Cha Cha Changes!

I have been thinking about this for a while now.

I thunk and I thunk and I thunk.

I thunk up that the blog is getting a bit stale. I also need to post more too. And party more.

I USED to be such a party girl!

I have been working on getting things around here organized, so now for the blog!

You may notice some changes over the next week.

But, for the most part,

....it's under construction!

What you will see is a new and improved blog when I come back on the 14th!

You can expect more crafts, home decorating, tablescapes and of course food!

Maybe even a giveaway??

It's all so exciting!

I can hardly wait!

See you on the 14th!

From Mother Nature With Love

Last week was nice here. By Saturday it was a bit cold, but I was just toasty in a tank top and sweatshirt jacket. The only snow we had left in the yard was the piles where we had the driveway plowed. Those were disappearing. The grass was showing some green. The driveway was muddy and yucky from all the snow melting. I was already planning on doing some yardwork. Spring seemed to be just around the corner.

Mother Nature decided to do a bit of a makeover though! She has decided white is still in....

....with a bit of distressing. Just enough to see where the driveway is....

....and frosty windows.

Oh Punxsutawney Pete, you little varmint, you have failed me!

I guess the coat rack will still be piled with winter garments and boots will still be drying out by the door. No walking around the yard looking for bits of spring popping out of the ground. For now, it's more hibernating in the house. I guess I could do some organizing....

Welcome to Michigan!

If you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes, it'll change!

Let's Get Organized!

Things have gotten so out of hand lately. It seems like I am behind in everything. The more that I try to catch up, the more behind I get. I have been thinking lately about ways to get more organized. Here's what I have come up with.

First of all, I have tried to determine when I got so disorganized. I realized that I never really was organized. I just kind of added the additional responsibilities on top of one another. I have tried to do schedules and get frustrated when they just don't work. The reason they don't work is because my days are not cookie cutter days. Every day is different. My schedule needs to be flexible. How can you plan on doing homework EVERY day at 4 pm when we are heading to a school event? You can't. So each day, when I wake up I make a schedule for that day. Plan out what needs to be done and when it can get done. I was also killing myself getting home from school events at 5:30 and then figuring out what I was going to make for dinner, never mind cooking it. A big help with this was this one simple thing, a calendar. This particular calendar is great! It's called a mom calendar. There is a space at the top to put 5 names on top of the columns.

Down the left side is the days of the month. Everyone's activities can be written down and easily viewed. No more trying to cram a whole families activities in one little box on a traditional calendar. They also come with cutesy stickers!

See?! Under my column I wrote in what I am planning on making for dinner that night too. Using the calendar and planning the meals for the week was a huge help. Now I don't have to think about it one bit. Planning out dinner for the week, I was also able to make a grocery list AND look for coupons to save money. More on that later though.

I also realized that it was a slow and unnoticeable decline to chaos. It didn't happen overnight and it wasn't going to be fixed overnight. Since I have started helping my husband out with his business again, I need to juggle that and keeping the house. Monday, Wednesday and Friday is for his business. Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday is for housework. I "start" work for my husband at 8 am. The kids are fed, dressed and there is time for a quick tidy up in the house. When I am working for him, even though it is at home, I don't do any housework or cooking until 3 pm when I "quit" work. On the housework days, it is just housework. I divided the house into 3 days. Laundry and the basement is on Tuesdays, Thursday is for the main part of the house and Saturday is for bedrooms. This is where the big cleaning is done. After 3 pm every day, homework, afterschool activities, dinner and baths are scheduled. While the older kids are taking their baths and getting ready for the next day, I have time for my special project. My special projects are to help with organization.

Like I said, unless I ran through the house one day and pulled everything out of drawers and closets and dumped it on the floor, it didn't happen overnight. So I am planning on taking a little bit at a time and putting it on the schedule. One drawer, cupboard or closet a day. If I feel more industrious and do more that is a bonus! Who doesn't like bonuses?

There is also one rule. Once a drawer or what not is organized, it stays like that. My trouble is that once I get something organized I turn keeping it that way into a chore. It's too hard to put something away or I don't have the time. For instance, my pots and pans. I used to keep them in a cupboard. Cupboard space in my kitchen is like gold. Every time I needed to get a pan or put one back I practically had to pull out all of them to do it. Hanging the pots and pans on a pot rack solved that, plus I like the look of the pot rack. I also realized how hard I was making things on myself to keep clean. Case in point is the bathroom garbage. Why keep the bags for the garbage can with all the other cleaning supplies? I am probably taking out that garbage every other day. I do tend to take out the garbage planning on putting in a new liner, but sometimes I get distracted and forget. So now, I keep the bags under the bathroom sink. I usually have an extra roll of bags anyways, so those are kept with the cleaning supplies for other small wastebaskets that aren't emptied as often.

Sundays are my prep for the upcoming week. I can do some cooking for the week, like cookies and snacks for after school or any part of dinner that can be done ahead. These are more time saving tips to allow more time for other areas that need more attention. There are a few meals that make more than one dinner's worth. The extras will be frozen for when I just don't feel like cooking. More on that later though.

So, now to do this on a weekly basis. That is going to be the hard part is the change. The first few weeks will be hard breaking old habits. The way I was living, was alot easier. I'm hoping that by taking little steps, this will get easier and stick.

Now, to stick with the whole organization thing, all this week will be about organization here at the farmhouse! Don't that sound like fun? I will be posting tips and tricks to getting organized, organized meals and even a craft project to help with organization. Get your cereal boxes ready! You won't want to miss this one!

The Faded Light

Waking up this morning, the sunrise doesn't seem so magnificent. The light doesn't seem to dance magically on the snow. The light seems to be dimmer. Last night was spent saying goodbye to a very special lady.

She was the mischievious one. The one with the infectious laugh and ready smile. She was the thoughtful one. She remembered every birthday, every name, every child and spouse of a large family. She kept the family tree. She was the quiet one, yet she always light up the room.

My Aunt Julie was the 7th child of my grandparents. She met her husband when she was 14 and was married to him for 44 years. She has 4 children and devoted her life to them and her grandchildren. You always say her with one of her kids if not all of them. The only job she ever held was being mom and she did a wonderful job at it. She was strong, dedicated and always there. When my mom died, her and my Aunt Rose stepped in. I could always turn to her when I got frustrated with raising my own kids. She always made time for whoever needed her.

She has been battling lung cancer for the last few years. In between the chemo treatments, she still found time to spend with her children and grandchildren. Every time they told her they had the cancer under control, it would appear somewhere else. The process would start over again. Her spirits stayed up and she did as much as she could.

Yesterday they told her that the cancer would take her. The doctors gave her 1-2 weeks left. Her daughter called to give the news. She had one simple request, she wanted to say goodbye to everyone that she could. The hardest part was seeing her with her family, saying goodbye. She told her husband "You are an idiot and you've really pissed me off, but I love you more than anything." She cried when her grandchildren came in. She told them she was sorry and not to be mad at her. She wanted to spend more time with them, she just couldn't. She told them she would be watching and anytime they needed to talk to her she would be listening. When I hugged her goodbye she told me she would give a hug and kiss to my mom for me.

You can have a lifetime with someone and yet it never seems like there was enough time. It's hard when someone you love is here one minute and gone the next. You wonder if they knew how you felt, how much you loved them, how important they were in your life. I think it is harder having the time to say goodbye though. Leaving all you love and live for behind.

My Aunt died last night. She could no longer "fight like a girl". Cancer had won again taking yet someone else who was very loved. She died peacefully and quietly, surrounded by her family, just as she lived her life.

I love you Aunt Julie, but it just wasn't long enough.

P.S.

Today I found a penny,

Just laying on the ground.

But it's not just a penny,

This little coin I've found.

Found pennies come from heaven.

That's what my Grandpa told me.

He said Angels toss them down.

Oh, how I loved that story.

He said when an Angel misses you,

They toss a penny down,

Sometimes just to cheer you up,

To make a smile out of your frown.

So don't pass by that penny

When you're feeling blue;

It may be a Penny from Heaven

That an Angel's tossed to you.

Pass this on to the people who you care

about and who you feel that are angels to you.

An angel is now watching over you

I told my Aunt last night to hug and kiss my mom for me. Today, my cousin posted this on the internet. I read this right before I went to pick up the bitty one at school. While I was driving to pick her up, I dropped my phone. I got to the school and opened the van door to get it. There on the floor was an old penny. I just sat there sobbing like a baby because for the first time in a long time, I could feel my mom there comforting me.

Thank you Aunt Julie!

Shoulda Woulda Coulda

I shoulda been cleaning the basement. I am at a standstill though. My wonderful hubby brought home the trailer like I asked. There it sits empty. In my driveway. Somehow dragging up crap from the basement stairs, through 5 feet of snow, put it on the trailer (if I can find it now under 10' snow drifts) to go to the dumpster at our office doesn't sound like fun. Soooo.....

I decided on starting a new project. Cleaning of my personal tribe of pygmy slobs rooms. So began 2 days of being trapped in the house with my tribe of pygmy slobs. Lots of whining and crying. Thank goodness it didn't seem to bother them at all. The first day I started with the girls room. Girls are cleaner right?! BWAHAHAHAHA! I must have gotten the broken models. Okay, so your butt is the size of a postage stamp but put it in the hamper. I found dirty underwear EVERYWHERE! One pair was even being used as a bookmark, I think. I found it stuffed in the middle of a book. I mean who reads a book, says hey I have to eat some candy before mom finds it in my room and uses their undies to mark their spot? Do you take them off? Do you find a pair? What?!

The amount of candy wrappers that I found is unbelievable. I immediately made them an appointments for dental check ups. OMG! We have a rule, NO FOOD IN BEDROOMS. In a fit of anger after bending over to pick up the 5,783rd candy wrapper off the floor I called the children in.

"Isn't there a no food rule in the bedroom?"

"Yes"

"Why am I finding all these candy wrappers in here then?"

"Candy isn't food"

"What?!"

"Weeell.... when we try to eat candy in the morning you say not til you've had some food".

This is where my head splits open and that head that can shoot lasers out of her eyes and fire out of her nostrils appears.

"ANYTHING THAT GOES IN YOUR MOUTH AND TRAVELS TO YOUR STOMACH IS NOW CONSIDERED FOOD!!"

I felt pretty good about this statement. I could just imagine if I had stopped at the mouth the boy certainly would of grabbed one of his sister's toys and put it in his mouth declaring it food and banishing it from their rooms. Thus resulting in his sister in a fit of tears and screaming. You know one of those little girl screams where it goes directly to your tail bone and shoots straight for the sensitive parts of your brain.

"So.... we can have candy for breakfast now?"

Pzooo Pzoooo

The little voices in my head just lasered one small child.

You know I always wondered why when we buy the kids really cute clothes, I see them wearing the same thing every day. I found out why. They won't look for a shirt. They just grab the first one on top and work their way down. Laundry day comes, clean goes on top and the things on the bottom get ignored. Some really cute things too. I started going through their clothes to get the ones that don't fit but they still insist on wearing out. 2 garbage bags of clothes to go to Goodwill JUST from the oldest girl. Don't say keep them for the little one either. I will forget that I have them or they will be totally out of style and she'll refuse to wear them. Besides I pulled, just out of the girls room, 7 loads of laundry! As much as I love to spend a week doing laundry, I don't need any more to wash.

I haven't even gotten to the boys room. Lawd knows what you will find in there. His room doesn't seem so bad though. A good part of his floor is showing. I do need to repaint his closet though. It's pink. Pepto bismol pink. The bitty one loves it. I found her in there playing cause she likes the "pink room".

Now that the room is somewhat cleaner, I have found that the bitty one has drawn on EVERYRTHING. The walls, the furniture, the drapes, the sheets.... Nothing has escaped her reign of terror. It is a good excuse to redo somethings. I have some ideas. I need to get another dresser for them. Or switch dressers. Or rent them apartments.

I also need to organize. Part of the problem is I just blow up and tell them to clean. They need to have places to put stuff and something to contain stuff. So I have been looking at some storage ideas for kids.

Any ideas besides shipping them off to Grandma?

Doesn't Everyone Have A Wrestling Mat In Their Basement?!

We have made some progress in the basement. We are moving as slow as a herd of turtles, but that means we are doing it right right?! Right! Enough of the rights onto the stuff.

We are starting to get some of the stuff out of here. I can actually not only see the floor, I even swept the floor. Which reminded me, when this gets done I have added onto areas of the house I have to keep clean. I may like it the other way better. You can see in the corner of this room where they repaired the wall. Don't know why, but it is poured concrete and not the stone. I even found my table that I cherish and adore. You see it in the pic? Yes it is the one with the garbage bag full of garbage on it. I really take care of the stuff that I cherish and adore don't I?

Do you want to hear the story of the table? Well too bad, I am going to tell you anyways. You see my dad is a professional diver. Not the high diver variety, the dumpster diver variety. Ok, so it is not an Olympic sport but we are proud of how he excells in his area of expertise. Anyways, he found this table in the garbage. His wife didn't want it, but I said I wanted it. We brought it home and Jeff refinished it for me. He put the beautiful rosewood finish and urethaned it all for me. Cause I am spoiled and nothing but the best for my dumpster retrievals. So.... once she seen it all "gussied up" she wanted it back. I kept it cause I am mean and a hoarder. In one of the drawers it has a stamp that says OxBow Tables. I tried to find the company online, but no luck.

Ok, I am done with my dumpster diving dad's great table find. Onto the bohemuth bookcase.

It took Jeff and his buddy to move it from his mom's house to our house and into said house. They put it in the living room but we just didn't like it there. We really wanted it in the basement but after getting it here didn't think it would go. Thankfully we waited til after his buddy left to attempt to move it into the basement. We had to take off doors, trim around the back door, remove a post by the stairs.... I swear this thing weighs a ton! My father-in-law built it in 11th grade for his mom. He built it really solid but I wish he had made it out of styrofoam. It might have been midnight, but we got it down there and down there it will stay. When we sell it we are going to state "Cute and cozy Farmhouse (real estate speak for small and tiny) with bohemuth bookcase in basement."

As for the comment about the wrestling mat?! You probably are wondering what the heck I was talking about. Well.... we were trying to figure out what type of floor to put in here. It's a cement floor. Gotta say it like the Beverly Hillbillies too. CEE-MINT. Anyways, we also have clutzy kids. They definitely get that from their mother. Poor things should walk around in helmets to prevent further injuries. We thought about the flooring that is foam and looks like puzzle pieces but I knew they would end up taking apart the floor to beat each other with. The boy child is into wrestling. This year he is on the team.

Here he is in his wresting singlet. Want to drive a boy crazy? Call his singlet a leotard and practice rehearsal. Heeheehee. Yes it is the little things that I do to drive my kids crazy that make my day. You want to know what is really crazy though? I picked the above pictured boy up at rehearsal (heehee) the other day. He says "it's weird wearing wet underwear under my jeans". Ok, so he had me. I had to know why the undies were wet. Did he really sweat that much? Nope, he SHOWERED IN HIS UNDERWEAR! Why?! Cause Mr Modest didn't want to get naked in front of all the OTHER naked boys.

Anyways back to why we have a wrestling mat in the basement. I'm like a turkey, I can get distracted so easy. We figured that since the kids like to rough house and the basement is going to be set up partly for them it made sense. He can wrestle with his buddies down there, play video games, shower in his underwear. Whatever it is that boys do.

The mat is 3" of foam with a vinyl top. Does that make sense? It's supposedly easy to clean and in 2 pieces. We are planning on painting the floor to make it look a bit nicer. The computer hutch is going into the other room with my table.

For right now, I have a bohemuth bookcase to fill!

I am so happy that all of you love Yvonne as much as I do. I called her last night just as she was pushing the publish button on her post. I do so hope that she has a restful break and hurries back. I can't do without my daily Yvonne fix!

I Don't Want To Make You Jealous....

....but besides still being able to wear the earrings I wore in high school, I also have the most awesome kids! They have been so thoughtful and helpful since I have been stuck all last week and weekend doing the company books. I know I am such a slob making a mess at the kitchen table.

I just don't know where they get their neatness and thoughtfulness from. Must be from Dad. They were so good and patient picking up after themselves....

....and jumping right up when I asked them to fold the laundry for me.

I mean I didn't even have to scream and yell so that my head split open and my evil side came out! I just wish that the pic of the dishes they so thoughtfully took care of for me came out. Yes, I took a break to actually make them dinner and they showed their gratitude. I just wish that I paid enough attention to what I am doing as they do, maybe the pic would of turned out.

The boy was even thoughtful enough that WHILE he was jumping on the trampoline....

....he left the back door wide open so he could hear if his little sister needed anything. I feel so horrible now for yelling at him to close the door cause of a silly little thing like a $300.00 gas bill!

What a horrible mother I am!

When the older one took the bitty one upstairs....

....I know it was to clean their room! I mean they are so thankful that we gave up the biggest room to the two of them they keep it spotless!

And just when I thought I had it all? They even took down the tree like I asked 2 weeks ago!

See that? Not one ornament left on the tree. Ok so the tree is still up, but it is artificial. I mean, how much can you expect them to do in a weekend?! They do need some free time from doing cleaning! Now today, since I do believe that I have a permanent imprint of the caning of my kitchen chairs on my buttocks, I can take a break from the books!

What will I do with myself??

Cause I am such an outright braggart, I am posting this to Decor Chicks Real Messes Party! Ya'll should know by now how I love to brag about my neat, clean, thoughtful, well behaved children!

I Tried To Be A Good Girl....

....but it is so hard and boring. I really did try though. I had plans to spend the whole weekend doing taxes. *Yawn*. I took the bitty one to preschool on Friday and tried to get settled down to work.

I know it is an extravagant office. Admit it, you are jealous. See how hard I was working too? My blog is up on the one puter. I have to tell you though, these are the most comfortable chairs to sit in for 16 hours doing puter work too.

NOT! My buttocks almost went on strike when I even thought of sitting here for any length of time. These chairs are like some early farmhouse torture contraption. Have you ever had your butt go numb from sitting in a chair? I never had and I do have to say it is an odd feeling. So it was to the couch with my big bad sore buttocks. Yeah, I'll get alot of work done there. I was trying to get in the spirit of things, til I spied this.

Aren't those about the ugliest feet you have ever seen? I mean, not that feet are pretty. Those poor ugly misshapen toes. I do love my new jammies though. I got enough jammies for Christmas that I never have to get dressed in real clothes again for like 2 weeks. As long as I stay caught up on the laundry, I wouldn't ever never have to get dressed again. Well.... maybe for special occasions like weddings or funerals. As you can see, I was getting alot of work done while contemplating my ugly feet and comfy jammies.

Then, I needed coffee and to pee. Seems like peeing and filling up my coffee cup go hand in hand. When one is empty, the other is full. It can be a real inconvenience when I am working so hard too.

Why is it that 5 people live in this house and I am the only one that can tell when the garbage needs to be taken out? I mean, isn't all the crap overflowing onto the floor a hint? It is rather resourceful how they shoved the can against the wall so they could pile more on top without it flowing onto the floor. Now though, it is past that point and yet it still is here. Guess I should take care of that....

Which also leads to this. Is there a invisible force field around the basket preventing clothes from getting into the basket? This one is very baffling. The clothes will get brought in here and just thrown on the floor in front of the basket. I know that they do have to bend over and actually pull out the basket, put the clothes in and then push it back in. I think I just ask too much of them and should really lay off.

Here is another little conundrum. We do have hand towels. We do use hand towels. Maybe they are just thrown in front of the dirty clothes hamper pretending like they are being used though?! Cause this cute little curtain that I hung to hide all the junk on the shelves in the bathroom looks like it has been used as a hand towel. I can wash it and a couple days later, it is dirty again. Does it just breed dirt? Never fear though, I have iron out now!

Here is another one that I don't understand while we are on the subject.

"Moooooom! There's nothing to eat!" Really?! Are you serious? I can't cram any more in here and yet, there is NOTHING to eat. I would think that maybe I should get their eyes checked, but they just had that done. They really don't even have to cook either, just heat. Or is that too much? Maybe instead of storing leftovers in containers I should wrap it up on plates to make it easier for them.

Here is another baffling mystery of the farmhouse.

Actually this is not too bad. It has gotten so bad that they will step over the junk on the stairs to go up. It's all their stuff that needs to go up to their rooms, but it never makes it up there. I have asked them how they can walk past it, walk over and not think to take it up. Iuhhohh.... that is caveman for I don't know in case you don't speak caveman. My kids do it frequently so I am quite an expert in interpretting it.

Out of all this do you know what is really awesome? Besides the fact that I totally avoided the taxes? The fact that I whined and cried about NEEDING a new camera, got a new camera and used said new camera to document to the blogworld what slobs we are!! Won't my hubby be proud?!

I was fully supervised this weekend so I did get some work done on the taxes you will be glad to know. I do better being closely supervised. Maybe it is just that when I am asked to do something I can get out of it by saying that I am working on something?

I do have another pic though for you. I know that you are on the edge of your seat waiting for it too.

I know, I know, you are probably sick of hearing about them. Here are my 2 new best friends. Don't I lead a full life that my best friends are cleaning products? I thought that I would post pics of the bottles though. Sometimes it makes it easier to look for something when you know what you are looking for. I have found them everywhere except for Walgreens. Meijers, Walmart, Target and Kroger carry them.

Ok, now I will shut up about them. They really do work though. I have even tried them on a few other things too. But enough of that.

I have to get back to my taxes and ugly feet.

*****

I know this is an old post, but I am linking it up to Decor Chick's Real Messes Linky Party! This is about the only linky party I can participate in right now. Thanks Deborah for the suggestion!

In With The New, Out With The Old!

I can't believe another year is over! I hope that everyone enjoyed the holidays. Even with all the chaos they bring, I wouldn't trade them for anything! Now, you know the drill, go pee, get a cup of coffee, feed the dog, anything pending cause it's gonna be a long one!

First, guess what I got for Christmas?!

Boy, you would of thought that atleast I could of done something better with my hair. Maybe color those roots atleast..... Yes bloggy buddies, Mama got a new camera! A Canon EOS Rebel t2i and.... a zoom lens too! I'm still playing with it. I'll get better though.... promise!

As for Christmas.... it came....

.... made a complete.....

....mess and left too quickly. It's amazing that everything was cleaned up for dinner and family coming over later!

We got tickets to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra for the 30th for a gift.

They were so nice....

....to allow the crazy lady....

....with the new camera....

....onstage to take pics.

Okay.... so they didn't really. We were in the 6th row and I used my zoom lens. I took tons of pics though and won't bore you with all 1623 of them!

Then was New Years Eve.... and....

....can you believe the bitty one is 4 now?! Yup! 4! I can't believe where the time has gone. One minute we were bringing her home from the hospital and the next she is turning 4. Yeesh!

My husband brought home his newest mount. Our great guard dog is scared silly of it though.

She's so crazy! Who would be afraid of this?

Oh! Remember the Fantabulous Basement Challenge?! I haven't given up on it.

The floor is visible.

You can see my partner in crime. Now, I have more stuff to go through and sort out. It did make Christmas easier. I didn't have to buy paper, bows or ribbon this year. After I found all that I had squirreled away, I had more than enough for this year. It's so nice having it all in one place!

It does seem that I can't get all the junk out of here as fast as I have been sorting it out. You won't believe what we have in store for here. I am so excited about it. For right now though, it is a secret!

Actually we have quite a few BIG changes planned for the White Farmhouse.

As for now....

....it isn't time for a nap. Time to get back to work!

Just Breathe

Okay, so yesterday I took out the hem that I had put in these curtains when I bought them. Luckily I had not cut them and then hemmed them.

Being lazy does help at times!

Then I ironed them....

I think that being super wrinkly and having a large hem helped. See the difference?

But now I have a new problem....

When I thought that I was going to have to seriously rethink these I envisioned them with a valance. And I liked what it looked like in my head. If it goes as usual, it will look much better in my head than in reality.

I didn't let the hem out of this pair though since the dog would just lay on them.

Hi Sheba!

I also decided that I didn't like this look any more. I want the panels pleated. I found the pleater tape that I had bought when I got these curtains. Wouldn't you know I only bought enough to do half the curtains. So I guess that I am off to buy more pleater tape tonight.

I'll show you later how to put it on and use it. I like it cause then I can take down my drapes and just flat iron them. No need to steam in the pleats.

You may wonder what happens when you tell a 3 year old to "go play so I can get this done"?

Yeah.... Atleast that room is on the list for NEXT month.

One more thing....

....is off the list!

Actually I was really dreading doing this, but it turned out to be quite fun.

I finally painted the stripes on my bedroom wall!

I thought this would be a pain with alot of touch ups. I do have a couple of tricks to share with you. The room is SW Familiar Beige and the stripes are SW Kilim Beige. Kilim Beige is going to be in the stairway which is connected to our room. I thought this would tie in the two.

So I first measured up from the floor every nine inches. 9" stripes just seemed to be a good size. This ceiling is short too. I measured up from the floor because the ceiling is not level. I found this out the first time that I drew out the top 3 lines and they were crooked. So I went up from the floor since I figured if the floor was not level it may not make a difference since the furniture sits on the floor. Does that make sense?

I think the lines are too light to see. Then I used plain old masking tape cause that is what I had. I taped off all the lines to create every other stripe a different color. I know you probably are thinking "Is she crazy? That will bleed through!" I got a nifty handy dandy trick for using masking tape though. If you have some of your base color, paint over the edge of the masking tape with it before painting the stripe color. If you don't have any of the base color you can use glaze to paint over the edge. Either way and the paint will not bleed under.

Ta-daa!

Then paint just the edge of the masking tape that is against the edge of the stripe. Doesn't have to be a heavy coat either.

Let it dry

Have I ever told you what a crappy picture taker I am? I would like to blame the camera, but I can't.

So then you can start painting the stripes. Be careful where you set your paint lid so you don't sit on it like I did. Hmmmpf!

I did two coats with the stripe color. I didn't want to rip off the masking tape and THEN wish I had.

Are you ready?

Voila! Straight stripes! If you want to see how it looks in the room though, you have to come back at the end of the month for the BIG REVEAL!

I do have some sad news though. My footboard idea won't work out. Boo hoo! I thought maybe I could use it for my daughter's headboard. Her bed is a twin though and just looked too weird. So I am going to use the footboard on my bed since I am all out of stashing places.

Aw Shucks!

The very uber cool and classy Jacqueline has bestowed on me another award!

I love Jacqueline!

She makes my heart sing as all my blogging friends do! In fact count that as number 1 on my list. I love waking up in the morning, getting a cup of coffee and seeing that Jacqueline has a new post. Her blog has the most amazing photography and words of wisdom you will ever find. My newest favorite saying comes from her "Anyone who thinks that sunshine is pure happiness, has never danced in the rain." She always gives me words of encouragement and a swift kick in the pants when I need it! Is there any better kind of friend?!

So I cheated a bit on my list of 10 things that make me happy and listed all my bloggy friends. All of you make my heart smile and I am a much better person for knowing you! I also feel honored that all of you call me a friend!

Muwaaaaah!

A big kiss to all of you!

The rules are to list 10 things (I have 9 more to go) that make you happy. Then to pass it on to 10 friends.

So 9 more things.... Hmmmm......

2. Snuggling a baby head. You know the baby head with the newborn hair on it. All soft and snuggly and smelly good. Do you know how hard it is to resist picking up a newborn baby in the store and snuggling it's head? The fear of being arrested keeps me from it.... but still....

3. That my children will spare no expense to making someone smile.

4. Watching the children laugh and play in our expansive pool that we saved our pennies for. Even if it meant that we couldn't afford bathing suits!

5. Realizing that you are not as old as you thought you were! This one may take alot of "splaining to do" so if you have to go pee or refill a beverage you might want to. I'll wait....

....See when I was younger and you got in trouble my dad always made you the age you were going to be next. If you were 13 and got in trouble 3 days after your birthday he always started with "You're 14 young lady...." It seems that somewhere along the line I started to add 2 years to my age. When I sit down and figure out how old I really am, it always makes me happy.

6. Finally finishing a project that has been hanging around for months! Who doesn't feel happy about that?

7. My bathroom. I love my bathroom now. It's my private sanctuary when the world gets to be too heavy for my shoulders. Slip into the tub with some candles and Cindy's Moonlight Garden salts and I am a very happy girl! BTW - Bring back your Moonlight Garden scent Cindy!

8. The way the house smells when you have something yummy in the oven. God I love food!

9. Getting nice mail. I love going to the mailbox and finding nice mail. Not the hate mail that I get from the utility companies. A card that someone took the time out of their day to send to you. Unfortunately our mail lady sucks. She will never deliver packages to our house since she actually has to pull up in the driveway and walk up to the house. Otherwise it would be packages of goodness.

10. Okay, so I cheated. I really thought of him first, but I thought that was a given. I feel so special that this wonderful man has chosen to love me for the rest of my life. I know that at times I really test him too. He truly makes my heart smile. I know that I am a better person, not because of past experiences, but because he has chosen to love me.

Now to pass it along....

My daughter Brianna

My sister Loretta

Yvonne @ Stone Gables who has quickly become a dear friend

Tracy @ French Larkspur who if I had the money would make a very rich girl!

Donna @ Funky Junk who I would love to hire to redo my house like hers!

Miss Mustard Seed cause how doesn't want to be like her?!

Cindy @ Cottage Instincts but only if she brings back her Moonlight Garden fragrance (J/K)

Jan @ Bobbypins Boardwalk for her inspirational ideas

Rhoda @ Southern Hospitality cause who could this incredible lady NOT inspire?

Susan @ Between Naps On The Porch for making me take a whole different look at my table