My HGTV mentors would not approve.

I love "before and after" pictures, so that is my treat to you today, some before and after of my living room/dining room and to repay me for all the fun you had looking at the pictures I need some advice!

Here is the "before" of the living room looking toward the dining room section. That is my kid watching DVDs while I tried to clean the floors.

This is the "before" looking toward the TV watching/living room area. If you look closely in the background you can see in the front entryway there is a built in telephone holder thing. Old school.

Here is the "after" towards the dining room. Notice my Flor tiles I bought with my weight loss winnings, I think they look great! What do you think about the door behind the table, should I paint it white? I think it would look better white but I'm afraid the landlords might get mad. What about window treatments? I took down all the mini blinds because I'm not a fan, but now I think it needs something...

Here is another picture. My end table lamps don't match, can that be sort of funky cool, or should I buy some matching ones? What about the ugly hanging lamp, would you bother replacing it in a rental?

OK, the TV wires. They look awful and tacky but I'm not sure how to fix it. Ideas? I considered painting them them same color as the walls, but I dunno.

You would think with the amount of HOURS I spend watching HGTV I would have answers to all these questions, but I have no clue and I need your help!

Happy Easter Eve!

Yesterday we made Easter cookies. They NEVER look like I imagine them. They always end up looking like a blind toddler made them. I don't know what my problem is but cookie making is just not one of my talents. I ate about 10 handfuls of the cookie decorations and then wanted to throw up. I have really been craving sweets and candy lately and I had told Teddy that I was going to have some candy this weekend! The first couple of fistfuls I shoved in my mouth tasted really awesome...by the time I got to the last handful they tasted too sweet and were sort of making me nauseous. I will have to say that my limit yesterday, was no where near where my old limit would have been. In the olden days we would not have any of the M&Ms left, today I sent Teddy to work with about half of the bag....

We are very excited about Easter tomorrow. Eli is understanding the concept more and more that the Easter Bunny is coming and bringing him candy! and toys! We are still telling him he has to give his pacifiers to the Easter Bunny for the baby bunnies and he is very agreeable but I don't think he really understands that means he won't have them anymore. We will see. I already told Teddy I'm not going to force it...

Here is an Easter gift for you because I like you. When Eli was about 7 months old Target was selling these bunny costumes. I could not resist and we spent Eli's first Easter dragging him around town in this costume, we loved it.

crafty AND environmentally conscious

I am ridiculously proud of this knitted coffee sleeve I made for Teddy. It is FUN and PRETTY and GREEN (it isn't actually green, it is green like for the environment because now you don't have to use those disposable cup sleeves...but try to ignore the fact that we are still using the paper cup). I decided I would start a company and call it Sir Knits A Lot and make these to sell in stores. I think I will charge 20 dollars an hour, so currently these coffee sleeves are going to cost about 80 dollars. How many do you want?

Captain Scrunch

My knitting has so far yielded a couple of blankets for Eli's Little People. I'm not sure what kind of demand there is for that kind of thing, but Sea Captains get cold too.

(Eli does not like for me to put my blankets on his Little People and I had to take this picture while he was in his room. So far the demand for tiny blankets is -1)

knit one, purl two

Hobbies: I started my knitting lessons at the beginning of the month. It is harder than I thought it would be. I still really want to learn because I'm not really an artistic/creative person and I thought that learning to knit would be my thing. I am always so jealous that Teddy can play the guitar (actually most instruments), write songs, write online for actual money, and he is a good artist and I wanted to have something that was my creative thing too. I could make sweaters for my kid and hats for my friends etc. The thing is because I'm not automatically good at it I don't really want to do it. I am really going to have to make myself practice.

TV: I keep forgetting to tell you guys that I am probably on an episode of Celebrity Apprentice. I don't actually watch the show though so I'm not sure if I've been on or not. Last October when Warren and I were walking around the city we sort of walked through some sort of interview thing with Dennis Rodman. I was curious at the time what it was for because I hadn't seen that dude in a while, but when the previews for Celebrity Apprentice came on I realized we had walked through a taping of that show. (I was on the phone with my sister at the time, so she was on too)

Weight Loss: I lost a pound last week, which I am very happy about. I have also been trying to work up to jogging for 30 minutes a day. It seems easy, but damn it has been hard. The best I have done so far is 26 minutes of jogging and on an average day I do about 18 minutes. I bought a pedometer yesterday to see how far I was going and it took me 17 minutes to jog 1.2 miles. Huh, that is pretty sad...I am obviously SLOOOOOOWWW.

OK I'm going to say this ONE MORE TIME and I know you guys are getting sick of it, but I think I need to lose another 20 pounds. I am now 10 lbs away from my "goal" weight and I just don't think it will be enough. There are still rolls on my stomach, flab on my thighs, and too much jiggle on my arms. Again, this makes me so self conscious because dudes I have lost 40 lbs, and still need to lose another 20 to be fit and trim. I STARTED THIS WEIGHT LOSS THINKING I WOULD BE FIT AND TRIM AFTER LOSING ONLY 20 POUNDS. The amount of denial I was in is shocking!

Job Search: I have started looking for and applying to jobs in Alabama. It is a nerve racking process, but I am feeling better about this search than I ever have in the past. I know times are tough and that will make things much harder, but at least this time I have some experience on my side. I am also feeling more confident about being in better shape and I can go to an interview without being so self conscious about my weight.

Eli: Teddy and I had started noticing that Eli was bunching up his blanket to use as a pillow at night. We were making a trip to Target on Sunday so we told him he could pick out his very own pillow for his bed. He was REALLY excited and we spent a long time looking at ALL the pillows Target had to offer, from giant Batman pillows, to Hello Kitty pillows (my favorite), to accent pillows for sofas. I was hoping to spend only 5-10$ but Eli picked this one and could not be talked out of it, I had promised he could pick whatever he wanted so in the end I agreed, even though it was a 20$ accent pillow. Doesn't it just scream 2.5 year old little boy?

Easter tree

I'm tired and headachey, and sad my sister left and I have to go back to my stupid job tomorrow so I don't feel like writing a whole post about our very lovely, relaxing weekend, BUT I did want to show you our crafts that we worked very hard on.


I also have a question for you: If you had an Easter tree which of the featured eggs would you want to hang on it?

P.S. The egg with the face on it is supposed to be me. It isn't the most flattering, but sadly it isn't too far off either....