Bargain Shopping

Yesterday was and insane day, but it just so happened to be a Bargain Shoppers dream come true!  Well, at least this shoppers dream come true. 

On my way to an appointment I stopped by Wal-Mart for some yarn.  On the same isle was the craft clearance items and so I decided to look.  I was floored when I found 10 different Cricut Cartridges each being sold for $25.00 each.  (For any of you who may not know much about the Cricut, I got this special craft machine for Christmas.  Each cartridge usually costs anywhere from $50-$100.  So they are not cheap.)  I was actually kinda ironic, because I was talking to one of my friends the other day about cartridges and she said the cheapest she's been able to get them were $35 each.  So I ended up getting 4 different cartridges!  I'm so excited to use them!

After my appointment I headed over to do the kids clothing shopping for the next 6-8 months.  I LOVE consignment sales!  Yes, they are crowded and busy and crazy, but you can get such good deals!  I only have to shop one day for all the kids cloths for the next 6-8 months!  It's awesome!!  I ended up coming home with so much stuff.  It was definitely a successful shopping day for me and I'm glad I won't have to do it again for a while! :)

Update

My weight loss is coming along slowly, but the weight is coming off.  This morning I weighed in at 144.8 lbs!  I was totally stoked!  I had set a goal for myself to be 145 or lower by tomorrw (the end of July) and I hit that goal!  YIPPEE!!  I'm gonna get there! 

House Projectssssss...... Many of them

I've gone crafty crazy!  I'm so into painting right now it's ridiculous!  But I love it, and Brian doesn't mind to much.  So here are some of the things I've been up to.  (By the way, I did finally finish getting 2 of the 4 shelves up in the laundry room with out puncturing anything else, the other 2 shelves will end up in the closet.  I don't trust myself in the laundry room anymore.)

This is my living room and I was really bored with the cream colored paint on every wall in my home.  So when I found this awesome green paint marked down at Lowes I jumped at the chance to change it up in my living room.  It's actually not completed yet (needs another coat) but I still love the color and the change it gives the room.  I think I'll be doing a lot more painting in the future.  It's awfully relaxing and fun! 

This is Kenya's pink room with her adorable Tinker Bell toddler bed.  It's totally not finished in here, but I love the pink and the girly feel.  It's funny, cause I told myself I would never be this girly and pink was not my thing, but now I love it!  Kenya has so many pink cloths and now her room is pink, her bed is purple and the accent color I've chosen for her room is purple!  It's just so dang cute though!  I love it!  I can't wait till I can get the rest of her bedroom finish:  curtains, bedspread, pillow case, wall pictures and decals, etc...  Soooo much FUN!!!

I haven't had time to delve into Ian's room yet, but I have BIG plans for his room too!  I just can't wait!

This was suppose to be Kenya's new Bow Board, but after I got it all put together I realized that it just wasn't big enough to fit ALL of her many bows and the more that I plan to make.  So imagine this without the ribbon across it (I ended up removing the ribbon) and it's just a beautiful picture of butterflies to match the Theme of her room.  If I haven't already said so, the theme I have decided on for Kenya's room is Butterflies.  I was gonna go with fairies, but I wanted something a little more general so that she could like it for longer than just a year or two (not that she really cares at this age).  So this will just be hung on the wall in decoration.  I like it though.  The butterfly picture matches perfectly with the fabric I bought for her curtains, bedspread and pillow case.  :)

This was Kenya's boring brown shelf before.  I really LOVE how it turned out.  It was so fun to paint it while and then sponge it this beautiful purply color.  I just love the visual the sponging gives you.  I've decided to do an accent wall in the Master bedroom with this sponging technique, only in a dark red instead!  I'm so excited!

I don't know if you can tell, but there are also butterflies on her shelf.  I just couldn't resist the fun in putting them on it and tying it into the room theme. 

I've got more projects in the works, but I'll have to fill you in on them when I'm done.  I probably have to many projects in mind for my own good, but I really enjoy it! 

Last you knew...

... I punctured a pipe.

Lucky for me it wasn't a particularly terrible pipe to fix.  You see, the plumber was going to charge us over $400 to fix it, but since the pipe I punctured was a drain pipe for the bathroom above it, it doesn't get a lot of pressure running through it all the time.  So Brian and I stuck our heads together, and asked his dad as well, what we could do on our own to fix it.  Well, we came up with a hose clamp, epoxy, sealant, and rubber.  With these four things we managed to plug the hole really well. 

We first took the epoxy and filled the hole with it.  (It was something called JB Weld and it's an epoxy/glue/sealant in one - worked great!)  Then we placed a small piece of rubber over the hole where the epoxy was and cinched the hose clamp over top of the rubber to hold it in place.  Than we sealed all the edges with sealant.  It worked wonders and only cost $30!  But, regardless of the fact that all turned out well with the hole, I don't think I'll be putting any more holes in the wall any time soon.  I'm nervous I'll hit something important and then we'll really be in trouble and Brian won't just sign in disappointment.  :)

House Project #2...

.... Disaster!

Okay, maybe not all that bad, but I won't know until tomorrow really how bad it is.  Here's the scoop.  The old shelves that were in the pantry were just sitting in the laundry room waiting to be used in some obscure project.  Well, what better job can shelves do than to be shelves.  So I decided I needed another row of shelves in the laundry room.  I consulted with my hubby, we measured, marked and today I set out to complete what I thought was a fairly simple task.  Well......... I guess I underestimated the houses vengeance against me.  So, long story short, I punctured a pipe in my endeavor to improve the shelving status in my laundry room.  The plumber with be out here tomorrow morning, but for now the house water is off. 

When I called and told Brian my predicament, he sighed.  I really would prefer that he yell at me about it than just sound so disappointed in the problem.  Luckily I have a wonderful hubby who will forgive me for my stupidities and if I'm even more lucky, I'll still be able to put the shelves up when this is all over.

On a brighter note, I believe I have all the paints I need/want for Kenya's, Ian's, Living room, and my room to be painted the way I want.  Maybe soon I'll have new pictures to post of the kids beautiful rooms.  Who knows?  :)

Big Girl

Kenya's just growing up way to fast.  I'm not sure what to think about it.  Last night we decided she need to start sleeping in her toddler bed and not a crib.  So we took the crib apart, set up her room and set out putting her to bed.  She loves her new bed and slept soundly in it last night.  I'm really just not sure how I feel about my baby growing up.  It's kinda sad to think of her getting bigger. 

Ian's Curtains

They're finally done!  I've been working on curtains for Ian's room for a while now and I'm happy to say they are finished!  Take a look and tell me what you think.

Schmidt, Perry, & Webber....

....  These are only a few of the composers that I enjoy playing so very much.  "Play" you may ask.  I finally have been able to aquire a BEAUTIFUL piano!   I was so excited when I was asked to give lessons to a few of the kids in my ward which ultimately lead to Brian getting me a piano.  It's a Baldwin that's really old, hasn't been tuned in ages (according to the tuner) and will need to be tuned every 6 months for the next year or so to be put back to the right sound.  But it's all mine!  Brian found it on Craigslist for $265 and we picked it up last Saturday.  I just got it tuned yesterday and it sounds great!  I'm so excited to have a piano of my own, and even Brian wants me to teach him how to play.  How awesome!  Take a look at my beauty, tell me what you think. :)

Uncle Robert

The kids have been having a blast with Uncle Robert around. They rarely get bored anymore and there's always something new and exciting to do. Here's some pictures for you to gaze upon. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, need I say anything further.

 

Weight Loss Update

A quick update,  I'm down a total of 5 pounds!  YEAH!!  Although I started out at 155 lbs and I'm down to 148 lbs, I only count 5 lbs because I fluctuated weight a bit from 153 - 157.  So Yeah for me!  I hope to run in the Frogtown 4 Mile Trail Run again this year and Maybe even a 10 K.  Who knows!  :)

House Project #1...

.... Shelves!

Since we moved into this house in April I've been frustrated with the shelves in the Kitchen Pantry.  They were these metal shelves and all the back corners would sag really badly if any weight was placed on them.  My pasta boxes have been stored in a box since we moved in and I felt it was high time that they were in their proper place, the kitchen pantry shelves.  So I went to work. 

This is what the shelves and pantry looked like before and I absolutely hated the wired shelves.

And these are the wood shelves that I cut (well, the guy at Lowes cut them, but I measured and figured out how the shelves should look, okay maybe not all on my own, but yeah), painted, and put up in the pantry.  I LOVE them!  They work soooooooo wonderfully!   Yippee for projects!