What Have You Been Doing???

So I haven't posted for sometime because I have been busy with various projects, indoor and outdoor.

The weather has been fabulous and I am so happy to be outdoors more.

My first project was cleaning up these lawn chairs that a friend gave me. They are iron chairs and were white and rusty from being outdoors so I primed and painted them and got some seat cushions from Lowes (my favorite store ever). I love how they turned out and now we have some seating outback. 

 My next project got a little more challenging, the same friend gave me this wooden bench, and needless to say it needed a little TLC! My handy husband helped me replace the rotten wood and I sanded it down and painted it.

 A little bit of brown paint can do WONDERS!

 And then I found these cute plant stands on a local swap/sell/buy site for $5 and I gave them a coat of purple paint with brown accents and we got this...

 I added a few accents that I had sitting around....

 And planted some flowers with the help of my flower fan Ryleigh... and now we have a nice sitting space on our front porch. But I decided to do another project rather than sit....

 This project I have been wanting to do for some time but haven't ran across the right dresser and the same friend, gave me this dresser and it was PERFECT! (Jena you are a gem! and I will always have these things to remember you by!!!)

 I completely sanded this dresser, forgot to take pictures of it before.... and then painted it this wine color. (It looks way brighter in the pictures than it is.) My handy husband helped me cut out boards to insert into the top two drawers and cut holes for the cords to go through the back!

 After painting it I decided to add a little bit of dark accent to the drawers and side by antiquing it. I added a black lace runner and some accents and am so happy with how it turned out.

 Oh...yeah... and I am due in just four weeks, so I got busy with Ryleigh and Braelyn's room. We are going to attempt to have the girls share a room, hoping that it will encourage Ryleigh to seep all night in her bed rather than climbing in with us in the middle of the night....

 Ryleigh is pretty excited to know that Braelyn is coming to her house.

 We are all ready with diapers, wipes, and we made a special blanket that is just like Ryleigh's 'B' for Braelyn. now it is just a waiting game.

 I found this ADORABLE painting online of two sisters in the cherry blossom swing. Ryleigh says it is her and Braelyn at Nana's house swinging. (Nana has a swing hanging from her tree).

 Well, this is what I have been up to. I have a desk and large dresser out in the garage needing my attention, however I think I need to wait until Braelyn arrive before I tackle another large project.

So.....what have you been doing????

Be My Valentine

BE MY VALENTINE

 I am three and a half and I love to sing, dance, giggle, run, jump and play.

 I am a princess and I love to dress in skirts and hair pretties.

 I am beautiful and perfect and I am my Mommy and Daddy's Valentine.

Upstairs Loft

I have procrastinated finishing up the loft upstairs because I was unsure if we would be moving or not. Our lease ended in January and we were wanting to reduce our housing expenses so we looked into purchasing a home but we did not want to settle for something we really were not happy with. Then we decided to look into cheaper rentals, and were still not too happy, so we took a chance and wrote our landlords a letter requesting to reduce our rent a few hundred dollars a months and to our surprise and shock, they accepted! So now that we will be here a couple more years, I finally got motivated to finish up the loft upstairs for Ryleigh.

 I was soooo excited to find deals at JoAnn Fabrics this weekend on canvases and letters and scrapbook paper! The total cost of this room decor including the goodwill painted picture frames, lettering, and all wall art was a little less than $25. YAY!!!

 I found the idea on pinterest to use the $1 bin Target Dr. Seuss canvass bags on an 8x8 canvass and I love how it added such a sparkle to the room.

For the two quotes I used a large canvass from JoAnn's and two pieces of paper as the background and then attached paper lettering, super easy and fun.

For the alphabet I just cut out the lettering in various blue and reds and attached them to the wall with glue dots.

 Springtime is here. We are so ready to go play outside after lots of indoor play!

It's A Girl!

Ryleigh is going to be a Big Sister to Braelyn Taylor Paige

I have been very behind in blogging which doesn't mean that I don't have hundreds of pictures, it just means I have been to busy to upload them! Now that the end of the year is here I thought I better catch up!

We have been busy busy busy, In October we had all sorts of harvest events and Halloween parties.

Ryleigh has become best friends with Chase and Lily and has been able to have all sorts of fun with them.

 Ryleigh was Tinkerbell for Halloween.

 We have discovered many nice children's play centers in the area and Ryleigh always has a blast at them.

 In October we went to Moscow to celebrate Cassidy's 10th birthday, and of course to love on Baby Brielle!

 November, we celebrated Thanksgiving with both of our families. We visited my family in the TriCities area.

 And we visited Jake's parents in Battleground.

 Ryleigh LOVES to jump! On the couch, on the bed, and at the jumpland!

 We got family pictures to announce our new addition to the family. Ryleigh will be a big sister in June.

 December was full of Christmas festivities. Ryleigh is now at the age where she really enjoys Christmas lights and decorations and of course, GIFTS! We have found that Ryleigh makes Christmas much more exciting. We did Christmas themed artwork the month of December for the art door and Ryleigh loved it!

 We celebrated the weekend before Christmas with Nana & Popi. Ryleigh loved all her gifts and wants MORE.

 We will be celebrating Christmas with Jake's family the weekend after Christmas.

We have had a fabulous year in 2012! Jake loves his job and sometimes its hard to get him home from work. We have really enjoyed the friends we have made so far in the area and look forward to getting to know them better as well as making new friends. Ryleigh has been healthy and happy, and we are blessed to experience the joy she brings in our life. We love the church we attend in the area and thank God for his blessings. This concludes our year 2012 and we are so excited for what the year 2013 brings.

Projects

I have been on call for my work quite a bit and have finally gotten some projects done.... starting with organizing Ryleigh's closet. I have all her outfits hung. :o)

Next I made a makeup organizer. With this I took a piece of sheet metal and spray painted it, cut trim to edge it and attached flowers. I then hot glued magnets to my make and tada....  

 And in my previous blog I had showed that I re-did Ryleigh's playroom, but was I finished?!?! Noooooo.... we got her this table that I have been waiting to get on sale, and it finally was on sale. I put it outside for a week but Ryleigh didn't use it as much as I thinking she would so I moved it inside and it is a HIT!!! So her little train table has moved upstairs onto the loft, which I still am trying to organize (another project).

 And FINALLY.... I have finished Ryleigh's bedroom (for now). Ryleigh has been sleeping in our room and since we have moved to Mount Vernon I have successfully gotten her to sleep in her own bed that was her crib converted into a toddler bed, so now my goal was to work on getting her into her own BIG GIRL room. We found this toddler bed on a local mom's swap/buy site for $30 with a brand spanking new mattress! I repainted Ryleigh's name and frames some Minnie Mouse wall decals to add some spice and hung some simple curtains and added a few other details and ....... and..... Ryleigh LOVES IT! She has spent every night sleeping in there since without any tears, no struggles, and no fight! Unbelievable I know! She call it her big girl room...now if we could just tackle the potty training.....

Now, to the next project..............................................

Leftover Party Decorations......

So.... I had left over party decor and decided to redo Ryleigh's play room with it. Her playroom before was all Strawberry Shortcake from her 2nd Birthday so now it's ballerina from her 3rd birthday.

I took the paper rose streamers and attached them to the wall and put up her ballerina beach pictures.

 I also took the leftover tulle and made curtain squares for above the windows that hide the blinds when pulled up. I hot glued in the flower gems that were decorating her cupcake stand to add a little sparkle. I also took the 3 out of the door wreath and put in a R for Ryleigh. :o)

 I recovered her train table with sparkly pink and silver wrapping paper to go with the ballerina pink theme. And there you have it....

And here is my happy little 3 year old... I think she likes her playroom!