Just move it in and move on...

When we moved into our new place back in October, my main goal was to get everything from the old place into some place in the new place.

We worked like maniacs to get it all put up, put out or put away. I was beyond thrilled with the results, until.........

Yes, I have finally figured out how to use that site and even have 18 friends following or pinning with me. But the down side????

I now want to redo soooo much of my home. But money wise, I'm going to have to wait. There is so much more we need before I can start any major redecorating. But I have a thought. That always scares my hubby when I start thinking because it usually means he gets some kind of chore out of the deal.

I have three rooms that I'm not really happy with now that I've been living here a few months. The major one is my office. It is such a hodge podge of collectibles. Tea sets, clowns, knick knacks, pictures, books, etc. It is feeling cluttered and the walls are closing in on me. I have valances on the windows that I don't like and the sun beats in on me starting every day around 1:00 giving me a headache and burning me up...even with the blinds closed.

My dear friend Sherrie gave me a beautiful pair of blue lined drapes for the windows. They are gorgeous. That was it. Now I'm in the mood to redo my office. I collect Emmett Kelly clowns and every time I mention packing them up, hubby reminds me of the sentimental value of them. Okay, I know I am sentimental about them, but can't I be sentimental while they are in a box in the closet?

These are just a few of them on one of the shelves. See what I mean? CLUTTERED. Oh my, I just had a thought. Hmmm, it involves my antique secretary hutch and my bedroom decor. I may be onto an idea here. I will ponder and let you know more about this later.

So I think this weekend after my Thirty One party, I will box up and pack away some of the items in the office/craft room so I can begin redecorating and reorganizing.

As you recall, I am looking for a bigger desk. Well it dawned on me this morning, that the desk my hubby uses looks bigger than my desk in my office. Hmmm? Do you think I can talk him into trading? Considering he will have to be the one to move it. I'll have to think that through.

Anyway, I'm going to start "shopping" my house to see what might work better somewhere else and make me happier with everything.

I'll be sure to take some before and after pictures for you as thing progress. Hope everybody has a great weekend. 

I love catalogs...

I love opening my mail box and finding new catalogs full of items guaranteed to tease and tempt me. Yesterday, I went to the mail box and found this waiting for me.

Ooh! I was so excited. I love these type of catalogs. I had never seen or heard of this company so I was even more excited to get back in the house and take a gander. The first thing that caught my eye was this little note on the front.

Seriously? Basically it said to me "Here, we want to introduce you to the wonderful stuff we have for you to buy. But if you don't buy right now, we aren't wasting our time or money sending you any more catalogs." Somebody needs to talk to their marketing department. Anyway, I did spend some time browsing the catalog and saw some pretty neat items in it.

How cute would these be in my kitchen. Remember my post about cookbooks. I would love to put some of my paperback one stacked in the bottom one and fill the tops one with my assortment of cloth napkins. The chicken wire theme would go with all my roosters. I am really really loving these. Especially since they have lids.

What a cute idea. A candle holder used to hold a clay pot of flowers. I am going to have to remember this one.

These are a great idea for my front porch swing when I get it fixed up this spring.

It is hard to believe these are artificial. I can see them resting on a little table on the porch or back deck. Or in the middle of the kitchen table.

What a fun tea set. I love the red and white. My sister needs this for her kitchen.

I just did my other blog this morning about organizing my office. I wonder if this would hold file frames so I could convert it into a filing cabinet.

I am in love with these. How precious would those be in my room with the beach theme. Since that is technically the "kids" room, these would make a wonderful toy box.

I have a million ideas for this one. One of my faves is to put it over my craft table and put all my yarns in it so I can see the colors real easy when I pick new projects to do.

Since I have more than one company, I have tons of stackable trays on my desk and table in my office. I'm thinking this would be neat to hang beside my desk and get rid of all the cheap ugly plastic trays.

 

Another potential cabinet that might hold file frames.

Taxing my brain to see where I could use this. I love it. Wondering if it would be good for the new TV when we get it?

Well, that's my wish list. I would say that I will end up buying at least one of these items. So it seems the "last catalog" ploy is not such a bad marketing idea after all.

It's here and we have a new giveaway....

The new Thirty One catalog is now online. You can view it by visiting

www.mythirtyone.com/brendakeefer

I am very excited about the special this month, for every $31 you spend, you can get 31% off any item in the catalog. Most retailers take a discount off your least expensive item. Not Thirty One, your discount comes off any item you choose. And you get it for every $31 you spend.

They are also bringing back some favorites in patterns that were discontinued. They will be available for a limited time. Leave me a comment if you want me to email you the PDF. Here are a couple of my favorite patterns that they are bring back on a few items.

  

Visit www.bees31gifts.blogspot.com to learn about our February giveaway.



Last chance to win a Thermal Tote

Today is going to be an exciting day. We will be announcing the winner of the Thirty One Thermal Lunch Tote over at Bee's 31 Gifts. The winner will be announced sometime after noon. If you haven't signed up to win, pop on over to Bee's 31 Gifts and become a follower for one entry and leave a comment over there for a second entry. You will receive your choice of any one of the following thermal totes if you are chosen as the winner.

In addition, visit back here later today for the announcement of our February giveaway and a link to the new spring catalog for Thirty One.

 

Ten things for Tuesday....

Today's Top 10 of Things I'm loving....

1. Loreal One-Sweep Eye Shadow. This product is amazing. It has great staying power and the variety of shades blend to give your eyes a unique look. It is so lightweight that you can't even tell you have it on.



2. Pure Ice Nail Polish. The variety of shades is amazing. I have it in pinks, silvers, whites, golds, lilacs, mint green, blue, lavendar, gray, and the list goes on. I love the way it shimmers and shines. One coat is enough to look like you spent hours in the salon.

3. The perfect white shoe. Every year around this time, I start to hunt for white shoes for Easter. I love heels with an ankle strap and lots of little straps. I fell in love with this pair. To me, it is the PERFECT Easter shoe. So I went to the website to see what else they had to offer. When I saw categories like "Goth" and "Exotic" and "Stripper" I decided maybe this wasn't the best site to find my new church shoes at. But I do love these.

4. I love this cute dress for spring and summer. Trying to decide if it would be a cute Easter dress or not. If I decide I like it, it would be adorable with strappy white sandals.

5. Our anniversary is in March and I would like to have an Anniversary Band. I've been looking at them and know about what I'd like to have. I found one I liked, but it had a $5900 price tag! I'm thinking that is a little A LOT out of my budget. Now this one is exactly what I'm looking for and at a very affordable price.

6.  These white shoes are more my style. The lower heel is a lot easier to walk in. They would be so cute with the little dress above.

7. My daughter is a Coach purse fanatic. She has some really cute ones and I'm starting to love them. Living just 15 minutes from the Coach Outlet and with the discount coupons we get from them, it is easy to pick up a new Coach purse with a Retail Price of $200 - $300 for just $30 or $40 if you time it right. That being the case, I think I need to start watching the store for this white purse for spring. I love it.

8. If you followed my blog last spring, you will recall that our swing cushions got beat up pretty bad in a hail storm. They were ripped and torn that they were not repairable. We were able to flip them over but the back side wasn't as tufted and comfy as the front. Now that we have moved and have a front porch, we figured we'd buy replacement cushions. I was shocked to learn that replacement cushions cost more than I paid for the original swing brand new. So we are going to just replace the whole swing. I'm trying to decide between an old fashioned wood swing or wicker. I am really loving this look.

9. And since we want a new table and chair set for the other end of the porch, I thought this would go good with it.

10. I am getting obsessed with these little floral candles. I love anything with flowers on it, but lately I have been noticing a lot of these little votives. I have three in my living room. But I really am loving the ones I just found yesterday on the internet.

Can you tell I have spring on my mind?

Today, I am hooking up over at the Tuesday Train

And I'm also joining up with several other blog hops at Quick Tattletales Tuesday Blog Hop

Am I being unfeeling?

I have a situation and I don't know how to handle it.

Last week, my children's Godfather passed away. Their Godmother passed away about 7 years ago.

Due to us living so far apart, we haven't seen them regularly. However, sometimes my daughter and I will take all the grandchildren back to WV for a visit and we tried to stop by and see Junior and Nila if time allows.

We saw Nila a year before her death and saw Junior on our last trip in about 2 years ago.

Here is my dilemma. I didn't find out about his death until it was too late to attend the funeral. They didn't have any children and only one or two nieces that they were not close to.

When my twins were one year old, I had professional portraits done. There were two large 17" or 20" prints done. One of me and the twins and one of the twins by themself. It is the only professional portrait I ever had done of my children with me. The pictures have hung for 33 years over Junior and Nila's bed. Every time I would visit, they would show me that they still had the pictures and tell me when anything ever happened to them, I needed to get the pictures.

I'm sure that is not an item anybody would ever remember to leave in a will, but I would really like to have those portraits. I don't know who the executor would be or how to even get ahold of anybody to find out. But I am fearful that whoever they left things to will just destroy the pictures because they won't even know me or my children.

I want to contact the local courthouse in WV and find out who the executor is and see if I would be able to buy the portraits from the estate. But I don't want to seem cold or unfeeling to thier loss. My heart grieves deeply at Junior's passing. I read the obituary yesterday and spent a lot of time just staring at his picture remembering all the times I spent in church growing up with him and Nila and all the times they would come and visit their godchildren. I remembered how she loved to buy frilly dresses and patent leather shoes for my daughter and little baseball shirts and ball caps for my son.

So, believe me I am very sensitive to the loss and I know that they ones they left behind will grieve them greatly as well. I just don't want to appear cold and call and say "What's going to happen to my children's portraits?" But by the same token, I can't stand the thought of somebody just tossing them out or selling them in a yard sale for $1 for the frames.

Does anybody have any ideas, thoughts, or comments on how I can handle this diplomatically without looking like I'm coldhearted or imposing on their family grieving time. 

My visit to Staples...



I really enjoyed my trip to Staples Saturday. I found some new spring items to help me get organized for my Thirty-One business.

Now it's time to get my files all organized and set up a system. I just love Staples.