a work in progress

I mentioned a few posts ago that I'm in the process of switching up kingston's nursery to his big boy room. I'm not doing a theme route this time, just filling it with DIY projects such as canvases above his crib, a chalkboard/white board easel and random items to make the room "his own."

I love making art, and I especially love to paint. I haven't figured out exactly what I want to do with the (3) canvases for king's room so in the meantime I painted a little something for sonya (my boss/amazing friend) for her 35th birthday this friday. I'm really out of practice and threw this painting together at 11pm last night. to be honest, I was just really excited to peel off the letters to see what it'd look like. I don't love it, but I think sonya will, so I guess that's what really matters.

1) cut out your letters to get a better idea of placement and how you want it to look
2) peel and stick the letters to your canvas (mine didn't stick as well as I had imagined)
3) paint and (optional) drink wine
4) peel the letters off and admire

since my letters didn't stick that well to the canvas some paint got under the letters, but I actually really like the effect that it gives. if you have the same problem, you could add a step 5 and fill in the letters with white paint if you want it to look cleaner, but I'm really liking this result.

kingston and I pretty much lived in hobby lobby every night last week to take full advantage of their 40% coupons and 50% off almost everything in the store. I scored big when I spotted a 2 pack of 16x20 canvas boards for $7.99 which I then took 40% off of. I ended up buying 3 packs because no way am I passing up a deal like that.

lessons in potty training

the other day we had a tragic accident. kingston flushed my car/house keys down the toilet. the kiddo has always loved keys and has an on going love for all things potty related, so we should have seen this one coming. it took me by suprise as I was flushing the toilet and out of nowhere kingston flies in the bathroom and tosses my keys in the water. my ninja-like skills failed me and I wasn't able to retrieve them in the .2 seconds I had. I immediately called my boss sonya who I had just been shopping at hobby lobby with, she told me she'd call her brother and ask him what to do, then call me back. I then text duane the not so good news and decided to call our maintenance man for advice. he pretty much told me my keys are most likely gone forever but I did what he advised me to do and stuffed a few pieces of toilet paper down the toilet and flushed.

GOOD NEWS (false hope): the toilet clogged right away, and I agreed to pay $30 for him to come the next morning to tear the toilet apart and hopefully save my keys.

BAD NEWS: duane called me the next morning while I was at work to inform me that, indeed, I had to pay $30 for our maintenance man to tell me my keys are long gone.

if you're thinking, "no big deal, just use your spare" then I will tell you that duane (I'm 99% sure it was him) "misplaced" my spare a few months ago. another huge bummer? both my regular set and spare set had come with an awesome remote starter which comes in super handy when you have a child about to get into a boiling hot or freezing cold car.

I now have a pretty dang expensive new set of keys with a remote starter, along with new wall hooks to keep our keys out of kingston's reach. he'll have to learn to love his fake set of keys we got him for christmas last year. like most babies, he's never had any interest in "fake" toys. figures!

and, since we're on the "potty" subject, I might as well let you all know that kingston is a potty training CHAMP. we're fully aware that he's only 19 months old and that potty training boys can be a lot of work, but HE has been showing so much interest the past few months that there's really no stopping him or us. if he's into it, then we're into it and plan to teach him as best we can. he's always gotten excited when we tell him that we have to use the bathroom. he even hands me toilet paper, you guys! (and grabs a few pieces for himself and rubs them on the back of his shorts) we're pretty sure he's got #2 down pat - as long as he lets us know in time to take his diaper off. and, of course, there are times where there's a false alarm and he tells us "no poop" when he's changed his mind. going #1 is going to take some work though, and we're definitely not getting rid of diapers just yet. we're just happy that he's already so excited about the potty training process and wants to learn! hopefully we can keep this up and ditch the diapers sooner rather than later.

friday favorite(s)

I love re-discovering songs that you once had on repeat for days and days. I had to drive duane's car to work on thursday (that story coming soon) and he had this song playing when I started his car. I had almost forgotten how much I loved it when I first heard it. this song makes me want to drink beer with my friends, and I think that's just great.

shinedown - what a shame

we've been doing a lot of this lately

now that the weather is a little less hot and a lot less humid, kingston and I have been back to hitting the sidewalks and the parks. which makes both him and I super freaking happy.

friday favorites

I'm going to start working on transitioning kingston's nursery into a more rad toddler room for him. I found this website when I was pregnant and have been obsessed with it ever since. SO much inspiration!

this song and this video. I dieee.

thanks to danielle for finding the sweetest wedding video possibly ever made. I just love it.

also, thanks to kelly ann for finding this cover of "pumped up kicks." and this one of "jar of hearts" is awesome too.

casey + art + this post = so inspiring.

I've had this song on repeat all week.

I remember seeing this on pinterest and elsie did an awesome tutorial for this DIY project.

speaking of elsie, who's blog I love, this post covers 5 tips for better self portraits. awesome!

and I figured I would let you guys know that I've been loving this nail polish. and this one too.

happy friday, friends! I'll be back later with lots and lots of pictures from mine and kingston's walks and park time!

cheers to the freaking weekend!

buffalo bill days '11 is over and done, and I'm super relieved. I'm not a teenager (underage drinking is naughty, yes) anymore and just one night of bb days was enough for this mama. my good friend whitney attempted her first bb days and she, too, had enough with the first night.

we went to town friday night and met up with holly and some other friends. the bars, beer tent, streets, and sidewalks were crowded with people. we drank beer and took shots of a new drink called kinky, and I finally got to try my beloved UV cake. things got a little crazy over the next few hours and we ended up only getting 3 hours of sleep before having to wake up and go tubing on the river. everyone else had the same idea because the river was completely colored with tubes, it was freaking packed. I had 3 beers and that was more than enough, I pretty much pumped water down my mouth the rest of the trip. gahhhh. we stopped at two rivers bridge, along with everyone else on the river. a lot of this went on: bridge jumping, mud fights and floating around in our tubes watching crazy drunk people climb like monkeys up to the very top of the bridge... and then jump. after noticing how red whitney and I were getting (3 hours of sleep = forgetting sunscreen) we decided to leave a few friends behind at two rivers and head on down the river to our stop. whitney made a new friend, patrick, the night before so he decided to jump on our made-for-2-not-3-tube and float with us. he was drunk, entertaining and whitney enjoyed pulling his shorts down in front of other tubers. so many images I would love to forget :/

besides feeling totally sleep deprived, we were starving. we picked up pizza, breadsticks and ice cream from a little restaurant called the creamery and brought it back to my parent's house. kingston and my mom were in the pool when we got there, and I'm pretty sure I sprinted right over to kingston and held him for an hour or, you know, however long he let me before squirming away. I like to make plans and hang out with my friends just like any other mama who needs some time to herself, but I really really miss that little pumpkin while I'm away. kingston can now say "whitney" and she taught him to "pound it" with his little fist. this little guy is so stinkin' smart with all the words and names he can say. *proud mama*

whit and I got all dolled up to go out again saturday night but only made it about 2 hours before heading home to pass out for the night. we didn't even have a drop to drink that night. needless to say, next year we are going to take it easy on the first night out, drink plenty of h2o and sleeeeep. I failed at taking pictures BUT I did get a few random ones from the beginning of friday night. blah. oh and, I'm the blondie, holly is the brunette in glasses, and I'm sure you can all guess who my crazy friend whitney is.

so far this week...



to sum things up: playing with his toys and tackling his 8 foot snake, how I keep kingston happy while I shop my heart out at tj maxx, 4-wheelers (trucks!), new owl pillows (obsessed), riding rides at the mall, quack quack, "texting" on my old cell phone, and kingston's feet.

this weekend is buffalo bill days in lanesboro, which is the town I went to school in and where a lot of my oldest friends are from. we all look forward to buffalo bill days every year, it's a crazy fun time and my friends and I have been counting down for weeks! it's a weekend full of events: bar hopping, beer & brat tents, dj & karaoke, street dances, sand volleyball/baseball/bean bag tournaments, tubing down the river, AND a parade! I've got my cameras charging and am about to hop off the computer and pack my bags. see you guys on monday, have a happy weekend!