alex and i are always teasing each other about things. our family says that we remind them of the Costanza's from Seinfeld. one of the things we tease each other about is typing. he says i type slow and that he can type faster than i do... although he only uses two fingers to do it. so just to prove him wrong, i took a test... and guess what?64 words

Speed test

so there. i'm going to have him try it next and we'll see how he does.

speaking of my hubby, he is finishing up my desk as we speak. can't wait!!!

i am preparing to start a new project in our house. i will be tackling our dining room. here is my inspiration...

alex loves the look, so looks like i'll be getting started on this soon. What do you think??

okay, off to put away laundry. have a great day.
*ciao*
deb

my new kitchen. i am so pleased with the way it turned out. i was a little taken aback by the color as i started to put it on the top cabinets, but once it was complete, i knew i loved it. I removed the cabinet door above the stove and used that space as a display shelf instead. it helps to break up some of the black. then on the long wall cabinet where the microwave and oven are, i decided to bring in some of the "whimsy" and bought "EAT" at Hobby Lobby (my favorite store). This really helps break up the black here. For another touch, i removed my plate rack and grape plates from the nook area, and replaced it with a chalkboard that i made out of an old picture that we didn't use anymore and chalkboard paint. Love it. All it needs is a black scroll on top, and it will be all done. This look may not be for everyone, but we love it.

so here is the BEFORE...



and here is the AFTER...








so there you go, a new look to our kitchen and nook. totally changed the look of this area. a little bold, but they say that black is the new beige.

have a great day.
*ciao*
deb

so for a while now i have been helping friends and family with their decorating projects. i love, love, love to decorate. i can see a space, and imagine it with different colors, furniture placement, accessories, etc. it's like a puzzle that I want to solve. i have helped with sewing projects, craft projects, etc. and these things just really personalize a room. so my friend Rainie has been telling me for a while that she has friends who need me to help them, and that i should start a side business doing what i love. so i've thought, and thought about it for a while, and finally decided to go ahead with it. so i am officially jumping into it. i am going to start my own little business helping people decorate on a budget. i know so many stay at home moms who would love to decorate their homes, but feel guilty spending a lot of money on it. well, that is right up my alley. i don't like to buy things full price, and look for a bargain any chance i can. i like to see past the ugliness of things, and see what they could be, with a little paint and some elbow grease. so wish me luck. i have put together another blog, where i will be posting pics of different rooms i have and will be working on. check it out here.

stay tuned for pics of my new kitchen. can't wait to show it to you all.

have a great evening.
*ciao*
deb

i've been totally MIA these last few days, and busy, busy, busy with lots of projects and outings. i am finishing up the final details on my kitchen cabinets. i love how they turned out. i will post a picture tomorrow once i have all the handles back on them. i also made a cute little chalk board out of an old picture we used to have. it is super cute and whimsical. that is the theme of the new kitchen... WHIMSICAL. i love that word, don't you? There are cute little things that i did to the kitchen that just made it complete. Can't wait to show you.

i have also been taking a LOVE and LOGIC class every Tuesday, which takes up part of my free days, but it is totally worth it. Things in the house seem to be so much more peaceful these days. Especially bedtime. Our typical routine consisted of reading to the girls, doing breathing treatments, getting clothes ready for the next day, putting them to bed, and then... "i need water, i'm itchy, i need to go potty, Tori won't let me sleep, Bella's bothering me, blah, blah, blah." so one of the things that we learned from Love and Logic, is that you can't order someone to go to sleep on command. it takes kids a while to wind down just like it takes adults. so, you let them tire themselves out. now instead of "bedtime", we have "bedroom time." during this time they can do anything in their room that is quiet, but no electronics. Belle usually reads silently, or colors, and Tori usually plays on her own or colors. When they get sleepy, which is usually about 30 minutes after bedroom time starts, then they put themselves in bed, and they are out. The only stipulation to this is that they have to get up when the alarm goes off, no complaining, and make their beds, get dressed, and be ready for breakfast. If they can't get up, then they lose their bedroom time priviledge. Our evenings are so much easier now. no complaining, i'm not getting upset with them because they keep getting up, and they seem happier. i can't tell you how awesome it is to put them to bed and for us both to be happy and talk, rather than being frustrated.

we have learned so much in this class. i'm thinking i'll be posting regular tips in my posts to give you all some ideas.

okay, so i gotta go pack a lunch. have a great day.

*ciao*
deb

the national weather service confirmed that it was in fact an EF1 tornado that hit us early Thursday morning. and get this, it touched down less than a mile from us. i still can't believe it. i knew it couldn't just be straight line winds. finally got done cleaning up our yard of all the debris today and even planted some flowers in the yard. it is officially spring here, in all it's destruction and glory.

i'm off to take a long, hot bath. i'm full of dirt and itchy from being outside all day. oh, before i go, I have to wish my sister a happy, happy birthday. i love you lots and couldn't have asked for a better sister.

have a great day.
*ciao*
deb

so remember how i was saying that i hate spring? well here is proof as to why i hate it so much. lots of pictures, but they're pretty interesting so hope you enjoy.

We got slammed during the very early morning hours here, and all this damage took about 10 seconds to create. this was definitely the scariest storm we have gone through. we got into our designated tornado shelter in our house, and really just prayed for the best. alex was watching the radar on tv and suddenly said, "Oh my God, it's coming right at us." WHAT!!!! and suddenly the power went out and there was this horrible sound outside. You could hear things slamming against the house and then suddenly, it was calm. When we looked outside, it was black, pitch black. the lightening did give us a preview of what we were going to wake up to though... the first picture you see is the neighbors right across the street from us. the tree came within a foot from hitting their house. We came out relatively unscathed except for the debris which is littering our yard, but as you can see from the pictures it could have been much, much worse. needless to say, the girls kept asking me tonight if we were going to have another storm tonight. my poor little ones were so scared. as were we.

so far the National Weather Service has not yet determined whether or not a tornado did touch down in our area (i would seriously be surprised if it wasn't) but we do know that there was another tornado that touched down just south of the city and did some pretty good damage there as well.

so there you have it, concrete proof as to why i HATE, HATE, HATE the spring here.

hope your day started out better than ours did.

*ciao*
deb

i have this love hate relationship with spring. i love that you can start wearing some shorts and capris and short sleeve shirts and flip flops. i love that i can start planting flowers and working on the backyard (kind of another room to decorate... and you know i love decorating.) but i hate, hate, hate the storms. lately we have had a lot of severe storms which of course puts me on edge to begin with, but the worst are the ones that hit during the night. so last night we had some whoppers hit us. the minute the first thunder hit we heard two little sets of feet running to our bedroom. needless to say, we didn't sleep much after that. alex was on about six inches at one end of the bed and i was on about six inches at the other end. and the girls... well they dominated the rest of the king size bed. i kept having to straighten tori out and take her feet off of my head. then bella was smacking alex all night long and elbowing him in the back. so we waited and waited and waited for the darn storms to end, but they kept coming, and coming, and coming. well that alarm went off way too early in this house, and we were all pretty much exhausted this morning.

the bad news is that there are more coming today and tonight, so i am seriously seeing a nap in my immediate future since it looks like i won't be sleeping much again tonight. crap!!!

okay, i'm off to show Tori how to "replenish my energy" by doing some vacuuming for me. I'll explain that in the next post.

have a great day. hopefully yours is thunderstorm free.
*ciao*
deb

one of my favorite things to do is to find treasures at Goodwill stores, the Salvation Army and of course garage sales. so my sister and i went to a couple of places yesterday in search of a tacky 70's outfit for a party she's going to. well, I found this, which used to be a spice rack. So i soaked the bottles and removed the labels and got rid of the veggie corks, placed my colored buttons in it and VOILA, i have a button caddy. the basket that the jars are sitting in spins around. how cool is this.






I also found this cloche

which i am thinking i am going to do something like this, or this,or this with ...












i also found another frame for $1. two frames for $1.25 in 2 weeks. not bad. I am thinking i'm going to do something whimsical with these. i've got some ideas. my sister has also found some really cute stuff and i can't wait to see what she does with it all.

oh the pictures of the cloches above are courtesy of The Cottage Nest, The Feathered Nest, and My Cozy Home. Check them out. they have some great ideas.

okay, i'm off to put my little ones to bed.

have a great evening.
*ciao*
deb

so this past weekend, belle's school had their annual garage sale. i decided that i was in need of some stuff for my craft room, so the girls and i went on a scavenger hunt. i had some pretty specific things in mind... frames (the larger the better - great for making chalk boards), bulletin boards, books for the girls, fun decorations that i could use for the kitchen. so in the end i found these...




i got the two bulletin boards with the harlequin pattern for $2.50 each. perfect for the craft room and i don't even need to paint them. i got the black fleur de lis (is that how it is spelled????) for $1. a cute little frame for something fun for $.25, and i also payed $.25 for the first set of Bob Books. Chaching!!! i also got a plate rack for $3 and Scrabble Jr. for $1. Alex couldn't believe that I paid just over $10 for all the stuff I brought home. So now I can't wait for Friday mornings when Tori and I can find some other treasures at the yard sales around here.

okay, off to read while the girls are in the tub playing.
*ciao*
deb