House Love

Some friends and I spent the day in Mount Gretna yesterday and I just fell in love with all the cottages in the little town! It's such a unique little community - full of colorful vacation homes loaded with character!

Of course, being the house-nut that I am, I was snapping away...



Amaaaazing front porch!



I'm a sucker for turrets!


Don't you just want to take a vacation here??






And there was the sweetest lake where we lounged all afternoon. My favorite kind of day!

A Little Office Fluffing

I spent Saturday morning playing around in the office/play room a bit. I hung an old ladder on the ceiling (doing it by myself was no easy feat!) and I painted some wording above the built-in bookshelves.

I love, love, love my old beadboard ceiling! Wish every room in our house had it!


To do the wording, I printed it out on paper, traced it onto the wall using carbon paper, then used craft paint to finish it.

Sweet Little Table

I needed to get my furniture-painting fix and I had this little table courtesy of my mom, who got it from Goodwill a little while ago.

This is what it looked like beforehand...orangey-stain, lots of scratches, in need of a little tlc.


And this is what it looks like now...



I primed it, spraypainted it green, then glazed it with chocolate brown paint, and then again with black paint to tone down the green a bit.



I'm not sure if I'm going to keep it there beside the couch, but I'm sure I'll find a spot somewhere! I love these little projects!

Real Life

Oh, how I need a nap! But real life seems to get in the way of our needs sometimes, doesn't it? I suppose I can blame these ramblings to lack of sleep...

My real life includes a messy office/play room (but ideas swirling about redecorating it a bit), a bathroom with no toilet paper (yes, we are completely OUT!) and butt cream on the counter from Avery's many, many "accidents" these past few days. There's a sweet little old table (from GW, of course, via my mother) in the basement just waiting for me to paint it. I'm thinking a distressed mossy-green color.

I've been working on wall art ideas for the past few weeks and I think I finally nailed down the perfect IDEA. A trip to the fabric store and scrapbooking store is needed to see if it'll look as good "in real life" as it looks in my head.

My uber-stylish friend Becky came over to look through my wardrobe and tell me what to throw out and what looks good together. SO NICE to have someone give a, shall we say, informed and educated opinion. I love my hubs and all but, sorry, I just DO NOT trust his fashion advice!

And now I'm crushing on these Anthro goodies...



Looks like fall, doesn't it? I always wish summer would last twice as long, but I'm actually looking forward to getting out the jackets and scarves for a change of pace.

Canister Set Makeover

I've been on the lookout for a canister set to put baby Jack's formula, cereal, etc. in, and I found just the thing at Goodwill this week for a few dollars.

Basic white and in need of some "Aimee" touches...



I bought some scrapbooking stickers and tied twine around them and here ya go!




I love all those little details that make ordinary items special!

Multitasking Mama!

I realized that at one point today I was feeding Jack a bottle, browning meat for dinner, eating a sandwich, wading through mountains of work email, and disciplining Avery ALL AT THE SAME TIME!!

I'm sure all the moms out there can relate to this. Being pulled in so many different directions that you feel like you are literally being pulled apart. It seems like when I try to do everything, I succeed at nothing.

Today was one of those days! So I decided to just give up being Ms. Do-It-All for a bit and take a nap with the kids. Totally worth it!

Ruffled Necklace Project

I saw this cool little project on Rhonna's blog and on this etsy shop and decided to give it a try this morning. I'm not really a "jewelry" person, but this was as easy as it looked, and I didn't even have to buy (or sew) anything!

I cut off the hem of a dress that I was going to give to Goodwill, so it already was sewn for me, and I used an old necklace that I never wear. You can read the tuturial here.

I want to try it with some other fun fabrics and embellishments. You could do all sorts of things with this!

Life

It has been crazy busy for the past few weeks for this mama, and I'm just about worn out! I took the kids to my parents' beach house for a couple of days with my sister-in-law and her two girls.

Ok, I expected it to be a little crazy taking the kids by myself to the hot, sandy beach, but it proved to be a little bit more than I could handle! It wasn't so bad getting to the beach and spending the time there, as it was leaving.

I struggled (to put it mildly) to carry everything - seems like when you leave the beach, there are so many more things to carry than when you arrived. Am I right? Baby tent, beach chairs, towels, sheets, cooler, beach bag, food, and, of course, baby Jack. And I had a three-year old lagging behind, crying that there was sand in her flipflops! Of all things! Poor girl was just devastated that she was on the beach and she had sand in her shoes!

And it was HOT! We figured everyone was probably sitting there laughing at us as we slowly made our way to the car. That's ok though. We had a few good Samaritans who tried to help. But mostly, they just stared.

Oh, and the worst part was that I forgot Avery's backpack full of clothing at home, so I had to buy a swimsuit for her at full price that was super-ugly metallic gold. Oh, and also 2 sizes too big. I was desperate. The bottoms kept falling off her little tush, so I just put a pull-up on her. By the end of the day, it was so saggy, soggy, sandy, and SAD! The other parents on the beach probably thought she was some sort of lost child who didn't have a mommy. Or at least a mommy who knew how to dress a child properly for the beach.

Oh, well, we survived and I have absolutely no reason to complain!! Live and learn, my friends.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

On another random note, lately I've been feeling like I'm on the cusp of some sort of creative creation of some kind, but I just don't know what yet. I know, that probably made no sense. I don't really know how to explain it, but it's like all the creative juices are exploding in my mind and I have yet to put them in order.

Hopefully I'll figure it out. More to come!