Did I Really Do That?

Sometimes you can really surprise yourself when your kid is really counting on it.  I don't really consider myself to be an artsy or creative type of person let alone have the patience to pull anything even remotely Pinterest worthy off.  But, I have to say, I actually accomplished something that I'm pretty damn proud of.

It all started with a picture that a few people posted on my Facebook timeline about a month or so before Halloween...

I can't seem to find who to give credit to for this picture, so if you know, please let me know so I can add it.

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Pinterest Inspiration

We've start a little unofficial tradition where Marshall gives family members ornaments for Christmas.  This year I didn't want to just buy ornaments so I turned to Pinterest for some inspiration.  Now, we've all seen the Pinterest fails that have been floating around the Internet so I didn't want to do anything that was going to take a lot of time and be a huge disappointment if it didn't turn out.  Easy, right?

Well, I came across this ornament that looked like it would be pretty easy to do.  Now… to get a crazy 3 year old to cooperate!

I picked up some of the plain $6.00 ornaments from Target.  I thought blue would make a pretty background.  I also picked up some sharpie markers, white poster paint, and sponge paint brushes from Michaels.

As soon as Marshall saw the supplies he got super excited for the pending messiness that was soon to come.

Next steps were to slather on the white paint on his hands and keep him from touching anything! Easier said then done but we managed to complete the whole project with only paint on our hands and the ornaments.

After our hands were good and painty (is that even a word???), the next step was to mark up the ornaments.  We just set the ornament in the palm of his hand and he wrapped his fingers around it.  Since Marshall's 3 and has the attention span of a flea, I had to move quick for each ornament as well as reapplying paint in between.  I only made him hold onto the ball for a few seconds.  We had a few smudged patterns but overall he did pretty well with the whole process.

And here are our drying ornaments waiting for the final touches to be added.

I originally tried to do all of the embellishments with Sharpie markers, but the blue ornament was too dark so the black hats weren't showing up very well so I turned to some adhesive backed felt for the hats.  Otherwise, I used a Sharpie for the eyes, nose, and buttons.  The marker did each through the paint a little bit, but you can really tell.  It is possible that a different type of paint would be better suited for this type of project if you are really particular, but the poster paint worked fine for what we needed it to do.  And here is our finished product!

Not too bad for our first Pinterest project :)

Have you had any successes or fails at Pinterest project attempts?

~AKO

2013 Goals

I hope everyone is recovering nicely from your New Year's Eve festivities!  We are trying to get back on our regular schedule tonight.  Marsh has been home from daycare the past two days so, of course, his schedule is all messed up.  But, more importantly, I am going back into our office in Manhattan tomorrow!  Yes, our office has finally reopened since Hurricane Sandy went through. 

We drove through the area on Sunday and it definitely isn't the same.  A lot of stores and restaurants are still boarded up.  There are a lot of generators and commercial dryers still in use.  The PATH trains are still not running between Hoboken and World Trade Center.  There is still a lot of recovery left but things are moving forward.  I'm a little torn about our return to the office tomorrow.  While I cannot wait to get back into an office environment, I'm not thrilled about commuting into the city again.  I've gotten used to being able to sleep in until 6:30 - 7 :00 everyday.  If I need to run an errand, I can do so on my lunch hour and be done in 15 minutes.  Starting tomorrow it is back up at 5:30 for the 1 - 1.5 hour commute into the city...

Today was kind of a lazy day for us.  I didn't take my pain killer last night until after midnight and, as a result, ended up sleeping until almost 10:00 am this morning!  I made a crock pot egg brunch breakfast from a recipe on Pinterest that cooked all night, so all we had to do was spoon it into a bowl and eat.  The recipe was ok, not great, but it was nice to not really have to cook this morning :)  Then I got everything finished up and in the crock pot for the roast that we were supposed to have last night.  I figure I had all the ingredients for it we might as well get it all cooked up!

I did get some organizing and laundry done today, but we pretty much didn't even get our of our pajamas!

I managed to get a shot of Marsh lounging on his new Batman bed from his Aunt Chelle.  He actually fell asleep on it and napped for 2 hours today!  It was the first time we've really been able to get him to nap at home in weeks.

This shot actually turned out ok...  Marsh was running around like a crazy person this evening and I just snapped the photo.  You can't even tell he is running towards me!

Anyway, it is time for all those New Year's resolutions to be posted!  I think I mentioned this last year, but I don't necessarily like call them resolutions.  I like to think of them as goals that are more likely to be completed.  So here is what I'm looking to accomplish in 2013...

1.  Read the bible in its entirety.  I've found a plan on the Internet that helps you read a little bit each week in order to complete the entire book by the end of the year.  I've been wanting to get involved in our local church for a while now and I'm hoping that by starting this goal is a good start for the year.

2.  Project 365.  So I've finally decided to take the plunge and do a Project 365.  You'll be able to see my progress on my Project 365 blog.

3.  Smash Book Journal.  I posted about this a couple days ago.  I recently ready about the Smash Book and thought it would be a fun way to document our year.  I plan for each page to cover 1 week in our lives at a glance.  As I complete pages I'll post them up for everyone to see.  If anyone else is doing or has done a smash book I'd love to see your results!

4.  Complete at least 1 Pinterest project each month.  I discovered the other day that I have pinned over 100 things to my boards on Pinterest.  It is about time I started doing some of them!  A project could consist of something crafty, or might just be a new recipe that we tried.  Either way I'm excited to do some new things!

5.  Get Healthy!  One of my best friends is turning 40 this year and booked us for a cruise to Bermuda for June.  Ahhhhh!!!  That is only 6 months away!!!  So, that being said, I would like to continue my quest to get healthy and active this year.  I've decided to target losing at least 5 lbs per month, which I think is doable.  It wouldn't get me to my goal weight by June, but it would put me in a place where I was comfortable with myself for a cruise.

So there you have it!  I think 5 goals for the year is not too daunting and everything is obtainable.

Have you made any goals for 2013?

~AKO

New Obsessions

Something that I wish I would have known about BEFORE Marshall was born???



I've recently been introduced to it and have found so many cute ideas for The Marsh! A few I think I'm still going to do since I still have a lot of his baby stuff. Some of my favorite finds so far...

Shadow Box with Marshall's Hospital Hat

Source: flickr.com via Amanda on Pinterest

A Picture of Marshall with a Clock Stopped at his Time of Birth

Source: blissimagesandbeyond.blogspot.com via Amanda on Pinterest

Yearly Picture with Marshall's Favorites Recorded

Source: thejoblingfamily.com via Amanda on Pinterest

If you're not already on Pinterest I highly recommend you join in the obsession!

~AKO