Amber Waves of Grain

The baby nursery is nearly complete. I'm just doing some finishing touches now. These pictures don't do the colors justice, but at least you can get an idea. I've tried to do this as thrifty as possible so I'm excited about some of my cheap finds. I did splurge on a few things too! :) I sold some stuff on ebay that Keegan outgrew in his nursery to pay for the splurges. I love knowing that I saved us some cash. Here is an owl decal next to the window. This is one of my favorites. Etsy website ($18), splurge! Michele and I found this old owl book at the thrift store (good eye, Michele). It needed a good home. ($1.48) This is a cute little mouse house that I splurged on. The roof comes off and you can play with the toy mice in it. Every little girl should have a mouse house, right? Corner with the glider (Keegan's old one). The blanket on the glider has pink trees on it which fit the theme perfect (Goodwill $3). The dark pink lamp is from the clearance rack with the c...

Probably 5 years ago or so, I remember telling Jennifer and Nathan that someone should invent a purse that has a little flashlight built into it. The light would light up at the bottom of your purse so you could find things. A few weeks later at Target, there it was: a flashlight purse!! It was the fad of that time and I started seeing them everywhere. I would like to take credit, therefore, for inventing the light purse. :) Nathan and Jennifer get tired of hearing about the light purse, I'm sure. (Jennifer has a great idea on inventing hovercrafts for us to drive, by the way). Anyway, I'm always coming up with ideas of new inventions and think I deserve a little credit for them, right? This is my blog and I can do that here. I like to write companies about my new product ideas, especially. A few months ago, I sent Kellogg's an email and told them that they should sell limited edition holiday Pop-Tarts. I mentioned spice flavored ones and pumpkin for the fall season. Wouldn...

Hello, blog readers! I feel like I haven't had much to write about this week. Let me start by saying that I made 2 more apples pies today from scratch. I must admit, I got a big head with those last 2 that I made. They were really, really good. I really impressed myself. I should know by now that anytime you get a big head about something that the next time you do it, it's just not going to meet those standards. So... with that being said, my pies just didn't turn out that great today. Sure, I'll eat them. But, they are not exactly blue-ribbon this time! On Thursday I had the privilege of taking some pictures of a good friend's kids. I won't mention their names since I didn't ask permission to post pics of her kids for all of you internet stalkers. But, here are some pics of these "random, anonymous" kids. :) I love pictures that are off-center: This kid is ready for senior pictures with this pose!: On a side-note, Nathan is watching Keegan whi...

Saturday night we had our 'Owl-O-Ween' party. Overall, I think it was a success. At least I had fun and that's what matters, right? We had around 16 adults who came plus maybe 8 kids. Jennifer was my co-host and I couldn't have done it without her. She is so crafty and did much of the work. She made this cool black wreath and brought the mason jars with candy corn and candles and also made this really fun Happy Halloween banner. It's not often that I allow glitter into my home so this was a big exception. (for those of you who do not know me, I can't stand glitter!) Some close-ups (Look out, Martha Stewart!) Here are some spooky cobwebs we put up (I must admit that I found some real ones when I was up on that stepstool but I left them there.). :) We had lots of food. Jenn brought chili and I made "mummy dogs" (hot dogs wrapped like mummies with crescent dough). We had lots-o-lots-o meatballs and other people brought yummy foods to go along. I even g...

Three.......... two.......... one......... PARTY!! This week, I'm getting things ready for a party. For a few years now, Jennifer & I have co-hosted a party in the fall and invite mostly people from our old church youth group. Then we also invite a few others who we think would make connections or who would fit in well. We've done pumpkin carving parties, caramel-apple dipping parties, and a game night party. This year I simply could not handle that many pumpkins being carved inside my house (imagine finding pumpkin goop & seeds for months to come in every corner of my house) so we are just keeping it simple with food & fun. But, we did make super cool invitations, if I do say so myself. Look out, Martha Stewart! Jennifer & I spent a whole fun night hand-making each of these invitations: Here's a close-up for Martha. I know her staff will want to copy. Each piece of the owl was hand-cut out and glued on. Here is the back w/ the info. I used Paint to mark ou...

Happy Friday!! As most of you know or have read in previous posts, I love to find deals. People are always asking me what deals I've found lately. So, out of a lack of anything else to write about... here are my deals of the week! 1. A Step 2 Lego table with all legos included. $4.98 at the thrift store. This will be great for this winter when the baby comes and I need to keep Keegan busy indoors. I looked it up on ebay and one just like it sold for $56 last night. 2. Sesame Street Vacuum-- not a big deal but Keegan loves to vacuum and this one makes lots of noise and talks. Again, just something for the winter. $1.50. (they are new for $20). 3. Melissa & Doug (a nice brand...) floor puzzle that is like new. $1.50 (about$20 new). I also found an old puzzle with cars on it for 25 cents that I can use for his food therapy (ie: when he eats another bite, he gets another piece of the puzzle!). 4. Carter's Newborn clothes. I bought 2 little fleece outfits (from last season's...

Hello, blog-readers! Nathan made it home safe last night from his macho 4-day hiking trip in the Smoky Mountains with his 3 friends. He was gone for a total of 6 days in the past week (another 2 days in Oklahoma for business). So, he took off work today to spend with Keegan and me which was fun and much-needed. We drove down to Trafalgar, IN to Apple Works. ( http://www.apple-works.com/ ) It's basically an orchard but they have a lot of stuff for kids to do. We rode the little train and the engineer let Keegan blow the whistle when we were done. And then we went down the big slide. I must admit the slide was pretty fun. It took me a minute to get situated at the top to go in (trying to move my slow, pregnant body....) and Keegan said, "Mommy too big!" which made us laugh. Well, I sort of laughed. It's hard to be offended when it comes from a cute 2 year old. :) Keegan also ate a whole apple! And, here are some other random pics from our time there: The other highl...

Fall is here! Keegan picked out a pumpkin so we are ready to go. Here are a couple of pictures from today! And, yes, his pumpkin is from Walmart and not an actual pumpkin patch. Once again, there go all of those mother-of-the-year nominations!! :) Enjoy!