2012 Goals... How did I do?

Last year I created a list of goals for 2012. Basically a giant to do list....
And we always have such optimistic goals for the new year... so I thought I would pull out that list and see how I did.... before tackling my list for 2013.

You can find the original post.. {HERE}

So here they are

1. More Artwork With Maddux

• I did pretty good with this one..I had the goal of once week (that did not happen) but we sat down and did something at least once a month.  We did more artwork for grandparents and with him for each other this year. I would still like to do more. There are few things I have been meaning to make with him. And never seem to find the time. Also, he is doing more artwork in Pre-school .. so its a bigger interest with him. So that helps :)

2. Try new recipes for dinner.  

• We did really good with this one too. I tried quite a few recipes from Pinterest this year. Most of them I liked. There were a few that were absolutely terrible. But it has been fun. And I hope to continue that this year also.

3. Plan Birthday Morning Traditions...

• Fail. Fail. Fail. I still want to do this. Man lets hope I do this.. this year!

4. Date night with the Hubby.

• Ha Ha Ha. Epic. Failure. Geesh. I am terrible

5. Paint our kitchen...

• Success!!!!!!!! Painted and I love it. However... I want to paint the breakfast bar something darker!

6. Annual Photo of Maddux.

• Well I did do this last year. And am planning on doing it this year. So hopefully this continues! :)

7. Start a running routine again

• Bahahaha. I did not have time for running. However new job has a gym directly across the street. So this one is going back on the to do list. Lets hope I stick with it!

8. Build Entertainment Center for Living Room

• Well... Success? I did not build it. But I found one that fit perfectly and painted it. So Yay! :) I consider this one a success!

9. Organization in master closet.

• Success! Not as fancy as I had dreamed of. But its a lot more organized and I have a lot more space! :)

10. Garage Storage...

• Umm. We did throw in about 6 shelves. So we did do something. However... we need more. This is something we need to figure out this year.

11. Adding some curb appeal on our house this spring. Painting our front door. planting flowers...adding flower boxes to our window. Updating outside lights...

• Success. We did start this. There is quite a bit more i would still like to do. Still want to switch out the outside lights and dress up the porch some more. Still considering flower boxes on the windows to add some character. Not sure exactly what we want to do yet.

 2. Putting in a stone patio

• Fail. We decided to start working on the basement instead. This year... we will be doing this. We will! :) Some sort of patio will be put in... mark my words.... ;)

So there we go. I actually didn't do as bad as I had thought. I forgot all about this list and then came back to it tonight to read it. And see where I landed. I figured I should go over what they were last year... to decide where they should be this year...

How did you do on yours? do you set one single new years resolution? or some goals? or are you a non resolution type of peep?

Adventures with Clint

Clint is our magic elf... sent by Santa himself.  This was our first year with Clint at our house... and we are all looking forward to having him as a guest every December.

Here are a few things we caught Clint doing this year :)

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!!!!!

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Happy Holidays!!!

Dining room Inspiration

December - As stated many times ... I am dedicating to painting trim. because. I need to do it. and I have put it off long enough. So as I have also said.. many times. I am bored with my curtain project. I have no pictures to share. I mean... its just trim. When its all finished. I will share a few photos... but for now.. nothing to show.

So while painting trim I have started thinking about our dining room (it will be the room we tackle next)

So here some inspiration..

I'm am thinking about building a bigger dining table. I currently and kind of digging this X base... not sure though

Source: google.com via Hillary on Pinterest

I am also kind of liking these white metal chairs. I also like them in steel color...

Source: enmiespaciovital.blogspot.com via Gina on Pinterest

I am thinking about something like this gallery wall on my planked wall in the dining room.

Source: guidetostyle.blogspot.com via Jessica on Pinterest

I LOOOOOVE this chandelier!

Source: houzz.com via Chantal on Pinterest

And I love soo much about this room . Rustic wood table. white chairs. pretty chandelier. planked walls.

Source: meandalice.blogspot.com via Madonna on Pinterest

So the plan is.

Wood floors
Large rustic dining room table
white chairs
girly chandelier
planked wall
gallery wall

Super Hero Birthday!

Our son turned three this past weekend and he is currently obsessed with Super Heroes. So it was appropriate to throw him a super hero themed party.
Our basement has been a work in progress so please ignore the rough space we threw the party in :)

My favorite part of the party decor was the engineer prints we had made at Staples. I love these.

Just my personal opinion - the one on the left I had made at Kinkos... the other two were done at Staples. Staples was a much higher quality. Much higher. and cheaper. so ... if you are going to to these. I suggest going to Staples.

I think i am going to somehow try to incorporate these into his clubhouse under the stairs... if i can get them protected .. so they will hold up to little boy playing :)


We made the kids capes and super hero masks. Had a few party games... pin the shield on captain America... knock down the villains.... our photo booth with comic signs and hero masks. We also gave the kids super hero tattoos :)

Mainly at this age. Maddux just wants to run around. so that is what he did for most of the party :)

He is widely outnumbered by females in the family... :) But luckily he loves spending time with all of them and they played hard.

We all had a great day. Maddux enjoyed the day with family. And so did we. :)

Thank you to everyone that gave us Loud light up guns. Man that made my night fun too by the way ;)

In all seriousness. Thank you to everyone that came and made this day special. We love spending time with each and everyone one of you :)

Here are a few photos from our photo booth we had set up :)

Maddux had a great time and for the next week did not understand why we couldn't play birthday again! :) He kept running downstairs looking for everyone... and was disappointed to find an empty basement. Poor kid :)

Thank you for making this a memorable day for all of us!

25 Random Things

Since December tends to be busy... I thought I would throw in one of these random posts of my thoughts ... I am hard to follow... I tend to jump around. You have been warned.

1. Maddux hates his elf on the shelf Clint. True story.

2. I am forcing this elf upon him.

3.I rubbed him wrong with it once ... because I put Clint in Captain Americas Tank... well this upset my son. And now he thinks the elf is out to screw over his action figures.

4.Clint will be bringing a lot of small gifts this month to try to win over the heart of this stubborn three year old.

5. Christmas M&Ms taste better than the normal ones. Seriously.

6. I am trying my best to use December to finish up projects I have avoided... painting trim, finishing my window seat, putting up the hardware in my kitchen, repainting the breakfast bar.... stuff that needs to be done. But i conveniently have avoided.

7.Anyone have any tips on how to make painting trim fun?

8. I am the shortest person in my family. Even among the cousins.

9. Yet... I am the oldest. I now look up to all of them... literally.

10. I hate rap music.

11. But love Eminem.

12. Yes, I do realize I just completely contradicted myself.  But I don't know why. Eminem just works for me.

13.  I just started watching Nashville. And am mildly obsessed.

14. But every time I see Hayden... I just want to Save the Cheerleader... Save the World.

15. I just got a new job offer and could not be more excited.

16. I am going to miss the friendships I have made at my current position.

17. But looking forward to doing something I feel that I will enjoy more and of course meeting new people is always fun :)
18. Expendables 2 was amazing.

19.Chuck Norris's entrance alone is reason enough to watch that move. Fantastic.

20. Speaking of fantastic...

21. I love hearing Maddux say Chewbaca. Chewdabeca. I am going to be sad once he starts pronouncing everything correctly. I love his adorable words

22.I created an advent calendar... but really I am the only one that cares about it.

23.Maybe next year Maddux will care. I was like lets paint Xmas pictures! Lets make snowflakes! and he usually yells... NO LETS PLAY!

24. and ... I have made snowflakes and painted by myself. (sigh)

25. Tonight though we are making cookies. This he will want to be a part of. Looking forward to that!

Thanks for stopping by! :)

Faux Fireplace for Mrs Emily :)

Ms Emily wanted a fireplace for the holidays so I went onto Ana-White and found fireplace plans.... here.

These plans for fairly easy to follow. Emily wanted a chalkboard background to hers... which I bought a piece of plywood cut it down and nailed it into the 1x3s on the back.

I love the way this turned out ... I love it so much I am thinking of building one for my basement once we finish it. Or even out bedroom. I might just add these everywhere. Just kidding. But seriously i will be adding it somewhere ... and originally i was thinking the basement but now i am considering my bedroom. hmmm decisions.. decisions...

but anyways. Enough about my decorating ADD.

I think i like to lose myself in dreamland because all i do is paint trim anymore at my house. Most boring job ever. seriously. I just want the trim to be done. Its never ending. Have I mentioned... I hate painting trim? and once I am done with the trim. I have to paint doors. shoot me now. seriously.

Any who.

Photos of Emily's adorable fireplace (that yes... once again I styled and took pictures of it in my front yard) My neighbors no longer seem to be phased by this though. They are now considering this to be normal behavior. ;)

Basement Week 5

So this past week we finished hanging all of the drywall. Finally! also got the electrical all set up and working...

Unfortunately... I think this will be it for progress until after the holidays. We have it decent enough to hold the birthday party in... and that was the plan. I was hoping to have it mudded before then. but time and money constraints.... we will be pushing that back until after the first of the year.

So hopefully the plan will be to mudd the ceiling and the walls in January... and then we will go from there.

But here is the current progress on the basement... :)

So its looking better... but we still have a long ways to go!