She Blogs

Due Date Has Come & Gone

2012-01-26T07:44:00.001-06:00

Well, yesterday was supposed to be the big day. But NOTHING happened. The doctor won't induce me until February 3rd because the baby is really healthy and had a lot of room. He told me that I have a great body for having babies because of my long torso. I'm assuming he meant that as a compliment.

I finally quit going into work, mostly because the baby keeps moving onto my sciatic nerve and I can't walk. I also had to turn over my workout class to the sub, since I can't walk.

I got a little depressed leaving the Dr.'s office yesterday, I just knew I would have dilated at least to one cm. No such luck.

If you read this today please pray that my body would go into labor naturally. The Dr said if I'm induced I have a 1 in 4 chance of needing a c section... Which I do NOT want because you are limited to having 3 babies due to of all the scar tissue.

Come on baby Shad, we want to meet you!

~Marietta

10 More Days!

2012-01-15T10:30:00.000-06:00

I just looked at "Days Until" app on my iphone - it says I have 10 days until baby McClure arrives! We so excited to meet him!

Here is a sneak peak of him at a 4D ultra sound we had done at 30 weeks. He would not move his hand from his face, that's what the blur on the right side of his face is. Most of the time he had his thumb in his mouth, it was pretty cute.

I showed this to my brother in law, who is a doctor and he immediately started telling Kent and I which features he got from me and which features he got from Kent. He said he has my ears since the lobes are connected, it looked like he got Kent's nose because mine has no curve - Kent's does.

When the ultrasound tech first got his image up, I told her that he had a pug nose! She said that was doubtful because 4D ultra sounds always make the nose look bigger than it actually us because the nose is what is closest to the ultrasound wand.

Can you see his little finger blocking his left eye?

We also got a 30 minute DVD of 4D ultrasound session. It was amazing to see him sucking his thumb, getting a drink of amniotic fluid (yum!) and moving all around. I think that the DVD was even more special than the pictures. It really opened up my eyes to the fact that he is already functioning just like a newborn outside the womb.

We can't wait to meet you!

I'm GOING to Remember!

2012-01-05T14:57:00.000-06:00

Since there are some big things happening at the McClure home this year... well, just one big thing that we know of right now... I want to remember it all! I started this project on January 1st. Basically you write down the month and day on a card and then below write the year and what happened on that day. I'll add a picture or ticket stub here and there. I'm determined to write down the good, bad and ugly so that Kent and I will thankful in ALL things.

*picture from pinterest

Most of all I want to remember EVERYTHING that happens in our lives, especially the newest McClure, who should be here in less than 3 weeks!

Kent Wins!

2012-01-03T13:51:00.001-06:00

Kent won the Lake Hamilton New Year's Day Bass Tournament with 24.5lbs and beat 60 other boats.

The picture is a little blurry. I'm so proud of him to win at something he loves to do! I wish I would have gone to the weigh in to watch.

~Marietta

New Fitness Blog

2012-01-03T10:42:00.000-06:00

I've started 2012 off with a new fitness blog! I'll post work outs, recipes and fitness tips.

Marietta McClure Fitness

2012-01-02T13:55:00.001-06:00

Kent & I celebrated 4 years of marriage last Thursday night. We had dinner at Caper's and it was amazing!

Here's the fun photo roll of us as we were about to leave the house.

~Marietta

Week in Review

2011-12-19T10:25:00.002-06:00

Kent and I went to see Cirque du Soliel with some friends. It was wonderful!

Shutterly sent me the wrong Christmas cards. Pretty funny stuff.

This is the best banana bread recipe in the world. Seriously, try it. I made it in muffins instead of a loaf and it was just as good.

I worked in Fayetteville last week and my parents saved the paper plate angel for me to put on top of the tree. I made when it when I was three. This year my Dad had a bit of challenge helping me and my 30 extra pounds up! (I was standing on a chair here.)

KK had her state cheer competition in Hot Springs. My parents drove down to watch her. The video should be on YouTube soon, and I'll post it. She tumbles by herself! They got 1st place in the 7A division.

~Marietta

Pregnant Pictures

2011-12-19T10:15:00.002-06:00

Here I am 2 weeks ago in all my pregnant glory at 33 weeks.

I had maternity pictures taken the weekend after Thanksgiving and these two pictures are the ones that the photographer put on Facebook. I still haven't seen the proofs, so maybe there are a couple that I like better.

She took these in my backyard and at my house.

~Marietta

Christmas #1

2011-12-19T10:05:00.002-06:00

We had Christmas with my parents this weekend in Benton because this is the year that we do Christmas Day with the McClure's.

These stockings are my favorite part of Christmas. They stretch out long and wide! My grandmother knitted them and they have our name and the year we were born on them. My Mom had one made for Kent so he wouldn't feel left out.

I've wrapped all my presents this year with brown craft paper, either red tulle or raffia, and put a paper doily with to/from on each gift. They look perfect next to my tree with the burlap tree skirt and burlap strips intertwined all throughout.

~Marietta

Fabric & Paint - Baby Boy Nursery

2011-12-19T09:55:00.002-06:00

I decided on this khaki colored linen a long time ago for the glider and majority of the bedding, but have been searching for an accent color and coordinating fabric for at least 4 months.

I finally found these drapes (the sea green fabric) at Pottery Barn and they go so well with the linen.

Finally my mom found this fabric at Hancocks for $3.50 a yard! It's a bit creamier in person. I LOVE it!

Yesterday I painted 3 pieces of furniture for the nursery. They have yet to be distressed or glazed, but you get the idea from this shelf:

The crib is FINALLY being delivered on Wednesday and I can barely contain my excitement!

~Marietta

The Thanksgiving Post

2011-12-01T09:55:00.000-06:00

Kent and I went to Fayetteville for Thanksgiving. We alternate holidays with one family each year so that we can spend a good amount of quality time with that one family instead of rushing to drive all around Arkansas. It makes the holidays relaxing instead of a stressful fuzzy memory.

My Dad and Spencer went on a Turkey Trot (12 miles) without me.

While I stayed at the house and baked sweet potato cassarole, chocolate pecan chess pie and did one of the THREE turkeys! I brined my turkey for the first time in a bourbon-apple juice mixture and it was crazy moist. I will do this again next year for sure.

Clean up after dinner crew:

My parents cat scratched Captain Jack in the eyeball so he spent most of our trip with only one good eye. Kent felt REALLY sorry for him and kept sneaking him turkey.

After our big dinner we ventured outside to take some family pictures. Here is the whole crew!

Me, Drewa, KK & Mom

I LOVE this picture of my parents!

Me and my momma!

We had a wonderful time in Fayetteville and are especially "thankful" for our wonderful families!

Baby Showers for Baby McClure!

2011-12-01T09:37:00.002-06:00

Our first shower was in Benton at my friend Bev Brown's house. She went above and beyond on all the details. We still had not chosen a name for Baby McClure at this point, so that's why it says "baby" everywhere. I loved it all!

Mine & Kent's baby pictures.

Aunt KK, me and the new GRANDMOTHER to be!

My mom's sister, Kathy, me and my Mom.

Megan was so sweet to help host and drive down from Conway!

LOVED this burlap wreath that I got to keep! I'll change the initial for the baby's name.

Me and all the hostesses. This shower was a hodge-podge of bootcamp friends, old friends from Conway and new friends in Benton. It was so fun and special.

The Fayetteville shower was so fun for me because it was thrown and attended by wonderful women that I never get to just sit down and catch up with. I've known some of these women my entire life!

Heidi (Nelson) Clark, me and Karen Nelson.

Amber & Steph loving on my big ole bump!

Me, my Mom, Amber, Stephanie and Aunt KK!

Me & Tiffany Haas

All of our loot!

Kent and I are so grateful for all the time, effort and resources that each person who attended either shower contributed to helping us get ready for Baby McClure's arrival. We have less than 8 weeks to go until we get to meet him!

Week in iPhone Pics

2011-11-20T17:48:00.001-06:00

Pinterest craft party:

Put together the BOB:

Cut down and brought home the Christmas tree (will decorate next weekend):

Cleaned out the nursery! Still waiting for the crib to be delivered to start decorating.

~Marietta

Baby Boy's Nursery

2011-10-29T10:10:00.000-05:00

The nursery has been coming together, slowly, but surely. I hope it looks good when it is finished. I actually came up with an original idea for once in my life!

Here are a couple items to give you a sneak peak of what's to come!

Also, Baby Boy McClure STILL has no name. Isn't that horrible!?!? I told Kent the other day that I was just going to name him Kent Jr. so that I can call him Kentobean his entire life. He didn't think that was very funny....

Turquoise & Chevron Guest Room

2011-10-29T10:05:00.001-05:00

I am still waiting on the very special quilt that my mom is finishing for me to put on the end of the bed. If you have ever received a quilt from my mom you should THANK HER with your whole heart. LOTS of time and effort goes into one of those things. They are heirlooms, for real. Okay, I'll get off my soap box.

Here are a couple pictures of the guest room since we moved it to make room for Baby McClure.

I found the pillows at TJMaxx and the chevron rug is from Urban Outfitters. They have other colors, but the price was awesome, $60 for a rug!

Side table shelf in a fun yellow to add some color. The quilt will draw this yellow out some more.

Here you can see my fancy artwork... someone that was over the other day asked if I painted these. I proudly said yes. Kent told me later that they were probably joking and making fun and then decided to shut their mouth to be nice. Oh well.

A New Take on a Duvet Cover: Reversible Coverlet

2011-10-29T09:51:00.000-05:00

Sitting area with VERY comfy club chairs...

Yes, it's a LOT of white, but that is why I LOVE IT. I searched high and low for a duvet cover with some color in it. After almost 6 months of not finding anything I wanted my mom found this fabric and had the brilliant idea of just making a coverlet for the end of the bed. I've seen this done in hotels so we gave it a go. I think it turned out wonderful!

Basically it just lays on top of the duvet and I take it off each night.

My talented momma made a pillow to go with the coverlet:

But the BEST thing is that we found coordinating fabric and she put it on the other side of the coverlet and pillow. So it's reversible!

One side is a bit more girly and the strips are more masculine.

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!

My only cost was the fabric, which was about $12 a yard (that's 1/2 off!). But it is high quality, upholstery fabric, so it all looks very classy. Thank you momma!

War Eagle!

2011-10-29T09:34:00.000-05:00

Several weekends ago I went to the War Eagle craft fair in Northwest Arkansas with my mom, mother-in-law and mother-in-law's sister (Kent's Aunt Cecelia). I haven't been in years and mostly remembered it being lots of artsy-fartsy stuff. I guess because I have my own little house to fill with things now, much of the items appealed to me!

Let me preface this "craft fair" by saying it is in 10+ locations and over 300,000 people come into NWA to attend it. We got there on Thursday afternoon, which is the first day and there were a couple vendors already selling out of their merchandise! There were these really cool dough bowls that I could use as a centerpiece on my dining room table and I said "I'll think about it" - I came back TEN minutes later to get one (there were PLENTY when I left) and they had SOLD OUT! My mom had told our little group that if you saw something you liked then you had better get it right then or it will be gone when you go back. She was able to say "told ya" to me this time.

Here are my two favorite purchases:

Custom wooden name thing:

These are made for outside or inside and can hang on the wall too. I haven't decided where to put it, but I love it! This was $25 with the personalization, it's about 3 feet long.

There were several booths FULL of floral arrangements and wreaths. Since my cool moss wreath that I made turned brown (yes, it's true - lesson learned, don't use moss outside), I needed a new fall wreath.

This HUGE wreath cost $35! I'm pretty sure I could not make this myself for any less than that. The best thing about this wreath is about 3 times a week when Kent walks through the front door (we use the front door the most) he says, "I really like that pretty fall wreath."

There was some AWESOME furniture at incredible prices. I got some good ideas for the future and took lots of pictures of things to copy. We WILL be going back next year for sure!

Crib: Check!

2011-10-04T11:12:00.000-05:00

I finally got baby boy's crib ordered and I am in LOVE with it! The color is antiqued charcoal brown.

The detail headboard and footboard are my favorite part.

Love, love, love!

Baby Bump

2011-09-18T19:03:00.000-05:00

22 weeks!

Spanish Moss + Burlap Bow Wreath

2011-09-18T18:37:00.000-05:00

I needed a wreath for my front door since summer is over.

Before:

Supplies: Large grapevine wreath, 2 bags of spanish moss ($1.99 from Wal-Mart), several strips of burlap fabric, and a lot of hot glue sticks.

Final product!

Pig Sooie!

2011-09-11T18:13:00.000-05:00

We made it to the Razorback game yesterday and tailgated with friends and family for a while before the game.

It's a BOY!

2011-09-06T12:56:00.001-05:00

We had our 20 week sonogram this morning and it's a boy! So I'm on the hunt for the perfect nursery inspiration. And a name...!

~Marietta

New Things

2011-08-11T16:20:00.002-05:00

New rug!

New guest room bed!

New master bedroom chairs!

New hair!

~Marietta

Pregnancy Thus Far

2011-08-03T16:45:00.004-05:00

Long before I was ever pregnant my mom and I would sometimes talk about one day when I would be pregnant. I'm sure most mothers and daughters do this. My mother would always tell me how she had 4 great pregnancies and never had morning sickness once. Then she would tell that since she was never sick, I probably wouldn't either. Well, she was very wrong!

I was SO shocked when at 6 weeks I started getting VERY nauseous. Then I started throwing up at 8 weeks. This horrible morning sickness thing would last all day, every day. My only relief was when I was asleep. Finally my doctor put me on Zofran, which was a slight relief. But the side affect is constipation and that was also miserable. The worst thing was waking up at 4:30am to go teach my workout class - nausea and waking up suddenly and pre-maturely do not mix well.

The only unusual thing that happened to me was that I burst a blood vessel in my eye from throwing up.

Gross, huh?! This lasted for FOUR weeks. The blood traveled up and covered the entire white part of my eye. It was really horrible attending events and speaking at public events because people would ask me really rude questions like "What's wrong with you?" and "Did your husband hit you?" A county judge even put HIS hand over MY eye while talking to me. One of my brothers (Clark) had some people over to my parents house and as he introduced me by saying "This is my sister Marietta, she doesn't normally look like this!"

While this is humorous because it was temporary, I really started to understand what a person with a visible deformity might feel like when complete strangers made comments on my appearance. Moral of the story: NEVER ask or comment on any person's appearance - stranger, acquaintance or friend.

The bloody eye went away at about 10 weeks even though the nasty nausea hung around. It stayed until 14 weeks. Today I am 15 weeks and feel pretty much like my old self. Yay!

I have been loving fruit and veggies. The only weird thing is that while I've always been a meat eater, ALL meat now grosses me out. Red meat, chicken, fish, ewwwwww! Protein bars and yogurt have become staples in my diet, I feel like I should eat more protein for the baby's development but I cannot even be in the same room with meat.

There is no bump yet, so no pictures...yet!

~Marietta

In Case You Missed It

2011-07-25T13:11:00.002-05:00

I'm pretty sure I uploaded most of these pictures to Twitter over the weekend, but just in case you missed any of it...

My mom and I found this huge table on the side of the road, for FREE! The legs are just beautiful.

My mom is finishing this gorgeous quilt for me. It's all made out of vintage fabric from the 1930's and 40's. It's going in my guestroom.

Kento and Jack tried to stay cool inside...

I discovered there are 70g of sugar in a McDonalds "fruit" smoothie! They should just call it a sugar smoothie. A coke doesn't even have that much sugar.

Speaking of sugar, my brother Spencer and I tried the famous Mile High Pie at Ed & Kay's in Benton. It's one of the top 10 pies in the state and just down the road from my house. It was pretty good, but it had a LOT of meringue.

~Marietta

BIG News!

2011-07-19T07:18:00.001-05:00

Since my news was finally announced at work, I can tell the world that Kent and I are expecting a baby in late January!

As of today I am 13 weeks pregnant. At my 12 week appointment we got to hear the heartbeat (it was 155), but no ultrasound. Here is the 7 week picture of our little one:

We told our families about a month and a half ago. Both of our mother's birthdays are within 4 days of each other so it was natural to surprise them with a gift. Kent's mom had asked me to make a frame for Rhett (my nephew) so she could put his baby picture in it. She already had my niece's baby pictures in frames I had made hanging on the wall in her bedroom. Inside the frame I had written "You will have to make more room on your wall for another frame because WE ARE PREGNANT!" In the video you can see that she gets excited about the frame, but doesn't read what it says until a couple moments later.

YouTube Video

The next video is of my family's reaction. It's pretty funny. We just put the picture of the sonogram in a frame as a gift for my Mom's birthday. She knew immediately what it was...my Dad, not so much. Later on he told me that at first he thought I had bought my Mom a star for her birthday. Then he thought I had obtained a copy of her sonogram when she was pregnant with me - because he says "who's sonogram is this?!?!" and then he says "what does this mean?!?!". The best thing was how how excited all my brothers were for us, that was unexpected.

YouTube Video

~Marietta

Party Weekend!

2011-07-12T15:49:00.002-05:00

Kent's cousin Katie got married in Fayetteville this past weekend. We spent a lot of fun time with our families.

Kent & I at the rehearsal dinner at the Botanical Gardens

Anders (our niece) and I

Kent & I at the reception at the Fayetteville Town Center.

George & Gail (Kent's parents) shaking it on the dance floor!

Susannah & Anders were the flower girls and danced ALL night long!

My mom and I took Mallery and Gail to Daisies & Olives in Prairie Grove. I'm glad we took Kent's truck because we bought so much stuff that we ran out of space and Gail and Mallery had to sit in the backseat with this huge chalkboard in their laps.

I stopped by to see a very pregnant Amber. She was 3 days past her due date here.

My little sister KK turned 17 yesterday! I vividly remember the day my Dad brought her to Conway from Ukraine. I can't believe she is growing up so fast!

Happy Birthday Kakes!

~Marietta

2011-07-03T09:47:00.001-05:00

I took Captain Jack for a quick walk this morning. He is looking a little pudgy. I dropped him back off at the house and went on a run. I felt so good this morning I ended up doing 4 miles.

I have meant to blog about the devotional I've been doing this year... Last Christmas my namesake, Marietta Johnson, who lives in Dallas sent me "Jesus Calling" by Sarah Young. Around New Years I picked it up and read the intro and I immediately became interested. Sarah is/was a missionary and spent years journaling through her quiet times. The result is this awesome devotional where she takes scripture to make it like God is speaking directly to you. Most devotionals are about how we (the reader) can change to become more Christlike. This devotional is literally God speaking to you and it is so powerful!

If you are looking for a good devotional this one is great and different!

~Marietta

Busy Nothings

2011-06-27T15:20:00.001-05:00

Nothing too interesting has been going on in our lives...

We got to hang out with our nieces. Suzi, Anders and I all have our hair in party buns and red lipstick on. They are true girly-girls!

I bought another sideboard buffet for my house. I love the way they look so much.

And a new painting at "The Station" sale in Prairie Grove. At first I thought it was New York City, but a closer look and I'm not sure where this might be. Oh well, I loves it!

I survived riding with my 16 year old student driving sister.

Of course literally right after I made fun of her I rear ended someone pretty good.

After I hit the guy we both got out to observe the damage. I asked him if he wanted to call the police, he said "Heck NO!" then jumped into his car and drove off.

~Marietta

Finally, We Have a Patio!

2011-06-04T11:09:00.002-05:00

After two years of attempting to pin down a contractor and several funny stories, we finally have a patio! We are so excited to be able to grill and eat outside.

This is last summer when we sodded the yard:

After all the dirt work:

And after!

I can't wait to buy patio furniture and get some potted plants. Yay for summer!

~Marietta

By Marietta Blog

2011-06-02T14:44:00.000-05:00

I have tried to update the "Before & After's" of all my furniture on the "By Marietta" blog. Check it out if you like to see the huge differences of all my creations! Click the link below and become a follower!

By Marietta Blog

My latest custom creation that I just updated the blog with:

~marietta

Beach Time!

2011-05-30T11:44:00.001-05:00

I'm in Sarasota, Florida visiting my best friend Katy for the whole week. We have got a lot planned, like working on our tans.

Today we are Siesta Key beach, which was just rated the #1 beach in America. It's so gorgeous. The sand stays cool because it is crushed quartz, not actual sand.

Yesterday we had a late lunch at the St. Petersburg marina.

Happy Memorial Day!

~Marietta

"By Marietta" on Facebook

2011-05-15T22:04:00.000-05:00

I've created a Facebook page for my furniture, it's called "By Marietta". I tried forever to come up with a fun, catchy name and finally decided that something simple is best. My name is unique enough to use, so I did. I'm attempting to get a little side business going - besides just my booth. It's obviously more profitable for me if I can sell furniture without the middle man. Cheaper for you, more money for me.... everyone is happy!

Anyway, if you're on Facebook (it's hard to believe that some people are not, but it's true), please go to the following link and "Like" the By Marietta.

By Marietta on Facebook

Here is a sneak peak of the fun pictures of some new pieces of furniture I just posted in the album, "For Sale"....

I hope everyone has a great week!

Lazy Sunday Nothings

2011-05-15T07:55:00.003-05:00

Happy Sunday morning! I'm drinking coffee, listening to Caedmon's call on Pandora and typing this on my NEW computer! Believe it or not, Kent and I have been married 3 and a half years (oh my gosh, that sounds like forever!) and we have never owned a computer. We both have iPhones and then were around computers all day every at work for the first 3 years, so we thought we never really missed out anything. Kent has been working for his family in Fordyce since January managing rental properties and I am never around a computer anymore since I travel almost every day of the week. Long story short, I bought a Mac and am pretty sure I wish I had bought one about 3 and a half years ago.

Also, I got a new Nikon camera. If you do not know about the RedLaser app on iPhone, you are missing out. You just scan the bar code and it searches for the exact same product and shows the best prices available. Wal-Mart price matched just through my iPhone and I got $110 off the sale price! My faith is renewed in Wally World, I sure am glad I braved the crowds that day.

I'm still trying to learn how to use the camera, there are so many settings and options. I took two years of photography in high school, but that was wayyyy back when we had to use film. Using film seems so archaic now.

My sweet Captain Jack looking curious.

I finally decorated for spring/summer. The china girl has been a staple on the mantle for awhile now. I got her at Pier One about 4 years ago.

The other side has candle lantern as tall at the china girl, more greenery and a precious owl I found at a thrift store for 50 cents. He got a new coat of spray paint and looks brand new!

The white linen slip covers took FOREVER to iron, but I love the way they look. Don't they just scream summer?!

I thought everyone knew about the Craigslist app, but in the last week I have told five people about it. If you don't have it, you NEED it. You can see a picture of the piece of furniture before you open the description which makes it very easy to browse. A little too easy. I have purchased some real treasures because of it. It's free, is purple and has a peace symbol on it.

This cute yellowish cream velvet settee with cane sides was my first purchase.

Last week I found two of these navy velvet wingback chairs in almost perfect condition for $75 for BOTH chairs! As soon as I got them home I vacuumed, cleaned and stuck a couple dryer sheets in between the cushions. They didn't need any of this, I just wanted to be sure they were clean. It's still up in the air if I am going to keep them because Kent does not want "other's people's old furniture in his house." Although, now that I think about it, he never said anything about the settee.... Anyway, they are in the guest room for now. I'm hoping he'll forget they are in there!

I was planning on putting them in our bedroom in an empty corner. But I may have to use them in the office, something like this:

Can you see them with some bright pink or yellow modern pillows?

I really love upholstery tacks. They add so much detail.

I've got some really fun furniture in my garage waiting to be transformed, I'll be sure to take a lot of before and after pictures. Until then, have a great day!

My Mother is the Best

2011-05-08T07:54:00.001-05:00

Happy Mother's Day to my Momma! I personally think I have the most caring, loving and giving mother in the world. She is always considering others before herself, whether it's her FIVE children or the widow next door.

And she is always helping me track down furniture and helping me with projects.

Thank you Lord for blessing me with such a wonderful mother. She is just perfect.

~Marietta

A Well Kept Secret

2011-05-03T07:25:00.001-05:00

There is a guy at the Central Flea Market in Hot Springs that sells Ashley furniture for crazy cheap. He gets it from their auction each week. I've been looking for something to hang in my dining room because the ceilings are so tall since we moved in, which was two and a half years ago. Let's just say I'm so glad I was patient and did not buy something else.
This painting is 72 inches tall and 48 inches wide. It is huge. Crazy huge.

I really like how it's not too complicated...some abstracts are too fussy for me.

Anyway, I got this huge, heavy painting for $110!!! I kind of thought the guy was messing with me when he quoted me the price. If he is selling it to me for $110, then what in the world did he pay for the painting to be able to sell it to me and make money? $40?

If you are in Hot Springs any time soon you need to go by his booth - it's the first one at the front when you walk in. He has beds, dressers, sofa tables, coffee tables, and other fun stuff that he has painted.

P.S. How cute were my nieces and nephew on Easter? Rhett isn't quit a year old and looks like such a little man with all his wonderful hair!

~Marietta

Dry Erase Boards!

2011-05-02T14:21:00.002-05:00

This weekend my mom and I made the cutest dry erase boards. Wouldn't you want to have a dry erase board that looks like this:

Rather than dry erase board that looks like this...

The question should be obvious. Here is how you make it. Start with an old picture that has the glass enact. I found this picture at a thrift store, it is 41x23 inches.

Remove the glass and paint the frame.

Cut the burlap.

Cover the back with heavy construction type paper to hide the back and make the board look like it was made by a professional.

Final product! I have these for sale in black or white frames and in many sizes. If you want one, let me know what size and color may fit your space and I can email you a couple options of these fun message boards.

The most amazing thing was that my shellac manicure made it through this project without a scratch or chip!

~Marietta

2011-04-18T10:46:00.001-05:00

We worked on our yard last weekend. This is a before:

And after:

Captain Jack got a little too close to my furniture while I was painting. Oops!

Yesterday Kent & I spent the whole day on the lake. It was so beautiful and very peaceful. We caught 20 crappie. I caught the biggest one:

This is what you call redneck fishing - in your swimsuit!

~Marietta

Weekend Update

2011-03-27T18:18:00.001-05:00

Uncle Kent took Susannah and Anders fishing. Anders would not touch the fish!

Updated bedding photo...

All white with a long blue accent pillow.

Susannah gave Kent a "pedicure" for $5 per foot. What a deal!

Last weekend we went to the huge pottery barn store in Dallas and they had all this fun coral everywhere. I *almost* bought one because it screams summer!

I'm glad I didn't because I found the EXACT same coral at Kohl's for $14.00!

I'm gearing up for another busy week at work and teaching my workout classes. Sometimes I am really tired at the end of the week, but I'm really enjoying both jobs. Hard work never killed anyone...right?!

On Friday I got to meet and attend a couple meetings with the Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy Geithner. Here's the link to the article of his visit to Arkansas:Treasury Secretary Visits NWA Working for the Senator has really provided me some neat opportunities.

Hope everyone has a great last week of March!

~Marietta

Weekend Recap

2011-03-21T16:20:00.006-05:00

Yes, I realize I have not blogged in a while. But I'm still alive! If you're on Facebook, please click the link below and "Like" the page. It's the link to the Facebook fan page of the bootcamp workout class I teach. I'm trying get 100 people to like it!

Bootcamp at Bishop Park
Here is a picture of last week's class:

My mom and I ran down to Dallas for a quick weekend. As soon as we walked in the door Drewa had her Lake Tahoe Tomato Soup ready to serve in her cute demitasse. It's SO yummy!

On Saturday we went to the Dallas Arboretum. The tulips were in full bloom, everything was so beautiful.

Mom got a little tired of walking around...

Then we shopped till we dropped at Northpark. My favorite thing about Northpark is that there are individual stores of all the brand names. Anything you can think of, they have it. Mom found the Sperry store.

I found the Lululemon store and got the cutest reversible workout capris. I'm in love, again.

The fullest moon in 20 years was on Saturday night. Poppa and Drewa kept running outside to look at it. When the moon finally got at it's peak about midnight they went outside to have kiss - since it's what Drewa called a "kissing moon.". Isn't that the sweetest thing?

When I got home Kent was outside grilling steaks. Such a perfect way to end the weekend!

~Marietta

Thistle & Thyme

2011-03-11T18:10:00.001-06:00

Please click on my new website/blog below and follow my new venture... "Thistle & Thyme" at:

Shop Thistle & Thyme

I even have business cards for potential "customers"to pick up at the booth!

I'm hoping to start painting furniture for people and helping them make their home fun and different, even on a budget!

Booth Pictures

2011-03-11T17:52:00.001-06:00

Arbor entrance...

If you're in or around Saline County, swing by Antiques & Uniques to see the booth and fun things in person!

Skinny Hutches

2011-02-27T17:39:00.001-06:00

Last week I found three skinny hutches at Goodwill. I was a little nervous about buying them because they were $50.00 a piece, so $150.00 for all three. I painted them all white - if there is one thing I've learned it's that I will sell my furniture 10 times more quickly if I paint it white. A fun, funky blue or green might be super cute {and I paint furniture in fun shades for my own home} but it could {and will} sit in my booth for months until the right person comes along to buy it. So as un-exciting as all white is, it sure does sell!

I primed them with Kilz spray primer:

This is my special secret recipe of white paint. It has just the right amount of creamy-ness so I don't have to stain the furniture after I paint.

Then I painted inside and out:

Put new hardware on and sanded down the edges.

And they all look great! There is glass in each cabinet door and a lamp light in the top shelf.

I've already sold one for $215.00 in my booth, so I've for sure made my money back. I took another hutch up there today and priced it at $235.00 since the other one sold in 2 days.

I'll leave you with some pretty hutches for inspiration. The first two are both in living rooms - I think it's fun to use a traditional dining room piece in another room.
Classic:

Crisp and white:

A fun idea - display your favorite heels in a hutch in your closet or in an empty corner of your bedroom!

Fabric Help

2011-02-11T08:37:00.001-06:00

I have looked everywhere for this fabric. I'm to the point where I would settle for a similar pattern as long as I can stay true to this indigo shade of blue. I'm planning on making drapes for my dining room.

Has anyone out there seen this fabric?!?! In a store? Online? Help?!

Snow Day Inspiration

2011-02-10T18:28:00.001-06:00

I'm on an "all white bedding" mission. Here is what I've got to inspire me so far...

I've got an empty corner that needs a chair JUST like this:

Love the all white ceramics.

I like how there are 4+ patterns at play here but it's still very neutral.

As soon as I can get out and about I'll be putting the finishing touches on my bedroom. I can't wait!

Inexpensive Upgrades

2011-02-02T14:56:00.001-06:00

I kind of hate the builder grade light light fixture covers. So I've been slowly but surely replacing mine over the past months. I started replacing the covers in the most visible places like the main living areas.
Normal light fixture covers:

I like the covers that Target has, they go best with my crown molding.

Tada! Muchhhhhh better:

Before:

After:

Each cover only costs $3.00, but they make a big difference!

Baby Brody!

2011-02-02T14:34:00.001-06:00

My good friend Megan had baby Brody a couple weeks early and I got to go see and hold him last weekend. He is beautiful!

Old and New

2011-01-31T14:59:00.003-06:00

Old headboard:

New Headboard:

It's almost freaky how similar my bed and crown molding are. It's like they were meant to be together!

I'm trying out new bedding... What did women do when you bought something and that meant it was yours forever. I return just about as much stuff as I keep.

I got a tan colored coverlet and found euro shams on sale at Target for $8.25! Such a steal!

Feel free to vote.....

Option #1: white shams

Option #2: blue shams

Option #3: white shams with white coverlet and tan coverlet folded at the end

Option #4: my original bedding.

Also.... I painted the room Behr's "Saturn Gray". Contrast of the old blue and the new gray:

New wall color that I love....

Lately....

2011-01-26T13:36:00.001-06:00

Kent started his new job on January 1 managing property for his family and so far he is really glad he made the decision to switch jobs. He has really long days, 6 am to 6 pm, but hard work never killed anyone! And he comes home each day with funny, strange and sometimes disturbing stories about the renters.

I've been teaching 4 bootcamp classes each week and one Saturday morning toning class. It's been fun to meet and help a whole new crew of people get in shape.

I've been keeping my flea market booth full.

I celebrated a friend's birthday last weekend!

I found this end table and have been contemplating purchasing it.... It's part of a tree! How cool and unusual is it?!?!

I'm selling this headboard since I *finally* bought new bedroom furniture. If anyone is interested... It's 78 inches long, one year old, in great condition (non-smoking home) and I'm asking $200, but that negotiable.

I took the day off today and just got done taking a one hour bootcamp class at D1 in Little Rock. It was a great workout and good for me to see how others (Cedric Cobb) conduct a bootcamp.

Happy Wednesday! The sun is out in Central Arkansas and is making me want spring to arrive...

SNOW!

2011-01-09T18:27:00.001-06:00

It's snowing in Benton! This is super unusual for any town south of Little Rock.

Poor Captain Jack's legs are completely in the snow.

Kent is cooking his amazing red beans and rice. Yummmmmm....

And I have my favorite magazine featuring my favorite color to keep ms occupied!

Happy snow day from south Arkansas!

Treadmill Woes

2011-01-02T20:59:00.002-06:00

The sales man at Academy told us the treadmill was in 3 pieces and super easy to put together... He told us it would take us 15 minutes max.

That was a LIE!

After 2 hours and a couple arguments Kent and I somehow managed to put the treadmill together. All 75 pieces of it.

But I got to use it today so I've almost forgot about all that trouble...

Obviously all these pictures were so good I couldn't decide which one to use. Obviously.

2010 Recap

2010-12-31T18:09:00.001-06:00

In January I got certified as an Exercise Instructor:

We got blinds in our house and Kent & I refinished his grandmothers table for our breakfast nook:

In February Amber and I ran the "Freezing 5K" together in Fayetteville:

Kent went pheasant hunting with his Dad and brother in West Texas:

In April we went to race track with friends on Derby Day:

Kent and I laid 3 truck loads of sod in our backyard:

In May Rhett Davis was born!

I finally found a round dining room table:

I got a new job working for Senator Mark Pryor and get to do really cool things like tour turkey plants!

Kent and I added an extra flower bed (the left side of the front) and the flowers grew really quick and big since we filled the bed with manure from the horses in Hot Springs...

We celebrated 4th of July with friends in Little Rock:

My mom, Amber and I made aprons as party favors for Ali's bachlorette party:

Ali got married!

Played lots of dress up with my nieces Susannah and Anders!

Attended a lot of Razorback games!

In September I ran the Chicago Half-Marathon with my Dad and brother Spencer... I beat my Dad by 10 seconds!

KK attended her first homecoming!

In October I ran the Soaring Wings Half Marathon:

I started teaching a "Bootcamp" class at the gym:

Kent and I went to Wicked with friends in Little Rock:

Amber and I were tourists in Washington DC for a weekend in Novomber:

Kent hunted a lot:

And he fished a lot in his boat:

I got to do more fun, random stuff for my job like test drive the Lake Village fire truck:

I started out decorating for Christmas with this 14 ft fake tree:

And hated it so we got a real one:

I got to see Olya after 10 years!

We went snow skiing in Breckenridge with all the Shadrach's:

Took an old time photo:

Celebrated Christmas with both sides of Kent's family:

And we celebrated our 3rd anniversary on December 29!

I hope you have had a great 2010 and 2011 will be even better!

"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense." – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Three Years Together

2010-12-30T17:01:00.001-06:00

We celebrated another anniversary yesterday!

Here's to year number four!

Pictures! Because That is Really What Everyone Wants to See...

2010-12-28T09:49:00.001-06:00

Skiing...

Lots of food was consumed...

And of course we took an old time photo...

Christmas Vacay

2010-12-22T14:21:00.001-06:00

We are having a BLAST snow skiing in Breckenridge. We're on our way to Keystone tonight for a little night skiing.

Sleeping Habits

2010-12-11T13:16:00.001-06:00

Every night Captain Jack sleeps on my bed. Kent thinks he get cold so he covers him up. Jack always figures out a way to get his entire body and head under the blanket. You would not know there was a little dog under this blanket.

Pretty funny stuff...at least funny to me.

Before & After

2010-12-10T20:37:00.001-06:00

Inspiration: Ballard Design's large chalkboard with ornate gold frame. Cost: $399.00

I bought this picture for $7.00.

The chalkboard paint was $6.00. I used MAYBE 1/10th of the can.

Painted 3 coats of paint.

Ta-da! Beautiful! It can also hang long-ways on the wall.

Close up detail:

This gold-framed chalk board is huge and comes up to my shoulders. I'm putting it in my new flea-market booth and will charge MUCH more than the $7.00 I paid for it!

A Must Read

2010-12-05T16:40:00.001-06:00

If you are interested in finding fun ways to redo or add to your home inexpensively then this magazine is a must read. It comes out every two months.

I'm curled up on the couch with Captain Jack, a big cup of hot cocoa and some vanilla wafers.

It's a perfect winter Sunday afternoon.

Before & After

2010-12-05T14:47:00.001-06:00

Got this coffee table at the Salvation Army for $5.00. It's really heavy which means it's really sturdy. I bought it to redo and sell. But when I got done with it I liked it wayyyy to much.

Middle of the table makeover:

So now this cute little number lives in my living room.

LOVE the legs.

Old Friend

2010-12-04T10:43:00.001-06:00

Last week I got to see Olya who I haven't seen in 13 years! She was a 16 year old Ukrainian girl when I first met her when we lived in Ukraine. We went to school together in Ukraine and then she came back to the US as an exchange student with another Ukrainian friend we had made, Natasha. They both finished their senior year of high school as Wampus Cats at Conway Highschool!!!

They went on to go to Kaleo after high school and then back to Ukraine for college. Olya and her husband Vlad have been on staff with Campus Crusade for 5 years and last month came over to the US to do some support raising and visit old friends.

We met for lunch and it was so wonderful to catch up!

All the Christmas DAY-CORE is up!

2010-11-29T11:04:00.003-06:00

FYI: That's how you say "decor" in the South.

This weekend we went to cut down our Christmas tree.

We put it up in the LIVING ROOM this time.

Got all the lights and ornaments up... I still felt like something was missing...

A little burlap did the trick! I looooooooooooove my tree now.

For my unconventional tree topper I used a stocking my Mom made out of my great-grandmother's crazy quilt. It's fun and unusual!

The square, red velvet and burlap tree skirt might be my favorite part. I found it at TJMaxx. Of course I had to have my Mom monogram it!

Burlap and green velvet stockings:

The entire mantle. I need it to be simple.

Do you see the cute little horse at the bottom right? He's wrapped in burlap too!

I cut some fir branches from behind the tree and put them in vases around the living areas.

The back windows with three wreaths:

Entry way table:
(See my cute monkey?!?!)

I can't help but love this fir branch in a vase in a class cover with a deer antler.

It definately looks like CHRISTMAS at the McClure household!

ahhhh. it feels "just right"

More My Style

2010-11-23T15:31:00.000-06:00

This is a little more what I am going for ...

Also, I think I'm going to put the tree in the living room. There is something warm and cozy about sitting on the couch and the Christmas tree being close.

Christmas Tree Disaster

2010-11-23T10:31:00.000-06:00

I started off this weekend with my dining room looking like this:

So I took down all the fall leaves and moved the table into the corner so I could start to assemble my new 12 foot Christmas tree. I had ordered it from Walmart.com and got it delivered to the Wal-Mart store in Benton so that I would not have to pay shipping. We will learn at the end of this long story that that was a VERY smart decision.

As I started to assemble the tree, I realized that the 12 foot tree was actually going to be 14 feet total. How? 12 feet of tree + 2 feet of tree stand = 14 feet total. So it touched my ceiling.

The below pictures depict my "What the heck?!?!" thoughts as I realize this tree is not only way too big, but also ridiculous.

I literally had to smoosh down the tips at the very top of the tree. No tree topper is going at the top of this tree.

So I started decorating the tree anyway. I had bought all things gold and red to do so.

I began with a lot of deco mesh:

Then I started to add red and gold ornaments:

It started to look great! If you like matchy-matchy trees that look like they belong in a department store entrance.

So after much time and effort, Kent came home from the deer woods. We both looked at the tree in silence and then with snarls on our faces decided that we both hated it. He helped me take down all the ornaments, the weird swirling sticks, the deco mesh, and then put the tree back in the box. It only took about 15 minutes, which is amazing considering it took me about 3 hours to put the tree and ornaments up!

Here is the last photo of the tree still standing.......

As quickly as possible I boxed up the ornaments, swept up mounds of gold and red glitter and vacuumed for what seemed like an hour.

And then put my dining room back the way it was.

Can we all say "ahhhhhh...."

I am SO glad Kent didn't like the tree either. With every piece of deco mesh I wrapped around the fake tree and every fancy ornament I hung on the brances, I knew it just wasn't "me". We decided that we would go cut a real tree down and decorate it with our ornaments - you know, the special ones that mean something. We have ornaments that we both made in elementary school, have bought on trips together and have been collecting for years.

This is the saga that was my weekend. I returned everything: the ornaments to Hobby Lobby AND the tree to Wal-Mart... all 14 feet of it! Since I ordered the tree to be sent to the store I was not out any money for shipping.

Washington DC

2010-11-20T20:13:00.001-06:00

Amber & I jetted off to DC last weekend. I loved all the history. Loved it. Oh yeah, I had fun with my friend too.

Random Updates. Very Random.

2010-11-18T17:37:00.002-06:00

I actually cleaned out my closet enough to vacuum. For the first time ever. Gross, huh?

I bought all my Christmas decorating stuff. Betcha can't guess what colors I'm using?!

Kento shaved his hunting beard off and had a little bit crazy moment. He'll kill me if he ever reads this.

I swear on my life I saw my old car in the Conway Hobby Lobby parking lot. Except they replaced the gorilla glue side mirror with a new one. Kent doesn't think it was really my car. I still do.

I got this super cute armoire from Pam Nolen. It's got really pretty antique glass and has an old style wardrobe in the tall, long compartment.

I walked into my Momma's kitchen this afternoon and was greeted by the amazing smell of toffee. It's a Shadrach holiday tradition and is literally the best toffee in the world. It melts in your mouth, you barely have to chew. Yummmmmm!

KK (my 16 yr. old little sister) tells me that the "rolled up Uggs" look (right leg below) is now the ONLY way to wear your Uggs with your velour jumpsuit. What do you think?

I got to "drive" the Lake Village firetruck yesterday. I have the best job ever.

Scared yet?!?!

I finished up my 2nd month of teaching Bootcamp. It was fun, but I'm glad to have next week off and sleep past 4:30 am.

And I would list all the 15 towns and cities I've been in the last 2 days, but I'm too tired to think.

And KK is taking a Child Development class at school (she is in 10th grade) that really is taught simply to scare teenagers into not wanting to get pregnant. She keeps talking about afterbirth, birth defects, strange bodily functions only pregnant women have.... Basically she is scaring ME out of ever wanting to get pregnant. It's so gross that she fainted in class the other day, like she actually passed out into unconsciousness. My Mom had to go get her from school. No lie.

And now I'm off to eat dinner with my Mom, take KK to gymnastics and box up all those hundreds of pounds of toffee to be sold. Hopefully I can restrain my fingers from putting toffee in my mouth.

Dear Deer

2010-11-15T11:06:00.002-06:00

It's opening week of deer season and Kent was very successful.

He won the pot of money at deer camp for killing the biggest deer.

Wicked!

2010-11-11T15:52:00.002-06:00

We went to see Wicked last night and it was great!

Can you see how big Kent is smiling? It's because he dragged me to the musical, not the other way around. He's a big fan of broadway musicals. Seriously.

Since they told me not to take pictures I couldn't resist the urge to break their stupid rule.

VOTE

2010-11-01T09:34:00.000-05:00

Today is the last day to vote EARLY and avoid the lines! If you don't go today, at least figure out where you are supposed to vote on Election Day - which is tomorrow.

Bootcamp

2010-10-26T07:24:00.001-05:00

I started a new month of bootcamp this morning. It's a good group of mostly women. I finally remembered to take some pictures.

Holding a plank with feet on the bleachers:

Step ups with overhead press:

Defensive slides:

Abs:

I hope I did not run anyone off and they come back on Thursday morning!

I finished. That's what matters.

2010-10-24T17:23:00.001-05:00

I ran the half marathon yesterday in 2:08. Not my best, but it was a hard run. I think there were 7 hills in all. Yuck.

Thanks to Meg Swann for this picture! And for coming out to cheer Amber and I on!

Ice, Ice Baby

2010-10-18T17:44:00.001-05:00

Last week I decided to change things up and went out to run sprints on the high school track. Big mistake. My body, specifically my shins, revolted against me. So I didn't do a long run this weekend and have been resting my legs in hopes that my shin splints will disappear before my half-marathon this weekend.

Today I got home and felt like laying on the couch and eating brownies. Instead, I put on my running shoes and literally forced myself out the door. I had the best run - 4.5 miles in 41 minutes. And I felt wonderful afterwards. It's almost weird how quickly exercise can change how you feel - physically and emotionally.

New Things

2010-10-13T11:14:00.001-05:00

I got this corner desk for $10.00. It will look very fabulous after this weekend. I'm kinda excited....

I finally broke down and bought this Dyson vacuum cleaner. I can't stop vacuuming, it's really a miracle worker.

Since I'm officially training for a FULL marathon (eeek! I'm so scared) I went ahead and bought much needed new shoes.

Do you know how to tell if you need new running shoes? I usually go with the 400 mile rule - new shoes every 400 miles. Check out the tread difference on the new shoes and old ones.

Last year when I really got serious about running I went to the uber cool running store and got "fitted". That means I ran on a treadmill and the professional foot fitter video taped my feet as I ran. Then he played it back in slow motion to see how/if my feet turn or roll when I run.

While that is all VERY interesting, the funny part of this story is that when he brings back the "perfect" shoe for my feet the shoes themselves are quite ugly. While this shouldn't matter, it does to me. Anyway, he tells me that these are men's shoes....because my feet are so wide and big that I should have never worn women's shoes, ever. Oh the nerve! The truth hurts, huh? After I recovered from his harsh words I went ahead and bought the expensive MEN's shoes. I'm so glad I did because my feet are happy with all the extra room they now have.

All that to say, yesterday when I went back into the store to buy the same shoe, but this year's model, the sales lady didn't believe me when I told her I needed a men's 9. I laughed and told her that sadly it was true.

Fayetteville Homecoming

2010-10-11T15:20:00.001-05:00

My little sister KK is 16 and in 10th grade so this was the first year she could attend homecoming. She went with a boy named Logan (they're JUST friends) and a big group of couples. Enjoy the pictures... If you can't believe how grown up she is, you're not alone, I can't either!

KK rocking her dress:

KK & Logan:

My Dad and KK:

All the couples:

Another girl in their group showed up in the SAME dress....gasp! Since I don't know this girl at all, I can say that KK looked wayyyyy better in the dress. I think KK was slightly appalled, but what do you do?...

All the girls:

KK & Logan again:

KK & her friend Madison:

Party bus time!

10/10/10

2010-10-10T19:03:00.001-05:00

I don't have anything profound to write about today being 10/10/10, I just wanted to use it as my title. Cool, huh?

I'm redecorating my entry table... Actually I'm redecorating lots of areas around my house. Out with the summer stuff and in with the fall/winter decor, not really goblins or Christmas trees. More like goodbye linen slipcovers and hello wooden candlesticks and other deeper toned accents.

I'm not sure if I ever blogged about this "table" but it was the bottom part to the worlds most hideous buffet. Meaning I got it for F-R-E-E. I threw away the top hutch part (it was completely worthless, promise) and took the doors off to made bookshelves. Then I painted it with leftover Glidden's Spanish Olive from when I painted my kitchen. Of course I sanded it and antiqued it with a Valspar glaze. Bea-u-ti-ful!

Anyway.... I need help with what looks "right". The clock isn't going anywhere, so don't suggest I get rid of it. And neither are the books or quilts. Oh, and neither is this cute horse:

1. First try:

2. And enters the globe:

3. No candlesticks?

4. Little pumpkin action:

5. Globe on top of upside-down box?

6. Less is better?

Confused yet? Me too....

P.S. Is there a number rule on how many candlesticks you are supposed to clump together? Is it an odd number rule like hanging pictures and groups of things on the wall? Maybe it doesn't matter.

Top Ten Updates

2010-10-04T10:46:00.001-05:00

1.) We went to Branson this weekend for a family reunion on Kent's Mom's side. It was fun to get to spend time with family that we never see. I discovered the part of Branson where people actually live - it was sooooo much better than the traffic jammed strip.

2.) If you are EVER driving from Central Arkansas to Branson on Highway 65, you must stop in Clinton at Toga Moe Joe's. It's a super cute cafe with awesome food. I've had the Greek salad, spinach/artichoke dip, the salad bar, and Kent said the pizza was exceptionally good. They also have fried green beans!

3.) We attended the Arkansas-Alabama game two weekends ago. This video is of students camping out - watch it! The night before, on Thursday night, Coach Petrino, Jeff Long (the athletic director), Ryan Mallet, and many other football players bought pizza and handed it out to the hundreds of students camping out.

4.) I'm running the Soaring Wings Half Marathon on October 23rd in Conway. I'm really excited about this race because a.) it's relatively cheap for a half marathon; b.) Amber is running it, it's our first race together AND my first chance to smoke her! and c.) at the finish line they have Sonic cheeseburgers, Papa John's pizza, Snickers Bars AND lots of fruit! That beats a banana and granola bar any day of the week!

5.) I had a GREAT 26th birthday last week. I'm 26 now. I feel like that is a good age, you know, more mature than 24 or 25.... Here is the picture only I took on my birthday... I'm so vain, I already know, you don't have to tell me. However, I'm not helping myself here with my Jay Leno chin theory. Ok, enough self over-analyzing.

Kento was taking me out to dinner.

6.) Since I turned 26, that marked my 10 year anniversary of my first wreck. ON MY 16TH BIRTHDAY I was driving a car that was NOT mine. I ran a stop sign in front of the junior high school (YES everyone saw me have the wreck) and T-boned a police detective's wife with 3 kids and a dog in the car. All that to say, there is now a 4-way stop at that intersection instead of 2-way stop. I know how to get things done!

7.) I've been teaching a Bootcamp Class at 5:15 AM two days a week for the past month and I LOVE it! Kent thinks I love it because I get to tell people what to do for a solid hour. Maybe he's right...

8.) I found a bunch of my Mom's Mom's gold jewlery and I have been wearing it constantly. I'm slightly obsessed with it.

9.) I ran 15 miles last week and actually wanted to keep going - this is a good sign since I am wanting to run the White Rock FULL Marathon on December 5th. Eeeeek!

10.) Deer season started last Friday, October 1st. Which means I am about to become a deer widow. Which reminds me of this picture, two years ago when I found Kento in the backyard climbing a tree with his deer stand. Wierd....

Deer Antlers

2010-09-20T18:06:00.001-05:00

Remember several posts ago when I mentioned deer antlers as fall decor? Here is the Pottery Barn example:

Yesterday Kento brought me some antlers home! He was slightly surprised as I have never wanted any animals parts in my house.
Here the antlers are on my coffee table...! Are you appalled?!?! Or loving the extra fall addition?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Fall Leaves

2010-09-17T05:58:00.001-05:00

I wanted a simple fall centerpiece for my dining room table so I bought two branches of fall leaves and stuck them in the middle of my current centerpiece. And it looked really stupid. I started to mess with the individual leaves and stuck each leaf on the end of the twigs in the vase. I really like the way it turned out!

Before:

Another before shot:

After!

What do you think? Fallish? Simple?

Post Marathon Interviews

2010-09-16T08:30:00.002-05:00

You KNOW my Dad made a video of "interviews" after the half-marathon. Enjoy...

2010-09-15T16:02:00.001-05:00

I'm slightly obsessed with this song. I love the phrase "I've had just enough time". It reminds me of Anne of Green Gables when Anne (ANN with an "E"!) wanted to act out a part of her favorite book.

More Pictures......

2010-09-15T05:02:00.002-05:00

Race Recap

2010-09-13T11:15:00.001-05:00

I finished in 2:02 hours. The only good thing about this time is that it is 3 minutes faster than last year.

I started off really strong running the first 5 miles in 43:36 which is an 8:30 pace. At mile 9 I hit some sort of mental block and started walking for 30 seconds at every half mile. My time at mile 10 was 1:31 which is an 9.10 pace. At this point I had almost 30 minutes to run 3 miles. Sounds easy, right? Unfortunately I kept stopping to walk at every half mile: 10.5, 11, 11.5, and 12. Therefore my average pace for the race ended up being 9.24 minutes.

I want to say that I knew better than to run my first 5 miles at an 8:30 pace, but I obviously do not know better... Or I would have kept my pace at a cool 8:50 and finished well under 2 hours.

Oh well. Here are the pictures!

The race technical tee was long sleeved and very green, but also very cool.

My brother helping my Dad stretch.

Allllll 20,000 people lined up:

We ran by sailboats.

And Lake Michigan.

About mile 7 you start to see the runners that are looping around on their mile 11 and 12. It's quite impressive to see them booking it!

This is me at mile 9 when I started falling apart.

And then when I was done running! Praise the Lord.

Chicago Half Marathon

2010-09-12T18:29:00.001-05:00

I will post more pictures tomorrow.... But here is the photo of my brother Spencer, myself and my Dad. We all ran 13.1 miles today!

Tourists in Chicago

2010-09-11T21:40:00.001-05:00

Spencer and I toured around Chi-town today. Here are the photos...

It took me a little while to figure out the bean.

If I Were to Get Married Again...

2010-09-08T16:40:00.001-05:00

Photos of Hillary Duff's wedding are in OK magazine this week. And I'm in love....with her dress and hair decisions. If I were to get married all over again, I would.....

A.) marry the same great guy

B.) wear this EXACT dress

and
C.) do my hair EXACTLY like this:

Kent just walked by and told me that I'm not getting married again.... Oh well.

Pig Sooie!

2010-09-06T15:34:00.001-05:00

Our only picture cheering on the Hogs to victory in Fayetteville...

Kent wasn't quite ready.... But it's better than nothing!

How to Make a Fall Floral Arrangement

2010-09-05T13:10:00.001-05:00

I saw this cute floral arrangement at Daisies and Olives flea market in Prairie Grove last week. And it was $85. Yikes.

I went to Oop's in Tontitown to see what I could find to make an arrangement on my own.

I wanted something different to hold the arrangement than the standard basket or vase. I found this cute, wooden birdcage for $10.00.

And a bunch of sticks, flowers and moss for another $20.00.

First I put the green floral foam inside the birdcage.

Then I went outside to fill the cage with moss.

I started putting the tall sticks in first.

And then started putting in the other greenery and flowers.

The final product:

Here it is on my Mom's dining room table.

Very "fallish" but not overwhelmingly so.

I think I like my $30 birdcage arrangement much better than my original $85 inspiration!

Saturday Morning Errands

2010-09-04T13:51:00.001-05:00

We went to the Bentonville farmers market this morning. There was produce, flowers, pottery, crepes, coffee, and much more.

It is on the town square:

Then we headed over to see the Crystal Bridges at the Massey. You can check it out HERE.

Crystal Bridges is Alice Walton's project and it is going to be quite an impressive art museum.

Of course I had to hit up the new Ulta in Fayetteville.

And grabbed some red flats so that I can cheer on the Hogs in style tonight.

Hog Cottage

2010-09-04T07:49:00.001-05:00

Chateau L'Shadrach was full this weekend so Kento and I stayed next door at the Hog Cottage since it was not rented out this weekend.

If you are ever in Fayetteville and need a place to rent 100 yards from the football stadium, check out "The Hog Cottage".

www.hogcottage.com

Front Porch

Living Room

One of the bedrooms (the house sleeps 6)

Freshness

2010-09-02T19:45:00.001-05:00

My gardenias are blooming again. Praise the Lord. They smell heavenly.

I love cutting fresh Rosemary from my garden and putting them in funny vases. They make the house smell so fresh.

hELLO SEPTEMBER!

2010-09-01T12:58:00.000-05:00

I feel like someone played a trick on me and fast-forwarded thru the entire summer. September is here and I'm not quite ready.

I am excited about all the driving I will get to do thru the beautiful Ozark/Boston Mountains because I will get to see the gorgeous trees change color.

Pig Sooie! The first Razorback game is this weekend in Fayetteville and I will be there with bells on!

September always brings another birthday for me. Which means Kento asked what I want. I answered with the picture below and a lot of laughing ensued..... at least I tried.

I will be at Oop's in Tontitown scouring the aisles for fall decor. Here is a little of my inspiration:

Simple

I will probably have to talk Kento into bringing me an antler or two home from deer camp - have y'all see all the new decorating magazines that are featuring antlers? Restoration Hardware has quite the collection to choose from. And so do I - except my antlers will be free and real. Maybe that is the point of ordering them - they are fake and therefore not as gross?...

Leaves and twigs, you can't go wrong.

Go find some acorns. Put them in a vase.

Ali's Wedding

2010-08-30T10:00:00.000-05:00

Bridal Luncheon:

Rehersal Dinner:

Gettin' Ready at the Church:

SUCH a fun picture:

Kento & I after the wedding:

MR. & MRS. BLANCHETTE!

We rode a double decker from the wedding to the reception:

At the reception:

a LOT of fun was had by all!

Tea Party Time

2010-08-21T20:07:00.000-05:00

I got to play with my nieces tonight. First we started with a regular dress up tea party...

Then we moved to a hat tea party. The girls were quite impressed with the iPhone 4 reverse camera options.

Serious faces:

Kissy face:

Happy face:

A Very Random Long Day

2010-08-19T20:48:00.000-05:00

My day started at my parents house in Fayetteville. It was KK's first day of high school! You can tell she is wide awake:

Then I went to the Rogers airport to see what they have going on and admire their pretty new runway.

Next I went to the Cargill turkey plant. This is right after they chop off the turkey's neck and de-feather it:

Here I am in all my hairnet glory:

They are making turkey sausage:

I'm finally back in Benton with Captain Jack catching up on my DVR'd shows.

Chicago Half Marathon

2010-08-08T14:37:00.000-05:00

I'm registered for the Chicago Half-Marathon on September 12th! My Dad, my brother Spencer and I are running it together. I can't wait!

This video is from last year:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfIeSanMNig&feature=youtube_gdata

I'm in Love With Mustard Yellow

2010-08-01T15:56:00.001-05:00

I had a very blah guest bathroom and I have been slightly obsessed with mustard yellow paint, purse, clothes, etc. I bought the "tester" quart of paint at Sherwin Williams - they will mix ANY of their 1,000's of colors for you and it is only $5.00!

I MIGHT have gotten slightly nervous when I took the lid off....

I already had everything else (shower curtain, accents, towels, etc) so this re-do literally cost five dollars! Yippeeeee!

Enjoy the before and afters!

Here is the video I shot with my phone. And my very Southern accent. Don't ya love listening to yourself on a video? Ugghhh.

YouTube Video

Etta's Aprons

2010-07-29T15:13:00.001-05:00

A new little business venture....

The other day my mom and I were looking through Southern Living and we saw these super cute aprons:

The reason they are so special is that the bottom part [that the arrow is point at] is a towel. I know when I am cooking I am always wiping my hands on the closest towel. We thought we could make them even better. So my talented momma tried one.

Ta da! How cute is she?!?!

Here are the first two:

But ours are EXTRA special. As we were talking I said I wish there was a way to take the towel part off to wash it without ruining the fun fabric. A little velcroe solved the problem.

So many more colors will soon be available. I'm thinking about creating a facebook page or something... any ideas about how to sell them locally or in Arkansas?

If you are in Fayetteville you can buy them at Riffraff. There is also a matching mommy-daughter set, a razorback apron and the aprons you see above.

oh, and my momma "named" the aprons in case you see them in Riffraff - the tag should say "Etta's Aprons" - cute, right?

Old Cookbooks

2010-07-21T11:00:00.000-05:00

My parents just got back from spending a month in Charleston and my Mom bought me a copy of the Charleston Junior League's "Charleston Receipts.". It is America's Oldest Junior League Cookbook in print. Anyway, I'm only a couple pages into reading it and I'm cracking up because there are several pages on how to make wine.

I don't think the Junior League cookbooks today contain wine recipes.

P.S. There are some awesome old names in here.

P.S.S. I really like to read cookbooks, but I'm not crazy about cooking.... Weird, no?

2010-07-18T15:51:00.000-05:00

The entire last week was the McClure family reunion in Branson. They rented two lodges next to eachother for all 35ish family members. Kent got to stay the entire week while I only stayed until Tuesday because I had to work.

It was so much fun for the 3 days I was there and the whole time for Kent. I didn't take any pictures, but I'm sure some will surface via facebook.

Anyway, we've busy cleaning the house and doing yard work. My fingers are raw and about to peel I scrubbed the floors so hard. I have a love-hate relationship with cleaning, as I'm sure a lot of people do.

I'm ready for the week ahead.... I think!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

What's The Deal With Judges and Kids

2010-07-08T17:13:00.001-05:00

The following coversations took place between myself and two different county judges. Both are slightly humourous. Both are slightly offensive.

Convo #1:

Judge: How many kids do you have?

Me: Zero

Judge: None?!?! You better get on that... you must be what, 30, at least?

Me: No Judge, I'm 25.

Judge: Get outta here! There's no way!

Convo #2:

Judge: How long have you been married?

Me: Almost three years.

Judge: So how many kids do you have?

Me: Zero

Judge: Well there is no way that you are happy then. I don't think it's possible to be married with no kids and be happy.

Me: ......... so are you running for re-election?

4th of July

2010-07-08T16:59:00.001-05:00

On Sunday night we went to Little Rock to watch the fireworks at friends condo overlooking the Arkansas River. And we only took one picture...twice.