Little Things!

Sometimes it's just the new little touches here and there that make me happy.

For instance, check out my new chevron pillow (I know!  More chevron??  The answer is: yes!!!)

that I found on Etsy!  (at the Milk & Cookies shop, she has TONS of gorgeous pillow covers!)

I really wanted to add a neutral pillow to the couch and I think 

this was the perfect solution!  Plus, it actually works in any room

in the house so I can always move it around if I want

to change things up.

Then, I scooped up some new towels for the main bathroom at World Market.  You 

can find them here.  Somehow I managed to find them at 50% off (they are still full price on the website).  Score!!!

Everything was pretty neutral in there so these little towels added a 

little color.

And yes, I have a jar of M&M's on my bathroom counter.  I know, gross.  But

when you're potty training three toddlers, you do what ya gotta do! 

What about you?  Don't you get super excited when you find that 

perfect little towel or accessory?

New Favorite Nail Polish Color!

I absolutely LOVE having my fingernails painted.  Back before having the triplets I would 

treat myself to a manicure all the time.  But, these days, I rarely paint

my nails anymore because, as you know, it takes time and effort to do so

and frankly, at the end of the day, I just want to veg out and watch the Real Housewives

and escape!  Plus, it's a lot of upkeep.  With all of the housework that I have now, a painted nail will last a day if I'm lucky.  But, I still have a love for buying nail polish!  It's so funny, I buy nail polish

all the time in hopes that I will, in fact, take the time to paint them, but I rarely do!

In my usual fashion, I scooped up yet another bottle to ad to my collection of unused 

polish yesterday at Ulta.  I decided on this shade called Go Overboard by Essie.

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Hmmmm, doesn't that shade look familiar?  Remind you of anything???

It is eerily the same color as my Plumage buffet!  Haa!

So, last night I got a wild hair and decided to paint my nails with my brand new

polish!  This color is gorgeous!!!!!  I'm in love!!!!

I've got a vender event tomorrow in Nashville selling my jewelry and I want 

my nails to look nice.   Here's hoping that I can make it until then chip-free!!!

On another note, have you tried Out The Door topcoat?  This stuff is amazing!!!!

I painted my nails last night while in bed, put on the topcoat, and ten minutes later fell 

asleep.  This morning my nails look perfect...no sheet marks or smudges!

Just sayin'!!!

Y'all have a great weekend!

My Love For TOMS

Back in December my little "babies" turned 3.  One of their favorite gifts 

was a pair of TOMS.  The girls received super fun

pink and red glitter TOMS and my son got a grey canvas pair.

We all immediately fell in love with them.

You can see the girls sporting theirs this past Valentine's Day below:

I love them because the kids can easily put them on by themselves and frankly, they are just

so stinkin' cute!!!  Every time they wear them, strangers will stop us on the street to ask about their shoes.

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But, that is not the only reason why I love TOMS.  Do you know about their One For One program?

What that means is that for every pair of TOMS that are sold, they will donate a

pair of shoes to a child in need.  

From the TOMS website:

In 2006, American traveler Blake Mycoskie befriended children in Argentina and found they had no shoes to protect their feet. Wanting to help, he created TOMS Shoes, a company that would match every pair of shoes purchased with a pair of new shoes given to a child in need. One for One. Blake returned to Argentina with a group of family, friends and staff later that year with 10,000 pairs of shoes made possible by TOMS customers.

Doesn't that just make you so happy?  How often can you make a purchase

knowing that at the same time you are also

helping someone else in need???

Earlier this month, TOMS released their highly anticipated line of adorable ballet flats.

This past weekend the hubby and I had a date night and we decided to pop

in to our recently opened Nordstrom's to check them out!

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They are sooooooooooo cute!!!!!

I loved every single pair.

But, sadly, after trying them on, they didn't fit my feet very well.

I have a very narrow foot and they just didn't work.

But, that didn't stop me!  I decided on these and I can't wait to wear them

once the weather warms up!

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Here are some of my other faves:

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If you have 3 minutes, please watch this video on the "One for One Movement" and learn

more about the program.  It's well worth it.

They are changing lives!  

And, better yet, stop in to your local store that sells TOMS

or visit their website and order a pair!  

You'll be happy that you did!  

(TOMS did not in any way endorse me for this review.  I just wanted to show them 

some love because I love what they are doing!!!)

DIY Chevron Painting!

First of all, I want to give a huge shout out to Cassie over at Hi Sugarplum!  who

featured my buffet on her blog yesterday!  I was inspired by her...she painted her

armoire in the famous Martha Stewart Plummage paint color and that

is what helped me to decide on painting my buffet the same color.

I'm completely honored that she shared my project with her readers!

She is so much fun with so many wonderful and creative ideas!   

Thanks, Cassie!!!

Now, on to my newest DIY project!

For weeks I have been stumped on how to fill the huge wall above my buffet in the 

living room.  I had the idea to create my own painting.

I'm obsessed with chevrons at the moment so I googled some ideas

to make my own chevron painting.  There are tons out there.  

I was going to do a really simple one where you just tape off the 

zig zags and paint over it with one color.  

But then, I saw this beauty:

(sorry, I don't know who the artist is.)

Love love love it!  It's chevron, but not in-your-face chevron, ya know?  It's different.

Plus I thought that I could tweak the colors a bit to fit well into my space.

Sooooooooo, I decided to give it a go!

I bought the canvas at Michael's for $12.49 (with a 50% off coupon) and I already

had all of the paint.  I figured, what have I got to lose?    

I'll admit.  The hardest part of the project was drawing out the zig zag pattern.   I ended up 

finding this pattern at Sunset.com.  Their pattern was too small for what I needed so 

I just cut out one "chevron" and traced it onto a piece of paper extending 

the sides to make it larger.  Then, I cut out my larger

chevron and traced it down the middle of the canvas.

I traced one big zig zag down the middle of the canvas.

Then, with a yard stick, I drew out the lines extending to the edge of the canvas

creating the entire pattern.  

Then, the fun part!  Adding color!  I apologize for not getting more pics, but I was home by myself

and only had a limited amount of kid-free time so I had to just go with it!

I just used a small angled paintbrush to do the edges.  It would take forever

to tape off each stripe and wait for it to dry before moving on to the next color.  

I'm impatient like that!

(just ignore those highchairs in the background.  They are in limbo and were
shoved in the dining room...hopefully to
be sold on Craigslist soon!!!)

The above picture was my first coat with three stripes left to go.  Each stripe needed two 

coats of paint.  I was going to just leave them as is, but I loved the texture and contrast 

of colors in my inspiration photo so I went back in and added coordinating

and contrasting colors to each one.  I am NOT a professional and have no training 

in color theory or anything....I just went with it!! 

And, here is the finished project!!!

I chose colors that complimented the room with the teals and greens.

I decided on the "rust" color to play off the cognac color of the sectional couch.  

Then the yellow and the blues were added just for fun!  I didn't want the painting to 

match the room exactly.  

Okay, be honest....what do you think????

New Curtains!

Sometimes we move at a snail's pace around here!  It's always so chaotic with the

kiddos and activities (plus the hubby was going to school at night all throughout the fall) 

so it's pretty busy around here.  You may remember, I found the perfect curtain panels

back in September at West Elm for a steal at $25 a panel.  Just haven't 

gotten around to hanging them.  

Well, wait no more!  I got them hung over the weekend and I am so completely 

thrilled with them!  Check them out!

I am amazed at how much window treatments can soften up a room instantly.  Plus I just LOVE the

added pop of color.  These were the perfect shade of funky green

that I was looking for.  (This color was called "pear".  I just checked West Elm's website and they

are no longer available.  Again, I found them on major sale so I'm guessing they are no

longer carrying them)

You can see my beloved buffet on the right.  Just before the buffet, to the right,

is the hallway leading to the dining room and master bedroom.  The buffet is on a small wall

and beyond that wall it opens up to the kitchen, just to give you a full idea of the space.

Just for fun, here is how it looked before the window panels:

And after!!!

I think that this room is finally coming together!  I've tried to add a lot of color

as well as feminine accents to help tone down the masculine couch.

So tell me, what do you think???

The Pantry: A Work In Progress

Since I'm on a roll with attempting to organize my home a huge problem area for

me was the dreaded pantry.  My goodness, what a mess.  

I was inspired by Courtney at "A Thoughtful Place" who shared her panty organization

as well as "Thrifty Decor Chick" who shared her pantry redo here.  

Seriously.  Go check them out.  

I am totally jealous of these two!!!!  

Yesterday I started out by taking everything out.  I checked everything for expiration dates and, of course, ended up throwing out tons of food.  With so much food crammed in there and stacked on

top of each other, there was simply NO WAY to see what all we had.  What a waste! 

I recently added the racks on the door for more storage and even after cleaning 

everything out, I still didn't have room to put everything back in!

You saw my closet.  I seriously think I have hoarding tendencies!

I'm working on it people!

You can see that there has been some improvement but it's nowhere near where I want to be.

Part of the problem is that we buy way too much food to start with.  We still have like 30 cans of soup and beans?  Really?!?!  WTH???  We rarely even eat soup!  Then we had, and I'm not kidding, 12 boxes of opened crackers and cookies.  What good does that do?  Again, more waste since none of them 

are sealed tight and end up getting stale.  I really need to invest in some nice 

clear containers to store cookies, crackers, etc. but first and foremost...

we need to eat what we currently have before moving on.  Soup anyone???

Once I get the pantry in some type of order, I'm going to try to be diligent about keeping up 

with what we currently have and not to overbuy.  And meal planning is also a 

huge goal of mine.  

What about you guys?  Any tips on what containers I should use?

Any tips on pantry organization and how it "flows" best?

What about tips for meal planning?

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

The kids were so excited for their very first 

Valentine's Day Party

at preschool today!

I sure do love these little babes!

Love!

Happy Love Day, everyone!!!

XOXO!!!

Closet Organization: Before & After!

So, I mentioned last week that I was planning on organizing my closet and I was 

finally able to tackle it!  Yesterday morning, as soon as I dropped off the kiddos at Mother's

Day Out, I immediately went to work on it.  

Y'all, I really hate to post my dirty laundry (literally!) on here, but in order for

 you guys to get a full appreciation of the "after", I simply must show you the "before".

Are you ready for this hot mess???

Don't even think that I staged this chaos.  This is fo reals.  

I am a slob.

I could blame it on the fact that I have triplets and don't have the time to organize this mess.

Honestly, I didn't know what to do or how to even start.  All I knew was that something had to give.

I started out by editing every single article of clothing in there.  Those size 2's from my pre-pregnancy 

days?  Gone.  I had to just face the fact that I would never fit in those again.

If I hadn't worn it in a few years it was outta there.  Clearly, I was long overdo for a clean out session!

Another part of the problem was just the organization itself (or complete lack of!).
Nothing had a real home. 

But that, my friends, has changed!

Take a look now!

I got rid of bags and bags of clothes and shoes.  

I added the little ottoman that I found for 50% off at World Market

to give me a place to sit when putting on shoes instead of the floor.  Seriously, why 

am I JUST now thinking of that????  It will also act as a step stool 

when I need to reach tote bags or purses that I put 

in some bins on the top shelf that I already had laying around.

Everything has a home.  Jammies, workout clothes, and sweat pants all have their own

drawer.  Y'all, I even went so far as to organize my tee shirts...one drawer for the solids, 

one for the prints, and one for tanks!!!

I cleared off the top of the dresser and added 

some jewelry displays and a cross painting that I did with 

my friends at "Sips-n-Strokes" last week.  I didn't have anywhere 

else to put it and now I can enjoy it in here!

I found that cork board in the garage and added some pins to hang necklaces on.

Now that there are decorative things on top of the dresser I can't
just throw clothes up there anymore!

I put all of my handbags back in their dust bags.  Before putting them away I 

even cleaned out every single one which I never do!  I always just leave pens, gum, receipts, etc 

in them.  Not anymore!  Not the "new" me!  Ha!

Over here I stashed my sunglasses and some wristlets.  I like to use those to keep

lipgloss in while on the go.  Now I can just grab the one that I want to use instead of hunting 

through all of my other handbags looking for them (see above).

The little seagrass basket has mini hand sanitizers and mints.

Even though every single free second of the last 24 hours has been spent working on this 

closet, it was completely worth it.  I actually enjoy going in there now!
Total cost for this project was the $39 for the ottoman!

Here's hoping that I can keep it this way!!

Did you know....?

The next time that you run out of soap....

Grab a bottle of dishwashing liquid...

and pour some into the empty container (about 1/4 full)

then fill up the rest with water.

What you end up with is perfect hand soap!

Who knew?!?!