Made For You

I would generally say that Joe and I are an "unlucky" couple. Since I don't believe in luck really I believe in preparation and opportunity I guess I would go as far as to say that we are an unprepared couple. We fell for each other in a ridiculous almost embarrassing amount of time and planned a wedding even faster. There was no baby on board the opposite actually we were just ready. I've never really told our wedding story probably because I tried to block it out. It was a crazy ride with filled without any alcohol and too many anxiety pills. Sorry about writing that (mom) but it's true and I am nothing if not overly honest and a bacon lover.

I am a planner to a fault. Ask my poor husband, my parents, my boss, those weird neighbors that watch us while we are in our hot tub ANYBODY. Yet I wasn't that girl that planned her wedding. Mainly because I'm not the marrying type but that's another blog post. So when it came down to it I just sort of winged everything which of course increased the anxiety. You see the vicious cycle here?

Well let's start with the fun stuff DRESSES. I love to dress up so my favorite part of the wedding was trying on dresses here were a few of the contenders.









After about 30 dresses. I chose this one



I would say that the venue is the next most important thing. Funny thing about that. I had that picked out for a long time. It was a large six bedroom house in the Cascade mountains that my family stays at in the summers. Because it was large enough the guests from out of town would be able to stay there as well so two birds with one stone right? Wrong! I had sent the down payment I had spoke to the owner we were good to go as far as I knew. TWO days before the wedding my sister in law called to get the directions and the owner said that she was waiting for a confirmation E-Mail from me. To this day I look for that E-Mail and have yet to find one but whatever. Needless to say she rented the house out to another family. AWESOME. At this point I kind of just decided to not get married. I was so over everyone's drama and all the choices that weren't really mine to make.

I worked up until the day of my wedding I left late Friday to make the journey north to meet a man I hadn't seen in weeks and tie myself to him forever. I remember stopping at a Subway along the way and just watching people, something I do a lot, and just thinking about how I was going to change my life forever. I sat and stared at that engagement ring and people for probably an hour and a half. Which inevitably led to me being late for the rehearsal dinner. Thankfully my BFF Kaelyn was already there telling me to breath and getting me a brown paper sack to breath into. Thank God for her.





I have to show a picture of my bachlorette party cake because it was amazing.

I'm so sorry Grandma and Grandpa please cover your eyes.




The next morning I put on my dress...and it didn't fit. You see I have a tendency to not eat when I get stressed out so in the two weeks between my last fitting and my wedding day I had dropped 14 pounds. Here are the picture to prove it.





To this day the look on my mother's face still cracks me up!

We ended up getting married in the park by the river which was beautiful but it was pooring down rain as it often does in Salem. I had to have four helpers carry my dress so it and I didn't get soaked. SO MUCH FUN!



The ceremony went smoothly and I actually got him to say "I will" which was my greatest fear. I had so many dreams about him saying no which would have uh...sucked.

So here we are two years later to the day and he still says "I will." I wonder often why he picked me. He is such a good man. He would do anything for anyone at anytime. After three years of being together he can still make my knees weak with that smile. I guess unlucky works for us.

I Did It All for the Nookie!

So I lied on this post's title. I did it all on this Nook for organization and my sanity. The poor poor people that are my friends and family know that I am a crazy person when it comes to organization. Actually, I'm really just a crazy person in general but for the sake of this blog and their anonymity I'll just keep going. I like each object to have a specific place and purpose. So when this...



...was my laundry nook, it was officially deemed unacceptable.

Since there really isn't much space in there we had to make the most out of the square footage. Luckily there were already two very large

chudd ugly

shelves installed in there they just needed a little pretty added to them. After many a coat of paint because for some reason I hate primer (shout out to Behr paint + primer in one) they were starting to look like they actually fit in the rest of our traditional cottage.

Since no white walls are allowed in this home the builders white had to go. Quick reminder that this is not a NEW house, so this makes me greatly question the souls that lived here before us and stood for this bland impostor! The laundry nook is right off the kitchen and dining room so I decided to paint it the same color as below the chair rail in the dining room.



What is a laundry nook without baskets labeled in a foreign language right?! Well let me help you there. No nook of mine that's what! I bought these little baskets at Fred Meyer one Saturday just knowing that my Organization OCD would need caressing at some point. Then added ribbon from a previous project with a label in French so it frustrates my husband and there ya go a little cubby for rags, cleaning supplies, dog supplies, toilet tissue and laundry goodies.



Mr. Budden has a long reigning history of washing things in his pockets so I saw this little diddy on Pinterest.com and decided it was a necessity for this tiny space. Not really thinking that the person who will be reading the jar, I labeled it in French too. Who needs to read when you have a GIANT check mark and a mason jar? Seriously.



And since we already have other guestimating going ons elsewhere in this space let's add some laundry decals that no one uses anymore because we know how to read, and the greatest part of the whole project, my Mrs. Neat Freak Laundry Organizer and there you have a pretty little room.

Voila!

There you have an Ashlyn friendly, less brain cringing laundry nook. Save the oohing and awing for the upcoming football season because I've done enough of that, the washer and dryer are starting to get big heads.

Seizure Sewing Table

After eating a fantastic 10 pieces of bacon while grabbing my gut and hoping this one nights mishaps won't make me gain back the 15 pounds I've lost, I decided to post about my recent furniture mishaps and success.

Slowly and surely the new room is coming along. I was going to wait and reveal all the accoutrement at once but I just can't. So I'll make a few nugget sized posts instead. Woot!

I got this sewing table after saving this girl's life at a garage sale. So I guess she wasn't actually dead. She had a seizure and was non responsive but it acts A LOT like dead. That's another story for another post but I got it for free regardless. This is what it used to look like.

What a sad little piece of unloved furniture.

Then BAM!

Lookin' saucy! Not as saucy as those Victoria Secret commercials that randomly come on the TV and our men pretend not to look at, but pretty dang fine.

Things not shown in these pictures:

• Spilling Dark Walnut stain ALL OVER our deck, the dog, my legs and more importantly my 'bidness' a little north of my legs. Note for future stainers--WEAR LONG SHORTS AND DON'T SIT SPREAD EAGLE!

• Carrying my 70 lbs. Golden Retriever with wood stain on her paws while trying to take giant leaps in my husband's flip flops to the bathroom as not to get stain all over our new carpet.

• Blowdrying the desk after a week of not completely drying.

Yes, this was supposed to be my easy project after the dresser...it wasn't.
Looks pretty good though. Eh?

Stripe Tease

I wish I was a little less excited about this reveal alas I'm not. It was my first furniture project and so I was SUPER slow at it and went a little crazy with making sure everything was great. I love the way it turned out. First a little bit of history.

This dresser belonged to my great great grandmother. She used it most of her life and passed it down to her children, who passed it to their children who gave it to their kids and grand kids. Needless to say I was a little worried to tryout my new hobby on a piece that means so much to many people. I hope they like it. If not they can rush my house and steal it out of my tea room. Bring it.

Before I show ya'll the results I have to share my favorite part of the dresser.



That is my great great grandmother's handwriting on the back of the dresser. I can't tell you how many times I have run my hand over that signature and wondered about her history and the stories this piece could tell.

When I was 13 I wrote a message on the bottom drawer hoping that someone would find it and run their hands over it and wonder about my story. This seems doubtful but darnit I love my rose colored glasses.

Alright here we go. Hope you like it, If not...good thing it's not in your house.




BEFORE








AFTER



It literally took 3 or 4 hours just to sand the top down enough to stain it. I learned a few things during that time mainly I HATE SANDING. It gets everywhere, on everything and that noise makes me feel like I need to go see my dentist. However the wood absorbed the stain beautifully and the Dark Walnut stain looks amazing.



Notice the smile on my face at the BEGINNING of this project. Oh and how long my hair was!

I wanted to do something fun with the drawers but didn't quite have the guts to go all crazy tiger on over a hundred year old wood dresser. Call me crazy! I thought the stripes would bring it up to current day design without offending my vintage taste. I just taped off a few straight lines with plain old painters tape and BOOM! Stripage.



I purchased new knobs to better support the continual pulling motion since the little handles were starting to wear on the wood. The knobs were the most expensive part of this whole project it also took almost 2 weeks to get here! But boy are they heavy and solid! She's a brick house is playing in my head right now. Aren't they pretty?! She's mighty mighty, lettin' it all hang out...sorry.



We are using the dresser/buffet to hold our DVDs right now but I have high hopes to keep this dresser in our family for another century. Which means it probably has many restorations coming her way. Little nip here, little tuck there. Hopefully she doesn't turn out like Lisa Marie Presley. Whoo! Poor girl.

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