Light bulb.

The other day a little voice came from the backseat.

"Mommy?"

"Yes sweetie."

"When I grew up can I be a Mommy?"

"Oh, of course you can Buggie."

{A sick little Buggie napping on the couch with me}

That tiny question gave me a BIG light bulb moment.

Wow, maybe I am doing it right.

Maybe I got this Mommy thing down.

Does she see me and think, I want to be just like her?!

Holy cow.

That light bulb moment sure came in handy 5 minutes later when, she was

kicking the seat for the 100th time.

Light bulb, light bulb.

2011 holds lots of possibilities.

I have been thinking about the new year.

Pondering what it will bring.

Do we map out our own destinies?

Or is there a master plan?

Either way you may think, I hope you will take full advantage of your life in 2011.

I know I plan on it.

First order of business, finishing up projects around my house.

Master bedroom redo, MUST be finished.

This print will be coming to live at my house, specifically a spot right next to my bed.

Parties to plan and indulge in.

Trips to book.

Friends to hang with.

Photoshop to "master".

Books to bend the spine on {no kindle or nook for me, old fashion page turning}.

Food to make and devour.

With LOTS of playing stuck in between it all.

So hows about you?

How are you planning to take hold of your life in 2011?!

Mom in the shot Dec 23rd {Christmas Eve Jammers?}

Reached into the archives for todays shot.

Nothing like looking back.

Last years Christmas Eve new jammers pic.

You can barely see Bean in my Sis's arms. I can not wait for this years.

Did you see Em's post yesterday?!

To say I am happy for her is an understatement.

And you guys have NO clue how she has been biting at the bit to share Elsa with you guys.

I mean BAD.

And to think many of your generous hearts have helped make this happen.

Tears, smiles, and goosebumps.

So this was a early VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS present the Andersons.

Now a few more months of waiting.

Merry Christmas to all!

Twistband Winners

Sorry I am three days late posting this.

I am slapping my bad blogger hand as we speak.

Ladies send me your email addresses.

Off to put my self in time out now.

Is it 5 o'clock, yet?!

Santa's got your number.

Call me a wackado but I like some kind of order on Christmas morning.

So much so that I find myself shaking, holding up to the light, anything to remember what is in the box.

Opening gifts in some kind of order insures that once that certain gift

{you know the one, its topped EVERY single letter to Santa, its the one that

you hang over their head, "I am going to call Santa to tell him not to bother

bringing ______."}

will not bring the opening festivities to halt at its very presence.

When I saw Free Pretty Things For You's Reindeer Printables.

I knew what to do.

I opened the images up in photoshop {you can use word also} and added some numbers {I used marcell font}. Once I printed them I used my 2in circle punch to cut them out.

I am using red for Bugs and green for Bean.

Now come Christmas morning, Buggie's pile will be stacked in sequence.

{this is THAT gift, the list topper, the head hanger, the VERY last one to open from Santa}

Some if not most of you may be shaking you head at the shear OCD of this post. I told you WACKADO. But when you spend some much time thinking about what to get you little people and then they fly through the presents like the Tazmanian Devil, it can honestly be a little disheartening.

This post is NOT meant to imprint my OCD on others, BUT this is how I like it done on

Christmas morning. And BELIEVE me it is not me sucking the fun out of it, it is still a BLAST.

Happy wrapping or should I say UNwrapping!

From our home to yours.

Here is how every single conversation I have had this week started:

"So are you ready? You know it is next week?"

One more week.

Thats it.

{wish i could send EVERY single one of you a card, but not sure if Hubs would

like that stamp bill}

I am sad.

Sad that all the holiday commercials are ending.

The Christmas music will cease to pump out the mall speakers.

That all the twinkling lights will be wrapped up and stored until next year.

And that the fresh pine smell will not linger anymore.

All those nonstop Christmas movies will stop streaming through the TV universe.

Too fast, time has gone too fast.

Sad, I tell you.

So I guess I should ask.

"Are you ready?"

Mom in the shot Dec 15th {is this the best we can do?}

Coming to you this week with yet another one of

my classically trained modeling looks.

I like to call this one

"deer in headlights."

At least this week my mouth is only slightly open.

Now some of you might be asking yourself,

"why the look of surprise, when clearly you are holding the camera and taking the picture?"

People I can not answer that, I realize it is not as if someone

came running around the corner and snapped one in my face.

Honestly, you get what you get and you don't get upset,

said wisely by Pinkalicious's Mom.

{Bean and I about to freeze our tails off going to pickup Bug}

Come to the party over at Em's.

Wrapping with a Sweet Treat {Peppermint Marshmallow DIY}

I have a weird infatuation with food on a stick.

Does it make it taste better?

Not sure.

But it sure does make it fun.

Here is my Peppermint Marshmallows on a Stick:

What you will need:

- Marshmallows

- Sticks {I used the 4in}

- Round Wood Beads {16mm}

- Wiltons Dipping Candy {I used white}

- Peppermint Candy Canes {smashed into bits, food processor works great}

- Gorilla Glue

- Candy Baggies {I used 3 x 4in}

- Twine, yarn or pipe cleaner {to close your bags}

First thing you want to do is glue your beads to the ends of the sticks {you can paint them if you

would like, I preferred the natural color}. Let dry for a hr or so.

Once they are dry, stick a marshmallow on the end.

After melting your Wiltons, dip the marshmallow half way into the candy. Make sure you scrap the excess off the marshmallow.

Next dip them into the crushed peppermint, making sure to coat them.

Place on a cookie sheet to harden.

Wrap up in your candy bags.

Now you have the perfect topper for your wrapping.

Remember those AWESOME teacher gifts yesterday, here they are all ready to be handed out

now with a yummy treat on top.

I found these adorable FREE gift tags on Eat Drink Chic. Downloaded them and printed them out on some colored card stock. Then took a little scrap of fabric and sewed a little ruffle to them.

Happy wrapping.

Easter Chocolate

Linking up at:

A gift for teacher ♥ Buggie

Teachers, the unsung heros of our day to day lives.

These are the people that for 5 days a week we intrust our most

precious little people with.

I love a great teacher, and my Buggie has three.

To celebrate them I went to Anthropologie.

Now I know many of you have about 30 teachers among you kiddies to buy for,

SO this post might not be for you.

I knew I wanted to buy each of them a mug.

And for $6 each they for sure do not break the bank.

I had a thought that I wanted to fill them with something yummy.

But when browsing the labyrinth of that drool worthy store {all the while emailing my LIST to my Hubby}, I stumbled upon a jar filled with soaps wrapped up in colorful little doilies. Then I glazed down to see the beacon of light shining off a little sign that said $3.95! Regularly $8.95 that was a HUGE score.

As I weaved my way around about twenty non stroller friendly displays {lets just

say my whole family might have been eating on gorilla glued back together bowls for the next twenty years as I flow past a HUGE rack of them}, I was

holding my breathe that they would fit snug as a bug in the mugs.

Perfection, I tell you.

And OH MY LANS do they smell beyond divine.

Tied them up with a little twine.

Tomorrow I am going to share

how I finished them up with some wrapping.

$10 bucks a teacher, not bad.

But if you have a secret Santa exchange, hostess gift, or neighbor

gift needed these would be perfect.

I love when a plan comes together.

Do not forgot to enter my current giveaway!

Twistband Giveaway {Dec 13th - Dec 19th}

Lets face it as Mommas there is something I affectionately call

the "Mom Tail".

I ALWAYS seem to have a ponytail holder around my wrist,

ready to come to the call of duty at any moments notice.

And with Buggie sometimes that means double up on the

wrist "jewelry".

I am LOVING Twistband and the Mommas story behind it.

5 lucky winners will be picked , each winning one set {which includes three hair ties}.

Can not wait to see if you won and want to place an order?!

Enter Wintertwistband when ordering an get 20% off.

You have up to three ways to enter:

1. Head over to Twistband and come so we can hear what you are loving! {one entry}

2. Follow Twistband on FB and/or Twitter {please leave a comment on their page letting them know where you came from!} {one entry}

3. Make a purchase from Twistband {3 extra entries}

Giveaway closes on Dec 19th at midnight Eastern time.

Winners will be announced Dec 20th {via random.org}

Don't get it twisted, good luck!

Two current obsessions.

Anyone else obsessing on The Sing Off?!

It is only two episodes in and I have had goosebumps both times.

I just love the talent and how it is ALL singing, nothing to back them.

AMAZING.

It does make me feel totally inadequate in the singing department,

wait who am I kidding I did not need a show to do that.

I am just lucky my daughter does not go all Fozzy Bear on me and start chucking

tomatoes at me when I sing songs to her at night.

{my favorite group so far Street Corner Sympathy}

Ok on to number two.

This kid and his own obsession.

"Talking" on my phone.

{I love how the only thing out of focus is his mouth, jabbing a mile a minute}

We are working on handing it back to Mommy when he is done.

Not sure how many more throws it can take.

So how about you, loving The Sing Off?!

Anything good you are obsessing about right now?!

Happy weekend!

Flashback DIY

Need a gift for the movie lover in your life

or maybe a gift for a whole family?

Do not look any farther then this post.

Fill this Ticket Roll Popcorn bowl, with movie gift cards, Best Buy gift cards, DVD's, their fav candies and bags of popcorn.

Easy peasy.

Happy crafting.

Mom in the shot Dec 8th {Crazy Driver}

Bug took this shot, she rocks.

Dude why is "the mouth wide open look" my go to?

And yes I was seen outside my house in my camo sweatpants,

man how does Hubs keep his hands off me?!

Bean and I crusin' on the plasma car.

You know the drill, I link up with Em on Thursdays.

A decision and the sequence to get one gem.

You really never know what you got until you start uploading.

This was NOT looking good...

Excuse my French but, Holy Crap.

This picture actually ROCKS.

So I went with Snapfish, with coupon codes and such it was pretty darn cheap.

Thank you ALL for your suggestions, I hope to try them all out and have my go to.

XO

Fabric Bows DIY

Just because one owns a sewing machine, does not make one a sewer.

I have come to realize this over the past couple of years.

So this DIY is sewing free.

Fabric Bows:

What you need

- Fabric {depending of the size and how many bows you are making

will determine the measurements, I got 4 yard of the gingham and 1 yard of the most

crazy, insanely adorable santa fabric which I am hoping to get 7 to 8 bows}

- Balloons {now this is also depending on the size of the bow you want

I got 5 in balloons}

- Pipe cleaner

- Fabric Stiffener

- Scissors

- Plastic bags to protect your work surface

-Sponge brush

-Bowl

First thing I did was cut a 6in wide strip of the fabric I used for the bow part, then wrapped it around the balloons to make sure it was long enough to cover and gather in between the balloons.

Second I cut around 4 in wide strips of the crazy insanely adorable santa fabric for the tails.

Now I tried this two different ways.

First was was to tie everything together with the pipe cleaner leaving the pipe cleaner long in the back to use later to tie them.

Then with a sponge brush paint on the fabric stiffener. This way was much less messier then the second way but I found I did not get it saturated enough and it took longer.

Attempt two I took the fabric {both the gingham and the crazy insanely adorable santa fabric} and dunked it into a bowl of the stiffener ,using your fingers squeeze off the excess. Then wrapped it around the balloons and tied it all together. Much more messy but faster and covered the fabric much better.

To dry, lay it out on your plastic bags, I scrunched up the bag to give the tails a flowly look once they dried.

Let them dry over night, pop your balloons.

Lastly take a small piece of your bow fabric and tie around the center to make the center knot.

To hang use the pipe cleaner.

Man oh man that santa fabric makes me smile. I plan on making some more for the tree {which we are getting tonight!!!}.

Please let me know if you have any questions on this.

Happy crafty!