Kids’ rooms-

WE didn’t do much to the kids’ room or the toy room. The biggest change was painting the toy room. You can see the before HERE.

I did try to declutter the toys a little and even moved some into the garage to rotate in and out. The color is so much better!

Home staging continued….the small bathroom

This bathroom used to be very childish….flowers, lady bugs etc. I loved it but we felt it would look better to be more neutral and grown up for the sale of the house.

Found some “before” pictures of the bathroom!

We added a neutral shower curtain, new towels, a new framed mirror(only because Mark broke the other one while painting…oops). A fresh coat of neutral paint and some accessories.

We like it a lot better now too!

Home Staging-Master Bedroom/bathroom

So back to the home staging tour….

In the Master bedroom the only major change was having my mom make some pillow shams (all the blue and brown ones), to add to the bed. I also decluttered a little more.

In the Master bathroom we added the plant and the towels.

I have since put the plant in the corner of the tub and moved the towels onto the vanity where the plant was. Tomorrow…the small bathroom.

Couponing…

I used to read about people who bought bunches of groceries for only a few dollars. I thought yea right how do they do that? I figured it took forever and I didn’t have time. Well, I have been trying to save money any way I can lately! I decided to try my hand at couponing. I am just starting and know there those who save lots more but it’s a start. CVS is my favorite!!

I got all the candy in this picture for $3.03 With tax! I used extra care bucks and coupons and still have extra care bucks left! Between this picture and the one below I still have $17 in extra care bucks left!!

I got all of this at CVS for $5.57 with tax!!

 

Our local Community Markets had triple coupons up to .50cents.  I got the next 2 pictures all for $36. I didn’t do as well as I would have liked but  Caroline was with me and I had never been to the store before.

 

 

I got all of the stuff in thisstuff for $5.37. The formula alone is normally $4.69!! I think I am starting to get the knack! I was so mad all the deodorant I could have gotten for .13cents was gone!! It is only Monday! Should have gone yesterday I guess…..

Home Staging Continued…

To  continue the home staging tour, here is the dining room and kitchen. In the dining room, I cleared out that cabinet and removed a bunch of glassware and vases from the top of it. It is much less cluttered now. We also removed a treadmill that has been in there forever (not being used).I raised the window treatment a little to let in more light. I used a leftover piece of fabric from the curtain for a runner. I just folded it lengthwise and put it on the table. I found coordinating yellow placemats at Big Lots for $1 each. The centerpiece I found on clearance at Kroger for $1. It is just fake grass in a a white distressed pot. I set the table with our dishes as well.

 

In the kitchen I just cleaned the counters off more. I even removed the toaster oven. I packed up some more extra dishes and things to get the cabinets cleared out a little too.

We even set our outside table to make it look inviting when people come to see the house…..now if we can just get some lookers…anyone….

Tomorrow….the Master bedroom and bathroom!

Home Staging- Living Room

We have had our house on the market for 18 months now! It has been extremely frustrating not being able to sell, but we know the market is what it is. We just want to move closer to my parents and to Cincinnati. Anyway, after 2 realtors and no luck we decided to try a home stager and we were going to list for sale by owner. We have since decided to list with a new agent but have also done some sprucing up. I will split these posts up so there aren’t so many pictures in each post. I should have taken some before’s but didn’t…I know….silly me.

In the living room we added lamps (we just had recessed lighting and no lamps before). That alone made a big difference. We got these from Wal-Mart for like $25 a piece. We also added the iron thing over the couch. We took out a full sized sofa to make the room look bigger and re-arranged the furniture slightly. Removing the couch made a big difference. We also brought back in the coffee table. We had removed it when Caroline was learning to walk but we are hoping to be moved by the time Grant is walking…..we will see!

 

The curtains are fabric from Wal-mart that I used to make “mistreatments”. We added the plant in the corner and a few accessories on the mantle. The wingback chair was in that corner before and the mantle only had the clock.

We added a few accessories to that alcove above the TV as well.

We think it looks a lot better in the pictures online for the listing and in person,when we show it…..let’s hope it looks good enough to sell!!

Edible Play- dough

I downloaded Windows Live Writer and am LOVING it so far! It is so much easier to post pictures and to post in general. Hopefully I can stay a little more up to date! Now on to more exciting things…..EDIBLE PLAY-DOUGH! A few weeks ago I decided to try the recipe that they had on Jon and Kate plus 8, for edible play-dough. It is equal parts of powdered milk, peanut butter and honey. I also added a little flour to make it not quite  so sticky. I used 1 cup of each ingredient and had enough for both kids.

The kids used their breakfast making play-dough tools. Grayson made mostly bacon but also some waffles. Caroline made lots of waffles. They loved eating it! Mark even liked it! It was pretty good!

Almost 5 years….

In just a few weeks, Mark and I will celebrate 5 years of marriage! It has gone so fast…..especially in light of the three kids we have! I am participating today in Kelly’s Korner’s  “Show us your wedding dress”. I LOVED my dress. My grandma came into town to help us find a dress only a few weeks after I got engaged. There is a wedding district in Cincinnati that has all kinds of bridal stores. We hit the biggest one, Bridal and Formal. They have thousands of dresses but have a great system to help you pick one. Anyway, my mom found this dress and I didn’t really like it…until I put it on. I didn’t want to take it off. My Dad bought the dress for me and my grandma bought my veil and tiara. The dress was strapless and had beading, heavier on the bodice and then down the dress. It had a little bit of a train but not too long.

 

 

This is my Grandma and Dad who purchased the bridal gear :)

I love remembering that day. It was so beautiful and fun. I wouldn’t change anything.

Sweet Boy

My boy is growing so big so fast! He is really smiling and "talking" a lot. He is already getting a tooth!! He has been really fussy for the past few days. He has had a cold and been teething on top of it, poor guy. He really is a sweet boy with lots of big smiles when he isn't crying ;)

Kids Bday Parties

I am joining in Kelly's "Show us your Children's Birthday Party" Party today!


I have loved planning the kids' Bday parties. Mark, Caroline and Grayson all have Bdays within 3 days of each other and Grant and I are within 3 days of each other. CRAZY and not at all planned! Anyway when I was deciding which Bday to share I decided to share Caroline and Grayson's first joint party. I really wanted Grayson to have something special for his 1st Bday but didn't want to do 2 parties. I decided on a Winnie the Pooh theme. I used 1st birthday party stuff for Grayson and all the Pooh characters for Caroline. I set the table in the kitchen with the 1st Bday party things and the Dinning room had all of Caroline's party stuff. I used some stuffed Pooh characters we already had on the table for decorations.

Here are the cakes we made. Mark decorated Grayson's and I did Caroline's. Grayson's was a chocolate box mix doctored up and it was YUMMY! You can find the recipe here. Caroline's was a cupcake cake made with lemon cupcakes. Both cakes had buttercream icing. I think we did good for novice's!


Here is the kitchen table with the cakes and the dinning room set-up with the food. We had our standard party fare....chicken salad croissants, chips, veggies, and soda. I used Pooh "throw-away" sippy cups for the kids. I never throw those cups out we use them forever! All the kids took one home. I put labels on them that I made with my label maker.

You can also see pictures of their party from this year Here.
I have so many ideas and can't wait to have 3 parties this year!!
P.S. you can click on the pictures to view them bigger.

Bible School

THe kids have been going to VBS at the church Mark went to as a child. It is right up the road from us. Our neighbor goes there and asked if the kids could come. Our church has VBS but they can't go until they are 4 :( I was so glad they got to go this year at Terry's church. Last night when we went ot get them, we were looking at pictures and there were some of Mark when he was at VBS there as a child! So fun. I love that their first VBS is at the same place he went. They have been having so much fun playing games, doing crafts and hearing stories.

Here they are enjoying a puppet show.

Lining up to play a game.
Playing Duck, Duck, Goose....they didn't quite get the rules and kept running whenever anyone got called goose.


I will take more pictures this week and post them later.

4th of July

Sorry no posts recently. June flew by and we have been non-stop! Just busy with the kids and trying to get the house ready to re-list. I took pics of our "staged" house. I will post soon as well as Father's Day/Grant's dedication and new pics of the kids! We spent the 4th of July with my cousins and all the kids had a great time despite the rain. We still got to see fireworks at the post in Wilmington. Here are some pics....enjoy!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Childhood Poem

This is a poem I wrote for my Dad in elementary school. I was at Mom's the other day and saw that she had it scanned on her computer. I don't know how I came up with something so silly! Check out my artwork.....It hasn't progressed very far!