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February 11, 2016

DIY Pallet Sign

Hello my friends!

We have a new baby in the family! My cousin and his wife had their first baby, and the whole family is excited about a new little munchkin to love on.

I’m always on Pinterest, seeing all of those cute signs people make, and I have been jealous that I didn’t have a little one to make one for.

Now that we do, I decided to get to work!

I have been hoarding pallets under our deck ever since I made my Pallet Wood Arrow, so I drug one of them out and Topher nailed some together for me….

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February 9, 2016

Our Day at St. Maarten

Is there snow and ice on the ground where you live? I thought I would share some warm weather pics with you today!

Last week I shared with you my Top Ten Ways to Cruise Cheaply. This week I thought I would share some of the fun ports we went to on our cruise last month.

First of all, we went on our 6th Carnival cruise. Some people have asked why we always use the same cruise line. Frankly, every one of the ones we have taken on Carnival have been amazing, so it’s one of those “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” kind of things.

We had friends that took a cruise on a different line, and they left the very same day as us, from the very same city, and went to the very same ports. We came back and touched-base with them and told them how incredible our cruise was, and they were so disappointed with theirs. They said they had awful service and food the whole time.

Since we only cruise every couple of years, we would be so bummed if that happened to us, so we have always gone with what we have had luck with….

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February 3, 2016

Top 10 Ways to Cruise Cheaply

Hello my friends!

If you remember, I told you I was leaving on a cruise Jan. 1st. I never got around to letting you know how it all turned out, so my next couple of posts are going to fill you all in!

Our family has been taking cruises for the last 14 years. We usually go on one every 2-3 years. I wish it was something we could do every year, but it takes us a couple of years for us to save up.

The first one we took, it was just Topher and I, and we loved it so much we knew we had to take the kiddo on the next one … and she absolutely loved it.

The year after our first family cruise, we took a week long trip to Branson, Missouri. We had a fun trip, but when we got back home and figured out how much the Branson trip cost us, we were pretty surprised. By the time we paid for our gas to and from, our hotel, three meals a day, and entertainment it cost us as much as a 7 day cruise to the caribbean!

From then on we knew that cruises were going to be the way we went.

I thought I would share with you a few ways that we’ve found to keep the costs down while cruising….

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January 21, 2016

Vintage Decoupaged Desk

Guess what I’ve got for you today? An actual furniture makeover!!!

I know it’s been awhile guys. With all of the Christmas posts and the holiday events, they kind of got pushed to the side, but now they are back!

In fact, I have a bunch of makeovers for you today since it is Themed Furniture Thursday!

If you are new here, TFT is where once a month some of my furniture buddies and I do a themed makeover. This month’s theme is Shades of White….

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January 20, 2016

How to Transition From Christmas to Winter Decor

Hello my friends!! I know I’ve been missing for awhile but I’ve had a little lack in motivation since we got back from the cruise.

I have an embarrassing confession for you: We just took one of our Christmas trees down last weekend, and the other one is still up in the basement! I know you are thinking I am a total slacker … and you are right! We left for our cruise on the 1st, and we didn’t have time to get it down before we left. Then we got back on the 11th, and it took all we had just to get back in the swing of real life … so it all stayed up another week. I got sick of having to keep my curtains drawn because I didn’t want my neighbors to see what losers we were for still having it up, so we forced ourselves to take down all of the decor throughout the house — including tree number one.

We thought we would have time for tree number two, but De-Christmasing took a lot longer than we thought, plus I had a couple of projects due, so we ran out of time.

Truth be told, I would keep the tree up in the basement year round if Topher would let me, and the unnamed child wasn’t embarrassed that her boyfriend sees it and is going to tell his parents that we are freaks.

So sadly it too will be boxed up this weekend.

If you have read my blog long you know that I am big for decorating for the holidays. The times I struggle with are the gap zones. Gap zones are the weird months between holidays that I don’t know how to decorate for.

Last year, my house was just totally bare between Christmas and Valentine’s Day … and that’s just depressing.

This year I decided to spruce things up transitioning my decor from Christmas to Winter without spending any money. You have seen my prior posts on how to shop your home, and that’s what I did here….

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January 4, 2016

10 Top Black Furniture Makeovers

I’m actually on vacation my friends!

It has been a few years since we took our last family vacation, and Topher and I are mentally fried. The unnamed child just graduated, and I just turned 40 … so we decided what the heck. So we left the land of freezing rain and drizzle for sandy beaches and tropical drinks. The unnamed child can even drink legally in 2 of the countries we are hitting, so be prepared to hear stories when I get back.

Also, don’t be too jealous of me because being on a beach means having to wear a swimsuit, and I am not excited about that people.

We’ve got house/dog sitters for the pups, and God only knows what kind of chaos they will get into while we are gone.

I thought I would leave you with a fabulous roundup of some black furniture pieces today. There’s something about black furniture that feels regal and classic.

Here are a few of my favorites

Black Handpainted Dresser by Miss Mustard Seed