Biggest Project Reveal Yet!

Hi guys!!

After three weeks of a blogging break, I'm back.  Before I get to the big project reveal, I have a few things to share...

First up - the real reason I went on a bloggy break is because we went on vacation.  For four weeks.  Yep, that's right, an entire month of vacation.  Since we weren't going to be home for that long, I opted to keep it a secret just in case I have any crazy stalkers.  I'm pretty sure the only person who stalks me is my handsome hubby, and that's completely fine by me, but still...ya never know!  (I pre-posted my last three posts prior to leaving.)

So, where'd we go for a month?!  Hawaii!!!

Kauai, HI

One of my best friends lives out there, and is awesomely amazing and offered to let us stay with her for an entire month!!  Our timing was impeccable...my friend closed on her home the morning we left, and is moving back to the mainland on Friday.  Because she was leaving the island, she only had a few of the essentials, and kept saying she couldn't wait to read a blog post on her 'amenities'...

So here goes ...

We were so fortunate to have one pot and one skillet to cook with.  While this might seem scarce to some, it was a perfect way to plan our meals, and it was so much easier to clean just one pot and just one skillet.

We were so fortunate to have 4 knives, 4 spoons, and 4 forks to eat with, even if they were dollar store bendy silverware.  They provided great entertainment for mixing stuff, much laughter when we bent our silverware back in place, and made us appreciate the next item all that much more!

We were so fortunate to have one good butter knife.  Those things are amazingly strong.  They can cut fruit and chicken and potatoes without flinching.  Well, a good butter knife and a strong hubby.  The strong hubby might be key to that equation, but I will never again under-estimate the power of my butter knives.

We were so fortunate to have paper plates to eat off of.  It was so nice being able to throw our plates in the garbage, and made cleaning up after dinner every night that much easier.

We were so fortunate to have a bed, even if it was made of air, to sleep on.  It was one of the most comfortable air mattresses ever, and we slept like babies.  I'll get more into why this was so comfortable in a bit.

We were so fortunate to have a friend that we can hold great conversations with, days on end, hours at a time and only stop chatting because it's way past our bedtime.  The conversations we enjoyed without the interruption of TV and internet (she has no cable) were great, in-depth, intelligent, fun, and heart warming conversations that bonded all three of us that much closer.  We will forever cherish that time we all had together.

Here's a few pics from the millions that I took :

Hawaiian Monk Seal on Waikiki Beach, Oahu, HI

Sea turtle off of the Ho'okipa Beach Rocks in Maui, HI

Chris and I at the falls at the end of the Pipiwai Trail in Maui, HI

Poipu Beach Area in Kauai, HI

Seven Sacred Pools in Maui, HI

Red Sands Beach in Maui, HI

Haleakala Crater in Maui, HI

Hanauma Bay in Oahu, HI

So now that I've filled you in on our wonderful vacation, which included wonderful and amazing trips over to the islands of Maui and Kauai, both of which we could afford to do because of our generous friend that we're so fortunate to have on the island of Oahu, I'll get onto the next item of business.

Chris is DONE.  D.O.N.E. DONE with school.  WOO HOO!!!!  He worked so hard for his Master's, put in so much blood, sweat, and tears (okay, maybe not blood...but I bled for the both of us on some of these solo home improvement projects, so that counts for him too), and I couldn't be more proud.  He didn't walk with his class, he decided he'd rather be walking in Hawaii than in Gainesville, FL ... but the sense of accomplishment and pride and joy and relief is all there!!

And finally ... the big project reveal.

A pictures worth a thousand words, so here it is :

Yep, that's me at 20 weeks pregnant (and Chris being a goof)!  This was taken on our last full night in Hawaii.  We couldn't be more excited, elated, scared, and happy all at the same time!  If you go back to September, you'll notice that my posts start dwindling down quite a bit.  Morning sickness and the pure tiredness of the first trimester hit me pretty hard.  I had a few 'do over' days where I didn't get out of bed at all and decided that I'd just try again tomorrow because today wasn't a good day.

That's all over though...I'm feeling amazing, overwhelmed, and big!!!  The amazing part might have something to do with being gone for a month in Hawaii, but nonetheless!  Oh, and the air mattress that we slept on was amazingly comfortable because it absorbed some of my new found belly so I could enjoy sleeping semi on my stomach for a few extra weeks.  I'm still trying to figure out this side sleeping thing!

Sorry I waited so long to tell you bloggy world!!  I actually just officially made the announcement today at work, and I have no idea who reads this blog, so I waited to say anything until I let the cat out of the bag.

The main deets that everyone will want to know...my due date is May 30th, 2011, and we find out Saturday morning if it's a boy or a girl!  Do you have any guesses of boy or girl based on the way I'm carrying?!  I have no idea...this whole first time Mommy / pregnant thing is all new to me, so I'm not guessing!  We'll find out soon enough!!

Oh, and... HAPPY 1 year bloggy anniversary to Kara's Korner!!!  I can't believe how much this has grown over the past year, and I hope to continue and build on how far I've come thus far.  We've got so many projects on our to-do list, that we can accomplish TOGETHER now that Chris is done with school.  And yes, that includes a nursery!!  So make sure you stay tuned to see what this year's fun projects have in store!

Hope everyone's 2011 is going well!  Our's so far is awesome!

If you enjoyed this post, please leave a comment or subscribe to the feed reader to get future posts delivered to your reader.

And I'm Out!

Well guys, this has been an amazing year. I love this blog and the feedback I get from it, so thank you so much for all of your support over the past year.

But I'm taking a few weeks to do what I haven't done in a long time. Spend quality one-on-one time with my husband. Without school, without computers, without work, just us. Pre-Chris's schooling days, we were pretty inseparable. I'm so excited to take these next few weeks to go back to our place of happiness...being together with no stress.

Our friends Erin and Chris joke with us that we're Amish because we don't watch much TV. The next few weeks is going to be filled with very little electronics at all. Do you hear that? It's the sound of heaven...ahhh!!!

So, while I know you're not supposed to take 'blogging breaks' if you want to make your blog a success, I'm hoping that you guys will stick around to see what 2011 brings us.

I do have a promise though that hopefully entices you to stay tuned till I return next year. I promise I'll be back, on my one year blog anniversary (January 13th), and I'll post a BIG huge project reveal that you most definitely won't want to miss. We've been working on this one for quite some time, and I can't wait to share the big reveal with you guys!!

So here's hoping you a Merry, joyous, wonderful Christmas season, and a New Year filled with hope, inspiration, love, and joy!

See ya on the flip side!!!

If you enjoyed this post, please leave a comment or subscribe to the feed reader to get future posts delivered to your reader.

Thankful Thursday

The Cape on the Corner is doing a blog series for the month of November.  Every week, on Thursday, you write 5 things that you are thankful for that happened over the past week.  I think it's important to realize the positive things that go on every week, so I'm joining this week!  Here goes...

1.  I'm thankful that my in-laws made the 7ish hour trip down to visit Chris and I last weekend.  They came down in May, so it was technically our "turn" to go up there to visit them, but with our zero vacation days, they decided they'd take off Friday and head on down.  We won't be able to see them for the holidays this year, so it was definitely a nice treat to be able to spend quality time together before years end.

2.  I'm thankful that I've got two of my nieces Christmas gifts already.  I'm still working on the third nieces...but these two are off the list! And I got them gifts that I'M super excited to give them because I really think they'll like it...which is the best combination!  I love hunting for and finding the perfect gift.

3.  I'm thankful that my uber busy husband that has no clue how he's going to finish all of his projects and study for all of his exams before the end of the semester (and graduation!!! T-minus 4 weeks and 5 days...ya know, if you're keeping count...) took time out of his day of dedicated school work on Sunday to go for a long walk with me down to the old orange and lemon groves to see if any had ripened or not...even though he knew they'd all still be green.

4.  I'm thankful that the weather has been so gorgeous this week, and that it's started to warm up a bit, but is still at a comfortable temperature.  Our heat doesn't work, so there were a few uncomfortably cold days in this home over the weekend, but I'm thankful that the sun is shining and I can go for a jog without being too cold or too hot.

5.  I'm thankful to have such great friends that keep up with and truly care how I'm doing on a daily basis.  I'm not the easiest person to be friends with (I don't like chatting on the phone too much), but my closest friends don't care that I can't or don't call them on a daily, weekly, or even monthly basis...they find other ways to keep up with me, even if I'm the only friend they do that with, and I'm forever grateful to them because of it.  I only have a handful of really close girlfriends, but those girls are the absolute best, and they're always there when I need them most!

6.  Sorry, gotta add one more.  As always, I'm thankful for this guy.  He makes me smile, laugh, and reminds me not to take life too seriously on a daily basis.  It's amazing that someone who can't talk can teach me how to enjoy the simple things in life.  He's the best dog in the entire world...and I will be forever grateful that he picked us!

So that's my things this week.  What do you guys think?  Do you do anything special to remember things your thankful for this month?

If you enjoyed this post, please leave a comment or subscribe to the feed reader to get future posts delivered to your reader.

Wishful Thinking

With family coming and going two weekends in a row, I don't really have much to post on home improvement just yet. This whole time change thing has got me pretty messed up too. I like to base my sleep schedule on the sun. Which currently means I think it's bedtime at 6:30 p.m., and I start to stir to wake up around 5:45 a.m.. No, I don't need 11 + hours of sleep a night, but that's what my body wants to do. Which means there's only time for work, running Kodi, making and eating dinner, showering, and heading straight to bed...much to the dismay of my husband who stays up past 10 p.m. doing homework and watching class.

When I'm not doing home improvement projects, I'm generally scouring the internet for inspiration for a room.  One of the next rooms (yes, just one...there's multiple) on our re-do list is the formal living room.  Our plan is to make it a game room, and I really want to incorporate a classy orange and blue scheme in there for our Florida Gators.  More like coral and turquoise or aqua, but still something that has a subtle "Go Gators" theme to it.

Here's where the room stands right now :

It's like a sore thumb in our home.  Everything else is way more modern looking.  This furniture is actually our old living room set from our first home, that we grew to not like within a few months of purchasing it.  When we bought this home, we vowed not to make the mistake of rushing out to buy something that fit the space, but not us.  If rooms are empty, so be it.  They now reflect 'us' instead of being just filler.

I've looked and looked and looked for the perfect area rug, and I finally found it.  And by perfect I mean I can't stop thinking about it and going and looking at it because I know it would be absolutely beautiful in our room.

Image from Horchow.com

Slight problem.  We need a huge rug (9x12), and that huge rug comes with a huge price tag.  The rug is from Horchow, and they have a big "everythings on sale" sale going on right now...but even at 25% off, this beautiful, most perfect rug, is still ... $1,834.25 after shipping and taxes.  Sigh...waaaay far outside of our budget, but one can always dream, right?

What about you guys?  Do you guys have anything up there on your wishful dreaming list?  Even better, has anyone seen any rug that relatively looks like this for sale for WAY cheaper?!  If so, I would love you for forever and ever, and we could be new BFF's.  Seriously.

'Till then, I'm gonna be dreaming of this perfect, beautiful rug...Happy Tuesday!

If you enjoyed this post, please leave a comment or subscribe to the feed reader to get future posts delivered to your reader.

Making Pillows

I don't really toot my own horn all that much, but I have to on this post. I'm a genius. Seriously.

A little while back I did my placemat pillows, and I thought I was so smart. I received a bunch of comments telling me I was, and a few saying they had done the same thing. Sigh...so I'm not so original, even when I think I am. And I'm probably not the first one to come up with this next ingenious idea, but I refuse to google around to see if anyone else has done the same thing just yet. I'm basking in the awesomeness of being so smart.

So what is it already?! Well, the placemat pillows were great, but they had one downside. They're pretty small. It's hard to find large enough placemats to stuff for bigger accent pillows.  While I was pondering this in the placemat isle in Target, I couldn't help but notice the napkins section.  The napkins were exactly the colors I was looking for.  I took them out of the packaging, and a light bulb in my head went off.  Napkin Pillows!!

Those of you that have been following my blog for sometime know about my love of Fabri-tac.  From my bench cushion, key  art, placemat pillows, mini planter makover, and most recently the Nursery Monogram...anytime I need to sew something, I fake it with the magical stuff.  I think in fabri-tac.  Sad?!  Perhaps... convenient, most definitely!

Enough already...onto the tutorial!

Start with two napkins of the same size (mine were 20 x 20).  I used a brown napkin for the back, and the floral napkin for the front.

Place both napkins with the part you want showing towards each other.  Run a bead of fabri-tac along the hem / seam of the napkin and press together.  Repeat for three sides, making sure to keep your hem lines straight.

You should wind up with something looking like this.  Flip your new pillowcase right side out.

Then shove a pillow inside.  I actually had an old pillow that I haven't used for quite some time in a closet, so I shoved it in my pillow cover.

I did the last part two different ways to see which one I'd like better for future pillows.  You can either  run a bead of fabri-tac on the hem line and press it together to finish it off with a more crisp look like the pillow above...

Or you can fold over both hems and glue them together like you did the rest of the pillow.  Whichever you like better!

Here they are in their new home!

One last full room shot.  (Like what you see?  Check out my posts on painting the floors, building a daybed, building the second daybed, refinishing a sewing machine cabinet (one day I'll learn how to sew), and making over shelves I found at Goodwill.)  Next up on the pillow list is putting the two white pillows on the left side back into my living room.  I've already got the napkins ready!

The best part of all of this was the cost.  For the florally four pack of napkins, I paid $10, and for the brown I paid $8.  That'll make me four pillows, and these colors go perfectly with the rest of my house, so everything is interchangeable.  I already had the pillow inserts, so those cost me nothing!

Cost per pillow = $4.50.  Oh yeah!

Stay tuned for Friday's post...I'm hosting my very first giveaway for followers of Kara's Korner!

f you enjoyed this post, please leave a comment or subscribe to the feed reader to get future posts delivered to your reader.

I'm linking up to the parties in my sidebar...go see what everyone else is thriftily creating!



 

Baby Gift : Monogram Nursery Frame

We found out a little bit ago that one of our closest friends is expecting. I wanted to make something to show how excited and happy we were for them, and when I came across this tutorial from Cute as a Fox, I knew I'd found what I was looking for.

I started with this picture frame.

First, I painted it with a few coats of hi-gloss white.

I initially thought I'd like the look of the frame with glaze in the ridges. After I glazed one side I realized that it wasn't really the look I was going for, so I wiped off as much as possible and repainted another coat of white on the frame.

While that was drying, I took the cardboard from the insert of my picture frame, wrapped it in batting, and glued the batting to the cardboard using Fabri-Tac. I wanted the Monogram to look almost 3-D.

After that, I wrapped my piece of fabric on top of the batting and glued that down using Fabri-Tac. Chris and I spent entirely too much time in Jo-Ann's going back and forth on which piece of fabric we liked best. I have a hard time on decisions with gifts...I know what I like, but it's hard to know what others will!

While the Fabri-Tac was setting, I painted my letter white, then added glaze to the inside edges (again, to create a sort of 3-D look), and then painted the face white again.

After all of it was dry, I put my fabric piece back into the frame, and attached the letter to the fabric piece by applying a thin coat of fabri-tac to the back of the letter and pressing down for a few seconds to make sure it stuck.

And wala! Baby nursery gift! I brought it up to Gainesville (where they live) with me this weekend for the hot hot hot football game. They were out of town, so they'll see it today when they get back. I sure hope they like it!! And if not, I'm sure they can find something to do with the white frame.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

f you enjoyed this post, please leave a comment or subscribe to the feed reader to get future posts delivered to your reader.

I'm linking up to the parties on my links tab...go check them out!

Pool Deck Makeover Part 1 : Painting the Ceiling

In preparation for our paver's going down, we've got quite a number of pool deck area projects on our to-do list. One of them being to paint our covered area's ceiling.

When my step-dad came over and helped us paint the doors, he mentioned that many people think that blue ceilings keep bugs away. You can google painting your ceilings blue, and there's all sorts of theories from casting away evil spells to deterring bugs. Regardless of what's true and what's theory, we like blue and thought it would add a nice crispness out there, so we put - figure out a color of blue, purchase, and paint - on our to-do list for the long Labor Day Weekend.

I don't know about you guys, but I can look at paint chips for days and days and think I love a sample, get it on the wall, and hate it. So, when Young House Love posting their sunroom ceiling makeover, I was sold on their color (Tide Pools by Behr).

First up though, we had to caulk around the edges and fill in the gaps in the drywall.  We sanded these areas in preparation and discovered that once upon a time, this ceiling was pink (!).  I guess it matched the pretty in pink pool deck.

Chris either really wanted to procrastinate with his homework, or really felt bad for me, because he came out and helped with the trim, and then took over painting the first coat on the ceiling.  My shoulders / arms felt like they might fall off.

I was on my own for the second coat though, and we went through two full gallons of paint.  That ceiling is HUGE!

We love the way it looks though, and the way the water and sunlight bounce off of it.

The blue changes hues by where your standing and where the sunlight is.  The above and below pictures were taken of the exact same spot, but the blue looks more dramatic in the top picture and more subtle in the bottom picture.

That's step 1 of a bunch of steps, so stay tuned to see what else we've got planned for out there!  If you'd like to see the demolition part of the outside area, go here.

Deets rundown:  Paint:  Tide Pools by Behr.

I'm linking up to the parties in my links tab!

Pottery Barn / Goodwill Shelves

Since finding Ana's site, my list to build is 3 million miles long. I know how much things cost to build now, so I refuse to pay for things that are less quality than I could build on my own. Slight problem...I'm an Engineer 50 hours of the week. Time is not my friend.

To help save time on things, when I drop off stuff for donations to Goodwill, I scour to see if there's anything I can just refinish instead of building from scratch.

A few months back I came across two of these shelves.  They're Sophia shelves from Pottery Barn.

For $6.  SOLD!  They needed a little TLC though, so I got to work on refinishing them.  In my head I had a vision of finishing them the same way I did my mail holder, but with the turquoise (that I had left over from my sewing machine makeover) as the underneath layer, and white as the top layer.

First I painted it the turquoise color, and then I topped it with a thin layer of white.  After that all dried, I sanded with my 200 grit sandpaper and was not happy at all with my results.

Not exactly the look I was going for.  It wasn't awful, but it wasn't what I wanted either.  Back to the proverbial drawing board I went.

I decided to mix the turquoise with some of my glaze and a little bit of water and apply it to my shelves.

Too dark!  To lighten it up some, I mixed up some white paint, a little bit of water, and my turoquoise glaze together.

Too light!  Stupid shelves.  From there I started dipping between my turquoise glaze mix and my white/turquoise glaze mix until I came up with something I FINALLY liked.

And because I'm me, and I can't leave well enough alone, I glazed all of the edges.

After I matched that up in the room, I decided I liked the glaze a lot, so I glazed the entire bottom part of the shelves and left the top part with just the whitewash / turquoise color.  I had no idea these shelves would take this long to refinish, but sometimes working with color, and getting the color right is hard.

These shelves went in the someday kids room with the daybeds.  I've actually started calling this room the daybed room instead.  It's the room that my nieces / nephew will stay in when they come to visit, so I loaded the shelves up with things that reminded me of them.  I'm actually missing a picture of one of my nieces...I really need to update my picture selections.  It's on the mile long list.

Here they are on the wall (they're HEAVY!!!).

The tiny little monkey on the left shelf was given to me by one of my nieces as a birthday present.  I've found its perfect home!

I say the word fun a lot.  That little sign is perfect for me!

You know I couldn't leave out a details shot.  I'll end on a few full room shots.

For those of you that want the deets, here they are:
Paint: Behr's Aquatic Blue
Glaze:  Ralph Lauren in Smoke
Any white paint you have laying around.

For the whitewash / glaze mixes, I used twice as much paint as I did water and glaze.  So if I used 4 ounces of paint, I added 2 ounces of water and 2 ounces of glaze.  It all goes really far, so if you try this, don't mix too much!

Next up in this room...replacing the pillows so my living room can have pillows again.  Happy Wednesday!

If you enjoyed this post, please leave a comment or subscribe to the feed reader to get future posts delivered to your reader.


I'm linking up to the parties on my sidebar...go see what everyone else is re-crafting!