Friday, February 3, 2017

Valentine’s Day Giveaway

I’m super excited for my first blog GIVEAWAY!

Valentine’s Day has been such a fabulous holiday for me that I want to share the LOVE! The past few months have been extremely harsh on social media, so I thought what better way to remember love, kindness, romance, and friendship then a stunning sign from To Each His Own Designs with one of my favorite Tim McGraw song lyrics. Tim McGraw has been one of my favorite artists ever since I met Willie. Willie really introduced me to country music and won me over my singing Tim McGraw love songs to me in his pimped out old Grand Marquis car he had in high school. Those magical moments with him, I will cherish forever.

I am running out of gift ideas for him, so this Valentine’s Day I’m doing something a little out of his comfort area and treating him to a couples massage. Then planning on happy hour and dinner, so we have a REAL date night without Hartley. It will be so nice to have his full attention and remember our first date that happened on Valentine’s Day 13 years ago!

If you haven’t shopped for Valentine’s Day yet and are in a pinch, this is what I’m loving on Amazon for speedy delivery:

    1. Keepsake Love Quote Box with daily words of love
    2. Art Naturals Aromatherapy Candles with Essential Oils
    3. ArtNaturals Essential Oil Diffuser and Humidifier (built-in bluetooth speaker, alarm & clock)
    4. Starbucks Gift Card or Starbucks Stainless Steel Cold Cup
    5. Amazon Gift Card
    6. Heart Embossed Leather Journal
    7. Watch Box for Men

Here’s How to Enter

  1. Like Loves the Find and visit To Each His Own Designs Facebook pages
  2. Follow me on Instagram and Pinterest
  3. Share this post or Tweet a message!
  4. Click here to sign up for my newsletter (if you haven’t already) to receive updates on future giveaways and lots of new DIY projects and budget living ideas!
  5. Use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter the giveaway with multiple entries. Open to US residents only. The giveaway will run from February 3-10 with the winner announced on Febraury 11, 2017!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Tuesday, January 10, 2017

DIY French Country Dining Table

I cannot believe it’s 2017! 2016 was a HUGE year for me. Settling into new work requirements, working on expanding my blog, and the biggest change was selling our first home and buying a new one which was a HUGE process. Having 5 months in our new home, I’m finally getting things into place and able to feel like I can make it my style. I’ve gotten two bathrooms completed, created a media console, cleaned out and mulched the entire yard, in the process of creating an adorable “big girl” room for Hartley (ekkk I cannot wait to share), and finding this beautiful claw footed table to refinish. For years I’ve dreamt of finding a table like this and was super jealous when one of my beasties inherited one and refinished it into a stunning piece in her home. But just one lucky trip to the Habitat for Humanity I found one for myself. It was love at first site. There was no way I was going to leave the store without this table being mine. Can you believe the table was only $60 and the 3 chairs were $20 a piece = $120 for an antique dining set!
 
I will say this table took me a lot longer than I had hoped. With social calendars, work travel and getting ready for the holidays I found the only time to work on it was after getting Hartley to bed. So a few very late nights, frustration, and guilting Willie into helping…it’s FINALLY done!
The Steps:
  1. Sanding table top and chair seats
  2. Staining table top and chair seats
  3. Matte Poly table top and chair seats (2 coats)
  4. Chalk Paint (Annie Solan Paris Grey) table and chairs (2 coats)
  5. Chalk Paint (Annie Solan Old White) table accents (2 coats)

What I used:

  1. Orbit Sander
  2. For orbirtal sander I started with 120-Grit Sandpaper then did a overpass with 220 Grit Sandpaper
  3. Sanding Sponge 120-Grit, Fine for around the chair spindles
  4. Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Paris Grey and Old White
  5. Annie Sloan Wax
  6. Regular Paint Brushes for paint
  7. Trim Brush and Art Brushes for the detail
  8. Painters Tape
  9. MiniWax Stain (I mixed Expresso and Red Oak)
  10. Staining Rags
  11. Satin Polyurethane
  12. Foam Brush for Poly

The details are just fabulous! For adding the white detail paint I used small art brushes, tape, and a trim brush. I tried covering all the areas I wanted white even if it meant going into the grey a little because the final step was to use an angled trim brush and carfully follow the lines with the grey paint to cover and white overflow on the detail sections.

I am in LOVE with the end results and the stained top pattern is STUNNING!

Before and After:

 

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Thursday, January 5, 2017

NYE Look 2016

Happy New Year and Happy Thrift Thursday!!

First off, I apologize that my site has been down. I made an impulse decision to move my site from Blogger to self-hosted WordPress and it took more money and time than I thought it would. But I’m up and running now! I changed the look a bit for a simpler, more vintage look that goes more with my personality. What do you think of the new look? Hoping this will be the last major revision for a while and I can focus more on branding.

This New Year’s Eve was fantastic. Simple with very little expense. Since Willie had a late night the night before watching sports, so while he snoozed, I seized the day and got a fabulous weight workout in at the gym. After a revitalizing shower, I got dolled up…which NEVER happens. I wanted to feel like I was doing something special, but not look overdone, so I debuted my new corduroy overalls I got on clearance from Target. A little fancy but still casual enough for the day we had planned. We stopped at our favorite local café for coffee and of course Hartley walked out with a delicious cookie, but the photo opportunity was just too good I couldn’t resist getting it for her! We took a few photos in the historic town (Willie is getting pretty good at his photographer and patience skills).

Then we headed on to meet our friends at an indoor kids bounce jungle gym. Hartley couldn’t believe her eyes. The expressions on her face trying all the slides, tunnels, and learning to climb by herself was just amazing. After bribing her with the rest of her cookie, we finally managed to get back in the car and head to a brewery next door for “we survived the chaos” drinks. Then yes…we are old…we did our grocery shopping…and then just had dinner and watched TV together. We are hooked on a new TV series “Shooter”, if you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it. Boring but magical. Willie didn’t make it to midnight, but for some reason I couldn’t fall asleep, so unintentionally I did make it!

So that was our BIG night.

My NYE look:

  • Xhilaration Overalls – Target $8.99 (although online these are still full-price, stores put things in clearance all the time, so check often and if you LOVE something online, it’s worth going to the store and looking for it in the sale items)
  • Ralph Lauren Black shirt – Marshals $12.99 (I could probably find something similar at thrift)
  • Chicos Black Jacket – $5 from thrift store (brand new condition something very similiar on Chicos site is $199! Holy cow!)
  • Jessica Simpson Boots – DSW $30

Thank you all for your continued reading and support of my blog. Please remember that as a small growing blog, if you invite friends, comment, like, tweet, pin, share it greatly helps!

My goals this year are to keep expanding my blog (didn’t quite reach my 2016 following goals, so really need to step it up), do more yoga and look into getting a teacher certification, and explore the idea of opening an Etsy shop. Oh and the biggest goal family-wise is to get my daughter potty trained so she can start pre-school in the Fall!

Hope your 2017 is as fabulous as you are!

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Tuesday, December 6, 2016

Easy Workout Plan for the busy holiday season

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #CentrumFunFlavors #CollectiveBias

I’m a month out from completing my Bikram Yoga 30 Day Challenge and Whole30 eating plan and I’m noticing the lack of motivation, time and holiday social calendars are eating away at my healthy lifestyle! I’m on a mission to save myself from the holiday gains and get back on track! As a busy working mom, finding the time for workouts is normally after work and the ONLY way I make my workouts happen is having everything packed and being able to change at the gym. In order to meet my gym goal I pack a complete gym bag including my favorite essentials, post-workout snacks, and Centrum ® MultiGummies ®.

Here is what’s in my bag:

  1. Makeup – if I come from work the only thing I need to freshen up is my mascara and my lips, so red holiday lipstick and a good mascara is always in my bag
  2. Having the option for a shower – towel, cheap flip-flops, travel sized lotion, shampoo, conditioner, lotion, deordorant, and make-up remover wipes
  3. Post workout snacks – as a holiday tip, never go to a party hungry…ever. Have options to fuel your body immediately after your workout even if you only get a 20 minute workout in, save the calories on something with clean protein than on those delicious looking holiday appetizers and desserts. I always carry a shaker bottle (I use this during my workout for water as well) with travel protein powder (budget saver is to not buy the packets, but to make a ziplock portion of your protein powder from home). I also carry raw almonds, Centrum ® MultiGummies ® and my favorite protein bars. 
  4. Hair – dry shampoo, brush, ponytail bands, holiday headband, bobby pins

Post-workout hair:
Rocking post-workout hair can be so on trend! Here are 4 stunning looks that are fast and super easy to do after a great sweat!

If I can’t find time for a full gym workout or time to get to the yoga studio, I complete a circuit at home or even at the playground if the weather is nice. My favorite no-equipment circuit workout you can do ANYWHERE and fit within the time constraints you have for the day. Do one round or five, this workout will be fun and energizing that will allow you to meet any holiday demand. Last night I did my full-body circuit along with my 12 days of Christmas ab sequence before I cuddled up and turned on the holiday music to decorate the Christmas tree. Here is my full-body and ab circuit:

Anywhere Full-Body Circuit:

  1. 5 minute run or jog-in-place
  2. 50 jump squats
  3. 50 crunches
  4. 50 push-ups (can modify to knees and incorporate diamond push-ups)
  5. 50 plyometric lunges
  6. 50 tricep dips (off a bench or you can do on ground with legs bent)
  7. 50 jumping jacks
  8. 50 donkey kicks (25 each leg)
  9. 50 standing knee to elbow (25 each side)
  10. 50 calf raises
  11. 50 (25 each side) leg side rasies
  12. 50 high knees
  13. 50 curtsy lunges (25 each side)
  14. 50 arm circles (25 front and 25 backwards)
  15. 1 minute plank

*Repeat as many times as you would like.


12 Days of Christmas Ab Sequence:
*So like the song you perform like a ladder – with one, then do two and one, then three, two and one, and keep building until you go all the way through the 12 movements.

  1. 1 15 second plank
  2. 2 super mans (lower back)
  3. 3 legs to ceiling
  4. 4 leg dips
  5. 5 knee-to-elbow crunches
  6. 6 cross crunches (knees bent and cross crunch 3 times to each side)
  7. 7 rollup full crunches
  8. 8 v-sit russian crunches (4 to each side)
  9. 9 reverse crunches
  10. 10 bicycle crunches (5 to each side)
  11. 11 straight leg crunches
  12. 12 regular crunches

Biggest tip is having fun and grabbing friends and family to motivate you during the holiday season. Put on a your favorite holiday movie and do your workout in front of the TV. Or plan a holiday meet-and-greet with your friends incorporating fitness…try a new dance class or yoga class and exchange gifts over a healthy post-meal or drink.

Lastly, if you can’t make a formal workout happen at all burn some calories on holiday adventures! You will burn some major calories speed walking the mall…so put on comfy shoes and get that holiday shopping tackled in just one trip! Walk your neighborhood at night and enjoy the beautiful lights and decorations that everyone has put up. Or take your time picking out the perfect tree, walk the aisles and make sure your find the best one. And my favorite, find a walking home or light tour. We just went to one last weekend and it got us right in the holiday spirit.

I found my Centrum ® MultiGummies ® at my local Walmat. Centrum ® MultiGummies ® contain three natural flavors: Berry, Cherry, and Orange. Centrum ® MultiGummies are gluten-free and have no artificial flavors or sweeteners. Oh and did I mention there is a fabulous coupon? Just follow this link to the coupons page and you are ready to go shopping. Centrum® MultiGummies® makes it easy for me to support my health while enjoying my busy lifestyle.

*These statements have not been evaluated by the food and drug administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

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