playroom

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Once upon a time I had a fancy dining room.

It had beautiful beaded curtains and a wall with a bunch of lovely black and white photos and a pretty bar table that would collect large quantities of dust.

Then came baby O. I first relocated the beautiful beaded curtains because they posed a huge strangulation hazard. Then I had to move the bar table into the kitchen because our kitchen table was baby-face level and glass which posed a hole new set of lethal hazards.

Then my dining room sat empty. I discussed it’s playroom potential but C wasn’t convinced and we utilized our bedroom’s sitting room as the playroom. That was great until O’s second birthday when all the kids wanted to play in there and I was uncomfortable since it was technically my bedroom. That’s when I decided to hell with our fancy decor, our lives were over anyway. Might as well accept fate and be comfortable in our own house.

Then I stole C’s favorite couch from his office and convinced C’s mom (grandmom) to make pretty curtains.

Begin transformation playroom….

Oh, I mixed the steps up a bit – I did paint first. This awkward sea foam color. I had a lot left over from the upstairs hallway so I tried to use what I had without having to buy new.

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I didn’t like the way it looked like a kindercare so I painted over it wit another color I had – and I hate cutting in so I taped a trim line since I did like the sea foam color.

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These are the curtains from Joanne’s that Grandmom fixed up for us. I drove to two different Joanne’s for enough fabric but I really liked it. That’s the cozy couch I stole from C. That couch has seen better days. But it’s nice and low to the ground so when the girls fall off it’s no big deal.

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Then I painted the black frames yellow.

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I had some of those cubes with the girls toys in them but with all the bright colors I wanted something a bit more formal. I found this great armoir (<- I think I spelled that wrong) anyway, I found it on craigslist for like $100. But the guy wanted it gone asap so I got it for $50! It took forever for me to paint it.

I hate Pinterest BTW. It makes me think I can do all this crafty stuff. Then I buy all the stuff just to figure out I am not so crafty. From afar it looks good – and that is enough for me.

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It did not come with that smallish child inside.

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Here is the finished result. Not gonna lie – I kinda love it. I reclaimed that coffee table too. Lets see if I can insert that post – it was one of my earlier attempts at entertainment…

https://amberunraveled.wordpress.com/2014/07/31/reclaimed/

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I got a little silly and painted some shelves yellow too. And found this little canvas that matched, O sings the song all the time anyway so it had some sentimental value an all (but it mostly matched). I wrapped yarn all around that letter O and then said there was NO WAY I was going to do it again so W got the shaft, as per the norm and I painted her W.

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And that’s how we got our cozy playroom. I really like it, it’s functional and gets lots of hours.

handy

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Merry Christmas to meeeeeeeeeeeee.

Santa brought me an automatic wine opener this year and it’s oh-so-handy.

I like how it cuts the wrapper off. I didn’t so much struggle with the cork as I did that stupid seal.

http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/store/product/brookstone-reg-automatic-wine-opener/1018522721?Keyword=wine+opener

C figured it out quick because he’s just like that. My wine bottle spun around in circles until I figured out I had to hold it in one hand and the opener in the other hand. So technically the picture below of me holding it with one hand is false. Def a two hand job, but I needed to snap a picture and I only have two hands so something had to give.

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and presto. It’s more fun that a manual wine opener. and lights up too. fancy! 

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teleworking

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It has been unfortunately snowing here off and on for the past few days (weeks – whatever). It sucks really bad. Traffic is already horrendous on a normal day – add snow and you might as well stay home. Like literally. We have a steep cliff for a driveway too so the littlest dusting calls for teleworking. Not only would I likely slide back down the driveway (hill) but I would slip off the back of the parking pad, which is a cliff down to certain doom.

Anyway, days I telework the girls just basically run wild throughout the house destroying stuff. Example – right now I have about 35 stickers stuck to the kitchen floor I have to eventually peel up at some point.

I’m not sure what drives children to just destroy but I feel as though they would be setting the curtains on fire and burning couches if I let them.

Figure 1 – playroom.

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I force myself not to look in there during the day. C gets so mad because I like to clean it all up at night before I go to bed. It looks so pretty all cleaned up.

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who the bleep

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O just wrapped her first episodic. She’s on fire! She got cast about a week ago to play the leads 5yo daughter. Super sweet! The show is Who the Bleep Did I Marry on Investigation Discovery.

She rocked too, obviously.

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I can’t give any details until the show airs but she had a blast! Well, I never know if she has fun or not. Guess anything is better than sitting at home – but it’s actually work. We keep asking her if she likes doing “acting” and she says YES. So she’s the boss!

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That’s O and her fake big sister Kelly. That’s W too running around like a child that hadn’t napped. She even has crazy hair.

I will let everyone know once the show airs!!

great room

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This is where it all goes down. The great room. I don’t know specifically why some rooms are great and some are called family or living rooms but I like the way you can say GREAT so many different ways.

At least in my head I say it different ways and it’s funny – in my head.

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The little people are in all the pictures. They see a camera come out and it’s “CHEESE” and “CHEESEBEEEERGER” the entire time. All the furniture in here is mix matched. Originally we had glass tables that all matched and looked lovely but they were evicted once the kids started running around. I try to avoid unnecessary accidents as much as possible.

The black side table is actually my kitchen table with the glass top removed. Hopefully we can use that again one day once the kids are taller.

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The TV looks a little sideways…

My – uh, I mean the girls Anywhere Pottery Barn chairs. I love them.

IMG_0243 This surprisingly and extremely comfortable rocking chair came as a set with our camper! I know, so lame to use recreational furniture in your home but it just happened okay. None of us saw it coming. It has more than earned it’s keep rocking babies over the past four years. And I made those pillow cases myself thank you. It took lots of fabric because I messed up the measurements somehow but it all worked out in the end. The fabric was called Waverly – how ironic, right?

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No, it’s not me and it’s not a stripper. It’s a painting of a scene from Dancing with the Stars. A painter at our gym did it. He’s super amazing.

home edition

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I was cleaning and decided to snap some pictures for bloggy world. This is for you Rose, it will be a virtual tour of my house. But minus the virtual tour part. Okay so it will be more like strategic pictures taken at optimal angles to hide all the crap and junk and make me look like an amazing house keeper, cleaner, decorator, what-have you.

It’s basically an optical illusion. As is my entire life.

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HI! Come On In!

Chris randomly called me from Home Depot and said there was a really great door on clearance. Apparently the people who bought it measured wrong so it was an odd size. Being the craftsman as he is Chris made it fit our house by adding extravagant molding details around the frame. It’s so fancy. The old owners last name was “Fly” I think. I think of them often. Like way often. Whenever I open the front door I see FLY written on masking tape on the inside trim. I will pull it off one day.

That crazy thing on the door knob is a child lock to keep in grandparents, visitors and babies.

bringing sexy back

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oldtime us

I was sifting through stuff a few minutes ago looking for something – although for the life of me I can’t remember what it was… and anyway I found this old 8×10 picture. It was such a long time ago, back when we were like so young and skinny. I wore a size like negative zero. I remember this was our first house party. I was actually wearing bubblegum pink pants.

Who wears bubblegum pink pants? God I was bold. And skinny. And tan. And my hair was perfectly highlighted.

***SIGH***

The good old days. When I had a chin, a waist and time to get my hair did. Now when I have free time I walk in circles around the house picking up random articles of clothing or perpetually Windex things. I do love Windex though – it is so versatile.

I felt sad when I saw this photo though. I used to love getting dressed up and doing my make-up. Now its such a hassle. I don’t even feel like putting on make-up because then I have to open my walk-in closet, and if I open the closet I see all the clothes that I don’t like because they aren’t comfortable. Actually, I just lied. I really hate opening the closet because the girs bum-rush me and start opening all the jewelry box drawers and start applying makeup and asking me to paint their nails and want me to flat iron their hair (ugh, yea my girls. and yea they are 1 and 4.) I’ve created monsters.

So the point is I’ve gotta Whoa-man up. It’s like man-up but I’m a woman. I gotta get my pancake a$$ back in gear. We joined the Y and I am going to start to get active again. Maybe do some spinning or body pump. Something. Anything! Me and Justin are bringing sexy back, together in 2015.