Apple Subway Art Gift

Well I got a picture of Mr. Genius' gift....but I do not have a good picture of it.

I had it all planned to hang it up today and wait til the sunlight was just right so I could take a picture to you all you guys, so you could all be amazed by my craftiness.

Ok not really. But I did want to get a good picture for ya.

Then I remembered about my valentine's gift.

We are finally painting the dining room.

As a result of painting and putting wainscotting up in the dining room Mr. Genius' office looks like this...

And our foyer looks like this...

I don't know if it is good or bad that my boys do not even bat an eye when I rearrange the furniture like this.

They played under the dining room table before. To them it is like a cave or a tunnel depending of what they are playing. When we moved it into the foyer, they carried on like it was always there.

At least my decorating sickness has a plus side...it has caused my boys to be more flexible and to thrive in chaos.

So I do have two pictures of my gift. Neither are very good.

But they are pictures none the less.

First is the finished gift right before I gave it to Mr. Genius...on my guest room bed...that isn't made up... and has an ugly orangey memory foam topper due to the 40 year old mattress we make our guests sleep on.

Please forgive me.

And the other picture is on the floor of Mr. Genius office...I have no excuse for that room, cuz it is not my room...it is Mr. Genius' office/man cave.

The good news is that Mr. Genius likes it other then the fact that I made the p's in both iPod and iPhone lower case.

I am not the Apple fanatic, I just married one. So...Oops.

Tomorrow the plan is to show you our newly painted dining room! *fingers crossed*

A little story about us

Happy Valentine's Everyone!

I hope everyone is having a great day telling the people that you love how much they mean to you.

Wild Man informed me that for Valentine's Day he is to get Valentine Cards and no candy!

Score! Totally working with that one!

Tomorrow I will show you what I made Mr. Genius for Valentine's. I can't yet due to the fact I haven't given it to him yet.

Fingers crossed that he likes it.

In the light of this loving holiday I thought I would share a little story about how I got Mr. Genius to fall madly in love with me.

Well maybe not madly in love with me but definitely amazed by me. :)

Unfortunately it was all a lie.

(Insert evil laugh here)

Back a LOOOONG time ago when we were in college and Mr. Genius and I first started dating I was in the great habit of going to the gym every morning to work out.

Oh the days when I got a full night of sleep, how I miss those days.

One morning I was on the treadmill... or the elliptical...whichever it doesn't matter. But what does matter is that it was back in the day when "Who wants to be a millionaire" was a HUGE show. That morning the guys at the gym had ALL the tvs on Sports Center.

Image from here

This day in particular, the hosts were playing a game called " Who wants to be a Sports center host or millionaire"

I can't remember.

It really doesn't matter.

What does matter is that I watched the freakin' show twice. So I learned a bunch of worthless information about sports.

Have I mentioned that I am not a sports person.

I know that there are sports, like football, baseball, soccer, and tennis. But who plays them, how you play them mean nothing to me.

(All the more reason that me having boys is kind of humorous)

But since I had nothing better to do while running or pretend I was running up a million stairs I listened and apparently absorbed this info.

Now fastforward to later that night when Mr. Genius came over and he turned on the tv to Sport Center....and lo and behold guess what was on...yep the EXACT same show I had already watch twice this morning.

I thought I would have a little fun since Mr. Genius was still getting to know me and didn't realize I wasn't a sports fanatic yet. Well I think he did know, but I thought I would have a little fun with the not knowing me very well yet.

So we watch the Sports Center millionaire game and I answered EVERYONE of those questions right!

Way to go memory...wish that memory worked in my history class.

After the show was over I planned on telling Mr. Genius the truth that I didn't really know that answers to those quesions.

But then my roommate came home and her boyfriend came over... and I forgot all about it.

Oopsy.

Fast forward six months later.

Yep, 6 months. That is how my memory works, which makes it that much more astonoshing that I remembered the answers to those questions.

Mr. Genius and I were hanging out with some friends and the guys were giving me a hard time about not being much of an athlete and Mr. Genius quickly stood up for me recalling the Sports Center show that we watched.

As much as I love to prove people wrong I told him the truth.

He laughed and forgave me.

Luckily, I already had him hooked.

Everything still ended with a happily ever after even it did start with a few lies. ;)

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!

It's a rug hunt

A decision has been made that it is high time we get a rug under our kitchen table.

We have tried every kind of rubber and felt stoppers on the bottom of our chairs and we keep adding to the collection of scratches on our hardwood floors. Grrrr.


The good news is I found a rug that I so love at Home Goods. It was only $200!!

Oh paisley rug, how I love thee!

But the bad news is, IT'S TOO SMALL!!!

I didn't take a picture from the other side, but there was pretty much only 3 inches of rug behind the chair with it pulled in to the table.

Curses!!

Unfortunately there isn't another rug like this one that is an 8x10. I have searched the internet world over and over and I cannot find it.

Double Curses!!

So the rug hunt continues.

Where do you go to find quality rugs for dirt cheap prices?

I do see the Crate and Barrel outlet in my future. Though I do see that the prices will be out of our budget in this vision too.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

I worked on a project to day!!

Can you believe it, cuz I have been totally slacking in that area.

But I warn you...it isn't very pretty.

Although Mr. Genius and I think it is glorious.

It took us over 3 hours to do it and now with it done, I do believe we can crown ourselves true Chicagoans.

Wanna see it?

Here you go.

That is our driveway all snowblown and shoveled.

Yes, we have survived the Blizzard of 2011!

I can guarantee no one was at the gym today, due to all the shoveling of snow. THAT, my friends is a GREAT workout. 

You wanna see what I think the best part of this is?

Take a look at my front door.

Or rather the walkway to my front door, and our feeble attempt to making a tunnel until we ran into ice.

But this no passage to our front door mean NO Door to door salesmen!!

Whoo Hoo! You know I try to be nice to those people cuz I know they are just trying to make a living, but seriously if I am really not thinking about fertilizing my yard when I haven't seen my grass since 2010.


Although I seriously just realized that now I can't get my milk delivered. Crud, I guess I will be going back out there after I put icy hot on my arms.

Here are a few more pictures of our little blizzard.

This is our neighbors house that is directly behind us. Notice the grill by their back doot.

This is part of our back patio.

My boys made those snow blocks and they were on top of their picnic table. No picnic table in sight today.

One fun things about the wind in Chicago is that it makes these great big snow drifts! Which are so much fun for the boys!

You can make some fun tunnels and it makes a slide if you can make it to the top.

Today has been a great day to not have to rush to preschool and to Romeo's tumbling class and to sit around and make some snow cream. Yum!

Now I better get back out there and make a path for the milk man.

The joys of a newly potty trained son continues...

Yesterday Romeo and I went to Old Navy while Wild Man was at school.

This trip to Old Navy will be the most memorable trip we will ever have, I am just sure of it.

After we were done with the shopping, Romeo decided he needed to go potty.

He walked right in and I sat him on the potty and then turned around to hang my purse on the door.

Then I heard a noise you do NOT want to hear in a restroom ESPECIALLY a public one.

I heard a Splash...

Romeo fell bottom first into the potty, and when I say into the potty...I mean really in that potty. His head and feet where the only thing sticking out of it.

It was a big potty in this restroom and Romeo is a little 3 year old boy... a bad combination.

As much as I would love to show you a picture of this, I thought my time was better spend getting him out.

So of course I ran over (we were in the handicap one and it was quite large) to get him out and in my actions the automatic flush came on before I could get him all the way out.

You can say my son got his first swirly...or even an enema.


I got him out and of course he was just dripping wet and shaking and crying. I felt so bad for him and was so completely grossed out and yet I was trying so hard not to laugh hysterically all at the same time.

I think it is safe to be said that there has been some psychological damage done here and it may be a while til we will be able to use a public restroom.

Although this does make a great story to share later on in his life...like when he brings girls over or even his wedding.

Is it bad that I wish I had a picture of this? I think I have laughed about this for 24 hours straight though.

In the winter...I become a hoarder

As soon as the winter hit here in Chicago, I closed my little shop. Partly because the paint is frozen and my fingers will fall off if I am out there for too long.

I did get a little heater but the cold here just laughs at it. Even if I am standing right in front of the heater I can't even feel it.

Although I have really enjoyed this little break. I have gotten back into a routine with cleaning and laundry and now I am actually cooking things! Before I would just through whatever meat in the oven or crock pot and then heat up whatever vegetables we had on hand. What ever seasoning that first fell into my hand when I opened up that door was the most creative I got.

I am now able to really look on the inside of my house and see what needs to be done with it and have the time to think about what I want to do in each room.

So the cold here has been a good thing.

But it hasn't stopped me from still shopping around for furniture!

It is starting to be a problem...but I will hang them from the ceiling if I have to, in order make room.

Here is what I have waiting in my garage for me to paint at this point.

I have two of these chairs.

I love the little detail on the bottom shelf. I am thinking maybe a turquoise on this one.

 antique mirror.

It doesn't have as much detail as I would like, but it came with the table I just showed you. So I will figure something out with it. Maybe a chalkboard.

This used to be a sewing table.

 The sewing machine was already taken out.

I am really thinking about copying Sausha @ Show and tell with this one by making it into a TV console. You think she will get mad? Copying is the highest form of flattery right?

This one I am MOST excited about redoing. I am thinking a combination of Yellow, black, and gray. Although I will miss the shelving it provides right now.

Sorry bad picture, but I am sure you can tell it is an antique dresser.

Gotta decide on a fun color on this one to.

Even more chairs!

Phew! Looking at all this furniture makes me wanna start sanding and painting right now....that is until I walk outside.

Are there some projects you guys are waiting on til it warms up? Or am I the only wussy that can't deal with the weather right now?

Scotch Blue 3m Winners

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Go to my Giveaway page...Here.