The Way I Wear Wednesday, #4

Who would've ever thought that leopard and stripes would go together? But somehow, in 2014, they just do. I wore this outfit for a play date at one of my bff's house. I thought it was a fun and casual outfit; perfect for the setting we would be in.

Right before we left to head over to the "fun house," I snapped a photo of the outfit, and had not just one photo bomber....

 
But two!




 
But that's the fun of it!
 
Happy Hump Day!




Shake it off...it's about to be a 3-day weekend!

This song and video just puts me in the happiest mood when I listen to it. With a catchy beat like that, you can help but dance...and I do it in my own free form way WITH and audience...my kiddos, who dance right along with me!

I know there are a lot of Taylor Haters out there, but I am a fan. So, here you go!

Remember, just shake off all your problems because that's just what you gotta do sometimes! Hope your week is going well so far!

The Way I Wear Wednesday, #3

I really wore this on Monday and wrote this on Tuesday, but I think my mind's already thinking Wednesday....aaaand, I thought this outfit was really cute anyway!

I paired a blue and white maxi skirt that has a varying stripes pattern, a white strappy tank, and a very-trendy-now military jacket (which I am so proud to say I've had for YEARS because I knew this trend would cycle back in! SCORE!)


As you can see, I paired it with my favorite gold watch and bangles. Recent to my collection is this antique-y gold arrow necklace. Found it at Kohl's for less than $10!

 
What way are you wearing Wednesday?

School Daze!

My kiddos started school this week, and it's been dramatic/exciting/scary/fun/wonderful for them both. I found this cute idea on Pinterest, and thought I would copy it with my own version.



It's a photo of them on their first day, with their "favorites" as of right this moment/minute/second LOL. I plan to do this every year, so that one day we can go back and compare how their interests changed.

Happy Hump Day!

Prayers Please.

This beautiful little gal is undergoing surgery tomorrow on her upper arm.



She has a suspicious mole that will be removed, and they are putting her to sleep to do it. She'll have stitches from the 1-2 inch incision around the mole, and some pain to go along with it. Please keep her in your prayers that everything goes smoothly for her surgery and recovery.



The Friday Way!

It's Friday y'all. Can't wait to start this freakin' weekend! Lot's on the schedule to do/accomplish/enjoy!

I'll leave you with this girl power duo I just discovered. They tell those country boys how it really is! Love it!

Heck yes! You go girls!














Happy Friday Y'ALL!!!

It's Getting Cold in Here!

Freezing cold! Nope. I don't need to turn on the heat because I am talking about Freezer Meals!

Last fall, a group of five co-workers and I formed a Freezer Meal Group. The concept is really simple. We each find a freezer meal recipe that we'd like to prepare. Then individually we put our meals together x5, and during a set week, bring our meals to exchange. So we end up with one of our own meals, and four different meals.

The initial thought was that this would be a great idea because it's easier and cheaper to buy mass quantities of ingredients for ONE meal versus the ingredients for FIVE different meals. And you end up getting easy to make prepared meals! Most you just dump in a crock pot or pop in the oven. Or pop in the crock pot and dump in the oven. To-may-toes, To-maa-toes.

Now Freezer Meals are so popular you can find all kinds of sites that have recipes from Lasagna to Enchiladas to Chili to Meatloaf. There's even a huge list of breakfast items that can be frozen and consumed at your convenience! Check out my Pinterest Freezer Meals board to get started!

Here's what I made this month for the exchange, thanks to Six Sisters' Stuff!

Sticky Chicken 1

What ways do you make meal time simpler?

The Way I am Wearing Wednesday

Today I decided to sport a little bit of a bohemian-to-me look. I am a big fan of Ross and scored this cute black pleated maxi skirt and flowy mint green crop top there a few weeks ago.



I paired it with this gold watch that I scored at Target for $15.99 using a Cartwheel coupon. I am doing cartwheels just thinking about it!


And these gold and mint round drop earrings.



My son told me I look like Cinderella. Awe, thanks buddy.

What way are you wearing Wednesday?

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

When we approached our master bedroom update last fall, I wanted to make it as affordable as possible so I sold our old furniture on Craigslist to make the money to fund it. I got inspiration off Pinterest and magazines like HGTV.

Since I am so narcisistic and love to look at myself, yeah right, I knew we just had to have a beautiful mirror like one of these in our room.




 
These were all on Joss & Main and were unfortunately waaaaaay, waaaaaay, did I say way? out of my price range. Then I found this tutorial on how to make my own...and I did!
 
via
 
What did it entail? Two packs of wood shims, a plywood circle cut in the diameter that would fit our space, a mirror half the diameter of the wood circle (found in the clearance section of a local store), paint, glue and a picture hanger.
 
Here's my little helper "helping" me put it all together!
 
 
 
Basically I spaced the shims out to the spacing I thought looked best, marked them, and glued them back down. I then painted the whole thing. I added a picture hanger to the back, and THEN I glued the mirror down with heavy construction adhesive (it was marked safe for mirrors). And voila!
 


 
What way have you re-imagined a project recently?
 


Barbie and the Dreamhouse!

Remember this post back in December where I did this little DIY update? Well, I never actually posted about what it was for....so without further ado, presenting my little girls' DIY Barbie Dreamhouse!

 

It took a lot of blood, sweat and tears to pull together, but we did it! Okay, so I really didn't shed any blood, didn't really sweat (it was Winter-time), but I really did tear up to see the girls' excitement at its reveal on Christmas morning.



See what I mean. This Dream House was a big project, but that reaction made it totally worth it.

To pull it all together, we started with a simple hutch top.

 
 
We added shelf extensions to give the girls more playing room and glued those on,

 
 
and then sprayed it all white to give it a good base to start with.



I added "wallpaper" using pretty scrapbook papers in various themed prints that I glued on. The flooring is carpet in the bedroom, hounds tooth-print shelf liner in the kitchen, wood print scrapbook paper in the living room, grass looking scrapbook paper in the outdoor area, more shelf liner in the bathroom and dressing room, and real linoleum sticky tiles in the garage.


Bathroom


Outdoor area


Bedroom
 
Bedroom


The furniture and accessories were collected over the year from yard sales, Target and Michael's.


Dressing room


Living Room


Kitchen and Dining Room
 
Here's a video of the Barbie Dream House in action...apparently the mom has gone missing! She was probably hiding in the bathroom sipping on a martini detoxing from all the Christmas chaos. LOL.



What are some DIY projects you have taken on recently?

The Way I Wear, #1!

Lately, I have tried to step up my fashionista side, and gotten more creative with my outfits I pull together each day. I've got a  TON of inspiration on how to do this from Mix and Match Mama and Hi Sugarplum ... my go-to gals for fashion.

Here's the outfit I am wearing today.



I am getting a little cray cray up in here with my pattern mixing! Polka dots, floral, solids, yellow, blue, white. Sounds obnoxious, but it works y'all.

What way are you wearing today?

Card Me!

My latest holiday craft project was a little bit trial and error. I created it based off a Pinterest tutorial, but mine just didn't go as well as hers. Geez you perfect craft divas...anywho, I made it exactly as she described, but when I went to put it up, my cards kept flopping down. So, error.

Then, I tried adding hot clue in the spring part of the pins...didn't keep them stable AT ALL! Double error.

The last and final trial was adding and additional clothes hanger on the back of the wreath the keep the pins stable and reinforced. WIN!

So, without much ado, here's the final product. Not perfect, but who is?!


Barbie Dream House DIY

On Christmas day, we hope to surprise the girls with a very special DIY-BTDKT (but they don't know that) Barbie Dream House!

I can't wait to share all the details!

Here's the first of several pieces of furniture I'm going to be refurbishing for Barbie to enjoy! Who wouldn't love a zebra print sofa?!?


I hope to explain the new blog title soon. Don't want to jinx it!

bead ornaments.

This year I've really gotten into making Christmas crafts and finding kid-friendly ones to do with Easton and Reagan, sometimes Brooklyn... if I think she won't try to eat whatever we are making!

Last night we made our first round of ornaments. We used plastic clear beads and put them in a single layer in the bottom of these vintage mini pound cake pans. I made one for Brooklyn, and Reagan and Easton each made one choosing their own beads.

Once we got our designs complete, I melted them in the oven at 400 for 20 minutes.


They turned out so cute! Next up, salt dough ornaments!


hot-dog!

As winter is approaching, it's getting chilly-willy outside, and our poor little short-haired rat terrier dog, Macie, is feeling the effects! She just shivers and shakes like a little chihuahua (sp?). So, I Pinterested around looking for something Pinteresting, and found a tutorial on how to make a doggie sweater! The tutorial just gave me inspiration, that's why I am not linking it up; I kind of did my own thing.

The first couple of pics that I took for this tutorial are missing, but it's as simple as me saying,

1. Find a sweater that is close in size OR not TOO much bigger than your dog.

2. Measure your dog. You'll need the following measurements:
  • around the neck
  • from back of neck to base of tail
  • from front of neck to base of front legs (this will determine where to put the arm holes)
  • the inside between the two front legs
  • around the hips
*Turns out, my sweater (size 4T) was already the perfect width measurements around the neck (half of the measurement I got for her neck. One less thing to cut and hem thank goodness!)
For you though, you'll want to take your neck measurement, divide it in half and cut that width straight across the top of the sweater!

So that takes us to step...

3. Using the front of neck to base of front legs measurement, measure from the center of the collar down and mark with a pen or marker. TIP: turn your sweater inside out to do all the measurement marks!

4. Take your between the inside of the two front legs measurement, divide it in half, and place that measurement from the ruler on the sweater and make marks on each end. For example, the distance between Macie's legs was 3 inches, so I centered my ruler at 1.5 and made marks at 0 and at the 3. This will be the inside edge of your leg holes!


5. Free hand or trace a circle that isn't too much bigger than your doggie's legs. Remember, the circles should be drawn away from the center dot.



6. Next, using your back of neck to base of tail measurement, center your ruler from the collar down. I didn't make a dark enough mark for you to see here. Then, like the leg holes, divide the hips measurement in half, center your ruler on that measurement and then make marks at each end.


7. Now, cut out the shape of your sweater using your collar measurement width and hips measurement. You'll end up chopping off the sleeves, but we will use them next. It turns out to look something like this.

8. Now, cut out your arm holes.


9. This is where it's time-saving to get a sweater that's not too much bigger than your dog. Cut the sleeve cuffs off your sweater to a length that is above the dog's knee joint. They still need to bend those knees!


10. Keeping your sweater inside out, stick the cuffs through the hole from the inside of the sweater with right sides facing.


11. Now, sew up your bottom hem.


12. Still inside out, sew up your sides. You are done!

Now you have a little doggie that is a hot-dog!


Stay warm out there!

owl love you forever!

Whoooo wants to see my latest trash-to-treasure update? We owl do, Lauren, you say! Well here ya go!

I found these ugly owl bookends on my mom and mine's annual adventure on the World's Longest Yard Sale.... somewhere in the green fields of Kentucky. I bought them knowing I wanted to update them into something more modern and unique.

So they went from this…


To these amazingly updated blue bookends!



This post also gives you a little sneak peek on the bookshelves we've been working on! More on that soon... I promise!

Until then...