a DIY christmas.

i'm sitting here with a bowl of blue berry cheese cake the size of a newborn in front of me.

and since eating that is going to take the majority of my effort...and both my hands...I'm gonna make this SUPER quick;)

a few days before Christmas I nailed this whole - Stay-At-Home-Almost-Full-Time (SAHAFT - duh;) - thing. I mean. Really. Watchin' my sister's 2 boys as well as my own 2 kiddos. Doin' laundry. Stuffin' diapers. Breastfeeding while Instagramming;). Makin' cookies. Ending World Hunger, for crying out loud!!!!;) 

and somewhere in there I found the time to set-up a little ornament painting station for the kids:) Homer and I made a few DIY ornaments a few weeks back - using this recipe -  and I finally remembered to pick up some paint - why is it that the MORE I have on my plate...the MORE I get done? Dumb.

But the whole project turned out so great! Homer and Jax painted the cutest little ornaments and it kept them entertained for a good hour, which allowed me to keep my hands free to chase the 2 babies - Johnathan 7MO and Theo 9MO - all around the house:)

snack break;)

i even got in on the action and made a few for our own tree...I sent Jax's home with Mal and we've been adding some of Homer's to family gifts:)

not gonna lie, Johnathan wasn't a whole lotta help;) PTFO. 

and while the boys were busy painting - and eating their boogers;), I mixed up some All Natural Essential Oil Night Cream - I used this recipe. I've been really interested in using some more natural products and essential oils and this was a super easy recipe for my first attempt! I made a few as little additions to gifts and for myself. 

i'm not 100% sure where I got the jars from - these are similar. BUT I am 100% sure they are adorable:) Super cute washi tape here - which I also used on our Christmas cards, currently sold out:/. Essential oils from a local Plan-It Earth Health Center. Unfortunately, I was busy not taking photos of the process but trust this, normally-too-lazy-for-DIY girl, it's super easy!!!!

and then there are this year's Christmas cards. Which.I.LOVED. They turned out so simply and so cute;)

similar gold washi tape - here.  Coral envelopes - here. Red card stock - here. 

anyhoo. Just a little snippet of our Christmas. Much more to come after we finish up the family festivities tomorrow night:) 

merry, merry Christmas!!!:)

pinterest made me do it.

i hate to say it and my husband surely hates that it's happening...but I'm in total beast NESTING MODE!!!! I'll be 32weeks in a few days and the list of things I'd like to have crossed off our To Do List is embarrassingly long. And by "I'd like to have crossed off"...I mean "what Jacob will be doing with all his spare time for the next 8-ish weeks";).

tonight while Jacob hung shelving in our soon-to-be Office and put some plastic on the windows in that room, I hung my sunglasses/fake reading glasses/prescription glasses (thankkkkkkk gawddddd I held onto those things!!!!;) onto a wire hanger. Whaaaaaa-fuckinggggg-LA! I have to admit. It turned out pretty amazing;)

i added the last 2 photos to show you that I wasn't justtttt playing with that hanger all night. While Jacob did do a TON tonight...I actually cleaned this small entry, moved that buffet into that room and cleaned the buffet out to utilize it more for storage...for now. BOOM.

i heart productivity:)

POINT: i found the hanger idea on Pinterest. Obviously. You can find it HERE. Kinda thinking that any Pinterest-Related-Creations will get filed under a new and hopefully, regular, post: Pinterest Made Me Do it

coffee table post:)

when we moved into our forever-dream-needs-a-lotta-work-but-we're-pumped-home we were lucky to find that a few gems were left behind!!

this table, which now serves as our coffee table, actually sat outside the house through an entire winter and spring. We roll all trailer-trash like that;) But once summer rolled around I was ready to try and salvage the little guy!

after tightening some screws on the legs, giving it a quick sand and then staining and varnishing...it was as good as new!!!:) And all that took only a good part of one afternoon! That's about all my attention span and patience has to give...so this was the perfect project for me!

as you can imagine...Homer was beyond helpful;) He mostly tested it's sturdiness:)

and here is the beautiful finished product!!! I really love how it turned out and it was completely free! My parents - RL - do custom cabinetry and so I used just a small amount of stain that they already had laying around and then my mom was nice enough to take a few minutes to varnish (which is why I didn't get any photos of that part of the project...oops:). 

SIDE NOTE: that area rug is also another freebie that came along with the house!!!:) AND that adorable yellow couch...another freebie that I found out on the curb while on one of our walks. The church was giving it away and Homer and I wanted it so badly that we sat on it until my mom came back with a truck;)

this place is coming together piece by piece:):)

because there's a baby.

funny when you get to a point in life when Friday and Saturday nights mean absolutely nothing to you;) I used to count down the minutes to Friday EVERY week. Starting Monday, I was sending out emails to see what we were going to do. Where we were going to go.

not so much anymore! That could have something to do with the fact that I'm 8-1/2 months pregnant. OR that I've matured a weeeee bit. OR that my work schedule has me working most weekends. Regardless...I'm not complaining:) I love that things have slowed down and that I have someone (Jacob) that feels just as content being home as I do:)

POINT: we finished the baby room this weekend! Feels good to have the 'majority' done. And I say majority cause there are a few things I still need to get:

1/ knobs for the dresser

2/ book stops for the baby's book collection

3/ a brighter light

OTHERwiseeeee. We're set:)

UP before

DOWN after

from day 1, our main goal has been to keep things simple. Low key. SIMPLE. And as you can see...it got full fast. But I really do love how it turned out:)

i hung a little mirror that Jacob's mom made us for Christmas.

UP before

DOWN after

while I was doing that...Jacob hung a rod and baskets that I had gotten from IKEA.

UP before

DOWN after

i really think these baskets are going to come in super handy. They are hung right next to the dresser...which will have the baby changing pad on it soon! Then things will be right within my reach when I'm on diaper duty:)

i also used some of the decor I had made for the Baby Shower to make a little mobile for the crib. Because I had the kiddo's help me make some of the decoration...I hated the idea of throwing it away. 

i'm still not 100% sure it's working. Maybe it's a bit...too much!? Too...busy!? But Jacob liked it and I thinkkkkkk I like it too:)

UP before

DOWN during

UP/DOWN after

and that my friends was...part of our weekend. There was also walking, napping, swollen feet, workkkkkk:(, more napping and a large...large amount of panacake consumption:)

rub it on your lips

i'm a lover of 'favors'.

wedding shower - bottles of homemade wine for each guest:

wedding - cupcakes and seriously perfect/hilarious buttons:

and now the baby shower!!!


baby shower - organic lip balm:






ingredients: cocoa butter, pure vitamin E oil, honey, essential oil(s), sweet almond oil, adorable containers...and wine:)


i purchased all the ingredients at a local Planet Earth store and the cute little containers on Ebay.

my sister, Pigg, was pretty hardcore about making lip balm. I thought - lets just wing it...throw this and that in there and see how it goes. Um, no you piece of shit. You'll do it by the book or not at all;)
BUT thanks to her, we got it done right:) I knew she'd be perfect for the job!!!


PS. we got through it without her making me cry ONCE;)

i found a pretty simple recipe via eHow and that's what we followed. It looked easy and ended up being even that much easier to make! And a little goes a longggg way! I think we still have at least 10 or more left over out of the 50 we made!

using potatoes, I cut out the heart shape and used the kids' paints to stamp some tags! THEN I put Courts, and her perfect penmanship, to work;)

UP work harderrrrrrr!!! WORK FASTERRRRRRR!!!!;)

and I think they were a hit! At least I hope they were a hit. But regardless...like the wine and cupcakes...we always seem to pick something we don't mind having leftovers of;)