Welcome Fall

So remember when I used child labor to make a Valentine's Chandelier for my kitchen/dining room?

Just 2 days ago that chandelier came down and it has now been replaced.

Pay no attention to the bats that have eyes all over their bodies and on their wings.  Claire was in charge of gluing on the eyes and I think we have a budding Picasso on our hands.

Thank you Thank you Thank you

Dear Auntie Melissa,
Your gift arrived on Monday and it has been such a HUGE success--there are already track lines around the kitchen table and down the hall.  You seem to have a special gift for knowing just what kids need.  The good news is that if your career as a highly sought-after English professor don't pan out there is always a children's toy buyer.  We'd give you a great recommendation

Thank you again,
Love,
Claire and Sallee

Who knew?

If, when I were 21, you would have told me that at some later date when I walked into my own house not only would I know immediately how long it had been since we vacuumed but that I would care, I would have looked at you like you were crazy (any of you who lived with me would have also looked at the person who would say those kinds of things as if they were crazy).  You would have gotten a similar look if you would have told me that my favorite smell would be the lingering cleaning-supply-smell of a house that has just been cleaned.

Happy Cleaning Day.


And if you like having a clean house too you should check out this post from my friend Maren.  I'm thinking of having a cleaning party where I invite ladies to my house and we eat snacks and everyone shares their favorite cleaning product or trick (my house would, of course, be ready to be the tester for any and all cleaning demonstrations).

Man, just writing that down makes me seem like an even bigger nerd.


What are your favorite cleaning tips?

Child Labor

Friday night we hosted baby-sitting co-op at our house. Baby-sitting co-op is brilliant and if any of you are thinking of starting one I highly recommend it. I joined one that was already formed but if anyone wants advice I'm happy to give it. For those of you who don't have kids and consequently have disposable time and income, baby-sitting co-op is where you open up your home to kids from the co-op once or twice a month in exchange for the ability to drop your kids off at other homes when the need arises. It means that you don't have to pay for a baby-sitter on date night or if you have a doctors appointment. Love. It.

Knowing that there were going to be a few extra sets of hands at my house Friday night I decided to put them to good use and have them make my Valentines decorations. In exchange, I let them take some decorations home and fed them all the homemade pizza and popcorn their little bodies could hold.

Here's a pic of us getting to work at the beginning of the evening. The kids are painting wax paper with glue and then putting small pieces of different colored tissue paper on it.


While our papers were drying we had pizza. I've been experimenting with whole-wheat flour and used this recipe. Yeast normally terrifies me and even seeing the word "proofing" in a recipe is usually enough to make me turn the other way and run but this was really simple and very good. I did one batch as written and the other batch with all whole-wheat flour (that being said, you probably don't need to make two batches even if 3 little people tell you that they each eat 3 pieces of pizza and they are very hungry. Rest assured; they are lying and if you make two huge pizzas you will have LOTS left over and will eat pizza for every meal the next day). I actually preferred it with all whole-wheat flour.

After pizza the hubbs helped the kids make a fort so they could watch movies (let's see how many times we can publicly thank netflix on this blog) and I made popcorn for the masses and cut hearts out of our papers. Today I put the hearts to good use. Here they are taped to the window that gets lots of late afternoon sun and they spread colored light all over the dining and living room.

I've been swooning over this little number from Pottery Barn Kids. There's a huge mall just across the street from where we live and we like to go walking there on long afternoons and window shop. I love this. The price however, is somewhat prohibitive.



If I were a patient person I'm sure I could make something that looked like it. However, I am not a patient person so I just wanted to make something that reminded me of it. The pictures of the mobile turned out terrible so I tried downloading an app that would photoshop them for me (I already warned you that I'm no photographer). A little better but still not as darling as the actual mobile is.

This is made by bending a hanger into a circle, covering it with ribbon and getting to work with my hearts, some thread and the hot glue gun. I hung it over the dining table because we don't have a chandelier. This may be a decoration that stays up all year (the hubbs loves it when I do that...just ask him about the monster pillow I crocheted that has never been put away).

The hearts are so lovely. If I could have made those little hands work any faster I would of. I could use at least 100 more of them. I'd put them all over the windows, mirrors and hang them in front of the sliding doors that lead to our porch. Anyone want to send their kids over? (Why yes, I am currently accepting nominations for babysitter of the year.)