Fudge.

I am eating a fudge bar.

Did you know, that I write my posts the night before and then post it the next morning?

If you didn't you may have been thinking, wow. This chick is totally eating a fudge bar for breakfast. She's badass.

Or fat.

I'm going with the first one because it's true. And nicer.

Yes, I am a sneaky snake and I write my posts in the late afternoon/evening because when I first wake up, my hair is crazy, I'm tired, and my creative juices are not flowing. The only person I know (know being a relative term) that can wake up at the ridiculous time of early and post an entertaining blog is June.  How is she so funny in the morning? Girl is crazy.

I'm taking a break from showing you projects because Blogger has decided to be fickle and I'm not even gonna try to upload photos. Instead, I'm going to tell you about an other-worldly experience I had today. Yessiree. If you are a morning reader, grab your cup of joe, or your iced coffee, or your juice, or, if it's after noon...or at least eleven in the AM, a vodka tonic because you are gonna need something to hold on to. My experience was THAT insane.

My mother-in-law is going to Ethiopia tomorrow with a group of people from her church. They will do mission work and eat terrible food and have amazing experiences. This has little-to-nothing to do with the story, except that after I arrived back home, I got on the computer. Of course, I checked the ol' blog roll to see if anyone had posted and sure enough, Centsational Girl had posted about bookcases.

Dang her. Dang her and her knowledge and inspiration. You know what that DUMB post did to me? It made me go on a tangent. There goes my perusing the Internet until I get tired and make an excuse to go to bed early and play games on my phone until I pass out and find my phone stuck to my leg in the middle of the night. What proper sentence?

Tangent? Tangent! All of a sudden, who had a ton of energy and got all excited and started pinning like a freakazoid? I did. That's who. I got all of this wonderful, great inspiration and then I ruled out a few things that I thought I had wanted to do, but measurably was not possible.

And you know what? I'm a good wife. Because I know that Bryan doesn't give two pennies about home decor since all he sees is "another thing to clean", so of course, I asked him if he wanted to see my ideas. And he was a good husband because he hesitated, thought it through and then said "yes."

I jumped on that opportunity and SQUEEEEEEZED all the life there was out of it. (Okay, we are nearing the other worldly part of the evening) I told him all about brackets and reclaimed wood, and building ourselves, and my barn door entertainment center and on and on and so forth. And (here is the other worldly part) He said, "Yeah. That would definitely work. We would just...." and proceeded to give me ideas, advice and help.

Say, whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?

Did he just.... Was he just... What the... Did he just say something.... supportive? Informative? Helpful? Encouraging?

What the whaaaat?!

So, then I told him what I would work on first and get done and he was nodding his head, and saying things like "great idea" and "makes sense."

And I died.

And then I died again.

I have no idea what happened but my world is rocked. ROCKED.

I think I'll go lay down now. I need to process this extremely weird turn of events. And also, try to pluck some hair out of his head to do a DNA match. Cause who the heck is that man and what in the world did he do to my husband?!

It COULD Be Considered Decor....Maybe.

Ya know. Some people say that major appliances should be chosen carefully so that they go the distance, or have a good warranty. Some people say that a major appliance is just as important to decor as anything else. It helps make or break the room it's in.

Let me tell you. In 2008, when my best friend Denise and I moved in together, my mom and her husband, Larry, gifted me with a 30 year old refrigerator that we found on craigslist. It had a weird smell.

I've had it since then. We just sold it in a yard sale a week ago. We were able to do that because this guy showed up....

to deliver and install this baby!

It's not fancy shmancy-pants, but I absolutely love it! It is a Black Kenmore fridge with an ice maker.  It was originally listed for $1000, but was on clearance for $699. I made them give me an extra 5% and free delivery WITHOUT opening a Sears card. And it worked.

My husband was pretty blown away at my haggling and no-nonsense buying attitude, and I'm stoked that I have a new, energy efficient fridge! Woo-hoo!

Jewelry Bulletin Board

The main purpose of my bulletin board is to make organize my jewelry. I wanted to act as an "art piece" of sorts since it was going to be hung in our bedroom.

I already had the bulletin board and it was in good shape. I grabbed the supplies I figured I would need, which included a bulletin board, Rustoleum Heirloom White spray paint, a neutral tone of linen fabric (purchased for $2.99 at Hobby Lobby), ribbon scored from Michaels, Aleene's Tacky Spray from Michaels, and a hot glue gun and sticks. 

Total, the project cost me a little under $15 since I already had most of the items or I had a coupon. 

I didn't feel that this project was something that needed to be detailed because bulletin board re-dos are a dime a dozen on the world wide web. Here is the final project. 

For those of you wondering how I did it, I'll give a brief rundown.

1. Get the necessary materials. Cut the fabric to size, so that it's about 1/4 of an inch from the border of the bulletin board. Measure out your ribbon and cut to size. Try not to cut crooked. Because I am left-handed, I cannot, for the life of me, cut a straight line. My husband had to bail me out. :)

2. Quickly sand down the border, and wipe it down. While it dries, tape some newspaper to protect the cork, and spray it down. You may need more than one coat. Let it cure for a 24-48 hours to get a good set.

3. In a well vented area, grab your fabric, tacky spray and the bulletin board. Spray down the cork in sections and smooth fabric over. Make sure to work in sections, this will help with creases and you don't want the spray to dry too fast. Repeat until entire cork board is covered in your choice of fabric. Do not spray yourself in the face. Do not inhale too deeply. Actually, you should wear a mask. Protect those braincells!

4. Grab your hot glue gun and ribbon. Work in sections - a line of hot glue and spread the ribbon on top. Put a thin line and be careful when pressing down. Don't burn yourself... or the ribbon! Make sure to keep things straight and stay right by the border. Take a step back and look every couple of sections to make sure you don't have any dips in your ribbon. It'll look weird. :)

5. Set your board aside for a few days to ensure that everything sets nicely. Hang and enjoy! 

Have you made a jewelry board? Do you have any other tips and tricks for renovating a bulletin board? Let me know!

*Pssst. I forgot to mention what I did to the back of the buttons. In the last picture, you can see that I partially pulled out a button. I grabbed regular, flat-fronted metal thumb tacks and hot glued them to the back. I might use gorilla glue for the next batch because I had one button separate from the tack. Hope this helps!

An Easy Project: Custom Buttons

Getting married and purchasing a home within the first year was overwhelming. Buying a fixer-upper foreclosure made it worse. I have never been into home renovation before I actually started looking for a home to purchase. Now that I have a home, I don't know where to start.

I mentioned a while ago that the best way to get started was to do something. That's what I have been doing! Small things to invoke some passion to get started. It's working! This week and next, I'm going to show you some things that I've been working on... and the projects just get bigger and bigger! YAY for progress. 

Let's refresh. In this post, I listed some projects I have been working on. Too lazy to click over? I don't blame you. I'll do the work so you don't have to...Wasn't that a slogan for a car or something? Hmmm... Must. Not. Get. Distracted.

Here is the list:

-bulletin board makeover
-custom buttons
-hat rack
-home organization
-Renovating a kitchen nook
-building a custom office desk
-DIY art

Let's jump right on in! 

A few weeks ago I decided it was high time to give my bulletin board a face lift. I started to really think about how I wanted to renovate it and what accents I would use. I decided that I wanted to make my own custom buttons. Now, before anyone thinks that I am clever enough to actually make my own buttons from scratch, lets get real. I went to Hobby Lobby and Joann's Fabrics in Visalia and I purchased a kit. 

Because that is what novices do. :)

I gathered my supplies; Some cute, small patterned fabric, the button cover kit (it was about three dollars) some craft scissors.

I decided not to do a step by step because honestly, its on the back of the package. One thing I did do was grab pliers so that I could take off the back part of the button, since I would not be using it to sew onto a garment. I later discovered that Joann's has a kit that includes flatbacks. Doh!

Sidenote: The kit from Joann's contained 10 buttons. 10 round parts, 10 button backs with the hook for sewing, and 10 flatbacks. What the heck? Why couldn't they add 10 more round parts so that I could use EVERYTHING that came in the kit? Freaking lame.

Anyways, this is what I ended up with:

That's right! I ended up with a blurry button. Oh, wait no. That's just my fantastic camera-phone skills. Way to have the ottoman fabric in focus and not the button. I rock. 

Tomorrow, I'll have (better quality?) pictures of the bulletin board, and what I did to the back of these buttons. What an intense cliff hanger. :)

Welcome!

I never, EVER check my stats. Because it's depressing when I just see my 5 views per day....which is my Mom, Husband, Best friend, and two sisters. (hi guys!!)

Imagine my surprise when I check it and see that I have had THOUSANDS (....okay, maybe its hundreds...but it feels like thousands!) of page views from Life Begins at Thirty, Right? and a few other blogs too!

Welcome new readers! Glad to have you and I should have some things posted this weekend for your viewing pleasure. :)

So There I Was...

Ready and willing to put some posts together to show you and then my husband's appendix decided to claw it's way out from the inside. Therefore, an emergency surgery commenced and my poor slept-on-a-hospital-floor back refused to unkink.

Projects took the back burner while my main man healed. Things should be back to their regularly scheduled programming now that he's up and at 'em again.

Oh. you know what I love to see? A vulnerable man. Here are some gratuitious pictures of our time in the ER.

Bryan was drinking the iodine so that he could receive a CT scan to confirm that he needed surgery.

 Okay, so a little story about the above picture. We were confirmed for surgery and told that the doctor would either do it "really late at night or first thing in the morning." We transferred to the hospital and started the waiting game. Bryan's mom and dad left, and Bryan started a movie to pass time. I asked if the hospital had one of those reclining chairs, and was told that "We don't encourage the family to stay." I wanted to pop off and say, I'm not "family" I'm his WIFE. It's not like we have 30 people in here. Instead, I asked if I could get a blanket, because 1. I am smart. 2. You should ALWAYS be extra nice to your nurses. It makes all the difference in the world.

Anyways, The two chairs that were in the room were terrible, so I, sadly, made a space on the floor. I slept about three and a half hours before I was wide awake again. I walked around the hospital, spoke with some nurses, talked to my boss (who is always awake at an ridiculous hour) and played on my phone.

Finally, the nurse walks in and says it's time. This was about 5:45 in the morning. They prepped Bryan and took us back to the waiting area. That is where I snapped the picture of Bryan smiling like a goof-ball. The fact that he was wide awake, alert and smiling when I had slept on the floor (and my back was KILLING ME), for less than three hours, and now had to wait (alone*) for him to NOT DIE in surgery made me love him... and hate him. Because he is one of the happiest people I know.

So that picture up there makes we want to smile and club him all at the same time. Which is a spot on representation of how I feel about him most of the time. :)


*At the time that I took this picture, I thought I was going to be waiting alone. Luckily, my father-in-law saved me with coffee and a muffin. Then, after the surgery when we went back to the room, his Mom was there waiting for us. Love them so much!