ten things {my favorite tv personalities}.

ten things: my ten most favorite tv personalities, past and present. random, i know...

1. rachel, monica, pheobe, ross, chandler and joey.

obviously. if you know me, you know i love. this. show. i am embarrassed to say that i often subconsciously relate situations in my real life to "friends" episodes. should i not have said that? well, now you know. i'm a nerd.

2. barefoot contessa.

i think i could be her for a day and love my life (although i would miss mine). getting paid to cook, write cookbooks and have my own show on tv? ummm... yes, please. she knows everything about good food. and she's been married to the same man she was dating in high school (and they're super cute to watch!) aaaand she's so nice. what's not to like?

3. bob harper&jillian michaels.

nick&i are big fans of "the biggest loser". and we love bob&jillian. sometimes when we cook a not-so-good-for-you-meal nick will say "i don't think bob&jillian will approve of this!" it's one of our slogans. we love them.

4. elisabeth hasselbeck.

i want to be her. okay, maybe i just want her wardrobe, but i love elisabeth hasselbeck! maybe it's because we have the same views on many issues and it's refreshing to actually see someone fight for them in the mainstream media (even if they get ridiculed; isn't this a free country where people are allowed to disagree??? sorry; soapbox) ... but i watch "the view" every day while bella naps and i don't like it when elisabeth's not there. definitely team elisabeth.

5. jim&pam halpert.

they are just too cute. i cried when they got married (like a freaking baby) and got emotional when they had a baby. hands down the most normal characters on our beloved "the office". sometimes i just feel bad for them that they are surrounded by so many crazy people. and then i remember it's only a tv show.

6. heathcliffe huxtable.

just seeing his sweaters brings me back to my childhood. looooove "the cosby show". it was the show that my whole family would laugh at and watch together. they just don't make sitcoms like that any more (wow, i sound old). ohhh that bill cosby. hi-la-ri-ous.

7. ellen.

how can anyone not like ellen? i mean, just watching her show makes me want to dance. or laugh. or even just smile. and the pranks that she is continually pulling? why, that is reason enough to watch. does the name "dennis quaid" ring any bells? if not, google it. especially if you've had a hard day. maybe life doesn't always have to be so serious after all.

8. george huff.

don't remember him? you weren't an "american idol" fan back in the day? he was fantasia barrino's season... back when i faithfully watched every week. i just loved his little-kid-like smile and i would call every week to vote for him over and over until it cut me off. no joke. ask mel and leah (my old roommates). they will tell you it's true. i think i cried when he got voted off because he was just a kind, gentle soul.

9. dj tanner.

what little girl growing up in the 80s did not want to be dj tanner?? i looooved her. i remember sleeping with my hair puffed forward so that i could spray it like that in the morning to look just. like. her. ridiculous? yes. but if there would've been a "dj tanner fan club", then i would've been a member. (this actually is ringing some bells; i'm thinking i actually researched this when i was little...)

10. bill o'reilly.

ohhhhh bill. i know, i know. he can really be an arrogant son of a gun. but i can't help it. i love him. nick&i mourn the loss of our cable mostly because we don't get to watch "the o'reilly factor" faithfully like we used to. as stereotypical as it is to be a republican-conservative-christian and adore fox news, i do. and actually, we had fox news on our tv in the hospital when i was in labor with bella... and no, she wasn't crying because bill was on. babies do that when they are first born, you know.

who are some of YOUR favorites??

thursday three.

i can't believe another week has *flown* by. life goes so fast sometimes i can barely keep up! this week i decided to mix it up with the thursday three by doing my three favorite pictures of the week.

so... here's this week's thursday three. picture style.

{one}

we went to tyler, texas this weekend to visit my friend hannah and her sweet family! hannah and i met on a missions trip to england with teen missions international when we were just sixteen years old... crazy!!!! we got really close that summer, and kept in touch through letters (yes, old fashioned letters... don't you miss those??) and visited each other off and on until i moved to texas almost seven years ago! we've seen each other through the past almost-fifteen years of our lives including high school, college, weddings and babies. priceless. she has been such a source of encouragement, wisdom, prayer and truth in my life and i love her so much! here is a picture of us with our lil girls :)

{two}

tuesday evening after work, we dressed bel in her easter dress and drove over to a spot near our house where there were bluebonnets galore! since it is our last spring living in texas, bluebonnet pictures were an absolute must. it was a beautiful night, bella (miracle of miracles!) actually sat still and let us snap away, and it was a fun lil family outing. love the shots we got... this is one of them.

{three}

i *love* this picture because i love watching nick be a dad to our lil girl. bella loves her daddy. she crawls around all day, playing and exploring continually saying "dadda. dadda!" and she loves riding on his shoulders. i started snapping pictures when we were out and about the other night... these are my two greatest loves on this earth and i thank god for blessing me with them every single day!

...aaaaand because i can never just stop at three... and because i love this picture so freaking much. i went to check on bella the other day after i laid her down her for nap. this is what i found :)

it's been a good week. every week... every day... every minute is a gift. life is full of precious moments and i want to fully embrace and treasure each one.

happy-almost-weekend, everyone!

hanging plates.

l-o-v-e plates on a wall. as a little girl, my mom hung pretty antique china plates on my bedroom wall, and it set me up for a complete love affair. not even kidding. it pairs perfectly with my never-ending quest to find beautiful ways to decorate without having to eat kraft macaroni&cheese every night for dinner because i have no money left for groceries because i spent it all on expensive stuff.

yes, i know. one of life's greatest goals.

remember my dining room makeover here? or my wall art post? i promised yall i would post a tutorial on how i hung my plates on the wall without using those pokey-outy-gold-plate-hanging-thingys. the truth of the matter is, they don't bug me as much as the fact that i just didn't have extra cash to go buy fourteen plate hangers for the fourteen plates i needed to hang.

sooo... my trusty glue gun to the rescue. always. i took some extra ribbon i had on hand (from this decorating project: bella's nursery... recognize the pink???) and made a small loop that i glued to the ridge on the back of the plate.

for hanging, make sure you use a nail with a good sized head so that the ribbon loop doesn't slip off. hang from the nail and voila, you're done.

yard sales, antique stores, flea markets and goodwill are some of my favorite places to look for plates. you can also find some super cute ones at ross, marshalls, tj maxx (homegoods). i always look for plates in the clearance section of anthropologie, too... they have really unique ones with great colors. using plates for decor is also a great way to showcase family heirlooms or odds-an-ends from your great-grandmother's china collection.

convinced yet? you should be. happy plate-hanging :)

multitude monday.

138. seeing old friends. love.

139. bella's chubby cheeks. and the little rolls of pudge on her legs. adorable.

140. old shudders i was just given by a friend, ready for a coat of spray paint and my bedroom wall!

141. church.

142. seeing nick enjoy being with special people that have been in my life for years and years.

143. god's reassuring promises. his comfort and hope.

144. blueberry muffins + turkey bacon.

145. target. you know, our second home.

thursday three.

this past weekend we took a road trip to houston to visit my family! we left thursday early afternoon and stayed until around noon on sunday, so it was a great trip. my aunt cynthia lives there as well as my cousins and their families and my mom&dad and gret&jude (my sister and nephew) came down for the weekend too! it was a full house and so. much. fun. not only was our family all together, but the final four was also in houston that weekend.

bonus.

so this week's thursday three are all of our most fav things about our weekend trip to h-town.

nick

when i asked nick his favorite thing about our getaway, he said getting to spend time with my family... talking, laughing, playing games and hearing more stories about uncles, aunts, cousins, grandparents, etc. that just warmed my heart. i love that my husband loves my family so much and enjoys being around them... after all, he is one of us now ;) we do have so much fun together... we are loud, laugh alot, and love to reminisce and story-tell (some of us tell longer stories than others...wink, wink) :) and now with four littles in the mix, it's even more crazy, loud and fun! love it.

meg

my highlight was two fold (besides the obvious... getting to hang with family that i love SO much!!) first, nick and my dad and i headed downtown on friday and took the metro to reliant stadium to check out the final four festivities. this was *super* special for me... i grew up watching college basketball with my dad; it was something special that we shared and loved to do together. when i met nick, one of the things i instantly loved about him was how we enjoyed watching sports together too, and the first spring we were dating, he joined my dad and i in our annual march-maddness-bracket-competition :) it was just so special for me to get to go check out the final four stuff with the special men of my life!! we ate some good texas barbeque, checked out the festivities and went into the stadium to watch team practice (which we figured out is really just team-shoot-around-for-fans-time). still fun. it. was. awesome!

my second highlight? saturday night we packed up the kids and headed to a local outlet mall. i never got to shop with my mom and sister--maybe once or twice a year--which is really just a travesty :( so it was reallllly fun to get to shop with them (well... mom really just pushed bella around forever 21 while gretty and i shopped... but still). looking forward to many shopping trips to come!

bel

bella hadn't seen her grammie and grampy or aunt gret since christmas, and the minute they walked in the door she reached out for them :) she loved snuggling with grammie, singing with grampy and playing with aunt gret. and she got to meet my cousins and see aunt cynthia again (she loves her!!) and of course, she loved getting to play with her cousins! she was the baby, but that didn't seem to hold her back much. she loved trying to keep up with the "big kids" and i've noticed since we've been home she's been a faster crawler, puller-up-er and such a jibber-jabber! she learned alot from her cousins, i think...

we had a great time last weekend and we're looking forward to another road trip this weekend to tyler, texas to see one of my longtime friends and her family... so excited :)

flowered canvas re-do.

this was a lil project i did one day while bella was napping. remember this before picture of our dining room area?

BEFORE:

i bought those canvases at target a few years ago, and they are just too modern for my taste and i've been wanting to give them a lil update to suit the decor in our apartment. here's what i did:

AFTER:

i used some fabric i already had on hand to cover the canvas and create a few squares to "frame" a family photo with the help of my trusty glue gun. i took some fake flowers that i spray-painted with white spray paint and combined them with some rosettes i made out of my fabric.

cost? i think $5 to buy the fake flowers. everything else i had on hand.

voila. here's the finished product! (ignore the ugly lamp cord in this picture, please)

note: the end table in this picture is another project-in-the-making. these were oak end tables we have had forever that i've been trying to decide what to do with. i saw this idea on a blog that i wanted to try: mod-podging a piece of furniture with tin foil and glazing it with a couple different finishes. sounds crazy, but it's true. i have one more step to go with these pretty-lil-tables, but i absolutely adore them already! i'll be sure to post a before-and-after on these lovelies when i'm done.

what is in your home currently that you can refresh? you don't have to spend a lot of money to create a brand new piece! happy creating :)

this post was linked on the following *wonderful* blogs!

http://diybydesign.blogspot.com/

http://www.centsationalgirl.com/

multitude monday.

129. my yellow flowers-and-butterfly starbucks mug. so spring-y and it makes me happy. especially when full of coffee.

130. bluebonnets. i mean, they're no maine "pine cone and tassel" ;) but i love when the state flower of texas colors the sides of the highways and fields. so. pretty.

131. roadtrips with my man. and our ipod. always so fun.

132. my sweet husband. this is a weekly staple in my multitude monday.

133. watching bella explore.

134. snuggle time with bel on the couch while she drinks her bottle. (i'm realllllly dreading her being done with bottles; this is the only cuddle time i get with her now that she's on the go!)

135. MY FAMILY. i love the way we laugh, talk, reminisce, play games, eat... pretty much everything.

136. getting to watch my family with bella... and watching her play with her cousins!

137. being in houston for the final four and going to reliant stadium with my husband and my dad. so special.