Photo a Day Week Four

This is the last post for my Photo a Day series for the month of April. I will have to decide if I want to continue this series for May. If you have an suggestions they would be appreciated. Do you like my series?

I have to admit something, last week was carzy, we had a wedding and lots of stuff going on so I took the whole week's worth of pictures today. I'm sorry if some of them are less than inspiring. What to do, I'm a busy lady.

I will be sure to update you on the wedding attire Wednesday because I feel terrible about leaving you hanging on what I wore to the wedding. So be sure to head back and see what I wore. I won't keep you waiting any longer....

Week Four

the last thing you bought

vegetable

something you are grateful for

looking down

black and white

somewhere you went

1pm

circle

something that makes you sad

I have to admit, it IS a little less inspiring than the first week, but I'm really pretty happy with the collection as a whole.

If you want to see the last three weeks follow these links:
Week One
Week Two
Week Three 

So what do you think?  Should I try again next month (and actually take a picture a day)?  Do you like this series?  I want to know.

Hair Experiments

The other night I was home, alone, and bored.  I had already watched reruns of various wedding related shows on Lifetime and was working my way through them a second time (late at night the play the same shows again).  So I decided it was a good time to try some of the hair styles I had pinned on Pinterest (follow the link to find the board titled "hair").

I'm not great with doing my own hair.  I was raised by a mom who was a hippie and had hair down to her knees.  All she ever does with her hair is wear it in a bun on top of her head and braid it at night.  Growing up, she was not the best person to turn to for hair styling techniques (unless you want to make a bun, which I do very well).  Needless-to-say I never learned how to primp and tease my hair.

All that said, I only tried the more simple hairdos.

This is how it will work, I will post a picture of the Pinterest inspiration and then my own attempt.  I'm not going to give you any tutorials but will provide links (if I can find them) to the original posts.

1. Braid Crown

{source}

My Own Attempt

My hair is not quite long enough on the front for this one.  I could not wrap it all the way around my head.  

2. Sock Bun

{source}

My Own Attempt

I like the sock bun but it is really not all the exciting.  

3. Tie-back 

{source}

My own Attempt

I like this look, but I'm not a fan of teased hair so I skipped the teasing.  

4. Braided Bangs

{source}

My Own Attempt

I might have to try starting the braids a little further over.

5. Braided Bun

{source}

My Own Attempt

I ended on the braided bun because it was my most successful hairstyle.  But I have to say, the others worked alright.  maybe with a little more practice and time I can get them right.

I'm not sure if any of these will work for my friend's wedding.  I may just go with my hair down.  

Downstairs Upgrade

My basement is not the best, it is dark, was once wet, and is pretty dirty and covered in cobwebs.  Hubby and I have been working to improve it, but with little funds, we have been working slowly.

Well, we managed to improve the dirty messy stairs just a little this week.  We found carpet squares at a local discount store and discovered that if we cut them in half they fit the stairs perfectly.

So I cut ten squares in half and nailed them to the ten steps.

Before

 After

Ok, it was not quite that simple.  The steps are not even, so I had to trim a couple and fiddle with the placement of others, but in the end I'm happy with the outcome.   

In fact, I'm so happy that I get a little jolt of excitement every time I walk down my newly carpeted stairs.

Now I can walk down the stairs barefoot, wooh hoo!  Laundry without dirt on my feet, what could be better?

Photo a Day Week Three

I was much better this week.  I got them all done and I really like what I did.

sunset 

flower

something you don't like

hair

orange

something you drew

bottle

What do you think?  I never realized how long my hair was.  I'm really learning how to use my camera (the point of this exercise) so I'm pretty happy.   

All Wrapped UP

Hi!  I'm Chance from Designed by Chance.  I write a little blog about crafts, home decor, gardening, and my life.  Type A is one of my favorite blogs, and I make sure never to miss a post.  I'm so excited to be a guest on Tammy's blog.  If I lived anywhere near (but I don't) her I would give her a big hug right now.

Today I want to show you a little project I put together to keep all my wrapping supplies "under wraps" (sorry I could not resist the pun).

I don't have a lot of space in my little cottage, so I decided to keep my "wrapping station" under the guest bed.

I used a large roll-away bin to store all my wrapping supplies.  Be sure to get the longest one you can find, otherwise it won't hold the long wrapping rolls.

Next, I collected all the wrapping paper from all over the house.  For some reason I leave wrapping paper all over, and I can never find the tape or scissors when I need them either.  It is good to have everything in one place now.  

I really like the solid paper because it can be used for multiple occasions.  As you can see I have a few Christmas papers too, this year I used brown paper and twine (you can see that here).  This paper is from other years.

This paper is really great because it has both solid red and polka-dots on the same paper.  I love the different sides, and the polka-dots make me so happy.

I save tissue paper.  Here is my collection of papers, there are all different colors and styles.  I use the tissue paper with these boxes, which I save from year to year as well (I seem to be quite low on boxes this year).

Don't forget the scissors and tape.

Put it all together, and you have an easy simple system for all your wrapping needs.

Cover, 
                                .....slide under the bed, 
                            

                                                        and you are done!  
                                 (Bye bye wrapping station.)

I would love to have some fancy wrapping station with tons of space that takes up half my house, but that is just not a reality.  In truth, I prefer to have guests and friends, not a wrapping station I will never use.  This little set-up is just perfect for all my wrapping needs.  I don't have any kids yet, but I have a feeling this will be really handy when all those birthday parties start up (one day).

Garden Update

My bulbs have come in.  I posted last fall when I planted the bulbs and now my work has come to fruition.

I started with this.

Now I have this:

Much better.

I made four beds and they are all in bloom now.

I'm really excited that my tulips made it.  We have a lot of deer in the area, and they love tulips.  I gambled that the deer would not venture to the front of the house.  My gamble worked and they have not been eaten.

My garden is looking good, and in fact, it is looking even better than these pictures.

The tulips have bloomed and they look better than any grocery store tulip I have seen.

I even planted some hyacinth, yum they smell amazing.

I love spring for all the bulbs and new life.  So let me just share one other plant in bloom ....

... my cherry tree.

Hope you are enjoying the spring.

Photo a Day Week Two

This is my second week, and to tell the truth I have not been a very good photographer.  I cheated.  Most of these pictures were taken on two different days (shhh don't tell!).

So lets get to work.

Day 8:

inside you wallet

Day 9:

younger you

Day 10:

cold

Day 11:

where you ate breakfast

Day 12:

stairs

Day 13:

something you found

Day 14:

how you feel today

I'm pretty happy with my collection of pictures this week.  What do you think?  How am I doing?