4.2 Pat Tillman Run 2012

All three of us standing just outside of the finish line on the 42nd yard

On a more personal note. A girlfriend had convinced me sometime before the Pat Tillman run, that i should sign up and we should do it together. {It sounded fun, but really, I have to pay to run? Is this a joke?} These were my exact thoughts? From other persuading friends, and who I felt like every time I spoke about this run, that person, and there brother and mother, and daughter, were running it too. Everyone was doing it, so why not? Whelp, I signed up....Mind you, I've never been a runner EVER, matter of fact we got along like oil and water. We hate each other. BUT its been sometime since I've ran, so I thought I'd give it a chance. After the initial mile I ran everyday, which I ran up to eventually 3 miles a day- I loved it.

Why would I all of a sudden LOVE running? This was the same question I was asking myself? Well here is why. If you are a stay at home mom like myself, you find that you don't even have time to think, or listen to yourself think?? Your thoughts are always followed by MOM, and then there goes your thought. Well when I ran, all I had time to do was think...It was amazing, no kids chasing you asking you million "why" questions, not even your husband, I was free willed, it took me at home about 45 min to run 3 miles every night. 45 minutes of mommy time, now this is why I believe I picked up and learned to love running!

Race day came a lot faster than I thought. Myself, my girlfriend, and my lovely husband did it together. I loved every second of it, the bands playing on the side of the road, the cheerleaders cheering us on, the random fans who were slapping our hands, supporting us with how many miles we had left. THEN what a rush running into the stadium, an overwhelming sensation, of defeating your last quarter mile! Just when you thought you couldn't run anymore you had to run over the finish line! Well we did it, we didnt come in first or second BUT Mark {my husband} and I did finish this two minutes, behind my girlfriend Carly at 43 minutes and 22 seconds! We ran the whole thing together.

This run was all of our first, but surely will not be our last, we are currently looking into doing some obstacle runs! If you are thinking about running-YOU SHOULD! Yes, you have to pay to run, but its worth all the memories you make from it! :0)

West Valley Moms

I want to welcome you to a BRAND spankin' new blog, that if you are a mom and live in ARIZONA you will want to tune in daily! I was asked a month ago to be a contributor to a sister site of Scottsdale Moms Blog, where I will write a entry a month. I haven't been more excited to be involved with my community than this!! The goal is to gather as many moms every shape, size one kid, six kids or even still trying to have kids to come together and share stories a like and even get together for play dates and mommy night outs-YES, I said it Mommy night outs!! This week West Valley Moms Blog will be giving away a lot of great things so jump over there and GET involved! 

Click here for the 

West Valley Moms Blog 

Thanks to Stacey over at Dream Photography Studio she allocated a whole morning to doing photos for us pretty ladies for no cost how nice is that? plus she does amazing work check her out!

Pantry Organizing Under $6 Dollars!

YES $6 DOLLARS!!

              

I feel like for the most part I am an organized junkie....but every time I walked into my pantry {only 20 times daily} I was constantly thinking, what can I do??? My pantry looks like a hot unorganized mess. I had boxes with only one pop tart in it, one large box with just a single fruit roll up...things in the back that I know my children would love, but the way everything was positioned nobody could see them. So you may ask how? How do I get everything visible so I'm not wasting money on uneaten, now bad food, or how do I get rid of one item-ed boxes?

It's all in this five dollar purchase at Wal-Mart, {I'm sure this is something you could pick up anywhere, Target, Ross, etc.}  It's an over the door shoe rack.

 

 As you can see there are 4 vertical rows.... all sewn together.....Buying this I had no idea if it was going to work but; as soon as i got home I walked through the door opened my shoe rack and boom, i knew right away it was perfect. The very middle seem i could cut right up to make basically, two shoe racks. After this I hung one on both sides of my pantry like the picture below. I chose to hang mine with screws but I'm sure there are hooks you can buy for a less permanent look. But i can assure my shoe racks will be up forever.
  

you can put oatmeal, pop tarts, popcorn, straws, etc. i even started getting rid of cracker boxes and putting prepackaged crackers in it.

Do you happen to see why I love this organizing rack, cause look you cant see them??? I have a glass pantry door and this is amazing!!

Two other side tips:

1. Lace your pantry shelves with this wonderful liner...I happen to have fallen in love with the damask look but there are so many to chose from! I got this liner at Target for $7 dollars!

2. See those glass jars that have Oreo's and gold fish in them? $4.95 at Wal-Mart I'm a little obsessed with them right now. I buy two every time i go there I now have them for my sugars, coffee, and other snacks.

Dress-Up anyone?

 Do you have a girly girl? If so this is a MUST have!

After my little girls 2nd birthday and Christmas fell within one month,  I all of a sudden found myself with an abundant amount of {dress ups}...we had purses, heels, jewelry, aprons, and even uniforms...They were EVERYWHERE. I had to think/find an idea for storing all of these things, so that they would last for more than one use {cause us moms know they aren't made from the BEST quality}

Soooooo as I was running out the door one day, I threw this picture at my husband and said "PLEAASSSEE" with the look that he couldn't resist.

As I returned home several hours later it was made.  Unfortunately i do not have pictures of this as I was gone, nor do i have instructions on how he did it! BUT what i do have is a wonderful blog that actually does give instructions....My husband is so talented that he is able to look at something and build it. {he like most men never look at instructions.}

http://ana-white.com/2010/11/craftiness-not-optional%E2%80%99s-dress-storage

 I started painting the wood with the PINK i had left over from my laundry room. {Laundry Room post coming soon}I then put a top coat of polyurethane on the wood. Please keep in mind that you must use a different brush and one you don't mind throwing away after you done with the polyurethane. Let sit for a good day, the polyurethane takes a while to dry....it will look better and wear better with this coat of polyurethane. 

It then looks like the picture above. I wanted to add a personalized touch to the project "Madilynn Dress Up" I am no so confident on my own style so here is what I did. 

I have a slight obsession with fonts {free fonts that is}. I typed in word over two sheets of paper the words I wanted to put on the box. {I used CK Becky font-google it and download it}. I taped the paper to the box, then took a ball point pen and traced an outline of the words onto the wood, make sure to push hard enough so that the indention's will remain on the wood so you know where to paint. 

Can you see the indention to the right of my hand....A little time consuming but the end product looks so amazing!  

I added these awesome diamond looking knobs it really helped with holding purses as no girl can ever have to many purses. :0) 

Get to hanging and have a little fun with your little girl!

{my button}

<em><a href="http://confessionsofadomesticatedmama.blogspot.com "><img src="http://i1211.photobucket.com/albums/cc439/nstillee/th_CHevron-200.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" /></a></em> <em><a href="http://confessionsofadomesticatedmama.blogspot.com "><img src="http://i1211.photobucket.com/albums/cc439/nstillee/th_CHevron-001.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" /></a></em>

The secret of Painting

Painting stripes that is...Chevron Stripes! 

This might be much for some, but for me, it fits just perfect! The more you read my blogs the more you will get to know how obsessed I am with painting....I wouldn't love painting if I didn't know a few inside tips that make painting FUN! Here is my step by step tutorial for painting stripes.

This is how my hallway began obviously after I pulled all my decor down and patched up a few picture frame holes!  As you can see I have already started taping for the all around basic WHITE...Yuck white! (Inside note: I do not have ONE white wall in my house, this is a true story) You will want to tape around all baseboards and then caulk yes caulk around the tape on the edges that will be painted. 

Run a line of caulking {doesn't take much} down the baseboards that are taped you can rub it in with your finger to make it look nice. 

This picture was done on another project- But you get the concept

 PAINT YOUR BASE COAT-WHITE in this instance

From this point you will then want to mark with a pencil or something of a lighter sort. { Learned from mistake don't use a marker, you can see it even after painted over} your lines...For convenience I used a twelve inch painters stick from the ceiling down for my stripes. 12 inches, 12 inches, 12 inches all the way to the floor. Tape off  your stripes like seen below. 

Please make sure you have taped off the correct side....this part of painting stripes looks funky because the lines will not look even in the stage! Please Please double triple check that you have taped the outside of the lines that are being painted! After all lines are taped, just when you think you are ready to paint, ....YOU MUST caulk....This step seems tedious but it truly makes for a GREAT end result so do not skip. 

In this photo I will be painting over the brown..therefore caulking the brown part of the wall. 

Please make sure you pull the blue tape off while the paint is somewhat wet...it helps.  

This is what it should look like, your tan colored stripes are done, now onto the chevron stripes. dududududunnnnn.....My husband and I chose to make the blue middle stripe 14'' making the top and bottom stripe of the middle blue only 11" {could you tell??}
we then taped off the chevron stripes which will require a whole lot patience AND a razor blade. This is where your own opinion will come in as far as how long or thick you want your stripes. 

Once again after this round of taping more caulking must be applied if you look closely you can see our caulking over the blue stripes. NOW PAINT! 

Yes we painted completely over the blue tape, but you can still see it through the paint. Now we pull off the tape-to have what we call chevron stripes! 

DRUM ROLL PLEASE! BOOM-FINAL PROJECT! 

{Decor to come soon}

Valspar colors we used: 

Cincinnatian Hotel Carl Tan 

Colbalt Blue

Just a small tid bit because our hallway leads right into our kitchen,

 we did not know where to stop.

So here is what we did.

We carried the tan but left the chevron stripe out.

So in case you run into the same problem I did. Here is an idea.

We absolutely love it!

{contact}

I love hearing from my readers!!  

If you ever have a question, please let me know, 

I would be more than happy to help you!

Nicole Stiller
nicole.stiller@gmail.com

 

{about me}

The Beginning: I was born and raised in Arizona. Most of my childhood I was raised by my best friend, my mom. She struggled to make ends meet, but was always able to provide her only child with a roof over her head and food on the table. I grew up not knowing who my biological father was; this was okay with me because I had a wonderful mother who filled the part of mom and dad. My mom met a man when I was 12 who I now call dad, they have blessed our family with two more children my brother, Cody 11 years younger than me and my Sister, Rachel who is 15 years younger than me. 

Trying to Grow Up: I met my husband on a trip to Rocky Point Mexico with the girls. {Yes, I am sure I will tell you more in detail some other time} We both skipped town to Mitchell, South Dakota for College we attended Dakota Wesleyan University where he played baseball and I played softball. After a few years we moved back to Arizona. After a short time back I found out I was pregnant. Pregnant at 20 and not ready…We got married in 2006 while I was 4 months pregnant.

Where my life really began: I gave birth to my first child Easton in 2007. My husband and I worked full time and raised a beautiful boy together I think this is when I really fell in love with my husband {Mark} he proved to be one heck of a dad and very supporting husband. We built a beautiful home and after 2 years decided we wanted another. We were blessed in 2010 with a princess Miss Madilynn. We then tried again, this time only waiting a year and a half for another child and what we think will be our last. I delivered a baby BOY which was a surprise to us, Gage! With three children I think I am done…my husband and I are BUSY BUSY people we don’t let our kids slow us down we just drag them with us! {literally} I want to welcome you to all the things we do, our adventures, our DIY house crafts, being a photographer, being a mom, being a dad having a life with children and making memories!