Scrapbuster Fall Pillow!

We've been having fun!

This weekend we whipped up a few fall pillows! It was fun and easy following Cluck Cluck Sew's tutorial!

I tried to use fall colors that also match my home. We used heat 'n bond (love that stuff now!) to attach the leaves. Then I sewed around the leaves and trunk.

And made a pillow backing!
It may be more of year-round pillow, I love it so much!

Miss M goes to VBS!

do you know what VBS is?

it's Vacation Bible School! And yes, I sent our little Miss M to VBS. She needed to get out of the house!

She went to VBS with her friends from school. The things she learned? 1) The head chef had a pet raccoon. 2) Celebrate God!

She had fun though and she's been singing fun songs ever since!

My Resurrected Chair!

I asked for a reading chair for my birthday when I was sixteen.

I was, excuse me, AM, such a nerd.

I got a white wicker chair with dusty blue cushions. I also got a matching headboard (cue Miss M's room)

It has traveled with me to Minnesota, Utah, and now here to Arkansas. It is in pretty good shape, but I felt like it looked like, well, a sixteen year old's chair.

So I took it to my Mom's garage. I scrubbed it down and sanded down a few spots where the paint had chipped off and branches (is that the right word?) had broken.

Then I primed it with grey spray paint. Lovely, isn't it? :)

I promise we're not done yet!

And then I painted it espresso brown!!

I am in love with it! It now fits in my living room! I recovered the dusty blue cushion with a dark blue crosshatch outdoor fabric and threw my trusty beautiful IKEA pillows on it to brighten it up! What do you think? (besides that I really really need a new camera-the iphone just doesn't always cut it!)

I also hung up my artwork (someone asked earlier and it's 38"x32") I love how it looks with the living room!

And here is one half of my living room! It actually looks like a room! Things match and go together! Who knew!

I love it! And now for curtains!!

Grace

I think, I just think, that my girls are enjoying having Aunt Grace in town for a bit.

I am too.

Girls Night In!

Last Saturday, the Tobler women went out to dinner. Our men were all out of town, busy or working, so we decided to go out too! After a lovely dinner at Bravo!, we had waaaay too much fun at Charming Charlie's (coming out with headbands and purses for all!) and Anthropologie (coming out with fun ideas of things to make "cheaper")

We decided crafting was in order. I picked up a few more colors of poly satin and showed the girls how to satin flower clips and bows!

At one point, my Dad came out and asked us not to burn down the house. Have no fear, it's still standing.

Jen has a wonderful mix of old vintage buttons to adorn our flowers.
I tried a new kind of flower last nigh-the pink one in the middle of the pink ones :) by cutting out several flower shapes, folding them up and glueing them to a felt circle. I love how it turned out! I also made bobby pins with smaller satin flowers (in the champagne color, below the pink flower) that were inspired by Anthropologie hair duds and I love them too! Small, simple, and elegant!
We were very productive! :) Thanks girls!!

It's art!

I have big lovely walls in my new apartment that were crying for something bigger than my little 8x10 color glossies!

My friend suggested I find some fabric that matches "my colors" and make my own!

So I did!

I found some wonderful upholstery fabric with big bright flowers in my favorite blues and reds and bought a yard during a great sale!

Then I picked up canvas stretcher bars and saved fifteen bucks and made my own canvas!

pic courtesy google

This is the point in my DIY project that I learned the important fact that Lulu is TERRIFIED of staple guns! She came running up to us, crying, "stop! don't do it, Grandma!" like we were going to sacrifice the innocent! We had to send her away to finish our project! My Mom and I then stapled the fabric to my stretcher bars.

It definitely took both of us to hold the fabric taut and use the staple gun!
But I am in LOVE!! (this is my mother's wall-I'll share again once it's hung in my own house)
I love the colors-they match my throw pillows on my couches and really will brighten up the room!

a few more books

I haven't sewed much lately. I've been busy reading!

My cousin recommended this book to me. It is a retelling of the twelve dancing princesses-with a big twist. I loved this book! It was enchanting and fun and exciting and suspenseful! I loved the princesses-they had strong characters and they were different from each other. I loved their relationship with the king and how it developed. I loved the suitors that came to the castle! This was a fun read-I passed it right on to my sister in law and she loved it and passed it on to my sister! :)

My good friend recommended this one to me-it's the first in a trilogy and it is another exciting read! I devoured this book! I got so into the characters and the mysteries and the wonderful, handsome well, assassin! I wanted to keep reading to find out what happens! and yes, I've already got the second one from the library and passed on the first to my sister! :)
Then I read this one-I loved Tina Fey on SNL. She was on the show when I really was in a phase of watching SNL-at least since I was a kid and a fan of the church lady and buckwheat! I laughed out loud a few times, but I'm also glad it was a quick short read because when it was done, I was ready to move on!
Now, I'm reading the second City of Bones book!

and eight movies later...

we are STILL the nerds that wait in line for hours to see Harry and his gang!

We even dress up (Jason as Dobby, Grace as Tonks)

But I was soooo impressed when my tired husband joined us (after getting ready for his trip that he left on the next morning) with his best Gryffindor tie on, like a good little Hogwarts wizard!
The movie was awesome, the friends were fun, the people watching is always entertaining, and yes, some of our group was on the news for all of our craziness!

Lake Ouachita!

To welcome Grace and Jason into town, we took off to Hot Springs, stayed overnight in a cabin and went boating on the lake all day Saturday! It was hoooooooooooot but it was fun!

We spent Friday night playing games, snacking and goofing around!

Mom and Dad got a big cabin for us to stay in right by the lake!

The lake on Saturday was very hot, but we had fun playing at the beach, taking turns boating (pics to come!) and relaxing! Moonpie even got me to ride the tube with her!
My girls had fun and were so excited to spend time with Grace and Jason in town!

You should know...

I really wish I were back in Hawaii. I miss it.

It is stinkin' hot here. I feel mean putting my girls into their car seats, Lulu has a heat rash on her neck from her hair, sunglasses are NOT optional, the heat and humidity is like an oppressive wall when you go outside!
My little sister is in town for three weeks! hooray!!! boy, did I need her to come and visit! Our second short sale offer just fell through last week, W has been working very hard at work and school (which really means I've hardly seen him!), the heat makes me want to lay flat on my bed under the A/C vent and do NOTHING, and I'm missing my friend. The last few weeks have been a doozy!

Yesterday, I taught the parable of the ten virgins to my Sunday School class. I am so thankful for this opportunity to teach these girls. Not only do I have the best, most diverse group of girls that are a lot of fun and really make me work :), I have needed and appreciated the opportunity to review the bible and teachings of the gospel these past two years. This lesson was one of those weeks. I needed the reminder. The reminder that the ten virgins were the followers of Christ. Yet five were still foolish. The reminder of the things that I need to be doing to fill my lamp with oil. The reminder that if I'm not increasing my testimony, I'm losing it. Then, I got to go to Relief Society (the women's meeting third hour at church) with my sister. My friend, Hilary, taught the lesson, and it was exactly what I needed. I need to pick up the slack and get moving!

So, hooray for family in town! Hooray for the midnight showing of Harry Potter this Thursday! Hooray for boating at the lake and girls lunch last week! Hooray for Vacation Bible School for Miss M next week! Hooray for swimming after naps at Grandma's house pretty much every day! And hooray for some much needed refocusing for myself!!

Meg Swims!

I mean, for real, swimming without the assistance of floaties or noodles or anything! She beat me by five years! :)

No mocking, please!

I'm so proud of her! She took to using a mask yesterday, and so we got her her own and sure enough, she took off!!!