Just Set Your Sail March 7, 2012

Let’s start this post off right.  Huddy fell asleep in the car cart at Kroger the other day.  OH.MY.  The cute and laugh factor is quite high with this one.  I could eat them both up…with a spoon.  And poor Huddy looks like he picked up a stiff drink on aisle 10.

My niece Campbell has been coming to Zumba.  There is no one else I would rather Zumba beside than her.  We’re rockin’ our snake move.

I adore waffles, but have always had a love/hate relationship with them.  I love to eat them, but hate cutting them up…especially for three wee Kelleys.  I had actually resorted to waiting until they were cooled off and then just tearing them into pieces with my bare hands.  I just laughed at myself…I know this is pathetic isn’t it?  Then it dawned on me…my pizza cutter.

Now my kids just dip their waffle sticks in their bowl of syrup.  I was pretty proud of myself.  Doesn’t take much.

My friend Brea, who needs to start blogging again, enjoys giving me her old stuff.  I happily and thankfully accept.  Tonight her husband Jonathan dropped these jewels off at our house.  Now what to do with them…I’m thinking, I’m thinking.

I started my first quilt last summer.  I don’t like to have unfinished projects, so when I set to work on my first quilt, which is for Harper, I was determined to finish it in record time.  I quickly finished the top and backing and then soon realized the top, batting and backing pieces would not fit under my small machine to quilt it together.

I was bummed.  So it sat.  I thought it was going to cost an arm & leg to have custom stitched, so it continued to sit.  Right before Mom got sick, I had finally handed it over to a quilter, who knew my mom & was an aunt to some of my dear friends, but I had to add some length and width to the backing.  Then Mom died.  A few weeks ago the sweet quilter told me if I would get her the backing she would quilt it for me for free.  I cried.

Now I just need to add the binding and my first quilt will be official.

Recently I’ve been a bit obsessed with David Crowder Band’s Sometimes song.  Wish there was a cool video, but no luck.  Totally great song though.

It makes me think of my mom and heaven.

And naturally, well I think naturally, I’ve been a bit obsessed with heaven too.  I’ve been thinking a lot about what heaven will be like.  I have cried quite a bit wondering if she will know that I am her daughter.  I know that’s silly because if she doesn’t know I’m her daughter, then I won’t know that she’s my mom.  I know it’s the human in me, but it makes me sad.  A lady on my PPA Facebook page wrote a few days ago, “I just told someone the other day that I miss being my mother’s daughter.”  Nailed it.  I miss being my mother’s daughter.

I didn’t have any life changing or ‘taken from a movie’ last words with my mom.   I was blessed with an incredible week and morning with her though…feel so, so blessed to have had that time with her.  I had literally just left the hospital & sat my purse down at home, when my cousin called me and told me she had collapsed.  I grabbed my purse and drove like mad back to the hospital.  I saw her as they rushed her out of her room, but she was out of it and literally just mumbling to herself.  It would be what seemed like forever in the ICU waiting room and two very surreal encounters with her nurse and then a frantic doctor, before they let us see her and at that point I think she was already gone.  So crazy.

I wonder what that moment is like when God says, “It’s time.”  What was Mom thinking…Did she even think at all…Was there any hesitation…Did she think about my brother & me…Was she confused by His voice…Did she wonder who the voice was or just immediately know “This is my Father”…Was there even a voice at all…Was she scared or was there just peace…Was there an incredible soundtrack playing…Did she see her family…Was there the infamous ‘light’…Did she see His face?  After listening to DCB’s Sometimes, maybe a million times now, I like to think He did talk to her in that moment.  I like to think that she was torn about leaving us and maybe He whispered, “Don’t be afraid.  Just set your sail…”  Like, “It’s cool Sandra.  This is going to be good.”  And away she went.  I know we’ll never know until it’s our time, but for the time being I can imagine and for today this 12×12 canvas was a source of encouragement to me.  It so applies to life in general.  “Don’t be afraid.  Just set your sail and risk the ocean.”  This is going to be worth it.

The Weekend March 5, 2012

Lots of fun things were included in our weekend.

A cherry coke + Chick-fil-a.  I quit drinking coke back in December, so now they are a real treat.  Cherry coke may be my most favorite.

More waiting.  Thinking about little brother at Chick-fil-a.  I look forward to ordering 4 kids meals.

Sibling love.  I enjoyed watching Harper and Huddy try to kiss in their new car seats…just can’t quite reach.

A Stormtrooper & Darth.  They want these helmets like bad…like real bad.

Sibling loans.  The kids emptied their piggy banks.  Huddy didn’t quite have enough money for his purchase.  The conversation I listened to went like this.

Huddy:  Sol can I have some of your money?

Sol:  Sure Huddy.  I got some monies for you.

The sweetness is just a bit lovely.

PS:  Huddy had just poked himself in the eye with his box…no joke 🙂

The Lorax.  Oh goodness…the love factor for this movie was off the charts.  So incredibly cute, great message and I cried like a baby.

My camera went dead right before this picture…I am not a fan of my camera phone.

Puzzles.  Harper’s first 100 piece puzzle.  She was thrilled and I was too.

Favorite new art supply.  This was one of Harper’s purchases at Toys R Us. She was absolutely giddy when she found this ‘frame’ paper.  ‘Framed’ art is already hanging in her room with some cute washi tape.  I totally recommend this.

That about sums it up.  The week has started.  Lots to do.  Ready. Set. Go.

Happy Monday.

Not As Planned March 3, 2012

I’m learning more and more that things just don’t always go as planned.  Life is a giant curve ball, which I haven’t quite learned to hit yet.  Big things and little things change.

Today I sat and watched the kids play with their legos.  Small things like even legos make me think of my mom.  She actually bought these sets for the kids.  She did things like this all the time…knew they would enjoy something like this and went out of her way to bring a little extra joy to their lives…even through simple things like legos.

The headband Harper is wearing was Mom’s.  Harper wears it quite a bit…I like that.

Today we were going to see The Lorax.  It was going to be the boy’s first movie in the theaters.  Right before Mom died, she talked about wanting to take the boys to their first movie.  I like to be with them for their “firsts”, but I knew this would be something special for Grammy, so I was totally fine with it.  I wanted her to enjoy a “first” of theirs.  Seems so silly to be sad about something like that, but it’s just where I am right now.

We were going to go with Susan to see the movie today.  She came over dressed as the Cat in the Hat and brought fun Dr. Seuss crafts.  Cat in the Hat hats and cupcakes.  Have I mentioned that I like Susan…like a lot.  And that she is way too good to our little family and the wee Kelleys.  She is.

During their nap, we realized the movie was not going to happen because of the weather.  We ended up packing up and heading to my in-laws old house, that has a basement, and hanging there the rest of the afternoon and evening.  We were blessed not to have to head down into their basement and the bad weather passed on by.  I did get to teach Susan how to use Pinterest though 🙂

We were bummed to miss the movie, but what a teeny tiny curve ball this was.  We’re blessed to be safe tonight.  When I got home I was going to blog…as I opened up my iPhoto to download pictures, I got sucked into old pictures dating back to 2009.  I was looking for Mom…for those sweet pictures and memories and videos.

It’s crazy how one amazingly fantastic, beyond loving and so pure at heart person will change you forever.  How blessed, how wonderfully blessed I am to have had such a person to call Mom.  Overwhelmed with missing her tonight and overwhelmed with how incredible she was.  I am thankful for the small things like legos and movie firsts that remind me of her.

Have a great weekend!

Art Sale March 1, 2012

Today was kind of…well, just a regular old day I suppose.  I hung out with this cool dude, who even got to skip his nap because he was a coloring machine, but boy is he tired.  I foresee an early bedtime in his future.

Sol seriously will color for a very long time.  We put on some tunes, got out our supplies and got busy creating.  I made this 8×24 canvas with “I caterpillared into a butterfly.”  It’s from a song…kind of a rap, hip hop song at that.  Very upbeat and cool to groove to.

And I finished this canvas that I actually started long ago.  It’s a 12×12 canvas with Luke 12:28 “God cares so wonderfully for the flowers…He will certainly care for you.”

I have really been enjoying my time away from orders and the fact that I am getting a chance to create all the ideas in my head.  It feels really nice.  I am accumulating quite a few pieces though.  I have given away a few, but think I am going to put a few up for sale soon under the tab at the top of the page “Items Available Now.”  Check back later 🙂

Oh and if you are interested in either one of these…shoot me an email.

**UPDATE:  All pieces have sold.  I am hoping to open for a few custom orders soon.**

Happy Thursday!

Rainbow Velvet February 29, 2012

It is a gloomy, rainy, tornadoey kind of day.

We are having a mid-day movie picnic.  Sometimes these days are just fun and much needed.

I chose Kung Foo Panda…Jack Black is so hilarious.

The other night I got home and saw this on our chalkboard.

I love Josh Kelley’s movie voting system…and his drawings.  Can you guess the choices?

Last night I attempted rainbow velvet cupcakes.  I made red velvet cupcakes for the first time on Valentines this year.  I used Paula Dean’s Recipe but with my Mom’s cream cheese icing recipe.  Mom’s icing recipe is like Paula’s except Mom used 2 tsp of vanilla, instead of just 1.

I always just assumed that an ingredient made red velvet cake red, but turns out it’s just food coloring, so why does Red Velvet Cake have to be red?  Well, it doesn’t.  I saw this pin on Pinterest and knew I needed to attempt it.

I made up my Red Velvet batter minus the food coloring.  It was just this puke brown kind of color…totally not appealing at all.

I wanted all the colors of the rainbow…red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple.

I then divided out the puke brown batter into 6 different bowls.

Dyed each bowl of batter a different rainbow color.  Since the batter was the not so great brownish color, my orange, yellow and green were not as bright as I wanted, but they still worked.

I added a little bit of each batter color to my muffin cups and baked.

I iced them with the cream cheese icing, added a few sprinkles and delivered some today as a sweet encouragement.  The wee Kelleys and I are now enjoying one after our lunch.

Yes, today is definitely a rainbow cupcake kind of day.

Happy Wednesday!

There’s a Boilet on my Toilet February 28, 2012

Last night we had a date night.  We hit up the Nike outlet and O’Charleys.  Hot right?  Totally.  Nike was really up on their presentation of dry-fit shirts.  Love!

When we got home we noticed there were little drawings stuck all over our house with funny names.  Susan had dressed up like Cat in the Hat and read the wee Kelley’s There’s a Wocket in my Pocket.  After the book they made different monster’s and gave them names.

There was a shone on our phone, a hink on our sink, a flock on our clock, a S.V. on our T.V., a gomputer on our computer, a boilet on our toilet, a hofa on our sofa, a zarpet on our carpet, a sall on our wall, a deiling on our ceiling, a bhair on our chair and a dirror on our mirror.

Have I mentioned that Susan is grand and a 1st grade teacher…you want her don’t you?  This morning the kids were beside themselves with excitement to see if we noticed all the little monsters all over the house.  It was bliss!

Today Sol and I ran a few errands while Harper and Hud were at MDO.  We found this fabric at Walmart and pretty sure Sol about peed himself with sheer joy.  He just stared and named off every super hero the entire shopping trip.

I got to have a good long chat with our Ethiopia director today.  Those talks are always so hopeful and yet, still so hard…at the same time.  Afterwards I made this 12×12 canvas.  I have no idea what I am going to do with it, but for today, it just needed to be created.

Tonight I am going to attempt rainbow velvet cupcakes…we shall see how that turns out.  I’ll let you know if it was super success or super fail 🙂  See you tomorrow.

Oh Monday! February 27, 2012

Monday is here and the week has begun.  The weather in Tennesse has been crazy wonderful.  We’ve spent the majority of the day outside and when the boys are done napping we will be headed out once again.  Super yah for spring…the Kelleys are so ready for you.

My sweet friend Susan asked me to go to a night service with her last night.  I agreed 🙂  I was beyond glad I went.  Ever have one of those days when you feel like the message was just for you?  That was me, last night.  It was about life not going as planned and waiting…hello…I really needed this message.  I burnt up my pen by taking lots and lots of notes.  God knew I needed to hear this.  And afterwards we ate Chuys.  YUM!  Thanks for asking me Susan!

Spring is just around the corner which means Easter goodies are everywhere.  I have my first 1/2 marathon of the year in just 2 short weeks…I’m beyond nervous.  But in the mean time, I’m running my legs off and eating these guys.  They are my arch-nemisis…I’m just too weak to fight their chocolatey, creamy goodness….MUST.HAVE.MORE.WILL.POWER.

These adorable sweat pants were at Target.  I almost, like totally almost, bought them for Harper, but they just were not quite clearanced enough for me yet.  I’ll have to keep checking back.

Harper and Huddy have been way overdue for new carseats.  They’ve out grown their other ones, but I just kept waiting until the highback boosters were on sale.  Today was our day!  Their car rides just got a little more comfortable.  Sol was a bit bummed, but he’s an itty bitty still…kid is still weighing in at a mere 27lbs…I told him he needed to be drinking some protein shakes if he wants a new seat 🙂

And want to know something else about my car?  Well okay!  My #1 car love is this beautiful trash bag.  I bought these 2-years-ago for Christmas presents and gifted myself one too.  I adore it and the quality is topnotch!  Can you adore a trash bag?  Sure you can.  And as you can see, I really do use it.  It keeps my car oh so clean and trash free.  I bought them HERE!

Harper is all about some color.  I’ve had some plain tees bought up for her for some time and she recently asked for a rainbow shirt.  Sunday she actually threw a ginormous fit because I made her wear a blue jean dress…that is adorable and my mom bought for her…because the dress “has no color.”  She cried so hard because “I love color and this dress is all blue and has no color.  You know I like color.”  She still had to wear the dress…when you throw a fit over something in our house, you do not get your way, but she was allowed to accessorize.  She added yellow and white striped leggings, purple, pink and blue striped socks and her yellow anchor shoes.  I should have taken a picture 🙂

And we’re thrilled because all 3 wee Kelleys are officially signed up for soccer.  This is the first year everyone gets to play.  They are in heaven and the boys will be rockin’ it out on the same team.  Spring is going to be good…like real good.

Hope your weekend was smashingly great.  Happy Monday!

Joy February 24, 2012

A few things that have brought a bit of joy lately:

I cleaned our floors today.  Even though the actual cleaning itself is not so joyous, the end result is.  Our floors were quite dirty.

A jumbo watercolor set we found at TJ Maxx…who knew watercolors came in size ginormous.

Superhero kids…

and even better are soaring superhero kids.

Finding the wee Kelleys like this…just chatting in Harper’s room.

Harper’s new sunshine shirt.  This was my oh so happy project for today.  All that yellow and orange fabric and tons upon tons of stitching lifted my spirits quite a bit.  Harper digs it.

Laughter…loud ticklish laughter.  It’s just pure joy.

Thursday night date night…

to the NeedToBreathe concert at the Ryman.  The joy factor was high…let me count the ways:

1) Opening act Ben Rector = fantastic.

2) NTB had one of the coolest backdrops I’ve seen at a concert…you can never go wrong with an old, giant typewriter…way cool.

3) NeedToBreathe rocked it out.

4) I may have shed quite a few tears during the concert, good hard tears.

And last, but certainly not least…good babysitters.  Babysitters who craft with our kids and bring them cool surprises and love on them and invest in them.

  Mom was our main babysitter.  She gave us date nights almost every week.  Harper and I would join her on girls only dates.  She talked to my kids everyday & saw them almost everyday too.  She was the one person that knew our kids just as good as Josh and I do.  And she and Harper had an extra special relationship.

When she watched the kids, she really & truly enjoyed them.  She could have easily turned on the tv and zoned out, but she didn’t.  They played games and talked and danced and colored and their favorite game was hair dresser.  She always said she loved to see their imaginations work.  She cannot be replaced, but we have some dear friends who have been doing some babysitting for us and loving and investing in our kiddos, like Grammy did.  That is one thing that truly brings some joy.

Lots of things to be thankful for…lots of things to find joy in.

Have a great weekend!

Family Portrait February 23, 2012

Today I set about cleaning out all of the kiddos’ crafty supplies.  The amount of paper alone is just unheard of.  As I was cleaning out the drawer that houses their paper, stamps and a few other supplies, I re-discovered this picture.

It’s Harper’s interpretation of our family portrait.

And that’s Little Kelley Brother in Josh’s arms.  He’s blue with only three legs or maybe that’s not a third leg 😉

We are open to an older child, so I was very intrigued that Harper drew Little Brother as a baby.  She also said this morning on the way to school that she thought we would see his face soon.  I’m crossing my fingers that she’s prophetic.

I can hope right?

Happy Thursday!

Wednesday Rambles February 22, 2012

Stay with me through my random Kelley rambles for today.

Two different sets of flowers were delivered to our house on Monday…that was nice…actually, super nice.

Thanks Ashley and Jen.

I’ve been gearing up for re-opening to orders.  I’m making some changes all around…blog, logo, pricing, etc.  It’s all coming together.  Dana at Lifelines Designs rocks…like seriously rocks.

Bunting has been made twice this week.  A shirt for Harper and some cute cards that I have happy, artful plans for 🙂

This tee made me super excited.  Thanks Ashley B…you are beyond kind.

Huddy called me over to our scrabble board and said, “Look mom.  Sol and I spelled Green Lantern.”  God love em’.

I cleaned out our treat drawer this week.  Looks like we are officially unofficial Pez dispenser collectors.

This girl is getting good at checkers.  Starting to give me a run for my money.

I really dig thank you cards…especially ones with pictures.

My Aunt Martha and Cousin Amy came to visit yesterday.  It was great to chat with them and hug their necks.  And it didn’t hurt that they brought these with them.

And I like these wee Kelleys.  Like a lot.  Like a super lot.

Happy Wednesday!