46. Paint upstairs hall

I put this one on my list because my upstairs hall is a boring white. I wanted to spruce it up and add a little bit of color. However, my list of home projects is now long. And there are higher priorities than the upstairs hall...like my crackle painted powder room.

So, I'm changing this one a little - from the hallway to the powder room. So happy it's done.

60. Obtain an original piece of art

I love art. It's a beautiful representation of God's creativity. I love it even more because I have absolutely no artistic ability at all. So when I see good art, I'm amazed.

The picture above is my newly painted powder room. I don't have a before picture, which is actually a merciful thing for your eyes. It was awful. See, about 10 years ago I thought it'd be a great idea to paint it that crackle paint stuff. It was not a pretty picture. It was a bad idea in 2002; a really, really, really bad idea in 2012. It had to go.

Enter in my new original piece of art (to go with my newly painted powder room). It's the bird picture in the frame. I love birds. And so when I saw this at a silent auction to raise money for Johnson and Wales RUF, I knew I was bidding. And thankfully, it didn't get too high and it has a new home with me.

Days Left...

 Ah! I'm so close to finishing, but it feels like I still have a lot of big ones on my list left. Here's the update:

Start date was: January 1, 2009
End date will be: September 27, 2012 - that's this year!!

I still have 19 to do completely and 7 that were yearly and still need to be finished.

75. Sleep at the Westin

Matt and I at dinner, before I knew the whole plan.

I've always heard that the Westin hotel in uptown Charlotte is beautiful. So, I put this on my list so I could see for myself. And to have a night off of motherhood.

Matt surprised me a few weeks ago by taking me. I thought we were just going out to dinner. In reality, he had asked my mom to come down to watch the girls, packed my bag and had it in the hotel room (along with some yummy chocolate fruit). It was loads of fun. We ate dinner then went back to the room and watched Animal Planet. See, we don't have cable at home. And one of my all time favorite things to do in hotel rooms is to watch Animal Planet. So, after a little bit of that, we decided to go walk around to find a restaurant with good dessert. That's me being spontaneous. I can't remember the last time Matt and I could just up and leave the house. It was pretty fun to be able to do.

Anyway, I'm thankful for my night off...no cleaning, no cooking, no putting kids to bed, no waking up to kids wanting food. And I'm thankful for my precious husband who knew that now was a great time for a night off.

27. Have 1 designer article in my closet

This one may be stretching it a little. Okay, maybe a lot. But, it's my list and I can stretch if I want to.

About 6 years ago I threw a baby shower for a friend of mine. She is Australian and loves tea. So, the shower was tea themed. As favors for the guests, I put a tea candle inside tea cups. And since I wasn't about to spend a ton of money on something that would probably get tossed out anyway, I went to Goodwill to hunt for some tea cups.

I don't know about the rest, but I found a treasure in mine. I've loved it. It's beautiful and dainty and it warms my heart when I drink out of it.

Tonight I had an epiphany. What if it broke?! I needed to get another one asap just in case it does. I have 4 kids. Chances are, it'll break.

So, I started doing some research. Turns out this little tea cup is real China, from France, made in the 1800s. I'm still researching what the name of the pattern is.

So, what does this have to do with 27.? It's my designer item. No, it's not kept in my closet. But it is designer. And I'd rather buy more of this than clothing anyway. Drinking from my little old tea cup makes me happier than any designer article in my closet ever could.

1. Make a time capsule

Happy New Year! I have 4 small kids, so we celebrated early tonight. I found this great idea and decided to tweak it to fit our family. In our first envelope was our time capsule. We answered some questions about each of us, attached a picture, and put them away for next year.

I love this and would never have done it were it not on my list. So, thank you list of 101 things to do in 1001 days. You just helped me start a new tradition.

80. Get a new brown coat

I got a new brown coat. Well, technically the color is olive green. But it's in the same vein and goes with my brown clothes, so I'm checking this one off. The picture above is the coat...technically a sweater coat. I love it, even if the cute baby in the picture keeps trying to eat the buttons. I love the color. I love the length (slightly below the knee). I love the warmth. But what I love the best is this:

I was in a store the other day and an older man walked up to me and commented on the coat. He said it reminded him of his old Army coat. I got a warm fuzzy feeling all over. My grandfather was an officer in the Army. My dad went to West Point. Little known fact about me: my family has the longest direct line of generations that have gone to West Point. Seven. Crazy cool. My great-great-great-great grandfather went to West Point. Someone in my family has played a role in every conflict since the American Civil War.

So when someone says anything about the Army or West Point, I listen. And so now I love my coat even more.