Adding some texture!

Yes, I am still here!! I felt so much better after reading that you are all (most of you) obsessed with Twilight and Facebook too. Crackbook is still fun but it's already wearing off just a bit.

I'm totally lying. Every time I get a new friend request, I get all giggly and I'm obsessed again.

You all have scared the crap outta me about Twilight though. I need to make plans for my family because it sounds like I'll have my nose in a book 24/7 for a week. I'll be ready...soon. I have about 105 things I want to get done first. I'm sceeeeered to start reading!! :)

But I told you I wouldn't let you down...here's a project I've been thinking about doing for a couple weeks now. Remember these walls in my bathroom that I molded-up?? (That doesn't sound good, huh?)

I've enjoyed how clean and simple these were but in the back of my mind, something was always bugging me. I mean...they are frames...meant to frame something...so I had to do it.

Remember these raised jobbies that I showed you here?



Well it's time to show you how to do it yourself!! You will need spackle, a putty knife and a stencil:


I got one of these at Hob Lob for 40 percent off:


I love these stencils...they have so many options and they are LARGE.

Then I found the center of my "frames":

I taped the stencil up, making sure it was level. Then I taped off the spots I didn't want to be included:

If you are using the whole stencil, obviously, you can skip this. Now, here's where I make this take twice as long as it should...

If you are doing these in white, skip this. But if you want color, like I did (I used extra paint from that room), you just mix the paint and the spackle together:

When I say "just mix them together" -- I mean it. It's easy. Just make sure there's not too much paint. You will need VERY little paint. You want the spackle to have it's spackle consistency. It will end up like frosting and you will want to eat it:

Get some on your putty knife:

See, don't you want to take a lick????

Then putty away on the stencil:

I like a real textured look, so I just kind of slap it everywhere. What I love about this stuff is you can also make it really smoooooth and pretty too. It just depends on what you want.

Then pull off the stencil slowly and carefully. If some of your spackle gets under the stencil:

Just wipe it off! It's like butta people, it will come right off. I just use a paper towel and my finger nail to wipe off the excess. If you really mess up, you can wipe off sections or the whole thing, I swear! Just do it within a couple minutes or so.

This is the result:

Ummmm... I LOVE IT!! I was going to keep going with them but decided I like just one per frame...any more would be overkill. (But in a bigger room, that would be GORG!)

Total cost for this project was $9 for the stencil. Serious. Ask your hubby, I bet you have spackle in your house. I like using the lightweight spackle, but I bet any would be fine. And you don't need much! The amount in the bowl I showed you did all but one of these!

Best part is, you can paint over them. Or make them the same color as your walls...use word stencils...the possibilities are endless!! I LOVE this stuff. (And yes...they can be removed, it would be a bit of a PITA but you can do it.)

This project took about 2.5 hours for the whole thing...obviously, the smaller the stencil, the easier and quicker it will be. My powder room stencils took maybe ten minutes. Also, PLEASE experiment first, on a piece of paper, cardboard, whatever. See what you like and see how hard you will have to press, etc.

I have another small project in this room I hope to finish tomorrow, and then I'll show you better pics!

Off to check my Wall. I mean...go to bed....

**Edited to add...for the most part, you will want these were small hands cannot pick at them. They will be tempted. :) The thicker stencils, like my power room, would be harder to pick at than these. But you will be surprised at how strong the spackle is when it dries. If you are worried about kids or people in general bumping into them -- put them high. Professionals space them out around the top of rooms all of the time, for a little detail.

Twilight and Facebook

First of all...to all my girlfriends who have been harassing encouraging me for months to create a Facebook account...

I seriously hate you.

I had two things I was waiting purposely till after the New Year to start -- Facebook and Twilight. I was going to wait till every trace of Christmas was gone from the house and I could take a breather and just relax. (Buuuwwaaahhhahahhhaaa!! Funny.)

You all might as well just give up on this blog. I am serious. I will not have time to do anything else, ever again, in my entire life, because of this stinkin' site:

Plan for last night:

Put the Bub to bed.

Check blog.

Fold some laundry.

Take tree down.

Pick up.

Take every last bit of Xmas to the basement.

Take a bath.

What that plan turned into:

Put the Bub to bed.

Check e-mail, get another request to "join."

Spend every waking minute till 12:30 a.m. on CRACKBOOK FACEBOOK.

I hate you. I do.

What I hate more is I LOVE THIS SITE.

Gah.

Next, I plan to read this book. Which in turn will make me want to read the next three, IMMEDIATELY, like go-to-Borders-at-10 p.m.-when-I-finish-each-one kind of immediately:

I have heard all about this series and then Sister bought them...and was obsessed. I don't want to get obsessed! I just want to read a good book!

Is there any hope for me? Is there any way that I will really still love my husband after I am done, and not want a vampire to come sweep me away? Really, I love my husband a lot and would like to keep it that way.

So do you Facebook?? Have you read Twilight?? I am making a promise that I will not abandon my home, my projects, and you...I will figure out to make time to do my fun stuff, even it it means I get two hours of sleep a night. It is my pledge to you.

Now, I must go see who has written on my wall. See ya.

OH...I didn't forget the winner you sillies...just playing with you!! The winner of the Santa Rocks carafe is commenter No. 3 -- Jenn!!

And because I am sooooo loving...I had Sister pick another number (I bought an extra carafe to have around) and No. 41, Traci, you are the winner too!! Just e-mail me your addresses ladies!

CONGRATS!!

100.

Whooooooty Who!! One hundred posts BAY-BEE.

So to celebrate, I am giving away one of these cutie-patoot "Santa Rocks" carafes you were all googly over:

I know, it's stinkin' cute. Do any of you have a Flower Factory? We used to have one nearby. When they offered free memberships my girlfriend and I nearly passed out from the magnificence of it. Then our location closed...and this week we made the trek about 30 minutes away to check out one on the other side of town. It was even MORE glorious than our old one.

Clean. Massive. Cheap.

TROUBLE.

Good thing is half an hour away. We're already dying to go back. Anyhoo, I found more of these, so that's the fun giveaway for the 100th post. Just leave a comment and you are entered. We'll give it a couple days...say Monday evening?

Check out the other finds from Flower Factory and other places (just a sampling):

Three bucks people:

Less than $5:

Can't beat the Dollar Store at half off, really:

And all kinds of goodies from Micheal's to candy cane up the kitchen next year:

STEAL OF THE CENTURY! I wanted a skinny little kitchen tree...walked into Micheal's, saw this, originally $70... on sale for $27 but it was the last one. Asked if I could buy it off the floor and he said yep, for TEN DOLLARS!!

The pic doesn't do her justice. She's perfect -- all glittery and fun. I very nearly skipped out of the store with it.

And I am always on the lookout for things I can use all year in the clearance stuff. I usually find some good deals and did again this year. One example are the gold chargers for the dining room:

The cheapest I've seen them is $1.87 each at Hob Lob...I kept holding off because I think even $2 each is a bit ridiculous for plastic. These were $7 for eight at Target. Whew-Who.

And finally, to prepare us for the GLORY that is decluttering and organizing on January 12, I thought I'd share my tips for packing up Christmas.

I pack up one room at a time, and have specific bins for each room. I always have baggies, shopping bags and a Sharpie with me.

I don't use any more than these bags to protect things. The bins don't have far to go, just down to the basement. (God Bless you who have to lug those things to an attic!!!) I try to only work with one bin at a time, so I don't get overwhelmed.

This year, I've been really particular about everything, I even vacuumed out the bins before packing them back up:

Told you.

Then I write on the top with Sharpie what room the bin is for, and then use my Dymo to label the sides so I don't have to unstack everything to get what I want:

Finally, I used to always take pictures of things I had done every year and would keep them in a file on the computer so I could see exactly how I had decorated. This year, I just have to look here, so I won't have to worry about that. ;)

I've got one more room to pack up and the tree tomorrow. Now that it's mostly packed up, I realize how much I will miss it all, and can already hardly wait for ten months from now!

I have SO many projects running through my head right now, and I can't wait to get started. Thanks for making my first 100 posts so fun! Hope you'll join me for 100 more!

Year in review

Well chickees...this is my 99th post! Holy crap, I'm not kidding. Interesting, because I started this blog in May, and only had about 20 posts in my first four months. Shows you how into this bloggy stuff I got in about...September or so?

For my 100th post I have a very cute (but small) giveaway to give to one of you. Can't wait to show you. It's not really a big deal, just fun. :)

What's with me just DYING to take down Christmas early this year? I usually wait till the 1st or after but I have been chomping at the BIT to get it down this year. What's the deal? I can barely wait to get it up and LOVE it during the season. There is just something about this time of year though too -- the clean, fresh house. I swear I fall it love with our home all over again right after the holidays. It's so cleared out and simple.

So Jules over at The Roost is having a fun New Year's Party that I thought would be fun to join. I put a different spin on it though, and picked the top ten commented posts to highlight here for your pleasure. (Or to help you take a nap, whatever works.)

Heeeeeeeere we GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

No. 10: My favorite, easy, cheap window treatments.

No. 9: My chocolate powder room.

No 8: My BFF Goodwill.

No. 7: My millions of projects.

No. 6: My spray painted laundry room.

No. 5: The Christmas Tree Party.

No. 4: Big Fat Honkin' Monogram.

No. 3: The Favorite Things Party.

No. 2: One of my favorite before and afters.

No. 1: HoHoHo transformation.

Well there you go ladies! A year -- well, eight months, in review. I hope you have enjoyed reading as much as I have enjoyed writing and sharing. Here's to another year of fun ideas and tons o' comments!

Happy New Year!!

Cheap gift tags (FREE!)

First of all, thanks for your kind words about my last post. I appreciate hearing from all of you and to know I'm not the only one who feels that way sometimes. I know it is a GOOD thing to be so grateful, but I should try not to worry so much too. :)

So I have seen this idea a couple times in blogland and the first time I saw it, I knew this easy peasy project was just for me. Do you keep your old Christmas cards every year?? I do. Don't have a clue why -- I do the same thing with birthday cards, I can't let go of them.


Well it's like I've kept them all these years JUST for this! All you need is a puncher outer thingy:



(Ignore my banged-up coffee table. I like to call it "rustic" a la The Bub.)


Grab a card:


You may have to do some trimming to get it to fit in the puncher right. I turn mine upside down to see what I'm punching. I do it on the floor too -- much easier to punch. (These things are a work out!!):

Voila!! Instant tags for next year! I even cut out some of the messages inside the cards:

Aren't they just ADORABLE?? Caaaauuute I say! I am dying to get my hands on more cards from this year. I'm trying to be patient and am keeping them up just a couple more days. Argh, I HATE delayed gratification!!

These were some of my favorites:

The puncher was originally about $15, but I got it half off. Otherwise, this is F.R.E.E. chickees! Have fun!

**Edited to add: YES the photo cards make this harder -- I know they are easier people, but come on...I need tags!! BUT I forgot to mention that I took the puncher thingy to some of the cardboard gift boxes that were torn up. (The one's with a design on top.) Those are adorable too!

ALERT!! The puncher thingys are half off at Hob Lob this week! Run, don't walk!

Are you ever waiting?

For the other "shoe" to drop?

I can't tell you how many times a week I have this exact thought in my head. Tonight I thought it again.

How is it possible I could be SO blessed? So lucky? So fortunate?

I have a home I love. Friends that are always there when I need them and a family that loves me and puts up with me no matter what. Most of all: a beautiful, sweet stepdaughter, my incredibly patient and loving husband and my out-of-this-world, I-could-not-love-him-any-more-I-swear, son.

I wonder, what did I do to deserve this? I try to live a good, honest life. I try to be a good friend. I try SO hard to be a good Mom and a good wife. I think I succeed for the most part. But is that enough to deserve this life? I hope so. I pray so.

I have paid some dues. Years 16 through about 22 weren't very fun, to say the least. I was tested and I feel I came through stronger. Maybe I have earned some of this joy that is my life, but my happiness SO exceeds any pain I've ever felt. Can my dues that have been paid be nearly enough to make this all mine for good?

Sorry to get all deep on you. Maybe it's the season, maybe it's the coming new year. Maybe it's that I got to go on a date with my husband tonight. Any time with him is treasured. I am thinking DEEP lately, and just had to get it out. :)

Thanks for listening and I hope you enjoy your blessed home and life this evening too.

The Aftermath

First of all, YES! the tree is still standing!! Yahoo!! I usually leave it up through New Year's but wanted to take it down early this year. It is stressing me out. But Hubby thinks it will be fine so up it stays. I really do love it...as long as it stays put. :)

Secondly, before I show you how Christmas blew up in our house, check out the GORG wreath I got today at Tar-jay!

My girlfriend bought one this year and it was GORG on her door. I got it this morning for only $17! But I'm thrifty, so it took some convincing from Sister for me to get it. I am SO glad I did:

Sheesh it's purdy. So did anyone get up before dawn this morning? I've only gotten up that early on purpose maybe four times since my son was born. Two of those times were from the two previous December 26ths! I have to do it though, I must be first to get the deals. BUT it was dead around here this morning -- I could have slept in, darn it!

OK, now onto the PIT that has been our house for the past two days (you can't walk in this room and it looks worse now):

(And much of it had already been thrown away!)

Let's just say we have a VERY lucky and happy two-year-old on our hands. My stepdaughter wanted small expensive things...he got HUGE monstrous toys, like TENTS:

What the heck was I thinking? I was thinking fun-unfinished-basement-play-area. But failed to remember that is is freakin' freezing cold down there right now so not one of us will brave it. The heating company is coming this week because I can stand about one more day of this and then everything needs to find a home. :)

But we had a WONDERFUL few days, and I wouldn't change the mess, the toys, the pile of trash for the world. We are blessed.

Hope you had a great holiday! I'm going keep taking some time to check in with many of your sites and will be back soon. And I am ITCHIN' to get back to my molding projects -- I'm going through withdrawal! I have a few projects in mind I cannot wait to get started on.

Oh, and remember to keep in mind how you organize things in your home so you can share them with us on the 12th!! We are going to DECLUTTER and ORGANIZE ladies!!