Drill Weekend Is Here Again

 Ah, the ever lovely, ever-present drill weekend. So, most of y'all know that my husband is in The Arkansas National Guard. You know this because one weekend every month I transform into some sappy-faced 13 year old who "misses her hubby SOO much" on Facebook. I mean, I'm kind of that way all the time, but I don't quite flaunt it as much on a regular basis.

 SO, here we are again, except this weekend is a 3 day drill and I woke up feeling like death licked me across the face and then sneezed on it.

Gross.

 I'm lonely and bored, so I thought I would post a probably-boring-to-everyone-but-me blog post.
 So, here's what's been going on the last few days.

I've been trying to get the house clean. It seems like such a simple task, right? No. You're a fool and probably only have one or two very polite children who find joy in helping you with everyday tasks. I know that you are out there, because while reading different blogs and websites to help me figure out how to organize and get the kids interested in chores, I found your pages and I sat loathing your parental awesomeness.

 I used to be that way, too. Now, on any given day, between the pets, the people who live here, and frequent guests, we have 13 bodies roaming the house... The small-ish house... The house that seemed HUGE when we bought it... The house that feels like it's giving my head a mammogram because it's getting so cramped now.

Don't get me wrong, it's NOT the people in the house that's driving me crazy, it's the crap. SO. Much. Crap.

So, what's the cure-all for a crap-filled house? More crap!

Yesterday, Josh took off work to spend time with me since he's been gone so much and he was leaving again. We went to Prairie Market (Our local health food store) for lunch, then we did what this girl grew up doing best... junkin'.
For those of you who don't know what that means, let's just call it vintage or antique shopping in cozy little shops off the beaten path, filled with eclectic people.

Okay, that was me blowing some smoke up somewhere. This is how it really is.
True Story:
We accidentally stumbled onto a rummage sale while driving through the umm... not so pretty side of town. We sorted through other people's crap (they had nice stuff!) and when it came time to check out, there was this amazingly gay man, wearing a button up shirt (with the top 3 or 4 buttons unbuttoned), acid wash jeans,  and was missing a tooth, who sauntered over to us.

Man: "Hi, y'all! How did you hear about us? Was it my signs?! Were they colorful enough? Did they just GRAB YOU'RE ATTENTION?!" (His hands were doing the rainbow wave in the air.)
Me: "Well, we were just driving past and YES! We saw your signs and decide to drop in.
Man: " Excellent! I just wanted them to POP!
Me: "Well, you did a great job!"
Okay, while writing this, this conversation seems mild, but if you were there, you would have heard our enthusiasm and the desperation in my voice to make this man feel fabulous.
I told him I would post about the sale on Facebook and his face went into disbelief, which then turned into utter excitement. He said, "FABULOUS!"
My job was done.
I told Josh I wanted to go back and collect him as my pocket-gay. He was amazing.

Anyways, that's just a mild example of junkin', but basically, you're going through dirty stores, digging through shelves and boxes, looking at whether or not you want to by previously owned awesomeness.

I live for thrift stores, garage sales, pawn shops; They're all like musty treasure chests.

After hitting about ten places, we called it quits and I inventoried my finds. I got 4 small red and clear, blown glass cups, a running suit, a shirt, a mens Hollister shirt, two pairs of mens Hollister shorts, camo seat covers,  a cast iron spoon holder for the stove, 3 Reader's Digest books (I might read them, but I got them because the covers were adorable prints and look awesome on my bookshelf), a cookbook, 4 coffee cups, a beautiful glass bowl, a giant ceramic popcorn bowl, and a soy candle from a new pottery shop in town, all for $45. I think I'm forgetting some things.

So, it was a fun day.

 All right, this might seem abrupt, but I'm ending this post now. The coffee buzz has worn off.

Happy Junkin',
Heather

Little Monsters

 Around Christmas time, I suddenly got the hankerin' to fiddle with a sewing machine.

I had only touched one before in my entire life, so I had no idea how this was going to roll. I started with a simple pillow using material from when we reupholstered our dining room chairs, and a pretty white damask print for the back. The pillow turned out pretty nicely, so I was convinced I could sew ALL of the Christmas gifts for family.

 Okay-  That was the DUMBEST thing I've ever done! I started with only two weeks until Christmas and I had only used a sewing machine twice. I made three car organizers ( I didn't get any pictures of those but here's the tutorial), then I made a nom-nom-nom pillow for my oldest nephew. I got the idea here.

My camera was about to run out of batteries, so the picture is blurry.

Then, I found a nifty tutorial for a pillow for my niece.

 Finally, I decided  to make little monsters for my son and nephews.

I think it's kind of funny how they each look like their monster. It was a complete accident!

 You can also see my Mama on the far left with her peace sign pillow. (Yes, she's a hippie and not ashamed of it.) This is the only picture That I have of it.

 So, all in all, everything turned out well and the kids loved their presents and I will never take on so much sewing in such a short time again! =0)

Happy sewing,
Heather

Kids Birthday Cupcakes/Cakes

                                                       MUNO CUPCAKES
For Sawyer's 3rd Birthday he was REALLY into Yo Gabba Gabba. So, I decided to make him Muno cupcakes.
I just used the regular white cake mix recipe and whipped icing recipe. Then, I took a pizza cutter and cut out "muno-shaped" pieces of fruit roll ups. I used tiny pieces of black licorice for the mouth. I put two dabs of frosting on the upper part of the body then  I used chocolate mini m&ms for the pupil. I broke red mini m&ms in half and stuck them on the edge of the body. Tada! It's MUNO!

                                                          SOFT SERVE CUPCAKES
 For one of my niece's birthdays I decide to do "soft-serve" cupcakes. I totally used the wrong muffin tin. It was supposed to be deeper. You can find the proper one here. I took an icing bag and skipped using a tip. I just cut the bottom off of the bag and iced in a clock-wise direction finishing off with the "Dairy Queen swirl at the top). I sprinkled some sprinkles on, stuck a candy stick in for the straw, and topped it off with a hot ball on top for the "cherry".

                                                               




                                                           DIEGO CAKE
Okay, The Diego Cake, oh the Diego Cake. I made a backpack cake (you know, the annoying one from Diego? Yeah, him) for my nephew. The cake split down the middle so I had to stuff it with the remnants of the part of the cake I cut off. So, it didn't look too bad after I had iced it and made the eyes and mouth. I turned around for a second to grab the foam piece I used as the straps, and as soon as I turned around, I was in tears. My son had dug a big ol' finger full of cake out by the middle of the cake. Long story-short, he was banned from the kitchen and I managed to kind of repair it. SO, the point of all of this was to explain why it doesn't look as good as you could make it.

                                                              GUITAR CAKE

SO, this one doesn't look as awesome as Bekka and I had planned, but it was hard work, so I'm still proud. There was a lot of icing, and a lot of carving.

                                                         SPONGEBOB CUPCAKES

I just decorated these with Spongebob horn blowers and red sprinkles. Easy enough!

                            
                                                            DEATH BY CHOCOLATE

This is just your regular ol chocolate cake with chocolate icing. However, I added cookies and creme kisses on the top and peanut butter cups on the bottom. This was SO good!

                                                     
                                                                   Music Cake

 This is yet ANOTHER cake that cracked. But hey, the sides are pretty! This has crushed oreos on top and chocolate chips make up the musical notes.

 Well, there you have it. I know they aren't perfect cakes, but I worked hard on them. Hopefully you can execute some of these ideas a little better. =0)

Happy Eating,
Heather