Day of Rest?

Today around two o'clock I started having pains that could only be described as........... contractions. Yeah. I was scheduled for an appointment with my OB at 4:30 so I just waited until I went in to see him before calling him about it- or telling my husband. The doctor did an exam and concluded that everything is fine for the time being. He ordered me to go home, increase my fluids and sit on my butt for the remainder of the evening. Hmmm. So I decided to take in an art show....................


Snap some pictures of my goofy girl.....................

No, my children are rarely clothed. They leave their clothes on in public (most of the time) but as soon as we get home they strip down. Honestly with as hot as it was today I don't blame them as I would be doing the same thing. If I could get away with it!!

Then I decided to sit on my butt and do this.............

I made a little skirt and attached it to my vanity table. And then I sat on my butt some more and did this....................

I reupholstered an old chair that my Grandmother gave me. Isn't it cute all dressed in toile???

And then my husband came home. Uh Oh! And he informed me that this type of "sitting on my butt" wasn't exactly what my doctor had had in mind. Huh? Bummer. So I decided to play around with this..............

My wonderful husband got me a new toy!! There isn't really anything wrong with our current camera................. nothing major anyway. I just missed our last one (a Canon). It was easy to use and all of the pictures turned out fabulous. It made me feel like a real photographer and when it took it's last breath I do admit that I cried. It was a good camera and we experienced so much together. But now I have a new one and I am so excited!

I also wanted to share some of my cool new treats that I picked up at a yard sale on Saturday. The rest of the stuff is still in the van- how lazy can we get?

I got this cute galvanized tub for $5!! I rolled my quilts and sat it by the fireplace. Don't worry- I will move the quilts when we use the fireplace!!

Fun, huh? And one thing I was probably most thrilled about was and is this.............

Now this is no ordinary flag................ this flag only has 48 stars on it. It isn't super rare, I know, but it is special to me. I had a flag like this for years. It was given to me by a very dear friend who is no longer with us. About 6 years ago the flag was stolen and I was heartbroken. Now this isn't that particular flag but it is still neat that I found one with the 48 stars. I have been looking since the last one was taken and this is the first one I have come across. And I got the lady to take $6 for it!!! It is in perfect condition and smells like cedar......... someone took care of it.

So anywho, that was my day. Sitting on my butt.............. resting............bored to tears.........thinking of all the fun stuff I could be doing.....................but here I sit. Oh well, tomorrow is another day!!!!!!!!

~Heather :)

A Busy Buzzy Weekend and a Thank You

First of all I want to thank each and every one of you for your kind words to Marc and I on the loss of Marc's PapPap. Marc and I were both blown away by the comments that were left and how loving all of you are. It truly touched our hearts and we were overwhelmed by the support from the blogging community. You will never know how wonderful and how encouraging your words were to us at this time. Thank You!!!!!!


What a weekend! Marc was on call all weekend and we were busy with a ton of projects. I still can not believe what all we got accomplished in just a few days time.
Most importantly we took care of a very pressing issue. About a month ago we had some neighbors move in. These are the kind of neighbors you do not want in your community. Not only are they a nuisance but they are mean, dangerous and they were killing my plants! Uh huh! Can you believe it? Well, by Sunday I had had enough and Marc and I decided that something needed to be done. I was tired of dealing with them and tired of being afraid to go outside because I knew that they would be out there.......... waiting for me. Honestly- they scared me to pieces and they were getting worse all of the time.


Yes.......... hornets. Big scary hornets had moved in and were taking over the ceiling of our balcony. They were killing my plants.......... and the ones they weren't killing they made it very difficult for us to water because they would swarm us every time we went outside. Not only that but they must have told their friends about what a great place they had moved into because they started moving in too! Like a whole hornet community!!

Marc came home from work on Sunday ready to take on these savages with just the right weapon.............

He snuck outside to move some plants and furniture out of the way...............

And then took on those bees like a true manly man that he is. Yeah ladies- eat your hearts out- this is how a real man kills bees. One hand out the door and the other hand holding the door knob ready to slam it shut!!!!!!!!! Careful baby! It was pretty intense for awhile let me tell ya! There were a lot of bees crammed inside that nest and they came out ticked off!

But after a whole can of hornet killin' spray......................

The nest fell to the ground and all remaining inside were pronounced dead at the scene. That'll teach ya to mess with my flowers!! I don't think they'll be back. At least I hope not!!

Saturday we went to Lowe's to get materials for a project that we worked on almost all weekend. That will be in a post later this week as it is not quite finished and I don't want to show it until it is officially done. Marc and I are super excited about it though. He says it "Better Homes and Gardens worthy!!" Here is Marc pushing the kids in the cart.................

I think they are enjoying the ride!

On Friday I did some painting. I know- I am so going backwards in this post but it's been a long weekend- bare with me!

I wanted to spruce up our entry and make it feel more cottage. I took this old coat rack/shelf and painted it white along with a lattice framed mirror. Here is the coat rack before............

And the finished project............

I am very happy with the results. We can't put too much on the shelf though as every time our neighbor slams their door stuff falls off. I had to glue the "DREAM" sign to the shelf!!!! LOL!!

Something very exciting arrived for me Friday! My new bedding for our master bedroom!!! See............................

What? You actually thought I was going to show you? Why that would ruin the surprise!! I did in fact choose a color- between red and blue! Major accomplishment, I know! I even painted the bedroom Sunday and I LOVE how it looks! There is still a lot to do in that room before it is done but maybe by next Monday I will have pictures to show!! Marc has been busy painting the dressers for the room and I can't wait to see how they look!

Also on Friday I painted Kyle's room! It looks so good!! I did a faux denim treatment on his walls. It only took a few hours and although at first I wasn't sure about it, I really like how it turned out. Marc really likes it and Kyle loves it! We rearranged his furniture too. Not so much for design but out of necessity. He had bunk beds and Bella fell off the other day! Oh my goodness! The only thing that saved her from breaking her arm was a mess of stuffed animals on the floor below her. That was one time I was glad that Kyle didn't listen to me when I asked him to clean his room!! So we separated his bunk bed and he now has two twin beds. Much safer!! I need to hang up a few more accessories in there before I show you all the final result but let me tell ya- it's CUTE!!!!!!! Kyle keeps telling me he loves his "new room". That to me made it all worth it! Here is a sneak peek..........

Suspenseful isn't it?!? LOL!!!

So all in all we had a great weekend. We got a lot accomplished. We painted two rooms, decorated two rooms, organized a ton and got rid of our annoying neighbors. It feels good. It also feels exhausting. I need some sleep now!!

Hope you all had a great and safe 4th of July weekend!!

~Heather :)

Saying Goodbye

In Memory of Floyd Donald "PapPap" July23, 1933- June 27th, 2008

Last weekend Marc was working at our house that we are selling when he got a call that his Grandfather (PapPap) had passed away. PapPap had been sick for some time with cancer and he was finally called home to be with our Father on Friday June 27th, 2008. I got the ok from my OBGYN and we drove to West Virginia Monday night. It was late so we stayed at a hotel.
This is Kyle being the ever-helpful boy that he is............

Tuesday morning we headed over to Marc's Dad's house to visit and get ready for the funeral. Beside the front porch his mother-in-law has the most beautiful hydrangea bush so I snapped a bunch of pictures of the blooms...........still kissed with the morning dew................

It was a hard day. For the last few weeks Marc has been trying to get down to see his PapPap but between his responsibilities at work and a major plumbing issue we had to take care of last weekend he never made it down. He never got to say his proper goodbye and he was hurting because of it. The service was beautiful and there was a large number of people in attendance. The sermon was lovely and the music was beautiful. One of Marc's cousins even played the guitar and sang one of PapPap's favorite songs. It was very touching and I don't think there was a dry eye in the room. My Grandmother once told me that it takes a real man to cry in the presence of others and I witnessed the most beautiful display of that on Tuesday. PapPap was a very loved man and I am sure he was smiling down on his wonderful family as he watched them all tell him goodbye.

On the way to the graveside service Bella had fallen asleep. She only slept an hour the entire night before at the hotel so I decided to stay in the van with her. Kyle insisted on going with Marc. This was Kyle's first funeral so we tried as best we could to prepare him beforehand, answer all of his questions and try and make it as pleasant an experience as it could be so that he learns that death is not a scary thing. I think he understood because at the funeral home when we walked up to the casket he said "PapPap is sleeping so he can go be with the angels."

When the graveside service was over Marc and Kyle were walking back to the van and Kyle asked "Daddy.......are you sad that you lost your PapPap?" Marc said "Yeah Buddy I am." And Kyle replied "It's okay Daddy, we'll find him again someday." Marc said he didn't even know how to answer so he just shook his head and told Kyle that would be great.

On the way to the funeral dinner Marc needed some time so he drove me by his old High School and told me all about the school, the teachers and some of his memories there.

On the way to his Grandmother's house for the funeral dinner I watched out the window at the beautiful sky and remarked on how beautiful of a day it was. The sun was bright and warm on your skin.................

The clouds were as white and as fluffy as they could possibly be................

Every where you looked you could see the sun streaming through. It was as if God's grace was shining down upon us, wrapping His love around us and letting us know that PapPap was with Him, he was no longer suffering from earthly pain and that everything was going to be okay.
It was a very peaceful, calming feeling. The feeling you get when you can just close your eyes and feel God's love surround you.

After the funeral dinner we drove to Marc's aunt's house. On the way we saw this house and Marc said "An old farmhouse for Rue! Take a picture!"

Here we played in the yard with all of the kids, talked to and pet the neighbor's horse, and had a nice relaxing visit with the family.

We ate dinner and played some more in the yard. They tried wearing the kids out with relay races involving spoons and eggs, matchbox cars, etc. It was really fun to watch. And afterwards they were exhausted.........

No, Kyle isn't sleeping. In fact he only laid here just long enough for me to grab the camera and snap this shot and he was off and running again.

After a long day we said our sad goodbyes to the family and got in the van to head home. The kids fell asleep before we made it to the end of the road- maybe a quarter of a mile- and slept all the way home. Praise God! We got home after midnight and put the kids right in bed. After that Marc and I talked a little about the day. He really opened up and for that I was grateful. Marc tends to keep his emotions inside because that is the way he was raised. He explained to me how hard it was to say goodbye to his PapPap, for all the normal reasons but also some that I had never given any thought to. He stated that there were four generations and today there is only three. It makes you realize that you are growing up, getting older and life is really moving forward. Life is not full of promises, we have no guarantees of what tomorrow will hold for us. We need to Praise God and be Thankful to be in the here and now. We need to take each day for what it is and make the most of it, but also make the most of ourselves so that we never have to look back in regret.
Goodbye PapPap. We love you and miss you but we'll see (find) you again someday!

-Heather

The Sewing Lesson

From a very young age I wanted to "do it all". I could go from girly girl to tomboy in two seconds flat. I would sew and do crafts with my mother, hit yard sales to add to my china and doily collection, spend countless hours with my Grandfather in his garage working on cars and be elbow deep in the latest remodeling project or plumbing repair with my father. I loved it! At the time it was all just fun and games but as I got older I realized just how valuable these lessons were. I had a flooded bathroom in my first home and I was able to diagnose the problem, fix the supply line and clean up the mess. The alternator went out on my car- I replaced it myself. I love to paint and sew and never have to ask for help. Although sometimes I do, but that is more out of laziness than lack of knowledge. I remember my husband joking with me saying that one of the reasons he fell in love with me was because I came with my own set of power tools!!
It was very important when I started having children to teach them as much as I could. I didn't want to stick to the typical gender "standards" as were set in place moons ago. I want to teach my daughter how to use power tools and change her flat tires. I want to teach my son how to cook, do laundry and...............sew. I want my children to grow up very independent and not have to rely on other people more than they need to.
Today Bella was sleeping and I wanted to get my pillows done for the living room- finally. So I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to give Kyle his first sewing lesson. It actually went better than I had expected. Kyle asked a lot of questions and I did my best to answer everything in words he could comprehend. He is fascinated with anything electrical so the sewing machine definitely held his interest! He wanted to know how every button and gear worked.
I sat the sewing machine on the floor so that Kyle could see and reach everything comfortably. Not so comfy for mommy but it worked!

This is Kyle now telling me how the needle works! Apparently he was paying attention!

Uh, yeah................ I think he has the hang of it now!

The finished project! Even though I could have had 20 pillows done in the time it took to make just this one- it was time well spent! The pillow has it's imperfections but to me it is perfect!

I'm not sure who is more proud of this pillow- Kyle or Mommy!

Say "cheese" Bug! Mommy is so proud of her little man!

Well, I am off to do more sewing. Hmmmmm, he is such a great helper maybe I can get him to help me paint the bedroom later...........

~Heather :)

Got The Decoratin' Blues

I am still stuck on how to decorate my bedroom. It's really pathetic and I think I need therapy. Design therapy. Oh, heck. Maybe I would benefit better with "real" therapy. 4th floor- going up! I have a bipolar disorder when it comes to decorating and I am coming to terms with that. One day I want to do my room in blue, the next day I want to do it in red, and tomorrow- I'm sure- I will be back to blue. Maybe I should just decorate my room in the red, white and blue theme I was planning on doing in my son's room! LOL!!! I have a red dream room stuck in my head that I have loved for years but have never had the nerve to do it. That would be a lot of red. Yet, I yearn for the tranquility and peaceful calm I feel when looking through the blue and white rooms online and in magazines. I keep thinking that there has never been a blue room that I have done that I have been happy with. Just today I was looking back through our photos on the computer and came across pictures of our last house. More specifically our last master bedroom. Hmmmm......... there was a blue room I was happy with. Oops! Seems I had forgotten about that one. My bad!
This was the master bedroom in our last house. We were broke and the room was small so I did it on a budget. It was never really "finished" as we moved a couple months after it was done but I always loved the feeling that I felt when I walked into this room. It was a very calming feeling.


Blue walls, white bedding, black and white toile fabrics and silver accent pieces. One of my favorite pieces in the room had to be the chandelier with it's sparkly prisms.

Now we don't have this bedroom furniture anymore- it was way too bulky and formal for my taste. We sold it in order to get the old, antique dressers that we have now. I still have the bedding, I still have the toile, and I still have the chandelier. I also have 2 gallons of blue paint that is just one shade lighter than the blue in these pictures.

My dilemma is.................. #1. Does this room scream cottage? (Picture it with painted white furniture as opposed to the dark wood) #2. I have red in every other room of my house- including the master bathroom- which I just finished. Does a master bathroom have to match or coordinate with the master bedroom????? That has actually been my biggest issue! Crazy? I might be. And I am definitely probably ready to drive Nikki and Rue over the edge with my wishy washy design dilemmas. They have been such a huge help! Now, Kimba would say "Do what YOU want!" Problem is- what if you don't know? OR, what if you want two styles? Maybe I should just have two master bedrooms! That would solve everything! Oh yes I am a genius!! Why didn't I think of this before?!? When I am feeling blue, I could sleep in the blue room. When I am feeling red, I could sleep in the red room! My poor husband would never be able to find me!!

Oh who really even cares because we all know that tomorrow I will be shifting through my swatch book in search of the perfect red. All I know is that I just want this room done. Yesterday. It is giving me a headache. I never thought I would be one of those people that called HGTV to have a designer make over a room for them but I am coming really close to picking up the phone and making a desperate call. Why is this master bedroom SO hard? Do any of you struggle with one room like this? Or am I just on the loony train by myself headin' for crazy town? Okay, maybe I don't want you to answer that. Just stare at the pretty pictures and ignore the words of the crazy lady. She'll stop eventually! LOL!!!

~Heather :)

I WON!!!!!!!!!!!!

I won the lottery! Okay, I didn't really win the lottery but, to me, it might as well have been the lottery!! Brittany from Adeline's Shabby Cottage gave me the Arte Y Pico award!! I was so excited I was jumping around and doing my happy dance!! What an honor!! This is my first award and I was totally not expecting it at all!
Brittany is such a sweetheart! She has a wonderful blog and if you haven't been there you should get over there as soon as possible! Oh! And while you are there you will have to check out all of the precious things she offers up for Flea Market Fridays!! Brittany- thank you so much! You have no idea how good this makes me feel. You made my week! Probably my month!!




Here are the rules:
1. You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserving of this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also contribute to the blogging community, no matter what language.
2. Each award has to have the name of the author and a link to his/her blog to be visited by everyone.
3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name of and link to the blog that presented her/him with the award.
4. The award winner and one who has given the prize have to show the link of "Arte y Pico" blog so everyone will know the origin of this award.

Now this is the hard part. Choosing the five that inspire me. How can I choose only five? I have met so many wonderful people through blogging and there are so many that inspire me. But I will do my best!

1. Rue from Rue's Peanut Butter & Jelly Life

2. Nikki from The Scarlett Rose Garden

3. Brenda from The Brenda Blog

4. Kimba from A Soft Place To Land

5. Jo from To A Pretty Life

Congratulations Ladies!! And Brittany- Big Hugs!!

-Heather :)

Decorating Inspiration

Today my feet are swollen beyond all recognition. I have never experienced this with the last two pregnancies but this one hasn't exactly been my norm. So I have been given strict orders to keep my feet up. HA! With a two year old and almost 4 year old............ easier said than done. I did pretty well though and after I laid them down for naps I decided to play on my computer. Months ago we were trying to figure out how to decorate the new nursery. I searched the web for hours every night and found nothing that popped out at me. My sister called one night and told me to Google images of nurseries and to look at a specific picture. She had found it!! My husband and I stood there looking at this beautiful room and knew this would serve as our inspiration for the new nursery. It is fun and whimsical but serene and calming all at the same time. I fell in love with every inch of this room.


I especially loved the geese that are hanging above the crib. I went on a mission to find these geese. After looking online for days I came up with nuttin'!! I was so frustrated. So my darling husband- bless his heart- hopped online and within 2 hours had tracked down the designer just from the picture we had. So cool! She is a very talented designer out of Kansas City and even owns her own boutique there. It took a few days to track her down but I finally spoke to her. I found out that this nursery was one she had done years and years ago and that the geese had flown south since then. Translation- no way in a hot zone are we going to be able to get some. Man! So I called my sister and whined and moaned. She took a trip to JoAnns and got fabric and made up a pattern as she went. This is what she came up with..........

Isn't he fabulous!?!?! She is SO handy, my sister! So this one is done and she has 2 or 3 left to do. These will hang above Cali's crib (out of reach of course) and serve as her "mobile". Precious!

She drove up to see us one weekend and we went to JoAnns to pick out all of the fabrics I will need to make the curtains, bedding, chair slipcover, etc. While we were there I feel in love with this cute little guy.................

So he will have to be worked into the room too. We are almost ready to get started on the room and I am very excited. I just hope we get it done in time!!

Now on to my son's room. ARGH! I do not like my son's room. In fact- I despise my son's room. I started off trying to do a transportation theme in there and it didn't work. The car crashed, the plane took a nose dive and that boat sunk. It is a design flop to say the least and honestly- he's not diggin' it either. But I have been waiting- not so patiently- for something to come to me. I want this room to have his personality in it. And my son has a lot of personality- how can you fit that in a gallon of paint?? I want the room to reflect his likes, have him be surrounded by his favorite colors, favorite items etc. I want it to be a place he enjoys being in. And right now he and I would rather be anywhere else it seems!

The walls are sage green but with awful lighting they always look gray. Gloomy.
We bought him a traffic light at an antique store and it is one of our favorite pieces in his room. He loves his "hider bed" (bunk bed) but I would love to separate them into two beds if he will let me!!! He loves his star quilts. Probably his favorite thing in the room. His favorite shape is the star............

And we have little vintage looking planes hanging from the ceiling.

The other night I was looking back through my posts from my family visit this weekend and I got hung up on the picture of Kyle holding the flag. I love that picture. I was telling my husband "Isn't it cute the fascination he has with the flag?" Every where we go he is either finding a flag to carry, to buy, or pointing them out to us. He loves the American flag. Although I am not exactly sure why- other than part of it may be that red and blue are his favorite colors- I think it is just the cutest thing.
As I was thinking about his love for flags and stars I had a revelation. Oh My Goodness! I could decorate his room in a red white and blue theme, and still incorporate his vintage travel stuff in with it! Oh my how fun would that be! So I started sketching and writing down ideas. I can not wait to do this for him. I think he is really going to love it!!! A special room for a very special little boy.

Then we still have the master.......................... still undone.......................still blah and boring............ still making me itch when I go in there. Ugh. I bought that bedding from Target and ended up taking it back. When it arrived it didn't look like it did in the picture online......... and it was pretty hyper. Yeah, hyper. BIG BOLD flowers just screaming at ya! Now I don't know about you but when I go to lay down at night to sleep I don't want big bold flowers screaming at me.

I want my bedroom to be calm and soothing. I keep thinking I should do red because that is my color, right? But I keep going back to blue!

Here are some inspiration rooms I like.....................

These first two pictures are from the Ralph Lauren website.

These next rooms are all from Cottage Living website. Love that site!!
Here is a very french looking room. Elegant, understated, beautiful.

This is a cute but romantic cottage style room. There is something very cozy about this room.

I love the yellow and blue toile in this room............

This room has probably got to me my favorite though................

I love the simple beauty of it.

Now the problem with all of this blue is that I still have the red bug in the back of my head. I know how I would ideally love to do my room but I have these beautiful antique dressers and I can not bring myself to paint them. If I could I would paint them white and all would be well and progressing in decorator land. But I just can't do it! So, I have to find a way to incorporate them into my design and achieve the look I want just as they are. Until then I guess my bedroom is just going to continue to make me itch.

I will focus on the nursery and Kyle's rooms for now. Both rooms shouldn't take me more than a week to do though once I get them started. Maybe I will find something in the meantime for my room and if not.............well it is just going to have to wait some more.

Have a great evening everybody!

-Heather :)

Dinner Anyone??

Today I thought I would share a recipe with you that I made for dinner last night. I am always finding recipes and trying them and then I play and tweak until I think it is better. he he he This used to drive my husband crazy- but lucky for me he eats everything I put in front of him and rarely complains!! When we first started dating and I played around with recipes or created my own I would have some that turned out okay when others were so awful we would end up calling for take out. Over the years I have learned a lot, now know what spices pair well with others, how to prepare things and therefore lately have a much higher success rate!!

Okay, here are the ingredients you will need...........


EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) Seasoned bread crumbs, spinach, smoked Gouda cheese, gala apples, ground nutmeg, lemon juice, Dijon Mustard and skinless, boneless chicken breast.
Now I rarely measure anything- I just throw stuff in. I will try and be as exact as possible!

I use 3 skinless boneless chicken breasts (because that is how much feeds my family) so if you need to prepare more, then just adjust the recipe accordingly.

3 Skinless, boneless chicken breasts, trimmed of all fat
4 ounces of smoked Gouda cheese- grated
3 handfuls of spinach- finely chopped (I usually use fresh but only could find the bagged last time)
1 Gala apple- peeled and finely chopped
1 teaspoon of Dijon Mustard
1 Tablespoon of Lemon Juice
1/4 teaspoon of ground Nutmeg

Prepare all ingredients. Be sure and grate the outside of the cheese too for the best smoked flavor!!

Mix cheese, spinach, apple, lemon juice, Dijon and nutmeg together in a bowl -by hand.

Next, using a sharp knife, cut a "pocket" into the chicken breast from front to back side to side as big as you can without slicing through the outside edges. I am sure there has to be a fancy culinary term for this but "pocket" works for me!!

Now take your mixture and stuff each breast as full as you can. Coat each breast with the EVOO on all sides and then coat with the seasoned bread crumbs. Coat the bottom of the baking dish with a combination of water and EVOO just until the bottom is coated- not too much- don't wanna drown your bird!! Place chicken in the baking dish and then sprinkle the top of each breast lightly with more ground nutmeg.

Bake- uncovered- at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to one hour. I bake them for one hour and get perfect results but every oven varies so use your own judgement.

And Voila!! A delicious stuffed chicken! This meal has been one I have made for family dinners and when we have entertained and it gets rave reviews every time! It is so good!! It has somewhat of a rich flavor to it with the Gouda but the spinach and apple helps balance it nicely.

I really need to learn how to take better pictures of food! Trust me- it is much prettier in person!

I haven't named the recipe so I guess we will just call it Heather's Stuffed Chicken. LOL!!!

Enjoy!!

~Heather :)