Finally, A Reward!

I have had a garden for 3 seasons now. The first year, of all the veggies we planted,  we got 2 very tiny tiny tiny cucumbers...and that's it. Last year we grew the same number of plants, but the tomatoes were our only stars. Boy did they shine! This year I am so excited to see some really beautiful signs of growth. Our buds are busting open! Our cucumbers are growing like mad, the basil is beautiful, I just can't wait to see what else comes up in the near future. 

Sweet, sweet rewards!

It's Been Brewing For a While.

I have been wanting to make my own reusable teabags for a really long time, but I just haven't buckled down to do it until now. I found more than enough unbleached muslin (but you could also use cheesecloth) in the remnant basket at my local Joanns for oh so cheap and figured it was time. There are a couple different ways to make them, like this, but here is how I did an envelope style.

 I cut a good sized piece of fabric about 3 in wide and 10 in long, and pinned the ends. You can make them as big or little as you see fit though.

I stitched down each end.

Once that was done I folded the ends in towards each other. I made sure that the first fold I made was how far I wanted the finished front to be, because after you sew it, that is the front.

Then I folded up the other end, pinned it and stitched up each side.

After I stitched it I turned it inside out and had my teabag. Now I just fill it with loose leaf tea.

When I am done, I just turn it inside out and rinse it off.

I made quite a few. :)

Happy Belated Fathers Day!

On Fathers Day, The Squid left on a trip so I decided that we'd postpone Fathers Day and do it when he got back. I was glad that I had a couple of days to complete my plan since I had just had my wisdom teeth pulled and was not doing any kind of work. Here is what the squidlets and I came up with.

New PJ's. Who doesn't love Wall-E? We do!

Lego Lighthouse. Hello!? Lego Lighthouse!

A T-shirt that I freezer-paper stenciled a portrait I had our oldest draw of

Boba Fett. (Squid's Fav)

A Turtle Pillow-Pet for his next trip.
Some green sixlets, Star Wars temp tattoos, and umbrella straws.

It was awesome! I really hope he liked everything!

He is the best Dad any kid could ask for and the best husband a girl could have.

                                                               Tall & Thrifty!

                                                               Hilariously funny & Hot!

                                                               Excellent Father & Extemporaneous!

                                                               Sweet & Supportive!

                                                               Quick-witted & Quirky!

                                                               Undeniably addicted to COD & Understanding!

                                                                Infuriating & Indispensable!

                                                               Despicable & Delightful!

I love you Squidaloo, you are my everything!

This Weekend, I Totally Scored!

This weekend we went to another couple of estate and yard sales and I most definitely won. Sadly, it was a win by default because no one else found anything. Oh well.

Here are my finds.

Lovely card table cloth

sweet embroidered napkins

kitchen towel

kitchen towel

kitchen towel

kitchen towel

napkin

kitchen towel

kitchen towel

new tea cup. love the squareness of it.

Austrian hand painted. gorgeous.

really unique Japanese square teacup.

another adorable Japanese teacup.

I continued my tradition of overpaying again this weekend. Boo, but all things considered, I still scored! How did you score this weekend?

MilSpouse Friday Fill-in #46

 It's Friday and though I have been a busy bee with projects to be unveiled next week, I took a break and played along with Wifey over at Wife of a Sailor. Check it out. 

Have a great weekend everyone!

Are you a different person than you were five years ago? submitted by Sisterly Thoughts
Yep. I got married and had 2 kids. I was a totally content in my life and felt I had tons of time to find a man to settle down with. Of course that's when it hits you right? When you are least expecting it. I lived my life for myself, and now I live for 3 other people. Willingly and lovingly.

If you could go on Amazing Race, who would you take with you as your partner and why?submitted by Thoughts from a Poekitten 
I would totally take The Squid. As corny as it is going to sound, we really do compliment each other and while there would definitely be some drama we make a great team.

Does Facebook or Twitter actually bring more stress or good in to your life? submitted by Just an Arizona Girl
Eh, both. I love being able to post pictures of my squidlets for our family to see, and it's a great way to keep in touch. The stress always comes from people that are "friends" that I never should have accepted in the first place. I am sure everyone has that self-important person that posts every time they make a move or have a thought. Bleh. Good over all though.

June is National Soul Food Month- what’s your soul food? submitted by NH Girl Displaced
I love Japanese food. I have a lot of different "soul" foods, but Japanese is my favorite.

If you could live in any other era than the current, which one would it be & why? submitted by Sugar in My Grits 
I would live in the 1850's, around the time of the gold rush, I wouldn't actually rush for gold, I'd just farm, sew, and bake. What a life. Although, it would probably be much more stressful doing it because your livelyhood depended on it, not just cause you want to.

Pile O' Work

I have spent the last 2 nights up late doing projects that I have deemed, "do them or let them go." With all the talk of purging and moving soon, I decided it was time. It is because of this I have no finished projects to share with you at the moment. There are just to many. Hopefully by next week I'll have some really......interesting topics to bring up. Until then, while I am faced with this...

Messy house, hungry kids, and a table full of fabric.
A Pile O' Work.
Bring on the fun!

We find out our next duty station in a couple of weeks. All these projects are keeping my mind off of it. It's been a freaking rollercoaster this time, with denials, and miscommunications, I am SO ready to know for sure and get going.

Latest Lovely.

Thursday The Squid brought home his latest project. He picked it up at The Airmans' Attic while dropping off a car load of things.
I wasn't nearly prepared for its awesomeness!

It is a Marshal Brand Hoosier style bakers cabinet.

This is what it looked like when he brought it home. It's been a little mistreated. It has been tiled, painted, shelves have been added, the flour bin, wire racks and the roll top are missing, but it has the original metal top, and I think we'll get it back to amazing again! He already started working on it, and I can't wait until it's finished! The Squid scores big again!
This is an old ad for a more high end Hoosier Cabinet but you get the idea.

photo courtesy of Vintage Ads

Weekend Finds.

Saturday we went hunting again around our area for some sweet estate, garage, and yard sales. The estate sales were a bust and quite honestly the yard sales were kind of lame too, until the end of the day. Just as we were about to give up we hit the jack pot. Well, in our mind it was. These were our big winners for the day. 

My amazing mason jars some with the zinc tops included. Total I paid 12.00 for 9 jars. I know I could have paid less, but I think it was worth it.  I love all the different shades of blue!

This was The Squids' big win. A Battle Lantern he got for 20.00. He was really excited to get home and put it with the rest of his military wall. It was reconstructed from 4 different lamps rescued from a dumpster on a Coast Guard base.

I have already posted The Squids winner from last week (the train table), but here was my winner.
A beautiful table linen I pad 15.00 for, I am sure I paid to much, but it's soo pretty! I see a trend here of over paying for something I want. I need to work on my poker face.

MilSpouse Friday Fill-in #45

 It's Friday and as per usual Wifey at Wife of a Sailor is hosting her weekly meme. Head on over and check out all the awesome ladies that participate! Happy Friday Everyone!!

Underwear Parties, how old is too old? submitted by Wookie & Co. .................

Ummmmmmmmmm, I'm not sure age is a factor here. I don't know anyone comfortable enough to show up to a party in just their underwear. I think a pajama party would be fun, or a beach party, but after 2 kids, I'm not showing up anywhere in my underwear. Plus,  I think an underwear party would be a drama-fest waiting to happen.

What was your favorite class in high school? submitted by Adventures of M-Squared ............. 

Art & Creative Writing. 

Have you ever convinced packers/movers to pack something they aren’t supposed to for a PCS? submitted by Ground Control to Major Mom ...........

No, I have only been packed twice, and I may have just stuck something in without their knowledge. Better that way. No convincing necessary. 

Blogging plays a growing roll in the media. If you were asked to embed as a blogger with a deployed military unit, would you go? What do you think your blog would be like? submitted by To the Nth.............

I would do it for a short time, I don't know what my blog would be like, but I'm sure it would grow organically. I like to stay positive though, and while I know that it wouldn't always be like that, staying in a "glass half full" state of mind is really important for me so, I plan to stay there.

Do you think kids should attend year-round school? submitted by Marrying the Navy..................

I am on the fence, not having kids in school yet. In the past year home schooling, year round schooling, and public schooling have all come to my attention and I'm not sold on anything yet except that, as much as I'd love to say home schooling is for me, it's not. I think good things could come from year round school, but I also think that school length is fine, IF parents are as involved as they should be.  The Squid and I had 2 totally different experiences with school and home and the one thing we agree on is how involved we will be in our kids schooling. VERY.

Treasures

As I lounged on my couch watching a movie with my family during my recuperation, I realized how much I like the movie Treasure Planet. What a lovely underrated movie. With a stellar cast of voices, this version of Treasure Island is quite funny and in my humble opinion packed with the spirit of the original book. It's not the greatest movie you'll ever watch, or the best re-telling of a classic, I feel like it's been given a bad wrap but, it's entirely entertaining and not a bad way to spend an hour and a half. 

Teeth Extraction Update:

I was nervous about the surgery, but I opted to be asleep for it and that was great. They gave me drugs and I was out of it before I could count to ten and woke up thinking they hadn't even started yet.
Now that I am home...
Pain, Lots of Pain. Stupid impacted teeth. I look painfully similar to a cartoon character with a handkerchief wrapped around my head and chipmunk cheeks. I'd post a picture, but it's to awful.
Full face ice packs, naps, smoothies, meds and pudding cups abound. Plus, this wonderfully nice "Get well" gift from the Squid.

From Harry Potter: The Lego Knight Bus.

He is so sweet! Due to lack of sleep I finished it at 4:45 this morning. 

Stupid impacted teeth.

All Aboard!

This past weekend we spent the first part of Saturday driving around hitting Estate Sales and Yard Sales. For the most part we found some pretty nice stuff, but bar none the best was this. An Imaginarium train table with accessories. It was all of $25.00! I am seriously never buying toys from a toy store again. Ok, well that isn't entirely true, but I hate the thought of paying retail now. Man I am spoiled.

Everything but the actual trains and the orange crane came with the table. Great deal right!?

It's huge, both of the kids LOVE it, and it makes a great coffee table. Awesome!

I've Got Wisdom Flying Out Of My Mouth.

Today I am going in to get all four of my wisdom teeth pulled. YIKES!! I am really not looking forward to this, I don't know who would. Thankfully, the Squid is home and I have someone to look after me. If anyone has any tips for me on fast and painless healing I'd really appreciate it!

I have some posts in reserve, so hopefully I'll have enough to get me through to feeling better. I hope!
Wish me luck!

Weigh-In Wednesday Update:
I am still on the weight loss train, although I have slightly derailed. The last 2 weeks I have gained a pound each week. ARGH!
Is it crazy that an upside to mouth surgery is the lack of solid food?
Yeah, I thought as much. See you soon!

Airing Our Dirty Laundry: Soak Up The Sun!

I washed all of our diapers this weekend. But, that didn't stop me from re-washing them all Monday morning, just to have them bask in the glorious love of the sun. Our yard gets so little sun, that I haven't been able to really do it before. I had to use some unusual tools due to the restrictions of our neighborhood (we aren't allowed to put up any kind of laundry line or drying structure BOO!), but it still worked out pretty good having a baby gate on chairs. I am hoping for slightly better results when it's a tad bit warmer and I can get them out in the sun longer, but I am not complaining. I didn't use my dryer and it did get a lot of the stains bleached out.

Glorious!

.74!

Last week, a co-worker gave us a twin bed frame for our oldest. I can't believe all our good luck in finding amazing furniture for little or no money! It looks as though it was once a canopy bed, but no doubt over time, the post toppers and the canopy were discarded or lost. The Squid requested that I attempt to make it a canopy bed again, and so I set off to Joanns. Armed with my 40% off coupon I approached the tulle section only to find that tulle was already 50% off, that means I paid .74 per yard! WHAT!? Without thinking twice I pulled a purple bolt and pink bolt and headed to the cutting tables. Fleece was also half off so I picked out a purple fleece, and some Repunzel fleece to make a blanket and pillow case with, plus found some sweet green minky-ish in the remnant basket to put in the mix. I am super excited and can't wait to get started on the blanket. 

I already put up the 20 yards of tulle so that she could have her "princess" bed and she loves it. Over all I am happy to report buying over 25 yards of fabric, a fabric pen, ribbon, and 3 fat quarters for under 45.00! I love a good sale.

I want to be able to use the tulle for other crafts in the event she gets tired of it (not likely), so i didnt cut or sew anything. Just draped and tied, tied and draped.

Prep Work.

Without a doubt, as much as I try not to think about it, I am sure we will be dealing with another deployment sometime soon, it's been a while and we are due. In preparation for it I am putting together a deployment "box" for the kiddos. They are getting older and I am almost certain this will be the hardest trip to date.

I am forcing the Squid to let me video him reading some books for the kids, I am searching for the right photo to make into our Flat Daddy, I am going to print out pictures of each of the kids with daddy to frame for them to have for their own, I am not on the lookout for dirty t-shirts until I know for sure if/when he leaves, I am collecting stickers and I have scored a SpiderMan calendar (see here if you are confused).

The Squid has VERY limited space when he travels so I can't really send to much with him, but I am still gathering ideas of things to send.

What do you do for your kids, yourself and your deployer for deployments? I'd love to hear!

MilSpouse Friday Fill-in #44

Today is Friday! So, that means that Wifey is doing her weekly meme. I'm participating this week, so head on over and check it out! Have a great weekend everyone!

When you vacation what type of vacation do you like to take (beach, historic, adventurous, food oriented, etc.)? submitted by Megan Dub-Yuh

We haven't ever vacationed other than going to visit our family. If nothing mattered, adventurous & food would be our way to go.

What is your best memory associated with a song (you know we all have tons!) submitted by Ramblings of a Marine Wife

I have a handful of songs that bring back amazing memories. Songs my sister and I sang to in my truck, songs that my mom sang to us and now sings to her grandkids, but my best song is Sunday Kind of Love by Etta James. That is our song. When I say "our" I mean The Squid and I, not me and my mom. :)

If you had six months with no obligations or financial constraints, what would you do with your time? submitted by Married to the Army

I would take the Squid around Europe eating cheese on a train. 

What is one thing about you that people do NOT typically notice at first that you wish they would? submitted by Our Motto is Patience

I have no idea. I'm pretty crafty, but that isn't really something you can see when you look at someone I guess. More over, lets talk about what they notice I wish they wouldn't. 

…. submitted by The Three Turners: It’s a summer of sequels, and if you had to live in one of each of the following “worlds” (there are three total) which would you choose and why? 
–X-Men: Be a Mutant, what would your power be?
–Harry Potter: Be a Witch or Muggle?
–Twilight: Be a Vampire or Werewolf?

 Harry Potter, ALWAYS Harry Potter. I'd be a witch of course, because it's awesome. I would like to think that I'd be some amazing and cool witch, but let's be honest...I'd be Mrs. Weasley, and I'd love it.  In fact, our home was recently compared to The Burrow (in a good way).