Instafriday

It's time for another Instafriday, hosted by Jeannette at Life Rearranged.

J and I had a fun little Happy Hour last Wednesday with one of the new kids from work. Sometimes small gatherings are so much more fun than large ones.

My sexy man

We had some excitement to start off the weekend.  We were working in the yard and had opened the gate to get the hose at one point... About ten minutes later, I happened to glance over and realized the gate was still open! Gidget was standing, looking out at the street, but no Dozer to be found. For those of you that have been around awhile, you may remember that Dozer is male dog aggressive, so I was freaking out, thinking he would hurt somebody's dog!

I started walking around the neighborhood, talking to the neighbors, and no one had seen him... J brought Gidget to me to see if we could "track him" and he hopped in his truck to look farther and quicker. I called 911, they gave me the non-emergency line, the lady answers the phone and... here comes Dozer, trotting across the yard two houses down, wagging his tail, big ole grin on his face. Oh. My. God. Pretty anti-climactic, but an excellent end to a traumatic 15 minutes.

I took this picture as soon as we got him back in the house. He looks pretty tuckered out, no?

Sunday we headed over to my aunt and uncle's house for lots of food and fireworks. I made this Wave Your Flag Cheesecake for the party and it turned out fabulous! It was quick and easy and super-delicious.

I woke up Monday morning to this scene at the end of the bed.  Dozer doesn't realize he is not a poodle and apparently Gidget doesn't mind that she's about to be crushed.  He LURVES his seeester.

I got new pulls for the built-in's in the dining room. They are fabulous and I love them! I still have to paint the cabinet doors and the frame... Someday.

J has all of the crown moulding up and patched in the dining room.  He is apparently unhappy with the way the wood filler dried though, so I haven't been able to paint yet. Not sure what his plan is, but I hope he carries it out soon. I have yet to unpack practically anything, cause lots of my stuff is fragile, he has already knocked something over and broken it, so I wanted to wait until we were finished in the dining room to start unpacking. Alas, the project seems never ending.

What have you been up to in the last week? Probably more than us! lol 

Do you use Instagram? My user name is Oonafey, join me! Have you checked out all the other Instafriday posts over at Life Rearranged?

Instafriday

It's that time again! Since I still can't seem to get back into the swing of things (work has been crazy, Dozer broke out of his impenetrable den, G wrecked his motorcycle and I had to go pick him up from the emergency room at 3 am), here's a snapshot into my life...

I've been contemplating cutting down these big bushy things in front of my house, then they went and bloomed. Any idea what it is? My real estate agent thought they were Lilac bushes when we looked at the house, but that is obviously not a bloom from a Lilac bush!

The three inherited hydrangeas behind the house have finally started to bloom, each plant showing multiple colored blooms!

Blue

Lilac and Green

Hot Pink on same bush as the first Blue

I have always had a thing for gargoyles. When I lived in an apartment I had a "Welcome" sign on the front door that depicted gargoyles. As soon as I picked this house, I just knew the front posts on the porch would be perfect for my very own gargoyles!

Forgive my inexpert way of covering up my address and the obvious need for tuckpointing.

I have a second one on order for the left side, which should be available for pickup tomorrow. I just love him. I know they are not for everyone, but every time I open the front door, he makes me smile. They will need names, though... Any ideas?

My new boy, J, had a bad day at work yesterday, plus some ex-girlfriend drama (which I can completely sympathize with), so I decided to make him chocolate chip cookies! Can you believe I had never made chocolate chip cookies? I told his buddy that and he was all "That's un-American!" lol

I used this recipe from Martha and they turned out really great! They are still squishy this morning, which is important, since I HATE crunchy cookies.

I just love this nail polish color, My Lifesaver, from (can you believe it?) Justin Bieber for Nicole.

It's my favorite and I get so many comments on it!

I can't seem to keep the dogs off the bed, no matter how many times I tell them "Get in your bed". They do, then they come right back to my bed as soon as they think I'm not looking...

Who could say "No" to that face?!


Well, that my week in a nutshell. We finished painting the dining room, but I still haven't found my camera and J still hasn't found the power cord for his camera and my iPhone is throwing the color WAAAAY off, so I still don't have pictures. Plus, I haven't decided on drapes and the crown moulding is not up yet... Someday.

See all the other Instafriday posts here.

Instafriday

I saw this cute new post idea from Jeannette via Lindsey @ The Pleated Poppy. I'm having a hard time getting back into the swing of regular blogging, between the craziness of trying to get the house in order, some boy drama (past, not present), getting Dozer settled in, and just generally trying not to go nuts from it all... I though this would be a good, simple way to get at least one post a week out and keep things sort of updated... Especially since I STILL can't find my camera. I actually have two cameras and both seem to have gone on walkabout. Gah.

I did some shopping at Homegoods on Tuesday and couldn't help taking a pic of me with my new fabulous Kate Spade purse! (Which I totally shouldn't have bought, seeing as I can barely afford my house as it is...)

But I figure it all balances out, really. That skirt is about 6 years old and it's from New York and Company, the T is Old Navy, and the sandals are from TJ Maxx.

My mom, J, and I hit up the Gypsy Caravan on Monday. I was pretty disappointed and thought last years wares were much more impressive. I did manage to get one shot of a fab booth.

I really wish I had picked up some of those purple bottles, but I forgot to bring cash! Ridiculous, I know. I am a terrible flea market, thrift shopper. I felt silly asking to borrow money for some old, dirty bottles... Neither of them fully appreciate dingy, crap quite like G did...

Dozer is officially a resident in our new home. I picked up his crate on Tuesday. I think he'll be plenty happy here.

My parents wanted to know how Dozer and the new boy were getting along...

I think a picture is truly worth a thousand words in this case.


What random scenes have you captured on your phone camera lately?

Big News...

I'm sure you've all been on the edge of your seats wondering what I've been up to.

I'm not really sure what to say or how to put it, so I'll keep it simple: The Mr. and I are no more.

Gidget and I have been staying at my parents house since the beginning of April. It has not been fun. Dozer is staying with his daddy, unfortunately, and I miss him terribly. Initially I was under the impression that I would be taking him with me as soon as I found a permanent residence, so I got crack-a-lakin and found us a cute little house, complete with a finished basement and fencing. I close on May 6th.

The Mr. has since decided that it will be too difficult to not have Dozer in his life, so it will just be Gidget and I. *sad face* I will miss my 65 pound lap dog.

 

I'll share pics of the new house sometime in the next few days.

Spring Wreath

I saw this wreath on Living with Lindsay last year and thought it looked cute. I know the concept behind it is two years old, but I don't care. I'm single-handedly staging an Egg-Wreath Revival! Join me, won't you? lol

I used a larger grapevine wreath, I think mine was 14" as opposed to 10", but I wanted to hang it on the front door and no one can see it anyway, so bigger is better.

This is the first wreath I've make that entails more than spraypaint and some fabric, so it did take me longer than the 15 minutes she proposes. But Lindsay is a Craft Queen, so she could probably whip up 5 wreaths in the time it would take me to make one...

I ordered the Quail eggs from Etsy. They all came individually wrapped in toilet paper and not a single one was cracked! I highly recommend the seller.

I used some burlap I had leftover from the media cabinet makeover for the bow.

But beware: if you are going to use Spanish Moss be prepared for a mess!

That's in addition to all the stuff that stayed on the dropcloth I was using!

Have you made a door decoration for Spring yet?

Painted Birdhouses

A few weeks back I saw this awesome pink bird on Lynett's blog and decided I must have it. She told me she got it at Michael's, so off I went. Luckily they had it! But then I had to figure out what to do with it... Not wanting to steal her whole idea, I came home with two of these from their unfinished wood section:

Using supplies I already had (wood stain from this project, craft brushes, paint from the front door, and leftover ceiling paint), I turned them into this:

FYI, if you are detail oriented this project will take you for.ev.er. However, if you are good with spraypainting them, distressing, and calling it a day, it could take you an hour. I chose to stain the roofs and bases carefully and the only small brush I had was like 10 hairs, so it took me like three hourse just to do the stained areas... 

Did you notice the base on the left-hand one?

It's the base for my broken candleholder! I love being able to utilize stuff I already have on hand. I did spray this with white Rustoleum pray paint. Then I just hot glued them into place:

I thought it was pretty clever to paint the one with the front door the same color as our own front door, but now I'm not sure I like the color inside the house. I may repaint it blue or gray.

Although it does coordinate with the beak on the pink bird, lol!


What do you think? Have you started crafting for Spring yet?

Do you WUSLU?

Do you get the emails for WUSLU Daily Deals? Yasmin has a new special item everyday and shipping is always $5.00. A lot of the items are too far on the "Shabby" end of "Shabby Chic" for me, but they are always cute. When these Turned Pillar Holders showed up in my inbox I had to have them:

Unfortunately when they arrived, the large one was broken:

I have no idea how it could have broken, they were both packaged very well, surrounded by bubble wrap and in small enough individual boxes to prevent moving around inside the larger box... But it was shattered, in about 6 pieces. I could have cried. I immediately emailed Yasmin to ask if there was anything she could do, as it does state on the website that all sales are final. Luckily she got back to me quickly and said she was sending me a replacement! I didn't have to pay shipping again or anything.

I love them. They are hefty and weighted and just the perfect size to hold my beloved Bath & Body Works candles. In person they are a wonderful bronzey color, not too wintery and perfect year round!

She also told me it was unnecessary to send the broken one back, so I figured I should make use of it. Come back tomorrow and I'll show you what I did with it! Waste not, want not.

All in all, ordering from WUSLU was a great experience and I would definitely buy from her again!

Legal Crap: I was not compensated in any way for this post. I just thought I should share a good shopping experience. 

 Have you ever ordered from WUSLU? Or another daily deals website? Have you had a good online shopping experience recently you'd like to share? How about a bad one?

Um... What?!

Okay, who forgot to tell Mother Nature that it's Spring?!

 

How's the weather wherever you are?

Linky Party Recap

Since my Linky Party was really more of a Linky Gettogether, I figured I would go ahead and feature all the projects submitted.

Esudano showed us her fab backsplash DIY, which she did all by herself! A project this detailed, especially one involving tile, would have me running for the Mr. faster than you could say "grout".

Pretty great, eh? I love the colors she chose.

The Cape on the Corner decided to showcase her ridiculously amazing sunroom makeover:

That skylight is to die for. And don't you just love that white chair in the corner? There are a pair of them and they are from a yard sale! Why don't I ever find stuff that cute at yard sales?

Living in Lovely LaLaLand is in the middle of a bathroom remodel. Look at this cute secret note they left for future homeowners to discover:

I would love to find something like that while remodeling our house!

Check out all the hard work and elbow grease that went into this free desk re-do at Home in the Country:

I love that they actually took the time and effort to strip it down and refinish it, as opposed to just slapping some new paint over the old. It looks beautiful, no?

And last, but not least, from my neck of the woods (sort of), a master bedroom breakdown over at The Pendleton House:

I wish my closet were that big! I can't wait to see how it all comes together.

Thanks for joining up ladies!