THINGS THAT ARE MAKING ME HAPPY ON A HUMP DAY!!!

*the rain

*spotting two rainbows with the kiddos on the way home

*roast beef poboys fully dressed for lunch

*these chairs that i picked up at a local thrift store for the kiddies' playroom


*these great bowls i picked up at same thrift store for holding scrappy goodies


*also picking up this game for the kiddos and having a blast with it myself.


*finding two packets of these in my purse b/c my mom knows how much i like em

*my new organizer that i am completely in love with and that i spent two hours working on last night while watching hunter. i can't wait to fill it will info on pd. bills, appointments, birthdays, etc.




*taking your 7, almost 8 year old, to the thrift store and him getting as excited over the scores as you are.

*knowing that the house is almost done

*having scrap mojo

*still being able to enjoy that blueberry creamer

*thinking of all the lil skirts i wanna sew for bella-boo

*free cycle and the possibility of picking up two boxes of vintage fabric for free tomorrow!!!

*knowing that i am serious about saving money and really working at it

*winn dixie's b1g1f deals this week

*listening to "i wanna get married" by nellie mckay and feeling like that song was written for me

*smelling breaded italian chicken in the oven and knowing that it is going to make a delish sandwich tomorrow with the tomatoes that are soaking in very good basalmic vinegar

*feeling content

A WEEKEND OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS!!!

what a busy past two weeks!
whew!!!

i haven't even had a chance to let you know that we finally sold the house!!!!!

whoooo-haaaa!

i can't believe it. that monkey is off my back. i still feel as if it is there, but i know that its not. you guys can't imagine what kind of stress that was causing me, but now its all gone.

we should sign on the new house in about two weeks (fingers crossed). so i've been busy buying furniture, trying to pick out a fridge and a washer/dryer, worrying about moola, and just plain ol excited about being in my own house. i'm still trying to figure out what kind curtains i'm going to hang, what pictures i'm going to hang on the wall, etc. but i figure those details can be worked out later...lol.

last tuesday was also the last day of school. that's right my bug is going to be a second grader. my lord how the time flies.

shoot!

i forgot to mention that last weekend, we got to me the ever fabulous nancy. she's only a hop, skip, and a jump away, so me and greta hopped on over there. well while me and greta were droolin' over her fabulous scrappy space, she showed us an altered clipboard that she made. so i knew that i was stealing this idea to make for mikey's teachers. so this is what i came up with. they were quite the hit!


my bug had four, that's right, four ball games last week and i'm happy to report that on tuesday, he got game ball for the great hits he made (even if he did get out running to the bases). i CANNOT believe how much he has improved since the beginning of the season. hell, i can't believe that the season is over this coming up thursday.



whew!!

friday i decided to post on free cycle after joining my local free cycle group. i posted that i was looking for vintage buttons, fabric, clothing, and children's books. well, while on the computer saturday evening, an older woman im'ed me asking me if i was interested in the books that her friend was giving away. sure i'll take em off your hands! so sunday morning, with a lil bit of hesitation since i have never done anything like this before, i drove to ocean springs and picked up the books. i had bug with me, so i felt safe (like a 7 yo was going to keep my from harm's way if this ended up being a bad deal).

but it wasn't. i was greeted by a woman pushing 70, puffin' on a smoke, and trying to keep her lil pooch from escaping. she gave me the books and told me that if she found some more, she would give me a call!

score!!!

after we left there, me and mikey headed to the movie theater. me and my bug were going to see pirates of the carribean 3. mikey had been excited about it since we saw previews for it and quite frankly i was excited about it too! michael took mikey to see the first one and last summer, i took mikey to see the second one.

so after shellin' out a day's pay for two tickets and ONE medium drink and ONE medium popcorn, we sat down to spend the next THREE hours with jack and elizabeth (which is prolly why i like the movie....a beautiful, strong character has the same name as me ;)

here are a few more things i accomplished this lovely three day weekend:

*did about 10 loads of laundry. no i haven't put em away, but they're washed and folded.

*found some freebies and coupons online. gotta start stickin' to a budget and quit throwing our money away so foolishly.

*QUIT SMOKING!!! i'm reaching the 24 hour mark and so far so good. the great thing about me (okay, one of the great things...lol) is i can put em down as easily as i can pick em up. i know this doesn't make it okay and it is a disgusting habit, but i had picked them up again a few days before katrina hit and i feel like i have been stressed out ever since. i know that is an excuse and its a famous excuse for smoking, but it was also one of the things that me and greta did together. so now i'll just sit there and watch. i hate how i was so sneaky with the kids about it ('cept i think mikey knows. he never said anything and thank god he didn't b/c it would have broke my heart. i didn't want the kids to ever see me smoke). it took me away from the kids so much b/c i used it as an excuse to get away. i'd go outside, sit on the phone with g or drag my mom out onto the porch and just get away from the screaming kids or whatever i was stressing about at the time. so i'm hoping that i stay strong and that this time i quit for good!!!

*i finally got all the circle journals in the house done. i got the two done for andrea's circle and two that i have been holding on to forever (and i do mean forever) for veronica and laura's circle journals. i feel so bad that i have been holding on to these. but finally, they are all done and will be in the mail tomorrow!!!


for the favorite photo cj


5 senses journal

veronica's journal: zodiac





and laura's journal: 5 things about me








*i also spent the weekend cleaning and organizing all my scrappy stuff! i've been collecting jars like a made woman and decided this long weekend was the time to fill em. as much as it was soooo overwhelming at first, i'm so glad that i did this. i got rid of sooo much packaging and now everything is nice and neat in jars and lil boxes.

*i joined a website called grocery game to help me find all the deals that are out there at my local grocery store. this will save me time when it comes to clipping coupons and looking thru the ads (which i love by the way. and i looooove to grocery shop). so even though i like doing it, i need time right now, so this going to help.

also, i've been meaning to post, if anyone gets the sunday paper and you just throw your coupons in the garbage i'd love to take em off your hands. just send me an email and i will give you my addy and for every envelope of coupons you send me, i'll send you a goodie of some sort in the mail.

lets see....what else?

while at the dollar tree yesterday i picked up a standard size composition book. i plan on taking ideas out of mags, websites, etc. and stickin' in there so i have my own lil inspiration book. i've been thinking about doing this for some time but then me and greta were talking about it over lunch and i decided that i really need to do it. then when i have the crafty/scrappy lo-jo i can just thumb threw this book and hopefully be inspired.

well i guess that was my weekend.

what about you?

YOU TOO SHOULD BE A SISTA!!!

if anyone out there feels neglected b/c i haven't commented on their blog or they were wondering why i was going strong posting here and then took off for a couple of days, its b/c of this.

thats right scrap in style tv launched yesterday and i have been residing there ever since.

need a few reasons to join?

*great buncha girls
*and the friendliest bunch too!
*awesome inspiration
*and well, i just plain love it.

so if you haven't registered yet, what the hell are you waiting for?
run woman (man???)

btw, i'm {elizabeth} over there.

okay, so anyway, b/c i've been hanging out there and seeing all the *amazing* talent, i was so inspired to come home and scrap. and it didn't help that one little word posted their first word today. the word is "go".

i already knew what i had planned, so as soon as i got home, i popped in murder she wrote and got to work (thank goodness its about the last week of school and mikey doesn't have anymore homework...oh and that i ordered pizza tonight ;)

this is what i came up with:





3D effect bay-bee!

i printed out that picture that lil mikey took of me today twice. i then cut me outta one of em and then used pop dots to give it that 3D effect.

here's the product lo down:

*pp, "i", "off", chipboard circles- scenic route
*card stock- bazzill
*"real" rubon- creative imaginations
*"GO"-cloud 9 designs
*journaling spot-hambly
*ink-stampin up
*glitter-mm
*"2"- basic grey

and of course almost everything i got from your story kits that i absolutely love (go scenic route!)

so that's what i have been up to girls.

well and a lotta other bullshit, but i'll spare you that tonight.
i will try and post some pics from bella's bday tomorrow.

oh and i have some awesome news to share tomorrow.

smooches!

HAPPY 4TH BIRTHDAY MY BELLA-BOO!!!

"on the day that you were born the angels got together
and decided to create a dream come true.
so they sprinkled moondust in your hair
a golden starlight in your eyes of blue.
...just like me, they long to be
close to you."

happy 4th my lil bella-boo! i can't believe how fast these years have just flown by. i'm amazed every day by you and sometimes even frustrated by you, but without you in my life, there would always be a part of my heart missing.

you have been a true blessing to us and we couldn't have asked for beautiful, loving, special, smart, unique, & funny lil girl.

*i love you more than candy bella-boo*

YIPPEEE-SKIPPY!

Yesterday when I stopped by the new house after work to see what they had done for the day, the guy arrived to put up the shutters. So while he was unloading his truck, I took a quick tour of the inside and oooh’ed and ahhhh’ed over everything {again} and then went back outside in time for him to open up one of the boxes for me to get a look. I was on the phone with Michael and I was practically jumping up and down telling him how much I loved em and what great taste I had ;) so since I didn’t wanna make the guy nervous by standing there watching him and the fact that it was getting time to pick up the kiddos from daycare, I left.
But then I decided this a.m. after I dropped the kiddos off at daycare, to swing by and see how they look. They look phenom!!! It’s a good thing that I remembered the camera b/c I got some new pics.
Take a look….

The front porch with the shutters on those windows.


The door with the door knob/lock on it.


The toilet paper holders. Man, I never thought that I would love something that held toilet paper so stinkin’ much.


The dishwasher in its box. I tried my best to pull back the cardboard so I could get a peek. Yes, I know what it looks like b/c I picked it out, but I wanted to see it again in person, in MY kitchen. But it was sealed up pretty good so I let it be.


The unfinished fireplace mantel. Michael is going to paint it this weekend and then they will come in and brick the inside of the fireplace and the bottom part that goes on the floor (whatever that’s called).





The front door knob. I picked this up myself at lowe’s. I loved the elegance of it and wanted it soooo badly. It was a pretty penny but I knew that it would look excellent up against the black door. When I actually saw it on the door, I got all teary eyed b/c I love it so!


This is the view from the front porch. All of it is ours to the road. Dear lord do I have some landscaping to do. I’ve only thought about that for a second though. I figure I better get the inside figured out first.


This is a view from the backyard. Now I tried to make a lil mark on the picture in photoshop to show you were my property ends, but I couldn’t figure it out. But I can tell ya its way back there. Again, there is a lot of landscaping and grass that needs to be put in. I still haven’t figured out yet where the garden is going to go. Speaking of gardens, does anyone have any good books or websites that they can recommend to a gal who has two black thumbs but is desperate to grow her own veggies???


Okay, well some of you have mentioned that you can’t wait to see the bed that I got for lil bella boo. Today around 10-ish, me and Michael went and picked up the bed. Unfortunately for ya’ll (but not Michael) they had already taken it apart. But I did get a pic of the head and foot board so hopefully that will be good until I get it put up.

And here she is.


Isn’t she just lovely????? Oh my heart swells everytime I look at her. Can’t wait to get her up. So Michael gets the bed, leaves and of course I can’t just leave, I gotta walk around for a few minutes. I pick up some embroidery hoops so I can put some vintage fabric in them and hang on bella’s walls (got the idea off of someone’s blog. If I find it again, I’ll post a link). Then while I was walking out, I found this amazing basket/rack thing-a-ma-bobber. Its about as tall as me and has three wire basket things that are attached to it and the pole runs down the center. Does that make sense? They were asking $30. So I left and then thought about it and thought about how great it would be in the craft room for storing stuff. So after me and greta blow a ton of moola in the $ tree, we headed back over to the antique store where I went ahead and purchased it. you shoulda seen me and the old lady trying to get that thing in my car. On top of that I had to ride with one of the back windows rolled down b/c the top was sticking out. It wasn’t until I got home to unload it that I noticed that that piece came off {slaps forehead}.

So anyway girls, that has been my day thus far.
Tonight will be complete with grey’s (here’s hoping that they don’t introduce us to addison’s new show again or I’ll be hanging out with jb Fletcher), baking cupcakes for bella’s bday party at school tomorrow (I can’t believe my bella boo is going to be 4 tomorrow!!!!), working on the projects for the lil sneak peek I gave ya’ll yesterday (and yes greta, another owl…big middle finger to ya…BWAHAHAHAAA).
Hope ya’ll are having a wonderful day!

Oh and before I forget. All you scrappers out there, me and greta got a swap in mind that we are going to announce over the weekend on both of our blogs, so stay tuned for that if you are interested. Jennifer I think you should participate in this one sista!!!

And for those of you that have been curious as to when I am going to do round 2 of the vintage vixen swap, I am thinking in july.
Big love!

EEEEK!!!!

as i've mentioned before, my plan for bella-boo's bedroom is to be all shabby-chic like. so i've had in my head for quite some time that the type of bed i wanted to get her would be antique, white, iron. now we have quite a few good antique stores around here and knew that back in feb. i had been in one that had the type of headboard that i wanted. so today at lunch, i decided to head out there to see if they still had it.

of course they didn't.
but they did have this lil beauty.


its pyrex and after doing some research on it, it appears that it is rare and was made for promotional purposes. i don't give a rat's ass what it was made for, i'm glad that i found it for $10. it will go so good with my other zodiac pieces which are this and this.

so even though they didn't have the bed anymore, i was happy as punch and decided to stop by my favorite antique store of all time and see if they had what i was looking for.

while i was excited over the hunt, i was a lil nervous that if i did find one, i was going to pay a pretty penny for it. so anyway, i start walking around the booths at this antique store, find some sheet music, blah blah, and then i turn the corner and there it is. the bed that has been in my head for weeks (damn why don't i have a camera in my purse?).

so while my heart is thumping outta my body and i begin to break out into a sweat (you thrifters out there know EXACTLY what i am talking about) i slowly make my way to the price tag. "please lord let it be in my range". whew! it was orginally $250 marked to $200. this is for the head board, frame, and foot board. we're talking iron folks. i make a phone call to michael and tell him i found the bed i want and is the price okay (i always feel i need to get a blessing on big purchases like that so i don't get the guilts....lol).

so anyway, i ask a couple of the girls that work there if they think the owner will take $175. i figure i'm going to pull a greta and haggle. they told me they didn't think so, but they would call the woman. she comes back and tells me no, but she'll take 10% off. okay, so that's $180 (big difference on that $5 i guess).

SOLD!!!!!!

so tomorrow michael is going to take the truck and go get it. i'm on cloud nine over it. my bella boo is going to have the shab-chic-iest bed ever.

now i tried to find a picture of one through google, but when after putting in "iron bed"+"antique" in the search engine and a pic of someone's ass pops up, i decide that i'll just wait until tomorrow and snap a pic of it.

so that was my day folks. well and lets not forget me and greta doing our usual going to grab a sandwich and eating it in the v.f.w. with all the men that go have beers for lunch and we watch mama's family!

a great lunch indeed!!!

oh!

and here's a lil work in progress



toodles!!!

HAPPY {BELATED} NSD!!!

Well for all you non-scrappers out there, Saturday was national scrapbooking day (aka nsd). Me and greta had a whole day of scrappy goodness planned. We started the day by going to the lss and buying some goodies and registering for some freebies. Needless to say, I was a loser and greta won a goodie. We got back to her house and started our mojo. It was slow at first, but I got the mojo flowing. We spent the day in front of the tv watching sex and the city dvd’s and searching one of my new found loves treasures to scrap. we had a blast and I’m so excited that I got pages done and lo’s complete for challenges on treasures to scrap.

It was a great nsd!!!


this is by far my most fav lo. i love the pic, love the new style i'm trying to work with. i'm going to submit this one to hambly for their july guest dt. i know i don't have a shot in hell, but i love it none the less.
















oh how i hate this lo. it was for a challenge on tts to use as many brads as you can. thank goodness is was a pic of hunter and not my kids, b/c this will be done over and mikey can have this lo to hang in his room if he wants as much as he loves hunter.



if anyone wants product description, you can find them here.

what did all my scrappy bloggers do for nsd???

THE NEW HOUSE!!!

Well things have still been super-dooper busy and stressful for me.
We had some major house selling drama the past few weeks. Had to cuss out the
the land owner, cry quite a few tears, and slam down a couple of coronas.
But its beginning to look like everything may work out in the end. I’m hoping that
we close on the old house next week.

As far as the new house goes…..ITS ALMOST DONE!!!!

WHOOOOO-HAAAAAA!!!!

The builder told us that the closing day is scheduled for the 28th of this month. Michael
doesn’t think it will be done by then, but if its another week after that, I’m fine with that.
I finally got around to taking some pictures of the progress. Now keep in mind that the
picture quality is not that great. I was on the phone while taking them, the battery was
dying on me, and quite frankly I was in a rush to go get the kids.

Be prepared, there are 44 pictures I took 


Front of house


Front porch


Front door


Porch lights


Foyer




Foyer light



Foyer floor


Living room. 14’ cathedral ceilings and 10’ ceilings in the rest of the house.


Fire place (well soon to be….they still need to brick the mantle and stuff)


Dining room


Dining room light (love this!)


Right side of kitchen


L eft side of kitchen


Trash bins (in a cabinet baby!!)

I have two of these false lil drawers. Can’t wait to fill em up with sponges and stuff!


My lazy susan


Kitchen sink


My island (aka baking space) this is my kitchen aid’s new home.


Light over island


Drawers in island (ready to be filled with sprinkles, rolling pins, spatulas, frosting, cupcake papers, etc)


Breakfast rm. This is the other side of the kitchen. There is a door that goes out onto the back porch.


Breakfast room light


Kitchen/breakfast room floor


There are two of these sconces hanging in the hallway between the kids bedrooms/garage


The hall floor


Mikey’s bedroom light


Kiddos’ bathroom


Bella’s bedroom light. I am so looking forward to decorating her room shabby shic/thrifty


Our guest bedroom (this is where you’ll be staying simone). Of course you’ll have to step over all the toys b/c I am turning this room into a play room for the kids. But don’t fret, they’ll be a something to sleep on.


Guest full bathroom


The light that hangs in the guest bedroom and the hall that runs from the guest bedroom to the master bedroom


The master suite!



The door that leads to the back porch in the master bedroom


My 10’x10’ closet. That’s right folks. My (and I mean all mine, mike has his own closet) clothes will be living in the lap of luxury.


Floor in master bath


My vanity in master bath.


Mike’s vanity in master bath.




Michael’s closet



Of course Michael wanted a separate lil room for him to poo in. I guess he doesn’t like it when I go in there while he’s in the bathroom to fix my hair.


The bench and tile that is in the standup shower. Since my battery was dying I didn’t get a shot of our jaccuzzi tub in the master bath.


And what you all have been waiting for…..the craft room. I soooo cannot wait to get in this room. The organizing ideas are flowing, all the crafty goodness that I plan on creating is floating in my head. Aside from the kitchen, this of course is the room that I am most excited about.


The floor in my craft room. And before ya’ll think I’m crazy, that’s not real wood. I picked linoleum for all those messes I plan on making.


Craft room lights.


The “e” I made out of a piece of wire that was laying on the front porch….gotta mark my territory. I told Michael to leave it there when he was doing some touch up painting over the weekend. Here’s hoping the builders or crew don’t mess with it.



The back porch.

So that’s your tour. Of course since the battery ran out on my camera I didn’t get a chance to snap pictures of the backyard, the garage, etc.

I’ll post those later.