Because I'm a Dork...

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I had to share this. I am a complete dork, but this never gets old to me! The boys really act like this is them dancing. They want me to show it to people like old home videos or something. And by the way, I am decorating for Christmas this weekend. Connor got his adnoids out and tubes in his ears on Thursday, so not a whole lot of time for crafting. I hope to be back to a normal posting schedule next week. Have a great day!

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!

Sassy Lamp Makeover and a Mullet Mistreatment...

**Edited to Add** I am linking up with Kimba at ASPTL for DIY Thursday. Go check out all the other awesome DIY projects via this link...
It is Day 2 leading up the craft room reveal on Thursday, and today I am gonna share my new lamp and window mistreatment.
First off, I want to show you my new window mistreatment. I LOVE it and I hope it makes the Nester proud. I did not sew a stitch on these. I used my glue gun, thumb tacks, and drapery clips. I got the fabric at Hancock's when we were in TN and it was all on clearance. The fabric for my lamp, seat cushion, and curtain was all under $20.

All I did was fold and tack up the leopard print fabric...Then hot glue the pink and striped together. Glued some fringe on, and folded the top before putting it in the clips so that it looks sewn. I nailed my hooks right on the wall because I was too lazy to hang a rod. Lonnie wanted to know "where the other half was" and I told him I intended for it to look a like a mullet!

Now do you see the resemblance? I loved mullets way back when, and I love my mullet curtain now!

Now for the lamp, I wanted to make sure I had plenty of light in my craft room, so I decided I needed a floor lamp that would sit next to my sewing machine and shine directly on what I was working on. Here she is:

Didn't she turn out cute? I LOVE this lamp. In a previous life (I've had this lamp since college)she was known as Plain Jane. Now I like to call her Sassy Sofie because she is the life of the party in her pink paint and green and pink top.

Walker wasn't so sure about giving the lamp a makeover, but when I got out the pink paint he got excited. He said, "Mom I never saw you paint anything pink before."

I think it is safe to say that he now sees this lamp was destined to be pink!

This was so easy to do, and since there is no need to re-invent the wheel, I will spare you another lamp covering tutorial, and send you straight to the instructions that I followed from Ms. Rhoda @ Southern Hospitality. Here is the link to her tutorial. She is way better at giving step.by.step. directions than I am.

Well there you have it. What do you think of my Mullet Mistreatment?

Gal Pals...

When I started this blog last year, it was mainly so that my friends and family in TN and WV could keep up with us on a daily basis. I think I have accomplished that. For example, every morning my grandma logs on to the internet and catches up on what has been going on in my life. (Sorry the posts have been so sporadic lately Grandma! It is harder to blog in the Summer!) Anyway, I was doing the blog for other people more than myself. I never would have guessed that in the long run, I would be the one to get the most out of it.

Besides the fact that this blog is a journal of sorts, it has also been a way to connect with others. Over these past 8 months I have met some incredible women from all over the country that I never would have known otherwise. These friendships that we have forged are as real and dependable as the ones with my girlfriends that I know from my daily life. It has been so wonderful to get to know these women and share struggles, creative ideas, laughter, and all of the ins and outs of life.

A perfect example of this is my friend Stacie. How Stacie stumbled on my blog is a mystery, but she has become a true friend in every sense of the word. She is funny, smart, a heck of a good cook, and crafty as can be. Her blog is called Park Avenue because she is a girl from the city and gettin' by in the country these days.(I'll warn you that if you visit her blog you are gonna find some ridiculously good recipes. NOT Weight Watchers ones either!) She has been especially encouraging in my efforts at losing weight, so it should not have surprised me this week when I got a package from her in the mail. I had to share this with you because it was so darn cute.

In that little striped box, she put these earrings that she MADE. Told you she was crafty. They are FABOO!
I hope this is close enough for you to read. It is a weight loss survival kit. This made me laugh out loud! Especially the little scrap of material "for next year's bikini". Such a hoot!

To all my gal pals that I have met via this blog, thanks so much for being such a special part of my life and for helping me to realize I am not alone in my day to day quest to be the best version of Mandi that I can be. I treasure you all!

Mother of the Year Award...

Follow this link:

http://news.cnnbcvideo.com/?nid=enNlPHZ1Zcs4W3AdHLLiFjEwNjgwNjYy&referred_by=15443694-Wicz_Cx&p=mm

HILARIOUS!! Thanks Kristen for this prestigous award!

Heck of a Deal...

The town we call home in SC is really small, so it is about a 45 min. drive to go to Target or any of my other favorite stores. The nearest Hobby Lobby is over an hour away, and getting to go requires atleast half of your day. In TN all of these stores are in 2 shopping centers a few miles apart. So, it is no surprise that One of the highlights of visiting my parents in TN is getting to go shopping without having to drag my little guys along. They gladly watch my rugrats and let me run to my favorite stores. Hobby Lobby, TJ Maxx, Target, and Tuesday Morning are always a must. I got a few deals this trip in the little bit of shopping I did, and I wanted to tell you about one in particular. I found a tassel. A beautiful, big, fluffy, wonderful tassel.

My parents laughed at me for being so excited over this little beauty, but I found it at TJ MAXX for a heck of a deal...$6.99. Now I love to make tassels, but it is not a cheap hobby.I could not make a tassel for that. Atleast not one with this much fluff. I am working on one for my Mom right now, and the topper alone was $5.

Okay, enough about my tassel. Now that we are back home I have much m0re important things to worry about. Like why did Connor feel the need to dump a whole bottle of body wash in the tub? They could fart and it would make a crazy amount of bubbles. I had to keep rinsing the tub out for an hour to get all those bubbles down the drain. I took this picture of Walker still enjoying the bubbles after Connor was already out of the tub. Keep in mind he is in about 4 inches of water, and the rest bubbles. Boys.

Too Funny!

I am still working on several projects at the moment, so maybe next week I will have a lot of great things to share with you. For now I am just dropping in with a little something to make you giggle. Hope you are having a great day!

Too FUNNY!

Sorry for another silly post, but this one is too funny not to share! My parents always fuss (my Dad especially) about how they can NEVER get any good customer service at the restaurants when they visit us. I am talking fast food restaurants, not the nicer ones. ANYWAY, my girlfriend Toni just called ranting and raving about her Subway experience, and this comedy clip came to mind. Watch it if you have a minute, but be prepared to LAUGH OUT LOUD!

Mani-Pedi...

So I am longing for a mani-pedi. It has been too long, but I have been so busy! This is a comedy clip my brother shared with me and I almost wet my pants laughing at her. Watch it if you have a couple minutes.

Brought to You by the Letter C...

So Amy at A Little of This and a Little of That has this fun little game going on her blog where you are provided a letter, and you have to tell some facts about yourself that start with that letter. Never one to miss out, I decided to play along. I was given the letter C. Here we go...

1. Connor Brett is my Crazy redheaded boy. Connie Bea is my Mom's name and we named Connor after her.

2. Children... I have 2. Walker and Connor. We are done and will have no more. Yes a girl would have been nice, but I am Content with my 2 Charming boys.

3. College is where Lonnie and I met and fell in l0ve, ETSU to be exact. Some of my very best friends are from this time as well.

4. Crafting is a passion of mine. Any time, anywhere, with anyone. Need I say more?

5. Compassionate and Caring. I like to think I am both of these, or atleast I strive to be. Sometimes I probably am caring to the point of being naive.

6. Creativity is one thing that keeps me motivated. If I can turn any Chore into something Creative, I will enjoy it much more.

7. Coffee. I love it! I am a bit of a Coffee snob and like the good stuff, even though my dad says I ruin it by using too much Cream and splenda.

8. Chocolate... I must have it everyday. Even on Weight Watcher's there is room for a little chocolate. My sister has just turned me on to the Dove's dark chocolate. I have always been a milk chocolate girl, but I am not one to discriminate!

9. Computer... I love my computer and all of the blogging buddies I have made because of it, and how easy it makes keeping up with family and friends.

10. Cooking... I love it and even though I am doing a healthier version of it these days, I will always have a sweet to and love to cook and entertain.

On that note... If you want to play, leave a comment on this post letting me know, and I’ll assign you a letter. You write about ten things you love that begin with your assigned letter, and post it at your place. When people comment on your list, you give them a letter, and the chain continues on and on! Thanks for playing and have a fabulous weekend!

Dance 101

Dance 101, by Walker is the course I have been up to. I am not computer savvy enough to upload videos yet, so another smilebox will have to do for now. Hope you take note of all of the important tips and tricks Walker shares here. He is a great dancer, HAHAHA!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Fun Times on the Coaster...

Just wanted to share about the best purchase Santa has made to date. The roller coaster was a hit, and is one of the few toys that has constantly held the boys interest since they got it. I guarantee that poor coaster has had atleast 400 rides a day, and I am not exaggerating! We set it up in the family room, and it runs into the huge bean bags so they can get thrown off at the end and not get hurt. We have still not taken it outside, and it doesn't look like that will be happening any time soon. Here are a few pictures that will clearly prove my point...

Since Pop and Daddy were watching the boys on Saturday, they decided to make it a little more extreme by adding a block wall to crash through. It was a hit!

Walker bumped his head on one of the blocks, so decided a helmet would be a good idea. I think this is HILARIOUS!

The daredevil !

Pop also showed Connor that going down on his motorcycle could be fun. BAD IDEA POP! As you would expect Connor has tried this on his own and it was not such a smooth ride.

Binky and all, still smiling and hair flying!
Even Fluffy got to ride it. Poor girl. She did not have quite as smooth of a landing riding by herself... S0 Walker decided maybe if he rode with her it would not be so scary...
Here they are coasting to the bean bag...
She definitely earned this carrot!

You've Been Elfed

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Sister Love...

I spent a lot of yesterday crafting, but have no finished projects to show. I will debut my little beauties later today when I finish them. This morning I wanted to post on my sis. I have been missing her lately. We live about 9 hours apart, and will probably always live that far apart seeing as how we both married good ole boys and moved to their hometowns. Anyway, back to the subject at hand, Wewe (that is what the boys call her) is the most genuine, generous, HILARIOUS, and spectacular person I know. She has really been having a hard time lately with her health, but what would keep most people down has just lit a fire in her to pull up those boot straps and get better. She has been working so hard to get healthy and beat these autoimmune disorders (I don't know how much she would feel comfortable with me saying). So to Wendi I say YOU GO GIRL! I am so proud of you for all the changes you have made in your life for your health and the ripple effect it is having on our whole family. I know you have inspired me to make some changes in the way I eat and think. I look so forward to spending my birthday weekend with you, so we can do some of this...

Laughing until we are in pain, while Richard acts like we are crazy.

Dressing fabulously, doing our hair alike, and sporting the newest fashions.

And last but not least, cheesing it up for the camera.

I left shopping out, but we do a lot of that too. We take our shopping too seriously to be taking pictures while we do it, it is a sport people. You don't see wide receivers taking their own pictures while they play do you? My point exactly!