Greetings!

After many months of going back and forth with "Should I?  Should I not?", I've decided, "Might as well!"  So here I am stepping into the blogging world, just a tad bit scared.  I've looked through so many great blogs and hopefully you'll like what I have to share.

I, like many of you (don't lie to yourself, you know who you are! ;P), used to think:  Do it myself?  Go to a vintage or thrift store?  Riiiiigggghhhtt...  No thanks!  I'll just hire someone or buy new.  After awhile, that kind of thinking started to suck away at my bank account to my dismay.  I am not in the extremely wealthy tax bracket and needed to stop spending like I was.  I have a family, bills to pay and of course, I had the dreaded monthly mortgage payment *cue creepy slasher flick movie music now*.  I needed to change my way of thinking if I still wanted to shop till I dropped - I just couldn't spend even half of what I was used to spending.  Now, this change didn't just drop from the sky and hit me on the head demanding attention.  It all started with a boring bathroom that I had been begging Mr Smitten to redo.  He finally agreed as a Mother's Day present to me.

I'm sorry, I can't find any before pictures.  Before you go on a rampage about how I'm a bad blogger, let me remind you this was a gradual change and I was not thinking of blogs at this point.  The transformation was AWESOME and it was done on a very small budget.

My husband did all the "grunt work": installation of new counter top, vessel sink (which I still admire while I'm washing my hands), flooring, texturizing the walls and painting them.  Oh, I forgot to mention that he is a professional paint contractor *score!*

I need to take better pictures of the wall.  It's amazing what Mr S did to them!

If anyone I personally know is reading this, you know that I can be very impatient.  I thought to myself after Mr S wanted to take a break from the renovation, "Rest?  What do you mean rest?  My bathroom is not done yet!"  So after passing the bathroom many times while he was "resting", I decided to take on the remainder of the project myself.  I learned how to paint, antique and install glass tile on a boring mirror.

Needless to say, I began to change.  And with that change, I began my new obsession:  

Do-It-Yourself projects.  And guess what?  I'm pretty damn proud of myself!  Stay tuned for many many more blog posts I plan on doing.  Maybe halfway through you may decide to pick up a paintbrush or drill and NOT hand it to your better half so you can watch him/her slave away on YOUR project.  You may even become as *Smitten* as I am to the world of DIYing.  

Abigail