Need a weekend from my weekend

This weekend was crazy busy. Typically, I have to be interrupted from my couch relaxing just to move to the bed for a change of scenery. Only slightly kidding. Our social calendar was very full and project bedroom makeover is in full effect. The new king mattress has even been delivered. And a dog in my house may or may not have already tested this out as an "elevated pad."

Now that the bed and mattress have been purchased, the next step was to get the bedding. My mom, Marianne and I went shopping on Saturday and we found this bedding below for a steal. It was such a steal I am almost embarrassed to tell you the price. But I know everyone reading this loves a good bargain as much as me - $50, people! (I may now be a Maxxinista.) For an entire King set. Tommy liked it. Especially the price and I think it will work just fine.

Today I went to Megan's and she had two colors on her walls that she thought would work. Here is the pattern in her bedroom on Sherwin Williams' Comfort Gray.
And this is on Benjamin Moore's sage something. If anyone really wants to know, I wrote it down somewhere.

I am going to get samples for my room this week. I am excited to get some color on my beige walls.

Also found at TJ Maxx were these fabulous lamps. I LOVE the color and they happen to go perfectly. The shades are really girly with these adorable ruffles.

More to come! Let me know what you think!

My future child may not go to college...

but at least I will be able to sleep at night.

So after a full two weekends of looking, maybe one sleepless night and pretty much over thinking where I was going to lay my head each evening, we decided on the Pottery Barn Hudson. It was like one of those things that you can't get out of your head and I kept comparing every bed to this one. Basically, amortized over the next 20 years it is less than one night at a hotel. Well, when you put it that way...

Seriously, it is a really pretty bed. I kind of have a crush on it.

One of the reasons why I struggled so much with this decision is because my friend Addie (who has the best taste ever and is so great at design) sent me this DIY headboard from HGTV and I fell in love with it too.

Then, I was talking to another friend telling her about my HUGE dilemma (that was written in my sarcastic font) and she asked me why I didn't just do this in my guest room. Um, have you seen my guest room? If you did, you might not notice there is a bed since the walls are tan as is the comforter. So I decided this would be PERFECT for that room! Addie, will you still help me???

This weekend I will be on a quest for a new mattress, comforter, side tables and wall color! I will post more about the room soon. Any recommendations in any of these areas are welcome. (That was written in my begging font.)

In other news, I wanted to tell you about two of my new favorite blogs:

Hollywood Housewife: My friend Kelsey was sorority sisters with her and she is currently writing about how she met her husband. Think the Pioneer Woman's Black Heels to Tractor Wheels, only reversed. I am loving it!

Copy Cat Chic: Blog reader Kimberly told me about this blog in the comments on the previous post about the never ending bed saga and y'all, this blog is great!!! Basically, she will show you a high-end piece from a store like PB and tell you where you can get a very similar (sometimes exactly the same) item.

The quest for beautiful hair

Apparently, all the rage in the hair styling world is a little product called Moroccan Oil. As someone who has never colored their hair and probably goes to the hair dresser on average 3 times a year, this was a new concept. I read about it on the blog The Roaring Twenties (a fellow Tulsan whose blog I just found) and my tri-annual haircut was coming up, so I asked Vanessa, my stylist, about it.

Basically, Moroccan Oil makes your hair shinier, less dry and pretty much fabulous. I was lucky enough to get a free sample, which I have used for four days, so I wanted to share my findings with you. (This is all very scientific.)

This is the brand I am using because that is the sample she had on-hand. So I can only speak to this particular one. Though, I think they are all pretty much the same thing.

My hair type: I have had the same basic hair cut since about age 9. (I would say before that, but at age 3 or 4 I cut my own hair, which resulted in the worst haircut of my life – think bowl cut – and I got a perm back in 3rd grade.) It is straight, pretty shiny, but will be “fluffy/frizzy” if I don’t dry it and run a curling iron through it.

How to use it: Just take a little (pea size amount) and put it through your hair after washing, but before drying. I don’t put it on my roots.

On a scale from 1 – 10:

Shininess: 8
I would say my hair is a little more shiny, though no one has commented on it yet. I am sure I will hear about it any second…

Dryness: 8
My hair is naturally not dry. I am definitely not one of those people who can just wash my hair every other day. I have experienced fewer flyaways since using.

Smell: 3
More Aveda, less Biolage. I prefer to smell like clean clothes over “natural.” However, my mom and Vanessa loved the smell. So I guess it is just personal preference.

Pretty much fabulousness: 6
I will be honest, I think it has helped my hair, but I don’t necessarily need it to be more shiny or less dry. If I had free samples, I would continue to use it, but don’t think I will go out of my way to buy it. However, if you do have dry hair, I think it would be a great buy. Based on the amount you need to use, the bottle would probably last 6 months – to a year.

Other thoughts: I did take a nap this weekend (it was too cold to do anything else) and my hair did look pretty good after laying on it. Also, I think I might be able to get away with not running a curling iron through it as my straightener, but never tried.

Let me know if you guys use the oil and what your thoughts are! Am I the only one who had never heard of this???

Project complete

Their Likeness

We kind of might like our dogs a little. We have had many works of art made in their likeness. All dog parents are like this, right? Since many of you are new, I thought I would take you down memory lane, if you will, of Pudge and Carter artwork over the past three years.

As you all know, my sister got us this amazing print of the boys for Christmas. If you all know Carter at all, he was VERY scared of this. Pudge notsomuch. Therefore, we only have pictures of Pudge checking out his newest print.

As you can see, spitting image.

Of course, a birthday party wouldn't be a birthday party without the dogs.

And, I am sure no one will ever forget the sculptures I had commissioned.

And their early demise at the paws of their likeness.

Valentine's Day Wreath

My sister and I set out on a crafting expedition this week. I actually am kind of impressed with myself -- I used a needle and thread. I usually send my clothes over to my mother-in-law to sew buttons back on. I may actually have to do this myself now since I admitted I can in fact sew something on a public forum.


Here are the supplies: foam wreath, scrap fabric and ribbon. Please note, this takes a LOT more than the amount of ribbon shown. (I will be spotlighting my sister's wreath, as I am at least two rolls short and all Hobby Lobby's appear to be out. Great.)

So, we just took the ribbon, secured it to the back of the foam with straight pins and wrapped around the form.


Look how cute even with no embelishments! I wish I would have done this for Olivia's birthday party. It would have been so adorable.

Next, Allison (who has also never sewn a day in her life) had happened to get a tutorial from her mother-in-law on how to make rosettes. It is actually not too hard, though, mine are far from lovely. (I would recommend googling how to make rosettes. I promise my description would be of little to no help.)

I definitely couldn't sell my wreath for cash. Nor could I take pictures for a living.

But I think it turned out pretty cute!

Well, Allison's did. Mine is still sitting on my table like so:

Close Enough?

So back to redecorating my room, which I swear will probably be a year-long project because we cannot make a decision. (Or I fall in love and Tommy's inner-designer comes out and he decides notsomuch.)

Tommy nixed the fabric headboard. What??? (Well, I could get it if I really wanted it and if it was cheap, but basically he wasn't in love like I was. I was already dreaming about it!) He wants a wood bed because he thinks it will last longer and won't get dirty and collect hair with the dogs. (I do have to admit that he may have a point there. You should see my bedskirt. Well, it is currently cleaned and ironed, but about 2 weeks ago you should have seen my bedskirt.)

Well, I found a bed I really liked that was wood at Pottery Barn. He actually really liked it, too. But as you all know Pottery Barn furniture = my unborn child's college tuition (and I mean this in a completely hypothetical way - I am not with child that is currently unborn), which to me would totally be worth it.

So here is the bed I love from PB:

Yesterday I decided to go out shopping with my mom to see if we could find something better/similar and we came across this at Dillard's.
Not as beautiful, but about $1200 cheaper. Thoughts? Also, what in the world would I do with the side pieces and dressers? I don't want them to all match and frankly, the ones that much this set are not attractive. As mentioned previously, this project will probably be never ending. :)

For those of us who could never be on Chopped

For years (okay, make that months...because this cooking thing is still in its infancy) I have been wanting a website where I look in my fridge/freezer, see what I have on hand, type it into the computer and then it spits out a recipe based on what I already have.

That going to the grocery store with a list thing is for the birds. I mean, do people really plan ahead like that??? (Obvs they do...I happened to run into my sister last Sunday at Target and she had an entire recipe for Rachael Ray's Buffalo Chicken Chili, which I totally stole from her and made it that night. It was actually really good and I thought to myself, "self, why don't you bring a list to the grocery store?" Side note: Target now sells ground chicken meat. I have been looking for this for.ever.)

Well, someone must have been in the same boat as me because I came across the website Supercook yesterday. It is what I described exactly above. You look through your fridge, put your ingredients in and it spits out a recipe.

Now, I'll be honest, I haven't tried this yet. I only came across it yesterday (and my dinner last night consisted of popcorn, a cheese assortment and mac & cheese...clearly, I could have used this.) But I predict great things.

Thursday Picks

Maybe because my life is so uneventful, but I have really had NOTHING to blog about lately. Clearly, I need to get out more and by out I probably need to do something other than going to a restaurant...because I am not getting much inspiration there.

My lack of creativity may also have something to do with the fact that I just realized that my husband has had the temperature in the house on 66 degrees the past two days. Um, really, who can work under those conditions?

I am, however, being inspired by everyone else's blogs. One of my favorite Thursday picks is from Andrea of J&A and Co. She posted to her birthday gift for the year. She picks one gift and gives it to everyone. I love this idea not only because of all of the time it would save, but look how personal and special she makes everything. Check out her blog for full details and you will drool at her amazing pictures, too. (Not to mention her seriously beautiful family.)

My other pick for today is Sarah from Life {Sweet} Life's Symphony Brownies. If this isn't a teaser for deliciousness, I don't know what is. Kels, I think this is our kind of dessert! I won't give away all of the details, but it involves only a box of brownies and a Symphony bar. This dessert was made for me!

Hope you all have a wonderful Friday! Inspire me!

Destination Wedding

So I was pretty excited when my friend Mindy who recently got engaged (and was a bridesmaid in my wedding) called yesterday to tell me that they have decided to do a destination wedding. When Tommy and I got married almost five years ago, I planned the whole wedding right from my desktop. Never even visited the facility until a couple of days before the wedding. (For those who know how Type A I am this may surprise you.)

So Mindy's upcoming nuptials got me to thinking about how amazing our wedding day was. Love, love, loved it. And since most of you never saw our wedding photos, I thought I would share a few. (All images are from Chris Humphrey.)

And because blogger adds your images backward, you will have to kind of see these in reverse.

We got married in Santa Rosa Beach, FL.

In June 2006.
I got this photo in black and white for our house....which actually come to think about it, is in a guest (read - empty) bedroom on the floor. Hmmm....

This picture is Tommy's favorite picture of him. Like ever. He thinks it could go on a baseball card. (Not at all because it is from our wedding.)

My mom, sister and brother-in-law.

The one on the far right is my friend getting married in the Carribean. And this is where I need your help. Any ideas of locations? She is thinking Carribean, but has no idea where. I would love to help her! So if you have ever been to a wedding there or know of someone who has, give me your ideas!

Here are some of the details.

I was a knot junkie.

This is one of my favorite details of the day. I had a picture of my dad put onto a dog tag inscribed with "With me Always." My mom and sister got one for their bouquet, too.

Okay, so if you guys have any destination ideas for Mindy, let me know. I know she will love it.

And totally NOT wedding related. I started the Hunger Games. Um, you guys, that book was weird. I couldn't get past chapter 1 and took it back to the library. Is there something wrong with me???

And just to prove how lucky I am, here is what Tommy typed on my computer as I went to get ready for bed:

i have the world's best husband


.

Lots to Say

First, hi to all of my new followers. I feel so popular!! I find it so funny that anyone is even remotely interested in what I might have to say. I think I might even have a giveaway when I get to 100. I am not sure what yet...but it will be fabulous. I am thinking a gift box of my favorite things? But don't hold me to that.

Also, thanks for all of your input on my bedroom. All of my interior design savvy friends, you will be taken up on your offers for help. :) Today on the Elements of Style blog I came across this fabulous bed from Horchow. Do you not just love it? I mean, I think this could be "the one."

Erin had gotten this one from Crate & Barrel, which I also love and I kind of like the price tag better.
Sadly, my husband has informed me that he prefers a wood bed. I think I can change him, though. Isn't that what marriage is all about?

I kid. I kid.

In other news, even though I haven't been writing on my blog in the past week, I have been reading. And I found some super cute stuff.

I am in love with these poms featured today at Spearmint Baby. They used to be t-shirts. Adorable. A full tutorial is available at Craftoholics Anonymous.




If it is cold where you are, how about giving a cup of cheer to your friend or neighbor? I love, love, love this "craft" and free printable from b*spoke with a full tutorial from Twig and Thistle.

And lastly, for all of my DIY Design friends (I am talking to you Aja), you will love the Knock Off Decor blog.

They take an inspiration piece like this chandelier from Pottery Barn. (Iris, I think this is your chandelier!)

And take this old one...

And make it to look the inspiration piece. Pretty amazing.

In other news, I had a great weekend with my two wonderful college roommates this weekend. We celebrated Jane's 32nd birthday and had a great time! Our weekend pretty much consisted of eating, gossiping, drinking, chatting, drinking, eating and watching Sex and the City 2 (could have done without an hour of it) and watching Twilight Eclipse (again and totally worth seeing twice).

In addition, there was lots of Words with Friends. I am now currently in the middle of a game with my mom, my mother-in-law, the two friends mentioned above, my sister and a pass back and forth game with Tommy. And this may be the reason this blog is lacking....