Skeletor Has Nice Abs

But, you won't find any pictures of his abs here.

Just his head in a RAINBOW of colors.

Today was a school disctrict-wide furlough day.

Good moms all over Provo took their kids on a fall adventure and then out for ice cream cones.

Me? I let mine watch t.v. and play with the neighbors while I beaded it up.

I went to the Gem Faire on Saturday, and boy howdy, I bought me some beads!
I spent $9.00 and made two necklaces, a bracelet and fifteen pairs of earrings.

You likey? Pick a pair, and I'll give them to you. I've done it before, people. I'll do it again.

I'll give preferential treatment to my relatives, but I think there's plenty to go around, friends.

As far as I can tell, there are four people who check this blog on a regular basis.

Isn't this model a thing of beauty? This picture is to help give you a frame of reference for size.

A note on quality: Only the cruddiest of materials were involved here. I think the beads are plastic, no silver was harmed in the making of these pieces, and the pins are already tarnishing.

Suddenly FREE isn't sounding so amazing, is it?

Oh my heck, these lemon ones and these blue ones are so flipping cute!

Rainbows!

Leave a comment suggesting which pair (or bracelet) you prefer and your best joke.

A New Day. I Mean Door.

Did you know I don't like my door? It's got one of those oval windows in it with fancy glass in it. Also, I hate pink brick against a light gray background. If this is the color scheme you picked for your new house, I'm sorry that I hate it.
Maybe I've mentioned to you that the color scheme in my house is rainbow. So I knew I wanted a blue door.

Here's what I painted it to look like. I let Lincoln pick out the color. I figured that way, if it looked ridiculous, I could just tell everyone that my son picked it out, absolving me of responsibility.

Then, I let the kids help me paint it. If there were mistakes (and how!), I could blame it on my kids. That's called 2nd-generation crafting, folks!

After I painted and hung the door, it stuck to the inside of the door frame. That was fun and unembarrassing when one of Joel's work superiors dropped Joel off and heard the ripping sound of our door opening. (Allow 24 hours to dry, people!) Also, the pink brick looked much worse next to a blue door and I knew my only option was to paint the brick white. I imagined that doing a sponge "treatment" would be easy and would look professional. It was easy. It only took an hour, but in person it looked like a piece of crap. Gray grout plus white paint = ugly, even for Harbor Park. So I had to spend at least five hours putting on 2 coats of primer. Most people use primer before they paint, but I like to use it as paint. I got real sick of painting that brick and I'm not in the mood to put flat white paint over flat white primer. Redundant!

Then, I bought a wicker chair at Saver's ($20! Where's the thrift in that?!) and spray painted it red. Then I made a pillow from some fabric handed down from Nadine. Welcome to 2011, Nadine.

I also bought a new doorbell. Joel just shakes his head at this, because our ugly, plastic, dingy doorbell still worked. But this one is cute. Now, who thinks they can sweet-talk Joel out of the big "decorative" ugly rocks in my flowerbed?

A Craft Good Enough to Bring a Blogger Out of Retirement

Have you seen my ugly kitchen stools?
Two were bought from a yard sale a bajillion years ago and the other three were given to me by my sister.
I hate them, but the money to buy new stools still eludes me and I hate the thought of dropping $60 - $150 per stool for something that will get all nasty from my kids anyway. Have you seen how often I clean?
I copied a craft idea from Martha Stewart.

Step 1: Sand finish off tops of stools with your son. Tell him it might count for some cub scouts thing (it won't, apparently). When you can't get the stubborn finish off one of the stools, tell your husband about it and let him sand it for a full hour while you set up the trampoline in the backyard with your kids. (When you set the trampoline up wrong, call him back to help you with that. When he gives you a rubber mallet to hammer the legs onto the frame, don't worry if your whacking and smacking breaks the mallet several times over.)
Step 2: Apply two coats of cheap acrylic white craft paint.
Step 3: Use scrapbooking double-sided tape that comes out of those little roller applicator thingies and apply the stencils you jimmy-rigged to the top of each stool. Don't expect the tape to come off with the stencil even though it's advertised as "re-positionable."
Step 4: Apply two coats of cute, obnoxious-colored acrylic paint (don't follow Martha's lead here, she picked boring colors) quickly. REMOVE the stencils as soon as you've applied good coverage. If you wait for the paint to dry you will permanently adhere your stencil to the stool. Promise.


Step 5: Touch-up paint where necessary. Then add two coats of clear polyurethane sealer without regard to between-coats drying times.
Step 6: Set stools in garage to dry for 24 hours, hoping the fumes will asphyxiate the cat.
Step 7: Enjoy, knowing full well that they're going to get grody and nasty in no time.

The Big Finale

Big 'n Huge

Shh! This birthday picture was taken nowhere near his birthday, but that's all he's getting for his b-day picture estrasasanda.

When he was a kid he gave himself the nickname Big 'n Huge, and it still pretty much fits. He takes piano lessons and is loving all his cub scouts activities. He's an ace in school and so obedient. Joel and I are so glad he's the oldest because he often sets a great example for the rest of 'em.You know how there's some quote about how you should never make fun of your spouse or people in your family? I've decided it doesn't apply to me. And I attribute my intended wickedness to my in-laws, who for years have kept multiple photo albums of ill-looking photos of their near and dear ones. So, here's one of Lincoln to add to the mix:

Bow to your Sensai!

This guy is seven today! Happy birthday, dude!He's a yellow belt in karate now, so you know I can't resist daily Rex Kwon Do jokes. He's really smart, happy and fun to hang out with.He's getting pretty good at basketball, too. You should see. And he's trying out coach pitch baseball this year and making his dad proud. People are always telling me how good-looking they think Asher is. But he's reached the age where he can't remember what a smile is supposed to look like. So, you want to see a couple goofy pictures of him? I thought so.

Big Sister Clara

Clara's four now. She's pretty excited about it. She's mastered jumping on the trampoline and is now learning how to read. (Okay, well, actually we're still working on letter names and sounds, but she's on her way!)She's good at throwing fits if she doesn't get her way but she's also good at pretending, talking on her toy cell phone to her imaginary friends Katie, Christina, and Ballis and the girl cleans her room everyday! She changes her outfit about three times a day, but at least she keeps her clothes on, which is more than I can say for Mary.

She's snuggly and funny and good at re-telling anecdotes from the day.

I love her.

Little Mary

She's two now and totally crazy! She'll stand over Susan or smash her arm until she cries and then say, "oh! Baby Susan is cwying! I betta hode her!" She's sly like a fox and I swear she knows she's driving Susan (and me) crazy, but she's so flipping cute I can only laugh as I remove her from on top of Susan's irate face and try to calm Susan down.

Baby Susan

This is the 2010 model of the Williams kid. Here she is five weeks old, which I'm told is at least three weeks too old for good newborn photos. I submit this fact to you as evidence of insufficient mothering.We named her Susan Tia Williams. Joel picked Susan after his aunt Sue Green. But he also has an aunt Sue Rasmussen who's an equally amazing person, so it's pretty much a 2 for 1 deal. I picked Tia after my little Sister, who's amazing too, just in the exact opposite ways of Aunt Sue. We're hoping our little Susan Tia will be amazing just like her two namesakes, making her your basic superhero with superpowers. Up, up, and away!

We love her.

Dang Five Kids

Guess what? I had a baby.
Which brings the grand total of children what I birthed to a whopping FIVE!
With the birth of each of my children I've realized the necessity of giving up some hobby in order to not be insane (I may have been unsuccessful at this).
For instance, when I had Clara (my third) I realized it was no longer worth it to haul all my kids out to the store to indulge in my favorite escape: clearance rack shopping. (This was great for our budget until I discovered online shopping)
With the birth of Mary I gave up a plethora of pastimes, including trying to dress my children in cute clothes. Hence Mary is naked most of everyday, my boys wear old, holey t-shirts and basketball shorts from Savers, and Clara sports the mismatching-est clothes I've ever seen.
With the birth of Susan I've already discovered a few things I'll give up: making fancy birthday cakes, taking my kids' birthday pictures, and blogging.
Don't cry for me, little one. Let's face it folks, I've never been a stellar blogger (or a frequent one) and while I enjoy it, it has become a cumbersome hobby.
While I still read all ya'lls blogs like I have all the time in the world, please know that the following posts of my kids' recent photo shoot with my talented neighbor, who's a photographer professionally, could very well be my last. (unless I change my mind, which I do all the dang time)
So, enjoy the estrasasanda while you can.

So Not Worth It

I try out a lot of new crafts and a lot of new recipes. I like to try new things.

At least once a week I'll try out a new recipe or craft I've seen on a blog just because I need the creative outlet. I base a craft/culinary endeavor on whether the time/effort put into it was worth what I got out of it. I would say 75% of the time I won't repeat a craft/recipe because it wasn't worth the time put into it. I saw this on bakerella clear last summer and thought, 'oh, I'll make those for teacher appreciation week next year.'

What I done. And what it weren't worth it. It took hours of mixing, dying, baking, cutting, sprinkling, and decorating, not to mention the time I put into printing out/cutting out templates, etc.This craft WILL NOT be repeated, but it is fun to look at, huh? Also, since I made these for my boys' teachers, it looks like I'm one of those super-achiever moms who volunteers for the PTA, goes on all the field trips and runs all the class parties. Well, I've been a room mother two years running and done nary a thing for either class, either year.

This 'thank you' is it. And it's all I plan to do for the rest of the year.

And while I had good intentions to show the teachers my appreciation for what they done for my boys this year, it still wasn't worth it.

Half way through making all this I was ready to just throw it in the garbage and instead buy them each a $5 gift card to the in-n-out. Next year. P.S. Recent crafts/recipes not worth repeating:

Foot Snuggly - Tried to make the cutest crocheted mary jane slippers for Megan's birthday, but as she mentioned on her blog, instead of being the thing one could slip their slender foot into for a snuggly sashay, they looked like they could hold an enormous meatloaf, instead.

Homemade Pot Stickers - took over an hour to put together and the raw meat grossed my pregnant little heart out that I couldn't even enjoy them.

Macarons - Made them. They tasted great, but instead of having the right kind of filling, I used the homemade frosting I had in the fridge and it wasn't the best combo. Plus, that recipe took precision. Luckily I had my new Kitchenaid to meringue them egg whites!