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When we moved into the house, the kitchen was awful; dark cabinets, no dishwasher, olive green stove and vent hood, carpet on the floor, and white countertops with a harvest gold, orange, and avocado green flower design.  Can you say tacky?  And, who puts carpet in the kitchen?  Really, that's just gross!  It was one of the first things I pulled up.  I mean, at the time my boys were babies and babies make messes.  The bare sub floor with glue marks (which I just painted over) was much better until I could afford flooring. Over the years, we've painted the walls and cabinets, we replaced the carpet with wood laminate flooring, we bought a dishwasher that you roll over to the sink to use, we got 2 new stoves and vent hood, (I placed the lid to my crockpot with the rubber edge down on my first glass top stove, when it cooled, it sucked up my stove and cracked the glass cooktop.) and I covered my counters with contact paper.  I became an expert contact paperer back in college

I love my jewelry and use it as art on my wall.  It helps me to remember what I have and makes getting dressed easier and quicker.  Here is how I organize and hold my Earrings, Necklaces, and Brooches. Earring Holder A few years ago, while visiting my sister, I noticed her earring holder.  She said she bought it from "a girl who make them."  A few months later, I was needing birthday gifts for some girlfriends so I tried to remember what I saw at my sister's house and re-created it. Supplies: window screening from the hardware store - it comes in big rolls but you only need a little dowel rod 4 wooden dowel rod balls ribbon hot glue paint First, cut your dowel rod into 2 12 inch pieces, then take your dowel rods and balls and paint them whatever color you like.  I spray painted mine silver.  Then you need to cut your screening (use big scissors) to 12 inches by 18 inches.  On the 12 inch side, fold down about 1 inch and glue down with the hot glue.  Do th

A few months ago I discovered this blog from Pinterest about mailing items that weigh 13 ounces or less first class mail.  They can be any shape or size and do not require special packaging.  I was a little hesitant and then my boys told me that the Mythbusters mailed a coconut to prove that it could be done.  I couldn't wait to try it for myself. While they were at boy scout summer camp, both boys got a special delivery in the mail; duct tape.  I mean what boy scout doesn't need duct tape? Garrett's special penguin duct tape. Marshall got paint splatter duct tape. A little over a week ago, the boys and I sent gifts to all their younger cousins.  We bought beach balls for $0.97 at Walmart, spent a few hours decorating the balls and then sent them in the mail.  It cost about $2.15 in postage. Garrett the artist, hard at work. At the post office!  As you can see, the younger cousins were excited to receive their personal beach balls in the mail.  I ca

Welcome to part 4 of "How to Look Your Best."  Click here for:  part 1 , part 2 , part 3 I gave my talk today to a group of ladies.  I think it went really well.  Now that you know the secrets to being a Chic Fabulous Fashionita, you need to know how to put it all together. First, it might be helpful to know your style personality.  If I said that wearing ruffles would help with your body proportions but you're not a ruffle person, then don't wear ruffles.  Find something else that fits your style.  There are four basic style personalities; Casual/Natural - easy going and relaxed style, Classic/Elegant - timeless look that always looks in, Romantic - lace, ruffles, soft flowing fabrics, Dramatic/Trendsetter - show stopping, attention grabbing, statement making.  Look at this link that I made from polyvore.   Which dress do you feel more drawn towards?  Now, you may be a mixture of more than one style personality.  I like to switch between all of them depending on

Today is the 3rd part of this topic.  Go here to see day 1 .  And here is day 2 . Today in learning how to become a Chic Fabulous Fashionista by using Color Focus and Fit, we move on to Fashionista and Fit. Fit is oh so very important.  Your clothes should fit you.  They shouldn't be too tight or too loose.  Most clothing should touch your skin without pulling too much.  Many times we hide in big baggy clothes thinking that it hides our fat but what it really does is makes people think you are actually as big as the baggy clothes. You should dress the body you have now.  Don't wait to lose weight.  In fact, dressing your body now will give you more confidence so that dropping the weight will be easier.  You don't have to spend a lot of money, either.  Shop thrift stores, etc. and splurge on accessories that look great now and will look good after you get your body to your goal size. You want to create an hourglass, look for 2 C's on each side of your body at you

Saturday, I wrote part 1 of this blog which you can find here where you get the beginnings of how to become a Chic Fabulous Fashionista using Color, Focus, and Fit.  The second part to being a Chic Fabulous Fashionista is using FABULOUS which stands for Focus.  Let people focus on you as a beautiful woman, not your clothes.  When someone looks at you let them think, "there's a well put together beautiful woman" not "wow, she has a crazy outfit on."  The biggest key is to have a focus and not make someone who looks at you not know where to look.    No longer should clothing be all "matchy-matchy" but they should go together.  If you try to wear baby blue pants, baby blue blouse, baby blue shoes, and a baby blue belt, you may get dragged off to a nursing home.  So, you've heard that mixing prints is the new in thing but how do you do it with out looking crazy?  Only have 1 strong pattern and the other pattern should work as a neutral.  For exam

Last summer, my mom and I were joking about someone who, how do I say this, was not looking her best.  I mean truthfully, I should've taken a picture and sent it to peopleofwalmart.  Mom told me I should teach a class about fashion and invite this person.  Well, that never happened but I guess Mom told someone else that I could teach a fashion class and lo and behold on Tuesday I'm doing just that.  For those of you who can't make it, I'll give some of the info here. First, I decided to come up with something catchy to remember to organize my thoughts.  It is "You can be a Chic Fabulous Fashionita using Color, Focus, and Fit. Chic also stands for Color.  When I was in high school, my mom borrowed a copy of "Color Me Beautiful" and it changed my life.  My sisters, Mom, and I were all figuring out each others seasonal coloring.  I remember we got down to 2 colors and we were looking all over the house for items that we could drape in front of me.  We fi