Happy Mother's Day!

Yes, I realize I'm a bit late. I have been putting off this post since then. I have no idea why though. I guess I was just being lazy and didn't want to take the pictures.

When Matt had his art show a while back I saw this awesome wall unit in our fabulous friends shop Out of Vogue. I loved that it had a ton of storage and unlike most vintage wall units it stands alone rather than bolts to the wall for support. That night I took a picture of it and also measured it to make sure that it would fit in the spot I wanted to put it.

Here it is in the shop.




















The next morning I measured the spot and it turns out that it would fit just perfect with absolutely no room to spare. I guess I could have put it somewhere else if it didn't fit, but I really wanted to put it against the wall by the front door.

So for Mother's Day my wonderful husband got it for me. Here is how it looks in our house. I love it more than I can say. I love that I have a great place to display my vintage glass and some of my over-sized everyday items. I also love that it houses our dvd's and cd's so we don't have to look at them all of the time. There is also room for some of our records once we decide to move some into the house from the garage.

Please ignore the crown molding. I've been too lazy to paint it.


















































































































I added this on just because I think this little girl is cute!

Finley's Room So Far

Progress on the house has been slow coming due to finances and my just being lazy. Summer months are a bit lean around here since Matt only gets paid 10 months a year.

Finley's room has been coming along pretty good despite the lack of finances. Most of the furniture that's in there now is stuff that we already had. The bed and headboard are actually the only things we have gotten new for her.

Here are a few pictures of her room so far.

Ultimately I'd like to get her a new larger rug but these will do for now.
















































I'm planning on painting her bookcase red since it is still green from our last room. Ultimately I'd like to find her one that is just a tad larger though.





























I also need to paint the inside and outside of her closet still. It's such a pain in the butt job that I have been putting it off.





























I want to paint the dresser inside of her closet at some point too. My brother had this dresser in his room when he was little. My mom painted it red, white, and blue for him.





























Don't you just love the random electrical plug on the wall? I tried hiding it the best I could by painting the outlet cover the same as the wall color.





























This side is looking a ton better since I took the ugly train table out. Now all of her train tracks are in the chest on the left. I'm still not sure if I want to dress the box up a bit. Maybe glue some decorative paper to the sides or something.




















This side is the least finished so far. I still want to put up some shelves in the corner and also hang some music pictures on the wall. I have a poster from this show in which Matt played in 2 of the bands so I thought it would be a fun thing to put in her room.


























































All in all though I think it is coming along pretty well.

Another Project Done!

I may be on a roll. Ha ha.

My sister gave me a kid sized coat rack a while back that looks like a giant pencil. It was in primary colors so it didn't really go with Finley's room so I decided to paint it in more appropriate colors. I also added a little personalization which makes it super cute. Plus, who doesn't love over-sized everyday objects.

Here it is before minus the hooks which I had already taken off but was too lazy to put back on for the picture.





























Here it is now!!! I LOVE how it came out. The paint needs some touch up in spots but it will do for now.

My First Pinterest Job

Many of you know the addiction that is Pinterest. You find all of these amazing, fun, creative, and yummy things to do and make. If you're like me you have tons of pins but haven't even tried to make anything.

I like seeing the things my friends find and the things of mine they pin. I was joking with my friend Carrie the other day that we are all going to end up with the same decorations, the same clothes, and the same foods at our parties because everyone is pinning the same things. It's kind of funny.

So the other day I decided to actually put one of the ideas I found on Pinterest to the test. The idea originally came from Ready Made magazine (which I already subscribe to and love by the way).

Some of you may remember the sand box I made Finley a while back. It was an old hope chest that my mom found that had no lid.

I turned it into this. Look how little she was.




















Since we moved to the new house I hadn't set up the sand box because I thought it would be a good idea to set it on pavers this time rather than directly on the dirt like it was at the old house. So last week Matt and I worked together to do this.




















I painted them and he set them. Doesn't it look great? I love the colors and love the way it makes a little ledge around the sand box. Don't mind the gazillion toys in the box with Finn. She wanted every toy "in" the box with her. How she found a space to dig up sand I don't know.







































Eventually I am going to make a little fenced in area with pavers so Finley can have her own little spot in the yard. Something along the lines of this, but cuter.

Finally

It's been a super long time since I've made anything. Between the move, fixing up the new house, and just an overall gray period I just haven't had the motivation.

What better excuse to get started again than a birthday. Finley's best friend Jude has a baby sister that was having a birthday party so I decided to make her a little doll from this book. It was hard deciding which one I wanted to make because they are all so darned cute.

Since I haven't made any dolls from the book before I thought it would be best to make Finley one first just in case I jacked it up. I also decided to make a kid sized baby sling (pouch style) to go along with the gift. This is where I am glad I decided to make one first for Finn too. As you can see from the photo below I made it just a tad small. It was a bit tough trying to stuff the doll in there.





























I don't have a picture of the bigger one but adding a few inches made a huge difference.

I do have a picture of the 2 dolls sitting together and I can say that I am really happy with how they turned out. I could use a little practice hand stitching the legs and arms on but you don't see that mess unless you lift up the skirt.

The one on the left is Finn's and the other is the giftie.




















I don't want to jinx it but I think I may be inspired to make some more stuff in the near future.

A Bit of Progress

4 months in and I am proud to say we are making a bit of progress. We've moved all of the random boxes out of the house and into the garage. There's still some painting to do but we are taking it in stride and doing what we can.

Our bedroom is coming together more and more everyday. We still need a headboard and a couple of more pieces of art on the walls. I plan on making a fabric covered headboard as soon as I can find some fabric I like. As for the art I'm not completely sure what I should make yet.

Here are a few pictures I took a while back. Since these pictures were taken Matt has finished painting and installing the closet cupboards, I hung the curtains from actual curtain rods instead of just tension rods, and our handy man replaced the duct vent when he redid the air and heat ducting a couple weeks ago.



























































































































My dresser

















































You see I found a solution to my necklace storage problem. $19 at Urban Outfitters





























My Maia Dogwoo shrine. Morbid I know.




















Matt's dresser. Those are all my chapsticks not his. I have a slight chapstick problem. My favorite is lip smacker Dr pepper. It gives just a tint of color and shine.
















































Sorry the photos are all such tight shots. At this point I don't own any wider lenses.

To Barbie or Not to Barbie?

Back when I was still working part-time and my wonderful sister was watching Finley for me it came to my attention that Finley really enjoyed playing Barbies with my niece. The first thought that came into my somewhat feminist mind was, "Heck no! I don't want Finley playing with barbies!" The more I thought about it, though, I came to the conclusion that I was being way too silly. I mean what is it going to hurt if she plays with Barbie? I was secretly hoping that maybe she would just be like me and want to cut their hair off and draw weird make-up on their faces.

Since Finn didn't have any Barbies at home at the time, I did what any loving mother would do, I went down to the Goodwill hoping to find a few for her to start out with. Much to my luck it appeared that a collector of sorts had either died or decided to give up their Barbie habit. On my first trip I not only scored one new in the box gem, but two new in the box gems.

If you know me you won't be surprised at how happy I was to find these out of the ordinary "Barbies". The bad thing is that it started a slight obsession to find funny and weird dolls for my daughter.

Here are a few pictures of our current collection.

The whole bunch.

starting at the top left
one of those guys from twilight, Drew Barrymore from Charlies Angels, Cameron Diaz from Charlies Angles, and Vanna White in her Aspen outfit

starting bottom left
Chuckie Cheese Barbie (i know she isn't famous but she does have pizza, tokens, and tickets),
Donald Trump (the great thing about this one is he talks when you push a button on his back)




















Here are a few closeups.

Would you like some tickets and tokens?





























I still need the Lucy Liu doll to complete this set. Also, they are a tad creepy in that their bodies are a little too real.




















The famous Donald. He is a little stiff but says funny stuff like, "I should fire myself just for having you around," and "Brand yourself and toot your own horn."





























My personal favorite and Finley's newest doll, Vanna White. This is no ordinary Vanna, this is Aspen Vanna, complete with florescent ski suit, goggles, skis, and poles. I am a bit disappointed that we didn't find Vanna goes to Italy, Vanna goes to Spain, or all American Vanna.





























Check out the great insert in Vanna's box. If we had the workout equipment all the dolls could use it to get fit.








































So if you guys run across a great Barbies remember to think of me. I mean Finley.