Spring is here...for 5 minutes.

Mother nature has given us an evil teaser of spring this past weekend, here in southern Wisconsin.  I say evil because the next snow storm is scheduled to hit tonight.  Grrrr.  Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.  But the weekend weather has me wanting to rid my house of every last winter decoration in favor of greens and light colors.  Cozy plaid throws and fuzzy pillows must go!

I picked up two packages of dried greens from Hobby Lobby about 2 weeks ago when they were 50% off.

You actually get quite a good amount of greens with these and I was able to spread them throughout the house.

I split them up in vases and glass bottles and even stuck some in a wreath.

I still love my Rosemary plant that I got during Christmas (and its still alive!!)!

I took down all my red from my shelves and added some blue accents with some faux greens.

That cake stand with the blue base can be found in the $1 section at Target.  They are actually $5.  

I even had some left over the decorate my floating shelf in my living room.

This change in weather is giving me some much needed motivation for getting some kitchen projects completed.  We finally bought a new dishwasher which will be delivered and installed next Monday.  I am itching to get the island completed and tackle replacing the counter tops and installing the new-to-us sink and faucet (which I bought off Craigslist like 2 years ago!).  Now to see when my favorite handyman is available to help;)

PSA and a spray paint project

I know I have been slacking here.  Believe me, I know.  I don't feel good about that.  I love this space that allows me to share my creativity.  It allows me to purge my ideas and thoughts and clear my head a bit.  So I don't have these things clogging up my brain and pouring out of my ears.  So you know I feel my lack of activity here.

I guess you could say I am in a bit of a funk.  I feel like this space, this blog, is having an identity crisis.  There are many reasons for this.  First, I am kind of a crazy person and my obsessions interests change over time.  I go through phases of needing to pour my heart out about all the feelings.  The feelings about motherhood and growing up and experiences.  And then, I won't need to do that and I will redecorate my house.  I will become engrossed in doing DIY projects and feel the need to document them here.  Only to then devote myself to a strict half marathon training schedule for 3 months in which I set my alarm for 5 am and run 5 miles before work every other day until the race day is done and I quit running altogether.  But then, I will pick up reading with a vengence and my head will be in books for months.  Devouring them at a rapid pace to feed an appetite for getting lost in another world.  And not all of these interests make for interesting blog posts.  Hence, crickets.

Second, I understand that oversharing in this day and age is considered by some a disease.  I have to think about how my sharing of my children's experiences will affect them when they are older.  I am not against a little parental humiliation but too much information out there reaches a critical level bordering on breach of privacy.  Problem is, there are no hard and fast rules about this and each person has a different tolerance to this.  So I started shying away from so many posts about my kids, keeping only to birthday letters or major milestone markers.  But I am in the trenches of this parenting game.  It consumes me day and day out and leaves little time for much else.   Which leads to me last point....

Third, I am just busy living.  I am working my day job and figuring out this Craftshop business and cooking dinners and bathing kids and getting oil changes and taking road trips and going to Vegas and folding laundry and attending parent-teacher conferences and spray painting my light switch and outlet covers and Fitbitting and throwing birthday parties and nursing the pinched nerve in my back since New Years day.  And sometimes I even need to get some sleep.  And blogging, at this time in my life, has taken a back seat to all these other things a lot of the time.

So anyway, that's were I am at.  Sometimes it will be slow going here and sometimes there will be some regular posts.  And it is probably not going to be consistent content.  It will jump from DIY projects to feelings to some of my motherhood life.

Now that I have that off my chest, do you recall I mentioned that I spray painted my lame, yellowing light switch and outlet covers?  Lets talk about that more.  I had already spray painted the ones in my dining room several years ago when our dining room was painted a Merlot color.  Now that the dining room is a more neutral color, I wanted to spray paint them a lighter color.  But I was not sure what color.  Until I stumbled on another blogger that spray painted hers gold.  I could not find the exact paint she used but I could find this...

So I got busy removing all the covers.  I washed them in soapy water and dried them.  

I had a piece of foam that I pushed all the screws in so I could spray them easier.

 
I put 2 coats of spray paint on the screws and covers and let them dry for 3 hours but should have let them dry overnight because they were still tacky to the touch when I was putting them back on.  But here is one of them...

 I do plan to spray the register thing near the ceiling soon.

I love it!  It was the right choice for me.  Does that mean that I have to remove all the silver in my house and replace it with gold so its all matchy-matchy?  Nope!  I prefer a mix of finishes.  It is way too stressful to make sure everything is the same finish and it will look one dimensional anyway.  So go ahead, I give you permission to mix those finishes!

2

Dear Sydney,

You turned 2 exactly 2 weeks ago.

You are a little thing, but a mighty thing.  Always quick to exert your independence with every.single.thing.  "I do-ed it!" rings in our ears all day long.

You are a girly-girl with the sweetest heart and the sweetest smile to match.

Today at your 2 year old appointment, you weighed exactly 24 lbs and were 34 inches long.  You screamed and cried while you were weighed, measured and examined.  At one point, you even tried to fold your little body into my belly.  You would NOT be won over by the doctor, CMA or NP student. 

 But I knew you would do that.  You are quite shy with most people you don't see very often.  Not unlike me as a kid.

But you are quick as a whip, knowing many of your colors and even doing some counting.  You are so very silly.  Your brother always says, "Sydney's hilarious!"  I have never met a sillier kid!

One request, could you try not to be such a stuntwoman?  It's freaking your father and me out.  Try to stop jumping recklessly off the couches and out of the car the second I unbuckle you.  We would really appreciate that.  We are quite relieved that your trust-falls-off-the-counter phase is over.  It was completely heart stopping.

And I will try to take more pictures of you like I did for your brother.  I will do better to photo document your growth and early life.  I am sorry I have been really slacking at that.

Even though I have only held you, rocked you, kissed you and loved you for 2 short years, I feel like I have known you forever.  You are like and old friend.  Some one I have known and who has known me my whole life.  We get each other.  Completely.

I am so thankful every single day for you and your brother.  Even though it means I never pee alone and have to share all my food with slobbery mouths.  And my body is now forever "softer."  Along with my heart.

I am We are thoroughly enjoying you in all your two-ness.

 "Mommy, I done!"

So, I cheers my wine with your sloppy, drippy whole milk sippy.  On to bigger and better adventures together!

Love, 

Mama