18 December 2013

Deployment Happenings

No, the hubs is not currently deployed. He was gone this summer, and I just wanted to share a TON of updates, a lot of firsts for Camdin, and events that took place while he was away. I know I shared them all with him, but it will be kind of neat for him to look back at it all in once place.

Warning: This will be an overload of pictures and video. If you don't like pictures. Please skip this post.


This is the morning that he left. Camdin and I were sick and kind of sad. 


The new fire pit that Dad and I built in the back yard, next to the one we originally constructed (out of materials laying around the house) very shortly after moving in.



Helping Opa fix our gate.





 First chocolate malt. She loved it and yelled for more.


Getting very efficient at using her spoon!



First ponytail.


First time meeting Cy at Iowa State. 


First tornado warning, hiding in the closet... the same night she first got sick all herself. Poor baby. Luckily she felt better by the time we had to hunker down together. 



First goose egg. She was bending over to inspect a bug in the street, and fell flat on her face. 


Enjoying watering all the plants.


Enjoying conversation with Pop and Nana when they visited.







I caught her "getting dressed".



First of MANY popsicles outside. This was our ritual after nap time in the afternoon.


I hung a planter hook by the front door.


And created a chalkboard to help fill in the blank space. 


This is what I wrote... and is still up. I'm hoping to get something Christmas-y up tomorrow.


Camdin's (not first) crazy balancing tricks. Oh not challenging enough to just stand on the arm of the couch? Why don't I do some toe raises while I'm at it. 



This is a good example of how she said 'please' for a while. "More". 



First time at the circus.


Playing with mommy in her wedding dress. Side note: I hosted a Wedding Dress Wine Night at my house the night before Chris came home. It all stemmed from conversations about who had/hadn't gotten their dress cleaned and packed away after our weddings. This will be the topic of my next (extremely delayed) post.



... And then Daddy came home and everything was perfect again.







Stripey Stripes in the Loo.



Last year (as you can already see how much detested that tan color by my previous posts), I painted the master bath a light blue. It turns out... I forgot to post about that. Oops. So here I am catching you up, and showing additional changes I've made.

This is how the bathroom looked when we first moved in. Not horrible, but not great by any means.



This was mid-cutting-in... and no I don't tape anything off anymore because I'm good like that. Let's just say I've painted a few rooms in my day. The only time I use tape now is to minimize splatter when I roll the walls. 


We installed the fancy curved curtain rod to maximize that shower closet. 


This is how the color looks now, still with the original shower curtain I made when we moved in. I'm getting over it now, and I want an all over pattern. More on that later. 


So after I updated the color in the main part of the bathroom, I wanted to spruce up the 'ole WC. Or the toilet room. Whatever you want to call it. I didn't ever take a picture of it when we moved in, because, well... it's a room with a toilet. Nothing to see. 

My idea for this lovely postage stamp of square footage goes back to a post I read on Young House Love. I loved the idea of subtle-ish stripes in a tiny space. 

Since I have no before picture, here's what the room looks like after I painted the cream (same as the woodwork) stripes. In between you can see the original tan that I'm covering up. Warning: I apologize in advance for the heinous yellow hue cast on the following pictures. I'm terribly at using white balance on my camera. 



And here's one coat of white painted stripes. Almost finished.


...And the end result.


I was obviously so geeked about capturing the finished product, that I didn't clean up a speck of project mess strewn about.


One final gem that I wanted to add: shelving. My inspiration photo came from Pinterest- originally posted on BowerPower. 


I loved the addition of a shelf to help cozy up the small wall.

Here's my take on it.



Oddly enough, it makes the small room feel bigger because you'd never expect those shelves to fit in there! And I think the stripes help out a bit, as well. 

So there you have it. An updated toilet room. Yay. The next update for the bathroom will hopefully include new lighting, a new shower curtain, and framing around the mirrors. Fancy schmancy. 







30 May 2013

Eat in style. Or at least better style.

Our kitchen has gotten a bit of a face lift since I last posted pics. Here it is today:



I painted one shade lighter than the living room. A light simple gray. 

This was the kitchen 1 year ago, and 2 years ago:



The chalkboard is essential to keeping our little family on track with our daily happenings. I also swapped out the red decor, for something more fresh. 


We ditched the armoire back in 2011 before having Camdin. It was mine from high school. We decided that not having to move that bad boy again would be a wise choice... plus with our new updated bar cubby in the living room, we didn't need it anymore!


 Fitting in much better with the color scheme here, I moved this print in from Camdin's room. 


The peppers are something I painted for Chris for Christmas. They are all of the peppers that we have grown at our home. See the curtains?


I hand-painted them in Del Rio when I had entirely too much time on my hands. I still love them. 
What's that? You see a coffee machine? But we don't drink coffee, you say?


That's right. Chris and I are not too much into the bean. And by not too much, I mean that I don't drink it at all, and he'll have maybe 10 cups/ year. Our relatives do, however. Which is where this little beverage station comes in handy! It's nice to have our Keurig out to get hot water for tea, but it's only used for coffee when we have company. It's nice to have it over here in the corner, not taking up my high-valued counter space. 

One of the main reasons I wanted to get the kitchen completed before the holidays, was for Camdin's birthday!


It was so nice to have a fresh clean space for her party. 

So there you have it. The kitchen. 

It's not a breathtaking showstopper of a transformation, but I'm pleased as punch that it's done. There's something about that tan paint that screams traditionally boring to me. As least gray has a touch of modern to it. Ha. Who would've thought that gray would be so hip. 








26 May 2013

Let's get you caught up. Living Room Style.

I've been a painting fiend this past year, trying to customize the house, but still keeping it somewhat neutral. While Chris was deployed last year, I painted the living room a light gray. It took several sample pots to come across the winner: Porpoise, by Behr. 

Here we are today:




What did it look like before?


The tan/beige was painted throughout the house. I was OK with the color until I started noticing EVERY little square that was touched up when the previous owners moved out. Word of advice: If you're going to spend the time touching up paint...make sure it's a match, or the entire wall will need to be repainted. Also, please don't put flat paint in bathrooms. It doesn't work for anyone. 


Are you also noticing that the hole-in-the-wall looks different now, too?

Chris and I think it was originally used for a TV cabinet by the previous owners. But honestly, who needs that deep of a space for a TV, anymore? Not to mention, the space is not in the center of the room, and makes it extremely difficult to try and arrange furniture around. (Not that everything has to be centered around the TV. Just saying.)

My father-in-law helped build shelves to put in the cabinet for all of our booze glasses. 


Then, I decided that it was too plain, and needed some color to pop. 

I went with the same color that I've repainted the entryway (which you'll see in a future post).



We look like alcoholics, don't we? No? Take a closer look...


Chris has a drinking glass problem. He finds them in thrift stores, and can NOT resist. I now have to say, if you want to buy one, you have to get rid of one. We literally have no more room on the shelves for more glasses. And don't think I'm about to find another place the keep the "extras", because it ain't happ'nin. 

I do love our little re purposed space, though. It's a great place for a bar, i.e. out of Camdin's reach (for now). We also built the shelves shallow enough that if future home dwellers want to put their TV in the cubby (provided, it's a newfangled flat screen), it will still fit in front of the shelves. They could even be used for DVDs... I measured to make sure the boxes would fit. Go me. 

OK, back to the rest of the room. 

I put of couple of picture shelves above the TV stand, and they help fill the wall nicely without being too cluttered. 


If you're wondering what that mess of color is in frame on the left, it just so happens to be Miss Camdin's first work of art. Crayon, of course. 

Then over on the west wall, I've added some more art and photography. 


I made this "shelf" or frame background out of an old pallet. The only power saw that we own is a reciprocating saw (which I wasn't comfortable using without Chris home). So, yes, I hand-sawed this bad boy down by my self. Roar. 

In the frames?


From left to right: our wedding feet, vows printed on purty paper, Christmas chaos photo from 2011, important dates (birthdays and anniversary), and a picture of Chris and I from prom in 2003. The flower balls underneath are another project that you can read about here.

So there you have it, the Living Room. Updated. 

Ugh... and YES, I'm still planning to recover the gem of a chair that both Chris and I LOVE because it's so comfortable. Don't hate on it's original skin, it's just well loved. Soon to be smokin' hot, though. Stay tuned. Maybe I'll get that done this summer. Just maybe. 








25 May 2013

My Apologies

Hi. My name is Aimee and I am horrible at keeping up with my blog.

Whew. Got that out there. (Not that you didn't already know, based on my extreme lack of posts over the past 18 months...  I wonder what could have wormed its way into my life??)

I have to apologize for not keeping everyone up to date on our lives and happenings. Simply put- it's hard. I have a difficult time strapping myself to the computer chair to write a blog post, when I'd rather do it from the comfort of the couch on my laptop. There's only one problem. My Macbook needs a new battery, and therefore needs to be plugged into the wall at all times or it will die. Sounds simple enough. However, the computer cord is magnetic so that it breaks away from the computer easily. It's a perfect design if you have two dogs and a toddler, like me... but not if your battery doesn't work without the cord!

OK, I know, I'm kind of making up excuses for why I haven't written. The truth is, I love my projects MUCH more than I love writing about them. Trust me when I say that I've kept myself thoroughly busy over the past year by continually updating our humble abode, chasing my now sprinting toddler, and holding down the fort alone while the hubs defends the country elsewhere.

I'm going to try my darndest to get you caught up. I think I'll use my iPhoto history to determine what you've missed out on. Forgive me if the "catch up" posts aren't as in detail as they used to be or could have been. With so much time passing since I've improved upon many things, I simply have forgotten how I achieved some of them. HA!

For now, I'll leave you with the hopes that you're enjoying your Memorial Day weekend with friends and family- all while thinking of those who have given their lives for us to be where we are today, and for those who are currently sacrificing so many things because they feel it's the right thing to do. To all of these men and women in our armed forces- you are, as my friend Kim says, Bad A. We all look forward to your return home safely. And thank you.

13 January 2013

A new member of the family.

No, it's not another baby. 

No, not another dog. 

It's Tayshaun!




Many years ago, Chris brought Tayshaun home from Burger King. He's since lived in a box, with other Detroit memorabilia. 

A few months ago, Chris let him out to breathe, and placed in on a shelf in our office. 
Camdin started noticing him, and smiling at him every time she could see him. 

We let them play together one afternoon, and they've been inseparable since. 

She MUST be holding him at all times, if not preoccupied by a toy that takes two hands. Even if we put him out of reach, Camdin is bound and determined to get him. 



He's also good for teething.




He's so light, you don't even really need hands to carry him around!


Welcome to the family, man. We're all glad you're here. 



Especially Camdin.