Friday, August 23, 2013

Eleven Years

Back when we were babies


Could you even imagine what you would be?
Who you would be?
How you would love?

Could you imagine meeting someone and becoming such good friends?
Could you imagine that friendship turning into a crazy intense love?

That love would turn into a commitment


And that commitment would turn into our lives


That those lives would be so blessed
with laughter
with love
with passion
with beautiful children





That we would share moments like this







Or that he could pretend to be so vicious when he's actually so innocent


Or that he looks so much like you sometimes that it's scary!



Could you imagine how much she would melt our hearts and impress us with her gifts?




 How much she would look like me at times



Or how she's not only pretty but hilarious


That after all these years, we would still take pictures like this












That we could still be goofy together





That you're still so romantic that any time we're near sand you still write me little love notes


Or that  you still look at me like this...even when we're on a road trip



Or that you still give me butterflies every single day



Or that this wonderful life would bless us so so much




I never imagined all of this. What I imagined was so much more limited, more fiction than life. I love you Brandon, with all of my heart. 

The following two quotes can sum it up best:

"I am permanently in love with you, always and forever." - Unknown

"Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same." - Emily Bronte



















Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Kids Rooms Preview

I'm going to preface this post by saying that I already feel like I've lived in this house forever.What I've done in the past 3 months here was about 2 years worth of work in our old home. Before we moved in though, this was how the children's rooms looked

What became Dylan's room:


 What became Jade's room:

I have a moody little boy and had chosen the room on the north side of the house for him because it had a lot of light and I thought he might like that and it might help him be a little less moody. My daughter is pretty laid back so I chose the south room for her. South light is great when you don't have12 trees in your back yard. When you have 12 trees, it kind of blocks all that great light.

Dylan's North Bedroom

 Jade's South Bedroom
(Sadly it always looks like this - messiest little girl EVER)

All of my good intentions got flushed down the toilet though. A few of my friends like to call my son a vampire: he's pale, he's extremely handsome, and he hates sunlight. I should've made his bedroom into the Batcave, but his favorite colors are red white and blue so Batcave was nixed!

My daughter started asking for a skylight (yes, she's only 7 and yes she is a mini version of me in so many ways) or if we could add another window and more lights...meanwhile my son would NEVER open his shutters and threw toddler-style fits whenever I opened them. 
I finally got so fed up with all the complaining that I told them I was switching their rooms and they could just deal with it!
Jade was immediately thrilled about more windows and better light and Dylan even said he would like his new dark room.

But those of you who know me know that I couldn't just switch the furniture and leave it at that. No, if a room was going to be empty of furniture for a while it was the "perfect" opportunity to scrape the popcorn off the ceiling and paint the walls and trim!
So in between scads of client work, my children who seem to be at the destructive age at present, and about 7 million other things happening, I scraped ceilings, painted walls, hung art, improvised new window treatments, arranged furniture, and organized closets!




I was covered in popcorn everywhere!

Bright white always makes the biggest difference. I love a sharp crisp white on ceilings and trim work. LOVE IT!

The trim work for the old shutters in this house was not only nailed, but glued into place. We have plans to replace most of the windows in this house and when we do I will replace all of the trim, but I don't want to replace it right now, so I had quite a bit of sanding, filling, and painting to do on this trim in the south bedroom.

This wall was the most awful green color ever! I didn't cut in at the top because we will be putting in moldings and I don't like cutting in ;)

So these are a few sneak peeks at these rooms. They are down to a few tweaks and some small details for Jade's room and a few larger ones for Dylan's room. I can't wait for you all to see how fun these rooms are!
These two cuties make it all worth while!!!





Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Shutters and Bows

I had a thought the other morning and decided I was going to use those old shutters I've been pulling off the windows in this house. So I got crafty and pulled out my supplies!


This is how they were in my son's room. Green chiffon-type fabric, ugly brass, and painted the same grungy cream as everything else was in this house.

So I had a handy little helper (my friends daughter Hallie) take off the hinges and fabric and clean them with a couple of baby wipes.
Then my daughter Jade and I took the shutters outside and painted them a light blue. I know they look white in this picture, I don't know why either because the place I photographed them in isn't particularly light-filled. Anyway, they are blue ;)


Then we all had a lunch and a few adventures - there are always adventures with 5 kids - and then I went back to work 


I got out some jute and my staple gun and it literally took me three minutes to do this.


After doing upholstery for a while a good over and under stapling pattern becomes somewhat second nature. It just makes sense for a child to have more durability. 

I then put some picture hangers on the back and hung the finished product up in her closet.




She's almost outgrown bows now but  I can see her clipping many other things to this in the future. I just find it kind of precious. 
I also have many other shutter sets, so Peacock Door Designs will be making these to sell very soon. They are easily customizable and I will make them any way you want them.