spooktacular.....spooktacular!!!

Happy Halloween everyone!  This my first Halloween as a type 1 diabetic....so wish me luck staying away from the butterfingers bars.  I thought I would upload some of my favorite diy projects I found this year for halloween. I think the diy crowd is such an amazing talented group of people. I get blown away everyday with the amazing things I find on all of your sites.

This is sooo me...I love white and flowy but I am a dark girl at heart!

I am making these for a friends party today....
 and these but with more fiber so that I can eat them as well

I love these...can U imagine the patience it took.

I could go on for days of all the amazing things people have turned out this year and cant wait to see what u girls have up your sleeve for Christmas!

Have a spooktacular night with all of your little ones.....g is Pocahontas and e is jack sparrow......

salads can be fun!!

So as most of you know I am a type 1 diabetic.  So I have to get my food kicks from healthy sources. Luckily for me I do not have a big sweet tooth so that's easy for me to avoid. Unfortunitly for me Carbs are everywhere even in healthy stuff I love....Like potato and pasta and oranges and white rice and sourdough bread,ohh and grapes.  Grapes are like little sugar bombs to my G.I numbers.  Also, even eating very healthy and low carb I can not eat a lot in one sitting, so I have had to really trick myself into thinking I have a lot on my plate specially at dinner. That is suppose to be my smallest meal.

any who....I find using a smaller plate helps. I also try to slow down to let the brain and tummy connect with feeling full.  With the wonderful holidays approaching I thought I would try to motivate us all to stay on track and keep health in to the New Year.

With out further ado.....Week 1...of  Eat this not That!

I use balsamic dressings or just oil and vinegar a lot.  Dressing can really turn a healthy salad into a calorie pit.
This salad has apples, mandarin oranges, almond slivers and goat cheese.

Another exchange I do is I love a good french fry and No body makes better fry's then In-Out.
So I get a cheese burger protein style so that I can eat the fry's.  ( they wrap the hamburger in lettuce)




Honestly little changes can make a huge difference and before you know it it becomes a habit.


So what is your favorite healthy Exchange?

tripping on my mirror!!

I love a good vintage mirror. I love when they look old and have that aged look to them. 



Just like this....I love this!!


 The techniques out there with the oven cleaner and muratic acid left mirrors like this:



completely void in areas.  which looks cute with the fabric behind it, but not what I wanted.


I found this oval mirror at goodwill for 8 bucks and thought i would experiment.

sorry this is the back..the front is a plane mirror with a wood frame.

I removed the backing and put some citrus solve on the back part of the mirror to take away the gray paint backing.

citra solve on the back of the mirror...and below is the back side after the silver paint is gone...

O.K...so this is actually the back side of the mirror not the front...this is what my mirror looked like after taking off the silver stuff.  I am not sure if it was timing or the age of the mirror...but it worked out great. The black spots were from the muratic acid.  that stuff is very tricky and can eat thru the whole surface in seconds.  I turned on the hose and lightly sprayed the mirror then dripped the acid on to the mirror.  I could actually here the sizzle....please be careful...then sprayed it off quickly.


I love it the frame is drying and it needs to be aged and waxed...so stay tune for the beauty shots..

do...do..doo list

For some reason last night i got a huge kick in the pants and started on ...well at least 4 projects. I had found some cool stuff when i went out thrifting and i really want to piece together my gallery wall in the living room.

so i started on my acid mirror a huge magnetic /chalk board sign and i finished sanding down my dresser. I also came up with an idea for the platters i want to hang you remember this :

yeah thats the amazing sticky stuff that can hold up to 30lbs.....not so much!

Here a peak at my madness that overcame me last night.....the pics are not pretty...but hey thats real life right?

I will have a tutorial on the mirror tomm...must finish do..doo..doing!!!

lame..lame is my name

So today is find day and i have nothing to show.  I have had a really hard time finding stuff I really love. I did go to home depot and finally find some mounting solution for my plates, I also found a huge chalk board I am working on today and the dresser I want to do a little more sanding on it then hopefully I can get some beauty shots up. Also I am going to do the acid mirror that I have been dying to do.  I guess i better get a working only one more day off to get all these things done..... here is a sneak peek at the dresser......

let the cleaning begin..

Here is the pic I promised u of my costume....hopefully my friends took better ones at the party!!!

So my family came into town on Friday and they just left minutes ago....soooo...on with the cleaning. I clean like mad before they come to clean again as soon as they leave. It's all good.  I love my family more than anything and wish i lived closer to them. luckily its only a 4 hour drive so we don't go to long with out seeing each other.

So not a lot to show you furniture wise.  I promise to have shots on wed of the dresser and I will go this week and stock up on some new projects. today I will leave you with some great hair tips....I know Hair..but I am a hairdresser by profession.  I have been in the biz for 16 years, gone to Vidal academy worked for Aveda for 10 years even went to NBC studios when I was young and worked in the makeup dept. I still work about 3 days a week in my own studio down in Scottsdale.

So here is a few tips I can give you...

Pictures...pictures are worth a thousand words to a hairdresser.  Please be very specific about what you like and what YOu Dont like when asking for a new do!...Its your hair so unless you know and trust your hairdresser make sure they understand very well what you want.  We creative folks tend to think we know best.

here is a collection of cuts that I think work well on just about anyone.....Classics...well u curly hair girls I will get another post for you....we have hair that needs to be treated special!!




here is one of my fav ways to do dark color....with just a hint of ombre highlights



here is a look of gorg bridal styles....love the new trend of leaving it down...





If anyone has a hair question you can always email me and I will do my best to help you  out....see you tomm with some new treasures i have found.....

dia los muertos

So i am still finishing the dresser but it is coming out way cuter then the flower thing. I will have a peek at it on Monday. Today i wanted to show you my costume idea for a Halloween party I am going to on sat. Lets face it trying to find a cool adult costume at 34 is a little harder then at 24. First They make them all super sexy... which is fine when you are younger. Really ladies even if you have a smoken hot 30+ body it just looks silly to weAR some of these costumes. You can show of your cute bod in great costumes that are...well...more appropriate.

Any who...i spent a fortune on my kids costumes at the Disney store.  the only reason I did is because my little girl wears them all year long.  I wanted to create something for me using my talents. I have been a hairdresser and makeup artist for 16  years!....so this is my inspiration ....

This is the one I am in love with...the coloring is perfect...I am wearing a flowy colorful maxi dress...it is still in the 90's out here and its is costing me around 7 dollars for all the gems lashes and makeup...hopefully I will have pics on sunday for you!!

happy day of the dead.....

progress on the dresser

She aint pretty but she is getting closer for her full beauty shots.........

This is what she looked like before...simple white dresser three drawers with a  medium oak top. I wanted to leave a little wood show( it's my thing) so I taped off the top.

Then I primed her in a gray primer......big tip....shake and shake then shake the primer some more.  If you don't the texture is like sand paper not good...

Then after another coat of primer and some sanding I painted it with this 

so the wet shinny stuff around the edges is stain.  Mini wax stain in dark walnut. I used the flat edge of a paint scraper to scrap the edges of the dresser, but since the wood underneath is white i had to stain over it.  I let the stain sit for a good 10 mins then wipe off the excess.


I had this vision of cascading flowers on the dresser but it looked like a Hawaii nightmare so today i am going to try handwriting some script on it instead.

this is a good shot of the detailing but ugg those flowers....I will have new pics on Friday of the new and improved dresser.

How not to hang a wall gallery

That is right I said NOT...I have been collecting silver platters from my local goodwill for about 2 months now. I was so excited to finally have enough to hang in my kitchen. The problem was how to hang them? I have always wanted to try that magically sticky stuff that does not damage your walls and says it can hold up to 30 pounds......yeah...not so much. I don't have a before picture to show you because i wanted to do a photo shoot today when the light was good, but I have an after....

yeah that is what was left of 8 that I hung up!

Here is a before shot of that space  before.....nothing magical at all.   Thats a shot of e and g...no worries its going in my laundry room when i finish painting it!

here is a shot of some of the platters...I left the nice ones untouched but the cheap silver got painted chalkboard black.

my intentions was to make different cutouts to go with the season to attach to the platters.  Like give thanks for thanksgiving or ho  ho ho for Christmas.

so now to home depot to get plate hangers!!!

Tuesday is find day!!

I am so pathetic this week.  Lately I just have not found that much great stuff. I'm also getting really cheap on my finds and only want them at the best price possible.  my re-store has been killing me lately with $75 dollar price tags on junky side tables from the 80's. I don't get the mentality of pricing thins sooo high.  They have to make money, I get that, but things just sit and sit till they mark it down or have a sale. I think I need to try a new spot.

I did find this very old piano bench...that I painted but still need to age and find the right material for it...

two milk glass salt and pepper shakers.....

old maple syrup server for 25 Cents.....

here is a full shot of the bench!!!

MANIC MONDAY...

CHEATER...CHEATER PUMPKIN EATER.

Today I have endless errands. I am having trouble with my diabetic insulin regemine. I am no longer in the honeymoon stage and my old dosage just is not working. That makes me frustrated and pissy and really not in the mood for projects or sanding or painting. So....today I am cheating and uploading some eye candy from my  pinterest page for everyone to enjoy...

I love these and will be making a healthy fiber full version so stay tuned

love this...Im thinking my bedroom needs an industrial chic look!!!

love the vibrant fabric on these chairs...

this is a great idea of using flat and gloss paint in the same color...gigi's room I am trying this !!

follow me ....if u dare!!