Cuttie kids and diy luck and disaster.

 

 

We have been enjoying spring weather and the kids have loved being outside playing and going to the library etc.  We have also been working on changing up our main bathroom.  We put in a new floor, a new vanity, and "fixed" the walls, painted, and fun other little odds and ends. Here's Aaron putting in the tile:

This bathroom has been one of the things that bugged me most about our house but now that it is almost finished I am just floating on a little cloud of happiness that has come from having most of our major house reno behind us.  We have been in our home for two years now and we have redone the floors upstairs, gutted the kitchen, redone two bathrooms, finished the family room in the basement and cleaned up quite a bit of the landscaping as well as getting the garage almost all the way cleaned out.  We still have a lot of big and little projects to do but with the projects we've finished so far, we have a solid home base to enjoy while working on our projects.  I am so grateful and I can't believe that we are actually this close to having our plans accomplished.  So yay for that:)  I will post some pics when the bathroom is all the way done.  Meanwhile I tried my hand at some diy furniture.  I ended up at discount tire because my tire needed to be replaced ASAP and Gretchen and I wandered over to DI while we waited.  It was amazing.  I have been looking for ottomans to recover for like a year and have found nothing.  I found two there and took one home with me.  I don't have a before pic but lets just say Aaron really did not want to let it into the house and asked if it had bugs.  So pretty gross.  But I ripped it apart and took off all the old stuff and flipped the cushion over so it didn't sag in the middle anymore. I found some cheap fabric and covered it with Aaron's help and our staple gun.  After that I had a new ottoman for a total of $20. 

I felt amazed that it even worked out at all, let alone that I loved it so I was like I should just redo my couch.  It will be awesome.  Hmm...  It is a cute couch that I got for free from my aunt but it doesn't match my room very well and it is getting old and holey in some spots.  So I got the bright idea to switch out the back cushions for some huge down throw pillows that I found for like 80% off at crate and barrel and felt even more confident.  Enter internet slipcover tutorial.  It should have worked. I bought a humongous drop cloth from homedepot. Then just like it said I tried to bleach it white.  I don't even want to say how much bleach I used and 24 hours later I had one very ruined, not white, canvas drop cloth.  That is when I had a break down, switched out all my furniture and tried to move the dining room into living room etc...After about two hours I got over it and cleaned the house.  I then doubled the dropcloth (because chunks of it were threadbare and see through) and threw it over the couch and tucked it in thanks to a no sew tutorial that I thought was silly at the time of reading it.  So the dropcloth slipcover tutorial was a disaster for me but now that I have done this once I think that I will sew one from fabric that I bought from the fabric store in a color that I actually like.  This is the sort of before pic with the new pillows (minus the covers).
I cant seem to get the after loaded but I will put that up later.    

Ah, you live and you learn I guess.  I thought it was a total failure and was pretty bummed about all the money I had wasted etc. but in the end it turn out okay and it is actually really comfy with all the pillows.

Now the important stuff. Julian and Gretch! They are so funny.  Julian sings and Gretchen dances to him singing no matter how much like screaming it actually sounds. It is so funny to watch.  The cutest thing was Gretch dragging Julian's big bag of legos out because she wanted to play with them and so we took them out and she stacked them all up on the wall I was building.  She is so good at it and so excited about her little building.  Julian loves them too and the coolest thing about it is he does all these awesome designs in everything he builds.  Like all layers of primary colors separated by the silver metal looking ones. They just always look so awesome. Besides that Julian loves his sports class.  We go once a week and he talks about it the rest of the week.  But last week was soccer and he was actually dribbling the ball and I was so proud all though probably not as proud as Aaron. 

 Julian and Gretch both love to wave and mimic the lady who conducts music at church and Gretchy was even doing the two hand wave today.  She mimics a lot anyway and blows me kisses when I blow them to her.  She also likes to buz like a bee when we are reading Mr. Brown can moo can you.  Those two are still wrestling a lot and I cannot wait till official spring starts and we can spend hours outside working on the garden and yard together and playing. Seriously Gretchen is so active and so good at getting what she wants.  She is a communicator! And normally what she is saying is "give it to me now!!" She also laughs all the time, especially with Julian but she is just so fun!   Meanwhile we are just doing our thing hanging out and living life together.  I am so grateful for these two little people in my life and especially for Aaron who really makes the whole thing possible for me.  Here's a few fun pics.
Everyone playing legos after church:

Scary chocolate ice cream Gretch:

Julian city building:

 

 A fun day at the park:

 

  

 Julian wielding his sword and shield, ready to go to battle.

P.s. Do your couches ever have cushions on them? Mine don't about 85% of the day. Oh well...