Peanut Butter and Sparkles

You know what? I actually convinced my friend Kristi to let me take some pictures of her house (OK, actually I just showed up with my camera and said, "can I take some pictures?") and I was going to post them today, but then when I was visiting with another friend today, she shared a story with me that I just had to share with you! And it is even better because the story is about my daughter!!

Now, keep in mind that Cameron is home schooled, but for Charise's Kindergarten year, we decided to send her to school so she could see what it is all about! So the other night, my friend Melissa was at a coffee (one of those mandatory fun things that we do in the military) and another lady there was telling this story....

Her son had come home from school last week and told her that tomorrow for school he was dressing up. Mom said, OK, but didn't really ask about it. The next morning, he was up bright and early and completely dressed. Pinstripe pants, dress shirt and a bow tie. He then went into his mom's room to check on her. She was up and dressed, ready to take him to school. He asked her if that was what she was planning on wearing (she had on jeans and a sweatshirt) She told him yes, as a matter of fact it was. He then proceeded to tell her he really wished that she would wear a dress that day. She explained to him that she was just dropping him off at school and that it was a cold day, and yes she was going to wear her jeans and sweatshirt. He finally decided that it was OK as long as she made sure he got to school on time. Of course, all of this made her wonder what was up. On the way to school, she asked him why he was so dressed up and he said, "because Charise is dressing up today and she wants me to dress up." OK

When she picked him up after school she asked him how his day went. He told her he had a blue day. At school there behavior is noted by what color day they had. Red being a perfect, the very best day you can have and moving down the rainbow to purple - - a bad bad day! Every day they start out on green so blue was just one color down, but no one likes to have a blue day. So she asked her son why he had a blue day. He said, "well Charise and I were sitting next to each other and everyone thought we were kissing, but we weren't." So being the good mom that she was, she continued to ask questions...

"Why did everyone think you were kissing?"
"Well, because we were rubbing faces, but we weren't kissing, mom."

"Have you ever kissed Charise?"

"No, but she has kissed me :)"

"She has?"

"yup"

"So tell me about Charise."

"Oh, Mom... she has hair the color of peanut butter and sparkles across her nose!"

This boy was completely head over heals for my daughter. And apparently the feeling was reciprocated. I have never had the right descriptive color for Charise's hair. It is a beautiful red color that only God could have created and it is gorgeous. Now I know it is peanut butter color. Who knew? And the sparkles - - well, those are her adorable freckles that perfectly adorn her button nose and little apple cheeks - - -we call them cinnamon sprinkles and ask her all the time if we can eat them off of her!

I'm glad that this little boy can see the beauty that we see in our daughter, but I do think it is time to set her down and talk about rules and (big gulp) kissing. Really.... we have to talk about kissing in Kindergarten? Who's raising these kids these days? (um that would be me - - -another big gulp)

By the way, Charise did come home with a blue day last week - - the same day that she was so insistant that she wear a dress - - but when I asked her why she had a blue day, she just told me it was because she had been talking too much. I guess I would rather have her mouth talking than kissing!

So What's in a Name?

Well, not sure if any of you noticed, but I changed the name of my blog (or at least the title part). I would love to take credit for it completely, but in reality, my friend Kristi came up with the name. It's cute though don't you think? Design Intervention - - - that's what Kristi tells me she needs on her house. "I need you to come over and give me some 'design intervention.' " In reality, if you have ever been in Kristi's house, you would know that is not the case! Her house is amazing! She has little vignettes all over the house that are so creative and amazingly cute! And, Kristi can do clean lines and white better than anyone I know. We are the exact opposite when it comes to decorating - - I am fru fru and color everywhere. Kristi is clean lines and very thought out and white with just a few accent colors here and there - - it truly is beautiful. I'm trying to convince her to let me put pictures on my blog for you all to enjoy - - because I have also been trying to convince her to start her own blog - - but until I am successful in that pursuit, I am going to try to get her to let me post pictures - - - hint, hint!!

Oh, I also have a post I am working on getting ready to show you how to "bedazzle" your crockpot! Got your interest peeked? I don't really bedazzle it - - but I did do a "creativity is bred out of neccesity" makeover on one this past week and have gotten some pretty rave reviews on it! Just keep checking back!

And tthe Winner Is...

So I had the cutest assistant on earth help me pick the winner today! Please note - today was crazy hair day at school - - so that would explain the wild hair!

Here she is showing you that she has put all the nubmers into her bag. Next she mixed them up really well....

Then she picked out the winning number.

And the winner is... #4! My dear friend Maggie won the cute shoes! The best part of the story is that after two cute boys, she just gave birth to a beautiful baby girl! So Maggie - - send me an email with your new address and I will send these out to you!! Can't wait to see them on your little one!

Woo hoo!

Last Chance!

So.... today is your last chance to enter for the giveaway on these cute shoes!!
When you do a giveaway, it is important to let everyone know when it is going to end and how you are going to choose the winner! Now a more experienced blogger would have thought that through and put it on the original post, but since I am not the more experienced blogger, I will let you know today :) So.... the giveaway is going to end tomorrow at noon my time and I will put all the numbers of replys in a hat ( I wouldn't do this if I had a ton of entries, but since all the unknowns have chosen to stay unknown - - ok almost all - - - ) and I will have Charise pick the number out of a hat and that will be the winner!! I guess if you want to up your chances, you could leave a second comment and then you would have a bigger chance of winning :) I know, it's pretty lame, but it is entertaining!

Everyone's gotta have shoes!! - - - it's a giveaway!!

So, I found this great tutorial online for baby shoes... They are adorable. Here is the link.

These are the easiest little project and they make great baby shower gifts!!

This first pair is a beautiful green and brown toile with matching brown ribbons and a green button to finish it off. Too cute!

These next two pairs are for a set of twins. One has yellow accents and the other has green. I'm telling you, these are so cute!

You know what... I think that these are so cute that I am going to make a pair for a giveaway! Wouldn't it be fun to have a giveaway on my blog? Yes, I think it would. Here's the deal... ever since Christmas when I had the tour of homes blog, I have gotten lots of hits and lots of people visiting, but your all like little ghosts. You drop in, but I never see you :) So, I'm going to do a giveaway. If you leave a message and tell me how you found my blog, you will be entered in the giveaway! Now some of you may be thinking that you don't have any babies, and are not intending on having any soon, but these would make great baby shower gifts also, so go ahead, come out of the woodwork and let me know who you are and see if you can't win a pair of these adorable shoes!!

What do I do with all that Christmas Stuff?

Remember all that Christmas stuff I had out? Well, what to do with it the other 11 months out of the year? The one question I get from everyone is "where and how do you store all of that?" Well, here is the answer... in my garage! Handsome hubby and I spent one entire weekend (earlier this summer - - thankfully we did it then not knowing that he would break his back and not be able to help put any of it away!) putting up shelves in our garage. We were trying to come up with a "cheap" meaning not break the checkbook option, but it also had to be ligtweight and able to be taken down and put back up when we move. Ahhh, the chalenges of military life! I think we came up with a fantastic solution and even though out next place may not have a huge garage (or no garage - sorry Autumn) I think this will be versatile and be able to be used again. We bought the heavy duty garage shelf supports - - the cheap ones though - - don't look in the garage storage area or the storage area for that matter... go to the nuts and bolts area of your store and hidden in there you will find the "cheap" storage brackets. They were only $1.25 each. Then we went and got the full sheets of MDF (lightweight) and had it cut right there in the store into three equal long strips and whala! You have a great shelf for very little money!! We actually had 4 sets of these (for a total of 12 - 8 ft shelves) Here is all is in our garage. This one wall is just my Christmas stuff/stuff for dinners. I try to label everything very clearly in case I need something during the year. I am notorious for wanting all my silver Christmas bulbs for a dinner in July... so I try to keep it all organized!

You can't tell from the picture very well, but the top shelf is all of my "table top" Christmas trees, that way I don't have to take all the decorations off of them and I don't have to pack them up in a box or crate.

The Problem With a Pretty Christmas

You know, there is just one problem with having a "pretty" Christmas. You have to take it all down! We are in the middle of trying to pack up Christmas right now. And not just pack it away in the garage, but as any of you military families know - even though we are not supposed to move this next year, the moment you think you can just put all the glass ornaments in a box without wrapping each one individually, that's the moment the Army will decide you need to move! So, with that in mind, I am trying to be patient (not an easy thing for me) and wrapping everything carefully. I also have the problem of wanting it all organized (another thing that doesn't come easy for me). It's just that you never know when you might need something that has been packed away with the Christmas stuff! I am notorious for using Christmas decorations throughout the year - - just re purposing them! So, with that in mind, my goal for the day is to get this stuff packed up in an organized manner while staying patient! Hmmmmm.... maybe I'll just change my goal to "getting Christmas packed up!"

The other problem with a pretty Christmas is that once everything is down and put away, your house looks naked! There's no more glitter or sparkle glowing back at you everywhere you look, no more magical hanging forest to light your dinner table with, and no more "natural" nightlights made from Christmas trees that are left on all night because you forgot to make sure the powerstrip was pulled out far enough from the corner before you started decorating the tree! Not that that happened to me, I'm just saying it is possible!

Well, with that being said, if I am going to accomplish any of my goals for the day - - organized, patient, packed up.... I had better get myself moving! Wish me luck!