Jewelry Genius!

I have jewelry.  Lots of jewelry.  Obscene amounts of jewelry.

It was taking over the house.  There was jewelry in the dining room.  There was jewelry on the kitchen counter.  There was jewelry in my craft room.  There was jewelry in the hall closet.  There was jewelry in the family room.  You couldn't look at any surface in my house with out seeing a pile of jewelry.

I finally decided to do something about it.  I needed something that would allow me to organize my jewelry so that I could see it all at one time.  Trying to accessorize while digging through pile after pile of jewelry is just no fun.

First I took a couple of spare pieces of wood, marked and drilled some holes in the bottom and hung it on the wall.  I added a couple hooks at the top to hold my rings.  Necklaces and rings done.

I played with some idea on what to do for my bracelets.  I finally cut up another piece of wood and glued the pieces onto the front of the necklace hanger.  Bracelets done.

The last thing I had to worry about is earrings.  I have seen some very cute display ideas.  This one holds a ton but I didn't like the plastic containers...and who has counter/dresser space for all of them?  I found a ton of ideas for hook earrings on Pinterest but only one that would hold post earrings.  I loved the idea but again - I didn't want something that would take up counter/dresser space.

So, I put my crafty hat on and scouted the house for something to transform.  That's when I figured it out...jewelry genius!  I took a large distressed picture frame and stapled screen to it.  Hook earrings done.  Then, I took a smaller frame, added screen to it and attached it to the bigger frame with hinges.  Post earrings done!!

The beauty of the hinges is that I can open the smaller frame and put my post earrings on it.

See, I told you ... GENIUS!!

And now for the big picture:

Now, when I am getting dressed, adding my jewelry is so easy, I can't not do it!!

13 Pounds of Lard

Recently our family decided to make a lifestyle change.  And by our family I mean I declared it and everyone else agreed to follow along.

Well, they agreed in the way that I shop for the food, cook the food and clean up after the food so they really had no choice.

We decided to go Paleo or Caveman.  A friend was telling me all about the benefits so I was intrigued.  I started looking into it.  I started "thinking" healthy.  You know how it goes...you know you need to make some changes and you think about making those changes all the time.  So much so that you convince yourself that you are actually making healthy choices.  I half heartedly started changing a few things about our food.  I stopped eating cheese every day.  I just kinda half-assed it.

And then something happened that completely changed things.  I had a parent teacher conference for one of the boys.  It was his end of year review for his IEP so both his teacher and the counselor were there.  The gist of the conversation went like this:

Counselor:  We believe your son has ADD.
Me:  I think I agree with you.  What can we do.
Counselor:  I think you should have him tested.
Me:  Okay.  And we've been making some changes to our diet ...
Counselor (interrupting me):  This isn't something that will be fixed by a diet change.  He needs meds.
Me:  oh.
Counselor:  He will never get to where he needs to be without meds.  It will make huge changes in him.  You really need to look into getting him on meds.
Me:  Is there anything else we can do in the meantime?
Teacher:  We can try a couple things.
Counselor:  He really needs to be on meds.  Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.  (She didn't really blah blah blah but I totally tuned them out for the rest of the conversation)

My friends who know me well laughed when I told them this story because the very FIRST thing I did was to change our diet to Paleo.  I called and scheduled an appt with the Dr. and I started researching and checking out books from the library and talking to friends who have children with ADD.

I won't go into all of the rest of that story except to say that in the last 3 weeks of school my son did start performing better and came home proud of himself for completing all of his work.  Weird...we didn't medicate him and the only change we made to our lives is the diet.

Now, the real reason I'm writing this post is the poundage I've lost.  In 5 weeks I've lost 13 pounds!  I haven't been hungry and I haven't really missed the foods we've given up.  I've cheated a little here and there but I haven't had a hard time getting back into the swing immediately.

There are so many benefits about choosing the Paleo diet.  And by diet I mean lifestyle and not "lose weight fast".  Of course, as I've found out, a benefit is definitely losing weight.  But some of the other benefits are clear mind, better concentration and better sleep.

 My son had a rash that we could not get to go away.  It looked like dry skin.  It was a big patch on his neck.  It's been there for a year.  We tried all kinds of things to get it to go away.  Medicated and natural.  The Dr. didn't know what it was and he said it would probably just go away on it's own.  He was right.  It finally went away when we started Paleo.

Did I mention that I lost 13 pounds?  Without really trying?  Without starving myself?  While cheating a couple times???

Today I decided to see what 13 pounds of lard looks like.  I had to go to the store anyway so I stopped by the baking aisle to take a picture.  Here is what 13 pounds of lard looks like:

I do know that I have not actually lost that much mass.  But, it is crazy to think that I was carrying that much extra weight around with me.  all. the. time!!

I'm still learning the ins and outs of Paleo.  I've made the lifestyle changes in small steps.  I didn't force this radical change on my family all at once - we eased into it over a couple of weeks.  I completely cleared out my pantry of any foods that didn't fit the diet.  My neighbor got a nice big box of all kinds of food!  We are slowly going organic and grass-fed.  We still occasionally have a little dairy.  I don't beat myself up over the non-paleo choices I make and make sure to congratulate myself on all the good choices.

I am excited to see the changes in my boys' attention and their attitudes.  My hubby is telling everyone about it and trying to convince his whole family to make the switch.

This has been amazing for all of us.  I totally recommend you give it a try.

You really can find alternatives to almost anything if you are willing to try.  Once of our favorites is chicken fried rice.  And banana "ice cream".

Here are some resources that I use:
The book:  Practical Paleo by Diane Sanfilippo - she breaks down why Paleo is great for you and how your body processes the things we eat.  It has several different 30-day meal plans.  I leave this book on my counter to reference reguarly.
Website:  http://balancedbites.com/ - Diane's companion website

You can search Pinterest for great recipes.  You can google great recipes.  There are so many resources out there.  Go.  Now.  Check them out and see how easy it could be for you to make the change.