Everything Has Changed. Nothing Has Changed.

"Everything has changed, but nothing has changed", she said. And we couldn't agree more. Let me back up a little. Fall 1990. Miami University - Scott Hall. My high school BFF, Mandy, and I in one room - 225 maybe? Next door were Sarah & Laura, who were townies (from Oxford). On the other side of them were Mindi & Kristen, from North Olmsted. Long story short, we (plus some others in our corridor) became very close, very quickly. We did all kinds of awesome, crazy fun things together. I couldn't find a picture of all of us together, but here are some of us:

Mindi's on the bottom left and that's Sarah on the top right. Yes, I am the one in the middle wearing the totally awesome shorts and matching top. Fabulous. Anywho, fast forward almost 20 years... We fell out of touch. Moves, job, kids, marriages, divorces and...well...just life happened. Several years ago - thanks to the facebook - we all reconnected. And, this weekend, we had a girls' weekend in Amish country. I had the best time. Seriously. Mandy and I drove up on Friday, Sarah arrived about an hour after us, and them Mindi got there around 10pm. We had a cabin right on Main St. in Berlin - a really cute cabin BTW. I was feeling somewhat sickly Friday night & most of Saturday (allergies, I think), so I crashed out early while the girls sat in the family room and talked. They offered to go upstairs or shut the door to keep things quiet for me, but I didn't mind. I was there with my girls and it was awesome. I don't know any other way to describe it other than it just made me happy to hear them chattering like little monkeys. So happy. You know you have bonded with someone when nearly 20 years passes and you can just pick up where you left off. Saturday morning we lazed around for a while and then went to lunch (food first). Then shopping (of course). Then we got cheese. Because we all love cheese. Kristen got there mid-afternoon and was able to join us for a little shopping. I didn't really buy much (surprise), but I did get a lot of cheese to bring home (not so much a surprise). I did pick up this cute vase. The top has a bunch of holes in it to keep your arrangement nice & organized. AND, as luck would have it, my super sweet husband had roses waiting for me at home this afternoon.

After a very hearty Amish meal at Der Dutchman, we drove around for a little and then went back to the cabin. We watched movies and talked. And it was wonderful. That's when Sarah said, "Everything has changed, but nothing has changed". And she's so, so right. It makes my heart feel so happy that I am back in touch with these amazing women. And they love me. They know all about me - the good, the bad & the ugly - and they still love me. That makes me feel very blessed. We're already talking about where we're going next spring. I, for one, can't wait!

Weekend Review

Not much going on in the Davis home this weekend, other than cleaning and a little spring decorating. I put up my St. Patrick's day mantel-scape. The wreath and the print were Etsy finds, and the little display on the right is an idea I saw on Pinterest (go figure). It's a little less busy than my V-Day mantel, but I like it. I may add a St. Paddy's day banner similar to my heart banner.... In health news, I am pleased to report that I've lost 12 pounds since the beginning of January! I hit a plateau for a while, but last week was a very good week. We've been really focused on eating fruits & veggies and are trying hard to stay away from processed foods of all kinds. But it's so hard, isn't it?? I mean, all the really good stuff has cream of mushroom soup and cream cheese in it, right? We're also limiting ourselves to 1 adult beverage a week and 1 dessert. DH is struggling with the dessert part a little bit. Tommy loves him some sweets! Tom's lost just over 6 pounds, which is great. He's also been working out at least 3 times a week, which is awesome. He also committed to participating in a 100 mile bike ride to raise awareness for diabetes. He's doing it with his brother. Yep - I typed that correctly - 100 miles! At the end of June! Can you say hot?? Seriously, I'm so proud of him, and I know he can do it! :-) I just started exercising yesterday, so hopefully that will bump up my fitness level up a notch! We leave for vacation in a little over one month, and are spending 3 days before our cruise at Disney. And, if you've ever been there, you know how much walking that means! So I must get cracking on working out so that I have the stamina to deal with Disney. I hate to exercise. Hate it. I don't get ever get that proverbial "runner's high" after working out. I don't look forward to it. At all. But I've realized that it is a necessity for me. So I do it. Grudgingly. I've tried to have a better attitude about it. Really, I have. I wish I could be more like my sister, who got up early on the morning of her wedding (with a serious cold, mind you) to work out. But no, not me. I spent the morning of my wedding drinking champagne and taking a bubble bath. I guess I inherited the lazy gene. Have a wonderful week, my friends.

Love Is All You Need

Today I am thankful for this. Two toothbrushes instead of one this year. My first Valentine's day as Mrs. Davis, and it's a very good feeling. Many of you think Valentine's Day is overrated. A Hallmark holiday. Too commercial. Well, I went for 37 years without a proper Valentine, so now that I have one, I'm going to enjoy it. Darn it! I do think that you don't need a holiday to tell someone you love them. HOWEVER, isn't it kinda nice to have one day to celebrate love? And I had a grand time getting ready for Valentine's Day this year. I decorated - the mantel, the entrance, the front door. I baked - cookies and treats for Tom to take to work. I crafted - special, cheesy Valentine's Day crafts for my hubs. I shopped - for goodies for my family and for my love. And it was fun. Today has been an especially lazy day. It's cold outside, and we're having the carpets cleaned, so I have to stay downstairs and off of the carpets for a few more hours. What a great excuse to spend some time on Pinterest. And get caught up on my 700+ page book club book, which I am determined to finish by next Friday. Ack! Next Friday! Mollie agrees with me and curled up on the chair closet to the fireplace.

And here he is again after I woke him up snapping pictures:

Doesn't he look like he's saying, "Bitch, please!"? I also started planning my St. Patrick's day decor and moved some things around in the living room. Remember these from last week's thriftin?

I wasn't quite sure what to do with them, so I put some bit & baubles on top and displayed them on a table in the living room. I didn't have three pillar candles, so I used what I had. I'm sure I'll change my mind, and maybe even paint the silver parts off white someday. But until then, I like the way they look.

And now I've exerted myself way too much and need to get back to napping on the sofa in front of the fire. Happy Valentine's Day, my friends. I'll leave you with this quote from "Love Actually", my sister's favorite movie: “Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I've got a sneaky feeling you'll find that love actually is all around.”

Thrifty Thursday

Andy Williams fans take note: There are a million Andy Williams albums at the thrift store on West Broad Street. A. Freakin'. Million. And my DH just happens to be an Andy Williams fan. Seriously. No, he's not 70. I tell him all the time that I married the oldest 42 year old around. He's just a good old fashioned, small town guy. And I love that about him. So I found these today for $.90 each at the thrift store and thought they would make a good V-Day gift for my man. It will make him happy, and it cost less than $4. I also scored some Julie Andrew albums! I snatched those up quicker than you can say "My Fair Lady Soundtrack"! Love Julie Andrews. I also picked up these beauties at the Volunteers of America shop:

They are super heavy. Don't they look oh-so-shabby-chic? I thought so. I'm not sure if I'm going to leave them as is or paint them white. At first I thought they were silver, but they are stamed "made in China" on the bottom and I couldn't find any type of silver marking, so I don't think they are. Not sure what I'm going to do with them, but I love them! I found a few other goodies while thrifting with Shannon, like a cool wood picture frame that I'm going to paint off white and put chicken wire behind. Yes, chicken wire. I happen to have some leftover from when I had to keep a bunny out of my garden last summer! And I scored a couple of cool milk glass items for super cheap. And I found a couple of milk glass pieces that rocked. I'm trying to listen to Shannon's advice when she says not to go crazy at thrift stores. Her point is that, even though it's cheap, you don't want to end up with a bunch of stuff that you don't do anything with "just because". But it's tough. You also have to consider the real cost, or final price, of an item. If it costs you more after you buy the craft supplies (paint, etc...) to pimp something out, it may have made more sense to just buy it from etsy. So I try to think of what I have at home to fix things up as I'm considering my purchases. The real fun of Thrify Thursdays, though, is spending time with my friend, Shannon. She's so smart and funny and we always have a great time together! Thank you, Shannon, for introducing me to the fabulous world of thrifting!

Craft Tuesday

This morning I finalized my Valentine's Day mantel. Notice the difference? Here's the before pic:

Right! I added some felt hearts (using leftover felt from another craft project) to the grapevine wreath. I thought that the wreath needed a little somethin' somethin'. I downloaded some heart templates (just google "free heart templates") and cut them out lickety split.

You might say that I've been a little obsessed lately about decorating the mantel. It's all because of Pinterest. They post such great ideas that I just HAVE to copy them! Speaking of Pinterest.... I saw this the other day:

7 days of love notes and treats for Valentine's week. Seriously great idea. I filled up a pill box with candy and goodies and downloaded a **free** sheet of love quotes from thedatingdivas website. I'm really happy with the way it turned out. Totally awesome Valentine's Day gifts don't have to cost a fortune! I've been working on a "52 Reasons Why I Love You" deck of cards, but I can't seem to find a template for the cards that I like. Which means that I will have to make one of my own, and I'm HORRIBLE at doing that kind of thing. So maybe I'll just bust out my scrapbooking skillz to finish this one. I was hoping to have that completed today, but it looks like that will be a project for another day! What have you crafted lately?

Monday Monday

My hubby's had a rough weekend. First, news on Friday that the base is losing 6 planes. At this point we're unsure of what will happen personnel-wise, but it's very troubling. I'm trying to stay positive, because I know that we can handle anything that is thrown at us AND there's no sense worrying about something that may or may not happen. And I do feel that the two of us can do anything that we put our minds to. Still, you can't help but worry. Side note: I NEVER paid any attention to defense cuts before. Never. Just something that was talked about on the news, in my opinion. Boy, have things changed! Then today, Tom's mom refused to go to the Senior Center for the day. See, we've arranged for her to start going a couple of days a week. They have lunch, crafts, exercise, all kinds of fun things. Plus her BFF goes every day. Tom took her there to look around and she was ALL for it. So today, Tom went to her place early to help get her ready and she refused to go. Flat out refused. We're so sad about that, because we think she'd really like it once she got there. Needless to say, my man needed some cheering up today. So we went to Bob Evans for lunch, which is his VERY favorite eating establishment. In. The. World. And then we spent some time with my parents, because Curtie always makes Tom happy. And I got to see Frankie. Which was a good thing, because I miss that sweet puppy.

And then he helped me fix up a batch of the goodies pictured at the top of the post. I'm sending them to work on Wednesday, because I certainly don't need them hanging around the house! I used Hershey's Kisses and cherry M&Ms for some and Rolos and walnuts for the others. I happened to sample a few that "fell" off of the tray and BOY ARE THEY YUMMY! By the way, M&Ms are on sale at Target this week! Plus, the V-Day bags had a "buy two, get one free" coupon on them. In other news, I've been using e-mealz to help me meal plan. My BFF uses e-mealz and loves it, so when she told me about a groupon, I signed up for a year. It's fabulous! Makes meal planning soooo easy. Here's the menu for the week:

Due to some plans with family, we're only cooking 5 meals at home this week. So Tom got steak for dinner tonight, which made him very happy. Tomorow, I'll share some more Valentine's Day crafts! Have a good week, my friends!

Thrifty Thursday

I meant to post this yesterday, but was a little busy chasing a puppy around the house. Yikes! They require sooo much attention! Yesterday was a great day. I discovered thrift shops. Honestly, I've never been a big fan of them. Never been to one, and never thought I'd like them. (Used stuff? Yuk! No thanks!) But, during breakfast with my friend, Shannon, I convinced her to take me. We had time to swing by one and guess what??? I LOVED IT! I scored a great punch bowl set (with 12 super cute little glasses). Shannon and I are on a 2-woman quest to bring the punch bowl back into style. I'll post a picture of it when I get it all cleaned up. I'm thinking the next bookclub that I host needs punch. I also picked up this rug for a couple of bucks:

It reminds me of my grandma, and I needed a rug at the back door. Doesn't really go with the decor in that room, but it's cute. And I also got this mail sorter for the office. It had a few marks on the front of it, but I liked it because 1) it kinda goes with the shabby chic feel I like and 2) I love me some organizing tools!

But I didn't like the pen marks, and I wanted to jazz it up a little, so I did this:

I had some of this map scrapbook paper, which I thought coordinated with my (very small) globe collection. I am not thrilled with the result, but I showed Tom 2 other options (both floral), and he thought I should stick with the map paper. And, since it's his house too, I kept it. Shannon got some really cool things as well. She picked up a cheese plate and dome and a doily. She loves doilies. I would have purchased the cheese dome, but I have several and really just couldn't justify it. Even if it was practically a steal! So I'm all for thriftin' now! We're going again next week. Can't wait!