Sisters with Flair

And then there was light.....

2012-01-25T13:07:00.000-08:00

Isn't it lovely that those pesky projects you really wanted to finish don't get done til you wanna move? Yep, that's me over here. Kicking myself for not doing this sooner. Do you know what an orange kitchen does for every birthday candle blowing picture? You turn into an oompa-loompa. That's what every photo looks like for the last 3 years. I love the color orange. I loved the look of it in my kitchen. But I'm not loving the super fake spray tan look it would do to our skin. I'm pasty white. I'll own it before I own looking like a pumpkin.... Here are my before kitchen photos: Ignore the after next to them- this is after we installed granite counters and a travertine backsplash......

And here is the after....... a little boring but lighter and airy! That's what I'm hoping anyway!

Don't know what's up with the super blue island..... weird. Does NOT look like that in real life!

So what do you think? Wanna buy my house now? Because supposedly this will make it sell! Cross your fingers for me!

2012 Resolutions

2012-01-03T17:41:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking about making some goals. I usually don't make any because in the back of my mind I don't really believe I'll follow thru. Lame, but honest! But if I write them on my blog, I suddenly feel accountable to my blog. While I feel like there's so much more I could've done and I was a bit lazy on the crafts it's kind of nice to look thru my home and see what I have accomplished in the last year.

For instance: My office is pretty much done. And I still love my circus stripes....

I finally bought my deer head from Z Gallerie after I drooled over it for months. And the ikea frame I spray painted finally got out of the garage.

The chevron drape fabric was finally chosen and thanks to my mom, completed without any hot glue, velcro or painters tape. My mom is a seamstress, I'm a glue-er :)

The magnet board we made was painted white and hung.... and the room became complete!

I also completed drapes in the family room- again, thanks to my mom!

Fabric is called Chipper sunflower from Fabrics.com and made by Premier Fabrics.

Morgan's room finally got the finishing details as well. The finishing stuff is the trickiest for me....

The clipboards were mod-podged and hung. It only took 4 months......

The canvas was painted and the vinyl song lyrics applied. The pink birds were cut and stuck to the wall. And the room became complete!

Kimballs room changed from a baby bed to a big boy room!

And the wall gallery on the staircase was completed....

And all of this was because of the blog. Thank you blog friends. I need something to motivate me, to make me set goals and deadlines. My house feels pretty complete, just in time to sell! Isn't that how it works? The minute you finish a home, you take half a breath and you put it on the market? That's what's happened to my last home & now this home!

Goals for this year.....

1. Sell this house

2. Sell this house fast

3. Sell this house without dis-owning any family members or burning any of their/hoarders possesions to the ground. (not that it's ever crossed my mind or anything :)

4. Build a new home from scratch with my "pinterest dreams" without my family dis-owning me!

5. All the while, trying to lose weight.

Possible? I'm not sure. But maybe if I blog it? Goodnight bloggy. Maybe my bloggy dreams will come true this year too!

PS-I've linked to this fun party @Thrifty Decor Chick for more office inspiration!

Joining: the Nester 2012 Home Goals Party

& and this fabulous site: DIY Show Off

http://diyshowoff.com/

Decorating for the holidays

2011-12-16T11:03:00.000-08:00

I am drooling over all the beautiful Christmas decorating ideas. I think I have more envy this year because I'm not willing to do much in my own home with a three year old who's sole daily goal is to break something. My favorite nativities are tucked nicely away in their boxes, maybe they can come out next year. Cross fingers that this is just a short phase! (as I type this I just hear glass & metal collide....nice) Anyhoo, here are some lovely ideas i've been collecting on pinterest and maybe one Christmas my home will be perfectly lovely like these photos....

What to do with Christmas cards? Here's some fabulousness:

photo tree image found here

Or, what do you do with old Christmas cards? Some are just too pretty to throw away. So don't! That's what apothecary jars are for! Ooooh, gonna have to find me apothecary jars now. (note to self: make sure to buy back-ups since I have a boy)

(jar idea image found here)

( staircase garland idea from marthastewart.com)

Do you get the impression that I love sentimental decor? Well, here's some more! How fabulous & cheap & awesome is this idea for your tree or kid's tree? Square photos! I love the idea of seeing past Christmas photos and remembering how quickly they grow up. And maybe this breaking everything stage is cute and not sad & annoying. Typing outloud, sorry peeps.....

image from my favorite site found here

What was once tacky is now fabulous! What was missing, you ask? It wasn't a collection! One tree just looks cheap and boring. Add about 20 in various tacky colors and you can now have yourself a merry little mantle!

tree mantel image found here

This print below combines everything I love in a simple & beautiful way. Quotes, beautiful cursive & black & white. Its simplicity is stunning and I must have! I would love this all year round! O Holy Night print found here

There you have it people. My dreams of a beautiful home for Christmas. I'm content this year just to window shop other homes. And set aside for my "one day" dreams. Right now I have to enjoy my 3 little kids who won't stop growing & go clean up whatever was "accidently" broken while I wrote this post....

Christmas Kindness

2011-12-01T07:48:00.000-08:00

As I pulled out the Christmas decorations this year, I came across one of my favorite ornaments. It's a red leather book, that my sister gave me, that hangs on the tree . Every year we write the Christmas fun we had that year. The parties we threw, the parties we attended. Our favorite gifts we received, the gifts we gave. The Christmas Eve activities and the New Years fun. It's all in that book and it makes me laugh when I read about the live mouse that someone gave as a white elephant gift. I almost forgot about it! Great memories all recorded in this cute little book that hangs on the tree.

That book gave me an idea.....I decided to make another book ornament this year. I'm calling it the Christmas Kindness ornament. Instead of writing the fun we had, it will be 25 (or more) random acts of kindness we did for others. It will keep us mindful of serving others for the next 25 days. I'm excited to think of the possibilites. The rush we get from making someone's day brighter. The lessons it will teach my children and most important, the gratitude we will feel in seeing how blessed we are as a family. I can't wait to start our list and keep our minds open to helping those in need this year. I look forward to the future where I can see our list of Christmas kindness and the opportunities we had to serve one another and that we were able to fill this month with service. It will help remind us of the true meaning of Christmas. I'd love to hear of any meaningful Christmas traditions you have! Let us know! I'm off to make my ornament book.....

My advent calendar ideas

2011-11-29T17:13:00.000-08:00

I seriously can not figure out what's wrong with me, I'm just not really in the mood to decorate for Christmas this year. Crazy, right?! I usually love decorating, but with a 1 and 3 year old running around the house, the thought of putting out my treasured nativities and a tree full of breakable ornaments seems like a recipe for disaster. So, I'll probably put it off a bit. BUT, one of my favorite parts of Christmas is our advent calendar of activities. LOVE it. You can find my original advent calendar post here. Can't wait to get started with the fun! So I thought I'd share with you my tentative plan for our advent activities this year. Here it is (in no particular order):

Read "The Elf on a Shelf"

Make a paper Christmas countdown chain

Watch Christmas Vacation

Get hot chocolate and see the lights

Get and decorate the Christmas tree

Decorate a gingerbread house

Take treats to our neighbors

Watch Elf

Go to the ward Christmas party

Go sledding

Sing Christmas carols

Christmas book night

Do some secret service

Build a snowman

Go to Arthur Christmas

Make and decorate sugar cookies

Go shopping for brother gifts

Read Snowmen at Christmas

Watch the Santa Clause

Watch The Christmas Story

Read Luke 2 and watch the Nativity movie

Read and watch the Polar Express

Go shopping for stocking stuffers

I guess we'll be busy watching all our Christmas movies. And I'll have to watch the 90's version of Miracle on 34th Street because that's Andrea and my favorite but no one else wants to watch it here:( Womp, womp.

Anyway, hope this gives you a few ideas of things to add to your holiday list! Any other suggestions for fun family activities??

Meaningful Gifts

2011-11-18T12:16:00.000-08:00

You know I'm obsessed with finding the perfect gift, right? You know the kind that brings tears to the receiver's eyes when they open it? Yeah, that's what I want every gift I give to be like. No pressure right? The problem is, when you find that perfect gift and it's everything you hoped it would be, everything after that is just a let down. It's hard to just give a gift card after that! Oh the things I stress myself out with :)

So a few years ago I wondered "If I died, would my family know how much they meant to me? Would my brothers, that I don't talk to enough, know how much I adored them, and how much fun I had growing up with them?" So I began one Christmas to sit down and write letters to each of them. I thought it would be hard, since I have 6 siblings and it's tricky to stay close now that we're all grown up and living so far away. But as I wrote, the memories of shopping cart races, dolly bomb fights & glow in the dark tag easily came. And after I had written 6 letters to my brothers and sisters, I had a pretty good history of our childhood. I thought my parents would enjoy them as well and so I wrote them letters as well. Then, I compiled the letters and published the book for my parents to keep. Since I live far away, I don't have a picture of that book. But I did a similar one for my own children and hubby last year, if you remember. From my favorite book publishing site- shutterfly.com It looked like this:

Each child and hubby have a two page layout with a letter from me.

I typed up my hopes and dreams for each of them and of course I had to include my favorite photos of them. Photo's are my favorite gift of all time. They evoke so many emotions when I see they're chubby baby faces or remember how much they loved that particular necklace or always had to have they're hair a certain way.

Here is another way to show how much you care for someone:

The original idea was found here and I just love thinking of how fun it would be to open each letter and relive each memory. On someone's birthday, however old they're turning, you turn over a pen & paper to that many people. For instance, your dad is turning 60, you find 60 friends, grand kids, and family to write a memory of him. Compile them in a book like I did, or stack them in envelopes and tie them up pretty. The idea is simple, but so meaningful! It's the perfect time to start this, since so many families will be gathered together for Thanksgiving!

31 Days- Photo organizing

2011-10-31T05:55:00.000-07:00

31 days!! Can you believe we organized and blogged for that many days? I gotta admit, I didn't think we'd make it!
So the last thing on our agenda is photo and video organizing. I'm really good at taking 400 photos a month (wish I was exaggerating) but what do you do with them after you take them? I wish I could say that I have up to date scrapbooks for each child and additional copies for them to take when they grow up, but you've seen my closets and pantry by now, you know that's not like me. What I can tell you is I have a great desire to document my children's lives and prove I was a fun mom even though they'll deny it through their teens. So in my opinion, it doesn't matter how many photos you take, what's the point if you don't do anything with them? I used to spend an hour per scrapbook layout which included only about 3-4 photos of the same event. But that only lasted for the first child. It's pretty overwhelming to do that for multiple children. So now I use www.shutterfly.com. I should probably work for them or at least buy stock in this company because I love them! I scanned in my baby photos along with my siblings and some of my ancestor photos and then uploaded them to shutterfly.com. Now, if something should happen to my oroginal photos such as fire or water damage I have them backed up. Shutterfly also promises to never delete my photos or projects and doesn't require a minimum purchase to keep my account open, unlike other companies. There is so much peace knowing that my family photos will always be safe and I can reprint any of my previous photo books if I ever need them. (I promise they're not paying me for this blog post- I just seriously love their quality and they're easy to use!)

Here's a great idea for the non-scrapbook people. Document what your child is into on each birthday. Here is a sample of mandy and my 3 year old boys:

So what do you do with your videos? Now that our phones, camera's and iPads all have video recording , I have plenty of videos but have to watch them on my phone to view them. I've just started playing around with iMovie app for the iPad or iPhone. My 9 year old opened the program and made a video with photos set to music without a single tutorial. I needed a little more help but am starting to get the hang of it. Clipping videos and setting them to music is a little trickier but so much more fun to watch than 20 min of a baby sleeping. In this fast paced world we need more exciting home movies and iMovie is the perfect solution. (Again, not getting paid for my opinion) I'm loving it and the kids feel like movie stars when I show them the finished projects. Here is a quick sample of what I mean. I uploaded to vimeo.com but you can use Youtube & even Facebook. I still have to figure out the whole music copy rights so I had to go with some cheesy music, but you'll get the idea....

So in the long run, the most important thing you do with your photos is to DO SOMETHING with them. Print your favorite photos AND frame them. Turn your home movies into fast paced movies or in the very least, burn them to CDs to enjoy. Create digital photo books or paper scrapbooks. Whatever you decide, the best thing you can do is enjoy the photos and videos that you take of your loved ones. And then after that, use www.carbonite.com to back up your computer nightly. It's only $50 a year and cheaper than an external hard drive. Trust me, this back up has worked many times for us!

Happy Halloween Peeps! I hope you enjoyed organizing with us. Since we're no pro's at this I think it's safe to say, we learned alot this month! For instance, I learned that we have a whole lotta clutter and chocolate makes cleaning easier. My next 31 days will probably consist of a diet. Boo.

Day 30- Finishing those pesky projects

2011-10-30T06:40:00.000-07:00

In my quest for organization I have come across many an unfinished project. Frames with nothing in them, fabric waiting to be curtains, wood to fix our fence, a canvas for a pinterest project, a wreath waiting to be made. You get the idea..... I'm a craft hoarder. Good intentions with about 75% of them completely finished. I dream of crafts all night and get about half way through with them and then get bored. That's when my parents come in handy. They come into town full of energy and completely excited to take on my projects. They're my biggest fans! (and my cheapest labor- just have to pay them in chocolate & jokes:)) This time my mom tackled the drapes. My dad and husband worked on fixing our fence and then they hung some curtain rods and some art. I worked on unwrapping the chocolates to hand feed them. With their hands being tied up in fabric & power tools, it's the least I can do. Quite literally, The. Least. I. Can. Do!

This office has been my "unfinished project nemesis". I just need to figure out the deer head collage wall and it will be complete. But it's almost there and OH! how this room makes me happy!

Do you see that? A clean counter top? You have no idea how miraculous this is! It's just screaming for a project to be made on it! Magnet board was a project my husband and I did earlier. The light fixture is from Ikea.
These are the curtains my mom completed. The fabric is from http://www.fabric.com/ It cost under $50 to make both panels!
Doesn't this faux deer head make you happy? I've been dreaming of it for the 8 months and finally took a trip down to Z Gallery. I know what you're thinking, "it's missing something". I think so too, so my next project is to make it a yellow bow tie! The frame I got from Ikea about a year ago and spray painted it white. When I cleaned out my closets I found the frame. YAY for organizing!!! Isn't it the perfect size?!

So go finish some of those pesky projects you have junking up your closets. They probably won't take long and you'll be so HAPPY you did! And if you can trick your family into working for chocolate you'll get it done in No time!

I've linked this up to this fabulous site!

Day 29: Craft Room

2011-10-29T06:37:00.000-07:00

Ah, the craft room. I am lucky enough to have a craft room, but the downside is that it's also my guest room, so things are a little tight fitting my long desk and a queen sized bed in a pretty small room. My room is no beauty to look at and I've taken over the closet as my craft storage. No pictures since it wasn't exactly picture-worthy. I have a bunch of different clear containers that hold my various supplies and I decided to go through everything and purge. I cannot believe how many odds and ends of projects I was holding on to! I've made a "to make" pile and hope to go through that before I start anything else (yeah right) and got rid of so many little pieces of bias tape that are too small to do anything, too small scraps of fabric, and finally found all my bobbins! I always make a huge mess when I'm crafting and so when it's time to clean up, I just quickly shove everything away. Time to change that:) On the bright side I was able to make some alphabet bean bags with all the random scraps I found!

Here are some awesome craft organizing ideas... look at that closet!

source

LOVE the baskets!

source

Oh my gosh, don't you just want to lock yourself in this room for an afternoon?!

source

Day 28 Wrapping Paper

2011-10-28T05:27:00.001-07:00

WOW! It has been a week since I blogged. A whole week! It's been nice to take a little break, especially when that break entails 5 days at the Happiest Place on Earth without your children! That's right, I went to Disney Land. WITHOUT KIDS. My husband and I felt a little guilty- but every time we saw a 2 year old having a melt down, which was often, we smiled. Because that would've been us! (And was us, just 9 months ago!) So thanks Mandy for organizing for an entire week without me, especially since I roped you into this whole 31 days of it!

So onto organizing: Have you ever gone through your wrapping paper supplies and cleaned them out? Sadly, in 15 years I have not. I just keep adding to the supplies, but I never purge any of them! So it's safe to say that they may have needed a bit of an update. My wrapping supplies are tucked away in one of my master bedroom closets and the whole thing is not pretty to look at! With 3 (including my sista!) fall birthdays, an anniversary and Christmas just around the corner, it was time to think presentation. Birthday present presentation. This is not one of my talents. But I can dream of Martha-like wrapped presents under the tree right?

Do you keep and re-use gift bags? I keep them and never quite get around to re-using them. Then, they just start looking raggedy. I had wrapping paper that was too thin and would tear and I'd be frustrated using it. I had mounds of ribbon from gifts I'd been given, boxes that were torn and tissue paper that was just too pretty to throw out. Seriously, why do I feel the need to save tissue paper from gifts?

So, I'm pretty happy that I can now close the lids on these boxes. Something I'm not quite sure I've ever been able to do before! In my dream world my after pictures would look more like this below and not 3 rubbermaids.....

Image found here

Using the backs of closet doors in my opinion, is brilliant. Almost as clever as the person who invented nutella.... And since I'm being practical, and not dreaming of an actual room that would be used just for wrapping and gifts (oh but I dream of that!) here is another brilliant idea. Use a hutch or cabinet for wrapping. I have one that would work nicely for that, but would take some massive organizing to get into this shape!

Image found here:

And after I get my beautiful wrapping stations I'm pretty sure all my presents will look like these:

image found here:

Image found here:

Cupcake liner flowers and tissue flowers? Who comes up with this stuff? BRILLIANT! (that's my favorite word, by the way, especially when you say it with an evil accent)

And only 3 more days of our organizing challenge!

Day 27: Totally something about organizing

2011-10-27T06:00:00.000-07:00

First of all, I wanted to give a little shout out to Andrea's little boy, who is turning 3 years old today! Happy Birthday K! And Andrea, there's no need to read the blog today, you go enjoy yourself and I'll take care of the organizing around here.

Ok, is she gone? Good, because I'm getting a little burned out on all the organizing bliss. I still have a couple more projects, but HELLO! Halloween is almost here people, and I've been sewing up a storm! I won't show you our costumes until after Halloween, but I made some trick or treat bags for the boys today that I'm sure they'll love for years to come! I love appliqued names on anything, but especially on bags, and I'm so happy with the way these turned out! You should have seen me sewing like a mad women while the kids napped. It was insane, but I got them done. I was sewing so crazy, I even broke 3 needles. THREE. And I can't even remember the last time I broke a needle. Aren't they cute?

Ok, so nobody tell Andrea, at least I blogged, right?!

Day 26: 72 hour kits

2011-10-26T06:00:00.000-07:00

You never know when an emergency might come up and you'll need a 72 hour kit: flood, earthquake, hurricane, friekishly crazy snowstorm (most likely to happen here in Idaho). And for some reason I have these visions of me acting like a psycho person trying to pack an entire house of contents into 2 school-sized backpacks. Top ramen packets flying, water jugs busting open, me barking out orders; it's quite the scene I've envisioned in my head. Lately I've been seeing some awesome 72 hour kit ideas via Pinterest and I've been excited to put ours together. I've decided to just pick up items little by little, so I don't have a finished product to show you all, but I read this great article from HowDoesShe?

source

A couple weeks ago I gathered my whole little family together and forced everyone to throw water bottles, top ramen, tuna fish, and some hard candy into a large backpack that we decided Daddy will have to carry when we need to evacuate (those water bottles can get heavy!). Now everyone go and get your 72 hour kits all together and we can all feel a little more prepared for the unexpected.:)

Day 25: Junk Drawer

2011-10-25T06:00:00.000-07:00

When we first got married, I bought this bread box at Target because I saw in a magazine how they drilled holes in the back and charged cell phones and ipods in there. Hmmm. Let's be honest. I never did that. This bread box has always ended up as the place where we hurry and throw all the junk before company comes. So this is the before.

Mostly it's just a bunch of stuff that should be put in it's right spot. What I really need it for is for all the little office supplies that I want up in the kitchen. So I cleaned it out and put back just what I needed.
Here's my after. Scissors, tape, stapler, pencils, pens, post its and a notepad. Let's just hope it stays this way!

Day 24: My Favorite Things

2011-10-24T06:00:00.000-07:00

I always love seeing people's favorite things on blogs, so I thought I'd show you all a few of mine. First up, my beloved steamer. I absolutely love this thing. A year and a half ago we put laminate flooring in our kitchen, dining and living rooms. You know. The three rooms we're in ALL the time! For the first year I did the spray and wipe thing, but I didn't really feel confident that my floors were clean. My steamer just uses plain water and it has a pad on the bottom that you just wash when you're done. I feel confident that the hot steam is really sanitizing my floors and my little guys can crawl all over and I don't really worry about. If you know me at all you know I'm a bit of a germaphobe, but I really am a lot better now that I have 2 kids. (My mom is totally rolling her eyes right now)

source

I don't know what my issue was with keeping everything that people gave us for wedding gifts. I was looking at our rag situation the other day and it was pathetic. All the rags were mismatched and really raggy-looking. So guess what I actually did? I threw out a bunch of my rags and bought a big pack of white terry cloth ones at Sams Club. It was 60 rags for 24 bucks. And since they're white I can just bleach them clean. Looking in my rag drawer now makes me so happy. It reminds me of the organization class Andrea and I took this summer and she really emphasized "getting rid of the uglies" and my rags were really "uglies."

source

And my final favorite thing for you today, my triple-divider laundry hamper. I got one of these when we first got married almost 7 years ago and I finally had to say goodbye when my three year old decided to jump inside and hide. One of the plastic connectors broke and so I replaced the entire thing. This new one has actual screws, so I think it will survive in this house of boys. I have it in my laundry room right underneath my laundry shoot and it really helps me stay on top of my laundry. I totally recommend it!

source

Ok, so that's it for today. Hope you guys are hanging in there and organizing along with us! Tomorrow I'm tackling my "junk drawer." Dun, dun, dun....

Day 23: Food Preservation

2011-10-23T06:00:00.000-07:00

When I used to hear about people getting food vacuuming machines, I always thought that was something I would never do. Something about it seemed kinda "granola" or something. But when my father-in-law brought about 20 huge steaks for my hubby's birthday, Zac decided that we should get a food saver so we could save the steaks without freezer burn. Ever since, I've been hooked. I am using up so much more food and in turn it's saving us money!

Here's the kind we got. We got it at Sam's Club. I have used it for so many different foods, I've done cooked ground beef, grilled chicken, onions and bell peppers that I blanch beforehand (I've really loved doing the onion and bell pepper mixture because it makes mealtime prep so fast!), and other veggies. After watching Suburgatory the other night (does anyone else remember this part?), I suggested that I vacuum up the boys' blessing outfits so they will stay white for when they have boys, hubby thought I was borderline psycho for suggesting that. I still think it's a good idea, though!

Obviously, Food Saver has not paid me to endorse them, but I would totally recommend it to anyone!!

Day 22: Cleaning Supplies

2011-10-22T06:00:00.000-07:00

I'm lucky in my house that we have tons of little closets and I have a cleaning supply closet which is nice for keeping the supplies out of kid's reach. Apparently I'm a cleaning supply hoarder. I love trying out new cleaning supplies, and I had lots of half-used bottles of concoctions promising that I'd never have to scrub again. Womp, womp. They were wrong. Cleaning out the cleaning supplies was awesome, and I no longer have to search around for the soft scrub.

source

I also got myself one of these caddies that is so handy for when I'm cleaning bathrooms. They seriously sell them everywhere. So, go on and clean out your cleaning supplies people. Oh, and I'm not one of those all-natural cleaning people, but I do have to share with you this idea I found on pinterest. For all of you with glass-top ranges, it's really annoying to clean all the time, so for a great time saver, go to this blog.

See you tomorrow. I'd better go figure out something else to organize! 31 days is a lot!

Day 21: Meal Planning

2011-10-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

When I think of organization, I definitely think of meal planning since buying for, preparing, and eating meals is a big part of my life as SAHM. Lately the 3 year old has not been a big fan of grocery shopping. Any shopping. You should've seen the stares I was getting at Walmart yesterday with him screaming. So fun. So I try to avoid grocery shopping as much as possible.

Here's how I do it: meal planning. I try to do an entire month's worth of meals because I really don't want to go to the store. We also get bountiful baskets every week, so that takes care of a lot of the produce we need. Obviously we do have to go to the store a little bit for milk, bread, and chocolate so I have patience to handle said 3 year old. So, I just draw up a little grid of my basic plan. Sometimes I change up what we're having when, but it's mostly just a list to help me see what food I have to make what meal. I just cross each item off as I go.

After I make my grid of meals, I just write out my grocery list based on what ingredients I already have at home. And that's it! Shopping for a month at a time has simplified my life a ton and I don't usually have to run to the store at 5 o'clock because I'm out of ingredients:) Tomorrow I'll show you what has "saved" me so much time and money in my freezer!

Day 20- Guest room

2011-10-19T12:02:00.000-07:00

My guest room is being used tonight! Our guest room is conveniently the room that we shove things into when we hear the doorbell ring. It's also most often used when we have 10 min before company's arriving and we don't quite know what to do with random toys & mail. I'm furiously trying to tackle the clutter as I prepare for my parents to come. While grocery shopping today, I realized that the only thing a guest really cares about is clean sheets & a clean bathroom. The room isn't the prettiest. The bed is nice, the comforter is cute but the night stands are plastic bins. Hmmm, not much to see there. So since I couldn't give the room a makeover in 2 hours and buy new nightstands, a dresser and some drapes, I went for the next best thing........... Chocolate and flowers.

image found here

So go grab some fresh flowers, put them in a vase, fluff those pillows and make your guests feel welcome. They may even overlook the plastic bins as nightstands and the massive food storage buckets in the closet!

Mandy is taking over for the next week as I vacation in California with my hubby and no children! Can you tell I'm extactic?!!!!! So don't stop organizing while I'm gone or if you're already done, because you're an insane over achiever, then go buy some chocolate and flowers for yourself. You deserve it!

Day 19: Storage Bench

2011-10-19T06:00:00.000-07:00

Through all this organizational bliss we've been going through, I've really been throwing out tons of stuff and realizing the best locations for things. Why have I been keeping hats and gloves in the upstairs coat closet when we need those things downstairs? So, I'm working on a little revamping of my storage bench and opened it up to find this:

No words people. Maybe hubby has a valid point when he can never find things:) So, I took everything out and in the process moved my hats and mittens down here. The entire process took just a few minutes.
I think it was a brilliant idea on my part (love to give myself credit!) to put the basket inside the bench, this way I can always know to keep the gloves in this area. Hopefully when we're looking for our cold weather gear this year, we'll actually be able to find it all in one spot!

Day 18- Attacking the Car

2011-10-17T17:54:00.000-07:00

If any of my friends were to look in my car at any given time, I would assure them that my car had been hijacked and this crazy mess of fast food wrappers, socks, misc shoes, water bottles, missing homework, lost library books, 11 matchbox cars and 7 missig hair bows, is a new version of carjackers gone wild. Because my 3 adorable munchkins couldn't possibly do this much damage in 5 days! And yes, it's only been 5 days since the last time I vacuumed and washed the car. Could you imagine how bad it would be had I gone a week? Oh! The horror! And because I don't want you to have nightmares tonight of critters nibbling at your feet while you're driving, I'm nixing a photo of my car/garbage truck. With all the goldfish, raisins (man I hope they're raisins!) and half full water bottles, I could quite possibly survive 11 days of being stranded in a ditch. At this point being stranded, without children, seems like it would be more of a vacation than a 6pm news story. :)

So today I attack the car mess and find solutions to my messy children that don't include leaving the children on the side of the road and making them walk for the next 7 years. It's quite tempting though......

This is a much cuter version of my grocery bag (found here) that I hang on the passenger armrest. It's just an inexpesive purse! A garbage bag in the car at all times is KEY to avoiding a nest of mice from making your car their home. It's quite scary how many times I've heard of mice doing this in people's cars...... ewww

This is a clever solution to just shoving everything in the big pocket of the chair, never to be seen again. It would be prettier in a canvas shoe organizer but the clear one makes it convenient to locate items. Source found here

Now if in case of an emergency stranding here are some good solutions.
Because every good car emergency kit should have UNO cards, peanut butter and clorox wipes! Source found here:

And this is a great solution to holding your emergency kit or groceries so they don't roll all over the place! Source found here. So I'm off to clean out my car, since half my waking time is spent in it! And I'm one day closer to this folks......

Day 17- Cleaning Lists

2011-10-17T05:43:00.000-07:00

So by now your house is looking pretty nice eh? The hard part is keeping it organized. I tried to convince my children that they wanted to live in the backyard but they didn't think the water hose sounded like a fun way to shower & I was worried the neighbor's would call CPS. So then I tried to convince them to donate ALL of their possessions but they weren't keen on that idea either. Darn! So now I'm on to plan B. Enlisting them to help! I got some great ideas this summer when I took some parenting/ organizing classes, you can find my cliff notes here. Then I found these great printable checklists on these sites:

This laminated room by room checklist is perfect for children (and maybe husbands) you can find it here at http://www.organicfamilies.blogspot.com/ She has the kids use dry erase markers to check items off as they go. My girls love checklists so maybe they would actually clean if they had one. One can dream, right? This is a simple daily plan but it's so pretty to look at and has a great color scheme. Maybe if I had a pretty list to go by everyday I'd clean too! You can print this out from this site found here at http://www.bloominghomestead.blogspot.com/

Here's another daily cleaning schedule but she takes both Saturday and Sunday off. I'm all for that! You can print your own schedule here at http://www.amygregson.blogspot.com/

So no more excuses for me- I should be an organized junkie from here on out! Tomorrow I'm tackling my second home. No it's not a beach house or a vacation home. It's a minivan......

Day 16: Clean out the Fridge

2011-10-16T07:58:00.000-07:00

No before pictures today people. Too grody (I swear that's a word). I try to get old leftovers out of the fridge as soon as possible, but I was still appalled at the nasty spills I found in here. I cleared everything out and took out all the shelves and washed them with soap and hot water. Then I clorox wiped it for good measure. I almost hated to put everything back after it was all clean.

Doesn't that look good! Trust me on this folks, this is a MAJOR improvement.
My dairy drawer. Apparently we like cheese. I have 7 varieties in here.
My bountiful basket came today, so my mom can see everything I got. Was your basket the same, Mom?

Ok, everyone. Now go clean out your fridge. You'll feel so much better:)

Day 15: Tips for Toys

2011-10-15T06:00:00.000-07:00

Day 15? Yay! We're halfway there!

So, you know what is so annoying about some toys? How they come in this adorable packaging that looks awesome! Seriously, what two or three (or four or five) year old is really putting away their blocks to look like this?

Not mine. This is how the blocks look when Zeke is left to clean up alone. Awesome. Actually, this would be pretty good for him. I have been dealing with this block situation for some time now, and then it hit me. Hello, Mandy! Get a different container!
So I did. Aren't I so awesome? Thanks, I thought so too.

Tomorrow I'll show you my cleaned out fridge... that thing was NASTY!

Day 14- Organizing the Master Closet

2011-10-13T19:21:00.000-07:00

There are some amazing closets in blog land. Some with fancy chandeliers, wallpaper, rotating shoe racks and beautiful poofy chairs to lounge on. You will not be seeing this in my home. I will probably never have an amazing closet. I don't care enough about shoes and clothes and purses to justify the effort. But after I win Publisher's Clearing House I will start designing my dream closet. Until then, a more cleanly closet was definitely on my "To-Do" list. Here are some hideous before shots.

Embarrassing, I know. This is where all my stuff I don't know what to do with ends up....

And here is what an hour of elbow grease and 5 garbage bags later can look like:

See the empty space and shelf room? I guess this means I can go shop some more!

Only 7 more closets left to organize...... I'm gonna need some more chocolate. Pronto!

Can't wait til tommorow when Mandy tackles the toys!

Day 13: Tackling Master Bathroom

2011-10-13T06:10:00.000-07:00

WARNING: These photos are graphic in nature and may not be suitable for people with weak stomachs or OCD tendancies. These photos are for a mature audience only and preferably people with hoarding genes like myself.

Hopefully, I will still have friends and followers after seeing my master bath chaos. To my credit, all 5 of us get ready in this bathroom, shower in this bathroom, brush teeth, do hair in this bathroom. We have other bathrooms but this is where we all end up and it's convenient since my kids still need my help with everything. So these pictures were taken after everyone had showered and left for the day......

Insert jaws music.....

What? You don't have a tripod in your bathroom? It's quite entertaining to a 2 yr old while you're getting yourself ready. Notice everyone's pajamas on the bathtub? Because, apparantly, the hamper 6 inches away is just too inconvenient.....
Teeth brushing station......
Hair, accessory and make-up station......

It's bad, I fully admit it. But it does get fully picked up. Every. Single. Day. It's the highlight of a stay at home mom to pick up messes right? We're the messiest so I should be ultra happy about this right? Wrong! Something about seeing my house torn apart by my children. Every. Single. Day. Makes me want to burn it all down. The women in tribal areas with dirt floors and mud homes are looking like they have the good life right about now. Plus, they don't have to worry about doing little girls hair. That alone would save me hours a week!

WHEW! Thanks for letting me vent. On to the after pics....

Insert a choir of angels singing.....

While it's no spa and the whole room is in desperate need of a makeover, it's an impressive clean-up job right? Now I'm off to lock the door and never let anyone in this room EVER AGAIN! I'll just hose everyone off in the backyard and give them hats to wear.

Next up: Master Closet

Day 12- Master bedroom

2011-10-12T05:41:00.000-07:00

The things I do for this blog..... I take a perfectly organized room and completely mess it up so I can take better "before" pictures. That's what my husband accused me of anyway! Sorry hubs, we really are this pathetic, no additional nasty-ness was needed. Here is what my bedroom looks like after everyone rushes off to school and work- mind you, my bedroom is practically command central.

Doesn't everyone have a ladder in their bedroom? It comes in handy for the 3am low battery fire alarm beeps. Because it only goes off when everyone is asleep.....

This picture (below) with laundry baskets is actually impressive. They're EMPTY! I have EMPTY laundry baskets people!!! That means, by some massive miracle, I've kept up on laundry. I guess it's easier since I have an organized laundry room.

So after 20 minutes of vacuuming, making the bed, dusting and decluttering it looks like this.....

A clean room makes it so much easier to watch "Dance Moms, Sister Wives & Toddlers & Tiaras" while folding laundry of course..... We went years without a tv in our room. I heard all this stuff about leaving tv's out of bedrooms & we were broke so it worked out well. I can honestly say- all those tv haters are wrong. They just needed to up they're tv size and make sure it's high-def! :)
Now I'm off to tackle the Master bathroom & eventually the closets.....

Day 11: Tools

2011-10-11T06:00:00.000-07:00

Ok, so at this point my friends are all whispering to each other, "Have you seen Mandy's blog?! Who knew she was such a slob!" But secretly they're all liking me better, right? I can't believe how many messes I'm revealing on here. And just the other day my mom said she was "proud" of the way I keep house. She may have spoke too soon.

So we have old cabinets in our laundry room from a previous kitchen remodel and they just put the old cabinets in here. They are nothing pretty to look at, but it's an awesome place to put all of our tools and junk. You get one before picture, because this pretty much sums it up.

I know, right? You're all thinking I must have rattled things up a bit to make that picture more interesting but it's a true before picture. After three hours of making a huge mess, I finally got things under control. And boy, hubby was sure happy he didn't have to do it.
I even put new contact paper in all the drawers- I know, you're dying!
I bought all these little containers at walmart for so cheap. I was so happy that I didn't even measure beforehand and they fit in perfectly.

I tried to toss these turkey injectors, but hubby fries turkeys so often, he said they had to stay.
That container of screws I finally just gave up and put all the leftover stuff in there. I don't even know what half those tiny parts are called!
This is my favorite part of this entire project. I just got these plastic shoe boxes, slapped some vinyl on there, and now we can find everything so easily. I have these boxes in cupboards, so they're pretty easy to find what we need. Aren't you so impressed, Dad?? Now next time you come visit, you'll be able to see what we've got! I'm getting that much closer to my :
Next up I have some tips for toy organization!

Day 10: Linen Closet

2011-10-10T06:00:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I checked out my before pictures, and I decided that you guys get the point- my house is a wreck, ok?! You really didn't need to see my before of my linen closet, but I will show you the after since I got rid of so much stuff. It's amazing how getting rid of the stuff you NEVER use helps you to actually see what you have. Before I got the drawer dividers for this closet, I was just using baskets to hold our extra toiletry items. While cleaning out, I realized that we already had 6 rolls of dental floss and just the other day I had to make an extra trip to the store because we thought we were completely out! Same with the hubby's deodorant. Why was I keeping around old towels from our wedding 7 years ago that I've never liked? Why was I keeping my dust ruffle from my college days? And random lotions that I never use? Although this doesn't look so exciting to you guys, believe me, I feel awesome.

And because you needed something pretty in this post, here's an awesome looking linen closet... I think it's the color of the towels that makes this look so good:)

source

And hold onto your pants, Dad, next up I actually tackled organizing our tools!

Day 9- Choose your own

2011-10-09T05:36:00.000-07:00

Day 9 people. I've been decluttering for 8 solid days. I'm exhausted. So today I'm giving myself the day off. You should too. But if you're overly ambitious, choose your own area to declutter in your home. Silverware drawer a mess? Or maybe you have a very random mug or glasses collection that doesn't really fit the new you. Do you have old towels as wedding gifts and you've been married a decade? Massive collection of ribbons or scrapbook paper you'll never use but feel guilty throwing it out? I'm here to give you permission. Donating those perfectly good items that are never used is a great solution. No more guilt! My home still has a long way to go to "Organized Bliss" but I'm slowly getting there. Pinterest & Facebook are suffering, they mourn my loss, I'm sure. But it's happening peeps! I'm losing my hoarder-ish ways and feel like I've lost 10lbs. My trunk is filling up with donations to Good Will and after I relax today, I'll be ready to take on some more! May the trash bags be with you.....

image found here

Day 8- declutter magazines/ books

2011-10-08T08:36:00.000-07:00

Some people like bubble baths, some like pedicures, some turn to chocolate to destress. Me? I like them all, but my favorite treat to myself is buying a fun magazine. I enjoy having one in the car while I'm waiting in the carpool line. Doctor running late? No problem! I always make sure I go to my doctor or dentist appts without children. And if it's a really "bummer/no fun at all doctor visit" (you know what I'm talking about ladies) then I always make sure to treat myself before hand to a fun magazine or book to read while I'm waiting precariously on the table. My sister has bought me a few magazine subscriptions for birthdays and Christmas and I love receiving them in the mail each week or month. They're the perfect gift for me. Unfortunately, they're my biggest clutter problem. I hate throwing out expensive magazines and rarely would I read one twice. So lately my sister and a friend of mine have been having a magazine trade. I read them and pass them on & then get a new set. It's been great!

So today on day 8 of our challenge we declutter our magazines and books. Pass them on, donate them or recycle them. Either way, your book shelves and magazine holders and baskets will thank you!

image found here . You know how I like Pepsi crates!

image found here . These magazine holders look more like expensive photo books. I love the classic look and soothing colors. I'm off to tackle my mess now! Tomorrow, I tackle my master bedroom...... hopefully.

Day 7- Coat closet

2011-10-07T05:50:00.001-07:00

Are ya still with us? Are your homes immaculate yet? No? Mine either. Guess that's why this is a 31 day challenge and not a weekend project. When my children are having their usual 5pm melt downs and I'm trying to make dinner, I go into my laundry room or pantry and smile. They're my new happy place (don't worry chocolate, you're always gonna be my happy place too). I'm impatient, I want the whole house perfect at once but I'm slowly getting there. Today I tackled my coat closet. It was always a bit exciting opening the door to my coat closet. You would have to quickly dodge items falling on your head and it's about the only adrenaline rush I get as a mother. I'm over it.

You see what I mean? I like to keep games and children's crafts with 10 bazillion pieces up high. This way I can hear them scooting a chair across the floor and maybe divert their attention to another activity. A less messy activity. Preferably outside.....

Here's my newly decluttered closet. Much better don't you think? If I were Martha Stewart my closets would look like these pictures below, with coordinating jackets in a soothing color scheme. We don't do soothing color schemes in this house though. I'm sure you can tell by the bold patterns on the diaper bags and coats....

I love the idea of hooks on the door to hold purses. A girl can never have too many bags and purses. And we have 3 girls in this house with similar purse hoarding skills....

I love the idea of rolling shelves. They would be perfect for holding shoes or games.

So I hope you're off to find your inner sanctuary. This weekend I'm tackling the Master Bedroom, Bathroom & closet. Wish me luck. I need it!

Day 6: Under the Stairs Closet

2011-10-06T06:59:00.000-07:00

I'm sure many of you have looked on Pinterest and seen amazing under-the-stairs storage like this.

source

Then you got off the computer and saw this:

Yikes. Is it a wonder that I occasionally avoid decorating for holidays when my decorations are clear in the back of this huge pile? Through all this organization the past several days, I've been trying to think about logical places for things. Is the downstairs closet the best place to put the suitcases that I just have to drag upstairs any time we go on a trip? Probably not. So I moved them to our bedroom closet. What about the humongous baby swing that neither of my children have ever liked- should I really hope that a third child (someday) will absolutely love it? Let's craigslist it. Now keep in mind, my after picture is not so impressive.
See what I mean? But knowing that I purged so many Christmas decorations and camping supplies makes me feel so good. Now instead of pulling out everything in the closet every time I want to find a table runner in the very back of the closet, I only have to pull out the water coolers and I can actually reach everything else. Such a difference. I also moved many of my Christmas decorations to my upstairs bedroom closet where I've already been keeping my nativities.

So, let me go through everything I keep in this closet. In the very back are my outside Christmas lights and Christmas tree decorations. And there's a random guitar that hubby will not let me take to DI even though I'm fairly certain he's never even touched the strings. I also have my fall and other seasonal decorations in here. Then we have two boxes of camping gear with my wreath boxes on top. Then we have our large tent, two sleeping bags, and snowboard gear on top. Oh, and my extra table.

I'm feeling so good about all this organizing going on at my house! Have you organized anything lately?

Day 5- laundry room

2011-10-05T05:56:00.000-07:00

I don't know about you, but laundry is my nemesis. It's kind of like a scary movie where the bad guy never dies & he keeps jumping out at you. Yeah, laundry is just like that. Just when I've folded and put the last load away, I turn around to find a HUGE pile of dirty clothes hiding in my kid's closets or under beds or they've had 3 outfit changes since breakfast and are too lazy to put it away. I am so sorry mom that in all my years of growing up, I NEVER once re-used a towel twice. I got a fresh one every morning. If I was too lazy to hang something up, I just threw it down the laundry shoot. Well, don't worry mom, karma's a kicker! My children are doing the exact same thing to me, only worse I'm sure. :) Laundry is never pleasant, but when I have to go into this room, it's down right miserable!

Is this not the most ridiculous site? As if the tile and blue countertops weren't hideous enough?It's madness I tell ya! You practically need a hard hat to go in there!

ahh. SO. Much. Better..... See that window. Apparantly, I have one now. And I can open the blinds! I hesitate to tell you this...... but I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've ever opened those blinds.! I have hooks behind the door on the wall that hold our beach towels and life jackets. They come in handy in Texas where you can still swim in November.

So now no more excuses. I'm totally going to keep up with laundry. A load a day. From sorting to washing to folding to putting away. Yep, totally gonna happen. Starting tomorrow.....

Speaking of tomorrow, get ready to see Mandy's camping closet organized!

Day 4: Food Storage

2011-10-04T06:00:00.000-07:00

So it looks like Andrea has signed me up to organize my house with her. I saw this coming when she came to my house this summer and saw this:

Yes, this is my food storage closet in our laundry room. Can't believe I'm letting you all see this. You're liking me better already, right? Like most people, when we moved into the house, we just put things wherever they would fit and have left them there for the past three years. So I put our camping junk in here and then I realized I had a place for all my food storage, so I put that in here too. Do you have any idea how many times I've had sleeping bags hit me in the face while I'm grabbing a can of green chilies? WAY too many.

Our local grocery store is having a case lot sale and I'm determined to build up our food storage. So, Saturday morning I came home with a bunch of food and no place to put it. Awesome. So I made a complete mess of my entire downstairs in order to find a place for everything. I moved all the camping gear out and now actually have some room to breathe.

Here is the after:

I'd better get back to that sale and buy some more food! Look at all that room I have left! Next up, I'll show you where I put all our camping gear. I know, hold on to your seats, folks.

Day 3- clean under kitchen sink

2011-10-03T05:33:00.000-07:00

We're on Day 3 of our 31 day challenge to a more organized home. It's the blind leading the blind over here! I crave organization but I can't handle too much of it because the upkeep stresses me out. I just need a little more (alot more) before my parents come and watch my children for a week! My momma raised me better than my current cupboard/closet situation! So today I tackled under the kitchen sink.....this is by far the scariest part of my house! There's just something creepy about the cupboard under the sink. It's dark & damp & something has always spilled and it takes a month (or longer) for you to find it. Eww! I tackled this project on and I'm thrilled to say, I escaped without finding a single bug! It wasn't as scary as I thought! There was a can of gun cleaner that had exploded though, it was lovely. Why it was under there, I have no idea? My after pictures aren't impressive but it's far better than what I started with! So instead I'm including some photos of really great storage solutions that one day I'll get around to doing. Because I'm SO GONNA wallpaper under my sink! (insert massive sarcasm)

Image from bhg.com - Wall paper? Seriously? If you have that much time on your hands I'm really impressed and you need to get a hobby.....

Image found on Pinterest- this idea is from Rubbermaid and it's genius. I never know what to do with my crazy long tinfoil boxes! This idea was found on Pinterest with no name. The idea of a drawer seems much more sanitary to me and less arachnaphobic too! Do I see a hint of yellow toile wallpaper in there as well? Seriously, who does that?

photo by bhg.com- there's nothing scary about this kitchen sink cabinet! I think the bright white makes it look so clean and fresh. One day I will have white cabinets like this! Meanwhile, I have a much cleaner, less scary, decluttered kitchen sink cabinet. And I'm one day closer to my.....
Tomorrow, Mandy tackles her food storage closet. I can't wait!

Day 2: Declutter counters

2011-10-02T06:57:00.000-07:00

I hate to cook if I start out with a messy kitchen. But then if I spend alot of time cleaning it, I really don't want to cook! Meanwhile, my children head into the kitchen over a dozen times a day between the 3 of them and make little messes. It's a never ending cycle really. So to remain from freaking out all the time, I'm taking a picture of my clean sparkly kitchen and hanging it up next to the fridge. If I can't have clean at least I can look at clean! Here is what my kitchen looks like after 15 minutes of decluttering, mail, coupons, batteries charging, misc tools, crayons, scissors, tape (always with the tape Morgan? she's obsessed!) homework & dishes. I didn't take before pics, because the before was strewn with pantry cleaning left overs & you would've thought you were witnessing a Hoarders episode.

Scary right? This is not typical of us! Ok, it's sorta typical.....
(Sigh) So much better! Here's a woven cutlery tray that would look so cute here. But I'd fill it to the rim and it would be unrecognizable as a divider

I love counter space. There's a minimalist inside me somewhere!

I used to have items above my cabinets, but then I got pregnant and felt like nesting. I'd love to have a funky assortment of vintage globes or old fans or busts or something. But collections this size would require years of flea market shopping..... and I'd lose interest in whatever I was collecting by the time I got a decent collection!

Imagine gray walls, white cabinets and modern knobs. That's my future kitchen. It's there somewhere....

My children are destroying the kitchen as I typ this. I'm tempted to stay in the office and avoid seeing the mess from whatever just crashed. It was loud. Didn't sound like glass though. Yay for the small miracles! Get ready for tomorrow. I'm cleaning under neath the kitchen sink. It's scary down there. I've got my spider spray & vacuum ready!

31 Days of Organized Bliss

2011-10-01T13:30:00.000-07:00

DISCLAIMER: I am not organized. I probably will never be. A little mess is ok with me. But I am a declutter-er. I throw everything away, including cell phones, keys and cash. My husband & I have dumpster dived so many times we should enter the Olympics. If you're like me, then we'll be good friends. If you're already crazy awesome at this, then go away, I hate you. Just kidding (not really). A few of my friends and I have been craving more organized homes. We thought it would be fun to challenge ourselves to small projects each day and report to each other. I noticed the Nester was starting a 31 day challenge and the timing couldn't be more perfect. Right before the chaos of the holidays I'm going to completely overhaul every cupboard, closet and junk drawer in my home! (That's the plan anyway) My family is the ultimate clutter collectors and I'm pretty sure if I weren't around they'd end up on the show "Hoarders". This is also an oportune time to teach my girls how to work! Clean house and helping children- WIN, WIN! So being October 1st, today will start my 31 day challenge. Follow along and let me know if you have any suggestions or success.

Day 1: Organize Pantry

This quote did not quite match what I felt when I opened my pantry this morning to find this:

Now, I should disclose that it looks like I intentionally made it REALLY messy just so the AFTER shots would look better. But I assure you....... um, yeah, never mind, let's go with that. We're not really this messy........ :)

My husband tore apart the bottom of the pantry looking for a lizard I swear I saw. The lizard escaped. I now wear shoes, everywhere! Hence, I really needed to clean this pantry out!

This is what 40 minutes of cleaning looks like: (sigh) SO MUCH BETTER!

I finally figured out what to do with my Pepsi crates. They're perfect for snacks!

I bought the door organizer at Walmart and it was the best purchase I ever made. You technically don't have to screw it into the door, you could just hang it. But you know how much my husband loves his power tools! I spent so much time searching for ziplocs & plastic utensils everyday. Making the kids' lunches is so much easier now!

This pantry is definitely NOT Nate Berkus worthy, but I'm happy with my small success today. Crossing fingers it stays this nice til atleast tomorrow..... wish I was kidding.

Here are some definite Nate Berkus worthy pantries that I adore. Pretty wall paper and glass jars? Are you kidding me? Amazing

image found here:

image found here:

image from bhg.com

But my dream home would have a pantry door just like this. With matching heads & chalk board. I just fell in love...... with everything about this room!

image found on Pinterest.com-wish I could find the original author and get their autograph!

So if you're a little/alot messy like me, then we'll be good friends and you can follow along and declutter with us. There's just something about seeing another friend's messy home that makes me like them a little more. I like real. So if a friend stops by today and they see the mounds of toys from my toddler, craft projects from my 9yr old, tape on every surface (from my child who likes tape as much as glitter) and strewn clothes from everyone, well...... I'll proudly walk you (stepping carefully over our piles of stuff) to my newly organized pantry. Then, I'll pick your socks up off the ground and hand them to you. Because this pantry will knock your socks off when you know the insanely messy family I'm up against!

As for tomorrow- get ready to declutter the counters!

Living Room Linky Party

2011-09-14T13:55:00.000-07:00

If I was better at climbing trees while holding binoculars, I swear I'd be a Peeping Tom. There's just something fascinating about seeing how others live. Maybe that's why I can't get enough of "reality" TV. I love watching the crazies! Speaking of crazies, my living room is slightly crazy. And I dig a little crazy in every room! I prefer to call it FLAIR though, you know, being the PC kind of girl I am. I'm linking to this fabulous Home Tour:

So grab a diet coke & chocolate, go to this site and enjoy the peep show! It's way more fun than climbing trees avoiding slivers or standing in bushes. That, and it's legal!

Here is my living room:

View from my front door:

The signs above my fireplace are road stencils. I found them leaning against an old barn and knew they'd be perfect. Only took 5 hrs of driving with my head tilted at a 90 degree angle to avoid getting decapitated to get them home. So worth it!

I love this zebra rug. Grey & Zebra. My two BFF's.

Old suitcases from a flea market make a great side table!

The Mason Jar Chandelier we painstakingly made and installed. And by we, I pretty much mean the hubster. I watched though. And that was painful to watch..... And by painful, I mean BORING!

One day I'll have a custom made couch and funky chairs and an ottoman that will gouge your shins. But while I have 3 little (slightly crazy) ones, I'll stick with leather and space for sommersaults!

K's big boy room

2011-09-13T09:11:00.001-07:00

My little man is a big boy now and moved out of his crib. Sniff, sniff. It was actually a much easier transition than I had thought. The biggest obstacle was finding the perfect bedding, which never happened. I mean, I would've found some if I was willing to pay $350. But I'm sorry, my children don't appreciate quality fabrics that are dry clean only. If only I had mad sewing skills and an equal amount of patience I could design my own bedding! But I have neither. So I came up with this simple and inexpensive DIY bedding. I first purchased a heavy weight canvas striped green fabric from Ikea. The cost was $24 for a total of 3 yards. My priciest purchase but the most important part of the room! I simply sewed 3 sides closed and left the top open to insert a down comforter, then attached velcro for the closure. The orange pillow was from Ikea as well and I loved the green & orange together. The pillow insert and pillow case were $22. I found the sheets at Target for $13. I found the navy blanket at TJ Maxx for $12. So the total cost for the bedding was only $71. Pretty good right? The bed was given to us by a friend. SCORE! Let me remind you what it looked like before:

The wall of K's is a little sparce. FYI: Don't try to do a wall of the most popular letter! If I had known that industrial K's or any letter K for that matter were so rare, I would've renamed him! Here is how I transformed one giant letter K from Joann's with some Elmers glue and an Atlas I purchased from the resale shop for $1. I was pretty happy about price tag! You may be wondering why I would use Elmer's glue instead of Mod Podge. Good question. I couldn't find my Mod Podge and being my impatient self, I decided to do use Elmers. Note to self: doesn't work as well!

You can see the map covered K front and center! It took some time to cover all the nooks and crannies but it didn't have to be perfect to look good.

I will continue to be on the hunt for cool letters and hopefully fill this wall one day. The black & white striped K was a fun project too. I painted it white and then used electrical black tape for the stripes. The whole project took less than 3o min, with drying time!

One of my favorite finds was this night stand/ tool chest. I found it at an antique store for $20. It's perfect for holding childrens books. My dad found me the globe at a flea market. The lovely sock monkey quilt on the end of the bed was made by my older sister when he was born. I love the colors in it and it has been my inspiration to this whole room.

Here's the airplane mobile we made from metal planes found at Hobby Lobby and fishing pole materials.

The dresser I want to paint a Union Jack motif on someday. Wouldn't that look so cute on it?

I wanted to avoid a theme that he would out grow so I stuck with colors I love. Brown, Navy, Orange, Red, & Green. Apparantly I've got commitment issues and can't choose so I used them all, and hopefully it works!

Linking to these fabulous sites:

All things bright and beautiful

The Pirate PAaRrTY!

2011-08-28T15:13:00.000-07:00

Ahoy there Mateys! This little guy turned 3 today and yesterday we had his big birthday bash. It was really nice to have the party yesterday so I can spend today grieving over how he's gotten so big so quickly. I'm just sure I'm going to wake up tomorrow and have to send him off to college. Wasn't his invite cute? My fabo sister Annie did this for me, she's always willing to help me with my photoshopping requests. Thanks An!
When the kids showed up they could put on their bandanas, tattoos, eye patches, and open their treasure maps. Below is my little (BIG!) boy licking the frosting off his cupcake before we even had a chance to sing happy birthday.

He has been loving all things pirate lately. When we went to Texas, his older cousins made him a treasure chest (made out of a diaper wipe box- clever girls!), gold dab loons, and a treasure map. He still carries those gold foam coins around everywhere. So I thought a pirate party would be perfect for him.
I went easy on the food since it was about 7 of his preschooler friends (and their parents). Goldfish crackers hit the spot.
Oranges for Scurvy
Grape Cannonballs- after the party ended we were playing outside and I realized Zeke was missing. I found him under the table with 5 empty cups of grapes- he LOVES them.
Snicker Salad aka Hidden Treasure Salad. I love this stuff because everyone always thinks it's gross potato salad and by the time they all realize it's good, I've already eaten it all!
And Cupcakes. Could not think of a clever name. Ah, oh well.
And the table set up. I bought the black and white striped fabric at the HOME fabric store (love that place!) I already had the red and white polka dot fabric and bought the creepy netting from the dollar store! I actually found a ton of pirate stuff from the dollar store. I was able to do the whole party for under $130 because of it!
I spray painted little gold boxes and their parents helped them decorate the boxes with jewels and stickers.
The hit of the party- I buried TONS of necklaces and fake coins in here. The kids played in here for a long time!
Walk the plank. My boy jumps of everything possible, so he thought this was awesome. I think I'll leave it in the yard for a while for him to enjoy.
We didn't end up even playing "Pin the eye patch on the pirate", but it looked cute anyway.
I was really glad to have my vinyl cutter for this party. I also made a "jolly roger" flag, but forgot a picture! And I cut some vinyl for my old window in my living room that said "Shiver me timbers!" I know, I know, worst blogger award goes to me.
I gave all the kids maps at the beginning of the party and we hid a big box full of their goodie bags, I found this idea somewhere on pintrest, to make them look like treasure chests. Inside I had little bags of gold (mini reeses), tattoos, party blowers, and ring pops. It was so fun to put together, but I've never done a "kids only" party before and I was EXHAUSTED after! But it was so worth it to make a fun day for my big boy! Ok, now I'm off to go look at his baby books and cry...

linking to this great site:

The Big BIG Picture!

2011-08-16T13:11:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited about phase two of my dining room. I rarely complete a room before moving on to the next. It's kind of like finishing a good book. I never want to finish. That's how I feel about decorating. Except money is the usual stopper for me. I'm kind of cheap when it comes to decor and it has to be totally functional and sentimental. Everything has to be personal or it just feels cluttered to me. It's actually a total pain, because personalizing things ends up being a lot more work! I have loved these photos of my parents as children. They were hanging in my home growing up and have been dying to do something them. My parents both grew up in the Seattle area but never knew each other until their early twenties. There was a traveling salesman taking photos of children in costumes and on a horse. Surprisingly enough, both my grandparents purchased pictures even though money was tight. (very, very tight!) When I saw these huge photos, I knew exactly what I had to do:

photo found here at Laura Winslow Photography

I love everything about this funky room above. Brick wall, fun letter F and black & white photo. Image found here.

This water photo is quite the conversation piece. I love quirky. Image found here.

I would love to blow these shots up and have them made into wall paper, but wasn't willing to spend $300 on something I like to change up. Large prints would cost around $120 and then customize framing would be another $200. That's too much for a cheapy like me. Here's my much cheaper version: (ignore the orange scrolly thing behind the photo- painting over the bird & branch soon)

Sorry about the glare. It's impossible to get a non-glare photo with plexi-glass frames. Here's the original scanned photos. My mom's photo was actually colorized and I converted to black and white.

So the cost break down is $50 for 2 Ribba frames from Ikea. And $18 for 2 20x30 photos printed at Costco. Total cost is under $70 and I can change out the photos without any guilt. Not that I'll want to- these photo's make me so happy!

T-shirt dresses

2011-08-12T07:06:00.001-07:00

My newest obsession is t-shirt dresses. I've always secretly wanted to be a clothing designer. When I was younger I would sketch out prom dresses during church. I have one major flaw though. Sewing! I'm really bad at it. I've got no patience for threading bobbins and changing thread and dealing with knots. I'm no perfectionist either and that's never a good thing when sewing or cutting! I'm really good at dreaming though, and picking out fabrics. The new school year starts in just one week and the outfit choices in the mall are LAME! I love the girly boutiques but not a fan of the prices, especially when considering they'll somehow come home with chocolate pudding stains (even though I didn't pack them chocolate pudding). So I'm off to dream and with a whole lot of help from my seamstress mother (why couldn't she pass her sewing genuis on to me? not that she didn't try!) my girls will be sporting these unique ensembles this school year. Here are some of my inspirations:

How stinkin cute is this dress found here at Made by Lex.

Or this one found at jcrew. Even someone whose allergic to sewing should be able to pull of making this right? It will probably fall apart in the washer with my skillz....

Another one from jcrew because lets face it, they are the ULTIMATE on chic yet simple design.

Or these beauties found here ,I love the striped top! I can totally do this, right?

This is a younger version and more of the boutique style I see. Found on lily blue boo website here. Seriously, this idea is genuis. I could never sew sleeves and a proper neckline. With a simple t-shirt or tank, I don't have to!

So, do you think I can do this? I'll try anyway. Hopefully my girls won't have a "clothing malfunction" before lunch......

cliff notes on being a mom

2011-08-04T09:26:00.000-07:00

So this past week I had an opportunity to go to some classes at BYU, Idaho. Double bonus: I got to go with my sister Mandy Cakes and my parents. I left behind my 3 adorable, amazing, house destroying, pack rat children & hubby. And traded it in for 6 days of cupcake eating, Yellowstone "hiking" (it was more like a short walk, cause we're not so nature-y), play watching, shopping, parenting & organizing classes. I feel rejuvinated and excited to completely overhaul my home, children & parenting style. It's smooth sailing from here on out, right? Right?

Anyway, on to my cliff notes:

(image via: http://www.houseofsmiths.blogspot.com/ )

GROCERIES:
-Forget xtreme couponing and the stress it causes, not to mention the enormous amount of time. (This was my favorite piece of advice!)
-Save money by buying all necessities (non food items, toilettries, etc) and buy a year in advance. This will save you extra trips to the grocery store, which will save you much more money and time!
-If you can't buy a whole years worth of necessities, save 10 percent a week of your grocery money until you can.
-When you see a good deal on a product, buy a years worth, especially if it doesn't expire. Think of childrens shoes, socks & underwear, not just groceries.
-Where ya gonna store all of this? Under each bed in xerox boxes or plastic buckets with lids. Make sure you keep a list of what's under each bed and label the boxes on both sides!
-Remember online savings such as retailmenot.com when buying items online. I always use this for shutterfly coupons and gap coupons.
-Start with building a 3 month food supply on hand and rotate it often. The less trips you have to the grocery store the more time and money you save!
-Base dinners on what's on sale that week and plan a menu a week or a month in advance.
-Go grocery shopping once a month with a menu in mind and shop for milk, eggs, fruits & veggies twice a month.

(picture via: Better Homes & Gardens)

TIME MANAGEMENT:
-Take care of yourself first. This is so foreign to moms & seems selfish. But when we don't take care of ourselves physically & spiritually we have very little to give and get run down & depressed much easier.
-Take care of your husband second. Make the little time you have count. Invest in your relationship and your whole family will reap the rewards. Do small things with great love!
-Make sure that everyone who is important to you gets individual time once a week. Look for clues when someone needs you. Asking silly questions is more likely that want your time not that they dont know the answers.
-Be flexible, if you're always rushed you're stressed when things aren't perfect. Understand what's important vs what's urgent.
-Live life twice. Once in your mind and then again during the day. Start your day with a list of what you want to accomplish, in what order and how you'll get it done. Find your "prime time" to accomplish the most. Do you have more energy in the morning or are you a late nighter? Schedule to get the most done during those times.
-Give yourself rewards, set time limits. ie: check emails, facebook AFTER you shower and empty dishwasher. Give yourself 15 min of free time, then back to your checklist. After you've accomplished a few more things on your list, give yourself another 15 minutes. Do the same for your children. They make their beds and get dressed then get breakfast. They do their jobs and take them somewhere fun, etc.
-Do the things you like the least- FIRST, you'll accomplish more and faster that way!
-Learn to say no. Don't take on too much and stress your entire family out. Know your limits. Take time to decide what's most important.
-Eliminate & deligate!
-Finish what you start!
-Play. It gives you energy. Brings health. Gives you the desire to enjoy life more. Have hobbies. Do something fun for yourself at least 10 min a day. ie: crosswords, internet, read a book, etc. You'll be a happier person.
-Alternate between work and play to give you more stamina, otherwise you'll burn out.

( picture via: http://www.howdoesshe.com/ )

TEACHING CHILDREN TO WORK:
2-6 yrs old:
-One job per year old they are.
-Kids feel valued when they feel like they contribute to the home/family.
-Make it POSITIVE! Set timers, turn on music, work as a team.
-Train this age for 7 days, watch for 7 days.
-Compliment them x 3 & make it specific. Let them overhear you telling your spouse or grandparents how good they are at cleaning mirrors or setting the table.
-List daily jobs on 3x5 notecards, add graphics if they can't read, laminate and put on a ring for each child.

6-12 years old:
-Use their name and don't ask them to help you. Make it their responsibility. ie: "Morgan, it's time to clean your room" -always sound positive and nice. Treat them as equals in the cleaning of the home. Make them feel responsible for their surroundings.
-If they struggle, say "I've got 3 minutes to help you set the table. Do you want me to get the plates or the silverware?" Make it their responsiblity and help them feel in charge of getting it done.
-Summers: First week off for just playing. 2nd week- train for 5 days of jobs.
-List all the steps on a 3x5 card of what's needed to clean that room. Post on mirror in bathroom or inside closet/cupboard door so they know exactly what's required. Make sure they don't work for more than 40 min a day.

12-18yrs old:
-Schedule individual time to relax with each child once a week.
-Remember what's more important, a messy room or tattoos. Choose battles wisely.
-Give them problem solving jobs. Fixing a bike, a lawn mower, show them they can do it!
-Teach them to finish a job everytime.
-Teach once, watch once.
-Compliment and reward.
-Treat them like adults.
-Continue to make it positive.
( image via: http://www.4men1lady.com/)

ORGANIZING THE HOME:
-if you get 10 percent more organized you'll save 90 minutes a day!
-get rid of HALF of your stuff. Especially clothes, toys, linens.
-look your prettiest in your home. Don't just get dressed and showered when going out. You should feel your best when you're in your home.
-Finish the job. Start laundry and get it folded AND PUT AWAY in the same day. Even better, try to get it put away warm!
-Get rid of any clothes that require ironing! Love this idea!
-Dry cleaner is your best friend for men's dress shirts. (my idea, not the teachers)
-Don't feel guilty about getting rid of expensive items that you don't use. Think of the rewards of finding a good home where the item will be more appreciated.
-Don't hold on to items that maybe one day you'll need. Think of passing on those items and maybe one day those items will come back to you when you need them.
-Less stuff= less stress= less time spent organizing/cleaning!
-Your marriage is more important than getting rid of your spouse's pack rat ways. Make sure that your pack rat spouse has a separate spot for themselves. A drawer to place all their keys, wallets, receipts when they walk in from work. Contain their messy space and don't make it an argument.
-Make organizing POSITIVE. If you stress your family out by organizing, you're defeating the point.

So there you have it. Everything I learned, minus the fun I had learning it. Sorry you couldn't come with me, but your pants will thank you. I ate so many amazing cupcakes, chocolate covered cinnamon bears, cafe rio pork salad, and 5 guys burgers for all of us. My new favorite quote is "people who like to eat are more fun". SO TRUE! And the cleaning begins......

Sunday Night Pick Me UP

2011-07-17T14:34:00.000-07:00

Sunday night can be a bit stressful, looking at the week's calendar filled with a long to-do list, a fun weekend behind you and 5 days of business til the next break. I suffer from Sunday Night depression. Always have. The one thing that cheers me up? Treats! It's been a childhood tradition of smelling fresh baked cinnamon rolls or carmel corn or fresh berry pies on Sunday evenings. I miss home. Sniff, sniff. I miss having a personal chef & housekeeper aka: newly appreciated mom. My kids got a rotten draw for homemade goodness when they got me as a mom. But who says they can't have fun treats? Enter the white trash cook......

Here is my Sunday Night treat. Sorry kids, the homemade cinnamon rolls won't happen unless dad's feeling generous. The home made pies won't be baked unless you go to Grammy's house. My culinary skills are shameful, especially with all my training! Atleast I recognize my failures right?

Are directions really necessary on this? Not sure, but in case you're kitchen skills are pathetic like mine here's how you make these babies.

Chocolate covered Cinnamon Bears:

Ingredients:

-1 Dolci Frutta container- microwave chocolate (I've melted my own chocolate but it never dries as good as this stuff, so I gave up)

-45 cinnamon bears (difficult to find in Texas- only found at Sportsmen Stores)

-tooth picks

-wax paper

Prepare the wax paper. Push the toothpicks into the bears slightly to make dipping easier. Prepare the Dolci Frutta as directed & dip the gummy bears. Wait til they dry completely to remove toothpicks. If you have any left overs (which you won't!) wrap them up and give to your white trash lovin' friends. They won't think less of you after trying these cinnamon bombs!

The world is a better place with cinnamon & chocolate as BFF's, don't ya think?

Photo wall is done!

2011-07-07T07:03:00.001-07:00

Wow. I did it. I finally hung the photos I purchased from etsy.com and it only took 8 months. Just call me speedy. The problem was that I couldn't decide on frames. With 9 photos, I felt like I was seeing a whole lot of frame and not really noticing the photos. I love the colors and feeling of the photos and really wanted them to pop out more than the wood frames. I chose glass edgeless frames from Hobby Lobby and they were a steal at 3.99 a pop. Only $36 for all 9. The photos were purchased from my favorite artist on etsy found here for $30. So my whole project cost under $70, which isn't my cheapest project. But it's also unique. And can you really put a price on unique? (um, yes. $66) Anyway, here's a before shot of my entry way:

Here's another shot with a DIY project that didn't last long. I got tired of it. It seemed too dark for me.

And here is my bright new entry way. I love the fun colors in these photos. Now I just need accessories for the console top. That's where I get stuck. Every. Time. Accessories can look junky to me. It's my nemesis. My love/hate relationship. Any suggestions?

I'm thinking of buying 3 more prints to add to my set. I have such high ceilings and I might need to go bigger. I love groups of 9 but a group of 12 could work here too. I think.

Porch swings and Pinterest

2011-07-04T09:13:00.000-07:00

I lay awake at night with a thousand ideas in my head, unable to sleep with so many creations floating in my mind. But then in the morning, I have no energy to make them. Oh! The ridiculous cycle! Last night I woke up with porch swings on my mind. I had no idea I wanted one. I have a rickety one that was given as a gift, that I'm a little leary of sitting on. I have a huge covered porch in the front of my house. I live at the end of a culdesac and a comfy porch swing would be perfect to watch the kids ride bikes while sitting out there. Well, it would be perfect if an A/C unit was attached to it. Maybe more like a winter porch swing. I much prefer winters in Texas than summers. With my ideas in my head, I searched on http://www.pinterest.com/ (beware: this site is like crack! Wish I was kidding) and found some easily made twin beds turned swings. Here's my favorites:

Very rustic- possibly an old door turned swing? Looks do-able though, right?

Love the rope and fun red color of the swing. Fabric, not so much....

How cool would this be in your kid's bedrooms? Might have to google drywall repair though....

I think I may be looking for some twin beds at the good will very soon.....

Seriously, why do I start dreaming of new projects when I have all the supplies for 3 unfinished projects cluttering up the house? I'm a big picture kind of girl, the details get me bored. Planning is the fun for me!

Office Progression

2011-06-14T12:17:00.000-07:00

Remember my hideous office? How could you forget, right? It's probably caused you nightmares but let me refresh your memory of our hideous problem.....

Embarrassing right? So we stripped the wall paper. Major pain. Lots of windex and scraping. But that's what husband's love doing on their weekends right? I like to think so. After the wallpaper was removed then we went on to texturizing the walls with lightweight joint compound and some trowels. If wallpaper removal is a nightmare then texturizing is H. E. Double Hockey Sticks!! Again, I shouldn't complain. I didn't do any of this. But I was doing the complaining for my husband's sake...... since he doesn't complain, I have to complain for the both of us. Complaining is my talent. Next step, which I did help with, is striping the ceiling. Here's a tip: To avoid bleeding, we painted the ceiling white. Taped it with scotch painters tape. And painted over the tape with the same white paint. That sealed the tape to the ceiling and it probably bled, but it bled the same color. After it was dry, we painted on the yellow stripe.

And Voila! My finished ceiling. The white is called Moon Rise by Behr. The yellow is called Sunflower by Behr. My gorgeous off black wall is Behr (Primer +Paint) in Cracked Pepper. My fun light fixture from Ikea. (some assembly required is the biggest UNderstatement!)

My mom cut some trees in white vinyl. I love how bold they look on the black wall. Gorg!
The french doors are always open now. It just makes me happy to look up and see this wall. Isn't it fun with a side of crazy? That's how I like my rooms to feel....
Here's my office lit up with the light. It's pretty big. But you know me. Go big and go home!!
Next up, finding fabric for the drapes. So far I've struck out, twice. And then I've got 3 more walls with big DIY projects to complete as well. Looks like this weekend won't be quite as relaxing as I hoped. One day this office will be finished. I just hope my kids aren't in college before that happens.....

I linked to these fabulous sites:

Happy Un-Birthday!

2011-06-07T05:43:00.000-07:00

My lil sister, her two boys & our parents are all visiting Renee & me in Texas! Hooray! What do we do to entertain 7 little children, 2 teenagers & 7 adults? We have a faux birthday party! Since we see each other rarely, we decided that we should celebrate all the holidays we miss together. Today's schedule: Everyone's birthday. We drew names and shopped at the dollar store and a resale shop, the budget was $2 per person. We made cinnamon cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. (they were decadent!) We put up Mandy's fabulous birthday banner, (she made me for my birthday this year!) our front yard party sign, a little dancing music and celebrated! The kids loved it, the adults loved it, and the teenagers even smiled a few times. Winner, winner, cupcakes for dinner! (literally. cupcakes for dinner. that's how we roll.) If it was socially acceptable, we'd walk around with sugar I.V. drips. But since it's not, we fill our purses with m&m's. Wish I was kidding....

Here is some of the fun we had:

My dad had a unique ability to guess everyone's gift BEFORE they opened it. Rich acted surprised by the screw driver anyway. I'm a little scared by his acting abilities, hmmmm....

Some might call what my child is doing in the picture below, pushing. But I like to think he is multi-tasking. He's quite talented how he can play and shove at the same time. That's my boy!

Zeke didn't seem to mind too much and was thrilled to get a ball wrapped in a happy meal container. Martha Stewart ain't got nothin' on our wrapping skillz!

We sang happy birthday and each blew out our own cupcake. Less germy that way! And if you knew Mandy and me, you know we're thinking about the germs almost as much as our next sugar high.....

See what I mean about everyone loving this? The adults got into it as much as the kids!
Stay tuned for more of our mock holidays. I think Christmas, New years and even General Conference might be in the future line-up....

Bubbles- my new obsession

2011-06-01T12:31:00.001-07:00

I'm searching the web, wondering what I'm going to do to entertain 3 children for the next 3 months and I've found my next boredom buster. BUBBLES! It's also a fun photoshoot idea, which makes it an UBER idea! Gotta love candid photoshoot moments, it's so much better than the many crying/tantrum formal photoshoots we've had in the past. Doesn't this look like fun?

image by Nicole Hill found here

Wanna know how to make the perfect bubbles? I found this tutorial on Under the Sycamore found here:

Recipe for amazing bubbles:

1 & 1/2 Quarts water

1/2 Cup corn syrup

1 Cup liquid dish soap

Stir water and corn syrup together. Slowly add soap while stirring. Store in airtight container.

Get your camera ready for some fun- Here's a shot from last summer I took. Now I'm anxious to get more!

under construction

2011-05-31T06:21:00.000-07:00

Wow, we've been kind of lame lately. Haven't posted for awhile. But it's because this office redo is taking up all my spare time. ALL. OF. IT. I thought I'd give you a peek into my crazy life for the last month.....

My office has been a constant embarrassment for the last 5 years. 5 years peeps! It's french doors are immediately to your left when you walk into my home. You would've thought that I would've at least made curtains or put film on the glass doors by now. Nope, too lazy I guess. I'd rather profusely apologize anytime someone sets foot in this room than buy some contact paper for the doors. But soon, I will be really happy I didn't cover up the doors into this office......

Here are my tips for wall paper removal. 1) Get free child labor. That's why you have children right? 2) Hire someone, it's a total pain. 3) When the first 2 aren't an option, use really cheap windex and spray the heck out of it. Use a putty knife to scrape off the excess. I read online that the people at Sherwin Williams remove wall paper this way. My husband agreed that this was easier. I watched HGTV during this process, because it was my birthday and this is what I wanted for my birthday. Wall paper removal for birthday- I'm officially an adult!

Here is my completely embarrassing office. We were just starting to take down the wall paper before I snapped this photo. The lights in the office have not been turned on.... in 5 years! The window blinds have never been opened in this room.... in 5 years! We sat in darkness when we came in here, so we didn't have to look at the mess. Pathetic. I know this. I've been in denial for 5 years!!!

Ok. Now get ready to jump out of your seats and scream like Oprah just bought you a car..... Here is a little sneak peek of the office of my dreams..... I'm so happy right now, I can't stop smiling!

The finishing touches are still taking place. My family is coming into town later this week and I'm so anxious to have their help! The worst part is over. The fun part begins!

Lisa's Make-out Chicken Pot Pie

2011-05-17T17:50:00.000-07:00

image found here:

You read the title right. I can't tell you how many people want to make-out with this chicken pot pie. Warning: Do not eat this while dating! It's not very attractive to have bits of chicken and potato plastered on your face even if you served it over candle light and fine linens. But it's impossible to eat this pie while mainting some semblance that you're a mature adult! My friend Lisa (in good ol' Utah, woot woot!) gave this recipe to me years ago and every time I make one for a neighbor they become my new bff. That is, until I give them the recipe! Hmmm, maybe I should hold out longer and get some freebies or something before I hand over this reputation-slandering-oh-so-good recipe? Get ready to wow your friends and family, that is, if you're willing to share!

Lisa's Make-Out Chicken Pot Pie-
-4 chicken breasts -1 Cup chopped onion -1 Cup chopped celery
-1 Cup chopped carrots -1/3 Cup butter -1 Cup chopped poptatoes
-1/4 Cup flour -2 Cups chicken broth -1 Cup half & half
-1 tsp salt -1/4 tsp pepper -store bought pie crust or homemade
-frozen peas (optional)

UPDATE- Lisa told me she browns the bottom crust in oven for 2 min @ 400 degrees before adding the filling. Good idea! A lower fat version is to just have a top crust and no bottom crust. But who's kidding? I don't do low fat anything, just ask my cholesterol!

Boil chicken with water and chicken boullion (or use half chicken broth, half water) until chicken is done. In a large Saute pan, saute onions, celery, carrots and potatoes in butter for 10 min. Add flour and cook for one minute. Combine broth and half and half. Stir into vegetables and cook over medium heat until thick and bubbly. Add chicken and stir well. In a 2 quart dish or pie plate place bottom crust and pour the filling on top. Add the top crust and brush crust with half & half. Cook at 400 degrees for thirty minutes or until golden brown.

*hand over the pie to your favoritest people with one hand and hold a can of Mace in a defensive position in the other hand. There's no telling what will happen when you give them this chicken pot goodness!

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes-They Don't Suck!

2011-05-15T17:53:00.000-07:00

A couple of days ago I showing my husband "our blog," "our blog?" he said, "when was the last time you posted anything for your sisters to read?" He's right, it has been forever and when he whipped up this for breakfast this morning I knew it would be the perfect thing to share.

I’m not much of a breakfast person, coupled with the fact that I’d rather clean up the mess than cook so needless to say I don’t make breakfast. David on the other hand loves to cook and is always willing to experiment in the kitchen. Frankly, when I saw him pull out the griddle this morning less than an hour before we had to leave for church I was less than excited. If there’s one breakfast food I really could care less for its pancakes (and the mess that would be left until after church). Quickly I snuck into the pantry to grab a quick bowl of granola cereal so I could avoid eating pancakes.

When David started pulling out cream cheese and powdered sugar I started to think I it all wrong and the griddle was a mistake, but David assured me he was indeed making pancakes….cinnamon roll pancakes… just an idea he’d been thinking about trying.
I have to admit I was a little intrigued and the smell was certainly wonderful so I had to at least give them a try. The first words out of my mouth were “WOW, they don’t suck!” In fact they were TOTALLY worth the after church mess! The best part was they were so easy and just took a few extra ingredients so we were not late for church.

Here’s how to do it:

Your favorite pancake mix –we use the ol’ Costco standby Bisquick
Cinnamon Sugar mix –David’s concoction (1/4 cup Cinnamon; 1/4 cup Granulated Sugar; 1/2 Cup Dark Brown Sugar- combined )
Standard Cream Cheese frosting recipe with a little extra milk so it spreads easier

David made the pancake batter per the directions and in small batches transferred enough batter for 4 pancakes to a smaller bowl then poured in some cinnamon sugar and very lightly folded it into the batter to try and get a swirling effect before adding it to the hot griddle. To avoid the hassle of transferring batter you could just mix cinnamon sugar into all the batter at once, but it will all get mixed together without the swirly effect. Cook like normal and then add your little bit of butter before drizzling a little frosting to the first layer, repeat until you have your hot stack of pancakes piled high and add a little extra frosting to the top. Enjoy!

Holy Cow! It's a prom dress!

2011-05-13T11:46:00.000-07:00

That's what hubby said when he first saw it. Living with three men (ok, one man, two boys) makes me long for a few more ruffles in my life. And I have such a hard time finding a shower curtain I like without spending over 50 bucks. So.

After drooling over the many ruffled shower curtains I've seen out in blog-land, I finally went for it... with a bit of help from Mom (she did the most annoying parts, figuring out measurements, serging and doing the rolled hem on all 11 layers! I love going home to have mom work on my projects for me!) I was so excited to make this that I even skipped taking a nap yesterday to whip it up! Impressive, right? Initially I had planned on using this tutorial completely, but I ended up just using a single layer of sheet for each layer where she had doubled it. Thanks to my mom using the rolled hem, I think it made the shower curtain much lighter (although it is still pretty heavy). I did use her idea to make a little ruffle for the top of the curtain to cover up the metal grommets that don't look so great with the ruffly look. Ooo, and you might be interested to know that I've never liked the ruffling method where you have to pull a thread because the thread ALWAYS breaks on me, so I just made the ruffles right before I would sew right over them- much easier in my opinion.

Here's a close up of my small ruffle on top.
So hard to get a decent shot in such a small bathroom!

I love it. I keep walking past the bathroom just so I can look at it. Go make one yourself. The end.

Linking up here:

This Party was Dynamite!

2011-05-09T21:08:00.000-07:00

So, first of all, if you haven't seen the movie Napoleon Dynamite, or you just didn't like the movie, you should probably just skip this entire post. You just won't get it.

Usually a party is either hit or miss. This party ended up being both, depending on who you ask. For me and my husband, it was a definite hit. For some of our guests who couldn't remember anything about the movie, it was definite miss. I realized something got lost in translation when a party guest asked me if Zac just really liked tater tots. Oh dear. Zac and I both really love the movie Napoleon Dynamite and we sit and watch it a few times a year and laugh at the same lame jokes. Here are the invites. I just set the scene, took the picture, printed, and sent. Like my attempt at a unicorn? Me too.

Here's Zac all posed next to his pinata. He thought the shorts and tall socks would help him look like Kip, Napoleon's older brother. We're pretty sure no one realized why Zac had his socks like that.
Here's the baby all dressed up as Rex, the tae-kwon-do instructor. Zeke was also dressed up as Rex, but he had no business getting his picture taken with the pre-party tantrum he had going. My mom made the pants and I knew it was meant to be that Wal-mart carried this patriotic doo-rag. Seriously, who would wear this in real life??
I googled "Napoleon Dynamite cakes" and found something similar to this. If you remember in the movie, he feeds his llama Tina her dinner from a casserole dish. And he calls her a fat lard. So this is referring to Tina, the llama. Not my husband. Pretty sure our party guests didn't remember this either, I'm thinking they went home thinking I'm a really rude wife. On a side note, can you believe I actually took a cake decorating class once? Obviously I didn't learn much.
I made this happy birthday banner a few weeks ago. Totally love it. I found a similar sign done on eighteen25 and had to do it for us. The one part of the evening that the guests actually understood.
Here's our little "Time Machine" for Zac. Just some pictures from the past I thought everyone would enjoy seeing. I'm thinking they think we always have our bookshelf full of Zac's childhood pictures.
So now here are the activities. We just got a new dance video game, Dance Central, and we played that upstairs in the living room and then we had the movie Napoleon Dynamite playing downstairs. The dance game was awesome and we had a lot of good laughs making fools of ourselves. When everyone came in, I had them draw their rendition of Zac's face. (Remember in the movie when he draws a picture for the girl he wants to ask to the dance?) It was pretty funny to see what everyone came up with. I also had Glamor Shots by Deb all set up, but the person I had planned to be "Deb" got sick last minute. And I was too busy running around to do glamor shots, so we didn't end up doing it. I also forgot to take a picture of the hubby riding his bike around the neighborhood while I ran around throwing rubber dog-toy steaks at him, ala Uncle Rico.
I had this great idea to make some boondoggle keychains like Deb did in the movie, but here's what I ended up with. 4 keychains. That's it. And do you know how long it took me to make these 4? You don't want to know. Way too much time for an ugly keychain, so I gave up the idea that I'd include those in the party favors.
Here are the party favor bags.
And here's what was inside. Classics from the movie. The bags doubled as a way to hold the candy from the pinata we smashed.
Now for the food. Here are the cupcakes. From a box. I know, lame. For cupcake toppers, I wrote out some of my favorite quotes from the movie.
This one was my favorite cupcake. Living in Idaho and all.
I ordered a couple party trays of sandwiches from Jimmy Johns.
"Chicken Farm Protein Shake" It was really orange juice. If you've seen the movie, you would actually think this is funny.
The Dang Quesa-dillahs. I actually just used the chicken taquito recipe from Our Best Bites and omitted the chicken and turned them into Quesadillas. They were a big hit and I think it's the only part from the movie that people remembered!
"Deb's 1 % milk"
"D-Qwon's Dance Groove Energy Drink"
"Fun Pack Chips" "Napoleon, you know we can't afford the fun pack!"
The Birthday Boy!
And here's the two of us at the end of the night. Super fun, super exhausting. I decided that the best part of planning a party is the actual planning, but it was worth all the effort for all the fun we had. Happy Birthday Zac!!!

My house

2011-05-08T14:10:00.000-07:00

A certain TV show called me to see more photos of my house this weekend. (insert jumping up and down and squealing like I'm a Justin Bieber fan, which I did, with witnesses to attest) I'm still trying to decide if it was a prank or not. But it made me motivated to really want to complete my home. The problem is that I'm not a decorator. I don't want to know the decorating rules because I'd rather break them anyway. I just love the process of designing a room. I love to go to bed at night dreaming of what I could do with my awful office. I love coming up with crazy ideas & seeing the look on my friend's/hubby's face when I tell them my idea. (They look at me like I'm smokin' something!) The process is fun and finishing my whole house would be like finishing a really good book. I just don't want it to END! So maybe that's why I've never had a finished home. I've been a home owner for 12 years and never had every room decorated in a house. I start one room, hit a bump and jump to the next room. Accessories are my nemesis. They are the jewelry to every room. Without them the room is dull and boring but sometimes you wear the wrong jewelry and you can go from Prom Queen to Lady Gaga. It ain't pretty! Can you imagine wearing a beautiful gown and tennis shoes. Even if your tennis shoes have diamonds on them, it's still a bust. Oh, how I wish accessorizing a room were as easy as picking out the right shoes and bangle! Someone please tell me how to have accessories look personal and not like clutter or off the shelf of TJ Maxx. After taking these pics of my home I realized that even though "less is more" sometimes less is boring. And I never want my home to feel boring. Time to come up with some new crazy ideas for accessories so I can shock my friends and family. Oh, the high I get from shock value! Here is a glimpse of my ever changing home......

Entry Table- Hubby made it after I drooled after seeing it at Pottery Barn. It was a 5yr anniversary present. This artwork is from Bomobob on etsy, hung in edgeless frames. It's fun and cheery.

Stair case Gallery Wall- Work in Progress. I'm thinking of painting the frames fun, bold colors.

View from front door into Family Room- Vintage metal road sign stencils from a flea market. My room color inspiration!

I heart grey zebra rugs....

My pillow find that made me realize I was on the right track with this color scheme.

We can't forget the mason jar chandy that took far longer to install than to make!
My stinky trunks that I love as a side table but note to self: DO NOT OPEN. You'll smell like a 90 year old man's leather shoes.

Morgan's ROOM- The dresser. Why do blogs & tv shows make painting dressers look easy? They aren't!
My favorite part of the room. The canvas I painted with my favorite song lyrics- "the littlest bird sings the prettiest song"..... paper birds top it off.

The Santa Chair- She asked for a white sparkly chair for Christmas. Santa found her a furry one. Close enough right?

Martha inspired clipboards (we're on a first name basis, cause you all know who I'm talking about!) are the perfect clutter catcher. Jewelry, photos, hair clips, momentos all find a home on this wall.

Tissue pom poms and paper lanterns oh my! Can't forget the white polka's made from cardstock and 3M spray adhesive. Good thing I didn't painstakingly paint them!
Kimball's Room- This will change soon. He's growing out of a crib. The end of naps is soon coming! I bought this dresser when I was pregnant with my first. We were just sure the baby was a boy. 2 girls later, the dresser finally found a little boys room for a home. Note to yourself: Don't be impatient and buy gender specific furniture!

My wall of K's. Still working on replacing all the vinyl ones with vintage flea market finds. It's a process. Apparantly the letter K is the most popular. I learned that AFTER naming him. I might have changed his name had I known!

The guest bathroom. The first cabinet painting experience. I didn't love the work it entailed but I loved the result!

The frame was glued onto the boring mirror. Inspired by a Nate Berkus makeover I saw. My friends thought I was crazy, which I am, but I'm fun crazy! Right? I love how it brightens the boring mirror !
The master bedroom- The armoire was a 7yr anniversary gift. Inspired from a Land of Nod armoire, my talented husband made it for me. Vintage handle was found at an antique show. I so, so love this piece!

What? You don't have a saw horse for a bench at the end of your bed? It's a real shin digger at night!

His bedside table. Old vintage ruler with family photos and letters. YES, they are from my family and not strangers!
My side table- I have 8 orchids in the house. I'm obsessed with them. I currently have 9 in my home, all blooming at different times. It's better than collecting cats right? The ceramic egg crate is perfect for bracelets, rings and necklaces found at Anthropologie.

The photos above the bed make me smile every time. My 9 year old took them while we were at an old cemetary. It's very rare that I have photos of the two of us. I'm glad I handed over the camera that day!

Here's a sneak peek into the office that has been a major eye sore from the front door for the last 5 years. That's right peeps, 5 years. And it's still a mess. But now it's a fun mess. And those are the best kinds! Here's your sneak peek- work is still in progress!

There you have it. A glimpse of what I did this weekend. Crossing my fingers my all nighter paid off and my favorite design shows likes what they see! It's fun to dream anyway....

Mother's Day Gift Idea

2011-05-03T10:56:00.000-07:00

****Warning****Mom, if you're reading this AVERT YOUR EYES! Atleast til Sunday!

Mother's Day leaves me stumped every year. What can I possible give my mother to show my gratitude for the insane amount of work she did raising 7 children? All the laundry that I threw down the 3 story laundry shoot (it was fun to throw things/siblings down that thing) that weren't really dirty, just too lazy to hang up. I shudder at how much laundry she did. All the meals she painfully prepared (and they weren't the heat up a frozen lasagna & pillsbury rolls dinners). These were gourmet, by ANY standards. Fresh fruit? Always! Fresh baked rolls & bread? What? You didn't have that? Oh, I thought that was on every dinner table. Fresh baked pies? Atleast twice a week. Fresh cookies or brownies? Um, daily! Lasagnas, chicken pot pies, Homemade chicken noodle soup, enchiladas, stir fry's. EVERY SINGLE NIGHT. We never ate out. We never had store bought frozen dinners. She never asked us what kind of cereal we wanted for dinner, like I may or may not have done on occasion. What I didn't realize until I became a wife and mother is how much time, planning and talent it takes to pull off this amount of work! And how incredibly thankless it is! I'm stumped mom, why did you do it? It couldn't have been because you had children who appreciated any of it! We just assumed that's how everyone lived.

Now that I'm a mom of 3. My standards are getting lower and lower. Dinners are complete in 20 minutes prep time or it's cereal. Dessert? No way, unless it's icecream or left over Easter candy. Yes, I was raised well but came up lazy when it comes to the insane amount of work I'm willing to sacrifice for my children who won't notice for another 20 plus years! So in order to thank my mom for the amazing dinners we had & she would still make me if I lived closer. Oh, how I wish we lived closer! My sister & I decided to make these fun napkin rings. My mom still throws fun dinner parties and we thought it would be fun to jazz up her table setting with something interesting. A conversation starter.

I wish I could take credit for coming up with this fun idea, but I'm pretty sure every idea has been taken and I'm happy to recreate the genius ones, like this. Renee and I found these forks at Canton flea market and we knew just what to do with these. This amazing blog, a brooklyn limestone, gave me the idea and here's my take on recreating it.

Step 1: Make a mold guide. Use a pipe or in our case different socket to round the handles. My husband drilled the sockets into wood and clamped down the wood to the counter. You could use any plumbing pipe. We tried two different sizes but ended up using a 1.5 inch pipe, roughly.

Step 2: Stamping the forks with the word EAT. We should have done this before rounding the forks but it worked in the end. We purchased a metal stamping set for around $10 at Harbor Freight.

Step 3: Darkening the letters. This is where I tried using a sharpie to fill in the stamped EAT word. It makes the word pop a little more. I had a hard time wiping off the excess sharpie on the fork though. That's when I remembered my scrapbooking trick. I wiped on craft paint, shoving paint into the crevices & wiping off the excess. Worked perfectly!

Step 4: Using your mold, guide the fork handles around the pipe using clamps to hold onto the fork and a hammer to make it smooth.

Step 5: Wrap them up with a cute set of napkins and wash away the years of resentment that your mother SHOULD have towards your incredibly unhelpful self. But because she's your mom & she used up all her mental capacity raising you during your teens, she's (hopefully) already forgiven you. Because you're 30. And you've moved out of her house. Hopefully. And if not, she still really likes you and finds you incredibly thoughtful & talented & stand up comedy worthy. Yeah, mom's are like that. One minute you've caused them complete and total public humiliation. The next minute, you can do no wrong....... I think remembering Mother's Day is the least I can do. I wish I could prepare a nice meal to go along with this, but let's be honest, her cooking skills didn't rub off on me.

Birthdays, Royal Weddings & Fabric, Oh My!

2011-04-27T11:54:00.001-07:00

My thoughts are very random right now and probably only make sense to me, but I'm bursting with happiness. I don't know what makes me happiest, my mom's birthday today? (Happy Birthday Mom!) Or that the Royal Wedding is in two days?!!!! Or, that I finally chose a drapery fabric (online, without seeing it in person) and it arrived and I love it! So where do I begin? Let's start with my mom having a birthday today and I'm 3000 miles away. Boo. But my lil sis drove 12 hours with a 5 month old & 2yr old by herself, ALONE! to be there to celebrate. Amazing? Yes! Crazy? Oh yeah! Happy birthday mom! I'm super duper jealous I'm not there this year! And bummed I don't get the "World's Best Daughter" title because I didn't do something crazy like drive 12 hours while nursing a baby, or something insane like that. I tried to make up for it with a present from my favorite site. Etsy.com Wanna see what I got her? (Close your eyes mom, if it hasn't arrived yet!)

I hope it's as pretty in Real Life! It's a turquoise platter and I'm hoping it will look great in her newly decorated Living Room or even the adjoining Dining Room. My mom hosts the best parties and I'm pretty sure this will compliment her great taste. Cross fingers! Here is the seller I bought it from.

I'm so giddy about the Royal Wedding. I totally Tivo'd the Lifetime movie they had. Kind of bad acting/writing but you know I still loved it. I'm now planning a Royal Brunch to watch with my friends. I wonder if I could still squeeze into an old Prom Dress and pretend I'm a bridesmaid? Hmm, um maybe if I wore a sweater over the dress no one could tell it's about 5inches away from ever seeing the other side of the zipper? (shivvering at the thought) Is your hubby thrilled about it as you are? If he is- you should be worried. If he isn't and will possibly mock you for being so excited, get some girlfriends together and set the Tivo/DVR. It's gonna be good!

I'm going to be a nice wife and not force my husband to watch it, like I have the Bachelor Finale. I think I need to learn to make crumpets. Is shortbread British? Cuz I know how to pound down shortbread. Mmmmm.

My fabric arrived, my fabric arrived, my fabric arrived! I'm so happy, I'm Paul Rivere-ing it! I know I talked about designing my own. I was getting pretty antsy and the fabric I kept looking for was out of stock for another 8 weeks! I really want my drapes done, like yesterday, and waiting another week seemed unbearable, let alone 8! I was constantly watching fabric.com for my chipper yellow fabric and one day I found it, IN STOCK, ON SALE, FREE SHIPPING. Say what? I just knew I'd buy it and they'd send me an email apologizing 3 weeks later and tell me it was out of stock. But they didn't! It's here! And it's everything I dreamed it would be, except maybe for being sewn together and hung on my walls, that would be like winning the lottery. The whole cost for 10 yards, with shipping is only $59 buckaroos! Crazy right? Someone pinch me! Since I couldn't see it in real life I found a photo of a pillow on etsy.com and I could invision it on my walls a little easier. Here is the coveted fabric....
You can find the maker of this loverly pillow here. So drapes for my living room will be my next project. Or is it wall paper removal in the office? Or is it painting the kitchen walls grey? Or is it painting my daughters bedroom? Or is it the artwork I've been dreaming of for 4 months? I don't know, I'm kind of in the middle of it all. And I'm pretty sure I can justify hiring a painter since my birthday is right around the corner. You know you're an adult when you want to hire a painter as a birthday gift!

Fabric Heaven or Fabric Hell.O?

2011-04-19T12:47:00.000-07:00

Have you looked for fabric lately? It's been ridiculous to find anything cool or hip these days at my local fabric store. I'm dreaming of funky fabrics for draperies & pillows but the options are pathetic. When I have a vision in my mind I want to jump on it and re-create it. Then I go shopping for the object, such as wallpaper or fabric and I hit a wall. I'm back circa 10 years ago and sifting through the same fabrics I used for my bedroom comforter that I made (& changed since then) 9 years ago. It's ridiculous that the same fabric is being sold at the same store! Then I came across this site Spoonflower a few weeks ago and have been giddy ever since. I would love to be a fabric designer and guess what? I can! Not that I'm going to, but it's still nice to have that option. When one of my favorite blogs (click here) just blogged about fabric they designed, I thought, Ok! It is possible. Anything's possible. My childrens artwork can become fabric for their bedding or blankets. My favorite quote can be made into napkins. Eyeing some canvas purses at Fossil for a hefty price? I can make my own! The possibilities are endless and now I'm dreaming again of something completely unique. But I also love that you can purchase other's designs you can choose the different weight of the material as well. No more boring fabric! Hell-O original, fresh, completely Off da Hook fabrics! Now I gotta get some sewing skills to go along with my new found passion for fabric & watch out window treatments!

I'm on a yellow kick lately. Thinking of these fabrics for lovely drapes....

This fabric could be my inspiration for my son's big boy bedroom. I love these colors...

Imagine this- your cute little baby on a yard of this fabric with the date circled for her ONE YEAR birthday. Then make it into a pillow keepsake, I love it! I'd buy this fabric and circle the date I won Publishers Clearing House. Oh, you didn't know? I'm totally going to win this year!

Spring banner, be still my heart.

Drapes for the office. I love classic black & white.

My next hobo purse is totally gonna be this fabric. Something about a fun purse makes me feel hip, 15 lbs lighter & 30% cuter. Am I right?

Go to this site. Get hooked. Make something fabulous & let me drool over it. I really wish this site sold sewing motivation. Sewing is my kryptonite.....

Only slightly creepy

2011-04-13T08:48:00.000-07:00

So, have I mentioned it's cold in Idaho? Um, yeah. Yesterday was 52 degrees with only 8 mph winds. Heaven! You've never seen me happier than I was walking my dog and the boys yesterday. Being cooped up in the house all winter has forced us to be a bit creative and has me thinking of ridiculous party ideas. Hubby's birthday is next month, and in order to follow with my awesome party theme (that I'm not going to tell you until I post about the whole party) I made this piñata. It's supposed to be the hubby, BTW, not a lumberjack with shorts. I think his friends will have an awesome time beating him up:) I'll be happy to be behind the video camera laughing hysterically.

As you can imagine, this was a labor of love. I used a couple diaper boxes to construct the body and the head and I duct taped it all together pretty well. I did remember to put a bent metal hanger in there (with plenty of duct tape) so I could hang it up in back. The arms and legs are rolled up newspapers. The shoes are small blown-up balloons and the hands are rubber gloves filled with shredded newspaper. Then I paper mache-d the entire thing ala 4th grade with your regular flour/water/newspaper method. I love it. It dries like a rock. Then I just mixed up some paint to resemble skin color and used tissue paper for the beard, shirt, and shorts. FYI, hubby wouldn't be caught dead in jean shorts, but I think his corpse looks good in them. I did have to include his favorite shirt that I made for him here, so people knew it was him.

Anyway, I'm pretty happy with how he turned out, and more importantly, hubsters thinks it's hilarious. Whew, glad it's done. Time to move on to the next party planning project...

TO BE CONTINUED....

Look Ma! I'm finished!!!

2011-04-03T11:24:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally got a little nesting finished, good thing the baby's only FOUR months old now! Ha. My mom came to visit me way, way back in September and I came up with this brilliant idea to make a random quilt for Zeke's big boy bed. Turns out "random" also translates into "ridiculously difficult to accomplish." I'm used to making quilts with patterns to follow, but we just made this up as we went. Thank goodness mom was there to tell me what to sew together otherwise this would still be sitting in the bottom of my to-do box. But we did finish the top back in September and then I got it all ready to hand quilt and my motivation suddenly stopped- for about 6 months while it sat in the corner. Back before I had kids I used to sit and hand quilt all the time while I watched tv. Now when I sit in front of the tv, I'm either nursing, folding laundry, or dusting furniture. Life has changed for me a bit. So I gave up the idea of hand quilting this puppy and sent it off to be machine quilted. I used to be a bit of a machine quilt snob and looked down on anyone who didn't hand quilt. But let me tell you, I initially had some conditional love for this quilt...the condition was that it needed to look good when it was all finished because I was nervous of how random it looked when it was first pieced. But I was ECSTATIC when I saw it all machine quilted. This lady put a whole lot of work into this thing and it shows. I absolutely love it. Granted, it is the most expensive quilt I've made when you add in the price of machine quilting, but I really think it's a quilt Zeke will love for a long, long time. I mean, seriously, who doesn't love something with their name on it? A couple pics on the bed. I totally love the striped fabric on the back- good find mom! Just so we're clear here, this, is an alien. It is NOT a frog. Thank you. I just love the "smoke" that she quilted into my spaceship and the "USA" definitely makes it look less like a fish.:) Seriously, I think I'm in love. Either that or I'm confusing love with the feeling of accomplishment that I finally got this project DONE! Now I need to work on a sham to match. Hopefully that won't take 6 more months...

Linking up here:

decisions decisions

2011-03-30T11:51:00.000-07:00

So I saw this amazing dining room makeover on this blog here and I haven't stopped dreaming about it. The hot pink pillows have me drooling! I love how unexpected and completely unique the whole room is! I have a home office right off my entry way that either needs a complete makeover or I need to turn myself into the show Hoarders. It's awful, embarrassing, keep the lights off and door closed at all times BAD! I too have the chair rail and crown molding. I currently have a declaration of independence wall paper thing going on. (Previous owners choice not mine) When I saw this amazing wall that looked like a piece of art rather than wall paper, it made my heart skip a beat. But have you ever tried to search for wall paper online? I have, and it takes me back to 1988 with fruit basket borders and plastic grapes. Eww. Then I came across the mother of all sights for wall papering funkyness called Design Public. Another site I've liked is from Design your Wall found here. I was left feeling hopeful that wall paper has changed and I no longer need to hold back my natural GAG reflex when viewing. So here are my choices and I need some help. I can't decide which color scheme to go for. The whole house is a very neutral gray. The room directly across from my office is the dining room with it's orange ceiling that I'm in love with. Even after 1.5 years, who knew I could keep a room color that long? And the adjoining family room is grey, charcoal, cream and adding some funky yellow drapes soon. So do I need it to go with my whole house colors since I have glass french doors into this office or can I go bold and not care? I also have black painted desks that I really don't want to repaint, so my color choices have to work with black accents. Keep in mind, I'm only wall papering one wall and from the chair railing up, like the above dining room I'm packing my bags to move into as we speak! This black, white & yellow color scheme seem like they would flow into the rest of the house easily enough. I'm tending to want to go this route, but am worried it's too safe.

Some part of me wants people to walk in my front door and just laugh, because that's what I'd do if I saw a hot pink room off the entry. This is definitely NOT safe and I'm quite sure it would make me smile everytime I "work".

This is my very safe, very neutral choice. But you know me, I'm neither of those things. Something about the calm of this room makes me like it. My current office is definitely NOT calm!

I think I like the idea of a black wall. If I ever opened the blinds in this cavernous office, I'm pretty sure I'd have a lot of light coming through so I wouldn't be too claustrophobic. And let me just add, I've NEVER opened the blinds in this room, it's been bad for that long!

Here's another hot pink and silver. I just love this color scheme. It's subtle right? :)

I have other rooms in my home that have turquoise in them so this wouldn't steer too far from home. Hmm....

So my color scheme choices are 1. black & yellow 2. hotpink & black 3. black & white & grey or 4. black & turquoise. Help me pretty please with chocolate on top!

Easiest magnet board ever....

2011-03-28T11:34:00.000-07:00

You know how some bloggers out there totally make it sound like refinishing an armoire was a 3 hour project? Or reupholstering a chair could be done during the baby's nap time? Of course while doing these massive projects, somehow they (other bloggers) appear to have perfectly dressed children, immaculate homes and gourmet meals on the table every night. So you think to yourself, "heck, I could paint may kitchen cabinets." But when you try to accomplish it yourself you run into massive problems. So then you spend 5 days (more like 2 weeks in my case) trying to fix all the things that went wrong, spend more money buying more products to repair the damage that you may or may not have caused in your little "freak out tantrum" (that you may or may not have had). And when it's all said and done, you have finished a very large plate of brownies by yourself (I would never do such a thing) just to make yourself feel a little better, for a project that you, in the end, wish you had never started and don't really care for the finished product either! Just so you know, I'm not that nice of a blogger. I can't really sugar coat all the problems I have when starting a huge DIY project, I just sugar coat myself in chocolate as a reward afterward! So when I say this was the EASIEST PROJECT EVER, I mean it. Here are the supplies I started with: Mod podge & foam brush, heavier scrapbook paper & metal sign. (mine was from Hobby Lobby found in the garden section) First cut the paper to the size of the metal sign. Next, place a thin layer of mod podge on the metal and a small coat as well on the paper. Lay the paper down and smooth out the wrinkles. Make sure the edges have been glued down securely. Let it dry completely. Add a layer of mod podge to the top after it's dry for extra protection. I made easy magnets from stickers from K&Co and small magnets I already had. The stickers are self adhesive so no additional glue is necessary, but I added a little bit of hot glue just for added durability. Add ribbon (or pom poms in my case) if you want to embellish your sign and hang it! I hung this on the outside of my daughter's room so I could place personal messages to her. She loves it!

This would also be a really inexpensive birthday gift for a child's party. The metal sign was only $2.99 at Hobby Lobby so the whole project under $5. Match their room colors, add a photo or a birthday card and you just won yourself Cutest Gift award!

M's room reveal!

2011-03-24T11:00:00.000-07:00

Finally! I finished M's bedroom. You might remember that this bedroom redo was a Christmas gift. Pathetic to take so long, I know. When it comes to decorating I'm a "big picture" kinda girl and get lost in the details. So Christmas morning came, the furniture was in, the bedding & drapes were all there, the room was painted. And then, nothing. Blank walls, no accessories. Accessories are what finish the room & I'm at a loss when it comes to deciding what to use and where. I want everything to have meaning, especially in my decor or it just feels like clutter to me. I like bold "punches in you the face" wall art, I like people to go "what the heck, where'd you find that?". I'd like to be a decor rebel because its the only place in my life where I have rebelled. So I end up getting stuck in every room I do and then gradually add the "clutter" that glams up the rooms. With that said, the room is finally finished and little M couldn't be happier. (holding my breath that she doesn't change her mind on colors in 6 months like I would) Get ready for a super long post. The BEFORE shot.....

And the AFTER shots.... The sparkly white chair she asked Santa for. Santa couldn't find sparkly but furry works right? Clipboards with modge podged scrap book paper to hold her notes, pictures, jewelry and clips. This girl knows accessories, I think I need a lesson..... A 30x40 canvas I painted the same color as the pink wall. Then handpainted lighter pink polka dots. I had my sister Renee print me my favorite quote in white vinyl. Just so you know, vinyl lettering and canvas don't play nice with each other. Applying the letters wasn't the funnest, but I love it now! I cut out birds from scrapbook paper and applied to the wall with glue dots. The girls even helped cut out the birds. The wall just makes me happy, the picture however, does not do it justice. Have you ever tried to take pictures with a glaring hot pink wall? And to top it off, the window has turquoise curtains that really change lighting!

Here's a closer shot of the modge-podged clipboards. They come in handy for all her artwork and notes too! The dresser my husband painfully painted and repainted and then I distressed it with minwax gel stain. I love the glass knobs from Hobby Lobby. Here's the before- And here's a close up After shot:

Here's a close up of the polka dots. Originally I thought about painting them. Then, realized how skee wompus (sp?) they'd be. I also thought about vinyl, but realized that could be pricey. Next solution, and easiest!, was with cardstock. I found a thick, shiny white cardstock and cut them into 12" circles. Next I used 3M spray adhesive to apply. So easy and inexpensive. Total cost for the wall was $13.

This blog here gave me the idea for the poofy mobile, but I couldn't find her actual post, dangit, her blog is really good though. I made tissue pom poms and bought paper lanterns. The bedding was all purchased from Target. The side table and furry chair were from Pottery Barn. Break down of the room, don't really want to add it up, but I'm always wishing other bloggers would so here goes:

Bedding from Target- $90, new bed from a boutique only $200. Paint including oil based for dresser $140. (ouch that seemed high, but I double checked) We paid painters to paint the room since it was right before Christmas for $120. Cardstock for polka dots and clipboards, $14. 3M glue, $4. Clipboards, $6, I had 3 already. Table from PB teen, $40. Furry chair, on sale $80. Grand total is $694. But we could've saved $120 if we painted ourselves. $120 seems very reasonable after painting that dang dresser though! So there you have it. A complete makeover. I think it's the first room (besides bathrooms) in my house that feel done. Wow, I don't know what to think of that!

I've been featured on this great site!

Linking up to these great sites:

All things bright & beautiful

Silhouette- the easiest project ever!

2011-03-23T07:09:00.000-07:00

I've been in silhouette envy for awhile now. I thought that only crafters with expensive machines could have silhouettes of their children. I was wrong. Making your own is super easy and quick. This project took me 20 minutes total. All I needed was some cute paper, scissors, and a photo of my daughter printed on regular paper in black and white. I carefully cut out her profile and exaggerated her features like her eye lashes and lips and hair. The more details you include, the more life like it becomes. After that I traced it onto my yellow cardstock and cut it out. I used raised glue dots to lift it off the paper, but wished I used even taller glue dots to make it more dramatic!

I chose to mount mine on a canvas that I already had. Modge podge it on or use a super sticky tacky tape. Either way, it's still only 20 minutes to complete! I cut strips of paper to cover the edges to make it look more finished.

I think this looks better in real life because the paper has a velvet texture to it. I'm thinking maybe I need two more of these on my mantel. Maybe with coordinating paper..... what do you think?

I linked to this party:

Watch out- Mandy's in the kitchen!

2011-03-22T09:45:00.000-07:00

Just call me "Mandy- great at copying everyone's ideas." Seriously, I lack in the originality department, but every once in a while I do excel in the follow-through. Like today, got my menu board done. Found the idea on this awesome blog and HAD to do it for my house. I usually try to do just one big shopping trip every two weeks and then we get bountiful baskets every week too. I've been trying to cook more lately and having a plan BEFORE I go grocery shopping helps me organize what I need and I'm not wasting much food since I really try to stick to my plan.(Hello run-on sentence) So I pulled out the old vinyl cutter last night and got to work.

And I wrote down all of our favorite meals and typed them up, I think this should also help when I'm trying to decide what goes on the menu since I sometimes seem to forget what we actually EAT for dinner. Double bonus: I actually had the contact paper to laminate the cards AND I also had the magnets! So yay to me for not having to run to the store to make this!

And speaking of cooking, have you gone out and bought this cookbook yet?! Oh my. Rock my world. I am actually making some pretty tasty meals lately thanks to these two wonderful ladies. Go check out their awesome blog, someone should give them a medal or something for making me actually ENJOY cooking!

Linking up here:

It's almost here...

2011-03-19T16:35:00.000-07:00

Well, I still have snow in my yard, but it's almost gone and I looked at the calendar and guess what tomorrow is?! SPRING!!! Hooray! Although that means almost nothing here in Arctic Idaho (other than crazy, crazy wind), but it did mean that after 4 months of ignoring my backyard, I got to experience the sheer awesomeness of having an outside dog. Ugh. Wish someone would've told me how much it stinks (literally) to have a BIG dog making a mess of your yard when I was emotional and didn't-know-I-was-pregnant-yet and felt bad for the dog to have to go to the pound. Sigh. 'Tis the life of a compassionate person, I suppose. (That was my sarcastic voice) Moving on.
Had to make myself a little Spring table runner. Totally perks up the kitchen for me. But then I moved it to the top of the piano, because this 2 year old HATES tablerunners. Always throws them off the table before he eats.

And I made a little Spring sign with some 2x4 pieces that were laying around and paper and mod podge and vinyl. Yes. I do realize the Spring in white is super hard to read. No. I do not plan on changing it because I'm l-azy!(That was my singing voice) Alrighty, let's see if I can get some more crafts pounded out here soon, huh? Chao.
I linked to this great party:

My rainbow cupcakes

2011-03-16T20:50:00.000-07:00

I know, I know. But better late than never, right? So run out right now and get the stuff to make these cupcakes to take to your neighbors! First of all, just skip the whole layered rainbow cupcake thing and just do rainbow chip cupcakes, k? Man, it was one of those projects that you start and then totally regret, but you have to finish because you're stuck in the middle of it. But I'm sure all my Visiting Teaching ladies thought it was worth the effort- haha. I saw these on Sisterstuff and just thought they were too cute to not try. Happy St. Patty's Day everyone!

Not your Grandma's living room......

2011-03-11T11:47:00.000-08:00

Have any of you gone back home and looked around your old home and everything looks the same. It's like you never left...... sigh. The memories rush back. Well, not so much for parents and the home I grew up in. Every time I come home, they've redone something in EVERY room! And even though I'm incredibly sentimental, for some reason it's never bothered me that home never looks the same for long. Instead, it feels more like Christmas every time I come home. Each room I enter is better than the last and it's exciting that my parents are pretty cool and hip! My dad and I love to look at architectural magazines, he dreams of building an incredible home, while I dream of winning one in the many drawings I enter, much to my shock that I STILL have NOT won! The planning of decorating a room is almost as fun as the result for my dad and me. Meanwhile, my mom is a "get her done" kind of girl. And that helps us slow moving, day dreaming types. Here you can see that there was nothing wrong with the room before hand, other than the couches have been around for........ well longer than I can remember and they've been re-upholstered. Although we all love red, it's best in smaller punches I think.

Yellow and red are classic color combinations. They also had a formal wool/tassle rug and recently switched to this rug. Much more neutral. After drooling over the new Restoration Hardware magazine, my parents got the itch to change things up a bit. And start with a more neutral background. First they ordered couches. They really wanted leather for easy maintenance but white/cream leather can look extremely cheap if not done right. Simple tufting and tight small arms make this modern and chic. Leather is a MUST for the "book reading with a box of Sees chocolates" type of girl (not that I'm judging, I learned from the best) but it's also great for grandkids and the kitty too. Don't get me started on the kitty peeps. I hand the phone to my kids to talk to Grammy and she hands the phone to the cat. Seriously. She thinks she taught the cat to say Ma. I'm pretty sure the cat is old and too lazy to say meow and it comes out MA. But she adamantly believes her kitty is as brilliant as my two year old. And she may be right. After all, that cat has her wrapped around her paw. Or should I say MA! But, I digress. Let's get on to this awesome reveal.....

The new sofa tables. One behind each sofa. Made by my padre! Definitely balance the room. It is in fact a HUGE room. It has hosted many after dinner gatherings & 5 wedding receptions!

The 4 pictures hung on that wall are 4 architectural pictures from really old books. I love interesting decor, especially when there is a story behind it. Sentimental me kicking in.....

They debated about the colors in this room. Should we do a little red? Should we do yellow since it would flow into other rooms. But in the end they went with the most expensive peices like the furniture being very neutral and just pumped up the energy with turquoise & lime green accessories. I absolutely love it and am completely impressed! Now when can I hire you to redecorate my house?

Texas Independence Day

2011-03-08T10:17:00.000-08:00

So we moved to this Country called Texas around 5 years ago. I know, I said Country. But if you're a Texan you BELIEVE that the U.S. couldn't live without Texas, but Texas COULD live withOUT the U.S.! If you don't believe me, just check out any bumper sticker on any Ford-150 pickup. It would be squeezed in between a sticker that says "I wasn't born in Texas, but I got here as fast as I could" and "I'm from Texas, what Country are you from?" Vain I know. Funny, yes. Narcicist, absolutely! My sis moved here over ten years ago and has been a Proud Texan ever since! Every March she throws a Texas Independence Day party and this year she went all out. It was the kind of party that tops all other parties and makes you re-think hosting your potlucks with paper plates and styrofoam cups. Here are some of the fabulous details......

This quote pretty much sums up how Texans feel.....

It ain't a Texan party without Texas sheet cake. And of course they had to be in the shape of the almighty Texas! Do other states have cookie cutters in their state shape? Hmmmm..... And yes, it tasted just as good as it looked!

The sign that greeted the guests.... It's suprising how many carry here......

Drinks that originated in Texas were served such as Dr. Pepper and IBC Rootbeer (I got carded buying the rootbeer! It's exciting for us non-drinkers!) In order to keep your drink separated from your neighbor's and to avoid sharing germs (I'm a proud germ-a-phobe!) Renee came up with these cute tags that she antiqued and wrote names of cities in Texas. There are some crazy towns in Texas like, Cut & Shoot, Miami, Beverly Hills, and Canadian. Really? Canadian? It's true, look it up!

Renee also made a banner with cute fabric remnants. The napkins were also various colors of handkerchiefs. Seriously cute!

Just to make it authentic, peanuts were served.

And every guest walked away with a GIANT mug, which Renee etched with a Texas star and est. 1886. My mug is sitting in my freezer right now, waiting for me to fill it with a rootbeer float! (It's my treat for doing this really long blog post) If you know me, I give myself treats alot for doing practically nothing. And then wonder why my jeans keep shrinking......

She also made this cute front door wreath. With burlap ribbon and rusted tin stars.

The party was a huge success. With everyone wearing their best "Texan Flair". My favorite outfits included a very cute pregnant girl looking like a Cow & another guest with a MUM sash. Now if you don't know what a MUM sash is, I could explain it to you, but it will NEVER make sense. Let me just tell you it has something to do with High School homecoming, girls parading the sashes and craft stores make HUGE profits! We had a game of Texas facts which we all pretty much failed, even the true Texans! And we ate, and ate, and then ate some more. I definitely won't ever complain about the awesomeness of Texan BBQ! Happy Indy-Pendence Day Ya'll! I think it would be great if ya'll threw yourselves one of these parties. Because, it obviously doesn't matter where you're from as long as you get yourselves to Texas before ya die!

Scripture Cover

2011-03-07T13:13:00.000-08:00

I found this tutorial on delia creates. I totally have needed a cover for my scriptures and this one was simple, and I think, totally cute. Plus, I'm not exactly a zipper queen, so the elastic and button closure were meant for me. Feeling my post-partum crafty mojo coming back, well, I keep going to the store to buy crafts for projects, so hopefully some cute stuff coming up soon! Maybe I need my parents to come visit and "help" me get some projects done! Hint, hint.

Craft Envy

2011-03-01T06:10:00.001-08:00

I'm dreaming right now. A million projects are floating in my brain. Where to begin? I've got extreme craft envy. I want to know how to create amazing things. My mind just isn't big enough to grasp these technological instructions that are holding me back from creating the masterpieces in my head. My crafty goals/dreams this year are to learn:

1. How to make amazing videos like this one below.

The Nielsons from Blue Lily Photo on Vimeo.

I finally figured out how to use the video mode on the Canon 7 D and it only took 2 classes and about 13 months to figure it out. Yeah, that's how difficult it is to wrap my mind around technology. Now I just have to figure out the editing software program. YIKES!

2. Creating amazing posters and stationary like this below. How great would this be for your kid's parties!

Found here on etsy.com

And I've already downloaded and printed this poster here at Renovating a Brooklyn Limestone for free. These posters sell on etsy.com between $18-23 a pop. And she giving it away! Seriously, I must know how to do this! This looks great printed on linen- like cardstock!

3. I totally need to figure out how to take and edit photos like these pretty babies. Found here on etsy.com I already purchased this set and have something in mind for them. And won't it go great with the quote above and the ferris wheel?

I want to take this carnival set and modge podge them to wood that's been cut to the same size. Like this picture below. Sigh, I'm in love with it.
So this is what I spend my time day dreaming of, instead of cleaning toilets and doing laundry and making amazing dinners. I dream of crafting. It makes fishing match box cars and whole rolls of toilet paper out of the toilet a little less painful when I dream of being a crafty genius! Someday....

A Little Switcheroo

2011-02-19T19:26:00.000-08:00

Remember this?

Well, I thought and thought of a cute St. Patty's quote and I got- nothing. So being the lazy self that I am (and trying to put Andrea's new-found practice of lowering standards to work) I just changed one word:

Oh yeah. That was easy. And hopefully I'll be able to resist those skittles:) Because, you know, they are the official candy of St. Patrick's Day. Being rainbow colored and all. I'm out.

Simplify- aka lower standards

2011-02-16T05:53:00.000-08:00

(quote & adorable poster found here on etsy)

I've been thinking alot lately about happiness. It doesn't just come naturally for me to be positive all the time or stress free. I'm naturally dramatic. I naturally think dooms day is tomorrow. Happiness is something I work at. Constantly! But because I'm proactive about being happy it's made me a happier person. Maybe one day I won't have to work on it. Maybe one day it will be natural for me to remain blissful at all times. But until then, I've come up with my own personal recipe for happiness. Simplify. It sounds so much prettier to say that word than the real truth, which is: lower standards. For some reason women think that they should look like they're on the cover of Cosmo at all times. Our homes should be immaculate and flawlessly decorated. Our dinners should be 4 course meals served with starched linen napkins. Our children of course, should excel at everything. They will be perfectly behaved and dressed like J Crew ads. This is however, not my reality. So I used to lay in self pity, wondering why I bother trying at all. It seemed like everyone else was perfect and I was a big fat failure. Reading blogs can fill you with crazy notions of dreamy mothers with amazing sewing, cooking and cleaning skills. And then, like zombies we have to go back to our lack luster lives where we feel like failures. I say NO MORE!

Here is my recipe for happiness:
Lower standards- No more comparing. No more criticizing. No more over the top-ness! Just be happy in the simplicity of accomplishing the little things.

Ask for help- I used to think I had to do it all myself. That asking for help is a sign as weakness. Now I realize my limits and ask for help BEFORE I have a tantrum. Dry cleaners? Absolutely the best friend a girl can have. Babysitters? Umm, yes thank you. If you can't afford one, do a babysitting co-op or switch with another couple. Landscapers? Why yes thank you! No more husbands MIA or embarrassment that the yard looks awful. House keeper? I struggle with this one a bit, but I keep telling myself they are cheaper than therapy! Especially if it's only occassionally. But I hold no judgement if you're lucky enough to have one weekly.

Simplify- Declutter your life of excess clothes, toys, products, whatever. Just get rid of it. And do it often. I have a serious need to do this! It's so much easier to pick up after the kids, if they have less stuff to pick up! I'm also taking things OFF my "to do" list that are unnecessary, like folding kids underwear. Vacuuming & mopping daily. (if you had my crazy hardwood floors you'd understand) Simplified dinners are now on my list, such as soups, tacos, baked pototo bar, etc.

My new daily list of things I have to get done are simple. They are:
1. Make everyone's beds. The room looks so much cleaner if you simply make your bed. It makes me happy to look at cute throw pillows. I would love if my children made their own beds before school but that would be asking for a miracle with my girls.
2. Read to my kids. Even if for 5 minutes. They'll remember it when they get older. I love having a scripture story/devotional ready in my mind while I drive them to school. Carpool is such a good time to fill them with spiritual thoughts since they are captive! My kids are still young and they love it. I'm eating it up while I can!
3. Hug each child (and my husband!) and tell them I love them. That sounds easy but I've realized as they get older that it's more of a challenge. Feeling loved is the only way any of us will be truly happy.
4. Make dinner. No 4 course meals here, but simply sitting down for 15 minutes together eating the same food, makes for some interesting conversations. It truly is an accomplishment to be proud of when you have a busy family.
5. Go to bed with a clean kitchen and family room. Mornings are awful enough without having to deal with dried on crusty dishes from the night before.

That's it. That's my new list of what will make me happy. If I do nothing else in a day but those 5 things I can go to bed knowing that I made my family and myself happy. If by chance I sew some amazing drapes and matching pillows, then run 6 miles to keep up my amazing figure :) afterwards I come home to bake fresh bread in the oven while finishing amazing scrapbooks for my children. Well, that will just be the icing cake. But until then, I'll stick with my lower standards and call it a good day. I will be happy in the simplicity of my chaotic, unorganized, crazy life. I will be happy with mediocrity. I will be happy because I don't have it all. But I do have all I want- The love of 3 crazy kids & 1 adorable man.

Valentines

2011-02-13T15:47:00.000-08:00

So if I was more organized, I would've posted this a week ago. But that would make me an over achiever, and no one likes a show off right? I'm much better at procrastinating. In fact, I would say that it is a talent of mine to throw things together last minute and pretend like it was no big deal. This Valentines day was no exception. Some Mother's have turned basic shoe boxes into elaborate Barbie or Car themed Valentine holders for their kid's school parties. My kids got to add their name & stickers to gift boxes and call it a day. I did however, run across a cute valentine download that I had to share. It's on one of my favorite blogs. eighteen25. They were really easy to download and with a little help from photoshop, I was able to add my 3 kids pictures to them and upload them to Costco in under 30 minutes. Here is how they turned out.

I was able to fit 2 on a 4x6 picture and then cut them in half. Next, I taped them to sweetheart candy boxes. (That's the only candy left 2 days before Valentines- on a positive note, I will not be tempted to eat any left overs!) Maybe next year I'll be one of those super over achieving mom's and won't save ALL the details til the night before. But then again, whose kidding? A talent at procrastinating should not go to waste! Next on my v-day list: Fondu night. It's our favorite valentine tradition. Crossing my fingers there's some strawberries still left on the shelves!

Mint Oreo Truffle aka How to get a fat face

2011-02-07T09:36:00.000-08:00

So, it was a big day at our house yesterday. We blessed Max at church and had brunch for family and friends after. Then we ended the day with a big Superbowl party. Also at our house. With cold and flu season in full force, let's just say my new motto is, "I can't kill every germ, but at least I can try!" Lots of cleaning going on with that many people at the house. But we had a great time and it was fun to catch up with everyone. So to make it to the blessing, everyone had to be to our church at 8:30 AM! Super early. And most people live at least 1/2 an hour away. So I wanted to show them all how thankful I was that they came. So I started with a box.

Tied it with a string and inside I tucked some of these bad boys in there.

Mmmm.

No, seriously, mmmm. I've made 5 oreo boxes worth of these amazing creations in the past few weeks. And let me tell you, I'M PAYING FOR IT!!! My sister in law snapped some pics of us and I quickly realized I've got a bad case of FAT FACE! Believe you me- this is the most facially slimming picture of the bunch!

Aren't my three boys so cute though. Zeke was running around like a madman with all his cousins here, so he wasn't really into pictures. Oh well.

So I suppose you are ready to get a fat face yourself? I made these football shaped oreo truffles ala Bakerella last year for the Superbowl and love them so much more with mint oreos. Just crumble up a 1 lb. box of mint oreos (I used the food processor) until they're superfine. Then mix in 8 oz. of softened cream cheese and mix really, really well. Then make a bunch of little balls. Mine are about 2 teaspoons for each ball. Then freeze them. To dip them in white chocolate, melt half almond bark and half white chocolate chips. I've tried the dipping a couple different ways and found that using a toothpick to dip works pretty well. You'll have a little hole when you take the toothpick out, but just cover the hole with a little more white chocolate. And add some pink heart sprinkles cause they just look cuter that way. And people, seriously, learn from my mistake and try to have some self control. ;/I'd better start putting that biggest loser video game I got for Christmas to good use, eh?

P.S. FYI: They taste much better if you keep them in the fridge or freezer before eating. They're a little too soft if left room temperature.

We May Not Survive Another Snow Day!

2011-02-04T13:16:00.000-08:00

WOW, what a week! No doubt you’ve heard about the horrible mess that has spread across most of the U.S. One of the reasons we moved to Texas was to escape the cold ice and snow that we grew up with in the Pacific Northwest. Apparently even Dallas isn’t exempt from Mother Nature.

The ice storm hit Monday night and we eagerly anticipated the first “Snow Day” of the school year and that was pretty fun. By Wednesday we were beginning to experience rolling power outages and with four kids out of school and David working from home, the novelty was definitely beginning to wear off. Cabin fever has set in and both little boys have bruises to prove they are utterly and completely done with each other and sharing one small room.

Still, the ½ of ice was not budging with the temperatures in the teens and another snow day was announced for Thursday. Not only was my patience completely gone, now the pipes have frozen in the seldom used bathroom off the game room. It was definitely time for a craft project and one that in theory could make me feel a little warmer.

A couple of years ago I picked up a few 100% wool sweaters at Goodwill for $3 each. After felting the sweaters by washing them in hot hot hot boiling water and soap and then drying them a couple of times and steaming them with a hot iron the sweaters were nicely felted. The arms were then cut off and sewn at the end to make sparkling cider covers and the tops were tied with ribbon.

I purchased a new laptop this semester for school and decided it was time to put the felted wool pieced to good use. I just measured my computer and added a ½” for the seam allowance. While I love the color gray, it was a bit boring so I cut some yellow circles out of another piece of felt and stitched them to the front. Next I ran a few stitches along the front and back to give the overall piece some detail. Finally, since I didn’t want a bulky feeling from the seam I didn’t turn this inside out I just sewed along the outside edge and added a flap with Velcro to keep it snug and secure.

At least something in my house is warm….it’s now Friday with yet ANOTHER snow day. This morning we woke up to 4 inches of snow covering all the ice and I’m beginning to think it will never end. I just went to clean up spilled hot chocolate and found this mess by the back door.

We may not survive another snow day!

Just let me sleep, people!!

2011-01-30T19:41:00.000-08:00

So, our Valentine's photo shoot didn't go too well. Apparently stuffing m&ms in a certain 2 year old's mouth every other shot didn't work too well. I think I'll be able to use a picture where he's crying, but it actually looks like he's laughing. Maybe I can edit out the tear coming out of his eye? Maybe??
Anyway, let me get on with my semi-boring post, but it has been such a lifesaver for me. First of all, let me make a confession: I LOVE NAPS! No seriously, since my first son was born, I have taken a nap almost every. single. day. No joke. It is awesome. So when baby #2 was born (2 months ago today!) I knew that giving up a nap would be a humungo sacrifice for me, and not a sacrifice I'm willing to make. It seems like about the same time Max came into the picture, Zeke decided that he'd rather play in his room for 2 hours than take a nap. Thank goodness the kid absolutely will not leave his room when I put him down, but call me crazy, I'd rather have a rested kid at the end of the naptime. Enter: black out curtains. In the new bedroom (that I'm still working on) I kept thinking I would create some great curtains that would look sleek and modern and that I could make myself, but that dream died when I hit Target. I got this set of curtains for $15. I just hemmed them myself so they'd just brush the bookshelf, then I sewed blackout fabric to the back of the curtain panels, and presto-chango, it makes the bedroom super-dark for naptime. BTW, you can find blackout fabric at most fabric stores, I got mine at Hancock. First naptime came and he fell asleep within half an hour. Which means that I can put the baby down for his nap and then quietly retreat to my bed for my sacred naptime. Ahhh. Know the feeling? No more hearing him get up on top of his bookshelf and yelling at the dog he can see outside- "Hon-eh, Hon-eh!" That's the dog's name. Honey. That's a whole other story...

Staircase to Heaven

2011-01-25T10:57:00.000-08:00

Seriously, I woke up this morning with Angels singing as I walked down my new staircase. Can you hear them? (High pitched perfect A note drawn for 10 seconds) Yes it is amazing that this staircase is done and so quickly. We made this staircase one of our New Years Resolutions and it came together fast. First we needed to stain the railing to match our wood floors that we installed. (This should've been done 3 years ago when we installed them, but we were so OVER home improvement projects by the end of that baby) It was alot of work to stain them but I was reading a magazine the whole time so I wouldn't know exactly how much time it took. I would guess the project was approximately 12 People Magazine's worthy. I was nice enough to read them at the bottom of the staircase and hand him some diet cokes now and then through the project though. I'm super thoughtful that way. He used a good cleaner first on the railing and lightly sanded the poly off. Then came the Minwax gel stain, color Mahogany. We used this on our Fireplace mantel as well so we knew we liked it and it would match the floors. This stuff is sticky for 3 days so avoid touching it! After it's completely dry, use a wipe-on poly by Minwax to make it kid-proof.

Witness the incredibly boring oak railing and bare wall. Why did it take us over 3 years to do this project? (Oh yeah, cuz I hadn't accumulated enough People magazines before then to read during this project.) Next came another project doozy. Doozy, that's just fun to type! My collage wall. I'm not a collag-y type of girl. I like the simplicity of linear artwork. I wasn't sure I was going to be able to pull this off. Over the last few months I've had a few friends/clients email me some of their collages that they put on their walls and staircases of family photoshoots that I took of them. I loved them! I was totally inspired to make one of my own after seeing collages at their best. I've also seen collages at their worst, circa 1985 and didn't want a wall of "frames gone bad" at my house. So I got some advice from a friend who had executed this project perfectly. I bought the frames FIRST! Then layed them out on my rug in a order that I thought I'd like and then sat down with a piece of paper and sketched out which photo I'd want in each frame and if it was a horizontal or vertical picture. Then I ordered the photos and canvas' and waited. And waited. And waited. And then, it was Christmas! I opened everything and put all the pictures in frames and laid them out again. Once I finally got it the way I wanted, I took a picture of it so I could remember which frame went where. Then the real work began. Did you know that only 2 of my 14 pictures came with hooks? Seriously, none of these pictures which are all meant to be hung had ANY hardware on them! Outrageous! So we headed to Home Depot and spent a whopping $30 on hanging picture stuff, cuz my hubby wanted to make sure that if our house blew to pieces in a tornado that all the frames would still be securely attached. There was math used in hanging these photos and honestly I would've just eyeballed it, but it's a good thing my husband is the perfectionist and the patient one. He is the epitome of patience. Not a single swear-word or grumbling while taking on this (every night for a week) stiarcase-project. So you've waited long enough, get ready to hear the Hallelujah Choir.......

The best part of the project was when I woke up this morning my husband told me how happy it made him to walk down the stairs and see the photos. I feel the same way about photos in general. I know they're not decorating diva-ish. I know that you're supposed to tone down the personal if you're ever to sell your home. But I don't care. Photos of my family or anyone's family make me happy. Especially when displayed in a BIG STATEMENT. Yes, I will never be an understated girl. Go BIG or go HOME. Or in my case...... do both!

Linked to:

Love is all you need

2011-01-23T19:54:00.000-08:00

Can I just tell you how I heart Valentine's day? No, seriously, I think a holiday dedicated to forcing people to show their love for eachother stinkin' rocks. Otherwise how else would we get through the torture called winter? Maybe I just feel that way because I live in one of THE coldest places in the continental united states. Just sayin'. One thing that I love almost as much as V-day is free crafts. Well, practically free. Ok, I guess it's just free for me since I have awesome parents. Mom and Dad brought me this old window with some vinyl saying on it for Christmas. Love it. (Apparently I love a lot of things) So I just scraped off the old vinyl and with my vinyl cutter (that mom also gave me- love her!) I cut this sign. Really it was just the first love quote that came off the top of my head. Didn't it turn out cute though? And also, I guess I really love those cinnamon hearts that were in the jar that I told my husband were for decoration only and then proceeded to consume 3 at a time everyday while he was at work this week. Oops. I love him too. Alrighty, now I'm making you sick with all my love... chao.
PS Happy big 4-0 to Annie's hubby today! Oh yeah, he definitely robbed the cradle:)

Linking up to this fabulous blog: