These last few weeks...

have been BUSY to say the least.  I have had a crazy amount of motivation and energy, so I am going with it and trying to get as much done as possible before I crash and burn.

• (we) hung crown moulding in Alaire's bathroom
• put hooks up in Alaire's bathroom
• (we) hung crown moulding in our living room
• painted the half bathroom on our main floor
• laid new floors in the master bathroom
• built a craft/tea party/mini dining room table for Alaire
• built a craft table for myself (totally in love)
• began clearing out the old craft room (scary scary borderline hording pics)
• cleaned out the junk drawer (ridiculous what was in there)

Junk Drawer (1ftx2ft) 

Contents dumped

Contents organized

What was in that drawer?  Oh you know the usual.

• million keys to nothing
• liners for french fry holders (I know.. don't ask)
• 2 tap lights
• gorrila glue and super glue
• two kinds of tape
• headphones
• 3 decks of cards
• dog prescription
• floss
• photo magnets from high school
• sewing kit
• sunscreen
• hand sanitizer,
• tools galore (which included about 8 allen wrenches)
• and a bunch of other junk including a pez  lamb from the easter bunny

I put all of the stuff back in the house where it belongs.  We no longer have a junk drawer, for now anyway!


I plan to take a picture every week of the garden we planted.  It's crazy how fast everything grows!
I planted them on Memorial Day.
Here is the vegetable box the day I planted:

Here is the vegetable box a week later (last Monday)

The zucchini on the far left sprouted and so did the broccoli in the middle.

Here is the fruit and herb box the day we planted:

Here is the fruit and herb box last monday:

Green pepper with a bloom!!

Broccoli sprouting.

Zucchini  sprouting!

On to my favorite part of the weekend...

QUICK Almond Butter cookies.

I am "sensitive"/allergic to all grains.  Yes, all of them.  Corn, wheat, rice, barley, oats, and any other one I forgot.  No, I am not kidding, no it isn't awesome, and please don't ask me why I don't weigh 100 lbs. (obviously because i find things I can still eat like almond butter cookies)  

You can make these with peanut butter too, but that's another thing I can't have : (

1 cup almond butter

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 egg

Mix them all together and bake at 350 for 10 minutes.

BOOM fastest easiest cookies ever.  They are good too!  

I won't go so far as to say they are good for you, but they don't have butter or flour in them, so they are better than regular ones : )

We ended the weekend by playing outside in the water.  This little thing just melts my heart.  "Mommy take my picture driving my car"
She has been saying some wild things lately.  It's super funny.  I love asking her questions about Drew and I and what she thinks we do or say.  We have been having the conversation about how Daddy has to work during the day and can't always be home like I can.  Blah Blah Blah.. no one wants to hear that cold hard fact
Me: Well Alarie if Daddy doesn't go to work you and mommy can't stay home and play and go to the park and the zoo and see our friends
Alaire:  Ok
Me:  Alaire Do you know what Daddy does when he goes to work?
Alaire:  He goes to the baseball game.
Me:  Really?
Alaire:  He hits the ball and runs
Me:  Awesome I hope he plays professional baseball and just hasn't told me yet : )

When we put her to bed the other night she said "Mommy, Daddy's freaking out"  and then died laughing.  (He wasn't freaking out, nor had he freaked out)  It's just so funny when she knows what to say to make us laugh..

Have a good week.  I will be posting all of our updates throughout the week.  The list is long.  We've gotten a lot done, and have just as much to do!

Painted TV Dresser

I can't decide where to put the TV in our living room.  I DON'T want it mounted above the fireplace.  I know a lot of people have it there, but it's just not for me.  (Although I am considering it more and more)  I found this dresser for $20 at Goodwill a while ago and it was tacky, but I knew the detailing would look good painted.

So here is the before (one drawer is primed already)

Primed

In the process

Finished

Hello, Belle!

Eventually, I would like to put built ins on the wall with the fireplace, which is where I hope the tv will end up.  Until then, this works for a place to house the tv and all of the kids movies are out of sight in the drawers

Alaire's Bathroom/ Guest Bathroom

Remember when I said that our realtor was scared to sell us this house?  Well this room I think was the icing on the cake for her.  This is the room that I think she said, "I just can't look past the decor."  I don't blame her really.  It's terrible.

Before Pictures:

Yes, magenta and blue sponge paint.  

They taped off part of the ceiling and painted magenta on that too.

Look closely at the carpet in the bathroom.  

Anyone trying to get ready in this bathroom would end up  looking like  an oompah loompah because of the lighting.  

The theme you ask?? Lighthouses.  

We aren't finished with this bathroom, and we did let Alaire pick out the paint color (it's bright people mom), but at this point it can only go up.  We asked her a zillion times what color and she never strayed from this swatch.  It's her favorite and were good with that.  It looks happier and brighter and cleaner.  

Here are updated pictures from last week:

Teal Zeal paint!  Alaire picked out this artwork from Hobby Lobby.

White shower curtain (need to replace that bronze rod now looking at this picture) and we put up beadboard and a chair rail across from the toilet.  We are going to install hooks on the wall to hang towels to dry.  Don't forget to look up.  That ceiling was NOT fun to try to cover.  Two coats of primer and three of paint.

Here is the other view of the room.  You can barely see the floor, but I will post better pictures in a later reveal.

We added a frame to the mirror. 

Here's a better view of that whole wall.

Items left to do in this room:

• paint mirror frame
• find a toilet paper holder
• replace vanity handles
• replace faucet
• replace light fixture
• install crown moulding (hence the sweet paint job)
• spray paint shower rod to match
• hang hooks on bead board
• build bench to sit across from toilet
• put light switch plates on
• clean out under vanity

Well that is a pretty lofty list still, but a lot of the stuff we already have or have started, such as this:

I got this built while Drew was out of town last week too.  It's the bench for the bathroom.  I have to finish the paint on it and then I will show you the final product.

  

  

When the Cat is away...

You know what they say!  When the cat is away, the mice will play.  Well, Drew was out of town last week before his parents came and I got crazy, in a good way that is.  Sometimes when he is gone I don't sleep as much and I like to do a big project to surprise Drew when he gets back.  All week I didn't mention anything.  I acted like I wasn't getting anything done, just a usual week at home with Alaire.  Little did he know I checked a ton of things off my list.  Not all of them are Done DONE, but done, moving in the right direction, Phase 1 if you will.
The first thing I did was clean out the garage.  There was crown moulding, lumber, tools in boxes, toys, clothes to donate, pieces to the stroller, saw dust and a bunch of other crap laying EVERYWHERE.  We were keeping nails and tools and painting supplies in about 6 cardboard boxes.  Every time we get ready to do a project it takes 30 minutes to track down the right tools and by that time we are frustrated.  It was ridiculous to say the least.  A simple hammering of a nail in the wall took 45 minutes and should have taken one.  Waste. Of. Time.
This project definitely falls into the Phase 1 category.  It was a disaster, and now it isn't.  It has some organization, but nothing pretty.  We know where the tools are.  The deep freezer is out of the box and dangerous items are out of reach.  All of the lumber is off the floor and there is space for toys to be moved around.  It is no longer embarrassing to open the door during daylight.

All of the before pictures:  (some stuff had already been moved out of the way)

I am sure you are wondering why there are sponge painted walls, me too.  We didn't do it but we do hope to paint over it some day.  It is a little busy and just plain ugly.  It's not the only room in the house that had sponge paint either, but that's for another day.

Here is after the first day:

These are all of the boxes full of tools, paint supplies, paint swatches, and other random items.
This shelf was in the laundry room, but I moved it out to eventually hold extra toilet paper and paper towels and paint.

The garbage cans all have a place along with the lawn mower and all of the tools are put back on the rack in the left corner.

All of Alaire's toys are accessible, FINALLY  All of the lumber and moulding scraps are in blue bins and the deep freezer is out of the box and plugged in.  The box on the floor is for spray painting furniture and other things, so that I don't make marks all over the driveway.

I moved a shoe rack and the mini fridge out to the garage from the laundry/mud room too.  On top of the mini fridge is a huge basket that contains all of our reusable grocery bags and soft coolers.  They are accessible, but not in the way.  All of the boxes on the right are getting recycled.  There were a lot of empty boxes lying around.

And the After (Phase 1) of the Garage Clean Up:

Everything has a place and that feels awesome.  Drew was SOOOO shocked.  I told him to come to the garage real quick.  (I pretty much attacked him the second he came in the house from his trip)  He was SOOOOO surprised and happy.  He randomly mentioned it the rest of the weekend.  We both kept saying "I cannot believe the garage is clean and organized"

I love the lumber bars on the side wall.  It prevents everything from being in the way and getting pushed around the garage floor.  

There is room for all of our extra items we buy in bulk on the metal shelf, along with beach towels and "clean up/dirty old towels"  A few appliances ended up there too, such as the crock pot and dehydrator.

Right now I have a large folding table for a work bench, someday to be replaced with a wooden one.  This works for now though.  Under it is the nail gun and compressor, a garbage can and then a box of extra tiles and other supplies from updates in our house, which the previous owners left.

Alaires toys are right inside the door, so they can be pulled out with ease. All of the bins are holding scrap pieces of wood, moulding and then there are a few with sports equipment too.  There are a few lamps that I am fixing/painting sitting amongst the lumber too.

And THIS is probably one of the best parts of the whole garage.  Simple Peg Board.  All of the toys are visible and within reach.  NO MORE digging through bottomless boxes of junk!  YAY!  The shelves that are sitting on the workbench are in progress for Alaire's room!  I'll post those when they are finished and hung!

 
That was a lot of pictures, but I love a good before and after.  Again there is still a lot to work on, but at least we can see the floor and what is actually in that garage.  It feels good!  I am hoping we can keep it this way to make all of our other projects move a lot faster and less stressful.

Planting A Garden

We had a great Memorial Day weekend.  Drew's parents, Deb and Jim were here Saturday until this morning.  Drew and I did a giant Lowe's run on Sunday morning.  We had an insane amount of merchandise shoved into our van.  Before we left we had to take two pieces of lumber back in and have them cut.  Needless to say the drive home was a little scary.  We bought a ton of crown moulding, base boards, dirt, cow manure (never thought that would be something I would purchase) and a bunch of odds and ends to finish up some projects around here.
We have gone back and forth on planting a garden this year.  We got a late start.  It has been warm enough since March, but we missed that boat.  I finally decided to just go for it.  I knew I would be sad if I didn't do it.  I have wanted to plant a garden for a few years.  I have had some epic fails in the plant department.  Every summer Drew and I have been married, I have bought plants and left them to die in the garage or hanging on the front porch :( Woops!
Because of my track record, I had to get home and hit the ground running so Drew wouldn't harass me about letting the plants die.
Anyway,
I AM going to redeem myself.  I over planted and put a little bit of everything in these two boxes that I built, but we say WHAT EV ER.  It is a trial and we will find out what happens soon enough.  Alaire had fun throwing dirt, which was fine.  Throwing the manure... not fine.

I built two 3x5 boxes, although I could have probably done a few more.  Maybe next year or this fall.

We planted every kind of herb known to man, strawberries, tomatoes, cantaloupe, watermelon, parsnips, black beans, zucchini, peppers, and broccoli.  I may have to move the seedlings when they pop up in a few weeks, but that's fine.

Alaire was a big help and very interested in the "magic beans."  Sorry girl, no beanstalk with giants and golden eggs in this garden!

We finished the garden over the course of two days and so far it looks awesome!  Drew is getting geared up to go bigger next year!  I hope it is successful.  We are trying to go as organic and chemical free as possible, so here's to hoping the bugs and rabbits stay away!!!

No more Mauve Office

I literally took pictures of every room of our house the day we moved in, so the pictures have boxes, curtain rods, and plenty of other random things in it!

This is a photo of the formal sitting room when we moved in.  We are currently using it as an office.  When you walk in the front door of our home there is a large open entryway which has a dining room on the right and the office on the left.  As you can see there are only three walls, so the office can't  shouldn't be a disaster because it is one of the first things you see.

This is the entryway photo taken from the family room.  The office is on the right in this  picture.

We haven't done a whole lot with this room yet but we started by taking down the gold and glass shelves and the curtains.  (Sometimes you wish they WOULD take the window punishments treatments with!)

We also painted the walls.  Originally, as you can see the walls were matte/ gloss/ matte/ gloss striped mauve.  We ended up painting it this lavender color. The black bookshelf got kicked to the curb, and we replaced the chair pictured with a white wooden rolling one.  I will post an updated picture soon, but you get the idea.  It is a lot brighter and simplified.

Someday soon we will be putting in some kind of cupboards and or shelving, as this will be turning into my creative studio!  For now it is better than the original!

That is all for now!
Anna