What Are You?

A pilgrim or an Indian?

Jones has gotten to be both this Thanksgiving season! He was most apprehensive about having his face painted to be 'an Indian' at school, but after a few people commenting on his nice paint job and some Indian sounds in Target, he liked it just fine!Hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Am I A Photographer?

The answer is NO! My children were ready to kill me by the end of our 'little session'...I had a good plan, but not good equipment, skills, knowledge of what I was doing or very cooperative subjects!

I found an area, OK a grassy field, to take their pictures in for holiday cards...I talked to my friend, Leigh Ann and she gave me some tips like wait until 30 minutes before the sun sets to get the best color, put yourself between the sun and the subjects, etc. so last week I researched the sun setting and found the perfect spot, on our way home Sunday wouldn't you know someone MOWED IT! I was like, are you kidding me????

So spot #2 wasn't as great, but I thought it might work. It didn't, not really anyway...the pictures with good lighting either have grass in their faces or they are NOT looking at me and/or smiling. The better shots (notice I didn't say good shots) don't have the pretty lighting. I did go a tad earlier than I should have so the sun was in their eyes and they let me know that! :) Then I tried to use the bricks at our house as a background and kept tilting my camera too much and the pictures don't look 'cool' they just look crooked...all this to say, I will try again, but I'm super glad that Leigh Ann can still take our photos! :)

No wonder you have to pay photographers an arm and a leg, it's hard work!

Room Redo #4

So I wasn't as fast getting these posted as I had hoped--shock, shock, right? Well this post is majorly important! It looks as though all new living room furniture is on the horizon, that's right folks...Trey has done it, he's given in and he's getting me FURNITURE!!!! So I need help...I need an awesome furniture arrangement for my new living room. These pictures will show the basics of the room. We have a very open floor plan as you will see. Feel free to leave your input--I know you decorator savvy people are out there, leave me a comment already! :)The paint color is Lanyard by, you guessed it, Sherwin Williams. We are hoping to get new sofa, love seat, big chair with an ottoman, end tables, lamps, make curtains, accessorize the mantle...hello, what am I going to put up there...good grief, I may need to hire a professional for that!?!Anyway I LOVE my new room, but I want it to look good too, so help me...leave me a comment or forward my blog onto someone who will (and has good taste)! Where do you people out there shop for your furniture...I'm willing to drive! :)

Arkansas Frontier

It was our first field trip with our new elementary school. They were scheduled to go to the Arkansas Frontier (a pumpkin patch with some pilgrim and indian things thrown in) during the Monsoon Season of Arkansas :), so it had to be rescheduled for a day that turned out to be fabulous! Laynie enjoyed every second and I got to meet some of her new school friends--Molly, Julia, Caitlin. It wasn't quite the same as hanging out with Conner, Kamden, Jackson, Dreyden or Jasmine from last year, but she had fun. Check out the slide show below!

Room Redo #3

It's really hard to tell from the picture below (I didn't do a good job of photographing a couple of rooms with the before shots), but the office was a deep red with a magnolia flower border at the top. Not really what we had in mind....So after taking the border & blinds down, a coat of primer, two coats of Golden Gate paint by Sherwin Williams, new blinds & a couple of brand new black bookcases, you have...Still to go is a new black desk, a nice leather bench or dressy file cabinet to go between the shelves, pictures hung on the wall, and maybe even a small chair? We will decorate with black framed photographs and Razorbacks. I told Trey I could handle the HOGS, but no DU prints will have a home on the walls in here (or really anywhere else for that matter! :)

Room Redo #2

Here is what Laynie's room was before we moved in--tan and turquoise.And this is what we have done so far....Her choice of wall color was hot pink, of course! It's Dragon Fruit by Sherwin Williams and we LOVE it! :) It's the perfect shade of hot pink for us!We would really like to get a new desk and clean up her art corner by doing something super cute for all her art supplies so once again if you have any suggestions, let me know! I'm going to start searching the web for cute containers and storage items real soon or "...once we sell our house..."

So far no window treatments OR things for her walls have been put into place, "Why?" you ask. Because she wants a black, white & hot pink room. Something along the lines of this...I have promised that..."once we sell our house..." Mommy will try to make that happen although I really love her bedding and would like to decorate with flowers and fun girly things in her room. My plan will be lots of different black and white patterns, polka dots, zebra print, flowers, etc. with splashes of hot pink mixed in.

We will go ahead and hang these cornice boards that we made for her other room and then I can just take them down and recover in our 'new color scheme' whenever that happens!OK so just typing out all of my plans for Laynie's room makes me tired, who knows what I'll feel like once these plans go into motion! :)

Room Redo #1

As you may know, we have relocated. We bought an older home that we are beginning to really love.The outside is super as long as it doesn't rain for 40 days and 40 nights leaving us with a nice little pond in the back yard where an above the ground pool used to be! :)However a few kiddos I know really seem to like "the pond" in the backyard!
Anyway as promised, I'm going to begin showing the room redos that have been taking place around here. There is still much, much, much to do...but I can't wait forever to share what we have accomplished so far. I'm going to try my very best to blog everyday this week and post another room each day. Next week I'm even planning to post the rooms that we have NOT even begun to touch and ask for professional advice from any of my blog readers that care to give me some decorating advice! If you enjoy HGTV or have a knack for decorating, stay tuned because I'm gonna need some help! :)

The first two photos were taken of Jones' room BEFORE we painted, but after we had already taken out the carpet. It was definitely bright, but not very boyish.After a coat of primer and two coats of Burnished Brandy Paint by Sherwin Williams, new carpet, all of Jones' sports furnishings, his bedding, and that great photograph that I'm very fond of, this is what we have!
Now for my famous words (that I'm sure you will read on each and every redo post)...'once we sell our house'... I hope to make red curtains, pick up a few more really cute items of sports decor and have my favorite photographer do a couple more awesome pictures of Jones to finish off his room.

If you ask Jones if he likes his room, some days it will be yes and others no. If he says no and I ask him why, he just says, "Mom there's not enough red." Red is his favorite color so hopefully the curtains will solve that problem!

Happy Halloween!

We have had a busy, but fun weekend. It all started Thursday night with Momo and Grandad coming to visit for the weekend. Friday morning was 50s Day at Laynie's school and the Community Helper Parade/Grandparent's Day at Jones' school. Grandma and Popa also got to come and join us for the parade.Can you tell that Jones will be my difficult child to photograph over the next few years unless it's a silly pose? :)

We all enjoyed the weekend of cooking, eating, working around the house,cutting the boys hair, watching football, did I say eating? AND most of all trick or treating!

We actually went from door to door in our neighborhood last night and the kids LOVED it. Jones was definitely the funniest when a teenager opened the door to give out candy. He gave them quite a large handful and Jones shouted at me, "Hey Mom that dude gave me double!"