Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Serving Up a Makeover

You know how sometimes you get gifts for your wedding or your birthday or for some other reason, and you think that it’s a good gift but doesn’t really fit your needs? I’ve had a tray floating around my house for the past three years, stuck in storage, and serving no purpose at all.

It was one of those black photo collage trays, and I’m the world’s worst person about printing photos. It just wasn’t my style, and it definitely wasn’t working for me. It was working against me. I was beginning to think I just needed to give it a new home, but then I had a great idea of what to do with it.

Give it a makeover. A coat of paint and some fabric and it was good as new!

Don’t worry….I used a mask when doing this project for those of you worried about baby.

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I gave the tray a good spraying of primer before giving it a couple of coats of glossy white spray paint. After letting it dry in the blazing hot sun, I relocated it to the courtyard to finish the project.

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To give you an idea of what it looked like before, you can look at the photo above.

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To finish the project, I gathered my supplies. I actually had some fabric samples that have been sitting in a box for years. They were the perfect size to cut to fit. I ended up choosing the lighter colored fabric, but I could easily change it for whatever occasion was coming up.

Right now, there is a housewarming/baby shower planned to be happening in two weekends from now, so I thought the top fabric would fit perfectly with the blues, greens, and yellows.

I used the matte as my guide to cut my fabric. I cut it just a teeny tiny bit bigger than the matte, so the edges wouldn’t be shown through the glass. I then put the glass back in {clean}, laid my fabric flat, put the matte in behind it {for future use}, and attached the back.

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Voila! The final product! A much better fit for me! An easy, quick project!

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

A Big Day of Celebration

On this day three years ago, I married my very best friend, and I love him more now than I did then. Our love has certainly grown over these past three years, and our lives have changed a lot since then.

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I got a teaching job and finished my Master’s Degree. Colby became an Advanced EMT and went to more classes {near and far} than I could have ever imagined. We got a dog and bought a house.

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Now, three years later to the date, we celebrated the coming of our first little bundle of joy with my first ever baby shower in my honor at school. Did I mention that we only have two days of school left?!?! Can you sing “School’s Out For Summer”? You know you sang that like Alice Cooper. If you didn’t, you should be ashamed.

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Anyhow, the ladies of my grade level hosted an amazing shower that left me with a bundle of gifts that we are counting our blessings for. We are so thankful for so many people that have taken the time to make this baby transition as easy as possible.

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The décor and food was way more than one would expect in the school library. The lovely ladies in my grade level can take all of the credit for that. Absolutely lovely and delicious!

Baby Shower at School

And how fitting that my favorite flower was chosen to be a part of the décor as well!

Then, there was the cake….french vanilla…..and it was decadent. Super moist!

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Thanks to everyone who made my day today! For a week with a rough start, this sure did turn it around!

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

10 Bits of Randomness

{One}

It’s finally set in that this baby is coming and is coming soon. We’re three months away! I can’t believe how quickly all of this has gone by. I’ve been busy planning out the nursery, getting things ordered, and making plenty of lists of all the things that need to be done in there before I’m fully satisfied.

The fabric for the curtains came this weekend, so now it’s up to me to hand them over for someone to make them for me. One step closer! My mom is ordering the crib this week, and I’m hoping for a sale to come up at PB Kids before I order the bedding. That might be like asking for a miracle!

{Two}

Zeb turned one! It seems like we were just getting picture of him and trying to decide which one we wanted. Of course, we pretty much knew he was the one for us right away. Sometimes he makes us question our sanity, but we love him anyway. Luckily, he’s slowly but surely getting better behaved. I just hope this is a trend that continues.

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{Three}

Colby has been hard at work in the yard lately. That horrible stump is now gone thanks to Colby and one of our dear and generous friends. Colby’s new stump grinder is awesome! It’s easier to convince your wife that you need a stump grinder for the business when the big, ugly stump in the backyard can be made to disappear!

House Updates in January 2013

And the stump now….

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April 2013

Now, we just need to plant a tree and give some organization to the plants around it. I don’t know if we’ll ever get this giant flowerbed landscaped!

{Four}

Colby and a few friends around to help have been trying to get the posts ready for our new privacy fence! When that thing is done, I might be doing a little dance. For once, we’ll actually have some privacy and not be giving passers by the opportunity to sneak a peek inside our house from the street. Not to mention the fact that our neighbors will finally get some peace and quiet! Hallelujah!

{Five}

Colby also cut down the azaleas alongside the fence by the road, so our yard is kind of looking like a train wreck. Hopefully, the end is near and things will be better than ever! In the mean time, it may stress me out in this in-between stage.

{Six}

This week is Teacher Appreciation week. As a teacher, I can definitely say that it is a nice little pick-me-up when people just do something thoughtful to say thank-you for taking care of their children during the day and for teaching them and preparing them for the future. Don’t forget to thank your child’s teacher! A simple thank-you note does the trick!

I must give a big shout-out to our PTO and the 4th grade parents! Today, we had an awesome food spread of yummy finger foods….right up a teacher’s alley!

Yesterday, we got this bottle of smell-good soap.

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We are certainly not complaining, and I must say that the consensus is the same for all of the teachers I’ve spoken to.

{Seven}

My first baby shower is this month! What?!?!?! I can’t believe it is already time for that. I totally can’t wait though! Showers just make it that much more real! Especially since he’ll actually have things at our house and in his room finally!

And we even had a baby gift surprise this week that totally made my day!

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{Eight}

I had my first hydrangea bloom….little bitty or not…it still counts!

{Nine}

I have had a good run in this pregnancy so far, but I believe I’m finally entering the uncomfortable stage. Some days I feel great and could easily forget that the little guy is in there, but others like today really take a toll on me. The months of being semi-skinny are over, and the baby bump is making its appearance. No pictures….sorry. You’ll be lucky if you see too many of those. With the ever-growing baby bump, there comes the pains of stretching and making room for the little guy to hang out for another three months.

{Ten}

We have picked a name! And it is…..

Something I’m going to keep a secret until the very day he is born!

Since I haven’t got to share news about the little man in the way I planned thus far, I figured I could have some reign over that.

His initials, however, are LRL {first, middle, last}. 

Have fun guessing until then!