22, Decorating, Surgery, and Job Hunting

Well... I am now 22 years old. CRAZINESS. I spent the day by waking up at, no kidding, 2:22 in the morning. True Story. I tried to sleep but gave up by 3:30 and got up to watch t.v. until Cody woke up. He stumbled into our living room at 5:30'ish. After he got ready for work I opened all of my wonderful gifts! I got some sweet swag I must admit. Cody got me a GPS which I have been dying to have forever now. I got some adorable headbands (handmade by my SIL), a great bag (courtesy of another SIL), a sweet puzzle (another SIL), our fantastic sectional (MIL), some mula (Nana and Grammy), a slew of amazing gifts from my mother, a gift card from Amber... I think that's everything. Sorry if I left anyone out and thank you to everyone! I made out pretty good. I spent a lot of time at my doctor's office for my pre-op appointment. I got to see Cody when I took him lunch and when he got off work, we went to this phenomenal Italian place. BEST FOOD EVER. It was seriously the most amazing Italian food I have ever had. We finished off the night with cheesecake, a movie, and cuddling. It really was a great day. I have the best husband ever.













I had this temple picture that my mama made for us along with the faith, hope, love sign which was a gift from one of Cody's cousins but I needed something else to complete this little corner. I found that frame for 2 dollars at Walmart, printed off a couple images and pieced them together, then made it pretty with ribbon. I think it all goes great together.



Cody had these frames custom made for me for our first ever Christmas together back when we were still dating. I absolutely love them. I had them hanging in our room but this wall in our living room was much too bare for my taste. I moved them and added ribbon to the back of them to make them look they there were all hanging from it. Nice touch eh?



I had a Hobby Lobby adventure (courtesy of my birthday money) that was AMAZING and worthy of all my wildest dreams. I topped it off with a trek to the clearance aisle at Walmart then came home and had a ball putting everything together. I got some flowers and these colored foam ball things and put together two good looking vases. The orange, red and gold toness go perfect in my dining room. They are on the table for now but when I get my sideboard, they'll be going on that with some lamps because we have ZERO lighting in there right now. The blue and green ones are in our room. We are in the process of redecorating and blues and greens are the accent color.





These frames were all under 3 dollars, I spray painted them, and put in those fantastic ferris wheel photos. I also used a bunch of trinkets and old jewelery to amp them up a little. I can't wait until my rooms done!



I was wanting to get our spare room as "finished" as I possibly could for when my MIL came to stay after my surgery. I got this poster, poster frame, and lamp with my birthday money. I put ribbon around the poster frame to make it a little less "cheap" looking and I LOVE it. These other frames were from the dollar store. I used stuff I already had to amp these up too and found all the images on The Graphics Fairy. I love that site! (Sorry for the poor photo quality, they are 1,000 x's cuter in person.)









I had my surgery on Wednesday the 20th. He had to open up my entire belly button along with the other incisions so the recovery has been a little rougher than expected. My incision opened up the other day so I am hurting all over again. The bandaid they told me to put on them left my raw. Its been awful! I don't have my follow up until the 8th of February and hopefully I'll get all my questions answered. There was good and bad news that came out of the surgery but I am okay for now. I am so grateful I have Cody and that he was able to give me a blessing the night before.




I have been job hunting for the last three days. I'm just living on my couch right now so its been giving me something to do. I have had little success. Why? Oh because 99% of the jobs I've applied to and inquired about have been total SCAMS. It is so irritating but I did get one promising response back so hopefully (Pray for us1) it turns out to be something great. That's it for now everyone. Hope you are all getting along splendidly.

"U @ 50"

I got this in an email and thought it was absolutely fantastic and I had to share. Enjoy lovelies.

A palindrome reads the same backwards as forward. This video reads the exact opposite backwards as forward. Not only does it read the opposite, the meaning is the exact opposite. This is only a 1 minute, 44 second video and it is brilliant. Make sure you read as well as listen...forward and backward.

This is a video that was submitted in a contest by a 20-year old. The contest was titled "u @ 50" by AARP. This video won second place. When they showed it, everyone in the room was awe-struck and broke into spontaneous applause. So simple and yet so brilliant. Take a minute and watch it.

Feelin' a Little Crafty!

I have been feeling very crafty lately. Almost every night, I lay awake for HOURS because all of the ideas I have bouncing around in my head. Decorating is so exciting and I have so so so many blogs I love to look at and get ideas from. I have a love for funky and eclectic things as well as vintage decor. I stumbled upon this blog The Graphics Fairy (click my post title, and it'll take you there) and decided to just print an image I liked, and put it together with some ribbon inside my sea shell frame.

Here is the white frame I got when I was like 14 and a few weeks ago I just hot glued a ton of broken sea shells I had collected from the state park beach in FL.


Here is the image I found and printed from The Graphics Fairy blog. Its from an antique book, I believe it was the cover.


I trimmed the cover down then without having first planned on it, I pulled off a fabric cover on a basket I had received as part of a gift forever ago. I cut it into strips to help frame the picture.


I am OBSESSED with the fleur de lis symbol so I found another image that incorporated that.


Instead of breaking out my hot glue gun, I just used double stick tape to get everything to stay together. Since I was planning on filling the entire frame, I didn't use a matte so I stuck everything directly to the back of the frame backing.


I finished it off with a border of some fantastic brown satin and mesh ribbon.


Here is the finished product :) I am going to get some dark stain and darken up the frame just a little then probably sand the edges and corners.

Mama Knows Best

This morning, I went out to get the mail and stumbled over a box sitting on my front porch. I picked it up, brought it inside, and even though I KNEW it was for my birthday (which is in two days) I proceeded to open it. This is what I found on top.


Underneath were several gifts, all wrapped of course, so there was no chance of "cheating". Oh mom, you know me too well. The gifts are now all sitting next to Cody's, waiting for my love and attention.

Dear John

I love Nicholas Sparks' work. Every single one of his books tugs at the heartstrings and never fails to make me a water works show. I also love that a lot of his books have made it to film and none of them have failed to impress.



Well this newest one looks like its going to be amazing. The book was fantastic and heartbreaking (of course) and the movie looks like it'll be the same. When I cry during the trailer, its a sign. This comes out in February.





The last song is also a great book and its film is due to release in April of this year. Its the one with Miley Cyrus. There is one more Nicholas Sparks novel that is being made into a film. Its currently in production and is called The Lucky One.

More Homey Home Pictures

I have big dreams for my house. The problem is, my house is too small for most of them. I compromise by majorly downsizing but I'll share them anyways.

We were able to get our tiny little guest bathroom completed with a few small touches. My MIL is coming to stay for a week after my surgery so it needed to be done. Here are the before and afters.

That gold star basket was given to me by my sister and I love it. It didn't go with the bathroom though so I spray painted it black. We also didn't have towel racks so we got some on sale. I have a love affair with the color red, its in almost every room, this one is no exception.







Our front room is amazing. I love our mantel and our fireplace and what I have been able to do with it. We only had one tiny little couch and we have been wanting a sectional so badly. Thankfully my MIL is amazing and for our Christmas/Birthdays (since they are all close together) got us one!! It was delivered yesterday and we love it. Its so comfy and so fantastic and fits perfectly in our room. Thank you Robyn!!



This freed up our little couch for another engagement. It is now residing in our little office. Its a perfect match.



One of my other favorite spots in the house is my desk nook. I love it. There are pictures of family and friends and of course, my love and I . I love my leopard chair and my candles. I just love it.




The room that is currently sitting mostly empty is our spare room. We of course would love to make it super pretty with a bedroom set or absolutely adorable with baby stuff but we don't want to jump the gun either way. The shelf that I did hang up in there was made by my mama and I got it for my 8th birthday. It never got stained though and got shoved back in the barn at my parents house. Last year, my mama had a garage sale and I found the shelf. It came with me to UT then to GA. I had to reassemble it and patch it up pretty good. I have plans to do some crackle paint on it but want to wait until the rest of the room is done to choose the color. I went ahead and put some nick nacks on the shelf and had to get creative with rigging them up to stay up there. Wire and hooks my friends, wire and hooks. The white frame I have had for a good 7 years and I decided to give it a face lift with a bunch of broken shells I got while visiting Panama City Beach FL. We just need to find the perfect picture to put in it.




There you have it. Our house mostly finished. Loves!!