Having Fun Accessorizing

On another note I've been making more of these awesome leather beaded bracelets that are so popular. This one was a special treat for my mom, but if you would like to purchase one the cost is $28. 

Summertime

We have been taking advantage of this spring tease weather by tackling some more money sucking home improvement projects, and let's be honest, we have MORE than our fair share. Once we are able to move from our starter home, first thing on the list, is to find a decent home inspector! Gawd!

Oh a happier note, the back deck now feels like a separate living space. I can't wait to buy a cute umbrella for our table, stain the deck/paint the railing, plant flowers, put up my cute bird feeder (with a fresh coat of paint), then sit back and enjoy! That picket door wasn't there before- we added that. I like being able to keep the dogs down and the kids in or vice-versa. I do believe we'll enjoy this outdoor space much more this season. 

Spending Monday with my hubby was SO nice. I hope your Monday was as nice as mine!

One of "Those" Days at 7:00 a.m.

Ugh! *sigh* What is up with Thursday? I woke up this morning a little sleepy, but in a great mood until all my children woke up and disrupted my early morning coffee- that is, my peace in the morning. Apparently my children didn't wake up in as good of a mood as I. Cereal was quick to be requested, so I proceeded to tell everyone to get into their seats. Harder done than said today. Curious George was getting ready to come on PBS and Samuel wanted a seat that has been deemed "Audrey's seat" while at our house. A meltdown of tears followed him right into his bedroom where he was instructed to go back to bed. I then heard another creature stirring in her room. I opened the door and was smacked in the face with a horrible stench. Something must not be "just right" in her little digestive system because her diaper was loaded- and mind you, was NOT AT ALL happy about having fresh diedees put on. Cry... cry.... cry..... cry..... more crying..... AHHHHHHH! There is only so much crying this mama can take at 6:50 in the morning.

I have a feeling there will probably be a lot of this happening today.

I'm going to go try and find my happy spot again by making jewelry or knitting Caroline's elephant. Hope your Thursday started out better than mine- I'm going to go lock myself in my room now.......

The Simple Things

Mom sent this to me the other day and I thought it was worth sharing with everyone! Another reminder to sip my coffee a little slower and enjoy the simpler things in life.

On another note I tried to knit my first Amigurumi animal the other night before the KU basketball game (the key word there is "try"). I find it to be a mixture of a platypus and a bird. *sigh* Practice makes perfect, so, I'll give it another shot. I want to make one for all the kids for a little Valentine's gift. They have so many cute free patters out there. So I give you.........

Blue Bird Platypus

I also couldn't wait to make another beaded leather wrap for my shop, this time it is a single wrap with glass pearls and freshwater seed pearls. The colors are so soft and romantic- a perfect gift for a deserving woman out there! 

What are your kids' favorite breakfast requests? I'm not much of a pancake maker (I'll leave that one to my dad) but I can  make some mean waffles. In fact, if Samuel requests them and I respond with a "not today" he will break down in tears. LOL. Here is a stack of some homemade waffles with a little bit of secret mama ingredients that make them taste SO good!

A sweet lady -by name of Pam- writes on her blog Views From My Kitchen Sink asked her followers to leave her a picture of their view from their kitchen sink for her one year blogging birthday. Don't you just love blogs? I feel like I have many different friends even though I've never met a single one. It allows you to be as personal as you like or as vague as you'd like. You feel like you can really get to know someone by the way they write, the pictures they post, etc. I, for one, am not the worlds greatest writer, but I hope that I do well enough for you all to want to "follow" me. My view from my kitchen sink isn't the prettiest right now. The window needs to be cleaned but I'll share my view anyway. :-)

All the children have been playing and making laps through our house. They feel they are caged in, much as I do. No more puking! I had my dowse of stomach flu this past Friday. One of the worst nights EVER! At one point I just sat there and cried because there was nothing else I could do. I ached from head to toe, shook with chills for hours, and puked and puked and puked and puked.... you get the picture. The only good piece of news was that it lasted 24 hours and then another 24 to feel like a normal person again. Oh! I also lost 5 lbs in two days... not my weight loss plan of choice but it worked. :-) Now I get to play catch-up on homework. The end of this week will bring less stress and hopefully more creativity for my jewelry and more fun knitting projects to try. Have a happy Tuesday and I'll try to post more pictures of my munchkins soon. 

Cheers~

Amber

Wondering what has been going on at the Kellen household lately? 

Here is my new bookshelf that I designed and the hubs built me.

We had a small electrical fire in our house the day after Christmas at the end of our hallway, so once the wall was fixed (still needs paint) I thought this was the perfect opportunity to dress up the end of my hallway going back to our bedroom and laundry/mud room. I have despised this area of my house since the move-in, but now I couldn't be more thrilled! I still need to decorate and arrange the books how I like and I'm just giddy to get busy!! I'll post an after picture once decorated and arranged. 

Warning: THE NEXT PICTURE IS NOT FOR THE FAINT OF STOMACHS!

You know what ISN'T fun to do? Cleaning up barf. Gross. Ugh. Blah. Gag! I don't know what's worse, cleaning up poo or cleaning up barf, but I think I'd rather deal with barf. Another bug has gone through all my children and luckily- thus far - has not gotten the best of Joel and I. My laundry machine has been going nonstop since last Friday and because of all the puke I think it's time to turn my machine to its self cleaning option!

So, what's worse than cleaning up barf?...................

Barf with raisins in it!!!!!

I know, I'm gross right? I mean, who on earth would stop to take a picture of their child's barf? LOL. I guess me. Other moms on the blogosphere always like keeping it real, so this is my contribution to keeping it real. Real moms clean up puke, poo, boogers, and any other disgusting thing you can think of- so here is my tribute to that! :-) 

For those of you didn't know, I have a jewelry blog.... well, a stagnant jewelry blog. So I think I'm going to close up shop and mix in some jewelry posts over here. Managing my Etsy shop, a jewelry blog, my family blog, on top of everything else just isn't realistic. So a merge is in need to keep folks' interest. In ode to my merge I've created a piece that has become extremely popular! You can find these bracelets here for $158, or here for $168.... or at my shop (link above) for $60!!!!!

This is a triple wrap beaded bracelet made with leather cording, turquoise, and cherry/rose quartz. The threading used is NOT your normal thread for sewing. This is bracelet is going to last, so you don't have to worry about raveling and breakage that you might otherwise experience if someone used a sewing thread. 

Other than the above, we are just hanging tight until we aren't barricaded in by snow drifts. So, kitchen here I come and knitting needles lets get busy. 

Happy Snowy Wednesday!