Hello!

I feel bad that we have just disappeared on you without much warning. It wasn't my intention to quit blogging suddenly but there are too many other things going on in my life right now. I don't plan on being gone forever, just until I can get my act together again. Until then, if anyone really cares what I am doing you can follow my family blog sallyrollins.blogspot.com  I haven't been posting on that one very often either, but it does happen occasionally . I hope you are all healthy and happy!

Friday Is My Day

Friday is my day. The day I'm supposed to come up with something super awesome to post for you in an effort to get you to keep coming back. Do you know the last time I actually posted something? Probably close to a month. (I'm not even sure....that's how long it's been!)

Sadly I still have nothing new to share. I love doing crafts. I like cooking with new recipes. I love getting dressed in the morning and seeing what fun new outfit I can come up with. Yet somehow I am never able to translate any of this into a blog post. Mostly because 1.) I never have time to craft anymore 2.) I have a baby crying at my feet when I cook and 3.) there is no one around to take a picture of my (hopefully) great outfit.

I'm not sure how these women who have little children and really popular blogs have time to do it but somehow they make it work. It must be like having a full time job, which I am now certain I could never do. 

I'm pretty sure if I spelled out for you everything I did today it would bore you to death so I'll just share the one thing I did outside of our normal, crazy, every day routine.

So, my little sister (sorry Krista, my YOUNGER sister) just had her very first baby. She's a doll! And I have the privilege of going to see her in a couple of days. I'm so excited to meet Scarlet (isn't that the cutest name ever!) In addition to meeting the little peanut I get to take her newborn pictures. I am not a photographer, but I'd like to be and who better to practice on than an adorable little baby who doesn't move! Haha! I can't wait.

So today I decided I better get out my camera and take a few pictures just to get a little practice in before I go. My photo subject? My 8 month old baby! Oh. My. Notsomuchfun!! My little piece of advice for today....8 months old are not good for practicing photography. I'd like to show you the one and only good picture I got but apparently we are out of photo storage space?! (didn't even know that was possible!)

Anyway, congrats to Krista and Kenny on their beautiful baby girl. Hopefully she turns out to be a cooperative photo subject.

Chair Redo and Apparently a Book Review

So. Yes I'm still working on project redecorate my entire house. The problem is that I started reading a book and I'm not the type of person who can read a little bit each day. I'm the type of person that disregards house, children, and self until the book is finished and then I join the world again. It's really not healthy, but I've come to accept it about myself so it's OK.

If anyone is interested I was reading this book.

If you have any desire to increase in understanding and respect for you children than I cannot recommend it enough! I have to warn you though that you will most likely experience feelings of guilt as you realize just how much you have been wounding your children. Don't despair though! She is quick to point out that it is never too late to start being a better parent.


OK, so I didn't intend for this to be a book review, but I just have to share this one example of how this has changed they dynamic of our home already. My son James is a type 1 in her energy profiling system. Fun loving, bouncy, random, and light. (the kind of kid that gets labled as ADHD) Unfortunately we have spent the last 8 years thinking that his randomness and bouncing constantly were bad things and have told him repeatedly to hold still and just focus! He has slowly changed from a happy fun loving toddler to a depressed and solemn kid.

After less than a week of honoring his energy and seeing it as a gift instead of a hindrance and making some changes that Carol recommends, he has become extremely affectionate and there is a happiness in his face again. Just the other day my four year old Macy asked if she could have a piece of her Halloween candy, but Laila was napping in her room where it was and when James saw that she was upset he immediately said "You can have one of mine Macy." I know that doesn't seem like a big deal, but you have to understand that offering to give something of his to someone else is HUGE! He has never done that before. Ever!

OK, that could have been it's own post, but all I really wanted to say is that you should read the book!

Alright back to the original point of this post. I have done a few things in the last two weeks other than read, and one of them was to give a major face lift to a chair that I have had for while now.

This is super embarrassing, but I think it was time to redo this chair a long time ago. Yikes!

And just in case any of you are thinking "I would love to cover a chair, but I don't own a staple gun!" Guess what? I don't either. I use thumb tacks instead. I would love to have a staple gun someday, but for now this works. And, the good thing is that it's a lot easier to take the fabric off if you need to wash it, which obviously I didn't!

OK, so after a fresh coat of paint, a little bit more batting to pad our bottoms, and this fabric, the chair is reborn.

Too bad it's sad and lonely right now, because the desk it is supposed to live with is still out of stock at IKEA despite being told for over a month "Oh ya, that should be in next week." Grrr!

 

You Eat Waffles Instead of Cereal

What do you do if you wake up in the morning to an entire gallon of milk spilled on the kitchen floor, a son worried he's in big trouble, and a daughter on the verge of a panic attack because she can't find her reading log and the teacher has warned that if she doesn't turn it in (again) then a note is going home to her parents ( a fate worse than death) and now there is no milk left for her to eat cereal?

What about if while your cleaning up the spilled milk you suddenly remember that you haven't changed the baby's diaper yet and she has a wicked diaper rash, so you take off the diaper and decide it would be best if she airs out for a minute while you take the milk soaked towels down to the washing machine and as soon as you get the washing machine going you hear your hyper sensitive to smell 4 year old yell "Mom I smell a poopy bum!"?

What do you do?

What can you do other than take a breath and say a quick prayer! You reassure you son that it was an accident, that he is not in trouble, and that you still love him.

You let your daughter know that she can have frozen waffles for breakfast instead of cereal and that she can take a few minutes to look for her reading log, but if she can't find it than she can fill out a new one. And if she happens to miss the bus it's OK, because you can drive her to school.

You get out the carpet cleaner!

You get your son onto the bus by himself.

You give the baby a quick bath, because not only did she have a diarrhea-esq movement on the carpet she also felt the need to find out what that stuff was! (She did not like that stuff, as was evident by her holding out her hand screaming when you arrived on the scene.)

Then you throw on some clothes and load the girls into the car only, instead of turning down the street to the school you go a little bit farther and turn into the donut shop.

Why?

Because it's just milk and poop! They can be cleaned up and replaced, repsectively of course. Although poop can certainly be replaced also. There seems to be a never ending supply of it at our house these days. But you can never have today back with your girls and you don't want one of them starting their school day with tears brimming their eyes proclaiming "this was the worst morning ever!"

And then you say another silent prayer of thanks that you survived the terrorist attacks of Tuesday morning without any casualties...and that you were too tired last night to take off your makeup which allowed you to retain a small ounce of your dignity while marching your daughter into school over an hour late!

Decorating My Bookcase

This has been on my To Do List for a long time now. When we first moved into our house EVERYTHING was white. White walls, ceiling, cabinets, etc. So I was desperate to get some color into the house. I thought painting the back of the bookshelf would be a cute and clever way to add color. And for a while it worked. (Or maybe not). It got to the point where it was so random, mismatched, cramped, and not put together that it was driving me crazy! This is literally what it looked like before I started my makeover.

 

Before:

It didn't always look like this but pretty darn near close. A piece of advice: when starting over clear your space out completely! A fresh canvas is always best. I kept trying to move things around and put things up randomly and it just never worked. What I discovered was that #1: the dark background color was making everything look dark and crowded and #2: NONE of it was working. So I started over.

The first thing I did was take everything off and paint the background a nice light color and then repaint the white shelves. Then I sorted my decorations into things I wanted to reuse and the things I knew I wouldn't. A good rule to follow when decorating a bookshelf is always put the "heaviest" items at the bottom. For example baskets (which I use for toys). Now I realize mine are not at the bottom but they are as close as I could get them. Unfortunately with the way my built in bookcase is made there are not baskets the right size for the bottom shelf (I would need very narrow and tall....hard to find). So To bring a little weight to the bottom I used a big wooden sign and picture frame.

Here I used books to add a little height to this tiny trunk that I filled with greenery and a small picture frame. (It's a picture of my husband when he was a little boy holding a fish he caught. So cute!)

 Here I used a metal bike as a bookend and put a bird on top of a stack of books. My children like to play with this bird and it drives me crazy so I put it on the very top shelf!

Here is another way to incorporate books into your decor (because hello it is a bookshelf!)

 And finally, greenery! My favorite space filler. I am terrible at keeping plants alive so I always go with the fake but adding some greenery does wonders to a boring bookcase.

 

And here is the After:

Now if I followed my own rules the black frame on top would be at the bottom (the black makes it "heavier") but it didn't look right with my sign and it was too tall to go anywhere else. Same with the black bike. But you get the idea. Use wood, wicker, metal, greenery, and candles for different textures. Use frames, statues, bowls, clocks and other decor to bring different shapes. And of course use lots of color.

Mirror Makeover

Even though my latest home makeover project started with a pillow in our living room, I've decided that I need to focus on the entry way first since it's the first impression people get of our home when they walk in and then work my way around to the living room and dining room.

 

So, what do you think of my Welcome to our Home?

 

 Slightly sad and not so welcoming, right? My favorite parts are the baby gate behind the door and the hole in the wall where the doorbell box is supposed to go. We had to take it down because it started going crazy one night and even after I changed the batteries it still kept on going. Now it's sitting on top of our fridge.

I've had this mirror for quite a while and of course I loved it when I first bough it, but lately I've been hating it. I knew I wanted to spruce it up a bit but wasn't quite sure how until Jenn suggested an idea that she saw on Pinterest. (I would link you to the actual inspiration pin, but Pinterest seems to be having major issues tonight. I'll try again tomorrow)

Getting those pegs out of the wood was quite an ordeal that almost caused swearing, but once those were out it was just a few coats of spray paint and some cute knobs. I am loving the way it turned out! So much lighter and fun.

Knobs and mirror from Hobby Lobby. 

I would show you what it looks like with the table, but the table is actually in the garage right now getting a makeover of it's own!

 

A Pillow



This weekend I made a pillow. Well a pillow cover actually. It's nothing fancy, but it makes me incredibly happy. And not just because I love the fabric. This pillow represents 2 1/2 years of procrastination! When we first moved into our house I was a little bummed about not being able to paint and remove the hideous 1970's wallpaper from the kitchen since we are renting, so I kind of half heartedly decorated and called it good. I've hated the way it looks the whole time, but couldn't seem to find the motivation that I needed to do something about it. 

 

Then last month we finally sold our house in Oklahoma after so much frustration and constant dissapointments and suddenly the idea of a rental seemed really great. In another 2 1/2 years we will pack up our stuff, walk out the door, and that's the end of it. As great as that sounds though I decided that I don't want to live in this house for 5 years and hate the way it looks the whole time just because it doesn't belong to me. There are a few things I can't change, but that doesn't mean I can't make everything else cute. And for some reason operation No More Looking Like We Live in a College Doorm Room really needed to start with giving my naked little white pillow some clothes.  

 

You guys, I'm so excited. I'm finally making our house a home, and all it took was making a cute little pillow cover for the pillow I bought 2 1/2 years ago. One little pillow was the push I needed to get excited about the possibilities and get to work.

 

Pillow tutorial found here.

 And working hard we are! I can't wait to show you all of my fun projects.