Skippy the Elf and his Christmas Shenanigans

Here are just a handful of examples of Skippy's mischievous adventures


I made some tiny trapeze bars out of pieces of kabob skewers and fishing string. I tacked them to the ceiling. Luckily we had a Barbie that could bend her knees!

 

Skippy wore Justin Bieber's outfit for this one. I used his stand as well. 

 

In this one I found an old light globe and used some spray snow as well as some of the snow in a can that I found at the dollar store.
Then I added a tiny hat and scarf I found at Micheals.

This one is self explanatory.

I didn't catch pictures of all of the different poses, but there's always next year!!

Putting pieces together

With 5 people living in a 2 bedroom house, I'm always trying to find new ways

to create more storage.  So I had an idea in mind (can't remember where I saw it originally) and I set out to try to recreate it.  When I saw a piece I liked at  a local thrift store, I crossed my fingers that it would still be there on 50% off day, and it was!! So I picked it up for $7.50.

It's not a quality piece, in fact all of that nice woodwork you see on the front is actually a plastic veneer, but what can you expect for $7.50?

I decided to pair it with a bookshelf that I have had for like 5 years. I bought it at Walmart. It's one of those cheap particle board things you put together yourself.

 

Now, I forgot to take photos of the painting process, but basically I painted both units white using a home made chalk paint. Because the bookshelf is like a paper veneer, I knew I would have issues with the paint sticking. Although I did a coat of primer before painting, the paint STILL is peeling right off. So I will be on the search for a new bookshelf to replace this one with.

I removed the back of the bookshelf and covered it with wall paper I found at Lowes using wallpaper paste. The paper is called Damask by allen+roth.

Here is the finished product. I am going to be painting the accent wall a darker shade of the tealish color in the paper and am on the lookout for some lighter curtains.

 

When?

As I start to write this blog, there is only 8 minutes left of the first day of 2014.
2013 was a good year for me. My oldest daughter started Kindergarten, we were blessed with the birth of our third daughter, my real estate business really took off, I got a new car (one that fits 3 car seats!) and my husband and I just celebrated our 7th Anniversary last night. As I sit and scan through the Facebook status updates of all of my friends, family, and FB acquaintances, I notice the common theme of New Years resolutions that you would expect to see on the first day of the New Year. Most of the people who swore they would eat healthier, go to the gym, or read the Bible more, probably did today. As for me, as I finished putting all of the Christmas stuff away today and tried to get the house back in order, I focused on myself and tried to be really thoughtful of what MY resolution would be this year. And in this very routine act, I figured it out.

I started in my living room. I took the lights off the tree and my husband helped me carry it out. I carefully swept all of the pine needles (the baby is already picking up microscopic things off the floor). I dusted the furniture, put all of the baby toys away, vacuumed the rug, wiped the blinds, did all of the usual cleaning.  I headed into the kitchen to do the dishes and from there went into the girls' room to tidy up. When I finished in there, I started to walk to my bathroom when I caught glimpse of the living room again! All of the baby toys were out, there was ketchup smeared all over the coffee table, the dvds were pulled off the shelf, there were little choking size Trix cereal scattered all over the rug.  I absolutely lost it!   My 2 year old is a dumper. She dumps entire baskets out. All of them. My 5 year old can't make up her mind what she wants to do, so she does a little of everything.  I find myself all day running behind them cleaning this or that and all the while saying "Not right now, I have to clean up"..."Not right now, I'm folding the laundry"..."Not right now, I'm busy". "Let's do it later"..."We can do it tomorrow".....

And it hits me like a ton of bricks.  If not right now, then WHEN? When will my house be clean enough? When will I ever be caught up on the laundry (with 5 people wearing 2-3 outfits per day)? When will the dishes really ever be done? The answer is NEVER! But when will my daughters stop asking me to play Barbies with them, or to draw a picture, or to swing with them outside, or to eat their pretend pie they made just for me? Too soon. My 5 year old is asleep in the bed next to me right now and I can remember the day she was born as though it was yesterday, and now she has already asked me not to walk her to class anymore!  It doesn't help that all of my girls seemed to really grow up too fast, literally. My 7 month old is seemingly days away from taking her first steps already. 

So my resolution for this year is to be a "RIGHT NOW" mom, a "YES" mom. Not that I will say yes to everything, or never say "not right now" again, because honestly it will have to happen sometimes. But I will think a lot harder when I am up to my elbows in dirty dishes and my 2 year old says "Mom, can we play play-doh?" on which is more important at THAT moment.  I have to cut myself some slack.  The house doesn't have to be clean, the laundry can wait, the toys aren't hurting anything being left out. I've got 3 beautiful girls growing up right before my eyes, and we've got a lot of books to read, and Barbies to play.