Hot Potato

What do you get when you combine an ottoman straight off the set of “That 70’s Show” with a potato sack vest {for what type of occasion does one even wear a potato sack vest}? I know you’re thinking that all you get is to take those two ‘fine’ pieces straight to the nearest Goodwill and leave them there.

I, however, had a little something else in mind.

I was thinking something more like this. Burlap is becoming a major trend in decorating. You can use it for the home and for parties. It’s inexpensive and doesn’t require any hemming {a HUGE plus for this gal}.

What do you think? Love it? Hate it? I’d love to hear about ways you’ve used burlap to decorate! Thanks for reading and have a fantastic day :)

To Free or Not To Free

Let me share with you a little something about myself, something that brings me much happiness……as long as it goes the way I want it to. Honestly, that’s how I feel about most things. Do what I want you to do, go the way I want you to go, do what I tell you to do, and I’m happy. A bit of a control freak are we? Yup. That’s me. That’s not what I planned on sharing. Hmmmm…..lemme get back on track here.

Ok, here we go. I.Love.Free crap. I’m totally guilty of stopping to pick up those free couches you see on the side of the road. By the time I’ve got the POJunk loaded in the back of the truck I can already picture how AMAZING it’s going to look once I recover it……and bug bomb it…..and let the soggy cushions dry out…..and fix the broken arm. BUT hey, it’s free so I NEEEED to take it. If I don’t someone else will and they’ll get all the fun of turning it into something fantastic. It takes about 5.7 minutes for the takers remorse to set it. First, I start to get a nervous feeling in my stomach about what I’ll have to say to M (aka the hubs) for him to let me keep it. Secondly, I start to do the math on how much fabric I’m going to need to reupholster this GREAT couch. Even if I find fabric for a steal it’s still going to add up, making this free couch not so free anymore. Thirdly, I think about the bugs. For all I know this couch could be crawling in crawlies. And I.Don’t.Do.Bugs. Once, our dog got fleas and I freaked. I bombed the house three times, treated all the carpets, flea dipped the dog twice and swore that if I saw one more flea I’d be putting a for sale sign in the front yard. Did I mention that I saw a whopping THREE FLEAS on the dog? Did I also mention that I.DON’T.DO.BUGS?! Anyway, when I pull into the driveway at home I stop and unload the couch. I leave it there, at the end of the driveway with a sign on it. Know what that sign says? FREE

BUT sometimes I find free stuff that’s actually worth the taking. Like this chair. You may recognize it from the Something Blue bridal shower.

It was a little wobbly and needed a new seat, but those are inexpensive fixes that I can actually manage AND no bug bombs necessary, which is a major plus :)

So, with some paint, fabric, foam, batting, sand paper and handyman help from M, here’s the old chair now.

It's shabby and has small character building flaws, but I love it………..and all it’s freebie goodness.

Pepto-Bismol Pinkalicious

Ever since S and O have been three and two, we've hosted a joint birthday. Since they're so close in age they share LOTS of friends. And when I say lots, I mean imagine your not-so-big living room packed with 25 squealing princesses. 25 may not sound like a lot, but it SOUNDS like a lot. This years theme was Pinkalicious, one of their fav books. Decorating was super easy. I got a Costco size bottle of Pepto-Bismol and sprayed it ALL. OVER. the house. OK, not really, but that is how it kinda looked. With three girls I had an endless amount of pink everything and anything to choose from. Take a look and see how it turned out!

So, what do ya think? They loved it and I guess that's really all that matters :)

Have a great weekend!!

Something Blue....

I have a confession to make. I'm a PARTY GIRL. No, seriously. I'm addicted to parties. They consume my time, my money and I'm ALWAYS thinking about when I'll get to plan my next one. I could spend hours, days, weeks even, sitting at the computer getting party ideas. I think it's safe to say I'm obsessed. With that being said, I'd like to show you my latest party.

One of my bff's is getting married! Woo hoo!! Not only was I THRILLED for her when I heard the news, I was thrilled for me! I'd never gotten the chance to throw her a party before and weddings bring all kinds of parties. Engagement parties, bridal showers, bachelorette parties, and then there's the wedding itself. The party possibilities really are endless.

I figured I'd better start by picking one. I decided on a bridal shower. Once that was settled the brainstorming began. Here's what I ended up with, her Something Blue Lingerie Shower:

I hosted the party at my house and had it out on our back patio. I'm REALLY anal when it comes to details and wanted EVERY.THING. to match. This meant I'd need to cover the siding with something. What did I do you may ask? Went and bought a bunch of Dollar Tree table cloths. Say what?! Yep, that's right. I got some fishing line, black and white table cloths and cup hooks, then used my HUGE upholstery needle to do a straight stitch on the short side of the table cloths at the top. After that I made loops in the end of the fishing line and hung them from the cup hooks I had screwed into the underside of the roof over hang. For 15 bucks it made an AMAZING transformation. I also made tissue paper pom poms, used black sparkly fabric cut into strips for a table runner and made tall "pillar vases" {not sure what else to call them} by gluing together glass vases and candle sticks from Dollar Tree.

The "bar"

I served Blue Lagoons and made the feather swizzle sticks.

The place cards.

My mom made these fabric flower favors. We clipped them to paper bands that went around the napkins. They can be worn in your hair, on your clothes, on a belt, etc. They turned out great! Thanks Mom :)

An old desk I redid 4EVER ago served as our gift table.

A chair I picked up for FREE at a garage sale that I did to coordinate with the desk, and my super savvy sewing friend helped me make the pillow. Spent $3 to make it! Whoop!!

I had this mirror thingy laying around and so I painted it to match, switched out some hardware and hung it above the desk. I used it to hang some necklaces on that we used for a game.

The body form held a "cigarette box" {made from a FREE postage box, black spray paint and some ribbon}. The "cigarette box" was used to hold panties for another game.



Here's a close up of the "pillar vases". I filled 'em with blue water, some blue beads and put in a floating candle.

ALL the yummy desserts! Oh, and the "Ooh La La" sign I made from a hideous old sign that had ugly birds painted on it.

And that's the party!

Turned out great and that's just what the beautiful bride-to-be deserved!

Let's try this again, shall we?

I'm pathetic. I'm not even going to bore you with excuses as to why my last post was OVER A YEAR AGO, because frankly none of them would be good enough. Is it really that hard for me to log in, write a few words and share some pics? Apparently it is. Well, not anymore. I'm not going to promise a new post everyday BUT I will say they'll come more often than once a year. That's something I can manage.....I think.

Also, you may be say to yourself "Um....I don't even see any posts before this one. She's nuts." Well you'd be right, about both the posts and me being nuts. There are no older posts because I deleted them. This little blog is TOTALLY starting over. Forget about what you've seen on here before (if you can even remember what those things were), I'm taking a new approach. Know the feeling of standing in front of a blank canvas? You could put ANYTHING on it? Well that's how I feel about my do-over, blank but capable of becoming something really special. :)

OK, now onto my "first" post!