sombody shoot me

V and Co: winners

from my iphone archives first and foremost: winners: winner of book and magazine: heather D who said: I’ve finished a number of medium sized projects in the last few weeks and things are pretty quiet right now for me! I’m working on small baby quilts for our local hospital foundation, and not much else at […]

V and Co: leaving on a jet plane

i’m heading off this lovely place. at least that’s what i hear… that it’s nice. any ideas on the skyline? oh i know so secretive its kind of annoying right? i’m really sorry. i don’t like to lead you on or leave you hanging so i normally just keep my mouth pretty tight lipped till […]

V and Co: moves like jackie

jackie chan that is. yup, this is a story about the day i joined a gym again. the day i was forced to stop walking in the wee morning hours while most of the neighborhood sleeps. see you would think that the word “winter” would have stopped me from walking. nope, we’ve had a pretty […]

V and Co: a craptastic giveaway for my 3-6

so yes i turn the big three-six today. for some reason the number 36 is hard to look at. i soooo don’t feel 36, i feel uh…maybe 26. 26 would be so doable. if i were turning 26 i would so totally be like “i’m so cool i’m reaching my prime and i totally have […]

because i’m a planner

i’m having a really hard time not being able to plan after this month. do you ever just say out loud “why can’t we just get what we want?!” yeah i said that. and the minute i said it i felt guilty. so dang guilty. i was so focused on one thing…not knowing where we’re […]

just sewed through my finger

tutorials

oh. my.h-e double hockey sticks. okay it wasn’t through the whole finger…but it went through half way and i pulled real quick when it happened so the needle broke in my finger but not before it tore my fingernail. i literally had to pull the needle through from under the nail and then un-thread my […]

oh swear word, my husband’s company is shutting it’s doors sale

edited: thank you already for the orders. i’ll keep cutting, for some reason no shipping was being charged to the first orders…so i’ve had to adjust the prices to include the shipping. sorry about the confusion. i’ve contacted big cartel about the issue. last week was, well…not so good. last week i got a phone […]

healthy part 2 and a new pattern

introducing my newest pattern “The Abby Bag” due to come out next week. please pre order you pattern here first 15 people to order will get the pattern half off. and the rest will get a 15% discount till the pattern is released which i will then be put back to full price. (discount will […]

cool and not cool

picture courtesy of dana from this post okay so i guess it has to be said because in the past month a few of my pictures have been taken off my site and used to promote other sites. so here we go. i totally love when others find me and my creations through another site […]

been there done that

cookies i made last week sometime…i’ll share the recipe soon i have a secret ingredient that makes these babies something to talk about… okay…so yes it’s been a while. hi there! i apologize for my lack of being here. i mentioned a few posts back that i would be going to girls camp. yup that […]

series of unfortunate events:the final chapter

okay where were we. ah yes, seeing gray after the water. read part one. read part two. well much to my dismay, the black crayon did not in fact come completely out, but at least it wasn’t coming off onto the clothes like it did to that first unfortunate load of laundry. i didn’t read […]

a series of unfortunate events: chapter 2

find part one here part 2 of 3. “you okay?” the husband asks as he picks me up from the passenger pick up zone. “no, but i will be. this will be funny someday i swear.” “you look…” he looks at me and decides to forgo the rest of the comment that will surely get […]

a series of unfortunate events

wow thanks for the love on the bag!!! you’ve sent it to be the #2 best overall selling item over the first weekend and let me tell you that’s huge. thank you! some of you already have finished them and are showing them off on the flicker group! ah! i’ll have to do a look […]

a few happenings if you will

this week has been cold. but the water was turned on so we decided to make sure our pipes wouldn’t freeze by leaving the sprinklers on in the back. it created quite a few cool ice encircled buds and ton of icicles off out fences. and i know i haven’t been talking about how funny […]

burnt toast kind of day

we interrupt the regularly scheduled blog post due to technical difficulties (also known as a lamo sinus infection type thing and a cough that kept her up all freakin’ night long). please enjoy the elevator music till we can return health to the woman behind the blog. hopefully we’ll talk tomorrow. >:P

i should win best mom award for this

so last week at aprox 8:22 pm the night before the 2nd grade play (which my son was to be honey bee #2) i’m not kidding the kid comes up to me and says second noise maker: “uh mom, i need a honey bee costume…for tomorrow’s play.” okay keep in mind we live in a […]

winners and stuff

nothing like skidding in at the last minute with hair singed and smoke billowing up off of it…. phew! anyone else feel like they’ve been running a marathon? i promised today…and well today it is: okay so i got to meet and learn a little about 156ish (plus emails) of you. yes, i read each […]

our not so beautiful tree

so this is a story, about mr v and co the christenson’s deciding that this year they were going to go and cut down their own christmas tree. mr v and co says ” hey wife of mine, i think this year we should cut down our own tree.” “yay.” i say enthusiastically. not. i […]

how my weekend turned into “not so good”

so our house is surrounded by fields. lots and lots of fields. and well in fields you commonly find field mice. this is a story about just that…but with a baaaaad ending. read on: we found a cute little field mouse outside and caught it in a mason jar… brought it in the house, the […]

happy hallows eve

from our house to yours. katie trying on her “sen sen” costume…the boys will be clone troopers…of course. today i’m off to make some pumpkin soup (wish me luck), avoid the super cold weather, completely ignore the “hellish white fluffy stuff that has fallen out of the sky to bring on seasonal depression” also known […]

you may call him cow whisperer

cow whisperer formerly known as GI joe husband: hey there meatloaf. meatloaf: hey there dude who’s totally not going to kill me cause he’s getting soft around the edges and totally falling for my evil plan of being all cute only while he’s looking. cow whisperer formerly known as GI joe husband: hey so i […]

i’m either the best or worst mom…

i’ve decided to add this pretty picture of a flowering bush in my back yard just in case some of you are of faint heart and would much rather not continue to read and see some pretty disgusting and dirty things. as this post is full of these things… consider yourselves warned… mom that means […]

frustration

tutorials

it’s taken me over an hour to upload 5 pictures so i’m giving up. my family is sitting waiting for just me to finish so we can leave to go to the grand canyon. i thought i could get up before everyone and type up the tutorial for you all. but seeing that everything is […]

how i tried to make it better

yesterday was…how should i put it?…less than desirable. it’s like i’ve been having a good streak and yesterday the universe decided that it needed to uh how do i put it? hand me my rear end on a silver platter. with the morning off to a super rough start, i ended up needing to go […]

that’s what i get

by claiming today as my “super productive day in sewing.” and by not making the bed. i have a philosophy: if my bed is not made. i have a bad day. the longer it stays unmade the longer my bad luck and mood continues. so far my 2 kids left at home have spilled two […]

on the third day

you are suppose to see sprouts. guess what i saw… yup. nothing. okay well i did see some weeds. the husband is a researcher at heart. it’s rather annoying. i can never claim “i had no idea.” because the man doesn’t let me. as each day passes, he comes home with more and more info […]

a conversation if you will…

so i read to the boys every night. (well most nights) and we’ve covered a wide range of books from star wars to classics. we just finished not too long ago “how to eat fried worms.” we were working outside fixing a busted pipe in the sprinkler system, when i spotted a big worm…and well […]

now to tackle this

well! all i have to say is wow, and thank you. thank you for making yesterday a wonderful etsy success. as you can see i have an aftermath to deal with. it ain’t pretty. and if i want a little bit of sewing for me time…i better get crack-a-lacking! edited: okay more fabric bracelet tuts […]

please go do some damage

image includes “the fabric bracelet” and you can buy the instructions here in my shop sold out i will keep them stocked up as they run out follow this link my shop has some new things in it okay so some of you expressed wanting the stitchery in Katie’s room: find it here i also […]

my spa weekend?

*8 hours of mandatory meetings one day and 3 the next *boys who haven’t seen each other since being overseas together *only 20% off of all spa thingies that cost a bazillion dollars to begin with ( uh…we need money to eat and feed our children) EQUALSmaking cheap fun in our hotel rooms yes i […]

“the easter bunny sucks!”

so we were on the road on easter sunday. i know not very religious of us. but the husband had to be back at work on monday morning and we had to see family on saturday soooo…you do the math. as we were traveling the oldest boy yells up to the front: hey isn’t today […]

in the works

have i been working on: A)organizing B)painting C)being sick D)a tutorial E)trying to be a good mom and wife by cooking every darn night F)getting my part of the stupid taxes done E)all of the above E. would be the correct answer. but see this is how i roll. i put a bazillion things on […]

just plugging along…

remember my bedroom progress? well, i don’t like my bed pillows. no. actually. i hate them. it’s just too much, not right, all wrong (you get the idea) so i’m going with a softer look and i think i’m finally starting to love it…i’m still in the beginnings of making slipcovers so it will take […]

new fabric and the monthly ickies

if you haven’t been to jo-ann’s lately, oh my it’s not the jo-anns i knew a few years ago. or maybe being out in the middle of nowhere really does a number on you and you think anything other than walmart flannel is hip happening and gives you butterflies in your stomach when you see […]

sundays suck, and things to come

i hate sundays, it’s the hardest day of the week for me. it’s suppose to be the Lord’s day and a spiritual day. not so much for me, it’s pretty much my own personal hell (yup, it bumped walmart with kids off the list), but i go because i have to, God told me to. […]

snow snow go away…

please don’t come back another day! i’m laying low this weekend, watching kid movies, staying under a lot of quilts while eating popcorn and reading, and drinking a lot of this stuff due to… all of this stuff… spent most of the week shoveling the white stuff off my walkways…good exercise…yeah that’s what i keep […]

loss of another great friend.

picture from my archives two things i use every single living day are now officially broken. first my sewing machine, and now MY CAMERA! ah, so she’s off in a box snuggled in bubble wrap to be fixed hopefully. i don’t know how long i will be without a camera…so i don’t know what to […]

really good at faking it..

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today seemed to be one of the worst days in a long time. i’m pretty good at faking it…that i have it almost all together…most of the time. but you can only take so much sometimes when you just feel like you’re “broken.” i know that’s no way to talk, but yes i feel broken […]

our last 24 hours together…

you were right this time his leaving is harder than the first time. he leaves tomorrow morning… early morning. i’m dreading the 3 hour drive home from the airport becuase i’ll have all that time to just sit and think, i’m dreading getting used to not having around again, i’m dreading every night not watching […]

Um excuse me, your cow is dead.

So instead of me trying to explain the situation I’ll just give you an idea on how the conversation went between me (the INNOCENT one who just thought the cow was “sleeping”) and the owner of the cow: Ring ring…ring ring… Owner: hello? Me: uh, yeah, er..uh hmm, er this is Vanessa. Owner: oh hi […]

chasing cows in flipflops and felt strawberries…

uh yeah the boys “accidently” let the cows out, but not just into our backyard….no not even into our front yard…when the boys finally came to tell me what they had done (i haven’t seen them this scared to tell me ANYTHING in their lives) the cows were grazing down the street and were on […]

it’s like a bad dream you can’t get out of

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walmart hell part three: here’s part one and part two and yes now sadly i have a part three: it all started out okay, i’ve managed not to go into the box store with all the monsters for the whole summer. i even paid a whopping $36 dollars to the 12 year old baby sitter […]

my laundry pile has exploded

monkeys swinging from vines and landing in mud… building volcano’s with actual “water lava” explosions…( i swear they are going to have some AWESOME memories growing up together) this is what the boys did all day yesterday. oh and making a mountain of dirty laundry that had to be hosed off before it went into […]

confession…

i meant to go walking this morning… instead: sorry kelly i stole this idea from you, but you are used to having people copy you cause you are so cool.

did anyone else notice?

um…i’m like less than 10 days away of 100 days crossed off this deployment…i think i’m going to cry…too late. (no, it’s a good thing i know…i think i just need a good cry some chocolate and a new book or a great chick flick…)

long gone goats and baby sulivan’s quilt

well i did it, i got rid of the demons that are other wise known as goats. yesterday was the last straw that broke the camel’s back, or in my case the last straw that made it really easy for me to call the one family i KNEW would take the goats. billy got out […]

*sigh*

stupid, stupid, stupid cold weather. over night below freezing temps doesn’t make for good conditions for my poor little flowers. i get it, i’m not in california, i’ll play by the rules for living in an area where it’s 7000 + ft altitude. *sigh*

i ate cat food…

so kate is an organizer, she loves to move things around and she loves, loves, loves to take things out of something and put it into something else… pour out cereal this morning and as i’m eating it, i came across something crunchy-er than the rest…what the…noooo, no, no, no, OH MY YES, I ATE […]

practice does not make perfect

…or make it easier to saying goodbye *sigh* we’re gonna miss you. take care and know that we are constantly thinking and praying for you. and we are literally counting the days till you are with us once again. but until then, life must go on and we will do it to the best of […]

i bet you a million dollars you have never….

had your goat stare at you from your trampoline with a look of “what? havn’t you ever seen a goat on a trampoline before?” or had a knocking sound at around 10:30 at night that freaks you out cause out here in the country you don’t hear much of anything once the sun goes down […]

once upon a time…

i used to really like to do laundry. the smell and warmth alone was a happy maker. somewhere around child three i think that was no longer true. and i’ve been so good with doing what fly lady suggests and doing a load a day(no matter what!!). seemed to of gotten things under control at […]

today i would…

totally get under my covers and sleep all day long, wake up go get some yummy food, and my fav diet drink, then come home get under my covers again and sleep some more or read till i fell asleep again…but who am i kidding. seriously enough with the cold weather, enough with the snow, […]

POOOOO ON YOU INSURANCE COMPANIES!!!

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ugh!!!!! ranting on the phone, crying and holding back as much as i can on the foul language!!!! WHY i ask you WHY do i get a phone call less than 24 hours prior to my daughter’s surgery, that there’s a problem with the pre-authorization(and they tell me it takes at LEAST 48 hours to […]

I’M BACK!

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almost three full days without internet! SOMEBODY SHOOT ME! but thankfully its up again. i feel like i need to spend 5 hours online just to read everyones blogs, and update mine, and check up on news and email! yikes! i guess tonight after the kids go to bed!

“jerry” this one’s for you (arrrrg)

i got to go to walmart the other day with out the boys. it was just me and katie, and so i had a rather somewhat pleasant experience UNTIL i got to the checkout line. hmmm…hi my name is vanessa and this is my story on how i would love to break up with walmart, […]

no, no, nooooooooo!!!!!

oh no what happen to my spring?!!!! this california girl NEEDS WARMTH NOW!!!!! >:( (um and a tan and a pedicure!)

i knew going in…

i guess where i made the mistake was when i was so optimistic thinking that THIS time it was going to be different. hello, my name is vanessa and welcome to what i like to call “my personal hell…walmart with all my kids”… as i turn off the car, i turn to my children and […]

watching someone else kids and blogging don’t mix

gave my kids and the extra kids some lunch…cleaned up lunch, put katie down for a nap and told the kids to go into the boy’s room to find a few toys to play with. went to the computer uploaded my new barrette pictures to my country chick blog, went to go check on the […]

You know you have a “Problem” …

Nate (entertaining himself) Kyle (poor little guy!) Ryan (other poor little boy!) little Miss Katie (ignoring her symptoms) …when you feel like poop and your kids look like this and you take pictures so you can blog about it! Yes, I have now hit a new low in blogging and my obsession. Nate’s the only […]

I looked out the window and what did I see…?

POPCORN flying sideways down my street! This was around 2pm today! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? It was blowing so hard that we didn’t know which way it was comming from! When I went to pick up the boys from school I couldnt even see the kids come out of their classrooms! Thank goodness there’s nowhere […]

Some pictures to give you an idea

I had to make barfing noises and puking faces to get them to all look and smile at the same time, all ofcourse except Katie who was having a traumatic time being off my hip. After he decided that EVERYTHING from his closet had to be taken out and thrown into his room so that […]