Hutch Make-Over

We did not have a place to put our China so we bought an armoire several years ago. We taped scrap book paper on the doors and against the back.

We glued ribbon to finish the look.

Scrapbook paper + Ribbon + Tape= Custom made armoire

Wide Awake

Tonight I decided to go to bed early.

At 8:47pm I was showered and in my pj's. I crawled into my bed armed with decorating magazines and books.

At 10 something I was tired of reading so out went the lights.

Tick tock tick tock tick tock TICK TOCK.

I have settled some very important issues while I've laid awake. For example, dessert for Community Group tommorow night. It is going to be cupcakes with icing and sprinkles. Very festive.

Now it is after midnight and there is one pressing question that will not leave my mind.

WHERE IN THE HECK IS ALL THE CHOCOLATE IN THIS HOUSE???

Uncle

Uncle! Uncle! I give up! Uncle!

I realize last night I smack talked about not givin' a rip about the mound of laundry that was piling up in the laundry room. That was just the Harvest Moon talkin'.
This morning we decided to tackle the mountain. Does a wash full of hot, soapy water make you happy too?

This feels much better.

Rest

This week has been filled with rest.

The wheels fell off my bus. Not literally but I have been so sick. Tuesday I woke up looking like Will Smith in the movie HITCH. Shane whisked me to the eye doctor and long story short I've just been a mess this week.

Hence all the rest.

No make-up.

Jammies all day.

Early bedtime.

No make-up.

Pizza Pizza, $5.

We decorated for FALL yesterday.

Cheeser Cheeser $5.

The house says Thank You for warming me up with lots of fake foliage.

Piles of dirty laundry I could care less about are waiting on me.

Redbox rental of Tinkerbell. You must rent this and watch it at night with all the lights out. It's a magical, twinkly movie. So cute. ( magical in a pixie dust kind of way)

I've discovered my two year old will sit still and let me sit cheek to cheek to him and read.

Falling leaves, Mulled Cider candles, football games, chips and dips, MAN, what's not to love about this time of year?!!!!!

(Please excuse the random nature of this post)

Fall Kick-Off

Please join me at my house this Thursday, September 23rd

from 6:30-7:30

for a Fall Kick-Off Party

Football Season is in full swing

Drop by to SCORE 25-50% discounts on any jewelry you see that you love (jewelry will be on my kitchen table, browse if you want)

SCORE some yummy football food

SCORE some time away from the kids

The End Zone will be filled with an array of your favorite game-time food

Score a Touchdown by getting out for an hour this Thursday night with the girls.

Bring a friend. Browse, Eat, Sit and Enjoy Friendships

this is a casual, laid back time at my house. we're gonna sit around and talk fashion, decorating, cooking, all things fall, home and wonderful!

Custom Shower Curtain

Our house has this monstrosity instead of a curtain, which is not the most pretty thing to look at.
When we moved in I hung our fabric shower curtain to hide it. The thing about a store bought shower curtain is that they are never the right size. Don't you love a grand shower curtain that goes to the floor and is near the ceiling?

I went down to the Targe' and got another curtain rod. I took my red plaid curtain and hung it lower to the ground. The new curtain rod was hung over a foot higher.

My topper is 1/2 yard of fabric with pretty ribbon glued on the bottom to trim it. I clipped a piece of black gross grain ribbon to add interest.

You could do this, it was easy and affordable. Huh, you might want to iron your fabric. Or just be patient. After a few showers the wrinkles should steam out.

You will love the full look of customizing your curtain.

be free my brutha, be free

my friend's son collin is in 1st grade and one day after church he went down the nursery hall and slung open the door to his little brother's classroom and said, "be free my brutha, be free!"

very funny indeed.

that seems like a good story to explain my absence on my blog lately. long story short we've been busy. busy in a strategic, wonderful, productive, intentional way. did i just say the same thing 10 different ways? dang, my husband says i do that to him too.

we talked about what we wanted a few weeks ago and the word structure and simplicity came to mind for both of us.

oh i have so much to talk to you about. things like houndstooth fabric, bathrooms, garages, bible studies, school stuff, all things fabric/trim/ribbon, recipes, a new twist in my decorating style, green paint, blue paint, red fish, blue fish. i hope you are up for it because these next few days are going to be fun filled around here.

we are going to be talking about freedom and possibility. it is going to be a fun chance for you to think about what you've been wanting to try lately but just haven't gotten around to. i'm not even just talking decorating wise here either. i'm talking anything. are there some things you've been wanting to do or try in life? be thinking about that, not to post on any blog but just for your pure enjoyment. what do you want?

the above photo: a sneak peak at something that i've been wanting to try for 10 months and got around to doing. stay tuned...as for now, it's after midnight, i traveled for my work tonight and am back home, in my pj's, ready to go to bed and am suddenly remembering one of my son's crawled in my bed in the middle of the night last night and pee peed, oops. we hit the floor running this morning and i went of of town and just got home and sat down, and blah blah blah i haven't had time to change the sheets, be on the lookout for pictures (not of pee pee sheets) . in the meantime i'm going to see if there's an open bunk in the casa so i can count those fluffy white sheep cause girl you know i'm not about to change sheets at midnight and the queen also doesn't sleep on pee pee sheets.

The Fridge

Spend 15 minutes today cleaning out the fridge. Don't drag out every single thing and go crazy. Quickly go shelf by shelf. Toss what is old. Toss what you don't really use. Give each shelf a quick wipe down. Small task with big rewards.

Kitchen

This is exciting that we are starting in the kitchen today. Let me tell you a story about 10 years ago when Shane and I were newlyweds living in a one bedroom one bath cute little apartment by the mall.

Every Friday was cleanin day. We'd both work on the 900 square foot apartment for 1-2 hours. Multiplied by 2 that's 2-4 hours of cleaning every week. Picking up, dusting, mopping, bathroom, vacuuming. The normal basic type cleaning.

By Sunday night, two days later, the place would look like a war zone again. Toothpaste on the sink and mirror. Stuff scattered here and there. Why? The answer is simple. We had too much stuff. Because our stuff did not all have a set place, piles would get shoved in the closets, drawers and under the bed. Hidden hotspots.

That is when I met Flylady. She taught me how to DECLUTTER. How to let go of all the stuff that was robbing my house of the feeling of joy and peace.

The very first place I started was in my Kitchen which is where we are starting today.

Can you spend 15 minutes in your Kitchen today?

Take a damp rag and wipe down the front of your kitchen cabinets.

NOW, if your kitchen is out of control that is OK. Click here and learn How To Declutter.

Basically you will open a cabinet or drawer and have 2 grocery sacks ready. One is Trash. One is GIVE AWAY. Your goal is to fill each bag with 27 things. Just open and GO, don't think just THROW.

If you don't still use it or love it or smile when you see it GET IT OUT OF YOUR HOUSE.

If you do this mission we'd love to hear what you think, stop back by and give us your thoughts. You may be the encouragement another mom needs today.

Thank you and have a nice day.

Spit Spot

Attention Readers, This is your Captain Speaking.

Today is September 6th, Labor Day. Enjoy it because tomorrow we get cracking. If you have been in Hobby Lobby any time over the last 8 weeks you know Christmas is just around the corner. In 60 days we will be in the month of November. That gives us precisely 2 months to Bless Our Homes and get them in organized, working, cleaned out, sparkling order so the months of November, December & January can be spent indoors. Enjoying our families. Enjoying having friends over. Baking. Sitting by a lit tree. Playing cheerful music in our homes. And world peace.

Take a good look at this picture. It is the epitome of warmth and coziness. You don't have to live in your dream home with your dream furnishings to enjoy it. We are going to start with clearing out what we don't love and shining the rest up so sparkles and shines.
The best starting point I know of is FLYLADY. Love her, hate her, I know you have an opinion but I'm telling you, her systems work. Just don't sign up for her daily emails or you'll be freaking out. One day you'll mosey on over to your inbox and think you've won the popularity contest because you have 47 new messages waiting on you. Nope. It'll just be a gazillion things you accidentally signed up for on her page. Don't go there. The best things you want to check out on her page are: GETTING STARTED, DECLUTTERING, CONTROL JOURNAL, ZONEWORK, DAILY MISSIONS. Do you read me? Good.
A control journal is a high tech word for a place you put all your routines and systems so they don't accumulate in a stash in your husband's underwear drawer because you did a mad stash and dash before company came.

This is what my TOC looks like. The Emergency Numbers page is awesome. Mine is outdated by, oh I don't know, 6 years or so when we lived in another city. BUT, that will be fixed soon enough. It's where you can list the Fire Dept, Po Po, Electric Company, Sanitation Dept, Poison Control, Plumber, Electrician etc... It is a lifesaver for those situation when your kid flushes an entire roll of toilet paper down the hatch and you need a Plumber ASAP.

Are you still with me or did you dump me because you "just want to be friends?" Are you on board or am I flying solo on the getting my house ready for THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR?

Bag of clothes

I have been in need of some time outside of the house without kiddos. It has been hard lately. My sweet two year old has been two handfuls. Shane gave me some time to get out of the house yesterday. As I was browsing through Old Navy it was like hitting the jackpot. I found 13 things that fit really well and were really cute.

Just for curiosity I took them up front and asked the lady to ring it all up. $131.00. She said she'd hold them until the end of the day. Pretty certain of the answer I asked Shane if I could get them. Not this month. Our money is already accounted for in the form of bills. Then as I was leaving Old Navy my eyes spotted a precious white and green lamp on clearance for less than $10 at the decorating store next door.

As I drove away empty handed I was pretty bummed. The thing I was striving for was to honor my husband and do a little thing God likes to refer to as "denying yourself."

All afternoon all I could think about was how I could get that bag of clothes into my hands. As I was walking to the mailbox I would not have been the least bit surprised if there would have been some kind of money in the mail from overpaying our Mortgage or something. We've experience God doing stuff like that all throughout our marriage.

Tonight we had prayer meeting. Psalm 119 was where I was reading. This is what He said to me. Choose the way of truth. I will strengthen you even though I know you are sad because you wanted those clothes and the lamp. Run in the path of my commands and I will set your heart free. Turn your heart toward my statutes and not toward selfish gain. Turn your eyes away from worthless things. I'll preserve your life.

It was really sweet for God to tell me those words. So then as I was leaving there were 2 ladies in the parking lot and I stopped to visit. One was a lady I hadn't officially met so we introduced ourselves. Then a 3rd lady came. As the 4 of us stood talking I found out the new lady I met own's a really pretty clothing boutique downtown.

God used the three ladies to send a message straight to me, and they had no idea God was speaking through their conversation sending a message straight to me. One of the ladies starts talking about OLD NAVY clothing and how the quality isn't that great lately. The recent things she has purchased from there faded and looked very worn after only a few washes. The other ladies were in complete agreement that the clothes they had gotten from there only held up for a season or two.

Well, I got in my bus and laughed with God. That is so like him to put you in a group of women and talk straight to what is going on with your life.

God is such a sweet provider. He sees you. The gut wrenching painful things all the way down to the wants and desires of your heart.

He sees it all and you are not forgotten, nor are the desires of your heart.

(p.s. THE BLOG OF BUGS AND SUNSHINE STILL LOVES OLD NAVY CLOTHING AND REALIZES YOU CAN WASH ANYTHING IN COLD WATER AND LINE DRY IT AND IT WILL LOOK BETTER LONGER. THANK YOU AND HAVE A NICE DAY)

Lamp Cords

Do you ever notice how Pottery Barn Lamps have invisible cords?
Do you ever arrange and have an unsightly cord peeping out?

Here is your solution...tape...masking...duck...it doesn't matter. This appears to be painter's tape. Tape that puppy to the back of your furniture. Go ahead, it's the trendy decorating thing to do, trust me.

That is much better.