Did I want this.....?

Do you ever wish for something and when you get it, you wish you wouldn't have wished for it???

I have always known that I could a great job as a manager at work, I knew I had the  drive, the determination and the knowledge in order to be really good in a position like that. Well, after 10 yrs of working at the same company, I finally got what I wished for.... I became a manager!   I am managing 6 people in 2 different areas.

I still think I will do a great job, but I get the feeling there wont be much free time in my future, not until I get the hang of it.

I did have a chance to get into the craft closet and find some stuff in order to decorate for St Patrick's Day!  

I made some really cute items....

Fabric Covered Vase Filler. However, I filled a wire basket.. I used 3 or 4 different fabrics in green tones and St Pats themed fabric. 

Next I made paper Shamrocks to decorate with, these were super easy to make and the only material needed are glue or tape and scrap book paper

I plan on working on a few more things this week and start digging thru another closet, but  until then... that is all I have got. 

Happy Valentines Day!

                              Happy Valentine's Day!  

I hope whether you are married, engaged, in a relationship or single you find yourself surrounded by love and happiness today. Today is historically known for candy, flowers and just plain old fashioned romance, but each day should be treated the same. It doesn't need to be a holiday in order for you to tell your loved ones how you feel about them, treat yourself like the amazing human being you are!

I got a project done! Finally!!!   I was able to tackle covering the cardboard boxes I plan on using for storage this past weekend, I think they turned out great, however I did run out of fabric and since I am not buying anything right now, I am at a standstill. I do however have an Amazon Gift card, so I am going to see if I can find a storage bin or basket since I only need one more container to hold my clothes. 

I had found some old boxes at work and decided to cover them in fabric to make them look prettier in my closet, I am using them to hold "old" t shirts that I wear around the house to clean in and to sleep in 

Plain cardboard boxes 

Covered in a pretty floral print, probably should have ironed now that I see it in print, its a little wrinkled. 

Added some "hardware" to the ends, I would love to say its to make it look pretty but its what is holding it together! 

I must say, I am very happy with this project, I will be covering boxes instead of buying storage containers from now on.  

The other thing I found this weekend in my closet were some Valentine's Day Jamberry's 

It was the first time in along time that I have applied them so they don't look wonderful but I have a lot of them so I plan on getting pretty good with them.  😉😉😉😉

Don't look to close, you will see all the messy parts!  

Next time I post it will be all about St Patrick's Day, I have some really cute ideas and I want to show you some of the makeup I found in one of the closets. I am excited to share with you what I am using and take any suggestions on how to use some other items!  

Happy Sunday! Happy February!

I am one of those people who loves Valentines Day! I know alot of people think it is just a "Hallmark Holiday" and my love for it has nothing to do with going out to a fancy dinner or getting a piece of jewelry or candy or roses. Will and I actually decided last year to only celebrate certain holidays; we wrote down all of the "gift giving holidays" and chose which ones we would celebrate and which ones we should acknowledge but not go all out on. Valentines Day did not make the cut, but I still love it; I love decorating the house and celebrating the love that Valentine's Day represents. 

Our Entertainment Center.

The fireplace mantel all decked out.

Our foyer table with my Valentines day heart I made. 

I unfortunately haven't had a chance to finish my paper roses, but I am going to continue to work on those, and I hope to fill up my silver and Pink Vase that is on our foyer table.  I did make a cute little heart pillow to add to my wire basket. I wish I would have made it bigger, but honestly it looks really cute.  

I am not 100% sure why my house doesn't photograph well, I feel like our house is perfectly dressed with just the correct amount of stuff, however in all the pictures I take, it looks so barren and missing any personality and character, maybe it is just because I am not a photographer, maybe there is a trick to really showing the size and scale, I am open to suggestions if anybody reading has any.  


Another project that I finished this past week were my Lavender Sachet's. I love the way they turned out, I will probably do more of these soon, perhaps as gifts. I have an idea for them that I think would be just darling. I will talk about this more closer to spring.  

I cut small pieces of light weight fabric and sewed them together as if they were tiny little pillows

I added light blue hearts for decoration.

I used whole golden flax seed and added a few drops of essential oil (I used Lavender but you could use any scent you like)

I filled them up with the seeds and then sewed them shut. (My hand sewing skill definitely need some improvement) 

 The other thing I conquered this week was completely reorganizing my craft room
I usually keep all mt stuff pretty neat but what I found was I had so many different types of storage containers that nothing stacked well and finding what I was looking for was impossible, so I would put stuff away but not always in the "correct" place. I had crystal bicones with crystal rondelles and I had acrylic flower beads with glass round beads... I just wanted to once and for all put everything in its own place... So that's what I did. I had returned a few items that left me with some credit on my amazon account so I ordered clear plastic containers and got busy. Cleaning and reorganizing the beads, turned into cleaning and organizing my whole upstairs... It was a busy week!  

Before

After

After

I am hoping to be able to get to the paper roses and one other project this week. 
I want to create some stylish storage ideas for some clothes that I put on shelves in my closet.
Currently I just sit sweaters, yoga pants and work out clothes on a shelf, because I don't have enough drawer space, but I have an idea to spiffy it up, to make it look nicer. 

My current mess

I just need to get the stacked clothes put somewhere that looks nice (and pretty)

I am going to take plain cardboard boxes and wrap them in printed canvas, they will look like those fancy (expensive) storage cubes but they will be easy and cheap to make. 

I found this pretty canvas in a container full of material I had, I must have bought it awhile go with the intentions of doing something with it.

free boxes from work

I am so glad February is here and I have been able to stick to my no spending plan and been able to focus on my eating healthy lifestyle change, I really am feeling energetic and optimistic about this new way of life, maybe February is my January,when all my new fresh things start, I don't know for sure, but I am going to try my best to stay on track and blog about it the entire way!  

I am so glad you are here!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Valentines Day and a great month, if you are struggling with spending too much and just having too much stuff in general, think about living off your closet, you can do it for a month or two or a year or two. It may seem hard and maybe the idea of not shopping seems over whelming because you like I, love to shop, but the feeling will go away and living off the closet doesn't mean you can never shop again, but its about using what you have instead of buying more to add to your stockpile, if you decide to allow some shopping while living off the closet, just shop for stuff that brings you pure joy and stuff you need to simplify your life or that will really add value. Don't buy to just fill a void, or for the transaction.

Feeling Good!

I was hoping to post more by now but unfortunately life has just been really busy. normally for me busy means lazy, kind of an oxymoron but its true, when I get busy, I don't exercise, I don't eat healthy, I don't put effort into my goals, I just get lazy. However this time, I am busy because I am not being lazy, I am searching the closets, I am eating right and working out and I am really putting a whole lot of effort into saving money. 

I haven't completed all my projects that I mentioned in my last post, but I am working on them, and this weekend I hope to have an update with finished pictures on all those projects. 

This is what I did do this past week..

 - I made some bookmarks - These are really cute and will make awesome gifts. Bonus, I had all the materials on hand, just had to riffle thru the bead containers some. 

Colorful Bookmark!

Fruity Bookmark! 

I worked on making some paper roses. I am going to attach these to a Styrofoam ball for valentines decorations 

You start with tissue paper streamers, mainly used to decorate for a party 

After rolling and twisting, you end up with a pretty paper flower. 

I want them to look like this, but I am going to use Hot Pink, White and Red Flowers 

The other thing I did was I took pictures of the products I use daily on my face and hair, I thought it would be fun to document it so when I run out I can show you the difference, as well as how I look. It will be interesting to see if what I like and what I spend money on makes any difference in my appearance.

My skin routine first. I didn't think to get a picture of the face wash I use, but after washing, I use a vitamin C serum and then a moisturizer, (I use a sunscreen mixed into my foundation, I will share with you those products in my next post) 

I love this Vitamin C serum, I will be sad when its gone. 

I also have been using a lash growing serum, I am not sure if it is working or not, but I tell myself that it is. (Sorry for the fuzzy, blurry photo!) 

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Lash Pop, Eye Lash Growing Serum 

Below is the hair products I use. I am not a superstar when it comes to my hair. It never looks "great" and I honestly hate, despise, dread doing it. These products give me the best results (so far?) 

I found these three products make my hair look smooth, shiny and healthy.  

I add the Tresemme Hydrating Mist, then add then Smoothing Serum and add some of the Aquage to the roots for volume. I normally then blow dry with a paddle brush and then flat iron. 

Not sure if this is the best picture of my hair, but it definitely is the latest picture of me.  

Here it is! Day 1 of Closet Diving

So this past weekend I finally did a serious Closet Dive! I jumped right in and this is just some of the stuff I found.

First thing was a modem I bought about a year ago! I am sure some of you are thinking, why in the world would you buy a modem! Here is why, I was trying to save my mom some money, and the monthly rental fee from the cable company is kind of, well absolutely ridiculous, so I decided to buy her a modem, well before I knew it, she had her rented modem and if my mom is one thing, she is hesitant to change, poor lady cant even change the channel on the TV with out needing help getting it back to the previous channel. I love my mom, she is great mom and I know she loves me, but technology is not her strong suit and if something is working, don't change it! so the modem will be listed on E bay!

A few other things I found were scrap material that I am going to make some sachets out of, the material is perfect for Valentines Day.

I have some essential oils and whole flax seeds to fill them with. I am really super excited about this idea. I will post some pics of the finished products as soon as I get them made. 

I think I am also going to make some hanging heart decorations, I love decorating for the holidays and I have some really fun, easy idea's for the next few holidays! 

One of the ideas for Valentine's Day is paper roses,  I found some tissue paper streamers in the closet that I will use to make them, I am going to sit them around in bowls, glass vases, etc. 

These will be paper roses when I am all done.  

Pictures of these will be posted soon as well.

I am going to attack my clothes closet soon and send more stuff to the consignment store and try to come up with some cute outfits. I am really excited to actually start closet diving and make use of or get rid of some stuff..... as always, the rules change as I go. The one hard fast rule is NO BUYING, NO SPENDING, Free is OK, but no money of mine can be spent on more stuff.

I am encouraging you all to take the time to clean out your closets out as well... there are a few suggestions that will make it really easy....

1 - Get rid of anything that you just do not like, you will not wear it if you do not like it.
2- Get rid of duplicates, you do not need 3 of the same black t shirt.
3- Get rid of anything from a previous version of your life. If you use to be a party girl and you still have your party girl clothes and now you are a soccer mom, there is no reason to hold on to your mini skirts and halter tops.
4 - Get rid of anything that just doesn't fit, or fit your body shape. If you have a items in your closet that are your size but the fit makes you look like your pregnant and every time you wear it, you get asked when you are due, get rid of it! Also get rid of the clothes that are way to big or way to small.
5- Get rid of anything that is damaged - stained, ripped, busted zipper, etc. If it is an item you love and is worth spending the money on to get it repaired, then get it repaired, but don't keep items you won't or can't wear because they look horrible to wear.



Ok Ladies and Gents, that is all for now, I will be back soon with pictures and ideas and successes as well as some failures, I love that I am committed to doing this. I hope some of you will start your own journey and learn to live off your closet!

Digging around the closet

Since losing Lu, my days feel long and I am never really sure what I should do with myself or my time which is really weird because she never really took up much of my time, maybe it is all in my head, I am not sure but I kind of feel lost, unsure of what I should be doing with my time, this would be great if I had a whole bunch of motivation, but I really don't feel like doing much, which is a really bad combination. I promised myself this week I would do some digging in the closets and find some hidden treasures that I forgot all about and really start posting about something other than starting over again and again and again. I feel like a semi-failure due to the fact all I ever say is " well as long as you aren't giving up..... you haven't failed" which I truly believe, but after the 6-7th time of saying it, it kind of feels not so sincere and possibly even like an excuse.

2017 is going to be my year, even with such a rough start, I refuse to give in and give up so later this week, I will have either pictures or videos or maybe even both. I am excited and I am ready for a transformation.

Happy New Year!?... not so much :(

January 1 is the beginning of a new year, the fresh start we all long for, the time to make resolutions, try to better ourselves and start all over. The time of year when we aim to do better and to be better. I was in Jamaica on January 1, I was vacationing with Will and so today is my beginning.

Today I started eating better, started trying harder at being kinder and nicer. Trying to really make me a priority. I am really wanting to start 2017 off in a better direction. Take care of me, physically, mentally, emotionally and financially. I wish i could the first 8 days of the new year were good to me, and for the most part they were, unfortunately I had a few bad days.... I bruised a tooth (don't believe me? google it!) while in Jamaica and we said good bye to our beloved baby girl fur baby on the 5th. She had been fine when we left and was very sick when we got home, luckily we had a family member taking care of her so we are confident she wasn't sick the entire time we were gone, just the last day and half. I miss her so much, my heart aches... But life moves on and we can't let a loss get to us, we just have to keep moving forward so that is what I am doing, moving forward. I am back to trying to better myself and trying to really live life off of my stuffed, way over filled closets.
Just a reminder of what this blog is about - it is about taking the stuff I already have and using it, instead of buying more. My seams are busting and its the best way to save money. So starting today, January 9th, 2017, I am going to really push myself to not shop, to not buy, to root thru my already purchased stuff and try to break free from buying to just buy.

I really think it will be fun to document all the stuff I find and use and show you all my journey, I am expecting Jan - March to be pretty simple and Oct- Jan 2018 - to be quite rough, but I am super ready deep down inside to do this, so wish me luck my friend!