WIWS ~2/10/13~

I’ve been meaning to jump back on the party bus labeled “What I Wore Sunday” for some time now and thought I’d use it as an opportunity to decrease my alterations pile – posting my mass outfit only if it involves an alteration.  Good motivation.  My pile is large.  Well, then yesterday came along and I decided to pack up the kids while Anthony was tending to teenagers (ah, the life of a youth minister) and head out to the vigil mass solo.  I wasn’t wearing anything altered but I was feeling especially cheery in my yellow skinnies so I thought I’d participate anyway.  Thing is, by the time I got both girls fed and ready, diapers changed and re-changed, I only had a few seconds to snap a pic.  So, I grabbed Seraphia on my way to putting her in her car seat, set the camera on the dresser, clicked and ran to my post, said cheese, walked over and turned the camera off, and headed out.  With that said, this folks, is what I wore to mass:feb92012 001 And this is also why you should never turn the camera off before making sure you’ve captured a crisp and clear sliver of life, aimed in the right direction.

Better luck next week.  :)

The off kilter details:
Sweater:  Tarjay
Skinnies:  Tarjay
Belt:  my dad’s old belt…vintage I think they’d call it  :)

You can be sure to find lots more haze-free outfits over at Fine Linen and Purple!

Nursery Progress

I’m long overdue on a post about the current state of the girls’ room so I’ll save a project post for Ana’s Valentine's Day! Cabin! Fever! Creativity! Link-Up! (how can you not get excited with all those exclamation marks!) and give a little run-down on what’s done and what’s yet to do. 

I know most people finish their nurseries before their kids pop out but not me.  The plan was to have it done but then we just kept getting stuff for the girls and all that stuff kept getting piled into their future room and big ‘ole pregnant me just got a little overwhelmed with the material chaos of having two at once and procrastination set it and…well, you get the point.  It’s not done.  But, tis otay because technically they have yet to inhabit it.  They’re still rent-free in our room at the moment which buys me some time to slowly work towards a completed nursery and time to work on other projects as well.  You know me, I like to jump around…kitchen to shoes to nursery back to kitchen and then to the entry way.  It keeps things hoppin’.  I go where the inspiration blows me.

So anyway, I give you progress:feb82012 005
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feb82012 025 feb82012 007
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feb82012 003     feb82012 008
feb82012 011  feb82012 017

Still left to do:
- make a cover for the changing pad (yes, we’ve been using it but the plain plastic is getting to me)
- make a fabric pouf/ottoman to pair with the rocking chair which…
- needs to be reupholstered or covered with a new slipcover – both diy options
- recover the lampshades
- stain the dresser?  paint the dresser?  still tossing that around in the nog…
- hang frames and art and lots of it (next to the angel window art and above the dresser…I’m thinking a collage of some sort)
- revamp and hang the mirror I picked up thrifting whilst visiting my sis
- diy a rug/floor cloth (I bought a round tablecloth for this purpose…will it work?  I guess we’ll see.)
- paint the front of the window seat and jazz it up somehow (a cushion, pillows, the stuffed zoo the girls have inherited?)
- lots tweakings and stuff I haven’t even thought of yet
- eventually move the twins in which includes squeezing in the second crib

Whew!  Is that it?  At the rate I’m going it’ll be finished just in time for the girls tenth birthday…  But you bet I’ll fill you all in on all the deets cause that’s how I do.

Have a great weekend…and don’t forget about Ana’s link-up!  :)

P.S.  It’s party time!  Linking up at Watch Out, Martha!  Head on over and see some more Martha-esque posts!

Button Button

Who’s got the button?  I do!  I made one!  See?

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And you can have it for your very own if you’d like, just scroll down and find it in my sidebar, copy and paste, and whoop there it is!  I made it with my fave online editing resource, pixlr.com and then got it up and running on the blog using this awesome tutorial by Marie at Code it Pretty.  Seriously, she walks you through each little step holding your hand the entire way until, whaddya know, at the end you’ve got yourself some blog bling to share!  Anybody else got a button to share?  Let’s accessorize!  :)

Firmoo Eyewear: A Review

My heart skips a few beats when I hear “free”.  So, you can imagine my excitement when Firmoo shot me an email asking if I’d like a free pair of specs in exchange for a review.  I think it took me 0.00001 seconds to reply back with a big, fat “YES”.  The fact that I’ve been wearing the same glasses I’ve owned for about five years now helped kick my enthusiasm in high gear.

Well, I looked, I ordered, they shipped, they came, and here they are:feb12012 018
(The pair I ordered is currently unavailable on the Firmoo website, but when/if they come back up, I’ll be sure to attach a link.)

I’ll start with the good first.  The glasses were super-easy to order; the website really easy to navigate.  I absolutely love the try-on feature!  I’ve always been leery of ordering anything online that pertains to being worn on my person, including glasses, but this feature put that fear aside (even though I did think there was a discrepancy between the online try-on and reality, but I’ll write about that later.)feb42012 002
Sheena, Sheena, Sheena, Sheena, Sheena, Sheena, Sheena, aaand Sheena.

Once I ordered the glasses they were at my doorstep within four days.  I didn’t waste anytime digging in and was pleasantly surprised by all of the goodies Firmoo sent with the glasses.  I was expecting my glasses, wrapped in plastic, and that’s it.  But no, I got a rad hard case, a cleaning cloth, and tiny tool set – and all of that in a nice little drawstring bag.  feb42012 001 I’m not gonna lie, I was almost more excited about the tool set than the glasses.  I’ve needed one of those many, many times in the past and now Firmoo has blessed me with one.  As far as the glasses go, the quality is awesome.  You’d never guess that this pair runs well under $100!  feb12012 029
The plastic seems like it can definitely withstand the multiple grabs and tosses of little hands…something I’ve become oh-so-used-to these days.  I especially loved the specs I chose because of their ability to be business/geek in front:feb12012 016cp

party on the SIDE:feb12012 022

On the down side, the glasses were a wee bit bigger on my tiny face than they initially looked on me digitally with the try-on feature and so I’m still on the fence about whether or not I actually like them on me.  Also, not sure what went wrong with the prescription, but I excitedly put them on only to find that they were a little strong.  I had my lookers checked last year and they didn’t change much in strength yet I found these glasses to be a lot stronger than my current/previous lenses.  Bummer.  I could’ve entered the prescription wrong whilst ordering or could’ve have gotten some incorrect info from the doc but either way, they’re not wearable as they are until I get the lenses replaced.  Other than that, my only qualm was the lack of selection of small-sized frames.  I didn’t know whether I was more of a small or medium but the lack of small sizes made my medium decision for me.

So, with that, I encourage you to hop on over to Firmoo and treat yourself to some new specs for free with their First Pair Free Program!  That’s right!  Your first pair is absolutely free – prescription or no prescription!  All you have to do is pay shipping!  AND, they’re having a buy one, get one 50% Valentine’s Day sale right now!  So, after you order your first pair, you can order more because Firmoo is all about beauty on a budget; high style on a dime.  Their eyewear is budget-friendly!  I know where I’ll be going to pick up a second, third, fourth pair of glasses plus some cool shades for the upcoming summer sun!  Gone are the days when your only option for getting fabulous four eyes are the hundred dollar frames from your optician!  Also out the door is the idea that only fuzzy sight warrants getting glasses!  These days they’re fashion accessories!

  So, with all of that said, let me make it easy for y’all!  Click here ---> http://www.firmoo.com/free-glasses.html to get your free glasses now!

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P.S.  A special thanks to my amazing and talented (and pregnant!) sis, Farrah, for the backyard photography session.  :)

Upholstering a Frame Mat

Remember the word art I whipped up for the twins nursery?  Well, I mentioned that the homemade mat I made using the existing cardboard backing looked a little shoddy around the inside edges and so one night while the twins were tucked away in their crib I reupholstered it to get a much nicer facade.

I used some leftover curtain lining I had laying around from our dining area valance project, some masking tape, a little craft glue, and a scissors.

First I cut out a rectangular piece slightly larger than my cardboard mat: jan42012b 014

I didn’t worry about cutting the edges perfectly straight since they were going to be attached to the back of the cardboard and therefore unseen like so:jan42012b 015To get a snug fit I secured the middle of each side first and worked my way to the corners.  I didn’t have to worry about getting perfect corners either because they’d be hidden under the frame.

Then I cut the excess fabric out of the middle:jan42012b 016

And cut some diagonal lines at the corners so that I could again wrap the fabric around the back:jan42012b 017

I then put a few droplets of craft glue where the fabric would be laying on the back (to keep it extra tight and secure since the inside edge would be seen) and taped it down the same way that I did the outer edge:jan42012b 018

Finally, I put the whole shebang back together and hung it up revealing a much more polished reminder for our girls:jan42012b 019

Never will I pay to have a custom mat made for an odd-sized frame while I’ve got some cardboard and fabric laying around!  Think of all the options too!  Colored and/or patterned fabric or even scrapbook paper would be fun to spice up any artwork or photograph!  Decorative edges or even matted shapes would be so cool too!  Anybody else feelin’ the excitement?!  Anybody else made their own mat?  Lay it on me!  I’d love to see!

.           .           .

I hope everyone has a great weekend!  I’m looking forward to catching up on some projects after a great week with family!  My two sisters, my niece, and my mom were all here for the week and we had so much fun sewing up a storm and loading up on sweets!  Now that they’re gone our house is too quiet and I’m really missing the extra hands, especially since Cecilia has gotten RSV and a double ear infection…boo.  Poor thing has to be attached to a gas mask every six hours and it breaks my heart.  It’s her first real sickness and I’m hoping the last for a long while.  On the plus side though, we’re now proud owners of a pink panda nebulizer!  How cute is that?!  :)feb12012 032