Ruler of the Elves

When she was a little younger, Pinky was asked what she wanted to be when she grew up. Her answer: “I want to be a Maker like my Mama.” You know, because I make stuff. Let me show you…

So, what do you get when you add together the 3 items below???

Well, an awesomely sweet glass hurricane.

And guess how much this little project cost? Just 3 dollars. That’s right! All 3 parts are from the dollar store and are super easy to assemble with just a little hot glue. I opted to not glue the candle piece on the inside so that I can remove it when I want and use the hurricanes for other purposes, i.e. party dessert servers. And what makes it even better is that it has multi-purpose uses!

I do have one question, however. Why do these candles come with such long wicks? You can not burn them like this. Hello, fire hazard!

So what do you think? Doesn’t the hurricane look nice on my mantle?

I must confess though, that this little idea was not entirely mine, thanks to the wonderfulness that is Pinterest. Pinterest is an online pinboard community that allows you to bookmark and save photos from any webpage. It is wonderful for cataloging things that you love! If you haven’t already checked out Pinterest, you should! It is highly addictive and fun. Although, I tend to spend way too much time pinning.

April, May, June, July, August & September

I’ll be taking a monthly photo of Sweet Pea on a big black and white calendar for the first year of his life for a sense of size and scale.

This year in school, Pinky’s first grade class is doing different projects to raise money for our local animal shelter. Each of the children contributes an idea and to start off, it was decided that the kids should walk their neighborhood dogs for a donation. So, Pinky made sure to line up a list of available neighborhood dogs and we got to walking.

Meet Oscar.

He’s a sweet old dog with a leisurely gait, which made him super easy for Pinky to walk.

Pinky ended up walking 3 neighborhood dogs and also our own two and overall gathered a nice little monetary donation for the animal shelter. I’m so proud of her for getting out there and trying to do something good to make a difference and I can’t wait to see the other ideas her class comes up with to help the cause!

So, finally, I am able to write about our lives and post some photos from the end of our summer. You see, my lovely computer was having a bit of temper tantrum. Everytime I attempted to edit photos, use the internet, or even turn on my computer, it decided to contract a ridiculous, debilating virus that would leave me stranded. And because of said viruses, my computer refused to let me share any of this information with the world wide web. That is until now. Here is a recap of those lost days. (I am now crossing my fingers and toes that this post will not disappear into an oblivion before I actually hit publish!)

What We Did Last Summer (or from July-August 2011)

At the end of July, we took Sweet Pea on his first plane ride and our whole family headed to Chicago for my step brother’s wedding. The wedding was beautiful and quaint in a pretty garden with close family and friends. The groom was handsome. The bride was stunning. Everyone was happy. Congrats to the new couple and welcome to the family Kasey!

We vacationed in Michigan with my parents. (Thanks Parents for letting us tag along!)

While on vacay, we went blueberry picking, kind of…

We visited some family and friends, although I wish we would have had more time to spend with those we saw and see others that we missed. That’s the story of my life though.

A trip to the zoo was a must! Someone really enjoyed the polar bears.

We even had to recreate a photo that was taken there almost exactly 6 years ago…

Lastly, my lovely cousin visited us at our home. It was great to spend time with her and we enjoyed showing her our neck of the woods.

So, that about wraps it up. Of course, there are plenty more photos and I could have gone into detail about each and every event, but I’m ready to move on from this post with the hopes that I can share the rest of September and so on with you. Please keep my computer in your thoughts with the hopes that it will remain virus free in the future!

There was a time not too long ago when my little man was, well, little. Look at this growing boy! I can’t believe that Sweet Pea is already 5 months old. Look at those eyes. Oh, those eyes. They are wonderful. He is wonderful! I’m in love with his wonderfulness!

If only I could figure out a way to bottle all of this sweetness up and preserve it!