How excited am I?

Pretty damn excited. I just finished sewing a duvet cover for Taylors bed. I know, I know, its not a prom dress or anything. I just had to sew 3 1/2 sides together to make a glorified pillow case, but still.... I stress myself out over stupid details, and now that this cover is completed I feel much better. Plus its super cute. No pictures yet, but hopefully soon. I still have another to make for Bella, but I need to get another flat sheet first. Taylor picked out what material she wanted it made with today and was pretty excited about it so that made me feel better. I was a little worried how their room was going to work out. I think I was trying too hard to make a theme for it. The theme is just "girl." Walls will be pink w/ white bead board. The comforters are reversible, either pink or primarily pink stripes. By their bunks they'll have their "personal" areas and the rest of the room, we'll work out once we get to that point.

Tomorrow Bri and Brandon are finishing the painting in Brandon's room and pulling out the carpet. The laminate may get started tomorrow or sometime this week. Then we move onto the girls room. The basement still looks like a "volcano" per Taylor. Interesting, I thought it was looking better.

I hate painting.

I can't stay in the lines. Its not for a lack of trying, I just can't seem to do it. Usually the first coat goes well and the second coat, well it goes everywhere but where its supposed to. In my hair, on my pants, on the wall thats not supposed to get painted, the carpet and of course, my signature---the ceiling. Tonight was no different.

Brian and I, like I've said before, are working on multiple projects around the house. All the bedrooms need laminate flooring installed and painted, except for Brandon's room who just needs the flooring. The basement need painting desperately! We're getting new carpeting from the basement up two flights of steps to the hallway on the 2nd floor. So I figure, knowing my painting skills (or lack thereof) it would be smart to paint before new carpeting goes in. Brian's working OT tonight, so I figured I should put my "alone" time to good use and get some work done. We're on a mini time table---they are moving in April at the latest and the family (including all my family from PA) are coming March 1st for the girls joint birthday party. Having out of towners means I need places for them to sleep. And the only way to make that happen is to get these projects done and over with. Anyway....I started painting. I was doing so well til coat #2. A spot on the ceiling, a stripe on the brown wall thats not supposed to get painted, as usual I backed up into wet paint so I have my normal ass print (you should see how many sweats, shorts and scrub pants have a huge paint mark on the backside from backing up...), and then to top it off, I thought I lost the cat.

I took the vent off, well, I guess its the air intake? I don't know what it is, but its a big grated thing that I had to take off the wall and it leaves a nice square that connects to a perfect cat sized air duct. I went upstairs to grab something...I swear I was only gone for like 30 seconds. I came back started to paint again and heard this banging. I looked down and realized the vent was off and Baxter was already snooping around in there earlier but I yelled at him and he ran off. I hear all this commotion and I start to freak out. Holy crap, I thought....lets be serious, it was language much worse than that but this is a family blog. Holy crap, the cat climbed in the duct. I start calling his name, got out all his toys, poured some food....no cat. He is trained like a dog....he comes when I call him, except now. So I start to panic. My mind started racing---who do you call when your cats stuck in an air vent? Is it like a cat in a tree when they're hungry they'll come down. He's too fat to turn around, is he smart enough to back up? I was so ready to throw up. I'm such a bad kitty mommy. No wonder the adoption agency won't let me adopt another. I decided to go in the unfinished part of the basement to start banging on the ducts to see if I could find him. And there the little Bastard was. Sitting there staring at me. I swear he was smiling like it was some sick game he was playing on me. For ten minutes I was like a crazy lady thinking the worst about this damn cat and there he is staring at me.

I have never had a good pet/painting experience. Baxter has tried to sniff the paint which left his nose green. He felt the need to rub up against the wall so one half of him was brown. In my old house, our old dog, Duke, tried to drink the paint so his snout was all green and another time, he "pawed" at it and then ran when my exhusband caught him. Yeppers, you guessed it....paw prints through our bedroom.

After typing this, I'm starting to wonder....why the hell don't I pay someone to do this for me?

Here's some before/after pictures. Now, theres some of the basement. Its a mess, but its not always like that. That black shelving unit is getting tossed or pieces used elsewhere. The greenish/khaki mattress is for the futon we just moved down from Brandon's soon to be room. We had to take it all apart to get it down the steps, so its in pieces all over the place. The box....I've tried to get rid of it but its the kids "house." It has wood floor and everything. I'm hoping with the renovations there won't be room for it but I'm sure that idea will get squashed. The plan for down there is: where the black shelving is, we're putting a small media unit from IKEA to hold the flat screen TV which you can't see because it was behind me when I took the picture. Under the mattress are two chairs from IKEA, so they are going to face the TV and the futon is going to be the "couch" which will go where the kids play table is now, of course facing the TV. To the right of that, is my office/craft area. That just needs some paint. Its hard to tell in the picture but everything in front of the mattress (in the foreground) will be the kids play area. Their toy closet is to the right, we're getting big Billy bookcases with doors to hold everyones books and DVDs, and their play table will be moved there as well. Oh, and the house box, I'm sure. Everything will match and hopefully that room will turn out as planned. If it does it should be a good family/den. Plus its in the basement so I don't care if its not perfectly cleaned. But as you can see it definitely needs some work. Sometimes it feels so overwhelming!

Girls weekend....and progress has been made!

My best friend, Laura, was here for the weekend. I had so much fun. She showed up Friday just in time for Happy Hour. We hung out at a bar and had some appetizers and drinks until it got uncomfortably smokey in there. (Only a few more days til the state is smoke free!!) Saturday we spent the day shopping which was great. I hate shopping, but it was really nice having someone there to give me their opinion. We finally decided on how to decorate the girls rooms. It involves some sewing on my part, but I think it should work. I need to make duvet covers. I'll show you the finished product, if I can do it successfully. We've vetoed the "fashion" theme and moved on to a beachy/aloha/Hawaiian theme. I think it will look cute. We also decided on paint for the basement and a general layout for down there. I really needed her advice----its now motivated me to get myself working again. Brian's working on Brandon's room today and I think I may start painting the basement a little bit as well.

Only downfall of the weekend...NOT WW friendly whatsoever. I feel a little bit bad because Laura's doing WW as well. I feel like I corrupted her. But I don't really feel bad about me eating the way I did. I didn't exactly overdo it, I just made not so good decisions. But that's okay. I had a blast eating out. And today I'm back on plan. My weigh-in is on Tuesday but I'm working for someone so that will be postponed til Wednesday night, most likely. Hopefully between now and then I'll get down at least .2 lbs just to make myself feel like this is worth it.

Fashion, diva bedding.

Anyone have any ideas where to find shopping or fashion themed kids bedding? I'm having a hard time finding stuff. I found one comforter I liked that Target sells, but they are out of stock of twin size and only have full size sheets.

I'm an artist and don't even know it.

Brandon saw his "solar system" picture for his room for the first time today. He's convinced I painted it for him, even though I told him I didn't. I even showed him the price tag still stuck to the back and he said I just put it there so it looks like I bought it. I think he likes it :)

Bad: Eating out. Good: Decor finds.

I'm mildly frustrated with myself. I did awesome on WW this past week...until yesterday. Brian and I went to a class for work yesterday and today. On the way down we stopped for some breakfast at Chickfila. I was moody and ate more than I should of (but definitely less than in the past) and overdid it a little, but I wasn't worried because I brought my lunch and knew I was still within my points range. Lunchtime came and everyone was going out so I ended up going out (they pulled me by the hair and made me go) and had the most fabulous burger and fries. I wasn't supposed to eat that. I was supposed to eat my turkey with light Miracle Whip, but they ordered it for me just the way I like it, strapped me to the chair and shoved the food down my throat. I could barely even chew it. Those bastards!! After class we found ourselves at Chevy's with another couple we are friends with and that sent the day spiraling down quickly. I think I probably ate a weeks worth of points in one day.

Today I guess was better, but not as good as I'd like. I didn't weigh in this week and probably won't because of work. I stepped on the scale at home and it didn't move too much from last week's weight. Its just frustrating that 1 1/2 days of ignorance could screw up almost 5 days of work. Oh well. No point in dwelling.....moving on. I already started to pack my food for work tomorrow. I'll just start over new then.

On a side note, I'm super excited....Brian and I are decorating the rooms in my house for the kids. Brandon has a comforter he likes and wanted the rest of the room to be "outer space." I was stressing out (I stress out about stupid stuff) because I couldn't find anything that was either not too babyish or too grownup. Anyway, today I found a solar system picture that matches the comforter. Gotta love Home Goods. I'm trying to figure out what color to paint the walls. I'm torn between light blue and that greenish color (muted down a little). Now, to get the motivation to get it all done. Still working on the girls room as well. Taylor and Bella will be sharing, so we have to find a happy medium between the two. Especially since I don't want to be redecorating in a year....I think we're basing it off these two pictures. Super sale at Burlington's! I'm a bargain shopper!

I'm hoping its like the military....

I'm hoping the organization/cleaning process is something like the military----break it down then build it back up. We are most definitely nearing the complete "break it down" phase. This place looks disasterous! But, we're making progress. Brian put together his workshop bench/hutch which looks wonderful. I think we'll still need another cabinet or something fit all of it, but its definitely coming together. The finished part of the basement---well, thats in a holding pattern. We know what we want to do but its a matter of taking the first step of starting the project. We've picked out the paint, the layout, the furniture from IKEA....now its just up to picking a time to start that project.

This weekend was very nice. We had the kids and we made a trip to Amy and Chris' for their son's baby naming ceremony. It was very nice. I've been to a lot of baptisms over the years and they are so impersonal. This was very much the opposite. The entire family had a part in the ceremony. Amy's blog has a picture of cutie Carter all dressed up in his baby tux! :)

Just call me Martha....

I feel so domesticated. In the past 3 days I have gotten more household-y stuff accomplished than I have over the past 3 months. The house is clean (well, fairly), meals have been made (with yummy leftovers for lunches), my hot water heater has been replaced (thanks to Brian's cousin Bruce) and I'm well on my way to leading an organized life. I'm slowly but surely (and finally) organizing this house. Its amazing how much stuff you can fit in a tiny space if give it all a "home." Its not cheap though. God, I spent way more than I ever wanted to, but I think it will be worth it in the end. I'll spare you all the boring details of my organizing days, but just know, I'm on my way to achieving a resolution.

Along those lines, rooms need to be painted (re-painted). Any helpers out there? :)