You just can't make this stuff up...

Photo courtesy of freeweb.com
The other day "V" and I went to a neighboring Army Post to see if we could score any deals at their PX ( Shopping Center). This post happens to be a training post where a lot of the Soldiers that used to work for and around my husband will at one time or another be sent for additional training. We were in the check out line behind a guy, who kept looking at "V" and I recognized from the Army post we just left. He asked "V" if he knew him and "V" said yes they were in the same unit together just recently, the guy was instantly made aware and even said my husband's last name, he then turned and looked at me, now mind you I was standing right next to "V" we were even talking, and asked me if I was another Soldier's wife from the old unit. WHAT?????? How would that possibly make any sense? One I do not look like this particular wife at all, and two what in the heck would I be doing shopping with "V". The guy was obviously not all there...even "V" was like what just happened??? It's probably one of those things you would have to be there for, but believe me the whole thing was so weird it had us talking for days!!

It makes me want to get married all over again!!

I just got a great email from Cinchouse!

Bride's Across America Second Annual Nationwide Military Wedding Gown Giveaway Event

Military spouses and women in uniform can receive a free bridal gown! To qualify, brides must be engaged, be on active duty in the military or have a fiancé on active duty in either Iraq or Afghanistan.  All military brides must show ID, copy of deployment papers, orders or other qualifying proof. Brides do not have to reside in the area where the giveaway is taking place. Here are the current locations available:

California
July 7th-The Bustle
1011 Camino Del Mar
Del Mar, CA
858-523-9254
www.thebustledelmar.com

July 12th-The Unique Bride
1209 Howard Ave.
Burlingame, CA 94010
650-347-7001
www.uniquebride.com

Colorado
July 7th-D'Anelli's
7301 W. Alameda Ave, Suite E
Lakewood, Colorado
303-980-1400
www.coloradobridal.com

Connecticut
July 12th -Stylish Impressions
254 Main St.
Farmington, CT
860-676-9990
www.stylishimpressions.net

Illinois
July 7th-Volles Bridal Boutique
53 S. Old Rand Rd
Lake Zurich, Illinois
847-438-7603
www.vollesbridal.com

Kentucky
 July 7th-Rebeccas Bridal
 159 Chenoweth Lane
Louisville, Kentucky
502-895-4627
www.rebeccasweddings.com

Lousianna
July 7th-Town & Country Bridal
1514 St. Charles Ave
New Orleans, Lousianna
504-523-7027
www.townandcountrybridal.com

New Jersey
July 7th-The Bridal Suite of Hamiliton
2607 Whitehorse Hamiliton Square
Trenton, NJ
609-588-4976
www.thebridalsuiteofhamilton.com

New York
 July 7th-Bridal Reflections
Fifth Avenue
286 5th Avenue
NY City, NY
212-764-3040
www.bridalreflections.com

July 8th-Bridal Reflections
Carle Place
80 Westbury Avenue
Carle Place, NY
516-742-7788
www.bridalreflections.com

Ohio
July 7th -Evalines Bridal
211 East Market St
Warren, OH
330-392-6569
www.evalinesbridal.com

Pennsylvania
July 9,10,11th-Bridal Suite
320 Main St.
Irwin, PA
724-861-5506
www.bridalsuite.biz

Rhode Island
July 7th-Ana's Bridal
456 Warren Ave
E. Providence, RI
401-438-5932
www.anasbridal.com

Texas
July 7th-Brick House Bridal
200 Valley Wood Dr.
Spring, Texas
281-681-3430
www.brickhousebridal.com

Oregon
July 7th-Charlottes' Weddings & More
8925 SW Beaverton Hillsdale Hwy
Portland, OR
503-297-9622
www.charlottesweddings.com

*If you are overseas or not able to attend an event please visit the link below to find out how you can qualify for a bridal gown gram www.bridalreflectionscares.com

Thank you! And how perfect is this after my last post!!

As I'm sure you've figure out by now I LOVE WINNING stuff!! And I just saw that the ever amazing Saucy is having an outdoor rug giveaway!! How perfect since I've just finished updating and "homeying" ( not even a word is it?) up the deck!! It would look awesome on the deck and may even persuade "V" to pick up the additional outdoor set I want!!

So get you butts over there and register for the contest! Please let her know I sent ya! 

Also thanks for all the tips! I am going to use all of them!!

E's steps to a deck update!

So I love our backyard but I really felt that the deck was not very inviting! And since I am trying to be economical "M" and I ran out yesterday and grabbed a bunch of plants and flowers on clearance at Wal Mart! We're hoping to eventually pick up a "conversation set" for the half of the deck the table isn't on, but I will be waiting for the end of the season sales to save money!

Step 1.- Start with a disheveled deck!

Step 2.- Raid the Clearance Garden Section of your local big box store...if you're like me you will pay no attention to the plant's instructions and even what their names are and pick them up only based on their price and looks...

Step 3.- Find some minions to do your planting for you...be sure you stand around taking pictures all while yelling out commands like "More Soil" and "Hurry Up, it's hot!"

Step 4.- Open up the umbrella your fabulous husband picked up on discount a few weeks before and be sure to add the clip-on solar lantern umbrella lights you've been saving for the last 9 months after seeing them on sale at Sears!

Step 5.- Squeeze into the corner of the deck and try to get a good shot with your camera of the opposite corner of the deck...this will allow you to show off how you shoved plants into every last corner of the deck!

Step.6- Sweet if you've picked up on things by now you're now in another corner of the deck so that you can take a picture of the side of the deck you were previously shoved into!

Step 7.- This is the easy part stand at the door and take a picture of the flower boxes that came together surprisingly  well! If you're like me you will especially love the purple "Sweet Potato" vines falling out of the end of the boxes!

Step 8, 9, & 10- Take more gratuitous pictures of the plants and realize you're too lazy and don't have the brain power to blog about them all... at that point combine all of the steps into one sentence...

Step 11.- Stand on the steps and take one last picture of the gorgeous orange umbrella, not realizing that your body is showing up amazingly mis-shapen in a reflection from the french doors...

Step. 12- Relax, enjoy the quick & easy (especially if you have minions do all of the work) update of your deck!

I really do enjoy the deck a whole lot more! Now I'm just hoping I can keep the plants and flowers alive better than I have in the past! All tips will be greatly appreciated!

 

I just flew in and boy are my arm's tired!

Ok so I didn't fly anywhere but my arms are tired! I pulled the wallpaper border down and painted our living room in anticipation of the new furniture "V" picked out!

Boy was it a lot of work!!

Here's the before of what the living room looked like....

I pulled off all but that little bit of wallpaper "V" is taking off...my arm was killing me!

Here is the room with no wallpaper and the curtains are GONE!

I painted the whole room myself...it was A LOT of WORK!! But I finished in one day!!

Here's the finished room...

I was really afraid it would be to dark but it came out ok!

I'm going to add a few more deep red pieces just to break up the brown a bit...

Eventually we will also pick up a nicer TV stand...

I really need to stage the mantle a bit more...this may be where I add some more red in...

Since we didn't have any tables for this room I ran out to TJ Maxx and scored this table, lamp, and little red plate and the tray in the picture above on the ottoman for about $30!!

Dale really loves the room and the couch's are very comfortable even though I'm so short my feet don't touch the ground! One room down a bunch more to go!!

Off to go score some free Glidden paint!!

Can you feel my pain??

I am sore! I feel like I've been beaten up!

I removed the wallpaper border and painted the entire living room myself in anticipation of the new furniture that is supposed to arrive today!

I'm nervous about the room, it may be a very dark room....

I'll have lot's of pictures to post later this evening, and one of "V"s SUPER COOL FANTASTIC Father's Day gift!!!

Believe me when you see it you'll say WOW!!!

Ok off to scrape the paint of the molding...I'm a sloppy painter....

Cupcake Saturday!

I am late! As always! I had a HUGE day! And I am squeaking in on Saucy's Cupcake Saturday!!! I LOVE this idea and I was going to make the perfect CupCakes just for today, but then I've made sooo many that I already love that I wanted to feature them again :) So here goes!!

Oh and go check out Cupcake Saturday for yourself!!!

I made so many CupCakes this year that I thought I would highlight my favorites! 

The Super Bowl Cupcakes were and are my FAVORITE so far this year. The Arizona Cupcakes were Red Velvet with White Chocolate frosting and the Steelers Cupcakes were Devil's Food Cake with a lemon frosting I dyed to give it the right yellow for the team 

I think the whole setup with the Football field really pulls it together! It was a lot of fun!!

I attempted to make Bakerella's CupCake Pop's, it was quite the adventure! But they came out pretty cute!

Ok so it's not a CupCake...but I think it would have made an AWESOME CupCake and will probably make them for one of the kid's next birthday!

I loved these Red Velvet White Chocolate Valentine's Cupcakes! I LOVE Red Hot's and I thought they were SUPER cute and Red Velvet cake always stays so soft that it was easy to make ahead knowing they would stay fresh til the next day!

If you don't already have a CUTE CupCake stand get one! If you like mine click on the At Home America link on the right to order one!

These cupcakes were made with the Famous Magnolia CupCake recipe! I highly suggest it!! They were PERFECT for our Easter Brunch!

I made these for a friend's daughter's Twilight Party to match the apple on the cover of one of the books! I wish I could find the pic of the CupCakes I made for "M"'s Twilight Party, they had a cherry filling and were frosted white with what looked like bleeding vampire marks...I'm sure I'll find the pic as soon as I publish this post!

I think these CupCakes would be perfect for many different parties! I think I will use them for Teacher Appreciation this next school year!

Every last furniture store in town!

Ok this room seriously needs some furniture and a makeover! So in the next 7 days I am going to try and do that...on a budget...

I've been to every furniture store I could find..

I loved this couch, it was surprisingly comfortable...

I loved this material!

This sofa was FABULOUS!!!!

The red velvet is just too cool!

But this one...this one was LOVE!!

Unfortunately I don't think "V" would have loved it as much as "M" and I did

But we didn't pick any of those...instead "V" picked out what he wanted...lately he's been grumbling a bit about how nothing in the house is his taste...I find this hard to believe since he picked out a lot of the art work with me and our last bedroom set, but WHATEVER...I'm such a FABULOUS wife that I let him pick out this room's furniture...

It won't arrive until next week and so I am going to leave it as a surprise! We still need to pick out table and lighting for the room, but it will all happen soon enough!

Ok off to get my HUGE bunch of paint samples!!

My first serious DIY'ing

So "V" and I took our first adventure into DIY land recently and the results came out pretty well! I had spied Chalkboards all over the internet recently and I've been really wanting to get my hands on some chalkboard paint! We had a large wall that I had no art work for and, no real budget for the art work and "V" thought that would be the perfect place for the chalkboard. 

I drew 'V" a very crude design and off we went to the home improvement store to get our supplies...

First off we picked up 3 pieces of baseboard and a few corner "finial" pieces

I spray painted the baseboards black

We bought a piece of Luan and I primed it 

Then painted it with 3 coats of Chalkboard paint! I used the actual paint instead of the spray paint and I think we ended up with better overall coverage!

We used wood glue and glued all of the pieces and once dry we used finishing nails to keep it all together. A few picture hangers on the back and it was up on the wall!

Here it is! I love it! "V" likes to leave us strange sayings on his way out the door in the morning and I think the kids really like it! It definitely solved the problem of decorating this awkward wall!

I wish...

I love our new home, I love the town, I miss my friends! There are quite a few people I wish I could have packed up along with all of our furniture and brought with me to our new home. It would make this new home complete! I know we will meet new friends, I'm just in need of some good times with my friends. I have this great new house and no one to entertain in it. At least not yet...

I won I won I won!!!!

Ok, holly cow! I love this whole blogging thing if for no other reason than I get to be a WINNER!!!

So I was one of a few lucky winner's of the Sa-Sea Boutique drawing!!!!

I can pick out 2 of the beautiful pillow cases from her Etsy shop!!!!!

HOW COOL!!!!

Ok now here's the dilemma.... do I let "M" pick one or possible both out for her new room?? Or do I pick them out for my new room??? What to do??

What would you do??

Pics of Downstairs!

Ok, much overdo, and other than a little sprucing up in the kitchen this is true to how we live in this house...for now...while we're still setting everything up, but later, the wallpaper and paint should be adjusted to colors more to my style...tomorrow I will try and take pictures of upstairs...

The wallpaper and paint in this room actually makes me queasy

My new dining room table is under there somewhere...

Most people know that I have quite the "potty mouth" at time so I thought this wall was fitting

And here is our crowing achievement! Jen over at Tatertots and Jello had used Chalkboard paint in her kitchen and I loved it so I modified the idea a bit and here it is! Oh and that wallpaper border is coming down as well!

Our next project is to re-finish the table a darker almost black stain

I like this kitchen a lot, but amazingly we still have to much stuff for the cabinets!

Front door from family room 

From front door

From Living Room 

I really have to get some furniture in here!!

I love the french doors throughout the house

Living Room, the curtains are coming down as well as the wallpaper border and new paint

View of the living room. We are still debating over the furniture in this room 

From the Living room door into the family room

View from the kitchen into the family room 

Family Room view from the large windows