Welcome!

Thank  you for coming to my party!

I cannot wait to see your BEST DIY project of March!

I love the weekly linky parties, but sometimes I am unable to visit them all.

So I wanted to host a party where the best DIY projects of the month are highlighted in case I missed them.

Here is how my party is different…

1.  You are only allowed to link up ONE project.

And it needs to be your best DIY project of the current month.

(It may be the project your readers liked the best, or the project you think turned out the best that month.)

2.  Your project must be a DIY (do it yourself) project related to home decor or home improvement.

(no recipes, clothing, etc.)

I want those who participate in the party or visit our party to know that they will be finding DIY projects related to home decor or home improvement, and that it will be the BEST of what each blogger did that month!

3.  My party is monthly, on the last day of the month.

Here is how my party is the same…

1.  I ask that all participants link back to my blog through my button or a text link.

<center><a href="http://www.beneathmyheart.net/2011/03/best-diy-projects-of-march-linky-party/"><img border="0" src="http://i994.photobucket.com/albums/af61/beneathmyheart/best125_0000s_0004_best-DIY-projects-of-March.png" class=" pin-it"/></a></center>

2. I encourage you to visit other bloggers and leave them some comment love.

3.  And , it’s a lot of fun!!!

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Wow!

March has been a crazy month.

When we started our staircase makeover, (which can be a big mess), we had no idea that the bathroom pipes in our kitchen ceiling were going to bust and cause another mess!

We spent one night ripping off all the damp sheetrock from our ceiling.

Jonathan go into the action as well.   There was so much dust that we wore masks.

To say that my home has been a wreck this month is a complete understatement!

There is dust and grime on everything!

I went on an all out cleaning frenzy yesterday afternoon because I was starting to go nuts!

There was dust in places that I didn’t even know dust could reach!  Ugh!

So our staircase makeover is definitely on hold.

We’ve had to let our kitchen ceiling dry out, and we are hoping to get the sheetrock back up this weekend. 

Despite the setbacks, I will say that I was able to get a lot done in March.

We started the staircase makeover with a little help from my sanding crew.

I painted a new mirror for my guest house.

The highlight of the month was going shopping with my homegirl Sarah!

My favorite project in March was my little table makeover with my new favorite paint color.

Eli’s enjoying the little tote bag I made him with my Silhouette machine.

I announced a fabulous giveaway from Lisa Leonard’s Decor Line!

There’s still time to enter, click HERE.

And I spent a day over at 320 Sycamore sharing a Goodwill chair makeover I just completed.

Click the button to check it out.

Whew!  What a great month!

I can handle that kind of madness any day!

Thanks for joining me this month.

And don’t forget my monthly linky party tomorrow!

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Hey Guys!

I am guest posting today at 320 Sycamore!

So exciting!!!

I would love for you to come over and see my Goodwill chair makeover.

Here’s the before:

If you are visiting me from Melissa’s fabulous blog, I want to say “Welcome!”

If you want to get a quick overview of my blog, you may want to read these two posts:

BENEATH MY HEART 2010 HIGHLIGHTS

BENEATH MY HEART 2009 HIGHLIGHTS

You can also browse around by clicking the tabs at the very top of my page, above the header.

And while you are here, you may want to enter this amazing giveaway…

A Heart Banner from Lisa Leonard’s new decor line!

Click HERE to enter.

Have a blessed day!!

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I am so stinkin’ excited to share this giveaway with you!!

If you have been in blogland for any time at all, you have heard of Lisa Leonard Designs.

And you probably know her for her fabulous jewelry.

I have several of her necklaces that I absolutely love!

But did you know that Lisa now has a new decor line?

Yep, she does!

She now makes these adorable personalized magnets…

These would looked great on your refrigerator or favorite magnet board.

Lisa also has this simple, elegant keepsake bowl…

(the rings are not included)  :)

You can personalize it with any message you would like.

There are many more adorable pieces in her new decor line…

but my personal favorite is the Heart Banner…

Can you say, “Oh my goodness!?”

Is that not the most precious thing you have ever seen?!

If I had a daughter, this would SO be on her bed!

I told Lisa it was my favorite, and guess what she said?

“Let’s give a heart banner away to your readers!”

Yep.

She did.

How awesome is that?!!!

The winner can create a banner up to 7 hearts long (a $73.00 value), and it can be personalized with anything you want.

You also have a choice in the color of ribbon…

Are you excited?!!

Here’s how you can enter:

1. Leave a comment letting me know what your banner might say if you won.

2.  Tweet this comment: A Great giveaway from Lisa Leonard’s new DECOR line  http://www.beneathmyheart.net/?p=2880 @beneathmyheart @lisaleonard

and come back and tell me in a separate comment.

3.  Follow or subscribe to my blog, and tell me in a comment.  (If you already follow me, just let me know.)

4.  Share this giveaway on Facebook and tell me in a separate comment.

The giveaway will end on Thursday, March 31st, at midnight EST.

I will announce the winner on Friday, April 1st!

(no foolin’!)

Goodluck!

+

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Okay, ladies.

I just had to share with you a huge accomplishment!  Because you are my girls!

I cannot believe I am even saying this, but I ran in the Papa Johns’ 10 Miler in Louisville, KY today!

That is insane!

There were over 9,000 participants.  Such an exciting atmosphere!

It was only 42 degrees out, so we had to dress warmly.

After the first couple of miles, I felt fine.

Me and My Hubby after the race.

We stayed at a hotel on Friday night, and my sister kept the boys for us.  (Thanks, Lou!)

We stayed up until midnight rooting on our Cats who beat #1 seed Ohio State…GO BIG BLUE!!!

Then we got up at 5:00 am for the race.  I was seriously thinking I had lost my mind at that point.

Cy finished in an hour and 24 minutes, and I finished in an hour and 47 minutes.  I was just hoping for around 2 hours, so I beat my goal.  Yeah!!

This was such a huge accomplishment for me because I am not a runner.

If you missed the post from last summer where I wrote about how much I hate to run, you need to read it.

I’m still not crazy about running, but there  is something satisfying about it.

The best part of running for me has been doing something I never thought I could do.

I’ve pushed myself beyond my expectations, and it feels so good.

If you had asked me last year if I would ever run a 10 miler, I would have immediately said, “Heck no!”

Cause I didn’t think I could.

But I can.

And I did!

If I can do it, anyone can do it.

Now I might even consider doing a half-marathon.  I know…I’m crazy!

Well,that’s it.  I just had to share this with you because I was so excited.

*********************

I’ve got a great giveaway on Monday that I am so excited about, so be sure to stop back by.

Have a blessed Sunday, friends!

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The best part of Spring is flowers.

Flowers make me happy.

They make me smile.

They give me hope that warmer weather is around the corner.

If you were following my blog last year, you know my love for buttercups.

Buttercups are very sentimental to me because they symbolize a special bond between my mom and I.

They will always be my favorite spring flower.

My second favorite spring flower is the tulip.

I am in love with the fabulous colors of tulips.

(goodhousekeeping)

You can place a single tulip in a glass jar and have a breathtaking centerpiece.

I bought some tulips to display on my table makeover.

I loved the combination of the orangey-red tulips with the blue in my table.

A bundle of tulips at Walmart are only $5.00.

These lasted over a week in our home, and they were worth every penny.

I even got some tulips discounted for $2.00 to put in our guest house when we had company this past weekend.

I put them in the pitcher I got at the Ballard Designs Outlet on my shopping trip with Sarah.

I started falling in love with tulips when I stumbled upon a blog called Dear Lillie.

It’s one of my new favorite blogs.

Jennifer’s decorating skills are breathtaking.  It seriously makes me drool.

She uses a lot of tulips in her decor that are just beautiful.

Here is a whole lot of eye candy from Dear Lillie…

ENJOY!

Master Bedroom…

The new nursery…

Party decor…

The Kitchen…

Bathroom…

These pictures are just a sampling of all the beautiful pictures on her blog.

If you never have visited Dear Lillie before,  you are going to love me for introducing you to it!
:)

Jennifer also has an amazing Etsy shop full of lots of goodness.

Go check it out and have a fabulous Friday!!!

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Hey Ladies!

Since I am so excited about my linky party next week (March 31st), I wanted to make sure that everyone knows how to link up their projects.

I’ve had a few people email me to ask me how to do it.

So if you do not know, here is the post for you.

(And I want to share a Party Etiquette Rule too.)

:)

Step One:

After publishing the post you want to link up to the party, you will want to copy the POST ADDRESS (not your blog address).

For example:

My blog address:  http://www.beneathmyheart.net

My post address that I want to link up:  http://www.beneathmyheart.net/2011/03/diy-kids-beach-tote-bag/

See the difference?  The post address has the title of my post in it.

Here’s how to get your post address:

1.  You can right click on the post title and click “copy link location” like in the picture below…

2.  Or you can click on the title of the post, wait for the page to reload, and then copy the address that appears at the top of the page…

Now that you have copied your post address, you are ready to link it up to the party.

Let’s say I wanted to link up to my friend, Beth’s, Tutorials and Tips Tuesday Party.

I would open up a new window on my computer and go to Beth’s Linky Party.

Then I would scroll down to the end of the post and find the linky tool…

Then you will see three little blank fields show up (usually).

1. You want to paste your POST ADDRESS in the first blank field.

2. In the second blank field,  you will want to put the title of your post, or the title of your blog.  This is what shows up below your picture.  I usually put the title of my post.  Sometimes I have to shorten it.  Each linky party is different, so sometimes you can use a lot of characters and sometimes not.  For my post, I wrote the name, “Kids Tote Bag”.

3. Add your email address.

4. Click “next step”.

(Some linky tools will ask you where to chose your picture from, if so, click “WEB”.)

Then it takes you to a page that looks like this…

(Some linky tools have one more step that lets you crop the picture.)

Chose the picture you want to show up at the party, and hit “select”.

Your picture will show up like this…

Voila!

But you are not finished yet!!! You need to do one more thing!

It is really poor party etiquette not to link back to the party host in your post.

You can link back to the party in two ways:

1.  Use the Party Button.

or

2.  Link back in a text link.

To use the party button, you need to highlight the code in the box below the party button.

Make sure to scroll as you highlight so you get the whole code.  Then copy the code.

Then you want to go to your post and paste the button HTML code in your HTML view.

When I click on my “visual” tab, Beth’s button will show up in my post.

Here it is in blogger:

(You can also save the button as a picture, upload it in the post, and then hyperlink it to the host.)

Here’s how to HYPERLINK:

2.  You can also add a text link that looks something like this:

To add a text link, you highlight the text you want to hyperlink back to the host blog.

Then you add the Host Blog Post Address

Click “add link”, and you are finished!

The hyperlink button in Blogger looks like this:

Adding a link back to the Party host is great party etiquette.

It’s a way to say “thank you” to the host, and it hopefully leads your readers to visit the host blog as well!

If I do not have time to link back to the host, then I do not link up at all.

:)

So hopefully this tutorial was a little helpful.

Hopefully, I have not confused you even more.

If you still have questions, ask me in the comment section, and I will try my best to answer them.

I will be posting the linky tool for my party one week from tonight, March 30th, at 9:00 pm EST.

I cannot wait to see everyone’s BEST DIY project that they completed in March.

(Remember only one per person.)

Be sure to read the Party Rules if you missed them.

If you do not have a project to link up, you are still invited to the party!

Stop by on March 31st and check out the BEST DIY Projects of March!

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I am so excited to get my linky party up and running again!

3-31-11

For those of you who are new to my blog, last year I hosted a monthly linky party featuring the very BEST DIY projects in blogland.

When I started working full time in June, I couldn’t keep my blog running as usual, so I was unable to host my parties.

But now that I am home again, I am ready to PAR-TAY!!!

ARE YOU WITH ME?

Here’s the low-down on my party:

I love the weekly linky parties, but sometimes I am unable to visit them all.

So I wanted to host a party where the best DIY projects of the month are highlighted in case I missed them.

Here is how my party is different…

1.  You are only allowed to link up ONE project.

And it needs to be your best DIY project of the current month.

(It may be the project your readers liked the best, or the project you think turned out the best that month.)

2.  Your project must be a DIY (do it yourself) project related to home decor or home improvement.

(no recipes, clothing, etc.)

I want those who participate in the party or visit our party to know that they will be finding DIY projects related to home decor or home improvement, and that it will be the BEST of what each blogger did that month!

3.  My party is monthly, on the last day of the month.

Here is how my party is the same…

1.  I ask that all participates link back to my blog through my button or a text link.

2.  I encourage you to visit other bloggers and leave them some comment love.

3.  And, it’s a lot of fun!!!!

:)

So start thinking now what you  might link up.  You may have already completed the project, or you may get it done in the next week.  Either way, I cannot wait to see it!

I will be highlighting some of the projects on my blog the following week.

I will have Mr. Linky up by 9:00 pm on March 3oth.

If you have any questions, just let me know!

As a side note, I just wanted to show you one of my sponsor’s new designs that I absolutely LOVE.

Leen, The Graphics Queen, tweeted about this design today, and I couldn’t wait to share it with you.

Isn’t it beautiful?

She also created this new design…

And another monogram in a  beautiful new font…

If you have never been to Leen’s online shop, you are missing out on a treat.

Here’s her button, give it a click and hop on over there!

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