[pinterest fun]

okay, so you may have noticed the red follow me on pinterest button in my left hand column...

i have a little crush on pinterest.

do you?  do you have an account?  if so, let me know!  i'd love to follow you!

happy pinning!

[ice cream party]

i scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!

my dear sweet olivia turned nine!  my oldest is getting so old!  how does that happen?  it's killing me!

this cutie is the best helper ever!  i don't know what i'd do without her!  i'm going to be sad when she

has to go back to school in the fall.  olivia is such a hard worker.  she seldom complains when asked to do chores, her homework or practicing.  she has the most adorable little laugh, and she's really funny!

she cracks all the kids up!  we love her to pieces!

every other year we throw them a friend party...  olivia wanted an ice cream one!

prepping the party premises.  i cut up scrapbook paper i never use and made these flag banners.

i shipped sam off with the two littles and my cutest friend heather happily helped me with the party! 

 i know i could never have managed all eleven girls without you dear friend!  thank you!

ideas, templates and inspiration found on one charming party!

©2011 brightsides, all rights reserved.

[galettes]

here's what i'm cooking up this morning.

we have a little whipping cream obsession going on at our house!

it's super low in fat, carbs & calories 

and it's oh so creamy and delish!  it even looks pretty!

  it sure beats butter and syrup on the health-o-meter.

my kids love it!

so i figure, spray one more!

dukan oat bran galettes

arguably the healthiest pancake ever

makes 8 large pancakes

• 1 c fat free or low fat cottage cheese

• 1 c oat bran

• 4 packets splenda

• 8 egg whites*

• cinnamon to taste

• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder (opt)

* note: if cocoa is added, add one more egg white

blend all ingredients together well.

heat griddle to 350º and cook like a pancake (approx 3-5 min each side)

top with whip cream & maybe even a little chocolate syrup!

©2011 brightsides, all rights reserved.

[our house]

okay!  i said i was going to post about the recent projects we've completed... i was finally able to take some pictures of our play pen (i call it that because it's always full of little tikes and toys) during the ten minutes it stayed clean!

jack's blessing was the perfect excuse to freshen up the house.

once the wheels started spinning and my motivation kicked in, i had all kinds of stuff i wanted to do to this place! i knew i couldn't go super crazy due to time and money, but it's amazing how far a little fresh paint and a few new accessories can go!  i really should have taken some before and after shots.  why must i always forget to do this?  i guess it's not that much different.

so here's what we did with our kitchen and family room area.

first off, like our master bedroom, we sam painted our vaulted ceilings white.  again, such a huge difference this made in the overall lightness & brightness to this north side of our house.

such a crazy hard and big job, but, i think if you were to ask sam, he'll agree it was worth it.  he did an incredible job!

next, i painted stripes on our island pony wall to match the backsplash stripes i had painted previously (like 5 years ago).

i replaced our tan/gold chandelier shades with crisp white ones

and my island lamp with this glass base with white drum shade one.

and finally, i added this daily bread print art that i made with photoshop.

i saw this saying on similar artwork, but i needed a vertical picture instead of horizontal, so i designed this (below right)

and threw it in an ikea frame :)

done.

next came the surprisingly hard task of finding new throw pillows for my sofas.

this yellow and white flower one was found by a tip from kirsten at 6th street design!

much of my inspiration and ideas have come from her!  love her!  she's so amazingly talented!

but i had no idea how much work went into finding the right combination of pillows. 

i went from store to store, website to website in search 

of the right colors and patterns that would mesh well and jive with what i already had goin' on.

do you recognize the words spelled out on this our house print above?

the lyrics are from crosby, stills & nash's our house song that i've always loved.

one night i was lying in bed with this tune in my head and came up with the idea to re-write 

the lyrics a tad and make a poster fitting to our family.  kinda fun.

so, the biggest lesson i learned about myself is that

i don't do spray paint!

for the life of me i can't make it look good!  everyone talks about how fast and easy it is.

that is so not the case for me!

i need serious lessons.

these enjoy it words ended up taking me hours to fix after a botch spray job.  i ended up hand brushing them out with a primer & re-painting.

so, if you have any advice or tips, i'll gladly take them!

i shared my spray paint woes with my cute cousin-in-law stacy from not just a housewife and she told me to apply many light coats 

and also to not buy the cheap stuff.

i'm scared to try again.  it just made me so frustrated!

i think naturally i'm just a lay it on thick kind a girl.  i'm comfortable with a brush.

next comes painting the walls in our front office.

we've painted a test swatch and i think it'll look really sharp!

here's the color we've chosen.  

now we just need to plan a party to force us to get it done!  

ciao

©2011 brightsides, all rights reserved.

[feed me]

i frequently refer to him as my little hunk of burnin' love

he's delicious to me like grainy mush is to him

jack tom opened wide and ate his first spoonful of food the other day...

rice cereal

 

little liv is the best helper!  she jumped at the chance to help me feed him.  

oh so messy!  oh so fun!

©2011 brightsides, all rights reserved.