Chore Chart

When we started our year off we kind of decided we wanted to make a way the kids can earn money.  It helps us in 2 ways: they have some responsibility in helping me around the house and they have to save for things they want instead of us just buying things.  Amelia got a dollhouse and is saving for "rooms" to fill it.  She is so motivated it is unbelievable.  This is what we came up with.  Please don't giggle too much at my first grade drawings, but I wanted Ben to be able to read it without reading it.  Then I taped the actually money they would earn so we can easily change it without having to make a new chart.  I am hoping they will learn what coins are and their value with this too.  We have already adjusted the amounts according to their degree of difficulty.   And still need to make some.  And don't giggle out how low we are paying them.  We decided to start out small now, when it really doesn't matter so we are not having to pay out too much when they really get the value of money!!
 This is what they have to do for each catergory:
Laundry: it's 10 cents for every load.  So they help me bring all the laundry to the laundry room, sort it, put it in the washer, switch it to the dryer, take it out and fold or hang up.  Now, most of the time I just make them help in a few of those steps. Since I do laundry like once a week it makes about 6 loads in a day. They can help do the sorting and the putting in the washer for all of the loads, or hang up all the loads, or any combo, just as long as I feel they are helping in a majority of the steps.  I pay them as a load is complete so we are not later trying to figure out how many they helped with.  If they do it together, then they split the dime.
Bathroom:  They have to clorox wipe the sink, toilet, bathtub and floor.  I typically scrub the toilet and shower to avoid any mishaps with bleach and cleaners.  We do this a few times a week.
Dusting: I have these dusting mittens they can put on and wipe down everything.  Bookcases especially (we have like 4) but Amelia's great at the windows, decorations, walls, anything really.  She just loves wiping stuff with the mitten.  I lift her up to get the high places.  We do this as many times she asks, usually 2 or 3 times a week.  It does get that dusty because we leave the windows open a lot because it is beautiful weather most of the time.
Trash: gather trash from the bathroom and kitchen and take them to the outside garbage can.  Put new trash bags in both cans. Take out the recycling.  Usually one does trash, one does recycling but I still pay the full amount each.
Bed: obviously, make their bed.
Leaves: sweep (since we don't have a rake and our backyard is concrete) the leaves off the yard.  We live under a HUGE oak tree that drops leaves by the hundreds.  We mostly put this up to give them something to do outside while I work in the back house.  I never expect any big progress and don't mind because we have a weekly gardener that comes with the house who gets all the leaves with a leaf blower. 
Schoolwork: this is a workbook for preschoolers and if she does 2 pages she gets paid. She hasn't done it in months, so I think I need to move her up to the next level and give Ben the preschool one. 
Book: Amelia can read a book to one of us all by herself  (she got the beginner BOB books so they are her level and I am so proud that she is reading words everywhere we go now) 
Noodle jar: is our other "earning" project we have been doing for a long time.  They earn noodles for things like good behavior, sharing, helping with stuff not on the chore chart, going to bed without fights, eating all of their dinner without complaining or negotiating, etc.  It's basically whatever behavior we are trying to work on improving at the moment. And I am pretty liberal with handing them out.  When they fill the jar (they are tiny little mason jars), they can pick a prize out of a bag that has a number of things I get on sale that I know they like.  OR they can earn $2 for their piggy banks.  Amelia wants the money, Ben wants the prizes.  It's great because the prizes are probably around $2 on average so it's the same to me but they feel in control of it.
Car: Help one of us either wash the outside, or vacuum out the inside of one of the cars.  This is going to be changed to $1 or more.  Ben did this last week and it took a lot of work so it should be rewarded much more handsomely!!

I am loving it.  Amelia has earned $6 in almost a month.  She will probably earn her $10 goal for her dollhouse room by the end of the month. We kind of set a cap at $10 for those and we will just eat the cost if it's more.  We thought anything more than $10 may seem like an unreachable goal and we don't want her to get burnt out.  I think the key is it's always an option for them to help or not.  Sometimes Amelia says she doesn't want to earn any money today and that's fine. Sometimes I like doing the chores alone so I am secretly relieved. But I always say that if I do it, I am not paying her and she doesn't throw any fits about it.  Ben typically doesn't wan to help.  He is really unmotivated by any system but I try to get him involved anyway. I like that it is something we can do together so they aren't bored while I am keeping the house clean and I don't have to feel guilty for not buying them stuff or for spoiling them. Plus, I hope I am teaching them a valuable lesson about keeping a house clean, the value of hard work and saving for something.  We'll see.

Wreath, flowers and topiary

So this is what I have had on my list forever and finally got it crossed off.  Re-purposing a crappy ivy trailing plant into a cone topiary.  The topiary needs one more vine of ivy or I need to paint the cardboard I used to make the cone because you can see it through the leaves.  I kind of hate styrofoam.  I feel guilty using it, buying it and not to mention it is expensive for craft stuff, so I just made a cardboard cone and then used 18 gauge floral wire and made a tee pee around the cone and hot glued it to the pt to keep it in place.  Then I was able to wrap the ivy around the wire but the cardboard helped keep the cone shape.  Took me 2 attempts to get the shape stable and right.  I was happy with the result.  Now, as always, where to put it.  My house has tacky wood paneling everywhere in the living room so everything clashes with it.  How I long for white walls.


Next, a book wreath.  I have seen these on a few blog tutorials and decided to try my own.  I bought a 25 cent Stephen King novel at a thrift store. Philip said I should feel good about defacing a Stephen King book because they have the equivalent value of a romance novel. Then, since I don't like styrofoam partly because it's expensive and partly because I feel environmentally irresponsible for getting it, I just cut out  2 layers of cardboard in a circle and hot glued them together.  Then I attached the paper to it first the outside row straight, then the inner row and filled in in between as I saw fit. I didn't glue then in rows in attempt to keep them from looking like perfect rows of circles around.  They still kind of did that.  But I used about 500 pages to get this that fluffly.  Took me all day (off and on for kids, eating, etc)  I honestly could have kept going, but I decided I didn't want to work on it another day so I stopped when it was bedtime. I hung this over our bed and hope to make our room around it.  Since we have not even a bed frame, that should be easy.

Lastly, my little flowers.  I made these cute pom poms a week or 2 ago. I was totally inspired by this. Then found an old glass syrup bottle for 25 cents at my new favorite thrift store to put them in. I made 3 but I liked them as a pair in the bottle. They are on my mantle, but the pics are soooo ugly because of the paneling, I decided to move them here to not totally gross you out.  Someday I will take pics of the room completed so you can see them in context.  I loved this craft too and Amelia was excited to let me use her fingers to wrap the yarn around.  They were just the perfect size.  Plus she liked helping me brush it to make it so fluffy.  I want to make a whole field of these with all the leftover ends of yarn I have.

Then I made these adorable little crepe paper flowers. I had a roll of hot pink crepe paper left over from Amelia's birthday party pinata and these Ikea sticks that I have used for a ton of projects and they just keep giving.  I basically used the Martha Stewart tissue paper pom pom idea on a much smaller scale and then glued them to a stick and fluffed.  Since it was crepe paper, they have the veiney look of a real flower.  Kind of a cross between a peony and a carnation.  Then I found these little watering cans for $1 at Potterybarn.  I have wanted them for a while and but didn't want to pay shipping for a $2 decorations so when I happened to browse the store last time I passed one and saw they were marked down to $1 I got 2.  I am kind of wishing I got the big one too and made a little cluster in my faux fireplace with my new topiary. We'll see. Actually I found the cans first and then decided to do the flowers in them.  I have a really bright blue tissue paper and I think I may make some in blue to go in the other one.  First I have to make about 6 or 8 more to fill this can up.  I want it to be a big bundle.  I am having Amelia hold it so you can see the proportion of how small they are.  Just little things.

Next I still want to tackle a cherry blossom branch.   My first attempt was unsuccessful.  I could not even do the origami to get the box shape on a big square, let alone a 2 inch tiny square.  So I may just use tissue paper or even scrapbook paper and just cut them out in a flowery shape and put them on.  Maybe I may have some fabric that would be even better.  The wheels are turning.  Keep you posted.

Made a cake, then did nothing, but it was on my list

Yesterday was our 8 year anniversary.  I wanted to make something yummy and I was torn between 2 chocolate cake recipes. I ended up choosing a Chocolate Pistachio Torte.   My pan burnt it a little so I had to trim the edges and in the process I broke it.  Then as I was moving it over to another counter to let it set up, I tilted the cake platter but luckily caught it just in time before the cake slid right off.  It ended up leaving a messy smear of ganache everywhere and the cake was all off centered and broken, so it was not as pretty as it should have been.  But it still tasted really good. We went to Ojai pizza and got some really yummy pizza with artichokes and pesto and sausage and other stuff and a tri tip sandwich. To keep the kids entertained, we got them free refills of root beer in their own special cups.  Amelia said that this was such a special day because she got root beer.  I will miss this time of life when they are so easily indulged by a glass of soda.  Then we put the kids to bed and sat on our butts and watched "Babies".  It was nice to just do nothing, no cleaning, no projects, no work, no computer. Very nice.  Now, back to work and projects and laundry and cooking and bills and.........

 OK, here's the pic

My first time buying, not just gawking

I bought my first thing off etsy today instead of just perusing for good ideas to make myself.  (C'mon ALL of us do that)  I attempted to buy a new ring for Phil earlier this morning (our anniversary is tomorrow and his wedding ring doesn't fit), but canceled my order when it prompted me to pay with paypal.  Then I wanted something for my sis and I decided to suck it up and try and realized you can pay with a credit card. Now I feel foolish that I didn't get the ring.  But, I am excited about her gift and hopefully it doesn't take too long.I'd tell you what it is, but I don't want to spoil it.  It just took me a few days to decide what to send her, then find the perfect one, then realize that I do not have the time to make it or any supplies and probably can't for the price they are there. Am I the only one who feels challenged by etsy to make something bigger, better and cheaper??.  It's just taunting me.  Dangerous for craft making. Double dangerous now that I know how easy etsy things are to buy!!!!

Craving This

I am craving this.  If you don't know, I am an emotional eater (hence my constant weight changes)  My sis got in a car accident today.  Even while I was hearing all the crazy details of her nearly escaping death, I was calm.  About 5 minutes after hanging up the phone, it all comes out. The panic, relief, tears.  That's me.  Calm until the storm passes and then fall apart.  I wish I could eat a huge slice of this with her right now!!  I wish I could be there to help and I hope everything turns out fine over the next few days.  I love you!!!

Accept it and move on

I am in desperate need of jeans.  All of them but 1 are TERRIBLE.  They are almost embarrassing to be seen in so I wear them at the house only and save the 1 nice pair for going out and then immediately take them off when I get back home so I don't jinx them. .Luckily I stay home a lot.  The rest are ripped (not in a cool way), stained on the butt, so tight my butt is squeezed into them and makes it look bigger than I want to admit, so big that I can pull them off without unbuttoning (and can no longer wear out of the house because of an incident where they did fall off all by themselves while I was on a walk with the kids but luckily we live in the boonies) seriously out of style, etc. So after Christmas I started on a mission to find the perfect ones: good fit, modest, no distressing, no buttons on the back pockets, no gaggy jewels or stitching, possibly a nice name brand that is good quality, no super unrealistic expectations...so I thought.  Well, they don't exist.  A few brands came close, but did not love them enough to pay $100 for them.  So I decided to try Old Navy just for kicks.  Found some I love.  $30.  Couldn't bring myself to get them.  Kept searching in vain for a "better brand".  Finally, last night Amelia and I went on a girls night out and I decided to give them a whirl again. Fit perfectly, not long, just enough stretch, low rise without my butt hanging out. Bought 2 pairs for $40.  Great deal. Can't say enough.  Came home showed Phil and he said exactly what I knew, but was hoping I could trick people into not noticing. Mommy jeans.  Kind of some funky colored stitching and something about the pockets makes them seem cheap, but honestly, who am I impressing???  I am a mom and I stay home or go out with my kids so why not rock the mom jeans proudly? So, if I liked a picture of myself in them I would post them, but that may be asking too much at once.  So here's to everyone who is proudly loving their mommy jeans. I have accepted it and can now move on. 

Dirty Carpet

Yesterday I rented a rug doctor and carpet cleaned my house and car.  It was totally disgusting since I don't think it was cleaned before we moved in and we have never cleaned the upholstery in the car (It's only 3 years old, but still, gross).  Plus the day we moved was a torrential rainstorm and our driveway is dirt, so there have been spots since the first hour we lived here that have been grossing me out.  Since it has been in the 80's here (yep) I thought it was a good time to do it.  But, I have to say, that will be my last time renting a rug doctor.  I had been using a friend's Hoover and it is far superior.  Gets out more stains, and leaves the carpet way less wet.  My house feels so wet still and now it has that musty smell.  Seems counterproductive to clean your carpets only to have a bad smell!!!  Hopefully another day of 80 and the windows open will solve both problems.  I am on to some decorating projects next. (I hope, we have a house full of sickies, so may have to wait)

sunday baking

My newest obsession in the kitchen right now are these rolls.  I think they are the best roll recipe ever and I have made a batch every week for the last month or so.  Today I double-batched it and tied them in knots for dinner.  (it made like 40 so here is my bowl of them) I recommend these to anyone who likes to bake bread.  THE best.  I typically have no patience for bread rising twice, that's why I like to make cinnamon rolls. So I let these sort of rise a little, punch down and let them sort of rise a little more and bake them and they still turn out incredible.  They are fool proof I swear. (actually one time I forgot the salt and they were nasty, so they can be ruined, but I just baked another batch the next day to make up for it)  I dare you to try them!! Except Claire, who is already a pro and made these for us one time and since then I have been hooked.

A cute flop I am still trying to think of ways to save instead of walking away, admitting my defeat

 Amelia got a dollhouse for Christmas.  We didn't get any furniture for it because I thought they would be good incentives and gifts through out the year.  On Christmas day after hours of playing with an empty house, I felt like they needed something, so Amelia and I crafted a bed out of a box and a crib for the babies to share.  We sewed some blankies and a crib skirt and then I sewed some bedding and glued it down to the box and voila, the house seemed so much less empty.  We looked for a bed set to buy, and I just didn't like the set that went with the house, so you know me, I took it as a challenge to make my own.  I found this idea for a farmhouse style doll bed on the knockoffwood blog (now is http://ana-white.com/)  I thought how cute it would be in her dollhouse and I could make a little blanket and the idea in my head was so cute.  Then I went to the one craft store and bought what I thought would work, dug up my wood glue and some old old nails and made it.  It was a disaster.  No saw, wood splitting, forgot to measure in the middle so it's too big for the house and dolls and there is an uneven space on each side of he mattress part, crooked legs, holes and oh the holes.  Then I painted it thinking it would cover up all the ugliness.  3 coats later and lacquer and my old nails rusted, so there are big obvious nail marks now.  And 1 day after it sat in the dollhouse, Ben got a hold of it and the leg split.  If it lasts the rest of the month I will be impressed.  I suppose we will go back to the box one or the prefab plastic.  (Unless I feel like I have learned from my mistakes and get the proper supplies to try again.  Just not sure if it's worth my time and effort.)  I have learned.  So many problems from the start I could go on, but I won't.  I am off to do something on my list today.

Shoes and stuff

Ok, I am also addicted to making these shoes.  I made some for Phil's sister who had a baby months ago and since then I have made 3 more pair for shower gifts.  My favorite was a brown and pink pattern for a girl and I crocheted a little matching headband, but I didn't take a picture.  So lame.  These are my latest with a matching bib.  I kind of want to try to make a pair in Ben's size.  He just ripped thru the sole of his slippers, and we wear them every day around here. If it's posted on the blog then it's as good as on the list!!

Totally addicted to these

I had first made these blocks and bag for Phil's little brother's new baby.  Then I made these in particular for a baby shower gift and can't stop.  I didn't take pics of the others I made, but I made another set of blocks for  my sister's friend and her sister in law and another doll for my niece. I made hers with orange hair and I think it was soo cute.  Wish I had taken a pic.

Starting New

I need an outlet for my never ending lists of projects. Just like a holiday or birthday, I seem to think that it doesn't exist if  I don't have a picture of it. So....... this is my project blog.  Not instructional, not trying to sell it, or one-up Martha, just a place for my project diarrhea.   When I cross something off my list, I am making it official by blogging it.  Hope you enjoy.