Confessions

Lately, it dawned on me that only a few people know the "real me"... I think a lot of people think they know me, but they'd be surprised. 

I love daylilies... They are so simple... Just perfect.  And you have to get up early to appreciate them.

I've always loved baking, even if some of the time what I create you wouldn't want to eat.  The process is super fun;)

I don't like The Jonas Brothers, but I will sing along loudly in a very mature manner to Miley Cyrus or 'Barbie Girl'.  On another extreme I LOVE Dixie Chicks & Johnny Cash... Cowboy Take Me Away... lalala!

I don't think people who constantly post Christian songs or post bible versus make them Christians... The way in which they live their lives & treat those around them should reflect that.

My favorite book of all time is White Oleander by Janet Fitch... Shows how the blood you call family really doesn't have to define who you are.  You can choose to live a different life.

I could eat Ramen Noodle everyday... that is until while away at college I HAD to eat it everyday... now I have to be in the "mood" for it.

My favorite color has always been pink... always will be too.  But now I'm a grown up, so I tone it down;)

I would love to be super wealthy... not Oprah wealthy... but wealthy enough to where we would never have to "want" for anything... that being said, the things money can't buy are my most prized posessions.

Growing up I always longed for a family... now I realize that's just what I had... just didn't know it.

My sister was my best friend growing up & now that we're grown I think we're more strangers... breaks my heart.

I still have the same best friend that I had in 4th Grade... I LOVE her!

I would love to buy an old Southern Farmhouse & completely restore it & have a cow & some chickens... I already have names picked out... "Loretta Hen", "Wyonona", "Naomi", & a couple roosters... "Dwight Yolk-um" & "Earl".  I would sit on my front porch swing & drink sweet tea from my Mason Jar.

I can try to be "healthy" & watch what I eat for a period of time, but I have an addiciton to Dr. Pepper that always comes back to get me!

I know Nate Burkus is gay, but he sure is yummy:)

I LOVE antiques, but hate things that smell "old"...

I am guilty of brainstorming up projects that take up more time than I really have... so I have a good bit of fabric & crafting supplies to keep me busy on a rainy day.

I love my children & want a big family... but I would prefer them to marry orphans... I do not want to share my Grandkids or Holidays.  Just kidding!  But seriously, that would be nice wouldn't it? :)

I LOVE decorating & LOVE photography... neither of which I will ever do professionally but I really enjoy both!

Paula Deen is my idol!  That woman makes you want to cook everything in butter & not even think twice about it.  Think I may be her for Halloween.

I never thought at 17 I would go on a blind date with a handsome guy that worked dairy & produce & end up marrying him at 18... oh young love!

I LOVE the fact that I wear my Great Grandmother's wedding ring set... it's over 100 years old & everytime I look down at my ring finger it reminds me that I do have some history & at how similar my taste is to hers... good taste runs in the family:)

I think my husband is pretty amazing... he goes above & beyond... & seeing him with our kiddos makes my heart smile.

 The days I gave birth to my two kids were the most amazing days... they are the most prized possesions of mine, even though I know some day they will grow up & not need me so much.  They make me so proud & amaze me daily with their wit & humor.

What are your confessions?

Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend

Ok, so we've been pretty busy with getting settled into the new house & I've been busy at trying to run errands etc. while NOT getting lost in a new area.  On that note... Thank God for my iPhone & Google Maps!

The first weekend we had the keys (and no kids) we decided to tackle painting & heavy cleaning.  This house needed both pretty bad.  Aside from cleaning the kitchen from top to bottom, all 1800+ square feet recieved a fresh coat of paint.  The entire house besides the laundry, bathrooms & Emma's room got a coat of Glidden's Whispering Wheat; it's a perfect neutral beige & it really warmed the whole place up. 

{Before}

(HAR photo)

{After}

Wow!  What a little bit of paint can do!

We wanted to add a little personality to the kiddo's rooms with one wall each done special & decided on red baseball stripes for Kaleb's (since his room is Astros) and a girly pink (Glidden's Cream Rose) for Emma.  Just pink was a tad boring so I flipped through my "Dream House" binder & decided on diamonds.  The idea came from a photo of a bathroom with the walls finished in white & yellow diamonds.  I thought why not try varnish?  I was shooting for just a subtle distinction between a flat enamel & some gloss.  What I got was flat enamel & then some...  The varnish dried with a hint of yellow/golden tones  but it had a handpainted finish to it.  Hard to explain... but goregous!!  It was a big project to tackle... I had done my research & passed it along to my hubby.  But hubby did what hubbys do best... he ignored the blog links I had e-mailed him & decided he'd figure it out & it "couldn't be that hard".  

With blue painter's tape in hand & on the wing of a prayer we dove in head first.  Our... eehemm, his first attempt was to use a straight edge & start from one corner.  Problem there was you would easily see pencil marks through the varnish when finished & if we erased the pencil before painting, we might as well just wing the whole thing.  So, attempt #2 was to measure the wall dimensions & divide evenly then tape off... well about half way through that we discovered that you can NOT tape off all diamonds because there will most definitely be a 1" or whatever size tape you use, mark between all diamonds.  So third time is the charm?  Attempt #3 yielded hubby sitting for 20 minutes or so drawing out a detailed sketch of where to tape (above or below our measured dots)  and which diamonds to paint in which order.  

By about 3 am we had diamond wall round one of two painted... we crawled in bed & the next morning I nervously peeled the tape off... Knowing I would have to follow the dots mentioned above & the already painted diamonds to create the second (every other diamond) round of diamonds to paint.  Hallejuiah, it worked!  

{Round 1 Painted}

{Round 2 Taped & Paitned}

{The wall finished}

{One more pic just because}

I have carefully packed this little sheet of paper away for any future projects involving diamonds!

My tips:

-Meausre well & find your center point

-Helps to divide your wall space in half & then divide in half again etc. instead of measuring & starting from one side... NO WALLS are ever square, so this hides the imperfections well.

-Decide how many rows of diamonds you want, I chose 3 & where you want the point of interest to fall.  I decided on a diamond right above Emma's headboard.

-After taping & before painting stand back & think it over... pay attention.  If we would have painted after our first taping I would have trashed the whole idea!!

-If your super sweet, amazing hubby decides to tackle this with or for you... be prepared for the "you owe me so big's"  Because hubby says next time I want diamonds, he'd rather buy me some;)

* I found this blog to be really helpful!  I just changed it up & didn't do argyle.

We have not taken on decorating their rooms too much just yet. But when I get that part done I will post some pics.  I am working on weeding through what I have to work with to see what will be used & what will be 'Garage Sale' items.  Emma needs new bedding, I have a dresser I need to re-do & Kaleb has a bed that his Daddy built for him we need to move in.  But we are still sleeping on his mattress.  I repeat the mantra:  "All in good time"... Emma's room is a good bit smaller than Kaleb's but has a good amount of character & Kaleb's room has a window seat that runs the entire length of one of his longest walls... still thinking about what to do there.  Blinds are slowly being replaced upstairs because the ones that are here are damaged & dirty beyond just cleaning them.

Still have a LOT of projects on the horizon:

Purchase a couch & make slip cover for my seatee

Hang curtains we brought from the old house

Decorate Emma's Room

Decorate Kaleb's Room

Re-do 2 dressers

Make curtains

Make window seat cushion

Build our new bed

Decorate our room

Find kitchen table 

Do trim work in laundry room & bathroom

Do something about carpet in powder room downstairs (why oh why put carpet in a bathroom?!?)

and the list goes on...

I will be taking pictures & sharing the experience as we go.  But I thought this was a pretty good first project to share:) 

With moving to a new area, the Summer home with the kiddos & some spare time, we'll see how much we get done!

Diamonds are a girl's best friend... but a husband's worst nigtmare... literally!  :) LOL!

Cedar Lane

Tomorrow, of 12:30 pm we will officially be Tomball-ians lol!  Driving around town today it kind of hit me that I'm actually leaving Alvin.  I can get borderline too sentimental... so I apolagize in advance.  And I know that we're only moving an hour or so away... so we will be able to visit friends & family pretty often.  That being said I took mental note of the places that I will miss.  Thanks to my childhood not being all that "storybook"... there are a lot of memories that were made in a little yellow brick house on Cedar Lane.  After my Grandma, the woman who raised me passed away, it's nice to be able to drive by the house I grew up & created lots of fond memories in when I am missing her.  When I hear Miranda Lambert's "House That Built Me"  I seriously tear up... that house built me!  In that house I learned patience, manners, self-worth, responsability, & a lot of cooking, baking & needless to say sewing.  I remember her yellow floral couch & rocker, the sliding top table where all her sewing supplies were stored, the little kitchen where we rolled out cookies & her blue bedroom where I often slept just to be by her.  I drove by that house today & stopped to snap a pic with my phone... just to have in case I get homesick again over the next couple weeks. Alvin will always be home.  I graduated from the same High School as her & my hubby did too.  The little grocery store in town was where Mike & I met... him in produce & me on the checker line;) 

I thought I would share my little yellow house on Cedar Lane with you all too...

Yes, it looks a little shabby... a LOT shabby, but this is not how it looked growing up!  The yellow bricks have all been removed, her flower beds FULL of daylillies, & her hot pink azaila bushes are gone... but that was home.  That drive way is where I learned to ride my bike & that window on the left was my room... I pinky swear I NEVER climbed out of that window... ever:)

Anyway, tomorrow is the 1st day of a fresh start & the beginning of some new memories for my kiddos.  The "place" you grow up in matters... but not near as much as the people & the love that place holds inside.  So, make memories, live life, roll some sugar cookies & remember... it's the little moments they are going to remember.