makes friends nearly instantly.

10.  Science is her favorite subject at school.

11.  Her big blue eyes have had the power to melt her father and me since the day she was born.

12.  She has the kindest, most sensitive heart.

I love you, Soleil!

Happy Birthday from your proud Mama!

2nd finish of 2012

It has taken me a while to blog about this.  

Truth is that the little boy that I made it for has been enjoying it now for over a week...at least I hope he's been enjoying it :)

His mom was really kind and appreciative when I presented them to her.

Her enthusiasm and support made this project really fun...and rewarding.

I had never done anything like this before and was so honored that she trusted me with all of her children's baby clothes.  

As I was cutting into the sweet little things, I kept thinking to myself, "Ruth, this better frickin' work cuz all her memorabilia is now ruined".

But thank goodness it all worked...beautifully.

Now I only wish that I had kept my eldest daughter's clothes so I could make one for her!

Snow?!?!

We got a ton of snow last night.

I don't get the paper anymore and have never really watched the news so I wasn't expecting it.

This morning when Shore let the dogs out, our larger dog, Toni decided to leave our yard and go exploring.

After about five minutes of listening to Shore scream for Toni, I donned my coat and boots over my pajamas, and headed outside to join in the search.

My hair was sticking straight up.  I was wearing my glasses.  I have horrible pregnancy acne.

I was a lovely sight.

I passed three of my neighbors...all of them just turned away from me.  

Maybe it was the acne.

I decided to get out of the road and start following the dog prints in the snow.

I slipped and fell down one of my neighbor's steeply sloping backyards.

I finally found Toni, about a block away and right in front of the woman's house that seems to ALWAYS find Toni when she "runs away".  

Thank goodness I found her before she did.

This whole week has kind of been like this story.

I really just want to go back to bed and wake up to all my bathrooms being miraculously cleaned.

Hearts and Love

Happy Valentine's Day!

With love...from, me.

Putting the nursery together

What is it about the 2nd trimester?!?  

You start to feel better and you immediately begin nesting.

Right now I'm working on furniture for the nursery.

I have a VERY little bedroom to work with this time around...

being the third child, this one is drew the short straw.

My vision is white walls, neutral furniture, and pops of color in the curtains, pillows, art work, etc.

I just have to show you my very most favorite find so far...

It will probably never make it into the nursery...

it currently resides in our master bedroom, right next to our bed.

Every night before I go to bed, I look over at it and dream of the sweet little one that will be here soon.

It's precious.

And, while I'm at it I might as well announce that the sweet little one is going to be a GIRL!

Life is so very good.

First Finish of 2012

Remember those memory quilts I was commissioned to make?  

The ones that were made out of baby clothes?

They're finished!!!

And I'm ready to show you the first one...Zaid's.

I think when I last showed you these quilts, they were just quilt tops...

since then, my quilter Pam Cole quilted each of the quilts in a fantastic swirl pattern.

Zaid's mother had given me a few of the receiving blankets that she had gotten from the hospital when he was born.  

They ended up making perfect binding for the quilts...

Lots of hand stitches secured the binding in place...

And voila, Zaid's quilt was finished!  

(Pam makes each quilt so personal...I love this extra step that she does)

Stay tuned for his brother Zeen's quilt, I'll be showing that later this week!

Wreath of Love

Have I showed this to you before?

I actually made it last year for Valentine's Day.

I'm not much into decorating for each and every holiday but bringing this sweet little number out of storage sure did make me smile.

I had forgotten how much I like it.

One of my favorite things about it is that I was I able to make it with mostly things that I found laying around.

It cost me nearly nothing...and yet it looks so pretty.

I really wanted the sign portion to be made of wood, but I didn't have any so I used a piece of cardboard.

It's kind of hard to see in the photo but I painted it Robin's Egg Blue, then covered it with Elmer's glue and then painted it again with white.  The glue makes the top layer of paint crackle...and look even more like wood ;)

So, for the second year in a row, this Wreath of Love is hanging on my front door.

It might show up again next year, too.

Valentine's Day Cupcakes

The kids and I took a break from the football action yesterday to whip up a batch of Valentine's Day cupcakes.

We worked together on the strawberry batter, I frosted them and then the kids finished them off with some red and pink sugar sprinkles.

Then we decided that we didn't really care if the Giants or the Patriots won, as long as we had cupcake yumminess in our bellies!

Oh how I love her beautiful voice

Sweet Soleil has the most gorgeous little singing voice...

I'm even a little jealous of it.

She actually sounds as good as I think I sound when belting out tunes in the car.  

Truly.

And this last Thursday we ALL got to enjoy hearing her at her first ever school choir concert.

Even my mom was able to attend (following her Oncologist's advice...she never took her gloves off).

It was one of those nights that was filled with moments that made me very proud to be a mom...her mom, in particular. 

I'm back!

Oh my goodness it's been a long time.

Things are getting better...and easier.  I'm sleeping less, eating more, and really only nauseous in the evening.

It all feels pretty good.  

I even foresee some unfinished projects getting finished in the near future. (Imagine!)

These are two of the things I learned during the first trimester of delirium...

Food made and delivered by a friend is extra delicious (she even included a gift for both me and my mom)  Incredible, right?

...especially during the weeks when the thought of cooking was directly connected with my gag reflex.

 And, I'm so grateful for my kids...they really bucked up while I was sick and became very easy to please.

Soleil was overjoyed with a fruit smoothie each day after school.

And both Soleil and Shore never got tired of my go-to dinner of chocolate chip pancakes...

I have so much to be thankful for...

especially that the second trimester is here :)

*Thanks for hanging in there with me*