It helps to have a handy husband :)

My husband likes to do everything himself. I don't know how many times I have heard: 'if I can do it why would I pay someone?' or 'I wouldn't have to do it...for a fee' or something similar. I think we really were made for each other :)

Most times this is a wonderful thing. Most times it is NOT. When he says he can do something in ten minutes or he only needs ten minutes I know to expect two hours or more :) I really do love this quality about him though; we've manged to paint 90% of our house ourselves, he's made me box valances, we installed a new kitchen floor together (I do NOT reccommend doing this one yourself-pay someone to do it!), I have all new hardware and fixtures in my bathrooms and kitchen and I have a BEAUTIFUL new wood railing and guardrails around my open staircase to the basement-the list is endless of the things he tries, researches and completes! My family is also greatful to have him...they've saved a bit of money as well because he knows what to do. When a toy stops working or breaks my nieces put it aside because "uncle Brad will look at it. Uncle Brad will know how to fix it". And, he usually does!

Because he likes to do everything himselfn he also owns every single tool known to man. No lie. And, he usually owns more than one of some. I don't know why. Yet, this is the man who asks me why I own so many black shoes.

For his birthday in 2009 I bought him a router and my parents bought him a set of router bits. He used birthday money from his parents to buy an even bigger set of bits. I've since learned my lesson and made some ground rules. If he wants a tool I need a list of at least FIVE things around the house he is going to use if for and if he does get it, no new tools will enter the house until THREE of those five things have been complete.

No new tools have entered our house since Birthday 2009 :)

This weekend, however, he managed to knock one project off the list. After always talking about making me shelves or something else for the house I REALLY stayed on his back for this project. I was FED.UP.

Thats one shelf in my pantry. More than half of it is spices and it is SO unorganized. I wanted a hanging spice rack for the inside of our pantry door. I never wanted a spice rack to sit on my counter nor did I like that you usually had to empty the container you bought them in to put them in the bottles for the spice rack. Ugh. I looked all around online for something that would work but all I found was some flimsy looking wire racks and the good ones I was finding that I liked cost near $100! For less than $30 my husband made me exactly what I wanted :)

This is my pantry shelf now. I actually have more space left over! As you might be able to see there are two jars of salsa and two jars of jelly. We don't do this. Usually we have one in the fridge open and one in the pantry as backup. The same goes for most of my spices. I have two or three OPEN jars of things. The reason for this overstock is probably because we could never find or organize things so we knew what we had. Not anymore!!!

 Because I have this!!!

You can't tell in the picture but there are pieces of plexi-glass over the front of each shelf. I love going into my pantry now ;)

Bathroom Decor

This is another project that I did a few months ago. It took me about six months to pull it all together but it's been done for awhile.

The only room in the house that has a 'theme' going on in it other than the nursery is the downstairs bathroom. I don't know why I ended up putting all of our 'nautical' stuff in there but it's a 'oceany/beachside/boat-y' bathroom now. The crazy thing is that except for two things I put on the walls everything else was scattered throughout the home when it was a bachelor pad so I didn't have to do much.

The space I am showcasing today however is a piecs of HUGE space between the door and the sink. My husband used to have this small three tier shelf that was wire and wicker-ish but it was flimsy and totally NOT my style so it had to be replaced, plus it was much too small for the space.

We bought a cabinet at Garden Ridge. They were moving about a mile away from their location and the entire store was on sale. We scored big time with this one, it fit perfectly in the bathroom.

I made the cloche from a covered cheese dome and chunky candle holder I got at Salvation Army. This one cost me $3 to make. I sprayed it without even knowing where I would put it but when I thought of the bathroom it fit in quite well. I got the pieces inside of it at the Dollar Tree of all places! The little bird came from there as well and I had thought about spraying him too but when I put him in there I think I like him as is. The vase was exactly what I had envisioned in my head so I didn't mind paying $2.99 for it at T.J. Maxx. I had a stem of the flowers left ove from another project and thought they looked perfect so they are staying for now. I did this little bit of decor on the VERY cheap and I love it!

Decor Before and After

When I first saw these going around Blog-world months ago I got so excited! I really wanted to make myself a set and knew I would love them. Little did I know I would not love the process of making them.

I searched every dollar store , thrift store and discout store for WEEKS looking for the perfect pieces. I ended up settling for something a bit less than what I had envisioned. I got it all at Dollar Tree; one tall cylinder vase and two of the same smaller ones with a little 'lip' at the bottom. Since I already had the
E-6000 glue it cost me $6 to make.

Figuring out something to put in them was another story, and one that I don't think is done. These have been in my room for a few weeks now but I am still on the lookout for something better to put in them. I didn't want candles since I would never light them anyway and they would fade eventually as well. Plus, I couldn't find any 'cheap' unscented but colored candles; I wanted them in a shade of red. I had the river rocks from an old project and had found these apples on sale at Marshall's and picked them up for next to nothing and figured I would eventually use them in something. It's ok but I don't know if I 'love' it. Any suggestions??

Well, here are the pictures. Please ignore my bad photo skills and the reflection in the mirror :)

This is the 'before". My husband had fake plants ALL OVER the house...this is one of the last ones I replaced. I couldn't wait to get it out of there. I knew the family pictures and butterfly would stay...my husband used to collect butterflies when he was little and that is the only one he saved as he grew up since it's his favorite. It even makes ME nostalgic :) The dried flowers are my wedding bouquet; they went up there after the wedding and I just never moved them after that.

And here is the new setup:

Here is a really bad up close shot...the apples ARE indeed red but are covered in those clear beads so my falsh kept bouncing off of them...I suck at taking pictures.

 In order to make the hurricanes three different heights (since I got two of the same sized cylinders) I grabbed three romantic books (this is the boudoire after all :) ) and stacked them and put my bouquet and one of the vases on top.  Even though it is not exactly what I had in my head I like this setup MUCH better than the previous decor.

I'm still here!

For anyone reading this, I have not lost interest in my blog! I just don't have anything to update it with. I have so many projects left unfinished and so many more left to even be started. But, I have also started a HUGE project that will consume a lot of energy, most of my body and lots of time...nine months to be exact. So, while I have no energy and am staying away from the smells of paint and glue my blog will unfortunatey be ignored. I'll go through my computer later, maybe there are pictures of past projects that I havne't shown off yet :) Thanks for sticking with me if you have!