Decorating Phase

I've been changing things around a little at the house...
I bought this cute MINATURE RECLINER for Tate at Goodwill for $8 and I love it (maybe even more than he does). It's new home is in the little NOOK at the top of the stairs. OH HOW I LOVE THIS NOOK!!!

It has become such a perfect play room. (Sorry my camera won't zoom out for better pictures). Also I made some cute blue CURTAINS for this area of our house out of a tablecloth. It really helps to keep the heat out-yeah!

One of the walls in the EXTRA bedroom also got a makeover. I used THIS tutorial that I had found about how to make a picture cluster without making a million holes in your wall. It REALLY helped a lot!
And now for Tate's bedroom, I had this idea of decorating his room with the theme of "Imagine me a Missionary". So I started by BORROWING Bryan's old ties and hanging them from the curtains.

Hmmmm. Okay I'm not sure if they should stay. I think that if I decorate the rest of the room it might look cute, but then again it might just look strange. What do you think? Should they stay-YES OR NO. I need opinions here...

Day 205-Milky Mess

I told Tate that he COULDN'T have any juice... He was mad and went to get it himself. When he did, he accidentally knocked out an unopened gallon of milk and it splattered EVERYWHERE (up to 12 feet high on the walls, on cupboards, counters, but mostly underneath the dishwasher). I think that the SHOCK alone of watching this happen was consequence ENOUGH for him... You should have seen his face. He felt pretty bad!

Day 191-Ninety Degrees Indoors!

Leaks are NO fun. Yesterday (while the workers were here trying to fix it) the ceiling actually caved in on them (leaving a giant hole in our ceiling-approx. 4ft x 5ft). They had to turn the AC off for several hours and the house got up to 90 degrees. Needless to say, we had a very HOT day!

Day 162-New Paint Job for the Porch Swing

My Dad is a carpenter and he came up with this porch swing pattern years and years ago. For Christmas a few years past, he gave Bryan all of the materials to make a swing and he walked him through the whole process. We had it up at our Gold Canyon home, and then had to take it down when we moved.

Since it was stored outside uncovered, it needed a new paint job. It's hard to tell from the picture, but I painted the porch swing a light blue and I sanded it to give it an antique sort of look. I like how it turned out, and it's nice having somewhere to sit in the backyard.

Day 122-Hanging Blinds & New Kitchen

I'm getting fast at hanging blinds. On Saturday I hung 7 blinds by myself after my Dad showed me how. I think that I got the last one's up in less than 4 minutes!

Here is the newly remodeled kitchen. I like it. Can you believe it used to look like this?

114-Major Cleaning Day

After moving in, we went to put our stuff away and we soon discovered that the new house was completely filthy. I guess I should have thought to check in detail if it was ready to be moved into. Oh well :) Live and learn. I mean, I knew that there was still stuff to be done, but nothing this bad.

Friday night the girls in my family all came over (since the boys had Father's and Sons Outing) and they helped me clean up a lot. Together we got so much accomplished. I know that I'm indebted to them for a long time now. You should have seen some of the nasty stuff they cleaned. My SIL Carrie and her kids spent the night and we stayed up past midnight cleaning.

113-Moving Day

{Here is a really bad snapshot of one of the rooms in our house that is loaded with boxes ready to be unpacked}

We are officially moved. I am soooooooo happy to be back in a house! I am very appreciative of the 9 men who helped us move. We couldn't have done it alone-seriously. It wasn't an easy thing bringing boxes down the stairs of our apartment. Also lowering the couches down over the balcony didn't look very easy either (I just watched and prayed that no one would get hurt). Unloading at the new house went a lot quicker than loading did, mainly due to the fact that I tried to label every box's contents with perfection as to what was inside and to which room it should be put in. It was definitely worth it!

Day 111-Packing

Well... Packing is officially underway. We are moving tomorrow-YEAH! My SIL Kristy was so kind to watch Tate yesterday so that I could get started. I think I got a whole 18 boxes packed during the time she watched him-woo hoo. Hey, any progress is better than none:) I'm getting very excited about the new house and I can't wait to be moved already.

Day 68-Clean Carpet at Last!

I cannot begin to understand why anyone would put CARPET in a DINING ROOM. It just doesn't make any sense whatsoever! It's been quite the nightmare for me trying to keep it clean! Even though we are moving soon, I decided that I can't take the dirty carpet any longer... so I borrowed my parents Carpet Cleaner yesterday and got to work. It looks much better. Horray for clean carpet!

Day 59-Some More House Pics

I couldn't resist going down to the house we're moving into and taking some more pictures before the remodel begins. Painting's going to start on Monday! I am still in awe at the outrageous paint colors that are currently in the house.

Day 57-Inspiration Notebook and a Surprise

My sister Christina and I made some cute notebooks today. We covered them with paper adhering it with Mod-Podge (of course), and added some accessories. The front cover of mine also has a pocket in it-although that doesn't show from the pic. They were fun to make and I like the way they turned out. I'm going to use mine as an inspiration book. When I see something that I really like in a magazine (as far as decorating is concerned) then I'll clip it and paste it in my book for future reference. Then someday when we build our dream house, I'll already have somewhat of an idea what I want.

Speaking of houses... We are moving! Bryan's Aunt just closed today on a bank owned house in Mesa-and we are going to rent from her. The house needs quite a bit of fix up. She is planning on having the remodeling begin ASAP, and we will be moving soon after! I'm so excited to be in a house again!! Plus, it's right next door to Bryan's Grandma so that is very exciting for us. I snapped a couple quick pictures of the house, and Tate insisted on being in them both...

Don't you just LOVE the bright green and crazy purple paint that's in the living room and dining room? Ha/Ha. That's gotta go!

Day 39-Ceiling Leak

For today's picture I wanted to share something that we've been dealing with for a while. (I don't like sharing NEGATIVE things, but this one has got to be documented like it or not). We've had this CRAZY roof leak since last September. Every time it rains, the water comes down through the fan in our bedroom and drip drip drips on our toes at night. Bryan & I have gotten pretty used to the whole thing. When it rains... We put the bowl on the bed to catch the rain water, Bryan sleeps on the bottom bunk in Tate's room and I take the couch. We've called our Apartment Maintenance like 4 or 5 times now and although they've called it an emergency-they haven't done a thing to fix it. It's actually been a bit frustrating!

Kitchen & Dining Room

Although the kitchen is small, it is quite compact and there is actually plenty of cupboard space.
Here is the dining room from another angle.

And last but not least, this bookcase full of all my appliances is the biggest lifesaver for me. Thanks to this, it all seems to fit!

Welcome to Tate's New Bedroom...

Just thought I'd give you a tour of our new apartment via my blog. I'm going to have to do a room at a time. This is Tate's bedroom.

We finally got him a big boy bunk bed! (He's been in the toddler bed up until now.) We call it his PIRATE SHIP. He brings his "treasures" inside and plays with them and loves to hide behind this blanket.

He also spends quite a bit of time drawing pictures and coloring them. It seems like as soon as he hit age 4, he became a non-stop artist. Seriously though, it is what he does 90% of the time around here.

Luckily Tate's room is REALLY BIG because it is also our new craft room.

Two Surprises in One Day!!!

Just when I was beginning to think that we would NEVER sell our home... Surprise! We have a buyer. Yeah! I'm totally happy. This is such a blessing for us. And if this blessing isn't enough, my friend Faith called me up yesterday and asked us if we would like to stay at their time share resort in Palm Springs California. They had booked to go for their ten year anniversary and then at the last minute they aren't going to be able to make it. I'm so happy that they would think of us!!! So, California... here we come. (Well, not for another two weeks).

For Sale...

Well, it's official, we're moving as soon as we can sell our house. Wish us luck, it's a crazy market out there!

New Carpet at Last!

Back in January we had a little accident happen one night when Bryan & I went out- that had to do with smurf blue paint and a bottle of bleach on our family room carpet. (No details here-I promised the guilty ones that they would remain anonymous)

Well, I'm very happy to say that our problem area is now fixed and I am a very happy Mom once more. Now when I clean the house, it might actually look clean :)

IN MY FRIDGE & PANTRY...

I read THIS POST yesterday and thought it was so much fun, I wanted to try it out myself. It's amazing to me how much little things (like food in a fridge) can tell about a person, and how everyone is completely different when it comes to stocking the fridge and pantry.

ABOUT US:

• We LOVE milk and can't ever have enough of it. We drink it with all of our meals and typically go through at least 1/2 gallon a day.


• Being the mexican chef that I am, I make sure that we always have beans, rice, and pico de gallo on hand. They are probably the biggest staple in our household.


• We also ALWAYS have corn tortillas and cheese. Usually we have homemade flour tortillas (but not always).


• We love fresh produce and typically get quite a bit from our garden. I usually go to the Superstition Ranch Market to get the rest of our fresh fruit and veggies. I can get 3-4 bags full for under $12.


• The freezer is where I stock all of my baked goods, I ALWAYS have homemade bread & cookies. I almost always have cinnamon rolls.


• I usually have whole chicken on hand, and I use it a lot in my cooking. Typically we have some sort of fish as well.


• In the pantry I always have pinto, black, and lentil beans, rice, flour, hard white wheat, all different kinds of sugar, homemade jam, and honey.
  

What's in YOUR fridge and pantry? I dare you to embarrass yourself like me and post it on your blog.

Office-Before and After

We are so blessed to be able to have this spare bedroom which has turned into our craft/office/storage room. Up until recently this has been the dirtiest room in the house where we've thrown everything that didn't have a place, or even just somewhere to throw things if company was coming, etc. This is how it commonly looked-papers everywhere, no room to even walk in there... I hated this room more than anything!!!

It's taken quite a while, but I've finally found a place for everything. Even though I've got A LONG WAY TO GO till it is all pretty, I'm starting to really like this room now because it's clean and most everything has a place...
Remember this cute little table that I decorated a while back? I finally found a good place for it. It now fills two purposes. It is a lovely craft table, and it provides a perfect place to store my bulky water and oil jugs.

It has been really hard trying to find a place to store food storage boxes. We have our master bed already stacked on boxes and so I needed somewhere else. I thought about a closet, but I'm ALWAYS getting into these boxes and opening a new can, and it's pretty annoying to have to lift up a million boxes just to find the one that I need. Even though this isn't pretty, in fact it's pretty ugly, I figured that it will do just fine for now. If anyone has any other suggestions in regards to storing food, please let me know.

Here's a close up of the table.
Here is our massive bookcase of which I love so much.
I went out and bought these handy dandy containers and labeled them all for my crafts and such.
I decorated our filing cabinet with all of our scrapbook magnets and magnetic puzzles for Tate to play with. They seem to entertain him quite well when I'm working on a craft.
And last but not least, I copied Design Mom and Liz B., and pinned up all of my lovely ribbons that prior to this were all squashed in a ziploc baggie and stuffed in a drawer. Now I can actually see what I have easily when I need a ribbon, and plus I think they make a beautiful wall decoration.