fifty followers (pssst....it's a giveaway!!)

Really?! I have 50 followers???!! Awesome! When I started this blog, it was just to keep my family (most of whom never even check the blog) up to date on the kids and our goings-on. Early on, I posted to a group about blogging saying that one day I'd like to get to where I had 20 or so people regularly checking the blog, and that I'd like to branch out and blog about crafty stuff, tips, and cooking, etc. I've gone through periods of neglecting my blog and periods of blogging mania, but in the end, I am happy with what I've accomplished! Of course, I think I could be doing so much more, but for now it works for me!

One thing I pride myself on is never, ever, not even once, have I asked anyone to be a follower. And now I have 50! I am so humbled and grateful and promised myself that once I hit 50, I'd do something special to celebrate. Soooooooo......

I would like to GIVE AWAY one of my photographs! I've had a few for sale in my etsy shop, but no takers yet. They would make a wonderful gift or a nice little decoration for your bathroom. :)


You can choose any photo you like and I'll print it in an 8x10 for you. You can choose from the pics listed in my etsy shop or you can go browse my flickr for other shots. I have a folder of nature shots which would be a good place to start.


The GIVEAWAY will end on Sunday night, Dec. 6th at 10pm and I'll announce a winner Monday morning. Just leave me a comment...maybe mention which pic you'd like!

Thank you all so much for your support! I love blogging and sharing all the crazy things I do with you!!!

homemade gifts: aprons

This year, my mom and I are giving the girls their very own aprons for Christmas. I was inspired to make the twins' aprons from vintage materials after finding a vintage embroidered dish towel with the letter "E" on it at a local antiques store. I knew right away that it would be adorable as an apron for Ellen.

None of these aprons are perfect, but I love all the charm they have because of the vintage fabrics and embellishments. I have been hanging onto some of these fabrics for almost 15 years! lol

Phoebe's apron is funky with a retro pear pocket.

Since I only used half of the dish towel for E's apron, I decided to make another apron to sell in my etsy shop. It was a good excuse for me to try out this ruffle technique before we attempt to ruffle some towels for the purple bathroom.

And while I was at it, I made another one of the pear aprons to sell. I know there's someone out there that will love these as much as I do!

I will also be restocking my shop with camera strap covers throughout the week. I'm having a sale, so they are only $8 right now! More on that later...

You can always get to my shop by clicking on the etsy widget on the right side of my blog.

"look at mommy and smile!!!!!"

Today was Christmas picture day and I think I said "look at mommy and smile" about 800 times. The kids only heard it about 3. Every year I get so flustered, I promise myself I'm not going to try it again for a whole 'nother year. I've learned over time not to expect much when trying to photograph all 3 together, but I *really* wanted a decent shot this year. Here's the best shot:

Not too shabby! I feel like my colors are a little wonky, but I'm working it out. The headbands are the ones I blogged about last post, and the background is wrapping paper taped to the garage door. I found some Christmas cards on clearance last year that have that same damask print, so everything will be perfectly matched. :)

Since I couldn't get the girls to look at me, I tried a different approach and told them to kiss Sissy and cuddle up to her. Here's how that translated...lol.

I was hoping it would get them all giggling so I could get some great smiles, but this is about as happy looking as they got.

To make it even more "fun" for mommy, there were dogs romping around across the street, so I had some serious competition for their attention. Phoebe thought her eyes needed to be closed to make "cheeeeese!!!" as cheesy as possible, and Ellen lost all control of her facial expressions. 98% of the pics looked like these:


I guarantee you I said "look at mommy and smile" before I snapped every one of these shots!

Here are some of the girls individually. They were just as difficult during these. lol



This afternoon, grandma and grandpa came to visit with cousin {R}, so I stuck her in a headband and took her picture too.


Now I just need to find the time to do the Christmas cards and I'm all set!

cheap and easy holiday headbands

I'm hoping to get the girls' Christmas pictures taken over the weekend and the only particular thing I had in mind for them to wear were cute headbands with a big flower or something on the side. Because I'm cheap and crafty, I decided to tackle the headbands myself. These are so easy, anyone could make them!

I started with headbands already wrapped in grosgrain ribbon (3 for $1 at Target in the dollar spot), felt poinsettias with adhesive backs (intended for scrapbooking. $2/pkg of 6 in the holiday section at Hobby Lobby), felt and fabric scraps.


I thought the poinsettias were a little small, so to give them more presence, I decided to stack them on top of some other things. Directly underneath each flower is a fabric yo-yo. They are super simple to make and you don't need anything other than a needle and thread. I cut my original circles a little small (pictured above) but you should cut yours about twice as big as you want your final yo-yo to be. Trace a large cup or small coffee can to help you get the shape.

Using a thread and needle (knotted at the end), stitch along the outer edge of the circle. After you've gone the entire way around, pull the thread so that the outer edge gathers in the center. Make a stitch or two to keep everything in place and close with a knot. Super easy! Normally, you'd press the edge over before stitching so that the raw edges don't show, but since they won't show or get any wear on these headbands, I just left them.


I used the sticky backs of the flowers to adhere them to the yo-yo's and also added a few stitches, just in case. For the bottom layer, I cut a circle of felt just slightly larger than the flower and yo-yo. Fold it in half and cut small notches, then fold in half the other way to notch the rest of the way around. This helps to keep your notches fairly even (I am not very good at this part! haha)




Using a hot glue gun, I glued the yo-yo flowers onto the felt circles and then glued them onto the headbands. SUPER EASY!!!


The entire project cost me about $1 per headband! Yay for cheap and easy!!!

Official Christmas pictures coming soon!

pumpkin heaven

When pumpkins think about what they want to be when they grow up, they all want to become one of these glorious muffins. Seriously, one of the yummiest things on earth!

What makes them so special is the brown sugar frosting. They are more like decadent cupcakes. Of course, they are even better when they are warm and slathered with butter!

My mom is the one who first made these for me, so I'm not sure where the recipe originated. The ingredients are pretty rich, so I've taken steps to lighten it up slightly and don't miss the extra fat and sugar at all.

I know I'm too late with this for you to have them on Thanksgiving morning like we did, but they are perfect any morning and would make a wonderful breakfast for Christmas morning!

Pumpkin Spice Muffins
3 c. sugar (I only use 1 cup)
1 c. shortening (I substitute with 1/2 c. shortening + 1/2 c. applesauce or extra pumpkin)
3 eggs
1 can (15oz) pumpkin
3 c. flour
1 t. baking soda
2 t. baking powder
1 t. ground cloves
1 t. nutmeg
1 t. cinnamon
1 t. allspice
1 t. vanilla

Brown Sugar Glaze
1/2 c. brown sugar
2 T. melted butter, cooled
1 T. milk
1 c. powdered sugar
pecan halves for garnish

Cream sugar and shortening; add eggs and pumpkin. Stir in dry ingredients. Add vanilla. Bake in greased and floured muffin pans (or use paper liners) for 15-20 minutes at 350.

For the glaze, cream brown sugar and butter. Add powdered sugar, then milk. Spread over top of each muffin, then place pecan half on each.

Yields 24 muffins

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Have a seat in our Purple Paradise!

Last week we had exciting things happen at the Pinkerton house! The guys we hired to help with the scary hall bath, RW Handyman Services, finished up their work and it was transformed into a Purple Paradise! Like everything else, we aren't completely finished yet, but it is soooooooo much better than it was!

You can check out all the before pics in THIS post, but here's a shot to refresh your memories:

That huge toilet paper holder was hiding a huge hole in the wall, by the way. lol And here's what it looks like now:

MUCH better!

One of the major things that RW Handyman Services did was install a shower in the tub with a new surround. I was thinking we'd get something a little fancier for the surround, but I made the mistake of walking away while the order was placed and my dear husband picked this one after finding out the one I picked was a special order. Oh, well. It's nice and new and clean! The shower is great - I've already tried it out, even though this is the kids' bathroom. I will be shaving my legs in here for the rest of our stay in this house so that I don't feel like I'm bent in half in an upright coffin in our master bath shower stall. haha! Really, what were they thinking when they came up with those stand up shower designs? There definitely was zero thought given to shaving legs in them.


The shower curtain is something I'm excited about. I found these gingham curtain panels on clearance at Lowe's for less than $1 each, so I stocked up on them knowing we could find uses for them. For the shower curtain, I just sewed two of them together, side by side and added little button holes at the top to put the hooks through. Not perfect, but definitely good enough, and at $2, who is going to complain??? Not me! Since we saved money on the curtain, I let the girls get these fancy glass knob hooks to dress it up.

When I find the time, I'll make some fabric yo-yo's in blues, purples and greens to add as polka dots to the shower curtain. The girls LOVE anything with yo-yo's and I think it will add to the girly/shabby chic look we have going on, while incorporating some of the other colors in the room.


We found this super cute rug at TJMaxx today. LOVE it! The purples don't match exactly, but we'll tie it in with those yo-yo's. You can see our pretty new (vinyl) floor that the guys put in for us. The floor is not level (like, by a lot!) so vinyl really was the best option for us.


Remember how the old vanity was covered in the oatmeal texture??? bleh!! Well, now we have a new one! I LOVE it!!! Nice and white and clean, except for the blue marker Phoebe wiped on there after coloring clothes onto her naked self. I missed it before I took the pic. lol We went from having a vanity that was 22" deep to one that's only 19" deep. I thought I wouldn't like the narrower version, but I actually love the way it gives more space to the room and it seems much more streamlined and modern.


The faucet is new and doesn't flood the counter top now! The kids have been playing in the sink every chance they get. Apparently, they've never seen a sink stopper that works because it's the greatest thing ever to them!

In this pic, you can see the now un-scary linen closet. It's full of tools and junk right now, but I can't wait to put my linens in there! You can also see that we need to re-hang the doors and finish painting the trim. It will all happen this week. Promise!


Today Sarah and I hung some pictures and things on the walls. I have this great faucet *thing* that I've never had a place for, but it's very cute in the bathroom. I also let her use some of my favorite paintings. In this collage, you can also see the knobs we got for the cabinet. I wanted to get glass knobs like the shower curtain hooks, but those suckers are almost $5 each! We got these for $1.75 each and they will fit in fine.


Aside from making the yo-yo's for the shower curtain, we are planning to embellish some towels with ruffles like these awesome Shabby Chic towels at Target. They are pricey, but I know I could easily make something similar and we can use whatever colors and fabrics we want.

So that's the new bathroom!!! I need to finish painting and touching up, but I'm so happy with the way it turned out! Seriously, we wouldn't even go in there before! Now we have to tackle the rest of the house, which looks like this right now:


It will be done by the end of the week. Promise!

Camera Strap Cover GIVEAWAY!!!

TIME's UP!

I've just restocked my etsy shop with new camera strap covers (click on the widget to the right>>>) and am having a GIVEAWAY over at HomeSpun Threads!

While you are over there, be sure to check out her other posts. Aimee's full of great ideas! She has also started a new blog devoted to reading to children, which is truly a labor of love for her. Readers are Made on the Lap of a Parent.

Hop on over to HomeSpun Threads and enter to win! The contest ends Friday, Nov. 13th.