I'M A LUCKY MOM

Look what my Jake gave to me on Mother's Day morning! A Chinese take-out container made to look like a watering can with some flower seeds inside! Love it. Also, he made a card for me with butterflies and glitter (Daddy helped)! Thank you, my little buddy.

And this is what my oldest boy, Sean, gave to me: A booklet consisting of four pages. On the front cover, Sean made the tulips so that they stand out. Beautiful work. And see the butterfly on the bottom right corner? It's a pin made of clay! Sean painted the butterfly and glued a pin on the back. I am so wearing this on my outfit to work. Thank you, sweet Sean!

Here's a close-up, albeit blurry, picture of the butterfly pin.

Here's the first page of the booklet. Sean chose the descriptive words and his teacher helped put it in poem format. Other pages include a bio of me, from Sean's point of view, and also 5 things Sean loves about me.

What a wonderful keepsake. I love it.

The boys also helped me prepare chocolate chip crescent rolls for breakfast, along with milk and yogurt. And Sean helped made a pork chop dinner for our family. What a fun day.

Daddy helped Sean make a card for me, also. Lots of glitter and hearts and butterflies and love.

I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day, too.

Tidy Mom Giveaway

Happy Friday!

There's a great giveaway over at http://tidymomof2.blogspot.com/ happening right now. A book by Karen Berg entitled "By the Book: How To Take Care of My Kids" is being offered. This book appears to be a must-have for any family. A place to store information about caring for your kids, be it for caregivers, baby-sitters, a nanny.

I could have used this type of binder/book with information about my kids and their schedules when I had my awful accident this past February where I ended up in the hospital for 6 days and 6 nights. How handy this would have been for those caring for my boys. I was able to direct things from the hospital because I was eventually coherent and conscious. It would have come in handy, too, in the weeks that followed when I had some memory loss due to the traumatic head injury.

If I don't win the giveaway, I'm still going to purchase the book. You never know when something will happen in a split second and change your life as you know it. I will be prepared should something come up again (I so hope nothing like what happened comes up again - please!)

Anyway, you have until 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, May 14th, to leave a comment. Head on over to Tidy Mom now!

And have a fantastic weekend!

Friday Lovin'

Some trunk loving going on today. I'm just itching to go to a flea market or maybe hit some antique stores this weekend. I would love to find a trunk about the size of the one in the above picture.

I need to clean and organize my studio this weekend. Here are some pictures I found out there in blogland a while ago. I can't remember whose studio this is. I like it. And I'm lovin' the cute yellow tool box/tote and the window frame hung on the wall. Just a fun, cheery studio.

Another shot of said studio. Very inviting. Now I need to make mine just a tad more inviting. Making a path to find my desk would be a great start!

Have a wonderful weekend. I'm going to try to pay a visit to my favorite scrapbook store here in San Diego: Paper Tales. A girl's got to celebrate National Scrapbook Day/Weekend, right?

Hugs,

Tammy

Grey & Yellow

I am so lovin' the yellow/grey combo that I am seeing everywhere I go, be it fabric, clothing, accessories, furniture, paint.

Some more fabric using the yellow and grey combo. I'm just loving these patterns, too.

Fabric: Daisy Janie's Textile Co. as featured on Decor8 a few weeks ago.

BICYCLE WEEKEND

I think this weekend will be a good time to dust off our bikes and take them for a spin.

Should be a great weekend for a nice spin.

How fun it would be to bring our bikes to the ferry that leaves from Seaport Village and travels over to Coronado and then ride around Coronado on them. Hmmm, definitely on my list of things to do this summer with my boys.

CLOCKS

The above picture is today's featured craft from Martha Stewart's Daily Craft. What a fun idea! I think I'll make one of these for the boys' room.

Oriental Trading Company has square and round clocks made of wood just waiting to be altered. I decorated one of their square clocks in a Christmas design for my mother-in-law to display this past Christmas and she loved it.

I love vintage alarm clocks. So fun to decorate with.

A nice combination of the vintage alarm clocks with vintage books and a mirror and a frame.

A fun clock. I also like the initial in the background. I have an large metal "N" from an old theatre's marquee. The "N" represents the beginning letter of my last name. I've had it for years and it's currently displayed in my living room.

Springtime daffodils and a cute square clock.

Various photos from Domino magazine's My Deco files and from Decor8.

Oh, by the way, Happy Earth Day! Have a great Wednesday!

THE SHABBY NEST GIVEAWAY

One of my favorite bloggers, Wendy of The Shabby Nest, whom I've been following for a while now, is hosting a giveaway to celebrate her 200th post! Check out her blog and leave a comment to be entered into her giveaway for one of her great pillows: a Number Bolster Pillow or a Personalized Bolster Pillow. Also, if you're new to her blog, let her know you're new and then join her as a follower and you will be entered to win $30 of merchandise from her awesome Etsy store.

I'm the proud owner of one of Wendy's pillows, the one with the nest and eggs. I love it. Dang, I need to take a photo of it. It's presently on the bench in my hallway.

Now head on over to http://shabbynest.blogspot.com. What are you waiting for? You definitely won't be disappointed.

IMPERFECTLY BEAUTIFUL BLOG GIVEAWAY

Good morning and happy Monday!

Amanda at http://imperfectlybeautifulms.blogspot.com/ is having a giveaway! Amanda just opened her Etsy shop and is celebrating the grand opening with a giveaway.

Check out her blog and her etsy store. I have my eye on one of her HOME blocks. Too cute!

Have a good one!

TRUNKS AND SUITCASES

I love trunks. Big trunks, small trunks, medium-sized trunks, and suitcases, too. I love the huge trunk by the front door in the above picture.


I like the trunk in the picture below that is being used as a coffee table.

I love stacked suitcases/trunks, like in the photo below. I especially like the pink suitcase.

More stacking going on below.

Tomorrow I'll go around my house and take photos of my various trunks and suitcases and how I decorate with them.

Have a wonderful Saturday evening. I love weekends! :)

Spring Break Fun

Jake enjoying Balboa Park with his dad and his brother.

My monkey, Sean, just hangin' around! I love this T-shirt Sean has on. Both Sean and Jake got one for Christmas. It's a self-portrait by Jeff Hardy, one of their favorite wrestlers.

Here's another monkey. Are you sure this isn't the zoo?

Taking the dogs on a walk. This is our view of the lake.

And below is a picture of our sweet kitty, Noodle-Bobby. We adopted Noodle from the Humane Society a year and a half ago when he was a 1 1/2. He's been such a great addition to our family. We love him.
I took today off from work and we all headed to Sea World, along with Grandma Baker, Uncle Michael and cousin Breanna. Absolutely gorgeous day here in San Diego. Sunny, not too hot, just the right amount of coolness - lovely.

Ready for some weekend fun.

EASTER - THE LOOT

Just a few pictures from Easter morning after the boys ran around, searching for the eggs that the bunny hid.

Mmmm....some eggs had candy in them and other eggs had $$$$$$! How exciting. I could see the adding machine working in their heads, adding up their loot and pondering how they were going to spend their treasure.

At the mall on Monday, Sean ended up purchasing a really cool "No Fear" Monster logo hat. He loves it. Jake purchased a couple Star Wars Storm Troopers, a "DC" shirt and a really cool "No Fear" big boy belt.

Have a wonderful day!

Varela Voyage giveaway

Good morning and happy Wednesday. Kristal from http://varelavoyage.blogspot.com/ is having a giveaway: her beautiful signs.

I'm the proud owner of two of her signs. A "CREATE" sign and an "INSPIRE" sign. I have posted about her signs before on my blog and have more pictures.

To check out the "CREATE" sign, look at my March 19th post and March 9th posts. To check out the "INSPIRE" sign, take a look at my March 19th and March 7th posts.

Now hurry on over to her blog. You definitely won't be disappointed!

Easter Weekend - Sunday Morning

Sean with his Easter basket on Sunday Morning. Sean is not an early morning person. He was still waking up when this photo was taken.

I think Jake loves his basket! Jake is such a fun, sweet animated little man.

Jake enjoying the egg hunt around the house.

Look! A smile. Sean started to wake up during the egg-citing egg hunt.

I'll post a couple more pictures tomorrow, Grandma Nielsen and Grandma Baker, of the boys' loot from their egg hunt.

Easter Weekend - Saturday Evening

Saturday we colored and decorated our Easter eggs. We had an egg-citing time!

Jake presenting his egg-celent creations.

The Easter Bunny must have taken this picture when he left this basket for Sean.

And also this picture of Jake's basket.

Even Dad joined in on the Easter egg coloring egg-citement!

EASTER GREETINGS

Happy Easter to everyone. I'll be spending the day with family, eating, laughing and hunting for eggs.

Living Room Daydreaming & A Rabbit

Love this sweet image of a bunny with his Easter greeting. I've purchased the eggs, the dye and the white vinegar in order to do some serious egg dying and decorating this weekend with my boys. I'm going to copy Martha Stewart and use a couple of my scrapbooking punches - a butterfly and a bird - to create silhouette designs on my Easter eggs.

Doing a little daydreaming today. I have light-filled living rooms on the brain and also zebra design rugs!

I am so into yellow this spring. I love the above combo. I'm also loving a yellow and grey combo. And, again, my zebra design rug craving!

Oh, look! Another rug. Gorgeous.

And an image of one of my favorite living rooms. I just want to curl up on that couch and read my Stephen King novel. Maybe a nap, too! :) Daydreaming.....

Well, I must stop daydreaming and head on down to my courtroom for some work today.

Have a wonderful day.