Daughter’s bedroom makeover

17. January 2013 · 11 comments · Categories: Around the House · Tags: ,

Finally, pictures of my daughter’s bedroom makeover! Thanks to everyone who helped bring it all together, especially her grandma – seamstress extraordinaire!

(You can tell I’m having fun playing around with Pixlr)

She loves her reading nook! (Something I dreamed of as a little girl is now hers!)

Custom window valance & faux white wooden blinds (from Lowe’s)

Blue comforter and purple blanket from Target, pillows: custom!

The cool light switch cover is courtesy of her aunt (my little ‘sis) and the beautiful Mary painting, which was in my room long time ago, is by my aunt Christi.

That shelf used to be in my bedroom when I was a little girl. It is now a great place to put her special things out of reach from her very curious little brothers! Grandma also gave her that clock that she colored and the cute white table/chairs are from my parents.

She was gifted with this blue and green flower wall deco (from Hobby Lobby) for Christmas. We used them to make an art line:

Lastly, my daugther sewed these 3 stuffed animals with her grandma during their ‘sewing time’ together. She made the elephant for the baby, the kitty for her 6-year-old brother, and the little doggie for the 3 year-old.


Things that drive me batty

20. September 2012 · 2 comments · Categories: Around the House, motherhood

Along with my How to Stay Sane game plan, I’ve been trying to journal my feelings/thoughts more, especially when I am irritated. This helps me diffuse so I don’t take it all out on my family (or myself). I recently wrote down a list of things that cause me great stress and irritation. Some of these I can learn to avoid/prevent but many of these are things that just come with the territory and I just have to deal. The problem (in the past) is that my hormonal/emotional/physical/spiritual health wasn’t as up to the task. I’m hoping my “game plan” will help me handle these situations/issues better. We’ll see. Here are some of my ‘Top Stressers’ in no particular order.

* Food: Planning it, buying it, preparing it, cleaning up from it. I need food, my family needs food, but it sure does get in the way.

* Getting ready to go anywhere, especially early in the morning.
someecards.com - Maybe if we sneak in the side door Father won't notice we are late again.

* Kids fighting/arguing/screaming/bossing etc, etc. (Especially when baby is trying to sleep or when I’m talking on the phone.)

someecards.com - Let's see how loud and obnoxious we can be while mommy talks on the phone.

* Messy kitchen–dirty dishes and crumbs and trash piled everywhere.

someecards.com - Don't confuse my desire for a clean house as a desire to clean up after you.

* Clutter: Toys, clothes, random socks, books, papers, etc scattered all over the house in plain view but yet no one bothers to put them away. (Yet they notice enough to step over them.)

* Inconsolable crying. When the baby does this (Which he actually hasn’t yet but I’m sure he will at some point) or if someone is seriously hurt (i.e. severe head trauma, broken bones, or profuse amounts of blood gushing out) it doesn’t bother me as much. Other than that, when there is no apparent or reasonable purpose for the never-ending loud siren crying, it is incredibly hard to handle. This is what sets me over the edge more often than anything. Our two-year-old has gotten exceptionally good at this since our sweet babe entered his world. He did finally cut a molar and hasn’t been as bad since. I’m trying to carve out special attention for him throughout the day (reading to him, playing puzzles, giving him extra hugs, etc) but he still has a hard time handling all the attention baby needs from me. Plus he’s just at that age (2 and 3 are evil years.) He’s independent and adventurous which is great except for when he doesn’t want my help (even though he obviously needs it) and when he wants to do something dangerous/hurtful and I tell him no (how could I?!).  I roll my eyes and sigh at him several times throughout the day. Then I roll my eyes at myself for tying to reason with a two-year-old. On really bad days, I turn into a roaring dragon and that’s no fun for anyone and I’d like to avoid that as much as possible. (As I’m sure the kids would also.)

* On that note, not knowing how to handle behavioral issues peacefully yet also effectively sends me into an ugly spiral of incompetent and guilty feelings as I tear myself down for not knowing how to parent my own children. I’ve read ALL the books and heard it all. Yet I still can’t get my kids to follow my every command with a smile on their faces.

someecards.com -

* Dealing with multiple children’s issues at the SAME TIME.

* Giving my children the love and attention they EACH need.

someecards.com - Yes, I love you all but I can't love all of you at the same time!

 


Bedroom Picture Wall Deco Update

06. August 2012 · 5 comments · Categories: Around the House

Thanks to all the great ideas for how to improve our recent wall deco in our bedroom. After thinking about it and getting a good visual lightbulb idea from my friend, Monica, I went out and looked for a nice cross to hang in between all the wheat field pictures. I was excited when I found one I liked and for 1/2 off at Hobby Lobby!

Here’s how it looks now:

This simple addition helped connect the pictures together; my husband and I both really like how it looks now. It makes me happy when I walk into my room and see it. He also suggested we change out the pictures every now and then to change things up.


Wall deco updates

28. July 2012 · 6 comments · Categories: Around the House

Wheat close-up

I love wheat fields and my husband took some beautiful pictures earlier this summer before the harvest. I also love our bedroom; it’s a place of solitude, love, and peace–like wheat fields. So we printed out some of his best ones and hung them on the wall above our bed. (Thanks to those who recommended Mpix, we are very impressed with their quality!)

I really like the pictures but my husband and I either are still getting used to there being something on that wall or something is still missing. Maybe I should have gotten bigger prints/frames? Any suggestions or is it good like this?

I love digital cameras but the one thing I miss about film is having real pictures to hold/frame available. I’m also very lazy about printing out the good ones because I don’t know where I’ll put them. So, since I was already ordering some, I also ordered some updated pictures of our kids. I set them on our bathtub ledge. I’ve arranged my bathtub with visual/tangible reminders of what is to come soon. Yes, I am going to birth a baby, it will be a great work to bring him out into this world, but the pictures of my kids remind me why I can/will get through it.


Crafty Nesting

21. July 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Around the House, motherhood

The nesting/crafting bug has definitely hit me! The time for our baby’s birth approaches quickly and I’ve checked off all my necessary baby-nesting and birth prep to-dos!

diapers washed
tiny onesies
fresh and ready
soft wipes
for my baby’s tushie
knit hat
for the Fall
bassinet up
beside my bed
heart open
ready for Love


Joyful Friday II

22. June 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Around the House, Beauty, Joyful, Nature, Photography, Small Successes, Thankful Thursday · Tags:

Langdales Panoramic

Ok, I got some more sleep and took it a little easier yesterday so the grumpy clouds lifted and let the sun shine through today…at least for the moment. After last week’s joyful post, I’ve thought more about all the joys and blessings in my life. They are sometimes but little flickers of light dancing on the shadows of the wall but they are joys nonetheless.  I missed the Small Successes post yesterday so I’ll just make this a joyful/gratitude post with a scattering of delightful pictures.

    • Hanging out with my little brother and watching my kids demolish pounce all over him.
    • My little sister–God’s “surprise” gift to our family that I’m so glad my parents were open to and accepting of. She’s a wonderful aunt and friend for my children and is becoming a great helper for me!

Wind farm

    • Feeling and seeing this baby kick and roll and stretch around inside of me.
    • Watching my husband and kids listen, feel, kiss, hug, and talk and play with the baby through my tummy.

Lightning

Storm and star trails

    • Weekday morning mass, even if it is a major struggle and the two-year-old and five-year-old like to enhance the grace-filled experience as much as they can for me.
    • Praying a rosary together with my daughter in adoration.
    • Sacramental Confession; “ahhhh”, says my soul.

Wheaty sunrise

    • Finished cleaning out the sewing room/junk room in the basement now I can start on my daughter’s skirts without wanting to run out of the room.
    • Cleaned out my bathroom drawers so I don’t have to curse every time I try to open them and find things.
    • Cleaned/reorganized messy Tupperware cabinet.
    • Completed all my “house” before-baby-comes projects. Now I can start on the “baby” before-the-baby-comes projects. (Diapers, clothes, bassinett, birth kit, freezer meals, etc)

Foggy hay bales

    •  Made not just one but 2 freezer meals for some friends expecting their babies in the next few weeks. Now to get started on ours…
    • Let my daughter have some friends from her class over and I think we all survived with only a few tears. Now hopefully she’ll remember I let her do at least one fun thing this summer :)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/68358236@N03/7339940576/lightbox

  • The sound of rain as I sleep.
  • I remembered to return our library movies before they were due saving us at least $4 in fines! (Don’t ask how much I’ve owed in the past!)
  • One more very important one: Air conditioning; I am very thankful for this and for floor fans.

 


Jewelry Boards

16. June 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Around the House, Organizing/Cleaning · Tags:

A little while ago year or so ago I bought 2 framed cork boards at a garage sale for $.50 each knowing I could probably use them for something creative in the house.

Last week I finally did! I was tired of having to dig through my tiny jewelry box drawers to find matching earings and my necklaces were always getting tangled up. They were hanging on these 2 nails in my closet…

but that wasn’t work so great because I had to take each off to get to the one behind it.

So, with the help of my awesome seam-stress mother-in-law, we staple-gunned some fabric we found from her leftover stash onto the corkboards.

And then I hung mine up in my closet

and my daughter’s in the kids’ bathroom behind the door


We used push pins instead of hooks because that’s what we had. One day I might exchange those pins for some pretty little hooks. I also might paint the wood frame a different color one day too…but this works just fine for now. We can see and access our jewelry in a fun and easy way! This was a simple project that made me happy to complete.

P.S. Most of my lovely jewelry was gifted to me by my awesome brothers and family and a lot of it comes from the very talented Jeannie–check out her Bead Stylin’ Store!


Small Successes Thursday June 7

07. June 2012 · 2 comments · Categories: Around the House, Small Successes

Well I’m definitely running out of steam faster than I though I would! I am still grateful for accomplishing 2 of the goals I set last week.

1. Worked with my husband to clean and re-organize our garage–MUCH better!

2. Re-organized our wrapping paper and special memento boxes in the basement storage up on plastic shelving from Target so now there are no boxes on the floor in case our sump pump breaks.

3. I went through our baby blankets and put away what we will keep for this next one and put the ones to give-away into the trunk for our next visit to the pregnancy-crisis center. I will also make some old receiving blankets into more diaper wipes.

So for next week hopefully I started the skirt sewing project (maybe I should start by cleaning the sewing room first so I don’t want to run out of it when I open the door), and I also want to put more clothes away in space saver bags (I’m so thankful for all the clothes people have shared with us but the job of keeping them organized is endless!)

I hope you’ve all had some small successes to bring you joy and accomplishment this week! Share them below or at CatholicMom.com!


Small Successes Thursday May 31

31. May 2012 · 1 comment · Categories: Around the House, motherhood, Small Successes · Tags: , , ,

As I enter into the third and last trimester of growing this baby in me I’ve definitely started nesting! It also helps that school is out so I can devote more time to cleaning/organizing projects without as many interruptions.

Here’re some small successes from this past week.

1. Cleaned and reorganized mine and the kids office. This included throwing out or reassigning ownership of old papers, sorting through the kids school stuff and art work, and simplifying our bookshelve where we keep our art supplies, notebooks, coloring books, and other educational games and such.

2. Went around the house and “got rid” of books that we really don’t need to keep. Hopefully someone else will get some good use out of them. We are blessed with so many books but I’ve noticed if we have too many they just don’t get read. I also put some away in a box that we can rotate out so they’ll still be around when we want them.

3. Cleaned, threw away, sorted and reorganized our “junk” drawers in the kitchen. Hopefully it will be easier to find things in them now.

Next week, I hope I can say I cleaned out the garage, organized a few more boxes in the basement (and got rid of all the horrible brown recluse spiders there! ug!!),  cleaned the sewing room and started on my daughter’s summer skirts I bought material for back in April! I know that’s an ambitious list but I want to get as much “grunt” work done before I have absolutely no more energy and it gets unbearably hot…which doesn’t leave me much time on either account!

Share your Small Successes here or at CatholicMom.com. It’ll make you feel good to see what you have done!


Around the Garden

25. May 2012 · 2 comments · Categories: Around the House, Garden

Here’s a random update of what we’ve been working on around the garden lately.

The hydrangeas I planted last year are blooming! Well one of them is blooming and the other is still thinking about it.

My husband and kids got me a new pink one for mother’s day! I love these so much, I hope I can keep them alive through the summer.

Our luscious hostas.

We planted some vincas in a few pots around the house.

Even the froggie planter gets to have one.

My 5-year-old made this at preschool for me. I love his little hand print.

Though it is really late in the game, we decided to go ahead and plant some veggies in the garden boxes.

Some peppers and broccoli, which is already mostly eaten up by caterpillars. My approach to vegetable gardening is a we’ll-stick-these-in-the-ground-and-see-what-happens. Thankfully we do not rely on the success of this method for our survival.

A ladybug landed on his shirt while we were working.

He thought it was pretty funny.

The green pepper box. Wouldn’t it be nice if it stayed so clean and weed-free like this?!

Some more peppers and the broccoli. I have no idea if you are supposed to grow these together. We’ll find out.

I have another box but doubt I’ll go to the effort to get rid of all that grass/weeds to plant anything in it this year. I’m not sure what to do with all the extra soil I have now. I wonder if I can return it. And you can see our nice compost box there. Another somewhat unsuccessful experiment. Oh well, I feel better throwing our kitchen scrap and yard waste in there than into the trash. And we got some cantaloupes and tomatoes out of it last year.

I bought too many flowers and don’t have enough pots. I don’t know why I bought these. They looked pretty at the store but now…not so much. I might squeeze them into the veggie boxes somehow…maybe that will crowd out the weeds?

Related Posts with Thumbnails

« Older articles