Waking up in Vegas

Hi everyone! I hope that you have all been enjoying the olympics. I love, love, love the olympics. When I was a kid I would watch gymnastics while doing cartwheels in the living room and them award myself a paper medal. I don't do this anymore... I just stay up past my bedtime watching all the amazing athletes. I actually missed the opening ceremony, but I am hearing that I didn't miss much. Why did I miss it? I'm glad you asked. I spent this past weekend in Las Vegas for reasons. I didn't really get an opportunity to go out or anything, so here are a few pictures from the hotel room (which are the only ones I took). I was very busy the whole time while I was there, but I did get to see the Bellagio fountain, which was one of my goals. I'm not a huge Vegas person to be honest. But it was a good and productive trip. I'm really quite excited about not traveling again for a little. I need to get back on some more home projects. :) Not to mention the collection of weeds that have accumulated for me. *Sigh*

A wedding and a shelf

I couldn't come up with a creative title for this post (sorry). I'm trying to get this blog post in amid this very busy week! Last weekend, J and I went up to Albany for my grand-little's (sorority) wedding. We had a great time seeing her get married. I unfortunately am a little light on the photos from the wedding though. We didn't have a very good angle during the ceremony and then I neglected to bring my camera to the reception. So, here are a few of my pictures so you get the idea. I was relieved to see on facebook that other people had managed to take much better pictures than I did.  We made the long trip up to Albany with 2 of our close friends, stopping in PA Friday night and spending the night with my parents. Overall, a fun and successful weekend.

J and I:

Our friends (J and S):

In terms of house stuff, I have actually been working on a project a few hours here and there over the past week or so. Since I haven't had a whole lot of time and parts of the project needed drying and setting time, this has worked out well. I thought of this project idea when J gave me small monogrammed plates for my birthday. I was struggling to come up with an idea of how to use them. Also, they came with a warning about washing them, so I decided I didn't really want to use them for eating. I finally came up with the idea of a small shelf to display them in the dining room. I looked around the house and decided that we already had the raw materials I would need to accomplish this. These are left over scraps that the contractor left after our half-bath remodel. The dark wood piece was the perfect size as an anchor piece for the molding I used.

I got out my trusty miter box and hand saw to cut the angles on the molding.

Then figured out how all my pieces would fit together.

I used liquid nails to secure all the pieces in place.

You can see how the shelf is taking shape.

I also used some screws to really anchor the long piece of molding to the wood.

You can see that I use a small and a larger drill bit for the screw holes. That allows the wood screw to sit flush with the wood.

I then fixed up all the uneven parts with wood putty that I let dry and then sanded down. I painted the whole thing with the white trim paint we had already.

I let it dry over the weekend, so it was ready to hang up last night. To hang it, I had drilled two larger holes into the back of the wood. I then used screws into the drywall and slipped the shelf over the screws. I also used those command strips for added security. But, I doesn't feel quite as secure as I usually like things to feel, so I may modify it. It isn't holding that much weight so it should be okay.

And here are some pictures with the plates.

I really enjoy the way it looks in the dining room. I have felt like that area was missing something, and this $0 project seemed to fit perfectly!

I hope you all had a great weekend!

Using my birthday gifts

It's been a rough month for blogging around here. We really haven't been home all that much to begin with, and it's been hard to get up motivation for the days we have been around. So, here is my post about doing some odds and ends this weekend. Last weekend, we went to North Carolina to visit with some of our friends from college. It was definitely a good time, and we enjoyed seeing everyone. Since it was so hot, we spent the majority of the time by the pool, which was super relaxing. Good times.

Anyway, back around here. I have been working on a few things. As you may remember, my dad has been bringing me some of his old frames including the one pictured below. I found the flower (leaves?) at Michael's and framed them. I thought with all the chrome in the half bath, this frame would do nicely in there.

I paired it with an Anthropologie "Z" that my friend had bought me for my birthday! I am thinking about adding two more things underneath for balance, but this is a good start. And it definitely helps to have some artwork in there. The walls had been looking pretty bare.

This shows the new towel and plate that my parents got me for my birthday. I may put some potpourri in the little dish at some point.

And here is the "trash can" I had painted white for this room (quotes because it was originally a flower pot).

Also, I finally finished the 2000 piece puzzle that J had gotten me for my birthday. I have been working on it off and on over the past month and a half! The trees were pretty tough to do. We actually had visited this castle about a year before we tied the knot. 

And remember my closet? How I took off the door so I could actually see my clothes? Well, that has functionally been working out great. But aesthetically, it needed some help.

For my birthday, my parents had bought me a curtain that would go perfectly here (okay - they asked what I wanted and I picked it out). So I grabbed a curtain rod at Target and installed it using their super easy instructions.

Done.

I really love the way it works in this space. There were definitely too many doors before, and this feels like it adds some balance to the master bath area.

That's all for today. No demo-ing walls, large paint jobs, etc. I promise I will get back to that. I have a running list of projects in mind. It is just about finding the time and motivation. So stay tuned! :) Hope you are all having a fantastic weekend! 

Powerless

So, like most of the metro DC area, we lost power this past weekend due to the crazy storm that came through on Friday night. The lights flickered and then were out for the long haul. At first, we thought that we would be back to normal by Saturday morning, but that was not to be. So, we high-tailed it out of our area and spent the day with my bff, and then later met up with more of our friends Saturday evening. It ended up being quite a fun time. By the time we returned home on Sunday morning, we had power again. However, it had just returned, which meant that most everything in the fridge and freezer was bad. So, we went through and cleared most things out. You can actually remove the shelves of your refrigerator, so I washed all the drawers and shelves until the whole thing was nice and clean. Since we had not done this at all in our house, it was definitely time for it. After that, we went to the grocery, and had a fairly stocked fridge again. It will probably take a few trips to get everything we need again.

I also picked up a parsley plant as I have been kind of into them lately.

Oh, and I finally planted the "babies" from our spider plant.

When a spider plant is fully mature, these little babies hang off the end of big shoots that grow out of them. You basically cut them off, put them in water to let them mature a little, gather them up and plant them in a new pot (as seen above). I hope the new planting does well!

I also decided to revise my earlier tile hanging mechanism from ribbon held by hot glue gun adhesive to an epoxy and string configuration. I did that because hot glue gun glue tends to lessen its holding ability in high heat, which I didn't think we would have inside the house (wrong). Epoxy will work for the long haul. You can get it at Home Depot.

Now, for arts and crafts! My dad gave me some of his old punchcards to add to my nerdy artwork collection. I debated for a while about how to use them, but then, I had an epiphany.

Wait for it...

First, I glued his U. Del. punchcard to cardboard paper.

Then used my "Hello World!\n" cutout from the pink punchcards to complete the look.

Maybe you are wondering about why I would frame, "Hello World!"? In computer programming circles it is a well known test program as explained by the wiki page. Anyway, I am actually really happy with the completed look. It is a welcome addition to my desk wall.

To those of you still without power, I hope you get yours back soon!