alex's room during

Today was the fun of organizing Alex's room. Really it wasn't that it was messy, but that things did not have a home to be put away. I will say that Alex does quite well with keeping his room together and putting his toys away. We only run into a problem when new toys come into the house and they need a home.

I hope he'll be happy to see his work bench and easel are in his room and easily accessible to him and only him. I also cleaned out the white bins next to the easel as well as the bins in the storage cubes next to the tool bench. Lots of reorganizing there to make better use of the bins.

One side of his closet. I think he'll be happy to see so many toys hanging out where he can grab them and go. And I managed to leave a little bit of space for his laundry basket.

Other side of the closet. The blue lidded tub has his Pokemon figures inside. The three white bins have Wonder Pets, Little Einsteins and Mickey Mouse toys in them.

One of the drawers in his bed. Not sure why the picture turned itself when it loaded here.

The bottom drawer with the heavier Disney Car toys. I tried to keep Tow Mater on top since his tow cable always seems to be bent or broken.

Another drawer full of Mack goodness. So happy these have a place to live instead of on the floor where I was always tripping over them.

The last drawer. Just a bunch of fun stuff that Alex loves. Ignore my awful toes in the shot. I need a pedi badly. Maybe next week.

I need to get the IKEA blue plush holder installed to finish up Alex's room as I have pulled a bunch of his animal friends to be relocated. Hoping to pick up a hook tomorrow so I can complete his room and get myself headed to Kira's.

masterpieces and update

We finally were able to pick up Alex's penguin from To Your Art's Content. When we went to pick everything up from Kira's birthday party, the penguin they gave us was not Alex's. It was blue and it said Alex on the bottom, but it was not MY Alex's penguin.

Victoria at TYAC was wonderful in tracking down our missing penguin pal. Seems there was another Alex in the week before Kira's party and that Alex had also done a penguin. Kid you not. Both pieces were fired together and then packaged up. However, our penguin was sent to a different Alex while we received theirs. The mom had come in to pick up their penguin but she wasn't there when the penguin was painted (grandma had brought Alex in to paint a penguin) The mom was more than happy to pick up the correct penguin and return ours. 

We are so happy to have Pippi Confetti Polka Dot Foltz home with us. Isn't he adorable??

Better front shot. Daddy helped with the eyebrows since Alex insisted he have eyebrows and the polka dots since the paint bottles were a little hard to squeeze. But Alex picked out all the colors for the polka dots. I think he did amazingly well. Love the green feet!!

And here is Kira's creation. Such a lovely tabby. Or is that a striped tiger? I'll have to ask.

Once the kiddos get back home, I am going to take them to TYAC and get them signed up for their Picasso club. They get six months of unlimited studio time, discount off of what they want to paint and a free snack every time they visit. I'm going to sign myself up as well for the adult painting club. I think it will be fun and I do believe we shall be making some Christmas gifts!!

A quick picture of the kitchen. Yes there is less stuff hanging around in there. Hoping to make it much less tomorrow. I see a stop to Goodwill in my future to donate a bunch of stuff.

We did manage to finish painting the hallway and the attic door. Looks a thousand times better! We'll hang up the pictures on Friday to give the walls a good chance to dry. I hate pulling the paint off when I remove a picture frame.

syracuse birthday party

Just a couple of quick pictures from Kira's birthday celebration in Syracuse. After much deliberation, Kira and nana decided on a dog cake. Kira added 11 plastic dogs to the top to complete the look. Very cute and delicious!

My family before the party. Love them to pieces.

The playroom is coming along. Hoping to do some painting tomorrow so the hallway will finally be completed. Then off to tackle the kids rooms. I pulled a bunch of stuff to put into the playroom. Most of the toys that were in there, the kids had outgrown so they shall be donated off.

redoing the playroom 2012

While the kids are hanging with Nana and Papa for a little bit of time, the hubby and I have been enjoying our time together as well as tackling some projects around the house. It's our tradition. Every year we do some house project while the kiddos are away. Keeps them on their toes! 

This year is no different. I am trying hard to declutter my house and life. It has to make things easier with less stuff, right?? That's my hope anyways. The first room that needed major change is the kids playroom. It technically is hubby's home office as well as a playroom but the only part that would make it a playroom would be the toys that were littered all around and the television. Pretty sad playroom. Time to fix that and get organized and downsized. I'm so excited just telling you all about it.

We went to IKEA to purchase some new furniture pieces and have now decided we will be buying everything for our house from there in the future. OMG!! Like seriously LOVE that store. But I digress... we got some new pieces that you will have to wait to see but I am sharing a few behind the scenes before the big reveal in a few days.

This is our hallway wall heading to the kids rooms and the bathroom. We finally got around to painting it to match the staircase that we painted either last year or the previous year. I can't remember. I still have a bit more painting to do down by the kids rooms but it's looking 100% better! The color is Peanut Butter by Behr from Home Depot. We picked it up July 2010. Nothing slow about us.

Here are the boxes from two of the new furniture pieces we put together today. Not as much cardboard as I thought we would have. They were all well packed with no space wasted and very little styrofoam inserts.

And where is all the stuff that we had to take out of the playroom while we were working on fixing it up?? Why it headed off to the kitchen table! Yes there is a table under all that stuff. And we can still get to the microwave! We are now eating downstairs in the family room for the time being.

That's all you get for now. I want to do a big reveal as the difference is so amazing and we haven't finished putting everything back yet!!

start of vacation week

and I was working like a dog today!

My front flower bed. I have a love hate relationship with it. I love it when it is full of pretty flowers and I hate it when the weeds take over and make it downright ugly. The first picture will show you how ugly it can be! I didn't pull a single weed all summer and didn't even bother removing the fall leaves that gathered there. I'm surprised the daffodils managed to bloom through all the junk that was in that bed. This was what I had to work with at 10am this morning. Such a sad looking place.

Poor hubby, he is a trooper. We stopped at Home Depot last night and picked up some new flowers to plant (hoping they take root and are around next spring), some blocks to finish one of the edges, and mulch.

I say poor hubby cuz he was out of town all last week and I know this project was very low on his to do list but he did help me out and planted the eight new plants I bought and helped with the laying of the weed barrier and the mulch. I do hope that weed barrier does its job for me.

Looks pretty nice if I do say so myself. We will be adding more stone blocks at the upper right hand corner and probably get rid of the railroad ties that are pretty gross looking. I am loving the look of the black mulch. We have always used red or brown up there and I think it makes the rocks pop more.

Anywho... hubby and I are both pretty beat. I think I shall call it a night and head to bed. Plus my allergies are in full force tonight due to playing all day outside with plants AND hubby mowing the lawn with me in the bed. Yikes. I'm lucky my eyes haven't fallen out of my head yet. I'll post another picture once we finish up with the blocks.

project done!

Okay... it is not pretty. I never claimed it would be but some people (named Alien) insisted on seeing this half wall before the wood was added. She'll be sorry she asked for it, but here it is!

It is in our entry way. The one we use all the time. We had to do some patching from having gates up when Alex was a little one and getting into EVERYTHING!! Yes it has been awhile since that time, but I am nothing but slow sometimes!! At least the holes are patched and the wall has been primed and now is ready to be painted. See some things happen!!

Our couch is on the other side of this wall, which you will see in the next picture.

Ta- da! Hubby brought in his 'toy' and nailed everything down today. Toy = some manly tool that makes a lot of noise and he likes it. LOL Once the wall gets painted, it will look down right neato! The lamp will not be up there, but the table still needs to be inside for a day so that it's dry. Yup, that's the sad little table that has lived it's life naked in my house but now has a new lease on life. The top is a bit stained as it has been around for 5 years with no protection on it. It makes it look loved. At least that's the story I'm sticking to.

Anywho... that's my half wall with the wood all installed. And a clean couch!! Since we were working there, I tore apart the couch and got rid of all the extra cheerios that somehow always land under the cushions. I do it a few times a year yet it always needs it!! Strange how that works.

Yesterday we went out and I brought my camera to show my twin Tania the lillies that she gave to me a few years back! They are coming up nicely. They are the three little spots of green in the rocks. Two on the right and one on the left. They are growing in number every year. I am very excited about them. The wind thing is from MIL's store and has a ladybug on the other side. My planter needs some new plants for this year but it's too darn cold to do anything right now. And I need to de-leaf that area in a big way.

Oh yeah... don't look at the deck and it's partly stained self. That is a project I WILL COMPLETE THIS YEAR!! I've only been working on it since 2008! I get a bit further every year. Never mind that the deck itself is 16X20! or is it 18X20? Either way it's a beast! Next deck I am building will be stained first and then assembled. I am not doing this again!

I've been scrapping a bit today. After the wall and the cleaning. Need to journal and I'll have another couple of pages done!! woohoo... go me!

Have a super weekend!

back again!

I keep getting lost on my way here!! Not sure what is up. But the good news is I may have two posts today since I had some favorite pictures to share and I need to post some layouts I managed to get done!! I know, you are beside yourself with glee!! Contain it for now. LOL

My little guy in the tub with his new bubble blower toy that he got for his birthday. He was having a blast blowing the bubbles everywhere (in the tub, not on the floor!!) It did make bath time fun that night!!

Last nights dinner and dessert. We didn't manage to get to the brownies yet, they didn't cool down enough before bedtime. But the mac and cheese was heavenly!!

This is what I am working on today. I am staining the wood for our half wall in the family room. Yup, the pieces have been cut for a few months and sitting there looking at me. I finally got them back out to the garage and was able to stain all the pieces. I probably won't get another coat on until tomorrow (if it isn't too chilly in the garage) or I'll have to wait till Thursday. But it should be all set for hubby to install this weekend! Go me! I rock!

Tonight Kira has her Dessert and a Show for the chorus and band. It's one of their fundraisers for their field trip in June. I am looking forward to it. Can't go wrong with all those sweets, beautiful voices and lovely musical instruments!!

I'll try to post my layouts in a bit. I need a shower... me stinky.