My poor neglected blog

I haven't really been in the "blogging" frame of mind lately. Maybe it's the fact that the contents of my bathroom have been in my living room, bedroom and kitchen. Or maybe it's the fact that I've got 2 little boogers that decided to make this time of renovating more about them renovating their attitudes than about the actual bathroom renovation. Whatever it's been, believe me when I say that if I can get through the rest of this week with any hair left on my head I'll be one lucky woman!

Happily I can say that the bathroom is 90% finished. The tile has been laid, the sink, toilet, medicine cabinet and additional storage cabinet have been put in, the painting has been done, tiles have been sealed and resealed and caulking has been finished. Now I just need to figure out what shower head I want (Ok, I should say I'll compromise on because Glenn and I want totally different things) and find a shower curtain that doesn't look like the cats threw up on it (there are truly some ugly bathroom themes out there!), figure out where we are going to put up a towel rack and we'll be done like dinna!

On that them, here's a friendly PSA to anyone considering renovating a bathroom: If, like us, you only have 1 shower in the house, it is not necessarily the smartest idea to renovate without a backup shower plan. Washing in the kitchen sink does not feel as good as standing under the warm spray or soaking in a bubble bath! Somehow you never feel quite as "clean". Since the renovation began I have had 1 "real" shower. The rest has all been standing in the kitchen with the door closed, blinds pulled and freezing my tuckus off to get clean. Neither wind, snow or the -40 degree temps are going to keep me from going today to get a shower head and some kind of curtain to "do" for the meantime! Tonight I SHOWER!!!

The other renovation we have going on right now is our basement. We are trying to convert the basement into the boys playroom in an attempt to make my living room livable. Our goal is to have it all done, including the "moving in" part, by Saturday so that we can go and pick out our Christmas tree this weekend. It's amazing how many problems you can run into when trying to DIY. First, we bought paint for the 2 end walls in this brilliant BRIGHT green. We thought we had bought enough. Turned out we needed more, no problem, right? Go back to the store and get another gallon - how lucky we were, the same girl was mixing it and new exactly what we were talking about - mixed it up and said it would be a perfect match...ummmm, WRONG! One wall is now this color green and the other is this color green. BIG difference! *sigh* Oh well, at least it's the kids playroom and the other walls are even different colors (Orange and purple). You'd think that would be enough, right? Welllllllll...nope. Glenn went to reattach the light fixture that has been hanging from the ceiling and when he started to screw it into place the darn thing quit working. Someone cut us a break, huh?

Other than renovation disaster zone, life has been pretty boring. The temps have been in the -40's for what feel like MONTHS now (yes, I know it's only been a couple of weeks, but have YOU ever been stuck inside a house with reno's going on, a sick 2 year old and a "I know better than you" 3 year old? I'm telling you, MONTHS!). The boys are beyond stir crazy. Daddy and mommy have been so involved in reno's that they have been poorly neglected, but we have promised to make up for it starting next week, when everything should be finished (knock on wood REALLY hard!).

Conor has become quite the conversationalist lately. His vocabulary just kills me - where the heck did he learn some of these words?! He's also become very snuggly lately and I don't mind that one bit...well, except when he demands to be picked up when I'm in the middle of doing my chores...oh, wait, that's when I like it the most! LOL

Liam has become...well, a 3 year old boy. He can be driving me right up the wall one minute and then, right when you are the most exasperated he will call your name for the 1000th time and when you snap, "WHAT?" he says, "I love you". Stinker. He really knows how to work the system! LOL

I have been doing a bit of scrapping, too. Thought I'd share them while I'm here!









Credits: Picture frame & Santa Hat - Chain Gang (Modern Christmas_SBB)
Papers, Ribbon - Lena Brandenburg (Glad Tiding's_Elemental Scraps)
Title Font - Santa's Big Secret BB
Journaling Font - Aramis
Brads - Gina Miller (Bundle Up Baby_Gina Miller Designs)









Credits: Paper, Tag, Ribbons, Brad and Alpha from Jen Wilson's Everyday Bliss Kit
Font on Tag - ZapfEllipt BT
Stitches - Ztampf (ARTiStitches No. 3_SBB)

















Credits: Hearts: Gina Miller (Mixed Bag _ Gina Miller Designs)
Arrow: Gina Miller (Bedazzled _ Gina Miller Designs)
Paper and Doodle Frame: Jen Wilson (Funny Little One _ SBB)
Title: "So" & "You"- Alpha Thin, Unbelievably - Carpenter ICG
Journalilng - Tall Paul
Ribbons: Michelle Underwood (To Be Cool Kit _ SBB)











Credits: Papers, Alpha, Ribbon - Lena Brandenburg (Plum Pudding_ACOT)
Stitches - My own














Credits: Papers, Ribbon, Tag - Lena Brandenburg (Snugglebaby_Elemental Scraps)
Title Font - Kitchenette
Journaling Font - Girls are Weird
Template - Gina Miller (Curved Template_Her blog)












Now, I know there are lots more scrap pages of Conor this time than Liam, but believe me, in the scheme of things, they are pretty even.

In other scrapping news:

I'm very excited that I have been picked to be on Lena Brandenburg's Creative Team! I am really honored and excited to be a member of her great team!

That's all for now - I'll try to take some pictures of my bathroom and post them soon. Oh, and maybe some of the boys, too! LOL

Love and (((HUGS))) to everyone!

It's started!

The excitement over Santa coming and all the merry that goes along with Christmas. The boys are in high gear so we have been doing some Christmas crafts lately. I just had to share the things they've done so far - they are so cute! I've got a bagful more for them to do and they are both just such great little crafters! I'm definitely one proud Mama!

Just a hint of insanity

Anyone that knows me really well knows that I am by no means one of those people who is obsessively running around picking up every toy, paper, etc. that falls out of place in my house. A) My house is to small to worry about every detail, most things are where they aren't supposed to be because there is no place to designate "supposed to be". And B) I have 2 small boys and a husband who has been home for 7 months...I'm a bit busy. That being said, I realized today that the house had turned into a disaster zone, looking like a tornado, hurricane and cyclone had hit all at once. I decided to pick up a bit mainly because I wanted to put away my halloween decorations and found that I couldn't find most of them because they were buried somewhere between chaos and confusion. As I started picking up I found a toy here (the boys), candy wrappers there (the BIG boy), lists of misc. assortments (again, BIG boy), CD's (yep, that's BIG again), mail that I haven't seen from over a week ago, etc. Get the picture? So I spend my morning picking up all the mess to make my living room/play area/office (yes, one room serves as all 3) and I have it looking mighty nice, if I say so myself (and no, I didn't do it all by myself, Glenn and Liam picked up the toys in the play area). Do you know that within 10 minutes there were new papers on the tables, blocks from one end of the play area to the other end of the living room and chaos and confusion taking over yet again. Can I scream now? Oh well, I guess I'll just put my blinders on and do a little scrapping!