The Cut

The garage sale is finally over! We ended up making $750!!! Okay so $500 of it was for our car but still! $250 isn't too bad and how often are you able to sell a car at a garage sale?! We put most of the items that didn't sell by the curb with a free sign and it was all gone within a couple of hours. There are still some bigger items that we had to put on craigslist. I love how effective craigslist is for making money off of unused items but it can definitely be a pain in the butt so I am hoping that everything sells quickly. Anyone in the twin cities need an upright freezer? We have two! :)

Anyway, since I rambled on and on about my long hair I thought that I would show you the pics of my new cut!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I'm really happy with how the cut turned out! Although I did want it to be a little more asymmetrical then what I ended up with. Oh well, it will grow back. Thanks Lucille for not being freaked out about chopping off all of my hair! :) I'm in love with the color too. I used Garnier Nutrisse Ultra Color in Light Intense Auburn. It's actually a lot brighter then what the picture above makes it look like.

The long hair was fun for a change and my husband enjoyed seeing it long for the first time in our six years of marriage. The short hair is more me though. I have had various forms of short hair for most of my life. Even when I was little I always had a pixie cut. :)

Brenda's Kitchen Transformation

Brenda from Indiana found my Kitchen Makeover at the Today's Creative Blog link up and decided to try it out in her own kitchen! Check out her amazing before and afters:
BEFORE:

AFTER:

Doesn't that look great! I LOVE that primer. You can't even tell that her cabinets were originally finished with a dark stain! I love the Granny Smith Green Apple paint too.

She also refinished the countertops and backsplash!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

How cool is the design on that backsplash?! This wouldn't work with the style of our current house at all but I am definitely keeping it in mind for our next place! The best part is that it went right over the old tile!
She used Rustoleum Transformations on the countertops and it looks amazing! In our original kitchen makeover plan we were going to re-do the countertops just like this but when we realized we were going to be selling the house we decided to leave the counters the way they were since it fits the style of the house better. I was kind of disappointed though since I really wanted to see if the stuff worked so it was happy to see that Brenda used it in her kitchen and it looks great!

I love the silver cabinet hardware with the silver backsplash. It all looks amazing combined with the black countertop and green accents.
Great job, Brenda! :)
This kind of stuff is seriously what keeps this blog going. There have been several times that I have thought about shutting down the blog either because it has become too time consuming or I'm going through a creative dry spell and feel like I don't have anything new to offer. But then I get an email from someone who was inspired by one of my projects or got the courage to try a home improvement project that they were previously intimidated by and it reminds me why I do this. My favorite part of blogging is helping people turn their homes into a place that they love. :)
I must say that the home improvement projects are the most exciting for me. I have had several friends come into our home and they loved the changes that we have made but said that they could never do something like that themselves so they just live with their house the way it is. Then they see a tutorial on my blog and realize that it's really not so hard and they CAN do it themselves!
Our experience with DIY has involved a lot of trial and error but I have found that the worst thing you can do is let the fear of making a mistake stop you from even trying. There will be some mistakes along the way but it isn't the end of the world and 9 times out of 10 even with the cost of fixing a mistake, doing it yourself will still cost you less than hiring someone to do it for you. Well, unless you decided to tackle plumbing or electrical. ;)
So if you take anything away from this blog, I hope it is that you CAN make your home a beautiful place that you love to come back to at the end of the day and it doesn't have to cost you a fortune!
If you have tried any of my tutorials or been inspired by one of my projects I would love to hear about them! Who knows, I might even feature it here at Polish The Stars!

Link Party "Monday" 22

Sorry this one is a day late! We are having a garage sale this weekend and it has been taking up a lot of my "free time". I'm also a little behind on returning emails but I have enjoyed reading your hilarious comments about my Sweet Sixteen?!?! post. I believe the consensus is that I do in fact look like a teenager. Lol! That and shorter hair would make me look a little bit older. I still can't decide what to do about that one. I do like my hair short and kind of miss it at times. Plus, I didn't start getting the teenager comments until I recently grew my hair out. My husband likes the longer hair though and I like the versatility of it. So I'm still on the fence about that one. I'll keep you posted on this riveting topic. ;) Oh, and because I'm bored, I put a poll on my sidebar if you would like to give your 2 cents about what I should do.
Anyway, onto the link party! Check out last week's links here. My top picks of the week:


This Striped Wall from Mo Mamma look amazing! I love the colors!


Check out this cool Tiered Pie Tin Organizer from The 2010's Housewife.


EllaBoo & Co. shows you how to make these awesome Vintage Signs. I really need to make a few of these!


I am drooling over these Apple Dumplings from Cooking with K. YUM!

Love this adorable Quiet Book from Me and My Boys! I love the farm animal finger puppets and the Mr. Potato Head page!
Thank you all for linking up! If your project was featured, feel free to grab a 'featured' button from my Buttons Page. Now on to this week's link party!

RULES:

• Link up anything related to the domestic arts: crafts, recipes, photography, cleaning tips, money saving tips, decorating, etc.
• No advertising or Etsy shops.
• Link directly to your post - not your home page.
• Please add my button to your post or sidebar to spread the word. :)
• By linking up you give me permission to use content from your post for the purposes of featuring your project.

This party will be open until Friday at Midnight. My favorite projects will be featured at next week's party!

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Sweet Sixteen.....Wait...WHAT?!?!

Funny thing happened today....I was mistaken for a teenager...AGAIN!!!
This has been happening a lot the last few months. The first was when I had to go to the Minute Clinic and the guy apparently didn't look at my form closely enough because he told me that if I was under 18 then my dad needed to come in with me (he was mistakenly referring to my husband). When I told him how old I was he said that he thought for sure that I was sixteen.
Then there was another nurse who thought I was a teenager. Oh and of course there are the times when I order a drink with my meal and the waitresses spend five minutes inspecting my ID because they think its fake. Then there are the strange looks when people see me with my five-year-old son.
And now today...a couple of guys came to my door and asked if my mom and dad were home!
I was so thrown off, I didn't even know how to respond. I think I stammered something like, "Uh...no...this is my....I mean...I'm the owner....what?" One of the guys said they heard that we had a car for sale. I told them yes, our Grand Prix is still for sale. Then, because he apparently didn't understand my oh-so intelligent response to the question about my parents, he asked when they would be home so that he could talk to them about it. I didn't even bother acknowledging the parent part and just told him that I would grab my HUSBAND and he could talk to them about it. He gave me a surprised, "Oh!" and as I closed the door I saw them look at each other with shocked expressions and laugh.
When Shelby went out to talk to the guy he apologized for asking where my parents were. As if that weren't enough, it turns out that the little punk is actually five years YOUNGER than me!!
So I have included some self-portraits and I would like your honest opinion:

Please excuse the crappy bathroom mirror shots that make me look jaundice.

Tell me - do I really look like a teenager?! I mean, I know I look young for my age but come on! I'm almost 28! Do I need to start dying my hair gray or something? Maybe I just need to cut my hair. I never had this much trouble when it was shorter. Hmm....