best husband ever

Who'd have thought bath toys could be so romantic?  Serious creativity points for the husband :)

Madeline's room: the tale of the floorcloth

I'm happy to report we've been making more great progress on Madeline's room! I've scoured the internet in search of the perfect rug to grace the floor in there and I had no luck.  I found a couple that I liked but even if we could afford them, they were so expensive I wouldn't dare let Madeline walk on them, much less make them the center of her play area.  Then I happened upon this tutorial.  She takes a tablecloth she found on sale and turns it into a floor cloth for her daughter's room. Awesome. And so I started looking everywhere for tablecloths I liked.  No luck again.  

Two things you have to know about me.  One: I often times get grand ideas of what I want (especially in relation to aesthetics and design) and I have a hard time settling for anything less.  Two: I have an oversized creative gap.  In other words I sometimes have a hard time transporting these grand ideas from my head to the medium in front of me. 

I woke up one night with a design for an amazing floorcloth. It was a vision, ha. I felt certain I could make it happen.  So we ordered two and a half yards of wide, heavy duty canvas.  And I began. And it sucked.  It was so ugly, extremely time consuming and an overall disaster.   

So we regrouped. I painted over the entire canvas with Behr Southern Beauty.  Much to my surprise, two coats covered my hideous mess.  Then I found a free template for a cardboard stencil here, at Jones Design Company.   And thus my beautiful floor cloth had an identity at last.  It's far from finished.  I'm only a couple rows in, and the whole design will need another coat (at least) but I'm really really happy!  It's been a great project. After I'm done painting I'll cover the whole thing in water-based polyurethane. That'll protect it from sticky fingers and juice spills.  

The last step for me anyway, will be wrapping it around a cheap rug from Ikea.  A friend of mine suggested that for a little cushion and I love the idea.  I'd originally intended to put some no-slip mats under it, but the rug will be the same price and overall better.  Plus I can reuse the rug if I ever want/need to.

I think that about sums it up! Wordy. Sorry.  It's not a tutorial, but I did want to give credit where credit is due and explain why it's taken me so stinkin' long to make some progress.  

What do you think?! :)

the day has come...

We've waited for this day. We've dreamed of this day. We thought this day would never come, but it has.  

Madeline can put our shoes away for us!  Our toddler understands simple commands. 

 OH HAPPY DAY! And although she hasn't managed to eat lasagna without turning her  face orange, she thinks she can wash her own hair. And that's progress people. Progress.

I realize I've been bombarding the world with videos lately.......

{limes are sour from Sarah Wells on Vimeo.}

I just can't help it, she's too cute. Oh and happy Valentines Day. Heart shaped sausage patties are about the extent of our celebration. Lame we know. Next year we'll get back on the bandwagon. But for the record, I love you Jeremy. And Madeline too :)

just to make you smile

{giggles from Sarah Wells on Vimeo}

Yes she did throw up the tiniest little bit at the end of the video.... ha
She'd been laughing pretty hard up to this point!

Miss Madeline loves to read

I've never loved reading.  It's something that I've tried to love, I want to love, but I find it a rare thing to find myself lost in the pages of a book.  I've been relieved in the past months and weeks to discover that Madeline does love reading. We have over twenty books we read multiple times every day. There's something magical about seeing her excitement as she brings me another book. If I'm on the couch she'll hand me the book and reach her little arms up to me.  Then she burrows into my lap and we start. 

 Since it's winter and there's not much to do other than 

read I thought I'd share a few of our favorites.

Itsy Bitsy Spider // The Very Hungry Caterpillar // MOO // Animal Alphabet // 

Brown Bear  // Moo, Baa, LaLaLa // Goodnight Moon // I Love You Through and Through

This one is definitely at the top of the list :) I guess I'm just a sucker for kids books

I think my favorite part of all is hearing her proclaim at "de den" (The End) as we finish each book or "tor-wees" (stories) as she calls them.

p.s. The next book I want to add to our collection.  It was a favorite of mine growing up :)
p.p.s. I'm going to start on my couch covers soon! SO EXCITED!!!

my husband the lieutenant

I don't mean to brag or anything... but my husband is kind of the greatest.  I can't even begin to tell you how proud I am of him.  Last week he was officially saluted(?) into the United States Air Force as part of a Health Professions Scholarship (I need to work on my military terminology).  Jeremy has worked so hard to qualify for this scholarship.  The Air Force will pay for the next three years of his schooling. The year after Dental School he'll be assigned to a base in the U.S. where he'll do a residency. Then  the following three years he'll be reassigned (hopefully with a little sway by our preference) to a base somewhere in the world.  We're so excited! I'm secretly hoping for England, Hawaii or Italy :) Most of all Dental School isn't cheap, so we are more than happy to kiss debt goodbye.  

{Above is a map or the U.S. Air Force Bases in Europe. I could be happy in any of these places :)}

Aside from all of that, I'm grateful to be the wife of this wonderful man. I feel so blessed that I got to marry him while we were both so young (still are so young I guess ;)  I love that we have eternity and beyond together.  I love that we have grown individually and together so much in the past two years.  I love laughing with him, working with him, being parents together, everything. I'm humbled by how selfless he is and grateful for his inspiring Christ-like example.  I came home from a Relief Society Activity last night to a super clean house.  Dishes done, floor swept (and it was bad!), bedroom cleaned and organized.  Then I found "I love you Sarah" written in bath toys on our shower wall this morning :) 

I love you Jeremy

the many faces of Madeline

Madeline is funny and she knows it.  She makes these ridiculous faces all the time.... holds it for a really long time and then busts out laughing.  She's not upset at all, just exploring her facial expressions.  I said a few days ago I thought she might be related to cookie monster, but I think Shakespeare would be a better match. Hope you enjoy the video, too.

    

{Silly Face from Sarah Wells on Vimeo}

we're making progress on miss Madeline's room

I'm finally bringing some color into Madeline's once boring room.  I still have a ways to go, but here's a little peak at what I've been working on.  

P.S. Remember the dresser I asked you about?  If you suggested we keep it, thank you :)

P.P.S. If you're thinking, "That's a really bright blue! How in the heck is she gonna pull this room together?!"  Then I say to you, Just wait, it's going to be so cute!!!