Paint Swatch Mobile

I had some fun with paint swatches for Jamie's baby shower back in September...I copied an idea I saw on Pinterest...it was a fun project and very inexpensive - just had to buy the embroidery hoop!  The sewing was a little tricky for me...it probably wouldn't be for most people but I had to make lots of extra strands as I ended up throwing some away because they were just jacked up.

I still can't seem to get paint swatches off the brain.  Walked out of Home Depot last week with a ginormous stack.  Got a couple of strange looks, but I just held my head high and walked out :)

Wreaths

I'm not very good at changing out wreaths.  Case in point, I made an acorn wreath (the final nesting project before Cormac arrived) back in October, and it wasn't taken down until yesterday.  All the grand plans that I had to spray paint it white and change to a red ribbon for X-Mas never materialized :)

My friend had pinned this wreath, and I had all of the supplies except for the wreath form, so I made this during nap time the other day...

Moss makes everything better

Paint Swatch Art

I'm cheap.  And I wanted some art for our bedside tables - something in a tall frame.  I found some white frames at Michaels for ~$4 each the other day, and I had been wanting to do something with paint chips...so, on my shopping trip with April, I made her my accomplice, and stuffed her purse full of paint swatches for my attempt at some art, and for a mobile for their nursery.  I got busy during naptime, and here is what I came up with...I am digging it so much that I would love to do a really large scale one.  So, if you see some crazy lady in the paint aisle at Home Depot, squirreling lots of samples into a big bag, it is probably me.

I used a 1" circle cutter and punched the circles out of Behr paint swatches.  Then, I used Elmer's glue and glued all the chips down, starting at the bottom of the page, overlapping as I went.  As you can see, I wasn't exact, I just eyeballed it, so it is not perfectly straight...but I am okay with that ;)  The beauty of all things imperfect....

love the texture...

Now, for the keeping it real shot...I REALLY need to find a good looking alarm clock.

Aunt...

'Aunt'...has such a nice ring to it.  Our family is thrilled to welcome Ryan & Jamie's new baby girl, Madelyn Marie on January 3rd.  She is perfect.  Now, I haven't met her in person - that is next week - but I just adore her so much already.  We refer to her as the Princess and Paddy walks around with his picture of the princess.  We all can't wait to meet her.  Even though at the ages of a few weeks old and 3.5 months old, the age difference seems large, I am so excited that as they get older, that age gap will be nothing!  We couldn't be more excited.  Jamie made it through her c-section and is being a champ about recovery, and it just makes my heart melt to see my little bro with his own baby girl.

When my dad sent me a note saying that as he was holding Madelyn, he was remembering holding me when I was that little...let's just say the waterworks began.

Ryan and I used to say that we wouldn't just talk about poopy diapers once we were parents - let's just say that we have already discussed them a few times.  Yikes...how times change.

Sean and I are so excited to be an Aunt & Uncle and have a cousin that our boys are going to watch out for and protect...our princess, Madelyn.  Welcome to this crazy world.

**AND...so happy that there are now three generations of MMM's - my mom, Mary Margaret, me, Meghan Mary and now Madelyn Marie...

Another Break...

I seem to have a break in blogging when I am feeling a lack of creative inspiration or life just gets busy.  I wish I could have a constant UP when it comes to creativity...any tips on how to live in a constant state of inspiration??

As always when I return from a blogging break, I am hoping I can keep up with this a little more often and consistently.  The blog may morph to encompass different topics along the way...maybe a little more family (if this post is any indication, yikes!), daily happenings, who knows?

In the last three months, we have had some highlights.  The biggest by far being that we welcomed Cormac McDermott to the world on October 13th.  He is such a joy, and we are soaking up all his smiles and laughs.  And we are so thankful that Paddy has been a good big bro (so far) :).

I made it!  Five days past my due date :)

he is a snuggler...

those crossed legs were irresistible...

I decided to do a quick recap of the last few months to help serve as a bit of a journal for myself...

• My mom came out before Cormac was born and stayed with us for a few weeks.  She was an enormous help and we were so thankful for all she did to help us.  My dad and brother were also able to come and spend a good amount of time here once Cormac arrived, followed by the Morrows visiting as well.  We are so blessed to have helpful families!

• One week postpartum (not a great time to try to find clothes that fit!), we had some family pictures done by Haley at a bunch of our favorite places around West Point.  Thanks for helping us capture memories of our time here, Haley!

 another one of our very favorite things to do at West Point...watching the parachute team!

• I seem to have a new full time job of changing batteries in toys...why did I have no idea we would have to spend entire paychecks on replacement batteries of all shapes and sizes??  Any other moms feel this way?

• We attended the Army game on October 26th when Mother Nature decided to send a blizzard our way.  I had never seen anything like it in October.  Cormac even joined us!

 

• Paddy turned 2!  What a fun two years it has been.  He definitely has his terrible two moments and is testing all his boundaries, but for the most part, he is a tender, loving, inquisitive, independent, sporty and active little boy.  We are loving watching how he absorbs so much everyday.  We celebrated his birthday at an Army Women's Volleyball game...Paddy has such a crush on Ariana!

• Hallie and Nora visited! It was so fun just to observe Paddy and Nora together.  We are pretty sure it rocked his world that Nora showed up IN PERSON after he asks for Nora songs every night before bed :)

lead the way, nora!

• Helped host a shower for April and the twins...it was so fun to shower her during this joyous time! 

• Attended the Army Mule retirement ceremony...the mules are one of our favorite features of West Point - even after one of them bit Sean.  I am so pathetic that I was teary eyed as they retired the mules.  I also decided we must have enough land one day so that we can get one of the mules when they do retire!

• We traveled to Army/Navy in a 31 foot long RV with the Uthlauts...and even after spending all weekend in the RV with three kids ages two and under, we can safely say we are still friends :)  It was an absolute blast, and I would absolutely do it again with little kids.  Sidenote:  Did you know that RVs get 'winterized'?  We had looked forward to our own bathroom, shower and sinks...but we couldn't use shower/sinks and could only use bathroom by 'flushing' with windshield wiper fluid!

• Haley was so sweet and manned the boys all day for us and we headed down to Brooklyn for the day.  We checked out some places I had been hoping to check out.  It was so rejuvenating!

• Paddy took a swim class and loved it.  He is also in a Parent and Me Music and Dance class...he doesn't seem to be as big of a fan of that class.  I think he would do better in sports, but I can't seem to find any programs that will take a 2 year old.

• Did a NYC day to absorb the Christmas spirit, complete with stops at FAO Schwarz and Macy's to see Santa.  We weren't sure when we would ever be back in NYC around Christmas, so we were glad we waited in line at Macy's!   (Oh yes, and I squeezed in a quick spin through M&J Trimmings!  LOVE.)

• Santa visited our house, and we celebrated X-Mas day with just our little family.  What a glorious day it was.  After Christmas, sickness hit our house, not to really leave until the second week of January.  What is it about this area?  We used to be people that would get sick once a year, now it seems to be a monthly occurrence.

 Swoosh!

• Sean and I also somehow (obviously, COMPLETELY randomly) got slots in the NYC half marathon in March...so, let the training begin.  As you may know, I hate running.  Thankfully, Michelle has taken pity on me and runs at my turtle pace for the long runs.  Thanks, Michelle!  Haley somehow convinced me to start meeting her at the gym early in the morning a few days a week, which I needed...thanks for the accountability, HAEDU.

•  On January 3rd, another new munchkin joined our family.  Sweet Madelyn Marie Maloney (MMM!!!) arrived.  She's a doll.  She gets her own post.

• For Christmas, I got Sean tickets to see Lebron play against the Nets, so thanks to the Thompsons, we had a nice date night in lovely Newark, NJ.  Lebron put on quite a show with 22 points in the first quarter. 

• I was able to make a trip with the boys to Fort Drum to see Krissy and the kids, which was a blast.  Krissy, my body is in withdrawl from your over-the-top delicious coffees.  Can't wait till our next get together!

• I have been helping friends here and there with some design projects, which has made me endlessly happy.  I have had the BEST time helping April with the nursery for the girls.  I am so thankful she has allowed me to help as it has kick started me to feel more inspired on a lot of levels... 

Looking forward to all that 2012 holds!

Coffee Bags

While we were on our getaway over Labor Day weekend to Hudson, NY, we saw lots of old grain/coffee bags that ran about $130 each!  I was floored when I saw the price tag....I had picked one up, thinking, this would be fun to make some cool pillows out of, but it was quickly put down after seeing the price tag.

Enter our good friend from high school, Nick Bayer.  Nick is the CEO of Saxby's Coffee.  He hooked me up with some of their bags - it was like Christmas in September when they arrived!

Now....what to do with these fun treasures....????

 Isn't this bird too cute?

Apple time of year...

We went apple picking last week at Lawrence Farm Orchard, so I attempted to make some caramel apples for the football game last weekend when we had some friends in town.  They were really very easy to make now that Kraft makes unwrapped caramels!  Why did it take so many years to come out with these???

one happy guy with cider donuts!

 Caramel Apples...

Why did it take me so long to figure out that I should cut hosta flowers?  I like the wildflowerish look...and of course, that they are free :) 

You win some, you lose some...

Can I just share my disaster with you?

This was supposed to be a light for the nursery.  Yeah, not so much.  I went to Home Depot the other night in the midst of not feeling great and having contractions.  I couldn't find anyone to help me and all I wanted was a couple packages of wood veneer strips.  My patience was waning, and I thought I might really go into labor if someone didn't help me soon :)  I was finally pointed towards this white veneer, which was not ideal, but the only option.  I bought two packages, and attempted to make a light like this cute one...

via Poppytalk

Normally, I would attempt to fix this...not this time.  $10 down the drain.  Since I am short on time, I just hung a paper lantern from Ikea that we already had.  The other obsession I have had is to do a globe light, similar to the one featured in the PB Teen catalog, but I had a feeling as soon as I bought a cool vintage globe, I would feel bad about cutting it....and also, nervous about cutting it wrong (would probably need to enlist my dad to help with that one!).

To look at the positive...at least the paper lantern serves the functional purpose of providing a light on a dimmer switch for me!

Basement Update

I finished my last panel after receiving my additional few yards, and I would have to say, I am much happier to spend time in the basement now.  I think this space will be very helpful as the weather turns colder and the arrival of boy #2 is just weeks away.

Here is the basement - before...

And after...

the free buffet...

So sad that I killed the orchid...

The finally cleaned up utility area...

In my now favorite corner, I rearranged a few things and created a little art space for Paddy and friends...

Who doesn't love supplies?  I am just waiting for the day when I realize I can't use glass jars with little boys around! 

beautiful picture by our talented, and very much missed, friend, Isabella...

The latest addition is a little greenery.  I have been wanting to buy some new plants/flowers for the basement, but as I realized that I will need to move some plants inside soon, I decided to do something very cheap or free if possible!  Thanks to West Point for having lots of cool moss that I could scavenge.