Relay for Life in 8 days...

Wow, I didn’t realize it had been so long since my last post. This is my first year being involved with Relay for Life…here is how it all got started! I met Amber at the Edward’s Barn Holiday Boutique; we had a booth and were introducing our Fall and Christmas cards. Amber loved our cards and purchased some Christmas tags we had made especially for this show. We got to talking and she told us she would like to meet with us and the staff partner for Relay for Life in our local community to discuss having us design and illustrate cards for the local Relay for Life communities. We met with Deb and Amber and designed and illustrated cards for the nine Relay communities!! As we met with the gals my heart was tugging at me to get involved as we have a friend who is battling pancreatic cancer right now and lost a friend many years ago to it, my sister and her husband just lost a long time high school friend to it.

Not only did I make a decision to get involved I decided I would start a team (that was the intimidating aspect since the Relay is 24 hours!). Doug and my inspiration was that we could give up 24 hours of our lives to save others lives, though we tend to fall asleep by 9:00 pm these days, we felt compelled to help make a difference. We have been very fortunate not to have lost any of our immediate family members to cancer but have seen how it destroys families all around us. This ugly disease attacks without warning and no one is safe until a cure is found. If we can save one person we can save everyone, together we can make a difference. Our team is called Paul’s Purple Posse, this first inaugural year we are honoring Paul, our friend who is battling pancreatic cancer. We have 17 team members and we have raised over $6,000.00 to date. This has been a very rewarding experience so far and the Relay is still a week away!!

Please visit the American Cancer Society’s website to learn more about Relay for Life and how you can get involved, if you aren’t already on a team! This is such a worthwhile cause and so much of the money raised goes directly to research and direct patient services. Here is the link to our team page: http://main.acsevents.org/goto/paulspurpleposse

American Cancer Society, “The Official Sponsor of Birthdays”

The Year of the Monkey

I just finished a redesign for a teenager's room! It was so much fun tapping into her personality and seeing her so happy when it was finished! She has been to China and loves the culture so of course, she now has an Asian inspired room. The fish hanging to the left was the inspiration piece. With the help of my handy dandy "carpenter" who also happens to be my best friend and husband we wrapped up our project yesterday afternoon and left leaving Elizabeth telling us how much she loves her new room! It was so awesome to have her input and repurpose and reuse so much of what they already had and incorporate the things that mean so much to her.

How can scouring flea markets, thrift stores and bargain hunting for the perfect accessories be work! I love the hunt for the details that complete a room to perfection and love redesigning furniture that no one can even imagine is worth keeping. I am really starting to tap into that ole saying...love what you do and you will never work another day in your life. I can't wait until I can do this and my personalized greeting card businesses for a living 100% of my time.

Here is the before of the white French Provincial dressers Elizabeth said she did not want any part of and the after of the black Asian dressers! Three pieces of square Chinese artwork hung vertically will adorn the space between the lamp and the picture soon.

This lamp was a swap meet find, a little ingenuity and it is now very Asian and one of Elizabeth's favorite pieces! She loves the lanterns and the feeling of being under a tree; very tranquil. She had this wrought iron tree already hung from her ceiling, it was brown and is now black; this picture was hung on another wall in her room. Elizabeth was born in the year of the monkey and has adorned her tree with a very large collection!

Now on to the next redesign...

Taking a Break

I have been getting all of our tax info organized and ready to send off to our account, the sun is out today and it is beautiful; I would much rather be outside playing. I am so over the rain, I know we need it but I have had enough. I am yearning to get my hands in the dirt and start planting the garden. We are going to build some new garden beds and move the horse shoe pit, I can't wait!

It is always such a relief to get the past year's taxes out of the way; it seems like a new beginning to me! I told myself no playing in the yard until I finish this task...I am almost done, I will not be a prisoner any longer to 2009! I have even caught myself up on all the junk mail, bills, etc. Ok, back to the grind!

Breakfast for Two

Here's my completed Estate Sale find! What was once the TV compartment of an old entertainment center is now an awesome breakfast bar! Sorry I don't have a before picture, I promise the next the post I do of a "redesigned" piece I will definitely take a before picture. I was so enthusiastic to get this piece done for my friend so as she wanted to use it for Super Bowl Sunday, and I did rain and all!!

Speaking of Super Bowl Sunday, I was actually rooting for the Saints; yahoo! My husband is an avid football fan and really enjoys his Fantasy Football, I on the other hand pick a team by their uniforms, their location/city (I have been to NOLA, haven't been to Indianapolis), who I like or dislike, those kinds of things! My husband just shakes his head at me. Although I actually do know more about football than I care to admit, with 4 TV's on in our home, garage, shop and bedroom on any given Sunday during football season I can't help but learn a thing or two! I have recently been invited and joined a Fantasy Football league for women affectionately called The Goumbas. I can actually say I am excited for next season. I sure hope my method of picking a team pays off for me. Let's see I don't think purple is a very manly color, tiger stripes on a helmet; don't think so, I really enjoyed my visit to Nashville...

Excuses, Excuses, Excuses!

Well, my excuse for my long absence this time is: Relay for Life! We have a friend who has been diagnosed with Stage 3 pancreatic cancer; this is not good news. However, Doug and I have decided since there isn't a lot we can do to help him, other than prayers and support, we can form a Relay for Life team and help raise donations and awareness. I know most of you have heard of Relay for Life and many of you are probably already participating in your communities. If not, please take a minute and go to the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life website: http://www.relayforlife.org/relay/

You can help in so many ways; you can donate, volunteer, walk, the possibilities are endless. Nipomo is having their first Relay for Life event this year and we are so happy that we are going to be a part of it, since it is about communities! Our team is dedicating our Relay to Paul DeMello and our team name is Paul's Purple Posse, we are still recruiting team members, we are half way there (at least 15) and our goal is to raise $1500.00; we hope to shatter this goal!

I have just registered our team so our team website is a work in progress, we hope to have all of our team in place by next weekend. Please visit our team website at: http://main.acsevents.org/goto/paulspurpleposse

Trash to Treasure

I am in the process of helping my friend “redesign” her office and kitchen…I am in heaven! She has requested my services and it is such a compliment to have someone be so appreciative and amazed at what I so take for granted, because I love repurposing, recreating, redesigning… We purchased an awesome piece of solid wood furniture (I think it was originally a section of an entertainment center; the TV cabinet) from an Estate Sale we happened upon a week ago. I am currently repurposing it into a breakfast bar which will provide extra counter space and storage which she very much needs as she is a very successful Pampered Chef Senior Director and Consultant. She wants to transform her “oak” office into a light and inviting space. Oh do I have ideas!! I have collected some great finds from her “trash pile” that are perfect to be recycled into shelves and storage. She has picked out some elements from my home that she would like to have incorporated in her redesign. WOW, that is the ultimate compliment in my book; I can’t wait to get started in her office. I have recruited Doug to construct her gallery shelves for the hallway, she love ours (my idea, his brawn; what a team!!) I see a trip or two to the swap meet soon for accessories; oh do I have a bounce in my step!!

These pictures are a sampling of my redesigns from my home, I will post pictures once I am done with her projects; rain, rain go away… I know, I know, we need it; however, it hampers paint drying, sanding outdoors, swap meets, etc. Hmm, that sounds a bit selfish; but once I start a project I get on a roll!!

…more to come soon!

Rain, Rain and More Rain

This week has convinced me I certainly am not a “pioneer” woman, nor do I want to be one, and it is only Wednesday! I like hot coffee, lights, heat, etc. I love electricity. Monday was a holiday for me and I was so excited to spend the day on my computer catching up and finishing some projects I had started and sure enough the power went out at about 11:30 am! I had just got out of the shower and thought at least my timing was pretty good, so I got dressed, made some lunch and figured it should be coming back on soon surely, the sun was now out! Well, not so. Since the sun was out I ventured out in my “beautiful and trendy (not)” rubber boots and cut my roses back and trimmed the geraniums/trailing geraniums that thought Spring had arrived a week or two ago. Normally we have beautiful weather this time of year with rain here and there, not the torrential downpours we have been experiencing! The ground was saturated as was everything else and I didn’t intend to do as much as I ended up doing. So needless to say I was not wearing gloves and I got stung by a bee! Who would of thought…I don’t know which one of us was more surprised; me or the bee…except I survived our encounter! I thought surely by now the power had to be restored; but still no power. The sun was about gone by this time so I got the flashlights and candles ready and thought this is not fun anymore! Doug headed home about 6:00ish and called to see if we had power yet as he, of course, was wondering if he was going to have dinner!

Just after his phone call the power came back on; what a relief! We are getting hit by some pretty bad storms with thunder; lightning and gusty winds so we may have more power outages this week! I can’t wait for our beautiful, awesome and wonderful weather to return, I am such a fair weather gal! I will be so appreciative from now on and not complain when it’s only a foggy day…it beats rain any day in my book! So I guess the moral of my story is; when I wish that I would have absolutely nothing to do I really want that “nothing” to be on my terms with electricity.