Christmas Preparations Have Begun!

I got my husband back on Veterans day, how appropriate is that?! 

We made cute little signs, but of course not everyone can cooperate. 

So the day after he got home I had him on the roof hanging Christmas lights. 

You see I have lived in this house for almost 8 years and I have never gotten Christmas lights hung.  The husband is always gone right before Christmas and he is going to be gone again before x-mas this year, so I had to seize my opportunity!! 

I am not going to turn them on until Thanksgiving, I am just relieved that they are up and I am fully participating this year.

This is him on the tallest part of our house, which he hated but did anyway just for me!!
So I was just wondering if you had started the Christmas decorating or if you are waiting for December?

I have been crafting my booty off around here.  I did an entire surprise Christmas makeover for my sister that I cannot wait to share with you, more on that later.

If this is your first time visiting, Thanks for coming by!!  Feel free to leave me a comment, I will read them after I finish hot glueing some beautiful!

Sunny

Girl Nursery, if I had one!

If you didn't already know I have three sons.  I have three opportunities in my life to dream of how I would decorate my daughters room.  I don't truly know what her room would look like, and sometimes I wonder...

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Would her room have been a neutral dream?

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Or perhaps I would have gone unexpected and done blue? (Probably not, I have had plenty of blue in my life)

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Would I have gone with a glitzy, fabulous look?

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Or maybe mod would be the perfect look for her.

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Now I want to make it clear that I am not making an announcement...but I do still daydream about a more feminine design scheme in my home.

I will probably never know, but it is fun to think about it.  I think that I would go with dark stained wood floors, a big plush area rug, and definitely a fabulous chandelier.  As for color I would probably do a neutral room.  Or maybe all white, that would be so dreamy!! 

Do you ever design spaces in your head that will never happen? 

Thanks for taking a look today!  Feel free to leave me a comment, I am just thinking about chandeliers!

Sunny

Women of Faith Conference

So I survived my weekend of women!  I was a little nervous but I did it, and you know what I had a great time.  In case you don't know what I am talking about, I went with 101 other women from my church to an all women conference called Women of Fath.  I have to tell you that I went by myself.  I mean that I didn't have a sidekick, which was scary for me.  But I felt like this is the thing that I was supposed to do so that is what I did.

I am glad that I did.  I made some new friends.

The one on the left is a fellow blogger named Heather, how cool is that!!!
We also got protested by Fred Phelps and family.  You know those crazy exuberant people from Topeka that protest soldiers funerals and stuff.

This is actually the second time that they have protested an event that I was involved in.  They also protested my graduation ceremony from the University of Kansas.  They also protested my husbands.  Honestly, I just have to pray for them and laugh!!

I also got to visit the Pottery Barn.  Picture me smiling like a little  kid.  The closest one to where I live is several hours drive, and for some reason they will not send me a catalog.  What is a girl to do?

All I got was the catalog.  Picture me frowning like a pouting preschooler.  The only things that I really wanted was all shiny and glass.  Not a great idea while traveling on a charter bus with 101 other women.  I am still pouting a little but I will get over it, there is always the catalog.  Right?

So that pretty much sums it up.  New friends, prayer, laughter, tears, and shopping sounds like a girls weekend to me!

Am I the only one out there that loves all things shiny.  I think that I must have been a raccoon in a past life, I love all things that sparkle and shine.  Tell me that I am not the only one.

If this is your first time here, Thanks so much for coming.  Feel free to leave me a comment,  I won't protest!

Sunny

PS.  So is there any Christmas preparations going on at your house?  Or am I the only one?

On My Way

So I am on my way to the Women of Faith conference in Kansas City that I mentioned before. I am nervous but I hope that it goes good! I will tell you all about it later. Plus here is a super bonus, I get to go to the Pottery Barn store!!! Yay! We don't have one in our neck of the woods. I'll let you know what I find. By the way I just want to say that I am so jealous of those who live close to good shopping!

If this is your first time visiting, thanks for looking. Feel free to leave me a comment I am on a 4 hour bus ride, I have time to read them all!

Sunny

Pinterest Challenge

Okay Sherry from Young House Love has issued a challenge.  It is a Pinterest challenge.  Find a project on Pinterest that you have pinned to accomplish some day but haven't.  The time is now. 

I am trying to carve out a little spot in the house for all of my bloggy, crafty, housey endeavors.  I really wanted to have a pin board, but I didn't know what I wanted it to look like.  Then I saw this idea on Pinterest, and I knew that I wanted that for my space.

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 So I went to Wally World and looked for some clip boards.  I had two choices, clear plastic with the cool clips like in the picture above, or MDF  with lame clips.  I knew that I wanted to paint them so the clear plastic didn't seem like the right choice, so I got the ones with the lame clips.  I will live, or I will redo them.

So I took them out back and laid out newspaper to spray paint on and went to town.  Yeah, that spray paint sucked straight in.  I hate it when projects make you do it the right way.

So out to  the garage, fingers crossed that there will be some primer so that I won't have go back to the Wally.  Yes, we had some!!  Back out I go.  Geez.  The primer had one of those caps that require a screw driver to get the lid off....Gah!!

Sometimes a girl has to do what a girl has to do!!

Out back again.  I spray the second clipboard with primer.  Success!

Once I knew that it would work I layed down the other four clipboards and primed the rest.  When the first one was dry I primed it too.

It was getting dark so I left my project for the next day.  I hate leaving projects half done don't you?

So the next day I got back to my project.  Here is the thing...I live in Kansas (super wind).  Spray painting outside, in Fall, in Kansas wind, not really one of my best ideas!  Lets just say that my project is..um...organic....mkay!

I did like four coats of off white Krylon gloss spray paint.  I didn't tape off the lame clips, I just painted it like the rest.  Probably cause I didn' t like the clips and just wanted them to go away.

Aren't they cute?  I wanted to have 2 rows of 3.  My clipboards had little clips for hanging.  So to figure out the spacing I put 2 clipboards right next to each other and measured the distance between the 2 hanging holes.  Then I added 3 inches the distance that I wanted in between clipboards.  So I pounded in 3 nails level for my top tow.  I pretty much used the same technique for finding the measurement for the bottom row.  I  just lined up two of the clipboards top to bottom and added four inches this time.  Then I used the previous measurements to line up the bottom row.  Clear as mud right?  Trust me it really wasn't rocket science!!  You got this.

What do you think?  Cute right?  I am thinking about adding some sort of words or something.  I just don't know yet.  And to be quite honest, I will probably redo them with clipboards with cool clips...the lame ones just bother me.  Wah wah.

Anyhoo,  Thanks for looking at my Pinterest Challenge project.  Feel free to leave me a comment, I am just surfing Pinterest...I've got time!

Sunny

31 Days to a Better Me day 31

WAHOO, we made it 31 Days of me rambling!!!  Thanks for sticking with me.

I did learn a lot from writing a post everyday for 31 days:

I should have chosen a topic to write about that I am passionate about.  I am passionate about my house, design, and beautiful things.  Not so passionate about improving me.

I got great practice at posting often, I think that it will make my blog better.

My blogging skill base has increased 10 fold.  A month ago I had no idea how to do anything.  Now I can do a lot of nifty blogging stuff.

I am now in the habit of taking my camera with me everywhere.  Not only am I prepared for bloggy inspiration, but I am getting a ton of beautiful pics of my kids.

So today for my last idea for me becoming a better me, I am going to take a nap!

I am exhausted by all of the seeming constant blogging, so today I am taking it easy and taking a nap.  Becoming a better me!

I want you to know that the things that I talked about this month I really took to heart.  I am still working on all them.  I just appreciate all of you who stayed with me on this journey!!

I told you that I would show you all of my minions together today, so here they are.  We went to Trunk or Treat at church last night and the "Minions" were a big hit.

Thanks so much for reading!!  Feel free to leave me a comment, I'll try and read them before my nap.  If not I will read them when I get up!! :)

Sunny

31 Days to a Better Me day 30

I have to tell you that my big boys were out of school Thursday and Friday for parent/teacher conferences.  And my husband is out of town with the military.   So by last night we had all been in the house with no breaks from each other for 3 days.  I tried to work on projects and my boys tried to "help" with those projects. 

I was talking on the phone with my sister last night, and I think she just recognized a mother who needed a break.  She said "hey, why don't I come get the boys and we can have a sleep over!!"  At first I thought "No, I am fine"  (shhhh don't tell anyone but, I have a hard time accepting help...don't tell)  Then I thought "hey why not".

I used to spend time alone all the time.  I like it.  I have been surrounded by my little people so long that I have forgotten how much I enjoy being alone. 

I did a little shopping (for more projects), I finished a quilt that I made for my niece yesterday, I watched TV, it was great. 

I think that it is good sometimes to let someone else take the reins and just do me for a minute.  You know what else... I miss my kids!

Spending some time alone made  me a better me!

                                                         Bring on the sweat pants!

Thanks for coming by and looking, feel free to leave me a comment.  I am just hanging out!!

Sunny