Rug & Pillow Inspired Paintings

I finished the project for the left side of our fireplace today. I painted three more pics - two inspired by Pottery Barn pillows and one more abstract flower from our rug. Here are the pillows:

It took about an hour and a half to finish all three, so then went on a frame-finding mission. I found these frames for the I-can't-believe-it-price of $6 each. They are very similar to the $36 gallery frames I love from PB. Granted, I had to go to FOUR different Dollar General locations, and the fact that there are that many in a twenty-five mile radius says something about our area, I'm sure. (Three of them were in Mattoon!)

Anyway, here are the pics, and I'm actually pretty happy with how they turned out. When Shonn gets them up, I'll post what it looks like totally finished.

Now, onto the next project: a rustic sign for the right side of our fireplace!

Gotta love clearance!

So, before I wore them for the first time, I simply had to share my amazing bargain purchase. Check out my new Steve Madden riding boots! (And please don't ask me what one is supposed to ride while wearing them - I don't know.) Originally $129, I got these babies on Saturday for $15!

Here's my winter look (please note I am kindly inviting Spring to Sullivan with my bright yellow), and I just can't wait to wear them with a cute spring dress.

Crafts gone Awry

We need something for above our bed and also to the sides of our fireplace. I've been looking for just the right thing for about 2 years now and can't find anything I really like. So tonight I decided to take matters into my own hands, (never the best plan) and here are the results...

1. Using Pottery Barn catalog for inspiration for some art above our bed, I've been kinda drawn to this whole nesty-whimsical-bird look. There's a cute pillow in PB with the definition of "nest" on it that I love. There's also this great piece of iron wall art with a branch I thought looked cool and would be pretty easy to paint, so I put the two together, got out my VERRRY dusty art supplies, and went from there.

Here's the result:

I used an old frame I've had for awhile and I repainted the mat to match the colors of the pic. When I got it all assembled in the frame, I realized I wasn't totally in love with how it turned out, but figured it would do for now. Then I made the mistake of trying to staple-gun the backing, which resulted in lovely broken glass, as depicted above. I'm such an idiot. Oh well! It was fun, and I was only using that frame because we already had it. I really wanted a weathered-cream colored one, so yay!, now I can go shopping!

2. The second project I started came from the patterns on our rug plus another PB pillow, this one with an embroidered bird.

Here is one of the flowers from the rug:

And here are three of the pictures so far. I tea-stained the paper and then used acrylics to kinda free-hand the images. They're okay. I have three more to do: 2 birds and one more flower, and then I think I'm going to get some frames in the style of PB gallery and do a 2 X 3 arrangement on the left side of the fireplace.

At least we'll have something on the wall until I find what I really want.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Last night, Shonn and I made homemade, heart-shaped pizza for our third Valentine's Day in a row. The dogs were hoping for a taste-test, but all they got was love. (You can clearly see how much they would have preferred the pizza.)

xoxoxoxox

Delicious Snack

I am one of those girls who never has enough time to make the cute snacks for the parties we go to, so tonight I was so happy when I got hungry for a snack while watching Criminal Minds reruns because it led to the creation of this delicious and super-easy treat. I love sweet and salty mixes, and this hits that spot along with being pretty cute. (The only thing it's missing is healthy, but who cares.)

All it takes is two kinds of microwavable popcorn products from Orville Redenbacher - an Ultra Butter and the product below called Microwavable Caramel Popcorn. (2 for $3!)


First make a bag of ultra buttery popcorn and put it in a big bowl. Then, make the bag of popcorn from the caramel popcorn mix and dump it into a microwavable safe bowl. Cut the caramel into squares, put it on top of the popcorn and put it back in the microwave for about a minute and half. Stir it up and let it cool for about 3 minutes. Dump it on top of the buttery popcorn and mix it together.

Yum!

Studious Dogs.

This is so terrible and embarrassing but I don't even care. Instead of correcting our dogs, I take their picture when they're bad. (It's just that they look so smart here! Annd these instances were on separate occasions, I might add...)

We are sooo in trouble when we have kids. At least Shonn is.

Super Super-Bowl

We had so much fun at our friends Jayme & Aaron's house for the superbowl. There was so much great food and they even had necklaces for the Saints and Colts. They also had a scoreboard where you sign a square for the score at the end of each quarter. Aaron sold a lot, but we made the night even more exciting with random games to win the left over squares.

Game #1: Who can stand in the snow the longest? Prize: 3 squares on the scoreboard.

Jess was getting a little out of control, so we left her alone for awhile...

Game #2: Who can eat the most jalepenos? No pictures because I was involved...unfortunately.

Game #3: Rock, Paper, Scissors tournament. Here, Aaron and Jess go head-to-head. Please note that Jess was the first quarter winner. (See her yellow ribbon?)

Final Rock, Paper, Scissor bracket results... I won! Prize: 3 squares on the scoreboard!Shonn was the third quarter winner for $5. So proud. It was a blast. Thanks, Holts!