I don’t think that the past 36 hours of my life could be any better than what happened to me during them.

On Black Friday, I went to Wal-Mart and found all I was looking for, with the exception of the steam mop. And I had a blast doing the whole Black Friday at Wal-Mart with the crazies in full force because I was with my 3 co-workers and my hubby. We had FUN. So yeah, good deals always put me a in a peppy mood. My 2 fave purchases have to be my teal Cricut and my new sewing machine. I once bought the Cricut at Wal-Mart and had no luck with it, so I am hoping this newer version is better.

But, things got better. Like WAY better.

My wine labels were featured on HGTV. Yes, I’ve already gushed that they are on the HGTV website, but people, they were on TV. Don’t believe me? I have pictures here to prove it. I’ll have video to prove it soon, too. Squee.

And then this morning I had my weigh-in. I’m going to be perfectly real with you all on this- I did NOT count points this week. Nope, not at all past last Sunday. Monday-Friday were just me eating in what I feel was moderation. I didn’t obsess over points at all because I was obsessing over painting my wood paneling in the living room. I worked my ass off. Quite literally. Painting is HARD. I am still sore from painting the wood paneling, and I haven’t finished the trim yet, so there is still more painting to be done in the next week or so. You know how tennis players get tennis elbow? Yeah, well, this DIY-er has painters body. I am sore, tired and still finding random splotches of paint on myself even though I keep scrubbing it away.

Basically- I didn’t count points this week, but barely had time or energy to eat. And I only technically exercised for 65 minutes though I spent hours upon hours UPON HOURS painting the walls of my tacky living room.

You want to know how my weigh-in went, right? Well, I am proud to report that during this week of Thanksgiving (filled with pie, stuffing and rolls…) I lost:

3.6 pounds!

Isn’t that amazing?! I think so. I always do well Thanksgiving week. Don’t know why, but it’s never a week that stresses me out.

Let’s look at the totals:

Week 3 Weight Loss: 3.6 pounds

Total Weight Loss to Date: 5.2 pounds

Week 3 Exercise Minutes= 65 minutes

Total Exercise Minutes to Date*= 346 minutes

*=These numbers represent a cumulative total

Weight Watchers Virtual Bank Balance= $100.00 ($50 from weight loss, $50 from exercise)

I’m halfway to my iPhone 4! I’ve been wanting it so very badly so I can finally be one of the cool kids. I have the original iPhone, which I’ve heard is considered vintage.

I told myself, and you all, that I was going to look at this weight loss deal in 5 pound increments, so I’ve lost 1/20th of the 5 pounds I need to lose for a total of 100 pounds. I actually don’t think I’ll want to lose the full 100, I think I’m going to look at how my BMI and body look at 80 pounds and go from there. I don’t want to look like a stick- I love having some curves.

Onto week 4 now, and on Monday I go back to work, which is where I think a lot of my temptation lies. I’ll have to make time for actual exercise this week since painting won’t be my excuse to not exercise. For those that had weigh-ins this week, I’d love to know about your successes and struggles in the comments section (make sure you leave a way for me to reply- e-mail/blog address), or you’re always free to e-mail me at MonicaWantsIt@Gmail.com

And finally, since I am still on my HGTV high, I wanted to share with you all my 2 favorite items (besides mine) from the episode. It will be reairing December 3rd at 2 pm if any of you want to set your DVRs.

Red Dahlia Dog Collar

Bird Nest Sachets

To see more of the products featured on the HGTV episode, click here.

I am far too excited to type much, so I’ll just insert the 3 pictures I took on my TV to prove that my item was on TV. And my item was touched by Taniya Najak who I love!

You can buy the labels here in my Etsy store.

And yeah, I am FREAKIN’ OVER THE MOON.

HGTV is sending me a DVD, which I’ll happily post on here. And whenever anyone comes over. And when I feel like a loser. And when I am bored. And when I am hungry.

HOLY HELL! I WAS ON HGTV PEOPLE!

Be back tomorrow with weigh-in results.

My good friend Laurel and I are in need of your assistance.

We are creating 2 fall table-scape photo shoots to help everyone get some ideas for the season and as a kind of showcase for some amazing products.

One will be a rustic theme, the other a more elegant theme.

We are lucky enough to have the amazingly talented Donna of Paper Dolls Photography working with us to do all the photography.

So where do you come in?

We are calling out to anyone interested who might like to contribute! We are looking for any and all things that might fit the themes.

It can be edible, paper goods, decor, linens, favors, etc.

We have created  an inspiration board for each theme to help give you guys some inspiration and get those creative juices flowing.

I am heading up the elegant one:

Laurel is heading up the rustic one:

If you think you would be interested in participating please contact Laurel at goagainstthegrain@yahoo.com or me at Monica20039@gmail.com and we will get you more details.

Those interested will need to send their submissions to me by the 27th of September. All participants will get copies of the photos featuring their items as well as insane amounts of promoting on many levels.

Feel free to share this with anyone you think might be interested.

We are very excited about this project and hope you will be too!

Good morning lovely readers! I know many of you all joined my blog because it’s funny, fabulous and random of the giveaway I had last week, but I wanted to give you all a heads up of a wonderful giveaway extravaganza that’s about to commence on Monday, February 1st.

I have an Etsy store that most of you all know about, and I really try not to bog down this blog with my Etsy stuff because that’s really not the point of my blog. However, I am proud to be on the KNET Team (Knotties and Nesties on Etsy), and we’re showing all of our lovely fans, followers, and clients how much we love them by hosting giveaways each day over on our team blog. Some days there will be 2 giveaways, so you have a TON of chances to win.

Our team features a bunch of talented Etsians so you may be able to snag some jewelry, handmade bags, candles, cards and so much more. Head on over to our blog, or you can always follow us on Twitter to get in on the fun. Each giveaway will go live at midnight CST and will close at 10 pm CST with a winner being announced on the blog by 11 pm CST every day. Winners will be chosen by random.org

We hope you’ll join us! If you ever need to find a KNET member’s products on Etsy, just search using our team tag which is “knetteam”. Happy shopping, and best of luck if you do enter our giveaways! Here’s a pic of some of our recently listed items:

So, anyone hear any news today?

iDunno.

iThink there was a huge announcement about an iPad of some sort…

Image courtesy of the lovely No More Bacon

You know, the iPad didn’t really rock my world. Why? Because it lacks a few things that are deal breakers for me- a webcam, USB connectivity and ability to play Flash websites. For now I will be passing on essentially a really big ass iPhone that costs over $500.

But I digress.

This post is about how I LOVE pink. It’s a color I look good in (looks at hot pink t-shirt), and it’s a color that’s girly and happy. However, I despise baby pink. You know the shade of pink I am talking about…baby shower pink. The “OH EM GEE it’s a girl!” pink.

Ew.

Naturally, when I started thinking about how I need want a laptop, I thought it’d be fabulous to have a hot pink laptop.

Which is apparently a major pain in the ass to find. Dell has a pink laptop and it’s ”promise pink” or the color of the breast cancer awareness ribbon, and I think it’s great. Not hot pink, but I can live with the color and it’s for a good cause. I am at Best Buy on Sunday, and I see it- a Inspiron 1440 Dell Promise Pink laptop for only $479. I have it in my hands, I walk around the store with it, and you wanna know what ended up happening?

Come on, guess.

I put it back on the shelf, left with my toner and immediately regretted my decision. We went to a few other stores, and I couldn’t get the laptop out of my head. Why didn’t I buy it you might ask?

Because I am freakin’ nuts. I would have gotten 18 months no interest on the purchase- so, ohhhh about $36 a month. Not gonna break the bank. But in my psycho mind, I convinced myself if I bought the laptop I’d regret it once I ended up homeless and had no access to Wi-Fi or electricity for that matter.

Clearly I have more issues than a daily newspaper. I know. It’s not news.

When I finally did decide to take the plunge, I called every damn Best Buy in the San Antonio area and none of the stores had it. NONE.

Now my only option is to pay $579 for the slightly beefed up version or settle for this heinous blue one. I know i could buy a laptop skin, but I am still hell bent on a pink laptop.

Then I found this one:

It’s $450 at Best Buy, so it’s not by any means affordable/cheap since it is a netbook.

But it is a hot pink netbook.

I really need to get my priorities straight.

Have I bought a laptop yet? No. I am nervous about ending up homeless because I can’t afford $36 monthly payments. I eventually will buy one, but I am going to hold out for something I really, really want.

But here are some other hot pink goodies I found lately:

Beautiful ring at Flowery Deer on Etsy.

A handbag that has hot pink in it by the uber fab Kate Spade. I want this bag. I would consider giving a kidney for it. Half a kidney. I WANT!

Business card holder (that I bought and love!) from OC Styles.

Hot pink corset from Lane Bryant.

Lovely heels from DSW.

 

Hot pink chair from Target. I would love to buy 2 of these for my future nursery.

Sony camera from Wal-Mart.

As you can see, there are a ton of hot pink items out there, and I want about 75% of them. What color are you obsessed with lately? Is there a color you can’t stand?

There are a ton of blogs, websites, magazines, etc. out right now to show you how to get organized. Therefore, I am not going to go there. No need.

As you all know, I run an Etsy store. www.damaskdiva.etsy.com

It’s easy enough to manage it, thanks to Etsy, and thanks to PayPal. However, I got a few huge orders in December before my 2-week vacation. I told myself I would do them first thing on the first Monday of my vacation so I can knock it off my to-do list. Monday came and went. The next Monday came and went.

Slump.

Etsy slump.

I turned to my fellow KNET Members (Knotties and Nesties on Etsy Team), and many of them were in a funk, too. Was it too much cookies, Bailey’s or tamales? I don’t know, but I just was lazy. I forced myself out of it because I know that if I were a customer or client of someone on Etsy, I’d want my merchandise to be a priority and to get it soon. I owe it to my clients to do that, and I do try to get stuff out quickly.

Then I started thinking, WHY am I in this slump? And it hit me. My workspace was chaos. It was cute, but it was chaos. Yesterday I headed out to Dollar Tree and Wal-Mart to buy some stuff to help get myself together, and I just wanted to share with you what a few simple changes will do for your space and your mindset!

My bookshelf before (this was in July when I first redid my office):

Cute, but not a very good use of space. Finally, I reclaimed some of that space and now it looks like this:

 

(I know it’s blurry…sorry, not retaking it!)

I brought back up one of the shelves to hold books (since it’s a bookshelf and all), moved my nearly free file holder up, and finally found a home for my Dell inkjet on the bottom shelf:

I do have storage under the open shelves. Here’s what it used to look like:

Somewhat organized, but not really. Here’s what it looks like with the help of 4, $1 bins from Dollar Tree:

My stuff finally has a place!

1 other small thing I did was to place my paper cutters on the wall to free up some drawer space. I just used thumb tacks and put it on the wall. Nothing fancy.

 

What small changes have you made to your home lately that have jump-started your motivation? Do share!

Living in Central/South Texas for 24 1/2 years means I don’t really get to live in an area with seasons. Our seasons are something like hot, hotter than hell, so hot you wish you were dead, and kinda hot. So, for you peeps with actual seasons, I envy you.

That being said, the months of September-December are my fave, and this coincides with fall. I don’t know what it is about fall that I love so much. It could be the fantabulous scents at Bath & Body Works, the yummy Starbucks drinks that come out, or the cozy sweaters that hide my fat rolls make me feel skinny.

I love it all.

I notice each fall I seem to have a theme or mood of sorts. Last year it was much about jewel-tones and glam. This year, I seem to be gravitating towards a vintage, romantic, renaissance like mood. Bows, velvet, light with dark, black, gray, ivory, peach, sparkles, etc. Weird.

Here are some of the items I have been coveting for my vintage fall mood:

From Payless

From Coach (duh)

From Overstock

From Etsy

From Bloomingdales

From Arden B

From Etsy

Perfect hair and makeup on Mary Kate (via Glamour)

Paul & Joe Fall 2009 Beauty Collection via FaceCandy

From Tiffany & Co.

From Forever 21

What are you dreaming of or coveting this fall?

A blogging funk. A life funk. A work funk.

I promise I will be back to normal soon. I have no excuse now that I am not taking a single class. Yup, Monica dropped out of her Masters program. Why? Online classes suck, that’s why. I was essentially teaching myself, and that is no fun. Part of the reason I enjoyed my time at the oh-so-freakin-fabulous University of Texas at Austin is because I learned a TON. A LOT. OH MY GOSH SO MUCH! Seriously.

An insane amount.

Not to say that I loved every single class (yeah, I’m talking about you biology of plants class…which was at 8 am!), but I loved that my professors held Ph.D’s in their area and they were amazingly passionate about it. They were. It was CRAZY!

Not so much with online classes. At all. They’re like, “Read/listen to this powerpoint. I sound like I’d rather be picking lint from towels as I narrate it, but it’s what you get kid. Riveting, I know. Make sure to take that quiz by midnight. I’ll be eating twinkies in my Lexus.”

No thanks, I’ll pass. So, until I can go to “normal” classes, I decided to put my Masters dreams on hold. Will I regret this later? Who knows. Everything happens for a reason, and now I can focus my time on my Etsy store, losing weight, and just being a 24-year-old newlywed.

Be back soon. Peace, love, and twinkies.

-Mon & PeeWee

 

Notice I have my Longhorn shirt on? HOOK ‘EM HORNS! Who are playing on pay-per-view. What the heck man? Isn’t my student loan debt enough to warrant me watching the game for FREE?!

But that’s another post.

I am participating in the Price My Space Party from The Nester. As you can see here, here, here and here (and here too!) I recently redid my office/craft room in my apartment. My budget was $500, and I wonder if I stayed under that budget. Let’s see!

Wall #1-

Chair was $199 at Home Goods, pillow was $14.99 from Target, table was $12.99 at Goodwill, swan ring holder $0.25 at Goodwill, porcelain butterfly $1.00 at Goodwill, 2 packs of rhinestones $1.00 at Michaels, magazine rack $32.00 on Etsy, jewelry holder $0.50 at a yard sale, white frame from Target $1.00. Everything else I already had bring wall #1 total to= $264

Wall #2

2 unfinished shelves from Hobby Lobby $14.00 total, vases from Goodwill and Dollar Tree $8.00 total, “B” plate from Kirklands $4.00, cat/birdcage thingy $1.00 at Goodwill, damask curtains $28 at Hobby Lobby, and blue picture frame from Michaels $1.00. Everything else was on hand or a wedding gift. Wall #2 total= $56

Wall #3

4 magazine holders from World Market $8.00, Pier 1 Imports magnetic chalkboard $18, candle holders from Hobby Lobby $3, file folders from Wal-Mart $4.88, white storage bin from Dollar Tree $1.00, blue bird decoration $0.59 at Hobby Lobby, shelf for $5.00 from a yard sale, dowel from Hobby Lobby $0.70, small shelf from Goodwill $3.00. Everything else I had on hand, binder from Target $5.00. Wall #3 total= $49.17

Wall #4

 

Printer stand from Goodwill $19.99, 7 frames at Target for wall $7.00, black frame from yard sale $1.00, 4 bins from Dollar Tree $4.00, pack of cardstock from Wal-Mart $3.88, hot pink tape dispenser from Wal-Mart $4.88, pop-up tape dispenser from Target $2.00, mouse pad $2.00. Everything else I had before hand. Wall #4 total= $44.75

Supplies:

Sander from Wal-Mart $24.88, drill bit set from Home Depot $13.97, black semi-gloss paint from Home Depot $8, Kilz Primer from Home Depot $6, level from Home Depot $6, white satin spray paint from Wal-Mart $0.94, white flat spray paint from Wal-Mart $0.94, Krylon ivory spray paint from Wal-Mart $2.77, Krylon watermelon spray paint from Wal-Mart $2.77, Folk Art acrylic paint $1.00 from Hobby Lobby, misc. sandpaper $12.00 from Wal-Mart, and I’ll add in another $10 for misc. purchases I probably forgot about. Supply total= $89.27

GRAND TOTAL= $503 and some cents.

Ok, I went over about $3, sue me. I think considering that A.) I didn’t use any paint on the walls (can’t…sorry!) and B.) it’s only $500, that I did a great job. What do you think?

I am happy to be participating in my first blog “party” and I hope to participate in many more in the upcoming weeks!