Growing Up!

OK, that didn't happen.

See the seat is still down.... :( 

Practice makes perfect though, right?

We did take down the crib railing, turning it into a toddler bed though. 

And for that Mom was rewarded with a toddler size mess in the morning. See her partner in crime? Yea. 

As soon as we can afford to get a new mattress for the bottom bunk Evelyn will get to move into a really big bed! To me that means under bed storage!!! Yippee!!!

One Step At A Time

I have been working all day at being a mom and doing Scentsy and working all night at my "real" job, Blockbuster, and you know what?  It was time for something for me. 

This is a peak at my new comforter that I found on clearance at Target. :) 

There is some major moving, cleaning, and painting going on in our master bedroom but I hope to have finished results soon!

History:

Room Layout 

Before Photos

New Paint Color

Favorites: Tips

As always there are a million and one things out there that I just can not believe I did not know before. They seem so obvious and yet never crossed my mind.

Real Simple suggests using seam ripper to clean out your vacuum roller! 

From Apartment Therapy comes the idea to use a rubber band on stripped screws! Huh!

Paige Russel uses binder clips to keep all your cords handy!

Now this last one comes from current catalog but for $7 I think it would be an easy enough knock off. Soda bottle = drip catcher!!! Amazing!

What great in expensive tips. I will definitely be implementing some of these into my day to day life....What's that vacuum? Yes the seam ripper and I are coming right along! :) 

Berry Picking

There are a lot of things that don't do well on their own outside in Alaska and it can be really discouraging to search though lists of plants praying that you find something at least a Zone 4 but preferably a 3 so it will actually last through that one weird cold snap, but gooseberry andraspberry make that list! They are super hardy and it's almost more of a problem to try to get them not to grow! they are like weeds! Delicious weeds:) 

Look at all that purple gooseberry goodness!

And raspberries are peeking out of every corner!

These guys LOVE the end of summer when we get to eat every berry in sight.

They are so good it's almost impossible to get them to look at the camera. You can tell little Evelyn is really enjoying them. 

Anberlynn can't eat them fat enough. 

But Evelyn thinks each bite needs to go through and inspection first!

But after they are cleared there's no escape! In the mouth they go. 

I am already missing Summer as it comes to an end but there's not much better than picking ripe fruit from your own backyard. The apples will be ready soon....hmmm.... I'm thinking pie!

Savoring Summer

 Summer is turning quickly into Fall here in Alaska.

The Fuchsia blooms are dropping.

The strawberry leaves are turning....

And everyday that we have that is not rainy is spent outside.

There is so much that needs to be done. 

But it will have to wait for another day.

Summer is only in Alaska for one beautifully brief moment. 

Favorites: Organization

It's no secret that I LOVE Pinterest and more than it is that I struggle with organization.  My absolute favorite thing to pin on Pinterest? Organization ideas.  

There are things out there that may come second nature for all of you but I am telling you that some of this stuff has rocked my world! 

Store your sheets in their own pillow cases? Say WHAT!!!! Brilliant Martha Stewart.

Bread bag twists to label cords!!! What a life saver!!!  Source

More Martha Stewart: No-slip dishtowels!!! Velcro one each end of the towel, DONE! Why did I not think of this?

Toe-kick drawers? Is this not a completely awesome idea! I vote it is!!!  thekitchn has a great looking tutorial on how to pull it all off!

And check out his great over head storage from Family Handy Man!!!  There's at tutorial on this one too!!!

*sigh* Just add all that to my never ending To-Do list! 

Sky Blue # 3

I have been working so much on cleaning, my "real" job, and selling Scentsy that I haven't gotten to put my room back together since we've painted it!  Hopefully I will get that together this weekend.  In the mean time here's a  swatch of the color we painted the room - or pretty darn near it. 

Source

The paint I used was from Valspar but I got it with a bunch of other paint I got for a really screaming deal and it reads MISTINT across the top but I have the paper swatch for Sky Blue 3 and if it wasn't for the shadow you shouldn't know there was a swatch on the wall.  My favorite part is that even though this is light blue it covered over that dark purple like it was nothing. UH-MAZING!!! This paint even made fall in love with the dark wood trim and furniture that I was bound and determined to sell! If you have dark wood and you hate it, give this stuff a shot! It's a miracle worker!!! 

Pretty pictures coming soon! 

Revamped $20 Sofa Table

Remember the old, worn out table I picked up at Salvation Army for $20 a while back?

Let me refresh your memory:

Well, I gave it a couple coats of O.R.B. and now here it is, good as new.

I decided that I liked it better under the clock on my wall than behind the couch. I lost a lot of book space when I moved the book shelf into the girls room and designated the bottom shelves to them so this was a good solution.  Plus my 31 Gifts basket appreciates not being mauled my toddles everyday.

I love the flowers fresh from the garden and the light that comes through the table and onto the wall. 

Protect Your Eyes! Shield Your Children!!!

OK, I gave you all fair warning about my before pics of my bedroom yesterday so here it goes: 

Here is our dysfunctional closet. The doors are never shut because there's never enough room in them.

The solution: We took SEVEN garbage bags of clothes to the clothing exchange!!! Whoot whoot!!!  Also the T-shirt-rug-in-the-works has been a great way to talk the hubby into ditching his old and worn out shirts. You would not believe how attached his is to his "favorite" shirts.

The plan is to get rid of the armoire and replace the doors with curtains. 

Another reason that it looked so awful is that the one door had to be off b/c of the armoire that blocked one side. It is my hubby's space. He decorated it with t shirt shreds (to protect the wood) and a various assortment of rocks pretty rocks.

OK, this is the WORST area. It has been driving me nuts! I didn't grow up in Alaska and the whole 24 hours of daylight thing doesn't really rock my world at three a.m. So I bought blackout curtains. They were an clearance. Yea, right? No, they ended up being just like an inch too small. Sunlight bouncing off all of that white and yellow is just about as bad as not having them.  We were using whatever dense material we had at the time to fill in the cracks. 

Solution: I turned the curtains sideways, sewed them together and then cut hem in half. Does that make sense? Basically I now have 2 properly wide curtains that are short instead of 2 long skinny curtains. 

I know you are all just in LOVE with my kennel set up we have going on there. It just kind of evolved. The dogs feel safer in their kennels and Indiana has a weird stomach so the kennel was a better solution thatn waking up to puke in your shoes, but it was time they moved out of the bedroom!

Solution: Down in the garage they went!

There's a nice look inside of the kennels for ya. You can see the wonderful pile of JUNK that just gets piled up there. and the plastic the hubs rigged up to cover the floor in case of accidents. SO GLAD THEY'RE GONE!!!!! Oh, and don't miss out on the tie dyed sheets we have going on. 

This is my "area" in the bedroom. Kind of organized, but the book shelf itself is just not the right size for the space and even though it is sorted roughly by color it still looks messy.

And, for the last hurrah, my basic builder grade light cover. With a light out none the less. 

OK, anyone have any vision left?  I'll give you a while to heal from that. 

Thankfully most of those problems have been completely remedied. Including the wall color, which while not mentioned, should have been pretty obvious.  Never letting the hubs pick out paint color EVER again!!! 

Reality

Well, I was going to make it all pretty for you but then I realized that you know, this blog is not here for me to make my house look like a perfectly staged home that makes my readers want to have a home that "looks like that" because truth is that 98% of the time mine doesn't. It looks like this:

 Yep, that's my beautiful newly painted dresser covered in clothes and my rug that is refusing to lay flat at the moment. The clothes are the product of a clothing exchange that my church holds once a year right before school starts. I think it's a wonderful idea. Kids get the clothes they need and parents don't have to empty out their pocket books every fall.  

Rigth now my dresser is sitting up stairs clutter free and beautiful, well it is now that I wiped off all the chocolate milk my kids spilled on it and the scraped paint from when my husband was moving furniture and lets not even talk about hew muddy finger prints.....You see my point? I LIVE in my home. Everyday. So if you are getting discouraged thinking that your home should look like a magazine just remember everyone else's looks like yours too. 

Thanks for listening to the rant, I think I needed to tell myself just as much as I liked sharing it with you, and if you think this is bad you should probably avert your eyes when I share the before pictures from my bedroom :)

BTW Project breakdown:

Dresser: Found free on the road

Primer: Free, got it from the dump

Paint: Free from the dump as well

Total Cost: 0

A Peek

Remember this dresser I got for free a few weeks ago? 

While the faux wood look is near and dear to my heart (sarcasm dripping) I like it better like this:

Ah....9, count them NINE drawers of crisp white storage!!!! 

As soon as my living room has recovered from a recent laundry spree I'll stage it and make it look all pretty for ya ;) 

"Blue" Print

I have BIG (in fact maybe too big) plans for my bedroom makeover. The main feature and biggest cost being a built in wall/headboard. My little brother works at Lowe's in the custom cabinetry department. He's like a mad scientist when it comes to measurements and stuff so I sent him this:

Good luck figuring it out Bro! I am so excited to start saving my pennies to build something like this!

In other news I am actually working on stuff, just so much at the same time that it's taking a bit to actually get anything actually done. So, a few more fluffy posts like this and then hopefully I will have several juicy posts full of my curbside pickup dresser turned sofa table, my rags to rug, and everything else I'm backed up on. 

I also want to thank you all for reading and commenting. I am not the kind of person who really finishes if you know what I mean and you all have given me a great reason to not only finish but to take it all the way to staging! I am so excited to hear everything you say. It fuels me and drives me to do better. 

Thank you all :)

Another Find

Boy, I'm telling you that I am finding stuff faster than I can work on it. I need to go on a finding strike and work on a refinishing stretch!!!  But really? Could you pass this up for free?

It is laminate but no one will be able to tell by the time I'm done with it!  It is going to look A-mazing with a coat of paint! 

Peek

I know I am always giving you guys peeks of things and I swear I am working on all of them. This project in particular I have been working on for over a year now, since before I started blogging! I don't have any "before" pictures but you may have seen it making peeks at you in a few other posts. Today I distressed part of it and then laid on the glaze. 

I have loved this hardware from day one. I found this baby on craigslist for $75 and you couldn't talk me into selling it!  I still have some painting to do but even in it's unfinished state it puts the rest of my living room to shame. There are large parts of it that still only have primer on it and still people remark to me on how beautiful a piece it is. 

My Husband Does It Again!!!

I found THE most PERFECT desk for my up coming master bedroom makeover!!! It was only $10 and my awesome husband drove over and picked it up for me in the rain! I love him!

Image from Craigslist

It has awesome old school hardware, plenty of drawer space for storage and it doesn't even need a paint job! Can't beat that, unless I had found it for free of course. 

I love FREE

I have been asking my hubby to stop by the dump ever so often to see if they have any primer in and so far the answer is no.  :(   

I can wait though- I can't afford not to. 

Here is what he did bring home though:

SWEET!

Along with these 8 big bags of fertilizer he also brought home a huge box of week killer and specialty fertilizers, like for trees and tomatoes.

Free is always good and this time it's my lawn that will be thanking him.

I'm Outta Here!!!

Today I am leaving for a second break from Alaska! I will be attending the Scentsy Convention in Fort Worth, Texas.I am so excited to be able to attend such an event. The ladies I work with here are a hoot and a half, I know we will have a blast! 

I will only be gone for a few days and this time I think I will have enough projects spread out while I am gone.  I would absolutely love it if I had a way to up date you while on my trip but $ doesn't allow for electronics like that right now. In the mean time....

Products from the Spring/Summer Catalog  are 10% OFF for the month of August!!!!!

If you are not familiar with Scentsy they are a company that sells wickless candles. You put wax cubes in the top of a warmer and a light bulb melts it from below. Safe and Simple and Beautiful. They come in all kids of sizes and designs.

They also make these ADORABLE stuffed animals called "Buddies." They have a zipper in the back where you stuff a little scent pack.  These are great for children to have a constant comforting smell even in new situations. They also make a lamb, an elephant, a frog, a pig and a monkey. See them all here.

Other things they make include scented tins, car candles, room sprays, and scented foaming hand sanitizer for on the go!

 

 

One last thing about Scentsy is that every year they pick a new cause to support. They make a warmer and designate it's proceeds to the cause. This years warmer is called "Piece by Piece" and is in support of Autism. You can lean more about it here.

So if you are getting low on something, need a replacement or just some retail therapy head over to my site petros.scentsy.us  and save yourself some $$$ in August!