End of the Elephant

 For the past four years my husband, Alex,  has worked for The Red Elephant. He started on Valentine's day in 2009 in one city and then in the fall of 2010 transferred to one in a different city. The first being local to MY home town, the second, to his. I can't say I'm sad to see him leave.. his new job will mean a lot more time off (40-50 hour work weeks as opposed to 60-70) and a lot less stress! He's three days into his first week and so far he is loving it! 



  
 
I went to the restaurant on his last day with a friend to have dinner and visit everyone. I also realized that after four years of working there, I didn't have one single picture of him at work! So, maybe to his embarrassment, I showed up with my camera and snapped a few of him and his co workers :)

Buds.

Right before taking this picture, this bro gives Alex a big sloppy kiss on his cheek and then fakes it for the picture. lol

I heard that after we left, he got pied in the face. Some silly tradition they have. :) Sorry I missed it but glad he was so honored. On to the next adventure! Hopefully this good weather lasts through the weekend. I'm ready for the beach! 

Cabinet Makeover

I love making old furniture new again! This cabinet was $8 from a thrift store. It was $16 but I showed up on one of those half off days. (love that!) It's SO heavy but heavy = sturdy and we really needed something good for our big fish tank. As you can see, it was covered in scratches and scrapes and the right handle was broken. No prob!

First I took off the doors, hinges and handles and cleaned it up. Then I painted the top, sides and doors leaving the back, inside and the edges of the doors unpainted. If a painted surface rubs against a painted surface you get peeling and/or sticking. Then I poly'd the whole thing once and a did a second coat on top.

Cabinet : $8
Paint : $8.47 (It was in the "oops" paint at walmart which is %50 off!)
Polyurethane & brush : FREE (We found them in the tool shed when we moved in )
= $16.47  

We have 3 fish tanks in our house. This one is a 55gal fresh tank with a million little community fish. We also have a 10 gal. saltwater with clowns and coral. And a 2 gal. fresh with an underwater frog in it. And thanks to this cabinet, all the "stuff" gets to be in one place! :)

Frames Collage

About six months ago we rearranged a few rooms of our house leaving a big empty wall in the main room. I was really inspired by THIS blog and wanted to create something similar. My mom recently gave me a bunch of old family photos so those needed a home as well.

These are just some prints that we liked.

School photo of my mom and Navy photo of my poppy (her dad)

Picture of Alex on our honeymoon, candy hearts in a heart taken by Joey at our wedding, and a picture of my mom and her older sister Vivian at ages 2 and 3

Post WWII Family photo (my mom's the baby)

Engagement photo <3

I made this around the beginning of our relationship (it was in a little card) and we've had it up in every place we've lived.

Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do... but how much love we put in that action. - Mother Teresa

Resolution Repetition

Many times in my life I have made my new year's resolution to be all about weight loss. It usually involved some crazy starve diet that would fail pretty quick and the truth is, my weight fluctuates a lot so I always just figured it'll come off when it comes off. Then, three years ago, I got a little heavier than my usual "heavy" state and I made the resolution to either do it or forget about it because I was not about to spend another year making a wasted resolution. Here's what happened!



I started with the south beach diet and went from there. I don't know if there IS any fool proof diet and exercise plan out there. I just had to start somewhere and then keep adjusting it until something worked. Most of my success can be directly linked to portion control. That was the biggest change for sure. I wrote down everything I ate and drank, every exercise I did and took measurements about once a week. I also weighed myself every morning. (and several times throughout the day usually) Basically, I obsessed over my weight until I lost some. It took about a year or so to loose it and every year on new year's day I make the same resolution. It's been a long time since I wrote down anything or measured myself.. I still weigh myself every morning though. Gotta keep an eye on it! And here's some more "before" pics for fun :)

Love to all, and may we all have a healthy and happy 2013!