Snow Day

February 13, 2014 Laura

I should really say "Snow Morning" instead of "Snow Day" since the snow we got here this past Saturday was pretty much gone by noon. But, we don't get much snow around here so, like the rest of the South, it was a Really Big Deal. Actually, at our house, it was only a Really Big Deal for about three minutes, as Katie Wynn wasn't the biggest fan. We coated up to go play in our 1.5 inches of white fluff and I grabbed my camera for the obligatory snow day pictures, but our girl wasn't so sure about all the coldness and she certainly didn't like that stuff being on her little white Keds. Can't say I blame her there.

She carefully inspected the snow with her Daddy, but had zero desire to actually touch it!

My two favorites!

Our house looked pretty nice in the snow! But really, what house doesn't??

Sadly, our really tall hedges were not a big fan of all the ice and snow. The ice just got way too heavy and they gave up and laid over. Sad. We really hope they bounce back as it warms up.

This picture from the side shows a little better how they just kinda leaned over. I really love these hedges so I will be majorly bummed if we have to cut them down!!

Like I said, it was all pretty much gone around noon and we were able to go about our regularly scheduled plans for the day. Now that we've had a day of snow that somewhat stuck, I officially give Old Man Winter my permission to move on. I'm ready for spring!

All over the place...

February 11, 2014 Laura

...as in, that's what this post is gonna be: all over the place. I do have some fun things (with non-phone pics) to share soon, I just haven't had a chance to sit down with my laptop and get them written. Soon!

For now, here's the most recent collection of pics from my iPhone that somewhat tells what we've been up to as of late.

Last week, after Katie Wynn's fever returned on Monday morning, we paid a visit to the doctor and found out she had her first ear infection. Darn you, daycare! I knew this would happen, but it didn't make it any more fun to deal with. We got an appointment almost immediately when I called, and were taken straight back to our room. That's where we waited for TWO HOURS before seeing the doctor. So frustrating! My poor sweet pea had a 103 fever at that point and fell asleep on her Mimi.

After a good rest in her Mimi's arms, she woke up in a pretty good mood. She even had a couple smiles for us!

Then she got restless. Thank goodness for the chapstick I had in my purse, she was so into it! In fact, chapstick may have been the only thing she ate that day...

Obviously we are so glad that we made it to 16 months before getting our first real illness (other than a snotty nose). The downside to that, though, is that she has no idea how to take medicine and it was quite the battle to get any in her. It took two days before we got a solid dose of the antibiotic swallowed, so the fever and puniness carried over to another day. Aren't those droopy eyes just pitiful? Super huge shout-out to my mom who was willing and able to tend to our sweet pea while we worked!

In other trying-to-get-healthy news, we have weaned Lolli off of her daily medicines (hallelujah!) and yesterday she went for her first regularly scheduled monthly shot. She was a nervous wreck going to back to the vet and shook uncontrollably. She thanked me for taking her by throwing up in my car three times - once in my lap! - on the way back home. Super gross. I don't think it was the shot that made her sick, but instead was the treats she gobbled up at the front desk while I paid her bill. Gee thanks for that, Lolli.

This outfit on Katie Wynn cracked me up. I just appliqued it last week but didn't realize how huge it was going to be on her! And, is it just me, or does the all-white getup make her look like a painter? I had already finished our most recent painting project, so I put her to work on the laundry.

Oh hey there, bedhead.

The picture above was taken after we'd both gotten haircuts. No more mullet for Katie Wynn and no more long, stringy locks for this Mama!

We bought a baby at Walmart! Probably the best purchase we've ever made. She loved getting to ride in the big part of the cart. :)

I'm hosting a shower at my house in less than two weeks and it's gotten me motivated to try to whip my dining room into shape. One night after dinner, Matt and I were working on hanging some new shelves when we looked over to see that Katie Wynn had carefully carried in every one of her little seats. Even she knows that table is missing chairs!

While I appreciate Katie Wynn's offer to use her chairs, I hope to have appropriately-sized ones in the dining room in time for the shower. I purchased these MONTHS ago and am finally getting around to sprucing them up. Mom and I spent a day finishing up painting them this past weekend, so now we just need to get the seats reupholstered so they can finally be used in the room! Also pictured below are the chunky floating shelves we just made. They aren't totally installed yet because the stain was still tacky, but I'm hoping we can finish them up tonight and check that off the list.

I completed my first-ever Craigslist sale! The old kitchen chandelier is officially gone. Boom. That was super easy. Now, anyone want a shell chandelier?

Katie Wynn really loves her Baby Doll. One night, we watched her lay Baby Doll down on her face, cover her up, and pat her back while saying, "night night." She is such a good little mama!

These cousins showed up at church Sunday in coordinating chambray and navy outfits!

It doesn't matter how many times we tell Katie Wynn she can't climb on stairs, she will ALWAYS sneak around us and climb right up. It's hard to be mad at her when she's so dang cute doing it.

I have a list of a million things to do this week, but hopefully I'll squeeze in some time for more blog posts! What are y'all up to? Anyone got any exciting Valentine's Day plans?

These little lights of mine..

February 4, 2014 Laura

...I'm gonna let 'em shine! Let 'em shine, let 'em shine, let 'em shine.

Have you ever been to my house? If you have, then you know about the eye sore that is my dining room chandelier. Correction: was my dining room chandelier. I love when friends come over for the first time and we get to the dining room part of the house tour, just so I can hear their reactions. "Oh, what a cool chandelier!" "Wow! That's neat!" And then when I immediately reply with "It came with the house. I hate it. You can have it if you want," their opinions seem to change a tad. "Yea, it is kinda big." "It would be cool for a beach house."

Even after a year and a half of house tours, I still haven't been able to send it home with anyone! My husband was even starting to offer some cash to go with it and still, no takers. I knew it had to be new when we moved into the house because the previous owners hadn't even gotten around to clipping the extra length of wires hanging from after the installation. I caught wind that the woman that used to live in our house had meant to take it with her, so I sent her an email and offered to sell it back to her for $200. She seemed interested but said she'd get back to me. I thought I'd made a quick, easy deal! Two days later, she replied that her designer didn't think it'd work in her new house. Imagine that.

Here's my pretty two-tiered plastic shell and bead light fixture in all its glory.

I had intended to immediately put it up for sale on Craigslist and put in something new, but we switched gears and started working on the living room and other areas of the house and it became a low priority. It's not like we were even using the room since for a year it didn't have a table and even now, it still doesn't have chairs.

BUT! Now I'm hosting my first shower in this house in a little over two weeks, and I've decided it's high time I start trying to pull this dining room together. I spent last weekend repainting it for the second time, and am much happier with the color of the walls now. I've had chairs purchased for a while but they're desperate for a makeover, so that's been put on this weekend's to-do list.

Before Christmas, Matt had given me the green light to order a new chandelier in January, but then we got hit with lots of vet bills and that purchase got put on hold. I did a LOT of online shopping to see if I could find a chandelier I liked that was cheaper than the one I'd had my eyes on for MONTHS, but just couldn't find anything that fit the bill. In fact, most of the ones I found made the one I wanted look relatively cheap. Probably because he was tired of hearing my whining, but mostly because he's the best husband EVER, Matt gave me the green light again to make the purchase!

Pottery Barn was running a sale that weekend but, as my luck usually goes, my chandelier was one of the only things NOT on sale. It didn't even come with free shipping! After putting it in my online cart and seeing how much tax and shipping were going to up the total, I panicked a little. It just seemed a little high for something I didn't HAVE to have right away. Even though I really, really wanted it!

My good friend, Allison, has a connection with someone who works at Williams Sonoma (sister company to Pottery Barn) so I decided to hit her up and see if we could maybe get it ordered with a little employee discount. Thankfully, she was happy to ask her friend and didn't make me feel completely awful for using her for her connection. I got prematurely excited about my new chandelier at a discounted price so I was really let down when Allison's friend said she'd do it if I could wait 2-3 months. So sad. The baby shower is this month, not 2-3 months away!

Ok, fast forward a couple days and Allison forwarded me an email about free shipping from Pottery Barn. I was doubtful that my chandelier would be included since it wasn't the last time but I checked anyway and low and behold, it had free shipping! That was a good fifty bucks I could save. I called Matt and woke him up (he was away on a business trip) because the offer ended at midnight and in his sleepiness, he told me I could order it. Isn't he a doll? :) And hooray for saving on shipping!

Then guess what? The next morning I had an email from Pottery Barn saying they were extending a 15% off all full-price online purchases sale for one more day. Say whaaaa?! I had just made a full-price online purchase less than 12 hours ago! So I sent an email to customer service with my order confirmation number and the code for the 15% off offer and hoped for the best. I was a little doubtful because I'm pretty sure when I made the original purchase, you could only enter one promotion code, so I would've had to have chosen between the free shipping and the 15% off. However, if they came back and said I could only have one, the 15% off was a better deal so I could've asked for the extra credit for the difference. I was supposed to get an emailed response to my inquiry within 24 hours.

I ordered the chandelier at 9:00 on a Wednesday night and got free regular shipping. At 7:00 on Friday night, not even a full 48 hours later, the new chandelier was on my doorstep. What?! It arrived faster than my Amazon Prime items I'd ordered the same day! Unfortunately, though, I had not received a response from my email so I accepted that I wasn't getting the extra 15% off and just got excited about it being installed so soon!

The very next day, Saturday, while my mom and I were out shopping and Matt and my dad were at home hanging the chandelier, I got the email from Pottery Barn that they had credited my credit card for the extra 15% off. Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww yeah!!!

Oh my gosh, this has become the longest, most drawn out, boring story ever. Sorry. I'll cut to the chase.

Here are a couple more pictures of my original chandelier. You can't really tell from the pictures but it was hung ridiculously low. Like, so low even it was even at Anna and Wyatt's eye level. It really made the room feel smaller than it is since it blocked your line of sight.

Are you ready for the most ridiculous part of this story? As soon as I had these pictures taken (right before the guys took it down), I got ready to upload them to Craigslist to put the chandelier up for sale. Before posting it, though, I did a little bit of research so I could figure out the correct name and brand of it. Y'all, it came from Horchow and was originally FOURTEEN HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS. Are you freaking kidding me?!? It eventually went on sale for one thousand and fifteen dollars which I hope is when the previous homeowner bought it although either way that's the most overpriced light fixture I've ever laid eyes on. The shells and beads are PLASTIC. And now it's hanging in my garage. I feel like maybe I'm totally missing something and I should bring it inside and put it in a glass case. It's quite possibly the most expensive thing that we own. And I've got it listed for $250 on Craigslist though, to be perfectly honest, if someone offered me fifty bucks I'd say SOLD!

I'm just glad it's finally out of my dining room. And I love my new one! It's the Paxton Glass 8-Light Pendant from Pottery Barn and, even at full-price, is only a third of the price of that other one.

These pictures don't really do it's beauty justice, but I was using my iphone and trying to avoid all the piles of crap around the rest of the room. :) I'm debating switching to vintage bulbs for a warmer glow, though we also installed a dimmer switch which really helps tone down the brightness when necessary. It's crazy how much bigger the room looks now that you can actually see it all at one time! Now it's even more noticeable that we don't have chairs or anything hanging on the walls. Gotta get on that ASAP.

Since the title of this post is plural, I'll move on to the next new light. The original chandelier in the kitchen wasn't nearly as offensive to me when we moved in as the dining room one was. However, it still wasn't really my style and I knew I'd eventually replace it with something I liked better.

When we moved in, one of the 9 bulbs was out and during dinner one night, Matt jokingly told me that I could order a new light fixture as soon as all the lights burned out. You better believe I didn't forget that promise! Over the past 16 months, we have watched the lights slowly burn out one at a time, til we were down to just three of the nine lights still working. It felt like we were having candle-lit dinners every night. :)

Since the bulbs were obviously way too high a wattage for the fixture, the bulbs that lasted a while started burning through the white shades making this chandelier look worse and worse over time.

My handy husband has become quite the electrician and was able to uninstall this one (and install a new one) on his own in the dark.

I really didn't have plans to change this light fixture before the party, but I thought if I could find something reasonably priced at Home Depot or Lowe's that I could pay for with my own little stash of cash, that it would definitely look better than having burnt shades at the baby shower. Even if it was just something to tide me over until I found a light fixture that I really loved.

I found this Allen + Roth pendant light fixture at Lowe's and thought it was just okay in the store, but I really love the way it looks hanging in my kitchen! It's amazing how much light it adds! I guess I hadn't really noticed how dim our lighting was getting...

Again, horrible pictures and please excuse the packaging mess on the table, but you can still tell it's much better, right?

Whew! Are you ready for this incredibly too-long story about light fixtures to be over? I am; I'm tired of typing. :) Maybe I'll have better pictures and less words next time!

Weekend Wrapup

February 2, 2014 Laura

Even though today is dreary and rainy and our little girl woke up with a fever, I'd say this was a great weekend! And KW's fever is forcing us to wrap it up with a lazy day inside, and I can't say I'm complaining!

Here are some pics from my phone over the last several days.

You know you're bathing at Mimi's house when your bath toys are empty thread spools. Who knew they could be so much fun, though?!

Lately, I've had to keep a close eye on my new house shoes. I got these for Christmas and it seems Katie bug loves them as much as I do. If I accidentally leave them unsupervised, she steals them from me!

Poor baby girl saw me throw her pink blankie into the dryer straight from the washing machine and, when I wouldn't let her have it, had one of the biggest meltdowns I've seen. It was a rookie Mom mistake; I now know better than to let her see it going into the laundry!

She has done such a good job of taking care of Baby Doll lately that I think she's going to make a great big sister. Friday she made sure Baby Doll didn't go hungry and even let her drink her orange juice straight from the jug!

Will I ever stop taking pictures of her sleeping? I'm not sure that I will...at least not any time soon.

We had the big kids at our house this weekend. It's funny how often we catch them playing with Katie Wynn's toys. :) After dinner Saturday night, I created our own version of Supermarket Sweep to justify their fascination with KW's grocery cart. They were super excited about it as we laid out all the rules and defined the course. I created shopping lists for them both, which would be waiting for them on top of the tiny pantry, and then we tossed a coin to see who would go first. Anna was up and got set at the starting line. She made her way quickly around the course and shopped pretty fast, but ended up getting a 15 second penalty for a banana falling out of her cart. Rats!

Wyatt saw Anna's banana snafu and made sure to hold on to his fruits. I just knew he was going to get penalized for leaving stray groceries on the ground, but he picked them up at the last minute. He did get a 5 second penalty, though, for not closing one of the pantry doors.

After the penalties were calculated in, Anna was announced as the winner of Round 1 of Supermarket Sweep!

Now, you know we couldn't let them have all the fun. Matt and I decided to go head to head so Anna and Wyatt worked together on our grocery lists and the game course. I won the coin toss so Matt had to go first.

He completed the course with no penalties but...so did I. :)

It was a close run but, well, my dear husband got beat by his sweet wife. :)

Before calling it quits, we had another round that all four of us competed in to see who the real winner of the night was.

Y'all. I smoked them all. That's right, this five-months-pregnant mama blew them away. Matt was the closest coming in at 6 seconds slower than me, but Anna and Wyatt weren't even close. I guess we know who plays with the groceries the most. :)

If you're wondering how we could spend all evening playing with Katie Wynn's toys and not even include her, let me just say that the original rules involved her riding in the cart during each round, which definitely would've changed the way we were able to turn corners. :) Unfortunately, she wasn't really feeling it. She was much more content to just sit and watch all the excitement.

Don't be surprised if you're ever over for dinner and we ask if you want to play a little Supermarket Sweep!

Sadly, our fun came to a halt this morning when Matt noticed Katie Wynn was burning up during breakfast. Poor little sweet pea was rocking a good fever. I knew she didn't feel well when, after getting out of her high chair, she just laid down on the floor beside my chair while I finished eating. Bless her heart!

We sent Matt and the big kids off to church and the two of us settled in to spend the morning resting. Katie bug ended up sleeping on me for about three hours! I hate that she didn't feel well but I sure did love getting to hold her all morning, even if both my legs and hands fell asleep and I thought my bladder was gonna burst. :)

After a couple doses of Tylenol, I think we've gotten her fever under control. She has spent most of the day asleep, but maybe she needed that to recharge. I just hope she doesn't feel recharged around 2:00 in the morning and want to play!

Matt just told me that it's Superbowl time. Guess that means I'll head out to the living room and at least be in the same room as where the game is on. Don't worry, I have a list of things to work on in between the commercials so I won't get bored. :)

Watercolor Quote Art

January 27, 2014 Laura

I just recently finished what might be one of my new favorite pieces of wall art. It's for my niece, Bren's, room that my mom and I have been working on. She and her family moved into a new house over Christmas and we were given the opportunity to get to decorate Bren's girly-girl room. We have been working hard to pull it all together and plan on installing it all this Wednesday. I can't wait to see how it all looks together!

The inspiration for this quote art came from Beth's (Bren's mom) Pinterest board that she had created for Bren's room. The original pin can be found here and while I loved the quote itself, the colors of that piece of art just weren't going to work with the room we were planning. So I had to get creative.

I had already finished a little watercolor project for above Bren's bed, and thought it would be good to somehow tie those colors in with this piece of art. One weekend during the Christmas holiday, I asked my Dad to make me a wooden canvas measuring around 2 feet by 3 feet. When he finished it, we were ready to get started on KW's pantry, but I told him to give me just a second while I put on some quick paint that could be drying while we worked. TWO HOURS LATER and I was finally finishing up with the base water color layer. Chalk this up to one of those things that looks and seems a lot easier than it actually is.

I didn't take step-by-step pictures because I didn't really know what I was doing even as I was doing it. Basically I blobbed paint on and then added a whole bunch of water and tried to strategically blend the colors together.

I only watercolored the top of the canvas. I had a general idea in my head of how I wanted this to go, but had no clue if it would work or not. In my head, the sides would be painted later.

To add the quote, I cut out vinyl letters using my Silhouette SD. I downloaded new software to use with the SSD so it took me forever to get these done. I'm such a slow learner with techy stuff. I used several different fonts and sizes to cut out all the words and roughly laid them out on the wooden canvas. After three hours of working that night, I called it quits after getting the first row of words stuck down.

I got back at it a few days later to finish it up. I always hate sticking vinyl letters down because it's so hard to get them straight. Stresses me out!

I had told myself that if the canvas looked good with just the white letters on it, that I would leave it like that (and paint the sides somehow) instead of risking ruining it with the idea in my head. The white letters didn't show up on the watercolor at all though, so I moved forward with my idea.

I laid the canvas out in the yard and got ready to spray paint. I knew if this had any chance at all at being successful, I would have to do thin, thin, thin coats so that the paint wouldn't bleed under the letters. I originally was going to use white spray paint but after seeing how much it blended in with the watercolors, I switched to silver paint for more contrast.

This is the canvas after one coat of silver (on the left) and then after about four coats (on the right).

Then came the most nerve-wracking part of the process...time to peel off the letters! Would this crazy idea work or was I about to have a messy silver bleed-through mess on my hands?? I really didn't want to have to start all over with another art project.

I chose the smallest thing to peel off first - the apostrophe - and miraculously, it peeled off perfectly with nice crisp lines! Aww yeah!

Within no time all of the letters were peeled off and Mom and I could stand back and get a good look at it. I love the way it turned out! These crappy iPhone pics in terrible lighting don't really do it justice, but in person the shiny silver paint is a good contrast to the watercolored letters. I don't plan on adding a coat of polyurethane because I like the shiny silver up against the dull letters.

I love all the colors in the letters too. And the quote is a pretty great one, don't you think?

If all goes well on Wednesday, I should have much better pics to show you soon of how it looks in Bren's room. Fingers crossed it looks good against her pale pink walls!