Christmas wreath. Decorating with burlap.

Hello -and Happy Halloween! I can't believe that it is Halloween already. Time has been flying by. Geez!

This week has especially flown by. I just realized that I have not blogged all week. Although, I am not sure that I am the blogging type of girl. I sure like to talk, so I thought that I would like blogging (lol), however it takes away from my time Pinteresting, hahaha! I am going to try this for a little longer. I don't have many followers so at least I am not letting anyone down. :)

Anyway, so I was in Albany, NY this week and they have a HOBBY LOBBY! I love Hobby Lobby. So many more fabrics and ribbons there then anywhere else. Especially burlap. I went shopping yesterday and found several of the ribbons that I wanted. I am in love with CHEVRON!!! :) With all of the ribbons purchased I just could not help myself. I had to make the wreath.

Burlap Christmas Wreath

Burlap bow

I am sorry that the picture is a little dark in the first one. I took it in my hotel room and the lighting here is poor. Yes - I said hotel room. And yes, that means that somehow I have to get this wreath on the airplane with me. I am not sure what I was thinking. Lol!

While I was at Hobby Lobby I stumbled across a Christmas decoration tree that I am going to try to make. It doesn't seem very hard to make. Last year I made several of these types of decorations. It was very simple. I saved some cereal boxes and cut them so that I could make a cone shape out of them. What a cost savings, not to mention a good way to recycle!

This is the tree. It looks like they just cut burlap and glued it to the cone. Then some glitter, they also sewed some little bells on, which I think is cute.

Burlap tree - DIY 

Cone Tree's 

I am going to try to make the cone myself, like I did last year. Luckily I did take some pictures last year that I can share. I love bragging about how I saved money by making something myself... lol! :)

Make your own christmas tree cone 

DIY Christmas Tree cone 

Burlap Christmas decoration 

Burlap Christmas Tree

I used several types of fabrics, all that I had left over from making wreaths. I just cut the fabric into strips and used my handy dandy glue gun and glued the fabric to the cardboard. I sprayed them with spray glitter. Everything I make has to sparkle...lol!

I hope you like the ideas. I will post pictures of my burlap tree soon. Now its time for me to try to fit this wreath into my luggage. lol!  TTFN!

My Savior - Our iRobot Roomba 770

Good morning! Finally, it's Saturday!!! Today I thought I would blog about my favorite new helper, and the reason that I actually have time to post a blog today. Hopefully I don't bore the few people that are actually reading this post! But this is too good to not share!!!

Meet "Sweepy"! 

iRobot Roomba 770

 When you are looking at an empty house you imagine that once you get your furniture in the house the space will feel much smaller. Well, this house is a monster.

When J and I first moved in it took about 2 days for me to start complaining about how much time I was spending cleaning the floor. Having a cat and a dog our hardwood floors start looking like carpet after just a few days... :) 

Long story short, recently I started traveling for work (which is temporary). The only thing that I asked my husband to do while I was gone was to keep the floors clean. After my second week of travel I returned home to a super clean house. I was so happy. And then I was introduced to "Sweepy".

Sweepy is an iRobot Roomba 770. There are several different series available, not to mention different brands. I have been thinking about getting a robotic vacuum for several months. A few of our friends have them and love them, which is why I wanted to blog about Sweepy. I was very skeptical about getting a robotic vacuum, even after hearing my friends brag about how well theirs work. I was most hesitant because of how much they cost. The cost range does vary widely, depending on the features. Ours was about $500, but has all of the features that we were looking for (AND WAS WORTH THE MONEY!!!!) You can easily google the features of the 770, but I wanted share some of our personal experiences so far. 

We have programmed Sweepy to run each morning at 9am. He automatically removes himself from his home base (charging station) and goes to work, right after we both go to work which is fantastic.

iRobot Roomba 770

Sweepy came with two "virtual walls" so that we can keep him out of certain rooms or areas if we choose to. In our house we clean the hardwood floors everyday, but we only vacuum the bedroom twice a week. The thing that I love most about that is that the vacuum automatically changes settings when it moves from hardwood to carpet or tile, and has a "Dirt Detect" system so that if it detects dirt it starts going back and forth in a smaller area until it no longer detects dirt. I find that it does this most around the doors leading outside. Sweepy runs for about 1.5 hours before taking himself back to his home base. There is a spinning side brush that cleans along the walls and in corners. This works great in our kitchen and bathrooms for getting the debris from under the cabinets.

iRobot Roomba spinning brush

The one thing that we still have to do each day is to remember to clean the garbage bin (oh and to sweep the stairs so that Sweepy can pick up the hair at the bottom :) . The garbage bin is surprisingly easy to clean. Our manual vacuum is a Dyson Animal (which I still love) but is not even close to being as easy to take care of as our Roomba.

iRobot Roomba brush and cleaning tool 

About every other day we clean the brush, which is super easy to remove. As you can see in the picture, the cleaning tool slides up and down the brush to easily collect the hair (Um, why did it take so long to come up with this super easy cleaning method???)  I am not sure how everyone else cleans the hair out of their vacuum, but usually it takes me forever, a pair of scissors, and maybe a few bandaids...lol!

So, if any of you were thinking about getting a robotic vacuum - DO IT!!!!!! Don't wait another day...lol!  It has been one of the greatest purchases we have made! It saves countless hours vacuuming each week.

Fall decorations

I really started blogging so that I had someplace to post all of the crafty things that I like to make, yet for some reason this is my first crafty DIY blog (ok, so I have only been blogging for two days -  I may be exaggerating...lol) 

Well, in this post I am not really adding many things that I made, however I have some cute decorations. 

I am absolutely in love with white pumpkins!!!  For some reason this year it took me forever to find them,  but as they say, if you look hard enough... :)

I bought the larger white pumpkins at Target. They are not expensive, but they really are made to be painted. I left mine plain.  The small white pumpkins are REAL!!! They are so cute and perfect. I looked all over for real mini white pumpkins and finally found them at Harris Teeter (grocery store), in the produce section, 2 for $1! I had to by several of them to place around the house. The oil lamp and owl I found at Goodwill. I LOVE that place!!! The green pumpkin I found at JoAnn Fabric's. It was only $4! They had several cute fake pumpkins. I bought the burlap and cut it down for the table runner. The flowers are actually sweetgrass roses from Charleston S.C. You can buy these at the market in downtown Charleston. Wonderful local handmade souvenir.  And what table is complete without milk glass vases? :)

 Adorable owl and perfect pumpkin!

 I had to give you a few closeups. Cute lil guys!

It took me about two weeks to complete the table decorations. I kept adding things, so much so that J said that we were not going to have a place to eat if I didn't stop...lol. The last thing that I made is this cute candle. I found the candle at Goodwill for less than $1. I had some twine so I decided to make a twine wrapped candle like the ones that they sell at Pottery Barn. All I did was place a little bit of glue at the bottom of the candle and glued down one end of the twine. I then wrapped the twine all the way around the candle. Once I got the twine as high up the candle as I wanted it, I added a little glue to the candle and glued the end of twine down at the top. Super easy! 

Please let me know if you have any questions about how to glue the twine to the candle and I can upload some close up pictures. Fun and easy project! 

Post St.Baldrick's hair weeks 5-10

Ok, so I have finally uploaded my pictures from my phone to my computer. So, below you will see my week 5-8- post St.Baldrick's event hair growth. The pictures really don't show much, but I am telling you - these are the weeks when I started putting gel in my hair...lol! J (my husband) was like "REALLY??? Your hair is not long enough for you to need gel". Um, yes it is! I mean seriously - after you have not had hair on your head for weeks. This is LONG hair!!! Notice I finally felt more comfortable with my new hair - only one ribbon!!! :)

Post St. Baldrick's hair  week 5-8

About this time, around week 4 or 5, I decided I missed my hair and that I wanted a Wig. My friend Jeremy O. knew just where I could find one!!! We went to what I would call a wig shop - I swear they had like 5000 wigs. Jeremy said that I HAD to have a lace front wig. 

Finally! 

I feel like myself again!!! I love it! So nice to get out of bed, shower, makeup and wig. And its stunning!!! Gorgeous wig! Look what a difference the wig makes! The fabulous selfie with the green shirt on was taken five minutes apart. HUGE difference!


Week 9 and 10 have been great.  My hair is finally starting to feel like a style, and I am wearing hair products that I actually NEED to keep my hair from standing straight up! Lots of compliment from people that have no idea that I have not intentionally cut my hair to look like this... Its natural!!!  lol! Soon it will be time for my first haircut!!!

Post St. Baldricks Week 9-10

I'm thinking that in the next week or two I am going to go for the PINK look. I mean, how many times in my life am I going to have hair this short??? And I cant wait to dye it blonde again! 

What do you think??? 

My hair after St.Baldrick's. The growing stages...

One of the fun things about shaving my head is watching it grow back  - oh and to finally see what my natural color is. OMG, It is dark!!! Not sure that it will stay dark, but for now - I am a brunette! However, I have confirmed - blondes do have more fun... lol

Before I decided to shave my head I looked on the internet for growth pictures from someone else that had shaved their head, a girl of course. I found it very difficult to find therefore I decided that I would be taking lots of pictures and posting them. Sooooo....

Week 1-4 

Yes, I like bows. I felt very naked in the beginning. The red headband in the week 2 picture is from headbands of HOPE.  headbands of HOPE  help raise money to fund research for childhood cancer. Please click on the link above to find out more. 

First six weeks- 

Week 5-8

Week 11 -

Week 14 

Week 15 

Week 18 

First few months!!! 💗

Kitchens...

Illinois

South Carolina

Kitchens... 

Ok, so we recently purchased our third house. If you decide to follow me you will learn that J and I move ALOT (each home is in a different state). I love finding new places and meeting new people. BUT I think that we have finally found our forever home!!!

Each of our houses have a completely different style. The first one had a small, but very practical kitchen. The cabinets in the top picture are light hickory. If you are looking for light cabinets but not white, I would recommend light hickory. It is gorgeous!  I loved the glass front cabinets for displaying dishes. Overall I loved this kitchen. The one thing that I really miss about this kitchen is the window over the sink. It was nice to look outside while I was cooking or cleaning up.

In our second house we decided that we wanted granite countertops. One of the problems we had with the laminate countertop in our first house was that the seams where the laminate met separated and actually bubbled (right about where the first barstool against the wall is). I fell in LOVE with granite and would highly recommend granite to everyone I know. It does come with a higher price tag, but it is worth it! Our second kitchen had dark maple cabinets. I really liked how easy they were to clean, and they did not show drips and spills on the front of them.

Our "forever" house :) has much lighter cabinets, and I find they are much, much harder to keep clean however they are stunning!

North Carolina 

This kitchen has everything that I have ever wanted (except a subzero fridge). My someday wish list...lol. The subway tile is so easy to clean and I no longer have to scrub the drywall behind the stove to keep the paint from looking filthy, although to be honest I found myself repainting the wall rather than scrubbing it...lol.
The granite is light, but not so light that it shows stains. One of the things that I read about light granite is that it stains easily. Lucky for us - no stains yet! We have soft close drawers (when you lightly push the drawer toward the closed position a magnet catches and softly closes it the rest of the way). It does cut down on the slamming of drawers. We do not have soft close cabinets, although they do make them. Our cabinets have pull out shelves which come in handy, and the garbage and recycling drawers are built in.

Though this is my dream house and my dream kitchen, there are a few things that I would like to do to give it a little more color. I would love to add a different design in the backsplash above the stove. I have pinned several that I like, however the one below is my favorite.

Dreamy backsplash upgrade 

The other thing that we are lacking in our kitchen, and in our butlers pantry, is a built-in wine cooler. I would prefer it to be in the butlers pantry but I am loving this one in the kitchen island. Did you notice that I LOVE islands and bars??? What a fantastic way to entertain. You can never have too many places to sit in the kitchen! :)

Island Wine Cooler

Many more ideas, but for now I have to focus on the rest of the house. I am starting with our kitchen because it is the only room in our house that I am satisfied with. Now to start on the dinning room... :)

My St.Baldricks journey that has forever changed me.

I, like many of you reading this, have lost several people I love to the fight against cancer. After loosing someone recently, I decided that it was time for me to do something. Determined, I searched for ways to help raise money to help find a cure. Without thinking it through (the head shaving, that is) I decided that I would shave my head to help raise money for St. Baldrick's foundation. The St. Baldrick's Foundation is a volunteer-driven charity that funds more in childhood cancer research grants than any organization except the U.S. government.

Signing up was the easy part. I went to http://www.stbaldricks.org/start-an-event- and signed up to be a "Virtual Shavee". The foundation made it very easy for me to share my story and to promote the fundraising. I shared my story on Facebook with all of my friends and family. Much to my surprise I quickly met my goal (which I originally set at $500). I decided I was going to raise my goal since I had a few weeks left before "the shaving". I reached my new goal of $1000 on the day of the event. My head was shaved on August 12, 2013. My Virtual Event participant page. 

There were about 100 people at the event watching the head shavings, and proudly I must add that once I announced that I was hosting the event another woman and four men joined me in becoming "Shavee's"!!! Hats off to them!!!

THE EMOTIONAL PART  - Much to my surprise, immediately after the event I started receiving emails from people that were at the event. Each one of them shared their personal story of how they themselves or someone they loved had fought cancer, and how much the event meant to them. I must say, that was the hardest part of the event. Reading each and every email made me cry. 

The first day after I got home and the excitement started to wind down, I looked in the mirror and realized - OMG! I am BALD!!! YIKES - What a sight!!! I had no idea how much my hair defined who I was. The feeling on my head the first day was so weird. As you would assume, going from long hair to no hair made my head frequently become cold. The first week the skin on my head felt like it was crawling... that is the best way I can describe that feeling. And after about the first two weeks I started feeling normal again - thanks to my quick growing hair (I should mention that I started taking prenatal vitamins and Biotin about 3 weeks prior to the event).

Looking back on the emotional experience, and how people looked at me when I was completely bald, and how some people still look at me 10 wks later with my short spiky hair, I could not imagine loosing my hair, and on top of how that makes you feel, not knowing if I was going to win the fight against cancer, not to mention the physical pain associated with the disease. 

Long story short - this is my attempt at helping us win the fight against cancer. If you are interested in donating to my event, or having your own, please visit My Virtual Event Page