{magnet}ic

I saw this idea in a blog somewhere, and I loved the idea. I can't remember where it was, so I'm sorry for not giving credit where it is due. I don't even remember if it was a tutorial or just a suggestion. Either way, I felt inspired to make framed fridge magnets. 

The cuties in these pics are my little nieceys, Maren (3) and Daphne (1). 

I liked the idea of a fancier fridge magnet, and to give the refrigerator a gallery feel instead of eclectic magnets holding up a printed 4x6. 

I headed to the Walmart and found everything I needed for super cheap. 

You will need:

-small frames

-magnet strips

-paint

-paintbrush/sponge 

-hot glue & gun

I got the paint for 50 cents, the frames for 95 cents, the magnetic strips (18 strips) for 95 cents, and the sponges for $1. I had the glue gun. 

I got frames in various sizes to add a little interest to my "gallery". I also used a couple of colors that went well with my kitchen. 

You want to first remove the glass and backing from the frame. 

Paint the frames to your liking. If you aren't painting, you can skip to the next step. When painting make sure to not let the paint drip into the inside. Allow to dry for about 1-2 hours depending on the paint type. 

Turn the frame over to prepare the frames for the magnetic strips. 

Hot glue the magnetic strips onto the frame and cut if necessary. My strips were adhesive, but I wasn't confident that it would hold the weight of the frame.  Allow the glue to dry. 

Put the glass and photos into the frame, as well as the backing. If the frame was a tabletop frame, make sure to rip off the stand before sticking to the fridge. 

{mantel}piece

it's Saturday night, and what am I doing on this wonderful evening?! Nothing

My husband is out celebrating the {soon to be} birth of one of his friend's babies at a diaper party. This is a party where the men bring diapers and the {soon to be} dad provides the beer and food. So while he celebrates, I've been home thinking of things to fill my night. 

I woke up today knowing that I wanted to do some serious decorating. We have a giant mantel and to be honest, it's very intimidating to decorate. 

This picture is from over a month ago, but as you can see its very long. 

I've been struggling all week to figure out what I wanted to do. I searched Pinterest and other blogs for inspiration, but nothing seemed to fit what I was looking for. I struggle with letting go of my OCD that wants everything to be symmetrical and even. I've also been having a hard time finding pieces that match the colors in the room. I recently purchased a great rug that I love, but it's a unique blue that doesn't seem to be all over the place. 

Our couch is grey, and we have tan walls. My OCD tells me that brown and grey doesn't go together, but again, I must quiet that voice, and move forward. I have seen many examples of these together, and it looks beautiful. I also realized today that the grey and blue colors are the same colors I chose for our wedding. Subconsciously, I must really love this color combination. 

So this morning I ventured out to all of my favorite places (TJ Maxx, Marshall's, Homegoods, Pier 1) on try to find some pieces to adorn the mantle. I ended up picking up many things knowing that I would have to get it all up there and start working with it to figure out what I wanted. I had come home with 2 pieces of art, 3 gallery frames, 2 glass pieces, 4 picture frames, 2 candle sticks, and  blue & gray spheres. Ahhh! 

When Nick saw all of this stuff, I know he was scared. I know he was even more scared when I started putting all of this stuff on the mantle. I think for a moment he might have thought that I was going to use it all. I played with the setup. Took stuff down, added it, took it down again, moved things from one side to the other and back again. 

I finally game up with a combination that quieted my OCD, but wasn't matched perfectly. I added some wedding pictures to the gallery frames and other frames and my mission was complete! 

TA-DA!

 

{run}ning away

Since the wedding, my workout and eating habits have been terrible. Working out has become almost non-existent and my rating has been less than healthy. With all of the house stuff we have been eating out a lot and that is by helping the scale point in the right direction. I don't want to make excuses because I know a lot of people who are super busy and manage to eat well and workout. As we start to settle into the house, I have some energy to focus back to my health.

 I've been debating about what I would do to get back into it, and I've been interested in starting to run. I am not a runner, and frankly, I have never liked it. One would ask why I want to run then?! I think it's a challenge to see if I can do it. It seems that many people find it therapeutic. You can do it anywhere, and anytime. I can do it with my pup and get him some exercise too! 

Awhile back, I started looking into the training schedules for 5 & 10ks. I wanted to know how long it would take a novice runner to be able to run either one. I found a couple of training sites, but the one that caught my eye was Couch to 5k from coolrunning.com. This site seemed to have a very reasonable schedule for getting into running at a good pace. This site also has 10k, half and full

marathon plans. 

It has been a while since I looked into this, but today I decided to check out the site and their app. I have been doing some running/walking with my dog for the past two days, but i felt like i needed something more structured. What better way to learn to run than with the aid of my iPhone. I went into the apple store, and there was the app, Couch to 5K. $1.99?!? I'll pass, so I keep scrolling to find a free app. Zen Labs has a C25K app that is free and pretty cool.

I downloaded it and got ready for Day 1! This app is cool because it let's you know when to start running and walking even if you are listening to music. If you have music in your iTunes, you can play it right through the app. Everything you need is right there. 

Each segment counts down and up, so you are aware of where you are and how long until you are finished. 

The app also has the option of getting motivational emails and tips sent to you. 

I easily got through this run/walk without a problem. It was nice to have the alternation between running and walking so that I didn't feel overwhelmed. I was pleasantly surprised at this and I'm actually looking forward to tomorrow's run! 

{Floor}ed

As I left off in the "our new labor of love" post, we had purchased our house and I glazed over all of the stuff from then, until now.

The first night we owned our house, we ripped out the disgusting 70s orange carpet that was in the living room and dining room. Unfortunately, this color just didn't go with much that we had, so it had to come out! Nick came home from work that night, and picked up the utility knife, and started removing it, piece by piece. We have ripped out carpet before, in our condo, twice, so this was nothing new for us. We just had to make sure we followed the guidelines so that our new best friend, the garbage man, would take it away for us. Later that weekend, as we started taking the pieces to the curb, our neighbors said a "thank god" when they saw the orange was coming out.

We had a tight schedule to get everything done. We were having the counters being measured on the following Monday, and the new bamboo floors were going to be installed the following weekend. We had to make sure we had everything done and prepped for the work that was going to take place. That meant ripping out all of the flooring and getting the wallpaper down. Sounds easy enough...our Friends at Build Direct unloaded a pallet of bamboo for us, and that was just waiting to be installed. If you are installing floors, or having it done, it's recommended to move the wood into the area it is to be installed a couple of days prior to install so that the wood can acclimate to it's new environment.

Since we were using bamboo, on a cement slab, we had a few things we had to do differently, which added more time to the project. We had to use glue to adhere the planks to the slab. Typically some sort of underlayment is put down, but that can't be done with concrete. We also had to get a glue that had a moisture barrier to make sure the bamboo was safe from absorbing any moisture. This glue is quite thick and can be even more difficult to work with. Our guy was less than thrilled with one of the brands we bought because it was so thick it was like moving taffy.

After day one, the floors were starting to come along, the dining room was finished and we were moving into the the other half of the living room. The other major project was that the granite was installed that weekend too! We now had new counters to go with our new floors:





It took 4 days to complete the entire project. We had the floors put in the living room, dining room, kitchen, and foyer. When it was finished, it looks beautiful and such an improvement to the ugly carpet and Pergo that was there before. We now had shiny new floors to transform our main floor into a beautiful place to live.

from the front entry into the living room

Dining room looking into living room



Our kitchen {almost} finished product!

BONUS:

We had gross, white carpet in our master bedroom. The rest of the floor had the original hardwood floors, which we absoulutely adore! We were hoping that when we ripped up the carpet, we would find a treasure, but we couldn't get out hopes up.

This house is Jefferson's so he likes to get in a pic whenever he can!

One night we decided to risk it, and start tearing out the carpet (we seem to really like this task). Underneath, to our delight, was the same beautiful, thin, planks that were on the rest of the floor. Because they had carpet down, there were some imperfections due to nails, staples, and glue. Some people might be sad by the imperfections, but I actually love them. I think it give the flooring so much more character and gives it a more rustic feel. We will evetually have them refinished to make sure that they are treated properly and keep their beauty. For now, we are enjoying them, just the way they are!







{bench}ing an old cushion

As I do projects, I need to remember to do all the appropriate before pictures to make sure I really give the full effect. So since there is nothing to show let's start with the finished product:

 ta-da!

The story behind this bench is that is had a blah colored cushion which had managed to get watermarks on it somehow. As a piece that is at the entry to our house, it's not the best impression of what else is inside. 

I got the idea to reupholster it, but hadn't given it much thought until yesterday. I was browsing through Walmart of all places, and was curious about their fabrics. I was instantly drawn to this cream and blue print. 

The print was subtle and pretty, and blue is a theme on our main floor. It was the perfect voice. Price tag: $0.84/yard!! 

I debated about how to accomplish this job since the cushion is all foam. I decided to get a piece of particle board to make sure I could a staple gun. This would give me the bet look so that I could ensure the fabric was tight against the cushion. 

I headed to Home Depot, our home away from home. Today's experience was less than helpful since no one wanted to help me or offer suggestions. I guess that's what I get for going during thebeginning of   the summer when everyone is trying to put in gardens and build decks. I almost left the store when I finally found the section I had been searching for. All the way in the back corner of the store were 2ft x4ft pieces of plywood and hardboard. For price sake, I chose the hardboard because I knew it would hold the staple just as we'll as the plywood that was $2 more. $5.50 and I was out of there. 

Now started the fun part. Here we go:

 This was the blah colored cushion. I first laid the fabric down and made sure the cushion was straight along the pattern. 

I placed the hardboard down on top of the cushion. I had cut this piece to be slightly smaller than my cushion so that I wouldn't see the edges when it was finished. 

 I ultimately don't want to see the hardboard when I'm finished so I stapled the fabric to the hardboard so that it mostly covered the cushion. However you want it to look, at least get the fabric stapled, in a straight line, to the hardboard. 

From here you want to cover the cushion like you are wrapping a gift. How I wrap is much different than how my husband wraps, so the next steps are open to interpretation. I made the fabric look like a paper airplane and staple the edge to the hardboard. I then cut off the excess so that my cushion lays flat on the bench.  

I repeated this on the other side. 

When I completed that step I was ready to "finish wrapping". I cut off about 6 inches of fabrics to that my fabric finished in the center of the cushion. I folded the insides at a 45 degree angle and started stapling to the hardboard. 

Make sure that the fabric is taut. It will make the finished product look more professional. Once complete you can flip over and make sure all looks good and finished. 

I was very pleased with how this turned out after only 30 minutes. A quick transformation! 

I even had some extra fabric left over and decided to attach it to a canvas for a quick piece of art!