Bathroom Reno. Day 1 & 2

Yes, you read that correctly. We have officially started our bathroom 

renovation on our upstairs loo. 

Three years ago, I started day dreaming about out upstairs bathroom. I devoured Pinterest, read every blog and tutorial, and watched way too many YouTube videos. 
Two weekends ago, we headed to our local Lowe's and bought $1,300 worth of supplies. 

These supplies include but are not limited to: 

Tile, Grout, Grout Sealant, Thin set, Hardi Backerboard, Special screws for said Backerboard, Fibratape for the Backerboard, Shower valves, Tub, Window

This past weekend we stripped everything down to its underpants studs. 

Oh, yes, the bathtub is in our backyard as we speak. We are those people. 

Here are some pictures and descriptions.

Step 1 was removing the old tile. The longest wall was the easiest because there was a lot of water damage. Which means tiles were already barely  hanging on. Which means the Backerboard behind it was water-damaged as well. It was quite the dirty job, but it was totally invigorating as well. I've been wanting to do that since we moved in 3 1/2 years ago. :) The two short walls were more difficult because there was no water damage. These were a bit tougher to pry remove from the wall. 

Step 2 was removing the insulation and bathtub. 

Step 3 includes cleaning everything up. This one I am not looking forward to. 

All of this was hard work. My hands are scratched up, my back hurts, and that room is currently filthy and drafty as all get-out (the insulation has been thrown out). However, I am so proud of it, it's ridiculous. We're actually renovating our bathroom ourselves. Can I get a hallelujah! Some good thoughts our way would be nice as well, as we tackle our pipes in the near future. Good thing my handy hubby knows what he's doing. :)

I am so proud of us, I can't even stand it.
No, seriously. I can't stand it. I wish it were just done already. Oh well, I guess those are the breaks when you DIY.:) 

Routines

Routines, who needs them? Me- I do. I need them very badly. I'm a mess without them. Anyone else?

FACT: I am a mom.I have two daughters. I wish I could give them everything I can. I fear, everyday, that I am making bad choices and mistakes that will affect them in the future. 

FICTION: I am a failure. Yes, I make mistakes, but I am not failing them as a mother. I provide them clean clothes, food to eat, a safe house to live in, and unconditional love. I read them books and help with homework. We paint finger nails and pictures to hang on our wall. I work hard to provide for them. I want them to look up to me. I want to be a good example for them. I want their answer, when asked who their hero is, to be me. Is that selfish? Maybe. But, I don’t care. I want to be someone they want to be. 

WISH: I wish I would stop beating myself up when I feel inadequate. Or feeling guilty when I have to yell at the kids to get them to listen to me. Because I’ve said something four times. Because they still ignore me. And then someone gets hurt because they didn’t listen to me. And falls off of the couch because they refuse to stop jumping on it. 
{Please tell me I’m not the only one}
I can’t tell you how many times I have gone to my husband crying asking if I’m a good mother. Every time he says I am. Every. Single. Time. So why do I doubt myself. Why can’t I see it the way he sees it?

TRUTH: A lot of things have been happening in my family.    <Both good and bad> 

We've had a family tragedy, grandparents have come to visit, I've accepted a new job, I've been late to work almost everyday this past month…and, well, life in general. I feel like we've been off our A-Game and it’s high time we get back on it. 

Quite frankly, not being on a routine is exhausting. 

I hope that from here on out, I can just keep calm and mother on. Take a deep breath, go on a walk, and/or eat a cupcake. 
Whatever it is that will help me get it together.

Pinterest Inspired: Bow Garland

Isn't the internet a wonderful thing. You can see and learn so many things. I find it to be inspiring. This past week, I catching up on a blog I personally adore, Dear Lizzy. She is so creative and her post on a DIY Garland was just the ticket I needed to get my creativity back. My goal now is to post at least once a week. I know, lofty.  :)

This project is so easy. If you have a Silhouette or Cameo machine, you just find the design you want, have the machine cut it for you, and then glue it all together. If you don't have one of these machines, find a template and cut it out by hand. Lord knows that's what I used to do before I got my Silhouette 5 years ago.

This project took me a total of 3 days. Projects don't happen over night. I can't seem to get a project done in one day to save my life. This was good though, because I had help and input from my two helpers. This would've gone a lot quicker had I been doing it by myself. But, isn't it more fun when you have cutie pies like this helping? OK, OK, let's be honest-  that's debatable. Even though I have girls, they sure can fight with each other with the best of them. This project, while easy, was not made without blood, sweat, and tears.            

I ended up cutting a lot more than I probably needed to, but I'll use the extras for other things. Kaitlyn might get one in her room, or I'll keep them around for gifts or cards. They're 3D, so they're kinda extra fancy.

DIY Scarf Corral

I got this beauty in the Target Dollar Spot. It was originally marked $3.00 but was on sale for $0.90. They were having an awesome sale where things with a black dot were 90% off. It is an Over-The-Door hanger thing and it was already yellow, so I knew I wouldn’t have to tweak that and spray paint it- which I probably would’ve done.

I saw this just laying in the bin- lonely and sad, envisioned the beautiful potential, and viciously threw put it in my cart. It was like a swan story that played out in my mind over the course of 10 seconds.

Fast forward 1 ½ months. I got my husband to cut off the bits that are supposed to hang over the door. It is now a flat, swirly, wonderful scarf corral. If you have been following for awhile, you will remember this post of the His and Her messy dresser picture. A lot of that mess on my side were scarves. I was waiting for something magnificent to come along to put them on display. These scarves are literally my pretties. I am obsessed with them and would like to add to my collection ten-fold. No, I am not kidding. 

Until then, this works perfectly. Right now, I have it hanging on some 3M Command Hooks. I will probably move it when I figure out the rest of my room. For now, this is a perfect spot for it. I love it. And my  husband loves that my side of the dresser is a little bit cleaner.

A Quiz for My Daughter

So, I've mentioned how much I appreciate keeping a journal (if you missed that, you can find it here). I have one for me, one for Emma, and one for Kaitlyn. I don't write in them very much consistently, but today was an exception.  I wrote these questions down awhile ago and thought I'd share today. I love asking Emma questions and hearing the answers-- I'll do the same with Kaitlyn. Their unsolicited, very innocent answers are something that I appreciate. Sometimes they make me laugh and sometimes they leave me scratching my head. Since when do I dress up?

It was a lot of fun doing this with my first born and hearing what she thought about me and her perceptions to things around her. 

Here we go...

1.What is something mom always says to you? 
I love you. 

2. What makes mom happy? 
Being good.

3. What makes mom sad? 
Being bad. 

4. How does your mom make you laugh? 
Tickle me and make funny jokes. 

5. What was your mom like as a child? 
Good. 

6. How old is your mom? 
50 hundred 60 thousand

7. How tall is your mom? 
Motioning with her hands...this big. 

8. What is her favorite thing to do? 
Dress up

9. What does your mom do when you're not around? 
Do the dishes. 

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? 
Dancing. And singing while your dancing. 

11. What is your mom really good at? 
Singing.

12. What does your mom do for a job? 
Snowbird. 

13.What is your mom's favorite food? 
Steak.

14. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? 
Abby Cadabby on Sesame Street. 

15. What do you and your mom do together? 

Clean up and make cookies. 

16. How are you and your mom the same? 

Because we both have Emma names. 

17. How are you and your mom different? 

Because we don't look the same. 

18. How do you know that your mom loves you? 

 Because you always tell me and you give me kisses and hugs. 

19. What does your mom like most about your dad? 

*silence* I don't know. Doing the laundry. 

20. Where is your mom's favorite place to go? 

Ikea.

See how simple her thoughts can be? What makes your mom happy? When I'm good. Love that. I try to do things with her ever so often. It's fun to see how her perceptions change and her answers vary. Fun things I also quiz her on are the essentials that, I think, are fun for her to look back on when she's older. Like, favorite color, food, song, etc. It's fun to see things change, but sometimes stay the same. One constant for her is her favorite song-- which is "Somewhere, Over the Rainbow." It's the song that she always requests for bedtime, or when she's scared or not feeling well. I love that this is something we'll be able to look back on and remember all of the good times. i.e. not when she tried to flush the diaper down the toilet or write on our walls with permanent marker. :)

A Wall of Hearts

I am slightly obsessed with stickers. So is my eldest child. This was the perfect Saturday afternoon project to do with her. I used to joke that my favorite color was polka dots. While this isn't entirely true, I've never met a polka dot I didn't like. There's just something happy about them. I didn't use polka dots this time, but that doesn't mean someone else couldn't. 

This project could be used with any craft punch. I chose hearts because I want Emma to see all of the hearts, all over her room, and be reminded how much her momma loves her. Love that girl to the moon and back. 

Anywho, circles, stars, whatever you fancy. I originally saw something like this on The Hunted Interior website a couple of weeks ago. Once I saw how cute it was in her little girl's room, I knew I could replicate it in the cheapest/easiest way possible. Self-adhesive vinyl and a heart-shaped craft punch. You can see my inspiration here.

Here are some awesome pictures of me doing my thang. Step 1. Punch out your shapes into the vinyl. I found by cutting my roll in 2-inch sections did the trick. I did 8 hearts down one side and 8 down the other. No wasting here. 

 I know a very special, smart, beautiful little girl was enamored with how it turned out. And she helped me every step of the way. That's the other thing, if you're severely OCD, you might need to measure things out to make sure they all line up. We just went for it. There was no rhyme or rhythm here. Just put the hearts where they looked good and put them on as straight as possible. I did move a few to space them out a bit more. Hey, no one said I didn't have a little OCD in me. Just a little. I absolutely love when we do a project from start to finish and both of us are happy with the results and each other in the end. Her little friends were happy too. 

See all their smiling faces :)

This might be the happiest room in the house right now. As I type this I'm thinking of all the possibilities with these two little things. I could do polka dots with a gold vinyl or a glitter vinyl... or triangles. You can find craft stamps at any hobby shop. I got mine awhile ago with a coupon. There's always some coupon, somewhere. I know I refuse to buy anything at full price, so it works well for me. Same goes for the vinyl. From Hobby Lobby, it was $7.99- with a 40% off coupon, it ended up costing $4.49. And, I still have a ton left over. I didn't even use half of it for this one wall. 

And I love left overs. No matter what it's from. 

Real Life Reveal: Day 3

My youngest daughter is 19 months now. She started sleeping through the night at around 4 months. Lately, she has been getting up again. And by lately, I mean for the last 11 nights (but who’s counting).

This is part of the reason my house is a bit chaotic. Once bedtime comes and goes for my kids, I am on the couch in my own PJs watching something just for me. Most recently, this includes Scandal. Love me some Kerry Washington. 

Anyways, I am one tired momma these days. I need a minimum of 9 hours of uninterrupted sleep. When that does not happen, you’ll know.
 I'll tell you what gets me through it. Coffee. Lots and lots of coffee. Sometimes 3 cups of coffee. Sometimes more. It’s what got me through my school years- when I was going to school full time, while working a full-time job, while having a 1 year old keeping me up all night, every night, while trying to have something left over for my husband. It was the hardest 2 years of my life...but SO worth it.

Back to the point. Was there ever a point? Yes, there was.

Case in point.  I am tired. My house is a mess.

Here is a picture of what my closet looks like. You only get a picture of the one side because our closet door was knocked off its track by one or two of my children and we have not had the time or energy to put it back on.

I see pictures of beautiful closets. I drool over said pictures. It’s still not motivation enough for me to even finish painting my closet. That’s right folks. My bedroom was the first room we painted, over 2 years ago, and the closet is still unpainted.*Duly noted* I am aware how pathetic that looks.  Whatevs.

Real Life Reveal: Day 2

Do you and your significant other have very obvious sides of things? Like the bathroom sink, closet, or bedside? Me too. 

You see that his side is clear and mine is a hot mess. Yea. I"m working on it. 

I have clothes that still need to be hung up, picture frames that don't have a home yet, and if you look closely, you'll see a Nifty Knitter with some yarn attached. I started a "blanket" back when I was pregnant with Kaitlyn. Yea, she's 19 months now. I should work on that too. 

Anywho, here is a glimpse at my dresser. I actually have a plan to get rid of some of my mess. Stay tuned early next week. I have big plans this weekend!  :)

Real Life Reveal: Day 1

I always think it's fun to get a glimpse into someone's life. Is that weird? I think it's just refreshing to see how others live. I am slightly obsessed with reading blogs and sometimes I get blog envy. Same thing goes with Facebook. My life  is nothing if it isn't a chaotic one. And you know what, I love it anyways. I love that sometimes we have dished in the sink from the night before because I felt it was more important to watch a movie with my husband or play hide and seek with my girls. Or to just lay on the couch and scroll through Pinterest for hours and hours. Let's be honest. 

I'm fine with it. Envy is for the birds. 

My bathroom is the one room that I clean only when I think about it. 

Something like after I shower and everything is misted over and I wipe down the sink with a wad of toilet paper. Something like when the trash is full and I actually take it out. :) 

Yea, last Friday Emma had a dentist come to her school to teach the kids about dental hygiene. I love when things like this happen to her because she learns something new and gets really excited to do it, and do it right. If you look closely, this is what you will see: a bottle of lotion laying on its side. 5 things of tooth paste and a length of yarn tied to a hair band- or a leash for Emma's dog, Sparkles. 

Sometimes a girl just doesn't have the time or motivation to clean up after herself and her family. 

Sometimes a girl would rather watch Scandal on Netflix. 

Love Blossoms Here

And by love, I mean plants. And by here, I mean on my piano. :)

I have been craving green lately. Ever since January ended, I have been ready for spring. We were at Lowe's last week for their Build and Grow program (the girls both made a letter holder for their Valentines) and I wanted to peruse the plant section. You can imagine it was pretty limited. I have been eyeing some awesome succulent plants on the interwebs, but they didn't have any I was looking for. Enter Plan B. A fairly large plant, on clearance, for $5. Sold. We got home, I got the babe to sleep and my firstborn happily watching a fairy movie. Momma got to work!

Supplies I used: 

1 Glass Vase I had laying around

1 Clearance Plant

1 Small Craft Paint Bottle

1 Small Paintbrush

I also brought out some puffy paint, because I thought it would be fun to make some designs and then paint right over them, giving it a kind of dimensional look. I did not have the patience for that step, and I painted the inside of the vase, so it just didn't end up working for this project. And yes, you paint the inside of the vase. I just poured a generous amount of paint around the inside, bottom and swooshed it around with my paintbrush. There is no rhyme or reason behind your swooshing. Just swoosh away. Make sure the entire surface is covered. I then turned it upside down and let the extra paint drip out, leaving a super smooth paint job. 

From the outside, it looked like it came that way. 

After it completely dried, while I kept touching it and making smudge prints waited patiently for it to dry, I put my plant in it and proudly put it on display atop my piano. I love it. It really does make me happier having something green in my living room. Something living for me to breath in. I'm not really a winter girl, and since winter will probably last for another 3 months, this will help tide me over until spring gets here. :)

Chalk It Up to a Win

Ben and I are really working at de-cluttering our home. We've been getting rid of things like crazy. In the process, I've come across some things that I have completely forgotten about. Don't you love that? I found this frame in my office/catch-all-for-everything. I got it on clearance at Hobby Lobby. I think I probably paid around $10 for it. It's fairly large and in good shape, but it just wasn't doing it for me. The glass had broken and I almost just got rid of it. Then I remembered all of these pins on Pinterest in regard to DIY chalkboard art. I knew this was what I had to do. We had chalkboard paint in our stash of paints and I already had the paint brushes on hand too. 

This was a free project. 

Here is my frame as it started. 

STEPS

1. Lay out your board in your work space.

2. I primed mine because I had the primer and I though it would help the chalkboard paint adhere a bit better. I'm sure you could skip this step though. Just sand a bit before you start with the chalkboard paint.

3. Let primer dry completely. 

4. I did my first coat of chalkboard paint with a foam brush. It worked well, but took forever. 

5. Coats 2,3, and 4 went on with a foam roller. This worked a lot better. I was able to really saturate the board and get good coverage. This is what I would suggest if you try this project. 

6. DONE!

I then lightly sanded the whole thing to smooth things out. At that time, you condition your board. Pretty simple. 

Once you're done doing all of that, put your frame back together, hang up, and enjoy your handy work. You just made a free/cheap project from start to finish. And, it only took one day working on it off and on. 

6e9effa654c9d5334abc86c9d9451da823660c00bd0c9dd288

Finger Knitting a Scarf

Last night, after bed time, I got to thinking about knitting. I am able to crotchet pretty well and I have tried knitting with a knitting loom. I have heard about the arm knitting, so I thought I would try my hand at it. After watching some YouTube videos and trying my darnedest to make mine look like theirs, I got to thinking. Maybe I could knit with my fingers as well. So, I tried and it turned out great. It was a lot like a knitting loom, but you don't need the loom itself. You can use your fingers. 

Here are some pictures of how I did it. 

Step 1.  Make a slip knot. If you don't know how, just google it. It's pretty easy. Make sure it's large enough to be able to go around all four fingers. 
Step 2. Twine the yarn around your fingers. So, it's enveloping your finger. Basically, just twist it around your finger. This reminds me of brass knuckles. 
Step 3. Do it again. Twine the yarn around your fingers again. So, this time you have two lines on each finger. Starting with your pinkie, take the bottom line of yarn and flip it over the top line. Do this on all fingers. 
Step 4-however long you want it. Keep twining and flipping. The step 4 picture above show what it looks like when you have some chains together. 

After you get it to your desired length (I just had it wrapped around my neck a few times) you will want to cast off. Here, you'll just take your four loops and use the length of yarn you have at the start of your scarf from your slip knot and stitch it together. There is no rhyme or science behind this, just close her up. Tie lots of knots to hide your ends inside the scarf. This makes it an infinity scarf and if you've tied well, you won't be able to see where the start/end of your scarf is. 

I am able to wrap it around my neck 4 times, which is perfect to achieve the infinity scarf, cozy look. In all, I think this took me about 30 minutes. Super quick, super easy. Takes no thinking at all. Just my cup of tea. 
I also have other yarn that I might make into these too. 
Emma wants a pink one. :)

Entry to my Heart

I am a woman of lists. I have lists out the wazoo. I have lists of lists. Heck, I even have lists of lists of lists. This list is continually growing. Sometimes, if we're lucky productive, things will even be crossed off. So far, we have replaces all of our faucets and light fixtures. We've painted four out of our eight rooms. Not bad...50/50. 

This year though, I have some high hopes and some big dreams. We've been in this house for 2 1/2 years now, and I have yet to really make it feel like our home. It's certainly a work in process. We've come a very long way so far, but this rodeo is far from over. I have big ambitions, but a small wallet, if you know what I mean. We have some big items on our lists- like our two bathrooms, our kitchen, replacing our flooring, replacing our windows, and continuing to make out home somewhere we feel safe, comfortable, and we want to race back to at the end of our days. However, we had to save and scour stores and the internet for good deals. Recently, we got a new washer and dryer. They are Samsung front loader machines and there were mildly the love of my life when we first got them. Anything to make my life easier is fine by me. These were the first of our appliances that we replaced. The rest are yet to come. 

There is something I've been seeing a lot of lately, planked walls. This is one thing I am dying to do this year in my entryway. It is at the top of my list. 
When we moved into this house, everything was painted the same color. This included walls, ceilings, and even some fixtures attached to said walls and ceiling. Right now, I am crushing on these planked walls. This is something that could be done relatively inexpensively and I think it will bring so much character into our dull entryway. She needs a face lift, if you know what I mean. 

I have found quite a few tutorials on Pinterest that I will try to replicate for my space. Here are some of my favorites. Seems easy enough. 

1. The House of Smiths 2. Domestic Imperfection 3. The Lettered Cottage  4. Southern Living

Nursery Art

I love customizing things for me and my family. This includes art for their room. Now, I'm not one to go out and buy art. I'd much rather make my own art if I can help it. When I was pregnant with Kaitlyn, I got to work on some customized art for right above her crib. I wanted her to have something fun to look at and high enough to be out of her reach. So, I got together 3 frames, spray painted each one white, and went about getting some inspiration to put in the frames. 

I love trees, so when I found this tree with heart leaves on my Silhouette software, I knew just what to do with it. I cut the tree out with the plaid pattern and then cut the hearts out with another pattern. They didn't match by any means, but together, I think they go well together. If you don't have a Silhouette or other cutting machine, you can always print something out and use an x-acto knife to get the job done. 
Lord knows that's what I did before I got the cutting machine. :)

On the other side is a tree branch with a bird on it. Again, I choose colors that went well together, but didn't match. 

The middle picture was simple a small square of scrapbook paper that ties in colors from the pictures on either side of it. 

This was a really simple task and I love the results, even one and a half years later. Luckily, this little girl loves it too. The K was something else I just cut out and put in a frame. Easy peasy is my middle name.