Ch-ch-changes

On Saturday, I  helped made C re-arrange the furniture in the living room. It's a small space and it had looked the same for almost two years. I was bored with it. And? T couldn't see the TV from  his the chair. 

Priorities y'all. He's not getting my spot on the couch, mmk?

Anyway.

I didn't think to get before/after pictures. I know. I know. But honestly? I wasn't expecting to like the re-arrangement. And?

I LOVE it. 

Like, the whole room seems so much larger. It's totally opened up. I also had C hang a shelf that we bought 38 years ago that's been sitting around collecting dust. 

Not sure why those pictures are all screwed up, but I am ticked that Instagram won't let me save/use my large photos anymore!

I love this floating bookshelf. Of course, the only books I own are cookbooks, so I currently have them displayed in my living room but oh well. Gives me an excuse to go buy books, eh?

Needless to say, our lease is up at the end of August, and with any luck we'll be moving. Nothing like waiting till the last minute to hang the last thing, right?

Right.

How I Know

Want to know how I know that Chris is the best? Like, he'll do whatever I ask him to when it comes to my photography practice.."Go jump off that ledge." Stand. No kneel. Get on your knees!" But the one I love,  (that actually worked) was this one, "Blow on this flower right when I tell you to and don't M.O.V.E."

Yep. He did. And unfortunately this "practice sesh" didn't actually turn out during the actual shoot. There's always next time!

He's 199.9% supportive. That's how I know he's the best boyfriend ever. 

Overboard

Last weekend I had a hankering for a trip to Home Depot. This only happens once a year. When it's time to plant flowers, duh.

So I drug C out and we went way overboard on flowers...

That's not even half of them.

I think even when we do have a backyard, we probably will only ever plant in pots because I was thinking... You know those grub worm things? Those show up when you start digging in the ground. So we'll stick to pots. Those things make me gag.

Now if we can just keep these things alive long enough to get our money's worth...before it starts hitting 110 degrees...

Yay! Spring!

One Minute A Smile, The Next...Not So Much.

I really get into the spirit around the holidays. I do. We have so much to be thankful for this year that it is not even funny.

But there are things that people do/that happen around this time of the year that make me cringe.

Oh, you want examples? 

Okay.

Exhibit A. 

Now, I'm all into decorating everything/anything that doesn't move around the holidays but this? This drives me crazy. Please don't randomly put a bow on my car. It looks so tacky to me. And the antlers that you can put on your car windows? Please, people. Grow up.

Something that did put a big fat smile on my face was FINALLY finding a string of battery operated lights to add to the wreath I made 2349 years ago. 

That bad boy is hanging on our front door. And the best part? This $5 string of lights has a timer. It's amazing. I don't have to do anything. They come on for 6 hours and stay off for 18 hours. This makes the lazy in me happy. And? We haven't had to replace the batteries at all yet.

What else brings out my grinch face? Wrapping oddly shaped gifts. Like these-

Dear Fisher Price- Why can't you just make the box, a box? Why does it have to be all open and impossible to wrap? Please. Love-Ashley

I mean really? I don't like throwing gifts into gift sacks unless I have to. I like unwrapping gifts, so I figure most everyone else feels the same way.

This is the best I could do with those-

Stop laughing.

Something that really makes me happy? Is coming home from work to my warm house and seeing this every day-

You guys. We have a house. A warm one. We have nice things. We have this Christmas tree with lights and ribbon that I think the cat likes to re-arrange and family to be close to during the holidays.

It puts a big fat smile on my face.

Decking Our Halls

I luuuuurve decorating for Christmas. Like, really. I don't go all out, but the things that we do do, have to be perfect.

Cue OCD.

We haven't put up our Christmas tree the last two Christmases. In 2009, we were knee deep in chemo treatments and in 2010 we were too busy working our butts off to pay bills to celebrate Christmas. Yeah. I said it. We were grinches last year, this year we are making up for it.

Regardless, when I unpacked my ornaments Thursday night I found this-

My favorite ornament. Busted. I was sad. I found this pink sparkly one at Pier 1 the second Christmas Chris and I were together. Sad face.

However! I recently picked up a tree skirt at Hobby Lobby that I love. For real. I don't know what it is about it, but it's traditional, without being old. If that makes any sense.

And I grabbed two of the matching stockings for us. I'm never matchy-matchy like that but I love them. 

Speaking of stockings, who would ever buy/use this?

Tacky right? Yuck.

So yeah, the only thing left to do is add ribbon to the tree and wrap gifts to go under it.

The best thing about this Christmas though? My brothers and dad are coming to spend it with us! I can NOT wait. 

I love the holidays.

I Stained Something!

And it looks good!

We were in need of a small (cheap!) shelf to put our internet crap on so we hit up Ikea a couple of weekends ago.

We came home with this-

Whew I do not like that natural wood look. Chris saw it first and the price was right so I told him we could only get it if I could stain it. He agreed.

Of course this warranted a trip to Home Depot (yuck) but I knew exactly what I was looking for, so it wasn't too bad.

Small can of stain- $7.

Paint brushes- $2.

Trashbags to cover my table and an old rag- free!

Shelf- $15

Getting all of the internet boxes/wires/crap out of sight- priceless.

I didn't have a before picture, but trust me, anything would look better than it used to.

 

Colt's Nursery-Part 2

Yes, it took a month for me to finally get pictures of Colt's finished! nursery. I was mostly without a camera in August.

No more!

If you haven't seen the before pictures, you can see them here.

Here we go...

I didn't get pictures of the changing table/wall. My camera battery died. It'd had a long day.

Ok Colt, you can come now. Your mom and dad said this was the perfect week. Let's get this show on the road!

 

Colt's Nursery-Part 1

A couple of weeks ago, okay maybe like a month ago, my cousin Val called me up for my mad painting skillz. I don't think she knew what she was getting into. I told her I was living vicariously through her since who knows when we will finally have a baby. She's due with baby # 3 in mid September.

My guess is he'll be here at the end of August and she'll love me for saying that.

Anyway, back to the nursery. She already knew exactly what she wanted to do she just needed help doing it!

Here is the room before-

See? Nice and boring.

Here is the room during-

Wait! I have to pause here and tell you that the very first thing I did was screw up. Imagine that there is a line dividing the room in half horizontally. Well there was an actual line drawn there and I still messed it up. Val wanted yellow on top and blue on bottom. One guess as to who painted that yellow there on the bottom half. Yep, first thing I did. Thank goodness she was talking to/watching me and caught me before I could paint the whole room however I wanted!

It's really more of a golden color and I love it. This is what it's supposed to look like! See? Blue on BOTTOM!

There is a border going where the white line is, separating the colors.

As soon as I can get over there to take pictures of the finished nursery, I'll post the after pictures. I've seen it and it's super cute! Oh and I can take over my "project" I've been working on that's been giving me gray hairs. If you follow me on twitter you've heard all about it.

I can't be creative and be a perfectionist, it's not good for my blood pressure.