Archive for August, 2010

Awesome link ups last week, peeps! Dang, I had a hard time choosing just a few links to showcase today.

Here are just a few of the many many amazing projects from last week:

(You can click on each picture to take you to their blog link.)

My friend Emily over at Decor Chick linked up two excellent projects. I couldn’t pick just one.
She made over her pantry with lazy-susans and bead board…

AND she created the most gorgeous board and batton for super cheap and easy.

This girl has some serious talent!

Lindy at Cottage Hill decorated her guest bedroom for her little twin granddaughters. Isn’t this room just breathtaking?

Cecily from Craftopotamus took leftover bird seed bags and created an adorable bag! I love it!

Allison at It’s Toile Good made this adorable tutu and gave an excellent tutorial so you can make on yourself! My daughter would love one of these!

Clean Mama gives a great tutorial on how to make a bunch of meal starters for the freezer in just an hour. I seriously need to do this. This is a great tutorial.

Robyn at Something Pretty took a boring 1980′s dress and refab’d it into this cute little number. She’s obviously got some great sewing skilz!

And this was the most clicked on link last week! – 7 Simple Budget Cuts by Clean Mama:

If you click here you can check out all the other awesome links from last week as well!

Please feel free to post as many projects as you’d like.

I can’t wait to see all your amazing projects. I especially can’t wait to get inspired from your ideas.

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Post about anything you’ve worked on lately!

* Put a link to my site somewhere on your blog so others can come party with us! For those that link to me, THANK YOU!

* Link directly to your post, not your blog.

* If you post spam junk I will be forced to delete it. Don’t waste my time!

Ready. Set. Post!

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Thanks!

So, I’ve got this new crazy neighbor lady on my street.

Today, she came home from the pool and took a CHAIN SAW and cut down a HUGE crepe myrtle in her front yard.

Did you catch the part about her coming home from the pool? Yup, she was out in her yard with a chain saw chopping down a huge tree while wearing a swim suit and thongs flip-flops.

And when I say “crazy neighbor” what I really mean to say is that’s what all my neighbors are saying about

ME.

*I* am that crazy neighbor.

BEFORE the chain saw episode this afternoon:

That crepe myrtle needed to be trimmed back big time. The branches were all over our roof, and last time that happened to us at our last house we got carpenter ants inside our walls (aka expensive to get rid of!).

We knew when we bought this new house the tree needed to go. I was suppose to wait for hubbs to do it this weekend.

But tonight when I went out there to get the garbage can from behind the fence, that crepe myrtle hit me in the head one.too.many.times.

And, swimsuit and all, out came the chain saw. And here is our tree now.

My (male) neighbor came over to gawk at the crazy lady see if I needed help. I reassured him that I do stuff like this all.the.time. I’m not sure it was reassuring though. He probably now thinks I’ve lost my friggin’ mind.

Honestly, now the crepe myrtle just looks plain

PATHETIC.

Look at how sad and pathetic this thing is.

Can it get any sadder looking?

Really, it’s just… well,… pathetic.

(Which is also my dog’s nickname. As in, “Look at Chase. He’s so pathetic.” I say that at least 4x a week. He’s just so ridiculous looking all the time. Maybe it’s the crappy haircut I gave him. Maybe it’s because he’s only 6 pounds. Maybe it’s because he has the most pathetic way of looking at me. I dunno.)

At least it’s not whacking me in the head anymore.

Maybe I should hire a landscaper next time….

And in other crazy neighbor news…

I spent a full FOUR HOURS cleaning out my garage today.

It looked like this:

Yes, it was THAT.BAD.

Couldn’t get any worse, could it?

WRONG.

Check out another angle.

You know, when you have weeks in a row that are OVER 100 degrees each day, cleaning out the garage just doesn’t seem like loads of fun.

But today it was a breezy 105 degrees, so I figured, “what the heee (name that movie!), I’ll clean out the garage!”

Fortunately I didn’t die of heat stroke.

So, 4 hours and 4 Diet Dr Peppers later…

Woot woot.

Dare I say I actually like doing stuff like this?

Maybe I really AM the crazy neighbor after all.

I mean, srsly… who on earth actually likes cleaning out a garage for four hours in 105 degree heat?

I feel so accomplished.

A tree and a garage all in one day? I have some serious issues.

Anyone ever heard of a little blog called…

Ya, I already knew you know her. Who doesn’t know her? She’s like, the hottest blog in town.

Trust me, with almost 6,500 “google friends” (compared to my 600+), I’m pretty sure everyone knows Sarah.

I’m not here to convince you how amazing her blog is. It speaks for itself.

What I am gonna do is to show you why I get serious fits of anxiety whenever I stalk read her blog.

There’s one word that throws me into a fit of heart-racing, cold-sweating panic like no other.

MOULDING.

Here is Sarah’s most recent family room picture:

Beautiful, right?!

I love the way she decorates. LURVE it. With a big fat capital LURVE.

But what I love even more than her accessories and amazing sense of style…

I love the moulding.

There’s a reason she has almost 6,500 “google friends”. I mean, come on! Just look at her house!

Now, yes, she does give me anxiety. Like as in, I-think-I-may-be-going-through-”the change” level of anxiety. But not all anxiety is bad. Mine is the good kind, though still as annoying as the bad kind.

It’s good anxiety because when I see Sarah’s house, my heart jumps out of my chest and yells at me,

“You can do this! You can totally hang moulding. THIS is something that you can copy-eeeeee!”

I love Sarah’s blog because she has such amazing ideas that I know I can replicate. It’s all I can do to keep myself from jumping up right.now. and racing to Home Depot to purchase moulding and paint.

Eventually I will have this moulding in my house.

Unforch I have to prioritize my projects (dang time constraints and cash flow, or lack thereof!). Unforch I can’t hang moulding at the moment because I should probably finish unpacking and taking care of other things first.

BUT, and a big fat BUT!, I WILL copy Sarah eventually and I WILL get molding hung up in my family room.

Her fireplace also makes my heart pitter-pat.

We have similar fireplaces in our family rooms, and trust me when I say I literally canNOT wait to get my hands on some moulding for above my fireplace.

Seriously, why can’t all my other crap just be done already so I can get busy on the moulding?!!

Moulding is one of the cheapest easiest ways to turn your home from boring to FAB. It’s so easy to install (just some nails and a level! Oh, and a saw.) and can transform a room in only a short amount of time and a few greenbacks.

Here’s my living room at the moment (Well, this was like a week ago, so it’s a tiny bit more “finished” but not really).

So boring. The gumball machine IS NOT staying there. FYI. I’m pretty sure I’m going to keep my Rodney White print above the fireplace for awhile though.

Instead of me trying to describe what I want to do, here’s a picture instead.

Basically I’m going to copy Thrifty Decor Chick as much as possible, and then for the rest of the room I’m going to decorate based on how I think Thrifty Decor Chick would actually decorate the room. (I have no problem admitting that most of my inspiration comes from other bloggers!)

And in case I haven’t mentioned it enough yet, go check out Mrs. Thrifty Decor Chick herself by clicking on the link below.

Moulding, bring.it.on.

My goal in life is to be as awesome and successful at home decorating as Sarah.

If I reach 6,500 Google Friends, I’ll know I’ve made it. Hell, I’ll be pretty flippin’ thrilled with 1,000. But 6,500 would just rock.

(I’m actually thrilled that there are
600 peeps out there who actually want to read what I have to say! I always wondered if my constant chattering would eventually pay off. For all the teachers who scolded me for talking non.stop. (all of them), ppfft.)

PS If you haven’t added me as a friend yet on Google Friend Connect… pretty please?!