Decorate Your Soul

Monthly Archives: February 2010

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Waiting Out Winter

February 27, 2010 – 9:12 pm

I turned up the furnace today from 68 degrees to 72 degrees.

It helped some, but I was still cold.

So I turned on our fireplace and waited for heat. Come heat, come in and fill me with warmth.

Nothing.

I dragged out a throw, invited Lauren over and tickles with the little one ensued. Some stories were read. Some giggles shared. But still COLD. Brr.

And then I thought a pot of coffee might help.

So I walked over to the kitchen, and saw that the other person over four feet tall might have left the oven on from lunch.

And 400 degrees sounded just right.

So, I ceased the opportunity to get warm.

_MG_5628 I heard Spring is just around the corner and I believe we are eagerly awaiting her arrival.

By Susie | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (6)

Modern Day Play Date

February 26, 2010 – 9:30 pm

I had to giggle at this coincidence from yesterday to today when I found one of my girls paired up side by side their friend playing.

Not with one another, but on an electronic device. I have a feeling that this is more common than not!

Here’s Ash with her old pal Ethan playing- each on their own Leapster:

_MG_5311 And earlier tonight, Lauren paired up with her pal Brie and we caught them tinkering away on their mama’s iTouch/iPhone playing on the “Suzy Dress Up” app.

_MG_5433 Cute, no? But a little disturbing, too. No worries, each pair only lasted a few minutes before they were off and running, building and playing like it was an old fashioned play date!

By Susie | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (2)

Ten on Tednesday*

February 24, 2010 – 9:11 pm

Screen_shot *Hey, it worked for Bennifer

1. I was checking out Google maps earlier when I noticed a distracting shadow on the left. Irritated, I did a second look and noticed that the bubble of information provided by Google has it’s own virtual shadow. Annoying. And clever.

2. Goodness gracious, I think I uploaded that screen shot 6 times and it’s still in the wrong place. Well, I’m leaving it and moving on.

3. Lauren is currently obsessed with writing her “ABCD’s.” She was performing some aboriginal dance while the older girls were at AWANA and every few seconds would run over and jot a few notes down.

4. I want to keep every. little. thing. they write. I love this stage of kid writing. I found a note that Sarah had written for her and Ashleigh’s spy club the other day. It was a list of places they had looked for the thief in our house (there was no thief, they were just pretending) and I love that she taking a chance at apostrophes!

5. Andy is cleaning out some drawer that houses uniform ribbons and patches. He has decided that ranks from ten years ago can finally find the round circular file.

6. I am really stinkin’ up the blog posting lately. I apologize to all my loyal readers (hi Mom) (and the other 7 of you ). I think I might be recovering from that Valentine tutorial down there still.

7. I have finally found a class for me that doesn’t involve dancing routines and I can keep up- Urban Iron works your upper body with weights. Who knew I would like it so much?

8. Our date night went pretty late on Saturday night so we perused the aisles of crafty books… Andy is currently into woodworking and is dreaming of making our kids new beds… across the aisle was a colorful scrapbook challenge book headed up by this gal here. Since I remembered to look up Lizzy’s blog, I have been leaving it open in a second window letting her music choices fill my background. I wish I could find unique artists with such wonderful tunes on my own, but if it’s already been done, why fight it?

9. While taking that upper body weight class this morning, I noticed how deathly WHITE I am. Or perhaps the lady in the next row may have been TOO MUCH fake-n-bake. So, I’m not sure.

10. I have a little March challenge sitting in front of me… that actually involves spreading joy. And that’s always a good thing

_MG_5298 Happy Tednesday!! <smirk>

By Susie | Posted in Ten on Tuesday | Comments (11)

4 of 10 free things I love to do: Be Hospitable.

February 19, 2010 – 9:51 pm

_MG_5084-Edit I think it goes without saying that I love opening our home up to friends. It’s definitely free to invite guests in, friends and acquaintances, near and far. I remember the first time I had a large crowd over in my tiny little apartment in Chino Hills- it was just a lame-o game night and get together, a time for my friends to meet my love. I just remember that my heart was so full from laughter and fellowship and common denominators.

In each of our homes, we make reasons to get peeps together (why do I use the word peeps? I don’t think I ever use that word in my everyday vocabulary?), whether it be Bible study, game night, card making, pool parties (not here, but you know, where it’s warm) or wine tasting (as seen above by friend Susan, wine connoisseur), these get togethers bring our favorite people together. I can’t think of a better thing I enjoy doing more that costs absolutely nothing!

(Note: If you come to visit, please don’t look at my baseboards. Here’s the deal: I can’t ever seem to clean those before the day of people visiting and it is the only day I think to do it and have no time. I become a stress case! Luckily, visuals like this help me let it all go. Sort of.)

By Susie | Posted in 10 Free Things I love | Comments (4)

Ten on Tuesday, if I hurry.

February 16, 2010 – 10:20 pm

1. The girls have discovered the best bag of chips ever. It has a mixture of pretzels, Doritoes, Sun Chips and Cheetoes. My heart is probably aching at the thought of them, but they are oh SO good. They ask for them by the name of “Mix.”

2. There have been so many snow days in the past week coupled with two holidays that Sarah has gone to school twice in ten days.

3. My pinkies and ring fingers have been experiencing some numbing sensation. Of course I Googled it and am all freaked out. I keep reminding myself that Web, MD. is not my doctor.

4. Although, I’m not sure who my doctor is.

5. Sarah, Lolo and I went sledding behind my friend Susan’s house today. The snow was so soft and fresh, that we started out just sinking. Nice for my ego. Ash stayed home with Andy, she’s just NOT that into sledding. In the cold.

6. Andy sent off our headache of taxes tonight. I love him for coming down and measuring our sitting room as office space used for my business.

7. I have not forgotten about the 10 Free Things I love. I’m having a hard time capturing some photos for it is all.

8. Andy and I have a full on date night this Saturday- I’m so excited to see that Valentine’s Day movie with like everyone famous in it I love romantic comedies.

9. I participated in a book exchange of sorts (where I was supposed to receive something like 36 books and actually received all of 2). One of them was Still Alice by Lisa Genova. I devoured it in three days (3 days is devouring by my normal standards). I just wanted to post that to impress my crazy quick reading friend Sandi And I very much liked the book.

10. We’ve spent a good amount of time investing in our driveway this past week. With two snowstorms in a matter of a week, we’ve got quite the collection of snow piled up by our mailbox. _MG_5018 Happy Tuesday-ish! (shh! It’s Tuesday somewhere in America still!)

By Susie | Posted in Ten on Tuesday | Comments (13)

Valentine 2010 Shenanigans

February 14, 2010 – 10:16 pm

mosaic8f57b61fd17419494a746ba412b811a4ec479284 We might be here for the rest of the month if I chatted up this past week’s fun. In the interest of time and space, here’s a little glimpse into our fun-filled Hallmark holiday… the girls enjoyed making cupcakes, potato stamp painting, sharing Valenitne’s with their classmates and waking up to a table of handmade cards by their daddy. Speaking of- can you see that stinker checking out his iPhone while pretending to kiss me?

“I love you more than my iPhone.”

Mmm-hmmm, sure you do <3.

Happy Valentine’s Day, friends

By Susie | Posted in Family | Comments (6)

Handmade Valentines from my {heart}

February 13, 2010 – 10:37 pm

Did you get into the {hearts} and love fest over these past couple of weeks? What better way to share with those you love than a handmade Valentine? A few of mine that should be safe to showcase here for all of my loved ones should have received theirs by today (phew!)…

This first one was inspired by a card posted on Write. Click. Scrapbook. Those buttons aren’t as easy to set up in a {heart} as you might think :

_MG_4577 In this second card, I love these little birdies together, and I really love them on pop dots. To get a this look, you stamp directly on the background paper, use a second sheet, stamp the body again and Xacto out the silhouette . Pop dot the birdy above the legs.

Untitled-16 Andy called this next one my ”Love Behind Bars” card. I think the hearts on string was a fun touch- I’ve showed the inside of the card on the right so you can see how I camouflaged the string behind the front. This can easily be switched out for other themes, I think. Topping my mental list is a polka dot card!

Untitled-14 In this fourth card, a simple and quick card was created with scraps (I think this may have been better with markers, alas, I only have colored pencils on hand):

Untitled-13 This quick and super simple design was inspired from a layout that my friend Elizabeth has done before with folded ribbon under some text. I can’t seem to find the link tonight for her layout, but I can assure you, you can make this quick and easy card in under five minutes Hallmark cards have nothing on you!

Untitled-15 Happy Valentine’s Day, my friends Thank you for stopping by!

By Susie | Posted in Crafty | Comments (5)

Valentine’s Candy Boxes (& a mini-tutorial)

February 11, 2010 – 1:49 pm

Last Friday, I suggested to the girls that we get started on Valentine’s for their classes- I thought both girls would have parties on Friday before V-day, but as it turns out, one was today and two are tomorrow. Needless to say, we had a good amount of time to prep and I’m a little bit on Valentine overload today (we threw together something entirely different for Lo’s class). But, these boxes are too cute not to share and if you’re in a crunch at midnight tonight, you can check to see if you have the main ingredients on hand and make a few of your own for parties tomorrow!

Last fall, I went to a Stampin’ Up party at my friend Beverly’s and one of the projects we made were these adorable little candy boxes. Someone (Sarah) didn’t forget about these and she grabbed the token one we had and presented it to me. She wanted to bring to her classmates. How could I not say yes- we had EVERYthing except the candy to make them:

_MG_4402 _MG_4413 I’m a little squeamy with the cute overload here- wait until we get to the pink ones…

When the boxes open, they are just as darling as can be, holding four Hershey nugget candies:

Untitled-9

You can even stamp on letter labels and wrap the chocolate up to personalize them- the girls had a fabulous time doing this part (actually, the stamping was ALL them):

Untitled-10 Here is a quick shot of my little helpers all hard at work last weekend:

_MG_4400-Edit

I know you want to make your own, so here’s how:

Valentine Candy Boxes Tutorial

Materials:

Ribbon

2 sheets of 4 X 5 cardstock (scored 1″ on all sides)

stamps!

letter labels

double sided tape

Ready, set, go!

1. Using two pieces of 4″ X 5″ cardstock, score all sides with a 1″ margin (picture left below). Fold on the lines.

2. Cut 1″ on the fold of the longer sides toward center four times to create the bottom of the box (picture left below). Set aside.

3. For the top of the box, you will cut off the back fold of the corners to create a square missing and cut 1″ into the crease on the fold on the long side (picture right below). This is a good time to stamp your image on the top of the box above the bottom fold line.

Untitled-12 4. Wow. Typing tutorials are kind of tough.

5. Using double sided tape, place it on the inside of either end of the bottom part of the box (in between cuts) and fold corners in:

_MG_4526

6. Lift the flap and it will adhere to the smaller corners already folded in. Repeat on other end of the box.

_MG_4527 The bottom will look like this once you have both sides up:

_MG_4529 7. What step am I on? Shoot.

8. Okay, back to the top of the box. Take the scored sides and fold them all down, the front corners will be tucked under the outside flaps. Place double sided tape there on the little corner.

_MG_4522 _MG_4524 9. Decorate top with ribbon, adhere across and under the top lid if desired. I had used glue dots under the ribbon, but wound up reinforcing with regular tape under the lid.

_MG_4533

_MG_4535 10. Almost done, stick with me here

11. Flip the top of the box upside down and add a piece of double sided tape to the back flap. Then you will adhere it to one of the longer sides of the bottom part of the box to connect the two:

_MG_4544

_MG_4547

_MG_4548 Once you close the box top, you’re complete with your Valentine Candy box. You can stamp the labels and wrap them around the nuggets later. Or eat them and stuff the box with an IOU. Don’t you deserve it? Good job!

By Susie | Posted in Crafty | Comments (11)

Ten on Tuesday

February 9, 2010 – 6:58 pm

1. I’m currently using a bookmark that I picked up from Starbucks on my trip to Japan some years ago. Today I giggled because after 8 years, I still have no idea what it says!

2. Our week has been full of craftiness in preparation for Valentine’s Day festivities and my dining room table has been a little bit under pink and red!

3. Speaking of UNDER, our driveway was under snow this morning and after one hour of shoveling, my left arm felt like it was going to fall off and I almost cried. So I started daydreaming of moving to the desert. One point for year round heat.

4. The problem with girls is that they (can) have a lot of hair items. And they don’t always get put back into the bathroom drawer UPstairs. So, that leaves us with hair items all around the house. The advantage of that is that at any given moment when I feel the need to throw my hair back, there are usually hairbands hidden in side tables, junk drawers or under sofas. Seriously. Ridiculous.

5. I did buy a couple of new hairbands for myself from this little shop on etsy. They arrived in the snow a couple of days ago and I’m so very happy with the new rosebuds that are making me feel cute with an ugly bob-do.

6. I was passing through a high school friend’s blog and was rocking out to “Party in the USA.” “Got my hands up and they’re playin’ my song and I know I’m going to be okay. It’s a party in the USA.” I can see my sister rolling her eyes now. Or joining me. hee-hee.

7. I’m so excited for March! Shannon visits! My aunt and folks visit! Thai 9 - TWICE! Andy graduates! Spring break! Life. Is. Good. and busy.

8. I never wanted my blog to be JUST the Ten on Tuesday blog, so I feel extra special pressure to blog in between Tuesdays this year. It’s always on my mind that I have to fill the week with something other. If you’re a Ten on Tuesday’er- I was wondering if you feel the same way?

9. I followed through with a little pantry detailing after last week’s post. As expected, I have a little pantry pride going on and have been known to just stand and gaze at how nice & tidy everything looks

_MG_4551

(truth be known, I didn’t think I needed labels until someone else started to put things back into the wrong places. So the tags are helpful reminders for the someone.

I drew him a map, too. Kidding.

10. My friend Janine posted a snow day recipe challenge on facebook today (it was not a challenge, but doesn’t that sound more exciting?)- so the girls and I got busy with ingredients on hand. I didn’t have a brownie box mix, so I used Pioneer Woman’s brownie recipe from her cookbook and added this recipe’s delicious topping- ohmyword! Make these soon!!

_MG_4560

Happy Tuesday!

By Susie | Posted in Ten on Tuesday | Comments (11)

Sunday Morning Tea

February 8, 2010 – 9:41 pm

This past Sunday morning, both Lauren and I spent the morning at home while Andy took the older girls to church. For over a week, Lauren and I have been coughing up just about everything under the sun and Sunday was no different. Before long, I coerced myself from the sofa to do some laundry and the rest of the house was as quiet as can be, just the hum drum of the dryer and a little mouse setting up another tea party.

After awhile, the familiar pitter patter of three-year-old little feet were at my side inviting me in for a lovely tea party. A darling scene ensued:

Untitled-6 Untitled-5

Have some tea, Mama! A little for her friends, too.

_MG_4423

A very important part of a tea party around these parts is Snow White’s vase with plastic flower (it cracks me up that they go searching for this before the tea party can begin):

Untitled-3

Lauren’s such a gracious hostess:

_MG_4441-Edit

She didn’t forget storytime during the tea party- I love that she happened to have Sarah’s Bible close by and that she was “reading” about Joseph to us (never mind that Sarah didn’t bring her Bible to church):

Untitled-4 _MG_4452 _MG_4455-Edit She’s a very animated storyteller