"Life is Good" Award Continues!

Ok, so, if you are reader of my blog, then you know from Monday's post that I won an award last week from Martha at A Real (Upstate) NY Housewife.  It was the "Life is Good' award!

I hope you had time to visit each of the wonderful ladies I nominated!!

BUT, one of the nominees would like to remain a "No Awards" blog...which I completely respect!!  So, with her permission, I am passing her award on to someone else. 

Carmen at Life with Sprinkles on Top! 

Don't you just love that blog name!  I do!  So, please take a break to visit with Carmen and see all her frugal crafts and her adorable children and granddaughter! :)

And Carmen, just go here to get the criteria and the questions! :)

Until next time...

Oops!!

If you received my "My, oh My...Stinker Pie!" post...I accidently hit 'post' but it wasn't techincally ready to go out.  I even deleted it from blogger...but it posted anyway.

So...OOPS!!! ;)

All the info is accurate, but I hadn't inserted pictures and tweaked it yet. 

Dontcha hate when that happens.  Such is life in the real world. LOL

Have a great day!!

I received an award!!

Sorry, I'm a bit late posting today!  I took a much needed blog break this weekend...but I did do some fun stuff that I'll talk about more this week! :)

Ok, so remember on Friday I told you I would be posting about my really, really, big, whopper sized, super duper exciting news today!!

Well, with all last weeks hoopla over Halloween I didn't want this post to get lost, so I held off.  But....I won an award!!!  My first blog award!!!  I mean, yeah, pretty flippin' excited doesn't even begin to describe it! :)

Martha at A Real (Upstate) NY Housewife bestowed on me the "Life is Good" award! 

Martha is an extremely kind woman with a very heartfelt blog!!  I adore our exchanges!  So, please take time to go check her out!!!

Thank you so much Martha...I truly feel honored!!!

But here's the even better part...I get to pass it onto six other people!!!!!

And I have to tell you it was really hard to choose only six blogs!  There are so many wonderful and deserving blogs that I read everyday!  But there have been a few people, like Martha, who have eithered inspired me, I have 'clicked' with, helped me with my blog or touched me in some way.

Ok, so here's the criteria:

To accept the award you must link back and thank the person who gave you the Life is Good award. Answer the 10 questions below and then pass it along to 6 other blogs of your choice.

Here Are The 10 Questions:

1. If you blog anonymously are you happy doing it that way; if you are not anonymous do you wish you had started out anonymously so you could be anonymous now?

I blog as who I am. I truly am as transparent online as I am in person. I use my daughter’s nickname on my blog, but mostly because I think it’s cute, and it's what I call her at home. :) I always want to ‘keep it real’ in person, as well as online!

I am one of those people, who I am, is pretty much always who you will get – well, except online I control my f-bombs. (WHAT!?! I was in the Navy for over 8 years – ever hear “cusses like a sailor”? It came from somewhere! LOL).

2.Describe one incident that shows your inner stubborn side.

Hmmm, stubborn? Not me! Ok, fine. Just one? Really? Ok, read this story of how we got Simba, our Leopard Gecko. ;)

3.What do you see when you really look at yourself in the mirror?

When I look in the mirror I see a fairly attractive, 20-something woman who could stand to lose 20 or so pounds, cute hair, accessorizes with style, with a great sense of humor and heart that would love to save the world…with a slight tinge of road rage.

Now...when I look at a picture, I see the real me.  A could-be fairly attractive, mid-30’s woman who could stand to lose about 90 pounds, who seriously needs a haircut in every picture, accessorizes with style, with a great sense of humor and heart that would love to save the world…with extreme road rage and apologizes to God, oh, about every 30 seconds, while listening to the Christian radio station on her way to and from work, for using the f-bomb!
 
Why are we so shocked when we look at pictures and we look NOTHING like we THINK we look in the mirror??? It’s like “Wow…who IS that extremely overweight marshmallow fluff?? And why is she in all my family pictures?? And what did they do ME??” LOL Ok, maybe that's just me? ;)

4. What is your favorite summer cold drink?

My favorite summer time drink would be Sweet Tea!!

5. When you take time for yourself, what do you do?

SHOP!!! There’s not a doubt in the world about that one! Now, where depends on my mood. Some days its perusing antique shops or thrift stores, other days it’s the craft stores and places like Home Goods.

But I hardly ever step foot in the mall anymore. ‘Cause, let’s be honest, you go to the mall for either Yankee candles or clothes. I’m too cheap to buy Yankee candles anymore (is that something that gets worse with age?) and I’m too fat to enjoy clothes shopping at the moment. ;)

6. Is there something you still want to accomplish in your life? What is it?

Oh goodness gracious, do you have all day?? When we stop dreaming we stop living! Accomplishments are just dreams achieved aren’t they?

If so, then here’s just a brief list:

I want to own my own home décor boutique!

I’d love to decorate a bakery! (Is that weird? I always thought it would be neat to have a boutique/bakery combo…make it a super special place to visit!...have fabulous cookies in a environment that was warm and inviting…and you could shop and take a piece of it home with you.)

I want to travel back to Italy, where I lived for 2 years!

I want to get back to my goal weight with Weight Watchers and my Lifetime status!

I want to be able to be with the man I love, without worry or grief for either of us (long story!)

I want to have my home paid off before I’m 50!

I want to have free time to volunteer at the women’s homeless shelter!

I want to be a foster parent someday when my daughter is old enough to not be traumatized by the constant change and hardships these poor children are enduring!

I could go on and on I suppose…but those are the ones I think about all the time!

7. When you attended school, were you the class clown, the class overachiever , the shy person, or always ditching?

I went to a small country school in central Florida…where people DO NOT vacation. LOL So, it was a ‘we all knew each other our whole lives’ kind of place…except me. We’ve moved there when my mom got really bad with her cancer, in 5th grade. So, friendships had mostly been made and then my mom died right after we moved, so kids really didn't know how to treat me...it felt like I remained somewhat of an outcast. 

With that said, I don’t think I was any of the above. I was a solid A/B student, I didn’t develop my sense of humor until later in life when I became secure with who I was, never a ditcher, and I guess at times I could have been classified as shy. It wasn’t as much that I was shy, as I was extremely insecure.

But don’t worry…I made up for all things I missed out on when I joined the Navy…and then some. ;)

8. If you close your eyes and want to visualize a very poignant moment of your life what would you see?

Ok, so when I read this question I had to keep coming back to it. Poignant means ‘life changing, right? I have so many poignant moments that I’m not sure that one is more changing than the other.  Each moment weaves together to make 'our life'.

The day my daughter was born was absolutely the most POSITIVE moment of my life!! Those first few moments are still so clear!

Being woke up in my aunt and uncles trailer where we’d been staying, at 10-years old, to hear my mom had finally died…I mean, how completely life changing!

Or the day we arrived in Rota, Spain to spend a week inspecting a squadron…when my Chief knocked on my door to tell me he had just received a Red Cross message that I was needed at home in the states – my dad had been hospitalized and they were pretty sure it was cancer…or those last precious days I got to spend with him while he was in the hospital…or the night I got the call in Naples, Italy that he died from said cancer.

Of course, joining the Navy!! I remember that first night that I arrived by train to start boot camp! That’s an experience you can never forget!

Or going on my first deployment, having no one there to wish me off, and feeling so completely and utterly lonely, that no one was there that was going to miss ME. And yet, crying as I watched families hugging each other and little kids hugging their Daddy or Mommy goodbye having no clue how long six to seven months was…or the baby’s and knowing their dad would probably miss their first word and first step!

Or the day I decided I had to divorce my husband after almost 10 years together, the father of my daughter…life has certainly never been the same since then (and not all in a bad way!)

The first kiss from the man I would tell you was, and is, my true love!! I can see that scene and feel the butterflies so vividly…and that was 13 years ago.

And I will tell you that I am so extremely blessed to experience each and every one of these ‘poignant moments’ in my life!! How could I know how lucky I am without them?

9. Is it easy for you to share your true self in your blog or are you more comfortable writing posts about other people or events?

 

Um….in case you haven’t figured this out yet…I’m a talker! I’m equally comfortable talking about you, me, the weather…just about anything, anyone, any topic…you name it. :)

 

10. If you had the choice to sit down and read or talk on the phone, which would you do and why?

 

Read!!! This may seem strange coming from a talker, but I HATE talking on the phone! Because I can’t really do anything else because I have to hold the phone and listen to the other person when I COULD be doing other things. It frustrates me! I don’t have a lot of free time in my life as it is…don’t take what little time I do have talking about yourself and your drama you brought on your self…or your job! I hate mine and don’t want to talk about it…why would I want to hear about yours for an entire hour?!?

 

I think I just figured out my problem!! LOL Obviously I hate the phone because the people that call me to talk the most, talk non-stop about themselves and I only say about 2 words in a whole conversation. No wonder I think “I could be doing other things right now!” I can easily talk to my step-mom for an hour…because we talk about things I care about! Family!  And it's a TWO WAY conversation! ;)

Hmmmm…..that was cleansing. LOL

Ok, so now comes the part where I pass this award on to 6 others!

So, I am passing on this "Life is Good" award to the following people:

Melissa at Kaufman's Cottage

Tammy at Life is Not Just Paper and Glue  

Adrienne at La Vie Quotidienne
Sunny at Life in Rehab
Tara at Junk Restore

Carol at The Polka Dot Closet

Melissa has become a great friend and confidant!  Tammy has been a huge help with my blog and brought light to my spiritual life!  Adrienne takes and posts the most stunning garden pictures and they always bring serenity and a smile to my heart!  Sunny cracks me up on a regular basis and can easily make me laugh!  Tara, I feel like we are both on a journey of a similar path!  Carol has inspired me and pushed me to finally take steps to make my dream of opening a booth at the antique mall a reality!

Thank you to all you ladies!!  You each have talent that should be shared with the world!! 

Now, go check out each of these ladies blogs!! 

Until next time....

Halloweeny Finale!

Well, this is it!!! The Halloween Finale! :)

Can I just tell you how much fun I had doing this week full of Halloween projects!!  I've 'met' alot of new people and have been honored by picking up almost 20 new followers this week!  That almost doubled my followers in one week.  WOW!!  All I can say is I'm....EXCITED!!!  Oh, come on...you knew I couldn't pass up an opportunity to tell you how EXCITED I am!! ;) 

Yes....I am just as big a spazz-o-matic in person too. ;)

Thank you to everyone who came back each day to see what I had planned next!!!  I truly am humbled that you take a piece of your precious time to spend with me!!

Ok, no more Sappy Sue...let's get to it!! 

I told you I was going to show you my Living Room in Halloween splendor and outside.  I've decided to save outside for another post so we don't get too heavy with pictures.

So, without further ado:

That's about it folks!  Tours of an uncluttered 12x15 room don't take long! LOL

My home always has a fall-ish feel, so this isn't a major transformation, just Halloween touches added to my already warm, fall-toned, living room! :)

Oh, and I do apologize for some of the overly fuzzy photos...I'm still trying to figure this whole pictures without flash thing out.  Plus, the best time of day to take pictures of this room is morning...when I'm at work. :)

Ok, so next week, I'll show our front porch decked out I swear!! 

AND.....more importantly...with this week being so crazy and all, I didn't get to tell you my super duper, whopper sized, exciting news!!!  Come back on Monday to read all about it!!! 

Don't 'cha just hate being left hanging like that!  :)

OH, one more thing then I swear I'm done...YES....this is my CURRENT living room taken AFTER the pictures from Wednesday! LOL  I finally got it back in order and there is peace in the world again! :) 

Have a wonderful weekend!! 

Until Monday....

Halloween Day 7 - Spooky Topiary

Well, it has finally arrived...Day 7!  And therefore, the last project in my Halloweeny blitz!!! 

I'm pretty thrilled with how this one turned out.  Especially when you consider I missed counted the days when I started this whole thing, so I only had 6 projects planned out!  Yikes! 

So, last night when I got home around 6:30, I started looking at what I had on hand.

Enter this lovely, purchased a few weeks ago at Goodwill as a daily half priced item, so I paid $1.50.

(Warning...this post is picture heavy.)

It almost broke my heart to sand it down and paint it black because if it was truly hand painted, I know someone put their own talent and hard work into painting it...but it was old and dated and needed a new lease on life.

So, that's what I did.  And then I Modge Podged with scrapbook paper (about $1.50 worth...with plenty left over for another project), sanded all the edges and inked the edges with black ink and of course rubbed it in with my fingers. :)

As I sat there pondering what I was going to do with it next, this hole was saying, "use me...not the big one on the other side for a candle...that's too predictable." 

I couldn't let this little hole down...and that's when it hit me...topiary!!

I gathered some leftover dowel pieces and some skewers I had and put a styrofoam ball on top.

Now what?  What was I going to use to make the topiary?  I thought about spiders, but that didn't work.  Once again, I was at a loss.  Since Doodle was still at her dad's I ran to Meijer (it's a store here in the Midwest, kind of like a bigger, bit nicer, more expensive Wal-Mart).  Nothing stood out to me.  Shoot!!

Well, I had to go to Menards (a large hardware store we have here in Indy) because I needed to pick up a hard to find lightbulb for my cubicle at work.  As I was walking around...I found my solution....and for FREE!  Sort of.  Menards offers alot of rebates.  So, my solution was $1.50 with a $1.50 rebate! :)

What would make the perfect Halloweeny topiary?

That's right....shelf liner!

So, having done something like this before (which I have not had time to show you yet), I just used the same technique.

I cut my shelf liner into 2x2 squares.  Pulled the sides up around a small piece of dowel, hot glued the end and stuck onto the styrofoam ball (which I painted black so white wouldn't be showing through any gaps).  Just keep repeating until the whole ball is full.  Shove each piece in pretty tight so you get a good full look to your topiary.

Once I filled the whole ball, I wrapped a scrap piece of cream fabric around the dowels.  I rubbed some of my Jim Holtz Distressing Ink in Walnut over the ribbon to age it up some. 

Then I hot glued the dowel into the little hole and added a couple spiders for fun!  I also ran some of the spider web stuff you use outside over the ball to give it some 'eeriness'. 

Here's what I ended up with!!

Be sure to come back tomorrow...that's when I'll show you my living room all decked out for a fun Halloweeny. :) 

Until tomorrow...

 

Halloween Day 6 - She-Bat

Well, we've made it to Day 6!!  And only one more project after today!!

Don't forget, on Friday I'm going to show all my Halloween projects together and decor out and about in the house and the front porch!  :)

I've had so much fun doing this little 'party'!  But can I admit something?  I'm EXHAUSTED! LOL  Blogging everyday has been ALOT of work.  So.....don't get used to it. :P

Today's project, well, once again...didn't quite turn out how I had envisioned it when I started. 

I saw some orange stitching around him.  Oh, and yes, I envisioned a him!  But when I started digging through the kids art boxes (yes I said BOXES....Doodles friends love coming to our house for the crafts and the messes they are allowed to make...and I wouldn't have it any other way!!) I could only find girl eyes!  So, HE became a SHE.  :) 

A dopey she? 

And no need to adjust the picture...she really IS lopsided! LOL 

All I did to make her is to take a sheet of felt I got at Wal-Mart for something like $ .35, cut it in half and use the same clipart I used for the plates project on Sunday and traced around the bat with chalk onto the felt.

Then I cut around the chalk line.  Now is the part where I tell you what NOT to do! ;) 

Don't trace the bat twice and expect him to be a duplicate copy!  It's best to stack the felt and cut through two sheets at once...or it doesn't line up that good...trust me.  (If you are a sewer you probably already knew that...a sewer I am NOT.) :)

Second, don't forget when you get ready to stitch him/her to put the chalk side OUT, or else you will SEE THE CHALK when you flip it right side out.  DUH!  Luckily chalk wipes off black felt pretty easy. :)

Now, you could probably save yourself a whole lot of time by stitching this thing with a sewing machine...but as I said, I am not a sewer.  I hate sewing!!  With a passion!  I should say I hate sewing MACHINES with a passion.  I'll even get more specific for you...I hate the BOBBIN!  If someone would come to my house and set the whole dang thing up...I'd sew!  But since that didn't happen, I just stitched around this little guy by hand.

Then turned it right side out.

Now, once again what I WISH I had done (do you see a theme with my projects...I can sure mess them up pretty easy, LOL)...I WISH I had made more exaggerated cuts for the points and the head so they would be more defined once it was stitched.

Now me being all cheap thrifty and 'green' I used old socks that were destined for the trash as stuffing.  I just cut them up and stuffed them inside and stitched the end closed that I had left open.  Glued on my girly eyes and that's it!!

I think that officially makes this project less than $ .40! 

My official plan was to make several of these and hang them on my porch...but I don't foresee that happening by Friday's post.  Sorry my friends!! :( 

Let me just show you what's happened to my house in the last week while I've prepared these posts for this little party of mine....be prepared....this might be scariest project you'll see for Halloween!!!

I'm warning you...one last chance to turn away....you may never recover from what you're about to see.....

Told you it was bad!!  The worst part...I'm typing this at 10:30 pm on Tuesday night...and I'm actually going to go to bed and LEAVE IT like this!!!  I NEVER leave a room a disaster like this! 

And, what's worse...I will go to work in the morning...and leave it like this again!!  My ex-husband came in this morning and said, "Are you moving?" LOL

I swear it will all be put away tomorrow!!  Well, it has to be so I can take pictures for Friday's post!!!  Yikes...I could never be a hoarder that's for sure.  One week of this building up and I'm freaking out!  :)
 
Ok, so She-Bat down, living room disaster down...I guess that means I'm done here for today. :)
 

 
 

Until tomorrow....

Halloween Day 5 - Scrapbook Art

Ok, admittedly today's project isn't as exciting as some of the others so far. 

But I was really going for a whole room redo for Halloween this year.  It's something I've always wanted to do, and have always done some decorating, but I figured what the heck...my blog was the perfect time to 'live the dream'. LOL  

So, when I saw this scrapbook paper I knew I wanted to use it to redo the artwork above my couch.  Basically I just started playing and cutting and came up with this cute scrapbook artwork. 

There isn't really much to say...so here it is....

Here are closeups:

Since I just used the frames that are already above my couch, took out one of the mats, and just stuck the original artwork in the back of the frame until after Halloween, my only cost was for the scrapbook paper...which consisted of one sheet which had print on the front and back and a piece of purple scrapbook paper I already had...so for around $2 I was able to redo my wall (I already own the other pieces from previous Halloweeny's). :)

And that's it.  Two more projects to go!!  And on Friday I'll show the room in it finished state!! :)

Until tomorrow...