Today I snapped a few pictures of a typical Bella...disheveled hair, her favorite boots on the wrong feet and apparently very gleeful about the entire thing. She kicked them off just long enough to use her monkey toes to climb up the entertainment center and turn her cartoons on.

I told her I was going to take her picture, so she started hamming with a vengence, I went to go get my camera...but I couldn't find it anywhere...apparently at some point I had left it within the toddler radius because as I was pilfering around looking for it she clonked up behind me in her boots, hands me my camera and goes "Here mama. Cheeshe."

It won't be long and when I lose things I can bribe her with a dollar and she'll go find them for me :) I distinctly remember my mom doing this with me about a pair of car keys....

Bathroom re-do

Before





After! (No, the paint is not darker on the right side, my picture just messed up somehow causing that weird dark line looking thing...)





Finally, I'm done! Well...almost, I still have a frame to put around the mirror...a totally awesome Idea I gleaned from ProjectCreateAHome...but for the most part, I'm done.

In a few weeks, I'm hosting a little lunch get together for ladies from my church...that really got me in the mode, I took one look at my drab, white, military housing bathroom and I knew it wouldn't do. I needed to transform it into a foofy and fabulous space for nose powdering and the like. Just one problem though, I'm broke as a joke...sigh.

I did a little brainstorming, a little blog stalking...and finally I decided that I could just use the paint leftover from my kitchen. I really wanted one of those stencils with the scalloped edge, but jeepers ya'll, those are $16.00 stencils!...I had a perfectly good oatmeal container sitting in my pantry that would suffice. Sure, not nearly as convenient, but it was free. I spotted some beautiful cottege style hand towels at Target...but yikes, I don't have a spare $40 lying around to spend on hand towels, So I bought three towels from wal-mart for $2.44 each and I sewed on my own ribbon and pom-poms. Not bad, eh? The artwork on the walls was a Goodwill find, originally the frames were a horrid shade of gold, nothing a little spray paint can't fix. A basket on the back of th commode adds a little warmth, and the window mistreatment is a scrap of fabric I had in my closet that I just kinda rigged up to the window and tied with some ribbon.

All in all, my bathroom re-do cost me a total of $17.44 which is only about a dollar more than I would have paid for the stencil!

Just another Saturday

Weekends with Tyler gone are...boring, lonely, monotonous, you get the idea but usually, I also indulge in a Saturday afternoon nap. Isabella likes to craw into bed with me after she wakes up. With her messy hair, bed-time breath and runny toddler nose she comes clamoring into the room and with a big to-do and much grunting she refuses any form of assistance and hoists herself up onto my big ole bed. Her favorite thing to do is raise my window shade and keep tabs on the neighbors...she waves to every car that goes by and points out all of the people walking their "goggies"

I like these little moments, they're nothing much, just bits of silliness, she likes to pick on me and say "No! no keeshes mama!" but if I just pretend to cry she becomes very concerned and will always say, "Oh, awww I sowwy mama!...heeere you go" and then she administers the sloppiest, slobber kiss she's got. Love it.

Naptime...

is a sacred time not to be tampered with. Generally, in my household, between the hours of 1:00-3:00 my house phone will be off the hook, so if you get a busy signal, I'm sorry, this is my sanity we're talking about here.

Today was no exception...I sipped on an icy cream soda while I covered plastic Easter eggs in bits of vintage paper out of my Vintage Paper Bundle that hubby ordered for me from paper relics...he really is something else, my Hubby.

It has officially been one month since Hubby left...only five more to go!

ApartmentTherapy




LivingEtc


LivingEtc

I adore pink, especially in kitchens. I myself have a pink kitchen, but since I am a renter I'm limited to what all I can do, I have painted my walls that beautiful aqua color that goes so well with cotton candy pink, but my cabinets are just going to have to remain the nasty wood veneer that comes sock in every military house...I've been getting tired of my set-up recently, I've arranged and re-arranged everything, but to no avail, so I've been perusing for inspiration, these pink kitchens just taste so good to my eyeballs...I especially love that funky pink fridge in the first photo.

When Tyler is on deployment I like to set little "challenges" for myself, this week I challenged myself to go three entire days without spending any money...not even a dollar for a McDonalds cheeseburger! I'm on the third day and boy, am I ansty in my pantsies...This is harder than it sounds, three days is actually longer than you would think.

I've noticed though, that I have been getting a lot more done, I have been working on my bathroom redo, and I tried a new chocolate pound cake recipe with a vanilla glaze which turned out to be so sinfully delicious that I just accidentally left it at a friend's house, the potty training has been more on the front of things too...she still jut sits on it and sings, but at least she's sitting on it now. And thanks to my mom, I learned a new trick, I learned how to improv and make my own buttermilk...awesome!

Now...if only I could muster up the oomph to tackle those mousy brown roots peeking out on top of my head....Miss Clairole is waiting patiently for me upstairs on my bathroom sink....sigh.

today....

We're enjoying the tasks at hand...

while you were showering...

I was having a little fun. I love you mommy, I really do, but you're so naive...so elementary...do you really think you can get away with a peaceful shower that easily? Did you reallythink you would get to shave your legs today? Pssh...amateur.

Oh, mommy...you make me giggle, the way you try so hard, you do your hair, you wear your lipstick, you dress me in the shnazziest of clothes, and you yourself are usually so coordinated...but mommy, who do you really think you're fooling? It's my job to keep you grounded...which is why I ensured my best of tantrums the other day, this way you wouldn't notice your fly unzipped, and your hot-pink polka dotted underwear exposed to the world. You should know, I take my job seriously, mom. You can pretend all you want, but momma...I will personally ensure that you are never going to be one of those sauve moms who have it all together...that just isn't real.

All your friends should know by now that when they drop in on you, I'll be running around in only my diaper with my latest disaster crusted into my hair, and you will be desperately chasing me in your old lady robe with the ugly Gardenias all over it...you wont have any make-up on, and your dirty underwear will be piled up on the stairs waiting for you to put it in the washer...I'm doing this for your own good mom, I'm just testing those women for you, I want to make sure they're your true friends. You should thank me, really.

And the other day? you know, the day I got really mad in the commissary? Remember it mom? I'm sure you do...I was screaming at you and arching my back out of that horrid cart seat, I hate those cart seats mom...how many hints do I need to give you?!?!...I nearly flipped backwards out of it...but wow, mom! You were really on top of your game that day...you caught me by my feet, just like I knew you would, you ever so lovingly pulled me back into the cart by my ankles...and those women in the express line who gasped in horror and then talked about you behind their hands? Yeah, those...don't worry, I sent a subliminal toddler message to their children...their day is coming, and when it does, lets hope their toddlers are doing as good of a job training them for W.C.S. (worst case scenerio) as well as I am training you.

As for the entire bottle of shampoo with traces of Crest toothpaste that I dumped into my brand new rain boots...I know you'll figure it out, mom, that's why I love you so much.


P.S. Your plans to get rid of cable? dumbest idea ever. Sorry, just trying to look out for you, mom.