Finally Finished Fridays #1 - Bella's Closet Makeover

Ok guys here it is, my closet Makeovers are almost complete.
This past week, I worked on MAXIMIZING the amount of usable space, and making them work better for us. I did the best I could working with what was already there. LIKE those horrible wire shelves, and my mom's old dressers that she already had in the closet. Isn't my DREAM closet, but I am so much happier with the setup now.

These are the BEFORE PICS in better clarity :)

Here are the AFTER PICS again, hopefully a little clearer than below.

Ok now for the fun part. Can you tell me how many things you see different in the pictures above, look for it, look for it!!!
I could always tell you, but I hope the pictures speak for themselves. Ready, now lets see who can name all the changes---- GO!!
P.S. I officially suck at taking pictures. I had the hardest time, the closet light was so bright, it was horrible, and obviously without it, I couldn't take the pictures either. Erghhh, do any of you have any suggestions on how to take GOOD pictures in a time like this? 
P.P.S. After previewing the post, I just realized the pictures suck even more than I thought, OMG even the dang watermarks are blurry,,, I AM SO SORRY. I will try to make them better, IF someone will please give me some pointers,,, PLEASE!!
If you want to see PART 2 (my moms closet)and PART 3 (my linen closet) make sure to come back throughout the day, I will be posting those later on today, and I can't wait to show you detailed TUTORIALS on how I did everything next week!!
Oh and start thinking about how you can maximize your closet space, I will be challenging you to do just that next week as well. Oh I am SOOO excited, I can't stand it eeekkkk!!

P.s. I'm linking up to these awesome parties ---->>

All the blogs I link up to can be found in my blog rolls in my sidebar. Go see what my favorite bloggers are up to :)

P.p.s If you host a party, and don't like the way I link back, kindly let me know, and I will be happy to make it right. I think having all the parties I link up to in my blog roll in my sidebar is a wonderful way for my readers to see whats new with your blogs, as it's always being updated. No need to wonder which party started, now you can see exactly what everyone is up to right away :)

Don't forget to check out my NEW blog series. It's all about getting things done.Click on Make it Happen MONDAYS to see what I'm working on this week!
If you missed my post on I HATE CANCER - Be Thankful - Choose Joy make sure to go check it out. You will be inspired beyond belief, and I don't want you to miss it!

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I HATE cancer - Be Thankful - Choose Joy

This post isn't going to be all mushy, or depressing, but more like an eye opener AND a daily reminder to be THANKFUL for all those that are HEALTHY in your life. Including your own health, and if there is anything you think you can do to improve it, DO IT NOW.  Oh and P.S. I HATE CANCER!



Amy's journey with breast cancer was the first cancer blog I ever really followed. This is Amy, I think she's beautiful as can be, and while I could have picked a "non cancer" picture of her, I think it's important to share just what cancer looks like, for this was, and IS her reality.Click HERE to go to NEW NOSTALGIA and read all about her Journey with Breast Cancer.
Amy was so young when she got diagnosed, I just couldn't believe she had breast cancer. How did that happen? I immediately felt a connection, and her posts about faith were always soooo very inspiring to me. I was just moved beyond belief at everything that she was going through, and her strength, which I'm sure looked a whole lot different in REAL life, but non the less, her outlook on life was contagious, and I just wanted to have her spirit if even for a moment. I truly love this gal, and have enjoyed her blog for a long time.
Amy shares tons of healthy eating tips on her blog too which I love. MY ADVICE to you is DON'T WAIT until you have cancer,,,, :(   Take advantage of your health NOW, and start to take care of your body while you have the CHOICE to do so. 
Btw here's 9 reasons to juice your greens.
She also shares lots and lots of other cancer fighters struggles, victories, and sometimes loses. It's always an eye opener reading those posts. I especially wanted to share this one with you. I'm sure EVERY cancer fighter and their families out there can relate, and for the rest of us, what can I say. 
BE THANKFUL for your health, BE THANKFUL, and again BE THANKFUL. 
Not as I Pictured a film by John Kaplan has just left me speechless, and I only saw the trailer. Take a look, into the REALITY of cancer!
"Not As I Pictured" trailer from Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar on Vimeo.
To wrap up Amy's mission through her entire journey, please read THIS post where she talks about
BREAST REDOS and NIPPLE TATTOOS
She just wants to educate EVERY SINGLE woman out there YOUNG and OLD, that this can happen to anybody. Please read her VERY important post, and I'll leave you with this VISUAL of Amy comforting her daughter after her head shaving party. (My heart hurts) I just want to hug her!!
************** ~~~~~~~ **************
Then not long ago, I visited another blog I adore, BUT hadn't really visited for a while, and COULD NOT BELIEVE my eyes when I saw that Ashley from Lil Blue Boo was struggling with cancer. What, SAY WHAT?

This is not happening, HOW can this happen. That was my question all over again. I spent literally the entire weekend catching up on EVERY SINGLE post of what she calls :

READ all THE CANCER CHRONICLES HERE
I loved pretty much everything about Ashley before all this happened. She was always so CHEERFUL, JOYOUS, CREATIVE, TALENTED, FUNNY, PRETTY, and INSPIRING.
Guess what Cancer hasn't changed her. 
I can't even begin to tell you how enjoyable her daily blog posts are, (is it terrible of me to describe it like that?) It's true though. I do realize she is sharing things that are NOTHING but enjoyable, and that there is NOTHING funny about having cancer, BUT this girl can write, and she can share something as terrible as cancer, and turn it into something beautiful, and even funny. I can't help but LOVE that about her, sharing all these intimate details of her life, and body, and openly poking fun of it, because you know what, I CAN RELATE to some of those things, even though I dont' have cancer. 
Things like being SCARED TO POOP!!!
Read all about  how EVERYONE POOPS. It was a joyous event, and I know just how she felt. After each of my kiddos, I had tons of pain in my bumm, because of the dreaded H word, Ashley also talks about HERE. So the thought of pooping, just scared me half to death, and when I finally did, I basically celebrated just like her, so I LAUGHED OUT LOUD while reading that post. 
AND she IS BEAUTIFUL, still, no matter what, and maybe EVEN more so now than ever before.

I also want to (NEED TO) remind myself and all of you, that you can CHOOSE JOY every day!

Something that was born after her father died last sumer. Again I can relate because I too lost my dad, although I was much younger, but I do know exactly how she felt. I miss my dad still.  


Rite of Passage - Shaving my Head from Ashley Hackshaw on Vimeo.

You can choose to let the small things bother you, OR you can CHOOSE JOY.
Tell me honestly, could you watch that video without crying, or in my case bawling. I just cry at the look on her husbands face and the way he lovingly shaved her head, and kissed her throughout.

I am telling you, I would have been a HOT MESS, she is such an inspiration, and an example for us all, dang it, JUST CHOOSE JOY people.

Ashley hands out these Choose Joy bracelets to people every day, and I'm sure that EVERY SINGLE person that ever has the pleasure of meeting this fine lady will NEVER forget her, EVER.

I'm telling you I am just beyond inspired by these ladies, and by my little lady friend.

************** ~~~~~~~ **************

Meet Arianna (in her most recent phtoto shoot) by the awesome Matt Whytsell an amazingly talented TN photographer. He did such an amazing job capturing the pure joy in these girls eyes. Their love for each other, and for life, and the colors are so bright, and cheerful, and I adore them so much. 

Last July I shared with you the story about a little girl named Arianna in THIS POST and how she had just relapsed with her cancer. 
Seven Months later, she's still with us (THANK YOU LORD) and still cute as can be. I have been following along with her family's journey through her moms facebook page. You can go check them out too, they are all the SWEETEST people and your heart will just melt seeing this little girl, and her sister. The family is VERY involved with St. Jude hospital and if you've ever thought about donating to these kids, JUST DO IT ALREADY... they need all the help they can get. Enough said right?
Here's a link where you can get all the info on :

ST. JUDE CHILDREN'S RESEARCH HOSPITAL.
So there you have it my friends. That was a lot to take in right, BUT ohhhh sooooo important. 
Please GO NOW, and say a small prayer, THANKING the LORD for all the healthy people in your lives, and then say another prayer, one for all those who are struggling, and hurting, and scared, and sick, and even dying. 
They all need our help, our support, and our understanding, and why not go show them some love by visiting their blogs, saying hello, and sharing their stories with ANYONE who you think could use it. 
What they don't need is our sympathy, because as you can see, they all are better examples of what it means to live then any of us. We need to learn from each of them, just HOW TO LIVE, because even if they (technically) are living with the reality of mortality on a daily basis, only GOD knows what is in store for any of us. They teach us that every day is SPECIAL, and it is. 
Thank you ladies, for letting us be a part of your lives, I will NEVER be the same :)

P.s. I'm linking up to these awesome parties ---->>

All the blogs I link up to can be found in my blog rolls in my sidebar. Go see what my favorite bloggers are up to :)

P.p.s If you host a party, and don't like the way I link back, kindly let me know, and I will be happy to make it right. I think having all the parties I link up to in my blog roll in my sidebar is a wonderful way for my readers to see whats new with your blogs, as it's always being updated. No need to wonder which party started, now you can see exactly what everyone is up to right away :)

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Come take a TOUR of my old house :(

Welcome home!! This WAS my home for the past 8 years, and now it's ready to rent. (sigh)

Read about my sadness HERE.

My newly cleaned out flowerbed. See more on the Flower Bed and Garden HERE.

Come on, lets go inside!!

The front entrance. I had a new door put in FINALLY!!

The wonderful living room is huge, and opens to the kitchen, dining room, and leads to the blue room. See it back there. Come on, lets go check it out.

This was an add on by the previous owners. It was a major selling point when we bought the house. We kind of fell in love with that wall of built in cabinets, and library, oh and the windows make me really happy too, oh and of course the blue walls. 

My deck, another big plus for me AT the time. No backyard, meant no cutting grass, lol. Little did I realize that kids require a yard, preferably a fenced in yard. But we survived, and had MANY MANY good times on this deck. Endless bbqs, and believe me the kids had no problem playing back there either. Anyway, it's all clean now!!

My kitchen, which may not be built by a professional, but non the less, I love it. I love the colors, and the fact that there is no more wall dividing up the space. I love those wood counters, and my sliding drawers. We finally got a backsplash put in too. Yeah,, FINALLY... 

I love my red tiles in the kitchen, and really miss cooking in there.

I miss all the extra storage that window bench provided, even if the top was never finished properly, and it was full of crap most of the time. I still loved it. 

I miss my kids sitting on the counter helping me cook. It really was the most KID friendly FAMILY kitchen ever. Well, I've only had a couple kitchens in my lifetime, but this was the BEST I tell you.

Even my pantry got a fresh coat of paint. My goodness!! I'm spoiling these people. I sure hope they appreciate all the hard work I put into this house.

The guest bathroom!

My boys old room.

My girls old room. (formerly a very PINK room)

The master bedroom. This was also a huge selling point for me. This room is HUGE. There were times when we literally had THREE beds in there, and still had room to walk in between, AND still had nightstands on the wall. I'm not EVEN kidding. If I can find any old pics of the baby days, nursing, co-sleeping, I'll be sure to share. 

As if the master bedroom alone wasn't enough, I had this EXTRA room (sitting room) whatever right there too. I used this as an office for a while, and then each of the younger kids took turns having it their bedroom for a while.

Master bathroom.

Beautiful view of the deck, which was usually a mess, but almost always had pretty flowers too.

Ahhhh, my garage. This baby is killing me. I MISS it so much. It was a week long labor of love, the kids and I spent all of Spring Break last year painting it, and making it pretty. AND now we dont' have it anymore. Boo.... I especially miss having the big wall of mirrors. Now where are we supposed to practice our Tae Kwon Do, and dance moves.... ?

Read more about my garage HERE!

I seriously miss all my kids scribble scrabble too. Like this garage door that I painted with chalkboard paint, and the kids had no problem doodling on every chance they got.... ahhhh.

I need to do some major overhauls to our new place, so we can feel more at home. In time everything will fall into place, I know it will, but that doesn't mean I don't miss things the way they were. 

I will be putting together posts when I can, showing all the before pictures, and in between pictures of the house garden, etc. It will be fun (for me) too see all that in one place. At least my memories can live on forever on this blog right?

Do you have any stories you want to share about the PAST, that you miss so much?

P.s. I'm linking up to these awesome parties ---->>

All the blogs I link up to can be found in my blog rolls in my sidebar. Go see what my favorite bloggers are up to :)

P.p.s If you host a party, and don't like the way I link back, kindly let me know, and I will be happy to make it right. I think having all the parties I link up to in my blog roll in my sidebar is a wonderful way for my readers to see whats new with your blogs, as it's always being updated. No need to wonder which party started, now you can see exactly what everyone is up to right away :)

P.S. Don't forget to check out my NEW blog series. It's all about getting things done.Click on Make it Happen MONDAYS to see what I'm working on this week!

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The Rental Property - During -

You might remember me talking about getting our old house ready for rent. Well it was an extremely long process, and I must admit, I think I went overboard with getting it in tip top shape. I mean it is a rental after all right? I really thought I'd go in and just do a few touch ups here and there, but with my obsessive personality it turned into a full blown house makeover. I had to fix everything and make it perfect, I just couldn't stop myself. You may have read my post where I talked about how hard this move was on me... Change is good, RIGHT?

After living in it for so many years, I just couldn't bare the thought of letting it go like that, so I put all my love into it one more time, only this time we are not the ones who will be enjoying it. Funny how that works isn't it? I'm very happy with the family that is moving in though. So that's comforting, I couldn't stand it if I had someone come in and trash the place.

This is the blue room. We used it as our TV movie room / library / just chill out and shut the door so mom doesn't hear you room.

The kitchen FINALLY got a tile backsplash put up. Please tell me why on earth I didn't do that sooner? I mean really, I could just kick myself sometimes :(

 The living room. Just so you know a tornado did come through here, if that makes it better.

 This is what you saw first thing walking though the door. Needless to say I didn't have many visitors, and I DID NOT show the house to anyone during this time.

I still can't believe I did this all, pretty much by myself. I spent COUNTLESS hours, days, weeks and actually I think more like two months on getting this house ready to rent. 
Granted I could only work on it for about 5 hours a day, which really isn't that much considering all the trips to the Hope Depot, lol. Anyway, I did it...... and I'm very happy it's over!!
Come back tomorrow to see the finished pictures, with everything all cleaned up. 
Do any of you have rental properties? Do you have any tips you'd like to share? I know I went overboard this time, hopefully next time around it will be easier.... (fingers crossed).
P.S. Don't forget to check out my NEW blog series. It's all about getting things done.Click on Make it Happen MONDAYS to see what I'm working on this week!

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Make it Happen Mondays #1 - Maximize your closet space - Part One -

Hello, Hello, Hello!!!


I am super duper excited to start a new series on the blog. Make it Happen MONDAYS(need to work on a button, so you can grab one)
Here's what I'm working on this week :

• My closet
• My moms closet
• Linen closet

This is my moms closet!

Can you tell how packed her closet was? You would not believe how much stuff she had crammed in there. I don't know how she did it, but she managed to combine three closets full of clothes into one. It's no wonder she yelled frantically last week when the shelf started coming off the wall, ooops. I'm only surprised it didn't come crashing down sooner.

My closet may not have shelves falling down, but the amount of usable space was minimal. I had to fix that asap. After starting on my moms closet, my head was buzzing with all kinds of ideas. 

I would like to finish the closets up this week. I did not paint them, or do anything pretty, but I did find a way to MAXIMIZE the amount of usable space in both closets, and am pretty darn happy with the results. 
P.S.You want to know what this new series is about???
Well I have come to realize that I need to take my blog back to what originally worked for me, not to mention what got me started to blog in the first place. Cleaning, and Organizing seem to be an endless battle for me, one which I hope to win with the help of my blog, and my readers of course. Without the motivation and encouragement I get from you, I don't know if I could do it.
I love Mondays, it's a new start to a new week, and a new list of things to do. Anybody else love making lists? I get the biggest kick out of it, and every week I have such high hopes of getting tons of stuff done. However I'm lucky if I get even one or two things done from my long list, that can have up to twenty items on it, he he. I've accepted this reality and plan to be much more realistic with my weekly goals, and even my daily ones. I just need to pick ONE or TWO projects to work on, and MAKE IT HAPPEN, no matter what. 
This is where:Make it Happen MONDAYSHelps me get it done, and will hopefully help you too. 
I will be giving you sneak peaks throughout the week on what I'm working on, and THEN.....
I will start posting another new series:Finally Finished FRIDAYSWhere you guessed it, I will show you stuff that I Finally Finished. Naturally the goal here is to post on Mondays with things I want to get done that week, and on Fridays show you the results. 
I'm really super excited, and have the best feeling that this is going to work really well for me. 
I'm thinking of the best way I'd like to do the new link party, because I'm sure many of you need all the help you can get too. How fun it will be to get inspiration from each other :)
Ok, so that's it for now, I hope you are as excited as I am..... this is going to be so much fun!!
Come back tomorrow for some sneak peaks!!
What are you working on this week? Talk to me, and remember today is:Make it Happen MONDAY so lets do it..... no matter what!!

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Mini Blog Makeover & some VIP news!

Look who got the Blog design bug again, yup ME. In between organizing my house, I took a wee bit of a time out to reorganize my blog too. Not exactly how I want it yet, but the small changes I've made are making me very happy for now.

Hey listen, I know I've been MIA for way too long, but I promise (pinky promise) that SOON I will have tons and tons to share with all of you. I've been working hard on projects all around the NEW house, and since that's what I'm doing lately, that's what I'm going to share.

I finally rented my old house, and I would love to take you on a tour of the place, now that it's all clean and pretty looking. I will be sharing all the pics next week! Oh boy, if you remember my FIRST POST you will see how absolutely funny it is, that I finally have a spotless house he he, and all it took was for us to MOVE out, lol. Go figure :)

I don't like spending money on organizing, so I've come up with some pretty cool ways to tame the mess, in a very affordable way. I can't wait to show you!!

I've been thinking a lot about if I want to bring Amaze me August back, and when I went to go look through some old link ups, GUESS what, they were all gone. Ooops my subscription ended and I didn't even realize it, so I'm going to decide what I want to do and let you know shortly. I'm pretty sure I will continue to have a linky party here, but it might be a bit different than before, lets see.

Oh and one more thing, I want to apologize to all my friends. Believe me when I tell you, I NEVER really forgot about you, I think about you all the time, but sometimes you just gotta let go, and take life one day at a time. (p.s. I've added a BUNCH of my most fav blogs to the sidebar on the left, go see..) It seems every time I had a plan to do the BIG giveaway, or start blogging again, (somebody else) always had a different plan. It has truly been the most hectic and CRAZY six months of my life, and I hope I'm not ruining things by saying I think it's getting better. I wish I could have done things better, but most days were simply too overwhelming too think of anything more than what's for dinner tonight, oh and.... kids do you have any homework, did you brush your teeth, what day is it today?

That is life I guess, reminding me daily that NOTHING is truly in our control. So thanks for sticking by me, and once again, I look forward to what tomorrow brings, and I hope that it will bring much funner days filled with laughter, health, and maybe even some blogging in between!

Here's to LIFE, cherish it, embrace it, and never forget how blessed you are even if it doesn't seem that way at the moment.

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