Friday, December 16, 2011

Project 52: School Days

I know I'm very late to join Project 52, but I only just got back into blogging.
For details on Project 52 visit Simply Modern Mom's post on it.


My son just started going to school 3 days a week and this was his first day. He was so excited to be at school. When I dropped him off he ran and sat down with the rest of the kids. He wouldn't even turn around to say good-bye to me!
It has definitely been a harder adjustment for me then for him. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to have the time to get work done but I still feel a little pang of sadness that my baby is so eager to grow up.

Project 52: Glimpse Into Motherhood

Monday, December 12, 2011

Goodbye Tree

We are moving soon (yay!) so to start packing I began by taking all my pictures down. I had to take a picture of my wall decal tree before I pulled that down. I actually let my daughter and her friend pull it down and they had a lot of fun doing it! It can be moved around but I knew it wouldn't survive moving houses.


I made the tree myself. I had seen a lot of tree decals on Etsy that were gorgeous, but I didn't want to spend the money and I figured it can't be too hard to make myself. It wasn't, the only hard thing was tracking down solid black contact paper. I bought the solid black contact paper on Ebay then I just drew on the contact paper and cut it out. I paid about $10 for 2 rolls of contact paper shipped and I only ended up using one roll for the tree which makes it about $5 for the tree vs paying about $75 and up to buy it ready made.
It makes me sad that I have to take it down, but at that price once we move into the new place I can always make a new tree!

I'm linking up

you are talking too much








Friday, December 9, 2011

Golden Night

I thought I'd try a dark color on my nails, the last time I went this dark was in elementary school, and these days dark colors can be sophisticated and elegant. I bought some lovely new nail polish to give it a try and I am very happy with the results, I will definitely be wearing this again.


Revlon Black Star was on sale at Walgreens plus you get a $3 coupon when you pay to use on your next purchase making the polish 99c plus tax. If you are looking for some new nail polish at a great price, head over to your local Walgreens, tomorrow is the last day they will have this deal running but when I went in yesterday my Walgreens still had lots of bottles left. You could even give a bottle or two as a holiday gift I love all the Revlon polishes that I have and think they'd make a great gift. The Milani Jewel FX Gold was full price but at $5 a bottle it's still a great price. It's very elegant looking and looks like it cost you way more then $5. Next time I'm gonna try it without any background color.


The pictures don't do it justice, I had to use my cellphone camera because my regular camera just broke (at least I'm not the only one, but why oh why did it happen to my camera, I wasn't even around when it happened...)

I'm linking up
Guiltless Grab Friday

life rearranged

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Tip Thursday With Kevin James Bennet for Pursebuzz

If you don't already watch Pursebuzz on YouTube you gotta check out her videos. She recently started a Tip Thursday series with Kevin James Bennet and his beauty tips are really unique and useful. Here is their latest video.

Easy Cinnamon Sugar Flat Bread



The other day my kids had a play date and theirs friend's mom gave them some cinnamon sugar flat bread for a snack. When we got home they asked if I could buy them some. Instead I came up with a healthier homemade version. These would also make a great party snack, especially around the holiday time. You can use holiday cookie cutters to make them even more festive if you would like.


Ingredients:
Whole Wheat Flour Tortillas
Vegetable Oil
Sugar
Cinnamon


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. We cut the tortillas in half and then in strips, but you can do any shape you want, or use cookie cutters to do something more intricate. Lay the pieces on a cookie tray lined with baking paper, we used about 3 tortillas on one cookie sheet.


I gave my daughter a small bowl with some oil and a pastry brush and she got painting the oil on all the cut up pieces of tortilla. When she was done (I checked to make sure they were evenly coated, she is only 4) I sprinkled sugar and cinnamon on top of the pieces. The great thing about making your own flat bread is you can decide how much flavoring you want on them.


We love cinnamon so we were very generous when sprinkling that on, if you like less put less. You can also make these savory with and types of spices that you like. Bake them for about 10 min, let cool and store in an airtight container. I don't know how long these would last because when we make them they are with in two days.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Tip Thursday


When ever I want to rearrange the furniture in one of the rooms in my house I take measurements of the room and all the furniture inside it. I cut pieces of paper to scale (feet to inches) and rearrange until I find the perfect layout. This also helps when moving to a new place. I you figure out where you want everything to go beforehand, then on moving day all you have to do is tell the movers where to set things down!

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Blog Love

I just happened upon a blog called Stylebagge and was amazed by most everything there! I saw many project and cooking ideas that are going on my to do list.
Here are a few:


french fry shoot­ers and sliders


wine rack from Real Simple
Head on over and check out the blog!

XL Pants to Skirt


I bought this pair of pants a while ago, when I saw that they were only $1 I couldn't pass it up. It was a size 3x and I wear a 6 or 8, but I knew the material would cost me more then $1, let alone the zipper, buttons and studs (if I even knew how to put such stuff on and make it look professional). Here is the skirt after it was completed. I added some textured fabric (the closest in color I could find), so that the skirt would be fuller and have more visual interest. I finally finished it last night (it took me a long time).



scarf: www.savvysheitels.com // t-shirt: old navy // skirt: made by me

I am linking up to these link parties:



Monday, November 28, 2011

New Loves



With the cold weather finally upon us (I know in LA it doesn't really get 'cold' but for us Los Angelenos its cold) I have been wearing more layers and what better way to add an extra layer to keep warm or little sparkle to brighten your day then with some cute new hair (or head) accessories. Here are a few new items I've been loving lately.

1. Fall Turban
2. Chocolate Brown Bucket Hat
3. Knit Beret
4. Glittering Paisley Headband
5. Gold Rose Hairclips

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Thursday, August 4, 2011

It's potty time!

Today E went poopy on the potty for the first time. He is 20 months and we are very proud of him. I hope he will continue with this progress (unlike A who did the same as him until this age and then decided to wait a year before continuing)


Thursday, July 28, 2011

Harry Potter in 99 Seconds

This song is amazing anyone who has ever read Harry Potter should watch it.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Calypso St. Barth for Target

When the Calypso St. Barth for Target Collection first came out I loved so much of it (home ware and clothing). I waited and waited for it to be marked down, it's still full price online but go check out your Target for major markdowns. I bought a serving tray for about $4. The tiered serving tray that i liked was all sold out in store.

I have also been admiring these pillows marked down to about $6 in store is a great price but bargain shopper me couldn't pay that much especially when I don't really need new pillows. I'm still gonna keep an eye out since there were a lot of them left they may be marked down further or I may break down on my next Target run and purchase them anyways because $6 is a great price for a pillow.


There were also flip flops for about $3 and beautiful wedges for about $6 (I wish they were closed toe then I might have bought them).
Do you wait for Target Designer Collections to go on sale or do you just buy the things you want so they won't be all out when it goes on sale?

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Makeup For Mommy?


I guess in order for my daughter to realize that she is not allowed to play with mommy's make up she has to have one big mishap a year. Last year she took a hard to find cream blush and smushed it into the netted walls of her brother's pack 'n play while we were sleeping (I tried everything to get it out and there is still a slight stain). I still don't really use that blush even though there is a bit left.
This afternoon while I was entertaining E she decided to put on nail polish by herself. My favorite polish for the past few months is Sinful Colors Pink a beautiful neon pink that A decided to mix into my clear polish and paint it with silver glitter all over her fingers (not nails, fingers). I usually paint her nails after I cut them (as an incentive to get her to sit nicely). After I took off the mix of polish from her hands I cut her nails and told her it would be a while before she would get nail polish again.
Do your kids get into your make up? What do they do with it? How do you try and get them to understand that make up is only for mommy?
Linking up to Type A Decorating's Link Party

Monday, July 11, 2011

Decorating on a $0 Budget

I live in a 2 bed/ 2 bath apartment with my husband and 2 kids. We don't have a backyard and we don't have a lot of space. We can't paint our walls and we don't really have extra money to spend on decorating. I have recently been working on making our children's bedroom feel more like a bedroom and less like a storage room and so I decided to go room by room and show you how I have decorated and what I still have on my to do list for each room. Obviously I did spend some money, but I try to be as thrifty as possible and only spend money on things that we really need. I am constantly keeping an eye out on craigslist (the free, furniture and baby sections) and freecycle and when I'm driving if something on the side of the road catches my eye I'll slow down or stop and take a look. When ever I go shopping I always check out sales sections first, scour the thrift stores and I find lots of things for decorating at the dollar store.

I'm gonna start off with a corner of our living room. I know that my bookshelves are very messy but if I went to clean them up then I wouldn't have time to blog about it.

My parents bought us the bookshelves as a Chanukkah gift the first year we were married (they are from Ikea). The baskets on the bottom shelves I bought on sale at Target ($5 each down from $25) about 2 1/2 yrs ago and until recently they were they only toy storage that we had. The accent chair and the little side table are from a local organization (people in our community can give their old furniture to them and other people in the community who need furniture can take it). The lamp is Ikea (the base was thrifted) and the stack of kiddie chairs is from a local thrift store $1 a chair.


Lastly the wall decal I made myself. I looked around on Etsy for some inspiration and I bought the solid black contact paper on Ebay then I just drew on the contact paper and cut it out. I paid about $10 for 2 rolls of contact paper shipped and I only ended up using one roll for the tree (later I will show you what I did with the other roll) which makes it about $5 for the tree vs paying about $75 and up to buy it.
Do you have a zero dollar decorating budget? Do you have any decorating ideas for next to nothing? Let me know in the comments bellow.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Hubby's On The News!

My husband was at the synagogue today when some reporters came up to him and asked him his opinion about construction on the 405 and the effect that has on the Eruv. Watch a clip of it here.

What I Wore Wednesday



Head scarf: www.savvysheitels.com // T-shirt: Gap and refashioned by me using a variety of flower tutorials found all over the internet // Skirt: thrifted // Flip Flops: Old Navy

It's been a while since I linked up to The Pleated Poppy's What I Wore Wednesday, so I figured I might give it another try. The past few weeks I haven't really gotten dressed everyday so now that A is in camp I'm trying to get back to my usual schedule.

A To Do List


I spent the past 2 1/2 weeks giving all my time to trying to keep A entertained (and somehow I still didn't do enough). Now that she is in camp life is getting back to normal some what and it made me realize that for the past 2 1/2 weeks I haven't written a to do list for myself at all. Every morning I write myself a to do list on a little white board next to the computer. Without a to do list I don't accomplish as much as I should each day. My apartment really could have used more cleaning in the past weeks then it got, but I had to let something go while having A home all day and I figured it would be better to put food on the table then to make sure to sweep under all the couches and beds.
Did you have your kids home all day since school was out? Are you having them home the whole summer? If so how do you handle it? Let me know in the comments below.

Monday, July 4, 2011


Though my husband is going to be working the whole day today I will still try to make our day a little festive. I have red white and blue outfits for the kids and for dessert we'll have a bit of leftover cake. I made it for Shabbos knowing that my husband wouldn't be around today and we started our celebration a little early.
Happy 4th of July!

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Morning Routine Ideas?

My kids wake up at 5am most mornings (if we are lucky its 6). I'm a bit embarrassed to say what our morning routine is but here is the full confession. At about 5am we hear the little pitter patter of tiny feet running to our room and A says "I want special milk and cheerios." One of us will stumble out of bed give A breakfast and turn on a video for her (usually barney on Netflix) and then stumble back to bed without fully opening their eyes and go back to sleep. Every so often one of us must resurface to refill the cheerios or turn on another video or bring E out to join her. We only really wake up for the day at about 9am (when there is school its more like 7:45 or 8)! I know that's kinda crazy, leaving our children babysat by the computer but for some reason we just haven't been able to pull it together to wake up earlier. We try going to sleep earlier at night but that will last one night and then be forgotten.


Yesterday I decided that regardless of what time we go to sleep our day must start at 7am. It's not crazy early and we can't continue to leave our children in front of the computer for so many hours in the morning (I know 2 hrs is still too much but hey at least I am making progress in the right direction). I got out of bed at 7 and woke Husband up also but he just couldn't pull it together and he went back to sleep fully dressed (still sleeping now at 9:35) he'll probably sleep til I force him out of bed again and then still say he is so tired because he had to get up early with the kids. I know it's all in the mind, if you don't perceive it as a normal waking time then you will be exhausted from waking up too early. We just have to figure out how to deal with such an early wake up time.
I'm not really sure if this will work do you have any ideas if so please let me know in a comment below.
Photo credit here

Thursday, June 23, 2011


I never really saw the point of someone like me having a twitter account. I know what twitter is, how can you not, twitter being what it is. I just never saw a point to me tweeting (I still don't). Last night my husband convinced me to get twitter. So I joined. If you want to check me out my twitter is @ShevyLdr (I think that's how you are supposed to write it, I'm just learning how to use this thing now.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Summer Time & A Giveaway!

Summer is here and school is out. When you're a kid that means fun and relaxation, as a mom these past few days have been the opposite. Some of it has been fun but for some reason even the fun seems like work. I realized today when talking to my mom that what I'm missing is a break in the middle of the day. I miss the fact that nap time means quiet time. My daughter doesn't nap anymore so even though E is napping I still gotta be on my toes looking after her and keeping her entertained. I need to come up with a way to get just 15 minutes of quiet time midday.

On a completely different note, Jessica from What I Wore is having a giveaway for her new book What I Wore: Four Seasons, One Closet, Endless Recipes for Personal Style which will be in stores in two weeks. I love her blog, she has an amazing personal style and what makes her so different from many of the other fashion blogs out there is that she seems to have a closet only slightly bigger then a normal woman. Meaning she wears many items more then once (I feel like so many fashion bloggers never wear the same item twice, so unrealistic for us normal folks). So go check out her blog for a chance to win a copy of her book!

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Completed Passover Outfit For A



Here are some pictures of the outfit that I made for A for Passover. I took an adult skinny belt and cut it down to fit her. Making this outfit was hard, I made a lot of mistakes that I had to correct and the fabric was difficult to work with. I decided that from now on I'm gonna work with simpler fabrics until I get a lot better at this.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

XL Pants Refashion


I bought this pair of pants a while ago, when I saw that they were only $1 I couldn't pass it up. It was a size 3x and I wear a 6 or 8, but I knew the material would cost me more then that let alone the zipper, buttons and studs (if I could even put such stuff on and make it look professional). Here is the skirt after it was completed. I added some textured fabric, so that the skirt would be fuller. I finally finished it last night (it took me a long time).



scarf: www.savvysheitels.com // t-shirt: old navy // skirt: made by me

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Update

I know I haven't posted in a looooong time.
it is fun to blog but I kinda realized that I would rather spend my free time sewing and crating then blogging about it (same goes for the outfit posts). I'm not great at taking pictures, I still haven't learned how to properly use my camera. I don't really want to spend the time it takes to edit the photos and even without doing that, it just takes time. I admire all the women who's blog I read, so much more now because I realize how much time they must put into each blog post and I'm just not ready to devote that much time to a blog. I do intend to occasionally post but it probably won't be very often.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

A Skirt Preview


beret: parkhurst via savvysheitels.com // t-shirt: o.c. designs (local shop) // skirt: h&m // flip flops: old navy // necklace: gift

I just started on a new outfit for A for Passover. This is midway through the skirt. I will be adding another tier of ruffles in the middle and a waistband. Then I need to figure out my pattern for the top. I like to make my own patterns based off clothing that I own and like the fit of them. Pictures of that to come soon.

Sunday is Purim so I will post pictures of how the Purim costumes for A and E turned out. A lost her crown yesterday at her school Purim party, hopefully that will turn up today so she can wear it on Purim.
What are you dressing up as for Purim? (don't know what Purim is, check out my previous post to find out more)

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

What I Wore Wednesday

I don't remember which days I wore the first outfit but the second was yesterday, I have been so busy lately that I forget to take a picture every day. I will be linking up to The Pleated Poppy's What I Wore Wednesday link party.


I know the t-shirt seems kind funky looking, it's striped.
T-shirt: Old Navy // Skirt: Made by me // Socks: unknown // Shoes: Adidas



The necklace is a gift from my mom and it's so beautiful and dainty I have been wearing it every day since I got it. This is my take on color blocking.
T-shirt: Gap // Zip up Cardigan: Forever 21 // Black Skirt: Gift from mom


I bought this the other day at my local GW the second I saw the lamp shade I snatched it up even though it doesn't really go with my room that's where it now lives. Someday when my son has a room of his own it will go in there.