What's up?

Wow, what an eventful past few weeks! I've been super busy! I can't believe it's been a month since I last posted anything!

The first week of August is a big thing in Gadsden, Al. We are part of the world's longest yard sale. Now, yard sales can be awesome or crappy, depending on whats in them. This yard sale is AWESOME! Just in the first 2 counties it cuts through, I can find everything from the usual baby clothes and musty old covered rockers, to the coolest old western buggies and coaches! All for sale! I found a guy I love to visit every year. He comes from Jackson, Al to sell all his antiques. He had mantles, deer heads, old wagon wheels, and lots of blue mason jars! I can always expect him to have some of the coolest stuff around!

Sadly I didn't get to buy anything from him this year. We had a sale of our own, mostly from the junk in the closet. We made good money too. Not sure if I'll do it again next year though, I missed not seeing "Jackson." Another thing about this event is that its kind of my birthday gift for my mom. Her birthday and the yard sale coincide with each other and we usually try spend all day together junkin' around! Mother/daughter time is the best birthday gift!

The whole family took a road trip to NC the weekend of the 17th for my cousin's wedding! My brother and his fiance, my mom, and me and Dw all got in our Impala and took off up the interstate! Had a great time visiting family and friends! On our way back we stopped to visit another family member who lived less than an hour from where we stayed. It felt so good to see all my family members I don't get to see very often. At the wedding; I saw cousins, and aunts and uncles that I haven't seen in years! I didn't recognize half of my little cousins! They were either married or dating, and a few even had kids of their own now! So much time passes by us without a notice. It was wonderful to see everyone and spend time catching up. I won't post any photos from the wedding because I'm sure those in the photos would say "take those down!!!!" I know I got a few 'incriminating' shots of some folks being crazy(er) than they should have been.

I turned 24 on the 23rd. Hubs and I spent the evening out at my favorite lil mexican joint in town. I enjoyed a pina colada with my dinner, and then we went to a friend's house and hung out with all our buddies til around 2 am. For a while, it rained on the guys playing cornhole (in the dark), and so they came in and we all played a few rounds of quarters.

Also, I am officially an Aunt now! My other cousin, the bride's sister, (& maid of honor) was about to burst at the wedding! Yesterday (Aug. 27) my lil niece came into this world. Only a few days past my own birthday!

In between all this excitement, I've done the usual dishes and laundry, but more importantly, I've gotten more accomplished in the 2nd bedroom. I purchased 2 bookcases to go on the wall with my Krafty Kloset, as more storage for more accessible items. I got a few more photo boxes on clearance from Hobby Lobby as well. I can always use more of these great storage bits!

Got the closet organized and cleaned out thanks to that yard sale. Before/now shots below. Still moving things around, so more will go back in, but not nearly as much! Thank goodness! Yall forgive the squiggle down the center. I was going to leave it out, but because this is 2 pictures merged, it left this weird double look in the center. The line makes it easier on the eyes. Don't want yall thinkin' you went cross-eyed! Same with the above picture.

Before

After

I finally have all my Christmas stuff organized too! I have 2 tubs for Christmas decor and my wrapping paper is resting on some fishing wire I strung up to hold it under the shelf. My lights are wrapped around hangers and connected end-to-end. No more tangled lights!

That's about it for now! Lots left to do, but that's another day, another post.
See you soon!

Crafty Updates

Getting it all under control....

Sort of!


So, I showed you guys a few of my organized things already, my yarn mostly, and some decorum that makes my house at least seem organized. So now I want to share with you a few more things I've done and had to DIY and make work for me.

When I bought my Krafty Kloset, it had this mysterious, oily, greasy, stain right where my mouse would have gone, and it took me a while to find something to remove it. It hit me quite suddenly to try nail polish remover. I use the full strength kind because when I do some one's nails I want to make sure they are good and free of anything old. I figured, why not? So I grabbed a few q-tips and tested my hunch. Worked wonderfully! I stepped it up a notch and got some paper towels to really cover the big area that was stained. Here you can see where I poured acetone right onto the stain and it just lifted right up! Awesome!! :D

 Ewwww! Look at whatever that is!! Gross!

So now my ugly spot is gone, gone, gone! The acetone may have also removed a bit of the clear coat (if there even was one) but I plan on painting the interior of the Kloset anyway.

Oh, say hello to our newest member of the family! Axle Grease!

This little guy was stuck under my hood! After a few hours trying to coax him out, Dw finally got under the car himself and pulled him off my axle. (Hence the name Axle Grease!) I immediately asked we could keep him, and Dw being a sucker for anything fuzzy, agreed! Our lease at this new house says no pets, so we are keeping him under wraps for now. I have taken him to the vet and had him neutered and vaccinated. He also got a bath and some flea killer (Dawn) when he first arrived.

At first he was very flighty and kept getting into my couch. Yes inside it! There was a gap where the underpinning wasn't attached and he would hide in the arm of the couch. I fixed that quick!

I found him like this this morning! Isn't that just the cutest little face!

Now he is very comfortable in our home and with us. He likes to lay next to me while I crochet. Or on my crochet! He is beside my laptop now actually, enjoying the heat thats blowing on him I bet.

                       

Welcome home Lil' Bro!

As I said, super busy this past week. I did all that decorating and cleaning and organizing for one party. LOL! Hubby Dwayne's little brother is in the Air Force, and he wanted to throw him a welcome home party. He is back in Alabama for two weeks before he is shipping out to go to overseas. He is a cargo plane mechanic, so he should be relatively safe from danger, but we Southern folks say prayers for him no matter what.

Anyway, now the house is decorated and clean, but now I have to decorate and prepare for a party! Yikes, the week is almost over and party day is on its way! Good thing I planned ahead! My dad let us borrow his horseshoe set, and Dwayne's cousin brought his grill and cornhole game over.

Left: Husband Dwayne and his little sister (youngest) Right: Dylon (guest of honor) and his wife playing cornhole

I had been to the dollar store and picked up blue tablecloths, plates, and cups during the week. I also got some toy planes and spray painted them blue. They got set around the cake as favors for the kiddos.

Oh, the cake. Such high hopes I had for it. I had found a very nice idea on Pinterest for designing your own cake decorations from printed images, and was going to make the Air Force symbol.

Decorating tutorial here.

my cake's design

It didn't work out like I hoped, so I just blended smeared the design into the icing already on the cake. I also dyed the cake blue! I thought it would be fun to surprise everyone with a white iced cake and blue interior. It did! Everyone loved it! My cake came out a bit more turquoise-y than the one below, which is the image from the recipe I found. I think it was because my cake mix was the box kind, not scratch made. The boxed vanilla is still a bit yellow too, not white.

Blue Velvet Cake "Pinspiration"

I didn't get many pictures because we were all busy having fun and chatting it up, but I did manage to get a few. It started raining for about 20-30 minutes during the party, so everyone was inside or on the porch. The guys turned on the Xbox and were zombies for a few rounds of Call of Duty, and all us girls sat on the porch just conversing with each other. Mostly poking fun at the guys and their game faces.

Dylon and Dwayne vs Bubba and Blake

All in all we had a good party. Most all the food was eaten, so we didn't have many leftovers. Except the cake, no one took any home for later.  :P  So, now I have half of a half-sheet cake sitting on my table. I'm trying very hard to NOT eat it all. (Yeah right!)

So, who wants to come over and eat some blue vanilla cake with me?

A new begining...

And a new chapter.

Well folks, I know its been far in between since our last few visits. I have news for you that will lead to more posts from me in the next month or two, possibly longer. I'm hoping this transition into the next chapter of mine and my husband's life will help me to write more. I think the next month or so will be interesting for us all though.

Ok, I'll spill the beans now.

We're moving! Into our own house!

Its a rental still, but its just me and the hubs! His mom will stay with us for a week or so until we can get her situated in her own place too. But overall its just the two of us again! I'm so excited!

I've scrolled through countless pages on Pinterest looking for home decor ideas and DIY improvements for people who rent their homes. I've got a lot of inspiration and ideas and this is a good opportunity to use them. So, I've decided to document the move as we go, and there's no better way than with photos! So the next few posts will be filled with photos and all our new adventures in this new house.

Today, for example, I signed the lease and got the keys! I have to make an extra copy because the renter couldn't find their spare, and gave me her set.

I'm excited for tomorrow too, because I'm getting a lot of the bigger furniture moved in, and the cleaning process begins. The walls will get a good wipe-down, the floors will get mopped, and the bathroom will get a thorough cleaning. Even though its not necessary, I'm a stickler for a new bathroom being as clean as I can get it. The only thing I don't like about this house is the bathtub is army green and there is only one closet. I can work with the one closet, but the tub is really just plain ugly. LOL!

That's it for tonight folks, more to come on the moving process. I'll try to show the empty house, the moving, and the decorating; and hopefully by then I will have worked the blog into a more routine thing for me, and will post daily life happenings and all that fun stuff.

Night world! ~Em

Job!?

What more can I say? Should I say yay, or nay?

I have a job. At McDonald's. ...yay?
Glad to be getting a check, no doubt. But I sure do wish it was somewhere I wouldn't bring the smell home.

I'm not a big fry person, and I know that that smell follows you everywhere. So, my showers just doubled and my hubby time just split in half. :(

I'm glad to be able to afford to do what I want, but I do wish it could be the same hours as my hubby so I can still see him often enough. Neither of us wants to become like those couples that just get to kiss each other as we pass through the doorway to / from work.

I'm hoping this job will last until the new year at the least. In 2013 I'm totally revamping my life. (if at all possible) I'd like to be able to move home and work closer to my family. City life is not for me.

Anyway, just thought I'd update some things. Again, I'm trying to remember this blog and my other accounts, I don't want to neglect any followers that I have. Hopefully you'll hear from me soon.

Peace and love~ Em

Moving in..........and on!

Well, I know its been a while, but I'm back with updates!I've been busy lately and here is why:

So, I've moved twice within 6 months time already. I'm sooooo hating cardboard boxes!

First move:

My mother-in-law moved in with us, because she was worried about staying by herself. I'm cool with that, she cooks constantly which means I don't have to. My husband and I left our 1 bedroom behind, and upgraded to a 2 bedroom, 2 bath apartment.

Second move: 2 months later-

My husband's little sister and their dad also move in with us!
My father-in-law had an altercation with his "live-in" and they went their separate ways. Poor lil sis got the worst of it, she can't find any of her things in those boxes!
For another 2 months we all stayed in the 2 bedroom together. That's 5 people under 1 tiny roof. Leanna (sister) and Matt (dad) stayed in the living room while we waited for a 3 bedroom to become available in the same apartment complex.

         So now we are in our 3 bedroom!

Yay!... Kinda...

Boxes everywhere, and looking for some new furniture, since the in-laws kinda have none. All my stuff that was in our 1 bedroom living room is now in our bedroom. So needless to say, I have a lot to do.

But first I have projects to complete!

A friend of my husbands offered to install our cable in exchange for painting a yard game for him. Its the bean-bag-toss game we all played as kids, but he called it corn hole. I had never heard it called that. I am about to finish them up today, and then I can put the last clear seal coat on our kitchen table and we can set it up. Post on that later, :)

Then (maybe) I can get started with getting everything better organized in the house. I have a lot of stuff to go to the yard sale we are planning on having.

Well, that's all for now, I'm going to try to make more regular updates, and give you lots of diy photos of the projects I'm working on. For now you will have to settle with my phone's camera, though. I can not find my point and shoot in all the mess of unpacking.

Later Loves!