New Ottoman

So I totally fibbed yesterday:o) I said that the creative bug wasn't there. I said that I might pick something up next week....well next week turned into today:o)

This is what I did today.

In the words of my dear grandmother, "itn't that purdy." 

Being from the South, most of us say itn't instead of isn't..sad but true:o)

Anyway, this is what the ottoman looked like before:

Yep, that's a coffee table. One that has seen better days. My neighbor is an avid yard saler as well, and I told her that I was on the hunt for a round coffee table to turn into an ottoman. She definitely came through for me. She found this little beaut for $10.

I couldn't find anywhere in town that had foam thick enough and wide enough to cover the entire coffee table, so I bought 4 foam cushions from Hobby Lobby. I used spray adhesive to attach the cushions to one another and then laid the coffee table on top of the foam and traced around the edge of the table. Then the hubs and I used a reciprocating saw and cut the foam.

I didn't take any pictures of the step by step process..sorry. I was so excited about getting a project done, that I just flew through it without a second thought. 

The fabric is painter's canvas from Lowes. I did use some piping around the edge just to give it a more finished look.

 This ottoman has 5,003 staples in it....well I am not exactly sure how many staples to be exact, but there are several:o) I laid the fabric across the top of the foam and stapled it to the skirt of the coffee table(the wooden skirt that is). I then added the piping..stapling it to the underside of the top of the table. Then I added the ruffled skirt, stapling it to the underside of the top of the table as well.  

 This project took 1 hour to complete, with very little sewing and a whole lot of stapling.

 How successful do you think I will be keeping the kids and the hubs off of it??? My thoughts EXACTLY!

 At least we can all look back at these pictures and see what she looked like before being introduced to the rest of the family:o)

I hope you all have a great Wednesday! 

Participating in:

Featured at:

A Cookie Recipe You Must Try

A friend of mine made these cookies the other day. 

She found the recipe HERE.

I ate 4 in the span of 30 minutes....yes, they are that good!

These are perfect for fall. I can't wait to make these for my next gathering! Now all we need is for the fall weather to come back...it's hot again, but that's part of the beauty/ugly (depending on how you look at it) of living in the deep South:o)

Speaking of weather, I have a little man who is under the weather right now, so things around here are slow going.

Not much in the crafting arena right now either. I haven't had the energy nor the desire. I am hoping to get the crafting bug after this week. We have so much going on this week that there really isn't time to be creative.

Praying for E to feel better, so he can enjoy the rest of the week with us!

Have a good evening, ya'll.

Google Apps highlights – 9/23/2011

This is part of a regular series of Google Apps updates that we post every couple of weeks. Look for the label “Google Apps highlights" and subscribe to the series. - Ed.

It’s back-to-school season, and we’ve made Gmail, Google Docs, Calendar and Sites easier to use and more powerful for students and non-students alike—including some important accessibility improvements to help blind users be productive in our apps.

Multiple sign-in and other new preferences in Gmail for mobile
On Wednesday, we added some helpful new features for people who use Gmail on a mobile browser. You can now sign in to more than one Gmail account at a time, and toggle between them easily from the account switcher menu at the bottom of the mobile inbox. This can be a good time saver if you have multiple accounts or share a mobile device with family members. Gmail for mobile also now enables you to set up mobile-specific email signatures and create vacation responders right from your phone to let people know when you won't be available by email.

Calling credit auto-recharge
Now you can automatically add international calling credits for phone calls in Gmail when your balance gets low. Just visit the "Billing" area of the Google Voice settings page and click "Add credit" to put your account on cruise control.

Allow people to comment but not edit in documents
Sometimes, you might find yourself in situations when you’d like to share a document for feedback, but don’t want to make the document's content fully editable. The comment-only level of access launched last week is a nice option for these scenarios. You can let others discuss and add their thoughts to your document—without allowing them to change your work. You can allow document comments from specific individuals or groups, from anyone belonging your organization or from the general public.

Format painter, Fusion Tables, drag & drop images and vertical cell merge
Comment-only access isn't all that we've added to Google Docs over the last few weeks. Other notable improvements include a text format painter in documents, which is a fast way to copy and paste font, size, color and other text styling. Spreadsheets now support vertically merged cells (in addition to horizontal merges). In drawings, you can drag images from your desktop to the drawing canvas, then continue editing your graphic. We also added Fusion Tables as a new document type in the documents list. Fusion Tables are a powerful way to gather, visualize and collaborate on large data sets that might be unwieldy in a typical spreadsheet.

Fusion Table data visualized on an interactive map

Accessibility improvements in Google Calendar, Docs and Sites
We think technology can do a better job getting out of people’s way and helping you be more productive with less complexity and fewer frustrations. In this spirit, we’ve recently made a series of improvements to make our applications more accessible to blind users. We have more work to do, but Google Calendar, Docs and Sites now offer better support for screen readers and improved keyboard shortcuts. We hope these changes make our applications more useful to all users.

Who’s gone Google?
Organizations are moving to Google Apps for a diverse set of reasons—including cost savings, streamlined teamwork and better mobile access. We’ve even started hearing from schools and businesses who have made the switch to reduce their impact on the environment. No two organizations choose Google Apps for the exact same reasons, but in total, the momentum of Google Apps keeps growing.

We recently shared the news that 61 of the top 100 universities ranked by U.S. News and World Report have gone Google. On the business side, there are now more than 4 million companies using Google Apps, and businesses are joining at a rate of over 5,000 per day. In all, there are more than 40 million users that regularly use Google Apps in their organizations.

I hope these product updates and customer stories help you and your organization get even more from Google Apps. For more details and the latest news, check out the Google Apps Blog.

Posted by Jeremy Milo, Google Apps Marketing Manager

E's 5 Today!

Five years ago today, this little bit of joy blessed our lives immensely.

I can't believe how quickly these past 5 years have flown by.

He is the sweetest, kindest little soul.

You can't help but love him.

Little did we know that when God gave us him, He gave us a little peace of heaven.

Happy Birthday E! 

Mommy, Daddy & S.R. love you! 

Thought this was Great!

I saw this on Pinterest today and thought it was great! Yes, I jumped on the bandwagon...I may be jumping ship though, b/c I may never get off of the computer!!

Super Hero Birthday Party

Here it is. The Super Hero Birthday party for E. I'll try to let the pictures do most of the talking:o)

 I made the cake...in a hurry. I wasn't as happy with this one as I was with the Barbie cake I made for S.R.'s party.

Table scape for the boys.

Table for the girls.

A shot through the web.

 Party favor table

 Each of the boys got to take home a lunch box, plate & cup(not pictured) along with a book & Spiderman comic book.

 This is what was inside of the lunch box. I found these in the dollar section at Target the other day and they were half off.

Construction of the Bat Cave. The hubs and my daddy did a great job.

 Fishing line, tacks and black plastic table cloths made the Bat Cave. The kids got a kick out of it. We had the lights off when they walked through it.

Here were some of the games. To get the posters, visit designergirl007 at Etsy.

 Here were some of our villains...Doc Oc

 Lex Luthor...for some reason I thought his name was Max Luther and I couldn't find a picture of him:o) Go figure!

 and the Joker

A little pre-party fun with my sis.

 Here's the arrival of Batman....HUGE hit!

 Back to the games....vaporize the villains was the favorite game of the day. 

 The villains didn't make it:o)

Once the Super Hero Academy was over, Batman signed certificates and handed them out to each of the new Super Heroes.

 He also gave everyone a Bat-a-rang.

I'd say this was one happy little man!

Participating in:

 Featured: