Harboring This Shame

All you have to do is watch. Feel inspired. Then share. Heather Bullard posted this on her lovely blog. I thanked her for doing so.




For so long I have never told anyone my deeply embedded dream. For fear that I may feel shame in doing so. I don't know if it is shame or the fact that I hold this passion so close to my heart that I want nothing but to protect it. I have so many dreams. Though I must completely come clean. Even though I look to become a financial analyst (yes I am always looking for ways to save $$ even on a bigger scale) my heart is 100% in affordable design.

I have always wanted to buy a house and decorate each room accordingly with my own refurbished pieces and local artwork. All things affordable, and I don't mean affordable for the middle-high class budget I mean for the usual family with the average 3 kids. I would make the kitchen and dining room into a small bistro & share it w/ someone who has a true passion for food and it's ingredients. Oh to dream...

Do you have any big dreams you have felt the need to protect? Do share. I know I am not alone in harboring my dream like it is an illness. I have a feeling my secrecy is coming to an end.


"A desire for bigness has hurt many folks. Putting oneself in the limelight at the expense of others is a wrong idea of greatness. The secret of greatness rather than bigness is to acclimate oneself to one's place of service and be true to one's own convictions. A life of this kind of service will forever remain the measure of one's true greatness."
Richard W. Shelly, Jr.

It' FREE But Is It Worth It?

Found this table HERE for yep...FREE!!

My only question is Yay or Nay? Is free worth it? Sounds crazy huh? Well let me keep it short & sweet. Even though it is free is worth the work, supplies, time & effort?

Description read as:

Side Table (End Table) - Bassett


The top of this isn't in great shape, but it's a solid piece of furniture. We're only getting rid of it because we've purchased a new end table and we need to make some room.

The veneer on top does have quite a few chips out of it and the surface has one "foggy" spot that you may be able to clean off. The table probably weighs about 20-25 lbs and is very sturdy. Perfect for a lamp to sit next to your couch.

This is a Bassett brand table and is "pecan" colored. Measures 26" diameter and 23" high.
Price: Free


Hmmmm???????

Justin Bieber's On My Hit List-Now Roger That

And by that I mean #1 top hits I listen to while handling my "situations". Dang contagious songs he keeps putting out!

I know I am to old (all 27 years) to be getting into teeny bopper tunes. It's such a guilty pleasure. What do you listen to while you are getting projects, cleaning, or anything of that nature done? I have to be honest. I don't go ANYWHERE WITHOUT MY MP3 PLAYER. Yes I did use all caps b/c it's that serious. I walk through the stores with my headphones on and the mp3 in my purse. I feel like I stay more focused by doing this. Try it. I swear you'll feel like your on a mission with your theme songs playing...lol.

Right now I have a few songs that get played over & over again. Here's my top 10.

1. Baby-Justin Bieber (as shown above)I couldnt 6. Going Through Hell-Rodney Atkins

2. Hard-Rihanna figure out how to space so I just 7. Meet Me Halfway- Black Eyed Peas

3. Suevemente-Elvis Crespo typed the words & 8. Sweet Child O'Mine-Guns N Roses

4. Gettin Paid-Nicki Minaj changed 'em to white 9. Calabria 2006-Enur

5. Seven Nation Army-White Stripes worked!! 10. O Let's Do It-Wacka Flocka Flame

There are other songs I love. Mostly a modge podge. Anything song you think would rock my socks off? I always need new music. It's like feeding my soul.

p.s. Wanna read something funny? Highlight my top 10 songs for the moment and find my surprise! Then help a girl out with this one :o)

"All up on it, know you wanna clone it. Ain't like me that chick's to phony." Rihanna

When Did Big Lots Become The Ish?!

That's what I want to know!?! I rarely ever went in Big Lots, maybe once a year if that. Last Thursday I decided to stop in on my way to the playground w/ my Jelly Bean. Boy oh boy, let me just say this.. we never made it to the playground. Here's why.

The holy grail of sinks is only $ 299!
It's sidekick for $249

The little tag-a-long is $229. You can't beat those prices with a switch, even if you had to pick it off the learning tree yourself.

I don't even care that they are sinks & that I rent and don't even need it! The only reason one didn't come home with me was b/c I left the truck in Memphis and only had my car I'm not a hoarder and I feel I need to establish this somehow. But man I could've taken my mirrored trays and covered those plumbing holes on top and used them as side tables that could sit in the garage w/ everything else I've bought. Wishful thinking.

I bought 8 of the frames above. 4 for me and 4 for my mama (the one who sent me to pick switches). At $7 ea. they were a hell of a deal. Pictures do no justice. They also come in black & dark wood. They will go in my bedroom. I'll show you an update of my room this week or next.

I also picked up 2 mirrored sconces for my mom. They were $10 ea. which to me is $5 to much. Just sayin...

Here is a better look at the ones I snatched up.

I love this $60 mirror. I thought the quality was well worth the $$. It would be perfect in a bathroom over the sink.

I rarely love prints. Though I have some in my home, I have yet to find ones that steal my heart. I do like this one though. It was about 3.5-4 feet tall. For $30 if I had the right room for it, in it would go.

I bought tons of other things. The Echo Pointe items they sell are FABULOUS, and 50% off right now! While blog surfing I saw that High Heeled Foot In The Door had a post today about her Big Lots finds. Funnyish. Big Lots, when did you get so grand?! I applaud you, hell I'm gonna give you the standing "O" for truly making my day. BRAVISSIMO!!

She's Got Those Beyonce Legs

And I have a feeling if I stick her on the back burner like I've done some of my other projects she might just use them to kick me where the sun don't shine!

I bought fabric a couple of weeks ago for $3.50 a yard out of the remnant bin @ Hancock Fabric. Straight CRACK (highly addictive) right?! I purchased what they had left.

I bought this fabric online for $5 a yd. I need like 2 more yards, but it has went up to $10 a yd. I'm just gonna bite the bullet. Yeah I'm cheap like that..you gotta know how I roll by now.

I'm thinking flower on the front & seat, tiger in the back on 4 of the chairs. The other two end chairs will get tiger in the front and seat and possibly some other fabric in the back. How wild is that?! And I'll be putting the nail head back in place too.

Here is a pic of all SIX chairs in my basement. I know ya'll see that freakin sofa back there..smh, a dang<--substitute bad word there, shame. Imma get a handle on this madness.

Here is the picture the seller had posted. $50 for the table and 6 chairs!!

I wanted to show you the legs to the table. Thicker than a snicker sweety! And as for the top, the leaf folds in underneath!

Don't worry. This project will get all my attention this week. I'm thinking extremely light beige paint on the wood. Here are the chairs I bought a couple of months ago for $80...yeah using them is out the window. I'm still going to re-do them and selling them though. My current dining table set will hit the market asap.

I'm sure you are like "Someone call Hoarders!!", but I swear I'm finally getting this craziness under control. I'll have some progress to show finally. And I'll be showing the step by steps of this table project as well as others. My heart is all in it on this one!

p.s. I'm sorry I've been neglecting my blog. My babies (kiddos not furniture) need me now. They are having a hard time coping with the ole ball & chain not being here. I hope you understand. I'm finding a balance now.

Also hit up Dayka's give away!! Just don't leave a comment, you'll be lessening the chances of me winning the custom stamp!! I kid, I kid..ok not really.

Sound The Alarm! Hot Mess Alert

Me: I'm need to take some stuff out of your room. Is it clean?

Jay Bird: Yes. I cleaned it yesterday.

This is the point I make my discovery.

What is your definition of clean? His has to be Clean=Hot Mess.

Now on to grandeur things. I have started progress on Jay Bird's room. The free entertainment center I received is transforming at rapid speeds.

As if I needed to take on more than I can chew, I recently bought this! Need more details (price & such) & inspiration on what it could become? Check Life + Style. She's got it covered! Matter of fact, bet you can't guess which inspiration pic got my feathers ruffled!

I want to say thank you so much for every one's words of kindness involving my husband's deployment. I really don't know what else to say that could sound more sincere. I'm not freaked out about it as much as I should be. Emo (my term for overly emotional)...always, freaked out..nope. I've been dealing with a crashed computer & a wrecked little boy's room. Aaand I've been driving back & forth from Memphis. Lovely, I know <---Insert tilted head w/ a tight lip frown.

But I have been good and didn't buy more chairs.

$60 for the set of 2. Have you ever?! Perfect for my mom, which would mean I could come home with the $100 set of bergere chairs I recently picked up for her.

Love Love LAHV Pillowcases

Remember the sneak peek of my bed? Well I had been eyeing some lovely pillowcases that I knew would complete my bed for a while now. The only problem was I couldn't find them anywhere. Googled galore and not a thing. Then finally Etsy came to my rescue...



Not only do I think that it will add some interest to my room, but the seller answered my request to make them in yellow! How freakin rock star is that?! I think the yellow is just the little boost my room needs.


She makes them in this pretty blue as well as many other colors. I'm sure if you wanted them in colors not shown you can request the color you would want and she will totally make them for you. She is just the Beez Kneez right?

I started out loving the black. Black would work for my room too. For now I want the yellow. I'm sure I'll convince myself to buy the black eventually too :o)

Not into LOVE? How about these sweeties? I absolutely freakishly have to have these too!

Am I tripping or is it that necessary to have awesome sheet sets? Please tell me I am right on this one. Please..

The Story Of Us-It's Love.

I'll make it a quick one..promise. We met on a whim. He had just come back from 1 yr. in Iraq & I was trying to get out of 7 years of bad luck. We were straight out of bad relationships. Instant besties. Talk on the phone for until dawn, hang out for hours, and laugh like it's no ones business. Two months later he left to Korea for 1 yr. After he came back we dated for a year, long distance only seeing each other one weekend a month. After the year of long distance dating we moved in together. Married 4 months later. I would've married him on day 2, which I told him. No regrets. One year later he left to Afghanistan.
One year later he came back. Our daughter holding the flag while we wait for the plane to make it's way to our city!

It's here!

He's back :o)

1 year later (5 hours ago)...he's gone again. Back to Afghanistan.

I miss him so much. My heart is breaking. But when it's real true love you do what you have to. In my case I wait. I have 2 years of waiting under my belt so far. I would wait a lifetime and beyond. If It's In God's Will.

DIY: Large Painting On The Cheap

So we all know art can be uber expensive, and hard to find in the exact look or colors you want right? Right! <---That's you shouting right w/ your fist in the air because you can totally relate. I'm going to show you how I fixed this problem for myself.

Here is my $10 piece of perfection. Found here. He asked $15, I offered $10 & you know the rest.

I really loved the details. And would you know, IT'S FREAKIN PLASTIC! That makes it light weight and easier to hang w/o using anchors. And let's be honest, you & I both know it's a print w/ some kind of plastic stuff to add texture. The guy asked if I was sure I wanted it, lmao, w/ a are you crazy look. He had no clue!

After a scrub down with an old toothbrush I gave it the Valspar spray primer treatment and let it sit until the next day. Then I spray it w/ a few coats of flat Porcelain Valspar spray paint. I also primed the print with a white Zinsser spray primer.

Originally I was going to paint the print w/ chalkboard paint for my little girl's room, but it was way to big for the little wall that was waiting for it. So it's going to my empty mantle. I looked at Mantle and said, "Mantle I know your the focal point of our living room, the first thing we see when we walk in, it's your time. I'm here." Well not really. But that's how I felt.

I pulled out a craft tray, some cheap craft paints I had on hand, and a chipped plate. I only used a few colors (black & white included to lighten or darken the main colors).

After drawing some wavy lines to look like seaweed I started to sporadically (learned that word watching Clueless) filling in my weeds. I used light turquoise, dark turquoise, tan, & yellow. Yellow was used to mix w/ the blues to create greens and teals. Tan was used to tie in the mocha colored sofa I have. I did go back and layer some paint. It took me a little time but I felt my way through this. It kind of evolved on it's own.

Voila! Here it is over my mantle. It pulls in all the colors I have used in the living room so far. (Ignore the chairs in the photo. They will soon be used for the dining table. And they are Robbins Egg Blue not funky filthy blue :o)! )

Here is a better close-up. You like?

The hardest thing was drawing the curvy lines. I swear to you it almost gave me a headache trying to balance them on both sides. Looking back I could of skipped that. So for $12 ($10 painting, $2 for new painting brushes & everything else on hand) I had a nice large custom colored painting that is perfect for my living room.

I linked up @ The Single Nester & Poppies at Play

DIY: Glamorous Desk

Though this $15 desk didn't start off so glamorous, I knew it would be perfect for my room. I already had an inspiration pic saved for just this project. Lets' get started on how I did it.

My $15 CYS Desk

Some left over paint from the Little Girl's Vanity Project that I stored in an old jar in the fridge.

I did the usual Sand/Prime & Paint. I used Valspar spray paint primer (I now use Zinsser which is fab!) & $1 flat white Color Place spray paint. Remember what happened when I used white Rustoleum Professional spray paint? That was a pure pisser offer. I will never spray paint a whole piece of furniture white EVER. AGAIN. Okay now on to the details. Since I don't know how to paint a straight, or curved for that matter, line I used a saucer to draw my curves.

After marking 3/4 in. up each side (see those 2 little dots?) I drew my semi-circle starting on the mark I made. I then connected the dots using frog tape & measured up another 3/4 in. and taped across from that. This was to make a straight band connection the semi circles. I had to free hand paint the semi circle, which was fairly easy with a wide tip cheap craft paint brush.


I also did the same thing for the top drawers. Only I used smaller saucers & measured a 1/2 in. since the drawers obviously cover less space. The square drawers I just did a band with 1/2 in. measuring.


After adding little shadow lines (which were also free handed as you can tell) using black craft paint I let the desk dry about an hour. I then started layering on wipe on poly in gloss. I did a total of 4 coats (1 coat every 2-3 hours) for extra shine! I let the desk sit overnight and added some .80 cent pull rings.


Voila! What should've taken a couple of days took me about a couple of weeks. Sad right? I told you I have to get a handle on these DIYs.


A view from the top.


See how I just traced almost completely around my saucer. I thought it would frame the knob nicely. What do you think?


Here look closer. You see my shaky black line?





Shine baby shine!


Don;t worry I didn't neglect the sides.


Here is the inspiration pic. This is from Mrs. Howard Personal Shopper.

Is it a huge improvement or what? Do you have anything you completely changed? If so please paste your link in the comments section!! I would love to see :o)

Linked up at :Poppies@Play (all sorts of goodness there! Check it out..NOW :o) !) , Mrs. Mustard Seed (It's a furniture party..hurry & link up {furniture..duh}, then check out her blog!!)