It's Sweepy Time

It has been a crazy- busy couple of weeks. Not because I'm getting anything done......no.........because I have NOT been getting anything done. You know how I said I have been LOOKING for a balance? Yeah, well, I still haven't found it. In fact the other day I decided to just stop looking for it altogether. I decided, instead, to force my life back into balance. It was the best thing to do. I realized in order to find a balance I had to make it happen. Cali is not much of a sleeper.............there are days where she may only sleep for 5 or 10 minutes at a time and be fussy the rest of the day and insist on being held. 9 pounds ends up feeling like a lot by the end of the day! Usually my lower back hurts so bad that I feel if I bend backwards just a hair that it will literally snap in half. Now I am not used to sitting still so this has been a tad difficult. It's not that I don't love holding my baby girl.......I actually enjoy it..........but I am getting nothing done. I have learned to do a lot of things with one hand: laundry, cooking, dishes, etc. But some things just can not been done with a solitary hand. At least not by me. The doctor seemed to think colick was the culprit but after analyzing things the other day I realized it wasn't so much colick as much as sidekicks. My little sidekicks Kyle and Bella. They are noisy! And as much as I would love to provide a completely silent environment for Cali I just can't. It's not fair to the kids and it's never gonna happen anyways. Cali is going to have to get used to falling and staying asleep with the ever present noise that echos through our walls. The other day I looked around at my apartment that had barely been touched in the last 7 weeks and it was starting to make me very itchy. I needed to get something done. The mail had not been filed, the carpets had not been swept, there were last nights dishes piled on the counter (and the night before that too) and there were 8 loads of laundry that were clean but not put away, etc, etc, etc. Not to mention I was determined to make a nice dinner for my husband and have it ready when he walked through the door. So I thought and thought and then................EUREKA!!!!!! No, not that great , earth-shaking idea that will change the world and all who live in it for now and eternity... Eureka as in my vacuum cleaner. I laid Cali on her blanket, turned the sweeper on and she was instantly calm. Within 2 minutes she was sleeping soundly and I went to work. The next three hours were more productive that the past 3 weeks!!! Yes, I left my vacuum running for three hours. Hope my neighbors don't hate me but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. And I did. I felt fantastic! My house was cleaner and I felt lighter! I felt like I had just climbed to the top of Mt Everest. And my laundry pile was getting about that high so maybe I climbed my own mountain in that way! Cali woke up rested and happy and smiled at me with that big gummy smile that just melts my heart!!!! The three hours was good for me and good for her as well. Thank You vacuum cleaner! Woohoo!!
We are getting ready to do some projects here soon so I want to try and get all the prep stuff out of the way one day at a time so it will make the projects easier. We will be turning our den into Kyle's room............after all that work we put into that den! Oh well, Kyle asked to have the den for his room so we agreed. Then we will be turning Kyle's current room into Cali's nursery. I think all of the changes will work out perfectly and everyone is excited about the changes. Kyle is also insisting that Santa will be so excited about Kyle's new room that he will be bringing Kyle a Lightening McQueen tv for Christmas. Hmmmmmmm.........talk about pressure.
With all of this change going on it got me thinking about the other rooms in our home. I don't know if it is the fact that fall is officially here or what but I am craving the warm coziness that the winter months bring. Evenings in front of the fireplace with a glass of wine, warm fuzzy blankets, candles, and hot soups on a Sunday afternoon. I want our home to feel like a warm fuzzy blanket that wraps itself around you as you enter it's doors. I have always been drawn to the warmer colors of decorating and I veered off of that recently. My husband blames it on the hormones when I was pregnant. I long for wood furniture in rich tones, warm wall colors and draperies in reds, golds, greens and browns. Area rugs, velvet bedding, soft chenille sofas and leather club chairs. I went surfing on the web the other day looking for inspiration and boy did I find it! RMS is full of talented decorators and beautiful rooms. Better Homes & Gardens, Ethan Allen and Arhaus had a ton of ideas as well. Decor that gently called "Come in from the cold, relax and enjoy these decadent months."
I thought I would share some of the rooms I found. I didn't copy RMS rooms here because I didn't ask permission but these pics are from BHG.com, Ethan Allen and Arhaus websites...

Look at these throw pillows...........

I love the multiple fabrics on this sofa and the dark wood tones on the coffee table............

This is how I would like my master bedroom to look...............

Or this.............

And this is the bedding that I am just in love with................

Velvet bedding. How amazing would that feel to cover up in velvet in the cold winter months?? I would never want to get out of bed!

Lastly I wanted to share my new beauty with you. My new dining room set! Oh I am head over heels for this furniture!!! I haven't been this excited over furniture in a long time. It is solid cherry (my favorite wood) and shining like a new penny! The table and chairs are heavy!!! We sit down for dinner now and don't want to get back up!!! With our old chairs we always jumped up from the table almost as soon as we ate because they were not comfortable to sit on!

We purchased this set after finding it on Craig's List! I saw the ad and fell in love with it. Marc told me we could get it if I sold my old set first. I listed our set, sold it within 48 hours and went and picked this set up the next day! The woman selling it had downsized and it was too large for her new dining room. She was sad to sell it and I felt bad for her. She did tell me that she felt better about letting it go after seeing how excited I was about it. She had only had the set a few months!! We got the set for $500. Table and six chairs. When we got home we looked online and they are still selling this set in the stores for $2,200.00!!!!!! We got the entire set for what you could buy two chairs for. Needless to say we got a good deal and couldn't be happier with our purchase. I LOVE Craig's List!!!!!!!

I have a lot to do with the switching of rooms, painting and sewing. We are going to do a window bench in Cali's room with lots of pillows. I am also making all of her crib bedding and window treatments. If it turns out half as cute as it is in my head I will be thrilled! We also have to build a closet in the den for Kyle because there isn't one in there now. I have designed the perfect one that my oh-so-talented husband will be building. Everything takes longer recently so what would normally take a couple of weekends to complete will probably take a couple of months. It will be a fun process though. So we may be having more "sweepy time" for little Miss Cali. Maybe I could record the noise of the vacuum and burn it to a CD??? What is it about "white noise" that calms babies?

~Heather :)