Have Fun with Photos

Until recently I was the kind of mom who took my kids to the local portrait studio for nearly every and any occasion I could come up with to have their picture taken.  To give you a visual of what went down on my last visit,  just picture my four-year old son jumping off a lego table, my two-year old niece crying because she wanted to sit in the chair that my daughter was sitting in, and my two-year old daughter not cooperating because I was too busy wrangling my son off the obstacle course he had created out of the furniture to be paying any bit of attention to her needs.  My sister and I left the studio with the three kids an hour later physically and mentally exhausted with no pictures to show for our effort.

Inspiration for this photo came from a friend who did a search on Pinterest!

Shortly after that debacle of a visit to the portrait studio my parents bought my husband and I a new camera for Christmas.  I decided that I was going to start taking more candid shots of my kids and family instead of trying to always get the PeRfEcT shot.  It has been a LeArNiNg experience, but it is a lot of fun!

Candid at dancing school

Suede Sofa Challenge…

Get your cameras out and get snapping!  We would LOVE to see what our readers come up with for fun and exciting photos from across the globe!  Email us your photos with your name, city, and state or city and country.  All photos will be shared in a special post on Friday, March 30th titled, Fun Photo Friday!

Email your photos to:

suedesofa@yahoo.com

Put “Fun Photo Friday” in the subject line of your email

Have fun!

~Robyn (Jersey Girl)

DIY Door Headboard

Remember this fall when I did a bedroom makover in one afternoon?  See my blog post BEDROOM MAKEOVER.  Well, my husband and I finally got around to making the door an official headboard.  Check out how we did it!

First, I took off the hardware & Doug cut one end of the door off to make each side the same length.
Then we measured the 1x4 that will be used for the top of the headboard. This will be the LAST piece that we add because it will hide the brackets that help secure the headboard to the wall.
We added this simple trim on the face & sides of the door. The angles weren't too hard to cut. Pretty easy with the help of a miter saw!
To secure the bottom of theheadboard, we took a 2x3 and drilled it into the wall. We sat the door on top of the 2x3 & screwed them together. For the top, we attached these brackets to the back of the door and then screwed the top of the bracket into the wall.
To finish, we nailed the 1x4 to the very top, that way it covers up the brackets we just screwed into the wall!!
I forgot to take a picture of how I distressed the headboard. I painted the entire door white and then took a dark brown paint and went around all of the corners with a small brush. At times, I painted in random spots and then wiped it off with a paper towel to give it a worn, smudged look! No sanding involved to get it to look this way! Can't beat it!
My bedroom is complete! YaY!!

Big thanks to “my man” for helping me complete this project!

~Lara

{Just Swallow}

Remember being a kid and your mom giving you NaStY tasting MeDiciNe?  The only thing you wanted to do was spit it out!  Well, that is a lot how taking correction can be.  Whether it is from your spouse, a friend, your boss, {or God}, we really don’t like to be told we need to make a ChAnGe.  However, a lot of times they are right {God is always right}.  And although it can be HuMbLiNg, taking correction to heart can be like taking medicine.  Incredibly hard to swallow, but the very thing that can fix the internal problem.  Truth about ourselves can hurt.  But it can also bring growth and FrEeDoM.

So next time you are faced with correction, take a deep breath, put your pride aside, and just SwAlloW.

:)

Robynn~

I’m working hard and getting nowhere

Do you ever feel like that?   I have felt that way on our jOurNey to get out of debt.  On Tuesday, I shared the story on how we got out of denial and started tackling our finances in my “Getting Out of Financial Denial” post.  Does that mean the process has been easy and I haven’t wanted to quit?  No way!

Today I wanted to shed some light on the “lows” of working toward a gOaL.  There will be times when you feel like you are making no progress.  When we first started tackling our debt I felt like we were moving mountains.  But as time went on there were moments we felt defeated because of unexpected bills or kinks in the “plan”.

Life isn’t easy.  There will be suRpriSes and setbacks.  In tough times, Doug and I talk a lot about where we’ve come and the good things in store for our future.  When we need inspiration we tune into Dave Ramsey’s radio show for the “Debt Free Fridays” to hear how other people turned their financial disaster into a sUcCeSs story.  We surround ourselves with friends that have similar goals and give us support.  We choose NOT to give up because we know there IS a light at the end of the tunnel.

If you are feeling defeated in some area of your life, take heart!  You may not feel like you are making progress, but YOU ARE.  Eventually you will see your hard work pay off.  Believe it and persevere.  The greatest rewards come to those who work hard and wait….

Lara

Live-It List Hidden Question of the Week

List an item on your live it list that you will do with another person and your relationship with that person.

Comment below to receive 1 point.

For more details: http://thesuedesofa.com/2011/10/02/win-a-coach-purse-the-details/

Re-frame It

This past weekend I decided the frames on the shelf in my living room needed a make-over.  Not only did none of them match, but they really weren’t showing off the pictures of my kids and niece like I wanted them too.  Instead of going out and buying new frames I looked through my house for frames I wasn’t using and painted them three different colors to match the decor in the room.  I then sanded off some of the paint to give them an “older” look and then sprayed them with a lacquer.

Before mix and "not" match frames
Frames found around my house
New look!
Close up on my "new" frames!

I am so HaPpY with the finished result!

I bet you have tons of stuff just waiting to be re-done in your home…be creative and HaVe FuN!

From the Confessional: Financial Denial

I remember 2011 Super Bowl Sunday like it was yesterday.  The game was about to wrap up and I sat in the living room staring at our computer, logging our expenses for the month.  I told Doug what I was woRkiNg on.  He responded by asking, “Lara, WHY do you even do that? We’ve been doing this for years and it comes out to the same number every month!“  After talking about it for a while we went to bed feeling defeated.

I couldn’t fall asleep and happened to see the “Total Money Makeover” book by Dave Ramsey on the night stand.  (I had ordered that book earlier in the week because a friend had recommended it.)  I ended up reading the first three chapters and my financial atTituDe was forever impacted.  I anxiously told Doug about it the next morning and, from that day on, we started working the basic principles to become debt free.  We revamped our expense sheet, made new gOaLs, and most importantly worked like crazy.   Doug got up with me and worked a few hours painting blocks before he went to his day job.  We stayed home on the weekends and worked every free chance we had.  We got the entire family involved in the process.  It was a little cRazY but we finally started getting traction.

Looking back, I can’t believe how much we’ve accomplished.  We not only drastically changed our financial situation, but our family has become even more of a TeaM.  It is still a work in progress but we are on our way to changing our family tree!

I am sharing this with you because if someone didn’t reach out to us, who knows how long we would have stayed in denial.  As humbling as it is to admit our faults, I take cOmfoRt in knowing our story may help someone going through the same struggle.

How is your financial situation?  Do you run out of money before the end of the month?  Go check out the “Total Money Makeover”.  Dave Ramsey has a great, simplified plan that will make you look at your financial future in a whole new way.  We also LoVe tuning into his radio podcasts while we are busy at work!  Visit http://www.daveramsey.com/radio/home/

Check back in on Thursday, for my Part 2 of this story!

Get on your way to financial FREEDOM!

Lara

{Create Your Own Art Gallery}

Personal art galleries are popular these days.  If you are wanting to create your own art gallery here are some ideas to get you started:

Include pictures of places you have been to or places you wish to go to someday.

These are pictures I have taken of architecture in my town.

Include artwork of your kids.  You can have your own customized art gallery.  Be creative and find pictures you love!!

:)

Robynn~

$ailing The Financial $ea$

This is a ship Scott made for our girls one cold, winter night. It's lessons are: On the journey to financial freedom, first, just get going, and second, don't compare your ship to the Queen Mary!

I have to AdMiT, I was a little (or a lot) hesitant to write a post about money.  You may have read my earlier post “Broke Was My Goal” where I talked about being a teacher with a financial mess on my hands and how I got out of that mess by taking one small step at a time.  Back then, I was a teacher on a limited salary.  Now I’m a doctor’s wife and on the other end of the spectrum.  You can probably understand my hesitation of talking about MoNeY.  The last thing I want to do is discourage our readers, who may think, “That’s easy for you to say.  I could do that if I were in your situation.”  My motive for talking about money is to give hope and encouragement, regardless of where you find yourself financially.  Not only do I desire for you to have hope in your financial situation, but also financial PeAcE.

That is a phrase I first heard in 2006 when Scott, my husband, and I took guru Dave Ramsey’s “Financial Peace University” class.  That really ChAnGeD the way we looked at money.  Up to that point we weren’t all that bad at handling money, but really didn’t have a clear-cut plan.  However, once we took this class our goals changed.  Because financial peace and living DeBt FrEe is our goal we have chosen to make certain sacrifices in our finances.  For us, it meant swallowing our pride and not trying to keep up with the Jones’ next door.  We don’t always do things perfectly.  {I’ll even share some of my mistakes I’ve made on this journey}.  But we are trying to take small steps in the right direction.  For example, my husband Scott drives a 13-year-old SUV with close to 300,000 miles.  My vehicle is a 4-year-old Dodge minivan which I plan to drive until it dies.   In addition, for two years we lived in a 950-square foot home with two kids and two dogs.

For everyone,  the definition of SaCriFiCe is different, but for everyone AcTiOn is required.  Just as we talk about losing weight, exercising more, or being a better parent/spouse, inaction is inertia; and inertia makes sacrifice just another good InTeNtIoN.

Here’s wishing you success in overcoming inertia….that difficult first step.  BoN VoYaGe!

:)

Robynn~