The winner of my very first giveaway is….
The winner of the activity pages is…
The winner of the activity pages, coupons box, pencils, and erasers is….
The winner is …Becky@purposefulhomemaking
“I would LOVE to win this! Thanks! 
“
Congratulations Becky!
Thank you to everyone who entered the contest.
More importantly, thank you for taking time out of your day to spend a little time with me. I appreciate every ones comments and support of Big D and Me.
“A mother’s love for her child is like nothing else in the world. It knows no law, no pity, it dares all things and crushes down remorselessly all that stands in its path.”
— Agatha Christie
such a beautiful quote on motherhood
yesterday my day was more like this quote
“Whatever else is unsure in this stinking dunghill of a world, a mother’s love is not.”
— James Joyce
emphasis on the dunghill
I came back from work yesterday, said goodbye to the babysitter, and told my daughter I needed to “go potty.” Yes, I am a grown woman who says “go potty” probably 20 times a day – even in reference to myself.
Caroline took off like a rocket towards my bathroom. She grabbed the kid potty out from under the sink and set it on the floor. We are not potty training her. She just found the potty stored under there one day and takes it out every once in awhile.
She took off her pants and made it clear she wanted to take off her diaper. I helped her, humoring her since I needed to change her diaper anyway. She wanted to take her shirt off but I refused. Just for the record, no one else takes their shirt off here when going to the bathroom.
I realized I didn’t have a clean diaper so I walked around the corner to get one.
When I walked back in I found this…
At first my eyes to brain connection wasn’t working. I couldn’t figure out what the pile was on the ground. When I suddenly made the connection…
Oh Sh*t!
LITERALLY!
I calmly grabbed her, cleaned her up – this included taking off her shirt which was now dirty (I should have listened to her about taking off her shirt), her dirty socks (she had managed to run all around the room in the 5 seconds I was gone), and her body.
I cleaned up the mess and put her down for her nap.
All rather calmly if I do say so myself.
An hour later I found another pile of it in my the closet……on the carpet.
First I screamed.
Then I grabbed my camera.
I thought the best way to celebrate my first guest posting was to have my first giveaway. When I told my husband he said, “Wait a minute…shouldn’t we think about this.” I told him to relax and not to worry. It’s not like I was planning on giving away our car or even his flannel pj’s…although on second thought. No, no I’ll stick with the plan.
What I am giving away is one completed coupon box of activity cards.
The winner will receive 48 activity cards, 3 pencils, 1 pencil sharpener, and 1 eraser.
In case you are not familiar with my activity coupon box, go here to read about my idea.
Here are the ways you can enter:
1 entry if you make a comment on this post
1 additional entry if you are a follower (leave a comment to let me know)
*You have until Sunday Jan 16 to enter*
Thanks and good luck to everyone!
I’m guest posting today!
Hop on over to She Wears Flowers and see my post. I personally think Tammy was very brave to let me guest post for the first time ever on her site. Make sure you come back here tomorrow for my first giveaway!
My favorite room in the house also happens to be the smallest room in our house. I think the 2 reasons it’s my favorite room is because I made everything in the room and it’s finished. Can we hear an “Oh Yeah – it’s finished!”
The first thing I found for the room was the shower curtain fabric. I bought it all the way back in June but finally got around to making the curtain in September.
The animal fabric and matching dot fabric are from City Craft. It is one of my favorite places to find unique fabrics. I think I’ve bought more fabric from there than actually made projects.
This is as close up of a picture you are going to get since my sewing skills are horrible. I hate to read through tutorials or read directions. I prefer instead to look at the pictures and figure out how to make something. Perhaps that accounts for never having enough fabric in the end.
I decided the curtain wasn’t long enough so I needed to make loops at the top to extend its length. I was shopping in IKEA one day when I found a black pillow case in the clearance section for $0.99. Bingo. I found my material for black loops.
For artwork in the room I bought a few pieces of scrapbook paper in the same colors and made some art. I used the tracer (the best art tool ever) to make the animal shape from the fabric larger so I could trace it onto some paper. I already had all the frames from some previous kitchen art.
I also painted the walls white since I thought it would look better than the builder’s tan we have everywhere else.
I had seen the quote below on other blogs and just made in a font and some colors that coordinated.
Just one more peek since I love it so.
What room of your house are you most proud of?
Since my goal this January is to lower our eating bill by $125.00, I’ve been thinking of some ways to do this. One way is to make my meal plan for the week and stick to it. Here’s this weeks meal plan which we have stuck to so:
Monday: Italian sausage bake, fruit
Tuesday: Pork chops,corn , applesauce, rice packet
Wednesday: homemade pizza & salad
Thursday: Blueberry muffins, eggs, fruit
Friday: Beef Stir Fry, eggrolls
Saturday:taco soup, fruit
Sunday:meatball subs, green beans, fruit
I also noticed that we eat meat for practically every dinner. That’s not good on the budget and it can’t be healthy. Here’s a list of the meatless meals that are typically in our rotation. I would love to expand this list:
*tomato soup, grilled cheese, pickle
*broccoli, rice, cheese casserole
*homemade pizza
*pasta
*breakfast foods (pancakes, blueberry muffins, waffles)
Do you have any ideas for meatless meals? I’d love to hear from you.
This is what breakfast at our house looked like the other day
3 different kids
3 different breakfast cereals
Mom taking a solo trip to the grocery store…definitely needed
What’s a 22 month old to do when waiting in Walmart?
Why it must be to find out what Jennifer Aniston is up to?
I have no idea how to sew correctly.
I do not read tutorials. I do not read books. I cannot read a pattern.
I simply look at pictures and try to copy the idea.
Sometimes it turns out. Sometimes not.
I bought some fabric in October from City Craft but had no idea how I would use it. I just loved the animals with the mix of red and green. I eventually settled on the idea that I would make some Christmas place mats.
Measuring is also too much of an extra step for me.
So I took an old place mat I have and placed it on top of the fabric I was using. I then ironed over the edges of the fabric. I made some rudimentary cuts in order to create some corners. I did the same thing for the back piece of fabric.
I then pinned the front and back pieces together and sewed them together.
Not pretty, awful craftsmanship, unbelievably ugly corners but… I had 4 place mats done.
Problem was I wanted 6 place mats. Since I didn’t buy enough fabric I had to think of an alternative design. I settled on a small strip of the animals down the place mat. I needed some sort of border between the 2 fabrics so I bought some red ribbon to go down the sides. You can see how it turned out.
I was pretty proud of these place mats until I washed them. My abysmal sewing skills made themselves abundantly clear. Part of the animal fabric came out from under the ribbon and instead of 6 rectangles I now have 6 oddly shaped place mats.
Have you ever had any sew wrong moments?