Shelf!

I finally got a shelf! I've been wanting one for SO long. I have no idea what possessed me to go inside Bed Bath and Beyond, but I did, and found out they have a super cool clearance section where things are almost priced like normal (BBB is kind of a rip off sometimes...unless you use one of those 20% off coupons they mass mail to everyone every month).

I've been wanting to use some new ideas regarding shelves (inspired by the lovely Andy over at Poppies at Play. She does amazing things with shelves!). And YAY! I can now :)

I found an embossing stencil at Heartland Paper Company earlier this week while I was browsing for no reason. I took a picture of it and tried editing it in Photoshop so I could get it looking right for my Cricut cutting software-- uh...needless to say, I had to wait for Trevor to get home. But he got it ready in like 5 minutes, and WHAMo! I was able to cut out the bird picture on some brown vinyl (...more on how I'm using that in my kitchen to come). ((I still always find it funny when I realize that I call it MY kitchen, when Brandon AND Trevor both live there too.)) That's SO not what an embossing stencil is for, yes I know, but I couldn't find a picture I liked ANYWHERE.

I stuck some scrapbook paper in a frame and put the bird sticker on there to add some dimension to the shelf, and put up my new yellow candle, willow people, and apple-smelling potpouri--it looks EVEN BETTER THAN I'D HOPED :)

AND as an added bonus: I finally have a place for our Willow Tree couple. Someone gave it to us for our wedding and I have never really been happy with its placement in our house. Now I love it so much I could marry it.

OH, and an even cooler ADDED BONUS: The GIANT picture of Trevor and me finally has company on that huge wall behind the TV :)

Ah, balance... it's finally coming together.

P.S. I found a pretty frickin sweet blog this week called Mouthy Housewives. It's a bunch of mom's giving advice...but it's totally funny and unexpected. It's not for the soft-hearted :)