Spring Makeover

It's kind of Spring around here, right?! At least he calendar said it was Spring! It always seems that once those pretty tulips and daffodills start to sprout, the grass gets greener, and we actually have sunlight, its time for a little sprucing up around the house!

Now, everyone does the ol' Spring cleaning, but I'm more into the Spring makeovers! I love mini home makeovers. No need to bust out any heavy duty tools or break the bank, just a few little fun touches to make a change.

I don't know whether it was the highly anticipated sunlight shining through or the addition of our storage unit items, but the couch needed a little facelift.

Kind of blah! Notice the white puff ball enjoying some sun too!

After a trip to Pier1 and 2 big bags later...VOILA! Instant face couch lift!

I always B-Line it right for the sales to keep things within budget. Lets face it they're pillows and with 3 kids, things happen!

 I love mixing patterns and textures

 That was a fun pillow

 The chocolate brown pillow stayed and is now nicely accented by the extremely soft burnt orange

I didn't even need to make the hubs paint or move anything and I still was able to achieve a fresh change! Happy "Spring"!

Cheers,

Wordless Wednesday

Life Is Sweet

Hi there, remember me?! It has definitely felt that there are just not enough hours in the day, but I think things are finally settling down!

As I mentioned here, I kind of had a mini meltdown and couldn't quite get my head "unfogged". But what can clear a foggy head you might ask...try a cupcake! Well, not just a cupcake...I got my head out of the clouds and got my butt into the kitchen!

Confused?

Here's a little background...
When the boys were babies I started making custom cakes. I had a website, a logo, the whole 9...I got orders, I got customers, and I got burnt out! Being a new mom, with 2 babies, and working full time, cake making took a backseat and was soon left in the dust. Since then I've always been an avid home baker and enjoyed making some pretty yummy treats that not only looked good, but tasted good too.

Rewind a couple weeks ago...
I mentioned how I constantly have a creative itch that needs to be scratched and I love making things pretty and that also make people happy. I kind of felt like I should go back to the beginning when I was doing what I loved. I still don't have all kinds of extra time, but I do have 5 year olds instead of 8 month olds, and have some what got a handle on the whole muli-tasking thing.

So the past couple weeks I've been in the kitchen baking up a storm and perfecting some favorite recipes as well as creating some new ones! I am so excited to start sharing some of these yummy creations! I'm not sure where these will take me, I know where I'd like to go with it, but I'm just happy to be doing something I love!

We hosted Easter brunch so I threw together a vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream. Ran out of time so it didn't get the detail I wanted, but it was still sweet and went with our yellow and green theme.

Lemon cupcakes with lemon cream cheese frosting...Mmmmm!

Picked up some organic strawberries today and adapted a new recipe for a strawberry cupcake with strawberry frosting. It just made me happy...I would put that frosting on anything it was so good! My kitchen still smells of strawberry goodness!

Finding out what makes me happy may have taken 5 years and even if it's for my own satisfaction, I'm totally okay with it! I'm found a happy place and it includes frosting!

Cheers,

When Life Gives You...An ORCHARD Of Lemons

Staying positive can be a tough job, especially when life gives you "one of those weeks". It can definitely feel like when it rains it pours floods, and these last few weeks have done just that. I thought maybe if I lay it all out there it will feel better to get it off my mind.

So here's how these past 2 weeks went down:

• Almost lost my voice completely and 4 out of 5 Codys have some sort of a cold
• My cold turned into a sinus infection, which led to bronchitis, which led to urgent care, which led to 13 days of sickness
• 2 grandparents ended up in the hospital...both seem to be doing well though!
• Had a mini breakdown regarding the direction of my "career"
• Have seen my husband 2 nights in the last 10
• Realized the boys have a sport 6 nights out of the week during the month of May
• Began realizing I will become a soccer widow in the next month once the hubs starts coaching

So there it is, it's not pretty, but its been my life the last couple weeks! That mixed in with the every day "adventures" of being a part-time working mother of 3 put me over the edge and I had to dig really, really, really deep! How did I dig deep you might ask? Well I had to turn it around and if it meant filling that glass half full myself, well by golly I was going to do it! So here's what I came up with...

• I got healthy and started a new workout program, which is helping to give me some much needed energy!
• The hubs is working out with me so its giving us some "alone" time, even if it means sweating it out. Hey, beggars can't be choosers at this point!
• Sick kiddos meant extra cuddle time and we took advantage of some 1 on 1 time!
• My girlfriend had a new baby and we celebrated a new life and all things pink and frilly!
• I got my overflowing mound of papers organized and put all of the events in my new life planner and it made me confident that I CAN do the day to day even when then hubs is gone!

My biggest struggle these last few weeks has really been the "career" dilemma. I have been really struggling with where I always thought I "should" be at this point in my life and doing what makes me happy. Let me sum up my personality: Type A perfectionist who likes needs to be creative and likes all things pretty! So when that type of a personality is in a numbers, facts, and spreadsheets type of job, I go crazy...correction, I have gone crazy! Since I'm married to a very sensible, realistic, frugal hubby the thought of me NOT working scares the you know what out of him. So there is my dilemma, I feel stuck, I feel uncreative, I feel unsuccessful, I feel like I'm wasting my degree, I feel sad...there, I said it! Now I've said it, it's out there, now I move forward.

I'm determined to find what makes me happy, fulfilled, contribute to my family, be with my kids, and have my cake and eat it too! I really took these past couple weeks to climb inside myself and figure out what I need to do to move forward. I think I have a game plan and now it's just up to me to put it into motion! You will all be the first to see this plan unfold and I want to thank you for bearing with me during my craziness and supporting me during my struggle. I'm beginning to see the light rainbow at the end of the tunnel (hint, hint)!

Cheers,