This week’s challenge is “reflections.” Here is Sass on a nice warm fall day playing in water puddles from a rain storm we just had.
I only posted one other time for this challenge, I suppose I keep forgetting about it, though you can see the post here.
Thanks for stopping by and be sure to check out The Daily Post.
~Melissa
Last year while browsing Pinterest I got wind of something called Elf on a Shelf. I feel like I must have been under a rock because this has been out for quite some time, though I just learned of it. So I find all these funny pictures all over and I decide to look into it. What is all this Elf business?
As I get to looking I found I LOVE the idea. Not about trying to teach my children how to be good by lying to them, but because it would open up some fun ideas for me.
In case you have been living under a rock as well, Elf on a shelf is this little ridiculously overpriced, creepy plastic headed, fabric bodied little elf that comes with a book. The basis is that this Elf was sent by Santa to watch your kids (already a creepy vibe) and to report their behavior back to him every night. The parents are supposed to move the elf to different locations each night the elf “returns” and the kids get to find him/her the next morning.
Naturally, funny people need to pick it up a notch and instead of just moving the elf to different places like the TV stand, Christmas tree, shelf and so forth, they have some fun with it.
Just do a simple google search or look on pinterest or even your favorite photographers blog and chances are you’ll be engulfed in the world of Elf pranks.
When I saw pics of the elf fishing for fish crackers or riding around with Barbie I was sold. I WANTED this thing. But I could not fork over $30.00 for this elf of nightmares. *the face is creepy* It really reminds me of those old ventriloquist dummies…and those things freak me out. I watched a movie when I was younger and it would come to life and kill people, I have been traumatized since. So naturally I want to get a little creepo and make up the notion it moves around each night while my children sleep…nope, I don’t want my kids to go through therapy at all. Anyway…
I really wanted this doll, yet the price tag killed it for me. Instead of buying the Elf on a Shelf, I ran into “Grandma Elf” at Marshall’s Home Goods Store for $7.00. I was like, this elf is equally as creepy (somehow this is something I think makes this allll the better) and it is movable so I can make it do more things. I bring it home, it lasts like 4 days and then she hung from the ceiling fan until after the holidays and the decorations came down. Honestly, she just wasn’t the same. 🙂 Here are some of the pics from last yr because I was too cheap to get the actual Elf on a Shelf. *PS, no, my kids actually did not see these at all…..
So this year I was like, I will just get it, definitely more for my enjoyment but Sass is almost 5 so I thought she might get a kick out of it. And boy has she taken to it. Sprout is still too young to care, but she does like finding the Elf my daughter -as witty and spunky as she is and who walks around and calls her sister “ILeeda” as she pretends she is someone else-named, “Elfie.”
On November 30th, I sit down and read the story to the girls and told Sass the basic run down of what Elfie is supposed to do (and I MAY have mentioned she can get mischievous). So the next day when Elfie appeared in a non funny way -though I thought it was cute with the sign and all-already my daughter was like, “That’s all she does?”
Geesh, tough crowd…I suppose I have to kick it up a notch. I have been busy with homework so I decided to do something I have seen before but I thought my daughter would get a kick out of and day two ended up like this…
That morning she comes running up to me laughing her little head off explaining what Elfie did, and bless her heart she put the bag of flour back into the pantry before she came to tell me. So she talked all day wondering what Elfie would do next.
Now at this point she is really no longer a deterrent for Sass to be good because even through all the, “Elfie is going to tell Santa!” she has been her normal Sass self. Now it is a fun game of, “how is mommy going to top the night before.” Or so it feels. My fault. 🙂
So night three I was thinking something with toilet paper needs to be done. I saw where Elves have TP’d the tree, but I really didn’t wanna do that to my pretty tree, so after talking with my friend who mentioned using chocolate chips for Elf poo, I come up with this…
This one Sass was up before me and ran down to see what Elfie had gotten herself in to, and I WISH I followed her down for this one. She has some terrible potty humor (don’t look at me!) and so I hear her and my youngest down there gasping as they take in the sights. I keep hearing, “GASSSSSSP, OOOOOOH MY GOODNESS!!!! OOOOOH MY GOOODNESS!” And my youngest kept echoing everything her big sister had said. Then they saw the poo. I hear an outburst of laughter and they came running up the stairs talking about it. I smile knowing what is about to come, and there they were at the edge of my bed with the doll toilet in hand talking, “MOM! Last night Elfie went poo and (she sniffs it) it smells a lot like cinnamon, and she tried to wipe her butt, but she got ALL tangled up and is now hanging from the curtains!”
I kick myself for not going down with camera in my hand….
She also cleaned up the toilet paper mess on her own. Now, if she would just do that with her toys.
Tonight I tried to think of what would be really funny to her….naturally it would not be something along these lines…
^^unseen adventure of Elfie^^
and went with this. I can’t wait to see if she finds it as funny as I think she will….
So until tomorrow….Have a great night and no nightmares…:)
Just another perfect day with my girls.
I love Christmas, it has to be my favorite holiday and time of the year. I love everything about it, the real reason for Christmas, the santa part, the family gatherings, music, FOOD, decorations….all of it. And yes, maybe even a little snow! I generally decorate here and there for other seasons/holidays, but Christmas takes the cake. The whole house turns into my own little Christmas wonderland and it always makes me so happy. This year will be especially special because this is my and J’s first Christmas. He really loves this time of year as well and it is SO nice to have someone around who loves this as much as I do.
I love being crafty, I am so thankful for Pinterest this year because it has given me SO many ideas of things I can make and ways to decorate. I have to say that I have already started my Christmas crafts and seriously thinking of setting up soon. I know, I know….it isn’t even Thanksgiving yet, but I am “thankful” I can decorate anytime I want. 😉 We are headed home for Thanksgiving so I won’t be able to set up the traditional day after Thanksgiving I usually do. So I am thinking next week is the PERFECT time to start!
The girls are going to have their own tree this year with all of their girly cute ornaments. I think it will be real special watching them decorate their own personal tree however they want. This year mama wants a pretty tree LOL.
So this is my fall decor as of now, and this is probably the extent I am going to go because it is all coming down in a few days.
Sorry about the crappy quality, I used my daughter’s Canon to take these..BOOOOO.
Thanks for looking!
~Melissa
Pinterest has to be the best time killer ever. Seriously, I have the best decorated house…but only online. I can spend hours on that site pinning ideas on how to clean my house and keep it organized, instead of actually cleaning and organizing. Tons of crafts that seem to stay in the virtual realm, and then it happened.
I found the most useful pin ever, and it also involves bacon. See what I mean? You’re already thinking this HAS to be good. Prepare to be amazed! Your lunch will never be the same. Here is the pin (this is not an active link as I’m on my phone).
And here is my sandwich. Told you, your life will never be the same. (Btw, mine is turkey bacon). Yum!
I want to start off by saying that flat paint is the stupidest invention ever. It does not belong on the walls in a home that is inhabited by anything other than ghosts. With that said…
My kids are artistic, and I love that they like to express themselves with their love of drawing. They also must think that I needed help with decorating, because they seem to color on the walls at any chance they get. Mainly my almost 5 year old. It is usually crayon, and even though I have that dreadful light tan flat paint all over my house, the magic eraser usually works well enough to keep me from running down the street screaming, but two days ago, it went to a whole new level.
I was upstairs folding clothes, my youngest was napping and my eldest was “supposed” to be cleaning the playroom on the first floor. I knew she was going to be playing more than cleaning, but what I saw when I walked down there sent a surge of anxiety through me of epic proportions.
I smelled it before I saw it, but there it was. Black fingernail polish! And it was everywhere! All over my white front door, my stupid flat paint walls-upon further investigating-their play kitchen, play plates, bowls, blocks, and their Carebear book shelf.
I sent her immediately up to her room so I could frantically clean up the mess. It was all scribbles, lines of black fingernail polish just everywhere. Cursing under my breath as I scrubbed, I came across something that made me stop and smile. Even though I was furious (she literally just got in trouble for coloring on the wall with crayon earlier the same day) I couldn’t help but think of my sweet baby upstairs. On her Carebear shelf she didn’t just scribble lines, but she drew a picture with the paint, and I couldn’t bring myself to erase it.
I got all the fingernail polish off everything, I did take up some of the paint from the door and I will have to repaint the wall, her play kitchen is like it was before, but I left this drawing.
As cute as this is, I will rejoice the day she outgrows this stage.
I wasn’t exactly thrilled when Facebook announced that they were changing over to the timeline layout. In fact, I held out almost as long as I could before I switched over. Horrible “privacy” settings aside, I actually like that we can be a bit more creative with our pages. Honestly, I loved MySpace because we could decorate our pages however we wanted. Weren’t those terrible moving .gifs the best? Or what about having a playlist that got to annoy/offend our visitors? Yah those were the days. Anywho.
I have a ton of ideas that I want to do to my page, though it all involves taking pictures to do it, which I have yet to do. *sigh* So I decided to work with what I had on hand. This is what I came up with…..for now.
Dang my girls can be moody! They act like I just told them to clean their rooms or something! Nope…I simply wanted them to look at the camera. Is that too much to ask? By the way of a 4 and 2 year old…I suppose so. But they sure are cute!
I love Halloween. Seriously, I dress up every year. And I don’t mean I use Halloween to be a “Hoe for a day.” Though I have to admit, last year I kinda did (1 of my 3 different outfits was a bit boobacious)…But I really love that it is one day that I can put on crazy makeup, maybe a wig and just be totally weird. I particularly like to be something I can paint my face all up and be something fun.
This year I decided I am going to paint my face like they do for Dia De Los Muertos. I am also going to make my own hair piece. I am pretty excited to get some crafting done for this!
Anyway, here is my rough sketch. I did this in about 10 minutes with some eye liner and shadow. I always do a trial run before the big day! The real product will be MUCH better.
Life of Melissa Ann Marie 