The Shabby Nest: A Super Fantabulous Product Giveaway

The Shabby Nest: A Super Fantabulous Product Giveaway

OMG, I've been drooling over this thing forever. I was gonna ask my hunky guy for one for Christmas, but I don't know...maybe if I won it, then I could ask him for something else. ; )




Check out this wonderful give away for a Silhouette Die Cut Machine.



Hugs to all,

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Many of you know that my sweet, baby boy already had to miss 2 days of kindergarten.  His AWESOME, SUPER teacher and her wonderful assistant sent home one of the activities that he missed on Friday.  We took full advantage of the fun!  He and his older sister enjoyed following the directions to make a snack that went with the book Chicka Chicka Boom.  He had to wear his safari hat for the occassion.  FUN STUFF!!!

Where, Oh Where Did My Lazy Days Go?

Ho hum, well, school started back...ho hum.  I miss summer.  I love my job, but honestly, if I didn't have to work- I would love that, too. :0)  It seems like the weekend takes forever to get here and then it's gone when you blink your eyes.  My kids are kinda like that, too.  It took forever for them to get here and next year Bobo will be driving.  Seriously?  Crazy!!!

I spent my Saturday cleaning and organizing. I blinked and the day was over.  One linen closet clean. Check.  Armoire in the bedroom weeded out.  Check.  Kitchen cleaned, sanitized and mopped.  Check. Living area mopped.  Check.  Linens washed.  Check.

Before, my summer was quickly snagged from me.  I was able to make a few things.  Here's one of my little projects.  I was inspired by another blogger, but can't seem to find her page right now.  When I do, I certainly will give her credit.  Hers was very similar to mine so I quickly copy catted it!!!

  This wreath  was really. really easy, but did take a lot of time.  I just tied the ribbon and fabric in knots onto one of those wire wreath thingy majigs that you can pick up at hobby lobby for a couple of bucks.  My fingers would get sore so I'd have to take a break for a day or so, then I'd come back to it.  It's a lot of tying.  I finished it and hung it on my front door but decided I didn't like it there.  Then, I put it in my living room didn't like it there either.  It migrated to my bathroom on one of those blank walls over the tub.

I'm still thinking of adding a big ol' "R" to the center of it.  Hmmmmm....that may be a project for today.  Ya'll know I'm monogram crazy.  My kids say, "What's with all the  "R's" in this house?"  Bird (aka Jayden) said the other day, "Mama, we're making a whole new house.  We're changing everything."   I say, "Well, we had a very productive summer with our paint cans."  :0)

First Day of School

OK, for the first day of school festivities I arose at the crack of dawn to make alphabet pancakes for the kiddos.  NO, I do not do this every day or even every year.  I just wanted to somehow attempt to start their day off right.   The little's loved it.  The bigs rolled their eyes at it.  I wasn't surprised by the responses.  Also, did you know that middle schoolers DETEST having their picture made first thing in the morning?

He was struggling here...just rolled outta the bed.  But you can see the excitement in his face.

Just wondering if anyone else's husband keeps it soooooooooooo cold in your house at night that as soon as you step outside with the camera, the lens fogs up?  Who likes struggling with a foggy lens.?  Doesn't Jayden look sooooo excited?

See, no foggy lens here.  They are adorable!

Jayden with his kindergarten teacher, Ms. Renee (otherwise known as Ms. "Hot").   We'll leave it at that.

Erin and Ms. Dohne!  She already loves her.  She ABSOLUTELY loves that her best friend, Emily is in her class.  They haven't been together since kindergarten. 

This afternoon!

I wish it were really like this, but I must confess that they came and asked me to take a picture of them "fake" sleeping.  Ok, so it's fake.  It's still cute as a bug!  Love them!

******edited to add******

The hunky guy made me add that he had to eat plain ol' round pancakes.  He did not get to partake in the alphabet ones...lol.

Linking up to Frugal Friday

Look what we did today!!!

Okay, the other day I was browsing around and ran across a site with a tutorial for a RAINBOW CAKE.  Sadly Fortunately, my sweet youngest two children happened to see me looking at it.  Before long I had promised to make one without thinking about what I was really getting myself into.  Actually, I kind of, really wanted to make it because it looked so cool.

Since the diet starts on Monday, I thought I might as well take full advantage of my pre-diet weekend.  We didn't make the diet version, but the full FAT version.  It makes me smile to think about it.  Highly recommend this for kids.  We had a blast making it together.  The worst part was waiting for it to cool so we could ice it.

Please, ignore the gang signs in the background.

Doesn't the inside look really cool?

Just one more look...in case you're curious.

Have a great last weekend before school starts.

Hey, I'm linking up at the weekend wrapup party over at Tatertots and Jello!  Fun stuff to look at!

The Book

Quite a while ago, someone that I love dearly recommended a book to me.  I heard her say it.  I remembered the title, BUT I never sought out the book or read it.   This was probably about 2 years prior to now.  Recently, my mom and Dad went out of town.  She nonchalantly said, "Hey, I left a book for you and Ken to read on the kitchen table.  Grab it when you come over to water the garden for me."    So I did.  It was THAT book.  

Hmmmmm...what's God up to?  I looked at the title and again thought...do I wanna read this?  I read the first chapter and then I set it aside in the BATHROOM.  Don't think I'm gross.  You know you do the same thing, too.  Well, the hunky guy picked it up and looked at it...he, too, read the first chapter and thought...yeah, here we go again.   He even told me, "I'm probably not gonna read this.  It's fiction."  He left it in the bathroom.  I didn't read anymore, but he, well, uh, he goes to the bathroom a lot.  I guess he was bored.   He read more...and more...and more...and then it wasn't in the bathroom anymore.   He became obsessed with it.   I couldn't read it because he always had it.  I HAD to download a copy onto my ipod just so that I could read it, too.  Yes, I paid for it and we already owned the book.  I know that's not exactly frugal, but I was very curious, now.  He would ask, "Where are you at?"  and "Have you got to the part that ???? happens?"  I couldn't keep up with him.   It was intriguing. 

Little things in the book would be exact replica's of his/our lives.  For example, the main character is in an accountability group.  The only two people named in the accountability group have the same names as two guys that Ken meets(I say that loosely) with in an accountability group.  One of the names is not a common name.  The main character in the book uses the term "smoke and mirrors".   Ken uses that same terminology to describe the same thing on a regular basis.  I haven't heard anyone else do that.  It just seems God needed to put an exclamation point on this book, so we would know he was using it to speak to us.  It has spoken to us.  I can't seem to get it out of my head. 

It's reformed the way we were looking at church...even MORE.  So, if we have talked to you about church prior to 3-4 weeks ago...please, disregard  a lot of what we've said and just give us a call.  We'll talk to you again.   Some of what we said is still RIGHT, but some of it is just downright ARROGANCE with a little PRIDE stirred in.   Yeah, that's probably still not making any sense to you right now, but you need to read the book. 

The book is titled "So You Don't Want to Go To Church Anymore".  It's a fictional title that you can find here.    AND OHMYGOODNESS!!!  When I just did a search for this book, I realized that you can read it FOR FREE online.  They've posted a pdf of the entire book on the author's website!!!  So, I'm a little psyched that he's not trying to just make $$$.  My confidence in him just went up even more.  He really has a message that he wants to get out.  I was seriously just gonna link to the place to buy it and had no idea that you could read it for free.  We have a couple of paperback copies but we've loaned them out currently.  The hunky guy ordered them from Amazon before he even finished the book.  It's that good.  He wanted to share it with our friends.  When they come back to us, I will be more than happy to loan them out to anyone interested.  I just ask that you read it and give it back.  Don't let it sit.  It really is a good BOOK.


PS   I'm messing around with the design of my blog.   Be patient with me...I'm still playing.

A Good Word...that needs to be heard by ME.

I read this just a few minutes ago...minutes before I'm about to paint my living room...a daunting task...one day before a family joins us for dinner, 6 days before I have about 20 women to my home to share a meal and our lives while looking at His word.   I needed this.  Go God.

Valance...wow!

Ok, so I promised I would post more as  it occurs.   Lately, I've finished up all the door knobs on the first floor, with the exception of the front entrance.  That one is slightly intimidating me, but I WILL CONQUER  it.  No pictures of that!  

Today my hunky guy went away on a guy's only overnight trip.  He left me alone AND I was left in the mood to be creative.  Well, he's not here...we don't want or need to create anymore offspring...lol....soooo I had to do it.  I had to make something.  Picture below.

Please, excuse the soap on the side of the tub and the tag STILL hanging on the blinds.  It's only been on there almost 8 years.   Yes, there is water in the tub.  I was about to enjoy some relaxation and decided I needed pictures from a different angle.  LUV ME, in spite of my laziness.

Anyway,   I still need a plaque or something over the window over the valance.  AND the monogram is a little crooked.  I could take it all down and pull off the trim and fix it, BUT I am way to lazy for that.  Once it's this far gone...it's like a pain to fix.  I think I can live with it.  It looked straight before I hung it...lol.  About the expanse of wall over the window.  I love 9 ft. ceilings but sometimes I'm at a loss as how to decorate all those spaces uniquely.   Hmmmm...maybe I need to invest in some cool vinyl saying or scripture to go over my bath.    I'm taking suggestions.  Be sure and leave yours in my comments.   In case you didn't know this is the bath off the master bedroom that we just finished painting.  It was also that steelly blue color before.  Now, it's "coffee with cream" or one wild kid child calls it "peanut butter".   Sooo, there you have it!   By the way, while I would love to take full credit for this, I first saw a vision of it after reading this post and then this post.  And then it was "voila" (I had to really think about how you spell that). 

Hugs to all of you.  Wonder what the hunky guy will say when he gets back to town?  We'll see.

The Road to a Cozier Home

Okay, so I haven't blogged in...oh...about 18 months. I've had a change of heart. After hours and hours of perusing hundreds of blogs and sites looking at home dec stuff and diy stuff, I decided it was time to crank up the blog again.

Since I only have about ONE reader, they probably know that I have been painting...painting...painting...and I still have more painting. We started with the master bedroom. It was so neglected. When people would come over we would even resort to locking the door to keep it from being seen in its neglected, messy, unorganized state. Not only was it the drop off for everyone's unwanted stuff, but it was just plain BORING and lifeless. I remember picking out this steely blue color when we moved in, but then I never did anything with it. I couldn't ever find the bedding I wanted or loved, my furniture is old and just plain yuck, etc. etc. WELL, it was the hunky guy's idea to start in there and start in there we did.





I will certainly give the hunky guy credit for the "coffee with cream" paint color that HE chose. I was less than excited about it...it just seemed like "more of boring" to me. Little did I know that I would come to love it and actually ADORE it. I wish I had snapped before pics of the bedroom, but I didn't...so you'll have to use your imagination for that one.


Okay, you can't really see the color of the walls, but this is a good shot of my "ALL WHITE" bedding, which I love!!!. The nester inspired my love for all things white these days. Now, before you go crazy with the "I could never live with white" comments...read this and this. PS I use bleach... it's amazing!

I still need a headboard. The hunky guy says he can build one...we'll see if summer runs out before we get time.

OK...on to next project...did you notice the lamp in the above pic. It used to be brass...yes, ugly ol' outdated brass!!! Now, it's been spray painted with oil rubbed bronze spray paint from Lowe's. It was sooooooooo easy to do. I also picked up a new lamp shade while I was at Lowe's. WOW!!! Here's a closer pic of the lamp.

It has a cool texture that makes it look really realistic. Everybody wants to touch it. BUT, I didn't stop there....see these ugly brass door knobs. Yep. They're ugly here....however, now they are a a beautiful oil rubbed bronze!
For the record, the hunky guy was worried about this project, too. He didn't have faith in my diy ability. I got lots of sighs and strange looks when I was talking about it. I think he was thinking $$$$ and how much it would cost to replace all the door knobs if I ruined them. Since I didn't want to send him into panic attacks I started with the five doors in my bedroom/bath. I knew if it didn't work out so good then it would be less to replace down the road. I scuffed the doorknobs with steel wool and then did about 3 coats of oil rubbed bronze spray. I finished off with a matte clear coat so they would be durable. That night...the hunky guy and all his negativity towards my project attempted to scratch the door knob inside the linen closet with a sharp object. I didn't know this was happening. He happily reported to me later that he couldn't get it to scratch. As for now, they've been this way almost two weeks with no visible issues. Ask me again in a year, I'll tell you how they hold up.





Last project! I finished it just this morning. Ugly chair in corner of bedroom...gone!



Learned how to slipcover here. Great tutorial! Loved the results for a little less than $30.

More to come...as the summer progresses! I love summers off!