Birthday Party Crazy Jewelry Mirror

My mom has discovered Pinterest.  She was so inspired, she had me over for some birthday crafting.  It was her version of an impromptu birthday party, complete with quiche and strawberry cake.

Isn’t this such a beautiful spread?  She wasn’t that excited about getting together at 9:30 in the morning but I think she outdid herself.  It was delicious.

The idea is to use up any unwanted, mismatched, broken and otherwise unused jewelry by hot gluing as much as you can to the frame of a mirror.

I loved this project and can’t wait to make another one.  My daughter thinks I should spray paint it but I like the colorfulness of this.  We’ll see.  I might.

Before I leave, I want to update you on my 31 day challenge.  Monday is the last day for getting rid of 31 things in 31 days (or was it 30 in 30?).  Point is, I cleaned out a lot of cabinets and have made several runs to the thrift shop.  This is the last collection of things with which I am parting.  It’s so hard to let go but I feel really good about the clean cabinets and empty spaces.  Time to get new stuff!

I’m linking today’s post with Motivate Me Monday, Made It on Monday and Skip to My Lou for Made By You Monday link parties.  Enjoy stopping by these blogs for some great project ideas.

del.icio.us Tags: Motivate Me Monday,31 Things,Jewelry

Hombre Hair

Some time ago, I came across some blog posts about “poo-free” hair.  I don’t really care for the term, but I was intrigued.  I learned about washing your hair without using soap.  This was highly interesting to me because I am always trying to extend the life of hair color— the box color, that is.

This is my slathering a mixture of egg, avocado, lemon juice and I can’t remember what else, in preparation of updating my color.

I have a lot of grey and the grow-out is dull and drab.  I’m not really sure if it helps, by I do a lot of DIY hair treatments, in hopes of protecting my hair from drying out.  Not using soap is immensely helpful in this department, and it is much gentler on the scalp as well.

A bit scary looking now…

Aaahhh, much better.  This effect is called hombre.  We had some cakes done in hombre icing for my daughter’s wedding.  When I saw it as a hair color effect, I was instantly captivated.  Some people are not as impressed, but fortunately my husband approved.  My hairdresser was excited to try this out on me and she was pleased with the results.  The effect came to be to help minimize the stark contrast of dark-root grow out.  I love doing it just because.  I was originally going to keep my base color closer to the natural grow out but this red was just too hard to resist.  I really like the effect with blue or green hair, and multi-color hair.

del.icio.us Tags: hair,Hombre,red

A Day Off to Get Stuff Done

I am linking today’s post with New Nostalgia for Anti-Procrastination Tuesday.

When I was wrapping up work last week, I discovered our company had today off.  I know I should know these things but I really don’t work a normal schedule.  This  worked to my advantage because I didn’t have time to schedule anything so I was forced to stay home and get some stuff done.

My Goals This Week

• Write 3 notes to friends
• Continue reducing clutter in the 31 Things in 31 Days challenge.  I have packed up a bunch of stuff and it seems like at least 30 items but it really is about 15 so far.  I have only been doing the challenge since January 12.  The final day for me will be February 11.  I have set out a box and as I find something, I put it in there so it’s all ready to go when the box is full.  So far it’s all clothes and dishes I have found to pass on.
• Rest and Relax-  Work will be pretty busy this week so I have to stay pretty mellow once I get home.  I have discovered it is kind of hard for me to sit still.

Last Week’s Goals

• Spending time in the Word each day- I did ok, about 3 out of 5 days.  I will keep at this goal for sure.
• Keep up my Lose It Blog- I am discovering this is pretty impractical for me.  I eat constantly but I eat really odd things like “2 tablespoons of hemp seeds, a tablespoon of cranberries and 1/2 cup yogurt.”  It’s really random every day so it takes me too much time to keep this up.  We’ll see.  I may try again.  For now, it’s on hold.
• Write 3 notes to friends- I got one note done.  Gotta keep working on this.

As I have been setting aside things to get rid of, I discovered a bunch of Christmas decorations that did not get put away.  I have to laugh every year at all the things that get left out.  At least it isn’t April before I found them all.  At least, I hope that’s everything.

I always seem to have a stack of ironing and today was a perfect day to work on this.

I have been a little hindered because of this mysterious incident with my ironing board.  It seems something was incorrectly ironed and the pad was ruined.  I didn’t have time to make a new one-  I thought, so I went to purchase one.  Turns out no local stores have the pads for the extra wide ironing board.  I love this size so I’m surprised it is not more readily available.  It took me a couple of weeks to finally settle on trying the standard size (maybe I was mistaken about what I needed?).  I was not wrong.  The standard size does not really fit the wide board and I probably could have ordered the correct one online and had it right away.

This pad doesn’t fit excitingly well but it’s working and I made a small dent in my pile.  I will keep working on it all week and hopefully have the pile gone for next Anti-Procrastination Tuesday.

Now the day is over and I'm back in work mode.  One thing I’m excited about though is to hear how my daughter’s time at IMATs went.  This is a make-up convention and it was in Pasadena, CA.  She has a blog about her interest in beauty and make-up and she will be posting about her time at the convention.

Multifarious Beauty

 

 

 

 

 

del.icio.us Tags: Anti-procrastination,ironing,31 Things,clutter,beauty,Multifarious

Resolution Update

I have been enjoying reading so many blogs, I have been inspired to write a post.  I must confess, I cannot make up my mind about what to share.

First, I must update my resolution progress.  Why is January so slow when it comes to showing progress on a resolution?  It seems I am working so hard but it really has only been a couple of weeks.

Getting to the Gym

We decided to check out a gym closer to our home than the one to which we have been going.  My husband seems to be happy with the setup and the machines are very nice.  It took me all week to finally check the place out.  The machines are too hi-tech for me, at least so far.  They can track your progress and they connect to facebook.  Yikes!  I just want to turn on the TV and work out for 45 minutes.  It took me about 15 minutes to realize I had no clue how to make the machine work.  I left and went to the other gym.

Still, I will give it another try because it is so much closer.  This is the only time I got to the gym this week so I did not make my goal of three days, but I’m not dead yet and there is another week ahead.

Kids’ Blogs about Living in Italy

Now, I have to share my niece and nephew’s blogs.

This is a link to my nephew Race’s blog.  He shares a story about this vase and why it is in the living room of the apartment they are renting in Napoli, Italy, where they are living for the next few months.

This is my niece’s blog about her adventures in Italy.  She is busily getting their new temporary home settled in and her room decorated.  She is crazy creative!

They are keeping us busy with updates on their travels.  Reading their blog posts is almost as good as traveling to Italy, and it’s a lot cheaper.  Because they are there for an extended time, they get to see and do things typical travel does not allow.  We enjoy their blogs from the teen perspective so much.  I hope you check them out.

del.icio.us Tags: Italy,travel,resolutions,kid blogs

Anti Procrastination Tuesday 31 Things in 31 Days

I am linking today’s post with New Nostalgia for Anti Procrastination Tuesday blog party.

My Goals for this week are:
1.  Spend time in the Word each day- to fill my mind with what matters and not think about what doesn’t
2.  Keep up my Lose It log and get to the gym 3 days- to be better at eating the right foods and stop useless snacking
3.  Write 3 notes to friends (snail mail kind)- I used to do this more often and have gotten out of the habit.  There are so many cute note cards, too.

Keeping up with my New Year’s Resolution
Mainly, I have updated my blog a couple of times in the new year so far.  That’s a start.  I will have to do a post about the blogs I visit soon so I can be accountable to the second part of my resolution, which is to visit other blogs more regularly.  I have been pinning to pinterest. 

Last week, I Dream of Clean posted a challenge to get rid of something each day for 31 days.  (It was on the facebook page, not a blog post.)  I had already gone through a few hot spots around my home to de-clutter but was pretty certain this was a challenge I could accomplish.

Instead of just getting rid of one item, my idea is to remove things from one area of my home, each day.  These are a few items in my dish cabinet.  I love all of these things, of course, but I am making room for some new dishes I would like to purchase in a few months.  Sure, I could keep it all; maybe find some cute boxes to pack things up.  I just don’t enjoy these things if I am not using them regularly.  I would rather pass them on to people that can use them now.

I have a bit of a purse habit.  I never seem to find quite the right one, but I do find a lot of them.  After taking out these two, I still have around ten in my closet.  It’s one thing to get rid of my unwanted purses but I really love to give them to people that like them.  When I posted to FB about getting rid of something each day for 31 days, my friend was interested in the white purse.  I’m super excited to be able to pass this on to her.

One area I tend to hoard is recyclable items- you know, containers and such that came as one thing but can be used for something else.  I am horrible about not wanting to let these things go.  My daughter and husband have been very helpful at encouraging me to let them go.  I have a saying- “it’s ok to throw it away.”  The more I repeat this, the more I believe it.  I know you are thinking of all the things I could do with these votive jars and that great box.  Believe me, I have done enough and I already have a few so I don’t need any more.

My husband asked me to consider why I need so many mugs.  I didn’t think I had that many, really.  Well, I did- I do.  When I consider having a cabinet full of mugs and then a cabinet full of tea cups, it’s easy to understand I need to move something along.

I have no idea why I was keeping these mugs, except they are so darn practical.  Really, I rarely use them and they don’t really go with anything so I don’t really want to use them.  I am taking them to work to be useful there… I hope.  I’m kind of sad about the big mug though because it was a set of four.  Since it is chipped, I am attempting to pass it on.  I don’t really like chipped mugs, and I still have three more just like it.

Obviously organizing and reducing is quite common this time of year.  The stores are full of containers and all sorts of organizational systems.  We’ve added new things from Christmas so our homes are full.  I’ve been enjoying all the blog posts about simplifying and organizing.  If you have a post about this, please leave me a link.

del.icio.us Tags: Anti-procrastination,organization,simplification,challenge