sleep deprivation

I must have forgotten what is like to have a new puppy when I finally caved to the kids increasingly annoying requests for one. In the past month we have adopted a 9 month boxer/hound mix from the pound and a 9 week old german shepherd from a breeder. last night the dogs must have came to an agreement that they didnt need sleep and neither did I. Im usually up only once or twice to take them outside, but last nights potty breaks equaled about one total hour of sleep for yours truly. I think it was about 4 am when I finally cracked.
 My conversation with the dogs.......
me: its 4 am, did you drink my coffee?
dogs: blank stare
me: you know what sounds good? Well besides sleep...
Water skiing, we should try to water ski in the pool.
dogs: blank stare
me: ok, what about mountain climbing?
dogs:blank stare and a tail wag
me: well then, what do you want to do since sleep is not an option?
dog 1 farts,  dog 2 walks away and hides under a bush.
me: hide and seek it is!I go hide on the other side of the fence while the dogs go crazy . I can see them through the fence discussing their next move... dog number one must have decided that we may indeed go water skiing so he decides to attack the rafts. When I sneak around to stop him dog number two decides to trip me and at this point i swear i hear him laughing as i hit the ground. I decide I no longer want to play with them so I go back inside. Five minutes later in my sleep deprived state I think I hear them asking to go water skiing. I agree, and we hea
d off we go to start this all over again...

Wrote this many years ago......

A friend, a lover, an enemy as one.

It seems like it is ending, though it has just begun.

Each day is different, yet still the same.

Familiar faces without a name.

The clock ticks slowly, time goes by fast.

Wishing it was over, yet hoping it will last.

You love, you hate, you're so confused.

Crying and laughing, because you are really amused.

Losing it all in the passion of heat,

living life with a heart that doesn't beat.

Holding tight and letting go,

without love, you have nothing to show.

dryer vent pumpkin

Found this idea on pinterest and could not wait to try it! Very simple. Picked up a roll of dryer duct vent at walmart for around Five dollars and a can or krylon orange spray paint for around 3. Just cut the duct in half (half to use wire cutter) and placed in circle and hot glued together. Spray paint with several coats of paint and all done! ( I would use a primer, the paint did not stick that well, I had to use 4 coats each!)
Total cost per pumpkin, around 3.00, and these should last awhile, though I do wish I had remembered to weigh them down :(

coffee filter wreath

Ive seen this idea on many blogs and just found it so adorable! It didn't look like it would take a lot of time or work and that is great for someone as impatient as me. One of my closest friends made one with brown coffee filters and it turned out so cute so I thought I would attempt it in white.
I gathered up coffee filters (100 pack of white for only 65 cents) I didn't have a wreath on hand nor did my dollar store so I cut up a pool noodle we had in storage, worked perfectly, yay!I cut the noodle in half, and then again in half lengthwise. Hot glued and tied the ends together (just to be sure they were very secure)



Then I started scrunching up coffee filters and just hot glued them on one by one, It took about 75 of them to fill up the wreath with no gaps. I left the back plain so it would lay flat against the wall. Look at that, so pretty above my thrift store shelf!


I also think you could wrap the the "wreath" in brown packing tape to assure no blue foam peeks through. You could also use cupcake liners for different holidays.

after the fire, bedroom redo

While we were living in the apartment, My girls (ages 16 and 12) had to share a room, so after the fire and buying a new house, we realized my middle child had no bedroom furniture at all. They were sharing my oldest girls bed, dresser, night stands, etc. I was actually quite excited to decorate a room from scratch. After getting her a new (cheap) bed frame, mattress, box spring and shelf, I was ready to get started. We set up the bed and shelf, bought new bedding and I had my color scheme laid out.

My daughter had went to tutoring all summer and at the beginning of the school year her wonderful teacher let her pick out a beautiful, soft , silk type rug from the Rug Gallery. Ive been told this runs about 100 dollars and I believe it is worth every penny , and am extremely grateful that we got this for free! I just love how it matches her room and it feels so amazing!!


Next up was curtains. I actually just found an old white lace see through curtain in one of our boxes still unpacked, and since her room already had blinds I thought it perfect. It matched her room , was girly and looks beautiful. I had some tissue paper left over from a Valentines day gift and it matched her bedding perfectly, so I just used a small finishing nail to nail it to the wall with some ribbon and it works perfectly as a curtain holder, adorable!!! (tissue paper flower was made by folding several sheets of tissue paper accordion style, wrapping a small piece of ribbon around the middle and fluffed it up =)


Next up, We realized she had no dresser (uh oh) . We had a very old, wooden one that had been in our room but we did not use as it was so small and really needed cleaned up. I pulled off all the knobs, lightly sanded it and sprayed the dresser part with krylons high gloss white spray paint (3 dollars a can at walmart) . To match her room, I painted the dresser drawers a glossy red . The picture shows it a bit lighter than it is but it turned out so gorgeous I thought. It needs some updated knobs since I lost a few and I don't really care for the gold tarnished look but it will do until I make another trip to the store.



Then just a few wall decorations. The first one is just cd jewel cases. I printed out the letters, stuck them in the cd case and used some double sided sticky tape to hang them to the wall.




This banner was just a quick easy way too add some fun to her walls. Cardstock paper cut out in pendant shape, red circles cut out with fun shaped scissors and I just used some stencils to trace the letters on white card stock. Punched holes in each one , ran some twine through it and there ya go! All that is left in her room now is to paint and finish up her nook I am working on (that will be another blog)

photo/note holder

This was just a cute fun project that I really loved. I found this old board in my garage with no clue what to do with it but I knew it had to be good for something. Off to scour the internet for ideas. After reading many, many blogs on crafts I kind of combined a few good ideas and had a plan. I spray painted a few clothespins, hot glued them to the board, slapped on a few scrapbooking stickers and VOILA! How cute is this? My children have a computer desk set up in the kitchen that is their work area , so I just hung it right above the computer for them to store any notes/papers on .

Thrift store makeover

This is by far my favorite redo. I found this beauty in the goodwill store for only 8 dollars! I instantly pictured it sanded, painted and put in the entry to the kitchen which was just so bare. I just had to have this!!

I took a photo, texted it to my husband to make sure he agreed with my vision and had the workers help me shove this is my car and away I went!
I just could not wait to get home and get started but sadly, I had no more spray paint so off to the store I went to stock up. 5 cans later I was ready to get started. I dusted it off , lightly sanded it and went to work. I used a cheap black paint as my primer and one can did the entire shelf. I then went to work on my pumpkin painting while I waited for that to dry. Once dry I went over it again with a high Gloss black Krylon and oh was it looking gorgeous already! 2 coats of krylon (only one can!) and it was what I had dreamed of =) That waiting for it to dry was such a downer though. It said 30 minutes but I waited two whole hours before I risked touching it and bringing it in my house. This is the after with nothing on it yet. And this is after all is said and done. How gorgeous is this!!!????
All in all, I think I spent about 13 dollars for this beauty ($8.00 for shelf, 1 can cheap paint $1.oo, $3.00 for krylon and tax)