I'm not a woman of the 50's...

But there are times I wish was... I was raised watching the re-runs of old shows like "I Love Lucy" and "Leave it to Beaver"... many times I've fantasized what it would have been like to live during that time and I compare myself to the woman who played the mom. I don't really know what it was like to live in that era but if it was anything like the old sitcoms I think I would love to have been a mom and wife of the 1950's.

The woman (mom and wife) had 2 jobs... take care of the home and the family. That sounds so simple and sweet doesn't it? But I know what it really means... it means you're the maid, butler, cook, seamstress, nanny, teacher, police officer, chauffeur, nurse... I could keep going... and you do all this daily while looking as attractive as your wedding day for your husband... the women wore dresses and pearls while scrubbing the toilets for goodness sakes!

Fast-forward to now... you can't go to any store without seeing someone dressed in what looks like pj's and house shoes (slippers). I have never gone as far as to dress like that in public but many days at home I will look as if I just jumped out of bed. This is a down-side of being a stay-at-home-mom in our world today... it would actually be considered weird in our day to dress like the women of the 50's. It's not that I want to wear a dress and pearls everyday but over time you get comfortable with not "dressing-up". By this I mean, putting on make-up and wearing clothes that are attractive (not lazy clothes). Many days I just put on any old thing not worrying too much about coordination or even how good it looks and I use the bare minimum of make-up... most of the time I just wear foundation and mascara.

On this particular day though I just decided out-of-the-blue that I would "doll" myself up... I don't really know why, I didn't have anywhere to go or anyone to see, I just didn't want to be "frumpy". What I discovered was I really liked looking a little pulled together, if for no one else than for myself! And although as you will see in the pictures below I didn't wear a dress or pearls... in fact I wore jeans but what I did do was add a little more make-up, a nice necklace (one I love because of it's beautiful blue color) and coordinated the outfit with little splashes of color. Had I remembered to put on a little lipstick/ gloss the pictures would have looked a little better but in my defense I did have 4 kids running around that I had to keep an eye on also.

I figured since I went to all this work I shouldn't let it go to waste on just my kids (cuz frankly they don't care how I look) and decided to try doing a self-portrait. This was no easy task! Getting the focus in the right spot was by far the most challenging part... mostly because there was nothing for the camera to focus on while I was setting up the shot. What I ended up doing was holding a toy with a long handle out in front of the camera, focusing, then set the auto-timer and jumped into position... it was quite the workout!

As you can see it was a bit of trial and error... these first few have the focus in the wrong place...

I think they look ok even with the focus off... it kind of does something dreamy to the ones where I'm looking down.

Here the focus is getting better and my eyes are sharp...

These last 2 are my favorite...

If you know me, you'd know that I'm a pretty modest person and really would rather be behind the camera instead of in front of it. It's a little hard for me to post so many pictures of just myself... but I'm going to have to get over and so here they are.

P.S. If you don't like these pictures then please don't ever tell me... I don't think I could handle it (said with a giggle).



Our kids rooms (part 2)... Daina's Room

This is our daughter, Daina's room. With a little direction from us she chose the Zebra print theme and paint colors. It was a little difficult at first, she had so many ideas and wanted to incorporate them all! So we had to go through a long process (really it took several days) to get her to pin point what she wanted. She finally choose the Zebra print and the paint colors at the store. She originally wanted 3 colors, pink, blue and purple but we just couldn't accommodate that... we knew the room would be very bright and colorful with even 2 colors. I had to keep reminding myself that it's her room and we told her she could decorate it however she wanted and to only guide her decisions. This is the end result several months later...

The picket fence bed my dad made for her when she was 3 years old...

We found the bedding at the local Bed and bath store. The curtains are actually a fabric shower curtain from Target that I cut in half and tied back with a little pink ribbon.

Fortunately the furniture and shelves were already white... and I printed out Zebra photos free from the Internet for the old window frame hanging above her bed.

She has always loved horses and has tons and tons of toys/ accessories for them (she even has a huge red barn that's kept in her closet)... so we were completely shocked that she didn't choose a horse or cowboy theme for her room!!

I used a stencil (printed from the computer) to paint the zebra print on the fan blades.

I think her room turned out very cute... it's bright and bold and fun... just what a young girl's room should be!

Our kids rooms (part 1)... The Boys Room

Several months ago we swapped our kids rooms and so this post is LONG overdue! As you might know, we have 1 girl (our oldest) and 3 boys. When we had our daughter we made the closest room to ours (which happens to be the smallest of the 2) into the nursery.

When we had our 2nd child we needed to move her out of the nursery and into the other room. It was such an adorable room for a little 3 year old... I made a quilt and her window coverings with a cute flower pattern, the room was painted a pastel purple and yellow and my dad made her picket fence bed (you'll get a chance to see that bed in my next blog post).

Then our 3rd child was born (another boy) and it just made sense to keep the 2 boys in the same room. Even though it was the smaller of the 2 rooms we still had room for our sons race car bed that my dad made, the crib, a dresser, changing table and a 2nd dresser in the closet.

But then the Lord surprised us with another little boy and that's when we now had a dilemma... who rooms with who and in what ROOM??

We decided that our daughter should have her own room (because she was 8 years old and the only girl) but she would need to have the smaller of the 2 rooms so the 3 boys could share a room. This is the very long explanation into why we swapped their rooms.

In this post I'll share the pictures of my dad putting together our son Brayden's truck bed (a car hauler) and what the room looks like now after the swap and decorating...

All 3 boys around the bed "helping" Grandpa...

This is my dad... the awesome grandpa who makes beautiful, creative, fun beds for the grandchildren... the top bed is our son Ryley's race car bed that he made 3 years ago and the bottom bed is our son Brayden's truck bed (a car hauler).

And this is the room today...

I made the curtains with the same fabric that my mom made Ryley's quilt out of. And the bottom quilt was made for Brayden by his Great-grandma when he was born... a tradition she did for all the great-grandchildren.

Eventually Grandpa will need to make a 3rd bed for our son Rigan... there has already been discussions on what that will be... a train might be coming to this room in the future!

We painted the room with some real fun boy colors, I made the truck paintings on the wall and my husband (owner of Selkow's Perfection Flooring) installed the carpet. We chose an office type of carpet with no nap and I couldn't be happier with it... I also like it because it looks like asphalt... perfect for a car themed room!

Thanks dad for be the awesome man you are and for loving me and our children the way you do... your creativity and talents are, as always, an inspiration to me!!! And mom, the bed wouldn't be complete without your handmade quilt!!

Tomorrow I will write the 2nd half to this post with pictures of our daughter, Daina's room.