My uber-cool lil’ sister introduced me to Design Sponge.  Please tell me you’re cooler than me and have been in the know about this fab site for a long, long time.

I heart their ‘Before & After’ section.  Nothing inspires me more than seeing something UGLY turned into something GORGEOUS.

Here are a few of my favorite transformations:

So chic and so simple!

Love the way they mimicked the pattern of the fabric on the back of the chair.

Uhhhhh…Making a child’s bed out of old wooden pallets?????????  GENIUS.

I want a gray and yellow bedroom.

Amazing nursery.  AMAZING.

Fab kitchen.  The light fixture is my favorite touch in this room.

What inspires you???

I’m wanting to go on vacation.

Badly.

I want our little family of three to have some uninterrupted time together for a few days.  Arle’s three now and we’ve never been on a true family vacation…only trips to visit family, which we don’t count as “vacation” [no offense, family:)].

Trav has been working some insane hours and has put me in charge of planning a get-away.

So, here’s the deal.

Arle frequently talks about wanting to go to the beach, so we’ve decided this is the perfect time.

Here’s the problem.

We aren’t beach-y people and are pretty clueless about where to go.

We have to go somewhere that we can use our Starwood points, so that our hotel is free [only way we can actually afford a vay-cay right now].

I need your help.  Where should we go?  What’s your favorite beach in the ol’ U.S. of A?

Comments, please!

I think that from here on out I’m going to throw a “quote of the day” (courtesy of Arle) into each and every blog post.

Really, though, it would be so hard to pick just one.

Take today for instance.

Would I have chosen this one, “Look, Mommy, this booger is dead.  That’s weird.”

Um no, Arle, that’s not weird at all actually.  What would be weird is if you discover a booger that is in fact alive.  I can’t hardly stand to think about it.

Or would the quote of the day come when she pottied in her undies just a wee little bit and, afraid she was going to get in trouble,  asked me to please,”give [her] grease.”

“Give you what?” I asked

“Grease, Mommy.  Don’t get mad at me, just give me grease.”

“You mean grace?” I said.

“Yes, Mommy.  That’s what I said.”

Perhaps the quote of the day should be from later when she decided to start talking about the potty incident again and said, “Mommy, it’s ok to potty in my undies a widdle bit because I actually have a toilet in my hiney.”

Come again?

Yesterday Arle and I were driving somewhere when she suddenly said, “Mommy, remember that time you smoked a cigarette in the kitchen?”

It’s a miracle I didn’t get into a wreck as the words rolled off her tongue.

Me:  What?????  No, honey.  Mommy has never smoked a cigarette.

Arle:  Yes you have.  That one time.  In the kitchen.

Me:  No, sweetie!  That didn’t happen!  Why are you saying that????!!!

Arle:  Yes it DID happen!  I promise!!!

Me:  No it didn’t!  I promise!!!

Arle (getting super annoyed that I’m basically calling her a liar):  Mommy, I’m SEEEEEERIOUS!  It did to happen!  That time in the kitchen!  You did smoke a cigarette!

Me (getting super annoyed that she really does seem to believe this hogwash):  Arle, I’m SEEEERIOUS that I have never ever never smoked a cigarette in my whole entire life!

Arle:  Look at the sky, Mommy.  The clouds are gray.  I think it’s gonna rain.

From our family to yours…Happy 4th!!!

God bless the ol’ US of A.

I’ve mentioned my love of Etsy before, yes?

But have I mentioned my love of pouncing on Etsy???

No???

Shame on me.

Because searching for something for specific on Etsy can be a frustrating task, I’ve decided pouncing is really the only way to go.

Here’s how:

1.  Go to etsy.com

2. Click “Buy” in the gray box at the top.

3. Click “Pounce”

4. Click “Just Sold”

5. Click “Pounce Again” over and over again until your husband tells you that you’re addicted and insists that it’s time to go to bed.

Here’s my favorite pouncing find.  It’s one of my absolute favorite frocks in Arle’s wardrobe:

I saw this necklace while pouncing yesterday.  I WANT IT.

I also stumbled across this seller while pouncing and would LOVE to have some of these prints in Arle’s room.

I recently realized that I pretty much have no clue what I’m doing as a parent.  I’m not sure how I’ve missed this over the past three years, but it’s true.  I have a little person watching my every move and that’s counting on me to teach her how to deal with this big world we’re living in.

I thought I had this whole parenting thing all figured out…before I actually became a parent, that is.

I was always so quick to blab on and on about all my parenting ideas before Arle came along.  “My kids would never act this way or that way.  When I’m a mom, I’ll always do this.  When my kids do this, I’ll always do that.”  Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

So much easier said than done.

Arle, for the most part, is an easy child.  But I want ideas on how to teach her to deal with conflict in healthy ways.  I want some tips on how to effectively discipline.  I want to know that I’m doing all I can to raise her in a way that will help her be a better person.

I hopped on goodreads.com and headed straight for my friend Melissa’s bookshelf.  Her four kids are incredibly well-behaved and kind and I wanted to see where she was getting her ideas from.

I then clicked over to Amazon, ordered up some parenting wisdom, and received a box full of goodies this week.  I can’t wait to dive in and learn something new.  Here’s what’s on tap:

Any other suggestions that I should add to my list?

If I was stuck on an island for the rest of my life and could only have one food for the rest of my life, I would choose ice cream.

I.  Love.  It.

My list of favorite flavors consists of:

Homemade Peach

Homemade Pistachio

Baskin Robbins Daiquiri Ice

Baskin Robbins Lemon Custard

I think I’m going to have to add PW’s Homemade Blackberry Ice Cream to the list, now.  Holy cow, you guys, this stuff is so yummy I can’t even take it.

Make it soon.  You’ll be so glad you did.

And just in case you’re wondering…the Potato Leek Pizza we had for dinner last night was also a PW recipe and was super yummy.  Trav gave it 4 1/4 stars out of 5 stars.  Who would have thought potatoes on pizza would be delicious???  The recipe isn’t on her website, but is in her cookbook.  If you don’t have her cookbook…shame on you.  You’re missing out.