Miss Madison's Charmed Life

Guest Posting

2012-02-10T04:09:00.000-08:00

Good morning all! I've been kicked out of my bed by a sideways sleeping 2 year old :) My choices were to move her and chance waking her up or to just get up and enjoy my coffee in peace...I chose the coffee. Great news this morning, I'm guesting over at Primitive and Proper!! If you don't follow Cassie's blog you need to, she's amazing! So click on over and say hey :)

{Ruffled} bedskirt

2012-02-06T13:29:00.000-08:00

Ughhhhhh I am having a rough Monday! I spent alllllll weekend (ok, not all, but a lot of it) studying for two big tests today, one went well the other was a complete disaster. Finance is not my friend. Here's hoping for a tremendous curve :)

In between cram sessions I worked on dying a bedskirt for my master bedroom. The comforter I have is the ruffle circle quilt from West Elm which is not white, nor ivory, but stone white which is really annoying because I can't find a darn thing that matches it. I tried white, cream, ivory, nothing looked good so finally I decided I would just try dying one. I found a great deal on a ivory ruffled one from amazon, found here.

Not bad for 33 bucks.

I bought 3 packets of grey dye from Hob Lob along with some gloves, blue hands are not in :)

Boiled and dissolved the salt and dye and dumped it in a tub.

I read that you can use the washing machine, but I was nervous it would stain it. Let soak for 1 hour and then wash {twice} and dry.

Looooooove me some ruffles!!

At least SOMETHING went right today!

Random and {PINK}

2012-02-01T14:39:00.000-08:00

It's February. Where in the H E double hockey sticks did January go??? For real the fastest month ever. I wore lots of pink today because somehow it seemed appropriate, you know cause it's V-day month.

What you can't see is that my bag, coffee cup, and giant ass key chain is also pink. My shoes are gold, so there is some respite.

Waiting for Finance class, suck-iest class so far. Stocks, bonds, blah, blah.

I broke down today and printed a tracker.

Yes, it's pink. I have no defense to that. I got it here if you want to torture yourself by writing down everything that falls accidentally in your mouth. My new game plan is to post it up on the fridge so when I go to grab a little sugary sweet love I see it. Oh and maybe a inspiration pic off of Pinterest. Like this...

Or maybe not, I'm pretty sick of the "Do 3 reps of each exercise everyday and you will look like this" on pins.

Oh, I just pulled out my laptop case, it's pink.

Came home, got ready for some spin class and realized....

Yep, I'm wearing pink {ignore the stalker stealing my room in my pic}

What can I say, I big heart fluffy love this color :)

Yeah, added up my tracker so far, don't think there's going to be room for sugar free pudding pie tonight :( Sad.

Ok, end of the most random off topic post.

Curtain rods and the 80's, but not together.

2012-01-31T05:33:00.000-08:00

I want to thank all of you for your awesome sweet comments on my last post, hearing positive comments on my struggles helps me so much, I just get stuck in my head sometimes!

I had a great weekend because I got to bring back the 80's!! My friend Jen over at Life, Crafts, and Whatever {whom I've know since high school, I won't tell you how many years because it makes us sound old} threw a totally tubular 80's party and it was a blast!

I have to say the makeup was so much fun, rarely do I get to wear so much color on my face out in public!

Yes, I already had all this color in my collection in fact I wear this Stila Blush everyday, just not his heavy. The eyeshadow is all Urban Decay because they have the best pigment. Random hot pink lipstick from Wal Mart, I did wear it yesterday with a little gloss and it was pretty :)

How awesome are our outfits! Love!! I got mine at American Apparel that store is full of 80's goodness, not sure how much of their stuff you could wear in real life though. I will be working those leg warmers in to my wardrobe somehow! The lace headband is fabric I found at Wal Mart, yeah my Wally World sells fabric don't be jealous.

I also got to meet another blogger, Julie {in the middle} from It's Sew Stinkin Cute, who I hear throws the best parties in Dallas :) I'm totally trying to wiggle an invite to the next one! I hear Tacky Prom is Jen's next party, thrift stores here I come :)

Now for a totally unrelated topic.

One day a few weeks ago I ran to Lowe's for something and they had a whole cart full of clearenced curtain rods. I have metal ones up right now that are ok, but not fab.

I've been wanting something chunkier and they had some great wood ones, but they were all different colors of wood.

Well we all know paint fixes everything and for 22 bucks I couldn't pass up this good deal!

Excuse the boring mantle, I've been uninspired with filling it since Christmas :(

I also learned that these types of curtain rods are 1000 times easier to hang than the metal ones, one screw one each side and you're done!

Happy Tuesday!

Getting somewhere

2012-01-25T05:57:00.000-08:00

I'm pretty sure my scale is broken, the lowest weight it will go is 149.8. I need someone to buy me a smart scale for my birthday in March, ummmkay? I'm seriously just tired of looking at the same number for MONTHS!!! I've tried changing my workouts to include more weight training because then your body burns more calories through out the day. I've changed some eating habits, heck I even did a cleanse and NADA. I'm not sure why my body is trying to annoy me, but I'm pretty sure I'm about to throw my scale out the window in frustration.

Now, I KNOW my number is not bad and I know how far I've come but time is running out to lose those last 10 pounds before I have to get knocked up again. Yes, baby number 2 is now a glint in my eye and I'm trying to not have panic attacks about getting fat again. I KNOW better this time and I'm all about being the fittest preggo you've ever seen, but I would relax just a bit if i could get off those last few pounds BEFORE :)

Yesterday I wasn't feeling trekking to the gym because I really wanted to stay home and make this amazing cauliflower crust pizza. {you HAVE to make this is was soooooo good!!} I decided to do a bcx lower body workout in the comfort of my home instead :) I realized a few things, when I started running and working out my goal was never to be fast or super strong, it was just to get fit. The last 5k I did I ran it in 26:15 which is pretty fast for me! I'm running the Big D half marathon in April and I'm certain I can do it in under 2 hours {my first time was 2:27}.

While doing some abs I realized I can actually DO side plank. I remember the first time I tried to do one of these in a class, I couldn't even get my hip off the floor and for the longest time I had to put my upper leg in front to support myself. Now I can actually do it and throw in some crunches!

I can hold a plank for 2 minutes too :) Not so long ago I barely made 30 seconds.

I've been using 10 pound weights on my arms, I used 3 pounds when I started on this journey.

Instead of sitting on the couch watching Gossip Girl, like I kinda wanted, I got my booty up and worked up a sweat with my baby girl.

She's a great workout partner, weighing me down for 1 minute wall sits and begging for me to change the music to "party rock, mama! party rock, mama!"

It feels good to be able to do things I could never do before, so who knows what I'll be doing in a year! Maybe a 6 pack?? Ha, maybe not, but I'll try to have fun getting there!

Happy Hump Day!

Free time + cute stuff

2012-01-21T15:28:00.000-08:00

Hey! Hey! It's beautiful this weekend in Dallas, we are getting our reward after the million + days of 110 degrees this summer. I'll try to remember this the next time I'm complaining about how hot it is :) I had a wonderful soccer game this afternoon and I got home {kid free!} a few hours before I had to leave for dinner with friends, so whats a girl to do? Clean? Homework? Blog? YEAH, blog! {although I did feel kinda guilty so I swept the floors and vacuumed first} I find in nearly impossible, when Miss M is around, to sit a my computer for longer than 5 minutes before this happens....

Yes, she is for real choking me. Kids.

I wanted to share a few things I've been up to, one of which is a Pinterest idea. {Literally every time I'm in Hobby Lobby I hear someone talking about how they saw something on Pinterest, it's taking over the world!! ha} I found a globe for 5 bucks at a flea market and did this....

How cute is that? Oh and getting a globe apart is no joke, I took my husband a good half a show to pry it open!

Isn't the feather wreath adorab! 5 bucks from West Elm.

Also, for Christmas my amazing Mother bought me a fun Pottery Barn {orrrr maybe it was Crate and Barrel, I can't remember} light fixture for my dining room and a HUGE cupcake sign. Best thing about it was because it was a gift the hubs couldn't complain about how girly it was!

Ok, ok now I've shared my fun stuff I should maybe do some dishes or something...

Happy Saturday!

Miss Madison

2012-01-19T06:53:00.000-08:00

Mothering a toddler is very demanding, somedays I want to pull my hair out in frustration and others I want to eat her fat cheeks.

She's really in to dressing up, princesses, Belle, and make believe right now.

If only she was this well behaved and cute every day :)

Media Center and chippy loveliness

2012-01-17T16:01:00.000-08:00

Some of you may remember my IKEA media center I built for our giant ugly tv {seen here}

Well, around Christmas time my husband decided that he HAD to have a new TV. You know, he spent hours researching different tv's and kept sending me emails about them, like I care. To me a tv is a tv, or so I thought until I made friends with Netfilx and stayed up until midnight watching episode after episode of 24 :) I'm so lazy I don't even want to fast forward on my TIVO anymore!

Anyways, he finally decided on one and OF COURSE it was like 1 inch too big to fit inside my media center that I spent hours building. I tried and tired to squeeze that sucker in, but nada. What's a girl to do?? Go back to IKEA of course :)

I went with the LIATORP Sideboard, which runs about $350, the side pieces they had paired with it were around $300 each and I wasn't about to throw down a thousand bucks on furniture after buying that TV. I decided on using some more Billy Bookcases and getting the glass doors to pull it all together. I loooove it! The glass doors keep the kid from touching my stuff, I have yet to fill the shelves, but it's a work in progress. Oh, I also painted the backs again, I think it looks more custom. Someday we plan to mount the telly to the wall, but that's a guy project and he's a procrastinator :)

Now on to some chippy loveliness! I went to a local antique market thing {for you local gals it's in downtown Mckinney every 1st Saturday} not looking for a thing and of course I found all kinds of awesome stuff one of which was this amazing vintage medicine cabinet.

Perfect size for all my commonly used beauty products!

Y'all know I love me some turquoise :)

My husband of course thought it was junk, men just don't get it.

Happy Tuesday!

Painting with Run n Buff

2012-01-10T05:00:00.000-08:00

One week until school starts again! Winter break just flew by, but I'm kinda ready to get back to my normal routine {I'm sure it has nothing to do with the 2 year old driving me up a wall daily!} I also started my 10-day Cleanse yesterday and OF COURSE it rained alllll day long and rain + cold weather makes me want to sit home and eat all day. To keep my hands and mind busy I decided to paint some end tables for my new bed :) I guess I could have cleaned, but that didn't sound as appealing!

I saw on another blog, ReNew ReDo, that she painted with Rub N Buff. Interesting, so I thought I'd give it a go. I went to Micheal's and they only had Silver, Gold, and Patina colors in stock so I went with Patina because y'all know I heart me some turquoise!

I started out with both nightstands being white so the color would be brighter.

I squeezed some Rub N Buff in a cup and poured a TINY bit of deglosser in and mixed it up, don't put too much or it will be watery and won't stick.

The waxy Rub N Buff gives a cool finish, very kinda shabby and white washed, does that make sense? I like a little white showing though, but thought it needed something else so I glazed it with some black glaze.

I adore this color!

It took about 1 tube per table.

I had a hard time getting good pictures because there was no sunshine out, but it looking like no sun again today either :(

Also for all my fellow fitness buffs you need to try out the BCx Bootcamp Workout, I saw it over at Journey to a New Me {plus she looks amazing so it must work :)} I did it out in the driveway the other day and I burned 650 calories plus worked some muscles I haven't felt in a while! Do it!

Happy Tuesday!

{Glam} Tufted Headboard Tutorial

2012-01-06T13:21:00.000-08:00

I've been teasing my Facebook friends for days now about my new headboard, well the wait it over :) I've been DYING for a new bed, but it took awhile to wear down my husband in to agreeing! This is what we had before...

Nothing was wrong with it, I just wanted something more ME.

Here are the cast of characters {as Pioneer Women would say}

1/2 inch plywood {4x8 sheet from Lowe's}

2 inch foam {EXPENSIVE take a coupon!}

3 yards of fabric {heavy upholstery fabric works best}

buttons {I opted for Rhinestone buttons}

Long upholstery needle and thread

batting

I made a king size headboard and had my handy neighbor cut out the shape for me. {Thanks A!}

Mark where you want your tufts, wish I could give you a good way to do it, but every headboard is different and you just have to eyeball and measure until you want to scream :) Then drill holes {I used a 5\32 drill bit}

I decided to add legs, they aren't for support but just to make the fabric go to the floor I think it looks more professional.

Next lay the wood on the foam and cut out your shape. I used a utility knife, but I would recommend buying\borrowing a electric knife it will cut more smoothly.

Spray Adhesive! Some say this step is not necessary, but after all this work better safe than sorry!

Use that stuff outdoors and with a mask it's super toxic :)

Wrap and staple your batting.

Ok, TUFTING! I picked a crushed velvet fabric, they had sooooo many pretty prints but I'm not trying to kill myself getting it on straight plus because of the size of the headboard {78 wide x 68 high} the fabric had to go on sideways or you would have a seam. {my fabric was 54 inches wide} To get a nice deep tuft I threaded the needle and thread through the drilled holes through the button and back down, next I pushed the button all the way down and my super awesome husband tied it off really tight with some washers on the back.

I didn't staple my fabric on until I finished tufting because you don't want the fabric too tight or else they won't go deep enough.

The washers where we wrapped and tied off the thread.

Staple and staple and staple your fabric on until your hand hurts :)

So much better! I just love how glamorous it is!

Those rhinestone buttons on that crushed velvet make me so dang happy :)

I hung the headboard with a French Cleat {from any home improvement store}

See how it reached the floor?

I have to say I was a little scared to do this project, but I'm so glad I did! I love it more than anything I could have purchased and I'm pretty proud of how amazing I think it turned out!

If you have any questions just leave me a comment I'm happy to answer them!

Happy Friday!!

Jumping on the Bandwagon

2012-01-01T16:31:00.000-08:00

Apparently in blogland you should do a review of your most awesome stuff from the past year, so here ya go!

But first I have to show you the CUTE New Years headbands my Mom put together for me and my friends! {I was going to help, but I HAD to take a nap so I could last until midnight, I know, I'm old}

Sorry H your mug ended up on my blog :) At least you look good!

Aren't they festive? Thanks Mom :)

Ok on with the show!

My favorite is my living room chevron wall, I just get happy everyday when I see this wall :)

I have a thing for large patterns on my wall :)

Striped Foyer

Some favorite furniture redo's {hard to choose, I love them all!}

2 tone dresser

Chest of drawers

And lets not leave out my Stenciled Table!

I also really loved my kitchen nook.

Some Pinterest fav's were my Tulle Table

and my Super Sized Jewelry Holder

So there ya go, 2011 all wrapped up {well mostly I had lots more if your feeling bored check out my project tab under my header!}

I'm working on something that hopefully will be super fantabulous, it involves me making a little trip to some of Dallas's most awesome fabric stores :)

So many options, so little time!

Happy Happy Happy Twenty Twelve to all of you!

Perspective

2011-12-30T13:38:00.000-08:00

Is it just me or does everyone get the urge to organize and purge after Christmas?? The playroom was the first to get tackled because I was tired of looking at piles of toys in my foyer. Forever ago I bought a gutter to make a rain gutter bookshelf, so I FINALLY dusted to off and put it up, LOVE it! It's so much nicer to have to books facing out so she can see the covers, plus it frees up some bookshelf space for puzzles and such.

We also added some shelves to the closet, easy and cheap!

While cleaning out her room I came across a scrapbook my Mom made of us when Miss M was a tiny little baby. I almost cried when I saw this pic.

Wow. I obviously knew I was heavy, but seriously this was shocking to me! Lately, I've been really hard on myself, I see pictures of myself and think about how much weight I still want to lose. I gained 2 pounds over the holidays and push myself to workout out longer and harder at the gym. I enjoy working out, but over the last few weeks I've been feeling like it's a chore. This is dangerous! I don't want to slip back to where I was and I need to make some changes to keep my motivation up.

Resolutions may be cliche, but I rarely make them and this just happens to be coming up on the New Year :)

I'm going to be happy with myself, I will not freak out over a half pound gain on the scale, I will not obsessively weigh myself every morning,

I will sweat for fun, if I miss a workout I will not punish myself the next day.

I'll be proud of the body I have and the athlete I have become.

Oh and just because she's too young to make one for herself I'll do one for her :) Miss M and I will run her first 1k in 2012!

DIY Photo Blocks

2011-12-22T05:27:00.000-08:00

Is it Christmas yet??? I'm exhausted from all the running around and being gone everyday from sun up to sun down {I'm sure it has a lot to do with shopping with a crazy 2 year old!}. I'm happy that starting today my Hubs is off for 2 weeks, bring on the toddler free time!

I've been eating out a lot and devouring every Christmas goodie to come my way, which is not great for the scale. Even after shopping all day I've been forcing myself to hit the gym for 2 hours every night, hopefully it will keep the bulge at bay :) I'm definitely doing a cleanse after the new year, you will find me curled up in a corner, shaking, while going through sugar withdrawal!

I've been crafting in what little free time I have for friends and family, I've wanted to make these photo blocks for a while!

I started out by going to Lowe's and finding the thickest wood I could. Not that easy, the only one I could find that would work {They have to stand up on their own} was in the decking section.

Then I cut them into 10.5 x 7.5 but you could do what ever size you wanted.

Next I painted them with black craft paint {spray paint wont work, trust me}

I distressed the edges with sandpaper.

Next I covered with Modge Podge and added some pretty paper.

Then remove the crazy toddler from your work area.

I added some clips, I could only find silver so I sprayed painted them and distressed with some glaze.

The bow is some ribbon and sparkle tulle.

Hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

Last one!

2011-12-14T06:56:00.000-08:00

Christmas is fast approaching and I have yet to finish shopping, crafting, and wrapping! My Aunt is coming to stay for 2 weeks and she's a pro wrapper so hopefully I can talk her in to helping :) I'm pretty much the WORST present wrapper ever, I prefer gift bags!

What I am done with is decorating, so I thought I would share the rest of my decor. I like to look back the following year and see what I did.

My mantle is my favorite part, I heart those glitter houses and have been collecting them for a while.

Miss M is fascinated with the fireplace this year so fires are few and far between.

The pink garland was from some antique show I went to years ago and the stars hanging from them are for Miss M from Home Depot {They light up and play music when you clap, but she can't clap loud enough to set them off so she screams at the top of her lungs instead!}

My fabulous Mother also donated some of her pretties for my hutch.

I also did my buffet, of course with a touch of pink and some cute penguins!

This is just an upside down vase with a little vignette inside!

And of course let's not forget the wreaths! There are only a billion or so in blogland right now.

I'm loving this white one with some holiday picks in it.

This is my favorite, and no I didn't make it, sometimes you just can't pass up store bought! The greens are so pretty with the pink....hmmmm maybe an idea for next years tree?

Happy Hump Day!

Cookie Swap Party

2011-12-11T03:35:00.001-08:00

Do you love sugar? Having a great time with your friends? I totally recommend throwing a cookie party, it's was crazy amounts of fun and at the end you get to take home some ridiculous amount of yummy cookies!

Thanks to Pinterest we had lots of great ideas and recipes!

The skewers were from Wal-Mart and just put a cute ornament on it. {of course AFTER you make one of your guest shave them down to fit and give herself a splinter}

This Cranberry Margarita recipe is delish! I'm not sure I've ever mixed tequila with cranberry juice, but it's quite tasty!

This is everyone who made a recipe they found on Pinterest :)

We played a reindeer game that was a lot of fun and made for some great pictures! You divide up in to teams and for 5 minutes you blow up balloons and stuff them in to pantyhose for your head reindeer. The team with the most balloons inside their antlers wins!

The winning team! {Oh and how cute in the Rudolph nose! I think it's from Target}

Christmas socks were worn by all :)

There were some many amazing treats, like these Red Velvet Sandwich Cookies. We didn't run a contest for best cookie, but because my Mom did so much hard work I made her the unofficial cookie judge :) And the winner is.....

Jen! {She also blogs over at Life, Crafts, & Whatever} Her cookies were delish, she HANDMADE the dough!

How cute are those stars! Recipe found here. She told me they were a lot of work, but I'm going to go ahead and say it was worth it!

I made everyone a cookie tin with some spray paint and chalkboard paint from, where else, Pinterest.

I bet there were some very happy boyfriends and husbands who got a crap ton of cookies that night :)

If you want to throw your own cookie party check out the Cookie Exchange for rules, tips, and ideas!

Yes, I'm crafting!

2011-12-07T07:45:00.001-08:00

School's out! Whew, one more semester under my belt :) I'm looking forward to a month off, so to celebrate I broke out the glue gun.

I happened to have some cute ornaments that didn't have a home and a board laying around the garage.

I gave it a light brushing of Martha's silver metallic paint.

Pulled off the tops and added some hot glue.

I think it's darling with my pink Christmas sign!

I tried to get a picture of Miss M's cute chevron tights from Hanna Anderson because they are so awesome I wanted some too, but she wasn't feeling getting her picture taken :)

Off to Home Depot because where else would I go on my first day off? ha!

Happy Wednesday!

Soooo not a traditional tree

2011-12-03T14:58:00.001-08:00

First, I need to preface this by saying that I chose exactly the right man to marry. Not only is he a wonderful husband and father, but he's just a great guy! He gets me. I need lots of 'me' time and he's ok with that and I have a deep need for a white and pink Christmas tree. He gets that too :) So if you are reading this O, thank you for letting me put shabby chic 'crap' , as you call it, all over our house!

We had a pretty tree, but after taking it out of the attic the top half wouldn't light up. I listed it on Craigslist for free and a very nice lady who didn't have a tree came and got it. She was so happy and hugged me twice! A little searching online turned up a super affordable and cute tree, in WHITE! I highly recommend Hay Needle, great prices, free shipping, and it came in 3 days! {no I wasn't paid to say that, but if someone wants to send me a free tree I would love a silver one!}

I'm undecided on this star, I really wanted one that lights up but Hobby Lobby didn't have any. I was trying to make it by Target today, but that didn't happen thanks to a soccer game in the RAIN.

I heart these glitter birds!

Every ornament has glitter, I just can't help myself when it comes to sparkle :)

The tree skirt is pink satin with sparkle tulle, from H. L.

Miss M has done really well about not playing with the tree, only 1 ornament lost so far.

The cat's another story!

I'll be showing the rest of my house in another post soon.

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend! They are calling for a 'wintery mix' in Dallas this weekend...I'll believe it when I see it!

Antlers

2011-11-28T06:02:00.001-08:00

My lovely neighbors {who have officially adopted me!} happen to have a lovely daughter who happened to kill a {poor} deer long long ago. I don't think it's wrong to hang antlers if the deer would have already died of natural causes by now, right?? They are just so darling and I've been on the hunt for the perfect ones for my house :) I may have jumped up and down for joy when they gave them too me!

I was undecided how I wanted to paint them, Pink? Glitter? White? Then it hit me. Gold. I love the new trend of mixing metals.

How gorgeous is this mantle! Almost makes me want to rethink my pink...almost.

Just lovely vases.

I love the gold candles, so easy to do this just find some candle holders paint a metallic silver and brush with black glaze, then add your candles!

Ohhhh this piece is so fabulous, I'm pinning this for future reference.

Along with the antlers they gave me a board to mount them on and after a trip to Home Depot I found the perfect paint for it.

The Martha paint is thick so it gives a great textured metal glitter finish.

I put it on with a putty knife and then used a brush to even it out.

I hung it in my entry way and I LOVE IT!

Oh wait Mimi showed up with Christmas goodies and everyone was in my shot :)

There's one, it was hard to back up because I have a ton of christmas stuff in the way.

Trying to pimp out your house for Christmas is no joke!

Happy Monday!

Cake Pop Maker

2011-11-26T13:04:00.001-08:00

Yes, I shopped on Black Friday {and it wasn't even that busy anywhere I went!} one of the great finds I got was a Babycakes Cake Pop Maker and Chocolatier.

Of course we had to try it out right away, so Miss M invited over her neighbor friends to help out :)

Eight year old girls are the best, they are so helpful! They keep little fingers out of the mixer.

Good thing I had 2 jars of sprinkles, a 2 year and 4 year old aren't the best at sharing.

This Babycake Maker works really well, just pop in some batter, cook for 5 minutes and pop out with the tongs they provide.

Let them cool for a few on the cooling trey then stick 'em for dipping in the chocolatier.

Both recipes were from the books that came with the machines. Kid tested and approved!

Of course who made the biggest mess??

Boys will be boys :)

This would be a great gift for a friend or that hard to buy person, I loved it! {Oh and no one paid me to say this just passing on my fun find for y'all}

Happy Saturday!

Got it covered!

2011-11-23T08:22:00.001-08:00

Miss Madison is in charge of Thanksgiving dinner this year, with a little help from Mimi :)

I mean come on! How cute is this cook?

I want to eat her fat cheeks.

Speaking of cuteness, my Mom won a Shabby Apple giveaway and gifted it to me :)

Darling print, right!

If you want a chance to win your own check out Less than Perfect Life of Bliss for a great giveaway!

Ok, I'm off to Home Depot for some paint for some fabulous antlers! Post coming soon!

Ok, just one more.....

"Pumpkin Pie, Mama!!"

Tis the Season

2011-11-15T04:43:00.001-08:00

Not to be merry, but to be stressed and overwhelmed. Yes, it's the end of the semester and I'm slightly freaking out over all the tests, papers, and projects I have due! Sorry for the blog silence, but outside of all my school work I can barley form a coherent thought :) Also my husband is out of town for a week which has shown me how much I rely on him. Being responsible for every little need Miss M has is wearing me the heck out. I could never ever ever do this on my own and I have a new respect for people raising kids with no family around to help out!

I have a few randoms things to share :) First I took the plunge and took my wedding rings in to be sized, they have been jingling around like shackles on my finger for a while now. This is going to sound dumb, but I was hesitant to get them sized because then they wouldn't fit when {if} I gained all my weight back. My weight has yo-yo'd so many times I feel like it's just a matter of time before SOMETHING {ok pregnancy} happens and I'm back to wear I started. Logically I know what to NOT do this time, but I can't help the way I feel. In fact there was a study just done about how even when you lose weight your brain thinks your still fat for up to a year and that's why so many people keep eating like they are and gain the weight back. I'm trying to retrain my brain :) I didn't go for the cut and reattach option for my ring, they are platinum and I really don't want to cut in to them. I went for sizing balls...

I found Chai Latte K-Cups and I'm super excited to try them! I'm trying REALLY hard to break my 5 dollar a day Soy Chai Tea Latte addiction at Starbucks so I hope these are a good sub! Plus they are only 60 calories compared to 230 for a grande from SB!

School is done the first week in December so I'm planning a Christmas Cookie Party! {ok my Mom is doing most of the work} Everyone seems super excited to come so I'm really pumped! I already have lots of projects lined up for this thanks to Pinterest!

Fall came and fall went, it's 80 degrees here in Dallas, booooo! Bring on the chilly weather already!

Happy Tuesday!

Big frame for a pretty girl

2011-11-01T16:21:00.000-07:00

Someone PLEASE come and hide the Halloween candy, I've eaten 3 pieces today and my belly hurts. I just can't resist chocolate when it's in my house....I may or may not have taught Miss M to eat a Reese's like this....

Trick or Treating was awesome she needed no help from me, she had the whole thing down pat :)

Have you guys seen or heard of those super gorgeous Bloom Frames?

I super heart adore these frames, the color and the shapes are gorgeous! Just a little {ok a lot} out of my price range! After seeing the gorgeous picture Kendra snapped of Miss M, I REALLY wanted one. So being the charmer I am I printed off a picture of what I wanted and kindly asked the nice man with all the power tools across the street if he could cut one out for me.

Not only did he cut one out, but he got all fancy with the edges! It's official, I can never move :)

Of course I had to paint it a nice bright turquoise color.

It makes a great statement on the huge wall behind her bed!

Where she should NOT be eating her lunch. {{sigh}}

Not that on top of the dresser is better.

If your not blessed with a handy man next door check out Not Just A Housewife for a great tutorial on how to make one with a jigsaw!

TGIF

2011-10-28T04:44:00.000-07:00

Sorry I disappeared for a week, it's been a crazy hectic week for me. It all started Sunday when OF COURSE my refrigerator went out AFTER I just spent several hundred dollars at the grocery store. I have super awesome neighbors who took in my freezer stuff for the night and after debating on buying a new one {REALLY didn't want to buy myself a fridge for Christmas!} I called a repair guy. I was praying the whole time he was here, please don't be the compressor, please don't be the compressor! It wasn't, whew! Crisis adverted and I saved all my groceries!

Then, my poor mother in law got sick. She watches Miss Madison while I go to school, so I had to truck the kid over to my Mom's house and that means that I'm gone everyday from 830am until 7pm or later. Leaves no time for blogging, painting, crafting, or cleaning :)

Plus Miss M was crazy with a capital C this week.

This is Ollie, he was born the day after Miss M, they have lots of fun together at Mimi's house. That is until SOMEONE gets a hold of the baby powder and gives the other one a bath in it.

My Husbands company had a little Halloween party yesterday. We are trying to get our money's worth out of her outfit :)

I told my hubs I could totally make his work area happy. A little color and some pictures could transform it, I think he's thinking about it!

Miss M chowed down on sugar; cookies, cotton candy, and of course cupcakes.

A few weeks ago my awesome photographer, Kendra, from Kendra Pryor Photography did a cute mini session with a pageboy theme. I love dressing M up and going to theses!

Yes, she's addicted to the Ipad.

I love this picture so much I have big plans this weekend to frame it. BIG PLANS. Stay tuned!

Happy Friday!

Making my own chalk paint

2011-10-20T04:01:00.000-07:00

I've used several of Annie Sloan's chalk paints and while I really love them I miss using the bright colors I so love. I was excited to come across this blog where she gives you a recipe to make your own! So I ordered some Calcium Carbonate off Amazon and mixed it with a small jar of oops paint I picked up from Lowes.

Mix 1\3 part powder to 2\3 parts paint.

I happened to have this stand that was just screaming boring :)

I also found if I moved it by the swing set I could push Miss M and paint at the same time! Worked like a charm because she can swing for a good long time before asking to get out :)

The adhesion was just as good a ASCP, but the ease of distressing wasn't quite as awesome.

Over all I was really happy with the turnout and it sure beats 38 bucks a can :)

Yesterland Farm

2011-10-16T09:49:00.000-07:00

For all my Dallas peeps who have small kiddos you need to go visit Yesterland Farm in Canton. It's geared for kids up to about 6 years old, Miss M and her BFF K had a blast!

Can't you already see them getting into trouble as teenagers?

Miss M's first time riding amusement park type rides and let me just say she loved them all!

The rollercoaster by far was her favorite, she has absolutely no fear!

A shot M took of me, really puts into perspective how she must see me!

How adorable is this costume?? I got it at a local peddler show.

I never get tired of chomping on those sweet chubby cheeks!

My sweet sassy diva :)

A {pretty} rug

2011-10-15T05:03:00.000-07:00

I feel so behind lately! My lovely child passed on the 24 hour fever\bug thing she had last week to me so I wasted an entire day of my life lying on the couch. It was also midterm week at school, of course and trying to study while sick is no bueno! I pulled it out like I usually do :) THEN I went to Austin for the weekend for a bachelorette party and it was so much fun, but I'll just tell y'all I'm too old to stay out until 2am 2 days in row. It was my first time being away from Madison for more than 8 hours and I was pretty surprised at how much I missed her, seriously.

On another note, did you hear about the woman who ran a MARATHON while 39 weeks preggo and gave birth a few hours later? Click here to watch the story. I think that is amazing, but I swear there are so many conflicting stories about how much you can workout while pregnant! My Dr said no spin class, but her Dr said sure go and run for 6 hours?

On to the rug! You guys know I heart some color so when I saw this cutie on clearance at Marshall's I knew it had to come home with me :)

I love the paisley pattern and the color {plus I get a little pink thrown in the living room}. I have a obsession with rugs....and curtains....and pink. They had a bunch of cute ones, head over and check them out :)

I've been dying to paint some furniture so yesterday I put on the Cat in the Hat movie for the kid and finished up a project I had going on.

{ignore the fact that it's still missing knobs, I didn't like the ones I had} I like it, but I don't love it. Maybe I need to get rid of the grey and go brighter? Maybe the white is too white and I should distress? I just can't decide!

Here is the before, I have a slight thing for foyer tables too :) My other one has been moved to the actual foyer, imagine that.

Yeah, it's hard to take a pic that doesn't include her. She's all about how 'cute' she is right now and loves to be photographed.

We are off to a pumpkin farm today so expect cuteness overload tomorrow because her Halloween costume is so darling I want eat her her fat cheeks!

Happy Saturday!

Oct. 1st is freaking change your decor to Fall day!

2011-10-01T15:23:00.000-07:00

I'm making today a holiday! Put away the summer crap and bust out with some Fall stuff! The weather is a cool 83 degrees here in Dallas, almost sweater weather for us :)

A trip to HomeGoods and Hobby Lobby {oh and a side trip to my Mom's craft room} and I have a nice fall\Halloweenish mantle!

I wanted to do more than orange and green, so I added yellow and turquoise {because what season doesn't go with turquoise!}. The wreathes I made from an idea I saw on Pinterest {click here to see it}

I wish I could say I made the adorable topiary, but alas it was my Mom and she refused to make me one because it was a pain. So I just went and stole it while she was off shopping in Round Top Antique Market this weekend :)

The sign is legit mine :)

Hope you guys enjoyed my new decor! My back has been killing me, I've been training the kid.....

Happy Weekend, hope you guys are having some fabulous weather too!

Project {Me, Myself, and I}

2011-09-25T15:45:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've done a weight loss update, I know I have some new readers so how about a quick recap?

This is me before.

This is me today {don't judge me by the sweaty red faced look, I just finished a soccer game and didn't feel like getting 'pretty' for a pic!}

{if you would like to read a longer story about my journey click here} So far I've lost 106 pounds.

So basically weight loss is burning more calories than you take in. Unfortunately it's really not that easy {at least for me!} I burn and I burn and it's like pulling teeth for me to lose a freaking pound! I remember 2 years ago when I joined Weight Watchers and you had to give them a goal weight and after looking at the 'healthy' range somewhere close to 150 I thought, I'll never be able to do that so I chose 165. Now I am at 154. I surpassed my goal, that I really never believed I would achieve anyways. I'm different now, I feel GOOD, I feel POWERFUL, I feel HEALTHY. I'm not upset that the scale is slowing, in fact I've been focusing on other things, like how my thighs don't jiggle when I'm spinning my booty off at the gym :) Or how awesome my butt looks when I'm running on the treadmill, in fact when I joined the gym I thought that whoever put mirrors by the treadmills needed to be shot! Now? Love 'em!

I wish that exercise alone would give me results, but 70% of losing weight is about what you eat. I eat healthy, 95% of the time. Do I 'cheat'? Yes, but I don't consider it cheating, I earn my chocolate when I'm out running at 7am every. freaking. day. Where I think I'm slacking is how many calories I'm eating. You really can't estimate that, unless you like super talented and know what a cup of pasta looks like off hand. I don't. Plus Pinerest is making it so HARD for me by showing me all the yummy things people are pinning.... like this amazing potato soup and this yummy fish is cilantro cream sauce.

My plan? Count my calories. I'm being realistic I can't do this everyday, I'm busy with a toddler and figuring out calories in every meal plus portion sizes? Too much, BUT can I do it for a week? Yes. I think it will give me a general idea of where I'm at. I have a hunch that my main problem is that I'm not eating enough and please don't misunderstand...I eat I just don't eat enough for the 500-1000 calories I burn at the gym. It' hard to eat an extra 800 calories in a HEALTHY way, sure I could down a bowl of ice cream and call it a day, but while it's really yummy it's not going to do me any good.

I printed off all my weekly recipes and figured out the calories.

I also downloaded LoseIt! App on my phone to track myself. Ummm LOVE it!

I'm hoping this motivates my body to lose that last 10 because in my mind I'm already there :)

Oh yeah, one last thing! This little pic has been floating around...

I made my husband try it for 7 days. Didn't lose a pound. Just so ya know!

Happy Sunday!

One for the sewers!

2011-09-24T06:05:00.000-07:00

Mimi is a great sewer and obviously I did not inherit that from her {I think it has something to do with her not having the patience to teach me, so we'll just go ahead and blame her for ANOTHER one of my faults}. One day when I was being a good daughter and letting her drag me to another boring quilt store I saw the CUTEST bag! It was an Amy Butler bag, they are so darling!

The bag was done in the cutest Cat in the Hat fabric, of course it was sold out. Not to fear you can find almost anything online.

We bought ours from Cotton Blossom Farm on Etsy, there are so many options you can do!

Mimi being the overachiever she is had to go a step further and embroider a Cat in the Hat phrase on the front :)

Miss M loves her new library bag, story time is one of her favorite days of the week!

Awwww how cute is that :)

Lamp revamp and some randoms

2011-09-19T14:41:00.000-07:00

Look what came in the mail!

My BirchBox! I'm a total product junkie, so I think it's crazy fun to get some great samples every month to try out.

Some fun stuff, they must have known I had just thrown my empty Bare Minerals container away that morning because they sent me a nice size sample of the Sunforgettable Mineral Powder by Colorscience. I've been a Bare Minerals fan for years now, but the one thing I don't like is how it can itch when you sweat and I have not experienced that with the Colorscience so I may be making a switch. Also loving the Jouer Lip enchancer\conditoner!

I found a semi-cute lamp at Salvation Army....

It was in good shape and only 30 bucks, now it wasn't fabulous enough so with a little Krylon spray paint and some houndstooth fabric....

I moved the old, ugly, plain one to my husbands man cave :)

Ok one last random. I love Ranch. Like back in the day I used to eat it with EVERYTHING. Then I started to watch my calories and workout, do you KNOW how many miles you would have to run to burn off real dressing???? A lot. So anyways while I was at Sprouts, kinda like Whole Foods but cheaper, I came across this...

Fat-free AND calorie free dressing, I was skeptical since most taste like serious crap but I bought some of the Honey Dijon anyways. SO DELISH! Love love love, I have a dipping sauce for my super delish chicken tenders! I went back today and bought the Ranch and a Miracle no calorie mayo, we shall see if it's all just as good. I don't know how this has nothing in it and tastes so yummy!

I'm going to leave you guys with my new favorite work out song. Download it and sweat baby!

LMFAO Sexy and I Know it. {uh apparently I don't know how to get a video from youtube to blogger on my MAC! Sorry 'bout that}

Bonus Feature!

My baby girl LOVES them, don't judge :) She's the best fist pumper in Dallas!

Tulle table

2011-09-12T03:47:00.000-07:00

I finally finished little Miss M's table, let me just say that you need a TON of tulle and finding enough is not easy! I had to visit 3 different Hobby Lobby's to get enough :)

I started with a square wooden table that I was given, for free {yay!}, by my awesome neighbors. I painted it white, cut my fabric into thick strips and went to town with my staple gun.

I thought the top needed a little something so I ran to Michael's to check out Martha's new line of stencils and paint.

Her stencils aren't cheap because they come in a pack with several different ones, so take a coupon. I also bought the metallic paint, which is very shimmery and pretty!

I didn't want it to be too busy with a full stencil, so I just blinged up the corners with some glam stars.

I love it! {The lamp I just could resist, it's from Hob Lob too.} Miss M said 'ohhhh pwetty!'

It's a miracle she actually has clothes on, since potty training she likes to be naked, just easier that way :)
Did I tell y'all I signed her up for soccer? They have 'skill' classes that start at 18 months, so I went to check it out. It a cool program, kinda pricey {but I've learned all classes for kids are!} , but when they brought out that little jersey I busted out my credit card quick like! ha!

She really likes it and I even had a parent tell me "Wow, she is so good!' Warmed my heart to see her enjoy something I love too!

See, she's my mini me :)

{super sized} Jewelry Organizer

2011-09-06T15:36:00.000-07:00

Wayyyy back in June I bought this gorgeous {31x42} frame at a local flea\antique show, Old Red Lumberyard in McKinney, TX.

That was back in the good old days when my flowers and grass were actually alive! I would complain about not having any rain, like EVER, but the temp finally fell below 100 and I don't want to piss Mother Nature off :)

Anyways! So I really wanted this to become a jewelry display because currently my jewelry is stuffed in an old silverware box away from little fingers.

Messy! I blame Miss M :) So at first I tried to use chicken wire stuff. It was not good. So after a little Pintrest browsing I decided to make it in to a shadow type box. I don't own a table saw {but I'm pretty sure I've dropped enough hints about getting one from Santa!}, but on Memorial Day my little brother just happened to be at my parents house and I just happened to have the frame in my trunk so with a little pleading he was kind enough to build one for me.

I did the hard part, you know gluing and painting :) I tried some new paint from Lowe's, Pantone, it's a paint and primer in one and very thick, but covers really well! I will definitely be trying this on some furniture!

I Gorilla glued the frame to the box and added some hooks and Ta Da!

The rod at the bottom is to hold bracelets and headbands, I love how it has a shelf where I can drop my rings.

I just remembered that I have an entire jewelry box I put in the top of my closet because Madison was always getting in to it! Argh, see I don't even know what I have anymore, now it can be all pretty and displayed!

Finally I can buy more bling without feeling guilty that I don't wear the ones I have :)

Happy Tuesday!

Painting cheers me up

2011-09-02T14:37:00.000-07:00

I'm having a super crappy week {insert violins here} I sprained my ankle {which mean no fun soccer tournament this weekend!}, caught a cold, and woke up to a bathroom full of fire ants. Not going to the gym for 4 days sure makes me crabby, I was NOT fun to be around! To cheer myself up I pulled in one of the pieces out in my garage to work on.

{Before}

Miss M was nice enough to 'help' clean it off for me :) I don't know why I buy that child toys, she would rather play with a cleaner bottle full of water and a dish rag!

{After}

I used Annie Sloan's chalk paint {Provence and Old White}, but I didn't distress, I'm feeling undecided about it. What do you think?

I love how paint can make things so much prettier, it always seems to amaze me when I finish something how much better it looks!

I'm still working on Miss M's tulle table, apparently 25 yards of tulle is not enough and I had to go searching for more in the same color, but I had luck today! Hoping to finish asap so I can get it out of my foyer :)

Time to get off my booty and start dinner.....thanks to pintrest.....

Parmesan Crusted Tilapia

With a little.....

Cheesy Cauliflower Cakes

Have a safe and fun Labor Day weekend!!

Random awesomeness

2011-08-24T15:14:00.000-07:00

You know you needed a break from your 2 year old when statistics class was actually fun! Yes, school is back and after reading my syllabus I see lots of my free time flying out the window. I finished about half of the projects I wanted to this summer, I'm just waiting for cooler weather before tackling some of the furniture waiting for love out in my garage.

I am super addicted to Pinterest {follow my boards by clicking here} who ever came up with this idea is a genius! Before when I wanted to remember a link of something I liked I would have to send it in an email to myself and boy that was a pain! Now in 2 clicks it's all organized and has a picture and everything! A friend sent this to me on there and it's so my next project for Miss Madison's room.

I got a table {for free!} and I'm hoping to work on it this weekend.

I also have been pinning recipes, like this one....

Chicken and cheese lasagna roll ups, so yummy! I've also started making a menu plan for the week, which has really helped lower my outrageous grocery bill {eating healthy ain't cheap!} Also it's great so my husband doesn't call at 5pm every. single. day. asking "what's for dinner?" Now I just need a cute menu board....

Oh look at this cute one I just found on pintrest....totally adding to my to do list! {source}

Have you guys heard of Birchbox?

It's basically a cute box of 4-5 samples hand picked by veteran beauty editors, so you get to try new things that they loved! So excited to get my first box, it's only 10 bucks a month and who doesn't love to try new beauty things? {I'm a total product junkie...check out this post from forever ago}

Finally, speaking of new beauty items I'm totally loving Revlon JustBitten lip stain + balm!

This color is Passion {y'all know I heart my pink} , Madison had some on and then proceeded to throw up on my about 5 seconds before this picture was taken. I swear the more weight I lose the more wrinkles I get! How unfair is that!

Happy Hump Day!

I heart drama

2011-08-19T15:18:00.000-07:00

I love drama! I love drama in my decorating, like my bold stripes and chevron pattern in my living room, I love drama on TV, super heart love Jersey Shore, and I really love doing something dramatic to my hair :) I never found time to get to the salon and get my hair done this summer, but it was looking pretty blah and school starts next week. {Beware lots of self portraits are coming up}

{Before}

{After}

I decided to be brave and do an asymmetrical cut, it's pretty drastic with being so short on the one side. I was just so TIRED of the same old A-line cut I've been getting for awhile now and I'm so glad I'm brave because I feel SASSY! {shout out to my stylist Ashley, my girl rocked it!}

love love love having my hair off my neck in this 107 degree weather :)

Miss M needed a trim and after stopping by Sweet and Sassy and getting turned away I just took her to Cool Cuts.

I know, she looks thrilled.

She has barely any hair, it took like less than 5 minutes {all they did was even up the back and a tiny bit on the bangs} and it was 19 freaking dollars. Rip. Off. Wont be going there again, I'd rather pay 15 at Sweet and Sassy and look at all the cute girly stuff in there!

Anyways, she's loving her new room.

She shut her door and gave herself and the dresser a nice lotion bath.

Off to watch last nights Jersey Shore, happy Friday everyone!

Guest Room

2011-08-15T08:59:00.000-07:00

This is the closet in my guest room.

It's pretty much where out of season\out of room decor goes to die. It's packed, so I'm sure you can imagine what the rest of the room looked like....picture a queen bed and desk with tons of crap everywhere. School starts for me in a week and I've been dreading doing something with this room all summer, I just wasn't inspired and then I realized it was because we never used the room. Rarely do we have guests spend the night, my parents live 15 minutes down the road so relatives usually stay at their house. I made the decision to get rid of the queen bed and turn it into a bedroom for Madison {yes, for those of you keeping count, this is her 3rd room in 2 years!} I'm leaving her old room as is and making it the playroom...aka where you shove all the toys and shut the door.

I wanted to do vertical stripes, good thing Home Depot had a special deal on a 3 pack of Scotch painters tape!

Also, this blue restickable putty is fabulous for holding the laser lever on the wall while you are taping!

I used {Martha's} Cobblestone and Hocking Pink with Behr Pure White.

The room is still a little bare, but she did want the 'pwetty' birds in her room :)

The curtains are so cute, with chandy's on it {Target}

That's all for now, I'm happy to have a new room to 'fill' up again!

Gallery Wall

2011-08-05T18:26:00.000-07:00

I know this will be shocking, but I actually painted a wall in my house white :)

That ugly builder beige became this....

Exciting right? What was exciting was how easy it was to paint an area white, no worrying about hitting the ceiling! {uhhhh which I NEVER do :) } Apparently my husband is starting to catch on and even commented on how boring it was, don't worry honey I have a plan! ha! I just really wanted to use white to brighten up that dark hallway.

I wandered out to the garage and looked through my pile of "stuff I bought that was cute but had no clue what to do with". I knew that 2 dollar shelf and .50 cent frame would come in handy someday!

I picked some pretty colors from my large spray paint selection {All Rustoleum Lagoon, Berry Pink, and Sunshine} and went to town with some glaze....

Looks so pretty behind my chevron wall!

Adding the mirrors there really helps brighten up that hallway, super heart love. I added 2 shadow boxes and my metal heart winged thing, I'm digging the different dimensions.

Just one more :)

Happy Weekend!

3 Billy Bookcases

2011-08-01T15:06:00.000-07:00

This is the Before of my living room wall.

This giant wall has been a pain in my booty since the day we moved in. It's huge and the TV is huge and a 'regular' entertainment center would not fit on the wall. The TV can't be centered and there is that doorway, sooooo what's a girl to do? Live with it everyday for 6 years :)

I spent forever stenciling, but the grey on grey with all that black was hard on my color loving soul. My chevron wall was a great start to brightening it up, but it needed more. More height, more color, more organization.

So off to Ikea I go! {Love love love that place!} 3 Billy Bookcases and a trip to Home Depot for MDF screws, Gorillla Glue, and moldings.

I sent away the toddler for the night and plied my husband with beer and pizza :)

Lots of gluing and clamping.

No way did he do all the work :) We used L brackets to add 2 shelves across the middle for the equipment with wires. I trimmed the corners and top with moldings, caulked and painted {Martha's Talc color is a very very close match}

After

So much brighter! {Uh don't look through the doorway, that ugly builder beige is the next to go!}

I super heart love the background color {Hummingbird Blue which I also used on my buffet and my Anthro mirror on steroids} Not bad for about 150 bucks and a little elbow grease!

Let's Art Party

2011-07-25T07:35:00.000-07:00

My Mom grabbed a coupon for Let's Art Party off Living Social, it's one of those classes where they teach you to paint a picture. Honestly, I did not really want to go because 1. I suck at drawing and 2. I knew my Mom's would be better than mine :) {I tend to be really competitive} BUT she didn't want to go alone and I'm a good daughter.

You don't start with a blank slate, they draw in a sketch of the picture for you.

Mixing up your colors is fun, I wasn't paying attention when she told us white, yellow, and green and I used more blue. Oops!

It's starting to look good, you could spend hours perfecting your brush strokes.

I love how mine turned out {better than my Mom's shhhhh!} I have to say this was SO. MUCH. FUN! I will totally be going back and doing this again, if I can talk any of my friends in to going with me :) You really don't have to be artist, the teacher was awesome!

So, in other news Miss Madison is 28 months old now and it's time to get serious about potty training. She's been using the potty off and on for a while now, but we need to get her using it all the time {and save me a pretty penny on diapers!} I've had friends who used the 3 Day Potty training method with great success, the thing is you have to be stuck to your toddler for a full 72 hours. No leaving the house, no surfing the internet, no hanging out at the pool. Sounds like fun huh? Notsomuch. I have the best husband ever, he took off a day of work so he could do it! LOVE THAT MAN! He doesn't mind staying home all day and has 10x more patience than I do, so it's a win win for everyone :)

The baby potties are too small for her now, but we have to lift her on the regular one. I really need one of these things my friend Jen talked about on her blog, plus it's so gross when she holds on to the sides! Ewwwww.

I bought her a crap load of panties....

Obviously you need one on your head too.

Happy Monday!

Chevron Wall {Tutorial}

2011-07-20T14:58:00.000-07:00

I am making progress on my living room, after 3 hours of taping and 4 hours of painting it's done! Actually, it really was not as hard to do as I thought it was :)

First, I divided my wall in to 8 sections and using a laser level {totally need one of these, no clue how you would get a straight line up a 10 ft wall without it!} put up vertical stripes. I decided to use stripes down the middle of the chevron to avoid any 'Charlie Brown' looking zig-zags.

I had a few minutes of cussing trying to get the laser lever to stick to the wall, finally I busted out a 3m strip, saved the day!

Next I measured down 10 inches on each blue strip. I *kinda* planed this out by dividing the height of my wall by the number of chevrons I wanted. I was really unsure how many would look good, I didn't want it to be to much and make me dizzy every time I looked at it.

After marking it on the tape, I then just connected the dots starting in the upper left hand corner by the ceiling. {Sorry the next pic is blurry, I took a pic on my phone, but apparently not on my camera!}

Don't worry no crazy climbing 2 year olds were hurt during this tutorial.

Next I used the same color grey that is already on the wall to paint along the tape where I wanted to place my second color, this stops any bleed through!

Next paint your second color in, mine was Martha Stewart Talc the grey is Pebblestone.

While the paint is still wet pull it all off, if you wait for it to dry it will peel off the paint too.....trust me :)

Gorgeous! I used the Scotch Blue Edge Lock tape and the result are fabulous, no touching up!

Now I just need to paint that hallway behind it and build a entertainment center :) All in a days work huh?

Happy Hump Day!

I made something for a boy!

2011-07-17T17:11:00.000-07:00

I'm blessed with amazing neighbors and when L next door found these 2 adorable rockers of course she thought of me :)

She has the cutest 4 year old, Lucas, so I wanted to do one for him and one for Miss M. They were REALLY wobbly, but lucky for me the gentleman across the street from me is a genius woodworker! Fixed them up no problem, see GREAT neighbors!

Madison was really grateful so we baked him a Paula Dean Buttercake to say thanks. I've actually never made anything boyish so I was a little worried, y'all know I love my pink. I think it turned out pretty cute!

I used Rustoleum's Navy Blue and distressed with white chalk paint, the stenciling is also done with chalk paint which I love!

I love how the blue comes through the white giving it an aged look. When I went to Home Depot I came across Martha's new line of paint products and almost had a heart attack I was so freaking excited. I {of course} grabbed the Pink Glitter Paint :)

I don't love it. The glitter doesn't really show and it globs up really easily. Sooo back to square one on her chair. Martha does have a crackle paint out, so I may give her another chance :)

I have 4 weeks until school starts so no more messing around, time to get some crap done around here!
First up is this wall.

I've decided to try something new {to me} on the wall....

I haven't told my husband, I thought I'd let him be surprised when he comes home. ha! He did ask what the heck I was doing while he sat on the couch all day and I just pushed everything away from the wall and started painting over my stenciling, I said ohhhhh nothing :) I'm also going to build a entertainment center around that giant TV {which I really really hate}. Wish me luck! I do LOVE using power tools.

Stain Stripes

2011-07-14T13:22:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of posts! I've been lazy, it's too hot to work on much and I've been trying to get in as many naps as I can before school starts again :)

We had a wonderful time in the Outer Banks!

We hung out on the beach.

We went kayaking....and may have gotten a little lost, 3 hours is a long time to paddle with your arms!

Celebrated the 4th, sans fireworks thanks to a burn ban. We did enjoy some Pop Rocks adult beverages so it wasn't a total loss :)

We fished on a deserted island, where the mini sharks captivated the kids.

We climbed a huge sand dune {more like 3 of them} of course Miss Madison wanted to walk up all of them and hitch a ride on my back the ENTIRE way down.

Look at that smile, she's a beach lover too!

So in order to actually work on a project, I had to pack it up and move it indoors. Oh my husband LOVED that :) It's just too dang hot to be outside, unless it's in water. So, remember that coffee table I found in the trash while I was out running?

I wanted to stain the top, but I also wanted stripes so I thought, why not do both! To achieve this look you will need the Minwax Gel Stain, tape and a razor blade. Unfortunately the gel stain only comes in the larger sizes and I needed two, so if anyone needs some stain I have plenty of extra :)

All you have to do is tape off your stripes and score along the inside edge with your razor blade, this will stop any bleeding. I used the darker stain first then went over the entire top with the lighter one.

I painted the bottom with my chalk paint {when distressing please brave the heat because that chalk makes a mess!} and I finished the whole table off with Annie Sloan's Soft Wax, love love love that wax! It's so easy to put on and the finish is nice and child proof....

I'm happy to have a coffee table again, the last one we had was sharp and metal so it got sold when Miss M started being mobile. Now she's old enough to dance on tables {which is EXACTLY what she is doing right now}

Hey, whatever gives me a few minutes peace!

One more shot of my free table...

Happy Thursday!

One hundred freaking pounds

2011-07-03T03:23:00.000-07:00

That would be the amount I have lost to date!

It's taken me almost 2 years and lots and LOTS of sweat, blood, and tears. You can read about some of my journey by clicking here. Gaining so much weight during my pregnancy used to bum me out, but you know what? If I hadn't gone through that I wouldn't have had the desire to change my life for the better, I found a new love of running and I ran a half marathon, I also made new friends and started playing soccer again. I'm active. I'm happy. I'm a hottie. :) Oh and I'm that much closer to Kelly Ripa arms....

I had to crop out my face, it's 530am and I traveled allllllllll day yesterday, it's not pretty. Apparently lots of people travel on 4th of July and it took me 4 extra hours to sit in traffic! Oy! I have to say the weather is just gorgeous and nothing beats a cup of coffee while watching the waves come in!

Madison was great on the plane considering we were traveling for over 12 hours, of course she wore a tiara for most of the day!

Alright, time for a workout! No 5pd gain on this vacay!!

Annie Sloan Chalk Paint

2011-06-30T03:39:00.000-07:00

This chalk paint is everywhere in blogland, I've wanted to try some but having it shipped puts the price around 55 dollars a quart. I was excited to find a stockiest near me, Lady Butterbug lives in downtown McKinney, TX {and has the MOST gorgeous house} so I stopped by and picked up the Old White and Louis Blue. You can read more about her paint here.

My Mom bought a little foyer table she wanted me to repaint.

{Before}

{After}

The great thing about this paint is that you don't have to prime and it distresses really well. You just take a brush and slap it on and it gives this great texture finish.

You can see the brush strokes, but the finish feels smooth to the touch.

I did buy some of the Soft Wax to use, but because it's oil based I need some paint thinner to clean my brush and I keep forgetting to pick some up at the store.

I found this really awesome coffee table when I was running the other day, I literally sprinted home grabbed the truck, threw it in and came home and finished my run! Pays to run on trash day :) I hoping to use the Louis Blue on it, I tried to get to it this week but we are leaving for vacation soon and that takes about a week to get together with a toddler. I can only manage to take her to 2 stores a day before my patience runs out and I turn into crazy mom! She did get a nice treat....

Her first ice cream from the ice cream truck! Usually she will not go anywhere near men {especially freaking looking ones!} she must have really wanted that ice cream!

That thing was loaded in sugar, she was a sticky nasty mess after!

We still are loving gymnastics!

One day it will be nice to just watch from the sidelines :)

I am soooo ready for a week of sand and water! My Mom gussied up my beach hat for me....

Can I tell you guys who have been following my weight loss journey, I am very close to a VERY big loss and I went out and bought a BIKINI. Yes, a real bikini, not a tankini, and hopefully I'll have the guts to wear it out somewhere other than my parent back yard. We all know there are some things losing weight does not get rid of {coughstretchmarkscough} but having a little tan on your tummy helps....some :)

Chest of Drawers

2011-06-21T05:27:00.000-07:00

Sorry I've been MIA, again :) I've been doing a lot of this....

I actually read a real adult book! I love love love to read, but now remember why I can't read for fun when I 'm in school. I get so wrapped up I can't put the dang thing down! Yesterday I was so engrossed in my book I didn't even realize Madison had taken off her diaper in the pool....and pooped in it. Oops! I just finished Emily Griffin's Heart of the Matter and now I'm on to one I stole from my Mom, Summer Rental by Mary Kay Andrews it's set in the Outer Banks of North Carolina {which is where I'm going SOON!} so far a great poolside read! I'm going to need to stock up on some more books for the beach so leave me a comment with your suggestions, pretty please with sugar on top.

So remember my awesome find?

Now it looks like this!

I'm sooooo freaking in love with this thing, I walk in my bedroom just so I can see it! I used pure white with black glaze on the drawers and the grey is Schoolhouse Grey by Martha Stewart {I seem to really love her colors I always pick one of hers!}

The handles I sprayed with Metallic Silver and glazed those too so they would look aged.

Just one more of her beauty...

Not bad for 30 bucks!

Don't worry Miss Madison is around too...

Just the usual...wearing daddy's socks and using her baby potty. She's in the repeat phase, you know where she repeats every word like 50 times. Mama! Mama! all wet! all wet! Mama! Mama! all wet! all wet! alllll day long :)

Happy Tuesday!

Oh Happy Day (Fingers Crossed!)

2011-06-13T20:08:00.000-07:00

Paris is magical, I know since I've been there, and I'm hoping to visit again this year
(if I win that is!) You have a chance to win too here at Oh Happy Day

A little crappy desk

2011-06-12T14:47:00.000-07:00

First I want to thank you guys SO much for all your advice! Obviously I KNOW that my child is not the only wild child, but sometimes it's nice to actually HEAR that you are not alone. People need to bitch about their kids more, it makes others feel better :) I did buy Happiest Toddler on the Block and even after just a little bit of reading I feel like maybe I just don't understand my toddler enough. If you have read the book then you will understand when I say I think the metaphor of toddlers being like cavemen is pretty much dead on. They are NOT little adults, which is how I was sorta looking at her.

Anyways! I happened across this crappy little desk for 20 bucks.

{Before}

Nothing special just a blah desk, but you can't pass up on solid wood!

{After}

I sand and stained her top dark walnut, the bottom was coated in creamy white with some ORB on the handles.

I'm actually not keeping her, I don't have any room! My furniture obsession has filled up my house and I still have 4 more pieces in my garage waiting for some love. Look at this lovely I found at Lula B...

30 freaking bucks! It's Bassett and has the original sales receipt inside, I looooooove all her details and was having the hardest time deciding on a color, but I think I figured it out and I've got her primed and ready to go!

By the way, I found a new shopping area in Dallas {I love this town! I've lived here for 16 years and I'm still finding new places to shop!} I went to check out a store I saw online and they were closed, but man it was antique heaven down there!

It's down off 35 and Oak Lawn {near downtown} and all those little dots are fabulous stores! {Some are pretty expensive, but wow do they make me want to marry for money in my next life!}

I have no clue what I'm doing.

2011-06-10T07:59:00.000-07:00

I am treading in unfamiliar territory. The land of the terrible, no make that THE FREAKING AWFUL, 2 year old. I have absolutely no clue what I am doing and I really am not liking the feeling.

Yesterday I had to run a few errands and obviously I had to take the toddler, first stop Academy. After digging around my trunk and realizing I forgot the baby leash I should have just gone home, but it's a 30 minute drive there and well, gas ain't cheap. I only had to get 1 thing, how hard could it be? Right?
Wrong. She acted like a crazy loon pulling everything off the shelves and screaming while running away from me. She thinks it's a game and yes I can run faster than her, but I'm pretty sure I pulled something in my back after hauling her off the ground for the 100th time.

Apparently that wasn't enough for me and I stopped at Target. After getting in and out of the cart 10 times {the harness needs to be better on those things, she can climb right out of it} I succeed in grabbing a few things and we headed to the check out. Now here things take a turn for the worse, she is trying to open the candy by the register and I take it away from her and pick her up, she screams NO and SLAPS. ME. ACROSS. THE. FACE.

Now, I've never had patience and having a child has shown me just how little I actually have. I honestly wanted to slap her back. {of course I never would, that would only make ME feel better } To make matters worse the old lady checking me out gave me the LOOK. You know the one, I would NEVER let my kids do that to me. I honestly do not know what to do with this child. I tell her "We don't hit people" and of course as soon as I let her arms go she hits me again.

I know she is 2 and this is a hard age, but it can't be ignored or I will end up on Supernanny by the time she is 5! The girl is deaf to me, yelling has no effect on her. Swatting her booty has no effect on her. Timeout has no effect on her. She will sit there and then say sorry, but 5 minutes later does the same thing all over again.

After talking with family, it's clear she only acts this bad with me. Everyone say's 3 is even worse and I'm telling y'all right now, if it is she WILL be an only child. I envy those calm Mom's who can handle a house full of children. It's just not ME, I like a little space and free time and that may sound selfish, but I can't change my personality. I thank God that I have a husband who doesn't care that I take a lot of 'me' time. Happy wife, happy life. Right?

Can anyone give me some advice? My Mom had 4 kids all VERY close in age and when asked what she did says "I don't know it's all a blur." Which I totally get now :)

She must know I'm venting about her because she came over and hugged me. Stinker.

Purple Chair

2011-06-08T05:13:00.000-07:00

Sorry I've been MIA, kinda hard to blog with this around all day long....

Yes she is laying on the table and ON my new computer {sigh} she likes to pretend she's eating the apple.

She also had her first gymnastics class.

I was a little worried in the beginning because the coach was a guy and Miss M has A HUGE FEAR of men she doesn't know. Literally she was climbing me like a monkey the first few minutes of class. Finally when he started doing jumping to warm up, she was like heck yeah I'm IN! I was sweating my booty off for 45 minutes trying to get her to stay in our area of the gym and away from the 'big' girls on the beams :) All in all she did awesome, I have a tiny athlete on my hands. I do work her out at home...

Anyways on to my super awesome chair. I found a 10 dollar velvety chair at some random thrift store down the road.

It was pretty stained up, but for 10 bucks I thought I would try out a tutorial I saw online at Hypen Interiors.

Just let me say that I'm sure my neighbors think I'm a little nuts, painting the fabric on a chair on the front lawn.

I love it! Such a nice addition to my chair collection :) I will give some tips if you want to try this too...

1. you will need LOTS of acrylic paint, like 20 oz. Buy it all at the same time so you don't have to run around looking for the same colors!
2. you will also need the same amount of fabric medium. Hobby Lobby only carries tiny 2 oz bottle, Michaels had a bigger size, but it's 14.99 so take a coupon! Maybe check Joann's they may have a better deal.
3. don't skip sanding, it softens it up!

All in all it was a fun easy project! Happy Hump Day!

Winning isn't everything...

2011-05-31T18:00:00.000-07:00

....but sometimes it sure does feel good! My women's soccer team won our tournament this past weekend!

We played 3 games on Saturday in 95 degree heat, I literally thought I was going to die of heat stroke. Sunday we had to play 2 more and man was I cursing this awful Texas weather! Thank goodness we won and it 'kinda' made it all worth it :) My poor legs looks awful from all the bruising, I hate how easily I bruise.

I'm kinda aggressive when I play, that's where all the fun is :)

My Mom {MIMI} bought a plain swimsuit cover at Target and turned it fabulous for little Miss M.

She embroidered the back.

Cut it down the middle and added a zipper and trim.

I'm a little jealous, I want one too!

We had an awesome time at the splash park today.

Even when she acts like she can't hear me.

Or that life is sooooo hard.

Love those fat cheeks.

Then we came home and she puked apples and Sonic Diet Cherry Limeade all over my floor. Motherhood is just awesome some days.

I'm finishing up 2 projects in between all the other fun I'm having, so stay tuned for some fabulousness!

Thursday Randoms

2011-05-26T04:29:00.000-07:00

I feel like I haven't blogged in forever! Time just goes by so slowly when you're stuck home with a toddler all day, ha! Today is official brain dump day so this will be pretty random.

I'm stick and tired of the rain, I planned on having a nice tan by now and so far I just have a lovely tank top tan from running. It's only going to get better after my soccer tournament this weekend, 3 games on Saturday and it's going to be 91 out. Got to love Dallas, you get a few nice days and then {BAM} it's hot and humid. Running in 72% humidity sucks, like really really bad. I was going to take the summer off from running, but I decided to do another half marathon in November and I've been told if you don't keep your cardio up you will lose it pretty quickly.

Speaking of running, I'm super heart loving my Bondi Band, I always cut my hear short in the summer and it keeps it out of my nasty sweaty face.

Do you know life's dirty little trick? That your body becomes accustomed to your workouts and you have to keep doing more and more to lose weight. I've been bouncing around the same weight forever now and I'm soooooo over it! I already run 3 to 7 miles 5x a week, do bootcamp 2x a week and a smattering of soccer thrown in there too. I switch it up from cardio to weight training and NOTHING. UGH. It's so frustrating!! I'm sure it doesn't help that I've been on a sugar binge since like Easter :) Finally threw it all out and around 8pm every night I'm literally dying for some. Yes, I'm stocked up on fruit, but nothing beats a handful of warm M&M's!

My Mom won a giveaway for this cute Etsy shop, Lil Stein Styles and she order the cutest little maxi dress for Miss M.

Don't we make a cute pair in our dresses?? {Mine was a total steal at Macy's, original price $130 and it rang up $30 bucks! Score!!}

I was browsing some blogs the other day and saw someone recommend a carpet spot remover for cleaning old upholstery, I just happen to have bought an old chair to refinish so I decided to grab some and check it out.

It's called Folex and it was 6 bucks at Home Depot. I was in the cleaning mood yesterday so I thought I would give it a go on my bedroom carpet. Carpet is never the same after having a kid they spill juice, drop food and run around with dirty shoes everyday. THIS CLEANER IS A MIRACLE IN A BOTTLE. OMG!! Literally the stains dissolved right in from of my eyes!! I couldn't believe it, I've tried all kinds of commercial brands of spot remover, even had them professionally cleaned and this stuff is sooooo much better. I know it's kinda weird to be this in love with a carpet cleaner, but I HATE dirty carpet with a passion :)

Baby girl is up....

Aren't we pretty in the morning?

Buffet

2011-05-20T04:50:00.000-07:00

Another trip to my favorite store, ReSell It!, turned up something I HAD to have, a buffet! I just couldn't pass up her pretty scroll work :) Apparently the before picture I had was on my Dell, before the toddler got a hold of it. It was your basic medium colored wood. Nothing special.

So, after a nice wash down with TSP and 2 coats of my favorite primer, Rustoleum {on a side note Home Depot dropped their prices on good ole Rusty, from 3.78 to 2.88!! I totally stocked up, my spray paint stash is out. of. control.} I used my paint sprayer {L.O.V.E} and gave her 2 coats of Humming Bird Blue, by good old Martha.

I wanted to try a new glaze, so I picked up some Valspars transcluent glaze. Not really loving it so much.

It was REALLY watery and the color looked 'dirty' to me. I think next time I will try the tintable glaze, I'm thinking the consistency is more like the Ralph Lauren I use. Sooooo I repainted over it and used the tried and true RL in black.

Much more my style. The handles are Oil Rubbed Bronze, which is so dang pretty! I'm sure those of you who have followed me a while know I'm really obsessed with furniture and maybe you're wondering what the heck I put in this one, the round pink one, my foyer table, and my gorgeous hutch?
Toys. Yes, this is where I store all the random toys and books she has laying around. I even keep pull ups in one so I don't have to walk all the to her room after she uses the potty :) Lazy, I know.

We made it to the Dallas Arboretum this week, here's a cute pic for those of you who stalk my blog to see my cute kid.

I love putting a cute sun dress on her!

Happy Friday!

Jazzing up some thrift store finds

2011-05-18T05:28:00.000-07:00

Saturday was a beautiful day here in Dallas, The Husband and I ran a 10k and I was pretty proud of myself for finishing in an hour and 23 seconds! Afterwards my Mom, Miss M and I went to Ikea. Shopping there on a Saturday is crazy, too many people! I have one of the Ofelia throws on my bed, which I super heart love and I saw they carry it now in a deep teal blue, but of course they were all out!

I almost bought some of theses candle holders...

But I thought 14.99 was a little too much for them and I'm glad I waited because after Ikea we drove around town and came across a thrift store, Frisco Resale, and I found some heavy duty Fitz and Floyd ones!

I love the detailing on them, but the color was less than desirable so I busted out Krylon's Sea Blue...

I liked the blue, but kept thinking I wanted to try a new color, so after a trip to Home Depot....

I put the kid to work with some Rustoleum Green Apple! Oh and I made her water the flowers while too :)

Never too young to do some chores! I'm really liking the green next to my mirror.

I also found a cute canvas Vogue picture at another consignment store.

I love the purples in it and decided to jazz it up a bit with some jewels. I raided my mom's stash, you know she REALLY loves you if she shares her bling!

There wasn't enough vintage bling to do the letters, this is trim from the craft store. That stuff ain't cheap, take a coupon!

I love the bracelet I added to her wrist.

Bling makes everything just a little better, don't you think?

Happy Hump Day!

Anthro mirror on steriods

2011-05-13T16:09:00.000-07:00

FINALLY blogger is up and running! My mornings are just off if I can't read blogs while I sip my coffee :) Sooooo I stopped in a random thrift store and found the CUTEST frame with the UGLIEST picture in it. This is the frame...

I forgot to take a pic before pulling out the ugly canvas, but it was something similar to this...

I took it to a glass and mirror place and for 40 bucks they cut out the canvas and put a mirror in for me! So much cheaper than buying a mirror, the frame is freaking HUGE! I love the other mirror I did for my bedroom so much I decided to do it again. It's so easy to do and I already had paint stripper and muratic acid on hand, the fabric I got from Hobby Lobby.

The frame I painted with my super awesome paint sprayer, the color is Hummingbird Blue by Martha Stewart. I glazed it with Ralph Lauren black glaze.

I really really love it!

I'm really loving the green and blue and glad I decided to not go with my normal pink :)

On a super happy note, I finished my 7th and final math class and I'm so freaking happy never to have to take another one!!! If I never see another matrix or integral again I will die happy.

Did I show you the beautiful headband my Mom made me for mother's day?

I wore it when I went and renewed my driver's license and was glad the lady let me keep it on, I'll be staring at that flower for the next several years!

Totally random, but you need to record all the episodes of New Adventures of the Old Christine, this show is so hilarious!!

Seriously, like Will and Grace, laugh out loud funny!

The husband asked me if I was happy to be done with school for the summer and I'm actually dreading finding ways to entertain a 2 year old everyday. Does that sound bad? Everything fun involves driving at least 30 minutes and spending 50 bucks a day by the time you get gas, eat lunch and do whatever it is your going to do. Staying home all day sucks for me, which is why I'm a terrible 'stay at home mom'. As I type this my child is stripping in the living room while watching Barney. Great. I can't keep clothes on this child.
We are planning to take a gymnastics class, she's already taught herself to do a forward roll, which is awesome.

Just a cute photo of her wanting to hold Daddy's hand while he mowed.

We are running a 10k tomorrow at Cooper Fitness Center in McKinney and the weather couldn't be more perfect! Nothing beats a great run with the hubs and chowing down on Ihop after :)

Happy Friday!

The day my Dell died...

2011-05-08T04:56:00.000-07:00

My child walks around thinking she's a princess...

2 years old and she thinks she's in charge! Some days are harder than others and I really think she may be an only child. Like the day she dumped an entire bowl of cereal on my laptop...

My poor pink Dell stood no chance against a toddler, so in light of the disaster of May 2011 I had to suck it up and go buy a new laptop. I literally was almost in tears when she did it, while I'm in school we live on one income and this really cuts in to my 'crafting' budget :) Now I know why they say kids are expensive! While I liked my Dell, I decided to switch over to MAC because I'm the queen of getting viruses on my computers.

Thank God being a student has it's perks, I got a super awesome deal through my school! I'm already missing Window's Live Writer for blogging though and getting used to a different operating system is going to take patience, which is not my strong point!

On a lighter note I happened to find something on clearance at Lowe's that changed my life! {only I would have a life changing experience at a home improvement store!} I got one of these...

It's a paint sprayer and I'm in love with it and the only reason it was on clearance was because it was the store display. Now I can use any color my little heart desires, plus no more spray paint dust all over my garage! Best. Thing. Ever.

I'm also pumped to go see this today!

Nothing better for mothers day than some girl time without the kids!!

Happy Mother's Day!!

Check me out

2011-05-04T03:47:00.001-07:00

Hey Chicas! I’m guest posting over at

today for What's in her bag Wednesday! Come on over and say hey

Glam {10 dollar} desk

2011-05-03T15:15:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago someone told me about Antique Alley, 25 miles of yard sales and small flea markets. Ummm, yes please! In a trailer full of junk a little desk lay dirty and alone, but all I saw were her pretty curved lines I asked the guy how much, he said 10 bucks, I ran over and paid him before he changed him mind. She was pretty nasty and need 3 baths in TSP and a good vacuum to get rid of spiders, eek!

{Before}

{after}

She’s Candy Pink by Rustoleum and the knobs are from Hobby Lobby {they were white and I used metallic silver to glam them up}. On the edges I used this…

Sorry for the bad pic, it was raining and dark so I had to use my flash. The top one is pearly white, I used the silver first and put the white on top. I also wanted to try to make a knock off Anthro mirror with this…

I followed directions from Mandi at Vintage Revivals and it was soooo easy!! { I’ll admit when using the acid I was SCARED, it was smoking from the bottle!} I had a hard time getting a good pic because of the sun coming in those windows next to it, but here it is.

I painted and glazed the frame and put hot pink zebra underneath. Love. Like a lot. I’m totally doing another one of these stat!

Oh and can we pretend that frame has a pretty pic of Miss M and I in the bluebonnets?? I had one printed out yesterday and for the life of me can’t find it anywhere! I hate when I do that, I’m sure as soon as I print out another one it will turn up

[Linking up}

Momma Hen Scoop

Bluebonnets

2011-04-28T14:54:00.001-07:00

They should totally make a bluebonnet colored spray paint! {just had to throw that out there!}

A neighbor of mine did a little photo shoot in the ones by my house….ohhhhh so freaking cute!!

Just a little cuteness to brighten your day

{pretty} little chairs

2011-04-27T17:03:00.001-07:00

I think I may be addicted to this little chairs I have 3 of them now, just sitting around my house making me happy with their cute fabric and bright colors!

The fabric I got at Hob Lob and while I was there I just happened to wander past the spray paint aisle….where I just HAD to have Krylon’s Gum Drop {the purple one}….shhhh don’t tell my boyfriend Rustoleum The green is Eden from good old rusty himself.

{if you would like to see the yellow one click here} I’m super heart loving that purple color though…hmmmm wonder what else I could do with it???

So yesterday at Wally World I picked up the most delish strawberries….huge and SO SWEET!! Yummmmmm. I was a good mom and shared with Miss Madison, but this is what happens when she’s done and you don’t take her plate away fast enough…

She’s taking a whip cream bath.

look at that cute mustache! I guess she watched me put them away and now apparently she can open the fridge by herself.

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions on keeping her from climbing out of her crib! I thought about getting a crib tent, but decided to just go ahead and put her in a big girl bed. I just took the front off her crib, I don’t understand why I need to pay 200 bucks for the conversion kit? She hasn’t rolled off the bed once, good to know because it saved me money She’s done really well, which totally shocked me! Of course she’s found new uses for it…

Which led to this…

So I spent some time rearranging, which she was not happy about. Never a dull day!

Happy Easter!

2011-04-23T18:10:00.001-07:00

Don’t you just want to eat her guts?? I love that she will actually WEAR hats, but no bows

We took her to her first egg hunt, but by the time it was time to hunt eggs she was pooped and ready to go take a nap!

I can always use a nap While going through the pics I came across one I thought was pretty funny.

My husband was totally checking out my a**! Nice to know I still got it!

Hope everyone is having a great Easter! My plan is to steal Madi’s candy from her Easter basket {apparently I’m no longer awesome enough to get my own basket!! ugh.} and do a crap ton of homework. 2 more weeks and then I’m free for the summer!!!! woo hoo!! I have a ton of projects I can’t wait to do!!

I spy

2011-04-21T05:54:00.001-07:00

I’m linking up to Little Miss Momma for the I spy, Nooks and Crannies, party!

I spy….Miss Madison and her Daddy watching UFC together at 6 in the morning.

My pretty little flowers I couldn’t resist while I enjoy my morning coffee.

I spy….the zebra head I scored for a buck at a yard sale. {love} {love}

A toddler who doesn’t like to be told ‘NO!’

The extra moment I had while getting dressed to finally wash my brushes.

The one lonely Easter decoration I put out.

Make sure you head on over to the PARTY

Happy Thursday!

Who is REALLY in charge.

2011-04-20T04:17:00.000-07:00

Do you want to know a terrifying way to wake up at 3am? Hearing your child scream from right outside your bedroom door when she should be sleeping in her crib! I was sure someone had broken in to the house and let her out because there is NO WAY she climbed out of this….

See the baby gate up vertically? The high part of the crib in front? That this is over her head and I have no clue how she got out!! I guess she wants a toddler bed even though I’m not ready for that, how do you keep her from getting out of bed and playing with her toys at night??

I’m also not ready for this.

This may sound bad, but diapers are just easier! She loves her potty and is always taking off her diaper and peeing in the pot over and over again. I just don’t know how to get her to hold it in between, guess I should really go buy a book about it.

I’m going into survival mode at school, finals finals finals. Stress, stress, stress. Why can’t she wait to grow up when I’m free for the summer? I guess we know who is REALLY in charge!

I have managed to get in a little crafting, it helps me destress

{before} a little table my nice neighbors gave me!

{after} A little metallic spray paint, black glaze and some swirl remover to make it shine {the stuff you use on cars!} gives it a mirrored finish!

Heppy Hump Day! Oh man, I'm so tired I can't even spell happy right.

Pretty in Pink

2011-04-11T14:17:00.001-07:00

I heart pink. Like a lot. I wear it, paint with it and would totally drive a pink car if my husband would ‘let’ me! {On a side note I saw a Zebra painted SUV and have concluded that, YES, there is such a thing as too much zebra!} So back to my love of pink, once I hung pink curtains in the living room. My husband was ok with it because it was around my birthday and he wanted to be nice, but this time when I started to carry in pink furniture, he asked me if why I was trying to emasculate the house. I told him to be happy I only wanted a pink corner and not a pink accent wall

The corner was just so DARK before, it needed some color!

Ok, maybe it’s just the table, I just felt the pink on the walls needed some a pink friend.

$20 dollar thrift store deal+ Rustoleum {berry pink and silver} with a little black glaze on the top.

I even put a little design on the top and stenciled with spray paint! Worked like a charm!

In other news we ran another 5k this weekend and I’m soooo proud of my hubs! He ran it in 32 minutes which is 2 minutes faster than last month!! {For those of you who are new, this is his 3rd 5k and he’s never been a runner, I got him hooked!} My time was 30:37, which is my best time to date. I even had a super nice compliment from a stranger, she came up to me after the race and told me she was really impressed with my pace. Sooo made my day!

We had a blast and I even convinced him to do a 10k with me next month. Hopefully it’s not 95 degrees outside!

Happy Monday!

Favorite Things

2011-04-06T15:11:00.001-07:00

I’m feeling the need to spread some love of my favorite things, so I’m linking up over at Cleared For Takeoff for the My Favorite Things~ March edition!

I’m super heart loving the Tiara Tees from My Tiara Fits, they are soft and ‘worn’ looking and just so cute!

I even look cute from behind

Maybe because Spring has finally sprung, but I’m obsessed with decorating my head with flowers!

{Excuse the windblown hair, we’ve had 90 mph winds like everyday for the last week!}

This headband is from Junkie Headbands and I really want to get another in brown tones

Some of you know that I love playing soccer, but it comes with a downfall…..soccer tan.

So not pretty and I just refuse to wear shorts with that tan line! So break out the 20% off {your ENTIRE purchase!} coupon and run out to Ulta and grab the best self tanner ever.

It’s kinda pricey at 21 bucks, but so worth it! The towels are easy to use, the color looks awesome and NO STREAKS!

Happy Hump Day!

Fun and games= sweaty babies

2011-04-04T06:17:00.001-07:00

Although I was pretty sad my baby was going to be 2, parties are MUCH more fun because kids this age are so active! I decided our big yard needed a big bounce house

This was my first experience renting one and I have to say it was worth every. single. penny. Madison jumped, climbed and slid until 9pm that night! Her cute little cheeks were so flushed!

Another big hit with the toddlers was her present from Oma and Opa.

My First Trampoline from Sam’s club, I only wish I could get in and jump too! Unfortunately no one over 100 pds can use it

The big bubble wands and the punch balloons were a big hit too. {Bubble wands from Michael’s and punch balloon from the dollar store!}

She was so busy we only got one good shot together, I imagine one day she won’t even want to take ANY pictures with me!

{2 years ago today}

Awwww cute baby butt My little 5 pd 11 0z Sweet Pea has outgrown all her friends….

{2 years later}

I decided to go ahead and get her haircut and I’m soooo glad I did, evening it up makes her toddler ‘crazy’ hair look normal! {As of today she weigh’s 30.5 pounds which makes carrying her dead sleeping weight at wal-mart EXTREMELY difficult!}

And just for the record I totally went and grabbed a stroller from the baby section and used it while we were there Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do!

Owl themed {2nd} Birthday!

2011-04-03T05:26:00.001-07:00

It all started with these cute little Owl pillows I saw online at Design Dazzle, I emailed it to my Mom to show her how cute they were and the next thing I know she is sewing up a storm to create a different one for each child at the party!

They were a big hit

After that cuteness things just spiraled out of control with all the owl’s out there!

Vinyl owl banner from Personalization Mall.

Paper bunting {source towards end of post} and windmills from Hobby Lobby {Madison LOVES them!}

My Mom also made a canvas tote with iron on transfers of an owl filled with some goodies for each kid.

Cake from Say it with sugar in Wylie, TX.

Of course we had a candy table, which was a big hit Windmills from Hob Lob and the owl treat bags are from Etsy, Kreative Kelors.

These adorable cups are from Party City and we tied owl’s to them with each child’s name.

For all the paper items {bunting, circles of owls, water bottle covers, big signs for out on the road, food and candy station signs and so much more!} we used Dimple Prints and it was only 10 bucks for a file and just print out what you need!

Of course Miss Madison had to have a cute owl shirt to wear! Also made my my Mom {who obviously puts Martha to shame }.

Part 2 tomorrow!

{pretty} tulle

2011-04-01T05:00:00.000-07:00

It’s been a rough week for me. I’m a Business major at University of Texas and while I {mostly} love being in school right now math is NOT my strong subject. For some reason I thought taking 2 at the same time would be awesome and I had a hard Calculus II test yesterday. For me that equals DAYS of studying and dreaming of derivatives and integrals Pretty sure it paid off though!

Now I have to focus on cleaning my entire house before the big party for Miss M tomorrow, not sure why I feel the urge to scrub the showers, I mean who comes to a party and asks to see your shower? Which also meant I should maybe take down my V-day wreath and I can’t just have a naked door! So off to Hobby Lobby we go!

{totally super cute video of me teaching Miss M a VERY important word!}

I knew I wanted to use tulle, so I picked yellow and blue {I’m having a craving for some yellow lately} and just chopped them up in to random pieces. {Literally just gathered it in random places and cut it!}
edit: I used around 2 yards total.

Then gathered it like so.

And stuck it to a foam wreath covered with ribbon. edit again: I used those silver tiny pins you buy in the fabric section to stick it on.

Then I added some pretty pink flowers because, well, I just love some pink

I super heart love it because it was soooo easy and fast to do!

Happy Friday!