spring blog cleaning and announcing some winners

I used to always be that person who beat you to the restaurant, planned outfits the night before, kept plants alive... That fancy person! She had her ish together, what a powerhouse. Well she is buried around here somewhere under a garbage heap of laundry and dirty dishes and books and toys and oh there's my other flipflop! Oh wait, where's is my first flipflop again?

I've seen quite a few blogs lately doing these laundry lists of things they are up to and loving and I thought I would do one too and consider it a fresh start for spring. So here we go...

Winners!

The random.org winner of the From My Hand to Your Art giveaway is Jaimee at Craft, Interrupted! Congrats, lovely Jaimee! I will reach out to you tomorrow to put you in touch with Kat about your prize you lucky lady.

You can get a 10% discount at From My Hand to Your Art using the code "OTANDETROCKS"

Everyone who did a Project-Per-Month Project in April was a winner ::wink to you doers for getting things done:: Dear everyone else, You should join us for the May projects!

The random.org winner of the $20 gift certificate for their April project goes to Rebecca at Musings of a Manic Mama. Congrats miss Rebecca! I will reach out to you about your prize as well, lady friend! Perhaps we can figure out a way to make yours an Ikea gift cert :)

I am enjoying the heck out of these warm-with-a-breeze summer evenings and letting my kiddos sleep in their undies. I wish I was rich! If I was I would buy my kids every color of these American Apparel undies to sleep in all summer long.

I made this lemon spaghetti with zucchini recipe (found on Pinterest) last week and it was absolutely great.

I found the bedding I want for my room but alas it is four bajillion dollars at Anthropologie. Wishing I was rich is the new skinny jeans.

Pyramid Apricot Ale is my favorite!

Still loving this brilliant marriage proposal. Whenever I need a smile it's my go-to video and has become one of my favorite songs.

Oh, I have a new giveaway coming up this week. To Uncommon Goods! We love them. I once interviewed to be a buyer for them, years and years ago when we lived in NYC. I always wish I hadn't wanted that job so bad because I was completely nervous and had a horrible interview. While there, though, they pointed out the apartment across the way to me and it was Hugh Jackman's apartment (and looked big and amazing) and then while walking to the subway on my shameful walk home I came across Maura Tierney walking a cute, old pug dog and I was like, "New York City you fancy town!"

currently link up | what would tim gunn do?

Currently is a weekly link-up with the lovely ♥ Randalin of Harvesting Kale and I am her happy co-host each week. I hope that you can participate by writing your own Currently post (using the provided themes or your own) and please join us by linking up. What have you been admiring, caring, loving, cleaning, and creating this week? Over here, we have been...

Admiring Tim Gunn. He is kind of my hero. When I find myself frustrated with Otto ("psssst, four year olds are freaking craaaaazyyyyyytowwwwwwwn," she said in a super high pitched voice) anyways, during those moments and really just in dealing with people in general, I find myself thinking, "how would Tim Gunn handle this?" He's so eloquent, poised, caring, contemplative. I find things coming out of my mouth like, "I see what you mean, Otto. Smashing this box over and over with the pen might seem like a fun idea. My concern is, if you destroy the box we won't have a place to store the threading spools. Let's think of something else we can do that would be fun instead. What ideas do you have?" See what I did there? I Gunned it. WWTGD? I'm getting the bracelet.

Caring for my two sweet kiddos. Cop out answer? Maybe but it's really the focus of all my non-work time. Let's feed them nutritious things and keep mold from growing on them and exercise their brains and bodies and hope they take concurrent naps please and everyone stop making whine sounds because grrrr whine sounds!

Loving sunshine. Otto's summer ultra-blonde hair is starting to appear already. Etta looks freaking adorable in shorts. Sidewalk chalk is our daily thing. We eat tofurkey dogs on a blanket in the yard. Summa summa summatime is just around the corner! Oregon kills it in summatime. Heck yeah.

Cleaning sorry what? yeah, not so much.

Creating a nice mantel, did you see? And now creating a bedroom oasis, or at least starting to.

That was this week. Here are next week's themes: 

learning, gathering, giving, working, playing

the project-per-month PROJECT month 2

Hey! Ok, here it is, the second (count em, two!) installment of this monthly thing we're doing called the Project-Per-Month Project. Welcome to a place where we are taking on manageable to-dos and getting them done, woohoo!

This pic is my May inspiration but as I mentioned before I found it on Pinterest and can't find the source, or I'd source the heck out of it. 

Project-Per-Month Project HOW IT WORKS... If you want to join in the fun, you totally should! Here are the rules...

1. Pick a single, manageable project off your to-do list, just one.
2. Decide, "I can do it!" ps. You really can. Yes you can!
3. Give yourself goals.
4. Give yourself a deadline: the end of the month.
5. Give yourself a budget.
6. Do it. Do it.

My April project was my living room mantel, with a goal of plants and finally printing pictures of Loretta since this house has five bazillion Otto pictures and like two Loretta ones. My budget was $50 (I came in at $52, so shoot me) and you can find a garbage-y "before" picture of my wreck of a mantel here. ::drumroll:: Here is the end result.

Yay! It feels so nice to sit in my living room and have a nice, bright mantel with pictures of my kiddos and some plants to bring joy and energy into the room. I'm really pleased with the results and super thankful to St. Vinnie's for all the treasures I found there on the cheap.

Now onto May (because cripes, it's freaking May already, how did this happen?)... My project for May is going to be our master bedroom. I won't shock you with horrific "before" pictures but let's just say it's a bad scene. I'm  giving myself goals of a new comforter set, a reading chair, a plant, and that the room look charming when it's done. My budget is going to be $100 plus whatever gift cards I get for my birthday because I'm going to ask for gift cards to help me with this project.

Ok, that's me, now you... First, did you do an April project? If you did, include a link to your post in the comments here so everyone can check you out. One person will be selected to receive a $20 gift card to their choice of Amazon or Target.

Will you be doing a May project? I'd love to hear about it! And we'll do another $20 gift card giveaway at the end of each month to help everyone support their Project-Per-Month Projects. Three cheers for productivity!

Oh ps. who knew I did so many giveaways? Yeesh and stay tuned... this blog needs some serious housekeeping. Coming up in the next week I'll be announcing the winner of the From My Hand to Your Art Etsy shop giveaway, announcing the winner of the Project-Per-Month Project April gift card giveaway, and posting a great $50 gift card giveaway to Uncommon Goods (do you love them? I love them!).

a loud afternoon with q and not u {mom in the picture}

I am never comfortable taking or seeing pictures of myself. Words like, "ugh! vom! garbage!," usually come out of my mouth when I see pics of me and honestly, raising a daughter and just being a woman, that is sad. But it's true. Sometimes I think a few of my favorite bloggers ARE my favorite bloggers in part because they are SO COMFORTABLE taking pictures of themselves and I look at them and think, "see there, it's nbd, your kids will want you in the pictures, don't be so weird about this." But then I am weird about this. So without further ado just know that I'm a little weird about these pictures that follow, but I tried. I tried! And if I didn't let you in on my inner turmoil and awkwardness, you might even think I was comfortable being in these pics. So that's a step or something, maybe?

Yesterday afternoon I had three entire hours at my house, all by myself. I turned up the Pandora so loud you guys. I swear I felt fifteen years younger just listening to music that loud. Remember Soft Pyramids? Repeat one more time again! Nih nih nih! All the while I casually went from room to room cleaning and picking up and secreting things away for donation. Spring! Then I threw a blanket in the back yard and read for a bit. I don't think anyone's ever made the most of three hours in their lives --> four cups of coffee. And dish washing while dancing. It was a one lady party and a mighty nice one.

 Best. Three. Hours. Period.

My adorable wedge sandals c/o Naturalizer and they are so comfy. I have been waiting impatiently to wear them for several cold, rainy weeks and huzzaw for clear skies, lovely sunshine, and red toes!