OH-MY-LANTA!!!

I finished my cleaning... well, everything but putting my laundry away, and I will get that tomorrow... I've been sitting here waiting for trick or treaters to come, but only one group of three boys came. I told them to take a huge handful each since I had a whole bucket of candy. One little boy took such a huge handful he almost couldn't get his hand out of the bucket, lol. Just like Aesop's monkey.

BUT ANYWAY! This post wouldn't be an Oh-my-lanta post just cuz of some funny kid... oh no! As I've been waiting on my trick or treaters, I've been catching up on some Apartment Therapy time, and.... I found a post about how to paint a hexagon floor in a bathroom!!!

This is the before, and

Here's the after! I really want a hexagon pattern in my bathroom, but the tiles are quite expensive. I'm not sure what is under my huge 70's bathroom vanity, but if the vinyl tiles continue wall to wall, I am pretty sure this is going to be the plan for my bathroom! Hello, weekend project! (Well, I can't get too excited because the Hubs isn't going to be free to work on my bathroom til next summer... but a girl can dream... and this girl loves to dream about how to make her house beautiful for less!)

Halloween Nemesis!

Happy Halloween! Today I have been struck by a sneaky Halloween nemesis!

Some people are afraid of vampires.

Others were-wolves

Or witches

Or even zombies...

Well, my friends I have been struck by a far worse Halloween nemesis! This morning I woke up and noticed that every room of my house has been struck by.... CLUTTER! (sorry, I know, big build up... just pretend to shutter, lol) I'm gonna spend most of my Halloween cleaning, and I'm glad. I love fighting off Halloween villains, and clutter is a bad one for sure!

Seriously though out of all of the above mentioned monsters, I would be MUCH more frightened if this lovely lady appeared at my door.

That's right it's Neicy Nash from Clean House! A vampire can be staked, a werewolf shot, a witch splashed or burned, and a zombie decapitated... but there is no stopping Neicy! And I don't ever want to have enough mayhem and foolishness to bring her to my door! Even though, you do get a free make-over from this fantastic crew...

Who are ALL geniuses! I do not want to take my chances! No hoarding for me thanks. I'm gonna keep my clutter in check. And today is just the day to fight off this evil villain! Wish me luck!

Today's clutter fighting list

• clean the bathroom (limit the amount of magazines in there, lol)
• put away my laundry
• clean up all my rouge craft supplies (it's spanning three rooms at the moment, AHHH!)
• search out and destroy random trash like candy wrappers (Yeah, I've been sneaking candy from the treat or treat bucket)
• round up and PUT AWAY all my shoes... oh yeah, they've escaped again... we REALLY need those baskets under the bench.
• rinse and organize all the dishes to do tomorrow with the hubs (he is such a good helper)
• organize the living room
• and dining room
• find places to put those fabulous yardsale and thrift store finds :)

That's a pretty good POA for today. I started this by reorganizing my tea cabinet. Yes, I have an entire cabinet in my kitchen just for tea. Here she is in all her lovely reorganized glory!

Now I'm off to fight more clutter, ba-ha!

UGH!

I just put up plastic on 6/16 of my HUGE windows, and it took like 3 hours... this really sucks, but it does make the heating bills lower, which is nice... but seriously, UGH!!!

My house's first yardsale, awwww

Yesterday we (my mother-in-law, Renee, and I) had my house's first yardsale :) And guess who forgot to take pictures... lol... yeah, good one Clare! It went over really well. Between the three of us, we made around $150. Oh yeah! It was the New Athens town-wide yardsale, so of course I took a break to go looking around. Here are all the goodies I got.

Renee is an antique dealer. She is my MIL's best friend, and I adore her as well. She and I have very similar tastes and a passion for vintage jewelry. Renee brought out her "no-sells" from flea market... two small boxes, and I scored a whole bunch of fun stuff! (and Renee wouldn't let me pay her... Thanks Renee!!!)

Here's some of what I got wandering around town....

2 fabulous tea cups that were made in Korea. They don't match exactly, which I think is fun. 10 cents each

One fabulous;y funky 60's tea cup, also 10 cents. I want to start a small collection of these as well. I just want to pick them up one at a time, so the collection varies in colors and patterns :)

ooo-lala, red beaded heart Christmas ornaments. $3 for all six, not bad, not bad at all :)

A Hebrew Tanakh (Their Bible). It's in English, and it is like our Old Testament, but in a different order. I loves me some Holy books! 50 cents

Scrabble... now do I play it or use the tiles to make those fabulous resin pendants I keep seeing everywhere?
50 cents

oh so cute little owl napkin holder. For 50 cents I just couldn't resist it :)

Ok, so this is not sooo exciting or adorable, but I needed some lamp shades for two shadeless lamps I would like to use. I got these both for $1. These are going to turn into a DIY lamp redo, you'll see :)

Renee also brought this fantastic, happy, HUGE painting. It's like 36x36" It's so happy. I kept staring at it, and she told me to take it inside. (Gotta love Renee) She wasn't gonna let me pay her for this either, but I slipped the money in our change box when she wasn't looking :)

It's like a Van Gogh, Monet, and that guy who did the still lifes with crazy black cats... (Kristina will smack me if she reads this...) It's probably gonna go in my kitchen, but it might go in my living room...)

NOW, if you are very observant, you probably noticed all of these pictures were taken on something very large and very orange... well, my observant friends (and all of you who were like, "there was something behind the pretties?") that is the best part....





so good, I'm gonna make you scroll a bit again....











Because just like my secretary desk, this is too good to spring on you quickly....


















so what is big, orange, comfy, and living in my living room?














My new chaise lounge!

This is admittedly not really the style I was going for, BUT it was only $5 and it will hold the spot for my dream chaise lounge. (But I will also admit that the more I sit in this lovely piece the less I think of my dream chaise, lol... It is super comfy!)

OK, so now the question that is burning in my mind.

2 pillows?

no pillows? (or I will make a little lumbar pillow)

or 1 pillow?

Please let me know what you think about how many pillows... I don't have a clue how many to use... It came with three, but three was way too many...

Alright now to go wake up my husband, and see if he wants to make fondu! Later (gators)

Pay no attention to this link... it's a give-away that I really want to win!

Yay for prizes!!! (Thanks Laurendy!)

I won a "name my post" competition for Laurendy's blog, and she sent me a HUGE box full of goodies. (I mean seriously waaaay huger than I was expecting!)

Here's my loot!

 

Big heavy box...

 Big heavy box opened to reveal lots of fun things to unwrap! (It was like Christmas or my birthday!)

 first a fun black glittery skull

 more to unwrap

 hello kitty pez

 cd (They did that knock three times on the ceiling if you want me, twice on the pipe if the answer is no... song)

 A really cute pin by biscuit and sissy

 napkins

 book 1- This book is full of tips for living, eating, shopping, and organizing. Yay!

book 2- This book has some fantastic Mid-century spaces. Also yay!

 book 3- This book has french bulldog puppies. awww!

 My friend Tara and I voted "Vera" the cutest!

 My new skull found a new home by my hot pink bucket O' Halloween candy.

The end :)

*sigh* I'm finally done :)

I'm so tired... but I'm done.

My mother in law, who is a genius suggested I used L brackets to finish my bench. (Genius, I tell you!) My mom, who's an angel picked them up and brought them down to me since I live in a small town where everything is closed on Sunday.

So I popped an L bracket everywhere a screw was supposed to be and now I have a fabulous finished bench :)

Hooray!!! I looked all weekend, but never found baskets I loved to put under it... I'll keep looking.

AND! I got my jewelry display done as well. (It about drove me batty, but I did it!)

After some measuring, marking,

cutting

upholstering... test fitting...

cussing about how old houses are always crooked...

one side fit, the other didn't... awesome... I almost ugly cried... but instead...

I pulled back the upholstery and tired sanding it, lugging to my bedroom and re-testing it.... and sanding it, lugging to my bedroom and re-testing it... and sanding it, lugging to my bedroom and re-testing it... then I finally busted out the jigsaw and chopped off a quarter inch... added all my hardware and my fancy trim, AND WALA!!!

ugh, I just realized that you can see some of my chalk lines... I'm not messing any more with this today, lol. I'm gonna go take a bubble bath and then go stare at it and smile. I think hands down the best part of my day was hanging up all my necklaces on this. I really love my necklaces and it is so cool to be able to see them now!

Ahhh, form and function, you make such a lovely pair!