Luv BBW!

I signed up for a Luv BBW card about a month ago from Bath and Body Works. Aside from the atrocious spelling, it's a pretty cool program. It was a free card that allows you to go to any Bath and Body Works any one Thursday of the month and get the free item of the month.

I stopped by on the last possible Thursday for January (I kept forgetting) and was quite surprised at my free gift.

I got a free full-size hand soap (in my favorite kitchen scent--Kitchen Lemon), a Pocket Bac antibacterial hand gel in a great new smell (Aqua Blossom) and a free Pocket Back holder. I really like these little holders and have them hooked on almost every tote and purse I own!

Sorry for the bad phone pic--I tried my best to edit it and make it look presentable.

I found out you can't sign up online anymore with out a store membership number, but I asked the sweet cashier how hard it was to get one and she said all you have to do is ask. Then you go online here and sign up. Easy as pie!

I can't wait to see what I get for the next four months!

P.S. BBW didn't pay me to do this. Just sharing the freebie love!

Nursery Update, Part 2

Sorry for you three or four folks that read our baby blog; this is another post from over there!

Justin and I have busted our butts this weekend to make a little more progress on the nursery. For the record, I STILL hate painting trim and windows, but it makes a HUGE difference in the room. We got almost all of the trim finished up, with the exception of the ceiling trim where we got a little roller happy and got brown paint up there.

We also made a big transformation with the big wooden dressers that we had. These beauties were left in the house when we moved in and the quality just can’t be beat! They have dovetail joints and everything. Unfortunately, the wood was just too much with the paint color and the wood floors so they got a nice new coat of crisp white and the hardware got a shiny new coat of silver for a swanky update.

They really turned out great. We have looks-like-new furniture with the same great quality from the way furniture used to be made. The whole upgrade cost us about $5 in paint for both dressers and $5 in spray paint for the hardware (which we’re still using on just about every piece of hardware, doorknob, and old brass we can find in the house.

And because I was doing fifty things at once, I took a “before” pic of the vertical dresser and an “after” pic of the horizontal one, but I think you might get the overall effect!

Elbow Grease and Love, Pt. 4

YAY for multitasking! I wrote this blog post for the baby blog when I realized it would be a great update to the “Elbow Grease and Love” series of the updates we make in our house.

When Justin first bought our house, this is what we were faced with in the guest room, which is now our little one’s nursery:

 

The walls were a non-offensive khaki color, but the carpet! Oh the carpet was just rough! That was the first thing to go before anything was moved into the house. We were so blessed to find beautiful hardwood floors that didn’t even need a thing done to them except to be mopped. Excuse the mess—we’re still painting trim on the doors and have yet to paint my closet door.

 

As we have begin preparations for the baby, we have painted, painted and painted some more with plenty more in store.

Notice the raw wood trim. I want to freshen up the house by painting all the wood trim crisp white. Painting window frames is like being in purgatory. You can see below that we haven’t done all of them yet.

  

The nursery got two coats of “Paper Sack” and the windows are set to be painted in the next few weeks.

When we get the walls and windows finished, I have to paint the old-but-new-to-the-nursery-dresser crisp white too.

More updates to come!

Christmas Loot

It’s been a crazy holiday season with a lot of ups and downs. For some reason, I didn’t take one single picture, even though I have a super-awesome new camera. We had a bit of a scare when we thought we were going to lose our puppy girl, but thanks to a lot of steroid shots and some other meds, we get to love on her for a while longer, which makes me smile times 1,000.

My Nanny spent a week in the hospital with pneumonia and other stuff, but she’s at home finally and on the mend. We got to spend New Year’s Day at her house and came across some pretty neat stuff, including my great grandparents’ marriage license (from 1916!!!!) and really old family photos I had never seen before. My sister scanned this one of the three of us with our Poppy.

Doesn’t my dad look just like him? Mama says Daddy tells the same old jokes over and over again just like Pop.

  

Christmas presents were nice, too! Justin got me a glider rocker and ottoman for our baby (BOY)’s nursery! That’s right---a few days before Christmas, we found out we are having a little blue bundle of joy, which makes me just ecstatic!

I also got a ton of other cool stuff. Too much really…I tell Justin we always make out like fat rats! He got a new grill from me and lots of grilling accessories. I think that brings our grand total of grills and/or smokers to 5 or 6.  That’s just crazy!

Hope everyone else had a good holiday. I’m so glad it’s over and I can return to my normal schedule for just a little while.