I have never been able to watch TV without doing something else so Pinterest is just perfect for me. I can sit with my iPad and collect ideas.

I do almost everything worth doing that I pin and if there was a way to easily clean up your boards my page would be a place of beauty. For now I have a few 'under construction' boards that I might move and some things i'd delete if it didn't take so much darn time to do so.

I use Pinterest as a resource for teaching, cooking and diy daily. Basically,  IMO it's the best thing since Starbucks.

Anyway, I do know that you know all about it. The long story there was to 1.

avoid embarrassment by saying I know that 4,894 pins is more than the average user has and 2. to brag that I have 1,069 followers!

Sheesh if I could just roll that over here to the blog think of the fun. Truly, I get a steady little amount of traffic at nestbliss but it is really fun to pin things on Pinterest and watch that constant social interaction happen when someone else repins, likes, comments or starts following you because they liked a board you put together.

It's probably what I always wanted to happen here and the blog just never jumped over that hump where I have lots of interactive readers. I write on my blog because its fun to create an anthology of my life & to write articles about cool stuff but it must be extremely fun for the 'big' bloggers who post and within seconds have comments piling in - it's really a conversation.

What a reward that i'm glad to have my little Pinterest piece of. All that to say come over to Pinterest and join my party!

Well through a long chain of events I co-own a school, just a preschool right now but I have BIG ideas. Co-own with the best, coolest partner ever & I have some awesome (way over-educated) teacher moms that work with me as well.

Through an at times intense summer of super hard work I started the school year in an amazing huge old house with hardwood floors, gardens, and porches the size of classrooms. I have a pair of chickens running around and a monster airplane see-saw that 7 children at a time can ride on.

My kids ages 2 to 5 rotate 'classes' all day and take turns in Italian, Yoga, Art & Nature Studio (my class, like the fancy name?), English, Math, Gardening, Music, Sensory experiences & ample blocks of open play.

I have gorgeous hand carved wooden dishes in my play kitchen and tons of laughter filling my hallways - life at school is very good. Seeing my own children gathered around my little school's kitchen table cooking with friends and other parents (I am cooperative) is amazing and still highly surreal.

I have thought about blogging about school plenty of times but because my blog gets some kind of random traffic and I want to protect the privacy of my families I have been hesitant and really just too busy to even stop and post a little blurb!

I'll give you a little view of my front porch though. These days I eat meals and snacks whole school, family style with my blue picnic tables lined up end to end.

Life is full. The ability to bring to life your dreams and imaginations is a superb reality.

I was glancing through my phone and I have been snapping photos of my girls like crazy the past two weeks. It's funny because sometimes dumping my iPhone photos can be so spiritual for me. The way I feel about my girls these days is almost surreal.

We had so many first moments - first time swinging from the monkey bars without help, first time blowing a bubble, ha the first time Lilly LET Ava read to her (Ava can read!), the first time seeing baking soda and colored vinegar react.

Also, I remembered what happens when I let Ava turn on the hose for 'just a second to fill up her watering can real quick'.

I had excellent times playing and exploring the world. I am reminded every second how easy it is to make children utterly, blissfully happy and I think that's why I've always liked them so much.

This week, Ava told me that 'when she used to be a grown up she was a doctor' - a very classically creepy thing for Ava to say. She's crazy happy so I've just decided it's fine that she talks like a tiny psychic half the time.

That Lilly is just growing up. She (clearly) hates the sandbox, but I still toss her feet in anyway.

She has finally started to grace me with words, when she feels the inclination and she clearly is understanding most of what I am saying to her now. Sometimes, Lilly just clear as day bursts out with some word like she has just always said it, she may or may not repeat it after that as she is basically immune to praise from me and chooses when she will do almost everything.

Watching her grow into a mini person is just amazing, comparing her now at 16 months to where Ava is at 3 and a half and thinking about what will happen to her over the course of the next two years is mind boggling.

I always think the biggest difference in having more children is that you don't know the latter children yet the way you know your first child. I will have always had two more years of knowing Ava in and out and it's in someways like Lilly and I am just beginning.

Such a strange power to be able to choose when and how to add these little humans to your family, to the world. The awesomeness of being alive.

Well I have about a million things I could write about, but for some reason the things I want to document get lost  - like Christmas decorating or millions of fun moments with my clever children who are growing like weeds!

I have been working all of the past year on getting me down to 6 dinners a week at home. I relieve myself by doing at least one pizza every week with leftover meats and veggies and there is also typically one breakfast supper night ;) I work a lot off my Pinterest board and my allrecipes.com list.

I make new things every week which makes creating the list so time consuming! But I aren't eating pasta or random meat every night so I think it's worth it.

Here are some of my very favorite tested recipes from Pinterest . I have had some really bad experiences with Pinterest recipes - just because someone can take a good photo doesn't mean their recipe is going to turn out well, so hopefully this is helpful!

Mexican Slow Cooked Pork Carnitas  recipe and image via skinnytaste.com Notes: I didn't use the Chipotle peppers and it still had tons of flavor. Also, I had never cooked pork shoulder blade before but it was cheap and great. I made double the recipe and froze the leftover meat for something else. White Bean, Sausage and Kale Stew  Notes: Excellent and so fast! I took my sausage out of the casing so it was basically ground, I also only used a bit, back to my trying to just focus on meat for flavor several nights a week. Kale is so good for your body, I am trying to make sure I get a green leafy veggie in everyday. Grilled Corn, Avocado and Tomato Salad Notes: My only comment is just to not make too much of this because it doesn't last past they day you made it once the dressing is on and the avocados are in. Pumpkin Pie French Toast Notes: Don't stack your layers, you want each piece nice and crispy on top. Also don't forget the powdered sugar topping! Coconut Whipped Cream - Trick  Notes: This is still pretty runny for me with just being in the fridge. I just put a can of coconut milk in my fridge when I buy it and then when I're ready to use it I open it and stir in some sugar and freeze it open for an hour. Then I eat it with cold fruit - easy! White Bean and Roasted Mushroom Soup   Notes: I have made this four times and every time it's been great. Those crispy, broiled herbs are a key factor so don't try to skip those and go with dried herbs. This is excellent with crusty bread and olive oil, herb dipping sauce. Avocados Stuffed with Chicken Salad Notes: I pretty much wing it on the chicken salad part now. These are a staple at home and I have them with sweet potatoes oven fries. Do you have a favorite Pinterest recipe? Tell me please!

I was talking with my close friend Michelle about how the girls were (sigh) starting to become bored with their play kitchens. I'll admit while Ava really has enjoyed her play kitchen she is really more of a puzzles and books kid.

Lilly loves to bang stuff around at it but otherwise she really isn't into it yet either. Which actually I hate admitting because I have a kind of amazing and possibly a tiny bit ridiculous DIY play kitchen setup with that cool market .

I think part of the problem is that I've had it all a while and I am noticing the appeal of putting toys away and rotating them now that Ava is older. Unfortunately, I can't just put the kitchen up for a while ;) Really it is a little annoying that my kids get tired of playing with their millions of toys and I have to rotate them out and find ways to represent them but ah well.

(Behind Ava is a giant $10 Walmart car oil pan we use for magnet play / learning = pinterest genius) Anyway, I made up some play recipes for my three year old because Ava loves to follow directions and I figured they would help her see that she could really do a lot more with that 'tired old' (sigh) kitchen.

Well it worked like a charm. I made five (the cupcake recipe is double sided) and I found three more on the internet here .

They are all a similar format so they are easy to use together. I laminated mine (with a scotch laminator) and put a little ring at the top.

I'd say in the least just print them up on card stock.

Mine are in Microsoft Word so if you need to edit out something you don't have that should be pretty easy. I used white yarn for my pasta. Oh! and if you don't have a kitchen you should think about making one of these mats because they are brilliant!

Oh Lilly (14 months) does have one toy she plays with. It's this random Joker house I now own.

I don't know if even Ava knows who the Joker is but Lilly genuinely loves this toy. I was totally against buying it (it's a little violent and has a jail and cannon and I have nothing that goes with it) but it all worked out after the mall Santa told Ava he would bring it for her and my little wooden doll house people have all had their turn in prison - it's kind of added a spicy new element to the story lines around here ;)

I got a few emails when I did I DIY gift post a while back and mentioned that I make children's capes for gifts. They are easy, quick and turn out really nicely.

In fact I think you would have a really hard time finding something similar to purchase even if you had a big budget. Best of all you can get two capes out of two yards of fabric so they are also really affordable.

I do a side with the child's favorite animal and a side with their favorite color if I can get it to coordinate right.

(Super heroes look noble and serious.)

I looked at a bunch on the internet and really didn't find just what I was looking for, the pattern at pukingpastilles was by far the cutest I thought and I just modified it a bit. My pattern looks just like the light pink fabric.

I iron my fabric in half pin my paper pattern to it and cut 1 patterned piece and 1 solid piece, pin those together, then sew it all around leaving a little opening at the bottom to pull it through.

After that I simply iron it and hand-sew up the opening - that's it! I do usually iron on a felt patch with their first initial and sometimes if I am feeling really crafty I sew the patch on.

Also I started making them with Velcro at the neck which seems super important to preschoolers who can't tie them on yet or untie a double knot and some kids will not wear anything around their neck that they can't take off independently.

Oh and I almost forgot to say - they give you the ability to fly :) If anyone wants the measurements of my pattern and fabric pieces just leave it in the comments and I will update. But mine are really similar to the one at  pukingpastilles . I think making your own pattern from things of the web is very easy if you print out the basic shape and have the measurements. One reader mentioned to me that they cut capes out of t-shirts and that is really brilliant because since jersey doesn't fray so they would be no-sew. Happy Crafting and Saving the World from Evil

Here are five handmade gifts that can be made last minute. I am still mostly making mine so you'll just have to trust me that I have tried these and they are great.

Also, all no sew. Healthy Frozen Dinners!

If they were too easy they wouldn't have made a great gift! The point is to gift meals that are saving your recipient a night of work and kitchen clean up.

I included directions, coffee, wine, frozen rolls and bread (made fresh at my market with organic ingredients). I tried to buy nice items and use high quality ingredients.

It started out seeming a little overwhelming but what I ended up doing was just having a huge cooking day and I doubled almost everything I made them and froze it for me as well which meant I also had a week of no cooking for myself after my crazy, intense day!

... guess what though I don't have any photos ;)

Name, Birthday or Anniversary Photo Collages - My photos for this project are sitting at Walgreen's right now, that's one of Ava's A's above. Go to this Flickr site (try not to spend hours looking at the galleries) and pick a name or a birth year or anniversary year and download the numbers or letters you like.

Next upload them to your favorite one hour photo place and have them printed at 4x6. When you go to pick them up stop by TJ Maxx or Walmart etc.

and pick up a good frame with the right amount of openings. It is easier to make dates if you do this last minute because 4 opening photo frames are easy to find!

You can make your own of course ( like this ) by gluing cheap dollar store frames to a board and spray painting it all - but remember you have less than a week now so maybe next year.

If you buy a mat that is pre-cut and print them in black and white then they will look a lot more like the classic ones you see everywhere. The one below could also be pretty cool - it looks like it is just those cheap packs of Ikea frames glued to a black board cut to size.

Jewelry - there are some awesome jewelry tutorials online. I want this bracelet and it has a video! I would wear this everyday. Making jewelry is easy and can be done in front of the TV in one night.

We did make bracelets but I went a little lower-end than the one above ;) Ava made these for all her cousins and a few friends too with a bag of beads from the craft store. Everyone loved them.

I really wanted to help Ava made bracelets with all their phone numbers on them but the number beads for those turned out to be too hard to find enough of for everyone. Most kids need ten numbers on their bracelet now since almost all of them memorize cellphone numbers.

Chalk Board -  These are great for kids and adults. I made this one for my entry with a dollar thrift store frame spray painted gloss red.

I made my own chalkboard paint with this tutorial . Apply chalk board paint on with lots of thin layers and then 'season' it well as directed in the tutorial link.

If you aren't making several boards or aren't using the chalk paint for other projects then you would be better off just buying the chalk paint pre-mixed, because the DIY version leaves you with a ton of extra ingredients.

I plan to mix up some more paint to make Ava a board book like this one . Penny Keychain  - I am still looking for my last few but simply putting pennies from each important year on a keychain is such a sweet gift!

The ones sold by PatsDesign (photo below)  are also affordable and come with a stamped coin. It is pretty simple to drill through a penny but practice on a few first.

Other things I have made as gifts in the past include superhero capes (for girls and boys) and embellished tea towels. I also really want to make some enhanced silhouettes  like these . There you go! Happy Crazy Crafting!

I love holiday blog gift posts! I honestly have a hard time finding just the right gift for a few people on my list. I hate giving candles that will never be lit or 'one more' toy to add to the box. For birthdays I typically give gift receipts but at Christmas I buy ahead or buy on clearance so I don't always have a gift receipt! My default gift when someone is very hard to buy for is always a restaurant gift card because who doesn't like free food?! Here are some other gifts though, that have gone over really well for me - For Babies  Kid's regulation sized sports balls. Babies love balls and these are a 'grow with me' toy that most babies don't have. At home my three year old only plays with her soccer ball for 'real' soccer but my baby is memorized by this cool bright red and black  ladybug soccer ball

My other default gift is a classic board book signed to the baby. Even if I have a book - a dedicated book feels like a keepsake, just make sure it is truly a classic book like  Ten Little Babies

- there isn't anything worse than a dedicated Elmo book that you feel like you have to keep because it is signed! Older Kids If I can't figure out what to get a kid over the age of three I always default to nice art supplies or nature gifts. Children love to create and be outside. I have never gone wrong with -  sun print kit

,  flower press

,  magnifying glass

, regional plant and animal guides, binoculars, or nature art / activity books like  Blossom Buddies

. Another idea that would work for lots of kids is an  Audubon iPad or iPhone app .

My favorite thing to give to women though is small, original framed art from Etsy. You can of course go larger but almost anyone can find a good place for original art.

Photographs are easy but I try to branch out, I think you could easily find a piece of art to fit anyone's personality on Etsy. I would pick the print below for myself, it is an 8.5 x 11 limited edition print of 100 for $28 by Elsa Mora the author of Blossom Buddies.

This print is beautiful and unique and would be a bargain to frame. A less expensive option would be framed art note cards like the ones from Sarah Jane Studios .

I adore her holiday line for framing and I have the three little bears cards framed in Ava and Lilly's room.

I am working on my top DIY gifts post too - I have some great, easy ones!

I organized a preschool activity swap for a preschool homeschool cooperative I am a part of here. I basically take turns teaching a lesson to the kids every other week or so and do some cool field trips as well. It went so well I am already working on my next one! So many of my friends have asked me for these and so here are the activities from the first swap: 1. Cookie Matching - This one was made with circles of felt hot-glued with cotton in the center for flipping them more easily. The mom that made them provided some awesome extension activities. There might be a simpler way to make this by using heavy weight interfacing ironed onto felt but these came out perfect.

Shown here with my own cookie sheet and spatula.

Lilly (12 months) loves to take these out of the red container and put them back and to inspect the toppings. 2.

Lego Math - Just print on cardstock and provide a sheet protector. these have been so much fun for me.

Ava has some trouble with the subtraction but not with the addition and they are really fun to use with your real Legos.

3. Emotion Play Dough Mat - Print in color and laminate. I have had so much fun making angry and scary faces for this poor girl.

4. I-Spy Bag - Simple I-Spy bag with card.

I did do coins to make it a little more academic. This is a huge pain to sew and if I did it again I would use fleece instead of felt.

Also I used painters tape to tape the window in and then sewed through the tape and that made all the difference. I-Spy bags are much easier than jars because you can manipulate them with your hands.

However if no one sews or is crazy like me then you could do this in clear plastic bottles or glass jars.

5. Pom-Pom Magnets and Boards - These pom pom magnet activities are all over the internet so this starter set it nice to build on.

You just put your cardstock mat on a cookie sheet when ready to play. Use hot glue to adhere the magnets and remove any paper backing from the magnets before gluing.

6. Consonant, Short Vowel, and Long Vowel Cards -  Print Consonant Cards here  http://homeschoolcreations.com/files/Consonant_Cards.pdf Print the Short Vowel Cards here - http://homeschoolcreations.com/files/Short_Vowel_Cards.pdf Print the Long Vowel Cards here - http://homeschoolcreations.com/files/Long_Vowel_Cards.pdf

7. Read, Build and Write Mats with sets Word Cards  -  http://homeschoolcreations.com/Read_Build_Write_Printables.html   http://homeschoolcreations.com/files/Read_Build_Write_Mats.pdf I think if I did this one again I would make it worth 3 and have the main mat laminated, sometimes the sheet protector slips on me. I also use magnetic letters at home on a cookie sheet instead of the letters provided.

8. Clothes Pin Number Match -  http://shared.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/math/ClothespinNumberMatch.pdf

9. Felt Board Skeleton - I did this one and I love it, but I don't know if I would recommend it for a swap.

Only because if took hours and hours to cut these out and it doesn't take any less time to cut one out than it does to cut lots. I swapped in October though so I thought skeletons would be fun and I love felt board activities.

I am showing them here with some word cards and a skeleton print out which I didn't give with the activity but it might have been nice. The kids aren't ready to read those words yet but some of the parents needed some help remembering the bones!

10. Roll A Rainbow - This was laminated and given with m & m's and a die.

11. Shades of Color - Walmart is the only place I found that had enough shades of one color on a strip.

12. Play-Dough Number Mats - The moms that printed these just had to provide one sheet protector but we bound ours like this so Ava could easily just work through all the numbers and letters on her own. http://homeschoolcreations.com/files/Number_Playdough_Mats_1-10.pdf http://homeschoolcreations.com/files/Number_Playdough_Mats_11-20.pdf

13. Play Dough ABC Mats - There was the direction here to print these in color but the mom that did this one had them professionally printed in black and white on cardstock and they turned out very well so that may be an option if you want to make these mats worth only two activity choices.

Printing 8 sets in color and on cardstock can really add up.

14. Fabric Roads - These denim roads have been a huge hit at home.

That might be because I don't have any other car tracks but Ava loves making a track for cars with these. There are lots of learning extensions as well like talking about directions of cars, setting up traffic lights etc.

I am planning to make her more.

15. Felt Pizza - This one was me again.

I had made these Pizzas for Ava and she loved them so I made this small set for the group. This was time consuming and so I didn't provide lots of toppings but it would be pretty easy for anyone that wanted to create more toppings.

The crust is two circles sewn together with a small opening, then flipped inside out, and sewn again just inside the edge in order to catch the opening needed to flip it. I think everything else is pretty self-explanatory.

These are just for play but they are also great for teaching fractions too (i.e. "Put cheese on half the pizza").

This is a photo of Ava's big set at home with a cut pizza and more toppings.

16. Two-Sided Popsicle Puzzle -   http://www.amazingmess.com/2010/07/popsicle-stick-puzzles.html

Ava is fascinated with the color wheel side. I can hear her singing "red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple it's a rainbow!" right now ;)

Notes on organizing - I ended up with one master list that everyone chose off of. I came up with almost all of the activities this time but next time I am going to do some suggesting but still have one master control list.

The real challenge is always getting everyone on board with what makes a good swap activity and what really doesn't. For example, providing the ingredients for homemade play-dough is fun but that is pretty easy to whip up on your own.

The point of the swap is to spend time pulling together materials that if you did one of each would be very time consuming but since you are doing several (in my case 8) then it cuts your time down and in the end you have a whole bunch of great activities.

The other thing is talking to the group about quality, including printing on cardstock, in color, taking the extra step of getting some things laminated instead of just proving a sheet protector etc.

I have some crafty and non-crafty members so there are a mix of things you can just take to Office Depot and pay for and things that took a considerable amount of time to make. I figured if everyone did about $30 or so worth of printing or 10ish hours of work or some combination of that then I was fair.

So everyone had to pick three but some activities were worth three (like the play dough mats for example) and some were worth two like the magnets pom poms. If you aren't familiar with how much printing in color on cardstock at home or at an office store is then you might want to check that before organizing something like this.

I think some of the moms that picked the 'easy' printing activities were surprised by the cost.

I can't wait to post about Lilly's birthday it was perfect! In the meantime here is Lilly's takeaway print.

I decided it would be more fun just to have this be a keepsake as opposed to my regular first birthday invitation, plus me pulling together mailing anything is almost impossible these days.

Even though alas I couldn't get it printed at 5x7 for less than $1.50 a print! So now I have to mail them with the thank you notes anyway, but they are all ordered on Arts Cow for a very good price.

I did two different main images because one was from my phone and I was worried about the resolution - but just fyi they both printed well. These both came from KM Thomas and I am always happy with her work and she is super speedy too!

Ava's first year invitation is still up  on Oh Dee Doh .

Also! I got back my Mia Nolting Draws Letters files back and they are great!

I sent her the names and $1 per word via PayPal (so $2 per print below) and two weeks later I got a high res .jpg file. I can't wait to get them in some sweet matted frames but I supposed there are lots of cool things I can do with them.

The bonus is that Ava (three) is at the age where she loves to read her name and she was so excited about the prints.

I had my first paying job at 15, by 16 I was up at 6:30 a.m. on Saturdays working the local Mc D’s drive-thru window, at 17 I waited tables and so on. I worked from 15 to 29 without interruption and then all of the sudden just stopped. After I had Ava I started working from home almost immediately and by the time she was three months old I had directed the entire marketing plan and public face for a new Children’s Museum. I was busy! I had great flexibility at work and often while I was typing away or reflecting on strategies Ava was right there in my arms. It was the hardest thing I have ever done taking a 10 week old to daycare but really with the camera I kept open in an internet tab all day at work and the cool stuff I had going on professionally I didn’t really have much time to reflect on my feelings about motherhood. I just made it work, like most parents that work do. I still planned stuff for Ava to do on my days off. As soon as she was old enough I was building her kitchens and filling up sensory boxes. I had all kinds of little infant learning activities thanks mostly to stay at home moms who blogged about what cool things they were doing at home. I started this blog and although I certainly have increased my level of sewing and decorating and cooking I think that for instance building a light table would have been something I would have jumped on even when I worked. All that to say that I really didn’t parent all that differently when I worked from how I do now – I just like to make and do stuff, it is who I am. Overall, society was incredibly generous to me. Sometimes I had a few instances where professional people treated me differently when I was pregnant and several times where people planned to take over my job when I was on maternity leave. Overall though, everyone seemed very impressed that I could work and still take time for Ava. After I had Lilly I did work for a very short time but I haven’t gone back to work since I moved from Florida to Georgia last January. Honestly, the traffic situation in Atlanta makes it pretty difficult to consider most of the jobs I am qualified for. Almost all of them would require an hour commute each way for me. Leaving my girls in daycare for 10 to 12 hour days isn’t going to happen. Plus, I really have been overwhelmed by how amazing this (almost year) home with them has been. When you are working a pretty intense job it takes up almost all of your spare thoughts. When you stay at home there is quite a bit of ‘down time’. Life slows down. There is time to think, time to play blocks for an hour, time to fix lunches and breakfasts and dinners. Going to the park or the museum or to meet up with other mom’s is your task of the day, not how you relax on your day off. Sort of like a brain renaissance really. The one thing that has been totally crazy is how all of the sudden I am under a weird mothering microscope. Not just other stay at home mother’s but lots of parents compare their children to my children right out loud in front of me! ‘They’ criticize my parenting choices or other’s right in front of them! I mean LITTLE things like how you feed your baby or what TV choices you make for your toddler. When I was working people were just happy my baby did eat, they didn’t care how I fed her and I guess TV was just something working mom’s need. (I feel the stay at home parent need to insert here that we only let Ava watch one hour of commercial free TV a day max* – SEE HOW BRAIN WASHED I AM!) People were proud when I made Ava a wood kitchen not jealous that they didn’t make their kid one – hey for the record it is cheaper to buy a wooden play kitchen – we just like to make things! When I would tell a friend that Ava could walk or recognize her letters or something else fun and new I wasn’t seen as taunting or comparing I was just proud of my kid. But now I am sadly realizing that maybe it was ‘o.k.’ that Ava walked early because she had the ‘handicap’ of being a ‘daycare kid’. Can you believe that I have actually felt bad before that my kids were behaving and almost all the other kids were going crazy – as in ‘look at the weird well behaved kid, their mother must be crazy and scary at home if they are still listening to her in this situation’. Can I just say that I want a big huge sign that says ‘WHOA!’ Being a fairly confident person from a pretty intense childhood I never understood the need for slogans like ‘Be Yourself’ or ‘don’t let anyone rain on your parade’ until now. I have no other thoughts on this topic except that writing this has made me feel better and so I hope it makes someone else feel better too. Staying at home to see every little yawn and look of excitement on my girl’s faces is amazing and life is so short and I am so so so blessed. So next time I get bombarded by someone who hasn’t learned at 30 or 40 to play nice and take responsibility for their own feelings I am going to remember to ‘Be myself’ and ‘Not let anyone rain on my parade’. *on the TV note above also add “Unless I am sick, busy or feeling lazy.”

Well I really do actually do many of the millions of things I pin on Pinterest and I finally made a real light table! I asked just about everyone I know who has done this for tips and looked at every blog post about it ever before I spent the $30 on it.

Ours is one clear plastic under the bed storage box with plastic frosting spray from Lowe's sprayed very lightly in one coat (more and it will peel) in the main bin. Two florescent bar lights ($10 each bulb included) in the lid and some foil on the bottom to increase the reflection of the light in the box.

It works super!

Ah ha ha this is Ava's 'I am so stressed Lilly is playing with this' stance.

You can make pictures.

You can put a sensory box on it or just a dish with some rice like I did here. Think rice, liquids, paint, etc.

These are my first materials all from the dollar tree - clear airplanes, colored linking shapes, jewels, clear straws cut in different lengths. This is just the sort of thing I love to do with the girl's. It is easy, appeals to both of them (11 months and 3), and is high on the exploratory open-ended play scale. There are hundreds of ways to play with this. I get really happy when something this easy gets so popular on the internet because there is an amazing sharing of 'mom ideas' and I love that! Here are some links - - Put a mirror behind it or make a mosaic -  http://reggiokids.blogspot.com/2011/10/beautiful-house.html - Color play with colored translucent objects, discs, wands, etc. http://kristin-senseofwonder.blogspot.com/2011/09/light-box-color.html - Play at home mom really has the most activities posted. I really like her painting on plexi idea, liquid color mixing and the colored bubbles activities -  http://playathomemom3.blogspot.com/search/label/Playing%20with%20Light - You can also buy x-rays and put them on the table or those cool water beads  (I just ordered about a million of them here on eBay  for $6 shipped) the possibilities are endless! Next up for me playing with the black light I bought! Check out Play At Home's links for black lights !

I have been crafting, building and doing kids projects by the truckload at home. I think I am in serious withdrawals from the constant work of re-habbing my old 1950's house which is still in escrow or 'house purgatory' as I like to call it.

I regret a thing or two about buying my old house, but I always loved working on it - repainting the walls over and over, ripping up all the flooring, cabinets on and on. I think though I've found the fix while I're renting in building projects.

Ana White is brilliant and her free woodworking plans are awesome and easy and I am flying through them, I think up to seven now!

and this is just finished with some sample satin orange paint with polyurethane on top.

Lilly really likes it the most.

Oh and for the longest time I wanted some metal cafe chairs and I finally bought these from Overstock.com. They had super reviews but I just couldn't imagine that they would be great for $50 each but they are awesome!

Substantial, stack-able and both retro and modern at the same time. I can't imagine them not working for me somewhere no matter what my next home set up is like.

Now of course I want another set of four in red so I can use both sets and host an outdoor dinner like Nie Nie .

I sold my black hutch on Craigslist and put up some Ikea kitchen bars and shelf over the girl's little table. The little bins above it have napkins, silverware, small straws and cloth placemats so Ava can set her place at whatever table I am eating at.

She really likes the process. I try to sneak in some Montessori style where I can ;) Oh and the clips for hanging the artwork are also from Ikea, they are curtain clips that fit the $1.99 kitchen bars perfectly.

I just used long galvanized nails to hang them. Ah having a little space to eat in the kitchen is so nice! My other dining space is all carpeted and it was becoming such a stress with Lilly to eat there three times a day!

(photo: Lilly forgot she was dressed up and just kept on playing) I am always looking for ways to re-create the type of environment Ava would encounter in a preschool in my home. I think staying at home is so valuable for her but I also don’t want her watching T.V. all day. I have a classroom style calendar on the back of my pantry door in the kitchen, I have lots of Montessori style learning centers and of course the playroom is pretty cool. The concept of a ‘store’ though seemed like something Ava would really enjoy and there are obviously millions of teaching moments built in! Plus I already had copious amounts of wooden, felt, and crocheted food as well as an adorable shopping cart

and a DIY play kitchen to cook it all up in. So I started with a $40 craigslist Pottery Barn Kids Market (fyi PBK doesn't sell the wood markets anymore but Melissa and Doug

’s is pretty nice or these plans are good as well to make your own).

(photo - haha I don't even know what this face is about) I made a new canopy, I took the back off the market so Ava could access the shelves from both sides, we added wheels so it can be pushed against the wall when not in use, I made the stationary chalkboard panel into a door and then filled it up with food and bins!

(photo - here you can see the door aka the 'fridge' and how my 10 month old is about to vandalize the market by dumping every single item on the floor something that makes my three year old wish she could ban her from shopping!) Ava’s grandparents gave her an awesome  Learning Resources cash register

. I can’t say enough good things about it. She also got a Learning Resources phone

that can be programmed to play a message when she dials my phone number correctly (btw it took her about a week to learn my 9 digit cell number). Both add big time to the play value of the market. I of course take phone orders and credit cards.

(photo: one of the cutest things about this particular market is the back part of the counter that has a little plexi window, I use it for baked goods) I am planning a kit to flip it into a flower market and a kit for an ice cream shop for Christmas! I am pinning away ideas over on pinterest! I think I will also add some custom grocery bags and a logo to the top eventually.

(photo we still love, love, love the DIY play kitchen I made Ava two years ago and it is so fun with the market. I am still planning to upgrade the oven with a light and rack but otherwise the plan has worked out great and I wouldn't change a thing.)

(Photo -If you have been to Atlanta and didn't make it to Little Five Points you are missing out.) For some reason every since this past move I have been really dedicated to getting rid of everything that I don't use.

I have been aggressive with a mix of Ebay, Craigslist and Goodwill every month since January. I have sold everything from clothes, to candles, to lame board games.

The things I have been selling that I kept in the move from Florida to Atlanta weren't all things I thought I needed but in my mind they were too valuable for a garage sale or dropping off at Goodwill.

I have averaged anywhere from a couple of hundred dollars to $1,000 in a month in sales. The things that end up being worth the most money are always a huge surprise.

Electronics seem to have the most value as they almost become collectible after some point. For instance, I had an off-brand, small, flat screen computer monitor that was 7 years old (and I noted the age in the listing) that sold for over $100 with $20 shipping - strange.

Old format video recorders are worth a lot because people are trying to watch their old movies with them. The lesson here is to do an Ebay or Amazon search before you haul a box of old stuff to Goodwill.

(Photo - something awesome I bought in  L5P  with my used book money) This month was big though. I had been considering for some time getting rid of all of my beloved books. I love books, I love to read, but neither of me hardly ever reads a book twice. So why I asked myself this month did I have 300 books? I wanted to go all digital all at once so I sold all of the DVDs and all the books. I kept five cookbooks, a few sewing books and my decor magazine stash. Of course I kept all of the girls's books and DVDs. I have always been pretty good about weeding through those though - nothing worse than your kid picking a dollar store book about Elmo as the bedtime story! Here is what I did - 1. I checked on Amazon buyback program and sent about 7 items (mix of books, electronic games, DVDs) using their free shipping service and got a $125 Amazon gift card. 2. I used the half.com iPhone app to scan all of my books and the ones worth over $3 I listed. It was so much easier than listing on Ebay! I sold about 15 books in the first three days just by making sure I had the lowest list price on everything I listed. I am so glad I took the time to do this because between about 40 books I had about $300 in value and there were a few random books that were worth $50 or more. I would have gotten rid of them long ago if I had know that!

(Photo - oh yeah short hair again too) 3. I took a box of books that all scanned at a dollar or less to a used book store in town. Surprisingly Atlanta didn't have that many options especially compared to the small Florida towns I am from but they did take another 20 or so books and gave me some cash, which I spent directly at the women's clothing store a few shops down ;) 4. I took the rest of the books to Goodwill and any movies that I didn't feel like were perfect. 5. I listed the movies on Ebay at .99 cent starting bids and sold almost all of them the first go around for between $1 and $8. There isn't much value in DVD's anymore. Most people want Blue-ray or like me just watch Netflix and occasionally download a movie or TV show digitally. However, there was no way I was taking 100 good DVDs to Goodwill! My tips for selling on Ebay include - listing normal items for 7 days starting and ending on Sunday afternoon or night. List slower selling items or obscure items for 10 day auctions starting on Thursday night and ending Sunday night. That way you get two weekends of traffic. Be accurate with your shipping. Start your auction prices as low as you feel comfortable with, sometimes things will end for .99 cents and sometimes they will bid up like crazy. If you have your item price set at about what you want for it then you can expect to list it a few times probably before it sells. I have re-listed (just pressing a button) items 5 times before they have sold before and other things just go crazy within hours of listing. 6. Last, I got an iPad

! (insert loud cheering) I like to call it the "cash for gold" iPad though.

I had a friend brag about how there was a very legit chain of gold buying stores in Atlanta and that she had made some great money on just a few old yellow gold pieces. I sent a friend to the same place and she left with $1,000.

My whole process took about 4 minutes and they were super nice. I printed a coupon for 20% more off the internet and showed it after they gave me a quote and that worked as well.

So if you do try it maybe Google a coupon.

My rental kitchen needed some 'kitcheny' window treatments, so I came up with these.

The white in the rental house felt a little stark to me at first. I am allowed to paint but most of ceilings in the house are very high so I have only done an accent wall in the playroom and in the girl's room.

After living here for almost four months though I am starting to see the white walls as part of a really good challenge. Sometimes paint can seem like decorating and styling but it really isn't.

The rocking chair and little Ikea table seem to be working there for now so I am leaving them alone even if they are a little odd. It is so nice to have a place for Ava to sit while I am cooking or a place to feed and rock Lilly while Ava has her afternoon snack.

Sewing details : I ordered two yards of an Amy Butler fabric called 'Lotus Pond Tangerine' from and eBay seller. I even lined the back with some unbleached cotton I had that I pieced together, which made the valances so much nicer.

They were so easy - well except that for some reason when I did the top seam I let it get all crazy and then I waited a week or so before ripping the top seams and re-stitching them (ugh).

If you want more of a tutorial let me know - but really you can easily sew a rectangle!

One thing I have been doing with my non-working life is trying to read a lot more. My long term goal is a book a week.

Which honestly I could have done just as easily when working but I never felt like I had the mental space I guess for lots of reading and opted instead for TV when the girls were in bed.

I have been working with BlogHer as a book reviewer as part of their new book club. It is pretty cool!

Most recently for BlogHer I have reviewed  A Jane Austen Education  - click over and check it out! I really felt like the book tied together so many things for me in regard to why Austen is so enchanting.

(thanks Pattie!) and I can't wait till he is done with it. I am dying to read  The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party

. I walked into Barnes and Noble today and just glancing over their summer reading table mad me feel like I have been missing out on so much reading! What are you reading?

The beach was absolutely beautiful. It seems that for all the trouble they had figuring out how to stop the oil they haven't had any trouble figuring out how to clean it up.

After I moved away from home 8 years ago the thing I miss the most is the dreamy Florida Panhandle beaches with big sand dunes and sugary white sand that your feet sink into - heaven.

Some shots from Lilly's first Beach Day

My swimsuit is hot. I know. Who is this a good picture of? I don't know.

Lilly was unimpressed.

Ava was in awe.

Lilly was tortured.

Ava was in sandcastle heaven.

Lilly tried really hard not to laugh.

Ava tried really hard to run straight into the ocean as fast as she could without anyone stopping her.

My entire life was a preparation to be mother to these yummy little girls. The likely hood that I will ever do anything more important than being a very good mother to them is teeny, tiny. Really, what could be more important? Very little.

Ava took this one! Lilly's bow is from billiebrand  (I love her bows)

Alisha at Pink Poodle Bows asked me if I would be interested in trying out one of her patterns after I posted about one of her dresses here . So, my first request was for her to direct me to the easiest patterns in her shop.

I was so excited when she said the Bella Strip Work Dress was an "instant gratification pattern". It also makes a dress from 12m to size 8!

It took me about 4 hours to make the dress but I would suspect it will take less time in the future especially for a size 4 since I have the pattern all ready now. The pattern was excellent and it is a million times easier to sew something from a professionally produced Etsy pattern than to sew something from a store-bought pattern.

There are tons of photos, you can enlarge and reduce the pdf and you can print it out over and over again. Oh and if you run into a problem you can just email the author!

Make sure when you print the pattern pages for this pattern you choose "none" under page scaling and you choose "auto-rotate and center". Also, before you tape together any digital pattern always find a part to measure against a measurement provided to check to make sure that your printer didn't shrink or enlarge it.

I made Ava (who is almost three) the size 4 dress. She is big for her age and I wanted her to have some growing room.

I used a nice weight fabric (important) for the cherry part of the dress and doubled the white fabric for the center strip because it was a bit see-through. I did choose the option to top stitch down the center strip seams from the front.

I have made a dress for Ava before using inexpensive fabric and tried to make my own binding tape to finish the edges and it didn't hold up well. This time, I took a lot of care with finishing the hems and seams because I want this dress to really hold up to lots of wash and wear and so far it looks much sturdier than something store-bought.

The only skills you need for the dress are to be able to sew a straight line - very easy and a perfect first dress to make. You can find more sewing posts here .