Productive Saturday

Well, hello again!   I had such a productive weekend.  As I took all my Easter decorations down, I was left with an empty space on the wall between the kitchen and the dining room.  It's a small space that holds a small shelf.  I usually replace everything on it with holiday decor, so it's forever changing.

On Saturday, as I was cleaning and rearranging, I decided I wanted something fresh in that area.  For whatever reason, I couldn't remember what I had up there before the holidays -- which would have been between Independence Day and Halloween.  So I dug through my stuff.  I found some burlap in my craft room so I decided to use it as the background.  Before I found the burlap I was digging through my scrapbook paper looking for some paper to put in the frame when I found some clear stickers with love quotes on them.

I placed the burlap in the frame, then placed the sticker on the frame.  Initially because I was trying to find something to put in the frame.  But then I figured it didn't look too bad for something that is temporary and will be switched out in another month or so.

I added a silver tea light holder, some Spring flowers and my DIY chalkboard frame and added a quick message (this happens to be the only thing on my mind these days).  :)

The it was on to the dining table.  Ever struggle with what to use as a center piece?  I always do.  I decided to use some faux green apples in a wooden dish.  Simple, but it works:

I had a similar experience with the entrance way table that also gets changed out with each holiday.  It took me forever to get this put together and when I asked Sweetheart what he thought he cheerfully said "looks nice, what's different?"

p.s. the roses are holding up well:

Have a great week!

Happy Anniversary

My Sweetheart and I will celebrate six years tomorrow.   It has been an amazing six years -- the best of my life.  My Sweetheart is my best friend.  He is always there to encourage me, support me, love me and take care of me.  I am so very blessed to have him in my life.  He is a very special person and I thank God everyday that He brought him into my life.  

I love you Sweetheart with all my heart and soul!  

Because we will be taking a vacation at the end of May, we decided to hold off on exchanging gifts now.  So I was very surprised when I got this at work today:

Isn't he adorable?  Roses, a HUGE teddy bear and candy.  What a sweetheart!

The card that was attached was very touching and special:

Although my Sweetheart is very sweet every day, today was extra special and I loved every minute of it.


Oh, and here's the teddy bear and roses in transit....

 

Is it the end of April already?

My last post was on February 20, 2012. I've been absent from blog world for far too long! I don't know why I am finding it so difficult to be more active. Well, more active in updating my blog. I check on my favorite blogs daily at work. It's one of my guilty pleasures. Every morning before starting my work day, I check the blogs and then work life can commence. :)

Once again, here I am giving a quick update of everything I didn't blog about:

• Lent
• Lenten sacrifices
• My Sweetheart's birthday!
• My Sweetheart's birthday parties
• Easter house decor
• Easter celebration with Family (my favorite of holidays)
• Season ticket renewal -- Arizona Cardinals
• Planning our trip to Boston
  
  

It's been a busy last couple of months. I keep saying I don't know where all the time has gone but I know. It's the television. The television keeps me from doing a lot of things lately. I am HOOKED on a few shows:

• Smash on NBC
• Dance Moms on Lifetime
• Dance Moms Miami on Lifetime
• Army Wives on Lifetime
• Project Runway Allstars on Lifetime (now over but boy was I into it)
• Alcatraz -- Sweetheart and I watch this one together.
  
  

For a while I had Jersey Shore on auto record along with the King of Queens. I know, strange but I LOVE the King of Queens. I would watch at least 3 shows per night to keep up with all of the shows that were auto recording. I really need to just stop all of the shows I record because there's so much more that I should be doing. Well all except for Smash. And Army Wives. And Dance Moms. And Alcatraz. See where I'm going with this? It's an addiction.

And because I hate posting sans pictures, I posted the only pictures that I took during my the three months that I didn't post anything.....

Mini Hall Way

This weekend was another very busy weekend. Sweetheart and I went to see the new Ghost Rider movie on Saturday morning. It was disappointing to say the least, but we definitely enjoyed our day out. We went to Tempe Market Place which is an outdoor mall. We went to the movies, did some shopping and had some lunch. Good times.

After the movies I did my housecleaning and laundry and the grocery shopping. On Sunday after mass, my Sweetheart and I went to IKEA. I bought these cool picture boxes...I don't know the official name. But I will describe them as fabric wrapped picture boxes. So stinking cute. And I also had these picture frames that I bought at Target specifically for this spot.

My Sweetheart hung the frames for me and assembled the boxes on Sunday.

I think it adds charm to this very tiny hallway:

Mirrors from Target:
Boxes from IKEA:

Smalls wins. Sometimes that's all I can ask for.

Valentine's Day Decor

This past weekend I decided to get it together and I put a few of my Valentine day decorations out. Just a subtle touch is what I like for this holiday.

I have these red and white heart tea light holders that I place around the house. I love them because I love tealights:

I bought them at the dollar section at Target about 4 years ago. I'm so glad I picked a handful of them:


I added a few holiday touches to the entrance way table:


I picked up "love" sign at Walmart for $1:

I made this about 2 years ago when I saw some chalkboard projects posted in blogland. I thought it was pretty good for an amateur.

I took this print (and the red one above) from this blog ( HERE ) that I found on blogland. I see these 'subway' prints all around blogland. I downloaded my prints and had them printed at Walgreens to save ink on my printer. I love the way they turned out:

It's simple, but that's how I like it.

Christmas 2011

This is the ONLY picture I took of our Christmas decor. We put the tree up Thanksgiving weekend and I'm so glad we did. Not only did we get to enjoy it every evening for nearly a month but if we had not put it up when we did I'm not so sure it would have ever gone up! I'm just saying...

Happy New Year!

Where did last year go? I can not believe it's already mid January 2012! The last time I posted was on October 30, 2011. Wow! The last quarter of the year just flew right past me. Having season tickets to the Cardinal football games really took a toll on me -- it's only eighth home games but couple that with holidays and taking care of the home, it's a lot!

I didn't post the following (and I had EVERY intention on doing so):

• Cardinal football games 4-Rams, 5-Cowboys, 6-49ers, 7-Browns and 8-Seahawks


• Thanksgiving decor pics


• Christmas decor pics


• Handmade Christmas cards


• Christmas wrapping


• My Sweetheart's holiday party


• the Insight Bowl


• premier show of the new MI: Ghost Protocol flick


• my new iphone


• my new ipad2


• Kuerig Special Edition

We are planning on season tickets for the Cardinals again this coming fall BUT this time around I'll be able to handle things differently. I'll know that when we have a home game, it will take up nearly my entire weekend. Preparation for tailgating, coupled with housework and grocery shopping takes up all of Saturday. Then tailgating, the game, post game tailgating take the entire day on Sunday.

We had the BEST time at the games and met some fun people and in the end the kaos and (threatened) meltdowns were totally worth it!

My 2012 plans are underway: organizing, finishing rooms (that I started mid year 2011), backyard projects, etc. There's a lot we want to get done and I'm so looking forward to executing our plans.

Bring it on 2012......I got this!