Kitchen chairs are finished!

So I have finally finished my kitchen chairs! They look okay. I wasn't super pleased with the paint job, but that's partially my fault because I was lazy and didn't sand them before hand. The other problem is I had to paint primer on two of them and it was so thick, it was hard to put on well. The other two, I used spray primer and I wish I had just used that for all of the chairs. Plus, I didn't use a very good brush on the primer. For the last two, I finally bought a nice, brush where the bristles are angled and that helped to put the paint on better.

BEFORE

DURING

AFTER

The chairs look nice, if you don't look too closely at the paint job. ;) I do love how they look in the kitchen with the color of paint on the walls. Now, I just need to paint the legs of the table and refinish the top and the kitchen will pretty much be done!

Life Is Good!

A few weeks ago, we had stake conference. I was in the nursery with Anna and a million other kids, so I wasn't able to hear all the talks very well. However, I was able to hear a little bit of one lady's talk. She started talking about the phrase, Life is good. I don't remember all the particulars of what she said, but this phrase has stuck with me since then. I can't get it out of my head and I'm glad!

I've been thinking a lot about it since then. Life really is good! I have so many blessings in my life right now. I have a house, food, clothing, vehicles, a good husband, a beautiful baby girl, health, safety, security (physical and financial), loving family and friends, etc. I live in a country where I enjoy certain freedoms and privileges that other countries could only dream about. I really shouldn't be complaining about anything!

That same day as the talk, in the Parade magazine, that comes in the Sunday paper, there was an article by Matt Damon. He was talking about some charity work in Africa that he has done. He said how the school children fill up their water bottles with muddy water, because that's all they have. Even though it's sad they have to do that, it's better than being dehydrated. WOW! And here we get upset when someone messes up our order at a restaurant or we don't have as nice of car as our neighbors.

I've decided that I want to make that phrase into a sign and put it in my family room somewhere (vinyl will be used to make this project :). I really want to see it a lot to be reminded of how good life really is and to not complain about the little things.

A few days ago, I made meatballs for dinner. I had just finished making them and put them in the pan to cook. The consistency of them was kind of weird and not how they usually are. I wasn't sure what was wrong with them until after I put them in the pan to cook and saw the eggs on the counter that were supposed to go in them! So, I quickly took them out of the pan and had to mix them up again. I started to feel irritated and frustrated that I had forgotten the eggs and that I had to touch raw meat again (never fun). Then, I had the thought-Hey, at least you have food! I decided to dwell on that and just be grateful that I wasn't starving. That really helped change my attitude.

I know we hear this a lot, that you should be grateful for what you have, but it's hard to remember sometimes, and on a daily basis. I really do want to be better at this. There will always be someone with nicer things than you, but there will also be someone worse off than you, as well.

Life Is Good!!!

Forever in Love...

I've been cutting vinyl lately and this is my latest project. I love it! I've been wanting to put something on the wall with our wedding pictures. I originally was going to put True Love, but decided that looked too cheesy. This project took all day! It looks so simple, like all I did was cut out letters and slap them on the wall. But first I have to cut everything out in paper, fiddle around with sizes, tape it to the wall, change it, etc. Then cut the vinyl, tape it to the wall before I put it on the wall, make sure it's centered, etc. But it was worth it. :) I am going to make the word "in" smaller because I think it looks too big.

I ordered some vinyl that came the other day. I got red, olive green, and kind of a neutral color. I got it for super cheap, so I was pretty excited. I'm going to put some more up in the kitchen. I had cut some out earlier, but it was black and I decided I had too much black on the wall that I wanted it on. So now I'm going to do red instead.

Here is some stuff I got at Goodwill last week. I'm going to paint the first one, probably red. the black thing, is actually a vase I turned upside down and painted and am going to put a candle on it. The last item, I think I'm going to put a bow around it and put the dried roses from my wedding bouquet in it. All this only cost $4.50!

So I just had to share these pictures. Lately, Anna has had fun stuffing her mouth full of food. Here, she is eating waffles for breakfast and decided to put all of it in her mouth (or at least try).

Then, she decides maybe it won't work, and lets it all come out. :)

She just cracks me up! Here, the strainer on her head reminds me of an old army helmet. I just can't get enough of my little baby.

P.S. I want to put some more vinyl in Anna's room, but I'm having trouble coming up with ideas. Does anyone have ideas of some cute phrases or words? I was thinking of doing something like, "sugar and spice and all that's nice." But I'm not sure if I really want to do that. Any suggestions would be great. :)

A trip to the pumpkin patch!

We took Anna to her first pumpkin patch! We went to Lombardi Ranch, up in Saugus, last weekend. It was pretty fun, but I think next year will be more fun because she'll be able to enjoy it a little more and understand the significance of it. She also fell asleep in the car on the ride up, so she woke up right when we got there and was probably still a little out of it at the beginning. For some reason, she didn't want to look at the camera-at all. So most of the pictures she's not looking.

Anna and her daddy!

I think this one is cute, her face in a little pumpkin.

But she was a bad baby, so we put her in jail!

For some reason though, she loved this old fire truck. She kept wanting to go back. There were so many other things to look at, but this one held her attention. It was actually kind of funny because she would start to walk/wander aimlessly around and we would kind of follow her or take her to a different thing to see, but she would always end up back here.

Lovin' the fire truck.

Too cute...

She did discover how much fun the baby pumpkins were. We bought her one.

She was loving this one!

Overall, it was a fun time and we ended up getting hay in the diaper bag, so we'll always have a reminder of our trip to the pumpkin patch. :)

I'm so tricky!

I had a little decorative breakthrough the other day, which I'm quite pleased with. Below, you see a picture of two glass containers with liquid in them. When I asked Dan what he thought was in them, he said oil and vinegar (note: the liquid in these look a little lighter than in real life). What's really in them? WATER! with dye! I'm so tricky! I bought the taller one from Joannes the other day. It's only a dollar, but I had a ton of half off coupons, so I got it for 50 cents. The other one I got in Italy. I wanted to put them on the counter, but they look pretty plain just empty. I didn't want to put oil or vinegar in them, because it would just go bad, being in the sunlight all day. So, I was thinking about it and it just came to me to put dyed water. I know I'm probably not the first person to think about this, but I was pretty proud of my own personal ingenuity here. :) I just had to play around a bit with drops and I think I got pretty close. I want the red to be darker, but I didn't want to keep wasting water (we are in a drought and all). I'm thinking of maybe putting stuff in them, like spice leaves or stuff like that, but I don't know if I can make it look good. I know it's silly, but every time I see them, I smile and kind of pat myself on the back for thinking of this. Oh, I get too excited about decorating sometimes.

My next find at Joannes are these little wooden things. They are super cheap and aren't the best quality, but if you don't look too close, they look good! I'm going to put them in this frame and hang it in my kitchen. I'm going to paint the frame either black, wine red or olive green, I haven't decided yet. I'll probably put black paper for the background. I was so excited when I found these. They were 59 cents each, but they had a buy 2 get one free. I bought the frame for 25 cents at a garage sale a few months ago.

I'm going to put it here.

I also wanted to share probably the most awesome decorating blog I've ever seen!!!! This lady is SO incredibly talented. I spent so much time just pouring over her posts. I love her style, it's exactly what I'm going for. There are a few other decorating blogs I follow, but sometimes they're not quite my style. Here is her blog. I just found it yesterday and I'm already so in awe of her. thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com She has awesome ideas of how to decorate for cheap or do it yourself projects. Plus, she's funny. Just reading her posts makes me want to decorate my house even more and get things the way I want them. I know it will still be a while, but now I'm feeling more antsy about it. :) I hope you all enjoy it!

The Finished Duvet Cover!

Here is the finished product! I think it turned out very nice and love how it looks with the black bed. I started it on Monday and pretty much finished it on Wednesday. I would have finished it Wednesday night, but didn't have time. I sewed on the snaps today and am all done. I left extra material at the top, which folds over the bottom. I decided snaps would be easier than buttons or a zipper.

I'll explain briefly how I made it. (this is for my friend Melanee, she wanted to know how). I measured our down comforter and then bought 12 yards of material. I actually have about 2 yards left, but better more than not enough. Originally, I was just going to sew two pieces together to make the top and then another 2 to make the bottom. However, I was talking to my mom and she told me a better way to do it. The fabric I got measured 56 in. wide, about the width of our bed. I cut a piece about 10 inches longer than the length of the comforter (I made the top longer than the bottom, so I could fold it under). I then cut another piece the same length as the first. I cut the second piece in half and then sewed a half piece on each side of the first piece I cut. So, that way you don't have a seam right in the center of your duvet, but rather on the sides of the bed.

You can see in this picture how the seam is on the side. There is another seam on the other side. However, looking head on, you can't really see the seam on the sides.

I then cut out two pieces for the bottom, giving a few inches at the sides for sewing the top and bottom together. For the bottom, I made the seam in the middle, since no one will see it. I then sewed the top and bottom pieces together, starting with the bottom, then did each side. Before I sewed the sides, I laid the comforter on the material and pinned the sides with the comforter in it, so I would know exactly where to sew. I know that's really brief, but hopefully it makes sense. :)

With the extra material, I'm going to make pillow cases. Well, I'll buy some other material and just make the middle of it with the original material, so it's not all the same as the duvet. Overall, it wasn't really that hard. The hardest part was just putting it all together, but it wasn't too bad. Now, I just need to paint our room, and get the wall decor figured out.

Here are some pics of Anna. She loves playing with pens lately. She'll just take them in and out of this holder. However, today, she discovered a new way to play with them. The blue thing is the jelly plastic stuff, that is like a grid, with holes in it.

We took a walk the other evening and she just looked so cute all bundled up.

Crib skirt

Here are some pics of Anna's crib skirt. I guess it's not technically a crib skirt, but it serves the same function. I thought about making it go under the mattress, but I wanted to do bows, so I did this instead. Basically, all I did, was cut a piece of material to fit the length and height of the space it was going to cover. I then sewed ribbon that would tie around the bars. I didn't feel like hemming it, so I bought some ribbon and sewed it on the bottom, to cover the edge of the cloth. I then bought some thinner ribbon and sewed that on the top to cover that edge and voila'! The only hard part was getting the ribbon in the right spot. I would sew one piece, go and tie it on the crib, and then put a pin in the spot for the next bow, that way it would be in the right place for sure.

Decorating Updates

Yesterday was such a good day. I watched conference, which is always good. Then, Dan, Anna, and I went to the fabric store to look for material for Dan's Halloween costume and for material to make a duvet for our down comforter. Well, I found some very pretty material for only $3 a yard!!! I'm telling you, the fabric store I go to is a gold mine! There is no where else I could get it this cheap. This is nice stuff too. I love the little swirls on it. I think it gives it such a nice, classy look.

I'm so excited to start making the duvet. I'm really, really hoping it turns out okay. I'm really not an extremely talented sewer. It's only been the last 6 months or so that I've really sewed stuff. In fact, I've sewed more in the last 6 months than I have in all my life. Luckily, it's just sewing lines. I'm good with that. Anything else, well, I just don't think I'd do well. :)

Then, we came back from the fabric store and my Cricut cartridge arrived. I just ordered one for super cheap on ebay. I've been wanting one that gives a cursive type font, plus some icons that are like decorative swirls and stuff. I found the perfect one. So, I cut out the word Benvenuti, which means, Welcome, and put it up in my kitchen. I love it, especially the little leaves on either side.

I'll be putting up more words later this week. I love vinyl, it's such an easy way to decorate and it's so easy to remove! Again, if anyone local wants to get some vinyl cut, I'm more than happy to do it for you, just let me know.

As for other projects, I made a kind of crib skirt for Anna's crib. I haven't taken pictures of it yet and would now, but she's asleep. There is so much I want to get done lately. I sanded the top of the coffee table we bought off of craigslist, but still need to do the sides. Hopefully, this week I'll be able to get that done as well, but we'll see. I'll be working on the duvet, so it just depends on what time permits.

Here are some pics of my little Anna. I think this little outfit is SO cute on her. I love her so much, she really does bring us so much happiness.