I'm so crafty; you already know

Guys, I'm kind of obsessed with Iggy Azalea right now, so please humor me when you read the title of this post and do it like this.  Then please hum the song for the rest of the day and you'll be inside my head.

Once again, I'm on my own and solo parenting.  Drew is in China right now, working but also doing cool stuff like walking the Great Wall.

He said it didn't even look real and I definitely agree with him.

The travel is hard on all of us, but it helps to have perks like this to make it worthwhile.  Seeing the Great Wall is one of the things on his bucket list, so I'm super happy for him that he got to cross it off.  Plus, he's been able to Face Time with us every day so it doesn't feel like he's halfway across the world.  I don't think about it too much, because it actually makes me nervous; this the first time he's gone this far and for whatever reason, Europe is less scary than China.  

At any rate, he's doing fun stuff over there and I'm doing fun stuff here too.  It's no Great Wall, but I got to cross some things off of my own list.  My mom has been here for the past week and it's been really great.  We've had some rough patches in the past so it's been nice to reconnect with her and spend some quality time together.  Plus, she's been an amazing help and I'm so incredibly grateful to her and I'm so glad she gets to spend time with her granddaughters.  It totally warms my heart when Sofia calls out "Grandma!" and runs to give her a bear hug and seeing Andrea smile when my mom makes the googly sounds to her is super cute.

So, with my mom on baby duty, I got to putter around with my own great walls, that is, the walls of my house.  Ooohhh, I'm, so, PUN-NY.  You already kno-ow!

Let's start in the living room because it's gone through like twenty incarnations.

In the time of the blue rug, that far wall looked like that.

Then we moved the wine rack, with disastrous results.

We played around with seating because we only had the sofa.

Unfortunately, this felt too closed in on this side, and closed in doesn't

work with a toddler who runs everywhere she goes.
Plus, you can see how the blue rug was too small for the room.

Then we moved into the Striped Rug era, 

and the awesome green chair replaced the wine rack.
*And*, you can see that the striped rug is too big and sloppy for the room.
See, I don't just buy rugs for fun.  I'm learning here, people!

The green chair was a great Craigslist find, but the arms of the chair and sofa made the computer area feel cramped.  We'd have to shimmy to get back to the computer and it was a pain.  It turned into one of those things where we'd complain every time we had to get back there but we never did anything about it.  Enter the Gray Rug period.

Mid-furniture rearrangement.

The other green chair's lack of arms helped but it still wasn't working.
This rug is a better size, not too big, not too small.
I'm just not sure about the color...
I kid, I kid!

The bench filled that nook much better and as soon as 

I recover it with a cool fabric, it'll be perfect.

You saw this one; the green chair is now on the other side of the living room.

If you squint your eyes and look past the kid clutter, 

maybe you'll notice the green in the pictures on the wall?

That brings us to the present.  I liked the living room setup but I wasn't done.  We don't have a lot of surfaces to put stuff so the surfaces we have tends to get overloaded.  So with my mom here, I called my friend's brother to come over and hang some stuff and saw some other stuff because I won't use the miter saw.  I would most definitely lose a finger, if my crafting history is any indication.

I moved my bullfighting poster to the other wall and had my mom

take a picture to see how it would look.

We took a field trip to Ikea and I got a Lack shelf and I tried it on this wall too.

In the end, this is the current incarnation of the living room wall.

The shelf is high enough so whoever is sitting on the bench doesn't feel smooshed

and I have a place to put stuff.

I'm going to get some more throw pillows to tie everything together and I think it'll work out nicely.

Moving on to the next wall...

I finally finished the gallery wall!

It sure is a good thing this isn't a photography blog.

I got all three from Etsy and I really liked how it all turned out.

Then I needed something for the wall left of the dots.

Whatever it was, I wanted it to be big.  I had the grouping on the other wall so I figured I needed one big thing to balance it.  During a late night nursing session, I found my inspiration on Pinterest (I won't say Pinspiration; smack me if I say Pinspiration.)

This from here

Glitter makes everything better.

I took a guess at the colors, bought a canvas, glitter and glue

and got to painting while the baby took a nap and my mom played PlayDoh with Sofia.

The colors aren't exact but I think it'll do.

Then my friend's brother built me a frame using this tutorial.

PS, read every word of that blog.  It's hilarious.

My cheapie canvas looks totally legit with a frame now!

Next up is Sofia's wall and her clippie situation.  Much like my jewelry storage situation in the past, her hair clips were getting out of control.

My jewelry.

Her clippies.

I also find clippies in my pockets, in the car, in my diaper bag.

They're everywhere and I can't keep up.

During another naptime, Ryan built me another frame. I spray painted it white along with some leftover hooks and he screwed them into the top of the frame.  Then he took the green ribbon and stretched them across, while I was painting the nursery frame.

Et voila! Sofia has a clippie and headband holder!

I've been wanting one forever and it's finally crossed off the list.

I'm not sure which wall will get this but the jumble on the dresser is history.

Here she is, all loaded up!

I ended up putting it in the Bathroom of Hate because

Sofia really doesn't have any more wall space in her room.

Besides, it's probably about time I did something with the bathroom

so I don't hate it anymore.

I can get a ruffly shower curtain and really make it a girly bathroom.

Hmmmm....

Aside from the wood for the frames and the Lack shelf, I already had everything laying around the house, I was just never able to get it sorted and organized.  I'm so thrilled to have these little projects done and it feels so good.  AND, I get to blog about it; I'm thriving, my friends!

I tell you what, having help makes all the difference in the world.  I feel rested, capable and not frazzled at all.  Of course, my mom leaves tomorrow so please stay tuned for a Woman on the Verge post, because Drew is going to be gone for ANOTHER nine days.  And we're going on vacation right after that, so it's up to me to do all the vacation prep.

As much as I don't want to bring this much stuff,

with two kids I don't really see how to *keep* from 

bringing this much stuff.

Good times.

Our bedroom walls are still pretty bare but I got some more frames at Ikea and I just have to put pictures in them and get them hung, and I'll have one more thing crossed off my list.  Like I said, it's no Great Wall but it makes me happy so it counts.

Ok, the baby's calling me but as always, thank you for visiting and emailing and commenting and being there.  I appreciate you!