a paige in history

Opportunity...

2012-01-22T21:52:00.000-06:00

Recently I have been reading the book Transform Your Life by Penny Ferguson and one section in particular has really stuck in my mind...

The book goes on to say that "your attitude towards the things you have to do makes the difference between getting the most out of them and seeing them as chores that are impossible to enjoy." So true.

This year I want to look at every situation and every day as an opportunity to fill my glass and make the most of it...

When I am extra busy at work, I want to see it as an opportunity to learn and develop.
When I have to clean the house, I want to see it as an opportunity to show my gratitude for beautiful home and help my husband.
When I am feeling down about living so far from our families, I want to see it as an opportunity to build my marriage even stronger and enjoy all the wonderful things our new city has to offer.
When I am stuck in traffic, I want to see it as an opportunity for a few extra minutes to enjoy the music on the radio.

Every day is an opportunity...to learn something new, to show kindness to others, to give God the glory, and to love my family fully.

[Want more inspiration for 2012? Check out the Word of the Year party.]

2012 | Home goals...

2012-01-17T22:08:00.000-06:00

It's January. So, of course, we should talk about goals. :) I have goals for pretty much everything - literally, reading goals, fitness goals, work goals, relationship goals, life goals, everything. But I'll start with my goals for our home during 2012 as part of the Home Goals Party at the Nesting Place.

I also shared my home goals in 2011 and promise to share a full update at how I did soon. But this year, my goals are all about showing some love.

*Show our loves...
This year I want to continue to make our house reflect us. I want our home to be full of things that Nick and I love - our faith, our families, our passions. I want our decorating choices, artwork, etc. to show how important these things are to us.

I do not want our house to be full of stuff that we do not need or truly care about, which brings me to my next goal...

*Show others some love...
That same stuff that we do not need anymore could be just what someone else needs. I want to focus on cleaning out and donating things that we no longer need...including those boxes that have been in my car to take to Goodwill for, oh, about nine months now. Oops.

*Show our house the love...
I honestly love everything about our home. But...I don't always show our house the love in the form of cleaning. This year I want to get into and maintain good cleaning routines, rather than the massive rush when company is on its way. :)

I also want to show our house some organizing love. There are areas of our home that are super organized [like our bathroom], but others that still have unpacked boxes [like our offices]. This year I want to organize the house as much as possible. Being organized makes me feel more relaxed, which will only allow me to enjoy and love our home even more.

*Show the tools the love...
This year I would love to do some furniture makeovers and build some shelves. More on those ideas soon. :)

*Show y'all the love...
I want to take more pictures of our home and projects to share with y'all and to have this little journal to look back on someday. I also want to share all my project ideas. I definitely have more ideas for our home than I have hours [or money] to do them, but I'm going to share those ideas here anyway. :)

A little sparkle...

2012-01-12T20:53:00.000-06:00

I love a little sparkle. Seriously, how can you not smile when you are wearing something sparkly? I've been wanting to participate in Bloggers Do it Better for a long time but never have. But say "sequins" and I'm there! :)

My sequins outfit is super simple...a cute little comfy top from Kohls. And my photo is super awkward...I'm terrible at being the only person in a photo. And it definitely didn't help that we took these photos at night. My husband is going to looove that I made him lay on the floor to take a photo of my whole outfit and then I got picky about the lighting and how I looked and didn't even include those photos. Sorry!

Since you can't see it all, I was wearing the sequin top with cuffed jeans and a cute pair of suede heels. And to help make up for my bad photo / modeling skills, here is my new Pinterest Sparkle! board. It's full of all sorts of sparkly fashion, DIY, and decor ideas.

Confessions of a missing blogger...

2012-01-05T23:28:00.000-06:00

So...it's been a long time. A really long time. I've missed this little blog of mine and decided it was well past time to get back to it. But before I get back into the swing of things, here are my confessions as to why I went missing...

Confessions of a busy blogger...
Honestly, over the past year I have been very busy at work and with work trips. It sounds a little boring, but it did result in five work trips to the Bahamas. No complaints here. However, but it definitely took my time away from my blog. Don't worry though [okay, who am I kidding, nobody is worried about me now that I said I went to the Bahamas five times...], there was also plenty of fun mixed in over the last year. :)

Confessions of an over-thinking blogger...
There were a lot of times over the past year that I wanted to start my blog back up...but then I would start over-thinking it. Conversations like this were happening in my head:

Paige - "I really miss my blog and have a great idea - I'm going to go post it!"

Over-thinking Paige - "That's a nice idea, but remember how you might want to open an Etsy shop someday? Are you sure you want to name it A Paige in History?"

Paige - "Well, I'm not sure...but that won't happen for a while. And what does it have to do with my post?"

Over-thinking Paige - "Don't you remember anything from all your business classes? All of the names should be the same to help with your marketing. Maybe you should start a new blog. And does that post even have to do with your message?"

So, I think you get the point. And it's not that I'm a crazy person with conversations in my head. :)

Confessions of a perfectionist...
There were also times when I would look at my blog and just not think it was good enough. Take the header for example...

Yep, it's pretty annoying how it didn't line up right. But should it keep me from ever posting anything? Nope! And check it out, it wasn't at all difficult to update my header.

To summarize...

Sorry I went missing for so long! As much as I will try not to disappear again, I also know that with my busy schedule it is definitely a possibility. But, I also know that I really missed my little creative blog outlet, so I'll try to find a balance.
My posts may not always be perfect. But, I promise they will be me. [Well, the part of me that's not busy over-thinking everything...]

Projects teaser...

2011-02-18T18:09:00.002-06:00

Here's a little sneak peak at some of my upcoming projects...

These are clearly all before pictures. I have big plans for them though and, of course, the plans include some spray paint love. :)

My list of projects for after I finish my test is growing quite long...sewing, these three projects, some organizing, some artwork, some decorating, some gifts, and lots more. Time to go study so I can actually work on all these projects sometime.

I heart you...

2011-02-17T18:33:00.001-06:00

Mr. W was out of town the day before Valentine's Day, so while he was gone I used post-it notes to make this message on his mirror.

I wrote cute little notes on the leftover post-its and left them all over the house...on the door from the garage, the microwave, the fridge, his closet door, his pillow, everywhere. Very simple, but a fun surprise for him to come home too.

We also had been needing a new wine stopper for a while, so I picked one up from Pier1 and left it on the counter with a post-it saying "Your smile can stop my heart." Awe.

We had a wonderful evening together with a delicious meal at a Brazilian steakhouse. [Yum!] Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day also!

P.S. Our walls do not actually look yellow-ish like they do in this picture. That's just my not-so-awesome photo taking skills at work again. :)

P.S. [Again] I think it's funny that you can see my peaking out from my closet where I was trying to hide from being in the mirror.

World Market + Polyvore = Love...

2011-02-10T18:05:00.001-06:00

I love World Market. I love Polyvore. Put them together like they did on the World Market website and it is amazing. I couldn't resist playing around and making a few "vision boards" as they call them. Actually, I couldn't resist making five. :)

Each "vision board" I made is an idea for an entryway into a house. I love homes with pretty entryways - it is just so inviting and a great way to show off the home's character the second guests walk in the door. Our entry way is currently empty. Completely empty. We even have an art niche...with no art. Hopefully, that will all change soon. :)

In the meantime, here are my five entryway "vision boards." [Click the link below each to go to Polyvore for the product details.]

details

A few notes about the "vision boards":

I want to go buy the media stand in the first board right now. I love, love, love it.
The five boards are posted in order of how likely they would be to end up in our house. Okay, more like how much I would like it if they were in our house. [This is primarily based on the color scheme of our house.]
Did you notice that there aren't any products used in more than one board? That's because I'm a crazy person who randomly gives myself rules like that. :)

10marifet.org...

2011-02-10T06:34:00.001-06:00

Yesterday my Google Analytics malfunctioned. I truly thought it had a glitch and was making things up because it said that 83 visitors had come from 10marifet.org. Let me put the confusion into perspective for you, but be prepared for some major jealousy due to these awesome stats. Or maybe not. :) Anyways, the most visitors I have ever had in a month was 425 visitors in January. That is an average of 14 visitors a day [if I round up...], so basically the amount of visitors coming from just one site yesterday was about six normal days worth of visitors. And actually was more than the total number of visitors for some months.

See why I thought Analytics had lost it?

Also, I had never heard of 10marifet.org...probably because it is in Turkish and I can't understand anything it says. A quick translation search told me that the blog slogan translates to "yaratici becerileri handmade and ideas hayatinizini will colour jinn". Uh...turns out that didn't help all too much. But I do understand [and like] the words "handmade" and "ideas". :)

A little more searching and site exploring told me that the site is full of awesome crafty and DIY projects. And somehow my bench makeover was selected to be featured. Woohoo! Check it out here.

Again, I had to do a translation search to see what the site said about my bench before and after. It came back as "is with roses empty beautifully but is blue has become very chic." Somehow I get the feeling this may not be a perfect translation, but I like the "very chic" part. :) Thanks so much to 10marifet.org for including my bench on the site - so fun!

Speaking of fun, check out these great posts I found via the site:

A cute cocktail set from Martha Stewart
Beautiful framed flowers from Abby's Garden
A fun, statement-making belt from Etcetorize
Adorable Valentine's Day treat ideas from Creature Comforts
Valentine-inspired dinner party ideas from Little Things Bring Smiles

Fabric delivery...

2011-02-09T22:19:00.000-06:00

My big box of fabric has arrived!

Let me back up a second...For Christmas my wonderful parents gave me my first-ever sewing machine. I haven't mentioned it yet because I have forbid myself to even open the box until I finish my Certified Internal Auditor exam. I did not, however, forbid myself from buying fabric in the meantime. :)

After I take the last part of the exam in March, I will be all set to start sewing with these awesome fabrics [nevermind the fact that I don't really know how to sew yet]...

I ordered the five fabrics from www.fabric.com for a great deal with some coupon codes. And yes, I realize there are only four above, the fifth appears to be sold out. Here's what I got:

I have plans to make napkins, placemats, pillows and other things that only require limited sewing knowledge. The zig zag fabric may not ever make it to the sewing machine though, because once it got here I came up with a new idea for it. Stay tuned to see where they all end up. :)

The summer camp feeling [and a slightly random post transition]…

2011-02-09T17:43:00.001-06:00

Throughout college, I worked for my school newspaper [the Washburn Review]. I started at the same time as two other girls and we decided it would be fun to write a column called “The Freshmen View” to talk about our experiences as freshmen on campus. In one of the columns I wrote, I talked about my transition from living at home with my parents to living in a dorm three hours away. I compared it to feeling like I was just away at summer camp. Between classes, extracurricular activities, hanging out with friends, and everything else, it just didn’t really feel like I had moved. I was so busy that it hadn’t actually sunk in that I lived there and wasn’t just away at camp for a few weeks.

Since moving to Houston [nearly six months ago now], I’ve had this same “summer camp feeling”. A few examples from the past couple of weeks:

When filling out a form for work, I put that I was from the Kansas City office…oops.
I told someone that I have only ever eaten at the Grand Lux Café when I was out of town. This was the day after I ate lunch there in Houston.
When a friend asked me how long it took for our new house to really feel like it was ours, my response was that the house felt like ours pretty quickly. But that it still feels weird that the house is in Texas.

Don’t get me wrong, I am absolutely loving living here - it is just taking me a while to realize that we live 13 hours [approximately 800 miles] away from the place we had always called home. It still feels more like we are just here at summer camp for a while.

But one clear sign that Houston is becoming more like home was how excited I got that an amazing new e-zine was founded by someone from my city. My city being Houston. If you haven’t checked it out yet, you need to go read the premier issue of High Gloss right away. It is amazing. All 181 pages are packed with great style tips, beautiful home decor inspiration, fun party ideas, gorgeous photos, interesting articles, and just all around incredible-ness. My favorite articles were:

Modern Makeover
Putting on the Glitz
Striking a Balance
Valentine’s in the Valley
La Vie en Roses

Baseball gallery wall...

2011-02-05T00:22:00.004-06:00

Baseball gallery wall = DONE! Yay! :)

In laying out the pattern for the wall, I had a pretty good methodology. I started in the middle with the biggest piece that we wanted to be the main focus. From there, I put the other pictures in order of largest to smallest. I started with the largest, picked a place for it, then moved to the next. I tried to somewhat keep in mind things like not having too many horizontal [or vertical] frames in a row, the colors, etc. But the main thing I kept in mind was not to over think it, since I generally tend to be super planned out and symmetrical [which is not what we were going for].

As far as actually hanging the frames, I couldn't really decide on a good method.

I've read a bunch of places about using wrapping paper to make cut-outs of each frame to arrange on the wall first. But I also had read that the wrapping paper rolls up and is annoying. So, I thought I would use the random stack of yellow paper we have. Well, you can see how long that lasted before I got bored of doing that...

Then, I decided to just make pencil marks on the wall of where the edges and middle of the arrangement should be. That was definitely helpful but didn't really give the same effect as seeing something on the wall [teensy-tiny, little pencil dashes don't count as seeing something on the wall in my book]. So, I decided to use tape to mark out some key parts of the arrangement to make sure it looked right. It looks pretty random, but was helpful. After seeing it on the wall, I knew I wanted to move the arrangement up some from what I originally thought.

Then, I was almost ready to start actually hanging things on the wall. Again, I knew I wanted to start by hanging the big piece in the middle to anchor the arrangement. I numbered each piece to know which should go next, which was very helpful. The sides of my arrangement are in a line, so I numbered in a way that I would do those and then space the frames in the middle so that they would fit in between. It was probably especially helpful since I didn't have any real measuring going on. Sure, I knew I wanted some things three fingers apart, but I don't think that counts as real measuring. I actually think my lack of real measuring helped make it easier though, since then I wasn't worried about hanging things so they were exactly two inches apart or something like that.

Okay, enough babbling. Here's how it turned out - first, the view as you walk up the stairs...

Next, as you round the corner into the upstairs area...

And then, the view from in the rec room...

And just for fun [and because I'm very proud of it :)], here is the before and after...

Frame "shopping"...

2011-02-04T17:36:00.001-06:00

I showed you that we have been working on a gallery wall of pictures for our rec room. The rec room is also known as the baseball room. Yep, we are really cool [and obsessed with baseball], so we have an entire room dedicated to baseball. When I last updated you on the progress, I had just laid out all of the pictures for the baseball gallery wall. Most of the pictures were already framed, but there were five things that needed frames.

So I got busy shopping...our house.

All of the pictures and art already coordinated [since it is all baseball-related] but I wanted all of the frames to also be black to help tie it together even better. Here are the results of my frame "shopping"...

The first few were pretty easy. First, there were two frames that were in the guest bedroom at our old house but weren't currently being used.

This one was used for this picture...

And that one was used for this picture...

Then, I found this frame in our office with a picture from The Today Show during our service trip to New York in college...

I'll find a different frame for that picture, because this one was the perfect size for this...

The last two were the perfect size too, but not quite the perfect look. It was nothing that a couple quick coats of black spraypaint couldn't solve though. First, I took a brown document frame from scholarly to sporty...

Then, I changed a cute, pink and black frame to a cool, black frame...

All in all, I'd say it was a very successful "shopping" trip. :)

Twine vases...

2011-02-03T17:18:00.000-06:00

I made these twine-wrapped vases over a year ago and still love them. The problem is...I just can't seem to find a good home for them in our new home. In our first house they had a happy little home on top of the bookshelf by the front door. Their contents changed, but they were always there:

First, they had plain sticks from our yard. Then, I gave the sticks a quick coat of silvery spraypaint to give them some winter-ish shimmer. Then, the sticks were replaced by some cheery, Spring-y flowers.

I actually think that the only time they moved from their spot by the door was when I filled them with clippings from our bushes to be used in the decor for the couples' shower we hosted last Spring. But in our new house, there is no bookcase by the door for them to live on. [In my dream world, I'm going to find an awesome - yet very inexpensive - console table to refinish for our new entryway, but that might be a while.]

Currently, the vases are on the built-in shelves in our sitting room. The problem is the shelves are too low to really put anything in the vases. Kind of awkward. I also tried them on a side table in the living room, but they looked too bare there. Also, kind of awkward. I'm thinking that next I am going to move them upstairs to the guest bedroom - oddly, they would probably go on the same bookcase they were on in our first house. I have some fun DIY ideas for that room that hopefully I'll be tackling in the next few months - and the twine vases will fit in perfectly. :)

White, gray and blue table setting...

2011-02-03T06:11:00.003-06:00

As I showed you, our rec room upstairs is currently in a state of disaster. It looks like a hurricane blew through it and now the flooding from the storm is reaching neighboring areas. Which in this case means that the boxes, tubs, pictures and baseball paraphernalia are temporarily taking over other rooms too...the guest bedroom, office, stairs and garage. Awesome.

But there is one area of our home that I can always count on to be clean, orderly and pretty – our table. And as much as I always love a pretty table setting, I love it even more when other areas are temporarily in need of disaster recovery. :)

So, let’s take a look at our current table setting…

This table setting was done using entirely things I already owned…or was recently gifted. :) [The blue placemats were a Christmas gift from my in-laws - thanks again!] The rest of the items are frequent players in my table settings, such the candle holders used in our Christmas table, and the trifle dish* used here.

This time I changed up the trifle dish filler [from my go-to cork collection] and used clear glass marbles. I love the way they shimmer a little in the light and almost look like water or ice. I also like that once again there are items from our wedding used in the table setting – including the trifle dish, the glass marbles and candles. Even the candle holders were a wedding gift. Looking at the pretty table, especially with the wedding memories, makes me smile every time…even if other parts of the house are chaotic.

*I think it’s funny that the trifle dish has never been used for a trifle. Actually, the only times it has ever even been used for food were to hold candy at our wedding and fruit kabobs at a couples’ shower. But this berry trifle recipe looks really good, so I may have to try it out soon. :)

Home goals | Progress update...

2011-02-02T17:43:00.003-06:00

It’s hard to believe we are already [more than] a month into 2011. And perhaps even harder to believe, we have already made progress towards our 2011 home goals. Yay!

So, I thought I would give a little progress update:

Laundry – I am doing surprisingly well at keeping my closet picked up all the time. It is amazing how if you just hang things back up one at a time, it is a lot quicker than trying to deal with a giant pile of who knows what. :) I also have a new routine for “laundry Sundays” that is working out very well*. I do laundry throughout the day on Sunday while we hang out, do stuff around the house, work, whatever. And then I fold it all Sunday evening while I watch Desperate Housewives and Brothers & Sisters. I have even managed to plan ahead to still do laundry once a week if I won’t be home on Laundry Sunday. So far, so good.

Kitchen – I can’t take ~~much~~ any credit for this one, but Mr. W is doing awesome at keeping our kitchen looking great all the time. I can’t even explain how lucky, spoiled, blessed, and thankful I am for all he does. He does 99% of the grocery shopping, cooking, and kitchen-cleaning. Seriously, he is amazing.

Rec Room – We are well underway making some major progress up there. We are currently in the state where it looks like we have made no progress, or even negative progress…

But so far we have:

Purchased and assembled the futon
Finally assembled our boxing stand
Started going through the bazillion boxes and tubs of baseball stuff
Moved the TV and TV stand upstairs from the family room
Started to mount the TV on the wall [in doing this, Mr. W is definitely getting to use some cool tools, which was another one of our home goals]
Started a pile of Goodwill donations
Started to determine where things will be hung, including this future gallery wall of pictures…

On our to-do list before Sunday:

Finish mounting the TV
Actually hang things on the wall [also gets double-points on our home goals – put more stuff on the walls and work on rec room]
Secure the bookcase to the wall and start accessorizing it
Move the bazillion boxes and tubs out of the way to make the room presentable until we have time to finish it

Hosting more people – On Sunday, we are having a small SuperBowl party at our house. So I need to stop writing this post and get to work - nothing like a deadline to get you motivated. :)

*I did have one slight laundry mishap during the month…Mr. W was sorting through [what I thought was] a big pile of shirts to help me with the laundry. Being the sweet wife that I am, I told him not to worry about it and I would separate out the dress shirts that needed dry cleaning. He happily agreed and just asked me to make sure to pull out the Nautica’s. I finished the sorting without finding the so-called Nautica shirts he was talking about…umm, because he was talking about the three pairs of dry-clean only Nautica pants that I washed. Woops. But with my mad ironing skills [or something like that], I was able to make them look normal again [I think].

Gifts | stationary sets

2011-01-30T14:30:00.002-06:00

This is the last installment of the wrap-up of my homemade Christmas gifts. Well, not quite. There are two homemade gifts that I have yet to gift...so I can't post about them yet.

Anyways, this was one of my favorite gifts I made this year, because not only do I really like how it turned out, but also since it was perfect for the recipient. My sister loves sending hand-written cards [and I love receiving them], so I made her eight different styles of cards. I am always impressed by how often my sister takes the time to write and send cards. She sends cards for all holidays, including Christmas, birthdays, Halloween, Valentine's Day, etc. [And the cards are always on time, which is extra impressive to me, since I can never seem to send cards on time.] She is also great about sending thank you cards, cards with pictures of my cutie nephew, cards to just say hi, and anything else you can imagine.

When I was cleaning out my old room at my parents' house a few months ago [fun, fun], I found a entire stack of cards, notes and letters my sister sent me while I was in college. When I say stack, I seriously mean a stack that was at least four inches high. Isn't that so sweet? And anybody that sweet deserves some personalized cards to send. :)

The letters and designs were all made using my Cricut. The cards include her first and last initial, thank you's, and just fun designs that can be used for anything.

I punched circles from each of the papers and ran them through my sticker machine for her to use as coordinating envelope seals. I also made stickers out of more K and D cut-outs so she can further embellish the cards or envelopes. I wrapped the cards, envelopes, stickers, an address rubber stamp, and some matching pens all up in a pretty box - that way everything she needs to send a cute card is all together and ready to go. :)

[I linked up to the DIY Project Parade and Lovely Crafty Home - check them out for some DIY, crafty awesomeness.]

Gifts | bulletin and magnet board...

2011-01-24T23:29:00.000-06:00

I ~~made~~ customized this bulletin / magnetic board for my precious little nephew's first Christmas. I painted the cork board on the left side with orange craft paint, so it would be a little more exciting looking and match his nursery. [I also painted the push pins, because once I start painting I just don't stop.] Also, the gift will totally grow with him, because I'm sure as his room evolves over the years, there will always be plenty of Longhorn's orange around. :)

The cute little wooden jungle animals were originally from his baby shower - I just glued some magnets on the back. The animals make me smile every time I see them, not only because they are so cute, but also from the memory of when we bought them. At one point while my sister was pregnant, I was shopping with my parents at Jo-Ann's and we must have been hilarious to listen to - literally, every aisle we walked into, at least one of us found something the baby would have to have. Everything from fabric, to stickers, to books, to stuffed animals, to little wood animals - we wanted to get him everything. We were probably the most excited, proudest family to ever shop the aisles of Jo-Ann's. :)

And in true, proudest-aunt-ever fashion, here is the adorable little guy with his first snowman...

Gifts | fun frosted flower-holders for family...

2011-01-21T18:03:00.001-06:00

Are you impressed by my awesome alliteration in the post title? No? Sorry, I just get super excited when I get to use my frosted glass spraypaint. :)

I made these vases [three of the bazillion vases from our wedding] for my sister using simple techniques with my favorite frosted glass spraypaint. Seriously, it is so fun. And there are so many ways you can use it to personalize things around your home or as gifts. I also used it to make these Longhorns glasses.

But back to the vases [aka fun frosted flower-holders]. Here's the lowdown on each of them...

Left: Wrap painters tape [masking tape works too] around the vase in straight lines. Or you could do diagonal lines for more of a candy cane effect. Give the vase a few light coats of frosted glass spraypaint and then remove the tape carefully.

Center: Do not spray with any spraypaint. Clearly. :)

Right: Put circle-shaped stickers on the vase in your desired design. Give the vase a few light coats of frosted glass spraypaint and then remove the stickers carefully. For these vases, I used silly "You're #1" stickers from the dollar store and they worked perfectly. I have also tried nice scrapbooking stickers that I got on sale and they did not work at all. They were much too high of quality and stuck too well. This is definitely a time when cheaper, less sticky, stickers are better. :)

Gifts | paw necklace...

2011-01-18T05:54:00.001-06:00

So, have you ever seen anything cuter than this picture?

It's Mr. W's little sister and their family dog, Goldie. Incredibly sweet, huh? His sister is a huge animal lover and especially loves Goldie, who just joined their family last summer. For Christmas, I made her this little paw necklace using a chain from Michaels and a cute black paw charm from Hobby Lobby. I like how it is very simple but totally fits her personality. :)

Gifts | desk calendar...

2011-01-17T17:57:00.001-06:00

I made this calendar for Mr. W this year using a simple template I created in PowerPoint [I clearly have a strange obsession with PowerPoint and use it for everything]. I added major holidays, birthdays and anniversaries to the calendar. Since Mr. W works in public administration, each month has a picture of a city hall from a city we have visited together. I got the calendar pages printed to Office Depot, cut them to size, and then punched a hole in the tops for him to hang the calendar on the wall in his office.

Gifts | Big E...

2011-01-16T20:43:00.000-06:00

My dad has always gone by Big E [or Dad E to my sister and I], so gifts with a big E are clearly perfect for him. When I saw a big metal E hook in the clearance aisle of Hobby Lobby, I knew I had to get it for him. The hooks come painted white and look like this...

This picture is from Rocky River Farmhouse, partially because I forgot to take a before picture of what they look like to start out. But more importantly, because the project she made with the hooks she bought is amazing. You seriously have to check it out.

My project with the hook is a little less amazing, but was still a fun, personalized gift. I just spraypainted the hook a dark silver, so it would fit in well at my dad's man shed at our family farm. :)

Gifts | tile and coaster sets...

2011-01-15T17:37:00.000-06:00

This Christmas I made many personalized, handmade gifts for our family. The first of which were these tile sets which included a plague on a wooden stand and four coordinating coasters. They were made using the same method as this monogram tile set.

The first set was made for my mother and father-in-law. Tiles similar to this would also make a great gift for a wedding, shower, anniversary, or even Valentine's Day gift....

The next set was made for Mr. W's stepmom. I love the saying that is on them. I also like how the tiles can use any quote you want, which means they can also be good gifts for birthdays, graduations, or any other occasion. :)

I don't use anything fancy at all to make my tile designs...actually, I just used PowerPoint for each of these using a variety of different fonts and lines.

To make the tiles, you have to flip the design over for it to transfer properly. So I "grouped" each of the text boxes and lines. Then I copied the design and did a "paste special" to paste it as a JPEG picture. Then, you can use the rotate option of flip horizontal.

DIY ornaments...

2011-01-12T21:35:00.000-06:00

So, I realize most people have probably put away all of their Christmas decorations already and are not thinking about making any new ones at the moment...but I still wanted to share the three types of ornaments I made this season. And actually the last of the three types was made after Christmas. :)

Glittered cookie cutters:

I have wanted to make these ever since I saw them last year at Centsational Girl and even posted about them. They were incredibly easy to make and free, since I already had the plastic cookie cutters on hand and the glitter was from my magazine tree project [seen here]. Here's how I made them:

Spray paint the cookie cutters the same color as the glitter. In my case this was white [actually white primer to be exact, because that's what I happened to have on hand].
While the paint is still wet, sprinkle glitter all over them.
Let the ornament dry and then tie on a ribbon. [As I side note, last year I tied sparkly silver ribbon on all of my ornaments in place of the standard ornament hooks and it was definitely time well spent. I was able to catch up on my soap opera and easily add a little extra pizazz to my Christmas tree.]

Metal stars:

Amazingly, the second set of DIY ornaments I made was even easier than the first. :) Also, I made five ornaments for $1. I found a pack of five simple metal stars at a dollar store last summer. They were originally a brassy gold, but I spray painted them a pretty silver instead. I just hung them directly on the tree. In future years, I think they would also be fun hung with ribbon from door knobs or in the center of a wreaths. I love simple, cheap, versatile things. :)

Spool Christmas trees:

I made these spool ornaments with my mom and although more time intensive than the others, they are a lot of fun to make. To make your own, you need 1/2 inch wooden craft spools [we got these at Hobby Lobby], various colors of embroidery floss, clear craft glue [not hot glue], and ribbon. Here's how:

Cover a wooden spool with clear glue and wrap tightly with floss. Put another dot of glue at the end. You will need to make eleven spools for each tree. We always use brown for the tree trunk, yellow for the "star", and all different colors for in between.
After completing the spools, glue them together in the bowling pin formation. We found it is easier to glue each line together first [i.e., three for the bottom and two for the middle]. Then glue the lines together and add the star and trunk.
Cut a piece of ribbon to the desired size to hang your ornament from. Loop the ribbon and make a small knot with the cut ends. Put a drop of the clear glue into the hole in the star spool. Use a toothpick the push the knot of the ribbon into the hole.[I'm not sure these directions made much sense, but they really are very easy to make. :)]

Goodwill Christmas trees...

2011-01-11T06:04:00.001-06:00

Last year after Christmas I picked up these two glass trees at Goodwill. [If I recall correctly, they were $1 each.] They were so much fun to play with during the Christmas season...

First I left them empty for a while. Then I filled them with red and silver strands of beads from IKEA. Then I swirled the red and silver strands together. Here's the evolution:

I also think they would be cute filled with candies like M&Ms, kisses, or peppermints. Or I could fill them with something like acorns for a more natural look. So many possibilities. This reminds me that I still need to go check if Goodwill has any good Christmas decor this year. :)

Christmas home tour...

2011-01-10T22:52:00.000-06:00

Mr. W and I had a great time decorating our new home for Christmas. Mr. W did the lights outside and I did the inside. Here are [were] the highlights from the inside...

The card holder was simply a red ribbon [hung by a push pin] with clothespins to hold the cards. I spray painted the clothespins a shiny silver to make them a little more festive. :)

The garland on the railing was one of the very few purchases made this year for the Christmas decor. It was $2/strand at Walmart and was quite possibly the best $12 I have ever spent. I wrapped it with extra lights and added in some red and silver ornaments.

The magazine trees were inspired by my friend and I loved how they turned out. If you want to make some yourself next year, I suggest using Real Simple magazine - the pages are thicker than most magazines so they are very sturdy. The red sign in the background is a canvas painting temporarily covered in wrapping paper.

This was one of my favorite areas - I just added the candle in the background and some pretty dollar store ornaments. Love them!

Thanks for checking out my very late Christmas home tour. Hope you all had a very merry Christmas and New Year! :)

Beautiful bedding mood board...

2011-01-07T17:48:00.001-06:00

I am on a mission lately to finish a bunch of half-done posts, including this mood board that I found on my computer. I made it for a Mood Board Monday, using the Barbara Barry “Poetical” bedding collection as my inspiration. I am officially more than six months late to the party, but I finally made it. :) I am such a goofball, I have had the mood board made and the links saved this entire time and just didn’t ever write the post. Sheesh.

I really love the inspiration bedding – the pattern, the simplicity, the colors…everything. It would make a beautiful, relaxing and elegant master bedroom.

The other items I chose for the room are:

The Meridiano sleigh bed from Pier 1
Hayworth nightstands, also from Pier 1
A white capiz chandelier from Pottery Barn Teen
A steel blue curved upholstered chair from West Elm
A shag rug from CB2
Three narrow infinity mirrors from CB2 for above the bed
Accents would include the blue pedestal vase and blue footed vase from Walmart

I had also originally selected the leather slipper chair ottoman that is shown in the mood board. I would have used two at the foot of the bed. I can’t find it on the West Elm site now [that’s what happens when you wait six months to post something], but I could substitute this made-over bench. :)

2011 | Home goals...

2011-01-06T21:29:00.000-06:00

I make lists of everything [seriously, multiple lists a day], so I obviously enjoy making lists of my goals as well. I am really excited about the Nester's home goals link party and thinking specifically about goals for our home.

My first few goals would probably make my mom and grandma cringe that I have to actually list them as goals. They are the type of thing that moms and grandmas make look so easy, but once you have a house of your own, you find out that it is more work than you thought [or at least I did]. I apologize in advance to my mom, but at least she now knows that I'm trying to work on these things. :)

Improve the turnaround time on our dishes. [I tried to use some fancy business lingo to make myself sound less lame, but really I just want to work on always loading and unloading the dishwasher right away and not having dirty dishes sit in the sink...yuck.]
Do laundry before the hamper is overflowing and fold/hang the laundry right away. I always want to work on keeping my closet picked up. [My closet reminds me of "if you give a mouse a cookie." Except that it is "if you put one dirty shirt on the floor."]
Make [and stick to] a schedule of regular cleaning and maintenance that needs done.
Keep our house tidy enough that I would never be embarrassed if someone randomly stopped by.

The rest of the goals are more for fun:

Hang more pictures, art, etc. on the walls. Right now, I can honestly only think of six things that are hanging on the walls in our house - one TV, two frames and three clocks. We tend to overthink what and wear to hang things, which makes us wait forever before hanging anything.
Finish our rec room, a.k.a. the baseball room. When I asked Mr. W what is home goals were, this was the only thing he mentioned. This is the only room in our house that is not really even usable at the moment. We still have furniture and workout equipment to put together, a TV to setup, things to hang, and about everything else in the world today.
Continue to define our personal style and have it reflected in our home.
Use some cool tools.
Prioritize and work towards finishing projects throughout the house. This goal is really broad, but basically I have ideas of things to do all over our home. Some are needs; some are wants. Some are started; some will probably never be started. Having some priorities on these would definitely be helpful. :)
Host more people in our home. We absolutely love our home and love to share it with friends and family. Whether it be overnight visitors, dinner guests, a party, or just a neighbor stopping by to say hi; we want to enjoy our home with those we care about.

Thanksgiving table...

2011-01-05T18:50:00.001-06:00

This Thanksgiving Mr. W and I hosted our first family holiday. Not only was it our first holiday to host, but it was also the first time that our families came to stay at our new house. We had so much fun planning, organizing, and just figuring out how to feed and sleep seven guests. One thing that we had to decide on was where all nine of us would sit for Thanksgiving dinner. Our house has an eat-in kitchen with a table that seats four, a bar that seats three, or a dining room that we use a reading / sitting room. Umm...that doesn't really add up to nine very well.

This will all make more sense once I show more pictures of our new house, but we ended up moving the big chairs, coffee table, and end table out of the sitting room to make room for a "dining table." The table actually consisted of two six-foot long folding tables from Lowe's and the tablecloth was a drop cloth from Home Depot. I had this all planned out in my head and ~~kind of~~ completely lucked out that it worked as well as it did - the tables fit perfectly in our dining room, the drop cloth was the perfect size, and the people fit perfectly.

A few days before Thanksgiving, Heart of Light posted about her holiday table planning, including that "You can squeeze in with 18" of space per person around the table if you all like each other - if not, you'll want 24-30" instead." This was the perfect information to put me into full nerd mode - I mapped out our table in PowerPoint to measure that we would in fact all fit and plan how it would look. Here is what I came up with:

As you see, we didn't have enough of any one color of plate or glasses for everyone, but since it was planned out I was able to make it look intentional. The horrible wrinkles in the drop cloth were not so intentional...oops, probably should have ironed. The finished table did end up looking very similar to the plan though.

We kept it very, very simple and didn't even have a centerpiece so we could all see each other easily. And so we could easily clear the table to start playing our favorite game. :)

This last photo has nothing to do with the table or planning, but it is us with our amazing family the day after Thanksgiving at the boardwalk [and random photos and posts in weird orders seem to be my thing lately]. It was such a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend with our families!

[P.S. In case you're just dropping by, I do realize it is now January, but it's better late than never, right? :)]

Random table photos...

2011-01-04T23:18:00.000-06:00

I seriously have random "to-go-on-the-blog-someday" pictures coming out of my ears. Okay, that's just strange, but I really do have random photos all over my computer. So, since I was just talking about my table, here are a few other ways it has been set in the past...

This first photo is from last spring and includes dollar store placemats, Goodwill tealights, and a grocery store bouquet in a glass pitcher. I really like mixing inexpensive items together to make a fun table.

This wine cork centerpiece was originally inspired by Young House Love and now I use variations of it all the time. I think this might be the first time we ever did it, because now we have a much bigger glass container so that many more corks can fit. We have also started writing the date and occasion on each cork. It is fun to look through and see everything from the typical day bottle of wine ["just a Tuesday together"] to the big occasions we have celebrated ["first night in new house"]. Mr. W referred to this particular tablesetting as "granny-ish" based on the dollar store lace table runner, but I don't know too many grannies that shop for candles at IKEA. :)

The last tablesetting [for today] is how our table was set while our housed was staged for sale. The stager was very excited when she came and it already looked just like this. :)

Our Christmas table...

2011-01-04T22:29:00.000-06:00

To say that I love setting our table would be a major understatement...I love playing with different place settings. I love walking in the door and seeing the table set. I love mixing everyday items to come up with something that looks nice. I just love everything about it. So, without further ado, here was our table decorated for Christmas this year...

The overall look was very similar to our holiday table last year. The pieces that were the same were: the red scarf as a tablerunner, the silver chargers, the white dishes, the white candle in the centerpiece, and the wine bottle cover.

The pieces I switched up this year were: the red plates and snowman goblets [both were from Walgreens a few years ago], the bread bowl filled with silver and red Walmart ornaments, and the candlesticks/holders [which were a wedding shower gift]. I really liked the mix of playful and elegant. [I say liked because I've already changed the table setting as the Christmas decorations slowly make there way back into the boxes around here. :)]

Better late than never...

2011-01-04T22:02:00.000-06:00

I tend to have really grand ideas of posts I am going to write on this blog, but then they never actually get posted. You'll have to trust me on this, but in my head this blog is ridiculously cool. Generally, I have pictures taken, links saved, and even posts half-written. But they still never get posted. I always seem to get busy and run out of time. The next thing I know, the holiday is passed or whatever else I was going to post about happened months ago, so I never end up posting about it.

But, I've realized that we've all been there - you know, when there just isn't enough time for everything you want to get done. So, I'm sure you all understand. :) For now on, I'm going with the motto "better late than never." So what if I post Christmas [or even Thanksgiving] photos in January? So what if I show the first photos of our new home months after we moved in? I want this blog to be all about sharing ideas and little pieces of our lives, and being too busy to post right away is definitely a part of my life right now.

I've got a little [okay, a lot of] catch up to play, but hopefully in the process I'll get better at being more timely. :)

And to prove my point about not finishing posts....here is a mood board I made [but never posted] for a Mood Board Monday in June that I just found looking through pictures on my computer. I'm sure I have all the links saved somewhere too and when I find them I'll be sure to post them because it's better late than never. :)

2010...

2011-01-01T22:41:00.000-06:00

[Mr. W and I in Vegas this fall]

2010 was quite the year. I feel like about 2,010 major things happened during the year, but in the interest of time, here are just ten of the majorest major things. :)

I coached my first cheerleading squad [and made them cute cookies]
Mr. W and I celebrated a year of living in our first house
Mr. W finished his Masters' degree and got an awesome new job
We welcomed a new sister-in-law into the family [and celebrated with a couples' shower]
We welcomed an adorable new nephew into the world [and celebrated with a baby shower and fun games]
I got a promotion at work and passed the first three parts of the CIA [Certified Internal Auditor] exam
Mr. W and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary
We enjoyed trips to San Jose, Vegas, Dallas, KC, etc.
Mr. W and I made the big move to Texas and built a brand new house
We hosted our first Thanksgiving in our new home

It was certainly a great year and I have no doubt that 2011 will be just as great. :)

Happy proposal day...

2010-12-15T05:58:00.001-06:00

Today marks the three-year anniversary of the day Mr. W proposed to me. The proposal was perfect - he put so much thought and love into every single detail. But most importantly, the most perfect man I could ever imagine was asking me to marry him. I felt like the luckiest lady in the world that day [and every day since] and love hearing proposal stories from others that make them feel that too.

To celebrate our proposal day, I had to share this sweet video from Hellcats. I have been saving it on our DVR for weeks [and may have made our families watch it at Thanksgiving...] because it is just too adorable to delete. Now it can live here forever. :)

200 posts and 200 dollars...

2010-12-06T23:55:00.000-06:00

After a bit of a blogging hiatus, I'm back to celebrate my 200th post. :) And to stick with my tradition of celebrating blog milestones with pretend money, we're going to play the game...

I've changed up the rules just a bit this time around:

1) Pick a store.

2) Pick a room in your house.

3) Pick at least ten items (they can be multiples of the same item) to redecorate the room.

4) Be in awe of how cool your room could be with $200. :)

I picked Pier 1 to makeover our guest bedroom and here is what I came up with using my pretend money...

The new "purchases" for the room are:

2 blue and green paisley pillows for $22.38 each
1 ivory micro dot pillow for $19.38
2 large modular storage baskets for $14.98 each
2 small modular storage baskets for $8.98 each
1 blue and white mosaic glass vase for $26.18
Scroll wall decor for $19.99
6 smoke blue placemats for $4.00 each
$17.77 worth of fresh fig candles

The current bedding in the room is navy with light blue sheets and a sage green throw, so the pillows would fit in well and help brighten it up. The modular storage baskets would be stacked and used as side tables on each side of the bed. I would say adios to the old black nightstand and paint the current headboard and bookcase white.

The vase and scroll wall decor would help fancy the room up a little. I don't know about you, but our guest bedroom tends to get the hand-me-downs from other rooms, so it would be fun to have some pretty new things that are just for it. :)

So, is anyone confused about the placemats yet? ;) I wanted matching art for above both nightstands and had to get a little creative. I have six small canvases at home just waiting for the perfect project. I could cover them with these pretty blue placemats and do some freezer paper painting on them. Maybe a simple paisley or scroll design to match the other new pieces?

I would also hang a pair of white curtains we have on hand to finish out the wall the bed is against. [It is in front of the window.] And my remaining pretend money would be spent on candles.

Yep, I am in awe of the difference $200 could make in the room...now if only I had $200 real dollars. :)

Think pink | printables...

2010-10-18T08:02:00.001-05:00

The TomKat Studio created these pink party circles for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Her post truly shows the spirit of why I have been posting so much pink this month. Check it out for the free printable and to read a heart-touching essay from a girl whose mother battled breast cancer.

[October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month - Think Pink!]

Think pink | library themed wedding...

2010-10-17T08:44:00.000-05:00

It would be pretty much impossible for me to love this library themed wedding [seen at Style Me Pretty] anymore than I already do. Creative save the dates, beautiful flowers, amazing dessert bar, personalized details, incredible stationary...this wedding has it all.

[October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month - Think Pink!]

Think pink | and sage green...

2010-10-16T08:28:00.001-05:00

Pink and green is one of my favorite color combinations and this might be one of the most beautiful ways I have seen the colors used. The rosy pink and sage green are gorgeous together and the details in this dessert bar are amazing. [Found via Pepper Design Blog]

[October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month - Think Pink!]

Think pink | princess party...

2010-10-15T06:02:00.000-05:00

This princess party from Glorious Treats is too sweet. It makes me want to call my cousins and play Pretty, Pretty Princess. :) Check out this post for more photos.

These cookies would be perfect for Valentine's Day or a bridal shower...

[October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month - Think Pink!]

Think pink | furniture accent...

2010-10-14T05:51:00.000-05:00

I love the pink added to this dresser - so fun!

[October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month - Think Pink!]

Think pink | and gray...

2010-10-13T06:12:00.003-05:00

I love the pink and gray combination - it works perfectly in this living room.

Life and Style has six more great pink and gray decor combos [including one from my posting pink last year]. She also has a really cute pink and gray outfit idea. :)

[October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month - Think Pink!]

Think pink | beach cottage...

2010-10-12T06:02:00.001-05:00

This beach cottage is just too cute. Check out more pictures at casapinka.

[October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month - Think Pink!]

Think pink | fire trucks...

2010-10-11T05:42:00.002-05:00

This weekend the Pink Heals Tour came through our town. It was great to see how many people came out for the festivities.

Photos from here

[October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month - Think Pink!]

Think pink | 10 past posts...

2010-10-10T20:30:00.002-05:00

Since today is 10.10.10, it seemed fitting to do something pink with the number ten. So, here are ten of my past posts with pink in them. :)

Pink pretzels - After this post, these became one of my must-haves for every party / get-together.
Wedding memories - Our wedding was full of pink...flowers, candy, decor, dresses, etc. My favorite pink memory was when my grandma mailed me the picture of the pink dress she wanted to buy for the wedding. Pink was her favorite color and she was so excited to have a reason to buy a new pink dress.
Sip and see baby shower
Marshmallow treat pops
Colorful peg board
Preteen bedroom mood board
Pink taking over our guest bedroom
Christmas ideas
Paper chain backdrop
Cute desk set

[October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month - Think Pink!]

Think pink | idea cards...

2010-10-09T14:30:00.001-05:00

I love paint chips and looking at the paint combinations on the chips. So, it only makes sense that I think the idea cards on the True Value website are really cool.

[October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month - Think Pink!]

Think pink | vintage Barbie...

2010-10-08T06:04:00.003-05:00

Seeing this vintage Barbie birthday party was a complete flashback for me. My sister and I used to always have these Barbie doll cakes when we were little!

[October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month - Think Pink!]

Think pink | girls bedrooms

2010-10-07T06:22:00.001-05:00

I love the combination of pink and black for bedrooms. It was the color scheme I used for my room for a few years in college. It can be fun, sophisticated, girly, classy, cute, etc. There are five fun examples of pink and black girls bedrooms at Design Dazzle...

[October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month - Think Pink!]

Think pink | rustic home...

2010-10-06T06:02:00.003-05:00

This rustic home featured at at Inspiring Interiors includes lovely uses of pink...

[October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month - Think Pink!]

Think pink | beautiful bathroom...

2010-10-05T06:12:00.003-05:00

This pink bathroom is absolutely gorgeous. The photos at Velvet & Linen show all of the beautiful details.

[October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month - Think Pink!]

Think pink | candy buffets...

2010-10-04T06:32:00.002-05:00

I love everything about candy buffets - the colors, the containers, the whole display and, of course, the yummy candy. Here are some great candy buffets with lots of pink candy...

[Setting the Mood]

[Thoughtfully Simple]

[Hostess with the Mostess]

I am particularly fond of the navy and pink one, since it is the same colors we used in our wedding and for our candy buffet.

[October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month - Think Pink!]

Bench before and after...

2010-10-03T19:47:00.003-05:00

A long, long time ago, I bought an incredibly ugly bench I found on Craigslist. The bench was 100% covered in ugly floral fabric and Mr. W thought I was 100% crazy for buying it. But I had been wanting a bench for our bedroom forever and saw definite potential in this one. So, I bought it, ripped off all the floral fabric, sanded down the legs and then left it for sitting there naked for months. Why? Because I was looking for the perfect fabric and perfect paint for the legs. After finally making up my mind, I painted the legs a soft shade of gray and recovered the cushion in a pretty blue-green fabric. I couldn't be happier with the way it turned out.

Before...

After...

Think pink | birdie baby showers...

2010-10-03T07:22:00.023-05:00

Baby showers are the perfect opportunity for adorable pink details. Here are two cute birdie themed showers...

This gender reveal baby shower has the perfect pink details for announcing that it's a girl. Check out the Creative Party Place for more photos and all the adorable details.

My favorite idea in this second party is the use of pink and green colored water to carry out the color scheme. It is such a simple and inexpensive idea but makes a big impact. For more photos, check out the full post at Swanky Tables.

[October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month - Think Pink!]

Think pink | doors...

2010-10-02T06:37:00.003-05:00

Could these pink doors be any more fun? I think not...

Found via Design*Sponge

[October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month - Think Pink!]

Think pink | accents...

2010-10-01T06:48:00.002-05:00

For Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I'll be thinking pink with my posting. Pink interiors. Pink parties. Pink. Pink. Pink.

I love how the pink in this house isn't overwhelming. The pink makes the home feel fresh and clean, not overly girly. Check out Inspiring Interiors for more photos of this home.

The house...

2010-09-30T18:32:00.001-05:00

I have officially become one of those women who listens to books on CD while I drive. Yes, I am cool.

I have always laughed at my mom when she had books on CD, but now I am completely hooked. Maybe it makes the drive go faster or maybe the first book I listened to (The House by Danielle Steel) was just really good.

In the book, Sarah (a successful lawyer) discovers her family history, love and a new passion - all while restoring a magnificent old home. It was one of those books where I could truly ~~read~~ listen to the story of her life forever. [Is it just me or do you ever completely dread when a book ends because you are enjoying it so much?] The book made me want to hug my mom, kiss my husband and remodel a home. :)

[Random note - I also loved that the book was read by someone with the same name as my best friend's husband.]

Color personality...

2010-09-25T08:05:00.003-05:00

Quizzes are my favorite part of magazines, so of course I love the "What's Your Color Personality" quiz from Real Simple. According to the quiz, I am an Earth personality...

The quiz results seem pretty accurate for me, because I do really love blues, black, grays and brown. But I was not overly fond of the comment that I can "seem reserved, even standoffish." If I have ever seemed standoffish, I am very sorry! And to make it up to you, here are two more fun color quizzes to check out...the Color Quiz from True Value Paint and the Color Career Counselor from CareerBuilder.com. :)

[I just tried the Color Quiz link and it doesn't seem to be working anymore...bummer!]

Mini key lime pies...

2010-09-17T19:59:00.001-05:00

In getting ready to move, we cleaned out our freezer [not entirely voluntarily, but that's another long, annoying story] since frozen food wasn't going to make it on a 13 hour drive in the middle of August. With no food in the freezer, that meant no ice cream and no popsicles. So, what's a girl to do other than get creative and make her own frozen treat? And so my frozen, mini, key lime pies were invented. :)

To make them, I crunched up graham crackers and mixed in just enough butter to get the crumbs to stick together. I packed the graham cracker "crust" into a mini muffin pan. Then I filled them up with key lime yogurt and popped the pan in the freezer. They took about six minutes to prepare and just a few hours to freeze. Yum! :)

Another quick meal...

2010-09-17T19:12:00.005-05:00

I already showed you my Asian salad that I'm obsessed with, but my repertoire of quick and easy meals doesn't stop there. :) Next up is zucchini and rice...which you can make in eight minutes flat. [Yep, I timed it...it takes exactly eight minutes.]

Ingredients:

1/2 zucchini
Spices / seasonings
A teensy bit of oil / butter
A serving of microwave rice

Instructions:

Add a teensy bit of oil or butter to a skillet on high heat.
Slice the zucchini into thin slices and add to skillet.
Start the microwave rice [following directions on the package].
Add spices / seasonings to the zucchini to taste [I use onion powder, garlic powder and seasoning salt].
The zucchini and rice should be done at about the same time.
If desired, add a teensy bit of butter to the rice.
Put the zucchini on top of the rice and enjoy. :)

Is it bad if...

2010-09-16T19:07:00.001-05:00

you like something you see on The Mogg Blogg?

Because, I'm not going to lie...if I saw this puzzle floor in a hotel or store, I would probably think it was pretty darn cool. I wouldn't use it in my house, but I do like it. Call me a nerd if you wish, but I really like puzzles. :)

Missing Mr. W | part three...

2010-09-15T19:22:00.001-05:00

Mr. W surprised me one afternoon while he was away and had these beautiful flowers delivered. It was so sweet and thoughtful that it just made me miss him even more. :)

Missing Mr. W | part two...

2010-09-15T19:02:00.002-05:00

Sometimes, I not only forget to post a photo or two...but I forget to post an entire series of posts. Mega oops! Turns out I forgot to post the rest of the everyday moments when I really, really missed Mr. W when he had to move before me. Now, I have moved also (well, kind of, but that's a story for another day)...but I'm still going to post some more of those times. And, actually, being in the same place again [finally!] reminds me just how much more fun normal, everyday things are when we're together. :)

Okay, now to the actual point...

Mr. W and I are huge baseball fans, but I don't generally share his need to watch every Royals game on TV or watch This Week in Baseball. But after Mr. W moved, I would zoom-zoom [i.e., watch in fast forward] every game. And I couldn't bring myself to delete any of them.

I also usually really like watching America's Got Talent, but it was no fun at all to watch without Mr. W. So, I didn't watch any of the episodes, but didn't want to delete them either. Luckily, I had no problems continuing to watch Design Star. :)

[Speaking of Design Star, I also kind of forgot about doing the majority of my play alongs. Turns out that is somewhat time consuming, especially when I was supposed to be packing our entire house, working extra hours, and studying. If I ever magically get lots of free time, I'll finish that series too though. :)]

DIY monogram tiles...

2010-09-14T23:31:00.000-05:00

Using tiles from Home Depot, a laser printed image and mod podge, I made this monogram tile as a wedding gift...

Using the same technique, I made a set of four coordinating coasters...

The project was very simple and turned out great! Many thanks to the great directions via The Hybird Chick and to Carrie for finding the project. :) Also check out the awesome tiles made my friends here and here.

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a "magazine holder"...

2010-09-14T22:27:00.000-05:00

Every once in a while, I'll notice a folder full of photos that I meant to post here and forgot about....oops! Now they are a bit more random, but I'm still going to share them. :)

A long time ago, I mentioned our "magazine holder" in our office. It is actually a wine rack, but works great! I did have to tell Mr. W that I "read it in a magazine" to convince him the idea wasn't crazy though. :)

I'm a teensy obsessed with wine racks. This one was a wedding gift and even though we already had four others in our house, this little one just had to have a home too. And using a wine rack as a magazine holder is a great reason (as if you need a reason) to have a wine rack in every room of the house. :) [See, I liked the idea so much I even used it in a Design Star play along room.]

Missing Mr. W | part one...

2010-08-08T10:43:00.001-05:00

So, I told you about our upcoming big move, but I haven't told you yet that the move is actually well underway. As in, Mr. W has been living and working there for well over a month already. And I have not. Bummer, huh? Luckily, I have been able to see him a few times recently, but I still miss him like crazy. Since he's been gone, I've noticed that there are a few sort of silly times when I really notice how much I miss him, so I thought I'd share those with you....

Every single day at dinner time.

I am a very lucky lady and Mr. W does 95% of our cooking. [My five percent primarily consists of making cookies. :)] Generally when Mr. W is gone and I have to "cook" for myself, I eat cereal or chips and salsa. But now that it has been a while, I've had to expand my meal choices a bit. So, lately I have been making lots of Asian salad. Yum! And super quick and easy - must haves for me.

Ingredients:

2 packages of beef (or chicken) flavored ramen noodles
1 package of coleslaw salad
1/2 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of vinegar
1/2 cup of vegetable oil
Sunflower seeds

Instructions:

In a small bowl, mix up the sugar, vinegar, vegetable oil and packets of seasoning from the ramen noodles. [When we make it, we actually use a little more vinegar and a little less vegetable oil, but it's all up to what you like best.]
In a large bowl, pour the liquid mixture over the coleslaw salad.
Crunch up the ramen noodles and add them to the large bowl.
Add sunflower seeds to taste.
Mix everything up.
Enjoy.

See, I told you it was easy. And, other than the package of coleslaw, we always have the other ingredients on hand which makes it extra easy.

Speaking of the coleslaw salad, I had another "missing Mr. W" moment the other day when it came to buying the coleslaw. See, Mr. W also usually does about 95% of our grocery shopping. So, silly me, when I had to do it myself, I totally bought the wrong thing and came home with "broccoli salad." Who knew that even existed!? But it still tasted good. :)

Two incredible years...

2010-08-02T06:20:00.083-05:00

It is hard to believe that two years have already flown by since Mr. W and I said "I do". And what unbelievable years they have been...I passed the CPA exam, we enjoyed fun vacations together, celebrated the weddings of many family and friends, bought our first home, Mr. W finished his Masters degree, we began our first long-distance move, and welcomed our new nephew into the world. I am so lucky to have shared these exciting times with him.

I am also lucky to share the not-so-exciting times with him...the days we get up early, work late, run errands or even clean the house. Every single moment is amazing when you are married to your best friend and the love of your life. :)

We celebrated our anniversary with a wonderful dinner this weekend and exchanged gifts. As the traditional 2nd anniversary gift is cotton, I monogrammed pillowcases for Mr. W's gift. Considering it was the first time I had ever even turned on a sewing machine, I was pretty excited about how they turned out. :)

[P.S. If you'd like to see pictures from the best day of my life (our wedding, of course!), you can check out all of my wedding posts from last year here. :)]

Cutest nephew ever...

2010-08-01T20:04:00.001-05:00

It's been a little quiet around here lately because I have spent just about every waking moment with my adorable new little nephew. I could not possibly be a prouder or happier aunt. :) Congrats again to his wonderful parents!

Bright, fun find...

2010-07-16T16:00:00.004-05:00

This fun set of furniture just totally caught my eye. Say what you want about Walmart, but I am loving this set. The three piece set includes a desk, printer stand and bookcase for just $99. Aaaaaand, the glass tops come in lots of fun colors. Yep, I love it. Now, all I have to do is figure out how to convince Mr. W that we need it. :)

[I also love the rug, bins and overall styling in these photos.]

Let's take a closer look at this wonderfulness...

[This little table would look great pretty much anywhere...an office, living room, bedroom, etc.]

[This bookshelf is amazing too...kind of looks like the little sister to my CB2 bookcase. :)]

Design Star play along | episode three...

2010-07-11T00:26:00.001-05:00

The episode three challenge on Design Star was to design a patio space using musical instruments as the inspiration. It took me a while to figure out what to write about this one, because the only thing I knew is that this without a doubt would have been the week I was sent home if I was really on the show.

There were certainly parts of the men's space that were not my favorite...

HGTV Design Star

But frankly, if I had been on the show, I would have had a panic attack at the very mention of the challenge. And probably would have had a small seizure every time someone said "harmonious."

See, I love listening to music. But I have absolutely no musical talent. Yes, I know, they didn't have to play instruments, just use them as inspiration. But really, it's that bad.

When I was in college, I took an online music class that was, according to everyone I knew, "the easiest class ever." The second assignment was to listen to a musical piece and pick out the instruments playing and describe how they made me feel. I had to drop the class.

Seriously, I could hardly pick out any instruments and everything just made me feel nervous and panicked because I am just not good at that kind of thing. I knew then that my GPA [and mental health] were both going to suffer if I stayed in the class.

Anyways, when I heard this challenge on Design Star, my very first thought was how much of an idiot I would have looked like if I was on the show and couldn't even name the instruments. Ahhhh! I can't even pretend to play along and come up with things I would have done differently, since I know I really just would have freaked out. So, until the next episode, feel free to look back at my ideas for episodes one and two.

Or better yet, check out Trent's awesome portfolio at HGTV or his website.

Relaxing room designed by Trent via HGTV

One week...

2010-07-10T23:57:00.001-05:00

My beautiful, smart, incredible, all-around wonderful sister is due in just one week. I could not be more excited for my sister and brother-in-law. And, of course, to meet my new little nephew!

In honor of the occasion, here is a random sister story for you...

When I was in fourth grade, we had an assignment to write about the top ten biggest and most exciting moments of our lives. Well, I don't know about the rest of you, but when I was that age [9 or 10 years old], I really hadn't had that many overly exciting moments. I mean, my life was great, but other than some big family vacations, I didn't have too many thrilling things to write about.

So, my list of ten exciting moments included at least at few that were primarily about my sister. For example, when she got her first driver's license. It made the list because it meant she could drive me places, but mostly because when things are really exciting for her, they are really exciting for me.

However, my teacher disagreed and said that I hadn't done the assignment correctly. To this day, I stand by my list. And in fact, even though the top ten moments of my life have gotten a lot more exciting over the years...I would have to say, my sister having her baby will certainly make the updated list.

Couples' shower | wrap-up...

2010-06-25T23:59:00.001-05:00

Now you've seen almost everything from the couples' shower we threw Mr. W's brother...

The invites
Chalkboard signs
Decorations and guest tree
Food and drinks
Outdoor decorations and games
The dessert table [including DIY cake stands]
And even some cute pictures from opening the gifts

But what I haven't told you yet, are all the things that made the shower perfect. And most of those things weren't things at all...

Drinking lots of wine with Mr. W, because we really needed more bottles to decorate with [or something like that]
My in-laws coming over early to help with all the last minute setup
The bride-to-be's face when she saw everything...she was so excited! That is my favorite part of any party - just making the guest(s) of honor feel special and loved. :)
Mr. W's cutie little brother asking me for more "special" cookies about every seven minutes [The "special" cookies were ones that got stuck together because I was impatient and stacked them before they had cooled. I told him he could have as many cookies as he wanted as long as he ate the "special" chunks of cookies that were too ugly to go on the table.]
The close friends and family that stuck around late for impromptu s'mores
Drinking the rest of the margarita punch with the bride-to-be because we certainly didn't want it to go to waste :)

Yep, it's the little things like those that really make a party perfect.

Couples' shower | the gifts...

2010-06-25T22:44:00.001-05:00

These pictures of the couple opening their gifts are just too darn cute not to share. Watch as Mr. W's little brother moves into the picture...then closer...then even closer...and then gets really excited about the gifts. He's pretty much the cutest ever. :)

Couples' shower | yummy desserts...

2010-06-25T22:20:00.007-05:00

On to my favorite part of any meal or party...the desserts! Yum!

The sign above the table said "just (about) married" [like the invitations]. The table had more chalkboard food labels and chalkboard painted wine bottles like the ones I showed you here. And another spray painted dollar store frame like the one I showed you here.

The dessert menu included...

Caramel brownie bites [my favorite treat!]
Mint brownie bites [my even more more favorite treat!]
Chocolate chip cookies
Lemon bars
Pretzel sticks dipped in white chocolate and milk chocolate with green sprinkles
Fruit kabobs [I love the way fruit kabobs look - they make me want to serve everything as a kabob! :)]

The two white plate stands above started out like this...

I made the cake stands using dollar store plates and dollar store candlestick holders. I stuck them together with Gorilla Glue and gave my weights a workout holding them in place to set them. I figured my weights needed a little use sometime! :) After they were dry, I just gave them a few coats of spraypaint. [Don't worry, I didn't serve food directly on the cake stands. I covered them with scrapbooking paper and the brownie bites were in mini cupcake liners.]

I'm planning to check the dollar store for matching salad plates, so that I can make a coordinating multi-tiered version. I looooove cake stands.

Couples' shower | fun in the sun...

2010-06-25T21:26:00.001-05:00

Along the fence in the backyard, we clipped up tons of random pictures of the couple. We strung Christmas lights between the pictures to light them up after the sun went down. We also had games set up throughout the yard...bocce ball, horseshoes and Texas toss 'em [or hillbilly golf or ladder ball or whatever you want to call it].

Rain was forecast for the day of the shower, but we lucked out and there was not a single sprinkle of rain the entire day. It was a beautiful day for a beautiful couple.

Couples' shower | bbq & drinks...

2010-06-25T21:13:00.001-05:00

Mr. W manned the grill for the party, making hamburgers, hot dogs and brats. We also had Asian salad and a variety of chips. Everything was served on white platters and in big green bowls. There aren't any pictures because I was too busy eating and forgot. :)

Somehow I did manage to get some pictures of the drink table though. We had water, tea, soda and margarita punch [my favorite!]. The big green tub to the right was filled with Boulevard - a must have in KC and the groom's favorite.

The tables were covered with Kraft paper. And you'll notice two more chalkboard projects - wood circles labeling the food / beverages and chalk around the middle of wine bottles. I made the wine bottles the same way as the chalkboard signs - by painting them with mod podge first. I'm not really sure that step is necessary, but it worked well, so I stuck with it. :) I taped off the area I wanted to paint with painter's tape [and masking tape when I ran out of painter's tape].

Couples' shower | more decor...

2010-06-24T23:38:00.004-05:00

As guests came to the house, they were directed to this coffee table in the living room...

The close-ups...

The details...

The frames were both originally really ugly dollar store frames that I spray painted.
I made the big tree picture for the guests to add their fingerprints and sign their names. The tree looked great when it was finished. And the bride-to-be referred to it as "the coolest thing ever" the whole day. So, now I refer to her as "the sweetest girl ever." :)
The vases are the twine-covered ones I made here. The "greenery" in the vases are random pieces I cut off the bushes in front of our house.
The candle is actually leftover from our wedding. I just wrapped three pieces of ribbon around it and secured them with double-sided tape.

The random story...

The colors for the shower [green and brown] were inspired by the wedding colors. And they worked out very well for a backyard BBQ, because there is already lots of green and brown with the fence, trees and grass. So, when I was looking for pictures of the couple to frame, I wanted them to coordinate with the colors and theme. I thought I found really cool pictures, but Mr. W told me it looked like we thought they were "tree huggers." Haha, oh well, they matched and I liked it! :)

Couples' shower | chalkboard decor

2010-06-24T23:12:00.003-05:00

Remember the couples' shower we threw forever ago? Well, it's finally time for a bunch of posts and pictures. :)

I bought dollar store picture frames, spray painted the frames and used chalkboard paint on the glass. The instructions clearly say not to use it on glass, but it totally worked. I painted a few coats of mod podge on the glass first to give it a little texture and then used the brown chalkboard paint.

The first chalkboard frame was hanging by the front door to greet the guests...

I wrote on it to match the invitations. Here's a closer look...

Another chalkboard frame was in the backyard on the food table...

Keep an eye out for more chalkboard decor in the next posts. :)

Random, but cute...

2010-06-24T22:50:00.001-05:00

Have you seen this commercial for the Limited Edition Huggies Jeans Diapers?

Is he not just the cutest little guy ever? The commercial got me really, really excited that my nephew is due in less than a month! I can't wait!

And while I'm on a roll with the randomness tonight, I'm going to go ahead and point out the slogan for these diapers - "The coolest you'll look pooping your pants." Not so sure how I feel about that...

Oh, Dollar Tree...

2010-06-24T22:36:00.001-05:00

This "oh" has two meanings today...

1) Oh, how I love Dollar Tree. And...

2) Oh my, Dollar Tree, what are you thinking!?

I made a stop by Dollar Tree to look for some vases for an upcoming project (more on that soon). I didn't find any vases that I liked, but I did find more of this wrapping paper that I loooooove. So, of course, I bought a roll. :)

[I now have four of the designs. I haven't seen the dots or paw prints yet, but I will keep looking. :) You really need some of this wrapping paper, it is great!]

Anyways, as I'm standing in line to check out, I'm just thinking about how excited I am about the wrapping paper...but then I notice the pregnancy tests on sale. Yes, pregnancy tests being sold for ONE DOLLAR. My thoughts immediately switch to "Who in the world buys a pregnancy test at Dollar Tree!?!".

But my thoughts were quickly interrupted by the man in front of me whispering to the cashier, "I'm gonna need one of those pregnancy tests." I was in complete shock by the situation. And then the cashier responds [loudly] with "Geesh, can't you learn to keep it in your pants!".

There are very few things that make me say this, but...OMG!!

[P.S. I'm very sorry if I offend anyone who has ever or might someday buy a pregnancy test at Dollar Tree. It was just a very awkward situation, so I had to share.]

Design Star play along | episode 2...

2010-06-21T23:50:00.001-05:00

The world officially does not want me to watch Design Star this season. I missed the first episode because I was out of town, so I had to watch it on my ridiculously slow hotel Internet connection. And yesterday, I was planning to get home in time to watch the second episode and then go to bed. But no. Instead, the cable didn't work. Ugh. Good thing our Internet connection at home was much faster than the hotel's or I might have gone nuts.

Anyways, now that I've finished watching it, I'm ready for my second installment of pretending to be on Design Star. By the way, in no way do I think I have even a smidgen of the design talent the actual contestants have, I just think it's fun to play along. :)

Sticking with my plan of seeing if I could keep myself from being eliminated, this week I'll be pretending I had chosen the casual wear by Fubu (on right below)...

HGTV Design Star

I really liked Tera and was sad to see her go; her room was actually my favorite the first week. But looking back on the show [and after reading all of the judges' comments], here are the changes I would make to the room...

1) I would include this Edison Chandelier [seen here].

2) I would paint the alcove area black and paint the rest of the room a lighter shade of gray. The black would tie into the black mural wall in the living area.

3) I would make a corrugated metal headboard for the bed similar to the one found here. Haha, because I totally know how to do this...not! But if I did, the metals would tie into the various metallics used in the living area. And both the headboard and light fixture would work well with both of the outfits in the room.

4) I would switch out the big blue curtains for white ones [in both rooms]. This doesn't really have much to do with the outfits...more that I just like light-colored curtains.

5) I would switch up the pillows on the bed to add a little color. I really like these pillows from Gracious Home.

Design Star play along...

2010-06-21T22:39:00.002-05:00

Since I'm totally obsessed with Design Star, I decided it would be fun to play along. [In case you're wondering, it was really fun and you should play along too. :)] Anyways, the rules for the first challenge were:

Shop at Pearl River for one hour with a budget of $500
Decorate white room as inspired by one of the designers in the competition

On the real show, they didn't get to pick their partner, but hey, this is my blog and I do what I want, so I picked Tom. I thought it would be fun to see if I could come up with something that might not have been eliminated.

Here's my plan...

And here are the details...

The bed area:

1) The back wall of the room would get a striped paint treatment in a gray-blue, deep navy and white - similar to all the fancy clothes Tom wears while he designs. The other walls would be the same gray-blue. I'm not really sure what the rules on the paint were, but I'm going to say I can have enough paint to also have a light brown paint for the floor.

2) The bedding was the tricky part, because the actual beddings sold at Pearl River (online at least) were all very silky. And I know from the judges' critiques that would not go over well for Tom. So, I picked this blue fabric and would make bedding out of it. Practical for the show's time constraints? Maybe not, but again, I make the rules in this version of the show. :) [4 yards = $38.00]

3) These coordinating fabrics would be used to make pillow shams and some other details...more to come on that soon. [2 yards total = $19.00]

4) One of these lanterns would hang on each side of the bed. [2 lanterns = $39.00]

5) I would put these beach mats together towards the end of the bed to serve as a rug. [4 mats = $22.00]

6) Alright, now is when you have to start getting creative to follow my thinking, because this is when my construction helper would come in very handy. Basically, I would deconstruct most of the furniture in the room to switch it up. One of these baskets would go on each side of the bed topped with a white square from the existing furniture to make bedside tables. [2 baskets = $39.20]

7) I'd add these decorative pillows to the bed. [2 pillows = $15.00]

8) One of the bedside tables would get this alarm clock. [$9.50]

9) I would get extra pillows for the bed. I also would make two square benches from the existing furniture and "upholster" them in the coordinating fabrics from above and use some extra pillows as the stuffing. The two benches would go at the foot of the bed. [4 pillows = $42.00]

10) I would paint the bed frame dark brown and replace the headboard with one made out of these brown bamboo placemats. [12 placemats = $27.00]

The desk area:

11) The last piece of furniture I would make would be a desk that would be three squares of the bookshelf on the legs of the original side table. A square basket would go in two of the squares of the desk and under both of the benches by the bed. [4 baskets = $62.40]

12) This stool would be used as the chair for the desk. I would also buy two of the smaller stools to use the wood to make frames. The frames would go along with Tom's picture for a gallery wall on the opposite wall of the room. I would frame simple handmade paper. [3 stools = $59.50; Paper = $9.00]

13) The wooden abacus is a little random, but the room needed something interesting. A group of three would be used as art above the desk. [$19.50 total]

14) This bamboo candle would accessorize the room. [2 candles = $13.00]

15) This wine bottle holder would be used as a magazine and newspaper rack. [$10.00]

16) I would get three of these bowls (two striped and one checker) to hold office supplies at the desk. [3 bowls = $17.85]

17) And finally, various journals would be on/in the desk. [4 journals = $56.00]

All total, my room would total $497.95. :)

Graduation party pics...

2010-06-16T23:19:00.001-05:00

It's [finally] time for some pictures from Mr. W's surprise graduation party. :)

Okay, so this picture isn't technically from the party, but it is the reason for the party. This was right after he received his Masters in Public Administration degree from KU [obviously].

And this is when I made him put his hood on. Hehehe! I couldn't help it - you get "hooded" when you get your masters, so shouldn't you haven't to actually put it on at least once? It's a good thing he doesn't read my blog though, because I am fairly certain Mr. W would not approve of me posting this picture! :)

Now to the actual party pictures...all two of them. Turns out I'm not so great at remembering to take pictures.

Mr. W's mom was my partner-in-crime in planning his surprise party and was even nice enough to let us have it at her house. And to order the desserts. And to take care of most of the other food. And to do a bunch of other stuff too. She was a very good partner-in-crime. :)

We decided not to do any decorations. We wanted to keep it very low key, since Mr. W had insisted that we not do anything to celebrate - we try to listen to him at least a little bit. :) It was a good thing we kept it low key though, considering he was wearing a dirty old t-shirt...

You can't see it in the picture, but his t-shirt literally had multiple, large, semi-gross spots on it. I kept trying to casually mention that maybe he should change clothes. And he just kept saying "we're only going to my mom's; she won't care." Oh well, his dirty shirt definitely made for a good story. And it was just close friends and family, so they really didn't care.

We all had a great time celebrating [despite the dirty shirt]. We laughed until we cried talking about getting approvals for craft club, hearing Mr. W's mafia man voice and just hanging out. :)

[P.S. The pictures for the couples' shower are coming soon too. I finally went through them all...get ready, I'm pretty sure it'll be about seven posts worth!]