"WDIDTW!?"

(Disclaimer: See bottom of post for the thrifting find of my life.)

Welcome to the first post in the series to come of "What Didn't I Do This Weekend!?"

Friday evening - successful thrifting + dinner at in-law's + one pillow made

Saturday - second pillow made + laundry + cleaned 1.5 bathrooms + cleaned out laundry room & organized closet + 3 generation breakfast + trip to Lowe's to pick paint for my grandma's room redo and curtains for my mom + purchased Girl Scout Cookies : ) + painted with my grandma + dinner & church 45 minutes away, where we heard from a Pastor from Baghdad - AH-mazing night!

Sunday - laundry + final touches on french door lites + painted and hung stair railing with husband + first coat on corner cabinet + made chicken & waffles for dinner

Monday - painted with my grandma + finished painting trim around french doors + Hubby hung clock in dining room + I hung curtains in dining room + second coat on corner cabinet + finally caved & bought rugs for the kitchen + laundry + The Bachelor festivities

So what didn't you do this weekend? I'm dying to know!!

In other news, the Royal wedding is in 66 days, do you care? Would you take the $16 tour to see Kate's journey towards becoming a princess? Why do they keep calling her family middle class and in the same sentence, mention her dad is a self-made millionaire? That doesn't make much middle class sense to me.

I've put it in the back of my mind, but down the road I'm definitely redoing the guest room upstairs. I painted it last year, but the bedding is from my high school days and so is the furniture. Check out what I found for $16 at the local G Dub:

It's a queen comforter from Tar-Jay, bed skirt, 4 shams...and I paid $16. I was thrilled. The best part is, our guest bed is only a full so a queen comforter will be fantabulous.

I found this super soft miocrofiber sheet set at Ollie's for $12. It ended up being free because I had a $15 merchandise credit. Sweet.

I purchased this faux mercury glass for $3. Love it.

I found this fugly "M" at G Dub for .97. I plan to recover it in a funky fabric.

Okay, so maybe the bedding wasn't THAT amazing, but you looked, didn't you?

Why I love my husband..

Saturday morning I went to breakfast with my mom and grandma and returned to something......special.

Let's see if you notice the difference.

Since then, they've been cleaned and perfected, but I can't let you see those pictures until this soviet is complete.

But wait - there's more! I accomplished something in this room myself...er, I started to accomplish something in this room myself!

Remember this huge piece of oak that we couldn't stand to look at? When I say we, I mean I. Just roll with me here.

Popping Pillows...

On my way home from work Friday, I stopped in at our local consignment barn. What, you don't have a consignment barn? Please.

I spied some gorgeous placemats, four for $3, and I immediately knew I had to make them into pillows.

As I was leaping out of that department with joy, I spied with my special eyes two pillows that would perfectly fit in between two of my placemats.

The pillows were $3 each. At first I was trying to find a larger pillow that I could rip apart and make into two smaller pillows, but these were perfect.

I sewed three sides of the placemats together (inside out of course), pulled the inside out, inserted pillow and VOILA!

I now have two adorable pillows that do not look like $4.50 pillows. Not only that, the material is PERFECT. I am in <3...

Frenchies

Did you ever have a project that just stopped you in your tracks? Did you ever have a project that was painful to tackle, but you knew you couldn't move on to something else until it was completed?

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Previously, this is what our french doors looked like..

Their beauty was covered in primed plastic, which must be peeled off.......one little glass square. at. a. time.

Moving on.

I finally realized there can be a method to this madness. After using a knife to lift a tiny spot that you can pull, it works best if you pull from underneath with your hand. If you just rip piece by piece, it is messier (which is hard for me to picture right now) and takes 30 times longer.

Let me explain with a picture..

It is like you're pulling a baby calf out of that window. You do it ever so gently and then all of a sudden, bam, the whole window is beautiful glass!

At that point I had NINE done! Only 51 more to go...YEA! Wait .. 51 more? Yeah, that's right. You have to do both sides of both doors before you can use your special eyes to peer through those beautiful doors and see what is on the other side. This has taken me a year longer than what I thought. When I say a year, I mean two weeks, but still.

So..I used my special hands to peel, pull and push away.

Here'y my mess to prove it..

I looked ridiculous or I would have been in this picture. I was covered in the white, plasticy remnants. It was like the blizzard of 2010 in my dining room.

Here was my final product.

I finished one side of one door and that was enough.

I plan on getting started a little earlier tonight so I can work longer and accomplish more because, let's face it, I have other things I want to do.

Only 45 to go!

Dressing up Doggy Stairs

Our bed has always been a little on the high side, but when we recently put hardwood in the boudoir, we noticed a signifigant increase in height. Don't ask me why. Maybe it's all in my head our heads, maybe we adjusted something without knowing it, but whatever the case, it is what it is. I don't particularly care. I would climb a ladder to go to bed as long as the sheets felt like butter. This increase in height isn't necessarily a hardship, unless you are under four feet. For smaller canine breeds, however, our bed may be out of the question, which I guess is a good thing if little baby wolves break into our house while we're sleeping. Alas, I pray every night that such an event will not occur.

While explaining this situation to my mom, she mentioned that she had doggy steps that weren't being used.

Enter, unattractive doggy steps.

After about a week, Lily started using these things non stop. They're part of the family now. There is no turning back. They even have a nickname, "Steppies." If you add the"ly" or "ies" ending to any word, she will listen. Thrown in some chicken, she's your friend for life.

One little plasticy, cheap carpet problem.....they're fugly.

Enter, my mom with bright ideas.

My mom spotted this faux fur blanket on the bed and thought we should try draping it over the "Steppies."















I complied and it has been there ever since. What do you think? Goodbye, scary beige pastic steps covered by cheap carpet. Hello, beautiful.

Lily now insists that we refer to her as: "Your Highness" or "Your Majesty" or "Lily Benedict Von Stucke Hermoine."

...drama queen

going neutral.....

So the plans I had for the weekend did not come to be. I was so excited to get home on Friday afternoon that I didn't swing by Michael's. There's always next weekend....and the weekend after that. Let me tell ya, I have big plans. I mean BIG.

I did get something accomplished though. I decided to continue our grey throughout the rest of the first floor (the kitchen and living room), but I did more than that. I STARTED painting the kitchen. Check it out..

This is the after picture. I thank you in advance for excusing my construction corner.

Here's the before...

 As always, I apologize for the lack of megapixels. I actually cleaned my memory card today so why am I not using my camera?

I'm loving the neutral plates on top of the cabinets. It feels less cluttered to me. Also, the grey walls are really making my white subway tile (installed by moi) pop. Loving that. I have big plans for the upper cabinets. The bottom ones will be painted the same as the top, but soon you will see what this plan is that I speak of. Hopefully the levels of my "House Fund" will resume awesomeness and in the next year we can have a new countertop installed. I'm digging marble, although red gatorade-stained marble I am not digging. I love the granite that looks like there are jewels in it. When we went to Mexico in October, we had a gorgeous bathroom vanity and countertop. I'll have to post a picture one of these days. It looked like there were crushed diamonds all through it. That's what I'm talking about. I also love quartz.

It's just another Manic Monday...ooooohhh

I wish it were Sunday....oooohh

Who dresses your dog?

There is really only one logical answer to the above question. Let's face it, the old "she insists on dressing herself" line really only works when "she" is a small human.....unless your dog is Lily, that is.

To set the stage a little, we were without electricity for 16 hours yesterday, which means no heat for 16 hours. As we were "roughing it" by going out for dinner, we met our new favorite person in the world, the dude who fixed the burnt line across the way. Yes, I said "across the way." Little Boy Blue and myself were so excited because this meant we didn't have to borrow my father in law's generator AND we didn't have to go drop $200 on a big heater so our pipes wouldn't freeze overnight. What you're probably wondering about now is how do you keep a tiny yorkipoo warm on such a day.....

Well, you let her dress herself....

Who DOESN'T dress up like a jack-o-lantern in February? Come on! In all seriousness, it's her only outfit with a hood. There, the truth has set me free.

Today's outfit:

I couldn't resist.