Dressers

Remember the furniture in the junk room I told you about? 

Well, look who made it out to the garage!

(Please excuse my trash cans. They didn't get a makeover.)

I was inspired to paint these a "Pottery Barn" black after seeing a DIY tutorial on Pinterest. 

I followed the pin to the blog and got moving.

Since the lady in the blog used Benjamin Moore products, I made a stop to 

my local Benjamin Moore store to grab my supplies.

Foam roller, brush, primer, paint tray, gloves and the paint.

             

This isn't the exact paint the blog used but after talking to the guy at the Benjamin Moore store, he recommended I go with a satin, oil based paint (make sure you wear gloves and have plenty of mineral spirits on hand or this paint will NOT come off of you!)

The furniture didn't have a strong finish on it, so just some light sanding did the trick. Then I added one coat of primer so the paint would really have something to grab on to.

I allowed these to dry overnight, and started painting the next day. With the help of my mom (this wasn't her first rodeo), we cranked these babies out in a few days.

We applied 2 coats of the black paint, allowing 24 hours for each coat to dry. 

As the last coat was drying, I made my way to Hobby Lobby to pick out some knobs. Are you ready for the best part? I got 16 knobs (10 for the dresser, 6 for the desk) for $24!! 

Thank you for your generous bargains, Hobby Lobby. 

I chose small, clear, glass knobs for the desk.

And broze colored ones for the dresser. 

I used 2 fancier ones on the top drawer,

and on the bottom 4 drawers, I used simpler detailed ones.

The final product? 

This is in our sitting room, which is an area on the other side of the kitchen from the living room. I have the intent of it being a cozy, reading nook.

The dresser is in our upstairs guest bedroom.

While shop was set up, I decided to do our dresser in the master bedroom. 

I followed the same process. It looks really good...in our garage. 

It seems to be taking longer than expected to get that one finished, for whatever reason. 

But I don't mind. 

Laundry is so much easier to put away when you don't actually. put. it. away.

the GRACE project

Please visit my friend, Laura's blog

twirl [lbr]

She is one of my dearest, sweetest friends.

She has such a pure heart.

(And an amazing blog!)

Scroll down

See that cool icon labeled

The Grace Project?

Click on it.

It's pretty cool.

Burlap Wreath

I've been on a DIY kick lately and I'm LOVING it! I would like to thank (or blame) Pinterest. I found a burlap wreath tutorial from this blog and decided to give it a shot. I wanted a cute wreath for my front door but wasn't willing to break the bank. This wreath seemed to be just perfect!

I went to JoAnn's fabric store and picked up a big ol' pile of burlap. It was about $2 a yard. So I got 10 yards. You can always find a use for burlap, right Lindsay?

I grabbed a hanger from my closet and formed it into a circle. Easier said than done.

I rolled out the burlap and practiced my catwalk got to cutting my strips.

In order for my strips to be straight, I needed some guidance. I grabbed one strand of the burlap and pulled. This provided me an open space for my scissors to follow.

I cut away, cutting strips about 4 inches wide.

Now it was time to get scrunching and poking. The blog suggested poking the hanger through the burlap in 3 inch folds, but I found this technique to be easier:

Fold the burlap like an accordion,

Squeeze it together like an accordion-burlap sandwich (yummy),

Poke the hanger through the entire bunch, 

And feed it down the hanger.

I continued this until the hanger was full, probably about 5 yards of burlap. As far as connecting the ends of the hanger goes...I pretty much man-handled it with a pair of pliers and called it a day. 

I wanted to spruce up my wreath a little, so I bought some brown ribbon, and a wooden "E" from Hobby Lobby. Since I have a paint shop set up in my garage and plenty of black paint (are you feeling the suspense? Stay tuned for the post this week!), I painted my "E" black and wired it onto the wreath.

The finished product...

I like how the burlap is stringy and messy. I also like that my front door is decorated :)

 

Garage Floor

The first thing on our "to-do" list was the garage floor. We knew if we waited too long and got settled in we'd be less motivated to do it.

Frank and I moved within walking distance of a Home Depot. I hate Home Depot. Hate it. It smells funny, has nothing exciting to offer -- except maybe the doorbell section -- and you always end up forgetting only one item, which forces you to go back in order to finish your project. Ugh.

Luckily, we only needed this sweet little kit. My dad helped us do this, since my parents had done this to their garage floor a few years ago. 

Not to discourage you, but it's quite a tedious process and requires a lot of patience. We began by clearing out the garage (translation: back the cars out and move them to the front of the house). Check.

Next we had to scrape excess "gunk" off the floor. I'll spare you the gory pictures of us scraping the floor clean. Kidding, it wasn't gory, I just didn't have my camera. And it really wasn't gross at all, quite boring, on hands and knees with a scraper-like-tool. Check.

Then we applied the acid wash, called an "etcher". The directions said to dilute it with water, and use a watering can to sprinkle the solution on the floor. We sprinkled each quadrant, scrubbed it with a giant scrubbing brush, rinsed it with the hose, and squeegeed it. After we finished, we had to wait until it was completely dry. 

                                         

LUNCH BREAK.

When we got back, we were ready to rock. We painted each quadrant, a 4x4 square at a time. Frank and my dad painted, I decorated with the "sprinkles/fairy dust". (You can see the detail of the floor on the box. I thought I got a picture but I guess not. I suppose I could go downstairs and take a picture now, but that would require a lot.)

We finished in about an hour and a half, slowly painting ourselves out of the garage. Check out the finished product:

So clean you can eat off of it. And we did...that night. Kidding, we had to wait for it to dry which required us staying off of it for about 3 days. But it looks great! And it's a nice touch to a boring, dirty looking garage floor.

We're Moving!

Appliances have been installed. 

 Carpet is brand new. 

Blinds are up. 

Movers come this morning.

I'm exhausted.

But totally excited!

Proposal

Geno and Gina are getting MARRIED!!

9.17.11

Last weekend, we flew up to Ohio to celebrate Geno and Gina's engagement. We had known about this for a while and we were excited that the weekend had finally arrived!

Geno met us at our hotel on Friday evening and gave us a tour of his sweet, little town, Hudson, Ohio. We dined on fine, fine Mexican food and chatted about our excitement for the next day. We left Geno on Friday night with lots of hugs and words of encouragement. Anticipation was pouring out of the guy! 

Frank and I, my sister and my parents went to Gina's parents' house early on Saturday afternoon. We walked around their gorgeous property -- played with the ducks, fed the goats. We all ate lunch together, giddy to receive a phone call.

Geno and Gina arrived around 3:30. As if you couldn't tell by her shock/excitement/surprise, Gina didn't know we were there! She even called my parents and my mom had to make up a "story" about whatever she was doing in Atlanta at the time. Oh the love and joy in lying in order for an engagement to run smoothly.

surprise!

My brother. He did such a great job planning this out. Gina loved every second of it -- it was so sweet to see how Geno's planning was perfect for her!

Gina with her parents

We screamed and hugged, hugged and screamed. We regained our vision after being blinded by the sparkly friend on Gina's hand. Geno popped champagne and we toasted to the bride and groom to be!

happy happy girl.

Group photographs were taken. Normal and silly. I'll let you decided which is which. 

Geno had one more surprise up his sleeve. We headed to dinner and as we arrived, Geno and Gina's sweet, friends were there, holding "CONGRATS Geno & Gina" signs. I got chills when we pulled into the parking lot and they were all lined up -- talk about a welcoming/congratulatory committee. (congratulatory committee?)

yayy! friends

The rest of the evening was full of laughs, picture taking, and great conversation. I am so excited for Geno & Gina as they begin this new journey in their lives. They will be in the Lord's hands, with tremendous support and love around them.

You have to wait for your bling, brother :)

Game Days

There is one thing that I love more than anything about Fall -- a crisp, cool morning that smells of a long run followed by college football. I've come to love watching college football even more since graduating because it allows me an excuse to see friends every weekend. It's like an extension of wedding season. Perfect.

*Another reason I know it's fall is because the Pumpkin Spice Latte is back. Confession: I have yet to be able to fall in love with it. I know half of you are reading this with your jaw on your keyboard. Pick it back up. I promise to give it another chance.

Back on topic.

Frank and I headed to Athens last weekend for the UGA vs. South Carolina game. Frank's birthday always falls within a few days of the South Carolina game, so we made a point to sing happy birthday! Our bestcouplefriends, Lindsay and Travis have season tickets and go to every game, so we decided to hop in their car and ride with them. Road trips, not matter the length, are always fun! It gave us an opportunity to catch-up on each other's lives and get filled in on their wedding planning!! They are getting married next June. Frank and I couldn't be more excited to be beside both of them, celebrating their special day as they become husband and wife :)

bestfriend.

We stopped by the Beta Theta Pi house, Frank and Travis's fraternity, to see some new renovations. We mingled for a little bit then got the heck outta dodge. We're too old for frats.

We didn't plan the outfits. Coupletwins.

girlfriends

Frank and I didn't have tickets to the game, so we watched the game in a bar/restaurant with our friends, Mallory and Barrett. Despite an upsetting loss, we had a awesome time spending time with friends and cheering on the Bulldogs.