Progress

A miracle has happened - we finally finished a room! I am very excited to share these photos and even more excited to have a relaxing bedroom.

Here are the 'before' photos, taken when we first moved in:

Things we didn't like:
1. Dirty, dusty builder white paint from when the house was built
2. Hideous valance and side curtains
3. Vertical blinds with many pieces missing
4. Eye-sore of a ceiling fan
5. Old-ish carpet covered in dog hair

What we did:
1. Painted the room Light French Gray (its actually more blue than gray)
2. Threw valance and curtains in the trash
3. Installed white faux wood blinds from Home Depot
4. Installed inexpensive white ceiling fan from Lowe's
5. Vacuumed the carpet numerous times with the Dyson (When we win the lottery we will rip out all the carpet upstairs and put down laminate - we both dislike carpet)

And here are the 'after' shots:

The 3 pictures above the dresser are a photo I found of the Philly skyline (Josh's home town). I cut it into thirds and framed each one individually.

I think the cat photos above our nightstands might be a bit much but we felt like we needed something above the lamps - any suggestions on what else to put in those frames?

In case you care where everything came from:
Dresser, nightstands, and standing mirror are from Ikea
Ottoman is from Target
Bedding is from Costco (sheets) and JCPenney (duvet cover and shams - on sale!)
Lamps are from Home Goods
Headboard is homemade

Speaking of the headboard (that I am very proud of, by the way!) here are some close up detail shots:

We were hoping make our bedroom a relaxing retreat and are pretty happy about how it turned out!

Headboard Project

I am in love with big, dark headboards like this:

I really wanted one for our master bedroom but everything I found was a little (actually a lot) more than we wanted to spend, so I decided to make my own with a six-panel door and some molding.

After cutting off the top of the door and adding the molding here it is ready to be sanded and painted:

I cant wait to post pictures of it in our bedroom!

Just wondering ...

Is it technically stealing if they're on our side of the fence?

... because they sure do look good!

Comfort is key ...

... when doing yard work.

I needed to add some more leaves to my compost bin (you can see it on the bottom right of the photo) and Josh offered to rake some for me. I was cracking up when I saw him out there in his robe and slippers and couldn't resist snapping a quick photo.

Technical difficulties ...

My apologies for the lack of posts. We got a new computer and it doesn't have a slot for my memory card, and the camera cable is still packed somewhere. Since posts aren't quite the same without photos I will have to wait to update you on what we've been up to.

We have been making good progress on the house so I think some before-and-after photos should be coming soon (yay for finishing projects!).

Soap Factory

Back in October one of my co-workers asked me to make her some soap gift boxes to give as Christmas gifts. She wanted 10 boxes of six bars - I felt like a soap factory making all that soap!

Here are the bars cut and ready for labelling - they smelled so good!

All wrapped up and ready for packaging.

All boxed up.

I hope the recipients liked their gifts!

Happy New Year!

Josh and I decided to stay home on New Year's Eve because we weren't sure we could stay up until midnight (how lame are we?!) - here's us having a good time at our party-for-two:

These are a few of my New Year's Resolutions:

• Be grateful every day
• Learn basic Spanish (so I can communicate with my Spanish speaking patients sans translator)
• Drink more water
• Paint and decorate our home
• Sew more
• Be more forgiving