Sometimes you just need a little color

The front of our house definitely did after this long and confusing winter. My plants don't have a clue anymore what to do. Is it cold? Is it hot? Is it supposed to be cloudy outside or should I start greasing up for my tan? Who knows!

I'm hoping Mother Nature will notice the new pretty flowers that bloomed on my front door and follow suit. Fingers crossed she takes note before the Giant gets home (which is very, very soon)!

Wreaths are important for a home. They are sometimes the first thing visitors see when coming to your front door. They can be formal. They can be loud and fun. They can reflect your own personal style or reflect the mood of a home. I love making our wreaths myself. Its something easy that allows me to have full creativity and I take a little pride in it. Its something that I watched my mother do every season growing up, and I loved helping her with it. Maybe one day Cheyanne will do the same thing.

I decided that we needed something bright right off the bat. And since I'm in love with creating felt flowers for Cheyanne's hair bows right now, I thought I'd incorporate them elsewhere.

With a dollar store twig wreath, a skein of cheap chunky white yarn (you know the big ones you see in the $1 bins), and a few sheets of pretty colored felt, I think mission accomplished at creating a bright and cheery front door.

This was an easy project that cost me almost nothing-literally only the price of the wreath ($1). Everything else I already had on hand just sitting in the craft closet waiting to be used. The only difficult part of this project was the amount of time it took to sit and wrap the dang thing. One good movie and I had the wreath completely covered in two layers of yarn. If I had more patience, I probably could have done a third. Eh. Coulda woulda.

 

Next I (with the help of a friend who came over for a different movie night- yes we watch a lot of movies while our husbands are away) made a handful of assorted felt flowers. They ranged in size, color, and design. This is not a science people. Like I said. This was easy.

A little hot glue and a last minute made "Welcome" burlap bunting…. and as Cheyanne would say with arms spread wide… TaaDaa!

I pretty much Luhve it! It makes me happy to walk in my front door and that's all that really matters, right? Just fyi- the pictures make it look more neon than it actually is. Its not radioactive like it appears I promise.

Of course this post wouldn't be complete without a little Chey sighting, though. She just makes any picture better.

What does your front door wreath look like? If you share it, link back to this post so I can see! I'd love to see what creativity you have out there.

Dirty girl with a green thumb

Cheyanne might already be taking after me and the family green thumb. No, she hasn't gone and planted any trees yet, but I have high hopes for her. Every green thumb has to start somewhere right?

It is a running joke in my family that my father can't go outside without picking weeds. No matter even if he is dressed in his suit on his way to work on a rainy day. The man will mow in his Sunday best if he's gets the inkling that the yard has overgrown. I realized today that it seems I might have inherited that trait as I stood in our front flower bed in heels picking weeds while the wind blew. And now, it seems Chey too loves to pick whatever is around. Maybe she has seen me do it one too many times.

She's pretty cute when she's hunched over with me "pulling" weeds (or picking up the weeds from the pile that I just pulled out and spreading them around the yard). For a girl that can't stand having messy food hands, she sure doesn't mind getting her hands dirty in the yard right along with me. When I start digging, so does she. During our 17 month photo shoot the other day, she got distracted and found MomMom's pot of dirt left over from a dead palm. She decided it should probably be emptied. Thanks Chey. At least this time she didn't try to taste the dirt (again).

At first I protested, but then when I realized how fascinated she actually was with it, we made it a learning game. We learned that when you pick up clumps of dirt and dump it in your lap, your pretty white tights and dress lap by the way, MomMom tries not to laugh while still attempting to instruct you to put it back. Fun game. Then we learned MomMom would eventually give up and just take pictures of Her Cuteness instead.

The beginning.

Led to this. The smearing.

And so the pile grew.

And grew.

 And grew. Until a plant became more interesting and it was time to call it a day on the digging.

A little dirt and weeding can make little girls with green thumbs very happy. And bath time can make a MomMom happy too.

17 Months?!

17 months old is hard to type, let alone think. Its been a challenging month for sure, but so far, its been my favorite. Cheyanne, little girl, you amaze me every single day. You are beautiful. You are a handful. You are absolutely the perfect mix of your father and mother that's for sure.

Oh and you NEVER sit still. Getting your 17 month pictures was impossible. Two different photo shoots and this is the best one I got. I'll have to try again.

These are a few of the 2nd outtakes.

 and here are the first

Oh boy.

I have a hard time grasping that you are not a baby anymore. Independence has taken over. I don't think I was completely ready for how independent you actually are. Some days the independence is fantastic and very appreciated. Other days, your independence and slight mix of short temperedness (I don't know where you get that from) is a fun mix…

Your fake cry face.

 You like to feed yourself and get frustrated when I try and help you though you actually do feed yourself very well with utensils. You know what you want and like to push me in that general direction so I can figure it out too. We play the game of point and guess all day long. You climb. You run. You are determined to do things on your own. You are all girl but I think I'm starting to see some rough and tumble in you too. I like that.

While you are so independent, you give me these sweet moments that remind me how much you still love me and need me. You are quite the little comedian too. You like to sneak up on me from behind with a big bear hug and we laugh hysterically like you surprised me each.and.every.time. Once is never enough.

Bath time becomes an art fest with your fancy bath crayons. You are for sure an artist in the making! I do actually hope this is true, because you have some serious artists in your bloodline and I'm afraid it skipped over your parents.

The biggest milestone this month is definitely that we quit nursing. Knowing how attached you were, I was very nervous that this would be too difficult for you, but you surprised me. It was like we were in agreement that we both felt it was time. We went from 2 feedings to no feedings in less than 3 days.My reasonings for stopping nursing were selfish as I just wanted my body back for a little while, but I'd say nursing you for 16 months was a pretty great accomplishment on both of our parts. Good job kiddo! We proved all of the doubters wrong. Score 1 us.

This is our last month on our own. (Thank the Lord). I have loved being with you 24/7 and I wouldn't take any of our moments back for all the money in the world, but hasn't been an easy month Chey. I love you more than I can ever say.  You make MomMom and Daddy very proud. I can't wait for Daddy to get home and see how much you've grown up!

Stats: Taken at her checkup 3 weeks ago.
Weight: 24+ pounds (the first time that you've been under the 80th percentile because you had a growth spurt in height). You have lost weight from our stay in Virginia. Your length is catching up quick to the weight.
Height: 31.5 inches You are probably taller than that now since you definitely just had a growth spurt evidenced by the two weeks of eating me out of house and home every meal. 

Short and sweet

I know this is completely random, but can I just say how glad I am to see a celebrity finally looking like a REAL pregnant woman? Meaning, not someone that is so made up that she looks to perfect to be 9 months pregnant. 

Yes, I'm talking about you too perfect Angelina Jolie. Seriously, do you get swollen anywhere?!!! Sigh...

I remember being very pregnant at work looking at a tabloid magazine and in my preggo hormone mind I thought "I look like a fat blob compared to these women. What the #$@?"  Me with my swollen belly, swollen face, swollen legs and sweating myself silly in the hottest summer I've ever experienced.

I can't believe I'm putting this picture up. But, I was VERY pregnant, VERY tired of being pregnant, and VERY ready to pop! Just being real here...

Finally, there is a real pregnant woman that actually looks pregnant and is absolutely glowing in baby.

Is it just me or does Jessica Simpson not look fantastic 9 months pregnant? I've loved seeing her pregnant pictures in the media recently. 

Now that I just looked through my preggo pictures, am I really ready to go through all of that again?!

Yes!

Just not in the dead of summer!! :)

Every day is Valentine's Day

At least around here it is for Miss Cheyanne. She has enjoyed her Valentine's Day present every day since, and there are no signs of it slowing down any time soon.

Just check out that wind in her hair. I know that a slide in your living room may not be the most beautiful piece of furniture out there, but its the most fun, that's for sure. Thankfully this sucker can go outside when we need it to so it won't be a permanent fixture inside. For now, she finds endless entertainment in throwing her toys down the slide while saying "Uh oh!" then sliding down on top of them and throwing herself face down on the bottom pillow. We do this 1000x times a day and it never gets old.

I made her a fort out of the slide box. She loved it just as much so two gifts in one. Win win.

I know I'm a little behind getting around to blogging about it, but we had a nice Valentine's Day this year. Even though we had to say goodbye to my parents Nana and Skipper after their short stop to see us (less than 24 hours!), we still enjoyed our lovey dovey day. Without the Giant here, it really made it just another day for me, but my surprise roses from the Giant perked up my slightly bahhumbug attitude. Chey even got her own present from Daddy- The Lady and the Tramp. Gotta love the classic Disney movies. Hope she loves them just as much as we did when we were younger. The Giant was even able to squeeze in a call that evening too.

Before the day was over, we had a "romantic" dinner at an oriental buffet with our neighbor friend and fellow squadron spouse Leslie. With both of our husbands deployed, we spend a lot of time together commiserating, so it was only fitting that we share V-day together. Thank goodness for love from inside and outside of our home these days. Valentine's Day just wouldn't have been the same. 

(Chey showing off her Valentine's hat made by the Giant's Aunt Carol).

Sending you love

my Giant wherever you are, know that your girls love you so much on this Valentine's Day and every other day.

I think we hit the Valentines nail on the head for Chey Chey. Her new slide has got her talking  nonstop today. Just listen. There are more movies to come as soon as they upload.

*Update* I posted a few new videos on the left in "Chey World."

I just couldn't wait to post this one.



Apparently the box was a hit too- a twofer gift. A new slide and a new fort, win win.

A look back to a year ago… crazy how much life has changed in a year and yet it hasn't changed that much at all because yet again, us girls are on our own without our Giant around for Valentine's Day.

Window (mis)treatments

Now, I'll start by saying, this is not THIS. I am not gutsy enough yet to do complete stripes so I decided to take baby steps. And I am so glad that I did. 

Knowing that I couldn't really afford fancy drapes for my french doors, I thought, "I can make drapes on my own." So, I bought two white full flat sheets and got started. I washed, dried, and ironed them then they magically became drapes. "Magically" meaning I ironed a hem to hang them because, you know, I haven't figured out the whole sewing thing yet like I said I would about a year ago. 

Two weeks ago, I got the nerve up and decided to go for it. I did what every good DIY'er would do and turned on a movie and got DIY'ing.

I laid out my drapes as flat as I could  (with cardboard underneath the section I would be painting).

I measured and taped the lines with painters tape. I get why this is the most time consuming part for those that paint stripes over the whole sheet. They've got to be s.t.r.a.i.g.h.t.

Then came the fun part. Painting. One foam roller and a bottle and a half of black acrylic paint did the job like a champ. You know, the little $.89 acrylic paint bottles from Michaels? That's it. 

I waited for it to dry (about an hour) and then carefully peeled off those tape lines. Taa daa! Then I did it all again for drape #2 which went by much faster since by then I was a pro.

Now look at my pretty drapes. Pretty suhweet, right? I'm in love with them. 

Love. Love. Love!

.

Closet Cleanup

of maybe I should call this the "Closet clean out."

With a month left of the Giant's deployment, my butt is in high gear of cleaning up around here. While the big projects are much easier to turn my attention to, its the small ones that i'm really making sure get done. For instance, I have now cleaned out and de-cluttered a junk drawer and two closets in the last few weeks. Projects that usually would have been kicked to the sidelines if I had the Giant home, but without him here to have a say, things need to find good homes around here. I'm ridding us of cardboard boxes. I'm tired of looking at them for the last 6 months. Outta here!

I thought I'd show you my easy peasy and much more useful craft closet cleanup.

Hi, my name is Molly and I'm a craftoholic.

Since nap time has become Mommy's project time, I did a craft purge the other day while Peapod slept. I pulled out every craft/project box that I could find hidden throughout the house and put everything in piles. Ribbon goes with ribbon. Paint goes with paint. Craft paper goes with craft paper. Trash in the trash pile. You get it.

With no money in the budget for storage, I took matters in my hands and made my own. Its not beautiful, but it sure is functional.

An old shoe organizer, three same size cardboard boxes and a whole lot of duct tape did the job just fine.

The end result. An organized craft closet.

A fully functional, $0 budget cheap, life simplifying solution to an addiction that had spun out of control. I now know why my husband has forbid me from going to Michael's. For now. But, I'm thrilled with how my little space turned out. For an hour of my time and zero dollars, I'm pretty proud of it.

It won't always stay this organized...

… but that's what closet doors are for. Hide the mess and/or keep the little fingers out of the crafts.

And when your little one is just dying to play with the paints, you have a finger painting day outside in the sunshine.

Or belly painting, whatever floats her boat. And hopefully, you catch a little foot print or hand print in the process to make something fun like this for her "under the water" themed room as a memory. See the footprint and handprint? Baby art.

A room fit for a Peapod

I've been staying busy practically every minute the last week. With roughly "only" a month left of this dang deployment, I'm finally in crunch mode to get things done around here. My to-do list seems to be shrinking just as fast as its growing. Every time I mark one thing off, I seem to find another thing to add to it. At least I'm starting to make this house look like a home. Just in time.

I thought it would be fun to give you a little tour of my favorite room in the house. It also happens to be the one room that I can refer to as finished, even though I don't think any room is every completely finished.

So here's the skinny on my favorite room. Just click on the pictures to enlarge them if need be.

You might remember my first post on Cheyanne's room a few months ago.

This is what we started out with.

Gross, right? Yeah I know.

But look at it now. What a difference!

I L.O.V.E. how this room turned out. Its bright. Its cheery. Its the most color I've ever painted in my entire life! 

As I'm looking at the pictures, I wish I had taken the two seconds to de-clutter a little bit, but with a toddler hot on my heels I had to take my shots. 

There are a few things I want to point out in the room that are worth mentioning while I have them on my mind. 

The wall alphabet is one that I mentioned before. You can find my description on that project HERE. It was a project that took time and effort but was completely worth it. I believe that every child should have an alphabet display somewhere in their area and it should be sung to them every single day. Reading and letters are so important to a child's development. It can't be encouraged enough. So, why not make it pretty and fun? Its one of Chey's favorite things in the room too. She points along as I sing.

The capiz shell chandelier is probably what tied the room together in my head. It is one of my favorite buys because it has sentimental value to us. We bought it while visiting Manteo, NC, the small beach town that we were married in while pregnant. Hmm- reword- visiting while pregnant, not married while pregnant. We "I" debated over and over about whether to go with the classic white chandelier or venture on the pink and blue one. I'm glad I chose right. It adds some pop to the white space.

The seahorse carousel on the opposite corner is a PBK find. It adds a lot of fun and whimsy to the corner. And Chey loves to spin it around and sit below in her rocking chair to watch. They sold out of ours but they have another similar one that I like too.

Another PBK find is her pink polkadot beanbag cube. She loves to plop up on it and shake around. She has also discovered that if she moves it around, she can crawl on it to get all of her toys in the chest. Eventually I want to get her this, but for now I'm loving her cube.

The white toy chest was a $20 Craigslist find. It was chalky yellow and needed a lot of TLC after it had been sitting in a storage unit for a little too long. I painted it a coat of glossy crisp white and it looks brand new. Score.

The beautiful ribbon hair bow frame you see on the lower shelf was made by my dear friend Kate G for Chey's first birthday. I don't know how she did it, but every single color she used on it matches the room perfectly. She is by far the craftiest person I've ever known. She actually just started up her own etsy shop finally sharing her craftiness with the world. People, I promise, everything she touches turns to gold (and no she isn't holding a gun to my head to say this either). Visit her shop. You'll fall in love.

The mirror. Ah, the mirror. Its just perfection. It was a hot electric blue $5 Goodwill mess that I turned into a lovely pink treasure and just I couldn't be so happy with the room without it.

The sea blanket behind her on her rocking chair was handmade by the Giant's Aunt Carol. It is under the water themed and monogramed. Could it be any more perfect for her room? You've seen it a million times in my blog pictures of Peapod because I tend to use it in her monthly shots. 

And lastly and most important, her Daddy's picture rests high above on her top shelf looking down over her as she sleeps. We miss you Daddy- come home soon.

So, those are some of my favorite things in her room. Eventually I'll get around to painting her bookcase which is currently taking up space in the garage. Best $2 Goodwill buy so far. That's one of those things on my list to do before the Giant returns. It'll get done… fingers crossed.

So, you like? My sweet Peapod sure does. Just look at that cheesy grin.

I'm thinking that instead of hosting people in our living room, we should just take them straight into Peapod's room and hang out there. Its the happiest room in the house after all. You think that could work? :) Thanks for hanging in there with me during this long list of decor and links. 

Hope you liked it.