What's In A Name?

Before I start, I'm going to just preface this with a warning; It might get heavy.. I apologize.

Since I was a little girl, I have dreamed of having a family. My family had a lot of faults, and I always dreamed of the time that I could do it better. Differently. Do the things with my family that I wish I had growing up.

Most of the time, I am terrified at the thought of having a kid. On one hand, I'm like ahh, so cute. On another I'm like, diapers, spit up, no time, no sleep, loud noises... The actual birthing process... yikes. Shaking in my boots over here.

But, when I'm not freaking myself out about all that, and I allow myself the luxury of dreaming about it, I picture talking to my little 5 year old little girl. The way she looks always changes... sometimes she has my brown hair, Bryan's green eyes... Sometimes she has Bryan's black hair with my brown eyes and nose... it's always different.

I picture myself sitting with her and brushing her hair back and telling her about her name. My middle name. Lauriana. Showing her the pictures of the wall in the cemetery where her great-great-great-great grandmother is laid to rest. Where her name is painted onto a wall that crumbles more with every year. I'm showing her the pictures of when I was nine years old, standing by the wall, and when I took her daddy to go see it. How I anticipated her, talked with her Dad constantly about having a little girl and giving her a name that I love, that I'm proud of.

It's weird how a name can mean so much. I've spoken before about my Dad. About how I associate my life with a marker of his alcoholism. That the destruction of my family fell on my shoulders since I was the last one at home. It was awful. I have always felt... No... I feel that I was a last ditch effort to safe a marriage and only succeeded in making the pressure of life worse. Another mouth to feed? FOUR GIRLS?? Lots of emotional juice flowing for my Dad to use as a crutch for his alcoholism.

I never knew my Mom and Dad as a happy couple. I have few memories of the good times. But I always, always had my name. I had a special name. My sisters were Alison Marie, Kari Anne - perfectly good, solid names. But my middle name had flair. Megan Lauriana. It was a family name. My Mom told me that she wanted to have that as my first name, but thinking of a little kindergartner trying to spelling a first name with eight letters and a last name with eight letters made her think it was too much. I was sad when she told me that. Lauriana is just a beautiful name. Comparing Megan to Lauriana is like apples and oranges. Like an In-N-Out Burger to McDonalds. Ugh.

I swore, when I have a little girl, I would name her Lauriana. I would pass my name on... and hope that she loved it as much as I did, and maybe used it as a middle name for her daughter... or even a first name. Even if she doesn't, no problem. I just hope she loves it. And that she doesn't shorten it to Lauri. Eeek. :)

I mentioned in the last post that I went to the Azores. We went to two islands, Terceira and San Jorge. My maternal grandmother is from San Jorge and so is her mother, Mable and so is Mabel's mother - Lauriana. I took Bryan to the little cemetery where my middle name and our future daughters name is on the wall. A poor woman's grave marker.

Just this moment, taking Bryan to see something that means so much to me, that I dream of showing my future little chick, was worth the fact that I spent 95% of the trip sick as a dog from catching a cold on the plane.

Lucky me.

I Have Returned

It feels so good to be home. To be sitting on my couch with my animals, to be in America! Bryan and I went off to the Azores, Portugal to relax, rest and spend time with family. I have SO MUCH to blog about, so once I upload all my pictures and get settled, I'll be posting like crazy. 

:)

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. :)