Brightening up my day

This morning, the day was quickly becoming one of "those" days.  Numerous things, all minor, were piling up and making me miserable.  I called my husband to whine, while driving through the slushly, nasty snow.  I vented, and whined, and was not as nice as I could have been.  Then I called my mom, and whined to her.  I finally got to work, and I whined to my co-workers.

And then, I got a phone call to come to the front desk for a delivery.

My hubby had sent me these...



And suddenly, the day was brighter.

Now, we just need to remember to put in our request for the beach house in July, and life will be better.

Things I'm currently enjoying...

Wow, where do the days go? I have a half dozen posts started, but don't seem to be getting them done. Argh.

That said, here a few things I've found that I love...

Ryan at Pacing the Panic Room did a cool maternity series when his wife Cole was pregnant...and now he has a new one going for a client.  I love this whole concept in general, but the walk along the street adds something even cooler to it.  I enjoy his other writing as well!

Amanda at Soule Mama.  The beauty and simplicity of her photos...wow.

Moleskine notebooks and the blog related to all things Moleskine.  I love that they have "hacks" and displays of so many cool uses.  I hacked one of mine into a calendar and I'm actually keeping up with it.  I love them, love them, love them.

What are you enjoying?

Happy 14th of February...

This morning dawned bright and early...before the sun rose. At 5:30 this morning PB was crying hard in the bathroom with sharp pains in her lower abdomen and right lower back. After a quick discussion with a friend that used to be a nurse in our Pediatricians office, off to the ER room we went. I'm a night owl...I stay up way to late, and last night was no different. I was working on 5 or so hours of sleep...the roads still had large chunks of ice and it was freezing cold outside. And while driving there, she started singing along with the radio. A quick check confirmed that her pain threshold had lowered.

We rolled into the ER at 6:05, and were immediately triaged and placed in a room. Hope sprang into my heart. Oh, but it shouldn't have. Shift change occured, and apparently the overnight doctor was waiting for them to come in before seeing any new patients. The overnight nurse asked for a sample, and no one came to test it until the next shift came on. Finally at 8:30, the doctor came in, and he was very nice. Of course, by this time she was no longer in pain. The quick test came back negative for any UTI's. So after an exam, it was determined it was probably a muscle spasm or such,and we were finally sent home. We got home and I immediately left to pick up Bug from her return trip from Florida.

Brunch, gifts, school projects and valentines with Monster. Grocery shopping, dishes, laundry, cooking dinner. It was never ending, and I'm exhausted.

But my hubby did good and bought me a new piece of jewelry. And I did good and scheduled us to go get massages.

I hope you had a great 14th of February...I'm going to go to bed a little earlier tonight.

Let it snow? NO!

For those of you that have lived under a rock for the last two weeks, it's snowed a little here in the Mid-Atlantic states this year. Our first big snowstorm came in December, a week or so before Christmas. Then again the second weekend in January. Again the last weekend of January, then the Blizzards hit. Over last weekend, we received approximately 3 feet of snow. No, that isn't a typo. 3 feet.



Hubby and I spent 3 hours Sunday shoveling our driveway and sidewalk, while the kids played hard in the yard. We created a small hill with all the snow, and they used skim boards to slide down. Schools and businesses closed Monday to allow people to finish all the shoveling and plowing. And then hubby was called to work.


Tuesday I worked from home in the morning, as the kids didn't have school again. Then we went shopping for last minute storm items...food and activities. As we came home that evening, the plows had finally come through, making it so we had to shovel our driveway out again. Then we all came in and prepared for the next wave. Wednesday morning I woke up early, ready to go to work. I looked out and there was an inch or two of new snow on the ground, but it didn't look so bad. I checked and found out work and schools were closed, so I went back to bed. I woke up a couple of hours later to our second blizzard. It was white outside...the house across the street was just a shadow through the snow! By late that night, another foot and half of snow had fallen. Schools announced they would be closed until next Tuesday, and work was closed.


Thursday dawned, and out I went to shovel. This time I was all alone, as hubby was still at work. 2 hours later, and the car was free and a spot was available for whenever he could finally get home. But the state was still in a State of Emergency and travel restrictions weren't lifted until 6 pm, so it was another day at home.

Finally on Friday hubby got to come home, and I went into work. I was never so excited to go to work...it was nice to talk to other adults again!

Now they're predicting another wave to hit Monday night, and possibly more next week. I'm so sick of snow. We are usually lucky to get a few feet the whole winter, and normally not until this time of year...and I know we aren't the only ones. Currently there is snow on the ground in 49 of the 50 states. But I really can't wait for spring to get here...I'm dreaming of sandy beaches and warm breezes!

DIY - Jewelry Holder

In the last few years, I've developed a fondness for accessories...purses, shoes and jewelry. They can really make an outfit, and generally (with the exception of shoes) size doesn't really matter. I have quite a few shoes, although compared to many closets I've seen on House Hunters, I don't have many at all...lol. I have a dozen or so purses. But I have a ton of jewelry. I have a few pieces of nice, expensive jewelry that I keep in a jewelry armoire. But my day to day jewelry needed a better organization system. It was too big to add to the armoire, and not accessible enough. So, I decided to create my own system.

First, we found these great door pulls and hanging bars from Ikea (OMG, I love Ikea. Really, it's a sickness.)

Then, I purchased a length of board from a home improvement center and had my husband cut it down to 6 inch strips, and he drilled the appropriate holes for the handles to attach.  He even fixed the back so the screws would be flush on the back.  If I wasn't so impatient, he would have added strips to the back so that they could hang flush on the wall.  But I'm impatient and didn't want to wait more days.

After all the items were together, I painted all the wood.  It was easier to paint than to try and match it, and it was cheap wood, so I don't feel too bad about painting it. 

Hmmm, just let me take a moment here to mourn the loss of my cheap Iraqi docking station.  Sadly, it was no match for my son...sigh.

Anyway, these are for my room as well as my daughters room.  I love the colors here...so cheerful!  Once the paint was dry, I simply screwed the pulls on, and added a hanger on the back.  I also chose to add ribbon to make it cuter, as you can see in the after pics below.




For the earring holder, I used an idea I found somewhere using Mr. Google.  I'm sorry I forgot to book mark the site, but there were lots of them out there anyway.  I simply put screen over the glass of a picture frame, and a piece of scrapbook paper behind it.  You could also put fabric back there.  Then simply slip the earrings through the holes of the screen.  I hang my post earrings through a piece of ribbon below. 

I love this system.  My jewelry is always accesible and visible now, and it looks pretty as well!