Leopard Print Manicure

If you're anything like me, you are a fan of leopard print... clothes, shoes, bulletin board border for your classroom (it's true: I also have zebra, tiger, and giraffe)!

I saw this lovely pin on Pinterest and decided to recreate my own. However, I nixed the black nail/leopard print pattern (an AB pattern for all my teachers out there) and just did leopard print on my ring finger (much like my glittery nail manicure).

Source: s210.photobucket.com via Chrissy on Pinterest

Pretty? I think so too. All I did was paint every nail a neutral color. Next, I used a toothpick to put blots of black on my ring finger (gotta love those leopard spots that are not symmetrical or perfect!). Then I used the other side of the toothpick to take out the centers of a couple of black blots- just to give it more texture/appearance of an actual leopard spot.

Happy Monday! Only 20 more school days for this teacher! However, 1 day is a workday, 1 day we get out at noon (which the kids are doing a marathon that day), 1 day is "field day" which at our school means water day, 1 day is a class picnic... So yeah, really like 16 instructional days... and 3 of those days will be clean up/pack up/organize... so like 13. YAY!

Photo a Day: Week Seventeen

Time for Photo a Day! This week will share photos from last Saturday-yesterday (Friday). I worked on a super fun but tedious project today in our guest bath that you will just have to wait and see! I'm super excited about it though!

[sunday]: sneak peek to our poppin' kitchen, which we shared about here.

[monday]: Oliver had the worsttt Monday for a pup... couldn't keep anything in his little ol' body, so we took him to the vet where we found out he had food poisoning (we are assuming he got it from an old bone he found across the street when he accidentally got out one day). Poor guy. Had to get two shots :( The sweet nurse (who visits our church from time to time) was kind enough to give him a hug and pats on his back so he wouldn't notice it as much.

[tuesday]: we got to play veterinarian to Oliver this week as we administered his meds to him (no needle in these syringes, his medicine went in his mouth: you had to kind of shoot it in there though). One of his meds was Amoxicillan... you know, that delicious pink medicine that had to stay in the refrigerator that we all took as kids? Lucky duck.

[wednesday]: Wednesday night youth at church. Hubby is praying and getting ready to lead a final lesson on King David!

[thursday]: banana nut muffins? okay.

[friday]: #oliverwithshoes it's just been that kinda week...

Happy weekend to you all! Tomorrow will be full of church, lesson plans, and finishing (maybe) my fun project in the guest bath!

They Called It Puppy Love

No words, just photos of our adorable pups Chloe (the terrier) and Oliver (the shih-tzu).

Happy weekend!

 [I have a #hashtag on Twitter and Instagram called #oliverwithshoes because he adores laying with shoes for some reason... it's so strange. But check them out: they are so sweet!]

Awarded...

Thank you Laurie @ The Rookie Wife for awarding me The Liebster Blog Award! Go check out her blog and say hello!

I've received this before, so to check out who I awarded, see here :)

Almost Friday, thank goodness. Did anyone else have a day like that today?

How To Mail An Awesome Gift

 

It all started when my BFF, Emily, went into the hospital and I couldn't be there (four hours away, gotta love it). When she went home, I knew I wanted to send her some girly goodness to put a smile on her face. Like...

A girly magazine, nail polish, and a friendship bracelet kit! Plus a card :)

I purchased all the goods and thought of the BEST way to mail it (a decorated (from the inside) flat rate box from the Post Office: you know, "If it fits, it ships!" haha)! Well, that was all well and good, but there it all sat at my house for 2+ weeks. Yeah, I'm the worst. So last weekend when I went to visit my family in Dallas, I just took it to her instead of mailing it... which is why I could wrap a cute ribbon around it and a magazine I attached. See how I did it (and I was inspired by Dusty's mail wrapping seen here).

Pick out colorful scrapbook paper...

 

Lay out the desired pattern/locations and use an Exacto knife to cut on the necessary folds of the box from the USPS...

 

Use tape to secure it all in place! It's not super nice, but the box will be ripped open anyways. It's just so fun to open and see a colorful background!

Voila! Again, I was able to use a cute ribbon because I did NOT mail it (I gave it to her in person). But it's still cute!

Who else likes getting packages in the mail? I sure do :)

Who Needs Anthropologie?

When you have Hobby Lobby's cardboard letters...

 

at $2.50 a pop...

and a can of metallic finish spray paint?

I a-d-o-r-e Anthropologie's over-sized zinc letters. But they're just a bit out of my budget.

These are $18/pop (these are 8" tall)

[via Anthropologie's website]

And these are $98/pop (these are 25" tall)

[via Anthropologie's website]

Mine were $2.50/pop (definitely aren't 25'' tall but STILL, I saved a whole lotta $$$)
(and I got the idea via Pinterest from 346living at this website)

Right now they are sitting in the guest bathroom closet: I don't know where I want them on the walls yet, and until we do a wall treatment (paint, wallpaper, board&batten?) I will leave them where they are. No need for ripped walls/holes/etc! ***update- This is an inspiration photo I "pinned" from Holly Mathis Interiors: maybe I'll hang them here? Not sure yet!

Source: hollymathisinteriors.com via Chrissy on Pinterest

Anyone else getting inspired from Anthropologie? Still like ya like crazy, but until I become a bajillionaire, I'll stick to DIY :)

See where I link up: Craft-O-Manic Monday @ Craft-O-Manic, Link Party @ Uncommon, Whatever Goes Wednesday @ Someday Crafts, Show Me What Ya Got Linky Party @ Not JUST A Housewife, {Wow Me Wednesday} @ Ginger Snap Crafts, Link Party @ Destination: Craft, The Creative Spark @ Clean & Scentsible, Before & After Party @ Thrifty Decor Chick, Weekend Wrap-Up Party @ Tatertots and Jello, What I Wore Wednesday @ The Pleated Poppy 

Just a Pop of Color...

I spy something green...

We were busy people this weekend! Thanks to inspiration photos, we decided to paint the "backsplash" of our kitchen a POP of color (instead of purchasing tile, wallpaper, or another wall treatment). We may put something over it down the road, but this was a huge improvement on the kitchen (and the whole house) and it only cost $14 (quart of paint). We haven't put the curtain back on the kitchen sink window, but it will get back up there as soon as the hubs is finished with his seminary homework :)

How did we choose this color? Have you ever heard of the phone app "Color Snap" by Sherwin Williams? Snap a photo of anything, select a section of it, and it will color match it to a paint color. Genius.

We did lots of various pictures: of the glass bottles on top of our kitchen cabinets, of the stained glass window, and finally- one of the new pillows I sewed up. No, it's not in the kitchen, but we definitely want the colors to flow from room to room.

So I snapped a photo, selected the green area, and voila! Color matching- and it even gives you accent colors! (and this isn't a paid advertisement for Sherwin Williams, the app is just that awesome.)

We took this color to our local True Value- where they do not sell Sherwin Williams paint, but their paint machine color matched it as well. Yay for technology!

Before... sorry so dark...

During...

After! Doesn't it add such "oomph" to the whole kitchen? It's hard to gauge the color of it... it kind of looks like a guacamole color in real life! Ha! Fitting since it is in the kitchen. I probably couldn't handle this color over the entire kitchen, but it works nicely with the gray on the rest of the walls and it makes our charcoal/stainless steel/black accents all around the kitchen pop too. Now we just need to add molding and it will be finished!

 

 

 

And for comparison, a before and after: (p.s. I showed this before/after to Nate and he said "Eww! It looks like we lived in a jail!" Ha! Just goes to show that you don't know the impact a little paint can do until you actually do it!)

Before:

After:

Anyone else adding a huge impact to their home for small cost? A little quart of paint goes a long way!

See where I link up: Craft-O-Manic Monday @ Craft-O-Manic, Link Party @ Uncommon, Whatever Goes Wednesday @ Someday Crafts, Show Me What Ya Got Linky Party @ Not JUST A Housewife, {Wow Me Wednesday} @ Ginger Snap Crafts, Link Party @ Destination: Craft, The Creative Spark @ Clean & Scentsible, Before & After Party @ Thrifty Decor Chick, Weekend Wrap-Up Party @ Tatertots and Jello, What I Wore Wednesday @ The Pleated Poppy