Weekend Worthy

You know those weekends you look back and think 'what did I do?' But with a smile on your face? No? You have no idea what I mean? Well, that's a shame. That is what this past weekend was for me. I did absolutely nothing significant, but at the same time I had an absolute blast!

My in-laws came into town to cheer me up which was pretty nice. I'm one of those lucky people that actually enjoy my in-laws, which is good because they come and visit quite frequently! LOL. After more than a TWO year boycott, I finally decided to join the gym again. It had been almost two months since my last "real" work-out (I put that in quotes because, while I do long walks often I rarely consider that a work-out) so it was time to get back on the wagon! We went and saw a movie at the theaters and ate amazing food (again, good I returned to the gym). ;)

Yesterday the hubby and I spent the entire day on the couch watching White Collar. It's a new series we started watching on Netflix. Gotta love those streaming services which allow you to watch endless amounts of shows you never knew you wanted to watch. Whatever, I enjoyed being a fat lazy bum with my two loves-Bailey & Ry. Oh, and the weather in Hampton Roads has warmed up. I'm not one of those people that get bad at a nice day in winter. I'll take the little break of scraping ice off my car in the morning, thank you!

All in all, this weekend has be raising my hands screaming Hallelujah for the good, but certainly not too memorable, time. (In case you're having trouble imagining what that might look like, I've trusted Google to illustrate it for me).

How was your weekend?

New and Old

Am I the only one who finds the new "old" or "vintage" trend interesting? It seems buying vintage or thrifting is a hot trend both in fashion and home decor. Take an old piece of furniture, like my dresser turned TV stand, buy it and turn it into a new piece by sanding it down and painting. Or take a 1950s inspired dress and remix it with a new belt, colored tights and booties and it's a classic outfit for the office. A mixture of old items, made new.

While at TJMaxx the other day I saw this beautiful bowl that looked vintage but it wasn't. The delicate flower detail with light blue coloring reminded me of my grandmother's kitchen wallpaper but there was something that just appealed to me. Screamed "take me!" So I took her home. She now sits on my jewelry stand giving my pearl necklace and skinny headbands a home.

 

The New Year

Did everyone have a wonderful Christmas? I sure did. Loads of time with family. :)

As you may have noticed, I have taken a little break from blogging the last two months. Without going too far into details, I do like to keep some of my private life private, I have had some personal things going on. In addition to those personal things, I have also been thinking a lot about who I am and what I want to write about.

I read a lot of blogs for work and personal. For my job, I love to work with home decor/DIY and even entertainment bloggers. But personally, I have been really stalking fashion blogs. One thing I have read over and over again with the fashion blogs, you have to be true to yourself and you can't feel the pressure to be anyone else or keep up for appearances sake.

I've been out of high school for over ten years; you think this mentality would have sunk in by now but it hasn't. Regardless, I'm just about there...now. So that's my New Years Resolution when it comes to the blog. It's not going to be defined because I will write about whatever is going on in my life. I'm excited for the clarity that I am finally starting to have and I'm looking forward to all the 2013 has to bring. Happy New Year folks! :)

Gallery Wall Update

Gallery walls have been huge in home decor this year! I took my first stab at a Gallery Wall awhile ago, and our wall has been like that since but now it's time for a change. I mean look at the amazing gallery wall in Shelley's House of Smith's home. With those as inspiration, mine needed to be revamped big time.

For my birthday my lovely sister-in-law bought me the amazing pictures I wanted for the guest bedroom revamp, and instead of using them for the guest bedroom I decided they were just TOO good looking to keep in that room! I mean come on....look at them again!

So with that, I decided to make a different gallery wall type thing for our living room. I wouldn't really call it a gallery wall per se, I think it has too much symmetry and is only 5 frames but I still like it.

On the hunt for inexpensive frames I was on my way to TJMaxx but stopped by Garden Ridge just to check it out. I don't go to Garden Ridge typically....actually, I never go there. But for some reason I had a hunch to stop by & Jiminey Crickets I'm stoked I did! I found four silver frames that were perfect for the 5x7 pictures for $5 each; but I took the photos that were suppose to be in the guest bedroom. So now I am going to use the left over frames/photos from the gallery wall in that room {another post}.



This is in our entry way!

In addition to sending the four 5x7 photographs, the seller also sent two 4x6 photographs. I used those in a frame for our entry way, so I can seem them each time I walk in the house. :) So what do you think? I'm pretty happy with it but it takes some getting use to since the previous one had TONS of photos to look at. But I think the new and improved wall has prettier photos!

Stylin & Profilin'

I have spent an inordinate amount of time stalking fashion blogs these last few weeks. It started while I was stuck in the house during Hurricane Sandy, then it became a crutch when I was drugged up on cold medicine. Regardless, I'm hooked.

So you know my love for Pinterest right? {I've shared this love affair many times on the blog} Well, while pinning some apparel options I found a pin from Audrey at Putting Me Together and decided to visit her site. What started as an innocent pin turned into hours of sifting through her blog. I've been looking at my wardrobe lately thinking of pieces I need to purchase to be "trendy" or look more professional for work (at Homes.com we have tons of good lookin' ladies who make our department feel more like a fashion runway then a marketing department).

But Audrey has helped me look at my wardrobe with a new set of eyes. Her series on building a remixible wardrobe is brilliant! It helped me develop a whole new appreciation for the current pieces I have and ways to rework them with others in my closet.

While her tips seem pretty basic, I just didn't think to look at my shirts and say 'oh, I can take this blouse and make you fit with these pants, plus add a belt!' Please don't tell me I'm alone on this one. Audrey is solely responsible for me waking up one morning and spending an hour on the floor in my closet jotting down 50+ different ideas with my current clothes. Okay...so maybe I am alone on this portion. ;)

The next person I've been spending WAY TOO MUCH time stalking is Kendi from Kendi Everyday. This is a wicked talented lady who snaps photos of her stylish attire each day (yup, each day) on her blog. She's also a boutique owner of Bloom in Texas, a speaker, photographer and all around great gal {listen to me, like we're besties or something}. Her style is pretty quirky which is something I've been accused of (I have friends who say 'oh, that is a Gill outfit'. So clearly I have a distinct style.), so I really enjoy the items she pairs together.

Both of these fine ladies have definitely helped bring new life to my wardrobe, which isn't actually all that stellar, but have challenged me to make it work with what I've got. My husband appreciates their inspiration completely! ;) So bottom line, I'll be sharing a couple of my new and improved outfit ideas on this blog. I'm not at all a fashion person, although I secretly hope to be as stylish as these ladies, but I do get a sense of joy when I've put together an outfit I'm especially proud of. May not come from a mannequin at any store I've ever seen, but it'll put a smile on my face which is just as awesome!

Entertainment Stand Revamp

While I totally love my decision to re-do the dresser turned entertainment stand for our living room, I have since questioned my decision to paint it the way I did. And while I was evaluating our living room for the pallet wall fail, I kept looking at the entertainment stand over and over again questioning it more. So what would a DIYer do when she's questioning something in her home? Revamp it! ;)

So that's what I did and boy am I glad I did!! I have some left over paint from my guest bedroom revamp {updates on that soon} so I used the same paint on our entertainment stand. Here's the before...

And here's the after!

Wasn't super tough, but it has been a decision I was struggling with because everyone else liked the green. For me though, with our green couches, curtains and green/blue focus wall {previously the fireplace wall} it seemed like too much green. And with my wonderul iKEA coffee table, the white goes very well.

Grateful

So this post was suppose to go out last week, but it didn't. I'm LAME! Been a little MIA lately, in case you couldn't tell. With Hurricane Sandy coming through the East Coast (no major damage on our end), me coming down will a killer flu (out for 7 days) and a death in the family, I just haven't been able to visit the blog. Sad face.

Luckily I'm starting to come out of my fog and just wanted to share with everyone how grateful I am. I've been watching on the news how devastating Hurricane Sandy has been to other areas and I'm really grateful that we did not see that side of her. There are many who are without homes, without power and/or can't contact their loved ones because of that. It's really scary to think so many are struggling right now.

Even with me being sick this past week, our refrigerator deciding to stop working and other stuff, I'm really grateful for the family and friends I do have. I'm really grateful for the roof over my head and the ability to feed my family. I am grateful for my relationship with God who always looks over me. I saw this sign the other day on Pinterest and I really hit home...

I have contemplated buying (or creating) something like this and putting it in a prominent place in my home. That way it'll always serve as a reminder that each day I need to remember what I have and be grateful. What are you grateful for?

Photo source: Crafty Scrappy Happy