Have you seen this blog?

OH MY GOSH. Have you seen this blog? There are so many recipes that I want to try on this site...I mean WOW. I'm totally excited. Seriously, check it out....

Goodbye Red Runner

I have to say goodbye to my 1999, red Grand Am this week because I got a new car Saturday!! I LOVE it. I drove it all around today to get used to it. Will and I purchased a 2010 GMC Terrain on Saturday. It is black paint with black interior. Although it is sad to get rid of the red runner, I won't miss having a window duck taped shut, cracked dashboard, broken speakers and air conditioning and stained cloth interior. I love new car smell...

New York, New York...here I come!

The last two years I have been participating in a grant through the federal government offered by my school district. One of the culminating things I get to do is take a trip to New York City. This trip is supposed to give me a better understanding of the history of immigration in America to help me be a better social studies teacher - but - let's face it - it is a FREE trip to NEW YORK and I've NEVER been - so - not only is it going to help me as a teacher, it is going to be F - U - N. I wasn't that excited about it until tonight. We got all the details at our meeting and I found out I get to room with a great teacher friend of mine, Angie!

We are staying at the Affinia Manhattan Hotel. I'm excited to get to go to the Tenement House and do the Immigrant Soles walking tour. I get to take the SUBWAY! Is it weird I am excited about that? We are visiting Battery Park, Ellis Island and Liberty Island. Hopefully we will have time to go to Central Park, Rockefeller Center and The Empire State Building. We get to eat at this yummy Cuban restaurant called Havana Central. We are also eating at the Hard Rock Cafe on Broadway. I'm just so excited...when is July again? I'll be sure to take lots of pictures and I'm sure I'll have tons of stories.

Its been awhile...

It has been awhile since I have done a post. I've been kind of busy enjoying this beautiful weather! In the last few weeks Sam had his first birthday. He is officially supposed to be potty trained now...so far so good.

Sam loves opening presents...

...and enjoying his special gourmet dog treats.

I made a new cushion for our front porch bench out of outdoor fabric.

My sister and nephew visited. Logan and Sam made friends fast.

I didn't get many pictures with Logan, but I thought this one was cute with his Aunt Megan.

I have a few crafty things up my sleeve, but have been too busy getting outside to work hard on any of them! I'll be better about blogging again soon - I PROMISE! 6 more weeks of school after all, but who is counting (surely not the teachers!!!)...

Spring Green and an Early Birthday

I made a spring green headband tonight. I had seen these headbands on Blue Cricket Design. I decided to twist it a little to use this pretty, green satin ribbon with stripes on it. I still want to make the one like Blue Cricket Design has, but not tonight (I'm watching The Real Housewives of New York City - on my DVR from last Thursday).

Here is the finished product.

Just a cute little spring look!

Now on to more important things...Samson's birthday! Samson will be ONE this Friday (April 2nd). Our little boy is growing up. I went birthday shopping for Samson yesterday and after I wrapped his presents in wrapping paper (apes with boxers and party hats on) - I couldn't help but want to give him one of his three new toys.

Sam LOVES unwrapping presents. We found this out at Christmas.

And, as you can see, he loves his new toy too. More presents for Samson on his real birthday - if I can make it through the week without giving him the rest.... ; )

New Hardware

Towards the tail end of spring break I convinced Will to go to Lowe's with me and pick out some new hardware for our half bath and master bathroom. Here is a glimpse of what we chose. It turned out really pretty with the lighting we picked when we built the house.

While Will was measuring, drilling and hanging - our micro manager watched over him.
We already had these pictures but we added them to our master bath, right above our tub.

I love the new hardware with the towels. Pottery Barn sells these exact white towels with the embroidered pearl dots at the bottom, but I found mine at Home Goods!

Now we just have to get new faucets, mirrors and shower heads...and hardware for the second full bath...let's just add it to the list.

Got Bags?

I don't know what it is like in your house, but in ours we seem to always have an overabundance of grocery bags in our closet in our kitchen. I save them to pick up Samson's treasures (I wish they were that). They were always falling down when I opened the door. So I had seen somewhere (I think on Etsy) someone who had created a holder for all those plastic bags. I decided this would be a perfect project for my new sewing machine. I used about half a yard of green canvas for the body of the bag and then added this fun strip of fabric to the canvas to give it a little more beauty. I pinned down the strip of fabric and folded the top of the green canvas over so I could sew that as well. Also, I pinned down bottom part of canvas to sew as well (with enough room inside to slide a strip of elastic into it).

After I sewed all of those seams, I folded the canvas in half with the right side of the fabric on the inside and prepared to sew down the open ends.
Once I sewed down the open sides of the fabric, I cut the extra scrap off.

Next, I attached a safety pin to a long strip of elastic and thread it through the wider opening at the bottom of the fabric.

Then, I pulled it tight and sewed it closed and in place.

This way the bags stay in place until you are ready to pull them out.

I attached a ribbon at the top for it to hang from. Here is the finished product, bags and all.

I think it turned out pretty cute and no more bags falling out of the closet!

Overall, I am pretty pleased with my new sewing machine. I do have a lot to still learn on it though...