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July 23, 2014

Why Ya Gotta Be So Mean? (and a Wine Cork Bulletin Board)

You know how in high school there was always a group of mean kids? The ones that picked on people for no reason in particular, other than just being hateful? It could be over the smallest things: the way someone wore their hair that day, or that they didn’t have the coolest shoes on, or just the fact that the person was too tall, short, skinny or fat.

Making others feel bad made them feel good. Well, I hate to say that … some people just never grow out of that bullying phase.

You all know them, the boss that gets a kick out of belittling her staff, or that friend that makes nasty remarks to someone and then says “just kidding” when you know she’s not.

Well when you’re a blogger, occasionally you get someone who feels the need to knock you down a notch and be horrible to you because they are hiding behind a computer screen.

Now would these people have the guts to say these nasty things in person? Most of them probably not.

The projects bloggers post are ones we spend hours, weeks, and sometimes months killing ourselves on. To then have someone come on our site and leave horrible, insulting comments about these projects can really just suck. Would they like me coming into their homes and telling them their newly redone kitchen is “ugly and a circus clown could have picked better colors”?

We are all someone’s wife, daughter, sibling, or mother. Would they want someone speaking to their family members the way they speak to us?

Now I’m sure you are saying that we are putting ourselves out there to be judged, and you would be right. Do I expect everyone to think every one of my projects are as awesome as I do? No way. Everyone has a different opinion and likes different things. Do I get all bent out of shape when someone says “Oh I love that table, but I think I would have liked it better a different color”? Of course not.

I read tons of blogs and not all of their projects float my boat, but I simply don’t comment and go on my merry way. I don’t ever feel the need to leave a comment that will hurt their feelings or disrespect them.

Now I’m not saying I get nasty comments on a regular basis … luckily I have awesome readers like YOU that pump me up by telling me super sweet things and keep coming back everyday to visit me.

But every now and then I get the comment like the one down below:…

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July 22, 2014

What To Do When You’re Allergic To Your Furbaby

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of ZYRTEC®.

My whole life I have had allergies.

When I was in the third grade, I got the birthday present that I had been begging for … a cat.

A neighbor lady’s cat had a litter of kittens born in a tree stump by her home. I picked out the runt of the litter and was so excited to bring her home.

Unfortunately when the cat came home with me, my allergies got out of control. I got allergy testing and sure enough, cats and dogs were high on the results list.

I learned very early on that if I was to own a cat, I was going to have to take allergy medication everyday. There are certain things I can do to keep my allergies from getting totally out of control, such as having the unnamed child handle the litter box, and when kitten needs her hair brushed Topher or the kiddo will take her on the deck and brush her there.

I wish just doing those things were enough … but they aren’t.

I’ve had a few cats since Princess, and most of you all know that today I have Kitten — who is almost 21 years old now….

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July 21, 2014

Haven Conference 2014 Recap

Happy Monday everyone! Hope you had a good weekend!

As promised, I have my Haven recap for you!

As most of you know, I went to Atlanta a little over a week ago to attend my second Haven bloggers conference. While there, you take all sorts of classes to help improve your blog — classes such as SEO (Search Engine Optimization), how to make money blogging, photography classes, Interior Design, how to build your brand, etc. You also can take DIY classes, such as learning how to tile, building furniture, and classes on how to work with the latest tools.

Not only are you there to take classes, but you also make connections with companies, and you get to meet and build relationships with other bloggers.

Last year was my first year at the conference, and I felt like a deer in the headlights. So many bloggers that I didn’t know and that didn’t know me.

This year it was so nice to know people and have some of the big time bloggers know who I was and comment on some of my projects from the last year.

My roommate this year was Laura from Inspiration For Moms, and I couldn’t have been happier….

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July 15, 2014

$3 Yard Sale Cabinet Makeover

Well, I’m back from Atlanta! For anyone that doesn’t know, I was there for the Haven bloggers conference. To sum things up … it was amazing. Fabulous bunch of women and some spectacular classes.

Don’t worry, I will be posting a summary later on this week.

One thing that you don’t do much at Haven is sleep. I left on Thursday morning. Backing-up a little, Tuesday night I didn’t sleep much (trying to get work finished before I left), and then the night before I left I went to bed at 2:00am and got up at 4:00 to head down to the airport.

Once I was at the conference, we ended up not eating dinner until around midnight, and then my roomie and I stayed up talking late into the night, and then you had to get up very early to make it to breakfast before classes started.

By the time I got home on Sunday, I was so tired I thought I was going to die.

All day Monday, I was in a sleepy fog, so I had the kid drive me around to get some errands done, so I wouldn’t run some poor unsuspecting person off the road.

I had all of these million projects I was going to get caught-up on on Monday … and guess what I accomplished?

A trip to the grocery store.

That was it.

Totally took everything I had in me.

I am writing this on monday night, so hopefully by the time you read this, I have actually slept … and if I’m really feeling ambitious, even take a shower….

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July 14, 2014

Take a Break From Summer- #Refuel2Go with SNICKERS®

I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper amplification for Collective Bias and its advertiser.

I should install one of those revolving doors. You know the ones that go around and around? During the summer, all I hear is the door slamming open or shut all day long.

My daughter and her friends are busy people … or so I’m told. If you looked at the state of my daughter’s room, you would not think that is the case at all.

Kids are constantly coming into my house, staying for a few minutes, and off they go to a ball game, or the pool, or to their jobs.

One thing that is always consistent is that they are always hungry . They stay up all hours of the night, and during the day they want to refuel.

At night time, they like to fill up bowls with ice cream, drizzle on-some caramel or hot fudge, and then slice up a SNICKERS bar to put on top!…

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July 9, 2014

Plaster Painted Vintage Child’s Chair

The countdown to Haven (my blogging conference) is on! I will be leaving Thursday morning at the buttcrack of dawn — or 5:00 AM if you want to get precise.

For the girl that doesn’t usually go to bed until 2 or 3 AM, that means one thing…dark circles.

This week, I have been crossing things off of my list: Hair cut and highlighted … Done. Much needed pedicure … Done. Gift for my roommate (which was incredibly hard since I have never met her in real life) … Done. Last furniture project completed…well…almost done — Topher has to help me get the hardware on it, and then I have to photograph it tonight.

On today’s agenda: spray tan and start packing.

I am pretty excited! After our trip to DC a few weeks ago, my suitcase broke which gave me the perfect excuse to buy a pretty, hot pink luggage set. Topher says it is impractical since he will never be able use it. I told him he should since it will be really easy to spot at the luggage terminal.

He said nope.

…

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