Hurricane Sandy and Reminiscing our OBX trip

We survived our 2nd Hurricane with almost little to no damage!  What a stressful few days though.  We had no idea what to expect.  We didn't worry so much about flooding since we have a sump pump and a watchdog (thanks to my in-laws).  Our biggest worry was our neighbors' trees falling on our house and losing power potentially for days.

We spent our days prior buying junk, fruits, and veggies, making a cake, cupcakes, and extra meals, filling pots, pitchers, and bathtubs full of water, making sure all flashlights had new batteries, and candles were in place.    We decided it would be safest in the basement if a tree fell so we set up our sleep quarters down there.  The wind was very scary at times but no huge damages...thank goodness.  Our roof leaked where our addition met our kitchen.  The ceiling was soggy before bed so I thought we would wake up with a mess but we didn't.  If you didn't know there was a leak you wouldn't notice it. 

The basement worked great for the most part.  We couldn't hear anything outside so I think it helped us all relax a little.  Bram did not sleep well.  He acted very scared to sleep down there.  He normally is extremely easy to put to bed.  He'll talk to himself for 20 to 30 minutes before falling asleep. He woke up 4 or 5 times sobbing and shaking.  It was definitely hard on this mommy to see her son so frightened. 

The storm couldn't have come at a more perfect time since Bram's birthday is this weekend.  You would have thought I got a ton of cleaning and organizing done but instead I spent most of my time pacing back and forth, watching movies, and editing photos.   Here are some of my favorite pictures I edited.  These are from our yearly Outer Banks trip....such a wonderful trip with great people. I was feeling super creative so I made these extra artsy.  Hope you enjoy!

Love these people :).

Feeding our VERY Picky Son

Getting Bram to eat and try new foods has become my worst and favorite times with him; it really is a love/hate relationship.  He's been such a bad eater.  He's so picky, just like his mommy.  He touches things on his plate and makes faces then throws them on the floor.  Recently he's started to try new things and I absolutely love it.  Every once in a while he reverts back to his badself and throws every thing you hand him on the floor but it's becoming less and less. 

I've started letting him feed himself yogurt...it's so cute and he loves it.  I don't care about messes, I just want him to eat and enjoy doing it.

Num num!!

Upgrading that Boring Cabinet with Painted Wallpaper

This past weekend I planned on getting a ton of crafting, a DIY project, and house work done...well it didn't quite happen.  I ended up with a really bad migraine on Sunday; (I've had them since I was really young but have grown out of them; I occasionally will get them but it's rare that they are so bad I can't function) so my plans were put on hold until Monday night.

This Saturday I decided I was going to paint my 1/2 bathroom and wallpaper the back of our bathroom cabinet.  I've been looking for wallpaper that would match our brown and teal theme but haven't found anything.  A couple of weeks ago when I was at Lowes I saw the paintable wallpaper so I kept it in mind while I was scouring different sites.  Wallpaper can be super expensive and when you only need a small amount it seems pretty stupid to drop $80 to $100.  So when this weekend came I decided I wanted to try painting the Lowe's wallpaper...I was tired of looking at wallpaper...seriously there is a lot out there and a lot of ugly ones!

Here are the before pictures.  You can see the water stains. (ignore the ugly accessories :0) )

Wallpaper before painting it:

For the wallpaper I decided to go bold and went with the paint color Vintage Teal from Lowes. This is unusual for me since I am really scared of using color.  I always use neutrals (including in my wardrobe). 

I am so glad I decided to do this (the pictures don't do the paint color justice).  I am super happy with the results and it was beyond easy.  I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to dress up an old cabinet or needs to cover up water stains like I did. I think I may need to use it somewhere else since I have a lot left over and I love how it turned out. 

Stay tuned to see how I finish the rest of the bathroom. 

Check out our new walker

Little Bram is getting braver and braver.  He thinks he's so cool. :)  Doesn't he rock those jeans...haha.

 

I can't believe this guy will be a year old in less then a month.  Wow time flies!

DIY Book Slings

Like most things in my house I find some inspiration piece from the internet and try to duplicate it.  These book slings were no exception.  

I originally loved this bedroom because of the pompoms.  I thought it was such a great idea to dress up a room.

When I was looking at more of the pictures I saw the picture of the book slings and knew instantly I wanted to do them. 

Since I don't know how to sew I asked my mom if she would be so kind to make them for me.  She said "yes," as long as I found the directions.  I found a great Tutorial here: Penny Carnival

I am so happy with them.  The only thing I would do different is use wooden dowels.  We used plastic ones because Chris couldn't find the wooden ones at Lowes.  You can tell they curve in a little bit because of the weight.  Maybe eventually we will switch them out but for now they work. 

Here are a few more examples that I liked from other blogs (click on the picture to go to their blog):

What a unique way to show off those awesome books. 

Are they not adorable???   This guy thinks so. :)