Etc. Archives | Page 175 of 254

giveaway

March 22, 2011~ Etc.

one of my sponsors Jessica is giving away an illustration
of your choice of $25 or less from her shop.

i was just going to pick out a few that i like from her shop

but there are so many that i love. isn’t she a talented illustrator?

here are some of my favorites that i think are absolutely beautiful.

to enter the giveaway, please visit her shop and tell me your favorite item

in the comment section below by monday, march 28th.

extra entry:

-tweet/facebook about the giveaway

-blog about the giveaway

-become a follower of this blog

best luck!

and the winner is:

congratulations Dovile! check your email! 😉

this week i want to showcase how talented my husband is. one of his favorite hobbies is to purchase old homes and renovate it himself. he learned it from his talented dad who built his first home by reading a book when he was just in his early 20’s. yes you read that right, by reading a book on how to build a house! talk about a genius, right? and the house still stands strong today and someone else lives in it now. so jay helped his dad build their 3 houses in Hawaii when he was growing up so he can do pretty much anything; plumbing, electrical, you name it, he can do it.

so this is our house #1. we used to live in this townehome until last fall and as you’ll see from the pictures it was really outdated. to see a more detailed video of the before see here.

the backyard before:

the kitchen before:

i helped a little too haha. but i was 4 months prego so i couldn’t help out much.

the after:

just omit the mess of the kitchen in the pics below. 😉

the wall by the entry door was shortened a lot so it’s more open

and look how little miss A was with her two teeth on top and bottom!

she was excited for the renovation too.

and jay’s friends/cousins/family came to help in the process too. thanks guy!

we’ve now moved into another house because jay was getting the renovation itch again but my dad retired recently so my parents moved back to their house here from Korea(YAY!!!) a few weeks ago and jay graciously offered to renovate their whole house before he gets to ours. so i’ll have to post pictures of my parents’ home too when they’re all done!

the backyard before:

the after:

the fireplace before:

the after:

then he broke down the huge wall upstairs

and built a new wall/doorway facing the other way

so the bedroom would be connected to the bathroom(which it wasn’t before)

the bathroom before(after we painted the stripes):

the after:

(and the closet you see with the clothes hanging used to be the hallway.

but now it’s being used as the walk-in closet.)

i wish i could find more pictures of the before/after of this house,
especially the bathroom on the main floor, bummer.
but as you can see, he is amazing. i’m so proud of him!

For Japan With Love

March 18, 2011~ Etc.

so the rule is no posts at all today but i just found out about it

and want to be a part of it.

i will be donating and praying for these people.

i’m burnt out

March 17, 2011~ Etc.

today was a rough day. actually, it’s been a rough couple of weeks. i don’t know if it’s because i’m sick too but it seemed like my kids were being more naughty than usual and making way more mess than usual today. adi got a ladder and opened the cereal cupboards and got out a big bag of cereal(not the box ones but the big, more economical bagged ones) and decided to make a trail around the whole house for our little “kitty” a.k.a her little sister ana, while playing pretend kitty vs. owner, while i was cleaning up another mess in another room.

that was just one thing they did and i don’t want to list every single thing they did, but it seemed like more than any other day that i was cleaning up after their mess one after the other, over and over again, all day long, and i was just so weary and exhausted all day. adi doesn’t nap anymore and gets so cranky by the time jay comes home from work and let’s be honest, i’m pretty cranky too. poor jay.

so when jay came home, i tried to be upbeat and all but it didn’t last long. my girls are at the stage where they want mommy to do everything and they were just hovering over me and wanting my attention every single second, asking questions or demanding something from me every single second, and they get more clingy when daddy comes home, i don’t know why. so i was hoping to get a little peace and quiet when jay got home, so i grabbed some clementines and sat down on the couch in our livingroom to eat it, my girls followed right behind me and started fighting over who gets to get on my back by screaming right by my ear while both trying to grab my neck and get on my back and pushing each other and fighting, i wanted to scream. but I just bottled it up inside and kept peeling my clementine. then when I was done peeling, the girls wanted it so I split it in half and gave it to them, and started peeling another one for myself. Then ana chewed or squeezed one slice of the clementine and it squirted right in my eye and it stung, and that’s when i couldn’t bottle it up any longer. i started to cry and kept saying to jay, “please. please just take the kids somewhere before i lose my sanity. please. just go. right now. go. please.” so poor jay had no choice but to take them out.

then two hours later, i hear them opening the door and two little feet running towards me screaming “mommy!” all excitedly and i turn to look to see this:

jay told me how since they knew i was sad, they wanted to go get me flowers to make me feel better. how can i not be happy and not smile when i see this? adalie later asked me, “mommy, why are you sad? do you have an owie?” i said to her, “i have an owie on the inside of my body.” she said, “oh, i’m sorry, mommy. i’m sorry you have an owie on the inside of your body and that i can’t kiss it better.” while ana not fully understanding what we said, came up to me to give me a big kiss.

i do feel better. but i think i seriously need a girl’s night out or a girls’ trip. what do you do when you get burnt out being a mother? or what do you do to NOT get burnt out from being a mother? and i wonder, are there any mothers out there that never get burnt out? because if you don’t, i want to meet you and find out about all your secrets.

Ana’s B-day

March 15, 2011~ Etc.

first, i have a question to ask you…

i’ve been meaning to do a 1000+ followers giveaway for awhile

and have been thinking about what to give away.

i wanted it to be special and to show you how much i appreciate you.

so…i was thinking of doing a giveaway of what i do best,
transforming old clothes.

the winner would send me an item from their closet they no longer wear

and we’ll brainstorm together what we can re-create.

if you trust me enough with your clothes that is. ha.

so if i do that, would you trust me enough to enter the giveaway?

and for ana’s birthday we kept it low and simple with just the family. and let me tell you, it was sooooo nice not having to plan a big b-day party. i figured she’s still too young to fully know and appreciate parties thrown for her and i would be throwing her b-day parties every year from now on so i thought i’d give myself a little break for just one year of her life. i did feel like i was kinda being a bad mom since i threw adalie her 2nd b-day party but i’ll make it up by throwing her a nice, big one for her 3rd b-day party.