And the lucky gal is...

Picture: Country Living

Thank you for the birthday wishes yesterday. I had a fun and food filled day and it was wonderful. My hubby took me junking for treasures, we relaxed with the kids and my parents made me a heart stopping meal of steak with sauteed mushrooms and onions, a side of linguine with alfredo sauce and sourdough bread. I'm not sure it gets much better than enjoying a meal like that with my family.

We topped all that off with ice cream cake. Have I mentioned we love to eat over here?

The winner of my surprise gift is Laura of White Spray Paint .

I'll be contacting you for your mailing address so I can send a package your way. :-)

There was no fooling you smart ladies, I was born in 1978, the same year Grease came out and all those great songs were on the radio. And now I'm off to change the playlist back. It was fun for a day but....back to normal.

A Birthday

Today is my birthday....

Photo: Country Living



Sometimes I think I'd like to stop counting them but instead I'll consider each one like another patch on the uniform of my life. I've earned each year. During each one I've laughed, I've cried, I've loved and been challenged. It's the challenges that make us strong and the laughter that keeps us anxious for the next chapter.




Photo: Country Living





And besides, how upset can I be about my age? Like I tell my husband....no matter how old I get, he'll always be older. I'm an awesome wife for reminding him of that, what can I say.








I also need to give a shoutout to my mom for bringing me into this world. It wasn't an easy pregnancy for her, not that she would ever complain about it. She is a special lady and my birthday is her day too. I'm so blessed to have her as my mom.



Totally random pic I love that has nothing to do with this post: Country Living
(Hey, it's my birthday...I can do whatever I want)





So how about that music, did you think you were in the wrong place? I promise it's just for the day! When I decided to do a birthday post, I looked up music from my birth year. Turns out, the music was great! I had so much fun looking up the songs and making a birthday playlist.










Can you guess what year I was born? And no cheating with Google! A certain movie came out the year I was born that should give it away easily!








Anyone who guesses will be entered to win a surprise gift from me. Make sure you leave your email address or are linked to a blog so I can contact you if you win. I'll be drawing a name tomorrow, June 4th at Noon, eastern time.










Thank you for coming by and sharing my day with me! Have a happy Thursday!




P.S. ~ Mom...if you're reading this, no guessing. That would be really unfair.

Wednesday

Good morning everyone! I hope your long weekend was relaxing and fun. We went camping and had some very nice weather. The kids swam, we sat in the sun, had campfires....our idea of a perfect weekend.

A while back I did a giveaway from CSN stores. They've asked me to review a product this time and to direct your attention to their bathroom vanities .

I took a peek around and they have beautiful bathroom vanities like these:

I really like this too.....

Check out their site and be inspired. I've been dreaming about redoing our upstairs bathroom and this has me wishing we could start now!

Have a wonderful day and I'll be back tomorrow. :-)

Hello Long Weekend!

I saw this cute cupcake idea on Be Different....Act Normal and just had to try it out.


Aren't they cute? It's just a mini peanut butter cup topped with icing like a tiny cupcake.

I'm off to my store to drop these goodies off and then it's time for a relaxing weekend.

Enjoy your long weekend and be safe!

The Before

I've been working on some fun things recently and I thought I would share all the "before" shots in one post. Remember my dining table? The one my dad calls "the heirloom" and only gave it to me if I promised not to paint it....




Well, it is being transformed. That is what it looked like before, all wood. I called my mom and asked her on a scale of 1 to 10, how mad dad would be. One being slightly mad and ten being total disownment. She thought it would be around a 3 so I figured that was worth it...



Then I reminded my dad that I'm an only child so there is no back up.....



Then I reminded him I hold access to his only grandchildren (shameless I know)....



And then I spilled the beans in a public place, the middle of my son's preschool graduation. No way he was making a scene there. Smart huh?



He was smiling through his "anger" and I hope he likes the results when he comes over next. I'm loving it so far, the table is finally starting to match the rest of the house. And it's still solid wood....you know, under the white paint.

This dresser was a flea market find. I didn't really need another dresser but you can't argue with more storage space and it was too sweet to leave behind. It's getting the white treatment as well.

I love these feet.....

And yes, I had to crop that picture like crazy. The original showed off just how dirty my floors are. Yikes. Time to get out the vacuum after I finish this post. I swear dog hair reproduces all on its own.

And that brings us to my new mantel. Ahhhh, the mantel. My hubby works with a guy who built a home and this was the mantel that came with it. They didn't like it and opted to replace it for marble so this beauty was sitting in their basement. They were so kind to ask if we would want it. Do I want it? Is grass green? Errr...is crabgrass green? Which we apparently have a lot of as the TrueGreen guy was so happy to ring my doorbell to tell me.

Anyway, here it is before....

And a sneak peek after I added some wood appliques and primed it up.....

I'll be back soon with all the pretty "afters."

Now I'm off to clean my floors before the dog hair takes over.

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Sick and Tired

Literally. Not the sick and tired as in "I'm sick and tired of my kids leaving wet towels on the floor".....although.....I'm kinda tired of that too. I've had a cold that just doesn't want to go away and it's making me feel blah and exhausted. Hopefully after some relaxing this weekend I'll get my energy back. I have lots of painting and projects that I need to get done.

So what is a girl to do when she doesn't have a ton of energy? Well let's see, I took some random pictures around the house....

....after rearranging things like crazy out of boredom....

I have such a weakness for white pitchers of all shapes and sizes....












I checked on my seeds and reminded myself for the millionth time that there is a reason I need to buy plants that are fully grown........by someone else. My green thumb is seriously lacking.

I tried to get a nice picture of the dogs together....

And failed.

Yes Sebastian, you are my sweetie.....

I don't think I showed you this light we put up in the hallway. The end of the hall was pretty dark and needed a little brightening up.

I love the pull chain on it. I think we found it at Lowes.

So that's what sick and tired gets me, a lot of random pictures.

What are your plans for this weekend?? Whatever you do, I hope you have a wonderful time doing it!

I'm sure I'll be back to tackling projects soon. I have a few things I can't wait to show you, like the mantel we were given for the living room. Be back soon!

Yard Sale Find

So this weekend we hit some yard sales and at one was this gorgeous truck....the kind of truck dreams are made of. Seriously. It was exactly what I want, in the perfect color, completely restored and a thing of beauty.

It matches my aqua desk so it was meant to be....

I imagined how awesome it would look parked in my driveway. I would name her and take her to yard sales, and take pictures of my adorable kiddos in the back of her....

So I asked how much she was and headed back to the car where my hubby was sitting with our sleeping son, grabbed some extra cash and drove away with my new baby.......

Ummmm....yeah, no.

This is how it really went....I pictured messaged my hubby, told him to check under the minivan seats for extra change, whined a little bit.....and he told me to dream on.

*sigh*

It really was perfect, the best yard sale find ever.

Shall we drool a bit more.....

I thought about asking the seller if he would take my picture with it but then he would have realized what a lunatic I am and chased me off his property.

Soooo...I sulked back to the car and left. Empty handed. Truckless.

P.S. ~ To my local readers, if you are interested in this amazing truck, it's near the corner of Hecktown and Butztown Roads and the asking price is $24,000. If you purchase it, you are required to bring it to my house so I can sit in it and take a picture. Seriously.