House of Grace: Zipcoverz Review and Giveaway

I love this blog! She has tons of great ideas, Shaklee looks like something I need to get my hands on, and she has an awesome giveaway! Check it out :)

House of Grace: Zipcoverz Review and Giveaway: " A couple of months ago a I won a Camera Strap from Zipcoverz. by Valerie who blogs at The Crafters File Box. This is what I..."

Hello.... is there anyone still there?

Sorry blog, I did not forget about you I promise.... I have no excuses as to why I have neglected you, but I am here now and I hope you will have me back? :)

Wow, where do I begin? We have had so much wonderful stuff happen the past month or so! So I will for-warn you that this blog will be all over the place so bare with me. First, we celebrated #2's birthday! He is a whopping 8 yrs old. As you all know his entrance to the world was a little unique and every birthday is a little extra special for all of us. We had a small family celebration with cake, Nerf guns galore, and of course an ER visit, cause honestly in this family what is a special occasion without someone getting sick. If you know us well then you are laughing right now cause it's SO TRUE!! #2 was a total sweetheart about having to spend most of his birthday in the er with his baby brother. He still had a great day complete with a yummy G. I. Joe chocolate/vanilla cake. We finished the evening off with #3 asleep in mom & dad's bed, and the rest of us had an epic Nerf battle! It was mom & dad vs. #1 & #2. I highly recommend having one, it boosts family time, exercising, and tons of laughs. I was sweating when it was all over and will cherish that day forever.

Our arsenal

After his birthday things were going well, #3 was feeling better and it was back to the daily grind. So I was at the grocery store when my friends husband called, he works with my hubby & his wife & I have become good friends. She was at the DR. for a prenatal check up with their little 2 yr old when the DR's decided to send her to Labor & Delivery! Her hubby was stuck at home and needed a ride asap! It was so exciting, I made a mad dash to the checkout and drove as fast as I legally could. He got to the hospital just in time. I grabbed the little one and we headed to Target. Of course we went shopping! Not even 20 mins after we left the hospital, I got the phone call that they were taking her into the OR for a C-Section. Thankfully mommy and new baby were just fine. Happy Birthday Baby!!

Proud Mommy & her perfect little girl

Just so you know life around here is never boring! It's spring time so that means it's Spring Baseball Season! All 3 are playing again this season and we started in Feb with the practices and the season started in early March. I forgot how much I missed being at the ball park with my family. The boys all have great coaches and wonderful teamates.  

Almost done I promise LOL! As you probably know the beginning of the year brings lots of birthdays to our household.... #3 celebrated his 6th birthday with his first big party at the local Jump Zone. He was really excited about having his birthday there, and was even more excited about the blow up chair he gets to sit in. He had a few friends come and bounce the day away. We are so lucky that we have great friends, #3 got tons of gifts and really had the best birthday party. He got more Nerf guns, so I see another epic Nerf battle in our future! So after the birthday party we headed home to open all the boxes and play with everything. Like I said what is a special occasion without someone getting sick..... this time it was me. I started to feel bad after the party but honestly did not think anything of it. It was not until late that night that I realized it was not getting better it was getting worse. So the hubby took me to the ER. It all happened kind of quickly but it was my appendix, so they admitted me and operated a few hours later. It's now almost 2 weeks later and I am feeling good. 

Our lives are always exciting and wonderful! It's never boring and you have to be ready for the unexpected but I would not have it any other way!!

Just a spoonful of paint.....

I think it's about time I show you just how much a little paint can transform a space. When we bought this house most of the rooms were painted an awful flat builders grade paint.... boring. So we grabbed a million different paint swatches and began the process of choosing the colors for each room. I have heard that it can be a painstaking process with the possibility of a few marital spats. Somehow we managed to avoid that! It was like the skies parted, the angels sung, and he just agreed with every paint choice I had.... no it was really an easy process for us. We both completely agreed on all the colors. So then began the painting process, that was when the difficulty came into play. I knew it was too easy, luckily we make a great team and can express when the other is being a pain in the butt! It reminds me of my favorite movie quote.....

"Well that's what we do, we fight... You tell me when I am being an arrogant son of a bitch and I tell you when you are a pain in the ass. Which you are, 99% of the time. I'm not afraid to hurt your feelings. You have like a 2 second rebound rate, then you're back doing the next pain-in-the-ass thing. " Hee Hee! It's so true!

~Office~

 So first was the paint color for his office/man cave. That was a color that I picked out for him as a little surprise.....                                                         

  Before

 

After

Did you know that Glidden has official NFL paint colors? Well I picked up Cincinnati Bengal Orange as we are HUGE Bengal fans. Let me say that you need sunglasses the room is very bright but with all of his manly items in there now, it looks good. 

~Dining Room~

For this room I had this vision of dark navy walls on the upper half, chair rail, and the lower half would be white with boxes (I think they are called picture boxes?). Then we worried that navy blue would be too dark and neither one of us had a clue on how to do the picture boxes. I was not following all the great blogs that I follow now and did not have the information on how to do it. Thankfully I have many different ways to do it and may attempt it in the future! The paint was a swatch from Walmart that we had matched at Home Depot. It was called Dusty Indigo and it's Behr paint.

Before

After

~Kitchen~

Then came the room I was most excited about, my new kitchen! See we have never had such a nice kitchen as we have mostly lived in the ghetto navy housing, or apartments both of which were built circa 1940. Of course I fell in love with this kitchen that had newer cabinets, nice tile floors, and NO linoleum! The color we choose for the kitchen is Behr Cherry Cobbler (yum right). Let me just say we learned a lot painting that kitchen...... like use paint with primer for the darker colors, and don't leave the tape on too long! 

Before

After

P.S. I am so in love with my new appliances! 

~Living Room~

The living room/video game area/family hangout/party central is a big room and was going to need a neutral color that would make it pop in a good way. So that meant no bright yellow or purple, I know I was disappointed too! Doesn't bright yellow just go with all the other Bold colors in the house? Any who.... we picked Toffee Crunch by Behr (are you seeing a Behr trend? Yup I am in love with Behr) and at first we wondered if it was too dark but we soon feel in love. I absolutely love the color in this room and really would paint everything this color but then it would probably be too much. So we just painting the living room, and followed into the eat in area. I think it goes well with the Cherry Cobbler and the names of the paint are super yummy. 

Before(aren't my models cute)

After

~Master Bedroom~

This room took the longest because by the time we finished painting all of the above and the not pictured entryway/hallway we were burned out on painting. Mind you our arms looked amazing and very toned! So just this past week we finally got around to our room. The color we picked was called Comforting by Behr. It made a huge difference. The room was one of only 3 in this house that were actually painted. It was a nice color but way to dark for what we wanted in our room. I mean between the dark furniture and the dark curtains we felt like it was sort of a black hole that you never wanted to be in. So we lightened the room up a lot and did it for very little money. I was able to keep the furniture, the lamps, and curtains so that was awesome. 

Before (looks darker in person)

 After

So there you have it. Some awesome ways that paint can transform a room. Also take note that most of our paint colors are food names Cherry Cobbler, Toffee Crunch, Baked Scone(hallway/entry way) and Toasted Wheat (master bathroom). What can I say we LOVE food! Thanks for checking out my paint choices and make sure to follow me :) My life as a wild animal trainer is never boring and I have tons of ideas for this new year. 

I am linking this to The Nester she has a wonderful website!

Bathroom remodel..... with a side of blood

So when I last left off we were talking about the bathroom remodel..... I was going to force my husband against his will try to get my husband on board with a cheap remodel. He was really excited about it and loved the idea! So we started with the vanity.......

Remember this

We sanded it down and started painting it black. Immediately I could see the vision in my head coming to life!! 

 Then we moved onto the walls. Our walls were an off white builders grade flat paint that was boring. So we picked a Behr paint called Toasted Wheat. I love this color! It's warm and fun. Do any of you have textured walls? We have them EVERYWHERE and they are super fun to paint...... Oh well, the color really makes the bathroom look so pretty!

I apologize for the cell phone picture. My camera was hidden in the remodel mess.

So we got most of the painting done and it was time to move the gigantic mirror. I thought about just getting a frame for the mirror but it was a real eye sore and the mirror frame was really expensive. Too expensive for my taste. What can I say, I am cheap! Let me just say I wish I would have bought the mirror frame. So as my husband and I started to move the mirror, it was coming off the last little clip and CRASH! 

Those things are not tempered, you MUST wear gloves, and you know what... just pay a professional to remove it cause then you can avoid this....

Notice the pictures above show a jagged edge and a huge piece over the faucet?? Yeah that came down on the hubby's finger and took most of the skin off of his fingers. Nothing like seeing bone to make your Saturday afternoon more interesting. Thankfully he still has his fingers and they actually work! Neither one of us was wearing gloves (dumb mistake).  We both learned a lesson and will never do that again!

But all the hardwork, sweat, and blood was worth it cause the bathroom looks amazing! We still have some finishing touches but the hubby has to heal a little more before we do the lighting. Picture a black chandelier over the tub and these puppies over the mirrors!

They look more brown here but they are darker in person.

Here is the vanity and new mirrors. More pictures to come when we get the lighting finished!!

Cabin fever???

Maybe it's because of Christmas break, or the winter dreary months, or maybe it's cause of the New Year...... but I am dying to redo my bathroom! Of course I want it to look like this.....

In order to make it look like that, it's going to take a lot of money, a lot of money that I do not want to spend at this point. So I have been stalking the DIY network and coming up with different ways to remodel on the cheap. We do not really like our vanity, and will eventually replace it, but it will work for now. So I am thinking of painting it black, but then what color do I paint the walls? Light khaki, White, Tan? I want to be able to make it look romantic, elegant, and classy. I do not want the bathroom to be all black and white and would love to pull some warmer colors in. I am just wondering if it will look good with a black vanity? Yikes, I am all over the place. We are also going to replace the lights, and either frame the mirror or get new mirrors already in frames! 

This is what we are working with.....

Don't mind the mismatched drawer, it was a mess up with the sellers that we had to get fixed.

Oh I forgot curtains too! So any input is greatly appreciated! Hopefully I can figure it all out, get the hubby on board and have a redone bathroom in a few weeks! 

Totally Rad Time!

I am 30!! Unlike most people I know I welcomed 30 with open arms. I was giddy, excited, and fully ready to take on my 30's! Little did I know, my hubby and amazing friends were working behind the scenes to throw me a surprise 80's themed birthday party. They all worked extremely hard at keeping the secret, getting the decorations, and making it a memorable event. Then there was a little oops and someone told me, to their defense they did not know it was a surprise. I was surprised to say the least! I really had no clue, I was under the impression that my hubby was taking me away for the weekend. How wonderful it felt to know how much my hubby and friends loved me to do all of this. So now I know, & so the excitement was building and the costume was being figured out. My friends and I giggled like school girls over the costume details and the upcoming party. Finally the night came and I got dressed up. I crimped my hair, pulled out the hot pink & turquoise eye shadow and turned back time. My hubby went as Miami Vice and I wore a hot pink & black dress. My friends started showing up and wow! The costumes we awesome. Here are a few pictures.

Slash & his groupie

Aqua Net at it's best!

Miami Vice

Rock stars! (You can't really tell but the rocker has Blue Hair!)

Like Oh My Gosh!

A group shot!

Just the girls! (My wonderful friends!)

Michael Jackson made an appearance!

So did R2-D2!!

My strawberry shortcake cake!

We danced, ate yummy food, laughed, talked about the 80's and so much more. They got me a Strawberry Shortcake cake and even got presents! I really felt like a kid again with some of the gifts! It was a birthday to remember with my friends who have become my family. We partied til midnight then we rang in the New Year! I cannot wait to do it again! 

P.S. I got New Kids on the Block trading cards!

Time to play catch up!

It's been a little while since I have blogged.... life kind of got in the way! So let's back up and talk Christmas!! I absolutely love the holidays and love decorating for it even more. I follow the Thrifty Decor Chick 's blog and when I looked at her Christmas section I knew what I wanted to do around my house. She has these beautiful apothecary jars that are filled with trinkets. So I put my own spin on it!

I looked around my house and I could see the vision of how I wanted my house to look. So I set out in late October and shopped. Any time I had a great coupon I headed to some of my favorite stores and slowly stocked up. By December 1st my house was coming together and I must say it looked pretty good.

With it being our first Christmas in our new house, I wanted to make the outside look just as good as the inside...... but I had a little problem...... I was not allowed to use the ladder. Well, my husband made me promise not to use the ladder while he was working because of the last time I tried to use it. Picture a person stuck between the rungs while being overcome by this metal beast, while laughing so hard I could hardly stand up. So my husband being so sweet and caring said that I would probably break something if I was to be left alone with the ladder and he did not want me in traction for the holidays. So I had to come up with something for the front porch. Again I went to the Thrifty Decor Chick for inspiration. She had garland on her front porch and I thought that it looked beautiful. I just wanted to put my own twist on it. So I got 2 little trees, 1 6ft tree, garland, ribbon, and shatterproof ornaments. I sat down in the living room and started decorating! This is what I came up with........

It was really easy to make the garland. I bought 4 packages of garland at the local craft store. Then I wrapped two strands around each other to make it look fuller. Next, I fluffed it, wrapped lights, and ribbon around the garland. Last I took 3 shatterproof ornaments and put them on a zip tie. I then zip tied them to the garland, fluffed a little more and hung it around the door. Viola! It looked very good. Then I realized a little problem back inside the house. Where will I hang the stocking? YIKES No mantel or staircase so what is a girl to do??? Yep, I turned my breakfast bar into a mantel, added more garland and BAM! 

Once I was done with all my decor I realized that Santa needed help wrapping presents for Christmas morning! So I moved on to make sure every thing was ready for Christmas morning with 3 awesome kids. This is what it looked like after Santa came.......

I feel so very lucky to have a wonderful family to spend Christmas with and a beautiful home to celebrate in! I hope you all had a great holiday season!