{ in total awe }

When I saw this transformation, my eyes about bugged out of my head.  No joke.

This kitchen should totally be in a magazine.

Erin from Rare & Beautiful Treasures took this tiny rental kitchen from this:

to this:

 for less than $100!

And you'll never guess how she did it!  You seriously need to head over to her blog to check it out.

I was honestly amazed at her ingenuity.  I don't think I EVER would have thought of it.

Isn't that such a wonderful thing about blogging?  Finding so many new and awesome ideas from all the millions of people out there who are SO much more creative and talented than I am!  I LOVE it!

My favorite part about her new kitchen? 

This:

I adore how she strung up pictures with clothespins! 

Such a fun, easy way to make a bold statement.

Remember this little awkward area in my kitchen?:

(I'm talking about the small weird space between my cabinets and counter next to the fridge.  Sorry, wish I were home to take a better picture!)

Wouldn't a line of clothespin pictures look fabulous there? 

I cannot wait to put some candid ones up! 

Thank you Erin for inspiring me with your gorgeous re-fab!

{ in shock }

I got an award.

I know, I am stunned too!  I have had this blog only about 2 weeks and am feeling a little majorly  overwhelmed by the amount of talent out there, so I am just tickled pink that Ashley thought of little ole me.

Ashley, from No Apologies! {Hi Ashley!  Waves frantically!} (don't you just LOVE that blog name? It's awesome!) passed this award onto me, and I am sooo thankful!

Thanks, Ashley, you are a total sweetheart.  I mean it.

The guidelines for this award are:

thank the person/people who gave it to you

share 7 things about yourself.

pass the award on to 15 bloggers, whom you have recently discovered, and think are fantastic

7 things about moi:

{1} I am 25 years old, married for almost 4 years to my high school sweetheart.  We have 1 girl and 1 boy on the way.

{2} I am OBSESSED with home decor.  Love it. Crave it.  Spend WAY too much time looking up ideas for our home.

{3} My husband is a door-to-door salesman -- this is why we move every summer.  We LOVE his job, but it makes it harder to get all our projects done being gone during the best part of the year.

{4} I still LOVE the show FRIENDS.  My husband and I usually watch an episode every night before we go to bed.

{5} I think I was born to travel -- I have lived in 3 different countries and 5 different states.  All but one of those moves have been since I graduated high school.

{6} I am terrible with directions. If I don't have my trusty GPS, I will get lost.  Guaranteed.

{7} I am a total perfectionist, and I'm pretty sure I have OCD.  I like things clean, organized, and looking good.

Bloggers I Just Found Out About and Love:

(not necessarily in any order-they all rock)

My Repurposed Life

The Creative Crate

Us and Them

Primitive and Proper

I Like the Way...

I know, I know, I was supposed to do 15.  And believe me, I totally read wa-ay more blogs than that and could have listed off a bunch, but I decided to just do 5, so that hopefully others will go to their sites and check them out without being overwhelmed by a huge list.  These 5 blogs are awesome, and they should definitely be recognized!

{ patriotic love }

We have quite a bit of American pride 'round our house. 

My hubbs was thisclose to signing up for the Marines.  He tore his hamstring practically in half the day before he was going in to sign up, and by the time it healed, he had other responsibilities to attend to.  His favorite song is "God Bless the USA" by Lee Greenwood, and he tears up at the sight of soldiers or memorabilia about our great country. 

Even with all of this, we haven't been able to celebrate the 4th of July properly - because pretty much since we've been married, my husband's job takes us out of state all summer long.  We leave our home and family and travel to somewhere else in the country.  Don't get me wrong, we LOVE these adventures, but I wish I could decorate our house during this time to show our American pride. 

We do have a little something up...it stays up all year to remind us how lucky we are to live here:

(don't mind the messy messy entertainment center...I swear that thing will be the death of me one day.)

I'll zoom in to give you a closer look:

Now, I know that I don't have to decorate to show pride, but, let's be honest, it's a fun way to do so!

Especially after seeing some of the awesome ideas around blogland.

Take this for example:

How stinking adorable is that?  Those girls over at How Does She? never fail to amaze me.  I might stalk their site for new ideas....maybe....I'll never tell!

As soon as I saw that, I about died.  "I MUST have that!" I thought to myself.  And I will be making one as soon as I get back home.  I'll show you the finished product soon, I promise!

And then I saw Thrifty Decor Chick's post about this same decoration PLUS her own twist on it to make it into a door hanging:

Ack!  Could you just die?  I just love it.  So simple.  So sweet.

Sarah never ceases to amaze me with what she comes up with.

So then I decided I had to make one of those too.  Darn it all.  Why do you all have to be so talented?

If you could give me about a lifetime minute to catch up, that would be great!

And then, if all that weren't enough (sheesh! Seriously.), I blogstalked stumbled upon Living with Lindsay's Teach Me Tuesday post.  Her guest blogger this Tuesday was Sarah from A Little of This, A Little of That.  Sarah made the most adorable little girl's American flag shirt.  Seriously. To. Die. For.

Don't take my word for it though, see for yourself:

I am pretty sure I have to make this for my little Taelie-girl now.

In fact, as soon as she wakes up from her nap, I just might have to run to the store.

Yup.  I'm gonna have to.

The best part is, all of these girls gave us tutorials so we can be as crafty as them!  Score!  Just click on the links with their names and you'll be taken right to their sites.  (Nope, no one paid me to advertise these girls -- no one knows I'm here, I'm a newbie!  I just love these ideas that much!)

What are you waiting for?  Get busy crafting!  Have you seen any other to-die-for 4th ideas that I've missed? If so, let me know, and I'd LOVE to check them them out!