Friday is Sale Day!

In case you didn't hear, I'm hosting a fabulous jewelry trunk sale. SALE! Am I the only one who gets excited by that word? I love me a good deal. I have marked down my inventory up to 75% off. Most pieces are 50% off, but everything is marked down. This isn't cheap, plastic, ugly jewelry either. I'm talking high quality, gorgeous stuff. I only use Swarovski crystal, sterling silver, pearls, and genuine gemstones. There will be plenty of beautiful jewelry like this.

Sigh. I love that huge Sapphire crystal. The facets catch the light and sparkle for days. Mix in a some yummy yellow Citrine and green Malachite to anchor and you have one gorgeous necklace.

And how about these?

It's so hard to pick a favorite (because I love them all), but these earrings are up there. I designed them for a friend who was a bridesmaid. We made hers with chocolate crystal to match her deep brown dress. I loved the design so much, I made another pair with deep olive crystal. They are paired with olive and gold colored pearls, all dangling from a gold filigree component. Swoon. I love green and gold together. They are such a perfect match.

And look at these. Black goes with everything. Paired with sterling silver, you can't go wrong. The slider box at the bottom make for some beautiful visual interest. You could wear these with jeans, or dress them up with something more fancy. Did I mention the fish hooks are sterling silver as well? Have you every bought a pair of inexpensive earrings that hurt to wear? That's because the metal is cheap and cheap metal irritates the skin. You won't have that problem with sterling silver (with the rare exception of an allergy).

Do you need a invitation emailed to you with all the details? Shoot me your email address and I'll happily send one your way. In addition to gorgeous jewelry, marked down to killer prices, I'll be running a special at the sale. Buy 3, get 1 FREE. That's right people, you can get free stuff. What's not to love? Bring a friend and split the order.

The sale is Friday, April 1 from 11am to 8pm at my house. I specifically wanted evening hours to accommodate working moms (I feel ya!). I really hope to see you there.

Friday Framents

Have you tried Velveeta in lieu of cheese in Macaroni and Cheese lately? Don't. It's gross. My 4-year old even told me she didn't like and asked if she had to finish eating her dinner. I didn't make her.

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Blanche is into EVERYTHING lately. She likes to open cabinets, drawers, pull things out, unroll toilet paper, and snatch anything within reach. It's exhausting.

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It snowed today. That made me sad.

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At dinner we like to talk about our days. It's pretty cute to have BG look at me and ask "Mom, how was your day?"

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BG is still sucking her thumb at night. Does anyone have any ideas on how to get her to stop?

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And last but not least, I'm having a jewelry trunk sale on April 1. I'm cleaning out my stash of (beautiful and lovingly handcrafted) jewelry at huge discounts. If you want to come, let me know and I'll send you an invite/details.

Closet Reveal

We recently remodeled our closet. We did most of the work over a few weekends, including New Year's Eve. We took down the dreaded white wire shelving (I hate that stuff) and built custom shelving. This is the final, fabulous result.

Our closet started out like this. I forgot to take a picture before I took everything out, but you can imagine. It had plain white walls, white wire shelves with one rod. There was one shelf with blankets and boxes falling on top of each other. We had shoe organizers on the floor but they were never put away or organized well.

Our closet is actually pretty good sized, but with only one shelf all the way around, it was not a good use of space. Plus, have I mentioned how much I hate those wire racks. They are ugly and the shelves don't hold things properly because stuff falls through. Stupid wire shelves...

Anyway, after we pulled out the wire shelves we patched the walls since whoever installed the horrid wire shelves did a crappy job. Then I got to work painting. We picked out a bright apple green color. As I was putting on the first coat, I was REALLY nervous because it's was looking very 80's neon green. The second coat helped a lot, as did giving my eyes a break from the space.

JM custom built all the shelving. He worked numbers and layouts for days. He would figure and figure, then ask me if 12 shoe spots was enough. I would ask if we could fit anymore. He would go back, figure some more and come back and ask if 24 shoes spots was enough. I would ask for more and he would go figure some more. He ended up building these floor to ceiling shelves to accommodate shoes. We put two hanging rods on each side of the closet.

This is after both shoe columns were installed.

Next, we put up the shelves above hanging rods. They are much deeper than the old shelves, and hold so much more.

The middle section between the shoe columns has several shelves and cubbies to hold a variety of things. We painted all the shelves before assembling, which JM cursed afterwards. When it was all installed, that meant a little more sanding and touch ups on the paint. This was also a pain.

It looked a lot better after the touch ups. I was feeling better about the color, but it still felt pretty bright. I kept reminding myself that after all our clothes and other stuff was in, not much of the color would actually show through.

We painted the top shelves. Things are coming together nicely!

Finally! The time came to put all our stuff back into the closet. It was about time. We lived with our entire closet contents in our bedroom for two weeks. It was wearing on both of us. I actually had a real place to put my bags while not in use.

We found these great milk crates that fit perfectly in the cubbies we built. If you look close, they actually have a cute, but subtle, floral print. Love it!

We also put in these woven baskets on the narrow shelves to store our other stuff. All those things that need homes, but aren't pretty to look at. Things like bras and hosiery and belts.

The final result! This is my side of the closet. Two glorious hanging rods, hung at different levels so I can hang my shirts and dresses without them dragging on the floor. See all those shoes lined up so prettily? I love that. Luckily, since my shoes are smaller than JM's, I can fit three shoes per slot, which means I get to keep my large shoe collection. Hurray!

In case you were wondering, I really do color coordinated my clothes. It makes it easier to find what I want. The are organized by color, then sleeve length. You may also notice that most my clothes are solid colored. I'm pattern-phobic. I try, but I'm not great at patterns.

JM's side of the closet also has two rods, but at equal lengths. He gets the shoe cubbies at the top of both columns because he is much taller than me. I get the bottoms. Since he is such a nice guy, he gives me more than half of the shoe space.

Isn't it pretty!? We left a large opening at the bottom of the middle cubbie space for laundry baskets. Why is it in the pictures you see of beautiful closets, they never have laundry baskets? Is it because they are carefully concealed or do they just leave it out because it doesn't photograph well?

The other big change we did was take off the door. I was a little nervous about always having our closet exposed to our bedroom, but I love it. It makes the closet feel so much more open. Loving it! Let's do one last look at the before and after shots. Left, before, Right, after.

Bitty Leprechaun Lass

I made shirts for the family for St. Patrick's Day. I used freezer paper and my Silhouette to cut the shamrocks. Then I bleached the designs into the shirts. I made one for each of the girls and one for JM, but he wouldn't let me take a picture of him.

Blanche burst into tears the minute I tried to take her picture, not sure why. So this is the best picture I could get of her.

Both of the girl's shirts say "Kiss Me, I'm Cute". BG loved her new shirt and was asking to wear it for days.

For dinner we didn't do anything Irish, but I did make rainbow pizza for dessert. After school BG was thrilled about Leprechauns. She learned all about them at school and was so excited to tell us all about it. They found a pot of "gold" and she was so excited about all of it. All night long she was looking for Leprechauns. One found it's way into our house and even colored our milk green at dinner!

Birthday Wishes

Blanche is nearly 14 months old. I thought it was about time to post some birthday pictures.

She got a new birthday dress, which I thought was adorable. JM told me she looks like a little old lady. Admittedly, when she wears a cardigan with it, she does kind of look like a little old lady.

The cake was made by my sister-in-law. She made a cute little smash cake for Blanche too. Blanche wasn't so sure about it. She spent more time playing with the frosting than actually eating the cake. I think frosting in the hair is a sign of 1st birthday success.

She had a fun time ripping the wrapping paper. One of her gifts was a baby doll. It was so cute to see her grab the bottle and immediately try and feed her baby.

Happy Birthday Baby!

Old Friends

When I say old friends, I mean people I have been friends with for a long time, not people who are old. Then again, none of us are getting any younger....

I went to lunch today with one of my oldest friends. I also haven't seen him in a several years. As it turns out, he is one of those friends that you can not see for years at a time and still have great, deep, thought-provoking conversations with. Love those kinds of friends. We had a great time. We talked about jobs, family, religion, and life. He is soon moving to Texas and making the rounds of his friends to say Hello and Goodbye before he leaves the state for good.

Mario and I met when we were 12. Yup, 6th grade people. I had a crush on him so I did what any 12 year-old girl would do- I started talking to his friend. We ended up all becoming friends and I have fond memories of hanging out at the The Pit. The Pit was basically a big dirt field where kids rode their bikes. It was thusly called because there was a large crater in the middle of the field. The Pit is now a condo complex.

We walked to school back in those days. On the way to school was Mike's single story rambler. One morning when my neighbor and I approached, Mario, Mike and Jesse were jumping off the roof and invited us to join them. So we did. We climbed up from the back of the house, walked over the pitch of the roof and jumped off, landing in the front yard. We did this until we had to leave to make the school bell.

Mario's mom didn't like me much. Funny thing, she didn't like a girl calling her 12-year old son, yet I did. As many mothers do, she viewed her son as perfectly sweet and innocent and thought I was a bad influence on him. I know this because she told me on the phone once "You are a bad influence on my son." I was always a little scared of her from then on.

Mario's family moved across town during Jr. High and we ended up at difference schools from them on. Yet, we remained in contact with each other. We each had our own circle of friends, but still maintained a close friendship. We both grew up, I went to college and he went on a mission. I wrote him and told him when I met, then married JM. He once wrote me a letter, while on his mission, telling me I put the "ass in class". JM and I still laugh about and quote it today.

We kind of lost touch after that. His phone number has always been in my contact list, but rarely used. We last got together when I was pregnant with BG, 5 years ago. But today, we reconnected. It was so much fun. It reminded me why we became friends in the first place. He is sweet and funny, thoughtful and deliberate. We have each walked our own paths, but still have much in common. It was great to see him again and share some of each other's lives.

PS- He is single. If anyone is interested, let me know and I'll hook you up!