I Like Big Drums And I Cannot Lie

Big, shiny, massive, sparkling, washer and dryer drums that is! 

Ahhh…big drums.

It all started when my husband found a killer deal on these LG babies at amazon.com

Click click SOLD! They were going to be here in 7 days! So that meant operation Laundry Room was in full makeover mode! We had never touched our laundry room since we bought this house 5 1/2 years ago so it was about time we showed it some love. 

That's embarrassing. No wonder I hated doing laundry!

So we got to work!

 First up- Cabinetry and a pedestal. 

Once again the cars get kicked out of their room to clear a workspace. I worked on giving our cedar cabinets a makeover using the AMAZEBALLS Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. I used pure white with a little bit of light gray mixed in. Then I used ebony stain to dirty it up.  It was my first time using Annie Sloan and it will not be my last! I fell in love like you fall asleep…slowly and then all at once :)

*SIDE NOTE*

-Did you see The Fault in Our Stars? Holy fantastic! I left the theater with bloodshot eyes, snotty nose, and a headache! It was THAT good!-

While I worked the brush, my husband started the pedestal. He 100% designed and built it himself! That man is crazy good at everything he does!

Next we painted the laundry room our favorite shade of gray Behr and did the board and batten. 

It was a long week but the washer and dryer arrived to one excited momma with a room all fancied just for them. 

ARE YOU READY??!!! 

TADA!!

I am in love! There are so many times that I just stood in there..staring, marveling. Isn't that how it goes when you makeover a room? You just want to camp out in it for a week? I have noticed that my decor styling is leaning to a more clean and simple look. Think as in.. you will probably never see a colored accent wall in my house, but a textured one. 

Here is the amazing pedestal that the hubby built. I used the same method I did on the cabinets to paint and distress it. I used to keep my laundry baskets on top of my washer and dryer and it drove me nuts! Now they have a perfectly spaced little home right underneath. 

This little gem of a rug I found is from Kohls. I feel in loved with it because it allowed me to play around with more pops of color. But the thing that sold me? If you look in the picture below you will see a strip of black and white Aztec fabric with pops of neon. It was like they designed this one from the desires of my heart. 

 Ever since I saw Shelley's tutorial for an ironing board hanger over at House of Smiths (I'm talking forever ago) I knew I wanted one of my own someday. So I got a little crazy with my painting and it now looks a little like a party on a board…but who doesn't love a party? I mean, right? Right?! 

Then we installed a bar so I had a place to hang dry clothes. 

My washer and dryer are HUGE! I had to put something on the corner of the top of my washer because it was just too much negative space. I found the glass jug and frame at TJ Maxx and the mini stool at Hobby Lobby. This is one of my all time favorite picture in the history of ever that Jamie took for me. My grandmother holding Ariana in her blessing dress.

 I want to place them in a cute little tray, but I haven't found the perfect one yet. 

We don't have any sort of mud room in our home and with school starting soon, I wanted a better place for coats and backpacks other than doorknobs. Up went the board and batten and some fab hooks from Hobby Lobby. The Birds on the Line art is from Hobby Lobby as well!

What do you think? If success is measured by how much laundry is getting done.. then I would call this  a HUUUUUUGE success. Also, I've only had to pull Hudson out of the dryer once. So theres that.

Have a good weekend my loves!

XoXo,

Sheena

When Life Hands You Lemons… and a Kimono

"Somebody's got a case of the Mondays"

I wonder how many times that line has been used in the blogging world? Heres my contribution. Is anyone else draggin butt today? MAN O MAN. I hope you all are out killin it because I am sitting here still in jammies with a vanilla COKE. That's right..it's not even diet. 

I am so grateful for the fashion industry for showering us with a plethora of Kimonos. I heart them. I'm talking pulsating heart emoji them. Guess who has a million of them at affordable prices? Tj Maxx. So now I can go buy a Kimono at Tj Maxx and then drive down to Bountiful Swig and get a 32-ouncer and a swig cookie and feel totally great about. I wish I were kidding… 

I'm pretty pumped to find all the different ways I can wear my Kimonos. Yes plural Kimonos. I bought more than one!

I decided to start with a more dressy approach and wear my best Kimono for Jesus yesterday. I bet he loves them just as much as me! Man I love that guy!

Have you ever had somebody make a decision that reeeeeeeeally annoyed you? Like, threatened the lives of your children and possibly ruined your summer annoy you? I did. It started a couple months ago when I woke up to some loud freakin tractors. I don't live on or near a farm so this was unacceptable.  I looked outside my window only to discover they were digging a hole two lots over. Now I'm sure a lot of you have experienced this and you might be thinking-

Who cares?! 

Get over it!

Homes need to be built!

Well let me explain why I was bugged. 

1. I'm being woke up and that automatically makes me angry

2. No one thought a house would EVER be built on this lot because it is about big enough to fit a picnic table on it

3. There will be Port-a-Potties. PORT-A-POTTIES. 

4. It is a little boys dream

Now before you start calling me a dream crusher, you must know that my two boys were born without fear. NONE. So I immediately started having visions of my boys falling and impaling themselves on rebar, climbing down a port-a-pottie hole, falling off the second story floor, (this has already happened once, but that's another post) or even falling IN cement. None of which were too farfetched.

I was so looking forward to summer because this year I was going to give Hudson a little more freedom to play outside with all the kids. We live in an awesome little cul-de-sac full of kids, so he was super excited to finally get to go run with the big kids instead of watching through the window. 

Hudson in awe of the tractors. Those are staples in the back of his head mind you..and bird poo on my window. 

Now what was I supposed to do? Did they not know who they were building next to? I think the 911 operators know us by name. Seriously. I had a neighbor tell me the other day that they heard an ambulance siren so loud as if it were close by, so they ran outside to see if it were at our house. DEAD serious. 

Summer is halfway over and they are halfway finished. No accidents yet. Knock on wood. So what do you do when you have an annoying situation but a beautiful Kimono? 

You turn it into a photo op.

Floral Kimono// Tj Maxx

BE-YOU-TIFUL Tee// Aeropostale 

Vera Wang Nude Pumps// Kohls

Gray Pencil Skirt// Sexy Modest

Belt// Kohls

Rose Gold Watch// Jane.com

High Waisted Swimsuits

Ahhh time to get to life and back to reality. Our fantasy world of Comic Con is O-V-A-H. 

Who is ready for warm weather, BBQs, campfires, and late nights? I sure am! Unless you are the luckies who live by the beach and are probably already getting to enjoy those things, it's still freezing here in Utah. 

I have to share this song with you guys! It warms me right up! You know those songs that make you think of your better half and give you the warm fuzzies all over again? 

I give you-

I Don't Dance by Lee Brice.

For those of you getting married this summer, you're welcome :)

Katy Bow swimsuit from sassysteals.com

This summer is going to be an explosion of retro-inspired swimsuits, including high waisted. We have seen everyone from Katy Perry to Taylor Swift rocking these bad boys. 

The fantastic thing about these is you can spend anywhere from $10+. I bought the swimsuit pictured above for $19 + shipping and I cannot wait for it to arrive! Adorable right?!! I'm a total sucker for those bows! 

Taylor Swift//Katy Perry//Rihanna//Cher Lloyd

This next swimsuit was only $16 shipped. That's right, $16 total. I seriously love Amazon. 

First let's chat a little about cover-ups for high waisted swimwear. Please do not, I repeat, DO NOT wear normal shorts over your high waisted swimsuit. Just no. Normal dress-like coverups are totally fine, but if you are going to wear separate pieces you need to wear your bottom piece at your waist. I paired mine with a maxi skirt from my Maxi Skirt Tutorial and an aztec kimono cardi (it was freezing in Vegas. VEGAS! Can you believe that?!). You could even do high wasted shorts or palazzo pants. You just want the top line of your swimsuit to line up with your bottoms.

Neon Aztec Kimono Cardi// TJ Maxx- Similar HERE

Blue Maxi Skirt// DIY

Let's talk about why I love these swimsuits. 

First of all… I'm kind of over tankinis and I don't love one pieces because I don't like what they do to your nether regions. I'm just being real, ladies.  These are basically the same coverage as a tankini, but BETTER! As a mother my biggest problem area is probably my lower stomach. I'm sure if I had all the time in the world to work on it like I wished, it would look much better. But, insert real life. Plus, no matter what I do, I will probably always have a little excess skin. This style actually gives me more confidence than a tankini because there is no risk of the tank part lifting up and exposing my baby baring battle scars. 

The high waisted swimsuit was created in an era where curves were coveted. 

Curvy model rocking her HW Swimsuit from Forever 21 PLUS

So if you have a little junk in your trunk there is no reason to be afraid of this fantastic comeback. The ruching on the sides of this bikini make for a more forgiving bottom. In other words, it hides your flaws. The line that they create above your stomach also stops at the perfect spot. You see my ab definition above the bottoms? By no means do I have a toned tummy, but looking at this you might think otherwise. That's why I call this my magic photoshopping suit. Seriously. It creates an illusion in all the right spots. It's not very often you find a swimsuit that you actually feel confident in. That is why this style is definitely a must-try.

Floral High Waisted Bikini// Amazon

Also….RUN! Because right now this suit is only $12 SHIPPED!!!!

 HERE

Gladiators

 First off, thank you to all who participated in our first giveaway! Congrats to our winner and we hope you have an amazing date with yo man ;) 

So we had a MAJOR melt down this weekend…  

Norman Reedus has cancelled! I repeat:

NORMAN FREAKIN REEDUS HAS CANCELLED SLC COMICON.

(photo ℅ http://saltlakecomiccon.com)

 For those of you who are scratching your head right now, he is the very delicious Daryl on The Walking Dead television series. It is the only reason we were planning on attending with the other characters being a bonus. It seriously was going to be amazing watching Jamie losing her cool while drooling as he stood in front of her. . Seriously. People may not know anything about her but they all seem to know of her love for NR. And that's it ha ha...They better make it up to us by replacing him with Justin Timberlake. There really is no other option. 

-sad face emoji, sad face emoji, no kissy face emoji for Jamie

In the meantime.. Maybe THIS will ease the pain.

Anyway..

They came! They are more glorious that I could of imagined! I just want to run down the street and yell something crazy looking barbaric! No seriously you guys… I L-O-V-E them. Meaning my Gladiators of course! I ended up going with these faux leather cut out gladiators by Breckelles. At $27 shipped I am 100% happy with this purchase. Remember THESE boots I posted about on our first Favsie Friday? They are by Breckelles so I TOTALLY trusted that even at this low price they would be fantastic quality. I was right! YES! 

Aren't they amazing? And they aren't uncomfortable either! I've been thinking about how to style them without wearing short skirts or shorts. They are darling when paired with those but that is not an option for me. I'm not sure how these would look with Bermuda shorts :/ ... I'll get back to you on that. So for now I figured bohemian style skirts and dresses, high-low dresses, and..... skinnies. Yes, skinnies. I stumbled up this by accident and it totally worked. It might not with every style of gladiators but it definitely did with these!  

There ya have it babes! Conclusion is, I'm in love. I'm going to find ways to rock these all summer and maybe even buy another color! 

P.S. I'm SO happy with them, I got in an abandoned grocery cart and laughed about it... Seriously you guys I wanted to take this cart home. Someone spray painted it half gold and when I saw it we had instant chemistry. Instant. So I jumped in and captured the moment so I could always remember how happy I was about my new shoes and and a gold grocery cart. 

The End :)

Breckelles Sandals- Amazon/ Found HERE 

Dress- Kohls/ Similar HERE

Crop Jean Jacket- Wet Seal/ Circa 2003 (not kidding) 

Belt and Glasses- TJ Maxx 

Plaid Shirt- Bohme/ Similar HERE and HERE

Overalls- Rue 21/ Similar HERE

That One Time I Bought Overalls In 2014

So I bought some overalls. I saw Sadie wearing them over on Simply Sadie Jane

and I thought to myself.... I want to buy some overalls. I haven't had that thought since I was in junior high. It was a confusing moment for me. But for those of you that know me, know that I'm a risk taker when it comes to fashion. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Im totally A-OK with that.

Anyway.. I went to Rue 21 (one of my go to shops, I'll post on that later) with my 25% off coupon and I bought me some skinny overalls y'all. 

I put them on and showed the hubby..... It took a good 30 seconds before he said "are those really making a comeback?" And that was followed by a few mumbles and "I don't knows". Says the boy who hasn't worn them since he was like 4 so what does he know anyway. Right?
So guess what? I looked at myself in the mirror and I wasn't offended! I kind of love them! So my vote is.. If you feel good in them, rock 'em! There are a few different ways to style them and this was my fave.

I chose to rock mine with plain white tank, a crop tee, and black wedges. You can wear them with both straps up, one strap down, or all down. Sounds like a line dance ;)

I honestly was blindsided by these. I love this style and I am so excited to roll with it. What do you think? Should they all be burned along with our other junior high/ high school disasters? Or is it time we rid them of their ugly reputation?

Overalls- Rue 21/ Similar HERE

Crop "GEEK" Tee- Rue 21/ Similar HERE

Report Black Wedges- TJ MAX/ Similar HERE