Last week of the photo challenge

So, here we are, at the last week of the photo challenge over at Fabulously Flawed. And since one of my resolutions is to be a better blogger, I'm participating this week. I didn't even cheat and use old photos. Not that I've done that before.

So, what are we on? 

TransportationDaily RoutineNight timeLight Self Portrait 

 1. Transportation.

This is our car. Lover's car has been in the shop for the past 2 years. No, I'm not joking. We finally have it up for sale, once it's finally fixed and running. Thank God that Lover has a few co-workers that live in our neighborhood, so I'm able to have the car most days. Am the the only one who doesn't end up with a clean car after I go to one of those self wash places? It looks dirtier than it did before I "washed" it.

2. Daily Routine

I'm using a picture of Ava as my daily routine, since my day revolves around her. If she's in a good mood, then a lot of stuff gets done. If she's not and wants to snuggle, well, the chores can wait.

3. Night Time

I suck and has no peekture.

4. Light

I am in love with these lamps. I won a giveaway for a $50 gift card to Target, and I picked up two of these bad boys. I want to raise them up a bit though, just need to find someone with a chainsaw so I can get a slice of tree to put under it. I don't know if that makes sense. Anywho. In the background you can see a sneak peek of the wall that I almost died while painting. 

5. Self portrait. 

Yeah, I refuse to post a pic of how I look right now. I've been sick for about 2 weeks now. Congested, runny nose, cough, achy, my head feels fat. And I've been hiding in sweat pants and a hat so I don't have to do my hair. So I couldn't in good conscience subject you to a pic of that. It's probably burn your eyes. So here is a pic of my dog. Since, well, I feel like dog doo right now. Doesn't he look pitiful? He was begging to get in my lap. He's convinced that if he's not in my lap during a car ride that he'll fall over and die.

So there ya go. Go check out Lesley's blog, I heart her. You will too.

High and Lows, first one of 2012

So, part of the whole New Years resolution thang is that I want to be a better, more regularly posting blogger. Which means that I'll be doing my Highs and Lows every Monday. Ignore the fact that I'm a day late. Oops.





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Let's start off with the lows, so we can end off with the highs, shall we? 

Lows

• Lover, Ava and I have been dealing with a cold all week. I'm pretty sure that Lover and I have just been passing it back and forth. I was sick two weeks ago, he was sick last week, and starting Sunday I started feeling icky again. Coughing, runny nose, my head feels fat. It sucks. 

• I managed to fall off the ladder when I was doing the touch up paint on my bedroom wall. I thought I was on the bottom rung and went to step down. But I was on the second to bottom rung. The ladder was close to the side wall, so I ended up falling into the wall, jacked up my elbow, scraped off some skin through my thick hoodie. And dropped the touch up paint container on the floor, spilling white paint all over our carpet. Oh, and you're asking, "Where was her plastic tarp to protect the carpet?" Yeah, I wasn't using it. I figured "Oh, I'm just doing a tiny area, I don't need it." Frack. 

• I am officially sick of making pillows. I used to think Etsy shops were insane for going on "vacation" mode. I mean, why would you turn down the chance to make money? But now I totally get it. Today I'm making pillows 30 and 31 within the past two weeks. 

Highs

• My bedroom stenciled wall is officially finished! I will be doing a blog post about it soon enough, but it's gorgeous, and totally worth a banged up elbow. 

• When I was being a dumbass lazy and not using the plastic tarp and spilling paint all over the carpet, I screamed for hubby to come help me clean. He runs in, I'm screaming about the paint and spazzing out, and he makes eye contact with me and says "Are YOU okay?" No worries for the possibly ruined carpet, just wanted to make sure I was okay. That's amazing. I was once the passenger in a car that was rear ended by someone driving 35 MPH before (and had my 2 year old in the backseat), and the driver not once asked us if we were okay, just got out to survey the car damage and scream at the other driver. So someone who immediately is more concerned about your safety than material things is something to be celebrated and appreciated. 

• Lover and I have finally found time to catch up on Dexter. We've been so busy lately, with his freelance and my etsy stuff that we haven't had any time to watch TV at night. While his freelance is a welcome addition to our income, I was missing our time together at night.

• Etsy sales. Yes, I put this in my lows, but it's also a major high. I'm a SAHM, and Lover works so hard at this job and freelance so I can stay home with the girls. So it's wonderful to feel like I'm contributing to the finances. 

• I didn't have to punch my computer or throw it off a cliff! For a week or so, I couldn't upload pictures anywhere. Couldn't attach them to an email, upload them to FB or Blogger, nothing. I'd open the attachment screen, it'd immediately close. Lover took it to work, and a guy up there was able to fix it. For someone who uploads stuff constantly, it was a huge hassle to have to upload them from iPhoto to Flickr to blogger, but thankfully, it's all fixed now. 

• My 8 year old is such a pleasure to be around lately. We've had a hard couple of months, but the last couple of weeks has been awesome. I hope that going back to school today doesn't bring back the "Bad Arielle". 

• Okay, I sucked at doing Highs and Lows last week, so forgive me that this High was over a week ago. Christmas of course was wonderful, the girls received too much stuff (but in our defense, they didn't get any "big" gifts like bikes or Leappads or anything, so they got a ton of small/medium stuff). I found a site online where you can do a personalized video for your child, where Santa will say their name, show pictures of them, etc. The looks on the girls faces were PRICELESS. 

• Got an email from a reader, telling me she felt silly for writing me, but wanted to tell me how much she loves my blog. Seriously, NEVER feel silly for emailing someone to tell them that. It totally made my day, no joke. 

So I think that's it. Boom. 

Hi there, 2012!

Happy New Year, dear reader! I hope you had a great time, ringing in the new year. Lover and I rang in the new year at home, which we haven't done in a long time. We've never been big partiers, we've always just gone to a friends house. But this year, we had no plans and no need for a baby sitter. I think that makes us officially "grown ups". 

We spent our day starting on the bedroom makeover. Yes, the bedroom makeover I talked about in my Home Goals for 2011 got started on the last stinkin' day of the year. I won this cutting edge stencil from Bella Before & After's Sponsor giveaway a few months ago. But we all know how expensive paint is, so it got put on the back burner. That is, until my father in law got me a super awesome gift card to Home Depot for Christmas. Thanks Steve! 

It's not an ugly beige color like the picture is showing, it's a really pretty light gray, and I did the background color in pure white. So pretty! But please excuse the crappy cell phone pic. The camera is in the bedroom. And since Lover spent all freaking day helping me paint, the least I can do is let him sleep in a bit. I would have loved to gotten it all finished yesterday, but it didn't happen. Our ceilings are 12 feet tall, which seems a hell of a lot taller when you're up on the ladder.


So, what are your resolutions for this coming year? Besides the obvious "eat healthy and exercise, blah blah blah" that is on everyone's list (yours truly included). 


Mine is to be more organized. I'm starting that out with a chores list. I'll admit, I'm not the best at being domestic. I know, I know. As your favorite blogger, I'm supposed to be super crafty with a perfectly clean, organized house. But I'm missing the "organized" gene. Which I'm sure, makes my OCD husband want to punch me in the head most days. Lover will ask me when the last time is that I changed the girls sheets, and I'll admit, there has been a time (or four) that I've been like "Uhhhhhh....". Well, that's gross. 


So I need to write it all down. Besides doing house stuff on the first of every month (touch up painting, since our builder's flat paint shows EVERY fingerprint and scuff) and Magic Eraser on all the doors, I need a list to keep me on track. 

Here is my rough draft, but I'm sure I'll tweak it a bit. I figure a two week rotation will be good. Enough to cover all the chores, but not too repetitive.

I didn't want to write down every single detail, but bathroom would be toilets, tubs, mirrors, etc. Arielle and Jasmin "clean" their own rooms, but I would do trash clean up (I swear, one day you will see Arielle on Hoarders, that child keeps EVERYTHING). 

And I want to be a better blogger. My Highs and Lows posts are hit or miss, and half of the time, I forget the highs and lows of my week, so on Monday mornings, I'm racking my brain and searching my Facebook profile to get a recap on my week. So I want to start writing stuff down as it happens, and being a more regular blogger. And I want to get better at commenting on other blogs. Comments make my freaking day, so I can spend 14 second to write a comment on other blogs I read. 

My last resolution is to find more time for friends. My girlfriends and I always say that we need to get together more. But with kids, husbands, and other life stuff, it rarely happens. So I want to change that. Get togethers at my house, nothing fancy. But none of us are the "go out and party and get trashed" types. Our girls nights are "Nights in with wine". So I'm hosting my first party at the end of this month. The theme (yes, there's a theme!) is "80's". And yes, you must come dress in your favorite 80's attire. It'll be totally, like, tubular. 


So what are your resolutions?

My Memories Giveaway WINNER!

The lucky winner of the My Memories digital software download and the $10 store credit is.....

And that makes the lucky winner...

You're going to love it! I'm off to send you an email!

My One Year Bloggerversary!

So, I started my blog one year ago today. My first post was mindless dribble about goals in 2011 or something, and my first follower was my friend Megan, who blogs at Miss Madison's Charmed Life. I'm not supposed to tell you that we've been friends for 15 years, cause that makes us sound old or whatever.

In that year, I've gained 804 more followers, "met" a ton of awesome bloggers online and even one in person (Hi Julie!), posted 210 posts, and had 135,139 page views in that year. 


My 5 most popular posts are...

My paint chip wall art...

My Crate & Barrel "Layla" knock off pillow...

 My Ballard Inspired spool...

My Restoration Hardware french animal art knock off...

And my frame necklace display...

Which tells me that apparently you guys like when I do crafts, and I do a ton of knock offs. 


My goals for this year are to be a better blogger (i.e. post more regularly, keep up with my Highs and Lows posts, post more comments, etc). Ya know, and do that whole "eat healthy/exercise" thang.


Thanks for following!!! You're a rock star. 

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from our house to yours! The girls opened their new Christmas pajamas last night. This momma is up early, about to get started on breakfast pizza and monkey bread. My father in law flew in yesterday from St Louis, my parents will be here this morning at 7am. I'm so excited to see the girls faces. This year, Ava will be old enough (16.5 months old) to open presents, so I can't wait to see that. 

Merry Christmas! May Santa bring you everything you wanted! 

Sponsor Spotlight: Fabulously Flawed!!!

So, we all know that I think that Lesley from Fabulously Flawed is the cat's pajamas. The greatest thing since sliced bread. Like, she rocks my socks. 

If you aren't already following her blog, you are totally missing out. You'll find super awesome (and inexpensive!) crafts, photo challenges (which I suck at remembering), and other awesome things that will totally make you laugh your  butt off. 


If you're already following her blog, did you know that she has an Etsy shop? I love her etsy shop. It isn't the same crap that you'll find every where else. You don't have to worry that everyone else will be wearing the same thing, it's all one of a kind stuff. 





Now, this post was supposed to be about an awesome set of earrings that she sent me a few weeks ago. Silver dangly earrings with red stars. BUT, a certain 8 year old in my house has "borrowed" them, and now I can't find them anywhere in her disaster of a room. In her defense, she did say that they "look like rock star earrings", which means they were totally worth coveting.


So, luckily for you, I'm slightly obsessed with Lesley's jewelry, and I own a few pieces. One of the first pieces I bought was this Sapphire Forever necklace. 

I get SO MANY FREAKING compliments on this necklace when I wear it. I've worn it with a pretty black dress, and it even makes my $3 thrift store cardigan look super fancy. It's not heavy at all, but has a good, solid weight to it. I can't say enough things about this piece. I heart it. 

I also own another piece from her shop called the Jennifer Necklace. You know I had to buy something that was named after me, right?  

We all know how popular red and turquoise are. I love how this necklace feels like an updated, modern twist to grandma's pearls. 

So, if you don't think that Santa is bringing you everything you've asked for, why don't you treat yourself to something from Lesley's shop? 

You totally deserve to treat yourself. You've been good this year, right?