House Updates! Where The Wild Things Are, Harold & the Purple Crayon, Dr. Who Murals!

For my colorful happy house!

Our front room is evolving a little 

(and see the peek of our Happy Good Morning bird?  That was a random painting moment on my part.  He makes us all smile:)

The gray lockers beside the "desk" are waiting for pretty, colorful paints... but I have to get the supplies for the sandblaster first.

Then, just as you come around the corner:

Then, as the kids leave their rooms, this is their first view:

(Yeah, we have some Dr. Who fans and Harold & the Purple Crayon fans here:)

 To the right is the hallway...

From that end of the house (my painting stuff is still on the floor, oops!)

Then this is the view from the front room.  The entryway isn't done, yet, but its in progress!

Trust me, I know this is WAYYYY too much color/activity for most people, but vibrant colors and the happy 'reading to my kids' memories are very very soothing to me.  I love it and it makes me happy every time I walk through the house now!

Fall Inspired Simple Kitchen Mural

We had this wall that was just... there.  We want to eventually build a shallow counter top and cabinets there for all of our counter top appliances that we use/want to use often (blenders, crock pot, juicer, mixer, pop corn popper) because it gets tedious always having to lug them in from the garage/pantry.

Anyway, I got inspired the other day and decided that for the time being, I'd paint a tree on the wall... I used the same pink and orange from the other walls in the kitchen:

I wish I could get a good photo, but I guess I'll have to do a video walk through at some point.  I love that in parts of the kitchen, you can see the teal of the living room ceiling, the green of the front room, and the pink and orange of the kitchen all at the same time!

Inspired by the trees in our back yard changing suddenly... I LOVE this weather!  Getting ready for company tonight, we're going to sit on the deck and eat chili... then build a fire in our temporary fire pit and have S'Mores!

What is your favorite fall activity?

Two Toned Pink & Brown Deck

If you've been reading much of anything I write, you probably have a clue that I like color. Lots of color.  Bright colors, unusual colors, whatever...

We this weekend, we finished our deck.  Last week Patrick and the boys finished power washing it, and it made SUCH a difference, I couldn't believe it!

Patrick looked everywhere for stain for me, but we couldn't find any "interesting" colors in stain without paying 4 times as much as for a 'natural' color.  Our budget doesn't allow for spending even 2 x for my oddity, so he went ahead and got brown stain and started on the top level...

Then I decided that although it definitely looked "nice"... it just looked too... normal.  I had to try something. So, I took the pink paint from my kitchen (exterior paint) and watered it down and used that as a 'stain'...

I am THRILLED with our new deck.  I LOVE it!  The pink is colorful, and it just makes me smile every time I walk outside.  We had a party Saturday night and hung out on the deck in what was quite possibly the most perfect 'sit on the deck' weather ever.  Yay!

Whoo Hoo!!!  Happy dance!  I have a colorful deck!  Yay!

The Avengers Theme Room: The Bathroom... Part 1

Welcome to our awesome "The Avengers" bathroom!

Inspired by this artwork "The Painted Avengers"

Even though I am the furthest thing from a comic book fan, and generally avoid "super hero" movies, my son took me to see The Avengers and I LOVED it.  The kids all loved it as well, so when we were trying to decide how to decorate the kids/"public" bathroom in the house, it was a no brainer when we suggested "The Avengers" theme.  So, without further ado...

Come on in...

Our bathroom door is black with The Avenger's symbol painted in silver.  That way when we have guests, we can just say, The black Avengers door on the right!:)

Paris decoupaged comics onto the bathroom cabinet doors.

The Black Widow Wall will go here

And here it is!

First Paris decoupaged the comic books onto the wall, then I came along and added the black and white for shading... Here is a close up:

What do you think?  We're going to work on Thor, Iron Man and Loki next!

**Yes, we know that Loki isn't an Avenger, but we like him anyway, so we're putting him in there.  They can all duke it out when we shut the door:)

More Sneak Peeks! In Progress!

Things are SLOW going here.  My husband has been working insanely long hours in the intense heat and its wearing him out.  I'm dealing with physical and emotional issues that have me just drained.  Add to that financial strain, and its really hard to get things done!

SCROLL DOWN FOR NEW HOUSE PICS!

My oldest daughter and her fiance moved out, so we were able to finish unpacking some more, and start using our front room for games and art projects like it was intended!  That was very nice, to get all of that unpacked and set up!

 Paris has gotten back into making artwork as well.  She loves blending several different techniques and mediums:)

 

 The girls and I had fun at the park for a girl's night out...

But at HOME....

Patrick found a bunch of free pallets on Craigslist, then he and the boys took them apart for free lumber!

Which came in handy for lots of building!

We got started on Paris' bunk using free pallets! The cabinet is under her bed for her clothes, then the top part will be built in with doors that she can leave open or closed!

The AVENGERS Bathroom!!!

We got started on the Avengers bathroom... and that is looking AWE-MAZING!

The gray part that you see is actually our bathroom wall leaning up against the living room wall so that Paris can trace the characters on it... the finished product is turning out SO INCREDIBLY COOL!!!

Here's a HINT:

In the Near Future:

We have an "Avon Kick Off Party" scheduled for next weekend (the 8th) to help Paris get her Avon business going... and the week after that, on September 15th, we're having a Big Birthday Bash for Bean the Monkey Puppet Show.  If you're local to us and would like an invite for the Avon party OR if you have a little child who enjoys monkeys or puppets, let me know by facebook message on our fan page, and I'll send you an invite!

Oh, speaking of my AMAZING daughter, who is doing such AWESOME things with our Avenger's Bathroom... here is  http://www.youtube.com/user/msfashionablychic/videos :

Yay! Nice Weather!!

After nearly a month of 100+ and at least a week of 110+... We got to enjoy the back yard today!

It has been SO freaking hot since we moved that I honestly haven't even walked into the backyard more than a couple of times, and then only long enough to take a couple of photos. Today it only got into the 90's and it was AWESOME.

Most of our backyard is shaded, and a couple of the trees have lost most of their leave from the drought:( The boys raked up a huge pile of leaves today. HUGE. Patrick is a little freaked out that those trees are going to die if we don't get some rain. He's been watering them a lot (I do NOT look forward to seeing our water bill), but they are looking pretty peaked.

The view from our backdoor to one area of our yard.  Jaedin is out there raking leaves.

Yet another view from that same doorway!  Kainan is raking up leaves as well.

And Paris, who just did her job inside is on the phone with our Avon representative, since she just signed up to sell Avon yesterday!

And that is the back door I was just standing at:)

We brought our few house plants outside for some nice sunshine.  I got the plants off of the discount rack and they were looking pretty... sick.  They perked up by this evening, though, after being repotted and sprayed liberally throughout the day.

We got these Mahogany shelves from one of Patrick's customers because they were just throwing them out.  They work perfectly for our bulk goods, and there is room for the laundry baskets and our 50# tub of coconut oil AND our 35# bucket of all natural peanut butter underneath!  Patrick got the nifty little broom holder at a garage sale.  I would feel really decadent... IF there wasn't duct tape over the doorknob hole, since that particular doorknob didn't work when we moved in:)

And today, we begin with putting in the old vintage stove!

The final pile of leaves.  Remember, people.  Its the beginning of August!  This is just most of the pile mainly from ONE tree:(

My amazing view from my kitchen, through the back patio doors!

I love my new house!

Have you been doing any home repair/updates to your house this summer... or just taking a break?  I love redecorating... or rather, I love planning redecorating projects.  I don't actually care much for all of the ACTUAL work.  

SNEAK PEEK:  The Kitchen!