Walmart to Anthropologie........

So today was fan-tab-ulous weather wise (in the 80s for the first time this year!) we threw open all the windows, and aired out the house while Paul worked in the yard, and I cleaned in my studio (slipcovering an ottoman that is in my studio counts as cleaning right? I thought so.) Anyway this post is actually about a project I did on Wednesday so I should talk about that right?

Miss Emmie (my 8 year-old) has recently decided that Anthropologie is the height of all good fashion. (I love her taste) I am pretty sure that this fascination is directly related to my love of the store, since she has decided that anything I like is awesome. (I am fully aware that in 5 years, me liking something with be instant grounds for NOT being awesome in Emmie's world.)

So recently Emmie was lamenting that nothing "Anthro" fit her (not that I would pay their prices for an 8 y/o anyway) and I told her we could make her her very own knock off dress. After going to the website she picked a dress that actually surprised me a bit, since it was not the flashiest, or her usual pretty, pretty, princess style. She chose the in an instant dress which retails for $98 in grown up mommy sizes.

Emmie loves this dress, and asked for only one modification, she wanted sleeves since her school has a no tank-top rule. I decided that this would be a great dress to tackle for Emmie, but since it is so simple I added a surprise twist to keep it fun, every item in Emmie's dress came from Walmart and only cost a total of $11...............True story.

Emmie loves how it turned out so much she almost refused to wear green on St Patrick's Day she was so eager to wear it to school, but we managed to convince her to wear it today instead of yesterday. (Apparently she had her teacher look up Anthro's website today just so she could show her just how close a match it is, her teacher is this stinking cute young woman, so her approval is high on Emmie's list of priorities.)

I have process pictures, but will start with sharing the whole thing tomorrow, for now I am going to cuddle my hunny and try to stay awake through a late movie (he had a long day, he finished the paver path in our front yard while I "cleaned" my studio!)

so busy......

I just spent the last 2 weeks running around on fumes. I had 2 major projects due for art classes, a major paper, and a test. Paul went out of town for a week to Germany, and I probably fed the kids toxic amounts of fast/pre-prepared foods. I didn't know how trashed I was until this weekend; I came home from school on Friday and fell asleep on the couch until 9:30 at night, went to bed at 9:30 and slept until 11:00 the next morning. I fell asleep again around 3:00 p.m. on Saturday and slept until Sunday morning at 8:00 am. I them proceeded to fall asleep at 4:30 p.m. and sleep until 8:00 this morning.

I have never in my life slept like that......I think Paul was pretty sure I was dieing or something, but like the super husband he is he insisted that if my body wanted the sleep, I was in need of it, and he held down the fort like a champ. He cooked and cleaned and got the kids out the door for school this morning. Thanks Babe!

So today I had a lady bits Dr's appointment, which went as to be expected (other then the Dr. being an HOUR late for the appointment, I think I would have left if I hadn't had to psyche myself up for the whole thing in the first place.) After which Paul and I went to lunch, and made plans for spring break next week. 

For Spring-break we are going to be working on the curb appeal in the yard, we are trying to not spend too much money, (since we are moving in a year) but we also need to get the outside more in line with the inside. So I have decided I need a list, which will hopefully end up with most of the items checked off by the end of the week! (not this week, next week)

(here is a horrible image I cobbled together in paint showing some of the changes using an image from google earth, I got rid of anything that identified the address etc. for privacy reasons.)

1. add house # plaque to the front porch (this has recently been pulled off of a rotting stand on the front corner.) DONE 
2. refinish desk by door. (purchased last year at an estate sale.)
3. add trellises to the studio window part of the house (we grow raspberries and blackberries here.) DONE
4. add border to the flowerbed under the big window (we need to define the line a lot better then what we currently have.)
5. eliminate the flower bed on the front corner (this one makes no sense, it had huge nasty bushes that housed bugs and is a pain to mow around.)
6. add paver walkway (we hardly ever use the driveway sidewalk and guests never do, so we need to add a walkway to the street.) DONE
7. move mailbox and repaint the stand (we need to put it by the walkway so it is closer to the street so people can see our house #'s)
8. maybe add trellis under the back patio (I am tired of how grubby it always looks under the porch) DONE
9. paint the trellis under the front porch (it needs to be blue) DONE
10. maybe fix the window screen on the front porch (I totally put a little tear in one of the screens while Paul was deployed when I carried the old kitchen counter tops out and placed them on the porch.)

I am sure I will add to this list as the week goes on, but I think between Paul and I this is doable so far (Paul is taking the week off to be with me for spring break.)

I didn't do a new post on the Pathway, so I am adding a picture here, the grass is none too green though since it was still early spring!

I've only just recently finished the rest of the garden (months after this original post!) so pictures will be posted later on!