1 blog for Laura to post on + 1 blog for Laura to post on = 1 too many blogs for Laura to post on

Point of business-

It's officially official.

I've gone mad.

Seriously. Like Cheshire Cat mad.

It's hard to pin point the exact moment that it happened, but I'm fairly certain that it was in the course of the last four days. Over the last several weeks, I've been hiding out in a remote corner of my upstairs and under the glare of hot lights, I've spent hours and hours in the late night frantically snipping, sewing, and gluing itty bitty tiny pieces of rainbow colored felt to little hair clips.

I defy you to try it and NOT go mad.

Anyway, this weekend it all comes to a head because this weekend is the weekend that both the boutiques I've been preparing for are open. Yay.

Normally, this would be the type of thing that I would be inclined to post on my crafty blog, but I've made the executive decision that I'm no longer keeping a crafty blog. I figure that I never get around to posting on it anyway and I rarely get around to posting on this blog, so perhaps if I combine the two, something might get posted sometime.

This is of importance to you, my average reader, because this means that every so often, you're going to have to endure my posting of photos of hair clips and other cutesy things and the occasional plug for a boutique that I'm selling at.

Sorry.

Well, not THAT sorry.

If I were THAT sorry, I wouldn't do it at all.

I'm sorta sorry.

SOOOOOOOOOO... This weekend I'm selling some adorable, crazy inducing hair clips at a couple of boutiques and in an effort to increase sales for all of us involved, I would encourage your attendance at said boutiques. I'm putting the buttons on the right, so click on them for info. Do it. Do it now.

I was going to spend this evening making a few more hair clips, but I've changed my mind. My mom (who is awesome) has been watching my kids for me all week so that I could make hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of clips and I can't TAKE it anymore! (say it like Squints from the Sandlot. It'll be more fun).

I came home from setting up at the shows today and my house looked like this:

And it smelled about the same.

And when I walked through the house and realized that every single room was its own version of the kitchen, I also realized that I'd gone mad. I went upstairs and my desk was a complete pigsty, the kids had dumped every single toy onto the floor, there were so many baskets of laundry lying around that I couldn't figure out which ones were clean and which ones weren't. I lost it.

In a fit of fury, passion and anger, I started cleaning. (my best cleaning is always done whilst in a fit a passion and anger. i fear the day that i learn to control my temper. if it ever happens, we may all be forced to live in squalor) I cleaned up the toys and the clothes and the dirty dishes that were buried under toys and clothes. I cleaned until our play/craftroom looked like this:

Then I had to take photos because it feels good to show other people that I cleaned. I AM aware that most people do this every day. I aim low.

I even cleaned my desk and put away everything I could possibly have used to make hair clips. It was empowering. Take THAT, felt!

So bottom line here is

1. I'm crazy

2. brace yourselves for crafty crap on this blog

3. go to my boutiques

4. my house is gross

5. my desk is clean

6. i'm not making hair clips tonight

7. charlie is cute...

Do you see what I see?

This photo was taken while I was cleaning the kitchen. If I say that I was half way through, will you excuse all the clutter?

Thank you.

So, do you see it?

No. You don't.

Trick question.

You've gotta watch out for me. I'm tricky like that.

See, here's the deal. There are currently six children at my home. Six. And not a one of them is in that photo because not a one of them is in the process of destroying my house.

Spring is a thing of beauty. And even though Spring is a totally hit and miss season in Utah, I'll take what I can get. Today is nothing short of spectacular and all the kids have retreated outside to reconnect with nature.

There's one.

And another... and another...

And.. what the? Oh goodness.

They're all in there somewhere. Climbing garden fences, roasting rollie pollies in the sun, picking the buds off of my flowers to give to their moms (who can say no?), roughing up the soles of their feet, getting used to the feeling of a scorching slide disappearing behind them, drinking hot lemonade that they left in the sun, letting their freckles free... it's a fabulous time of year for us all.

With one exception.

This little allergy ridden beauty has mixed feelings about Spring.

Poor sleepy baby.

Hey Baylie! Ya, you! I'm posting on my blog!

When I was at our young women's meeting last night, one of the mia maids (i'll let you deduce which one) pointed out to me that I hadn't posted in forever. It seems as though I require chastisement to post on my blog these days.

ANYWAY, I totally have an excuse. Two of them. Not only have I been too lazy to take the dead battery out of my camera to charge it, I've also been working hard on making adorable little hair clips for adorable little children. I signed up for 2 big shows that are both taking place the last weekend in April and since I am a top rate procrastinator/freaker-outer, I started working on them last weekend. Since then, I've been making hair clips, thinking about hair clips, complaining about hair clips, finding color inspiration for hair clips, worrying about hair clips, hurting from sitting in my chair for hours as I make hair clips, and dreaming about hair clips. My view has looked (and will continue to look) like this:

Lucky for me, I actually have something to blog about today. Hooray! It's a really good thing to blog about too.

Are you ready?

Are you?

Are you?

Ok, here it is.

My powder room is finished. And it is a thing of beauty. And I am now prepared to show you about 27 pictures of a 27 square foot 2 piece bathroom.

But first, we MUST have the "BEFORE" photo.

My problem? Well... I have a lot of them.

My problem with the bathroom? Simple. I didn't like it. I could go into why, but I can't imagine why you'd care.

This is my new downstairs bathroom. (sigh of relief) It's taken like two months to get it finished, which is pretty much entirely my fault since I insisted on the tile and the wallpaper which really slowed us down.

The wallpaper was on backorder and took a month to get here. Then I tried to hang it myself, which didn't work out too well. THEN my mom came over to give me a tutorial (thank goodness that she decided to wallpaper our entire house from floor to ceiling in the 80s). THEN I ran out of wallpaper and had to order more. It was a long process.

This is picture of the mirror that we got for free because Jaime brought it home for me from a job he was working on. Total score. Nice job, Jaime. It was pretty beat up and had seen some water damage, but it wasn't anything that a couple bottles of craft paint and my very talented sister couldn't handle.

Never underestimate the power of craft paint in the hands of a skilled artist.

This is picture of our $23 sink. Seriously. $23. I was going to buy one that I absolutely loved for $700 and then we found the sink basin on clearance at Home Depot for $3 and I came to my senses. Thank goodness I've got those senses. The pedestal was $20 at full price. Hooray for cheap sinks!

BTW, Brent HAD to hang the medicine cabinet on the opposite wall over the toilet (not pictured:) i didn't think you'd mind if i left that part out) because he loves the infinite effect of two mirrors across from each other. He's funny.

This is a picture of my mini chandelier. I hung all those little crystals by hand last night and it was totally worth it. I've got big plans for several chandeliers in my house. I love chandeliers.

If you CAN hang a chandelier, why wouldn't you?

I don't know.

Because I would.

Also, I'd like you to notice the crown molding. That was Brent's call. Good call, Brent.

I literally just had these pictures kicking around the house. I've been back and forth on using them in there because I was afraid they fit almost too perfectly. Notice that one of the photos is of the same flowers that are on the wallpaper. Now that they are up, it has been decided that they are just the right amount of perfect.

We have plans to sand down the hardwoods that run through our main floor and re-stain them to match the ones in the bathroom. They make me happy. Nay, giddy.

I can't actually believe that my house houses such a lovely powder room. And it is officially open for business.

You are all invited to come use my bathroom.