to-do list.

every once in awhile i like to make a list of the things i want to do around here. i feel like it 1) makes me feel more motivated to get them done and 2) makes me feel like i have less things to remember all bouncing around in my noggin. it motivates and de-stresses all at the same time. plus it's just kinda fun to think about future projects and the fun things i want to do : )

1. this month i am finally going to put the knobs on my dresser. i mean it. this is happening people. it must. it has been way too long waiting for this to be finished. it just drilling some holes and screwing knobs in jessica. get with it.

2. i want to change the guest bathroom around... put new color in there. maybe paint. i don't know. i like everything to be painted even though i have to paint it aaaaall back when we move. but i can't help it! oops... this is a to-do list. not a place where i defend my paint-crazy. anyway, i have chosen colors i think but i don't want to say just yet. maybe it'll be a surprise once it's done. i just found a crazy awesome color combo that i am so in love with, but i am afraid it's getting popular and then everyone will have it. i know that is silly, but i don't want my home to look like every other person's home in the world!

3. i am going to put lamp shades on these guys:

i just have to figure out how... and then find some for really cheap. but it is so happening. somehow....

4. i want to put some sort of scripture or something on this wall

we're choosing one that means something to us personally, then we'll put it up there : )

5. create artwork for both bathrooms... i have an idea for this! i am excited!

6. finish/fix the horrendous job i did on our sad office chair. this is thankfully in process now. i ordered something (!!!!) for it to be fixed, and i sure hope it works.. if it does i will be so happy!!! and it'll be really cool.

7. finish the kitchen cabinets. sadly i must admit that i have not finished these yet... i am being a bum about it. there are only two little sections left! come on me! hmm... i just don't feel like it. tomorrow morning i am recruiting phil and we are finishing it. end of story.!

8. finish the headboard... there might be a light at the end of this tunnel! this might also get some work done on it tomorrow. we'll seeeeeeee : )

9. buy and hang new curtains for bedroom and sunroom.. this consists of buying new rods to fit the large windows... which usually costs a good chunk of change so it might not be happening for awhile.

10. buy new and way more awesome throw pillows... just because i want to. : )

11. make a side table and perhaps some sort of coffee table. i have some inspiration for both of these projects.. now just if i had some money..... hmm.. where can i get some of that?

12. get cheap glass tops (somehow... how do i do that?) for our dining room table and our side tables next to the bed.

13. paint dining room table.

14. do something about our little tv stand.... it needs assistance.

15. take backing off of the book shelf (it's some kind of poster-y paper-y substance that is torn) and replace with something cool.. maybe beadboard... then paint it a fabulous color perhaps. who knows.

ok so i maybe put too many things on the list... but 10 didn't seem like enough and i didn't want a list of like, 13 things. that's just weird. it needed to be either 10 or 15 in my mind. i don't know whyyy, it just is. also, i can think of about 17 more things if i try but i mean, let's not get crazy here! i don't want to be overwhelmed i just want a list i can see and knock things out one at a time. fun! here i go!

incredible. marshalls finds.

i am in love with marshalls. if i wasn't before (trust me, i was.) i certainly am now. hol. y. cow. i have seriously scored big the past 2 marshalls trips. you will be jealous. this is not my intention. it is just so you can have the same experience i have and go to your marshalls and find these incredible finds yourself. *warning* you WILL want to go to marshalls/tj maxx when i get done. i promise this. so if you hate those stores (in which case i need to have a serious talk with you) or really don't want the temptation to go shopping then quit reading. seriously. go read a book or something. i'm serious. : )

it all started a couple months ago. i saw this purse in a magazine. i searched high and low for it. then i saw it at dillards there. for a cool 90 bucks. sure. that's happening. i knew it would never ever happen when i said, "oh geeeeee. phil! it's 88 dollars!!" and he said something like, "maybe they have one like it at a cheaper store." ...... yah. not getting it. ever. haha i didn't blame him or expect anything else. i wouldn't want to buy a purse for that price. if i did that, i would have to frame it and never ever use it. not ever. last time i checked purses are not meant for that. soooo i had the dream that maybe next season i would find it at marshalls or something.... maybe... if the conditions were right and i found it before anybody else did.... fat chance... OR NOT!

here she is!!!!! sitting in MY apartment!!! on MY chair! and no, it is no knock off. no phil and i did not suddenly go mad and decide to spend $100 of hard earned money on a bag. and no i did not steal it. it is here because it was at marshalls. for... get ready.... 40 dollars!!!! that's it! 40 people! originally 88 dollars?!?!??!!! and it's from THIS season. meaning, i can still go into dillards TODAY and look at it priced for $88. yep. this is how it went down. (it is a good story):

i walked into marshalls for the second time in 2 days. (i said i love it!) as i was walking toward the bag section with my wonderful, beautiful, generous and lovely sister i said, "i keep hoping someday they will have the jessica bag i want so much.... i don't think they ever will...." literally 1 minute later my sister said, "hey, look at this bag!" and then my mouth DROPPED to the floor. i said, "OHMYGOSH!THAT'STHEBAG!!!!!" all together like that too. i knew i couldn't buy it. i had just spent $50 the day before (i will talk about that in a sec) but i couldn't help it. i carried the bag around the store like a pathetic child. just wishing somebody would understand my pain and buy this bag and let me have it. that amazing person was my sister. yep. i put the bag back on the shelf (as much as it tore at my heart to do it) and she picked it back up and carried it to the register. then she paid for it and gave it to me... what a kind hearted soul. : ) i don't know if she did it because she loves me and wanted me to have it, or because she knew that for the next 3 years i would be talking about how i should have just gotten the bag.. either way, i am now the proud owner of this gorgeous bag (at more than half off!) because of her : )


let me talk about the day before this now. i bought 2 pillow cases for $5 to make into curtains for under my master bath counter which you can see here. i bought some jessica simpson sunglasses for $12 and a case for them for $7. i also bought a camisole and the best part, rampage shoes for $20! i couldn't find them online so they are probably from last season, but i am so not caring. they are adorable and as far as i know, rampage shoes at macys are generally between 40 and 50 bucks at least. so let's see here... i probably saved at least $5 on the pillow cases, the glasses were originally $40 so that's $28, i saved $3 on the case, $3 on the camisole, and let's just say i saved $20 on the shoes. i think that's fair : ) let me get out my calculator (yes i am math impaired, okay?)

5+28+3+3+20=59

so basically marshalls helped me save $60!!!! thats amazing. considering i wouldn't be the owner of all of these things if i hadn't found them for that cheap, not only did they save me money but brought things i could never otherwise own down to a more affordable price for me... yay!!!! man. that is a legendary weekend at marshalls. : )

okay, be honest. who is now wanting to go shopping here? i warned you. : )

coffee filters; useful and decorative.

i am loving my sunroom nowadays since i painted it with stripes. it's totally cute. however there was still one major problem-o.

yes, it is hard to see in this picture because i forgot to take the before picture. i always forget about that step... i get so excited when i have an idea and i just go for it then about half way through i think, "hmm.. i maybe should have taken a before picture of this..." but i can't help it! i get so excited to get a project started and this is what happens. then i have to search on my computer to see if it might be in the gazillions of pictures i've taken. and this is the result. sorry : )

aaaanyway, the light fixture is basically just a translucent glass square hanging under two light bulbs... fancy. so basically i hated it but i was not about to buy a light fixture for my apartment. i want to love my home as much as the next guy but i do draw the line. it might be far out there and kinda blurry, but it's there and light fixtures are definitely beyond it. so i tried to figure out how to make it better and came up with a plan.

since i have so much sticky laminate hanging around from doing all my cabinets, i took the glass square down and covered it with that. **disclaimer: i do not turn this light on at all really. i mean, hardly ever. so i am not sure how the laminate and everything would do on a hot glass surface under light bulbs. this is not an issue for me since i hate overhead lighting and almost always use lamps. do not blame me if you do this and your fixture catches on fire. : )**

i couldn't get the laminate to go on smoothly but i knew it would be covered anyway, so it doesn't really matter. then i punched the hole in the middle so i could hang it back up later. all i did then was fold coffee filters and hot glue them on. this is the reason for the laminate. i don't own this light obviously, so i didn't want hot glue all over something that doesn't belong to me. i glued all the filters to the paper so *hopefully* i can just peel it off and toss it when we move out. : )

here is the finished product

i think she's pretty darn cute. of course she's no dangly crystal-y chandalier (which i would loooove) but it works for me. i can tolerate it much better now. maybe i will find some dangly crystals and figure out how to hang them from it.......... until then, this little cutie is fine the way she is : )


linking up with the shabby nest's frugal friday!!

finally a cabinet post.

**linking up with remodelaholic!
***also linking up to simple home life's link party!

today i feel antsy. i feel the need to do some little projects around here... i just feel this crazy urge to do something. even though i have a love-hate relationship with the glue gun, i just want to get it out and use it. preferably for good and not evil... : )

well it's been awhile since i finished my bathroom cabinets. i am not really finished with the master bathroom yet, but i figured it's time for some update pictures. these are my lovely bathroom cabinets before i tackled my contact paper project:

ignore the kitty litter on the floor... that is constantly there no matter how hard me and my vacuum try.

and these are the only weapons i needed to annihilate these suckers

plus a screwdriver or drill... or something of that nature : )

i simply removed the doors, then the hinges from the doors. i measured them on top of the paper and cut out what i needed! the backing of the paper even has inches marked off along the sides and all these little dots you can follow so you get straight lines. it was so so so super easy. a little tiny bit time consuming, but it really doesn't take that long. well.. the bathroom ones didn't anyway : ) then i cut out the right sizes for all the trim that goes around the doors and drawers. it was a sinch (cinch? i don't know). and here they are after their little facelift!!!

  yep that is me blurred in the mirror... i was wearing my jammies... : )

these are the curtains i made from two pillow cases and an old ribbon i already had. i cut the pillow cases down the side then i cut the bottom so i just had a flat rectangle. i glued the ribbon along the part that was cut, then i used the tab part of the pillowcase to put a spring rod through. i used 2 pillow cases to make them look fuller. it cost me $5. that's all. 5 bucks! to finally cover up all my junk super necessary stuff! totally worth it. : )



way better, right? and it doesn't look like a $10 roll of contact paper to me. it looks pretty much like i painted them. the effect is just so nice! i'm loving that bathroom way more now. however, in true jessica fashion, i now want to paint in there. of course. i might have to fight off that urge considering i already will have to re-paint every other room in the apartment when we move out. i am not sure i want to add to that list... but my urges to paint generally defeat me. we'll see. : )

easter is coming!!

i am so excited to celebrate easter tomorrow!! i love to remember and celebrate the sacrifice Jesus made on our behalf. to remember where i was headed and the fact that he endured everything to rescue me and pay my ransom. he left his place in heaven and humbled himself to the will of the Father, that we might be forgiven and free. so that we could have life and relationship with the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. one of my favorite parts of the gospels is when the veil is torn. signifying the breaking down of the barrier between us and God, and now we can come to him freely and completely clean and forgiven....!!!! that's the best news i think i ever heard! i love easter!!!! it's when we remember that yes, he died on our behalf... but we serve a living God who rose again! he isn't dead, but he demonstrated his power and authority by conquering death. i mean, authority over death? that's an amazing God right there. ohhh i just love this time..

a garden wedding in the city.

i have seen so many posts lately about weddings. many people actually just revisiting their weddings from years ago, and this made me want to share mine. i loved my wedding. well obviously i got to marry phil that day so i was so so happy, but just talking about the actual wedding, it was just what i wanted. it took on about 8 different identities before it came to be. it was going to be in a tent with lots of purple and green. then it was going to be whimsical and have fruit in the centerpieces and the colors were going to be pink and yellow. then the colors were changed to pink and green. then we lost the whimsy fruit idea. then we changed the location from a tent to well, we didn't really know where but the tent idea seemed to have way too many variables to it and i knew i wanted it to be stress-free.

that's when we found the houston mill house. an adorable little old cottage-y looking house that sits in a beautiful garden in the middle of atlanta. using this place meant keeping the wedding small which to me = perfect. we had 70 people join us the day we made a covenant to each other and the Lord to be husband and wife as long as we live. it was so perfect. we held it on a friday evening in the garden. it was cloudy and lovely. i felt like everything around me was beautiful and it just added to the beauty of marrying the best man i ever knew. here are some of my favorite things about our wedding.





can you see why everything felt so beautiful all day? because everything was. this was my favorite day of my life so far. everything was perfect. there were a couple scary mintues where we couldn't find our marriage license.. and i believe the ipod we hooked up for the reception was m.i.a. for a few sketchy moments. and there was the giant threat of rain. but everything was found and the rain steered clear. God just smiled on us and the beginning of our marriage that day. the day after the wedding was a total disaster, but that blog is for another day haha ; )

one of my favorite decor pals.

i love using books while decorating. they can do so much. if a lamp should be just a little taller, put a pretty book under it. if a space needs just a little more color, add a book. if you need to add height on a mantle, stack something on top of some nice books. they seriously solve so many problems. not to mention, they are generally just found laying around the house, so they are free! we have about a gazillion books, both having gone to college... and the fact that i think phil has a secret desire to be a librarian.. at his own library... : ) he loves books and i don't really blame him. even though i may have to reign him in occasionally.... but he does that with me and reeses peanut butter eggs, so we're even.

anywaayyyy... so books. i have them everywhere. maybe i just love their colors... maybe i just like feeling smart and having books all over... whatever the reason, books are one of my favorite decorating tools. here we go now, a tour of my book decor ; )



here they are adding color and height to my mantle

adding a little color to a shelf

helping some lamps look a little taller

adding color and assistance... i may or may not have hung that clock too high. but by adding books, it's not as noticable!

these books were added for two reasons. to bring color to a white counter and black wall and also because i may have hung that art work a tad too high on the wall.. i was lazy and didn't measure. instead of moving it down and putting new holes in the wall, i moved the other things up to it with a couple pretty books. problem solved!!

these are just some books i use as decor. but once you take a jacket off of a book, it seems too pretty to just gather dust on a shelf or in a box (if you're like me and don't have enough shelves for all your books). i like to think i'm helping them out while they help me out. what do they call that? a symbiotic relationship? yes. that is what books and i have. : )

a very difficult easy project.

over spring break we started a lot of projects around here. some were finished. some are still on their way. one of the projects that i thought would be super easy and would be finished in no time was the entry way chalkboard. we had some pretty involved projects that seemed as though they would take a long time so i added some that would be "fast". or so i thought. this crazy thing drove. me. nuts. here is how it went.

i found a big picture inside a frame in my mom's basement. the picture was of lilacs. i have no purple. however, i got the idea to take everything out of the frame and use it for something else. the frame is really cool. it's a big chunky black frame with some cool detail. my mom obviously wasn't using it so after stealing politely asking if i could have the picture, i brought it home and eventually decided to make it into a chalkboard. all i had to do was pop the glass out, spray it with chalkboard paint and presto chango (or something like that) a chalkboard appears. pop that back in, hang it up... easy. hm. this is not how it went. first i took the glass outside on the porch to spray it. the papers i set it on top of blew all over the wet paint after i left the first coat to dry. i wiped it off and tried to see if i could make that side work. i couldn't. we brought it inside, laid it on our "paint sheet" (opened every window) and tried again with the flip side of the glass. then as phil (he was recruited to help me since i was now annoyed) was finishing the last coat, he dropped the cap to the spray paint right onto the glass. totally messed up again. we wiped off that new layer and sprayed again. somehow it worked and we were finally left with a nice, smooth chalkboard. then as i tried to put the glass back into the frame, the whole corner CRACKED OFF. yep. we tried to glue it back together but there was an eight inch crack left in the glass. great.

the new plan was to spray the paint directly on the wall, then just hang the frame over that. we taped up papers around the area but neglected to protect the floor. after the last coat i looked down to see chalkboard paint covering the rented floor and tracking its way through the apartment all over the carpet. nice. UGH! so thank the LORD that cleaned up easily with some stain remover and warm water. we then had to add picture hanger thingies to the back of the frame since it wasn't meant to hang horizontally. all that was left was to drill some holes in the wall, put anchors and screws in and hang the frame. then we couldn't get the bit out of my stepdad's drill. so we waited until he could get it out for us (turned out we weren't just ignorant, he had to yank it out with pliers) then FINALLY phil hung the frame. this took us about 3 weeks to complete this seemingly easy project. sheesh. but here she is looking all cute and silly in our entryway:

yes, that is a message God wrote to phil telling him it's time for us to have a baby... even though it looks suspiciously like my hand writing...

see? it just welcomes you right in : )

isn't it annoying when a seemingly simple project goes all wrong and ends up being one of the most frustrating? at least it's all done and cute now and will probably make us smile and laugh for a long time to come : )

a new love teaching me about wifing.

i am in love with a few other men besides my husband. he knows it and is pretty okay with it. mostly because most of the men i am in love are either fictional or would need the words "the late ---" in front of their names. (breaking my poor little heart!!) these are some of the men i am just mad about : )

The oh-so-dreamy late great jimmy stewart

i actually fell in love with him as george bailey. i do believe he was one of my very first loves in my life. i mean, really though. how can you not love this face?

mister cary grant

i am not sure how or when i decided i loved this man, but i do know that "holiday" with katharine hepburn is one of my very favorite movies ever. which he is a total doll in, by the way : )

"to kill a mockingbird"s atticus finch

i believe my mom is responsible for my crush on atticus.. but i'm not sure. she loves gregory peck (who wouldn't?) but after reading the book and watching the movie well... i have a major crush on mr. finch : )

and of course every woman's favorite character mr. darcy

do i even need to eplain this? i think not.

well what does all this have to do with housewifing? well i have fallen in love with a new man who has been teaching me about being a good wife. yep. i have been looking for new tv shows to watch and netflix has the entire "dick van dyke show" series online. so i thought, eh what the heck. why not? and that is when i developed a major crush on rob petrie.

he is so sweet to laura, his wife. watching this show made me realize what a good wife used to look like. laura is always supportive of rob. she respects him, is proud of him, builds him up, works hard at home for him... i am not saying we should go back to the days when women were treated as baby and home making machines, but watching this show made me realize something. i treat phil like i see other women treating their husbands, even fake tv wives. sadly, if you look at most shows with married couples these days, the husband is almost always depicted as a fool who basically has nothing together. they seemingly can't do anything right. then the wife is all mad and screaming at him for being a moron and treats him coldly. seriously. think about it. how many shows do you watch where the husband does everything wrong and is made to look kind of stupid, meanwhile the wife seems to have everything together. then when he screws up, he spends every episode trying to make it up to her. i mean, these shows can be really funny sometimes, but i realized i have to be careful i am not picking up any traits of these wives. since i started watching "the dick van dyke show" i have been so motivated to be a good wife to my husband. laura petrie is a total role model for me. i would much rather be the sweet, adoring wife of a good hard working man than a cold nasty wretch treating my husband as though he is a complete fool. if that means i have to admit i don't have it all together and that he can do many things better than i can, then i can humble myself and do that.

i don't know if these words are as eye opening as they were in my head... when i realized them... hehe... but i didn't realize that tv shows were skewing my view of marriage and so maybe one of you is helped by this too. and if you have netflix i would COMPLETELY recommend this show. it is entertaining, funny and a tad corny. and who doesn't love a little corny in their lives? come on. if you can watch lifetime movies, you can watch this show. no problem. : )

a black wall. eek!

ok... this is going to be full disclosure time. i am a little nervous that ya'll (i live in georgia now.. they laugh at me when i say "you guys") will think i am a slob when i tell this story... oh well. here is our half wall that looks into the kitchen:

ummm.. if you look (it doesn't have to be that closely) something spilled all over the wall. the tv used to be in this spot and well... what happened was.. i set cranberry juice on top of it and somehow it got knocked over.. behind the tv.. all over the wall and carpet. i tried to clean it up but i could not get to it. then i forgot about it. then we rearranged our furniture and it aaall came crashing back to me. so i scrubbed mister wall and mister carpet.. it didn't work very well after months of the juice being all over it. the carpet was a little more cooperative than the wall actually..

anyway, i didn't fret too much about the wall. i knew it was going to be painted something.. some day.. i just had to figure out which color. from my last post you know i am madly in love with my harbor color paint. however, i knew that i should not have this color on every wall in my apartment. i didn't want to walk in and be assaulted with blue every which way i looked. so then i thought of brown.. but i wasn't sure. i don't know why, but it just didn't excite me. then i noticed something. the pictures of fruit on that wall have black, blue and red in them. so i thought, "ohmygoodness... should i use black? nooo.... thats crazy.... i cant.... i mean.. isn't that too.....??" then i looked at this wall

and i noticed how much i liked the black with the blue... so.. i decided i just might go for it. i can always repaint if i need to, right? then the only people who will know i did this crazy thing will be me and my husband when he comes home and sees a black wall staring him in the face... : ) so i got out my trusty black paint i already had..

yikes. super black. i taped my wall and took a deep breath. then another. and probably a few more. and put some black paint on my wall.

lovely cranberry juice stain, huh?

then i put some more black on.. and some more. until it was finished. i will be honest with you. i was a little hesitant to step back and take a look. usually when i do a project it takes me about 17 times longer than most people to finish because i CONSTANTLY step back to look at and admire it (or see what needs to be fixed). i did not do that with this wall. nope. i just painted in blissful ignorance so i didn't have to see if my risk was a big ol' giant failure. finally the time came. i had to wash my paintbrush at some point. so i looked....

and i decided it was pretty cool looking. i had to say... i even kind of liked it. maybe i liked it a lot. so i would say this risky little game paid off in the end. even though the first thing i heard when phil came home was, "whoa!! .... hey! i see the wall is black! wow!!...." hahaha he likes it now : )

and this is what she looks like with the kitchen all painted and pretty : )

totally making me happy.. and the cats think it makes their little kitty pad look totally awesome ; )

!!just you wait until all the cabinets are white!!! it will look so great!!!