Ten on Tuesday

10 Things That Make Me Happy

Grace and I have started this new Tuesday blog series- Ten on Tuesday! Every Tuesday it'll be a new list of ten things going on in our lives. Check out her list here!

I am a Bravo TV addict. At any given moment throughout the day I know I can turn it to Bravo and I'll be interested in whatever is on. I just love it. In July I stumbled upon "10 Things that Make Me Happy" with Kyle Richards and Jonathan Adler. It was just a half hour show about 10 things, big and small, that make them happy. What a fabulous idea! So I borrowed it for my Tuesday post. :) Here we go!

10. Metallic Spray Paint: Yes. Random. But this stuff is amazing! I've used it on furniture hardware, frames, and a vase. I'm excited to try it on my $8 junk store lamp, faux pumpkins for fall decor, and more. I'm addicted. I need to SPRAY PAINT! 


9. Bargain Hunt: More commonly referred to as the "broken box store". And that is exactly what it is. All the items are either closeout or have damaged packaging. I have found some great gems and I've never spent more that $60 on any of them. My favorite finds are my two Trina Turk pillows, Kimchi Blue suede pumps, Sam Edelman boots, my reading corner chair (that's right, they have furniture!), and a Dwell Studio duvet cover. Amazing. It really makes me so happy.


8. Jonathan Adler: I had just recently discovered Jonathan Adler through my fabulous friend with fabulous interiors, Grace. After the "10 Things That Make Me Happy" show I was official obsessed! He's is fantastic! As a person, as a designer, as a ping pong player. This inside of his home is awesome! So much color and amazing randomness. Makes me happy!

7. New Girl: OB-sessed. I love love love this show! Zooey Deschanel and crew make me laugh until I cry. When I'm feel a little blue or run down I know I can always dig into the DVR and play my New Girl episodes and immediately feel better. Laughing really is the best medicine. And it makes me so happy! 

6. Adam Lambert: Okay. This one indirectly makes me happy. I like Adam Lambert as much as the next pop music fan, but my Aunt LOVES him! And her fierce obsession makes me so happy! She is a crazed "Glambert" and proud. She saw him in concert on back-to-back nights in July, travelling 8 hours in between, and rocked out until the wee hours of the morning. She is TOTALLY fabulous! And I love hearing her crazy stories and helping her pick her rockin' outfits. Now if I can just get her to wear her fake lashes we'd be in business. :) Aunt B and her "fall into the glitter" attitude makes me so happy!

5. My Wall: My current most favorite wall in my house is in my living room. Painted by my best dude friend and Grace's hubs, Jaron, the lovely color Sassy Peach by Valspar. (I will try to refrain from using the name of the color when tell my husband about it.) It is beautiful! And with my new owl vase and other accessorizing, it's my favorite wall in my house right now.  Every time I walk up my stairs it makes my happy! I love it! ( I will post pictures in a later blog. It's pretty awesome!)

4. Put A Bird On It: Speaking of my owl vase, this video brightens my day. And has inspired my goal to have at least one bird in every room in my house. Watch and love.

3. Boots: I am addicted to boots. I'm serious. I love boots, boot weather, and boot shopping! From time to time I can be found wandering around my house in pajamas and a pair of boots, trying to will fall to come my way. I can't wait to wear all my boots, and until it's cool enough to wear them, I will shop for them! Boots make me happy.

2. My Countdown: Folks, we are closing in on September. And you know what that means?? My husband is coming home!!! Yes! Yes! Jump in the air and high five, yes! I always wait until I have an un-depressing number of days left to commit my countdown to writing. And currently we are under 40 days until HOMECOMING! Hello!! This makes me SO STINKIN HAPPY! (And also makes me use a lot of exclamation points!!!!! Duh.)

Finally, the Number 1 thing that makes me happy:

1. This face: 

I mean, how could you not be happy looking at this grin! The little man who's helped me through this deployment. He makes me the happiest momma in the world. Love. Happy.

Join in the fun! What makes you happy today?

A Pinterest Kind of Day

Today was a beautiful day in Clarksville. 80 degrees, breezy, and glorious! I love days like today. It was the perfect day to put Pinterest to good use. I have almost 200 pins on my "For Elijah" board. Some of them are ideas for his room, clothes, or keepsakes, but I have a few whoppers that are full of sensory ideas. I decided to toss the To Do list for the day and spend the day entertaining (and at times confusing) my son! I used this blog post: 56 Sensory Play Ideas for Babies from Growing a Jeweled Rose blog. There are so many good ideas in this blog and I was so excited to try a few!  

We started the day off at the park. We found an amazing park pretty close to our house that has lots of grass, a tiny river, and a playground. There were lots of other families spending the day there hiking, fishing, and picnicking. Eli loved the swing! And he loved watching the big kids swing. The cool breeze and the motion of the swing made him giggle and it melted me heart. Then we took a little rest and I let Eli investigate the grass. We don't really have grass at our house so this is the first time he's really been able to roll around without me worrying about rocks, mud, or dog poop. Yuck. He was very interested. He would run his hand back and forth and then grab a chunk and let it blow away. This lasted about 3 minutes and then he was more interested in eating the grass so it was time to move on. I decided to try a hiking trail. Now, I'm more of an "indoorsy" type of girl due to my allergies, the fact that I don't really like to get dirty, and my hatred of anything in the insect family.  So this was going to be a challenge. And it was a challenge I decided not to accept because I'm a chicken. One Charlotte's Web-esque spider web and it was back to the car for us. We will save this adventure for Daddy. 

Our next stop was the Dollar Tree.  I wanted to make sensory bags and bottles so I needed lots of supplies on the cheap. I ended up with a few bags of small rubber toys (sea creatures, turtles, and dinosaurs), a few bottles of colored hair gel and body wash, some glow sticks, sponges, puff balls, beads, noodles, and a Reese's Peanut butter Cup (for me, obviously). We headed home to continue our sensory experience.

I had saved some small water bottles and I filled one halfway with the beads and puff balls and then filled it with water. This idea worked like a charm! Eli was so interested! He kept shaking the bottle and then holding it really close to his face just staring at all the floating colors. He kept trying to hold the bottle with one hand and swat it with the other but his hands are still a little too small and he kept dropping it. So I dangled the bottle on a string from his jumper and let him swat at it for a while. I kept a close eye on him because I need to get some tape to secure the lid before I let him really go at it. But this idea was a winner! 

Next I made a sensory bag. I only had big baggies, but I think it still worked okay. I'm going to tape them to the side of the bath tub so he can play with them during bath time. For this I used a entire blue hair gel, a bag of rubber turtles, some sea creatures, and a handful of beads. Eli squished and squeezed the bag with his hands and feet. I think he loved the gel. I didn't let him play with this one too long because I need to reinforce the sides with tape. But I think it will really work in the tub! 

Next, we did sponges in the tub. This one was so simple and so fun! He loved squishing the sponges and flinging them around getting me and most of the bathroom a little wet. But it was awesome.

And I think he enjoyed his bath a little more too! :) 

Finally, I let Eli play with spaghetti! And let me tell you, I thought this would be the biggest hit of all. Well as you can see, he was not impressed with the spaghetti. I think this one just confused him and he wasn't sure if her was supposed to eat it (which he could have!) or play with it. But he seemed a little freaked out. Maya was thrilled with this sensory experiment. 

Now my angel is fast asleep. It was a wonderful weekend. So excited to watch my boy grow! 

Hunting Season

Yes, I hunt. I scope out a location, decide on my desired prey, and do my research. And while there are several hunting seasons, my favorite is approaching. No- I'm not talking about sitting in some tree covered in camo paint and being totally silent. Let's be honest, I would be terrible at that kind of hunting. I'm talking about the hunt that is shopping. I love to hunt for a good deal, the perfect pair of boots, or the perfect piece to finish decorating a room. To me, half the fun is finding exactly what I'm looking for. I've been doing a good bit of hunting lately...

Here are the things I'm excited for this Fall.

The perfect pair of riding boots. 

 The perfect little lion costume for Eli's first Halloween.

These metallic pumpkins. 

Leather jacket

Pumpkin. Spice. Latte.

When do you start itching for fall? What season is your favorite hunting season? Happy August!!