Manic Monday

Manic Monday: Manic Monday #218: "What are 5 things you want to do in your life?

-Pay off our house before we turn 40
-Travel
-Be a great mom
-Live debt free
-Have my own business at one point

This is me being over it.

This week I am going to have FUN. No more painting, organizing, cleaning like a crazy woman.

My fun list for this week includes:

• Go to the zoo
• Take Olivia back to the beach
• Grocery shopping (when did this become fun?)
• Play with Liv in her baby pool
• Not do anything involving cleaning(I may have to break this one once or twice)

Amen.

& I will leave you with a picture of my munchin cutie pie.

A Week of Simplifying(& Painting...a lot)

It was time to bite the bullet and tackle all of those areas in the house that I hate organizing. Luckily I made it through, and did it all within a couple of days. I cleaned and organized the pantry, Olivia's closet, all of my jewelery, my craft room, and that cabinet in the house that has no purpose(at least it had no real purpose before).

I took an old photo holder(pictured below) and turned it into my costume jewelery holder. I keep all the real stuff in a jewelery box. I used pushpins randomly to hang the necklaces on. The earrings are hanging on the ribbon.

I am really trying to simplify things further by getting rid of things we don't need, and refurbishing things we already own to fit in with our decor to keep from buying something new. A can of paint can do the trick. (Just ask my husband who thought I was going to paint our dog by the end of all my little revamping). I only want to buy items I really want or need. Special or unique things.

The picture below shows a CD rack(turned book/misc rack) with various items. The frame at the top used to be a cream color, I painted it white and found the butterfly clip art online. I printed it and popped it in the frame. Looks pretty cute, and cost me nothing. (I won that frame a long time ago at a church function:) The "milk glass" vase started as a cheap, clear vase and I used white paint inside of it to get the milk glass effect. Using it on the inside and just letting it roll around, rotating it as its drying allows it to stay shiny on the outside and it looks store bought. But, it cost me nothing. Woohoo!

I re-covered this lamp below with some fabric I had left over. The green matches our Living room and I love the swirly pattern. A quick little update to the decor and very easy. That lamp is actually "sticky", it is made for sticking things to it. Purchased it from Hobby Lobby for $9 last year. So, I can update it and change it as often as I want to!

I also printed and framed the little sign in the guest bathroom. Painted a frame from the Dollar Tree with Kilz white paint.

I found some art on Etsy, but decided to do it myself. So, I painted two more frames white and made up the art below in photoshop. Both of these frames are also from the Dollar Tree and have a textured look to them that makes them look even better in white. $2.00 total for this little wall project.

I decided to paint our front door red, again. This time in a different, brighter red. Its called California Poppy by Behr. Turned out great and looks better than the boring white door.

Leila's area got an update too. It was moved to this little nook out of the way. Since Olivia has become mobile(very much so, actually) it was necessary to move it out of the way and not quite so accessible. I think Leila likes it too. :)

My garden got a little makeover too! I made some little vegetable markers from wooden sticks, painted them white(I know, I should invest money in paint stocks!) and used permanent marker to label them. It will do for now. It was free, so it works for me.

That's how I spent the week. Olivia spent the week crawling everywhere she shouldn't be and bumping her head on furniture one too many times. Now, she is standing up at furniture too... Oh boy! Good thing I baby-proofed the house a while ago. Life is good and I am looking forward to the weekend! & Resting....maybe.

Sweet Summertime

Olivia taking her first dip in her pool.

Her tutu bathing suit.

Olivia is such an easy-going baby its hard to tell if she actually liked swimming, she just doesn't care one way or another I think. When we first sat her in it she propped her arms back on the sides of her pool like she was pimped out in a hot tub or something.

She turns 7 months tomorrow. SEVEN. Holy moly...Time really does fly with little ones. The first year is probably going to be a blur that's why I try to blog everything here. And I also keep a little file on my computer titled "Olivia's Moments" just to make sure I keep track of all her firsts. It is backed up on a memory card...can you imagine the horror if my computer crashed and it wasn't backed up? Woo. I am just not one for keeping a baby book. Maybe one day I will. But I did make a really cute scrapbook that I will continue to add to.

So, this summer we have not done a whole lot. I keep myself busy with crafts and doing cleaning, laundry, organizing and shopping. I am not a high maintenance kind of girl, so by shopping I mostly mean grocery shopping. It is much less stressful for me if I live a minimalist lifestyle rather than having a bunch of things.

We do have a vacation coming up in November to Disney. Super excited to take Olivia back there and go to the Magic Kingdom with her, I know there will be some tears when I see her face light up at the fireworks and all the cool stuff there. Its something I have always looked forward to- taking my baby to Disney World.

Well thats all thats going on in our house. I am hosting a party next week for my niece, I will post some pictures on that when its decorated. I handmade all of the decorations. ALL of them. And I am doing so with Olivia's birthday too. :)