I’ve never done electrical stuff before, like installing a hardwire fixture, but after watching some YouTube videos I felt confident I could do it. And by confident, I mean completely clueless, but willing to try. Like most Disney stars. (Aww, poor Demi Lovato though…)

During Labor Day weekend, I caved and bought a chandelier for the foyer because I wanted something fancy-schmancy when you walked into my house. I had my eye set on one from Overstock, and one evening I went and it said they only had 2 left. I bought it on the spot!

Here she is:

(If you like this fixture and want to buy it, click here. But you might not if you keep reading…)

So, it sat in the box for awhile, until this past weekend when I got a wild hair up my butt and decided to try installing it all by lonesome. DH was at work, so I was seriously ALL alone. I thought I’d have it up in 30 minutes, ooh and ahh a bit, blog about it, and drink some beer.

Boy was I wrong.

Let me walk you through my experience. Ready?

The first thing you should do whenever you’re working with anything that could shock ya is to turn off the power on the breaker box. Ours was labeled for us, but if not, you need to figure out which switch turns off the power to the area you’re working in. That is SUPER important, mkay?

Next, gather stuff you’ll need. For me it was a ladder/step stool & a cordless drill. I highly recommend not using a chair to do this sorta thing.

So, here’s a picture of the light fixture when we moved in:

Small, brassy, tacky.

Step 1: TURN OFF THE POWER. I can’t stress this enough.

Step 2: Use a drill (cordless or regular) to remove the old light fixture. Be careful of any glass components. I also kept everything from the light fixture just in case I completely screwed up and needed to put it back. You never know people. Your area should look like this:

Step 3: Attach new chandelier mounting bracket (silver thing in the middle) and connect the wires (usually black, white & ground). This is where my installation went terribly wrong. In the above picture you can see the mounting bracket (silver), white wire, black wire, and the ground wire is up in there, too. My chandelier has 2 clear + 1 ground wire. And I was doing this all by lonesome=not easy.

See what I mean?

I went to YouTube, found nothing. Googled, found nothing. So what did I do?

Yeah, I ate the bag. Not literally the bag, but you know.

Tried it one way…nada.

Tried it another way…still nothing.

Then I cursed, called the hubby, ate at McDonald’s, went to Wal-Mart and came home and did this instead:

Lurve. It only took me about 20 minutes, was super easy, and I felt so empowered that I DID IT. Furthermore, it works better than my original idea because when you walk into our front door you can go to hallway to the left (bedrooms), go straight into the living room or go to the right into my office/dining room. It just makes sense. Oh, and it was easy, too.

You also can’t beat the $25 price tag.

My $125 chandy? Yeah, it’s sitting on the floor in timeout. It may become our master bedroom light or maybe the dining room. Have any of you all ever installed a chandelier that didn’t have color-coded wires? Am I doomed? Should I hire an electrician? He charges $65 an hour, and I am cheap!

Besides waste 4 hours of my time, I did some thrifting on Saturday. Can I just say that thrifting is sooo relaxing? I got up early on Saturday, had breakfast and some coffee, then thrifted for about an hour or two. Divine. What did I find? Lemme show ya!

Pair of really tall, silver/mirrored candle holders- $4.00 for the pair. Can’t wait to use these on my mantel at Christmas time.

Some candlesticks for 30-cents each. Loved the colors. Goodwill has such great stuff!

A hurricane (tall!) with a glass base for $2.00 (Kinda hard to see…) Also from Goodwill.

Some pretty pillows, $1.50 for the pair! But my most fave item? This gorgeous, plush, tan velvet chair with nailhead trim. SWOON. She was 50% off, so I got the chair for only $45! That may seem high for a chair, but I love supporting my local Goodwill, and I love the style/shape/quality. Totally worth the money.

Even Pee Wee likes the chair. “You bought this for me, right? Thanks!”

Found anything good while thrifting lately? I’d love to hear about it!

So, given how much I blogged and blogged last year, you would think I would have blogged about this momentous occasion by now, but no…instead I daydream about sitting in some bar furniture in Cabo San Lucas with my husband next to me and a margarita in my hand.

Instead, I have had more boxes than I can imagine in my hands and the only furniture I have sat on has been my own. I want a vacation. Not getting one anytime soon though because we BOUGHT A HOUSE.

Holy crap.

And you know what guys? There is NO RETURN POLICY. All sales final.

I came to this realization about a week ago, and I felt panic. Like, OHMYGOSHWHATAREWEGOINGTODO?! And the answer is nothing. And I hope this feeling passes like soon, because I hate to be awake at night second guessing our decision to become homeowners.

I had this CRAZY idea that once we moved in, I’d start removing popcorn ceilings, painting walls, replacing floors and that I’d have my perfect home by Christmas.

I am obviously crazy. But this isn’t news, is it?

No.

So for now, I am updating all of you lovely people that yes, we bought a home. No, I haven’t done anything fabulous to it. In fact, we have so many big ass boxes from our washer, dryer and fridge in the garage that we can’t park in it. I also have like 3 boxes that need to be unpacked in the living room that I ignore while munching on 100 calorie packs and watching my TV shows.

Clearly I have priorities.

But, I do have something great for you. Yes, you. In honor of my big purchase, I want to share with you all a lovely $45 gift certificate to CSN Stores. How can it be yours? It’s simple!

You have 5* ways of entering. Please read all the details to make sure your entries count.

1.) Go over to http://www.csnstores.com/ and tell me which item would make you feel like you were on a vacation in your own home. (I need ideas!) Leave me a link to the item with your comment.

2.) Tweet the following: “@MonicaBenavidez is giving away a $45 gift cert to CSN stores at her blog: www.monicawantsit.com Check it out & enter today!” Leave me a LINK to your tweet in a separate comment.

3.) Tell me your fave tip/method of making your home feel like paradise.

4.) Give me your best (and I mean BEST) advice for being a first-time homeowner. Project idea, cleaning tips, etc. are all welcome!

5.) Tell me a place I should visit if someone were to give me $1,000 to take a 3-day vacation.

6.) Not a follower? Become a follower for a bonus entry!

Each entry MUST BE IT’S own comment. So, if you want to enter 5 times, you should be leaving 5 comments (6 comments for new followers).

Ready? Set? Go!

Winner will be announced Friday, November 5th at 1 pm CST.

Tonight I am determined to get those 3 boxes unpacked.

Maybe.

I love Twitter. I do- I honestly love, love, love Twitter. I live in a small town where friends and socializing are almost non-existent, so my tweeps mean a lot to me. I like feeling like I can connect with people who share my interests. Today, I saw the hashtag #exposed being used a lot by my diet/weight watchers/healthy living tweeps, and I started to see what the buzz was about. I was astonished, inspired and humbled by their posts. I also felt even more insecure about myself though. I’ll explain.

Mish over at Eating Journey started the Exposed movement about a year ago. I think the point of exposing yourself is to show the world you in the rawest form- unedited, unairbrushed, flaws and all to show what we love about our bodies. Positive affirmations. I read through many of the posts (you can find most of them linked up here) and felt inspired to write my own.

But no, I will not be showing pictures of myself in nearly nothing because I don’t even like seeing myself in nearly nothing. I guess maybe that’s the problem.

In reading the posts I read about how girls have felt empowered to love their bodies and have sex with the lights on. I’ve read about how they have learned to love themselves regardless of a pant size or a number on the scale. I’ve read about how their bodies give them amazing abilities like having children, giving hugs, running marathons and so much more. It’s all quite amazing. Yet if you were to ask me about my body, I’d likely complain, make a joke or avoid the subject.

My weight has always been an issue for me. I’ve always been the fat kid, the fat chick and now a fat woman. Lovely. I did manage to lose about 60 pounds from August 2002-May 2003 and I never, ever felt more beautiful in my entire life. That’s the time I met my husband, and then I gained some weight back. Then I lost weight for the wedding. And since our wedding in May 2009 I have gained back ALL my weight. Yup, I’ve gained FORTY pounds. It’s like part of me doesn’t even know how it happened, but I know damn well how it happened. I got lazy. I am lazy. I drank too many margaritas and I ate too much fast food. There’s a reason you can spell fat food by just dropping the “s”. Everyday I swear I’ll start back on Weight Watchers, and I try, but I always screw up. I am just always hungry or always obsessing over food. It kills me. No one likes feeling hungry and miserable. I complain about self-esteem issues while eating ice cream with my husband.

I have problems, people.

I think about all these things, almost daily, but again do nothing about them. It just seems so daunting to have to lose weight ALL over again. I know I need to. I would never want to be pregnant at this weight. I wear the same 5-6 outfits to work because they’re the only ones that fit. I avoid my friends’ phone calls and invitations to hang out because I don’t want them to see me and think, “Wow, she gained all the weight back.” I avoid going to routine doctor’s visits because I am afraid of being made to feel bad for the number on the scale. I don’t like being made to feel like I am a disgusting person. I am just embarrassed and ashamed of my body. My poor husband has to deal with all my issues, and it effects our marriage in many ways. I don’t feel like it’s fair to him to have a wife who never wants to do the things husbands and wives should do. I feel like I treat myself worse than anyone should ever treat a person. I berate myself, I criticize myself and I am just negative towards my body.

I hate my body.

But tonight, I am going to try to think of things that I love that I could only do with my body regardless of my weight or size.

My arms, which I am so critical of, help me carry around my gorgeous dog Pee Wee. I love him SO much.

My legs help me walk around and do all the DIY projects around the house that I enjoy.

My hips help me dance around to the rhythm of my favorite songs.

I am a wife, a friend, a co-worker, a blogger, a tweeter, and so many more things that do not involve my weight.

Maybe in one year I can add “healthy person” to that list and then I can expose myself to you all.

But for now, I just hope to be strong enough to get back on the path towards a healthier lifestyle and to love myself more. If I don’t, who will?

Hi everyone!  I am back again for a weekly installment of the Luxe for Less. I think this type of post will be posted two times a week, what do you all think of that? Maybe feature 3-5 items?

Like Gwen said in the comments section of my first L4L (luxe for less) post, it’s sometimes easier, less messy and overall better to just find something for cheaper than it is to try and make everything. Or so I think. Mostly because I don’t want to be up to my elbows in saw dust, spray paint and glue gun stringy things. You can relate, right?

Ottomans are something that can either be seen as an accessory or as necessary. I can see it both ways: In my living room I would love, love, love a cocktail table that functions as an ottoman, but in my bedroom I’d love a bench/ottoman that would in all likelihood be more decorative than functional (example: at the foot of the bed). Actually, if it was at the foot of the bed, I am pretty sure my dog Pee Wee would be like, “Holy crap, a new bed for me. AND it’s TUFTED! OMG mom, you shouldn’t have. Actually, you should because I am the king/diva of this house. Time for a nap. Where’s my matching tufted pillow?”

And then it’d be covered in dog hair. See, this is why I want inexpensive stuff in my home.

Item #1: Sullivan Leather Ottoman from Pottery Barn

$899 from Pottery Barn + Shipping + $50 delivery surcharge + tax

$270 from Overstock + $2.95 shipping

Or if you have your heart set on the saddle brown color, but not necessarily the leather, then this $99 ottoman from Overstock might fit the bill.

Item #2: The Crosby Stool from Williams-Sonoma Home

$1317 on sale from Williams-Sonoma + Shipping & Tax

You can buy 2 of the Williams-Sonoma and spend about $3K, or buy one of the above benches for $310 at Overstock + $2.95 shipping

Item #3: Fairfax Custom Square Ottoman from Williams-Sonoma Home

$637-$1,487 on sale from Williams-Sonoma + Tax & Shipping

$471 from Ballard Designs + Tax & Shipping (and this ottoman is 4” bigger PLUS has storage)

Item #4: Tufted Leather Ottoman from Neiman Marcus

$1729 from Neiman Marcus + $335 delivery/processing + tax

$357 from Overstock +  $2.95 shipping (plus it has a shelf!)

Hope these deals help someone out, and if you have an item you need to find for less, e-mail me!

**Disclaimer: I’ve never personally bought any of the items featured. Remember, sometimes you get what ya pay for, so read reviews and such before making any purchase regardless of price!**

So, I confess that I look at home decor product websites an insane amount. I have no shame.

I also confess that I become obsessed with items, but I also want to have them at the absolute CHEAPEST price. ABSOLUTE CHEAPEST.

Ya got that?

I will spend time searching for coupons, promo codes and eBates to figure out how to get the best deal possible, because let’s face…given this economy you have to spend smart.

Plus the more I save, the more I have to spend on other stuff.

But I digress.

Today I wanted to show you all some luxe items and their less-expensive, but equally luxe, counter parts.

Item #1: Stacked crystal sphere lamp (aka: the ball lamp)

$389 on sale at Restoration Hardware + shipping & tax

$290 at Pottery Barn + shipping & tax

$150 at Overstock + $2.95 shipping (no tax)

Item #2:  The Crystal Column Table Lamp

$249-$299 at Restoration Hardware + Shipping & Tax

$120 at Overstock + $2.95 Shipping (no tax)

$50 at Wal-Mart + Free Site-to-Store Shipping & Tax

There are lots more examples I have found, but I will save those for next time. If there’s an item you’re trying to find for less, feel free to e-mail me and I will see if I can help you out.

That being said…

I’ve noticed a lack of comments and a small drop in followers of my blog, and so I wanted to ask YOU if there were any special things you’d like to see featured or written about on this blog? With the closing date of our house coming nearer, I’ll surely have lots of great DIY stuff to post about. However, I never started this blog to turn it into a huge home decor blog, because I just know I am not that cool nor awesome at home decor junk. I also know I am random and write about things like Weight Watchers, Pussycat Doll DVD reviews, and whine about being fat and lower middle class. I’m not totally star-blogger material. But I do want my blog to be relevant, entertaining and ya know, read by people other than my husband. Suggestions are welcome, and I look forward to blogging more and losing followers less.