Pinterest is a dangerous place for me

I've been working feverishly throughout the house to get it looking cute. Its not finished and probably never will be but I've done some fun things. I stole many ideas from Pinterest and have lots more I'd like to try.

These are a few shots of our large master bedroom. I have more plans for this large space but don't know how much will be accomplished before the baby arrives.

Baby will be with us for the first while and later on will move into Lilia's room. I made the small pillow on the rocker which is velvet. And the cradle was a gift from a local family. Their grandfather made it. Its beautiful!

I spray painted this frame and put the collage together for David's nightstand.

I made these pillows for our couch, I don't think the pictures do them justice. The birds on the front of them are scraps I was given from an artist's studio.

I made the kitchen window valance. My kitchen is cherry themed.

I embellished these plain hand/dish towels with the same cherry fabric, red ribbon and the hanging one has the buttons. please ignore bad stove with only 2 working burners.

I made these large scrabble tiles for our family room downstairs. They are 6"x6" each. I bought a long board at Home Depot and they kindly cut it every 6 inches for me. I stained them 2x to get the right color. Then painted the letters and numbers on each before mounting them to the wall. I am so proud of this project.  Also in this photo is the hand art I did. I traced everyone's right hand then cut it out on cute paper and layered them on top of each other. When the baby arrives we'll add her hand to the mix and date it. And on the lower section of the wall are a few of Lilia's latest art projects. She's a budding artist!

Just a view of the large wall in our front room. We use this area as a computer space, library. We have a mixture of furniture in this room, new, old, and antique.

Above our large print family photo is a Brough sign i made. Another project I'm proud of. I downloaded letters, turned them black and white, cropped them to 4x6, printed them at home, put them in matching dollar store frames. I bought clearance wood at Home Depot, $0.51 a piece. Spray painted the three boards red, wood glued them together but to ensure their stability, I capped the ends with the top of a random fence board. I cut and sanded it, glued and screwed it together. The screws are black, not very noticeable but a nice small accent. Then I removed their stand from the back, gorilla glued the frames to the board, added hardware and VOILA!

Just some small things for the room. I bought the 2 lamps at a yard sale for $5 for both and sprayed their gold bases red. And the large vase used to be shiny mustard yellow and is now matte blue to match the pillow and curtain tie back accents.

I replaced the old lady poor condition lace curtains with these red sheer panels. I made the tie backs.

I also made the three pillows accenting our red recliner. Another project I'm proud of. The teal blue isn't well represented in this photo though.

The otherside of the room is more of the entry way. I turned a bookshelf on its side and made a bench and made the pillow its currently topped with. That pillow is meant for the couch but its temporary home is here. I love my gumball machine with its rod iron base (yard sale $5 find last year). and my London phone booth ($2 yard sale find last year) The collage, mirror, coat rack was an awesome $5.99 buy from Bed, Bath and Beyond this last week. Sorry but I can't resist sharing my deal finds. The painted stools in the bench/bookshelf is a temporary place for the hand painted stools from my Gpa.

Don't know how to take a pic of this sign but its a mirror from the dollar store. I put stickers on it and spray painted the whole sign red and peeled off the stickers. The phrase is a favorite scripture in our family, "If ye love me keep my commandments." John 14:15

This is a shot of Max's room. His racing stripes were a bear to paint but he loves them. My mom just found this fire engine bed for him at a yard sale and he loves it!

A shot of the rest of his room. Note the red fire engine "driving" on the racing stripes, was a gift from Lilia. She made it at school and she thought it was the perfect road for its display. Oh and his head board was $2.95 :)

Lilia's bed and butterfly wall stickers. She loves them! And her headboard was also $2.95. gotta love a deal!

Well this is a taste of the projects I've done around our house. Many less glamorous improvements but I guess you'll have to come visit us for the full effect.

Life lately

So our life has been an amazing roller coaster the past month or so. We bought and moved into a house, we all participated in a wedding (David performed the ceremony, I did a reading and Lilia was a flower girl), David returned to work as a Special Ed teacher, Lilia started preschool, I returned to teaching dance, Max is learning to cut with scissors, and my belly is rapidly growing to make room for the baby due in 6 WEEKS!

We love our house and are learning so many new skills (ie-yard work, pest control, homeownership bill pay, interior decorating, etc.) I have the fun but difficult task of keeping it clean and making it my own. I love pinterest for all the great decorating ideas....let's hope I can pull them off.

Lilia adores school. She attends Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday for 2.5 hours. She cried last Wednesday because she couldn't go to school the next day too. She is doing very well there and loves all the structure and activities. She and Max now play school quite often. She even tells him "When you're 4 you can go to my school!" He is very anxious to be big and in school like sissy.
Lilia also returned to dancing school for her 3rd year. And she was a flower girl in our lovely friend's wedding. She's getting to be a busy bee!

Max and I are best buddies while Lilia is at school. His favorite activities while she is gone is going to Shoprite, and playing at Grammy's house. He loves to help me shop for cereal and other treats at the store. Its so much easier with just one in the cart. Each day he'll ask what stores we're going to and what we need to buy. He gets upset with me if I tell him we don't need to shop. He definitely gets this from me....not Daddy.
Max is still trying to potty train. He's amazing at night and stays dry but daytime can be a struggle. I just hope we can get it mostly figured out before the baby arrives.
Max wants to be a big boy so I've let him try out safety scissors when sister is also cutting. Unfortunately he knows where I keep them and has decided to cut up one of Lilia's art projects from school. He did a nice job fringing the edges, but of course I couldn't praise him for destroying her precious item.

David's back at Hammonton Middle School and starting the year off strong. He's still the Drama advisor and they have regular club meetings. He has mostly the same students as last year in his Special Education behavior classroom. They know him, the rules and know what should be expected of them (doesn't mean they can always show that self control, but its a start). He loves his work and makes great impressions on everyone as he comes in dressed as a hippie, or busts a move on the dance floor at the school dance. He works hard and we appreciate it!
On Saturdays, he keeps busy mowing our large yard and fixing the items I've decided need attention. thankfully, not too many of those.

I am now 34 weeks pregnant with baby brough #3, a little girl. She is healthy and strong and due the week of Thanksgiving. I kinda keep loosing track of this pregnancy being so busy with the house and kids. But we are so excited to meet our angel from Heaven! The kids love to talk into my belly button and say hi to her. We have a large master bedroom, so there is plenty of space for her to be with us for the first while. After that she'll join Lilia in her room. Lilia is so excited to share her room with her sister!
Even though I'm big and waddley, I'm teaching Modern dance again. I love it, as always. Its a great creative outlet for me, as well as a good workout. I struggle with sublaxation of my pelvis (meaning where my hips connect together in the back, slip out of place and make it painful to sit, sleep, walk and move, in general). This is due to the relaxation of my ligaments while pregnant. But when dancing I'm at my best. funny how that works.

Currently I'm also trying to get this house looking good for our Open House we're having this coming Saturday. I still have quite a few pictures to hang and projects to complete. The house won't be cute enough to make a magazine, but it will reflect my life, loves and a welcome atmosphere for family and friends.

Hope you're keeping busy and recognizing the blessings in our daily lives!