Happy Belated V-Day!!

I know I was suppose to come back and share with you just ONE more V-day decor project to add to the arrangement that I had started in my entryway!!

Remember this:

Wall colors are more true to color here (natural light helps!):

Ya well my busy lazy schedule has overtaken and I never completed it!! It was suppose to be a book page wreath inspired from HERE:

Good thing is, it's not really "Valentiney" so I still can make it (crossing my fingers sometime this week!)!!  Sorry my peeps but just keeping it real.  You know because "real life" has me working 40 plus hours a week and PJ's and a movie with 2hotty seems so much nicer at the end of a day then making a book page wreath. But I'm not a quitter and I will get it done therefore I've extended Valentines day into Valentines "month".  Your welcome.  HA!

What else have I (we) been up to lately?!?!

- Well we've been doing lots of shopping:

(I found this cute cross to hang over our front door at a local boutique and I heart it so much!!)



I absolutely LOVE anything driftwood!  I found this heart at Marshall's and I am obsessed with it!  It will find a permanent home in our bedroom but for now it is hanging in the kitchen:

These cute elephant salt and pepper shakers (Any DIY bloggers obsession: white ceramic animals. HA!):

- Booking a "girls only" trip to Panama City, FL that I'm super excited about!!! Just have to say I have a brave hubby (he suffers from "paronoia"!! lol.  Everything will be just fine. lubyou!)!!  Can't wait for some cold mojitoes in hand and the feeling of sand between my toes. AHHH! BTW, have you been?!?!  Have any recommendations on places to go/eat/do?!?!

- Hosting "date-nights" with our friends (LOVE THEM):







 There's nothing like drinking a few bottles of wine (and beer) and playing some games to start off the night:

I think the best part of the night was when we decided to play a "how well do you know your spouse" game!! Let's just say things got very interesting and I have never laughed so hard in my life!! BEST GAME EVER!! Highly recommend it......only if you have a good sence of humor otherwise it can lead to your spouse wanting a DIVORCE!! LOL!!:

(I think the question(s) here were: "What does your spouse buy alot of (I think)?" 2hotty said "purses"! lol.  Another question was: "Which body part does your spouse think is unproportional to their body?" This can get really funny here! LOL.  I said his "ears"!! Obviously he wasn't thinking the same thing!! LOL. Minus one point for me!!)

- I still have to share our new couch pictures and a review because WE LOVE IT so much!! Super comfy!!

- I also got the flu last week.  I know terrible right?!?!  First a bad sinus infection and then a week later I get the flu!! I blame my husband and co-workers!! We've all cought the nasty bug...UGH!!  Who wants to disinfect my house?!?!

This week I'm feeling MUCH better (or "Mo Betta") as 2hotty would say. lol.) and now I'm ready to start tackling more DIY around our little abode again!!

Enter the word "ORGANIZATION" here!!!  Yup that is what we've been up to lately.  It was out of desperate needs.  We couldnt take living the way we were anymore!! I blame it on the pit stops to my parents house.  We still have a ton of our stuff there that have been making its way home slowly but surely.  When I say making its way home I mean making its way into a cluttered mess in our spare bedrooms.  Wanna see?!?! (I'm warning you its BAD!!):

Ya our "stuff" has really taken over!!
Who you ganna call?!?!? Ghos----- NO......IKEA!!!  Yes what better place than Ikea to help with my organization needs!

- Our friend did me a HUGE favor and picked up a few things at IKEA:

He even got me this sheep skin rug (by total surprise) that I mentioned in my "Ikea Wish List" post a few weeks ago:

Love it!!!

THANK YOU CHRIS......YOU'RE THE BEST!!!

 More specifically the closets in our house are getting a HUGE makeover.  The coat closet, my closet, and 2hotty's closet are getting a major overhaul.  I am over the moon because the taught of opening our coat closet before scared me.  EVERYTHING was shoved in there to a point of NO RETURN!!

2hotty got to work taking everything out (you have no idea what we found in there: wedding photo albums, serving bowls, hardwood floor samples, books, etc.! Ya it was bad.).

Here is our coat closet gettin painted by my lovely Valentine:

Here is a "sneak peak" picture:

"MY" closet also got the same treatment and I am loving on it so far:

So this is what we've been up to lately.  Kinda all over the place.  Some work and lots of PLAY!  That is why we have more unfinished projects around here than finished......yikes! the story of my life.   That said the word "organization" has been on the brain lately, because if my house is in shambles so is my life!! They say life is about balance......which I am having a hard time doing right now!!  Life is good though........CRAZINESS and all!!

So what have you been up to lately?!?!  Any makeovers?!?!  Any unfinished projects?!?  I bet yours are all finished unlike mine (its just I choose to be a lazy no good person!! haha!)?!!!  Any party hosting?!?! Know of any good games?!?!  Any divorces (wait dont answer that!)?!?!? How was Valentines Day?!?!  What did you give/recieve from your sig other?!?! Tell me I'm not the only one with organization on my brain!! HA! :-)

xoxo JD



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Fingerprint Heart

Yesterday I showed you my little setup that I have going on in the entryway of my house this Valentines Day. I used a few things that I already owned..........

...........and went to work giving each item a little makeover to make it more "Valentiney" so to speak. 

This what I last left you with:

I just covered the glass vase with burlap (already owned) tied with some yarn and ribbon I purchased from Michael's.  The votive holders also got made over simply by wrapping left over yarn round and round, secured with some tape.

After all of this it still looked a bit sparse......so I just had to add MORE!! 

Next on the list was to update the picture in the frame. 

It was gifted to me by my Aunt with a baby picture of her son, my Godchild (He is now five going on six years old.......just was too darn lazy to ever change the picture! HA!).

This is what I came up with:

(Warning: Pictures taken at night therefore lots of shadows and weird lighting.  Ugh!)

I cut out silhouettes of Scott and I from a picture we ended up NOT using for our Christmas card this year:

 I printed this picture out:

Cut out the silhouettes, traced it on black construction paper then cut and glued em' onto scrapbook paper:

Above our silhouettes are mine and 2hotty's fingerprints shaped into a heart (can I get an awww?!?! No?!?!....Ok!!?):

You have NO IDEA what I went through to get 2hotty to do this with me! HA!!  There was allot of rolling of the eyes and muttering under the breath (but he still loves me anyway!)!!! 

I just noticed it's crooked too (have to fix that ASAP before my OCD kicks in!!!)!!

We did have to practice a bit because many of our attempts looked a bit blobby (due to 2hottys big ol' fingers!!)!!

This one turned out decent HA!:

I also added the bird (because she was way too cute to leave out!):

Here is what I did to make the ornaments:

For the pompons I used the "fork" method:

 (CLICK HERE for a great tutorial especially if using non-fuzzy yarn!!)

Just wind the yarn around a fork about 35-40 times:

Then grab some fishing line (or a piece of yarn) and put it through the middle prong of the fork and tie into a knot:

Tie until tight and pull yarn off of the fork:

This is what it looks like finished (if using fuzzy yarn that is):

I made a few of them in both colors and hung them randomly on the branches.  

Next I added these "key to my heart" ornaments:

I followed THIS METHOD:

I found the skeleton key on Martha Stewart's website using this template FOUND HERE!!

Again, just traced onto black scrapbook paper, cut out, and taped to the front of the paper ornament. 

I also hole punched the key and used fishing line to hang the ornament on the branches:

Just a few pompons and paper ornaments needed to bedazzle this Valentines Day arrangement:

I love the way everything turned out......and it was cheap too!!

I think everything here set me back maybe 10 "dollhairs" (that IS including the burlap I already had on hand):

Not too shabby, huh?!?!

I have one more project to finish that will be placed on the wall above

to fill up the empty space a bit and make the whole thing come together:

Yay for the month of LOVE!!!

So tell me, are you decorating for V-day this year?!?!?!  This is a first for me......I had a lot of fun with it though!! How will you be spending V-day (I hope it's with someone special)?!?!  Are you planning on doing something special for your special someone this year?!?!  I hope my someone special is planning something special for me this year...HA!...just kiddin...............well not really!! HA!

xo JoAnna D.

Valentines Day Arrangement

Hello my lovies. I am back and ready to attack.  Attack?!?!  Yes, attack some Valentines Day decor that have been brewing in my head for the last few weeks.  Last time I had shared with you some of our weekend highlights which included a very much needed trip to the "city" (as in Madison, WI. HA!).  We sorta live in the country so a trip to the "city" requires a bit of a road trip (about 50 minutes). 

One thing we went on an adventure for was to find a brand (spankin) new couch to put in our family room.  Guess what?!?!  We bought one........and its here.......and we LOVE it (check that off of my January Resolutions list!! Wahoo! A "new couch" post to come soon.)

Speaking of loving things.......I'm totally loving on my V-day decor that I have been working on these last couple of days. I stopped in at one of my favorite craft stores, (not CRAP store as my hubby calls it. HA!) Michael's, and picked up a few things to get me started.  I wanted to use things I already had around the house but was missing the frilly glittery stuff. 

The only place in the house (so far) that I find I can really decorate for the seasons/holidays is the entryway (we don't have much furniture yet so this space works for now).  Its a "Plain Jane"  with nothing really in it but this wine holder table I got a few years ago (I use to use it as my makeup vanity):

It works for now until I can find something else to replace it!!

To go with the "work with what you have" montra I've been repeating to myself these last couple of months, I was able to find a few things lying around the house such as this big huge glass vase (thrifted at Goodwill this past summer), some candle votive holders (wrapped with green yarn I used for Christmas decor), and a pretty frame with a picture of my Godchild (who is now five years old. HA!).  So this was the starting off point to use for my Valentines Day decor because like I said above I wanted to use what I already owned and not spend a whole bunch of "doll hairs" (Just ignore the  ceramic bird and owl ornaments -they were just hanging out or doing whatever it is that birds do.....maybe a lunch date?!?! HA! ).

 ...

First I started with the vase and perhaps scratched my head a few times with confusion because the "blue glass" looked a bit too summery/springy to me:

I wanted to come up with a solution to cover it up!!  At first I thought of putting stuff in it such as feathers, balls of yarn, or a whole lotta ribbon.  But right away nixed those ideas because I wanted to keep this project inexpensive.  "Cheap" is the new "black" ya'll!  HA! I remember reading another blogger's post who had burlapped a whole wall in her sons room when I had that "Ah Ha" moment (that everyone keeps talking about).  Thanks to Katie Bower's post, "put a burlap on it" was stuck in my head the rest of the month and when I looked at the vase I thought "YES thank you KATIE" I will put a burlap on it!! 

I had bought some burlap to use for another project and decided I probably would have enough left over:

 2hotty (my hubby Scotty) helped me with the "putting ribbon around it" part.  He held the burlap tight around the opening as I wrapped some one-dollar red ribbon I bought at Michaels around the top:

It looked a bit messy, so I just pulled the burlap up as tightly as I could (think of Pamela Anderson's motto when getting in a dress. HA!)

 I also added more ribbon for a pop of color and texture:

This Martha Stewart yarn is AWESOME.  Its fuzzy and sparkly and I LOVE it.

I bought it in two colors - red and pink.  I think they were $4 dollars each but I had two 40% off coupons so essentially I got them both for the price of one:

After I burlaped my glass vase I put it back on the table to see what else I could do with it:

I had leftover branches from a previous arrangment (also involving this glass vase). 

Remember this arrangement from Christmas?!?!:

I grabbed the branches (I'm kinda a hoarder and didn't bother to throw them out yet. HA!) and sprayed them with white spray paint to give em' a "birchwood" look.

I forgot to snap an in between picture of what the branches looked like before I started to put stuff on them but you can sorta see the white branches peeking through in this picture:

Next I wanted to embellish the branches so I made a few ornaments:

Some pompon's using the red and pink fuzzy yarn:

and this "key to my heart" book page ornament:

And this is what it all looked like after I was finished:

As you can tell I also took the green yarn off of the candle votive holders and gave em' a makeover:

So with a few things such as burlap, yarn, and ribbon I was able to turn this:

into this (so far):

(I wish I could figure out lighting when taking pictures in this room. Ugh! Sorry for the horrible pictures.....I'm still new at all of this!!)

I say "so far" because I still have to add my picture frame to the mix and something else to go above the arrangement on the wall to get rid of some of that empty space (it's looking a bit like Tyra Bank's forehead! Sorry Tyra I still love you......just not your forehead)!!

So stay tuned. 

Next post will be on how I made the pompon's and key ornaments and what I put into my pretty little frame to make it more "Valentiney" (Is that even a word?!?!  It is now! HA!).

******Psst: A little update on my mom.  I had mentioned that she was going into surgery last week.  Well surgery went great and she is in the comfort of her own home recovering (and will do so for about six weeks.)! For those of you wondering she had a Colectomy (removal and reconstruction of part of her colon) due to some complications with Diverticulitis (say that word ten times fast. phew!)!  Many would say this surgery isn't that serious but it was scary none the less!! I was scared and nervous.  Anytime someone (especially if that someone is your own flesh and blood) is put under any anaesthetics there are risk/complications involved, so this surgery was not taken lightly by me.  That said, I am relieved and glad everything went as planned and am so thankful for everyone who kept her in their prayers and encouraged me with their words of kindness.  You have no idea how much that meant!! I am blessed with such wonderful friends and family in my life!!! Love you!

xoxo JoAnna D.