Abby’s Saturday // One Hundred Thirty-Five

Highlight of the Week

I finally did it!! I actually hung up some artwork in our bedroom! It only took 16 months of living here, but I did it! So, of course, Abby’s photo this week could only be taken in one place – in front of my lovely wall!

Here’s the story: I’ve had these pieces for a long time. The silver birds hung in our old bedroom at our first house (it only took me about 2 years to get them hung up, so I’m doing better this round!), the print with the 3 birds that says “family” is from my Mom after we had Braelynn, and the other 3 pieces are from my best friend as a birthday gift from 2 years ago. I knew that I wanted to hang these 6 pieces over our bed, but I’ve been wanting a real headboard for so long that I was holding off. I didn’t want to go to all the effort to hang everything and then have to move it because the headboard was too tall. So, that was my excuse.

I’m not sure why: but hanging pictures makes me extremely nervous. I don’t remember who I was commiserating to one day, but they suggested I get command hooks. That way, I could hang my pieces, and if needed, easily & non-destructively move them if/when I needed to. I finally bit the bullet and bought the hooks at Target yesterday & set right to work. It took me forever to get these hung, but the command hooks did make it a little bit easier to commit! So, literally an all-afternoon-project later – this is the result. I absolutely LOVE it. And I am so proud of myself!

You’ll never guess what happens next.

Last night I was cleaning out of my email inbox & came across an email from Groupon. Sometimes they have really good deals and the title of this one caught my eye: bedding & bedroom furniture. It’s a long story: we had a headboard picked out from Ikea, but just needed to get back down there to pick it up with a larger vehicle than our car. That was the plan unless  we could find something cheaper, that we liked, online.

Yep, you guessed it. There was a headboard & frame listed for about $70 less than the Ikea one. I showed it to Derrick & we both agreed that we liked it. Then we realized it offered free shipping! We couldn’t beat it, so we ordered it.

It will be here in 6-11 days.
There’s only one problem:
It’s taller than my lowest picture.

Yes, This Happened

• Derrick & I aren’t huge into Valentine’s Day. Some years we make “bigger” deals out of it than others, but this year was a “blah” year. We made a nice dinner & lit a bunch of candles, but that was about it. He did bring Braelynn home a little gift – peanut butter crackers. So romantic, right? Omigoodness, she went bonkers over them though! She gobbled up that little package over the next 24 hours & continued to ask for more. When we went to Target yesterday to get my command hooks, I got her more and not knowing that – Derrick also stopped at the store on his way home to get her more. Needless to say, we’re complete softies and she’s stocked on peanut butter crackers for a while.
• This past Tuesday was my favorite day of the month: Tuesday’s Together day! My friend Tiffany led an awesome meeting all centered around the topic of email marketing and I left with so many ideas! Unfortunately, my brain already has about 294 great ideas that have been rolling around up there over the last few months, so now I have a few more. What I really need to do is sit down, write out my big ideas and create an action plan to achieve them (small, easily achievable goals that I can tackle one at a time). If you live in the Greensburg/Irwin, PA area and would like to join a fun group of creatives who meet on a monthly basis – we’d love to have you join us!
• If you are bored in the least, there is this incredible contest going on called The Shoot & Share Photo Contest. This is my 4th year entering images & man, it simply gets bigger & better every year. It’s all completely free & fair, and if you’d like to participate, all you have to do is go to www.contest.shootandshare.com The instructions are super simple: you’ll see a series of 4 photos – simply click on the one you love the most & then it will give you 4 more! I’ll just warn you: it’s incredibly addicting and it’s really hard to get away once you get into it! (I’ve written about my experiences with the contest here!)

Feeling Blessed

The weather is turning! The entire next week’s forecast is in the upper 50’s to mid 60’s with little rain predicted! I cannot wait to play outside, go for some nice walks, and soak up some sunshine! Spring-time, here we come!

One last thing: Braelynn actually slept in this morning – YES! On a Saturday morning! I couldn’t believe it either! I can’t say it was after a perfect night’s sleep, or even after an easy night’s sleep, and she did end up in our bed much earlier than I wanted, but hey, we slept until about 7:45am and for me? That’s a wonderful accomplishment. I know it’s not normal, and I don’t expect it to be, it was just some much needed extra sleep for Mama and she’s feeling really good today from it!