Oh my goodness, I hope you had a great time travelling back in time yesterday and laughing at our childhood portraits! Did you guess who I was? There were so many of you who were soooooo close to guessing all the DIY bloggers correctly, but finally one person…one blogger…one true DIY fan rose to claim victory! Read more
Happy New Year! What did you do to ring in 2013?
Every year we have a New Year’s Day party. It’s our annual tradition. This year we almost didn’t have our party because our kitchen was in such a disheveled state. But, I remember someone wise asked if you wait until your house is perfect to invite people over or recognize that your true friends will come to see you and not your house. Of course in our case, I’m sure there was a few curious people as well.
But, honestly, this was one of the most memorable parties we’ve had! The guests drew on the floor: Read more
This is the post that I’ve been putting off writing. Why? I was still dealing with the shock of it all. The gist of it is, if you think your home is safe from asbestos, you could be dead wrong! I thought our home was in the asbestos-free time frame, but I was sorely mistaken. Â
Background: What started as a small leak turned into a massive gut of our kitchen. The disaster restoration team came in and started assessing the damage. What happened next was a downward spiral of issues I pray never happens to you. The polybutylene pipe failure from two weeks ago turned into a full blown mold remediation (luckily it wasn’t black mold.) Shortly after removing the water soaked base cabinets in our kitchen, the project manager discovered old vinyl flooring under our newer vinyl flooring. He told me that they sent a sample to the lab for asbestos testing. I said, “Okay.” And dismissed it knowing that our house couldn’t possibly contain asbestos. The next morning I got a phone call, “The lab results came back and that old flooring tested positive for asbestos.”
What I learned over the next few days about asbestos both scared me and re-assured me. Now that our home is officially asbestos-free and we’ve finally moved back into the house, I’m emotionally ready to share with you what I learned. Read more
I mentioned a while ago that Joss & Main contacted me about creating a curated collection of home décor and furniture that screams Pretty Handy Girl. I was very hesitant, but ultimately agreed to search their virtual warehouse to find things that I would (and do have) in my home. I mean seriously, y’all know I shop the curbside and behind dumpsters. I doubted that Joss & Main would have wonderfully aged and cozy warm décor finds that look like they’ve been loved more than the Velveteen Rabbit.
You can imagine my surprise when not only did I find enough items to create a collection, but I actually had to edit it down by 10 items. The entire experience was a lot of fun and when they sent me the final offering I was amazed at how similar some of the items look to things that I already own.
So, if you are the warm & weathered type (err — I mean — you like things warm and weather), you may like a few of the items I picked out.
My Joss & Main collection is now live and the items will be available until Oct. 1st. I can tell you that the items will be discounted from their usual retail price, consequently some cool finds will sell out quickly. (Don’t wait if you see an item that you really want. Throw it in your cart or you will be crying the blues. (I know this from past experience.) I hope you’ll take a quick peek and let me know if you like some of the things I picked out or if it all looks like it belongs in the dumpster. LOL.
One more insider tip: If you don’t have an account with Joss & Main, you’ll need to apply and wait for an invite before you can shop their sales. However, I have an invite for anyone that wants one, just click here to get your instant Joss & Main invitation (I get a $15 credit if you sign up, so thank you if you do sign up. No purchase necessary.)
I hope to be back tomorrow with a new tutorial for you, but I’m trying to get a little caught up after my sick days.
Disclosure: This is NOT a sponsored post for Joss & Main. I am honestly excited to share with you some unique finds for your home. I will receive a small commission from the sale as compensation for my time and efforts of putting the collection together. But, who am I kidding? It was really a fun experience. Like window shopping online!Â
It’s official, we don’t have any babies or toddlers or young ones in our house anymore. Pardon me while I wipe the tears from my eyes. Nope we have boys. Long lean and fat free boys who like to run and do all sorts of death defying take years off of Mom’s life feats.
Talk of farts and laughing at poop jokes is common conversation in our home. Have you heard the one about the boy who went to the doctor? He told the doctor, “Doctor doctor, my bottom is broken. It has a crack in it.” Want to hear another one? I didn’t think so.
I’ve also noticed that my sweet little boys’ feet are slightly pungent 99% of the time (except for up to 30 minutes after bath time.)
These are the ages when they remember and know exactly what they want for their parties. When Pretty Handy Boy #2 asked to have a lizard themed birthday, you know I had to oblige. (Did you notice that subtle name change? He used to be Handsome Boy. Well, he’s still handsome, but he and his brother are getting to be very handy with the tools. Therefore, I’m renaming both my boys, going forward they will be known as Pretty Handy Boy #1 and #2.)
As I’m sure you know, lizard themed birthday parties are not exactly a common party choice. Running to the party store to pick up everything was a lost cause. (I didn’t think he’d accept Miss Spider plates and decorations.) With not a lot of time (and on a tight budget), this is what I came up with: Read more