Oh Hey.

Why hello there! Long time, no see! A lot has changed since I last posted... Let me give a quick run down.. We have a new addition to the family! Her name is Macy!

   
Harley, our 4 year old Golden, was a bit apprehensive at first, but quickly they became BFF's.

We adopted her from a local animal shelter. She is the sweetest, most precious little girl ever.

Jeremy and I had our wedding in Freeport, Bahamas last year.

I got my first big girl job! And the excitement wore off about a day after starting(if even that). :) I quickly realized my love of money, or more my love of SPENDING money, and realized how much the job market is looking for even HIGHER education. So I started going full-time to grad school working towards my MBA. If you had told me I'd be back in school a couple years ago, or even a year ago, I would have been convinced you were smoking crack.

Enough about me, regarding the house, a ton of changes have happened. The largest change (literally) would be the "workshop" in the back yard. AKA Man Cave AKA Man Shop.

Man Shop. Lots of building and beer drinking take place here.

Which has since been painted to match the house color.

We scored an insanely awesome deal on cabinets from craigslist and have since installed them. It was an offer too good to refuse. So one things leads to another and now we have huge plans for the kitchen including a new floor, backsplash, painting the cabinets white, and of course new appliances.

More to come on that.

Anyways, I look forward to playing catch up!

Brass is Ugly

Clear back in July my mom found a telescoping floor lamp for $35 marked down from $199. Totally awesome, right? One major flaw though. It was brass. I think everyone can agree that brass is ugly.

But for that price I was willing to look past the initial ugliness. The solution for it? Spray paint (Valspar Metallic Silver).

It ended up being a nice, inexpensive floor lamp.

I’ve been moving it around the house trying to find the perfect spot, but that’s its temporary resting place.

Has anyone else painted anything brass? Or gotten any sweet deals on lamps?

I’ve lost my mojo.

But I promise I’ll be getting it back next week. Full force. Fo’ sho.

And here’s a picture just so this post isn’t only one sentence. And because I think it’s funny that we both have awkward folded hands. I used the self timer so we weren't exactly prepared.

Catch ya on the flip side!

Would you..

Paint your house into a billboard in exchange for your mortgage being paid for a year?

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They’ll paint the billboard on your house and paint it back once the term is up. That certainly is tempting. But I doubt they would choose us because we live on a cul-de-sac in a small neighborhood.

So, would you?

The Confession

You see, there’s a general theme that’s going throughout our house. It’s not something positive. It’s not something I’m proud of. It’s something that I have been working on changing. And I have actually been doing a good job at fixing.  Have I piqued your interest? Well…

We have naked walls. Our house is naked. For the most part. Sure, we have a couple things here and there, but not nearly enough. And I’m the problem. I just can’t seem to bring myself to commit to anything. The things I like are far too expensive. And every time I look at a magazine or read a blog I think, “I should do that!” Which means I’m changing my mind 5 or 6 times a day. How am I supposed to commit to something when there’s so many options?! So, there’s my confession. My house is naked.

Like I’ve said, there’s been some progress. For example, the hallway picture frames.

Which actually have been filled! So get excited for that.

And now I have made progress in our bathroom. Remember, I’m avoiding cutting the fabric for curtains. Yup, still haven’t started. Yup, I’ve had the fabric about a week. I WILL have the curtains done by Friday. I will. I’m hoping if I write it here, I will feel pressure to do it?

Anyways, here’s a picture of the bathroom in all its naked glory:

Naked.

I saw on etsy a cute sign that said, “good morning sunshine” and I thought that would be cute in the bathroom by the sinks. A nice little sign to pick me up in the morning because I am so not a morning person. I used a black frame we had lying around, and a 29 cent shimmer piece of paper from Hobby Lobby, and Photoshop.

Cute, right? Nothing fancy. I hope the cheery yellow helps me be more.. well, cheery in the morning. I’m sure J would be appreciative of that.

There were two other black picture frames sitting in the closet from some abandoned project that I knew I could use above the toilet. Is there a better word for toilet? Hmm..

I printed out this quatrefoil stencil. I made the stencil the full sheet of paper. I was going to just print it out the yellow color but of course I ran out ink.

 

So I actually just used yellow paint and painted right on the paper. And I’m glad that I did. It makes it look more like art and not just printed on computer paper.

Ah, nice, sunny yellow. Anyone else create some cheap art recently? Or have a naked house?

Speaking of sunny, we just got our plane tickets for our July wedding in the Bahamas! Can’t wait!

I’ll do one.

I’m pretty sure J and I are the absolute worst at starting projects and abandoning them. Or maybe it’s just me. I have about 10 projects going on at any given time. The only reason I finished this project is because the fabric I ordered for our bedroom curtains came and I’m afraid to cut it wrong. Diversion, peeps.

Anyways, I mentioned how every single light matched in our house and how I’m not exactly thrilled about it. Well, we actually had started replacing the kitchen pendants over the kitchen sink. And by started, I mean we had one old pendant with metal leaves up, and one new pendant that was too low. And it has been this way since January. And I’m actually shocked I let it go on that long.

I could have sworn I  took a picture of the mismatched pendants, but apparently I did not. So you will have to use your imagination.

We snagged the new ones from Ikea when we went to Charlotte back in October. They were about 10 bucks each. Doesn’t get better than that.

These were the plug in kind, so I cut them and wired them in. It actually is very easy and I did it by myself. The bad part is I didn’t plan my day very well and installed these after my P90x arm workout. That was not my most brilliant move.


See? I wasn’t kidding about the lights. You can get a better feel for the house layout. The bar area is to the right and you can see the fireplace and living room, too.

Best $20 ever spent. 2 down, 5 to go.

Linked to:
 

Happy Easter!

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Hope everyone has a wonderful Easter weekend!

See ya next week!

Day Dreaming

Something caught my eye when I posted about about the hallway picture frames. Something really ugly. See it?

Up there in the top right corner. And you know what’s extra bad? All the light fixtures in the house match. I mean, they may be for some people, but they are definitely not for me. So, even though we are not ready to buy brand new fixtures for the whole entire house, I figured it wouldn’t hurt look for some online. Right?

How about something like this? Think JJ would go for this? It’s only $1,299.99. HA!

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Ok, seriously. I’m kind of diggin’ this one. And much more affordable, $349.00.

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Or maybe something with a little more metal?

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Or maybe a mix of the glass and metal. I seem to be attracted to glass fixtures.

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Ok. I need to stop. I have a serious hankering for that last chandy. Only $798. No big deal.

RIP Will and Grace

2006-2011

Will and Grace were a feisty pair. One night they both drank like the fishes they were and decided to get tattoos. Grace decided on a pretty heart;

while Will went with some patriotic red and blue stripes (not pictured). Bought in Akron, Ohio, the pair loved to travel. They resided in Akron with their mother for a year, followed by a year in Youngstown, Ohio with their Grandparents. In their old age they decided it was time to move to a warmer climate and made the long journey to North Carolina with their mother. They lived happily ever after dying peacefully holding each others fins until the last bubble was exhaled.

They are proceeded in death by their siblings Fat Bastard, Urkel, Oprah, and Zoila.

They are survived by their parents, Lindsey and JJ, and brother, Harley.

A private ceremony was held Sunday, April 17, 2011.

Hangin’ Tough

See this wall?

Yeah, that one. That big, tall blank one with the random shelf/ledge at the top? Well that bad boy has been giving me the evil eye since I moved in.

Yes, that was over 2 years ago but I have been afraid to commit to something.. Until now. I decided a simple gallery wall would look great. Enter: Family Dollar. They have picture frames there on the cheap with only one design flaw (more on that later).

I picked up 10 frames that were around $5 each. Not bad for an 11x14 size. Anyways, I knew the brown color wasn’t staying but wasn’t sure if I wanted to paint them white or something that would inject some color when people enter the house. Enter: Lowes. I picked up 2 cans of spray paint in glossy Mediterranean. 

And the rest was history. Well, kind of. I used a laser level figuring it would be the easiest and most accurate way. I took my time measuring to space them out being very meticulous. Hung the frames up and they were completely off. After about an hour of checking my work, complaining to my mom, and being completely confused, I took all the frames off and discovered this.

The hangers were off by quite a significant amount! Some were even put on crooked. I should have realized this sooner but I didn’t. So I measured specifically for each frame and wound up with this.


And here’s a view from entering the garage.

Now to fill the frames. My biggest downfall. I’m imaging either all black and white photo’s or maybe some graphic fabric. Do you like? I’ll be sure to update you the second I fill these bad boys!
Lindsey
PS. I've linked up to (and accidentally put my own name instead of a description name. Doh!):

 
and to Centsational Girl

Excuses, Excuses

After some requests from J and my mom I have decided to restart this ol' blog of mine. I could say I have been busy, but I really haven't been. After graduating in December with my degree in business administration, concentration in marketing (holler!), I've been doing a whole lotta nothing. I have somehow managed to occupy myself by filling out the occasional job application, taking a month long trip to Ohio, planning our destination wedding in the Bahamas, and doing P90x to get in shape for said destination wedding in the Bahamas. Anyways, I have recently started working on some projects around the house that are pretty cool (You guys have seen SNL’s Miley Show right? It’s pretty cool). So please forgive me for my disappearance. I promise to make it up to you with cute pictures of Mr. Harley! How’s this for starters?

 

Did it work?!

Hasta la vista,

Lindsey

Boo!

Happy Halloween from Barbie and Ken!

Harley the Bull

While I finish up making my wig and desperately searching for white pants for J, I thought I’d share Harley’s costume this year.



Happy Halloween!

The Office

I’ve recently realized I actually have shown very little of our house. So without further adieu, half of our office! You would be seeing the full she-bang but I was playing with the lock-switch-thing on the side of the memory card and the whole thing cracked before I could take the other half of the rooms pictures. Yikes.

This is actually MY ROOM. It was supposed to be J’s “Man Cave” but I sneak attacked and started painting it while he was off on one of his trips. I have no idea why he wouldn’t want his “Man Cave” to be painted this color? tee hee.

Those are my tattooed fishies on the left, Will and Grace. Yes, they are actually tattooed.

The other half of the room is nothing to look at. It consists of a cheap futon which is soon to be on the outs. We’ve got our sights set on building this daybed.  So maybe once we finished building it I'll be able to show you the rest of MY room.
Do any of you guys have your own special room?

Now that’s what I call high quality H2O

Sooooo, our water sucks here. It has 12 chemicals that exceed health guidelines, 24 chemical pollutants, and nitrate amounts that exceed health standards. And it tastes funny. I’m just curious why all of my bushes died when there’s fertilizer and pesticides already in the water?!

Anyways, I decided that we needed to get a water filter to attach to our sink. We have a Brita pitcher but we’re too lazy to use it. We want filtered water out of the tap, dammit! So the best option for us was to go for an under mount filter as opposed to the ones that mount to the faucet because those are ugly. We ended up getting the 3m professional because its supposed to filter out more bad junk. Trust me, nobody likes bad junk.

 

It’s very straightforward and easy to install. It probably took less than 15 minutes and now we're drinking water free of bad junk! yippee!

 

The sad part? I actually bought this 5 months ago but just needed some brawn to unscrew the water hose. So thankful my muscleman is back home.

Oh and if you are curious how your water stacks up you can ch-ch-check it out here. I’m crossing my fingers for you!