A Day to Be Thankful!

I can not even imagine what those parents in Connecticut are feeling right now; all I know is that what I can imagine is so much pain. I don’t have many words to say but I do think we can all be a little more thankful.
Today, I am so incredibly thankful for the little things about my babies. After a rough morning yesterday of some of the worst tantrums I have had to deal with, I came home to hear the horrible news about those babies whose innocent lives were taken way too early, and quickly realized what is truly important. I gave my babies extra hugs and kisses and prayed that God would give me patience to get through the rough days and always remember how lucky I am to have my children! I feel so horrible for those parents and can only pray that God gives them peace and they are able to forgive that boy very quickly. I also feel for the families of the surviving children who have been traumatized and they will have to deal with the horror they saw for the rest of their lives.
I added a few thoughts this morning:
I once had a pastor while living in Louisiana share something with me (I am sure I am not the only one) that I still remember to this day. He was diagnosed with cancer (in his mouth, I think it was on his tongue), his tongue was removed and he was told he would never talk again. He said that the important thing when horrible things happen is to change our perspective from "Why me, God?" to "For what purpose did you allow this to happen, Lord?" If you think about that for a while, that is so powerful. Think about how many lives you touch on a daily basis, most of the time not even realizing it. He went on to recover and eventually talked again and is still preaching to this day! Faith is a powerful thing if you learn to let go and let God. (i really struggle with this)
We may not fully understand God's purpose in letting this happen but one things for sure, that city changed and where did everyone go? To church. It's sad that sometimes it takes these events to make us run to God but at least that is where they went. Hopefully the rest of the country will run to their families and Jesus Christ and look at themselves to see where we can change to make this country a better safer place.
Turning to the government is not the answer. Guns have been around for a LONG time but our country has not always been this crazy and dangerous. Turn inside your own front doors and examine what can be done to change this world.
Please pray for this country. I am fully convinced that this kind of stuff happens due to the break down of the family structure, society, and the lack of Jesus Christ in our schools and country. Pray, pray, pray that the Lord will bring this country back on track!
For today, though, focus on your family and capture the little things so that you can always remember how special they are!!
“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.”  Romans 16:24

Playroom Makeover… Take 2

Actually, in my head this is more like Take 5000 but I really think I have decided what I am going to do for sure!
I went fabric shopping today with my mom to help her pick out some fabric for some furniture she is having reupholstered and I found some fabric that I am head over heals in love with that has become my new inspiration!!
Obviously, I started out with the whole gray and yellow scheme. I really do like that but I was having trouble finding stuff that wasn’t too modern.
Let me back up. My in-laws offered to give us their old trundle bed instead of buying a sofa bed. At first the designer side of me really just wanted a sofa, but then the practical side came out and thought that since it was free that would be really nice and the creative side of me came out and started to think of ways I can refinish it and make some bedding for it. True to my style, there is no simple task around here.
Anyways, so back to the yellow and gray stuff. I started to look for some yellow and gray bedding to go on the trundle but I couldn’t find anything that looked durable enough to be sat on constantly and wasn’t too modern either. It is also really hard to find a gray daybed cover!! They have just about everything else out there! So, I started to look at fabric thinking I could make one. I ended up deciding that I wanted to keep the gray but maybe go with green instead of yellow. I also thought that maybe I would do purples and greens since the girls bean bags are those colors… It takes FOREVER to look at fabric online and it is impossible to really know if your colors are matching and I have to be able to touch and feel it before I decide if I like it.
So, to spare you my whole thought process, I will skip ahead to the fabric I found today. I found it at a little fabric store in The Woodlands and it actually reminds me of some I have seen at Potterybarn. Here is a pic that my sister took with her phone of one little section.

Here’s a few reasons why I love it.
1. it has gray and green in it
2. it has lots of other colors so I wont feel limited to just those 2 colors.
3. I love how light weight it is. (almost a linen, but I don’t think it is) This is a small room with not a whole lot of natural light so I didn’t want thick heavy window treatments.
4. There’s lots of different little panels like this one that I could cut out to make throw pillows from.
5. I think it is really classy looking and will give a more “grown up” look to the room but Avery loved the birds so that’s a plus! lol
Here’s what I already had picked out that I think will go great with it:
~Right now the Day Bed/trundle is stained so I will paint it a light cream color or white
~I like this quilt (plus, it’s a great deal cuz you get the quilt and 2 shams) and I think it will be good as a cover for the top of the day bed. I found it in the store and I think it will be durable enough and easy to wash.

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~This would be used as a throw blanket and the bedding for the trundle bed. I love the texture on it and the small throw that goes with it!

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I would then get a bunch of white ruffly throw pillows and the ones that match the fabric from the little panels images, a white bed skirt and continue with my idea of having the girls make me some art for the walls and painting the shelves that my dad is building white.

I am pretty certain this will be the direction I continue on but we will see if I change my mind once again!

Playroom Makeover

Currently we have to share an office and playroom. It works great, actually, because neither of us work from home so we really only use the “office” desk for recreational computer use (aka blogging ). When I do need to do some photo editing or something, the girls can be playing in the same room as me so it’s actually pretty convenient. Anyways, back to the makeover.
I mentioned here that I will be doing lots to this room. Before baby #3 gets here, I want to get this room done since our current guestroom will become this baby’s nursery. Therefore, I will need to make this room a guestroom as well! Here are some of my plans:
1. The new toy storage. I plan to get my dad to help me build this in January. I have a rough sketch of what I want and plan to paint it grey. There is a TV mount on the wall and we currently have a 40” TV hanging there so the shelving has to work around that.

my sketch was too big to fully get under my scanner, but the dimensions are the only thing cut off; it will be 8 feet tall and 7’-9” wide. I think I spelled “cubie” wrong… don’t judge me on my grammar or spelling skills!
2. the new sleeper sofa. I know most people hate these but it’s really the only option I can think of right now and I promise to get a mattress topper for it! I need to go try them out but La-Z-Boy has come a long way on their designs and I want to get something super durable and comfy!! I like this design and I will probably pick a grey fabric

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3. Throw Pillows. I may make these if I find fabric I like more but for $36 for 2 pillows, I think that’s pretty good!

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4. Lamp

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4. The window treatments. I thought about making them… for about 5 minutes. lol Then, I found these and really like them so I opted to just buy them. If you can’t tell I am going with a grey and yellow color scheme. I love the combination and its very gender neutral and isn’t too “kidish” for when this room is no longer a toy room.

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5. I plan to have Avery and Norah do some art for the walls (probably grey and yellow) and get them framed in some simple white frames like these

6. I would really like to get a decal for the wall. here’s a few I am looking at

All of these can be found on etsy.com

7. Oh! and the best part is that this table that I refinished a while back will be a PERFECT side table for the sofa!! I love it when things like that work out so wonderfully!

I can not wait to do a big reveal of the finished product! I hope it comes out as good as I have planned in my head!

Office/Playroom Clean Up Part 1

Ok, so this room is going to take a few months to complete since I have some large ideas in mind. Today, I started small. Our desk has looked like it vomited cords and wires since we moved in and got our internet hooked up! It’s been a year and a half and I still have not done anything about it. Today, I just couldn’t take it anymore!!
Here is the ‘before’ picture:

Not pretty and Not functional!!!

The first problem is that the outlets are above the desktop instead of under it so everything was just sitting on the desk and the cords were winding everywhere. I decided that the desk needed a hole in the middle so the cords could go under the desk and the flow into the cabinet to the left.
I packed the girls up and we went to Ace hardware and I got a hole saw attachment for our drill.

Then, I came to a stand still. I was getting so stinking frustrated that I could not figure out how to get the stupid hole saw bit attached to the drill! I texted Jeff, my husband, several times asking questions but he didn’t seem to know why it wasn’t working. I hate having to wait on him to get home to work on stuff!! So, what does a girl do? Call her daddy! Of course, he figured it out over the phone and I got it attached. Now, about an hour later, I could move on!

I went to clean off the desk. I unplugged everything and started to pull every electronic device off the counter when I found this:

There was already a hold drilled in the desk!!! I am SOOOOOO ashamed that I have lived here this long and the desk has stayed that cluttered and dirty (notice all of the nasty dust) that I never noticed this! I could have done this A LONG TIME AGO! Jeff didn’t even know it was there when I called him lol. UGH, well, I guess that is 1 less step I had to take and probably saved some time but I sure wasted a lot by this point.

So, I continued to clean everything off, disconnect all of the cords and put everything underneath and pulled only the necessary plugs up through the hole. I originally was going to put the components in the cabinet but then decided that it would get too hot without air circulation so the just went on the floor. I hope to get a little shelf or something to put it all up on, but for now “out of sight, out of mind.” Here is what it looks like now. I feel so much better; you have no idea how stressful clutter is to me (probably why I am stressed out all the time with 2 toddlers) and how much pleasure this gives me to get it all cleaned off the desk top!

I am so ready for the day everything is wireless!

Now, on to the shelves above!

Super Easy, Quick, and Cheap Christmas Wrapping

The decisions I make these days are pretty much based on what’s the easiest and quickest yet cheap and pretty. Christmas wrapping is no different! I used to go WAY over the top wrapping my Christmas presents; using cinnamon sticks, pine cones, gorgeous ribbon, and even hot glue! Let me say, they were gorgeous but that took me FOREVER to wrap each present. So, this year I have chosen to use a Pinterest inspired design using brown packaging paper, stamps, and some simple green ribbon. I personally love the way it turned out and I love how quick and easy it was!
Each one has a snowflake stamp, too!

Even used some brown lunch bags for the dog’s gifts

It all looks great under the tree!

 

I really wish Santa could wrap in the same wrapping paper!

Mother Goose Paintings

My sister is due to have her third daughter in early February. She has decided to do a Mother Goose theme in the nursery this time around and asked if I would create some painting for the wall. Of course, I would! Anything for my niece (and sister ). She gave me this swatch of fabric that she made some bedding stuff out of so I could copy the style and colors.

She also found some drawings she liked online of each story that she wanted me to copy. So I had the colors from the fabric and the settings from the online pictures to go by. I painted them on 12x12 wrapped canvases with acrylic paint. Of course, I don’t think the pictures do them justice but in some cases you actually can’t see some of the flaws in the pics lol.

I really hope that she likes them! They are supposed to be “cartoony” (is that a word??) and not painted perfectly within the lines, as you can see from the fabric. Here’s the stories she chose:

Mary, Mary Quite Contrary

Little Miss Muffet

Hickory Dickory Dock

Hey Diddle Diddle

Humpty Dumpty

Jack and Jill Went Up the Hill

Rock-a-bye-baby

Mary Had A Little Lamb

There Once Was A Lady Who Lived In A Shoe

A Few Photo shoots

I have had the opportunity to do a few photo shoots lately and so I thought I would share some of my favorites.
Here is the newborn shoot I did for a childhood friend. Babies are soooooo hard and I have so much to learn but learning all part of the fun!

Here is a family session I did with another friend from ages ago. I love that my photography is reconnecting me to old friends and their families!

Another Family friend of ours

This is a collage I did for a newborn shoot back in May. I love this and I hope I can do it again for someone!

Going to see Santa

We took the girls to see Santa today. Here they are before getting in the car in their adorable Christmas outfits. I just love that Norah’s tutu practically swallows her! lol Avery was so sweet wanting to hold her sister’s hand for the picture.

*a side note on the outfits. I took them to Target to look for something since I figured it wouldn’t be much longer that I can get away with picking out what I want them to wear at a good price. Well, Avery proved me wrong. Apparently she DOES care! She actually found these tutus and insisted that she needed the pink one since pink is for princesses. Well, after some serious coaxing, I was able to get her to get the white one since that is at lease some-what “Christmasy”. I also wanted her to wear this long sleeve red jacket with a white collar; she hated it in the store and wanted the pink one. I thought that after we got home she would be fine with the red one and forget about the pink and we could just get dressed with no drama. I was wrong! she would not come any where near that red jacket and did not forget about the pink one at all! So, of course the morning we are planning to go see Santa, I make a mad dash back to Target to return the red and get the pink. I normally don’t like to admit when I let her have her way, but I can’t blame her cuz I am pretty picky with my clothes, too and it’s her Christmas outfit so I don’t mind letting her be involved in the decision. Lesson learned on my part, they actually do care more than I ever thought on what they wear! lol

Now, back to Santa. We went to this small toy store by our house that we love for it’s unique toys and atmosphere. Santa does free photos and all donations go to gifts for orphans. I love people that spend their lives doing things for other people. I need to be more like that!!  Avery got a little nervous but she did so incredibly well and sat on his lap by herself and told him all of what she wanted for Christmas. I was so proud of her! Norah, on the other hand, freaked out! lol I didn’t get a good group shot but I am still figuring out my new flash (details for another post) so most of them are too dark and needed some editing in Photoshop. Its so frustrating when I get crappy photos at something like this since we can’t go back and do it again. uuugh. I need to work on taking quick snap shots in the moment and still getting a perfect exposure. I am not so good at impromptu, on the spot photography…. but I digress. Here’s some of the shots, I did get.

Norah found the Teddy Bear that she always plays with when we go to this store! (PS, Norah got her first black eye this week. it looks a thousand times better today but it’s still not pretty! She managed to pull down her stocking along with the heavy brass stocking holder on her face. she is so lucky that it didn’t actually hit her eye ball! There were shards of metal on the floor when it shattered so she is lucky she didn’t get any in her eye. poor baby!)

Look at this face! It’s all fun and games till a man in a red suit come out saying “Ho Ho Ho”. She is not taking her eye off of that crazy man!

Look at the magic in Avery’s eyes! She was sooo excited! THIS is what it’s all about!

Talking to Santa

Attempt at a group shot. lol Santa looks like he just wants to get it over with hahaha!