Warm Fuzzies

As you may know, we have 2 boxers, Macy and Cosmo.  Neither one of them can stand to be cold.  Or hot, actually! They are a bit prissy about it.  On chilly mornings they can either be found snuggled up in front of the fireplace or laying on soft blankets on the couch. This morning, they looked so sweet that I had to share them with you.  We all have gotten into the habit of covering them up when we see them on the couch, and they LOVE it!   I think it's obvious that a. They love being cozy and covered and b. They are sooo spoiled!  

Cosmo is always hungry and would look like a sausage with legs if we let him.  Macy on the other hand, is happy as long as she is getting her way. She's a DIVA!  When the welcome heat of Summer comes, they'll be found laying on the cool tile floor or on top of the air conditioning vents! It's a RUFF life.


As cozy as these two look, I am more than READY for Spring.  We've had a mild Winter so far but I'm very ready for it to be over!  Even the birds around here are a bit confused.  On the warmer mornings we can hear them singing away.  Speaking of SPRING and birds...look what I got in the mail today!

It's Wellington the duck! I think he is absolutely adorable!  He's the first Scentsy Buddy Of The Month, ever!  He is so sweet and has an adorable tuft of fuzz on the top of his sweet little head.  The Scent Of The Month for March is called Sunlit Morning. It's a delightful SPRING scent!  I put his Sunlit Morning Scent Pak in his back and he already smells so fresh and fabulous!  I think he will be perfect for the Easter Bunny to bring!  Especially because he is on sale in March for $22.50 and he comes with any Scent Pak of your choice!  Callie already snagged him for her room.  Yes, she's almost 16 but can't avoid the allure of Wellington!  Sunlit Morning will be on sale 10% off too.  I think it kind of smells like lemons and daffodils but it's described as: "Wake up to warm rays of sunshine. Experience the brilliance of a spring morning with juicy lemon and bergamot, white flowers, and a pinch of earthy sage."  I am sure that he's 100% darling!  If you want to check him out the site is www.whimages.scentsy.us

Living room board and batten progress

We (that alone is a funny statement because I have barely lifted a finger!) are making slow but steady progress on the living room transformation. Matt's working hard on it but that boring thing called a JOB is getting in the way of it's progress.  The other boring word, BUDGET gets in the way as well!  I thought I'd show you a little sneak of it! Here is the last photo I shared.


This is only one coat of the blue and it's on top of that horrible yellow we had so I don't think this is a accurate interpretation of the color.  Or something like that.

We put a little extra moulding around the inside of the boxes to make it a bit more formal since it is the living room.  It is still going to get a cap piece but Home Depot no longer carries the oak bull nose I love that we used in the family room.


*** Here is a little sidebar that just happened while I was working on this post.***
Lately, we've been teasing my oldest daughter Callie about a Euphemism she mixed up.  When discussing a certain boy in her grade, she said, "he's not the smartest porch light on the block"  instead of brightest porch light on the block.  Tonight I had a total blonde/Polish  (bottle blonde, half Polish) moment and said something really quite stupid. I then mentioned that I'm "sharpest" in the morning because it's about 7:15 in the evening as I type this.  While referencing the "not the sharpest knife in the block", Cole then said (all in good fun, of course!) that I wasn't actually even in the knife block.  I was actually more like a butter knife. (remember here friends that I am on pain meds for chronic pain in addition to the blonde-ness and the Polish-ness).  Then my sweet husband chimed in that if I was a butter knife in the morning then I must be a plastic knife at night.  Yes people, this is what I have to deal with!**


Back to the living room...I think it's so amazing how moulding can transform a room!  It already has so much more character and some of the furniture is sitting in the middle of the room draped with drop cloths.  I can't wait to see the finished project!


Here is the photo of the living room that I fell in love with.  We are using this exact paint color!  It's similar to our family room but Home Depot no longer carries Ralph Lauren paint.  It was called Impressionist blue and I still LOVE it several years later!  We may move these leather couches into the living room and get a new set for the family room.  The rooms will be a bit similar but I hope to put a little bit more of a polished spin (that was polish as in polish not Polish as in Poland) in that room and there won't be a T.V. either, thank goodness!  A nice, quiet room!  ...except when it will be full of 16 year olds!

Inspiration room from houzz.com  I LOVE this room!

Our family room.  This is the Ralph Lauren Impressionist Blue.  That mirror is actually a salvaged piece.  It's mahogany and it come out of a Gentlemens Cigar Bar in Baltimore that was being demolished.  We have several pieces of trim that we were able to get before the wreaking crew came in!  Some is used in the Nook on the surrounding moulding.

Valentine's Day

There is something that I need to share with you.  I really need to get this off my chest.  Here it goes...




I'm a PINAHOLIC.  Yes. That's correct.  I am utterly and completely addicted to pinterest. I already expressed my love for Ben and his fabulous site when I showed you the BEST tasting cupcake ever! If loving Pinterest is wrong than I don't want to be right! (I think I just used that cliche' a couple posts ago. Oh well.)


I have seen sooo many brilliant ideas for Valentine's.  Since the big kids are too BIG to give them out, I showed my overflowing Valentine inspiration board on Pinterest to Peyton and she picked the one with the lollipop.  I'm sure most of you have seen it, it's super cute for sure!  Here's how I did it just in case it isn't obvious.  Because sometimes the most obvious things are not obvious to me! Also, let me apologize for this snapshot-ish photo, we were in a hurry because...well, I am a procrastinator! Jeez, pinaholic, procrastinator, what's next?!

take a photo with your child
 holding their clasped  hand out

Play with the image a little in
Photoshop and then send
it to picnik for even
more fun goodies!

This is the one we had printed for
the class Valentines.  You just punch
a hole at the top and bottom of the hand
Easy Peasy

I never ever ever should have
taken this photo with one of the
vertical boards in our board
and batten family room
growing out of her head

Partying here:

Kids these days...

Before I regale you with a story about my progeny I NEED to share this with you.  It must be seen if you have not already!

Source: jezebel.com via Robyn on Pinterest

Okay, now that you all should have a smile on your face and cheer in your heart I would like to tell you about the faucet snobs that I have raised.  "Faucet snobs?" you say?  Why yes. That is what I said.  


*You might want to raid the fridge and make yourself a cup of tea.  This is gonna be a long one!*


As all good stories should, we'll start at the beginning.  It began early one Monday morning. Early, while the morning is still cloaked in darkness but you feel the promise of the sun about to sweep the dark away.  We are a house of coffee drinkers.  Our Keurig is a dear friend in the morning.  It's a delightful machine for sure, but sometimes I do miss having a big ol' pot of hot coffee waiting for me to claim.  Our Keurig sits on the counter just beside the sink, appropriately far enough away to look...appropriate.  This is where my son, Cole enters the story.  I'm going to give you a bit of background on Cole because I may not have mentioned in recent months or a year or so that Cole seemingly ingested fertilizer and burst forth a giant.  Maybe not exactly, but my sweet little guy is suddenly 6'3" and wears a size 15 shoe.  We are all still getting used to his transformation including Cole. He truly does not yet realize his size and strength.  Sometimes when he closes my Jeep door, I'm afraid it's going to implode into the car.  Just like every other morning, Cole begins to make himself a cup of coffee.  The Keurig has a large water reservoir that needs to be filled.  It happened to be empty so Cole thought he would use the spray attachment from the faucet and reach across and fill it that way.  Sounds like a fine idea.  However, Cole ripped the sprayer hose clean out of the plumbing apparatus thingy under the sink.  Obviously now we can't use the faucet because water will just gush under the sink.  As Murphy's law states, Home Depot doesn't carry the part needed for a quick fix.  We need a new faucet. Bummer.  There was not the kind of faucet on display that I wanted so we ordered one on line.  I REALLY wanted a bridge faucet. I also really wanted to win the lotto. Luckily, HD had a bridge faucet online but it would take 5-7 days to be delivered. As a family of 5, we could not be without the kitchen sink for a week, so Matt picked up the CHEAPEST he could find to get us through until the other was delivered. It was $17.39.  It was quickly installed.


This entire time we of course did NOT discuss the matter of the faucet with the kids because who in the world would think that they gave two hoots?  The next morning, Callie went to use the sink and just kind of stood there for a second and looked at it.  Being the smart*ss Mother that I can be, I asked her if she liked the new faucet.  I gushed about it's lovely plastic, Crystal-like handles and it's lovely clean lined silver painted plastic spout.  It's MODERN and stylish design was the perfect addition to our kitchen.  Callie didn't look too convinced.  She was polite and told me it looked nice.  A few moments later, Cole came down and also noticed the new addition.  He was NOT so diplomatic.  He said that we HAD to be kidding. We could NOT keep that faucet. He even said, "What am I going to tell my friends?"!  He walked away muttering that he could never have friends over again and was going to move out.


I'm not sure at this point if I should be proud that my children have a strong aesthetic sense for all things "home" or should I be appalled that I raised these children to be so snobby as to notice a cheap faucet? Have we brought up a couple of home decor monsters?  The truly ironic thing is that I'm relatively sure that this is the faucet style we had on our kitchen sink growing up!  I'm truly surprised that I survived after having that faucet in my home and subjecting my friends to its disfigurement! As well as it's complete lack of style. 

Photo Fun

 In the past I would post photos here all the time.  Now I can't even meet my own "photo a day" challenge even when I changed it to "photo a week".  Slacker.  That's what I am!  Okay, so not really.  Well, sometimes.  Like when I don't feel like folding clothes so I turn the dryer back on for awhile. They didnt' feel all the way DRY. Yeah, that's what happened!  I'm going to make up for lost photo a week time with a bunch of photos! 


Sorry but you may have to put on your pity party hat here for a moment...As I've mentioned before, I am no longer shooting "professionally" because of the chronic pain I am in from failed back syndrome. I've had 4 spinal surgeries (2 fusions and a fusion revision), 1 cervical (neck) and 3 lumbar.  Because of this I have not done anything for whimages in several years.  I of course still LOVE photography!  I want to share a few photos of my children and the children of friends that I have taken over the past year or so. Some of these are total snapshots but I like them!  I hope you enjoy! (this is also my sneaky way to be able to get photos onto my "photos" board over on pinterest! Peyton is dying for me to put her Halloween costume photos up! )

Callie in an abandoned chicken coop!  There is often FABULOUS light in unexpected places!

My sweet niece and nephew. AGAIN in the chicken coop!

Sneaking a bite of a peach while we were picking them!

Peyton with peaches!

My other "daughter" Bethany...she lives across the street.

I've always loved the color of Callie's eyes!

just a snapshot of my kids..very little cooperation when they are all together!

I love this photo!

A vintage finished photo of Peyton.

Peyton and I put this Halloween costume together with bits and pieces of things we already had and a few feathers from the craft store! Easy and so cute!

My friend's sweet little man

I just ADORE his little toes!

Cosmo's paw

I hope you liked them!