the princess and the pea

The perfect night's sleep ~ isn't that a quest we all seek?

Our pillows were recently declared f.l.a.t. and no longer positively contributing to that elusive perfect night's sleep. We go through pillows kinda quickly (big heads?) and I was thinking that one reason is because we go all out and spend all of ten bucks a pillow at Target. 

So we took ourselves to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to get what we thought were real pillows, grown up pillows. We read labels, smushed pillows, and tried to imagine ourselves sleeping on them. Greg and I are both side/back sleepers heavy on the side sleeping. Since we tend to smush pillows at a relatively quick pace, we picked out very firm pillows that were supposed to be side sleepers. Greg got a pricey one (worth four Target pillows) and I got a cheaper one (worth two Target pillows).

Here we go! Here comes the perfect night's sleep. Surely we would hear the angels sing as we slumbered on our new real pillows.

Not so much.

Those pillows were three feet tall and never smushed down all night. We both woke up with headaches. Not a perfect sleep.

Convinced that we just needed to get used to them we continued using them for two more nights. After that we threw our old pancake pillows on the bed.

We returned the pillows and got two of the twenty dollar pillows that were less firm. These pillows were still three feet tall, but less firm would mean more smash, right.

Not so much.

We didn't even last a full night with those bad boys. The mammoth pillows were once again rejected for their flatter counterparts.

And I marched them right back to the store and endured the ugly looks the cashier gave me when she realized that this was the second set of pillows I was returning. I might have run out of the store after my transaction.

I went to Target and plopped down twenty whole bucks for two pillows labeled for side/back sleepers.

And that night the angels sang.

The moral of this story? More expensive is not always better.

Or Target rules.

Either way, we are back on the road to the perfect night's sleep and it is not likely that I will spend more than ten bucks on a pillow ever again.

       

instafriday

Because it's been a while since I've shared my Instagram photos, I'm including about two weeks of photos in this Insta-Friday post. Lucky you!

My friend, Alisa, sent me a picture of a zipper pouch as a suggestion for a new design. I tweaked her suggestion a little and came up with this bow design for my pencil pouches. I love it! Other color combos will be coming soon.

Anybody else loving the gray and yellow right now? There is just something so striking about it. This is also a little something new for my pouches that stand up. Of course I'm working on more color combos of this as well. Hopefully both types of pouches will be listed in my shop soon.

My friend, Alana, and I scored last minute tickets and were able to hear Ron Clark speak. And we met him! No big deal ~ he's just my teaching hero, you know. You can read more about that on my teaching blog.

We followed that up with lunch out, of course. Summer is great for teachers because we can actually slow down during meals and have a decent conversation instead of speed eating before the bell rings to go pick up the students. There have been many a family dinner that I gulp down my food only to look around and see everyone only half finished. One day, Greg even said, "Slow down, you're not at school."

Isn't this lovely? I had a gift card for my favorite fabric store ~ the one with the really pricey stuff. It's been a little while since I've been in the shop, so I spent a really long time wandering around before I even picked up a bolt. I was asked by more than one shop worker if I needed help or if they could help me find something. Back off, girls!

Once I picked up the first bolt, the rest flew into my arms at a dizzying rate. I had to make myself steer towards the cutting counter before we had to get a second mortgage. As it was I went way a little over my gift card amount.

I haven't been keeping up with my 365 Drawings project the way it was intended. No matter ~ I'm working at my pace. My pace this summer is v.e.r.y. slow. I'm conserving energy for the fall. I did this zentangle while cleaning ~ cleaning out the TiVo of shows, that is.

Like it or not, school is approaching. Every year, August 1 marks the time when I start going back to school to prepare my classroom a little bit at a time. That's next week. I keep telling myself that this year I'm going to wait, but we all know that's unlikely to happen. The sadness of the summer winding down can only be soothed with back to school supplies for myself. So far I've accumulated a few of my favorites including mechanical pencils and Mr. Sketch markers. I love, love, love Mr. Sketch markers. First, they smell so delicious ~ duh! Secondly, they last all year (and sometimes two) writing on charts during lessons.

I was in Hobby Lobby the other day and saw they were putting out Christmas things. What?! Well, you know, crafters gotta get busy early. I get that. But they were putting out ornaments too. Greg told me Hallmark already has their ornaments out.

IT'S JULY PEOPLE! People are gonna be worn out of Christmas before the chill gets in the air.

It may be July and too early for ornaments in the store, but it's not too early for me to get ready for the fall craft boutiques, right? These clothes pins are going to be a super cute set to hold Christmas cards. They will be paired with twine to hang on the wall.

I'm linking up with Jeannett for Insta-Friday. You can too.

       

storm chasing

We live in an area with little variation in weather. The summer gives us hot, hotter, and Devil's Inferno. The winter gives us cold, cold & windy, and cold & knock-you-down-at-duty-windy.

So when some summer thunder storms roll in everyone gets a little giddy.

Saturday night Greg loaded Heather and I (Stephanie was at a friend's house) in the truck and we took off in search of a storm that was supposed to be headed our way.

We stopped to try to catch a few pictures of the light show in the heavens.

Greg set up the tripod and took hundreds of pictures in hopes of getting a few choice shots.

We also watched two storm systems go completely by us instead of over us.

At one point the lightning started happening in the clouds right over our heads. It lit up the whole sky, as it jumped from cloud to cloud.

Still.

No rain on us.

In this picture, you can see it was raining miles away. 

We were stationed near the outflow of a community lake and could hear the steady trickle of the stream. All of a sudden the sound of the water got louder, much louder. The wind picked up and we heard what sounded like a wall of water coming our way.

Greg screamed, "Everybody in the truck!" We ran and scrambled in the truck and hastily rolled up the windows before we got drenched.

Pfft! Pfft! Only a few drops fell. 

We laughed and laughed!

Then we got a text from Greg's sister that it was raining h.a.r.d. at her house. So of course we took off in that direction and found the rain. We also found quite a few puddles that the big truck couldn't resist. I may have peed my pants just a little on one section of the road.

It's been dry here since.

No more weather excitement.

We certainly are not ready for our own reality show chasing storms, but we sure had a good time on a Saturday night!

       

happy birthday to you!

Happy Birthday to my sweet, sweet husband!

I love you!

    

365 drawing

So...I started this new thing.

There's always a new thing around here.

Anyway, I started a 365 Drawing project. Except, because of busy schedules and my need for sleep, it is more of a draw-when-I-can project.

Back in January, I came across a 365 Drawing challenge. I've been wanting to practice my drawing skills more & generally spend more time doing art, so this seemed like a perfect way to do that.

There have been some duds along the way ~ like the time I drew a face that looked like it belonged on a wanted poster, not in my drawing pad. But for the most part, I'm having a good time practicing. Some have turned out better than I hoped and I like to go back and look at them.

I've been working in pencil, colored pencil, and ink. I have a bag all set up that I take to the kids' dance classes with me. Right now I'm working with a smallish sketch book (5x7), but when this one is full I have a bigger one (8x11) ready to go.

I have also gotten a little behind because I am rarely satisfied with quick sketch ~ I gotta finish it.

Sometimes, the hardest part is coming up with ideas to draw. That's how the Batman in the first picture came about. It was a request of my little nephew, Gavin.

I post my 365 Drawings on Instagram. If you want to follow along, I'm daffodilsanddaisies on Instagram.

     

menu plan monday - january 7

Today it's back to school for the kids and me. I am excited to see my friends and the students ~ but I was just getting used to being a stay at home mom. When is spring break?

I have another menu plan for you! I am on a roll, people.

This week we will have:

• taco soup
• sloppy joes
• crescent roll chicken
• spaghetti - homemade meat sauce
• marinated chicken & potatoes

Greg doesn't really love the crescent roll chicken, but we have crescent rolls and plenty of cream cheese. I'm going to see what I can do to change it up a little. If it's fabulous, I'll let you know all about it. 

Are you eating from the pantry this month? How's that going for you?

As I've mentioned before, our grocery store has case sales in January. And we did partake this week. How can you pass this up when it's food you will be eating anyway? It's better to get it on sale! Because of the case sale we overspent my primary goal of $140 a week, but I kinda knew it was going to happen. 

Walking up to the register Greg said that he thought our basket was about $180. Nah, I told him. I said it was more like $100, knowing full well it was not. After the loyalty card deals and coupons our total was $180.11. Sign that boy up for The Price is Right!

So with the overage from this week and the under spending from last week, I am about $25 over for the month. I can make that up in the next three weeks. 

Challenge accepted!

I think.

I'm linking up with orgjunkie.com and Good Cheap Eats today.  Hop on over and see what everyone else is doing this week. 

   

snow fun

This Winter Break has been relaxing for the kids and full of cousin-sleepovers. Last night they had the third one in two weeks ~ each one with a different cousin. Gianna lives out of state with her mom so the kids don't get to see her often. 

Uncle Tony & Shantel took the kids to the mountains and out to eat several times. They pretty much spoiled them. Their day started off with a trip to the mountains to play in the snow. Stephanie and Heather were so excited to go sledding & be in the snow.  Brrr.

With these girls, I can only imagine the screaming and laughing that filled their house last night.

I used my quiet time to get started on my 2013 calendar project. This is a calendar that was supposed to be done before Christmas ~ you know, for family gifts. 

Ahem.

Thankfully, I have a patient tolerant family. 

Here's the January page.

I just finished August. Woohoo! Almost done.