Jewelry Holder...Coming Soon!

This was one of the first projects I saw on Centsational Girl's blog that I actually thought I could make myself...

And now MONTHS later...I've done it!  I just forgot to take pictures.  So I'll let you stare at her pretty one and then show you mine tomorrow.  Here's how she made hers.

Grateful

Today I am grateful.  For friends who are willing to drop their plans and come to my rescue.  For friends who know just how to cheer me up.  For friends who know when to ask questions and when to just be my friend in silence.  For employees who are so much more than just employees.  Employees I'd rather call my friends and heroes.  Who take pride in our stores and understand our vision. My family.  And today I'm grateful, most of all, for my dear, sweet, incredibly handsome, loves-me-more-than-anything husband.

Reworked Necklaces

Isn't it great what some ribbon can do for a couple of black bead necklaces you're getting tired of?

$5 Challenge @ Living with Lindsay

I took Lindsay's $5 Challenge and made something new for my little hallway!  I've wanted a mirror up here forever so I could make sure I don't have anything in my teeth before I leave the house.

Here's what I bought at the dollar store:  The only round mirror was this "Fashion Mirror" that had the foam soccer ball frame around it.  Sorry I forgot to take a picture of it first...it was beautiful.  So I just took the foam off around it.  Easy-peasy. 

I also bought these two bird pictures.  They're made of cheap metal and were too precious to pass up.   

Then I bought some twine.  

I also cut a big circle out of a Honey Nut Cheerios box.  I know cereal boxes weren't on Lindsay's approved items list but I hoped she wouldn't mind.  I needed something extra to put on the back of the mirror so I could make the mirror seem bigger than it was.

Back:

Front:

It's kinda hard to tell in the picture, but the twine is actually in three tiers.  I did 3 layers of twine closer to the mirror and then two and then just one layer around the outside.

I also wrapped twine around the bird pictures to tie them in with the mirror.  Just wrapped and hot glued.

Love the end result!

Office to be!

An office for me!  I've decided I need to use one of the back rooms of our bookstore as an office so I'm not doing all my paperwork at the front counter.  Here's a quick peak at the room now:

It's your typical used-to-be-a-bathroom/storage/stock/kitchen/break room mess.  There is a floor underneath all that, it's a not-so-lovely tile.  So first on my list is to get a rug down.  Hopefully that will add some comfort to a bathroom-turned-storage-mess room.  I have a desk at home I'm bringing so I'm hoping the rug will be my only big purchase.

Spent some time on overstock.com today looking at rugs and found myself drawn to the black and white ones...here are my favorites.

I like this one because it's called Snow White...

 

Option #1

This one is pretty and I like the ivory color instead of pure white

Option #2

I love the bold print on this one!

Option #3

This one is gorgeous.  Just over my price range, though.

Option #4

This one is pretty, too.

Option #5

This one is obviously not black and white, but I love it, too!

Option #6

So...what do you think?  Now that I've done this post I'm thinking maybe I should get a really colorful rug since the room's pretty blah and maybe having colorful rug will make me enjoy working more?  I don't know...

Kids Books

We've been working on the kids section in the Warner Robins store all year for a while.  Finally finished up today!  I LOVE the new layout and how much room we have!

It feels SO GOOD to finally get something done!

Quick New Look

This weekend, in about 10 minutes, Shane and I changed a few things in the den.  Here's the redone-not-too-long-ago before:

And the after-this-weekend:

I got some $1.50 letters at Hobby Lobby and Mod Podged some scrapbook paper to them.  I think I finished them in November--just hadn’t gotten around to hanging them up yet!

I moved the plates to the opposite wall and added a couple more.  Shane is such a great husband.  He put up the Gottwals and my plates.

I love that the plates filled in a bald spot on the wall but since they're white they keep it from looking overcrowded.

Here's a before shot...not too bad, just...bald.

A quick note about hanging plates...there are lots of different ways to do it, but we just went with classic plate hangers.  I wanted to be able to quickly and easily take the plates down for when we use them since these are the platters that go with my everyday dishes.  I got my hangers at Hobby Lobby and Walmart.

 picture credit

Map Project #3

FINALLY got a picture of this thing.  Just a National Geographic map I've had forever (doesn't everyone have several old maps sitting in a drawer somewhere?) cut up and individually framed.  I originally got silver frames at Walmart for $1 each on clearance.  Turned out I didn't have enough so I got these plain black frames for $1.50 each (full price!) at Walmart.  I actually like them better than the original silver ones.

I've been going back and forth about where to hang it up and then today as I was walking from the kitchen to go upstairs I spied the perfect place in our living room.

What do you think?

This morning was...

wonderful and terrible.  Shane and I both had the morning off for the first time since...well, ever.  It was nice getting to spend extra time together, especially since we got some sad news from some close friends.  And then more bad news from other friends.  And then more bad news.  It's just not the best day.

We went to Lane for lunch, a treat which we both enjoyed...Shane had never been and I hadn't been in several years.  Here's Shane trying to ignore me while I take pictures...

I have the best husband.

Not much else to say...my heart is too heavy to make sure this post makes sense or even care.  Please pray for Rachel and Ben who lost their unborn baby yesterday.

Oops and New Books

I accidentally fibbed yesterday.  I didn't take pictures of my other project to show you today.  But I have two good reasons: 1-I didn't realize it was time to charge my camera until I was heading out the door (that's when I usually remember to take pictures) and 1-I don't know where I'm going to put it yet.  It requires lots of little nails going in the wall and so I don't want to put it up until I'm pretty positive it's going to stay there for a while.

Anyway...I do want to mention a couple books I'm pretty excited about that are coming out next week.

Not my usual reading (ok, it kind of is...) but I love James Patterson's Maximum Ride series.  Fang is #6 and coming out Monday.

Like Julie Klassen, Liz Curtis Higgs has beautiful book covers.  I LOVED her last series set in Scotland and CAN'T WAIT for this new one...comes out Tuesday.  (She has a lot of great non-fiction Christian books, too.)

Kitchen Curtains {Mistreatments}

I know you all thought I forgot I had a house.  And I almost did.  With everything going on at the stores I haven't spent a whole lot of time thinking about making my house nicer and cozier.  But this weekend, with my mother-in-law's help I got one project completed. 

Meet my new kitchen curtains.

The window over my kitchen sink faces our backyard--our pool, storage shed, and acre of woods.  I haven't had curtains up in that window in the three and a half years we've lived here.  Lately, though, I've needed something.  I didn't want to do long panels that covered up the whole window because I love the light that comes in.  So I did what I usually do...borrow ideas from lots of different places and make something that works for me.

I started out with a long panel I got from Target on clearance.  It was about $9.00 (for two...not sure what I'll do with the other one yet). It was much too big for my little window, but I knew my mother-in-law would cut and hem it for me (because she's awesome) and I could get two smaller panels out of it.  Perfect.  It had the loops at the top but I wanted to use clip-on rings so I just turned it upside down

I made my own stencil by printing a big "G" onto card stock and cutting it out with my Xacto knife.  I used just regular $0.97 paint from Hobby Lobby instead of getting fabric paint.  I used one of those little foam brushes that are $3.00 for 12 or something...I had them already.  Maybe not the proper way to do things but good enough from me (and cheap!).  I painted the first G on and then waited for the paint on my stencil to dry before I started the second one. 

Here's the completed stenciling.  Am I the only one that uses my coffee table for projects like this?

After a quick trim and hem, I clipped on the rings and hung them on a tension rod I picked up at a discount home furniture store here in town (I got the ring clips there, too).

They look a little naked at the bottom since I did the stencil so high, but I'm thinking someday I'll come up with something brilliant to do...or someone else will come up with something brilliant and I'll borrow that idea!

I finished up another project, too, and hope to get it hung up tonight to show you tomorrow! 

Ribbon Cutting Today

We are celebrating our new Macon store with the Macon Chamber of Commerce, family, friends, and some local dignitaries at 5:00 today.  Should be great.

Grapes

I took a break from blogging this week.  After my last post about Chile, everything felt so trivial that I wanted to write about.  Last night I washed some grapes from Chile.  I bet you don't even pay attention to where the grapes you buy are from...but I do.  The small grapes from Chile are THE best.  Anyway...I hope to be back to my regular blogging next week. 

Chile

I was born in Chile.  My parents were missionaries there for thirteen years.  We moved to the States when I was six.

Please pray, pray, pray for the country.  The leadership.  The people.  The efforts to come in and help.

Please pray.

UPDATE:  Here's a translated letter we got from some friends...

Dear Brothers and Sisters [in Christ]:

A big thanks for your worries/concerns for this land that you served with so much love!

Continue praying for our country. Still there are no complete informations about the situation of the brothers and sisters in the regions that have been the most affected, Bio Bio and Maule. Talca is almost completely destroyed (my info: 200,000 people, talking about the buildings), Constitution (a smaller town), and the nearby towns.

There is no electricity nor water and communications are almost impossible.

Continue praying, only God can give comfort and strength to the many people in the sad moment of our beloved Chile.

UPDATE:  Here's another letter recieved from some friends:

It was a terrible earthquake. We were on vacation in front of the beach in Viña del Mar on a 22th floor with the kids at 3:48 am. I can not describe how was it, but in the south was more powerful and the people is suffering with the nonstop trembling (not sure if is the correct word) and social chaos. They don’t have basic services light, water for almost 2 days yet. In the same time we heard on a VHF radio that the sea was contracted 3 to 5 meters and we saw that and was a terrible feeling because it means tsunami! So it was hard but the one and only thing we were in mind was that Jesus was on control of our lives. Maybe someday we will talk about it and share how really was.