Ideas FLYING AROUND!

My brain is always full of fun and exciting ideas for our home. And even though its Christmas time it doesn't stop my imagination.
Sadly my most recent ideas are not sparked out of fun, they are out of  :( GRRR ARG necessity!

We have been super lucky so far in our house, no real issues just little things here and there... Until now :(
WE have a LEAK!! We've had some issues with the down spouts in  the past but NOW its hard core! IE Standing water in the window well, which leads to water in the basement.

Today is the day that something had to be done, with me sitting at work and TOTALLY useless I sit and plan out a mood board for our one day finished basement!
My poor hubby wife gets stressed and PLANS out rooms! :D

 AND 

Better...it's Christmas time!

I keep thinking I'm gonna get better at blogging then I don't!! 

So much has been going on I have a million things to blog about but it all seems so boring!! 

I'm putting myself to the fire and will try my best to get back into it!! I have been doing projects around the house and with Christmas just around the corner I want to share my home and ideas!!

This year "Santa" was not in the mood for Christmas. A great friend at work put up his usb Christmas tree the day after Halloween. I fought it for a day and then surrendered!!! I have a hard time getting into the spirt so thought the extra month with lights might help!!

I carried on and got my Christmas lists written and Amazon carts ready!! 

Now it is officially Christmas time and my shopping is done. The house is decorated, and now it's time to enjoy the season!!!

I try not to be too much of s trend follower, however I love having the elf come to visit and move around every night. He doesn't really go to the North Pole to report to Santa. He is just another spirt of Christmas in our home!!

Boys room 5 (reveal)

So I took these photos before I painted the dresser so sorry it isn't a REAL reveal, it is only a kinda one! However I don't know when I will actually take up to date photos and I wanted to get it posted!

DRUM ROLLL!!!!

My big boys beds!!! 

The painting above Ewan's bed is one that I bought a few days after I found out I was gonna have Liam! 

 I have another Christ picture above Liam's dresser

 

Here are the beds side by side! 

FINAL
Before and AFTER

Here is the breakdown of the steps

Plan 1

 

Quilt and Paint 2

Frames 3

Touch up becomes a project and 4b!

 

AND one more TIME! 

  

Boy room 4b!!

I got pain happy! I thought the handles looked blah! So I took them off and spray painted them to match Evans headboard!!

Boys room 4 (Touch up becomes a project)

I am getting closer and closer to the end! !! And I needed to touch up a few bits of paint. I got a little container of paint and this is what happened!!

FYI that is the back of the dresser Ewan wanted to help! 

Ok the before 

and after

I only did one coat of paint to try and keep the grain of the wood!! 

Not a huge transformation but so beautiful!!! And fun!

Seasons

I have never really been a fan of winter. It's COLD!!! I am always cold, between low blood pressure and a lack of exercise I'm cold all the time. 

Today while driving my Liam to school it was starting to drizzle. My two boys were ecstatic!!! "It's snowing mom!!!" 

It changed my thoughts! If we all could enjoy the beautiful snow and seasons I get to enjoy where I live!!!

It's hard to see in the pic but look at the snow fakes falling down on find area above the garage!!! 

Boy Room 3 (Frames)

I will always remember the dress I came home from the hospital in. Not in the way that I remember that day, but I have a sweet picture of me in my blue and white dress that my daddy bought for me to come home in.  When I was little I used to dress my little cabbage patch doll in that dress. It was very meaningful to me that my dad bought the dress and I have treasured it for many years. 

I decided that I wanted my kids to have the same opportunities I have been able to have so their hospital clothes were very important to me.  Shortly after I found out that my first (Liam) was a boy I went shopping. I knew I wanted real clothes (as in not a sleeper). I found the perfect blue mickey mouse jumper.  And shoes! You can't leave the hospital without shoes! :D Then I found these on pintrest! Yes it is an addiction! 

 

I knew that this was something I was gonna need for my kids. So i've had the idea in my head for along time, but no action had been taken.  

Then with my second (Ewan) sadly second kids get the short end of the stick.  A few days before he was born I knew I needed to get him his own special outfit and as luck would have it I found a perfect Red Mickey shirt with cute little TINY pants! Once again he needed shoes too.  

I've had the closes in the boys dresser and finally decided about a 4 months ago that I wanted to get them done before I lost them. I found a cheap pair of shadow boxes and bought them. I also printed a few photos to put in the frames as well.   

Stuck them in the frames and left them.  They sat behind the boys closet for a while then I decided to add another project. OF COURSE before I finished the first. 

Chris was baptized as a baby in the catholic church in this sweet little jumper that his great grandma sharp made for him.  She made the jumper, shirt and amazingly beautiful blanket! 

Both of our boys where then baptized in this sweet outfit. I wanted to make sure it is safe since it is such an amazing piece of artwork. 

On this one I opted to not go for the cheap frame since I knew i wanted it to fit the whole blanket as well. I also plan to put images of my 3 boys in this beautiful frame at the top.

Once I got that done it motivated me to hang the other frames.

I still need to finish the last touches on them but I think it looks pretty good. 

What do you think?

Playroom project 1 (Planning)

I started this post a few months ago.. and WOW things change! :D

August 2015
I am a project person! ;) if you can't tell. I always have new ideas and projects, the follow through however isn't the best.
My goal for this fall is to get our boys playroom finished. Our basement is unfinished and the basement is COLD!! 
I've given Chris a few parts that I need him to complete 
1: duct work 
2: electrical
3: framing
4:drywall
So nothing big right!!! ;) 
Once that part is done we will get it painted carpeted and decorated! 
I have the perfect picture in my mind of what I want it to be when all is done!
My goal is that for New Years when we have our friends all together we will have a place for all the kids to play that is safe and warm!!

NOW: October 22, 2015
I really wanted to finish the basement bedroom this year, as you can see above.  However after looking into all the details I learned something... IT IS HARD, EXPENSIVE, and slightly Silly. We want to get the whole place done in a few years, however deciding to do one single room 10 ft x13 ft, it was gonna be a whole bunch of work and honestly I think when we decide to do the basement we should do it all at ONCE!!! Looking at HVAC, Electrical and framing, it seems its better to do it all at one time, and honestly once you have done that, might as well do the sheet rock.  So pretty much, if you give a mouse a cookie....

    

We decided we wanted to get Liam a TV for his birthday or Christmas. 

YES YOU CAN TELL ME HOW I FAIL AS A PARENT! but hey! they are my kids and I get to choose how to raise them :) 

I also wanted to limit the size of the playroom.  Last week I spent my weekend cleaning up the playroom, and decided they don't need that much space, and by limiting the space a small space heater will do a great job of keeping it warm for them. 

So I made a cute mood board, and this one is still a work in process, but here it is for now. 

As you can see this was before I decided to NOT finish. So the paint/carpet will be a work in progress! 

Age 7 and glasses?

IAt age 7 there's nothing I wanted more than to be just like my mom and dad which meant glasses! To me it was the coolest thing since well sliced bread or maybe the Internet or how about Twitter ... but whatever I wanted glasses.  So 20 years later when my sweet seven-year-old comes to mom and says I'm having trouble reading or seeing you take another glance thinking maybe not maybe you don't need glasses! THEN  the first second grade teacher tells you we think your son might need glasses. Oh Boy!  Here we go let's see what happens I making appointments (as luck would have it, we knew someone, my super awesome in-laws neighbor was the receptionist (Say that five times fast.) no wait don't! She got us in a matter of two days!

We went in and met with the doctor wow he is amazing he checked his eyes went through it all and before the machines even came out, he let me know glasses were not needed but that being said we had an appointment so he did all the tests we checked far away close up everything in between.    So remember back to me yet I don't think I really need glasses, I know I wanted them really really bad because well like I said it's the Twitter so well hindsight!

However back to my sweet little Liam the doctor worked with him talk to him explain what was going on with his eye He had a cool plastic one which  took apart and I put it back together.
Glasses were not necessary however with Liam's current reading situation they might be a benefit so I decided to go online

As I said before I'm not compensated in any way shape or form for my blogs your post at this point however Zenni came through for us the doctor said that he had a .75% prescription that could be benefited by some reading glasses just to help focus.  I decided to buy him some found their least expensive $6.95 glasses come on how can you resist that price so I ordered them and

Here they are they came in the mail and Liam loves them
"cool factor without the money/need of having glasses all the time I'm so ecstatic for his new little experience!"

 He can't wait to take him to school which may be a problem in and of itself but we'll see how that goes. I'm hoping it'll help with his reading however regardless spending 10 bucks on a kid to have a fun new maybe toy maybe necessity is well worth it's weight in gold

I'm super excited to see this little boy grow up! and check out his style!!

Boys room 2 (quilt and paint)

So I had a big post about Ewans quilt but forgot to post about Liams! So here are some of the pics I took of Liams quilt!

Also hand in had with that is painting the bed.

Ewan had to help and was amazing as always!

 

Primed. I used this, 

and then ran out of the little quart I got. My local HD didnt have the gallon and then I had to go with something different.  I used this (kilz)for the rest.   

TOTALLY use the Zinsserand not the second. 

I used oil based primer, and would totally recommended it.  With the help if the amazing Organizing Jen! 

I also found somewhere online that you CAN use Oil Based Primmer with Water based paint, however do NOT do the opposite.  

Ever since we helped my inlaws paint last year we are HOOKED on Sherwin Williams paint!

To get the perfect color Ewan and I took a fun trip to Ikea, and got a few shelf's then I went into our local Sherwin store and they found a match for me.  I now plan to put those shelf's in the play room. One room at a time I'm taking over my house and making it OUR HOME! 

The sweet worker was very worried about the darkness of my choice, he was worried it would be too dark.  However its on a bed. on a wall, yes I think it would be way too dark, but perfect for my little boys bed!

The paint went on like butter and I will also now and FOREVER recommend it!

For a pop of color I got 2 cans of spray paint, one red and one blue they were to match the back of each of the boys quilts.  I love the pop!

My favorite memory from this experience will be when I picked up Liam from school and brought him home he saw the bed and said. "Mom, I wanted the WHOLE THING RED!" I told him that was gonna be too much so we need to keep some brown.  He was NOT happy!! "Can we sometime paint it all red?" I told him we will see how the brown goes and then decide!  I so love my boys at this age!

And my favorites!  BEFORE AND AFTER! 

It's quite amazing what a coat of paint can do!