First off, my sadistic wonderful sister-in-law ,Stephanie, talked me into doing P90X.  We just finished the first month and I have to say I feel stronger and tighter.  My jeans are a little less snug and my derriere looks a little higher…don’t you hate gravity…and aging!!  And no, there won’t be any before and after pics…I am not that brave!   And Tony Horton, if you’re reading this…I love and hate you all at the same time!!!  And I love your Horton-isms…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Shifting gears from pain to relaxation Stephanie and I along with her two girls spent a few days in the High Country of North Carolina.

We started off our trip at Mystery Hill in Boone.  I have been here a few times and I never get tired of taking someone new so I can see the expression on their face when they enter the room.  You are standing up while leaning…it’s very freaky!  The girls loved it.  From there we went next door to the Appalachian History Museum.  Before we enter we always take a picture with the Indian statue…

Next we headed to The Linville Caverns.  This is such a cool place.  At one point you get to experience total darkness.  You may think you know what total darkness is but trust me you don’t until you have been here.  If you ever go to the High Country you must check this out.

After that we went to Linville Falls.  It’s only a short walk to the falls and the beautiful colors around the falls made it worth the walk.

The next day we headed to Banner Elk for the Wooly Worm Festival.  Stephanie and her girls entered a Wooly Worm into the race and they nick-named it after Steph’s son- Jakester.  Everyone gives their Wooly Worm a cute name and the worm that wins the race gets $1000.  Yes, you saw right $1000.  Unfortunately Jakester didn’t bring home the gold but it was a lot of fun!  You put your worm at the bottom of a string and hope, pray and curse at your  worm to get to the top first.

After that we headed to the Valle Country Fair in Valle Crucis.  The view all around the fair was breathtaking.  We had some great hot apple cider and brownies which gave us the energy to forge ahead.

After the fair we headed to The Mast General Store in Valle Crucis.  I love this store!  It has a real working post office in it and a huge pot belly stove.  You can even sit a spell and play some checkers.

On our last day we had breakfast at The Daniel Boone Inn before heading home.  But a word of warning…get there early or be forced to wait in a line.  This place is great.  Everything is served family style and I promise you will not leave hungry.  Just be sure to eat everything you want because there are no doggie bags..

And now onto my pine cone swag.  Inspired by my trip to the High Country I wanted to bring the outdoors indoors.  This swag is so easy there is no need for a tutorial.  All you need is ribbon, a glue gun and pine cones.  Cut your ribbon at varying lengths, glue them to pine cones, tie the top of the ribbons together, trim the excess and hang.  I hung mine on my large white mirror in my dining room and I love the look!  This swag will take me all the way through Christmas without having to change the look for each season.

So from “The Junkin’ Chick{s}”…hope your fall is going as great as ours!!!

The ruffles made today are  softer and they have more of a casual look to them.  I love the look in home decor and clothing…  Here are some ruffled looks that I adore.

Take a look at these ruffled shower curtains.  The ruffles are soft and airy…  I absolutely adore these shower curtains.  If I could sew I would definitely make one….why not buy one?  Cuz I’m thrifty and these are not cheap.

{Anthropologie}

{Urban Outfitters}

And for the bed…how about these dreamy looking duvets.

{Urban Outfitters}

{Pottery Barn}

Last but not least are the ruffles in today’s fashions.  They are so trendy and elegant.

I just love the following pieces.

{Chiffon Ruffle Bolero}

{Flannel Ruffle Scarf}

{Free People Military Ruffle Jacket}

So do you agree that today’s ruffles are more trendy and casual than the ruffles of yesteryear?

In their current issue Lowe’s has some great fall projects that are not only easy to make but so clever…  The following pumpkin pics are from Lowe’s Creative Ideas website for a pumpkin party.  The pumpkin below would be great for a kiddo that you wouldn’t want using a knife to carve their pumpkin.  Let the kiddos go wild with bolts, screws and washers to create their own unique pumpkin.

Or if you are handy with a paintbrush download Lowe’s stencil and create this “Branch and Crow Pumpkin”.

Love tailgating?  This “Turf Table” is an awesome idea.  You can serve the meal on it and when you’re done use it to play some finger football.

And how do you keep up with all of your tailgating stuff?  Why with a “Tailgator Tote” of course.  And this one can be made for 10.00 with items from Lowe’s.

Looking to redecorate indoors with some fall-like curtains?  These “Stamped Flower Curtains” are great!  I love the green and splashes of orange and brown on these curtains.  The best thing is you can use any color combination to achieve this look.  Lowe’s also offers a tutorial video to explain how they achieved this look.

You can’t beat getting all of this inspiration mailed to you for FREE from Lowe’s!!  Do you have any great fall projects you’re looking forward to making?

I stole borrowed this lamp shade from my son’s room and didn’t quite like the orange and blue.  So, I used an old fabric shower curtain and gave this baby a face lift.  The curtain already had a hemmed edge so that made one side easy to finish.  The side that wasn’t hemmed I simply rolled and hot glued it to give it a more finished edge.

The piece of fabric didn’t completely fit all the way around so I hot glued some scalloped ribbon over the gap.

I gotta say I am very pleased with the finished look.  Now to find a place to put it…

Here’s  screen shot of the “pins” and “boards” I have created so far…  And here’s the link if you want to follow me on Pinterest.

There is so much inspiration that can be found here.  From clothes, DIY projects, recipes, home and garden ideas and so much more you are bound to see something you like too.    Pinterest  allows people to “pin” items they love to their “boards”.  Think of it as a virtual inspiration board where whatever you find interesting, inspirational or just plain beautiful can be pinned by you for others to see.

But a word of caution…it is addictive.  You can definitely spend a couple of hours looking around and not know it.

So, are you as addicted to Pinterest as I am???

So I did some research and found that if you pick them right when they’re turning white, box them up with an apple or banana and they will ripen to perfection.  Here are some I picked right as they were turning white.  Very beautiful and no blemishes whatsoever….

{After 2 days…}

{After 1 week…}

{After 2 weeks…}

Perfectly {indoor} ripened tomatoes…delicious!!

{Casual Day}

New York and Company Shirt {Goodwill}

Plaid Belt {Goodwill}

Baseball Cap {Kmart}

Jeans {Kohls}

Reebok Shoes

{My Stripper Outfit}

{get your mind out of the gutter}

T-Shirt from Florida {given to me by a friend}

American Apparel Pants {stolen from my oldest son}

Gloves {Home Depot}

Orange Headband {Wal-Mart}

Socks

Citristrip {Home Depot}

So that’s my extremely casual wear for the week….

The table top is laminate and the rest of the table is wood.  I used BIN shellac primer and it went on great.  I then used a semi-gloss latex paint in grey.  It went on great but never fully cured.  I wish I had used oil-based paint but its too late to think about that now.

I found Citristrip at Home Depot and it was $11.00.  It was only a few more dollars than the toxic smelling ones.  In the picture below you will see a plastic bowl…  I didn’t notice until after I actually read the bottle that it said to use a metal bowl.  And the plastic scrapers were a little too flimsy to really make a dent.  It pays to use a metal one.

And here is my stripper outfit!  How cute am I?  And now I am ready to strip…

The bottle says you can strip after 30 mins of application.  In my opinion…wait longer…much longer.  Depending on how many layers there are I would put this on overnight and scrap the next day.  I had 3 layers on my table.  Primer, paint and clear sealer.

It took me 2 days of scraping on and off to get everything gone.  It wasn’t bad to use but it did take me a few applications of the Citristrip to get it done.  But not having to deal with toxic fumes was a plus.  You can use this indoors or out.

Have you ever tried Citristrip?  How was your experience with it?

First, I washed down the chairs to remove any dust or dirt.

I then used BIN shellac primer.  It dries quickly so you have to work fast.  Since I hate washing out brushes, especially after using primer, I bought some cheap brushes from Wal-Mart that I could toss afterward.  They were only .50 a piece.

It only took 3 1/2 cans to finish the job.

I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on fabric to recover the chairs so I looked through my stash and found a great cloth shower curtain that worked great.  I know that sounds odd to use a shower curtain but it is a durable fabric and it saved me from having to spend more money on this project.

I distressed the edges a bit, sprayed on some Valspar Sealer in satin, put the seat back on and Voila!!  Some great custom chairs and my final cost was only $19.00.  The primer was left over from a different project and the shower curtain was in my stash of goodies…  So, $19.00 is pretty good for 2 great looking chairs.

Have you ever used Krylon?  Do you like it or do you have a favorite spray paint you use?

I am linking this project to the following Linky Parties-

I also included the prices for the items I wore.  I am big on saving and shopping clearance and thrift stores.  I do not like paying a fortune on my clothes and rarely buy new items.  I LOVE Goodwill…I am a true G’dub Girl!!!

{MONDAY}

Slacks- Bitten-  $8.00

Long Necklace- Ebay – $2.00

Open Hearts by Jane Seymour Angel Necklace- B-day Gift

Open toe flats- Kmart- $9.00

Handbag- Nine West- Ebay $5.00

Blouse- Sonoma- $5.00

Total- $29.00

{WEDNESDAY}

Sunglasses- Kmart- $5.00

Slacks- Old Navy- Goodwill- $3.75

Sweater- New York and Company- Goodwill- $3.75

White Shirt- Ann Taylor Loft- Goodwill- $3.75

Wedge Heels- Mossimo- Ebay- $5.00

Total- $21.25

Do you love Goodwill aka G’dub as much as I do and have some great clothes to show for it, let me know.