Run down

As a stay at home mom of two boys (wow I really just wrote that.. TWO BOYS.. ahh) I have a tendency to feel very run down by the repetition of my day to day.. Wake up , feed baby, change diaper, clean bottles, cook breakfast, wake up three year old, make breakfast, chug coffee, play, fight with baby to go to sleep, gets him to sleep, brother wakes up baby.. etc and so on ALL DAY LONG and lets not even get into the whole running a household and trying to do errands and please my husband and get dinner on the table... Leaves VERY LITTLE time for just me! It has all compounded hard on me these past few months with Aiden being quite a difficult little man to soothe and Jaxon being such a go go go go go child. He is not used to being cramped at home all day and definitely not ok with being sent to play on his own while mommy focuses all of her attention on someone else.  So needless to say my stress level has been maxed out lately..

Now some may find this as odd but oh well.. it is me and I have come to simply accept my uniqueness and Thank my wonderful Creator for giving me my gifts, but when I get stressed I clean. I am usually quite OCD anyway and well even with two kids I try my hardest to keep everything running smoothly. A unorganized mess can lead me into an anxiety attack quicker than anything else in the world. So you can only imagine the state of my house after a) moving across the country WHILE pregnant and b) having a newborn who consumes every ounce of energy you have... Needless to say at any given moment I could break down at the sight of my house and the state of my "stuff" that was strewn all over. I was utterly embarrassed if anyone came over and still am at times.

So now that my little man is consistently taking better naps IN HIS CRIB (and not on me).. and my bigger little man is still napping and going to preschool, I am slowly finding the time to organize and beautify my home again, to my standards.

Now here is the thing. I have had a lot of my friends and acquaintances ask for advice on organizing from a complete wreck... well here is my advice.. ONE STEP AT A TIME.. one item at a time.. one room, one shelf etc..

Here is my strategy when going through my home right now..

1) Access your stuff and your home..
         Go through each room and establish your purpose for that room and try to envision the room how you want it with what you want in it.

2) Start sorting your piles..
            Here is where it gets tricky for me... Pick a pile.. any pile.. go through it.. not organizing it per-say but instead throwing it in the room in which it belongs. By the end of your "piles" you will have one BIG MESS in each room..

3) pick a room any room
       Now comes the fun part... pick a room to work on... Now start to "organize" that pile. Make mental notes of any supplies you may need to help organize it better. Baskets, bins, labels etc.

4) Divy up your budget
       After figuring our supplies you will need start to prioritize them. Such as.. lets say in the kids play room.. the room that is used the MOST on a daily basis. you desperately need storage, possibly something like a big book case or shelving. Now on those shelves you may need baskets etc to make it "pretty"... but first you need the book shelf.. That would be your first purchase. Now I am NOT a person who buys ANYTHING full price. I LOVE thrift shops and I LOVE a bargain. So Try to think outside the box. Personally.. for our play room, I would have loved a huge bookcase thing from Ikea, but our budget didn't allow this.. so I settled on plastic shelving from lowes for $19.99 and it works for us for now. The key for me was to get toys up and off the floor. Oh and repurpose things.. I do it all the time.. Use an empty cereal box (painted or covered with scrapbook paper) as a way to collect coloring books etc..

5) be realistic... if you have children who are anything like my three year old.. toys are a huge problem. And picking up those toys can lead to major meltdowns, especially if they do not put them right back where you had them.. thus causing chaos.. this is where I LOVE BUCKETS.. they have these $5 plastic buckets at walmart that I loaded up on... It is much easier to get Jaxon to throw his toys in a bucket then to put them on a shelf. We make a game of it... Then while the toys may not be aesthetically displayed on a shelf, they are at least in one area off the floor!

6) Reaccess... once you have gone through and slowly purchased things to help organize (PS my favorite buys are always from Ross, TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Homegoods and even the dollartree.. never ever ever buy baskets from target, pier one, Michaels etc without checking these places first)... Go back through and re-access your organization. Sometimes you will find things that just don't work. This happens to me ALL THE TIME! I will give you an example in a bit.

7).. now here is the kicker.. the #1 thing that causes people to live in chaos again... PUT STUFF AWAY... While in my senior year in high school, I was given the opportunity to live with a deacons family in my church to finish high school because my parents were moving out of the state... While living there Mrs Helen shared with me THE BEST ADVICE EVER... and I still stick to it.. it is the "touch it once rule"... When you have something that needs to be put away... touch it one time. In other words, put it back where it belongs.. By simply moving something out of your way, instead of putting it away, you are going to be using double the time, double the energy to actually put it away when the time comes.. ... I am constantly telling my husband this. Instead of throwing that in the garage.. take the extra two seconds to put it back in the toolbox where it belongs... if instead you just throw it in the garage.. then it will join the ten other things you just threw in the garage until it becomes a big chaotic mess that you have to spend all day Saturday organizing again! .. see my point?

Here is an example of this in my household.. When we first moved in the house I had an idea of how I wanted things. How I thought things would work for us as a family of four. And as usual I was wrong and we have been tweaking things ever since. See that is the thing with organization, it is a never ending process. So on one particularly stressful day, both boys were FINALLY ASLEEP and I started on my quest even though I was exhausted and should have taken a nap.. I needed to decompress (thus organize something). I wanted my computer in a more accessible area. I wanted less toys downstairs (less to clean up quickly when someone is coming over) and I wanted my arts and crafts stuff downstairs so I have it close to work on something fun with Jaxon when/if aiden is napping!... So I set to work.. made piles of stuff.. organized and jotted down what I needed..

I ran to my favorite Ross... grabbed beautiful baskets, set them up and then bam :: Arts and crafts bookshelf:: Plastic bins were from dollar tree.. total for the transformation was like maybe $50... the baskets on this shelf were $8.99 and $9.99 from Ross...

It is perfect for what I needed it.. I was able to simplify my life by organizing things into each bin!

Oh that was the other thing that helps.. SIMPLIFY! We all tend to gather things.. the ONLY positive thing I can say about moving is the ability to simplify every few years. Having to pack and unpack and reorganize definitely makes you declutter on a normal basis with the military.

I wish I had before and after shots of my recent organization marathons but I keep forgetting (I get into gotta get it done mode)...

And believe me.. it all goes to pot a lot too and I have redo it all. It happens.. TO EVERYONE.. And I am sure we all get embarrassed over how our homes look.. Lord knows if someone were to step into mine right now they would wonder what the heck people were asking me for advice for haha... (my floors are a disaster, toys everywhere, dishes all over the kitchen, bathrooms need scrubbing etc)... but I promise, once you make it a habit to organize, maybe it will be fun for you too, and help destress your life a little..

Oh where Oh where has my little blogger gone... oh where oh where could she be??

Oh goodness. I honestly have NO clue where to even begin this post other than to say our life has been anything but calm the past few months. My last post, showing the canvas photo project, was probably my last DIY project that I have had time to even think about!

My little man Aiden made his arrival on Christmas Eve. It was quite a funny story and quick easy labor believe it or not. God may have not blessed me with the easiest babies or pregnancies but man he blessed me with quick worry free labor and delivery with both of my boys. I sat there Christmas eve morning just hanging out on the couch after taking Jaxon to the doctor for a horrid cold that wouldn't let up. Jaxon was outside with Alan and I had been having pains all morning but attributed it to moving around our living room by myself.. yea nesting mode hits an OCD prego REALLY HARD. So I took a rest on the couch while watching pioneer woman. After about an hour I decided to actually time my "pains." See these "pains" were never really felt with Jaxon. I did not notice I was in labor the morning of our induction with him. When I arrived at the hospital they "informed" me I was in labor already... so this whole labor pains thing was new to me without the good ol' pitocin. well sure enough.. they were about 7 minutes apart. As I laid there by myself, my boys out and about and my mother had run to the grocery store to gather supplies for a Christmas day lunch, I worried about whether I was being "that prego" who always thought she was in labor only to be turned away. So I called the doctor anyway. They said to be safe to come on in, considering I was 39 weeks. I gathered up my things, grabbed Alan and called my mom to come on back so she could care for Jaxon. Alan and I reluctantly went to the hospital with bags in tow.

Now here is the funny part. As we were arriving the contractions were getting stronger. I knew they were real now. We go in the hospital, completely lost because we weren't able to go to the class that shows you where everything is. This hospital is a tiny catholic hospital and all desk attendants are old and volunteers. Well it must have been our lucky day because we walked and there sat two people on their first day as volunteers. My husband, always the jokster in stressful situations, asked them, "so where do we go to have a baby" in a very sarcastic tone. The people just stared blankly at us for a moment. They had no idea... So here was my thought process, while standing there contracting every 5 minutes or so, knowing good and well that another contraction was on its way in like 2 minutes, shouldn't the general floorplan of the hospital be one of the FIRST things covered when assigning volunteers to the WELCOME DESK!They quickly scrambled to find the number to someone who could help. Then they couldn't figure out how to use the phone (yet another DUH should have been on the "how to be a hospital volunteer" requirements)... Well by then the contraction was coming. My husband, poor thing, stood there calm as could be... I on the other hand, clearly on edge, walked right past them and proclaimed I could not wait around for them.. that we would have to walk and find it on our own.....

So up the elevator we went... turns out it was on the second floor right above where we were... literally to the left of the elevator. We waltzed in and declared I was in labor and quickly we were shown a room. Quick change into a gown and the nerves started as the nurse hooked me up to every wire in the room. Now here is the annoying part. As soon as the hooks everything up the contractions STOP.. She did a quick check, assured me I was only like 1-2 centimeters and that since the contractions stopped it was my choice whether to stay or to go. If I stayed they would just go ahead and induce, which I was scheduled for two days later anyway. Or I could go home and just wait it out. We thought about it long and hard and decided to go just on home. As she was unhooking me from everything and about to take off my wristbands, she decided to go ahead and check me one more time... and well.. I progressed to a 5 in less that 20 minutes... So we stayed.. the rest was a whirl wind. I arrived at the hospital at 2pm and Aiden was born at 5:32. Epidural didn't work as well as with Jaxon, so while I was in much more pain, it was easier to push.

After I felt amazing. No tearing, No stitches. No nothing. Crazy!

Well the next few weeks have been complete chaos. Nursing turned out to be A LOT more challenging than I was praying it would be. Two stints of mastitis, thrush, latching issues, engorgement, and finally a milk protein allergy. But we are finally doing well. Aiden is sleeping better and eating like a champ and while he is extremely attached to me, his little personality is coming out more and more.

Adapting to a family of 4 has been terribly difficult for me though. The mommy guilt of throwing Jaxon's entire world for a loop is a hard pill to swallow. The first month he did great. However, the realization that mommy can't simply jump when he needs something is very difficult for him to understand and the acting out has been in full force lately.

I am continuing to work at it daily and I am SO thankful for preschool those precious three mornings a week.

This blog is obviously lower on my priority list but I have SO many things I cannot wait to write about.

My recipes are forming out of necessity for QUICK fix meals with the use of only one hand (baby in the other).. and ones that Jaxon can help with.

My DIY things are definitely on hold until I can get these two on the same consistent nap schedule (and some time to myself as well as sleep)

As far as organizational tips. Oh I cannot wait to get this one started. I honestly feel the key to my sanity is organization and function. With this move, which was SO unorganized and wild, I have come to appreciate my zany need for things to be neat and tidy, and now my husband understands even more so why I feel that way. My kiddos will one day, but for now it is a battle daily to keep the house even remotely mess free! Simplicity, I am learning that art!

So please bare with me as I learn to manage my time, energy and priorities!

OH so many things to write, oh so little time

I am popping in for a quick tutorial on something I have been wanting to try but I haven't had the walls to hang them on... DIY canvas prints.

I cannot fathom spending the money on real "canvas prints" the ones that look professional and are actually printed on canvas and stretched around a frame... SO of course Pinterest inspired me to try my own. I found numerous tutorials on how to do it myself. All of which made it seem SO easy and quick and offered very limited guidelines or tips but I figured I got the jest of it so why not give it a whirl.

Gather all of your supplies first, I recommend doing one at a time until you get it the way you want it though... so keep that in mind before you go buy a billion different canvases and prints.

Here is a run down of what I used :

8 x 10 print ($1.49 at Sams club)
8 x 10 canvas (2 pk at $3.99 hobby lobby w 40% off coupon = $2.40 for 2.. so $1.20 for one)
Modge Podge, Matte finish (I already had this on hand but you can find it at a local craft store for about $7.99.. try to use a coupon with it)
black acrylic paint (already had on hand but usually runs around $2)
paint brush or sponge (already had on hand also but super cheap for a set $1)
exacto knife/razor blade
baggie (x2 to store paint brushes in)
paper plate (so you are not double dipping in modge podge or paint)

just some of the supplies ... and yes I had to do mine standing at the counter
because sitting with his big ol' 9 month prego belly is just too tough!

Ok so to begin, cover your work area well. You will need to leave it set up for around a day or two (depending on how much time throughout the day you have to dedicate to stopping whatever you are doing for a coat or two)

Go ahead and paint around your canvas. You do not need to limit yourself to just black. Depending on the tone of the photo in which you are using, you can leave it white or even change it up and use a color out of the photo. I chose black. I like the shadow effect it offers. With the black, I chose to do two coats, but I did them in stages. So to begin... just do a good coat of black. Make sure you paint all edges and about an inch into the canvas too.

Once the paint is COMPLETELY DRY... Now listen.. I don't mean dry so it doesn't come off your fingers, I mean completely dry. I made this mistake and ended up with the modge podge pulling the paint off the edges.. a MESS, completely fixable but still a mess! Ended up having to repaint it all again! So don't be like me.. start the project at night maybe and then in the morning when it is really dry continue. (also quick easy tip for overall painting... when you know you are going to working with the same color and paint brush again, simply seal the wet paint brush in a ziplock baggie until you need to use it again. It keeps it from drying out and keeps you from the headache of washing it all the time in between coats... Same goes for painting a room, store the wet roller in a bag!)

Once it is dry, go ahead and glue on your picture. Now Modge Podge was the way everyone was telling me to go. There are other options. There is a spray glue you can use too that will adhere easily to the canvas. But since you will need modge podge for the "sealer" and "finish" might as well use the miracle stuff for the glue too!.. Now tip on this.. spread it well and even, ALL THE WAY TO THE EDGES. When you place the picture on there, you will have a few moments to move it and mess with it before you press and let it dry. More than likely it will overlap over the edges, no worries, that is what the razor is for!  (oh and guess what.. the baggie trick works for the modge podge brush too!)

FYI... if you knick the canvas (don't go all killer on it) you will have that second
chance with the black paint to cover over any imperfections left by the razor blade!

Push the "bubbles out" and firmly press down on the canvas to adhere all the glue to the photo flip over to dry

So let that dry for probably about 30 minutes. Modge Podge works quick so it dries pretty well (as long as you didn't go all crazy and use tons of it) Once it is dry, turn canvas picture side down, on a very clean surface (I use a clean cutting board/plastic, that I use for alot of my crafting). Use the razor to cut the excess around the canvas.

Now here is where I got frustrated. One of the tutorials I read told me to just cut and then modge podge over... well once I cut the excess around the print, I discovered the white of the photo paper showed quite drastically against the black border. So I was left with a bit of a dilemma... I knew I didn't like how it looked, but I was a bit terrified to paint the edges again. But I decided it really needed it because on my first one I didn't let dry all the way and I needed to cover the spots where the modge podge and paint didn't agree... So I took out my sponge brush and just lightly brushed on another coat, making sure to also hit the edges of the photo paper.... and guess what.. I LOVED IT! It sort of "set" the photo to the canvas where I had painted it black. SO this is where that second coat of black for the edges of the canvas comes into play.

no black - white photo paper showing through, with some modge podge 

clean black surface, tying the picture into the canvas with the black!

Now once all that is dried well, grab your baggied modge podge brush and now comes the scary part.. modge podge OVER the print! Take your brush, start with the edges, go around the print brushing towards the edge to "seal" the edge of the print to the canvas. Do not freak out like I did when you can obviously see the modge podge as you are brushing. It truly does dry clear. And infact, those brush marks you are seeing, you want them! When it does dry completely the brush strokes give the photo character to make it seem more like a real canvas print not the smooth glass of photo paper. Now once you have completed the edges, go ahead and modge podge starting from the top all the way down to the bottom in a thin layer. Leave it to dry..

you want that random brush marks! Believe me it dries clear!

Tip - smooth out the modge podge around the picture well! 

You don't want clumps!

When you come back you will see the white has disappeared and you are left with your canvas! Neat huh  And super easy. So far I have only done these 8 x 10 ones. I am itching to try larger prints but the larger you go the more expensive the canvas and the photo print so I wanted to try these first. Also after doing color vs black and white I prefer the black and white. The color you can tell is a photo print onto a canvas upon closer inspection, but with the black and white it almost enhances the lighter tones of the photo.

Black and white canvas print finish -

*** Notice the black carrying from the print to the canvas..
 this is why I like the black and white print using this technique better***

** this is completely dry! See the awesome brush strokes the matte
Modge Podge leaves! Gives it that real canvas texture!  ***

So have fun you guys!