The dreaded Master Closet!!!!!

Cue super ominous-psycho music....

Behold! The dreaded master bedroom closet...




Yes, I know. It made me cringe every time I grabbed a shirt. It was dead last on my list of things to accomplish over the next few weeks, but with the progress of the bathroom stalled, I decided to tackle it.

It made sense because the master closet is IN the master bathroom, so I still feel like I am making progress on the bathroom redecoration. Sneaky, Sneaky!

It started last night with the purging of my clothes. Since the weight loss, and then the tummy tuck, I cannot wear most of the things hanging in there. So I bagged up all the "non-wearable" clothes, and then moved on to the "haven't worn in ages" clothes. Some I kept, but most I didn't. After all that, I went to bed....cleaning is exhausting.

This morning I woke up ready to tackle the rest of the mess. After the boys and I ate breakfast, they ran off into their rooms to fight their Transformers, and I ran to my closet, ready to use as much of my energy as possible, before my ADD kicks in. (I don't really have ADD...Well, actually, I have never been diagnosed with ADD, but many times I think I have it. Design ADD, at least...but I digress...)

An hour, three trashbags, and two donate bags later, I hit the wall. The undiagnosed ADD kicked in. But I was at this last point.....


Shoes. I started to think I needed a shoe intervention. But I persevered and continued the clean. And look what I found after each pair was organized...


An open space for more shoes!!!!! Who needs an intervention? Not me!





I used to complain about how small my closet was, even though it is twice the size of our other closet in our old house. But now it looks quite large. Now if Josh would just give up his 1/3 of the closet it would be perfect. I kid...I kid...he can have it.

****BONUS**** In all this cleaning, I uncovered $1.22 in change!!!! SCORE!!!!!

This last picture is crappy, I know. But any of you who read my blog regularly know that my camera has a mind of it's own and works when it wants to. This blurry picture was to show you the new outfit I purchased, down to the boots (which I bought last year)...just to show you the jeggings. Yes, I bought a pair of jeggings. I have always been anti-skinny jean/jegging for me because of my weight. But I finally, just for fun, tried them on. They fit and I thought they were cute, so I got them.

Alternative to contact paper

We are still working on the master bathroom, and I just know it is going to take a WHILE to get done. Especially the shower tile, because I have a feeling it is going to morph into doing the tub as well.

Anyway, I am out of contact paper and I wanted to add a little something to the inside of the drawers.

Using a stencil, I traced a quatrefoil pattern inside the drawer.

Then I just used the same brown paint I used a couple of days ago and painted in the pattern.


It is so cute. I am really happy with how it turned out.

Curtains

Today the hubs and I went to Lowes and purchased the curtains for the bathroom.

SWOON....

Here is another boring before picture...

And the after...

I super-love the fabric but had to do a complete overhaul on these. Don't be afraid to buy things that, on the surface, don't look like they will fit. Right out of the bag, these were not going to work, but with a little...ok, a lot, of tweaking, they were window ready.

I had planned on hanging them a little lower, but unfortunately, we have some kind of wicked metal casing all around that bathroom window. About 42 holes in the wall later, we decided just to hang these higher up and forget it. Thank goodness for joint compound and some touch up paint!

And the bonus is....I have quite a bit of this fabric left. Goodie, goodie, gumdrops!!

And a double bonus...the hubs and I were looking at a local fireplace store for gas logs for our fireplace, and out of the corner of my eye, I spotted this little beauty.

I just had to snap her pic with my Blackberry!! Alas, we left the store without her.

Anyway, moving on to number three on the bathroom list....

Bathroom Redo...Part 1

I have been dying to redecorate our bathroom for about 6 months now. Thankfully, it is a bigger bathroom than in our previous home, and with the previous owners being the ones that built this house, it has a few more custom fixtures.

The light fixtures and mirrors are custom, but everything else is pretty much builder grade, and BORING.

The tile is white, the vanity is white, the cabinets are white, the tub is white, the shower surround is white, the toilet is white, the doors and trim are white, and the walls....are beige. UGH.

The hubs and I talked last weekend about making some changes to it, and once given the go-ahead, I was at Lowes picking out paint. We really need to do this on a budget...more importantly....MY budget, so it is going to take some time to get each step completed.

Here are the plans so far:
1. Paint the vanity cabinets
2. Add some curtains
3. New bathroom rugs
4. A few bathroom accessories
5. Make some hurricane vases to be filled with bar soaps
6. Tile shower surround

Step 1 was completed today. Here is the before...

And After...


$30 for this beautiful greyish brown color makes a HUGE difference. It just breaks up all the boring white and adds a little dimension and contrast. In love with the color....which incidentally is Valspar's Betsy Ross House Brown.

Ok....so now I have to admit something. Something that makes me smile. Something that has become a little, ok so A BIG design obsession. QUATREFOIL!!!! This is the most beautiful pattern. It is modern without being too cold, and decorative without being too fussy. It literally makes me swoon every time I see it on a pillow or rug! Here are some examples of quatrefoil designs...

And this leads me to step #2. I am soooooo excited. Next payday, I will be the proud owner of these fabulous quatrefoil curtains...

NOT the valance, just the panels. Of course, I am going to have to make some modifications to it, number 1 being to shorten them quite a bit. I am also going to remove the grommets and sew in just a rod pocket. I can't wait to get started on this.

Homemaker Monday...

Today, I am on fire!!!

Early to rise and cooking a hot breakfast was on my list for today, since it is SUPER cold this morning. In the winter, we don't usually run our heater at night because it rarely gets mega-cold on the Texas Gulf Coast, so our house typically stays somewhere in the 60's. We just put on our flannel pj's, some socks, and about 4 big blankets on the bed. In the morning when we drag, I mean POP ourselves out of bed and it is super cold...time to whip out the scrambled eggs, oatmeal, and toast.

On top of that, I was fully dressed, from head to toe, as I cooked. Go ME!!!

Jansen and I had a Parent/Teacher conference with his teacher this morning at 7:30 that went very well. She is very happy with his progress this year and gave us some really helpful ideas to improve his reading. He is reading at a good pace, but needs to develop some inflection in his voice. She recommended taping him as he reads so he can watch it and hear how he reads. Can do!

Now it is 9:45am, laundry is almost done, blueberry cheesecake muffins are in the oven, Taco Soup is on the stove, and we are ready for piano lessons tonight!

Menu for the week:
Monday- Taco Soup
Tuesday- Spicy Southwest Macaroni and Cheese
Wednesday- Fried chicken and baked potatoes
Thursday- Hamburger Helper (because that's how I roll by the end of the week)
Friday-Leftovers and croissants

Let's hope this flame continues for the rest of the week!!!

Party Preparations...

I fully realize that C's birthday is in March, but I love to plan way in advance, so the party wheels are already in motion.

He requested a bowling party at our local bowling alley, which I think is totally awesome! The kids can have an hour of bowling, a choice of hot dogs, grilled cheese, corn dogs, or chicken nuggets, and I don't have to set up or clean up. This is a win/win situation!!!

We booked the alley and I ordered some AH-Dorable invitations off of ebay (shout out to ebay!!!). Here is an example of the invite....
The lady that makes this is super talented...thank you to Gingham Hearts for the invites.

Of course, I will be making the cake and am still narrowing down the ideas for it. The only other thing I have to supply is the goodie bags....hello Walmart!

March is so, so, so busy that I want to have everything taken care of WAY in advance. Let's get this show on the road!!!

The New Year, 5 days in...

We are 5 days into 2011, and I have been smacked in the face.


I am trying to kick some major booty in the financial department of my life: savings, debt, budgeting, just overall better money management.

Two days ago, I updated our financial spreadsheet that I keep, and realized how valuable that piece of paper is to me. It helps keep me on track, and I can see everything at a glance. My spreadsheet includes our monthly bills, the monthly payment, the total amount owed (in the instance of our mortgage, cars, and such), the interest rate, the balances in all our accounts, our monthly grocery expenses, and the yearly grocery average.

Josh and I agreed to start chipping away at our remaining debt this year. Of course we started this last year, following the Dave Ramsey plan, and made some good progress, and then got off course.

Things have been going well so far...coupon clipping and shopping for sales, squirreling away small bits of money in each of our accounts, and starting back with the DR plan...until today.

I got smacked in the face today at Jansen's allergist. Now of course, I know, it is the new year....thus our medical bills will be a little higher until our deductibles are met....but our health insurance has changed. And that just ticks me off.

Thank you God that we have health insurance. Thank you God that our family is relatively healthy.

But Jansen has horrible allergies and asthma, and gets weekly allergy shots. He takes Allegra, Nasonex, Flovent, and a rescue inhaler as well. So now his allergist visits went up from $30 to $50, and his allergy shots went from $4 a week to $25. Ugh.

Caleb sees a psychiatrist for his monthly medication and so his visits have gone from $30 to $50 as well.

Again, thank God that we have health insurance. But I just HATE it when I have my family budget all worked out perfectly and have a debt repayment plan in place, and that famous curveball is thrown in.

Guess what I will be working on tomorrow?

I might sell a kidney.....