Christmas Crafts!

I completed a Christmas ribbon wreath! For instructions, please see my Halloween ribbon wreath post under crafts.

We're Expecting!

Joe and I are expecting baby #1! I am 14 weeks today, due June 12th. We've been pretty busy lately getting things together. I got a great deal on some furniture at Babies R Us on Black Friday. Here are a couple pics. Obviously the nursery is a work in progress. It'll start to come together a bit more once we have our big ultrasound in 4 weeks!

GO BLUE!

In honor of tomorrow's big game between THE University of Michigan and Michigan State, I thought I would post about it! I actually am an alum of the real UM-Ann Arbor and attended 4 years worth of games! Enjoy the band!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cl_abdv07mg

Master Bath Unveiled!!!!

All the time, effort, and sweat is now ready to be revealed! If you recall from my previous post, we repainted the walls, took down the large fugly mirror, and added a white cabinet above the toilet. If you go back to that post you will also see that the bathroom cabinet is fugly oak. I hated it with a passion. Well, I painted it white, added new hardware, hung the new mirror, added a curtain, and a glass shelf over the tub! Check out the pics!!!! I am soooo happy with the end result! All we have to do is officially order our new shower door and the bathroom will be 100% done!

My Halloween Ribbon Wreath!

My good friend Chrissy found this awesome craft project, so last night we hung out and made Ribbon Wreaths!

The ribbon wreath is a very simple project, anyone can do it. First, go to your local craft store and get 3-4 wide ribbons (~5 yds each). Then choose some narrower ribbons as accents (again ~5 yds each). In total I had 8 spools of ribbon. You will also need a styrofoam wreath (pick the higher density one) and a package of straight pins.

1. Cut your ribbon up into approx 4 inch strips

2. Roll your ribbon piece in the same way that you would roll a piece of tape. Then use a straight pin to attach the ribbon roll to the foam.

3. Keep doing this with all your ribbon, placing as you choose.

4. Volia! You have an awesome wreath for Halloween!

My Lola is famous!`

Well, kind of! The DIY Showoff is featuring a pet parade! Our kitty Lola is featured in the parade :) She's such a little ham!

New Quilt

Well, I guess you could say it's new....

We received this handmade quilt for a wedding gift from Joe's grandparents, aunt, and uncle. It wasn't really our style, but once Pottery Barn started selling these awesome quilts I remembered I had one! I started to fall in love with the look, so when it came time to wash the cheap Target comforter, I decided to pull out this gorgeous piece. The detail is amazing, the fabrics are totally us. I love all the colors, and Joe's grandparents chose it specifically because it has some American Flag print fabric present. Joe is a huge history buff and aspires to be a politician in the future. I'm soooo happy we received this! Here are some pics!

Weekend recap!

WHAT A FANTASTIC WEEKEND! One of my best friends from college is getting married, so the MOH threw a fantastic bachelorette party weekend in Pittsburg! I got to see some of my closest college friends, had a great time. Here's what we did:

Friday: My old roomie and I drove over to Pitt, arrived around 12:30am. Just stayed up and talked for an hour then went to bed.

Saturday: Woke up, went to brunch at Pamela's...OMG best crepes I have EVER eaten! Seriously, if you are ever in Pitt, you have to go here! After brunch we just walked around, saw Carnegie Mellon (MOH is getting her MBA there), saw the University of Pittsburg, then made it back in time to watch most of the U of M/Notre Dame game (we are all alum of UM). For dinner we went to this fantastic Italian restaurant called Alexander's. Sooo good, and the owner is just awesome. Definitely check it out if you are in the area!

For the actual bachelorette night out we went to this bar/club called Zen. We had a great time, had great service. We actually opted for bottle service and VIP, which was awesome.



Sunday: Recovered and drove back to MI.

So basically I got nothing accomplished at home, but I had a blast! Such an awesome weekend! How was yours?

Labor Day Weekend recap!

Well, I have to say we did nothing around the house this weekend. Why, you may ask? Well, we were in Chicago visiting my brother! We had a blast, let me tell you. I probably walked a total of 10 miles, which felt great. It's been the first time in a long time that I've been able to do that without having back pain. Yay for the physical therapy program being completed! This week will go by so fast as well, plus I'm going to Pittsburg for the weekend! I'm going to try and get to painting the bathroom cabinet, but no promises :) If I do, I'll post pics!

Master Bath Updates!

So after Joe agreed to get our bathroom remodeled, he changed his mind. So instead of a complete remodel, we painted, added a cabinet, removed the crappy ass mirror, changed out the shelving. We are still waiting for our new mirror to arrive, still need to paint the cabinets, and purchase a new shower door. Here's some shots of the new bathroom!

The new cabinet above the toilet. I still need to add a few things inside.



The white shelves were relocated to this bathroom and the dark ones that used to be in here were relocated to the bedroom where the white ones were. New paint color too! If you remember, it used to be a darker taupe.



Shot of the vanity, missing the mirror. Still waiting for that to come in, and in a few weeks we'll be painting the cabinet white.



So all in all it was a VERY productive weekend! What do you think??

I think we are remodeling our Master Bathroom!!!

Joe agreed to call the contractor my parents used to give us a quote on retiling our master bathroom. I'm soooo excited. We will get a new cabinet and countertop as well. I'm pretty sure we will get this one from Costco...


What do you think??!!! I'm soooo excited I found it!

New Look!

You may have noticed my new look for my blog :) I love it! What do you think??

My latest house trouble

Ugh, I swear it is always something at my house. We got back from our up north trip on Sunday evening and discovered that our sprinkler system in the front yard only would not work. My dad came over yesterday only to discover that lines 1 and 2 (front yard) were busted. Apparently our next door neighbor aerated his lawn over the weekend and punctured our lines. This weekend Joe and my dad now have to dig up the lawn and fix the lines. Awesome.

Laundry tips!

I have a front load washing machine and lately it has a lot of build up and this disgusting smell in the seal at the door. I discovered the greatest product and thought I would share it with the world! It's called Washer Magic! I bought it at Meijer, right down the laundry aisle. You can find it with the Stain Stick/Dryel/Tide to Go Pens, etc.

My towels are another issue in my house. Unfortunately I have hard water and use a water softener. Lately my towels have the WORST odor in them and I could not get it out to save my life. I finally found in Good Housekeeping to add vinegar to the rinse cycle. I did, and POOF! no more odor!

I hope this helps some of you out with your laundry woes!

Cleaning/Organizing/& Laundry galore!

This weekend we went up north with some friends, so we weren't home to get anything done. Today while getting my sister's replacement iPod all set up I tackled some things around the house.

1. The office desk looked like it threw up bills and papers. I shredded up the old bills and documents and filed the recent stuff, including the new investment paperwork from today.

2. The storage area/laundry room in the basement was terrible. I tackled the area closest to my washer and dryer and this weekend Joe will get to the rest of the stuff (tools, etc.). I organized and threw away some empty boxes, etc.

3. Washed the top of the washer and dryer and moved the laundry detergent and fabric softener to the shelving unit.

Office desk before:



After:



Basement/Laundry Room Before:



Laundry Room/Basement After:

The week and weekend!

This week has been absolutely NUTS. With my new position at work I've been working crazy long hours, plus taking care of my parent's house while they are OOT, PLUS trying to clean my house because we will be gone this weekend. So, here's my list of things that I've done and still need to do before we leave:

Laundry
Clean the house
Pack
Switch door knob
Write a list for my friend
Water my parent's grass one more time
Feed sister's bunny

Needless to say, the only thing I've done so far is laundry :)

Weekend Recap!

Oh, boy did we have an exciting weekend, and by exciting I don't mean in a good way.

Friday I finally cleaned/organized my walk-in closet. My coworkers had a bet going around about how many pairs of shoes I own. Highest number I believe was 120....well I have to say that person was WAY off. I actually have 45 pairs.

Closet Before:

Closet After:

On Saturday I finally hung up this awesome metal scroll that I got a Pier 1. It looks awesome above Joe's closet!

And finally on Saturday we removed the 24x36 plain, chipped, mirror in our half bath. Ordinarily this would be an easy task, but remember, this is our house that we are talking about. We thought the mirror was attached with mirror mastic. We tried using piano wire to cut through the adhesive. Nothing was working. We finally decided to shatter the mirror. What we found behind it will make your jaw hit the floor. We discovered the mirror was attached to the wall with TAR, yes the same stuff they use on the roads. Unfortunately I don't have before pics because with all the broken glass it was too dangerous to take the time to get some pics.

So, on Sunday I repaired the wall, painted, and hung the brand new mirror. What do you think? We love it :)

Organization Issues...

So we have 2 closets in our Master Bedroom. Mine is the walk-in (obviously!) and Joe's is the regular closet. My closet is so full of clothes, shoes, purses, and just plain crap that every day this week I have had something fall on my head. This makes for a very angry Sheila every morning. Well, today I have decided to go buy under the bed shoe storage (the as seen on t.v. ones) and clean out the closet. This will take all week, believe me. I'll post the before shots when I get a chance....you will be shocked at the mess.

House Updates!

I finally took a picture of the new rug in the living room (yay!). We also bought a new summer weight comforter. It's a Calvin Klein that I got at Home Goods. I also bought 2 new pics for over the bed that match the new duvet cover (for winter) and the new summer bedding perfectly. Hope you all like it!

Back to work

So I haven't updated in a really long time....both Joe and I were off work last week, did some stuff around the house, and then went up north to Gaylord for the 4th of July. We made a stop in Traverse City, did some wine tasting and had a great dinner. I've been doing a few things around the house, just have to take some pics and upload them. Stay tuned!

New cleaning schedule!

Today I kicked off my new cleaning schedule (see the right side of the page). I cleaned the family room, vacuumed the kitchen and foyer. I think it only took about 20 min to do everything...and how do I know it only took 20 min? Well, my Friend's episode hadn't ended when I got done and I was able to watch the last 10 min. All in all, I think the new schedule is going to work out fantastic. I always felt like all I did all weekend was CLEAN. Joe would get really irritated because he wanted to relax and I have OCD with cleaning....so needless to say I think this will ease some of the stress of cleaning in our house.

Tomorrow I'm getting a deep tissue massage....we'll see if I stick to the schedule tomorrow..... :)

Our new living room rug

The rug finally arrived yesterday evening. It looks awesome in the room, definitely ties everything together. Here's the rug: http://tinyurl.com/klq6qf

I'll post some pics after I clean the room...

The outside landscaping: Before

We decided to redo our landscaping this year since we have basically finished all we can at the moment inside. Here are some before shots. I'll post some after shots soon. We laid mulch down over Memorial Day weekend. We also fixed up the back landscaping, but I didn't get a chance to take before shots. It was pretty ugly though!

The outside of our house. We still have to replace the outside lights, the screen door, and the address numbers. We are replacing with all brushed nickel.

Up close shot of the front landscaping. We have no mulch, crappy edging. It's basically a nightmare at the moment.

The front landscaping. We have already removed a mini weeping willow tree. Most likely we are going to put a large rock there.

All of our Living room!

We FINALLY finished the living room (just waiting for the rug to arrive on Monday!).

Our new coffee table, bought on Amazon, but sold at various stores. We got the bowl at Target.

Our chair and new ottoman. The metal scoll over the doorway is also new, bought at Pier 1. Definitely ties the living room and dining room together.

Close up of the chair, ottoman, wall sconces, and new very large lantern, purchased from JC Penny super cheap. Looks like the Pottery Barn ones, but without the huge ticket price :)

The end table, also purchased from amazon. All of the tables are from the same group. Lamp from Home Goods, glass jar and sea glass from Pottery Barn. The floor vase we bought on Overstock.

The couch and 2 tables. We LOVE the couch, purchased from Value City Furniture. The artwork we bought on our honeymoon in Punta Cana and had it custom framed at JoAnn's.