BTHO Nebraska!!

There are no words to explain my excitement over the display of Aggie Spirit at the game this weekend!  So proud to be an Aggie, and so wish I had been at Kyle Field when this happened....

 "From the outside looking in, you can't understand it. And from the inside looking out, you can't explain it."

Goodwill Hunting: Part I

No, not that Good Will Hunting...

This Goodwill hunting...

As I continue in my search to keep my decorating costs low, I ran across a few blogs that posted some tips on how to find the "good stuff" at Goodwill.  Bower Power is one of my all time favorite blogs to read, and she has posted some great tips on how to rifle through the shelves and find a few keepers!  Check out her post here and here on how to get the most out of your Goodwill shopping trip. 
 
Keeping her tips in mind (mainly the one about going slow), I tried my hand a few times at finding the "good stuff."  My first experience was exactly that, an experience.  I had no idea what I was looking for or if anything in the store was worth buying.  But after going up and down each aisle slowly, I began to see a few beauties. 
 
On one of my first trips I found this cork board.  I didn't get a good "before" picture, but here it is as I'm getting it ready for it's first coat of spray paint (more on how I LOVE spray paint later). 

Another great find was this avacado green tray. Trays seem to be the in thing for decorating now, so I snatched this one up for only $3.00 (of course, it received a fresh coat of spray paint, too!).

And one of my favorite finds was this beauty!  That's right...this blue ceramic bowl was buried under a sea of other stuff, and with the price tag of only $3, I knew it was coming home with me.  My pine cones feel right at home! 

On another trip, I found this cloche for $0.99...

This cute ceramic canister for $0.99 (oh, and did I mention that was originally $35.00 at POTTERY BARN!  Check the tags people!!)...

This cute Target tray with picture frames for $6.00...

This adorable basket (sorry the picture is sideways) for $0.99...

And two pillow cases from Target for $4.00 each!  I plan to wash the pillow cases and iron them just to make sure there's nothing on the fabric, and then the sky's the limit on what I can do with them! 

Once I have a few more of my transformations complete, I'll be back with an update!  Until then, keep your eyes peeled, and give us any tips you have on finding the "good stuff!"

crap

DIY Home Decor: Part II

In my recent search for inspiring ideas, I've found a couple of blogs that have sparked my creative interest-- Centsational Girl being one of them.  She has tons of great ideas on how to decorate on a dime, and has an entire section of her blog dedicated to resources for home makeovers.  I'm sure you'll see her inspiration all throughout this DIY mini series :)

Here are a few pics from her blog and I used as inspiration:

I was particularly focused on the covered books:



So I ran to my nearest Hobby Lobby and picked up three sheets of scrapbook paper (on sale for 3/$1.00), recovered some books I already had, and voila!  I had my very own set!

I loved the way she gathered everything together in a tray, so I pulled out a tray I had (it was shoved under our TV console) and put it to good use on the sofa table.  I loved out it all turned out!  And, see that apothecary jar?  I've had that thing for almost a year and couldn't find anything to put in it.  I found a bag of mini acorns at Hobby Lobby (on sale for $2.50) and poured the bag into the jar.  A perfect fit, I tell ya! 

Another blog I love to read is Buzzings of a Queen Bee.  She has great taste (at least I think so), and does a lot of Pottery Barn look-a-likes on the cheap.  One of her recent crafts caught my eye, and I had to try my hand at copying it (imitation is the highest form of flattery, right?!).  She had a few candles around her house that were the wrong color for her decor, so she just recovered them.  Genius, right?! 

So, here are my step by step instructions on how I made my own :)  Take two candles...

And wrap them in burlap.  I just measured the amount of burlap I would need, then hot glued it to the candle.  Surprisingly enough, the hot glue did not melt the candle--WHEW!  Also, burlap is very forgiving, so when I messed up, I just pulled it up and started over. 

While the glue was drying, I printed out a few numbers in Modern No. 20.  I traced them onto the burlap using trace paper, then filled in the letters with black acrylic paint.  Easy as 1-2-3!! 

 Til next time! 

DIY Home Decor: Part 1

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!!  I know I did!  The weather was just beautiful, and I tried to soak it up as much as I could.  Kelly was out of town for the majority of the weekend, so I had the entire weekend to myself!  Friday night I surprised this little lady and her sister at Cru Wine Bar at the Shops of Legacy to celebrate her b-day.  Saturday morning I headed over to my parent's house--with the pups in tow--to spend the rest of the weekend with them.  My Dad and I got busy working on a project for the house (more on that later), and then we met up with my Mom to grab a bite to eat and head to the movies.  We saw Secretariat and it was PHENOMENAL!  I highly recommend it!  After the movies we headed back to the house to finish working on the project and lounge around.  Sunday my Mom and I ran errands, and then it was time to get ready for the week.  Such a wonderful and relaxing weekend! 

And now on to the point of my post.  I've been dying to do a series of posts, and I finally have some material worth sharing.  I've read blog after blog and they all seem to have a series of posts of some sort, and I wanted to join in all the fun with a series of my own: DIY Home Decor. 

I'm in the process of revamping the look and feel of the decor in our house.  That can get fairly expensive fairly quickly, so in the interest of saving money, I'm trying to repurpose some of the stuff we already have and make it work with my new "pallet."  I was browsing Pottery Barn's website for some inspiration ideas, when I ran across this cute shadow box, and thought "hey, I can make that!"  (My famous last words!!) 

So here's how I did it!  I had a frame from my sophomore year in college that I thought would do the trick.  I took it apart and tore off the heart shaped flower petals. 

Then I cut some left over linen from this project (I'm so excited I can finally say that!  I'm always jealous when other bloggers just throw something together with materials they already have), and used some old keys I had hanging by the back door for the art work.  I hot glued the keys on to the linen (which is very forgiving by the way!  If I messed up, I just pulled up the key and reglued it), and let it dry. 

And in no time, I had my very own shadow box!  What do you think?  How have you reused your old stuff?

BINGO

This has been an exciting week at work!  In addition to Fair Day (see previous post) we also played BINGO, and I was on a winning streak!!  I won three times for a grand total of $40 to On The Border!  I'd say that was a pretty good return on my $5 investment :) 

Seriously--I can't believe they pay me to work here! 

State Fair of Texas!

I am SO excited!  Our office is heading out the door to the State Fair of Texas for our annual Teambuilding event in just a few minutes :)  I'm ready for a corney dog, some cotton candy, a ride on the ferris wheel, and a day outside to enjoy this beautiful weather!  See you on the flip side!

Hello, October!

I cannot believe it's already October 4!  Where has the time gone?!  I feel like I'm always saying that, but these days, it seems like the time is flying by faster and faster!  Nevertheless, October is here and I couldn't be happier.  I looked back through my blog posts and read my previous early October entries, and they say the same thing I feel today--Happy Fall!  This time every year I'm looking forward to the cooler weather, A&M football games, State Fair of Texas, wearing warm clothes, celebrating birthdays, and the horizon of Thanksgiving and Christmas.  But this year, October is filled with event more exciting events!

• On October 1, my girlfriend Kellyn got engaged to the man of her dreams and is now in full wedding planning mode! 
• On October 30, Kelly's brother, Ryan, will marry the love of his life, Shanna, and we will be there to celebrate!  Can't wait to have another sister-in-law :)
• And sometime this month we will be getting a new car! 

Lots to celebrate in October! 

On another note, I'm dying to get back into the swing of blogging!  I have so many things I want to share with you, but they'll have to wait until I upload the pictures from my camera.  Maybe one of these days I'll finally get all caught up.  Yeah right! 

Until next time, get out there and enjoy this beautiful weather! 

We're Covered!

I hope you all had a Happy 4th of July! We sure did! Before the weekend started we really didn't have a lot of plans, but by the time Monday night rolled around we were exhausted and needed another day to catch up on our rest.

One of the big projects we promised each other that we would finish was covering our patio. We've been debating on what material to to use as covering for quite some time now. I was resistant because I didn't want the finished product to look trashy. Kelly was willing and ready so we could provide some shade for our pups. So back and forth we went...sheet metal, plastic, nothing, shingles, back to sheet metal...and then one day while we were "landscape shopping" for our front yard there it was...the material we'd been wanting all along--and we didn't even know it.

We needed something light weight that would provide shade, but not necessarily cover the patio completely. So when we found "Sun Shade" fabric in the outdoor section at Lowe's and Home Depot we were all set! We bought two 6x20 rolls of fabric to cover the whole area.

It was quite a tedious project since we weren't really able to move the wood slats around. Kelly had to wedge his arms between the slats and then blindly hammer the wood fasteners into the 2x4s. It was HILARIOUS to watch...for the first few hours at least. But after it was all said and done, it was well worth it. Now our pups have shade (the material blocks out 75% of the sun), and we hope it will cut down on some of our electric bill as well! Take a peek...

As you can see from the fabric is practically invisible from the side.

Completely covered!

So tell me...what household projects have you been putting off?

A million little things...

My mind is swirling a million miles a minute of stuff I want to blog about, but no one thing is worth a blog post by itself, so I thought I’d share the conglomeration of my thoughts in one big post. Hang on…here goes:

• First things first, my b-day is Saturday and I couldn’t be more excited!! Remember when I practically celebrated for a whole month last year??


• I’m dying to update my wardrobe (hopefully will accomplish this as part of my birthday gift!)


• I LOVE the new TV show “Bethenny Getting Married?” on Bravo. She is hilarious and raw. I am in tears of laughter during most of her episodes.


• In 12 days I am heading to DC and then on to New York and I am so excited! I hope to visit a few of the places featured on Bethenny’s show when I’m in New York.


• I still enjoy RHONJ as one of my guilty pleasures


• Sprinkles Red Velvet Cupcakes are quickly becoming one of my FAVORITE things!

• I’m trying to do better on my eating, but all I can think about it FOOD!


• I joined Biggest Loser here at the office and hope that it motivates me to stay “on it”! (Of course, this won't stop me from celebrating my birthday!)


• I desperately need to get my hair done


• I would love to have one of these with my name on it
  
• But I could probably find it cheaper here


• I wish I could decorate my house like Carrie Bradshaw’s Apartment

• I saw Eclipse over the weekend and LOVED it! Team Jacob all.the.way. (Well, truth is I like Edward for Bella, but I do love Jacob!)

Ok—that is all for now.

Daisy Girl!

As I was looking back at some of my recent blog posts I realized that the last “real” update I gave was almost five months ago! My goodness—so much has happened since then! In February, Daisy was only nine weeks old. In just a few short days she’ll be seven MONTHS! I can’t believe it. She is growing so fast, but we don’t think she’ll be as big as her BIG BROTHER, Cooper. She is so petite compared to him. But don’t let her small frame fool you. She is definitely an instigator!

Over the past few months her personality has really started to come out. I can’t believe how different she is from Cooper. I never really knew dogs could have personalities. I mean I know they all have different temperaments, but it’s been really fun to see the difference between the two of them.

She’s earned herself a few funny nicknames. It’s hilarious to hear the lingo in our house. You will often hear us say in the highest pitch possible :), “Cooper boy and a Day-dee Gewl…and a Cooper boyeeee and a Day-dee Gewl!”

Daisy also goes by "Dewity Gewl" (Dirty Girl). I’ve never seen a dog get so dirty so quickly. Seriously! We put her out to go potty and she comes back with “black socks on” as my mom would say (dirt all over her feet). She REFUSES to let us clean her paws off. If she can wiggle in the back door just far enough, she takes off running around the living room avoiding any kind of clean up. Kelly says, “Day-dee Gewl is a Dewity Gewl!!”

We also call her our tom boy. She skins her knees and gets battle wounds after she and Cooper scuffle. I felt sorry for her for a little while. I would come home from work and she would have a scab (or two) under her fur. I thought they were clods of dirt, but turns out they were, in fact, scabs :(. I thought Cooper was bullying her…picking on her. But when I saw her prance right up to him and bite the heck out of his haunches I knew she brought it all on herself. She’s stared to play this game with Cooper—when he’s lying on the kitchen floor trying to cool off and she saunters up to him real slowly and will stop and freeze with one paw pulled back like a bird dog. Then, out of nowhere, she’ll POUNCE on Coopers head—finally succeeding at getting him to play with her. It’s the funniest thing in the world to watch.

We call her the Gazelle because she gets more air than most basketball players. She can clear the back of the couch no problem (don’t ask how we know this!). Sometimes I swear she has a little Jack Russell in her because she’s always bouncing up and down. I’ll be holding something in my hand about shoulder height, and she’ll jump right up and try to grab it.

She definitely knows how to play dumb. When I start to scold her or tell her to get down or off, she just looks at me like she has NO idea what I’m saying. But if I mention something about dinner or treats, or going to see Rowdy (my parent’s dog) she is all ears and tail wags!!

In my last post Daisy was just starting her puppy vaccinations—and I’m thankful to say we successfully made it all the way through vaccinations and even got her spayed! We took her in to have her surgery on Thursday, June 24 and spent the better part of four days trying to keep her separated from Cooper. That was no small task, mind you. Cooper wanted to check her out and she just wanted to play. She ran into EVERYHING with her cone, and almost took us out a couple of times. It was hilarious!! One afternoon we let them both out for a few minutes and she must have told Cooper to help break her loose because when we went back to check on them her collar was off and the cone was all across the back yard! Here’s a pic of her right before her surgery:

Poor thing had no idea what was about to happen!

I could go on for hours about Daisy’s little quirks and all the funny things she does—but then again, I might lose some readers! She is a great puppy and a wonderful addition to our family. I can’t even remember what life was like with just the two of us!

Happy 4th!

I hope you all have a fabulous 4th of July weekend!!

Happy Birthday, Bud!!

Yesterday was my little brother's 24th birthday! Since we're celebrating his birthday with him tonight, I thought I'd do a birthday shout out in his honor! I can hardly believe he's 24 years old!! I'm so lucky to have such a wonderful, supportive little brother, and am so very proud of him!

Happy Birthday Joshie!! I love you!

I could write a book.

Which is why I started a blog.

I thought this would be an easier, cheaper way to publish my thoughts and share the crazy stories that I find myself telling friends and family. Like the one that happened today...


It's 5:00 a.m. in the morning and the sun is creeping in over the....wait. No it's not.

It's 5:00 a.m. in the morning and it's PITCH BLACK outside. (So why in the world and I awake? Other than to come up with a quick excuse of why I'm not already at the gym. Oh right, I have an event for work this morning...I need to look nice....can't get all dolled up at the gym. That sounds good enough. Ok, back to sleep.)

Can't go to sleep. I toss. I turn. I got nothin'. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. The whole reason I woke up in the first place. The smell of gasoline.

Once I realize what the smell is I begin to freak out. I start to picture one of those bad action movie scenes where the villain lights a match and the whole building blows up...leaving nothing behind but the family photo album--which then reminds me that I need to upload my pictures and actually have a photo album printed. Sorry, I digress. Back to the smell.

I shuffle into the kitchen, open the back door and am flooded with the smell of gasoline. I don't even know where our gas cans are--but I do know that my husband probably used them, so I thought I'd check with him.

I waited the appropriate time (20 minutes) after he woke up and his morning Spark kicked in to approach him about the smell. Our conversation went a little something like this:

N: "Do you smell that?"

K: "Yeah."

N: "What is it?"

K: "Gasoline."

N: "Um ya, I know that much, but why is it so strong? And why is it in the house? Did you spill some on your clothes when you were working in the garage? Did you spill some just to smell the gasoline (he's been known to do this before)? Do you have some on your shoe? Why on earth is it in my HOUSE and infiltrating my kitchen like an army?"

K: Blank stare.

N: Inquisitive look.

K: "I'll go check it out."

N: "Ok, great! Right now?"

K: "No. Later."

N: "Seriously?! That smell just isn't going to go away."

K: "I'm kidding." (Opens door to garage to investigate the problem.)

While I'm in the bedroom getting ready Kelly comes in with a full report....there was a leak in one of the cans and it is now soaked into the wood shelves in the garage....he's tried to clean it up and now we just have to wait for the smell to go away. Fan-tastic!

Happy Monday, right?!

It's Official. I'm a Gleek!

I absolutely, positively, cannot wait for the season premier of Glee tonight! I've been waiting for this day my whole life!! Ok, not really, but I've been waiting on it a while, and I'm so glad it's finally here! I watched all the episodes of Glee back to back when I went to California earlier this year, and from the very first scene, I was hooked. If you haven't see it yet, tonight is your night to check it out!!

Blog Giveaway

Well, I have yet to do my own blog giveaway, but there are definitely blog giveaways going on out there! Head on over to Smart and Sassy with Sprinkles to sign up for her "Little Travel Jewelry Box" giveaway...but you'd better hurry--it ends on April 7 at 11:59 pm!

Hey there! I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter yesterday! We ate lunch with my family and spent the afternoon napping and being lazy!! It was glorious.

I thought I would get back in the swing of updating my blog with my answers to a blog award. Over a month ago, Linsday over at The Woods Life, gave me a blog award: The Lemonade Stand Award. The rules for this award are rather simple. All I have to do is answer the following questions with a single word answer and then pass this along to five bloggers. (So, I may have cheated on a few answers, but I did the best I could!) Here goes...

1. Your Cell Phone? iPhone

2. Your Hair? Highlighted

3. Your Mother? Encourager

4. Your Father? Strong

5. Your Favorite Food? Mexican

6. Your Dream Last Night? Peaceful

7. Your Favorite Drink? Water

8. Your Dream/Goal? Motherhood

9. What Room Are You In? Office

10. Your Hobby? Crafting

11. Your Fear? Loss

12. Where Do You Want To Be In Six Years? Family

13. Where Were You Last Night? Home

14. Something That You Aren't? Graceful

15. Muffins? None

16. Wish List Item? Hardwoods

17. Where Did You Grow Up? Carrollton

18. Last Thing You Did? Eat

19. What Are You Wearing? Cardigan

20. Your TV? Small

21. Your Pets? Two

22. Friends? Loyal

23. Your Life? Busy

24. Your Mood? FANTASTIC

25. Missing Someone? Faraway Friends

26. Vehicle? Ford

27. Something You Aren't Wearing? Heels

28. Your Favorite Store? Ann Taylor Loft

29. Your Favorite Color? Red

30. When Was The Last Time You Laughed? Today

31. Last Time You Cried? Yesterday (while laughing!)

32. Your Best Friend? Many

33. One Place You Go To Over And Over Again? Culvers (a local restaurant like Braums)

34. Facebook? Procrastination

35. Favorite Place To Eat? Blue Goose


Lemonade Stand Award goes to...

Jennifer

Amanda Smith

Amanda Farmer

Kendall

Allison

So happy!

(we heart it)

I am so excited I can hardly stand it! In less than an hour I'll be boarding a plane with one of my college roommates to head to Houston to spend the weekend with our other college roommate! I.CAN'T.WAIT! Gotta fly (pun intended ;)).

See you when I get back!

9 weeks and 99 lbs.

Well--I've finally found some down time. I've been DYING to blog these past few weeks, and every time I get ready to sit down and do it, something eats up my free time. You know the drill. So, I'll stop complaining and get on with it!

This past Thursday we received a record breaking 12.5 inches of snow! Can you believe it?! (A. Farmer, are you jealous?) Even though the weather was tough to drive in, I loved every inch of it! And I have to thank the snow for freezing over Thursday night, because it allowed me to work from home on Friday. Here's a pic I took Thursday night while the snow was still falling.

Cooper and Daisy loved the snow, too. Here's a typical snapshot of them...she's trying to pull on his collar and he's totally over it.



More of the winter wonderland around our neighborhood.

However, Friday was more than just a "work from home" day for me. It was also the day that our little Daisy celebrated her 9 week birthday, and had her first trip to the vet! Coincidentally, Cooper needed to go to the vet to get another vaccination, so I had the job of taking my 9 week old and my 14 month old to the vet at the same time. Lucky me.


You should have seen us. It was quite a sight. I had Daisy in my arms (along with my purse and puppy vaccination information), and Cooper by the leash. Thanks to the snow on the ground, I was sliding all across the parking lot trying to pull Cooper inside. By the time we actually got inside I was sweating. So much for bundling up to avoid the cold. But, I couldn't take my jacket off because I couldn't put Daisy on the ground without her running away. She hadn't had a leash on yet and she wasn't having ANYTHING to do with the leash the nurse gave me to use. Cooper was in heaven. He was trying to pull me across the foyer while I was trying to check us in. Life is definitely more interesting with two.


Once the nurse checked us in, the assistant took Cooper to the back to weigh him. ("Thank the Lord!," I thought to myself. I'm dying here lady. Can't you see I need some help!) I was able to wiggle the leash around Daisy's neck in just enough time for the assistant to bring Cooper right back to me, announcing to the world, "Cooper's a big boy. He weighs 99 lbs." (Did I hear her right? 99 lbs.? Ninety NINE pounds? One pound shy of 100? Goodness! I mean, I'm fully aware that my one year, two month old pup is the size of a small horse, but she just confirmed any doubt I had in my mind that he's all grown up.) "OK, thanks." I replied.

Next it was Daisy's turn. But she didn't want to go anywhere without Cooper, so the three of us and the assistant went over to the scales to get her weight. Much better, 13.2 lbs. (Even though she's practically doubled in weight since we brought her home three weeks ago!) After we were finished, I scooped Daisy up and headed into the examination room to wait for the Doctor.


Apparently it was still obvious that I was sweating because the assistant asked me if I needed anything to drink.


The examination went well--Coop got his vaccine, Daisy got hers, and we were done in no time. Now it was time to check out. Seriously?! I took me longer to load them into the car than it did to see the Doctor.


We skidded to the reception desk, but not before Cooper scoped out the other examination rooms (one in particular that must have had an injured animal in it just moments before because there was blood splattered all over the ground). As the front desk clerk began to rattle off some sort of instruction on when I need to come back, I was totally distracted by the two families waiting to go back into their examination rooms. One was a father/daughter duo. While I'm arm wrestling my 99 lbs pup, the dad says to his daughter, "See that puppy Melissa? Isn't she so cute!" That stirs Daisy into a frenzy, trying her hardest to wiggle out of my arms. So, I put Daisy down so the dad and daughter can pet her. I throw my debit card at the clerk hoping she would stop talking about when I'm coming back and check me out so I can get my dogs and get out of this place.


And that's when he broke loose. I was holding Cooper's leash by my foot, and when I wasn't paying attention to what he was doing, he yanked the leash out from under my foot and took off, wandering aimlessly throughout the building. Leaving my purse and my puppy at the front of the office, I took off after Cooper, catching him just before he headed into "the back" where they do surgery prep.


We made it back to the front, I signed my receipt, and was ready to get the hell outta dodge, when the second "onlooker" asked, "Is he her sire?" (What? Speak english. I don't have the patience to break down "puppy talk.") "No, he's her big brother." I replied. "He's 14 months and she's 9 weeks."


"Wow, he's HUGE for 14 months." (Thanks, captain obvious.)


"Ya, he weighs 99 lbs." chimed the assistant. (Really, lady? Don't you have something else to do?)


"I know! And he's not even the biggest one in his litter." I replied.


And just like that we were on our way out the door :)


Puppy Visit: 1
Natalie: 0


Here's my 99 pound bundle of LOVE!! (Please note that Cooper is standing on Daisy's leash.)



And here's my 9 week old princess :)



Next post: Pics from when we brought Daisy home.

Happy (Belated) Birthday!

The past two weeks have been a blur around our house! But before I update you on bringing Daisy home, or brag about dancing with Ellen, or try to explain my love for Glee, there's one thing I need to do...I need to wish my Dad a Happy (belated) Birthday! So, without further ado...

Happy Birthday to the most loving, organized, prompt, won't let you forget a deadline, biggest fan and #1 supporter, caring, protective, amazing father in the world!

Happy (belated) Birthday, Dad! I love you and hope you know how much you mean to me!!

Another Happy New Year

I got this email from my cousin today, and I couldn't help but share it here.

Twas the month after Christmas,

and all through the house,

Nothing would fit me,

not even a blouse.

The cookies I'd nibbled,

the chocolate I'd taste

At the holiday parties

had gone to my waist.

When I got on the scales

there arose such a number!

When I walked to the store

(less a walk than a lumber),

I'd remember the marvellous meals I'd prepared;

The gravies and sauces and beef nicely rared,

The wine and the rum balls, the bread and the cheese

And the way I'd never said, "No thank you, please."

As I dressed myself in my husband's old shirt

And prepared once again to do battle with dirt...

I said to myself, as I only can,

"You can't spend a Summer, disguised as a man!"

So, away with the last of the sour cream dip.

Get rid of the fruit cake, every cracker and chip.

Every last bit of food that I like must be banished

Till all the additional ounces have vanished.

I won't have a cookie, not even a lick.

I'll want only to chew on a long celery stick.

I won't have hot biscuits, or corn bread, or pie.

I'll munch on a carrot and quietly cry.

I'm hungry, I'm lonesome, and life is a bore...

But isn't that what January is for?

Unable to giggle, no longer a riot.

Happy New Year to all, and to all a good diet.

Quote of the Day

"One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation." -- Arthur Ashe

And organization--just kidding ;)

I ♥ Organization!

I love being organized (although my life might not always stay that way!). I don't think there are too many people out there that don't like being organized--so I guess I should say--I love organizing. The act of organizing something is therapeutic for me. I feel refreshed and have a sense of accomplishment when I'm finished! (I mean, who doesn't?!)

I can remember back to the second grade when I proclaimed myself as the room librarian, positioning my desk close to the bookcase so I could organize all the books (and then monitor who checked them out!).

When I was in the fourth grade I would stay after school to help Mrs. Taylor organize her classroom. No project was too small as I redecorated her walls with butcher paper (I LOVED pulling that stuff off the role), filed papers, helped her with the grading book, etc. I think in my second life I want to be a teacher--just so I can organize everything!

For my 21st birthday I didn't ask for an iPod or new designer jeans. I didn't want a new purse (I'll wait while some of you catch your breath), or the latest craze among college students. Instead, I asked for a Palm Pilot. Seriously. And I got it. I was in HEAVEN! I wanted to organize my contacts and streamline them with my calendar. NERD ALERT!

However, I never fully caught on to the electronic calendar thing. Much like this girl, I just couldn't shake my paper calendar, and I still carry a paper calendar with me. I think it had something to do with checking things off my list. Another great feeling and sense of accomplishment.

So, with all of that organizing hype, I wanted to share with you my gift wrapping closet organization tips!

I ran across Create Studio's amazing blog post about her Gift Wrapping Station and I knew I had to do something similar with my stuff. I already had a similar system in place under my stairs. My mom and I call it "the under stair storage." Original. I know. You see, I live in a two story house and had to find a "work around" for that awkward closet builders put under the stairway. All too often it can become a junk hole, home to all things that need a home but don't have one. We repurposed the under stair closet into a more useful "under stair storage" area.

Then it hit me. After reading Create Studio's blog post of course.

I could do that with my gift wrapping stuff, using some of the same drawers from downstairs. Genius.

So, back to the basics.

I like to use these drawers because they're so durable. I found mine at Target--but wait til they go on sale to buy them, which is like every 3-4 weeks.

Here's a glimpse into my upstairs guest bedroom closet. Nice and neat. There's a place for everything, and everything's in it's place.

Let me break it down for you. The box on top of my drawers is home to my fragile bow Christmas tree topper. To the right of my drawers, in the useless, waste of space section between the wall and the drawers, I have secrectly stashed my rolls of wrapping paper.

In the first drawer I have all things craft related. In there you can find Modge Podge, paint brushes, scissors, rolls of ribbon, paint pens, tape, scraps of wrapping paper too small to use (but don't throw it away!), buttons, sequins, and the list goes on. (Did I mention that I use to have my own crafting business...well, sort of.)

In the second drawer I have tissue paper, tiny boxes, and tins. As my love for Brighton has progressed, so has my stash of their jewelry tins. The tissue paper is folded nicely, with easy access when in a wrapping rush.

The third drawer has bags of all shapes and sizes (and that one random box.)

The fourth drawer has boxes of all shapes and sizes!

This system worked seamlessly for me for quite some time! However, since I took these pictures, I've added two more drawers (another reason I love this particular drawer system--easy to add to it). The fifth drawer is for those pesky pamphles, manuals, instructions, guides, etc. to all the electronic equipment around our house. Not necessarily wrapping related, but needed just the same.

The sixth (and final) drawer is home to all things Christmas. I just couldn't help myself. I needed a drawer for just Christmas stuff--gift tags, labels, bows, ribbon, cards, etc.

So, are you ready to go organize you gift wrapping station now?