real mature

Cooper is growing up. It's time he shed his red leather rhinestone collar and adorn something a little more spunky to fit his more mature personality. Don't ya think? I ordered this last night:

My very first Etsy purchase!  I'll let you know how it goes and of course I'll show you a pic of Cooper wearing his new bow-tie! Checkout Silly Buddy, HERE! I had a hard time picking which one to get. I knew I wanted a bow-tie but since Cooper is snowy white, I had to be careful not to get one with too much white in it so he wouldn't look dirty in comparison. To be cont'd...in about 14 days.

Have a happy weekend!

paint & coffee

Tonight I got a mani/pedi. These are my real nails. I say that because I normally get an acrylic overlay, no tips, but the overlay fo sho on my nails because I think the polish lasts longer. Anyway, I go through phases where I need a soak off and after this soak off it felt so good to not have that thick junk on my nail beds. Have you heard of shallac? It was described to me as a gel that is finished by UV light, only take a couple minutes to soak off, the polish lasts a couple of weeks, and its a lot better for your nails. I think I may be trying it soon. But for now, I'll stick to paint until my nails are feeling strong again. I always say "as short as possible, please!" My nail beds are super long and grow fast! Don't hate on my long monkey toes, k? I guess I'm just really long everywhere.

I haven't shown you Lee's coffee corner yet, have I? My man loves his coffee and orders it in bulk.It's a lot cheaper to order it in bulk. There are 2 boxes on that top shelf and all the bowls and jars are stuffed with his yummies too. Well, I take that back. #3 has packets to make hot chocolate...and that's more my thing. #2 is for ground coffee, all the other containers are his keurig cups. So, I was making a grocery list and making sure I have all his favorites for when he comes home, I opened this cabinet and decided he still has plenty of coffee...

brawl

I love me some TV. Right now, 2 of my fav shows are airing. I DVR everything because I'm rarely home to watch them when they originally air. Instead, I watch my shows as I'm trying to unwind horizontally in front of the tube. HGTV Design Star is in full swing and Project Runway's season premier is tonight! Giddy up! Are
 you watching too???

Anywho, did you hear about Rachel Zoe's nursery for baby Skyler?! Adorbs. Not my usual colorful attraction but very ideal for a sweetly napping boy and relaxing zone for any growing bundle of lovey dove. Skyler keeps warm with his Hermes blanket and has a leather Gucci jacket waiting for him to grow into. You should see his current shoe collection too. He can't walk yet either. You can see more @ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2019818/Rachel-Zoes-tour-month-old-Skylers-lavish-wardrobe-nursery.html

Looks like Miss Suri Cruise has some fashion competition in celebrity tot land.

And while I'm mentioning Rachel Zoe, I must say that while our lives are nothing alike. I find her very business savvy just as much as I find her style intriguing. She has managed to take her love for fashion and grow an empire around it. A-mazing. I thoroughly enjoying chic success stories. Gosh. And I love her hair. I keep pulling on mine to get it to grow faster. Cheers.

soldier say what

I talked to my soldier for a brief minute yesterday. He was doing really well. He was telling me the crazy things that he had to do like zip-lining across a lake while trying to do...something? And then he was saying something about walking across some high beam board while trying to do something??? He was about to go for a swim and try to load and unload his equipment while in the water. I think??? There was so much info to take in that I wasn't hearing it all because in MY head I was trying to think of anything and everything that I needed to tell HIM. Ha! Oh man. Crikey.
I DO remember him saying that if he wasn't being evaluated and scrutinized for every move he makes then his time would be considered enjoyable thus far. Huh? Imagine that.
Get this. Before he left, I told him to drink lots of water so we don't have a repeat of what has happened before and he said he's following wifey orders and has already been doted the "loose bladder" guy because he has to go pee all the time. Score 1 for wifey on the home front!

On another note, I bought the Alice + Olivia dress I blogged about yesterday. Let's hope I still love it when it shows up on my doorstep!

dressing an officer's wife

Other weekend happenings? Well, there is that newsflash that my hubby left to do his final phase of training to become an officer. He’ll be gone 17 days. If you’ve been following our story, you know that I’ve come a long way since his 2009 grueling training schedule. Anyway, 17 days seems like a piece of cake compared to that crap. He gets back on a Sunday and I leave for another work trip the very next day for 9 days. The week I get home, he graduates and commissions to become an officer! Yay!


I’m leaning towards this dress for his pinning ceremony? Thoughts? What jewelry should I do? Earrings only? Layered chunky necklace??? Help!

Mercantile Wonders

ALSO over this past weekend, I fell in love with a fantastic place on the way to get fitted for a bridesmaid dress I'm wearing in a wedding for my hilarious, equally tall and sweet pal, Mallory! We didn't have much time to peep around before my fitting appointment but I did manage to snap some pix of what I loved.

I wanted this mirror but I didn't want to pay $300 for it. Insert sad face.

I love milk glass. I wanted this set but it was over $400!

I could totally see this in a dining room with some Anthro knobs added to the doors. I like the chicken wire doors!

Couldn't find an Oklahoma plate or I would have bought one!

I regret not buying the O and U letters now. Boomer Sooner!

I should have bought this too but I had a different shopping mission that day.

Weekend Shopping

I had such a good weekend! I took Friday off and headed to the lake house and caught a nap in the sun on the beach with my mama. We had crab cakes and a shrimp boil for dinner. Be jealous. Nom nom nom.

On Saturday, mom, grandma and my sister cousin Brandi went on a 15 hr shopping trip about a couple hours South of the lake house. And...I did it! I got the bold comforter that made me drool from BB&B.

The colors don't vary much in my iphone pix below but the flowers are orange, pink, and red in person...and have a bit of brown in the orange flower too...Anyway, I had fun playing with styling options when I got home. I still have a few things I need to add to this room for it to be complete.

I made a detour while the fam ran into a fabric store next door. I couldn't resist a puppy look and see.

At HomeGoods, I scored these bookends for our master. They make me smile when I look at them.

I finally found a mat for our front door at World Market!

where the magic happens

Remember this fabric I had curtains made into for our bedroom:

I took our down comforter out of our KING size boring brown duvet to see if it would work for the FULL size duvet in one of the guest rooms. Those duvets always run big...anyway-it worked. So then I was tossing around the idea of getting a new filler for our boring brown duvet or get a brand spank'n new comforter. I like the idea of a duvet because I wash ours a lot but I figure I can drop a comforter off at the dry cleaner since we go every other week. Also, I'm not a huge fan of our duvet bc it doesn't completely cover our tall pillow top mattress. I need something wider that will hang lower. Like this:

Hello, Kate Spade! I'm really hoping this will look like dynamite next to my curtain's fabric swatch.

Our walls aren't that blue but they are Martha's Cake Stand Blue:

I'm not getting the complete set bc I'm not into that anymore. Besides, I'm obsessed with my sheets. I am tossing around the idea of getting 2 of those green Euro shams though...Thoughts?

If you need help with more of a visual, we have the PB Farmhouse Bedroom Collection. It makes for a tall bed that needs a low hanging comforter! I believe that the masculine lines in our existing furniture combined with our blue walls will help keep the floral pattern in the comforter from being too girly. Plus, I like the idea of throwing all the boring brown duvet ( I will say that I love the texture) out the window since the rest of our house has many punches of color. I like color and as my budget allows, I want more of it!

Once the bed is good and sleep worthy again, this Ballard Design mirror will  be my next item of purchase(thank goodness I have a killer discount):

Dresser (Before & After)

This dresser was bought for a guestroom in our house. However, Lee's Army wardrobe and "stuff" (lots and lots of stuff) are housed in this guest closet. He's not the only one that uses this room though...our treadmill is in there too which is a major reason why we bought another cable/dvr box for the guestroom. I'm sure you can see the box in the After pic below.

Before (Craigslist image)

After

I need to go back and touch up a few inside edges but you can see that for the most part-it's just about done. I removed the hardware and sprayed it in the perfect gold, sprayed the entire dresser in this perfect orange-y red color and then wiped a gloss over the dresser to give it a sweet shine.

leaving on a jet plane

I'm headed home today and I couldn't be more excited. Our housekeeper comes today too so I get to come home to a clean house. I love starting a weekend off on a "clean" slate.

Lee and I are swearing off our phones and spending a lot of QT time together. I see a movie, gun range date, Big Truck Taco lunch and a trip to Cuppies & Joe in our future.

The gun range date is my idea. One-I know Lee is on board for that any day. But two-it's important to us both that I feel comfortable loading and shooting my gun. I do not sleep well when Lee is gone and I know I will feel a lot safer with more gun shooting under my belt.

We want to see Horrible Bosses. We've seen Transformers and Bad Teacher-both really good by the way...

Have a super fantastic weekend, y'all! I'll leave you with some pretties that I'm dreaming of for when we build our future doll house. All images below are in my "I'm serious about this image and something in this pic will influence my future dream house" folder.

Sorry, I don't have sources. Sucky, I know. I do quick saves all the time for inspiration. Today, I just feel compelled to share a bit of my serious folder with you. Ha!

keep it clean

I am obsessive about washing my face every night and try to take really good care my skin while I am sleeping or playing in the sun. This doesn't change when I travel. I pack a lot of products when I travel but 3 things I will always have is face wash, eye makeup remover and moisturizer.

I have been using this clean and clear face wash since the 7th grade. My skin is used to it and I have never had problems with it. I like that it has the micro-scrubbers in it and it gives a good lather to assist in getting my makeup mask off at the end of the day. I occasionally try others when I'm overnight somewhere with friends or family, but my skin feels more irritated when I change things up.

Are your eyes sensitive like mine? Man. Ever since I started wearing makeup, I have tried so many different eye makeup removers to keep from getting red eyes after I wash my face. Then I started working for Chanel in college and discovered:

This stuff is awesome at removing eye makeup and leaves your skin feeling great too. I hate super oily things and this solution is perfect. However, when I stopped getting Chanel's products for free-I really hated spending $34 to take off eye makeup! I mean, I WILL pay more money for makeup but makeup remover? That's just silly. So I started my search again and found Neutrogena's eye makeup remover and love it. I also use cotton squares to do the deed...if you care.  

My favorite moisturizer of all time is Chanel's Hydramax.

Love love love this stuff (cost $75). The smell and texture will always be a household product of mine. My jar at home is close to empty so I didn't want to bring it with me and chance running out mid trip but I also didn't want to make a trip to the mall just for moisturizer before I left for Pitt. Instead, I stopped by my neighborhood drugstore, and reached for Nivea's cream ( cost .99) like Kate Middleton did. I figure-If it's princess worthy than I should give it a shot. I've used it since arriving in Pitt on Monday and after 4 nights-I can honestly say that Kate is onto something. It feels really great on my skin. AND I love that packaging. It takes up no room in my suitcase.

Note: I was not paid or asked to endorse these products.

New Mirror (Before & After)

As I was jetting out the door to head to Pitt, I snapped a quick iphone pic of our new mirror in the entry. The mirror was originally attached to the dresser I got to makeover. The mirror isn't exactly what I want but we have it now so I'm going to use it until I find what I do want. I removed the mirror from the dresser, painted it and then had Lee hang it (EXTREMELY heavy). Ta-da!

Before: (Craigslist image)

Entry Before:

Entry After:

Wknd Happenings

I'm back in Pittsburgh for work. I really love being out  East. The weather is a nice break from my Midwestern 111 degrees!
Lee had his last OCS drill this past wknd!!! It was a short one too. He got to come home Saturday evening rather than Sunday evening. BUT-I was at the lake house so we didn't get to take advantage of his short drill wknd. I got home Sunday afternoon and got to packing for work in Pitt this week, got my nails done and stopped by CVS to stock up on necessities for travel. Lee had a rough time at drill even if it was short.  Ever since his heat stroke during his OSUT training, he's more susceptible to heat exhaustion, etc. His drill sgt had to give him an IV and he went through 2 bags of fluid before he started feeling more like himself again. Scary town, huh?
So he graduates from OCS in August and will finally commission to be an officer! Woot woot. I woot woot for admiration for all his hard work and for the beginning of our new Army countdown to be donzoooo.
On a random note, I had a HS class reunion mtg scheduled to do on my way to the lake. I can't believe next Summer will be 10 years since I graduated high school! Makes me wonder where we will be in another 10 years. Anyway, the mtg went well and we crossed a lot of items off  my giant list. Don't ya know I had an organized spreadsheet of items to discuss?

Baby Prediction

I predict that Kate & William will announce that there is a bun in the oven within the next 6 months. Just say'n.

Making Changes

Since getting robbed (Lee's tires were stolen from his parked truck in our driveway) we are getting more secure around the hizzy. Recently, we replaced the side door in the garage and today we replaced the sliding glass doors that lead from the study out onto the back patio. Lee sent me a couple of pix to tide me over until I get home. The  new doors are just about complete and it's look'n goooood.


Before:

After: