Happy Halloween!

We have a busy day planned, and an even busier night, but I wanted to stop in and tell everyone I hope you have a wonderful, fun, and safe Halloween.

Happy Halloween from my little goblins to yours!

P.S. I'll be back with some fun pics and from the weekend and a couple other neat projects in the beginning of the week.

Weight Watchers Wednesday, Week 39

It is Weight Watchers Wednesday(actually Friday oops!), Week 39 and this week I lost .5 lbs. for a running total of 38 lbs.
Just like last week I am participating in The Domestic Princess In Training's Linky Party to keep myself accountable. Here are her questions and my answers.
1. How did your week go?

I am thankful for my loss, but I must admit I did not make the changes I had planned on making this week. I have still not switched to the Core Plan. I did not journal everything as I was supposed to, but I did make enough good choices that I squeezed in a loss, so I feel good about that.

2. Were you faced with any challenges? If so what were they?

I have been insanely busy this week with the boys, church, Halloween festivities, and other obligations, but NO EXCUSES. I did not follow through with what I said I was gonna do and I have to hold myself accountable. I started on my journal and will have it done by next Weight Watchers Wednesday. That is the goal for this week.

3. How do you plan to work on conquering these challenges in the upcoming weeks? If you were a rock star and went through the week without any concerns you can talk about that here as well.
This upcoming week I am going to take the time to make a better grocery list so that I can stick to the Core Plan and I am gonna finish my Weight Watchers Notebook.

4.What were a few things you did this week to get you moving in the right direction? (If you took a picture/pictures of you doing any of these activities you can include them here.)
I still exercised and I stayed busy.

I am gonna be heading to the Charleston County Fair tonight, so send up a little prayer that I can steer clear of the Fried Snickers bars that always call my name at the fair! Also being that it's Halloween, I have to be extra mindful.

Instead of a recipe this week, I am gonna share a Halloween Candy Points List that I found online. Here is the link to an awesome Weight Watchers Blog and her post about Halloween Candy.

I hope all my Weight Watchers Buddies had a great week and I look forward to hearing from you!

Be There or Be Square!

Edie at Life in Grace is hosting a fantastic party to get us all inspired and motivated to make Christmas more homemade this year, and if you know Edie you know just how fun and fantastic everything she does is. It starts November 1st and is an event that is not to be missed. Spread the word to all your peeps! I hear she is gonna have some super cool bloggers doing different tutorials everyday (hint hint!) Head over there and get yourself this cute button and spread the word!

Halloween Goodies...

I did not realize how busy the holidays become when you have kids in school. My boys are only in pre-school, but they each have field trips, parties, and 2 Trunk or Treats to attend. I have been working on some Halloween goodies in an effort to get ahead of the game.

As always, I am trying to be very economical (a.k.a. CHEAP), expecially since we also get hundreds of trick or treaters through our neighborhood. Here are some of the things I am making this week, or have already made in preparation that are cost effective, but still have the cute factor.

For the kids in my Sunday School class, I made these super simple ghosts. I'm sure you have seen these before, but if not they are a Super BlowPop covered in white tissue paper and I added googley eyes and a mouth. This project for cost me $3 for 12 ghosts. I got all my supplies at the Dollar Tree. Love THEM!

For Connor's class I am making these Bat covered Hershey's bars. I got this idea from my friend Amy who saw it online. I found a tutorial for them at Skip To My Lou, and if you follow this link you can find the tutorial as well as the printable pdf.

(picture courtesy of Skip to My Lou)

For Walker's class I am making popcorn hands because he wanted to do something he could help with. This is a simple and really cute craft. You have to make sure you get food prep gloves though because some gloves contain latex and lots of people are allergic to that. All you do is pop your popcorn and let it cool. Place one piece of candycorn in each finger for fingernails. Fill the bag with popcorn and then tie them off with a rubberband and some ribbon. I am gonna add a spider ring to mine, but that is optional. If you don't want to make them yourself, you can buy them on ETSY from this seller.
So now you know a little bit of what I have been up to. I had a hot date with Lonnie last night that included 4 haunted houses. I HATE haunted houses. He LOVES haunted houses. Oh the things we do for love. Anyway, that finally got me motivated to get ready for Halloween. What are you making for Halloween Parties? I'd love to know what has worked well for you, especially for young children. Any suggestions?

Weight Watchers Wednesday, Week 38...

It is Weight Watchers Wednesday, Week 38 and this week I lost 0 lbs. for a running total of 37.5 lbs. I am ecstatic about this!! Why you ask, because after eating carni food all weekend at the Court Days festival I attended I was dreading a gain this week. I guess the fact that we walked all day every day cancelled out all that crazy food. Can I get a hallelujah?!

I am doing something a little different in this week's WW post, as well as in the next few weeks to come. I have recently made a fabulous new blog friend (the Domestic Princess in Training), and she is hosting a weekly weightloss challenge from now until November 12. I have been needing something to get me more motivated lately, and I think this is just the ticket. In a nutshell, she has a few questions she posts on Mondays and we answer the questions, list our goals, and follow up with the others who have linked up for the week. It is a great idea for some accountability and I am in desperate need of that this week. SO, here is the list of questions and my answers:

1. What is the goal are you trying to reach by November 12th?

My goal is twofold. First I want to accurately journal every.single.morsel of food I put in my mouth. Secondly, I am switching over to the Core Plan instead of the Flex Plan. I was supposed to do that last week, but being that I traveled more than I was home it just didn't happen. I am focusing mainly on my food because I have found a good rhythm regarding exercise but my food choices are still a struggle and I have to be better about journaling. One other benefit to keeping a food journal is that I can keep track of different things I eat and swith them up so I don't get as bored.

2. What are you going to do to support yourself in reaching your goal?

I have made some new food journal sheets in Excel and I am printing a stack of them off tonight and decorating a cutie-patootie notebook with the thought that I will be more likely to use it if it is cute. That is just how I am. I make no apologies.

I am also going tomorrow to find a small notebook to put in my purse that I can have when I am out and eat something so that I won't forget to journal stuff.

3. This one is optional but if you like include a picture/pictures of the things that you are going to use to get you moving in the right direction.

If you do Weight Watchers and want a free food journal you can print out, here is a link to a good one.

I found this adorable binder on Etsy, and I will probably do something very similar.

If you want to buy this little beauty, here is the link. I don't know this seller personally, but they have some awesome notebooks. I will post pictures of my notebook either when I finish it or next week on WW Wednesday.

Last but not least, if this accountability thing sounds like something that interests you, here is a link to the Domestic Princess In Training. She is awesome and so sweet to host this for the next few weeks. I hope all my WW buddies had a great week and I can't wait to hear from you!

I'm Still Here...

I'm still here, a little tired, but here. I meant to post last week about my upcoming trip, but in the chaos of trying to get myself and the boys ready, I got sidetracked. I am now back from my girls weekend and just thought I would share a few of the highlights from my trip to KY.

I left on Friday to go stay with one of my besties,a roommate from college that lives outside Lexington KY. She has been telling me for years about a festival called Court Days that her little town hosts, so this year we planned well in advance and my parents agreed to keep my boys so I could go see what all the fuss was about.

I drove to TN on Friday with the boys, and then rode from TN to KY with my girlfriends' Mom, Grandma, and a family friend. Can I just tell you that these women are a hoot!! I don't know when I have laughed so much. We stayed up late, rose early, and shopped 'til we dropped all weekend. I found several goodies, but had to leave part of them in KY because the car was so packed coming home.

Here is Robin digging through a bunch of scarves. We loved this booth. It had real cashmere scarves and a huge variety of Pashminas for $8/each or 3 for $20.Here we are on a hayride. Staci lives pretty close to downtown where the festival took place, so the little man doing the hayride agreed to take us back to Staci's house for $1/person. He got a little lost and we were frozen solid by the time we got there, but it was still worth a buck considering we were completely loaded down with stuff.
Here is a picture of one section of the festival. It does not even begin to do it justice. There.were.people.EVERYWHERE. They had booths selling everything from high dollar antiques to a set of tata's that sang "Titties and Beer" and flashed you.
Here we are in front of one of the booths that had gorgeous silver jewelry. Baby Claire and Carson even came down to the festival Sunday.
I loved this snowman. It was just a piece of bark cut off of a tree and painted, but at about 8 feet tall I think it would be beautiful outdoors at Christmas.

And this is a picture of me learning how to make Peanut Butter Chocolate Bon-Bons.

When I don't have a loss for my Weight Watcher's Weigh in tomorrow I won't be surprised. No one prepared me for the amount of "fair food" we would be exposed to this weekend. Wow. I shared a fried Snickers, fried Twinkie, and even a Fried Oreo. Those things are good enough alone, deep fry them and they are UNBELIEVABLE. I will do a tutorial on these bon bons later this week because the were also incredible.

I missed out on the DIY Tuesday this week, but I have lots of projects going on and will be back with some of them later on in the week. I hope you had a wonderful weekend and I look forward to catching up!

Weight Watchers Wednesday, Week 37

It is Weight Watchers Wednesday, Week 37 and this week I lost .5 lbs. for a running total of 36.5 lbs. I am off of my goal for the week by 1/2 lb. so I am gonna have to really be good this weekend travelling and stay on track. I can do it!

For those of you that do not follow Weight Watchers, they have 2 types of plans. The Core Plan and Flex Plan. The Core is based on eating healthy foods until you are full, and you don't have to count points as long as you only eat the foods you are allowed. On the Flex plan you eat a daily allowance of points that are determined by a food's fat, fiber, and calorie content. I have been intending to switch to the Core plan for a while now. The only time I get my veggies in is when I am on the Core plan not the Flex plan. I am weak. I use my Flex points on junk food no matter how I look at it. I only eat my points, but they are not spent on veggies or lean protein. I would much rather have a Snickers bar for 7 points than a healthier alternative. I obviously lose better when eating healthy foods, so this week is gonna be the switch I've been putting off.

On the exercise front, it's been raining here. I have been a real slacker this week. I had a great work out Sunday and then skipped Monday. I worked like a crazy woman pulling weeds and raking Tuesday, but didn't get diddley exercise in today. I am exercising tomorrow and Friday to get my time in.

For a recipe this week, I am sharing more of a tip than a recipe. As I have told you many times before, I am a coffee-aholic. I LOVE it. I could drink it all day everyday. I am also a pumpkin fanantic. I look so forward to this time of year because Starbuck's has their Pumpkin Spice Latte. I would hate to know how many points one of those is. Hence I came up with my own version. I brew Pumpkin Spice coffee, add Splenda, Sugarfree Vanilla creamer, and I top it with Fat Free Cool Whip. Can I just tell you it is delicious and definitely worth 2 points!

I hope all my WW buddies had a great week and I look forward to hearing your progress. By the way, if you are on WW, do you do Flex or Core?

And the Winner is...

The random number generators:

Connor in his black Converse kicks that Nonnie loves. Connor loves them too and HAD to wear them to school this morning. And Walker still in his Walgreens shirt he wore to bed. I think it is so fitting that he has on this t-shirt. We seem to be keeping Walgreens in business these days trying to get rid of Walker's Bronchitis, or coughalitis as he calls it. He is a walking billboard.

They chose Heather L as the winner of the giveaway. I think this is hilarious because she said her lucky number was 13, just like mine, and she was the 13th entry. Wow. I laughed out loud when Connor pulled her from the basket this morning. Congrats Heather! Just e-mail me with your color preferences and shipping info. I'll get busy and get your goodies out ASAP.

Thanks to everyone else for putting up with me this past year and making it such a wonderful year for me. I love each and every one of you!

Easy Lampshade Makeover...

As any good blogger will tell you, you ALWAYS take before pictures. Well I forgot to, so you are gonna have to trust me that this sassy little thing was originally a $3 lamp with no shade from a yardsale and that it was the ugliest thing on the East Coast. Think dirty brown wood and brass. BUT, if you do A LOT of sanding, paint it red, and make it a cute shade you end up with a fantastic lamp!

I took a lampshade my Mom gave me years ago. It was just a simple white shade from Bed Bath and Beyond. I added fringe to the top, and ribbon to the bottom.

After a closer look, I decided to cover the cord with red fabric because it needed "something else". (Excuse the fact it is sitting on my kitchen counter. I still have not found just the right place to put this cutie patootie.)

A couple hours and $3 later you have an adorable lamp that is truly unique. This could be so cute in a lot of different spaces. Think primary colors for a little boy's room, or even pink for a little girl's.
I am linking up to ASPTL's DIY Tuesday

and Reinvented's Trash to Treasure Tuesday. Hope you have a wonderful week and thanks for visiting!

Walker's Cowboy Room...

I got an e-mail last week asking about Walker's bedroom. It occurred to me that I had never posted about it, so here you go Heidi!

As with most other rooms in this house, Walker's room was floor to ceiling wallpaper.

Gorgeous right? I had a hard time deciding whether or not to take this fantastic paper down, and pigs fly!! Lonnie's grandma and I worked for days to scrape that ugly wallpaper down inch.by.inch. Just getting it painted was a HUGE improvement. We used Benjamin Moore's Quincy Tan. A great color I used throughout other rooms in the house.

I had done Walker's nursery in a vintage cowboy pattern, so transitioning it into a "big boy" room was super easy. We moved the crib and baby furniture into Connor's room and replaced Walker's with Attic Heirlooms by Broyhill. The bunkbeds are by another company but were the only ones I could find that matched the Attic Heirlooms but had storage drawers underneath. When we bought this furniture we were in our other house. Moving it here was a little tricky. I then tried arranging it several ways, but ultimately, this was the only way everything would fit.

This is looking in the door from the hall. He still has a bedrail, but he rarely sleeps in this bed. I could probably get rid of it. The bedding is from Target. It is a cowboy print quilt.

To the left. Valances are from Lowe's.
His closet and toy chest sit on the same wall as the door. I chose to leave the doors off the closet so that we would have a place for the train table. It was the perfect size and the boys love to play there. It also forces me to keep his closet tidy.

Here are some of the picture arrangements in the room.
This boot is from TJ MAXX and it happened to have Walker's name on it. It is probably one of my favorite things in the room.

This is a little shelf I got from Micheal's and painted red. Those are some old cowboy boots Walker wore for Halloween and the picture is one of my favorites of Lon and Walker goofing around in Walker's child-size cowboy hats. I simply added scrapbook letters that said Cowboy to the mat on the inside of the frame.

I made these little stars for his nursery 5 years ago and they have just sort of stuck around, but I still like them in his room.

These prints were all bought online via e-bay, and then I got frames from Hobby Lobby and framed them myself. The bottom left is a pic of the boys at Dixie Stampede.

Walker's bedside table was from a clearance sale at a furniture store a few years ago. It was less than $50 and is a really nice piece. The basket on top holds his library books so they don't get misplaced and it was from Habitat for Humanity for $1.

There you have it. I hope I answered all of your questions Heidi and if I missed something just let me know.

Happy Blogiversary, and a Giveaway...

I. am. shocked. It has been one year since I began this journey called a blog. I have written 241 posts. I never thought I would have that much to write about, but evidently I do. I just looked back at my very first post, and I laughed so hard. So much has changed over this past year. I have really gotten "settled" in our home. I have lost 36 lbs. The boys have grown and changed. I even got a blog button. But most of all, I have made so many wonderful friends!! I am so thankful for the friendships that I have made through the blog, and all of the wonderful new things all of you have taught me through your own blogs. So, I'm gonna have a giveaway!

I have pondered all week about what I was gonna do, and finally decided that since I am such a sentimental person, I am gonna make the winner a gift or two. It is not huge, but it is gonna be handmade by me and will be made to suit the winner's tastes. I will make the winner a tassel and pillow according to their personal home decor colors.

Now don't fret. My tasseling abilities have gotten much improved from my first two tries. I still can't believe I even posted those pitiful looking things, but they were a work in progress and I can look at them now and see how far I have come. Here are a few of my more recent beauties and I posted about my pillow last week, but here are a few of them as well.


Now, the rules are simple. Just leave me a comment and you will be entered. I am gonna take names until midnight, Tuesday October 13. It seems like an odd time, but since 13 is my lucky number it works. Good luck and thanks for a wonderful year!

Weight Watchers Wednesday, Week 36

It is Weight Watchers Wednesday, Week 36 and this week I am at a big fat 0 lbs. lost and 0 lbs. gained, for a running total of 36 lbs. lost. Okay, if I am gonna reach my goal of 52 lbs. this year I am gonna HAVE TO lose atleast one pound every week the rest of the year. This makes me a little nervous since all the really good eat everything in sight because it all tastes so delicious and you only get this great food once a year holidays are coming up. I guess I am gonna just have to try to stick to my meal planning really closely and only splurge on holidays.

I have still been exercising. I have not been quite as disciplined about it this week, but I did get in 3 workouts. I am gonna change up the walking to aerobics for a day or two and see if a little variety makes me more motivated.

For this week's recipe I am gonna post an Apple Crisp recipe from one of my favorite sites. It is a blog I follow called Gina's Weight Watchers Recipes and Gina is a wonderful cook. I have tried several of her recipes and they are always super! I am gonna try this one later on this week because it is fall and I always want apples in the fall.

Cinnamon Apple Crisp
Gina's Weight Watcher Recipes
Servings: 8 • Serving Size: 7/8 cup • Calories: 222 • Points: 4.5 ptsFilling:
5 medium apples, peeled and diced
1.5 oz raisins (small box)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 lemon, juiced
3 tsp cornstarch
1/4 cup agave nectarTopping:
1 cup rolled oats
1/3 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup light brown sugar (not packed)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup (half stick) butter, melted
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Combine apples, raisins, cinnamon, agave nectar and lemon juice in large bowl. Sprinkle with cornstarch. Toss until fruit is coated. Place fruit in an ungreased baking dish.Mix remaining ingredients. Sprinkle over fruit. Bake about 40 minutes or until topping is goldenbrown and fruit is tender.Serve with a scoop of low fat ice cream or fat free frozen yogurt.

I hope all my Weight Watchers Buddies had a great week and I will be back next week with a loss, or I'll die trying!

Toile Chair Tutorial...

If you visit this blog very often, then you know I am not the best at tutorials. I typically direct you to someone else's tutorial since I usually forget to take enough pictures. Well that is probably the case here again, but this is a really simple chair makeover so I am gonna give it another try. Let's get started!

First up, you find an old chair at the dump. You let everyone there look at you like you have lost your ever loving mind because you are putting more trash back into your car than you just took out. Here is the little beauty I came home with:

Next I took off the seat. I just unscrewed it from the bottom. I then washed the whole thing down really well with some soapy water. While the chair is drying, I start prying off the fabric from the cushion.

Now this seat had no real padding so I added a seat cushion to it. I bought a pack of 4 of them at Wal-Mart forever ago, but they were not more than $10. I just cut it to size and then glue it down with spray adhesive. (Sorry here is where I was so involved I forgot to take pics!)

Next I went back to the chair and sanded any chips in the paint. I then spray painted it black with black spray paint. I do this more as a primer. I then brushed some black paint I already had over the whole thing. Let that dry and then spray paint again to make it look smooth and get any spots you missed. I then sealed it with a clear acrylic spray.

Back to the cushion. I stretched and stapled my toile fabric over the cushion and stapled it to the bottom. I then added my ruffle. I just measured all the way around the outside of the seat and doubled it. I wanted my ruffle to be 6 inches high so I cut and hemmed a strip of fabric 6 inches by the diameter doubled. (Are you starting to see why I don't do tutorials?) I then stapled the ruffle into place.

Finally you reattach the seat... and sit on the chair hoping it doesn't fall over. Mine didn't so I was good to go!

I actually got 2 of these chairs at the dump over the summer. The other one is my chair in the craft room. This is how it turned out and a link to that post if you want the details.

I am sharing this at ASPTL for DIY Tuesday

and at Reinnvented for Trash to Treasure Tuesday.

Hope you have a great week and thanks for stopping by!