Game Room Decor

When we moved into our house every wall was painted the standard contractor beige. Boring. We are slowly adding some color into the house - right now I am working on the game room. My goal with this room was to make it 'kid friendly' yet not too 'kiddish.' I want the room to look great when the adults are up there playing Wii, but at the same time I do not want the bright toys to look too out of place.

My inspiration for the room was this rug from Crate & Barrel.

I love it! It is full of color, but does not look like a kindergarten classroom.

Now onto the walls..... We already had this teal Chicago Ork poster and it matches the rug perfectly.

And keeping with the map theme, I added this bright world map.

I still need to get a couple more things.... like this wire curtain hanger from Ikea. I am going to get a couple of these and mount them on the wall and use it to display Miss A's artwork. This way I can rotate out the pieces and it will look polished and cute at the same time.

And we need some curtains and I need to paint some furniture. Decorating is a never ending process! I will post pictures once the entire room is completed.

Weekend Project

A couple weeks ago we were on our Saturday morning walk and came across a neighborhood garage sale. You never know what sort of goodies you will find, so we decided to take a look. I found this beat up chair with an awful faded denim cushion.

And, it was only $5! I had no idea what color I would paint it or what fabric I would redo the cushion with or where the chair would even go. But, for $5 it was too good to pass up.

I picked out some fabric and paint.

And now it was time to get rid of all that awful cream paint. I sanded. And sanded. And sanded.

Spray paint seemed like the best option for this chair because once I started sanding I realized the quality of the wood was not that great and I did not want to waste any more time or money on this project. I ended up doing 3 coats of paint - Krylon Blue Ocean Breeze.

After a few trigger pulls of the staple gun I had recovered the cushion and voila!

I am hooked.... I loved this little project and I also love random chairs throughout a house.

**New pictures over on Baby M***

Weekend in Little Rock

Last weekend I packed my bags and headed up to Little Rock, AR to spend the weekend with one of my best girlfriends. We met years and years ago in the hallway outside our college math class. I was wearing pink suede loafers and we started talking about those shoes... We have been best friends since that day. She was an ideal student and I was the best friend that borrowed her study guides and reviewed the note cards she had already prepared.

We spent the weekend doing absolutely nothing. And it was wonderful. We watched movies (The September Issue and Up In The Air).... We did conditioning hair treatments.... and we drank wine.

Actually, we drank wine out of her wedding crystal out on her patio while eating pizza and salad.

And that is something you can only do with someone with whom a friendship was formed over pink suede shoes.

Shark Steam Mop- Yea or Nay

Do any of you own the Shark Steam Mop?

Lately our floors have been a mess. The cat. The dog. The toddler. And a house that has almost ALL wood and tile floors. You can imagine there is something that always needs to be cleaned up.

I am thinking about getting the Shark mop, but first I want to know if it is worth the money. If you have one, do you like it?

**UPDATED** I bought the Shark Steam Mop yesterday and mopped our entire downstairs last night. It took less than 30 min and it was the easiest mopping I have ever done. There was no bucket of dirty mop water to mess with and it was a breeze.

Arboretum with friends

This week I was able to meet up with one of my friends that was in town visiting her parents. Blue Eyed Bride and I took Hudson and Miss A on a fun picnic at the Dallas Arboretum. We picked up some sandwiches at Central Market, slathered the babies in SPF 50 and we were off.

We had such a great time! The weather was perfect - we had a blast spending time together, plus the kiddos were adorable together. On the way over, A and H were in the backseat in their car seats and Miss A kept talking to Hudson - she would look over at him and yell "hey!" At one point we were all taking some pictures together and she kept putting her hand on his shoulder.

I think we each took a zillion pictures of these 2 - trying to capture the 'just right shot' is pretty difficult when you have 2 moving targets.

I hate that she lives so far away. We always have such a fun time when we are together - we can talk about anything and everything from dealing with dogs & babies to Dancing with the Stars. At least they come to Dallas throughout the year!

**Want to see some pictures of the babies faces??? Head over to Baby M. ***

Food Revolution

My latest celebrity chef crush - Jamie Oliver.

I have become addicted to his Food Revolution show and I LOVE what he is doing with the school lunch system - our kids are eating some serious crap. He has a great message and a great accent. I want to read his Food Revolution book.... Did you see when he did the chicken nugget demo? AWFUL.

I cook all the time for us and lately I have been even more concerned with additives and preservatives in our food.... You always hear to shop the perimeter of the grocery store - I am really trying to stick to it. Our grocery bills are a little higher, I have to grocery shop a little more frequently, but I know that we are eating healthy stuff.

This afternoon I even downloaded Jamie Oliver's iPhone app - 20 Minute Meals with Jamie Oliver. Looks like there are some pretty tasty recipes and he has beat Rachel Ray by 20 min. Take that RR!

My favorite recipe is one that I can make for dinner, and then eat cold for lunch the next day. This generally involves a whole wheat pasta with some veggies and feta. What is your favorite fast and healthy recipe?

Crazy Mad Skillz

My husband is a sucker for new tv shows. And I am a sucker for Food Network shoes. So, when you combine the two you get the new game show - Minute to Win It hosted by Guy Fieri. It is one of those shows than you can have on in the background while doing other things like cooking dinner or cleaning up from dinner.

The object of the show is to complete a series of "drunken college dares" each within a minute. The more you complete, the more money you win. There is this one where you have to balance 5 coke cans on their side. They each have to stay that way for 5 seconds. The cans each start off full of soda... you have to figure out how much to drink in order to get the can to balance. I felt pretty confident that I could do that.

Bam! I tried it this morning. Crazy mad skillz.

Pink and Green Easter

The Easter bunny visited our house over the weekend and left basket full of pink and green goodies for Miss A!

What exactly does the Easter bunny bring for 1 year old little girls?

Sidewalk chalk, bubbles, clothes, books, a sippy cup and plate and hair clips!

And, our little Jake is quickly becoming big Jake. Here he is at 8 weeks old.

Jake and Steve may not be best friends, but they are learning to tolerate each other.

Jake's 1st Walk

No way.

Not gonna happen.

I don't wanna.

You can't make me.

Please don't.

Aw..... no!!!

Ah.....Much better.