Well hello!

I haven't been on here for a long, long time. It became way too overwhelming with every little thing that we had going on in our lives. I have started a new design blog, and am really excited about it! Go check it out!!!

Crazy busy, but filled with excitement.

I have officially been called a slacker. To be honest though, I have been working and doing more things recently than I have in a while. Here is a list of some of the randomness that has been going on....

1. We have started to watch an amazing little 9 month old girl. The days that we have her, it is virtually impossible to do any big projects, because she's still a peanut and needs lots of attention.

2. We have been doing lots of brain storming, and paper work, because in two weeks we will be getting out of this little apartment, and into a three bedroom house. This is another reason why big projects are on hold. Once we get into our house, I will have a whole studio to work on stuff in, no matter the weather. I will be off of the tiny porch I work on now. I'm psyched.

3. We are now coaches for a 5-6 year old soccer team, and the season just started. This has been difficult, because my man works a weird schedule. It's hard to figure things out so that they work with everyone else' 'normal' schedules.

All this awesomeness (and I really do mean awesomeness) has been tacked on to our normal, busy life filled with speech therapy, random appointments, and whatnot. It's taking a while to try and change to a more 'normal' schedule with my crazy insomnia as well. Normally, I would blog crazy crazy late when everyone else is asleep, but lately I have been trying to force myself to go to bed at a decent hour.

Once we do get moved I am really REALLY hoping everything gets put in its place really fast. I am excited to decorate!!! My first big project I bought today!!!! I was sooo torn on if I should buy it or not. I have searched for MONTHS to find an awesome, intricately designed, credenza, and I finally found one! I went to Goodwill with the little ladies, and it was crazy busy. There was a lot of new furniture, and a lot of people looking at it all. I saw this piece and I wanted it but didnt like the price. I left, and came back a couple hours late. I spoke with the same lady, and was able to talk them down $80!!! Yes, you read that correctly. I dont know how I could have said no. It's going to be a big project, it definitely needs a lot of work done to it. But I'm psyched. It's my last big piece to my living room!

So, from the bottom of my heart I apologize for being a slacker. I'm not trying to be. Once we get into our house and settled it will be projects galore. Want to know why.... wait for it......

We can paint our walls! 

Oh yes. I am very VERY excited for that. Basically the fact that it's a brand new house, with a big backyard, crazy amounts of storage, a studio, and just basically a blank canvas to decorate REALLY excites me! I will definitely give an update soon, but for now, it is 'early' to bed for me. Goodnight!

Life.

To be honest with you, I dont think my head has spun in so many directions at once. There are so many decisions, so much planning, and things that need to be done in the next week. I might go a bit crazy. 

I have decided that I have to put all big projects off to the side right now.  I will have to see where things are going within the next week or so before anything new is started.  Starting this week there will be some changes in our daily routine. Also, there might be a move in the very near future for us. It would be crazy to start on anything to decorate this apartment with, when I may be packing everything up and moving into a new house. 

Please say some prayers for us, that everything goes according to plan, that we stay safe traveling, and I don't get too stressed. All other military spouses out there know the fun stress associated with a military move. I find it funny that I just recently opened our last box from moving here, and now it may all be packed up again very shortly. I'm really excited to see what these next few weeks have in store for us!

Anthropologie Centerpiece Project

Absolutely nothing was really accomplished today. All four of us have felt kind of off today. Sort of queazy, stomach kind of churning, and pretty lethargic. Overall, it wasnt the greatest day. It did give me a chance to work on some design, and browse around online for some new project ideas.

For a while now its been bothering me that I don't have a cool centerpiece for my dining room table. I figured I would search around a bit to see if I could find anything I liked. And I did! I had been checking out Anthropolgie, for some inspiration, and found something that I think is pretty cool. 

It just such a hodge podge of awesomeness. I love how there is a random fish in there. There is no way I could have something this white, and I am not a fan of gold either. I think it would be really cool to try something like this though, and its definitely a project that the little ladies would have fun helping me with. So our mission is over the next few days to go around and find some cool random things to paint and add to a centerpiece like this. I also think its CRAZY that this sells for $798. Ridiculousness. Just wait, give me a few days and I'll have something that looks equally awesome, if not better for wicked small fraction of the cost. I can't wait. 

Like I said though, I'm not feeling super great, so I just wanted to share this, and now I am off to bed. Hopefully tomorrow we can find some cool pieces and start putting it all together!

Stress and Blog Design.

For me today was one of those days where I want to rip out my hair a little bit. It was mildly stressful.

I said last night that my husband and I are now soccer coaches for Miss El's team. Well, since my man is at work for 12 hours out of the day and sleeps as much as he can (or as much as the ladies will let him), I have to figure everything out. I have to set up meet and greets for everyone, go through his schedule so I can figure out a practice schedule, make snack list forms, make contact sheets, figure out a place to practice, call everyone to introduce myself and set up a out first get together. The last women I spoke with was a huge help, actually everyone has offered to help in little ways, but I still feel I bit off a little more than I can chew. Oh and wait, have I told you I literally dont know a single thing about soccer! 

Then after all that was settled, I needed to do some laundry. I hate to say it but I wish I could throw it all in a big box and just take it to Goodwill! I LOATHE laundry, with all that I am. I dont mind washing and drying, but I would rather do any household chore than fold. Unfortunately, I have lots to do, so I couldnt put it off. I did a lot but there was no way I could finish it all today. 

Tonight I have been working on the new site design. Since I am ridiculously indecisive, I have been going back and forth on a few ideas, playing around and seeing how different things are looking. Sometimes I debate on if I would want someone else to design something for me because I get so frustrated designing for myself, but I think I would be too nit picky with someone else' design. Hopefully I will have it all figured out soon. It's great because my little ladies are such a big help to me. They throw their awesome little ideas at me all the time. Most of the time they are a little out there, but sometimes I just go with what they are thinking. I love their creative little minds!

 It's crazy late right now, and I really wanted to get a few more things done before I went to bed. So, I am off to keep working, even though I dont know how my brain functions at this hour. I will leave you with this....

My Miss El, totally passed out, upside-down in her bed, sleeping on a massive Stitch stuffed animal. I'm jealous.

Dining Room Awesomeness

I've been working pretty hard on my project but it's just not coming along as fast as I want it too. Which is normal for me with projects so I dont know why I would think I could do everything on it without updating at all. I wouldn't be blogging for a long time if I did that. So I am done with my blogging hiatus. 

The project I have been working on is my whole dining room! 

Yes, the whole thing. 

Once again, I never took a before picture of the whole dining room, because I was expecting to go project to project. Also, like I've said before, the fact that there was absolutely no color in this room drove me crazy. 

I first started with the little hutch I got and posted up a while ago. Then once that was done I moved onto my dining room table. We have had our table since we got married, and it's in pretty great condition. It's a beautiful wood, but I don't work well with things that aren't colorful! 

I decided to just start with the legs. My strongbad husband flipped the table for me, and I took off the legs. I was torn as to if I wanted to paint the top and little ledge thing on the table as well, but I will talk about that later. 

I decided to go with aqua for the legs. The same color I used on the hutch. I don't know if I would classify it as aqua, I think its more of like a robin's eggs blue, but I still like it. So I sprayed a few coats onto the legs.

Once they were dry, I went ahead and glazed them all. I really REALLY like how the glaze pops on the light color paints. It added so much texture and definition to the legs. After they dried, I assembled it all back together. Now that sounds like it was all really simple to do but it wasnt, I am a stickler for details, so the glaze had to be the exact way I wanted it (on all four separate legs). It took hours and hours. I have stated before that I am very impatient, and I didn't end up finishing this until crazy late one night, so my man was sleeping. I magically, yes magically, flipped the table to stand up tall, then slowly leaned it down onto my back.  Then I went up on my toes as high as I could so I wouldn't snap the legs off! I then very very slowly bent down at a 90 degree angle so it was totally on top of me. Then I crab walked to where it needed to be, and slowly lowered it. Craziness!

Sorry it's not the greatest picture. I'll get to that later. You can also see the little ledge that I was talking about too. I went back and forth a lot with 'do I paint it, or not'. Since I couldn't decide on that right away I went to the bench. I love this little bench, not only because it's cute, but it adds more seating at the table. So once again, flipped it and took the legs off. Then I went ahead and painted them. It was the exact same process for the legs on the bench, that I did for the table. Obviously.

There is such a difference with the glaze. Here is where I started to glaze one of the legs.

After everything was dried and done, and put together, I took a step back and realized I really like the wood on top, and I'm not going to mess with it. The legs just give the whole thing a little extra awesomeness.

So here it is, everything I have done so far in the room.

I have also done some random little projects, that I have added, and am continuing to add to the room. You can see that my dog Roxy, now has a bright orange bowl in the left corner of the room. Eventually in that corner, I am going to add a tree. I also found the cutest little tea set, so I had to add some of that. The other pieces that I havent used in the room yet, will be used later for another project for the room. How cute are these tea cups though!

You can't tell in the pictures, but there is a door on the right side of the room, which holds the air system whatnot. Its very white around that area, so clearly it needed something. I found a frame that I have had for year, thats been sitting around, and decided to fix it up. Once it's all finished it will go above the door.

I went with the orange for this as well. I was torn as to weather or not I should do the glaze. I decided I needed to, because there is so much detail around the edge, that if it was a flat orange you wouldn't notice. This isn't a great picture, and the glass is still messy. Sorry. I'm still deciding what I want to go in here. I have a feeling I am going to end up painting something! 

Other than all of this, life is going great. My man and I are now 5-6 year old soccer coaches, so we have been trying to figure out all that awesomeness. I have a feeling I will end up doing a project or two for the kids on the soccer teams. We have been busy though, with that, cleaning like CRAZY, doctors appointments, and on and on and on. So yea, sorry about my little hiatus, but I've been busy, and then it would get crazy late, and I would sit down finally and want to scream. Blogging is something I've really been enjoying, and I wont let it become a chore. So on the nights that the kids wont sleep, or I really want to spend some time with my man, or I literally cant keep my eyes open any longer to type, I'm not going to feel bad. I set out on this fun little blogging adventure to see where I would be in a year, and I am learning new things everyday. The newest thing I have learned is that I'm not going to feel horrible if I miss a blog here or there, because if it does become a chore, I will just stop. So here's to more fun projects, and hopefully soon I finish my new layout. The house is quiet, and I am officially done for the day, so it is time for me to pass out! Goodnight blogland!

Always working, but loving the outcome.

I have been working wicked hard on my newest project. It's actually several projects in one. You guys should see the furniture I am able to move. I impress myself!

I am a bit behind on it because I could only work on a couple of little things yesterday because of the weather once again. It drives me crazy when there is a gorgeous day, but I'm running around doing errands, then on the day I have 'nothing' to do it's all rainy and gross. It was really warm though, so it was extra frustrating. I learned though on past projects not to paint in high humidity. 

I am very excited, I know I will be able to get a lot more done tomorrow. Until then, I'm sorry the post have been so sort, and not filled with fantabulous pictures. I have taken lots of pictures, but I can't share them until everything is complete.

Other than that not too much is new in our house. Same old schedule of my man working, while the ladies and I work on school stuff, paint a lot, do random crafts and games, and just hang out. I do have to share though that our family has a fun new game that we all play. My mom got Little Miss this awesome One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish game for her birthday. We play it almost every day. If you have little ones I highly recommend it!

Anyway, I have been working hard the past couple of hours, and I am absolutely ready for bed! I'm really really hoping tomorrow I get a lot accomplished, so that I will know if I need any little things at the store for finishing touches. I know I will definitely be in search for a really awesome material. Cross your fingers for me that everything goes according to plan. 

Really quick before I go, I wanted to share a couple of really great paintings from the wicked awesome artist David Choe. His work is really inspiring to me right now. I love how they just seem smudged with paint, but you can clearly make out the face and normally they convey a good amount of emotion. Anyway, I really like them, and I think I will have to be doing something along the lines of this. My man always tells me how much of a dirty kid I am, because I am always covered in paint. So I really like the way these look.

I must say good night now, so I can just up bright and early (some of you who know me may laugh at that statement) and get to working!