Dress Up Photo Shoot

Paris aka MsFashionablyChic is my 14 year old daughter.  She does makeup tutorials on her youtube channel and comes up with some super fun looks and effects.  She's studying makeup special effects on her own and has come a long way in a short time.

I've been wanting to do a photo shoot with her for a while with her smoky eye look, so the other day, the lighting hit just right and we were between projects, so I told her to go put on something sparkly and we'd take photos.

I am not claiming to be a professional photographer by any stretch of the imagination, I just really enjoy doing fun, funky and dramatic photoshoots with my girls.  Paris and Abyni both are so incredibly comfortable in front of the camera, so they make great models.  These are some of my favorite shots from the shoot:

It was a super fun day!  We're wanting to do another shoot soon, with a completely and totally different look... any suggestions? 

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:)

Family Movie Nights! "Easy A" Family Review

We love movies.  LOVE THEM.  Before the housing market crashed, my husband had a full-time Custom Home Theater business.  Now, it has to squeeze between home and his "part time" 40 hour a week post office job.

However, because of that business, we ended up with some pretty nice home theater equipment.  We don't have it properly installed yet, but we couldn't wait any longer.  We had to try it out for our first family movie night since moving into our new house!

I love love love having a nice big living room where we can all fit to watch a movie and we even have room for guests!  Not that we've had any for a movie night yet, but we'll get there someday.

Temporary and hokey, and yes, barely set up without duct tape, but it works for now!  Look at that nice big picture!  We have a theater at home:)

Easy A Review

Anyway, for our first movie night, we watched "Easy A" with Emma Stone.  I had already told my aspiring actress daughter Paris that she reminds me a lot of Emma Stone when she's playing a quirky, goofy type character, because that is SO Paris' personality.  So, we chose this movie to watch so that I could illustrate my point.  Which I did.  Very well:)

The movie was a hit.  I'll be the first to say that we let our kids watch movies that most may not.  We watch them together, and honestly, I've found that it brings up a lot of conversations that we otherwise wouldn't have.  I find it comforting to know that our kids feel like they can talk with us about things, that they can see problems and issues with people on the screen... and they know it is just a movie.  The girls have both been on several movie sets, so maybe they have an even better perspective of that.

Anyway, Emma Stone's character is outcast as a "slut" after a lie she tells her friend gets out of hand.  It actually came up from our public school Junior that this particular plot twist seems ridiculous, as in high school, every seems to find it 'normal' to be sexually active.  Granted, he only has one year of public school under his belt (he was homeschooled up until last fall, then went to Public school at his request), but that was my memory of high school, too, that no one cared and pretty much the only people who stood out were the ones that were very vocal about NOT having sex.  That brings up an opportunity to talk about our thoughts, our values and even our mistakes in our own past.

I find that the conversations come up often over the following days and weeks, even, sometimes when the kids are one on one with me, sometimes at the dinner table, but it opens discussions.

The stereotypical Christian goodie-two-shoes in the movie was incredibly off putting.  I know she was supposed to be, but there are far too many of the type out there, the "let me put myself on this pedestal and pray for you as I berate you behind your back" types.  I don't even think its JUST Christians that do this, not in the least, but I find it incredibly off putting when people hide their actions behind a label of Christianity that in my opinion is decidedly UN-Christ-like.  Again, it was good for conversation.

I like the movie.  I find Emma Stone to be entertaining.  I found her family in the movie to be highly entertaining.  I love it when a non-typical family and teen are portrayed in a movie in a good light.  I get sick of the "all teens are rebels and hate their parents" and "all parents have given up and just know their teens are horrible rebellious people" attitude that I see in a lot of television shows especially.

I think if your children are younger, this probably isn't a movie for your family.  If you have teens and you are a pretty open minded family, you'll probably love it.  If you're pretty conservative and don't want your children exposed to the concept of sexually active/partying/foul mouthed teens, definitely steer VERY clear of this movie.  For us, we've always said that we're happy to watch most movies with our kids, as long as they continue to behave by our family's standards and not by mimicking imaginary characters in a movie.

Anyway... fun movie, fun characters, some of my favorite actors, I give it a thumbs up!

*Since my kids then watched it again the next night, I say they must have enjoyed it as well.

Next Family Movie Review:  DodgeBall

Pets! A New Member of the Family: The Newest Diva

I have never been an animal lover.  For years I said that we weren't going to have pets at all...

Then we lived out in the country and stray cats were everywhere and my kids fell in love.

So then I said, "Okay, no INSIDE pets.  Ever.  Period.  No matter what!"

And then we got Sedona.  She was part wolf, part Siberian Husky, and she was the most gloriously beautiful dog.  She was an outdoor dog, she had plenty of room to run and she was a happy dog.  Then we moved to a rental house in Tulsa, and we had to find a family for her.  She went to another home, with another family with young kids and a huge yard to run around in.  That was heartbreaking for my husband, and then HE was the one that said, "NO MORE PETS."

Then we lived on the road and he found 'Sugar' a yellow lab that became the next "Best Dog Ever".  We had her for four years, until the day when we were away on vacation and the pet sitter called to tell us that something was wrong.  Some person was randomly poisoning dogs throughout the neighborhood.  Sugar didn't survive.

Patrick and the kids were especially devastated.  He really said "NO MORE PETS!!!"

It was heartbreaking.  The kids were ready for another dog long before Patrick was.

Then Sprite got a cat that we named Elephant.  Who apparently is not amused at being woken from her nap.

Then we got Jaedin a part Siamese cat for his birthday...He named her "Boo" but dogs were still a "NO!"

Then a year later, I was at a garage sale with the kids, and they had these adorable little balls of fur and the kids fell in love.  Because my husband is the pet picker outer, I called him to come and have a look.  He loved one of the puppies enough, that we had a new dog.  We named her Kitty.

She kind of blends in with the futon, she's a big old ball of shaggy black fur.

Now, Kitty is still around, Elephant is still around, there are no more fish, but we have a Python named Attila.  Paris and Kainan have been BEGGING to be allowed to get a couple of ferrets, but Patrick has put his foot down and repeatedly say, "NO MORE PETS!!!"

Until yesterday.  A friend posted this on facebook...

My husband of the "NO MORE PETS" saw this and immediately responded that if I was okay with it, he would go take her.  "For a trial run" (Lol, he's already so in love with the dog 12 hours later... no way would he give her up now:)

He came home with this gorgeous "Diva" just under 24 hours later.  It would have been sooner, but he had to work late:)  He's such a softie for dogs...

The Diva meeting Kitty

Meeting Jaedin & Kainan

Checking out the whole house

This is one big dog!  Although Patrick keeps commenting how surprised he is at how small she is for a Mastiff.

Doing her three turns around the bed that she claimed (Paris got pushed to the floor:)

Getting some good night hugs from Jaedin.

This morning Kitty and The Diva got into a fight when The Diva tried to step foot on what is apparently Kitty's futon.  I broke it up and separated them for a while... all is well now.  She's inspired and energized our previously lazy dog, the kids love her and Patrick's been playing with her since he got home ten minutes ago, so I think it will all go well!

Are you a pet person?  Show me your pets!

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 :

Our "New" Vintage Roper Stove Install & Deep Cleaning

This is not a terribly interesting or entertaining blog post... mostly just pretty photos of my beautiful "new" vintage stove & double oven!:)

We have a Habitat for Humanity "ReStore" in Tulsa.  We have found some GREAT deals there, including this 1950's Roper double oven for $75.00!

We also bought a single oven that was cuter, but less useful for a family of 6-8.  Besides which, when Matt and Kainan were trying to get it into the house, it fell and all of the front knobs and handles bent or broke off completely.  I will say there was one very unhappy little girl in this house.  Our vintage loving 14 year old daughter was planning on that being her stove some day:(

Patrick helped with this stove and they got it inside with no big drama.

We had to move some cabinets because this thing is HUGE!

Thank goodness my husband is a genius, because this was in pieces when we brought it in.

We're planning on removing those cabinets above the stove and getting a different hood vent that will be a better "fit" at some point.  I'm not sure when we'll be able to afford that one (unless we find a perfect hood vent at the ReStore!)

This chrome piece was a mess of rust and crud.

The oven was remarkably clean for being nearly 60 years old... but it still took some elbow grease and creativity.

 I used a knife with a washcloth with "It Works" cleaner on it to get down into the creases.  This little line of silver trim?  I thought it had some black trim on the top half... until I started cleaning and it was just black crud build up.

I don't know if you've seen all of the "Clean ALL THE THINGS WITH AMMONIA" thing on Pinterest... but listen to me.  Do NOT do this INSIDE.  Ammonia is the most vile smelling stuff I can imagine.  I don't understand how there isn't a warning on the blogs.  I poured that stuff in our last house and we pretty much had to leave for a few hours until the smell dissipated AFTER I'd removed all of it that I could.

I just put the parts of the oven that came off in ziplock or trash bags and set them outside with Ammonia in the sealed bags for a few hours.  Then they just wipe clean!

I sat the bags with ammonia on the back deck and moved on to the inside.

Easy Off Oven cleaner got my stove to shiny and clean.

Speaking of which, they tell you not to get it on your skin.  They mean it. I got some on my arm and didn't notice... that stuff BURNS.  OUCH.

The Ammonia stinks to high heaven, but it works!

I cheated on the rusty chrome.  I can't afford to have it re-chromed, so I just used metallic spray paint for now.  It looks a little tacky, but it still looks better than the rusty thing that it was before.