Merry Christmas!!

I know, I know... Christmas is over now, but I wanted to share our card with you all.

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!!

Dresser Before & After

First of all let me say thank-you for all your ideas & opinions for the frame on my previous post. The frame is now white:) Can't wait to get it finished and show you!

And now...

Here is the dresser that I FINALLY have pictures for! As all my facebook friends know I've been busy painting this & that and now I have my first before & after ready to show you:)

Here is the beaut' before: Don't you just love laminate???

Oh yes, it was soooo pretty....

Tada!! Not too shabby, huh?

Here's the "new" hardware... Let me just say Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint is my new bff!!! Love that stuff, it is so amazing the change it makes. Goodbye brass, hello gorgeous! Now I must say that this hardware is so not my pick but for now it will do just fine, I was trying to spend as little money as possible. A $5 dresser, $1 jar of mistint paint, and a teeny bit of spray paint, I think that's pretty good:) At least I'm happy:)

And one more parting shot...
I'm having so much fun with projects around the house right now, mainly wall decor for my living room, so stay tuned for some more pics to come... Hopefully soon!!:)

Please help...

I need opinions from all my crafty bloggy friends who have such good taste:)

Okay, so I have this frame...

I want to make either a chalkboard to put in it, or a sillouette of Evan.

It will hang on this wall above this couch.

My question is...

Should I paint it more white or leave it as it is?????

Tell me watcha think!:)

Oh and this is my inspiration photo for this wall, I'm going to try to do something similar to this.

Hmmm.... Now that I look at this again I'm leaning more towards painting it white... Ack! Help! I could sit here and go back & forth all day!

I like me some good CVS deals:)

So I think I finally have a blog-worthy CVS trip:)

Olay Cleansers: On sale for $5 x2      = $10

Gillette Razors: On sale for $5.97       = $5.97

Tide Detergent: On sale for $5.96 x2  = $11.92

Coupons used:
CVS $5 off $25 purchase            = -$5
CVS Happy Birthday coupon $3 = -$3
CVS ECB $2.50                         = -$2.50
CVS ECB $4.00                         = -$4

MFG coupons used:

$2 off Olay cleansers x2    = -$4
$2 off Gillette razors          = -$2
$2 off Tide detergent x2    = -$4

Total value of purchase: $27.89

Total CVS coupons used: $14.50

Total MFG coupons used: $10

Total out of pocket: $4.74!!!!!!!

Total ECBs received to use next time: $5!!!!!

Yippee!!:)

I was disappointed, my CVS was out of the Reach flossers so I missed out on a $2 money maker which would have sweetened my deal even more, but I'm still pretty happy:)

M.I.A.

Yeah, that's been me!!

But guess what?

I'm back!:)

Well, after about 3 crazy months we are finally in a place that we are calling "home". Sounds so weird because Rowan county NC has never been "home" ever before. But now. It is. (I will share pics, I promise:) )

After 2 moves in 2 months I am ready to just sit down, put my feet up, drink lemonade on my front porch, and watch life creep by. Ha. As if that's going to happen! And I really don't want it to:)

We bought a pretty little piece of land with a house on it that was built in 1907 but has been completely gutted down to the studs and brand new drywall, trim, etc. throughout in 1992, so not completely new, but new enough.

By "little" piece of land I mean 1.15 acres. Ok, not so little:) But again, we wanted room for our munchkin to RUN outside.

And what comes with all that house and land goodness? Why LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of projects!! Good for keeping me busy and also good for blogging:) Aren't y'all just so lucky??:)

Well, let's get started... Here is my first project. (Not the bed, the walls...:) But the bed did get put together, we are not sleeping on the floor...)

See all that stripy wallpapery goodness? *sarcastic snort* I know wallpaper is coming back in style but if I ever hop on the boat it will be a LONG time from now! And it really did look much worse in person than in these pictures. Very masculine and dark. Notice I'm using past tense when referring to it. Its gone. :) All gone. :) You know how when you buy a new house there is always the previous owner's "smell" left? (In our case greasy cooking smell stuck to all the wood in the house *gag*) Or else the house has been empty and there's just a weird smell? Well we have the privilege of both... The house had been empty for a few years except a few weekends here and there, kinda like a vacation house I guess, but when we put an offer on it and had the home inspection done there were a bunch of repairs that needed to be made so the guy moved in and fixed them all himself, he's a handy-man for a living so I guess it worked out for him. Anywho, so in hopes of getting rid of the weird smells I'm working on stripping all the wallpaper and repainting as quickly as possibly.

What? You didn't think the only room with wallpaper was the bedroom did you??? Oh. No. It's in lots of places, I will show you those rooms on a later post:) But I must say, this was BY FAR the easiest wallpaper removal I've ever had the privilege of taking on. And I've had wa-a-a-a-ayyyyy too many!

So that's a snippet of my real life right now! Stripping wallpaper. Cleaning. Deep cleaning. Oh. And of course can't forget the most important thing!

Taking care of this precious little stinker!:) When he's not following me around grabbing at my ankles and whining because of teething he's off finding SOMETHING to get into. After all, can't make mama's life too easy!:) But I love him to death, who couldn't love that huge smile, especially after he's been "caught" in the act!

And now it's time to go get him out of bed, he's in there practicing his favorite new word, "uh-oh". So cute I tell ya:)

And I'm so excited to be back blogging and showing you some of the changes being made in the house as we go. Toodles for now!

Real Life... Right now = trying to save money.

Since this blog has no real "theme" going here... Besides my Real Life of course... I don't know about you all but real life can be a real mish mash of things going on, at least it is for me! So therefore, I guess you'll just see a mish mash of things on here:)

Seriously, I have so many interests, I'm sometimes not sure where to start, what to do, or even feel like I'm able to keep my head on straight! So moving to another state has taught me a lesson. Take it one day at a time!:) So some days, I have time to work on projects, cook, bake, decorate, craft, all that fun kind of stuff. Other days... Well, other days all I seem to get done is drag myself out of bed and care for my little munchkin. That's real life.

Real life is also, dealing with the situation that God has put us in. Currently that situation is living in an apartment (it is a nice apartment, I wanted to at least feel safe in the place we moved to since it's so far away from everything I've known my whole life!), an apartment that is truly a blessing, but also has us a little strapped for cash, since we have not yet sold our house in Ohio and still have to pay the mortgage there in addition to the rent here. We are staying afloat for sure but it's just causing me to have to get creative in the household spending department! The saddest part for me is having to make do with the clothes that I have and not go shopping in my spare time (I have lots of that right now!), if I have a weakness it is for sure buying clothes... Hey I'm a girl!:)

Also, part of feeling the squeeze is me becoming a stay-at-home mom. Which is something I would not want to give up for the world! I am so blessed! Thank-you Husband dear for working so hard so that I can stay home!

So anyways, all that to say... I'm trying to save money!! And one way I've found to be a wonderful way to do that is... Coupons!! I know, me and the rest of the blog-world out there:) But I have found too that it is work!! Searching for those coupons online, buying a Sunday paper every week, and clipping clipping clipping. And then... matching those coupons with sales to get the maximum possible savings. Multiple shopping trips to make use of all those coupons since grocery stores limit the number of coupons you can use each day. And let me just say, that moving to a larger city where they have larger major grocery stores has been helping me immensly! LOVE love double coupons (up to .99), Super Double coupons (Even better! Up to 1.98), triple coupons (awesome! up to .99). Do the math, that adds up the savings in a big way! Literally when I go into these grocery stores I have a coupon for everything I buy. If I don't have a coupon, I don't buy it, unless of course it's a staple item like milk, eggs, flour, etc. but I try to find coupons for those things too. This is great too because it gives me a large variety of food from month to month, and we like variety!:)

This weeks grocery trips:
1st trip, grocery's valued at: $84.30
Total spent after sales & coupons: $34.10
Savings: $50.20

2nd trip, grocery's valued at: $96.05
Total spent after sales & coupons: $41.70
Savings: $54.35

Total Saving after both trips: $104.55

WOW!!

It's worth the work, at least for me, at this stage of my life.

And there you have it. Another tidbit from my mish mash real life:)

Next up? Who knows, maybe a craft project... Isn't life exciting? Haha:)

Summer...

Wow do I love summer!!! The heat, the SUN, the pool, the SUN, a little color on my skin, the SUN. Ok, so maybe you get the idea? I love sunshine!!!! It makes everything so much better, and it just boosts my mood:) I think maybe have a vitamin D deficiency or something because I just crave sunshine! Even if I have to be inside all day, just looking out the window to see lots of sunshine cheers me up:)

And watermelon! Watermelon just screams summertime. My little munchkin getting his first taste, he loved it:) He likes popsicles too...:) I pitied him because his teeth are causing him so much agony right now that yesterday I helped him eat a popsicle and he thought it was super great, he gnawed on it with his lower gums like crazy. Poor kid, still nothing to show for all his pain, how long can it take to pop a tooth through? And how many grouchy days will there be? Oh well. Guess we'll just have to keep lots of popsicles on hand:)\

My sister helping Evan down the slide. LOVE his look of sheer delight!!:)

My dad, other little sister and my hubby. Just relaxing in the shade on a warm SUMMER day:)

Sweet picture of my love and I. Oh. And my crazy sis:)

Evan and my mom, he's thrilled about something, I think he likes summer as much as me:)

Whew, it's a scorcher here today, supposed to hit 96 and feel like 100. Think it may have to be a pool day!!

9 Months...

How can that be???? It was just yesterday that he came home from the hospital wasn't it? But at the same time if I look at all that has happened in our lives since he was born it seems almost a lifetime ago! I can't imagine life without him anymore:)

*Warning: Major picture overload!!:)*

Getting a ride on Daddy's shoulders.

The little munchkin:)

Being outdoors is his favorite thing in the world, so thankfully he was super happy, distracted, but happy for these pictures:)

Pat-a-cake!!:)

Kisses from Mama

So big!!

Happy smiles!

"Da-da!"  :):)

My favorite. How can you not fall in love with that little grin??:)

Play time with Daddy

Love this picture! It is such a priceless typical Evan expression:)

The 2 handsome men in my life. {love}

So funny:)

Such a big boy!

{love}

My daddy, my hero.

Wheeee!

So happy:)

Love my little man:)