A Slow, Frustrating Process

I think an important thing to do when you're slowly transforming your home - since unless you're loaded, will take years - is to take pictures so that overtime, you can see your space transform.  While my living room has a long way to go from what it is now to what I hope it will one day be, I can definitely say it is reflecting who I am more with each and every day week month that passes.

One of the more frustrating issues that I have to work around is the fact that anything we do here has to be done when we have funds available.  Scott and I had been married two years when we made the decision to cut up our credit cards and only spend what we have. Although I know that financially that's a sound decision, its certainly a frustrating one when one of your strongest personality traits is to get things done the right way, as quickly as possible.  Things left undone drive me nuts and right now pretty much every room in the house is in the process of some kind of half-finished something or other.  Of course the solution there is to not start something and then start something else without finishing the first something, but then, well, there ya go.  Life happens.

My goal right now is to get the stairwell finished by Thanksgiving - which to be honest, I haven't made much headway on.  I want the dining room/parlor finished before Christmas and the Living Room walls painted and new rugs before Spring.  I'm not really holding my breath on that one.  Eva's room will be done before Christmas as well, I just have to tether Scott to a leash and not let him out of her room until he sands down the skimcoat.  LOL!  Unfortunately, I cannot stand the feeling of sanding a wall, which is mind boggling because I don't mind sanding furniture.  But seriously, its like nails on chalkboard and sets my teeth on edge.  I can't handle it, so its one thing that he has got to finish and has been too busy to get around to doing. Maybe this weekend he'll have a chance somewhere in between wrestling tournaments and church.  Notice I'm not holding my breath on that one. :P

So, anyhoo...

For lack of anything better to post about, here's some before pictures of my living room and then current pictures of where we're at now.

Look how small Noah is!

And Eva!  Just a baby.  I think she was 3.

I have a really hard time arranging our living room because there is a door, closet, or window on every wall.  It makes it difficult to figure out where to put things.  I think eventually I'd like to have some kind of sectional or figure out a way to arrange the furniture to feel more cozy.

But, its coming along.  I've made a few changes here and there.  My biggest dissatisfaction is with the wall color and the floors.  I'm seriously considering painting the floor, but I don't know if I could bring myself to do it.  We kind of got bit in the butt by the folks that we had re-do our office and dining room/parlor floor, so I'm not really keen on calling anyone in to refinish them.  The first man we had come in had no clue what he was doing, although he advertised otherwise.  Scott did a lot of the work himself before getting completely aggravating, giving him $500, and firing him.  The 2nd people we had come in started where the other man had left off...  The floors were stripped, sanded, and all the nails either pulled or driven in as needed.  All they had to do was a little prep sanding, stain them, and varnish them.  A $900 bill later and the finish on the floor didn't even last a month before it was coming up in high traffic areas.  This really aggravates me because I specifically asked if what they were doing would stand up to the wear and tear of six children.  So, needless to say, given with what also happened with our windows not being completed (trimmed out) and then what happened with the 2 floor companies, I'm gun shy about hiring anyone to come in.  Where is the pride in workmanship nowadays????

Okay, so here's the living room so far...

What would you think about painting all the trim and the doors???
Is it a good idea OR
do you think I would need to be shot if I touched them with a paintbrush?  LOL!

See the floors???  UGH!  Drives me nuts!
Sorry for the quality, but I just could not get the camera to take a
bright enough picture and had to tweak it quite a bit so it didn't look so dark.  :(

I know another area rug would be a quick answer to our floor issues, but those are pretty spendy considering the size we would need to cover a good portion of the floor.  I've considered the drop cloth idea and think I'm probably going to go with that.  Does anyone else have any ideas???

Obviously, we have a lot of work that we need to do.  Its a little bare, but I consider that a victory because for too long I pretty much decorated the entire living room with my father's things.  There wasn't a single item that reflected my personality.  I've grown enough in my grief over his death that I've just recently put away all his things that didn't truly speak to me and started to let our home be our home, not his.  I've got a ton of furniture in there that I need to paint or refinish in some way - the desk that is the bottom the vanity that my parents gave me for Christmas when I was 15, the chair and foot stool that I picked up at a thrift store, the barnwood coffee table that I got for $15 on Craigslist, and the oak chair that needs the same treatment that its sister got for our family pictures.  I have a ton of stuff to keep me busy this winter.

The thing that I'm liking most about the changes that I'm slowly seeing here, is that our home is filling up with things I have done myself whether it be the buffet or wall decor that I've made on my own.  There really is something to be said about that.  And the best part is that I'm not having to spend a ton of money to do it.  And the hunt to find things is so much fun.  I had no clue that I would be as addicted to it as I am.  LOL!  Its almost more fun than watching my sons wrestle.  Notice I said almost.  HA!

And on that note, I'll leave you with these awesome pictures that a good friend of mine took Sunday at that super-tough tourney we went to.  Thank you, Ben!  These are fantastic!

Sorry, y'all!  Its wrestling season and we live and breath it.  I can't help mentioning it a little bit.  ;)

Have a terrific Tuesday!

TGIM!

Good Monday Morning!

I think this is the first time I've actually been thankful for a Monday.    Monday means normalcy.  Quiet mornings with a cup of coffee and time to just be.

Well, usually...

This morning I woke up to the sound of the little man retching beside the bed, only to be hit with my own nausea when I sat up.  Luckily, it seems to have passed for me - that's sheer mom determination right there - while he's sacked out on the couch.  Fortunately he was able to eat a couple of biscuits, so hopefully that has settled his stomach.  Noah, on the other hand, is still upstairs in bed after an evening of the upset stomach.  Eva had the same yesterday, but was feeling fine this morning, so hopefully its a fast-moving thing.

So, instead of going to order our family pictures and partaking in fall parent-teachers conferences this afternoon, I'm home.  And actually kind of glad for it.

What an insane weekend we had!

I'm not quite sure I'm ready for the full-on go-go-go of youth wrestling season.  But I sure did enjoy it!

Saturday found the boys weighing in at 10:00 am at Nashua-Plainfield's Little Huskies Tournament.  N-P usually boasts super-good competition since its the first local tourney of the season.  We were not disappointed.

Noah had a phenomenal day.  He won 4-2 in OT against a boy that beat him 14-2 in his 1st match last year at the same tournament.  That one was a humdinger!  The 2nd match he pinned his opponent in the 1st period and the 3rd match was just as riveting as the first.  I wasn't sure Noah would win since the other boy had pinned the other two kids in no time flat, so we had prepared him for the possibility.  But my boy FOUGHT.  He ended up winning 3-2.  Whoo!  A very well-deserved 1st place for him.

Gotta be "serious" for his pictures on the stands.  ;)

Ian had a tougher day, which I think is going to be the case for him this year.  He's going to be a 5th grader in every 5th/6th grade bracket and you've got kids that are already starting to enter puberty.  In wrestling that means muscles on top of muscles and growth spurts.  Plus, since he just started 2 years ago, they've got technique up the wha-zoo from several years of experience.

He pinned his first match within the first period for a nice win against a very talented 6th grader.  The 2nd match...  Eh.  Another 5th grader and one he's beaten twice previously.  Once in an overtime situation and another match 1-0.  Always close matches because the boy usually just grabs a leg and doesn't move - but is impossible to turn.  Well, the boy got some technique since the last time we saw him.  He showed us!  LOL!  Ian had him on his back for the pin, got too far over the top, got flipped and pinned in 2 seconds.  It was over just.  like.  that.  Ian was not a happy camper, but still managed to go out and pin his next opponent in the first period to take 2nd.  I think he was okay with that.  We've taught both the boys that you respect the kids that beat you, learn from your losses, and move on.  He did awesome on sportsmanship and that's super important in this sport and more importantly to us as parents.

Ian doesn't mind giving me little faces on the stands.
He doesn't take himself as seriously as Noah.  LOL

Sunday found us up bright and early to head to Vinton-Shellburg's Viking Wrestling Tournament, about an hour and a half south of us.  We made a promise to ourselves that we weren't going to do two tournaments a weekend this year, but since we knew a family that lived in Vinton that would be there, we decided to make an exception for this tournament.  And oh my!  I should have known when they requested last year's records and inquired about State Qualifier status that we were going to be in for a tough day.  Bracketing according to record pretty much always means super tough competition, although not always.  Since Vinton is a pretty small town, I wasn't too worried about it.  WRONG!

Vinton turned out to be the Who's Who of Iowa Youth Wrestling.  Everywhere you turned there were names with faces you'd heard from parents talk about who was the tough of the tough.  I saw kids do some things that left me just gob-smacked.  Total excellence.

By the time the boys' brackets were up, I was literally shaking inside and trying to put on a calm, serene expression for the boys.  I knew that both of them were going to face some of the toughest competition they'd ever seen, outside of AAU Kids' State.  To be honest, I wanted to throw up.  Stupid for a little local tournament, I know!  LOL!

Usually, I video tape their matches so we all can sit down and watch them later.  At the minimum, I take pictures.  Yesterday, I didn't do anything but watch...  and mutter prayers.

Ian had an insanely tough bracket.  The only 5th grader in the bracket against three other 6th graders with a TON of experience.    While Ian qualified for State last year as a 4th grader, he didn't place.  But I have to admit I've gotten used to big wins and quick pins.  That totally didn't happen yesterday.

He won his first crazy tough match over a Kids' State Placewinner, 8-5.  The 2nd match he was pinned in the last few seconds of the 3rd period, although he was still losing 7-0.  And the 3rd match...  Well.  Let's just say he found out what it was like for the kids he's been pinning in the 1st period.  It was over that quick.  He took 3rd and although he doesn't believe me, it was the best I've EVER seen him wrestle.  Try explaining that to a competitive 11 year old.  He sulked in the car for the remainder of the time we were there, but at least he held it together on the mat and didn't resort to some of the displays of bad sportsmanship that I saw.

Noah.  Oh, my Noah.  Wow.

Noah has gotten some name recognition over the last 6 months since he won SPW State Runner-Up and qualified for Kids' State as a 2nd grader, so we knew that he would probably be in a crazy bracket.  Yep!

Not only was his bracket tough, he was the lightest of the four.  The first boy was from Wisconsin, outweighed Noah by 6 lbs., and I was rendered nearly speechless by how tough they both wrestled.  And if you know me, you know that's pretty hard to do! ;)  I just didn't know what to tell him.  LOL!  Thank goodness he had 2 of our coaches in his corner and a ton of Go-Hawk supporters!  Noah won that match 7-0, but don't let that zero fool ya.  It was insane.

The 2nd match was even tougher than the first.  He was up against another State Qualifier, a 4th grader, and a name I had heard many, many times - but we've never had the opportunity to wrestle. That match went into overtime, tied 2-2.  Noah took a bad shot at the whistle and ended up in a headlock.  A TIGHT headlock.  He was turning purple around the lips and I was grabbing the arm of the coach sitting next to me (Sorry, Chad!) telling him to stop the match.  Then the official called a stalemate.  There was some confusion as to why the other boy didn't get the points to win it and it literally came down to the fact that Noah had kept his hips twisted in such a way that the ref said the other boy didn't have control.  It was that close.  I was as shocked as the other parents were.  So they went at it again.  I really didn't know how Noah was going to do it.  He had just been purple 2 seconds before!  This time the other boy took the shot, but Noah got behind for the 2 and the win. WOW.  I about fell over!  Unbelievable.  I actually searched out the official (from the look on his fact I think he thought I was going to be one of those crazy wrestling parents that want to argue a call  LOL) and asked him to explain to me why Noah didn't lose since he was in the headlock.  I think he was pretty surprised that I wasn't some nut, but just a parent that wanted to make sure it wasn't a bad call and the other boy deserved the win, like I had had someone come up and tell me.  Scott, on the other hand, thought I was nuts.  Take the win and run with it, right?  Nope.  If the other boy deserved it, he was going to get it.

The 3rd match was a squirrely little 4th grader that Noah pretty much dominated, but couldn't get pinned.  He almost had him, but his hand was underneath on the boy's shoulder blade, so the ref couldn't call it.  We all kept telling him, "Move your hand!  Move your hand!  Your hand is in the way!"  But he kept moving his other hand and not the one underneath.  Finally he just stops moving, looks up at me, and says, "What the frick?"  I just burst out laughing.  It was so typical Noah.  I hate it when he says "frick" and usually get after him, but that was hilarious!  Although, I probably shouldn't have laughed so loud because I got a really dirty look for the other boy's dad.  I think he thought I was laughing at his kid.  Which I totally wasn't!  Anyway...  Noah won that match 10-0 to take 1st.

The other two didn't stick around to be on the stands.
It really was a long wait for that.

 The thing that I really like about wrestling is that most parents instill in their children respect for the opponents you lose to.  And in especially hard matches, they learn to really like and respect the better opponent.  Noah and Jake were fast friends by the end of the day, despite Noah winning in overtime and spent the rest of the time running around together while we chatted with Jake's parents.

Jake pretending to sock Noah.

Noah "wapping" Jake with his jacket string.  LOL!

It was a good day, but a long one.  We didn't get home until 7:00.  Next weekend we'll be at it again, but not two.  Nope.  Like we promised.  We'll go to a Saturday tournament and go to church on Sunday.  And that's the way it should be.

This week is a crazy one, so don't expect a lot of postings about anything crafty.  I've got dentist appointments, parent-teacher conferences, and wrestling practices.  Although I don't want to lose any of you as followers!  I'll just do the best I can!  Just gotta get into the swing of wrestling season.  :)

I hope y'all had as fun of a weekend as we did and  were able to get up to some craft goodness!

Take care,

Friday's Finds... #09 and Friday's Favorites Linky Party!!!

WOW!  Friday already!  To be honest, last night I was racking my brains about what I could do about today's blog post and then I was like, "Doh!  It's Friday!"  LOL!  I just don't know where the time goes! I gotta be honest with you.  This week's finds were a little slim.  Nothing I'm gushing over, just a few picks on the cheap that will eventually find a place in my home.  However...  No worries!  I finally figured out how to host a linky party (needed to switch over to the new Blogger format) and I'm now ready to go!  YAY!  I totally can't wait to see what great things y'all have found this week!

First we'll do my finds and then at the bottom of this post there will be the "rules" for what I hope will be a weekly linky party.  :)

First up, I scored this heavier than heck mirror from our local thrift.  Dang!  Even the hubs said it was heavy.  The country blue is gonna go, but can you imagine how pretty this is gonna be with some white paint and glazing.  Oh yeah!  $10.00

Obviously, I haven't gotten around to the Windex.  LOL!

And I think I've really developed a thing for old books.  Just the history of them is enough to intrigue me, but I love seeing the names written inside with such beautiful penmanship and think of the hands that held them so many years ago.  I'm up to 14, that are bundled with hemp twine or stacked here and there around the house.  These new finds include a very interesting one about our Founders written in 1929 and another on Civil Government copyrighted in 1918.  I gotta say...  The history they're teaching our kids now is MUCH different from these books.  Its been an eye opener.  I also found three that are titled "Language Lessons For Common Schools".  Two of those don't even have copyrights, but are dated 1907 and the other is copyrighted 1918.  How cool is that?  Total cost $18.00

And its always great to find something you have to do nothing to, like this pewter candlestick holder.  SCORE!  $1.50

And I told you I'd be majorly looking for frames for our family pics.  I picked up these that will all be getting a fresh coat of paint.  $5.00 for the large wooden one, $2.00 for the square mirror, $0.50 for the small gilded one, and $0.75 for the oval.

I actually got another large square frame pretty similar to the one above, but my laziness and hatred of the cold knows no bounds.  Its out in the back of the Yukon, but I wasn't going to brave the temps this morning to lug it in.  I paid $2.00 for that one.

I picked up a couple of books of music for $0.75 each, that I have already used to make a sheet music wreath.  I would have loved to have found some actual sheet music, but yeah...  Didn't happen.

I picked up this beat up firewood basket for $5.00.  Totally getting a coat of spray paint.  I needed a place for all the birchwood I'm stealing from the hub's stockpile.  ;)

And once I again I was bitten by the Christmas bug...

These pictures of vintage Santas were $0.75 each.  All the frames need is a little paint.

If the price tag that was still attached is to be believed, this retailed at $46.99 from Mission Gallery.  You gotta be kidding me?!  I paid five bucks.  More than reasonable.  :)

And since several of the many Christmas treasures I lost when our basement flooded was all but one of the Nativity Scenes I've collected over the years (*sob*), I picked this one up for $3.00.

And this little ornament (lost every single ornament but one, too), I  grabbed up for $1.00.  I saw a similar one at Wally World last night for $4.99.

And since I know all these need is a coat of silver spray paint to look TONS better, I snatched up these gold Christmas tree candles for $0.75 each.

I have to say, its not one of the greatest trips I've had to the thrift, but not too bad either.  I'm really having to reign myself in over the Christmas stuff, but I have a ball looking at it.  Its going to be an extremely hard, long process to rebuild our Christmas treasures - not to mention, really expensive.  :(  And since the flooding was  caused by ground water backing up into the floor drain, home owner's insurance covered NADA.  Can you believe that????  Better have flood insurance, even if you don't live in a flood plain, peeps.  And we live on a hill!!!!  I don't even want to think about all my children's handmade ornaments that were lost.  Those were priceless.    

Soooooooo anyhoo, now its time to show of your stuff!  What was your favorite find this week?

Its Linky Party Par-tay Time!

WOO-HOO!

1st EH-VAH

Friday's Finds Favorites

And YOU'RE Invited!

Here are the "rules":

1.  Please link up your favorite find of the week.  It can be something you found yourself or something you found online and featured on your blog.  Please link directly to your post page, not just to your blog.  

2.  Please become a follower and help yourself to my blog button to let others know you've shared here.  You can either use my button or a text link, but please link somewhere/somehow on your blog to help spread the word.  Thanks!  :) 

3.  Please visit a couple of other shares that have been linked up and show some love.  We all love to hear compliments on what we've found.  You might even make a friend or two.  :) 

4.  Have fun, but please do not link up Etsy store items or any other commercial ventures.  The goal is to share, not sell.  Thanks!

5.  Be sure to stay tuned next Friday to see if your favorite find was featured as one of my faves - and of course, be ready to link up against next week.

Thanks for sharing and I can't wait to see what y'all found this week!

Stairways to Heaven

If any of y'all are following me via my account on Pinterest you'll have noticed I have added a new board:  Stairways to Heaven.

Why?

Well, that's my new project:  Painting our stairs.

When we bought our house, our stairs looked like this:

Whoo-boy!  If we had only looked at the wallpaper when we moved in, we would've never bought the place.  Ew.

BUT...  You don't even want to see what it looks like today.  A few years back, I was into all things primitive and decided to strip all the wallpaper off and paint the stairwell this hideous mustard yellow.  Yeah.  Bad.  And the sheen I used showed every last imperfection in the plaster.  And who knows why, but now its starting to bubble off like Eva's room did and I know for a fact we used a good quality paint.  I'm beginning to wonder if the walls weren't painted with an oil based paint, which gives birth to all kinds of issues with painting our walls.  I do not even want to THINK about using oil based paint and the mess that would ensue. :(

Okay.  I promised full disclosure, so I'll give you a peek (deep breath here, Laura) at what I'm going to be dealing with:

How do I live with it?  Well...  I just don't look at it when I go upstairs.  Ever.  Its amazing what you can ignore and how long you can ignore it for.  Kind of reminds me of those poor people on "Hoarders".

Needless to say, its a HUGE undertaking.  That's probably why (Okay, that's TOTALLY why) I've been putting it off.  Not to mention that the stairwell soars clear to the top of the ceiling of the 2nd floor (we're probably talking 12 feet) and you have to balance (okay, SCOTT will have to balance) on top of a ladder that is propped onto the highest stair to be able to reach the top of all the walls.  He didn't like doing it the first time and thanks to my color choice (that he asked me repeatedly if I was sure about), he now has to do it at least 3 more times as we prime and paint to cover up that hideous shade of baby poop.  I'm seriously considering dry brushing pallet board and nailing it to the walls to be done with completely - that would also take care the hanging light fixture that some home improvement moron decided not to put behind some sheetrock or something.  I don't have a clue what to do.  Any ideas for a fix that isn't a budget buster????

So, to try to get my boo-tay motivated to do something with that stairwell wall, I'm going to at least paint the stairs and railings.  That's the first half of the project.  Goal date to finish to finish the whole entire thing:  November 26th.  Crunch time.  The day after Thanksgiving and traditionally the day we put up our Christmas stuff - after Black Friday wrestling, of course.  That way, I can put my garland and wreaths up and not have to photoshop the heck out of my pictures. LOL!

So here's some inspiration I've found around Pinterest:

Kika Reichert

 Definitely NOT for the color, but the idea of hand painting words on the risers, except I would do a Bible verse.

HGTV's Sarah's House Season 3

 Love the idea of a numbered staircase, but maybe a little overused now.

Source Unknown via Pinterest

 However, I still love the look - especially two-toned with an accent stripe on either side.

Or how about these lovelies...

Country Living: Cottage Of Many Colors

 I adore the hues and aged quality of these stairs!

 Whimsical perhaps?

Source Unknown

How can you go wrong with an aged aqua plus a little whimsy from the Wizard of Oz?

Or I could go more old farm house-y...

Source No Longer Available

 These gray and white stairs' simplicity is lovely.

But, I gotta admit on the ones below...  The mice on these stairs freak me out a little.  Yeah...  Mice have their place.  Not on my stairs.  Preferably in a trap.  Dead.

Source Unknown

And no post about stairway inspirations would be complete without these beauts from Donna @ Funky Junk Interiors.

Although I'm not sure I'll have the guts to try something like this.  :P  I know my limitations.  LOL!

Anyhoo...

Better get to cleaning those stairs, so I can have them primed before I go to bed.  God knows why I'm starting this on a day when I have a meeting tonight and wrestling tourneys planned for the entire weekend, but I am.  Maybe it's because I know I work best under pressure.  ;)

Take care, y'all!

Sheet Music Wreath and Mirror Makeover

Not a whole lot of time to post tonight, but since its been a while since I posted some crafty goodness, I thought I'd get this up really quick.

Remember the mirror that I posted on last week's Friday's Finds?

The hideous hunter green 1980s throwback?

No?

Okay...  Well, here it was...

Can we say, "Ewwwwww!"

And then I took the mirror out, sanded that horrible green off, and then primed it:

Yes, that is snow outside the window!  :)

Added a little paint, distressed it, and then quickly glazed:

I decided to add a music sheet wreath, since just the mirror seemed a little plain.  Not too sure I like the wreath, but all in all - not to shabby for a wet, melting snow afternoon.  :)

Don't you love all my "to re-do's" in the reflection?  LOL!!  I need to get to work - or stop thrifting!  ;)

And one more pic for, Shannon @ Fox Hollow Cottage because she loves aqua...

Hope y'all are keeping warm!

Digital Scrap Booking Giveaway!

Do any of y'all like to scrap book?  Seriously, if I had the time, I'd totally do it.  I am ashamed to say that a majority of my pictures are crammed into rubbermaid containers, shoe boxes, or have never been printed off my computer!  That's just plain sad!  Do NOT be like me!  :P

However, if you've wanted a reason to scrap book, I'm about to give you one:  A giveaway by my friend, Nicole over at Davis Domestications and Furniture Facelifts.  Its her very first giveaway and she is giving you an opportunity to win some digital scrap booking software by My Memories.  Please click on the link above to enter for your chance to win!  I have!

**This giveaway ends November 20th, 2011.