Another Project Complete

I've had my wicker furniture for several years now and since I got them I've said I was going to recover the cushions and pillows. However, I could never find material I liked or get myself really motivated to find something and do the work to recover them. About a month ago I happened to just be browsing the fabric at Walmart and found the perfect material (don't even ask why it took so long to get them done if I found it over a month ago - Walmart makes me crazy sometimes). I recovered all the cushions (they were hunter green w/ flowers before - out of date) and the pillows. Kurt is almost done touching up the furniture with white paint. They look great again!

Amelia's Room

I got the curtains finished for Amelia's room, the carpet is in and a few things are up on the walls. We still have a few more things to put up and I want to order these towers for the kids rooms (do you think they'll hold up?) I think it looks really cute! As promised - the Before & After pictures.
Yellow, sunflowers, blue and white plaid, horrific blue carpet (which somehow I forgot to take a picture of.)

Another picture with the blah window - we had to strip all the wallpaper off - such a joy!
Wall paper mostly finished... the walls had to be repaired because they were plaster and falling apart. Thank goodness for my handy man. ;)

The pretty much finished project. Pink and brown, new carpet, new curtains.

Fit for a princess!Amelia's Princess bed! You can see the new carpet.

Accomplishing Goals

Day six, level one of the shred - finished this evening. I'm at that point where I haven't seen any results yet and I want to quit. Thinking back, that's usually how I go - after about a week or so I'm ready to quit. I think I don't care, but I really do. I haven't been eating that good either, maybe it's the same as I always do but I'm actually taking notice since I'm trying to be good. Oh well, there's always tomorrow with the eating. The shred is definitely getting easier, I think after tomorrow I will be ready to advance to level 2 and see how that goes. In the beginning I had a hard time following the modified versions and now I don't have too. I just wish my tummy would disappear over night.

Kurt starts back at his old job tomorrow. I guess I haven't updated on here as to what the deal with that is. Things were going fine at the new place, but he was asked to return to his old employer. Basically with him (and I) wanting to be there instead of the new place, and with a few other good reasons to return, he accepted the offer. We're very happy with the decision! :)

The floor that has been taking FOREVER is finished in the hallway. We still need to finish the steps (which is still be discussed as to what we want to do), I'd like to paint (hopefully this coming weekend) and eventually painting the trim (which doesn't have to be done immediately.) It looks really nice! The carpet man comes Friday morning to lay the carpet in Amelia's room and then we can finally get that room finished. I forgot to take pictures of the hallway before Kurt started sanding and all - it was bad though. Imagine removing carpet on some nasty old floors that needed to be really sanded/stripped and stained. Here are few pictures I did take though. I will take pictures of before we paint and after - promise. See that ugly pink/tan?

This is after Kurt already sanded and stripped the old stain off a million times.

Kurt putting the beautiful stain down for the first time.

Finished project. The lighting isn't that great in the hallway, but I think they look great.

Finished project!

Kurt started back at school last Tuesday night. He's there tonight.. he's only taking one class this semester - basically because his old employer didn't care if he had this degree and they weren't going to give him time off to attend extra classes. Unfortunately it will take him another semester to graduate ( I think ) but it will be nice to have him focusing more on family this semester than cracking the books every second.

Weird - I've been tweeting lately.. what's the deal with that? Follow me @mommainflipflop Facebook seems over rated. lol! :) Time to get the kids in their pajamas.

Entitled to being crabby...once in awhile.

I'm just a tad bit crabby today. You know those days you are just crabby.. maybe a bit overly tired, far to many demands by the kids and... these projects are making me insane today. As I mentioned far to long ago that Amelia's room is done besides carpet, well Kurt took up all the carpet on the stairs and hallway leaving hard wood.. but not nice hardwood.. wood that must be stripped and sanded, stained and can I just say ahhhhh. I don't want to do this project, it's taking to long and the stripper gives me a headache. I want carpet upstairs.. I don't care if it will increase the value of the house. Oh well, tomorrow I'll probably be all about it. Argh!

Tomorrow we're going to go see a foreclosure listing on 3.5 acres, out in the country and near Kurt's new job and our parents. We already know it's going to need updating (okay, I guess I'm okay with projects, just not those dumb floors upstairs.. ha ha) and I'm really anxious to check it out. It's definitely not like my ideal from the outside, but we shall see! No, we aren't really looking for a new house but Jake is always on the lookout so we thought we might as well check it out and see. Moving depends on a lot of things, but it would be nice. I'm really sick of living in town.

It's only six but I'm going to get these kids ready for bed. We're all too crabby today. :-)

New Bathroom!

We pretty much finished up the bathroom upstairs today. I still need to get a few minor things, but the new tile, hardware, painting, light fixture, mirror, curtain and shower curtain are up-dated! It looks absolutely beautiful - I love it! So clean, crisp and fresh. Unfortunately my mind was not on top of things and I don't have any good before pictures. The carpet (yes, carpet in the bathroom -ick) was blue, the walls just a light cream, the ceiling had cracks, the fixtures were horrible.

I'm definitely most proud of my beautiful shower curtain and curtain, I made them myself! What's even greater, I made them both for almost 1/2 of what the one shower curtain was that I wanted SO badly. Also the lovely tile work that Kurt did. It looks great!

Enjoy the pictures!Those are the before and I realize half of the walls are already painted. Oops!
The after pictures. What do you think? Do you like it?

Okay, I lied!

Yes, we are updating our up-stairs bathroom and when I get my review stuff done (which for some reason has been taking me far to long) I just don't feel like doing anything else on here.

The bathroom is going to look beautiful - I found a shower curtain I had to have for $25 dollars. No, I didn't get it but found the same fabric and made it for less than $8. I was pretty excited about that. I'm hoping to go and get some of the same fabric to work on the curtains. I bought all new hardware and we're working on getting that up. Kurt is hopefully going to lay the new flower tile tonight and the painting is pretty much finished but the ceiling. I hope to have it done by next week for pictures. I've been wanting to have this room done before the baby and it's going to happen.

I think I'm into that nesting period of the pregnancy. I don't know what I 'really' think about the whole 'nesting' term but lets just say I've been doing some major clean outs. The bathroom, my closet and drawers, the kitchen and a lot has been getting thrown out. Common, if you haven't thought about it in years, then it's just cluttering. I'm so-not-a-pack-rat!

Landen asked to move his room into the toy room so I did it. He is now sleeping in there and he has his dresser. I moved some of the toys out but realized that children really have too many toys. I'm pretty sure I didn't have this many toys and it's unnecessary. Eventually a lot more are going to have to go - no room. He asked if he could have fire engine curtains so I need to get on making those, it should be pretty simple. I didn't realize until about a week ago that the baby will need a dresser - hmm - gotta look for one of those.

There's a little around here update for you.

Dining Room Project - Photo's!

The major work in the dining room is complete! I'm so happy to have all that ugly wallpaper torn down and that awful light fixture above our table. It took us 12 hours to take this wallpaper down - NOT FUN. *gag* When we moved to this house, there were two rooms I hated - our bedroom and the dining room. The bedroom has been done but the dining room was never getting done. Now I have a beautiful room, that looks so clean and much bigger. We still need to get new curtains, I want to take the big mirror down above the fireplace (i need to get something to replace it though) and hang decor. There is also the question as to replace the light fixtures on either side of the fireplace - right now, just wires (yikes). So instead of waiting for those final things (which I hope to get a lot of it finished this weekend - after a nice shopping trip) I'm going to post the before and after. Enjoy!

Note - hideous wallpaper.Oh, how I love hanging pears and other fruit!!!! It makes me so hungry while I'm eating - sure!

Gold light fixture, yucky! - Someone loved it because it was gone from the curb in a couple of hours! Also see the big mirror I want to take down.

The room was so dark and didn't look so big.

Landen hard at work - attempting to take the wallpaper off.

Getting There!!!!

It looks so clean now.

See my nice new light fixture - I love it!!

Still seeing if we want to keep lights on either side of the fireplace. See the white areas, that's where they would be.

Not sure if we are going to be keeping the shutters or not as well - depends on the type of curtains we buy or I make. I'm thinking of going with a maroon curtain. Any suggestions?

Do you like it?

There were elephants!

Last night we went to the circus! It was a lot of fun even though Landen was cranky from not taking a nap. It was small but I couldn't believe it actually lasted two hours and kept our attention the entire time. I actually forgot what the circus was like it's been so long since I've actually been to one. I'm so glad we took the kids though! Landen is still talking about the elephants today and googling over the pictures every chance he gets. Both the kids got their first taste of cotton candy too... oh it was so yummy!

On another note... I have so many posts in my head but when it comes time to write them out it's just a bunch of mumbled words. Lots of things I've been thinking about and hopefully I'll get a chance to share them. I finished part of Amelia's Halloween costume yesterday! Ooohh...it's so cute! I've been getting crafty around here - Landen and I have been doing crafts almost everyday & I made this adorable hair clip holder for Amelia too!

Here's the sneak peak... more to come!

A Little Troll

My lovely reliable car broke down this weekend, I guess cars don't last forever without something happening to them, right? We tried to jump it from a families car that was so nice. I wish I would have gotten there name so I could send them a card they were that nice. Unlike the man that actually told us NO. It still irritates me... he had no good reason other than "my vehicle has too many electronics." So you leave a family sitting there because your car has to many electronics's to help them out? I'm pretty sure that if your car can't help someone out it's a sin to have that car. Whatever! So, we ended up having to get towed and my sister came and rescued us. Now I'm car less until we figure out what the problem is. No biggie!

On brighter notes I got new hardware for my kitchen cupboards and I have to say it looks amazing! Last week when the handles grabbed my new skirt and ripped it I said enough was enough. I hated those things anyway and if they were going to rip my clothes, bruise my legs, hurt my kids heads then they had to go. Plus it really updated the kitchen, which is great!

And since I've been thinking about this and I have a second right now - being just a stay at home mom doesn't make me or anyone else for that matter any less of a person in society... so there. Kurt and I made this decision together, I could go to work everyday and let someone else watch my children but I don't. I'm not lazy, I don't sit around doing nothing and I do have a life. Maybe I don't get up and go somewhere to put in my time for x amount of hours during the day but I don't get a break, it's non-stop and yes I get sick of it at times but I wouldn't give it up, I love it! It may seem all fun and games and a lot of times I hope that's how my kids feel, but it's not. I have my things I like to do (blogging and my reviews) and I fit them in when it fits in. Just because I stay at home with my kids doesn't mean I do nothing. My rant for the day! =)

Before & After - Computer/TV Room

I have been so slow lately on things - what is wrong with me? Argh! Anyway, remember way back in the day when Kurt and I painted our computer room? Well it's painted and the old couch is in here, and the awesome entertainment stand is built (thanks to Kurt's Grandpa who is amazing at woodcraft & to Kurt's amazing ability to design things just by seeing it on -- Pottery Barns website.. yes we stole the design *shhh*) and it's slowly coming together with decor. That takes awhile because I don't just buy things to make it look good, I have to find things I actually like. So without further adue... here's the before and after!

The Before - you can't really tell but it was like pink/tan and totally blah.

The After - still more to do, but it's coming along! I love the blue. Notice the blue blanket cover the CD shelf, a little girl loves to get into daddies CD's! Also the shelf... the stereo system is not going to stay on there and I want to get those wicker baskets to go in the two side cubbies - I've been looking for just the perfect size! Note - small little girl doing acrobats on couch, I ended up with so many pictures because she was tyring to do somersaults.. crazy girl! =)

Finally The Pictures

I decided to go ahead and take some pictures yesterday of the living room with the new curtains and furniture. I need to get curtain rods because these are just up on rods that aren't supposed to been seen and someday I'd love to get a big round rug but with how expensive those are I'm just going to keep my eye out for a deal. I forgot to take before pictures - ugh - oh well! I love the new furniture and even though my curtains aren't professional I think they look good! Also, I got all the material for $20 because I had a coupon. Do you like? =)

The Porch Project

What a long project to do - I didn't realize how much work it was going to be - thankfully we had helpers and that always makes the work load a bit better. Just so you know - there was screaming, there was yelling, crying, times I wanted to throw the paint brush, or paint on someone, it covered my body, my children had it all over and yes it's still in my hair - I'm working at getting it out! It was fun and my porch swing is yet to be finished - it's getting there. I'm now being called on stage for winning an award for this amazing job. I first have to hank the painters for their work in this; Kurt, Landen, Mikyla, & Beck - the construction taker downer, my husband - the designers or this, Jake, Sara and Kurt - all this wouldn't have been possible without you ... oh no, I hear the music calling me off the stage... one more thank you to myself - the hardest worker of all. LOL!!!! Enjoy the pictures! Before 1- brown and nasty. I didn't realize how ugly it was. The ceiling, spindles, floor, lattice, everything was the same color. Before 2 - Sorry, I forgot to take pictures until everything was taken down and ready for painting.

After 1 - Yes we hand painted all those spindles! The ceiling is white, the spindles and lattice, the floor chocolate brown, and the rest green.

After 2 - The green was supposed to be darker, but that's the color came once it got finished. It's still pretty! I think it looks so much better!

After 3 - My porch swing will go up right behind the first hanging basket (look at after 2)- it's always been there since we moved. I love it - I didn't realize how often I sat on it. All the white lattice had to be hand painted with a brush - it took forever because it's not flat. Yikes!

Of course the kids got in on the action. Amelia was most enthusiastic about climbing the ladder. Landen is one heck of a painter - he really did help with all those spindles. Glad to be done. Wanna come over for a cup of coffee with me now? =) Visitors Welcome!