Hair Cut

Dear Lilly from Cold Case,

You probably never read my first letter to you, back when I was interested in a hair swap, but I just wanted to let you know that I am getting my hair cut today after work.  You see, I work next door to a fancy-pants salon and the owner is going to cut my hair for free.  But don't worry, I am going to take two pictures of you with me.  I'm sure I will look JUST like you when I'm done.

Thanks for having inspiring hair.

Abbey

Currently Reading

The Widow of Larkspur Inn by Lawana Blackwell
Don't you just LOVE the cover?

(STILL reading) The Year of Living Biblically by AJ Jacobs 

And I think I"m going to start the audio book of Burning Bright by Tracy Chevalier

Looking Ahead

Shane and I drove up to Macon last night for an evening that was part date-night, part business meeting.  Oh--you want to know the truth?  Fine.  Shane asked me to go up to Macon with him to have a business look-around and chat and he knew the only way I would be willing to do that would be to take me out to eat.  There you go.  I am shallow.  I can be bought with a meal. 

Anyway, as we were talking about the future, far and near, we realized we were talking about things that should be impossible when you own your own business.  Actually making a little money and being able to take time off.  Not having to work every minute of every day.  Enjoying time together and looking forward to starting a family.  Talking about what's coming next in life.

As some point in the eveneing, Shane looked over at me and said, "And you know, we're both 25."

"Twenty-five?" I said, "I feel like we're in our 40s, at least.  How blessed are we to be able to talk about this stuff confidently at our age?"

It's truly amazing where God has taken us on this journey of opening our own business.  What's next?

Check out Tuesdays Unwrapped at Chatting at the Sky for more stories!

Bargain!

Sorry about the terrible background in this picture, but I do believe my photo quality is getting better, what do you think?

I got this beauty (the shelving unit with the scroll work--like I said, ignore the messy background) at Hobby Lobby.  Did I pay the retail $119.99?  No way.  Did I wait until their furniture was 30% off and pay $83.99?  NO WAY!  Did I get it way cheap because the middle two shelves are broken?  YES--I paid $24.95.  Yep...I know, you're so impressed!  I am so proud of myself I haven't even take off the price tag yet.  It'll be moving very soon to the downstairs entry whenever that gets done.  For now it's in the middle of our den.

I actually told you about this project a couple days ago.  The bamboo sticks (you can barely see them in the picture, but they're there) were $4.99 from Tuesday Morning, the wine box (aka the vase) was $4.99 at Pier One and the greenery was $8.50 at Hobby Lobby.  The welcome sign has been in our kitchen--I think my parents gave it to me, they probably got it for a quarter or less.  I'm not sure what to put on the top shelf.  I'm trying to be good and "shop my house" like all the pro bloggers are talking about doing for something to go up there.

In other news, here's the final picture of the key frames--Shane hung them up for me last night!  As soon as I took the picture I straightened the bows.

Bookcase Dilemma

I rearranged by bookcases by color...they look so dumb.  What can I do???  Sorry, again, for the poor picture quality. 

Pictures!

We Shane finally found the extension thing to the memory stick so I can put it straight into my computer.  I know all my loyal readers are I am so excited...

Sorry if some of these are blurry, I should mention that I'm not the best photographer.

Anyway, here are the pictures from my version of this on Centsational Girl's blog. 
I started out with gold keys and embroidered pictures:

So I took apart the frames:

Spray painted the frames and keys:

Added some scrapbook paper as a background and glued on the keys:

TADA!

Now I just have to add the ribbon to the top to hang them up!

Here's another picture--my fall decor (yes, it's just the one picture, how much fall decorating do you think I've done?).  Remember the little plate I got at the fair?

Speaking of getting up the nerve to paint Shane's grandmother hutch (weren't we?)...Centsational Girl is having a givaway for a $50 gift certificate to cabinetknob.com.  Winning would certainly give me the motivation to brave the hutch!

Pinecone Wreath

A couple years ago, the first Christmas Shane and I were married, I was obsessed with a pine cone wreath at Target.  To this day I regret not begging harder for buying it.  Well, that's not really fair to say--it was $40-$50 I think...a lot for a wreath, especially for newlyweds!

Anyway, when I saw this one I knew I had to try to make my own!  The one from Target had different kinds of pine cones, but this one is similar enough.  I'll see how this goes.

In other news, I did make the key frames last night and they are wonderful!  I took pictures of the before, during, and after...but I still can't get pictures onto the computer.  Hopefully tomorrow!

Key Art

I'm going to try to work on a couple quick projects tonight.  (I'm fooling everyone into thinking I'm crafty, but the truth is I just try things out that I read about--check out the blogs I'm reading on the right!)

One involves my version of this post.  I new when I saw the keys I wanted to try it somehow.  I found 3 big keys today at an antique store for $10 (for all 3).  We had a couple old keys at home already, but they actually go to some furniture so I didn't want to use them.

Another project involves a piece of furniture I found at Hobby Lobby today for $24.95 (clearanced because it was broken--down from $119.99), bamboo sticks from Tuesday Morning for $4.99 and a wine box (or whatever those things are called) on sale at Pier One for $4.99...can you tell I made the rounds this morning?

In other news, Angela and Irwin are taking their new baby home today!  Her mom will be spending the weekend helping her out.  I can't wait to hold baby Ari again, she is just so precious!

She's Here!!!

Beautiful Ariyel!

What's With the Boots?

Today I am praying for my dear friend Angela.  She is having her first baby. 

These sweet boots are available on Etsy and are too adorable!

I wonder if I'm creative enough to come up with a way to tie all my posts this week to boots.