Ramblings from the mind of a desperate home redecorator...

Bear with me people.  I've got a lot going on in my tiny mind, and it's driving me nuts.
For starters....

You know it's springtime when you have a bush trimmer on your coffee table.  I promise, I'm in the process of using it....this is the kind of thing that happens when you are dumb enough to buy a house sans garage.
I am obsessed with the idea of recovering my dining room chairs.  Actually, I am obsessed with the idea of getting rid of everything I have that is olive green, red and beige and replacing it all with turquoise, yellow and white.....maybe even orange!   Since I can't buy all new stuff (dang it!) I need to just tackle projects one at a time.
I love these fabrics, but can't see paying 34.99 a yard....especially since I would probably need two yards per chair, for eight chairs.  The sad thing is, 34.99 is on the LOW end.  Ugh. If anyone has ideas on where to buy amazing, super cheap fabric...please send those ideas my way!

                                   
In the meantime, I satisfy my urge to redecorate with smaller (more realistic) projects.  In Sissy's room was the rocking chair from hell...I may or may not have discussed this chair in the past....long story short:  I found this vintage chair when I was pregnant with the twins, and snapped it up for 25 bucks.  I went to the fabric store and bought LAVENDER fabric (Why?????? Shaking fists at sky!) and proceeded to pay 475 stinkin' bucks to have it recovered.  I could have bought a NEW pottery barn rocker for that much....but I didn't, so I was stuck with this rocker.  The fabric, although a designer name, was junk.  It started fraying and fading as soon as the chair got back from the upholsterer.  The "guts" of the chair were in TERRIBLE shape.  The rocking mechanism was totally jacked, and it tried to dump you on the floor every time you so much as reclined one degree.  Gone were my rockwellian visions of rocking my two infants in a precious, recovered vintage chair.  Every time I sat in that thing I cursed....so to put it mildly, I hate that chair.  I hate the chair so much I am not even posting a picture of it. In my utopian "I-have-all-the-money-in-the-world-to-decorate-my-house" universe, I would custom order a chair with amazingly chic/little girl appropriate fabric.  Since I live in the real world, with a husband who would throw me out on the street if I attempted half the stuff I want to try.....I came up with this:

A nine dollar papasan frame, (from Goodwill) painted crisp white, with a brand new papasan pad from Pier One that just happened to be on clearance AND matched Sissy's room.  Yippee!!  It looks adorable, and Sissy thinks she's a "little bird in a nest" (her words).  Now Bub wants a "bird's nest chair" too, but I don't have the heart to tell him we won't be having two papasan chairs in our house.  One is cute and kitschy...two is a 1968 hippie love shack.
I am in LOVE with these prints for Sissy's room....but what to do?  Order one and incorporate it into a wall of random stuff?  Order three and frame them all in a row?  Hmmm.......
I really, really, REALLY want to do this to Cale's room, but I think that might get me thrown out of my house, too. Gray and yellow?  Yes, please!!  Maybe in the next house.....I would definitely do TWO twin hanging beds, too....one for him, and one for a friend!
Also, I hate what I've got going on above my bed.
I don't hate the frames or arrangement as much as I dislike the picture quality of most of the images.  I took them WAY before I knew anything at all about a camera, so they irritate me.  I am thinking I would like something like this above the bed, especially since there is no window on that wall, and all those mirrors would have to create the illusion of light.  (or something)
Next on the list....the backsplash we are contemplating....

My taste is definitely veering more towards clean and contemporary lately, but the countertops and cabinets are more traditional...I am thinking this backsplash works because it's travertine-ish, matches the rest of the kitchen and is more interesting than the other ones I looked at because it's rectangular rather than square.
Finally, THIS makes me happy today....

I love looking at the little flowers in my windowsill that Cale brings me every day.  The kid can't pass by a dandelion without running to pick it for his mommy.  This emotion is almost sweet enough to make up for the fact that I need a new kitchen window OR (judging from this picture) I need to clean the one I have.

Ride a horsie, go to town!

Saturday I had a senior session at a ranch.  Besides getting some really cool pictures of Cooper with his horse, my kids got to get up close and personal with "Kid".  Cooper's mom had thought my kids would enjoy riding the horse, so she told me to bring them along for the shoot....well, she was two thirds right.  My girls agreed to get on the horse, albeit reluctantly.  Livi is too little to really know what is going on, so we just threw her up there before she could decide how she felt about it.  Sissy was unsure, until I told her I would get her a milkshake if she would ride him.  (Works every time!) Once they realized how far off the ground they were, there was a little hesitation.....

Once Kid got going, they really enjoyed themselves!  I was a little worried about Livi staying put, but she hung on and rode like a pro.

After they got a chance to ride, Sissy asked to get back on Kid over and over and over.  She REALLY wanted to keep riding that horse....maybe some riding lessons are in the future for this little one!
During all the excitement, Cale did his best to distract me from the horse.  I think he thought if he talked about something else, I'd quit asking him if he wanted to ride it....

Livi's sentences

I know I thought the twins were brilliant at this age too....I just can't seem to remember that far back.  Livi shocks us every day with the stuff she says!  All of a sudden, she can label EVERYTHING.  She's so much of a talker now, I couldn't even do a blog post with words she knows, because she says EVERYTHING.  I feel like she turned into a talker overnight. You can actually carry on a conversation with this one!!  Just recently, she started putting two, three, four words together.  She's been saying "Thank You" and "Bless You" for awhile now, and "Uh OH paci/bottle/whatever falls on the floor".  Now, we are surprised to hear some new ones.  She also says:
"Daddy working"
"Daddy working building"
"Sissy Bubby Mimi"  (Translated: "Sissy and Bubby are at Mimi's")
"My want it"
"I did it!" and "I got it!"
"I do!" (when asked, "Who's pretty?"....this answer doesn't really make sense, but I love it!!)
"Read it"
"Hose You" (Hold you)
"Mommy coming peese?"
"No No Wy-eee!" (when he's barking)
"Tee-ya pees" (Tortilla please)
"Tee Tee ouch.  Keem."  (Translated: "I have a diaper rash and need cream" (desitin)
She also cracks us up because she pronounces "Yes", "Wes".  We ask her stuff all day just to hear "Wes".
She still hits playfully to get a reaction out of the hit-ee.  She's switched it up a bit now in that she has started saying "Sow-ee" and THEN hitting you.  We get a pre-emptive "Sorry" before the smack!  After being whacked one too many times in the face, I had a little talk with her about not hitting.  It went a little like this:
Me: "Livi, we don't hit people.  We love people.  We give hugs and kisses.  Daddy doesn't hit you.  Mommy doesn't hit you.  No hitting, okay?"
Livi:  "Daddy no hit you.  Daddy kiss you."  LONGEST GROUP OF WORDS STRUNG TOGETHER TO DATE...I was flabbergasted.  Not only did she TOTALLY get what I was trying to say to her, she said nearly the same thing back to me!  Not that it stopped the smacking, however.  Good thing she's a cute one....

I love this little thing...crusty, slobbery face and all! 

Fun Sunday...

Last Sunday after church, we were supposed to head right out the doors and go eat at Texas Pride BBQ....we had a groupon burning a hole in our pocket!  We had forgotten that the church chili cookoff and carnival was planned for that day.  All during Sunday school, the twins watched them set up all the bounce houses and booths, so when the service was over, we determined that we would be considered the world's meanest parents if we made them walk past all that fun stuff without enjoying it just a little.
We bought some tickets, and they were in hog heaven!  In fact, they were so excited they ran off a few times and had to be chased down.....they LOVED the bounce house with the slide, and the bouncy obstacle course.  I talked them into doing the inflatable slide, but as you view my pictures you will see the looks of abject terror on their faces and realize how much they enjoyed THAT suggestion.  We had a plethora of tickets, so they got to do all their favorites several times.....and then it was snack time!  Mimi and Popo got there, and we all sat down to have a drink...the twins got snowcones, which was great except we were all starving and ready to go to lunch and they were vying for the award of world's slowest snow cone eater.  We would have literally been there all day at that rate, so we made them abandon snow cone and load up in the car, which I still think was mean of us.  I am worried that having your beloved snow cone ripped out of your hands and thrown away before you're done is bound to be psychologically scarring.  Oh well.
We headed to Texas Pride, and they spent some time on the playground.....the twins decided to go home with Mimi and Pope, so we got to make a rare "one baby" trip to Costco, which is EASY PEASY...let me tell you!
I can't wait for more of these fun, relaxing, beautiful weather Sundays....

The bouncy slide might have been a little TOO advanced. 

Watch out!  It's bounce house hair!

Ever cautious...he's probably weighing his desire to do something with it's obvious risks.  This kid is just like his dad.  

If you can't get IN the bounce house, you can at least lean up against it.  

Snowcones!!  

As previously mentioned on this blog, this baby is obsessed with bottled waters.  You can't even walk past a display of them in the store without hearing "Mommy!  WAH-NER!  BOTTLE!  WAH-NER"

Of course, she ends up dumping half the bottle on herself, but throws a fit if you try to take it away from her.