Sunny Days

Happy Valentine’s Day!

2011-02-14T16:12:00.001-07:00

Christmas?

2010-12-31T10:58:00.002-07:00

Anyone else sick of that BOO sign? That is . . . all ONE of you (me) still reading this blog! ha ha

And does a Christmas post the last day of December still count? :P Oh well! I’ve never been embarrassed to do a holiday post after the holiday. Remember Valentines??

What can I say? I’m a mom of 2 busy girls who rarely feels on top of things. And to maintain some sort of balance I have to be careful how much time I spend crafting . . . and especially on the computer. So that is why you get a Christmas post just when I’m getting ready to put Christmas away. What do you do, right?

Anywho, remember all the Christmas clearance shopping I did last year for my new tree? Well, I’m excited to report that it did in fact come together beautifully!

I’m in love with each and every one of the ornaments . . .

And of course it looked lovely at night . . .

P.S. The tree skirt I got at 50% off just the other day at Wal-Mart and it matches perfectly. Score!

It’s so nice to finally have a grown up tree :)

And if my LATE Christmas post wasn’t enough for you, how about we do a Christmas craft after Christmas as well? Yes, I’m being serious . . .

I saw this post by Ashley over at Domestic Fashionista and decided I needed an ornament wreath for myself. In all fairness, I did actually BUY the ornaments BEFORE Christmas was over. But I didn’t put it together until yesterday :P

Well, look at the bright side. Instead of opening my Christmas bins next year and finding an unfinished project, I’ll find my lovely new ornament wreath all ready to go :)

I just got a bunch of ornament tubes (8 to be exact) in the $1 section at Target . . .

I’m sure they’re either 50% or 75% off now. So if you hurry and find the last of these tubes you could definitely do this project for under $5!

Grabbed a hanger from the closet . . .

And followed Ashley's tutorial exactly to make this . . .

I did end up hot gluing the tops of the ornaments to make sure everything was secure. And I would recommend it. When dh was helping me secure the hanger back together, he accidently dropped the wreath and 1/2 the ornaments popped off. That was before the gluing of the tops. So, yes, I would recommend doing that BEFORE you assemble your wreath . . . and then drop it :P

This is also a great craft for the kiddos to help with. My girls had a blast helping loop the ornaments on.

A few other Christmas scenes around the house . . .

My Christmas centerpiece found it’s way to the top of the fridge. It was a little heavy to keep moving on and off the table last year. But it worked great up there!

And a new/old Christmas sign . . .

It use to be painted cream with green vinyl-lettering. But I used this technique from Vanessa over at V and Co. to make it a lovely vintage red. One of my favorite things in the house :)

So there you have it! Merry Christmas from mine to yours . . . uh, next year :P

xoxo

Halloween Clearance

2010-11-01T15:45:00.002-06:00

Anyone going Halloween clearance shopping today??

You can’t beat the prices and, besides that, it’s just fun to dig through everything to find a few treasures :)

This BOO sign was something I picked up last year at Hobby Lobby when everything went 80% off. I think I ended up paying less than a $1 . . .

I’m not quite sure who in design gave the okay on the crazy psychedelic paint job but I have a feeling someone in production will be paying for it cause there were TONS of these signs left. Ha ha!

But the paint didn’t deter me :) It was solid wood and I liked the shape so I picked one up in hopes that I could salvage it . . .

This year when I pulled it out, I instantly knew what I wanted to do . . .

I sanded off most of the crazy bright paint then coated it with plain black.

Cute enough, but I decided to take it one step more and do another layer of white . . .

Then I roughed it up again with the sander and this is what I got!

Much better, right?

I think it actually says “Halloween” now instead of “crazy 70s dance party”

So if you decide to go out and fight the clearance crowds be on the lookout for things that could be cute with just a little bit of paint :) Good luck!

Halloween Birthday Party

2010-10-21T15:49:00.002-06:00

Well, like it or not, #1 finally turned 4! I say *finally* because this girl has been talking about her birthday party forEVER. At least since her 3rd birthday I am sure. And this mother hen isn’t too thrilled with her little girl turning 4. It just passes by too fast . . .

*sigh*

BUT if there is something good found in all of it . . . it’s the party :) Like I’ve said before, I adore Halloween. And thankfully for the past 4 years I’ve been able to gently persuade her to have a Halloween themed party. She’s never complained . . . until the day of her 4th birthday . . .

Yep. Right in the middle of all the spooky preparations she said, “Mom, I don’t want to have a Halloween party. I want a normal princess party like Madison.” (her friend)

“Ummm. Say what?”

“I just want a normal princess party.”

“Well, honey, it’s still your birthday party. And you still get to be a princess. This party is just for you. It’s a special Halloween birthday party.”

“Okay!” As she runs off . . .

Huh. I might have to work on my pitch before next year ;)

Sooooooo here are a few of the things I put together for the party. Before things got underway I of course had to do a few paint alterations . . .

I just bought this cupcake stand for #2’s birthday. I can’t explain why but the shiny metal was bugging me. Don’t ask me why. Maybe because it looked too new and I hardly buy anything new :P Loved the stand, just not the color . . .

So out came the white spray paint.

After it was dry, I antiqued it with some steel wool . . . Oh and the girls grabbed a few rocks from the yard and helped out too! :) Then I finished it off with a brown glaze . . .

I’m sure to most of the “normal world” (aka people who don’t see everything through spray paint glasses) that it looks the same. Ha ha! But it was just the vintage look I was going for . . . And the perfect backdrop to the birthday cupcakes . . .

Cupcake and frosting recipe found over at Our Best Bites

Then I found this spider at Michaels (using my 40% off coupon of course)

The size and shape were perfect, but it was a little too grey for me. So again I pulled out some black spray paint and gave it a few sprits to cover up some of the grey . . .

Then this little guy *guarded* the treat bags . . .

I also picked up some creepy cloth from the Dollar Tree to put over the table. It was a really light grey and I just wanted it a titch darker. So I grabbed some black dye from Wal-Mart . . .

I wasn’t concerned about it being perfect. So I put the creepy cloth in a bucket with some hot water and the dye and just let it sit for awhile instead of stirring it for 30 mins. like they tell you to. Don’t have a before but here’s how it turned out . . .

Had to make a birthday banner of course . . .

Simple black and white cardstock (Carnevalee Freakshow font) . . .

Popcorn buckets from Target

The candy popcorn was a big hit! I got the recipe from my sister.

Love these pumpkin buckets!

The black candelabras were generously given to me by my sister-in-law Brooke. So I just grabbed some black candlesticks from Hobby Lobby (50% off) to top them off.

The candy corn dish I got from Wal-Mart years ago at 80% off (I think I paid $2). It’s still one of my favorite things! And the vintage silver platter I found at the Goodwill ($4).

And that’s it!

Of course we had lots of fun playing games, watching Scooby Doo, hunting for ghosts (aka tissue-covered suckers) with glow bracelets, eating popcorn and cupcakes, and just being silly . . .

And even though she said she wanted “just a normal princess party” . . . I think she ended up pretty happy being the princess at the center of her very own Halloween birthday party :)

xoxo

Savers message board makeover

2010-10-13T15:48:00.002-06:00

I found this cute little message board at Savers awhile back . . .

Blue tags happened to be 50% off that day, so this guy came to just $3. Like a lot of things I buy at the Goodwill or Savers, I wasn’t exactly sure what I was going to do with it. But I loved its look and the sturdy all wood frame.

Fast forward to about a month ago. I’ve mentioned here and here before that I’m lucky to have some pretty awesome friends here in Arizona. Unfortunately, I had to say good-bye to one of my best friends just recently . . . she’s trading in the sun and palm trees for the fall and snow.

Tricky trade-off, huh? :(

Well, I wanted to send her along with a memento to remind her just how much I love her. And in trying to think of something fun, I immediately remembered the message board I’d bought months earlier. I thought it would be perfect and I just knew she was the person for it.

So I busted it all apart and gave it a good cleaning and sanding. The previous owner had been generous with the hammer and nails, so I used some wood filler to smooth everything out . . .

I asked what her favorite kitchen colors were, and she told me red, black, and cream. I’m a neutral gal myself . . . so my standard go-to colors are often cream or black. But it’s also fun to have a punch of color here and there, so I decided to use my favorite red spray paint . . .

The chalkboard itself was also looking a little dingy, so I pulled out my chalkboard paint and gave it a new surface as well. . .

Much better, right?

Once I had it all put back together, I did a soft distressing and a brown glaze . . .

Turned out just how I wanted :)

Love you Karalee!

xoxo

Halloween Decorating

2010-10-05T14:19:00.002-06:00

It’s officially October! Yay! October has always, always, always been my most favorite month of the year. I love fall and I LOVE Halloween, so it’s just my perfect month. Unfortunately, it’s not quite the same here in Arizona (okay, really, like not even close), but I’m still giddy over it.

So naturally I started pulling out Halloween decor even before September was over ;)

I had fun rediscovering some of the little treasures that I got at 80% last year after Halloween. Love when that happens!

Two other things I added this year are a witch silhouette:

And this BOO sign:

The witch silhouette was an idea I came across on Robyn’s blog.

She sketched out a silhouette of a witch and then filled it in with craft paint. She kindly provided a download for her sketch, so I just used Photoshop and filled it in with black and then printed it out.

I dug out an old frame that I picked up at Goodwill forever ago on 50% off day ($2.50) and spray painted it black. Then I popped out the old sunflower pic and added the witch printout.

Not as crafty as Robyn’s but I still think it turned out cute ;)

Then nearly TWO years ago, I came across this fun Halloween project by Joy:

She used a frame from the dollar store and just added her letters printed out on newspaper.

Easy, right?

Well, not if your Dollar Tree doesn’t carry the frames :( Dang it! So I gave up on that little craft . . .

Until I came across this guy at the Goodwill . . .

This is something I usually wouldn’t have even blinked at, but right away it reminded me of Joy’s craft from years earlier. It was 50% off that day too so it came to a whopping $1. Hey, that’s as good as the Dollar Tree, right?!

The main frame was already black, so I just needed to spray paint the 3 little inside frames . . .

Then I tea-stained some regular lined school paper and printed out the letters (Century Gothic font).

Simple things that add some fun variety to my old Halloween stuff.

Have you started decorating yet?

xoxo

Bathroom Stool

2010-09-27T10:55:00.002-06:00

Ever since girly #1 was potty-trained, we’ve been on the look out for a good sturdy stool to go in the bathroom. You know, something they can get up on and ~~play in the faucet to overflow the sink and get water everywhere~~ wash their hands.

Eventually, my husband came across this one at Savers for $10. It was more than we wanted to spend, but still a decent price for a solid wood stool. . . .

It definitely needed a good cleaning, and the hardware inside for the open top was broken.

So I opted to just remove all the broken hardware and have my husband secure the top down with a few nails and some wood glue.

After the glue was set, I went about stripping the stool of its thick coat of poly . . .

I did this with my handy palm sander and 60-grit sandpaper. I knew I wanted to stain the wood, so I needed to use the extra rough paper to make sure I got down to the bare wood. Then I went over it with 100-, 150-, and 220-paper to make it nice and smooth (didn’t want the girlies hitting any rough spots with their little feet :).

Once all the poly was off and the wood sanded smooth, I just used a bit of provincial and dark walnut stain all over.

Then I sat back at let it dry for a day or two. When it was good and dry, I did a couple of coats of Danish Oil to seal the wood, cause I am sure this little stool will see it’s fair share of water. My girls are the WORST at keeping the bath water IN the bath :P

I loved the look as is, but to give it a little more character I decided to use a few tacks along the steps to make it look even older . . .

And I was done!

Just the look I was going for and much better than before!

xoxo

P.S. Some Halloween decor *might* have crept out over the weekend. Is it too early?? ;)

How I did my numbered chairs??

2010-09-19T18:47:00.003-06:00

Since my post on my farmhouse table, I’ve had a lot of requests for a tutorial on how I did my painted number chairs . . .

Honestly, I’ve hesitated doing a post on them cause it was one of those things that didn’t turn out right the first time. So I hummed and hawed over it (for about a year!) and then tried something else. Fortunately that worked out and I really liked the finished project.

Thank goodness!

However, I would never say the way I went about it was the best way to do it. Nor the least cost effective . . . unfortunately. But I’ll show you what I did and if it helps someone else out, then great! If not, then at least you’ll know how to not go about refinishing your kitchen chairs ;)

So I started out with simple wood and white farmhouse chairs . . .

I had seen lots of similar tables done in black, so I decided I would keep the wood natural and just spray paint the backs and legs of the chairs black. I decided on spray paint because I knew I wasn’t going to actually be “painting” very much surface area. This is where you can learn from me. If I knew I would have ended up painting the entire chair, I would have brushed on the paint . . . much cheaper than the 12 cans of spray paint I ended up using! Yikes!

Also, I don’t know if you can see, but the backs of the chairs have lots of little (annoying!) spindles. And in order to keep the spray paint off the seats of the chairs, I had to meticulously tape off everything that wasn’t white. Wow! That was quite the job!! Did I mention how ANNOYING that was?! One would have been bad enough, but then times that by 6. Bleh.

Especially since in the end I painted the seats anyway!

Can you tell I’m still a little bitter about that? He he . . .

Okay so I taped off everything that wasn’t white with blue painter’s tape and newspaper, sanded down the white area, and then went over everything with a deglosser just for good measure . . .

At the time I was not planning on distressing the chairs, so I went ahead and used a grey spray primer as well. Again, if I knew I’d end up distressing the chairs, I would not have chosen to use primer at all.

Then I sprayed everything black.

Waited for it to dry and took off all the tape and black newspaper . . .

………

*crickets*

………

Um, let’s just say I was not in love.

I didn’t take any intentional after pictures, but I dug through my family pics and came across this one where you can *kind of* see what they looked like . . .

Don’t be swayed by the cutie patootie playing on it either! She was enjoying St. Patrick’s Day :) But I’d even tried distressing the black a bit to see if I would like it any better. Well, it only made it worse. The original white paint showed through way too much.

I tried to convince myself that I would love it in the end. So I went ahead and finished all six chairs. But it never was meant to be and all six of my chairs sat for a year and a half while I figured out what I was going to do with them now!

I really only had two choices . . . spray them all black OR strip the black and start all over. I felt like I’d already invested so much time getting them black that I would just stick with the black. Then one night while I was lying in bed (random, I know) I thought of painting numbers on the seats. I liked the idea right away and went for it!

So I bought another 4 more cans of black spray paint, prepped the seats and finished spraying all the chairs.

Next I painted the numbers on the chairs. I used the same method that I did for my painted canvases. I just print out the letter/number in whatever size I need, tape it in place, then trace around it using a paint marker. For the chairs I used the font Roundslab Serif that I downloaded from dafont. It’s one of my favorites!

Since painting the canvases, I also learned another helpful trick. When printing out your letter/number click “Outline” in the printing options. That way just the outline of the number prints out and you don’t end up using up all your black ink!

Then I just filled in the number with vintage white craft paint using some simple brushes I picked up at Wal=Mart.

I chose to go ahead and antique the number and distress the edges of the chair as well. But they would look good left as is too! I did a brown glaze over the number, but for the edges of the chair I just rubbed in some provincial stain and then wiped off the excess.

This helped because after distressing the edges, some of the original white paint of the chair showed through. After staining it, the white turned more cream and looked better with the rustic look of the chairs.

And last but not least, I finished everything off with some wipe-on poly.

As I’ve said before, I’m not in love with polyurethane, but in order for the black to not chip off and for the painted numbers to not come off when wiping up lots of spills, messes, crumbs, and sticky stuff (the life of a mom :) . . . I needed to use it. I chose the satin, and it’s held up well so far.

So there you have it! How I did my painted number chairs . . .

xoxo

Antique Picture Frame

2010-09-13T14:48:00.002-06:00

Just got back from a whirlwind trip to Utah. My sweet Grandma Mae passed away peacefully a week ago yesterday. She lived a long life of 95 years. We will miss her greatly, but happy that she is finally at peace.

My Grandma Mae was actually my step-grandma. My real grandma passed before I was born . . . so my Grandma Mae was the only grandma I ever knew . . . and I never was the wiser. She treated me like her own, and I loved her very much!

My grandpa passed away many years ago, and left a lot of things in the care of my grandma. But since her passing, her own children decided to return his things to my family. One of which was this vintage wood carved frame and painting . . .

My mom had put it out on the back porch, and as soon as I walked passed I thought it was beautiful! I asked my mom about it, and she said she didn’t know the artist or how it had come to be in my grandpa’s possession. Sooooooo . . . . I asked her if I could have it? :)

She thought about if for a second, and finally decided that if I promised to take good care of it then I could have it . . .

None of us recognized the artist or the painting. So I think I will pop the canvas out and do some research to see if I can find out anything about it . . .

But in the meantime I want to do something lovely with the frame. Just look at the details!

Right away I thought about Melanie from My Sweet Savannah. She makes her own shabby chic frames, and also collects antique ones. These are a few of the ones she has around her house . . .

The last one is my favorite. The shape is so unique, I love the grey paint, and I’m a sucker for chalkboards :P So I might try to do something like it for my living room . . .

Because you know the vintage windows I currently have on my living room wall . . .

Well, my husband is convinced the chippy lead paint is poisoning our daughters. I beg to differ . . . but the girls do often climb up on the back of the sofa and bump up against the windows. So I might choose to go the “better safe the sorry route” and move the windows to our master bedroom. We’ll see! ha ha . . .

Any other ideas on what to do with the frame??

xoxo

Copycat: Home Sweet Home Sign

2010-09-03T10:16:00.004-06:00

Last fall I stumbled onto Karla’s blog and fell in love with these paper bats that she decorated her front porch with for Halloween. I loved them so much I decided to do make my own too. They were so easy and worked out just perfect for our Halloween porch decor!

But the bats weren’t the only thing on Karla’s porch that caught my eye. I also fell in love with this sign above her door . . .

I’m a sucker for wooden signs anyway, and this one was no exception. So you know what I had to do . . . make my own :)

I started out with a simple piece of 1x6 scrap wood . . .

Sanded it down, and beat it up . . .

Then I spray painted it black, roughed it up with the sander again (150-grit paper), and covered it with some provincial stain . . .

And this is what I had after all that . . .

I printed out “HOME Sweet HOME” off my computer. Then I proceeded to cut, measure, tape, move around . . . and then cut, measure, tape and move around some more. Ha ha . . .

It was a little tricky getting it lined up just how I wanted, but eventually I had it.

Then all I do is trace over the writing as steady as I can with a ball-point pen. When you pull off the paper, you should have a light indentation that is easy to follow, but not really visible unless you’re looking for it.

Most of the time, I hand paint the lettering, but for this sign I just used my handy-dandy paint marker to fill in the sign. . .

A little more distressing with the sander, and this is what I had . . .

Definitely not perfect, but just perfect for me :)

EDITED TO ADD: The fonts I used were Constantia for "HOME" and Edwardian Script for the "Sweet," which were both found free in my 2003 version of Microsoft Word. I'd love to see pics if anyone of you decide to make your own too :)

xoxo

Card-Making Frenzy

2010-08-20T14:37:00.003-06:00

Well, just like the title says, I’ve been in a card-making frenzy the last little bit! Card-making was one of the first “crafty” things I got in to, and it’s still one of my favorites.

I often like to do a set of cards for friends’ birthdays. Like this one . . .

(See that little flower element? So cute, huh?! You can make your own! Dawn over at Raspberry Suite gives a fantastic video tutorial on how to make them)

Then I like to personalize a set of matching envelopes . . .

And then put it all together to wish them a happy day :)

These are a few designs I’ve worked on during the past few weeks . . .

Some of the designs I’ve done before.

Then I just mix it up with different papers and a new color palette . . .

This one I did in honor of the upcoming Fall season. A pseudo season here in Arizona for sure. But one I like to celebrate and decorate for nonetheless :)

I’m don’t consider myself very creative when it comes to thinking up new designs. So I like to browse the Internet for new and fun ideas. Raspberry Suite is by far one of my favorite places to stop at for inspiration. She’s super talented! Stop by her blog if you're in the mood for some card candy :)

xoxo

A Kitchen Corner

2010-08-09T16:17:00.004-06:00

If you don’t know, we are helpless renters. Someday I would love to own a home! And I will most certainly tear apart, paint, and decorate it to pieces :) But for now, I have to look for simple ways to turn our little rental house into a home (love that word) . . . on a budget of course!

Take for instance this little kitchen corner (see that AWESOME tile . . . One of the lovely things about renting. Um, you just never know what you’re going to get? ha ha) . . .

After finishing my kitchen table and chairs, I looked around the rest of my kitchen, and realized this little corner looked pretty sad . . . so I dug into my “idea” file on my computer and came across this lovely picture . . .

I LOVE this picture . . . everything about it! But I really loved those antique clothespins. Anyone know where I could find some?? . . . Well, me neither. So I just grabbed some regular old plain ones . . .

Stained them a dark walnut and plopped them into a round Bell jar from Hobby Lobby . . .

Then I took this fun glass jar I picked up at Goodwill (I think for $2), spray painted the top a satin colonial red (to cover up the shiny Christmas red) and added some sugar . . .

Then I found this BIG glass jar at Wal-Mart for only $10 and filled it with some faux green apples . . .

And this is what I came up with to brighten up this sad little corner :)

I only ended up spending $10 for the big glass jar . . . the rest I already had. Not bad!

P.S. Anyone know how to paint on glass??

I would love to know how to replicate those little numbers :)

Farmhouse Table REDO

2010-08-03T10:27:00.004-06:00

BEFORE

AFTER

It’s dooooooone!!!!!

I seriously can’t believe it. I’ve been staring at this table for two years, TWO YEARS . . . envisioning everyday what I wanted to do with it. How I wanted to stain the top a beautiful walnut color, paint the legs a nice antique white . . . and then . . . beat the heck out of it ;) To give it that old, beat-up farmhouse table look I was going for it.

I’ve been avoiding this table for way too long just because I knew the amount of elbow grease it was going to take. Plus the fact that it would leave my family eating off the floor for several days . . .

And you would think that in the middle of a hot and humid Arizona summer would be the absolute LAST time I would pick for finally tackling this project . . . but what can I say . . .

The girls were out swimming in the kiddy pool and there was a decent cloud cover outside . . . I was staring at the table for the bazillioneth time wondering how she would look after I got my hands on her . . . Then the wheels started turning (always dangerous for a DIYer) . . . And I started thinkin’ and scheming how I could get her out to the back porch by myself (cause the hubby was away at work). Then without too much huffing and puffing, she was outside! And well . . . that was that and away we went! :)

Let me tell you how I did it . . . .

I started out sanding off the thick coat of poly on top. This took a long time. Maybe 3 to 4 hours?? Thankfully it didn’t seem like that long. I got into my grubbies, put on my little face mask, grabbed my running playlist and went to work. And other then the fact that I was itching to run the whole time instead of sand, the time passed fairly quickly :) I used a 60-grit sandpaper first cause the poly was THICK. After it was all off, I went over the whole table with 100, 150, and a 220-grit paper.

Then I got my super sophisticated distressing tools . . . rocks, hammer, nail . . . and beat up the top.

Then came the paint and stain.

I sprayed on several coats of Rustoleum Heirloom White first on the bottom then moved to the top.

I had planned all along to use Miniwax provincial stain. But I went to test it out, and it was WAY darker then I wanted. It looked more like a dark walnut. And since the only other stain that had was a dark walnut, I had to make a quick trip to Home Depot.

I ended up coming home with a golden oak stain. I would have NEVER picked this stain beforehand. The sample was much lighter then I wanted. But I knew it would show up a lot darker on my table then the sample, so I figured I would give it a try. That’s the nice thing about a Home Depot. You can always bring back a can of stain if you use a little bit and the color is not what you were going for.

It also goes to show it’s really important to always do a test section before tackling a whole project. Stain and paint can always look different on various woods and in different lights.

So this is what I had after 2 coats of Golden Oak. The color looked almost exactly what I had envisioned! Yay! I also used my dark walnut stain around the edges to make them a worn look. Then I pulled it and my provincial stain through the rest of the wood here and there to add some dimension.

After that I sanded and distressed the legs. Again, for most of my distressing I just used a sanding block with 100-grit paper, very fine steel wool and a couple of rocks from the yard.

Then I used my provincial and dark walnut stain to darken up the exposed distressed wood. And finally I did a glaze over the whole bottom using these . . .

Jen Rizza gives a great tutorial on glazing if you want to give it a try yourself!

I had been debating a long time on what to use to seal the top. I knew I really wanted to avoid going the polyurethane route if I could. I wanted the wood to look natural and raw . . . not shiny and plasticy. So after reading this very helpful post by Kristine over at the Painted Hive, I decided to use Danish Oil (found at Lowe’s). And after living with it now a few days, I’m really happy with the results. The wood looks BEAUTIFUL! But as a mom of kids, I have to admit it’s definitely not as kid-friendly as a poly. It seals well, but it takes a little bit more work getting crayons, play do and glue off. I don’t regret my decision though. I would use it again in a heartbeat. Instead I think I’ll just buy some cheap placemats that we can pull out whenever the kids want to do crafts on the table.

And here she is! I LOVE her!! I almost feel guilty having neglected her so long knowing now what she could have looked like.

The chairs are all done too! Yipee!!! I’ll do a post soon on how I finished those too . . .

I haven’t sealed the bottom yet cause I’m okay with the legs getting more distressed naturally. If anything, I might use beeswax on them eventually . . .

Here you can see the distressing I did on the top. I love that I don’t have to worry about it getting all banged up. It’ll just add to its character!

And the best part is we’re not eating off the floor anymore ;)

Edited to Add: Finally did a post on my numbered kitchen chairs. Check it out!

Free!

2010-07-23T16:36:00.002-06:00

I’ve mentioned before that I have awesome friends.

Well, they’ve done it again!

The sister of my other awesome friend that gave me my dearly loved chippy blue filing cabinet, found this cool vintage looking chalkboard on the side of the road. She knows I’m a helpless thrifting addict and that I also love chalkboards. So she snatched it up for me and brought it right over.

It fits perfectly in this little spot in my kitchen. Free and cute. Can you get any better than that?

Thanks Amy! You know I love ya!

1, 2, 3

2010-07-15T17:25:00.002-06:00

We’re getting somewhere . . .

Baby Thomas

2010-07-07T13:43:00.001-06:00

I got a new baby nephew recently. I decided, as usual, to have some fun making my gift. Seriously I don’t know if it’s more exciting for them to get a personalized baby gift, or more fun for me to have an excuse to play around being crafty. Either way, it’s a win-win situation :)

I picked up one of these simple wood letters from Michael’s.

And then I did a similar paint job as I did on this letter.

What do you think?

Then I couldn’t resist personalizing some little onesies. I have so much fun with these :)

As a side note, we just got back to Arizona after a fun trip to Utah . . . so sorry for the lack of posting. But I’m back baking in the heat and longing for the newly cut grass, sprinklers, and popsicles that we left behind :( Wish me luck in surviving another Arizona summer!

Number 5 Chair

2010-06-16T00:00:00.002-06:00

I've been in the very looooong process of redoing my kitchen table and chairs for a very looooong time. It must be because we eat off of them every single day that it's been hard to find little snipits of time to work on them. But I finally have a few chairs done, and a few that are in the process.

Here is a before of everything. I bought the set for $125 off Craigslist. I liked the simple farmhouse style and the fact that it was solid wood.

Here is the after of one of the chairs. I decided to paint numbers on the seats of the chairs just for fun. My husband is convinced there must be another way to teach our kids their numbers, but it is starting to grow on him ;)

I'm posting this in hopes that it will motivate me to FINALLY get this project DONE.

Only 4 more chairs, and one big table to go . . .

*sigh*

For the love of cards

2010-06-05T14:55:00.003-06:00

I started making cards about 6 years ago. A friend of mine brought me along with her to a card making class offered by another girl just out of her home. And I’ve been hooked ever since then . . .

I did the classes for about 2 years, and then slowly started making them on my own. Now all the girls in my family do a card swamp about 3-4 times a year.

And can I just say . . . I ADORE scrapbook paper. I imagine I hoard scrapbook paper like a seamstress hoards fabric. There are just so many fun and colorful designs out there, it makes it difficult for a paper junkie like me to pick and choose. So I often end up with a lot :)

Besides the card swap I do with all the other girlies in my family, I love to dig into my stash of paper to make a set of cards to give away to my friends on their birthdays.

This is one of a set of cards I made recently for my friend . . .

I didn’t plan on putting the pink and blue paper together, but when I saw them next to each other on my table, I knew I found a winning combo :)

This little flower is my favorite element on the card! Vintage loveliness . . .

Any other paper junkies out there?

To Dye or not?

2010-06-01T17:38:00.003-06:00

A couple of months ago I went to throw some stuff into wash and I noticed one of my favorite shirts had a little stain on the front. No biggie I thought. I’ll just spray on some Oxi-clean and that will be it . . .

So I go to treat it and what I thought was just a little brown stain turned into several BIGGER stains all over the front of my shirt. Hum?

Upon further inspection, I find not only is the front a mess, but there are also several big stains on the back of the shirt too. WHAT?!?

So I proceed to basically drench my shirt in oxi-clean and put it into wash, praying that’s the last I see of it.

Well, it wasn’t. That stain was there.to.STAY.

Blast!

Not to mention, that I still have no idea where that stain came from. Like, literally, it looks like I dumped my entire dinner of spaghetti on my shirt and then rolled around in it on the floor. But I have no recollection of anything so messy. However, I can be a clumsy girl, so that’s not TOO unusual . . .

So I put the shirt into my “stained/worn shirts that get shredded and used in my painting/staining projects” pile. Oh well . . .

Then my wheels started turning . . .

I remember seeing these little boxes of powder dye in the laundry detergent section of Wal-Mart. Hum? Could it work? The shirt was still in perfectly good condition other than the big, ugly stain. And the dye is only a $1.50 a box? Should I go for it??

I did!

And I’m happy to say it worked!

So the next time you have a shirt that is still good besides a little staining, try dying it! I’m thinking of all my little girl’s shirts, especially white ones, that have gotten a little stained and would be so cute in a lovely shade of yellow or blue!

Just remember you might have funky-colored finger nails for a couple of days :)

He He . . .

Copycat: Polka Dot Alphabet

2010-05-26T14:59:00.002-06:00

I saw this idea by Carrie over at Buzzings of a Queen Bee a while ago and knew I wanted to try it out! I had a baby shower coming up and I thought this would be such a fun little gift.

I bought my letter from Michaels, but I’ve also seen cute ones at Hobby Lobby. You can even order them off-line and they come in all different kinds of fonts.

After a good sanding, I just did what she did and spray-painted the letter. But instead of one color I chose to do a layer of Rustoleum Espresso AND Rustoleum Colonial Red. Just for a little more visual interest. It’d be easy to use craft paint as well, but you know I’m a sucker for spray-paint :) Then I let that dry completely, and applied the white polka dots with this little guy.

Again, you can pick these round form brushes up just about anywhere, even Wal-Mart.

I found the trick to applying uniform circles was to not just dip it in the paint and stamp down, but twist the brush doing a full circle before lifting it off. Make sense??

After the dots were dry, I sanded it all down, applied a brown glaze, and then attached a ribbon using a staple gun.

It took some time, but I love that I was able to give a fun and unique gift to my friend.

Makes me think the girls’ doors each need their own polka dot letter ;)

Canvas Painted Names

2010-05-21T13:22:00.002-06:00

Remember when I painted these canvases for my friend’s nursery?

Well, soon after, another friend thought some similar canvases would be PERFECT for her little boy’s room.

Using the same technique, I hand-painted names for each of her little boys. Only this time I went with a smaller canvas (8 1/2 x 11) in order for the names to fit nicely on each wall of the room.

I have to say I LOVE how these turned out. They're definitely NOT perfect, but I think they have the PERFECT rustic look for any little boy :)

Makes me *almost* want to have another baby in hopes that I get a boy and can paint him his only little set of canvas letters. . . .

Ha!

Balance

2010-05-20T14:22:00.001-06:00

Wow, has it really been that long since my last post?? Where does the time go . . .

After running Ragnar (which was awesome by the way), I came home . . . looked at my house, my life . . . and realized I needed to do some REBALANCING.

Do you ever do that as a mom? or a woman?

I have to pull myself out of my life and refocus. . . . See where I can be better.

And I decided I wasn’t in love with what I saw.

Nothing too dramatic. I just wanted to refocus my attention on the things that I see as most important and that SHOULD be most important

My husband

My children

My God

My home

Just trying to keep it in all in BALANCE.

Thankfully I feel like my life is a little more centered now, and I can start having some fun with crafting again. Yay! I’ve worked on some fun projects of late that I’ll have to post about soon.

For now, I just wanted to show this fun banner I made a while ago for a friend’s birthday. I used regular colored cardstock and scrapbook paper. Then I borrowed my friend’s Cricut to do the lettering. I never thought I needed a Cricut before, but now I’m pretty sure I won’t be able to live without one. Sorry honey! Add that to my wish list :)

(And, Erin, I promise I will give it back to you soon . . . maybe . . . )

Del Sol or Bust . . .

2010-02-25T14:09:00.001-07:00

Wish me luck :)

Where’s the love?

2010-02-22T09:36:00.001-07:00

I probably should be too embarrassed to do a Valentine’s post a WEEK after it’s over. But I just had to show you my XOXO blocks that I made. Life has been crazy around these parts, and so I actually didn’t even finish the blocks until the DAY AFTER Valentine’s.

*hang head in shame*

And even more shocking is that I STILL put them up. And they are, in fact, still there! Ha!

I refused to just put them away for a whole year after working so hard on them. I’m sure it must be a total decorating faux pas, but I don’t care. I love my little blocks :)

The best part about this project is it was free. I used old scrap wood, my trusty Rustoleum Colonial Red spray paint, and just some white craft paint from Wal-Mart. All of which I already had. Maybe that’s why I love my little blocks so much. Cute and frugal. My type of decorating!

P.S. Don’t worry. I think I’m finally ready to take them down today :)

Valentine Touches

2010-02-14T10:34:00.001-07:00

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Before After

Vintage Windows

2010-02-04T17:14:00.004-07:00

Do you see them?

There in the back used as glass doors on the china cabinet?

Vintage windows

I do love them. There is something so fun and charming about vintage windows. I like to think about who has looked out their glass panes. Or how many times mommy cleaned little finger prints off them. Or how the sun must have streamed through them on a sunny day :)

I wish I was savvy enough to turn them into china cabinet doors. But for now I am quite content to just use them as display in my home . . .

I’ve shown you my twin double pane ones that hang on my living room wall. I got them at an antique sale on the side of the road.

I just love the patina on them . . .

I showed you here my windowpane mirror turned vintage windowpane chalkboard . . .

And this is my most recently acquired vintage window. I stopped at one of my favorite antique markets over Christmas. I was on the hunt for a big six-pane vintage window just like this one. Unfortunately, they keep all of their vintage windows, shutters, and doors outside even in the winter . . . uncovered. Believe it or not, I tromped through a foot of snow for half an hour and eventually unburied this beauty with my bare hands!

Me: “Look at this beautiful vintage window I found with no broken panes!”

Husband: “Uhhhhh . . . how much did you pay for it?”

Me: “$12, it was 40% off”

Husband: “Weelllll . . . that was probably $12 too much . . .”

*sigh*

Christmas Clearance!

2010-01-12T14:29:00.006-07:00

The holidays were so much fun for us this year. We visited lots of family and had lots of fun. And ate lots and lots and LOTS of food. Which brings me to something else that’s been keeping me busy . . .

Ragnar Del Sol.

Have you heard of it? It’s a relay race that takes place here in Arizona at the end of February. Each team is made up of 12 runners and runs over 200 miles. I’m co-captaining a team. Planning everything is busy and training has started to get intense. But that’s good. Cause I gotta whip this body back in shape after gorging over the holidays! :)

But, don’t worry. I was still able to do some of my favorite shopping in between everything . . .

Christmas clearance!

I know, I know. I’m sure like me, you are SO.OVER.CHRISTMAS. But just indulge me please . . .

Now one of my favorite clearance sales to shop is Christmas clearance because unlike other holidays, there is always still a TON of good shopping after Christmas. And if you time it right, you can find an awesome selection at deep discounted prices. And because I decided to redo my whole tree in silver/red instead of the gold/red that I’ve had for the past 7 years, I shopped my little heart out after Christmas to find everything I wanted.

Everything I got this year was from Wal-Mart, Hobby Lobby, and Tai-Pan.

Silver and red ribbon to trim the tree. I found the big bolt of wired red ribbon (90 ft.) for just 2 bucks at Hobby Lobby.

Lots of silver and white ornaments and bulbs.

These next ornaments are my favorite! I got all of them at Tai Pan Trading at 50% off. I usually like to wait to things go at least 80% off, but I wasn’t in Utah long enough to wait for it.

Vintage sparkly candy canes from Tai Pan as well.

I love these snowflakes! I got a bunch of them at Wal-Mart and Hobby Lobby.

Even though I still have a lot of red ornaments from my former tree, I still wanted to add in some different sizes and shapes of red ornaments. I liked both of these from Hobby Lobby, so I snatched them up when they went 80% off.

And got some big red ones from Wal-Mart.

I looked and looked for a tree topper, but didn’t find anything that I was in love with. So I ended up just buying these floral fillers for the top.

Now, we’ll just cross our fingers that everything looks good together next year!

And do you want to know how much of a quack I am? I undecorated my tree from this year, and redecorated it AGAIN with my new things to make sure I had enough of everything. I know. Issues? I have them.

P.S. In case you’re wondering, I DID in fact freeze over Christmas. . . .Well, at least my eyelashes. My husband and I got up for a 7 am run while visiting my brother in Colorado . . . . It was 7 degrees outside. 7 DEGREES PEOPLE. It was cold, and we both had icicles on our eyelashes when we were done. Now you know why I love SUNNY DAYS :)

Still Here!

2009-12-22T22:53:00.001-07:00

I wish I had something crafty and inspiring to post.

But nope.

I'm sure just like you, I've been busy shopping, wrapping and baking.

Oh yeah, and going crazy. Like I do every holiday season.

I am SO not one of those gals that has it all together right now. I am always flying by the seat of my pants and just barely skating by.

Oh well! Still love this time of year.

We're heading to the snowy Utah mountains for Christmas.

I’m a little bit scared. I grew up in Utah, but moved to Arizona about 2 years ago. I’m a softy. 50 degrees is cold to me now. It means I have to put on a long-sleeve shirt when running and wear shoes instead of flip flops. What the heck am I going to do in sub-30 weather??

We won’t be back until after New Year’s. But if any of you are still reading this humble little blog, I hope you have a very Merry Christmas and a fabulous New Year!

Grandma’s Rocking Horse Cross Stitch

2009-12-08T22:53:00.002-07:00

Last year my mother let me and each of my siblings choose something of my grandmother’s to keep. I chose this beautiful rocking horse cross-stitch. Not sure why. I just liked the simple beauty of it. Unfortunately, it sat in my Christmas boxes all last year cause I just hated the gold speckled frame that it came in.

But that was before me and spray paint were BFFs.

So this year when I pulled it out of my Christmas boxes, instead of seeing an uglygoldspeckledframe thathadnochanceofEVERseeingthelightofdayagain, I saw my grandma’s beautiful vintage cross-stitch that just needed a little paint on the frame to make it pretty again.

Do you have anything that spray paint can rescue?

Fur Wreath

2009-12-03T12:15:00.003-07:00

The Nester last year posted an awesome tutorial on how to make a fur wreath for your winter/Christmas decor. I so loved the look of it, and decided to give it a try this year.

But this project was definitely a doozy!

In her instructions she says, "Like most of the projects we do here, there's a little risk, a little trial and error, a little imperfection and it's all worth it. Basically, you want to cover the wreath form with the fur. And the longer the hair, the more forgiving it is of your messy, inpatient, non-measuring self."

I didn't believe it when I started it, but the more a got into it the more I realized, yep! that's exactly what's going on here. No rules, lots of trial and error. And in the end, your goal really is just to cover the wreath form with the fur.

I had fur EVERYWHERE,
and I think I was itching my eyes for several hours afterward.

But it was so worth it!
I love that it's just a little different than what you usually see.

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas . . .

2009-11-30T09:13:00.008-07:00

A Christmas Centerpiece

2009-11-23T17:55:00.002-07:00

So I've had this berry pine garland since last year. As usual, I picked it up on clearance without having a clue what I was going to do with it.

But with a little patience, the inspiration came! And I decided to cut it up and use it in a Christmas centerpiece.

But I needed something to put it in . . . Hmmmmm. . . .

It needed to be solid wood, dark, rustic,
rectagular, not too big, not too small . . . Hmmmm . . .

But the more specifications I had, the less likely I was going to

find anything like it at the Goodwill (ha ha).

So I decided to make myself a box! (with a little help from the hubby of course)

I stained it a dark walnut and then piled in my chopped up garland.

Threw in some Christmas pinecones . . .

And called it good!

The husband even likes this one :) (bonus!)

Give Thanks Banner

2009-11-15T20:41:00.002-07:00

Since making my first paper banner for my little girl's birthday party, I've kind of become addicted. I can see banners everywhere. And with all of the adorable scrapbook paper out there now, seriously, how can you not? So I got inspired the other day while making some greeting cards, and decided to put one together for Thanksgiving.

I printed the letters on Thanksgiving antique sheet music that I found over at The Graphics Fairy.

Too bad Thanksgiving is like in a day and I'll only have it up for a little while. But Christmas is right around the corner and I can't wait to start dressing up the house in red and green.

I *might* even put up my Christmas tree this week . . . or next.

Don't hate me.

Can you love a filing cabinet?

2009-11-12T13:56:00.012-07:00

I have the best friends in.the.world.

One of my girlfriends called me the other night and said she had something for me if I wanted it. And that she was sending me a pic right away and to let her know what I thought.

When I opened my e-mail I almost fell off my chair. I was IN LOVE.

With a filing cabinet.

When I called her back I tried not to sound too lovesickteenagerlike. Just in case she changed her mind, I didn't want her to feel bad. Although she herself loved the cabinet, she didn't have a place for it and wanted it to go to a good home.

She knew I would love it too and take good care of it.

This cabinet is just too good to be true. The perfect chippy blue with brown underneath. The gorgeous antique hardware.

Don't you love it too? And if you don't, don't tell me. My husband already told me he thought it was ugly. I just hope he was out of earshot when he said it. Can't have this beauty not feeling loved in her new home!

I just can't wait to fill her up with craft supplies and put her to good use . . .

*sigh*

Thanks Linds!

Winner, Winner!

2009-11-06T09:07:00.005-07:00

And the winner is . . . .

Number #1: My highschool friend, Jackie, at Beautiful Journey.

Yay! I'll get your package to you ASAP.

I was just thrilled that so many of you participated that I decided to make an extra set of these Fall greeting cards and have a second winner for those!

And the winner is . . .

Number #30: My friend Holly here in Arizona! Congrats!

Thank you to everyone who particpated! I wish I had something to send to each and every one of you. But I am already brainstorming for my next giveaway . . . maybe even in time for Christmas :)

Giveaway Ideas

2009-11-05T00:00:00.001-07:00

Last day of the giveaway! I hope everyone who wanted
has had a chance to enter.

I just wanted to post some ideas of things you
can do with some of the giveaway items.

Here I put some berry wreath picks in a glass vase. So easy!

Here I just strung the leaf garland around my porch chair. I really love
this garland and all its colors. Perfect for fall!
And, yes, I have bought one for myself!

This is what I've done with the chestnuts. Just filled up a Goodwill vase
with some faux grasses.

I suggested "sprinkling" the leaves or chestnuts around a fall display. Here I've done the same, but with pinecones.

Just a few here and there . . .

Nestled among my little pilgrim folks . . .

And on my fall mantle.

And here is something I love doing with the jute twine . . .
wrapping it around candles.

So just a few ideas on some things to do with your fall decor. Good luck!

Autumn Giveaway!

2009-11-02T00:00:00.001-07:00

I think you all know how much I love Fall. And now that I live where it doesn't snow, I'm especially in love with November and all of its pumpkin, cinnamon, crunchy leaves, cool breeze loveliness. So this giveaway is all about autumn!

A bundle of fall berry wreath picks. These can be used to spruce up a fall wreath, fill up a pretty apothecary jar, or (my favorite) tucked in or around a candle to just give a little extra something.

A pretty sparkly fall leaf garland. I love these things. You can string it around a fun pumpkin display, or dress up your autumn mantle, or even get crazy and tear the leaves off to put on a wreath or fill up a jar or sprinkle around a display.

Two cute little pumpkins.

A bag of hand-gathered chestnuts. These are my new favorite unexpected fall decoration. These look great around a candle in a hurricane glass, or sprinkled around a fall display.

"GIVE Thanks" vinyl lettering. The GIVE is beige and the Thanks is burgundy. The Thanks is meant to overlay in front of the GIVE, but you can create whatever your heart desires!

GRATITUDE vinyl lettering, dark brown in color.

The two little pumpkins above are ceramic and will need padding when shipped. So I was looking around for something to keep them safe when I remembered I had these! Two cute Halloween handtowels and washclothes. Of course you won't be able to use them till next year, but how fun are these??

A bundle of my new favorite thing . . . jute twine. This is perfect for stringing up banners, tying up goodies in a bag, or wrapping around candles to give them the perfect fall touch.

Finally, a bundle of 5 homemade Fall greeting cards. Pictured is just one of the designs. And please forgive my camera skills. I obviously need a tutorial on "how to take fabulous super up-close pictures of teeny tiny objects" :) Oh well. I think you get the idea!

Now all you have to do is leave a comment and you'll be officially entered in the giveaway. Make sure that you have an e-mail attached to your account or left in the comment so I can contact you. The giveaway will go through Thursday, and I'll announce the winner on Friday.

Happy November everyone!

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-31T12:43:00.000-06:00

Check back on Monday for my first blog GIVEAWAY! Happy Haunting :)

Nutter Butter Ghosts

2009-10-30T09:46:00.003-06:00

We are in FULL Halloween mode at our house. We carved pumpkins last night, made pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, and are putting the final touches on Halloween costumes.

We also made these cute little ghost cookies.

This picture makes me totally laugh cause these ghosts have obviously seen better nights. We made them up (Thanks Amy!) for me to take to book club last night, and they got a little beat up. But they were still good! And super easy. Got the directions over at Our Best Bites. They used mini chocolate chips for the eyes, but I used chocolate frosting instead. Made for fun faces :)

Yum!

My First Blog Award!

2009-10-29T11:53:00.008-06:00

I’ve been sick, sick, sick for the past 10 days with . . .

(wait for it, wait for it . . .)

SWINE FLU!!

I know. I know. How can it be? I don’t know either.

I should say I wasn’t ever officially tested for it. But I did have every.single.symptom. And I was hit harder than ever before. My husband had to take off 2 days of work cause of it.

About a week into it, I thought about going to the doctor. But what if they told me that I didn’t have it? Then what would I think? That I was just a sick wimp for 10 days?

No, I prefer to go big. And in the mean time, I need a shirt that says, “I survived the swine flu.” Wouldn’t that be awesome? I totally need to patent that or something.

Anyway, I am feeling much better and so humbled to announce my first blog award!:

Given to me by my lovely friend at The Northern Cottage. Thank you! You are too kind.

Now with the award I’m suppose to pay it forward to seven other Kreativ bloggers.

Here are the rules for PASSING ON THE AWARDS:

1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award in your blog post.
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
3. Link to the person who nominated you for this award.
4. Name 7 things about yourself that people may not know.
5. Nominate 7 Kreativ Bloggers.
6. Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.
7. Leave a comment on each.

I decided that for this I would link YOU to my most requested blog links. By that I mean, I often get asked how I do this, or how I do that?

It’s easy. I read other people’s blogs :)

So here are 7 other fantastically creative bloggers that I’ve been inspired by:

1- I've talked about Joy before. She inspired me to spray paint.

2 - Kate at Centsational Girl gives a great tutorial on how to do a french antique paint treatment.

3 - Wanna a more distressed and beat up look? Joy (again, I love her) shows you how.

4 - Melissa at 320 Sycamore shows you how to make the cutest baby gifts EVER!

5 - I've showed you this tutorial before, but I've gotten more requests for it. Jen at Sanctuary Arts of Home shows you how to glaze. I love this technique! Use it all the time.

6 - Want to make your own hand-painted signs? Karla at It's the Little Things shows you how.

7 - And last but not least, Kim features a new creative blog nearly everyday. So you can just go straight to the source and see tons and tons of other creative blogs!

Okay, now 7 things you might not know about me (and probably wish you never did):

1 - I speak Spanish. I graduated from college with a degree in Spanish Teaching, and I worked my rear end off to finish on the Dean's List. But you know what's harder than learning a new language? Trying to communicate with a 3-year-old and a 1-year-old all day. So these days I mostly just speak gibberish and disconnected nonsense sentences . . . *sigh*

2 - I am a runner. And I'm currently co-captaining a 12-person relay team to run this race.

3 - I'm afraid of the dark. Really. The happiest day of my life was the day I got married so I wouldn't have to sleep by myself anymore.

4 - I really don't consider myself a crafty or creative person. I read blogs all the time about women who've been creating and crafting since they could hold a crayon. Not me! It's something I've gotten into recently and enjoy. Moral of the story: YOU CAN DO IT TOO!

5 - I say freaking, whatever, like, no way, what the heck, and sweet ALL.THE.TIME. Really, it's embarrassing. But I can't stop. Help?

6 - I don't like chocolate. I just don't. Go ahead and hate me.

7 - You might have guessed this last one by my blog title. I love sunny days! I do. I live for the sun. Cloudy, rainy, or snowy days make me feel depressed and closed-in. Sunny days make me happy. I lived in the Utah mountains for most of my life and then finally convinced my husband to move me to the Arizona desert. I'll take 335 days of sun any year!

A little bit more Halloween . . .

2009-10-27T15:23:00.007-06:00

BEFORE

AFTER

(found this idea here)

Copycat: Black Bats

2009-10-23T11:51:00.003-06:00

If you haven't put anything outside yet for Halloween, this is the project for you! I always have a hard time decorating outside for Halloween. With two little kids, I don't like anything too grotesque or gory. This was so easy and the perfect touch for Halloween!

I found it over at Karla's blog. Just head on over there and follow her instructions and her link to the Country Living template.

The ones in front of the window are especially fun at night time. They create a "spooky" sillouette across the front.

FYI, I DID use heavy black card stock for mine (you can get a pack of 50 at Wal-Mart for $4) and I haven't had any problem with fading or curling. And I also used duct tape and it's held up just great.

Now go batty! :)

Front Porch Chair

2009-10-21T18:55:00.006-06:00

The chair I bought thriftying the other day was bought with a purpose. I should say right now though that that's not always the case. I often buy things that I have no idea what I'm going to do with (much to the chagrin of my husband).

But not this chair. Ever since I saw this picture, I've wanted a little chair just like it.

Fall's Front Entry

I knew it would be perfect for my front porch. You see, my front porch . . . actually you can't even call it that . . . the space in front of my front door (that's better) is teeny tiny. And the door is off-centered, so there's just a little space to left that needed filling . . .

So when I came across it at the Goodwill last week (at 50% off no less) I bought it without a second thought. I brought her home and piled her up with seasonal pumpkins, gourds, and indian corn. And now the teenytinyspaceinfrontofmyfrontdoor isn't so lonely anymore!

What do you think?

Copycat: Glitter clothespins

2009-10-19T22:34:00.005-06:00

I don't feel like I have a creative bone in my body . . . Really.

No really.

If anybody tries to get me to come up with any sort of original idea, I usually fall flat on my face. It's bad. Real bad.

*Enter Blogland*

Blogland is packed full of creativity. It's amazing! Amazing I tell you. There are so many ingenious and resourceful women are out there. And with the plethora of pictures, tutorials, and step-by-step instructions, it makes it easy for a non-creative person like me to still have fun crafting and creating new things.

So if I ever come across an idea that I just love, I'll post it here under "copycat" and you can be inspired too. Besides, isn't imitation that best form of flattery?

I saw this idea over at My Sweet Savannah, hanging vintage Halloween cards with glittery clothespins.

I was thrilled with how they turned out. And now my kitchen is ready for Halloween!

Have I mentioned that I love Halloween?

Thrifting . . . again :)

2009-10-15T13:55:00.002-06:00

Why when I should be finishing preparations for my little girl's birthday halloween party am I thrifting at the Goodwill?

Cause I needed to find the most perfectest witch's hat OF COURSE!!

(At least that's what we'll tell my dear husband ;)

Trash to Treasure: Windowpane Chalkboard

2009-10-13T15:53:00.006-06:00

I first saw the idea of decorating with windows on Christy's blog, and fell in love right away! Something about her old chippy windows just made me swoon. And after that, I was a woman on a mission . . .

FIND.OLD.WINDOWS.

But where the heck do you get old windows? I didn't know either. Then just a couple of weeks later, my heart jumped when I came across two vintage windows at an antique sale. I didn't know where I was going to put them, but I bought them right away. I've since put them up in my living room. And after that I was officially addicted!

So when I came across this windowpane mirror at the Goodwill, I snatched it up right away.

But this is one of those "to-do" projects that sat in my "stuff room" for a really long time. I didn't have any inspiration for it at all. Then one night when I was laying in bed, it just came to me. A CHALKBOARD.

And here it is! I'm so glad I waited for the inspiration before doing anything with it. Because now I love it!

My husband's reaction?: "Another chalkboard?"

Oh well :)

Halloween Mantle

2009-10-06T14:25:00.002-06:00

My mantle is ready for Halloween!

I made this sign using some clearance vinyl from Hobby Lobby. It turned out just how I wanted . . .

Although, my little girl's not quite so sure about the black birds and spider up there :)

More Fall Nesting

2009-10-01T09:46:00.006-06:00

It's the 1st of October! And Rhoda from Southern Hospitality is having a fall party, so I'm linking up to show the rest of my fall decor.

If you look closely in the picture of my fall grapevine tree from yesterday, you'll notice we have a really long display shelf flanked with HUGE mirrors in our living room. Ummm . . . I hate it. Like really hate it. It's my arch enemy in decorating this home! You can't hang anything above because of the mirrors, and it's so long that it's really hard to get stuff to look coordinated at all up there. Blast!

And, unfortunately, we rent this quaint little home, and there's nothin' I can do about it. So I just try my darndest to dress it up and make it look nice. So here is some other fall decor I've added along "the shelf" . . .

I got a lot of my fall decor last year at Hobby Lobby and Michaels for 80% and 90% off.

I collected these nuts that look like buckeyes last year from my mother-in-law's yard :)

See the windowpane chalkboard behind my fall banner? I'll have to show you what it use to look like . . .

Remember my love for this blue? Well I'm loving it even more with all the fall colors! (aren't blue and orange coordinating colors or something?)

Here's our Fall mantle (also flanked with another huge mirror, whoever first lived in this house sure liked looking at themselves!) . . .

I hand-painted this sign using some scrap wood I had. What do you think?

And finally our fall centerpiece using a basket from Savers, a white pumpkin from Michaels at 80% off, and a cut up fall garland from Hobby Lobby at 90% off.

Have you started decorating for Fall?

Trash to Treasure: Fall grapevine tree

2009-09-30T12:39:00.002-06:00

Fall season has officially begun. The temperatures are dipping. There's a cool chill in the air. We've pulled out our long sleeve shirts and sweaters and are ready for some apple cider . . . .

Sccreeeecccchhh!!!!

Ha! I wish! It's still like a million degrees here in Arizona and I'm sweating just sitting here typing this.

Really, in all fairness, it IS beginning to cool off a tad (like from 115 to 99), and I think our summer hybernation will soon be over.

But I grew up in the mountains and Fall was (is) my favorite season. So even though it's kind of a pseudo season here, I still like to decorate and celebrate :)

I picked up this small grapevine tree from the Goodwill for a couple of dollars months and months ago.

I've given it many makeovers, but this is currently my favorite one.

A happy little Fall topiary. So sweet :) I'll show some more pics of my Fall nesting tomorrow.

Birthday Fun

2009-09-23T15:36:00.007-06:00

Upper Respitory Infection.

Ever had one? Yeah, me neither. I kept thinking I had an extra nasty strain of the flu. But nope. Just a mean infection. So I've been condemned to the house all week and haven't had much time to make anything (sniff, sniff).

So I thought I'd share some simple things I did for my little girl's first birthday last week. We kept everything simple, but pretty and fun.

We started with some cut flowers from our yard. We do this every time we have visitors from out of town, or a get-together. We are lucky enough to have these beautiful flowers blooming year-round.I didn't get a picture of the rest of the table, but we just did a white tablecloth with some pink tulle laid down the middle and tied with a bow. Oh, and confetti. Just a sprinkle.

Then I made a pink and brown Happy Birthday banner strung up with some jute twine. This was my first paper banner and it ended up being more work than I'd originally planned. Lots of configuring and cutting and yada, yada, yada. I think I could whip one up now without any problem. But since I already have this one, I'll pretty much just use it for both of my girls birthdays for the rest of their lives. Yes, even their sweet 16. Sorry girls . . .

Can't forget the cupcakes. This was my first attempt. I'd give 'em a 6 1/2 out of 10.

This was my favorite. I strung up some more jute twin across my shutters in the kitchen and hung up vintage birthday cards and pictures. I painted and glittered (is that a word?) some clothspins to hang them up with. I had lots of fun with it. And I have something similiar I want to do for Halloween. I'll let you know if it turns out :)

It was good that I kept myself busy with decorations for the party, so I didn't have to be too sad about my baby turning 1. I hate that they grow up so fast . . .

Be Grateful Sign

2009-09-21T17:20:00.003-06:00

I know it's a bit early for Thanksgiving, but I still wanted to post about this great tutorial of Joy's that she gave last year.

When I first saw her sign, I just fell right in love with it. I ADORED it. But it was just a few weeks before Thanksgiving, and I didn't get my rear in gear in time to make it last year. So I made sure I was on top of things this year and made one of my own. You can head over to Joy's blog and read her awesome tutorial if you want to make one too.

I did just a few things differently than Joy. She suggests tea staining the tags to get a similiar look as hers, which I did end up doing. Just get some cheap black tea bags from Wal-Mart. Dunk the tags (I also used a small sponge brush to soak the paper), let them dry a bit, then squash them between some paper towels and heavy books while they dry out. This is what my tags ended up looking like before adding anything.

Oh, and I did age them with a brown stamp pad BEFORE tea-staining them.

Also, I didn't add the decorative trim to the bottom. Other than those things, I tried to follow her tutorial pretty closely so mine would look as beautiful as hers :)

Here's a close up of some of the tags.

Here are some other helpful tips:

The tags and sticker letters can be found at the craft store in the scrapbooking section. I got the medium-size tags (about 4 1/2 inches tall).

The upholstery tacks I just got at Wal-Mart by all the other nuts and bolts.

I cut my board to 26 1/2 inches long and it was about 5 1/2 inches tall.

The spray paint I used (recommended by Joy) was Krylon Satin Black and Rustoleum Colonial Red.

Not only is the sign just too cute, it was also a lot of fun to make. Thanks again Joy!

P.S. Fall wreath behind the sign . . . $3.00 at the Goodwill (where else?)

Pink Frame

2009-09-17T00:18:00.002-06:00

My sister just had a beautiful baby girl! I'm just so dang excited to meet my new little niece. But in the mean time, I wanted to make something for her room to send as a gift.

I picked up this frame from who knows where . . . Goodwill, yardsale, hand-me-down? I'm not really sure. But it has been in my "to do something with" pile for awhile now.

Just a simple, chunky, wooden frame . . .

That got all dolled up in pink and brown (her nursery colors) for a sweet new baby girl :)

What do you think? I hope she likes it . . .

BABY

2009-09-16T15:33:00.005-06:00

Someone asked me the other day if I'm always working on something . . .

Oh my goodness, yes!

But in a very good/bad sort of way . . .

Why bad you ask? Because my craft room (or "the stuff room" as my daughter likes to call it) looks like a tornado just went through it . . . and because I often look like a bag lady with paint on my hands and in my hair . . .

Good, because I'm always involved in creating something that makes me smile :)

Like this little project that my friend asked for some help with. She's expecting a new little one ANY day now, and she wanted something to fill a large wall in the nursery. She had the vision, and I just helped make it happen. I just painted four white canvases the colors used in her nursery.

Then for the letters I just printed them out on plain paper, carefully cut them out, and used them to trace around.

I just trace them with a pencil and follow that with this paint marker (Wal-Mart, craft section by the paint).

Then I filled in the lines with some antique white craft paint. They looked great just like that, but my friend wanted a little more somethin' somethin'. So I just antiqued them with some brown glaze.

Wanna do your own glazing? Jen gives a great tutorial.

I think they are just so cute! And you could do a million different things with this same idea . . . initials, names, designs. Lots of possibilities! Plus, I often see the canvases 50% OFF at Hobby Lobby.

She'll kill me when she finds out I'm showing this, but she made the most darling memory board to also go in the room. Love it!

Little white chair

2009-09-02T14:44:00.003-06:00

A friend of mine is revamping and reorganizing her kids' rooms. So she's been on the lookout for a little chair to use in her daughter's rooms. She came across this perfect little one at the Goodwill the other day (careful Linds...it's addicting!) and asked for my help in the paint department.

We used one my favorites for the color (Rustoleum Heirloom White) and then shabbied it up with some sandpaper.

The only problem . . . now I want one :)

For the love of blue

2009-08-27T08:55:00.006-06:00

I recently found a new love . . .

Meet Rustoleum American Accents Aqua.

It wasn't love at first sight, and I really wasn't sure her and I were going to get along (she's a bit loud and flashy, you know). But with a little sanding and aging, she's become the perfect touch of color. Here are some things she's found her way onto . . .

(Oops! I *might* need to do some dusting up there . . . ha ha . . . )

Yep. I think her and I are going to get along just fine :)

The Letter H

2009-08-19T22:41:00.006-06:00

This was another project I got from Joy.

I did this several months ago, but decided I was done with the scrapbook paper that I originally used and wanted something different.

You just start with a wood plaque and wood letter (both from Wal-Mart). I spray painted mine black like Joy did, but you can use any color you fancy.

After they were both dry, I just sanded down the edges with some medium-grit sandpaper.

Then for the paper I used my new favorite find. Did you know you can print off vintage paper and images from the Internet. There are lots of fellow bloggers that do high-quality scans of vintage prints and save them for all to use. Lovely no? I can definitely see me using this in the future . . .

So this vintage music sheet I got from Heidi. Then I cut it down to the size of the plaque and aged it with a brown stamp pad.
I stuck it to the plaque with this stuff. I found it at Wal-Mart in the paint section.

I'm sure you can also use Mod Podge. It's just me and Mod Podge have a love/hate relationship, so I went with always easy Spray Adhesive.

Then you just glue the letter onto the plaque. Easy peasy! Thanks Joy for another great project!

A Green Chalkboard

2009-08-14T12:12:00.006-06:00

I first saw the homemade chalkboard on Joy's blog.

Okay . . . first of all . . . love. her.

She is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. Her's was one of the first crafty blogs I stumbled across, and has been a favorite ever since. She is THE QUEEN of spray paint and completely inspired me to start using it myself. Plus, she makes awesome furniture out of doors. Yes . . . doors. How cool is she?

If you check out her blog, make sure to go drool over her green coffee table. (I secretly dream about this table at night and want to be just like her when I grow up so I can make one for myself :)

So, onto the chalkboard. I found this picture frame at the Goodwill.

All I did was remove the glass and spray paint it with this stuff. (Yes, you can spray paint glass)

Then sprayed the frame itself with this stuff. (Both from the Home Depot)

After the frame was dry I sanded down the edges and antiqued it with some brown paint. Then after the glass was completely dry, I just popped it back into the frame and VOILA!

New Look

2009-07-30T14:22:00.003-06:00

Notice a new look??

Well . . . okay, bad news first . . .

After much thought we have decided to take our family blog private. I know, I know! It’ll be a pain to log-in every time. But you love me enough to do it, right? . . . Pretty please (*sweet puppy dog eyes with batting eyelashes*)

Of course, that is, if you still follow this blog! I’m sorry it’s been forever (*hangs head in shame*) Forgive me, motherhood has been calling . . .

Okay, on to the good news . . .

I’ve decided to keep this blog as my craft/writing/thinking/running/whatevertheheckKaryndecidestoputonit blog :) I’ll try to share some things I’ve learned a long the way (insert loud boisterous laugh here!). And also point you toward some other blogs of people with SOME REAL talent.

Soooooooo, if you would like an invite to our family blog (and only if you are not a hairy scary blog stalker!) then send an email to...

karynhheath (at) yahoo (dot) com

Or you can just leave your email address in a comment below.

Thanks everyone!

Thriftying

2009-05-26T14:36:00.009-06:00

Hi, my name is Karyn and I am a thrift-o-holic.

If you've spent any time with me, you know I'm a thriftying addict . . . in all forms. I LOOOOOVE finding a good deal on something.

I love a good clearance sale, and you can often find me at the Dollar Tree.

But my true love is for thrift stores. Goodwill, D.I., Savers . . . all of them! My husband thinks am crazy . . . I prefer to call it creative :)

So here are some of my thrify projects as of late.

I got this chair for $3 at the Goodwill. I loved it's curves and lines and mostly its potential. I'd originally planned on it just being a cute accent chair for somewhere in the house. But then I remembered seeing something at Tai Pan Trading that I thought I could recreate.

I LOVE the way it turned out! The version that I saw at Tai Pan I think was suppose to be one you hang on the wall . . . maybe like a glorified shelf?? I'm not really sure. But mine currently works as a glorified easel. It's been great for holding and displaying all sorts of fun junk.

Unfortunately, this project did only reinforce the "crazy" instead of the "creative" in my husband's mind. When I took it over to our neighbor friend's house to have him cut it all up for me, him and my husband looked at each other and were like, "Ummmm . . . kay . . ." (*eye rolls*). Oh well, I like it anyway!

This is my official, bonified, for reals first quilt. I've attempted other smaller projects before with the sewing machine. But the darn thing has a way of running away from me! But I finally tamed the wild beast to complete this quilt throw. And I got all the fabric for cheap at Hobby Lobby!

P.S. My wonderful, sweet mother did end up sandwiching, quilting and binding it for me, cause I'm not quite so talented yet. I'll attempt those on my second one . . . maybe. Baby steps, Baby steps . . .

I love how it looks with my old windows and Dollar Tree plates.

These were some old shutters I got off Craigslist.

Turned them into this to fill my big, blank, white kitchen wall. I think they turned out just perfect.

So once I turned my red accent chair into my glorified easel, I decided I still wanted a fun chair for the living room. I came across this for $10 at the Goodwill and snatched it up.

This was a fun transformation. I never had reupolstered anything, and this was a good small project to practice on. It's amazing what some paint and fabric can do!

P.S. Got the fabric from the Goodwill too!

And last, but not least . . . the layout in our house doesn't allow for a good office space. So, unfortunately, our computer and all its glory has to sit front and center in our kitchen. You can see all the visual clutter it creates. And every time I walked into the kitchen I wanted to scream at the mess. But thankfully I came across this post over at The Shabby Nest and knew I'd found my solution.

Aaahhhhh . . . SO much better. Definitely something I can live with! And the best part, I got the fabric for $1/yard at Wal-Mart!

Shameless Project Showoff

2009-03-06T08:39:00.007-07:00

I've just finished some projects that I thought I would show y'all . . . hence the title Shameless Project Showoff ;)

I just did a card exchange with the girls in my family. This is the one I did. Simple, but cute.

I picked up this little box at Hobby Lobby at their 90% off Christmas clearance. But I didn't have much use for it as a Christmas box.So I turned it into this. Added some ball feet, gave it a coat of white and some brown glaze. I like the way it turned out. And now my two-month long project. I got this little sewing table off Craigslist from an older woman that was storing it in her horse barn. It had been her friend's mother's table. And when she passed away, she didn't know what to do with it. So I took it off her hands. I removed the old sewing hardware. Gave it a good cleaning and sanding. Then added a coat of heirloom white paint. And finally a good distressing. Now I just need to find the perfect spot for it . . .
Joy over at Joys of Home helped me A LOT with this last project. Thank you Joy! You seriously are the best. And Meliessa at 320 Sycamore and Jen at Sactuary Arts at Home also gave me a few pointers along the way. You girls are awesome! Now on to my next projects . . .

The best times of my life were when the roses grew wild. . . .

2008-04-25T10:12:00.005-06:00

I just finished reading a book called, “Tending Roses.”

The book is in part about a woman who married and had a beautiful rose garden. She worked very hard in her rose garden everyday, tending and pruning the roses. They were beautiful, and people from all over town came to see her roses. She was very proud of them. Eventually, though, children came along and she did not have the same free time to look after the roses. Most of her waking moments were spent tending after the children now, and the roses eventually grew wild. She would often look at her wild roses and wish she had more time to devote to them, to make them beautiful again. . . .

In time though, her children grew up and moved away. They didn’t need her constant attention anymore . . . and she suddenly found herself with all the time in the world to tend her roses again. So she did. She returned to her rose garden, pruning and tending her roses carefully everyday. And they became beautiful once again.

And when working in her rose garden, she would ponder back on her life, and her children . . . and her roses. And she would often think, “You know . . . the best times of my life were when the roses grew wild. . . .”

Every night I pray for my little girl. I pray that she’ll grow strong, and be healthy, and happy. I plea that I can be a good mother to her, and give her the love and devotion that she deserves. But last night, as I was praying for her, this thought came to my mind. . . . “The best times of my life were when the roses grew wild.” And as I finished my prayers, kissed my husband good-night and lay down to sleep . . . I began to cry. At first, I didn’t know why the thought was making me cry so hard. But as I lay and think about it, I realized I was crying for several reasons . . .

I most often my little one my big, little girl. “Big” because of all the things she can do now. I remember at her 15-month dr.’s appointment that my husband and I counted and determined that she said about 5 words. Now, 3 months later, she says over 100 words! And she understands so much more. She can run, climb, sing, and talk. She can “read” a book, and brush her teeth, and wash herself in the bath. She’s so “big” in that respect. And she’s “little” because . . . well . . . she’s exactly that. She’s always been so petite. A lot of her little capris just fall right off of her hips. And most people say her nose hasn’t grown since the day she was born. Barely tipping the scales at 20 pounds, I can still snuggle her on my lap, and carry her around the store. So little . . . yes, she’s my big little girl.

Well, last night, as I was crying, I thought of the time that would eventually come when she wouldn’t be my big, little girl anymore. One day I will look at her . . . past the time when the roses grew wild . . .and she will be grown. She’ll be mature, and experienced, possibly married with her own children . . . and beautiful. But she won’t be my big, little girl anymore. And I realized how truly fleeting these moments are. These past 18 months have flown by. And they have been SO good. Filled with such joy and satisfaction. And one day . . . I’ll be the only one to remember these moments. With my husband working full-time, and she being too young to remember, there are memories that only I will hold. And one day, they will be just that . . . only memories. And I cried not wanting it to ever end. I don’t want to want it to ever be over. I don’t want to ever forget these precious, beautiful moments that only I hold.

I also cried because I was scared. You know how a lot of women feel like they “loose” themselves after becoming a mother. They become so wrapped up in taking care of children that they forget what they used to be like and what they used to like to do. Well, I was never like that. In fact, I was the exact opposite. The moment I became pregnant, I knew I had “come home” in a sense. That THIS was what I had been waiting to do. It seemed like everything before that moment was just a distraction, prepping me for that moment. I truly feel that everything that I am, has to do with being a mother. That’s who I am. And that’s where I get my most satisfaction. I love being at home. I truly would never want it any other way. And I’m scared for that day when I’m not needed like that anymore. Who will I be when I’m not her mommy?

And, finally, I cried because I need her. Before I became a mother, an unfortunate thing happened to me . . . I grew up. I grew up and I forgot how to play pretend. Everyday my little girl shows me the joy of coloring all over yourself, running naked through the house after a bath, finding a really good rock, playing in the grass under the sun . . . saying hello and smiling at a stranger. All these things that I had forgotten how to do.

I remember one day I ran into a friend at the supermarket. She had a little girl about the age of my little girl. As we were standing there talking, her daughter starting yelling, “Balloon! Balloon!” We all looked around trying to figure out what she meant when we noticed that she was pointing up. So we looked up and there we saw it. This lone, big, bright red balloon stranded alone in the rafters, unnoticed by everyone else. At the time, I didn’t think much of it, but as I pondered on it later, I realized how sad it was that I didn’t look up anymore. I remember what the ceilings looked like in the supermarket that my mother took me to as a child. I remember them very distinctly because I looked up as a child, and all around me for that matter. When young, we haven’t learned to ignore anything yet. Our whole world is open to opportunity . . . not molded in any way. But eventually we grow up. And our world becomes closed. But, for me, my daughter opens up little pieces of that closed world everyday. She reminds me of something I’d forgotten. I need her to do that for me. But there will come a time when her world is closed too. And she won’t be young, and innocent and free to show me what our world really should be about.

So you can see why I cried. . . And with all these thoughts swirling in my head last night, I couldn’t help but climb out of bed and tiptoe into her room, to kneel beside her crib. I reached my hands through the crib bars and stroked her little head . . . her sweet, beautiful, precious little head.

And eventually peace came over me. Yes, things will change. One day, I will look at my life and it won’t look like anything that it is now. It will be past the time when the roses grew wild. But there are still many, many good moments and memories to come. And . . . for right now . . . I’m still her mommy . . . and she’s still my big, little girl . . .

Twenty6point2

2007-10-07T17:34:00.003-06:00

Best experience I've had in a long time. Anyone who has ever thought about running a marathon, I would highly encourage them. It is so worth it . . .

For those who don’t know, about two months ago my left knee really started giving me trouble. I couldn’t go more than 2 miles without having serious problems. I saw two different doctors who I paid $300 to for them to basically tell me it was an overuse injury . . . duh. I had to stop training. So while my husband lost his running partner, I just tried to keep my endurance up going to the gym and using the elliptical machine in hopes that it would get better with less use. No luck. Over the two months, if I tried to do more than 2 miles, it would hurt too much to keep going. So about a month ago I realized that I was probably out of the marathon. My husband kept going and I tried to support him where I could on his long runs. I was really sad. I had trained too hard for it to end like this.

Then I read this on the marathon discussion board in response to someone else who was going to run injured, “It’s time to get it all in perspective . . . you are running your first marathon. Do that and just that. Get your butt ready to run from start to finish . . . with lots of heavy accent on “finish.” That is exactly what your first marathon is all about, finishing. That’s all you have to do is finish. When the gun goes off start out very comfortably and hold it the entire race and remember this race is all about you, for you. Your job is to finish. . . . It’s just that simple!”

So, exactly 8 days ago, I decided to run . . . no matter what. I had no idea what was going to happen. I was injured and under-trained. I didn’t even think I would be able to finish it.

On the bus up to the starting line, I literally felt sick to my stomach. I just didn't know what was going to happen. But as soon as you step off the bus, and join the other 5,000+ people running it along with you, it kind of all melts away. And I knew at that moment that come heaven or hell . . . I was going to finish. The atmosphere is indescribable. There is so much energy and enthusiasm. . . . Then we started to run. Yeah, my knee hurt. But when you see the guy next to you putting one foot in front of the other, you know you can too. It kind of passes quicker then you think because there are all these people running along side you that have never been there before. Then at every other mile marker are the cheerleaders with water, Gatorade, Vaseline and food. So you think, I can make it to the next aid station. Just focus on the next aid station. The support is amazing. As we neared the 17-mile marker (the most I’d ever ran), I started to get nervous. I didn’t know if my body would hold up. But as we passed it, it was like my body just picked it up and said, “Bring it on!” And my husband promised he would run next to me the whole way . . . and he did. I could not have done it without him. He was my personal cheerleader every. step. of. the. way. (Thanks babe. I know you could have finished a lot sooner, but I’m so glad you stuck with me :) We loved our time out there together. It was an incredibly bonding experience. The conditions were PERFECT and the scenery was gorgeous. We finished in 5 hours even. I couldn’t have asked for anything more. Wow . . . it was awesome! I’ll for sure do one again.

P.S. Needless to say, I probably won’t be walking pretty for the next week or so.