Nate's New Bed

I must admit, I am now guilty of what I have been against since the birth of my first child..... letting your kid sleep in your bed! Shame on me, I know. Nate is are only son, the youngest and our last child, so this boy is SPOILED. He gets away with murder and anything else. Last winter, over a year ago, Nate started to get sick a lot. He had non-stop ear infections, colds, breathing issues and acid reflux problems. So to keep an eye on him at night, we had him sleep in our bed. Well.... he never left! LOL. I think we all just got so comfortable. Personally, I don't even mind having him in our bed, because he really doesn't bother me. My hubs is the one that gets all the abuse! Heh. But I knew it was time to get him out, at least that's the plan anyway. So another of my home projects was his bedroom. It hadn't been changed ever, not since making it a baby room. There is still lots to do in there but I wanted to share his bed. I ended up buying an old, used headboard from the furniture store that I ordered his mattresses from. I also bought a couple of small ottomans, that have storage span inside of them. I decided to upholster the headboard using the left over houndstooth fabric that I had from my friends baby shower. I also wanted to give his bedroom a theme that could grow with him. I'm not trying to change up his room every year to suit his new interests. I can change up the colors in his room easily with the use of this black and white houndstooth. Like I said, I still have things to add but check out my first attempt at upholstering a headboard. Btw, I was inspired by Pinterest. So many cool ideas on that site, sometimes my brain goes into overload! LOL.

Busy Busy Busy

Hey, I'm getting a little better.... now it's only been 4 months since my last post! LOL! What can ya do, it's a losing battle but I'm still going to try :)
Well, things at home have been pretty crazy to say the least. In late February I signed up both my girls to play softball. My girls had WAY to much time on their hands, especially my oldest. They've always been into dance classes but they just weren't getting anything out of. It definitely wasn't something that kept them busy, so I knew that a sport was what they needed. Well I totally was not prepared for the INSANE schedules that came along with it! There is practices and games practically EVERYDAY (if it's not one it's the other), so I've completely lost my marbles. I pack up gear and snacks AND Nate, everyday. I do have to say, it's been a lot of fun, they've had a lot of fun (even though my oldest refuses to admit it, I can tell). And even though it's totally taken over our lives, I'm really happy with this decision and I plan on continuing this until forever ;) This particular season is almost over but I'm already enrolling them in summer softball at our local park. I know. I'm nuts. But I'm willing to sacrifice my sanity so they can keep busy and stay out of trouble.
Sadly, my home and work have suffered but I'm working on that. I haven't cooked dinner in soooo long and my poor home is chaos. I've had of couple of projects that I've been trying to finish for 2 months and still have not gotten to it. I'm getting better though and now that I'm kind of getting use to things, I think I can finally try to get organized. I plan on sharing some of these home projects as soon as get to them. Wish me luck! :)
Check out my girls in action!

Let's try this once more!

Wow. 6 months since my last post. Talk about letting things go! I did really want to continue to blog on a more personal level but so many new things came my way and I guess something had to give. I also wanted to see what direction I wanted to go with this blog. If you know me, you know I can't do the mommy blogging, it's just not me. Really. Does anyone care if my baby goes potty?? I doubt it. So I knew that wasn't it. The only thing that I was really passionate about (besides my family), is party planning. But that's what J. At Your Service is for!
What I came to realized is that I need to blog about what I really feel and see if there are any other women that can relate. Right now my biggest issues are BALANCE. I started an Etsy shop late last year, with the hopes of being able to do something that I really love. I love crafting, paper and parties. I am a SAHM and that led to me to think this would be perfect and 'easy'. SO WRONG! Being a SAHM is already hard as it is, why did I ever think that just because I was home, I would have no problems doing this?!? But what am I suppose to do?? Give it up? Give up something that's all mine? I'm finding that I'm spreading myself thin all over the place.
Did I mention my son is at the peak of the "terrible two's"?? Did I also mention that I have a TEENAGER?? Ya following here?? We're talking MAJOR chaos in my life right now. Don't get me wrong, I know pretty soon my son will be in pre-school and he'll be someone elses problem. LOL :P and I'm praying that I can help my daughter through these rough years or at least that she lets me. I know "This too shall pass" but damn, can it pass a lil faster?!?!
I was moving pretty fast, business/party wise, the whole half of last year and in that time, so many things went wrong, family wise. Mainly realizing that my teenager was acting up, grades dropped and since she wasn't really saying anything to me about anything, I assumed that everything was ok. Boy was I wrong! After all the drama, in the end I knew that my attention was more focused on my business and my toddler, that my other 2 daughters were in need of my attention as well. I won't go into all the details but topics from grades, sexting, boyfriends and bullying have had to be addressed with my oldest. I am so terrified of the path my daughter is on! I'm also confused as to how all this happened in a matter of months?!? I have literally put my life down for this child, I've worked so hard to make everything right for her (so I thought), making sure she had a good relationship with her step father (my husband). Even though he's raised her since she was two and he's the only one she calls daddy, I feared there may be a day of rebellion. That day finally came.
Needless to say, it's been a HELLISH couple of months. So what do I do now? I have my business, that fulfills my passion for crafting. My toddler son, that requires all my attention. My teenage daughter that's working on giving me a heart attack. Oh and you see that?? I almost already forgot the "Jan Brady" of the bunch, my poor 8 yr old daughter. Who by the way, always makes it clear that I'm always listening to her sisters stories and NOT hers! Apparently I need to pay more attention when she tells me her stories of "She's not my friend anymore!" and "We were playing salon at school and pretended to do each others hair". AAHHHH!
Now that I've aired out my dirty laundry..... to the point: Goal for 2012 is BALANCE!
I'm not sure how yet but I know that I need to focus on the issues with my children first and work in my crafting biz somehow. I'm working on getting organized with my time, my work space, even my private space (my bedroom needs a major make-over). It's not going to be easy by any means but I am determined. The first thing..... to channel my all time favorite heroine, She-Ra! That's right, the Princess of Power. With her powers and my determination, I feel I will be victorious over this rough patch.

She's sending her powers to me already, see! ;)

Clean Up time!

Ok, so I'm a procrastinator at times. Especially when it's hard work or maybe that's called laziness?? LOL. Either way, the clean up of my garage has been a project that I have delayed for a couple years. Especially when I started to collect more and more party goods, things really started to build. After a while I just couldn't find anything! I would buy things, forget or not know what happened to them and then went out to buy it again....wasting money. Finally after 2 years, I got down to business, with the help of my sister. So as embarrassing as it is, I want to share my befores and afters. I am so happy now that I have my "warehouse" in order!

We took everything out!

Clearing little by little

I was thinking of throwing this hutch out but my sister convinced me that it could be put to good use and she was right. It's now holding my glass goods. The drawers are also being used as storage.

Bought a storage shelf and finally separated things by catagory!

I now have a space for my tin buckets and tier stands

There is room to walk now!! YAY! The other half of the garage has a pile of things but we are going to have a yard sale this weekend to get rid of it all.... hopefully.

My Little Artist

The beauty of this blog is that I can post whenever I want and as much as I want :) Before time passed even more I had to post about my little artist. Last year I had shared a picture of a painting from Tahlia. She's truly the lil' artist! She loves art, both my girls do and they're really good at it. Well, at least I think so :) I just love holding on to my kids art work and right before school ended her class had an open house, where I collected more. I have everything stored away but I had to share it on my "online scrapbook", my blog :) I have to add that she is VERY blunt and brutally honest, so check out her "poem" that she wrote about sisters..... HER sister. LOL.She said this was a Modigliani style art piece. She knows so much more than I do! LOL.

Fathers Day

I've gotten so backed up with posts but I really wanted to share Fathers Day, even though it's really late. We spent it in San Pedro's Port O' Call, with our best friends. We let the hubby's indulge in the sea food they love so much and it was such a perfect day for it. My children are so blessed to have a daddy like theirs. He works really hard for them (us) and never complains. He will do anything for them, actually, everything he does IS for them. We couldn't ask for a better daddy/hubby! :)

This is an attempt at a group photo with daddy. LOL.

YUM!

These poor crabs had no idea what these men were going to do to them!

My favorite picture from that day :)