The Ugly Truth

 This has become our kitchen more often than not.  Why is it so impossible to keep the kitchen clean?  It gets to the point that it is so much that I don't even want to deal with it.  So I don't.  That's kind of the way the rest of our house has gotten as well.  It's too overwhelming so I do nothing.  The last couple of months of my pregnancy with cC, I somehow found an enormous amount of energy to get some major cleaning and organizing done in our house.  So maybe the answer to this problem is to have another baby already?

hahahahaaaahahaaahaha.


Today I needed to go to Target for diapers.  What I got was yet another dose of reality that jC would be starting kindergarten soon and that it depresses me immensely.  He saw the backpacks and lunch boxes and wanted to pick his out.  He was excited, I was holding back tears.

I know a lot of people think that all day kindergarten is better than anything, EVER.  I am not one of those people.  jC has school from 8:20 to 3:35.  (That's not including travel time if he takes the bus)  Am I really one of the few people in this world that feel like my 5 year old being away from home almost as long as my 35 year old husband during the day is not even close to normal??  The thought alone makes me want to puke.  Don't get me wrong, I think school will be great for him, and I look forward to slightly more peace for a portion of the day.  But 4 hours or so would be plenty!  School starts September 4, and in my personal opinion, that day is coming way too soon.

hahahahahahaaahahaa.
(Sorry, still laughing about the having another baby now comment.)

Poppin' up

We are still getting used to and organized in our new house. It's partly been fun. But since we still have a large box full of random things sitting in our bedroom, it's been quite the process that I can't seem to complete. I've felt overwhelmed by it all.

On the positive side, I love flowers and have loved seeing what random flowers pop up around our new house that the previous owners planted. The only thing is, there isn't really much rhyme or reason behind where these flowers have popped up. I wish I would have taken pictures as they have come, but haven't. However, the most recent flower motivated me to.

Right outside our back door is a MASSIVE rosemary bush. (Which is a little surprising in itself.) I noticed something growing in the midst of it, and was surprised yesterday when I saw it was a calla lily.

I thought this was quite entertaining. But perhaps I'm easily amused.

I'm in love.

When we moved into a house with a "formal living room" I knew that I needed just the perfect couch to go in it. For months I scoured Craig's list, trying to find the one. But, to no avail. Then when my sister was here, we went to one of my favorite antique spots, at which time I spotted the perfect couch. And lucky me, it was on sale. After sending a picture to juC to ask his permission, it was purchased. Then, as the cushions were getting loaded into my car, I saw that the antique dealer had left the "Salvation Army" sticker with the original price on it, for considerably less than what I paid. Oh well, I guess all that extra I paid was the finders fee...and I truly don't feel bad about the price I paid at all.

And now I have the perfect couch (for me) for our "formal living room". Or as I like to call it, our receiving room.

And I don't care what anyone thinks, I'm in love with it.

Hippity hop, Easter is on it's way!

I was a little more than excited to pull out my Easter decorations for the mantle this year. I think it might be because this time last year, we were getting our house ready to sell, so I didn't get to decorate because I didn't want to add that to the long list of things that needed to be done in house selling.

So it was TWO YEARS AGO (holy cow!) that I posted this idea for Easter decor. And I said that "Odds are high that I'll make a trip to JoAnn's to buy some super cute eggs on sale to use for next year."

And sure enough...I went to JoAnn's when everything was marked down 75% and got some cute eggs, and am finally getting to use them.

Although, I have to admit...I kind of liked it better with the cheap plastic eggs. They were much more colorful. Maybe I'll just have to go back to JoAnn's this year and see if they have some colorful ones for next year. But really, throwing eggs in a vase...doesn't get much easier than that.

Sadly, though, my favorite Easter decor idea hasn't been executed this year because I haven't made the effort to go out and find some little tree branches. Perhaps I will get around to it before Easter rolls around.

Question.

The living room is supposed to be the room that stays clean for when guests stop by, right?

Chomp! Chomp!

Oh, my little luC. I love her dearly. From the time she was born, she has put anything and everything in her mouth. Yes, I know, that's what babies do, but she took it to a whole new level. She was way worse than little jC ever was. She has gotten a little better. But really, only a little. But finding this on the blinds:

And then realizing that she bit them, not one, not two, but NINE times really did take it to a whole new level!!

KILLS ME!

DONE!....(ish)

I got my Wall o' Loooove up!!! (the one that I mentioned first here, then made this for, and this)

What is a Wall o' Loooove?! Well, it's a wall...dedicated to love. Because, you see, like my sister LoW, I LOVE love. I love romance. Or...woahmance, as I like to call it. ("Woah, this is romantic." Thus becoming "woahmantic".)

Those that know me know there was a time that I hated love. Mostly because I thought all guys were big fat jerks and that I'd never find it. But I did find love, and I did find woahmance and it's the best thing ever!

So you see, I had to devote a wall to love. Because love is great, and it deserves a wall.

The Wall o' Looooove

What's that? Oh, yes...there is an empty frame. (thus the DONE!...(ish) title)Because I still have one more quote I'm putting in the frame, but haven't been able to do it yet, but I was determined, DETERMINED I tell you, to get this up!

So, as you see, I got my wreath that I made, the framed quote that I made, my button hearts that I made, and the tree of love that I made.

Everything else? Antique stores, because that's how I roll!

I got these postcards a couple years ago antiquing with my sisters in my home town. Oh, how I love them. I love that they are now over 100 years old. And I still wish I knew what happened to the couples that sent them!

I thought this framed silhouette was so sweet. When I bought it, the woman asked if I collected silhouettes, and I said "No, romantic stuff." She may have looked at me like I was off my rocker.

This has got to be one of my most favorites EVER. Sleeping Cupid and Awake Cupid. So, so sweet!

And, I don't know about you, but Norman Rockwell rocks my world. I love this picture and when I saw it knew that I had to get it for the wall.

And this cute wittle cross stitched piece? How could I resist it for 50 cents?

I'm so excited that it's done. And as it usually happens, I got it all hung up, then looked at it and felt like it's "off". Like I didn't position things right, that there is "empty spaces", etc. But that just means I get to keep hunting for perfect things to add to it, which of course is a bonus.

Our abode-- not made of adobe.

There is so much I wanted to do before posting pictures of the new house. But the fact of the matter is, it could be years before it all gets done, so I might as well just show it as it is. Except upstairs. You really are gonna have to wait for that one!

The abode, in all it's glory.

The view when you walk in the front door.

The view of the front door from inside.

When you walk in the front door, to your right is the formal dining room. Looks super formal, eh?

To the left of the front door is the formal living room. Again, you can see that we are all about the formal. I have lots of plans for this room. Starting with an acceptable couch. After I finally find the perfect one (I'm picturing vintage, floral print) I have mirrors that I'm going to do over it.

Walking through the living room, or going past the stairs in the entryway is the family room. Another room I have plans for, but they are low on the priority list. There is actually a fire place behind the entertainment center, but between dealing with kids constantly messing with the glass door and the thought of having to find a new entertainment stand to accommodate the space, it's covered.

To the right of the living room is our kitchen. Ohhhh, our kitchen. I must show you some before pictures.

I know you can't tell really by the picture, but the kitchen was disgusting. The appliances were horrible and not even completely operable. So the first thing was to get new ones. Then, while looking at the place I didn't realize how disgusting the cabinets were. But after we moved in and I started to clean them, I realized that they needed a major change. So very crazily, I decided we should paint them. I will NEVER make that choice again! Sure, it saved us a couple thousand, but holy cow did it take forever. We ended up hiring someone to paint the doors so we could just finally get it done. But, overall, I'm happy with the outcome. Now we just need to get some new countertops. And it should be noted that this picture was taken a couple of months ago, so it has changed a little bit, and we no longer have paper taped up over the door...as classy as it was.

From the family room, there are stairs down to the basement.

Another place we have a lot of plans for. We want to add another bedroom, put in a bathroom down there. Open up the huge storage area to add more space. Who knows if any of that will ever happen. So right now it is a playroom/extreme home gym. (Don't be jealous of our extreme home gym!)

To the left of the basement stairs:

To the right of the basement stairs:

And that's what you get so far. I really truly hope to have the upstairs showable here soon, but, you know...best laid plans and all.

One last hurrah!

Since I have almost everything I need for my Wall o' Looooove, I decided I needed to decorate for Valentine's one last time with some of the items before I put them up on the wall.

I absolutely looooove my antique mantel and I loooove decorating for the holidays on it. It's a little plain, but that's ok.

I still adore these old postcards, and wish I could find out if these people ended up together! I'm still pretty sure I was meant to live in the days when post card sending was a normal way for a man to ask a woman to a dance.

And I think these will always be a favorite! I simply painted canvases and glued buttons on to. I think simple and sweet should be my motto, and I think these fit perfectly.

Yep, I love my mantel!

And one of these days I'll actually have the whole house put together so I can post pictures!

Slowly but surely...

Ever so slowly my "Wall o' Loooooove" is coming together. I now have almost everything I need to put up on the wall (o' Loooooove).

Months and months (and months) ago, I was looking through pictures on facebook from my favorite antique spot. (A spot that is sadly too far away to frequent now that we have moved.) At any rate, there was a picture of something with this quote by Samuel Lover on it, and I absolutely loved it, and I knew I needed to do something with it.

I've had about 22.6 ideas, but this is what I ended up with.

Some of the ideas I had were grand, and some were simple. But I'm glad I went the simple route. I am a simple person, after all.

As with everything I do, I started with a specific idea in mind, and it kind of morphed as I went along and realized what would work and what wouldn't.

I started out with two colors of red scrapbook paper, and I went old school elementary school and weaved them together. I was going to cut the words out of that, but it was really hard to get the craft knife through the two layers of scrapbook paper, so on to the next idea.... I just cut the words out on plain white paper and put it over the weaved scrapbook paper.

I'm happy with how it turned out, with the two colors showing through. And in spite of my lack of skills using the craft knife, I guess I like that it looks like a 3rd grader wrote it :)

If my calculations are correct, I only have two more things to do, and then my Wall o' Looooove will be ready for display! So at the rate I've been going, I should be good to go in about 4 months.