Take some "me" time!

One thing that i really need to do more is take some "me" time. I'm sure that most of you out there would agree that time alone is something that is very rare for a mom. Once in a great while if it's been a impossible day i ask the hubster if i can disappear for a while. I usually sneak upstairs for a nice hot bubble bath in my wonderful jetted tub. I light a few candles and immerse myself in the watery goodness. I love the jets because it usually drowns out the wrestling matches that are going on one floor down.

I dream of one day mounting one of these puppies above my tub. I know a bit excessive you may think but i think it would be so cool to lay back in the tub, turn the jets on high and watch HGTV in peace.

Anyway what i am trying to get at is that us mom's should really take the time to get away once in a while, even if it is only behind your closed and locked bathroom door. I bet your husband or significant other would be more willing than you think to wrangle the kids alone for 30 min or so. It's really a wonder what a nice soak can do for your spirits. I have a sign hanging in my bathroom that i love, it says - A Good Hot Soak - What is good for the body is good for the soul. I couldn't agree more.

A great reason to travel...

I was lucky enough to happen upon this great Etsy shop a while ago. Edie Castle Creations has some great quality products not to mention so stinkin cute. I have one of her travel jewelry cases and i can't tell you how much i love it. It has lots of compartments on the inside to hold rings or pendents and a large main area to put necklace's and bracelets.
I was pleasantly surprised by the craftsmanship in the piece that i own. My husband likes to poke fun at the fact that i love this travel jewelry case so much and i hardly ever travel. A girl can dream of traveling the world can't she? I actually keep most of my jewelry in it even when it's parked here at home, yes i like it that much.
Anyway if your in the market check out her shop, it's fab.

I absolutely love this fabric...

HGTV's Dream Home 2010

OK so i am pretty certain that i am going to win this year's HGTV Dream Home. I have tried to remember to enter every day since the drawing opened. So here is my question to all you out there......What would you do with the house if you won? Would you pack up your life and move into this beautifully decorated, highly sought after dream home or would you immediately try to sell it? I wonder if they have some rule about that or a special realtor that you need to go through?
So what would i do you ask.......Hummm, well first i would probably have a panic attack and call everyone that i know and then i think i would keep it for a while and use it as a vacation home, but come to think of it i am not sure i would want my two extremely messy children hanging out there prior to putting it up for sale. OK yes i do have other things to do than sit around and wonder what i would do with this dream home if i won it but i choose to continue to wonder......

Trying to channel my inner Martha

I have really been wanting to channel my inner Martha Stewart lately. I thought i would start small. We are redoing boy #1's bedroom into a outdoors theme and i have been having a hard time finding cute decor for a good price. I found a few things while on a recent trip to Hobby Lobby and thought i would give it a whirl.

I started with a simple wood frame, some camo scrapbook paper, a wood bear cutout and some modge podge. I cut the paper to size and modge podged away.... while the frame was drying i painted the little bear. When it was dry i sanded the edges a little.

Here is the finished product. Not to shabby for $2.50. Like i said this was like a 10 min project but once again i am starting simple and have bigger projects floating around in my head, for example, scroll down......

One of my favorite blogs that i have been engrossed with lately is All Things Thrifty. They have some amazing ideas and some awesome projects that they have done, it's really got my creative juices flowing. I have big plans to go rummage through my local Good Will and see what i find. This project below is so fun.... this is the before

And after, oh how pretty!

This one is my fav. She was lucky enough to have this beautiful piece given to her and with just a good idea, some glaze and paint it went from this.....

To this.....ahhhhhh i love it! I have dreams of creating a beautiful piece like this and i will be sure to give you all the play by play when that day comes.

Getting it done

Happy Monday everyone(yeah right, huh)I had a great weekend full of family fun and organization. Yes i conquered the cabinets and i am proud to report that i am now a better person for having done it. I feel refreshed and ready to tackle another project as you'll see below. OK here are the horrible pictures once again to remind you of the utter chaos that was lurking behind closed doors.

Left side cabinet before

Right side before

Left side after, ahh now there's room to grow, that's actually exactly what i am afraid of :[

Right side after. I can finally get to my Kitchen aid without causing any harm to myself from falling objects.

Now to tackle the dreaded drawers....any of you have A junk drawer? I have 4. Here are drawers 1 and 2...

Drawers 3 and 4. Stay tuned for the drawers big reveal. I actually clean these drawers out quite a bit, but somehow they get back to this point eventually. I am going to blame it on the four little hands that frequent them often and for no good reason. I am tempted to get some child locks for these puppies. We'll see...

Must Organize!!

On a good day the pictures below represent what my house looks like. I like to keep things neat and tidy. When the house is a mess i feel out of sorts and a bit frantic. Keeping it looking this way however is next to impossible with the two small tornadoes that i live with. I'm kind of funny in the way that i clean though, if i can't see it it's not there, that tends to be my train of thought. That is one reason why my main level is usually cleaner than my upstairs, i spend most of my time on the main level so that's what i see the most. Because of this train of thought i often loose things, important papers or the latest is my diamond necklace, yes i am sick about that one. I tend to open a drawer or cabinet and gently stuff or push until i can close said drawer or cabinet and poof it's all but gone. This technique has worked for me for the most part for the last couple of years. Maybe not so well for my husband who continually asks where that magazine he was just reading went or where in the world the super glue is. Lately however my dirty little secrete has been nagging on me more and more. I have started to think about it after the cabinet gets closed and i have become increasingly embarrassed when opening it while a friend or neighbor is over, yes a few select neighbors have watched in horror as i try to find a phone book to use as a booster when they bring there kids over for haircuts. I am hoping this post gives me the incentive that i need to get this section of my life organized for good.
Here is a look into what i like the house to look like at any given time......

Don't mind the eye sore of a space heater, hopefully that will get put away very soon.

This kitchen is what sold me on the house, it has so many cabinets, too many....
Early last fall we took off a breakfast bar, had granite counter tops installed and got a new tile back splash making a already fab kitchen a bit more fab, i really do love it.

And here is the row of cabinets that really i could do without, my junk says otherwise but really it has just become a dumping place for everything i don't know what to do with. It looks innocent enough from the outside right......

Here is the left side ....

And here is the right side....I know horrible huh! Well not for much longer. Where there is a will there is a way. I am now off to get started and hun if you are reading this i have one question for you......Wanna help?:)

Give me the weekend and you will, oh yes you will get your after pictures.........I know the suspense is going to kill you right?!

-Jaime

My infomercial review

Today i am here to talk to you all about a very serious subject.....dramatic pause....Infomercials, yes it is a serious topic around this house. My husband is strangely intrigued by all, yes all things infomercial. Throughout the years we have purchased a few select items of the infomercial variety. My husband once told me that if he won the lottery or had massive amounts of extra money he would purchase every infomercial item he could get his hands on. This scared me a little but gave me better in site into how much he really likes this silly stuff. He has also brought my five year old son into this infomercial world of his and the baby is soon to follow i am sure.
Well i am here today to share my knowledge or in some cases, my lack of knowledge on certain popular infomercials out on the market right now.....
First up we have in my opinion the best product on the market right now, yeah you heard it right, i have totally bought into all the perfectness that this one has to offer. There are others out there that have the word "Perfect" in it's description and that is far from the truth but not this one, it truly is "The Perfect Brownie Pan." I'm not joking my friends, i will never bake brownies again with out this little gem. You know how you usually have to wait until the brownies cool off a bit to even think about cutting them. Then if you don't wait long enough, who can, the knife sticks to the brownies and you end up with a crumbly mess. Well no more. Right out of the oven these puppies are pre-cut and ready to burn your mouth right away. I will be using this for years to come, maybe not as much as i would like because as i stated in my last post i am on my quest to become a bit healthier. Anyway this one gets a A in my book...











Next we have the Topsy Turvy.I got one of these for Easter last year, what a thoughtful Easter bunny huh? I was very hopeful that this would be the fool proof way to grow some delicious tomatos all season long and wasn't too disappointed. I did make the mistake of planing a bigger tomato plant right underneath where i hung the topsy turvy and they kind of grew into each other and i believe interfered with the sucessfulness of it's growing powers. I did get quite a few yummy tomatoes off of it before the plant underneath it overtook it. So tip one if you get this is to make sure it has all the room to grow that it needs. Tip two is one that i was given from a previous topsy turvy owner, cherry tomatoes usually work better in this than say a beefsteak tomato would.
The Topsy Turvy gets a C+ from me















Next up we have the Big Top Cupcake. This one i purchased for my hubby for his birthday in November. His actual words to me were "I don't want a birthday cake unless it is a big top cupcake." So really what choice did i have? I have to say that i enjoyed making and decorating this fun little, i mean big, product. It really is 25X bigger than your average cupcake as you can tell by our in-home picture. Yes we made sure to make normal size cupcake just to compare the sizes in the two, i know we are dorks, you know you're thinking it. The main flaw lies in the bigness of the top of this baby. After you take a couple of pieces out of it the cake really becomes top heavy and falls over. It's sad to see the cute thing you just took the time decorating fall over but i guess it eats just the same.
The Big Top Cupcake gets a B- from me.































Next we have the first infomercial product that me and the hubster ever purchased and the reason that i never wanted to purchase another infomercial product ever again after that. I am not even sure if this is still on the market but i did find it on Amazon so i guess it is still out there. It was horrible. It worked nothing like it promised. It was the reason why we were a bit Leary of the Perfect Brownie Pan, that promise of perfectness worried us for good reason. After we tried this pancake product we were left with a batter mess and a broken dream.
The Perfect Pancake maker gets a F from me.









Now we come to some that i have not purchased and do not plan on purchasing. This next one is on the five year old's list of infomercial wants, not sure why but he is just positive that the Touch N Brush would be a little piece of heaven on earth.















And lastly we have a product that nearly gave me hives when i first saw the commercial. Bumpits, oh Bumpits. OK people it's called backcombing, learn how to do it!! Myself being of the big hair variety would know little about wanting and needing volume so much that you will put a plastic device in your hair that i swear would have to slide all around. Oh my gosh i just realized something, Bumpits is the breast implant of the hair. Well i don't need breast implants either so back to why i think bumpits is ridiculous.....if you need a lesson in backcombing just call me e-mail me whatever and i will help in whatever way i can. Ask your stylist to recommend a good volumizer and then backcomb away, no bumpits required.

Hopefully this infomercial review will help any of you out there who have ever wondered if any of these products are worth the money. I know i have wondered and will continue to wonder about many more products than i talked about today.
Happy Infomercialing!!(Yes i am aware that's not a real word)

-Jaime

Hello blogger world

Ok, Ok, enough putting this off because i don't think i have a "cool" enough name for this blog. I need to just accept that this blog is in fact appropriately named because i am indeed "Far from Super Mom." I am not in any way ashamed of that and i find myself to be pretty normal for the most part. I know a few women that i would consider "Super Moms" but I'm sure they each have their own flaws and for goodness sakes i would hope they would otherwise they probably wouldn't be much fun to be around.
Just to let you into the world of me i will let you in on a few other names this blog could go by.......

• Not a morning person.....
• For the love of a purse......
• My DVD, my master.....
• Don't bite the dog.....
• Laundry is my nemesis.....
• I love a rainy night.....
  
• Smoothies anyone?

Hopefully you can gain a bit more understanding of who FFSM (Far from Super Mom, stay with me people) really is. I'm not too exciting but you can blame my father for that, we are two of a kind.
I wanted to start a blog of my own to start my new years right and try to find myself again. I love being a wife, a mother of two great little boys, a mom to two dogs and food buyer for one large green toad. I don't however love the fact that i have lost who i really am in the midst of all of the above.
I am really trying to focus more on myself this year and hopefully for all the years that follow. I have recently (two days ago) started walking on the treadmill that has been accumulating dust for the past many, many years in the basement. I really want to be a skinny bitch, OK maybe not skinny, although that would be great but i would settle for a healthy semi-bitch.
I plan to do posts about things that bug me, things that i love, things that i am passionate about, things i know, things i wish i knew and so on and so on. I so love to blog and find new blogs that i can't wait to check everyday. Hopefully my blog will be more than a snooze fest for you all and i do have a few ideas up my sleeve.
Try not to mind the unprofessional look of said blog. I will see how much interest i get here, and i know i will get a lot, right?! If i soar to the top in the blogger world, ha, ha, i will probably break down and get a blog make-over but for now this is me, plain and simple, take it or leave it......take it please!!

-Jaime