Another Year Older and Wiser Too!

A year older I am. One year until my 50 cent insurance break. Whoo! Lookin' forward to it. Yes, 24 years of life I have experienced thus far. I had a little quarter life crisis this year but after a good time of reflection I was ready to actually celebrate another successful year.

Every year I make goals for myself. This year I aimed to learn two things. First, how to keep my mouth shut. Second, to learn to want the things I have. I am a person full of opinions. They are often shared without being asked for or wanted. This year a LOT has happened with family and with work that learning how to not give my opinion has been truly beneficial. I believe it was Mr. Mark Twain that said, "It's better to remain silent and be thought a fool than open ones mouth and remove all doubt." Turns out he is right.

About a year ago Joe and I started working on our total money makeover. Dave Ramsey wrote a book by that name that has our financial world half way turned. With the purchase of our home as well as the necessary remodels and updates we got ourselves into this not so little pool called debt. After we read the book we decided this guy must have some idea what he is doing since everything in his life he pays cash for. The path has been difficult, especially since both of us are moderate spenders. I think it has brought us closer together having to work harder to appreciate the things we have.

On that note I got to spend a lot of time with people I love this particular day of birth. The weekend before my birthday my family came down and we ate and went swimming, and BBQ'd. One of my nephews got to come and time with him is priceless. I'm not used to having kids around our home and it is definitely different but we got along just fine. It was so nice to be able to spend leisurely time with my family.





On my actual birthday I went to work as usual but when I got there there were surprises everywhere! My desk was decorated, I got a crown, and a wand!. Boy do they know me!



We had a special lunch outside in which I got to try out my new recipe for lavender lemonade. It was delicious and will definitely be a part of our summer routine. They got me a hilarious card with a Home Depot gift card in it. We had a few laughs and just soaked up the sun, it was lovely.



The weekend after my birthday Joe and I celebrated and he made me the rain barrel I had been wanting since we started our garden and went "green." Something about being able to use a natural resource to help produce food and beauty for our little family. I just love it. I also got a visit from my best friend Kaelyn. We went to the lake on Monday and it was absolutely beautiful.

We went on a little hike when we first got there, and found a little dock off the coast line that we would get a HUGE fine for if they spotted us but it was so majestic we couldn't not take a few pictures.



Oh and then maybe some more here.





That night I got another birthday present. This hot little number.



NEW COACH BAG!

Not that this all wasn't fun enough but my new IKEA curtains and picture frames came from my Hanna family in Utah. I know I shouldn't love colored fabric the way that I love these curtains but I just do. Pictures to come when I get the room fully decorated.

Oh yeah, and Kaelyn cut my hair.

:-)

That night we made s'mores in our new to us fire pit and soaked up the sunset. It was a lot of fun and more memorable than any day I have had in a long time. What a great way to start off a new birth year.

Thank you everyone for making my life a little better than it was before I met you.

The New Tea Room. Even Though We Don't Drink Tea.

It's raining outside. I love it. Sweet summer rain is one of the great loves of my life. I think it falls right behind bacon and surgery. To be clear, not bacon from surgery...just to be clear. I am very glad that it was not raining a month ago! Well, because my house had a 6'x6' hole in it. You don't believe me? You shouldn't. I am what some call an exaggerator. However only when it makes the story a lot better or more funny or well you get it. Here's proof:



It was more like 5'x6' but it was still non buenos!

That was after my sexy manfriend AKA my husband removed the sliding glass door. Believe me when I tell you that this glass door was B-A-D. We moved in this house in December and I remember sprinting from my warm shower to the den (we were installing carpet and all the furniture was on the hardwood floors including my dresser) bare naked and that aluminum glass door had a sheet of ice on the INSIDE side of it. Needless to say it had to be replaced. After much whining and 1 failed man cave, the den became my new tea room. Let's start from the beginning. Sorry to those of you with glaucoma or attention deficit disorder. Maybe this post isn't for you. It will be long and probably dripping with details you don't give a rodents pa-toot about.



The manfriend pulled the door out and immediately the first phase of problems arose. The foundation underneath the glass door had crumbled away to nothing. This was not a good start and was surprisingly disheartening. Yet it was only the beginning of a project full of blood, sweat and tears. Mainly blood.

We ended up having to contact a contractor we knew to see what to do next and make sure it was up to code and safe for the next family that lives here. Turns out it was a pretty easy fix. Poured a little cement we had left over from the garden gate project, let it set up and kept going.

Because we were replacing a sliding glass door with a regular human window we had to frame out underneath the window. This was probably the most easy section of our drawn out room re-do. My brother in law Jason came over a few hours after we began to help out and make sure Joe didn't kill himself or me. There were a lot of power tools involved as well as a deep hole in the backyard. Wouldn't have been too difficult to hide a body and not report someone missing for 30 days. Maybe only Florida can get away with that...ANYWAY.





Right as I was beginning to enjoy the idea of a little open bar to the backyard they went and put a window in it. Dang. After putting up the siding on the outside the men took a well deserved break for the night. The next day was part II of the uh oh room.



A very excited Ashlyn awoke the next morning and ran to the new window to see how the morning sun introduced itself. It was beautiful! I was so happy. Today I would get sheet rock, then texture then...PAINT! Not so much. Joe was going to move a few awkward outlets to better locations when after sticking his finger behind the wall and outlet made a shocking discovery, there was no insulation behind this exterior facing wall. We think this room was a quick project for someone maybe expecting a new family member and just needed one extra room. Either way this was not good. Of course Joe, being Joe couldn't just fix one wall, all the walls had to be checked and of course we found all the walls to be similar. SHOCKER.

After tearing all the walls down we found that there was not only no insulation but no support beams holding our ceiling and walls up. AWESOME. I believe it was right about here that I just started crying. I actually had a little bit of what a therapist would call a "psychotic break." Seriously I was so mad that I just shut the door to the room and made my poor manfriend finish all the NEW framing, sheet rock and texture. I was still working on my dresser remodel (more on that another day when your eyes aren't straining) outside.

My husband surprised me with wainscoting beadoard. I hadn't planned on beadboard but he was pretty excited so I just let it be. He was so fast with it I hardly got pictures. But to all of you thinking about any kind of wainscoting if I may give some advice: measure, measure and REmeasure.

The poor guy had to make many an extra cut due to obstacles like these:



Oh and these.



Soon they were done and it was my turn. Well I kind of got eager about paint and uh painted too early. It's cool though because it made me realize that it wasn't the color I wanted anyway.

So after over a month this is what it looks like now.



I have a lot of the accessories and furniture for the room, some purchased, some made, but I am waiting on a few finishing touches from IKEA that I am getting for my birthday in 5 days, not that I am counting. Mi madre is coming this weekend and I know she will give me a few ideas too. So excited to show my friends and family the final product.

Any remodels you guys have done that have gotten a little out of hand?

Any of you have boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands, wives, cats, or lovers that are handy like my fellow? I am so thankful to have a hubs that fixes things and looks good doing it.

Goodwill and Peace on Earth for Ashlyn

I have had my eye on this white ceramic flower at Target for oh, too long!




I could never justify the almost $30 + shipping to have it placed ever so perfectly on my end table in my new parlor (more on that when it's finished.)




Alas, today I felt the need for a few crafty remodeling sessions and everyone keeps telling me that the local Goodwill has quite a few workable finds. My apologies to all the Goodwill gals out there but, it must take a trained eye to scout for new projects.

HOWEVER I did find this hot little number!



Not an exact replica but for $3.99 it will feed my lust for ceramic floral home accessories. For now at least.

COMING SOON--Dresser remodel

Not Your Mama's Door Handles.

I woke up about 3 months ago with a creative side. I know, I was scared too. All these ideas started popping in my head about cute little things to do around the house to put a little more ASHLYN in our home and a little less IKEA and TARGET. I started out slow with a few of my favorite books strategically left out here and there. I was still comfortable. Then I worked on center pieces for the dining room table. I was still comfortable. I pulled some color into the kitchen by stitching and hot gluing ribbons onto my plain white cooking canisters.



Like I said...baby steps.




And you know what? I was still okay!

I have had a love for antiques since I was a child. Something in me loves the idea that an object has a history just like we all do. I know totally corny right? Too bad! I love it. I have all kinds of small and large antiques that I work somehow into my self categorized "modern colonial" decorating style.

I was at Habitat for Humanitie's ReStore in town and found these super awesome old door handles.





I made an impulse purchase (3 handles for $2.99, whew big spender) and brought my new little project home to a confused hubby. It took me a few weeks to decide what to actually do with them because I knew they had to have a spot where everyone would see how great they are. Well this past winter I tried to make a headboard for the guest room. That ended up being an epic fail due to the fact that just the foam is $15 a foot and I needed about 10. I don't need a handmade headboard as much as I need a vehicle to get me to work to make more money for more projects.

BACK TO THE CRAFT. I really needed something to even out the wall weight in our guest room. Enter fun old door handles. I took just a scrap piece of wood that we had from one of our MANY other home projects and painted it white with the new Behr paint and primer in one. Then my wonderful manfriend (Joe) used a spade bit to drill holes for the handles to go through. Here comes the hard part. I had to pick out pictures of our nieces and nephews to go in the tiny picture frames I bought.



Harder than it sounds people. Then I used some ribbon we had leftover from our wedding to tie around the frames and attach to the door handles.



TA DAH! Okay so it's not without flaw and I might add a little somethin' somethin' later but it helps balance out the room and its a fun discussion piece.



Yet again...baby steps.

You can't see it very well but the front door handle is laying strategically on the dresser. There is a picture of the Portland LDS temple behind it and I thought it was a cute way to kind of just say "Enter" in the literal and metaphorical sense.

Puppy Halter Top

Joe and I don't have kids. We have decided not to even entertain the idea of kids until our late 20's early 30's, if then. We don't have any early morning puking or diaper rash but we are dealing with another problem... our dog Burklee.





Burklee Claire is our spoiled puppy. She tries so hard to be a good dog and not get into trouble. Alas, accidents happen, hoses get chewed up and dogs get sick. About 2 months ago Joe was scratching her back and found a few irritated spots on her skin. We took her to the vet and he said that she was having a reaction to her food. Not only did we change her food but she had one cosmetic change as well. Dr. Ronne had to shave the fur on her back. To make it all worse the spots turned to open wounds to scabs to scars. It sounds crazy but she is very self aware about her lack of fur. It's also difficult to take her in public because everyone stares at her spot. Heaven knows what they think we've done to this poor dog.



This last Saturday I just couldn't take it anymore. My parents were down for the weekend and I had my mom help make a little top for her. It took longer than I thought and I had to break the seal on the sewing machine but it turned out very cute. We sewed 1 yard of fabric inside out like a pillow case leaving four holes. We had two pieces come together and meet in the middle of her chest. We just attached them together with some velcro. Then we did two tummy straps so it would stay on when she walks around Petco or the park. I know it sounds like a crazy dog parent thing to say but she is so much more confident without her skin exposed.







Maybe I'll start a business making large dog clothes....Maybe not.

New Truck

I finally got my truck! I've wanted a new truck since the second I sold my last one. We've been looking for a few weeks at all different kinds of trucks. I brought home a few for the wife to look at and got a lot of "that's not sitting in my driveway" looks and conversations. Found this one up in Corvallis. It's a Dodge Ram 1500 short bed. I want to fix a couple things on it but I'm happy with it and Ash is uhh...accepting of it.

We took her out for her first adventure last night. Ash got home from her river vacation around 5:30. I had a need to try the truck out off the main road so I thought we could go make a fire and roast some smores. Burklee refused to be left at home so she got to come too. It wasn't until after dark that we realized that we were up in cougar country and a little golden retriever would be a fine dinner. We kept her close and only smelled burning fur a few times. Hopefully this weekend I can try it out again without Ash covering her eyes and begging me not to role down the mountian. Here are some pictures of the truck and the girls.

Labels or Love?

This blog used to just belong to me, Ashlyn. The title of the blog used to be Labels or love? The ultimate choice for most women. Does a girl choose a man that could let her down? Or labels, always available, always faithful. Well I chose both. I got married, and still follow and choose the labels.

Now, this blog will belong to Joe and I. We will both update the blog with adventures from our crazy home updating, travels and daily life. We have family here and there (mostly there) so this will also serve as our "not having to talk on the phone" blog.

We love pictures. I blame it on my poor memory and his lack of attention to detail in the present. A picture really is worth a thousand words so here are a few pictures to save you all the reading.



Joe and I got married September 5th 2009.



We bought a fixer upper home as a big Christmas gift that same year.



Without bathroom wall or door and all.



...yeah.



We have a golden retriever named Burklee.



She is not so little anymore, but just as cute.

We always have a project we are working on or saving up for. Right now it is the hall bathroom.



We hope to tackle it this summer. Well here on out we are up for fate's "grabs." We will keep things updated and we will see you all around.