{The 12 Days of Giveaways!! Day 1: Whipy Cake}

I am so excited to kick of my 12 Days of Christmas Giveaways with Whippy Cake!
I stumbled upon Becki's blog awhile back and fell in love! Her accessories are adorable and so unique, and I was thrilled when she offered to give one of her lovely headbands away!

So, here's the scoop...all you have to do is leave a comment to win! If you want to become a follower, I'd love to have you, but this time, a comment is all you need to win!
'Tis the season, right?
Simply decide which headband out of these 4 below is the one you just can't live without, and leave a comment with your name, first initial of your last name, and which headband you love!

Oh, and be sure to head over to Becki's blog as well and check out all of the other cute accessories she has to offer!

{Glamor Band}

{3'sGoodCompany in Twilight colors}

{past.present.future in black}

{3'sGoodCompany in greys}

Oh, and spread the word! If you haven't grabbed a Giveaway button yet, now's the time!
Good luck and Merry Christmas!!!

{basket planter}

I love getting design catalogs in the mail & I'm constantly dog-earring the corners of the pages that have an item that I love. Most of the time I'll rip out the page to carry around with me until I find the necessary items it takes to make it on my own. The Ballard Design catalog is one of my favorites! This past issue showed this room, with a beautiful picnic basket planter & paper-whites growing out of it.

When I found a white, shabby chic picnic basket at a local thrift store in near perfect condition, I knew I had to have it to replicate this look! And it was cheap! Only $3!

The basket was seriously brand new (the tags were still on it!), with adorable pink shabby chic dinner wear inside & was lined with pink and cream stripped fabric.

I took the top of the basket off (and saved the dinner wear of course, but I don't have any use for it...know anyone that wants it?), then I took the lining out (which was a little stained on the bottom...not so appealing), and then I placed styrofoam on the bottom of basket & stuffed crumpled newspaper around it to hold it in place. If I had more time, I would have forced my own paper-whites and waited for them to grow, but the faux flowers work, and I like how this turned out! To finish it off, I added some peat moss to cover the styrofoam and newspaper. The total cost was about $15 in the end. Most of the items were bought on sale or with a 40% off coupon at local craft stores!

And, here is the final result....Ta-da!

I might glaze the basket so it's not so bright white & maybe even tie a cute, festive ribbon around it for the Holidays! Oooh! Or I might even replace the paper-white with poinsettias!

{laugh out loud}

I've said it before and I'll say it again- my brothers are hilarious. Steve being one of them.
Here are a few excerpts from our recent conversations I wanted to remember...

Steve grabs my blackberry and starts pushing buttons. He activates the voice dialing system.
Phone: "Say a command..."
Steve: "Make me a sandwich!"

In eavesdropping on a conversation about why some people don't go to church.
Steve & I Listening: "Yeah but a lot of people won't miss church when they're really sick, so they go and get everyone else sick too..."..."Yeah but I don't think they sanitize their hands and you shake a lot of hands..."
Steve turns to me and exaggerating says: "Yeah, but do you know how hot it is in hell?"

Sitting in the living room with my mom and Steve (who is married).
Steve looking as though he's pondering ideas sighs and says: "I need a good date"
Mom and I exchange looks.
Me: "Uh...how about Ashlyn (his wife)!"
(he was looking for date ideas...)

Maybe you had to be there for some of those, but Steve is so fun & funny!

With Thanksgiving less than a week away, I wanted to share a few things I'm grateful for- my fun, hilarious, loving brothers, being one of them! For the next days until Thanksgiving, I'll be sharing more things I'm thankful for! You all should do the same! What are you grateful for?

{Oops!}

There were a few kinks in my giveaway button earlier- sorry if you've been having trouble adding it to your blog! I've tweaked it a bit, so try it again! It should work!

If you're wondering how to add it to the side of your blog, simply click on "Layout", then "Add a Gadget", and then click "HTML/Java Script". This is where you put the code (that is under the giveaway button) VOILA! You've got the button!
*grin*

Thanks again for all of your support and sweet comments! I can hardly wait for the giveaway to start!

{12 days of Christmas giveaway!!!}

I've been working on this for awhile and I'm so excited to finally announce it!

Starting December 1st, I will be hosting a giveaway a day until the 12th of December!

More details to come soon, but start spreading the word!

Massage gift certificates, jewelry, funky headbands, photography sessions, and the cutest baby booties you've ever seen are just a few of the fun things we'll be giving away!

So, go ahead! Grab a button & put it on your blog to remind everyone & spread the cheer!

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{hanging basket tutorial}

When I was asked to do a segment on decorating with baskets, I was excited, but wondered where to even start. I mean really, you can do so much with baskets! So after narrowing my ideas down, I went on the hunt for some great finds.

When I saw this basket (from Big Lots $12) I didn't love the color or the liner, but I knew it had potential!

First, I spray painted it flat black. I wasn't too sure that flat was going to work, but it looks mahvelous!

While I let the basket dry, I got out the wood pieces I found at Roberts ($0.79) and spray painted them heirloom white and glazed them up a bit to give them a worn feel.

While those were drying, I printed out my little number design I wanted on the front of the wood pieces & traced the design on the opposite side with a pencil to use as a stencil.

After placing the pencil side down and centering it on my wood piece, I used a marker tip to rub the design onto the wood.

Then I used a magic marker to darken the design.

The last step was to drill two little holes, large enough for my wire to fit through and then fixed them to my baskets! A few cute, blue plates later it was done!

{i'm at it again}

Decorating with baskets!

{slimmed down dresser}

This little dresser used to be white, white little flowers painted on the front of the drawers. It began as a piece of furniture from my childhood bedroom set. The hutch (which is now in my craft room) was also part of the set. When I was 18, I decided I was so over the white, flowery motif, so I painted the set black. Being the furniture re-do rookie that I was at the time, I didn't sand or prime, I just painted. I started from the bottom and worked my way up, and when I began painting the glossy, laminate top, I realized the paint wasn't sticking, so I wiped it off and left it glossy white. And it's stayed that way for years, usually with a table runner covering the not so lovely laminate.

When we moved into our new home, I wasn't sure where to put the dresser. It just didn't seem to fit anywhere I wanted it. The depth was what really bothered me, as it jutted out in spaces I thought it would look cute. So, to solve the problem, I did what any handy gal would do.

I cut it in half.

My tool of choice was a circular saw, naturally. If you've never used one before, it's time to get your tool on (...i know, but don't say it...this is a PG rated blog folks), because they're awesome!.
After taking out the drawers, I just measured the depth I wanted to saw off and went from there.

After it was sawed in half, I took the wood that was in the back of the dresser and reattached it to the slimmed down dresser, so I could make some shelves.

We used 1/4" mdf for the shelves and cut them with a jigsaw. I also attached some molding to the front to hide the plain wood slats.

Finally after a fresh, new coat of paint (yes, I sanded the heck out of the laminate top & used a no sand primer to help it stick), and some new baskets from Ikea, the new dresser looks fabulous!

{screen printing}

The fruit of my labors

The Art Weekend was a blast! I wish I would have taken another class, so hopefully, Nicole will do this again soon! Learning how to screen print was awesome! Andy, our instructor, was hilarious and has come up with a technique that is the best! I can't wait to start printing neat things! Here's a little peek into our class...

Making the frame & stretching the screen

rinsing

getting ready to apply ink!

I'm excited to get started and share my new ideas with you all! How was your weekend?

{art weekend}

tomorrow I'll be here

learning how to do thispicture found here and is presumably by Nicole Hill

Are any of you attending? I'd love to meet you if you are! Leave me a message and let me know!

{monogram}

I love monograms!

These ones from Ballard are so pretty and they're on sale!

you can find them here and here

{halloween dinner}

Tonight, my mom hosted a cute Halloween dinner complete with lambs eyes, apple monsters, & a yummy stew in pumpkin bread bowls! It was delicious and very festive! Thanks Mom!

Lambs Eyes

(green olives covered in cream cheese & rolled in sesame seeds or other spices & cut in half...so delicious!)

fun to play with too!
The Apple Monsters
(apples, slivered almonds, & capers [we used peppercorns])
Beef Stew
(You'll have to get the recipe from my mom!)

And last, the yummy pumpkin cake! Happy Halloween!!

P.S. Want to see some of my Halloween Costumes from the past? Visit my brothers blog!

{halloween night}

The hubs and I decided to throw a costume party for Halloween this year. We weren't going to, with both of us being crazy busy, but the thought of seeing our friends & neighbors dressed up was too enticing, so we quickly made some invitations and started stocking up on synthetic spider webs!

The night was a success! Here is just a sampling of the fun that was had!

Axl Rose & Courtney Love - Baseball Player couple- Dog the Bounty Hunter & wife Beth (winners of funniest costume)

Napoleon Dynamite & Pocahontas - Disco Zak & Bobby Soxer - Lt. Dangle from Reno 911(winner of scariest costume) & Jail Bird
Zombie (also winner of scariest costume) - Road Sign Couple (winner of most original) - Cowboy Jim

We had so much fun! Thanks to everyone who came! I hope you all had a great Halloween too!