Grab a drink, it's going to be a long one!

"Shopping is my cardio." - Carrie, SATC

Notice the new name? After many suggestions, I've changed the blog name from Piece of the Pie to Young Nester! Please update your blog reader things and so ons :)

I did some small things around the house this weekend. But I was distracted…

...need I say more?

It's 50 degrees here in Kentucky which means the girls go crazy outside. Because the snow all melted this is what Lucy looked like yesterday:

Here's a closer look:

Eventually, I started on the desk I talked about last week with the muscle help of my friend, Sarah (I mean, how was I single-handedly going to get that sucker from upstairs in the office to the garage?). It’s a work in progress having never painted wood veneer before… quite interesting. Here's some in-progress photos. I still have to put on a couple of more coats and apply the scrapbook paper in the shelving and drawer. The white spray-painting did not turn out well so I took some sage green paint and painted over the top and painted the knee hole area brown and green. Trial and error, right?

I also took this old "yard-beer" glass that Taylor had thrown into the sale pile when cleaning the office and repurposed it as a large vase.

I'm constantly changing what we have on top of our hand me down entertainment center but here's what it looks like today...

Last to-do of the weekend was find a solution to T's collection of books in his "second office"... disgusting, I know. You try living with him. He is such a nerd and reads mostly textbooks (I don't know if I'm mentioned before he's working on his Ph.D in Civil Engineering) and cookbooks while he's... you know... On a weekly basis, I take the large pile of books out of the bathroom nook and BATHTUB (that's right ladies and gentlemen, when space runs low on the floor, he puts them in the bathtub). The solution was found at Marshall's for $10 and I love it (it had an original price tag of $29.99 but had some nicks on the back that put it in clearance)!

I'd show you the creepy piles of books behind this curtain but I'm scared you would turn me into the hoarding show.

Bless you if you're still reading this long post! I’ll leave on this note from a great blog post by one of my favorite home redesign and décor bloggers, Young House Love. Check out the before and after photos of their house and their <$4,000 DIY wedding. AMAZING. The thing that stuck out to me the most (hoping to cut down on my little (ha) shopping addiction): “Don’t buy anything on sale that you wouldn’t consider at full price.”

That’s a doozy! I love me a sale and I like to find creative ways to use things that I find on sale that I wouldn’t normally buy. But this is something I’m going to work on for the next year.

“There’s no such thing as saver’s remorse.”

Are any of you wonderful people on a budget? What are some of your tips/tricks and goals?

Sunday... picture tour!

When you grow up, falling in love becomes more about finding someone whose strengths match your weaknesses, who you can spend Sunday evenings with, who you don't mind lying next to every night. -Unhitched

Isn’t that cute? I know... it’s not Sex and the City, but those quotes really don’t pertain to anything today. And it says Sunday and it’s a Sunday. so clever.

I am one of those people who got sucked into selling Mary Kay. But not only did I get sucked in, I bought too much inventory and of course, did not sell it all before my schedule didn’t allow me to host these “awesome” Mary Kay parties anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love the products, but man, there are a lot of other things I could have done with that money that involved the outcome of sitting in the closet. To make room for things I actually like multiples of, I have resorted to selling everything at 50% off (what I paid for it) on Craigslist. It’s working pretty well – turns out, lots of women love Mary Kay (like me)… they just wait for people (like me) who get too much inventory and want out. There’s even a site dedicated to people getting sucked into Mary Kay. It's actually a pretty entertaining website if you have some free time.

On to more exciting things… here’s a picture tour of my craft supplies and some things I found in Hobby Lobby yesterday. Get excited.

Here’s a desperately needed scrapbook page holder – bought with a 50% off coupon so it was only $4.

And some more scrapbook paper on clearance for 6/$1:

I’m going to paint these letters and glue them to a painted canvas and hang it somewhere. I haven’t decided where yet.

Fabric – can’t wait for Laura to show me how to use my sewing machine since threading that stupid thing is ridiculous without a manual.

Craft magnets – need I say more?

I really love these beads. I think I’m going to make a bracelet sometime this week.

A Christmas gift from Taylor’s parents – I had went shopping with his mom on Black Friday and was going to get this at Hobby Lobby but since my debit card was already melting, I put it back. She secretly went back and got it and gave it to me for Christmas! AWESOME. I’m going to hang it in the kitchen where we come in from the garage.

On a gross side note (skip to the next picture if you don't like dirty socks), I went to went to wash the sheets and pulled out all these socks from under the covers! I just washed these sheets last Sunday… I have a terrible habit of going to bed with socks on and sliding them off in the middle of the night. And they say the dryer steals socks...

Here’s the closet where I store my craft and Mary Kay items. It’s a tad messy!

I have a sick problem with ribbons and stamps:

This is the old desk that I want to turn into my crafting/sewing table. I plan on (trying) to paint it white and maybe covering the top in a pretty fabric. However, it’s not real wood; it’s that slick stuff so I’m not sure if it’ll work? What do you think?

I’ve also been contemplating whether or not to upcycle this with paint and fun-ness or Goodwill it. What do you think? What could I do with it?

I’m begging EVERYONE to comment with your ideas on the last two pieces!

Where do I start?

"Sometimes you gotta quit thinking so much. If it feels right, it probably is. So just go with it." - SATC

I discovered the clearance section of Hobby Lobby today. Don't worry, I won't go into the crazy picture tour of my purchases. Let's just say my debit card is still smoking.

I want one of these:

It's a Silhouette SD and they're amazing. But until I get my sewing machine out of the box, I will not buy one. (That didn't stop me from entering into a dozen give aways for one on my favorite craft blogs). :)

I’m upset that Medium is ending their season early and that it will be gone forever; we really enjoyed the show over all these years and are sad to see it go. Any other Medium fans out there (or are we the only ones… hence early series finale)?

I have so many ideas that I want to turn into REAL TANGIBLE THINGS. Every time I walk into a room that needs to be organized, or look at my sewing machine (still in the box) or look at my scrapbooking supplies, I become OVERWHELMED. Where do I start?

A Michaels Shopping Spree Picture Tour

"I like my money right where I can see it: hanging in my closet." - Carrie, SATC

I also like my money where I can see it, Carrie: in my craft closet (today at least). I should not be allowed in Michaels. My bank account cannot handle it. In lieu of a lengthy word post about what I bought, I’m going to take you on a picture tour. : )

Scrapping paper - need I say more? Huge sale; they were all on sale for 29 cents each!

I love these recipe cards. Only $1 each

Cupcake/cookie design cutout things...

Love me some $1 magnets.

These are little wooden cutouts of santa and snowmen heads; on sale for 5 cents each! I'm planning on painting these and possible using them as "to, from" tags for Christmas next year. What do you think?

The next four pictures are scrapbooking stickers.

A hot glue gun; I don't own one so this was an obvious buy on sale for $5 :) What do you do with your hot glue gun?

A gift card carrying case :)

Ribbons all on sale!

50 cent stamps!

Yarn for my knitting

White spray paint. I suppose I'll do something fun with this. Any ideas?

All together now:

It's a lovely thing... don't tell T.

I have a problem

"We all judge. That's our hobby. Some people do arts and crafts; we judge." - Stanford, SATC

This is the closest I could come to finding a SATC quote about crafts.

I am addicted to all things crafts. I went to a craft store this week to get a bunch of scrap fabric to practice with on my sewing machine (granted I haven’t taken it out of the box since my mom dropped it off 2 weeks ago). It’s just so intimidating. I got a Singer for Christmas from my grandparents about five (5, cinco, etc) years ago and I put it together that night with my grandmother and that was the extent of that gift. But now that I’m older and see all the cool things you can do with said machine, I am determined to become a sewing master.

There he is in all his glory, in the box. I didn’t move to take this picture. Sad, but then again, it is Saturday.



I also didn’t move to take these pictures (I'll go ahead and point out the dust on the vent so we can get that out of the way. Now ignore it, please) :) :





As you can see, Lucy is all up in my business.

So, who sews out there? I hear that threading the bobber is the hardest part. Any tips? Any good websites for how-to instructions?

Now T and I are going to clean out our office which hasn’t been used since we moved in a year ago. I’ll post before and after pictures when I have the after complete. :) We bought a new desk that is in a box in the garage and we’ve already picked out our book shelves in the Ikea magazine we just got (see machine picture, on the tray on top of the photo album).

Oh and just because I’m in a picture mood… I introduce to you (drumroll please)…. T. This was taken while I was putting up Christmas decorations and he was… not.

Is it Friday yet?

"Let's be honest. Sometimes there is nothing harder in life than being happy for somebody else." - SATC

Well, classes start back today for this non-traditional student. T and I made the decision for me to cut back to 30 hours a week at work so as of tomorrow I am a part-timer and losing 32 hours of vacation time (I took a vacation day today because…. why not?).

This weekend was nice. Saturday, T had his firm’s annual banquet which is always… entertaining. Four years ago they had an open bar and let’s just say they haven’t done that again since. We get two drink tickets now. :) Two of his coworkers’ wives are pregnant and were drinking shirley temples while I chugged my wine. I felt bad for drinking in front of them but atleast they had pretty drinks too and not just water. :)

Afterwards, we met up at the Penguin bar downtown to celebrate WithanS ‘s birthday. It was a blast! I had never been to a dueling piano bar before and they are just so much fun. It kind of doubled as a karaoke bar (for me at least) because I sang (or yelled) all of the songs along with them. And I won’t get into this much but resolution #9 is already looking good for 2011!

On a side note, I recently fell in love with the Nester. Why haven’t I seen her blog before? She’s very creative and thrifty to boot.

On a double side note, my neighbor just rang my doorbell (I thought it was the UPS man because this is the time of day he always comes). I think I frightened him with my no-makeup, no-bra, crazy-hair, un-showered look. I wouldn’t have answered if I had a peephole.

Resolutions of 2011

“When you're young, your whole life is about the pursuit of fun. Then, you grow up and learn to be cautious. You could break a bone or a heart. You look before you leap and sometimes you don't leap at all because there's not always someone there to catch you. And in life, there's no safety net. When did it stop being fun and start being scary?” – Sex and the City

Looking through old pictures today and reminiscing of times right after graduating high school, I had a reoccurring thought: “I can’t believe I did that!” It’s sad that the risks I take these days are whether or not to dry my hair when it’s raining outside or rather route A or route B would be fastest during rush hour. I have settled into the everyday life of work, coming home exhausted, cooking and eating dinner, watching our dvr’d programs and then hitting the hay. I’m hoping 2011 will bring some spunk back into my routine. I do hate being bored! :)

So, here are my ridiculous resolutions for 2011 (some cliché, some nearly impossibly, but hey, what are resolutions for? As long as I’m successful with at least one, I’ll feel like I’ve accomplished something):

1. Obviously lose weight and adopt a healthier lifestyle
2. Set and stick to budget for T and myself
3. Go to Alaska
4. Get engaged (that’s right I said it)
5. Earn good grades this year
6. Landscape our yard
7. Move into our house and adopt cleaning schedule
8. Learn to sew on my machine
9. Get closer to T and do more fun things (ie: do not sit on couch every night)
10. BLOG MORE

More to come on adopting a healthier lifestyle, budgeting, getting engaged, landscaping, moving in (after a year), learning to sew (and knit) and T and I's adventures.