photo from Martha Stewart

In the April Martha Stewart Living, she showed how to decorate eggs with designs from paper napkins. Very cool idea, but I wasn't really planning on doing it this season. Then, in TJMaxx, I saw these napkins for 1.99/pkg. Hmmmmm....my wheels started turning and I thought what if I could do this on plates?
Remember the plates I found at Target back in February? I loved the little beaded edge, but wasn't crazy about the pattern. So, I spray painted them cream with~be sure to spray a couple of light coats, letting it dry completely in between so you don't have drips.

I cut up the napkin and there were three layers~I just gently took off the top layer to use.

I don't have mod podge, but you can make your own by using elmer's glue and just watering it down. I put a thin layer on the plate, placed the napkin layer down,

and then gently added a thin layer on top and smoothed out any bubbles. The nice thing about this is if you make any mistakes, you just take it right off, wipe the glue off and try again. It took me two takes.

I love how they turned out! If there are any flaws, they are going to be up high where no one will notice~I'm hanging them in the dressing area of my bathroom.
**Side note: "I might learn to like her. Hang her in my bathroom." Can anyone name the movie?? **
The bathroom's coming...I may just have some pics to show you next week! But for now, this works for me. I'll see you back here tomorrow for a fun giveaway~I think you'll love it! Have a great day~

Remember how I told you that I had grounded myself from yard sales until my bathroom was finished?
Yeah, well I jumped ship on Saturday morning.
It had been a long, hard week with my husband gone a lot and the only "me" time I was going to be able to sneak in was Sat morning before 9 a.m. I also had some birthday money from my grandma burning a hole in my pocket. What's a girl to do?

There weren't too many sales since the wind was blowing like crazy. I went to three and managed to find this over the door hanger, bird cage (do you see the potential on this one??), and mirror for $3 total.

I started my pile and just kept adding and adding:
white Pottery Barn dishes, an lamp with great potential, a frame, a candle holder, a wreath, a cute yellow tin, a wooden wall hanging thing with a drawer, and a bunch of Swiffer refills. And, do you see the beauty they're sitting on?

It's a gorgeous white Ethan Allen desk set~ all wood, came with the chair, the toile chair pad, and a nightstand that's not in the picture. It has some handles missing and a few of the shelves were gone, but it was in great shape.

The husband (gotta love the husbands) said,

"how about $35 for everything? We really want everything gone since we had it yesterday too."

Me: "You had it yesterday and you still have all this left?? What did you have yesterday?"

Him: "Oh, we sold a lot~some furniture, lots of fabric, curtains, some old doors, lots of decorative stuff. We're getting ready to move and just don't want to pack a lot."

Me: gulp. (why did I even ask and why didn't I go on Friday?? Blasted bathroom.)

I asked him to hold it all for me while I ran home and measured really quickly. We don't have the space in my girls' room right now, but I knew I couldn't pass up such a great piece of furniture and I had an idea of where it could go. Ran home, measured, did a little dance of joy that it was a perfect fit, grabbed some more cash, and ran back and handed over the $35. Another lady had pulled up and cleaned them out of everything I didn't get.

I can't wait to get my hands on all of it, but I am going to work on the bathroom now. For reals.

I have this eye-sore outside my front door. Isn't it lovely? It's old, ugly, and doesn't even work, so I wanted to cover it up.I fell in love with the arrangement on Susan's door from Between Naps on the Porch and thought, hey! I may just have the right stuff to do something similar. Here is what I'm going to work with: some pretty daisies from a yard sale this fall and a little tin holder that has been on top of my girls' bookcase for a long time. I got it forever ago at a yard sale and I wasn't quite sure what to do with it, so it's just been sitting there collecting dust. It is a weird, grayish, creamish color. I gave the tin a new coat of white spray paint, stuck the daisies in, added a ribbon, and here we go:

You can see the speaker behind the flowers if you look really closely, but I think it does the trick. So, a little touch of spring for the front~I'm thinking I could change it up for the seasons as well. For right now, I'm hooked on the daisies.
I'm participating in Julia's "hooked on party" today. Go see what everyone else is hooked on~

Have a wonderful weekend!

Oh, and P.S.~ Wendy, I used your idea with the food coloring at the bottom of the cereal on April Fools. When we added the milk, the kids thought I was magic making the color suddenly appear like that. Loved it~thanks!!

Back in December, I told you I was going to show you a ribbon intervention. Well, I was 9 months pregnant~didn't happen. So, with the Michael's craft boxes on sale this week for $1.67, I thought this would be the perfect time. Here is the Martha Stewart ribbon box that inspired me. $18? Not so inspirational. Let's see if we can do better...

photo by Martha Stewart Crafts

Part of my ribbon stash. Also not so inspirational...

Take your craft box and place rolls of ribbon in it. I used my red, pink, and cream fat rolls in this one. You want them snug so they won't be sliding around, but not tight. They will need to have room to roll when you pull yuor ribbon out of the side. How did I get those nifty little holes?

Ladies, start your drills! I had marked the box where my ribbon was and just drilled along the side. If are making a box of skinnier ribbon, you'll obviously need to make more holes and closer together. If you've never used a drill, get acquainted with yours today. Power tools are your friend! If you can use a hand mixer in the kitchen, you can use a drill. Ask the man in your life if he can show you how to make some holes in your box using a 3/8" drill bit. He'll be impressed. Now, when you go to get your ribbon, you just pull out the length you need, cut it, and everything stays nice and neat. If you go to Michael's and they don't have the boxes in colors you want, buy them anyway at the sale price and you can exchange them later when they get more in. If they're out, you can get a rain check.

Works for me... have a great Wednesday and happy April Fools!

Where did March go??

Here is a fun idea to do for April Fools tomorrow:
put round circles of Cool Whip on plates, top with a peach half and tell your family that you will be dining on ostrich eggs. We had fun doing it last year and my kids loved it once they found out what they really were:

Hi everyone! Most of you know that I unplugged my computer on Friday for Kimba's challenge. This was really, really good for me. You also know that I've been struggling with the whole balance issue from this previous post. In the last little while, I've been kind of thinking of how much it seems I used to get done. The to-do lists I make these days are just discouraging, because it seems so little gets crossed off. I attributed it to the fact that I have more kids, and of course that plays a role, but on Friday I think my eyes were opened to how much time the computer sucks out of my day. Having it in the kitchen at my little work desk is a blessing and a curse. A blessing because it is handy and I'm "accessible" to my family, or would like to believe I am, but a curse because it's

right there.

Right there to click refresh to see if I have any new emails or comments, or to just "quickly" check Google reader to see what new, amazing things y'all have put on your blogs. And all those little checking ins take a huge chunk out of my day. I felt so good on Friday as well because I felt like I was in control of my day and what I wanted to accomplish, instead of the computer in charge of me. I couldn't believe how much I'd accomplished by 10 a.m. I felt more tuned in to my kids as well. I was more present and connected to what they were doing and saying because I wasn't so distracted with what was going on in cyberspace.

* if you buy new things, you have to get rid of some of the old *
Unless you have a bare house and are starting from scratch. But, I have a sneaking suspicion that most of you {like me} have too much stuff already. If you start bringing home a bunch of treasures and add to your home without replacing items, pretty soon your house is going to look like an indoor yard sale. Get rid of things you may not love and replace them with things you do.

Remember these quotes from this post? Use them as a guideline in this area:

"Remove the clutter and then honor and respect those things that make your heart sing"


"When we talk about saving money, the best way to save it is not to waste it. And it doesn't matter how much time or energy or money you put into a room, if you haven't edited and organized and decluttered and gotten it into a beautiful, functional state first, you've wasted the money." ~Candice Olsen

Awesome advice.