Here it is: My "Not So Proud" Mommy moment

Today while enjoying mine and Belle's nice morning jog something happened that lead me to behave in a not so quite motherly fashion. I am going to use anger as my excuse, although i don't even know if that's a good enough one. As Belle and i were coming to the end of the trail that we run on, there is a stop sign with a road coming out of a nearby neighborhood. At that stop sign is where Belle and i usually turn the stroller around and continue a mile and a half back home. Well today as i was approaching the end, i started to slow down to give myself room to turn the stroller.

It's then i notice them. A truck full of illegals (i say they are illegals because if you don't know me, i am from California, i KNOW what illegals look like). They immediately start smiling and whispering to each other. I've been around guys like this before, they disgust me. Now don't get me wrong, this isn't a post about how beautiful i must have looked and that's why they were starring, NO i JUST rolled out of bed, and for those of you who haven't been around men like this, MOST of them will gawk and stare at just about ANYTHING. They have NO shame and NO class, and certainly NO embarrassment.

I immediately get my, "i'm going to kill you" face on, and my heart starts racing as i grow impatient and pissed off. Now i'm down to a walk and there they are sitting at the stop sign just watching away. Most would think, well you should have just turned around right then and there, and i considered it, BUT i had on some running shorts and didn't want to give them the satisfaction of seeing my dimply thighs.

So as i come up to the end and start to turn around, it's then they ROLL DOWN their windows and start opening their mouths being COMPLETELY dirty, disrespectful perverts. Around this same time one in the backseat waves for me to come to the window, and that's when i lost it. Not only did i scream NO and then the F bomb about 17 different times. I also called them every SOB name in the book, AND let go of the jogging stroller long enough to give them the bird. They looked kinda shocked and drove off while the one in the backseat kinda chuckled and looked away.

I was SHAKING i was SOOO mad!!!!! Here i am a mother for crying out loud, i'm sure they can see everything else on me BUT my wedding rings, so i wont even say that they should know i'm married. But i was out trying to enjoy a nice day with my DAUGHTER! I know my behavior was not appropriate, BUT i dont want Belle growing up seeing men act like that and think it is ok! She needs to know that she is NOT a piece of meat for some man to cat call and gawk at! So with that said, there you have it. One of my many, "Not so proud" mommy moments.

And just for giggles, here is me and Belle after our run trying to give you our best, "i will kick your ass" face. Belle needs to work on hers. I'm really thinking George Merritt is rubbing off on me.



And if any of this offends you, kiss my ass. I'm on a roll today.

Wordless Wednesday

I've seen so many blogs do this, and thought i would join in. Here is mine for today: baby puffs anyone???

Let there be light!

Our Master bedroom has SLOWLY been transforming over the past 6 months and i'm sad to say that i scored some nightstands at the Goodwill about 4 months ago. I had been looking for some new ones because i had an idea in my mind i couldn't get out. I wanted nightstands with more character and detail. Ours were SO boring that we had, leave it to good ol Ashley Home Furniture Store. Not that there is anything wrong with that store, it's just so.....boring. So i was eager to get our nightstands out of our bedroom and replace them with some lovely gems.

Well when i brought them home, George did NOT like them. Eventually his dislike with them caused me to leave them abandoned and alone in the garage. He convinced me to keep the nightstands we had in our room because they "matched" (i hate this word) our headboard. He said i should put the old, new ones i bought in the guestroom. I thought this was a pretty good idea. I figured since they would be going into the guestroom i should do something REALLY fun and funky with them.

For weeks i scrolled through Pinterest and blogs trying to decide what color i should paint them. I initially wanted to paint them white when they were heading into our room, but then I decided it would be a toss up between red and yellow for the guestroom. THEN, i saw THIS (cue music). It was everything i had been trying to explain in my mind! It had the same old detail my nightstands had, and i just KNEW i had to try it. I decided that if i absolutely loved it, i would put them in our room and we would decide from there if we liked them or not. If not, they would still look lovely in our guestroom!

Here is the wretched BEFORE

Primed and only had a few coats of paint here. (I used spray paint for this project and it was AMAZING how easy it was)

Here she is, Miss America. I literally couldnt get them into our room fast enough. And i used paint tape to do the stencil on top.

Ok, now here is the winning question......do you like it with the old brown nightstands????

OR with the new "lighter" ones!? I personally LOOOVVEE the lighter ones. YES, i still have to print out our family pics for those frames, and please dont mind the mess. Also, almost all our pillows are on the guestroom bed, we're not pillow people, but after looking at this pic i think we need some for decor.

George absolutely LOOVVEESS these new nightstands, and he told me for about 3 days straight how proud he was of me for doing them. I took this project on all on my own and did not ask his opinion once. After all, he is a straight version of David Bromstad so i try to get his advice on color as much as possible. NOW, i need to tackle my desk. Just wait till you see what i have in store for this :)

Who would have thought?

Never in a million years did i think that i would learn to sew. i credit Belle to my reason for even trying. If it wasn't for me having an adorable little girl, i dont think i would have ever went out, bought a sewing machine, and taught myself to sew. I am a beginner and teaching myself slowly as i go, learning mostly from asking questions, and mostly from the internet. I've been trying so many fun little projects and i feel SO proud when i complete something that i never thought i could.

My biggest reason for learning to sew was to make Belle cute dresses. I've been slowly collecting fabric, but now i'm realizing how time consuming sewing is! I made this dress almost 2 weeks ago, and since then i have been working on some baby things for some of my pregnant friends. Although i have cut out a few more dresses for Belle, i havent sewed them up. Will post pics when i finally do.

I also made this headband a few months ago to go with another outfit, but i was happy to see it went with this one as well. Pink is such a versatile color :)

This dress is a pattern that a sweet classmate of mine gave me. She gave me some cute little girl patterns, but i've only been comfortable with 2 so far. Hopefully i will venture off to try some of the other ones.

I was so proud of this dress because i added the ruffle on the bottom. It was my first time ever dewing a ruffle to the bottom of a dress.

I have one of the prettiest little models :)

Fireworks!

We have had such a nice weekend relaxing, and staying indoors since it's been almost 100 degrees out everyday. Noah is at the perfect age to do so many projects with, and he just understand so much more about holidays and upcoming events the older he gets. He is excited about going to my parents in a week, and i thought some 4th of July activities might get him in the mood for what we're going there for!

Since he is only 3 i try to keep it simple, and he has a short attention span so i have to make things fun and interesting. After many failed attempts of explaining what fireworks were to him, i took to Youtube to show him exactly what i was talking about. What better to show him, than a video of New Year's Eve, right? He was ECSTATIC! Especially the part when i told him we're going to Mimi and Papa's to see fireworks. So now that he understood what they are, i asked him if he wanted to paint some himself. Noah LOOOVVEESS to paint. And i generally let him do it alot. I feel like kids learn the best when you trust them and let them do things on their own. I try not to hover, unless i'm taking pics of course, and there really isnt anything i don't let Noah try or do on his own.

So here is our first 4th of July craft. I saw one of my friends on Facebook do this with her son, so i copied. Noah had so much fun and when George got home Saturday he ran to tell him that Noah made fireworks today. You can imagine George's face.

Here is a printable i put up on our chalkboard wall, because after all Noah HAS to know that fireworks starts with the letter F. Source HERE

All set up! I got this children's fold up card table at the Goodwill a few weeks back for $10. It was in perfect condition and i absolutely love it. Their wooden pottery barn kids stays upstairs, but this one is perfect for downstairs and doing crafts with Mom.

First hand in the blue!

This is serious business!

So far so good!

Washing the blue off!

Now it's time for red!

So cute when he washes his hands.

And Noah is done! I think his fireworks came out so cute.

Kid free zone.....hopefully

I have been waiting to start on our Master bedroom since the day we moved in. As most of you know, we bought our first house almost 2 years ago and i have been ecstatic to make it into a REAL home. I held back at first, gathering as much inspiration as possible before i took the leap. My first projects were all geared around the kids rooms, and they are pretty much done except for a few little things i still want to add. A cornice for Noah's room, and a rug for Belle's, other than that, DUNZO. But for some reason, children's spaces are SOO easy for me to design in my head. I LOVE kids rooms and play spaces, but a space of our own, i had no idea where to begin.

So our room has sat this whole time, an empty space collecting dust. We literally ONLY had a bed. And not even a bed, a mattress and bed frame. Then i collected this cute desk one day from a fun craigslist buy, more on that later.



I thought i would want a little space in our room to call my own. To study and blog and all that jazz. A Carrie Bradshaw place to think. Well i never used it. And now my desk sits at the back of our room with all my sewing crap on it. So it is getting the boot to our guestroom because i have FINALLY started to feel what i want our room to become. First step was getting a bigger bed. We traded in our old queen (not hardly old, only 4 years old) for a king. We did this before Belle was born so that was easy peasy. Then i bounced back and forth on what type of bed i wanted. A canopy bed, poster bed, fabric headboard, wood headboard, sleigh bed, ect. What i knew for sure was i wanted it to be old. Although i am sometimes drawn to more modern designs, i find old beds or older looking headboards cozy. And that's what i want our room to be.....cozy.

So one day i LITERALLY fell upon this beautiful wooden headboard. For $29 i almost slapped the worker at Goodwill. It was MINE! So now that the headboard is up, i felt like i should hang the curtains that i bought a year ago. With those curtains i also bought these frames from the same Ikea trip. I saved these frames because i knew when Belle was born we would have some nice family pics taken. I want one picture of the two kids, and one picture of George and I to go in them above our bed. So with the frames hung, the curtains hung, and a new headboard, our room is slowly evolving. Here are some pics where it is right now. I just recently re-did some nightstands which look AMAZING by the way and that is going to be a future post :)



Used painter's tape to make sure i got both frames centered.



Once i got the center of the wall, i measured one inch on either side and that's where the edge of each frame would go.



And here they are hung! I just received our family pics yesterday so i am eager to get them printed and in their frames. Don't mind the mess, i said i was working on our room, i didnt say it was perfect.



Here is the rest of inspiration i am feeling for this room:





SOURCE HERE

Of course i will put my own spin on the projects i am looking into. My dream is for George and i to have a space AWAY from the kids. AWAY from toys and loud noises. I have been ANTI tv in our bedroom for awhile now, but i think we might have to bring one in, one that DOES NOT play cartoons. All these are dreams you see, because within this last week, Noah has entered the "scared" phase. So thank God for that King size bed, Noah is becoming more and more a permanent guest.

Maybe i do like history

My LEAST favorite subject in school has got to be History. I feel awful saying that, because i think that it is important for children to know how our country came about. But i have yet to meet a teacher that can make history interesting and inviting. All my history classes were when i would get in the best naps when i was in school. With that said, most of you know that i am majoring to be a Special Education teacher. We are required to know a little bit about all subjects because of all the new inclusion laws. History, is not one i'm looking forward to. Unless i'm in an elementary class talking about pilgrims and Indians and it involves crayons and construction paper i will not be jumping for joy.

So with that in mind, on the last day of our summer classes, one of my professors informed us that President Woodrow Wilson lived in Augusta, Georgia at one time, and that we would be touring his house. I was excited, mostly to get out of class, but also because this included two of my most favorite things: house crashing, and antiques. I was kicking myself for not having my Nikon with me, but what i did have was my trusty phone. But before i got too excited i did stop to think, why in the world are we touring President Wilson's house? Well let me tell you.

President Woodrow Wilson was a president who was actually diagnosed with Dyslexia and did not learn to read until he was 11. He was also the only President to go on to get his doctorate as an adult, and overcame his disability from the help from his father. His father was a big reader, and would read to him almost every night. I was instantly intrigued, and could not wait to tour his home.

As soon as we stepped foot into his home, all my classmates said, "Where's Brooke?!" They already knew i would go crazy over how beautiful this home was. I don't know if it was beautiful because it was old and filled with beautiful old furniture, or because of all the history it held. Here are some of the pictures i snapped with my phone. Hopefully SOMEONE will find this as enjoyable as i did.

Number 1, how AMAZING is this coat rack??? I'm pretty sure i peed my pants over this piece. Can i have it PUH-LEASE!?



After the entry way this is the dining room. LOVE the curtains, and the colors of the walls.



Formal dining room. I love all the detail in the wood on the ceiling.



One view of the guestroom which is right off the entry way across from the dining room.



Another view of the guest room. Love that canopy bed!



President Wilson and his brother's room.



Master bedroom (again LOVE those curtains!)



And can i have this piece too? Pretty sure it's calling my name.



I absolutely LOVED this tour and would recommend it to anyone who hasn't been. Especially if you're a History buff, or if you just love and have great appreciation for beautiful old things.

Granny would be proud

Since buying my very first sewing machine two months ago, i would have to say i've been impressing myself with my self taught sewing skills. Between school and the kids, i havent had much time to practice, but i have managed to make Belle a few dresses and now i'm moving on to some other fun things. I dont have a relationship with my grandmother for some VERY good reasons, but some of my only good memories of her are yard saling and her sewing. She sewed alot, and made beautiful dolls that were very popular. Sometimes i like to think about how neat it would be to have a grandma. One who i could go to, and who i could share all my craftiness with. This whole sewing thing is new me, but as i pitter patter along i am becoming proud of my little projects.

Here are two projects i finished 2 weeks ago. I made Belle a cute crinkly square to chew on about a month ago and that inspired me to make her a crinkly cube with some sensory things on it. It was a pain in the behind to be honest. That's the last cube i will ever make! And then i tried a bib since Belle is in the, "drooling but i still dont have teeth" stage. You can never have too many bibs. I am now working on some FUNNNNN projects for two of my very best friends who are pregnant. Stay tuned, i wont be able to post pics until their baby showers from fear of ruining the surprise, BUT i will post some new ones of some dresses i'm working on for Belle.

I'm not good with posting tutorials, BUT here is an example on how i did the cube. Cut out the squares and lined them with pop tart wrappers to make the crinkly sound. I also sewed some tulle, ruffles, lace and other things onto them to keep Belle entertained.

Here she is with her little cube.

Always happy. :)

And here is the bib i made her. I had these cite scraps of fabric, and since i had never done a bib i decided to sew them all together to try my very first bib. I lined the back with minky, and it ended up coming out SO cute. Of course i had to jazz it up with a little flower on the neck as well. I've made a few more since!

Leona Valley

We're heading back to California in two weeks and i seriously need to catch up on my blog posts! These are the rest of the pictures i took while i was home for Adriana's wedding. Leona Valley is a quiet little town between Valencia and Palmdale/Lancaster. It truly is beautiful and since my parents just bought a house in Idaho and are retiring in a year, i am glad i took my camera to capture some good shots. I cant wait to be back in 2 weeks with the whole family. I will have to get some more pictures with everyone in them.

Beautiful winery right around the corner from my parents house.

Playing at Leona Valley Elementary school. The school his uncle Daniel went to.

Such cute barns everywhere.

Came home from our walk to find my dad (Noah's Papa) feeding the horse.

Noah loves Mimi and Papa's house, because he gets to do fun stuff like this.

Breakfast at good ol Jackie's. Look how big my little brother is :(

Noah's pancakes came with a toy lol

Loves his Papa

On our way to the airport we saw a beautiful rainbow.

Q&A with newlywed Adriana Covate

Adriana from Rambling Grad Student blog recently got married, and i knew her wedding would be one i could not miss. Not only was i so honored to be a bridesmaid, but my baby boy Noah was a ring bearer as well! I like to say Adriana and i have the same heart because we tend to gravitate towards the same things in life. I could not get over how beautiful her wedding was, and let me tell you that it was a true DIY inspiration.



I had to ask her a few questions about how she planned her special day. Here they are:


Q: What D.I.Y projects did you complete for your wedding?

I think the shorter answer would be what did I NOT D.I.Y for the wedding. From the first week we were engaged, I started collecting vintage lace tablecloths, candle holders, silverware, china and chandeliers. The reception was held is my parents already beautiful backyard, but I spent a lot of time planting flowers and stringing lights and chandeliers all over the yard. I DIYed water bottle covers, tied together 50 pairs of flip flops for dancing shoes, and helped to pour a concrete slab that turned into the dance floor (one week before the wedding). I made the table numbers with paint, fabric and picture frames. I DIYed the entire photo booth too – from picking the fabric for the background, creating the frame, collecting the props, and buying the camera accessories (a flash and a wireless remote control). The morning of the wedding, I put together the centerpiece flowers, which were in vases of various shapes and sizes. My dad built our beautiful bar from my husband’s old coffee table – I wish I had before and after pictures because the transformation was incredible and you’d have to see it to believe it. We hung organza from posts my dad put in the ground around the dance floor, and over by the sweetheart table. In the weeks leading up to the wedding, I spent a lot of time sorting through all the vintage table accessories we had collected over the year and set up mock tables. Once a table was set, I labeled everything and put it in a bin, so that on the actual day of the wedding, everything for a table was in one bin. This was really time consuming, but I really couldn’t have done it any other way because we had collected so many beautiful things and I wanted to make sure it would all come together. I also DIYed the appetizers. We kept it simple and had help from a few family friends. My husband and I stuffed baby sweet peppers with goat cheese the day before the wedding. I made little toothpick signs for about 20 different kinds of gourmet cheese, sliced 10 baguettes, and a good family friend made 200 caprese-salads-on-a-stick (which were delicious!).





Q: What did you learn through the process, or what advice would you give to another D.I.Y bride?

Let the little things go. Its too easy to get sucked into all the little details and to forget the bigger picture. I think every bride probably says this after her wedding. For example, I bought 50 pairs of flip flops at the Old Navy $1 flip-flop sale, so that guests could have “dancing shoes” as the night went on. A great idea, but I spent about 5 or 6 hours trying to make them prettier. I printed out size tags, cut them out and pasted them to decorative paper. I then cut out the size tag that was on decorative paper, and hand tied each tag to a pair of flip flops with curling ribbon. As I was doing it I knew I was probably spending too much time on this project. In the end, the shoes looked great in the baskets, but they would have looked just as fine without such an elaborate process. So, pick your projects wisely. I am a big fan of little details, but making the water bottle labels was less work and more impact.



Q: What feeling or theme were you going for?

Well, we decided early on that we were going to get married in the church where my parents were married 30 years ago, so I was inspired to go vintage. Also, my mom has always had a huge affinity for antique things and she owns more vintage china than anyone I’ve ever met in my life. She and I love scouring thrift stores and garage sales for vintage treasures, so it made sense to do that for the wedding. It also made sense because I didn’t want a wedding where everything matched – no color coordinating napkins and table cloths (or even bridesmaid dresses – they all picked their own). I didn’t even have “colors”, which was hard to explain to the 2,100 people who ask you what your colors are. I did gravitate towards clear and silver vases for the tables, and cream, champagne, and muted pink for the china. Since nothing was going to match on the tables, I decided to go for all white flowers for the centerpieces, to sort of tie everything together. It also made it really easy to put the flowers together the morning of the wedding. At the end of the day, the words I associated with my wedding were: vintage, whimsical, and relaxed.


Q: Where did you gather most your inspiration?

Wedding blogs, magazines and Pinterest. I found so many ideas for DIY photo booths that I knew we could put together our own fairly easily and because we did, we saved over $800 by doing it ourselves and not paying someone else to do it. One of the most helpful websites was Weddingbee, which is a fantastic community of bride bloggers who share ideas, tips, and DIY projects with each other.




Q: How do you suggest combating the "DIY-er than thou" frenzy that some crafty brides work themselves into?

Ooooh, good question. This definitely comes up. From the very beginning I knew our wedding was going to be primarily DIY for 2 reasons. 1) The reception was in my parent’s backyard, and 2)I didn’t feel like anyone else should plan our wedding. I mean, it’s our wedding and it just felt right to do more of it ourselves. However, we still hired a Day-Of-Wedding Coordinator (who came with five staff members) and she was absolutely essential to the day running smoothly. But to answer your question, I would just say to make sure to follow your priorities. DIYing the table flowers was really important to me, so I spent a lot of time researching the best way to do that and enlisting help the day of. Napkins were not important, so I ordered them from a website and didn’t give them another thought. Although, if I could go back and do it again, I would buy them at IKEA, where you can get 100 dinner-size napkins for $1.99. So, just know what your priorities are and follow them.



Q: What projects do you think brides shouldn't DIY?

I think brides should DIY whatever they want, because all of us have different skills and talents. For example, a LOT of brides I’ve seen online have DIYed their own wedding invitations. I DIYed the engagement party invitations and the wedding programs, but they were very simple and nothing special. For the wedding invitations, I wanted something more intricate. I came across The Aerialist Press (www.theaerialistpress.com) who created the most beautiful letterpress invitations for us. I would have loved to be a bride with the creativity to DIY my own wedding invitations, but I am more a collector than a designer. Play to your strengths and it’ll be great!





Q: And lastly, where did you find such a handsome ring bearer?

Awww, that’s the easiest question of them all! My beautiful best friend married a handsome Marine, and they created one of the most handsome little boys I have ever seen. He just happened to be three years old when we got married, so obviously he was the top candidate for the job ☺ He looked SO handsome in his little suit and the pictures of him with the flower girl seriously melt my heart. So, a big shout out to Brooke & Noah for flying across the country to be a part of our big day! We love you.



Sneak peak from her photographer HERE

Thank you so much Adriana for letting us be a part of your special day! We love you and will see you again in July!