Home Tour Tuesday....My Peaceful Place

It is Tuesday again and time for another edition of.......






This week the theme is 'My Peaceful Place.' I am not going to lie, I really don't have too many places in my home that are considered to be 'peaceful.' With 2 kids and a hubby, does any mom ever truly have peace? Sometimes I wish I did have a place where I could just escape it all. But, the reality of it is, this hectic life is mine and without the noise and craziness, I wouldn't be happy : )

So, here are two place that I like to relax. And you have already seen them both. The first is outside in our yard. We have a really nice, big pond in the back with koi fish. I love to sit outside, especially at night, and just listen to the sound of the water. Of course, my hubby did all of the landscaping and did the pond from scratch and that makes it more special. I can't find the rest of pics, so this will have to do. And I can't take a picture now as it is covered in leaves...LOL!

I bought this lounger over the summer. The pic above is the stock picture. I guess I never got around to taking photos of my own. But I love to sit here, next to the pond, and just relax.

The second place I like to go to escape is here....

This is my sewing area. When I am down here, I am alone. No kids and no hubby. It is quiet and I can just sit and create. Here is where is truly is the most 'peaceful.'

But, someday I told my hubby I want this....

A cozy little cottage in the woods. Just for me. Obviously that is not me in the picture, but I can see myself standing out front, couldn't you? This would really be my 'peaceful' place.

 

Have a great day....

Miscellany Monday...

Happy Cyber Monday everyone! I am sure that blogland is going to be S-L-O-W today because everyone is shopping : )  I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend. I know we did. Now, on to some random musings.....




ONE. I will start off telling you that Thanksgiving was hectic, fun, long and that I think I gained 5 lbs. this weekend. I played hostess to my hubby's family...I pretty much cooked everything. Boy, hosting is alot of work. It takes 2 days to clean your house, hours to prepare and cook and then hours to clean again after everyone leaves. All for 5 hours on Thanksgiving Day. I would not change it though. Spending time with family and making memories is all worth it. I was too busy to snap some shots. Here is all I got....

The boys waiting for our guests to arrive...

My turkey (my FIL was just starting to cut it, so don't mind the torn skin)...it looked good when it came out, I swear!

Anthony and I at the end of the night.....hot, tired, stuffed and ready for bed!

TWO. As happy as I was at how nice Thanksgiving turned out, I was even more ecstatic about my nails. Remember I told you that I took off my acrylics last week and got the gel laquer??? I am in love. My nails are usually very weak after taking off artificial nails and I would have to use products for months to get them back to healthy. I had acrylic on because the polish chips in a day on natural nails. Well, this is not the case with gel laquer. The process took a little longer than I thought, but it was well worth it.  After cleaning, cooking and everyday dish washing....there has not been one chip in my polish in a week!!

Wow...these pics make my hands look stubby....LOL!

THREE. I do not know if everyone is aware of a great website where Santa sends your kids a personlized email. Yes, I know, Santa is emailing these days. It is called http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/. We did it last year and again this year. You plug all of your child's info into the sheet as well as upload some pics. It takes a few minutes but it is well worth your time. Christopher was over the moon when he opened his over the weekend.

FOUR.  One more thing while we are on Santa. What do you tell your kids as far as presents and others are concerned. I mean, does your child think that Grandma and Grandpa buy him presents on Christmas too? Or does Santa leave presents at their house for your child??  I am not sure what I should be telling Christopher. I want him to learn the spirit of giving and us buying things for others, but is he going to get confused??

Almost Wordless Wednesday and Turkey Game

Thanksgiving celebration at Christopher's school......

                                                                                                                          

I did a gues post over at my friend Allie's yesterday. In case any of you missed it I thought I would share it with you. It is a Thanksgiving game that the kids and I put together that we are going to play at our house this year. We always have an issue with saying grace before our meal. I guess everyone is afraid of public speaking and no one wants to say it. I am hoping this little game will help break the ice.

First, I had my sons trace their hands. Of course, we are making turkeys : ) I made enough hands so that there would be enough for all of our guests. Then the kids colored them and I cut them out.

I then flipped over the turkeys and wrote a question on the back of each.  Some examples of questions are..
1. Which season do you appreciate the most and why?
2. What invention are you most thankful for?
3. What are you thankkful for everyday?
4. What two items in your home are you most thankful for?

After that, I grabbed a glass vase and placed all of the turkeys in there. I was going to just place a festive bow on the front. But then my son Christopher came home with this turkey that he made in school.

I decided to tape it to the front of the vase. You can really decorate the vase however you want. You don't even have to use a vase. Any bowl or box would work fine too.

Now, anyone that wants to eat my Thanksgiving meal is going to have to pick a question from the vase and answer it. It will be a great way to get everyone to express some sort of thanks. And I am sure my kids are going to get a kick out seeing everyone holding one of their hands!

Have a great Turkey Day!

Home Tour Tuesday and Guest Posting

Okay ladies...two more days until Thanksgiving. Are your homes starting to smell like pumpkin pie? Mine is not. I am so behind. I have been a slacker this year. I am usually much more prepared. But I know it will all get done. It always does : )

First off, I am so thankful to be guest posting over at my friend Allie's. She is amazing. I have a little Thanksgiving game that I am sharing with her readers. Stop by and check it out.






Today I am also linking up over at my friend Shannon's for Home Tour Tuesday. The theme today is 'two things around your house you are thankful for.'





The first thing I am thankful for is this....

Yes, it is a doorknob. A few months ago we were doing some painting around the house and making some minor upgrades. One of the things we changed were the interior room doors. Well, we did not have doorknobs on for a very long time. My hubby has finally started to replace them! I never realized how important a doorknob could be. We all know that as a mom we never have any time alone, even in the shower or the bathroom. Well, I have come to the conclusion, that I need a bathroom doorknob! I want to lock the door and have 5 minutes to myself. Now I am going to take that time since I have a doorknob that locks. Thank you Pella.

The second thing I am thankful for is this...

This is the rocker that I have used with both of my kids. It reminds me of all of the time I have spent, and still do spend, sitting with my boys on those late nights. The nights when they were sick or teething. Or just wanted their mama. I know that Anthony is getting bigger and I will probably not be spending as much time in this chair in the months to come. But I am thankful for the time and memories this chair has brought to our family. I will treasure them and keep them close to my heart forever. Thank you Babies R Us.

I am going to sneak in a few pictures of my kitchen since I missed posting it last week on Home Tour Tuesday. Remember, my husband remodeled it all by himself. It is not a big kitchen, but I love it.

Hope you all have a great day....

Miscellany Monday...

The countdown is on folks. Only 3 more days until Thanksgiving and then the next month and a half is going to fly by : ) I am sure we are all going to be busy this week, but not too busy for some randomness, yes??



ONE.  I am sitting here watching the AMA's (yes, I am writing this Sunday night). I have said it before that I really don't listen to the radio much anymore. Kids happened. But watching this makes me just want to crank up the tunes. A few things. I love Bon Jovi. No matter how old he gets, I still think he is awesome. My son Anthony totally has Justin Beiber hair. I really can't see how Fergie is married to Josh. Just seems like they are total opposites. And Pink looks so cute preggers. She has a little baby bump and I was happy that she wasn't wearing stillettos!

TWO. Speaking of preggers, I went to a baby shower for my hubby's cousin over the weekend. She is having a girl and I swear being around all of the cute little clothes makes me want a daughter. But then I come back to reality and I think I am happy with two boys! I will say, they gave out gift bags with lots of little goodies. This was one of them....

It was a Kiwi Berry Yankee candle with the sonogram picture on the front. I have never seen anything like that before. It smelled great and I thought it was such a unique idea. Oh, by the way, I was the official hat maker. Do other states do this or is it a cheesy NY thing? I thought it came out pretty darn cute though.....

THREE. Are you a breast woman? I mean, do you cook a whole turkey on Thanksgiving or only the breast? My mother in law always has to tell me that 'no one likes dark meat' and that I shouldn't make a whole turkey. But for me, I need to see a Tom the Turkey. It wouldn't be Thanksgiving without him : )

FOUR. I have had acrylic on my nails for a while now. No matter how hard I try, they just don't seem to ever grown nicely. So, tonight, I took it all off and I think I am going to go to the nail salon tomorrow and try the new gel laquer polish. It is supposed to be great. I guess you leave it on for 2 weeks and then re-do it. But I heard your nail polish doesn't chip and it will protect your nails. So, I will let you know how it goes.

Anywho...have a great Monday : )

Okay...enough is enough!

Well, yesterday I was at my favorite strip mall doing some shopping (really, I am in the shopping center everyday and sometimes twice a day!). When I noticed some of the stores had signs in the window...

Really, when is enough enough? I don't think that there is one day all year that the stores are closed. It used to be Thanksgiving and Christmas and now those days are gone. Why can't we go back to the days of Sunday as a day of rest. Stores closing for the Holidays. Nothing really being open 24 hours. Don't they still do that in Europe?? Maybe I need to live over there...LOL! It was bad enough when stores started to open at 5am on Black Friday....now they just don't close.

When we were young, as an Italian tradition in our family, we used to eat dinner at 2pm on Sundays. Yes, you were hungry again by 6pm, so why they didn't just call it a 'big lunch,' I will never know. By anyway, it was nice. We all sat down together and had macaroni (some call it pasta..LOL). And as the years went on, people started to have to work on Sunday and the time we ate got later and later and eventually we stopped doing it. It saddens me that so many of us let our traditions go as society changes.

Maybe someone someday will realize if we spent more time with our families, we would have half of the problems that we do. So, I am not going shopping on Thanksgiving. Instead, I will be cooking a big bird and having a glass of wine with my family. And I hope you do the same too : )

Happy Friday...

Wild child....

We are out and about really early today, so not time to post. Just wanted to share with you a quick moment in our life. It kind of demonstrates what I was saying the other day about boys being crazy!

At least he was smart enough to put pillows on the floor : )

Wordless Wednesday...

A thirsty superhero??

New Tuesday Linky PARTY...

Today I am linking up at my friend Shannon's for the first ever Home Tour Tuesday. It sounds like a fun new linky party and of course I want to support one of my favorite bloggers : )






Well, since I just saw this post late last night, you are not getting a glimpse into my kitchen (you were supposed to post pics of your kitchen and also share a Thanksgiving recipe). I was way too tired to post pics. I will say I have a rather small kitchen but I love it because we remodeled last year and my hubby did it all. That makes it an even better place to hang out since it was a labor of love. So, instead I am sharing a quick and fun cookie project that the kids will love. We did it last year (the pics below are from last year) and I am planning on doing it again this Thanksgiving. They are turkey hand cookies.

(Note that I did not have the correct colors to decorate my cookies last year. This year my turkey's will not have pink feathers...LOL.)

It is super simple.
1. Trace your child's hand on a piece of cardboard. Be sure to have them spread their fingers wide as they enlarge during baking.
2. Next, buy a package of your favorite sugar cookie dough.
3. Roll it out on a floured surface.
4. Place the cardboard cut-out on the dough and cut around the hand shape with a knife. You will need to re-roll the dough a few times so you can continue to cut out the shape.
5. Bake according to package directions. Let cool.
6. Use your favorite colors of decorator's icing to decorate your turkey. Be sure to dab some icing under the candy corn for the beak and a chocolate chip for the eye.

 You can now share them with your guests on Thanksgiving : )

Miscellany Monday...

Happy Monday. It is the start of a new week and one week closer to Christmas. I say that and I can't believe the Holidays are approaching as quickly as they are. It is scaring me a bit, I have to say. Anyway, on to some random musings for this Monday.




ONE. We were at a birthday party over the weekend for one of Christopher's friends. There happened to be a bunch of older boys there. Christopher tends to gravitate towards them for some reason. I sat from a distance and watched them interact. The boys were running around and hitting eachother with blow up guitars. Kind of using them as weapons. Are all boys just born with the natural instinct to be wild and crazy? I was one of four girls so growing up we were all pretty tame. Sometimes I just get overwhelmed with all of the wrestling and fighting, toy guns and pure nuttiness. I think I am going to need many a spa weekends for myself being the only girl in the house : )

TWO. I have to say, I have always been pretty much a reality tv junkie. But I think I have finally been taken to rehab. My sewing has been keeping me so busy that I have not watched any of my favorite tv shows. I have not seen one episode of Desperate Housewives, Brothers and Sisters or Dancing with the Stars this season. I may be having slight withdrawals, but learning a new skill is a much better high : )

THREE. As I have discovered the wonderful world of Etsy and some fabulous inspirational craft blogs, it raises a question. Do you think people really value handmade gifts? Or would they rather have the latest and greatest of what the rest of mainstream people are geting for the holidays?

Hope you all have a great day...

Next new purchase....

Okay...so yesterday I told you about my new sewing desk. Well, today I am going to show you what we got for the kids. We have a play room that is, of course, overcrowded with toys. I cleaned it out a few weeks ago but it is still ridiculous. Let me just say we call this room the 'Mickey room' since it has a Mickey Mouse theme. We have a Mickey Mouse chair in there so the kids can watch tv. But there is one chair and two kids. Not working. So we needed a little couch. After much searching, I found one at Ikea and it actually turns into a bed. I am really excited as it is super cute. Here it is in Mickey room....

The kids are really liking their new set-up....

They can just cozy up and watch tv like Christopher is doing. Or, you can stand on tables and not even care about the couch like Anthony sometimes does....LOL!

Now I need to use my new sewing table to make them some cute little pillows. I think that is on the radar for this weekend. Happy Friday!

Yeah...my new purchases are here!

I have some exciting news. Well, at least I think it is exciting. The new purchases that I told you all about last week are here and in their proper places. Yeah! The first one is my sewing desk. For all you really crafty ladies, this in no way meets the standards of your craft rooms. But for me, it is a start.

This is where I have been sewing. Sad, I know. I have to share my craft space in the same room as our home office so there really isn't much room. It is a little snack table in the corner of the room that I couldn't even really lean on without it falling...LOL!

Here is my new table...what a difference!

It opens up with an extension table on one side as well as storage shelves on the other.

Here is the other half of the room so you can get the whole idea...

I just ordered this vintage dress form to place next to my table. I can't afford (and I am not ready for) a real dress form yet. So, this will do for now : )

Until tomorrow when I show you my next purchase....

Wordless Wednesday...

Caught in the act of making a mess....

Some sewing projects....

 






I saw these really cute aprons a few weeks back in the Lakeside Collection catalog. By the way, if you have never shopped with them before, they have some really cute things and they are quite inexpensive. Anyway, I was going to buy these just because I thought they were so 'mommy diva.' Then I thought about it and decided I was going to make them myself.

I head to JoAnn's and bought some fabric. Since these were my first one's, they are not perfect. I think I am going to make a few more and hopefully they get better as I go. I think they will make great Christmas gifts.
Here is my version....

I made the body of the apron black thinking it will hide any splatters that you might get on there. Then I wanted to add the shoe detail but it really wasn't showing up great on the black background. So I placed in on pink and then added a little decorative ribbon around it.

After making this one, I decided to try another one for my mother-in-law. My kids call her Grandma Kitty since she has 2 cats (they call my mom Grandma Doggy since she has a dog..LOL). Instead of adding a cute little shoe, I added a cat.

And here is my mother-in-law wearing her new apron...

I went back to JoAnn's to look for some more shoe appliques and they were all gone. I searched a million stores and found nothing. I resorted to ordering a few online. Now I can get started on some more aprons...LOL!

Who says you have to look like a Granny when you are cooking??? Now I might even want to cook...