Numero Uno

Miss Madelyn Jayne, our numero uno, hasn't had a lot of space dedicated to her on the blog in a while, so it feels like it's time.  Time, to give a shout out to the sweetest, cutest, smartest little girl in the world.  There is no doubt about it, Madelyn is a toddler, a terrible-two-year-old if you will, but even amidst the tantrums and bouts of independence, and with all the changes she's endured recently, she is a shining star.

Miss M is tall for her age, with beautiful long hair and her speech is amazing; if you didn't know better, you might think she was 4! I feel like I communicate with her as if she were much older.  It's so fun to have conversations about the weather, planning her outfits, what we're having for dinner, her visits to the library with Mimi, etc.  All of the talking, and elaborate story telling though and it feels like she's grown up immensely in the last 9 or 10 months. Ahhh.... my little girl is growing up SO fast!

I am really impressed with how Madelyn has taken to her new role of big sister. She loves Anna like crazy. She constantly needs to know where she is, wants to hold her, kiss her, sing to her, feed her, you name it. When Anna is crying, she'll reach for her paci, put a blanket on her and tell her 'its ok, Baby Anna.' Just when you think you can't love any more, you have another baby that you love so much AND watch your first baby love on your new baby, and your heart just explodes!

I am so proud of Madelyn and the little person she's becoming. She is such a little sweetheart, with a big heart. She's independent, yet she loves company and knowing we're nearby. We say it all the time, but she doesn't miss a beat, and she's got this adorable little attitude, that always makes us laugh! As we celebrated Mother's Day this weekend, I couldn't help but hug and kiss Madelyn a little extra.  I am so thankful for her and that she made me a Mommy :)

Some recent pictures of Miss M:

 

finally getting to use her Minnie car outside :)

 

 Valentine's Day with our little munchkin

 

 Daddy can't wait to teach her how to golf

 

 All smiles that its nice enough to play outside!

her mad face!

 

Dressed up for Easter

Bows, tutu and sparkly shoes, and she loves to run around and get dirty outside :)

 

helping me feed Anna

 

being silly with Uncle B!

Master Bedroom Update

Over the last few months, we've slowly made some changes to our bedroom and now it's complete, and we love it!

When we moved in, our room looked like this:

 

In addition to our bed, Brian's armoire (not pictured), our rug and our nightstands, we used my old white dresser, and our old living room accent chair to accessorize/fill the room. It just so happened that the original owners drapes sort of worked in our room, so we kept them for a short while until I found others online.

 

I struggled with what I wanted with this room because the walls were off-white, the the trim throughout was an ugly peach color, the carpet is neutral, and our bedding was white. We desperately needed color and I didn't know how or where to bring it in. Now, almost a year later, we've completely updated our room.

 

Over Christmas, my parents and sister very generously helped us get things started by giving us this beautiful dresser and mirror for our bedroom.

 

 

Once we had that piece, and it started to feel more like an adult bedroom, I was inpsired to keep going.  We moved our rug into Anna's bedroom to complete the nursery and suddenly, I felt like I had a clean slate with the old curtains, and green patterned rug out of the room.  I was planning on keeping our white bedding and adding with paint and pillows, but I just couldn't find pieces with prints or colors that coordinated. I tried adding color with curtains, that were a grey/taupe, but that bombed.  I put them up on the tag sale site, and in minutes, they were sold!

 

I quickly turned around and used the cash to buy new light colored stripped curtains from Pier 1, that I love. The lighter color and simple design, allowed me to bring in patterns or colors in other ways. We'd only had our white Pottery Barn duvet for 4 years, and although I loved it, it was missing two buttons and was so impractical with a dog. Brian wasn't wild about buying all new bedding, but now that the room is done, I think he's happy with it ;)

The icing on the cake was the Angie's List deal we scored, to have our bedroom painted. I'm all about a good deal :)  We'd agreed our bedroom would be the last to be painted, but the deal was so good to pass on, so we went for it. In one day, they painted the walls and the trim and brought the room totally up to date. We picked a very neutral wall color, that's subtle and soft, and the white trim just pops.

 

 

Between the cash we got for the sale of the original curtains, and the floral accent chair, plus the PB bedding on sale and the Angies List deal on painting - we've updated our bedroom for very little money! So Brian is happy because the update didn't break the bank, and I'm psyched because I am totally in love with our bedroom! I literally smile when I walk in there and I love going to bed :)

Tag sales

Tis the season, of tag sales. I feel like everywhere you look there are signs of neighborhood tag sales, church tag sales, etc.  It comes at the perfect time, as people have cleaned out their closets, basements, attics or garages and are looking to get rid of some of their things.

I don't usually shop around at tag sales, because I'm lazy or I forget.  I think it depends on if I'm on the search of something in particular too. Last year, I popped into our church's annual tag sale and came home with this great accent chair.  It was definitely an impulse buy, and never really meshed with our design in our house, but for $50 I'm still OK with the purchase. 

In addition to physical tag sales, something I've recently stumbled on is local online tag sales.  A group of women in our area have started these Facebook Tag Sale groups where people are selling everything from dinnerware, to childrens clothes and furniture! You have to be invited and approved to join the group, so you can be pretty sure it's safe, and my FB feed lately is constantly being updated with posts of things for sale.  What a great idea though for people who don't have enough stuff to host their own tag sale, but still have things they are looking to sell. And, if you are like me and check FB frequently, you have the opportunity to get some awesome things at great prices. Tory Burch shoes, Pottery Barn couches, area rugs - almost everything people are selling is nice, and less than $200 - score!

Right after we came home with Anna, I learned about these Facebook Tag Sale groups and joined each one.  I decided one day to post the curtains in our bedroom for sale.  I'd purchased them from West Elm less than a year ago.  They were on clearance and non-refundable, but I convinced myself for the price, they'd work in our house somehow.  Unfortunately, I never really liked them. They were too dark for our bedroom, and so I tried them in our dining room, and they were so-so there.  Sure enough, less than 2 minutes after posting them to the FB group, I had 8 people interested in them! They were a hit.  The first person to respond, came to our house later than morning and handed me $160 in cash for the curtains. I took a little loss on them, mostly because I just guessed at how much to post them for, and I never thought they'd sell. But that was the start... since then, I've sold Brian's guitar, a kitchen bar table, a pair of Uggs, and a Patagonia jacket. I have someone coming tomorrow to buy a chair and ottoman that's been in our bedroom, and possibly someone else coming later today to buy a mirror and old duvet.  On the flip side, I'm keeping a close eye on the groups for things we need, like a new dining room rug, dining chairs and an outdoor patio set!

The extra cash has come in handy on my (unpaid) leave, and it certainly feels good to say goodbye to some of these things that are just sitting around unused. One thing, always leads to another though and the sale of my curtains sparked a complete master bedroom update - money always burns a quick hole in my pocket :) More on that update next!