The Bella Life

As stated previously, I am the mother of the pickiest eater alive. Not only is he picky but he’s temperamental ( google dictionary def. = relating to or caused by temperament;
moody: subject to sharply varying moods
erratic: likely to perform unpredictably; “a temperamental motor; sometimes it would start and sometimes it wouldn’t”.
As I was saying. Picky and temperamental not a good combo for a mommy at 7:30 in the morning trying to get some food down her child’s throat before he heads off to school.
Lately, I have given Trey some choices ( giving him choices seem to get a result faster… sometimes).
Example: Strawberries, cheerios, fruit loops, (sometimes I’ll even allow “whole grain” Gold Fish) waffles, pancakes, cereal, you know, the usual good hearty breakfast.
I also tell him he can have peanut butter and pretzels. I like Peanut butter. It stays with you awhile and it’s good for you. So… Trey has been enjoying a little dipping snack. Peanut butter and waffles. Maybe on V-Day I’ll make them pink and heart shaped. We’ll see what kind of “temperamental” mood I’m in that morning. Good luck with your picky eaters and enjoy this yummy breakfast or snack.

It’s been like this the past three days and I’m ready to pull my hair out (At least the view from our room is pretty rad, eh?)

So, what have I been doing indoors? I have been brewing up ideas for our bedroom. I do not want to spend any more mulah on furniture and we have yet to buy a headboard. I have decided to create my own somehow… and these are some ideas I have come up with:

image via fliptstudio.com

image via pointclickhome.com

image via buffaloreuse.org

image via decorreport.com

image via tchochkes.com

image via cocokelley.blogspot.com

I thought the pillow headboard was creative, but I know if I tried to pull it off it would look way tacky. What are your thoughts? Any ideas? You would think that decorating is in my blood since mamma Debs is so talented… but don’t be fooled! I need help.

Wish me luck! I will keep you posted.

xoxo Kiersten

In honor of Valentine’s Day this week I thought I would share on of Ben Harper’s classic songs -- Forever.  An oldie, but a goodie. 

Not talkin’ ’bout a year
No not three or four
I don’t want that kind of forever
In my life anymore
Forever always seems
to be around when it begins
but forever never seems
to be around when it ends
So give me your forever
Please your forever
Not a day less will do From you

People spend so much time
Every single day
Runnin’ ’round all over town
Givin’ their forever away
But no not me
I won’t let my forever roam
and now I hope I can find
my forever a home
So give me your forever
Please your forever
Not a day less will do
From you

Like a handless clock with numbers
An infinite of time
No not the forever found
Only in the mind
Forever always seems
to be around when things begin
but forever never seems
to be around when things end
So give me your forever
Please your forever
Not a day less will do
From you

Oh, if it be to choose and call thee mine, love, thou art every day my Valentine! 

~Thomas Hood

Looking for something to do tonight?

Then I highly recommend this movie!

Great characters, beautiful music, and a lovely story.

xoxo Keighley

Valentine’s Day is approaching fast. I am in need of some inexpensive decor for my house. These are so cute and what I like about them is my kids can do them with me and if they get pulled down, or broken, I won’t care…that much. 

Directions:

Cut colored paper into 3/4″ strips. Fold them in half, or if you want some hearts that are twice as big, splice two strips of paper together at the bottom of each heart with double stick tape. Curl the loose ends around a chopstick or pen.

String the heart garland together from the bottom up.  You can get string from a fabric store or use thread.  Push your threaded needle up through the bottom fold of each heart, then use double stick tape to sandwich the thread between the two halves of the curled tops.

Tada! Beautiful for your house (I think I’ll hang them from my chandelier in my kitchen, or in your cubicle at work… aka Cammie, you’re welcome.)

 
Have fun!

I started following Plum Pretty Sugar about 5 months ago, after I stumbled upon this dreamy Kimono Robe ~ ~ ~

Don’t you just love the teal blue and bright pops of yellow in this fabric? 

Now you see why our relationship was “Love at First Sight”. {Love at First Sight = Blog Stalking Crush}  Here’s a little bit of information about the author behind Plum Pretty Sugar ~~~~

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loves: > efficiency + indulgence. > barefeet + heels. > everyone’s success. > bookstores + farmers market tuberose. > good design + the color of nature. > the ocean + the human body. > laughter that pours out and over. > eastern religion + the fine arts. > culture that isn’t my own.

Plum Pretty Sugar has been a journey. Dreamful, lesson-filled but sweet goodness nonetheless. It’s in the vibration of my heart and something I hope will soon be in yours.

Awake to dream…

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Plum Pretty Sugar’s vision has reached beyond the bounds of their blog {Between the Seams} to Etsy, where they have a tantalizing store.  This store has a gorgeous selection of lounge-wear, bedding and accessories.  See for yourself ~ ~ ~

Would you like to Blog Stalk and Shop with Plum Pretty Sugar?  Here’s how~

•  Follow at {Between the Seams} blog : www.plumprettysugar.blogspot.com 
• Join on Facebook : www.facebook.com/plumprettysugarloungerie 
• Follow on Twitter : www.twitter.com/plumprettysugar 
• Shop Plum Pretty Sugar on Etsy : http://www.etsy.com/shop/plumprettysugar

~Camberley

        I have no idea what opening line I should use because I am SO EXCITED TO BE HERE. You may know me as the bride who took the MOB’s sanity, or as “boobie.” For now you can just call me the newest Bella Girl thank you very much. My life feels bella-fied already. I was beginning to feel like the last kid picked in gym class– a feeling that generally comes with being the baby of the bunch. No I don’t want any sorry tears… wipe those off your face please. Point is, being apart of the blog is magnifico. My heart is full and boy is the blood pumping!

        Now that I am in Denver the feeling of being the forgotten sister has been MAGNIFIED to the core. Hard core. I have learned that the only way to cope with being away from my possy is to really grasp onto my new identity as a granola, and some of my recent experiences has made this transition a tid bit…. well, rocky. And I don’t mean the mountains.

Let me share so that you can have a taste at what I mean.

        Experience numero uno: This happened on our first night in D-town. Our wonderful friends invited us (us being Eric and I) over for a welcoming dinner. I was driving. Eric in passenger. One minute passes. Car coming at us. Headlights coming closer. Me screaming. Eric pulling the wheel right. Me slamming brakes. Me realizing it was a ONE WAY STREET. Gosh I hate city streets!!! Darn these one ways!!! I just brushed my shoulders off though, played it cool.

        Experience number two: The second night in the city we had to drop off a Uhaul truck that we used to move here. We made plans for a ride back home but of course those plans somehow fell through. So when it came time to leave, the Uhaul lady–we’ll call her LaTesha because I feel it is very descriptive– gave us these instructions about walking home, “Excuse me sir, yeah I’m talkin to you, you need ta give dis fine young blonde yous jacket and hunny yous need ta hide that purse ya got there. This neighbahood ain’t pleasin’ so watch yo back. Yous should be fine though, it ain’t too dark yet ( Thanks, LaTesha. As if that was reassuring).” Let’s just say we sprinted to the nearest light rail and even forgot to pay because all we could think about was gaining refuge.

        Experience number three (my personal fav): Our first Sunday still makes me laugh when I’m lying in bed at night. While at church, one old grandpa conversed with another old lady and I happened to overhear. This is what my eavesdropping skills picked up:

Lady- “What are you doing in here? This class is ladies only.”

Old man- “Uhhh, errr…”

Lady- “Now unless you have had a sex change you aren’t allowed to be in here.”

Old man- “No thanks. I’d rather not.”

Lady- “Yeah, wise guy. That’s what I thought. It’s too expensive anyway. I’ve looked into it.”

THIS STUFF IS RICH!!!!!!! Wait there’s more. That very same day a different lady wanted some show time so she got up and grabbed the microphone out of the hands of a young girl who was teaching. She warned us that the animals will judge us at the last day, and she accidentally kicked her cat that morning. She began to cry and told everyone that she is doomed. Talk about show stoppin, show show stoppin…

        As you can see my life in the city so far has been exciting/strange, so to speak. Riding an elevator 32 stories up every day to my apartment is an experience in itself. My ears pop, and I usually share an eerie silence while riding it with a stranger. And supposedly I missed Shaquille O’Neil by just a couple of hours in the new gym I work out in (I guess basketball players always hang out in there because a Denver Nuggets trainer owns the gym). Am I bragging yet? haha. I’ve been skiing twice since we got here– a number that beats the total of times I have been in the past decade. Was I any good? Do I need to answer that? Let’s just say that stopping with “pizza slices” doesn’t work as well when you are older and happen to weigh more.

I can’t wait to share all of this crazy life with you Bella readers. Let’s hope I get this granola thing down because 

I think I’m gonna like it here.

Until next time!

xoxo Kiersten

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 You all know how I feel about pink, but for these I will make the exception.

xoxo Happy Weekend xoxo

Keighley

“Most people have a harder time letting themselves love than finding someone to love them.”

Bill Russell

Is in the rind of Parmesan Reggiano

Thanks Aaron!

~Camberley

“True love doesn’t have a happy ending, because true love never ends. Letting go is one way of saying I love you.”

I found a free Valentine’s Day printable at How About Orange

I am going to let my 3 year old pass these out at his preschool Valentine’s Day party next week.  What a great alternative to just a Valentine’s Day card. I ♥ them!

We are making small heart shaped sugar cookies that will fit perfectly in these bags.

Download your own Valentine’s Day Gift Bag visit at How About Orange ~ here

** Jamie

For this week’s 5 Items or Less recipe, I decided to make Ina Garten’s simple grilled Salmon dish.  If I had to describe this recipe in two words, they would be – yummy marinade!  I would love to use this marinade on chicken sometime.  The mixture of Dijon, soy sauce, olive oil and garlic leaves the salmon tasting less “fishy” (is that even a word?).  Mmmmmm.

Asian Grilled Salmon

 Dear Ina-

You are simply AMAZING. 

~Camberley

Recently I revamped a lamp I had completely given up on. This lamp was so ugly I literally tried to give it away to 4 different people.  Michael and I have moved six times since we’ve been married and every time friends helped us get our junk from one location to another I would beg someone to take it with them. Due to the fact I still have it, its obvious no one jumped at the chance.  Anyways, a couple weeks ago while working at Bella Fine I saw a lamp shade. Seeing this lamp shade made something click in my brain and I realized, “KEIGHLEY YOU COULD MAKE IT A BEAUTIFUL LAMP!” In my excitement I rushed home, spray painted the crap out of it, and completely forgot to take pictures along the way. I was just too excited.

Camberley came by a couple days later and as I proudly showed her my new and improved lamp she replied, “You took pictures of this right?…” CRAP.

So you will all just get to see the final outcome. Please just imagine the ugliest lamp you have ever seen and the steps along the way to its beautiful transformation.

 The pictures are really dark so it may be hard for you to really understand how beautiful this lamp  is. Just come over…

xoxo

Keighley

“Letting your mind play is the best way to solve problems.”

Bill Watterson

Many of you know that Bella Fine’ Decor has been in the process of moving to a new location.  And even though there’s still boxes to unpack and inventory to organize-I’ve started decorating the new place. 

The challenge I have is the flooring in the showroom. Let me share with you what I mean…picture carpet tiles that are laid down alternating the lines in the carpet both horizontally and vertically (see example below) AND it’s gray/brown in color with random thin stripes of magenta, orange and lime green. Pretty, huh?!?

(Here’s an example of some “fugly” carpet tile.)

In addition to the carpet problem there is another flooring design dilemma-the dark grey tile that borders the carpet and is inside my office. It’s also less than desirable and just adds to the ultimate design challenge!

 My mind ’s been racing with ideas. I needed to find something that  would inspire and help me to figure out the look that I want to achieve AND at the same time help me overcome this design dilemma.

 It seemed only logical to focus on the rug that I’d need for my office  as my “point of inspiration”.

So I went through all the catalogs for the lines that I carry and fell in love with this rug by Company C.

 Yuri Pattern

This rug is perfect for tying in all the colors because it has a grey/brown background AND the orange and lime green that’s in the carpet tile. And the design used throughout the rug is awesome. I’m even thinking of repeating a form of this pattern throughout our new showroom/warehouse. For example, I might take one of these patterns and create stencils to use for painting  on the dark grey concrete floor in the “warehouse”. (But PLEASE don’t mention this  idea to my GB because I know he will strongly disagree with this brilliant plan because it’s not practical.{Seriously..have you ever known an  interior designer to be practical!?})

Not only was the color perfect but I also love the large scale of the pattern on this rug and the bright colors. And with our showroom and office being on the smaller side the large scale  and bright colors will help the area look bigger.

Once the “inspiration rug” was chosen and ordered- Keighley and I headed to our local home improvement store to pick out paint. (This was a fun experience complete with the electricity going off  while we were in the store and Keighley almost having an anxiety attack because of it.)

 Once the lights came back on we picked all sorts of paint colors and took then back to the showroom/warehouse to have a look. We easily decided on the following  Behr paint colors:

Ethiopia will be used in the Design showroom, Keighley’s desk area and my office (its the dark brownish grey color in the second color palette from the left-top right leaf). It will go well with the existing carpet tile as well as the new rug.

And for the bathroom wall color we are using  Retro Avocado. (It’s the  color in the second color palette from the right-bottom left leaf). It will go well with the white and black tile in there.

Here’s the fabric that will be used on the slipcovered chairs in my office.

And since it comes in the following colors as well we are going to use a little of it too-possibly as a skirt around the bathroom sink?

And tomorrow-while the painters are putting the new color on the walls-we will begin working on the next important thing on our moving list-the draperies. We have a vision…

Wish us luck!

Happy Decorating…

Debs

P.S. We will post before and after pictures for you to see! It will be fun for all of us- including me and Keighley-to see how it all turns out.

In my “dreams” I would be a CEO, living in a BIG city, with a corner office, making six/seven figures, balancing the whole mom/wife/corporate thing {perfectly}.  Plus, I would be 5′10″, 120 pounds and “dressed to the nines”. 

Exhibit A:

Very practical – right? 

Why do I say this?  Take last month…

I was at a “working” lunch with a couple of “Directors” from “The-Large-Corporation-I-Work-For-That-Will-Not-Be-Named” (I am a Manager.  Manager = lower on the food chain).  When the bill came, I was asked to put it on my Corporate AmEx. 

SO

I pulled out my wallet, opened it, and let out a horrified gasp as a dirty Q-Tip fell on to the receipt.  What. The. H3LL (sorry Grandma).  Talk about corporate suicide (a CEO would never carry dirty Q-Tips in her purse).  Goodbye sweet, sweet dream.

In my own defense: I was probably putting my mascara on in the car and decided to bring said Q-Tip along for the ride in case a mascara mishap were to occur. 

In an attempt to lighten the situation, one of the “Directors” said “Of course something like this happens to you, Cammie”. 

What in the H3LL does that mean?  (again… I’m sorry Grandma)

I’m a Bella Girl and I am one Classy Lady.

~Camberley

I would like to share a little bit of information about the Bella Girls (I think this information may be helpful to some of our newer readers).  To date, The Bella Life has been about the “Bella Trio” (Bella Trio = Debs, Keighley and Myself {Camberley}). 

Debs (aka – MOB, I’m Outta Control, Debcakes, Mom, Mum, Mrs. Creative) 

Keighley (aka – European History Enthusiast, Hypochondriac, Desperate Housewife, Lover of Carbs and Diet Coke)

(Keighely is the dark haired one)

Myself (aka – Cam Bam, Cam Bot, Obsessive Compulsive Over Achiever, Social Media Freak, Hater of Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood)

Since the creation of this blog, a short 6 months ago, the three of us have become BFF’s.  Where we use to go days without speaking with one another; now, we only go hours without speaking to one another.  As a result, I can sincerely say, my appreciation and adoration for my Mom and Sister have grown tremendously.  So, it is with GREAT pleasure that I announce the newest editions to The Bella Life.

JAMIE - Jamie is our fabulous Sister In-Law (it takes one brave lady to marry a man with 4 sisters).   She is so fabulous that we once told our brother “if you ever divorce Jamie we would probably side with her”.  In our eyes, she can do no wrong.  

 Jamie is the mother of two little boys (Trey – 3 and Grady – 18 months).  Not only is she a ”bomb dot com” sister in-law, she is a wonderful mother.  Therefore, we have asked Jamie to join The Bella Life to share her experiences as a mom. Over the next couple of weeks, you’ll notice that most of our kids’ recipes (she has the world’s pickiest eater), kids’ crafts and kids’ health posts will be written by her.  Yay!

KIERSTEN – Kiersten (the youngest girl in our family) has also decided to join The Bella Life.  Since she is a new Newlywed, we have asked her to share her newexperiences (New Experiences = decorating an apartment, moving to a new city {Denver}, cooking for two, et cetera).  Since she is now living in beautiful Denver, we have deemed her “Granola Girl” (Thanks Debs!). 

Currently, Kiersten is looking for a new job and waiting for school to start up again (she missed the first part of the semester because of her wedding and honeymoon).  In the summer/fall she will begin Nursing School – blood, needles and stitches “oh my”. 

First there were three, and then there were five ~~~~~

~Camberley