one thing at a time

slowly but surely the mini-makeover is taking place in the girls room. i am still just loving that little cabinet - the hours of work were totally worth it. now we just have to wait about a month before we can set things down on it. but for now, the curtains are the next priority - hope i can find some as cute as the ones we've had.

now we need to consider the curtains

the little cupboard is now in place and the room is taking on a bit of a new look:

i have loved these cute dragonfly curtains for a few years now ... however, it looks like it's time to let them go! the new turquoise bedspreads and hot pink accents work with the green walls, but that's about it!

so, new curtains, i guess. hopefully i can find something i love just as much!

7 layers of fun

and this was my weekend ...

sand
clean
prime
sand
clean
paint
sand
clean
paint ...

etc.

you get the idea!

but a free little cabinet for the girls room - it's worth the effort - and their room gets a painless little upgrade! and i am now a big fan of topcoats!!!!

my newest favorite thing

favorite things come into my life from time to time. this one however, was long awaited and quite overdue. but now that we are together, i don't know that we will ever be apart again.

cute, eh?

don't let it's good looks fool you ... it's pretty tough, too. if you have ever seen my kitchen floor, then you will agree that anything that can tackle it is a might machine.

so what if it's purple - whoever said you couldn't be purple and mighty?

what do you do on your day off of school?

yeah ... us, too!

someone needs new windows

and that someone would be me! we are in the midst of a cold front ... very cold, cold front ... and this is what I saw when I got up this morning:

that's on the inside of my home ... brrrrrrrrrrr!

we really need to replace those windows methinks!

hip hop happy

the kids got home from school today so very, very happy. cold, but happy. they started hip hop classes after school today and couldn't wait to show off what they learned. it really is so cute - and they are just awesome!

good neighbors

i can never seem to say enough about the neighbors we have been blessed with. even though we aren't in an actual crisis ... going withough water is kind of a pain. so we headed over to our neighbors to fill up some jugs of water, enough to get us through a day or so. and then we called the son of our other neighbor, a plumber, to see if he would come fix our stuff for us. he showed up at 10am and got it functioning soon thereafter - and he doesn't even like coming to our town to work. he comes from some really good people - you can tell. so, our water situation was fairly mild and painless ... and now it is resolved ... and we still will be able to go to disneyland this spring - yay!

drip ... drip ... drip

i am beginning to hate that sound ... i am sure that would change if were ever in a drought. for now, however, it usually isn't good news. so, when i went downstairs after church on sunday, and heard that familiar old, heart crushing sound. and there we have it friends, proof that new carpet does not alter the fact that the pipes are still old!

out with the old, in with the ... loud?

some men look to the future and see their children forming a sports team, but not bert, no ... he sees a rock band. so when he came home with this drum set, i can't say that i was surprised. we moved out the king's bed that he doesn't use and made room for the drums. i'd say we are off to a boomin' start!

i'm almost too ashamed ...

the one thing our home lacks is a storage space ... we have little bits of space here and there and under this and over that ... but we don't have one spot where we can store certain things in a more long-term sense. i have tried to view this as a blessing, so that i have to keep our "stuff" in check, but sometimes, it gets the better of me and our music room becomes the storage room. only it doesn't just happen all nice and neat ... it happens when a box is thrown in quickly to hide it when guests are coming. you have enough of those and this is where you end up:

(please don't judge me)

fortunately, i got enough fire in my belly and started the big sorting ... it will be a music room again soon. and i should hopefully find that very important letter i need in order to renew my teaching certification - that would be good!

my own home shopping network

isn't in awesome when you are sitting in a room looking at something and realize that it would go perfectly in another spot in your home?

my not-so-dirty little secret

i have to admit, there is one part of housekeeping i have always enjoyed ...

and after a project this past summer, i am even more happy about this little job ...

so, as i spent the past two days doing a week's worth of laundry, there was a smile on my face.

this is why:

these new shelves have made sorting, folding and putting away all of our clean clothes a pleasure - literally!

the elephant in the room

right now, i am working on a little project that involves a little obsession of mine.

it involves something that i have loved since i can even remember beginning to love things.
it involves something that the more i learn about it, the more i love it.
it involves a mammal, a very large, gray, wonderful, tusked mammal.

okay, so maybe it's not that little of a thing ...

but it's one of my favorite things ... and you'll start to notice them appearing all over my home - in fact, i am working on finding just the right elephant for every single room we have.

no tears this year

sometimes, when it's time to put all of the christmas stuff away, i get a little teary and nostalgic. well, i have found the cure for the post-holiday blues: wait until jan. 8 to take everything down. not only do you get to enjoy all of your fun decorations a little while longer, but you do so to the point that you are almost sick of them and ready to get your house back to normal. so, there are no tears when you box it all up and put it all away!

and i found one other awesome benefit ... i had the time to go through everything and get rid of the stuff i don't use anymore (making room for the new stuff i got on clearnance this week - i'll have a totally different decoration scheme next year - i'm so excited).

and there you go, all i can say is that it worked for me!