Busy...

I'm not sure when life got so busy! I think it happened when my BFF got engaged... (Two weeks until the wedding!) Or when I had a baby 3 years ago. Anyways since my last post, I've thrown the best Bachelorette party on earth, gone camping, met a super cool new couple friend, worked a lot, played a lot, celebrated some birthdays and painted a huge chalkboard!

I know it's not a new thing around the blog world but it took me forever to talk Ben into letting me paint a wall in our kitchen into a chalkboard. It's been done since last Thursday and we've been having a blast with it.

This is what we started with, I painted the little chalkboard awhile ago and it had a big frame around it. We quickly realized it wasn't enough! When my Dad & Step Mom were here in August they convinced Ben that we needed the whole wall covered!

(Layla loves to see her name written out! She has a thing for "L's" and writes them everywhere!)

I kept a small boarder about it. Here's Layla trying it out. The big mess in the middle is where the little one was.

My first Masterpiece! I have a thing for Palm Trees, reminds me of growing up in CA.

I've also started a little fall decorating that I hope to finish up tonight or tomorrow. And I have plans to paint this dude:  Rockford you are driving me crazy!

(Taken while we were painting the walls I do not miss that nacho cheese color!)

It's not real rock, and I figure if it turns out awful I'll take it off and drywall it! My awesome Step Dad (I got super lucky with step parents) is in the process of making me a mantel! I can not freaking wait!

Summer!

Summer is in full swing in the Inland Northwest!!! And we are busy bee's!

This little Miss, moved from the Toddler Class to Preschool yesterday!

It's been hot so I broke out the Ice Cream Ball! Added some fresh Raspberries from our plant!

And last weekend we went to a beautiful wedding for our friends Adam & Jessica! Here's a little impromptu family picture!

It was HOT! Excuse the red faces.

Party planning is still in full swing, Ben's beer tasting birthday party (Idea from here!) is next Saturday! Wow! I have a lot to do! Layla's 3rd Blue Bubble Birthday is just a little less then a month away and my bbf's Mad Hatter Tea Party Bridal Shower is just two short weeks after that! And that's not even the half of it! Sprinkle in a few more birthday's, lots of shopping, family visiting for a week, bbq's, swim lessons and lots more! I love how the summers just fill up and keep you busy!

Parties & Weekend Round Up!

This weekend Ben went on his works annual camping trip, which sounds like a company event and that families should be invited but it’s not. It’s a bunch of guys from his work that go camping together and have a weekend drunk fest. I’m totally fine with some girl time though! Friday night Layla and went out to dinner with my friend Kaylene, it was interesting… When I picked Layla up from school the first thing her afternoon teacher said, she didn’t nap very and has been pretty grumpy… Great we already had plans! We only had one time out and she did fairly well. I’m always nervous going out to dinner with someone who doesn’t have kids with my kid!

Saturday: My mom came and picked Layla and I up. A town about 15 minutes away was having town wide yard sales! AMAZING! I got absolutely no pictures but I got a bar cart for outside $5.00, 4 patio chairs $10.00 and a ton of brand name barely worn clothes for Layla.  After that we went to a quick lunch cause Ms. Layla was getting close to break down mode. When we got home we were walking up our front steps, I was holding Layla and my flip flop caught on the top on a stair and down we went! Luckily I didn’t fall on her but she fell into the next step with her back. Agh I felt awful! She’s fine; I’m fine just a little bruised. After my Mom left and she was down for a nap I had a little breakdown about it.

Sunday: Ben came home! We just hung and were really lazy! In the evening we washed my car and the tent trailer. After Layla went to bed I watched some Real Housewives Reunion and passed out!

Parties! My life is consumed by parties right now! From friends birthday parties to Ben and Layla’s birthdays to a bridal and bachelorette party! I am in the process of planning 5 different parties right now!  4 of which are happening in August! Its nuts! Luckily I always start planning Ben and Layla’s birthday’s way in advance. There birthdays are 13 days apart and I want both of them to feel special! Agh, good thing I like to make lists!

Dresser!

Yesterday I took the day off to spend with my Grandma and Grandpa who are up from Fresno, CA. Yesterday it rained, snowed, hailed, thundered and lightning... But we (My Mom, Grandparents, Layla, Me and my older brother) got in my Mom's bus of a car and went thrift store shopping. I got this cute dresser (bad cell phone picture) for $40.00, I'm going to put it in my living room as a sofa sort of table.

I'm torn on what color to paint it. My living room has Sliver Leaf walls, olive greenish furniture, and black coffee and end tables. My first thought was black, but I almost want a bright fun color. Like the ever popular turquoise... Or white, yellow, green. I don't know. Any ideas?

Have a great weekend!

Elmer...

Monday night Elmer and I ran up to Petco to get his nails trimmed. They were awful, like badger claws or something. Anyways the very sweet groomer offered to give him a bath too! Yes, please! After I picked him up and we headed home I stopped at a stop light and took this picture...

If you can't tell he's sitting in Layla's carseat...

Um Elmer Doug, you are a little too big for that.

(tomorrow I will have some pictures and a sort of "how to" on some curtains I dyed for Layla's room)



Things!

• We are headed out of town again this weekend, I am sort of excited about it and sort of not. We are going to Sunnyside WA (clicky link about the city, if your interested) My parents have been BFF's with a couple Sam & Stacey since I was little like 3 or so. They are like an extra set of parents, aways Sam's parents have a HUGE party every year to celebrate their birthdays and anniversary. It's always the 2nd weekend in April and it's a ton of fun! But we went on a trip last weekend and normally we spend the night (it's about a 2 1/2 hour drive) but this year we wanted to come home so it a lot of car time for Layla. But while were there she is going to get wore out! There is seriously 8000 kids there (OK not really but at least 75) and they normally rent a bounce house, it's on a lot of property so she can run, a pinata, confetti eggs, and all her favorite people will be there. Sam's family is Mexican which also means the most amazing food! Ok, I think I just got myself excited about it!
  
• My house is so messy right now! I almost called in today just so I could clean it. I didn't and now I'm at work feeling stressy about it. It's crazy how a messy house gives me anxiety! I have to clean it tonight! There's not much worse then coming home from a trip to a messy house.
  
• After work tonight we are headed to the Wahl's house for dinner! I am the main cook in our house and I get so excited when someone invites us to dinner and I don't have to cook! Food tastes so much better (most of the time) when someone else cooks it! I don't mind cooking, and enjoy it most of the time but I do love when someone else does it!
  
• I picked up Layla's pictures last night and when I got there the lady says, oh it looks like they have sent some extras! I'm thinking sweet! Free pictures?! Um... No, you can have these for $25.00... I of course had to buy them. Agh.
  
• I have recently started buying Avon again and I bought the BEST perfume! It is a fantastic summer scent! I think they might be discounting it or something though because it's on sale right now for $5.99 while supplies last. This is what Avon.com says about it: Like a perfect spring day, drenched in sunshine and totally alive with possibilities! Notes of green mango, juicy mandarin and lemon ice capture your zest for life, while orange flower, honeysuckle and jasmine express an underlying floral flirtation. Sun-bleached teak, patchouli and sandalwood root the scent, creating a perfect balance between energy and calmness. So yummy!!! Another one that I thought was good was Fergie's Outspoken, one of the books had a sample in it and it was surprising good and sexy!

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!! It should be nice here, in the high 50's I cannot wait!

Happy 4th Wedding Anniversary

To me and my husband Ben! 4 years ago today it was a rainy Friday. I was recovering from a cold and barely had a voice, lots of running around, a quick stop at Arby’s, and spending the most of the day in the most beautiful mansion.

At 7:15pm the sun finally came out and I married by best friend! It’s been a great ride so far and I cannot wait to spend the rest of our lives together!

Out of Town...

So we made the decision to go to Missoula MT. this weekend for our 4th wedding anniversary! Layla is going to go to Nana & Papa's and we'll head over Friday night. We are so lucky to have my Mom so close by and she and my Step Dad always want some Layla time. My older brother Eddie will be staying at our house to watch Elmer Dog, so all the kids are taken care of!

Were not sure what we want to do while were there but there are 3 brewery's we want to check out. Bayern Brewery ,  Kettle House,  and Big Sky Brewery. Other then that we want to eat out and sleep in! And then get up early on Sunday and rush home to our Layla Bean!

Happy Saturday!!!

We are taking Layla to get some spring pictures taken today! I can't wait! And I am working on our taxes. I've been a major slacker about them this year. Tonight I hope to lounge with some Saturday night HGTV and maybe a movie with the Hubs! Have a fabulous day!

Almost the Weekend!

My weekend starts today at Noon! I can't wait! My Mom and I are headed to Seattle for S H O P P I N G! Our favorite sport! My Mom has a class for work that she has to attend tomorrow so I will get to sleep in and have some alone shopping time. We'll be back on Saturday but it was pretty hard to say goodbye to these two:

(Yes, she is sitting on top of our car. But Ben is right there.)

I have a Ikea shopping list all ready to go, the closest one to us is 4hrs away so any time I get over there I have to go, I also hope to check out the new Z Gallerie in Redmond and just spend some time with my Mom!



Oh my gosh and Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

Can’t wait for Spring!

I think the spring bug has hit just about everyone lately! It’s rainy and cold here today and I just can’t help thinking about evenings on the back porch, Layla swinging, throwing the ball for the pooch and working on this guy:

I’ve already introduced Trent Taylor the tent trailer but my Mom and I were talking last night and she got me so excited about camping this year! Almost as excited as I am to bring this guy home he is currently hanging at my Mom’s house; my stepdad was nice enough to build him a lovely lean-to so he’s out of the weather, they have 5 acres so are always storing something for me or my brother. Anyways bring him home and give him some love! I mentioned we bought him at the end of last summer for $400.00 and I have quite a few projects lined up! Painting the cabinets, new fabric on EVERYTHING, a new kitchen table and countertops, new curtains and just about everything else. He’s pretty ugly right now and we plan to have him for quite awhile so he definitely needs a lot of love!

On to something else, I am so ready to have the stairs done! I can’t find a runner and it’s bugging the hell out of me! This morning I have been Googling making my own, out of like drop cloths or something… It’s not looking too promising maybe it the stairs weren’t so high traffic. I’m going to check Big Lots today at lunch and see what they have. I got a fairly large orange and white stripped rug there a few weeks ago for $9.00. It’s worth a shot. Their website says they have rugs from $3.-$12.!

Wow this turned into a big rambling post! Tomorrow is Friday and I can’t wait! I will have some more pictures of the stairs, I finished painting and they are ready bedsides the runner! Ben loves them! Did I tell you he didn’t like it when I first took the carpet off? He was scared! I love when he’s nervous about something then it turns out rockin!

Painting!

Every time I finish painting a room in our house I think I am so much closer to having this house all painted!!! But not really, even after it's done I'll want to change something. (Ben loves this...) Anyways here's a break down of all the rooms we've painted and what we still have left to do or change.

Living Room (or main living area): When we moved in this had recently been painted... Nacho Cheese colored...

Here's a picture just after we moved in. (Rockford the fireplace) That color was the first color to cover up. We painted Silver Leaf over it, which I had hope for a off white but looks just white...

Yeah it looks completely different on my walls...

Kitchen: The kitchen was a weird brown color with very dark brown cabinets. We painted the cabinets Black (Ebony by Behr) and the walls Dolphin Fin again by Behr. I love this color, it looks almost lavender gray.

But I have recently decided that I want my kitchen to be green. Maybe I'll move this color down to the guest room.

Master bedroom: I posted about this awhile ago but it's Dark Ash by Behr. Wow most of my colors are Behr but I rarely buy Behr paint, I normally have it color matched into Home Depot's Speed Dry it runs about $11.00 a gallon.

I really like this color, I think it's sexy.

Layla's Room: Tinkerbell, which I just posted about.

Downstairs: Family Room: It's a Greige color that I can't show a picture of since I had it mixed about 5 times. It started as a Martha Stewart color but I can't remember what it was.

It looks gray here, but it's really not. The white is the Silver Leaf that I had left over from the upstairs.

Guest Room: Is white... Our sellers left all of their paint and they had almost of full gallon of white paint. This is the smallest room in the house and after we moved in I just wanted to get 1 room close to finished. It was hideous with very dark paneling now it's bright and white.

Still to Paint:

• 3 bathrooms (upstairs, master and guest)
• Play Room (another all paneling room with red carpet)
• Kitchen again
• Stairs
  
  I did nothing on the stairs last night. We went grocery shopping and then I just wanted to relax. Oh wait I did measure them to know how long of a runner I was going to need. 10 foot by the way. I think I will just get a few smaller ones and make it work, way cheaper.
  

FRIDAY!!!

Another weekend! I am excited for this one! My step dad Tommy (Layla's Papa) is working in town today and is going to take the Princess home with him tonight. Tomorrow we are painting her room! I decided on Tinkerbell Green. Green was my first thought and I keep having visions of green, light pink and pearly white. I posted on my Facebook that I was looking for someone to paint a large tree on one of her walls. I'm sure I could do it but having someone who knew what they were doing would be better. Anyways no one thought they could do it but I had a great suggestion to contact our local high school and see if an art student would be interested. I sent an email yesterday, so we will see. 

Here's are my two Thrift Store finds from last Saturday when my Mom and I went. I am thinking of painting the lamp ($2.99) or leaving it and putting it in my guest room. 

This is my little vase thing (.99 cents) that I put in the dishwasher and it ate all the pretty blue flowers off. I still really like it though! 

Have a fantastic weekend!!!! (Still working on the stairs, hoping to get a lot done this weekend!)

Still Alive

Enjoying a nice 4 day weekend with my family! I'll be back tomorrow!

Love!

Enjoy the day!!

New things!

Happy Friday!!! Here are a few new things I've picked up this week:

New knobs for my family room coffee table.

Elmer helping :)

I bought this table at Goodwill about a year ago. The two little windows where you see the fabric had actual windows there but one was broken and it was missing a knob. It was $1.99! I had plans for it to be a patio coffee table which it was for a few months then it moved inside when we bought the new house. So far I've painted it black, brown and now white. I think I might go back over it with more of antique white though...

A few weeks ago I was vacuuming and broke our vacuum. I was a little ticked. But then we started looking at vacuums and realized we’ve had our little cheap one for 7 years?! So off to Sears we went and ending up coming home with this little beauty.

DC33 Multi floor

 

From their website: Upright for multiple floor types - carpet, ceramic, vinyl, wood Root Cyclone™ Technology Telescope reach wand Lightweight and easy to carry Lifetime washable HEPA filter Hygienic bin emptying

I love it!!! Have a great weekend!

I'm Loving

A few things I am loving lately! No order and not everything is decorating related.

Leather Pouffes

Houndstooth! On everything, walls, pillows, blankets etc.

A Greyhound! Vodka & Grapefruit.

Wingbacked Beds... Ahh Swoon! These have been all over the place lately and I freaking love them!

Stenciled Walls, can you have too many in your house? Probably...

The color Green!

Tomorrow is Friday and my Dad and Brenda fly in! So excited to see them, and Miss Layla is over the top excited!

Sick & Weekend Round Up...

I have been sick lately, and it sucks! I finally went to the doctor yesterday when my cold moved into my chest and started messing with my asthma. I'm now on steroids and antibiotics and starting to feel better.

Weekend Round Up:

Friday: I went home from work early and slept. Ben and Layla got home and we lounged.

Saturday: In the morning we took Layla out to my Moms. She was so excited to spend the night with Nana and Poppa. Ben and I headed back into town and did a little thrift store shopping, I didn't find much. Another owl to paint white and Ben found some books.

Sunday: My Mom brought Layla home pretty early and I was feeling awful! We all lounged and watched the Packers beat the Steelers!

Nice and easy weekend. I had wanted to get some painting done and a lot of cleaning but feeling sick didn't let that happen. This week I will be scrambling to get everything done before my Dad and Brenda get here!

And to brighten this post up, here’s a picture of Layla last night after she got her bangs cut.

Random

I am feeling uninspired today. I think it’s because I caught Layla’s cold. My head is all stuffy and I feel like poo.

My Dad and Brenda (step Mom) will be here in 8 days! I am excited! But I have a lot of cleaning to do. I keep the day to day stuff in our house really picked up and do deep cleaning normally on Sundays. With Layla being sick last Sunday it got skipped so this Sunday it will be harder then normal.

We have 3 bathrooms; I always thought I wanted a lot of bathrooms. I know realize I only want a lot if I have a maid.

I have been googleing ways to decorate a split level. Our upstairs living room is long and awkward. There is a big empty place next to the fire place that I have no idea what to do with. I thought getting a piano would fix that, then the piano was too big to make it up the stairs….

I went to Joann’s last night and got some fabric for some throw pillows for our bed.

 

This one is kind of mean, but my new co worker is annoying. He thinks he’s funny but he’s really not. This morning this happens:

Co Worker: “Today is my 1 month anniversary! Krista didn’t think I’d make it past 3 weeks, HAHAHA.

Boss Lady: Congrats, HAHAHAHAHA

Krista: Silence… *Crickets* seriously that’s not funny Co Worker. Where did you find your sense of humor?!

Co Worker: And now Krista’s ignoring me now, hahahaha she’s just too cool for school.

(No Co Worker, I am just too cool for you!)

Have a fantastic Wednesday! I have been trying to take pictures my finished family room but it hasn’t happened yet. Maybe tonight.

...

Sorry I have been away; I have been taking care of a sick Layla and experiencing my worst day of motherhood. Yesterday was awful. I think I cried just as much as she did. We’ve been to the doctor everyday this week. I wrote awhile ago about Layla having asthma. It started with a simple cold like always and turns into a wheezy/can’t breathe baby.

 

On a happy note, yesterday is over and today she is doing much better! I woke up to smiles and my sweet child is back! Now I just need a few days of sleep...