Sam Says #8

Sam formed one of his blankets into the shape of a scorpion. 
He was using his toy hand drum to drill holes into the scorpion. 
Tyler: What's that thing?
Sam: It's my equipment spucker.
Me: Haha, what's a spucker?
Sam: It's a thing that spucks!
(Maybe he meant "inspects"?)

Mother's Day, Sam is in bed next to me as I eat my special breakfast.
Sam: Tomorrow will be Brother's Day so I can have breakfast in bed. I want turkey bacon.



Sculpting his playdough.
Me: What are you making?
Sam: It's a Michelinoceras. I'm about to perform an autopsy.



My Mother's Day lily bloomed so I showed it to the kids.
Sam: I need to eat that flower so my insides can be beautiful too.

Office Chair - Revived

So much better.

My office/desk chair was in sad shape.
After a couple years of daily use, the cheapo fabric was falling apart.
It's not an expensive chair to begin with, I think we paid $100 bucks,
so it wasn't built to last a long time (in our house).



I didn't take a before pic,
I tore it apart when my camera lens was decapitated.

My chair looked like this, but not sticky leather.
Add a bunch of small holes and runs through the fabric too.
Oh, and the arms are different.  So, not exactly identical...close.




I found the upholstery fabric at JoAnn's for $9.99/yd.
40% off coupon.  Sweet.
(They have an app - coupons on your phone.)

The original fabric became a pattern for everything
that needed to be sewed.  The arms and underside of the seat
were stapled and I didn't staple myself at all.



Big mess- that's me when I'm trying to make something pretty.
I had chair pieces all over the house.
All day, the sofas, our bed and the kitchen counters/table were mine.



After 3 yards of fabric + batting,
this little makeover cost just under $27.

I'm not loving the black parts though...
If it doesn't grow on me by the end of summer, I'll paint them white.
We're in the 100's (Phoenix), spray paint won't work until it cools down.



Ella needed a desk for her room, so I gave her mine.
While I'm living room shopping, I'll be checking out new desks too.

image source

Bye Bye Book Shelves

Seven years with books as the focal point of our living spaces.

We bought Expedit shelves when we lived in a downtown loft space.
They looked fantastic against the brick wall and bamboo floors.

You can kind of see them on the left.



When Sam was born, we went down to one income
and squeeeeezed into a tiny two bedroom apartment.
Man, we were jam-packed!
The shelves were nice for all sorts of storage,
even food, as we didn't have a pantry.



Our silk furniture didn't survive the apartment toddler,
but the shelves did.
So we brought 'em to the house we're in now.



A couple weeks ago I lightened them with paint,
to try to make them less hulking and dominant.
But the paint was more of a bandaid than a fix.



Reassembled and randomly filled-
nope, no way, not what I was looking for.

I love them but...
I'm okay if I don't see our mess abundance of books all the live long day.



The shelves will be in storage until we move again.
The next place we go, we plan to have an art studio and the shelves will be perfect for supplies.

Now that they're gone I'm inspired to finish putting the room together.
I removed all the artwork and photos- right now, the room has two large sofas, a ridiculously huge flat screen (I also want to get rid of that but Tyler would freak) and the dresser that's waiting to be refinished.
It all feels so much lighter.
Much more intimate.
Clean-slate!
Time to start shopping again!
Oh, and thanks to YHL forums, I finally have a great lead on a rug.

Any DIYing happening at your place?  Have you ever tried to make something better but really, it was never right to begin with?

Ella Says #5

Jason (Ella's Dad), Sam and I were treated to ear-candy + choreography
from 186 kids at the last choir concert of the school year.
(Tyler had a gig.)

The kids were, as usual, so much fun to watch!
The choir teacher was errrrrg....still a diva.
Spot light, tuxedo, talked for an hour- not kidding.

One of the kids even said (not to him),
"See Mr. XXX, this is why we can't have nice things!"
There was a lot of sighing and yawning from the audience.

I asked Ella if anyone ever says anything to him and her eyes grew wide-
NO WAY! He'd be so mad at us!

I guess it's not all Glee up in there.



Packed house.
The kids sang and danced their butts off.





After the concert, we made our way to Tyler's gig.

Jason had us dying laughing,
performing one of the concert songs in the parking lot
(including the moves).
Ahhhh, such a dork.
If I wasn't sitting, I would have fallen on the floor.

Sam and I hung out in the car
while Jason and Ella went in to check out Tyler's last song.



After they were done, Ella dorked out in the parking lot too.



Imagine she has a cowboy hat in her hand.
Video is from Jason's iPhone.

Ella Says is a once a month post,
where Ella gets to express her creativity with poetry, songs and drawings. This month she's showing off her dork side :)

Happy Day, Happy Lens

Happy Belated Mother's Day to all who celebrated!

Mine was pretty chill.
Very much like last year...I'll take it!



Breakfast in bed.
Gorgeous fresh flowers.
A homemade macaroni card.
Cool presents.
Time alone and with the fam.
Awesome.

We tried to recreate one of my favorite pictures.

Last year:



This year:



Tickle fight and more natural light.
Man, I love those kids.

If you're wondering, yes...my camera has been fixed!

The part showed up.
I followed the youtube video (to repair a broken bayonet)
and cursed irrationally at the screen.
Total temper tantrum.
The screws are so tiny and I was getting frustrated.
I just wanted to chuck the whole thing and buy a new lens.

Lucky for me (and that lens), patient and thoughtful Tyler was home.
He calmed the situation,
went to the hardware store for jeweler's screwdrivers
(I was using the wrong kind)
and he fixed everything.
Thank you Tyler! mwah xo

How did you spend your weekend?
I know some of you got hit with more snow...in May.
Was anyone getting mad at gadgets and eating bagels in bed, like me?

Clean Puppy Love

I gave Mu a shower and a blow dry.
Best workout of my life!

Maybe the shedding won't be as bad.






Yeah, right.
He's wearing a fur coat in the desert.
It's like the fur is jumping off his body and turning into dust bunny tumbleweeds just so it can blow across the kitchen floor...
and taunt me.

Good thing he's so cute.








She's pretty cute too.

I'm so happy Ella and Sam have such a sweet pooch to grow up with.
He loves them as much as they love him.

I always had pets growing up.
Little Guy was with me for much of my adult life.
I can't imagine being without furry
(or fishy/feathery/scaly/etc) family members.
Did you have pets as a kid?

Spooning with Dumbledore

A big spoon makes everything fun!



-------

Because my computer is misbehaving dead,
I'm posting from Tyler's Mac.
Dipping my toes, getting my feet wet with a new system.
I grew up on PCs but Illustrator and Photoshop are definitely the jelly to Mac's peanut butter.

Some things seem bass-ackwards (totally a MidWest word- heard it growing up all the time), but I think I can get used to this.
Sorry PC, I'm dumping you.

Okay, so my PC quit on me- I was dumped.

Now I'm going to go date his hotter, younger brother Mac.

Still waiting on my lens part too.
I'm in a gadget stew.
Most likely I'm going to drop my phone in the mall fountain.
Everything in threes, right? Ha!

No computer, no camera, almost no phone....
maybe I'll watch Harry Potter again.
It's been awhile.