Do you like free stuff?!

Hi Ladies!  I am back and better than ever! If you haven't been following my baby blog, I am currently 36 weeks pregnant and we are SO close to meeting our sweet baby girl!! So exciting!

I just wanted to swing by to tell you guys I am doing a GIVEAWAY on my baby blog for an awesome scrapbooking software called My Memories Suite! It's amazing and I don't want you to miss out!!

So, swing by my baby blog for the details and come enter!

http://thedodgediaries.blogspot.com/

Do you miss me?!

Hi Everyone!!! I just thought I'd drop in here and share a post from my BABY BLOG!!! I am 19 weeks along and we find out tomorrow what we are having! So,  I thought it would be fun to test some Old Wives Tales and see what won out BOY or GIRL! ! Check out my video to see what it said and leave me your vote on what you think Baby Dodge's gender will be! 



If you haven't checked out my baby blog yet, I would LOVE it if you would!!! :) Hope you all have been GREAT!

i've been keeping a BIG secret!

I've been keeping a big secret from you all and I figured it's about time I came clean....

It's true, I am pregnant!!! Our first little one will be making his or her debut February 29th, 2012!!! I have been busting at the seams waiting to share this good news and I initially wanted to wait a few more weeks to announce it but I figured it was about time I let the cat out of the bag! :)

I am 10 weeks along and me and baby Dodge are doing just fabulous!! I decided to start a new blog to share specifically just about the pregnancy and I REALLY hope you will all come and join my new blog!! I will still share projects and crafty stuff here but most of my time will be spent over there blogging about this little one!  I will link below for you guys to check out! 

http://thedodgediaries.blogspot.com/

why yes, i do still exist.

I feel like a horrible blogger.  I always have these great intentions when it comes to blogging, but then the week gets busy and before I know it I have blinked and yet here we are at another Monday! Is it just me or has summer being going way too fast? I mean how can it be AUGUST? Wasn't it just JUNE?!  Here in Minnesota we really don't get much of a summer as it, and it is super depressing knowing that this is pretty much our last month of the hot heat and sunshine.  Can we puh-lease slow time down?! I am not ready to start thinking about fall and winter.

There has been so much going on in our life lately, I just feel like time is flying by! This past weekend the husband and I had to travel out of town for his cousin's wedding, and it was nice to spend some time road tripping with him, but it made the weekend FLY by.   Now this weekend we are celebrating our nephew's 2nd birthday and then next weekend it Scott's 25th birthday.  See what I mean about being too busy and time flying by?!!

Hopefully you are all enjoying your summertime and soaking up every sunshine filled minute that you can!!! I will leave you will a couple pictures from a few weeks ago when I went to see fireworks with my parents, my sister, and her two sweet little boys.  It was a humid sticky night, but there is nothing quite like enjoying fireworks with a 2 year old!

I hope you all have an AMAZING week!!! :)

random thoughts thursday

I hope you have all had an amazing week!

gimme more Britney!!!

On Wednesday, the best friend and I went to see the only and only Miss Britney Spears in concert!!!! It was totally amazing! I am a HUGE Britney fan and never have seen her in concert, but the bestie found an awesome deal on Groupon for $30 tickets and we just had to go.  The best part of the night was that we got our seats upgraded not only once, but TWICE! We ended up getting to sit on the first floor and had an amazing view of Brit-Brit.  

It was such a fun night and I cannot believe what an amazing performer she is! For real, it was so much fun and I lost my voice by the end of the night from along with every single song at the top of my lungs!! Hahaha :)  I honestly cannot wait for her to come again, I definitely won't be missing out on any of her concerts again.  

Here's a recap of our fun night!!

Dinner at a yummy Cosseta's! SOO stinking good and no, I couldn't eat that whole sandwich, but it was definitely the best!

We love Britney!!

Our awesome collector cups! Casey's lit up (even though you can't tell) and mine had Britney on it, helllllllllo how awesome is that?!!!

Again, she is AMAZING!!!

BEST NIGHT EVER!!!!!!!!!!!

**I'm linking this to Summer Luvin Saturdays over at Pouty Pink Princess!!***

mantel revamp

Is it just me or has this month been extremely busy and chaotic? I honestly cannot believe that it is June 25th and next week will already be the start of JULY! That is completely insane! Minnesota weather has not been the best this past week so the fact that summer is flying by and we haven't even had summer weather makes me super bummed.  I am hoping that from here on out it will be a lot better!!

So last week, my sister-in-law and I decided to check out a new consignment store near my house and it was better than we could have imagined! Seriously the place was HUGE and it had so many awesome trinkets and treasures.  I honestly wasn't going there looking for anything but I found a beautiful mirror that I just couldn't get outta my head!  For a long time I have been contemplating revamping my mantel.  I really did like it before, but it  just kind of didn't feel like my style anymore. I am still trying to hone my style for decor and some things might still be a bit mis-match but we are getting there!

So here is the little beauty of a mirror that I found.  What I loved is the gorgeous detail on it! I am completely in love with ornate frames and this just was instant love for sure.  Here she is right before I was going to paint it, beautiful huh??

Of course, I opted to paint the frame white! Did you expect anything else from me?! I chose a semi gloss white color and even after one coat, the detail on this baby just started to POP!

Ahhh, so pretty, crisp, clean, and shabby chic like!! I was absolutely thrilled with how it came out.  For the mantle, I also wanted a nice white jar/vase but I just couldn't seem to find one that I loved.  I had seen in blogland other creative ladies who paint over just regular ceramic and glass things so I figured why the heck not try that too?  I pulled one of my many plain ol' vases out of the cupboard and decided to use the same spray paint on the vase.

BEFORE

AFTER!!

  Seriously SO easy and hello it was FREE since I had this on hand already and I just LOVE how it turned out!

So here is the mantel before hand........... 

(this is a super OLD picture from when we first moved in but it was basically just like this)

And here is the new simplified mantel!

Isn't it lovely?? I love having it more crisp and simple.  The frame is just the perfect size and seriously the detail on it is adorable! 

I added some fake hydrangeas into the vase that I painted for an extra little pop.  The were 60% off so you just couldn't beat the price!  The ribbon the vase is the same ribbon wrap that I had on my bouquet on our wedding day.  It has our monogram and wedding date on it and it accents the vase just perfectly.

So what do you all think? I hope you love it as much as I do! I think it is just perfect and simple, as well as a much needed change!  I am now already thinking about how I want to change other elements in the living room.  Don't you love when that happens? One thing leads to another, and another, and another....well, you get my point!  :)

*I linked this post to Domestically Speaking, Just A Girl, The Shabby Nest , & Fingerprints on the Fridge*