get ready for fuzz: yarn pom pom garland/ornament tutorial.

I have been cracking away at a rather long "to-do-before-the-baby-comes" list that includes everything from switching up the nursery to make it feel a bit feminine to deep cleaning the house to getting everything ready, bought and made for Christmas. A planner like me can't help but feel quite the drive to get as much as possible done and ready before baby comes.

One of the things on my list was adding a little color above the crib, somehow, someway.

After quite a bit of deliberation, I decided to make a yarn pom pom garland to go above the crib in the nursery for so many reasons, not least of which was the low cost. I had, of course, never made a yarn pom pom in my life. But no fear, my husband is a pro.  I completely forgot that his growing up years were not just totally packed with snowboarding but they were also filled with him making himself nearly enough beanies to wear a different one every day of the year. He graciously offered to teach me.  :)

nursery garland

boys' room garland

His is the easiest way I've seen so far to make said pom pom too so that's always a bonus in my book.(I'd looked up a few tutorials online before I was reminded of his forgotten talent.)

I ended up making several as ornaments to put on our Christmas tree as well but whether for a garland or an ornament you do basically the same thing with the exception of cutting or not cutting two strands of yarn...but we'll get to that.

my master teacher :)

You need:
yarn
cardboard
scissors
needle (I used a big quilting one because it's easy to thread yarn through)

1. Pick your yarn colors (duh) I found the best deal at good old Walmart, got the cheapest brand they had, etc... came to a bit less that $3 each color.
Make sure one of the pom pom colors is your desired color for the garland strand you string them on or get the color you want if it's different.

2. Pick your pom pom size, for the nursery I wanted small pom poms for the ornaments and for the boys room and the ornaments I wanted bigger pom poms.
(Lee insisted he have "balls" in his room too after I hung the ones in the nursery.)

3. Cut cardboard into a rectangle. The width of the cardboard will roughly be equal to the diameter of the pom pom.
For my big ones I did about 3" and the small ones I did a little shy of 2".

4. Start wrapping. :)
Be sure to pin down the first wrap with the subsequent ones.
Remember the more times you wrap the yarn around the cardboard the more dense the pom pom will be, I did anywhere from 75-90 wraps around for my small pom pom.  Spread the wrapping out just a little bit and try to have the thickness be the same everywhere. (Don't get middle heavy and have tons of wraps there and none on the edges.)
Also try and keep a consistent tightness, I kept mine pretty tight but remember you're going to be sliding it off eventually so don't go crazy.

5. Cut the end leaving a bit of yarn to work with.

6. Fold the cardboard a little bit to give you some space and wrap the excess yarn right around the center of the wraps on one side.

7. Slip the yarn off of the cardboard and wrap the rest of the excess around the entire center of the wraps. Make sure you keep the yarn on it's proper side. It's like tying a knot right in the middle of a stringy hot dog...or something...

8. Cut a generous piece of yarn. (this will be the hanger for an ornament so make sure it's plenty long)

9. Place the pom pom in the center of the yarn.

10. Tie a tight knot in the center of the pom pom, I pulled as tight as I could without breaking the yarn, and wrapped and tied it on the opposite side of the pom pom for good measure.

11. Now you are ready to cut, cut through all the loops being careful not to cut the knotted piece holding the pom pom together. I cut one side and fluffed it out and then did the other. I recommend getting a big bowl to do all the trimming over to keep the mess more contained.
*This is the part that makes you feel like you will be covered in fuzz for the rest of your life and that you'll never stop having that sweater in your throat sensation....

12. Now you will have a lopsided, crazy looking pouf that only slightly resembles a ball shape. Trim the ends until you have the desired roundness and size.
NOTE: if you are making ornaments make sure to keep the ends of the "knot piece" out of the scissors path if not cut them off with the rest. Just knot them and they are ready to hang.

*The more length you trim off the more dense the ball will be. So there is actually room for some size variance even if your cardboard piece was big to start with.  Keep previously made pom poms near by in the trimming process to make sure you're keeping them roughly the same size if you want them to be uniform.

For a garland: thread your needle with whatever color you chose and simply poke it through the center of each pom pom, the yarn on yarn actually sticks in a way that you can push them around (closer together or further apart) and they will stay put once you stop pushing.  It's fantastic.

master bathroom bliss: BEFORE and AFTER.

Upstairs renovation: part one//master bath.

We weren't planning on this renovation, but our house isn't the newest one on the block and it became necessary to replace all the carpet on the upstairs floor of our house. We choose to get the cracking tile in our bath and the very old linoleum in the second bath replaced at the same time.

We did a lot of searching and got loads of quotes to find the best deal that still came with confidence inspiring reviews of the work. (if you are in the Houston area, you can check out the company we used here. overall we were pleased.)
We cut costs by ordering our own tile for the bathrooms wholesale for a fraction of the cost of anything we could find in flooring showrooms. (link at end of post)

I referenced this, then upcoming, renovation project when I did a very belated BEFORE and AFTER of the main floor of the house after we changed almost all of the flooring and some other things here.

The biggest difference between the two projects is the downstairs was all DIY, done by my husband, whereas for this project we paid for the removal and installation of the actual flooring. There are some really nice things about having someone do some of the work for you, the biggest thing for me was timeline, in total all the removal and installation took 3 days this time around.
We cut down on more costs by having Kevin put in new tile baseboards himself as well as reinstalling the toilets himself and building all the new shelves.

As with any renovation we started out with huge dreams and cut them down to budget-reality size and decided what was a must and what we could do to update the look without going over budget.

In the end, other than the floor and paint color, we only made minor changes, like changing out hardware, hangings, decor, adding shelves, etc...

Getting this work done with my 2 year old and 1 year old boys and being 30+ weeks pregnant was a bit of a hectic *adventure* to say the very least but I'm so glad we got it done before this baby girl comes.

BEFORE:

floating shelves Kevin built.

AFTER:

floor tile: Home Depot

baseboard tile: Home Depot

hooks: Home Depot

shelf brackets: Signature Hardware

towels: T.J. Maxx

frame: Home Goods

candle holder: T.J. Maxx

bell: Home Goods

tray: T.J. Maxx

wood boxes: IKEA

stone box: Target

wire baskets: Home Goods

basket: T.J. Maxx

hand towels: Home Goods

paint color: Sherwin Williams first star

We are so happy with how it turned out, even though getting ready for me these days is usually just  getting a shower in I still spend a good bit of time each day in our bathroom and I love having things be the way we feel is not only more functional but also generates a clean, crisp feeling in the space.

toddler cookie decorating= sugar overload.

Growing up I could count on decorating sugar cookies every year for Halloween and Valentine's Day.  We'd usually decorate the cookies for our activity for our Monday night family time together and deliver plates around the neighborhood.

Anyway, when I had a play date for the boys coming up this week I thought, "I should make sugar cookies for everyone to decorate, the boys would love it." But a lot of me also thought, "your house is still in shambles since the renovation, you have a endless to-do list, etc....." But this time the part of me that really does want to be a fun mom won out (yea!) and I decided to go ahead with it. It will probably always feel easier not to do extra things, right? Plus all the girls coming were nice enough to supply everything else, so that made it way easier too.

*ps, I tried out a new sugar cookie recipe: for all you Utahns it's a Swig Sugar Cookie knock off and they were delicious (so much good food in that valley, I didn't know what a good thing I had when I had it) though I'm dying to make them again with their signature sour cream frosting too: recipe here.

Lee and his little bestie Ryan had the best time...trying to eat as much frosting and candy decorations as possible when we weren't looking.  Ha. Lee didn't even want to frost a cookie, waste of time, evidently.  

I didn't even give Drew a chance, just supplied him with a cookie and a few candy corns. He was quite content. :)

As always, it was great to get together with some really good friends and chat, even if the kind of conversations that happen at this stage of life always leave me feeling like we have a million things we started talking about with no endings... I know the toddler madness (and joys) won't last forever.

I LOVE FALL and it's so fun to start sharing my favorite traditions with my boys.

let go.

I've talked about it before, I'll probably talk about it again....since I've yet to master this weakness (and a couple others...).
Almost without fail it seems like with the passage of time comes a rekindling of some of my old ways of thinking, seemingly without my notice.
Days go by, life is busy.
And inevitably the day to day grind of raising a 2 year old and a 1 year old and being 30+ weeks pregnant leaves me feeling like I'm just "this close" to drowning in all that I should do, handle, teach, keep up, manage, etc...
Not to even mention all the things I'd like to make time for, on the side, that keep me thinking, creating...sane.

I am completely aware that motherhood is the greatest blessing I've experienced, and I feel moments of gratitude daily for the miracle of having any children at all (see post here).
But that doesn't make me good at being a mom or a homemaker or a wife...as much as I wish the desire and gratitude did in fact translate into ability and stamina.
But that not even the point of this post.

The point is, I don't generally wallow in those hard moments>>
I expect them, basically always.
And here's where a weakness of mine comes in.
I am SO good at expecting perfecting trials in life, but I am SO not good at expecting blessings or good things.
I try desperately to count my blessings and I know that I am so blessed, and that scares me too.
I naturally tend to think, "life is too good, I'm so blessed, what awful thing is about to happen?"
I'm also that person that expects every hardship I hear about to happen to me next.
I also think that somehow the trials of motherhood shouldn't "count" because after all, I really wanted and want to be a mom. More than anything else. And children are unquestionably, a blessing.

But after weeks of my -way too old to be up most of the night- "baby" is up for days and weeks on end and my sweet 2 year old just can't seem to get over his fear of being somewhere without me and I have to leave him screaming in nursery, again. And my days become a blur of runny noses, messy shirts, poop stained clothes, (theirs and mine) food smeared floors and general chaos....even though I don't feel like I have the right, I feel pretty overwhelmed each day and night.
So you know, guilt+anxiety...
Perfect.

Well, I'm at that "feel like I'm nearly drowning, sick about it, don't know what to do, guilty, exhausted" stage last week...
And I'm out exercising by myself, which never happens. I took advantage of the time to get a little scripture study in too, while out in nature and without interruption. It was a beautiful day.

I was reading "The Resurrection of Jesus Christ" by Elder D. Todd Christofferson
Read about living prophets in our day here.

As I've listened to and read this address before I've been struck by the powerful evidence of so much of God's plan for His children that is confirmed just by knowing that Jesus Christ is a living, resurrected being, a God like our Heavenly Father.

But this time...I was caught by insight into the reaction of the disciples from His time when He rose from the tomb as a resurrected being;

E. Christofferson spoke about how those disciples closest to Christ at the time of His death did not comprehend or believe in the miracle of His Resurrection until they had seen Him with their own eyes...

"Despite what the Savior had repeatedly said of His death and subsequent rising again, they had not understood."

And speaking of the joy they felt when they knew that Christ had overcome death;

"But that joy came only as the disciples became eyewitnesses of the Resurrection, for even the declaration of angels that He had risen was at first incomprehensible--it was something so unprecedented." (emphasis added)

When I read this I was reminded that sometimes,
even for really good people, trying to do their very best,
even for Christ's own disciples,
God's blessings are hard to imagine, expect or comprehend.
Even when the promise of them is given over and over and over.
Even when we have felt, feel and know in our hearts that God is a loving Heavenly Father that wants so badly to bless us.

I'm not saying we have to see a miracle before we can believe in it, but I realized that I'm not alone in my struggle to fully comprehend just how much God can and will bless me.
And that my struggle to expect His blessings and goodness is a worthwhile endeavor.

My mom has always told me (this may very well be a famous quote, I can't remember)

"Let go and let God."

Meaning that I need to let go of trying to be in "control" of what may come in my future by fearfully anticipating it.
And let God guide my path, bless me with challenges AND tremendous gifts.
And let go of trying to quantify and qualify my feelings, it's okay for a blessing to feel like more than I know how to bear at times. It doesn't have to mean I'm somehow ungrateful just simply that some blessings stretch us past our previous capacity.

As a reminder of just that goodness and desire to bless us I struggle with,  I was blessed with another reminder of God's character in this address.

This quote from it (below) could have been said directly to me, considering my struggle.

(It seemed only fitting to put such a perfect reminder for me with a picture I snapped from that day I was out exercising and was blessed with another tender mercy reminder...
plus I'm obsessed with surrounding myself with powerful quotes.)


I have obviously not quite mastered this yet but I was and am grateful for a reminder that even really good people struggle to fully comprehend God's goodness.
And it's okay, just keep trying to believe it.
In this as in all struggle, we are never alone. I know that for certain.

I know I'm not alone in my struggle to "let go and let God" bless me and help me, I hope I (we all) can learn to put down my umbrella and catch more of the constant shower of God's blessings for me.