Reminder

I love that my kids read this every time they come down the stairs.

Easter decor

partial decorations & letters to the man in red

Christmas is slowly seeping into our house!
I've had Patty Loveless holiday Pandora on nonstop, and the smell of Silver Bells Scentsy fills my living room (my new favorite scent!)
Brooklyn and I started getting out the decorations yesterday while the big boy was at school and the baby boy was asleep.   

(My neighbor was doing some pruning and left these on my front step.)

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Am I the only one that has to endure hearing,
"Can I have that for Christmas?" five bazillion times a day???
The annual letters to Santa:

I told Brooklyn she could just draw pictures of what she wanted to ask Santa for.
In case it isn't totally obvious, these are drawings of a Strawberry Shortcake movie, A light-up Rapunzel doll, and a stuffed animal dolphin.

Isn't first grade writing the best?

I'm hitting up the Dollar Tree for more bulbs and bells today, and the tree goes up on Saturday!

Happy decorating!

my painting mojo is BACK!

Were you starting to get worried?

Since August's birth, the only thing I've had much passion for is getting the laundry done.

A few weekends ago, my in-laws took my big kiddos for two nights.  

With the gift of free time and silence in the house, my furniture painting urge kicked in.  

The weather was fabulous and it felt so good to be back in the driveway with a paintbrush!

Here is how the lovely garage sale desk started out.

Here it is now!

It's hard to get a good angle for a picture because I have it stuck in a teeny little entryway near my front door, but it's the perfect place to throw keys, bills that need to go out, etc. 

The oil rubbed bronze pull is my favorite.

No distressing done on this one, just my favorite shade of mustard.

My maternity leave is officially over! 

I've been back at it with some spray cans too.  Can't wait to show you!

weekend project *after*

The bigger I grow, the slower I get, but I've made some progress in the bathroom.

This is what my shower curtain looked like before.  

It still looked like this Sunday night at 9:00.  

Too, too short.

 I bought some muslin for around $3 and added some layers to the problem area. 

 Then I was able to raise the rod to a much more desirable height.

Yay!

I hung this little star hook above the sink to hang my new B washcloths (on sale at Kmart).

Note to self: Get cuter soap.

As soon as I saw Melanie's clipboard chalkboard, I copied her like two seconds later.  Then I found the perfect spot to hang it beside the sink where my kids can see it. 

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I'll be working on more projects this weekend!

weekend project *before*

Since my list of things to do around the house before the baby comes is already a mile long, I figured I may as well add some more to it!  This has been bugging me for awhile anyway. 

This is our (spacious) main bathroom and a few months ago I bought this shower curtain.

And this is what happens every time I get a new shower curtain:

It's too short!

Even the liner hangs out below it. The last time I had this problem I solved it with some burlap, but this time I have a new plan. 

This is what hangs behind the door. 

It's going bye-bye since I've never really liked it that much and we're almost no longer a family of four. 
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So this is my plan for this weekend.

1.  Elongate the shower curtain.

2.  Spray paint the curtain rod and hanging thingies.

3.  Do something different on the wall behind the door.

4.  Try to monitor my kids' consumption of TV and Doritos.  

See you Monday!

nightstand before and after

 Here's a little nightstand we inherited from Nate's Grandma.  It's just the right size to go next to Porter's bed.

 I spray painted it cherry red and shabbied it up a bit.

Perfect!

making room for baby

Here it is.  
I got a little burst of energy and finished it up today.

  

You might remember the before picture.  
This was the changing table we used for both kids.  It matched the crib they used, but now it just doesn't match anything.  I was going to sell it on Craigslist, but then opted to paint it. 

First I sanded off all of the shiny-ness, then rubbed a bar of soap over the places I wanted to distress.

I sprayed it Krylon Oxford Blue and then sanded the heck out of it.  I finished it off with some rub-on poly. 

I had Nate hang up an old bike basket that we had out in the garage.  It's perfect for holding all of the little things.

Approximately a year later, the cornice and curtains are hung!

When I was pregnant with Porter, I loved looking at all of his teeny tiny socks.  

Now I love looking at all of these teeny tiny onesies!

I've got plans for this nightstand next.

Christmas is creeping out

Last time to wear these jammies!

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So I started poking around in the attic and brought a few things down today.  I can't go full blown Christmas decor yet because someone is apparently going to paint the living room, add new molding, put up board and batten, oh yeah, also paint the ceiling and hang new blinds...all this week...but he's starting tomorrow.   

So we'll see when I can actually get a tree up!  (love you, honey!)

I'm so glad I bought a few of these little burlap wrapped trees last year after Christmas (for super cheap) because I'm going with a really simple, plain, burlap, green and red theme this year.  Wait, was that my theme last year too?

Ooh, there's the paint, I think he's getting ready.

We'll see what creeps out tomorrow.

half-bath makeover

Let's take a look at the sad state of this bathroom before.  Yep, it looked like this for a year (or more)!

I LOVE the new color!  
It was scary at first, but it looks so good with the white accessories.

 I'm on the hunt for a chunky white mirror to hang above the sink.  We may have to make one.

 Are you understanding how tiny this bathroom is?  Nate and I had to take turns coming in and out while we were working.  It didn't help that my belly was bumping into everything!

 I scrounged up some sticks from the back yard.

That's it!  
I didn't want to clutter it up too much because it's so cramped in there.  I think it turned out great.  I still need the mirror and a fluffy new rug and then it will be complete.  I may even take it over as my bathroom!