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July 8, 2014

Cooling Off a Hot Summer With Fruttare

“This shop is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group® and Fruttare, but all my opinions are my own. #itsallgood #pmedia http://my-disclosur.es/OBsstV”

Summer at my house means two things: a house full of teenagers, and those girls eating anything not nailed down.

With the temperatures here being in the hundreds, the kids have been wanting to go up the street to the “slushy hut” every five minutes. That gets expensive in a hurry … and they are pouring disgusting syrup, full of chemicals, down their throats all day.

So when I came home with these Fruttare bars the other day, the group of girls devoured them!…

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July 7, 2014

Purina One 28 Day Challenge

This shop is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group® and Purina One, but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia #ONEDifference http://my-disclosur.es/OBsstV

When you have dogs, your life can be full of surprises.

A wet, stuffed raccoon laid on your chest in the middle of the night, your Maltese barking incessantly at a blue jay at 5:00 in the morning, or finding your shoe filled with triangular-shaped dog food … because that is the only shape one of your pups will eat from a certain brand of dog food, and he is hiding it from the others.

You can also be surprised by their fears. One dog is deathly afraid of the vacuum cleaner, another the air compressor, and the last is afraid of well… pretty much anything.

One thing they all have in common is that they are members of the family. Our lives are so much better since they came into it.

Here are my babies:…

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July 3, 2014

Plaster Painted Neutral Endtable

Next week I leave for Atlanta for the Haven Bloggers Conference, which means this week I am scurrying around like a crazy person trying to get all of my projects finished before I leave.

I am not an organized person.

Whether it be time management, organization in my home, or my business, it is something that I find rather challenging. I am physically unable to only work on one furniture piece at a time. My heart rate actually lowers when I have chaos spread in front of me — organized chaos that is.

What that means is when Topher comes into my studio, he will get stressed out looking for a screw driver for 5 minutes, where I know exactly where it is. It is under the table in the far right corner underneath 2 sheets of sandpaper. He does not understand how this doesn’t bother me. Occasionally, he comes in there and straightens things up, putting everything in labeled boxes and then wants to shake me when a week later it looks like a tornado has gone through the room and his “system” is shot.

You would think after 17 years of marriage, the man would learn that some things are never going to change.

Not that all areas of the house are always this bad — it’s just when my creativity is flowing, and I’ve got a screwdriver in one hand and two paint-splattered brushes in the other, the last thing I’m going to do is drop everything and put the screwdriver back in its “correct” place. Just not going to happen.

Topher is learning the best thing he can do for his mental health is just keep the door to my room shut….

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July 1, 2014

Plaster Painted Vintage Chair

Do you ever have days where you have a million errands to run, but you don’t do them because it would require you to put on real clothes and makeup?

Yeah that was me yesterday. So now I have even more errands to run since I was too lazy to pull myself together.

One of the reasons I had to get going today was to get my haircut. Don’t you love having someone else do it for you? If I won the lottery, I would pay my hairstylist (Casey at Shine Salon in case you were wondering) a ridiculous amount just to come do my hair everyday just because I’m too lazy to do it.

I live with my hair in a ponytail. My hubby has asked me why I keep it long when I almost always wear it up. I explained that when you have short hair you always have to fix it — there’s no hiding behind ponytails or messy buns.

A few years ago, I needed a change and I whacked it all off, (against my hairstylists advice) because I wanted it to look like Carly’s off of General Hospital. My hair looked cute the day I came home from the salon. Topher was full of compliments, and I was pretty proud of myself for taking a risk.

The next day, I washed it and that is when reality hit me … I looked nothing like Carly. What I quickly realized is that Carly has a trained hairstylist that does her hair everyday, and that is why it looks perfect. Try as I might to have my hairstylist move in with me, that didn’t fly.

Also, when you have naturally curly hair, you need the weight to weigh it down or you look like Richard Simmons.

So for months, I despised it. Every picture taken of me in that 7 month period has been burned. If you happen to have one of me that has not been confiscated, you need to hand it over immediately or I am no longer your friend.

So when I told my hubby I have a haircut tomorrow, and he said you should try something different, I said “remember the hair fiasco of 2012?” … and he said “oh yeah, you should really just leave it alone”.

And that is exactly what I am going to do.

…

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June 30, 2014

Patriotic Flower Wreath

Happy Monday everyone!!!

I hope you all had a great weekend! I did some cleaning, worked on a couple of dressers, and I continued my Operation: Get A Life by hosting a fun little birthday party for my mom Sunday night. I could have slaved half of the day away making her a fancy dessert that may or may not have turned out right in the end, but I said screw it and went to Village Inn and bought a yummy pie.

The unnamed child and I are halfway through season 4 on Grey’s Anatomy. If my life were only half as exciting as the women on that show… Hot doctors, solving crazy medical cases, and some crazy personal drama between friends. Plus how handy would it be if you were out and about and someone’s airway was crushed? You could whip a pen out of your purse and do a tracheotomy right there? Not that it happens often in the places I hang out, like Hobby Lobby, Michael’s or Home Depot … but it could happen people.

No, in my real life the person that gets injured is usually me, and its with a glue gun, typically making a wreath like the bad boy down below.

…

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June 26, 2014

How to Make a Moss-Covered Wedding Cake

Love is in the air. For a lot of people that is.

Did you know that more weddings take place in June than any other month? In fact, Toper and I got married June 7th about a million years ago. It wasn’t the ideal day weather wise. I had this massive dress on, it was incredibly hot, and when we went outdoors for photos my hairspray was attracting a large swarm of bees.

You know how some people have a gift for picking out dresses and hairstyles that are timeless, and their wedding picture look amazing years to come? Yeah…that wasn’t us. My dress was from the 90’s, which meant big and poofy, and since we were broke I had to settle for one that I didn’t really love.

Topher had long hair and still wore his goatee.

That being said our wedding album is less than stellar, and it resides down in the dark corner of our basement….

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