Rental House Update

Since we've had a little extra time on our hands, Andrew and I decided to put some muscle work into our rental house!  We painted a couple accent walls in both the den and dining room!  Andrew is an incredible handyman, however painting is just not his cup of tea!  Luckily I found I love painting, so I did the trim and corners, and Andrew rolled everything else out.  What do you think?

The photo doesn't do the color justice. It's a beautiful gray that isn't as purple as this photo shows. 

Quick Freezer Update

At the moment I'm on a big Paleo kick but unfortunately our tiny freezer was not able to manage our trips to costco and the grocery store. It seemed like a smart choice to buy a stand alone freezer to store all our extra food. That's where this sexy beast came along. 

I paid $80 for this beaut, not to shabby for a gal this size (seriously she's huge). As soon as I saw her though, I knew I had to do something about that hideous color. I mean, she's really a terrible pale yellow that the above picture doesn't quite grasp. I figured I would paint some chalk paint on the front door so we could have a running chart of exactly what we have inside. 

I swept myself off to Michaels (I prefer Hobby Lobby but it's the next town over and much more of a drive) and picked up some chalk paint. I decided to splurge a little and buy the Rust-oleum brand since I figured this freezer will probably have a lot of writing and wiping. The can cost me $25 but I still have more than half the can left (and that's after 3 coats). 

Here's the beginning of the first coat. 

One coat down - 2 to go! The can actually said you only need 2 coats but I could still see some of that horrible yellow coming through, so I did 3. 

Last coat drying. It suggests waiting 4 days to let the paint fully settle before you "prime" it. With any chalk paint you need to coat the entire surface with a layer of chalk. This helps all future chalk to come off fairly easily. 

There's my layer of chalk. 

And then you wipe it off with a damp cloth. 

And here's the finished product. I bought some nifty chalk markers from the Hobby Lobby and they are totally worth their $12 price tag. Of course I wanted to create a beautiful Pinterest-worthy chalk design, but I figured a list would better suffice my needs. 

So there you go. Ugly freezer to still ugly, but more functional freezer!

A Few of my Recent Favorites

I feel like I've been running around like a crazy person the last couple weeks.  Everything just started all at once: school, work, more work, house keeping...lame.  I've compiled a few things that made me pause and smile these past weeks.  I hope you enjoy them too!

1. I'm a sucker for beautiful photography and I instantly fell in love with these shots that Nick Brandt took at the shoreline of Lake Natron in Tanzania.
2. I'm a CrossFit addict.  I've joined the ranks of the CrossFit cult...I practically live at our local box, mainly because I work there, but that's another story!  If you follow health related media at all I'm sure you would have seen the controversy over the pregnant mom who CrossFits.
3. Ever since I first saw this beautiful Photographer's Tripod Floor Lamp from Pottery Barn I knew I needed it in my life.  Unfortunately I could never justify that price tag.  Luckily, I ran across this the other day - a DIY spotlight tutorial!  Yay!
4. With Halloween around the corner, and all those cute costumes on Pinterest, I was quickly reminded of the horrors of Halloweens past with these photos.
5. Jamie Moore is in incredible photographer, and an even cooler mom.  Check out these portraits she made of her daughter.

Halloween Masks

Have you ever thought how hilarious it would be to show up to a Halloween party as your friend? You know you could dress like them and mimic their hilarious ticks. Well now there's a website that allows you to make a mask out of anyone's face...you just need their photo!

PopMask is a spin off of the company that brought you the face pillow (found here).  If you order today, you will receive your mask in time for Halloween!

I stumbled upon this creepy little gem while on Photojojo. If you haven't visited them, they are one of my favorite sites and sell all sorts of gadgets for your phone/camera! 

Closet Upgrade

Slowly but surely I'm going to make this little rental house our home, but I got a swift kick up the bum last week when my parents called to say they were coming to visit!  I don't know about you guys, but I work much better under pressure, so I saw this as the perfect opportunity to make a few changes in our house.

Mainly I just needed to do a general clean around the house.  Unfortunately our second bedroom has been used as a storage facility for all our crap, so that was the first thing that needed to be done.  I managed to purge the closet of 2 full garbage bags of give away clothes, and 2 full bags of trash!  After getting rid of all that junk I realized that the room is actually pretty nice, except for the horrible sliding closet doors.  They're so ugly and junky I had to get rid of them.

Horrible. Ugly. Had to go!

Luckily Liv came over and we made a Target run to get a few things I needed to upgrade the closet (as well as a few pieces for the rest of the house).  We wound up finding these curtains at a bargain so I jumped on it.  I wasn't sure how the colors were going to fit in with the bedroom (the owner has pink curtains on the windows...), but it actually came out rather nice.

I wasn't sure about the color at first, but it looks fabulous in the room!

Yay!  I love saving money!

In total, the whole thing cost only $35.  Not too bad for a quick upgrade!

Excuse the closet mess, still have to clean that up!

So much nicer than those ugly wood sliding doors!

Tutorial: How to Create a Transparent Photo in Word

I originally saw this on Pinterest, but when I went back to give credit I couldn't find the original post.  If I do find it, I will certainly link.

As part of my bridesmaid package, I decided to create something special and unique for each girl.  At some point I saw a tutorial on Pinterest for making a photo transparent in Microsoft Word.  I thought that was an absolutely brilliant way to specialize each card to the girl!

This is how I did it.

Step 1:
Open up your document in Word.  Here I have already created the front and back of my 'Will You Be My Bridesmaid?' card.

Step 2:
Now you want to insert your photo into the word document.

Step 3:
When you insert your photo it will likely push your writing (if you have any) onto another page.

Step 4:
While your photo is selected, you want to change how the photo interacts with the text.  You need to be under the 'Format Picture' tab (highlighted in purple on the top) and then select the 'Wrap Text' box (which is the one with the dog and lines behind it).  Select 'Behind Text' - this will bring your text on top of your photo.

Step 5:
Now you can make your photo transparent.  To the left of the 'Wrap Text' box is the Transparency scale.  As you drag the triangle to the right or left your photo will become more or less transparent.  Play around with it until you find the transparency you want.

Step 6:
Voila, you are done!

DIY Leather Luggage Tags

As part of my bridesmaid package I decided to send my girls luggage tags.  Frankly, I'm asking each of them to spend quite a lot of money, especially on flights, so I figured I should give them something nice.  I browsed Etsy for luggage tags, and although there were some beautiful ones, it just wasn't in my budget, so DIY it was.

I chose leather because I think it's a nicer material for a luggage tag.  It's sturdy and it looks classy on any bag.

I live in a small town, and yet we have 3 craft stores around!  I went to all 3 in order to get the leather I was looking for!  Finally at the last store, Hobby Lobby, I found the perfect leather.  I do have to say Andrew and I were completely overwhelmed when we walked into Hobby Lobby.  The store is basically the size of your average Target, and has just as much stuff!  Insane!  We had to ask for directions in order to find the leather aisle.

Simple round leather  / Hobby Lobby

I also had to buy a tooling kit for the leather, so I can make the impressions.  I also found that at Hobby Lobby (what an excellent store).  I just got the basic letter and number set.  This was probably the most expensive part of the whole project ($26.99, but if you use a coupon it's 40% off)!

Tooling Set / Hobby Lobby

The most frustrating thing I came across is that there are no instructions on exactly how to imprint on the leather.  But luckily there was a handy leathering book in the aisle at the store.  It's incredibly easy.

Step 1:
Wet the leather with a damp cloth (in my case I used a paper towel).

With leather everything should be done in circular motions.  Don't swipe the cloth, move it in circles around the leather.  This gives it a more even coverage.

Step 2:
Wait for your leather to return close to the natural color of the leather (the water will darken the leather).  This part doesn't take much time, as long as you didn't soak your leather.
Once the color returns line up your letter/numbers where you want them and then whack the end of the tooling instrument with a rubber mallet.

Now there's definitely a trick to getting the letters to line up in a straight line.  I did not get this at first and definitely went through a few practice pieces of leather (like 5...). In the end I actually used a post-it note!  Weird I know, but the adhesive side kept it in place and the edge created the straight line I needed to guide me.

Step 3:
Punch a hole in the top of the luggage tag.  This is so you can attach a piece of string so your tag can be  attached to your bag!
This step really tripped us up, and I, unfortunately, have no pictures to show you.  We went to Home Depot and bought a grommet kit.  The grommets didn't actually fit because the leather is actually pretty thick (1/8"), so we just used the punching part of the kit and were able to punch pretty decent holes.

Step 4 (optional):
The leather I had chosen didn't match any of the leather strings that were available, so I decided to stain the leather pieces.  I wrote a short post about staining here.  The whole process is actually really easy and takes 5 minutes.  First I had to buy some stain, and yes you guessed it, I bought it at Hobby Lobby!

Eco-Flo Leather Stain in Desert Tan / Hobby Lobby

Just as with the water you need to move the stain in circular motions.  I practiced on a spare piece of leather, but I picked it up pretty quickly.  Once you've finished let the leather dry for at least a few hours - I just left mine overnight.

Step 5:
Now that my leather was stained it matched perfectly to the light brown leather string at Hobby Lobby. String isn't really the right word because it's pretty thick, but it serves the purpose.

Leather String / Hobby Lobby (similar)

Now you just have to fasten the string through the hole.  I had no idea how to do that, so I googled and found this video which was super helpful.




This is how mine came out.

Leather Staining

So I'm trying to not reveal too much on my blog, but every week I want to post something about my upcoming wedding!  I haven't asked my bridesmaids yet...because I'm planning something special, so I don't want to spoil the surprise!

BUT, I can share the following with you: as part of my asking the girls, I needed to stain some leather.  Please keep in mind that I haven't really been all that crafty in my previous life, so I'm learning as I go!

I drove out to the nearest Hobby Lobby (which is not an easy task as it's in the next town over and takes 20 minutes if you catch all the green lights) and bought some leather stain.  I ended up using Eco-Flo, mainly because it was the only stain with instructions on the bottle.  Seriously...the only one...

The dreaded leather stain

As you can see the bottle was $5.99, but I used my iPhone Hobby Lobby app for 40% off, so it only cost me $3.59.  Seriously a great deal because I still have the entire bottle left.  I have no idea what I'm going to use it for...but I'm sure I'll figure something out (or wind up keeping it for the next 10 years and then eventually throwing it away).

It even stained my fingers and nails!

The stain was super easy, but wound up staining my fingers too!  You just take a dry cloth and rub in the stain in a circular motion.  I had to practice on a scrap piece of leather a couple times, but you pretty much get the hang of it.

Stained cloth...probably will be throwing away!

Post staining

There you have it...all the leather stained.  I had 6 pieces and it took me less than 5 minutes from beginning to end.  The longest part is the dry time, but I just left mine on the table over night.

Now that this is done I just have to finish up the packages and get them sent off!  I'm sooo excited to have the girls open their boxes!