T'was Two Weeks Weeks Before Christmas

I could update you on all the big things I've missed in the last few months, but since all five of my readers are FB friends, I'll just skip that and jump right to something REALLY important...

Christmas Stockings.

I have a friend who makes them. She owns Divastitch12 and is amazing at sewing awesome things. She is also the one who urged/inspired me to buy a sewing machine and a few weeks ago also convinced me I was capable of sewing stockings for my, now, family of five.

I started out on Pinterest {{where I start all my important projects}} and found a link to a pattern I love on etsy at a shop called YardsandYards. I purchased it and on black Friday picked up the fabric necessary. It took a few weeks to make time for them, but once I got going I was SO excited!!

The pattern was SUPER easy to follow. {{I'm new at this whole pattern reading thing, remember?}} But I was pleased to find very detailed instructions with pictures. I even managed to make them all the same size {{Wowza!!}} I had my friend embroider our names on the cuffs and I even managed to make all the names show and hang in the same direction {{A Christmas MIRACLE!!}}

I freakin LOVE THEM!!

Yay!! Christmas!!

I neeeeeed to blog!

Remember my post about our computer and the creeper who fixed it? Well, he didn't fix it and it officially crashed about a week after I wrote that blog. J felt sorry for me, trying to do everything I needed a real computer for on my phone and we decided the least expensive route would be for me to have a tablet, which would, in theory, get me to his home-arrival date. We have a brand new laptop, it just happens to be with him. In Afghanistan. Probably in a foot locker. Where I can't use it. I'm still not positive how that came to pass. The one we had was dying when he left {{hence, the new one}} and I'm not exactly sure how the new one went to Afghanistan and the old one stayed home to die here {{no TAPS for a laptop, huh?}}.

Anyway, for about a month I made due with the tablet and my phone. Both of which I could have typed a blog on, but niether are entirely comfortable for long winded post-typing and also {{an more importantly}} we didn't really have anything exciting going on. Our days come and go with Groundhog Day-esque monotony, broken only by random appointments and pay day errands. Fully narrated {{for your viewing pleasure}}, not by Bill Murray, but by the awesome observations of an almost three year old. She tells me what we are doing from the moment she enters my room in the morning until it's time to find her princess flashlight for bed. "Mommy, you wakin up now? Mommy, you changing baby sissers butt now? Mommy, You making cereal? Mommy, that noise is the coffee pot. Haha! Beep! Beep! Time for coffee, Mommy! Mommy, you eating toast? I like to make toast, can I help? Mommy, you unloading the dishwasher? Mommy, you walking up the stairs now?" It. Goes. On. AAAALLLLLLLL DAAAAAAYYYYYY. Sometimes, the narrative stops {{thank you, sweet Jesus!}} and she uses a series of clicks, beeps and bops to communicate {{womp, womp}}. My point is, if I posted about our days of this I would very quickly lose any readers I may have, so I just haven't posted.

On the up side, lately I have thrown myself full into getting my long list of projects done. I have made a nice dent in the list but this funny thing happens when you accomplish one project, you think about another one to add to the list. So, while I may be getting a lot done, I can't seem to get to the bottom of the to-do list. The biggest project is re-doing the rooms upatirs to accomodate our pending arrival. The bonus room {{currently our active living area}} with the girls room. What is currently Bugs room will be the man cave. What is currently 2.0's room, will be the Mama-cave {{I wish my name was Wanda so we could call it "Wanda-land"}}.

Here is where "we" are in our massive room re-dos: {{Some day each of these rooms will have their own post}}

I painted the man cave in the NFL colors of Js favorite team. {{It's funny because the princess bed is still in that room and it just looks silly!}} From where he is, J has been Ebaying team paraphernalia and chotchkies to fill his space and make it a happy home for his butt. The room will be loaded to the gills, but hopefully, in a classy way and not in a bad Applebee's way.

The girls room has been painted. This has been difficult because it is still acting as our family room, so trying to decorate around the sofa {{any one want to buy a giant couch?}}, tv and my office has been kind of a pain. I bought one color to paint the whole room and it turned out to be the same color the builder used {{womp, womp}}. We decided to paint the top half of the room in the light cream color and do a pink that coordinated with the fabrics I am using on the bottom half of the wall.

I love the way it turned out and with the way I am using everything, I think it will be girly without being punch-you-in-the-face-pink {{not what I was going for.}} I also finished the girls name art. I mod-podged my fabric scraps to the letters for their names and each girl will have a wall with their name and maybe pictures of them {{or something?}} I haven't really decided on that yet.

My next project is to get the furniture I have purchased for their room painted. So far we have a nice three drawer nightstand {{free from a friend}}, a five drawer dresser {{$45 from a local thrift store}} and some shelves that we had, that I decided to up-cycle for their reading area.

I have also been doing a TON of sewing {{hello? How come now one told me how addicting the sewing machine was?!}} and I have decided I'll be using Wal-mart flat sheets for everything in the future. Inspired by the awesomeness of the little reading tent I made, I am making matching duvet covers for each of the girls.

{{Still a work in progress}}

Sadly, the Mama-cave has taken a back seat to the other rooms. I really want to have a nice place for J to go to relax when he gets home and I also want the girls to have a fabulous room. That being said the Mama-cave re-do will probably not be done until after the new year. However, I am already pinning ideas and I know how I want it to look, and that's half the battle, right?

Stay tuned for more projectopia and a very late baby update {{whoops!}}

I will do anything to keep from doing dishes

See?

Remember this from my last post? The tutorial was very easy to follow and I'm Bug is in LOVE with her "sand castle" {{that kid is SO cute!}}

ugh! Now for the dishes... womp womp

Inspiration

Since J left and I found out I was knocked up again, I have been suffering from some serious lack of motivation to do anything. My house is clean enough, the girls are fed, work is getting accomplished, but other than that, everything else is just sitting. It's not all from a lack of motivation. Between the kids and the dogs, some days I feel like I'm fighting an up hill battle trying to make a nice clean home. Pretty much every time I accomplish one task, one of my children {{be it furry or not}} destroys something else. It's very frustrating and in my case motivation-killing.

However, now that we know that baby3 is a little girl, we have to do some serious rearranging of the upstairs of our house. Right now, we have one child in each bedroom {{us in the master, obviously}} and we use our large upstairs bonus room as a family/man room and an office. Well, that won't work now. We have decided the best way to accommodate three girls is to put them all into the large Bonus {{which conveniently has three walk in closets}}. Then J will have his own man room and I'll have a proper Mama-cave. The room is big enough to last the three of them until J can retire and then we'll be on to bigger things {{and houses}} anyways.

I have been having fun planning a nice girly room for our little princesses and thought I'd share some of my inspirations for their room.

Color Palette

Source

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Wall Decor

Source {{LOVE!!}}

Source

I want to do something fun for each girls name, above their bed.

Curtains

Source

Maybe some ombre ruffly curtains to match their color palette?

Something Fun

Source

One of the BEST things we have done for Bug {{and eventually our subsequent children}} is enrolling her in the Dr. Suess book club {{a GREAT gift for any child!}} She loves to read and LOVES getting the books for her in the mail. We signed her up when she was 18 months old, so she has developed quite the collection. I want to turn what is now the office, into their reading/ color area. It'll have book shelves, a black-board wall, a small coloring table and hopefully a nice little place for them to curl up with their books.

Lot's to do... and I can find motivation in the fact that when it's all said and done, this mama will have her own hiding space!

A Very Backyard Photo Bomb

Have you ever had one of those moments in a store when you see something you really don't need but absolutely have to have? Of course you have. It happens to everyone. My problem usually then becomes, "If I get one of those, I'll need two of those. If I get two of those, I'll need to plant five of those. If I plant five of those, then I'll need to get some of that, too." It's a downward spiral. The whole giving a mouse a cookie thing. Anyways, Most days when I have those moments I get what we call "Analysis Paralysis" {{aka a walking zombie in a hardware store trying to figure out cubic yards and square feet}} and I will usually leave the store empty handed with a headache. Today when I had the urge to splurge on something kind of unnecessary absolutely fabulous, I totally gave in.

My first problem is that we got the swing set put together {{btw, total pain in the a$$. Probably not worth the *awesome* deal we got vs. the amount of time and energy going in to figure out the missing ((and extra)) pieces. What's important here is that Bug is SUPER happy.}} I'm one of those people who likes to get things done. Once a project is started, I'd rather just finish it and be done with it. With the swing set in {{and looking awesome in a not so awesome looking yard}}, I really felt like I needed to start tackling my yard projects. The main yard project is going to be to sod. But {{here come the but-if-I-do-that's}} the dogs have done a number on our yard and before we can sod, we'll need to put up a fence to keep them off of it. What's the point of putting sod down if they're just going to destroy it like they've done to our weeds? Those are big jobs. Ones that I most definitely won't be able to handle on my own. So, I picked the smallest two jobs on the list and spent my BEAUTIFUL afternoon filling Bug's sandbox and creating a flowerbed.

{{The kids playing after a day of asking if we were done yet}}

{{Before: Sand pit the dogs like to dig in}}

Step One: Assemble gorgeous blue fountain and LOVE it!

Step Two: Add Soil

Step Three: Plant Flowers

Step Four: Mulch & VOILA!! {{Needs a border but I LOVE it!}}

The next project will be to make a Victory Garden on the empty side of the screened in porch {{can be seen behind Bug in the picture under Step 2}} and add a compost bin. I've never tried to plant anything so the garden {{and the composting}} will be an adventure. It was a lot of work, but sitting on the porch when I was finished listening to a water feature and my two year old play in her sand box was totally worth it!

Stay tuned for whats next...

Look What I can do!

Ok, so I said I was back and then left again. There are so many other women out there with a deployed husbands that I didn't want to turn my blog into a "Boo hoo hoo! My husbands deployed" blog. Plus, I'm trying to process quite a bit right now and my brain feels like its slowly being poked to death. Creativity {{at least in the writing department}} took a back burner.

Since J left we have had two different sets of visitors: My BFF and my Madre and a family friend that drove out with her. My BFF and I met when J and I were stationed here before he went to DS and we jokingly say that she is my husbands girlfriend and I'm her husbands girlfriend. She ended up getting to be here when J left and it was such a great distraction from him leaving.

{{A man. His Wife. And his girlfriend.}}

While She was here, we made no-sew fleece blankets {{soooo warm!!}} We got the fabric on sale, too which makes it even better! We each used 2 yards of fabric and cut 4" slits into all four of the sides. A glass of wine and forty minutes later - Vwalla!!

Between the time She left and my mom and her friend got here, I didn't really do much but feel sorry for myself. While at the outlets the day after they got here we found a Madeleine Pan. I have been searching for one for awhile {{ok, not really looking that hard}} but all I found was one at Williams-Sonoma for $30 {{and lets face it, I'm cheap.}} After professing my love for the scrumptious tasty snack and promising to make them, my mom bought the pan for me. We used THIS recipe. There were some easier sounding recipes, but I wanted to make a real Madeleine. They were DEEEEEEEEELICIOUS!! The recipe made just under 3 dozen light and buttery cookies.

{{Be jealous!}}

While showing off the sewing machine to my mom and all of the projects I have made thus far, she asked if I could make a travel kit. She's pretty much on the road at least once a week so she uses hers quite a bit. I'd never attempted to make one but I said, "Sure!" We picked up the stuff and I found a TUTORIAL that seemed well written and jumped right in.

My first attempt turned out great except the fabric I had intended for the lining turned out on the outside {{haha!}} and I was sewing while reading the steps instead of the other way around and I had already sewn my seams and couldn't add a handle {{whoops!}}

The second attempt took less than an hour to bust out and it turned out a little not square GREAT! Especially for only being my second attempt.

After my travel-bag success I decided to sew together a tote bag I had forgotten in my pity-party cut almost two weeks ago. I made it from a piece of fabric that I absolutely loved and had no clue what to do with. It's not finished {{I have to rip and re-sew the bottom seam because I missed a piece of the fabric}} but I still think for a first try it was a success!

And last but not least, the Play Set Fairies heeded my call and this weekend, with the help of some friendly awesome neighbors, we'll be putting together one of these

Three weeks down. Only 6 and a half more months to go. I figure by then I should be able to hire myself out for handyman, sewing and painting projects.

Wednesday Wish Day

Ok, I'm back {{I think}}. Since J left I have been moping unmotivated lazy indifferent distracted. I haven't really wanted to do much, much less complain about it. Beyond caring for my children and doing my household duties, I've kind of been slacking. Yesterday when I woke up felt different and I feel like I got more done yesterday than I have in the last week {{but really I didn't}}. The most important thing I did yesterday {{other than enjoying our GORGEOUS weather}} was making a Deployment To Do list. Lists make me happy. They give me warm and fuzzies and make me feel productive even if all I've done is just write a list. It's a pretty ambitious list that has a "short-term" and a "long-term" side. It includes things I've discussed here previously and new things I added to keep me busy {{hey, I have 7 months to fill}}.

After I made the list I prioritized it. As I was doing this, sitting outside on our pretty screened in porch on a gorgeous NC day, Bug was playing in our sand pit weed & sticker infested no grass at all backyard with the dogs. J and I have talked about having sod put in since we moved in. the builder said they seeded but I could probably put up a good debate to that. While watching her chasing the dogs, digging in the sand and falling on her face {{she is my kid}} I decided to add a play set to the list. The more I thought about having a play set, the higher on the list it got. When I realized that if we had a play set, on any given day when my child was driving me bananas, I could send her right outside to play. Suddenly, this was the best idea I've ever had!

This morning I found one that I liked and that Bug would definitely enjoy {{We could put a piece of wood back there and it would make her happy}}. Not only that but the huge amount of sanity saving play time this would give me {{Have I mentioned that yesterday was day three of listening to her favorite make-mommy-want-to-hang-herself noise??}}, makes this almost an instant necessity. Unfortunately, its not in our budget today. Probably won't be tomorrow, but hopefully soon. Also, there's the silly little detail of putting the damn thing together {{probably NOT something I can do by myself}}.

So, my wish for this Wednesday is the play set fairies will visit in the night and drop off a fully assembled {{and paid for}} wooden play area.

Probably not gonna happen... But it's Wednesday. I can wish all I want.

A Few of My Favorite Things - 3rd Edition

~ A full nights sleep!! And {{AND!!}} having both girls almost on the same sleep schedule!! Yes!! I FEEL LIKE A NEW WOMAN!! Last week, I decided it was time to move 2.0 to her own room. She's a noisy little piggy when she sleeps. Grunting and snorting. Groaning and squeaking. The first night, her and I kind of had it out about it. She fought me for a good two hours and after giving up at 11pm, I was determined to win. The next day I laid her down, when Bug napped, in her crib. They both slept for two full hours {{Insert crazy maniacal laughter here!!}} Seriously, TWO FULL HOURS of free time!! That night 2.0 went right to sleep in her own crib and slept. All. Night. I thought it might be a fluke so I didn't say anything, lest I curse the situation. Here we are three nights {{and mornings}} later and it. Is. AWESOME!!

~ Day Dates with the husband. We're so romantic. We have an opportunity to drop the kids off for a couple of hours and what do we do?

Why go to the gun club, of course!

Our Secondary Security System {{Every girl should have one!!}}

It had been almost 7 years since I've fired a weapon. My shot grouping was awesome but couldn't hit the center of the target for nothing. The good news is, I was hitting the target and with the range pretty much right across the street, I can go practice whenever I want.

~ Having plans for Bug to get some social interaction {{even though its kind of self serving because I get to see one of my favorite people and it will give me free time too}}. Today Bug is going to start going to The Little Gym for playtime. As much as I think it's important for me to get social interaction while J is gone, it's probably just as important for her. So we are starting this week so she'll have something to look forward to during the week.

~ Big Blue.... Walls {{haha! Dirty mind!!}} I painted the main wall in our living room on Friday to cover up my child's vandalism artwork because people were supposed to be coming over on Saturday and I just couldn't stand for there to be primer squares on the wall for company. I had been planning to do it anyways but sometimes painting in color can be a bit scary. The color turned out PERFECT!! I loved it so much I painted another wall blue {{also pre-planned but again color can be scary!}}. Advice to you if your thinking about painting - embrace the fear and doooo eeet!

~ Orders. I <3 orders. They make my day/week/month. I love doing something that is for something so special and so personal, like for a wedding or a newborn. It makes me happy to be a part of someone's day and possibly maybe even make it a little more special. I got to blast some champagne glasses for a wedding coming up. They are a surprise so I can't share them just yet, but they are fantastic!! I hope the bride loves them as much as I do!! If you'd like to see more of the stuff I do you can check out THIS page.

~ Tax Returns. I mean, really, Do I even need to say more than that?

~Daddy-Daughter dates. J took Bug to make a "tweasure" box at the Lowe's. It was very sweet and they both loved it!

Have a great day!!

Watching Paint Dry

This is the longest I have sat down in the last three days {{writing this blog, watching paint dry}}. I've been keeping myself SUPER busy. And by busy I mean I refuse to sit still. Sitting still means thinking about things to come. Thinking about things to comes usually means some form of crying. And why do that when I could just turn it into something productive?

Tuesday I blasted for the first time since before 2.0 was born. It was a GREAT feeling to be doing that again and I LOVED the way everything came out... until I noticed a date wrong on the baby prints frame I was making for my cousin {{womp, womp, womp}}. It was perfect besides that. The "Notions" jar turned out great and it was so perfect to keep my desk organized, I made one for my neighbor.

Yesterday I made the girls blankets, rearranged my office, made a pin board for my pictures to free up desk space {{with some fabric I LOVE and had no idea what to use for}}, cleaned the house {{wish you could have seen it}}, went on a walk, let Bug play with our neighbors kid {{Bug's little boyfriend}} for awhile, then made dinner. While dinner was cooking I managed to create a feature wall with our family pics. It turned out WAY cute!! When we finished dinner, we went to Lowe's and to Walmart in search of patio furniture {{which we did not find}}. By the time we got home it was time for bed.

Today I have managed to clean downstairs and primer the walls that had Bug's Sharpie vandalism artwork on them and then painted the sliding glass-door wall and touch up the green wall she tagged. All before 11am. We were supposed to go to lunch at a neighbors house but Bug had a very bad attitude and so instead I am enjoying some quiet time in my office while both girls nap {{2.0 is even in her own, bed!! Yay!!}}. J will be home in a bit and then we're off to an FRG function {{jury is still out on this one}}.

I'm not sure that staying busy is really helping any. I feel like an emotional wreck. I'm so up and down. Happy then sad. Okay then angry. Irritated then needy. It's really quite ridiculous, but I have been assured by several it's all normal {{so, that's good, right?}} This inherent need to stay busy has been very helpful to something more than crossing shhhtuff off my to-do list, it's also great for weight loss. I'm down another 3.5 pounds. What is that saying? "Busy hands, happy mind"? Just need to find enough household projects and crafts to keep me busy until October and I'll be great AND a size two...

Easy, right?