Do You Need a Dining Room?

Targeted Obsession: Home Decor

I'm in need of a new project. I know this because I have begun "pretend" house shopping online. My husband would strangle me if I brought up the idea of moving and would probably disconnect our home internet if he knew how much time I've spent on Terra Vista lately. (BEST real estate search engine for NC, just FYI!) I even pitched the idea of house flipping to him. He flipped. Literally. SOOOO.... I came up with another idea...

Room flipping!

I'm out of spaces (and let's be honest, money) to re-do in my home, so why not sell an entire room and use the profits to do it all again? This probably sounds like a nightmare to some of you, but to me, it sounds like SO much FUN! And I'm banking on the fact that the people who think starting over on a room that's been completely finished are the ones who might want to buy a complete room. When I say "complete," I mean EVERYTHING. You just can't have the walls and floor... but I'll tell you the paint color and include the rug! This could be a pipe-dream and if so, we can all have a good laugh together... but just maybe???

The first room up in my crazy room flipping trial is my dining room.

It's got a traditional flair with darker furniture and light accents that really brighten the room. From a charcoal navy in the ikat fabric chairs to the light blue hue in the rug, this space transitions to grey/ silver accents easily. However, the gold in the ikat allows for bronze and copper elements to work as well! The coolest part? You don't have to plan anything! Everything you see that wasn't part of the original home construction goes! (And no... the light fixture WASN'T a part of home construction- I added it after the fact!) Truthfully, the light fixture might be my favorite thing about the room. 

Departing with the curtains will make me sad too, but the thought of shopping for new ones makes it all better. My favorite thing about them is the long drop. Hanging them well above the top of the windows makes the windows look so much bigger and allows for so much light to come in. I'm a big fan of "puddling" drapes, so I went for the 92 inch drops. (Curtain rods are not included.) 

From talking with friends, one of their most frustrating things about decorating is shelving. Well... you can take all of the decor on the china cabinet as well! There's even wine storage on the bottom. (Sorry, no wine included! Ha!) 

The rug in my dining room was almost the rug we chose for our office re-do. When I chose the rug for the office, I kept thinking about "that other rug" and went back two days later. It was still in the store, so I took that as a sign that it needed to come home with me. 

And finally, here's what I call the "entrance table." It houses our candy bowl and one of my favorite mirrors in my house. It's a "skinny" mirror. I took all of my baby bump pictures in this mirror for a reason! 

The flowers are fake and will last forever. The only thing I doubt you'll want is the picture of Ivan and Ridge inside the white frame, but the frame is included! Soooooo... if you need a new dining room or want to completely re-do yours without dealing with the hassle of shopping/ planning/ wondering "does this work," then I'm your gal! $4,000 (or best reasonable offer) takes the lot! You're more than welcome to come look at everything in person and we will help with delivery within 20 minutes of area code 28078. If interested, please private message the Mommy Obsessed Blog page on Facebook. I could be crazy, but hey... watching a crazy lady decorate can be fun, right? We'll see how this pans out. Pipe dream? Maybe. But hey...  you never know! 

Laundry Room Redo

Targeted Obsession: Home Decor

A while back we started the process of renovating our office. What I didn't tell you was that we started discussing doing our laundry room too! And I'm kind of glad I didn't tell anyone because the laundry room took us longer than the office for various reasons, but it's now FINISHED!

The major reason we wanted to focus energy on the laundry room was the lack of storage in our house. We also hated the fact that we spent so much time and money on making our home exactly how we wanted it, but whenever we sat on the couch and turned our head slightly to the right, this was our view...

That's one nasty "before" picture, right?!

The laundry room became our "catch all" space. It also butts right up to our staircase. Why homebuilders don't think to give you extra storage under the stairs is beyond me, but we'd always discussed cutting under our staircase from the laundry room to create more places to stick stuff. I've mentioned before that my husband is pretty handy (flashback to the shiplap wall- I still go stare at it daily BTW) and he totally figured out how to add the storage under the stairs while protecting the integrity (aka, structure) of our home. What he didn't want to do was figure out how to plumb, reroute electricity, and hang cabinets... so we contracted the majority of this project out. Therefore, this wasn't one of our cheaper re-dos. However, we love it none the less, so without further adieu... check out this "after" shot!

It doesn't even look like the same space, right?! It's amazing what a little space planning and some cabinets can do! We didn't move any walls or change flooring, we simply added things and moved our washer/ dryer hookups. When we built our home, we had it plumbed to one day house a sink in this room. We went for the extra large farmhouse sink and cool industrial faucet in order to better bathe our 40 lb dog. (Let's be real- that was our "reasoning" but we totally wanted an excuse to splurge on the cool stuff!) I have to hand it to my husband though, the sink and faucet were both purchased off of Craigslist for half of what they'd typically cost and the stackable washer/ dryer combo came from an incredible sale as well. SOOOO, even though the re-do wasn't cheap, it could have been way worse!

Now, we all know I have a 5 year old. His preschool does the most adorable crafts and artwork! I hate clutter. All of that is the perfect combination for mom guilt because WTH am I supposed to do with the plethora of art that my son brings home weekly?!!! Cue big idea! A few summers ago I grabbed a piece of sheet metal and spray paint from Lowes and a poster frame from Target and wound up with this:

I loved the easy-to-switch and cute photo display, so I thought about doing it on a grander scale... and voila! We wound up with a sheet metal wall! If you live in the Lake Norman area and want to know where to get large pieces of sheet metal on the cheap, I can hook you up!

It's perfect for displaying everything and is located right in our "drop zone!" It didn't alleviate the mom guilt though. Come to find out, we're out of magnets so I still have to pick things to discreetly get rid of whenever something new comes home. And do you see the shelf in the bottom corner? That's the hole under the stairs!

Ivan cut a shape that followed the stairs for easy access and then built this rolling cart to sit in front of the giant hole! Behind the cart is a TON of space where we stash seasonal items and the cart is our new "drop zone" for Ridge. (See the pile of unhung artwork in the top right? hehe!)

And that's it. Seven months, three contractors, one husband, and hours on Craigslist and this is what we came up with. The storage is awesome and the view from our sofa has greatly improved! Ciao for now, or at least until we find another room to mess with...

I try to avoid public restrooms anyway...

Here's the thing... I try to avoid public restrooms anyway. In my mind most are full of germs, stink, and weird people that are perfectly normal outside of the confines of where we go to pee and poop.

Because of the world we live in, I'm ALWAYS looking around the corner and wondering what's hiding in the shadows. I call it my "irrational fears"... irrational because (and I'm sure there are actual statistics out there, but I'm not looking them up) there's typically a crazy small percentage of a chance that it's going to happen to me. And that "it" is anything. I don't park beside creepy white vans. I load my children both on the same side of the car and my oldest "crawls" through. My 45 pound 5 year old is still in a 4 point harness carseat. My guns are locked in bionic safes. I have a supply of canned goods and have thought about "what if" our power grid is wiped one day. I don't float on a rubber raft in the surf anymore... you see where I'm going. Basically, anything that seems dangerous or potentially hazardous, I try to avoid.

Now don't get me wrong, I still really enjoy life and the majority of the time my husband and kids have no idea I'm weighing the pros and cons of choices in my head, wrestling with the irrational fears that pop up. It's just a part of my day, and if I have to guess, it's just a part of being a MOM. It doesn't diminish my quality of life and if you had a conversation with my subconscious, I bet it would argue that my fears actually enhance my quality of life because I feel as if I'm actively protecting those that I love. Love...

It all comes down to love. Jesus teaches us to love our neighbor as ourself. Protect my kids... love the guy dressed as a girl... love the uber liberal left that continually rips at my conservative Christian values... protect my ability live in a country where my voice and values matter... It's a constant back and forth battle against loving and protecting and it's not really about bathrooms.

There's an agenda that helps to gain the following of us that wants to choose love first. We want everyone to feel loved and valued and that agenda is taking advantage of us. By gaining our following, they gain power. By gaining power, they take it away from us... bit by bit. Our government gets bigger and more powerful and our voices become less important. So if we want our children to have their voices heard one day, we have to protect their rights.

This is not a "boycott Target" post or a post encouraging/ discouraging  the support of HB2. This is a post about letting your voice be heard. VOTE. Don't be complacent. Don't hide your opinion for fear of ruffling feathers... I say that because it describes me perfectly! I have strong opinions and never share them publicly for fear of hurting others. I want to love. I want to spread the love of Jesus. But Jesus didn't hold his tongue for fear of ruffling feathers. He ruffled plenty! And he was the perfect example of love.

I try my hardest not to use public restrooms anyway, so passing laws about who can use which restroom seems really silly to me. There are bathrooms for men and bathrooms for women. If we wanted everyone to use whichever restroom, we wouldn't have put stick figures on the wall labeling which belongs to whom. It saddens me that my home (Charlotte, NC) was specifically targeted to promote a liberal agenda (that uses bathrooms as its voice, but is in reality MUCH bigger) because we're a liberal city in a swing state with a conservative governor. They came after us because we would create a perfect storm that would put them in the spotlight. They don't care about bathrooms either, though they're really making you think they do. They care about your votes. So no matter which side you're on... remember...

VOTE. Let your voice be heard. Educate yourself on the policies and PRAY. God is bigger than politics. He is bigger than government... and He sure as hell is bigger than bathrooms. Show love, shower grace, and if you feel threatened, read Luke, chapter 11. (I especially love verses 9, 10, and 21.)

You Don't Know the Power of the Dark Side

Pinterest. The Dark Side I'm referring to is Pinterest. And while some may see it as "the dark side," I have to politely disagree. A few weeks ago I had a conversation with a friend about numerous things and the topic somehow came to Facebook and Pinterest. His opinion was that people only throw elaborate birthday parties so they can brag about them with posts to Facebook and Pinterest. While yes, a "like" on a Facebook picture is certainly an ego boost, I totally don't think that's the reason some people throw Pinterest worthy parties, or participate in certain activities, or even share pictures on social media... I honestly feel that nothing "they" do has anything to do with you or me. For example... I share my life on Facebook. Facebook has become for me what scrapbooking was to my mother- a way to capture and share my family's memories. This blog is another example. It started as an outlet for a mom who hung out with a 4 year old and 4 month old all day. The fact that people read it is a blessing, but it didn't begin as a way to virtually "brag" about anything. For me, Facebook and blogging is all about friends and family and bridging the gap that geography and life have put between us. But that's not my entire train of thought...


The Dark Side...

My son is obsessed with Star Wars. What IS it with guys and Star Wars? I'm obsessed with my son. I'm also obsessed with making things pretty, as we've discussed numerous times in this blog. Sooooo... naturally I'm one of "those" Pinterest party moms. (You didn't think I was defending the type without reason, did you? I'm a card-carrying member!) I think it's more of a personality thing and it certainly has nothing to do bragging on social media. For example, years ago when I was in middle school I was given the opportunity to decorate my homeroom's door for homecoming. The project wound up growing from a door to a wall. It was awesome. I LOVED doing it. And from there on out, all of my projects tended to go overboard. My personality type would exist without Pinterest or Facebook or blogs... you just see me (and moms like me) more because the world is simply WAY more connected. We each have our own talents and I love that we can share them better thanks to the internet! To the coupon moms out there- I WISH I could be more like you! I tried and it's totally not my forte. To the "life hacker" whose posts I find on Pinterest (where someone way more clever than me came up with 100+ uses for the Magic Eraser)... THANK YOU! We are all gifted in certain ways and I think social media allows us to share those gifts. I do think being gifted in coming up with clever, spend-thrifty things is way more awesome than wanting to decorate out the wazoo whenever life gives the opportunity, but hey... we all have to embrace our talents! For the past few months, I've slowly been using mine to plan an elaborate 5th birthday party.

The theme (as you've probably gathered) was Star Wars. I took my inspiration from our trip to Disney last year where we watched the Jedi Training experience. I wanted to throw a party where I didn't have to plan a million games to entertain the masses, so I thought simply training a few Jedi might be easy and fun. We planned the party to last for two hours and reserved the facility for 3 hours to allow for set-up and cleaning. If you're looking for somewhere to host a small event in Huntersville, NC then you should look into the Huntersville Arts and Cultural Center. It's wonderful and cheap. You can learn more about it here.

Jedi training in full force.

For Jedi training, I decided I'd host the session myself (gotta put the teaching experience to good use!) and watched YouTube videos of the Disney professionals to put together my training plan. At Disney, Darth Vader crashes the training session, so of course I needed a Darth Vader. Amazingly, I happen to know a family with the COOLEST Star Wars costumes and the kids were raising money for a school trip. I asked if I could rent them in costume for an hour and the rest was history. The kids will be doing another school trip next year, so if you're interested in cool Star Wars characters at your next party, I can give you their information! (Side note- the kids are super awesome and kind! They were great with our guests at the party and I couldn't have asked for anything better! For real, you want them to come to your party!)

Our awesome characters!

I knew guests wouldn't all arrive at the same time, so we played a Lego Star Wars video (thanks, Cartoon Network and YouTube) while guests arrived. The party favors were light sabers. (Yes, they were expensive, but at around $9 a piece they were only a few dollars more than what parents generally spend on goodie bags and will be played with way more, so for me it was worth it.) We used the party favors during the training session. After about 15 minutes of training, we turned on what Ridge claims is his favorite song (blame the dad), Imperial March by Celldweller and Darth Vader came in with his Stormtrooper escort. It was AWESOME! We battled the dark side for a few minutes and then sang happy birthday with our cool characters present. After cake, the Star Wars crew hung around for guests to get their pictures taken and then played around with the kiddos. That was pretty much it! It was a super quick, simple party and we had a blast. I still felt like I didn't get to spend enough time with our guests (why does it always feel like that?!) and stressed out for about 2 hours prior to the party getting everything in order. But it was worth it!

Listening intently to the Jedi master. Ridge wanted to dress up for his party...  Let them be little and join in on the fun!

Party crashers

We battled the Dark Side and W

My take-away on our latest party?

• Forget paper invites to kids birthdays. They're nice and I'm sure Emily Post wouldn't agree with me, but creating a Facebook event to invite and inform guests was so much better! I was even able to send a "heads up" message when I confirmed the Star Wars characters so parents could let me know if they thought their kids might get scared. Paper invites couldn't do that.
• If you're doing a themed party where you'd like cool decorations, give those things as presents beforehand. Santa brought some Star Wars toys at Christmas and Ridge's birthday gifts from family members were also Star Wars themed, so it was all brought to the party and made decorating way cheaper! The Star Wars backdrop fabric we used is going to be made into a blanket. So my suggestion is this: whatever you buy to decorate a party with, think about how you can use it after the celebration is over. 
• Make things as easy for you during the party as possible. (Meaning, you don't want to have to be the entertainment for the kids. I know... I totally didn't follow this rule. But the party would have been more fun for me if I had.) 
• Light sabers are cheaper at Target than Walmart. (Really?! Really.) 
• Have the party outside of your home. Best. Thing. EVER. 
• Think about your child's favorite things and center it all around that. Ridge won't remember many things from many parties... but I bet he'll always remember that Darth Vader came to his birthday and that he got to battle his friends with light sabers. 

The party food was a total Pinterest copy. We served Wookie Cookies, Padawan Popcorn, Droid Nuts and Bolts (Chex Mix) , Edible Ewoks (Teddy Grams), Thermal Detonators (cheese puff balls), Princess Lays (Classic Lays Chips), Hans Rolos (Rolos), Death Star Donuts (donut holes), Jedi Juice (Capri Sun), Wookie Water (bottled water), and Yoda Soda (Sprite). 

Baby Leia observed from afar

The birthday boy and the Star Wars crew

Thanks to Cheeky Cakes for making our Star Wars cake a reality! I highly recommend working with them! Find their Facebook page here.

I love this. Ridge couldn't get all of his candles out on the first try...

...so our Jedi master and Darth Vader began to use "the force" to help! 

My last thought on the Dark Side is this: Do what you want. It's too hard to please everyone all the time. If you want an elaborate party, throw one. If you want to post the pictures to social media, do it. I've tip-toed around "What will people think" for too long and find it so freeing to no longer worry about it. (Or no longer worry about it as much- let's be honest!) But the real Dark Side isn't Pinterest or Facebook or even Darth Vader... it's worrying about the judgement of others. So... step into the light my friends and thanks for checking out our 5th birthday Star Wars extravaganza!