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Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Cheerios Commercial

Has anyone else seen the newest (at least to me) Cheerios commercial? In case you haven't, here you go... but have your tissues ready.



I rarely get to watch "grown up television". The girls kinda take control of the house. So I use Tivo to my advantage to keep up with my Hoda and KLG. That's how I keep up to date on the news.

Anyways, this commercial came on and I didn't get a chance to fast-forward like I normally do.. and OMG. It demanded my attention and then proceeded to make me cry! I'm not even missing a Nana. Both my grandmothers are alive and well. And I hate Cheerios. Never liked them, and after that was my oldest daughter's favorite food to feed us for about 6 months straight, I hated them even more. (Although, some of the newer flavors aren't horrible.) The commercial doesn't make me like the cereal anymore then I normally do, but it does make me think about anything I might have to connect me to those I care about after they're gone. Sadly, I don't think I actually own to much other than pictures, but I'm gonna get moving on that. I say we all take a Cheerios movement and find something, anything, that connects us to those that we love that we can remember them by when we chance upon it. Like the smell of the earth after it rains, or even a highly chlorinated pool.

Anything.

Let me know what you have that gives you a quick connection to a loved one in the comments below.

Living Room Products

Hey all! Last night I posted about my living room and pulling up all the carpet. Then I posted a whole bunch of pictures of where it stands now look-wise, but didn't include any of where to get the stuff!

So sorry!

You'll quickly find out that I love Ikea. And Target. In fact, I would say about 80% of any decorative item that wasn't handmade or a gift is probably from one of those two places. So I'll start with Ikea items.


This couch is the Vreta Sofa as you can see from here. Also, not shown is the Vreta Swivel/reclining/armchair. Both of these pieces are 5 years old and still in wonderful shape. I'm pretty sure the recliner has been slept in more then our bed... It's just that comfortable. But, alas, neither really fit into this house without taking up major floor real-estate.


This new couch is the Ektorp Corner sofa. The white cover is the cheapest, and the easiest to clean. Machine washable people! And can add a little bleach even though they say you can't. And if it gets really bad, only $100 to buy a new one. Much cheaper then a new couch.

Of course we had to get the Ektorp footstool to match. And the hidden storage is a nice bonus. Right now is a much of Tide pens and blankets. Still tons of room in there. I think the girls and I tend to sit on it a almost as much as the couch. Well, I sit. The girls stand, lay, jump off of it, etc...

See the awesome polka dotted rug there? Yup. That's also Ikea. Wonderful name, too. Ullgump rug. Comes in a fun orange color, also, that was used by Thistlewood Farm in a kitchen!

The fake sheep skin (Tejn Faux sheepskin) is a budget friendly version of the real one they also sell. The real one's softer, but 3 times the price. We have black cats and kids. I'll take the fake one.

The pillows and curtains look really dark in this picture, but they're a medium dark lilac. The dining room was color matched to the curtains, So I needed to add it in the living room, too. They don't sell the curtains anymore, which is sad because they're so rich looking and still let some light in. The pillows are called Granat cushion though.

And gasp! But that throw and the floor pillow next to the couch isn't from Ikea. The throw was a Christmas gift about 9 or so years ago from my (then) future brother-in-law's sister. It's from Old Navy, and used a lot in our house. The faux leather floor cushion is from Target about 5 years ago. We have another one, but it's blocking the before mentioned chair from being accessed and climbed on by the fearless 18 month old in the house.

The paint colors are from the Pantone line at Lowe's, but color matched into other brands.


The walls are Pantone Charcoal Grey color matched at Busy beaver in Dutch Boy Paint and Primer in one. Loved it. It dried so nicely. The living room is about 15'x15' and I used a gallon and a half. But that window wall is paneling and used 3 coats and still a little streaky. It sucked the paint up like a sponge.



The floor and trim color is Pantone Cloud Dancer color matched at Home Depot in Glidden's Porch and Floor paint. This does not smell as good as normal paint. I read that trick about adding vanilla to paint to help the smell, but I was afraid to do that to a white shade. Originally, I had only put 2 coats of paint, and that looked great, but since plywood is a soft wood, it digged up a bit with the toys and one of my frames that kept falling. Easy fix though. I just took a brush and about 30 minutes total (including clean up time) I repainted a third coat to the main walking area and it was as good as new! The was about 2 weeks ago, and you can see it's still fresh looking. But next time I paint a floor, I'll probably go straight to adding either 3-4 coats or a topcoat of clear polyacrylic. That'll make it harder and last longer. The 2-ish coats I did use only used about a gallon of paint.

So I hope that answers any questions about what was new in the living room. So far, I'm more then pleased with the results, and it's been about 2 months now and standing up to the abuse we put on it!

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Living Room Makeover... Part 1

Have you ever had a space in your house that the more you sit in it and look at it, the more you just want to rip it apart?

No? Never?

Lucky you.

That's how I feel about our carpet. It's just nasty. Carpet in general is. But add in 1 cat with a kidney issue (who sadly has passed already), 2 kittens that aren't de-clawed, and 2 wild girls... It's just asking to be removed.

Begging even.

(Living room pre-carpet removal)

So I started to put the poor thing out of it's misery. One night, I decided to see just what was under the living room carpet.

(The only real picture I took before all the carpet was out.)

PLYWOOD! Beautiful plywood. Dancing with joy!

So every night for a week I would pull back a little, take out the carpet tack strips, and prepare for the big makeover weekend of full removal.

It was amazingly therapeutic.

(Look how much better that looks!)

Did you know that you can paint over plywood? Yep, you can. So no rush for us to install anything over it for now either. Just wait until you see what painted plywood can look like! Hear the angels singing already?

(Floor seams are filled with wood putty and sanded... I also started to paint the walls)


See my piles of carpet?... gross... Just look at the close-up of the underneath of the carpet.. You can't get that stuff out even with regular shampooing. 
 
 





So now I'm going to just load this up with some pictures of the current "final product". It's no where near done. I want more curtains, more pillows, and the walls feel a bit... naked. Don't worry. I have big plans for them. I'll make sure you get to see it when I get the walls a little more clothed.






Saturday, July 27, 2013

Welcome!

Hi all!

My name's Airyckah and I'm new to this. 


Those of you that know me know that my head is all over the place. So much so that I've started a "Midnight Mindness" post on Facebook every night to just post whatever is in my head at that moment. 


It ranges from my kids, 

(My girls!)

to my house (and projects), 


(The living room mid "make-over".. pre-carpet removal)

and random questions that I want to know what you all think... and everything in between.

(My grandfather and his sister holding hands this summer)

Some posts on here might be incredibly short. 


Some might be so long you'll get tired of looking at it before you're done. 


But hopefully all will be fun or thought provoking, or something like that. I'm not to serious. So kick back, relax, and spread the word that there's a new blogger in town. 


P.S. Please be kind in the comments, but I do want to know what you like, don't like, or want me to post more about so I can get this thing to be a happy spot on the net for everyone.

My Favorite Bloggers

So. Some of you might ask "why does this girl think she can blog?". Others might not care, but I wanted you to see some of whom I follow and read. These bloggers I follow "speak" to me for many different reasons. They showed me that you can have a lot to say or very little, but after awhile, it doesn't matter because your followers become your friends and family. They want to read what you write because they've gotten to know you over time. I can only hope that one day, everyone reading this will feel the same way about me and my blog.

So, to get to the list of the bloggers I find are my favorites to read...

Kate from The Small Things Blog



I adore her. She's mostly everyday fashion and makeup/hair tips.. but she's connected so much so with her readers that she's included her new addition to the family (due with a boy in Dec!) with great joy!


Sherry and John from Young House Love



I started reading them when they were on their second house. Now they're on their third. They really make you feel like no matter how big of a task it is, it's totally feasible and worth it to do some things on your own. It's your house, after-all.


KariAnne from Thistlewood Farms



She's another one that makes you believe you can do, and should do, anything to your house and make it gorgeous. She's the one that inspired me to take the plunge and just rip up the carpets because of how gorgeous her painted flooring looked in the master bedroom. All while wearing red lipstick.

She also has another blog all about burlap. Yes. An entire blog about burlap. It makes a non-country girl, like myself, want to buy some. It's called Burlap Projects. A fitting title if you ask me.


Ashley Anne from Under the Sycamore



Her family is amazing. As you can see in the picture she has a lot of kids, therefore a lot of love happens under that Sycamore tree of hers. The stories she tells about them just melt your heart and make you smile. Plus, she's an awesome photographer and shares her tips with us readers, too.


Jillee from One Good Thing



If you use Pinterest and have ever pinned any "go green" cleaning tip, there's a good chance it linked to her blog. That's how I found her. I pinned one thing and the next thing I knew, 4 hours have past. It's like the dictionary of household problem solving. no kidding. You will find SOMETHING in her blog that makes you go "wow.. I didn't know that! I'm gonna try it right now!", but you won't because you will be stuck opening another page, and another, and another....


My last one is Sara from Curious Little Kid


She's fairly new to this blogging world, and still seems like she's finding her "voice". But if you're from the Pittsburgh area, she seems to know the places to go! I never even heard of some of these places she takes her son, so it's definitely a great place to find out local "to do" things for us moms and big kids of Pittsburgh!



That's all I follow for now, so you can thank them for making me want to blog by checking them out. There's no special order to these, it's just how I opened them up from my e-mail to get the links. They're all so different that I can't even truly rate them against each other. So I hope you enjoy!


Disclaimer.. The pictures of the bloggers are taken from their "about me" or profile section of their blogs that I've linked to.