The dollar store! I know I do. There are several in an around the area, and its amazing that each one is just a little different from the other.



But at $25 - $79 for them.....um, yea....thats not going to happen in this  house.

So  while out gallivanting one day with my mom, we stopped at the Dollar Store in town.

And from what I picked up there, this was born!

Its done and I couldn't be happier about it. The hubs would have been ever so much happier had I gotten it done months ago, but I couldn't decide on those doors. What, you may ask, am I talking about?

Why that blasted red cabinet!

Here she is now!

I confess. Sometimes I get some crazy ideas into my head. My childhood was interesting, especially when I thought I could invent something new. Once I thought I could invent a better alarm clock by hanging up a bag of marbles over my pillow by a string. Needless to say, I've never lacked imagination. This week I had several grand ideas.

There used to be a restaurant in Warrenton that had fabulous Monte Cristos. Unfortunately, they are no longer around, and I despaired of ever having their Monte Cristos again. Then a light bulb went off and I decided to look through my many cook books and create my own Monte Cristos.

Before I get to the body of the post, I just want to remind you that I'm reaching out to you all for guest posters in two weeks. You can email me at haboyajian {at} gmail {dot} com or just leave a comment HERE and I'll get in touch with you!

Saturday was a very special day. Saturday was my godson's birthday. He's 3 and there has never been a bigger fan of the pachyderm. So in honor of his love for them, Dev and I conjured up three shirts for him.

Here's what we came up with!

That's right...I'm counting down until we go on vacation! So excited! Its our first real vacation since Dev was born! Oh we've gone on trips and such, but never for longer than a weekend or so.

Steve took this picture while atop one of the peaks in the Smokey Mtns.

...the lid of the package!!! It's funny how some of the best recipes are printed right on our favorite food packages. I wasn't even looking for this. I just randomly noticed it while making a dip with cream cheese. Underneath the lid of the Philadelphia Cream Cheese was a recipe for Spaghetti a la Philly. I'm so glad I'm not the only one who makes up corny titles. Anyhoo, it looked interesting, if not a little dodgy, so I decided to try it. Here's the breakdown.

Did you know that some people consider me too strict with my boys? This; however, is not a shock to me. I know I'm strict. I'm as strict as my parents were with me. As my grandmother told me; when I started to doubt my approach, I want to be able to enjoy my children. She's right, of course, I do want to enjoy my children. I want to be able to take them out to a nice restaurant, and be able to enjoy a nice meal. Its even nicer when the boys are complimented on their behavior. That would be a reflection on our influence, as my mother reminded me today. So when all of this doubt surfaced, and my family rallied behind me to reassure me that I was not in the wrong or doing anything wrong, I decided that I wanted to spell out what I expect all of the members of my family and guests to our home to follow.

I feel so bad. I have had a piece of furniture in my house that I forgot to show off. I refinished it a few years ago. The very first piece that I ever finished with stain and  {spray} paint. This was originally my grandmother's, but then Dad adopted it, and now she's comfortably hiding DS games and accessories along with various Wii items.

the mice will paint?!?!

So I showed you guys what I was up to on Thursday, but that was just the tip of the iceberg! After getting the ceiling painted and thinking that putting up the moulding would be a two-person job (and it was...kind of), and deciding that the dining room needed to be a new color...I remembered that Saturday we were having the monthly potluck...at our house....CRAP!?!?!?

The dining room as of Thursday.

Thank you to everyone who linked up! This was so fun and quite the learning experience. I've never used inlinkz before, so that was fun. There are lots of information on the back end of those. And after figuring out how to utilize it all, I discovered that we had a three way tie! Oh my!

Let first show y'all a few highlights. :)

The linky party closes today at 7pm EST! Make sure to get your projects in. The person with the most page views will win the $40 gift certificate to CSN stores! Party Here! 

Hurry up! I want to see what you guys create! Make sure to visit some of the links! There are some really great crafters out there!

Have a great day and enjoy

Happy Friday, everyone! I really, really love that phrase. Anyhoo, before I get to the food, I have an announcement. We are having a 5k run here in Nashville in October for breast cancer research, awareness, and fund raising. A team has formed at work, and I am on it. Our goal is to raise $1250 for the event. Now, here's my personal news: I have a goal to complete the race in 30 minutes! Ambitious, I know, especially since I have never been much of a runner. Nevertheless, I am going to go for it. Wish me luck! Now, back to your usual foodie programming...

This week had several recipes left over from last week. Namely, a fruity smoothie and a really yummy new casserole. Let's start with breakfast. I love mangoes and I don't just say that because they seem to have become really popular this summer. I don't know what it is, as I don't generally prefer tropical fruits, but mangoes are just really delicious to me. They were also buy one, get one free at Publix last week, so I bought three. They all became smoothies. What's my recipe? Well, I kinda made it up as I went.

So I completely spaced that yesterday was Wednesday and that's when my very first linky party was supposed to start. I'm late to my own party! Ack!

Oh well, better late than never.  :) I want to see what you guys have been doing and it can be anything as long as its family friendly. You can also enter up to 5 projects.

The person with the most visited link will win the $40 CSN gift card!

The linky party will run until 7 pm on Sunday EST, so lets see those projects. I'm very interested in what you guys have been doing!

No post today, at least not here. I'm guest posting over at Sugar Bee Craft Edition. So head on over and see what I've crafted up! Here's a sneak peek:
I'll see y'all tomorrow! Have a splendiferous day!

So we've all seen them. Some of us have made them, and you can do a Google search on how to make them, but I still wanted to add my $.02 to the pile. I am, of course, talking about the monkey fist knot. Originally used in sailing so that there was something substantial to grab a hold of at the end of a rope, it is now commonly used in home decorating.

Unlike some people, I don't really follow video instruction very well. Written instructions and I get along much better. So when I found this site on how to construct a monkey's fist I was ecstatic. I decided to take some  pictures along the way of the making of my knot, which was quite hard to do as one hand was constantly holding the knot for a bit. :) Oh and this was a pajama day craft.....

So our  family reunion was on Saturday and it was wonderful to see everyone! Its so great that we all still get together like that once a year. Last year's reunion was so hot, and this year I was determined not to melt like I did then. Let me tell you that being pregnant last year also probably had something to do with it.

 So I decided to make myself a madras plaid shirt dress. The madras plaid I found was 100% lightweight cotton and boy did it keep me cool. While it was still warm, I didn't get sticky. I also happen to love madras plaid. The boys each have several pairs of shorts out of it.

I used McCall's pattern 5437 for the dress, and while I know that I'm a big girl, I don't see why pattern companies insist on selling patterns that are nothing more than glorified sacks, but a belt easily rectifies this problem. In fact, you'll notice that that's exactly what  the model did on the pattern front, but there is no pattern for a belt.

I've been bad....I've been holding off on picking a winner for the $20 GC for naming my guest bedroom. Its not that I didn't want to pick someone, its just that I had a hard time deciding. Well, I've finally decided and I know this because I haven't changed my mind in the last 24 hours about my decision. Yep, that's how I'm basing this....if I don't change my mind then that must be it. :)

I love me some seafood. Who doesn't? So I've been hankering for some Paella for a while now. My mom has a recipe that is delicious, but I couldn't get her to make it for me. So I went to the next best source, my Taste of Home cookbook! Lucky for me there is a Paella recipe in there under Poultry. Wait?! Poultry?! I do not remember my mom's recipe having chicken in it, she says there was, but I do not recall this. So I move forward. I had most of the ingredients that I needed and only needed to run the store for the seafood and a pepper. I decided to 'man' up the Paella recipe though. So on to the show!

I have to admit that I almost titled this post Coup de Grace, which is not what this post is about. I am not delivering a death blow to anything...other than the spider I found in my sewing room this morning, but I digress. Death is the exact opposite of what I want to allude to. Love. Love is what I want to convey. The feeling of euphoria when you find that perfect whatever.

coup de coeur

loving something impulsively. 

to buy something just because you love it on first sight.

to fall for something or somebody. 

So my love that I found has now been in my house for 2 weeks, and the spark is still there. I am talking about the newest addition to my dining room, a lovely buffet!

I know you all are probably tired of hearing about our basement, but I promise this is the last post about it {for a while}. :)

I have to be honest with you guys when I tell you that I didn't think Steve {and Evan} could get a wall of shelves and a bar built in a weekend, but they did. The finishing of the bar took the rest of the week, so here's the timeline. :)