Navigation bar

  • About Me
  • Renovation
  • Decor
  • Crafty
  • Life

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Doggie Gate

Latest project: a new pet gate for our dog, Saleen. We used to keep her in the back room, but then the roof started leaking and we didn't want to leave her back there anymore. So her bed moved upstairs to my office, and we let her roam around between upstairs and downstairs. Except we don't let her in the bedroom, because she crawls under the bed and won't come out. Haha.

And recently, since I got a new rug for the living room, we don't want her in there since she licks a lot and sheds everywhere. The old pet gate we were using to keep her from going in there was broken and chewed up from previous days we left her back in the back room - she would always try to escape!

So we ended up picking up a new gate a week or so ago, except it was a bit lighter than we preferred. So....we decided to stain it dark!


We figured why not, since we thought it looked really plain and unfinished the way it was, and we already had little pots of stain on hand from other projects.

We went with the darkest stain we had - Minwax Red Mahogany.

Trent just did some light sanding first, then rubbed it on with an old rag.

We thought about putting poly over it, but decided to just leave it as is after one coat of stain. It's just a pet gate after all! And we can always poly it later if we want. After a couple of days drying, Trent installed it - just some hardware and screws into the doorway:

We like it because it's easy to open and close:
And we can open it either way if we want to just pull it open on the kitchen side, too.


And it looks so much nicer than that plain looking one. Let's hope Saleen can't figure this one out. :)

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Planting our Vegetable Garden

We finally have some plants in this year's vegetable garden! Last year's didn't go so well - we started with only seeds (aside from a few tomato plants), and a couple of weeks after planting, we left on an almost two-week vacation in June. We came home to a garden full of weeds! Then we had a drought during the second half of the summer. So it was a bit hard to maintain. Needless to say, by the end of summer, we didn't have too many pickings mature enough to eat. We had some sweet corn and maybe a small watermelon. And I think the select few cucumbers and tomatoes.

This year we have vowed to keep our garden growing and are hoping for a better turnout! We decided to get several pre-grown plants this year, which we planted this week:
This section takes up only a little less than half of our whole garden space. The grass clippings are to keep it a little neater and to help control the weeds. I think I counted 12 "plants" that we picked up already growing. From left to right - a row of tomatoes, a row and a half of peppers, and some cucumbers. P.S. - See that garden directly behind ours? That's our neighbors' - they're an older couple, and they always have the neatest, cutest garden ever. It makes me jealous! Haha. Especially last year - ours was horrible in comparison.



For the rest of the garden area, we think we are going to plant seeds, and we've started with carrot seeds and watermelon. Here's Trent digging a row for the carrot seeds:




Then we made mounds for the watermelon seeds at the other end of the garden (our dirt was a little clumpy!):
We plan on filling the area in between the carrots and watermelon with some sweet corn and whatever other veggie seeds we decide to pick up! Along the side of the yard we currently have rhubarb and strawberries growing in. We plan on caging in the strawberries and hopefully creating a nice little strawberry patch that the squirrels can't get into!

And speaking of little critters.....
 This little robin sure liked our watermelon mounds.

He even found a worm for dinner :)

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Boarding the Nate Berkus for Target Train

I finally climbed aboard...the Nate Berkus for Target train. 

(train image from here)
For weeks (maybe months?) I've been passing the whole line up in the store, telling myself I don't need it, or I don't have a place for it. For example, here are just a few items I love from the line but don't really want to dole out the money for (I believe these items are all currently in the $16.00 to $32.00 range):
Please tell me I'm not the only one obsessed with a ceramic pineapple and turtle shell?? Anyway, I don't think any of these are expensive by any means, I just don't want to spend that much on something I have no idea where I'm going to put in my house. 

Just recently though, I did end up purchasing two (cheaper) items from the Nate Berkus line. Yep..I'm officially sold. I now own two pieces from his collection (I hope these aren't the Nate Berkus for Target gateway drugs.)

A couple of weeks ago, I picked up this sea urchin: 
I've been loving it for weeks and finally gave in. I'm not sure if it's available online anymore..for some reason I can't find it on there. But I wanna say it was around $10 or $12. I can't remember. I love it though! I couldn't resist its charms any longer.

I also just picked up this gold bowl, also from the Nate Berkus line (and also sitting pretty in my living room at the moment). This was definitely a steal, at only $1.16! Yep, you heard me right!


It said "As is" so I'm standing there in the store wondering what's wrong with it...but I looked it up and down and there is nothing at all noticeable. So once again, I had to buy it! Wouldn't you for $1.16?

So overall...I think I owe another weekly thank you to Target....and Nate Berkus! :)

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Happy Mothers Day

Happy Mothers Day! 
Spending the day with my family today.


I don't think we've changed any, do you? 
I think we've surpassed my mom in height though. ;)

Saturday, May 11, 2013

5 Years

This weekend marks Trent and I's five years together. In May of 2008 he asked me to be his girlfriend. We were just youngin's back then....
We've had so many memories together since then! I couldn't imagine spending these five years with anyone else.


Today we're celebrating our anniversary by having a picnic on the river, at the park where we had a picnic at five years ago for our third date. I was in college and had a break between classes in the afternoon, so he picked up a few groceries (including Amish macaroni salad and Cheddar and Sour Cream Ruffles - my fave) and we went to the park...and ate our picnic...and took a walk. 


Five years later, we live together in our little house and get to spend time with each other everyday. And we will continue to make many more amazing memories together.

Happy five years, Trent. I love you! xoxo

Friday, May 10, 2013

Spring is in Full Bloom!

This will be short and sweet. Just wanted to drop in and share some pictures of the trees outside on our street. They have been especially pretty this week...


The view out our living room window is partly why I love spring!

Not to mention, the weather has been feeling more and more like summer! Despite the occasional rain that is...

Our first foundation company is coming out to look at the house and give us a quote today. Wish us luck! =)

Thursday, May 9, 2013

New Living Room Rug (Woot!)

Guys...I got an amazing deal on a rug. Don't all scream at once. Ha. Here's the thing. Our living room "rug" that was actually a carpet material that we got for cheap at a home improvement store was looking a little worse for wear. It was super hard to keep clean and just looked dirty and ugly all the time! Thus, I'd been scouring Pinterest, Joss and Main, Rugs USA, etc., etc for what seemed like years trying to find a good deal on a rug I really liked...then finally! I saw a pin on Pinterest that pointed me to This Guy:


Yes, if you can't see it, it says 50% Off! And when I added it to my cart, the savings was awesome, with free shipping:


It was a 100% wool rug with a pretty Moroccan Trellis design in a pretty gray color, originally $338.80 - now $168.80! SO...I bit the bullet and bought it. I had never bought a rug online, and haven't had any experience with Rugs USA before, but this deal was too good to pass up.

When the rug arrived yesterday I was really pleased at how it looked in person! Really good quality, and it ended up looking so much better, thank God! I was a little worried that it would be "too much," especially since we don't really have any gray in there, but luckily I love the result!

Here's the Before with the old rug:
See how it looks a little boring and dingy looking?

Here's the After with the new rug:
I. LOVE. IT. Seriously.

It's so pretty! :) 

You can see the texture in the close up picture below:
 
It's pretty tightly woven and I think it will be really durable and last a long time! Plus it probably won't look as dirty all the time because of the darker color. I might need to invest in a rug pad to go underneath though, just to prevent any slippage and make it a little more comfy on the feet!

Overall..I'm pretty much in love! I'll leave you with another Before and After...
 

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Pinterest Challenge: Easy DIY "Dipped" Votives

Hello! Today I'm sharing another Pinterest Challenge project! It's Pinterest Challenge: Spring Edition this time! (See my Winter edition Skeleton key project here)


This time around, I decided to make my own glass votives out of some little fruit jars I had been hoarding because I loved the shape of them. Also - the "Dipped" look is really trendy right now, and I think it's so pretty and simple. So I decided to try this technique on the jars, except I just painted the bottoms to give the appearance of being dipped, instead of actually dipping them. (I didn't have that much paint!) This is one of the easiest projects I've done - literally a 5 minute project that a kindergardener could do!

Here's how they turned out:
These projects were my "Pinspiration":
(From here and here)

The supplies I used were:
  • 3 small fruit jars I had on hand
  • yellow acrylic paint
  • a plate to pour the paint onto
  • a paintbrush
  • a small cup of water
  • 3 tea lights

I started out by washing off the jars and removing the lids and sticker labels.




Then I just squeezed a little yellow acrylic paint onto a plate (I chose yellow because it's bright and sunny and I wanted to bring some more happiness to my front porch!). You can use craft paint, but I just had some Reeves on hand:


Then I just mixed in a little water using a paintbrush....


And I painted the bottoms of the jars with the brush. That simple. Not quite half-way up, I'd say. I didn't want perfect straight lines, so I made it a little wavy to look more natural. And I only painted one coat on the jars. If you're going for more of a matte look you'll probably need more than one coat. I just preferred the brushed-on, semi-transparent look and thought it would look cool when the light shines through.


After the jars were painted, I just sat them upside-down by the fan to let them dry.



Once they were dry, I turned them over and stuck the tea lights inside. And voila! Instant homemade votives.


I think they look super cute on our porch. :)


P.S. - Linking up to all of the Pinterest challenge hosts - Sherry, Katie, Emily, and Renee! So make sure to check their amazing projects out! 
Also linked up to: Liz Marie BlogHouse of HepworthsTatertots and Jello, The Pin JunkieJust Us FourSee Vanessa Craft, and Suburbs Mama.

Featured on...

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...