What a helpful sister! She didn’t want her neck to hurt.

Yeah, never mind.

What a beautiful weekend! I can officially come out of hibernation. Saturday we took a picnic lunch to the neighboring town. Yeah, we live just west of 1875.  I figured if the kids were going to have a shoot out, that would be the place to do it.

Oddly enough, we couldn’t get them out of the buggy. Well, we couldn’t get Vivi INTO the buggy, but the rest were happy just to sit in it for awhile. Bella reclined in the back and played on her phone. I’m pretty sure that’s how they did it back in the day.

Sisters are so sweet. This was snapped in the serene moment just as Vivi noticed she lost a shoe. Bella didn’t notice the shoe, so a fit commenced.

sisters

The only way it would have been a better day is if Dave would have worn his cowboy hat. He says that’s just for me though. Sorry.

Mmmmm, Cheetos are so Zzzzzzz.

I recently asked a question to Bronson Pinchot (the t is silent, if you’ve ever wondered) from The Bronson Pinchot Project about what was worth spending more money on and where we could save money when doing a house. He told me “Don’t ever skimp on your framing, electricals, plumbing or electronics. Personally I would keep the ‘shell’ simple and put astounding art in it. Because the art goes with you.”

Although we aren’t in a place to remodel or build right now, I still took his advice and decided on functional art.  I began thinking about how we could get books on the wall, yet have it be interesting and artistic. We were already feeling the rustic vibe, so I began to look for an old ladder. I figured, turn it on it’s side, the rungs are natural dividers and the books would look great. I fell in love with this idea. But, do you know how hard it is to find an old ladder? I want very badly to say my project consists of repurposed material I found at the recycle center or someones old barn. Sigh. I looked for several months before I broke down and bought one at an antique shop. Then Dave asks me how I planned to get the ladder on the wall. I’m all, “I can’t have all the great ideas, get some brackets and nail it up there!” Apparently that isn’t how it works. But being the awesome husband he is, he measured stuff, took me to Lowes and found some pretty brackets, bought some stuff to screw them in, bought other stuff to anchor it, and then got to work…. on stuff.

First we had to find the studs. Look! I found one! Isn’t he a dream boat?

Pretty brackets are like $2.00 a piece. Pick them out, screw them into the studs. (The wall studs, not your handyman)

Screw the ladder to the brackets. Take 25 photos of husbands cute butt.

Finish off with books! It really was easy!

Once I found the ladder, this was a pretty easy project to complete. And it looks fantastic!

The girls wanted to make their own valentines this year so I hit up Pinterest for ideas. What I learned is that there are a lot of moms out there with way too much time on their hands and an intense desire to prove just how fantastic of a mom they are by spending heaps of hours crafting intricate trinkets that will inevitably be thrown out within 10 minutes of the school party. Really, do you save Valentines from other kids (er, other kids moms)? I didn’t think so. I went ahead and bought the foldable barbie valentines the kids could sign and be done with.

What we did take from Pinterest was some part craft/part food ideas to make for the family. Really, the best craft is an edible one. We started with some heart shaped rice krispie treats.

Not too bad at all.

I decided to get brave and make everyone some large rice krispie treat – hershey kiss look alikes.

Harder with the shaping involved, but not bad for my first time.

My favorite part was coming up with the sayings for the tags:

“Roses are red, Violets are blue, and so are crayons”

“Chocolate is good, cake is darn yummy, eat this treat fast or it goes in MY tummy”

“Roses are red, Carnations are pink, I see an angel, don’t you dare blink!”

and a special treat for Dave - ”Apples are sweet, Lemons are sour, take off your clothes, you’re mine for an hour”. (It’s way more fun coming up with dirty ones!)

Then I got really full of myself and decided to MAKE Dave’s Valentines gift. It was a cute idea, but I needed to alter it to “fit” us. I’m pretty sure I ended up liking it more than he did, but isn’t that the point to Valentine’s Day? To make me happy? I think so.

Notable Lovers

Then there are the times the kiddos want to make something and it ends up sucking doesn’t turn out so well. I give you “Cookie Bowls”. We had our ice cream ready and our spoons out. I even had my camera ready because I was sure they would turn out super cute, and then I could post it on facebook showing off my cooking crafty prowess. You were going to be so jealous of my proficiency.

This is what they were supposed to be:

This is what they were:

Fail. They were, however, still edible and became more of an ice cream topping. Next time, Pinterest, next time.

Hour 1: This is easy!! Are we almost there yet?

Hour 2: There is some NOT sharing going on. Almost there yet??

Hour 3: Oh Holy night, the songs of the angels are in our midst. This lasted 15 minutes.

Hour 4: Apparently it’s a hostile take over free-for all. NOW are we almost there yet??

Hour 5: 1 crying, 1 screaming, 1 whining, 1 pouting & 1 blaring everything out with headphones. Let us out RIGHT NOW!

Hour 6: We’ve recruited schaffer the darklord :

CLICK Here for hour 6.

]]> http://www.vivobello.com/2012/11/22/thanksgiving-car-trip-2012/feed/ 0 http://www.vivobello.com/2012/11/18/skepticon-weekend-2012/#utm_source=feed&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=feed http://www.vivobello.com/2012/11/18/skepticon-weekend-2012/#comments Mon, 19 Nov 2012 01:09:38 +0000 vivobello http://www.vivobello.com/?p=881 So, there’s this thing called skepticon.. Dave & I tried to go. We are skeptics. GASP. There is so much that science can explain that religion cannot. Saying that, we didn’t get to see any speakers. We arrived Friday night, hung out with Rebecca Watson from Skepchick     and saw Aron Ra and Matt Dillahunty but the main person PZ Meyers, didn’t show until the next day. And wouldn’t you know it, our babysitter called and Vivi was sick. We left ASAP and missed the talks. This upset me, because this was supposed to be Dave’s weekend. The people he reads are important to him… Damn it! Well, he drove the 4 hours home like a bat out of hell like Vivi was drawing her last breath. (it turns out she was simply slightly congested.) There’s always next year, I guess. Before we got there, we did go through the Exotic Animal Park. (My favorite) SO I got 50 pictures of zebras and camels and 1 of Dave and a hero of his, the friendly atheist Hemant. PZ Meyers: Dave missed you. It was important. please contact him here: david.m.atchley@gmail.com. It would mean a lot.

It was so cute when Dave was impressed with Rebecca Watson. She was a cool chick. I enjoyed talking to her. She and her posse let us sit & talk awhile. (Hi Cammie, hope I spelled that right!)  Until Rebecca pulled out the “Last time I talked to John Barrowman shit”  UH, HELLO. John Barrowman is MINE chicka. (yeah, Dave called me on the jealousy issue) Anyway. They were all cool to chat with. The most impressive being when Aron Ra went head to head with the Religious group outside of the convention. I’m not even sure what religion they were, but I accepted their handouts and respected their beliefs. That’s what I would expect from them, after all. I wish I had gotten photos, but that is exactly when the babysitter called about Vivi, and we left ASAP. Just to back track a second…. We were sitting in the hotel lobby, Dave was eating his apple pie, Rebecca was telling a story, and this gang of cowboys walked through like it was high noon at WTFever ranch. AND nobody said anything! I waited a good 10 minutes before prompting with “UM, did anyone ELSE here see a gang of cowboys just walk through the lobby like there should have been a loud sound track playing in the background??” Oh, they said. That was Aron Ra, they said. Well, nice to know I’m not crazy. Also, he came back & talked like a normal person without the soundtrack. He seemed cool.

But back to the Exotic Animal park.. It was great.

Oh yeah baby!

SAY CHESE ZEBRA!!!!

And of course, I did get a skepticon photo: Dave & Hemant (who is a really cool guy):

Hand in cheetos and all….