Five on Friday

Hey, everyone! Linking up again with Darci at The Good Life Blog for Five on Friday.

1) I HATE COMPUTERS!!!

If you've seen Office Space then you're probably familiar with this scene...

... this is TOTALLY how I felt Wednesday night.  What I would have given to be to take my computer out back with a baseball bat :)

I hate that something I'm crazy dependent on my computer... both at home and at work.  Nothing puts a kink in my workday day like realizing that my SmartBoard won't power up and all my lesson plans are on SmartNotebook or having the school network go down so I'm unable to print, pull up files, etc.  Typically my technology at home has been pretty reliable... until Wednesday night when my PC was literally smoking and then wouldn't power up.   It's 12:30 a.m. and I am up and running again thanks to my awesome brother and Dad . I still have to get the data off of my old hard drive... but I have a BRAND NEW computer.  WOO HOO!!!

2) "Brinner"
We have been ALL about "Brinner" (breakfast for dinner) around here lately.  So much so that I made a special trip to the grocery store after work WITH ALL THREE KIDDOS just to pick up groceries for that night.

Pancakes and Mix and Match Mama's sausage balls.  My boys both requested sausage balls at every meal for the next three days.  I'm planning on making a quadruple batch this weekend and freezing them to pull out for quick and easy breakfasts on the go in the morning.  YUM!!!

3) Up and Down

The weather around here has been NUTS!  75 one day, 25 (seriously!) the next.  As excited as I am about Spring, I'm still savoring these last few "Winter" days since I know it'll be 150 degrees here in Texas before I know it and I'll be dreaming of wearing coats and scarves again :) 

We've been lighting a fire every night as well :)

4) I Never Learn

I have a "pass code" on my phone, but apparently even if it's locked you can still take pictures. I really need to learn to put my phone in my desk drawer when I leave to go to the restroom...

5) Colorful Fun

The boys and I had so much fun sorting a GIANT bag of M&Ms to make the "rainbow" I showed y'all yesterday in my St. Patricks Day Decor Post.  I showed them how I wanted it and they took care of it for me!  Teamwork and sorting! Double win :)

Speaking of color... Mason LOVES having tub colors in his bath and rather than just tossing them in, I've been throwing one color in one end and another color in the other end.  We watch the tabs dissolve and then he gets to "mix" them and we talk about making colors from other colors.  Fun!!!

This weekend I'm looking forward to spending lots of time outside with the boys.  They'll be playing and I'll be raking leaves :)  Hopefully I'll have a new computer and will be back to working on Slightly Askew projects as well.  Happy Weekend, everyone!

Also... if you're in the market for baby girl clothes I posted LOTS over on my What Griffin Wore blog...

And because it wouldn't be a post without a pic of the sweet baby...

Read'y for St.Paddy's Day

Disclaimer... tonight, before I loaded pics onto my PC for this post I was running some updates and when I walked through the office I noticed that there was SMOKE coming out of my computer!!!  Three hours, lots of cups of tea with my dad and a few tears later we think that the motherboard is fried.  Awesome.  So I'm working on this post on my school laptop which is a HUGE pain (hence the unedited pics, overload of pics and randomness of the order of them. ugh!). Also - if I'm working on something Slightly Askew for you I promise I haven't forgotten and I should be operational again by the weekend (fingers crossed!!!)

I confessed on Monday that I've never decorated for St. Patrick's day before.   But with Easter being so late this year I didn't feel right putting bunnies out yet, and I couldn't make my "regular" stuff either so I decided to jump on the St. Patrick's Day train and go for it!  I immediately went to Pinterest and was relatively uninspired by all the "green on green on green - with some green thrown in".  It was all fine... but just not "fun" enough for me.

I saw a picture with a leprechaun and a rainbow on it and right away knew I wanted to do a "Pot of Gold" theme.  I created a printable (find it on Monday's post!), started sorting M&M's and snapped a few pics :)

The clovers on the window are glitter foam and came in a package of 12 for $3. I stuck them on with scotch tape because I'm classy like that. :) 

I'm not loving the red chalk pen... but my white one was out :(

The little rainbow banner thing did NOT turn out as I planned.  I cut the circles out of paint chips using a punch and then sewed them together with my sewing machine.  That sounds like a good plan except for the fact that every time I get out my sewing machine I want to punch everyone in the face.  No joke.  Dave jokes that I'm not allowed to sew when he's around because he doesn't like to have his head bitten off. :)  

The apothecary jars are filled with artificial apples from my back to school decor (and my back to school dinner!) M&Ms sorted into a rainbow (thanks, boys!) and cheese balls

  

I love decorating my kitchen window, but also love doing a fun kids table :)

I picked up some plates, napkins and straws at Target (under $2.50/each), used three pieces of gold scrapbook paper ($0.99/each) and threw on some confetti to make it extra festive.

The little "pots" were 2/$1 at JoAnns and I filled them with chocolate coins from Target.

The table "runner" is 1/4 yard of denim that I had laying around from Hobby Lobby.  The fabric there is always 30% off... so it's probably under $2 for this piece.

The little clovers were leftovers from the ones I stuck on the window and I felt like they added a pop of festive green :)

 

If you've known me for very long at all you know that I love to layer.  I layer my scarves, clothes and apparently - tableware.  The more layers the better!

I picked up this cute little green box in the Dollar Spot at Target and threw in the extra straws and napkins.  My boys always think it's so fun to eat off of "special" plates - and Mommy thinks it's fun to not have to wash their dishes :)

 The cute pom poms (is that what they're even called???) were on super clearance at Target as well.  $3 for all three of them!  Luke kept calling them "disco balls" :)

This cutie patootie hung out with her daddy and brothers while I got things ready.  Shirtless and showing off her tongue :)

We're now all set to get festive!  Scrounge up some colorful plates around your house and call it a rainbow St Paddy's Day!  Give your kiddos a bag of M&M's to sort and you're good to go!

I hope this inspired some colorful ideas for your dinner table this month!  I'm loving all things rainbow right now and have some super cute crafts to show y'all next week as well!  Be sure to grab the printable from Monday's post and let me know if you end up using it!

Just in case you're interested.. I'm a teeny bit Holiday obsessed.  Here are a few other "decor" posts to check out...

Halloween 2013

Thanksgiving 2013

Christmas 2013

Back to School 2013

Valentine's 2014

Canvas-worthy

A couple of weeks ago I posted this picture on Instagram....

 ... and got an OVERWHELMING response!  So I thought I'd share a little bit about some of the canvases I have up in my house.  

Originally, I bought six canvases of our Fall photos to hang above the couch in my office. I ended up doing an Instagram photo wall instead (find that post HERE). 

Plus... the canvases turned out so gorgeous that I felt that sticking them in our office was kind of an injustice.  For several years I've had these four frames hanging above my kitchen buffet with some of Luke's artwork in them.  I've always liked them, but when I put the canvases on the buffet just to "see" I knew it was meant to be.

I think what sealed the deal for me was that the colors matched the kitchen so well.  I love that I get to see them ALL the time, too!

I took the rest of these pictures in the afternoon when we got home from school (before it got dark!)... hence the slew of stuff strewn all over the floor.  We typically come in through the garage (and laundry room) and the boys (and let's be real... often times me too) leave quite the trail of debris :) 

This is standing in our front room looking down the hall that leads to the bathroom, kids bedrooms, laundry room and office.  The wall straight ahead has another of the six canvases I bought for the office.  Our family picture from this Fall.

(The boys room is to the right of this pic)

There's this weird angled wall that has our family pic from Fall of 2011 and Spring of 2013.

It took me a full 9 months to order the canvas of our Spring family pic since I feel like my face looks SOOOOOOO swollen (remind me again why I thought family pics less than a week after Griffin was born would be a good idea?!?!?! and Mason was miserable the entire time... but I bit the bullet and am so glad I did. This hallway has all of our family pictures and this was a definite "phase".  I will NEVER forget taking these pics and being so upset that Mason was a mess and then there was this super weird couple MAKING OUT (and probably more!) on the playground at the park where we were and the boys took some pics on bikes and I was sure one of them was going to be run over by one of the 2 cars that drove by.  Hormonal much?!?!?!  Again - family pics at 7:00 a.m. a week after giving birth - not recommended :)

Fall of 2011 on the top and Spring of 2013 underneath 

Griffin's room is at the end of the hall and there are two more family pics between her room and the laundry room...

Fall of 2012 on the left and Spring of 2012 on the right.  

Last year I had one of my very favorite pictures ever made into a canvas for the boys shared room.  This was taken in the Spring of 2012 and I LOOOOVE it!!!

Sidenote... check out the pics below...

The top pic is from May of 2012 (Luke was 4, Mason was 1) and the bottom pic was almost exactly a year later.  I totally didn't realize how they were "matching" their previous pic and when I saw the resemblance (from Luke's head  and feet position to Mason's expression and their clothes as well!) I totally got goosebumps.  Crazy what a difference a year can make, right?  You'd better believe I'll be lugging those bikes to our photo shoot this Spring as well :)

Last... I had two "extra" canvases from the six that I ordered and I found the perfect spot for them in our bedroom...

Okay... so to answer some questions.  

Where are the canvases from???

I've ordered my most recent seven canvases from "Canvas People" and was really impressed with the quality, shipping speed and the price!  A lot of other places have "cheaper" canvases, but then they want to charge you out the wa-zoo for shipping.  I've also ordered from Shutterfly when they were running a sale and love them as well.

What size are they?

All of my canvases are 16 x 20

Who takes our photos?

We looooooooove Kelly at Love Fern Photos.  (kelly.h.walsh@gmail.com) She always makes our "chaos" look serene and somewhat together and she has captured some of my very favorite images EVER!!!  See below...

Fall of 2011

Spring 2012

Fall 2012

 Spring 2013

Fall 2013 

(I loved lots of these... but you already saw those on canvases. hehehe)

I think I'm kind of a canvas addict, but love having pics of my sweet kiddos around as art.  They change SO fast and I love getting to look at these little memories on a daily basis.

Do you have canvases displayed at home?  Do you wish you had one (or twelve!)?