Raboteur (Dresser)

Bonjour! Intz Hallo! Hola! Aloha! (間) はーい, こんにちは, どうも, やあ（挨拶に使う）; おーい; もしもし; おや（注意を引くのに使う. Hello!

The first project I've conquered this year, is the beginning of lovely lady #1's bedroom. As I said in my previous post I was going with an around the world theme. And even with our very low budget, the room is coming along very nicely! Unfortunately we've had some computer and health problems over the past few weeks so it kept me away from blogging about and finishing my project but I have to say I am tickled pink (or green) about this first makeover! One of the first big pieces of her room was her dresser! I LOVE the dresser in her room which was given to us years ago by my mother in law.  It was nothing fancy, just plain off white and pretty boring, but it hold SO MUCH! The drawers are super deep so I never had to worry about stuffing them full and barely being able to close it like some of the other dressers in our home. But again, nothing fancy and quite frankly Very boring. So I decided that was one of the first things that needed a little sprucing.  I've seen the new ombre inspired dresser looks all over pinterest lately. Its where you take a paint swatch and paint each drawer a different shade of whatever color on the swatch.  Super cute! So I spent an hour going through hundreds of swatches and finally decided on a shade of green that I really liked.  After work I ran to the paint store picked up my paint and got right to work, I could not wait to see the final product! As usual my lack of patience got the best of me and I ended up having to do many things over but in the end it looked Ahhhhmazing! It was still missing something though, I wanted it to have more of an around the world look and feel to it so I decided to label the dresser (1.underwear and socks 2. pajamas 3.shirts 4.pants) in french! And I  L*O*V*E it!!! I can't even contain my excitement right now for the grand reveal!

And there you have it folks! From blah to Magnifique! And I can
 not officially say that I am addicted to this whole remodeling of furniture thing! So my current project (aside from completing and revealing around the world themed room) is this enourmous not so beautifully crafted piece of craziness.....

And the mess surrounding it! Hubby sees no potential...I see tons!

Other then that the rest of the month is pretty busy. Lovely Lady # 2 is celebrating her 6th birthday on the 31st! And apparently so are many other people we know! We have tons of parties coming up! She is requesting a snow cone cake so we'll see what I can come up with!

Hope everyone is staying warm!!!

Baby Steps

Out with the old and in with the new! You have to crawl before you walk and you have to walk before you run. I've spent a lot of my free time over the last weeks on the computer completely consumed in the bloggers world! I've been so envious of so many of these AMAZING people. So creative and talented. I know it takes experience and time to have these amazing blogs and beautifully decorated and organized homes, but I so wish I was Samantha from bewitched right now! I want it all! :) Unfortunately my hubby and I are extremely tight with money at the moment so I have to work with what I have. Which means being even more creative and thinking Wayyyy outside of the box. So project #1 for the New Year is going to be lovely lady #1's bedroom. One of the best things about painting for me is that its 100% FREE :) Mi Madre is the office manager of a commercial paint company in our area so we get all of our house paints free of charge. I was recently introduced to this super addicting app called WANELO (Want Need Love) and while browsing around stumbled across these Adorable pillows from Pottery Barn Teen.

Sadly SanFrancico was the only one they had available! But, it got me thinking about some pretty cool ideas for lovely ladies bedroom. An around the world theme. She tells me all the time that she wants to travel and see the world, so I thought this would be the perfect theme for her. I'm so excited to get started with it! It will most likely take a while since I have a $0 budget at the time, but a little paint can make a world of difference!

I know I've been beating around the bush with almost every project idea I've had, but I've realized that I won't be taken seriously by others until I take myself seriously. So that is part of my 2013 New Years Resolution. To take myself seriously. I need to complete a project when I say I'm going to, I need to hop on that treadmill again tomorrow morning like I've been telling myself to do for weeks, If I want to have an amazing blog one day like all of these other fabulous mommies out there, I HAVE to commit to it! So project number one begins tomorrow! Baby steps....just a little at a time.  I will get there, I will inspire, I will create, I will take myself seriously!

Happy New Year!!!!

"Write it on your heart, that EVERY day is the BEST Day in the year."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Peace on earth

I've been spending the past few days really trying to come to terms with this world. Wondering why there is so much evil. When tragedy strikes we all try to pull together and bring whatever good out of it that we can. It's hard to find anything good after last Friday though. My heart aches for those babies and their families, I cannot fathom what their parents are feeling right now. The only thing I could think to do today was to write. I wrote to my girls. I haven't really talked to them much about the incident. They are so young and innocent and I didn't want to take that away from them. They k is that something horrible happened but that they were "safe" as safe as you can be in a world like this anyway. They didn't ask to many questions and until they do I felt that I should leave it at that. I don't want to put unecessary fear in them. So I wrote them a letter for the future that I will share with you. Everything that has happened has really started to sink in and make me realize how short life truly is. I want to make sure my children know how much I love them, and how good the world CAN be.

Dear my sweet beautiful baby girls,

Last Friday something horrible happened in Connecticut. Something unimaginable and every parents worst nightmare. Although I know that unfortunately the world that we currently live in is corrupt, Fridays tragedy was and still is especially hard to come to terms with. Children were involved. Sweet beautiful innocent children just like you. My heart is aching for them and their families. And while there is nothing I can do to take their pain away I pray and hope that someday, somehow they will heal. It's out a real perspective on things for me. It's really show me how quickly life can be take . Every morning we wake we are given another chance. We are given a gift. More time to spend with those we love. More memories to be made. More laughs to be laughed. More playtime. More togetherness. I've tried over the past seven plus years to be the absolute best mom to you girls. I was so young when I became a mother so it's definitely been a challenge. I feel I'm doing an ok job, but I want to do more. I don't want to take a single day spent with you girls for granted. It is up to me to teach you the ways of the world. To tell you about the evil when I see fit and to make sure that no matter what you can always see the good. Because this world can be good. And you two are living proof of that. Everything that is good in this world is YOU. Our children. The children of our world are our future. Stay the way you are, despite Ll the bad you hear. Stay good and our future will be more bright. I hope to god that one day you will witness peace on earth. Until then I hope to give you your own kind of peace and keep your world as safe and good as I can.

Love,
Mom

May you rest in peace Sandy Hook victims

12 Days of Teachers Gifts

I saw this idea online last year, and really wanted to try it out but ran out of time.  This year I was so back and forth with it, trying to save money and yet still be creative can be pretty challenging.  Especially with two teachers! But I decided to do it, and its been so much fun! We still have 4 days of gifts left, but I can't wait to post the ones we've already done so I'll post days 1-8 now.Some of them I didn't really get the best pictures of, so I'll just give you the decription. 

No.1: On the First Day of Christmas, they got Chocolate covered spoons for stirring hot chocolate or coffee!

No. 2: On the second Day of Christmas, they got Chocolate Chip Cookies.

 No. 3: On the third Day of Christmas ( MY FAVORITE) they got pencils that I created from left over pieces of our picket fence. 

No. 4: On the Fourth Day of Christmas, Hand Sanitizer! The girls picked out cute little holders for the mini sanitizers from bath and body works.

 No. 5: On the fifth day of Christmas Scarves! ( Forgot the picture but they were super cute!)

 No. 6: On the sixth day of Christmas, salt dough ornaments! Hubby baked them while mommy was out at a much needed dinner! Then I painted them when I got home, and the girls put their thumprints on in the morning to create the reindeer!

 No.7: On the 7th day of Christmas we created hearts from candycanes, and filled them with melted chocolate and crushed peppermint.

No.8: And today, the 8th day of Christmas I gave them a printable that I found from simply designing. ( This should take you to the page if you'd like one too! She's so generous and lets you print them for free! https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B2Z1O_cQfZmkMmU0MHdMYWxYdXc) I framed one for each of the teachers. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of this one.  They were super cute though! 

 If you can, when giving gifts, don't forget the unified arts teachers! They work just as hard! Also the school nurse, bus driver, and office help! It can get pretty pricy with all of them, but I shopped at the dollar section of target and found them each really cute planners for 2013 and got them each one of the mini hand sanitzers and holders from bath and body words for 1.50 each. Not too bad. Baked good are always good too, when you're running low on dough! Just something to let them know we appreciate what they do for our children! :)  Nine people for just over $20 total.  Pretty good if I do say so myself.  And when you have virtually no money to spend on them, just a simple thank you can really change a persons life.  Write them each a nice letter wishing them a happy holiday and thanking them for all they do. Just taking the time to show that you care is better then nothing at all.

Just B. Elf

Our Elf has the pleasure of being named after Justin Bieber. For some reason when you ask my girls to name something the only things they can come up with are crazy made up words, like baladooda or comalina....i know seriously strange.  Don't ask me where they got it! The second best thing they could do last year when our elf first arrived, was Justin Bieber! I told them we should just shorten it to Justin B. and they agreed that would be good since after all, there already was a Justin  Bieber. So Justin B. it was, and boy was he an exciting guest last year! He hid in the most tricky places, it took FOREVER to find him on some days. So this year Justin B. has returned, and decided to hide a little differently this time around.  He's pretty easy to find most days, but he is just being soo silly! The kids LOVE it! So, I thought I'd share a few of his hiding places with you.  I have to give credit to Pinterest of course, because that it is where most of these came from, not sure the exact source though or I would definitely give them credit as well.

 

 Justin B. arrived the day after Thanksgiving, but on December 1st he made sure we had our calendar ready to let the countdown to Christmas begin!

 

Going for a cruise with Barbie! I think Ken will be getting Jealous!

 Listening to some Jams on a very expensive very cracked Ipod! :)

 Who Stole the Cookies from the Cookie Jar?! Justin B. Elf, stole the Cookies from the cookie jar! And although you can't see it very clearly, he turned our milk GREEN!! Yikes!

 Just Hanging Out.  Lovely Lady #1 was soo excited about this one, she was face timing a friend of hers and they always show each other where their elf is hiding that day.  This particular day their elves were both in the same exact places! haha Hanging from the Curtain Rod! I swear they didn't plan this one! :)

 The girls left a huge mess downstairs after daddy worked so hard making it nice the night before.  Justin wasn't very happy about this one, so he hung out in the mail center all day with a note reminding them that Santa doesn't like to bring brand new toys to kids who don't take care of the ones they already have.

 Justin B. Really misses the North Pole! He decided he'd improvise and made a marshmallow Snowman! Boy did he get messy in that snow!!!

 He's a little too big for that house, don't you think!? He hung out at the lego friends home for the day! Hope he didn't squish them!

 Time for a nap! All this hiding and being silly sure can take a toll on a poor little Elf!

 Relaxing in a "bubble bath", and watching some tv. :) That bathroom floor looks like it needs a little scrub! Yuck!

 Game Night! There's that same Barbie again! She sure will miss him when he returns to the North Pole!

 Keeping Watch on the Picture frame!

Star light Star Bright, first star you see tonight, I wish I may I wish I might have the wish I wish tonight! Justin hung out on the star while the family camped out under the Christmas tree for one of our 25 days of Christmas countdown activities!

I can't believe there are only 11 more days until Christmas! Time sure does fly when you're having fun! We've been busy little bees, but its all been worth it to see the smiles on those two beautiful faces! Love making memories and starting new traditions with the wonderful family I was blessed with. Hope everyone is having a great Christmas Month so far! 

“Life has many twists and turns in it; you have to take what you are given and use it for the best."

Don't ever take a single day for granted! And try not to sweat the small stuff, Christmas can be wasted if we spend it stressing over money and time. Stay positive and think happy thoughts, everything will find a way some how. 

SOUPer Sunday

Many things that were supposed to happen this month, did not.  I got completely overwhelmed with, Dentist Appointments, school applications, Parent teacher conferences, Cooking for lovely lady #2's class party, Sick Days, THANKSGIVING, Christmas tree shopping, ,50th Anniversary Cake, 10 dozen cupcakes, the grand opening of my brother and sister in Laws RightCoastPro (professional wrestling business) and trying to remember to shower and dress every day! The scariest part about this is that November isn't even over yet! It went by sooo fast and yet so much was finished (or not finished) in these short 25 days.I did paint my door black, however I still need to change out the hardware so it looks complete, so no pics on that just yet!
So instead of talking about all of the things I was supposed to get done, I figured I'd share some of the things that I actually did get done.  The Dentist Appointment was for my lovely ladies, I am soo stinkin proud of those two for being such troopers through the whole thing.  Cecilia's teeth aren't too bad. She had one minor cavitity in between two of her teeth and she had to get sealants put on to prevent any future cavities.  However miss Sophia was blessed with teeth as soft as marshmallows! Any little bit of sugar that finds its way into her tiny little mouth get very comfy in there and starts to eat away immediately! She is 5 years old and has already gotten two teeth pulled, spacers put in, and a temporary filling. So this particular trip the dentist wanted to remove the temporary filling, grind down the tooth, and cap it off, plus she had another cavitity to boot! I feel like the worlds worst mom when I bring her into the dentist, every time, it never fails she has another cavitiy. I swear I brush those suckers at least twice a day! But, long story short, she survived and did it without a flinch or any of that silly laughing gas!

Charter Applications are out and now we're just hoping for the best! We applied to three charter schools this year and although we are slowly warming up to the new public school we're in, we have our fingers crossed that we get in to one of the three. Just to have a peace of mind that they would be set in these schools until they graduate high school. I went through 5 schools when I was younger, and we lived in the same house all my life. To know that my kids wouldn't have to change school every time the board sneezed would really make us happy!

We had our parent teacher conferences this month, which went wonderfully! And I'd hate to brag (Actually LOVE it when it comes to my kids) but we were told they are some of the best in the school, even by the Art,Music,Gym, and Library teachers who we just happened to walk by in the halls. Sophia started Kindergarten this year, and is right on track to where she should be. We strive to be ahead so we'll definitely continue to work with her at home to get her reading and writing a bit nicer.  Cecilia, who has always been a bright kid, was said to be the PERFECT student.  She said other second grade teachers wish they had her in their classrooms. She is way above her reading level and above grade level in math even though its not her strongest subject. Her teacher almost brought me to tears with all of the kind words she said about her. We couldn't have been more proud of those two lovely ladies! :)

The last week of school before Thanksgiving break Lovely ladies Kindergarten class was having a Thanksgiving Feast! They had sign ups the week before so I was supposed to bring in Mashed Potatoes and Gravy. (Easy Peasy) Well, that was until we got a note home asking if anyone wanted to volunteer to cook the Turkey that was donated to the class. I sent a note in the very next day and offered to cook the Turkey as well as the Mashed Potatoes, I was feeling a little guilty that I would be at work and unable to attend this party so I wanted to help out in any way I could. So her teacher called me that day and told me she would be soo appreciative if I could do that. Well, I've only cooked one other turkey my whole life. It turned out good,  but if was just for my family so I felt that the pressure was on big time for this Turkey.  I googled a "Super Moist" turkey recipe and found one that said to cover the thing in mayo and Rosemary, salt and Pepper. A little strange, but I have hear Mayo makes for some moist chicken so I decided to give it a try. I'm telling you I lost sleep over this thing! It smelled so good, looked fantastic, but I was so afraid that I may have undercooked it, even though the temp was right, or that I didn't carve it good enough and they would run out of turkey.  I worry over some unnecessary things sometimes. Needless to say, the turkey ended up being a hit! Shaaaa Woooo! :)

Then the Monday of Thanksgiving week, I got the dreaded STOMACH BUG! YUCK. We won't go into details about that one, but it did set me back a bit.  Luckily my kids, although sometimes extremely loud, were very self sufficient and helpful on this day. And my mother in law came to the rescue and picked them up to shop for a few hours. So far, I was the only one in the house that got it, so please knock on wood!

Thanksgiving day here in little ol' delaware was GORGEOUS! We have an annual tradition of playing football the morning of and it is usually freezing cold and/or raining cats and dogs! This year was blue skies and sunshine all day long! We had dinner at my moms house with just my siblings and our kids which is still 11 people strong. Food was amazing, company was great, kids were good,and it really turned out to be one of the best years yet! The next day we went for our Christmas tree! Another tradition we started  years ago with my dad and his parents. We go to Coleman's tree farm and take a little hayride out to cut down our own. The trees were Ginormous this year! And all we wanted was a tiny little 6 footer since it would be up on a platform. It took a little longer then the norm, but we found the perfect tree.  Lovely lady #1 picked it out and she is so proud of her pick.  We'll be putting it up and decorating it this evening. Love this time of year! :)

Oh and in the middle of Thanksgiving and tree shopping I managed to knock out, a 50th anniversary cake for my mother and father in law and 10 dozen cupcakes for the grand opening of a new business started by my brother and sister in law. I had one night up till 3 am and one up till 1am then back up at 6am to finish. But i did get them done! The anniversary cake gave me every possible problem that a cake can give. I'm still pretty new at the whole cake thing and have actually not done one in a few months so it was a little frustrating but served its purpose.

And the cupcakes I made turned out pretty delicious if I do say so myself. I tried two new recipes. One was an apple cobbler cupcake (originally from the cupcake project) with a pumpkin pie icing. Really just a butter cream icing with pumpkin pie spice but it was yummy. The other was a pumpkin cupcake with cream cheese icing. They seemed to be a hit at the event.

And the event itself was pretty awesome! I've never been to something like it before. Hubby's brother has been into wrestling FOREVER and unfortunately hurt his back in a car accident years ago so he had to remove himself from the rink. He stayed involved in the training and supportive part of it and has been planning on started up his own business for quite some time. They both did amazing with the whole thing! I'm so excited to see the upcoming events! The website will be up and running tomorrow and I'll post a link so that it can be shared! :)

And now, its time for me to get the rest of the month out of the way, which is really where the title of the post came from. I've been wanting to try to have a SOUPer Sunday during the cold months. I'm just planning on making a big batch of soup every Sunday to have as a meal or on the side throughout the week.  This weeks Soup that I'm going to try is Roasted Cauliflower and Aged White Cheddar Soup.  It look Scrumptious! So hopefully it will be. I'm going to take the recipe I found from Closet Cooking and adapt it a little to make it my own. Can't wait to try it. Today will definietely be a good day for soup,because it's SOUPer cold (CORNY I know.) out there! Time is of the essence so I'd better get started! Getting my kiddos back from their Emmy (my mom) and off to Market we go! :) Happy Sunday!

Front Door/Back Door now a Black Door!

That sounds soo Dr.Seuss to me!!

In reference to my last post, we were very fortunate not to suffer any devastation from Sandy, not even a flicker of lights.  Sadly a lot of the East Coast can't say the same. My thoughts and prayers go out to all of those affected. Don't ever take a single day for granted. You never know when a tragedy like that could impact your life...


On a happier note, I finally decided to conquer a project I've been wanting to do! Its not complete yet but I'm so excited to talk about it! Our front door it actually a back door, however my genius hubby decided it would work. It doesn't look bad, just a little different then the average persons front door.  Anyhoo...a few years ago hubby begged and begged to paint the shutters on the house black. I wanted nothing to do with it! Not really sure why I just thought it would looked horrendous. I just kept thinking cute little starter home turned haunted house.  Black at the time just seemed so... EEK... Halloweenish to me. He finally just decided to do it without me.And although you will rarely hear me say this....he was right.  It looked great! So classy...made the house look a little more on the "expensive side".
Then, after looking at an awkard white door for a while, we finally painted the outside door to match the shutters.  However, we never thought to paint the inside black as well. After all, it was on the inside. I mean who does that? I kept throwing the idea out there, to hubby of course first, my mom, and co workers, everyone just kept shooting the idea down. Told me it would just be to dark for the inside. 

Today....I proved them wrong!

And really this project only happened because of the most Awesome IKEA rug. I finally picked it up last weekend after wanting it for so long, and now the decor just doesn't go, so I shall be completing many projects in the next few weeks. I'm soo excited about it! After all that is the whole reason I wanted to join the blogging community.

So...I took our old outdated enourmous "AREA RUG" that took up the entire living room floor, and replaced it with the small but perfect area rug.The rug is gray and our furniture is tan so I wasn't really sure at all how that would work. Our paint color is called barely Greige so its like gray and beige in one. Then we have these huge pictures on the back wall that hubby is attached to but once again I feel they are outdated. I will secretly replace them one day while he's at work with a wall of pictures of the ones he loves, and he will secretly love them! :) Our coffee table, end tables, and the table that hold our digital cable box are all like a dark burgundy wood. I will be painting most of them off white with maybe small grey accents and one piece I'd like to paint a subtle yellow. We will also be redoing our hardwood floors, they are now on the lighter side and I'm thinking of darkening them. Not 100% sure yet, but we shall see!  Sounds a little much but I feel like it will really work! Once I start getting everything going I'll definitely post pictures! And that's where the front door back door now a black door started.  I began the process of turning it black today, and I LOVE IT!!!!

Another project that hopefully I'll be able to complete and post tomorrow is my Fall/Thanksgiving Wreath. I got everything to make it a few days ago, so I will post pictures of that as well when it is complete.

  We did start out Thankful Tree on November 1st. A little bare when I took this picture. And now it's already filled with so much Thanks and its only the 6th! I need to add more branches to fill this bad boy out, but here it is for now!

The First Day lovely lady #1 writes that she is thankful for "Great friends and Family" and Lovely lady #2 without any hesitation grabs her paper and pen and is sooo happy that she knows to spell some words so she write "I like mom" :) makes my heart melt. Love those lovelies! :)

The right to vote! :)
May the best Man win.