Personalized Home Decorating on a Budget

If you know me, you know I LOVE a good deal. Who doesn't?!

And if you know me really well, you know that I LOVE Walgreens.

In fact, when Jayden was in kindergarten, he did an 'all about mommy' worksheet and he said Walgreens was my favorite store.

He knows me well.

I check the Walgreens photo site weekly to see what the deals are.

I recently discovered a new product, a Wood Hanger Board Print.  

Oh this looks cute!

We moved into a new home in August and our hallway was bare.

Not a single thing on the wall except for a clock at the end.

I painted our home a clean shade of white which brightens up the home and creates warmth. However, the plain white walls were a bit sad looking for me.

I needed to hang something so I decided to give the Wood Hanger Board Print a try.

BORING!

The Walgreens Photo site is extremely easy to use. You upload your photos and add the photos to the project you choose.  It's really that easy.

Oh and did I mention they have same day pickup?!

That truly speaks to my impatient heart.  :) 

I decided to make 4 of these. These are normally 29.99 but they were 60% off.  

So that's 29.99 X 4 = $119.96

$119.96 X.40 = $47.98

I saved $71.98!!!

To hang the photos I decided on these: 

https://amzn.to/2BLmjm9

Voila! Much better!

The final price was $47.98 + 15.99 = 63.97 (plus taxes of course).

NOT BAD!

Go ahead, people. Get obsessed with Walgreens. It's fun!

And whatever you do, do NOT pay full price. 

Happy decorating!

Me too.

When I first saw the post on Facebook about sexual harassment and sexual assault, I froze.  

Me too.

Both. 

Throughout the day I saw more and more 'me too' posts.  SO MANY people have experienced either sexual harassment or sexual assault or both.  But we are not talking about it.  It's not coming up in conversation.  It's all pushed aside.  

I have barely talked about my sexual assault in it's entirety.  My husband knows the entire story.  I think that's it.  Until now.  Over 15 years later it is so far in the past that I am more emotionally removed from it and can write about it.  

When I told my husband about this, I described it as an incident in which I was almost raped.  For some reason I didn't want to label it as sexual assault.  If you are assaulted, you are a victim of assault.  

I was 20 years old.  It was spring time. My friend and I were enjoying the nice weather.  We had been drinking and playing basketball at her boyfriends house.  Her boyfriend invited some people over to hang out.  There were probably about 10-12 people there.  We played flip cup which was getting me more and more drunk.  I was starting to get to the point of knowing I had way too much so I told her boyfriend I needed to lay down.  He showed me to a room and I laid down.

The next thing I can remember is someone groping me and kissing me even though I was saying no repeatedly.  

It was her boyfriend's 'friend'.  A guy I didn't know and barely interacted with.  I probably spoke 2 words to this guy. But here he was trying to take advantage of me. He locked the door.  I don't know how long he assaulted me for but when it was happening it seemed like forever.  This guy was strong and I was powerless.  

Somehow my friend and her boyfriend got in the room.  Since it was a small party I am assuming they figured out that the dude was not around and wondered where he could be. I remember them shouting and knocking on the door telling him to open it.  To this day I don't know if the guy opened the door or if my friend and her boyfriend managed to get in on their own. 

Regardless, they saved me from being raped. 

Here I was, 20 years old, having a good time with my friends and enjoying myself at a small gathering.  I thought that was a safe environment. There was so little interaction with this guy that there were no warning signs.

It just happened.  

I have no doubt in my mind that he would have raped me if it wasn't for my friend and her boyfriend looking out for me.

Thank you if you're reading this. 

After it happened, I felt embarrassed and ashamed.  I have no idea why.  I did nothing wrong.  The guy was a sleaze bag piece of shit and he sexually assaulted me.  I consider myself lucky because I wasn't raped (that statement is a sad reflection of our society). I had people looking out for me.  Many others aren't lucky. 

Look around.  Most likely someone you know and love has been sexually assaulted.  

so, yea, me too. 

Why Our Son is Wearing a Helmet

Technically, it's NOT a helmet.  It just looks like a helmet.  

It's a cranial band called DOC Band.  It treats Plagiocephaly (pronounced play-jee-oh-sef-uh-lee) which is a fancy word for flat head syndrome.  

Alexander has a flat spot on the back of his head on the right.  

Alexander's head is on the right.  

The DOC Band weighs less than 6oz.  Since he's young, he should only have to wear it 6-9 weeks.  He wears it 23 hours a day.  

What causes this?  A lot of factors can cause flat spots.  Back sleeping often cases flat spots but they typically round out after time. My older son, Jayden, had a flat spot directly on the back of his from back sleeping but as he grew the flat spot got smaller. 

In Alexander's case, most likely his flat spot was from being breech.  He was breech until 38 weeks so he spent a good bit of time in my ribs.

Another likely cause is torticollis.  The term torticollis means twist neck.  In babies, its the tightening of neck muscles which makes the baby turn their head to one side, favoring a particular side, which a lot of times leads to having a flat spot on one side.  Alexander has discomfort turning his head to the left so he favors looking to the right which is why the flat spot is on the right.  

Torticollis can be caused by positioning in womb or a traumatic delivery.  I wouldn't say he had a traumatic delivery but he did come rather quickly after starting to push (less than 5 minutes) and the cord was wrapped around his neck.  He was also shifted from breech to head down position a week before delivery. Maybe his neck twisted a bit when he was turned around.  We don't have definite answers.  The important thing is treatment.  
Alexander goes to physical therapy once a week to help stretch his neck and work on his neck and trunk strength.  He's improving everyday and getting stronger.

Don't panic parents.  Most of the companies that make these bands provide a free evaluation and you must be intermediate to severe for them to recommend the band.  Alexander was in the severe category.  

This does not cause any brain damage.  Once this is corrected, he should not have any long term effects from it.  

In general, one thing that helps flat spots is tummy time. 

LOTS of it.  

Tips for Tummy Time: don't start with the baby flat on tummy on the floor.  That is the most difficult tummy time position.  Instead, try putting baby on a boppy pillow on the couch beside you (supervised of course).  This way your baby is eye level with you and can continue to look around at his familiar environment, including mommy and daddy's face.   

Also, using a mirror like this in front of baby encourages him to lift his head.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002J4U8M0/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_wbTlzbXYZCMP5

You can also do tummy time on an exercise ball.  There are a lot of youtube videos that show how to position baby on the exercise ball. 

-Nate and Dana Show 

A Bright Retro Makeover

I never knew how much I loved vintage items until moving into this house.

I love the character.  I love the history.  And most importantly, I love the blank canvas.  

It's an opportunity to put my personal touch on an item and get the

ever-so-satisfying before and after.

 

Painting furniture is a lot different from painting walls so I started small to get my feet wet. 

 

I repainted 2 coffee tables. 

 

 

And then I took on this beast:

I found this on Craigslist.

 

Here it is in the dining room. 

It looked alright but it needed something to brighten it up.

 It was too dark. The simple, cheap, but tedious solution was paint. 

 

Here's what I used:

Valspar furniture paint (color is 'du jour')

Tack Cloth

3M Sandblast Pro sandpaper (100 medium)

one paint brush

one small paint roller

 

 

Nate took off all the doors and removed the magnetic hardware.

 

 Then I sanded all of the surfaces that I would be painting.  NOTE: the Valspar furniture paint states that sanding is not necessary.  I firmly believe that if it sounds too good to be true, then it is, so I sanded.  (Valspar, I'm willing to give it a try...I'll skip the sanding...on a smaller future project). 

 

After sanding I used a hand towel to wipe down the dust.

 

Then I used tack cloth to remove any excess grime.

 

 

Ewwww grime.  You can see why this step is so important.

 

I painted 4 coats on this. 

 

Notice that we removed the back of the china cabinet top....

 

....and that's because I wanted to paint it a different color.

Tip: paint the back of the backing. The side that is inside the china cabinet is shiny finished surface which makes it the enemy. You want the dull rough unfinished side.

 

 

 Nate painted 4 coats on this.

 

And I did 4 coats on this.

NOTE: you have to wait 8-12 hours between coats.

 

YAY! putting it back together!

 

Nate putting the doors back on.

 

TAHHH DAHHHH!

 

so happy and bright :)

 

Funky retro. :)

 

Of course I have before and afters...

 

you guys know I live for the before and after. ;)

 

 

 

Fugly to Fabulous Air Vent

From day 1 this vent has bothered Nate and me. 
It's hideous. It's fugly (blogger wants me to believe that fugly is not a word....oh silly blogger).

 

We could see right inside the vent even if we flipped it around.  

I looked on the internet for prettier vent covers and found several.  However, spending $200 on a vent cover did NOT seem worth it.  So we made our own.  Here is how we did it....

First, here is a list of supplies:

Wood screws

Cloverleaf aluminum sheet

Wood molding

Flat phillips wood screws

Corner braces

spray paint

We purchased the aluminum sheet from amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000LNJYOE/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Corner braces

wood screws

 

We cut the aluminum sheet and made it smaller.  

Then we cut the trim for the outside.  
(Beer is a must for any project--add that to the supply list)

We used the fugly vent as guide.

 

Next, we screwed on the corner brackets.

Then we used a staple gun to put the aluminum sheet in place.

We didn't put screws in the inner corner holes
of the bracket because placing screws so close to 
the edge of the wood might cause splitting/cracking.

Almost done.

Now use my favorite item in the whole crafty-do-it-yourself world...
SPRAY PAINT!

and there it is!

way better. :)

fugly to fabulous.