Friday Faves- What I Want Edition

Today I'll be sharing 'Just A Little' rambling assortment of my wants, wishes, and desires lately.

    

#1 Tombow Dual Brush Pen: I've been trying my hand at lettering things lately. Mostly for fun, although I decided to add a few prints to my Etsy shop to see if there was any outside interest in them.  Right now I have this Faber-Castell Pitt Brush pen, and it's ok, but I don't feel like it is super fluid and can't get the downstrokes as thick as I would like. I've been reading blogs and reviews and the Tombow seems to be a pretty well liked choice. I've yet to pick one up, mostly due to the fact that none of my local craft supply stores sell this brand. I need to bite the bullet and just order one online already!

Here's a peek at some of my current practice:

'

Switching gears to a fashion desire:

Spot the common item in these cute outfits

 

Did you figure it out? 

#2 Converse - I know these are nothing new, and possibly I'm just being influenced by the current trendiness of them, but I'm pretty sure I NEED some in my life. Soon. 

As I get older I am finding the need to be pickier about the shoes I wear. I need support, I need function. But I still need cute! (What gal doesn't?)

I tend to wear pretty comfortable, yet polished looking outfits on the daily.

 I would wear any and all of the above outfits any day of the week.

I love to be comfy,

 but I just don't feel my best when I'm wearing yoga pants and a frumpy t-shirt all day. 

Therefore, regular sneakers are in my closet for  workouts and yardwork only. 

I wear flats or sandals all. the.time. but I've been finding a need to wear something casual on my feet without wearing actual tennis shoes....

Enter my desire for some converse kicks. 

I'm thinking white? But my oh my how I love grey, too.

Decisions!

(BTW, love the blogs of those last two women)

The Pleated Poppy & One Little Mama

Totally Random- but everytime we read this Pete the Cat book I think of my desire for white converse and how they might not stay so white. 

We love Pete the Cat around here, and apparently he has some lessons for a mom that wants white converse to learn, too ;)

#3 Ampersand Pillow - I think this would look nice on our bed, 

 currently we have all white bedding that needs some accessories.

 Roy might think otherwise when he has to move another pillow to get into bed at night!

I'm on the fence if this is a good one to DIY or just go ahead and buy.

Burlap/Linen Fabric + Fabric Paint + Freezer Paper + Pillow Form or Batting + TIME

or Just $$$ and wait for UPS ;)

I'll keep ya posted.

#4 Vinylux Weekly Topcoat or Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Top Coat 

Not sure who will win in a down and dirty test of changing diapers, washing dishes,

 mopping floors and general mom duties. 

But I want to look polished doing all those chores without constant chipping!

I love the look of polished fingernails, but I'll admit I have given up the fight since having kids.

Actually, I gave up the fight pre-kids when I was a Veterinary Tech.

Miracle workers or all hype? 

I'm not sure which to try first. 

#5- A Beach Vacation- Need I say more? 

I'm going to go ahead and say this one is a total wish that isn't going to happen anytime soon,

 but a gal can dream!

Warm sand, blue water, a cold margarita in hand. 

I'll drift off to sleep tonight with that mental picture!

What do you think of my wish list? 

I'm sure we could all use a little of #5 during these last weeks of school!

 Linking up with Friday Favorites At these fun blogs!

A Little Bit Of Everything Blog

Grace and Love Blog

Momfessionals

*Post contains Affiliate links- you click & I might get a little reward ;)

Hands Full. Heart Full.

When you have three girls it's like there's a flashing sign above your head that reads:

***Make a comment about my family***

Because these phrases are said to me on the daily:

"You trying for a boy next?"

"You sure have your hands full"

"Oh, what a beautiful baby....oh, wow....and you have two more kids!"

"You know what causes those right?"

etc.etc.etc.

I'm 100% sure moms of four or more kids get these types of comments, and moms with three boys, and moms with both boys and girls. Heck, I got the "you trying for a boy next" comment all the time when I had two kids.

Basically, people like to point out the obvious.

 Apparently they think I don't know I have my hands full 

and the drama from 3 teenage girls will age me 10 years?

Trust me, I know my hands are full. I feel the fact that I have 2 hands and 3 kids every.single.day.

But I also know that all that makes me crazy also makes me happy beyond measure.

Those three little ladies make my heart burst on the daily.

So join me in celebrating the craziness that is having your hands full with children.

 Because it's also what makes my heart the happiest.

Click here to download this free, hand drawn "Hands Full, Heart Full" 8 x 10 print

Can be printed at any size desired

P.S. This is my 100th post! Only took me 6 years of blogging very irregularly to get there.

Linking Up To:

Strawberry Mommycakes

Updating the Laundry Room

Since moving into our house in late September, we have been knee deep in need-to do's, want-to-do's, dream-to do's, and everything in between! 

Some things have been as simple as buying and installing cellular shades for privacy, while others are more time consuming yet boring, like sanding and staining weathered wood on all the surfaces of our home's exterior. Other projects have been more rewarding- like taking out the ugly and falling over mailbox and building a new one to match the style of our house. 

Still, there is loads of work to be done! We've got a large property, measuring just under 1.25 acres, and it's allllllllllll dirt, and tumbleweeds, with a few yuccas for variety. 

tumbleweed pile #5

The tumbleweeds on the majority of our property got the axe about a month ago. That was a very prickly process! But even as I sit here in the breakfast nook typing, a random tumbleweed rolling by will often catch my eye. 

Welcome to the wild west, southern gal. 

You have long sense traded green grass and lightening bugs for tumbleweeds and scorpions.

 I'm not sure I like that trade. 

Anyhow. Back to the subject of today's post. The laundry room. It's a bit of a pass-through room, with a door to the side of the house, and another door to the kitchen. We mostly leave the kitchen door open to let the light in, so it's a place visitors can clearly see when they come to our home. It was looking a bit blah, and with the decline of our old dryer it was also time to purchase a more efficient washer/dryer set. We got these lovely granite colored laundry wizards through my husbands handy work discount program (a perk of working for a company that owns a lot of brands!) 

I was hesitant to jump onto the front loading washer bandwagon. I'd always heard they were finicky, needed to be left open to 'air out' and could have issues with too much soap/suds. Well, this model does all the soap dispensing for me (thank goodness I can't screw it up!) and I figure in our dry as bones climate, the door will only need a little 'open time' after a wash and won't stick out too much. 

Truth be told, I was mostly on board with the idea of a front loader so we could do this.

Add a much desired countertop for spot treating, flat drying, folding, etc. 

My awesomely handy husband took on the task of turning an empty space into a custom fitted laundry haven, and I have to say  he did a fantastic job!

I now have a countertop, new base cabinet, and the washer and dryer switched places to be more comfortable in the load switching process. He also built a false wall that is easily removable to cover the washer hookups that, due to code, were higher than the units and clearly visible. 

The countertop we chose matches the existing vanities in all the bathrooms, leading to an 'original to the house' and cohesive look. 

All it needed after all his handywork was a little 'dressing up'- so I picked up a cute little pot and cermanic owl at Michael's, filled a jar with as many clothepins and I could scrounge up

 (note to self: buy more clothespins for decorative purposes only), 

stuck a plant in the pot and called the countertop decorated! 

I also created this simple print that I'm sharing as a FREE download. 

You can click on the link under the image to download through mediafire, and if you download, make sure you share the love pin the image....pretty please!

download 8 x 10" print here

The other print shown is a free download from A Pop of Pretty  that I found on pinterest!

DIY Entry Way Shelves

Our home, like many others, lacks a lot of storage space. One spot in particular that we were lacking was a coat closet. The previous homeowner was nice enough to build a lovely little sunroom addition to the front of our house, but lacked the foresight to add a closet for storage - not to mention make the sunroom wide enough to actually become a usable space for anything other than walking through. Ok, enough complaining...moving on....

Last November, when the hubs was on a business trip I got the itch to solve our coat storage problem. Or, at the very least, lessen the problem and make the sunroom look a little nicer. In came pinterest. Followed by countless hours of searching for the perfect way to make our room look like a mudroom, complete with board and batten, beadboard, and built in cubbies for everyone. Then I stepped away from the computer long enough to remember that I have a 3 foot walkway to work with, one that has the front door opening into most of it. Dreams.Crushed.

Ahh...dream space! source

Yes, I could still have done the beadboard or board and batten, but our home is very southwestern in architecture, inside and out. It in no way resembles a craftsman, victorian, or even traditional style home. So I kept it simple. I wanted hooks to hang coats and backpacks and I wanted shelves deep enough to hold small pots of succulents and some artwork for display.

Off to Home Depot with 2 small kids in tow! (really, that should not have an exclamation point at the end, but I have to keep you positive here...or I had to keep MYSELF positive about it at the time) My shopping list included several 1" x 6" boards (I think I got 6 foot long? Depends on your project wall length), Wall hooks, long screws, and a good primer and paint in white.

Before the project (cell phone pic)

I measured my pieces, made my cuts and primed and painted the boards on day one. Then on day 2 I started by finding the studs so I could secure the bottom boards, placed the board and leveled it, drilled pilot holes into the studs, and finally screwed in using a nail long enough reach into the stud well. Then I placed the top boards and drilled from the top back edge (where the two boards meet) into the bottom board, and placed screws. After that I touched up any paint and evenly spaced my hooks. DONE.

I've enjoyed decorating the space for the seasons and holidays, and my succulents love the southern indirect light they get all day. As long as we only have the coats we use on a daily basis out in the area (the rest are tucked in a bedroom closet upstairs) then it serves as a clutter free space to enter the house.

The Girls' Shared Room Artwork

About two months ago we moved the girls back into one room together.

mornin' sunshine...nice hair!

 They have previously been together from when M was about 3-6 months old, but because she didn't yet sleep through the night, her cries and my efforts to soothe them often woke K up. In an effort to keep our kids from becoming sleep deprived zombies (like their mother) we moved K downstairs to the guest room/office. It was hard for me. I felt as though she was detached  alone and vulnerable sleeping downstairs with the rest of us upstairs. To go along with my 'mommy guilt' there was also the fact that she continued to wake at least 3 times a week and either call for me from downstairs or creep upstairs in the dark. Both of which broke my heart even more. 

Moving them back in together, while not ideal, seemed to be the best thing for now.

Not only did it curb my guilt over leaving my 4 year old vulnerable at night,

 it was something we need to do because the hubby's new job requires he work from a home office. The downstairs room was our only option for that, well, it was that or the garage. Hopefully I'll get around to a blog post on the downstairs room makeover soon. 

I'll eventually get to the topic of today's post, I promise!!!

The girls furniture was squeezed in together, some taken out for lack of space, and lots of toys were sorted through and given away.

The furniture doesn't match, but I have a feeling that M will be in her crib for another year TOPS. 

(K started to escape at 17 months, which gives me 2 more months of crib confined bliss if M is the same!) 

We will eventually get bunk beds or re arrange the room so M can sleep on the trundle.

That will free up some much desired breathing room in the cramped space, 

maybe, perhaps to be filled with a much desired dollhouse!

Until then, I have done some simple things to decorate the space, and make it more fun for the girls. Both of them LOVE the letters and pictures I have above their beds. 

For the letters, I just grabbed some board letters from Hobby Lobby and 

mod -podged on scraps leftover from M's crib bedding.

I quickly typed up some fun prints for the walls, things I have always sung or said to the girls. 

I'll posting them here so you can grab them if you want!

I used some frames from the dollar store and painted them to coordinate with the room, then used 3M strips to easily(and securely) hang everything on the wall.

M regularly points to it after naps and wants to see her picture up close, 

and K knows that her special letter is there just for her! 

 Kinsey particularly loves the ABC print, 

since she is working hard on learning to write her letters with me lately.

                                                                  Sunshine Download Here

                                                                  Alphabet Download Here

Printable Chore Lists

My life is in need of some major organization lately! Do you ever stop and take a step back and wonder how things got so messy? I have a pretty good idea of when my order turned to disorder...it's was the moment a became a mommy! Since there's no going back, there's only moving forward with better organizational tools to keep life on track and hopefully keep me sane.

I've been searching the depths of pinterest and google for ideas to sort order from the disorder that is running a household of four, and my first stops were simple and pretty papers to keep me on track with cleaning.

In the past I always did laundry on Monday, Shopping on Tuesday, Cleaning on Wednesday, etc. But with 2 munchkins life sometimes gets in the way of that strict of a schedule. I've been trying to do a load or two of laundry daily to keep that overwhelming laundry pile at bay, and I've recently found that one day for all the errands isn't always feasible when one munchkin needs a nap and the other decides to pretend she is the spawn of Satan in Target. It's life. You gotta roll with the punches sometimes.

So this little list was born in an effort to keep things orderly and make sure they get done on either a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. When placed into a frame under glass or a simple page protector on the fridge, a dry erase marker is an easy and reusable way to keep track of tasks.

I'm currently using the teal chevron print because it matches my kitchen/dining room, but I was nice enough to put together some other pattern & color combinations for those of you wanting a FREE download!

Grey/Teal Chevron                       Green Chevron                           Grey/Yellow Chevron

Tan Damask                                 Yellow  Moroccan                                   Grey Damask

Ikea Envy

Just a quick post so that I can share a great giveaway from one of my favorite blogs. We have been working on some reorganizing of the house and moving the girls back into one room together to free up some office space for the hubs new job. I'm having a drool fest over all the functional pieces at affordable prices from IKEA.Too bad the closest store is 6+ hours away in either Denver or Phoenix. Somehow the hubs thinks it's a little too far to travel just to shop at one store. I beg to differ. Right about now I am wishing we still lived in Seattle.

Here's the link to the fabulous Busy Budgeting Mama and her Big Girl Room Remodel!

Fingers crossed I win!

1 Corinthians 13: 4-8

A verse recited during our wedding ceremony 8 years ago. A typical wedding reading, I suppose, but true words nonetheless. Thought I would turn it into a wall hanging so I whipped up some type today-

Hopefully I'll have a finished product to show off on the walls soon!

Download Here