A Girls' Weekend

This past weekend our niece came to stay with me and Grandma. Chris had to go out of town for a preaching appointment, so we took the opportunity to have a Girls' Weekend. It was a lot of fun, but I was exhausted by Sunday afternoon! Katelynn is a sweet girl with A LOT of energy!

Saturday morning we took a trip to Target. Uncle Chris had asked her to do some chores for him in the morning and she earned $4! She couldn't wait to spend it! We loaded Grandma up and took a trip to Target. It was quite a lesson that all the "good stuff" costs a lot of money!

Once we got home, we painted this little wall hanging that I found on clearance at Michaels. We took turns painting and I helped her with all the 'hard' parts.


I think it turned out quite cute! She was very excited to hang it in her bedroom!

After we were done painting, Katelynn wanted to help make supper. She wanted to make it all by herself, but needed a little help with the oven. Here she is making a surprise appetizer... skewered hot dog bites with cheese! YUM!



She even decorated the table for us! Here's the yummy spread. Hot dog kabobs, Doritos and cheese, pepperoni pizza, chocolate chip cookies, and cherry kool-aid. It was quite the gourmet meal!



After we cleaned up from supper, she wanted to give me a make-over so I could look younger. I pulled out the make up and hair accessories and she went to work. After she got done, she wanted me to make her look older.



When we were both done, we tried to take a picture of us together. It was kind of difficult!



We spent the rest of the evening watching the movie "Princess Protection Program." Sunday morning we went to church. She was very good at church and even got really excited when we sang "Amazing Grace," because she knew some of the words. After church was over Katelynn said, "I want to come to church with you again. Your church is fun!" It was cute!

We had a fun weekend together! I meant to get some pictures of Katelynn and Grandma together, but never did. :( Here's a sweet picture of Grandma with Wesley. She likes to have him get in her lap so she can talk to him. It's so sweet!

It's almost done...

The laundry room is very close to being finished. We just have to put up trim and do some decorating things. I absolutely LOVE the color! We decided to go with aqua instead of yellow. The aqua was going to be for the bathroom, but we decided to go with a different look for the bathroom.

Here is a before shot of the laundry room. This is what you saw standing at the door into the laundry room. It was a mess! I certainly was not motivated to be in here for longer than 2.1 seconds.


And now from the same spot....Ahhhhhh, much better!

The "laundry" sign is going to be hung on the wall eventually. On the far left you can see the water heater closet Chris built. The water heater previously took up residence in the bathroom. This is a much better place for it. We still need to put the door on the closet though.

Next is a before shot standing in the back corner of the room, looking toward the back door.

An after shot from the same spot....

It is so much more organized! The cabinets came out of the bathroom. They are kind of a dingy white right now, but I'm going to paint them bright white. The trashcan is an old one Grandma had and I spray painted it red. (Don't you love the Diet Coke box sticking out? A common sight in the Crouse House!)

The new back door is one of my favorite things about the new laundry room. It lets in so much more light!

Another before shot standing at the back door and looking across the laundry room.


Once again, you can see that it was basically a catch-all room. I'm determined to keep it more organized now!

And now.....

This is from the same spot, but focused more towards the back wall. You can really see the new hardwood floors in this picture. They are great! They were "free" because they were left over from a job Chris recently finished.


This beautiful room makes me want to do laundry more often! I can't wait to get all the finishing touches done and really enjoy it!

Update

We have walls....and a floor!


I put on my painting clothes today and will get started on that as soon as the mud dries. We're getting so close to being done!

Bathtub Facelift

We are going to reuse the old clawfoot tub that has been in the bathroom forever. It's in really good shape and I love the look of it. It just needed a little bit of a face lift.

Before:

So, with the help of a few cans of spray paint, I think it's looking much better! I can't wait to get it in place and hook the faucet and shower component to it!

After:

I don't know why, but this picture cracks me up!

Bathroom and Laundry Room Renovation Update

We've been working hard for the past 4 days on renovating the bathroom and laundry room. Well, Chris has been working hard and I'm just around to offer assistance when needed and keep the dog occupied.

All in all, things are going pretty well. Some things are taking longer than expected, but we're still on target to be finished this weekend.

Friday we spent tearing out the laundry room. Saturday we ripped the bathroom apart. We had to take the floors all the way out due to rotted floors. On Sunday Chris worked on leveling the house. Monday he finished the leveling and worked on the plumbing. Today he worked on the plumbing some more.

The hardware stores have become a home away from home for us! If I count correctly, we've made 7 trips to Lowe's, 1 trip to Home Depot, and 5 trips to the local grocery/carry-all store (ironically also called Lowe's).

Here are a few pictures to show the progress:

Laundry Room Before & Now

This is looking into the laundry room. The only big difference in there right now is that Chris built a closet for the water heater. It was in the bathroom taking up a lot of room. We also ripped the floor down to the plywood in the laundry room to prepare for new flooring.

Bathroom Before & Now:

This is looking into the bathroom. As you can see, it doesn't exactly resemble a bathroom right now. The floors were ripped out down to the joists. The picture above was actually taken on Saturday. The picture below is a current picture of the bathroom. It was taken from outside. Chris ripped part of the wall out where the window was. Now we have a walk-in bathroom!


Parts of our bathroom have taken up residence in the yard. Very classy!


This is a picture to show you just how badly the house needed leveling. This is right outside the laundry room. See those two pieces of wood on top of that cinder block? Those weren't there before. That beam was about 4 inches off the cinder block. This happens to be where the washing machine was located. So, every time we washed a load of laundry, the washing machine would go to bouncing and making all kinds of racket! Thankfully that has been fixed!



Here's another sneak peek at something I've been working on for the laundry room!

Laundry Room Remodeling

Well, the remodeling in our house is about to begin. First up is the bathroom and laundry room. Laundry isn't the most exciting thing in the world, so I would like to have an inspiring, cheerful, and happy room in which to do this needed task. I spend a lot (ok, maybe a little too much) time reading crafting blogs. This has actually proven to be quite useful because I come up with a lot of inspiration. Today I'm going to share with you some dreams I have for my laundry room.

Photo courtesy of: A Scrapbook of Me

Ok, let me wipe the drool off my chin.....What do I love about this laundry room?

1. Look at that washer and dryer. I have a unhealthy affection for those. However, they're a little beyond our budget right now. I need to keep saving my pennies.

2. Moving past the washer and dryer. I LOVE those jars on the counter. We don't use powder laundry detergent, but I'm considering buying some just to set out in a jar. Is that ridiculous? And the clothespins...how adorable!

3. I would love to have enough room for a little folding area. This picnic table is very cute, but we don't have nearly enough room!

4. I also love how light and airy this room looks.

Photo courtesy of: A Scrapbook of Me

This is a bit of a different look. Not as light and airy, but VERY cute! Here's what I love about this:

1. That sink is awesome. I love the pop of color with the painted legs. And the faucet in the wall....very attractive!

2. I like the beadboard. We're planning to have beadboard in the bathroom and maybe a few other places in the house, so we'll probably skip on the laundry room.

3. I love letters and monograms used for decorating. This could be another way to bring in a pop of color.

Photo courtesy of: Torie Jane

Ok, this isn't a picture of a laundry room, but how adorable is this!?! I want one. It would look so cute on a little shelf in the laundry room. Plus, having all my housekeeping supplies organized in a cute little bucket like that might inspire me to do a better job with the housekeeping...maybe.

Photo courtesy of: kevinandamanda.com

1. I love baskets. I really like for things to be organized and what better way than with cute baskets!

2. Two words: washer. dryer.

3. I like the bright paint choice. We're going to do a cheery yellow color in ours.

4. Cabinets above the washer and dryer. Storage is always useful.

Photo courtesy of: Centsational Girl

1. I love that chandelier! It just makes the room fun and whimsical!

2. We have one window in the laundry room and I'm hoping to make a cute little curtain for it. I like this style. I want fabric with a little pattern to it.

3. The rug really anchors the whole room. It adds an extra layer and pop of color to the room.

Ok...let's snap back to reality. It's fun to dream and plan! Do you have dreams for a laundry room? Share your ideas and thoughts!

Stay tuned for pictures of how our laundry room remodel actually turns out!

Catching Up....

Well, it's been a long time since I've posted and a lot has happened in that time. You know all those pretty, crafty decorations from my last post? Yeah, those are all in boxes in a storage unit in Texas. More details to come on that later in the post....
Here's a brief summary of what is currently happening in my life:

1. I'm finishing up the last 5 weeks of my first year as a teacher. What a wonderful year it has been! I couldn't have asked for a better first-year experience. My class is amazing and I've gotten so attached to my students. I teach a K-5 special education class for students with severe cognitive/physical disabilities. I have 7 wonderful, talented, and smart students. Yes, there have been days when I have asked myself "what exactly am I doing?". But overall, I love my job. The year has flown by at lightening-fast speed. While I'm anxious to have my first year under my belt, I hate to think about the fact that I will be leaving these kids who have become part of my life. Because of the nature of their disabilities and the amount of care they require, my students seem like my own children. I think about them at night (and sometimes even dream about them). I think about them over the weekend. I worry about them when they're sick. I've been to the hospital to visit them. I know I'm going to have separation anxiety come May 25th!

2. I'm in the process of moving to Texas. As most of you know, Chris and I have been caring for his great-grandmother since we got married (she's been living with him for longer). Due to her rapid decline from dementia and the immense about of care she required, Chris and I decided to move to Texas to have his family help with her care. It certainly wasn't an easy decision, but it's what we feel is right. In addition to needing help with her care, she was anxious to be "home" and with her family again. When an 87 year old has the sole desire to be with her family, I couldn't help but feel selfish not granting that. To make a long story short, Chris and Grandma moved in December. Thankfully, my parents have graciously allowed me to live with them until the school year is over and I am able to make the move. Since their move, Grandma has declined even more and is now in a nursing home due to fall which broke her hip, which consequently hastened her decline from the dementia even more. We're even more certain and thankful for the decision we made, knowing that having her at home and close the family is especially important at this time.

So, shortly after school is out, I will be packing up the remaining of my belongings and making the move South. Am I scared? Yes. Am I excited? Yes. Am I over-whelmed? At times. Am I trusting in God? Not as well as I should. Living the half-way-single-life hasn't been fun to say the least. They say distance makes the heart grow fonder. It certainly has made me very thankful for my husband and his companionship. It has also made me more mindful and prayerful for military couples who have to be away from their spouses for much longer and under much more severe circumstances! I have come to have a love-hate relationship with phones. I'm thankful to have them and to be able to use them daily to talk to Chris. I've also come to hate them as our only form of communication and connection. Do you know how annoying and frustrating it is to try to have a serious conversation when you're dealing with static and bad signal? I may or may not have thrown my phone down a few times in frustration during the past few months!

3. Chris and I will be living in his great-grandma's house. We're currently in the process of planning and preparing for some remodeling. It is exciting, yet overwhelming to pick out counters, paint choices, flooring, layout designs, hardware, cabinets, light fixtures, exterior paint colors, and everything else involved in remodeling and adding on to a house. I'm so thankful for a handy, smart, and creative husband! He certainly makes the job a lot less stressful! I'm sure I will be posting updates on how the house projects are going! We're very anxious to put our own touches on the house, get it a little more up-to-date (it's almost 100 years old!), and get our belongings out of storage!

4. Once again, I'm the process of looking for a job. It seems like I just went through all the rigamarole of updating my resume, filling out applications, writing personal statements, and scouring the Internet daily for job postings. Oh, wait, I did just do all that! Job hunting certainly isn't my favorite thing to do, but I'm thankful that the education field has a better outlook in Texas than it does here in Illinois!

5. I've been helping coach our school's Girls on the Run program. We're training for the 5k race in St. Louis on May 16th. It's been very encouraging and I've been able to conquer my fears of running. I've always wanted to be a runner, but just didn't think I could do it. I've learned that I just have to suck it up and run through the pain. The first 1/2 - 3/4 of a mile is the hardest for me. I want to quit each time. But, once I get past that, it isn't so bad. My ultimate goal is to run a half marathon sometime in the next year.

6. My best friend since 6th grade is getting married on June 26th. I'm so very excited for her to be joining me as an old, married lady! I'm very thankful to God for blessing her with a wonderful, spiritual-minded, and supportive man to become her husband! Stay tuned for a post with pictures about that blessed event later in the summer!

7. We have a new member of the family! We adopted a West Highland Terrier in August. Wesley is our spoiled little baby! He is a great dog and has been a huge blessing to us. He's a mess at times, but aren't we all? He has taken the move well and loves it in Texas. I like to think that he misses me immensly, but I know he really doesn't In fact, he has taken up residence on my side of the bed. He even sleeps on my pillow sometimes! My pillow! I love the dog and everything, but it's my pillow! When I go to Texas to visit, he kind of looks at me when I get into the bed as if to say "Who is this woman getting in my bed, laying her head on my pillow, and taking my spot next to my best friend?" I know those are the thoughts running through is head. When I walk in the door, he is excited to see me for about 2.7 seconds until he realizes that Chris is there too! The little brat!

How can I think he's such a brat when I look at these pictures?

That's about all I can think of for now. I have several posts rolling around in my head. Hopefully I will stay motivated to keep this thing updated a little better! But I'm not promising anything!

Ch-ch-ch-changes

I have a wonderfully handy husband. As a result, I now have several new pieces of decor around the house. We've spent the past few days combining garage sale finds, treasures from my parents' house, items laying around our house, a few new things, and our design ideas.

Let's go on a tour....

1). The Breakfast Room.


I want a blue and white kitchen. Chris does not want a blue and white kitchen. Our breakfast room has ugly bluish/tan wallpaper. We got a beautiful blue and white plate as a wedding gift, and it's found a home in our breakfast room. Two weeks ago I bought the white milk glass vase (on the left shelf) at a garage sale for $0.50. I bought some shelves at a garage sale this past weekend and started painting those white. Sadly, they were not wide enough for the vase and teapot to sit on. So, Chris went to work building the shelves you see in the picture.

I purchased the "Simplify" sign and wooden "C" at Hobby Lobby last weekend for less than $5 combined. The teapot I bought at Old Time Pottery for $12.99 (a little bit of a splurge). The pitcher was one of Chris' grandmothers and the spools were his grandmothers. Now, I have a blue and white area in our house!

2). Living Room, Exhibit A


These shelves were the ones that were supposed to be in the kitchen. Chris painted them green (the same green as the frame in previous post). The little plaques were a Christmas gift (thanks, Liz!) and the figurine was our cake topper at our wedding.

3). Living Room, Exhibit B

This is what the living room wall looked like before. (Please excuse the crazy faces of my siblings.)

After

My parents are remodeling the living room and dining room in their house. These windows came from their house. They didn't have the slat/grill/trim things in them when we brought them home. Chris put those in and painted the whole window sage green (same as shelves and frame). We bought scrapbooking paper at Micheal's, cut them to size, and taped them to the glass.


Here's a close-up of one of them. I love how they turned out!

3). Living Room, Exhibit C


This wall just had the mirror on it before. The sconce was hanging where the green shelves now are. The other wall hanging is just a framed piece of scrapbook paper. We had the frame already. This is the more masculine addition to the room!

Here's a view of all three of the exhibits together.


Thank you to my fantastic husband, Chris, for all your help on these projects and for letting me make so many changes to our house!

DIY Wall Hanging

This past Saturday I went to a few garage sales and picked up a couple items I thought would be good craft projects. I started working on them that afternoon. I've been wanting to make a new wall hanging with a scripture verse on it. I had a blank 11 X 14 canvas and some paint already, and I found this picture frame for $1 (or maybe only $0.50, I can't remember now!).


I took the lovely picture of Gabriel out and painted the frame a sage green color. (Sorry, no picture. Just look at the picture of the finished product.)

Next, I got the canvas and painted it red.


Once the red dried, I used scrap booking letters to write out the scripture verse. (If you're wondering, yes I got the letters a little lopsided. Unfortunately, I didn't realize this until I was completely finished. I blame it on my equilibrium being off. I can't write straight, I can't cut straight, I can't walk straight, I can't drive straight... it's just life!)

Next, I painted over it with the same green as the frame. I did 2 coats to get good coverage.

Once the paint dried, I peeled off the stickers. I had to touch-up some of the letters using a toothpick because the green leaked through. I found some rub-on decals in the scrapbook section at Micheal's and rubbed those in the corners.

I bought a red mat at Micheal's and framed the picture.


Here it is hanging on the wall. It's a little Christmas-like, but I like it. What do you think?


Break down of cost:

Frame - - $1 at garage sale
Canvas - - free, already had
Paint - - free, already had
Letter stickers -- $2.99
Decals -- $2.99
Mat - - $6.99

Total: $14.97

Projects (Liz, this post is mostly for you!)

I've been itching to do some DIY projects around the house. I worked on some this weekend, which I will post about when they are complete. Tonight I did a quick project to make a new wall hanging.


I've had this wrapping paper since my birthday in December (thanks, Strem!) and knew I wanted to make a wall hanging out of it. So, tonight I gathered the wrapping paper, a sage/olive green mat that I've had for over a year, and a black frame that Chris had in the basement.


First, I cleaned up the frame a little. Then I cut the wrapping paper to fit the size of the mat. I taped the wrapping paper onto the mat and put it all together.

Tada.....

I love how it turned out! We hung it in our dining room, where it ties in well with our black dining room chairs and the green in our living room.


*Liz, notice what's on the table!?!? Yes, some apothecary jars! Chris bought these for me this weekend on his trip. Isn't he great!?!