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 Today while I was in the mall shopping in a department store, wearing jeans, a white blouse, a sparkly pin and purple high heels, a clerk stopped, looked at me and said, "Look at you!  In your jeans and purple heals, you look fabulous!"  She went on about how nice I looked.  That was the first store I went to, and for the rest of my shopping experience I was on top of the world and I felt very good about myself (especially after losing 10 pounds recently!).  So what could kill my confident look?  Coffee.
 

Down the front of my white blouse.  I had an hour and a half drive home and I did not have stain remover waiting there.  The fix?

A friend told me that dish soap took out stains on clothes.  When I got home, I ran the coffee stained shirt under hot water, rubbed out the coffee with my fingers, added dish soap, rubbed it again, then washed it in the machine in hot water.  It worked!  I can keep on wearing my "fabulous" outfit.

Black and White Birthday Party

I love themed parties!  I decided to have a sophisticated winter birthday party and take it black and white for my 23rd.  I loved finding decorations and setting up.   I even asked my friends and family to all wear black and white. 

For a more elegant look, my sister and I bought a black lace fabric and placed it over a white sheet instead of a table cloth.  I bought carnations, wrapped the vase in black and white ribbon and just placed a string of pearls around it.

This was my favorite part.  I bought two chocolate truffles tied with a black ribbon at a local chocolate shop as a favor for each guest.  They looked so nice in the middle of the plates!

I picked many black and white foods.  The marble rye bread in the middle of the table looked black and white and we also had pasta with black olives and feta cheese (also great for my vegetarian friends and family!).   We even had Black Box Riesling. 

I bought black and white scrapbook paper and learned to make paper cranes from a youtube video.  I also tied ribbon around white votive candles. 

My mom made this fantastic birthday cake! 

Burlap and Leaves Fall Wreath

I absolutely love fall!  It was time to start thinking about decorating for it.  Again, my favorite barn sale helped out, in particular the "craft trailer" at the barn sale, the leaves and pearl branch cost me 25 cents.  I got the frame at Joanne's and I bought the natural burlap at Walmart. 

I wrapped the burlap around the frame and used it and the trusty hot glue gun to make my rosettes. 

Here's how it turned out:

A great start for fall!  What do you think?

Chair Makeover

I bought this chair at a barn sale for $3.00

The wood looked worn and the fabric was an outdated vinyl.  I decided to change it to make it look new again.  I started by reupholstering the seat and back. 

It looked better already!  But it needed something more.  So I went and bought some Cabot interior wood stain in brown mahogany and updated the wood.  First, I sanded it just a bit with fine sand paper. 

Then, I just reattached the seat and back.  It took only two days and it looks so much better in my dining room! 

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Spanish Bracelet

I have seen mod-podge bracelets and I have always wanted to make one but could never find those darn plastic things anywhere!  Finally, I found two of them for ten cents at a yard sale. 

I wanted to make a unique bracelet that represented myself.  In light of the start of my second year teaching Spanish and my own happiness project, I created a bracelet with a "People en español "magazine. 

I cut an article into small strips and layed them across the top and bottom of the bracelet first to avoid bunching. 

After I covered the bracelet in Spanish words, I cut out the word "felicidad," which is Spanish for "happiness," and glued it to the front of the bracelet. 

A perfect bracelet for the first day of school or any day of the week!