A Random Wall Collage....

I'm trying to actually get things on the walls in this house...

yes, I've lived here for almost 8 months and I'm just now getting around to hanging things.

It's just the way things are ;)

Thank goodness for this "nesting" that has kicked in or else I think they'd be bare forever!

This house has super high ceilings and big bare walls and I keep drawing a blank as to how to decorate them with more than just pictures.

Enter wall montage/collage...

This area was my first attempt in the living room and I'm loving it! I went with a "natural" kinda theme, but it felt like it was missing something at the very bottom before Christmas (I had plonked a Christmas thingy there for the time being).

Leave it to the ever craft Amy and the Christmas package she sent me with a lovely dictionary page wreath she made me!
Filled in the last spot and I love it!
Sorry there's no close up of it, I'll have to get a shot of that another day.
And the painting of the farm/horse was a random thing I got at a garage sale and I originally got it for the frame, but when I brought it home I just fell in love with the whole thing! Oh $2 art, you make me happy :) 

And remember these perdy things?!?....

Well, I have to say, one of them turned was a crafty success and the other a giant FAIL! 

I'm not done with the transformation, but I'll hopefully have an after picture (and plenty of the epic "fail") up tomorrow.... we'll see if I can fix that one. 

Might be more than one human can do though ;)

A Mini Craft Session...

I have been working on this Fall-esque tree (inspiration from Cluck Cluck Sew ) to go in a frame in my bedroom...which still looks the same as the day we moved into this place.   

Seriously, my room is sad. Just a mish-mash of all the stuff and furniture that didn't work anywhere else in the house. It's time to do something about it.

Anyway, I was working on mine and my Mini-Me was right beside me chattering my ear off and decided she wanted to make one too. So instead of my usual, "wait Aubrey, maybe we'll do it later" annnnnd then forget and never do it, I actually stopped what I was making and made one with her.

Stopping what I'm doing mid-project is NOT a gift of mine. I get something in my head and barrel forward, poor Aubrey.

Anyway, this is what we came up with from my scraps and I love it!

I did another thing that I normally never do, let her choose all the stuff and place it....and I didn't even move anything around (as you can tell by the same fabrics being beside each other!), it was like I wasn't even me! But it turned out so amazing and she was SO proud of it and herself :)

I was going to frame it, but decided to leave it as is and just make it a little wall hanging in her room.

I'm lovin' me those frayed edges too! I mean, how cute are they?! 

Annnnd here's my shameful fabric purchase I made the other day. In my defence, it's Anna Maria Horner....Anna Maria Horner for goodness sakes! Look at that lovely Innocent Crush fabric (which, oddly enough, I've been crushing on for quite some time--hahaha), sooooooo beautiful....AND 25% off! Now, if I can just get the gumption to cut into it...

Linking up here....

A Million And One Different Directions: A Look Inside This Head of Mine...

*Every time it rains Aubrey asks to go outside and play in the rain. I don't know how it doesn't get old for her, but it doesn't and she asks....every. time.

*I haven't blogged in forever. Sorry, but I just haven't been feelin' it, ya know? Call it writers block(hahaha, me. a writer...funny) or call it lazy, but I just didn't really have anything to blog about.

*When I did, it was a ginormous negative blog about my potty training woes. So I decided to spare you more of my pathetic attempts at blogging. You're welcome.

*I've found two cockroaches in my house so far....trying to not let this go negative....um....can't. EW! I keep telling myself, it's just the South, but we're calling the property manager today and getting him to call someone to exterminate.

*I've lived in Grenada with cockroaches, and not just cockroaches, but cockroaches that gave birth in my house---meaning baby cockroaches EVERYWHERE! That was/is something I was/am not willing to go through again! So bring in the cavalry!

*It's still hot here.

*When will it cool off??

*oh, right. Never.

*I can't get enough Big Macs (yup left field).

*Am I the only one that thinks they are quite possibly the best fast food burger in history??

*I am an unashamed McDonald's lover. I could go on and on about how I love it, right down to the creepy fries. You know, the ones that if you find them a month later in some hidden crevasse they still look and smell the same....like they've been Cryogenically frozen or something??! Yup, those...mmmmmm.

*Aubrey's potty training is still going on...."this is the song that neeeeverrrrrr ennnnds....."

*Aubrey is currently better at pooing in the potty than peeing....?!? HELP ME

*Zach had the weekend off! He even got off early on Friday so it felt like a full weekend, you know, like the normal people get :)

*Oh ya, almost forgot.... I'm pregnant :)

1995 Called....

My main beef with this house--to be honest, it's probably my only beef with our house, are the borders the owner decided to so lovingly place in 4 of the rooms. Seriously, this house was built in 2005, not 1995, why would they do this.....

...to the master bathroom(FISH?!? really??). And this....

...this, to the master bedroom! Not to mention this...

...in the main bathroom and last but not least this.....

to the kitchen. REALLY?!? I have not brought myself to be able to rip it down yet(we can paint, but have to have the approval of the property manager for the colors). At one point I thought that I'd find a nice embossed border to cover it, but no one carries nice borders, imagine that. Anyway, at least they left us with this easy-to-decorate-around light fixture! Hahaha I can't bring myself to even turn the light on. I don't want the attention to be drawn to it's loveliness....

wow. That's all I can say.

In other news, I think I may be trying to get too many pictures of Aubrey lately because when she sees the camera out, all I get is this....

And this. Maybe I need to put the Pentax down for a bit :)

Beds, Wall Collages and Potty Trains.....

Zach and I went to our first ever Augusta garage sale(yay!!) on Saturday and the first time's the charm, let me tell you! We picked up this queen pine sleigh bed for a smokin' deal. And when I say smokin' I mean SMOKIN'! Seriously, we got the mattress, box spring and bed--WITH delivery! We were so excited because we eventually wanted to get Aubrey a bigger bed(she was still in the toddler from of her Ikea crib, it was one of those convertible ones) and if we were going to get her a bed, we were going to get a queen sized one so we could have maximum guest housing possibilities!

But we were not going to pay full price for one because, well, we can't afford it! This was actually good timing because Aubrey's been falling out of her bed a lot lately. She moves A LOT when she sleeps and I think there was just no where for her to go in her teeny tiny bed.

Now normally I'm the kinda person who's all about their kids paying their dues and sleeping in a twin bed and sharing a room. No joke. I think that kids have way too much "personal" space these days and with TV's in their rooms, computers, cell phones, etc they never have to come out and interact with their families. They just go to their rooms and hide away. Not my idea of a good time, for anyone. Ok, I'll get off my soap box now. But this was a smart purchase for our family, even if it kinda goes against what I believe....that sounds warped. Moving on...

I found this wonderful quilt/sham set at Marshalls for a great deal and after I bought a mattress cover(a bed bug one, because a used mattress kinda freaks me out....even though the people we bought it from were super clean and the house looked in tip-top form too!) the bed was ready to go! I LOVE this bedding, I feel like it'll last her for years to come, not too kidish.

Isn't the bed beautiful?!?

I've been on a spray painting bender lately and have been working on the decor for Aubrey's room. I'm glad that I don't have a "theme" to follow with the bedding, pretty much anything will go. I love color WAY too much to be stuck with a particular color scheme :)

I'm working on the different placement of the frames for the collage for her wall. And the storage aspect in her room is needing a total overhaul, but one thing at a time!

In other news, Aubrey's potty training now and to be honest, it sucks. I'm not a fan of this and I want to hurt anybody who tells me that they potty trained in a day/week. It is NOT clicking for my girl, not sure why. Don't get me wrong, there are good days when she only has one accident(of the poop variety) but most days there are more accidents than not. Frustrating to say the least. I've tried everything, but the thing that's working best is the star chart. She's been doing better since starting this and we call it her "Potty Train" chart since that's what she calls her potty :) "Mama, I have to go pee on the Potty Train!" Too cute! These pictures looked fine in iPhoto, but are fuzzy here for some reason! Posted them anyway because she was so happy posing by her first stars on the chart!

You Asked For It.....

This is your fault, you asked for pictures of my place and now you have to look at this mess. Yup, all your fault. Here it goes....

My sewing room/Zach's office/guest room is up a set of stairs and is the only room on the second level(in a converted attic).

BAMMMM

Mess. BIG mess. For some reason I have zero motivation to deal with this room. As much as I want to get back to sewing, I can't bring myself to deal with it. I can only deal with little doses of sorting/unpacking/organizing while Aubrey is sleeping, or watching a show.

We've got the general layout down, and pretty much all of the unpacking. May not look like it, but we have made progress! I totally called the window for my desk, and I pretty much take up the whole office, save for one wall. I think it's fair seeing as to how he's only used the office once so far and is working 12+ hour days and will never been in there. See my logic?! I'm good.

There is TONS of storage off of this room(because it's in the attic), there are two doors(you can see one in the above picture, off to the left IN the closet) leading to huge storage spaces in the attic/sauna. We toyed around with the idea of putting our workout bike in there and going for the 5 minute sweat workout ;) Seriously, it's so hot that I'm not storing candles or anything that could remotely melt in there.

And here it is after a rare day of me sequestering myself in this room for many hours. Sorry for the dark pictures, couldn't be bothered to retake them! You know how long it takes to fold fabric all the same way?!? Seriously, I LOVE my fabric stash, but we needed some time apart after this particular day. Absence, after all, does make the heart grow fonder.

I still want to refinish a few pieces in here, they're all garage sale specials :) And I would love to find a cutting/ironing table too. It will go smack dab in the middle of the room, it bothers Zach that all the furniture lines the walls! Funny guy.

And here's his teeny tiny corner....oh, see? He doesn't even get a full wall! Muahahahaha!

{and for the record, those boxes are now unpacked.....everything is strewn on the floor, BUT they are unpacked!}

Things I Love About My New House.....

*the backyard--not so big, but there IS a backyard!!

*garage....which is currently in need of being cleared out, lots of empty boxes in there...not to mention all the random things we have not found a place for yet:)

*the stairs. Sounds crazy, but Aubrey goes up them just for the sake of! We didn't have any stairs in the house in our last place(just outside) and it's so weird to think we have another level to this place!

*speaking of another level....my sewing room!! oh, and I guess technically Zach's office too;) To have my own space for once, weird.

*all the outlets!! To not have to use an extension cord every time I want to plug something in....not to mention all the times I'm wondering if this is the time I'm going to blow the fuse!

*eat. in. kitchen.

*washer and dryer...IN the house!!

*did I mention the backyard?!?

*that all the cabinets are white... and the countertops neutral, who'da thunk?!?

*our property manager....not some crazy landlord to deal with! He actually got something fixed within about 2 hours of us calling him about it and he texted us after and apologized for the long wait?!? Seriously?? Does he know where we came from???

*my walk in closet!

*TWO bathrooms!! and one's in the master suite....

*my master suite!! (so big we don't have remotely enough furniture to fill it...lookin' kinda sparse...gonna have to go garage saling, darn!)

*the rent...so cheap!!

*my new Dyson vacuum....I know it's not a part of the house, but we got it because of all the carpet in the house and our $49 Kmart special was just not gonna cut it!

*and best of all?!? N0 people living above OR below us! SO amazing!!