keepin' busy

My baby has been back in the N.O. for 2 weeks now. I thought that since my social calendar has been on steroids recently, I’d hardly notice but that is so far from the case. I’ve called home everyday only to find that he was busy either teaching something to or running from his cousin, beating his PawPaw in bowling on his new Wii, or pretending as if he were asleep in the car after swimming practice. And now that his camp has started up, he’s even tougher to catch up with than I am. No matter the situation, he’s so preoccupied that he abruptly ends our telephone conversation with an “I love you too, bye” whether I tell him that I love him or not.

So initially, I thought that I’d make a list of home improvement projects that I wanted to tackle while he was gone. Such as…

1. Tile a backsplash
2. Create a little garden around my mailbox
3. Clean out J’s bedroom (dispose of old workbooks, recycling projects, and toys)
4. Paint both bathrooms
5. Have the debris from the cut down trees removed and mulch around my single tree in my front yard
6. Figure out how to create an indoor awning for my kitchen bay window (admittedly, THIS project intimidates the heck outta me!)

When my dad was here, we got A LOT accomplished.

We stained my front porch…

Seriously, I am doing work on the other side.

And the finished product is...

Unfortunately, the wrought iron bistro set that I wanted from Target has been discontinued. The price was right but it cost $70 to ship and I wasn't having that! So instead, I let it slip through my fingers and now I'm kinda bummed. My porch shall go naked another summer. Anyways...

I painted my bedroom and I love, Love, LOVE this color.

At first, I was looking for a more soothing blue but when I saw this I had to have it. Sometimes I find myself lying awake and staring at it…or that could possibly be b/c it has been hot as Hades in my bedroom lately. So installing a ceiling fan may be #7, but who knows.

And the sight of my chocolate wall from my bedside turns me on even when I don't have a man in there. In fact, I'm getting tingly right now...moving right along.

I compromised with J and painted an accent wall in his room. He wanted all of the walls to be navy blue, but I just wasn’t having it. The rest was done in this "Pita Bread" color.

I am SO NOT looking forward to cleaning this organized chaos that is J's room.

So I was off to a good start and thought that completing these other projects would be a breeze. That is until I get a text or a call and head out of the door. I realized that 30 looks GREAT on me but I can’t hang with young people too much…they about killed me on Friday. I danced with this youngun, who would not let me sit down. I was literally laying over the speaker trying to catch my breath...and this dude JUST had his appendix taken out. GEEZ!!! That's when I realized that I should probably go home and do another project, lol.

I was looking around my country cottage and I thought DAYUM, I got a lot of colors in this piece! My floor plan is a little funny, so you're able to see 10 different rooms when you walk through the door and it's hard to decorate around that unless you do the same safe monotone decorating.

Obviously, I had an overactive imagination as a child!

And I can prove it! Here are a few pics of the dilapidated popsickle stick house that I built when I was 11 or 12 y/o. I am so shocked that THESE pictures were not destroyed by the storm.

I forgot that I made a garage...and the door actually went up by a string, lol. My God, I had too much time on my hands!

This was well before I discovered the wonder that is balsa wood...oh, and the wonder of some architectural training in college, lol.

I even went so far as to go in the garage at my house and try to build the tools that I saw. There is my wheelbarrow, edger, and lawnmower. Geez!

And once again, every room is a different color...and those trash cans by the garage are coffee creamer cups that I "borrowed" from Sho.ney's. Thank God that I work with structural eng.ineers as well!

The red thing in the front is a vacuum cleaner, I believe. And I think that I cut the name brand detergent logos from coupons that I saw in the paper and put them on small plastic bottles that I jacked from one of my Bar.bie houses.

And here is one of the 3 toilets that wreaked much havoc on my clothes and the carpet as I cut up the popsickle sticks.

And this would be the inside of the poolhouse.

So I guess that my son got his desire to make projects out of household trash honestly. Hmmm...I wonder what his house will look like one day. I'm sure that his future wife would be elated to have his decor expertise, lol. Hell, I wonder how I'm going to have to change my style once I get married...perish the thought!