Getting Ready for Fall!

So, I have been daydreaming about fall lately. Mostly about how I will decorate for the season. I love to decorate for Fall but money is a little tight this year so I will have to be creative. ;) And I can still dream, right? Here are a few great ideas I found online. I get a lot of inspiration from Pottery Barn (which is about all I get from them since they are a little out of my budget.) I just love looking through their catalog and getting ideas or drooling over things that I want.

Don't you just love this front entrance decor? So beautiful!

I thought this was a cute display for a harvest party...

I just love these pumkins!

Love this too :)

Well, I could probably post a million pictures of beautiful fall decor, but I think these will do for now ;) I am trying to wait a couple weeks to put anything up since fall doesn't officially start till the 22nd (I think.) And since it is still very much summer here and burning hot outside. Maybe that is why I am looking forward to fall so much?

P.S. This is a little off the subject, but I got a little plaque to go above my dresser mirror yesterday. I think it looks great in the room & I love the saying (even though it's cliche and everyone has it.) I had planned to do a vinyl cling wall saying (I am in love with those) but I ended up seeing this & decided to go with it instead. Anyhoo, here are a couple pics...

Well folks, that's it for now. Hope you're enjoying your last few days of summer!

A Blessing Named Hayden.

When I was at church the other night, one of the ushers was talking to me about how cute Hayden was. He then said something that I had never thought of. He said, "they are such blessings of God. They don't remember anything from this age, it's all for us, you know?" Wow! I have always felt super blessed to be Hayden's mom and I try to cherish our time with him because he is growing so fast, but I never really thought of it like that before. It is true that he will never remember his daddy singing him to sleep every night or me telling him I love him every 30 seconds or even the millions of kisses that we have given him since birth. He won't remember his cute little nursery that we spent so much time & effort on (although, I am sure we will show him pictures.) Nor will he recall the times we took him to the park to swing or play in the fountains. There are so many things that we do for 'him' but really, I guess a lot of it is for us. We do it to watch his little face light up with joy. We do it because we love him and we want to make his day happy. Even if he won't remember it. Because when he is happy, we are happy.

I remember before I became a mother, I was so selfish. I was always doing things for myself. Mainly because aside from my hubby, I didn't have to worry about anyone else! I could never understand why it seemed parents were always wanting to do for their children. That doesn't seem like fun, I thought. Why are they always just doing things for their kids? Maybe I shouldn't have kids so I won't have to be like them...maybe I don't like kids. These were thoughts that would go through my mind because I had never experienced the love of a parent. It's so hard to understand it until you experience it for yourself. But after I had Hayden, it's funny how none of my selfish desires mattered anymore. How, in an instant, all I care about is that baby & making his world better. I love doing things for him. I love shopping for him and playing with him and taking him to the park. It makes me happier to buy him a new toy or outfit than to buy myself anything. I hardly even want to buy myself anything because I would rather spend my money on him. I could go on for days about how I love doing things for my child and how happy he makes my life every day. But I guess it just shows us how much our own parents love us and how much God loves us and wants us to be happy. And one of the gifts that God gives us is our children. I can't think of a more precious gift. Even though some days are tough and I am ready to pull my hair out, it's so worth it when Hayden runs up to me and hugs my legs and looks up at me and says 'mom-my!' in the sweetest voice!

And from now on when I am feeling sorry for myself because Hayden is being grouchy and I haven't showered all day, talked to another adult or even stepped outside I will remind myself that one day he will be grown and I will miss these days like crazy. I will tell myself that he is a blessing from God and he is here for our enjoyment and to make our days brighter. He won't remember the days he spent with me as a baby, but I will and they will be some of the most precious memories of my life.

This is how my precious baby fell asleep tonight. Feet over the bumper & out of the crib! SO cute & I'm so glad I got a picture of it even if it is terrible, TERRIBLE lighting since it was dark (obviously) in his room and I had to use a flash. Still cute :)

Master Bedroom Makeover (on a budget!)

Our room has been decorated the same for about two years & I was getting tired of it! However, I didn't want to spend the money re-decorating it so I decided to just leave it. But one day I was at Marshalls (on of my fave places) and fell in L.O.V.E. with some bedding that they had. I told myself that I didn't need it & left the store. But I kept thinking about it! I decided that if I wanted it that bad, then I should get it. So, the next day I went to Marshalls hoping that they still had it & they did! So, I happily bought it but soon realized that I would have to change a lot of things in my room to match the new bedding. I decided to do this as cheaply as possible and used a lot of things that I already had. I spent under $200 for everything including the bedding, curtains (cheap ones also from Marshalls that I am not thrilled with, but they will work for now) a lampshade, 3 picture frames, paint and glass knobs I had to have for my dresser that I got on clearance for $6!

We don't have a bedroom suit, so I previously painted our furniture to give it a more cohesive look. I am hoping to get new bedroom furniture in our next house, but what we have will do for now.

You will notice in the pics that our bed is flanked by two doors (the master bath & walk-in closet doors.) This doesn't leave a lot of options for furniture arrangement in addition to the fact that our room is pretty small, so I left everything where it was.

Well, enough of me jabbering away. Here are some before & after pics!

Before...

(view from standing in the doorway)

After! (first, some teasers) *wink*

bedroom art ;) I grabbed some shells that we found at the beach & snapped a few pics of them for some cheap art work!

It was not the original plan, but the style turned 'beachy.' I like it!

I painted this shelf & frames to give it a distressed look.

I love pillows! There are a total of 10 on the bed including the ones we actually sleep on ;) Takes me forever to make the bed! :p

My glass knobs that I love!

I had to keep my monogram, so I painted it with a somewhat distressed look to match the room & hung it in another spot.

I love this bed!

Ta-da ;)

Well there you have it, blog readers, our newly decorated room. I hope I can be happy with this decór till we move! ;)

I'm liking up to a GREAT blog party!

Cupcake creations ;)

So, I am a cupcake-a-holic! I absolutely love them! My mom recently gave me a this lovely cupcake cookbook so that I could go crazy trying new recipes. And since my mom is here this weekend (yipee!) I decided that we should make some together! We made two different kinds (mocha with whipped cream and raspberry almond.) The raspberry almond were my fave, although they were more like muffins than 'cupcakes.' The mocha ones turned out a little dense, which was probably something I did wrong as baking is really not my forté. *wink* I think they still tasted okay, just not as fluffy as I would have preferred.

I took lots of pics along the way. Here are a few :)

My kitchen looked a little like a tornado went through after we were finished...

Our first batch, the raspberry almonds :)

The mocha with whipped cream :)

A few goodies ;)

I'm not sure how many of you reading this are as cRaZy obsessed with home decor as I am, but I could spend endless hours online looking for new ideas or ways to do a project I have in mind. In fact, I am currently re-decorating our bedroom (of course I will have before & after pics in an upcoming blog post!) It seems I always have new ideas floating around in my head, but most of them stay in my head since I don't have hundreds of dollars to spend every month re-decorating a new room. :(

I guess if I could have my 'dream job' it would be to stage model homes or homes for sale. I don't know if I would like decorating to someone else's taste (or dealing with 'clients', so that is why I would choose the more staging side of decorating.)

I remember when our house was being finished & we were in the process of buying it, I was obsessing over paint colors, hardwood floor finishes/colors, and new furniture choices. It was SO much fun. And when I was pregnant, I scoured the internet and magazines for ideas for a nursery. I was so excited to decorate our baby room. (I am already looking forward to decorating another nursery, but not yet!) ;)

Whew! Well, I said all this to say that I wanted to share a few of my fave interior design blogs. I get a lot of inspiration from design savvy women like the creators of these blogs. In fact, I got the idea for our front door from "It the little things..." and I am more than happy with the results!

(Please ignore the poor composition/quality of this pic! I just snapped a pic with my phone--as you can see in the reflection...)

Anyhoo, here are the links. Enjoy! And do share if you have any inspiring blogs that you love!

http://itsthelittlethingsthatmakeahouseahome.blogspot.com/

http://thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com/

http://frugalhomeideas.blogspot.com/

Market Fresh

So, today me and Hayden ventured out to the Farmers Market that is held on Thursdays at a local park. I had hoped to get some berries (blackberries, strawberries, any berries...) but alas, there were none to be found! I then decided I would just find something to use for dinner tonight. There were definitely lots of veggies to choose from (some I didn't even recognize!) I ended up getting a couple tomatoes and a jar of homemade pineapple mango salsa, yum! I decided to make a tomato and mozzarella salad, but I didn't really have plans for the salsa right away. I stopped at the store on the way home to get the mozzarella and vinaigrette and I grabbed some chips for the salsa. But, as I was driving home, I decided to make some chicken and top it with the salsa. So, that was our dinner tonight! And, of course I took photos along the way ;)

Our tomato/mozz. salad. Sadly, I didn't have fresh basil, so I used a sprig of mint for garnish ;)

The pineapple mango salsa was so yummy!!!

Arachnophobia

I would say that I definitely have a slight case of arachnophobia. I pretty much hate spiders & the bigger they are, the louder I scream when I see them! I have been known to bawl my eyes out at the mere sight of large spiders or other multi-legged creatures that appear in my home.

Luckily this very scary spider was outside! It was still an un-welcome sight, but I grabbed my camera anyway. 'He' had an interesting web. See the zig-zag pattern in his web? Jeff called it a 'writing spider.' Never heard of that one! haha

Anyway, I decided I wanted him gone since I did not want him ending up in our house! But for some strange reason, I felt a little sorry for the thing & told Jeff maybe he should just catch it & release it somewhere far away from the house. Well, my hubby doesn't exactly like spiders either so he didn't want to try to 'catch' him. I guess we are going to kill it. I can't even fathom the thought of this thing getting in the house!!!! Talk about a heart attack.

Well, it finally happened...

The beloved bottle of my favorite perfume is finally gone (almost.) I have made it last for a long time but I think I am down to my last couple of spritz'. :( This breaks my heart since I cannot justify spending $70+ on a new bottle right now.

The amazing, fruity, floral scent that I am referring to is Chanel Chance. Now, this is the 2nd version of the scent and not to be confused with the original Chance that was a beige/yellow color. This one has a green tint to it and the bottle has a frosted cap. A scent that I feel is far superior to the original ;) Why they chose to name them the same thing, I do not know. And now, they have an even newer version called Eau Tendre. I don't really know why they insist on making version after version of this perfume, but I so love my beloved Chance. I fall in love with the scent all over again each time I wear it. (I save it for special occasions so that 1) I won't get burned out on it and 2) it will last loner.) :p

So, blog readers...tell me your fave perfume!

Family Friday :)

Well, it's been a while since I blogged. I must admit that it's because I haven't had anything that I thought was interesting enough to blog about. I guess I was having 'bloggers block.' :)

We had a fun day today, though. And I took lots of pictures of my little man. Today, he turned 15 months! I had a little photo shoot with him this afternoon.

Jeff didn't feel well this morning but he went to work anyway, because he had several therapy clients that he was scheduled to see. I made him some chicken noodle soup for dinner. :)

After dinner, Jeff was feeling better (no doubt thanks to my soup *wink*) and we decided to take our little man to a local park that has a 'splashpad' with water fountains for kids to play in. Hayden had a great time & I took lots of pics as he played.

After the park, we went to Sonic for some ice cream! I got a yummy butterfinger blast and it hit the spot!

What a great family day :) I love spending time with my two favorite boys!