Prim By Design

My Daughter I tell ya!

2010-08-25T18:20:00.005-05:00

I love her so dearly but she is my "mis-understood" one. She gives hubby and I sooo much grief. Often times we just shake our heads...
Here are a couple of examples...
A few weeks ago she came into our room at 3:30 am, flipped on the light, and at the top of her voice screams Cock-A-Doodle-Doo. As my husband and I both scramble to our feet, she just grins really big and closes the door. I was so furious ! First off I am one of those horrible moms that just doesn't like to be awoken. Never have, but I have adjusted once I had children.
Then a few nights later I wake up to this horrible banging noise... Hubby was already awake (from the noise) and had gone to investigate. He said as he opened her bedroom door she had her drum cymbol in one hand and her drumstick in the other. Since it was 2:30 in the morning he confiscated her entire drum set and told her to get to sleep.

I honestly thought that since she started Kindergarten she would do better with sleeping... Nope, she still doesn't sleep.

In her school they are doing a reward system where each child has a monkey on the board and if you do positive things your monkey gets moved up.

Apparently she has been talking in school. Not really getting into to much trouble but just talkative. Anyhow, she came home on Friday and I ask her how she was doing with her monkey and she replied "MY MONKEY HASN'T MOVED". It was all I could do not to laugh. Then on Monday she comes home and again I ask her about her monkey and she tells me "She had to take that monkey clean off the vine and put it on the teacher's desk"....
Again talking.
I honestly thought it would be her temper that would get her into trouble but apparently she doesn't have one at school, just with her brothers, father, and I :)!

Let's hope her monkey moves up tomorrow!

Sam

All Grown Up

2010-08-05T09:34:00.011-05:00

Ya know they grow up soooo fast! My youngest will be going to Kindergarten soon and I am honestly not looking forward to it.... I am just not ready for it... It's just too fast! I don't think I struggled quite as much with my son because I was honestly looking forward to the time I would have with her..

Although I have always called her my "patience tester" I am still really going to miss her!

Speaking of testing my patience I awoke to her playing her drums about 2am this morning lol...

Anyhow just thought I would share a few photos of her along the way! This first photo is one of my favorites! It is actaully an embroidery hoop she put on her head lol!

She gives her brother that infamous look :)!

This was one of my dad's favorites!

To where she is today :)!

Congrats big girl!!

Goldfish

2010-08-03T06:53:00.004-05:00

Have you ever played goldfish? Well I have recently taught my 2 youngest how to play. Yesterday they begged me to play! I was in the middle of an order I was working on and had a few minutes while the wax melted so I decided to play :)!

I love my daughter dearly but to be quite honest she is a cheater when it comes to Goldfish... She is my ornery one for sure. In the middle of the game we're going around, it was my son's turn... He said Summer do you have any 4's, nope she replied, go fishing. Now it was her turn.... "Mom do you have any 4's". It was all I could do not to laugh, not only did she have a 4 but she had ask me for it instead of Gavin.. Wait a minute I said, Gavin JUST ask you for 4's and you told him to go fishing. Oh mom I must have just fished for it she replied. I didn't have a 4. I just now fished for it. :)

So I am trying to explain to her that is impossible because she hadn't "fished" for anything as she put it and she needed to give him the 4 and it was still his turn.
So I look at Gavin and said "ok the card you just fished, you must put back"... But mom I want that card too ... I didn't cheat he said, she did.... Well she did not like being called a cheat at all..

Fast forward a bit and it's Gavin's turn again, Summer do you have any Queens... "Go fishing".. Now it's her turn Gavin do you have any Queens... I said Summer he just ask you for those and don't tell me you "fished" it.

No mom she replied I just get really tired of everyone taking my cards so I just tell you to fish when I feel like it...

This card game lasted for what seemed like forever... My wax became melted and I went to dip the Cinnabuns and Crows, chuckling the whole time about the card game!

A Day in the life of a Puppy

2010-07-28T08:01:00.000-05:00

Oh my this past week has been an interesting experience to say the least. Our new puppy is named "Sparkles". My daughter wanted to name her Sparkles Lolita Keith Wilson and I somehow managed to get it shortened to "Sparkles". I should have named this dog "holy terror" because she is one little terror. Actually she is a West Highland White Terrier. I should have noticed that when we got her "terrier" is really close to terror lol...
Here is a photo of her when we first got her..

She is something of a MESS I tell ya! Here was our day with her the other day......

The kids are in the kitchen playing with her and I am in the living room working on laundry. All of the sudden they start yelling "Good girl" Sparkles has pooed on her puppy spot. Then the excitement gets more intense. As I walk into the kitchen to pick up the poo the kids are yelling, I can't quite make out what they are saying, but they are excited. The puppy had poo'd a bright pink balloon. The kids of course wanted to keep it and let it "grow". They wanted to turn this into some kind of science experiment.

I am trying to explain to them this is not good for the puppy and they really aren't "buying" my story... "but mom you said she couldn't eat crayons, and she has eaten lots and lots of them," I heard one of them say... Then "and you said chocolate could kill her but she ate my chocolate chip cookie"..... I guess I am lucky, I have a dog with a stomach of steel... Being that I have 4 kiddos that is a real necessity lol..

On to the middle of the day and I look up and Sparkles is running around the kitchen with something in her mouth.. I wasn't sure what it was so I go to investigate. Apparently the kids had given her a "glow stick" to play with and she had broken that open. My son is horrified because he said his dad told him "there could be acid in those". I look at him and said "NO not in a kids toy, surely NOT". I call his dad and find out it was merely a ploy to keep the children from breaking them open... Well do you think you could have told the DOG this perhaps.

Oh well I thought, we'll be able to find her in the middle of the night lol...

Last but definitely not least, I am still putting away laundry and I returned a call to my grandmother about a question she had for me. The kids were in the living room playing with the puppy and I stepped into my bedroom to answer her question. I spent about 5 minutes talking to her when the kiddos ran into the room.

I hung up with her and put on a show "America's Funniest Animals".
They were excited, and quite frankly it was time for them to settle down a bit because it was getting close to their bedtime. I sat with them for about 5-10 minutes and I decided to go add my spices to hubby's supper. He was working late and I wanted him to have a hot meal when he got home. I stepped into the living room and saw they hadn't put Sparkles back into the kitchen. (Let me preface this by saying the puppy isn't allowed on the carpet unless someone is with her because she is not completely potty trained yet. It is much easier to clean up messes off a hard floor than it is carpet, so I don't let her into the entire house yet).

I saw Sparkles and my heart sank to the floor, she looked as if she was covered in blood. I began to chase her and noticed she was running quite fast for an "injured" pet. She ran to the other end of the coffee table and picked up something. It was a pink paint bottle. It then dawned on me she wasn't in fact covered in blood but barn red paint. She had gotten hold of one of my paint bottles and had split it open. There was red paint EVERYWHERE, and I do mean EVERYWHERE.

I keep my paint in a very odd spot, but it had worked for me for years. I have a metal paint holder that spins around. It is a small rack, and I always kept it behind a chair in the living room. It is out of the way and is not normally noticed, until tonight. The puppy had found it.

Well 3.5 hours later and 3 steam cleaning sessions later, and 4 puppy baths,my carpet is normal again.

Needless to say, the puppy is fine (except she still has some red paint on her), the carpet is fine, and my paints now have a new home, in my closet where they should have been from the beginning.
Here is a photo of her after her adventure...

It was a long day,
Hugs Sam

Forever and a Day

2010-07-27T18:20:00.000-05:00

Oh my goodness it has been FOREVER since I posted in here. Time just gets the best of me. I love reading other people's blogs but I never seem to post in my own :)! I have got to get better!

We have acquired a puppy and I love her dearly BUT she is INTO everything and I do mean EVERYTHING! I don't know what I was thinking lol.. It's like having a 5th child!

I haven't posted on here in a while for a couple of reasons,
1. because my life tends to become "overwhelming" at times and
2. a lot of the research I have read online says you shouldn't mix personal blogs with business blogs. I am sure this is true but in all honesty I am a WAHM. I love what I am able to do, and I will be keeping the blogs together :)!

Now onto some stuff I have been working on, I have recently joined www.instantprintables.com and I just love this site. A dear friend of mine suggested that I start making tags and things people could print themselves last year when I made some of my business cards to have her print, so I finally have. You can find a few of my things to the right of this blog. If you click on the links it will take you to a page where you can download them instantly. They are all things you print yourself.

Thanks so much Kathy for the inspiration... You can visit her shop here on Ebay... She prints wonderful tags, great paint cans, and just makes lots of neat things...
Click here to visit her shoppe

Flooded

2010-02-03T15:38:00.000-06:00

Yep that's right we had our first official flood... My daughter was taking a shower last night and the shower in their bathroom is handicap accessible so there isn't a huge lip on it to hold the water in.... Well she has had a cold and I told her if she would just stand there and let the warm water run over her that she would feel better. I was hoping it would break some of her congestion up. Normally she makes noise when she's in the shower, singing, playing, etc. Well she did for about 5 minutes and after about 10 more I decided to go check on her. About that time she rounded the corner and had a huge red mark on her hiney. It looked like hives (Her brother has had these before due to his allergies so I thought a doctor's visit was in our near future). As I went to step into the bathroom I noticed the floor looked like it was moving.
Since I hadn't been drinking lol (which I very seldom do) I knew it wasn't me. I just thought I was really tired since my daughter had gotten up the night before at 3 am with her coughing. NOPE it wasn't either of those things! My daughter had sat down in the shower and plugged the drain to let the water run over her. The huge "hive" was actually where she had been sitting on the drain. I thought the "hive" looked odd. I am not sure why I actually stepped into the water at this point. I think I was hoping it wasn't really happening lol. I used EVERY SINGLE towel we own to sop up the water and then called my husband and said " I don't have time for questions I just need to know if the shop vac can suck up water". He reassured me that it could so I began vacuuming it up.
Thankfully I arrived in the bathroom just as the water was getting to the carpet so I saved myself that catastrophe. I honestly have NO idea how it didn't flood the carpet because it was almost an inch deep throughout the bathroom. I guess I know how the floor slopes :)!

There's never a dull moment around here :)!

OK I am getting back into the swing of things!

2010-01-26T08:38:00.000-06:00

I know it has been forever since my last post but with the move, the Holidays, and having company almost non stop since December 12 I have been in a bit of a whirlwind :)!

I am working on the dollhouse again for my daughter (Considering it has to be finished by Feb 10 th) . I have been taking photos of my progress and will update them on here as time permits :)!

I have also been working on a birthday party for my to youngest kiddos! They wanted to have a party together this year. This is their first official "big party" where they invite school friends or pre-school friends.

I looked at the local places like "jump zone" . It's where kids can go and play on those inflatable gadgets. Well to have the party was going to be over $400.00 not including the cake. UGHHH! I knew I could do it cheaper!
I rented a local church's activity center. It is huge. It has a basketball goal, lots of tables, and a kitchen. The theme for the party is Knights & Princesses. I have made capes for both the boys & girls, knight shields (Out of duct tape lol ~~ I will have to post a picture) and necklaces.

I have purchased foam swords from the Dollar Tree, Princess wands from the Dollar tree, and rings and coins.

I am also making a huge castle for the kids to play in! It's going to cost me about $5 to do this :)! Hubby has been bringing home those paper boxes from work so they are all the same size. I bought some end rolls of newsprint from the local paper ($1), and a sponge from the Dollar Tree. I am going to cover the boxes with newsprint, sponge bricks on them, and stack them up into a castle shape. This really should be interesting.

I have also decided to tackle making my kids pinatas for their birthdays. My son wanted a dragon and my daughter wanted a castle. (Right now the dragon looks kind of like a goose lol.. Hopefully I can fix that)! Working with paper mache never was my most favorite thing to do!
I get kind of frustrated at the thought that I am doing all this work for the pinatas to get busted with a stick lol! I don't think I could work for a pinata making company!

Anyhow that has been my life in a nutshell lately :)!

I have a photo of my daughter painting. She doesn't realize she is putting the basecoat on her own dollhouse lol. She thinks it is a big cubby for her dad lol!

She is going to be soooo shocked!
Anyhow off for now! Have a wonderful day!

We're here! We're here :)!

2009-12-15T08:44:00.001-06:00

Well we are slowly getting settled in to our new home :)! I really do like the house except for all of the wallpaper :).... They LOVED wallpaper!

Hopefully next week I will begin working on my daughter's dollhouse furniture again :)! Obviously I won't make it for Christmas but her birthday is in February so that should give me plenty of time to get things ready :)!

I also have a few more Christmas gifts I need to make . I fell behind this year with the move.

Off to work! Just wanted to pop in :)!

Moving

2009-11-23T07:17:00.000-06:00

Well our life has kind of been in a whirlwind lately :)!
We are moving! We have been leasing our home for the past 6 years and our landlord decided to sell :)! We had planned on saving for about 2 more years and then were going to bulid or buy a new home.
They gave us notice for the 31st of Dec. but who wants to move the week after Christmas so we lucked into another home (It is bigger and has a lot more storage space!~~ We all know that women who love to craft and make things need lots of space~~ LOL!! Well this girl does for sure!). Anyhow since we are moving next week the dollhouse stuff has been put on hold temporarily!
I will be back soon though!
I figure if she doesn't get it for Christmas, then we'll get it for her birthday in February!

Hugs and off to packing...
I really don't like packing lol!

Doll House Items Round #2

2009-11-19T17:20:00.000-06:00

Yep I have been at it again :)! My daughter is in school 2 days a week so I have a very limited window of time that I can work on these items. (Since she NEVER seems to sleep Please keep in mind these items are not finished! This is the "rough draft" so to speak :)!
Anyhow, here is a photo of her bed made from Popsicle sticks :)!

Can you guess what these are going to be?
Keep in mind these are upside down!

They're going to be chandeliers :)!

Can you guess what I am going to make out of this???

Well it's going to be a fireplace ! Check back to see it finished :)!

Thanks so much for taking this journey with me :)! Off to painting on her fireplace!!

Dollhouse items so far!

2009-11-16T14:10:00.001-06:00

Well as promised I am doing more updating :)! Hopefully it will continue!
Here are a few of the items I have been working on for my daughter's dollhouse so far.

Keep in mind I am just now putting them together and I still have a looonnnnnnggg way to go!
First is a photo of her bathroom sink :)! I used an old heart shaped wooden bowl and glued it on top of a wooden candlestick. It still wasn't quite tall enough so I then glued it on top of one of my dad's old English Leather cologne bottle lids!

To the left of the "sink" is a lamp I made out of several things :)! I took a sample perfume bottle, washed it out really well, let it dry, and filled it with different colored seed beads I had. Then I glued some little round plastic balls to it for the shaft of the lamp. Finally I took one of the lids my mom had brought from her old perfume and used it as the "shade".

Next is a closer view of the lamp :)! It's not as crooked as it appears in the photo :)!

Ok next we have her bathtub :)! It's not finished yet but here it is! I took some wooden globe looking things and glued them to one of those hospitial things (Don't worry this one is my mom's and she didn't use it :) )!

I still have to add the handles and the shower!
Oh and everything has to be painted and finished of course :)!
I will tell you I am REALLY struggling with making a potty! I just may have to break down and buy one of those :)!

Well that's it for now! I will hopefully post some pictures of her bedroom items within the next few days :)!

Thanks so much for taking the time to look!

This Blog

2009-11-14T19:35:00.000-06:00

Well I have kind of let this blog go along with everything else in my life as of late but I am slowly getting back on track. Once you lose a loved one it just seems like the everyday life "happenings" aren't as important. For example, we had company come over last night and normally I would have been cleaning until the moment they arrived.
Well not last night, I didn't clean! Why should I spend my Friday cleaning for visitors? If I were going to clean like that I should do it for the people that are here all the time :)!

Anyhow, I have recently closed my website until the beginning of the new year. I want to start off fresh with new beginnings and I have decided to focus on the most important things in my life for the Holidays, which are my family members!
I have several items I want to make for family members and they have always gotten put on the back burner this time of year. Not this year :)! I have started to make my daughter a Barbie dollhouse and I will try to post pictures with some of the progress :)!
It has been so much fun! My mother has been helping me with it and it seems like it is , in an odd way, helping us to heal!
We are not going out and buying a bunch of expensive furniture (I have bought a few wooden pieces but none of them have cost over $3.50). We have ideas to re-purpose items into lamps, living room furniture, and bedroom furniture! I have made a few of the lamps so far and we are having a blast!

Anyhow, I just wanted to give a quick update and I hope to do more updating on a regular basis!

Hugs!

Winner of my Drawing

2009-09-20T07:02:00.000-05:00

Well I did draw the winner on Friday night lol I am just late posting her name!

The winner of my drawing is Marcie from Gingerbread Hill!!

CONGRATS TO YOU MARCIE! You won my $20.00 gift certificate towards items on my website!!

Just go to http://www.primbydesign.com to make your selections!

Thanks again for all of those that played!

My Apologies!

2009-09-18T14:23:00.000-05:00

I am so sorry I haven't posted in a while! I will draw for the $20.00 gift certificate tonight and post the winner! I honestly had forgotten about it with all that is going on until I logged in here today!

Some of you may be aware that my dad passed away Sept. 1 and I have been kind of living in a fog ever since! It's like time stands still and you really don't know what to think or how to react!..

Here is my daddy! If you get a moment you can click on the link below and the funeral home created a wonderful video of him and his grand kids :)!

http://www.rollerfuneralhomes.com/services.asp?locid=22&page=odetail&id=17852

Again I apologize for the delay in getting the winner!

You could win a $20.00 Gift Certificate!!

2009-07-24T19:30:00.000-05:00

That's right we decided to join the online craftshow at Prim Mart this year and we have decided to give away a $20.00 gift certificate !

There's no purchase necessary to win :)!

Just visit our booth for details on how to win!

Click here : http://www.ezcraftshow.com/shoppe/?sid=PrimByDesign
or just cut and paste into your browser!

We're also offering free shipping on all items purchased from the craftshow booth :)!
Thanks for taking the time to peek!

Contest Winner

2009-07-22T17:58:00.000-05:00

OK Winner, winner, chicken dinner! Well the winner of my contest doesn't win a chicken dinner but their choice of one of my 3 patterns below!!
I couldn't draw just one! I have 2 kids here with me today and they were gonna fight over who got to draw for the winner and sooooooo we drew 2 names :)!

1. Maureen
2. KKL Primitives

Woohoo congrats to you both!
You may pick your pattern from the 3 below and I will email it to you!

We decided, very last minute I might add, to have a booth at the Christmas in July Online Craftshow this year and our patterns will be available there :)! Hopefully we will also be able to introduce another new pattern this week too :)!
It doesn't open until tomorrow at Noon! Here's the link if you are interested, but our booth won't be ready until noon tomorrow :)! I am still working on it tonight :)!

http://www.ezcraftshow.com/shoppe/?sid=PrimByDesign

Thanks again and congrats to the winners :)!

The Fork

2009-07-19T11:40:00.000-05:00

Well I suppose it appears as if I am just going to be speaking about my beloved daughter :) ! Maybe I should have named this blog after her..
We were all about to go out to eat last night, hubby had been working all day and we wanted to take him out to eat...
My daughter comes into the living room making these horrible noises, I will try to duplicate them on here lol... It was OWWWEEEEEEEEYYOOOOUUU and other horrible mumblings from her mouth. You must understand my daughter, she is very small but nothing small comes out of her mouth... Anyhow, I look at her and ask "what in the heck she is doing?"....
She looks at me like I am a complete and udder idiot and says "MOM you don't understand whale ??" Apparently she was talking "whale" as they do on the movie Nemo...
Ahhhh, no I totally missed that one !
Ok fast forward, we found a neat little country style restaurant to eat at and we're eating? No biggie! I look up and my daughter has ever so gently placed her fork behind her ear like a pencil.
Mind you this wouldn't have been quite as bad if it would not have had a piece of chicken hanging off of it.....
One thing I have learned is that if you see something shocking with your children try not to gasp or yell in shock....
So I politely ask her "why in the world she has the fork behind her ear"?. In the meantime my hubby responds with a "gasp", you know the one I was just saying you shouldn't respond with...
She starts laughing at us uncontrollably and says "MOM I was just saving it for later, like you do with your pencil".......
ACKKKKKKKK LOL!

Honestly my kids really used to shock me all the time.
Now it really takes a LOT!!

We're going to head for the lake here in a bit for an afternoon picnic!

Finally Friday :)!

2009-07-17T07:31:00.000-05:00

Well the weekend is here! I will have to find out what projects we have in store for us this weekend! I think I would just prefer to take the kids swimming :)! Yep we have to "go" swimming someplace, which is fun, don't get me wrong. It is just that we purchased one of those inflatable ring pools, and the thing won't stay standing up! It is ridiculous. I feel as if we wasted lots of money on something that is just going to rot! We have leveled the ground and it's almost as if one side was warped when they made it because it will just fall and water will come flooding out. Oh well things could defintely be worse :)! No need complaining I just needed to get that off my chest!

Ohhh my beloved daughter, for those of you that don't know, she is a pickle! My hubby had to work late last night and it was about 11pm. I had been lying in bed drawing new patterns and watching a re-run from one of the Housewife shows (I am so addicted to those). Anyhow, I got up to make something to drink and she is standing in my kitchen with this horrible look on her face.
The look that tells me she has been caught! That little turkey was taking any and all change that was lying around and putting it in her new coin purse we got when we were on vacation at Pigeon Forge.
First off, I thought she was sound asleep, so she startled me ! Secondly, I have been wondering where all my change has been going! I guess late at night she gets up and sneaks my change off the kitchen counter. I have a 4 year old change thief lol!

Have a wonderful weekend all! OH and Dont' forget my pattern give away below!! All you have to do is leave a comment somewhere on my blog or follow me :)!

Contest!!

2009-07-15T07:37:00.000-05:00

Well In celebration of me finally designing some patterns I would like to have a contest on here! Designing patterns has always been something I have wanted to do and I finally decided to do it!

Currently I only have 3 but I am working on a few more! When I take my kids to Playworld they play while I design new patterns and then we come home and they help me "name" them. Then I get to work the patterns up into reality and tweek them so to speak.

Here is how the contest is going to work! Just leave a comment or become a follower of my blog and you can win! That's right! On the 22nd of this month I will draw 1 name from everyone that has either left a comment or has become a follower and you may choose the pattern of your liking! That sounds simple enough right :)? It will come to you in PDF format so you don't have to wait for it :)!

Here are my current patterns :) !

First off we have Elvin the Elf

Secondly we have Drake the Dracula

Last but not least we have Ginger! She is our first Gingerbread Girl

Our Day Today :)!

2009-07-14T21:09:00.000-05:00

Well this is my very first post! Yes I am finally taking the plunge into blogging :)! I have yet to make it to myspace, twitter, and many of the others. One step at a time for me :)! I have to take baby steps. I have been working on this blog for months now and just decided to finally post.

Today I took 2 of my children to a local pottery studio. They were having a class today when we went so we will go back in a couple of days. The concept is ingenious I think. Basically you purchase a piece of bisque ceramic, paint it , they fire it and glaze it for you and you pick it up. It gives children the opportunity to feel as if they are making the pottery from start to finish. Except for cleaning and firing it they actually are!

After leaving the "pottery store" we decided to head to Staples for a few back to school supplies. I love my children dearly but they are at that age where they LOVE to pick at each other. My son, Gavin will call his sister "Roast beef"... Since I absolutely don't allow name calling when they get angry at one another or want to pick on each other they will call each other weird names. For some reason calling my daughter "roast beef" just infuriates her. I have tried to explain to her that her brothers only do this because it makes her mad. She is such a ham, no pun intended! When she shows her temper, she holds nothing back!
Anyhow, in Staples Gavin calls her roast beef and Summer starts growling back at him with this most evil growl a 4 year old can muster. I don't watch many horror shows but her growl is so vicious it reminds me of something that would come out of that doll who's head always spins around in the horror shows...
Everyone in Staples is staring at us by this point and I decided it was definitely time to leave!
I can honestly say there is never a dull moment in this household, that is for sure!