These Legs Were Made For Walkin'

So our kids are slow walkers.  I'm going to go ahead and comfort myself by saying that my kids make up for their lack of physical skills with mental skills.  Cora, is our slowest, yet.  17 months old...that's right, 17.  I have to thank my sister in law, Stacie, for motivating this little one.  Cora seemed to really like Stacie (I mean, seriously, who couldn't!) and she was the first person Cora decided to walk to.

Now, a few weeks later, she's getting around pretty well.

Ok, maybe think Maggie Simpson.

I guess now that's she's "mastered" walking, she's going to move on to improving her dance moves!

Bounding Through the Blue Bonnets

This is our first Spring in Texas...and I am so impressed with how beautiful it has been! Granted, everyone keeps saying this is a really good year for wild flowers because of the rainy, mild winter, but WOW!
Blue Bonnets are the Texas State flower. Since they started popping up in open fields, I've been wanting to get the kids out to take some pictures. One evening, we were actually having dinner at a decent hour, so we decided that we would hop into the car and drive out to a field a friend had recommended to me. After a mad rush to get the girls looking picture worthy, a few fights followed by some tears, we made it out and took lots and lots of pictures. So worth the fight!
This post is mostly going to be pictures. I just had so many pictures that I loved, and I didn't want to cut any of them out of the blog.
Our field of Blue Bonnets was a great place for pictures. We even had a rustic old farm as our background. And what a lovely sunset!

These beautiful flowers are so amazing when they take over vacant fields.Alright, here come lots of pictures of my girls!

I guess, I'll start with the youngest first.

Little Cora

She is a lucky girl to have such good big sisters.

And she can be such a ham.

I love this one:

Next up is Ailee.

Seriously, this may be my favorite picture of all time:

I've never met a more caring, sweet girl, than Ailee.

Love those brown eyes.

How can you look at this picture and not laugh, too?

And, finally, we have Maryn.

She has got to be my most cooperative picture taker. I'm not sure if it's because she likes to take pictures, or if she's just well trained.

Those pretty blue eyes match the Blue Bonnets.

My favorite one of Maryn:

Just some random pictures of the girls together. And not fighting.

I'll keep these next three as proof that Maryn and Ailee do love each other, and can be within 2 feet of each other without yelling.

Three of my favorite girls!

Making silly noises

Those are my girls!

Problem Solving--Ribbons. That's Right, Ribbons.

I'm going to go ahead and give everyone reading this tutorial a heads up--I am not a skilled photographer. So please, don't judge me for my poor photographs. I do, however, consider myself to be a good problem solver. We need a few more of those in the world. Especially in government, am I right?

[insert political rant, here]

[wishing I knew more about politics to give an educated rant]

Ok, so I had two problems. My first problem was this:

What is this you ask? Why, it's a 1 year old. And not just any one year old, she's a particularly pesky one year old.

There isn't a cupboard in my house that hasn't been ravaged by this one. No closet has been left undisturbed, and anything within her reach gets dumped out.

"Anything within her reach" also includes that box of ribbon in my craft room.

It's really fun for a one year old to unwind ribbon.

Have you ever had to wind up 20 spools of ribbon? I have. Multiple times. I don't remember the point where I stopped winding them up, and just started throwing them back into the box.

My next problem was this:

If you couldn't guess, it's a blank wall. Pretty boring, right??

So. A few weeks ago, I had a stroke of genius. I took a look at my two problems (the ribbon unwinding 1-year-old and the blank wall), drove over to Lowes, and after wandering around the store a bit, figured out a solution to these two said problems. Seriously, it was genius at work.

(Also, I have to give props to the worker at Lowes who was actually the one who sparked this idea. And I want to publicly thank him for not voicing his judgments upon me when I reluctantly told him I wanted to make an organizer for my ribbons. It was one of those moments where I out-housewifed myself.)

This is what I came up with:

My Ribbon Organizer. Voila!

Here are my plans. Now keep in mind that I was trying to spend as little as possible on this project. I'm not real big into spending $$$ on keeping my ribbon organized, and I'm gonna go ahead a brag that I only spent $3 to make this. [score!] I already had wood left over from previous projects, and hooks at home, so I only had to buy the dowels. So, if you are working on scraps, or you just want to make it bigger/smaller, adjust your measurements accordingly. It's pretty easy.

These are the supplies you need:

2--1x4 cut at 20" (top and bottom)

2--1x4 cut at 33 1/2" (sides)

2--1x2 cut at 32" (inner pieces)

5--3/8" wooden dowels cut at 19 1/2" (this leaves a lot of waste from 48" dowels, but this was the widest I could make mine with out needing to buy more 1x4s. You could easily increase your dowel length to 24" by increasing your top and bottom pieces to 24 1/2")

10 screw in hooks (sorry, I don't know the exact size. I just happened to have these in my tool box, and they worked perfectly with the 3/8" dowels)

Paint

Tape measure

Miter saw

Screws

Wood glue

Sander

Hangers

I would recommend white wood for your project. It's cheap. Just make sure it's STRAIGHT!

Figure out how large you want your organizer to be. If it's different than my dimensions, make up a diagram and double check all your measurements before you cut.

Cut all your wood, and predrill any holes for screws. I just happen to have a Kreg Jig (that I LoVE!), so I did pocket holes. If you don't have a pocket hole system, I would take careful measurements and predrill holes from the sides. Countersinking your screws would make it look even better. After things are cut and predrilled, sand like crazy!

First, you will build a rectangle from your sides and top/bottom. The top piece is set flush with the top edge of your side piece, and likewise with the bottom piece. Using screws and wood glue, make the frame. If your cutting measurements are precise (I am totally anal) you should end up with nice square corners.
Next we will figure out the placements for the inner pieces (1x2s). Hold on to your hats, 'cause it's pretty scientific! I found my largest spool of ribbon, and placed it up against the inside of one of the side pieces. I made sure that it wasn't going to rub against the wall when I hung it up. Then I made a mark on the board about where I wanted my dowel. Then, I picked one of the hooks, and held the round part (the part that will hold your dowel) against my mark. I made another mark where the hook will be flush against the 1x2. This will be where you line up the front of your inner piece. I think my measurement ended up being 1 5/8" in from the front of the side piece.

(I'm not sure who's old hands those are!! They sure need some lotion, though.)

With a pencil, draw a line the entire length of your side piece so you can line it up.

Now, before you add your 1x2s into your frame, you will want to predrill the holes for your hooks. I started with my first hook at 4" from the top, and the last hook 4" from the bottom. The other 3 hooks were set 6" away from the last. These measurements have worked out great! Drill your holes (they don't need to be drilled through to the other side) and sand.

This is how the hooks will all look when you are completely done:

Using glue and screws again, put that bad boy together.

Now you are ready to paint. Give it all a couple of good coats. I painted mine boring old white, simply because I had a can of white paint out in the garage, but you should totally paint yours a really fun color!

Once it's all dried, add your hangers. I put on two, to keep it stable.

Screw in your hooks. I used a little bit of glue on each one so it wouldn't twist around.

Hang it up on the wall.....

....add your dowels and ribbon...

...and you're done!

PS...a few days later, I added jars to the bottom to hold buttons. I just screwed the lids of the jars onto the underside of the bottom piece. The jars just twist on. Pretty easy!