Blogging is so crazy

Am I the only one who reads their stats and is just blown away that someone in Australia or Germany or some other far away country would have any interest in what they have to say? 

I mean, no one really wants to listen to me in my own house.

 Can you blame me for being surprised that I have an audience in a foreign country?

It's very flattering. And awesome. And so surreal.

What about you? Do you check your stats?

Isn't it crazy that we  can just click a few keys and find ourselves looking into the lives of people seemingly so different and foreign? I can't believe how close I feel to some of the bloggers I follow. It's like I know them and we're buds. I see them grow their families and I get so excited for them.

 I see them show off their creativity and get inspired by them. I read about their struggles and feel compelled to pray for many of them. It's just so wild what the Internet has allowed us to do. We hear a lot about the dangers and the negative things the Internet has brought into our lives. I don't want to discount that at all, but there is this great supportive community that has sprung up, too. So, to all of my fellow bloggers and those readers and followers who may stumble across my humble blog home, I welcome you and invite you to come back often! Let's be blog buds!  

My Fabulous Birthday Present

I have a wonderful husband. Let's just get that out there first. Ok, now that we have established that fact, I want to show you what he bought me for my birthday!

I have been searching for something tall to occupy a wall in my dining room. I painted the walls red (Glidden's Red Delicious, to be exact) this fall. I had been looking at antiques and ran across this beauty. As soon as I saw her, I knew she had to be the one. Funky, bright, unconventional yet folksy and old fashioned. Ah, it was love. I texted a pic to the hubs thinking he would balk at her cartoonish paint and shabby style. Instead, he said, if you love it, I will come get it with my truck. I think those were the most romantic words I have heard him say in years. I'm not sure if you understand how much I love this weird piece of furniture. It makes me so happy to see her sitting there in my dining room. I've almost settled on a name. She's either a Daisy or a Maude.  For now, I'm putting my entertaining pieces in there like table linens, serving trays and platters. I'm pretty sure the roosters are going into storage when the curtains are completed. The whole room is going to be so cheery and fun.                                                    

Can you believe it's been 9 months since my last post? Me either! Life has changed so much for our family in those nine months, and no, I'm not pregnant. Not for the moment at least.
Our family moved to Alabama after living 12 years in our first home in Tennessee. It was a long awaited move to a bigger home for our family of 8 but it was still a little bittersweet. I thought I would catch you all up today about the move and our new home. Most of you know my husband travels in his career so I am flying solo with the kids pretty often. Wouldn't you know that when the contract came in for our home sale he was out of town and didn't come home until the night before closing! And when we purchased our new home, again, out of town and I had to juggle closing by myself with the children. Thank the Lord for our amazing realtor, Maggie, and her two teenage daughter and even her husband! They kept the children occupied while I signed papers. Whew! Our first home which we moved from was about 1100 square feet. Or new home is more than twice that size! You cannot imagine the cartwheels and whoops and hollers we experienced the first few weeks. We are also just a few miles from family now, so that has been such a blessing! I love having family cookouts and Sunday dinners after church with everyone playing and laughing and chatting. We also have met our neighbors and let me tell you...delightful! I've made a few friends. The kids have made friends. We've signed up for sports. We've found our church home. It's all coming together at last. And I did promise you some remodeling and DIY projects. I'll get to that soon. For now, enjoy these photos of our family and our journey over the last several months!

Closing Day at Last!

Moving Day

(you can tell I had just tons of help:)

Playing on the Lower Deck a.k.a. The Castle

Roses for the Sisters ;)

Halloween Huddle in the Foyer

School Projects in the Dining Room

My Thanksgiving Dining Table Arrangement

 Christmas Tree in the Living Room

Pretty Baby

School Shelves in the Den

 Our Lovely Oriental Inspired Red Half-bath

I am still alive. I promise.

I haven't posted in a long while. Our family listed our home for sale last year. Then we had a lovely daughter. Then we tried to regroup from the birth of said lovely daughter and the mild chaos that ensues while preparing your home for showings, homeschooling 5 children, and adjusting to life with a newborn. Then very suddenly our home sold after being on the market for a year and we closed in 2 weeks. We are now homeless, though we are being hosted by my gracious brother and his wife and daughter. We are looking for a home and trying to homeschool a little and I am continuing to take my online courses in education. Mild chaos, see? I love you for continuing to visit our blog. Sigh. I will be posting eventually and expect it to be full of home projects, so if that's your bag, keep on checking in. If it's not, check in anyway, because I never do the same thing for very long. Until next time, whenever that may be, God bless you! Keep it sweet! ;)

Big and Little Sisters Dresses!

I finally made the matching sister dresses I have been hoping to make forever. These two use black and white coordinating prints. I have a halter style for the baby and a crossover front for big sis. The bigger one also has a yoyo corsage at the waist. We also made hair clips, clipped on the big dress neckline, and a headband to match which you see hanging at the top of the little dress. Maleah sat with me and made yoyos while I sewed the dresses. Maiden sat with us and ate cookies. What can I say? She's hard to say no to with those chubby cheeks. I am including a link to the tutorial I used over at Sugar Bee Crafts as inspiration for the big sis dress. I swapped up some things but this was a great help to me in the design. Ok, Let's look at the pics! I can't wait to have the girls in these next week. As it is, these photos are just the dresses hanging right after I finished them. I have Maiden's Fancy Dress Tea Party for her first birthday coming up so I will take lots of photos then of pretty babies in dresses! For now, a teaser...

And the close up detail of the yoyo corsage on the big sis dress...

We are thinking that these will look great for cooler weather with a long sleeved white tee underneath and a pair of black leggings. When it is warmer we can go to bare arms or maybe a little tank. So pleased with how our hard work turned out!  Thanks for stopping by and please leave me a comment and let me know what you think or if you have any suggestions!

 Stay sweet, Marzipan Mommy ;)

Life with Little guys

I have a bunch of kids. I'm like that lady in the storybook with so many she forgot what to do or who they were or how they got there...isn't that how it went? Anyway, I spend a great deal of time explaining the simple mundane things of life down to a preschool level. Take, for instance, the bible story we read this week about the first family. After all of our discussion and quizzing, my four yr old still thinks one of Adam and Eve's sons was named Cable. Sigh. You have to just laugh.  Today I was trying to explain to him that you can't just jam your feet into a pair of shoes. There is a proper way to put on your shoes. I watched him smashing his foot into his sneaker and called out, "No, you can't just cram your foot in there. There's a tongue in there!" He froze and got this sick look on his face, dropping the shoe. "No, no, not a people tongue. A shoe tongue. The part of the shoe that sticks out of the top." Whew. I think he believed  there was a fat fleshy blob in there OR the shoe was going to eat his foot. Either way, it was hilarious. See, having a house full of little people can be comic relief for itself!

Painted Wooden Letter Ribbon Bow Holder

Could I have made the title of this post any longer? Geesh!

If you are like this mom of pretty girls, you have an over abundance of hairbows falling out of drawers

 and baskets in your house. These bows are far too cute to keep stashed away so we decided to make a place to display them.We have two girls, ages 11 yrs and 11 months,

 so I chose a Capital M and a Lower-case m, M & m ;)

 Here is what you need:
1 wooden letter
Craft paint in your desired colors
Hot glue
Ribbon
Command Adhesive hook

First, paint your letters to match your room decor. Next, use hot glue to attach the precut ribbon to the reverse of the painted wooden letter, making a loop at the top of the letter with ribbon. A tail of ribbon should extend down the back of the letter. Then, attach your command strip to the wall or door where you will display your ribbons and follow package directions to attach the hook. Now you are ready to hang your bow holder!