A Head Cole with New Decor

I have a head cold right now.  Not just any head cold - the type where if you bend down your head feels like it's gonna explode and you kinda wish it would just to get it over with.  The kind of cold that doesn't respond to anything - sinus rinses, Coke Zero, heavy drugs, death threats to all cold viruses in existence...

This cold started with a light sore throat last night, so I knew it was coming.  What I didn't know was coming was my throat catching on fire at 2:30 in the morning, so that I couldn't sleep, swallow, or breath normally until the ibuprofen kicked in, much, much later.  I dunno.  Is it worse to know the cold is coming, or to just come down with it all of a sudden?

I'm dying. (I'm not dying.)

But I am certainly not feeling or thinking at my best.  The new layout for blogger took me a good 5 minutes to figure out.  I'm no tech dummy, so either Google did a really bad job with the redesign (a distinct possibility), or I am really out of it and should just go to bed.  I'm thinking it's a combination of the two.

So instead of blogging about the enlightening experience I had this morning when the power went out during aerobics (Zing!  Did you get that pun there?!  I still got it...), I am instead going to blog about something that requires a bit less logic.

Home decor.

I know, you're super excited.  But I was super excited to get some new home decor up this past week!  Do you ever feel like your house decorating gets in a rut and you just need a few new projects here and there to spruce things up?  That's totally where I was.

The first problem was with my ginormous mantle.  Seriously, it's huge.  And tall.  Which makes decorating with it on a budget a bit difficult.  During the holidays it's a bit easier, but you can't keep pumpkins or eggs or evergreen boughs up there all year.  (Maybe I could get away with the pumpkins...)

Anywho, I decided to jump on the initials bandwagon and put up a bunch of "M"s.  As in Madsen, not Maren.  Or as in "mmmmm", as Cole says whenever he looks up there.

This project cost me around $5 at Hobby Lobby, and that's only because I didn't wait for things to go on sale and I didn't have a coupon.  Hey, sometimes when inspiration strikes you just have to forget about the dang budget.

I kind of feel like I should have one more giant M up there, a little bigger than the largest one that's already up there.  Painted in dark blue.  What do you think?

My next project was completed at a craft night with some friends.  Awesome friends.  Awesome friends who let me stay late at their house and talk their ears off because I haven't had a real adult conversation in several weeks.  Awesome friends.

Anywho, the inspiration for this came from some tutorial found online, but I don't know where it is now and I'm too lazy to go find it.  It also cost around $5, and that's only because I went a little crazy in buying the scrapbook paper because it was 50% that week.  It was super easy to make, too.  Paint the canvas, cut out some leaves, glue them on, and then slap a coat of Mod Podge over everything.  (Don't look too closely - my Mod Podge layer wasn't exactly even, something I didn't notice until I was hanging my work of art up yesterday.  Dang.)

It's no Mona Lisa, but this little art critic sure likes to grab for it every time we pass.

It hangs in the little alcove that leads to our master bedroom.  And look - it matches the big M on the mantle just perfectly!  I'm cool like that.