Checking in to say

Tomorrow is the day!! Tomorrow morning, 9 am, I sit for the Certified Hand Therapy credential exam. Yikes!
Please pray for calmness, brain power and whatever else comes to you.

I leave you with a sweet boxer picture, some tulips and a sweet baby boy

Reformed Big Ugly Mirror

Remember when I showed you that big ugly mirror I got at a yard sale for $10?? Click {here} to see that thing again...go ahead, I'll wait.

I know right?!?

Here's where we started. Sans beautiful tapestry and ready for some pretty.

I went to town with my favorite Heirloom White spray paint.

When I bought it originally, I had something like this in mind:

Source...as near as I know.

You can see the rest of my Master Suite inspiration photos {here}.

I have the giant ampersand but I haven't decided if I want it to say "you & me" or "mr & mrs) or if I want to use vinyl or cloth for the other letters...too many decisions.

BUT! I knew I wanted to use this frame, ASAP.

Enter our current Mantle decor:

I haven't had a great plan going on in here since I took the Christmas off there. This is ok at first glace but allow me to put this all in perspective for you...

Almost there:

I know. Where did my little vignette go????

So I started over with a bigger base: And I added some stuff from other places: Recognize that "Jones" sign from these pictures?? Click {here} to see the ones of which I speak.

I was trying to hold it up there to see what I thought...I got this great idea that I'd snap a picture and then I could "see" what it would look like. Note to self: Need longer arms. :)

I busted out my command hooks and it worked great!! I added a few accessories and here's what I came up with: And the whole effect, plus a Boxer.

I wasn't terribly in love with it but decided it would do just fine until I thought of something else.

Well, Jj didn't much care for the picture in a picture. He said, "that's weird. Do other people hang pictures inside frames that don't fit or did you just come up with something here?" I told him that I see it all over the internet and it's really quite normal. Alas, I agree with him...it's kind of akward.

So, I removed the "Jones" sign and put it back where it was.

Here's where we are now. I have a plan but I need a good coupon code to Mpix.com first. ;)

A little plain but like I said, I have a plan.

And about those cords that I tried to stuff in the basket...when we bought this house, we went ahead and had hook-ups for satellite TV added to this room. We have no idea if we want or exactly where we would put a TV in here. For now, I have the box and cords sort of piled into a basket...

Edited to include the following: Linked up to Jennifer Rizzo's Painted Project Party.

What's your go-to mantle decorating trick? I could use some assistance!

Scarf Organization {Pinterest}

A couple of months ago, in this post, I showed you a picture of my scarves.



I have a small collection...and I'd love to see my collection grow. :)

While browsing Pinterest one day, I came across and idea to organize and store/hand scarves. This is the original post (to the best I can figure).

I had no organization for my scarves. So, armed with this idea, I set off to make my own. I heeded the original author's advice and opted for a durable hanger and snagged some cheep shower rings from Wal-Marks.

If I remember correctly, they were a couple of dollars.

I snapped the rings on the bottom of the hanger and added my scarves.

Viola!

Whew! Don't look too close. The inside of my closet will scare you half to death!!!



Wow, much better!!!

And look what I saw when I was in my closet...


Cute little girl!


Looks like I need more scarves!!!


Do you have a favorite scarf? Do you have a better plan for organization? I'd love to see!

Today is HairCut Day

Do you love haircut day? I sure do!

I've had the same 'do for about a year now. I think I'm ready for a more messy look for summer. Are you a messy hair or very sleek hair person?

Me? Messy for sure. But I've been masquerading as a sleek hair'd woman for awhile now.

Here's me with Janie, around Christmas:

Yep...flat hair.

I gathered some hair pictures from around the internet that I was liking. I though I'd just post them for fun.

I like this messy hair:


I like the piecey-ness (is that even a word??) of this 'do:


And the piecey-ness of this one as well:


Since I typed "piecey-ness" twice, now three times I guess, does that make it a word??

Here's me today in all my flat hair glory!

And I officially feel way younger than I am for taking my own picture, with my cell phone in the mirror. The tweens sure are skilled! I couldn't figure out how to take a straight photo.

And you guessed it, I'm at work. I'm generally off on Fridays but I came in, town to catch up a little...and get my hair cut. :)

So, if all goes well at my haircut, I'll show you my new 'Do soon!

Cheers to the weekend!!

Man Worthy Christmas Tree

In our downstairs, I wanted to have some more Christmas Cheer. Jj vetoed a big Christmas tree. Which I guess was fine considering I didn't have a big Christmas tree anyway...

On Pinterest, my friend Shelly pinned a great little Christmas tree! And it got me to thinking...I bet Jj would go for an unconventional Christmas tree! Because while he likes to pretend he's a Scrooge, I really think he does that just to give me a hard time. :)

Since I've never had much of a vegetable garden, I was fresh out of tomato cages. I put out an APB on facebook and my good friend Margo came through!!!

She brought be 2 tomato cages that were in a perfectly used condition!!!!

Thank you, Margo!!!!!!! (Picture taken at my Mom's house)

I clipped off the tags and bent the tops (actually the real bottoms) together to form the top of my tree. I also had to add some vertical wires to the tree. Otherwise, when I wrapped the lights around, t basically turned into a 3-D triangle rather than cylindrical. (Of course, I didn't take a picture, I was too excited about that I was making.)

I stacked up a couple of wooden soda flats, I had out in the garage, and put the tree on top!



I love it! And Jj doesn't hate it = DOUBLE SUCCESS!!

Since I doctor'ed that photo so much, I took a few more so you could see the actual tree better.





See that blue man on the toilet in the background?



I got it from my Dad for Christmas. If you pick the guy up, his hiney is a magnet and the toilet bowl stores paperclips. Funny!!!

While we are down here, I'll show you around!
We've done quite a bit of decorating down here and making it just so. This is probably one of the areas in our home where we spend the most time.



This is our little bar area. This is our first time having a full-sized extra refrigerator. It has came in handy with our family Thanksgiving and Christmas hosting!

Did you see that "God Bless the USA" sign over the sink? The Girls got me that for my Birthday! It's made from license plates. I love it. It's so so me!!



I love this little setting. Simple, pretty and oh so wintery! (Bonus, I had all that stuff in my stash so free!!!)



This is looking from the bar over toward the TV side. And that's our helper, Janie. She's about 16 months old. She's a boxer we adopted the beginning of November from Columbia Second Chance. We love her bunches!!!



This little area is also on the bar. I'm really liking mini-Christmas trees this year. And, I've committed to trying to have a little piece of the beach in every room of our home. Enter: Brass crab. He's actually an ash tray but...we won't be using that.



Here's standing in front of the TV looking back over the furniture, into the corner...with the bar in the background. I'll have to tell you about my smokin deal on that lamp another day!

Have you had any thrifty finds lately? It's not really the season for such but I'm still stumbling one a few once in awhile.

Oh, And Merry Christmas to you!!!