Under the weather...

So I've been sick this last week and ended up in the ER. But now I'm on the mend and hope to be back to blogging soon with some Jacob updates and some projects. Stay tuned!

Affordable Art

So it's no secret that I'm a SAHM on a tight budget, but I'm still trying to decorate our little place without blowing hundreds of dollars. So I got creative, and with a little help from bloggers, I made my own art for a few mere pennies dollars. For the longest time, like years, I've wanted to do a wall of crosses of varying sizes. Of course I wanted them to be wrought iron, and I didn't want to spend over $100 doing it. So I found the next best thing, or the next okay thing, at the 99 Cent Store. A few months ago, while buying party supplies, I found plaster crosses that I scooped up and hid in my closet until I had some free time. Well the time came and I had a chance to do them up. They were originally painted a burgundy color with gold and silver accents, so I took a can of black spray paint to them and highlighted them with some ice blue paint. I think they look okay, not exactly what I had once envisioned but they'll do for now. They cost me a whopping $4, I already had the paint supplies. I also needed art for our second bathroom, but I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do in there, so I made some art. I used 3 frames from the dollar store, 1 sheet of scrapbook paper, and 3 die cut birds for a total of $7 for the whole project. I think the title of this post should be cheap art!



Before...


After...


Bathroom art...

Surprise Parrr-tay!

Despite the passing of the unofficial end of summer know as Labor Day, we were still in party mode this past weekend. Saturday we celebrated my brother's 35th birthday with a surprise party that we threw together in 3 days! It was hilarious seeing my brother blindfolded and helpless. I don't think he had any idea of where he was going, or what he was doing, until Jacob screamed out "who's that" when he walked by the door, which my brother said gave away what was going on. But, supposedly, he was surprised. We all had a good time. The boys played poker and lost their money, while the girls played Loteria (Mexican Bingo) for money and continued on into the hot tub. It was a lot of fun! But I'm so sad party season is over =0(

Speaking of parties, with all of the parties we've had over the past few years, well since my wedding, I've come to realize that I love planning and executing parties/events. And people often come up to me and tell me I should get into it professionally, but I think I like it as a hobby for now. Next BIG party coming up...My niece's sweet 16, and I'm working on it!

Labor Day Weekend '09

What a weekend! So I had a 4 day weekend and it was great, and packed! Friday Jess, Jacob, and I went shopping. I picked up Jacob's costume. Yup, I'll let you know what he's going to be around Halloween. And I picked up some clothes for myself. Old Navy was having an awesome sale. $5 graphic tees and a ton of stuff on clearance. I bought Jacob's costume and NINE shirts for $60. To me, that's a deal! After putting Jess through that, I let him pick our dinner destination and we headed to Chili's. Okay, okay, I love Chili's too. We hung out the rest of the night.

Saturday was spent shopping with my sis, her family, and my brother. We headed to the Mattel and Disney outlets. I picked up a couple of shirts for Jess at Disney, and a Halloween decoration, but that's about it. This outlet was filled with clothes and Jacob doesn't need any clothes. Seriously, I don't know how I'm going to put on all the clothes he got for his birthday. A lot of summer stuff with a few winter pieces. Anywho, then we went to Mattel, and let me tell you, I wanted to put everything in my basket for Jacob, but my sis didn't let me. Honestly, the deals weren't great at all. I saw a toy that I had bought for him for $25 at Target and was priced at $45 at the outlet. That's only like $5 below retail! But of course, I found some stuff I had to have, mostly Sesame Street toys. I have a few that he can have now, but the plan was to buy some for X-mas. Yes, I'm already X-mas shopping. Ugh. Gives me chills thinking about X-mas shopping. Yuck. After our strenuous shopping trip we headed off to our favorite tepan place and it was so goooood. Yum!

SUNDAY! Sunday. Sunday, was spent at my sister's with the usual BBQ with family. There was lots of eating, drinking, swimming, and pokering. Okay, I made that last word up, but there was poker. Towards the end of the night it was getting pretty funny with the drinking. We sort of had an impromptu name-that-tune game going, and people dancing, while drunk. And some looked like they were drunk because of the way they were dancing. It was a blast!

Monday, we went to Griffith Park. It was my little cousin's birthday and to celebrate my sis wanted to spend the day with him, so Jacob and I tagged along for the ride. It was a decent day. The local fires weren't too bad, and the weather wasn't blistering. And we had a lot of fun! We first went on the train, Jacob's first ride, and I swear he almost fell asleep on it. He was just sitting so still and taking everything in. No emotion. After the train ride we headed to the Merry Go 'Round. Despite being a holiday, everything was fairly empty. We picked our horses on the MGR, and Jacob loved it! He was galloping with the horse. It was funny. But again, taking everything in. After that, we stopped for some popcorn and cotton candy. Jacob's first try at cotton candy (no popcorn). He just looked at it and was trying to figure it out. I think he was like, "Should I be putting this thing in my mouth," but after that first bite, he was sold and gobbled it up. Now it was off to Travel Town, the local train museum. We walked around, took a few pictures, then we left. Jacob was getting tired. He'd skipped his first nap, and we were getting hungry.

Despite it being a jam packed weekend, we had a blast! It was very cool to experience everything through the kids again.

Getting ready to go swimming...And play Uno...


Our train...


Our conductor...


Enjoying the wind blowing through his hair...


Jas bought Jacob a pinwheel...


Waiting for the Merry Go 'Round to go...




Adventures in cotton candy...






Planes, trains, and automobiles...oh wait, no planes...






The kids. My nephew, my little cosuin, my niece, and Jacob...


Oh, and this lady was carving something out of wood!


And it's my 100th post! It only took a little over a year. Woo hoo!

Pitter patter...

What's that sound? It's the sound of Jacob walking! It's been a little over a week since he's started walking. Last Monday it started with 1-2 steps, then Tuesday 3-4 steps, then Wednesday 5-6 steps, a few more steps each day, and by Saturday he was full on walking. It was amazing to see the progression happen over the week. He's walkiing 75% of the time and crawls the rest. He's still a bit wobbly, but can get to things faster when he crawls, but he's trying to walk.

And now that it's September Halloween is just around the corner! Last year, by this time, I had already known which costume I wanted for Jacob. But this year I'm undecided. I have 3 potentials, so we'll see which one I choose, since this will probably be the last year I can pick what I want him to wear.