A Little Bit of Pampering!

Posted by Ashley

Hi blog friends!
I hope you are having a wonderful week! I don't know about you guys, but it seems like life is just whizzing by lately... there's so much to do and so little time! With all the craziness of life going on, I wanted to set aside some time just for me. I'm not much for expensive pampering, so I typically try to find inexpensive ways to pamper myself every once in a while. I have to share this new product I recently found at Walmart. As I've mentioned before, I'm a self-proclaimed product junkie and I love to try new things out. As I was purchasing some usual products, like shampoo and hairspray, I stumbled upon this new line of organic beauty products. As soon as I saw them, I had to take a sniff to see if they smelled as good as the packaging looked.



I'm sure some of you have tried organic beauty products only to find that they smell... well... organic. I was pleasantly surprised! The packaging doesn't lie... all the products have a "delicious fragrance." Since I haven't done a facial mask since college, I thought I would give it a try. Nate had a meeting with a fellow ministry team leader last night, so I thought I would have a "girl night" and give myself a facial. I have to say that the facial worked amazingly well! I left it on my face to dry for about 15 minutes and once I washed it off, my face felt super refreshed and clean. I would highly recommend this product... and since it's only $6.00 at Walmart, what could be better? I even thought I'd include a photo of me getting the facial :) Not very glamorous... but super fun! Have a wonderful day!

HB to my MOM...

Happy Wednesday!! The half way mark!!! Hump Day!!! Whoop whoop!!


Today is my mother's birthday...so a BIG Happy Birthday SHOUT out to my Mom!!! I take after her in the fact that I am not aging, LOL!!! I do have to say that my mom can out-shop me any day~I get tired keeping up with her!!!

Here is one of my favorite pictures of my mom and Ashley (I think this is when I got my first DSLR camera and had no idea how to use it).

Here is the card I made for her~I even pulled out my sewing machine for this one...which is a big deal, cause I am not really a "sewer" (take after my mom on that one too!!), but I do have to say that sewing cardstock is pretty easy and FUN!!! Expect to see more cards sewn up on the old bloggy!! I know this is not a new concept, but I am always a little behind the times, LOL!






Enjoy today!!!!
and Happy Birthday MOM!!!

Supplies used (PTI unless noted): Delightful Dahlia stamp set; Kraft/Dark Chocolate/Ruby Red (SU!)/Old Olive (SU!)/White/Lemon Tart cardstock; Choc Chip (SU!)/Fresh Snow ink; Papertrey Die Zig Zag and Delightful Dahlia; Edge Punch (EK Success); Dark Chocolate Button; Twine

laundry room re~do...

Hi friends!
I finally got around to snapping a few photos of my laundry room re~do (I use the word room lightly...because it is more like a closet, LOL!). This was the one room in our house that never got re~done. When we moved in, we concentrated on all the other rooms because they were more of a priority (bedrooms/family room/living room/and of course my craft room, LOL!!). After living here for almost 10 years~I finally go sick of the stark white walls and random cabinet that was in the space.

First I taped off the ceiling and around the molding (this was done about a month ago and I got too busy~sheesh!!). I went to Home Depot and picked out this lovely color for the walls and this color for the cabinet. Then while I was in the paint aisle I picked up this to clean the walls and cabinet and this to help prevent paint streaks.

This is what I was dealing with (note~since my laundry room is the size of a closet, I could not get photos of the entire room). very frustrating!!!

Just a plain white blah room!!







After two days of prep/paint/organizing...tah dah!!! My new and improved space!!!








*the laundry sign I picked up at Hobby Lobby for 1/2 price*

Now onto the cabinet organization~Here is the before:


and here is the After:
It just makes me happy that everything has it's place and "like items" are grouped together~all is well in the laundry room now!!!



Does it make me want to do laundry more~unfortunately NO!!! Do I smile when I walk by it~YES!!! Do I open the cupboards randomly to look at the organized space~HECK YEAH!!! Now I just need to pick up a few more boxes from IKEA to complete the cabinet!!!

(here are my categories if you are interested: cleaners, plastic utensils, napkins/paper plates, pet supplies, summer (which is sun screen and bug spray), rags, and once I pick up a few more boxes I will add: sponges (I love the magic erasers), party supplies (which is on the top left), and maybe a few to grow into? (and I am not really sure why I have vaseline in my laundry cupboard??? I think Mike was using it for something in the garage and it just ended up there).

I have been thumbing through a Do-it-Yourself catalog and am debating on my next project...Josh thinks I should paint the kitchen cabinets, but let me just say, the ones I did in the laundry room were quite a bit of work~my hubs would definitely have to be on board with that project, LOL!!, and right now he just has too much going on~so don't see that happening for a while.

Okay that is it for today~HAPPY ORGANIZING my Peeps!!!

thank you so very much & my DIY weekend...

Howdy friends!!
I hope you had a marvelous weekend!!! I had 4 days of Mission Organization (which if somewhat fun for me~really). I redid my laundry room~it is finally complete and I will post before and after photos tomorrow~because I was too tired (and sore from all the paint roller'ing, and standing in weird positions to reach hard to paint areas) to take photos last night, LOL!. I could have used 1 more package of these, so I will most likely hit IKEA this week for some. I also cleaned out the snack/cereal shelves in my pantry (boy I need a bigger pantry!!!, but will make do with what I have *smile*). While I was at Home Depot picking up a few painting supplies~I grabbed this magazine, and put it in our usually reading spot (the bathroom, LOL!!), well my hubby was not excited to see it~because it means I have a few more projects up my sleeve!!!

Ok~enough home improvement talk for today!!

I submitted a bunch of cards for publication and a few didn't get selected~which means now I can share them on the old blog!!!


Ok~I'm back to reality today...Enjoy your Monday!!!

Supplies used (PTI unless noted): Blooming Button Bits/Beautiful blooms/Delightful Dahlia stamp sets; Kraft/White/Dark Chocolate/Hibiscus Burst cardstock; Fresh Snow ink; Beautiful Blooms Die; Martha Stewart Punch (Michael's); Brown Taffita Ribbon (SU!); White Button; Twine

glorious organization...

Howdy all...


I am on an organization kick at the moment, and have a few projects that I am working on today (I promise to post lots of pics!!! Because I for one LOVE before and after photos). I am tackling my laundry room today (which has been taped and ready for paint for about 3 weeks now), I went to Ikea yesterday and picked up some of these. Then I will hopefully finishing my upstairs doorknobs, plus some pantry organizing (with these)...doesn't it sound glorious??? (spoken like a true OCD'er).

found great organization tips here.

Enjoy today peeps!!!

Great Summer Reading!

Posted by Ashley...

Good Tuesday morning everyone! I hope you are having a super awesome week so far. Today, I wanted to share with you my recent obsession with a book. Now that I am on somewhat of a hiatus from classes and Nate's parents got me an Amazon giftcard for my birthday, I have been dying to find a good read! I was perusing some blogs I enjoy reading and found out about Tracie Peterson, who is a Christian author. After doing some research on Amazon, I knew I had to start the Song of Alaska Series based on customer feedback. I purchased the first book of this series Dawn's Prelude on my Kindle on Friday afternoon and I am already 35% finished! It's a wonderful story and it really keeps you interested the whole time. I would highly recommend this book to everyone, so if you're looking for a late summer read, give it a try! I'm trying to get as much leisure reading in right now as possible before I leave to take my last intensive class at Liberty University at the end of August.

I hope you all have a wonderful day & I will see you back here on Thursday!

hip hip hooray~birthday!

Happy Monday!!! The one bad part about the weekend~is the end (stole that from my brother's Facebook wall~isn't he clever??).

Another crazy weekend at the Clark house! We celebrated Nate's birthday yesterday, which was a lot of fun (Nate really liked his gifts, LOL!). I have an office birthday today, my mom's coming up on August 11th and then I am taking a birthday break for a while~I am birthday'd out, LOL!!!



Here is a card I made for our office party today~used some of my new stuff from Papertrey Ink. I needed a masculine card~so I tried not to fluff it up too much. Can I just say how much I am loving the ric rac die!!! I had been on the fence about it, but I can tell it is gonna get a lot of use!! LOVE IT!!!



Ok, I am seriously hoping to get caught up with my life this week (fingers crossed!!), I have some publications to work on today after work (which are due tonight by midnight~nothing like waiting until the last minute, huh???), just hope my schedule and stamping mojo cooperate!

Supplies used (PTI unless noted): Fillable Frames #3; Hawaiian Shore/Pure Poppy/Kraft/White Cardstock; Hawaiian Shore/Pure Poppy ink; Fillable Frame/Ric Rac Die; White Buttons; Twine; pop dots