First week = fail

Hey all. To get it out of the way, I had a not so pleasant first week of school. This was mainly due to the fact that I had an eight hour class on Monday that I wasn't aware I was supposed to be in until about an hour before it was over. All is resolved now but boy did it leave me stress out for a while there. So instead here are three things that made me happy this week. 

Firstly I started a couple of furniture redo projects for my bedroom. School has since gotten in the way so they are patiently waiting for their final sanding and last coat of paint. But I can't wait to show you when they are done!

While I was out in the back yard I found a very special little treasure! 

 I had noticed a little visitor coming around just about every day and so I went over to see what was so special. It was A humingbird nest in my palm tree! I didn't grow up around these little guys so this was a real treat for me. I couldn't get over how tiny it was. I was so excited about it that we went out and bought a feeder for him to put in the back yard that day. 

 (excuse my painty hand I was workin!)

*update: a freak windstorm came that night and blew my little nest over. I haven't seen my friend since. Tragic, I know. 

And lastly, I finally broke down and tried the Sally Hanson Salon Effects Polish Strips. I've been curious about them since I saw them but I just kept thinking for $7 I can buy a whole bottle of polish! But they cam out with some new designs and I fell in love with the Mod About You style so I caved. 

 Pros: They are very cute. Very different from the normal allover color you normally see. I can't stop looking at their cute design. They were mind numbingly easy to put on. 

Cons: There is no way in Hades they will last 7 days. At least not on me. I have mosterous cuticles which I did try to clip down as much as possible before I applied them but I can see little curls all around the edges so I know is only a matter of time before one of them rips off. 

My verdict? I like them a lot but I won't be repurchasing.

Have a good week! 

Pinned Down

I'm currently overhauling my diet so here are some of my favorite food inspired pins this week! 

Baked Zucchini Chips

Coconut and Curry Soup

Coconut & Grapefruit Gumdrops

Premake smoothies into ice cubes for a super fast grab and go breakfast. 

Cilantro Lime Chickpea Salad

Cucumber, Lemon, Mint Water

And this is just too funny to not include. Cause its me about half the time. Haha! 

Mirror, Mirror...

Oooh I've got a DIY I'm really excited to show you. 

This project has been sitting around waiting to be done for a while and I am SO pleased with the results. Ready for it? 

So I picked up this little gem at a thrift store about 6 months ago for a whopping $5!

I knew I wanted to make some kind of sunburst mirror with it but I didn't have a clear plan so there it sat.

I also spied this beauty on the internets and fell in lurve! 

Isn't it gorg? Its from Ballard Designs and $170. Which makes it out of this girls price range. 

   But then the gears started turning and eventually I got an idea.

 What if, I took that janky old mirror, and got a whole bunch of rectangle mirrors from le dollar tree and attempted to make something like it? 

And that's how this DIY was born. 

Originally I was going to attempt the stupid difficult task of cutting the mirrors so that they would fit together perfectly around the outside. Then I realized that that was a hospital visit waiting to happen so I came up with something else. 

I should give two disclaimers here. First, I kind of took the easy way out. I used hot glue to put them on but, they seem really secure for now so I'm ok with it. But I'll let you know if I wake up to the sound of crashing glass. Second, the mirrors have these little foam dots on the back (they are supposed to be candle holders) which I did try to take off but those suckers must have been welded cause they wouldn't budge! I was worried if I pulled too hard I'd take off the mirror finish so I just left them on. 

First I laid out the first layer making sure they were even spaced all over. Then glued them on one by one. 

I repeated the same thing with the second layer. I let the whole thing dry overnight to make sure the glue was really stuck on there before I attempted to hang it up. And that was it! 

Here it is! 

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!!!!!

(sorry for the poor quality pics. but I'm workin with a point and shoot!)

New Year. New Resolutions

Hello! 

Like most, I've made a few resolutions for 2012. 

2012 is sure to be one of the best years because it is the year I graduate!!! *cue harps

But seriously, it'll also hold the first full year in our new home, the completion of a big project at John's job and hopefully some big life changes. So here's to 2012!!! May the world not end because I've worked to darn hard to graduate!!!!! 

Sometime last week it occurred to me that I had had a slew of things that I wanted to do but could not due to time constraints with school that I planned on doing during my break. And it also occurred to me that I had done none of them. So I made a pact to myself that I would not watch TV for the first 5 hours after waking up to force myself to do some of those things. And you know what? Its gone good. Real good. In the last few days I've organized the loft, the guest bedroom, my office, our walk-in closet, hung my curtains and... PAINTED!!!!!!

I painted the master bedroom a deep soothing gray and this we painted the entire downstairs a beautiful pale blue/green. And it looks spectacular!!! I seriously cannot stop staring at my walls. We both just keep saying "Wow! it looks so good!" "I can't believe how nice it looks!" 

Now that the paint is finally on the walls I can really dive in to decorating which I am really really excited about. John is too! Can you believe he actually said "I can't wait to get new couches" ?Whaaaa? And sure enough we picked some out. And they are awesome!!!! I'm not sharing yet cause we haven't bought them but trust me on this. You will love them. 

So on to my resolutions. Some are related to the home, some to my marriage and some to me. 

1.) BE FINISHED. With school that is. Lets face it. This isn't really a resolution but since its top on my priority list its top on this list. 

2.)BE REPRESENTED.  Blog once a week this year. 

3.)BE WISE. Put a dent in our debt

4.)BE DECORATED. Get a few big items for my home. New couches and a kitchen table.

5.)BE ORGANIZED. Specifically related to time management, and day to day activities. 

6.)BE MOTIVATED. Exercise at least 3 times a week. I know this is cliche as its half of the planets resolution but it's a necessary one. 

7.)BE GRATEFUL. For my husband and all that he does to make me happy and give us a great life, more. 

8.)BE PRESENT. Live in the now. I tend to always be looking forward and thinking "things will be so great when..." I need to learn to realize that things are great NOW.

10.)BE LOVED. Go on a date with my husband once a week. This is hard for us because we are both busy bees but we are not so busy that we don't have a few hours for each other once a week. 

11.)BE HEALTHY.  Eat better and not use "I'm busy" as an excuse to eat fast food five times a week. (gross I know but sometimes it happens) 

I'm sure I could go on because lets face it when it comes to New Years resolutions everyone's is basically the same thing,

To be a better person

Here's to a new, better, and exciting year. And now for your view pleasure, some very professional looking cell phone pics!

*Since I'm not quite ready to take a picture of the glory that is our new painted walls you get another picture of....OUR CAT!! He got into a tousle with some bully in the neighborhood and gave us quite a scare but he's getting better. 

Pinned down

Many of you know my love (obsession) for Pinterest, so I'm sharing some of my favorites as of late

(I'll try to make this a weekly thing but I'm not sure so bear with me)

This week I'm sharing a smattering of random pins. No particular reason.

Milk Bottle Measuring cups cute enough to keep on display. 

DIY Anthro inspired coffee mugs

A sweet little fox necklace with a quote from The Little Prince. 

I found this hilarious. And quite appropriate for winter. 

Inspiration for our new wall color in our living room.

What are your favorite pins?

Find these on my Pinterest

Goodbye and Hello!!!

I'm in the last leg of my winter break before school starts back up on Monday. I can't believe its already been a month. Mentally, I really needed it. But I'll try to give you a quick run down of what I/we have been up to. 

Basically, nothing. 

Pretty much anyway. In December, as you know, we went and saw Christmas lights a lot. We drank a lot of hot chocolate and did a whole lot of shopping. I was hoping to host Christmas dinner at our house this year but with one family having a brand new baby and John's parents moving into a new home the timing isn't right. But that's ok., cause I'm pushing (hard) for next year. Plus our house will be much more put together. We spent Christmas eve at John's parents house and it was the best one yet. We took time to sit around and enjoy one another's company which I know we all loved. Plus I loved getting to hold my new niece, Emery, she is a doll! (can we say baby fever?!!! lol) 

Christmas day we woke up late, ate a big beautiful breakfast of stuffed french toast, eggs, sausage and sparkling apple cider. We opened presents, laid around and then went to his brother's family house where we played with the kids new toy, a puppy and had clam chowder for dinner. It was wonderful.

 Our Christmas Tree

 Treats for the Family

 A Birthday Cake for Jesus

 On our way to the parents house for Christmas. (I am notoriously bad at taking pictures of us, so it's kind of a running joke)

 John, my BIL, holding baby Emery

 According to my in-laws it was a "small" Christmas this year. Huh?

 Avery enjoying our Christmas dinner of Famous Daves BBQ. YUM!!

 Present opening chaos.

Addi showing off that the little girls got make-up!

Avery tried hers on already

 Christian with some of the neices and nephews.

 John, who just woke up, about to have Christmas breakfast.

Me, happily smiling about my new Tiffany's necklace from John. :)

Originally the plan for New Years eve was to go to Flagstaff and play in the snow but we slept in so late (oops!) that we changed plans, went out to dinner and then went over to the Casino and had a little fun.

Overall it was a great end to a great year.