Off The Phone

My phone is my camera of choice these days. It really is so easy. 

So here are some daily life photos with accompanying snippets.

"Smooth criminal" blocking the sun.

Our kitchen as of late.

"Torturing our kids one tree branch at a time."

"Look Mom! It's President Monson!"

A little lesson in cigarette smoke....It is gross.

Teacher appreciation gifts.

So...this is happening...

A found Jewel and a nifty way to wear it.

Fairly certain this is not how you are supposed to eat popcorn. Pretty sure.

The boy's drawings of me. Nailed it!

Gavin combed his own hair for school today. I am calling this "The Trump."

Laney watching the Hunch Back of Notre Dame.

Penny watching the Hunch Back of Notre Dame.

Raising an "independent"

"Wook Mom. I changed my shirt"

Impromptu swimming suit dance party.

Old Stuff

The older I have gotten, it seems, the more enamored that I get with old things.

(I am not alone in this...see?) 

Most people when they see a burnt orange corduroy chair would scoff and run the other way. Me? Can't get it into my cart fast enough.

I am certain that I got the dissecting brain from my Mom. 

Pick it apart and see if it would look better a different way.

Blake sees "ugly."

Kids see "toy."

I see "time intensive although may be awesome in the end potential."

Sometimes I get something right and it ends up looking good.

The nice thing is, when I buy something for cheap I am not as concerned if it doesn't work out. The chair only cost me $4. 

If it had ended up being a complete disaster, no skin off my nose.

See the lamp below? 

Blake and I found them at an estate sale. We got two lamps and their shades for $5 total. 

They remind me of beehives. They remind Blake of an alien rib cage.

Truthfully, I think they are a little ugly. But, I needed some lamps for our downstairs and they weren't horrible. Plus I figured if I spray painted them they might look better.

I was wrong.

So wrong. It is almost embarrassing. 

Painting them made them worse, if that were possible.

Now they look like they are straight out of the 80's. All they are missing is an accordion shade.

They had to move up to mine and Blake's room just so they could hide until I find a replacement.

Somethings work out. Somethings you just end up hiding until they can have a date with the trash can.

When I buy things I normally have something specific in mind for where I want it to go.

I bought this steamer trunk a while ago to go in the boys room. I figured that they could keep their toys in it and that they wouldn't be able to knock it over to spill all of the toys out. 

It was in the boy's room for around 2 months until I decided that it just didn't fit right.

Then I was going to sell it so it moved upstairs so that we could list it. 

Imagine my surprise when I realized that it would fit perfectly in the corner of our living room making it so I could add a lamp to a corner that previously was dark. 

Most things don't come "awesome as is."

Blake may have given me a "unconvinced" look when I came home with these.

But, I primed, painted, sanded, and put a high gloss finish on them and voila.

Good as new.

Another thing I painted:

When I go to estate sales I do so with the intent to sell what I buy in my Etsy shop.

Our kids must think that it is completely normal to sell your things.

Canon said the other day that his shoes were too small so we better sell them.

Laney has told me when she grows up she is going to sell the stuff from her house too. 

Most of the stuff that comes in...I list it to sell.

Some of it just wouldn't fit into my everyday life.

But it will fit into someones.

Someone that longs to be in the Brady Bunch...

Or perhaps the sound of music...

Whichever. 

The thing is, sometimes it is more worth it to sell it then it is to keep it.

This dress...

I thought it was cute. I bought it for less then a dollar.

When I did a Google search of the brand name I found that this dress sells from $70-$160.

Crazy.

Sometimes, though, I find something that I like. That I wouldn't mind having around for awhile.

Sure, this dress was made in the 60's and has a zipper in the back and is made of wool.

Doesn't matter. I am a fan.

I suppose that all it takes is something to make you happy.

Going to an estate sale and finding nothing?...I am OK with that.

But when I go to an estate sale and find old Pyrex bowls in fun colors.

Well...then I feel like a pirate, that just found a little treasure.

Makes me endlessly happy.

Resolutions

Last year seemed like it was a little rough. 

A lot of things happened that I probably could have done without.

But as a whole when I think about the year it doesn't seem that bad either...

Which means...that I am crazy...or..I don't have the best memory...or I have a selective memory...or get distracted easily. 

What was my point?

I kid.

This year I made some before New Years resolutions. I typically am not a "resolutions" kind of gal. I figure if you want to change something, you don't need the new year to do it. So I started in November.

My goal is to work on being grateful and satisfied with what I have.

One way for me to do that was to be happy for the clothes that I have (no matter how trivial that sounds) because truthfully...I have a lot.

I wanted to wear somethings that haven't seen the light of day for awhile. And by awhile, I mean that I still have a blouse that I had when I was dating Blake. 

So I switched all of my clothes backwards on their hangers and when I wear something I turn it the right way. 

It is fun to try to find some new ways to wear stuff and realize what things that I need to get rid of.

Plus, I don't care what anyone says...getting dressed in the morning is the quickest way for me to start my day off right. 

Especially when it is an outfit that I like.

They aren't all great, but they are not pajamas so that has to count for something. 

And...and...all of these pictures are a really good graph for how often I make our bed. 

Consider "making our bed more" a new resolution to start in February.