What's happening now.

Wow! It's been a good minute since I've used my my little writing outlet. How is everyone doing? Life is all kinds of insane, but in the best way. I've worked on some beautiful pieces recently that I can't wait to share on here. Our daughter is about to be out for summer while our son is about to start pre-school. Jasper's birthday actually is in a few weeks. Four years old. My goodness, time sure does fly when you're busy as hell. Can't wait to share his fourth birthday photos on here soon enough. I'm also entering a new career path, but I'll get more into that later on as well. I've worked really hard for this and it's exactly where I want to be. So much to tell, but we'll break everything down in time. We moved! Yup, yet another change. This new place is beautiful and spacious. The kids both have their own bedrooms and bathroom while daddy and I have our cozy own space and master bath. Everything is decorated completely different than before at our old place. Spent almost three months decluttering our old apartment so we could start a more minimalist life...well, sort of.. Most of our furniture is upcyled by yours truly. Still need to work on a few things, but everything is coming together beautifully. Something we're currently embarking on as a family, something I'll be posting about more in-depth when we have more answers is our son is currently under evaluation for ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder). We were referred by our doctor to the most wonderful psychologist who currently is evaluating out son. I know your curiosity is kicking in right now and I'm here to let you know its okay. Ask away anything. So, let me break this down a bit:

Q. What made you start to question if your son had ASD?
A. No parent wants to self-diagnose their child. For one, the internet will scare the shit out of you. But in our particular situation, there were too many red flags I started to catch on to. Our son didn't start crawling till he was almost one years old. He didn't start walking till about 15 months. (insert: every child does thing's at their own pace) and you're completely right. That's why I turned my head to it and insisted my son was a late bloomer. Around two we started with potty training and at three he was full on in underwear. About six months ago he began to regress in using the potty. He started to hid in his tent, the closet, pretty much anywhere we couldn't see him to use the bathroom in his pants. Our son also has a speech delay. He usually speaks to us in one or two-words phrases, or quotes things he heard in movies (this is called repetitive speech). Our son also experiences over-stimulation. Sometimes, if he's around too many people or too many sounds, he'll begin to break down. He covers his ears or will begin to cry. It's heartbreaking.

At his three year check up I began to bring up the issues with our sons pediatrician. He's a wonderful doctor, but very old school. He also assured us Jasper was most likely a late bloomer. So I suggested speech therapy. The first time he dismissed it, but the second time a few months later, he wrote me the referral. I can go on and on about what happened next but the short story is his insurance dropped the ball with the situation. Returning to the doctor only frustrated us more because I was pretty much on the edge of getting our son a new pediatrician if he didn't acknowledge the issue. He did his own evaluation and referred us out to see a specialist. (BTW we never received the referral)

A few months ago I met a women who's son is on the ASD spectrum. I don't like comparing children, but our son's had A LOT of similarities. She invited us to an autism awareness event where we finally started to figure thing's out for ourselves. We found a local autism resource center that directed us into the right path we needed to be in. About a week later we finally were able to see a psychologist, he screened our son and sent us home with a parental evaluation for us to fill out. We go back in about a week and our son will be see the psychologist by himself. To interact and get a better feel on his own. By the third visit we should have some definite answers. We'll also be starting speech therapy with in the next month.
,br> It's weird because it's nothing I ever expected, but at the same time I've had this feeling the whole time. This gut feeling telling me to keep pushing for answers. We're going into this with open hearts and open minds. No matter the outcome, no matter what the doctor diagnosis, our family is strong and can take on anything.


We'll this turned into an emotional post. Lol. I have tears in my eyes thinking of the frustration we've felt for the past few months. The doctor for not taking us seriously, the insurance for dropping the ball on the whole situation, having to wait 45 days for the new insurance to kick in, the months we missed out on of speech therapy. But we're finally on the right path.

To be continued....

DIY hexagon shelfs

After scrolling through Pinterest for a few days I finally came to conclusion we NEEDED hexagon shelfs. This was a matter of life and death! I swear! A quick trip to the hardware store with my boyfriend + screaming toddler covered in sawdust, we had a few new plant babies in tow and some wood to start our project. I had him cut down all the wood to 8″ pieces with a 30 degree angle on each end, then the rest of the assembly was  super easy. 

We sanded the edges of each wood piece then attached then with a nail gun. After I stained the wood this beautiful cherry color. Then I painted the inside of the hexagon and let dry over night. 

There you have it! If you look close in the photo there's also a triangle shelf that my dad created for us but I need to get the measurements from him to put it up properly on my blog. It's so beautiful though. Keep a look out for that how to! 

DIY Ash & Misty outfits

Unless you live under a rock, Pokemon Go has taken over the world! My boyfriend and daughter have been hooked since the beta release last week, tag teaming the city representing team valor. My boyfriend grew up with Pokemon. It's always been more than a game to him. A nostalgic piece of his childhood he's now able to share this with his kids. I decided to make the kids costumes of Ash & Misty to wear while they go hunting Pokemon with their pops. 

Everything I found at Walmart. 

For Ash:

A solid royal blue shirt (clearance for $2)

A solid white button down ($2)

Yellow & Green fabric paint (0.97¢)

Buttons I already had 

A solid red hat ($2.97

White acrylic paint I already had 

For Misty:

Yellow tank top ($2.97)

Shirts Rae already had

Red suspenders ($6.00)

The Misty outfit is pretty self explanatory. 

For Ash I placed the blue shirt over the white button up. I then cut the sleeves off the blue shirt, exposing the white sleeves. I next cut both shirts down the center. After you cut down the center line up the blue to the white shirt. I used my hot glue gun to make a hem along the blue shirt and folded it over the white. Making a clean line. I used yellow fabric paint to create the pockets and the yellow line in the bottom of the jacket (let dry for six hours). Lastly attach the button on the left side with a hot glue gun.  For the hat I taped off the area I needed to paint white, a few solid coats of white paint, let dry about one hour. Then I used green fabric paint to do the L in his hat. Let dry about six hours. 

Hello June.

And hello to you too my sweet little blog. I'm sorry I've been missing in action these last few months. Life has been super busy and showed no sign of slowing down. But I promise I haven't forgotten about you. I've been crafting for my sons  third birthday party this coming Sunday on top of baking up a storm lately. Plus I'm the unofficial room mom for my daughters class & school lets out for summer vacation tomorrow. So I've  been helping with that/volunteering & so on.  Less downtime, more crafts. 

Anyway, as I stated previously, I've been baking up a storm! My son loves doughnuts & I've been chomping at the bit to make them from scratch. Of course frying them was going to take forever, so I decided baked doughnuts was the right route to go. 

Ingredients for chocolate doughnuts:

For the Doughnuts

• ¾ cup all-purpose flour
• ⅓ cup cocoa
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt 
• 2 tablespoons melted butter
• 1 egg
• ¼ cup packed brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 and ½ teaspoons vanilla
• 6 tablespoons buttermilk 

For the Glaze

• ¾ cup icing sugar
• 3 tablespoons cocoa
• 3-4 tablespoons cream
• 2 teaspoons corn syrup (light or dark)
• sprinkles (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350F degrees. Spray doughnut pan with non-stick cooking spray or grease with butter and set aside. 
2. In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt until combined. Then in a separate medium bowl, whisk together the melted butter, egg, sugars, vanilla & buttermilk. Add the dry ingredients into the wet & whisk until combined. The batter will be thick.
3. Spoon the batter into the prepared doughnut pan. Or pour the batter into a ziplock bag, cut off the bottom corner, and pipe the batter into the prepared tin. (This didn't work too well for me) Bake for 8-10 minutes. If you lightly touch the doughnut, it should spring back. Or an inserted toothpick should come out clean. Allow doughnuts to cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes, then remove from the pan and continue cooling on a wire rack
4. While the doughnuts are cooling, make the glaze. Whisk together the icing sugar, cocoa and about 2 tablespoons cream. Add the corn syrup and slowly add the remaining cream until the glaze is smooth.
5. Once the doughnuts are cooled, dip the top in the glaze and sprinkle with sprinkles.

Ingredients for funfettini vanilla doughnuts 

• •1 cup + 2 tablespoons all-purpose baking flour
• •1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• •1/4 cup granulated sugar 
• •1/2 teaspoon salt
• •1 teaspoon baking powder
• •1/2 cup milk (I used  vanilla almond milk but cow's milk will work)
• •2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted 
• •1 large egg
• •1/4 cup rainbow sprinkles 
• For the vanilla frosting:
• 2 tablespoons heavy cream (more if needed)
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract 
• 1/2 cup rainbow sprinkles, for decorating

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (duh)
2. Lightly grease a doughnut pan; set aside. (Duh)
3. In a large bowl whisk together the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl whisk together the milk, butter, and egg. Gently add in the wet mixture into the dry mixture until just combined - don't over mix! Add in sprinkles!
4. Spoon mixture into prepared doughnut pan, and bake for 10-11 minutes, or until the doughnuts spring back when lightly pressed. Allow doughnuts to cool a few minutes in the pan before transferring to a wire wrack to cool for a few more minutes.
5. For the glaze:
6. Combine heavy cream and confectioners' sugar in a medium-sized bowl. Whisk smooth, adding a touch more cream if the frosting seems too thick; adding a touch more sugar if the frosting seems too thin. Mix in salt and vanilla. 
7. Once the donuts have cooled completely, spread the frosting over the tops of each and decorate with sprinkles. 

tip: for the frosting I used food dye to change up the colors and add some funk to his birthday morning. That part is totally optional. 

"I'm here undirected"

Spring🌻

So happy to have everything back in balance. Spring is here, wild flowers are blooming, the weather is warming up every passing day, bees are starting to take a notice to me. (I'm allergic guys!) I changed my hair dramaticly and I'm really starting to fall back in love with myself again. Self love is extremely important for everyone, but especially for a mom...a mom of two crazy kids who have declared war on each other. I roll out of bed every morning at 7:15 am looking like Anna from Frozen (not a compliment). Sometimes I get to brush my teeth between ponytails and diaper changes. Maybe I'll put on real clothes to walk my daughter to class that don't have cartoon characters on the pants. After my son throws 90% of his food on the floor, sometimes I even get to enjoy a tiny fraction of my own breakfast before he decided she's hungry again. In between the chaos (and cleaning) there is lots of love, I promise. But you also tend to forget about YOUR own needs. YOU are important too. I AM important. So something like coloring my hair or buying new makeup has me on cloud nine: mom edition. I've been waking up at 7am instead, giving myself 15 extra minutes of me time. I glam myself up, get dressed, style my hair and then sip some coffee before waking the kids. This small step, these simple extra 15 minutes have given me such a pep in my step to say the least. I feel good, super good. I feel beautiful and  I radiate positive vibes because of these new found emotions. I'm complimenting strangers (which is something I'm afraid to do, I'm extremely awkward and shy). But I just feel it and I say it. Even online, I make sure to let all my friends and followers something sweet and personal. Just trying to send a little love their way. Something as simple as a compliment can really make someone's day.  So set yourself some mini goals. If spas are your thing; book an appointment (they're totally not mine, I can't do strangers massaging my body. Just no.) say you need a new do, just go for it, don't think twice about it, want to drink two bottles of wine and go on a Netflix binge? Then put those kids to bed and pop some bottles! You are important, you are beautiful, you are somebody and you do deserve to be happy too. As mothers, we put our heart, soul, blood & sweat into our parenting. We give our all to the point of physical exhaustion. We're kind of kick ass, I know. It blows my mind too. So remember: YOU ARE IMPORTANT TOO. 

XO

"And hold you up and know that you're all I see in the light

And never do what I used to"