Cha-Cha-Cha-Cha-Chaaanges!!!

So yesterday, I told you guys that I'd be back today with a few house updates and I'm here to make good on that promise!

We'll start with the entry, since that's usually where a house begins. Lets take a look all the way back, shall we?

You may recall this pic...its from my birthday...a month after we moved in. Yeah, no entry what so ever. So, I did this...

Then this...

But, it was looking a bit busy, so I changed it to this and made a console table...

After a few coats of stain and poly, a tray, some boxes and other random items, it looked like this...

But, that was boring, so, I made it look like this... 

Good, right? I started to take down the stripes, but got lazy when it came time to take down the ones behind the mirror. I rescued the lamps that I tossed out of our bedroom. Last you guys heard about them, they didn't even work; so, I took it as an opportunity to learn some basic electric repairing skills from YouTube! Off I went to Home Depot for some new lamp kits and once I got them home, it took no time to get em working again! Yay! But, once the lamps were working, I realized that the color wasn't, so they got a couple coats of primer and navy blue spray paint. Then, I just switched out the old silver tray for a new white tray from Target and added some pretty stuff.

But, I still felt like something wasn't right, so I did this...

I TOOK THE REST OF THE STRIPES DOWN!!!

Oh, and I painted the console table green!

I love it! It's so great to come in and have a place to drop everything. The little glass bowl was just .50 cents from Goodwill and is great for holding our keys and even some loose change. Mr. Marcus uses the green box that I found at TJ Maxx to hold his collection of name tags and ink pens from work. I wanted to make sure that it was a simple enough system that we would not only use, but also, stick with. So far, so good.

But that wasn't the only change. The dining room got a slight re-do as well. A couple months ago, it was looking something like this...

And not long after, it looked like this...

Well, now, it looks like this...

I painted over my DNA looking art and created some simple pears (one for me, one for Mr. Marcus and one for Davin : )

I found the flying metal birds at TJ Maxx for $25. There was quite a bit of brown going on, so I hit 'em with some bright green spray paint. But, don't mind all of the stuff in the tray...that was just a temporary corralling of clutter.

So that it. Two slightly updated spaces.

So what do you think? Any one else out there making any updates? Please, do tell!

Xoxo,

Coco

My Weekend In Photos

Happy Monday peeps! Hope you all had a great weekend. Mine was super busy, but was one of the best I've had in a long time. Mr. Marcus, Davin and I traveled south to get in some quality time with family. Saturday was my little sister-in-law's 12th birthday, so Mr. Marcus and Davin got to spend the day celebrating with her and that entire side of the family. I, however, missed all the grand festivities to spend some time with my little sister, who drove in from Dallas that day.

My Saturday started with a small memorial brunch in honor of my mother. A few women from our previous church decided to get together to honor her, her life and her birthday (which is today, by the way), since her last birthday was celebrated with the same women in the same fashion. I was only able to take a few pictures of the brunch, since I was boo-hooing only 15 minutes in. So I threw in a picture from her last birthday, courtesy of my best friend, April Clay.

HAPPY 50th BIRTHDAY, MOMMY!!!



After the brunch, I swooped over to my parents' house to pick up my side kick of the day, Nina!

First was a quick stop to this little lady's baby shower! Hi Raven and Baby Brooklyn!!!

Here's Raven with her amazing mom, Carolyn, and sweet son Carter...who's excited to be a big brother, by the way!

Raven had lots of family and friends show up to shower her and Brooklyn with lots of love and gifts!

Carter just wanted to share his yogurt with me : )

Raven's such a sweetie...we just love her to pieces!!!

Next up was dinner with this guy and his new toy...

Yup, that's my dad and his new Escalade. I guess if there was someone who really deserved to treat themselves, he'd be the guy. But this one enjoyed it a bit too much...

Back-seat-rider!

I was kinda feeling myself, too. Spring was quite the inspiration while getting dressed that morning. I finally got to pull out my pink blazer ($5 thrift store find!) and paired it with a $3 striped tank from WalMart, some ULTRA long pin-tucked Gap Jeans and my yellow, Mary Jane platforms. So cute!

Nina wanted to pretend that I was her paparazzi for the day, so I gave her this shot.

I felt it was only right that she returned the favor. Lol

Daddy treated us to a super fast dinner at the Olive Garden. We were lucky to get that much, since he was squeezing us into his uber busy schedule! I told him that he should go ahead and put us down for a trip to Fleming's or Flight next time we get together. Surprisingly, he agreed!

It was great to get to sit down with Nina and my Dad, since we haven't all been together since my wedding back in September. But their idea of having a good time when we're together is making fun of me!

Whateves...

On Sunday, Nina was really excited to see her favorite (only) nephew, Davin!

Davin war really excited to see PawPaw's new truck!

I was just happy that my honey didn't mind taking a pics of me...

...so in turn, I took a really nice pic of him! Love you honey!!!

So that's it...overall: a great weekend. I just hate that I missed Jasmine's birthday celebration and that Chassity, my older sis, didn't get to hang with us this weekend : ( But on the bright side, I'm already planning make-up weekends for both!

Be sure to come back tomorrow! I can't wait to share some new house updates with you guys! Until then, peace out!

Xoxo,

Coco





All the HAIRY Details...

WARNING!!! This post contains LOTS OF PICTURES!!!

What's up y'all?!?! Hope you guys missed me while I was away. A lot has happened since we last met and if you're friends with me on Facebook, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Buuut...we'll get to that later.

Anyone that knows me can tell you that I've been recognized by my hair, pretty much all my life. And according to some, it's always been my long lush mane of glory. But honestly, I've only considered it as JUST hair. Of course, I took care of it as best I could...and did a pretty good job if you ask me. But there was never a true attachment to it.

Now, we have been through a lot together...my hair and I. And I really appreciate it for helping me get all the attention that I did. (What??? Everybody likes a little attention sometimes, right?) So, here's a small look back over just the past couple years of me and my favorite looks.

By the way, I didn't have a full relaxer in any of these pics! I quick relaxing my hair, completely, in mid November of 2010. But for about 3 years prior to then, I only relaxed the front half of my head. I know it may sound crazy, but my reasoning was that the front was all that mattered. It's the only part you payed attention to when I pulled it back and was the only area of my head that would get a part for a side swept bang...so...no reason to relax the back...at all.

Unfortunately, a LOT of work went in to achieving the looks above. The time it took me to blow-dry and flat iron or detangle and twist my hair was about 3 hours EVERY SINGLE TIME I did my hair. I just got tired of it! Not to mention having to work with two completely different textures of hair. And I'm not talking about relaxed and natural; I'm talking about natural curly and natural straight.

Sorry for these horrible IPhone pics, but you get my point, right? These pics really don't do it justice. Trust me, it was bad. So, after months of mulling it over, I did something about it.

I GOT IT ALL CUT OFF!!! A really big special thanks goes out to Bridget of the JCPenney Salon in Jonesboro, AR. She took such great care of me and I would recommend her to anyone for anything!

But, I can bet that most of you didn't know that my haircut, initially, looked like this...

But, I started to get a bad feeling about my little "personality piece" and after a conversation with my baby sister, decided to just keep it all even. So, I cut it some more!

AND I LOOOOOVE IT!!!! I couldn't be happier! I really didn't understand what other women meant when they said that they felt liberated after cutting off all of their hair. But, now...I COMPLETELY understand. I feel like that India Arie song, "I Am Not My Hair" personified! Now, all people have to look at, is me! Not my hair, but me. And I think that's what I love most about it.

Of course, it won't be this way forever. As a part of our agreement to cut all of my hair off, I promised my hubby that I'd let it grow back. So, now begins another journey...growing out my teeny weeny fro!

So that's it! That's my hair story for ya...and all the pics that could be taken of a haircut! But if that's not enough for you, I even made a little video for you guys to see it live and in action!

Xoxo,

Coco