Fill in the Blank Friday

I hope you enjoy reading these, because for some reason, I love them.  I'm one of those dorks who actually enjoys filling out surveys. We need people like me, right? 

Anyway. . .  Here we go.

 

1.   The first thing I do in the morning to start my day is       after hitting my snooze button a couple of times, I immediately get dressed and start getting breakfast ready so the girls can come straight down & eat. . . or eat it in the car ;)  .

2.  Today I wish I was   asleep, or working at home (long to do list as always and stayed up too late trying to shorten it), or free from said to do list & out shopping with my best friend whom I have not seen in AGES  .

3.  If I had an extra $100 in my bank account today I'd       Go shopping for some new fall boots. . .or fall clothes in general. Part of the fun of shopping is the hunt and not knowing what you'll come home with, right?    .

4.  Tomorrow    I will spend time with the family, perhaps enjoy a bit of the Octoberfest going on. I think the pumpkin patch has come up as a possibility as well. Guess I'm pretty open   .

5.  Two things that don't go together are     curly hair and rain.  Can you say frizz city?  The bane of my existence.... .

6.  Something I can never pass up at the grocery store is    a diet coke. I ALWAYS grab one on my way in & pay for the empty bottle. the gas pump holds the same issue. I told the girls we needed to stop & get gas on the way home yesterday. From the backseat I heard "and a soda, too?"  I might have a problem.

7.  The last time I tried something new was        Hmm. . .apparently not recently enough, because I can't think of anything. I'll have to remedy that soon! Sorry.     .

 

Join in, or read others here! 

 

Oh! And if you haven't been by yet, definitely check out Ashley Ann's blog right now. She's doing a series of 10 in 10 (while she's away vacationing in a very sunny place!!!) with amazing guest bloggers and  eye candy.  You may see some old faces and you may find a few new must reads!

 

Hope you have a great weekend!!!

 

xoxo Lori Danelle 

A movie worth writing about

So who knows what movie came out on DVD this week that I am COMPLETELY geeking out over?

That's right.
Disney's Beauty & the Beast.
We bought it for the girls.

Anyone really believe that?
I didn't think so.

We bought it for the girls so that I could have an excuse to watch it.

Somehow, I missed it the last time it was on DVD and only have a VHS version. . . and no VHS player.  So I've been anxiously awaiting it's return. . .along with all the others from that generation of Disney movies.

Somehow, I just don't think that part of me ever quite grew up. . . Nor do I want it to.  :)

Oh, and yes, the girls are enjoying it as well, although they do keep telling me to stop singing.

xoxo Lori Danelle

{Paper Cut} A family portrait

The week before I headed out to Kansas, I was able to finish up and send off this amazing group of paper cuts.



I had the honor of cutting out the entire family's prints! They are going to look amazing once they are framed and hung all together.

I've been told that a picture will be sent my way once they figure out how they're going to go about it. To be honest, I'm very excited to see what happens with a piece of work after it leaves my hands and enters into the creativity of someone else!

That's all part of the fun, right?  :)

xoxo Lori Danelle

{if interested in purchasing paper cuttings for your own family
you can find more information here or at my etsy shop}

Guess who I finally met!

Just noticed this photo up on one of my favorite blogs, so I might as well share too!

Guess who I finally got to meet in person?

She lives in my home town.

Her house is just around the corner from the house I spent my first few years in (and used to be a daycare, complete with giant fish tanks that you could see through the wall of windows when you drove by).

She attends the church I grew up in and my parent's still attend.

And yet somehow it wasn't until this past Saturday that I actually met Meg from Whatever fame face-to-face!! A very shy Little Sister and I dropped off some vitamins for her to send to Africa — and then stayed to chat for a bit.  :)

If by some chance you have not yet been over to her blog yet, GO.
You can thank me later.   :)

And if you're stopping by from Meg's, WELCOME!!! I'm so glad you're here.

xoxo Lori Danelle

Whew!! I made it!

You have no idea how happy I am that it is October! While I'm not very excited about the cooler weather (I know, I'm probably the only one!) I am thrilled to have made it past last week.

I'm not sure why, but the last 2 months have been insane with everything culminating in the last week of September. So, while I still have a full to do list, it is to be done at a much more comfortable pace!!

I spent last week in Kansas at my parent's house in full wedding mode. My baby brother got married on Friday, so currently, these two are enjoying some warm weather down in Mexico.





I'm going to have to do some scavenging in order to get photos of the actual wedding to show you though. Can you believe this camera happy, blogging, sister-of-the-groom chica didn't take any pictures!?

Me either.
But it's true.

I was too busy getting things done or being in pictures to have time to take some of my own.
Plus, though my bridesmaid dress had pockets, they weren't quite large enough for my camera.

Oh well! I'll find some good ones of the wedding and day and some of my own from the week prior to share with you!! Just might take a little work on my part. . .  :)

xoxo Lori Danelle

{Tips & Tricks} Get your pots & pans shiny again

I am in full wedding mode here in Kansas!! My brother is getting married in 2 days and there is a lot yet to be done!! However, as I see wedding presents accumulating around here, I thought I'd share my husband's (no, I can't take credit for this one) incredibly wonderful trick for getting those lovely pots & pans we got for our wedding back to their original, right-out-of-the-box luster.

To start, fill up your tea kettle and get that water boiling



Meanwhile, begin filling your sink with very hot water. Add some soap & a scoop of OxyClean (Shhh! this is the secret ingredient!!!)

 

Once your water is boiling, add it to the water in the sink



Add your dirty pots & pans, soak over night and in the morning, they'll be good as new!



Happy Cleaning!

xoxo Lori Danelle

Giraffe T-shirt day!

 This morning, completely by coincidence, the females at my house each independently declared it giraffe t-shirt day. And of course, we all thought that was a pretty fun thing, which needed to be celebrated with photos. :)

Umm. .  . Big likes to make silly faces when I take her picture lately.

You should be really impressed with this one! Not only am I in a photo in my own blog post, but it was taken by Big!! The others she took we of my feet, the trees, the house across the street. . .you get the idea.   :)

And one more because they're just so darn cute!!

Right now, I should be in bed. Especially since my alarm clock is set to go off in 4 hours.
Can you believe it?
An alarm clock on a Saturday?!
And at 5 am!

However, it will be worth it as we will be hopping a plane to KS for my (not-so-little) little brother's wedding next Friday.  So excited!!!! And if you are in the area I'm headed to, I hope we get a chance to say hi. . .not sure how busy the bride & groom are going to keep me with projects. . . But if there are projects, I promise to have photos for you!

I hope you are now reading this over a leisurely cup of coffee at an enviably late morning hour and are still in you pjs, having just gotten out of bed.
Have a great weekend!!!

xoxo Lori Danelle