February Update

I haven't written too much this month because it has been CRAZY busy around here.  Just a quick update on the projects we are currently working on:

• Finishing up the girls' dresser
• Finishing out the playroom bathroom - staining cabinets, cleaning up paint, putting fixtures back up, etc., and then it should be functional again!  YAY!
• Refinishing an end table for the playroom
• Brian has been gradually getting baseboards put back in upstairs, so that's awesome!

Can't think of anything else right now.  Business has been busy, so that's always great, but then I don't get as much done around the house.  Oh well ;P  I'll take it!

Next major projects that need to be completed are new carpeting installed, and our goal is to unpack every box and have every room functional (though not fully decorated) by our 1 year move-in anniversary.

I'll try to do a massive photo dump of updates soon :)

Valentines 2014 Cookies

It was a busy week here in our house.  B got stuck in DC, so I was flying solo with 4 kids while trying to get about 6 dozen cookies made for orders, teachers, etc.  Needless to say, I did NOT get a lot of sleep ;P  But I think the end result was pretty cute:

Inspiration from the lovely Sweet Sugar Belle:

Yes, I'm aware that  my frosting was too thick on these, but when it's late, you work with what you've got ;P

Inspiration from this rose bouquet I found online

And again, inspiration from Sweet Sugar Belle.  I *might* have a cookie crush on her ;P  Except, instead of frosting, I used actual chocolate melts for the chocolate dipped part.  I just couldn't stand the thought of biting into a cookie that looked dipped in chocolate but didn't TASTE like chocolate ;P  I also used this tip from LilaLoa on how to get the perfect deep shade of red.  It worked really well!

Box of chocolates cookies inspiration from Sugar Bliss Cookies:

And I can't find the original post, but this idea came from this pin.  If you know where the original is, please let me know so I can credit them.  Thanks!!  I personally like the first one best, but my kids told me they liked the second one better.  What do you think??

As you can see, I might have had a bit of fun experimenting with these :D  Hope y'all had an amazing Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day Decor

I just BARELY got some stuff up for Valentine's Day this year - I had plans for a lot more, but since it's already the week of, I figured I'd better not.  This wreath, for starters, was a pain in my rear.  I'd made a circular one before, but those wire frames typically have 4 wires connected together at various spots.  This square frame only had 3.  I kept wondering why the technique I used last time wasn't working, and then I figured out that that was the reason.  Blarg.  This is one yard of red burlap, which I realized was not going to be enough.  I was NOT going back to the store, so I rummaged through my hoard stash of fabric and found this tea-stained linen left over from this project.  I ripped it into strips and used that for the outside.  There was just barely enough , which is why the bottom is not quite as full as the top ;P  I had to use floral wire, needle and thread to get this thing to stay together.  I'd show you how to do it, but I'm 100% sure that I wasn't doing it right and that there HAS to be a simpler way out there to do it.

The sign in the center is a white wire hanger that I clipped the hook off of with my wire cutters, and just used a cookie cutter as a template for the heart and hot glued it over the "o."  Phew, glad that's done with!

This is my free printable that I posted a few days back.  I printed it onto 4x6 card stock, then used a bunch of matches and in small sections burned the edges.  The parts that are brown, I stuck the match under the paper for a few seconds, and blew it out before it caught fire.  The sheet music behind it is vellum from Hobby Lobby, and the frame is also from Hobby Lobby.  I LOVE it!!

I got the idea for this little mercury glass Mason jar from this blog, found on Pinterest.  Adorable, but I'm not really a doily person, so I subbed the mercury glass effect instead - following this tutorial.  I traced a cookie cutter for the heart and you can get red bakers twine in the ribbon department at Hobby Lobby.

 What are you decorating your house with this time of year?  I'd love to see some pics!!

Today, I've linked up over at
Skip To My Lou's - Made By You Monday
Keeping It Simple

Free Valentine Printable

This is just a quick little thing I came up with - Arguably Mr. Darcy's most famous quote, in the Jane Austen handwriting font :)  This size is 4x6 for a cute little frame, maybe like this one from Hobby Lobby.

Download here

P.S.  It looks weird on the Dropbox page, but it downloads correctly - I checked :D

Our "Fun" *ahem* Surprise

So, based on the condition of the carpet in the rest of our house, we knew that there could be some other spots of animal urine that we hadn't found yet.  But we've lived here for six months and hadn't really smelled anything, so we figured we were mostly in the clear.  And then WHAM.  I was cleaning up the kids' toys in the playroom last night and WHOOSH, a waft of pee smell hit me in the face.  I mean, really...it was pungent.  I walked into the corner by their toy bin, and didn't even have to look any further for the culprit.  Yikes.

Hubs was working on installing the baseboards in that room today, and I asked him if he could just treat that corner before putting it in.  Here I was, thinking he'd just peel back the carpet, spray it with some Nature's Miracle enzyme spray, maybe get the boards with primer, and be done with it.  He did that, but then he decided to check every corner in the room.  And sure enough, more pee spots.  Good night, that poor animal.  At least they weren't as dark as the stains in the dining and study.

Now we realize that in the much-sooner-future than we had anticipated, we are going to have to replace the carpet upstairs.  It's the pad that has soaked up the majority of the urine, and there's just not much you can do about that I guess.  And to think, that carpet won't even be a year old until March :/  So sad.

This corner was still wet :/  Had to dry before Hubs could spray it... So gross.

Someday.  Someday, this house will not be disgusting and we won't find anymore nasty surprises from the previous owners.  All the nasty surprises will be from our kids ;P