Copycat Decorating 101

Ok, so I don't claim to be an expert in the least bit on decorating, however I am pretty good at doing cute stuff on a tight budget.

I do admit, I snag ideas here and there, however I'm not using these for resale or for profit in any way, so ethically it's fine.  I just find something I like and copycat it.

My daughter wanted a music theme room.  I found some ideas for wall decor and did my own copycats of them.

First I did a wall mural.  I found the photo on Google that I liked and replicated it on her wall.

Here is the original image:

Here is my copycat of it.

Not too shabby, and it only cost me the paint  (which I all ready had on hand), and about an hour of my time.  I LOVE doing this kind of stuff.  It's fun for me.  So yesterday I was sick and stuck at home.  So I decided to take a stab at another idea I saw I liked.

Here is the original image:

And here is my copycat version of it;

Just had hubby find some extra plywood he had in the garage and he cut me 8x8 sections and sanded it down.  I painted the sides black, then the tops of two white and the other tops of two black, then after it dried I reversed the colors and used while paint was still drying I scratched it to reveal the opposite color underneath.  Voila!  And it didn't cost me anything because I had it lying around, and it was TOTALLY fun to do.

I'm working on one last piece for her room, but this one is an original, and I'm not quite done with it yet, but I'll give you a sample....

Overwhelmed

I woke up this morning and laid in bed with everything I needed to accomplish today swirling around in my head.  I immediately became overwhelmed.

See, I feel like I should be this super mom, who cleans, cooks, takes care of the kids, and keeps her house in perfect order.

My life is SO not like that.  I have laundry in the basket from two days ago that still needs folded.  I have at least four loads in my closet that need washed.  When I'm done cleaning the kitchen I walk into the living room to see that the dog has chewed up ANOTHER diaper (don't know where he finds these things...) and I have ANOTHER mess to clean up.  While I'm cleaning that mess, I walk in the den to realize that Evie has COLORED ON THE BIG SCREEN with crayon.  In the meantime, Lucy is crying and needs fed, and the dogs are fighting with each other.  I have homework that needs completed, I haven't even showered yet this morning.

I want to just go crawl back in bed, pull the covers over my head, and not come out until June.

Then I HATE myself for feeling angry and overwhelmed.  I begin to feel like a bad mother and housewife for having these emotions.  After all, I decided to stay at home to take care of these things, but I constantly feel that I fall short of "the standard".  I look at other women, and they seem to have it all together, and I constantly feel disheveled and like a complete and total wreck.

When I do give "proper" attention to one area, everything else falls apart.  I have issues with time management.

Is it just me? Am I totally alone here?  I strive to be the "wife of noble character" that is talked about in Proverbs 31, but that standard is so high, how can I possibly ever live up to that?

Sea Salt Hairspray : Fail

I have wavy hair.  Not the kind of wavy that is just naturally wavy and gorgeous, but the wavy kind of hair that I either have to blow dry straight or moose to death to get a decent amount of non frizzy wave.

Now, waves are all the rage right now, so I started researching what would be the best product to use on my hair.  I saw that a LOT of people use home made sea salt mixed with water.  It's ALL OVER the internet, youtube and everywhere else, so I thought I found the perfect solution for my waves. Here is what I was going for:

What I ended up getting looked more like this:

Ok, I may be exaggerating SLIGHTLY.  Seriously though, what do I have to do to get these gorgeous looking waves?