DIY Christmas Decor Post #2

Another idea from Pinterest! Here is the original pic..

I really love this. It looks perfect on my table this holiday season. I decided to make this centerpiece in gold to match my Christmas Tree, which is gold and chocolate brown. Here is my version...

This is great! I probably could have cut the stems down a little farther, but I think it's ok like this. I found that the earlier in the season you make this centerpiece, the more the salt dries to look like snow. See the tutorial from the original person here. 

I have gotten lots of inspiration for all sorts of things from Pinterest. Visit their site and see how addicted you become!!! Thanks for reading...Healthy Holidays!!!

DIY Christmas Decor Post #1

DIY Christmas Trees
I saw these on Pinterest and decided to click on the link to learn how to make them. Click here for her original version. To see my version, scroll down below...

These can be very pricey if you purchase them from department stores and specialty boutiques. Neiman Marcus sells them for $72!! I made 7 of them for around $13 and I love them all! The black and white one is my favorite. Spray adhesive, card board and thick heavy fabric. Yep, that easy!

This green one is just wrapped with one of those $2 yarn balls from Wal-Mart. It turned out really good!

I made the burgundy one with .25 cent sheets of felt that I cut into strips and attached with spray adhesive, then sprinkled the whole thing with gold glitter.

These were very fun and festive to make. I made 7 of them in varying sizes using 4 poster boards that were .33 cents each. They look very nice when you group them together like this. They look very pretty at night with the all the lights plugged in around them...

Let me know if you try this. Check out www.thecreativityexchange.com for the "how-to". It's too easy not to try. Thanks for reading...Healthy Holidays!!!

DIY T-Shirt Scarf

This is the fastest do-it-yourself project I have ever done...

I saw a photo on Pinterest of a scarf made out of old t-shirts so I decided to try it, and here it is!

This literally took minutes to do. I used two t-shirts, gray and blue (seemed like they would go good together). See the tutorial here. I'm such a scarf girl, so this time of year is my favorite. Can you imagine all the different color combos you could do with this? Love...

Thanks for reading!!!

Shug Avery

This is the most unique and creative work of art I have ever seen!!

Okay, let me collect myself...(wipes forehead, cracks neck, takes a sip of wine)...

Like I was saying, this is BEAUTIFUL!! For those of you who have never seen The movie "The Color Purple", this is Shug Avery, the character played by Margaret Avery in the 1985 adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Alice Walker. I just love this. It is an original 5'x5' painting and the canvas is vinyl records.The pearls, sequins, beads and peacock feathers were all added to give the piece a sort of 3D, textural effect. This original artwork is priced at $3000. The artist will only paint 3 more of these.

Here is a screen shot from the actual movie to show how talented this young lady is at her craft...

This stroke of genius is definitely a "Beautiful Lovely Thing" so I had to show it to yall. I could go on and on about this painting, and the movie. I can't tell you how long I have sat here and stared at it, and hummed the words to the song that Shug was singing to Miss Celie (written on the canvas). I wish this cost of this piece was in my budget because I would love to own it. But c'est la vie, I will admire it's beauty from afar. I hope you enjoy it too. Thanks for reading!! 

Basketball Wives Inspired Earrings

I fell victim to the hype!!!
Like most young ladies, I was obsessed with this show. But not for the drama, I tuned in every week mainly to check out their outfits, their fabulous shoes and to see what mesmerizing earrings they would be wearing! My favorites were these...

 

I think these were everybody's favorite because I have seen so many youtube videos on how to make them. Well I didn't want to buy anyone else's. I wanted to make them myself, then possibly sell my version in my Etsy Shop :). So here they are...

You may be saying, "she didn't make these, she bought them because the sticker is still on them". But if you look closely, I made my own labels for these (to match my blog header) and I purchased the black earring cards. This is all in preparation for selling these and other items in my Etsy Shop. These were so easy and fun to do. Let me know if you like them, or if you ever watched Basketball Wives, what were your favorite earrings? Thanks for reading!!

GOSH Holographic

You may be so over this nail polish, and I understand. But I was in nail polish heaven when this package arrived! I first heard about it about a year ago, but the first time had ever seen really good pictures of it was here. I loved it soooo much, but it was one of the most sought after polishes out there and it was extremely hard to acquire...until now!

Yall...seriously. I can't tell you how much I love love love this polish. When you read blogs about ladies saying that they can't stop staring at their nails, they are telling the absolute truth! I just can't stop looking at them...

 

So obviously I took lots of pictures. Oh, another thing I wanted to mention is that this polish is very misleading at first sight. The application is thick and goopy, and it starts out looking like a muddy gray mess. Even in the bottle it looks nothing like what will appear once the polish dries on your nails. Magic happens. It looks like holographic nail stickers...I love it!!! The only thing I'm sad about is the bottle is so freakin small! I paid an awful lot for it to be so tiny, but it's worth every dime once you have it. Trust me, OPI DS Original, China Glaze OMG, Sally Hansen Prisms, China Glaze Hologram...none of these compare. If you ever have the opportunity to try this polish, you will never want any other polish that proclaims to have the hologram effect. Thanks for reading!!

Blue Monday Jelly Sandwich / 31 Day Challenge - Day 5

Happy Blue Monday Yall!!!

Does anybody besides me think the new blog interface looks weird? I'm switching back for now...

Anyway, I really wanted to try the whole layering of jelly polishes, so I did...this is Ruby Kisses Blues Gone Wild with a layer of OPI Last Friday Night glitter, then another layer of the RK. I got this color out of a clearance bin this summer at my local beauty supply store along with Ruby Kisses Cast a Spell. They were only 75 cents! There was a little VNL, which I think you will get with most jelly polishes.

Ok so it creeps me out the way all my nails looked "bumpy" because of the glitter layered in the middle, so I used my Northern Lights Holo top coat to try to mask them. It's cute, but I can still see the bumps, so this mani won't be around too long!

I bumped my index finger and the polish on my ring finger looks wrinkled to me, but oh well. Remember to join A Polished Touch and her Blue Monday trend. And also join Rebecca Likes Nails and the 31 Day Challenge. Today is day 5 of the challenge, which happens to be blue, so it worked out perfect to post this today! So Happy Blue Monday...thanks for reading!!

 

I have an Etsy Shop!

Hey yall!

This is just a quick post to let you guys know that I just opened my very own Etsy Shop! I'm so excited! (he, he, he!) I haven't listed any items for sale yet, but I will post a blog about it when I do. I will start out selling my handmade candles & bath products, so keep a look out for them.  If you other "etsy people" have any ideas on how I can be successful with this venture, let me know...email me or visit my shop at www.etsy.com/shop/beautifullovelything, and send me your shop name so I can check you out! 

Yall...I can't stop smiling...I'm so excited!!

OPI Big Apple Red

This is my absolute favorite red polish ever! I have looked at several swatches of this color all over the internet, and I must say, it looks much better in real life. It especially looks good on me! I don't know if it is because I nubbinized my nails (again) tonight or I just haven't worn a straight up red in a long time. Whatever the reason, I love love love it!

I'm gonna be really sad when this bottle goes empty...

and oh my GOSH...Rebecca is turning 21 next month...but she's gifting all of her loyal followers with a brand new beautiful bottle of the much sought after GOSH Holographic nail polish. Enter to win here. I'm entering! Come join me!

Thanks for reading!!

Go Lobos!!

It's finally here...my daughter's Senior year in high school. I can't believe it came around so fast!

I had to bring something (a dessert) to the annual block party held for her volleyball team, so I figured I would go all out and be a little creative since this was my last and final time to do this.

So I decided to try the sugar cookie thing again. And I must tell you, decorating cookies is almost as fun as painting my nails! I love it! So, here's her school's logo...the famous "Rockin' L"

Just to give you an idea of how much this logo is loved and how huge LoboNation is here in East Texas, the video below is of the high school band forming the "Rockin L" at the end of a half-time performance during a football game...

:-D that gives me chills every time I see it, and its even better in person! Ok back to the cookies...here they are...

These cookies obviously are not perfect. But they were just perfect for this event. The girls loved them! And what makes them even more special (to me) is that I made the cookie cutter!! Well duh, not the circle, the "L". I couldn't find anyone that sold "rockin L" cookie cutters, so I googled how to make one and went to work. It was too fun...

I love & hate that this is my baby's last year of high school, but I want her to enjoy it and savor every moment of it...starting with my cookies! Thanks for reading!

Pink Wednesday (Pink Mosaic nails)

I haven't done a Pink Wednesday post in forever. My nails were bare this morning so I figured, why not? This will be a really short post so here we go...

Items I used:

Finger Paints Art Nouveau Glow

Milani #1 Hottest Pink

China Glaze Purple Panic (Neon)

OPI That's Berry Daring

Orly Sugar Plum

Revlon Plum Seduction

OPI Flashbulb Fuchsia

Kiss Black nail art pen

SV topcoat

 I really like this. I only used one coat of each polish. This mani took about 30 minutes to do. Let me know if you try it. Thanks for reading!!

African American Art at it's Finest

I had my eye on this piece for quite some time before I actually purchased it. I wasn't sure if I wanted it because I didn't know if it was going to fit with the theme I had decided to go with in my kitchen. But I couldn't stop staring at it, so in 2009 I bought it. I loved it so much I was going to change my whole design idea from an Old-World Tuscan theme to an African American theme complete with Aunt Jemima cookie jars, Mammie salt-n-pepper shakers, etc. Here is the art piece from Heritage Fine Art...

 

Heritage Fine Art is an online gallery that displays African American artists and their collections for purchase. This piece is called "Sixty Pounds". The woman depicted here is sitting at her old fashion farm sink cleaning sixty pounds of pork chitterlings. If you don't know what chitterlings are...well...I will just let you research them for yourself! The artist's name is Annie Lee.  You can read about the artist and see more of her amazing work here.  It is an 18"x24" Open Edition Lithograph.

**Open Edition - The quantity of prints reproduced is not limited. As long as the image is in demand, it will be reprinted. 

**Lithograph - A print produced by a printing process in which the image to be printed is rendered on a flat sheet or metal plate or stone, and treated to retain ink while the non-image areas are treated to repel ink. 

So here it is all framed and beautiful, hanging in my kitchen. I just love it.

 

It fit perfectly in the space. I had it custom framed so that it would look really good. I also chose the more expensive non-glare glass so that I could enjoy it from any angle, and the red matte accent was meant to highlight the 6 red buckets. It's amazing. My mom saw it and fell in love with it. So since my decor is changing, I'm going to graciously gift this work of art to my mother. Here it is in a more expanded view...

 

Notice the paint work around the edges of the wall and cabinets. These are my beginnings to making my kitchen look more Old-World and Tuscan. So Mrs. Annie Lee's beautiful artwork has to find a new home, because she no longer fits in with my decor. My mom will be so excited!! Thanks for reading!!

Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing...My First Attempt!!

First off, I finally decided to take action on my blog. I hated the layout I had. There are too many beautiful things that I love, and I only want to manage one blog, so I took away the fancy background and pictures. I designed my own header, added a blank background and presto!! I can see clearly now...it seems so much brighter & organized, and much easier to read, I hope. Anyway, on to the cookies. 

I have an oatmeal raisin and a chocolate chip cookie recipe, and I have perfected them both to my own tastes. But I have never tweaked a sugar cookie recipe to my liking, until now. After reading several cookie blogs, I found my favorite one, took some notes and got to work. I know you're probably saying, what's the big deal, it's just a sugar cookie. But not to me. I wanted to learn how to decorate them all cute and fancy like you see in specialty shops. My local bakery sells one cookie for around $3.95 and up! So I said no way, I can do this myself. And thanks to Sweet Sugar Belle I can make my own! They're not the best you've ever seen, but they're mine, and I was so excited at how they turned out!

 

I think I may have rolled the dough a little too thin but they turned out great anyway. I worked the recipe a little bit because I like sugar cookies that taste sort of like tea-cakes. And sugar cookies are fairly simple, so I knew this part would be easy, but now on to the icing.

 

Very stiff and stable, just like it should be at this point. From this batch I made icing for piping and my flood icing. And it was fairly simple to do. I decided I would pipe the hearts in pink and fill them with white icing, just because. Well...here's my first attempt at outlining cookies...

 

To be honest, I think I did okay. I had lots of broken lines, but I think I either had too much air in my piping bag that I didn't squeeze out or my frosting was too thick. And I was a little nervous so I was shaking, don't know why, so I kept touching my cookie with the tip of my icing bag, instead of staying well above the surface of the cookie, which is what you should do to achieve a nice even line. I will have to practice this more. Now on to filling the cookies with the white icing...

 

I picked this photo purposely to show the air bubbles that dried in my frosting. I did not pop all the bubbles as I filled in my cookies, I guess I was too excited about actually having made them at all!

 

I really think that I should have used a larger tip to outline my cookies. It looks weird to me.  Maybe I just need to practice a little more. I printed some practice sheets from  Karen's Cookies to help improve my skills. So what do all of you professionals think? Did I do good for my first go at it? Let me know what I can do to improve. Overall, I had a blast doing this. I see lots of cookie Saturdays in my future. Thanks for reading!