When you are practicing different arrangements of your beautiful plates on the wall, don't trip over your baby's bouncer and drop them.

I got the best package in the mail this week! My husband got me a camera strap for my birthday from my dear friend, Amanda. We were roommates in college and she knows me better than a lot of people would care to :) I love her to pieces~ She has always had amazing taste and I was thrilled when I saw she had sent along some extras to give away here!! You will fall in love with these~they just give your camera a touch of color and personality and set you apart from the sea of black and silver cameras out there...
Don't you love them? to enter, go to the Shabby Straps Etsy Shop, and then come back here and tell me which strap is your favorite in your comment. There will be one winner for a larger DSLR camera strap and one for a smaller point and shoot wrist strap.

You can enter until Saturday at midnight and I'll announce the winners on Monday...good luck!

Thank you, Amanda! Happy Thursday to y'all~

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: