Curtains

Okay I am finally posting pictures of my new curtains. It has been an incredibly busy week so I've not had a chance to post them. And as it is 2:30 AM, I really should be in bed anyway. But it's hanging over my head.
Here's a before of the kitchen curtains. The color is a little off - they're really more yellow-y than they look here. They're called traverse curtains; I looked it up haha! They have the pulley-type thing that you pull the string to open and close them. They're ancient, filthy, ripped and even a bit chewed up by the dog. So we were due for an upgrade.

Here's my new ones. Can I just tell you I love them? Please ignore the holes in the wall from the old rod - hubby is asking me now to add painting the kitchen to my to-do list. Oh look you can see out to my pretty backyard. I love my yard :)

I forgot to take before pictures of the living room curtains. This was the best I could find - from Haddie's birthday! Can I tell you how much fun it is having a birthday 12 days before Christmas? Ugh! This is the just the sheers, it had a 2nd rod that had the same kind of curtains as the old kitchen ones.

And here's the new ones! I had a hard time deciding on curtains because I love my big window and didn't want to distract from it too much. These were just what I was hoping to achieve. Again, please ignore the old rod holes!

Oh I love my clock! And if you click on this picture to enlarge it, you can see the gorgeous detail on the curtain rod. I fell in love with it!

They're nothing extravagant, but I love them. They cost me much more than I anticipated. (We're talking just over $150!!!! For the panels, rods, and hold backs) I could have made them cheaper, I know. But I doubted my sewing abilities and I was impatient. I suppose it's a good thing I love them :)

Easy Improvements

I've wanted to do a couple minor things in my upstairs hallway for awhile now. Why I put it off for so long is beyond me. Or perhaps I've just been lazy. No, that can't be it! :)
This lovely light fixture has driven me crazy since we bought our house last year.

$14 and 10 minutes later -Voila! Greatly improved.

Then these two eye-sores: An old air conditioner switch left behind after central air was installed and a cheapo thermostat installed with the central air. Leaving behind the pretty rectangle of different paint as well. Apparently the previous owners weren't worried about aesthetics.

But I am, dang it! So, a .30 cent cover and $25 for a programmable thermostat with about 20 minutes work and it's now more pleasing to my eyes.

Eventually I will repaint the hallway and when I do I will just patch up the hole but for now this makes me a lot happier. And my utility bill will be happier with the programmable thermostat as well!
And I installed a dimmer switch in the living room. I wanted to be able to control the lighting better in there. I did it myself! Are you so impressed? I was quite proud. I never do stuff like that :)

A Work In Progress

Here's my progress thus far with painting the paneling in the family room:

It is such a mess - I hardly have room to move around! But there's no way I'm moving all this furniture upstairs out of the way. This is a very long process. I'm still working on priming all the grooves in the paneling. By this evening I should be able to get the rollers out and prime over all of it. I don't think I'm doing too bad, considering this is a one-woman show and the room is huge.
Little one is down for a nap now, so it's time to hit the paintbrush again :)

Hurricane Jar

Remember this?

Here's one idea I had - I put some green moss in it with a red candle. Then decided that the whole bag of moss was too much.

But then I also thought of putting black rocks in the bottom with the same candle. Pardon the bad pictures, my camera sucks. But check out Momma's little helper :)

Haddie liked chocolate goldfish in it instead - here is her masterpiece!
So, which do you like better? The black rocks or the moss (if I take half of it out)? Or do you have any other ideas for this jar?

Pillows

I have to pat myself on the back. I pulled out my sewing machine and sewed for the first time last night since middle school. Which means I was fairly clueless as to what I was doing :) But I figured it out, plus pillows really aren't that tough.

Here's one side of them:

And here's the other:

Freaking awesome, right? I seriously made them in like, 2 hours. Which I didn't think was bad, considering my expertise (or the lack thereof), I stuffed the crap out of them (I didn't want wussy pillows), and I had some sewing machine problems in the middle of it that took me awhile to figure out and then fix. They're bigger than the pictures make them look - they're just shy of being the same size as a standard pillow. I have 2 square pillows, one red and one dark blue, that these will go great with on my family room couch.

Here's a tile I made for the family room a month or so ago. I used my Cricut and Design Studio to cut the vinyl. Unless I decide differently later, it is going above my fireplace on the mantle. Yes, the 'F' is backwards, but I promise it's the font that did it, not me!

And just because I'm thrilled with all my new Americana decorations, you must endure a picture of it all together:

This is just the new stuff - I have lots of other stuff I've acquired over the last year or so, but it's already in place in the family room. For now - until I get my primer and paint and paint those ugly panel walls. Then I get to redecorate it all over again! Yay!

Barn Stars

Okay so you remember these? YAY! They're ready for show and tell!

Tada! I'm so excited for them. The yellow just wasn't doing it for me, not to mention the fact that I'm decorating in Red, White (cream actually) and BLUE.

I love them :) At first, when I was distressing this one:

...I was not pleased with how it was looking. My sandpaper was leaving scratch marks all over the place, and some of the old yellow ended up poking through. So I distressed all of it that I wanted done, then I sprayed another very light coat of blue paint over top. It fixed the scratch marks AND the yellow. Plus I just think it looks cool!

Haddie's First Boo-Boo

Seriously! On Sunday, Haddie received her first skinned elbow believe it or not. She has yet to skin her knees too. I don't know how she's gotten so lucky, especially considering she's accident-prone. She fell off our porch - it's a short one, just a small step up from the ground. She was so excited to be let loose in the front yard that she went running off the porch. And crashed. I felt so bad!

Okay so call me a sentimental fool, but I had to take pictures. So sad! My poor little monkey.
Here is a picture from today, showing her elbow nicely healing. She won't keep a bandaid on, so I can't keep Neosporin on it for her :(
She pulled a towel out of the linen closet, carried it outside and laid down on it by the patio steps. Seriously, she's a weird kid. I'm embarrassed that she's still using that stupid bottle. In my defense, she will NOT drink milk out of any other container. So I give in. Go me!

Yard Sale Finds

I'm quite proud of my yard sale finds today! I spent more ($13.25) than I usually do at yard sales, but I'm especially excited about these, so I won't complain :)

This hurricane jar was .25! I'm going to fill it with something fun and use it as my table centerpiece - if I can keep little one's hands off it. Otherwise it will reside in a higher location.

I am in L-O-V-E with these barn stars. $10 for these; there were twice as many as these shown, but Kellie and I split them. They were brand new with tags, with the cheapest being about $11. We spent $20 for all of them. I have the yellow one on the left hung outside my front door for now. But after some paint, they will eventually live in my family room, which is decorated in Americana.

I love the detail on these! How fun!
This wall hanging I paid $2 for - a little steep, but it goes incredibly well with my Americana decor. I'm going to change out the pink ribbon (huh?) on the top.
Apologies for the picture quality. This little throw pillow I couldn't pass up for $1.

Here's a side pic of the pillow, showing the material that's on the back. Those are little stars all over it, not dots.

I SO cannot wait to get my family room done. It's a huge project, as the room runs the entire length of the house - it makes up 1/4 of my home's square footage! That's a lot of paneling to prime/paint. But it will be gorgeous once it's done.

Lamp Revamp

This lamp has just undergone it's 2nd paint job. It originally was a forest green color, with a pretty (gag!) gold metal base. Well, not thinking right, I spray painted it without priming it. Big mistake. The glass wouldn't hold the paint so it started bubbling up and peeling. I wish I'd taken pictures along the way but I spaced it. She's a much prettier lamp now!


So this is after being sanded down, primed, and about 4 coats of spray paint. The whole thing is dark red, despite the picture being dark on the bottom. I painted the harp black as it was ghastly gold like the bottom. I don't know if it actually looks any better, but at least it matches my living room better!

Any suggestions on the lampshade? It looks kinda boring to me, but I'm new to this making old things look new stuff, so I'm not sure what it needs. Or if it needs anything at all.

Pink Sink - Dedicated to Stephanie

Okay Stephanie, here's your post from me :)

Kellie told me about your 'pink' kitchen. You don't even understand pink apparently haha! So it's imperative that you view what a pink sink really looks like.


VOILA!

That, my dear, is a pink sink. It is a ghastly thing! So now perhaps you'll pity me and keep your eyes open for a pedestal sink to replace this beauty :)

Shadow Boxes

I was going to get rid of these shadow boxes that we received as a wedding gift. I always thought they were cute, but the little ones were just too little for pictures. Then I got the idea to use them as a wall collage. I was pretty proud of myself - most of my projects I have had inspiration from someone else helping me along. But this one was all me! (And a few opinions from my sister in the arrangement) They are hanging on the wall in my craft/computer room. I already had everything that I used in these. I just pulled out some scrapbook paper and my fabulous O'Scrap embellishment bag chuck full of treasures and went to town. I ended up spending more time on these than I'd planned, but I think they turned out CA-ute! What do you think?
I will be adding more to this wall in the future!

Cousin Playdate

Hollie and Kambri came to play with Haddie earlier this week. I love to watch them playing so well together. It absolutely helps that we're getting more outdoors toys for them to play with, as they are all outside-kind of kids.

Hollie pushing Kambri in the swingKami really likes Haddie's swing. Little does she know, it is a hand-me-down from her. Sneaky mothers is what it comes down to. Isn't it funny how your kids aren't interested in their toys until they see someone else playing with them?
I absolutely LOVE this beautiful smile of Kami's. She and her Angel Auntie Michelle share many characteristics, this smile being one of them.

Mark had our shed open because he was mowing the lawn while the girls were all playing. Kami went in there and found Haddie's infant car seat. Yet we keep buying them expensive toys :)Kami also seemed pretty interested in my flower beds. Do you see that play toy above the fence? It is a huge fort-type thing that my neighbor made by hand. It includes one of those slides that you see in most parks. They also have a trampoline with a safety net around it. It seems we need to become friends with these neighbors; don't you agree?

Wheee!

Haddie was just given two slides from her Grandma Ronda. They were Aunt Lyndsay's that she's outgrown. They sure are a hit! Haddie wants to play outside all day long now.

I don't know what it is about her face in this picture, but it just makes me smile. Maybe it's her teeth showing just so.

She's already become fearless on these slides - she prefers to crawl up the slide and then come down again on her tummy. She's discovered that bare feet provide better traction for climbing up.

Daddy's enjoying his trademark Coke Slurpee while outside playing with Haddie.

Too bad for him, Haddie seems to enjoy them as well!

We absolutely love this great weather so we can enjoy our fun backyard and play as a family.

Fireman Shaun

My brother-in-law is a fireman!

Last weekend Kellie and I went to a few yard sales. I found this puzzle, brand new in the plastic for 75 cents. I was thrilled - Haddie loves these wooden puzzles, AND her Uncle Shaun just became a member of the Brigham City Fire Department. So I couldn't pass this up!

I got the idea to make this even more special for Haddie. I decided that since this fireman isn't very nice looking, we should turn him into Shaun! So I used Mod Podge to put some pictures of Shaun over this guy's face. Please excuse the poor quality of these pictures!
Here's some before pics:

And here's the afters:
I forgot to get a before of this one - but this fireman was wearing a mask so he didn't have a face anyway.

Now there is a handsome fireman!

We are so proud of Shaun! This is such a great opportunity for him. I love to see how excited he is about wanting to make a difference for our community. I love when I hear his radio - he stops whatever he is doing to listen to it, hoping to hear a call for him to go out! It is an honor to have him as a member of our family. We love you so much Shaun!
And just because I love saying it, MY BROTHER-IN-LAW IS A FIREMAN!