love letters to my g

You are sugar and a whole lot of SPICE.....and everything nice.

I love that you love to get glamed up.  I love that you want to be so girly and fancy all the time. I do admit that some time I want u to throw on a pair of leggings a tee shirt and run out the door with me. 

That wouldn't be U!

I have learned how to roll with ur fussy, glam girl style....I invented the gypsy bun for u.

( for when I am to lazy to brush ur hair out....I pull it high up on ur head in a bun and add a clip.)

I know that you can always be won over with a little lip gloss and I can make any outfit fancy by letting you add 17 different necklaces and bracelets to the mix.

I love u nanny poo poo!!!

dont u love that my hair is dripping wet but her hair was curled and pinned in a retro updo......what a diva!

busy busy busy...

I have been very busy around here trying to get all the Christmas decor up..I want a very specific look, but i think i might have to blend what I have with what I want.

• wants

fresh pine and mercury glass....

vintage brush trees...LOVE....this has been a hard one to find!

I am making this today or tomm....wish me luck!!

subway art dresser....Martucci style

So i first saw this done  here at lindauer design.

Amazing right!   I love the look it screams industrial chic.  I wanted it in my family room so I needed a bigger dresser to do mine on. I choose this bad boy..

I sanded it down and applied my own version of chalk paint..( i got the recipe from No minimalist)...I will share next week. I want to test it out totally and I have not sanded it down yet .

So I painted the drawers the base color white...

Then i added letters from micheals...I choose to do favorite islands on top drawer...street names on second and family nic names on bottom...I wanted it personal.
I can always paint over it when I want to sell it.

 than I painted right over all of it...

and thats were she is right now...life got crazy and the holidays slapped me right in the face.

I will keep u posted on her and tell u how the chalk paint held up and distressed....

THANKS-giving...love letters

No better day then today for a LOVE letter....................

I am thankful for little hand that help me thru my day....

I am thankfull for little chairs that can hold lots of love...

I am thankful for special moments caught in time.....

 for a loving partner and best friend...........

 for ME time so I can be a better Me....


And most of all I am thankful for these two little ones who teach me the meaning of true LOVE everyday...

yummy yummy ...get in my tummy!

I love to cook.....But you all know my issue with food.  For those of u who dont...(shhh Im diabetic) .  Oh hell. I am type 1. I have to control my carb intake because I no longer make insulin. Insulin is that  stuff your pancreas secrets to turn food into energy. Non d-listers get to eat all day tomorrow and never wonder how much insulin to inject because ur pancreas functions normally ( lucky U).

Ok. Ok. I will get back to the food.  I am in charge of dessert. These are some of the inspirational desserts I have found!

I will make the pumpkin roll....family tradition!!

I love the idea using jars!!

chocolate pumpkin bites


pumpkin pie thumb bite cookies....






Happy baking everyone!

tuesday is find day!!

I went searching for 2 very specific items and was lucky enough to find both.

First I wanted an old book .... captain g and I found a couple. Yes...Yes g always wears her fur when we go glam thrifting!




 I also needed a mid mod dresser for a project I had in mind...

I started on the dresser and will give u a peek tomm at the start...but the finish will be next week.  I am trying to get all the christmas stuff out this week so the dresser is on hold. 

laundry room sneak peek....

I have been working on my laundry room all last week.  I wanted to redo it. 

I could show u a million photos of amazing laundry rooms that i would love to have but i have a tiny hole of a room so this is the best inspiration for my size room....

I am also making this chandy for it.....





I bought everything u need for 10 dollars at the dollar store.  I think I am going to keep my accent color in antique white....I am going to keep it simple and very girly.....ok... so are u ready for the before shot.

here she is.....

Nothing amazing,just a typical tiny laundry room I have been wanting to make-over for a while now.


I will try to get photos up of the paint by the end of the week...I am almost done.

This is a little sample of what I have been up to this week....all of it is still unfinished and dont think it will get finished next week because of the holiday ....oh well..

I will post the finished painting of the laundry room....and hopefully the start of Christmas decor..
here IS a board of things i started this week...

tutorial for the black dresser....

O.K. u very handy, crafty ladies out in blog land.  I am posting a step by step on this dresser...I am keeping it simple and with lots of pics. That is the way I like my tutorials. Its nothing super new but their maybe something on here that you have not tried or a new way to do it.


Just to let you know I made my own chalk paint and next week I will have the play by play on how that went...

the dresser started out white...Not a fan because it makes the distressing harder...but She was a solid well working dresser for a great price....sooo we can work with it.

I used spray paint this time for something differant..simple ...satin...krylon black

taped off the top....then I primed it in dark grey primer...YOU do not want white......get the grey it saves on the  spray paint and makes for better coverage.

So she has been sprayed over a 6 hour period with 2 cans of black spray paint light stokes in a left to right motion then giving it 30 mmins to dry to do another light coat. It looks very streaky till u slowly build 5 to 6 light coats. In this pic u see me starting the aging process.

so since the wood underneath the black paint is so light...i do this little trick. I paint on dark stain with a q-tip no less.  we are fancy around here.  it works great and i hate cleanup so win win. so as u can see from the photo above i saturate it let it sit for 20 mins then wipe it off...and usually get this

so the..umm script(more like my fancy handwriting)....it was done with a chalk pen from my local scrap store....it is the weirdest thing.  Goes on clear then turns to this great chalky texture that are ready.....does not wipe off.


Ohh..maybe u noticed my watermark.  I am trying very hard to watermark my photos now. I know they are not award winning quality....yet....but u watch out when i get my new camera!!!

a little script....and a whole lotta of love

 So this dresser has been done for a while.  I had an issue with the poly i applied.  I usually do wax but this dresser was not done in my typical paint so I thought a spray poly would be good to protect it.  The poly dried in a haze. So i had to do a extra fine sanding block. I found it a wally world and then I reapplied the krylon black satin spray paint and she is ready to post. I am sorry my hubby refused to drag her in for a beauty shot so I tried to use photoshop to make her close up pretty.

so here she is from her craigslist ad....country fab!!

I will give u a break down on thur of all the steps I used in one long tutorial..I know I have posted little snips but it will be easier to have it in one post.








there's a party going on right here:

love letters to e and g

So when I started this blog I had every intention of sharing with you MY love letters to E and G, but then I got so swepped up into the DIY movement I kinda forgot what this blog was all about. The problem is I love redoing furniture and making things, so how to I include my Love letters in DIY blog?

I guess I just go with the flow and post things that I am passionate about and the rest will work it's self out.  RIGHT? right.

So i opened up one of my journals this morning and I found this and thought every mom could relate so I am sharing my heart with you all today.....

                                                      not the momma
                                                     a love letter to E

I dont like writing when i feel this way, because you could get the impression for one moment that I don't love everything about being ur mom. But some days. some days I want to lock you in ur room and hide my head under a pillow and scream. I guess as you change I am having to change. change the way I parent. What my role is has changed, how much you need me or don't need me anymore.


I used to provide you shelter then you were born. I use to carry you places then you began to walk. I use to feed you then you started to feed yourself.

now E you turn on the t.v. set the d.v.r and can google anything you want to know. You get up early with your sister fetch a few frozen pancakes and watch t.v. quietly as not to wake me. by the time i get up and start searching for my tea mug, you are dressed and ready to go to school. I am left wondering what my new role is. the edges have been blurred.

That was a moment in time that I would have forgotten about if I had not written it down. I know today what my new role is for my big boy. But at that moment I was left saddened by his growth and accomplishments, left heart broken for my tiny baby. I love to look back at these different moments. I think they help me as a parent. I learn from them ,grow from them and laugh at most of them.


No matter what I do in this life time or what kind of awards I receive......E and G  will always be my greatest accomplishment.

d-day!!

So i had a post all ready to go....show u my new dresser i finally finished. I thought about doing a d-day post but thought....who's going to want to read the whinnings of some sad newly diagnosed diabetic.

Lets be honest, we pass by stuff all day long. Pink canned soup,shoes,pens,people collecting to find a cure for breast cancer. It should be important to me....I have breasts. I could become one of the many woman who will or have had breast cancer. But, I don't. I have been lucky not to have anyone in my family diagnosed with it. So,I walk by the collection, the cans of soup and the shoes and the pen and....I just walk on by.

So why should you care that today is national diabetes awareness day.  Unless, it has some how crept its slimy little paws into your life.

For me it has. I try not to let it define me or control to many aspects of my life, but it does.
I am a mother, a wife and then a type 1 diabetic. That is where it ranks in my life. That is where it has to rank in order for me to be a mother and a wife and everything else I choose to be.

I wake up.... I test, I fix my breakfast and count my carbs then draw my insulin and shoot....then I test before the gym..... then i finish exercise and i test. I try to predict how it will affect my numbers later . I fix lunch count carbs, draw insulin and shoot. I over shoot and become to low and then correct and now i have over corrected and I need to add 1 more unit to my dinner draw. This time theirs a bonus shot. My long lasting..... I draw, let sit on counter for 30 minutes so it does not sting like hell and i shoot.  Bed time ( i love bedtime) their is a magic fairy that sometimes visit me called pre-dawn phenom and she leaves me a present of high gi numbers in the morning...and then the day starts all over again.


The best part of all of the testing and shooting and 30 grams of carbs a meal is..... I still can not control it. It can take my sight, It could take my limbs or it could take my life. I choose none of the above, but i don't know if that is for me to decide.

I dont want pitty or an award .....I want a cure.
I want affordable meds.
I want Insurance companies to have to insure me.....Isnt that what insurance is for?   The sick?  They sure the hell did not mind my money for the last 15 years.

This is not my story. This is only a glimpse of who I am, but today, this is the story I tell and this is what I share with you.


.......xoxoxox..........danyellle

germ...germs go away...

One of the ohh so many joys of being a type 1 diabetic, is having a crappy immune system.  This is my first winter as a type 1 and my 3rd battle with some sort of a cold. This one is strep....I thought the 20 times i had it as a kid would make me immune to it. So needles to say I really did not get much done this week. I did buy some paint to paint the laundry room...




Yeah..dark...and grey and dark.  I love when the paint guy at Loews asked what i was painting with this. I said my laundry room....Oh, he says, a accent wall.  NO...the whole thing..maybe even the ceiling I say. OH...thats going to be one dark room. Yes, I said. I know.



Here it is on some cabinets.....