Big Boy Ideas

Aidan has big ideas for his new room. He recently has really become obsessed with going hunting. He wants a hunting room. Not a morning goes by that we don't have the same conversation with him trying to explain that a camo-painted room just isn't a great idea. The best we have so far is to explain that the brown is definitely a "hunting brown" or a "camo brown." It seems to satisfy him at this point. Needless to say, our buddy is getting a hunting room. Probably not the redneck fantastic-ness he is hoping for, but momma's compromise on it. He has a couple of litte hunting knick-knacks that we have to use :) He also has amazing vintage Ranch Oak furniture courtesy of his daddy. They are perfect to create the "outdoors" feeling. On top of that, I have been brainstorming. His bedding is a taupe color, almost linen. These are the patterns/fabrics that are exciting me right now for him. Just a hodge podge of ideas that are floating around. This is the only pic of Ranch Oak I could find that wasn't cowboy-ed up. His furniture is same color/hardware style but a variation. It's gorgeous.

I can't wait to actually lay this all out and tackle in real life. We have some awesome projects planned.

CSI: Midwest Edition

Can you believe that this is a house update? Yes, it is. There will be no photos because I really don't want you to puke all over your computer screen. Big picture info: our trim work is 99% done! Jimmy just needs to hang the last bit of cabinetry when the granite comes in and put the spindles in the railing. Painting is happening now and then carpet. Little bits of interesting info on the side: Our laundry room looks like a crime scene. Like seriously.

Dear Jimmy got a little crazy with the countertop in the laundry room and somehow his hand met his saw. In a bad way. Like through his hand entirely sort of way. He obviously went to the ER and had to have surgery on it. He cut through 2 tendons. BLESS HIS HEART. Sheesh, he didn't have to go and cut himself to make me leave him alone!!!! Good news is that he is okay and is slowly on the mend. Since they left for the ER in a hurry, when Chad and I went to check out the house, the scene remained intact. Blood everywhere. Jimmy better not decide to commit a crime one day because we have his DNA everywhere in there. I joked at him that he better not have bled on my tile :) He and his family are dear friends of ours and we think the world of them. I am so glad that he is okay (besides in extreme pain, but you know). It figures that this process would get a bit dramatic before it was over...it is my house afterall (and Chad's, relax, but he is not even close to being as dramatic as I am in life...SHOCKER).

Lanterns and Dream Rooms

First, I must share my favorite find of this week! I am absolutely in love with the Hundi lanterns from Pottery Barn:They are just gorgeous, BUT as we know, we are working on a budget here. The Hundi lanter is $299. I was determined to find a similar lantern and at a much better price. I did my research and found this:It is from Royce Lighting and how much do you think it cost???? I will tell you: $73. HOWEVER, that is not even the best part! I actually located it online from a store that gives you credit back on each purchase you make and since we had recently ordered a bunch of stuff for the house from there, this light cost NOTHING. That's right. FREE. No one can complain about free, and by no one, I mean Chad :) I don't lie when I say you will never find a better shopper than moi.

In my email yesterday I got the notice that Restoration Hardware is having their clearance and an additional 10% off. Why must they torture me?! I am absolutely in love with much of the kids' bedrooms. If I won the lottery I would just buy everything in every one of these rooms...

I would love for Aidan's room to have this feel to it:

Some of this room is actually on clearance, but they no longer have the comforter/duvet...BOOOO...
And the nurseries/girls rooms? I just died. I will take one of each please:

That's all I have for today. I will be busy perusing the major sales online! Dang! I wish I wasn't being such a grown up, responsible person or I would be busting into our bank right now!

Oh well, it is a day of filling up the shopping cart and dreaming :)

Handful

If you know our children you know that Aidan is the most calm, polite kid you have ever met (99% of the time of course). Clearly our second born was not going to follow in his footsteps. Elin is a maniac. She sees no issue with diving head first off of chairs and sofas. If she wants what you have, The Tornado is going to take it. Don't you worry. So this is what she thinks is appropriate for her SIT ON riding car. Yes, there is no sitting going on here. This is completely safe. RIIIIGHT.

The House

We are on the final stretch in this LONG process of building our home. FINALLY. Painters are there this week and then the finishing touches. Wooooo hooooo. Let's see where we are, shall we? First, and most important, my closet:

I am standing inside of some shelves to take this photo with my NOT-awesome camera phone. It only seems to take close up photos??? Yes, I know how to zoom and unzoom. The camera just never totally unzooms. Oh well. So, on either side of the door there are shelves, shoe shelves to be exact. I even took off my heels one day and had Jimmy measure them out to make sure the shelves were perfectly measure out for my shoes. There are 8 shelves on each side for heels and flats and then the bottom is measured out for my tall boots. I crave organization in my life so this little set up has me giddy. The left side shelves are a tad larger so that they have an actual end cap. I didn't like them going straight into the wall because then the hanging side would look all unfinished. Seriously, must be my dash of OCD. There is also a shelf that goes across the door way for any bag or what-have-you that doesn't find its home. I was insistent that all of the shelves in the closet line up all the way around. I also hate when your bottom hanging stuff dusts the floor. What a pain to vacuum under! I solved this. My hanging starts way higher. Like the top shelf is set at 94 inches. You can put fabulous storage boxes on the floor or have them open for easy cleaning. Ahhhhh. Poor Chad. He has to live with me.

Everything else is going swell too! The cabinets are all in (besides the final set of kitchen stuff that has to wait for our contertop).
Our bathroom vanity:

Jimmy did a fantabulous job on the tile work around the tub:

The shower has the same design. They look amazing.
A view of the kitchen as it is right now:

The doors are all hung. This is looking in the office.

It is soooo exciting to see everything almost done. These next two weeks can't go fast enough!!

Truck Stop

Everyone knows we are moving to the country. I have done all I know to prepare for our new redneck lifestyle...we went to the Professional Bull Riders tour, we went to a NASCAR race, we bought a 4 wheeler...but NOTHING, I mean nothing is as awesome as this:

Travel Channel has a new series starting in August. It is filmed right down the road from where we now (in a few weeks) live. Seriously. This is redneckedness at its best. Cracks me up. I am proud to say, yes, this my friends is where I live now. Behold the goodness that is Truck Stop Missouri:

Click HERE

Fabulous Find

I love a sunburst mirror. It is hard to find a fabulous one on the cheap. Well. Look at this: In real life the mirror isn't that GOLD. It is more of a rustic bronze/gold combo. It is gorgeous. It is at Hobby Lobby NOW. AND? IT IS $25. If you ever wanted to dabble in the sunbursting now is the time to do it. I love one over a fireplace or in a bedroom. Look at these rooms:

(via Decorpad)

So beautiful and at that price? Seriously. You can't go wrong. So go! Storm the Hobby Lobby and get the deal of the century. After seeing it in the store I felt that I would be committing a crime if I did not share the information with others. You're welcome.

Lake Fun

We went down to the lake last weekend so Chad could meet up with his buddies to golf. I don't know why in the world anyone would want to golf in this heat, but men are nuts. The kiddies and I hung out with The Roommates at the condo. Aidan and I went to Big Surf for most of the day and Elin hung with Grandma and Grandpa. When we got back Aidan was all about fishing. He caught 15 blue gill. He was so proud. He is such a boy now. He wanted to touch the fish and "here mom, touch it!" Um no thank you. Here he is fishing with Grandma: The first catch of the evening:
Elin hung with the ladies on the deck watching the boys fish. She and Mama Kraz:

Jack and Aidan counting their bounty:

The men came home from a VERY long day of golf. They must have felt just a tad guilty over the adventure because they came bearing gifts! My hubby knows the way to my heart and brought this fabulous new Vera:

She's a mocha rouge. YAY! He even remembered how I require ginormous handbags :)
Sunday Aidan wanted Chad to take him on the jet skis. So they went to be boys and the girls hung in the air conditioning. Elin is sort of in a Girls Gone Wild stage where she doesn't care to be clothed, and if she is, she wants to pull her shirt up all the time (she is really trying to show you her belly button, but you know). Exhibit A:

Just chillin. Naked with her baby. Don't worry, she has a diaper on. No naked non-potty trained butts on Grandma's carpet! Ha.
Elin's favorite spot is the deck. She can watch and feed ducks and watch the boys come by on the Lake. Heavens forbid you try and bring her inside. You will feel her wrath.

She looks innocent. But seriously, I just told her we were going inside and look at the face she throws at me:

Yeah, don't mess with Big E.
Grandpa walking the boys down to the dock so they can go on a ride.

Elin doing her thing:

It was a fabulous HOT weekend. We are pretty booked with moving these next few weekends. We have to locate all our stuff in all the random storage facilities we have and start getting ready to MOVE!!!!

NKOTBSB

Yesterday the girls and I took a road trip to STL to attend the event of the year, New Kids on the Block Backstreet Boys concert. Yes. Yes we did. Even if our husbands thought we were bananas, we were PUMPED. We all took the afternoon off and enjoyed some grown up girl time. My fellow fans, Dawn and Jamey:

Me and Dawn

It was blazing hot. We enjoyed some drinks and food at Houlihan's at Union Station before walking over. We met up with some other girls when we got there. Let me just tell you. I have never attended a concert before that was honest-to-God 99% female. I saw maybe 4 men there total. If you need proof, I took a photo:

See that sign? That is the MEN'S ROOM that they converted to a WOMEN'S restroom for the event. They only left one men's room on each level and the rest were for the ladies. I KNOW.
We had an absolute blast. It wasn't over until after 11. Sad to report the Boys did not take their shirts off even though Dawn begged them to. I mean really, it was 190 degrees INSIDE the arena. It would have helped. I can't believe that as much as I loved those boys that I can say the concert was awesome. I don't know what I was expecting, but it was way better LOL. So we left at 11:15 and sat in our car trying to get out of the parking lot until after 11:30. GREAT. We still had to drive 2 hours home! The gals:

Check out our fancy, expensive VIP seats...

Ha. Or not. We could not have been higher up if we tried. We actually sat illegally in lower seats and were all guilty feeling until an official person came to the section and let everyone move down to the open seats. We sang and danced. General ridiculous-ness. Good times. We did not get home until 2 in the morning. I have never felt older in my entire life. Work was awesome to go to this morning. YUCK.

I promise I have more interesting photos to post, but I had a little run in with my hard drive and that had to be addressed first. All I can say is thank goodness for Internet storage.

Steamy

First off, let me just say that these will be the absolute worst pictures you have ever witnessed. They were taken with my cell phone in our new house where it is 110 degrees and about 95% humidity...the photos are STEAMY. Literally. So you have been warned :)

Our cabinets have arrived! Our main cabinetry is ebony (and ivory, haha not, I am hilarious). Our island and the range hood are called acorn with a black glaze...Here is our hood in the box, but you can kind of see the color: I love our hood. It's perfection. Since apparently I will be the new Pioneer Woman at our homestead I better like our kitchen stuff!!! All that stuff in this pic below????
CABINETS. Lots of them. For the kitchen. I am so excited at all the storage we will have at this house. While our old house was superb, the kitchen was on the small side with useable counter space and cabinets. This kitchen is completely the opposite.
The kids' rooms were pretty much done. A sink still had to be set. Aidan was pumped to see his vanity and closet all done. The kids share a Jack and Jill bath. They each have a sink/vanity in their rooms and doors that lead to the shared toilet and tub. Next to their sink areas are built in shelves for whatever they may need. They then have their normal closets as well

See what I told you? STEAMY. The heat haze is ridiculous. But you get the idea of the set up of the vanity area.
I told you he was excited...

That is his "look at this. I am totally excited."-pose.
Both of the kids' closets are set up the same way. They have lots of hanging space and then a section of cubbies:

They had one part of our bathroom installed. There is one ginormous countertop going in there. I think it is almost ten feet across. There are double vanities that are divided by a tall on the counter cabinet. Mostly so Chad can keep all of his bathroom accessories on HIS SIDE. Because we know I don't have much make up or too many hair supplies at all. I mean really.

So this is where we are. We are so close. It's fantastic.

I will be living it up this evening at the New Kids on The Block concert (yes, yes you read that right. And I know you are jealous.) this evening and should have lots to share. Have a great day!

My Friday Night

Ahh, yes. My faithful subjects hard at work on Momma's ride while I sit ever so comfortably in my chair sipping Mojitos. Well at least part of that sentence is true. My troops are so kind to me. They washed my car, Chad's and even Lizzy's. The Edge is so sparkly now :) We had a great weekend and I will update with those photos soon. If you are thinking of asking these guys to come do your vehicles, be aware, Aidan is not cheap...it cost me a trip to Big Surf on Saturday :)

Baby Girl Style

Oh my gawd you guys, we are SO CLOSE to moving to our house. All the nitty gritty is happening now and it is amazing to see! Tile floors done, crown moulding up, mantle complete, closets are coming together. It. Is. Fabulous. So now that we are past all the boring wood/nail/drywall crap, it's time to get to my favorite part: design time (in Chad's world AKA: OMG PLEASE SHOOT ME NOW, WOMAN YOU ARE DRIVING ME BANANAS). My hubby loves the country. He loves hunting. He loves SIMPLE. Flashy and obnoxious (ahem, glamorous) are not in his vocabulary unless he is desribing me to someone. If you know me at all you now that he and I are like polar opposites on most things in life. The design process in our house, therefore, can be tricky. He has his idea and I have mine. Mine is always better. He just needs to learn that.

Chad's BFF Jimmy is our trim/finish guy. He is at our house working like a mad man to finish my vision. Jimmy likes to offer his ideas and Chad likes to listen. They are men. This can have interesting results to say the least. If it were left to those two to make design decisions, this is what I would show up and see one day: This would be the ensuing conversation:

ME: HAVE YOU LOST YOUR EVER-LOVING MIND?!

Jimmy: Isn't this breathtaking? I used my taxidermy-chic design expertise to bring yo uthe latest in dead-critter architecture.

(NOTE: This is a reenactment as I do not believe I have ever heard the word "breathtaking" come out of Jimmy's mouth, BUT I do believe those would indeed be his thoughts regarding that explosion of Bambi death in that room above)

Chad: This. Is. So. Amazing. Jimmy, we have outdone ourselves. All my hunting dreams come true. WE ARE GENIUSES. Wait until you see the dining room! It's a showstopper...

ME: ***SILENCE*** because I died, and not the good Rachel Zoe kind of dead...

So clearly someone has to take control of this crazy train before we end up living in a home that gives Bass Pro a run for it's money. Just because we are living IN the country and our home is technically of the country-style architecturally speaking, we do NOT have to display our Ted Nugent homage in our home. Not to say I don't love a good antler or two. I have a whole other post coming about my recent Marshall's jackpot and Aidan's new room. Trust me, it's amazeballs. But we are talking about Elin's room today (we are getting there, I promise, this is going somewhere). Here is what I envision whe I think of Chad designing our baby girl's room:
Stunning. I know. Momma can't handle that. It gives me palpitations just thinking about it. My poor baby. Luckily though, he is not in charge (as if he is EVER in charge) and that is not happening. Here is what we have to work with in Miss E's room:
Bellini's Danny crib
Traditional dresser

When we moved from the old house we got rid of all the other furniture in her room (there is also a glider, but I didn't have a picture). We are starting with bare bones. It makes me do a happy dance.
She has a giant dormer window in her room. The view from that window is awesome. I guess. If awesome to you is a giant pasture and a random cow passing by now and then.

I want glamorous. And a dash of what I consider simple (this is what we tell Chad of course). The room is Benjamin Moore's Baby Pink. It is the softest pink you will ever see. No bubble gum explosion or anything like that.

There wasn't a whole lot going on with her old room:

My personal favorite combo of pink and brown. I never really "finished" the room up. Once we decided to move, the room stalled out. Why go any further with a room that you are leaving? Exactly.
I painted those paintings on the wall. I saw some adorable "sweets" canvases from Restoration Hardware, but at $99 A PIECE, Chad would have had a coronary. My answer? My blood, sweat and tears. Amen. And it only cost like $30 since all I had to buy was some new paint and the 3 canvases (Hobby Lobby 50% off!!)
Cute, but nothing drool-worthy. This is where I want to go with her new room: That is my inspiration. I had to compromise with the husband and there has to be a ceiling fan. It's hot here people. But I was able to find a nice one that isn't totally awful. I guess my baby will appreciate not waking up in a puddle of sweat some nights. The fan is the only "issue" so far. I am sure this photo actually makes Chad sweat a little. Way out of his comfort zone as most things I do are.
I also love this:

So we begin the quest for Elin's new digs. Updates to follow, but this is the starting point. Next up is Aidan's and the guest room. Stay tuned...