Pure Bliss

If I could afford just one live in servant type person, it would be some one to wash my hair. Daily. Or several times daily, depending on how the kids were acting.
I am trying to wear my hair naturally curly lately as that is how Frank likes it. And since it is much faster than blowing it dry and then doing the flat iron thing, and he has to look at it and I don't.
Anywho, in this effort I have to get cut regularly because if it get too long, then it is too heavy for the curls to do their job. I am lucky enough to have found a salon in my home town just down from where i drop Gianna off for school. There have never been any other clients when I am there so I can be spontaneous as to when I go get my hair cut. The girl who has always cut my hair wants to wash it to get out the product that I have to put in to enhance the curl.
I am telling you, if this girl opened a shop just to wash hair, she would be the Trump of her field. She knows that I really enjoy the washing so she prolongs it and gives my scalp a gentle but firm massage. I can actually feel the tension leave my body as I sit there. By the time she is done, my toes are tingling.
I wonder what she would say if I just stopped in and asked her to just wash and style my hair. Am I to young to be among the "shampoo and set" group?
Do you think that I could adequately teach my kids to wash my hair? HMMMM

Menu Board

In the old house I had a very very large white board where I put up my daily routines and our menu for the current pay cycle. This way, when Frank asked what was for dinner and I asked what he would like, all the options were right there in front of us.
But in this house, not only is there no good place in this house for the white board, it just wouldn't look right. But we were suffering without our menu posted. I had to keep track of a piece of paper with the list so I knew what meals I had the makings for. I tried keeping the list in my planner but 1/2 the time my planner is out in the car in the garage. Not the best thing.

I had this section on one kitchen wall that was just screaming for a menu board. But I wanted something classier looking then a white board.
Then I found http://shanty2chic.blogspot.com/. Love that blog!!! There I fell in love with burlap. Hmm burlap. I grew up on a dairy farm and burlap was for the 100 pound bags of feed that arrived for the cattle. Not exactly a decorating medium in my mind. But I have been re-educated. Burlap and their generous use of spray paint. I have also never been a user of spray paint. I always thought that was the "cheap" way to do things. But cheap is awesome. LOL

So with these thoughts in mind, off I went to the thrift store. I was looking for a big ugly painting so that I didn't have to spend $$$$ on a new frame and glass. What I found was so much better. I found the ugly painting in a beautiful frame.

I took out the ugly painting and flipped it over so that the back was up. I lay it on a piece of burlap (which is soo cheap) and brought the burlap up on the sides and hot glued them down. Sorry I don't have any pictures of this. I was not yet blogging when I did this project. Then I got out some stencils and some black (or burnt umber can't remember which) acrylic paint. I let is dry overnight then stuffed it back into the frame. The burlap make it a very snug fit.

Here is the finished project.

Sorry for the picture. The kids have dropped my camera one to many times and there was no place where there wasn't a huge reflection in the pic.

Now, when I make my menu plan, I just write it on my "board" with a chisel tip black dry erase marker. It serves both as a functioning piece and as a decoration.
I love it.

It's all a state of mind.

We have had very beautiful weather here in SW MI for the last couple days. Cold (in the low 30's) but the sun has been radiant. I couldn't have the blinds open wide enough and I seemed to get so much done. When I needed to run out to get the mail or pick up a child from school, I was perfectly content in a lightweight Old Navy sweatshirt.
Today however, there is no Sun (despite being Sunday). The temps are in the low 40's but I just want to curl up with a cup of coffee and an afghan (made by my mom in my FAV!! Color) and close the blinds. I can see the eaves dripping and the snowman tipping and that means that the temps are up and Spring is nearing. But without the sun it seems like late November without the promise of Christmas lights.

But with the sun came another project. I def need some sort of window treatment in my west facing kitchen window. While I know that it was not his intention, God's beautiful light gave me quite the headache as I was walking back and forth past the window to prepare dinner. I am thinking of the cute Roman blinds that I have seen all over blog land.

Boy's Room tranformation

When Dom was born, I made a cute Noah's Ark theme in his room. Then as he grew, I just painted the whole thing blue. Then we moved to our interim home, where we were not allowed to paint because everyone thought that we would just be there a short time. So the kids lived in rooms that were better suited to elderly folks. LOL When we Finally got the new that were would be able to move into our forever house, we also learned that the rooms that would be the kids rooms needed to be painted as the previous owners had used those rooms for storage. We let the kids decide what they wanted their rooms to be and went from there. G wanted a princess room so hers is pink, but not totally completed. D wanted red because that is his fav color but I anted something a little calmer as he already doesn't want to go to sleep. I settled on Camo. My sister offered to by the paint in lieu of Christmas gifts for us this year and we happily accepted. She & I went to Home Depot only because they carry the Disney color line, and where better to get pink for a princess room. DSis and I wandered around not having any idea about how to pick out colors for camo. This great guy Greg came up to us and asked us if we needed help and we poured out our needs. He was AWESOME!!!! There is a spray paint line that carries "camo" colors. He ran over and got those for us and then matched those colors to wall paint. He explained that we wanted the flat paint and went and got it for us and got it all mixed.
Here is the before. ( the owners left this huge desk in the room)


I painted the whole room the lightest color and then taped off the room so that the camo was on the bottom of the wall. I used the bottom of the room's windows as a guide. Then I used a pen and drew some shapes. As I drew I labeled the shapes as to what color they would be so when I had the paint out I wouldn't have to think to much. To outline each shape I used a small craft paint brush and then filled in with a 1" foam brush. I just did 1 color at a time so that they didn't run together. Each color took 2 coats to cover well, so I scooted around that room on my booty 6 times. On hard wood.
Here is the after:


I searched the Internet for weeks before I got up the nerve to do this. And it was so much easier that you would think.


I think that at some point I would like to put up a chair rail so the transition looks better. And if you notice in the first after picture, the plate covers in that room were white. And they just stuck right out. So I went to Hobby Lobby and got some camo scrap paper and Mod-Podged that on to it. I will have to show you those in another post as I don't have any pic's on the computer.
The colors used were:
Behr Twig Basket (Main wall color)
Behr Beluga (black)
Behr Evergreen
Behr Stone hearth.
I needed a gallon for the main room and got a quart of each of the others and still have plenty left over for other projects.

Linked to Met Monday

Good mom or Bad??

Valentine's Day is right around the corner and both my kids have parties at school. Since I am a SAHM and not a fan of premade, store bought Valentines, this is what I have been doing for the majority of the week.

I made 3 different colors of X's, O's & hearts. It has been my first venture into Royal Icing and it went pretty good. I outlined and flooded approx. 140 cookies in one afternoon. And since RI is softer than Buttercream icing, the arthritis in my hands isn't aggravated. This was Tuesday.
Then on Wednesday, I got home a note from D's School that I had volunteered to bake 30ish cookies for the party. I remembered signing up to bring something but couldn't remember just what. Then I looked at the calender and saw that it was my turn to provide cookies for the Coffee Fellowship after church on Sunday. Which is Valentine's Day. So this is what I did yesterday.

I also used RI but a different recipe. I am still mulling over which I prefer. The big ones are for school and the small ones are for church. I was going to make another batch of small ones, but realized that I didn't have enough flour so I will whip up a batch of Easy Peasy Chocolate chip cookies to go with them.
Got the kitchen all cleaned up from that adventure and realized that it was WAY!! Past dinner time. So this is what we ended up eating.

I guess that when you take the average for the day, I am an OK Mom. LOL

In the beginning

Well,  I have been so inspired by blogs all over the internet, that I have felt pushed to create my own.  I don’t know if anyone will every read it, but I have decided that I am going to do this for myself, and if anyone follows me, then that is an added bonus.
I am a SAHM to a 7yo boy and4yo girl who are very active.  My DH works very hard everyday so that I can stay home.  He is also an on-call fireman for our township so he often has to run out in the middle of the night to help someone.   My goal is to be the best wife I an be to him, but I often fall short.  He is an OCD type and and am very, very laid-back.   I often find myself scrambling a few minutes before he is due to arrive home to complete the things that I should have had done hours ago.  One of my goals for the new year is to get better at  housekeeping.
I love to cook, and bake and craft, all while I should be doing dishes or laundry mostly. LOL  And when I cook, bake, sew, quilt & cross-stitch, I need a pattern, recipe or someone to copy from.   And that is why I love the internet.    In the last month, we have moved into our forever home.  It is so much nicer than anywhere else than we have ever lived.  Our possessions seem so not nice in comparison.  However, on our budget, going out to buy, buy, buy is just not going to happen.  So I need to create the needed things.
This will be a chronicle of that adventure.