Summerwood Photography

Beware, this post is picture heavy!

A few months back I had the pleasure of adding a new sponsor to my blog.

Please welcome Summerwood Photography.

 

I had sadly neglected having had any professional photos done of our 3 boys.

So I was more than thrilled to have Ryan and Alisha do their pictures.

 

Ryan and Alisha are a husband and wife team and they work so well together.

I was beyond impressed with how quickly and efficiently they got the shoot done.

Of course it helped that they're our friends and our boys love them;-)

They took so many wonderful pictures that it has been hard to choose our favorites.

I love how they really captured the boys personalities!

I did pick some of the more goofy ones to show, but they are actually some of my favorite.

 

Be sure to stop by their site and see some more of the wonderful shots they've taken.

They do an excellent job of taking wedding photos as well as normal portraits.

 

Thanks you all for capturing some precious moments that we can hold on to!

Toothpaste - It's Not Just For Teeth Anymore!

Do you use toothpaste?

I mean really use it?

 

Yes I see you have shiny white teeth, but come on!

We can make it do so much more!

 

Let's take a look...

Sorry about the blur

 

So if you're a mother and if your kids have ever gotten into the markers then you're going to need this one.

My youngest is one of those kinda kids and his brothers are his suppliers.

They leave markers out that just lay there, begging to be used in the naughtiest of ways.

 

On one two three such days he decided to add some decoration to my living room coffee table.

Now luckily this coffee table is very rough and rustic, so they weren't glaringly obvious.

 

Anyway, after staring at them day after day, I remembered...

TOOTHPASTE.

So I went and brushed my teeth.

When I came back I rubbed some onto the marker spots...

Let it marinate...

AND VIOLA!

Okay, so they aren't gone all the way.

In real life though you don't even see them unless you know where to look.

Plus, as I mentioned, this table is very rustic so... ya know.

I could have most likely done it again and gotten them all the way out, but I was happy already.

I will mention that it kinda dries out the finish of your wood.

I simply applied some olive oil to remedy that.

 



 

Now here's another pretty cool one.

Once again, if you have kids then you have scratched DVD's and CD's.

I had many of them.

I did this with CD's that would skip and stall.

VIOLA!

No skipping.

No stalling.

I did this with DVD's that would freeze up due to scratches.

VIOLA!

No freezing.

 

Okay, so this is a miracle worker but it's not a magic wand.

If you've got scratches that you can stick your fingernail in then probably not going to work for ya.

Sorry.

Now I got this handy little tip from this lovely lady's blog.

(via Pinterest)

Now she suggests using Kids CREST toothpaste.

I had no Crest, but I did have Kids Colegate.

Worked great!

As she mentions, you may have to do it more than once on some of them.

Check out her post because she gives you the step-by-step that I am obviously not doing for you.

 

Have anymore toothpaste miracles?

Do share...



Instagram Love

I've been absent without explanation.

Oh wait, what's new about that?

I thought I would share some Instagram snippets of my life for the last few months.

Did I mention I love Instagram?

 

My sister and I went to New York a few months back to celebrate her aging birthday, so I threw in a few pictures of that for your enjoyment.

 

In the meantime, if you're hunting for the perfect Valentine Gift then check out my Etsy Store!
I added a few hearts for just this occasion:-)

 

 

Hurry though to get them in time!
 

I've been painting signs like crazy, so I'll be back to share...

sometime:-)

Wordless Wednesday

 

Catching Up

I've had a few emails, comments and such made about the fact that I haven't posted since September.

Yeah...

About that...

I will now give my normal speech about how busy I've been.

I know you'll sigh and think "here we go again..."

For real though.

I've been crazy busy.

 

Let's roll it now in no particular order....

I had the pleasure of doing the flowers for two weddings in the last few months.
You can see those
Here (I was also a bridesmaid in this wedding:-)
and Here

Hunting season is here and as a wife of an avid hunter and the mother of 3 boys, it's either beat 'em or join 'em.

I actually do enjoy hunting now too.
 

School days are in full swing now.

Picking up and dropping off, homework, lunches, sickness...

Most of all the unspeakable joy I feel each time he comes home and with such pride shows me something he's learned that day.

 

I would say that in the past we have been an averagely healthy family.

We are smashing new records and building our own wing at the doctors office this season.

Lots of firsts with a broken arm, and a visit to the ER.

Strep throat, lower and upper respiratory infections, pneumonia, colds, hand foot and mouth...

I'm earning my keep and putting stock in vitamin companies:-)

I went to Virginia for two weeks to celebrate my younger sisters 30th birthday.

It was originally only going to be 1 week but Hurricane Sandy changed our plans.

We managed to sneak up to NYC for a few days for some sightseeing.

It even snowed for us the first evening.
 

 

We had an amazing time!!

 



 

I have squeezed projects in here but still have loads of stuff to do as well as loads of stuff that needs to be put in my Etsy store.

 

 

 

Next on the agenda though?

A belated giveaway to celebrate 1000 Followers!!

It will even include an absolutly gorgous bracelet from The Silver Craftsman.

 



 

 

Until then...

When Life Sends You Lemons...

 

Poor little Lee fell off the sofa a few weeks ago and fractured both the bones right above his wrist.

 

Poor little Beau got strep throat last week and missed all but one day of school.

 

Poor little Jack got sick this week and is currently coughing on me.

 

Sigh.

 

It could be worse.

 

Let's go make some lemonade.

 

 

First Day of School...

Sometimes life doesn't go the way you want it to.

Beau was all ready for his first day of kindergarten but started complaining of a sore throat the night before.
Turns out he has hand, foot and mouth.

Poor guy.

Not an easy thing to know you're missing the first few days of school.

Strawberry Cream Filled Angel Food Cupcakes

For Lee's 1st Birthday I wanted to do something simple but tasty for the kids and adults.

I ended up combining a few recipes to create these colorful cupcakes...

I started with a store bought angel food mix.

(Tastes great by the way!)

Then chopped some strawberries.

This is the recipe I used for the Strawberry Cream filling.

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, at room temperature

1 cup sweetened condensed milk

1 cup sliced strawberries plus 15 slices for garnish

(I opted not to garnish with strawberries)

2 cups heavy cream, cold

5 tablespoons confectioners' sugar

(Recipe from Here)

I cut medium size circles out of the top and "dug" little holes to make sure I got plenty of filling in.

Last, but certainly not least, I whipped up some of this cream cheese icing which I could probably eat by itself.

Yum!

(I do believe I halved the recipe since I didn't need this much)

16oz cream cheese, room temperature

1 1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup heavy cream, cold.

(Recipe from Here)

Next step.

Chill.

Eat as many as you can without getting sick.

No need to wait for something as special as a 1st Birthday to make these!

Although it did make it just a little bit sweeter:-)

Love you little busy boy!

You May Wonder Where I've Been...

I'm still around...

Still doing things....

But mostly enjoying the summer:-)

One more month of having all three of my boys home.

Then I have to send our oldest off to kindergarten:-(

I'd better go enjoy some more....

Happy Birthday!

Yesterday our little Lee celebrated his 1st birthday.

It's amazing how fast a year goes by.

It's amazing how busy adding a third child can make you.

I had fun keeping it simple for his birthday.

I did try out some new cupcakes for the event.

Angel food cake, strawberry cream filled withe cream cheese icing.

Yum.

The cake "flags" were simply designed, printed, cut and glued to some scrapbook paper.

Now one might assume that the above photo is me with icing on my hands.

One would be wrong.

It's caulk.

I'm taking a wee break from sign painting to indulge myself with a little house sprucing.

We'll Call This One Goulash

If you're a goulash hater then moooove on out of here.

Me?

Eh, I could take it or leave it.

I find that having 3 little boys (or children in general) is keeping me a tad busy.

This one is growing so quickly and wow he keeps me hopping.

Most people think he's laid back, quiet and calm.

Hmmmm.

He loves me.

He doesn't want to leave my arms.

Ever.

I love him too, but for some reason I find cleaning, painting, washing and ironing (HA) difficult with my two hands working and his two hands grabbing everything in sight and flinging it hither and yon.

Love him to death.

I painted this sign for a customer recently.

It kicked me in proverbial tail end.

I painted it 3 times before I was halfway happy with it.

This picture is bad because it was taken with a bad camera.

I wish I had a better close-up photo because it has a porcelain crackle finish on it that gave me fits but looks puuurtty fine!

 

For those that are thinking of having a custom order done...

This was the sign designed on the computer before I painted it.

As you can tell, you can get a pretty good idea of what it will look like before I start on it.

In other news.

I'm working in this room a little and will be showing it to you soon.

A side note...

It's almost summer here.

I like summer.

Nope.

I LOVE SUMMER!

If you don't see me as much around these parts then you know where I'll be.

Visiting with my friend summer.

My kids are only young once.

Summer only comes once a year.

I must make sure I don't miss either.

I will be back this week with an Amazing giveaway!