polaroids

I was tired of this generic IKEA art. (excuse my doorbell) This is the "hallway" (its more square) between our bedrooms and bathroom and the dining room/ studio.I had seen a generic heart made out of polaroids in the window @ fossil around Valentines. So this had been stewing in the back of my head for awhile. I downloaded and used a free polaroid program and converted a bunch of pictures of us into polaroids. It makes them a little off center sometimes and makes the colors more like a polaroid too. I waited for Walgreens print 25 free, and printed 25 free. Britton printed 25 free for me too :) They ended up with the top and bottom correct, but the sides were not right, so I cut white cardstock and used a glue stick to make side borders.

It takes up a much larger part of the wall and it's so fun to see all of those fun memories and experiences all the time. :)

I tried to used double stick tape, but quickly realized that wouldn't work, so I used a small rectangle of foam mounting tape to hang each picture. The tape and my time were the only costs : )

Yay for being married to my best friend!

Happy Graduation!

A kid @ school and I had our schools "party" together. He was 7, I was 27 :) We had Lego cupcakes. It was awesome!! They had lego rings... :) His mom had hot glued one lego to a large flat ring and then stuck a few more legos on top. It made for lots of fun!!May always seems to soar by with weddings, graduations, and recitals, spring concerts, etc. I had 2 graduations that needed gifts. :) My sweet SIL (Britton's littlest sister) graduated from High School- she's headed to Knoxville, TN and I'll help craft stuff for her dorm room later in the summer. I mad her a gathered clutch ala Noodlehead. I loved how it turned out and have a few ideas up my sleeve for more gathered stuff.
A friend from work has a daughter who's headed to UK, I don't know the graduate well so I went with UK pillowcases :) I used a tutorial and they went together pretty easily. :)

Happy Father's Day! Maybe I can get caught up soon, Blogger was giving me grief this week.

DC Birthday Trip

As previously mentioned, Britton treated me to a extra-long weekend/birthday trip to Washington DC. He was super thoughtful and planned way ahead, reserving us a spot to stay with friends and scheduling tours etc. It was SOO much fun and really only our second time to really travel together since our honeymoon, besides visiting family, etc.

This picture is us after our tour of the Capital, here we are in the National Archives. It was a beautiful building and fun to see an original Gutenberg Bible.
Here is me, near the capital :)
Starr and Steven, our friends who we stayed with, went with us to dinner to celebrate. We ate at a yummy Mexican restaurant. Chips and salsa are one of the ways to my heart. <3
We had popsicles on the mall between Smithsonians.
Britton hung out with C3PO.
We got to see many of the memorials. The WWII memorial hadn't been here when both of us had traveled to DC with our families/school. It was very cool to see. It was dusk and the sun set was so pretty!

We saw the Vietnam and Korea memorials after dark, with tours from the National Park Rangers. That was one of our favorite things. I got a pencil and rubbed my Great Uncles name off the wall. It is sobering to rembember that my freedom comes at such a cost.
The Korean Memorial was Britton's favorite. It just seemed very real and personal. It was very neat to see it in the dark.
We went to Arlington. We saw a wreath ceremony at the tomb of the unknown soldier. It made both of us cry. So neat. A guy I went to highschool with is burried in Arlington and I looked him up.
The Seabee memorial is just outside Arlington. My Pappaw was a SeeBee, building runways, etc. for the Navy on the Pacific Islands.
Here is us outside the Whitehouse.
Here is our tired faces, after packed days of sightseeing, and the long drive home in the rain.
SOOOO MUCH FUN! Thanks Britton, this will be hard to top :)

28 before 28

This is my list of 28 things I want to do before I turn 28. (355 days :) )

1. Run a Race

2. Monthly Planned Dates/Adventures with Britton

3. Use my projector

4. finish a quilt

5. Save/tithe

6. girlscookguysclean

7. build a piece of furniture

8. camp red river gorge

9. at least 4 wreaths

10. memorize Romans 8

11. Picnic

12. Host 4 seasonal dinner parties

13. Awesome Birthday for Britton

14. Send at least Birthday Cards on Time

15. Trip with Sisters

16. sell stuff on etsy

17. 2 weekend trips with BDR out of town

18. Print Wedding Photos

19. Read a biography

20. Colorado Pillow

21. Long Weekend with Kimmi

22. Photo Wall

23. 10 more license plates

24. paint a chevron wall

25. Thanks Journal

26. Create a Decorative Family Tree

27. Pay off 2 credit cards

28. cook 3x weekly (not eating out)

27s best

I turned 27 last weekend. :) My husband treated me to an amazing trip to DC. It was SOOO wonderful!! :)
This is the first of my 3 birthday posts. I wanted to list the 27 best parts of my year.... things, parts, and people that I'm so very thankful for! In no particular order:

1. Colorado Trip
2. My awesome amazing fun and wonderful Co-workers

3.Kristy’s Phone calls
4.Snowboarding

5. Kelly- our study
6. Having a studio
7. K-1st Derby
8. 2 Years!
9. Friend's Thanksgiving
10. Blog inspiration- including but not even close to limited to...
http://katieemrich.blogspot.com/
http://www.houseonhillroad.com/
http://www.ohfransson.com/
http://eliseblaha.typepad.com/
http://alisaburke.blogspot.com
http://chaletgirl.wordpress.com/

11. BAT and Scott
12. Casey and Emily
13. First Craft Show
14. Zoo Trips
15. KY Fall
16. Wonderful and Supportive Parents
17. SingAlongs :)
18. Wedding Bee
19. Paint Chips20. Lisa Tobe
21. Married to my Best Friend
22. MJ and Ryan's Wedding
23.Wine Tasting
24. Susan Beach
25. Reunions

26. Starbucks






27. DC Birthday Trip

My Awesome Rug!

I am still trying to catch up, but wanted to share one of my recent most favorites :) I started with a tan carpet square for $2.99 from Meijer. Then I covered it in tape strips and drew on my faux bois (wood grain) pattern.

I then cut the tape on the lines. The white parts stayed on my rug and the colored in parts got trashed.

Then I used my brown spray paint and made sure it had even coverage. :) I waited for it to dry- impatiently and hoping.

I am thrilled with how it turned out! I was glad to get my poinsettia rug put away :) It is a tiny bit small for an entryway rug. When I do it again I will get a more expensive ($5) rug! :) The tape was a little hard to work with, I think i would just use paper and tape it down well, or use contact paper, next time.

I can definitely see myself making these with monograms or fleur de lis etc. for shower/ wedding presents.