Helloooo Living Room...

It's done! It's finally done! After my man went to work this evening, I worked for hours. I took everything away from the wall and laid all of the squares and silhouettes on the floor to figure out how I wanted to arrange them. It was kind of like a crazy puzzle. (Don't mind the wires, I had to pull the tv, dvr, and xbox all out, so wires were everywhere.)

 I am some what OCD, and there couldn't be any matching materials next to each other, no groups of the same size, or a lot of flat or pillow like ones together. I measured some of it out, but wanted it very abstract and very 'random', even though it wasn't random at all. I love how it turned out. Basically, I just love that the wall isn't empty anymore, and it looks awesome with my bright red couch! I'm realizing though, that I need to be taking pictures with my nice Nikon. I've been taking them with my iphone because it's so much easier, but the pictures don't do it justice at all! I am also noticed some of the squares are a little crooked, but I am done decorating for the day. (And yes Mummy, that is your magical, amazing white blanket that I stole!)

I moved the furniture around a little bit. The ladder shelves went to the other side of the wall, and the tv and recliner were shifted down. I ended up adding a small glass table to the side of the tv. We got this table from my inlaws when my husbands grandmother passed away. I absolutely love it. There are some dings on it, and scratches. I talked to my husband and he said it would be fine if I fixed it up. It doesn't need much done. I want to add a light stain to it, and a black satin glaze to really accent the simple designs on it. I have a feeling that this is going to be one of my favorite pieces that we own. It's just a gorgeous little piece of furniture. Inside the glass cabinet it had a light brown velvet material. I was really excited when I realized it all came up and was just tacked to a piece of wood that fit inside. So just to see what it would look like with something else in there, I took an extra piece of material I had from the wall squares. It was funny when we pulled it up, because underneath showed the color it used to be, and it was a rich reddish color. My little ladies and I decided to add in a few masquerade masks that we have just for now.

After I got done with all of that, I found a frame that I had up in my old house a long time ago. The pictures in it are of my biggest lady when she was little. It was just a plain, but nice brown frame. The only dead space now on that living room wall is above my bedroom door, so thats where it will go. 

I ended up painting it with a few different coats of red, starting with a darker red, then a brighter one on top. After it was all dried I used a black wash to accent around the edges, and to give a slight texture on top of the red. In the first picture it doesn't look too red, but up against the bright red couch, you can tell its clearly red, considering it's almost the same hue! It's too late, and I still have work to do tonight so I will add some black and white pictures to it tomorrow, but I think ultimately, after the rain stops, I think I will be taking out the back and adding some small branches going vertically in it. I love framed branches, they're just such a unique accent.

Today was definitely fun and productive. I am just so antsy to have everything done in this room!!! Three more pieces of furniture to work on and it will all be complete. Tomorrow I will hopefully get the chance to run to Home Depot and get what I need to start on the table since I didn't have a chance today! As for now, I have to work on and complete a couple of ads! So until tomorrow...

I also just have to add, since it is after midnight, and officially the 25th, I have to say happy 50th birthday to my Mummy! My mom is beyond an amazing woman, and I wouldn't be the person, or the mother, that I am today without her. I love you beyond words Mummy, I hope you have a fantabulous day. I'm sorry we aren't there to celebrate with you!

Working, Working, Working...

I have finally completed everything that I want to go up on my wall! Yay. It took my forever to get the frame hangers on, they were much more difficult to get on than I had imagined. I had to take these tiny tiny nails and hammer them in. Finally after several smashes of my fingers, and lots of yelling, I realized I could do it by holding the nail with a pair of tweezers. This made a world of a difference. Still, it took me a while to get them all on there, but I did it. I can't wait to get everything up. It's been difficult though, with my husband working nights he needs to sleep all day, so I can't hammer then. Then when he leaves, I cook dinner, we eat, and the girls go to bed, so I can't hammer then either. I'm thinking that I will cook dinner earlier tomorrow, so that when he leaves, the ladies can eat, and I can get to working. I am going to have to rearrange the furniture up against that wall too. Hopefully, HOPEFULLY, it will all be finished tomorrow. I really need to start working on my next project, which is my coffee table. 

We have such a beautiful table, but it really needs to be fixed up. The varnish is coming off of the top, and there are some scratches and stains on the wood. Depending on how tomorrow goes, I'd like to run out to Home Depot and grab a hand held sander, some primer, and some paint. I'm thinking about going with the handheld Norton Sanding Bug. Then I want to do a reddish wash over it, to give it just a hint of color, and add a black satin glaze in the creases and trim. On the top I am going to go with a black chalkboard paint! My ladies are constantly coloring, and it drives me crazy when it's done on the walls and on my furniture, so I figured it would be awesome to put it on the top of the table, and they could just color all over it whenever they want! 

A few days ago I talked briefly about a blog that I absolutely adore, Vintage Revivals. Her work is so inspirational. She does what I absolutely love, she takes people crap, and turns it into something beautiful! There was a post about her daughters desk area, that is absolutely to die for!

I really like the color of the wood on the desk, I think I might try to get hints of that color on the bottom and the legs of the coffee table. The mirror idea above the desk though I think is awesome. It just a bunch of different framed mirrors that have been painted. After you have those how you what them, you work on the mirrors themselves. She uses an acid used in pools to peel off some of the reflectiveness on the backs of the mirrors. You can create so many different textures and affects by doing this. Then once you can see through areas of the mirror you add material to the back to show through. I think it looks like an awesome project! I might have to attempt something like that one day! Although, for now, I am going to have to try and do one thing at a time, and first it's set up the wall tomorrow, then off to the coffee table! I might have to start writing all my fantabulous idea down, there are too many project ideas swirling around in my brain, and I have a tendency to forget things. I just keep finding a lot of awesome ideas, and making them my own. I fear just like my randomly created, awesome recipes I will not remember what I wanted to do, or how to create it. I'm thinking I might be in dire need of a project/inspiration board!!! One thing at a time...one thing at a time..... (this might have to be my new mantra when it comes to projects).

Gummi Bears and Autographs....

Today was pretty great! The little ladies were so excited from the second they got up this morning. They were so excited because they knew today was the day they were going to meet 'Freddie' from iCarly. We got ready and before we headed out, I remembered I wanted to print off a picture of him to have autographed. I found two of the exact same pictures and chose the one that wasn't photoshopped. Once that was done, we did a double check that we had everything, and we were out the door. We got to the convention center and found where we needed to meet the other people. The girls ran to a different area and they were in the front of the line, and so excited. When we got to the room everyone got in their seats. Then they decided they wanted people to form a line. Unfortunately, it took us a little while to get in line and so we were in the middle. The second he walked in the room, the ladies faces lit up! They were so excited! Finally after about 10 minutes, it was their turn. They got to give him a big hug and talked to him for a bit. He looked down and realized that they had his new headshot. He looked up at me and said "Ahhh, I hate that I posted this on twitter, you got the one that isn't touched up." My reply to that was, "Oh no, I did, I had both, I just decided to print this one out." He just laughed, and said "Thanks!"

We took so many pictures, but I haven't sat down and downloaded them yet. After the girls took their picture I asked if I could take one too, I mean come on, I watch the show with them, and yes I have to admit that I can actually sit down and enjoy it. Which can be hard to find in kids shows. Some of the stuff is actually funny. So I had a picture taken, then my oh so awesome husband insisted he needed one too, so I asked and all 'Freddie' (Nathan Kress) said was, "Of course, MAN PICTURE!" 

Once we left we FINALLY bought a new battery for our van. It is now beyond fried. We got home and the ladies insisted that we watch iCarly to see 'Freddie'. They kept yelling "We met him! I know him." It was so cute. After two episodes it was nap time. Once they got up, it turned out that there was like a marathon on tonight. So a little more was watched while I cooked. One of the things that I love about the show is the set. They make the rooms looks so awesome. In one of the episodes Carly's room catches on fire, so they end up redoing it. 

I think she has the room that every girl dreams of. There is so much awesomeness in there. Personally, my favorite is all the gummi bear stuff. A lot of the stuff from the room you can find at this awesome company Jellio. Definitely a site worth checking out.

I also really love her aquarium table. That was something I really wanted to get a while ago, but I figure it's probably not a smart purchase while the ladies are still on the younger side. You can find a lot of different kinds, just by searching on Amazon. I really love unique rooms. Unfortunately though, all of this 'stuff' in this room costs way too much money. I would rather try and make things along the same line without having to spend so much money. Definitely a really cool room though, really bright, and nicely designed. That really all I have for today, the entire day has really just consisted of iCarly! 

Colored Ladies...

After such a long night last night, we all ended up waking up fairly late. I can't complain, it's nice to sleep in a bit. Today was all about creativity today. We woke up and ate, then got into some crafts right away. The ladies worked on cutting and glueing shapes, coloring with different mediums, and decorating with glitter glue. I worked on finishing the silhouettes. and had decided that I would add a layer of Modge Podge on top of the silhouettes, to add some shine. I like it more, but am a bit upset at what happened with the ink because of it. It left it somewhat streaky. Then later on we painted nails, then decided to cut my and my littlest lady heads out. Each one took around 15 minutes to cut out, cutting around the eye lashes and whatnot was ridiculous. I was almost finished with my head and I had already finished hers, when I turned my head and realized she was eating the bun on her silhouette!!! It smudged the ink, which I wasn't so happy about. I decided to go over the whole thing with my black acrylic paint which I think made it look a lot better and it wouldn't smudge when I put the Modge Podge on it. Here they are, finally all finished.

Later on in the night we all sat down together to play one of the ladies favorite games. Colorforms Silly Faces game. They love it so much, their Gramma gave them them a new one for Christmas because they played their old one so much pieces wouldn't stick anymore.  We played it twice, and both the girls won. Here is the littlest lady putting on her winning piece.

She started to take off the pieces and put them on her legs. My ladies have a tendency to color themselves. So I decided since they are having a bath in the morning, before we go meet 'Freddie", it was ok if they colored on their legs a little. Here is the littlest ladies leg.

 The second this was done, her big sister ran over asking for me to do one on her. So I decided to color all over her leg. Haha! She loved it.

She decided to do a little one on her other leg by herself. I left the room for about five minutes, and this is what I came back to.

My littlest lady wanted to clean hers off with baby wipes, so she ended up using the rest of what we had from when she was in pull ups. She thought it was the coolest thing to see all the different colors on the wipes after wiping some of it off.

I was also able to hammer down some staples that were sticking up on the red, white, and black squares, and hammer on most of the frame hangers. So after we get home tomorrow in the afternoon, I will finish up on that and get everything up on the wall. I'm very excited! Since we have another busy, productive day, I am off to bed for tonight. I can't wait for tomorrow, the girls are going to be so excited to meet iCarly's 'Freddie', and Dora! I'm also psyched, because until last night I hadn't realized that it's a huge car show. I love awesome fixed up cars, they are absolute works of art. Today was such a great day, the ladies were both awesome listeners, and so sweet. I think every mom can relate to loving days when your kids seem like perfect angels. Especially my littlest lady, she never is a big help picking up her toys, her big sister always is, but her, eh, she's two, so not so much. Today she picked up every toy she played with. I also think I might have had well over a hundred hugs today. Definitely, over all, it was a pretty awesome day.  Alright, well, it's off to bed for me.

Bloody Baby....

I was really hoping I would have a chance to finish everything up on my wall project today. Most mommies know, sometimes as much as you want to do something, your kiddos take precedence and whatever you wanted has to be put on hold. I had started to work, and completed one more silhouette. I think I might end up adding a layer of Modge Podge on top to add some shine, it looks too flat to me.

After I finished my man woke up and wanted to hang out for an hour or so before he had to go in for the night shift. The little ladies were playing in our bathroom, because we have a magnetic dart board on the back of the door. They were playing so well, and having a great time. All of a sudden there was an ear piercing scream, one of those screams that makes your heart stop for a second, and your body just surges with adrenaline. My babies, like their awesome mother, are unfortunately very accident prone. Therefore, I know what screams indicate that something is really wrong. I ran into the bathroom to find my baby crying on the floor, when she looked up blood was pouring from her chin. Talk about deja vu! This just happened to my older little lady back in June. Once she calmed down, and we were able to take a look at it, we realized she definitely needed stitches, but just to confirm we texted some pictures to her doctor grampa, and it was instantly 'Yes, take her to the hospital, she needs stitches.'

So the adventure began! Like I said yesterday, today was supposed to be our 'lazy day', so we were all in jammies, definitely not ready to just run out of the door and go to the hospital. We got ready really fast though, and our friend said she would watch our big monster so she wouldn't have to wait around with us and she could play with her friend. Then it was off to the hospital. Let me tell you, it was one of the most ridiculous situations ever. I don't know what emergency rooms are like everywhere else, but I have been to a few and they were nothing like this. It took us an hour to see someone to register her. Finally, at this point she started to smile again, and she was very excited to get a bracelet with her name and birthday on it.

We sat in the waiting room for over four hours! I couldn't believe it. To make a two year old sit with gauze on her chin while bleeding almost the entire time for that long is absolutely crazy to me. I have never had to wait that long before to be seen. I'm glad I thought ahead and both my husband and I had our iphones charged, meaning we had hours of games and movies for her. She loves playing word games with her daddy.

Finally we were called back and talked to a nurse for a few minutes. She liked having a little bed to herself, and a tv to watch kid shows. My poor baby started to lose it a bit though, she kept saying she wanted to go home and got sick of sitting around.

I found a few things in my purse to preoccupy her for few minutes here and there. Then I found the magic key to keep her sitting for a little bit. GLOVES! She loves doctor gloves, but what little kid doesn't. 

Then she played for a little bit pretending that she was locked in a cage and she couldn't get out! Once again, something to preoccupy her for only a few more minutes. At least she was having fun playing, and not worrying about her chin. My man called this time 'the calm before the storm'! Which was so very true.

Finally, the doctor came in to check her out. This is where she started to get a little nervous, she didn't like him touching her chin at all. After he left the nurse started bringing in some stuff to do the stitches, including a big blue board. We had to read about it to figure out what it was. Basically it was a little kids straight jacket, and has the ability to pin down their entire body. This had me semi worried.

Once everything was set up the doctor came back in and it was time to get started. At that point I had convinced my little lady that the 'straight jacket' was like a little bed for kids that only she got to lay on. She was excited to get up on the bed and lay on it, until she realized her whole body was going to be pinned down. That's when she really started to get scared. Secretly though, I wouldn't mind having two of these things for bedtime, so they can't get out of bed at all. Haha!

I would have to say the whole experience was mildly traumatic! It was heartbreaking to see her pinned down, and a strong male nurse pinning her head and jaw. She was ok until the doctor stuck her with the lidocaine.  That's when the ear piercing screams started up again, only this time they didn't stop, and I couldn't sweep her up in my arms to cuddle and console her. I hate to see my babies in pain, who doesn't, and I wear my emotions on my sleeve big time, so I really wanted to just cry with her and hold her. One thing my mom taught me a long time ago, was I have to keep my cool, and not freak out, because that would make it so much harder for them. I felt like I was somewhat prepared since we already had to do the same thing with my big lady. Boy was I wrong. This is my little baby, I couldn't calm her down by talking her through it, and since she is so young they had to brace her whole head, so I couldn't sit by her face and reassure her it was ok. I tried my best, but it was horrible. After the first stitch the doctor had to stop and needed me to calm her down. Let me tell you, this kid is beyond ridiculously strong! I always used to joke that she was my little ox, but it's no joke. She was fighting off the nurse as best as she could and trying to rip herself out of the 'straight jacket'. After calming her down, we realized she was sweating like crazy from fighting, covered in tears, and beet red. She took a few deep breaths turned to me and said 'Mommy, please I go home now, I need my big sister.' Then she yawned and started to close her eyes. It broke my heart. She almost fell asleep, but the doctor was ready for the next stitch, and the screams started up again. It was horrible. I actually ended up having two little tears in the corner of each eye, but wiped them before she noticed. After talking to my husband about it, he even said it was heartbreaking and really hard for him to watch her like that. Finally she was done and we ripped that 'straight jacket' off her so fast. She was very ready to go home!!! She needed to take a picture first though so she could show her Gramma. Look at how red that poor babies face is!

When I looked at that picture I thought it was funny because this past summer I was taking the exact same kind of pictures.  I guess they just really wanted matching scars. My little lady has to do everything her big sister does, so here is her big sister this past summer.....

It was so nice to finally get out of there, and especially to get something to eat. Of course she NEEDED some ice cream to make her better. I couldn't wait to get home though because I had a really big surprise for my big lady!

Back when we had first got into the waiting room I realized I had a missed call. I don't have too many peoples numbers from this area, and they don't have mine, so I figured I would call and find out who it was. This man started asking about my daughter, which mildly creeped me out.....until I realized why he was calling, and how he knew about my baby girl. For the past week or so, the girls keep seeing ads on tv showing this big auto show coming to town, but the thing they freak out about is 'Freddie' from iCarly (which is her favorite show) is going to be there. The commercial says some people will be able to meet him and maybe take his picture. I checked online to figured out a little bit more about it. Turns out there was a form you could fill out to win a meet & greet. The winners get fifteen minutes in private with him, to take pictures, talk, and get his autograph. Well......turns out my baby won!!!! I was cracking up. We never win anything, and here she is winning the chance to talk to and take pictures with one of her favorite actors! I came home and couldn't wait to tell her. I had to take pictures and video tape her reaction. It was priceless. She kept jumping so much I could barely snap a picture. We will all be going to meet him on Saturday! So there you go, a small silver lining to a sad and kind of crappy day. Look at the crazed excitement in that face! 

The little ladies both just passed out watching Care Bears, so I think we will be having a sleep over in the living room tonight, because I am about to crash. So until tomorrow.....

Excitement, Trial, and Beyond Error....

Today has been ridiculous! I have been running around all day, and working off of only four hours of sleep. Although, I did have a fantabulous morning, because I got my couch!!! It's heavenly; in perfect condition, a bright vibrant red, and beyond comfortable. I was so excited to get it, and now so happy that I am sitting on this amazing couch. Check out it's gorgeousness!

After getting rid of our what seemed to be a thousand pound pull out couch, and getting our new one, we had a playdate, I had to grocery shop, come home to unload everything, go to speech therapy, run to get our car battery checked out, back to speech therapy, then home. I was excited to take a break, and potentially shut my eyes for a minute, but of course that wouldn't happen. The ladies needed snacks, I needed to pick up a bit, then it was too late to try and sneak in a small nap. So I got right into working on the profile silhouettes. It was trail and ever over and over again. This has actually turned out to be a very frustrating project. I went through several different types of paper, and ended up working with a transparent film. 

I then went trough several different ideas for the wooden background. I ended up deciding on tinfoiling it. If you don't know what this is, just wait...it's awesome, and you can do it to basically anything. I got the idea from Vintage Revivals, it's an awesome blog you should check out. I first started with the four wooden ovals, tin foil, Modge Podge, a paint brush, and black paint. 

Take one of the pieces of wood, and add a thin layer of the Modge Podge. Then rip off a piece of tin foil that will cover the whole piece. Gently crinkle it up, then flatten it back out and lay it on top of the wood. Smooth it out as best as possible (this is much more important than I realized for what I was trying to accomplish). Once its on there and all smoothed out, add another layer of Modge Podge, then let it dry. This is what it should look like...

After it's dry, you're going to want to use the black paint. I only had acrylic paint, so I added a good amount of water to make it more of a wash.

 You are going to want to apply a thin layer of paint, it doesn't even need to be fully covered. Immediately rub the paint off. It will leave black accents of the ripples of the tin foil, make it a bit darker, and just give it an aged metallic feel.

You can basically do this idea on anything. I saw it done on a night stand, and it was beautiful. I figured before I ever attempted to try that, I might want to work on a much smaller scale. After I did all this, I cut out the silhouettes, and needed to apply them. This was the big error or the night, that I actually ended up giving up on for tonight. I am too tired to keep brainstorming and trying different ideas right now. I kind of feel like I am now working on autopilot. The transparent film actually ended up being a horrible idea. The second the Modge Podge was applied it curled up ridiculously fast, so I had to carefully peel it apart. Once I applied it, I realized the film is so thin that all the little crinkles on the tinfoil make the silhouette look horrible!!! Big fail. I tried to do it a little differently on another one, and it came out even worse. So here it is, the big fail of the day...

Ah! I hate to even post this. Just looking at it makes me instantly cringe. Then again, what would art or even life be without some errors.  Now I absolutely know never to use the film again on a project like this. Tomorrow is my 'lazy day' of the week, so I will start working on it much earlier, with a refreshed brain. I'm thinking I might end up using bristol board. Which is just a very thick, nicer piece of paper. Hopefully, that will work, but I guess we will see tomorrow. I feel like today I was kind of rushing on this project, even though I worked on it for several hours. I'm just so excited to have it all finished and up on the wall. If you want something perfect though, and the way you really want it, rushing is definitely not a good idea. Tomorrow I will take my time and work really hard, and maybe by the end of the night they will all be finished, and up on my wall. One can only hope!

Ok, little update...

I posted this about an hour ago. I was about to go to bed, but the project perfectionist in me was going crazy!!! I knew there was absolutely no way I could ever fall asleep knowing how horrible that looked. So, I got out my bristol board and reprinted the silhouettes. I originally was going to just Modge Podge it onto of the horrible looking one, but one of the edges was up a little bit so I of course had to pick at it a bit. The layer of dried Modge Podge was thick enough that I could actually just peel it off, so I did that for the two that I messed up on, and I was back at a clean piece of tin foil. Yes, that means I need to redo the Modge Podge and paint, but that is absolutely fine by me. I used one of the other ovals to mount the silhouette on, added the Modge Podge to the back of it, and since it's so much thicker it didn't curl up. I was able to put it right on, with no problem, and no crinkles in it!!! I can finally go to sleep, and be at peace for tonight! 

Staples & Faces....

The wall mounts are officially finished! Actually, I take that back, I have to hammer in the frame hangers on the back. That should only take five to ten minutes though. At first I thought it was pretty easy, but if you have a good number of them to do it becomes really tiresome on your hands. Maybe it's just me though. I tore a ligament in my thumb this past summer, which was a wonderful and semi-hysterical occasion, and it never fully healed. Every now and then I pull it, or move it weird and it still hurts. So after 256 staples from the staple gun, it's not feeling so great. I love how they turned out though. I can't wait to get them up on the wall!

I also get my 'new' couch tomorrow! Even more excited for that. It's going to add so much color to the room, and just be a wicked awesome focal point in my living room. Unfortunately, that means I have to get rid of my couch. Honestly, it semi breaks my heart. Other than part of the material being ripped,  it's in great condition, but not knowing how to sew doesn't really help me out. At least we will be bringing it to Goodwill, so hopefully someone who does know how to sew can fix it up, and love it just as much as we have.

On another note, I love that I had the idea to do our silhouettes on the little oval pieces of wood. When I wanted to do the drawer wall unit, I really wanted to add the little ladies silhouettes on each side. Now that we are going to have all the red, white, and black squares up on the wall, all scattered, we will be able to put our faces up there in the mix. I worked on all of our silhouettes tonight, so tomorrow it's just a matter of getting them off of the computer and Modge Podged onto the wood! Here is what I came up with. I think they came out pretty cool.

It's funny, since we all have curly hair, they look all bumpy and not crisp, but hey, that's us. I really can't express enough how excited I am to get this all finished and up on the wall. I hope it looks as great as I see it in my head! Even if it isnt exactly how I pictured it, I have a feeling I'm absolutely going to love it anyway. Especially since I had some great help from my little monster. I cant wait to see their faces and see how much they like what they have helped with when it's all done!