And the winner is...

Thanks to Random.org generator our winner is our 5th entry Gretchen Clark!  Gretchen won the Thirty-One Gifts $25 gift certificate!

Thank you to everyone that entered!!!!

First Give-Away! Thanks for the 1st 1,000 hits!

I'm celebrating 1,000 hits on the blog

with my first give-away!

Win a $25 Gift Certificate to Thirty One Gifts!

To see the catalog click on the link above.

To Win:

1.  Leave a Comment on this post with the item you love from Thirty One Gifts.

2.  Become a follower of Imperfectly Happy (if you are already a follower you can skip this step)

3.  Get a 2nd entry by posting a link to this post on your blog (leave website in your comments)

Contest will end Wednesday November 10th.  Please check the blog then to see if you're the winner!!! 

*The gift certificate may only be redeemed on www.mythirtyone.com/tiffd and will not be honored by other consultants.   

Linking this post to:
Blue Cricket Design
Someday Crafts

A Little Halloween Giggle...

She Makes Over Lamps...

I saw this idea at Homebody - where she covered a lampshade in burlap.  I thought it was adorable and filed that in my "want to try that" brain file.

When I bought the dresser for my son, the guy that was selling it asked me if I happened to need lamps.  I said, "why yes I do but I didn't bring anymore cash with me".  But when he said he had 3 lamps with shades and would give them all to me for $5 I boogied up to the store and got the cash.

So today I went and bought some burlap for $2.99 a yard and got to work.

Check out this hideous shade...

I have to wonder who went out and bought this because they just LOVED it!?!

I laid out the burlap...probably about a yard.   Then, with my trusty hot glue gun, I wrapped and glued...

Until I had this.  I trimmed the excess and glued it in.  I wish I could have made it a little tighter but for my first try at this I am pretty pleased.

Now my desk has a much needed lamp. 

(notice my marketing text book laying there waiting for me to open it)

I am going to paint the lamp too but not sure what color yet so I just dusted it off and put it on the desk.

Lamp and shade $1.67

Burlap $2.99

New-to-me lamp...$4.66

*SCORE*

I'm sharing this post on...

Backyard Eden



Dresser Done Over...The Reveal

Well if you read my earlier post then you saw my mid-way dresser over make-over.  I was worried but I think all turned out well.

Is it perfect?  NO.  Do I love it?  Well I like it a lot, but we're just going to be friends.  Does my son like it?  YES - and that is what really matters!

This was fully sanded down when I bought it yesterday (SCORE!)  I have been really wanted to try a colored stain on ANYTHING because I have a vision of staining my kitchen cabinets with a color in the future.  So I bought Minwax Indigo Blue and some staining clothes and got started.

It was a rough start (see post below).  I wasn't sure if I had made a huge mistake.  BUT  I kept going and my hands are a little smurfish....  It was over 90 here in the Valley of the Sun so it dried pretty quick.  I added some inexpensive knobs from Home Depot (silver because we are going for Cowboy's colors) and she is looking pretty spiffy.

Here it is....

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Please forgive my tilted shot...too lazy to fix it. :P



Sharing my treasure at:

Shabby Nest

Just a Girl

Domestically Speaking

The GREAT Dresser Disaster~!?!

Ok maybe not so much a disaster as a fiasco...but I need some encouragment or maybe help!

I got my 14 year old son a "new-to-us" dresser off of craigslist....

 

Solid Pine, Good Bones, Nice Grain...

So I says to myself, "self, you should stain this dresser".  But self replied, "self, the boy wants a room in the Cowboy colors" (aka blue & silver).  So me and self decide to try staining said dresser with indigo wood stain...

"We" aren't so sure about how it is going.  Kinda looks like, well, crap.  This is after working on it for about an hour.  I have to tell you all that I am not an experienced stainer.  The truth is I think I have stained one single board of wood, ever, in my entire life.  It is much more difficult than it looks.  Soooooo  I am trying to decide if I should continue with the stain and pray it will start looking better OR scrap it and get a can of paint.

THOUGHTS?  IDEAS?

HELP?!?!?!?

It's Fess-Up Friday!!!!

Fess-Up: To recognize, often reluctantly, the reality or truth of: acknowledge, admit, avow, concede, confess, grant, own (up).

Today is sort of a confessional of a Homeschool Mother...10 truths I don't always reveal. :P

10.  My kids have never participated in a spelling bee, geography bee, science fair or the like. 

9.  I do not raise goats, chickens or any other farm animals.  I'm not always sure about the house pets staying. :P

8.  I have done school days in my pajamas (sans a shower) more often than I care to think about.

7.  We school year-round so we can take longer breaks when I'm burnt out.

6.  I do not stand up and teach anything.  It's a HOMEschool so teaching lectures don't really happen.  We tend to gather around the dining room table or scatter to a quiet corner of the house.

5.  I HATE teaching handwriting...there I said it.  If my kids can sign their name in cursive I feel I've done my job.

4.  If you come over to my house without calling first I probably won't let you in...because my house looks like a tornado with a 'tude went through it (twice).

3.  I don't keep a record of grades until high school.  My kids have to do the work over and over and over until they get it right so it would look like they had straight A's.  I have also never taken attendence. :P

2.  I avoid talking about socialization because it makes me want to strangle people.  I know it isn't very Christian or "pc" to say, but that's the truth.  I can't believe people still ask me about that.

1.  I AM NOT PATIENT, OR A SAINT...ASK MY KIDS.  Some days I think I'm 1/2 way to a padded room...somedays I want to be there. :P

A true likeness of me...well it should have red hair.



So there you have it.  I feel purged.  So what are you ready to confess today????