Craft fair booth

My first craft fair was a blast. Not a lot of people showed up, I think we had something like 22 stop by my booth, but it was a great experience! It was so nice to have Erin there, I doubt I could have done it without her. I shmoozed the customers and she worked the transactions. She was also crucial in helping me get the look I had in my head to come out in real life. I love the way my booth turned out, and will pretty much be setting up like this every time. It has a cozy feeling with a bit of vintage thrown in. And little sprinkles of birdies here and there.

I was SO glad that so many friends stopped by to see me. It was such a pleasure to look and see a friendly face. I hope the next one gets a bigger turn out, but I will always be grateful for my first fair!

Here are some pics from the booth...

We shopped the house to find little bits of furniture we could use. It was surprisingly easy, as my style taste is finally evident in my home!

Loved the way the onesies looked all hung up, and my favorite thing made especially for the fair was the yellow fruit basket we used for the coffee cozies and coasters.

Bibs and burpie sets were my best sellers! Gonna have to make some more, because I almost sold out!

Erin finally completed a project I had wanted to do, but never found the time. She mod podged some super cute green hounds tooth fabric to my thrift store wooden tray. It became a perfect place to display her little button hair clips.

I am so sick of looking at these dang bow holders, we were practically giving them away! Erin hung them up all pretty like and made them look fab! (can you tell she was a life saver??)

I knew from the beginning that I wanted to lug my yellow dresser to the fair, and I am so glad I did. It really brought the booth together.

As a side note, sorry for the sparseness in posts. Life has been a bit of a whirlwind since before school got out. Lots of stuff happening, not a lot of pictures being taken. One of my summer goals is to dust off the camera and document our adventures once more!

I don't want to forget that...

I am still trying to get out of my blogging funk, but I thought i should at least do a small update on the happenings around here.

...Brady went potty in the big boy potty for the first time on Tuesday the 13th (finally!). He got a new train out of the deal. I doubt this is the beginning of potty training, but still, he did it!

...Natalie has been walking around the house singing "I know 1 plus 1 is 2, go tie your shoe, I know 1 plus 1 is 2, go tie your shoe, I know 1 plus 1 is two-oo, I know 1 plus 1 is two-oo, i know 1 plus 1 is 2 go tie your shoe!" (set to the tune of She'll be Comin' Round the Mountain") and all the successive verses, for that last week. I love this, it is a dang annoying song, but it is MATH! She is learning math, how cool is that?? will try to get a video of this

...Keith is loving his new longer hours at work. He seems to be getting lots of experience which is good, and of course now he isn't stuck at home with us all afternoon...just kidding!

...My sewing machine is ticking me off! I am working on this quilt along, and for some reason my squares keep coming out a tad too small. My machine is rebelling against all attempts I am making to sew a 1/4 inch seam. I will win! I will! I am currently making a new square, carefully measuring as I go, and it will be the right size! It will!

...Erin totalled her car a while back. It was nothing serious, but she had a Dodge neon so the hood crumpled like a piece of paper when she got in the accident. So, in any event she needed a new car, and my Step dad, Vern, being the master haggler got her a sweet deal on a Ford Taurus that will be much safer for her to drive. Only thing is the car he found was in Spokane, so he ended up driving it down here for her. He was only able to stay for a day, but we all went out to On the Border (where we take all our visitors apparently) and had a nice short little visit. Of course I got no pictures, and of course Natalie had to act shy, and by shy I mean psycho, so of course I acted psycho as well, not pretty. Oh well!

...the weather is getting warmer, and that means the annual hunt for clothes that don't require a tank or undershirt underneath has begun! I just gets too hot to have so many layers of clothing on!

...Natalie has now taken to wearing her new swim suit around the house anytime she gets a chance. She looks like a chocolate cupcake, for reals! I just love to squeeze her and cover her in kisses! I am trying to squeeze out some extra hours at work so that I can afford to get a new swim suit from Diviine ModesTee (HERE). They are pricey, but so cute, and possibly as flattering of a swim suit that I am gonna find for this body. Plus I can get one that kinda matches Natalie.
Geez! That is a lot more than I thought I was gonna have. Really not much going on around here other that adjusting to the new schedule and bracing ourselves for summer to really kick in. We are hoping that we will be able to have some sort of a routine this summer. We always say that we will get into a routine when "life settles down", meaning when visitors leave, or work schedules get kinked out, but I am learning that life NEVER settles down! It is always one thing or another, and that is what makes life fun and interesting.

Way Back Wednesday

Here is my sixth grade school picture, I actually don't hate it. That is surprising. But man, oh man, did I have some gangly teeth!
I finally found a picture of me with my first pair of glasses (bifocals). We were poor so these were like the only frames that our insurance covered, or so I remember!
We always had pets, these are some kitties we had at one time. I recall we took them to a farmer's market to try and give them away?? I am not sure how successful that was. Erin was a pretty cute kid! And that is my stepsister Cris, so cute!
Um, yeah, here is Mindi and I being retarded at Girl's Camp. I actually have 2 pictures from this day of us doing the same pose. Sweet. My shirt says "Legalize Freedom", it is some shirt I got from my dad, but it is hilarious because everyone thought it said "Legalize Marijuana". Um, take the time to READ people! I almost got in trouble for wearing it! Needless to say after I got reprimanded from some stupid leader that didn't read the shirt all the way, you couldn't pay me to take it off till it was filthy! Take that, authority figure!

The party's over...

...tomorrow we are back to the grind. I guess we are all bascially over being sick, just pretty cough and still a bit sniffly. I have no idea when we pass the mark of being contagious, but I am thinking we are in the clear. We still need to take it easy, but there is no getting around it, we can't ignore the world anymore. Now we have to learn to juggle Keiths new job (HURRAH!!!) and internship and school, with my job (man, I am ready to be a not working mom again! but at least I have the best job I could have for what I need!) and Natalie's school. Not to mention we have to clean this cesspool only to have it invaded in a few weeks by Keith's mom, and I have heard rumors both (yes BOTH) of his younger brothers will be here for a few days during her stay (HOW ?!?!?!).

Luckily by then Erin will be moved into a new place! She found a girl through a friend who needed a roomate until July, it will be perfect! We are excited for her (and for us!). That means we will soon be moving Mr. B into a big boy bed! Lots of changes will be happening in the next month over here at the Bowers!

Now who wants to play? and come help clean?...hehehe...just kidding!

Family Update: In Pictures

Stay tuned for more throwback Thursday/flashback Friday pictures If I get up the energy later today!

I wanted to post some old pictures but I realized I had a TON of recent "old" pictures and some new ones too that I hadn't shared! Things have been pretty hectic around here. Lots of new things starting with the new year.

Natalie has started a preschool that we both love. She has a book "DW's Guide to PreSchool" and she loves it so much, but her first preschool attempt was nothing like DW's school. This new one is very much so and it makes it more fun for Natalie. They actually have cubbys with her name on it, they do circle time, art projects every day, fun snacks, and they are even going to have a pajama day on the 31st! (I recognize that the previous sentence is all out of whack in terms of being parallel in structure, but I am too lazy to figure out how to change it! If you don't know what I am talking about, then just ignore me, LOL!) We are excited about that, and Natalie is excited because we told her she could get some new jammies!

Natalie in her new target dress.

While Natalie is at school Brady and I get some good quality time together, so far the 2 days we have had have been fun. It is nice to be able to play things with him and not worry about a certain "Princess" coming over and inadvertently domineering the play. He has been super sweet lately, but also still very much a pill. Or as the aforementioned "Mr. Trouble" shirt, which actually turned out to be a "Mr. Mischief" shirt which is a HUNDRED times more appropriate for my little guy, he is very curious! regardless, we have fun and it is good to get to know him on his own and not him under the influence of sissy.

Trying to get a picture of him in his new Mr. Mischief shirt, yeah right! Brady sit still? Never!

I have just been plodding along. I got new hours for work that should be more convenient to having to get up early to take Nat to school and be prepared to handle the kids when Keith leaves for early classes. I also started swapping again, and that has been fun to try and create.

Handmade for a "Beginner Stuffie Swap". We call him "Ock".

And Keith, well I would give a little update here, but he is a punk, and heaven forbid anyone know anything about his personal life. So we will just say he is alive! I guess that is all that matters anyway!

The other day we caught a glimpse of a fire in one of the garbage cans. We got to see the firemen pull up and extinguish it with their hoses. It was pretty cool for the kids, and who knew how much water it takes to put out even the smallest fires! They sprayed that thing FOREVER! Brady and his new haircut. This is part of what we did on our first Mommy/Brady outing. I took him to a cool haircutting place that is all sports themed, and they have Sports Center playing, Brady LOVED it of course! He sat SO still, and even let the lady gel his hair. He looked SO handsome, and he heard me say this so in the car for the rest of the morning he was saying "hansum boy. hansum boy." Of course I couldn't pay him to say it now.

Oh yeah, Brady likes to pull hair, especially poor Natalie's!

Natalie got book orders at school! Great for her, bad for me! I have a weakness for them and I HAVE to order from them. Luckily for me, they always have a few 95 cent books that I can pad my order with!I swear Brady is a good kid, LOL, but he is a B-O-Y! He likes to randomly throw things, and last night he tossed a block and it hit Nat right between the eyes! She started crying SO bad, I was working and it scared the crap out of me. She is better now and only has a red line on the bridge of her nose to show for it, but last night there was a huge (to me) bump on her sweet nose.And one last thing, Erin is a greeeat influence! She is teaching Natalie how to take "MySpace" pictures. Wonderful. Cute, but still!

Letter to the Fam

Dearest Brady,

You are so sweet! You are lovey and precious and darling...but...Why, Oh Why??? won't you sleep throughout the night?? I am telling you a full night of sleep is a wonderful thing! You should try it sometime, we would all be much obliged.

Love,
Mama
________________________________________________
Dearest Natalie,

You are such a sweet girl and I thank you so much for not wetting the bed like I did as a kid, but can I just ask why you feel the need to pee three times a night?? Two teeny drops does not an emergency make, but I am not mad, at least you don't wet the bed!

Love,
Mama
________________________________________________
Dearest Keith,

I love you, and I know how much you like the Cowboys, but can you please not stress out about the game that is 6 days away?? At least wait 'till Friday. I hate to say it, but there is nothing you can do! It is in their hands, just sit back and be a good fan.

Love,
Shannon
________________________________________________
Dearest Sister,

Please wake up. We would all love to see your (smiling) face once in a while, especially when it is not connected to or staring at (read: texting) your cell phone.

Love,
Shannon

Busy bees

So, here I sit at the end of a busy 2 days! Yesterday was the usual get up early to get ready for church and still be rushing at the end so that we are a little late. Then we came home grabbed the quickest thing we could to eat and we sat down to watch the nail biting Cowboys game! That is how you judge a good team, they win even when they aren't playing with their A game. I agree "Anonymous" Tony Romo is awesome. After a long dry spell it is time for some winning up in here!

Today Natalie and I got an early start heading out to Wal Mart for a few things, including some snacks for a movie later in the afternoon. After Wal Mart we came home picked up Erin and we headed to the mall for a little window shopping and an afternoon movie. We saw Enchanted, and it was very cute. Erin and I had some good chuckles at Gisele's stereotypical princess behavior at the beginning of the movie, and overall it was fun. 30 minutes into it Natalie declared that she wanted to go home, but after finding a comfortable position on my lap she settled in to watch, always keeping my coat close at hand to cover her eyes at the scary parts. We then headed to Olive Garden for a little birthday dinner for Erin, including the embarrassing singing and obligatory birthday dessert. After eating we rolled ourselves home and are now trying to unwind and convince Natalie that even though she had a cat nap in the car and the chocolate cake is hitting her blood stream, it is still time for bed!

Minor Emergency

OK, people, we have a small situation. I found out last night that Erin has neither seen nor heard of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure! I know, it's shocking isn't it??? I mean, not to have seen it is one thing, but to never have heard of the wonderful movie that is Bill and Ted's, now that is just down right wrong! So, if any of you fellow readers have this movie can we please borrow it ASAP?? I would be much obliged, not to mention that Erin's soul basically depends on it.

Good (mostly)clean fun

So, as my friends have already blogged about the kids and I participated in a garage sale Friday morning. I went over to Kelli's at 7 and then I came back home to pick up Erin and the babies around 10. We then stayed on until 1ish. We had a good time. I didn't really have much to sell because when we moved Keith and I donated a TON of stuff to goodwill, but I rummaged around and found a few things. I will be ecstatic if I walk away with $25. I remembered why I hate garage sales...cheap people! It's like, "No, I will not sell you that HUGE pile of like new, brand name baby clothes for 50 cents!" I mean come on people, it's a garage SALE not a pile of garbage! Those...people...made me laugh to say the least. Not too many stingies that I saw so that was nice!

The BEST part of the day was that Natalie was able to experience some freedom. I told her before we got there that she could play where ever she wanted in the yard as long as she DID NOT go in the street. I even gave her permission to get dirty (big of me, I know). She had a blast. The 3 Musketeers ran around, made a chalky mess, played computer games, and were actually super well behaved! I was SO proud of my kids. Though poor Brady was super tired at the end and WOULD NOT take a nap. He screamed for, hmm...at least an HOUR!!! I thought I was going to have a breakdown when he just. wouldn't. stop. And then I knew it was going to be an ordeal convincing Natalie that it was time to go home because she was having such a blast. So, needless to say that after Erin and I got all the kids/bags/new found treasures loaded into the car the first thing I did was tell Natalie how proud of her I was and that I was sorry for getting grouchy there at the end. Hey, I was pretty proud of myself for not freaking earlier, so I thought it was a pretty good trip, even if it got a little rough at the end. And every body came home and crashed for 3 hours so it was ALL worth it!

Things that make me smile

Nothing life changing has been going on around here, so I thought I would do another list.

1. Brady standing up in the bath tub, farting, and then sitting back down.
2. Making cookies with Natalie. (recipe in another post)
3. Keith and Natalie watching Star Wars together.
4. Brady rocking (and rocking and rocking and rocking) in my Grandma's chair.
5. Finding steals in the clearance section.
6. Natalie hitting that stage where she wants to wear a dress/skirt EVERY day.
7. Keith getting to play basketball again.
8. Good books (thanks Sarah!)
9. Brady laughing with glee when he sees his blankie.
10. My sister Erin really and truly coming to live with me!!

New Tenant

In about 4 weeks life in the Bowers household is going to get a LOT more crazy. My little sister Erin has been wanting to move down here to Texas for quite awhile and now it is official! Keith's brother Jason is going to fly up to Spokane and then help her drive down here. Should be quite a trip for those 2! Well, needless to say we are getting very excited. We know it will be hard at times, but it will be fun. Yesterday we ordered some new bunk beds (poor Erin is going to be sharing a room with TWO babies) and now we are anxiously awaiting their arrival. Natalie can't wait to have a "bouncy" bed. I also found her some super cute Tinker Bell sheets at Ross to match the quilt that I have had in my closet for almost a year. Anywho, I love any excuse to decorate or organize, so I am having a good time trying to figure out how to make it work so that Erin can have her own space and not feel crowded by the kiddos.

P.S. I got the kids Halloween costumes, they are SO cute and funny. I was going to keep it a surprise, but my big mouth keeps telling everybody. I will restrain myself and not post pictures of them in their costumes until Halloween though. So, all you far away family and friends will still get to be surprised.