monica's secret closet

i remember an episode of 'friends' from years back. in this particular episode monica reveals to chandler her secret closet. and unlike the rest of monica's apartment, and life for that matter, this closet was an absolute crazy mess. well it turns out that i have a secret closet as well (literally, not figuratively).

so the husband, sweet cheeks, and i decided to take a saturday afternoon to tackle one of our 3 messy closets. it wasn't fun, but boy did it make a positive difference. our approach was one that i had seen on tv before. we emptied the closet and sorted everything into 3 groups- keep, donate, and trash. i loved this method and think it worked out great (so long as the husband didn't see quite everything going into the donate pile!).

this is pretty embarrassing to show, but surely i am not alone in the messy closet area, right? so here is the before shot of the closet located just off our laundry room, and my gosh is it a wreck.



sweet cheeks in the garage with our messy piles. she really had fun helping us with this task


an empty closet which reveals some pretty hideous flooring. i actually forgot it even had a floor! hadn't seen it in a while


ahhhh... the sweet after shot. it looks so much better and is so much easier to get things out of now. it is amazing how much better you feel even with one clean, organized closet in the house.




**

this is sweet cheeks in the car the other day. seriously, this girl rocks. you gotta love her headband, necklace, and my sunglasses on her!

monkeys in the park

last weekend, sweet cheeks and i spent the day with my sister and her two kiddos. we had lunch out and then ventured over to the park so they could all play. sadly, it was a lot cooler in the morning then when we actually got to the park so we didn't stay too long. the time spent there though was great for the kids.

hard to believe that she actually smiled for the camera. that is rare



sweet cheeks was the monkey in the middle here

sweet cheeks in an overly large swing (sporting a funny face)


my favorite pic of them all together. love how they go from smallest to biggest, all with their heads a bit tilted


**

i seriously overheard this conversation between two people while i was walking in to work today-

1: i am hurting today

2: did you go out last night?

1: yeah. my friend and i went out to see TIFFANY in concert.

2: are you still trashed?

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? they weren't talking about a metal concert or some crazy party. this girl went out with a friend to a tiffany concert. remember her songs 'i think were alone now' and 'could've been.' i suddenly pictured them waving their lighters at that one. not something i can see getting wasted to. i really had to laugh. to myself. hard.

seriously... tiffany???

wordless wednesday

the cool kid at school

i most often share girl items on my blog for the obvious reason, sweet cheeks.

i came across these toddler backpacks and lunch boxes on a website called four peas. the motorcycle and skateboard are so cool and trendy for the toddler age. i also thought they were a refreshing break from the usual dinosaur and spaceship that you see on boy items.

what do you think?

would you let your kid use one?

sweet cheeks and chuck

due to a cold, sweet cheeks had to go to the doctor last week. (side note- that cold is still lingering! poor sweet cheeks has had a cough, congestion, and stuffy nose for 2 weeks now) as a reward for being such an amazing patient for her doctor, her daddy took her to target for a prize. she picked her first pair of pink high-top converse. holy taco are these shoes the cutest thing ever on her. i absolutely adore her in them.

sweet cheeks is also so darn close to tying her own shoelaces now. so close!



she went with a pink theme in her attire. this tank is one of her personal favorites. no denying it is because it has the word "lipgloss" on it. such a girl.


my chucks meet her chucks


our local farmers market happens every wednesday. the good thing is that it takes place in the parking lot next to sweet cheek's school, so either the husband or i take her every week. her favorite thing to get is homemade jelly. her absolutely most favorite thing to get is a nutella crepe. it is so yummy!



watching the crepe master prepare her crepe



a smile and a crepe- what a way to start any wednesday!

wordless wednesday

and their off. no, wait. we're off.

sweet cheeks took a chance and invited me to join her and her daddy on their saturday morning routine. remember what that is? yard sailing! i felt honored that she would invite me again considering every time i go, their finds are few. so i loved that i had a second chance to prove them wrong.

if sweet cheeks knew what our morning would have been like, she probably would not have invited me. the yard sales were few and far between that morning. the ones we did find did not have anything kid for her. this was not a good thing.

it wasn't a total loss though. we really all had a great time together. i brought the camera along so you can see what their routine is like. unfortunately, i forgot to take pictures half of the time. not surprising, right.

i love that they head out with no direction in mind. just watch for signs. sweet cheeks is great at spotting them.

the first stop was a wash. well, not a complete wash. i got this silly picture on the walk.



i really think this is the entire reason sweet cheeks enjoys their saturday morning routine. the gas station stop for whatever snack she wants. sweet freedom.

she seriously spent a good 10 minutes on a total of 3 aisles trying to decide what to get. she ended up with some sour candy.



after only a few more stops, she was tuckered out. doesn't take much. daddy, her hero, was there to carry her!


yard sailing is not for me though. i just don't have the patience.

i am always amazed at how much money people try to get for something they do not even want. seriously. i saw a pair of matching lamps and they were asking $85 for them. this is a yard sale people!

pillow talk

not sure why but i was looking at pillows on etsy tonight and came across these pretty initial pillows by studio k.

i like the patterns, especially in this first one.





i thought this was unique. she also paints recycled vinyl records and turns them into working clocks. how cool is that.

wordless wednesday (on our 9th anniv)

tiny diy project

sweet cheeks and i worked last weekend on transforming her simple ikea mala easle. we utilized pink ballet slipper spray paint, scrapbook paper, and modge podge for the transformation. we think it turned out pretty sweet.

before-


after-

wordless wednesday

she's a hiphopopotamus

sweet cheeks has a new favorite game. at which, i might add, she kicks butt in!

seriously. every time. without even letting her.

the patient and the homemade

saturday sweet cheeks and i were getting ready to head to a classmate of hers birthday party. i realized we had to leave earlier than originally planned because i hadn't gotten the girl a present yet. not surprising there. so we were a bit rushed for time. sweet cheeks asked if she could "do" my hair. i told her she could while i put on my make-up. so i sat on her stool, i mean salon chair, doing my face while she made my hair gorgeous.

i wasn't really paying attention to what she was doing. normally, she will brush it (pulling out millions upon millions of strands of hair in the process), curl it with her pretend curling iron, fluff it, wet it, whatever. she told me she was coloring my hair pink and brown. i was preoccupied with the hiding of under eye circles that i just went along with whatever she was saying/doing.

i finished my make-up, turned around and saw her standing there with a lipstick in her hand.

yes, you guessed it.

she did color my hair pink.... with lipstick.

it wasn't worth getting mad about. no time for that. i asked her to please not color mommy's hair again with lipstick.

we went to the party.

holy cow was my hair nasty, greasy, pink, and sticky. (thankfully not the norm for me)

i hope the other moms there understood!


**

i have mentioned before, like here and here, that sweet cheek's grandma makes sweet cheeks clothes. she is quite talented. after some convincing from the family and after some hard work on her part, my mom has opened her own etsy shop. go mom.

you can find her here at mariemoe.

she has great color sense and uses some beautiful fabrics, like amy butler and michael miller.

one of her adorable models sporting an original mariemoe-