once upon a saturday

today i woke to busy my hands with cinnamon rolls and scrambled eggs...i've been sick this week and have spent every productive moment available looking for a new place for us to land february 1st (our current wonderful rental situation sadly expires then).  so rhett and i have been pouring over craigslist and the penny savers looking for a new nest so our current nest has gotten pretty...umm...we'll just say unkempt.  everyone around these parts knows you have to have a clean house to have fun (duh) so our weekend looked to be full of chores...

 lucky for my lil family i grew up with 3 very fun, very wonderful sisters.  what did we do when we had to do chores on a saturday morning???  well, whine.  but after that we all got to work (except for savannah) and we MADE IT FUN.  i think, if there are people and music ANYTHING can be fun.  

so this morning (just like my sisters and i) my family started out whining...but coming from a long line of funmakers i decided to turn this thing around.  and soooo we had a chore draft.  

what is a chore draft?   well ours looked something like this.

i trust that you will make yours much more attractive than my purple marker on scrap paper BUT this worked this morning for us.  here's what we did:

*first we wrote all the chores that needed to be done on the list

*then we played rock paper scissors for who had the first pick of the draft

*the first person selected their first pick...then the second...then the third...then the fourth...

*this part gets tricky now...then the fourth person goes again...that's right they get two picks in a row...then the 3rd then the 2nd then the first...then the first again.  my fantasy football loving husband tells me that this is called a snake draft and it helps things feel a bit more fair.
*we just circled the chore we chose and wrote our name next to it to remember which were ours.

*don't forget to declare the rules of the race--for those rule followers like my husband it helps keep things simple and argument free.  our rules were just that we'd each check over each other's chores...not to be picky but just to make sure they were done. oh and that trades were okay if both parties agreed.

*then we declared that the winner of S.M.D.C.C. (saturday morning dickens chore championship) would be queen or king for the rest of the day! 
*lastly we turned the music up way too loud and we started the RACE!

i should probably add a lil note for moms here.  at this time please take your expectations for how the house should look when you are done and lower it--juuuuuust a bit.  do your best to remember this:

good enough + fun = wonderful 

but...

good enough + a nit picky mom = TERRIBLE!

and THAT is our chore draft...aka how to save your saturday.

now i should clarify that my daughter is a very helpful 10 year old and she drafted from the chore list just like my hubby and i.  things that actually needed done.  but 4 year old wonderboy had a list of his own.  it had things like, clean the bathtubs (with a sponge and squirtbottle of water), wipe off the washer and dryer (because who cares if that is done well) and clean out his toy box (to find toys he no longer likes and plays with).  so just amend the list as needed to fit your family and keep things fun and productive.

we had SUCH a fun time drafting and talking over our strategies.  we were done in about 45 minutes and off to do fun saturday things with a perfectly clean house.  LOVED IT.  try making your chore filled saturday fun.  lemme know what you come up with so i have something different to do next saturday;)

with my own two hands...

 i have big awkward looking hands--always have.  i didn't get my mom's cute chubby hands or my dad's big meaty ones.  yeah so...i pretty much got the worst combination of the two!  and in looking more closely at the back of my hands i can see little things like the healing blister (from a recent hot glue gun attack), the chipped gold sparkle nail polish (thanks to my dear neice reya),  the badly bitten nails (due to my post-christmas blues) and all the new wrinkles and veins that have popped up lately.  but you know the thing about these hands?  they are busy, busy hands.  

lately i haven't had much editing to do so i've had a chance to busy myself with other things...things like knitting and baking and writing creating and gluing and cutting and stapling and modge podging and painting and sketching and...you know what?  it feels good.  it feels really good!  here are some things these two hands have been up to lately...

i modge podged rhett's bedframe with newspaper! 

 a good friend had given us this old wooden bedframe but i didn't love the dark stain of the wood and didn't exactly want to paint it either.  so.....

 i grabbed the sunday paper and picked out all the black and white sections and started gluin'!  it was kinda hard but super fun.  i did most of it while watching the harry potter movies with my potter crazed 10 year old daughter;)  it seemed to go super fast...except for those tricky posts on the end of the bed (those suckers might have made me curse a few times under my breath).  i painted the back of the headboard blue and gave it all a sealing glaze and i just adore how it turned out.

 okay this next project was all pinterest.  the old map poster and lil dandelion puffs have both been pinned on my "to compose" board FOR-EVER.  i finally just sat down and made them.  loved how they both turned out.

 these little dandelion puffs are super easy to make...even for kiddos!  i gave lessons at the park while i was working on them one day while rhett played:)  all the little girls and their mommas wanted to know what i was making.  it's funny how homemade things create conversations and bring people together like nothing else...

 i made this little garland of tags by accident (kinda).  i was using all of these as tags for my christmas gifts and was tired of them going EVERYWHERE...so i strung them on a piece of string i had and then though..."oohh that's kinda cute...i think i'll hang it up:)"  love life's little surprises.

 now THIS my jaeda girl made with HER own two hands (one of which is pictured below).  she made this glorious snowflake at school.  i was floored at her handiwork!  isn't it beautiful???  she's pretty amazing.

 okay this garland is another pinterest piece.  and maybe my favorite new christmas decoration.   i saw a colorful garland made of a simple strand of lights on pinterest and thought that i could make a more subdued, texture filled version of it for christmas.  and this is what i came up with.

 it was soooooo stinkin' easy.  would have been even easier if i didn't pick the longest strand of lights available at the store to make it out of!!!  i just gathered some scraps and crap i had in my craft stuff.  some yarn, some twine, some ribbon, some pearls and i tied it on to a strand of white lights.  THAT. IS. IT.  i love love LOVE it.  and want to make many more...one for every room.  okay.  maybe that's a lil much.  i gotta learn when to stop.

 one more picture up close...

 oh now THIS was a gift.  one of my lovely 2010 brides had it made for me and sent it to me as a thank you for photographing her wedding.  isn't that the sweetest?  she didn't tell me what it was she just asked me to send a picture that i felt encapsulated 2011 for our family.  i knew just the picture as soon as she asked.  miss morgan warner for blue ampersand photography took our family pictures this summer before we moved from missouri to florida.  this lovely picture is of all of our fingers pointing to our new home on a globe.  isn't that the coolest???  love the picture (thanks morgan) and LOVE the ornament (thanks alli).

 i had to slip a few pictures of my tree in here...

confession-- i have a hard time with all the red and green christmas stuff....so as far as decorations go--i stick with neutrals and stars at christmas time.  i have quite a lil star collection going (although my hubby accidentally broke my favorite one this year <tear>).

we made this paper chain together as a family:)  it was so fun--all that cutting and stapling and those sweet moments shared!  that's my version anyway....they might have a different story to tell... ;)

 i've had this old window frame for awhile now...i've been saving it for the perfect project.  and then i thought of THIS.  there are 9 panes on this old window and there are 9 fruits of the spirit.  just perfect!  love having this up in my home as a reminder of what is central...or should be.

 ohhhh and then there was a sidetable.  i found this sidetable years ago at a garage sale.  it's been waiting in my garage for me with a coat of primer on it ever since--just waiting to be allowed to come into the house.  as you can see, i kinda went on a modge podging spree and one night i had a lil modge podge left over from another project (already poured and ready to go) and i COULDN'T waste it.  so i stayed up wayyyyy too late recovering this cute lil guy.

 what did i cover it with?  sheets from a dickens book (of course, what else?).

okay so these are some of my latest projects.  some came straight from my hands and heart and some were purely pinterest inspired.  what are some of your p-inspirations?  i'd LOVE to see them!  please share!!!

waiting for words

with all the vim and vigor that comes with the new year, i created this space, this blog--january first 2012.  i created it with only the loftiest of ideals in mind...i was so excited to start posting pictures and projects, words and bits of witty wisdom.  i was sure it would all just flow freely and organically...but here it is, two weeks later and i've found nothing worthy of  my grandest plans.  i've been waiting on just the right words and pictures and stories...but they just. never. came.  so in the chaos of this sunny saturday morning i decided to screw it all...and just start here.

so for awhile now i've realized that i've become lost (and found) in photography. while i LOVE photography--my ever unsatisfied heart has been long-long-longing for more.  i want to watch things transform in my hands.  i want to inspire families to remember to make life fun.  i want to glorify my God with the creative gifts He's given me.

with my photography--i feel like i capture the life that's already there...but now that my eyes have been trained to look for life EVERYWHERE... instead of just finding it--i've found myself wanting to make MORE of it and pass it on.  i want to make MORE laughter, MORE simple memories, MORE beautiful treasures and MORE lovely words.  and i want this blog to a place where i gather them to share.

aaaaaaaand so here i go.  i've been waiting for words for too long now.  these words might not be as lofty and lovely as i had in mind BUT they are good and sturdy words.  words to build a dream on...