Here’s a project I did last year.  I know, a year is too long to wait to post pictures, but a friend of mine recently asked what I do with all my earrings, to keep them organized, so I showed her this.  She loved it, so I thought I’d share it with the rest of the world!

First off, this project cost me a grand total of $0!  Yes, that’s a zero.

Frame: Mom was getting rid of it so I got it (free!!!).

Primer/Spray paint: already on hand from who knows which previous projects.  My spray paint collection is rather extensive.  For some reason I always buy more spray paint than is necessary for my projects.

Lace: my sister gave it to me because she didn’t want it anymore.

Hot Glue: also already on hand.

Grand total: $0

The frame, when I got it was silvery gray.  I could tell there was a layer of dust on it, so I scrubbed it before painting it.  So tell me, what color does it look in the picture below!?!  GOLD right!

Primed it.

Sprayed it purple.  Why purple, because the lace is an ivory color and I didn’t think any other color would look that nice with it.

I didn’t get pictures of gluing in the lace, but basically, I just cut the lace to size and hot glued it to the back of the frame.

At first I was afraid the lace would tear, but it’s lasted a year without any problems.  That and I have enough leftover I could probably replace it 3 or 4 times if needed.

I love that the frame is “lacy” too so I can hang earrings from it as well!

Have a great week!

Happy Monday everyone!

We had a wonderful weekend, did you?

Paul and I celebrated our wonderful 12 years together!  Twelve years!!!  It seems so short, but when we looked back at all the things we’ve done and accomplished together I think “has it really only been 12 years?!?”

We asked mom and Karl to take the kids over night and they said okay.  (Someone asked me how I got them to take our kids over night, the answer is, we only ask them to babysit once or twice a year.)

Friday night we went to the temple and then out for dinner.  We went to one of my all time favorite places to eat, Zuppas!  If you don’t have one of those in your area, I’m sorry.

Since Mom and Karl took the kids to their house for the night we decided to save the money and not go to a hotel, but went home instead.  I can’t tell you how hilarious these next couple of pictures are.

First, let me set the stage, for those of you who actually read what I type.  Last year (2010) Paul and I decided to do an April Fools joke on Mom and Karl.  So I bought 97 rolls of toilet paper and hid them around their house.   I left an anonymous note saying there were 100 ‘somethings’ hiding around their house.  Some how they found 104.  Don’t ask me how that happened.

The funny thing with that… they thought Karl’s daughter had done it and went to her work when she wasn’t their and T.P.ed her area!!!  I had to call her and apologize for that and explain to her what was going on.  She promised not to tell on us.

Fast forward to this year’s April 1st and we decided to continue the theme from last year, but this time we hid empty toilet paper tubes around the house.

Well, some how they figured it all out, so when Mom, insisting she come over to get the kids instead of us dropping them off, hung around for a bit after we left till Karl showed up and did this…

This isn’t the original toilet paper or tubes.

We left Mom with a key so she could lock up, but she won’t return it now.  You know what that means!!!  RETALIATION!   And boy, do we have some awesome ideas!

There were 40-something rolls of toilet paper and about 100 or so of empty tubes.  Not to mention all the toilet paper that wasn’t on tubes, but instead spread all around our room!

We were laughing and scheming the whole time we were cleaning it up.

The next day Paul let me sleep in.  He knows I need/like lots of sleep.

Knowing I like antiques, he found a shop downtown, and he took me there.  It had some pretty cool stuff, but nothing in our price range.  Right around the corner from the antique shop there was a “Rare finds” book store.  We spent longer in that than we did in the antique shop!  Such a fun place!  We’re definitely going back to that book store.

After that we went to the Church History Museum.

This was my favorite painting.  Can’t remember who painted it though.

Love this quote.

After that we had lunch downtown.  Then Paul took me to a store called Decades.  They sell everything vintage!  And, Paul knowing that I totally love vintage, found the store!

He bought me this amazing bag!

Here’s the back.  The bottom of the bag is actually solid wood!  No idea what era it’s from though.

Same with this coat he bought me.  No tags, no idea the era, just a really awesome coat!  The prices at Decades were unreal!  Totally affordable!

After that we went and picked up our kids!

Oh, and here are the books Paul bought me.  The bottom one is a collection of Norman Rockwell ads.  We already have a big book of his Evening Post paintings.

This book though is from 1879!  I thought is was about Royalty (princess, king, queen, stuff like that) training.  So I picked it up and started reading it.  Boy was I wrong!!!  This book is really cool!  I don’t know how to explain it all, but just take my word for it.  It’s not a story, more instructions on how to live a happy life.

Anyhoo!  We had a wonderful time!

Thank you, Paul, for being my husband!  I’m so glad you picked me to be your wife.  You laugh at my lame-o jokes, you comfort me when I’m sad, you help be to a better person, you’re the best dad ever for our kids, you keep me laughing, you work hard to provide for us, you’re an amazing cook, you love me for who I am.  And I want you to know that I love you!

Have a great week everyone!

We did our family pictures back in the Spring!

Here’s a cute thing we did during the shoot.