Christine says WAIT!!

Okay, so Christine got back to me, and she says to wait . . . running out the door . . . naked children . . . gotta be a mom, etc, etc. She QUICKLY gave me some advice: Go with 4 chairs instead of a couch and do a round ottoman.

You are not going to believe this, but that is what we were saying we were going to do for YEARS. Really. For years, we both (Mitch and I) agreed that we needed 4 chairs and a round table or ottoman. I just recently (maybe a month ago) started exploring the idea of a couch in there, and it still isn't sitting well with me. (I'm not much of a pun person, but that was pretty clever . . .)

Oh, this waiting is killing me!! I'm so excited to hear more about what I should do!! Sounds like Christine is on the same page!!

EDT: She posted!! Yay! So excited!

Getting ready to purchase

Well, I THINK I MIGHT be getting ready to purchase furniture. I'm getting antsy. I really wish that some more people would comment on this blog and give me their opinions!!!

I'm thinking this sofa:
here

and two of these chairs:
here

REALLY, I love the sofa in the green, but it just seems more practical to get the sofa in chocolate. By the way, just to clarify, this is not our family room. This will be more of a sitting room. We have a big, fat, cushy couch in the family room (which will be tossed at some point when I built up my paypal account again after redecorating the living room!!).

PLEASE comment. Should I do it? Both of these pieces have free shipping and 15% off, but only until Friday!!

The motherload

First, let me catch you up on the "goings-on".
•The boys got haircuts and look super cute. Little men. I just love it!
•We went to a Portland Trailblazer game on Friday night while the boys spent the night at their Grandparent's house. We had box seats! So cool! There were two suites for our group from SF, and both suites had huge spreads of party food: meatballs, wings, chips, dips, veggies, fruit, brownies, etc. One side had a quesadilla bar, and then at dinner time (as if we needed more food!) they brought in prime rib, roasted veggies and potatoes. I was STUFFED! The game was a lot of fun, too. I enjoyed our attempts to get on the big screen. I actually did see my arm in one shot while they had their cameras on the drum crew that was in front of us. Oh, and the Blazers won. (We seriously had a blast!!)
•I became a little obsessed over the weekend. I discovered funky fabric. A gal posted on a forum I frequent about a sale in her etsy shop on fabric, so I checked it out. That started the obsession (maybe a week ago), then I bought myself a camera strap cover from another gal's etsy shop. Yep. Funky fabric. So, I went in search of this funky fabric. First, some internet research to find the names that I like. Then (total waste of time) a jaunt into Salem to the big fabric stores. Joanns and Hancock still carry the same fabric they carried in the 90's. Ridiculous. Then, back home to research obsessively only to discover that I need to look at quilt shops for this stuff if I want to see it in person. Uh. We have a pretty nice quilt shop here in town, so as soon as it opens (in a few minutes), I am headed over. I KNOW they carry Amy Butler fabric there, I just don't know if it will be the patterns I like. (And, of course, I am totally open to some non-Amy funkiness.)
•Then, just to heap on the obsession, I attended a very fun baby shower yesterday for my friend Mellisa, at Sara's house. Sara is SO talented at decorating and finding absolute steals on home decor items and furniture. Crazy good. Every time I go to her house I leave totally inspired. Oh, and she sews. With funky fabric. So, now I've seen this gorgeous stuff in person, and yes, it does look just as nice up close as it does online, so I have NO problem with purchasing fabric online. And, Sara gave me some great suggestions on where to find my funky fabric. She usually buys it online, but she knows of some great stores in Corvallis. Of course, I only go to Corvallis during football season, at night. But, if, for some reason, we decide to take a family field trip out there, I will be sure to call Sara first.
•Came home from the super fun baby shower just GLOWING with obsession. Mitch was on the computer. Argh. Once he jumped off, I got on and did more research on my fabric/decorating thing. My biggest issue right now is furniture. I have ideas on what I want, but it is sort of hard to narrow it down, especially when we don't have ANY good furniture stores in Salem and I am not about to tote 2 kids up to Portland to look at furniture. Yes, I've done it before, and I won't do it again. So, Ikea is a possibility, but I'm not crazy about their upholstered furniture options. Like a lot of the wood stuff, though. I need to check it out in person (sounds like a date Saturday!!). Overstock.com has some ideas (like the two I posted about below), but the whole online-shopping-and-can't-return-it-without-paying-through-the-nose thing is a little frightening. I went to bed last night feeling excited, frustrated, anxious and ready to get moving on this decorating thing.
•THIS MORNING I HIT THE MOTHERLOAD. Cheap furniture, very nice looking, good reviews, and you can return it to any Target store for no charge!! Oh, and free shipping. So, now I am refreshed and excited and thrilled that I will actually be able to afford some new furniture that is stylish and can be returned. I'm off to the fabric store to find the funky fabric that will be the accent in my room (or maybe just a new bag. We'll see.).

Design With Christine

A while back, my friend Alysun stumbled across a blog called Design With Christine. She wrote in for some advice, Christine responded, and Alysun linked me up to the blog. What a cool blog! Christine has awesome credentials, great taste in design, and she'll give you design advice for free! Pretty cool.

I'm desperate. I have a *tiny* bit of money saved up in my PayPal account, and I'm ready to start living in my living room.

This is the email I just sent to Christine. Hopefully she gets it. Sometimes my email is wonky. At the very least, I'd love to get some opinions from all of my blog readers!

Hi Christine!

You helped my friend Alysun a while back, and now I'm coming for some advice!

My living room is a blank slate. Pretty much literally. This is the state it is in right now, but the chair is going. (I kept the toddler in there, just for scale.)





The room is TINY. The floorplan says that it is 12ft. x 14ft.


So, I need furniture, obviously. I was thinking two little chairs and a chaise. Something along these lines, maybe?
Available here.
Reviews say it is darker. I picture recovering the cushion with something bright, or tossing it and putting a new cushion on there.
Available here.
I like this color, I think, but I was just thinking neutral is better, which is why I chose this one over the patterned options.

Notice the price? That's kinda my ballpark. (And, yeah, I know you HATE those budget constraints!)

So, with two side chairs, a chaise, a coffee table (ish) item, a small side table between the chairs, a new rug to tie it all together, and some curtains, right? I need your opinion and suggestions here!

As for color, I'm not shy. This room is kind of saying "traditional" to me, however, I have this painting in my family room, and my insides get all fluttery every time I look at it.

Available here.

I'll ask for help with the family room (which contains that lovely picture) in the future when budget allows, but in the meantime, please throw some colors at me!

I'd like to keep the photos above the mantle, and my husband is a bird-watching-duck-hunter, thus the duck decoy art that has to stay. I want the room to reflect our family's interests. I'm a digital scrapbooker and have a ton of layouts that can be printed and framed. AND, we want the room to be the adult room that kids are allowed in and I picture it as a great place to play games as a family.

I hope I'm giving you all of the information you need! Please email me with any questions! I hope you can help!!

Sincerely,

Kelleigh

So, what do you guys think? I'd love some opinions and some help! AND, if you know fabric, PLEASE link me up to some funky fabric to go with that "be-still-my-heart" painting. I want to think ahead to the family room!

A day of love!

It's Sunday, and it is beautiful here in Oregon. Sunny and crisp with the sound of children playing in the yard (or at least in our yard). I thought I would take a moment to update you on the "goings on" around here.

Yesterday, as we know, was Valentine's Day. We haven't really been TOO big into V-day, because we love each other every day around here, however this year Mitch went all out. On Monday, he had flowers and chocolate delivered. GORGEOUS yellow roses with red tips. Probably the prettiest roses I have ever seen. I just love them! I would love them more if he picked them up for $10 at a roadside stand, but alas, he didn't. (Come on, ladies. Some of you know what I'm sayin' here, right?) However, despite the cost, I love them.

Then, on the actual Valentine's Day, he brought me a GLORIOUS Annihilator (my fav coffee), and my youngest son handed me a little red jewelry bag. Inside was a very pretty silver locket on a chain with my initial engraved on it! So sweet! I'm excited to put a photo of "the boys" inside.

Speaking of the boys, Mitch went out earlier this week (or maybe last week) and bought the boys some skittles inside plastic hearts and a pack of $5 Legos for Cole - He loves the little race cars. We bought Grant a replacement set of General Grievous Legos (on Ebay) because he was missing some key pieces to the set he got for his birthday last year. He was thrilled! Not very surprising, considering that we made these Valentines for him:
Credits here.

Yep. That's Grant's head on General Grievious' body. Grant thought it was so funny! He signed his own name (using my Bamboo Fun - pen tablet thingy for all you non-scrappers) and we printed them all out on cardstock.

And, what did I get Mitch? Well, I made this layout a few days ago:
Credits here.

And I gave this to him for Valentine's day!
Credits here.

I just printed the layout (4x4) and attached it to a cork-backed coaster I bought at the Dollar Tree. I punched holes and set the eyelets with my Crop-o-dile. I want to find some better ribbon, so I'll be on the lookout! Mitch liked it, so that's good!

Later that morning, we went out to a couple of fun stores, and realized that Cole was acting pretty wimpy and that he had a fever. Hmmm. So, we went on back home and relaxed. Our plans were to go out to dinner tonight (Sunday) and drop our kids off to play with their cousins, however our nephew is just finishing up the last of his treatments for cancer, and it's never a good idea for him to be around sick kids. So we decided to keep our kids with us and Mitch went out for Thai food. Yum! So, our Valentine's Day wasn't terribly romantic, but it was filled with love!! I'll skip over the part where Cole fell asleep at 4:00pm and then woke up at 2:00am wanting to watch a movie. We started one for him and woke up every 2 hours to start a new one for him. Huh. Guess I didn't skip over that. Anyway, at some point in the late evening I realized that I was getting sick, so I drugged myself up BIG TIME. It was hard to drag myself out of bed every 2 hours - 2:00, 4:00, 6:00 to push play. But, it was infinitely easier than forcing a wide-awake 2 year old to stay in his bed.

So, now, on Sunday, I'm sick, Cole is better (but runny), Mitch is bored and Grant is annoying all of us. I want to kick the boys out of the house!! How to do that nicely . . .?

I'll leave you with a couple of layouts I did this week:

Credits here.

Credits here.

And, just wanted to let my scrapping audience know that The Digichick is having a fun Valentine's Day party that ends tonight. There are some big prizes up for grabs, including a couple of issues of Bella Scraps Magazine and a seat in one of Jessica Sprague's classes! Chances are VERY good that you could win something. I don't think too many people know about this party! Either that, or they are all out to dinner with their sweethearts!

New Freestyle Albums and other cute stuff!

It's ONEderful Wednesday again at Jen Wilson Designs, and she has put two of my new Freestyle Albums in my little corner of her shop!

And, guys, they are layered templates, so you add your own paper to pretty them up, then print them on 4x6 photo paper and glue them to "found" chipboard (cereal boxes, etc.). CUTE!!

This one is only $1 today (until 11:59pm EST)



This one is just as cute:


While you're there, check out my other Freestyle album:


AND, don't forget to load up on JW's other ONEderful items!

And, since I'm being all braggy and stuff, look what Dianne put in her shop at ScrapArtist:


Cool, huh?

An Update:

I am not dead. Apparently, I am more handy than I look, because a few minutes after posting that last one, I decided to attempt to plunge the sink. Yes, with the toilet plunger. And, it worked! I WILL disinfect the sink. Promise.

And, I promise to never stuff that much greenery down the sink.

Mitch is going to kill me.

The backstory:

We had been married about 1.5 years. I made soup. And shoved the leftover cabbage down the drain, to be "dealt with" by the garbage disposal. The disposal was less than willing. Mitch took the disposal apart, piece by piece. It was gross. It was terrible. Mitch was a bit upset with me.

Fast-forward to today:

This time, it is cilantro.

He's gonna kill me . . .

(I'll keep you posted . . . if possible.)

My great white hunter

Saturday morning, Mitch and his buddy, Steve went goose hunting. Yeah, my husband, the avid bird-watcher, is also an avid bird HUNTER. He loves it. Whatever.

Anyway, on Saturday, Mitch bagged three geese!





Ah, yes. Goose meat coming out our ears. Help me!!

(If you know of ANY way I can cook this stuff without having to taste it, just let me know!)

Tagged

My friend Alysun tagged me. I'm supposed to go to the 4th folder in my Pictures folder, then the 4th photo. Since I break things into years, then months, I chose the 4th folder, 4th folder (in that folder), and 4th picture.

No. It's not cute. Yes. It's straight out of the camera. Nope. No kids.

My barracuda. Caught on a fishing trip in Cancun! Hee, hee!


I won't tag you, but I will check in to see if any of my readers post their 4th!

So what did you do yesterday?

Grant is sick. I mean, he's ADORABLE, and sick. He has a fever and the sniffles and a loud, hacking, old man cough. And he is SOOOO sweet and SOOOO cute. Always is, right? Actually, he's just a tad pathetic and wants his mommy to hold him, so I did lots of cuddling yesterday. That and watched Star Wars. Over. And. Over.

In the meantime, Cole was quite chipper! Annoying when you would like your 5yo to keep sleeping on the couch, but the 2yo wants to play with the BIG Legos that are super loud when the tall tower falls on the hard wood floor. But, that little booger is adorable, too. Of course.

I meant to mention that I FINALLY bought a new lens. Ahhh. I love it! It was super cheap (as far as camera lens' go) and takes the MOST gorgeous pictures in low light. Indoor shots are amazing! I don't know why this lens wasn't the kit lens. Drives me crazy to realize I have had my SLR for over a year and JUST bought this lens. Oh, the pictures I could have taken!! If you are on the fence, hop over. Seriously. You need a prime lens (Cannon EF 50mm 1:1.8 - not that I know what any of that means). Expect better pictures from me.

I have to tell you that with all of that creativity last week, I am POOPED! However, I just can't seem to stop myself, so I did create one more little thing just in time for Valentine's day:

(edit: Deleted the pic! Working on this one for the future!)

In my store!

They are supposed to be kinda like this. I can picture my templates with the top edges cut with deckled scissors and punched with pretty punches.

People were asking for them (seriously, I got like 3 emails in one day and all kinds of posts on the message boards), so I made 'em up really quick (okay, not really quick, 'cause I really don't know what I'm doing with this "designing" thing).

And, last night I attended the Digichick Friday Night Chick Chat, which was a speed scrap. Oh, THAT was fun. Every 10 minutes, we were given instructions and a specific "recipe" for a layout. For example, the first instruction was to use a solid paper for the background and a patterned paper for a 5 inch tall strip that extends across the page. I followed all of the instructions, took MUCH longer than I should have, and came up with this.

Here for credits.

These are the girls in my family at Thanksgiving! My mom always wants to take a picture with just the girls, and although we are missing a few sisters in this pic, she finally got her wish! Yeah. I have a big family. And, see the little cutie in the pink shirt on the left? My niece, Cara, who is over 3 now, JUST had her adoption finalized yesterday!! YAY! We can all breathe a sigh of relief over that bit of news! It was a LOOOONG journey, but so very worth it in the end.


I also did a layout for the Project 52 challenge going on over at Jen Wilson Designs. I've had this story in mind for a long time now, and I am so glad I finally did a layout. Oh, I love this boy!!


Here for credits.

Well, that's it! I hope to do a couple of layouts with my new super-sharp indoor pics of Cole (who loves saying "Hi!" every time the camera comes out, which gives us the cutest bright-eyed smiles). In the meantime, I'd better clean the house before Mitch comes back from hunting, just to make up for the mess that was NOT cleaned up last night while I was scrapping!!

Been working a TON!

Some fun things happening in my digital scrapbooking world. I'll spare you all and just show you my new stuff.

First, a grab bag! It's kinda a secret, but I'll tell you that there are three template sets, and two sets are new boxes. Hee, hee!



Next, I created this little box last night and popped it in the store this morning for only $1. I've used it a few times today, and I still love it!



And, I put a couple of my Valentine themed items on sale for only $1, too! Go check out my store at The Digichick!

Been doing a lot of cuddling lately

My 2 year old is wonderful. Cuddly, adorable, sweet. Great kid. Snot-nosed, though. Today I was chatting with a friend and ran my fingers through my hair. They got stuck. In dried snot. Not mine.

Such is the life of a mom!