40 Bags in 40 days

I found this idea on Pinterest a few weeks ago.  The point is to do it for lent.  It is called 40 bags in 40 days (obvi, that is the name of the post).  You make a list of 40 places you want to go through and theoretically throw out 40 bags of stuff in 40 days.  Well I took a new spin on it because I live in a smaller house and have no kids....I wouldn't own anything if I did 40 garbage bags and honestly I don't hold on to things I am ALWAYS putting stuff into the yard sale bins.  I pulled out my list (because today is the start of lent) and realized I had already completed 3 things on my list....yay me.  So needless to say I didn't do anything on my list today :(  Looks like tomorrow is done also so maybe I will be able to start on Friday!! 

I am also giving up fast food for lent.  When I lived in NY the closest fast food place was like 30 min away so I NEVER went....EVER.  When I was in college I used my meal plan and never got fast food because it wasn't as good as what they had with the meal plan.  Now that I moved up to Dewey and they have every fast food place you could think of (even ones I never heard of) I find that me and Jordan find a lot of convenience in going there.  When you get home at 6 the last thing I want to do is cook dinner.  But I am getting tired of draining my bank account of fast food and eating food that isn't good for you (as much as Jordan argues that it is fine to eat).  

Etsy Shop

My Etsy Shop: Sun Kissed Shells

In August I opened an Etsy shop called Sun Kissed Shells.  I had been making items for my cousin (who is also a beach lover) and have been getting feed back from her.  First I made her a letter as part of her Christmas gift.  When I went out to NY in May she told me all of her friends at UNC Wilmington kept asking where she got it, and told them I got it and would ask me.  This is when I told her I made it, everyone was blown away and said I need to start selling them. 

 For her b-day I made her a jewelry box that matched the letter and has a sand dollar and starfish on top.  I again got the same reaction as I did with the letter, they couldn't believe I made it.

The pictures are a little hard to see since I photographed them at the beach :) 

After that I just ran with it and kept coming up with things that fit in the set, like a picture frame:

Next came hair accessories:

 

I also made a really cute starfish headband that I have not posted on the shop yet.

A few months ago we got a letter from the HOA saying that they can't see our house numbers and we are going to get fined if it doesn't get fixed (I am not sure why with their monthly checks they decided after a year this was a problem but w/e I played there game....and won).  We took off the old numbers and got a decorative piece of wood to paint and this is what I came up with:

Lastly I have been looking for ceramic personalized pet treat jars, but just couldn't find any that weren't SCREAMING "I am a pet jar" I wanted it to fit into the house.  Solution: make your own:

I also have a matching cat jar that is a little smaller.

So that is a quick overview of my Etsy shop.  I have a lot of fun doing it.  My idea behind my Etsy shop: if you can't find it....make it.

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Over the door shelf

OK, I know "we are going to work on the rest of the cabinets" was stated all of 12 hrs ago....change of plans.  Yesterday before I started 'blogging' I was painting a shelf.  I found this idea on Pinterest (which I am obsessed with BTW) you get 2 shelf brackets and a piece of wood and hang it above the door.  Simple and a great was to store things decoratively.  I put a little twist to this idea and purchased some decorative brackets and got a 12 ft piece of wood cut into three equal pieces.  On top of the brackets I put the 3 pieces of wood, it makes it look a little more shabby chic (which I love).  It is a great place to put those nick knacks that just make the room look a little over crowded.  Also on mine I put a basket and inside I have office supplies that aren't used very much.

Here is a picture of some of the items I put on the shelf.  I am not in love with it yet, but I will play with it for awhile and find what looks perfect!

Here is a photo of what the bottom looks like.

I am in love with these new shelves and am planning on eventually having them in EVERY room!  In the bathroom it is a great place to decoratively fold towels and they are right there when you need to use them.

Well this is my first blog I have never done anything like this before.  I thought maybe it would be a good idea; I have a lot of different things going on in my life that I would like to document.  A little over a year ago we (Jordan and I) bought our first house.  Now, where we live are A LOT of "cookie cutter" homes (as Jordan put it last night) and we don't want ours to be put in the category.  Will it always have the same layout as 10 other houses on our street....well....duh we can't rip the thing down.  But we can make (the inside) stand out from the rest, and that is what we have been doing for the past year.  I have done a lot of documenting the "change" through pics and a scrapbook but thought to share some ideas online.  I always like seeing what people have done in their homes, why not share my house.  Now unfortunately we can’t do much to the outside (front) of the house, that involves putting in what we want to the board, and paying $, once a year for them to say yes or no.  Sorry board, not playing that game so the outside stays as it is....BORING.  But the inside is another story.  We bought our house as a foreclosure, the people who owned it before didn't make a payment on the house and TRASHED the place.  OK I shouldn't be so dramatic, it wasn't like you didn't want to come in, the place was cleaned by the listing agent but it didn't mean I would walk around barefoot (or touch the walls....EWWWY).  So after the obviously scrubbing the walls and replacing the (new) GROSSSS carpet we put in a hardwood floor in the entry way (which was builder special tile) and kitchen (which was builder special linoleum) and dining room (which was tomato sauce stained carpet; seriously who does that? It's like carpet in the bathroom).  Next came the bathroom floor....the tile we want is REALLY expensive so while we save we got super cheap peel and stick (which I really like!) to replace the....you guessed it....builder special while linoleum with weird pink stains on it?  Well anyway it's gone (covered) and that is all that matters.  Now after painting (no need to get into that....you know how it goes) we took a LOOOOOOONG home renovation break mostly because of $....or lack thereof it (we both work in a school and Jordan is in school and I am in school working on my masters....what do you expect).  This Christmas my (wonderful) mom got us a kitchen renovation.  We got unfinished cabinets from Home Depot at 20% off (you will learn this about me....I 'trip' over sale items and great deals; I don't even look for them).  Well after that we got right to work....we (I) stained the cabinets a DARK brown while Jordan sanded the original cabinets to be stained.  The top went a creamy white, which was then slightly sanded and stained over top.  Now the cabinets’ aren’t quiet finished.  We worked on them over break....in between traveling all over the state to visit family, and then school started back up.  Not just school but basketball and cheerleading season, Jordan coaches’ bball and I cheer, so most of our nights we didn’t get home till 7ish, and away games was almost 10.  But, tomorrow is another day, this weekend we finished the cabinets put in a tile backsplash and tomorrow we will finish the cabinets....I promise....OK OK deff work on them.  Along with the tile backsplash went the tile around the fireplace to match!  Oh, and by the way the tile was (of course) on sale, I wasn’t even looking to buy any.  Ok back to the cabinets, we aren't making out kitchen bigger; the new cabinets my mom got are going above the upper row that is currently there.  It will be to the ceiling but I figured holiday stuff, thing we only use once in a blue moon, stuff like that.  We need all the storage we can get, we have a lot of stuff (not hoarder status) and I NEED to be organized.  And now that we are getting married we will be getting more stuff, so this will just give us room to grow.  We also had a awkward bar type thing in the kitchen (too high to put stools at and eat).  Under that we but another row of the new cabinets and took the awkward bar thing off.

This is a before (we even moved in) pic....please don't make fun of my builder special stove....we are working on getting rid of it. 

This is the view from where the frige now is....you can really see that nice floor.

Here is the floor we (Jordan) put in....a house warming gift from my mom.  Not really sure why the picture is all distorted.

This is now the moment I am sure you have all been waiting for....the new tile backsplash!!  This was before we did the whole kitchen so is just a little piece.  It has not been grouted yet....mostly because we can pick a color.  I am thinking a light gray?
I will try and post some pics tomorrow of what the cabinets look like.