Headboard DIY

School is officially back in session and it is crazy to believe we are already into September! October is around the corner which means we should basically be planning for Christmas and New Years. With summer ending so do most of our DIY projects around here. But before summer officially closes I wanted to share our latest and in my opinion greatest DIY project to date.....

A HEADBOARD!

I have been telling Andrew I wanted a headboard since we updated from our queen to king bed but it always got put aside when we made larger purchases. I had come across a couple DIY's on Pinterest and had been actively pinning but never committing to building one until now. One day I had come across a DIY video on Facebook and thought it looked so easy I finally decided to commit.

In early August Andrew went on a vacation out to Virginia Beach to visit family and I stayed back. While he was gone I had two full weekends I had to fill and this became the project of choice. So off to Home Depot I went...

According to the video you will need the following:

-5 pine 1x8 cut to the width of the bed

-2 pine 1x4 cut to desired headboard height

-Plus two more for support

-Sand paper

-Stain

-1.5in/4cm wood screws

Since I was alone and we don't own very many power tools I went and picked out my wood and came with my measurements to have the wood pre-cut at Home Depot. In total the supplies ended up being approximately $60. 

After heading home I sanded the boards down and stained front and back unlike the video. I also decided I didn't need the lights on the headboard. As you can see in the last photo below we have bed side lamps that serve that purpose already. 

I did about two coats of stain and let them sit for over a week to ensure the smell of stain didn't come into the house. Plus, things picked up and I didn't have time to fully put the headboard together until the past weekend. Andrew obviously was no longer on vacation so he got to help put this beauty together! 

The photo above was pre-finishing. When the sheets were in the wash and we were seeing how secure our boards were. There is something about a headboard that makes a bedroom more homey to me! I haven't gone and taken a "final" photo because if we're being honest our bed is never neatly made and that would be the only difference in the two photos #honesty. 

Any suggestions for our next project?!

DIY Weekend

Last weekend was full of excitement- it started with a bachelorette party getting kicked out of a winery because of a tornado, the marriage of my best friend Stephanie, and two DIY projects for our house!

After wedding festivities Saturday we stayed with my parents in KC and spent Sunday and the holiday on Monday doing DIY projects I had on my radar. Since buying a home I've become a huge fan of Fixer Upper- who really isn't these days?- and one of the things I'd seen time and time again on the show were floating shelves. Typically they're in Joanna's kitchen design but Andrew was a no-go for those so we opted to put them in the bathroom to use for storage. Obviously, the way to go about doing any DIY project is to check Pinterest for inspiration and sure enough, there were even plans already made which made the project that much easier!

DIY Floating Bathroom Shelves 
-Since we are new homeowners we lack a tool collection aside from your average screw and screw driver so we opted for Home Depot to cut the wood to the length we wanted and used my dad's sander to smooth out the boards.
-The board we bought ended up being long enough to make three shelves with a small amount of excess wood.

And only after one stripped screw and a couple paint touch ups later the {a} shelf is hung (we have to finish painting the master bedroom before hanging the other two we made)!

The other project we DIY'd was a blanket ladder. For Christmas this past year my dad made us all wine racks and my mom a blanket ladder. Since then I've had my eye on them on Pinterest when the time came and I'd be able to make one. This one was a little more time consuming and needed more tools than we had so shout out to my dad for being handy and owning a saw! 

For this one we used Shanty Chic's plans. After sitting in our garage for a week so our house doesn't smell like stain here's the final product!

I made a comment to Andrew this morning that our house is finally starting to come together and I'll be so happy when we're done painting-only two more rooms to go! 

Sunday Project

Can't believe we are already into December and are fully into the Christmas season! This will be the first year I have a place that is "mine." I've always shared an apartment with roommates and had the liberty to do what I wanted but this year I've been responsible with making it my "home" and I've come to realize I enjoy cooking, crafting, and decorating more than I thought before.

In other apartments where I knew I'd be for a short year before I went home for the summer I never put more effort than to hang a poster on the wall and call it good. However, now our plan is to stay in one place for awhile. To be completely honest, that was one of the main things I was looking forward to after graduating grad school- have a place to live for more than 2 years. I was tired of moving. In our new apartment I have been able to really make it ours and have started to think more "domesticated" (I used to always call my best friend Stephanie this because she always was thinking in a Susie Homemaker way when I would just shrug these things off). 

One project I've been waiting to tackle is cleaning and re-doing my Kitchen Aid mixer. When Andrew, my sister, and I rented a house out in Warrensburg I got the opportunity to go through Andrew's grandma's old things and take what we needed. When I was in the process of doing this I came across her old KitchenAid mixer. The mixer was a dingy yellow color that needed a little TLC. When I took it, I didn't care what it looked like- it was functional and that's all that mattered to me. Now that the kitchen is mine and Andrew could careless what it looks like, I've started to make it look "pretty." My mom had told me about some blogs she had read awhile back about taking them apart and cleaning them and hand sent me one that seemed fairly easy to tackle and with the holidays approaching, I bust out the KitchenAid mixer and started baking. 

There were a couple of different recipe's I wanted to try so I  spent the majority of yesterday making

• Butterscotch shortbread
• Puppy chow
• Crockpot Chex Mix
• Espresso Chocolate Chip Muffins

After my baking purge I finally decided to take the time and deep clean- and I mean DEEP CLEAN- this KitchenAid mixer and repaint it. We decided to go with a Hunter Green color that would cover the spots that didn't seem to come off and WALA!

There are still a couple places I need to touch up but I'll save that for another Sunday! Next on my list of projects- Christmas gifts! 

A few of my favorite things

Lately I've been in a "mood" according to Andrew. His exact words tonight were "What has gotten into you? Crafting, cooking, and cleaning?!"

In all reality, when we're at home I don't want to just sit around and watch football. I want to do something. With the holidays in full swing we've started to decorate our apartment. My husband is a real life Grinch. He doesn't see the fun in doing all these things but that makes it more fun for me! :)

Two weekends ago, I started cleaning and came across a DIY Burlap Wreath I started making shortly after Andrew and I got married. It was looking a little drab so I decided to finally take the Nebraska football down outside our apartment and switch it up with something more festive. 

The wreath itself was super easy to make. I unwrapped a wire hanger and thread different types of burlap through. I then fastened the Santa and pinecones on with ornament hangers. The whole project probably took about 60 minutes total, which is exactly what I need since I get bored easily with projects. 

Next we decided to put our Christmas tree up. This was supposed to be done "after Thanksgiving" but since we planned on going home for Thanksgiving we had to have it up so we can return home to it! Andrew put a total of three ornaments on before he got bored. 

This is him telling our dog Alba to sit for a photo in front of the tree

Since I was already in the crafting mood and we were at Michaels, I decided to update our tray we use to hold remotes in our living room. I painted the tray and used scrapbook paper to cover the inside. Again, super easy and done within one night. 

1. Painted the tray

2. Cooked dinner

3. Painted a second coat

4. Ate dinner

5. Glued the scrapbook paper in the middle

Phew... and I'd be lying if I said I don't still have the crafting bug. When I get into these "moods" as Andrew calls it, I end up spending hours on Pinterest. My t-shirt quilt is a project I've slowly been gathering supplies for and tonight I officially "started." Stay tuned!

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A Case of the Mondays

In case you weren't aware, today is Monday and let me tell you... every part of the world made that known to me today. Of course, that meant when I got home from work all I wanted to do was veg out in front of the TV but Andrew and I recently decided we were going to try and be better about our eating so I knew the old habit of serving ice cream for dinner wasn't going to work.

When brainstorming for dinner ideas I remembered last week I had planned to make an easy one pot Mexican pasta dish I found on Pinterest. When work got crazy and I didn't get a chance to those ingredients just sat in the cupboard. Since we had almost everything together I had Andrew stop and grab the remaining two ingredients from the store and we made that for dinner. This meal was a hit with Andrew and I'm glad we stayed strong and tried it out.

This "One Pot Wonder Southwest Pasta" was so easy to make and will keep it in my back pocket for another "Monday." All you have to do is throw all the ingredients into a pot and wait.
**We left out the black beans because I forgot to have Andrew grab those at the store but it was still delicious

Finally- the marinade review:

Our first attempt at grilling went SUPER well. The meat-we used chicken- was delicious! Would definitely recommend the marinade in the future and am glad I made a large batch to start. We've already used it again

We're one day closer to a long weekend. Happy Monday!
:)

Birthday love!

Tomorrow is Andrew's 27th birthday! Holy COW is he getting old or what? This past weekend we were able to celebrate his birthday a little early with his mom and step-dad by going to the winery and out to dinner. Andrew just LOVED that we were at the winery for HIS birthday. Especially since he's the only one in the group who DOESN'T drink wine! :)

While we were at the winery I was able to learn a thing or two about grapes. The winery owner showed us how he knows when the grapes are ready to be picked. He squirts the juice on what looks like an eye doctor tool and it reads how ripe the grapes are. Obviously, different types of grapes and wines call for different ripeness. We got to look at a basic table grape (not used to make wine) and one of their most popular wine grapes! Not only were we able to look at the grapes ripeness but we got to eat some too and I swear it is like a whole different fruit than the grapes we buy at Aldi's!

Anyways, for Andrews birthday his mom got him a gas grill for our new apartment. I think I'm more excited about the grill than he is... so much we are going to grill tonight for the first time!

This morning before work I marinated chicken with a recipe I found on Pinterest. It was the first marinade I came across that we had the majority of the ingredients for. I'm hoping it turns out!

1/2 cup Soy Sauce
1/3 cup Worechester sauce
1/3 cup balsamic vineagar
3/4 cup olive oil
1 tbs Dijon mustard
1 tbs Parsley
3 cloves garlic
pepper
Serving size: 2 tbs

I'm also excited to grill the cabbage we bought at the store. Two summers ago I lived in Greensboro, NC and tried grilled cabbage and HOLY MOLEY was it good- I love me some veggies.... if only my husband did!

Stay tuned to find out if the half-asleep me knows how to pick a marinade :)