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Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Weiner Dogs on Wednesday

My sleepin' boys




Oscar boy is so dang cute in this picture I can hardly contain myself!!


Please excuse ugly wood paneling...that was when we were temporarily living in the mother-in-law's basement (which we are very grateful for!) but paneling is no good for anyone =)

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Thrift store furniture

I LOVE a good thrift store find. It's always fun to find something that is already in good shape and "ready to use," but lets face it, that rarely happens now does it?

Most thrifty furniture lands at your local Goodwill, Salvation Army etc for a reason, because its old and crusty and someone doesn't want it any more right?

Imagination! That's the name of the game with these places! You have to see the potential in a piece and then convince your husband of that potential when he hassles you about why you've brought home yet another busted, crusty old desk, chair, bowl, shelf, you can fill in the blank here:________________.
(I have a dresser in my craft room with a drawer devoted to thrifty finds that have not yet met their potential and therefore must stay in the drawer until husband can see them,so that I don't get lip from him! ha ha. I does not matter if they cost 25 cents, he will get mad that they are junk!)

So, Imagination and Spray Paint! Those are the KEY ingredients here!

I wish I had some more pics to show you, but here are just a few. The rest are still out there reaching their potential. This first one is an AMAZING desk that my sister, Hannah did with a piece of junk desk she found for a few bucks on craigslist:
Gorgeous right? She spray painted the body of it with high gloss black paint and then the drawers with a turquoise color and replaced the knobs and wa-la! Then she stacked a bunch of crap on it so that I couldn't get a good picture. Meh.

And here is a little somehing I had posted about before, but its craptacular to fabulous!



Have a thrifty Tuesday!!


Monday, November 28, 2011

Giveaways!!

You simply MUST go out and checkout what is going on over at Flamingotoes.com!!
TONS of AMAZING black Friday giveaways that are STILL going on. HURRY HURRY HURRY!!

Different Trees for Different Folks!

I LOVE Christmas Trees!  I love the different ways that people decorate them to show off their different personalities! I personally have 3 trees, and since there was apparently a little mishap with our move, I don't know if I will be able to find all the pieces and parts to make them all go up this year (don't even get me started because I just might cry...I already have, a few times!)

I love traditional trees, and non-traditional trees, and theme trees, and non-sense trees, and trees for kids, and trees for charities etc etc etc. So you will see me posting different trees on here like a madman!! I' going to start with my baby sister, Hannah and her boyfriend, Joshua's tree because she emailed me a picture first! I could find a million pics online, but I like REAL pics from REAL people!!

Hannah is one of my favorite people, hands down, and Josh is a really close runner up! They compliment each other perfectly. They have a different sense of style and would NEVER settle for a "traditional" Christmas tree. Hannah loves peacocks, they remind her of her very best friend, Grace, who was killed in a car accident 2 years ago...so that's why there is a lot of those. The black and the Elvis are hints of Josh. I recognize some of those ornaments as childhood ornaments of Hannah's as well. I think this tree is perfect! I also love my Furry "nieces," Penny Lane and Sophie!

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Party Decor

Since the hubs and I got married in Virginia, we decided to have a smallish reception here in Chi-Town to celebrate with his friends and relatives as well. We didn't have a huge budget to begin with for the wedding, so adding a 2nd celebration to the mix made it even tighter.

My wedding was in October, so it made my color choices really easy since it was outside. Chocolate brown, copper, and burgundy. But our reception was in March. I didn't really want to do the same colors, because I didn't think it went well with the season, but I also didn't want to do pastels or cheesy St. Patrick's day themes or anything like that.

Soooo...I stuck with the chocolate brown, and picked up apple green. I liked the color combination and it worked well for the space that we were in. I was able to get chocolate brown table clothes, plates, cups and silverware all at the Dollar Tree, which helped. Then I got Apple green and white polka-dot napkins at Target so that EVERYTHING wouldn't be brown.

Then I was able to have some fun! We had 4 main tables going down the room for people to sit and eat. (These people are German...parties are for eating!!) So in the center of each table, I got a large cylindrical vase from Ikea for $13 and filled them with Granny Smith apples.


Then, scattered throughout the other tables, and along the long tables, Kurt and his cousin, Todd used their drills to drill holes into the apples just big enough for a tea light candle and they looked so nice!! (Oh yes, and these little apples also caused an ER visit, some stitches and a tetnus shot for the hubs...oops!)


I also bought apple green goodie bags and filled them with treats for kiddos and tied them with a brown ribbon. We used the guest book from our wedding and handed out the left over BBQ sauce favors from our wedding in Virginia. The cake was from Costco...$16! Woo!
Hands down best part for me was that my "baby" sister, Hannah was here!! I took 3 days off from work after the reception and took her to the Chicago art gallery, the Sears tower, tons of shopping, and hanging out! I miss her like a fat kid misses pie!!
Oh yes, and that party WAS for Kurt and I, so here is one of me and him as well =)

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

Well, now that Thanksgiving is out of the way, I'm all about the white stuff!! I'm not talking about the Blizzard conditions that we had in February (which I actually wouldn't mind, because I would stay in the house, blog and craft all day...but I have to go to work...boo!) but I'd like to see some snow to get me into the Christmas spirit!

Here are some pictures of the very first weekend that I moved to Chicago of 2009. It was a FREEZING Sunday afternoon and Kurt told me to get my coat and boots on, and that we were going to a BBQ at his friend,Jason's house. A BBQ? In January? In the Snow?? What the heck?? That's how the roll here in  Chi-Town I suppose? Or maybe just my husband's crazy-nutso friends?






Here is me, hiding in the house, because 6 degrees is a little much for this Virginia girl! Look at us all young and in love, ha ha. This was just after our engagement and about 10 months before our wedding. Please excuse my husband's choice in sweatshirt. We are still working on that, HA HA.

Have a great day, everyone!!

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving!

And Happy Belated Weiner Dog Wednesday! I missed 2 in a row! Shame on me! I've been in migraine hell again :( boo! Apparently the new treatments are not working as well as we had expected!

Today is bitersweet for me. I love Thanksgiving food, and being with my husband and my doggie-Os and naturally having the day off, but I MISS my FAMILY like crazy on holidays! Since I can remember we all got together at my dad's parent's farm and ate a HUGE meal around 3pm and all of us kids would run around the farm and get into some sort of mischeif and even now that we are all adults, the farm is a magical place and I miss being there with my parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts, cousins and now there are even some 2nd cousins and neices and nephews crawling around!

Today we will be going to Kurt's mom's house to have Thanksgiving dinner with her and  her boyfriend and then over to his uncle Ron's house where some of the other family is, including my BFF, Laura and her son and daughter!!! I can't wait to see Laura! (Long story short, she is how I met Kurt! She and I used to work together and I miss her terribly!!) She is up from Virginia until Saturday and I feel like I need to be with her RIGHT NOWWWWW!!

Here are some pics of Osc and Lyla getting their Thanksgiving on last year!






During the rest of the year, they are on a NO table food diet since Mr. Oscar has to watch his figure (at 17.5 lbs, he is on the heavy side for a mini doxie, which is very bad for his spine,) but on Thanksgiving I made them a plate of plain sweet potatoes and plain turkey just because they are so sweet!

I wish you all a wonderful holiday full of time with family anf friends and deliciousness!



Sunday, November 20, 2011

Oh my!

Its been over a week since I even read any of my regular blogs, let alone POSTED anything! Shame on me! Since being hospitalized on Halloween for 5 days, I just haven't felt like myself. I went back to work 48 hours after being discharged and I feel like I have just been running around like the Tasmanian devil ever since!!

On a happier note, the terrible treatments that I underwent seem to be working and since November 4th, when I finished them, I have had 2 migraines, which is a HUGE improvement from the 3-4 per week that I had been experiencing for the last 8 months or so. The side effects are not so hot though, and I am still working through some daily nausea that makes me feel like a beast and then I get dehydrated and feel some leg cramps and things like that. But hey...things can only get better from here right???

In my last post I said that I bought a 10 pound lot of buttons off of eBay. What a rip off, they came in the littelest box ever! I was expecting so much more! I am still going to make some of these little beauties though.

The Dollar Tree had some foam balls and pins with yellow heads, so I was thinking about using those with black and white buttons for an ornament for my sister, Hannah who goes to VCU so show some school spirit! Go Rams!
My Momma and Dad went to and met at VCU too, so if it turns out cute, I just might make a few more in those colors! And hey, you can't beat the pins being a buck!!



Friday, November 11, 2011

Yes Honey, I DO need a 10 pound bag of buttons!

I just bought a HUGE lot of mixed buttons on eBay basically because I'm crazy.

Maybe not...


I was searching the web for an idea to do for our church ornament exchange and I found this
AH-MAZING button ornament!!! I had to make it, and 10 more of it's friends!!! I can't wait!

What ornaments are you making this year? Have you started yet?

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Champagne Flutes

I've gotten some questions about where I bought my champagne flutes when I posted some wedding pics in our anniversary post...so I wanted to let ya'll in on a little secret...

I didn't buy them and they were SO easy!!



I picked up these flutes at Home Goods for $3.99 each...seriously. Then I just went to town with some paint markers. A veil with flowers on one, and a top hat on the other. My veil did not have flowers, and Kurt did not wear a top hat, but thats just not the point!

 I had some help from my momma, because she is much more talented in the painting/drawing department than I am! You see my flowers in the back? Yeah, my mom did those too...she rocks.


So, all you Brides-to-be...go out there and DO IT YOURSELF!! Do NOT pay $50+ for these funky type champagne flutes that I have seen in boutiques and online!



Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Weiner Dogs on Wednesday

Oskie and Lyla were not in the mood for posing for pictures this week since their momma was in the hospital all week...but they wanted to show you our outside Halloween decor before we take it down this weekend!

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Weiner Dogs on Wednesday

Someone had a birthday around here...our little Lyla bug turned 2!



When we took Lyla in for her first vet check up, we were told that her lab work was abnormal and that she needed more testing. She stayed there for 8 HOURS. I'm not going to lie...I cried. My little puppy was there alone, and she might be sick.

Our vet finally called me at work (after I called her no less than 5 times) and told me that Lyla had a liver disorder. We spent the next several months getting more blood work done, having ultrasounds, and seeing specialists. She was also put on 2 different medications. We were told that she may not make it to her first birthday.

Lyla was 8 months old at this point and she barely ate, I had to sit on the couch with her and hand feed her. She barely played with Oscar and was very timid. She had been with us for a little over 3 months and I  was really worried that she might never adjust. She also had some stomach issues which was awful to clean up, but painful for her too.

To make a long story short, when Lyla was about a year old, I chose to stop taking her to the specialist. It was getting expensive and he wasn't really doing anything to help her. I also took her off of her medicaitons. I'm convinced that they were causing her fatigue and stomach problems, because now she is 100% better now! To me, it was more important that she was happy, and being on all that medication was just making her miserable. Her only limitation is that she does go into heat. She is unable to be spayed because her liver cannot process the medications. It isn't fun, but thats life!

If you met her now, you would never know that she was once a sick pup! She runs, plays and bites Oscar. She eats like a pig and she certainly keeps Kurt and I on our toes! All of this from a puppy who wasn't going to make it to her first birthday!