Thoughts For Thursday: Home Updates & Other Random Info

Yesterday, this sweet little angel came down with a fever at daycare so I had to leave work a couple hours early to get her.

She was very playful and happy when I got her home, some Motrin did the trick to get her temp down {it was low-grade to begin with} and she ate normally, so I was certain I was going to let her return to daycare today, but then she woke up 2-3 times screaming and crying during the night. Even though she went back down easily each time after being consoled for a couple minutes, I felt it best to stay home with her today since it was definitely out of character for her to wake at night.

At least it's a free day to get a head start on the weekend chores...and time with Farrah is always nice.

I shared a few random shots of updated spaces around the house this week on my Instagram.

Some of you may remember my Kids' Organized Art Space from two years ago...it was one of my most pinned items...so I was extra-proud of it.

It's looking more like this nowadays...upgraded to a larger table and two chairs, changed out some pictures in the frames and of course, now there is art hanging!

In Farrah's nursery, I had a really cute wicker chair that I had spray-painted. I really still love the seat, but it wasn't the best in terms of rocking and feeding her.

I posted about the one I found the other day - painted it the same color - and now it sits in her room beautifully. It's much more comfortable for feeding her in the morning...and it's a rocker!

We're still working on the bathroom...this project has taken much longer than I thought it would {my husband has taken a few weekends off from it - much to my discontent!} I told him I needed to get back in there and get my stuff finally all put away because it's driving me crazy...so I'm hoping we see it finished soon. The last I posted about it, it looked like this:

This is what it looks like right now - basically we just need to get a new light fixture, get the mirror cut to size and hung, get a plumbing piece that we need {since he moved the sink over a bit} and to repaint the room. I'll likely move back in before we paint because I can deal with that.

Jake made the countertop himself - it is so beautiful. And he made the cabinets on top. We used the existing vanity, painted it white and he just added to it with the drawers to make it larger and provide more storage - there's even hidden toilet paper storage!

That's it for my home updates for now. Hope you're having a lovely week!


Linking Up With: Home of Malones // East Coast Chic

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Five on Friday

Well happy, fabulous Friday! I've certainly been scarce this week! Just a lot going on in work and life and I had no time to sort any thoughts into a decent blog post. But it's Friday...work is winding down and I am ready for the weekend. How about you?

{one}

A sweet friend lent me his NASM study materials for getting a personal training certification, so I'm diving into those and finally going to work toward getting certified! It's only been like a decade or so that I've talked about wanting to be certified. It's something I've felt strongly about for years and for whatever reason, things would get in the way, or I would procrastinate. Pregnancies did not help either, as I'm a little crazy, so mentally I would think that I can't be a personal trainer if I'm not my fittest and still carrying  baby weight. Though I still have a few lbs of baby weight left from Farrah, I'm feeling good about the future and want to get started with this process. Plus, it does make for extra motivation in my workouts.

{two}

Speaking of working out, we had such beautiful weather this week, well, until today that is. High 70s pretty much all week and today it's in the 30s...#WTF. BUT, I did take advantage of that nice weather and took a couple of runs this week after work before I picked up the kids {it was my "me" time}. They were short and I didn't feel that great about my time...it's been a while since I've run and getting back to it while it's hot outside is a challenge. I'm working on it...don't mind my rant about the construction during Monday's run...

 {three}

I started a giraffe drawing for Farrah's nursery sometime in December, I believe, and sort of forgot about it. I pulled it out last night and finished it. I still am not 100% happy with it, but think I'm going to go ahead and frame it for her room.

 I then got a little hooked {it's been a while since I've sketched!} and I started playing around...I love drawing hibiscus flowers.

This one is not finished, that was about 10-15 min of work...I really need to keep up on creating art...I get so rusty and I do love it...it was nice and relaxing to just sit there and draw. It is good therapy. Hopefully you'll be seeing more from me.

{four}

This weekend is going to be pretty nice - temps in the 60s and sunny. And I am SOOOOO looking forward to daylight savings time on Sunday! I swear I am always in a funk by this time of year - whether it be mood, fitness or just all of the above and once that DST starts back up again, it changes everything. I'm hoping to take the kids to the beach to play and I also need to get some things done around the house...Jake is almost done with our bathroom {can't wait to show you!} Here is the countertop he made himself:

Glad my man is so talented and hardworking...we are able to get a lot of nice things done around the house for way less than what it would cost most people.

{five}

To top off this Five on Friday, I'll leave you with a picture of my happy baby...she's 3 days shy of 10 mos and REALLY trying to crawl...she's just like Tanner, too big to crawl! He was exactly 10 mos when he crawled AND pulled himself up in the same day...I wonder if she will follow suit? This is her playing ball with Daddy...she just loves catching it.

Have a great weekend!

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A Little Monday Musings For Your Tuesday

It's Tuesday and due to the probability of some ice...my kids are out of school and daycare today {yes, really...that's the South for you.} I am doing a little bit of work from home, but mostly I'm off since it's a bit hard to juggle working from home when you have three kids to watch too. It's not going to be too freezing cold today, so hopefully I can kick my rambunctious boys outside for a little while. {Kids really need to spend more time outdoors!} And other than that, I get a head start on some chores that I would otherwise be spending my weekend doing...so it's nice in that aspect.

So here's something fun...my husband decided to demolish {well, not completely} our bathroom this weekend...without consulting me so I could at least get my makeup and things moved into our guest bathroom. Love ya, Hubby, but seriously? Heads up would have been nice.

The project itself is not random; it is something we've discussed doing for years. We are replacing the floor and removing the "privacy" {that's a stretch} wall between the vanity and toilet to make room for a larger vanity with two sinks. I took the kids to a friend's house for a few hours and when I came back, the little wall was gone, the flooring was all torn out and the toilet was in the bathtub. Gotta love a hardworking man. I'm not sure how long this will all take with him working full-time and all, but I will be sure to show you the finished product when it's ready.

Saturday night was nice, we got out for a little date night...nothing fancy, just dinner and drinks, but uninterrupted conversation with my husband is always nice.

That there is a cucumber jalapeno margarita and it is DELICIOUS. I had two.

I had a rough week last week as far as workouts go...but I got back going with Insanity on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Today it's on the docket as well. I love that I can actually do it whenever I want today, rather than just being held to 4:30am or 7:30pm...neither are my favorite time for working out, which I think has been part of the issue lately...starting back at work has definitely made fitting in workouts a challenge...if I miss my few opportune times to do it, then I just miss it. It's really requiring a lot more mental focus and determination now...spring is very close and beach season is right around the corner.

Speaking of the beach, I did get a cute little bikini with my Valentine's Day giftcard...something to motivate me to get in tip-top shape:

{via}

And I received my workout wear from them yesterday too...more motivation for fitness. I just love new workout clothes.

{via}

{via}

These are perfect for running...and speaking of running, I've got a 5K in just a couple weeks! It's a St. Patty's Day run...doing it with some friends. And the Cooper River Bridge 10K is in just over a month. I need to step up my running game in a few short weeks.

Hope y'all have a wonderful week!

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Bathroom Vanity Cabinet Storage

I totally took a cue from Cassie's post yesterday and got my butt in gear on working to resolve our bathroom storage issue. We have a very small bathroom upstairs that serves as our master bathroom, but unfortunately it is the only bathroom up there, so we share it with the boys. OK, OK, might as well call it a community bathroom.

Anywho, it has a standard-size {read: small} vanity cabinet that doesn't even have drawers that really pull out. It has those fake ones that are just for looks. Other than this cabinet, the only storage we have is the linen closet, but that's pretty full with towels and my crazy amount of lotions and products {this will be my next organization project in here}. As you can see from this next picture, Jake and I really need a space that allows for easy and convenient access when we get ready in the morning, while allowing our counters to be clear when not in use. You can see we were not properly utilizing the storage space:

Pretty pathetic, huh? Poor Jake was only working with that tiny black basket to store his essentials.

Well, so off to Target and the Dollar Store I went. I found these small containers at the dollar store. They ended up being the perfect size for the drawers I would find at my next stop, Target.

I also found this basket that I ended up using for my curler set. I don't use this set too much, but this basket will make it easy to grab out of the cabinet and keeps the clips corralled with it.

And here are the contents of the drawers {I got so lucky that these drawers fit perfectly around the plumbing pipes}. The black and clear drawer on top of mine holds all of my mani/pedi supplies for easy grab-and-go access, since I like to do them in the living room while watching TV after the boys go to bed.

I wanted to add the extra special touch of labeling the drawers and I remembered that I still had some of my Martha Stewart file cabinet labels leftover from my desk organization project.

Unfortunately, I only had two of them, not three, so I decided to just label the drawers for Jake and me and figured the toilet paper drawer would be fine without.
 

So there you have it, my organized bathroom cabinet storage. I am so excited about it...this will prevent clutter on our countertop and allow more space in the linen closet for other things.

So what do you think?

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