Happy birthday, Hubster!

The most cat-lovingest, beer brewing, DIY maniac of a Hubs is celebrating his birthday this very day!

I love when birthdays fall on Fridays, don't you? 

Pimp My Office: Chalk Hearts are for the Birds (plus glitter!)

Last Christmas break, I spent hours tearing down heinous 80s wallpaper and painting the tiny room where I spend 40+ hours a week. But, I wasn't done pimpin' this little home away from home, no siree!

So, me and two office mates spent one afternoon over break at the office - not futzing with spreadsheets and Hootsuite bulk uploads - but getting our Martha on.

Behold: our masterpiece (my co-workers have similar branded office art now, too).

Yeah, it's a chalkboard heart and torch (the logo 89% of you can positively associate with the American Heart Association) - surrounded by RED GLITTER PAINT!

Do you have any idea how much red glitter paint can make a crafty Heart Association employee squeal? A lot.

I also added some functional art in the form of a magnetic bird that Hubs' parents picked up for me as a Christmas present. It sits over my desk, along with my handy (and free!) deadline clothesline and the amazing Ork heart poster I fell in love with last spring.

Clearly, this office is not short on personality.

Do you get to snazz up your workspace? How have you incorporated glitter into your professional life?

Twelve Tidys: Basement Workshop

Get crazy, wicked excited, please: I'm starting a new monthly series on this silly little blog called the Twelve Tidys (ba da ba BAH!). Every month, I'll be tackling one hideous, horrible, very bad mess and whipping it into shape using only my very fragile sense of organization (and Hubs for brute strength and lots of mismatching tupperware).

First up, our junk-filled workshop in the basement. It was crammed with all the left-overs of the basement project because after we finished, we couldn't bring ourselves to do much of anything, especially clear away the debris. So, we worked around it. Hubs brewed his beer and I just kept digging through the mess to find screws, goggles and other random supplies for DIY projects. It was bad.

We needed to find a home for all the tools, materials and brewing supplies. In a fit of domesticity and gender-normative behavior, I told Hubs that he needed to keep all that stuff on his side (the side with the unpainted floor), while laundry and pantry items, plus anything hidden in an old oak armoir we had, was welcome on my side. 

That blue shelf and all the coupon-bought things it holds is my pride and joy. Judge not.

Seedy-underbelly no more!

Not only is it clean as a whistle, but that five gallon white bucket? That's full of homemade wine, suckas! We live in heaven!

A surprisingly small amount of all that clutter was actual trash or Goodwill-able, so I'd say about 80% of it is still here, though you'd never know it.

Want to hop on the neurotic organization wagon with me? Share a link in the comments.

All the trimmings

Our little living and dining rooms had suffered for too long with unsightly trim. Mismatched and unloved, the trim wasn't doing much to help our admittedly neglected upstairs. And so it was that Hubs and I pulled our painting clothes out and set to beautifying the badness.

As if an ugly stain wasn't enough, this poor slice of baseboard got all dripped on by myself, way back when I didn't even know to to edge without one of those horrible plastic slider things.

Believe it or not, Hubs and I actually applied the lighter stain and declared it good. Oh, we were such DIY punks in 2009.

Again, we applied the lighter stain and felt OK with that. We must have been drunk.

We decided to pull up the quarter-round and replace it because trying to paint around it seemed like a lot more work than making a few cuts and spending $20 at Menards.

After two coats of primer and three of paint (and two meatball subs and one costume change), we had afters that we could finally be proud of!

The whole shebang.

How bright and happy!

Seriously, I spent the better part of the next day just staring at the match-y-ness of this section.

I'm so jazzed to finally have paid some attention to this room. It hadn't seen any major updates since we painted it about two weeks after moving in. Now, with our crisp white trim, I'm ready to get crack-a-lackin' on making this, the most used room in our house, a little more punchy and rad.

What was your final DIY of 2011?

Droppin outta high school, straight into the pros

It's entirely possible that Nelly was not talking about cameras in this song.

Happy 2012, friends! I'm coming off a most glorious 11-day weekend which was at once productive and highly relaxing. One of the highlights: being gifted this sweet little Canon T3i by my ma 'n pa. I have absolutely zero idea how to use it aside from the point-and-shoot settings, but I'm sure it will be just a matter of time before I catch on.

I think I need more mirrors in my house and fewer self-portraits in the powder room. 

It's my goal to play along with these fabulous tutorials, even though the 12 weeks are long gone. Just putzing around can only take a gal so far.

So, the real question is: how many pictures of cats can I take before it gets weird? 

Just kidding. Anyone else get a snazzy camera for the holidays? What tips and tricks should I be reading up on?

Happy holidays, from my blog to yours!

I can't even lie, y'all. I am checked out of blogging this Christmas. Work is busy gearing up for Heart Month in February (because I think January lasts maybe three hours and then BAM! Busiest time of the year) and I'm spending every spare second soaking up all the festivness one gal can (festiveness does equal that marshmallow-flavored vodka, right?). Plus, I've got my eyes on the prize: nine succulent days off between the holidays in which I'll be staying up late, eating lots of pizza and playing more (active) video games than any 9 year old on my street. And painting the trim in the living room, which is sure to be a par-tay and a half.

I haven't been posting much because honestly, the holidays are SO MUCH about tradition for me. We decorated the same and baked the same cookies and watched the same movies so it hardly seems worth it to rehash it all on this poor blog. If you want to see how I'm rollin' this Christmas, just check out last year's posts (minus all the body-wracking-sob-inducing stories of the basement reno (from Hell!)) and that about sums up not only this Christmas, but many before and many after.

One new thing I have this year is a gift to all of you.

Here it is:



And that my friends is what I call the beauty of the flippin' season.

Finally not a redneck

Here we are: December 2011. My Christmas lights have been up on my house for one full year and it's officially not awkward anymore if anyone sees them during the day.

It wasn't even that painful, but I do fear this is the start of a very slippery slope. What's next for us lazybones? Leaving the blow-up pool out all winter? Rotting pumpkins on the doorstep until they biodegrade back to the land? Trucks with horns on the grill? Gold teeth? Ill-conceived tattoos? A growing propensity for High Life Lites when cutting the grass or baking cookies?


Damn it.

Please keep an eye on us.