Just Make Stuff

A Week in the Life: Friday, Saturday and Sunday

Friday
1. Birthday text messages.
2. Cranking down the air conditioner as we get ready for guests.
3. I think that was the 4th trip to the grocery store in 24 hours, I lost count.
4. Sending a photo text with a quick dessert table preview.
5. Quick take-out dinner break after yet another trip to the grocery store.
Saturday
6. Crumpling up the party to-do list.
7. One of our friends and her toddler stayed the night so we had lots of toys out as we spent time together on Saturday.
8. A clean kitchen sink...all the party dishes were done.
9. Time for Mac to open the gifts from the party.
10. Granted it was a dessert party, but when Mac's grandma offers Filipino food the answer is always "Yes, please!".
Leftover lumpia was my main source of nutrition for the day.
11. The leftover party stuff waiting to be put away.
12. Sean will nap anywhere.
Sunday
13. Mac's new markers.
14. The thank-you-a-thon begins.
15. Trying to not be driven crazy by Mac leaving his shoes in the family room all day long.
16. If I had taken a picture of the dogs everyday this week it would have looked just like this, cozy on the couch.
17. Much needed groceries.
18. Finally painting the dresser I picked up back in April.
19. Clean sheets.
20. Making dinner including baked zucchini sticks.

I loved recording our week and capturing the simple things that would have otherwise been long forgotten. I can't wait to get all the photos together into some kind of project soon. 

A Week in the Life: Thursday

1. Actually started taking photos last night/early this morning. Here's Sean working on a birthday party project.
2. There I am working on what else, a birthday party project.
3. Mac wore a crown to school today (my sister made them as party favors for one of her kid's birthdays) just to make sure everyone knew it was his birthday tomorrow.
4. My favorite wall on the way to taking Mac to school. I really want to take photos there one day.
5. We were stuck at the train tracks forever so I had plenty of time to get the picture of that wall.
6. Neon dye that's been waiting a few weeks to be mixed into baked goods and frosting.
7. My sister convinced me to buy this book and claims it will make me realize I'm really a Republican not a die-hard liberal Democrat.
8. Target trip. We also went to the grocery store twice today.
9. Mac really wanted number candles so I packaged them up as a surprise while he's gone tomorrow.
10. Packed for a month, but he was just going to his aunt's (his dad's sister) for the night so we can work on all the party stuff.
11. If you're having a party in the backyard the grass has to be cut.
12. Costco hot dogs and pizza for dinner.
13. Sean sent me a dozen photos of all the baking he has done today (so far the count is over 300 mini dessert items).
14. I signed up for a Barre class and the first one was of course tonight of all nights, please keep your fingers crossed that I can move tomorrow.
15. The food dye in action. Anyone want a fluorescent mini cupcake?

Look for Friday's post sometime on Saturday...after we've (hopefully) recovered from Mac's Birthday Extravaganza 2011.

A Week in the Life: Wednesday

1. The snooze button and I were good friends this morning.
2. Jogging. I'm re-doing Couch to 5K trying to run faster this time.
3. It stayed cloudy until the early afternoon...my favorite kind of day.
4. Ironing a huge piece of fabric for a super secret project for the party.
5. Didn't get any photos of my friends over, so I got a shot of the mess we made.
6. Sean making brownie cup filling.
7. Me making cream cheese frosting.
8. Mini donut muffins in the oven for Mac to take to school tomorrow to share with his class.
9. The Costco hours we double checked only for it to be closed when Sean arrived at 8:32. He showed that to them and they still wouldn't let him in to get two things. They told him he could go to the grocery store. We were thrilled to say the least.

A Week in the Life: Tuesday

1. Sean set up this photo of his running gear...he mentioned that he made sure to show the time on his watch, 4:55am.
2. "Just one good smile for me before you go in please?" Okay, well thanks.
3. Through the gate and off to class.
4. Shamrock is my co-pilot for all school drop-offs.
5. Gummy vitamins are a highlight of my day.
6. Cottage cheese with a little season salt for breakfast along with skimming Twitter.
7. Meeting with a professor at school...parking where I'm not supposed to. (Paying $8 to park for less than an hour? No, thanks.)
8. Sean sent a photo of his classroom's schedule for the day.
9. Mac's snack on the way to tutoring.
10. Pedicure and magazine reading on the iPad.
11. The day's mail.
12. Trying a new cookie recipe that was kind of a bust.
13. The pile of clothes at the end of our bed.
14. One of the many projects in progress for Mac's party.
15. Taking care of a little bureaucratic nonsense for school.
16. Breakfast for dinner.
17. Mac's karate test...he earned a second stripe on his green belt.
18. Celebratory frozen yogurt.

Ten on Tuesday...

1. I did the math and realized we'll have hosted four events this week...including the big birthday. 

2. First was a breakfast with my roommate for a couple of weeks when I was in the hospital 15 years ago pregnant with Mac. So happy that we're still family friends and can reminisce with our soon to be fifteen year olds together.

3. Next was the water party...

   

4. The water rocket my sister gave Mac forever ago is still the best toy ever.

5. Next up is a simple get together with some friends on Wednesday...since all three are teachers and one will be coming from school we're having after school snacks. I'm making this Loaded Baked Potato Dip again.

6. I was just multi-tasking cooking up bacon bits for the dip while cutting coupons. 

7. Our next door neighbor gets two newspaper subscriptions and one day when I saw his pile of Sunday ads I mentioned how I loved going through them and cutting coupons. He said he never touches them and said he'd give them to me each week. Every Sunday since then he has walked over and put a pile on the bench next to our front door. How sweet is that? 

8. I forgot to add this photo to the Week in the Life collage yesterday. It's Mac making himself pasta with butter and cheese for lunch, his favorite meal ever...

9. I was asking him about his day at summer school as I snapped the photo and he explained he had to help out by taking two first grade girls who were caught kissing each other up to the office. 

10. The best part of this whole Week in the Life documentation thing is that both Mac and Sean seemed to think it was perfectly reasonable that I wanted to take photos of seemingly random stuff...and both offer to help.

A Week in the Life: Monday

I really wanted to participate in the "A Week in the Life" project, but I figured this week would be too busy...and I really didn't have it planned. By 10am I just couldn't resist and I was off and running documenting the details...

1. Recording the start time.
2. Dishes every morning...including washing at least one Magic Bullet mug.
3. Editing Mac's request list for the DJ (it was 2.5 pages).
4. Multigrain Cheerios way too late in the morning.
5. Fashion Police and the treadmill (I almost fell off from laughing).
6. Sean home from summer school and eating lunch.
7. Notes for the neighbors we don't know behind our house warning about the DJ noise on Friday.
8. The Amazon order of my favorite hair product arrived (bought in bulk since it's discontinued).
9. Working on a little math.
10. Mac's appointment to be casted for a new brace.
11. Had to get take-home boxes for the party (I love that store a little too much).
12. Leftover spaghetti for dinner.
13. Leftover blue jello and cool whip from yesterday's water party.
14. "Power-washing" his teeth with the waterpik.
15. Sean working on his shoulder physical therapy exercises while we work on more party planning.

I think the reason I was worried this week would be too busy with all the party planning for Mac's birthday will end up being the best part of the undertaking this.  

Only six...

So I counted on Friday afternoon, as I was putting three new layouts away in our scrapbooks, and realized I have only scrapped six pages so far from 2011. Granted I've done other design work that about triples that number, but only six memories have been saved this year and that number has to change quickly. 

Here's one that I haven't shared yet...

The photo was from back in January and most of the items are from a recent Studio Calico kit with a few other little things (and tags) mixed in.

I'm think I'm going to need an August page-a-day commitment or something...I want to make sure I catch up before that whole grad school thing gets in my way again.

Starred...

1. these are a few of my favorite things, 2. wheelie, 3. More with DIY Fabric Stickers, 4. Untitled, 5. Untitled, 6. Sofa, 7. sketchbook 02, 8. Industrial Kitchen Cart

Good stuff from the past week...

• Washi tape on a gift tag...so simple and so perfect. Good thing I have just a few rolls.
• Such a great layout with the tags across the top...and every inch of these are super inspiring.
• I might need to pick up a couple extra paint chips next time we shop for a new project.
• Oh color combos I love you...one, two, three, four, five
• Really want to learn to cross stitch one day.
• These Rocky Road Bars look awfully tempting.

{Starred is a post every Saturday that includes recent Flickr Favorites and the blog entries I've found & saved (with a star) in my Google Reader}

 

A little summer celebrating...

Okay maybe I mentioned earlier this week that I am already craving all things fall, but there's still plenty of summer fun to be had. 

Over the years I've tried to make little holiday themed packages to send to my niece in Iowa and six year old sister in Oklahoma. This year I didn't put together a 4th of July box like I have in years past so I sent along a summer box. It included bubbles, a big beach ball and a pack of water balloons... 

Then closer to home we're going to have more summer fun this weekend hosting a water party with a very small guest list...my nephew and two nieces.

As Mac has been growing up we would have "water games" in the summer (you can see photos here and here)  We'd simply chase each other around with the hose and buckets in our front yard. Now we're hoping to make this a little summer tradition with our nieces and nephew until they start to become super cool teenagers too. 

We have all of Mac's old sprinkler toys, Sean and I made these sponge balls and I'm excited to plan a little water themed meal. I even mailed them an invitation today...just trying to ensure they drive my sister crazy with lots of, "When are we going to Auntie Nora's???"

I guess summer's not so bad (as I sit inside in the air conditioning).

A go-to gift...

Honestly baby gifts can still be little tough nowadays, but regardless of any lingering struggles we are still so genuinely happy to celebrate. One of my cousins on the other side of the country recently had her first child and we put together my go-to gift...toys. I really, really love giving a little group of toys that can be tossed in the diaper bag to be ready to keep little hands entertained while they're out and about. I actually still have most of Mac's small toys...including our very favorite stacking cups which are usually included with any toy themed gift, but Target didn't have any...

And colorful toys need a colorful card...

Okay maybe it's kind of simple, but all the colors are there. 

26 inches...

As my craft room has come back together again there are some very exciting changes. Obviously the desk is number one, but what the desk holds is really downright magical.

That drawer you see there...it's 26 inches long. It's also 13 inches wide and 6 inches deep in case you were wondering. There's another one on the other side too. But this drawer is the best one since it holds my rainbow of stamp pads. There they are all together...organized and just waiting to share their ink. It gets better though...

A chart of colors has been created which is totally overdue in the grand scheme of craft room organization. I can hardly contain how happy this makes me. This chart sits in one of my file drawers...don't even get me started about the amazing 26 inch long storage in there. 

I probably just blogged the most boring entry ever. Please tell me I'm not the only one who finds this exciting. If I am I promise to stamp you an apology...in an array of colors.

Ten on Tuesday...

1. Here's our Renegade loot that I didn't share on Sunday night...

2. There's a fall tree print from Hero Design Studio and we each got a zippered pouch from Little Birds. I of course could not resist some polka dotted washi tape from Paper Pastries and I bought some fabric stickers and Mac got his robot necklace from Oh Hello Friend. There's also one yard of vintage ribbon, but I can't remember where it came from.

3. Like clockwork every year during the second week of July I start craving all things fall-ish. I want cozy...I want football...I want pumpkin everything. 

4. Seeing this new scrapbook line today didn't help.

5. But then I saw these stamps at the end of all that cute fall patterned paper. Doesn't my organizer NEED these stamps?

6. This past week Mac has opened his mouth for me to check that he has all of his spacers about 437 times. It looks like this... 

7. On Sunday we took the last photos before braces...only 173 of them.

8. As of yesterday his mouth is full of metal and neon colors. I don't have a photo of that yet.

9. With the party fast approaching I have fully embraced all things neon. Over the weekend Mac and I found shirts at H&M. Then today Sean and I bought a couple of cartloads of fluorescent fun, but I can't share any of it in case the birthday boy is reading this. 

10. Okay the Etsy shop needs to get a little more cleaned out so I can start working on it's future plans. All orders are 25% off with this coupon code: CLEAN. Now the grab bags and garage sale boxes are even more of a deal.

Why I loved this weekend with Mac...

Because he was totally game for going out to the middle of nowhere (Irvine Lake) with me for a food truck festival while Sean was golfing.
Because he is also obsessed with the Lime Truck's ultimate taco...and shares my deep love for garlic aioli.
Because he immediately ran up to the cheese ball sign and wanted me to take a picture.
Because he acted like I'd poisoned him when I gave him a minuscule bite of my lobster roll to try.
Because he loved seeing that there's a Filipino food truck even though he's 50% more Filipino than I am, yet refuses to realize the true magic of lumpia.
Because he really wanted to go to Renegade.
Because he makes an awesome secretary making phone calls for me while I'm driving.
Because he was super excited when he found a fluorescent robot necklace with nerd glasses.
Because he loved meeting Danni from Oh Hello Friend and asked questions about her for the rest of the afternoon.
And because on the way back to our car he ran into the middle of the abandoned street and threw up his arms with downtown Los Angeles in the background.
Can you tell I had a really fun weekend with him? 

Starred...

1. good friday, 2. Picture 663, 3. Addicted to instagram http://instagr.am/p/HcbIf/, 4. Kitchen shelf, 5. 5 Minute DIY: Fabric Sticker Card, 6. Loads of Ranuncks, 7. In my office this morning, 8. happy

This week's favorites...

• I want to plant a succulent garden right now.
• Color combinations...one, two, three, four.
• A crocheted headband...hmmmmm.
• Love this clean, simple and colorful house.
• These are the next cookies I should immediately stop and make.

{Starred is a post every Saturday that includes recent Flickr Favorites and the blog entries I've found & saved (with a star) in my Google Reader}

Stop what you're doing...

Last night we planned a last minute picnic and went to a local concert in the park. I made one of our favorite sandwiches and tried a new pasta salad combination. However the most important aspect of this meal was the cookies...which I do not have a photo of yet. I dug through my pile of recipes waiting to be tried and found Outrageous Chocolate Chip Cookies. At the time I printed it out it had been reviewed over six hundred times and was a five star recipe.

Sean whipped them up for us since he is the resident baker. One bite of these things has changed both of our lives for the better. As I said to him, I know now if I ever find a recipe that is that high rated again I now know I need to stop whatever I'm doing and make it right that moment. 

I'm sure as you're reading this you've got plenty of other stuff to do today, but if you do stop everything and try them I'd love to know what you think.

Party time...

The countdown is on...only 16 more days until Mac's birthday. The invitations were finally sent out earlier this week after Mac endlessly text-messaged to track down his friend's addresses.  This year we're having a dance party with a dessert bar and lots of fluorescent colors...

The post office even helped us out with fluorescent stamps...

Our printer wasn't so helpful since it didn't seem to understand what a fluorescent color is...but the dots seemed fun anyway.

Now we're busy planning the playlist to give to the DJ, figuring out a menu full of sugar and Mac & I need to find burn-your-eyes-out bright shirts to wear as we get down with our badselves. Can't wait...

The box goes to...

{Sunflowers picked from our garden yesterday}

The box of embellishments goes to...

Comment #44 jen said... heck yeah ... I'd love to win!   July 11, 2011 at 08:31 PM

Jen please e-mail me your address and it will be on it's way to you! 

Ten on Tuesday...

1. I bought a shiny brand new box of number two pencils today. They will be used for this.

2. I spent part of the weekend with this stack...

3. I learned three things: 1) I really enjoy grading papers. 2) You should put them in alphabetical order somehow when your grading 90 papers otherwise imputing the grades into the computer will be a major pain (thanks Sean for mentioning that). 3) I am absolutely terrible at pronouncing people's name. I am going to have horrified students on the first day of every semester. 

4. Mac would like to inform you all that he got spacers today in preparation for braces next Monday at 3pm. It is the topic of converation around here about every 2 minutes.

5. Ironically I stumbled on this scrapbook page from back in the day. So glad that he's still talking as much as he ever.

6. Sean may have his Mud Run...but I think I found my kind of 5K. It's a little late to register for this year since we all ready have plans this weekend, but man do I want to participate in Munchathon 2012.

7. Seeing tiny white Christmas lights in this room inspired me to get out of the boxes I made sure to grab at the end of last year just in case I needed them. I put them up on a top shelf and now it's glowing with my globe collection...

8. It includes the light-up globe I found this past weekend. It was hiding way back in a basement corner of the antique store right next to the frozen yogurt place that I'm a little to obsessed with...

9. What did we ever do in life before there was cake batter flavored frozen yogurt?

10. Another room clean-out task was going through my overstuffed card storage box.

I listed a few grab bags if you happen to need some greeting cards.

Garage Sale Time...

After a big clean out last week it's officially garage sale time...all of these boxes are full of deals.

You can check them out here.

There is also one extra small flat rate box stuffed with embellishments waiting to be shared.
Please leave a comment if you'd like it to arrive at your house.
Winner will be randomly drawn on Wednesday. 

 

Starred...

1. Swedish "slagbaenk", 2. Untitled, 3. good mail makes the day seem so much nicer...186/365, 4. days of the weeks, 5. May inspiration wall, 6. apples, pears and rhubarb, 7. A Room of My Own, 8. Maio2011 005

Good stuff from this past week...

• Having a lemonade stand, hosting a cake party, and getting an apartment in Paris all seem like a really good idea.
• Love this invitation and these covered notebooks.
• Great layouts full of colorful details.
• I want to make flowers out of hearts too.
• This backyard and this bedroom are both super inspiring spaces.
• Cute colors...one, two, and three.

{Starred is a post every Saturday that includes recent Flickr Favorites and the blog entries I've found & saved (with a star) in my Google Reader}

Live from the craft room...

The rearranging project from the lucky desk acquisition is almost complete. It has involved a lot of spackle and an appointment with the cable company today.

It also involved some cleaning out...look for another blog garage sale very soon. 

There are little white twinkly lights in here now and I love them.

Amidst the mess I was able to craft up a few more Authentique projects...I've had lots of fun combining the lines together.

I have a stack of statistics homework to go through and grade which now proves that I will not only procrastinate on my own homework, but other's work as well.

There is fluorescent cardstock in here for Mac's birthday party invitations.

Okay, you're officially updated on all craft room happenings as of 11:03pm. 

Tagged...

I mentioned last week that I had three gifts to wrap...they actually all ended up as sort of wrapped with office tags.

First there was a t-shirt for our teenage neighbor who was off to volunteer for his first year of camp. We figured he wouldn't really want a cutesy backpack like we made his sister last year so we got a shirt to go with this year's theme. You'd never guess what the theme is, right?

Then there was a housewarming gift for some family friend's that recently purchased their first home. This was a total Martha Stewart copy-cat gift that I was so excited to put together from the first moment I saw it on Pinterest a couple of months ago.

Finally my mom's best friend's birthday was last week so I wanted to get her a little something. She shares my appreciation for gift wrapping and all things cute so she needed twine, right? I bought her a sampler pack, found spools to wrap them around, and a jar to store them in...

I really love those alphabet stamps...even with the mess they often can leave on the side.  

Love that a simple tag can get the gift wrapping job done quickly.

Ten on Tuesday...

1. We had 17 straight hours of 4th of July celebrating...we're a little tired today.

2. Sean was up bright and early to teach his first day of summer school. I was up bright and early because a few weeks ago I thought it'd be a good idea to send Mac off an an airplane at 8:18am.

3. It was because I wanted him to have the best of both worlds...not miss our block party and not entirely miss his dad's family trip to Las Vegas.

4. Of course when I told Mac's dad this he asked, "So you worry about Mac taking an iPod back and forth between our two houses, but you're not worried to put him on a plane by himself?"

5. No, but as he walked out to the plane I acted like I wouldn't see him for a year instead of just the five days he'll be gone...

6. His flight was delayed two hours for mechanical reasons so we left at 6:20am for the airport and he left the ground at 10:37am. In other words I could have pretty much driven him to Vegas in less time.

7. The delay did give us time to write up the invite list for his birthday and to add a few movies to our Netflix queue. This post started it with one of my favorite movies growing up. Mac will be well-versed in movies from the late 80's when he gets back.

8. Can I please leave it at "Only Eight on Tuesday" tonight instead of the usual ten? I'm off to bed... 

Stars & stripes and lots of food...

(Have I ever mentioned I have an incurable Anthropologie Latte Bowl obsession?)

We spent most of Sunday in the kitchen getting ready for the big celebration. We help host our neighborhood block party and simultaneously have our friends and family over at our house so it's the best reason to make lots of food. 

We have our traditional dishes...potato salad, baked beans and a berry trifle.

But, now that there's Pinterest in the world three more recipes just had to be tried...

There's Loaded Baked Potato Dip, Cake Batter Truffles and Creamsicle Fruit Dip. All three have been heavily sampled during our cooking marathon and are all ridiculously tasty.

Hope you have good stuff on your menu too...Happy 4th of July!

Starred...

1. mille fleurs, 2. Strawberry Milkshake, 3. Je, 4. mmmmm. masking tape., 5. Peace is not something your wish for; it's something you make, something you do, something you are, and something you give away., 6. poppies, 7. Hoop flowers | Two, 8. Sweet Potato & Carrot Soup

This week's favorites...

• Let's start with color combinations...one, two, three, four, five.
• Wish I had time to craft up some pinwheels, decorate our house perfectly, and make a million crafts for the 4th of July.
• I love these pages (and her commentary on each one), this has me wanting to record each week, and there are so many inspiring digital pages here.
• These color posts are always like winning the creative lottery.

{Starred is a post every Saturday that includes recent Flickr Favorites and the blog entries I've found & saved (with a star) in my Google Reader}

G3: June

In June...

• Sean ran through the mud.
• Mac had an action packed social schedule.
• We had the last day of school.
• There was U2.
• Sean and Mac both finally got their haircut for the first time in over six months.
• The seven year warranty on our minivan came to an end...fingers crossed from now on.
• Mac preformed in "Into the Woods".
• I became obsessed with buttons on jars and teacher gifts.
• Sean ran a hundred thousand miles. Just kidding it was only 109.36. 
• We made our summer to do list.

{G3 is a end of the month wrap-up for our little family}