Birthday Inspiration via Pinterest

Today I got to spend some time finding inspiration for Melody's 2nd birthday.

Lately Melody has been learning her ABC's from a LeapFrog video we got her for Christmas. I thought it would be so cute to do an Alphabet birthday party for her and hear her say her letters all afternoon. I got excited thinking about decorating with letters all around the house and then using them later for educational use!

Here are some ideas I like for our party. Click on the links to find out more about them.

DIY birthday invitations

Printable template birthday invitation

An idea for a photo wall at the party. I would make it my own, but I love the idea!


Free printables I could hang as decorations.


Thank you Martha Stewart for this banner and game idea!


And last but not least, an idea for a cupcake cake.


Now that you have seen the ideas, I guess you will have to wait until after Melody's birthday (the end of March) to see it all come together!

In the mean time, if you have any other alphabet birthday ideas, be sure to send them my way!

Project Simplify

While I have been spending more time browsing creative ideas online lately, I have come across some amazingly inspiring blogs in the last week or so.

After having emotional chaos in my home for two months, I feel pretty desperate to make my home as peaceful as possible. I want the outside to reflect (and influence) the inside of me if at all possible. You know, the "your outside reflects your insides" kind of thing. I want there to be peace in both places.

There is something about having all of your time not belong to you for awhile that makes you realize how much time you really have when it is given back to you.

I no longer think that I don't have enough time to work on decluttering and organizing. Yes, almost every room in my house needs some serious attention. But yes, it will be well worth the effort if I give my home the attention it needs.

Enter simplemom.net.

On her website, I found her challenge to simplify one spot in your home each week for her spring cleaning she does each year. Kind of like my own challenges to declutter one spot in our home each week- except I don't have a cool button like her. :)

(imagine her cool button here, that I cannot get to work because I am not computer savvy enough :-/ )

I am going to join with simple mom and continue decluttering my house, but I will be trying to conquer bigger tasks than I was doing previously. For example, this week I will be working all week on clearing out our bedroom closet. I wanted to start somewhere else but am realizing that storage is a major issue in our 1940's house. There are three bedroom closets, one linen closet (sort of), and ZERO closets for the rest of the house. I know that if I can begin to clear the clutter in our bedroom, then as I go through the rest of the house finding things that need appropriate storage it will be nice if there is actually room to put them away.

Then there is this website: smallnotebook.org where the author's name is Rachel also.

This blog is special. I am telling you. Rachel writes with such heart- I didn't know it was possible for one person to write so many inspiring posts. Each one gives you the sense that you are gleaning a little golden nugget of timeless truth. Each time I read something, I want to put it away in a special place where I can come back and read it over and over (I guess that's why her blog is there though :) ). She has got me thinking about some storage solutions for my small house and about living frugally and with focus.

Then there is Jen over at I heart organizing. This post, made me realize that I don't just need to de-clutter things, I also need to figure out what my real problem in an area is v. just cleaning it up. If I actually find a (cheap) solution to fix the lack of organization then maybe I won't have to keep coming back to this same place of being overwhelmed by the messy trail I can't seem to help but leave behind me. Maybe I can change my messy trail to a cute organized trail... Maybe?

What areas of your home or your life need addressing? Which do you think you will address first?

Join me on Friday to see my bedroom closet all organized!

Make a Plan

Week-end chit-chat
How was your week-end? My highlights have been treating myself to a ten-minute facial mask in the shower on Saturday, getting my nails done (a $5 box of fake nails from Wal-Mart = all I can afford) and taking the time to shave my legs. (Is that a treat for anyone else?) We also had our first snow this week-end! Lots and lots of it!

Such a restful week-end has left me recharged and rejuvenated to tackle some new things that I can't wait to share with you this week. So, without further adieu...

The real post
After saying good-bye to our foster son a week and a half ago, it feels like our life has changed enormously. In all reality, it has morphed back into what it used to be... but it feels different.

One thing I really enjoyed during those 7 weeks, and even the months of preparation leading up to his arrival, was how focused we were on a specific reason for living. Each day was planned out and had purpose with specific goals, all the way down to when and how I cleaned and the types of words I used to describe certain things. If it wasn't planned that way, then we achieved so much less in our relationship with our foster son and in dealing with his specific needs. Without that plan, all hell was very likely to break loose on any given day.

The pressure in that situation was not something I enjoyed, but since he has gone, I have sincerely missed the ability to have such a great focus- such a specific plan. The type of plan where you never even wonder if you should be deviating from it. You just know that you have to keep marching forward without looking to the right or left, without looking backward.

Now that he is gone and life is no longer a daily crisis, it is much harder to stay motivated toward a goal each day. My husband and I know that our purpose is to give God glory in all things. We know that part of our plan is to have a family life that honors God in how we are married and how we raise our daughter, but that idea is still rather open ended. Wanting to give God glory doesn't exactly tell you what to do when you get out of bed on Monday morning, you know what I mean? This is especially difficult if you are like me and are very externally motivated.

In the last couple of weeks, "you have to make a plan" is a theme I keep bumping into in the voices of people around me and through the blogs I'm reading. In my heart, I feel like Someone is trying to tell me something... So last week my wonderful hubby allowed me some soul searching time to go to Barnes and Noble while he took care of the little one. While drinking coffee and doodling in a notebook, I tried to wrap my head around some things in life that I felt needed a more specific plan.

Here is what I came up with...

• Grocery Shopping- Doing this on Monday mornings (like I described here) has been working out really well. I'm going to continue making this a regular thing.
• Detail Cleaning- As I mentioned before, finding time to do what Fly Lady would call a "weekly home blessing" (bathroom cleaning, mopping, vacuuming, etc) has been difficult for me- especially since I really don't like doing it! While our foster son lived with us we had someone come do these things once a week while I grocery shopped which was amazing, but she is no longer able to help us and we are not really able to pay anyone anymore. I know I should try to do this in small little time pieces throughout the week, but if I don't do it all at once every week, it will honestly never get done. So I have come up with this solution. Mondays after Christian gets home from work is going to be Daddy-Daughter time so I can clean without the Melody underfoot. I'm not sure why I never thought of Christian watching Melody so I can get this done before, but I'm glad I have now!
  
• Date Night- Monday's watching The Voice... this may not seem exciting to you, but it is our idea of an extremely good time!
  
• Writing & Blog Time - I am giving myself permission to pursue writing more. I will be able to do this during Melody's naps and during the evenings we don't have other things scheduled (usually twice a week ish). This includes once a week planning time to help me stay focused on what topics I will be writing about and when I will be working on them.
  
• Have a Regular Bed Time (about 10pm)- I am so bad at implementing this (as evidenced by the fact that I am working on this post at 2 am), but need this structure so much. Getting enough sleep is something I really need to be doing for myself. Going to bed a little earlier will give me time to read and wind down before bed which helps me fall asleep more easily.
• Use my monthly planner- I love using a monthly planner even more than a weekly planner. Writing things down in it makes me more aware of what is going on in my life, when things need to be done and keeps me from getting over scheduled/committed.
  

I know from the surface these plans may seem arbitrary, but these simple things are what make up my life: loving my husband, caring for my family and my home (i.e. cleaning), using my creative talents and taking care of myself. When these things don't function well, I don't feel any good at being me. Just knowing I have guidelines in place for taking care of some of the more important aspects of my life allows me to feel peaceful... no, scrath that... Having guidelines makes me feel Peaceful -with a capital P- as in I am aligned with God's plan for my life. Having the basic things down gives me enough room for margin that when unexpected things are thrown our way, maybe we can, with His help, catch them gracefully. Being in that kind of state is a gift that not every family gets, but as long as we can that is the kind of place I want to strive to stay in as a family. Content in the day to day, with room to handle the unexpected.

Happy Monday everyone!

It's a Woman's Prerogative...

to change her mind... right?

The past couple of nights I have laid awake unable to fall asleep and among the countless ideas, problems and items to put on a to-do list that roam through my mind while I lay in bed, I keep coming back to the topic of the curtains in our living room.

I haven't received the swatches of dupioni silk that I ordered from The Online Fabric Store yet, and I just can't stop wondering if the whole stripes thing is going to work in our living room... or the orange thing for a matter of fact... or the fact that dupioni silk is $18/yd. I'm also worried that the silk is going to look too formal against the rest of our very not formal furnishings.

And then there is this very laid back, fun fabric that takes me back to thinking about my college days that is on sale at Jo-Ann's Fabric. A linen blend... $5.19/yd and I have a 10% off coupon for President's Day week-end. And I think it would blend right in with a new color scheme for our living room. I think it would feel fun, light-hearted and finished. Looking at this fabric just makes me smile!

Doesn't it make you smile?? I'm not sure what my husband will think about a floral print, but our living room is in desperate need of a print anyway... I also wonder what he would say if I wound up not liking them in the space. Would he be okay with giving them to someone else as a gift??? Hmmm.... probably not ;-)

I usually really dislike decorating in red also, but this print is truly making me question that!! I can just see these red floral curtains going up and hanging some punchy black and white photos on our walls, and adding some turquoise, and primary color type accents to liven up our calm light blue walls. Okay, so here is the hard part... Asking for feed back!

I would love to know your opinion about which curtains you like best.

So you don't have to scroll back to the other day's post, here is the picture again of the other option.

And here you can find what my living room (sort of) currently looks like. It is not as dark as it seems in these pictures (they were all taken at night) and of course I would switch out things like throw pillows and possibly even wall-art with the changing of the curtains. That means basically I am starting out with a clean slate again except I am keeping the blue walls.

Side note: I. heart. my. blue. walls. The color is Blue Persuasion by Olympic Paint. It is the happiest any paint color has ever made me. With the exception of maybe my daughter's nursery. Which is Tranquility by Valspar.

Okay, so lay it on me... Which do you like better? Orange stripes or red floral?

P.S. Can you believe that is how you spell "prerogative"???

Update: I went online to try to buy the red floral fabric from Joann's and I must have waited too long to make a decision. I needed 7 yards of fabric to do the windows in my living room and there were only 3 available. Now I guess I will just wait on the dupioni silk fabric swatches to get here and keep my eye out for more good deals on inspiring fabrics!