Just so you know!

Source: http://www.growyourbusinessnetwork.com/tag/fork-etiquette

Kitchen Advice Wanted

Kitchen in new house in Louisiana

I have a problem. I want white cabinets in my new kitchen. The following are the reasons that I am hesitant to paint:

1. None of the houses that we looked at had light cabinets. This was the lightest color that we saw. They are doing really dark cabinets in all of the new construction.
2. Not that I care what other people are doing but Josh is with the Army and we will be reselling this house in 2-3 yrs and I would like it to sell.
3. The counter tops are white and in perfect condition.We aren't going to replace these. I am good with white on white but I don't know if that will freak some people out who come to look at the house.
4. I also wonder if the black appliances and the all white cabinets are going to look strange.

What do you think? I am linking up to White House Black Shutters for more opinions!

Cat Thursday @ The True Book Addict

Josh texted me these pictures of Darkness this morning.

It's really funny because this Halloween box is up year round at Josh's house and he isn't into posing animals for pictures! Lil' D did this all on her own. She is really advanced. She doesn't jump on to the counter tops just cabinet tops!
I am linking up with the True Book Addict for Cat Thursday. Check out the fun cat pictures. You can also link up to my Wild Wednesday Post for this week.
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Rise and Shine Day 3 & Wild Wednesday!

Taking care of Tia and Tre in the morning can eat up a bunch of my time. They act up if I leave them out while I am at work so they have forced me to lock them up in the their crates.

In their new crates

I have to make sure that they have food and water before I leave in the morning. This doesn't seem like a lot but in the morning I move really slow and it takes me a lot of time.




So at night I fill up their food bowls. They are Jack Russells so they only need about a cup of kibble. Pampered Chef makes 1 cup glass bowls. They are awesome because the dogs can't chew them up and they are small enough for me to tuck in the corner of the crate.

dry food  in Pampered Chef bowls with a little treat on top.

everything set out on top of the TV

Since their kennels are out in the livingroom, I set the food bowls and a cup of water to fill their water bowls with on top of the TV.  All I have to do is dump the water in the bowls, put the food bowls in the kennels then finally throw the dogs in. Sometimes Tia runs off and I have to drag her out from underneath the bed but Tre is usaully so impressed with the dog treat that he runs in there on his own.

Sunday is Halloween and do you know what your pets are wearing??

This is the best dog costume ever. I have been laughing about this all day!

credit: Stacie Joy

If you don't know who Antoine Dodson is, do yourself a favor and Google him. Too funny! Go to the Gothamist to check out the rest of the really great dog costumes! There's a doggie Lady Gaga and lots of other clever costumes!  I set up a linky below if you want to post anything about your animals!





Coke Crate or Coffee Table Wrangler

I have been trying to limit the amount of house stuff that I buy lately. When Holly and I visited the Curiosity Shop a few weeks ago, I saw a lot of stuff that I wanted but nothing I really needed. I saw this Coke crate and knew that I didn't want it but I NEEDED it!

The store had crates with lots of little compartments for individual bottles but I opted for the 4 section crate.

Coca-Cola is stamped all over the crate.



1964!

This crate was only $16.00! Pottery Barn sells Pepsi crates for $24.00 + S&H. I am a Coke girl and I liked the yellow paint on the crate I bought.

Credit: Pottery Barn



I love Hudson Goods use of this crate. They have a whole post on soda crates and some for sale on their site.

Here's how I decided to use my crate

I added some candles. I needed  to add some height to this centerpiece. The remotes fit in the space just right.



I left one space empty.  I didn't want to load the crate down with junk

I cleaned up the rest of the living room because the crate looked so nice.

Tre says " Do you mind?"

Today I am linking up House of Grace for Twice Owned Tuesdays



Rise & Shine! Day 2: Make Your Bed!

Credit: Ralph Lauren

I am doing white sheets with my comforter. This is way too much blue!

Josh and I bought the Oxford Stripe Comforter for the new house. It was the only pattern that we could both agree on. I heart these monogrammed shams but I am not paying $49.00 for one! credit: Ralph Lauren

 I love Ralph Lauren Bedding. I love going to nice department stores and looking at the RL bedding displays. A pretty bed makes me happy. Even with my love of bedding, I usually don't make my bed! I struggle to just get up and out the door on time. Making my bed on a more consistent level is something I want to work into my morning routine.
Making my bed doesn't have to mean hospital corners and perfectly pulled up sheets. Even just picking the pillows off the floor and throwing them at the head of my bed would be an improvement.

Gretchen Rubin from the Happiness Project  believes that making your bed can lead to a better day by giving you a sense of accomplishment first thing in the morning. It's an interesting read.

When I was clicking around some blogs this morning I found that someone else was talking about better mornings: Check out Remodeling This Life for some more thoughts on better mornings. I liked reading the comments and seeing that I wasn't the only person who doesn't like to get up!

How often to do you make your bed?

Rise and Shine! Day 1: Clothes really make the girl

When I like my outfit, I feel a lot better about myself and my day seems to go better. When I wake up 20 min before I have to do to work, I end up pulling on something that usually isn't that appealing. When I put together my outfit the night before, I am usually able to put together something that I like. When I am not rushed I can accessorize my outfit and actually wear the jewelry that I have.

This is a picture of an outfit that I put together the night before

Here's the steps to putting it all together so you can jump out of bed and pull it on:

1. Figure out what you're doing the next day. Is it a jeans day or do you need to look a bit nicer. I have to do customer service at my work so I can't do jeans.
2. Pull out the outfit. Does it need to be ironed? Is it covered in dog hair? Take care of this now or find something that's ready to go.
3. Put out all of your under things! I have my underwear and bra hanging off the hanger. I also have my tights hanging over the skirt hanger. I like to verify that I have tights to wear the night before and that they don't have runs!
4. This sweater has a bow on the collar so I will just wear my necklace from Josh. This is the step where I usually decide what jewelry I want to wear. I hang it over the hanger or I set it out on my dresser where I will see it in the morning.
5. Shoes, shoes, shoes. I don't keep my shoes organized, that's a whole other post though! I pick out my shoes so I am not digging through my closet for a pair or trying to decide which pair I want to wear.
6. Depending on time of the year pick out the coat or jacket that you will wear.

I usually hang my outfit up in the bathroom or over my closet door in the picture. Even if I don't do anything else the night before, having an outfit ready to go saves me in the morning.

When do you put together your outfits? On the fly? All at once? Let me know!

Rise and Shine! 5 daily habits for having a better morning

image credit

This series of blog posts are meant to get me back on track with a good morning routine. I am NOT a morning person. I have never been into getting up early, I will hit snooze until the very last second. Most of my morning routine actually has to be done at night.
I started off strong earlier this semester with setting everything out, that I needed for the morning but lately I have been slipping. 
Please feel free to comment at any time or let me know what you do to have a better morning that makes you have a better day!

Happy Birthday to Me!

My favorite youtube video of all time. Makes me feel good every time I watch it!

Good things to think about no matter what time of the year it is!

Sock Monkey! That Funky Monkey!

I learned a lot writing this post! I originally wanted to embed a video of Beastie Boys "Brass Monkey". All of the videos that I could find were labeled as explicit or were just plain weird. I had no idea it was a "bad" song. I also didn't know what a brass monkey was. It turns out that it's an alcoholic beverage.

Here is the recipe for Brass Monkey:
1 part Orange Juice
3 parts Olde English Malt Liquor
Mix together in an empty Big Gulp cup as all of the ingredients may be purchased and probably are purchased from 7-11.
So I don't have a really fun video to play but I do have this cute monkey picture

Photo credit: http://lalasworld-.blogspot.com/

As the title promises, this is a tutorial for how to make sock monkeys. This are truly funky sock monkeys. This fall Holly and I saw some sock monkeys made from Virginia Tech socks. They were so cute but so $$$. So last week Holly and I got together to make some sock monkeys out of some patterned socks.
If you would like to craft along you will need the following materials:

One pair of  tube socks with a colored toe and heel

             Cotton batting for stuffing

             Ribbon (optional)

             Fabric pen or a marker

             Needle and thread

Scissors

Ruler

2 Buttons or 2 ½” googly eyes

Embroidery thread

Sewing machine

Fabric glue (optional)

Instructions:

Note: These are really fun to make but they are tricky to figure out. This is a good picture to look at to figure out what I am talking about!

            Tail1. Turn the second sock inside out.2. Lay the sock on its side so the heel and toe are parallel to your stomach. 3. Cut the colored toe off. This will be used as the monkey's hat or will be leftover scrap if you choose not to use the hat.4. Mark a line from the opening at the ankle to the opening at the toe that is 1" from the top of the sock all the way from one opening to the other.5. Make another line with a 1/4" seam allowance below the line from step 12, but this time make it from the opening at the ankle to just above the colored heel.6. Sew a seam down the line curving at one end like you did with the legs.7. Cut between the two seams.8. Turn the tail right side out.9. Fill it full of stuffing.10. Whip stitch the tail onto sock one just above the colored heel. 

Arms1. Cut the remaining part of the sock off just above the heel. 2. Draw a vertical line all the way down the center of this piece.3. Stitch two seams 1/4" in from each side of the vertical line curving them to the edge at one end to make hands. 4. Cut between the seams. 5. Turn them right side out.6. Fill with stuffing. 7. Whip stitch the arms onto sock one. 

Head1. Wrap embroidery thread around the first sock just above the arms to make a neck. 2. Cut the colored heel off of sock two.3. Whip stitch the heel 3/4 of the way to the face of sock one turning the edges in. 4. Fill with stuffing.5. Whip stitch closed. 6. Sew on button eyes or use fabric glue to attach googly eyes. 7. Using what is left from the foot of sock two cut out four half circles, these will be the ears.8. Sew two of the half circles together inside out most of the way. 9. Fill with stuffing.10. Sew the rest of the way up11. Repeat steps 8-10 from this section for the remaining two half circles.12. Whip stitch the ears to your sock monkey.  

Optional Steps:1. Use embroidery thread to sew a mouth onto your sock monkey.2. Take the toe that you cut off of the second sock for a hat. Turn up the outer edges to create a brim.

And we're sewing!

We drew a line with a marker so we could see how far we needed to sew up.

Sewn together monkey legs

Babies love stuffed socks!

I have a bad caption for this but I will refrain! Stuffing the monkey.

Tail waiting to be whip stitched on!

Arms

After sewing on the arms and making a neck by gagging the poor monkey.

Sewing on the heel for a little mouth

Heart eyes and a bow for the little Frenchie Monkey. Holly made this one.

Monkey Love! I made the yellow one. I stitched on a little smile and eyes. So it would be more baby friendly.

My little monkey friend.

 As always, when you see good pictures on my blog, they were taken by Holly. We had an fun time making these. I am sort of thinking about making some Halloween monkeys from the cute knee socks Walmart is selling 2 for $5.00.

If you want to take it one step further, check out these cool websites for how to make or buy more sock friends.

The Original Rockford Red Heel Sock Elephant:
http://lennytaylor.freeyellow.com/elephant.htm

Friends of Soctopus:
   http://www.friendsofsocktopus.com/
      
Super Sockmonkey:
http://www.supersockmonkey.com/
      

Parties I am linking up with:

Fireflies and Jellybeans