I have a confession to make, I said I would show photos of my sewing studio today well I'm not. I decided I want to clean and organize it before I share. Instead I'm going to show you a project I completed today. I have a powder-room in my sewing studio and I have enough room in there for a small bookcase. I know this because I had one in there but then when I updated my bedroom it got moved down there. Since doing that I feel like there is a big empty spot so what is a girl to do but...replace it. I headed back to good ole Wally World and purchased a black 3 shelf book case for around $13.00. I knew I wanted to add a little more umph to it.

I found a roll of cheetah print wall-paper for $.99 at my local Goodwill and wanted to use it somewhere. I wasn't thrilled with idea of actually using it on my walls (I get bored w/decor easily and knew wallpaper really messes walls up). So I decided to use the wallpaper to help with the plain bookcase. I love how it turned out.

This is how the bookshelf arrived, all boxed up and ready to assemble.

This is the finished product. I added the wallpaper to the back board prior to nailing it to the bookcase.
It adds just the right touch. My walls in that room are a nice brown (hapsack by Sherwin Williams), with white trim
and black cabinets. I do have a subtle cheetah theme going on w/my accessories.

Bookshelf looks pretty good to have cost less than $15.

I have to say I have a pretty AWESOME husband that "gets me". We added on to the house several years ago and added a studio above our garage for my "scrapbook room". Well since then my suit business has grown so it has taken over. I found that after spending hours up there working on suits I wasn't able to work on the other craft projects I like to do for fun. What is a girl to do...I need somewhere to escape to. That is when I came up with the idea of turning one of our spare bedrooms into an Office/creative space. So now I have 2 studios (hubby never complained one bit...see I told you I am blessed!! He actually encouraged it).

Today I will show my second space. I refer to this room as my office. This is where I keep my main computer...My LOVE...My beautiful piece of art...My Mac. Can you tell I am in love with her? It is also where I keep all my craft supplies (other than sewing items..they remain in the sewing studio). I also run my household from this office. This is where I retreat to for paying bills, couponing and of course visiting Pinterest.

I thought about sprucing the room up a bit but decided I'll show it to you in the raw. I need to clean and organize again but that is an ongoing process.

Some fun things above my expedit. The walls in my office are painted a chocolate brown on the bottom 3/4 then a tan the top 1/4 separated by a white stripe and light pink satin ribbon. It is very calming.

View from my desk. I love living in the country. We never know what we will find in our yard. Sometimes it is a deer, other times rabbits, geese, groundhogs and unfortunately coyotes.
Do you have an Ikea Expedit? If not I can not recommend it enough. I continue to be amazed at just how much this thing will hold. I love having my card stock organized by color (at one time it was organized by ROYGBIV but well lets just say that was a while ago) and within easy reach.

Next to my desk is my Cricut workstation. Hopefully one day it will be changed to my Silhouette Cameo but for now my Cricut will have to do.

This is the what you see when you enter the room from the hall. The space is very small at least for a bedroom but works perfect for my office.

This is my main work area. I love my jetmax cubes. They really help me keep everything within reach and organized (well somewhat organized). The chair I found at Goodwill for $8..I painted it white and it looks great!

I still have things I want to do in here. I plan to organize my closet a little better (hubby filled it with shelves for me last year for Valentine's day.). I also want to get a chandelier. We have a daybed on the opposite wall from my desk. I've got to come up with something to put on the wall above the daybed but nothing has inspired me yet. Watch for more photos as I update the space.

Next post I will share my sewing studio with you.

Well anyone that knows me can confirm I am all over the board with my interests and activities. I'm still making competition suits and LOVING every moment of it. I also am doing posing coaching, stage make-up and working part time in the ER. Needless to say I never have a chance to get board.

Over the last year Tim and I have made some major changes to our lifestyle. We are working hard on living a frugal lifestyle while still enjoying life to the fullest!! Rather than training and diet (which I will still mention from time to time) I and going to shift gears with this blog and start sharing some of my money saving secrets, home decor projects etc etc. Like the title mentions it will be Daily Happenings by Jen. That means today couponing; tomorrow who knows.

Today really is my couponing day. I've already been to Kroger and Publix (they are only 3 miles apart). I managed to stock up on some staple items we were beginning to run low on. No record breaking deals so far today but I definitely saved a great deal on our groceries. Well I'm heading out to finish up my shopping. Who knows maybe when I return I will share photos of my finds for the day :)

Well I know I said I would not be focusing on diet/training but that is the subject of the day. I woke up motivated and ready to start back. I had lunch at Tim's and informed him we are starting the diet tomorrow so we blew it out today. I had a club and banana pudding for lunch then we went to LaParilla for dinner. After dinner we headed to the grocery store to stock up on healthy food. I am ready. It is time to shed my winter poundage!! It is so much easier when we do this together. I think that is key having someone help keep you motivated too I am so competitive I can not let him do a better job w/his diet than me.lol.

Other than that it was a pretty uneventful day around here.

2011 New Year...New Goals!!

I can't believe it has been over a year since I've updated my blog...Wow!! A lot has happened since then. I finally did compete in May 2010 at the Eastern Seaboard and won my class, placed 2nd in Masters. This qualified me for nationals. In July we headed to Vegas where I competed in the USA...a huge national show ( I placed 16th out of 35 in my class). Then I ended the season in Aug. when I competed in the Coastal here in Atlanta (I placed 2nd in my class and 2nd in masters). I've decided I will not compete this year. I have other things I want to focus on...mainly my family! I plan to continue working out and eating "right" just not compete this year. I will also still be very involved in the sport and of course I will be making suits :)!

Moving forward with this blog I will include more of my day to day life and there will be less emphasis on my training/dieting/competing. I do soooo much more than just that.lol. I will show projects I am working on whether it be sewing projects, suits, home dec, scrapbooking, cards, photos, etc. etc. I'm multi-facited and want to share more of that with you.

I am looking forward to what 2011 will bring. I have a feeling there will be a lot of new adventures!! Happy New Year everyone!!

Well I lost my cheat meal. I thought I would be more disappointed but I'm really not. I am so focused on my goal.

I gained another lb of muscle and lost a lb of fat...YEAH!! I don't think I will end up doing a show this year but rather wait and take time to continue adding muscle and tweaking everything. I am feeling great and looking forward to what the future holds.

I need to get better w/this blog thing. I'm just not consistant in posting.

It's been a great day. We had nothing on the agenda except train so I got a lot done around the house and spent time w/Tim and Wade. Last evening I met Tim and the kids after work at Sopporo for my cheat meal. We had a great dinner then I went home and went to bed. Ok after having such a big meal and food I'm not use to you would think I would have a full belly for a while well not so much. I woke up at 3:30 this morning STARVING!!! I could not go back to sleep so that is the time that I started my day. I worked on some suits for several hours then I met up w/Courtney, whom I haven't seen in a while (you look great by the way!!!) and we ran bleachers. My stamina in the cardio department is so much better than when I first started back training.

I had a great back workout a couple hours after running bleachers. My strength has increased drastically and I am lifting more wt than I've ever been able to before. It is very exciting because I can see the gains in my muscle growth.

Now I am going to run down and do an hour on the stepper then hopefully catch some zzzz's. My early rising is starting to drag me down.

I have to meet up w/Daniel tomorrow and hopefully I will have a little more info on if I will do a show in 2 weeks or not. Hopefully he will continue liking the results of me having a weekly cheat meal and I will get another one next week.....one can only dream!

One more week on 4 west and I am ER bound.Woohoo!!