Beck~mother of 3

It's a Monday...

2011-04-04T10:08:00.000-07:00

The girls and I spent last week in Portland with John.We had so much fun meeting his co-workers and doing stuff together! There is SO much to do, its hard to pick what to do sometimes! lol

Of course, we did some shopping at IKEA. I picked up this picture for my bedroom. I love it and can't wait to hang it! That will be will be after I paint, of course, which will be this week, finally. :)

I picked up some new dishes, a new chair cover for my Ektorp chair, and 3 duvet covers for the girls' beds. Nice bright graphic flowers. :)

As for couch shopping, I think we have decided to look for a used couch, since we'll probably be moving in a two years and won't be here to use it much anyway.

We went to the Portland Art Museum last Sunday and saw several exhibits, one being ancient Chinese art, which tied into our History lesson for the week.

We spent most of the evenings during the week in the pool, shopping or hanging out and watching movies.

The girls loved OMSI last year, so we got a membership and spent Saturday touring the new exhibits and saw a show in the Planetarium.

The finale of our trip was hiking up to the top of Multnomah Falls yesterday.

It was a long, uphill walk, but it was worth it for the view. Unfortunately, my camera died before we even started, so John is going to get pictures from the other people who went with us.

While it's good to be home, I think we'd rather be in Portland still. Next weekend I think we'll be heading back. :)

Big plans for my living room

2011-03-22T22:26:00.000-07:00

I did something a little crazy. I sold my Pottery Barn Basic Sectional over the weekend. Without having a new sofa yet.

So here is how my living room looks now. (sorry for the poor quality, I was too impatient to take them with my camera)

{I ironed and put drapery hooks in my dropcloth curtains. I like them so much better. :)}

This is the sofa I will be getting from Ikea next week while I am in Portland.

It's the Hovas sofa from Ikea. I'm not sure what slipcover I will be getting it in. I'm not all that fond of the colors they show online. We'll see when I get there. I may just take a risk and dye the slipcovers gray. :) I think gray would look fab with my pillow material.

I strongly dislike the lighting in my house. That big flower is turquoise and the dark brown looking flowers are actually the same green on my walls.

I have a long list of things to look for while I am in Portland. There is so much more available there than here. Looking forward to shopping! :)

Change of Plans

2011-03-20T22:27:00.000-07:00

I know I said in my last post I would be painting my bedroom last week. After I looked at my inspiration rooms, I realized the walls all had a color on them. I had also recently decided to make turquoise and white striped curtains and was afraid the white would blend too much with white walls. I thought gray might make an interesting color instead of my typical choice of brown. So I headed to Home Depot and picked up some paint samples.

I started with Martha Stewart's Flagstone (which Nester used in her bedroom re-do) along with Bedford Gray and 3 Behr paints. After going a little paint swatch crazy on my walls, I had a clear winner: the Bedford Gray. I have several projects for this week, so I'll be painting it in April. So excited!

I did get the bookcase covered with book pages, find a headboard/foot board for $20, and get my curtains ironed and put drapery hooks in. The cork board project will be waiting until I have a better idea what else I want to put up on my walls in my bedroom.

So, all in all, it was a productive week. :)

First Day

2011-03-14T20:29:00.000-07:00

Today was the first day of John's new job and also our first day of being without him. :( Unfortunately, the hotel in Portland (where the training is) is not dog friendly and since my mother can not have Arthur for 6 straight weeks because of her allergies, the girls and I will be staying here for the majority of the training. Hopefully we'll head over to Ptown soon for a week or so, but until then, John will be coming home on weekends.

Of course, 6 weeks worth of evenings by myself (after the kiddos are in bed) means guilt free time to work on projects!! So this week I am hoping to accomplish:

painting my room (I know I keep saying this, I promise this week is the time!)
ironing and putting drapery hooks on my living room curtains to raise them and give more uniform folds (like what Janell from Isabella & Max Rooms did here)
cover a bookcase with book pages (like what Emily from Jones Design Company did to her wall...just on a bookcase)
paint or draw a design on some cork boards that hang in my bedroom.
searching Craig's List and local thrift stores for a queen sized headboard & footboard, small round side table, and an old vanity.

Tonight I am prepping my bedroom (i.e. cleaning it) and planning. I have an idea board of how I want it to look when I am done, so need to go back and consult that and any inspiration pictures I've come across since then. I've noticed that since looking through Lonny and design blogs, my tastes have changed a bit so we'll see if I still like my ideas. ;)

Finally Home

2011-03-04T21:57:00.000-08:00

After 2+ weeks, we are home!! Arthur was beside himself when we picked him up from my mom's house. He seems so small to me now since we've been around full size dogs for the past couple weeks. :)

I think the most memorable event for the girls about our trip was this

Now I am off to unpack and get our life back to normal before its turned upside down again. ;)

Our Vacation is almost over

2011-03-02T11:27:00.000-08:00

We've had so much fun visiting our family in Souther California and going to Disneyland, the La Bread Tar Pits, driving through San Fransisco and stopping at the Golden Gate Bridge, visiting our family in Northern California, and going to see the Redwoods. Tomorrow we leave for our 2 day trip home. It is only 14hrs, but we are dividing it up in 2 days so we don't go crazy!

After we get home we have 1 week to get ready to head to the new job! :)

Happy Valentines Day!

2011-02-14T10:24:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentines Day! We leave for our LA vacation in 3 days, so aren't doing a whole lot today. Just dinner with some family and friends. Oh and I am going to attempt this cake by i am baker with this frosting. I haven't made any cakes or cupcakes since last September. As soon as I stumbled upon this blog, I felt my love of cake decorating coming back to life. :)

Last night my sister-in-law from LA called and asked if I'd help her figure out what to put on her entry table and mantle while we are there. Of course I said yes! :) I'll post before and after pictures. I have some ideas, but will be pouring over Nate's book, my recent Pottery Barn catalogs and other blogs.

Have a great day!

Tomorrow...

2011-02-09T13:35:00.000-08:00

is John's last work day! He's taking several weeks of vacation before starting his new job. I am so excited to have him home and get to spend time with him! Tomorrow is also a week before we leave for sunny California!

Yesterday I was starting to feel slightly overwhelmed about all the things I want to get done before we leave and had to take a deep breath and tell myself to let go of all my high expectations. As long as I leave the house clean, I will be happy when I walk in the door after we get back from someplace. :) While there are some things that HAVE to get done (inventory of the house in case something happens), there are others (painting my bedroom) that can wait until August, when I plan on being home for the entire month. My brother is getting married in August, so it'll be fun to be here and help if they need it.

I did paint the girl's bedroom last week with Behr's Whitened Sage. It looks so pretty. Just a hint of green really sets off the white bunk beds, frames and chandelier without being too overwhelming for the small space. Pictures to come soon!

Pillow problem solved!

2011-01-31T22:10:00.000-08:00

I found some fabric this weekend in what is left of my sewing projects that is perfect for pillows for my living room! I had bought fabric a few months ago to make covers for my dining chairs, but with everything that happened this summer, I never got around to it. Apparently I had cut out enough for 2 pillows for the living room and I completely forgot! Love at first sight!

Sorry its a little dark, it has the light blue, turquoise, green and khaki all on a cream background.

This is the fabric (or something similar) I am looking for to go with it.

These pillows and maybe a new white slipcover for the Ektorp Chair and I'll be smiling when I walk into the living room. :)

It all started with a chair

2011-01-22T00:16:00.000-08:00

It all started with this chair. We found the Ektorp chair at Goodwill last year for $25 with a peachy slipcover on it. I thought I could dye it brown, but it turned out more purple than brown. Since that little mishap, I had discovered they carry white slipcovers for $29. So while we were in LA a week or so ago (more on that in a minute), we stopped in to get one and look at all the displays. John ad Sherry at Young House Love recently bought the Edland bed, so I wanted to check that out in person. Anyway, John and I were looking at the slipcovers and he asked why we were getting a white slipcover since our living room is pretty monochromatic. Which made me realize, it is! I bought striped fabric this summer to add some color with a pillow cover for one of our bigger couch pillows, but haven't gotten around to making it yet. Since then I have fallen in love with all the geometric prints coming out and this one:

From the etsy shop MilkandcookiesCanada

I realized, while at the beginning of the summer I had a clear plan of what I wanted in the living room, I have moved on and am no longer head over heels for it. I was not so sure about what fabrics to mix and match (Janell from Isabella and Max Rooms posted a Guide for Mixing Fabrics today that was helpful). I was really trying to coordinate it with the fabric I bought for cushion slipcovers in my dining room, which probably will not happen. The chairs I bought with my table are slightly bigger than my current ones, which I cut the slipcovers for, so we shall see. I still love the pattern and it is has similar coloring to the pillow above. Plus, while our living room is large at 17' x 17', it has doorways to 3 rooms, 2 large picture windows and houses a lot of furniture.

So where do I go from here? Part of me wants to just leave the living room as it is since we won't be here much in the next 2 years, but the decorator in me just can't leave it alone! When we are home, I want to come home to a welcoming space. So, I am toying with putting together an inspiration board that keeps the existing furniture, but adding other little touches like pillows and a few other decorative items over time. We don't really want to add or get rid of stuff, not knowing what our house will be like. I want to keep atmosphere light and airy, but someplace that says 'Welcome Home'. So I am off to the library tomorrow to check out Nate Berkus' Home Rules. Maybe that will help my indecision and give me a little inspiration. One can hope, right?

Oh, and why were we in LA? One of the things on our list of things to get done/purchase before John starts this job was a newer car. He'd looked at a Cadillac CTS, but the year he wanted was rare, so I suggested an Altima. We had rented one a year or so ago and we all liked it. He ended up finding a model he wanted (the SE-R), but it is also rare and LA was the closest location with 4+ of them. The 20 hour drive one way was worth it too. Having 4 doors, heated front seats and an extra 6" in the backseat makes everybody a happy camper. :) John's brother and his wife live there, so we were able to spend a day and a half kid free with them, which was awesome and much needed.

Our Grand Plans for 2011

2011-01-18T13:13:00.000-08:00

In my last post, I mentioned some great plans were in the works for 2011. Well, the reason for those great plans is that John got a new job that he starts in March. He'll be part of a 2 yr management training program in a division of the USDA. He'll go to Portland for training, then out to a field office for up to 14 weeks. Since we homeschool, we'll be able to go with him. After the last 8 months, I am ready for a change and am really looking forward to this!!

So in an effort to get ready to be gone for long periods of time, we'll be finishing some projects up around the house, decluttering so we come back to a nice clean house and doing what we can to travel light, but have everything we need.

In November sometime, I stumbled upon jill gg's good life for less which led to finding Kendi Everyday's 30 for 30 challenge. I'm going to attempt something similar, except for a longer period of time. Packing 30 items and mixing and matching them for the time we are away. I may buy a few things to switch it up while we are gone, which they don't do, but we'll see. I'm also going to use this principle when helping the girls pack. I'm constantly amazed at the amount of clothes that they own! Lol So, our first experiment with it will start in March.

Since we'll be traveling a lot, I'm going to share here about our trips to different cities, the places we go while there, restaurants we go to, and hotels that we stay at. Should be interesting! First up, I'll be sharing about our upcoming trip to L.A. and Disneyland as I plan it and after we get back.

Oh and look for updates on house projects! I'm hoping to get the bedrooms painted and my table done before March so we can at least use it a bit.

:)
Rebecca

Life, Unexpected

2011-01-06T18:06:00.000-08:00

Sooo, I haven't written a post in a couple months. I have meant to, and have had a couple projects I have finished I should post. I would sit down and go to type a post up and no words would come. I hate that we didn't get a lot of projects done this year like we had planned. I have to keep reminding myself our project was making memories with my Dad and that was more important than any painting or table re-do. We won't get this summer back, so it was time well spent.

The holidays were hard, as everyone always says they are when you lose a loved one. I did not want to decorate for Christmas. Did. Not. I had to though, because we were hosting a Christmas Open House for our online business. I decided to just go simple and borrow a 4' pre-lit tree from my mother-in-law (she has at least 6 fake trees of varying height). Once I got the decorations out and a few up, I was okay. The closer we got to Christmas, the rougher it got for all of us, though. I broke down making Christmas dinner because we didn't have enough stuffing and there was no cranberries. Ah, grieving. Even as I read that, I think,' Really? You got upset over stuffing and cranberries?' But it was a culmination of it being the first Christmas without Dad, PMS, and time moving on when I don't want it too. In all honesty though, all I really, really cared that we had, was pumpkin roll that Dad always made. It just wouldn't be Christmas without pumpkin roll. My awesome baker of a husband made sure we had it. He made 2, one with nuts and one without. He's so great.

New Years was a bit better. We all did our own things for NYE, which was fine. My memories of the holidays mainly center around NYE anyway. Dad made fudge and us kids got to have root beer floats and stay up until midnight. That was when dad would shoot his shotgun into the air announcing the new year. So wanting my kids to have strong memories of NYE, we started our own tradition of watching a movie marathon. We indavertently started it last year when we watched 2 or 3 of the Karate Kid movies. This year, we watched the 4, 5, & 6th episodes of Star Wars, ate popcorn and drank sparkling cider. It was a great way to start what will be a great year! :)

I am glad to have 2010 behind us and am moving forward with a few things:

Planning a trip to the LA area to see my bro-in-law and sis-in-law
Returning to the Happiest Place on Earth for 3 days(that was the major Christmas present of the year)
Decluttering my house ( I really don't need a huge stack of Pottery Barn catalogs, right?)
Getting back in shape (that pumpkin roll I mentioned above? Yeah I ate about 3/4 of one by my self)
Figuring out a flattering, fashion forward wardrobe
Finally finishing painting the bedrooms!

I'll reveal a bit more of our 2011 year plans soon. :)

Gallery Wall

2010-11-16T17:56:00.000-08:00

For the last several months I have been working on a gallery wall. I've been trying to get the right placement and trying to find the right pictures. Here is what I have come up with.

We came up with our Family Vision about a year ago and centered the gallery wall off of that.

I added a few framed quotes

and then added pictures of our family.

Our family portrait from last Christmas.

A picture of John and his dad both in their military uniforms.

My parents engagement picture.

And my favorite

the most recent picture I can find of me and my dad.

If you can't read it, the quote says:

Life isn't a matter of milestones but of moments.

Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy

Master Bedroom re-do update

2010-11-16T17:26:00.000-08:00

I've found a few thrift store finds in the last month or so that have helped my master bedroom redo. The little round tiered table and the table lamp that is on top.

I took a bench from this

to what you see at the end of the bed.

Found a great cane-back chair, which I'll re-cover, at Goodwill along with a faux leather ottoman.

I'll make a cover for the ottoman once I find some fabric I like. I've replaced this mirror with the mirror from this post.

I moved a few bookcases in from the living room. One now houses my interior design stuff. The other is for John's stuff.

Our closet still doesn't have doors, but those will be painted soon.

I'm going to start painting in here this week or next and that will really transform the place! I am SO looking forward to it. :)

Lockers

2010-11-14T18:23:00.000-08:00

I finished the lockers about a month ago, but am just now getting around to posting about it. Oops.

This is what they looked like before:

And this is what they look like now:

This is the inside of Hailey's locker.

This is the inside of Emily's locker

And this is the inside of Audrey's locker.

John is going to cut some wood to fit for shelves. I let the girls pick out scrap book paper that will be glued on the shelves and will have clear contact paper over it. I love the paint. They make me smile every time I see them. :)

Dining Room

2010-09-29T11:11:00.000-07:00

In an effort to finish up some projects, I bought a quart of paint to touch up my dining room. I couldn't find my paint deck with the colors I had used when I painted a couple years ago, but I thought I knew the name. As soon as I opened the can, I remembered the correct name. Plus the paint was too lemony. So I figured I would use the paint I had just bought somewhere else and went and got what I thought was the correct color. Once again, I opened the can and touched up some spots. Too peachy. So I mixed the two together and painted the entire dining room last night.

A couple weeks ago, I had John install some bead board on the walls by the kitchen, so with the new paint and the bead board, I am really liking how my dining room looks!

Apparently I don't have an after shot of the bead board.

These pictures were taken last night about 11:30pm when all my princesses were asleep, so I could get it all done and put back together. That explains the poor lighting too. :)

The chairs I got from the estate sale I mentioned in the previous post, look similar to the ones here and will also be painted white. I'm hoping the material I cut for slipcovers for these chairs (and haven't sewn yet) will work on the other chairs. The table, also from that post, will be stained a bit lighter than the floor.

Overall, I am very happy with how my dining room looks! It still needs a few things, like a rug, a transition from the dining floor to the living room floor, baseboard, bead board and trim on the wall under the stairs (possibly leading up the stairs if I can convince John), and we need to put up a new stair rail leading to the playroom. That little white bookcase, where all our school stuff is currently stored, is temporary until I get some 4 more 4'T x 2'W x1'D bookcases built for my entry wall. All in due time. :)

Summer Yard Sale Finds

2010-09-29T10:42:00.000-07:00

I just downloaded all the pictures from my camera and wanted to share a few of our yard sale finds from this summer.

First off is this typewriter we found and bought for $10.

That same day we found a set of 3 lockers, which we thought would be perfect for our mud/laundry room for the girls to put their coats, snowsuits, rain and snow boots and soccer equipment. I'm going to paint it a similar color to what I was going to paint the laundry room (Ben Moore's Atmospheric) then let the girls decide how they each want the interior of their personal locker.

Our last great find was an antique table. While I really like my great-grandmother's table, I had always envisioned a rectangular table in my dining room.

This we got from an estate sale a couple weeks ago. The guy had so much stuff that the family had 2 locations! He had probably 20 cast iron claw foot tubs, many without the feet, about 200 cars and trucks and trailers, a HUGE storage container (which is where we found the table and chairs). It was amazing to look through! Really made me want to simplify, though. lol

It's 42" square and didn't come with any leaves, at least none that we could find. We plan on making either 4 12" leaves or 2 18" leaves. Depends on how much room we need. It can extend up to 92 inches I think.

I love the detail!

When we found the table top, we couldn't find any legs for it, but John had remembered seeing some legs at the first location, so we went back there and found these. I like that it has casters on it, but I think I will end up replacing them with casters that lock so the table doesn't move while we're trying to eat. :)

So those are our super finds of the summer! We ended up spending $10 on the typewriter, $10 for the lockers, and $60 for the table, legs and chairs.

Projects every where

2010-09-25T19:48:00.000-07:00

In the middle of May we found out my Dad had advanced liver cancer and my way of coping, was to take on some projects that would in the end simplify our day to day life so we could spend more time with Dad. So, during the summer, John and I spent several weekends going to yard sales, estate sales and hitting up the local Goodwill. Unfortunately, we only ended up having 2 1/2 months with Dad before he passed away on August 2nd. Hence the reason for being MIA most of the summer.

So, now we are working on finishing those projects as well as getting the house ready in case we ever sell it or rent it. John has gone back to applying for jobs everywhere, so you never know when he might get offered one and I don't want to feel rushed thinking we have to get the house ready to sell or rent and pack.

And I have several projects on my list (not in any order):

re-staining the deck
selling a couple project cars and furniture that didn't work for our house
finishing the brick patio
My bathroom
refinishing 2 antique dining tables (one was my great grandmothers and one we found at an estate sale)
painting a set of 3 lockers for my mudroom/laundry room (done!)
painting the bedrooms
re-painting the dining room (done!)
putting beadboard up in the dining room
putting a transition between the dining room and living room
getting baseboard put in for the entire house
repainting the closet doors and re-installing them
going through the attic

Today, we went to Ace to look for stain for the deck and I happened to look at the 'Oops' paint shelves. Yes, they had shelves of it. I found the exact color I was wanting to paint the lockers (same color I was going to paint the laundry room) and a creamy white to paint my bedroom, along with the stain for the deck. I will need to prime both areas first, so these two projects will have to wait until next payday. This week I will be able to re-paint the dining room and work on moving some more dirt to another flower bed, though.

So that is what I'm up to. Pictures to follow soon! :)

Front Flower Beds

2010-09-04T23:58:00.000-07:00

In the process of prepping the area where our brick patio will go, we have removed the sod, moved a sprinkler pipe and now we had to remove some dirt, so we decided to beef up our front flower beds. Plus I wanted to move some plants around. Both sides looked square and boring like this

We worked all day and turned them into these:

We chose to lay the bricks like this

so it would be easier to mow and edge the yard.

I still need to fill them out a bit more. We mainly get shade in the front yard, so i am thinking a fern or two along with hostas and some other variegated leafed plants. I still can't believe how good they look! I've wanted to do this for years and am glad to finally cross it off my list!

Mirror Project

2010-09-04T23:24:00.000-07:00

Several years ago when my sister-in law was moving, she gave me a mirror that had a lot of potential. It's been sitting in my attic since then and I finally did something with it this week. Using a Benjamin Moore sample of Buxton Blue,

I took the mirror from this

to this!

It is temporarily hanging in my bathroom while we figure out what we are going to do in there. I love the pale blue!

Fall Door Basket

2010-09-04T23:13:00.000-07:00

Armed with my Hobby Lobby finds from last weeks visit to Spokane, a bunch of fall leaves, flowers and the metal basket I picked up from Goodwill last month, I started making my own fall basket that was inspired by Thrifty Decor Chick's Fall Door Decor post from September of last year.

On the left is what I already had, the right is from Hobby Lobby and the pot at the top was something my mother-in-law gave me about 4 years ago. There was a vine in there, but I didn't realize what it was (until 2yrs later) and had never watered it. Oops. I thought it was all artificial!

This is the metal door basket I found at Goodwill for 75 cents. :) I've been looking for one of these ever since I read the Fall Door Decor post last year.

Here is my finished product! I didn't do anything special to it, just put floral foam inside the basket, then started putting whatever in.

And here it is on the door. Next payday, I am going to get some ribbon and hang the basket from the ribbon a bit lower. I think it's too high, but I couldn't resist putting it up!

My First Ever Trip to Hobby Lobby!!

2010-08-27T17:42:00.000-07:00

Sorry I have been MIA recently...I'm working on a post on why that I'll post later.

Anyway, today this weekend we are visiting some friends up in Spokane, Wa. Recently a Hobby Lobby opened up in Spokane Valley, so our major plan for today was to head over and check it out! I was not disappointed. I have never been in a craft store so big!! All of their fall stuff was on sale, and while I have a lot of fall items, I did pick up a couple pumpkins (a white one and a green one)and a couple berry stems. I picked up a metal basket hanger at Goodwill a couple weeks ago and am planning on putting the berries, pumpkins and some leaves I have at home inside the basket and hanging it on my front door instead of a wreath. Pictures will follow soon.

I would have loved to get more (their prices were amazing!), but I couldn't remember any of the projects I want to do! lol I am compiling a list of Christmas projects and gifts, so I am excited about that.

Colors and my girls

2010-06-29T10:26:00.000-07:00

I was looking through the YoungHouseLove blog for paint finish recommendations, since I will be buying paint for the trim and my room this week, and Hailey happened to be standing next to me when I scrolled past a picture of their nursery. Hailey got all excited and said she really liked the paint colors and please could they have them in their room?

Now, picking a paint color for their room has been a struggle because they all three share a room, they each have their own preferences and they don't always like what I would like to see in there. Recently they had decided on a hot pink for their room. Their room is tiny, like 9 x 11 tiny with the windows that are about 4 1/2 ft off the floor and only 2 ft tall. Not a whole lot of light gets in there. I tried to explain that hot pink was just too dark for their room. They were having none of it. So I said maybe we could compromise and put their color on the bottom of the wall with a chair rail, then a color I picked to complement it on the top. John suggested we could do a wall with the hot pink in stripes and a complementing color as the contrasting stripes and other walls. I've always wanted to do stripes in their room, but the one wall with no windows, has their bunk beds on it, so I wasn't sure how it would work.

Anyway, back to this morning. Hailey called her sisters over to the laptop and I went through the room with them and they all loved the colors. Audrey said, "But, Mom, it's a baby room!" I just told her we could adapt it for them. What is really sweet, is those colors will go so good with everything I already have in there and it will continue the color palette I have inadvertently chosen for the rest of the house! I really wasn't that concerned with the color palette continuing into their room, but I think it will be awesome that the colors flow from one room to another in some way. :)

Bathroom and Bedroom

2010-06-22T16:18:00.000-07:00

John and I were in Home Depot the other day looking at beadboard prices, and on a whim, we looked at tile since we'd really prefer to tile the bathroom. And look what we found!

It was originally $8.99 a sheet, but we got it for $6.20. We're using the tile in 2 rows through out the bathroom and will use 12x 12 tile similar to travertine on the floor, around the tub, and up 4' of the wall. So in light of that expense, we're going to put the bathroom on hold until we can afford to tile it. Probably around September.

So, I'm going to see if I can get the laundry room sliding door curtains done this week and get John to move the cabinets in the laundry room for me this weekend. John didn't like the color I had picked too much, so I'm working on a paint color too. I don't really have an inspiration for my laundry room, so I need to find one in order to pick the paint color! lol

The first of July, I am going to transfer my attention to my bedroom. In a post awhile back, I showed that one of the walls had wallpaper and under the wallpaper was paneling. Given the condition of the bathroom walls, and the condition of the living room wall that also had paneling with wallpaper (the plaster was cracked beyond repair and we had to sheetrock that wall), I've opted to take down the wallpaper and paint it all. After looking at John and Sherry's den on Young House Love , I figured it'd be better than having another simple prime and paint job turn into repair work. So another item on the list of things to complete this week is a mood board of sorts for my bedroom.

I was in Joann's a couple months ago and they had some of their special order samples on clearance for $2. I scored one in colors I was wanting for my room and made it into this pillow, which is the inspiration for the whole room.

I made the back a contrasting brown with some material i got a goodwill and then used the same material to make 2 more throw pillows. I also found a nice blue and brown herringbone throw rug at goodwill and it's currently at the end of my bed. I took out the bed frame from my mother-in-law and am going to make an upholstered headboard. So I'll be back this weekend with that!

Bathroom

2010-06-17T16:55:00.000-07:00

Over the last year, John and I have picked up a few things for when we finish our bathroom.

The first being these awesome sconces we got at a yard sale for $1 each. Score!

Then we picked up a huge mirror at Ross of all places,

then John found this vanity at Big Lots.

So when John went to Atlanta this week for training, so I figured I would keep myself busy and take down the wallpaper in the bathroom, which I have disliked since we moved in.

Then prime and paint and when John got home, we could hang the mirror, install the sconces and put in the vanity.

Before I started, it looked like this

(ha ha, I just realized these were from Christmas!)

My neighbor down the street gave me a leftover bottle of Diff wallpaper remover when I told her I was going to finally take down the wallpaper. Worked like a charm. I skipped the scoring step and just sprayed (or rolled ) it on the top, pulled the top layer off, then did the same to the backing that was left. I worked on it for 2 days for less than 2 hours each time. So now it looks like this.

Notice there is no shower head, just a tub. which is why we have a shower in our laundry room.

But after pulling the wallpaper I found this:

Wood, instead of plaster, around the tub. So instead of priming and painting, I'm leaving it like this until John gets home Saturday and we decide what to do.

I'm thinking of putting up beadboard. Eventually we want to put tile up around the tub (like John and Sherry did in their bathroom re-do from Young House Love) and plumb in a shower head, but that isn't in the budget for right now.

So right now I'm looking for beadboard bathroom pictures and trying to decide a color to paint. I took Jacci's (from homeforthebetter) advice and am using Benjamin Moore's White Dove on all our trim. I may use the Micro tan from the playroom in the bathroom, which was my original plan, but I painted a spot and it almost looks too yellow. I'm going to wait a few days and see how I like it.

My Current Projects

2010-06-17T16:16:00.000-07:00

John and I decided that we're going to try to get a coat of paint on all the rooms in the house. Kind of bring each room to a finishing point as far as projects to do, so we can focus on more important things.

I'm coming up with a list for each room, projects and decor, but I also have a few projects already in progress. Currently I am working on the laundry room and the bathroom.

Before Christmas, I had put a table in my laundry room for my sewing stuff, but it was just collecting clutter so I took it down. So what used to look like this:

Now looks like this:

The rest of the laundry looked like this:

Tucked behind the shower, is our washer.

Currently, I have 1 curtain up in the laundry room and have picked a paint color for in there.

The color is Atmospheric by Benjamin Moore. I saw it in a Pottery Barn catalog last year and was thinking I'd use it in my room, but I think it's too dark for my room.

It's really dark in the picture, but I love the way the blue, tan and white work together. This week I need to sew the remaining curtains for the sliding glass doors and hang the curtain rod.

I can't really reach the cabinets above the washer and dryer so I want to take down those cabinets. Eventually I'd like to get a stackable washer and dryer and put it back there and then they'd need to go anyway. Originally I was going to get a shelf, but figure I should re-use what I have. So, I'll hang the cabinet from above the water heater

above the dryer, then take the shelf off and put a closet rod there so I can hang clothes straight from the dryer. I'll take one of the cabinets from above the washer and dryer, and hang it above the water heater for household tools and whatnot. After that is all done, I'll be ready to paint and I'm hoping to have it done the first part of July. :)

Family Member #6

2010-04-19T13:08:00.000-07:00

Let me preface this with, no, I'm not pregnant. lol

We bought a Chi-Poo (chihuahua poodle mix) Thursday night.

Let me introduce King Arthur!

Since Audrey and I got to choose the puppy,

we let Emily and Hailey combine the names they liked for the puppy.

Is he not the cutest thing?

Spring is here! Right??

2010-04-01T16:37:00.000-07:00

The weather is toying with us here in eastern Oregon. It's rainly one day then beautifully sunny the next, then it tries to snow this morning. :) You'd think after living here most of my life, I would be used to this...but I'm not! lol It's times like this when I really miss North Carolina weather, specifically where we lived close to the beach. It would snow maybe one day out of the year, but it was never really cold. Muggy, yes. Of course, during hurricane season, I really missed my hometown and the dry heat turning into the cool crisp days of fall.

Anyway, it's already April and I've made a bit of progress on my goals from this post at the beginning of the year. I picked out and John installed trim under my kitchen cabinets, found a beautiful fabric to base my bedroom makeover on, I've re-packed half my attic, we've picked out a fence we want, and I cleared out all my flower beds. :)

The new Pottery Barn catalogs have inspired me to lighten the look of my house, so away with the reds, chocolates and tans in my living room! I'm going to hit the Thrift Stores to see what I can find on Saturday.

New Table

2010-03-01T11:56:00.000-08:00

My parents moved last week from the country to a smaller house in the city limits. Much closer to us, not that 3+ miles was far. :) Anyway, in the process of downsizing, my siblings and I have inherited a few things. My sister and I, being sentimental and liking old furniture with a story, have been very excited about this. My brother, not so much! lol I brought home an old iron bedframe that I plan to re-paint, my great-grandmother's china, and my great-grandmother's table (please excuse the mess behind, it is a garage ;).

I have wanted this table for years, so I was very excited to bring it home, even if it is in sad shape. On the top of one of the table legs, I found the tag from the furniture store where it was bought. At least, that is what I am assuming it is. :)

When John got to looking past all the chipping paint, he saw an unusual grain pattern. It's a tiger-stripe oak!!!! What a wonderful surprise that was!!

Our piano is also tiger stripe oak, so once the table is restored, I am hoping the finish will more or less look like this:

Sunny Sunday!

2010-02-21T19:59:00.000-08:00

I'm so excited!! I've been trying to find an new, yet inexpensive piece of furniture to hold our TV and sound equipment. I've also been looking for a couple of chairs silimar to these, so I've been going into Goodwill every weekend. A couple weeks ago, I found an armoire that would be perfect, but at $90, John and I thought it was a bit much. I was hoping I could find one around $60.

Fast forward to today.

We had a beautiful sunny day today, so we headed out this afternoon to check out cell phones and take the kids to the park. On our way to the park, we stopped at Goodwill. I pretty much headed straight to the furniture section. There were quite a few cool pieces, but no chairs. An old drop-leaf table...minus the dropleaves, an old writing desk that I had nowhere to put, a slipper chair that would be perfect for my bedroom, and 2 TV armoires, the previous one I had seen and a new one. The new one was listed at $105 and in a stain we like. the first one I saw was marked down to $75. So I showed John, he looked it over, said we could paint or stain it and that $75 was okay. Luckily, we drove the suburban instead of John's Honda, otherwise I would have had to wait to pick it up. So we have an armoire!! That along with some bookcases I am getting form my mother, should really open up our living room.

In other news, my parents are moving into a different house that is partially furnished, so my mom is giving me several pieces of furniture! After all this furniture, I think the only thing I will really be wanting (furniture wise) is the above chairs, a dining table and 2 benches.

Last night, I pulled out some white frames I had bought on clearance years ago for the girls room. I pulled out some nursery print scrapbook paper and cut them to fit the frames.Then I printed out the girl's initials on solid scrapbook paper and taped them to a couple of the frames. Today, while waiting for the girl's to finsh their lunch, I hung them up and several butterflies from the same scrapbook paper. Their room looks so cute now! All I need to do in there now is make curtains for their windows and closet, and paint the walls. Of course I need to pick out a color first. I've been struggling for a long time on a color for their room.

One step at a time, I am achieving the look I want for our home!! I think it is a bit more satisfying that way...even though I can get rather impatient. :) I've gone through so many ideas, it has probably saved us some money!

So I'll be looking around for ideas on a paint color for the girl's room and my armoire this week. :)

so...

2010-01-31T19:39:00.000-08:00

John and I went to Las Vegas for a business conference on the 19th-22nd. We had a blast! We've been to Vegas quite often, stopping though on our drives down to L.A. to see John's brother. Since we've been often, we've seen a lot and it was relaxing just going to see a few things. One of the things I have wanted to do, and we hadn't yet, was go see the Phantom of the Opera. We finally got to go and it was so fun dressing up (not that you have to, but I found a cute dress on clearance I wanted to wear). John even rented us a limo! I've never ridden in limo before, so I thought it was pretty neat. I should have gotten a picture of it. Oh well.

We went to the Bellagio and walked through their conservatory. It was decorated for the Year of the Tiger.

Bellagio Fountains. This was one of the few times it wasn't raining while we were there.

Paris Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe

In Front of Ceasar's Palace. I took this specifically for my sister. When she and I went for her birthday last March, there was no water in this fountain and apparently she really likes it. :)

John and I after the Phantom of the Opera.

Margaritaville. We sat under the airplane. Their food is AMAZING. Loved it!

And on our way home, we ran into snow in Utah. It sure was pretty. :)

Since we got back, I've been trying to get back in the groove, doing school and keeping up on the house. You know, everyday things. lol But I have projects I'm ready to work on now, like the other sweater re-fashion. I still have to post the first one. lol Painting my bedroom. I bought some sheets on clearance today that I am going to turn into curtains for my laundry room and get rid of the blinds that are in there. So that's what my plan is for the week everyday after school is over. :)

Fishing set tutorial

2010-01-15T09:59:00.000-08:00

I know everyone has been waiting for this! lol

For Christmas, I made this fishing set for my 7yr old nephew in CA. My BIL says he loves it. :)

What you need is

thread and needle
felt
embroidery thread or black permanent marker
Fish coloring pages (link below to the ones I used)
scissors
magnets (I used super heavy duty ones so they'd work between the layers of felt)

So the first thing I did was do a google fish coloring pages to use for patterns. I used this one and this one for the basic fish shape and the inspiration for stripes and spots on the fish. I copied the image then pasted it to a word document and enlarged it until I got the size I wanted. (I had seen a similar set on etsy, but it was much smaller than I wanted.) After I printed it, I traced each piece onto blank paper, labeled the pattern pieces, and cut them out.

Next, I decided how many fish to make and I picked out the colors for the different fish. Then I pinned the pattern to the felt.

Next, pin the different embellishments to the right side of the fish.

Sew the fin facing the mouth first then

fold it back and sew it again.

Next, sew the eye to the spot, if you decide to do this. Then sew the eye and other embellishments to the body.

Do this to both sides and then turn the right sides facing each other and pin them together.

Sew the right sides together.

Remember to leave a spot open to stuff the fish!

Turn it right side out and

put a magnet in as close to the mouth as possible

and stuff it!

Pin the hole together and hand sew.

Almost finished!

I forgot before I sewed the eye on that I was going to sew the pupil of the eye with black embroidery thread using french knots, so I had to improvise and use a black permanent marker.

I made 6 fish and a fishing rod. The little gray fish is upside down. Lol

For the fishing rod, you need

a glue gun
ribbon cut to the length you want
2 of the magnets
a dowel ( I had a package at home already)

I hot glued one end of the dowel and wrapped the ribbon around it and held it until it cooled off. Then I hot glued the other end of the ribbon and put a magnet on it and side the same thing on the opposite side.

You can kind of see what I mean here.

So there you have it!

It's Tuesday!

2010-01-12T20:15:00.000-08:00

No progress on the master bedroom this weekend. John has had a cold for about a week and went to the dr. Friday. The dr. said he had a mild case of walking pneumonia, so he took it easy this weekend. Hailey and Emily also have a bad cough, so off to the dr. we went this am. Found out Hailey is on the mend and Emily has a sinus infection. Poor girl. Maybe next weekend I can get started. :)

I was working on some mending earlier tonight that was long overdue...like 3 years overdue. I enjoyed it so much (after my thread stopped breaking, still have no clue why that happened) that I am going to attempt my first re-fashion tonight. I bought a cute plum sweater at Goodwill in Nov. with the sole purpose of turning it into a sweater dress for one of my girls after seeing this tutorial. Then I found another sweater that was a bit too small for me in my drawer, so now I have 2! Funny thing is, they are the same style. After that I'm going to turn some tights into knee socks following this tutorial. Maybe with the top part of the tights I'll make this! Aren't they soo cute?!? I'll post pictures later this week and post the fishing tutorial.

Mini Bedroom redo before pictures

2010-01-06T22:03:00.000-08:00

Since I can't work on any of my outside projects, I'm starting inside. My first project is my bedroom!

This is the view from the door. Love the duvet cover from my sister-in-law (which she made with 2 flat sheets). The quilt was a wedding gift from 10 years ago. Not really my style anymore. I envision a couple chocolate Euro pillows, a couple pillows with a brown and blue pint and a lumbar pillow with a ruffle like this one. At the end of the bed will be a beautiful blue throw. On either side of the bed I'd love to have two throw rugs that are a chocolate and blue print. At least that's what I see. :) Finding this stuff may not be the easy part.

Our closet. Doors are still in the garage, same as the girls. The handles and hinges need to be replaced on the cabinet above our closet. Soon I hope to have 3 laundry hamper in here so we can sort our clothes before they go to the laundry room.

The recliner is in here because there wasn't enough room for it in the living room with the Christmas tree. I have a smaller armchair chair I got at Goodwill for $25 that is normally in here. Don't you love the wallpaper? The blank frame I am going to make into an earring holder, but I think I might put some sort of fabric behind the screen I will be using. Or scrapbook paper. The pink spots on the wall are from when this room belonged to the girls and I was trying to decide what color to paint. Do you notice how there are two different sized windows in here? I'd like to have chocolate drapes on both of them.

Love my dresser!! My sister-in-law gave this to me for Christmas a couple years ago. She bought it and took the paint off of it and stained it. I've admired it since we moved back here in 2003.So when they got a new bedroom set, she gave it to me!

This is one of the few things on my dresser. Well when it's not piled with kid's art. :) I love it! My mother-in-law gave this to me after she moved.

And our bed. The bedframe is one John's mom had. It's old enough that it isn't a king and it isn't a queen. I like it, but I am thinking of making an upholstered headboard. I'd love to have some sort of artwork above our bed, but I'm not sure what right now.

And there is the door again. (see I already taped that area by the door!) I primed and painted a creamy white behind the door that you can see. That was a slightly different color than the color we used in the playroom, which is the paint I am using. Oh an you can see our lovely light fixture in this picture too. I am hoping to replace it with this light from Ikea.

It's the Kristaller Chandelier. I love it! Love the price too, $39.99.

And this in my hubby's nightstand. Actually it is an end table from the living room that I currently don't have room for. It is yet another thing I got from my sister-in-law that I have admired since we moved back. It is one of a pair and I love the straight lines. On my side of the bed I have a milk crate turned on it's side with decorating books and my inspiration binder. Along with a small tub of paint chips and brochures we've picked up at Lowes and Home Depot. I have loved the Valencia Oval Bedside Table from Pottery Barn for years, but they're a little out of my price range.

I'd like to put up sconces too, but we'll see.

Anyway, I'm starting with paint. Mainly because I have a bunch leftover from the playroom and I am sick of the drab walls in my room. So this will probably be a slow process, but I'm okay with that. I'm looking forward to having a nice relaxing space to share with John. :)

Good Morning thoughts

2010-01-06T11:33:00.000-08:00

This morning as I was trying to get up the courage to get out of my nice my warm down comforter covered bed, I was looking at the wall by my door

and thinking, "I could paint that today. Just the wall by the closet and the door wall. Just put up some painters tape and plastic on the floor. Just to see how the paint from the playroom would look."

(the 'Emily' pegboard is left from when the girls had this room and I haven't taken it down yet)

I have an idea for that wall and it includes some floating frames I bought on clearance a few years ago that I still I need to paint black,

and this sign I also got a couple years ago.

Yes that is wall paper. In my bedroom. On one wall that has paneling under it. I hate it. And I really want to tear it down. All in due time.

So my idea is to put in pictures of John and I and some quotes in the frames. I have 6 total. Then hang them collage style (if I can they're all the same size so I may not be able too) with the 'Love' sign above them.

I'm not actually going to paint that wall today...but maybe tomorrow after school is done I will. :)

Updated background and a 2010 list of things I'd like toget done

2010-01-03T21:57:00.000-08:00

I updated my background with my fave colors right now courtesy of this post from The Background Fairy! I am planning a makeover of my bedroom with these colors, so finding this background was awesome!

So some things I'd like to get done this year are (not necessarily in this order):

Finish our brick patio in our backyard
Edge our flowerbeds with remaining brick
Put up a fence around our backyard (not going to happen this year!)
Mini room makeovers for my room and the girl's room
Install baseboard trim under my kitchen cabinets and paint them all a creamy white (still searching for the perfect color)Done!
Window treatments for all rooms!!
Build a new entertainment center (I'm already drawing up plans)Done! Bought one instead of building one.
Take all of the things in boxes in our attic and put them in rubbermaid totes and move to our garage rafters (only things not affected by extreme temps)
Put in the transition from the dining room to the living room

There's probably more...but I can't remember it all now! Happy New Year people! :)

oh I'm participating in Thrifty Decor Chick's Before and After Party. Go check it out!

The girl's room after the playroom makeover and mini office

2009-12-28T10:30:00.000-08:00

I spent part of yesterday afternoon gathering up the rest of the girls toys that need to be taken up to the playroom. Part of that entailed pulling our an enormous amount of clothes, books and toys from under the bunk bed! The trundle went under there, so I was surprised at how much I kept finding! lol

Hailey's 'daybed'

They all have the bright pink quilts on their bed, but Emily has hers under the lighter quilt.

I am going to be buying a triple hamper so they can sort their clothes as they take them off. :)

And of course I need to paint their closet doors and get them reinstalled along with getting a cute area rupg for their room. I'd like to paint it and put in baseboard trim and crown molding. I'm just not sure what color to paint. I've been thinking of a light yellow or a light apple green. They're into horses right now, so I was thinking of doing some decorating along that line, but all their horses are in the playroom now. So, I'm back at square one. lol

This is the mini office area right now. The wall above the desk is such a blank slate. John is going to build another bookcase for me. And once the tree is out of the living room, the couch will move forward a little bit. I have plans to get a couple canvas painters drop clothes and use them as drapes (I'll have to line them because our windows are old and a bit drafty) instead of the vertical blinds.

We finished up!

2009-12-27T23:05:00.000-08:00

So before I show off the new pictures, here is the old loft.

John and I worked until 2am on Christmas Eve/morning to finish up the play room.

I did up the plans for the shelf. It has a Barbie house at one end and at the other it has adjustable shelves for the toy bins.

This is what the girls woke up to in the morning. :)

The reading area. I'm going to cover the pillows, but i haven't found fabric I really like yet. I already had the shelf, I just painted it.

The reading area ceiling. I think this is my favorite part of the room!

The dress up area, to the right of the reading area. They got a bunch of dress-up from Grandma for Christmas, so it's even more full now. :) I'm thinking of putting up some hooks on the wall for other dress-up stuff, like boas, wigs, and wings.

The new desk area!! My sister-in-law gave us the desk. I like that the glass makes the room feel a bit more spacious.

My sister-in-law also gave us the Tv since she got a flat screen for Christmas. :)

And the Barbie house portion. :)

Now that I have a new desk for upstairs, I moved the other one to the corner of the living room.

Now to work on my mini-office area...Actually, I have enough primer and paint to paint my room, so I am going to work on both during January using what I have or thrift stuff.

Today's project

2009-12-22T16:12:00.000-08:00

Today I turned this material

into this!!

I used this tutorial from Thrifty Decor Chick to make it. Only thing I did differntly, was to use lining on the back because the sun beats in the window during the summer afternoons, and instead of ribbon (which I was sure I had), I used stips of extra fabric. I am so pleased with how this turned out!! And the best part is it only cost me $10 for the hooks and the tension rod. I had the lining already and the green gingham material.

So this is the window treatment for the loft. We have the paint up (I love it) and John attached trim and primed the shelf unit pieces over the weekend. He has a half day of work tomorrow, so he'll be putting a coat of paint

(June Lake)

on the shelf pieces, then putting it togeher. Once the girls are in bed, we'll bring it upstairs for it's final coat of paint. Here are some pictures with paint on the walls.

I can't wait to take that blue tape down!! :)

Progress so far

2009-12-17T10:39:00.000-08:00

So here is our progress so far. John put up a sheet of plastic to block the view up the stairs as much as possible.

So that's it! The wall by the stairs needs a lot of touch ups, but I can't reach it without a ladder. So John will have to help with that.

First homemade gift done and shipped!!

2009-12-15T15:14:00.000-08:00

Well, technically it's not the first one done, but it is the first I can put on here. :) I'm not sure if my sister-in-law reads my blog, but just in case, I'll wait to post pictures and where I got the tutorials for her gift until Christmas is over. But here is my nephew's present.

I made these fish myself. That is a first for me. I've never some up with any crafty thing on my own. I normally use patterns. So... I took pictures along the way to post a tutorial. Unfortunately, I loaded the pictures on the laptop, which my hubby has at work, so tutorial will have to come sometime this weekend.

As far as the playroom gift goes, we have cleared out the loft, bought the lumber for the shelf unit and ripped them down to size. We also put up a sheet of plastic around the staircase so little eyes don't peek. ;) My middle child is sneaky like that. Amazingly enough, they haven't tried to come up here. (Our desktop is still up here, but pulled into the middle of the room) My nephew on the other hand, is dying to com up here and keeps coming up with little excuses, but they don't work. lol Anyway, I am planning on putting the first coat of primer on the walls tonight. Then hopefully another coat in the am before the kids wake up and then the paint tomorrow night. I'm excited! I'll post some pictures after we get the paint on. :)

Okay, back to sewing more Christmas presents!

Some befores...

2009-12-11T13:34:00.000-08:00

So here are a few before pictures of my girls' bedroom and what will be their playroom.

This is the view from their doorway. See our floors? Lots of hard work refinishing those babies!

Looking left from their doorway.

Their bunk beds with a trundle underneath.

And their closet. I wish it was a bit taller. John said we may be able to take the cabinets above out.

They have sliding doors, but we took them off when we refinished the floor and haven't put them back yet.

I need to re-paint them. I hate posting pictures of their room messy, but this is their version of clean.

Now the loft. It is the back half of the attic that the previous owners finished. This room has served many purposes since we moved into this house a few years ago. It has been an office and guest room, it has been an office and TV room, and most recently, it has been our school room and office. I had to do school downstairs a few weeks ago because I was watching a 6 month old baby. It just made more sense to be downstairs. Anyway, it was much easier to do school at the kitchen table, so that is where we will be doing it form now on. Plus I couldn't stand being up there with the dark paneling much longer.

Looking up the stairs.

View from the landing, looking right. Don't you love the carpet? lol

Our desktop computer and the table I was using for sewing, before moving it into the laundry room.

My makeshift bookcase of milk crates (hate that) and our printer station in front of the railing. John built me a bookcase a couple years ago for our living room and is going to build me another matching one for our homeschool books and our printer. So we'll end up with a mini office in the living room. I'm hoping to eventually have it look similar to this.

Back to the loft now..

Looking at the landing. The door behind it is the door to our storage room and our attic access.

To the immediate right of the landing is this little nook.

Yesterday Emily made it into a tent. It is their reading area.

This is the paint we will be using in the loft.

Here is where I moved my sewing stuff and is now Christmas Central.

In front of the table is a side door we never use and will eventually fill in.

I dream of having cubbies like these some day.

On the opposite side of the room in my washer, dryer and the only shower in the house. That's right, the only shower. Our bathroom has a bathtub, but no shower. It's on the list of projects to do.

Here is my washer, tucked behind the shower. We're thinking about getting a stacking washer and dryer and stacking them here. Of course the cabinets would have to go then.

Tomorrow John and I will be gathering supplies and doing what we can to prepare for it. About a week before Christmas, we'll block off the stairs so the girls can't go up there, and we'll start putting it together, painting and moving things. I'll post pictures as I can. :)

Pictures coming!

2009-12-06T14:36:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow I am borrowing my sister's digital camera. I have a ton of projects I am working on that I am going to take pictures of and upload here. Things like felt desserts, felt fish, sweaters I am making into pillows, photo blocks, and a photo album for my father-in-law. I'll also upload some before pictures of our house that I'll update as we slowly remodel some things. :)

Last night John and I decided to turn our office/schoolroom into a playroom for the girls. It'll be part of their Christmas present. All three of them share a room and it's a pretty small room, so it's normally a mess. So check back over the next week to see what's up!

Really need to go to bed...

2009-11-18T22:24:00.000-08:00

BUT I had to share this. It is way past time for my girls to be helping around the house. One of our friends introduced us to goalforit.com a couple weeks ago. Basically you sign-up, create a custom chore chart for your kids, or some goals for yourself. On their website they say:

"Our free custom Chore Chart is the fun & rewarding way to help teach kids about responsibility, appropriate behavior, making choices & appreciating things ... all essential for giving kids a solid foundation for their future."

At first, I was resistant (who isn't to change?). I didn't want to have the windows open all day for them to check off what they had done. I didn't want to take the time to make the charts. Well, then yesterday, on our grumpy day mind you, I decide to make chore charts on Word. Just to see what kind of chores they have listed on goalforit.com, I looked it up, signed up and proceeded to make a chart for Hailey that I said I would never use because I was making one myself. lol

Once I started making this chart for Hailey, I realized there is no way I could make something like this on Word. The graphics are amazing! You can set up the charts to reward 'moolah points' for everything that is accomplished and you can set up your reward system. And they have healthy habits (eating fruits & veggies, brushing your teeth, etc. ) , behavior reminders, and you can make some custom chores.

So today, I finished up the girls' charts. They LOVE them! They were super excited to check off what they did. So go over and check it out! Maybe it will be just what you need too. :)

This is the day the Lord has made.

2009-11-18T07:23:00.000-08:00

We will rejoice and be glad in it!! (Psalm 118:24) We had a grumpy day yesterday, but today is new day and we are pushing foward. :)

I've been up since 5am, when John headed off to work. I was planning on going back to bed at least until 7, but then we were looking at the grocery store ads, and I remembered that Thanksgiving is next week! We always celebrate Thanksgiving with John's family because his birthday is on the 23rd. When I talked to his sister yesterday, she said she was sick and maybe we could get together Saturday to plan a menu. So this morning,instead of sleeping, I put together a quick menu, with the help of Williams-Sonoma's recipe section, and emailed it to her. I also offered to host it since she is sick this week.

I LOVE fall decorations and normally go all out and decorate for it around Sept. 1. For some reason, it felt very overwhelming to decorate for fall this year (probably due to the re-finishing of the floors this summer), so I just grabbed some pumpkins from my mother's garden and put them up around the house. I'm getting back in the groove, so I am excited to put some of the great decorations I have found on different blogs to use.

One of the projects I am planning on doing this weekend is the dollar store version of the WS glass hurricane that Melissa over at 320* Sycamore made. This weekend, the girls and will be making Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars courtesy of JJ from the BLAH BLAH BLAHger. I made Pumpkin Pancakes last weekend (sure i got it form one of the blogs I follow, but will have to find it.) The girls LOVED it! Ashley over at Make it and Love it has done a few blogs on scarf repurposing, so I am going to head to Goodwill Saturday, (while John helps re-roof someone's roof) and grab some scarves and make some of these. And, finally, maybe I can find a scarf and make this Ruffle Scarf by Jessica from Happy Together for my niece's Christmas present.

Christmas is coming!

2009-10-27T15:15:00.001-07:00

Every year around the end of October, our church participates in Operation Christmas Child. Every year, I procrastinate until it is too late. Well not this year!!! This year I set aside 3 shoe boxes. The HUGE stack of shoe boxes at church helped! lol

Since I have 3 girls, I figured I would have each of them fill a box for a girl in their age range. I thought it might make it more personal to them. We are all looking forward to making some little dolls to put in each shoe box. Last night I told the girls they needed to start thinking about what they wanted their doll to look like. As we make the dolls and fill the boxes, I am looking forward to talking with the girls about who the boxes are going to. I want them to pray for the little girls who will get the boxes they put together. I want this to be a tradition we do every year and take the focus off of 'what do we get for Christmas this year' and put more of a focus on 'how can we show Jesus' love to people around us?'

So, we are starting the dolls today with picking fabric. Then tomorrow we'll pick out the color of hair and I'll make copies of the pattern and will cut them out. We'll work on it a little bit each evening until they are done. Later this weekend we'll go shopping for school supplies and whatnot to put in the box also.

During one of the announcements of the upcoming Shoeboxes Campaign, our brother-in-law (also our pastor) was suggesting things you can add and he mentioned school supplies. Emily was sitting next to me and turned real quick with an excited look and whispered (loudly), "Mom, he said we can put school supplies in them!" Hailey has already claimed a box as her shoebox to fill.

Kimba, from A Soft Place to Land, led me to Sarah, from Real Life. She is partnering with Operation Christmas Child to reach the blogging community. She is going to host a blogging carnival for people to share their OCC stories and a virtual packing party on her live MomTV Show. You can read all about it on her site Real Life: Operation Christmas Child Carnival and Contest. I encourage you to go check it out ASAP!!

Something is in the water...

2009-10-27T12:03:00.000-07:00

Last week, a friend announced his wife is pregnant. Then yesterday, my cousin announced that his wife is pregnant. and today I log onto Facebook and find out yet another couple we are friends with is pregnant. Something is most definitely in the water. lol I am so excited for them all!!

With all the blogs I have been reading, this also means I can make some baby presents!! I am so looking forward to that. :)

Score!

2009-10-23T22:19:00.000-07:00

While out today at the local Goodwill, I happened upon 2 1/4 yds of a white fabric with a slightly rough texture. Since I am currently focusing on our office/schoolroom/ new sewing area, I bought it and am going to make a window treatment with it. Not sure exactly how yet, BUT for 2. 75, how could I resist?

I also scored 2 set of glass luncheon plates and cups. I gave one to my niece for her birthday so she can have tea parties with her American Dolls. The other I am saving for my girls as a Christmas present. They like to have tea parties with mommy and practice their manners. :)

After discovering this dresser turned dress-up closet, I saw it as a great Christmas present for my girls and a solution to my dilemma of where to put all their dress-up. They have a ton of dress-up, thanks to their Grandma's love of thrifting. :) So I am on the look out for a similar dresser. If I don't find one by the beginning of December, my mother-in-law has a smaller TV cabinet she said I can have.

Tomorrow, John and I are going to go out and get all the materials I need to make the Christmas presents this year, even though I am still making my list! lol I would love to give my girls some more clothes for their Our Generation Dolls. I am trying to decide whether I should try making them, or if I should just buy some. I'm leaning towards buying them...

I have been inspired!

2009-10-20T13:12:00.000-07:00

With the holiday's coming, I'd really like to have an area set up for my sewing machine to out all the time. We are having a more homemade Christmas (thanks to all the great ideas I have found!), so it really needs to be out. Plus, my girls are begging to sew and right now, I say no because I don't want to drag all the stuff out. So, I've been searching many different blogs on crafting, sewing, decorating, homeschool, etc trying to come up with ideas.

I don't have a digital camera available at the moment to take a before picture, but as soon as I can, I will take one. So for now, you'll have to imagine it. Dark wood paneling, dark brown & black worn out shag carpet, sloped ceiling (it is in the finished half of our attic), black iron stair railing, LOTS of books, yardsale dining table-now school table, nice espresso wood and glass desk, antique rolling wood office chair from a thrift store, lots of papers and coloring books, school supplies, old ceiling fan missing it's light cover, makeshift bookcase made out of milk crates and 3 hand-me-down dining chairs.

I think I have found a color palate. I have 2 jumbo clothspins that I thought would be nice to use for assignments for the week or something like that. They are a soft blue color and a buttery yellow color. I could paint them, but I can't figure out how to take them apart, so I am leaving them alone. Right now, they have an apple green-like color at Wal-mart that I will buy as soon as I can. We already bought paint that is an off white color. So I am going to paint the walls off white and then use the blue, yellow, green and a bit of brown as accent colors. The molding around the attic door and window is a nice dark brown stain and so it the attic door, so rather than paint them, I am incorporating it. I found a room in Pottery Barn Kids that had this color scheme (without the brown, though) and I liked how it looked.

I had been planning to use a plastic tables next to each other for the girl's work space and put a tablecloth over it and plexiglass over that to creat a smooth worktable. John suggested as a more cost effiecient approach, to buy cabinet grade plywood and build a table how I want it. So I designed that last night. It's really very simple and maybe a little bit more modern than I normally like, but it will be very functional.

I am hoping to find a bookcase at Goodwill or even a low retro dresser that I can take the drawers out of and conver to a bookcase. If I don't then we'll build that too. That will hold all our school stuff and business stuff. On top will be our printer, scanner and in/out boxes.

The desk will be moved over about 2 feet so it is under the window, and i will set up the plastic table I already own (thanks Heather!) next to it for a craft/sewing area. I am going to put some shelves up in front of the craft table for supplies and what not. There is a closet that we are using as a reading area, so that needs a cushion and some pillow covers and of course I need a window covering.

So, in the end, our small room will be an L of tables & desks, but I am hoping that once everything has a final home, it won't really feel small.

It's Fall!

2009-09-30T17:34:00.000-07:00

I have been impatiently waiting for fall to arrive here in eastern Or. Normally it is not very cool until about now, but once September hits, I am under the opinion the temperature should drop also. lol When we went to Depoe Bay on the 17th, I was looking forward to some cooler weather. It wasn't as cool as I would have liked it, but was better than 80+ degrees. So we came back and a week later, the temps drop and I am in heaven!! I love jeans and sweaters! Tomorrow we are putting out all my fall decorations...and hopefully starting to make a few too!

With the arrival of fall, my mind also travels to Christmas and the approaching deadline for presents to be aquired. This year, since John has no overtime available in his new position, we are having a more homemade Christmas. I have been seraching several blogs for ideas and am so excited to try several out!! I am going to be helping my kids to pick gifts that they can make for their cousins. Emily has been dying to sew lately, so tonight we are going to work on some basic stitches and get her ready for some Christmas crafting. :)

Our upcoming weekend of soccer and a cousin

2009-09-11T09:42:00.001-07:00

We have my nephew, A., for the weekend, so this morning I got up early to get him on the bus. I am not a morning person and has a very restless sleep last night anticipating the alarm going off. Once up, and helping him (he's 5) get ready, I enjoyed the time with him. He has picture day today and since he is here, I spiked his hair. hehe He looked so cute!! He didn't like being called cute though. "I'm not cute Becca, I'm a boy" he told me. he also didn't like being told he's cool or his hair looks awesome. lol He specifically requested "Let's take Becca's truck, not John's car. John's car stays here." So different from the girls!!

I don't know if I mentioned or not, I am officially a soccer mom. We have enrolled Hailey & Emily in soccer this season and Hailey has her first game tonight! Emily has her's tomorrow afternoon. Emily's team chose the name 'Green Devils', cause their shirts are green.The high school mascot in Walla Walla is the Blue Devils, so I think that is were 'Green Devils' came from. lol They wanted to be named 'Green High School Musical', but their coach said it was too long.

Where did summer go?

2009-09-01T11:01:00.000-07:00

School has started and I wonder where did the summer go? Is it really Sept. 1 already??
We had a major project we scheduled to do this summer. Refinishing our floors. We thought it would take a little over a week. Try 2-3 weeks. I can't even remember how long it took, but I am glad it is done!! ANd they look beautiful. :)
We traveled to L.A. again this year for my brother in-law's wedding. We all (John's sister's and families) rented an amazing house in La Habra. It was so wonderful to be able to spend time with everyone. We all went to Disneyland while we were there. The girls were in heaven! The met several Disney characters: Ariel, Belle, Sleeping Beauty, Cinerella, Snow White, Mr & Mrs. Incredible to name a few.
Now we are back to school. Come on Fall!

Our Spring so far...

2009-05-04T12:41:00.000-07:00

I have been bitten by the Spring Yardwork/Projects bug this year! Last summer the school across the street was re-roofed and in that process, they took down the two brick chimneys. John got them and they've been waiting for a use. We had talked a bit about uses for them and finally decided on at least two.

a 14' x14' brick patio off our back deck
lining the flowers bed

Now that we have decided what to do, and this is a project I can work on while John is at work, the weather is not cooperating!! So I have to be patient a little longer. :)
I'd love to re-paint the girls' playhouse and re-do most of my flower beds, but we'll see how the spring/summer goes.

In other news, John has started a new job. It is still on the Umatilla Chemical Depot, but now he is supervising Maintenance and MWR and things like that. It is only days (YEA!!!) and 4 days a week. He hasn't had a job where he works days and has weekends off in 3 1/2 years! The girls and I were all very ready for this change. :)

Beautiful spring day

2009-04-24T16:17:00.000-07:00

It is a glorious day here in Eastern Oregon! It started out a bit chilly, but ended up being nice. Perfect for sitting outside reading my Bible, while the kids colored on the sidewalk with chalk. Perfect for a half day of school then taking a walk as a family to visit Aunt Jennifer and her girls.

My girls have been dying to ride their bikes on 'a walk', as they put it. So today was that day. And today was the day we discovered it is time to get our bikes ready to ride. :) The kids were fast! It ended up being hard to keep up with them! lol

to Vegas and partway home, back to vegas then finally back home!!

2009-04-01T16:44:00.001-07:00

Friday to Tuesday was my trip to Las Vegas with my sister for her birthday. We had fun, did a bunch of shopping, had spa treatments. It was great! She was having a blast taking pictures and walking around.

About 45 minutes into our way home, John's tire blew out. We got it changed to the doughnut, with the help of some guys Stephanie flagged down. I had no clue the lug nuts needed a key!

Instead of heading back to Vegas to get a new tire we continued on into Nevada, thinking the next town had a tire store and it might have the tire. John has 18" low profile tires on his car, so if someone had them, it was going to be a miracle.

Driving 50mph until we got into cell reception took about 2 hours. Driving the speed limit on the way back, it took us 1 hour. Once we called John, he called around in Vegas and found the tire, so we headed back. It took us 3 hours.

By the time we stopped for the night, we had been on the road for a total of 16.5 hours and awake for 19hours. Thankfully we made it home today with little problems, just a bit of snow. It certainly made the end of the trip eventful, but by the time we got home we were tired of being in the car. Luckily, not tired of each other though. :)

I did it

2009-03-02T14:39:00.000-08:00

I am now on facebook. Really didn't want to be on multiple sites, but John made me! lol

I hate learning new things. I always feel very insecure. Myspace is easy...at least for me it is. But apparently there are a lot of people on facebook that are not on myspace. I have found a few, but most of the people I know are on myspace too.

In other news, we are heading to the coast after church on Sunday. in the past 2 weeks Hailey had a fever with a cold and then Audrey. Now Emily has it. So I am making her rest so she better by Sunday. She is not resisting laying onthe couch, which proves she is sick. She is one girl who HATES sitting still. She in normally in constant movement. But she sat with me for about an hour this morning without squirming, so that is nice for me.

John told me about a website that I'd like. He knows what he is talking about. Google Rate My Space if you like decorating. Truly an amazing site! I have so many ideas for my house it isn't funny! Now to get started...

2 weeks done, 2 weeks to go.

2009-02-28T14:49:00.000-08:00

John and I have been on a 4 week diet program called Trim Advantage from our online store (TheMegaOutlet.com if you want to check it out) for 2 weeks now. I've lost 9lbs and several inches all over. I think he's lost 10lbs. I'm trying to slim down a bit for Vegas and ultimately for our trip to L.A. in August. I'm pretty happy about the results we've both gotten so far. It's definately helped me to get back into a routine of eating better and working out again, even if it's only for 10 minutes.

I've been reading some blogs on bodybuilding.com and a couple others and I am really motivated to KEEP the results coming!!

John and I both want to lose as much body fat as possible, then we're going to change gears and work on adding muscle. I LOVE the look of a nice, full, round muscle. Wether it's a bicep, calf, hamstring or shoulder, I love em all!! I know that seems werid to some people, but what can I say. ;-) Good thing for both of us, he has access to gym at work and I have out home gym here.

I'd love to compete in a race sometime this year, but we'll see about that. I'm not sure what I'd do. I love to ride my bike and I like running. After I get done with this diet, I'll incorporate both into my training and see which wins! lol

Moving my mother-in-law

2009-02-21T17:16:00.001-08:00

We've spent the weekend moving my mother-in-law. She is in a wheelchair and for the past 10+ years, has lived in a small house that is not exactly wheelchair friendly. My sis-in-law, Jennifer found her new house about 5 blocks up and 2-3 over from her old house.

Her new house is much better for her. It's all on one level and it has a carport she can drive her wheelchair van under. No more digging her van out of snow! The living area is open, so no hard corners for her to maneuver.

The first day was a beautiful day, nice and warm. The last two have been COLD!! But we got everything out of the house yesterday and today we tackled the garage.

We found a couple boxes with papers from when John and his siblings were little. There was a newspaper clipping of Jennifer that showed a striking resemblance to her daughter, Morgan. We found a box of schematics John's dad drew. In another box there was his dad's schoolwork from the 1940's. We found sketches we think his mom did. It was like a step back in time. Some of it was starting to get mildew on it, so it's a good thing we moved her, otherwise some stuff could have been lost. so, now we are going to preserve as much as we can.

It's been a very full couple of days and John and I are both tired. All we have to do at the old house now, is take some empty boxes and trash to the dump. After that it is just getting her settled at her new house.

My little girl

2009-02-18T19:00:00.000-08:00

Audrey is in love with heels. She loves to wear her sunday dress shoes every other day of the week. She calls them tappy shoes.

The last few days she has been battling a fever, yet has acted completely normal. Today, though, we were over at Grandma Pat's house all day helping her move. She fell asleep on the way home and is in bed sniffling and watching a movie as I type this.

Yet, even when sick, she is wearing her tappy shoes! lol She just came out into the living room to show me something, and before I saw her I hear the tap-tap-tap of her favorite pair of heels: wedges with pink beads on them.

Going to the coast...again

2009-02-16T11:00:00.000-08:00

It turns out John has training for work in Astoria on March 9-12th, so we are all going to the coast again. I'm pretty stoked about this! So are the girls. I'm going to tie in some school field trips to this trip. We'll be staying in Seaside, so we'll go to the Aquarium and Fort Clatsop where Lewis and Clark wintered over before their return trip. John wants to stop at the Portland Zoo on the way there or back.

My trip to Las Vegas with my sister is coming up soon. We cancelled our reservation at the Bellagio and are going to stay at the New York New York instead. And we are making it a road trip. I'm excited about that. I love traveling and even though Nevada is kind of boring, there's more to see than froma plane. I'm planning some road trip games and that kind of thing to make the 14hr drive go by quicker.

Weekend at the coast

2009-02-09T14:47:00.000-08:00

This past weekend we headed out of town to visit our friends, David and Kristin, in Depoe Bay. They have a baby boy named Brodie and we were all really excited to see him! We left early Friday morning. They have lived there for awhile, but this is the first time we've visited. The girls were really excited to see the ocean. From the time we left, until we got there, about every 20 minutes, Audrey asked "Where are we?" or "When do we get to see the baby? Where's the baby?"

They really did good in the car. We took John's Honda Civic coupe instead of my suburban, so they were a little squished. Thank goodness for technology! We brought the laptop and their movies, so they were occupied for most of the trip.

David works at the Fire Dept. there, so after we arrived he gave us a tour of the Dept. The kids had fun trying to play ping-pong, pool, and Foosball in the wreck room. When he showed us the fire trucks (my nephew, Aidan, would have been so jealous!), he asked the girls if they wanted to try on his gear. Only Emily did, of course. She was so cute! As soon as I get the pics from John I'll post one. The each sat in the fire truck.

Before dinner that night, David took us on the scenic drive to the Lookout at Cape Foulweather~500 feet above the sea. It didn't seem that high up. Then we went to see the Devil's Punchbowl. Even though it was pretty cold, the girls were really impressed with this. It was a neat mini-science lesson about erosion, too. From there, you could see the Lookout and it looked at a lot higher than 500 feet!

Saturday was really nice, so we walked down to the sea wall (they don't live too far away). There is a whale center there that we went though. They had displays of whale ribs and jaw bones that were alomost taller than me! The girls really liked looking at everything. They watched a little video about whales. We walked along the sea wall after that. It is amazing to see the ocean!The white building in the picture, looking over the ocean is the whale center. And it really isn't a complete trip to the ocean without saltwater taffy, so we stopped by one of the many stores and picked up several different flavors. A couple of my favorites: green apple, pina colada, and cheesecake.

Later that day, at low tide, we went to one of the beaches and looked at tide pools and picked up some shells. Another science lesson. :) I love seeing things in real life and being able to give the girls information on it. They enjoy it more than sitting at a desk, and I love seeing their faces as they find a sea anemone, just like the ones they see in Finding Nemo.

Audrey had fun, but she picks up anything that seems interesting to her anyway, so this was like a dream come true for her. Emily picked up a few shells, and discovered Sunday that one housed a hermit crab. She was pretty freaked out at first, but then grew to like the idea of a pet hermit crab. Unfortunately he didn't survive the trip home. Now she thinks she needs s bunny. : p Hailey didn't find any shells she liked, but she did take a bunch of pictures while we were exploring Depoe Bay.

Sunday, we went to church with Daivid and Kristin, then we stopped by the Yaquina Head Lighthouse. The girls have never seen a lighthouse before, so it was a neat experience for them. We didn't think Audrey would be tall enough to walk up (they had a 42" height requirement), but she ended up being 43" tall. It was built in 1872-73 and has 104 stairs plus 10 more up to the light. They only let you go up the first 6 stairs to the light, so you aren't actually standing next to the light.

It was a great weekend trip and we all can't wait to go again! There is so much to do on the coast! Next time we are going to see the aquarium where Keiko the whale (from Free Willy) was at and the seal caves. Of course there will be more beach exploring and maybe we can see the other lighthouse in Newport. For now, we are going to do a unit study on Oceans and learn a bit more about the ocean and the Oregon coast.

It was a blast!!

2009-01-24T18:29:00.000-08:00

John and went snowboarding yesterday. There was hardly anybody there. Mostly the guys who work there. It was beautiful and sunny. Kind of warm~like 23 degrees. I didn't wear my coat for most of the time we were there.

I was really intimidated by riding and unloading from the lift. I had trouble with it last time, but I did pretty well. I did 5 runs, and John did 6. We were there for about 2 hours. I fell hard on my wrist, so I had to stop. John could have gone for several hours more. John isn't sore or anything. No bruises from falling down.

It hadn't snowed on the mountain for about a week, so the snow was fairly packed, even though they groomed they snow. Last time we went it was snowing, so there was powder on the ground. Falling on powder is okay. Falling yesterday hurt. I didn't fall too much, but I did fall. My knees show the proof of that. They're all black and blue. Funny thing is though, I'm kind of proud of my bruises. I had fun and tried hard at something new, and I have the marks to prove it! lol

One important thing, though, I kept a good attitude. Even after falling 5 times in 5 feet. :)

I'm hoping we go again this season. :)

We're getting ready...

2009-01-19T17:30:00.000-08:00

to go snowboarding! John and I went snowboarding a couple years ago and loved it! It was towards the end of the season so we bought equipment on clearance for the next year.

We haven't gone since. lol John ended up working a ton of overtime last year and it just never worked out. We've snowboarded when we went sledding, but haven't gone to Spout Springs or Bluewood.

This year he is bound and determined to go. He wanted to go this weekend, but it didn't happen. So he spent the afternoon before he left for work today preparing for next weekend. He put our bindings on and spent time watching some videos on youtube.

I remember being so sore after we went last time. I swore I wouldn't go unless I was in better shape. Since then I've lost about 20lbs. (wow! I forget that!) and I think I'm in better shape, but I am definitely going to be preparing this week for a day/afternoon on the slopes.

Emily was fairly wound up today. She is more high energy than the other two. It's been a little icy and very cold, so they haven't played outside for about a week. She was starting to get cabin fever, so John suggested she get some energy out by running laps around the house. So I got enlisted for a race with her and Hailey. I won of course, they didn't care that mommy won. :) It felt good to get moving. My brother wants me to put together a workout program for him, and I think I'll include running in it, so I have a running partner.

Time to go cook dinner! Yummy!

Charity's challenge

2009-01-16T15:06:00.000-08:00

Charity (my niece) challenged me to post the fourth file in my pictures and the fourth picture , post it and describe it then challenge four people to do the same. So here is the picture. It is a sample picture. We lost a bunch our stuff off the laptop last year so we burn our pics to disks ASAP. It looks relaxing, though doesn't it?

So I challenge Greg, Bill, Melissa and...whoever else wants to take the challenge to do the same. Have fun!

Feeling accomplished

2009-01-08T18:12:00.000-08:00

It's almost the end of the day and what I needed to get done, got done. School with Hailey (though she took her sweet time with math and language arts) and Emily, got a strength workout in, ate good-for-me food all day, made some appointments, and kept the house in failry good order in the process.

I had gotten in the habit of working out regularly last year, getting ready to go to L.A. and the beach. After we got back, we had a whirlwind summer filled with family visiting and summer school. Working out got put on the back burner. So here I am at the beginning of the year, clothes fitting tighter, and getting my rear in gear.

Planning a trip...

2009-01-07T13:04:00.000-08:00

Last year when we went to L.A. to visit John's brother, Jake, we drove down through Idaho and Nevada. John's boss drove that way to L.A. and said it was quicker than driving down I-5. Anyway, we stayed in Las Vegas, which was awesome, even with kids. Then we went again for our anniversary in August. My sister was a little jealous. She has never been and now I've been 4 times and all her friends have gone at least once. So, for her birthday she wants to go and I am planning the trip for her. Last night we reserved our room...at the Bellagio!!! I was thinking Planet Hollywood, but the Bellagio was only $20 more, so since it's her birthday, she got the executive decision. I'm glad we're going because it gives me a short term goal (before Jake's wedding this August) to focus on while I work out.

Haven't written much, I am stilling working on my rough draft of a Princess and the Pea adaption. And learning how to draw some illustrations.

The housekeeper came yesterday for the first time. The girls know her from Grandma Pat's house, so they were talking to her and trying to help and I think that slowed her down a bit. The house looks awesome! Now hopefully the kids won't wreck it. :)

Fairy tales on the brain

2008-12-30T00:38:00.000-08:00

Why am I up this late? My sweet Hailey wants something interesting to read. It started this afternoon while we were doing school.

She made the comment she hates to read.
I ask "Why? reading takes you to different places!" (I personally love to read)
She replied with "But I don't like what you make me read!"
Hmm, I'm thinking "Well, what do you want to read?"
"Stories about princess fairy tales."
Unfortunately, we have nothing like that at home that is at her reading level.

So, we went to the library. Do they have any easy reader princess fairy tales? No. So I asked her if she wanted me to write one for her. She got this happy look on her face and said "Thanks!"

So, now I am on a quest to write a princess fairy tale. I have some ideas. I am actually kind of excited about this. Once I finish one, I'll be the best mom ever in her eyes! :)

I actually have one halfway done (it's a kid book!) about a princess, but not anywhere near a fairy tale. I think I might interview her, maybe have her help me write it. That'd be a fun mommy-daughter thing to do.

Alright, that's out of my system, now off to bed I go...

It warmed up today...

2008-12-27T20:34:00.000-08:00

and melted off quite a bit of the snow. We knew the weather forecast was predicting a high this afternoon of 40 degrees, but at 4:00pm today noaa.gov said it was 48 degrees!! John hardly had to shovel his car out to go to work this afternoon.

Since there was no longer 3 feet of snow on my back deck, I was able to get a jump start on my New Years resolution to get rid of stuff we don't need or use and just eats up space. I started on my laundry room since that is where my give away pile ends up and moved to the garage where it will gather from the rest of the house all week until we take it to a thrift store done the street next Friday. I now have a clean laundry room and LOVE the space!! Little things make me happy, what can I say.

Our Christmas

2008-12-26T20:17:00.000-08:00

Okay, kids are in bed, I can add a little more!

For the first year in awhile, we had a white Chirstmas...about 3 feet of white stuff by Christmas, and apparently it is snowing right now. It started snowing on the 12th and has stayed cold ever since! That was the first night of our Christmas Cantata: The Heart of Christmas at church. Hailey and Emily were in the children's choir and John was in the adult choir. I stayed behind the scenes and created the tickets, programs, and the invitations the choir handed out. My sister-in-law told I should have sang too, but I am a little insecure of my singing voice. By the time it happened, though, I knew the words to most of the songs and really could have sang. Maybe next year...

We took the kids sledding Monday before John had to go work graveyard. Our skate park in Walla Walla has a perfect hill for sledding. Jennifer and her 4 girls went also, so our kids had fun going down with the cousins. John and I practiced snowboarding. I loved it. I was scared to go down at first, because it looks steep, but it wasn't so bad. Our friend, Adam who was with us, wanted to get video of us wrecking to post on myspace. Unfortunately for him, we didn't wreck very much and when we did, it didn't meet his standards! Then on my last run, I wrecked pretty good, but did he get it, no! lol

For the first year since John started working at the Depot 3 years ago, his days off fell on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. I was pretty excited about that. Last year, he had to work on Christmas Day, so we opened presents on Christmas Eve. Anyway, this year, we did Christmas Eve lunch with John's sister, Jennifer and her family and John's mom and dad. We ate lots of food drank lots of coffee, talked about everything under the sun, and opened our gifts to each other. I love spending holidays with family! Then we came home and the kids opened their Christmas pjs and off to bed we all went.

Christmas morning, the kids came and woke us up to open presents. They were so excited!! I love watching their faces. Being girls, they're pretty into princesses, fairies, and dress up. This year they all wanted an American doll. I wasn't so sure about spending $100 on a doll I wasn't sure they'd take care of, so I found some cheaper ones at target and we are trying them out before getting the real deal. When I handed out gifts Christmas morning, I saved those for last. They opened the little things first (Polly pocket, a book, a movie, a paper doll each) and they were excited, but when they all opened up their dolls, the look of joy was so worth it!

John surpriesed me with a gift I wasn't expecting. I had gone to one of those in home shopping parties that my friend had in November and wanted to get some stuff, so I told John that could be my Christmas present. So I wasn't expecting anything under the tree, besides what I had wrapped and put under there. Christmas morning, he hands me a present and inside is insturctions to the next box. He put together a little scavenger hunt for me! I was thrilled! The gift ended up being 3 months of a maid service!! I am esctatic!!! Although our house is small, I have been having a hard time keeping up with everything since the school year started. I have been dreaming of having a maid come a couple hours a week, so I am excited to have that actually happen!

After clean up of gift wrap, my parents, sister and her son, and my brother came over for brunch. And we opened presents again. :) The kids asked as soon as everyone walked in. Emily said to my mom, "Grandma, now that you're here we can open presents again!" My sister, Steph, left her presents to my family under my tree, knowing we'd be opening presents here. So after we were done that morning, I'd said we had to wait to open the rest.

Anyway, we had more wonderful food. Turns out turkey bacon cooked in regular bacon grease isn't so healthy! lol We opened more presents hung out for a bit, then everybody headed home. And we took naps on the couch while the kids watched a movie. Perfect Christmas day!!

I've given in....

2008-12-26T17:51:00.000-08:00

I've resisted blogging for a couple years, but in an effort to keep our family and friends up to date on our lives and the kids, here I am.

So, John and I have been married for 9 years, we have three beautiful daughters, Hailey who is 7, Emily who is 5, and Audrey who is 4. We are currently living close to our parents in my hometown. We've lived by the beach and now are close to mountains.

John is currently working as a army civilian and I am staying at home with the girls, homeschooling them.

Kids are calling for a family movie, so this it for now. Short start, but it's a start right? :-)