Paper Pencil Holder Tutorial by Briana

Recently, Briana came up with this awesome pencil holder idea. They are very, very cute and look great on anyone's desk.

So, here's the tutorial:

Step 1: Get a peice of paper. She used construction paper, but regular printer paper works good too.

Step 2: Fold up all four corners of your paper.

Step 3: Fold up the two long sides of the paper.

Step 4: Fold the two shorter sides of the paper up

Step 5: Holding two corners in your fingers, bring them together to form a U shape.

Step 6: Bring the two corners together and tape them in place.

Step 7: Repeat on the other end.

That's it! Now you have a fabulous pencil holder!

You can make as few,

or as many as you like!

Halloween windows

Last week I went to Country Sampler to do some fabric shopping for a halloween costume I'm making for Sydney. While I was in there, I found the cutest halloween fabric that I couldn't live without. I got it home and decided to make it into some window treatments for my bathroom and kitchen. I love how they turned out!

Here's the bathroom:

And here's the kitchen:

Birthday Surprises

It's my birthday today! I am officially old! Yay! Mike and the girls went out shopping last night and I wasn't invited to come along. I thought maybe they were getting me a birthday present. When they got home, they barely muttered a "hello" in my direction before grabbing the tape and scissors and locking themselves in the basement. "You better not come down here!" was all that was said to me. After about a half an hour, the girls came up one at a time and dashed into the living room. I had no idea what they were doing, so I came up to investigate. Turns out, they were putting my wrapped presents out to display!! Talk about torture! I had to look at those wrapped presents all night and I couldn't even peek without getting caught. Luckily, I got to rip into those wrapped presents first thing this morning!

Sydney gave me some very soft pajama pants, and Briana gave me a vanilla cupcake scented candle. I loved them! After I opened those, I noticed there was another package on the table. One that wasn't there last night. I was dying to see what it was. Can't you tell?

It was an ipod docking station!! I love it and I've been listening to music all day.

The surprises didn't end there. There was some kind of mystery package in the mailbox today too. It was addressed to me, but it was from Lucienne Diver.

Who is Lucienne Diver? I wondered. I double checked, and it was addressed to me. I ripped into the envelope, and I'll tell you who Lucienne Diver is. She's the author of Revamped! My Free Book Friday book that I won!!! She picked the perfect day to have it arrive!

And, the book is signed! My favorite part!

Mike did offer to bake me a cake this year. I said ok, and he wanted to know what kind of cake I would like. "Bundt." I told him. He didn't think it was very funny. I think he is fabulous at bundt cakes and should make me one every year. I know in the past they've always turned out great! He said he'd take me to Olive Garden for dinner instead and I agreed.

Happy Fall!

Go Big Red

Last night, I did something against my better judgement. I went to a Nebraska football game. And, I tailgated. Two things I have vowed never, ever to do. Mike came home from work on Friday with tickets to the game, so I thought, what the heck, and we went. It was INSANE. The tailgating is crazy. It's pretty much a huge field that people park on and grill and hang out and play games and stuff. Once you get past the mass (and I do mean mass) of drunken college students, it's pretty fun. Lucky for me, Mike was able to find the last parking spot in the field, and it was right in the middle of the college student's party. So I pretty much got to experience that first hand. I'm not sure when this happened, but I can now say without a doubt that I am too old to be hanging around with that age group (I am officially a blue hair). So, we walked right through their party and found Mike's friends who had a much calmer, quieter party of their own going on. It involved some grilling, some chit chatting, and mostly just sitting. Much more my speed.

I had to go buy that sweatshirt yesterday morning because I was afraid I wouldn't fit in if I didn't have something on with Nebraska on it. I was right.

After we tailgated, we had to walk about six blocks to the stadium for the game. We walked over a giant bridge, and you could see a TON of red bodies going into the stadium. Once we got in and found our seats, the fun really began. The pre-game show was already in full swing, and we got to see Herbie Husker!

And, we got to sit by someone with huge corn on the cob hat!

That wasn't the only corn on the cob hat we saw, either.

Did I mention how many people were wearing red? TONS!

It was pretty exciting watching the players run out onto the field and the first kickoff was pretty exciting too.

Guess who else we saw there? Bo Pelini!

(he's the one in the gray sweatshirt. Not red!)

After that, things got slightly less exciting. They played the game. I people watched my little heart out, and then it was over! And they won!

Here we are right before the end of the game.

Go Big Red!

Bake Sale & Carnival

Last night was the annual Harvey Oaks Elementary Carnival! The girls and I spent most of our evening on Thursday making goodies to sell in the Sweet Shop at the carnival.

It may not look like a lot, but it was a LOT of work! I spent hours making enough chocolate covered pretzels to sell. Luckily, I had my helpers do all of the wrapping and curling all of the ribbon on our rice krispie treats.

After much anticipation, last night was the carnival. As soon as we got there, Briana ran off with her friend Josie and we only saw her during the carnival when she would come running up to us to get more money. Sydney played with her friend Stella and they had a great time doing all the games. Here's Sydney doing the Pop Walk.

And, here are the girls toward the end of the night.

The only complaint we had at the carnival was that neither Briana or Sydney won the Ipod nano that was raffled off. And frankly, I was kind of upset about that too. Oh well, there's always next year, right?

That's all for now! Mike and I are off to the Nebraska game!!!

First Day of Dance, Take 2

Briana had her first day of dance yesterday! Unlike Sydney, she was super excited about it and could not wait to go. It seems like she is going to be in a good class this year. All girls, and two of them were from her class last year. From where I was sitting in the waiting area, I could see Briana's face in the window of the studio and she was all smiles the entire class time!