My "love ferns"

I joked with a friend that my boyfriend keeps buying me "love ferns" (you know, like from the movie "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days") except mine haven't really been ferns.  They have been, more or less, seasonally themed plants!  And to be fair, I didn't completely kill the first one (see below) and unlike the movie I'm definitely not trying to "lose him in 10 days" - I just don't have a green thumb.  

I believe my roommate was the contributing force in keeping the first one alive for five months!  Have you ever heard of a poinsettia to live that long?!

This past weekend he surprised me with the Easter Lilli with purple wrapping! (Even though he is a hokie, he is starting to support the fact that I bleed purple.)  

What girl doesn't enjoy getting flowers?!  I love it!  BUT there is one tiny, itsy bitsy catch... both of the plants he has given me are poisonous to cats!  Maybe he is trying to tell me something... Now in Theaters:  "How to Lose Your Girlfriend's Cats in 10 Days" 

A little more Easter Decor!

As a follow up to my last easter post, I figured I needed to share a few more of my easter flair with you before the holiday comes and goes this weekend! 

Of course my holiday tree went from Valentines to Easter! (Yeah... the hearts hung around well beyond February 14th! Woops!)  I got all of the decorations from The Dollar Store (excepts for the pink flowers on the top of the tree)

My Easter Centerpiece for the coffee table... I got the eggs from The Carriage House (I got the "you used to work here" discount and then the egg carton was actually torn up so I got the "it's damaged" discount as well.  The 6 eggs in the cute french carton only cost $2.50!)  The basket came from my kitchen, I used to keep fruit in it.  And the grass came from the Easter Basket I am making for my boyfriend!  It's simple, but I think it's super cute! 

That's it for now... I might have more to show you tomorrow depending on how much free time I have tonight!  Happy Thursday!

Planning a Trip and Remembering London.

I LOVE to travel.  I LOVE to have a trip or two on my calendar.  I LOVE planning things, especially vacations.

Last May my b.f.f. slash favorite cousin got married in Switzerland.  This August her little brother (another favorite cousin) is getting married.  Sounds like an awesome reason to buy a pretty dress and plan a trip to Europe to me!  

To make the trip even more exciting, I believe I have convinced my boyfriend to go along with me!  To make the fact that my boyfriend is going along with me even more exciting, it sounds like we might be purchasing a couple Eurail tickets and backpacking a few countries for the week prior to the wedding!  My heart leaps with joy for the possibility of being on a train, with a backpack, a boyfriend, and a fresh baguette and bottle of wine!  (Those Europeans really know how to make some delicious fresh bread, btw.)

So this morning I opened up my cabinet I saw this rarely used coffee mug (because it's a bit too small for my keurig coffee maker).  I decided to dust it off, fill it with coffee and reminisce my 4 day weekend trip to London a couple years ago.  So on this lovely Friday morning, enjoy a few of my favorite snapshots from my quick trip across the pond back in February of '08.

My Auntie, Me, & My Mom in London's Eye. 

JMU Benji with Big Ben(ji) in the background!

Let me introduce you to Francisco, my Roaming Gnome.  More to come from him in the future.

For the dumb American's who don't quite understand the backwards driving.

Kirsten showed up a day later to join us for the weekend! I heart her!!

I also heart colorful house decorations!  Check this one out!

Mind the Gap.

PS.  I just want to throw this out there, for anyone who cares... I loved London BUT... I am a wedding planner and I am more than exhausted hearing about William and Kate's Royal Wedding.  I mean O-M-G.  We get it. They're getting married.  But come on... it seems to be all the folks on the Today Show talk about in the mornings anymore.  Isn't their some REAL news that we should be discussing?  

Easter is in 2 weeks!

I cannot believe how quickly this year is flying by!  And when I say flying, I pretty much mean soaring!  I'm still stuck in "January World" and just realized that we are already eleven days into April.  That's almost half way!  That's almost May!  Which only means one thing... it's almost Easter!

Somehow the season that revolves around the most miraculous guy ever, Jesus, of course, also revolves around fuzzy little bunnies and pastel colored eggs.  Gotta love it.  If I was the creator of the universe I would totally want to share one of my "big days" with yellow marshmallow peeps.  But if that brings people joy, then I'm all about it.  I'm also all about decorating my house in fun colors!

I saw this project idea on Heather's blog (turn up your volume if you go to her page, she's got some lovely tunes playing!)  For Valentine's Day she did the cutest little project for only a couple of dollars!  Check out these cute little pots with hearts!    So I decided to steal the idea and do it for Easter!  Although, I JUST went back to her blog to get the link and noticed she changed her hearts to the SAME EXACT EASTER EGGS AS I DID! :)  Gotta love the dollar store!  Anyway, check out my version of the project!

The eggs - 5 of them, already on sticks, for $1.

The Flower Foam - All this for $1 and I had plenty left over.  The cute little pots were 3 for $1. 

I simply cut the flower foam to fit into the little pot.  Super easy my friends, not rocket science at all!

Since I'm not a master spray painter I need a plan when it came to the spraying.  I was also way to lazy to go find a card board box to spray them in... 

Twigs seemed to be the best bet. This was Michael's contribution. :)

The fence was my idea...

Woops.  At least it's pink though! :)

Crappy picture, I know, but it was getting dark by the time I remembered to take a close up photo!  

Can you see all the eggs on the window sills?  They look super cute when you are walking up to the house!  

So special thanks to Heather for the awesome, inexpensive idea!  I love it!  I can't wait to change them out with starfish and seashells for summer! :)  Stay tuned for tomorrow's post with close ups of my Easter Tree also featured in the picture above!  It's amazing what a few bucks at the Dollar Store can get ya!  (And if you have not been to the Dollar Tree by Sam's Club in Greenbrier, you need to go!  It's the best Dollar Store I've ever been to!!)

A Sweet Treat!

Totally not on the biggest loser diet band wagon anymore... For those of you who have not heard, my family decided to have a biggest loser competition of our own.  I have piles of things to do thanks to the new blogging project I have picked up, my warranty work, as well as diet challenge.  When it comes time to calculate who is in which place it is worse than having to do my reports!

I went to the doctors today for a follow up appointment.  (And don't worry, all is well as far as my health goes.)  The nurse was delighted to inform me that in two months my weight stayed EXACTLY the same.  I'm not really sure if this was good news or bad news.  Good because, hey, I haven't gained any weight.  Bad, well, yeah... I'm supposedly competing to lose weight and I'm pretty much just breaking even.

So tonight, after a long day of working, blogging, and chores I decided I was due for a sweet treat.  If you have been following my project glimmer blog you know that I spent some time "baking" cookies for a stranger last weekend.  I was at my boyfriends house and didn't have the supplies to bake from scratch.  Well this girl may or may not have left an extra spoon full of cookie dough in the refrigerator for no particular reason ;) ... and it totally made for a perfect snack tonight when I wanted something sweet!  Minus the chance of the raw egg in the dough, it was awesome!  I wish I would've taken a picture to show you, because these blogs always seem to be a bit more interesting when they include photos.

Oh wait!  I have the photobooth app on my computer... let's see what I can do for you!  :)

I hope everyone enjoyed the weather on this 86 degree day!  Sadly it is supposed to be 50 again tomorrow!  Move over April!  Bring on May and June! :)

My mess. I mean My Desk.

Remember this day back in February?  What happened?!

This picture IS worth at least 1000 words.  This explains a lot.  And this is exactly what happens to a girl who works from home without an actual office (or garage - notice the bike?! or laundry room - notice the iron?!)  

Let's play "I Spy..."

- A bike

- An iron

- A cat

- Glimmer letters in the printer

- A home warranty

- Bills and mail

- A fluffy flamingo pen

-  ...

Just thought I would share, so you realize why I have been MIA.  :)  

BEADS!

It's been a while.  I'm so sorry.  My new project blog has been keeping me very busy, along with work and life.  Did you know that it has been raining here (on and off, but mostly on) for almost five days?  And it's COLD.  Hellooo April I suppose.

Anyway, I wanted to share my craft from last night!  My mom hosted a beading party.  I was a little hesitant when she first invited me, thinking it was going to be one of those parties where you feel pressured into buying something.  Totally not the point.  You have to know, going to this party that you will be spending $20 to MAKE your OWN bracelet.  The lady does not pressure you into buying her stuff, you get to craft and make your own!

I have not been a big fan of the pandora style bracelets.  I hear they are super expensive (like $500 plus!) and yeah, not quite my style.  Honestly, I thought it looked a bit "older generational" but when I got there.  But then I started playing with the beads, I loved it!  I loved it so much that I made (and purchased) two bracelets!

Beading and chatting at my parents house!

The purple and yellow/gold one was my first one!  I went to JMU so of course I would do this color combo!  Everyone loved it, even if they weren't Dukes! :)

My Grandmother had a great time beading.  She found a red one she loved and tried to duplicate it for herself.  It ended up matching her pretty fingernails very well!

Rennee the bead lady was super helpful!

Tons and Tons of beads kept coming out of her Mary Poppins Style bag!

Sorry it's blurry, this was my second bracelet.  A bit more summery!  And I even put two charms on the end of it, a bike and a turtle!  So fun!