God Bless Boys and Bacon...

Digital Print

I love teenage boys... up at 11 a.m., shuffle s.l.o.w.l.y. downstairs with the worst imaginable bed head, sit down at the kitchen counter and consume an ENTIRE package of bacon between the two of them in 3 minutes flat.  Bacon, it's what's for breakfast.  

Bottle Cap Magnet

Bacon 4 President T-Shirt

Winner, Winner...

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner T-Shirt

Thank you so very much for all the entries... I am happy to report I am now up to 250 faithful, fabulous followers and I do very much appreciate that you all take the time to read my little blog... I hope you will stick around even if you didn't win, I promise to try to keep it interesting and fun.

That said, we do have a WINNER!  Congratulations to REBECCA, you have won the Chalk Board, I will be contacting you asap to get it shipped out.  If you were not the winner, but would still LOVE one of these chalkboards, visit my etsy listing here... Chic Chalk Board.  TGIF friends and enjoy your weekend!

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Book Club Review: One Day by David Nicholls

Another successful Book Club evening... we're still discussing the name issue, but I think we have it narrowed down to two of the awesome suggestions by you creative readers from yesterday.  As I mentioned, our book this month was One Day by David Nicholls.  Dear Daughter drew this rendition of the cover on my white board...

Our friend Teri had not quite finished, so she banished herself to the kitchen to finish up while we all enjoyed dinner in the dining room... go Teri go! She made me feel better, since I myself did not finish the book until 3:30 yesterday afternoon... it does make me feel like a college freshman cramming before a big test when I'm frantically trying to finish my book club book.

The general opinion of this book was positive... it is well written, flows nicely, and the story is interesting.  The author does a great job of getting the reader invested in the characters, and we appreciated the fact that you hear the story from more than one character's viewpoint.

Apparently, this is being released as a movie this summer (yes, we are planning Book Club Movie Night at the Alamo!) and we discussed who might play the two main characters if we were casting the movie... although they are now probably too old for these parts, Hugh Grant and Kate Winslet would have been my first choices.  I googled the movie and found... One Day, starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess.

All wrong!  I like Anne Hathaway, but she is SO NOT EMMA.  For one thing, why don't they have a British actress playing a British girl?  That bugs me... anyway, back to the book.

The general theme of the book is a reminder that you should never wait for "one day"... life can change on a dime and that "one day" might never actually come. Jana likes to bring "party favors" to Book Club, this month we received a jar of that really bad, fake nacho cheese.  I suppose you will have to read the book to figure out the significance... if you have read it, tell me what you think Jana was thinking?

The jar of stinky bad cheese has a formula attached... sure makes you think, doesn't it?  Never put off until tomorrow what you can do TODAY...

Want to "join" our Book Club?  Here is our next selection:

The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli

Book Club, Schmook Club...

Book Club Bookmark

Hosting Book Club at my house tonight... as some of you may remember, our last Book Club Meeting was a full blown, themed out extravaganza.

Our selection this month, One Day by David Nicholls, did not lend itself to quite as much excitement in the planning, but I'm sure it will be a rollicking evening nonetheless.  This bunch could make a discussion of the dictionary entertaining.

With that in mind, here is our dilemma... we need a NAME.  We've decided we need something more interesting to call our little bunch of merry book lovers than just BOOK CLUB.  Help me out here, blog friends.  Give us some suggestions... I will share them with the girls and if they pick your idea I will even send you a special little thank you surprise.  Get creative, I have faith... the BOOK CLUB girls are counting on you.

My Book Club Print

Book Club Wine Charms

Book Club Coasters

Down by the Seashore...

She Sells Seashells Art Print

My brain is still on vacation, so please indulge me... have you ever been antiquing in a beach town?  No better kitsch anywhere than the crazy creative goods folks have COVERED in shells.  I love shells, have them all over my house to remind me there is more to look forward to than driving to soccer practice and monitoring homework (there is, isn't there???).

Here are just a few funky fun finds from my recent trip to the seashore...

Picture this dude sitting on your dining room buffet or mantle...

If you can't get to the beach, there is TONS of cool shell art on Etsy, here's a girlfriend for our Adonis I found at AnneReaDesigns...

Seashell Goddess Diana

or make your own like we did in this framed shell art project for Dear Daughter's room... 
She sells seashells by the seashore. The shells she sells are surely seashells.
So if she sells shells on the seashore,
I'm sure she sells seashore shells.
It's not too late to enter... GIVEAWAY!

Nip Tuck...

I was raised by Aunt Orangie to believe that one MUST have a new Easter dress... it is just an absolute right and privilege of being a girl.  So this year while shopping for my Easter ensemble, I happened upon a great Calvin Klein summer suit on the clearance rack at T.J. Maxx (yep, I guess this makes me a Maxxionista).  This terrific lightweight tan lined summer suit was marked down to $49... WHY, you ask?  Well, take a gander at what I saw when I headed to the dressing room... 

ADORABLE jacket... fit great.  But that SKIRT... Calvin, WHAT were you thinking?  My grandmother would not have worn this shapeless, too long, blob of a skirt.  It looked like a serious reject from my first "big girl" working wardrobe in 1988.  ICK.  The dilemma... put it back to languish in clearance purgatory, or see if I could give it a new and better life?

Never underestimate the power of a few great alterations.  There was a time when I thought tailoring was only useful to hem a pair of pants, but after enough TLC What Not To Wear marathons, I have discovered a new appreciation for my local tailor.  This is the only pic I got today of my actual skirt, and Aunt Christy accidentally cut our heads off, but you get the idea... and no, I'm not the cute one in the pink shoes.

My amazing alterations ladies chopped about six inches off the length, and "penciled" the skirt to bring it right back to the year 2011... SO much cuter, more flattering, and even with the tailoring I got a great suit for only $65.00... SCORE.  

Makes me feel like breaking out in song... 

In your Easter bonnet, with all the frills upon it, You'll be the grandest lady in the Easter parade...

Ok... singing is not my strong suit.  Anyway, if you are new here, don't miss out on my first GIVEAWAY... 

and have a marvelous Monday!

EGGstravaganza and the Attack of the Peepateers...

Dear Daughter and Sweet Son love to die Easter eggs... and thankfully, so does their Aunt Christy!  Every year she comes to spend Easter weekend with us, and spearheads the Egg Dying Extravaganza... this year, they decided to try this awesome tutorial from my blogging friend, Jany Claire, for making Easter eggs dyed with silk ties.

Watching them blow the eggs to hollow them out was EGGstremely (sorry, couldn't help myself) entertaining... told them I was waiting for their brains to come blowing out of their ears.  Next they raided Handsome Hubby's closet and found a couple of ties he hadn't worn since the 90's, and got  busy cutting them up to use to wrap the eggs.

Since they have to boil for a good 20 minutes.. Dear Daughter and her buddy, G-Man. got inspired by the Peeps Diorama Contest and made their version of the Three Peepateer's Battling the Bad Peeps... looks like the Peepateer's were victorious.

Now, after that gory interruption of our sweet egg dying activity... it's time for the BIG UNVEIL!  We learned that we needed to be sure to wrap the fabric as close to the egg as possible, and need to use plenty of vinegar and boil for a good 25 minutes... HAPPY EASTER and may your Peepateers keep you safe this holiday weekend.