Burlap Wreath

I swear I'm not back-blogging, I've been a busy chick this week! What can I say when I get the crafty itch, typically I get it bad! I made a mess of our driveway {stupid blonde moment} and covered my hands in Gorilla super glue, but the outcome was worth it!

Not sure how the paint brush got put in the supplies picture, but no paint brush is necessary for this project!

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  Straw Wreath


• 
  
  Burlap {I probably used 1 1/2 yards}


• 
  
  Super Glue


• 
  
  Screwdriver


• 
  
  Rotary Cutter/Scissors

I made the stupid mistake of cutting around the wreath with the rotary cutter to remove the cellophane wrap. Didn't realize I was cutting the wire that was holding the straw in place. Hence the mess in the driveway! So that little mistake cost me a lot of time. I had to think quickly because as the wind blew the straw went everywhere and the wreath wasn't quite looking like a wreath anymore! I got some fishing line and wrapped it around and around and around {you get the point}, took some time but it all worked out!

Pretty easy process, cut 4 inch squares of Burlap. Dab some super glue on the wreath. Fold the burlap in half and then in half again. With the screwdriver dig the burlap square in the wreath. Fluff out. Repeat like 100 times!! Wallah!

There it is! All pretty & done!!

Of course, I had to add some Easter eggs in there! I didn't glue them on, just stuffed them in there so I can take them out after Easter and get ready for the next holiday celebration!

I'm totally in love with how it turned out. Highly recommend taking an hour and making this gem!

Chalk-Board Picture Frame

I've got a couple new obsessions as of lately! And the massively over-sized antique framed chalk boards are one of them! I couldn't justify spending the 200$ for the beautiful frame I found in Thomasville last week when I was antique shopping, so I had to come up with a different plan! Went to Goodwill, found a similar frame, not nearly as beautiful but for $12.99 I couldn't go wrong!

Here is the frame {before}

We ripped it all apart and took all the insides out and saved the glass

Other than the picture frame here are the essentials for the project. Luckily I had them all on hand, so seriously this project cost me $12.99 + tax!!

• Rust-oleum Chalk Board Paint


• Rust-oleum Spray Paint {Heirloom White MY FAV!!}


• Sponge Paint Brush

Spray painted the frame

Painted the glass with chalk board paint. I did about 3 coats

And the {after} All done, hanging on the wall ready for Easter!

Sanded all the edges to make it look similar to the antique mirror I had to sadly walk away from in Thomasville! But I'm happy with how mine turned out and my husband is even more excited that it only cost me $12.99!

Weekend Rewind

Todd & I enjoyed a wonderful Saturday, just the two of us, in our {beautiful} new homestead! We ventured away from our {home} to check out the annual 'Spring Time Tallahassee'. Neither of us had ever been before, and since we are now officially {LCR's} we figured we'd do as the Tallahassians do! It was surprisingly a very enjoyable way to spend our Saturday afternoon. I love the feel of being downtown, coming from Jacksonville downtown isn't exactly a place to "hang", so I enjoy being able to enjoy that downtown feel.

Walking around under the beautiful oaks!

So, Todd stood in this line for a Philly cheese steak for over 30 minutes. I sat on the curb {did a little people watching}, and waited for my ever so patient hubby to get his sandwich!

It was SUPER HOT!!

But boy was it worth it!

Seriously, how cool is this thing? Every kids dream come true {or every 27 year old grown mans dream!}

As much {juice} as you want! And he managed to cover his hands with red 'cherry' syrup! We did have to make a quick stop to clean up before we were "allowed" to get in babe's new truck. :) It's OK I appreciate his analness {if that's a word}, we're a perfect match!

One of my favorite things about living in Tallahassee is all the BEAUTIFUL oaks everywhere! I'm thinking about taking lots of pictures like the one above and having them all printed on canvases and making an all oak wall in one of our yet to be decorated rooms!

Sunday, Todd & I drove to Adel, GA for the {gillean} family reunion! Lots of good eatin'!

Nothing Simple Allowed. . .

In my book at least! Todd probably wishes I would take a simpler approach in life, but honestly it's just not in my nature. And since the baseboards had to be taken off anyways to install the floors, thought replacing them with bigger/better ones was a no brainer! Sure the original baseboards could have been salvageable, but what better time to replace them with new ones then after they've been ripped out!

I actually got the idea of using the 1 x 6's for baseboards from my best friend Brigid. She built an amazingly AWESOME house 2 years ago and she used them in her home and I fell in love. Todd and I knew without a doubt that after we were done putting the floors down we would replace our baseboards with the 1 x 6's.

Honestly, when we got to his point in the house I was getting overwhelmed with excitement! Most of the wood floors were down and I could actually see what I had been envisioning for so long. It was an awesome feeling getting this close to being done! Todd's mom & I took a little stroll to Lowe's and roughly 3 hours later {jk, but it did take a good amount of time!} we very precisely selected some 30 boards that would soon become our baseboards. It's a good thing the two most anal OCD individuals made these selections. If we saw too many dings, tree marks, or discoloration we kindly set the boards to the side and kept digging through the pile! Hey, I didn't want crappy boards through my house!

As if selecting 30 baseboards wasn't time-consuming enough we then had to weed through hundreds of pieces of quarter round to find the best ones! With our cart full, we picked up some primer and white paint and headed home to start on this painting endeavour!

Special thanks to my mother-in-law and mom for helping with this tedious task. We got all the boards and quarter round primed and painted and I could hardly wait for babe to start nailing these suckers in!

Isn't he cute? I mean seriously, a man who is as talented as my husband should get major recognition for all his cuteness!! Thanks to B-I-L Brian for allowing Todd to play with his air gun for a couple days!!

I'm not going to lie, at this point in the baseboard process I was getting a little stressed out. I had envisioned these large, beautiful, perfect, crisp white baseboards and when Todd got all his aggressions out, I was left with all these HOLES! Everywhere!!! Honestly, we had a hard time finding {studs} at certain spots in the room so it took a 'couple' shots before we struck gold! OK, we didn't strike {gold} instead we struck the water pipe from our kitchen sink! We spent a day {a day I had planned to spend a different way} fixing this little watery problem! Once again, props to the ever so talented husband who surprised me time and time again with his handiness throughout or remodeling adventure! He fixed our leaky pipe and we were smooth sailing from there on {at least where the baseboards were concerned}!! The quarter-round isn't down and the holes are not puttied and no touch-up paint has been applied yet, but you get the idea! PRETTY! :) Happy girl again!

Here is a sort of {before} and {after} shot. Dining room before with little ordinary baseboards.

And after with the large, beautiful, perfect, crisp white baseboards I had been envisioning. It's starting to look like a house!!

House Update

Paint, Paint, Paint . . .

Roughly 4 months ago we closed on our first house. After months of endless work, exhausting weekends and tons of blood sweet and tears our {house} has now officially become our {home}!We didn't waste anytime getting started. We closed on Thursday, December 16th around noon and we welcomed 'working' visitors about an hour later! My brother, Kyle and his girlfriend Alex came in to town Thursday afternoon and quickly got busy painting the house {the entire house}. It sure pays tremendously having a professional painter as a brother. Within two days my entire house was transformed from a builders beige to a color palate of blues/greys/greens. Paint seriously changed the feel of our entire house {almost} instantly. Quick gratification makes me a very happy girl and the way the colors turned out in the house couldn't have been any better. I had a color vision in mind and with the help of a very paint perfectionist brother we made that vision come to life!

This was our ever exciting dining room prior to a nice coat of paint. We selected a shade darker than the living room.

All painted & carpet ripped up!

Foyer

Foyer {after}living room before

Alex painting the arch

Living Room painted {after} with no carpet and minus the old baseboards!

Kitchen

Office {before}

Other than Bub cutting in around the windows and ceiling I will take full credit for how AWESOME this room turned out! It took me a solid 6 hours painting the stripes, but once I removed the tape it was totally worth it!

I have to say anyone planning on painting stripes MUST invest in 'frog tape'. It doesn't allow the paint to bleed through at all! Worth the extra $! Happy face!

Office {after}

This room is one of my favorite rooms in the house!

Make shift ladder

Laundry Room {before}

Me & mom painting the laundry room!

Painting was the first step we took to making our home so beautiful, it definitely wasn't the only step in the process so I'll be posting more on how we redid the baseboards, changed all the light fixtures, and best of all ripped up all the carpet and put in wonderful hardwood floors throughout!!