Anniversary Creativity

My husband and I are coming up on our 2nd anniversary in October.  This year, I have been inspired by so many sentimental DIY art projects on Pinterest and I wanted to try my hand at one to give my special hubby on October 10th.  Well, that didn't work out.  I hid it under my side of the bed because I didn't have time to wrap it before he got home.  Of course, that was the first day he has ever looked under the bed.  I wasn't quick enough to distract him, so he found it, lifted it up, and asked "What is this?"  Can't surprise that boy for nothin', I swear.  BUT it did have the effect I wanted, so it all worked out. :)  Now I just need to figure out something else to do so that he can have a special surprise to open on our anniversary.

Anyways, here was my inspiration:

Source: Pinterest

Source: Pinterest

And this is my end result:

I love how it turned out.  I used a reading from our wedding called "Blessing of the Hands."  I absolutely love everything about that passage and thought it would be the perfect thing to use for this sentimental piece.

To do it, I typed out the whole passage in Microsoft Word line by line and copied and pasted it until it filled the whole page.  You don't want to have any line breaks that are common in most poems and readings.  Instead, you'll want to type everything out consecutively so it looks like run-on sentences.  I printed it out on some white cardstock I had lying around.  Then I used my heart craft punch to punch across the page in rows.  I lucked out because a lot of my favorite words ended up being in the center of the hearts, but you could always target your favorite words.  Then I took it away with Cozy.Cottage.Cute's tutorial, minus the grid she mentioned.  I just eyed the hearts and they ended up lining up nicely.  You could also use a ruler to keep it level and spaced perfectly if you don't have the grid. 

This was a fun and easy project that brings so much meaning to our home.  We haven't decided where we're going to hang it yet, but we know we want to showcase it in our bedroom.  It's the perfect reminder of one of the most important days of our lives and one of our favorite passages.

Your butt crack is showing

Please don't take offense to the title of today's post (and please don't look behind you to double check).  It has nothing to do with you.  It has to do with pillows.  No sew pillows, to be exact.  Today I decided to finally take on a no sew project.  A few things led to this:  First, Centsational Girl inspired me with her tutorial.  Second, I fell in love with the cloth napkins at Target.  Third, Pinterest reminded me of the tutorial.  Fourth, I needed a break from reading and writing papers for grad school. :)

Let's go back for a second.  My husband and I bought all dark brown furniture for our living room.  We thought it was a good idea at the time... You know, the dark color would hide stains (we have 3 nephews and 3 honorary nieces, so the baby stain potential is pretty large) and hide Bailey's fur (black fur does NOT work on light colored furniture).  When the brown furniture combined with our beige walls, I immediately got overwhelmed by a feeling of "blah."  We won't be painting our walls any time soon because they connect to our foyer (we have a catwalk type upstairs thing going on) and that would be a ridiculous project.  So the beige and brown combo are here to stay.  In order to bring some color to the room, we bought some fancy blue and brown pillows from Ross before we even moved in.  I like them, but don't LOVE them and sometimes I feel like they are too fancy for our style.  They have an elegant floral design on them and are made out of a shiny material.  This no sew tutorial gave me an opportunity to bring in some fun color on the cheap.

I'm not going to go through the tutorial because Centsational Girl does an excellent job, but I will show you my results.  Here's my final product (and yes, our couches look green at night.  It's the weirdest thing.  I promise they are chocolate brown.):

I absolutely love the patterns and the colors.  It's a similar blue to what we had, but on a cotton-based fabric instead of that shiny stuff.  And I like the addition of a playful yellow.

The one thing I'm not so sure about is the giant butt crack showing in the back:

Nobody likes a showing butt crack.

Centsational Girl warned everyone in her tutorial that the insert may pop out a bit in the back, depending on how big the insert is.  She recommended using a safety pin or two to secure it.  I'm not a big fan of that idea, simply because we are huge pillow users.  They're not just for show in this house.  We're always squishing them in some way or another, so I wouldn't want the cold hard safety pins to be up against anyone's face or skin.  My husband loves the pillows, which I am super excited about, so I need to find a way to make them work.  My crafty friend suggested using Velcro.  I may give that option a try to take care of the pesky problem or I may just put the crack against the couch and try my best to pretend it's not there. :) We will see!

Cost breakdown:
4 cloth napkins from Target (yellow) $9.99
4 cloth napkins from Target (blue) $9.99
Heat n Bond Hem Regular Strength from Hobby Lobby $1.99

All in all, I spent under $25.00 for 4 "new" pillows!  This is huge, considering one pillow is usually $10.00 minimum if you find a stinkin' great deal at Ross.  Most decorative pillows are much more.  So I'm feeling pretty good about it.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Holy Stripes

Earlier this week, I mentioned my dreams of transforming my half bath into this:

Young House Love

During my hookie day, I painted the poopy brown walls a beautiful ivory.  Sherry and John at Young House Love said that it took them under 4 hours to transform their ivory bathroom into the striped heaven displayed above.  I foolishly thought I could do the same, so I planned to conquer the stripes one night after work.  Boy, was I wrong!  It took me an hour and a half to do one stripe.... Yes, I said ONE.  Don't judge.  Needless to say, I got completely discouraged and, after a much needed hug, the hubs encouraged me to call it quits for the night and offered to help me try again on a weekend when we don't have any time constraints.  Who knows when we'll get to the stripey fun, but right now I am fully enjoying the brightness of the ivory on the walls.  It is SUCH a big difference and makes me smile every time I walk by.  It's also a good reminder that it's okay to take my time with things and just let it be.

Hookie

According to the Urban Dictionary, the term "hookie" is defined as "A day in which liberty is taken upon oneself to exclude themself from school or work obligations while, most likely, pretending to be sick or having a death in the family. Usually this time is spent with a significant other (i.e. hookie for nookie), a sports activity (i.e. golf or playstation), or just plain sitting on ones ass all day editing & writing definintions for modern slang words over the internet. Commonly referred to as "playing hookie"."  For some reason, this definition does not include "working one's boot-ay off doing home improvement projects with a significant other."  Weird.

 

Why the vocab lesson?

 

Yesterday, I played hookie.  Before you shake your finger at me with an ever-dissapproving look in your eye, hear me out.  My husband is a firefighter.  This means that he works 48 hours on (yes, 48 hours away from me) and then has 72 hours off.  Because of his schedule, we rarely have days off together where he isn't just coming off an exhausting shift or about to start a new one.  This has left our huge home improvement wish list / to do list just lying there all sad and lonely.

 

Last week, my husband helped his co-worker out by switching shifts with him.  This gave him a Sunday off (YAY!).  And the best part of this particular Sunday???  NO PLANS WHATSOEVER!  Usually when we have weekends together, it's already stocked full of plans with friends and family, which is amazing, but that also means we never get to have our carefree days or our Lazy Sundays filled with movies and Chinese take-out that filled our early dating years.  We definitely made the most of this plan-free Sunday.  The hubs surprised me with a shopping spree for some summer clothes followed by an afternoon movie and then some quality "us" time.  Me being spoiled by a full day of hubs + me of course resulted in me wanting an extra day together so we could actually tackle some of our projects.  TOGETHER.  Isn't it amazing how raking dead stuck-together leaves [I swear those leaves must have been there since the beginning of the fall season... Disgusting] from all our "beds" could be fun knowing that your hubby is also working on the yard?  Weird, I know.  We woke up bright and early to get as much done in the yard as possible before it got blazin' hot.  I got a major arm and ab workout with those packed down leaves, while Hubs mowed and edged.  After that we ran a few errands to prepare for our afternoon projects.  While he worked on staining the deck, I painted our poop-brown (how appropriate) bathroom an ivory color.  It was not fun, especially considering I did not prime... Novice error (or just plain laziness that I ended up paying for).  After 5 or 6 coats (I can't remember at this point), the ivory finally covered the poop-brown nastiness.  Next step is taping off stripes and painting just a shade off.  I am so excited to see what this does for our tiny bathroom.  It already feels bigger and brighter after the first ivory coat.  My inspiration for this project came from a "little" blog called Young House Love, which I am obsessed over!  I am following every single step down to the paint colors because I fell in love with their pictures and because I am incapable of deciding on a paint color in under 2 months (Sad, I know).

 

Isn't it beautiful?
Young House Love

 

 

I am severely paying for all our hardwork today.  Every inch of my body is sore.  No exaggeration.  But I couldn't be happier.  The feeling of working on even the smallest project on our forever home with my forever mister was amazing.  I can't wait till our next To Do Day... Maybe it won't involve me playing hookie next time.

Jewelry Window

What do you get a mom that seems to have everything?  That was the question I was facing this Mother's Day.

One thing my mom LOVES is jewelry, especially earrings.  I am almost certain that she buys at least one pair a week, if not more.  The girl loves the glam.  I visited her a few weeks before Mother's Day and saw earrings spread on almost every surface.  We all have our issues with finding ways to organize our jewelry collection, so I decided that this would be the perfect gift.

There is a crazy "junk" shop in downtown Fayetteville.  It's a large plot of land COVERED in everything you could imagine.  Toilets, kitchen appliances, doors, knick-knacks... The list goes on and on.  For some random reason, this is where I decided to start my earring organizer hunt.  I ended up finding the perfect base for the project: An old window!  The nice man even broke the glass out for me for free!  Now, that's customer service!

This is what I started with:

First, I painted the window with a paint sample I got for my office (office details later).  It was my first time painting anything.  Yes, I'm being serious.  It was a lot of fun and super easy.  The color was a bright blue/white.  Definitely brighter than I thought it would be, but my mom is super fun and eclectic so it worked.

Once the paint dried, I was ready to use the Phifer Silver Gray Fiberglass Screen that I got from Home Depot for around $6.

Does anyone else notice that the label has both versions of gray/grey listed?

I rolled the screen out and cut it to size and temporarily secured it with painter's tape.

Next, my hubby used wood glue and a q-tip to secure the screen to the window.  How sweet is he?  Why the q-tip, you ask?  Because the tip of the wood glue bottle was clogged and I was too lazy/cheap to go get a new one.  The q-tip ended up being perfect because Hubs was able to get the glue in all the tiny screen holes.

I had all intentions of gluing a pretty ribbon over the border to cover up the ugly glue, but never got to that.  I consoled myself with the fact that no one would ever see the back because it will be hanging up on the wall. 

After the glue dried, I hung two basic picture brackets on the back so my mom would easily be able to hang it herself.

I of course forgot to take a picture of the finished product, but it turned out perfect!

The window idea is not for everyone but it definitely fits my mom.  She loved it and the best part is she has plenty of space to store all her earrings!

The better part?  It was super cheap!
Window $5
Fiberglass Screen $6
Paint Sample $2
TOTAL: $13

I'd say it was a success!

Our Forever Home

The hubs and I bought our first home on March 4, 2011.  The process that led up to the closing was filled with highs and lows.. Definitely a roller coaster, but we are so grateful it worked out and we were able to get our "Forever Home."

Here are a few pics that the Realtor used.  I never took any before pics myself (oops!), so these will have to do.

Our Forever Home

Driveway Detail

Back View

Office (First room on the right)

Dining Room (First room on the left)

Kitchen (Off the dining room and living room)

Breakfast Nook

Living Room

The master suite, half bath, and laundry room are off the living room through the doorway on the edge of the photo above.  Upstairs, there are 3 bedrooms and a full bath.  There is also a full basement that we plan to finish one day.

We love it and can't wait to make it our own.  It will be a slow process completely dependent on time and money, but we will get there!  Our first home holds so much meaning to us.  It marks a huge step in our relationship and our future resonates through the walls.  We truly love our Forever Home and feel very grateful for this blessing.

Creative Gift Tags

I sold some orders for Administrative Professionals Day and wanted to be sure I made them as cute as possible on a tight gift wrap budget.  Life Saver?  Thank You cards from Walmart and good ole MS Word.

I found some cute font and typed up a little something.  I had these glittery thank you cards that I bought from Walmart forever ago just sitting in my desk begging to be used.  I cut them in half to include the "Thank You" and then glued my printed message onto the back, punched a hole in the corner, and tied it on the 50 cent gift bag with pearlized raffia from Nashville Wraps.

If you've never heard of Nashville Wraps before, you have been missing out.  They have every type of gift wrap supply you could ever imagine needing.  And it's all eco-friendly!  If I was rich, I would totally have my way with that store... My guest closet would be jam-packed with wrapping goodies.  Well, more jam-packed than it already is.  I have issues with gift wrap.

The end result was super cute and got tons of raves at the Administrative Professionals Day luncheon.  Lesson learned through this process?  You don't always have to spend a lot to make something look beautiful.  You'd be surprised what you can do with things just lying around your house.

Back!

Wow, I guess I am a better blog follower than blogger.  Sorry for the long break... Been letting life get in the way.  It doesn't help that work blocked all "social networking sites."  Yes, I just admitted that I used to blog at work.  Don't judge.

Where did we leave off....?  Oh, baby shower!  The shower was beautiful and the momma-to-be got loaded down with love and gifts for Baby Riley.  I forgot my camera, so you'll have to excuse the camera phone pics.

The table at the entrance with the adorable giraffe favors

Cutest cake in the world!

"Baby Riley" onesie clothesline

Close-up

Loved the pattern

I didn't take very many pictures, unfortunately.  But, I assure you, everything was precious. :)

Shower Fun

My week has been crazy with long hours at work followed by long hours of craftiness and fun at night.  I've been preparing for my best friend's baby shower this Saturday for the past month, but somehow everything still snuck up on me.  I am super excited about this shower and can't wait to see everything come together.  She is doing a jungle theme for her sweet baby girl's nursery so we tried to incorporate that theme into the shower. 

The favor bags are adorable with little pink and green giraffes gracing the front, tied in my favorite: pearlized raffia.  This was my inspiration for the giraffe bags.  So adorable, quick, and easy!  The Little twins came up with this idea for the last shower we threw (with an owl themed nursery, of course!).  Love it!

Owl Favor Bags for Em's Shower

I did some pink tissue paper poofs to hang over the food or present table and also made a onesie line spelling "Baby Riley" (thanks to Erin for the great idea of mixing up the standard onesie line by having it spell something!).

I also made adorable hershey kiss stickers for the favors that say things like: Courtney's Baby Shower, due July 2011, Baby Riley, oh Baby!, etc.  This was my second time doing this.  The first time, I bought the sticker templates from one of my favorites, Samantha.  Check out her etsy shop!  She is SUPER talented and one of the most amazing people I know.  This time I took my hand at creating my own.  Super time-consuming (for a technologically challenged gal), but completely worth it!

Hershey Kiss Stickers for Em's Shower

I forgot to take pics of most things, but I'll see if I can snap some tomorrow and post later.

Some of the baby shower fun that is filling my couch and ready to get loaded into the car for the trip to G-net.

Everything about showers makes me smile.  I can't wait till tomorrow!


PS - Loving this nail lacquer right now. 

It's called Pink Sand from Mary Kay.  Could there be a more perfect shade for a little girl's baby shower?!  Definitely rocking this shade this weekend!

Happy Casual Friday!

Today is Casual Friday at work.  Who knew a girl could look forward to something so much just to get through the work week?  It's the little things, I tell ya.

Last night, the hubs took me to the gym for the first time.  I have always had an aversion to gyms and just working out in general, but since he signed us up for a joint membership, I figured I had to give it a try.  I actually had a tiny hint of excitement about the possibility of maintaining a steady relationship with the gym.  Crazy!  It probably didn't hurt that we went to Taco Mac afterwards to treat ourselves.  I'll be honest - We went for the free glasses.  For our future bar.  In our future basement.  Dreamers.

Newbie

Not sure how I feel about this whole blogging thing, but I've always loved the idea of journaling and documenting your experiences, so I thought I would give it a whirl.  [One thing to note: I tend to love A LOT of ideas, but never actually put them into practice.  I'm hoping this blog will help me bring those ideas to life and give me some direction so I'm not all over the place.]  Life has definitely been an adventure lately.  My husband and I recently moved to Fayetteville, GA to be closer to his work.  We bought our first home and have been having a blast making it our own (sloooooowly, but surely) and exploring our new city.  This blog will most likely document some of our home projects, crafty adventures (from the least crafty person in the world who longs to be a crafty goddess), and random daily-ness.  [Another thing to take note of: I like adding "-ness" to most words.]  We'll see how it goes!