thanks for the giving.

Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday. who wouldn't love a day dedicated to feasting on wonderful food, shared with family and friends! So before we all go put out our Christmas decorations, lets take a minute and remember what we have to be thankful for this year. So here is my list of reasons why I am thankful in 2012.

1. I have a wonderful family, this including my husbands family. I am thankful to have the opportunity to spend this thanksgiving with all of them and my mother at the same time. A few members are missing, but I am still thankful for this opportunity.

2. I am thankful for my loving and supportive husband. We just celebrated three years of marriage, but we will be celebrating eleven years of being together. And as everyday passes I am more and more thankful for having him in my life.

3. My friends, I am so thankful to have such a great group of friends. Some near, some far, but a great group nonetheless. I am also thankful for certain friendships that have grown tremendously over this past year.

4. My wonderful job. I am lucky enough to have a job I love and that I love coming to everyday. I could not be more thankful for getting this opportunity and being able to enjoy what I do on a daily basis.

5. My puppy Lilly. I am so thankful Shaun and I got her, she has filled a spot in our lives and now when we are away from her we miss her dearly. And we can not picture our lives without her. I can only imagine this feeling with kids.

6. I am thankful for the ability to spend every Sunday with my brother. It used to be maybe monthly I saw him, but I am very thankful that I get to see him and spend time with him every Sunday evening. As we watching certain t.v shows together and enjoy dinner. It is a wonderful time in my week.

7. I am not a real religious person, but I am thankful I am here today. I am happy with all the opportunities I have been given and how my life has turned out.

8. I am thankful and excited to be able to spend five days with my mother. I have been used to seeing my parents weekly and it came as a shock to me not to have them right around the corner. I am very thankful to have my mom in town and to be able to host her at my house while she is visiting. My dad will be staying behind this time but will be so happy to see him come Christmas.

9. I am thankful to be godparents to our nephews. I feel honored to have this opportunity. I love them dearly and can not wait to continue to watch them grow and become little men.

I know this two days late, but leave it to me to show up to a party fashionably late.
I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving as much as I enjoyed mine. 
What were you thankful for this year?

three years.

Today marks three years of being married to my best friend.

These past three years have gone by fast! Time flies when you are having fun right? I can honestly say, we do have fun. My husband is the person I joke with, play pranks on, pick on, confide in, make watch romantic comedies, and truck through life with, and I honestly would not have it any other way.

I’m not saying that I haven’t gotten on my husbands nerves or he hasn’t gotten on mine, or that we haven’t argued over stupid things. Trust me we definitely have. But we all know a great marriage takes work and a lot of compromise, and I am very thankful to have a husband who is willing to do both those things with me.

I wish I could go back and relive this day. So much happened so quickly. I am happy where my life is and where it is going and I couldn't imagine spending it with anyone else. Here is to another 60 plus years of making each other laugh. I love you my dear husband, Happy Third Anniversary.

Love is not a matter of counting the years -- it's making the years count.

All photos courtesy of our wonderful photographer Artemas Mott. 
Check him out: Artemas Photography

the house list...updates

Remember that horribly long list of house things that I wanted to do. Well I am here today to update that list.
Looking at it now, WE my husband got a lot done.  
The lines in blue are things I am adding now.
It is nice to see so much RED. 

Living Room

• Complete Frame Wall  about 90% complete, the walls are done, i am adding filler now. will update with photos soon.
• Paint Entertainment Unit (a tealish blue color) ended up buying a new unit since we bought a much larger t.v. so no need to paint the new one.
• find an accent Chair Scored a great chair from husbands grandfather that they were going to trash!
• Find Roundish Mirror No need for this now, I DIY'ed a piece of art myself to hand in this spot. 
• Finish Bookcase wallpaper Finally after a year and a half, i put my big girl pants on and finished this.
• Add Decorative Pillows
• Install Recessed lighting
• Add Ceiling Fan 

Kitchen

• New Stackable stainless Washer/Dryer Done, and love them!
• New Stainless Steel Appliances - we are contemplating this. May just live with what we have for right now.
• Some Art Not really much room for anything now looking back.
• Install Backsplash
• Paint Cabinets White?

Dining Room

• Paint Wainscoting White Done and added chair rail.
• Paint Ceiling We had water damage so we luckily got this done for us
• Find (4) Dining room Chairs Found a set we LOVE and it came with a bench!
• Find a Bench (target storage bench) see above.
• Re-Finish Table Not necessary anymore since we found a new set that fit our style better.
• Blinds or some sort of curtain
• Finish Tile Floor

Guest Bathroom

• Hang Basket Storage Done.
• Add Towel Hooks I have the Hanger just need to re-paint and will add this into the room.
• Re-paint?
• New White Toliet
• New Vanity
• Re-finish Tub & Surround in White

Guest Room

• Remove Wallpaper
• Paint
• Re-finish Desk
• Find a Dresser We are going to downsize our bedroom by one dresser and then put it in here.
• Find or make headboard I used and old curtain and part of our old bckboard from our Malm ikea bed and make an upholstered headboard.
• Curtains & Rod Done and Done.
• Add Art & hang mirror
• Update Closet Shelving

Master Bathroom

• Buy Toliet Done.
• Buy Vanity Done.
• Faucet Done.
  
• Purchase and Lay Floor Done.
• Finish walls and paint room Done, ended up using the left over gallon of paint when we repainted the living room.
  
• Add Art
• Paint Trim & Door
• Purchase Accessories
• New Fan
• New Vanity Light Done.

"Man Cave"

• Hang Second Guitar Hung Second and Third.
• Cover & Add Pillows
• New Larger DVD storage Moved all DVD's to living room in the cabinet part of the bookcases.
• Add long shelves to hold frames Added Ikea shelving to hold some of his art work. 
• Organize
• Add large Expedite shelving with baskets for memorabilia.  

Master Bedroom

• Create Larger Headboard Used part of the Malm backboard and make an upholstered headboard.
• Paint Dressers? - Still up in the air about this.
• Hang Television When we got a larger living room t.v. we used the old one in here and hung it on the wall.
• Add Art & Photos
• Organize husbands Closet
• New Night Tables Bought 2 small end tables
• Add Ceiling Fan - bought but not installed.

Whole House

• New Carpet
• Paint Trim
• New Door Hardware
• Add Photos & Art in Hallways Moved full length mirror into all way, and added some photos. Don't think the hall can handle much more. Done.  

This was a wordy post so for your enjoyment here is a photo of my co-pilot and myself.

 

diy wine signs

I have neglected my dining room for a while now. The floor is about 75% done, I still need to finish cutting the edge pieces. Honestly, this seems like how all the projects in my house end up being. They get 75% done and then I am done. Anyways, we finally got a table we like, but I constantly fill it up with junk and we don't even end up using it to eat on. We still seem to eat off t.v. trays right in front of the boob tube. We did hang a new light fixture, added one piece of art and we put a cabinet and some shelves to make a bar area. See "almost done". In hind sight the floor in totally my fault. I was on a roll when I was putting it down, then the day ended and I never went back and finished the edging. Homeowner-ship = FAIL.

I knew I needed some more art work in there to fill up another wall and maybe get it closer to completion, but I was not sure what to do. I came across this tutorial on how to make your own wine signs. Thank you Jenna Sue. I can be crafty, but it seems I can achieve more if I have something to go off of, instead of coming up with these things on my own.

Here are my renditions of these wine signs.

I went out to Lowes and purchased these pieces of pre cut wood measureing about 1/2" thick by 6" wide by 2 ft long. I took them home and sanded the down so the edges would be smooth. From there I laid them out and spray painted them Oil Rubbed Bronze. I liked the look this gave. it wasn't flat black and this gave it a small amount of shimmer to the color.

 After spraying with 2-3 thin coats I felts I had the desired color and coverage I wanted. I made sure they were completely dry before I started the next part. I had my husband print out the lettering I wanted to use. I gave him the dimensions of the boards and told him the tolerances I wanted around the edges and he made the wording I wanted fit the print outs. I was thinking about what types of wine I wanted to display, I ended up using the same ones as the tutorial I followed because they seemed to fit on the boards the best.

After cutting off the excess paper I attached the directly to my boards. Leaving equal spacing around the edges.

From here what you need to do is trace the lettering with a pen. What this will do is leave an imprint on the wood of the letter then you you just have to paint in the lines.

I tried to get a photo of the boards after I traced all the letters, but it was very hard to see outline. It was there but it was pretty light and did not come out in a photo. It was also actually hard for me to see the line also to paint the letters. I had a spot light directly on the boards to find the trace mark, a little strenuous on the eyes. I forgot to get a photo, but from here I just took a few small craft paint brushes and some white latex semi-gloss paint and free handed my letters. I ended up doing two coats of the white paint to get the look I wanted.

Nect came the hard part. I decided to make a boarder around the board. This was frustrating to me. At first I measured and taped where I wanted to paint. But when I pulled off my tape the paint came also. at this point I got pretty disappointed and I put the project away for a week. I then remembered that I had a leftover white sharpie paint pen. I took the pen and a clear ruler and it worked like a charm to make my border lines. Again sorry I don't have this shot in process. I did two coats of this also and it worked like a charm, and I did not have to use any tape.

Here is the finished product up on the wall.

You can see in the photo the thin border line I added. I want to note, I actually went back over all my letters in the end with the sharpie paint pen. I only did this because it made the edges of my letters crisper. They were fine free handed, but I liked them better a little more sharp. I really like how these ended up looking on my wall. I have a small bar on the other side of the room, so they fit in perfectly. From the photos, the boards look black but when you see them in person they do have a slight shimmer to them because of the oil rubbed bronze spray paint.

It feels good to finally have this done, it only took me oh.......three weeks to finish. three cheers for lack of motivation!

Anyone else try and make their own subway style signs? Is there a better way to add the border lines? What about transferring the letters to the board? Do tell!