Up-cycle TV Stand

I have had in mind a style of stand I wanted for our upstairs living room, but wasn't really all that excited to pay for a brand new one, especially after we ordered a couch & chair. So I planned to go thrifting with my mom, but a for sale group I follow on Facebook had an option come up 1st.

Here's the $10 purchase before:

Here's the after sanding it down, giving it a fresh coat of black paint & removing the doors.

It fits the living room perfectly in terms of size & simplicity. I am happy with how it turned out, initially I had planned on leaving the doors on, but they had some issues with the hinges & I think I enjoy the open feel, especially knowing the fabric crates I have will slide in to the bottom shelf area. The project wound up being $15. I'll take it!

Changing Holiday Season

The Holiday Season...a season of joy, stress, happiness, sadness, laughs, tears, just to name a few. You run out and spend money to bring joy to your family & friends. Send holiday cards & perhaps a letter. You bake & eat too much causing you to set workout & weight loss new years resolutions that last 1 month max. You follow the tradition that's been set out for generations before you. It happens every year, it is what the holiday season entails.

And we did nothing short than all of it this year.

However, traditions are starting to change in our families. There are gaps that are new this year & seem to be floating as the elephant in the room. There are jokes that are missing, the typical, 'I didn't want anything for Christmas' voice is gone as they open a box that refreshes their wardrobe was not there. It happens across America, we've dealt with it before. But yet, the 1st holiday season without that voice is different.

A week before Christmas, we still weren't sure what we would be doing. For 26 years of my life, we have had Christmas at home, loaded up the vehicle (2 hours behind the departure time), and headed to NW Iowa for a few days at my grandparents. A 3 hour drive, with frequent pit stops because my dad drank an extra large iced tea, David got car sick or somebody had to be separated from another sibling are no longer there. No more will we spend the day after Christmas at the Y with my grandpa introducing us to the whole staff before he goes to walk or run laps. This year, my grandma lives just across town from my parents now and my grandpa is watching over us.

We made our new tradition this year, both grandmas at our house, with all my siblings, significant others, and pets coming from everywhere, we had a huge spread of food, games & laughs. While our grandpas sat together looking over us with smiles on their faces, because gosh knows if they were with us, they would have been napping next to each other on the couch.

The same evolution happened in Greg's family, there was a missing voice. Missing sarcastic comments that would put a smile on your face. It's different, it's a new feeling, but you adjust. Someone else in the family attempts to say what the missing voice would of said & it's met with a chuckle & a tear. Yet, in that time we found time to enjoy the large spread of food, gifts & sharing stories & laughs with family.

Traditions change, but as long  you have your family with you, you can support each other & adjust.

Happy Holidays from our new family tradition!

Pepper Jack Chicken

To keep with the trend, it was time to add a new recipe to our chicken line-up. Found this quick & simple one on Pinterest, Greg loved it, so it's officially in the line-up.

Ingredients
1-2 pounds of Chicken Breast
1 can Cream of Chicken
1/4 cup Milk
6 slices of Pepper Jack Cheese
1 Box of Stuffing Mix
1/4 cup of Melted Butter

Directions
1. Place the chicken in the pan.
2. Lay slices of cheese over the chicken.
3. Mix together milk & cream of chicken. Then pour over the cheese & chicken.
4. Pour stuffing mix over top of all the ingredients.
5. Melt the butter & pour over stuffing mix.
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-60 minutes.

You can serve it over rice, but we prefer it without. Enjoy!

Adding Some Color

1st success of the last week? Completed fence! Monday, they discovered they were 60 pickets short of finishing, so my Malibu & I became a picket hauling pick-up. With folded down backseats, the Menard's worker & I were able to get all the pickets into my car & I cruised home getting awful gas mileage, but knowing Sadie was 24 hours away from running free in our yard. Tuesday it was done & Sadie ran hot laps! Plus she then had the opportunity to have a doggy neighbor over this weekend to play & allow us to be meet the neighbors.

I also worked on the bathroom paint update throughout the week. What I originally thought would be a 2 day project, turned out to take pretty much every night. It started out strong getting the ceiling done & starting on the area with lot of trimming detail. The next night Greg helped me remove the mirror to discover mold, REALLY?? Gross. So called up my father got his advice, didn't have anything he said to use, so I Googled it & figured out I could use vinegar to clean it. But the next item was a problem, spray bottle. So I dug through drawers in the bathroom & found an old perfume bottle, dumped out what remained in there & filled it up with vinegar. Only had to re-fill it 4 times to have enough to squirt the area. And...I had to do it 2 times & scrub, that kind of killed that day of work. The next morning I got up & painted a stain block primer over top to get it ready for that night's work.

Finally Friday night, I was able to wrap up the painting! Saturday I capped it off putting up a picture on the wall & finally finding a yellow & gray shower curtain to finish off the whole set-up!

BEFORE

 

AFTER

 

Wedding Vendors - To Help Your Budget

One of my goals during wedding planning was to keep my wedding on a reasonable budget. I didn't feel I need to spend money on little extras that may never be used again. I wanted to have things that could be reused again and looked nice on a smaller budget.

Bridesmaids
We registered for gifts early on and as I flipped through my packet from Target, I discovered they had Bridesmaid Dresses. It's not common knowledge, because they aren't carried in stores, but they were great. Knowing I was going to have 3 bridesmaids in 3 different styles, this gave me an option to keep the color the same because they were picking from the same brand, but also gave them a reasonable price. Especially because there was a coupon code included in my gift registry packet.

Groomsmen & Ushers
For the guys, I wanted to keep the look simple. I didn't like vests and I also thought white shirts were boring, so to add the color I desired, I used my gift registry coupon from Kohls and then other coupons as I got them to get each groomsmen a mint green dress shirt.

Then for their ties, I discovered Bows 'N Ties. There were many color options at outstanding prices. I was able to get ties for the groomsmen, ushers & dads that all tied together.

Guestbook & Photos
I went with Shutterfly for these. When registering at Target, I got $20 to spend with Shutterfly, for buying a dress at David's Bridal, I got a free photobook and a 20% coupon. Combining all of these I was able to design a personalized guestbook and print off engagement pictures for very reasonable.

Extras
For my garter, I wanted to have something Iowa State themed. However, I didn't want to pay a big price for something that was going to get thrown to a drunk guy who would probably have it on their head or arm the rest of the night. So, I went for a homemade choice, but not homemade by me. I found the Romancing Juliet storefront on Etsy. Here I was able to order a garter and then choose the colors I wanted. It was great, the seller was super easy to talk with and very prompt about getting it out to me.

Dollar stores became our friend too. We wanted to have big bowls for snack mix and popcorn, but didn't really want to serve out of glass. So my mom went on a search and found 'fancy' looking plastic bowls at the dollar stores that looked good, served the purpose and didn't cause heartbreak if they broke.

Centerpieces
Hello Hobby Lobby! My favorite craft store from growing up, was really key in making this all happen. With the Hobby Lobby app, I could get 40% off a regular priced item. So every time I went by Hobby Lobby, I pulled in & got a pack of votive candles and anyone who was with me also had to grab a pack. The ribbon, wedding aisle goods & glitter purchases were based around when they were on sale. The sales cycle through every 3-4 weeks and is also stated on the app, so I never bought anything at full price. It wasn't necessary if it was planned. Plus since Hobby Lobby was on the way home or near my mom's destinations frequently, we didn't need to make unnecessary trips to get what we needed.

Don't be afraid of the coupons, they'll really help you stay on budget!

Fence Facelift

Our yard is fully fenced in & it's awesome for Sadie, but we own very little of it, so can't control the state of the fence, most of them are lovely. One of them if I ran at it, I could have run through it completely, so we grabbed a roll of chainlink fence right after we bought the house & stuck it to the poles on our side to make sure we didn't have a runaway pup on our hands. However, the part that we do own, was gray & kind of unattractive. So I got it in my head that staining it would be much more appealing.

Little did I know, that sanding would be significantly more intense than anticipated. We grabbed a pack of sandpaper sheets when we were going to start the project because we weren't able to hose off enough to make it look like good wood again. So we started sanding...with small sheets...by hand. Bad decision, it took forever, my hands hurts, my arms hurt & my fingernails were getting sanded down as well. 

Left - After Sanding | Right - Sanded Needed

Well, 1 week of evening work we had the biggest section of fence done & it looked stellar. So we took a 2 week break. 

Then it was time to do the smallest section. I decided to venture out on this section on my own. I am a perfectionist when it comes to painting, I apologize, but this is a trait that comes from my father, so I can't help it! But during the 1st section, I couldn't handle watching Greg stain, it was dripping, he held the brush all wrong & I was stressed! So I let him help sand & then asked him to let me stain by myself. And it was done!

This weekend I finally was able to crank out the last part, got up early, sanded...added band-aids to my fingers...everyone of them actually because hotspots popped up all over. Hosed it down, let it dry & then finally wrapped up the day staining. It looks so much more appealing, love looking at it from the swing!

Steps:

1. Hose it down in JET setting

2. Sand until you can see the wood grain again

3. Hose again to get the dust off

4. Let is dry

5. Stain (with proper technique & no dripping stain!)

6. Relax in the swing with wine or coffee

Welcome Chalkboard

I started following the blog Little Baby Garvin about a month ago & really enjoyed her decorating style. I had wanted to make something to put up in our little entry area & this blog inspired me to make my own chalkboard. I have no where near the amount of artistic ability she has, but I was still able to make the type of sign that fit our entry area well.

For my sign, I wanted something to be on there permanently & I wanted the ability to  rotate the message for different timeframes. So I came up with the idea of getting our name on there & then the rest was a chalkboard.

So I went to work. I found chalkboard at JoAnn's, it's about a 13x17 with a wooden frame. BUT the best part is that it is also magnetic, so I can add magnets to this entrance board too!

I had my mom cut out "O'Briens" on her Cricut & then I taped it down & traced around it with pencil before taking the letters off & taking out a white paint marker & filling it in. I then added 'The' & 'Est. 2014' to add some personalization.

Then it was on to the message & since our ISU season tickets had come in, it was time to start the countdown until kick-off! However, I have a pack of Crayola sidewalk chalk, which I don't recommend (they are really crumbly & break easily), so I am able to rotate colors & messages as I see fit.