Spring is in the AIR

Ah, do you smell that lovely spring air?  Its so nice!  April is almost here and there are a few things I love about April.

Beach Season has arrived

Easter egg hunts

Only two months left of school.  Translation... Two more months of me having to wake up at 6:30am.

Spring Flowers start to bloom

Last but not least, we get to celebrate our Savior's Resurrection!

Happy April!

Friday Ponderings

Today is Friday and yet again the boys have no school.  Don't get me wrong I love spending time with the boys and having them home, but it seems like they are out of school once a week for some "work day" for the teachers.  Its like they can't hold off these work days and training days until the summer.  Don't they understand that people have to work and have things they have to do?  It's just frustrating. 

Im really starting to wish I would have scheduled myself to stay home one day this week to clean house.  Now Im stuck doing it today and a little tomorrow morning.  Boo!

Did I mention I have a wedding this weekend?  Tonight is the rehearsal and tomorrow is the wedding.  Its going to be really nice.  The colors are apple red, black, some yellow, some orange, and white.  The wedding ceremony and reception is at Stono Ferry Plantation out in Hollywood.  Its so nice out there.  Very quiet and they have a great country club!

Still playing around with photoshop.  I wish it would have been a trial for 60 days rather than only 30 days.  But Ive started to get the hang of things.  Maybe if I book a wedding, we can use the profit to buy the program.  That would be nice. 

Im really looking forward to next week and Easter.  My dad is coming down next saturday and Im very excited to see him.  I hope to get some more things done around the house before he comes. 

And last but not least... weight loss.  Well Ive done nothing this week.  Boo on me!!  I took a little time to myself this week and didnt work out.  I had coffee time with my mom instead of running.  I met with a bride instead of running.  I played with photoshop instead of running.  So, I'm just going to write this week off and pretend it wasnt even here.  Haha!  But Hopefully next week will be different.  It is supposed to be nice weather so Im sure that will get me a little excited about running and toning up the arms and back.  Expecially since tank top weather is in my near future. 

Happy weekend everyone!

Random things you probably don't know about me

Since I've been playing around with photoshop the past few days, I started thinking about possibly redesigning my blog.  Its pretty much a big thing to take on, expecially since I dont know much about the photoshop program.  While thinking of a new name for my blog, I starting thinking about random things about me.  About who I am, what like, what I enjoy doing, things like that.  A few minutes into it, I thought it would be a great blog post. 

So... Here are a few things about me. 

I collect ribbon.  Don't really know why, but I LOVE ribbon.  Its so pretty.  I could be walking by a random rack at a random store and see a spool of ribbon and pick it up and buy it.  Now I dont buy just any ribbon, it has to be good quality and different. 

I sucked my thumb 'til I was 7.  I know, its embarrassing. 

I became a mom at the age of 17 and then again at 20.  Best thing that could have ever happened to me, except Christ of course.

I heart chocolate!!!!  Its a weakness of mine.  I could eat a chocolate cake with chocolate icing for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

I'm 5 feet tall during the summer and 5'1 in the winter.  Let me explain... I only wear flip flops in the summer and then grow an inch with my tennis shoes in the winter. 

Speaking of flip flops, They are also a weakness.  I love love love flip flops.  Dressy ones or just the regular ones from Old Navy.  Any will work for me. 

Ok, thats it for now.  Wish me luck on the new design.  I already designed my button so hopefully I can get the background or header down soon. 

TA DA!!!

Where have I been the past.. well almost... two days?  I have been learning how to use Photoshop!  I cant explain how difficult it can be if you are not familiar with all the lingo and buttons.  Sigh... I finally figured out a few things like this "inspiration board".  It has taken me all day to learn just how to do this.  What I really want to learn is how to make blog backgrounds, blog buttons, invites, things like that.  One step at a time I suppose.  So here is my inspiration board for Easter.  These are some of the things I love about easter.  Any tips about photoshop would be great, if you have any! 

Friday Ponderings

Ah yes, Friday has arrived yet again!  In my opinion it couldnt of come quicker.

Bookshelf.... I have been on a hunt to find a REAL wood bookshelf.  I cant find a used one anywhere.  I've scoured Mt. Pleasant's finests second hand stores and not one of them had a bookshelf.  I want one for my office.  The reason behind the real wood is that I want to turn it into a DIY project for myself.  Sand it down, prime it, and paint it.  But Still can't find one.  If you see one, let me know!!!

The weekend... The house is clean, laundry is done, and its supposed to be 78 degrees on Saturday!!  Jon is finishing a side job so I will be home with the boys.  What to do... What to do.  They always enjoy playing with neighborhood kids on the weekends, so Im not sure what we will be doing this saturday.  Any Suggestions?

The Boy's bedroom...  I have redone two out of three bedrooms since January.  Even though they aren't completely finshed I always end up moving on to another project.  I need to come up with something inventive and creative for the boys room.  They are lacking in storage space and closet space.  We used to have the beds like bunk beds but it was so hard to change the sheets that I wanted to take them apart.  So now i need to come up with something different to make things work.  Maybe I'll ponder on that alot this weekend.

Weight loss update... I completely fell OFF the wagon this week.  I came down with a cold or sinus thing last week and still have not been able to kick it.  My nose is still stopped up and I just haven't really felt up to par.  So, There's noone else to blame but myself.  I will be back on the wagon on Monday... for sure... no excuses!!

New Additions

Last week I bought a new dining room table.  I have had a lot of people ask me to post a picture so they can see what it looks like.  I basically got 75% off the retail value at Bassett Furniture.  It was originally $1700.00 (and some change) and I got it for $400.00!!!  I think that is an awesome deal.  I usually dont splurge on things like this or on big ticket items but it was too nice of a price to pass up. 

Say Hello to my new table!

I think I have decided to limit myself to once a week shopping at second hand stores.  I really enjoy looking through other people's crap and trying to turn it into something I can enjoy.  While I didn't find anything to "redo" today, I did find some cute things for the house. 

New Salt and Pepper shakers found at Goodwill.

New Canisters found at a thrift store up the street. 

(Dont remember the name)

And last but not least, a glass juice holder. 

I thought it was cute.  Great for entertaining.

Those are my new additions for the week.

Have you bought anything new this week?

Shout Out to the hubbs

I dont think I have properly introduced my husband to all of you.  His name is Jon and we have been married for 5 years and 6 months. 

A little bit of history for you... Jon and I used to sit beside each other in 9th grade history class.  He slept and I did work.  Isnt that how that always goes.  ha!  We weren't high school sweet hearts, in fact we didnt start dating until I was 19.  He says he always had a crush on me and wanted to date me, but I was dating a friend of his at the time and that just wouldn't of been right.  But that relationship fell apart, so he waited about 3 months then asked me out.  Of course I turned him down for a month or two, but he was persistant and kept asking.  Finally I said I would go out with him we have been together ever since.  I remember the first date we had.  It was December 6th and we went bowling.  He LOVES bowling and he had his own ball and shoes.  So he swore up and down that he was going to beat me, but I WON!  Haha!  To this day he blames it on the lanes at that alley, but I just played a good game. 

We got married at the Dock Street Theatre on September 18th.  It was beautiful.  We left in a white horse and carriage that took us on a tour of charleston.  We both grew up here so we had seen it all, but it was still nice.  We had random people hootin' and hollarin' at us so that was neat. 

Never would I have thought that I would have married him, but it was the best thing I could have ever done.  He is so wonderful to me!  

Now we have two beautiful boys and a cute little townhouse that sits in a quiet neighborhood.  What more could I ask for?

Here he is painting our bathroom. 

I am always and forever changing something in our house.

Here he is eating his favorite meal of mine,

Homemade lasagna... and thats cadens hand.

We were out bowling. 

(this was not our first date by the way)

Lost Socks anyone?

I found this super cute idea a few weeks back and now can't remember where I found it. 

Its a "Lost Socks" sign.  Its perfect for our house.  I'm the laundry folder in the house, so I always have socks that don't match and when I found this, I decided to make one for us. 

Supplies needed:

piece of wood (i bought mine at AC Moore)

clothes pins

your choice of paint colors (for the clothes pins)

hot glue gun and glue sticks

letter stencils

Paint brushes

white primer paint

block sander

semi gloss white paint

Ok, so lets begin.  You have your piece of wood, but you will probably want to paint it white.  So begin with the white primer.  Once that dries you will be able to tell if you need another coat by seeing if the wood grain shines through.  My wood needed two coats.  I had to sand the wood in between coats. 

Once its primed, you can paint it again with a semi gloss white paint.

While the wood is drying, you can take apart the clothes pins and paint those any color you choose.  Once dried, you can put them back together.

Now stencil the "Lost Socks" letters on the wood as shown.  Allow to dry.  While that is drying you can heat up your hot glue gun.

Glue the clothes pins on the piece of wood.  Once the clothes pins are dry, flip it over and glue your choice of ribbon to the back.  Your finished product is below! 

I hope you enjoy making yours as much as I did mine.  Its super cute.  Now I just have to figure out where to hang it so that I can remember to use it!

N.. for nest

Caden's preschool has been learning a letter a week.  This week was Caden's turn to do the letter N.  Basically the child has to come up with words and pictures and paste them on the paper and turn it in that Monday.  So today we turned in his N sheet with all the N words and N pictures we could think of.  It had Nail, Neighbor, Nicholas, Nissan, Nectarine, Nose, and something else, I cant remember. 

Anyway, the parent can bring a special snack for the class if they so choose.  I decided I was in the mood to make a snack.  I wanted it to be creative and different.  I thought it would be neat to make a nest out of something.  Since I had rice krispies and marshmellows on hand, it would make the perfect nests. 

They turned out so cute!   I used jelly beans as the eggs.  Caden helped me fill them. 

 I will say it was pretty hard to keep their shape, but if you wait a little while then you can come back and mold them again. 

I forgot

Oops, I meant to update you on my weight loss thing with the previous post, but I forgot.   I weighed myself last week and I weight 130.7lbs.  This week I weighed and I down to 129.1!  Thats more than a pound, which Im very happy with.  I wasn't expecting to loose poundage, but I'll take it. 

I ran twice this week and worked out to P90X once.  I know it's not much but I have now developed a cold which hit me yesterday, so that threw running today, out the window.  Plus it rained all day yesterday so no running either. 

Goal for next week...  Run at least 3 to 4 times and workout to P90x 2 to 3 times (If I can kick this cold).  I'm concentrating on my arms a lot more than any other part.  Summer is coming and I have a tankini so the mid section will be covered, but the arms wont so I want them to look nice and tone. 

On to week three and I'll leave you with this cute comic.

Friday's Ponderings

Friday's are full of many ponderings.  What are we going to do this weekend?  What are we going to have for dinner tonight and this weekend?  I wonder if there are going to be good coupons in Sunday's paper!  I wonder if I will have time to do the laundry this weekend or wait until Sunday night??  

This is the start of a new series of my ponderings for Friday.  I think A LOT and sometimes I like to get it all down on paper, or in this case my blog, to  get my thoughts straight.


I wonder if Jon will make time on Saturday to go get our new dining room table set.  Let me explain!  Yesterday I wondered into Bassett Furniture because they are going out of business so EVERYTHING is basically "make your best offer" price.  So I went in not expecting to buy anything, just to "look" and I walked out with a brand new dining room set.  I really didnt plan on getting that for another year or two, but the deal was just too good to pass up.  Im so excited about it and cant wait to see it in the kitchen!

To red balloon sale or to not red balloon sale... that is the question!!  Well since I spent ALL of our money yesterday on the table, should I still go red ballooning with my sis and mom?  Every year, well twice a year, Daniel Island has a "red balloon" sale and every mail box with a red balloon on it is having a garage sale.  So we wake up early, grab donuts possibly starbucks, and head out to Daniel Island to drive around and snag good stuff!  Its always alot of fun, so I think Ive talked myself back into it.  Im Going!

SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY  I'm a little on the discouraged side about going grocery shopping on Sundays.  Dont get me wrong, its the perfect day for us to do our shopping, but it seems to sneak up on me.  I end up scrambling saturday night to organize my coupons and then get my list made.  I need a new system.  lol.  Its so hard to make the time to file my coups and then get my list ready.  Craziness.

Haircuts!  Gosh - the boys need hair cuts soooo bad!  Maybe tonight or tomorrow night's the night. 

Barbie VS. Baseball cards

This past weekend we were over at Jon's parents house.  We were all blabbing about something or another and before I knew it, Jon and his dad were in the attic.  Then Jon's mom suggested that Jon grab his baseball cards to give to the boys.  I thought that was a great idea.  Nothing like a dad passing down his childhood things to his sons.  Little did I know there would be so many "rules" to the oh so cherished cards. 

So we get in the car and Jon starts explaining to me how he used to cut grass when he was younger and would save all of his mulah to buy baseball cards.  He had them in binders specially made for baseball cards and in sets that were still in the same box.  But then he starts to explain how he doesnt want the boys to play with them because he's afraid that they will mess them up. 

"WOW", I thought!  I know the boys can be destructive, but they are old baseball cards that are worth a dollar fifty on ebay.  lol. (we checked!)  I just don't get it.  So Monday passed and Jon once again reminded me how precious these old ratty cards were to him so I kindly reminded him about my barbies!!

The barbies that HE made me get rid of when we moved into this house.  Let me think... I think his exact words were "we dont have room for these anymore and you dont need them, plus they are old and they are barbies... just get rid of them."  Little did he know that those barbies were near and dear to my heart.  I can remember standing in Wal-mart bugging my dad to buy me a barbie.  He didn't have lots of mulah either, but he would always save up to get us barbies or barbie cars/house/jeeps/etc. 

How is is fair that I have to get rid of my barbies and jon gets to keep his baseball cards?  I wouldnt mind if he actually would let the boys enjoy them.  I just dont want another box up in the attic taking up space.  Then when we eventually move, we will have to move this box of cards and the boys still can look at them or use them. 

I will leave you with a last thought...
"I just don't get it!"

Office Before

Today I've decided to paint my office.  I haven't really decided on a color "name" yet, but I am going to Sherwin Williams today to pick out a color.  I know I want the color to be in the gray family.  I want a gray color that is Bold and crisp/clean looking.  I've tried two different "sample" colors but neither of them are THE color, if you know what I mean.  So with that said, hopefully I can go in to Sherwin and find THE color im looking for.  I hate to keep buying sample colors and then not like them.  Wish me luck.  

Here is a before picture of our office.  Please see past the mess.  I find it hard to clean a room that doesnt make you happy to begin with.  Meaning, I hate the blue color and I need to do some organizing, so I just let the office mess go.  

With the second picture, I had already started to take things down like the

curtains, pictures, and hurricane lanterns.  Oh and if you notice in picture one, you can see the blotch on the wall where I "tested" the colors for the room.  This is not a sneak peek, I didnt choose either of those colors. 

Some changes I will be making and have already made would be the
*Color
*Curtains (already changed those.  They used to be brown)
*possibly rearranging the furniture
*Nice decor
*new cork board (this will be a DIY project for me)
*possibly a chalk board of some sort (this will be a DIY project for me)
*and anything else I can think of.

I will update again once Ive gotten some of the above "to do" list completed.


**Weight loss update** 
I started on Tuesday and I worked out twice this week  (I know its not a lot, but its a start).  I hope to go for a run tomorrow morning, if its not too cold.  Plus Ive changed most of my eating habits.  I did have one or two cookies earlier this week, but only becauce my mom brought them over... bad mom!!  I forgot to weigh myself on tuesday so, if its not too embarrasing, I will start tracking my weight on here.  I dont expect much weight loss, I just want to tone everything. 

Laundry

UGH.... need I say more??  There is a love/hate relationship between my crews laundry and I.  I dont mind throwing it in the washer and dryer but I hate folding and putting it away.  Luckly, I have taught my children how to put away their clothes and hang up their shirts.  I came to this realization last year when I was killing myself trying to do ALL of the housework myself.  I realized I'm not the maid and they need to pull the weight.  So, austin was 7 and caden was 4, they both put their own laundry in their drawers and put their shirts on hangers.  Caden's aren't always the way that I would do it, but I've had to put that past me and just think "at least its done and I dont have to do it". 

Anyway - I was doing laundry yesterday and as I was switching the laundry from the washer to the dryer, I chuckled a little.  This is what I find on a regular basis in my washer and dryer.

Marbles, coins, nails, screws, pencils, keys, keychains, lego men & legos, hot wheels cars, receipts, bracelets, and last but not least, I found a piece of coal.  Coal from the grill!  No clue why it was in the washer but i asked caden and he said it was a piece of chalk he found at grandmas.  Ha!  I just had to laugh and finish the laundry. 

I think the only thing I LOVE about doing laundry is finding money!  I love getting paid to do laundry.  Sometimes I find dollar bills and have even found $20 before.  Its the best!

What are some of the things you find in your laundry?