1. Jean jackets are making a serious comeback this season, they always sort of live on the outskirts of “in style” somewhere between cool and grandma bit this year I have seen them in several places. This white cropped jean jacket is a nice alternative to the traditional colored denim. I found this one at Old Navy and it is currently on sale for only $25 bucks.
2. Cork wedges are really a summer staple, well maybe they are second to flip flops, but I already have a hundred pairs of flip flops! I love the fin bright color of these strappy sling back wedges and because they are from Payless they won’t set you back too much cash. I am holding out for BOGO of course.
3. This OPI polish just recently made it onto my “to buy” nail polish list. Seriously, I have a list in the notes section of my phone of polishes I covet. This one is from OPI’s Euro Centrale Collection and it is called My Paprika is Hotter than Yours! Looks like a lovely bright coral color to me.
4. This sand colored lace embellished tank top is from my favorite plus size clothing store, SimplyBe.com. Simply Be is European fashion so there are always tons of cute things that are harder to locate here. I love easy yet but together-ness of this tank.
5. A girl can never have too many earrings, the bigger the better really. This year I have been all about big statement earrings and finding new fun colors like these greens ones from Target is always fun
6. I am in love with this purse from ModCloth! It is called the Savoir Faire Share bag and at $88.94 it continues to stay on the wish list. It is a great color for summer and has really cute lace detailing down the front.
7. This last item is just for fun, cell phone cases are accessories right? So the total count as fashion When I was looking around on Urban Outfitters, which is one of my most favorite stores, I found this funny iPhone case with all the reasons coffee is amazing on it. I love coffee and am a strong believer that a good quality cup of coffee can make any day better!

There you have it my May fashion picks. Just some of the items I have been in love with this month and wishing I could add to my wardrobe. Is there something you have been repeatedly adding to your online cart and then later removing because you just couldn’t justify it, hello Savoir Faire Share bag. Share your most recent summer fashions loves in the comments, I would love to see what you are loving this month.

Anyway back to business, I haven’t been able to find one that I am happy with so I decided to make my own of course. So off I headed to my local craft store to find a simple blackboard with a unfinished frame I could paint. Was it that easy? NO. I found the ”thing” below.

Ugh. A gray blackboard – yeah that isn’t right. So I ended up getting this and a small jar of blackboard paint and proceeded to paint two coats on the surface of the slate. After I let this dry for 24 hours I needed to prep the board, but we’ll get in to that later!

So during my 24 hour wait I painted the frame. I settled on this shade of robin egg blue, so gorgeous! It is kind of my jam lately, well that and Hot Coral – google it, it is a REAL color and is REAL awesome!

Once I finished and allowed the frame to dry – which was super fast after using acrylic craft paint – I decided it needed a little more. Luckily I had this Distress Ink on hand. Typically used for scrapbooking, it comes in handy more than you know! It is basically stain on a stamper pad that you can rub directly on your project to give it a distressed or antique look. I used it very lightly as well as wiped back over the areas with a paper towel to give it a very light distressed look.

And here is my finished product. After of course I prepped my blackboard surface by rubbing chalk all over it and then whipping it off. I have no idea why they suggest to do it, but must stay it was much easier to write on after I completed that step. I just love how it turned out and it is going to work just perfect for my upcoming project!

So let’s hear it – have you made any photo props? What trend have you been seeing lately that you love? What do you think my big project will be?

By Chrissy

OPI’s You Don’t Know Jacques! It is a nice stormy dark neutral brown color with gray undertones. Ideally it is a great color for fall, but I feel like I can rock it year around too. That and the color choices were limited where I got it. Let me explain. The beauty college here in town does, mostly sub-par, manicures for only twelve dollars. Why would I go there if the services are sub-par you ask? Well because you get to keep your polish! That is right, a twelve dollar manicure and you get to take home an eight dollar bottle of OPI polish with you. That is a great deal no matter how you are! Plus, sometimes you get lucky and get a really good student and end up with a great manicure.

That is why the color choices were limited when I got the last bottle of polish. They usually only have 5 to 10 colors to choose from. And of those I usually already own more than half of the colors. So, that limits the color choices for me. But it also forces me to take a risk and choose a color I maybe wouldn’t have normally picked out, like in this case.

There you have it my most recent nail polish purchase. Have you recently found a new color you are in love with? Or maybe found an adventurous way to get a new polish for your collection?

So this is what I started with. I found this mdf composite frame at my local craft store. What I love about it is the different levels on that frame that make a somewhat 3-d effect. It came with both a back “leg” to place on a table and also saw tooth hangers to hang on the wall if you choose. I love having options!

Next I broke out the craft paint and painted the edges and places that would show once I affixed the scrape book papers. Looking at it now makes me laugh, I pretty much painted the entire frame.

Then of course I broke out the coordinating scrapbook paper to figure what pattern I would use them in. I clearly wanted one to be more boyish and one to be more girly.

Once I got my pattern down I proceed to measure and cut. Measure twice and cut once – or in my case, eye it up and cut a few times till you get it right! No I kid, see I had my ruler out!

Once everything was laid out I went head and broke out the mod podge. Once lesson I continue to remind myself when using this product? Less is more. Remember this is not paper mache! I first put a thin layer directly on the frame, made sure my paper was affixed with no bubbles, wrinkels, or imprefections and then once done with the entire frame I added a glaze layer to give it a finished “sealed” look.

I then placed them in the warm sun to cure for a hour or so before loading my pictures in them and placing them on the wall. I can not tell you how happy I am with the way they turned out! And it was an easy enough project that Miss Addy could help me which she loved!

And not to brag, but look at that awesome Mother’s Day gift I snuck in this shot! Those kids sure have great taste (**wink, wink**).

So what fancy smanchy mod podge projects have you been up to lately?

With summer coming up it was the perfect choice for the pool, beach, tub, or just playing around in general. My 9 month old loves it because of the handle and loves, loves, loves to beat it on just about everything, including his sister. But you know what – it hasn’t shown a bit a wear, this milk jug tug boat is amazing! But don’t get me wrong this toy is not only for babies, my 3 going on 8 year old loves it too! Much more for the pouring feature as you are able to fill it with water and do as you please. Yes, this tug has been here and there, in the tub and out of the tub since we got it just a few short weeks ago. Next on the list might be the dump trucks as they would be nice in the sand box or at the beach…..

Have you found any eco friendly products lately that you are crazy about? Kid or adult products welcome!

Disclaimer: I was not spiffed or compensated in anyway for this post. Simply put this a fab find!

WACOSA is a non-profit that helps individuals with disabilities receive training and support that leads to rewarding employment. You can visit their website and learn all about them here. They have been a part of my community for many years and their new thrift store gives me an opportunity to support a great company with a great cause. And of course the opportunity to share more of my thrifting adventures with you. So let us dive in and see all the things I found at WACOSA Thriftworks.

The first thing that I spotted when I walked in was this beautiful handcrafted, hand glazed serving bowl. It was a good size and priced at only $4.99 it was really a steal! I really do not need another bowl, I have tons I already don’t get any use out of so I didn’t bring it home with me, but I have been regretting that decision all week so I may have to go back and get it. If it is still there that is.

I also found this cute little plate with little tiny birds painted along one edge. I think that it would be a really cute addition to a plate wall. I have been pinning hanging plate arrangements like a crazy person on Pinterest for the past several days and am now also very sad that I left this guy behind as well. At the time I just didn’t think that I had a use for him. It was marked at 50 cents people and I walked away without it. I was apparently practicing my restraint that day!

I think that this green vase with faux Gruber Daisies in it would make a super cute addition to a little patio furniture set It is perfect for summer with its bright colors. They were asking $3,99 for it which is a more then fair price, these things sell for more than triple that at the craft store and thins one was in perfect condition!

This Burts Bees gift set was also marked at $3.99, unopened with several full size products inside. We all know that Burts Bees can be on the spendy side so this was a great deal. I however am not a huge fan of Burts Bees so I left it behind. But my sister thought I was crazy for passing it up and she snatched it up in a second and brought it home with her.

There were two of these flocked damask patterned candle holders available. They don’t match any of my decore but in the right room they would be really pretty, especially when a lit candle illuminates that pattern. They were $2.99 each, a little higher then I would have expected, but they were in great condition.

The last item I found, and the one I actually brought home with me was this gold purse. It is by designer Kathy Van Zeland and I scored it for only $5.99 which is a really great deal. It just needed a little cleaning up and it was perfect. It is leather with flecks of gold; almost glitter in it with a solid gold leather strip down the center. And of course some cute silver studs and hardware. I have been looking for a new purse for months and you can’t beat a deal like this!

There you have it my latest thrift store adventure. I have to say that this new thrift store may be my new favorite, dare I say almost better than the goodwill? The prices are much lower and there was a better variety of unique item. Though the store is much smaller it is still one the best I have visited in a long while. Have you been visiting any thrift stores lately? Share your spoils in the comments; I want to know what you have scores and what you are sad you walked away from

So without further ado… I bring you the Pinterest Challenge Spring Edition!

This time I decided to put my own spin on an artsy idea I saw on this pin. But instead of creating an animal silhouette I wanted to create an anchor. I have been obsessed with nautical things lately and all things anchors. So I created this Anchor Art.

I already had a white 8×8 frame on hand that I picked up at the craft store on sale a while back, it was just sitting in the craft closet begging for something to fill it up. In fact I had all of the materials for this projects on hand, an old magazine, mod podge and a foam brush. The only thing I had to look for was a picture of an anchor to use. I just did a google image search for “anchor silhouette” and found this free one here. I printed it on normal printer paper and was ready to get started.

I pulled pages out of my magazine, trying to find pages that had bright fun colors on the. Then I used a paper cutter to cut them into strips. I cut a total of 5 or 6 pages up, I needed FAR less then that but I wanted to be sure that I would have a good variety of colors to choose from. Plus, I knew I would not want to use the areas of the page that only had writing on them so that meant there were a lot of areas of my magazine pages which I deemed unusable.

Then I cut the long strips info varying sizes of rectangles. Leaving me with a pile of paper strips, I picked out all the fun colored ones and tossed the rest aside.

I then started attaching them to my paper with the anchor on it. I applied them staggered to the back of the paper, the printed anchor on the other side. I made sure the line up the edges so that none of the paper showed through my magazine clipping.

Once the entire anchor area was covered I sealed the entire thing with mod podge and let it dry; leaving me with something that looked like this.

Then I used the black printed anchor which is now on the back of my creation as a guide to cut out my anchor. Using this tiny little kid’s scissors, which I have seriously had for over 2 decades, I love how little it is for cutting in small areas like this. Is just gives me more control. It is pretty dull at this point so maybe I should invest in a new one?

Then I glued my anchor to a white square piece of paper, and glued the square to a piece of burlap and placed the whole thing in my frame to create this inexpensive Anchor Art.

I want to thank all of our lovely hosts for making this Pinterest Challenge possible, and please remember to scroll back up to the top and visit each of them and see what they made for the challenge! Did you participate in the Spring Pinterest challenge? Share you links in the comments, I would love to see what each of you tackled!

For some for the win - can anyone tell me what kind of bird that little red guy above is?

Making this jar is incredibly easy, takes only a few materials, and maybe 20 minuets tops. The hardest part was picking the fonts you want to use. Seriously, choosing a font was the longest part of the process for me.

All you need is a jar, the one I used if from Wal-Mart. I have no idea how much it costs because my brother provided it for the project since the jar is for him. Along with a couple pieces of craft paper in any colors you desire.

The first step is printing the words on to your paper “Working On My Fitness” and “Each Workout: $1”, I used a font called “sports golf” for the working on my fitness part it was part of a free font download that I got forever ago. But you can use any font you want. If I were making this jar for myself I would have chosen a girlier font. But my brother really enjoys golf and I have a feeling that his rewards for reaching his goals may be golf related. Then for the smaller each workout $1 font I just used “comic sans” it seemed to work well with the golf font. I printed it on to my lighter blue craft paper. I had to cut down the 12 x 12 craft paper so that I it would fit into the printer.

Then I cut down the light blue paper with the print on it down to a square that would fit well on to the front of my jar. Depending on the size of your jar you may need to make this larger or smaller than mine.

Then I attached the light blue paper to the navy blue paper and cut this down as well.

Leaving me with this 2 toned paper sign/label to attach to the jar. Because my jar is for a boy I just left it straight and perfectly square like this. If I were making the jar for myself I probably would have used a craft scissors to cut a scallop edge on one of the papers, who are we kidding I probably would have made the entire thing out of glitter, but a scalloped edge would look nice too.

Lastly I just used hot glue to attach the paper to the center of the jar. That is it, simple and easy and ready for the singles. I like this incentive jar idea, it is sort of like a piggy bank but every time you look at it and it’s growing pile of money you know that you truly earned every one of those dollars, you earned them with sweat and hard work… I may just have to make one of these jars for myself as well.