New Project

I started a new project last week.  

And I have not finished any of my left over projects from 2012 ... yet.  But in all fairness, this kinda was a 2012 left over project and more importantly, it was a project of necessity.  See, last November my mom and I decided to rent a booth at our local antique and re-sale store and we purchased this adorable, if not neglected, Duncan Phyfe tray top coffee table as one of the pieces we would revive and resale.  It sat in my basement all through the holidays, because I was too busy to even think about messing with it.  We had enough items on display in our booth to put it off for a while, so why do today what you can put off till tomorrow? Right?  Well, when I got word that the biggest piece in our booth (my antique tiger oak dresser) had sold after only one week on display, I had to get on the ball to find something to fill up the empty space.   The coffee table was the most logical replacement.

I painted the base with the black paint I had left over from my dining room table/chairs make-over from last year.  And I took a swatch of the material I covered the chairs with to Lowe's to have them color match a sample jar of green.  I used this to paint the table top trim and the edge of the tray.  Then I used my Cricut to cut some decorative vinyl decals for the glass tray top.  

I placed photocopies of  some black and white pictures of my grandparents under the glass tray. . . and VIOLA!! It was done!! 

I'm very pleased with how it turned out.  Let's just hope it sells as fast as the antique dresser!  Well, maybe not. . .  I don't have another piece to take it's place. Yet!   

Frugal Fashionista

Have I mentioned that I'm a frugal fashionista?  I love bargains,  of any kind really.  But I really love to find cute clothes at bargain prices.   These are just a few of my finds this year:

These great gloves that I found at Target for $12.00.

I described them as "The Most" . . . 

The Most Adorable

The Most Stylish

The Most Awesome!

And then there are these really cute little sweater dresses that I found at Plato's Closet for only $6 each!

I paired both with a turtle neck, leggings and my black riding boots.

And yesterday I scouted my favorite local mission store for these two spectacular finds:

The three string costume pearl necklace was a steal for $4.50!

Date Night Success

As part of my resolution to make date night with the hubby more diverse than just dinner and a movie, I created a date jar and gave it to Jeff for Christmas.  This was a wonderful idea that I found on Pinterest and actually implemented! I  incorporated the help of my twin nieces in painting 52 craft sticks four different colors.  One color for each of the following categories:  Pink - Stay at Home dates; Green - Big Bucks or Advanced Planning dates; Yellow - Warm Weather dates; and Blue - Standard dates.  I then came up with 13 different dates for each category.  I won't list every date that I came up with, but I'll give a couple of examples of each.  One of our stay at home dates is "Pizza and a Puzzle" and another is to cook a gourmet meal together from start to finish; Big bucks or Advanced Planning would be a weekend get-away or a big ticket concert; and warm weather dates might include an all day motorcycle ride or a picnic at the park.  Now like I said, standard dates would usually be dinner and a movie, but I wanted to do something outside the norm, so I added some things that I thought might appeal to my hubby's masculine side.  So I included "attend a local ball game" and "a day at the gun range".

Last Thursday and Friday nights our local high school hosted Penny Hardaway's Hoopfest.  This was a basketball tournament that paired some of the nations best high school teams in competition and was also a venue for the athletes to show their skills to a few college scouts.  I thought this was a perfect opportunity to use one of my out of the norm "Standard Dates", so I got us tickets for Friday night.  The games actually started at 4:00, but Jeff and I only attended the last two games which started at 7:00 and 9:00.  We had a bast!  We ate hotdogs and popcorn.  I got to meet Penny Hardaway and get his autograph.

We saw some fantastic, fast and furious basketball.  We saw lots of our friends.  And our home team won their game!  Date Night Success!!

Two Reserved Seating Tickets                $30.00

Autographed Souvenier Program             $ 5.00

Hotdogs, Soda, and Popcorn                    $ 7.00

                                                                              =====

Date Night Success                         PRICELESS!!!

New Year - New Goals

On Sunday, January 6, I de-flocked my home of 99% of my Christmas decorations and on Monday night, I finished packing up the remaining one percent and tucked everything away in the basement until December.  So now I can officially kiss 2012 good-bye!  And now, like most every other red-blooded American, I look at the new year with resolutions and goals in mind.  And I have the usual plans to exercise more, loose a few pounds, be better organized, be more punctual, yada, yada, yada.  But my main focus this year is to finish what I start.  That means first and foremost, complete all unfinished projects from last year.  And trust me, that could take awhile.

The other specific goals that I would like to work on for this year are as follows:

Home projects:  Update our kitchen.  This will be a pretty major endeavor and I hope to post about each step like some of my favorite bloggers.

Fitness:  Quit wasting money on a yearly gym membership that I only use for about 4 to 5 months (this part also falls into my financial category).  Start working with a personal trainer/nutritionist to find an exercise routine that I will stick with, and incorporate more healthy meals into our monthly menus.

Financial: Start putting $100 a month into my 401K.  I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but I like to start small, and I know my limitations.

Personal: Make date night with my husband more of a priority and be more creative with our date options than just dinner and a movie.  I have already started implementing this one.  For Christmas, I gave my husband a "Date Jar".  This was one of those terrific ideas that I found on Pinterest.  I used some of their ideas and painted 52 craft sticks four different colors for each of the following categories: Stay at Home Dates; Big Bucks or Advanced Planning; Standard Dates; and Warm Weather Dates.

Educational:  Learn how to use my camera better.  I took a photography class right after I got my new camera last year, but it really didn't teach me how to operate my specific camera.  And everything I learned about ISO and F-stop, I have already forgotten (or wonder if I really understood it in the first place.)

Dreams:  Blogging about all my efforts at least once a week.  I'm hoping I get a few followers that will help encourage me and keep me accountable.

Okay, I think that's about enough.  I already think I sound like an over achiever.  What about you?  Have you set any goals for yourself this year?