it's spring break...so sue me

So, as you may or may not have noticed....I haven't posted anything for a while now.  It's spring break...come on, what do you expect?

Between Spring Break, chilling with my little sister who is in town, my new addition to Ugly Betty (thank you Netflix) and my long letters I've been writing to my husband (in Texas for basic training for the Air Force) I haven't done a whole lot of crafting.

I'm so sad to announce that this week there will be no Thrifty Thursday and no Friday Update...one collective let down sigh...though, next week they will be in full swing!

So hang in there, head to the beach (if it's not raining like it is here), make something yummy (maybe try one of these recipes), create something marvelous (check out a list of the crafts I've shared)...just have fun!

Oh, and to brighten up your day (or maybe mine) there's a pic of my adorable hubby and I on the train at Busch Gardens the weekend before he left!

friday update #4

My husband left this week for his Basic Training and Technical School for the Air Force.  He will be gone for about seven months.  I told him that when he comes back, the whole house will probably look completely different due to my decorating ADD!  Sorry I've been a little slow on posting, it's been quite hectic getting used to being without him

This week, I am going to show you our master bedroom...it's not done (like all the other rooms) but it's well on the way.  I actually JUST saw a project that will definitely be done in there.

thrifty thursday #3

Sorry for this post being a little late, my husband left for Basic Training for the Air Force this week and it's been quite hectic!  All posts this week until this one were scheduled....I'm slacking!

This week for my Thrifty Thursday, we are going to take a nice little trip to the Dollar Tree!  I LOVE this store, the cheapskate in me goes crazy in this store. I hate it when I walk out wondering 'How did I spend $20?  Everything was only a dollar!!"  Though, while reading the blog Tatertots and Jello I found this post which showed how to make a tiered dessert stand.  I fell in complete and utter love with the idea.  I love the retro feel of a dessert stand, it just speaks to me of days when women would go ALL out for a dinner party or a tea party...I mean, who has tea parties anymore??

Anywhooo...back to the project.  The total cost of this sweet little dessert stand is under $5!  Honestly, tell me where you can get a personalized piece of anything that is actually usable for less than $5. (crickets chirping) Exactly!

showing design love

This past weekend, my husband and I made a trip down to visit our families.  We first went to Tampa for Busch Gardens and to visit his family.  I just wanted to brag on my mother-in-law for a bit.  I absolutely LOVE her bedroom and bathroom and I love even more the fact that I know she does it all super thrifty!  All of her sisters have the same shabby chic, reclaimed, cottage-esque feel and I LOVE IT!  The best part, these women do it all for AWESOME prices!  Honestly, I'm not just sucking up over here!  I know exactly where my husband gets his love for thrift and antique stores.

My mother-in-law is a wee bit obsessed with black and white, so her bedroom and bathroom use that color scheme.

a hair(y) situation

A childhood friend contacted me through Facebook and inquired about me creating some wedding hair accessories for her big day.  Of course, I was like "heck yes!"  She showed me a picture of one she had seen in David's Bridal for a whopping $50 a pop! What?  It absolutely irks me that businesses will hike up prices when they add 'wedding' or 'bridal' to a title knowing that people will pay the completely outrageous price because the sales people will sell them the line 'it's your special day, you deserve it'...you DO deserve it, but at a fair price!  Whew...got that little rant session over with...now onto the post!

I took one look at the picture and knew that it would be a piece of cake...wedding cake, maybe?!  Keep reading to see how I did it!

nice (luggage) rack

In this past weeks 'Thrifty Thursday' I showed you my directors chair turned luggage rack.

Today, I am going to show you just how I made this happen.  I must say I am quite pleased with the outcome of my project...and it took less than 45 minutes!

Here's how I did it...

friday update #3

Well, Hello there Friday...so nice of you to drop in...must be time for a Friday Update!  This week's room reveal is....(drum roll, please)....the guest bedroom!

When looking for a new apartment, we KNEW we needed a guest bedroom.  With most all of our family and friend out of town, we needed somewhere to keep 'em when they drop in.  Our last apartment's 'guest room' was a futon in a 'cubby' of the living room...not so welcoming!

I am so happy to announce that anyone who comes to stay with us will now have a WHOLE room rather than a corner.  So come on in, tour our guest bedroom...

thrifty thursday #2

What time is it?

TOOL TIME...uh, I mean Thrifty Thursday!

My husband and I hit the thrift sores and picked up a few things and even transformed one!

Last week we headed to our favorite thrift store to peruse the isles and see what goodies we could find.  We stumbled upon some beauties!  I spotted this gorgeous wine box, lying on the floor under a rack full of clothes for $5.

save that money, honey!

I shared with you a few days a god how you could amkes a little bit of money from your blog with Social Spark.  Today, I've got a few ways for you to save some money!

make some money, honey!

As much as I love you sweet bloggies, I also love the idea of making some money off of my blog.  That would be why you see those ads in the right sidebar as well as at the bottom of the pages.  I recently signed up for a new little thingie!  It's called Social Spark.  You register your blog with them and THEY find sponsors who would like some of your open space.  These sponsors will pay to have their ad on your blog, how cool is that?!

Simply go to Social Spark by clicking HERE and sign up, it's completely free!  I'm not expecting to make oodles and oodles of money from this but, a few bucks here and there can't hurt!!

let there be light

This week, I am SO excited to share with you my thrifty find!  I have seen painted chandeliers all over the internet and blogs and magazines and I have coveted every single one.  I absolutely love the funky, vintage, feminine look they have.

I told my husband of my plans to put one in our bedroom and he was not as thrilled as I was.  We compromised and decided to put on in the living room with higher ceiling and more of a need for light.

We found a few different ones that I liked the shape of, but...they were a bit heavy.  If you are in a house, that probably would not be an issue...but, we're in an apartment...an older apartment...so, we took that into consideration...not wanting to create a skylight.

friday update #2

Time for another update on the rooms in our apartment.  Last week I shared with you out guest bathroom (completed only because we used stuff we already had from our previous apartment).  From here on out...don't expect such great looking rooms....just yet!!

This week I am sharing with you the room that I have been MOST excited about for the past few months...my craft room.

thrifty thursday

Last week I started Friday Updates and I really like that it gives me direction in writing and motivation in crafting.  So, let's start another series.

This one will be called Thrifty Thursday and will be about my thrift store/dollar store/from the trash finds and how I use/reuse/re-purpose them!  My husband and I absolutely LOVE going to thrift stores and we're suckers for all things even remotely vintage.

I've been looking for a specific item and WE FOUND IT!  Check out how I transformed it into something spectacular!

a little hung up

I wanted to fill up some wall space as well as free up some cabinet space at the same time.  I decided to kick my coffee cups out of the cabinet!  I love my dishes, I asked for them for Christmas before I had even moved out of my parent's house!  I had dishes stored above the garage before I even had a place to use them.  Though, I love the design and the color and am so glad I got them when I did because they are now discontinued.

I wanted to display some of my dishes, since they are the inspiration for the color scheme and decorating (which is still in the process).  I decided using the coffee cups would be the easiest way to do that, here's what I did...

friday update #1

As you may know (I've only mentioned it a million times because we are SO excited) my husband and I just recently moved.  Now we've got a whole house to decorate!  Knowing me, I will never be finished decorating, rearranging and redoing all the rooms we now have.  So every Friday I will show you what 'updates' I've made in my house.  Some weeks it may be one room, other weeks (when I get motivated) it may be more.  This will 1) help to motivate me in getting all those projects on my 'to-do list' checked and 2) hopefully inspire SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE to create something wonderful in their own space.


This week we will focus on the one room we have done...the guest bathroom.  I have to admit, the only reason this room is done is because it's everything we had in our only bathroom in our last apartment.  But hey, at least it's done...right?!

a little lacking

www.onebrightspot.com

I realize that I haven't had a lot of posts lately and the ones that I do have aren't SUPER in depth.  I apologize if you bloggies have felt neglected.  My husband is leaving for basic training for the Air Force in less than a month (21 days, to be exact) and he'll be away from home for about seven months.  So, he's getting the bulk of my time!  (That's him and I to the left...so cute!!)

Though, don't you worry, when he's away I'm sure I will be crafting like crazy!!

In the meantime, I will most likely be posting about our new apartment as I finish putting away our stuff and deciding what I want to do to decorate it!  I hope you enjoy our new apartment, we sure are!