diy: no-sew recycled t-shirt bag

i have a number of blogs i follow for ideas and tutorials for crafts that repurpose. i love being able to dig around my house and make things using whatever i can find laying around. the creativity out there in blogland is amazing and inspiring. i have a hard time just looking at something and thinking of how to make something completely different with it. but seeing other people create...it inspires me to do the same.

here are a few of my favorite blogs for repurposing ideas:

choose the thrive (home decor/organization)

dollar store crafts (various, but i mostly use their tips for home decor)

the sisters 4 say more is more (fashion)

yours, mine & ours (fashion)

the fashion blogs are my favorite and are really inspiring. meredith from yours, mine & ours made put a self-imposed thrifting ban on herself. i'm actually considering making this my resolution for 2011! i've always loved thrifting and finding unique {and cheap!} things at second-hand and resale stores. now, if i can manage to throw in some creativity...i could possibly make it work and go all of 2011 only wearing clothes that i already own, thrifted or are gifted to me! it's kind of getting me excited! there would be some rules, though. obviously, i can buy undergarments new. and i'm also thinking i should be able to buy shoes new, but we'll see. i have until the end of january to pick a resolution and stick with it right? that's gotta be a rule somewhere...i'll google it.

anyway...on to the diy t-shirt bags.

i spotted this idea on dollar store crafts today, which led me to the tutorial on leethal.

it took a total of five whole minutes. 

easy + fast + free = my kinda crafting!

 

my kids have this obsession with bringing a gazillion toys with them each time we get into the car. a gazillion toys multiplied by three big boys...you can imagine that those gazillion toys just end up a huge cluttered mess on the backseat floor. i figured they can use these t-shirt bags {made with their own t-shirts! how cool is that!} for keeping their toys together.
i used the boys' shirts to make smaller sized bags for them to tote around, but i think i will also make larger bags for groceries and such. they are actually much more sturdy than i expected them to be.

embrace the camera - jan 27

this week's embrace is an ode to my old man.

he's got ten years on me...so he really is, quite literally, 

my old man.

many think that 'the older the wiser'

but i'm pretty sure i'm much wiser than him on any given day.

obviously, he didn't win me over with his youthfulness or his brains.

i'll let you in on a delicious little secret.

the man can cook, people.

no, really. he can cook.

i've figured out that the way to this woman's heart is through the kitchen.

{after her wardrobe, shoe and handbag closet and starbucks tab} 

oh, 'tis the man i love.

when i look into his eyes, i see eternity....

{swoon}

how will you embrace today!?
hop on over and visit emily at the anderson family crew and link up!

happy thursday!

twenty-six days

i can't believe it's already been twenty-six days since this little peanut named wyatt was born.
i've been trapped in new baby bliss where all the days just kind of roll into one.
seriously loving every moment of it.

wyatt had his 2-4 week well-baby check this morning.

twenty-six days. eight pounds exactly. twenty-one inches.

i left the doctor's office in tears...because he's eight lbs! waahhh!

my little 6.5 lb peanut that i left the hospital with not even four weeks ago is now eight lbs?!

this liquid gold that i've been producing is obviously doing it's job.

and realizing that there's no turning back from here...i'm afraid i'll start hearing that damn baby bug buzzing in my ear again.

somebody please tell the mister to let his doctor take the soldering iron down there so we won't have to worry about being bit by the baby bug again.
until then, i will continue to slather on the bug repellent.

bubbles

that is some serious bubble bizniz you got going on there, mikey.

superhero

soooo getting this for liam.

he's my hero.

you know, he can flip backwards onto the sofa in a single bound. ;)

embrace the camera - jan 20

today, we are embracing cousins!

there's absolutely nothing better than getting my kids and my sissy's kids together.

they are a wild, crazy, unpredictable and silly little bunch with a love/hate relationship that we will never quite understand. 

but we will definitely continue to enjoy and laugh about it each time they get together.

between my sissy and myself, we have seven kiddos.

i know. crazy, right? just call us fertile myrtles.

christmas gets more and more expensive for our dad every year.

now, onward to the embracing.....

it is impossible to get a picture of them all looking at the camera at once.

instead, i get a view of profiles and backs. 

let's play a game. how many kids can you spot in this picture? lol

oh, and look at that, it's my nephew's bum...all up in our faces.

and did you notice he's wearing skinny jeans? 

he won't wear anything but skinny and, apparently, the skinnier the better.

umm...might as well give the boy a pair of jeggings.

funny how when i was growing up, parents got all annoyed that kids wanted to wear baggy jeans.

now, our generation of parents are getting annoyed because kids are wearing jeans that are too tight!

the big boys, jalen 9 and isaiah 6, with their noses in their dsi's.

9 times out of 10, this is how you will find them.

why they want to "chat" via dsi when they are sitting right freakin' next to each other...

i will never understand.

maybe it's the same reason that the mister and i post on each other's facebook walls when we are in the same house but in different rooms??? 

hmm...i dunno.....

moving on...

our sweet baby girl, malia, who will be one year old in next month.

i swear, i can see the earth's core when i look into those beautiful, deep, dark eyes.

the newest cousin, little wyatt, getting some love from siliana.

siliana and my little liam are both two years old, and liam is older by only one short week.

my sissy and i were pregnant at the exact same time.

needless to say, my dad tried to avoid having both of us over at his house at the same time.

we tend to get a little cray-cray when we're prego.

here is my oldest, isaiah, who is 6...hamming it up with his little cousin.

you know i had to get me some embrace action with this sweet little girl! 

i guess i'm trying to kiss the camera. and siliana is trying to either kiss or bite my cheek...hmmm?

happy {embrace} thursday!!!!

it's been a good day

any day that i can get a great deal on something {anything} is a good day. 

there are a few hours every morning where i only have 2/4 of my brood, so i do all of my errand-running during that time. 

note: errand-running should be read as browsing around target.

while errand-running today, i found these super cute riding boots on clearance.

mind you, they were the only pair left AND they were a size 7. 

they were priced at $27.98 and i thought, "oh man, great deal. only pair left. my size. it's destiny." 

so i grabbed them, along with a few other things we came for, and headed to the register. 

at the moment the cashier rang them up, i swear, the clouds parted and a ray of sunshine beamed down upon those boots, when the register said they were $9.98.  

yippee skippee. 

i also got a great deal on an amazon.com gift card from livingsocial!

if you are anything like me and buy everything from amazon, then you don't want to miss this offer.

i'm super excited because i'm planning to invest in this gdiapers set for wyatt.

because i've been hanging onto to a 20% off coupon code to use, plus the $20 gift card i just bought for half price, i'm excited to get a good price on cloth dipes for little mister wyatt.

gotta keep that cute little mongolian spotted bum clean and green!

today is also fabulous because starbucks has finally launched a blackberry app for "starbucks mobile". 

now, i can reload my card, check my balance and rewards, and even pay for my drink using this app!
and to make it all the more fabulous, my first $25 reload using the app and a visa card will give me a $5 bonus on my card.
gotta love {kinda}free money!

oh, joy to the world. my heart is happy today.

but then again, it could just be all that caffeine from my quad grande mocha.

progress

may we always strive to be grateful - all of this is a gift.

our little liam was diagnosed with autism back in september 2010. shortly after, he began in-home speech and behavioral therapy, which started at three mornings per week. after the holiday break, they increased his therapy to five mornings per week.

i remember when the therapists first evaluated him {or us. i mean, most of the answers to their questions came from me or shawn}. he was 21 months old. the conversations pretty much went like this:

psychologist: does liam pick up a phone and pretend to talk into it?

me: umm...no.

p: does he use his finger to point to what he wants?

me: umm...no.

p: does he try to imitate you, like try to put on your shoes and things like that?

me: he'll clap when i clap...but other than that, umm...not really.

p: will he follow simple directions? like...if you ask him to pick something up?

me: no, he doesn't do that.

shortly after this evaluation, liam began in-home therapy.

fast-forward three short months.....

a therapist and a psychologist came to the house yesterday to sit in on liam's therapy session, watch his interaction with his teacher and see how he has progressed.

his teacher pretended a phone was ringing. liam picked it up and babbled into the mouthpiece.

liam took his teacher's hand and guided her to the refrigerator. she opened the door and asked him to point to what he wanted. he raised his arm and pointed to the milk.

she would do various tasks with him where she would do something as she said, "do this", and liam would do exactly what she did.

at break time, his teacher said, "it's break time, liam. go see your mommy." and liam comes running to me.

the on-looking therapist and psychologist were blown away. "he is making really great progress!" all of those things he was doing yesterday were things he wasn't doing three months ago. there is still a lot to work on but this is definitely a great start that gives us a lot of hope.

the progress could be a result of the therapy. or it could just be our little liam developing on his own time. who knows? whatever it is, we are grateful. i also know that someone coming to play with him for a few hours a day isn't going to hurt him. it gives him something to look forward to. and i know he looks forward to it, because each morning when he hears that knock on the door, he is squealing and bouncing up and down with excitement.

liam's teacher was convinced he was showing off to her bosses yesterday to make her look good. but she was also just happy to know that she is helping him in some way. i'm just happy to know he is letting her.

so not ready for this

i picked mikey up from school today and he was toting a folder with his very first homework assignment...eh-ver!

how exciting, no?

yes, no is right! not exciting at all!

i'm not going to have a pity party about how my baby is getting so big and is so ready for school.

i already hosted that party about a year ago.

really, i'm sooo not ready to have to deal with homework for two kids!

daily homework is painful enough having to do it with only isaiah...now mikey, too?!? 

{me + helping with homework = a volatile mixture}

on a good note, mikey has been having a wonderful time at school. he went to this preschool when he was 2, then i moved him to a different school when he turned 3 because i wanted a little more for him in the education department, if ya know what i mean. 

i recently brought him back when the instructors agreed that he was ready for the pre-kindergarten class.

so they placed him in the 4yo pre-k class and he popped right in.

i couldn't be more proud of my cheerful little artist who follows directions and earns stickers during circle time and centers.

on a completely different note, i took isaiah and mikey to a playgroup the other day and left the mister home with liam and wyatt. as i drove past the park on our way home, i spot this big sasquatch of a man emerge from the play structure, flailing his arms and running toward my truck like a crazy person. i didn't know whether i should stop and see if he needs help or....run his a** down with my truck.

then i realize, oh damn...that's my husband.

anyway, left home alone with the two little ones, i kind of expected to come home to him in the same position as i left him on the couch. not only did he bundle them up and tote them to the park, he even brought the camera. 

what what in the what?

and he actually got some cute shots of liam.

i repeat...what what in the what?

here's our little cutie patootie enjoying himself at the park with his daddy.

play structure pimpin', as the mister calls it.

we did it!

the hubby and i have been dyyyyying to start a food blog together and we finally did it! 

obviously, it's a work in progress, but i hope everyone who stumbles upon it will ENJOY! :)

click our button below and come visit us!

xo, katrina & shawn

cuddlebug

enjoying some cuddle time with my sweet and cuddly little liam. i know i will sleep well tonight after being smothered with kisses from this lovey boy....:)
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

embrace the camera - jan 13

this morning, i'm embracing the camera with my first-born, isaiah.

he's a sensitive 6 year old with the heart and soul of a 30 year old mother. {lol}

he has been the best helper these last few months in helping care for his brothers and doing more chores around the house to make my job a little easier.

he's really embraced the role of "big brother" and i'm so happy that his little bros have him as an example.

i love my toothless big boy. 

liam and mickey

there's something about that mickey and his clubhouse.

they make my liam happy.

and that makes me happy.

meeshka...mooshka...mickey mouse! 

 

relief

those are my big boys folding the laundry for me..while i kick my feet up. :)

i didn't even have to ask! they offered when they saw the basket sitting there.

AND they even put it all away....in the right places!

{BIG sigh of relief}

embrace the camera - jan 6

new year, new baby!

this year's very first embrace is for the newest addition to the adams family.

little wyatt james, who is one week old yesterday!

sleeping handsome

kisses from his big brothers 

me, my new little guy, and one with big brother, michael.. 

 

p.s. please excuse the undereye bags.

new baby = no sleep. y'all know the deal.

what's poppin'

a big bowl of popcorn and the avengers on demand make for one happy boy who's stuck in the house because of cold and crappy weather.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

i just need to know

is this ghetto? or not?

seriously! i need to know!

i've sworn up and down i would never put shoes over footed pajamas on any of my children, no matter the circumstances.

umm..so much for that.

the mister went back to work today.

this means i had four littles to bundle up and herd in the streets for our walk to isaiah's school.

it was 34* and foggy.

liam was warm and cozy in his footed pajamas. 

shoes over footed pajamas made sense...at that moment.

p.s. yes, that's a cookie in liam's hand. i swear, he had breakfast already. he just likes to immediately follow up breakfast with a snack...a sugary one.