Speaks to my Soul - September 3

I don't know what it is but every time I move, its almost as if my entire decorating taste changes. Even in college, when I moved three years in a row. Each time I had a completely different idea of what I wanted my home (aka dorm/apartment) to look like. This year was no different in that respect, but since I HAVE TO LIVE WITH A BOOOOOY (<-- Monica on the show, "Friends") I definitely wanted a more neutral look. 

We've made several things for our new home but we are currently on the hunt for several more pieces of furniture including: 

Bed that's not ugly. Headboard. Nightstands that aren't tiny. Side Table(s). Tv Stand. Decorations for pretty much every room. Because mine are all girly/glitter/flowers. And his are all sports themed. 

We wouldn't be us if we didn't plan to make them ourselves so I wanted to share some of my inspiration before we actually tackle them ourselves. 

This mason jar sconce. Did anyone else know the word "sconce" before today? Yeah, I didn't either.

This wooden crate for blankets and throw pillows. That's why they are called throw pillows. Because they are constantly in the way and you just throw them off the couch so you can watch Netflix in peace, without being crowded by 16 (extremely adorable and made with love) pillows on your couch. 

This headboard and bed. I literally spent 2 hours (ok it was days) doing nothing but reading this blog. Yet, somehow I didn't come across this post until I was looking on pinterest. I opened up the link and I freaked out. "LANDAN, I read this blog ALL WEEK and LOOOOK!" Yep, it was a week. Whatever. I'm not ashamed.

No, seriously, LOOK HOW PRETTY!

Also this end table which I swear is straight out of my wishes and dreams, except ours will have to be much larger to fill the space, and will eat this table for breakfast with a smile on it's face. I can't wait to see this in the currently empty corner between our couch and chair. (Really though, our table lamp is just sitting on the floor. It's sad and lonely and needs help.)

I swear, I could go on and on (and on, and on, and on... see??) with my ideas for our new home, but that's all I'll leave you with. For now.

 Although, these are literally other peoples ideas, so that may not be the best phrasing, but I trust that you know what I mean. ;)

Scarf Storage for under $10

What do you do when you are awake at 6:30 am with nothing to do? Obviously, go to Home Depot. Oh is that just me? Yup, ok.

Our new closet is huge and amazing and my happy place, (it walks through between the bedroom and the bathroom with double doors). However, I've never been satisfied with any type of scarf storage. I've seen so many ideas, most of them using shower rings, but those don't work as well for infinity scarves, which I happen to have a lot too many of. I could always unclick the shower ring and re-click it to put the infinity scarves on, but then they'll just slide around on whatever hanger I put them on. I'll let my girl below tell you how I feel about that. 

I have this pretty large empty wall that was just BEGGING me to hang some sort of accessories on it.  Can't you hear it? It has my favorite paintings on it now, but I plan to raise them a little higher and put both a jewelry display (currently in the works), and the scarves, in three rows. 

Materials: 

Wood: 3.29

Hooks: 4.49

Paint: Had on hand. 

You barely need any paint so whatever you have will work. Or none, if you prefer that look!

I started with 3 pieces of wood that are 3/4" thick, 1.5" wide and 12" long. I measured out my hooks, each 2 inches apart, before I painted so that I wouldn't leave any marks. I tapped the pointed edge of the hooks in so that I would be able to see where they belonged once I painted. 

I painted it gold before I realized that gold would look terrible with the gold hardware I bought. My first layer of paint really thin so it still shows quite a bit of the wood grain and I actually loved how it looked with the solid gold hooks. Happy Accident!

I painstakingly started to screw in the hooks, (seriously my finger has hurt all day. First world problems), wished I had pliers to use, contemplated going to buy pliers, and finally just "manned up" and made it work. 

Lets all pretend that the middle one isn't awkwardly uneven with the rest of them. Thanks guys.

This is what it looks like with scarves on it! I'm beyond please with my project. It was crazy easy and quick. Although I say that now, while one row is finished and the other two are staring at me from the coffee table begging to be created. I can't wait to get these 100% completed and on the wall. Just in time for scarf season!

Except not, because it's September and we have way too many 100 degree days between now and scarf season.

And because no post is complete with out a picture of my fluffy little helper, here's your daily share of adorable-ness. 

Light Up Marquee Letter - DIY

I have seen people using initials in their Engagement Pictures everywhere lately! I love the idea of taking your first formal pictures together with the first letter of the last name you'll soon share. Obviously I wanted to follow suit, but after perusing the aisles of Michaels and Hobby Lobby, nothing appealed to me. I saw these more modern looking light up styles, but I wasn't willing to shell out an upwards of 200 dollars for one, especially if I was going to have to order it online. I'm the type of person that prefers to see EXACTLY what they are buying before pulling the trigger. 

Spoiler Alert: This is the finished product, WHOOP!

Seriously, that's actually us. Don't we look fancy???

But back to the initial problem. 

Found here for over $200.

Found here for $300.

While these are crazy adorable and I would absolutely love to own one, I'm a poor college kid, and they are just so far beyond my price range that it's comical. I gave up on the light up idea completely, lowered my standards and headed back to Hobby Lobby. 

Supplies: 

Letter you want to use ($15)

Lights ($10)

Paint ($5)

Drill (Free to daughters who smile and say please... in my case at least!)

We were going to use one of the chipboard letters and as I affectionally say, "glitter the crap out of it",  but then my parents and I stumbled across some battery operated lights in the chipboard letter aisle. It is apparently impossible to find these on their website, but we got two packs of them for $7.99 each. If you're anything like me you will be ALL OVER that Hobby Lobby coupon and they will come out a little cheaper. The original plan was to use them on the chipboard letter, until I lucked into seeing this much larger, metal letter T. 

Found here for $29.99, but we lucked out and got it half off, because hobby lobby weekly ads are a magical, magical thing. The back was absolutely perfect for a marquee letter. This project practically made itself, I swear. Although if I say that it makes me look less spectacular so I'll keep that to myself. 

I went home and immediately two weeks later, got to work. I measured out the lights so that they would be evenly spaced from each other and each side. I use the back to measure so that any marks wouldn't somehow find their way through the spray paint. 

From there, my dad and I drilled holes for each light. We found that if we drilled a small hole and then used a larger drill bit to widen the whole that it worked a lot better. With the holes drilled, I went outside to spray paint. We used a flat black for the entire inside, and a gold for the outside. LOVE. It turned out SO pretty! (If I do say so myself.)

I slipped the lights back into the holes we drilled and secured them with a little hot glue. Most of them were pretty solid with out the glue, but I'd rather it not fall out. :) Here is the final lit product and I think it's going to look amazing, not only in our pictures, but at our wedding and in our home in the future. :) Also who let me take pictures in front of all the wild TV/Wii cords?? None of those cords belong to this T, I promise you. 

Disclaimer: The back is Ugly as sin.

Just Imagine the Jeapordy Song

Just imagine that the Jeapordy song has been playing for the past THREE months while I was lazy took a hiatus from the blog. It's been a wonderful and exciting time over in Kellie land, so before I catch you up on my knitting (oh yes, there has been plenty of knitting) during my blog vacation, I wanted to catch you up on my actual life. 

This wonderful man asked me to be his wife on Christmas Day, our five year anniversary. 

Obviously I said yes, and now we are officially planning our wedding. WHOOP! The process has ranged from crazy fun to "is this over yet?", but I am determined for it to be stress free. (Disclaimer: It hasn't been all rainbows and sunshine, but aside from one hunger related moment of irrational snippyness, it's been really fun.)

We basically already had our venue picked out, I'd never been there before but my other half mentioned it two years ago and that along with a blurry picture was enough to convince me to take a visit. It was beautiful and perfect and took me two seconds to say yes. SHOUTOUT: http://www.texasoldtown.com

I started my very last semester at Texas A&M University, and he started his EMT clinical rotation. It's been a busy semester but that's not really anything new for us.  :)

I turned 22 last week and my Swarlie turned four. As a little girl I always wondered what age I would be when I got married and here I am. 22 it is!

Soon we will return to your regularly scheduled (lol) knitting posts, along with a few other posts fun DIY stuff that I've made for the wedding/engagement pictures. 

278 days! 

Is it over yet?

But really, is it? I feel like this blanket is never ever ever ever ever going to be finished. Thankfully I've finished all of the full sized hexagons, (except for the aqua, mail is slow) and now I just need to crochet a few of the halves, in order to even out the sides. I feel like I hit the jackpot because I found this pattern that explains how to make halves exactly like the full sized hexagons I've made.  

After I finish the sad remaining aqua hexagons and the halves, I plan to make a border around the sides of double crochet in each color. I'm not sold on exactly how the border is going to look color wise, but I know I want several rounds of double crochet on the outer edges. 

Also, apparently crocheting is too taxing for someone. It's a rough job, but someone's gotta do it. :)

Swarlie, We're not in Kansas anymore!

I am a person that remembers every single solitary date. I'm not talking about Columbus sailed the ocean blue in fourteen hundred ninety two, I mean the completely useless ones, like the birthday of someone I met ten years ago and haven't seen since, or the day I bought a specific pair of jeans. With that being said I have no idea what day I finished my very first scarf. I know it was November, and we are nearing the very middle of the month so I'm going to say it's been a year. Let me tell ya, I can't believe how much I've learned since then. If we are being honest, I'm surprised I haven't gotten tired of knitting and given it up completely, because I am not a person you would describe as patient.

After lots and lots of what I call "knitting anxiety", finally learning that they are called knitting needles, not knitting tools, ripping it out and starting over countless times because I couldn't remember how to cast on, and finally finding out that youtube is a miracle in the knitting world, I made this baby. I was so excited about this yarn back in good ol' 2013, but now, to me it just looks like I made this yarn out of funfetti cake mix. I straight knit this bad boy on size 15 needles and I was on top of the world.

This is another scarf I made in those early days, and as basic as it is, to this day it's the scarf I get the most compliments on. I liked the way that arm knitting looked for the most part, but I thought it was just too open. I didn't like how large the gaps in the yarn were so I got some chunky yarn and knit this sucker on size 17 needles. It literally took an hour so it's perfect to knit as a gift. It looks super fancy but in reality it could't be more basic.

Crocheting scared me for months, but I finally decided to take the plunge. I didn't have a pattern really, I just made three long strips, chaining (Don't hate me if my crochet lingo is off) until the strip was long enough to go around my neck and hang like I wanted it to. I did 5 rows of double crochet for each, but I would recommend doing 7 or 8 because it wasn't quite as fluffy as I was hoping. Next, I braided them together and BAM! You've got yourself a scarf. It's quite the crowd pleaser too. I asked my boyfriend if he liked it and his exact words were "It's proportional to your body." I guess that's a compliment?

Green Zigzag Scarf

I took my Nursing school admissions exam last week (Swarlie helped me study), as well as submitting about a thousand applications, (i counted), so I think a bunch of knitting and crocheting is exactly what I've deserved. I browsed pinterest and instantly fell in love with this pattern. It's a pain and a half to knit, it's not easily remembered so I have to stare at the computer screen the whole time but with Gilmore girls on in the background it's totally worth it. 

I finished the very last Maroon Popcorn Scarf this week so obviously I need to start something new. I wouldn't be me if I didn't have 15,000 projects going on all at once. (I promise I'll finish you someday, blanket, other blanket, scarf, christmas wreath, halloween wreath, really!) 

                    

Here's the little baby scarf, you can't tell the pattern as well in the first picture, but it's really coming along now.  I love it so far, but it is definitely a time suck. I'm hoping that it'll knit up more quickly once I get more familiar with the pattern. Either way it's SUPER pretty. Whoop! Bonus points because the yarn is green and the needles are red. So festive. Theres a 100% chance I chose the needle size based on the color combo alone. 

Completely irrelevant but I've decided to come up with a code name at Starbucks. I'm completely over the idea of yelling, "Kellie!!! With and "I" "E"!" eighteen times over the noise at the counter, but I'm equally tired of feeling like I'm stealing some poor girl named Kelly's coffee in the morning. Sorry Kelly, but you should have ordered something less delicious if you didn't want Kellie with and i-e to take it from you. 

PSL with one pump white mocha. It'll change your life.