This week flew by which is always fine by me. Here's five of my favorite things from this past week:

1. I ordered this bag from Layla Grace over spring break and it finally arrived on Monday. I love it. It is WAY roomier than I anticipated but it will be perfect for the spring/summer.

2. After visiting the derm over spring break and trying new medication my skin is nearly psoriasis free, which is hasn't been in almost 5 years. I now have white patches of skin instead of scaly, dry yuckiness which I will take any day.

3. My good friend, Jody. She has just been the absolute best this week helping me deal with having one one car due to the boyfriend having quite the accident on Saturday night (something I'm definitely NOT high fiving about!) I'm glad to have such a great friend in my life!

4. Refunds. Tax refunds. Insurance refunds. I love when money goes back into my pocket.

5. Weeknight BBQs. Nothing better than to relax with friends with a good burger and cold sodie. I'm definitely learning that I don't need to wait until the weekend to have a little fun.

Have a great weekend!

P.S. I'm linking up with Lauren @ From My Grey Desk for her High Five for Friday link party. Go check it out or write a post of your own!

Glitter makes everything better. One of my final projects of Spring Break was to make some pretty glitter eggs I saw over at Sew and the City


I couldn't find smooth Styrofoam eggs like the ones in the tutorial but happy to report the textured ones work just as well. My dining room table looks pretty happy with the bright, new placemats I purchased from Target. I think  I have been to Target every day this break...sometimes I just can't help it! I never like spending a ton of money at one time on stuff for the house, two pillows one day, placemats the next....my bank statement looks like I'm one step away for needing an intervention from being a Target addict.

And check out my new turquoise glass. I visited a new consignment shop out by my parent's house. It was small but had some nice items. Snagged this beauty for $10.

Well it's back to the grind tomorrow and usually I feel renewed after a break but with the nice weather and breezy schedule I've been keeping I'd rather stay on break. Only 45 more (school) days until summer!

That's "I Like Friday" for those that didn't stumble through 3 years of high school Spanish like I did. But it's true, I do indeed enjoy a good Friday.

Here are 5 things in no particular order that I am digging this week:

1. The gym and I have become friends again. As I type this I am getting ready for "Butts and Gutts" class - sore midsection and glutes hurrah!

2. Craftiness. I have been killing it this week in the craft department but haven't shared much on the blog. More to come about the fabric covered boxes ( a la Jen Jones at IHeart Organizing) that I'm working on.


3. The 5% I save at Target every time I shop there. Check out these cute pillows I scored. Regularly $19.99 but they were BOGO 50% off this week plus the 5% off making them $14.24. Boo-yah!



4. I got my Cardinals season tickets this week, yippee! More like 10 games but that is way more than I've ever been to in one season before. And did I mention that were a present from Mom and Dad? So we get to see the boys of summer for free...all summer. :)


5. I just discovered Spotify this week. How have I been missing this awesome FREE online streaming music service that has over 15 million songs? So far seems way better than Pandora. My go to songs right now are "We Are Young" by Fun and "Somebody That I Used to Know" by Gotye.

I'm going to enjoy my last weekend of spring break with some more crafting, spring cleaning, and grad school work. Doesn't sound like much of a break does it?

Have a great weekend!

P.S. I'm linking up with Lauren over at From My Grey Desk for her High Five for Friday link party. Head on over at check it out!

I can't believe it has already been one year since getting the keys our abode. I remember closing like it was yesterday...how nervous I was signing all the papers, getting the keys, and the crazy whirlwind that followed.

Chris and I were a little too focused on buying furniture, picking paint colors, and finding friends to help move our stuff to take any day of closing pictures which totally bums me. Heck, Chris moved the sold sign within 5 minutes of walking in the door! Oh well, I still took plenty of pictures from that first week (actually the house inspection) of when it was mostly empty while we painted.

The blog has been an awesome record keeper of almost everything we done so far, from painting the mauve counter tops...

To installing a new kitchen faucet, painting the kitchen (and the guest bedroom and the entire first floor.)

We celebrated our first holiday (Easter), our 5th (dating) anniversary, had our first house party, and put up our first Christmas tree.


And we tackled the outside too - mostly with paint but we definitely made it our own.


And surprisingly a lot more. No longer should I complain about our house looking like we just moved in after seeing all the tasks we've completed in one year. It may not be an overhaul but hey, we are beginners and we have time on our sides :)

Here's to many more house anniversaries - looking forward to how we will continue to grow!

 Our welcome mat has started to look a little unwelcoming...


So instead of buying a new one I thought I could breathe some new life into it with a little paint. I had some tester pots I bought last summer for the kitchen and about a quart of navy paint left over from painting the door last September so I broke them out and used a little sponge brush to dab a bit of paint on to the letters and surrounding circles.

It really was that simple, in about ten minutes I went from this:


 To this:




And all for the price of free! I'm testing it outside to see if the paint lasts before going back and painting the rest of the circles. I'm not exactly sure how the interior paint will hold up in the elements. We're due for some rain tomorrow so hopefully I will have a verdict for you soon. But for now I'm a happy camper!

Oh that post title is cheesy but we all need a little cheese every once in while. I prefer cheddar.

How was your weekend? Mine was jam packed with all sorts of good fun...craft room painting (more on that later), celebrating St. Patrick's Day, dinner and a movie with the boyfriend (p.s. we saw 21 Jump Street and it was freaking hilarious), and brunch with girlfriends. This weekend is probably the most social I have been in months. It really takes a break from work for me to want to get out of the house and actually do things besides sit on the couch and look at Pinterest (c'mon, I know you're guilty too)

St. Paddy's Day is a heavily celebrated holiday here in St. Louis with not one but two local parades that attracted over 400,000 people to the area. My family and I headed to Dogtown (a traditional Irish region of the city) to watch the parade and drink some green beer.

My Mom and I

Little Sis and Me

Dad, Mom, and I in the huge crowd.

Even though the last part of the parade was rained out and it thunderstormed most of Saturday afternoon it was still a beautiful weekend, I even got a bit of a sun burn! (Yes, I know I can get a sun burn any time of the year but it still so weird to have one in March, let alone 80+ degree weather.)

I'm looking forward to a week of catching up on appointments (derm and haircut), some DIY (those boxes I mentioned on Friday), and reading the Hunger Games (I promised my 6th graders I would read it over break.) Goodness I love Spring Break!

Have a great week!

This month I received:

• Twistband Hair Tie
• Tarte Lipsurgence Lip Tint
• Twirl by Kate Spade
• Essie Luxeffects in "As Gold As it Gets"
• ModCloth coupon
• Kerastase Elixer Ultime (Another hair oil! I got one last month too)

I dig the hair tie. I picked it up immediately and put my hair in a pony tail and it didn't hurt nor pull out my hair, which is always a good thing. The nail polish was a great item as well, looked really cute as a topcoat on my pedicure. The others will go into my sample pile for my sister to go through.

As always, looking forward to next month!

It's Friday and I'm writing up the things I enjoyed most because it's High Five for Friday over at From My Grey Desk.



1. The weather. I don't even know what it means but I lurve 85 degree weather in March. I wore capris and sandals to school yesterday. Even with the possible rain it is B-E-A-UTIFUL!


2. I found the perfect size boxes for the shelves on my new desk. Yes, they are cardboard but they won't be cardboardy for long. Got a project I'm cooking up and it's gonna be good.

3. Good grades. I finished up the 8th of 10 classes towards my Masters with an "A".  And I currently have a 4.0 for the entire program, really hoping to graduate this summer Magna Cum Laude!

4. Spending time outdoors. While I don't have a patio, just a little stoop - I love nothing more than enjoying an ice cold adult beverage outside after getting home from work. So relaxing.

5. SPRING BREAK! Hallelujah, it's here! 10 days of absolute bliss. Things I'm looking forward to: sleeping in, celebrating St. Patrick's Day in Dogtown, visiting my long lost friends, some home improvement projects, and did I mention sleeping in?

Have a great weekend!

P.S. I just had to add two more to my list that I thought of after I published. Today is my parent's 27th wedding anniversary. How freaking awesome is that? And I got my contract for the 2012-2013 school year yesterday. Hurrah for being employed another year!