Saturday, December 24, 2011

Christmas Eve

I didn't do a whole lot of Christmas decorating this year, and I've left it to the very last minute to post photos, but better late than never right?

This year I wanted a change from the berry garlands on the staircase so I got some fake greenery and dressed it up with ornaments and snowflakes (although I think it could have done with a little more color).

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The area behind the sink got a little sprucing.
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Silver, green and white on the dining table.
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Photobombers :-)
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A simple mantle (no stockings for the cats this year).
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This year's ornament. I thought the mixer was super cute and we finished the kitchen this year so it represents 2011 well.
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The tree is always my favorite Christmas decoration. I can't wait until the day its filled with the special ornaments we pick out each year.
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My view from the sofa.
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Waiting for Santa :-)
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Hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!

Friday, December 23, 2011

Holiday Card outtakes

The last 2 years our Christmas card featured our pets so we figured we might as well continue the tradition and put Zeke and Zoey front and center this year.

Now that our cards have made it to England I can post some funny (maybe only to me and Josh?) outtakes and the photo I loved but didn't use because I couldn't get it to fit the card layout.

This is the card we sent out:

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I did the layout in PS Elements and then had them printed on cardstock at Kinko's. When the girl helping me saw the card she said "oh how cute - their names are Merry and Bright". I wish I could have seen the look on my face because, really, that was such an odd thing to say!

These poor dogs have been pestered by me and my camera since they were puppies so they're getting pretty good at posing for photos. We thought having them in front of the tree would be cute so I set up our storage ottoman with a piece of faux fur thrown over it. For the sweaters I actually dug out my knitting needles after not knitting a single thing for 5 years because I couldn't justify spending money on dog sweaters that would be worn once. Luckily all the imperfections in my knitting didn't show in the photo :-)

This test photo had us in hysterics - could Zeke look any more demoralized?

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As usual, Zoey wasn't quite as cooperative as her brother ...

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... licking her lips ...

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... and trying to bolt ...

This was the photo I really, really loved but didn't use. I just adore those sweet faces.

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And then when it was all over it was nap time.

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Monday, November 28, 2011

O Christmas Tree

80s music channel + camera + decorating the tree = good times!



(Becca just brought to my attention that it looks like 3 trees at the beginning - its actually a fake tree that comes in 3 pieces. Now you don't have to wonder what happened to the other 2 trees haha!)

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Family room projects - mirror and ottoman

As promised here are the 2 family room projects I worked on while my brother was visiting.

I have always liked the Eagan mirror from Pottery Barn, but not the price tag:

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$699.00??? There's no way I would pay that much for a mirror so I had the great idea to make my own. (I have since realized that my idea wasn't that original and found quite a few good tutorials online. Too bad I didn't find them BEFORE I reinvented the wheel!)

I didn't take many photos of the process so here are my steps in fast-forward:

1. Buy mirrors. I got mine at the Dollar Tree but you can get them at a variety of places. Actually I got them at 5 Dollar Tree stores because I needed 30 mirrors and each store only had a few. I almost scrapped the project at this point.

2. Decide what you are going to use for the wood strips between the mirrors. I used screen molding from Home Depot.

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3. Figure out what size to cut your plywood backing so that it fits your mirrors and wood strips perfectly. Its a good thing I like math because calculating this was kind of a pain. I wanted to use scrap plywood we had lying around so I had to attach 2 pieces using flat brackets. Cut and glue on all the little pieces of wood. Surprisingly this wasn't the worst part of the project!

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4. Prime and spray paint. It took quite a few coats to get a nice, even finish.

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5. Gather your mirrors and start picking off the little foam pads on the underside. This took FOREVER and was by far the worst part of the project.

6. Glue the mirrors on and wait patiently for everything to dry.

Hang on the wall and admire:

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I love how it turned out and I especially love that I saved hundreds and hundreds of dollars by making it myself (even if it was a little time consuming)!

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Next we have the ottoman. I was looking for a big, tufted ottoman but couldn't find exactly what I wanted in stores. So because I'm crazy I decided to build my own. Here are my steps:

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1. Build a frame and then screw on the top piece. Mine is pretty big - 36 x 36 inches.
2. Mark where your buttons will go and drill holes.
3. Glue on foam. We used 3 inch so it would be nice and soft.
4. Cover with batting and staple into place.

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5. Get your fabric ready. I couldn't find the exact fabric I was looking for so I decided to use a fabric drop cloth and dye it. I was going for dark gray.
6. Here you can see the dyed drop cloth compared to pre-dyed. Unfortunately it didn't come out nearly as dark as I'd hoped. Cover the batting and staple into place.
7. Cover buttons with left over fabric and attach.
8. Attach the legs (after painting or staining them).

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9. Victoriously place your snazzy new ottoman in the family room and realize its the exact same color as the rug - ooops!

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I should probably post a pic of what the room looked like with a coffee table for comparison but we have some other changes going on in the family room so I'll post another update soon.

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Birthday dogs!

November is birthday month for both of our pups (Zeke was born on the 4th and Zoey on the 26th) and its become a tradition to torture them by making them pose for birthday photos.

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The chalk board in the loft + a small ottoman + fabric from my stash = perfect photo spot!

Zeke is a good boy and will stay put until excused. Zoey is wild and every other photo looked like this:

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Which lead to Zeke thinking it was his turn again ...

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Love them so much!

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Sunday, November 13, 2011

We're still here

After two and a half months of being lazy and not posting anything on the blog here's a quick recap of what we've been up to:

1. I finally cut my hair after almost a year. I don't think I've ever gone that long and I'm not sure why I did but it was so nice to get rid of all the dead ends. I probably could have cut it all off and donated to Locks of Love but I already tried the short hair thing in high school and again in college (apparently I didn't learn my lesson the first time) and it was a bushy mess!

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I also haven't highlighted it in a year. I kind of miss the light blonde color - you can see how its darker up near my roots - but I don't hate my natural color so I'm going to see how long I can keep it au naturale.

2. My boss picked up 2 hideous chairs from a thrift store and I made a muslin slipcover template for her to use to make real slipcovers for them. All the pets thought the chair was for them.

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Love Zoey's expression in that one!

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Amazing how much better the chair looks with that yucky fabric hidden. Zeke was sad when she took the chair back to her house.

3. I started dealing with my clothing hoard. I can't stand clutter and love getting rid of things but for some reason I hold onto clothes. It was getting out of control so I forced myself to get rid of a few things.

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Okay so maybe it was more than just a few. Because I'm wierd I decided to sort everything by clothing type and fold into piles.

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I gave it all to Goodwill - hopefully the fact that it was all organized was helpful to them or I wasted a couple hours for nothing!

4. We celebrated Josh's birthday (and forgot to take a photo).

5. My brother Paul came out to visit. The dogs love their uncle!

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6. While my brother was here I worked on 2 projects for the family room - an ottoman and a knock-off Pottery Barn mirror. I just realized I haven't taken any photos of them so I'll have to post about them later.

7. We celebrated our 4th anniversary. This is not a great photo of the 2 of us but its the most recent one I could find.

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8. I threw a baby shower for my dear friend Erin. It was a lot of fun and we played a game where each guest was given a balloon and had to make it into a baby. This is Erin posing with all the babies that didnt burst:

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9. We celebrated 3 years of living in our home. Its hard to believe its been 3 years already!

10. Had out of town visitors: my freshman roommate Sasha, her hubby, and sweet little 3 month old Lucas.

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I think that about covers it. Its finally cooled off here so I'm getting in the mood for the holidays. Cant wait to bust out all the Christmas stuff!

Friday, August 26, 2011

The kitchen is done!!

First lets look at some 'before' pics.

Here's an old photo I took when we looked at the house for the very first time (July 2008):
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It doesn't really scream 'dream kitchen' but we liked the size and layout.

This is early 2009. We had already painted over that yellow-ish color on the walls and were getting ready to start replacing appliances (which took about 18 months because we saved up for them one by one).
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And here we are 2 and a half years later:

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We really love how the island came out. It was kind of wimpy before but adding trim really made it more substantial looking. The white outlet cover isn't ideal - maybe one day we'll find a paintable one that will blend in more.

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My favorite part of this photo is the shiny subway tile. Its so pretty when it catches the light.

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The top of the fridge looked bare so I grabbed the few cookbooks we own and put them in this wire basket I found at Home Goods. The glass jar was part of a Christmas gift from my boss. The white tin had a former life as a Christmas tin full of popcorn. Add a coat of white spray paint and now it holds dog food!

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Goodies from the garden. I found that little marble cutting board at Home Goods for $4 and had to get it - we couldn't get marble counters so at least I still have a little bit of marble in my kitchen :-) The dinner bell used to belong to Josh's grandmom Donato and he would ring it when he was a kid. When she passed away Josh's mom saved it for him.

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I got this old postage scale last year. I had been on the lookout for a vintage kitchen scale but they were always so pricey so when I saw the price tag on this one I snatched it up. Most people don't even notice that its not a kitchen scale. The utensil holder is actually a plant pot from Ikea.

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We are lucky to have 2 big windows behind the sink that let in a ton of light. Without them I don't think we would have been able to get away with black cabinets!

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I've had a hard time figuring out what to put in that big area behind the sink. That succulent is the only plant in our entire house - our dumb cats chewed on every plant I've brought in (and then puked green stuff everywhere) but they seem to leave this one alone.

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This is the area to the left of the sink. We put a hook in the side of the cabinet so we could hang a towel up there. We used to hang the towel on the oven door handle but the dogs always knocked it off so this is working much better.

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This is looking back towards the sliding doors that go out to the deck. I got the EAT letters at Michael's and painted them green. Those cabinets above the EAT letters are the first ones that got painted (back in November 2009 - a little embarrassing that it took me 18 months to complete all the cabinets!) and so far they are holding up well.

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Treats for our spoiled dogs. They know the sound of the metal lids being turned and come running as soon as they hear it! That frame with the bird/french fry wording is actually hiding a really ugly phone jack that we couldn't find the right cover for.

And just for fun here are those 2 'before' photos with current photos from the same angle for comparison:

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(I think the black table and chairs makes for a bit of black overkill but there's nothing wrong with them so they're staying - I think adding a colorful fabric runner to the table will help.)

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And in honor of National Dog Day, my favorite kitchen accessories :-)

And that concludes our kitchen makeover! We love, love, LOVE it!!