Speaks to my Soul - October 30

ITS THAT TIME OF YEAR!

Let's be clear. By "that time", I mean: the time where seasonal decorations are acceptable. I couldn't possibly care less about Halloween itself, but the decorations? So fun. Pumpkins, people. PUMPKINS.  And I know that tomorrow is Halloween, so before I have to take down my Halloween decorations I want to show you. :)

We are in the middle of creating an entry way table, (which honestly isn't even painted, and could really fall over at any moment because its' not finished, but is DEFINITELY decorated anyways, oops.) and a TV stand as well! We have been planning on building the TV stand for a while but I would be lying if I wasn't suddenly motivated to get started on it because with that done, we will be able to install a shelf above it to act as a mantle. Cue the heart eyes.

LOOK. I'm so pumped about our new door decoration courtesy of my BFF's mama! Stay tuned because I can guarantee you that all of the seasonal door bows/wreaths that she made for us will make their way onto this blog because they are absolutely adorable! Two days until time for the Thanksgiving wreath day... I've been WAITING!

When it comes to seasonal decorations, beyond Halloween, it really only gets better. Thanksgiving stuff is even better than Halloween, and then CHRISTMAS. Stop it. I can't WAIT for it to be acceptable for me to listen to Christmas music on the reg. 

Now enough ranting, I want to share some of the things I would do if my table was done and my mantel existed. 

PS: My friend Kate, her mom and I created this a few weeks ago. We are pretty proud of our handiwork! 

Also, I saw this and it could not be more amazing. If you know me AT ALL you know how I feel about khakis and how much love I have for my boy Jake, from State Farm. I actually had to talk to a State Farm rep on a few occasions and I consider it one of my biggest achievements in life that I never once asked: "What are you wearing, JAKE from STATE FARM?!?!" 

SHE SOUNDS HIDEOUS. 

My First Erin Condren Planner - The Love Story Begins

I have a problem. It's been lying dormant for quite a while and with school starting in a few months it's back in full force, so I'll just admit it. 

I am obsessed with planners. My planner is ALWAYS color coded. It's pristine. It's my lifeline, and it's on my person at. all. times.

Story time:
 My last semester at TAMU I downloaded the syllabus for one of my classes before the semester started (because putting the dates in my planner is just enticing and I couldn't stand to wait any longer) and it turned out that the dates "weren't final" and all changed before the semester started. All the (now incorrect) dates were in my planner. In ink. Green ink, because that's the color I assigned that class. I wrote an email to the prof asking in the least sassy way I could manage, if the dates were going to change again and he wrote back (in full-fledged sass, lemme tell ya) that they never changed. Well, I have a hardcopy of your original syllabus and a planner full of white out tape that proves otherwise, buddy. But clearly I'm not bitter about it or anything.

I've been this way forever... I remember the ones they gave us (that we were forced to use) in Elementary and everyone hated it, but I loved those planners so much that I literally couldn't even throw them away until last Christmas when I was forced asked nicely to clean out my bedroom back home. (Hi, Mom!)

All of that is just to explain how much I love and rely on my planner, mostly so you don't judge me for what I did the other day.... I bought this. 

The Erin Condren Life Planner.  (Oooooooooh, ahhhhh)

Now before you think that I've gone off the deep end, buying a freaking 50 dollar planner, please understand that I had a $10 off coupon. Coupons make everything better right?? (Which, P.S. if anyone wants a $10 coupon you can click THIS LINK to sign up and have one emailed to you.) And think about it. I'll be using this for 14 months, because I ordered it to start in October. So I'm paying around $4 a month for something I'll use all day everyday. Not bad right?? Plus it's so pretty and it will have my name on it! (Seriously, all the heart eyes.)

However, I chose not to order the personalized one because

 1. It ships quicker. 

2. I'll have a real cover that I can use until I get married in December when my name changes. 

3. It comes with a coupon to order a cover FO FREE. So basically I got a free cover. :) 

But, I plan to order the Photo Floral one if you're curious. It's so pretty!! Plus the covers are interchangeable and there are blogs out there that teach you how to make your own, which I'm 100% about.

And this one is really catching my eye as well. You can choose your name, or your family name, and since my family is only Landan and Swarlie, both of whom keep up with their own schedules, I'll definitely just have my name on it. :) 

I purchased it on Monday, it was originally estimated to ship on Friday, and I had it in my hot little hands on Wednesday. Two days before it was supposed to even ship. You have my heart, Erin Condren shipping people, I'm telling ya. Seriously I wasn't kidding, you can see my fingerprints all over it. 

AND THERE WERE FREEBIES, YALL. 

Those are stickers for the planner, to/from stickers for gift giving, thank you cards and so on. The cute washi tape is mine, (50% off at Hob Lob, wuddup), but it was so adorable I had to include it. 

These sticker pages are included, I obviously have already used a chunk of them... somehow passing up the very MIDDLE sticker on the gold side? 

There's a folder in the back and a pouch for holding stickers, invitations or anything else you may need to keep up with. Mine is currently holding my poop stickers that I plan to mark exam dates with next semester. Standing in line at Michaels with two packs of poop stickers and nothing else pretty much sums up my life, honestly. 

Side note: "Keep it together" was on my wall in french back in my college days, (aka like two months ago) so I thought it was fate a cool coincidence that it showed up in my new planner. 

I've used washi tape to label my work schedule as well as Landans. His shifts are once every third day and I can't figure that out in my head, I'm constantly having to look at a calendar to see if he'll be available. 

P.S. This Winky Poop was literally calling my name. There was no possible way I could wait until my first exam to put him into my planner so I put it on the day my immunizations are due for Nursing school. Because I'll be in deep Winky Poop if I don't get them in on time. ;)

Finished Jewelry Box (FINALLY!)

Don't judge me for how long this took, Okay? It's the end product that matters and I'm pretty pumped about the end product, if I do say so myself!

Everything has a happy, happy home. :) The necklaces are on smaller drawer knobs, with space left for the longer lengths. The earring each have a hook, and when I inevitably get more jewelry the hooks can each hold a set of earrings if need be. 

SUCH a step up from the first box, and lets not even talk about how much better this is than the purple bag everything lived in for a few months. 

 The lace is PERFECT for studs. Plus, these knobs were originally over 9 dollars at Hobby Lobby and I got them for less than 3 dollars each on clearance. Be right back, y'all, I'm currently taking a bow and patting myself on the back. Of course they required some handiwork, the screw on the back (official word for it? anybody???) was about 6 bajillion times too long so I sawed it off (whoop!) and BOOM! Perfect. 

Bonus points if you can spot both Landan and my high school class rings. Now they aren't stuffed in a mystery drawer anymore and many many years from now we will actually be able to look at them and think about the memories and all that sappy crap. 

P.S. This bad boy is a beautiful purple, not poo poo brown. It's a trick of the light, people, I promise. 

One Month in Blog land

I cannot believe I have actually kept up with this blog for a month now! It's been in existence for about 2 years, but I haven't exactly been posting regularly... Or at all, at any point during those 2 years. 

 I know that I mostly post about our DIY's and crafts but I also want to take the time to post a little update on our lives. This snapchat form my other half pretty much sums it up.

When we moved here, Landan had been working for the fire department for a few weeks doing training and orientation, but was just starting on an actual shift. One month in and he finally caught his first actual fire yesterday. Obviously not a great day for the car owner, but it was a great day for Landan to finally get to put his skills to use!

I have visited him at work a couple of times and I won't even start to pretend that I'm too cool to sit in the fire truck and turn on the sirens. It was really freaking cool. Obviously I had to wear Landan's helmet the whole time.  I'm so grateful to everyone at the department for being so kind and for eating all the baked goods I've made for them. I am a person who hates baked goods but loves to bake, so it's really nice to be able to make pumpkin muffins on a whim and not have to eat pumpkin muffins for the next 12 breakfasts in a row. 

I've been working at Justice for the last four weeks as well. This was my high school job and although this time around I'm in a management position, I still felt like it would be the perfect, peppy place for me to work during my next year and a half as a nursing school student. 

(PS if you saw Landan's Facebook post calling me out for being a huge diva about boots, those are them! Now you understand why I was so hell-bent on finding them. Between the boots and the good hair day I was having I felt a work selfie was justified.)

Soooooomeone decided it was a good idea to wake me up at 6:30 am last week to go watch the sunset from the Seawall. There was a promise of coffee so I was totally on board. I'm so glad he thought of this because it was absolutely beautiful, and also COLD. 

We are freezing in this picture, and believe it or not we were JUST on the beach less than 24 hours before this picture was taken in swim trunks and a bikini. I'll let you draw your own conclusions on who was wearing which. ;)

I have really enjoyed these past few weeks of sharing my little projects and fun day stories with every one! I'm so grateful for anyone who takes the time out of their busy day to check on Landan, Swarlie and I. Please keep coming back to see how and what we are doing!

Thanks and gig em, Yall! 

Engagement Photo Prop - Wooden Sign

Another one of my favorite DIY's for the engagement photos was our sign. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do exactly, because while chalkboards are fun and cute, I feel like I've seen them EVERY WHERE.  I don't know about you but there is only so much room for chalkboard paraphernalia (definitely had to spell check that word, no shame) in my life. I wanted to be a little different so I'm steering clear of all wedding things involving chalk. 

I was lucky enough to be able to find this sign already put together at Hobby Lobby in the wood section. 

I'm not talented enough to freehand lettering, so I had my mom cut out a stencil for me with her Silhouette. That thing is magic, I tell ya. I was able to use it to paint the lettering on. I should have sanded the wood some in order for the paint to go on smoother, but I liked the color and was afraid of losing some of that aged quality. 

Of course, I had to get my Swarlie cat involved in the pictures somehow. (First cat our photographers ever had at a session! Not sure how proud of that I should be...) Unfortunately I was unable to find a small version for her to hold, (ha), so I purchased some of Hobby Lobby's precut tiny, little, wood strips and hot glued them in the exact style of the larger one. It's pretty obvious in the picture that white was NOT the color to go with on her sign, it's almost illegible. If you can't read it, it says, "Me Too!"

This is one of my favorite parts of our shoot, because it has my guy's name on it, which is almost my name (eek!), and it's something I was able to make. Even if anyone takes my advice and makes their own, we will all end up with unique keepsakes that are special to us alone!

I also want to take a moment to talk about our photographers. First of all, as you can see by these photos, they are beyond talented. However, they are also two of the kindest people ever. From the first time I met with them for a consultation, I knew we made the right choice. Tony and Elena made the engagement pictures so much fun, which is really saying something, since we took these photos in a semi-crowded town, on Easter Sunday, with people literally staring at us the whole time. (Granted, we wanted to do them early in the morning when we could have the town to ourselves, but Landan and I were in the middle of school/EMT rotations in College Station so Tony and Elena were nice enough to meet us there on Easter while we were both in town.) Neither of us had any experience with professional photos but we felt comfortable through the entire experience. My bridal pictures are coming up next week and I can't wait to see Tony and Elena again! For their website, click here. If you want to see our entire set of engagement photos, they can be found (along with all of their other amazing work) at their blog, here.

 If you have any questions about how this sign was made, please don't hesitate to ask! What have you made to use as a prop in photos?

Throw Pillows

This is the story of how we made 5 throw pillows for less than 25 dollars. 

It's a short story because it was a super extra simple project.

P.S. I really need to retake this picture now that my diploma is on the wall too, but what are the odds I can get Swarlie to pose so perfectly again??

Aren't they pretty???

This was the easiest project ever, I promise! It was also crazy cheap, especially considering how good they look on our couch now. If I do say so myself. ;)

All we did was take two different fabrics, and cut them each into two 18"x18" squares. 

I sewed around the edges, being sure to backstitch on the corners for stability and then I turned them inside out and stuffed them. I butchered old pillows that we were going to throw out anyways and used the fluff as filling for our brand new happy pillows. I sewed up the remaining hole in the pillow by hand and that's it! So easy, and so fun. And SO cheap. We got the fabric 50% off and since the old pillows were FO FREE it came out to $25 for 5 pillows. And we still have fabric to spare! 

 Although if you take a nap on them your face will look like this. Well, not this handsome, but you get what I mean. ;)

So here is  a recap of things we still want to do in this room:

-Hang My Diploma Done!

-Build a side table for between the couch and chair. (Preferably along like the one I talk about in this post.) Our lamp will live on that table and I hope that our marquee letter T (this post) will look good up there too. It's currently standing in a corner. No one puts baby in a corner. 

Completely irrelevant but important sidenote: Does anyone else discuss the fact that Baby is reaaaally not actually in a corner, EVERY time they watch that movie? Or is that just the Beardens....

-Decide if I want to knit a blanket for the couch. I want to, but do we need two blankets out? I really love the blanket on the chair and I'm not willing to put that one away. 

-Build a very slim table for between the door and the couch. To put sunglasses, hats, etc. on when you walk in the door.

-An area rug. But of course we haven't found on we like. 

It's an ongoing process, but that's the best part about it!

Dresser Repaint - Part Two

Its done! To be honest, it was done before I even posted the first page about it, but we didn't have all of the knobs, so I couldn't post an after. :)

Of course, the day after the knobs at Hobby Lobby were 50% off, we picked out what we wanted. Being me, I couldn't pay full price RIGHT after they were on sale so I made Landan take a million trips to Hob Lob with me so that we could each use a 40% off coupon. You know how I've said in the past that he's a wonderful man? This man somehow made it through the line three, THREE different times at the same store with a coupon. 

Ladies, if you ever meet a man that can use five 40% off coupons (yup, two different stores, 5 coupons) in one day, marry that man. 

But not this one, because he's taken. :)

 So we left off without any paint, in this post. 

Also, before I go any further, I have an update on our sweet little dresser's history. My mammaw informed me that my great grandparents bought this (and the bed and desk that goes with it) when they married. IN 1930!! How cool is that? I'm even more in love now that I fully know this little guy's story. 

First we did the drawers. In this picture, they may not look different to you, but TRUST ME. So different! The old color was off white, dingy, and chipped. It is now bright white, with a satin finish that I love more than life it self!

Next we did the outer part. If you knew how much time I spent looking at dressers with gray drawers and white outside and vice versa trying to decide, you would laugh at me. But you know what? I don't even care because LOOK HOW PRETTY. 

Here is the top after just the first coat, we had to do a few more on it but it turned out so nicely. Also, we butchered all of our moving boxes and taped them together so we could have a place to spray paint them at our apartment. I bet our neighbors all hate us, between the painting and the power tools, (in this post). ;)

Can you hear them? The angels are singing. 

This picture has terrible lighting but it's what we *almost* chose for the knobs. The top is a smallish glass knob, and the rest of the drawers were going to be this really pretty dark gray. We brought home two to see if we liked them, and I'm glad we did. The more I looked at it the more I felt that there was too many different shades of gray going on. So we went back to Hobby Lobby and came home with THESE!

ARENT THEY PRETTY?

So here, in all it's glory, is the finished project. :)

And here, for your viewing pleasure, is my (failed) attempt to get Swarlie to sit on top of it for a photo shoot.