a little clean up

I'm tired. Really tired but the show must go on. Our weekend consisted of cleaning up and out. When you clean out, you all know what that means. You must part with things. Sometimes I'm just happy to get things out of the house because clutter can make you feel bogged down. Wait, not every kind of clutter just the clutter that ain't cute! Examples of uncute clutter...toys with missing parts, Nascar t-shirts, potty seats, bikini clad torso-ed drinking mugs (I must take a picture of these). Ok, I better stop before I make my family look like uber rednecks.

On to said projects. I had to paint this sweet little Bombay table because one of my ever-so-loving-sweet-little-precious-innocent children decided to climb the chair and soar off of it like he could fly like Batman and tip my sweet little table over! See the big chip on the top left side?

Before: (but after said sweet child knocked it over)

And after:

Now, if only I could get rid of the above plaid chair!

This is my now project. I'm sanding the doors down because I had the grand idea,

oh 8 years ago, to paint these doors with a crackle finish. Grand idea...NOT!

Getting that off is a nightmare! I'm painting the inlay of the doors black

and am painting a fleur de lis on the top 2 doors.

A little spray paint for the knobs and hopefully it will look great.

If not, my husband might ship me and the amoire back to

China where I'm sure it was made.

Happy Monday...now off to sand.

it's not tinker toys

The best Christmas movie in the world has got to be Christmas Story! Hands down. Growing up, we always started our Christmas Story marathon on Thanksgiving Day. I looked forward to the glee of watching Ralphie and his family's antics. It brought laughter the first time and 500 times later I can still laugh so bad my gut hurts. I don't know what is funnier...."F.R.A.G.I.L.E" or the "electric sex" lamp. Surely everyone, yes everyone, has used a quote or two from that movie at one point in their life.

So, when Ralphie's mother asks him what he wants for Christmas he's afraid. Afterall he wants an official Red Ryder, carbine action, 200 shot range, air riffle. He then settles and tells her....tinker toys. Well, our PawPaw didn't get Tristan tinker toys but instead this:

How great is that! I'm not a gun person at all. Actually, I'm scared of them.

But this, oh this....is magically. This is memories.

Now, if we can just keep Tristan from "shooting his eye out".

Because, we all know, those icicles are known to kill people!

Tanner's room is done in an antique cowboy theme. My father in law is an avid estate saler and an awesome carpenter. I had wanted to do Tanner's initials on a piece of tin with a chunky frame around it. He whipped this up and I couldn't be happier. It has a story too. The wood frame is from an old arbor that he replaced. It's cedar wood and smells divine. The hooks are from an old Midtown Memphis house that my hubby lived in years and years ago. I made the letters and decoupaged them...not too much of a story there except they were my first attempt at decoupage. The little silver stars were off a child's belt my father in law found at an estate sale. I wonder if they were some little boy's treasure. You know how they love their little boots and I can just see the belt as a grand accessory. I love it! I'll post as soon as hubby hangs it today.

little ole' man

it starts early ladies.

a good read.

summer staple

Ahh, summer. I hate it! Today our heat index is reaching 107 degrees. What is good about that? Nothing I tell you, nothing. Here in Memphis, humidity blankets the city and you are trapped inside where AC provides you a heavenly escape to the sweltering heat outside. I don't mind heat if I'm sitting on a beach letting my toes burn in the white sand but somehow sitting in the heat with my toes in dirt doesn't quite do it for me.

Being a Memphian, Jerry's Snow Cones is a tradition. You know it's summer when the Jerry's parking lot is packed. So last night we made our summer night a wee bit better by driving to the hood to get a snow cone. For a $1 and some change you can pick from their cheesecake flavor to fire and everything in between.

Now as you can see, Jerry's isn't in the best of neighborhoods. The first incident happened just as we got our cones. With the recent storms that came through we have tons of trucks going around to pick up all the tree limbs. One of those trucks pulls up and out comes him. When I say him, I mean the dirtiest of dirty men....but totally not in an inappropriate way. Just in the 'I've been working in the 95 degree heat for 12 hours and I smell like a dead yak' kinda way. So of course, my kids bring attention to themselves by talking to every person that wants to strike up a conversation. Here is how the conversation went:

Dirty man: Is that snow cone good?
Tanner: Yes, it boobubble goum!
Dirty man: That looks good, can I have a bite?
Tanner: Yes (and literally scoops a bite out and tries to feed the man)
Me: Tanner!!! (screaming) that man doesn't want your nasty germs!!!!
Dirty man: laughing

So the man walks up to the counter, gets his snow cone, and before I know it he is offering Tanner a bite! My body could not move fast enough to stop Tanner from dipping his spoon into the strawberry goodness of a Jerry's Snow Cone. Oh my, my germ wheels were freaking! Most of you are asking, pondering through your little heads....did dirty man eat out of it first? And your answer is no. I guess I shouldn't be too freaked but O.H. M.Y. G.O.S.H!!! Ok, first freak out over.

The following pictures are from Tristan and Tanner spotting a man with a snake, yes...slithery, slimy, germ filled, eat your head off snake, around his hands coming to Jerry's to get some nachos. Ok, ok...it was little snake but ick!!! Mommy was freaking.

Freak outs over and enjoying a cone!

And then they were gone!

a wee change

Every year I grow older I really do grow wiser. I've always heard women talk about

how great of a virtue wisdom is. Well, for me...that wisdom is admitting that I

have absolutely no attention span! One project always leads to another without fail.

Really.

So yesterday I decided to tackle the boys bathroom. Since we live in a ti-tiny house, our guest bathroom is our sons' bathroom. If you have boys you know what a challenge mantaining cleanliness is. I don't think we need to go any further with that one! While I'm cleaning the bathroom I get a whim and think it needs a little sprucing up. Being on a budget these days I decided going shopping is out of the question.

So, when all else fails...go out to the garage and look for the paint. Paint can change so much with such little effort. I'm completely challenged when it comes to paint....I hate to prime, wait for the paint to dry, sand....ughhh. Just thinking about it makes me impatient. I had one of those simple everyday frames around my builder-basic bathroom mirror.

Here is what it looked like:

This is the bathroom curtain that I decided to pull some green out of:

And here is what a little paint can do:
Not a huge difference but enough to make me feel like it's new!
I had the green paint left over from a recent project so it cost me nada....which
always makes you feel good.

So on to the next 'project'.

A little frame I had from when my 1st son was born.

Needs some TLC so again, paint. Yes...paint, sand, sand some more

because I'm impatient, suddenly realize that the paint is coming off

because it's not completely dry (like too much is coming off, paint again but this time

wait patiently overnight). Viola!

I had everything on hand so it cost me zip, zilch. I heart F.R.E.E!

My hubby looks like a baby! This picture was taken right after my

first son was born and he's 8 1/2 now...my how time flies!

It's new home in the bathroom on the shelf.

I guess sometimes a short attention span can be a good thing.

To cloth or not to cloth...or paint?

This is my bedroom...it's a total work in progress. I was blessed to have my mother give me her old bedroom suite along with my grandmother's lamps (which I absolutely love beyond words).

This is the table in question:

To cloth or not to cloth? Or paint?

Since I have a teeny bedroom I like how the bare table lends for a more open feel but

I'm hating being able to see those cords...OCD? The table alone is pretty so maybe I should leave it alone. This table was my grandparents and then my parents so it means a lot to me.

If I painted it would be a aqua/cream/brown combo.

This is one of my favorite things. Tristan wrote a little card to me so I cut out the I love you and framed it. That little circle is a ringlet from Tanner's first haircut.



This rock is one that Tristan chalked for me. I love having little special things
on my bedside.

sunkissed cheeks and a knarly fall

This is what happens when you are going 20mph down a hill on a scooter (and the camera is being very nice...looks so much worse!)

As Tristan put it "that was a sweet fall. did you see me roll over mom?".

Some seriously cute sun kissed cheeks if I do say so myself!
and some more patiently waiting for swim lessons.

HAPPY WEDNESDAY!

Those leg raises have really paid off!

I'm admitting that on occasion, when nothing else is on, I watch America's Next Top Model. I really have no idea if they are re-runs or the current episodes but laughter comes with such great episodes. Yeah, yeah Tyra is great but the true jem of the show is Miss J, runway coach extraordinaire. The real reason ANTM is still on air has got to be him. I long for the chance to see this fierce diva in action. Rarely have I seen such a character as Miss J. The lip glossed, pouting lips, the bows that fan out as big as a peacock's feathers, the hips that pop at the end of the runway, and the scolding eyes that pose as if the camera is calling his name. Ah yes, Miss J.

Guessing Tanner is liking the show too!

amoxicillin, septra, augmentin...oh my!

It's official...I'm joining the Medicare club at Walgreens. You know, the ones that sit in the chairs by the pharmacy waiting for the golden speaker to come on and let Ms. Mildred Evergreen know that her prescription is now ready. This after 21 trips to the counter to ask if her prescription is ready all within 10 minutes. Or the one that walks up and the pharmacy tech says "Well good afternoon Mr. Walter". I am now known by my name. I'm drawing the line at the tennis ball walker....totally not my style. I really started to wonder if I'd ever come back to blogging. Craziness has become embossed on my forehead like the Scarlet Letter. Here is the skinny....Tanner (my youngest) has been sick, sick, sick. Long story short, we have endured sinus surgery along with new tubes and countless antibiotics and specialists. He's been tested for immune diseases to cystic fibrosis. All negative...PRAISE GOD! So for now we wait until he gets sick again and go from there. Would you ever think that the sweetness above felt bad? He's a trooper.

The problem that I find with blogging is that it becomes an addiction because if I blog then that means I've got to go through everyone's blog to see what they are up to. Then, my craftiest friends wow me with their thrift store finds and uber creativity. Their uber creativity leads me to feel inspired. Me feeling inspired ends up tearing through the house to see what I can rearrange so that it looks like I've gone shopping. Me realizing that going shopping would feel so much better than rearranging ends up in running out for that perfect find...which leads to major meltdowns from the boys saying it stinks, I'm bored, and I wanna toy, I wanna toy, I wanna toy (all the while shoppers are scattering out of the store like cockroaches because of ruptured ear drums from the screaming and crying Tanner can do). Their screams bring out the bribing mechanism in my brain that says if you behave I'll take you to McDonald's to get a toy. McDonald's leads to me seeing the coffee but wanting Starbucks instead. My craving leads to sitting in a long line for Starbucks but wishing I had gone to Muddy's . After all, what goes better with coffee then a cupcake. Then me being gone all done leads to laundry looking like Mt. Kilimanjaro and empty pocketbooks. See why I haven't blogged? Anyone else go through this?