My Hot Date

I love this man! I mean how much perfect could you get? A MAN who makes cleaning easier?! The ones who resides at my house make cleaning more frequently. Yes, you guessed it. This week I have been spring cleaning. If you have a budding artist in your house, like I do, Mr Clean Magic Erasers are great on taking crayon and ink off walls. I also get the cleaner in the large jugs and use it for everything. Today was the day that I pulled out all the appliances and cleaned under them. I do this about 2 times a year. I swear most could pull out their appliances and the floor would be clean under them. Not mine! I have no idea how all the crud gets under them.

White vinegar is an awesome cleaner too. I use that on my windows. Now I have to clean my windows atleast once a week. My husband "gifted" me with this....

She loves to put her nose against the window and bark at the squirrels, groundhogs, cars, leaves, anything that moves pretty much. The little one is right at her side egging her on too. So besides the huge nose prints are the little dirty handprints too. I do have a little tip for washing windows. I have the kind of windows that you can clean the outside of them by unlatching them. If you do the outside one way, like vertically, and the inside in the opposite direction you can tell which side you have streaks on. I always get streaks......

I know it is a blurry pic. It's about as hard to take a pic of a 2 year old as it is to dress one. This is a do not do this kind of pic. I would not suggest wearing your rubber house cleaning gloves on your feet unless you just got a really awesome pedicure. Well..... maybe not even then. I caught her with these on walking around saying she was Donald Duck and mighty proud of herself to boot!

Well only one more room to spring clean. The dreaded living room! Ugh! That is a job for tomorrow though.....

Vintage Tablecloth Aprons

I just bought these vintage tablecloths to turn into aprons. Look for them soon! If anyone has any requests for colors, let me know.

Coming Soon!

My mom taught me how to sew. Seems that is the most valuable talent that I have. As much as I try, it seems that I tend to go back to sewing. My husband recently "threw" me into my own business. He shoots a long bow. He wanted a leather case for his custom long bow. Could not find one anywhere. So he talked me into making him one. It was pretty easy. The first time he took it out target shooting he came home with 5 orders for them. I have yet to make some and list them on Ebay though. He keeps bugging me to do it. I have also made him a case for his atlatl.

Basically a spear that you throw. I've got orders for these too to still make!

Anyways.... my evil sister was shopping with me the other day. I LOVE aprons. I put on an apron and I just feel like baking, cooking and doing my Harriet Nelson imitations all day! Seriously, I am just that sloppy when I do those things. So she bought me a pattern for an apron that is sooooo cute! I can't wait to make the first one. This is where the story goes bad though. One of the patterns is made using a vintage tablecloth! I am considering creating an Etsy store to sell some among other things. Look for the "Grand Opening" soon!

Happy Easter!

Hope that everyone had a great Easter! I know our house is overflowing with candy and sugar hyped kids.

The boys are gone for the week. The husband is away for work and the boy is at camp with school. You know what they say.... while the boys are away the girls will decorate!

How to Decorate

Okay, I got a question for everyone. If you wanted to redecorate your WHOLE house, how would you go about it? Do it one room at a time? Or just make the whole thing a total mess?

I've gotten Christopher Lowell's books. His ideas about decorating make sense to me. Especially his 7 layers of decorating.

1. paint and architecture

2. flooring

3. upholstered furniture

4. fabric

5. non-upholstered furniture

6. accessories

7. lighting

I had planned on taking one room a month and concentrating on it solely. As far as I could get in that month for that room I would do. There is one problem with that. I hate the way my house looks now. After looking at the incredible blogs that are out there and seeing others homes I hate it more. I have finally figured out that I should do a more traditional look in the house cause that would be timeless. Then small changes and additions along the way. In the meantime though I am getting ideas for things that I want to do in the house. It is so hard to not do the wall at the top of the stairs, the mirror idea for the foyer, etc..... Trust me the list is endless. Then some rooms I have no ideas for like the boys cave. WWE?! Give me a break kid! I am thinking of doing the base of the room neutral and adding some WWE items to it. Cause if I did a total WWE room as soon as I was finished he would change his mind.
Besides how much inspiration is this? He also doesn't want the room dark. Neither do I cause then he sleeps with ALL the lights on! Yeesh!

So..... if you wanted to do your whole house over how would you go about it?

Happy Spring?!

I know all you warm climate people will be jealous but this is what we woke up to this morning. Lovely weather we are having here in Michigan. Just yesterday I was out in the yard in a long sleeve shirt, capris and flipflops looking at the hyacinths, crocuses and irises poking their little fronds out of the ground. I feel like I should be making fruitcake and listening to Christmas Carols instead of decorating eggs and making easter bread! Oh well, such is life. Looks pretty for now until the kids get to it.

Good Bye Joey!

My Mother In Law had to put her white shepherd to sleep today. Granted she was old, the dog not my mil, but it is still sad. She was such a good dog. She got her shortly after my Father in Law died. She got really sick last night and when she took her to the vet today he recommended it. She will be missed by everyone.

My BFF!

Meet my BFF Prudence. I love Prudence. Sometimes I refer to her as Prude cause she is very persnickety about what she will do for me. I almost killed her sewing the leather cases that I make. A little vacation and the threat of replacing her and she is back to work.

These are the old drapes that I had hanging in my bedroom. Prudence was with me all the way when I made these. She is such a good girl! Did a fabulous job too. Way to go Prudence!

These are the new drapes that we reconditioned for my bedroom. They are white cotton ones. They used to be tab top but as I cannot leave anything alone, I removed the tabs. Sounds like a simple thing right? Well..... first I had the mishap with washing THE EXACT SAME CURTAINS. So I had to go buy more. Grumbled all the way too. The sane person might have just hacked off the tabs, which I thought of doing. But noooo........ I had to remove them which meant pretty much resewing the whole top. Not a biggy cause they were 6" too long for my short room. You can also tell how long it took me to do one window. I started it when it was light and finished the window when it was dark! The trials and tribulations of being a Connell.

Lookie! Lookie!

Look at what I found! I LOVE the top piece! Not sure if the bottom piece will work in the new bathroom though. A little black paint and some crystal knobs (pronounce kah-nobs) some glass holders mirror in the door and it would be perfect! I am looking at the floor plan on the new bath and the bottom may work. May have to slide the tub down some.

Note to self: LOOK FOR FLOORING!!

I hate my H2O!

Blah! I hate my water. I am convinced that it hates me too. Only sometimes though. And.... it only directs it's vengeance at ME! I know it sounds crazy but it is the truth. I can do a load of whites and the ONLY thing that will get orangey blotchy rust stains on it is my stuff.

The reason for my rant is that I remembered I had 3 pairs of white drapes that I could hang in my bedroom. They had to be shortened though. So I went on the hunt for them. I finally found them and decided that I should wash them before I hung them up. Too lazy to run to the laundromat, too impatient to wait til 3 pm when my oldest gets home so she could keep an eye on the rugrat, I washed them myself. After the cycle was done, I pulled them out to find large orange streaks across them! ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyone have any handy dandy cures for rust stains on clothing?

Remodeling Bonus!

So, besides having the benefit of having a beautiful bathroom after the remodel. My husband says he is taking the old stuff and making a bathroom downstairs! I have been envisioning soaking in that tub (after a serious cleaning session and reglazing) candles lit around the bathroom, and big fluffy towels waiting to be wrapped up in! Course the reality is that once I get the 50 rubber duckies out of the tub I have wasted half my time. It's hard to relax with 3 kids banging on the door cause once you get in there they NEED to go. I don't care how many times you asked them!



The other bonus is that the very nice lady we are buying the tub from is throwing in a brand new shower curtain bar FOR FREE! I told my husband it makes buying the tub great since you get something free out of it. He just gave me the "I got the commitment papers in my back pocket so watch out" look.

Look at this beauty though! It is just gorgeous along with the rest of the house. This is Tara's parents tub in their new house. Check out the rest of the house. You will be drooling in no time! I would love to have this one. I wonder how the tile cleans up after being drawn on with tub crayons?

Happy Birthday Brianna!

I can't beleive my oldest is 13 today!

This is an old pic of her and her brother being civilized to each other. Gotta capture those moments when you can! The REALLY amazing thing is that she is getting older and I haven't aged at all!

It all started so innocently!

Now I know why my husband gets so frustrated with me! All he said was to pick out some new tile for the bathroom. Now this is the ONLY bathroom in this old house. I guess we should be thankful we are not pooping in an outhouse! HE also did say if I wanted to make any changes I should figure out what they were and make a plan. Then out the door he was to Ohio to do some sites for the week. Well..... what is a girl to do?! My list started off innocently enough. Our sole bath is small, only 6.5x7.5. We have this wall at the end of the tub with shelves and no door. It's our sorry excuse for a linen closet. I hate it. So I started plotting on how I could remove them. Hmmmm.........

Now besides my evil, plotting, scheming self you add in Tara and Jen. Yes you two don't look so innocent! Tara's gorgeous desk was taunting me! I apologize Tara cause I have never linked to it. Well if she found that on Craigslist what could I find? One could only wonder if they never tried......

Enter this little beauty. Okay right now it is kinda ugly. Really ugly. It came out of an older house in Flint AND has a matching pedestal sink! 100.00! This is where Jen comes in. Next month's makeover! My mind told me to do it. I spent the whole night drawing out my new bathroom. In my mind it is beautiful, but you will have to wait to see. I got no idea what the floor looks like.... Oops!

Open House

Thought this was a cute idea to do. I am sending in this post. I spent all day looking through posts on this site. She has alot of good information also. The makeovers are gorgeous! I think my two favs are Tara's desk and the front porch by Cheryl @ Artsy Fartsy (love that name!)

All Done!

Be careful and don't trip on the touch of whimsy on the stairs! I just LOVE this. I keep going and looking at it cause it looks soooo cute. Really makes you notice the stairs now too.

It was pretty easy to do also. I found the numbers on a word document and printed them as big as they would go. Then I went to my handy dandy copier and enlarged them to the size I wanted. Cut out the numbers, scribbled on the back with pencil and transfered them to the stairs. With a really small paint brush I painted them with black acrylic paint. It was also another no cost idea! Bonus!