HomeMade Bathroom Spray

If you've never heard of poo-pourri spray...well, here it is. It is a natural "before-you-go" air freshener for your bathroom. Their web site says that "Poo-Pourri is not a chemical cover up! Based on aromatherapy principles, a squirt of two into the bowl forms a protective layer of essential oils that prevents nasty smells from showing up..."

Ok, so I first heard about this from one of my favorite bloggers Jill over at One Good Thing By Jillee. But just like her, and probably many of you, I believe in the power of essential oils, and I didn't want to pay $14.95 for a 4 oz. bottle of this spray, just in case it didn't work. So here is what I used:

15 drops Lemongrass Essential Oil

15 drops Spearmint Essential Oil

6 oz water

small spray bottle

(it's ironic that my spray bottle says "I Go")

Fill the spray bottle with water, add essential oil drops and shake.

As you can see, I've already used mine quite a bit!! 

Now to use, Jill's instructions were spot on...

BEFORE nature calls, shake bottle to mix well, spray your toilet 3 or 4 times, then "do your business". The oils will disperse over the water creating a vapor barrier and trap any offensive smells.

I had to try this and let me tell y'all, it works, and it works good! I can't believe I didn't know about this before now. Thanks Jill!! I've even mixed a teeny-tiny spray bottle to keep in my purse for those "away from home" bathroom visits! Okay, enough about this subject...Thanks for reading!!

Random Thursday: To All Nail Polish Lovers

Good Morning!!

Just wanted to let the "nail polish" blogger community know that I am working on something really huge! (for me anyways)...
Something that hopefully will inspire you guys to "try" it, love it, want it, buy it!! and also hopefully increase traffic on my blog, Etsy, twitter and instagram accounts!!
I've been thinking about it for a while, and working on it for a minute. I hope you will like...
Sorry for the sparse info, but I don't want to jinx myself. More details within the next few days...
Thanks!!

Random Thursday: Pinterest Boards

I am just in LOVE with Pinterest!!!

I have seen and tried so many wonderful things. It has inspired me to get out and do more with my life, and not be such a work-a-holic and worry wart (not sure if I spelled those right).

Creating the boards and organizing your pins is too fun! Here is a quick snapshot of mine.

Click the link in the top right corner to follow me...

I just don't know if I can name a favorite, I love them all. I've learned so much about regular old household cleaning, things that I could have made myself instead spending outrageous amounts of money on, and Pinterest has also inspired some future vacations!! Oh yea, I need a vacations board now!!

What inspires you on Pinterest? What are your favorite things to pin?

11 Things: Tagged by Mandy

Mandy Q tagged me for the 11 things survey...here it is!

1. Post these rules

2. Post a photo of yourself and 11 random things about you.

3. Answer the questions set for you in the original post.

4. Create 11 new questions ad tag people to answer them.

5. Go to their blog/twitter and tell them you've tagged them.

Here are 11 random things about me.

1. I chew about 20 pieces of gum everyday. 5 Gum is my absolute favorite!

2. If I connect the dots on the tiny moles on my forehead, they are shaped like the big dipper, or maybe the little dipper!

3. My favorite movie of all time is Steel Magnolias. I think I know every word.

4. I wash my hands at least 50 a day...job necessity!

5. I hate saying Ma'am and Sir to anyone, it just sounds so submissive. I know that sounds stupid.

6. I've been with my husband for half of my life now & I still love him with everything in me!

7. I have really bad OCD. Let's just keep it at that...

8. I have 263 bottles of nail polish, and there are still so many new colors that I want!

9. I don't like cats at all. Sorry cat lovers...

10. I think I might know the words to almost every Whitney Houston song. I love them all.

11. I hate stopping to put gas in my car. What happened to all the Full Service stations?

Mandy's questions for me...

1. What is your favorite word? I know it's not really a word, but I say "hmm" a lot. It keeps me from making decisions in conversations that I really don't want to be in.

2. What is your earliest happy memory? I remember watching my mom & dad dance in the living room. I wanted to be in love like that.

3. What music have you been loving lately? The Weeknd, I put all of his mixtapes on one CD so that I never have to switch em out!!

4. What is the nicest thing someone's ever done for you? When my husband broke one ankle & sprained the other, a neighbor saw me struggling to get him up the stairs to our apartment so he came over, put my hubby on his back & carried him upstairs for me!

5. What would you do if you won the lottery? I would travel to Africa every 3 months. I want to teach a class in Oprah's school & hold some of those precious babies!!

6. What is the most impulsive thing you've ever done? I bid impulsively on a bottle of nail polish on EBay & won. I ended up paying waaay too much for it. Very disappointed once I actually used it.

7. What fictional character can you most relate to? Uma Thurman in My Super Ex Girlfriend was too funny! This would probably be me if I were ever in that situation.

8. What is the best vacation you've ever taken? I went to Alaska and was able to actually see The Aurora Borealis in person. It was great!!

9. What do you appreciate the most that costs the least amount of money? I appreciate the respect that I get inside the walls of my home, because it seems that you can't naturally receive it from anywhere else these days. Thanks hunny bunny!! ;-)

10. Do you have any tattoos? What are they? I have 2 tattoos and I would like another one. I have a grapevine around my ankle & my name on my arm.

11. What website am I most likely to find you browsing? I spend a lot of time on my blog, but if there is a particular website I favor, it would be Pinterest!! I'm hooked!!!

Now, my questions for Callye, Alexandria, Callie, Jennifer & Torri

1. If you don't have an iPhone, what kind of cell phone do you have?

2. It's 7pm. What are you watching on TV?

3. What brand of paper towels do you buy?

4. If you had a jar of nutella, what would you eat it with?

5. If money were no object, what would be the 1st materialistic thing you would buy?

6. Do you wear a watch on your left wrist or your right?

7. When you paint your nails, do you ever paint your toes to match?

8. If you were riding in a Limo, what would you yell out if you stuck your head out of the sunroof?

9. Besides your keys, phone & purse, what's the 1st thing you grab when you're headed out the door everyday?

10. Have you ever worn a turtleneck shirt of any kind?

11. Do you prefer soft drinks from a can, a bottle, or a fountain drink?

If you participate, let me know by sending me a link...thanks!

Blog Remodel...Splitting it Up to Break it Down

Happy Sunday!

Ok so, as you all may know, I blog about lots of different things, because there are many things in life that I love (hence the blog name). So I've decided to revamp this blog to fit all my "loves" in a more uniform way.

I have a bit of OCD, so it drives me crazy to see my posts all over the place the way they are.

My blog design has changed 2 or 3 times since I started it a year ago! I really think that's why I only have 24 Followers (thank you all!); because if someone wants to follow you for a certain kind of post, and then they come back another time and don't see what they're looking for, they move on...without following. My blog has been all over the place; not consistent at all.

Here's the thing. I don't want to start a different blog for all the different things I blog about, (bleh) too much maintenance, so here is what I will do...

Everyday will have a different type of post. Now this, by no means, implies that I will be posting 7 days a week,even though I would love to have the time for that! It just means, for example, if you follow me because of nail polish, then I will only be blogging about nail polish on 'xxx' day, and if you follow me for DIY and organizational projects, they will only be on 'yyy' day, and so on.

So I've been brainstorming about how I want to do this, and I finally have a plan. Here's the breakdown...

Sunday - "Home Cooked Sundays"

All about food. I love to cook! There will be a mixture of yummy sweets, indulgent meals, healthy snacks, good wine and great wine!  :-)

Monday - "Pamper Me Mondays

All about Bath & Body products. Whether I have made them, bought them, loved them or hated them!

Tuesday - "Top Coat Tuesdays"

All about nails, nail polish and nail care products. This will probably be the best day of the week for me!!

Wednesday - "Workout Wednesdays"

All about fitness. Yes we all hate it.  But it's gotta be done to lead a healthy lifestyle. Being strong & fit doesn't ALL happen through good eating habits, at least not for me.

Thursday - "Random Thursdays"

All about whatever. A day to blog about something that doesn't fall categorically under any other day.

Friday - "Fashion Fridays"

All about fashion. Whether it be clothes, make-up, accessories, whatever. My daughter is a mini Rhianna/Lady Gaga and plans to major in fashion design so Fridays will be pretty awesome!

Saturday - "Clean & Simple Saturdays"

All about the home. Posts about new cleaning products, organization, DIY projects, etc. My OCD will looove this day!!

So there you have it! Pick a day (or all) that fits your wants/needs and feel free to leave a comment ;-D

I'm really excited about this. The entire blog will get a much needed makeover (new labels, reorganize gadgets in the side bar,etc.) It needs a more user-friendly look. I can't wait to start posting. I have so many things I want to share with you guys.

Thanks for reading!!

A Bit of Good Luck

Why is a horseshoe lucky?

I'm not sure who makes the rules on these things but a horseshoe is considered luckiest when it is a found horseshoe. A horseshoe which has been worn by a horse is luckier than a purchased horseshoe which has never previously been used. One of the reasons that finding a horseshoe was considered lucky is that many horseshoes were made of iron. Iron was a valuable metal back in the old days when money was hard to come by and supplies even more so. If you stumbled upon an iron horseshoe, you could either re-use the shoe itself, or melt the metal down for creating a brand new metal object. Finding an iron horseshoe was indeed a lucky event as it increased your prosperity. Of course it was much easier to find a horseshoe back in the old days when everyone traveled by horse, or horse and buggy, and horseshoes got tossed to the side of the road much more often than they do today.

I just happen to have a husband that rides horses, so horseshoes are very easy to come by for me! Horses around here get new shoes every six weeks and the old ones get tossed here...

I remember having one hanging over the front door growing up. My dad said that they helped to keep the haints away. I've also heard that you should hang them facing up, like the letter "U" so that all your Good Luck doesn't drain out. 

So I washed them really good (because they were attached to a horse once). Then sanded them down a bit to get rid of some of the rough rusted over debris, and added one coat of this paint...

When they were dry, I hung one over each door in my home...no more haints in my future!!

I've been wanting to do this for a while now, so why not start the year off with a bit of Good Luck!? Thanks for reading!!

**some parts of this blog post adapted from squidoo.com**

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!! 

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!!

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!!

Personal Art Piece

Almost every wall in my home is bare. We built and moved into this house in 2006. I know what style I like (Tuscan, wine-themed, Mediterranean style with rich muted colors and rustic wrought iron details), but I can't seem to translate it into real life. Visit Accents of Salado for a better idea of what I'm talking about. Their website is gorgeous! I have bits and pieces in different rooms to show and maybe get some insight on how to decorate from you guys in future blogs ;-)

But today, the focus is the beautiful work of art that sits on my fireplace mantle. It's not Tuscan or Mediterranean by any means, but it's beautiful, and I love it! Everyone that knows me knows that I like African American Art. You all will soon learn that too! My husband has a very talented cousin that drew this by hand several years ago. I loved it so much I had it framed and displayed it here.

I've always loved the way framed art and mirrors look when you just lay them against the wall. So elegant and casual at the same time. Anyway, his inspiration photo was the picture below of R&B singer Mary J. Blige...

Isn't this breathtaking?! It's almost like you can feel her heartache and struggle, even though she's making sure she looks elegant and beautiful for the camera. I just love it. I've never been sure if it goes with the leaves, random statues and candle pillars...but I know I love to walk in and see this picture everyday. He's such a talented artist. We've had him do several other things around the house I may show on future blogs. But for now I had to show this to you guys, because I believe it is definitely worthy of being on a blog called "Beautiful Lovely Things". Thanks for reading!

De-Clutter or Remodel?

I really love my blog. I love posting & I love reading everyone else's posts. But something bothers me every time I log in and click "View Blog". 

I hate the way my blog looks! Maybe because the more gadgets I add to it the more cluttered it looks. Or maybe it's because I blog about so many different things, but the background of my "cookie cutter" template is a wine glass. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love wine, but I love lots of other things too, hence the blog title. I don't want to lose myself in this blog so I probably better straighten it up a little bit. 

I don't really want to start from scratch, I think I just need to edit a little here and there. And I love blogger, so I won't be switching to some other place like WordPress or something (I love love love my dashboard!!!)

I want my template to be a little bit more custom, something that fits what my blog is all about,. But, I'm not sure where to start with the whole custom template thing. Does anyone have any ideas? To start things off, I'm trying out this custom signature thing, because I want a nice personalized "out' at the end of every post. I don't know. I'm up at 1am brainstorming this whole thing, trying to figure out which road to take. I will come up with something, eventually. If you're reading this, thanks. Hopefully I will come back soon all custom and personalized! Goodnight...

Sunshine Award

Good Morning All,

I got nominated for the Sunshine Award yesterday!!  Thank You A Polished Touch for nominating me! I can't wait to see your first Blue Monday post! Here's a pic of the Award... 

The Rules are:

Thank & link back the person who gave you the award.

Write a post about it.

Pass it on to 10 bloggers you think really deserve it.

Laura from Laura's Lacquers added this rule: "Name at least one everyday thing that makes you happy. (NOT the subject of your blog or this award, we all know that makes you happy!)"

Ok y'all, this really excites me because it means that there is actually someone out there that is interested in what I have to say on my blog. It's so nice when you can log on and see that someone has stopped by & left a comment. I'm still fairly new to this but so far I have met some amazing & very talented young ladies. So, for their talent, generosity & kindness, I chose the bloggers below because I think they truly deserve it! 

lacquerized

Miss80Million

Nails Beautiqued

Rachel Marie's Nails

Chloe's Nails

The TraceFace Philes

Cupcakes Take the Cake

Polish Galore

A Southern Grace

Make Life Delicious

Check these ladies out. Their blogs are amazing! To all of you that have ever visited my blog, thanks a bunch! Hope you come back soon!!!

Now, to name a few things that make me happy would take a lifetime of blog posts! But, for the sake of time, I will name a few...

I love cheese, all cheeses! Eating cheese makes me happy!

The aroma of candles that I personally hand-poured flowing through my home makes me happy!

Pasta with a heavy cream (yummy!)...that makes me happy!

Watching my daughter pull one of her crazy outfits together & seeing how fashion makes her smile...that makes me happy! 

Thanks for reading :-D 

                                      

Pin-Up Love...Zahira Kelly

This is something I had to tell somebody about. Even though others have blogged about this many times, it is fairly new to me. If anyone knows me, they should know that I love African American Art, whether it be a framed piece, a statue, or even a stage play. But this...this is something special. With saying that, I must tell you all about Zahira Kelly at http://kellysdolls.com/. This woman is amazing!!! She is a super talented Pin-Up Artist, Illustrator, Photographer, just to name a few. I must say, I have never met her, I just happen to stumble upon her Tumblr page a while back and I have loved her ever since. She captures a woman's beauty with her art in the most sensual, powerful and beautiful way. I love the vintage contemporary look she gives her photos. All of the women look so natural in their beauty and the best thing is, they look like me...meaning they are not your average pin-up girl (none of that slutty, sleazy stuff). They are beautiful Women of Color that don't look like what society & the media say that a young woman should look like. Anyway, before I get all stirred up, let's get to the good stuff! She can provide you with custom pin-up art, illustrations, etc. Just visit her page here. 

Here are just a few of her illustrations (these are my favorites!!)...

Memories of back in the day ..

This work of art brings back so many memories. The Blue Magic grease, the bow bucket with the hair knockers and barrettes .. for oh so many mornings this was me and my daughter's routine for getting her ready for daycare or school. This picture is the epitome of a black woman's hair and it's progression from Madame C.J. Walker to our current days of teenie weenie afros, press outs and relaxers. I wish I could hang it in my daughter's bathroom, but I can't find it on www.heritagesart.com where I usually shop for most of my african american art, and I don't remember the artist's name. C'est la vie .. I love it anyway.

Sing Praises by Selma Glass

Beautiful Lovely Thing...