Giveaway Alert!

Hi All! Just wanted to let you know that Jennifer at Phoenix Crafts is hosting a giveaway at her blog. This is one talented lady and her blog is one you don't want to miss. So go on over and enter to win her crafty prizes!!!! Here's the link:

http://jennifer-phoenixcrafts.blogspot.com/2009/03/easter-blog-candy.html

Thanks Jennifer!

p.s. this has been my 3rd (and hopefully final) attempt to get the link right. Thanks Kathy!!!!

Tablescape Thursday

Hello and welcome to my blog! This is my first time participating in this lovely event hosted by a lovely lady - Susan at Between Naps on the Porch. I gotta admit - I'm a little nervous about joining in this party. After following it for some time, I'm a little intimidated. So, having said that, go easy on me girls. I'm only posting this time because I just hosted a Spring brunch for a group of my Bunco friends and thought I'd snap some pictures of the table for my blog. A big thanks to Susan for hosting this and don't forget to jump over to her blog for other far more beautiful tablescapes!







Thanks for stopping by and have a great Thursday!!

THRIFTY THURSDAY!!!!

If you're a thrifty mama like myself - you gotta go join the party over at Tales from Bloggeritaville hosted by my new friend Leigh. She is one of the SWEETEST people in blogville, and I am so happy to have had the privilege of "meeting" her. Thanks Leigh for hosting this great party! Now go grab a margarita and get your game on! And please don't forget to stop by Leigh's blog to see other great Thrift Store finds from like-minded shoppers!

Now, for those of you who follow my blog, you know I'm a stone's throw from Atlantic City. (And for those Geography buffs out there, I'm also only 15 miles from Philadelphia!). So, the other day my dear friend Missy told me about a local liquidation warehouse that recently bought out all of the furnishings from Caesar's Hotel and Casino! Now, I'm not usually very luck at the slots (don't go very often), BUT I scored big at this warehouse. They had things as far as the eye could see, and most was in mint condition. I ended up leaving with just this console table, which I paid only $20 for and promptly painted black. The best part was, it came with a glass top!

It found a home in my upstairs hallway. Still thinkin' of ways to accessorize - I'm open to suggestions here folks!


What I love most about this piece is that it came straight from Caesar's! How cool is that?! - a true conversation piece.

Ladies - this place had handpainted headboards in every size and style (hand-painted, upholstered, tufted) for $10 a piece! Gorgeous 80" x 80" silk tapestries with 8" of fringe and hardware included for just $35!! - Imagine the number of chairs you could re-upholster with all that fabric! What I really wanted was an armoire that was to die for and only $20 (I could SO see this shabby-chic'ed out). Unfortunately, the seller talked me out of it because it's too heavy to move upstairs (the DH would NOT have been happy about that).

Of course I will be venturing back there just as soon as I can find a friend in the U-Haul business!

That's it for me. Check out my other post on Tablescape Thursday hosted by Susan at Between Naps on the Porch (another very sweet lady!).

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!!

The Letter K

I found this at Dreams In Pink - too cute to pass up! Thanks Elizabeth!
Btw - it's alot harder than it looks!!!!

Okay - You ready to play a game? Because this was lots of fun and so, I'm inviting you to play along, share it and pass it along, cuz "...girls just want to have fu-Un, YEAH, girls, just want to have funnnnnnn!"

Thank you Just Be Happy's blog. Here are the Rules: Use the first letter of your name to answer each question. They have to be real places, real names, etc... Try to use different answers if you have the same initial as someone who has already done this. You cannot use you own name for the boy/girl question. Ready?... Set?... GO!!!


1. What is your name? Kim
2. A four letter word? Kite
3. A boy's name? Kyle
4. A girl's name? Kristen
5. An occupation? Knitter
6. A colour? Khaki
7. Something you wear? Kilt
8. A beverage? Kool Aid
9. A food? Kellogg's Cereal
10. Something found in the bathroom? Krypton (couldn't think of anything else)
11. Movie? Kalifornia
12. Celebrity? Kim Catrall
13. Sport? Karate
14. A place? Kentucky
15. A pet? Kitty

Play along if you want!

Join the Ultimate Blog Party 2009!!!

Party started today! Come join in the fun. It's a great way to meet other bloggers and there's SO MANY cool prizes to win. You can even pick the ones you want to win in the order you want to win them. This is the way to network if your new to blogging like myself. Just click on the button on my sidebar for more info. Party goes from March 20 - 27th. There is even live entertainment. Check it out - you won't be sorry. There are literally thousands of other bloggers who participate - so go get your party on!!

I'm going to be completely and shamelessly honest here - my one and only goal for joining this party is to garner as many followers as I possibly can so when people read my blog and see how many followers I have they'll say "WOW, this lady must be really interesting!!!"................NOT!!!! JK! I have just enjoyed blogging so much that I can't wait to meet all of the wonderful other bloggers out there and make some new friends!

I am a mom to two beautiful daughters, 13 and 9, and married to my college sweetie for almost 16 years. He is the love of my life and best friend. We have a busy life here in New Jersey where we enjoy spending time with our extended families. Neither hubby or myself flew far from the nest so we have lots of family close by - which I love! Always someone droppin' by.

I enjoy playing Bunco with the neighborhood girls who have become like sisters to me. I'm also somewhat of a "Gym Rat" working out most weekdays. I like to kickbox, spin and weight train to stay in shape. Most times I eat right, but enjoy the occasional splurge, like chocolate - lots and lots of chocolate!!! I am also on a first-name basis with my friends at Dunkin' Donuts, dropping in at least twice a day to get my caffeine fix.

My BFF Denise lives just around the corner and together we enjoy going to yard sales, Goodwill and thrift stores. My passion is decorating my home and just feathering the nest. I am always on the lookout for a great bargain and when I find one, what can I say, I get heart palpitations! Now that my girls are a little older I'm looking to get started on a career as a designer, but taking that first step is a hard one. So right now, I'm at the baby-step phase. I've started by working for a friend of my mother's who is in the process of adding on to her home. So at least I got my foot in the door!

We are a Christian family and hubby and I teach 3rd Grade Sunday School at our church. God is Good!!! While I haven't experienced any major miracles, my life is made up of several mini-miracles that God has used to keep me focused and on His path. There is no doubt He is working on another mini-miracle for me as I write this post!

So, now that you know a little about me, I can't wait to meet some of you and hear about your lives and your families and what life is like for you wherever you come from!

Happy Spring, um make that Happy Winter!

Woke up this morning and my daughter asked me if she could wear her capris to school today, since it's been so nice out all week and all. Then I opened the back door to this.............

YUP! THIS!

first.day.of.spring.and.more.of.THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!

No accumulation, no scraping my car windshield, no salting the driveway or shoveling - nope - just enough to remind me I can't control everything. God is in charge - today and everyday - and that is just fine by me. I continue to be amazed by the awesomeness of HIS handiwork. The beautiful Spring weather will get here soon enough - but today HE reminded me to sit back and smell the roses, well, sort of. More like, sit back, have a cup of coffee and enjoy that one last snowfall of the season. Thanks God!!!

Thrifty Thursday!! Trash-to-Treasure Chair

This is my first time participating in Thrifty Thursday, hosted by Leigh at Tales from Blogeritaville. Just click on her button on the side to see more of these awesome finds from other thrifty bloggers.
I found this chair a few weeks ago and kind of forgot about it while I was busy working on other projects.

My DH offered to reupholster it for me and he did a wonderful job!!

It was pretty wobbly too, so he then decided (unbeknownst to me) to take the whole thing apart and slather it with Gorilla Glue. While his dear heart was in the right place, it sort of, well, ruined the chair :(( I didn't have the heart to get mad at him. After all, he was trying to surprise me (I was quite surprised). But, it wasn't anything some sandpaper and spraypaint couldn't fix. In the end, I like it much better black. I also used some Rub n Buff in Antique Gold (thanks Stacy~) to give it a more antiqueish look. I think it turned out great.




Here's another tip from my dear friend Stacy. She has been fixing up old furniture for a long time and through trial and error, discovered that the best (and easiest by far) way to re-paint old furniture is using Krylon (yes, it must be Krylon) Spray Paint for Plastic. The best part is, you don't even have to sand! Just wipe down and you may want to use a spray primer for plastic first. So simple!

Weekend Finds & Tips on Cleaning

Before I go any further I have to give props to my dear friend Stacy. I mentioned her before in one of my earlier posts - she is my daughter Amy's art teacher. I have actually known Stacy for a long time as she and her ever-so-talented hubby Anthony, moved in across the street from my childhood home right about the time I was due to get married to DH (ha! I finally got to use "DH" in my post - and now I know what it means!! Thanks MaryEllen!!). Oddly enough, we both got married in the same month. After several years and a few homes, Stacy and I have reconnected and now, she is not only my daughter's art teacher, but a mentor to me as well. Stacy is one of the most talented artists I've ever met. She has a beautiful home filled with treasures she has collected over the years, transforming them into sheer works of art. Over the past few weeks, Stacy has been kind enough to take me under her wing, sharing her secrets with me and showing me the "trash-to-treasure" ropes. I look forward to many more outings with her in the months (years) to come - thrifting, 'tiqueing, yard-saling and God willing - Good Willing! hehe
Here are some of the things I found with the help of Stacy over the weekend. Thanks Stacy!!!!

The bottle was $1.50 - had to pay extra for the Genie!!!


Love this!! It looks perfect in my newly Shabby-Chic'ed bedroom. Although DH couldn't understand why I would buy a picture of people we don't even know!LOL!!!


Actually got this beauty at Ross later that day. Too pretty to pass up.


This book I actually saw last week at a Thrift store and didn't buy it. I was so happy to see that they still had it this week. It is a homemaking book from the 50's and although the book was only fifty cents, the contents and pictures are priceless. I decided to get it just for blogging purposes as I'm sure each and every entry will bring a smile. Speaking of smiles....


Don't we all smile like that when we clean our stoves?????


"A clean stove is easy to keep clean......." HA!
More of these to come!!!!

How Appropriate!!!!

This morning when I woke up I did what I always do on a Monday morning. I went into each of my daughters' rooms and gave them a gentle nudge (I start with that) and a kiss on the cheek (don't you just love morning baby cheeks?? Okay, they're not babies anymore, but I still LOVE their soft red cheeks in the morning!).

My youngest daughter is in love with nature and all that comes with it - birds are her favorite. She has been an avid bird-watcher since she was 7 and can tell you the name of any bird without blinking. So when her birthday came around and we saw an informercial for making your own butterflies, we just had to get it for her. I started snapping pictures when they were itty-bitty caterpillars and every day when she gets up the first thing she does is run to her butterfly "cage" to see if anything has changed. She even named all of them (and yes, she could tell them apart!) Miley likes to hang at the top of the cage, Riley just sleeps most of the time, Smiley sleeps on top of Riley, Kiley likes to move around alot, but only on the bottom and Wiley, lets just say we hope he's still alive.



Anywho, I logged on this morning to see the wonderful Met Monday posts (hosted by the effortlessly ever-talented Susan at Between Naps on the Porch), wondering what I could possibly come up with on the spur of the moment. So imagine my bliss when I kissed my sweet Amy on the cheek and glanced up to see not one, but TWO beautiful Painted Lady Butterflies flitting around their cage. The pictures do them no justice - they are actually very vibrant and beautiful.



Enjoy your Monday ladies!!!!

The Artichoke - Not just a delicacy, but an accessory too!!!

Found this cute little artichoke accent table at a thrift store my dear friend Stacy told me about and I just had to have it. Of course I had no idea where to put it (after all, where DO you put an artichoke table??), but it looked nice in this corner of my dining room.

The top is a black/white marble, pretty cool huh??
So then I needed to accessorize. So I used, what else?? More artichokes. I liked the colors in these and they go well in the room.

So I gotta ask, has anyone else out there ever decorated with artichokes?? I mean, it's not like it's fleur-de-lis, topiaries or transferware dishes - all sensible choices. I'm talkin' artichokes. Just wondering so my husband doesn't think I'm a total nut. Remember girls, I told him I "HAD" to have it!

Have a great day!!!

Words To Laugh By

Every December, my Bunco group has a special Christmas Bunco where we have a gift exchange. This year I received this adorable perpetual calendar from my dear friend Marie. I went through and picked out the funniest ones. Correction, there were some funnier ones, but I had to censor them out!! Anywho, I hope you enjoy these as much as I have.







I love the coffee ones! That is so me!!







Love the one about the Ex! Too funny







I can SO relate to these!







Aren't these too cute??







Hope you had fun with these! Have a great week everyone!!!