Wanna Chat?

I'm all ready to get on with the day, right after I finish my coffee....something that is vital to my morning. Is it like that for you too or do you wake up bright and cheery and ready to face the day? I need the caffeine or else my day gets off on the wrong note.

Anywho....I realize I've been MIA around these parts lately. I have to say that I love blogging but I also love taking breaks from it. From the computer in general....

There are so many "electronic" things that take our attention these days, it gets tiring for me. How about you? Do you get overwhelmed by all the technology and websites? TV, Facebook, Twitter, Blogging, etc....

It can get to be a lot. Some days I realize that if I added up all the time I spent online or in front of the TV...well lets just say that I don't really want to add it up, yikes! So with the nice weather upon us, I'm trying to spend more time outside, more time doing things that don't involve my laptop. The blogging community is wonderful and so much fun but balancing things is a challenge for me. I wonder how some of you do it, working, family, house, blogging......how do you find time for it all? Do you make a schedule, do you set a timer, do you stay up 22 hours a day?

Finding balance has been on my mind lately. I will still be posting, I'd miss you all if I didn't! But it won't be as often in my attempts to never respond to my 4 year old's "Mommy will you play Memory with me?" with "In a minute" or "Hold on, Mommy is doing something." I have to be honest and admit those responses happen much more often than they should.

Last night he got out his sister's play laptop and sat down next to me on the couch, pretending to "text" as he said. It made me smile that he was trying to copy me and I said to him, "Are you on the computer like Mommy?"

His response?

"Wait a second!"

Ugh.

If I were a good Mommy, he wouldn't have said that. If I were a good Mommy, I wouldn't be on the computer when I should be playing outside with him.

So that's the long winded explanation (or excuse) for where I have been the past couple months. Just trying to be honest with myself and make some changes. I'm sure none of us will be 90 years old and wishing we spent more time in life Tweeting.

If I'm 90, sitting on my porch in a rocking chair, thinking, "If only I had done more social networking...." someone please smack me.

This month has gone by so fast. My hubby and I celebrated our 10th anniversary on March 7th. He got me roses and I got him a card. I'm so bad in the gift department, what do you get for a guy anyway?

The powder room is coming along.....

Wallpaper is done, crown moulding up, lights installed.....

We wallpapered the ceiling too which I love. The crown really shows it off. No idea what is going on with that icky window there, wallpaper paste maybe?

The window looks so much better now with trim around it.

I was asked where I found this wallpaper. I ordered it from a local store here but you can find it in this book:

And a link:

http://www.wallquest.com/sandpiper/bookView.htm?book=50133

And now the tile. Oh the tile. We went to lay it all out and plan our tiling project and then realized we didn't have enough. Isn't that always the way? Our order is in for one more box, as soon as Lowes calls we'll be grabbing that 3rd box and finishing this room up! I'll be so glad when it's usable again.

I have something else in the works as well that has been taking up my time, I'll blog about that soon.

So tell me, what is new with you? Is spring showing up where you live?

So the lion fell in love with the lamb....

When I mentioned in a previous post that I was reading the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer, I had a few comments and emails asking for a review. Well, I'll keep it short and simple.....absolutely loved it. Yes it is written for young adults but I think anyone of any age will enjoy the story. There is such emotion that comes through in her writing, yet it doesn't become annoyingly descriptive if that makes any sense. If you look online you will find tons of fan sites and you will also find a lot of negativity. Especially when people who are into Harry Potter start talking, watch out. Now, I can't comment with any type of comparison as I have no desire to read Harry Potter *ducking and running* but I gathered from the criticism that the writing styles just cannot be compared. I look at it this way, we are all fans of something and will jump to defend it. It's wonderful to me that there are teens out there willing to defend books. As long as they are reading, it's all good!

It took me 6 days to read all 4 books in this series and I was still wanting more. Luckily I ended up with a stomach virus and stuck inside from a snowstorm while I was reading these. I say luckily because that meant my husband was home from work so the kids were fed. *phew*

You can check out the author's website here: http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/twilight.html

On it she has the rough draft of Midnight Sun (the rumored 5th book) and the story of why it is incomplete. Even though the conversations are repeats, it's interesting to go back to the beginning from Edward's point of view and makes you understand his torment so much better.

So that is my humble take on it. I won't be crazy enough to jump into the madness that will be opening night of Eclipse but you will definitely find me at the theater that week, during the day.....while all the teenagers are at the pool.

Doorknobs and Penguins

Thank you for all the birthday wishes for my daughter. I'm pretty sure she had a good birthday as she didn't stop smiling all day long. I have some pics of the birthday fun but first I wanted to show you a project I did when I disappeared from blogging.


You might remember we had a coat rack in our Everything Room. It was perfect for the space but very heavy and its hangers didn't line up with the studs. See where I'm going with this? Anyway, one day we were sitting in the other room and heard a huge crash. The coat rack had tumbled to the floor leaving gaping holes in my wallpaper. *sigh* Luckily the shelf itself wasn't broken (gotta love Pottery Barn quality, it can even take a 7 foot fall onto wood flooring!) so we moved it to our front foyer where it is happily attached to plaster and studs.


The first thing I did was cover the holes in the paper with a sign from Hobby Lobby. That's the one bad thing with wallpaper, if you change your mind or if something violently pulls out of the wall, you are left unable to easily patch things up. So covering it up was a necessity. But I still needed a place in this room to hang random things.

I had been collecting doorknobs and decided to use them in place of the coat rack.....


This was an easy project. My hubby drilled large holes into the woodwork and then we used wooden dowels to put one side into the wall and the other into the doorknob. We found Gorilla Glue worked great for this, it bubbles and expands as it dries making for a strong bond.




You can see at the base of the doorknob, how the glue started to come out a bit. You can easily touch this up with paint if you need to. I'm lazy so I left it.

I'm linking this up to Make Your Monday over at Twice Remembered ! There are lots of great projects to be seen over there!

And....

This is where the penguins come in. I know you were sitting there wondering from my weird post title if I had my coffee today. (Drinking it as we speak, errr..type)

My girls got all dressed up for Ella's birthday. They rarely wear dresses so it was fun to get some pictures....

And off to Texas Roadhouse we went. It's Ella's favorite restaurant and she got to sit on the saddle while they announced her birthday and Yeehawwwwwed. There was a 14 year old girl sitting at the table behind us and it was her birthday too. She looked so embarrassed, I about died for her as her cheeks turned all kinds of red.

I always let them request a special cake. This year she wanted penguin cupcakes. I have a fun cupcake book and she picked these cuties out. They weren't too hard and I had a good time making them. Don't ask me how much sugar I consumed while dipping and frosting and cutting up candy. Seriously, don't ask.

A few sparkle candles and a good time was had by all....

8 Years, How Did That Happen?!

This beautiful girl is 8 years old today. Last year I wrote this post about her. I was going to just repost it but thought I would link instead and write a new post for my sweet baby girl.

Let me tell you a little something about Ella. She is one of the kindest souls I know, so sensitive to how other people feel. If I'm having a rough day or feeling down, she is the one who will come give me a hug. She can just tell what you need.

If you want a patient friend, Ella is your girl. She has such a knack for teaching, I know she will make an amazing mama some day. There is no shortness or impatience in her voice, she'll show me how to work her DS without getting annoyed as I die 10 times playing Mario Bros.

Ella has inherited my love of decorating. She is always fixing things in her room and loves to fill her bed with comfy pillows and her favorite stuffed animals. If I go into an antique or thrift store, she's right behind me, excited to see what we will discover. She is the one who will notice my latest project and stop to tell me how much she loves it. I've started asking her to help me pick things out, the girl is a natural I tell you. HGTV, watch out!

She is funny and smart, understanding and gentle. She loves her family, her friends, and her dogs. Her laughter is loud and contagious and she will always have a smile for you.

Happy 8th Birthday to our Ella Rose! We love you tons and tons......

There must be an angel with a smile on her face,When she thought up

that I should be with you.

~James Blunt

Speaking of wallpaper...

This is how far we've gotten in the powder room. I was so excited to see the wallpaper going up. The winner was this damask, a bit different than the one I talked about HERE . The reason it looks a bit splotchy is because I didn't wait until it dried to take a pic. Impatience should be my middle name.

Of course I had to lay down a sheet of floor tile to see how it looked. I'm giddy over the way this is going to come out. Oh and in case you were wondering, wallpaper paste does not feel good falling in your ear. Just saying.

What's left to do? Order more wallpaper because we ran out (ugh), put up crown and window moulding, lay down the tile and put the fixtures in. It's getting there.....

My sweet hubby took me to see this on opening night.....

The threat of major snow and a theater packed full of young girls whistling every time Channing had his shirt off. Yup, my hubby sure is a good sport. I think I owe him a trip to some crazy, bloody action flick after this one.

I hadn't read the book first so the movie was different than what I expected. Good though, I recommend you go with your sweetie for a date night to see it too (or drag by the shirt, you know, whatever works).

But now I have to go because I'm halfway through this and completely engrossed.....

Yup, I'm a little late to the party as usual but I'm loving it.

I'm a sucker for a good love story if you couldn't tell.

Inspired....

Pictures:
1-7 Better Homes and Gardens

8-9 Country Living

Did you notice a theme in these pictures? Yup, wallpaper. I have a weakness for it, always have.

When we bought out first house and everyone else thought wallpaper was evil, we were putting up rolls of it in our foyer and stairway. It was a country pattern that I would now hate but I loved the look. Can you see it in the background? It was a floral top and gingham bottom with a border the middle. It's atrocious, I realize, but I loved it a long time ago.

(Oh and sorry about the screaming baby, that's all she did for her first year of life so we had no choice but to snap pictures anyway. Love that kid.)

In our second home, we did wallpaper again. This time it was a pinkish-red toile on our family room ceiling. The inspiration came from this kitchen which I believe was in Country Living magazine. I wish I had a better picture but after googling for an hour, this was all I came up with. How adorable is this?

This is the room we did using the toile. The "Before" pic of this room was scary, dark wood paneling, ugly floor tiles and a drop ceiling. My poor hubby spent a lot of time putting drywall up on the ceiling just for me to want to cover it with wallpaper. Oops.

The room during our remodel.....

This was the finished room, you walked in from the living room through an adorable french door, down a couple steps....

It served as a playroom/TV room for our girls. I had picked out cottage looking fabrics for the wicker and really tried to make it feel like a cottage porch. I'm mad at myself for not taking more photos. Hubby and I spent days with our arms above our heads hanging that wallpaper, days recovering and resting our sore arms and this is all I have to show for it.

You can see the rest of this house by clicking HERE .

I'm sure that room doesn't have that sweet wallpaper anymore as a single guy bought the home and immediately began trashing it. Five years later and I still tear up over that so moving on....

Where was I? Oh yeah, the point of this post. It has a point, I promise. Last night we were in Lowes and I started looking through this beautiful book while waiting on my hubby (he was looking at boring stuff).

Book can be found here: Amazon



I didn't buy it but I might go back for it. There was a picture of a white kitchen with the sweetest toile wallpaper you ever did see. It looked to be on the lavender side but it looked adorable in the room.

I showed it to hubby and said, "Isn't this cute?"

And he said, "Yeah, actually, it really is nice."

Don't tell him I told you that, I'm sure he would deny it but yes, he does sometimes appreciate a nice toile. I love my white kitchen but I've been doing some tweaking lately and adding color. I wondered if I should wallpaper it with a toile too? While he looked at more boring stuff, I took off to the wallpaper books. I love the smell of them. If someone handed me a coffee, I could have looked through those books all night. I found a few nice patterns but nothing in the color I would want. Still thinking on it but who knows, I might surprise you one day with a wallpapered kitchen.

We'll see.....




So what are your thoughts on wallpaper? I know we all have taken down some horrible stuff and it's a lot of work but I would never shy away from it. The time it takes to remove it is worth the joy I get from having it up for a time. Completely, undeniably worth it.

BHG loves me

Did you get your latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens? Wasn't I surprised to open it and see this page....the everything room! I'm positive that they must have gotten that term from me, aren't you? Don't tell me otherwise, I'm happy here in dreamland. Now, Better Homes and Gardens, I'll be expecting my royalty check in the mail any day now!



I love the look of these cookies on the cover, I may have to try these....

Do you remember my Powder Room project? Do you remember when I said we would have it and the kitchen done before Christmas? Did you laugh at me?? Well, you should have. That was laugh worthy for sure! We ("we" meaning my husband) started working on it again this week and it's coming along. He managed to get the mirror down in one piece so now he just has to move this electrical so we can have sconces instead of a single fixture....

He cut the wall out so we can make a support for the very heavy pedestal sink we found on Craigslist. We propped it up and looked at it and my heart went all a flutter. I wish I had taken a picture, it's going to look beautiful in here....

And the window is getting ready for some pretty trim and a new windowsill....

Sorry I don't have much to show you but to be honest, we're not in too much of a rush in here. We are fortunate to have two other bathrooms to use so we're taking our time getting this room done. We've been in hyper speed on most projects so it's nice to relax with a room redo for a change!

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend. The sun is shining here today and the kids are quiet so it's a beautiful Saturday. Hmmm....maybe the kids are too quiet. Gotta run!