Exciting NEWS!

 I Have Some Exciting News!

It's exciting news for me anyway. I haven't been on this blog in a while. I have more home improvement projects I will share but right now my efforts are going into getting my new Etsy Shop off the ground.

That's right! A few days ago I opened up an Etsy Shop. My degree is in Graphic Design and I love everything related to images and graphics. I am creating super cute digital clip art images for download. 

https://www.etsy.com/shop/ASimpleHeartStudio?ref=seller-platform-mcnav

Here's my Etsy link if you or anyone you know is interested. Thank you for the support. Hope all is well. 

💗 KISY

Fun Getting Stoned. Landscaping Stoned That Is!

How's it going on your end? I hope you are doing well. Hopefully choosing to be happy during this trying time. I say that sincerely because we do have the choice. It's weird because I miss how things used to be and I wish things were more like they used to be but time doesn't quit, life doesn't get put on hold - we have to push through all times, good, bad, easy, hard, and choose whether we want to be happy or not happy. Of course, given certain circumstances an initial mood may be angry, annoyed, sadness, grief... but for strong mental wellness and health it can't be the end-all emotion. I don't mean to sound preachy either. I'm saying this for my own good just as much. I need lots of reminders for myself! :) Mental wellness and stability is such an important part of our overall health. 

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I don't know about you but one on my favorite things to do is go to the gym and work out. I used to love group fitness classes. I've tried just about all of them but now I really enjoy my individual workouts. I have for years. I love to walk, jog, ride my bike, lift weights, and now I use my yard as my at home gym. We've got railroad ties in the back yard and I love to do jumps and step ups on them. 

Having said all of that a big part of my workout and keeping my mental health straight has been hugely spent outside. Even my neighbors have commented about how much time I'm out in the yard. I love it, it's so therapeutic. I kind of can't help it!

This was one of my first projects of the Spring. I bought two tons of stones. I'd have to look up what this type is called but it's from our state and I had them delivered. It took me three full days of work to lay them. If you scroll down you can see pictures of the front yard... they were taken just after the kids and I put them down. The hubs has a hernia so he can't really lift much. The kids and I did the entire back yard too. I used to have plastic edging and I have wanted to do stones to edge the beds for years and I LOVE it!   

This is what Two Tons of stones looks like!

Here's the front sidewalk!

Here's the tree out front! I've got a new little surprise under the tree too. I'll share it next post!

Here's more of the front yard! I've been working the yard and here it looks like carpet...makes me giddy!

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So there is the front. I'll try and show you the back yard soon. I've got lots of new and exciting things going on. Can we say bulbs and seeds and flowers galore?!?

I hope you have a great day and find some happiness in it! 

                💗 KISY 
                      Keep It Simple Yay!

Happy Memorial Day!

I just wanted to say Happy Memorial Day! I'll continue posting to help my motivation. It's officially my summer break so I'm excited. See what I mean-I'm up and down! I'm excited and I've got a lot of projects I'm going to complete while we're home. We are still self isolating and being strict about it. I've got a family member right now who may have COVID 19, and a friend too. Since there are so many unknowns that come with it and we have a lot of family members with compromised immune systems, we are trying to be as safe as possible to not carry anything to anyone.On this Memorial Day please remember to think about those who served for our country and please be smart and stay safe. 

Love ya!

KISY

What's Your Therapy?

So yes, the letter board idea backfired on me, no pun intended. 😳🙈🤭 Kids and farts. I should I say boys and farts. LoL Our family is a little too open about potty stuff. We do have boys though.😂 My youngest took the board away for a while and snuck back into the kitchen giggling. I'm always always the butt of jokes. 🙄 I feel so loved. Hahaha.

So how are you doing during this quarantine period? It's strange isn't it? At first it felt very surreal and just weird. For a couple weeks I woke up each day feeling disoriented not going to work, thinking was it all a bad dream? When I get up will things be back to normal?? Nope, nada, nil. My dreams are all out of whack too. Whew. It's all part of the new norm I guess. 

Now it's settling in that this is for real and our new normal. I've always said I could never home school. Bless our teachers! They have so much patience. It's funny how you can eat your words. Or not funny. hah never say never!  It was very trying the first week of getting the kids set up online. The hubs and I are both working from home but I needed to be the one to get them set up. Once we got their online school rolling, things improved. Trying to keep a decent schedule.   

Now I've got work to do which keeps me busy and leisure home projects galore. I feel so much for anyone going through this difficult time who is in an apartment or living situation where they don't have much outdoor space or those who have lost their jobs. We are very fortunate right now and to have a good sized yard to roam. Truly it's my haven. I will sit on the front porch and eat my breakfast, write letters to friends, read, anything I might like to do sitting. Then the yard is like a playground. Laying in the hammocks, lots of places in the yard to enjoy. I just love to be outside. The fresh air, nature, the gorgeous scents, the blue sky and blooming trees and flowers... I could go on and on. 

This week I weeded the flower beds, mowed the grass, and my latest therapy is pressure washing! Our old pressure washer crapped out while my son was using it to do the siding and so we bought a new one. For me it was love at first sight. 

I've taken over the new pressure washer. I've cleaned everything I can think of with it - our trash and recycling bins, the siding on the house, the sidewalk to the porch, the driveway, the back patio, the retaining wall on our property... I just love it. It's got some really cool attachments too that make the job go faster. Pressure washing is so satisfying! 🤭

Here are the dirty befores and the clean afters! It really makes a big difference on how the yard looks. 

Below is a picture of one of the ten rose bushes I planted last summer. I'm so excited to have some color and have fresh cut flowers. ♥️🌹

Anyone else having trouble sleeping? I've got insomnia and am having some trouble sleeping. I just can't shut my brain off. It's 3:00 am right now so I'm going to go to bed. 

I've got a very large project coming up this week and I can't wait to share it with you!!!

What are you doing to keep yourself busy and to keep your sanity? Tonight my kids told me they want to adopt, specifically, a golden retriever puppy. I'm not sure where they came up with this but they came up with it on their own. I asked them why a golden? They said because they have the same color of hair as them. Ok. Interesting reason. Hmm. They are a mess.

So next post I'll share some other things I'm doing to stay occupied. We're taking this quarantine very seriously.

I hope everyone takes good safety measures and keeps safe and healthy. 

Take good care! Love ya! KISY

Be Strong.

How are you doing? I'm up late. Can't sleep. One of my kids is having trouble sleeping too. Being at home, we are enjoying it and getting in a rhythm. Trying to take advantage of some down time and some family time. I have some friends who have friends with the virus and a friend who has lost a relative to it. It's very sad and hard to understand but I do believe God is doing this for the greater good in trying to call all of us closer to Him. Anyway it's very late at night and I am finally feeling like I'm going to fall asleep so I am going to log off. Here's a Bible quote I just put on our letter board to try and remind myself and my family to not be afraid. I have managed to get over other fears in the past and the fear of the unknown right now is something we will all get past with much prayer and faith in God. 

Peace out. Talk to you soon!

KISY

Taking A Break From Cleaning!

Hi All! How are you doing? I hope this finds you doing well! I am good on this end. I'm taking a break from cleaning all day. Yay.
I dislike a dirty house but I so LOVE a clean house! My house, when it's dirty and cluttered is one of my anxiety triggers. I just fall apart with my organization of everything. I'm spending today trying to give myself a reboot.

Can you believe this weekend we turn the clocks forward! I am so excited. I don't care if we lose an hour of sleep because I absolutely LOVE the time of year where it's dark until later. Ahhhh!

 

Fresh cut grass, gardening, hanging out outside. Oh I just realized I never shared with you what we did in the back yard last summer! Okay so maybe that will be the next post. :) 

 

What kinds of hobbies do you have? I have said before that I jump from hobby to hobby a lot of times after I learn how to do something new.

 

I am still working on my calligraphy. It's fun and pleasing to me. It's therapeutic. I just love to play around with wording and spacing. I'm not very good at it but I'm enjoying it. So many people make it look super easy and their lettering looks flawless. Hope mine does one day.

 

 

I wanted to share below a cute letterboard I picked up for us to play around with. I think it's really cute and fun and it's double sided. Here's my first message! More lettering and placement! I love Graphics.

I'm also a sucker for cute patterns, even though my hubby and dad made fun of me for this hat. LoL. I can't ever get a break from being the butt of jokes.

 

 

Notice anything in the picture? Do I kind of match our table?! Not trying to but maybe that is why I got made fun of. I dunno. SMH!

Just felt like saying hello! Hope you are doing well! What have you been up to?

Talk to you soon!
Love ya!
KISY

I Heart My Art Cart!



Happy Weekend Peeps! How's it going? It's going great here! So I was wrong about the 5K I'm running. It's a week from today, thank goodness! I have run the past two days and am very thankful I could do it painless and it felt so good! It's something I want to keep up with but not overdo like I did a few years back. I ran way too much and too often and it caused an injury. Anyhow...

 

What you been up to? I've been pretty busy with work and home life. I love my job and have been busy planning, planning and planning. I teach school and I have felt like the bag lady lately lugging my things back and forth to school. I've accumulated a lot of supplies at home and have been working to consolidate and find ways to organize them at home.

 

I'm limited on space. I don't have a whole room dedicated to it at home but I do have a desk but it only holds so much. So... I'm excited to share my cute nifty Art Cart. I'm not finished organizing it or adding my supplies to it and I have a few more additions for it but it's my new little work supply station that sits right next to my desk.

Whaddaya think? It's so versatile and I think I'm really going to like having it! It's cute too. My hubs isn't a big fan of turquoise but I like turquoise so maybe he won't say anything about this minty colored cart. Well I better get just wanted to share!

 

Oh if you bought one of these what would you use it for? OR would you buy one?

 

Well I better get. I've got to get some things laminated and my laminator is hot!

 

Talk to you later. See you soon!

 

Love ya,

 

KISY

 

Post Valentine's Day

Hope y'all had a Happy➼Valentine's Day! Mine was decent but found out we had a child with Strep that day so the ten day o' antibiotics began on V Day. No biggie though.

I am sitting here typing this listening to my crazy cat wander around the house upset because my oldest is sleeping with his door shut. Our cat is aggressively affectionate and he gets really ticked when he doesn't get his way and sleep with the person of his choice.😿 

Anyway I'm psyched! I'm signed up for a 5K and haven't done one in a few years. I know I'm going to be slow but that is okay. My son loves to run so he is trying to beat his best time but I will most definitely be lagging behind in this race. 

I haven't had too much time to work on house décor lately because I started a new job. I've thrown myself into it full speed and I'm trying to keep up with the house. On a good day laundry is pulled out of the washer and put in the dryer.😮 But I like our new washer and dryer, really I do.

So instead of doing stuff for the house I'm looking at doing some fun things. I've got a new hobby and that is brush pen writing. I sort of bounce from hobby to hobby. Eek. I'm trying to make my handwriting look romantic or cutesie and I love the modern calligraphy style. We'll see but it's so relaxing and fun to play around with. I'll show you some of my messing around with words. I love practicing this. I've got a loooong way to go at getting it the way I want it and I hope to kind of create my own style with it but it's a lot of fun! 

 

Going to drink my sleepy tea and add some music to my mp3 player for the gym tomorrow. Hope you are doing well.

 

Love ya, mean it! If anyone reads this, leave me a comment. I don't think anyone does anymore. Anyway take it easy. Peace out!

 

KISY 

 

 

  

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year! Giddyup 2020

Gosh last time I wrote it was almost Thanksgiving and that has been over for a good month now. Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving too. So Merry Everything!

We had a nice Thanksgiving at the beach with family and we had a nice Christmas at home with family. New Years was pretty low key at home. The hubs fell asleep on the couch early and so my youngest and I snuggled and watched movies trying to keep ourselves awake to ring in the new year. We watched the ball drop and then conked out too.

The kids and I have been off for nearly two weeks and we're starting to get just a little bored. Did I say bored? Ugh. Yeah, we are. I'm letting them play vid games too much and I've been catching up on projects, workouts, movies and naps. :o I think we will be well rested and reset by the time Monday comes. I don't want to wish the time away though.

Just to tell you some things about myself: I have pretty good energy until I wear myself out, and I enjoy doing projects of all sorts. I get kind of obsessive about projects and activities and arts and crafts and home decorating. I get stuff in my mind and my mind races so I'm working on how to deal with it. Working on Mindfulness. HMMM!

I was super excited about Halloween and then Christmas and decked the house all out. Then when it was over I was gungho about getting it all down. Except for Christmas. I've put everything away except our two Christmas trees. We downsized one of them this year-we had a 9 footer for years and I hated that thing. I had a love/hate relationship with it. I loved the size of it and how beautiful it was but I fought the darn thing every time I went to put it up. I did it by myself and it was a four part tree and after battling the lights again last year, I was DONE! SO I found a simple 7 1/2 foot tree and decorated that this year. Plus we have a pretty 7 1/2 foot skinny tree in our dining room. I would love to just leave them up all year, they are so calming and pretty. But I'm usually gungho about my projects. :)

 Here are our trees this year and I don't want to take them down! 

While I've been on my break I've purged my belongings yet again to make more space. I've been working on certain rooms around the house and it's definitely freeing. I love what it does for the body and brain. For me decluttering my possessions helps me so much. In America we tend to have big houses and then we fill them up with furniture and decorations and clothes and things. It gets to be too much. Don't get me wrong, I love the comforts of peoples' homes. I love seeing collections and artwork and decorations and things. For me in my own home, I sometimes feel like I'm drowning in clutter and it bogs me down. I certainly do love pretty things and just have to work on what I bring into our home! 

It's one thing that really gets to me and I've created my home to be the way it is. We're not hoarders by any means. I am constantly weeding through our things - kids clothes, clothes, toys, the latest bit of crafting goodies, art supplies... I just don't do well when I'm surrounded by clutter. When things start to pile up on me, I don't function very well.

 

I've dissected the house into rooms and have been working to declutter my crap from the rooms. I'm really excited. I do much better when spaces are cleared off. I think I've said this before. LOL! My counter is cleared except for my hand soap and tooth paste and tooth brush. My other toiletries are in the cabinet below.

 

Our bedroom is another place I have decluttered. I have cleared the side tables somewhat and the dressers. I've "Konmaried" the crap out of our room. It makes me giggle. My husband doesn't care as long as I don't touch his stuff. He doesn't want to declutter his belongings all that much. Grrr.

 

Anyway just sitting here enjoying a rainy day and messing with this blog. Hope everyone is doing great. What are you doing in this new year?! Happy New Year!

  

Gosh It's Almost Thanksgiving!

Hope you had a great Halloween and Fall. I have been so busy that this blog has been on the back burner for a really loooong time! Sadly it was such a fun thing when I started it and it has turned into nothing upon nothingness! :o

Last time I posted it was just before Halloween and I was going to share something gory with you. We'll here it is! It was pretty nasty when it happened. I hollowed out four pumpkins and the skin on my arms peeled off. It freaked me out and it hurt.

So I learned that pumpkins and certain fruits similar like squash make a skin peeling sap that they excrete when an animal tries to pick or eat at it before it's ripe. Pretty nasty huh! So I guess the store that sold me these pumpkins sold pumpkins that were not really ready to be picked.

So BIG TIP for pumpkin carving IS= Always wear gloves when carving pumpkins!

NASTY! The angle of my arm is weird too so this doesn't even look like my arm. Anyhow thought it

was gross, weird, interesting and that I'd share what I learned! Hope it helps somebody!

 

Happy FALL!

 

LOVE, KISY :)

 

 

 

 

Happy Fall Y'all!

It's Fall y'all! It's my favorite time of year! Yippie-Ki-O! I don't know what that means I just had fun saying it. Things have been nuts. Things have been different. Things are settling down for now. Super psyched about my favorite holiday of the year coming up in two days! Yes o yes! Cannot wait for Halloween, though it will probably rain and cancel out much of our plans. We shall see though. I had all kinds of plans to post some gory pictures I took the other day but it's now midnight so I've run out of time tonight. I will try to format some pics and post them tomorrow night. They have to do with Halloween. Stay tuned!

KISY
Keep It Simple YAY!

Hold The Door!

 

It's morning time on another Taco Tuesday. Woot Woot. Already got my three mile walk in and it's not even 7:30. I overslept to go to the gym so I got in some cardio here.

 

Hold The Door! Hodor - Awwwe that one made me sad thinking back to Game of Thrones and how the show ended. 

 

Anyway it's a beautiful day here and I'm winding down in my latest house project - I'm painting all the doors. Every single one of them!

 

I have completed painting all of the upstairs interior doors and today I'll work on the downstairs ones. Our house is about 20 years old and the doors have gotten a bit yucky. It's amazing what a brand new coat of paint does. I think I'm going to be painting some door jambs after this. Yowsers!

 

What have you been up to lately? Hope all is well!

 

:) KISY

Keep It Simple YAY

 

 

A Little Changeroo

It's a Tuesday night at 10:00 pm and I'm goofing off. The kids are in bed and my hubs is goofing around on his guitar. Things are settled and peaceful.

 

Nothing much is new really. I'm pretty psyched- I started running again this week. SLOWLY! I haven't been able to run for real in about two years because of a sports injury. It feels good to get the endorphins flowing better. I've been working out just having to ride a bike or swim.

 

Anyhow it's summer break and I've been doing more of the things I want to do lately and here is a minor little change I made to the house. It's a little silly I guess but I like it. These two wall hangings I had in the kitchenette were cutesie. They are actually the floral design I used in my blog and I matted and framed them.

 

Scroll down for the new wall hangings!

 

 

Below is more of the beachy look I was going for! A starfish with gold metallic sparkles and an adorable mermaid tail piece. It's cutesie too but I like how relaxed it looks and how it softens that area. I didn't even have to change out my nails. Win win! Now if I can dejunk the rest of the space there!

 

I like! Soooo tell me what you've been up to!? Anything fun! I want to hear all about it!

 

Love ya bunches!

KISY

Hammocktime!

Hammocks - this is one thing I've been excited about since the temps have warmed up! I was excited to be taking baths, listening to meditation spa music and using the firepit while the temps were cool but now that it's warmer I've turned up the game to relax. I LOVE hammocks. I love what kind of feeling they offer!

 

I was in a yucky winter slump this year trying to figure out some health stuff and have been trying to work on healing myself naturally. Forcing myself to relax is a little problem I have though. I typically push myself to do projects to just keep on going but I need to learn to let go to reboost mentally and physically.

 

I got a couple of hammocks to help brighten up the yard and help me to relax. It may seem excessive to have more than one but we have kids and I don't want any fighting over them. We've enjoyed them so much I actually went back and bought two more. I have three up but still need to hang the fourth so we all have one.  

 

 

For the longest time we haven't done anything with this area of our yard. It's oddly graded and we've got a big hill up to the back left corner that slopes down to our house. We cleared out the trees and brush and rake it every year, and now I'm finally trying to fix it up. I'm so excited about it because it's a great little escape right in our own yard with plenty of shade. All of us have been going up there at night together or separately, listening to music and laying in the hammocks. I've treated the yard for bugs so it's helping a lot.   

 

This is the view from the hammocks. It's so peaceful. I'm working on landscaping and beautifying the back flower beds too. Can't wait to get it all lush! That's my goal.

 

 

Here's me chillin in my jammies one night. A dream of mine has always been to pitch a tent or two back here and let our kids camp out in the summertime but I've seen some snakes! Noooo. The hammocks get us up off the ground so I feel a lot better. I envision stepping stones up to this area and some fun bulb lights to light up the joint. :)

 

So how is your Spring going? What are you up to? Have you done anything to spruce up your yard? Do you have a yard or an outdoor space to spruce up? I'm addicted to these hammocks now! Addicted! Not a bad addiction, huh!

 

Hope you have a wonderful day. It's Memorial Day so I'm going to take some time out to pray. Take good care.

 

Love,

Keep It Simple YAY

KISY for short!

 

 

Outside

Happy Saturday night! How's it going??? How are you, wherever you are?! I'm good! I'm tuckered out with an hour to midnight. Last night was a late night and and this morning came quick and we had a Robotics competition our son was in bright and early this morning. The kids all did so well conceptualizing and creating their robots. It was pretty cool to see the bots at work.

 

Anyhow I had a long day and I'm pooped! I am so tired. Sick kids this week, my job winding down and the gorgeous days of Spring are here!

 

 

This is what I've been up to! For Mother's Day last weekend my hubby and kids took me out to shop for flowers. I got these beautiful knockout rose bushes in a red color that looks hot pinkish. I think they are called cherry red or something like that. They are gorgeous though! 

 

So far we picked up five. I put two on one side of the back of the house and three on the other. I may get another one to balance it out. I'm going to watch these bushes grow and try and get some other flowering bushes that are perennials. I love the color it adds to the back yard. We just need some help in our yard. I don't exactly have a green thumb and I've got to simplify! I would like to get some more potted plants too!

 

This is me working. I LOVE to put my yard gloves on and pull weeds and such! The peace takes me away from any negativity. I just love it.

Here are the flowers I planted a couple of weeks ago on the front stoop. I LOVE!

 

Are you enjoying Spring? Next time I'll show you what else I've done to spruce up the yard! I'm so excited!

A Little Color & My Little Oasis

 

I seem to be making it a habit of posting every 5-6 months nowadays. Life is just too busy to stop and work on my hobbies much but it's burning me out. Big. Time. I'm ready for a breather and I'm so glad it's almost the weekend.

 

It's really late at night which I've been desperately trying to quit staying up late but tonight I just have a lot on my mind and can't shut it off. So I'm piddling with pictures and this site.

 

I've shared my little oasis with you before. I would love to have a front porch or a screened in porch on the back of our house - that would be my dream in another house but I'll take what we've got in our covered front stoop! I love to sit out here in the Spring and Summer months and just do nothing and listen to the birds. It relaxes me.

 

Last weekend we were out after kid soccer games and we made it to the hardware store so I could run in and pick up some flowers. Everyone told me not to rush so I took my time picking up some flowers and potting soil...

 

 

I never plant pink flowers but I am having so much fun with pink this year. I also never do blue or purple but I also added some blue flowers with the white. These are all annuals. I really want to plant some perennials in the ground so I'm going to plan on looking for some this weekend and plant bulbs in the Fall. So far all I have planted are flowers in pots. 

 

This chair is my favorite spot to just chill. Guess I'm redundant. Yes I know I am. I don't even care and I won't make any excuses.

I like to talk.

 

 

 

See how pretty!?!?!?!?!? I love looking at these pretty flowers here. The color they add cheers me up when I get down.  

 

 

I needed some cheering up that night after I was finished planting so I sat here in my chair and polished my nails, which I rarely do, but it made me feel better. I don't usually do a color that is so bright but color makes things more fun. Dontcha think! Who knows what I might paint or add color to next! Stay tuned. I'll try and get back on here soon. Take care and have a Fun Friday!

 

Love ya,

KISY

 

Keep It Simple YAY!

Wow This Blog for Keeps? For Keeps.

Wow this blog is still here. I mean, I know it's still here but it's a little sad. I was GungHo about it when I first started it and had every intention of really making it work and well... darnit I just didn't.

 

I'm sitting here eating my oatmeal and drinking my iced coffee and it has been almost 6 months to the day that I typed up my last post. It's okay though. Life gets busy and it has been very busy the past couple of years. Well I'll post when I can. Until then what is it you wish for? I wish for good health, peace, happiness, love.

 

 

I wish everyone a wonderful Christmas! Lots of LOVE! 

Stepping Stones

Howdy! How's it going? I'm sitting here "breaking my fast" this morning and just thinking... I already ate the blueberries on my plate by the way! :) I LOVE early mornings! Waking up early is awesome because you can get so much done before everyone else is up!

So I'm working on a project that is taking me a while because of the steps-I'm refinishing my son's dresser! As soon as I'm finished with it I'll post it on here. I am hoping to have it completed tomorrow night! I'm so tired of having rooms all out of whack!

Since I don't want to post pictures of it yet I will post pics of an older project! A couple months ago I installed three stepping stones that were extra finds next to our patio. Instead of disposing of them we're using them.

You see, I had buried one of the stepping stones and had two left to do for over a year. The mower would get hung up on it and I was afraid someone was going to get hurt tripping over it.

These aren't pretty pictures but it's something I've been putting off for a while/ I'm so happy I finally got this completed. AHHHH! What projects are you putting off?
Happy Day!

KISY