Blog Party Wednesday

I'm linking up with Jamie again for her blog party! Click the picture above to see what others are loving today.

I'm LOVING that yesterday was my birthday!

I'm LOVING that we are going to our beach house this weekend and will start remodeling Parker's bedroom!

I'm LOVING that my husband bought me a hammock for my birthday! I can't wait to lounge on it and read a good book while sipping on some sweet tea and listening to Parker play with his toys in the yard.

I'm LOVING that I had a new feather added to my hair today.

I'm LOVING my awesome hubby and sweet baby boy!

I'm LOVING pinterest (still) so I'm linking up for this fun party as well!



Here are my pinterest pins of the week:

Using PVC to organize straighteners and curling irons on a cabinet door. Genius!


I'm not such a crafty gal that I have tons of ribbon laying around, but for the few bolts that I do have, this is a much nicer way to keep them organized rather than floating around in my sewing machine cabinet drawer.


Baked mozzarella cheese sticks. Yummy!


A cute and nice smelling way to store my make up brushes.


The inspiration for our kitchen cabinets at our beach house. We are staining them grey and I'm sooooo excited about it!


Just because I love blown glass.





Happy Wednesday, y'all!

Blog Party Wednesday!

I'm linking up with Jamie again for her blog party. Click here to see what others are loving this Wednesday!

Here's what I'm loving today:



Chocolate peanut butter? Yes, please! (It tastes great on vanilla wafers!)



I have never been a beer drinker. I just can't seem to acquire the taste for it. However, I sampled this this past weekend and oh my word! I think I can probably drink an entire bottle!

One of my favorite bands is Augustana. Thanks to my Augustana station on Pandora I've discovered this beautiful song. I can't get enough of it!



I've mentioned a few times how addicted I am to Pinterest. So I'm pretty excited to join a new blog party. So, without further ado I'm now linking up for:



Here are some of my favorite pins from this week:



These rolls of wrapping paper are hanging up in the ceiling of a closet. Which is usually wasted space. Genius! Now I can clear them out from under my bed!



I've become a little obsessed with driftwood lately. I think this is beautiful, simple, and it makes me want to drift away to sleep!



Marbleized finger nail polish! I'm excited and a little daunted to try this!



I love these magnets! We made them one time at a MOPS meeting and I decided then and there that I would make some with alphabet letters because I think they look classier than the cheap plastic alphabet letters that I always see kids playing with. This way my son can be learning his letters in style!



Isn't this adorable? I'm thinking it's a must for our lake house!



In case you haven't heard the news, drop side cribs are now banned. Meaning stores are no longer allowed to sell them and people are not supposed to re-sell the ones they currently have. Rather than just throwing your drop side crib in the trash, refurbish it into an adorable bench!

If you'd like to join pinterest comment me your email address and I'd be happy to invite you to join! And, I love all my pinterest followers!

*I have no idea how to make these pictures actually link back to the boards I have them on at Pinterest. Help!*

Happy Wednesday, Y'all!

What I'm Loving Wednesday

I'm loving that after a 3 month hiatus, I'm finally linking up with Jamie again for her WILW blog party!

I'm loving that this past weekend the hubby and I got to go on a much needed date!

I'm loving that we got about 20 minutes of rain at our lake house last weekend.

I'm loving that I'm going to refurbish a rocking chair this weekend. It used to be my husbands when he was a little boy and I'm excited to bring it new life for our little boy to use and enjoy! Stay tuned for before and after pics.

I'm loving watching my friend Kelli on this season of HGTV's Design Star!

I'm loving that I've been loosing myself in a good book: The Choice by Nicholas Sparks.

I'm loving that the country station I'm creating for myself on Pandora played a song by Aerosmith the other day! (I don't like most country artists so a lot of the "big" country artists have been banned from my station!)

And, I'm loving these things as well





Happy Wednesday Ya'll!

What I'm Loving Wednesday

I'm linking up again with Jamie for her Wednesday blog party!

I'm loving that after several days of being horribly sick, my little baby finally seems to be on the road to recovery and is finally acting like himself again!

I'm loving that I'm hostessing a Celebrating Home party tonight!

I'm loving that tomorrow our friends Randy and Shannon, along with their little boy, Braxton, are arriving at our house and staying through the weekend!

I'm loving that I have about 18 episodes of Sex In The City on my DVR!

I'm loving that one of my best friends from college, Angela, is engaged! Better yet, I'm loving that her and her fiancee, Vaughn, are entered in the Crate and Barrel The Ultimate Wedding Contest! Please click here to vote for them! I would love to hear that they won this contest; they totally deserve it!

I'm loving that out of nowhere the other day my husband told me how much he loves how I look in my new skinny jeans and he thinks we should buy a few more pairs! (I wasn't even wearing them when he said that!)

I'm loving that the ad about our house for sale began running in the newspaper today!

I'm loving that we are having an Open House this Sunday!

I'm loving that I will be able to enjoy our remodeled house for about a week before I have to start packing for our move to Texas!

Happy Wednesday, ya'll!

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

I'm linking up again with Jamie for her blog party. Click here to see what other people are loving this Wednesday!

Today, I'm LOVING that we finally finished remodeling our upstairs bathroom! Here are the before and after pictures:

This was our bathtub before. The tiles were falling off the wall so for over a year now we have been taking showers with plastic hanging over the tile walls. Ghetto, I know. Those shower doors were disgusting as well. Rusty and covered with hard water spots. We removed those a long time ago and have just been using a plastic shower curtain liner.



This is the vanity. Sometimes, Tiffany blue just isn't a good thing! The floral print boarder near the ceiling was also a nice touch!



There was a wall of wallpaper next to the toilet. Can you say random? Also, the long wall to the right had the same wallpaper as well. And, who likes having carpet in a bathroom? Not me! Gross!



Here is one of our "work in progress" pictures. My husband loves to watch Holmes on Homes on HGTV, and the orange subflooring is a product that Holmes uses instead of using cement board prior to laying down ceramic tile. We are no strangers to laying tile (my hubby used to do it as a side job) but this was the first time he used this product. Since we had just painted the walls orange, it literally looked like the room was glowing. We thought it was pretty funny.



Ta-da! The finished product! Complete with new texture, paint, flooring, tub and shower surround, curtain rod, and towel rod!



This bathroom is upstairs, where three of our bedrooms are located. If a new family purchases this home and has a family of four, they could each have room for a towel on that super long towel bar. Want to know a secret? It's actually a curtain rod! (My husband's idea!) Also note the newly painted white doors! I'm slowly making progress on one of my goals for 2011.



This is our new toilet. It's elongaged, which is so comfy! ;) Also, we moved that cabinet from our kitchen into our bathroom, where it just makes much more sense. I painted that white and installed new hardware.



The vanity area looks much better! I painted the vanity and installed new hardware. We also installed a new countertop, faucet, towel holder, lighting, and decorative mirror.



Now that the bathroom is newly remodeled, what I'm also loving today is that my friend Bri is having a Celebrating Home party! Maybe I'll find some fun bathroom decor to purchase!

Happy Wednesday, ya'll!

What I'm Loving Wednesday

I'm linking up with Jamie again for her Blog Party!


















I'm loving that we started remodeling our upstairs bathroom last week and are almost 90% finished. (8% of which is all the painting and finishing touches that I have to do. I really shouldn't be blogging right now!)

I'm loving that I got not one, but two new pairs of boots! Here's a pic of one of the pairs!


I'm loving that I bought my first pair of skinny jeans. Now I just hope they continue to stay in fashion for awhile!

I'm loving that when I opened my mail box today I had a hand written note from one of my besties!

What I love even more is that she'll know I'm talking about her when she reads this! (In case you think I get bombarded with decent snail mail on a regular basis, I'm talking about you, ADeidra!)

I'm loving that yesterday a woman from L.A. bought one of my slinky bracelets!!!! (Order yours at www.blingonastring.etsy.com) I'm going Hollywood, baby!

I'm loving that tonight is the season finale of Live To Dance!

Happy Wednesday, ya'll!

What I'm Loving Wednesday

Click here to see what others are loving this Wednesday!




It's hard to believe that just two weeks ago I blogged about what I was loving that particular Wednesday. Little did I know that just a few hours after posting that blog my husband would receive an unexpected phone call saying that his Dad passed away.

It's strange how such a normal Wednesday can take such a drastic turn. Greg received a phone call that his Dad wasn't doing well after a surgery to remove a hernia. He decided to come home because he thought we may be making a trip to Oklahoma. I was completely unaware of what was taking place and was out running errands with Parker when I got a phone call from Greg asking where I was and when I'd be back home. I knew that his dad was having complications after his surgery but I never once thought it was something that was life threatening. However, I could tell in my husbands voice that something wasn't right. Once I got home Greg said he thought we should head towards Oklahoma, where his Dad lives. I frantically began packing and shortly afterwards we received the phone call that no child wants to ever get. His dad had a massive heart attack and passed away.

The 8 hour car ride to our grandmothers house in Oklahoma was long and depressing. It was also pretty quite since Greg was driving and I didn't want to ask questions and get him upset. I thought about what I had done earlier that day and inwardly scolded myself for blogging about something as trivial as a scrapbook.

Several days later we had the memorial for Carl. The chapel was packed and several friends and family members spoke about memories they had of Greg's dad. Some of the stories were humours while others were touching. Greg's dad lived on Lake Texoma and after the service that is where Greg and I headed to spend a week. During that drive I had more thoughts crossing my mind. In the end, I realized that I shouldn't have berated myself for blogging about something as simple as a scrapbook. Carl lived life to the fullest. And I realized that part of living life to the fullest is embracing the small things in life that give us pleasure.

With that being said, this Wednesday I'm loving:

That Greg had the honor of having his dad stand beside him at our wedding and proudly serve as our Best Man.


I'm loving all the fun memories Greg and I have with his dad at Lake Texoma.


I'm loving that we were able to make one of Carl's wishes come true: He became a Grandpa in April. The cherry on top of the sundae was that I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, Parker. Greg was the last of our family name, and now Parker will continue to keep our name going. (Hopefully he'll have a wife who will give birth to four boys just to insure our name doesn't end soon!)


I'm loving that Carl drove eleven hours to meet his grandson when he heard I went into labor.


I'm loving that despite the distance between us, Carl was able to spend time with Parker on a handful of different occasions.


I'm loving that Greg and I will keep Carl's memory alive with stories that we'll be able to share with Parker as he gets older.


Happy Wednesday, ya'll! Enjoy and embrace today and make all the small things count!

What I'm Lovin' Wednesday

I'm linking up with Jamie for her Wednesday blog party again!















I'm loving this brown paper bag scrapbook my sister had one of her friends send me! I can't wait to put some of Parker's pictures from his fall photo shoot in it and proudly display it for years to come!


I'm loving that The Elks Lodge is having a chili and dessert bake off on Friday night! (I'm entering a chocolate chip bundt cake!)

I'm loving threadUP.com It's so neat it deserves its own blog post, but there is a link on the right hand side of my blog so you can check it out for yourself!

I'm loving that we are going to Durango this weekend with some friends! What I'm loving even more is that we will be staying in a log cabin for FREE!

I'm loving that this was a MOPS week!

Happy Wednesday, ya'll!

What I'm Loving Wednesday

Today I'm loving these NUBY sippy cups. I've been trying to get Parker to use a sippy cup since he was about 3 months old with not very much luck. He's never taken a bottle so you can only imagine my frustration. I had heard of other moms having luck with their babies using straws. I figured it was worth a shot and I bought him a package of two for Christmas.



Let me just say, Parker took right to them! Granted, he does chew on the straw a little more than I would like, but I am also happy that he is finally getting big drinks of water! Yay!!!

I'm also loving ebay!! I've been a member of ebay for several years, but this past week we sold a few items that we had laying around the house, which was nice. Then, I bid on a brand new Britex convertible car seat and won it for $100 less than MSRP! I was double excited because I already had a certain Britex carseat in mind to purchase that was in our budget, but the one I won is actually a better one! Woot, woot! To top it off, last night Greg found flooring for the middle level that we think we might like. We ordered a sample and if we like it, the cost will be far less than what we originally planned on spending!

Happy Wednesday!!