my new library

I have a little office niche right off my family room that is really functional for our family. It's a great spot to work on the computer, do homework, and pay bills. I've loved having this book case to house volumes of reading material and accessories, but it has no storage, you know, no where to hide my junk. Plus, the wood is so dark and I've been lightening things up a bit in my house. I've been loving the changes so much that it's inspired me to re-do my whole house in all shades of white.
Just kiddin' honey.

The other day I was meandering around the house when I looked upstairs at the library unit located in my mans office. I bought it for him when we moved into our home almost 6 years ago but sadly, he has never attached himself to it quite like I have....

I just adore that man but he can be stubborn when he wants to, and you know it's hard to talk someone into aesthetics over function in an office. Enter the perfect solution.....to bring his office unit down stairs and put it in our computer niche. I told my man about the idea and he gladly called over the first available neighbor to haul it down the stairs....with only a few tiny scratches on my wall (ya right).

We set it in the back yard on the lawn and I was so excited about painting it, I forgot to take "before" pics (waaaahhhhh), so please visualize the piece in a dismal, distressed black. Thanks.

I bribed my man to get out the paint sprayer and we sprayed one coat of primer with
Glidden Gripper (found at the Home Depot) and two coats of Valspar Cincinnatian Hotel Hannaford (Lowes).

Then the ladies of {Club Project} rubbed the whole thing down with light gray paint from the "oops" section at Home Depot, and highlighted the wood details with Ralph Lauren tobacco glaze.
I think we all were pretty excited about the way it turned out.

It's now the perfect piece to house my books, plus my camera, battery chargers, cardstock, my paint deck, tape measure and many other misc treasures.

This is where my man and I spend a lot of time sitting across from each other, fondly gazing into one another's eyes, working on our laptops together, until he checks the daily bank statement and I've got some serious explaining to do.

The desk was an old, chippy, door made into a table by some fine folks in Mexico. How clever.

What have you re-purposed in your home lately?
We'd LOVE to hear all about it!

antique sofa makeover

I'm doin' some sprucing up around these parts, a little spring cleaning if you will, and I decided It was time to lighten and brighten my family room. I started decorating my home five years ago with lots of chocolate browns, tans and very little color. But my new years resolution was to stop being afraid of color and I'm makin' good. I will admit you'll find color in places like throw pillows and accessories, but it's still color right?

Jilly found this antique reproduction on CL for $80 and bequeathed it to me after her last move. I found the perfect spot for it in my family room and I LOVE it there. While hanging out at my place one afternoon, Jilly suggested I paint the wood dirty white. It was a good as done.

My {Club Project} day was just around the corner so I added this task to the list. Here's the beauty all taped up and ready to paint. Even though I'm pretty visual, I still get butterflies right before the first brush stroke.
Here goes.....

A little sneak preview.....ooooooooh ya!

I love it even more then I thought I would!

My neighbor (who happens to be of the male persuasion) thinks painting wood might be as offensive as breaking all 10 commandments. Men.

What do you think?

quite the pair

It's true, Jilly has an obsession for pairs of chairs. She found these little orphans on CL a few years ago and if you can believe it, she didn't have an extra inch of space for them.

Honestly, I didn't have the perfect place for them either but I thought they were so darling, I didn't care if they had to sleep in bed with me until I could find one.

Since then, they've been bounced around from the garage to the bathroom, to a bedroom. I finally got some inspiration when I found this handsome pale blue, linen-esque fabric for $6.99 a yard.

Please take note of the pastel, rainbow, oil cloth fabric someone lovingly chose for them in a previous relationship. I'm going to assume it was their biggest regret. YIKES!



After a few hours, a fresh coat of paint and some divots in my skin, here are my new babies. They'll go in the office niche right off my family room, where we just painted and added a totally awesome (yes, I just said totally awesome) new piece of furniture.
Pictures to come.

Loving everything about them. The gimp was purchased at SAS, my favorite place to pick up deals on fabric and trim. You can hardly tell in the pic but it's a blue-grey burlap texture. Yummy!

Chairs $30

Fabric $28

Gimp $2.50

grunt work: Free

total spent.... please excuse me while I find my calculator.....

$60.50

and that my friends is a find.

Oh, Please don't forget to sign up for our vintage jewelry giveaway. It could happen to YOU!

the one thing i can't live without

Have you ever found something so rare, so life changing, so important that when you're without it you feel out of sorts, you can't function, and you even have a hard time breathing? Then you'll know what I'm talking about when I say I can't imagine being without my

SHAMPOO IN A CAN.

What's so great about that, you say....

Well if you know me at all, you know I'd rather do ANYTHING then spend more time then I have to getting ready in the morning. Frankly I'd rather be diving with hungry sharks then doing my hair every day. Am I alone?

You know when your bangs are lifeless because you went a little too big and sexy the day before and you're trying to decide if it's worth washing, drying, and styling, or just pulling out a bobby pin? Yes, you do. You know when you're running late because you slept a little longer then you should have, or you were rewarding your knight in shining armor for doing the dishes the night before?

Just shake a can of Batiste Dry Shampoo, spray it in your roots, work it in with your fingers for a few seconds and brush it out. What happens next is nothing short of a miracle. Your lifeless, greasy hair has body, style, and smells like you've vacationed in a tropical island.

No need to try any other brands, I've used them all (including the expensive ones) and this one is my favorite. You can get it at your local Sally's Beauty Supply for a cool $5.99, or you can order a three pack {here} at Amazon. You'll love it so much that you'll tell your friends about it and they'll want to "borrow" it. Just know you're not gettin' it back.

Between my three sisters and I, we've tried every hair product on the market and I've simply never loved any of them quite like this one.

Just think about what you can do with all the time you'll free up. Go sign up for that knitting class you've been dying to take. Yes! Go tell your kids you're makin' lasagna from scratch tonight!

...and you, and you, and you, you're gonna love me!

PS. Please do not try any of their other scents at this time (it also comes in original and blush) unless you're over 80, then you go right ahead girl.

best dumpster find to date

On the second week of every month, something magical happens in Gilbert Arizona. It's called "big TRASH pick-up". Monday morning you put out all the rubbish that won't fit in your dumpster, and sometime during the week the city will come by and collect it....unless I beat them to it!
Needless to say, it's penned in on my calendar, and nothing trumps my plans for the day.

Last week I dropped my daughter, 16 year old Jaci, off at a friends, and was driving home through a quaint neighborhood with my windows down. I glanced over at the culdesac I was passing, when WHAT?! HOLD UP! Heaven help me...an antique curio in perfect condition!

I always have the decency to knock on the door, and ask the owners if I can take their trash. It's the least I can do. I knocked, and one of Jaci's friends (of male persuasion) answered the door. I had no idea it was his house, and he was just as surprised to see me as I was to see him! I told him I loved the trash out front, and he asked me if I'd like a hand loading it. I thanked him for his help and drove away, giddy with excitement.

Not two minutes later, I got a phone call from my adolescent daughter.
"Mom, what. did. you. do. with. Clint. this. afternoon?"
(in a very confused voice).
He had sent her a text something like this......"hey, I hung out with your mom this afternoon, ask her about it". I told her about my newest treasure, and thankfully, she thought it was pretty funny.

This is probably the best thing I have ever pulled from the trash.

It's all in one piece and best of all it was FREE!

Please stay tuned for the makeover.

for the love!

Today was a great day! It was {Club Project} and this month we got to tackle one of my favorite things......upholstery.
One of our best girls, G, found this pair of chairs at an antique market in Peoria, AZ and wanted us to help give them a make over.



She had everything we needed ready to go by 9 am and we got right to work....

Just look at G being so industrious!

Me and Jilly each took a year of upholstery in college, and today we would have made our teacher proud.
Did anyone else take upholstery from Ray Crandell at EVIT?

Look at Jilly workin' that staple gun like it aint no thing.
There was only one tiny mishap when Jilly almost stapled G's back. She'll try to blame it on me
but pay her no mind.

Here she is, the finished product in all her glory.

I know the Bible tells us not to covet, but if there was ever a time to break a commandment, it's probably now.

I like to think love is in the details.

Here are my favorite details on these chairs.

Here's the cost breakdown on the two chairs:

Chairs $90
Fabric $50- Home Fabrics (Mesa AZ)
Gimp $6.25-SAS (Tempe AZ)

Total spent: $146.25

Please forgive me, I'm jealous.

We also re-covered the seats on these chairs for G's breakfast table. The casters are perfect for moving around on the brick floor in her kitchen.
You can see this girl loves her some linen.

Oh, let's not forget that aside from looking adorable in a tool belt, G can bake a mean cupcake. I'm pretty sure we would have shoveled manure all day for these babies. They were to die for!
(recipe to come)

Did I tell you how much I love Club Project, and more importantly how much I love the girls in it? Each one brings such unique and wonderful talents and abilities to our group.

We laugh ALOT, and sometimes we cry. We are simply a group of friends trying to get things accomplished, lifting and loving one another as we go.

a sweet note

Last night's festivities went abnormally late for me, so before I jumped into bed I asked my man if he could get Brody off to school in the morning.

If there's anything this girl loves, it's an extra hour of beauty sleep!

I woke up just in time to pull my hair into a braid and grab my yoga mat for 8:00 class. When I ran downstairs to grab my keys, I found this on the table.

Maybe there is hope for 15 year old boys.

Maybe all of our {Family Home Evenings}, late night chats, Sunday school lessons, and endless hugs are paying off! I read it twice and then tucked it away to read again later.

Then I skipped off to yoga class and saw these {purple kale}
I just planted by my front porch.

I love the way they give a friendly greeting to all who come to my door. I love that they thrive in the sun or semi-shaded areas. They do well in a pot indoors or a garden outside, and they're really easy to keep alive.

I planted mine in a row with white cyclaman.

The best thing is that both of these plants can be found in the garden center at Lowe's. The best thing about Lowe's is they guarantee their plants for one year so if you're a little nervous about testing your green thumb, you needn't be scared.

Go ahead, do some planting and see if you can't create a little pre-spring bliss!

frames and more frames

I love to camp outdoors, eat Jack in the Box tacos, wear stretchy pants, and shop Forever 21 jewelry. Maybe if I was Beyonce, I'd be more flashy, but the truth is I'm a simple girl.

Jilly is also known around here as a down home kinda gal. She's from a tiny town called Snowflake, AZ where the fanciest thing there is the tiara on a rodeo queen....gaudy is just not in her blood.

See this stack of frames? Jilly found them hunting for deals around the valley and they're simply enchanting. However, they're all together in need of a serious make-under.

Enter some vision

and a little spray paint

We found this wall collage from Martha Stewart and LOVE the idea of
choosing monochromatic colors for the frames and coordinating throw pillows.

Nicely done!

(and a handsome bench doesn't hurt)

Don't get me wrong, if you're still rockin' aqua net hairspray and cheetah stilettos, we don't judge. It's just that sometimes less is more.

Too bad I can't spray paint my wedding ring....

can I?

the three pigs

Once upon a time there were three little pigs. There was a 16 year old girly pig, and two little brother pigs. Their favorite thing to do was leave their slop anywhere except where it belonged.

They misplaced books, shoes, hats, belts, keys, back packs, flat irons, balls, underwear, Lego's, cell phones, dance bags, and soon they were all losing the curl in their tails!

One day the mama sow snapped and decided it was time for an organization intervention. She thought and thought about how she could call some order to all the hairy chaos. She searched high and low for a solution to the turmoil, and finally her angry snorts turned into squeals of delight when she stumbled upon this.....

The sow placed this set of lockers right inside her back door and now every pig has it's own spot to store their treasures. The Hog even has his own niche to stash millions, and once again the pigs are living with harmony in the cleanest pen on the block.....(this is a fairytale).

The End.

Oh, and the sow got these lockers from a fellow junkster for 90 bucks.....
Worth every penny.

The The End

christmas tag download

{ok Saturday's}

We couldn't help ourselves....this is the best thing we've found all week!

Are you ready for an early Christmas present from our friend Emily at

Jones Design Company???

Oh yes she did.....

Go ahead, click HERE for a completely downloadable version of these simple and adorable Christmas tags to complete your holiday packages.

She also gives tips HERE on where she purchases all her dreamy wrap and how to get creative with things like kraft, scrapbooking, and packing paper.

She is most genius and me + jilly love to follow her blog.

In fact, Jilly won her most recent giveaway and you would have thought she won the publishers clearing house!

happy wrapping.

mia