Dining Room Reveal

I figured it was time to show off the weekend of painting we did in our little townhouse! Here's the before:

And here's the after:



We used Valspar paint in Lyndhurst Rich Brown on the back wall and moved our wedding collage to right above the console table. I'm thinking maybe the table needs a nice runner down the middle; what do you think? I'm also contemplating a "faux mantle" but that's a project for another day.

And hey, did you spot the console makeover? Here's what it used to look like - a $10 real wood table I picked up in Indiana at a grocery store when we moved into our first apartment:

And here it is, all made over in Valspar paint color Spanish Tile and a new leaf drawer pull:

We were trying to decide between the Spanish Tile and the Rich Brown, so we got little samples ($3 at Lowes) and threw some on the wall. The Spanish Tile is really rich, and I thought it might be a little overpowering for our little downstairs. I'm really glad we went with the brown, but love the Spanish Tile on the console table!

All in all, this project wasn't cheap but I feel like it adds a TON of style and makes our rental a little less "rental". Next up - the living room! With the newly painted dining room wall, I felt the living room needs a little something extra as well. I'm waiting on something to arrive from Etsy, so as soon as that's here and I get it put up, I'll do a before and after in the living room, too!

Thanksgiving Menu?

Ryan and I have hijacked Thanksgiving and made it our holiday, which means we make our loved ones travel down here for a change! We've done it the last 2 years, and I'm pretty good at making the whole meal. This year I'm looking for a new dish or maybe a twist on a classic. I'm set on the turkey and stuffing (family recipes!).... what else do you ladies make? Any fun twists on mashed potatos or the ever so popular green bean heart attack in a baking dish?

Leave me a recipe in the comments!

Ringless.

I'm here alone this weekend, with a semi-naked finger.

Ryan went on a boys' trip to Dallas, and I'm here alone with the dog. She doesn't talk much, so it kind of sucks.

But back to the semi-nakedness. I normally wear three rings on my left hand ring finger - a diamond wedding band, my engagement ring, and a plain wedding band. Right now, though, I only have my e-ring and my plain band.

A little baby diamond popped out of my wedding ring. I was on the phone with someone, my other line started ringing, I had someone do a random "pop in"... and in my haste to switch lines and have the pop-in have a seat, I smacked my hand against my desk.

I caught my e-ring on the desk. Kind of hard. So I looked down to check my stone, and noticed there was a very empty space in seat #2 of my 7 diamond wedding ring.

So I did what any rational woman would do - I hung up on the person I was talking to (listening to would more of the truth), asked the random pop-in to head back to the waiting area, and I got down on my hands and knees.

After 30 seconds of pure panic, I saw a glint of sparkle on my desk, right beneath my phone. My little baby diamond!!!!

I had a little box in my desk, so I taped the diamond inside, put in the ring, and taped the whole thing shut. I'm at Job #2 all weekend (for inquiring minds - LOFT offers a 50% discount on everything for employees), so my ring is going to have to hang out till I can go to the jeweler on Monday.

And looking at my 2-ring hand right now... I am so happy I decided to go with the diamond band, too. The diamond band was purchased a 11 months before our wedding - we were eager to go shopping - and I loved it. It had 7 little bar set diamonds, which was perfect because we got married on the 7th of November. But around March, I decided that I might also want a plain band, just in case I was making play-doh with a kid at some point. So we went to look at bands again, and I contemplated exchanging my diamond one for a plain one. In the end I kept both, and I love the look of the 3 rings all together.

Yep. I feel kind of naked without my diamonds.

Show Us Your Life: Pets

Today is Show Us Your Pet, hosted by Kelly over at Kelly's Korner. I did a few of these back when she first started the series but haven't done one in a while. I have a ton of cute dog pictures though, and figured I was due!

This sweet sack of love came into our lives on May 27, 2005.

She's a smiley girl, and loves getting her picture taken (yes, she's wearing daddy's tie).
She loves laying out in the sun, and will sit or lay quietly and just look. Ryan had just come outside, and she's looking up at him.

Before we got a dog, I was completely against having a dog on our bed or couch. The first few nights we tried to make her sleep in the kitchen, and she cried and cried. A few weeks after, Ryan went away for business, and I was just plain scared to sleep in my bed alone... so I invited her up. Whoops - she hasn't left. Every night she sleeps with us, only instead of she sandwiched between Ryan and I, I get sandwiched between her and Ryan. And she takes all of her day naps up on the furniture.

Marley's Stats

Name: Marley May

Weight: 55 lbs

Height: No idea, she's pretty little

Age: 5

Nicknames: Bean, Snuggle Face, Pumpkin Pie

Likes: Kisses, knowing what everyone is doing at all times, laying in the sun

Dislikes: Baths

Life Goal: Getting her tongue in as many mouths as possible

Padded.

I've been talking about building a padded headboard for MONTHS now, and I'm proud to say we can cross this one off the To Do list! A few of you have mentioned that you want to do one of these, so I took pictures of every step and included a cost break down - mainly so you don't have sticker shock over the price of foam, too.

Materials:
Plywood - We had Lowes cut the sheet down to 30" x 60" (they do 2 cuts for free).
2" thick foam - You will shit yourself when you find out how much foam costs.
Batting - We used the cheapest they had.
Fabric - Something nice and sturdy. We used upholstery fabric.
Staple Gun and Staples
Spray Adhesive

Instructions:

Step 1: Assemble all materials.

Step 2: Cut foam to fit plywood. Use spray adhesive to attach the foam to the wood so that it doesn't shift around. I used the cheapest spray adhesive I could find, and it works fine. The tricky part is getting the adhesive to sit on the foam instead of getting soaked in - spray the wood and lay the foam on top. Smoosh it down. Let it dry for 10 minutes and see if it's stuck. If so, move on. If not, use more adhesive!

Step 3: Lay the batting on the floor, and lay the plywood foam-side down. Use the staple gun to tack down the batting. The front will look like this:

And the back will look like this:

Step 4: Do the same thing with the fabric. Here's what we picked:

Step 5: Hang it! We used a Z Hanger, which I highly recommend.

I apologize for the heinously crappy pictures. I'm hoping Santa brings me a new camera (or some Best Buy gift cards) for Christmas!

While this is a pretty simple project and ends up to be loads cheaper than purchasing a custom made headboard, it's not "cheap" by any means. Well, unless our versions of cheap are drastically different. But assuming you thought plywood was like $10 and foam was roughly the same, you're in for a bit of a shock. Here was our breakdown:

Plywood: $14.45 for a huge piece. They cut it for us in the store

18" Hangman Z Hanger: $11.97

2 Yards of Batting: $3.58 total

2" Thick Foam, 2.5 Yards: $36.21 total (this is the sale price - it's really $28.99 a yard!!!!!!)

2 Yards of Fabric: $29.98 total (sale price - real price is $30/yard)

Spray Adhesive: $6.99

We got everything at Joann Fabric, and happened to catch a HUGE sale. Foam and batting were 40% off and all of the fabric was 50% off. I also happened to have a coupon for an additional 10% off all regular and sale price items. Score.

The total out of pocket expense for the headboard materials was $103.18. My receipt says that I saved $76.32!! We could have scimped on the foam. Did we need 2 inch thick foam? No, but it looks nice and makes the headboard extra sturdy. Did we need upholstery fabric? No, but again, it's sturdy and reaaaaaaally looks nice.

So that's that. A custom headboard for an hour of time and $100 bucks! Anyone else build one of these suckers?

Long time, no {real} blog!

I know my last few entries have been rather, um, craptastic? And you probably want to see my fabulous new living room and dining room (hey, and the headboard!), right?

I know.

Here's the long and short of it - working 2 jobs sucks. When I'm not working for a {raped by furlough days} paycheck, I'm folding clothes at the mall. When I'm not doing that, I'm working on getting my house fixed up and trying to not eat everything in sight (Weight Watchers frowns upon that). It really makes for long days with not enough sleep. Or blog time.

I'm thinking I may quit folding clothes after Christmas. I'm officiating a volleyball league for 8 weeks in January and February, and that lump sum payment (they hold it till the end) is going to be a HUGE help in getting our debt paid down.

So while I'm going to miss getting $75 pants at half off, I'll have more time to focus on other stuff. And maybe I won't be able to fit into those $75 pants next year anyway.

Early Christmas Love.

Maybe it's all of the home improvements/decorating that we've been doing... maybe it's cause this the first time in a while that our living situation feels like a home... either way, I'm pumped for the holidays and I can't wait to start decorating for Christmas.

This little guy popped up in my email today and I'm hightailing it to the mall later:

The adorable ceramic gingerbread luminary is $35, and you get a free big candle (the $19.50 ones!) with your purchase. I happen to have a $10 off any $30 purchase coupon, so for $25, I'm going to score the gingerbread house and candle. Hotness.

Also - the Wallflowers are on sale for $6 (per set of 2). I always stock up when Bath and Body Works has a sale. They on the expensive side at $12.50 per 2 pack, but on sale for $6, they're cheaper than the Febreeze wall units!

Happy shopping!!