still on vacation?

Yes. Although it's almost been a month since our vacation it seems like my motivation is still on a break =) Not for lack of trying though... I have about 5 projects in the works right now I just can't seem to get them done! Doh! So let me catch you up a little on the Hopkins' adventures...

First - some silly photos from Vegas =)

Put me back in the water! (I really need a nap)

Great Uncle Scotty took us out to dinner! Buffet @ Bellagio!

I love the Lazy River!

Cousins are so silly!

I do have a few "mini" projects that I've completed - some from Pinterest, some from my strange strange brain... So I'll share those today and hopefully have a much better post come Monday (I'd love to have it before then, but...)

I'm very thankful to have lots of drawers in my kitchen, but they are short and shallow and an organizer's nightmare... So even though Ryan thinks I've filled my shoe rack with too much and it's going to ruin the door hinges... I love the extra space it provides! Now I have a drawer for spatulas, a draw for spoons, and a drawer for "lots of use items" like my can opener, cheese grater and kitchen scissors! My miscellaneous items have a little pocket of their own and items that took up too much random space on my pantry shelves have been moved and the peanut butter isn't stacked on the oatmeal and the Olvaltine isn't balancing on the bagged beans and dry rice!

One of my cabinets is full of baby food... A cabinet I would sure like to empty and use for bigger and better things =) While I don't have a photo of Zoee in action, here's a link to one idea I used - and I have to say it's a great hit. Of course, be prepared for pureed-straw-splatter =)

Another Pinterest find were these teething cookies. The reason I looked into them is because they are made with baby food. I thought because Zoee is obsessed with crackers that she would like these buuuut I think we need to work on the recipe a little. They had little to no flavor and were quite tough - I think Zoee likes the texture and flavor of crackers so I need to experiment a little with the cookies. 

Zoee "helping" me with the lights

Have I shared with you my obsession with Hobby Lobby? For a few weeks there was a section of the store with clearance items - all the summer and spring stuff needed to exit. I was happy to oblige since a large number of the items went GREAT with my bathroom theme.
A little backstory... I love Hawaii.  I went when I was around 2 - don't remember it a bit. Hubby and I decided to go for our "honeymoon" - long story short our first visit (August '10) was spent in the hotel room after I fainted at Pearl Harbor - I was dehydrated because I wasn't keeping enough food and water down due to morning sickness. Lame. So we decided to go back in February ('11) after Ryan got back from deployment and before baby was born. Then we went back again in February of ('12) and *fingers crossed* will go again in February of '13. (of course, it's a little easier to "justify" beach in winter when you live in Alaska versus Oklahoma so we'll see.)
Oh, sorry, back to Hobby Lobby/bathroom. We love Hawaii. I want a Hawaii bathroom - not a beach bathroom, everybody is doing those (no offense). Fortunately for us our bathrooms have this (ugly) wood paneling that sorta makes it feel like some tiki-area (ok, that's a TOTAL stretch... but I'm trying to make the best of what we have) and HL had some AWESOME fixtures that I bought, one being these great "Aloha" lantern lights. But of course there's only one outlet in the bathroom and it was in the wrong spot. So I browsed Amazon for some battery operated lights and got to work (with Zoee's help) changing out the lanterns from the plug in lights to the battery strand.

Work in Progress- Hawaiian Beach Bathroom

So, there you have it friends. A very short update on a very long "to-do" list around here. Stay tuned, I'll be back with more, just as soon as I track down my motivation (I bet I accidentally left it a the pool).