The Hollis family GREW.. AGAIN!

If I could fill my house with dogs..I would in a heartbeat! Those that say diamonds are a girl's bestfriend, CLEARLY never owned a dog! I have always wanted a husky in the worst way. When we moved to Italy we planned on adopting one, but then we adopted Budders. When we got to Alabama we planned on adopting one yet again, but then we got Duke. lol. I couldn't bring myself to pay for a bred dog, when I knew that sick little rescue dog needed a home.

 

Then Mother's Day and my birthday rolled around. I was sitting in the kitchen with my husband and BFF. Kevin asked me what I wanted for both holidays. I told him a husky and I would be content. Him and my friend looked at me like I was nuts. He said if I could find one within a certain driving distance for x amount of money, then I could get one. Well, I did it. She was only a few days old when I found the breeder and for 6 weeks we watched the little Princess grow and could not wait for her to join our furever family!

 

So I would like you to meet.. Miss Sadie!

She is the sweetest little girl! It's unbelievable that only 7 1/2 weeks how much her personality has developed. She is unlike most female huskys. Most females are very independent. Not Miss Sadie. She has to be with someone at all times. For her first week here, she would wake up in the middle of the night crying and one of us would have to sleep on the floor by her kennel in order for her to sleep through the night. Yes, she is like a newborn. lol. Now Duke sleeps beside her kennel and keeps her company throughout the night. When she is fully pottytrained and out of this puppy chewing stage, she can upgrade to the bed.. but she's sooo bad now! She's so full of life and energy.

 Sweet puppy kisses :-)

 The rough life of a Princess Puppy

Isn't she just absolutely precious! She fits right into our little family! When she was born she looked black.. but most of her black has faded to gray and one of her eyes changed from blue to brown so she will be part of the bi-eyed club! She still does not have a full name and we need to come up with one soon so we can get her AKC registered!

Father's Day Idea!

My Dad and FIL are the HARDEST people to buy for when it comes to any holiday. My Dad likes things with meaning... my FIL, likes giftcards. Those that know me, know that I don't like doing giftcards. They just seem so impersonal and I feel like there is no thought to them. I like people to think "Dang, she put some serious thought into that!".. but it seems as the years go on, I'm running out of ideas.

 

Last year I took two Pinterest ideas and combined them into one for my husband... this was our result:

 

This year I took a spin off this for my Dad and my FIL.

 

I managed to recycle the letters from last year... bought a W, E, and the heart. Picked up some red spray paint for the heart and recycled the blue paint from last year.

 

I then bought these cute frames from Michaels. This isn't the picture of my frames.. I painted mine black.. but I haven't uploaded a pic yet so I found the exact frames online

 

They look JUST like Organic Bloom.... but you want to know what is awesome??? I only paid $8.99!!!!

 

Once I get the pictures printed and in frames, I will be posting!!! Just a little behind on Father's Day presents this year!

Holiday Craft and Gift Ideas!

Back in October I came across this adorable Halloween plate on Pinterest. I didn't have high hopes on how it would turn out... everything always looks better on Pinterest... but it turned out ADORABLE. Since then, I rack my brain every holiday and try to come out with something new with the same concept. I've had sooo many people ask me how I made it, what I used, ect. After typing it out 100 times, I've decided to just blog it!

 

This was our first project.. the Halloween plate.

Here's my directions!

What you need:

• A porcelain or glass plate. My FAVORITE is a cheapy $4.99 target porcelain plate with scalloped edges. If you using glass, MAKE SURE it is oven SAFE!
• Paint. My preference is Martha Stewart all surface paint. I believe it's only $1.99 for a tube at Michaels.
• Fine point brushes. Again, my favorites can be purchased at Michaels. Anywhere between $4-8
• Stencils. I found mine at Michaels.
• Wide brushes. My brushes I use are from Michaels and are $7.99. You want the softest brushes you can find so they won't leave streaks! I use medium soft (they are the softest our michaels has), and they do leave some streaks. I think a little bit of streaks gives it character! I've never tried foam brushes, they may have a softer result!
• Paint pen. I've found that the broad tips are my favorite!
• Top Coat, if you WANT. I used it on this plate, but haven't used it on any of my others. You'll learn why I no longer use it.

Steps:

• Remove the sticker from the back if there is one. Thoroughly wipe the plate down.
• Paint the plate with a soft wide brush. Let dry for an hour or two, maybe longer depending on what your climate is like where you live! Add a second coat. Let dry and repeat on the back.
• For best results, let dry over night. If you try to stencil on the letters while it's the least bit tacky (even if it feels dry to touch), your pencil will push the paint off. Not a big deal if you get it perfect the first time, but by allowing it to dry over night you can erase if need be!
• If you chose to do a top coat, do after the paint dries. If you put the top coat over the letters that have been done with a paint pen, it will eat through the paint. Not sure why.. but yes, this did happen to me and I had to redo the letters!
• Stencil on your letters and trace with the paint pen. I use a paper plate to blot my pen on before i use it on the plate. I've become a professional with a paint pen now, but if you are new to using one, do a couple practice strokes on a paper plate first!
• After your letters have dried, you can add your child's art work! If you mess up, don't fret! Wipe it off quickly with a wet paper towel! When doing feet, I have discovered the easiest way to do it (with a toddler at least!) is to a have a bucket of warm soapy water nearby with a towel underneath. After you paint their foot and put it on your plate, just have them stand down in the bucket. I wasn't about to try to scrub Martha Stewart paint out of my Turkish rug! After their foot print dries, add the rest of the face to make a ghost with your paint pen. I also add my daughter's name and year to the back at the end.
• Let dry for 24 hours.
• Bake your plate at 325 for 20 minutes. Just keep an eye on it and make sure you aren't getting brown spots on it. That has happened to me, but I just touch it up after it's done baking with paint. No harm done!

 

Some other holiday ideas...

Thanksgiving.. same concept as Halloween.

Easter.. again, same concept. I messed up the whiskers, but my paint pen was on it's last limb.  I also free handed the eggs. I had no intentions of putting the eggs on it, but after we put her hand on it, I realized it was up way to high and there was too much blank space under the bunny.

 Christmas. A little different. I bought a square plate from Target. (Also $4.99) and didn't paint the entire plate. Instead, I painted polka dots on the trim. For the 2 bigger size circles, I used a quarter and a nickel as my stencil and free handed the little guys.

 Mother's Day. Same concept for the plate. We also tried something a little different.. an apron! As most of you know, my dearest Mother is the owner of Josie's Restaurant... so this was the perfect gift for her! I bought my apron from Michaels ($5 for one). We did the feet for the butterfly... and hands for the flowers. I free handed the bottoms of the flowers, the center of the butterfly, and the bumblebee. (Wasn't thinking... should have used my daughter's toe!) and then free handed the dots. I did not use a paint pen at all as I was afraid it would bleed through! I also washed and ironed it prior to painting. Keeping the bucket of water by the table was the perfect idea for this since we were constantly changing colors!

 Happy Crafting!

Bathroom Flipping!

Remember my last post about my x-ray job that I recently left and how I met my best friend in Birmingham there? Well not only is he an x-ray tech, but he flips houses here in Birmingham. He has been so inspiring and such a big help when it comes to doing little projects around the house that come with being a homeowner. I often wonder if I drive him nuts with questions on how to fix or renovate things! ha! He makes me want to redo everything in my house!

One of the projects I wanted to do was renovate my bathroom, but really didn't want to spend a fortune to do it since my friend is getting ready to completely flip our kitchen. When I told him about finding the Rust Oleum cabinet transformation kits on pinterest, he was skeptical. I told him if it didn't work out then I would replace the entire vanity... but right now, a $75 kit sounded a heck of a lot better than spending $600 on a new vanity.

First thing I did was bought the Rust Oleum laminate paint. I had read about it on pinterest and decided to give it a shot. Our countertops were white and it wasn't too bad, BUT the previous owners must have sat a hot curling iron down on the top and there were a few burn marks. Easy to hide with a decorative tissue holder, but deep down I knew they were underneath there. The laminate paint is only about $19 at Home Depot and is pretty simple to use. Just tape everything off and paint on with a foam roller. It's SUPER thick so only one coat was needed. For future when I do one of our other bathrooms, I know to just THROW AWAY THE ROLLER! The paint is thick and sticky and impossible to clean. I would rather just chalk up the $6 loss of the roller rather than deal with that mess ever again!

I left it dry for about three days before touching it.. but I did start the cabinets on the 2nd day of the paint drying. I removed all of the cabinet doors and all the hardware. The transformation kit is really easy to do, just time consuming because there are a lot of steps. First I had to wipe everything with soapy water. Then I had to do the first step of the kit- the deglosser. It totally beats having to sand! You just rub it down with a scrubby sponge and the deglosser that comes in the kit. It says to wear gloves and I RECOMMEND it!!! I used gloves, but got some on my arm and it burned my arm where it touched. After an hour of letting that dry, then I had to paint with a pure white. It took 3 coats on my cabinets even though the kit said they recommended two. I guess my cabinets were just sucking in the paint. Again, use a FOAM roller. (my personal contractor/bff recommended foam rollers for cabinets and I'm glad he did! It gives it a very smooth finish). After the paint dried, then it was on to the next step.. the decorative glaze. You paint it on, then rub it off with the cheese cloths provided and it gives it that rustic, primitive, antique look, which is ACTUALLY what I was looking for! After the glaze dries, then the last step is the top coat. It was a lot of work, but I love the results!!!

BEFORE... 

AFTER!

The after pics aren't the best cause I took them with my cell phone, but they will do for now! Such a difference!

Where has Mandee been?

8 months ago, I was offered a job working part time at mobile x-ray company here in Birmingham. I received an email only 5 days after applying for the job so I was beyond thrilled because I had been job hunting for months. A month before that, I was offered another job at an urgent care clinic but passed it up because the pay was just not what I was looking for.  Now I realize that there is more to a job than pay. The job was PERECT. I worked mobile in PA and loved it, but had to leave because it was only casual work and I wanted something with more hours.  The job paid pretty well, was only 20 hours a week, and it was evenings so Rosalie only had to go to daycare for a few hours.  I fell right into the job and not to toot my own horn, I was good at it. What is mobile x-ray exactly? Well, you work on your own for starters. I had a portable x-ray machine and drove around to nursing homes, assisted living facilities, behavioral facilities, correctional facilities, and private homes and did x-rays.  For the first time in three years, I felt like the old Mandee again, doing something I loved. 

I met some AMAZING people at this job. The past three years, I've been subjected to military wives and that's it. I'm not complaining because I have met some wonderful people through the military, but let's face it, I don't have a lot in common with most military wives. Kevin and I met before he joined. I had a career before he joined. While I love being with Rosalie every second of the day, a housewife and stay at home mom just aren't suitable for me. I hated sitting on my career for three years while we were overseas. Anyways, it was nice to be around people that I had something in common with. If one good thing came out of my job, it was the friends I made. I met my best friend here in Birmingham during my short tenure at Mobilex and for that I am grateful. 

My boss praised me constantly and use to say he wished he had 20 of me. Again, not to toot my own horn, but I didn't blame him... I busted my butt and gave my heart and soul to that company. Before I knew it, I was offered a full time position and most weeks was working 50+ hours. It consumed my life, but I was okay with that. It was hard work and while some days I would get so frustrated with it, I loved it. 

I'm sure you are noticing everything is written in the PAST form. So you are wondering why I would leave something so wonderful? Well, it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows. Birmingham is a pretty dangerous city. Did you know that it is rated #7 in the most dangerous cities in America? I never thought I would work at x-ray job that required me to carry a stun gun to work! We had to go into very dangerous parts of Birmingham. For those reasons, we had safety guidelines in place. Even though we were a 24 hour service, some of our facilities had cut off times. We also were not to do house calls after dark. Our boss did enforce these because he genuinely cared for our safety. February 1st, new management took over. Our safety was no longer a priority and servicing the patients and keeping the clients happy was all that mattered. Yes, I am all for providing high quality service, but at what cost? Having my child grow up without a mother because a hospice agency forgot to order a chest x-ray and waited until late in the evening to do it? It was then that I put my priorities in line and decided what mattered most to me and decided it was time to leave. It broke my heart, it really did. My coworkers begged me not to go. My old manager tried to talk me out of leaving. The regional manager tried to talk me out of leaving. Our dispatch begged me to stay and said they were going to start a petition to get me to stay. I felt like I was letting so many people down, but my family came first. I'll find another job.... I don't know when and I don't know if the grass will be any greener, but I do know that I'll be okay. Without sounding cliche, everything happens for a reason!

The Hollis family GREW!

Before the rumors start flying, let me clarifying that our family is not growing by the addition of a human baby!

Two weeks ago, our family expanded with the addition of a new little fur baby!

We hadn't planned on getting a new dog anytime soon. We knew eventually we wanted a new puppy, but we figured it would be awhile before we got another one. This summer, Kevin has been away at Airman Leadership School in Montgomery, AL. He was about 2 hours away from us. Part of his class they had to do a service project, so his class went to Pet Smart to help out on a Saturday while the humane society brought pets in for adoption. It gave him serious puppy fever, and I won't lie, seeing the pics of all the pets made me want a puppy BAD. Kevin was convinced he was going to bring a puppy home that night (since he could come home on weekends), but I told him that was just too far to bring a dog back.

So to lift his spirits, I got online and started looking at the local shelters to see if I could find a puppy.

Then I saw him. I came across this site for the Birmingham Area Adoption & Rescue Center (BAARC). They had a litter of pups up for adoption that were only 6 weeks old. Someone found them abadoned in some hedges by an apartment complex. I immediately called Kevin and told him to go straight to the shelter when he left Pet Smart. We got there literally 5 minutes before they closed.. and we ended up coming home with a puppy.

Introducing....

DUKE! (Short for Marmaduke)

Sir Duke is part collie and husky. He is such a beautiful dog! I cannot wait to see what he looks like when he is full grown! This picture was taken just last night. He has def grown in the past 2 weeks. He was so small and fragile when we adopted him. Adopting a rescue dog is nothing like going to the pet store and buying a dog. Duke was a street puppy so he needed a lot of TLC when he came to our family. He was completely infested with ticks and fleas. He was only 6 weeks old so he was still too small for flea and tick medicine.. so we had to keep bathing him in dawn dishsoap (to drown the fleas) and then brush him and pick anything off of him. We spent about 4 hours rebathing and picking at him. A couple days later, the in store vet at Pet Smart recommended a medicine that was good for a dog so small, although we were sure by then we had gotten everything off him. He also became very sick shortly after coming to us. He ended up going for an emergency visit to the vet where they discovered he had a severe case of worms. Now after two weeks, Mr Duke is finally putting some meat on his lil bones!

 This is Duke a few days after he joined our family. He was such a sluggish little dog... which is no suprise because of how sick he was

Duke the night he came to join our family!

He loves Rosalie! They are constantly together and he loves to follow her everywhere!

All three of my kids!



Playroom Makeover

Anyone that knows me, knows that I'm a psychopath, OCD, organizer. In my mind, there is no such thing as being too organized.

When we moved into our house, I could NOT wait to tear into the playroom and start organizing and make it all cute and fun.

We lived in our house for almost a month before I decided what I wanted to decorate the playroom in. It hit me one morning... by lunch time, Rosalie and I were at Target. The next morning, Kevin and I were at Lowes buying paint lol.

I started off by figuring out how I could organize her toys and make it that everything could be easily accessed. After a trip to Target.. I pretty much had a grip on how I wanted all the toys organized.

This was pre-designing the toyroom. I kept the 9 cube organizer how it is. All of the empty slots have books in them. The bins have little stuffed animals and what not in them. The top bags have blocks in one and play food in another. (I ordered them from thirty-one). The kitchen stayed where it was, but I organized the cart beside it. It now has a bin of play food and bin of all her utensils, and then some electronic toys on the bottom.

Next, I bought a cute bench organizer at Target. Instead of putting a cushion on it, I decided to use it as a place to put all of Rosalie's weeble stuff on top of it. It's at a perfect level for her to play. The owl bin has all her weebles and weeble cars in.

I also scored an adorable mini bin organizer. It was exactly what I needed! (Although I was super disgusted in the colors they had). Rosalie is big into little things. I hate that she skipped the toddler toy age. She likes to play with bigger kid stuff.. she loves the mini lalaloopsies and littlest pet shop. Before you judge me, she's very good with them. She doesn't stick them in her mouth or anything.. We started by buying her a pack of Littlest Pet Shops because she carried this little puppy around from her dollhouse and she fell in love. She totes them everywhere. Now every time we're out, she gets a new one and my mom is constantly buying them for her. So this mini organizer was exactly what we needed. One bin has potato head pieces, one has littlest pet shop, another has cars, and another has lalaloopsy pieces.

Next was the closet. I organized all her coloring stuff on one shelf and of course I made it a high shelf that she can't reach. I moved some baby toys up that she no longer plays with and board games that she can't get into. I got a crate for all her balls and a hook on shelf for all her puzzles. I got a huge circle bin from Target to put all her stuffed animals in.  

Next I painted and started decorating. We decided to go with a soft neutral color. Rosalie's bedroom is extremely pink and girly, so we wanted her playroom to be something fun. When I first painted the green, I hated it. It looked soo bright. After it dried, I loved it!

Then went up the wall decals!

After the wall decals.. I FINALLY got the curtains up!

I didn't get a picture of it, but to the right corner that isn't pictured, I have a huge utility stand. You can get them at Home Depot or Lowes and I even believe Target has them. I got 2 big fabric bins from my mom (that she had bought at Target). One has baby dolls, one has stuffed animals. I also got 2 more little fabric bins. I put baby dolls in one and her big lalaloopsies in the other. I'll have to get a picture because it looks great and she loves it! The bins have handles so she can pull them right off the shelf and get what she wants. 

I hope this may have inspired you to get more organized or help with organizing a toy room!