Challenge

Tyler told me today I have too many clothes.
Say what?
Can a girl have too many clothes?

Well, this may end up being a mistake, but I decided to take on a personal challenge.  I do feel very blessed and don't want this explanation to come across the wrong way... I've been fortunate enough to have a wonderful friend who recently gave me a bunch of clothes.  I've also bought a lot of clothes in the last little bit.  And although I went through my old clothes and gave a lot away not too long ago, I'm finding my closet is pretty full; full of clothes I'm still not wearing much.  Not because I don't like them, but because I get into clothes-moods and wear the same bunch of tops over and over.  I just can't seem to give up on some of those other clothes yet and give them away.

So... my challenge, starting the beginning of the year, is to wear a different top every day without repeating a top until I've worn all of them once.  (If needed, I can repeat pants, accessories, shoes, cardigans, jackets, coats, socks, and underwear... it's mainly just the tops that can't be repeated.)

I'm taking on this challenge to hopefully find out what clothes I actually like and would wear.  If I find I'm not digging them, then I should just give them away.

I've decided to do this with my church attire too... this one might prove to be a little more difficult because I have a million skirts (from way back when) that will need to be worn with a plain top...  and I only have so many of those.  I may have to adjust the rules with those outfits...?  But for sure the skirt/dress will change each Sunday.

In order to keep me accountable, I've decided to take pictures and document them somehow.  I'll let you know how I document, if you're actually interested... maybe on a separate blog.  Even if I don't post every day I'll still be taking pictures every day.  Yikes!  What am I getting myself into?

Memories

Christmastime always gets me thinking of tons of fun memories from my childhood and with my family.
After seeing my friend's post I thought it'd be great to follow suit and post this:
 
Answer about Emily, or Tyler, or Danica, or all 3 of us:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments. 

redecorating surprise

Well, a couple times Tyler has told me that I should post about the redecorating surprise I did in our front room while he was gone in Orlando for a work convention back in October.  I told him that he should post about it so I didn't sound like I was saying "Oh! Look at all I did.  I'm so cool!"  But he hasn't posted about it, obviously.  And for the last few days I've been looking at our blog thinking I should post about something... but what?

Well here you have it.  The Redecoration... Look at all I did!  I'm so cool!

(It actually wasn't a lot since I couldn't spend very much money and had only a couple days to do it.... granted I did stay up most of the nights working too... so it was more like a few "days" to do it)

The reason I decided to redecorate was because we bought some new couches!!

You may have noticed these curtains before.

With the new chocolate brown couches and the old olive green curtains
the room seemed very dark.  

Replacing the green with some robin's egg blue lightened things up a bit.

Here are the new accessories:

(sorry for all the bad pics.  I did it quickly during Dani's nap)

super easy fabric balls - made out of scrap fabric and a little hot glue 

Danica's had some fun with these balls... as you can tell

These are hanging along our stairs

made with scrapbook paper and basic crocheting skills

On one of our cinderblock walls hang these frames

made out of cardboard mats (pack of 3 at $ Store), 

covered in scrapbook paper, and fun doodads, and hung up with that blue tacky tape (or whatever it's called)

the berries were found online and cut out with my cricut 

(I LOVE my cricut!!)

also made with my cricut....

I got this idea from my sister Anna. 

The empty picture in the middle will eventually be one like this

(The Oakland, CA Temple, where we got married)

I also made these

 
The backs of the pillows are all slip covers made with the same blue and white fabric as the big pillow.  I was actually proud of myself for figuring out how to do the slip cover on my own... a whole lot easier than I thought it would be too.  That fabric is left over from curtains I originally made.  Though they kept me up 'til the wee hours of morning, they, sadly, looked horrible!  So they're now sitting in a drawer upstairs.

Even so, I enjoyed doing this redecoration.  I love to craft and it's always fun to see something you made come together.

And now that I think about it, I have serveral things to post, but it's all about finding the time to do it.  So I guess... stay tuned.