Babies R Us Registry Experience - Pre Shower Edition

Having a baby is so exciting, it is the most thrilling... and terrifying.... thing that has ever happened to me. I'm such a price concious person in the first place that the idea that I'll need to have ALL THE THINGS very soon gave me more than a little anxiety. Thankfully there is a sweet gesture in the world today known as "THE BABY SHOWER."

We were so so blessed with so so many gifts and much needed items from our friends and family during our wedding showers that I can't wait to see what they pull out of their hats for our long awaited baby girl! But as much as it gives me price anxiety at the thought of MYSELF spending all the money on all the things, it gives me even more to know that someone else is going to have to fork out big money on my behalf.

So I purposed in my mind, as soon as I found out I was pregnant, and that this one was gonna stick, that I wanted to be a "simple mama." I didn't want to overwhelm my daughter, myself, or my husband with a whole lot of unneeded things. I want to bring this little girl into the world with what she NEEDS. I didn't have everything as a child, and I look back at my childhood as probably the absolute best any kid could ever have had. We lived in an old remodeled farm house, my Mom stayed home. We raised a garden because in truth we could barely afford food. My Mom made all my clothes, and what she didn't make she bought second hand. Things were TIGHT for my family but I had no idea I wasn't the richest girl in the world. It was an ideallic childhood, and I want the same for my child. So I deciced I wanted the basic things and if anything else came along, ok. I also didn't want to register for any particular brand of item that wasn't readily available in my area. I didn't want to fall in love with a certain brand of wipes that I couldn't buy at the Dollar General down the road from my house. I don't want to drive 40 minutes into town to buy wipes every other whipstitch. I want to approach this as smart as I possibly can and not make things hard on myself just to say I'm using the baby dolphin spit wipes.

After being engulfed by the baby things on Amazon, I decided I wanted to give their registry system a shot. I'd had an old girl friend from my elementary school days say that she loved using them and that it was so easy for people that didn't know what to buy or couldn't take time to buy off of the registry to just get her an Amazon gift card. Setting up the registry was easy. Adding items to it was easy. The one thing that was tough was that I wasn't actually touching and feeling the items I was registering for, but I figured in the long run it really wouldn't matter. If something was ranked fairly high, I would trust other consumers opinions and just go for it. (So far, several items have been purchased and one has been sent directly to my home, and it's been as easy as pie!)

I also decided that for my non-online shopping friends that I would register with Babies R Us. I had originally planned to register at Target as well, but in my small southern town there is still a lot of up in the air about the Target bathroom situation. Personally I don't care. I don't use a public bathroom unless I have to and can't hold it. And the absolute truth be told, after registering at Amazon, I knew I wouldn't need Target.

So off I go with my Mom on a Monday morning to Babies R Us to get registered.

We walk in and grab a cart and walk back to the registry desk. The girl that got us started was phenominal. She had so much information and got us all squared away with what we needed to get started. She advised us to put A LOT of things on our registry. She said that so many people came in and only put 30 or 40 things on their registry, but registries were meant to have lots of variety. So we took that advice.

We spent a little over 5 hours meticulously wandering the isles of the store, taking things out, touching them, testing them, comparing them. I pushed a stroller up and down the isle for about 10 minutes before deciding it was the one I wanted. I combed through every item on every shelf and determied whether I actually NEEDED it or whether it was just a flighty thing. I did register for some flighty things, but most of what went on the registry was something that I would NEED at some point or another as my daughter grows. Certain items would pop up on the scanner as being "low in quantity" so we had to scan them again, as it prompted us. Otherwise the scanning part was a dream. We were told to scan actual item barcodes and not the barcodes on the wall because often times things are moved around and put in the wrong place. It made sense and so I did as I was told.


After we finally finished, me 7 months pregnant, my Mom a diabetic, we were both thirsty, hungry and exhausted. So we waddled our way back to the registry desk to finalize everything. No one was there, but we were more than happy to sit down and wait. It was about 5minutes before anyone walked past us.

His name was Zim. I remember it because that can't be a real name and he didn't have a clue what he was doing. He asked us if we needed any help and we said that we were just waiting to finish up a registry. He comes and plops down at the computer in front of us and we hand him the scanner. He presses a button and says "Oh wow. Looks like 212 items have already been purchased!" ............... *cricket, cricket*....... I'm stumped, and look at my Mom. She says "Nooooo." Dragging that oh sound out. "We just registered for all those things." "Says that 212 items on the list have been purchased." I shake my head and lean forward. "No that can't be. I just scanned all those things today. I want to finalize the registry so that people can start buying off of it." He says it AGAIN! I AGAIN tell him that that's impossible. That this is MY baby registry, for MY baby. I just scanned half the store and there is NO WAY that anyone could have purchased ONE item for me, let alone 212. He FINALLY seems to comprehend. He plugs the scanner into the computer, all the info uploads and he asks us if we wants a print out. We say yes, He clicks the print button, then proclaims "crap, it's locked up." Finally, after hitting the button 9 more times, the printer starts to print.

At last, someone that knows their butt from a hole in the ground walks up and asks him what he's doing. This is totally NOT something he is qualified to do. He had been pushing a large flat of boxes back to the back room when he'd seen us. My guess is he is muscle, and no more at that store. Maybe in the toy department, but certainly not in the baby department. She takes over. She didn't seem to be very pleased at all, whether it was with him, or us, or the fact that she was at work, IDK. But nevertheless, she stepped in and Zim was gone. It was she that noticed that he'd printed the registry 9 times. And at that point it was 28 pages. (At that point? you ask. Just wait.) That's 252 pages, btw. She gets the printer to stop printing, cancels the job, and returns her attention to our registry.

At one point she asks us, "did you scan a whole bunch of teethers?" I responded with yes because I figure you can't have too many, and once they're out of the teething stage those things can be used as regular toys. She says "ok, cause there's a couple on the registry but a whole bunch out here that show up but aren't on. Do you want me to put them on?" I nodded and said yes, because I scanned like 14 teethers. To me, that's a lot. She didn't give me specific numbers, just said "a whole bunch."  She asked the same about recieveing blankets. We'd registered for all different weights of blankets. My daughter will be born in September and it will still be HOT in KY. But then the temperature will change soon after in October and November and get even colder in December and January before it finally starts to act like it wants to warm up in February and March. The weather around here is so unpredictable that I didn't want to be caught with just thin blankets when it gets to be 0 degrees outside. So I said, yes. We had. She clicked a button. After she finished she asked if we had any questions. We asked about the Endless Earnings program again to clarify how that works, sounds too good to be true so it probably is, and then asked for a print out. 40 pages later I am mortified at the amount of stuff on the registry. I ask if that's common, and the girl says that that is the way they WANT to see registries. The more the better, just like the girl told us that morning. Ok then. She said that our registry looked pretty "ideal." I'm pretty sure she was blowing smoke up my butt.

So it looked like we were finished. We took our goody bag (wasn't a lot of goodies IMO, a weird MAM brand bottle and pacifier and a few pamphlets and very few coupons) and high tailed it to O'Charley's to eat. While we were there I texted my best friend and asked her to get online and look over the BRU registry as a third set of eyes and see if we'd forgotten anything. (They did give us a checklist of what we "needed" and we went by that list and tweaked it to fit our specific needs.) She said she would and would get back to me.

Hours later, I get home and look online. OMG the mess.... The best way I can describe it is like this.... if I registered for a sippy cup in pink, it appeared on my registry in pink, purple, blue, yellow, green and orange. If I registered for the strawberry shaped teether, it appeared on the registry also in the blueberry shape, the grape shape, the pineapple shape, the orange shape and the banana shape. It was as if I had registered for the entire inventory of certain items. I had already been given a blue bottle brush, so I registered for a pink one as a back up. On the registry was the pink brush, two blue ones, the orange one, the purple one and the green one. I immediately texted my best friend and she said she noticed that and it had tipped her off that someone was wrong. She said it didn't seem like me at all to want or need 7 bottle brushes! If I had registered for any item that was "girl" specific, it appeared on the registry in the girl form, as well as for boys and the neutrals. Blankets of varying weights appeared in all possible color combinations. I've never seen such a mess in my LIFE!

All I could determine was that when the girl got "clicky" at the end, she added ALL THE THINGS to the registry. A few items showed up as N/A on the registry and some of them were larger items like an activity mat. So I had to take the item number, plug it into their search engine, find it online and re-register for it. I also had to go through the list item by item and delete all the duplicates. I started at 9 in the morning and didn't finish until 9 at night. I was so exhausted and exasperated by the end of it all.


With our showers just a few days away, my BRU registry still isn't showing that any items have been purchased. Maybe they haven't. So I can't say for sure at this time whether or not this is another BRU problem or not. Amazon is wonderful about not only alerting me when something has been purchased but telling me who has purchased it so I can get started on my thank you cards. We've even already had a gift delivered to our house! I am VERY pleased with Amazon thus far, and NOT SO PLEASED with Babies R Us. The scanning experiance was fun, and I enjoyed getting to do it. I liked touching all the things that my baby will be using and getting a feel for them as a first time Mom to be. But everything after that has been not so nice.


Here's to hoping that everything works out alright and that they are actually taking the items off of my registry when people buy them, otherwise their Endless Earnings program has been shot in the foot. I will update once the showers have wrapped up (July 24th and August 8th are our shower days!) and let you know how it all ended up. I'm excited about it, I'm so happy to finally be at the stage where it's shower appropriate. I'm happy to know that my baby girl is as loved by our friends and family as she is by us.


But for now, if you have the option to register at Buy Buy Baby, I say go for it. There isn't a physical store close enough to us for us to do that, but I imagine they don't put the entire stores inventory on someones registry and leave it for them to clean up on their own.

Project: Keep Busy ~ Life Updates! (Photo Heavy)

First off, let me just take a second to thank all of my friends and family that have been so wonderful to us during our time of loss. I seriously wouldn't have made it through those dark first days without the wonderful women in my life texting, calling, and stopping by with food. I've learned more than once in my life that it's exactly like that song says, "you find out who your friends are," when something like this happens. So thank you all, and I love you so dearly. I'll never forget your kindness to us.

 As my friend said when she dropped these goodies off: "There are very few problems in life that ice cream and Reese's can't solve."

This has been my motto ever since we found out about the miscarriage. I have no power to change any of this at all, the best I can do it let it be. When I find myself in times of trouble, let it be.

Later on that week I had to go back to my Doctor for more blood work and my sweet Mama made it a "day" for us, we ended up at Hobby Lobby where I found this plate bracelet (the band actually came from Michael's, but they had a wide variety at HL too). It's a quote from the book of Joshua in the Bible. I need this as a constant reminder. Not just about the miscarriage, but about lots of other things in my life, the anxieties and the depressions that sneak up on me... I wear this every single day, and I love it.

And I made a little time to pamper myself. I sent this goofy picture to my best friend and she just giggled. She wasn't sure what was sillier, the green face or the big glasses ON the green face! #blindgirlproblems


Ok, moving on to happier bits. Well, busier, in any case.

I've been pretty set on a few things since we found out about our miscarriage. First thing was myself. I decided to really take care of myself, enjoy not being pregnant. I know that sounds horrible. I know. But I've spent so much of the last 3 years hating myself for not being pregnant that I decided to take advantage of the situation. Tackle all the things I'd been putting of because I was either punishing myself or I thought I was pregnant - it was a vicious cycle every month. I've been back to my old "all of nothing" habits, late night cleaning sessions, crazy books, binge watching tv shows until the wee hours of the morning. And on top of it all, I've lost 17 pounds! That is pure insanity to me. I started gaining weight in college, but just the "freshman 15," and I managed to get it back off for our wedding with a LOT of effort, but it came off enough to where my dress did not have to be altered in the waist to become bigger. It seems like it was no time after we were married that the weight started packing back on, and this time I couldn't take it back off, and my eating habits and exercising habits hadn't changed at all. I won't say the number that I got up to, because it's still really embarrassing, even though there was a medical reason why I was gaining so quickly. After the PCOS diagnosis, it all made sense. So when my doctor put me on Metformin, she said it helped a lot for certain women in losing weight. Not gonna lie, I sat there in her office, clasped my little Southern Belle hands in front of my chest, gazed up towards the Heavens and said "please, Lord."


This side by side shows me before and after (at just 15 pounds down). Before was back in the late summer, just before I started Metformin. And this was 11/13 - the day before my Birthday, when Mom and I took our pre-buying trip to the hardware store. Yes, that's a thing, and I'll 'splain more in a bit.

Ok, I'll be the first to admit that the Je T'aime sweater might be a tad adolescent. But I march to the beat of my own drummer. I bought it two years ago at Kohl's without trying it on first, and I was so bummed when I got it home and tried it on and it was too small. I shoved it into my sweater drawer and said "if I can ever lose weight I'll wear this." BOOM. I was so tickled with myself! I can really tell the difference in my face in these two pictures. I'm hoping to drop another 10 pounds by Valentine's Day! I saw Valentine's cause, ain't nobody got time for a diet in November and December. Am I right?

 My 26th birthday was on the 14th, but we celebrated with our families after church on the 15th. We decided to go to Longhorn Steakhouse. Truth be told, the Metformin has changed my appetite so much that I honestly eat like a bird. I eat about a third of everything on my plate. IDK how I'm gonna survive Thanksgiving. So, I basically let our niece choose where we went. She said Longhorn, I said ok. Above is me with my sweetheart. This guy has been my ROCK and my STRENGTH for the past few weeks. We've really pulled together and clung together to help get each other through this, and I feel like we are stronger now than we ever have been. I don't know what I could do without him, and I still haven't figured out what I did to deserve him.

It was pretty dang chilly that day, but not cold like it is today. And because I've dropped some weight, I've been digging through my closet for things that I can't/won't/haven't worn in a while.

Now, please pardon the mess on the mirror. I promise I cleaned it the night before, I guess I was just too tired to notice I forgot to wipe that spot off! *WHOOPS* #housewifefail. But this dress was actually my Easter Dress. I bought it earlier in the year from Target because I loved the shape of it, the way it flared out at my hips. Again, I didn't try it on in the store and when I got home it was WAY too short. But I felt like it would be really cute with leggings, so I hung it in the back of the closet to wait for fall and winter. I paired it with navy leggings, a brown belt to match my brown boots (my only boots, I love them and they fit. I have a funky shaped leg after being so sick with MRSA when I was a teen that boots, unless I special order, are hard to come by) and then a navy sweater that I sort of forgot I had. I've been wearing it for years as a shirt, fully buttoned up, but I love it unbuttoned. #shopwhatchagot Everyone LOVED this outfit, Aaron said I looked gorgeous, so it got an A+ in my book, and it will probably be my Thanksgiving outfit because it's so forgiving!

Here's a side by side of then and now. My how we've changed! We've each lost 10 pounds in hair alone! ;) (I have a chin. That's nuts. I haven't been able to SEE my chin in a photo since I was 15. #metformindietplan)

HERE'S WHERE THE FUN BEGINS!

So, after my birthday money came in, I was ready to get to work on my house! As you probably know if you've been here for a minute, I haven't been wild about the color of my living room and hallway. Never. When we chose the color (Sherwin-Williams "Pottery Urn")  we were planning on decorating our house in the "primitive" style. It's a very very country look, and I was raised in a home that has primitive accents to it. My Mom made a comment one time that my home is more "Southern Living" and her's is more "Country Living." And she's totally right. The Pottery Urn was perfect against all the prim stuff I was looking at. But then we found the rug and everything changed. 

See the rug? We found it at Lowe's. It had every single paint color in our house on it and we loved it. So we had to rearrange our decor theme so that it would match with the feel of that rug. 

Moving on.... I'm spending way too much time on the rug. 

Our living room has looked mostly like this as long as we've lived here. The printed rug is what is in the room currently, and much of the decor elements have changed. But stay with me here.

 You get to see this years tree soon! Keep reading!!! And it's preeeeeeeetty!

I knew I NEEDED to lighten the walls up. I had painted everything white that I could, bought white curtains and hung up, had white photos hanging on the walls. But still, it felt dark in my living room, and I didn't like it. So, I decided that, to save on money, cause you all know that I don't do anything unless it's in the budget, I would wait until my birthday, when I got all my birthday money, and put it towards paint. That way no money would come out of our account at all. Aaron was totally on board with that. I may have mentioned it on here before, but he's great about me and my "projects." He works all day long every day (usually 8 - 10 hours a day), so he always says "as long as you are happy and don't hate me for not being able to help, and you don't hurt yourself, go for it." Thankfully I have a Mom who can do anything, literally anything. She helped us 6 years ago, every night for three months while we worked turning this place into our home, painting walls, and trim and ceilings and replacing countertops and lighting fixtures and hot water heaters, etc etc. We couldn't have done it without her. And she was still working full time too! These days, she has rightfully earned her retirement. She could probably still be working, but she had a really scary episode in January with her heart and esophagus, so I pretty much bullied her into retirement. It suits her so well. So, getting back on track, I gave my ol' Mama a call and told her what I wanted to do. Plus, she is pretty awesome about speaking her mind. If something looks stupid, she says so. 

My plan was, paint the walls a really super light greige color (grey/beige), new window treatments (still waiting on them to arrive, bummer), painting and rearranging all photographs hanging on my walls. She thought it was great. So on the 13th, we took a pre-planning trip to the hardware store. We scouted out the price for paint, the price for my curtains, we got some new decor items and we got a few Christmas decor items... not sure how that happened. They sort of just fell into our cart at Michael's. *shrugs*

Here's how it all worked out.

At 8am on Monday the 16th, Mom picked me up and we drove into town to the Ace Hardware. Let me take a minute to give them a plug. I've got anxiety problems. I've mentioned it before but not everyone in my life knows about it. Anyway, going to big stores like Lowe's or Home Depot nearly sends me into a panic attack. They're so big and so many people are there. At Ace, it's smaller, and they're is a steady stream of a few people in there at all times. A much smaller crowd that I can handle. Plus at Lowe's you have to stand at the paint counter for three days before anyone will help you. At Ace Hardware, we went in on Friday to check for paint samples and price check and get our plan together. We spoke to a nice lady at the paint counter who answered all of our questions and put our minds at ease for the weekend. On Monday when we bounced up in the place with no makeup on, dirty pulled back hair and painting clothes on, the same girl was there, remembered us, and remembered the color we had chosen and what brand of paint we decided to go with. I was amazed. Ace Hardware has all my business from now on. We ended up buying five gallons... which ended up being WAY MORE than we needed, but we have a plan for the leftover paint....

The hard part was moving my entertainment center. We knew it would be. We had planned ahead for this, remember. We decided that once we moved it out, the wall behind it got ONE coat of paint and then the entertainment center got moved back into place. It took us an hour to get it moved, an inch at a time, but we moved it out to where a ladder could go behind it. And then we took a break. :)

I suppose telling you what brand and color of paint I got would help.

Here's the swatch up against my kitchen cabinets and countertops.... It's an ACE exclusive Valspar color called "Brushed Cotton." It's the lightest greige you've ever laid your eyes on. Unless you've got it held up to a true white, you think it's white. Honestly I didn't think it would be as light as it turned out to be, but I really do love it. We ended up choosing the ACE brand paint as well. It's called ROYAL, and we were really pleased with it's performance, of course we got the paint and primer in one and in a lot of places we only needed one coat. Highly recommend.

Painting commenced around 10:30 that morning. My house was a disaster, Tabby was very confused, and Mom and I were jamming to 60's music. (see how the end piece of the E.Ctr comes off? That was very handy.)

Now our original plans were to take it a section at a time a day at a time. The "sitting area" of the living room comes first. Then the next day do the "entry/music" area. Then the next day do the hall. If we had enough paint left over, we would also paint the kitchen to match.

 The paint went on so easily we were halfway done with the hall before we even realized it! I trim, Mom rolls. It's a good arrangement. I have a steady hand for trimming and she doesn't anymore, I can't roll a wall to save my life, she can. She said something during painting that warmed my heart. My grandpa, her Dad, was a painter. He was a little bit of everything, actually -train conductor, solider, butcher, cook, painter etc.-, but for a long chunk of time, he was a sign painter. And he had stencils for a lot of his lettering, but a lot of it he did free hand, because his hands were so steady. Well, I was up on the ladder and she said "Your Grandpa would be so proud of the way you trim. Steady hands, just like his." I wanted to cry into my paint bucket.

I loved how my blue front door was now a focal point in the room. I kept joking that it was saying "BAM!"

 Thankfully, just as Aaron was getting home from work with our supper in hand (he brought us supper both days, y'all!) we were trying to move the E.Ctr back into place, and we were having trouble. Apparently my LR floor isn't super level. So we borrowed his muscle. I am IN LOVE with how it looks on that light wall. Before it, the floor, and the tops of the coffee table and end tables all sort of blended together. Now each is it's own individual piece!

That night, after Mom went home, I texted her this photo. The paint looked GREY! It looks different in different lights, and I think that's why I love it.

The next morning one of Aaron's sisters texted me asking me for an update, so I sent her the above photo, nothing was back on the walls, but all the furniture was back in place.

Here are a couple of the finished room.

 I chalk painted 24 picture frames for this gallery wall. It took Mom and I a little over 2 hours to get it all placed right and spaced out and hung up, but it's honestly one of my favorite parts of the new re-do.

 Simplified this area. Took down the wedding gallery and put the "Family Rules" up there. I'm on the hunt for something along the same lines but a bit brighter. Like I said earlier, everything I bought for so long was white because I was trying to lighten up the house. She's plenty light now! Bring on the color!

Have I told y'all the story about this picture? Mom has one exactly like it hanging over her bed. It's a Don Ensor print, and if you don't know, it's a magnolia. Super southern, right? yes.  So I'd been looking on line for one to buy but they're expensive. Mom got hers on eBay for  a steal, but I was having no such luck. During the last play I did, DW Live! Reloaded, we were set design hunting at a lady's apartment. This lady has been a part of every play I've ever done, and I love her so so dearly and was grateful to even be asked into her home. She's a Mississippi Belle, a for real live debutante, and after we searched her apartment for set pieces, she took us down into her storage unit. When my friend, the director, pulled this (frame and all) our of the storage unit, I nearly went to my knees. I told the lady that Mama had one just like it and I how much I loved it. I never said I wanted one. She took my hand and said "sweetheart if you love it that much, take it with you. You have to have it." I remember how all the air went out of that room for a minute as me, and my two girlfriends all stared at each other. The one was sitting on the ground with her eyes bugged out and the other who was standing next to me grabbed my hand in shock! I told her no, no, that I couldn't do that. She kept insisting, and almost started bullying me into it. I begged her to let me pay her for it. She wouldn't hear of it. I begged her to let me pay for the FRAME, cause she mentioned she had well over $700 in the frame alone. She wouldn't take any of my begging. She took my hand in one hand and cupped my cheek with the other and said "Darling, this print is going to sit right here in this storage unit until I die. I'm not going to hang it up anywhere in my apartment ever. I want you to have it because you love it. And it needs someone to love it. Don't hurt my feelings and not take it.you dearly." (That's a direct quote. I'll never forget it as long as I live.) I cried and gave in. I still can't believe it. Every time I walk past it I say "thank you" to the little ol' lady that loves me dearly. 

So it took one day to do the entire living room and hallway. We were shocked. So, we decided that with all the extra paint we had we may as well paint the kitchen to match. Honestly, you can't really tell a difference in the tone of the room, but the yellow-ness of the walls is gone. And I love it. It definitely looks more grey in the kitchen than it does in the LR.

STILL waiting on my cafe-tier curtains. I ordered them from Linens n Things online.... who else thought they were COMPLETELY out of business? I've not had a good experience so far. These kitchen valances are by Lorraine Home in the Adirondack Blue. Got them from Amazon. When I went back to order the cafe sets, they didn't have them in blue. But a Google search said Linens n Things did. I was shocked, but there they were, so I ordered them. On 11/10. Should have been here at the beginning of the next week, didn't ship until YESTERDAY. Oh well. What can you do? Lesson learned.

I LOVE how bright and crisp everything looks. But things were looking a little TOO bright and crisp there at our wedding collage.

Leftover door paint to the rescue! 10 minutes later, the blue adds some much needed color to the space.

Aaron loves the redo because we can shut the drapes now. We are actually getting NEW drapes that match better but we had these in storage and needed them right then.

Bought this new rug for the front door at Kohls.... $50 for $16. Yes... thank you. It is Tabby approved. She's not stopped laying on that one corner since we laid it down.

Thank you guys for reading and catching up with me! I'm actually heading over to write a Christmas Decor post right now!! So be sure you check back for that! I won't talk to you all until after Thanksgiving, so HAPPY THANKSGIVING everyone! 

*ACE Hardware, Amazon, Lowe's Home Depot, Kohl's are not compensating me to talk about them.

The Plan

Good Afternoon my few and faithful! 

Today I want to share with you my planning/thought process when I'm planning out a home "redesign" project.

The room I'm working hard on at present is the Kitchen. I recently finished - pretty much - my home office and am just waiting for a final touch or two to finally share it with you. I need a handful more of little items to be able to call it a wrap on that room. But now I'm turning my near full attention to the kitchen.

If you read my Kitchen Evolution post you will know it's been through it's ups and downs. When we first "took possession" of the house and started renovating we painted the cabinets a dark chocolate brown with a very expensive oil based paint. The cabinets are old, from the 1960's, and are a flat panel door. I don't particularly care for flat panel doors, period, but this house is full of them, so I'm living with them. We also chose to paint the walls a sage green color. A very pretty color, but as my home evolves, it's becoming the odd man out. We even went ahead and had the counter tops replaced.

I ended up going with our dark counter tops because granite was unavailable at the time, because of money, and there was nothing else in the store that I liked, even remotely. Plus is went with dark cabinets and green walls. It was the most evasive thing we did when working on this house, and I'm still glad we went ahead and did it. 

As these 5 years have worn on, my house has undergone some big changes and for the most part, the kitchen has always felt ok to me. The decor started leaning more toward the country style, with floral curtains and floral china pieces being displayed over the cabinets, and then we introduced the big new table into the room and that pushed it even further country. But as the house turned blue around it (comment below if you would like to see a tour of everything aqua in my home) the green kitchen started feeling like the loner kid on the playground. 

So, what do I do? I start by thinking about it. For the longest time, I felt the fault was with the cabinets, so I started thinking of ways to lighten up the cabinets, and had even settled on buying white contact paper and covering them, in their entirety. But one afternoon I was cruising Pinterest, like I do, and saw a photo of dark cabinets against a light beige wall. And the light bulb in my head not only came on, but it started flashing.

You're doing it wrong! Don't paint the cabinets! DON'T contact paper the cabinets! Paint the walls!

It was pretty clear the direction I needed to go after that realization, so I had to start to hatch my plan, by listing what is important to me in the project.

• It cannot cost a whole lot of money - and I must unload some of my "sellables" in order to fund such a project. Perhaps the "Bank of Husband" would work finance a loan haha!
• I'd like the walls to be a light beige color, to flow with the rest of the house and to work well with my aqua accent color. I would definitely be going with a paint color from Lowe's Allen+Roth line because it is only $30 per gallon.
• (as with the office) Paint, or DIY as many accessories as possible to save money.
• Contact paper the nearly black counter tops.

After making out the list (it's usually a mental list) of the things I want to accomplish in the room, I go to Pinterest and create an inspiration board to help me visualize how it will turn out. Check out my "Kitchen Spruce Up" board HERE. I determine, from there, the style I'm going for and what will work in my space and what won't. It always helps that I have a creative mind.

Then I add the things that "speak to me" from Pinterest onto my list. 

• New curtains (or re-purpose some I already have) for both windows. (One set will go to the floor)
• new artwork - DIY I love this giant "EAT" from sweetpickinsfurniture.com.
  
  This could be accomplished by either buying the letters from Michaels (around $2 a letter I think) or I could have my father in law, wood craftsman that he is, cut them out for me, but then I decided that cardboard would be the easiest route to go. A little cardboard, some paper mache and a little aqua paint and we are in business. Completely free because of my left over aqua paint from my Front Door Makeover!
  I also like the idea of simple kitchen art, like this Mason Jar print from printabledecor.net
  
  

  

I find I am much more satisfied, and proud, of my end results when I do things myself. 

hookedonhouses.net

 I know that I want whatever the end result to be to work well with Aqua accessories. So I find photos like the one above to help me visualize how much aqua is too much or not enough. BTW, if my kitchen was this size, I'd never leave it. Are you kidding me? I love it!  Plus, if you go into Kohl's now they are offering so many fun, bright colored kitchen products. They will probably be going on sale soon to make way for Christmas things! I can't wait for that! (I want the aqua blue little cow shaped figurine so bad!)

After I've got my Pinterest board set up, I head over to Amazon, to check out their selection to see if I want to buy, or to DIY and re-purpose. In this case, I already know I want a counter-top looking contact paper to cover my counters. Originally I thought I would go with something just for the back splash, but after I started looking, I found this.

And yes, I screen-shot this for ya'll to see. (My pink polka dot theme came from Firefox's add-ons page, in case you were wondering.) Here's a link to the Amazon Listing. As soon as I saw it, my brain shot to an image of my brown cabinets, beige-y walls and aqua goodness sitting on top. I knew it was the one. I ultimately decided it'd be safest to go with the 75ft roll for $30 to be on the safe side.

The only other thing I knew I might want to spend a little cash on was some curtains, and I've been lucky on finding inexpensive sheer curtains (my favorite style) on Amazon for about $8 for 2 panels. But what color did I want? I was afraid if I went with an aqua color I'd end up getting this insane bright neon blue color, and I didn't want that, at all. Best to stick with a neutral if you ask me. I could do with a set of "ivory" sheers for $8 per 2 panels, as I'd expected. But after thinking about it for a while, I decided against buying new curtains. I got creative again. The sheer curtains on our big living room window were just hanging there, and we already had a set of drapes hanging there, so the sheers were just adding bulk to the window coverings. And that window is huge, I mean huge. So I thought about it, and decided to re-purpose those sheers. It will save that $8, and I can put it toward the paint and/or contact paper. The windows in this house (except for the big window in the living room) aren't exactly "pretty" but my "cover it up" attitude from 5 years ago really sucks now because of the lack of any natural lighting. I'll clean the fire out of the windows and the ledges and deal with the cracks if it means I can have a light and bright room to hang out in,


A lot of this project will be the de-clutter of my over the counter shelf, using the bare bones of decor - my large dark brown "R" will stay, for sure, my "Blessed" from Hobby Lobby will stay and a few other little knick knacks will stay. I will add in a few items - I have a gold basket weave star shaped box my Dad got me years and years ago (I love stars) that I am planning on slapping a little aqua paint on. I also have a star shaped box that has the world "believe" written on it that I will probably add as well as some other things I have laying around the house. My floral china pieces I think I will tuck away in a box for now, because until I have a proper china cabinet, I just don't feel like they will 'go' with the new look. I also really like the idea of a few photos up there. I've got some cute ones of me when I was a baby "cooking" with my Mama, and then a couple of cute ones of Aaron when he was a lil' tyke... especially the one of him with his face covered, ear to ear, with chocolate pudding. Adorbs. So that's an idea too.




OK. After I decide for sure what I want to do, I go to Lowe's and look at my paint options - we are going tonight. If I am dead set, I'll go ahead and purchase it, but if not, I'll take a sample home and check it out with the surroundings to see if i like it, I would specifically check to see if it "went" with our counters. But since I am changing the counters too, I will probably just go for it and buy tonight.

The middle of September will start to be super busy for me (I'm doing another play!) and so I won't have that much time to devote to home redesign. So I want to get this project done soon, very very soon. Like, next week soon. I'd like to start it tomorrow but I don't have my contact paper (unless I miraculously find it at Lowe's tonight!), and I'm the type of person that likes 1 day transformations.  Pretty much all my redesigns are done in a single day.

So now that I've got my plan pretty much in place, I clean the room, thoroughly, and get it ready for it's makeover!


In short (too late), here's The Plan!

• paint the walls
• contact paper the counter tops
• paint accessories
• diy some art
• diy "new" curtains 
• redesign over the cabinet decor 

I'll update you all when the project is finished. I will also post photos of the office as soon as those final touches are in place!


Here I go, again!

Thanks for stopping by again today! I love you all! 

 

Book Worm - Android App for FREE Books

UPDATE - Sadly this app is no longer available. But boy did I sure love it when it was! Feb. 2015

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I confess! I am a book worm. Book-a-holic. Word Fanatic. Lover of the Written Word. I LOVE books. My mom taught me to read when I was 4, way before I started kindergarten, and ever since then I've had a book in my hand.

I'm the type of person that likes things in an instant. If I decide I want something I want it NOW.  That was the selling point on an E-Reader for me, instant gratification. :)

Kindle Fire 1st Gen. - Amazon.com $70.50

 
My Mom got me my Kindle Fire for my 21st birthday, 3 years ago. It's no secret that Amazon is my favorite online store. Between the Kindle Store and Amazon Instant Video, I sometimes feel like I've sold my soul to the Amazon Powers that Be, because at least once a week there is a UPS delivery from Amazon at my front door, or a new book in my Kindle Fire Carousel! The Amazon Kindle Store offers lots of free books to those with a PRIME membership, like me. 

The thing of it is, sometimes the books I want to read, the ones that grab my attention from the best seller lists, cost $10-15-20+ in the Kindle Store.  I can't spend that kind of money on a book.

www.eprint-studio.com

When I first got my Kindle, my mom loved mine so much she turned around and bought herself one, so we actually share a Kindle account, because we like to read a lot of the same things. My Mom's best friend has a Nook, and as soon as she found out we had "Twin Kindles," she told us about this app we had to get. It's a free app in the Android Market, it offers thousands of free books, public domain books, best seller list books, all for free.

It's called "eBook," plain, simple, to the point. And it's heavenly. 10000+ books are at your finger tips for free. It's all free. And it's so simple to set up. Open up the link to the right on your Kindle or e-Reader, and tap download. So simple. On your Kindle Fire you will need to go into Settings>Device and turn "Allow Installation of Applications" on in order for the download to work.

I LOVE this app. I love to read and I love to save money! Let's do a comparison, shall we? Fifty Shades of Grey has been at the top of the "Most Popular" list on eBook as long as I've had the app, so we will use it for an example.

Fifty Shades of Grey - Amazon.com

From Amazon, the Kindle version for the first book of the trilogy is around $5. To order it in actual book form is around $9. The eBook version is completely free, downloaded in seconds and I was reading it before I could stop myself. I downloaded the entire trilogy for free. You can do the math if you want.

It's so convenient, so easy to use and has nearly every book I could want to read. They upload more than 10 a day, every day!!  It's a great app that I've recommended to EVERYONE. My best friend purchased a Kindle Fire for herself specifically because I told her about how great this app was. The money I've saved reading books off of this app would pay for the Kindle Fire itself. Probably twice.

 This is what the app looks like in the Carousel.

This is the "most popular" page.

This is the control center is at the bottom of the screen. Just tap! "Latest"will show you all the newest books that the app offers. There are new books every day!! "Popular" shows you the most read books on the app. "Category" shows all the different categories that the app has. Fiction, Non-Fiction, Historical, Bio, Teen Fiction, Love and Romance, Horror, Thriller & Mystery, Religion and Spirituality, Self Help, Short Story, Children's Story, Fairy Tales.... it's a long list, there's always something to read!! And finally, "Authors" lists every author with a book on the app!

Anne of Green Gables is my favorite book, so I thought I'd use this as an example!! When you find a book you think you might be interested in, tap the title, and it will bring you to a screen like this. It has a short summary and shows related titles. All you have to do is tap "Download," your book will download in about 3-5 seconds (yes, that quick) and boom, you have a new book to read!

I LOVE this app and honestly don't know what I'd do without it!!



Now, go download the app, find a good book, curl up with a warm blanket and a cup of hot chocolate and get to readin'! I know that's what I'm gonna do!! ;)




LINKS:
Amazon Kindle Fire 1st Generation - $70.50 (only available used, I think)
Amazon Kindle Fire HD - $139.99
www.eprint-studio.com - Free eBook app

All opinions are my own. I am not being perked by Amazon or by Eprint-Studio for mentioning their products. Fifty Shades of Grey and Anne of Green Gables, as vastly different as they are, are being used here purely as examples and no infringement of any kind is intended.