My First Flip

After watching a TON of HGTV and the DIY network I decided that I wanted to flip a house.  I really think Robert and I could spend a summer working on a house and make some money.  Well, last week I got a house to flip... for free!!

It's a three story Victorian house with 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom that needs a lot of work!  I'm going to have to gut it completely and start fresh.  My timeline is short, I'm hoping to be done with it by Nola's birthday in October.

I should mention.... it's a doll house.

A teacher I use to work with called me last week and said a friend of hers had an old wood doll house.  She thought I might enjoy cleaning it up and painting it for Nola.  I told her I would love to take a look at it and that night it was sitting on my door step!  I love that my friends and co-worker are always calling me about neat things they find that I can paint.  This find is especially exciting because I've never painted anything like this before and it's for Nola :)

First I had to clean out the house and evict the former tenant.

Headless lady!!

The house came with a dresser, sink and sewing table- score!

Next I got out the air compressor and sprayed it down.  I decided to take the front porch off and use pieces of it to patch parts of the house that were broken.  I patched the roof and moved some of the trim to cover up some spots that had been damaged.  Once it was all fixed up I taped off some areas and primed it with spray paint.

Now I have a blank canvas!  I'm so excited to paint this.  I'm going to stick to my normal painting style, bright and busy!  Here's a sneak peek-

Stay tuned for the finished product!!

First Mother/Daughter Shopping Trip!

One of my favorite memories growing up is going shopping with my Mom.  My Mom, sister and I would drive to Kansas City and spend all day shopping.  These girls' only trips were always filled with laughs and an unspoken understanding that Dad was never to find out how much we spent.

Nola and I have gone to the store alone before, but it's always been to buy something specific.  This shopping trip was different.  We spent two hours walking around the mall, looking through racks and finding sales.  We also spent so time on the indoor playground.  As she gets older we will spend less time on the playground and more time in the racks!

She made a friend in the playground.

After a few minutes driving the bus she got a "hop-on" and was not happy about it.

After the fun on the playground Nola rode on the carousel for the first time.  She loved it!

After all of that fun we picked up Dad and went to lunch.  Nola didn't even make it to the restaurant before she fell asleep.  When I got her out of the car seat she woke up for a second and then went back to sleep.  She NEVER sleeps on my anymore so I was happy to hold her while we waited for our food.

Shopping wore her out!

  

Splish Splash

We went to a park the other day with my college roommates!  The park had a splash pad.  

Nola was in love.  

 She would have stayed all day if she could.  The fountains turned on and off at different times.  Nola was playing at one and it went off so she got on all fours and tried to drink the little bit of water that was coming out.  And then it turned back on.  It sprayed her right in the face.  It was hilarious.

How much to you think it costs to get one of these bad boys installed in the backyard?

Nola's First Haircut

Nola's hair has been out of control for a few months but I've been avoiding getting it cut for one very valid reason: she freaks out when I touch her hair. I have to put it in a ponytail to keep it out of her eyes. Every morning I pin her down while she screams to get the ponytail in and then she yanks it out the first chance she gets. I finally decided to take her in to get it cut because I didn't want to deal with the ponytail drama anymore.  I was really nervous about it.  I thought she would cry and scream and ruin everyone's day.  I was wrong.  She did great!

Before & After

We went to a Cost Cutters in a Walmart right before they closed.  I thought that might be the best place and time to go because it would be less crowded.  We got right in and I explained to Mel, the hairdresser, that she might freak out.  Mel gave Nola a sucker and sat her down on the chair.  That woman knows how to deal with children!  Nola was so focused on the sucker that she didn't even notice Mel cutting and blow drying her hair.  She also didn't notice me taking a billion pictures.  Here are a few:

They gave me a certificate with her hair on it.  I'm not sure why but I almost cried when I saw her little baby hairs.  I can't believe she is big enough for a hair cut! 

And the best part- no more ponytails!  I'll probably still give her a ponytail every now and then.  I'll just give her a sucker before I do it :)

This is a different view...

I recently had one of the best weekends ever.  You know when you have such a great time you're still smiling a few days later?  That was the kind of weekend I had in Colorado.  My high school friend Kate got married to the male version of herself in Crested Butte.  I drove to Denver a few days early to go to Ikea spend time with my friend Libbi.  We went to Ikea, ate and drank yummy things, and spent time with her adorable little girl Linnea, who is 6 days older than Nola!

My sister and her friend Morgan flew in to Denver Thursday night.  I picked them up Friday morning and we made the 5 hour drive to Crested Butte.  I think it was a life-changing drive for Morgan.  Sara and I might be too much for most people to handle, especially for 5 hours in a car.  Let's just say there was a lot of harmonizing and inappropriate stories.

We got settled into the house we were renting for the weekend just as our high school friend Sarah and her husband David arrived.  Then we headed into town for dinner.  We found an amazing pizza place.  They had all kinds of crazy pizzas, like the Big Mac.  My favorite was the one with french fries, cheese, bacon and sour cream- basically potato skins on a pizza. YUMMMM

Morgan loves me?!?

After dinner we met up with the bride and groom for some drinks then went back to the house.  The rest of our crew were a few miles away so I stayed up to let them in.  They were coming from Andover and apparently an 11 hour drive makes a person crave tequila.  So, while the AHS people were sleeping, the ACHS people went drinking (our high school split, so we all went to school together until   our junior year and then the more awesome people some of us went to the new school).

Go Jags!

We woke up Saturday ready for some wedding fun!  First we stopped for breakfast where I ordered the biggest pancake I've ever seen.  They told me that only 3 people had ever finished it.  I was not one of them.

Then we did some shopping.  Did you know bears sometimes roam around Crested Butte?  According to an internet article I skimmed, there was a "swarm" of bears there in 2009, and a few of them broke into houses and were like, "what up?"  There was instructions at the house on what to do if we ran into one.  Everybody thought I was scared about the bears, but I wasn't.  I just felt like no one else was taking it seriously so I was cautious enough for all of us.  Anyway, I only saw one bear.

It was stuffed and wearing a tiara.  

After some shopping and our bear sighting it was time for the wedding!  Here is the high school gang all dressed up!

The wedding was on top of a mountain!  We got bused there which was nice because the Kia did NOT like the altitude.  Unfortunately, we picked the wrong van because our driver got lost and we ended up going up, down and then back up the mountain.  

When we finally made it we were blown away.  It was such an amazing place to get married!  The weather was perfect- the sun came out just as the bride was coming down the aisle.  

The happy couple.

The ACHS crew

After the ceremony we had drinks and appetizers under a tent next to the ceremony site.  Then we were bused back down the mountain to the reception site, which was at an ice rink!  As we walked in waiters handed us drinks and walked around with more appetizers.  So fancy! 

The food was AMAZING and so was the live band!  We had so much fun dancing and singing along.  

Remember that pancake?  I packed it in my purse incase anyone got hungry.  Morgan snacked on it but left it at the table.  It makes me laugh to think that someone found a gigantic pancake on the table when they were cleaning up.

This picture pretty much sums up their relationship.

After the reception we were bused to a bar where there were drinking games and s'mores.  Those hit the spot!

My favorite picture from the weekend.  Twins!

Like I said before, I'm still smiling just thinking about last weekend.  It was so great to spend time with these amazing people. I love that we have all gone our own ways but can still come together and laugh a lot.  It didn't hurt to be in a beautiful place celebrating such a fun couple.  Congrats Bill and Kate!