Now Let's Go Eat Some Cake...

Today I finished number 5 out of 7 major tests. I've got two classes and two more finals to go and I will finally put this semester behind me. My life has been kinda crazy the last few weeks (one uncontrollable outburst of tears at the DMV and two trips to the ER later...) and I am ready to be settled. More on some of crazy happenings in posts to come.

On a positive note, however, I think I did really well on my test tonight. And I am thankful I am almost 1/5 of the way done with this degree. I am also another year older now. And I had a fun weekend celebrating with my family.

My family spoiled me by letting me sleep in, followed by an offer to go to the store alone to pick out whatever I wanted for breakfast. Kevin and the kids thought of some excuse why they had to stay home when I said I wouldn't mind them coming with me. I should have seen the surprise coming. But I did not. Which was so sweet and cool.

Kev and Kay and Emmie had made me a mixed CD which started out with them each singing songs to me, followed by birthday wishes for this year, and a few things they each loved about me. <3. Coolest present ever.

I chose German Pancakes with cottage cheese, sugar free blackberry jam, strawberries and bananas. I got some yummy blueberry lemonade and a bottle of aloe vera juice as well. Yum!

  

After breakfast we headed into town to window shop and to pick up a few items for a project Kev and I had discussed and planned the night before. We decided that we were either going to tackle fixing a set of new dining room chairs I picked up for $10 at our local thrift store... or we were going to refinish our entertainment center. I finally decided on the later and we decided we wanted to do a light gray with chalk paint.

But... one of my favorite furniture stores was on the way to Home Depot...so you know. I had to stop by and fall massively in love with a couch I had no money for. You know. All in a days work. Dreams are good to have.

Anywho... since I didn't want to buy chalk paint (holy.expensive.), I just bought plaster of paris and made my own. I spent $16 total on paint and plaster of paris, $10 for finishing wax and about $11 for dark wax (for that antiqued look). Altogether, my "new look" cost about $37. Not bad for a "free to me" dresser.

My husband and I painted the first coat while the kids were down for a nap. We finished with it about the time the kids woke up, so we headed off to our local pizza joint for dinner and let the dresser sit to dry.

Because I've been dying to try this drink forever (mostly because I think the can looks cool), Kev indulged me and got me one as a part of my birthday dinner/present. I kinda have a thing about trying new drinks with cool looking bottles. Some have ended up better than others. But this one was super tasty. And I was happy to add another cool bottle to my collection.

Speaking of cool, this has got to be my favorite pizza joint ever, mainly for the ambiance. It is centered in an old log cabin up against a hill, with beautiful woodwork on the inside and a really cool looking wood stove in the middle of the room. Plus, the really old video games downstairs reminds me of the arcade at the pizza parlor I grew up going to with my family. I remember being younger than Kale and being so excited to go to Rick's Pizza. It was the best ever.

Excuse my make-up-less-ness and the crazy photos. We were enjoying ourselves. And the one of me was taken by Kay. 

The drive home was beautiful and peaceful and accented by a beautiful setting sun. It's no wonder they call this time of night "golden hour". It was gorgeous.

Once home, we let the kids stay up watching the new Tinker-Bell-Pirate-Fairy-Movie-Whatever-Thing they just put up on Netflix a few months ago (Okay,so I play a little....the hubby and I are kinda closet Tinker Bell fans) while the hubs and I finished the second coat of paint, and the two coats of finishing wax and dark wax. 

I took a few photos that night of the end result. But they're night photos. So it goes without saying they didn't end up looking that great, or showing the true end result. So I decided to retake the photos in the morning so you could see the real difference this piece made to our room.

Funny how the same piece of furniture, with just a different or new color on it can change the whole look and feel! Truth be told, I hated the old brass drawer pulls before we did the project and I had fully planned on replacing them when I finally got the money to. 

However, I think I had a total change of heart. With that new light color, I love the contrast the old bronze gives...and I even like that the color of the drawer pulls aren't even. Some have dark spots and some have a lot of that gold brassy color coming through. So cool.

So! That was my fun birthday project and adventure. It was absolutely the nicest way I could have imagined spending my day. Projects with my husband are the best. We have a lot of fun working side by side together (Thanks again, babe for helping me!)

Anyways, I hope you all have a happy weekend ahead with the some fun projects and adventures planned for yourselves! Tomorrow is Saturday, and as for me and my family... we are going to go help clean up the church! ;] So...here's to hoping we wash off more little finger prints from the window panes than we add! Adios peeps!

A Finished Command Center Chalkboard!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I know I'm days late, but I hope you all had a good one! Ours was low key this year, just us and one of my husband's cousins (and two of her friends). It was quiet, but fun!  We got all old school and played a bit of N64. Because we're awesome like that. And a little bit nerdy to boot.

Anyways, cooking is something my husband and I really enjoy doing together, so we just hung out together in the kitchen part of Wednesday and most of Thursday putting all the food together. It was amazingly relaxing.  Hope you all had equally awesome (& hopefully relaxing) Thanksgivings as well!

But anyways, on to the really awesome news! Today, I am excited to tell you, that we finally got around to finishing our command center chalkboard!!! And it is beautiful. Seriously....so gorgeous!

Do you guys remember this wood from way back when?

Oh yah. This was totally the project I had in mind for it. And it came out better than I had even dared to hope. With some help from my hubby of course (he is so awesome =]). I'm still a bit hopeless when it comes to doing this sort of thing on my own.  But someday...;].

We started by removing the old, nasty nails. We did this by nailing the sharp end of the nail back into the wood. This lifted up the heads of the nails on the other side high enough so we could pry them out.

Once we got the nails out, we measured the sides of our chalkboard. I had spray painted it a long time before this, so there wasn't much to do there in that respects. Once we had our measurements, we cut our boards accordingly, making sure to cut 45 degree angles on the ends of each for a more finished look.

We don't exactly have the fanciest of tools so we simply used a round edged ruler and a hand saw to accomplish this. It was... probably more work than it was worth (not that that was an entirely difficult feat to manage...it being free and all...).

We then mounted the chalkboard directly to the wall. Once that was done we attached the frame by screwing each individual piece into the studs, to give it extra support. The wood was pretty heavy.

We then primed the chalkboard by rubbing it down with chalk (necessary, unless you want everything you write on there to be permanent) and then spent the next half hour vacuuming up all the mess and putting the tools away.

When we were finished we were left with this:

 Eeeee!!!!! Love!!!!! The color of that weathered wood is seriously just so gorgeous. Adds a bit of shabby chic to our home. So fun!

Now, all that is left to do is to get two more bins for the command center to fill the top middle slots, add some bling to the walls, and finish turning the 'Fresh Bulb's' box into a charging station. For realz!

In the meantime I'll do a happy dance with the progress we've made. It is SO much better already than when we started.... need I remind you! 

Yeeeeesh! Those were not exactly the days.  

Anyways, wishing you the happiest of DIY projects and many wonderful holiday memories ahead! It is now time for me to catch some shut eye. Double for realz.

 I'm linking this up with Thrifty Decor Chic's Before and After Party!

A Hall Closet "Make-Over"

Well, the weather around here has hit south of 50 recently and I'm pretty convinced the world will not see me out of my sweat pants until Spring.

It is too cold and it's only going to get colder. I just want to be useless all day and drink lots of hot apple cider. A totally worthwhile use of my time. I'm serious.

Meanwhile, my husband looks forward to April when his wife will finally decide to be a human being again. Although... I might make him wait until May.  Sweat pants are comfy, people.

Anyways, while I enjoy being under-dressed and lazy, I figured I'd share with you a project I actually finished back around the time I reorganized our media center.

The coat closet:

Ahh, this is the before.  A fairly crowded storage area with a bit of an identity crises at hand.  Do I hold coats, or cleaning supplies, or maybe board games? How about a camera? Frisbee golf discs anyone?

And wet suits. Don't forget the wet suits! Even though we live no where near a beach. Gotta keep them in the coat closet...you know...just in case.

It needed some help. My OCD shivered every time it was opened. So help it I did...

...and here is the after:

Okay, so while it is not the most beautiful of transformations anyone has ever seen, it sure is functional. And as much as I love things to look pretty, I like things even more when they serve a purpose (and serve it well for that matter).

So, what did I do?

Well, first, I took all of our coats and put them up in our bedrooms. We had ample closet space in our rooms, but so little in the hallway that it really just made sense.

I did, however, leave us each a single coat to be hung on the coat racks next to the command center.

The board games, as you know, went into the media center. The vacuum, however, was allowed to stay (granted that it behaved properly and minded its manners).

Following the example of this amazing blogger, and adjusting for my own family's personal needs, I tried to transform our hall closet from a place to hang coats into a place to catch all of our random, but necessary, loose ends.

The diagrams below explain how I reorganized everything.

The yoga mat and the frisbee golf discs, alas, were allowed to stay as well. They were items used too often in our house to have anywhere else better to put them. I used an old diaper box, covered in fabric, to corral them in between their visits to the outside world.

They look happy and comfy in there, don't they? ;]

Well, that is basically the gist of the redo. Coat closet turned utility closet. It is seriously one of my favorite things I've done recently. It is nice to have somewhere definitive to put things, rather than an all encompassing junk drawer... or as was my case: a junk catching top of the fridge ( I don't even know why, but that is where everything always seemed to end up.).

What part of your home are you desperately itching to fix? Next on my list is the master bedroom closet. It's like someone let off an atomic craft bomb in there. I'd like to be able to close the door, you know... eventually, someday.

So that's like goal number 35,548 on my to do list.  Clean the closet so that I can finally shut the door. Good. Right. I'll talk to you all again soon. If my closet doesn't eat me.

Before & After: A Linen Closet Redo

Hey guys! Happy Thursday!

Before I get into the nitty gritty of one of my most recent projects, I wanted to give a quick shout out for all the sweet comments and e-mails I have received lately about the different things I've posted about! Mainly the anxiety and depression.

I appreciate knowing I'm not alone. I appreciate your support and friendship. I hope for those who also struggle with this I can be a good friend, helpful source, and listening ear.

My heart goes out to you. In a way it could never have if I hadn't started to struggle with this myself. I pray that you may find the comfort and answers you need to address this particular trial in your lives.

Sending lots of love your way!

On that note, let me share with you a redo I did at my mom's house!

I don't know what it is about other people's homes, but I am always a million times more motivated to get projects done for my friends and family than I am for myself.

This being no exception. But organizing this closet wasn't enough for me.

 

 

For as long as I can remember this closet has been ugly. Like, ever since I was 3 years old, its been the devil in my nightmares.

And it was far past time for that to change.

Since there really was no budget for a "redo," and all my mom asked me to do was organize the closet, I solicited some help from my dad and found all the left-over paint they had lying around from previous projects. Then I got myself to work.

 

 

Yeeeeesh. Here are some before pics, prior to me pulling everything out for the "purge."  After emptying everything out of the closet, I made three piles:  A. Junk, B. Nice, with no matches, C. Keepers.

 

I set the piles off to the side for my mom to approve and go through once she got home and then got started on the painting. 

I, unfortunately, didn't get any pictures of the process, or any before pictures of the white walls and the bare particle board shelves. Eeeghghgkjh ((shudders)). Maybe it was for the best!

 

But here are my after's:

 

 

 

 

 I just loooooooooove the contrast. I most definitely randomly opened this closet at least a 100 times since I painted it.

 

 

Doesn't it just make you smile?

Anyways, once my mom approved my purge piles, I went ahead and reorganized all of the items we decided to keep back into the closet.

I added some labels, from the scrapbooking section in Target, and I bought a few containers for random items.

 

 The small tan basket is holding my mother's table cloths, and the large basket on the floor is housing some extra pillows.

 

Ahh! Isn't it so much better? I'm a lil' bit in love. 

 

 

What area in your home always seems to be an issue? For us, it's the master bedroom. I don't know why, but it always seems to be a catchall for all of our junk!  Anyways, happy DIYing everybody!