A day in the life

I thought this would be fun, to take you through a day in the life of Kati and Henry.

:)

The pictures are out of order as far as whats first in the day, but oh well. :)

This is ground zero for the main chunk of the day. I am usually sitting against that brown pillow, holding Henry, or he is in the swing under the brown blanket(which is currently is in the picture). Its bright in there so he stays asleep for naps longer in the blanket is over the swing. There are burp clothes everywhere, bottles, his bag, seat, etc. Its a baby mess.

This is ground zero for feedings. We only have 3 bottles cause we are still deciding if we like them, so I have to wash the bottles 2 or 3 times a day. There are little syringes for his medication, his formula and some binkies.

My favorite part! Ground zero for cleanings. I love baths, and I love giving my son baths. He gets so clean and yummy smelling, and I loooooove swaddling his wet little body in a towel and snuggling him. My bath area has turned into his bath area. Sigh, he's worth it.

Ugh, the worst part, ground zero at night. The bassinet is in the crib, and on the floor is my bed. Sometimes I just lay down on the floor for a few mins cause I know he is going to wake up again and I will need to coax him back to sleep.

This is our morning ground zero. For some reason I prefer getting him ready and changing his diaper for the morning in here. Theres burp clothes, wipes and other crap on the bed each morning.

Well there you have it. That is where Henry and I spend our days. We leave maybe once a day, and I really don't like leaving the house, its somewhat stressful to me. I just hate when he cries while I am driving, it kills me that I can't soothe him.

Total overhaul.

K, so remember how I am going to do a total over haul on my house decor?

I thought I would give you a tiny sneak peak and see what you think.

First thing about this overhaul you should know, the boldness and brightness, if there is any, is in the fabrics. I learned from my mistake last time of putting it on the walls, so I have pretty fabrics, with some color. So don't look at the fabrics and think its too bold cause mainly they are just for pillows.

Downstairs living room. Currently painted aqua, and yellow. WILL be painted a grey shade of white, with one or two black accent walls. I know, black, but I REALLY think its going to be awesome, they are small walls, and with the opposite color being a grey/white I think it will be very classy. Picture something SORT of like this for the black wall:

See? not as bad as you thought, right?

Here's a sneak peak of what I have so far.

I looove the fabric, and I needed a specific fabric. With wanting to introduce and make black a main color in here, I had to be able to blend in brown, because the couch cushions are brown. So I went to home fabrics and found the perfect one. It has black, tan, brown and the red secondary color.

The main floor. Is currently painted brown, aqua, and yellow. ugh. Remember from here, I am painting every wall the same, light greyish blue. There are a lot of black framed pictures with off white mats on the wall, red couches are staying red, adding pillows from the fabrics below(although I am not sure on the polka dots one), and another fabric that incorporates yellow, when Henry starts crawling I will take the rug from his nursery here, and put it in the living room. Not too much more will be done, a few knick knacks and things but those details aren't hashed out.

Soooo, tell me. Whatdoya think so far?

P.S. Am I the only one that cares this much about what my house looks like?

Frames frames frames

Ok, I have decided to go with what all of you told me you liked, the grey paint color, First Frost.

(did I mention if it looks terrible everyone who voted for it is responsible to come help me repaint?) :)

The repainting will happen sometime in May, when Jason goes to London for two weeks. :(

This re-do is so far really fun for me, because I am not in a hurry, I can take my time, think things out, plan attention to detail, do things right, etc.

The current project I am working on is the wall of pictures in the front room.

See below:

This is how it looks so far. Here is the problem. When I had this wall planned out in my mind, it was NOT going to be symmetric. It was going to be all different shapes and sizes of frames, placed randomly and not so perfect. But, I just happened to find 8 frames that were the exact same at DI, that CAME with the perfect mats, and I couldn't help but get them, which made doing a random pattern very hard. Besides what is already on the wall, I have 6 more of the 8x10's, and I have 4 other frames that are identical to each other that I could mix in there, but they don't have mats. I love the mats.

Its frustrating. So this is what my living room currently looks at, its a mess. But I am SOOO excited for it to be painted. oh I cant wait.

POST EDIT

I played with it more today, here is what it currently looks like.

*Pregnancy update*

I know I said I was done talking about the pregnancy, since there is nothing new, but there is a tiny new tid bit. I have decided I am not going to have my Dr. strip my membranes. This last week I have worked on accepting God's will, and his timing, so I am not going to push things, until Henry is a week late. I have been patient for 273 days, I can wait 21 more.

Its kinda funny how full circle pregnancy(at least mine) has come. At the very beginning I was grateful, patient, connected, and thinking about it in a spiritual way knowing that it was God's plan however it happened. Then in the middle I was irritated, frustrated, uncomfortable, annoyed, impatient, and all other emotions. Now I have come back around to the first set. Its way more peaceful this way. :)

OH, and pick A B or C. :)

Re-do!!!

So sue me, but I am tired of the main part of the house decor. :)

My husband warned me that the colors and such I had chosen were sure to get old for me after some time, I didn't believe him. It was one of those times I really should have listened to him.

I love the yellow and aqua colors that are on my wall, I just don't love them on my wall anymore, and I HATE the brown that I agreed to leave there from the previous owners. I also don't think the knick knacks and decor in the front room makes much sense.

so,

RE-DO!!!

:D

Not all at once, because Jason won't let me paint while I am prego, but I can do the rest slowly as I wait for Henry.

Today was frames. I love frames, you can always use a good frame. Every time I am at the DI I buy a couple frames, guaranteed. Jason hates it.

So I had a plan, of what I want to do on the wall in our living room, and it was going to require quite a few frames, from large to small.

I had them all. :D

picture time.

Here is what the frames looked like before. Now, the temple one I got at DI and wasn't sure if I would try to salvage the temple, or just use the frame since its square, and square is hard to find.

(The white circle is a sort of mache temple piece someone made)

I decided to try and salvage it. I scraped it off with a cookie sheet spatula, spray painted every piece and here it is. I quite love it actually, the blue might be a bit bright, but you cant really be too picky with spray paint.

The other two frames got a fresh coat of glossy black, and I painted the mats an antique white.

This wall is going to be a collage of frames, all black, with white mats, and black and white pictures in them. I am taking down the floating shelves also. Don't want the room to be too busy, remember, simple. :)

Its hard to visualize I am sure, but the new idea for this floor of the house is light, airy, classy, simple, elegant. The paint splotch on the wall is a sample of the color I thought I wanted, but I can't decide if its light enough.

Here is a close up of the paint sample color. Its called Tinsel Beam, and its not what I was hoping for. I wanted a really super light cotton white blue type color, and this one has too much color in it for me. On some walls it even looks purple, so tomorrow I will go back and get a different paint sample.

This room is hardly finished, I would say its 3% complete lol.

So basically the whole first floor is going to be one color(its now 3!), with a very light subtle feel to it, very relaxing and not so overwhelming.

Jason likes to call our current paint scheme a melted crayon box, and his friend likes to call it a mexican circus tent. Ugh, I don't know what I was thinking, I was just so excited to get out of white walled apartments I threw bright colors up!

Oh well, I am fixing it now. :)

The nursery is FINISHED!!!

The nursery is finally finished.

All I had left was to finish the bedding and the changing pad. So I am pleased to say its 100% complete. Well, ok thats not true because eventually I am going to do a skirt for the crib, but that doesnt need to be done for the baby to come. ;) oh crap and I have to put the vinyl and logo on the picture wall, ugh, oh well lol, the baby doesnt need it yet lol.

I have to say I loooove the blue. I am really glad I decided to add it the room because all orange would have been too much I think.

so if I haven't gone through it yet, lets go through the costs of everything, cause it wasn't expensive.

The chair was 5$ at a thrift store. I just changed the fabric and voola.

The dresser we already had, just painted it black and white, instead of brown.

The floating shelves were each 1$ at the DI, that I painted black.

The blue frame was 3$ at Wal-Mart, that I painted blue.

The frames on the wall were all 1$ at the dollar store.

The changing pad cover was 10$ at Wal-Mart.

The rug was the splurge. I made it myself, it costs about 40$, I used a rich thick fabric, and the other supplies were like 20$. But still, at least 150% cheaper than I could have found anything like it online.

The 49er's helmet, and Longhorns helmet on the shelf, were gifts from my momma. Free. :)

This is the blanket I FINALLY got the courage to finish!! I am proud that I didn't ruin it, its not perfect by any means, but for my first one, it rocks. :)

The blanket I would say costs about 50$ between all the different fabric, yarn, appliqué and such. It took a lot of time though. I would guess I spent about 5, maybe upwards of 10 hours on it. It really is the key to the whole room, so I wanted it to be perfect.

I am not including the furniture in this part, because obviously these are things you will always need to get, so its not like I could have gotten it cheaper.

The canvases were 8$ a piece I think, 2$ for the paint. It took me about 30 mins to do.

The curtains were 15$ I think, again I wanted a rich fabric, not cotton.

The Longhorn sign was a gift from my momma lol

the frame above the longhorn sign was actually a wedding gift we never used.

The sheets were 10$.

The bumper was 30$. I was originally going to make the bumper, and it was going to be orange, but I got too nervous about making one that was breathable. So I just bit the bullet and bought a breathable bumper. No suffocating baby for me! :)

The pillow on the glider I got at a yard sale like 2 years ago for 1$.

I didn't keep track, but minus the furniture I would say the whole thing, including wall paint, cost about 200$.

I love my nursery. I go in there sometimes and just sit in the glider and wonder about the future. I put a lot of love into that room, so Henry better love it. :)

list progress and pregnancy

remember from this post, my 23 day organizing productivity plan?

Well let me tell you how its going.

I am on day 9, and have completed 4 of the tasks....

I have completed the major laundry pile we had, which, was huge.

organizing the cords.

organizing the TV stand, which is now so empty it needs some decor.

and I have cleaned the baseboards I really wanted to clean, like the bathroom. ew.

I have not purged all my clothes, for 2 reasons. 1. my husband doesn't want me to. He and I differ greatly in this area, my philosophy, if you havent worn it in a year, throw it away. His is, if you have the space for it, keep it. I am still going to do the purge, I just have to be careful I don't throw away something I will want to rebuy in a week and have to hear him say I told you so. 2. A lot of what I need to purge is garments, and as you probably know thats a task in and of itself. Anyone wanna come have a garment bonfire with me?!

I have not cleaned the kitty litter room, because I need to get a face mask to wear to do that. I know its easy peasy to get one, I just haven't.

I have not organized the fabric, because I need to go to a comic book store and get a supply I need to complete this project. Its going to be the bomb dot come when its done so be patient.

I have not finished the crib set, because I am too nervous I am going to mess it up. :( I loooove the blanket, so much, and it took 8 hours of hard work, and I would be devastated if I ruined it while trying to put the back and batting together. So, I don't know how to get past that lol.

I have not made the carseat cover, because I need to get the back fabric first. Again, I know its easy peasy to do, but again I just haven't.

Tomorrow my task is to reorganize the kitchen. I need to talk to my hubby about it tonight, get a game plan, and do it tomorrow. It must be done for the baby to come. First, there needs to be a baby cupboard and drawer, for bottles, bibs, etc. second, I need to rethink where we have things, the sharp knives are within childs reach, but maybe I just need to get a baby proof lock on it. third, I have cereal in 3 different places, and a whole cupboard that is not even being used. So its not very efficient.

The next day is clean all the ceiling fans, which I am soooo excited for.

Although the execution of this plan hasn't been perfect, its done what it was intended for. It makes me feel productive, and keeps me busy each day.

Its not time for a baby post, but I am doing one anyway due to new developments, and I wasn't really in the mood to in the last one. :)

This is the baby's last position, and ironically its his exact position. He is sideways so when he stretches we can feel his bum on my right side lol.

I think the baby's head is engaging. There is different levels of engaged, but I really think his head is down there good. When I roll over at night I swear I can feel my pelvic bones knocking his head.

I have noticed, while doing the tasks from my list, that the longer I am up and on my feet, the more things feel like something is happening. Tightening happens a LOT more, recently I have started getting lower cramps, and at the end of the day, the pelvic pressure is insane.

I am swollen and puffy, and I finally feel more pregnant than fat. I still feel like I am larger in certain areas than I should be, but when I see pictures of myself now I see a pregnant swollen person, which is a huge step lol.

And like full circle the nausea and tiredness from trimester one is back. I don't mind it though because it keeps me from eating awful. ;) The tiredness I think is more due to lack of good quality sleep at night. My hips ache at night, and my pelvic floor muscles scream in agony anytime I roll over, so I wake up about every hour or so to turn over in the least amount of pain. I seem to get better sleep after the night is over, and I go sleep downstairs on the couch while watching the morning news. eh. I will take it.

Interactions with Henry have made this last bit of pregnancy much better. Its so fun to see him move, feel him move and make him move lol. If we press our finger into where his feet are, he will kick it. Its so cute to be apart of both interactions, when Jason plays with him I see how excited Jason is, but then I FEEL Henry's reaction to him and its the sweetest thing to experience. My sister thinks its totally gross that we can tell where his bum is, or feet, and gets all sickened out when I point it out to her.

9 months is a long time. It really is sooo long. Its almost a year. I mean I am pregnant for 40 weeks out of 52 in a year. I know its coming soon, but it just feels so weird and I can't picture it. I can't picture a baby in the carseat, or in the nursery, I can't picture the midnight feedings, or loading him into the car. It makes me nervous that I can't picture any of it, like maybe I am not supposed to because something will go wrong? :( I am paranoid, and this is probably the scariest part. There are so many things that could go wrong during labor, and then when he is born there are so many things I could have done wrong during pregnancy that we will find out about. UGH! Its scary stuff. I constantly ask Jason for blessings and I tell him specifically what I need him to say lol " I need you to say I bless Henry that he won't have bulging eyes that leak yellow fluid."( I had a weird dream like that). He never obeys me, but the blessings are still comforting. ;)

Well, only time will tell! hopefully I only have a couple more of pregnancy posts to do. ;)

35th week of pregnancy

I am in my 35th week of pregnancy. oh my goodness it feels like I have been pregnant FOREVER.

Baby is this big:

uncomfortableness- let me try and explain this to you in the best way possible, cause I never understood it before being pregnant. and example of being uncomfortable is bending forward. When you are sitting up, and you go to bend forward, not only is there a basketball in your way, but the babys extremities move in uncomfortable ways. For me, his legs go into my ribs.

The other day in the middle of a store, my pelvic floor muscles started hurting, like soreness as if I had worked them out hard. It progressively got worse, I had a few errands to still run, and by my last errand I could barely walk. I was limping, huddled over, holding my back. I was having Braxton Hicks contractions like crazy, and it was getting to the point of hurting. I went home, we had dinner, and I stayed in bed for the rest of the night. It felt so much better as long as I wasn't moving so I didn't think it was labor, and the next day after sleeping on a heating pad it felt twice as better. But boy, was it painful. Its been off and on like that ever since.

Movement- Like I explained before, movement now actually feels like a human is in me, instead of a fish. I can actually feel his feet now! At least I am pretty sure it is his feet, and at the top of my stomach, when he stretches I can feel his bum. :)

Nesting- I thought the nesting bug had left me sometime around 22 weeks, but the other day it hit me again, like a ton of bricks. I was just laying in bed, like I do everyday, moving my legs in the slightest while in bed makes my pelvic floor muscles scream in pain, but it was just bothering me that my kitchen wasn't clean. So I thought I would get up and at least do the dishes. Well, if you don't already know this about me, let me tell you, if I am cleaning, I clean, all the way, there is no just do the dishes, just wipe off the counter. So I ended up doing more than I should, but I have a sparkly lemon fresh kitchen! :D

On the painting front- I went to lowes with 2 gallons of our original yellow paint that we still had left, we clearly over bought the first time. I asked them to lighten it to a different shade, and he explained all these different reasons why it may not lighten, he tried, and lightened it by a shade and that was all they could do. So, it is going to be tricky, but I have to get a big bucket, dump both gallons in there, and mix actual white paint into it, instead of white tint. Normally I would never ever attempt this, because if you run out of the paint, it is absolutely impossible to match for more, BUT, the 2 biggest walls are already yellow, so they won't need as many coats, and the 2 blue walls are small. So 2.5 gallons of paint I think will end up being way more than enough. to do that room originally it took 1.5 gallons total.

Can I just say I love blogging? I think there are 2 types of blogging for most people, 1. update blogging- where your blog is just to update people on family, birthdays, etc. 2. social blogging, where you update people on your family, sure, but you use it as a sounding board for your thoughts, ideas, problems, and use it as a social tool with friends you might not otherwise talk to. I obviously consider myself in the second category, and for those of you in the first, thats totally fine, I love those too. I just love that when I have thoughts or questions, I can blog and get honest reliable feedback from people whose opinions I value.

And now that my blog is private, I like knowing I could vent about certain people knowing they can't read it. buwahahaha!

My name is Monica Gellar.

I don't know where this came from, this gene of mine, because my family members exhibit no signs of this trait.

I am a clean FA-REAK.

Now don't get me wrong, my house is not always clean, I don't mean a clean freak that always has to have things clean, cause thats certainly not what I mean. What I mean, when I clean, its like me against the germs. I mean business. I have a bucket of chemicals, spray, wipes etc that must be used.

I worry this is not normal, and that something may be wrong with my wiring, so tell me if this all seems normal to you.

1. sponges- Sponges gross me out to no end. Its a breeding ground for bacteria that you make worse every single time you use it. I do have sponges, and I use them to wipe off counters of crumbs, but that is the extent of its use. Promptly after use it gets scolding hot water ran through it for a few minutes.

2. wiping off counters- my BIGGEST cleaning pet peeve is when people wipe off the counters, usually with a sponge, and then consider their counters clean. I can not watch. I saw it happen once, and I immediately got out the one chemical they had and cleaned it(they were about to make a meal of which I was supposed to eat). The purpose, to me anyway, of wiping off the counter is to get all the loose crumbs and pieces that would fly off the counter when you do clean it. Even if the sponge is soaking in soap water, you are still just spreading things around, not cleaning. so I wipe off loose stuff, wipe down with a rag, then sanitize with 409.

3. move stuff- just because something doesnt move, doesnt mean stuff doesnt get under or around it. We have a spice rice, knife block, and utensil holder on our counter and when I wipe down, I move them. and I move them when I santize. It grossed me out to not move it.

4. appliances- The appliances must be cleaned. I find the oven door gets the most dirty, but I still clean the fridge doors, and the dishwasher door. My stove is a cooktop(devil) so I clean that constantly, too.

5. Clutter- Clutter is not clean. There should be a place for everything and everything in its place. Currently we have a small corner counter in our kitchen that is housing clutter that I have to decide where its place is, but rest assured, it will be gone soon.

6. The garbage- K, so this delves a little into my pet peeves about my sweet hubby, but its a cleaning pet peeve none the less. I HATE when the garbage is not clean. We have one of those garbages cans with a swivel lid, and my husbands family was raised to scrap food off onto it, then let it fall in the garbage. This drives me batty and every time I see their garbage I cringe. Its a little thing, so I don't make a big deal of it, I just clean the lid off every week.

7. Dust- Growing up as a child you are given certain chores that are staples, doing the dishes, sweeping, etc. I was never taught to dust, though. It wasn't until I had my own home that I realized dusting is a must, and a weekly must. I don't know why people don't dust, it takes 2 mins to walk around with a duster, then just vacuum. Pathetically, I then dust my vacuum.

8. Baseboards- I can't stand when the baseboards are not clean. They get dirty, dusty etc, and they must be cleaned, monthly.

9. Vacuuming- I can not just pick up a room, put everything away and pretty, and then just not vacuum. To me, if a room is not vacuumed(or swept for that matter) its not clean. Its almost there! Just vacuum!! I vacuum my couches about once a month, also.

10. Bathrooms- Cleaning the bathroom is also not something I was taught, my mom must have done it always. I can't stand when people clean the inside of the toilet with a toilet brush, and then are done. I must clean the entire toilet, inside and out. Its DISGUSTING how gross it gets with boys. So gross. maybe I never had to worry about it growing up cause we had all girls, but boys drip all over the place, and oh my gosh it just grosses me out. The base of it gets super dirty also.

Sooo, whats the verdict? Am I normal?

34th week and redecorating.

There is non-pregnancy stuff at the bottom. ;)

we are almost there people!!!

It seems like the last 10 weeks of pregnancy are as different as the first 10 were.

I would blog about every week the first 10 cause things were changing so fast and so much, and the last 10 has proved to be no different.

Back pain- I have had back pain every since the accident, but I am not feeling the typical back of the last trimester. It feel likes my lower spine is being pulled toward my front with 100 lbs and it hurts. By the end of the day I feel like a 90 year old lady.

Swollen- I laugh at this one because my dr will ask me if I am getting swollen anywhere, and I chuckle as I tell him I don't know the difference between fat and swollen. So yes, I am swollen everywhere, haha. But I have noticed my feet and hands are "Swollen" so I can say yes. I can't wear my wedding ring anymore, and the other day I had a frustrating situation where someone thought I was pregnant and not married and giving my baby up etc. So Jason came home one day, told me to get in the car, we drove to a Jeweler, and he told me we were going to pick out a new "wedding" ring that I was going to be able to wear through out my pregnancy. :) He really is perfect. We got this set:

Cervix discomfort- Baby has dropped pretty low, and I can feel the pressure of him on my cervix, it feels like he is going to fall out. If only it were that easy right? The dr said its totally fine for him to drop now, so its nothing to worry about, it just means he is getting ready for labor, I am totally ok with that.

Tiredness- The tiredness is definitely back. Jason laughs that I take two naps a day, but on days that I don't, like Sunday, I am ready to go to bed by 7:30. Its really tiring making a baby! I sleep 14-15 hours a day, including naps.

Sleeping troubles- I have talked about the sleeping troubles before, but this time its different. The thing keeping me up, THE BABY!! You know how in the middle of the night sometimes you wake up barely, for just a second, and then fall right back to sleep? Well when I do that, I become aware of him moving and its hard to fall back to sleep lol.

I have a lot of issues/symptoms with pregnancy, but I am SO lucky that I don't have to work during or after my pregnancy, so I can relax and rest at home with these issues, rather than working. I am truly blessed to have a husband that has a career that allows me to do that.

In other news:

Jason's work is going to be sending him to London soon, we don't know the exact date, or for how long, probably at least a week, maybe two, and most likely in May. I realize I will have the baby, but my mom is going to play a key part in watching him while I....repaint the house! haha. I was going to keep it a secret and just surprise Jason when he got home, but I can't keep secrets, especially with paint samples all over the house. I know, I just painted when we moved in, but things like this take trial and error. I loooove the colors I painted the walls, but I just don't think they work well together, and Jason doesn't like them, and when we try to sell the house it for sure will have to be repainted. So I decided to just do it now. I want a color that will open and brighten up the space, and be very relaxing. so I have chosen:

A really really light pale blue. This picture makes the wall color I think seem more blue, because of all the blue accents, but either way, the paint sample I have chosen is a really light pale breezy blue. Blues and Grays are the new neutral, so it should work out great. Jason will like it because its not too over the top, and its a very relaxing color. The accents will still be red and yellow, and I am going for this look:

Well probably not because the only similar color is the yellow and wall color, lol, but I looove this picture.

So this is the picture that inspired my color pallet in the first place:

I just love the way these colors look together. So, I am going to get pretty close to these colors, but a little more subtle. We still have 2 gallons of the yellow from when we first painted, and I am going to take those to lowes and have them lighten it A LOT to get close to this paint color, and paint the down stairs living room all this light light yellow, add some red drapes, some light blue accents and be done.

Then its the upstairs floor that is getting painted all light blue, bringing back the white drapes, added a few light yellow and red accents and be done. :)

This execution will go much better than the first I suspect, and I will have at least a week to do it so I won't feel rushed or anything, and some of my friends are going to help. :)

I suspect the whole project will cost around 100-150$.

The paint, I am hoping to only need 2 gallons of the blue, 60$.

Paint supplies, 15$.

frames and accents from DI and Savers, 20$.

Fabric and supplies for some new pillows, 30$.

Misc unforseen expenses, 25$.

I am hoping to come in under budget on the last three items, but plan for the worst, hope for the best. All in all it should be a simple redo, with drastic results. I just want my house to have a lighter more relaxing feel. You feel me? thoughts? comments? concerns? opinions? advice? suggestions?

oh the responsibility.

Did you know how many options for Christmas lights there are?

In my tiny naive world there are colored, white, little and big. And in recent years, icicles.

Thats it.

OH boy was I in for a rude awakening when I ventured out to supply our house with outdoor Christmas lights.

First off, all the size bulbs have weird names. Like C7, C5, C9 etc.

Then they are grouped into color types, white, blue, multi, dual colored, red etc.

Then they are grouped in LED or normal.

Then you have shapes, like icicles, stars, candy canes, nets for bushes, the tubed kind, etc.

Then they are grouped into watts, and length, 12 ft, 15 ft, 25 ft, 32 ft, 45 ft, etc.

Then they are group into effects, blinking, flickering, multi function etc.

So you can imagine the look on the face of the person at the store when I walked in and said "where are the larger colored christmas lights?"

Oh. my. goodness.

I have never before been so overwhelmed with so many choices while shopping.

I mean, I just need lights!

Needless to say I walked out empty handed.

too many decisions. And to me, they are big decisions. This is my first house, my first time being responsible for joyfully decorating my house with lights that will bring a Christmas feeling to a neighborhood street.

I do not take this new responsibility lightly.

Our neighbor does Christmas lights displays for houses, where they blink and move to music.

So I may just give up doing it on my own, and just pay the man to do it.

Much easier, right?

let the madness begin.

we all obviously knew it was only a matter of time before I started the nursery.

And I am pleased to report it has begun. :)

Starting with this fabulous 5$ chair I purchased a while ago.

Some fancy fabric and a few staples later....

Lovely right?
I love it.

A couple of things I should mention in case anyone wants to re-do a chair of their own.

1. I chose a fabric with stripes(I didn't have a lot of options), and I tried really hard to make sure they all lined up, but towards the end I got impatient, pulled a little too hard in one corner so now the top panel is slightly crooked.

2. I used a staple gun for this project, because obviously its easier. The top part of the chair pushes out, and is two sided. The staples weren't exactly flush, and poked out a little which I didn't think would matter. But when going to push it back in, it made it somewhat hard. do-able, but nerve wracking.

And yes it is in the nursery, and no the green stripe going down the corner will not be staying. AND, the wall looks red in this pic, but I promise it is burnt orange.
I just hate baby blue. Have I mentioned that?
Actually, all things pastel for that matter.
The hubby and I bought all the fabric I will need for the nursery, so in the next coming weeks instead of my boring prego posts, it will be boring craft/re-do posts.
which are a little more fun right??

more decor.

I decided to do some more home decor today. and to finish a project that is long over due.

like 2 months ago I got this sweet little side table from the DI for 15$.

I of course forgot to take a before picture, cause I suck, but its pretty easy to imagine. It was a yucky laminate wood.

I needed it for this empty sort of awkward spot.

(I have the cute kitties)

I tried spray painting it, but didnt sand it. Then realized, there is a reason people sand things. So thats when the project got put on hold, because I hate sanding. So today I sanded, and finished it.

Ta-da!

I got the sweet red lamp from the DI also, for 3$. eeks. I was so excited about it. Actually everything on that table came from the DI minus the lamp shade.

I want to have religious things in my house, but I don't like the typical things, glass little temples, pictures of christ etc. So this is one way I display my religiousness.

I quite enjoy this new little part to my downstairs living room. :)

I love my house.

It is time to decorate another room.

:)

This time it is our office, or what will be our office.

Currently it is a room, with a TV, air mattress, and the old stuff from our bedroom.

It won't be much, a desk with a computer, some shelving, a sitting chair and of course wall decor. maybe a plant.

We'll see.

Here is my color pallate inspiration.

The walls will be a burnt orange, and light lime green with accent with a dark walnut/black for a grounding color. I do want to incoporate white, but we will see how.

:)

Trading Spaces?

Remember that show Trading Spaces?

It was all the rage in home decor do it yourself.

In fact I am convinced that show is alone responsible for the DIY world that we are in today.

and I love it.

Well.

I have decorated most of my house, to my liking. My husband lives here, yes, but do I trust his "eye" for decor or design? No. But do I want him to be happy here and feel like its his home too? Yes.

:) So.

That brings me to MY memorial day weekend.

For those of you who don't know my husband, he works in finance, with wall street, numbers all day.

He can't justify in his mind spending money on home decor.

that, and he is a guy.

I however, justify it up the wazoo. So this task needed to be done without him watching the register as I check out.

so it had to be done, in secret. :) Oh how I love secret surprises.

My style is somewhat vintage, mixed with retro combined with modern contemporary. None of which is Jason's style. Jason is a classic, drastic contrast type of person. He likes clean bright white, with a bold contrasting color and classic decor. Nothing outside the box, nothing new etc.

Well, our bedroom has never been decorated really. before we lived in an apartment where we couldn't paint, nor did I have much room to spread out and paint our stuff if I wanted etc. So there were many reasons our room didn't get done, but it just didn't, and it was time.

So I decided, being the good wife I am, to design the bedroom totally based on Jason's taste, and a room that would be perfect for him to feel comfortable, and like it is his.

I know, I know, I am a good wife. :D

(actually it probably says more to the fact that I am a mean wife that the rest of the house is decorated with my taste and not his, but whatever.)

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a before picture, and that is so unlike me. But for your recap, our room was painted gold, brown, blue, green and orange bed spead, retro circle art stuff on the wall with forest green curtains. none if it made sense. Here is the AFTER:

:)

I think I did pretty well.

and would you like to know how much this cost me?

ready?

238.26$

Trading Spaces was nuts to think you need to spend 1000$ on each room.

Here is how it all started. Saturday I went in search of a bed set, because that is the center of all bedrooms. I went to TJ Maxx and within 5 minutes found it. I knew I wanted Navy blue, and white, I still am amazed at how perfect this set it for what I wanted.

It came with the comforter, pillow cases, and 3 pillows.

Bed Set 85.67$

Don't cheap out on the bed set, it really is the most important part, to me at least.

From there I could choose the paint.

off to lowes I went, matched the color and picked up a bright white.

1 gallon of each, 3 cans of spray paint 2 brushes and 2 roller pads.

Supplies 57.42$

I went next door to Shopko, because I got a coupon in the mail for 15$ off 75$. sweet! There I went to the clearance section, obviously. I found the two lamp bases, which were originally black for 11.99$ a piece, and the shades which were originally red, for 3.49$ a piece. I came across the navy blue placemats on clearance for 1.49$ a piece, grabbed 2. The floating shelves were on sale, for 19.99$. I also originally got sheets here for 14.99 but found some I like more at Ross.

Shopko 62.35$

Ross, I got sheets for 14.79$

Then I went across the street to the Dollar store. Yes, the dollar store. I needed frames, and if you are going to redo some frames, do not go to michaels and spend 5-10$ on each frame thinking its the best deal. I got each frame for obviously 1$ a piece, and they worked perfectly. I also got a glass vase.

Dollar store 7.38$

Then to Michaels(btw in woods cross all of these stores are in the same complex besides lowes. love it). At Michael's I got the mats for the frames, 1.79$ a piece times 3, and the leaves for the pictures, those were pricey at 3.99$.

Michaels 10.65$

I did all this in about an hour.

the work began on Sunday, I know I suck for doing it on Sunday but for me its enjoyment, like going on a family bike ride. :) thats ok right?

Anyway, I told Jason I was working on a surprise and certain places were off limits.

First I started on the leaf pictures. I painted the leaves the burnt orange, they were originally lime green glitter, they were scrapbooking things. Then I painted the frames with tan craft paint, heres why. Because they were from the dollar store, they were plastic, and spray painted doesnt adhere well to plastic, so you prime with paint THEN you can spray paint for a nice even coat.

Then I went outside to begin the real work. I started on the lamps. They were originally black, I spray painted them crome/silver, it went on so perfectly, no issues there. Then I moved to the shades, which were red. I spray painted them with a base coat of navy blue, again went on nice no issues there. Then I started on the floating shelves, there we had some problems. I spray painted them white, but for some strange reason, still unknown, the white spray paint, dried pink. don't ask why, I have no clue, the paint worked everywhere else. So I went to my alternative option and got out the gallon of white paint for the walls, and used that instead. It took a few coats to get in on even and pretty, but it worked out. the shelves got a coat of laquer to prevent paint chips and such. I also spray painted the stars, from our old blue and brown decor, white. Later, I wish I could find the site where I saw this idea, but I can't, anyway the base color of the shade is now blue, I wrapped string around the shade in no particular order, and then spray painted white. Then removed the string. Cool right? I think so. The star mats, I had some old canvas's I wasn't using, and I wanted the mats to stick out of the wall and look like they were floating, so I hot glued the mats to the canvas, then hot glued the spray painted stars on the mats. simple.

The put together. Monday, Jason went golfing with his brother, FREAKING EARLY! So I had to wake up at the same time, and get started. freaking 6 am on my day off. The things I do for my husband. So I woke up, got everything out of the bedroom, covered it all in plastic, taped off the trim and got to work. obviously painted one wall white, and the rest blue. Then when the blue dried I painted the white stripes on the bed wall, to take the place of a headboard. waited for it all to dry and then re-assembled the room.

It took quite a bit of time and work, I painted non stop for about 8 hours on Monday. I would totally do it again, because the look on my hubbys face when I took off the blindfold(duh, of course I blindfolded him) was priceless.

I loooove my new down comforter. It is so plush and comfy I just can't stand to sit anywhere else in the house.

so to keep up, I have finished the front room, living room, hallway bathroom, dining room, and some of the kitchen.

left I have, to finish the kitchen(i.e. stain cabinets and new countertops), laundry room, master bathroom and the office.

Making progress! One day soon, my house will be perfect, to me. :D

He loved it. :) or so he tells me anyway.

and I love it.

I love it when that happens. :)

new stuff and pretty colors.

Oh times are fun.

First, here is our new best friend.

Oh how I already love this little guy. At first I didn't understand the big hype about a front loading washer, but now, I love it. It is sooo easy to use, and makes laundry so much nicer. It seriously is just a touch of a button and its all custom set. Also, it gets the clothes soo dry with the spinning, that they seriously only need like 15 mins in the dryer and they are done. I love it.

Here is another thing to add to my project list, though.

The floor.

The floor is the laundry room is unfinished, and I don't approve. It will be a simple fairly inexpensive fix to finish it, its just taking the time, and moving the appliances out etc. So one day soon, it will be finished with hardwood.

Can I just say that I loooove spring with all my heart?

Look at how pretty our front trees are.

and my tulips have already bloomed!

I love the warm weather, the bright colors, oh I love everything about spring, especially that it brings Summer!

May will be fun. I am attending a few photography workshops which should be really helpful and fun. I will let you know how it goes I am sure.

I am hoping with the warmer weather, I will run outside more, although its sort of hard because its not really that fabulous of a scenery in my neighborhood. In sugarhouse I had sugarhouse park which was so awesome for elevation and scenery, so I may have to drive to the legacy parkway trail and run there. We will see. I got new running shoes to motivate me. :)

Re-model

If you will remember from here, our plan is to build a window seat in our front room bayish window.

I have the plans for it, and with the help of my dad and his tools, I feel its quite possible.

There are a few reasons Jason and I bought this house, one of which is that it is less then 10 years old and does not need to be re-modeled.

But that doesn't mean I can't do it anyway, right?

Well my next set of plans for the front room, is to build a mudroom.

Like this one.

For this space.

As you can see, the first thing I do when I get home, is take off my shoes. Usually in the same spot, sometimes about 5 feet over near the kitchen, but regardless, it looks bad. About every other week I will collect all my shoes and move them back to the closet cause it looks so bad.

Now there isn't a ton of room right there for a big mudroom, but there is enough for a little one.

It will be equipped with a seating bench, shoe shelves, coat hooks and storage above for seasonal things, such as hats scarves and gloves.

I don't know how long Jason and I intend to live in this house, but I do think that these projects we will do, will increase the value of the home, or at least increase the interest people have in it when we do try and sell it.

After all, who would't love a mudroom and a window seat?

What a blessing.

What a great day!!!!

Why?

Because our basement completely flooded!!!

No, I am not being sarcastic.

We had Jason's family over for dinner, and after it was done and I was doing the dishes, his mom went to our basement and found that it had flooded!!

Why am I so excited?

Why wouldn't I be?

In relief society they mentioned facing trials head on and looking at obstacles with gratitude for the chance you have to grow stronger.

Here we go. :)

Time for a spiritual work-out.

I even made my hubby take a picture with me so we could officially document this exciting occasion.

after all, it is our first flooded basement, in our first house, during our first family dinner.

This is a day, we will look back on and laugh at, or one we can pin point great strength from.

Stay tuned for further excitement. :)

long update.

Hello again to all my friends.

:)

There is not a whole lot going on with us, yet anyway.

So here we go!

This is the view from our kitchen, dining room, family room and bedroom. :)

The picture obviously doesn't do it justice. You can see the temple so well and I love it. I love being able to eat dinner and look out to see the temple, so clear and so well.

I didn't really appreciate that about our house when we were buying it, but now I cherish it.

It helps to keep my daily life in perspective.

This, is our new table.

Now, we were not going to buy a new table for a while, but thanks to our kitten, we had to.

You see those cute flowers on the table?

Well, in the vase is fake water, you've see fake water, well I did it to those flowers.

well in the middle of the night, before the fake water was dry, Reesie knocked over the vase spilling the fake water on the table. And the fake water, DOES NOT COME OFF ANYTHING!

So fair warning, just don't do fake water.

but anyway, I got a nice new table out of it. :)

We are either going to stain the table to match the chairs, or stain the chairs to match the table.

haven't decided yet.

We love Reesie. :) She is so cute and cuddly. She is just so much fun to play with. We chunked her up real fast lol.

I don't understand why people want dogs.

Reesie is so much fun, doesn't poo and pee on things, doesn't need to be watched every second, isn't this big huge thing running around the house, cuddles at our feet at night and purrs.

eff dogs.

There isn't much new about the house since the last update on it. Not that is terribly exciting or anything.

We love our ward so far.

Its pretty much all young couples with a few kids. The ward has 4 nurseries on sunday! FOUR!

The relief society women are so sweet. I still miss young womens, soooo much, but at least in this ward its not all 80 year women talking about genealogy. I secretly hope they call me to be in Young Women's again. I do feel out of place because their(relief society) topic of conversation is their kids, so I guess I need to get on that. ;-)

oh wait!

I am starting a garden.

:)

I am nervous about this task, cause either I don't do a garden, or I do it awesomely.

no half-A garden here.

So, we bought 2 grow boxes to keep the garden elevated and so it has proper drainage, and I just need to figure out where the best place for them is.

I am going to grow tomatoes, basel, squash, cucumbers, raspberries and maybe corn. pumpkins would be fun.

I really love my front room.

Decor aside, its the room I love being in the most.

Its quiet.

there is no TV in there. I don't know what it is, but I feel like if there is a TV in a room, it has to be on.

The couches are soooo comfy.

get this, I actually read in there!

Granted I was reading the Ensign but thats pretty good.

I just love being in there where its quiet, calm, I can look out our big front window and watch the neighborhood kids run around.

Its nice.

Thats one thing I love about being in a house, WINDOWS!!

In our apartment we had 1 window in the bedroom and the sliding door in the living room. lol.

It seems like a cave to me now!

I love having windows everywhere! and whats best is that there is no one behind us so I don't have to worry about shutting the blinds on the back side of the house.

I colored my hair a few weeks ago. I wanted to go really dark, but just for a bit. So Miss Kourtney came over and we colored my hair with a temporary brown color. It was fun, its pretty much all faded now, I think at least. Which is good because as fun as it is to change your hair color, it just didn't feel like me. I also cut 2 inches from the bottom and thats taking some getting used to.

The more I get done on the house, the more I want to get moving on the baby front, so its getting closer. lol :) I just don't want to have a baby and then not ever feel like I "finished" my house. I know its a lame excuse for not starting a family, but to me its a good one. Everyone keeps saying, do everything and get everything you want, because once you have kids you can't do those things anymore, and all the money goes to them. I think its a good point, I mean its not like I am going to wait 10 years because I want to go on vacations and buy purses, but I think finishing the house is a good goal.

Actually, Jason and I know exactly what our baby plan is, I am just not going to tell. :P

my dad is home!

He has been gone for over a month training with the FAA for his new position.

he golfed EVERY SINGLE day. Except for Sunday of course.

His apartment had a free golf course.

lets just say I am sure it wasn't torture for him to go there lol.

Well I think thats it! I am going to go cuddle and watch a movie with the hubby. :)

I love my house.

The living room with a few changes.

The end result coffee table. After brilliant advice from Tigan Robinson, I learned that whatever goes on a coffee table should be viewable from all sides.

Luckily today my mom came over bearing gifts and this cool sand hour glass was one of them.

Reesie. :)

I bought 2 older books for this shelf, the blue and red ones. :) I bought them from little cute little Paris style consignment shop in Sugarhouse called Abode. so cute.

But really, they had 3 rotary dial phones there, they were selling them f0r 35-50$! Gosh. I am sure glad I got mine for 4$. :)

So is Jason. :)