I don’t know where my head is lately but I imagine it’s somewhere inside all the books and resources I’ve been organizing to start our first year of HOMESCHOOLING!!!!!!!! (Insert horror movie scream here) I’m going to have a lot less time to blog and such once school gets going but I plan to post pertinent info on our journey into this new adventure. I am equal parts full of terror and excitement to be teaching my boys and full of prayer on both ends that this really is what God has lead us to do. YIKES!!

So in all my prep I have become an organizing machine. A few days ago I cleaned up the pantry and sorted out the junk drawers and went through a massive stack of papers and other weirdness that had started hissing at me every time I passed it by.

One of my organizing tips I learned from my dear friend Jini (HI Jini!!) who lives up in Ohio. On the back of her kitchen door she has a shoe organizer, but there is nary a shoe to be found in this nifty device. Oh no, she had diapers, wipes, pocket tissues, sunscreen, hats, gloves, you name it. The contents in the pockets varied by season but I caught the bug and started using them in my own home.

I started simply with the one in our front hall closet. I keep hats, gloves, sunscreen, bug repellant, swim diapers, soccer cleats, baby shoes, shin guards, rain ponchos, and other sundry items that float around in everyone’s hall closet.

And then I branched out into the boys rooms. We tucked in nerf darts, small nerf guns, dress up gloves, webkinz, and other small toys that could fit in the pockets. Now mind you, they don’t always end up where they belong and the things way up at the tippy top rarely make an appearance out of their pockets, but they loved the idea and it has definitely helped with the mess on their floor!

I don’t have pictures of the cute one in the master bath but I have all kinds of brushes and hair do da’s and hair products and lotions and such in that one. I’m gonna get one for the baby’s room next for all his little stuffed animals and such on the bottom and all the other miscellany a baby’s room collects.

My favorite so far is the one I just added for the pantry. Can you feel the excitement spilling out of me??? There are pockets for plastic serveware, straws, individually wrapped snacks, bags of soup and/or rice sides, bags of sure jell and other neat items I pick up at mom n pop grocer stores. The possibilities are really endless. Soup and dressing mixes, spices, pasta, condiments, drink mixes and on and on and on…

If I had another door I would totally have one full of art supplies for the kids but months payday I’m on to organizing the laundry room. (more screaming horror movie lady) So if you’re short on space, heavy on small items and in need of some organization inspiration, then I hope you’ve found a muse here today. Happy sorting!!

Columbus Ohio is home to the Singing Buckeyes Barber Shop chorus and each year these guys sponsor a camp to engender the love of sweet harmonies and good music learning in young kids. Yes, you heard me right, barber shop choruses not only still exist but they have found a home in our new generations. Years ago, my sister in law Darlene got involved through her husbands barber shopping hobby. Within a short time, Dar was hired on to run the office and those duties included putting together the Harmony Camp. Darlene took up the camp with gusto and ran with it.

I can’t give you specific numbers on how many kids used to attend the camp, but I can tell you it grew to over 300 participants this year and they experienced one of the best camps on record this summer. Dar throws herself, heart and soul, into making this week long event something that these kids will remember for the rest of their lives. The concert event showcasing what the individual quartets and campers as a whole have learned is beyond amazing. And every year, Dar gets a standing O for the work she puts in to pull it off.

So todays Monkey Tune offering is an homage to one of my favorite, hard working people on the face of the planet, in honor of the heart she splits open and hands over for a few months out of the year, to give some extremely talented kids a fantastic week. Here’s to you Dar! I love ya!

Break out the kleenex for this one folks!

Many moons ago I propelled Fred into the land of blue grass with a free concert in the pouring down rain to see Nickel Creek at Harbor Park. Prior to that event, his primary music of choice was rap. Now, don’t get me wrong, I can dig that at the right time and in the right place. Generally in the gym trying to get a workout on. Get’s me pumped. However, not something I wanna hear all the time. The beat pounds my brain into mush eventually and then my mind becomes numb.

So he started finding his own niche’ in my world of music and one of the bands that became a constant were The Greencards. They were made up of three aussies and their sound is more of a bohemian/acoustic/country/blue grass feel. It’s extremely unique and I confess, it didn’t used to be my bag of tea, so to speak. I’m not really sure why.

Eventually, with perpetual play, they grew on me and when we trekked out for Merlefest, to our delight, they were on the schedule and Fred would finally get to see one of his mandolin heroes live. Wahooo!! But boy were we in for a surprise.

Not following live music very well at the time, we didn’t know they had garnered new fiddle and guitar players. To our utter astonishment, these guys blew us out of the water. We expected greatness from Carol and Kym, having been listeners for ages, but Tyler and Jake rocked the stage. Most of you know my penchant for the fiddle and how it speaks to me, and Tyler did it true justice. Jake, was a powerhouse on the guitar and I cannot wait to see him live again with his new band so John can see what real practice leads to.

So if you’re tired of your worn out play list and looking for something to give it a unique twist I highly recommend you check out The Greencards latest offering Fascination and give some more starving artists some dough for dinner! My favorites on the album are Outskirts of Blue, Davey Jones, The Water in the Well and The Crystal Merchant. The latter of which I have worn to an absolute frazzle! And here’s a little sample of what we got to hear down at Merlefest.

This fantastic outfit called church on the move is producing some seriously funny videos so I thought I’d share two with you that oughta be sponsored by depends. Strap one on and put the coke down unless you wanna clean off the snot/coke spray off your pc when you choke on it after watching these silly people

To the task at hand, I begin my next phase of blogdom regularity and bring to you (a bit early, or late depending on how you view it) Thrifty Thursday..but on Monday. It’s just gnawing at me to post my latest thrifting escapade and naught can cure it but to bring my latest deals to you!

There are a few shops around these parts that I’ve been going to for years like the DAV out off Virginia Beach Blvd. I’ve been frequenting them since I was small enough to fit in the shopping carts and I don’t think I’ve ever been in their doors and walked away empty handed. Since moving out to Chesapeake we are often found scavenging the CHKD thrift on Battlefield Blvd and just this past week I was introduced to the wonders of Thrift USA on Little Creek Blvd. It makes my happy little heart squeal, ” Cheap Cheap Cheap!” in delight. Here is a taste and rundown of what I gleaned last week.

This little gem was .99 cents empty and is now my kids craft caddy for glue, staplers, erasers, tape, and pencil sharpeners. Score 1

This sweet little jug is a fantastic addition to my growing pitcher collection. I picked her up for 2.50

I tried to resist the urge to buy silk flowers but succumbed when I found this for 4.00 A little more than I like to play but she’ll be a beaut at Christmas time.

These two lampshades were 5 dollars for the pair.

These pictures are becoming a trend for me. I love the artistry and texture in them and it just kills me to see something hand crafted in a bin for 2 bucks. But I ain’t complainin about the price!!

Scored this set of copper canisters for a total of 7 bucks.

3.00 pants

1.50 skirt brand new with tag still on!!!!

3.00 shirt

This dress was only 12 bucks but I”m gonna have to do some tailoring on it to fit cause it’s a size 18 and its too big… wahoooo!!!

And the grand finale and item that made me swoon was this beauty

For 10 dollars I picked up this vintage ironing board in beautiful working condition with hardly a scratch or trace of rust upon it. I LOVE it!!!

I don’t wanna really do the math to total it up cause I’m lazy and my kids are restless and frankly need baths, but I got some great deals and steals this past week and have been all kinds of fidgity to share my good fortune. I love me some thriftin!

When you are of a certain girth, there comes a point where you openly make fun of yourself. I’m not sure if it comes from a sense of trying to let others around know that you’re aware of your size or to poke fun at yourself before they do, or if it’s just that fat jokes are funny and if you’re the proverbial butt of them then you can laugh at them AND be politically correct. I think in my case, it’s just part of my life, and I can find funny in just about everything. Even in cellulite.

Most of my friends are seriously skinny. I try to refrain from a need to shovel carbohydrates into them stat upon sight but frankly, I see people, any people and I must feed them. Maybe it’s a subconscious act on my part to try to bring them up to a level playing field so I can feel akin to their adorableness and also to be able to shop for the REALLY cute things in the skinnier section of the thrift stores. Who knows. At any rate, poking fun at my girth around friends who love me generally brings a smile, a snicker, but more often, a guffaw. And it’s pretty much all true. I can’t make stuff like this up.

Case in point. Yesterday I went to button my favorite brown pants and the button popped off. I felt it on my thumb nail and then it disappeared. I never heard it clatter to the ground or ricochet off my thigh or skitter under a cabinet. It was just gone. I looked for it. Nowhere to be found. So I took the pants off and put some others on. I knew later I’d find it tucked in some fat roll or another upon my personage.

Sure enough, a trip to the thrift store in the afternoon with girlfriends and I’m in the dressing room. I found a few cute things for once but before handing over the dough I needed to be sure they’d encircle my ponderosa. Took my pants off and clink clank clunk the button comes rolling out of, you guessed it, one of my fat rolls. Having told the above story about it’s loss to my girl friends, I call out, “Hey, I found my button!” and hear hysterical myrth on the outside of my changing room. They giggle the question, “Where?” and I laugh back, “Right where I toldja it’d be. It was tucked in a fat roll!”. I hear the lady in the stall next to me smother a chuckle. I exit the room with my button safely tucked in a pocket this time and with 4 items that fit. And the next time you lose a button, you just may find it in an unexpected place and will remember my plight and have a laugh in spite of yourself or perhaps, because of yourself. Cause hey, fat’s funny, particularly when it’s yours.

Sometimes I have nothing to say and wonder what to post instead of words, and Monkey Tune Tuesday could not be a more appropriate day to share this with you.

Kenny Loggins’ Return to Pooh Corner album has been a part of my life for over 13 years now. I first heard it while nannying for some friends who kept it in their cd player for their infant daughter and when John came along it became a constant in our nurseries with he and the subsequent births of Luke and Noah.

We have played it round the clock for so long that we burnt 2 cd’s and one cd player. The instrumentals are beyond beautiful and his soft, gentle voice is perfection for lullabyes. Growing up as a child of the late seventies and early 80′s Loggins had been a part of the soundtrack of my life with hits like Danny’s Song and Footloose but none of his top 10 hits compare to the recordings on this album.

From the title track Return to Pooh corner, a rendition of Rainbow Connection sure to delight Muppet lovers everywhere, to the allure and haunting melody in his recording of The Last Unicorn you will be wearing your own copies out just like me. Of course, in the digital age you’ll be better off having it loaded into an MP3 player unlike myself burning it out and enduring the shrieks of an infant devoid of their only vice to falling asleep and his further anger at my paltry attempt in singing the tunes with my own voice that doesn’t even come to a close comparison of Loggins.

At any rate, lots of stores still carry this lovely album and you can download it from iTunes or Amazon to hear for yourselves. In the meantime, I’m adding a link so you may hear Rainbow Connection and hoping it actually plays. Fingers crossed, here goes….

04 Rainbow Connection

Brace yourselves folks, it’s a tutorial. Yes, oh yes. I promised. I procrastinated. I promised some more. But here it is. A project to share at last. I made about 40 of these little darlings during a nap time to give as gifts at our end of season brunch for my mom’s group. Anyone who knows me, knows I’m about two words from tears at all times and I thought a gift of tissues appropriate to remember me by for all those meetings I blubbered my heart out onto the tables and all over the delicious food we enjoyed bi-weekly.

Several of you asked for a how to, so just for you, because I love you sooooooo much, here it is. Bold prints work best with a about a medium sized pattern. Fabric stores have been selling coordinated fat quarter bundles that are superb for this very project. You wanna be able to find this little sucker in the deep dark recesses of your purses or the abyss I like to call a diaper bag.

First step is you wanna cut your strips into 5 1/2 inch x 13 1/2 inch lengths.

Second step you match up the short ends with the right side of the fabric facing each other and sew along the edge.

For the third step you wanna flip the material right side out and put the seam in the center and then iron flat.

Step number 4 turn the fabric over so the seam is on the bottom and then fold the pressed edges to the center and pin about an inch from the edges so your presser foot will have room to run.

Step number five sew the bottom and top edges

Step number six turn the finished product right side out and voila, a tissue holder!

This is the array I did in an afternoon’s naptime just a couple days ago. I will be putting them up for sale for 3 for 5 bucks in my brand new etsy store. I’ll post a link for that a little later when we’re fully operational. These are really awesome for wedding or baby showers cause we all know those are monumental tear producing events. And you can grab a few girlfriends and divvy up the steps and make an evening out of making a bunch together for whatever event you plan to use them for. If you make some yourselves, send me pics to see your finished products.

Wshew, I’m all worn out now and feeling a little accomplished that I finally delivered on a promise. I’m workin on that. Honest