BIG SALE!

American Eagle is having 30% off already reduced clearance items. I shopped online, so I don't know if it's in stores or not. For $50 today, I ordered a pair of jeans for me, a pair of jeans for the boy, a sweater for me and a necklace (duh, for me). We only wear AE jeans and the boy's length is only available online (go figure).


Make sure you become a fan on Facebook of all your fave shopping joints. That's how I found out about this sweet AE deal and Old Navy is always putting their specials on FB. I can't wait til my new stuff comes in!

Saturday Music

New music from Train. I've never been a fan of them before but this is intoxicating. I can't help but dance around my house and sing...



Train "Hey, Soul Sister"

Linen/Coat Closet Organizing

Our little house has a closet. A closet that must hold coats, jackets, vacuums, towels, sheets, extra blankets, rugs, washcloths, on and on. Before I got the organizing bug, it was out of control. I couldn't reach most of what was stored up high and our jackets were wrinkled because of the cramped quarters.

First, I moved my coats and jackets to the small closet in my dressing room, leaving only the boy's stuff. Then I cleaned everything out of the closet and grabbed my hanging sweater organizer that used to have a home in my apartment's craft closet.

I used the hanging organizer and placed all our washcloths, hand towels, pillow cases, shams and small bath rugs top to bottom.

Next up... sorting this mess.

We had full size sheets, queen size sheets, mis-matched (ugly) flat and fitted sheets, hole-y oldies and more. Did I mention we only have one bed in the house and it's a king? Most of this pile went to my mom and sister, leaving even MORE room on the upper shelves.

I moved our bath towels over to the left side (closest to the bathroom) on the lower shelf and folded all our king size sheets on the far right, giving me easy access without having to pull in a dining room chair. The upper shelf got our spare blankets... stuff I don't need all the time.


Vacuums stayed put (yes we have more than one, why I don't know) and the boy's coats were sandwiched on either side of the sweater organizer.


Hello, (coat-slash-linen closet) Lover! This was a great and easy project to tackle and every time I open that door, I feel SO much better. I've also found two great uses for the hanging sweater organizer. Stay tuned for what I did with the hanging shoe organizer from the same craft closet.

To Cut or Not to Cut?

I am really wanting to cut my hair. REALLY wanting to cut my hair. I have had short hair (about chin length) for the last two years. Before that, I spent a few years growing my hair out long. I'd like to have long hair for the wedding, but...

The longest layers of my hair now are past shoulder length, but a few shorter layers are up around my ears. I've also been growing my bangs out and I can just now tuck them behind my ear. I've also adopted a little pony tail as my favorite quick hair fix. The easiness of the pony tail makes me not want to cut my hair, but...

But... How stinking cute is this?

I want short hair again.

Today Is A New Day

I took this picture almost exactly one year ago on a road trip for work. It was early and cold. I remember that morning... I felt good. I think because it was so beautiful out.

We Have a Venue!!!

Thanks to my Groomzilla*, we have a venue. We viewed a renovated historic firehouse downtown on Saturday and fell in love.

The main hall has a bar and catering set up, brick walls, twinkly lights, and more than enough room for our 200 guests.

The boy signed the contract today, got the information on the church where we are getting married, spoke with the pastor officiating our ceremony, and spoke with our caterer. He's doing all the things I don't want to. Namely, negotiating and writing checks. It's nice to have a partner in this. Even if we don't see eye to eye on the decorating inspiration.

*He can be my Groomzilla if he keeps paying for things. All day long.

A Headboard Project

My beau and I decided to reupholster our headboard and we decided we would do the project together. Headboard projects are kind of... plentiful... in the decorating blogger world. Everyone does one and they do a tutorial on how they did it. Forgive me if you have heard this all before. I can tell you my project involves recycling and injuries. Who else can say that???

The headboard looked like this:

Black. Black polyester to be exact. Originally, the door was a cast off from the first apartment complex I worked at. I painted it black and it looked great with the black/white/hot pink scheme I had in my bedroom. When I moved in with the boy, we kept the black. Before I painted our last master bedroom chocolate brown, I decided the headboard needed some cushion. I wrapped it with batting and covered it in the black polyester.

Anyone ever tell you black polyester shows a lot of dust and dog hair? Did I ever tell you I have two dogs?

After painting the bedroom brown, I wanted to re-cover the headboard in a cream colored duck cloth. I never got around to it. Now with it in our small master bedroom and wanting to go with a chocolate color scheme again, the black was so... so... depressing. It was like a big black hole in the bedroom.

I purchased the quilt you see in the above picture and knew the headboard had to change. The boy cut the door down so it wasn't as tall, removed the legs, batting and glue from before and I picked out burlap to cover it.


We put the headboard across two chairs in the living room and pulled out the supplies:
* Heavy duty stapler & staples
* Burlap to cover the front, with at least three inches overhang in the back for pulling and stapling.
* Batting (or something in it's place)
* Two 1x2's for legs

Wait... batting... or something in it's place? Like what??? Glad you asked. I "thought" I had enough batting left over from another project. I "thought" wrong. I was about to call the project off until out of the corner of my eye I saw a box intended for the trash pile. Daisy had just gotten ahold of the edge of a full size quilted mattress cover I was trying to find a home for. She had barely torn the edge before we caught her and stopped her. My mind started working...

I folded the full size cover in half and it was perfect size for the headboard now that it had been cut down.


Justin went staple crazy and made sure the mattress cover wasn't going anywhere. We didn't worry about any overhang to staple the cover to the back, we simply put our staples on the front side.


Once the burlap was cut to fit, we decided no amount of stretching would take the wrinkles out of the burlap. I've never ironed burlap. I was concerned the natural fibers would melt or scorch. Justin tried the iron on the back side with a little water (he's the family iron-er). Outside of a little burning smell, we didn't see any issues and started ironing away.


This is where the injury takes place. Justin pulled the iron cord out of the outlet and it swung back and caught our dear Daisy girl in the eye. Daisy and I started crying. Her eye lid got a little swollen, but luckily there were no marks or shadows on her eye ball. We did baby her a lot that night and she took a visit to the vet the next day where she was given a clean bill of health.

Once the crying stopped and Justin quit kicking himself, we got back to work. We flipped the door over so the back was on top. We started on the bottom and I pulled the fabric tight while Justin stapled. We then moved to the top side where I pulled as tight as possible, all while checking the front side to prevent puckering or dimples. We then did the corners, tucking and folding like a present.


Once stapled, we took measurements and Justin screwed the headboards legs on.


And the finished project:

The burlap was still a little wrinkled and a little damp in places but instead of messing with it we decided to let the fabric work itself out (which it did).

We secured the bed frame to the headboard with some large nuts and bolts. The dogs couldn't wait to model their new headboard.


Since the door was free, the mattress cover was a recycle, and we had all the nuts and bolts of the project, the total cost was $9.45, or the cost of the burlap fabric. We couldn't be happier with it. Our quilt is two-sided, and I prefer this side:

The burlap feels very country with the colorful side of the quilt and not so much with the brown.

So what do you think? Is my repeat headboard tutorial any good?

P.S. This quilt was a steal. KMart had this 5-piece set (two shams, king size quilt, decorative pillow, matching tote bag) was on sale for $24.99. STEAL!

Wrapping Paper Organizer Laughs

While organizing our back room, I was left with stacks of shirt boxes, ribbon, bows and rolls of wrapping paper from the holidays. I looked around and couldn't see any good place to keep these things, and I couldn't find a reason why it needed to be out all the time. We have an unfinished basement where we store all of our stuff (junk) and I had a bright idea.

Why don't I take a big box, organize everything inside and store the box in the basement?

So my (ridiculous) idea ended up looking like this:

And I was proud of myself over it.

That's right people, I was PROUD of a box of wrapping paper. PROUD. I felt like I'd really accomplished something. I'm not kidding. Maybe I'd had too much coffee... or not enough.

So I photograph my box of boxes, put it down in the basement and start planning the blog post I'll write on simple ways to organize. (You're either laughing at me or calling me stupid. Or both. It's okay, really.)

The following Monday, I open Blogger and Centsational Girl was in my reader with a post on her DIY Wrapping and Ribbon Organizer. A DIY Wrapping and Ribbon Organizer that looks like this:


Seriously.

I laughed out loud and realized I am way out of my league in the blogging world. WAY OUT OF MY LEAGUE. So if you're interested in a REAL organizing project, visit Centsational Girl. She's way better than me.

All photos from
And she really is way better than me at this. You should go to her site. NOW.

Girl Decor/Boy Decor

I was going over my posts from the last year like so many bloggers do and I realized how much my design plans change when going from a girl only house to a boy/girl (plus dogs) house.

In my apartment, I was planning a bathroom that would look like this:

Could I still do this pink and green? Yes. Would the boy like it? Probably not.

I had just purchased a new bedding set in June and was looking at this color palette for the bedroom:

Could I still do this pink and blue? Yes. Would the boy like it? Probably not.

I find myself now going back to the things I had in the old house. Not so much fluff... not so much pink.


The boy likes brown. A lot. I chose our new bedding because of this preference.


The boy also likes modern, clean lined design. He likes glass. And metal. I like chipping wood and built-ins. He wants a bigger tv. I don't know where a bigger tv would go. Luckily, I know enough of what he likes to pick things that are clean-lined for him, but with the rustic touch I love. Compromise is key.

Do you and your spouse/roommate/family have different design styles?

Daisy's Pic of the Week

Snuggled up, snoozing.

A Tale of Two Fireplaces

It was the best of fireplaces... it was the worst of fireplaces. Before, so ugly we couldn't stand it. After, a beauty in bright white. One bottle of wine in me and we got to work. First, photos of the horribly tragic before...


How about a close-up of the painted on mortar lines? Don't look for too long... Your eyes may bleed.

You still there? Can you still see the screen? I told you it was bad.

Wait... did I mention the red marble hearth? I didn't? Lucky you!!! Look at the bottom of the first photo... see that? It's heavy. And now in our basement. It's a hell of a paper weight.

We ran to Lowe's for the boys work and he detoured to the paint for our fireplace. On the spot, I had to choose the perfect white paint to try and match our existing trim. I chose Valspar Satin Bistro White. We stopped off for some (nasty but I still drank it) wine and headed home to forever change our (fireplace) lives.



It felt so good to see the brick red paint disappear... sooooo good. And it didn't take long at all to make it white perfect.

I don't even think it took two coats, it was so fast. Or maybe I was just drinking and two coats came and went pretty fast.

As soon as the paint dried, I was putting our Christmas decorations back up.


Next step, do something with the screen or get a new one. But for now, I'm just happy there are no more painted on mortar lines! The steps to a painted fireplace are as follows:
1) Take decor off, remove any nails.*
2) Wipe 'er down.*
3) Paint.*
Easy peasy! This was the start to our holiday paint madness. Stay tuned!

*Drinking wine can help each of these steps.

Duke's Pic of the Week

Lounging on Grandma's Foot Stool