Opening a Bottle of Wine at 9am...

Life can be crazy when you are chasing a 2yr old, and finding just a moment of peace, some days can be a pipe dream...

Aha! so that is why she drinks so early in the day! I hear you thinking...

Not at all, is my reply...

SO what does the wine have to do with today's blog entry? would be your next question...

Simple...To make CROCK POT CHICKEN CACCIATORE.... I love my crockpot and life with little ones is made much easier for it...


That is if she will let me get everything into the pot in the morning...Sometimes that too is a challenge, with requests for random food items because she has seen the mixing bowl and now thinks we are making "Tup Takes" mmmmmmm num nums....Or not liking what is now on the television so getting most upset and wanting me to quit skinning chicken to wash my hands to press one stupid remote button....Or perhaps we have decided that instead of the cheezits we screamed for, we now want "daddy chippies" (corn chips) instead...again meaning I must stop dicing garlic to wash my hands to serve the chips...about this time drinking the rest of the bottle instead of having a coffee is seeming rather inviting...oh if only I drank lol....Finally I have made it to the cleaning up faze and start handling dirty dishes and bag the chicken skins to go in the trash, when of course, silly mummy we need apple duice...

Finally the crockpot is filled, the kitchen counters cleaned again and the dishwasher running...Oh hey look she is playing quietly by herself in the living room....Oh you have to love these precious angels...sent to teach us patience and long suffering.

So to capture the chaos of my daily life, I am sharing some random photos taken outside in the garden yesterday...My intent had to be try and capture some pix of butterflies, but well, see description above lol...


I got the Mexican Petunia's transplanted into the front garden...I love how delicate and pretty their flowers are....Oh and how hardy and easy to grow they are.


My little cherub statue I have had for about 14 yrs now and even traveled with me from Australia when I moved to the USA...For now he sits under one of the pecan tree's waiting for me find the perfect place for him in our new garden...Somewhere safe is good *wink*


One of the prettiest things we have in our yard is Bravo the Rooster, look how gorgeous he is with his long blonde mane and shimmering feathers.


Lastly we have the cutest little garden Gnome of them all...Lil Sara taking a break for all the help she gives mummy all day....Couldn't you just eat her up.

What color do you eat?

A bit of a nonsense post for Sunday morning...

Yesterday while mentally preparing Lil Sara's lunch, my mind only went as far as Dairy, Protein, Fruit and Carb (small portion).....
It was not until it was all on the plate that it was obvious she was having ORANGE for lunch.

Tyson's Chicken Nuggets, Cantaloupe, Shredded Cheese and Goldfish.

Thank goodness I gave her apple juice to wash it down with and to add a splash of green to the mix.


PS: My own lunch was a spinach tortilla wrap, with spring mix/baby spinach, Avocado, spring onion...but for some color variation, it also had turkey, ranch and cheese, it still however looked rather GREEN on the plate.

Some Dolly Time with Friends.

Yesterday we had so much fun. A friend and her lovely children come to play in the afternoon and we created "No Sew" tutu's for the girls, American Girl Dolls, while her sons sat quietly at my dinning room table creating amazing pieces of art with card stock and assortment of pastels, pencils and crayons...It was wonderful to have so much creativity happening at once...Sadly we forgot to take pictures of the children working because, we were just having to much fun playing and visiting *grin*


Lil Sara does not have an AG girl, but an 18inch Madame Alexander girl doll the same size, who is modeling a "No Sew" tutu...The leotard I made last night after lil Sara finally went to bed...Far removed from the dolls I am used to sewing for...It was fun not having to worry about darts etc because of bumps and curves...I will have to watch I do not get addicted to sewing for these little girl dollies lol.

I am already addicted to making these tutu's, and my head is swimming with color and fabric combo possibilities.

Hope yall are having a wonderful weekend so far.

Kelsie

Doll Room Tour....

I finally got my work space shuffled around and in place and sorted enough so I can get back to some serious work again...hehe @ dolls being serious work...I am hoping the layout of the desks will work for me and by splitting the sewing machine and the cutting table, I might just create less mess...One can hope lol..I have not "decorated" in here yet, because I want to make sure it functions first....But anyway

ON WITH THE TOUR

You enter the room through a set of French doors off of the living area. These allow me to keep an eye on Lil Sara and try and get some work done at the same time...Ok, so maybe as she gets older this will become a truth *grin*..In the meantime I *HEART* French doors :)


Straight across from the doors is the "sewing desk"...I am still sorting where all my bits and bobs need to go, but this will come with time spent in front of the machine.

Sitting on the top shelf of the sewing desk is a gorgeous old fashioned picture that states, "A Busy Day in Dollville"....I love this artwork, I think it about sums things up in my doll/work room...I got it at the Micanopy Art Festival a few yrs back, when my friend spotted it and we both just knew it had to come home with me....


To the right of the sewing desk is my display cases, these hold my current working models and my "inspiration" dolls...and some other bits and pieces, like boxes of wigs and shoes and diorama items for my photo shoots.



A close up of my favorite shelf at the moment....I am going thru a bit of a Victorian Gothic inspired period currently....I am totally loving my little Viktor Dreary boys (top shelf/right front) and hope to one day get the rest of this line of dolls *hint hint family members reading this*


This gorgeous doll is Soto and she is a 16inch Tonner Antoinette Mannequin, whose face was painted by the super talented Dawn Anderson of OneSixthSence...I am a big fan of Dawn and so proud to have this gorgeous doll in my collection...Clothing on this doll is from the new Teen Moxie line of dolls, except the skirt which I made..



This stunner is my only new doll this yr, She is a basic 16inch vinyl doll by Joe Tai, I feel very lucky to have her in my collection...Dress is by Gin O and is even more gorgeous in person...I need more Gin O gowns for my display dolls...Wig from the Monique Gold Collection.


This is where the action happens, my work table..It is in this spot that I design, cut, fit and hand finish all my pieces..


Across the other side of the room is 10 feet of closets....Behind these doors hide the mess lol...One side is totally dedicated to my fabric bins, but until I have time to sort and orginize them you do not get to see...The other side is full of boxed dolls and diorama pieces...which brings me to my final picture....

This is MIA, she is a 10inch Japanese Ball Jointed Doll /Clean Out Fairy...Mia is going to be helping me find homes for all the dolly stuff that I am no longer needing or using...Some of these items have come to me as gifts and prizes and for this reason, Mia will be hosting some Free Fairy Give Aways...Some of these will be in the form of, outright freebies and others will be "Winner Pays Shipping" for the larger items....

I hope you enjoyed seeing where I work and for you dolly folks, please keep coming back and checking for Mia's Fairy Freebies.

*hugs* Kelsie

Puddle Ducks and Marching Girls...

This morning was busy with furniture moving and box shuffling, but nothing in my work room is ready to be shared yet...So instead I captured some of the fun outside my front door in the form of a couple of collages...be sure and click on them to see them enlarged.

Just after noon we got a rather heavy down pour, Dee and Dum were very excited about this and with lots of flapping and quacking took baths in the puddle of water next to the front steps...

After dinner the girls went outside and practiced marching around the yard....Lil Sara is so funny copying every step her "Big Sissy" takes...It is very heart warming to watch.

Kelsie

Curb Appeal Challenge.

So here it is, the front of the finished house...no building materials on the porch, no saw-horses in the front yard...but this photo is very deceptive...In reality, we have no front lawn...this lovely lush green lawn is courtesy of my computer...



This is the real front of the house...The four of us spent hours out the front of the house pulling out weeds and bramble and the underbrush that was trying to return...You have to remember it was less than a year ago this was nothing but an over grown mess of wild cherry trees, rotten water oaks and lots and lots of bramble...so thick we could not even walk around.

So the challenge is to take these supplies and start creating some defined areas for both garden beds and the lawn areas.... All these border packs came to me at 50% off...I cleaned out Dollar General and now have 100ft of borders, which should be enough to do the beds in the front of the house and around the pecan tree. I did the math and worked out I paid just 35cents per ft...Now the down side is they are black, but that is nothing a can of white spray paint can't fix...Which is the job on the top of my "Hope to do" list today.

I did find the time to dead head the butterfly bushes and they are looking great now...Even got a few blooms to show for my trouble of rescuing them from the clearance bin....Hubby went back and got the rest, so now we have a total of 5 to spread around the garden.


Hope yall are having a great weekend
Kelsie

First step towards a garden...

I am so excited to share the start of what I hope will become a glorious English garden as time goes by. Fortunately we do have lots of mature trees to work the garden beds around...and lets face it, when it comes to creating a mature looking garden, nothing gives you more impact than a big mature tree that has been around for a couple of decades or more..But that is not what I am going to be showing you today...Today it is all about a little pot of Evolvulus.

Yesterday finally had time to nip into the plant section at Walmart...I know it is a little late in the season for just getting started, but hey I have only been in the house a couple of months and have a 2yr old. So I am browsing thru the pitiful end of season plants and find these lovelies on clearance for 50% off. I am a sucker for blue, and who could resist such a pretty shade. I also found some butterfly bushes on clearance for $1.50 each because their blooms are spent...I need to dead head and get them in the ground later today (I hope)

So back to the Evolvulus, after dinner Sara was a good little helper and we got them into pots (there is actually 2 pots...One for either side of the front step)...I added a couple of marigolds for added texture and some contrast in color.

Sara is so proud to have her very own watering can. Notice the blue of the house behind her matches our new flowers...Or should that be the flowers match the house?? well which ever way you look at it, they match *grin*


With their roots in new soil and lots of water to drink (thnx Sara) I was rewarded with our first couple of blooms this morning....Oh so pretty.

Kelsie

Today I am sharing my pretty flowers for

Natural Beauty

Inspired by the lovely photos by Carolyn @ Aiken House and Gardens Blog. The lovely model in these photos is my eldest daughter...


We had hoped to continue the photo shoot outside but will have to wait until the other daughter (2yrs) is at daycare tomorrow...Plus we already have a heat index of 102 here today...Oh how I can't wait for some cooler weather to roll in.

Visiting the Chicken House

Sara is feeling much better today and it had cooled down enough outside to visit the chickens and ducks...

but first she has to get on her favorite boots.
Note the can of Mosquito Repellent on the table, a must in FL this time of year

Time to round up those ducks.
I love how this photo turned out, who would have thought the sun reflecting off of the car windshield would be so pretty.

Dinner time everyone...Ducks Dee and Dum
Rooster Bravo and his ladies, Coffee, Flower and Cream.

And no visit to the chicken house is complete without checking on mommy hen Leo and her baby who is now 10 days old.

Kitchen Finishing Touches

Since I just did not have time over the weekend to do anything because my dear sweet Sara was sick, I thought I would share one more picture of my kitchen now we are actually moved in.


We decided to just keep our old white microwave simply because it is still working really well. When it finally needs replacing, we will get a stainless one to match the rest of the appliances.

We had them paint the corbels on the breakfast bar black since they could not find a stain to match the Espresso of the island cabinets...As you can see the black works nicely with the dark granite counter tops....Plus the legs of our table are also painted black so it became a repeated element.

Last Tuesday the cabinet guy also came by to do some minor touch ups...tweak doors and drawers and finish the silicon edging now the cabinets and house have had a couple of months to "settle". It was small stuff but made the world of difference...It is all in the details :)

I still have to work on the window treatment. Window treatments seem to be my most challenging part of any room. Ever noticed how few pics of window treatments in the home decor magazines? And lastly the lovely blue plastic trash can needs to be replaced or relocated.

Now about Princess Sara.

This was taken last night after her bath...She was feeling much better after some "super breathing treatments" and dose of steriods from the ER yesterday...It is truly scary how quickly these episodes come on. I have to run her to the Doctors for a follow up visit this morning...I am not sure how much is going to be achieved this week as she will be taking a course of steroids for the next 4 days and they make her a little hard to get along with, but I will take a grumpy toddler over a not breathing properly toddler any day.

Hope yall have a wonderful Monday.
Kelsie

Despite the rain I finally got the chair finished.

It took a few more days than I had hoped but FINALLY I got the chair for the French Bedroom painted and the cushion covered to match the curtains.

This was taken thru the french doors of the little summer rain shower we had yesterday afternoon...Literally minutes after I finished applying the final coat of paint to the chair on the front porch.

This is the chair before...It is one of those pieces of furniture that has been knocking around the house since before we got married...Meaning I have no idea where it came from to begin with, but I have always loved the shape and style of it and knew one day I would have use for it.

Another pic of the finished product...
Now I just have the throw pillows to go and the room is complete.

Today we are heading into Walmart for a Dora the Explorer Birthday party so I doubt I will get much done in the way of projects today....But one can hope.

Have a great Saturday.

Sharing Some Firsts and Finds....

As life tends to do, plans changed yesterday rather quickly...But for the better...Not only did we take the enrollment paperwork to the DayCare, but we also took little Sara for her first day...She only stayed for 3 hours but had lots of fun playing with the other children...

This meant for the first time in 2yrs I was able to shop in peace YAY....I looked and browsed and looked some more...Had a nice quiet lunch with my husband at the new Chinese buffet restaurant in town....It was a lovely 3 hours.

What made it lovelier was the couple of
bargains I found for the house.

I got this set of shelves, perfect for our french bedroom for just $10...Originally priced at $14 but the haggler in me just could not pay that much...The fact it was already painted white but a huge draw...One less thing I had to paint *grin*

And then what could be better than finding this Candle Sconce for just $2 ???

Finding it as a set of 2 at that price....I am not sure if they will get painted black or white just yet, or even which room of the house they will end up in, I just knew they were waiting for me to come along and buy them...They are just too lovely.

Linking to My Romantic Home for Show and Tell Friday.



Thank you for stopping by....

Graduation Silhouette

Just a quick morning post before I head out the door to Walmart and maybe a side trip to a local antique store if I am lucky (Hubby and baby co-operating)...I will be picking up the fabric to re-cover the desk chair and trims for the throw pillows, while we are at Walmart also...yay...fabric shopping.


After I had posted Mic's room on HGTV Rate this room site, I got lots of helpful comments, including the silhouette artwork over the bed was kinda small and lost. So while working on the frames yesterday, I felt inspired and dug out yet another frame (I think I am almost out of frames now) and painted it black, covered the backing with more of the graduation gown, then hung the smaller frame in the center...This beefed up the artwork nicely over the bed, and helped to bring our blue accent color over to that wall.

Now all that is left, is to finish the chair and the pillows. Unless I find the perfect desk within the budget, then I will be happy home decorator *grin*

Other pressing question of the week...Will I ever get that baking done...Let's hope so.

The Story of Three Frames.

These frames came to me from my Mother-In-law, she got them for a steal at a thrift store I believe, though I do not remember the exact price. She told me she knew I would know just what to do with them...Thank you MIL.

The largest of the three was paired with an old cork board, some ribbon, co-ordinating fabric, and buttons...Since the cork board was slightly larger I had to cut it down to size, after that it was all paint and hot glue gun....I think you all know where I am going with this.

Now we have a Black & White vintage looking memory board.

Perfect for over Mic's desk...
Matches her, ummmmm Dr Who Figures??
Ok so The Dr and the Cybermen seem to be invading rural France this week...Or maybe they are having a Pokemon battle???

The other two frames, also got a coat of paint.
More of a milky wash actually, to allow the gold paint to show a little.


Using foam cord, I created backings for both frames.
Then used the fabric from daughters graduation gown to create the "artwork" within the frames.