BE MY GUEST!

So remember about 8 months ago how I was all excited about re-doing my guest bedroom? Turns out my summer project turned into a much MUCH longer project than I had intended. Standard. But I'm all about doing things right the FIRST time, so it is what it is. I'm excited to finally get this blogged! I spent alot of time gathering inspirations and following tutorials to get the look we wanted for as little $$$$ as possible (although it still wasn't as cheap as I wanted, things never are these days... that's a blog for another day...) So next time you're in Idaho, we'd love for you to come and be our GUEST!

Remember this beauty??


First we sold everything to get some cash for the new look! And I mean EVERYTHING! Gotta love Craigslist!

And now for some inspiration. I have this lovely blank canvas and a guest room that needed to be created! I found THIS and fell in love with the color scheme. Grey, Yellow, White, and Black it would be. Walls were painted "Fashion Gray" from Home Depot's BEHR brand.

And WHALA!! Here's the final product! I just LOVE how it turned out... sometimes I surprise myself :) So come be my guest and you can stay in my lovely new room!

And now for the BREAKDOWN: Where did I find it, how did I make it, where did I buy it, etc.

FRAME: It just so happens that my neighbors up and left their house one day, and left a big pile of rubble in their driveway with a FREE sign! My favorite! White frame used to be blue... nothing a little $3 spray paint can't fix!

VINYL LETTERING: An inspiration from Hobby Lobby- found the quote there, but it wasn't the right color or size. So I bought my own vinyl using a 40% off coupon from Craft Warefouse and a friend in the ward helped me use her Cricut machine to cut it out perfectly!

VASE: Found on clearance from Graples Home Decor for only $10, what a steal!

FRAME: Already had it :)

HORSES: Don't be jealous, but Jason gave me those while we were dating (a story for another day!) and I've never had a good place to put them until now!

SQUARE FRAMES: These were a MUST HAVE item for me. Don't ask why, I just fell in love with them and had to have them somewhere in my room! Thus, they were one of the splurges in the room... $20 a piece from IKEA. But I love them.

PICTURES: The one on the left was taken by yours truly! Jason took the other two, and we had them printed at Costco for $3 each.

ARMOIRE: Yeah... I'm not gonna go over that again. Read THIS post!

CHAIR: Found this beauty for $6 on craigslist. Had a white seat originally and it was super easy to recover! I mainly needed it for my craft closet right there. That and the corner felt so empty! It fits perfectly though! :)

VASE: This incredible Tulip vase was given to us for our wedding, but it's been sitting in our cupboard since then! I was so excited to be able to display it because I just love it! Flowers and black sand was courtesy of Michaels and a 50% off coupon. $5 bucks.

R: Bought from Hobby Lobby for 0.75 cents and painted for $1.50

SHELVES: Got these beauties for FREE from a Home Decor Swap party! You bring your old (but still in good condition) home decor you don't use anymore and SWAP it! So fun, and so useful! Love them.

LAMP: My sister, Jill, made the mistake of showing me this lamp from Kirklands.com- Needless to say it was another splurge BUT it was a steal of a deal for a lamp! Got it for $30 bucks!

PICTURES & FRAMES: Already had those :)

SIDE TABLE: Okay! I am so excited about this one. I looked ALL OVER for a side table that met my demands and my budget. It did not exsist. So we built one! (Say Whaa?!) Found the blue print and inspiration HERE. It was definately a more tricky build, and Jason and I learned ALOT about what we know and what we don't know about tools, wood, angles, measurements, etc. But it was a fun project to do together and I just LOVE how it turned out! We definately surprised ourselves on this one! Only about $35, not too shabby! Painted it a "Du Jour" White from Lowe's VALSPAR brand.

WHITE PILLOW: This was my in-between General Conferences project last October :) Found my inspiration HERE but wanted it to look more like THIS so I changed it up a bit, and that's what I came up with! I think I spent about $25 on fabric and filling for all the pillows combined in the room. And I have tons of filling left over for future pillows! Yay!

BLACK PILLOW: This just might be my favorite pillow in the room! Made from a T-shirt out of my DI pile! Found the inspiration HERE and used it to cover up a pillow I made in my 8th grade home economics class... believe me when I tell you, you don't want to see what's underneath! :)

WINDOW SEAT: Do you know how expensive foam is? Holy cow! Seriously! I don't know how people sleep at night charging that amount. Luckily for me I didn't have to buy any because there was a large couch cushion laying in my neighbors big pile of rubble! How perfect is that? It wasn't quite the right size- but I cut it and re-shaped to make it work and saved like $25! Go me!

GRAY PILLOWS: Saw pillows at Walmart for $15 similar to these. Couldn't find any tutorials similar so I just kinda made it up... not too crazy about how it turned out but they will do.

YELLOW PILLOW: Do you know how rare yellow pillows are?? I hate looking so hard for something, only to find it for $30+ and that definately wasn't in the budget. I knew I wanted something like THIS and so the yellow pillow is what I ended up with just kinda winging it.

BED SPREAD: Why are they always so dang expensive? All I wanted was for it to be white and simple! Found this one at The Burlington Coat Factory for $80

HEADBOARD: Wow, there are some really ugly headboards out there. I was intending to re-do one from craigslist but saw THIS and knew it had to be built! This was our first major woodworking project, and I think it turned out pretty good! And especially for only $45! This was also painted a "Du Jour" White from Lowe's VALSPAR brand.

1993 Christmas List

Pay close attention to #4...

PLEEEAASE VOTE FOR ME!!!

I am in the top 3 to win FREE LASIX! I am so excited, but I need your help! Please take a moment to follow the link below and register to vote for me! If these crazy eyes do anything for me in this life... it'll be to get me free lasix! Thanks so much for your help, and maybe next time I see you... it'll be WITHOUT glasses!! I can't thank you enough! I owe you!


PLEEEAASE VOTE FOR ME!!!!
http://www.1033kissfm.com/pages/landing_contest?contestID=2438

(I have never done this much begging in my life!)

FINALLY!!!

BEHOLD, THE CHAIR!

Remember this little puppy that I posted about MONTHS ago? Well it is finally done! It's actually been done for a while- everything except the back pillow, and I didn't want to post about it until it was completely finished. And now it is!! WAHOO! So I picked this up on the side of the road back in May... it had a lovely cardboard "FREE" sign on it- Jason was out of town, so
I decided to start a little project! Which actually turned out to be a rather BIG project. But oh well. I think in the end this ended up costing around $80 which was more expensive than I thought it would be, but WAY cheaper than it would be to buy it! So it's a win win.

It took up my parking spot for a while- it was way too dirty and super STINKY, so I didn't take it inside until I was ready to put the new fabric on.

I read numberous blogs, tutorials, and DIY websites to make sure I did it right- but I don't think I could have done it without Jill! She is a DIY diva and I probably called her 100 times to get it right. She even mailed me her staple gun which was AMAZING! I love sisters :)

So this is pretty much what it looked like for a while... I just wanted to be done with it, but it still needed pillows for sure.

TA-DA! The back pillow was probably the most challenging part of the whole project, probably because it didn't have one before and I had to make it up. It turned out okay for a first timer. I'm just so glad to have it finished! (And I'm sure Jason is too! He's such a trooper!) Hooray for make-overs!

Now don't think I forgot to post about my guest bedroom makeover... it's not quite done yet either, but it's getting close!! Here's a little sneek peak! (And no, the headboard is not done in this picture.)

SUMMER UPDATE!

Here's a little update of what we've been up to this summer! I'll let the pictures do the talking!

TEMPLE TRIP WITH THE RAYMONDS.

MY BIRTHDAY DINNER AT TUCANOS WITH GOOD FOOD AND GREAT FRIENDS!

FOURTH OF JULY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!

PIONEER TREK AT MARTIN'S COVE!

RAYMOND MINI-REUNION AT COPPER BASIN, CAMPING!

AFTER 4 1/2 YEARS...HE SHAVED IF OFF!!

BOISE MUSIC FESTIVAL- MC HAMMER'S IN THE HIZ-OUSE!

Summer Projects!

I have been a busy little bee over the last several weeks! This summer I decided our lamo guest bedroom needed a major re-do! Our old guest bedroom was filled with leftovers... miss-matched furniture, ugly bedspread from Jason's college days, random picture frames, and even a "Nothin' Runs Like A Deere" sign that Jason LOVES (incase you didn't know he has a little thing for John Deere... it's a sensitive subject at our house!) You can kinda see it above the window in our "BEFORE" picture:

(hopefully the sign will be going in the garage soon... crossing my fingers...)

So over the past 8 months I have been getting rid of stuff and selling it on craigslist. I sold EVERYTHING I could- I sold the bed, bedspread (not the one pictured), Jason's old stereo, our DVD player (who needs one when you have an xbox?), etc. You get the picture! So the money I got from selling our stuff went into my secret stash (except it wasn't that secret, cause Jason knew about it)- until one day I had enough to start dreaming and designing our new guest bedroom! First thing was first- I wanted to move the guest room from the back room to the front room which was Jason's office. So I kicked him out (nicely) and move everything to the back room- since it was empty from selling everything! Here's the before pictures:



Now, in my "dream guest bedroom" there was a place for me to put all my craft stuff and place for me to DO my crafts and leave a mess until it was complete... and do all of this without Jason complaining about the mess which means it would have to be out of site! So I did a little research and designed my "craft closet" to accomplish all those things and put Jason straight to work!
Then we had to decide on a color for painting! This is always the hardest part for me because it totally sets the tone for your room and I wanted to get it right. So we bought a couple of sample colors and debated for a while- we knew for sure we wanted to paint the ceiling white cause who wants to lay in bed and look at a tan ceiling? Lame.
My finished craft closet! Complete with a desk and plenty of shelving for all my crap! LOVE IT! Jason is such a stud- he even crawled in the attic and installed an outlet in the closet (YES! AN OUTLET INSIDE OF THE CLOSET!) That way I can have my sewing machine set up without anyone having to see it! LOVE IT!
We finally decided on "Fashion Gray" and just a plain flat white for the ceiling. I LOVE the way it turned out!
(Guess what's inside that closet? Hehe! Now you know my secret!)
I have decided that working on a budget is not all that it's cracked up to be. For example, this armoire Jason has had since college and it just screams "sell me!" BUT since it is made of crappy particle board and not a real solid wood I knew we wouldn't be able to get very much for it. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with particle board furniture- this piece is in great condition and pretty sturdy... it's just ugly :)
So I painted it! I have never refinished something with a veneer finish on it, but it is not something I would recommend. It took FOREVER to get the finish off, but I do think it's worth it! I LOVE how it turned out with about 5 layers of "Du Jour" white. SO SO glad that it's finally done!


It's not over yet folks! This bedroom needs a bed! And that part is to be continued... (because i don't have one yet!) But stay tuned for a re-do of THIS baby! It is sitting naked in my garage right now- stripped of all that gross plaid fabric. I just returned from the fabric store and it is going to be FAB-U-LOUS!

Praying for those who need it most

Incredible story of a family who needs our prayers. Read on...
(this one's for you ERIN!)

http://www.dennyandwendy.blogspot.com

My Official Race Photo!!

(The official ones always make you look better than you actually do...)

25 pounds and a MARATHON

I, like most of you, made New Years resolutions at the beginning of the year. They were similar to past years resolutions, but I was determined to make this year different. I was determined to actually DO them! (what a concept- I know!) The thing that really got me going was a competition that Jason and I entered at our gym. It was a couples weight-loss competition and the winners got $2,000 gift certificate to a travel agency! Jason and I REALLY want to go on a cruise, so that was our motivation for the competition. I was so proud of how hard we worked! It was only a 4 week competition and I lost 14 pounds and Jason lost 10! Although we didn't win, I was motivated to keep going and actually get in shape. To give myself even more motivation, I decided to cross something off of my bucket list... and actually register for a full MARATHON!



Today, I completed the Famous Idaho Potato Marathon in Boise- and I have a metal, and a bright yellow shirt with a picture of a potato on it to prove it! My legs have NEVER felt so sore before, but my self esteem has never been so high before! Completed a Marathon? CHECK!! The training for a marathon is very time consuming and you have to be very dedicated, so I'm happy to have a small part of my life back!



Jason is my hero. He drove my friends and I up to the starting line at the crack of dawn and then he raced ahead and met me about every 4-5 miles along the course! When I got tired I would think to myself "Just make it to Jason!" and without fail, he would be there cheering me on and carrying my bag of goodies with him so I didn't have to take a pack on the course. He also made a fantastic photographer! So yes, Jason is my HERO!

Alanya Wyne, ME, and Erin Keller

A picture to prove that we started the course!

A picture to prove that we RAN the course.
(At mile 13- almost half way, and still smiling!) And a picture to prove we finished the course!

I only trained up to 16 miles for this race, so I had no idea how long it would take for me to run a marathon. I guessed about 5-5 1/2 hours. I was pleasantly surprised when I crossed the finish line just under 5 hours at 4:59.34!

I have lost 25 pounds since my new years resolution and I ran a MARATHON.

'NOUGH SAID.