Money can't buy you cla-hass

Once upon a time, Kennedy and I decided it would be worth our time to completely gut our master bathroom and renovate it ourselves.

(See that huge window? That used to be where our old vanity and mirror was!)

We were working really hard, and had a good rhythm going, but then we hit a wall. (i.e. Spring Break ended). Then it was TAKS (state testing) season and I was basically at work from 7a-7p every day. Then TAKS was over and I just wanted to come home and crash every day. Kennedy was also very busy, but managed to do a little work here and there.

It has taken us 5 months, but we are FINALLY gaining some steam and are hopefully in the home stretch of this bathroom renovation. Here's a quick list of what we have done so far! Skip it if you don't like lists, because there are some current pictures down below!

• Gutted the entire bathroom including knocking down a couple of non load-bearing walls
• Replaced one window and added a completely new window (see above photos)
• Framed out a new shower 
• Hung mold-resistant drywall
• Taped and mudded all drywall seams
• Hung cement board in the shower
• Re-did the sub floors and laid cement board down on the floors
• Textured the walls and ceilings
• TILED THE BATHROOM FLOOR!!!

Thanks to the help of my wonderful parents (specifically my Dad, the tile expert), we now have our tile floor down. It has yet to be grouted, but the thin set is upstairs drying as I type this! Please enjoy some progress pictures now.

Kennedy and Dad getting the first few tiles down

Almost done!

View from the door

View from the shower

Now that we're finally seeing some visible progress, let's hope we can stay motivated and get this thing done soon, because...

We're gonna have a baby in January! (Like you didn't know.)

Pictures to follow.

It is (finally, basically, almost) finished

Do you know what I've been through to get this blog post done? I have literally thought about this blog post for the past month. I've been struggling over the words. I've been crying myself to sleep at night about it. I've battled through heat stroke (literally, like 5 minutes ago!) to finish this blog post. I literally had to MAKE MYSELF get off the couch (of course only after Because I Said So, starring Diane Keaton & Mandy Moore, was over). I had to take photos of things, upload said photos to my computer and log in to my blogger account. Do you know what I've been through?

Well, I sure hope so. Because I refuse to apologize for the extenuating circumstances like lack of motivation, lack of time, lack of energy, that have kept me from my blog.

Last time, I showed you some mystery elements that were to be used in my next project. Well, that project is finally, basically done. Minus a few minor details, I am ready to reveal it! And I really hope no one was sitting around dying to know. Because in that case, this will turn out to be rather anti-climactic.

DIY Giant Checkerboard

(And it's true: I first accidentally typed "DIE" instead of "DIY", then laughed at how that little typo would completely change the context of the following "tutorial.")

Here's what you need:

• Large piece of plywood, cut into a square (mine is 30"x 30" to accommodate my giant checker pieces.)
• A ruler/yard stick/meter stick of some sort
• Paint in preferred paint colors, along with your favorite paint brushes. (I used small brushes to get the straightest lines, but you could also tape it off and go wild)
• Wood Stain/Varnish or both
• 24 lids from salsa jars that you've been collecting for the past 1-yr-and-a-half, much to your husbands chagrin
• Spray Paint

1. First, you must decide how big of a board you'll need. I used some simple math to figure this out. My salsa jar lid giant checker piece has a diameter of 3.5 inches. I hadn't played checkers in a while, so I had to google how many checker squares were on a board. There are 64 (or 8x8). I multiplied the diameter of my checker piece by 8. It came out to 28 inches. I rounded up to 30 inches so I could put a border on it.

Then, I started measuring and drawing lines with a pencil and a T-square (but you can use a ruler or meter stick.)

(A pathetic excuse to slip a picture of Elvis in here.)

2. Start painting in the squares. (Do I need to explain how you need to do every other square so that only the corners of the same color touch? See below.)

(Elvis is still sitting there, because he's obsessed with me in a really cute way)

3. Paint the border (not pictured.)

4. I decided to only paint 1/2 the squares, and leave the other half wood-toned. That's because I had some left-over Cedar colored stain/varnish from another project.

This is what the finished product looked like!

For the salsa jar lids, I just spray painted them gold, because that's what I had in the garage. Then I started decorating them with some acrylic paint, but I'm thinking I don't want to waste my time on that. Thoughts? Should I keep decorating the checker pieces or leave them plain gold?

I am still finishing up collecting the rest of the 12 for the other player. I need to finish some pesto and minced garlic in my fridge and I'll be ready to go!

For the other player's set, I decided to use a smaller lid, so you could tell the difference between the two (i.e. I got sick of salsa and happened to have a bunch of smaller lids.)

All I have left to do now is find a suitable base that is preferably collapsable so I can tuck it away when not in use!

Words I had to google for spelling or meaning in this blog post: Diane Keaton, Extenuating, Accommodate, Chagrin, Diameter

Mystery Project

Well, I'm finally "off" for the summer, although I feel as though there's very little downtime for the next 2-something months. I'm a work-a-holic, which is weird, because I used to be so lazy.

Anyhoo, Project Sara is gearing up, and ready to go on a project RAMPAGE! Well, maybe it's not that strong, but I've definitely got things to do if I happen to get bored.

Some updates to note since I've last blogged with you:


-I have a zit on my chin.


-Elvis & Cece are still the cutest dogs in the world.


-Our bathroom renovation is slowly moving forward (but not enough to warrant picture updates at this point.)


-Kennedy and I have been married for 4 long (wonderful) years


-I am in my late 20s (I guess that happened a couple of years ago, but it's just now hitting me.)


-I learned to stay away from pictures of myself when I was in my early 20s. It's just depressing.

On a different note, I have a mystery project in the works! I will share 2 pictures, and you are to place your bets in the comments section. What do you think I'll be working on tomorrow???

If you guess correctly (and this excludes anyone who I have already told), then I will fill in the following sentence using your name in my next blog post: "_______________ is a freakin' genius."

Your guess is as good as mine!

Good luck!

It's true...

I lied.

I said I would blog yesterday, but then I didn't. I've been putting it off for over a month (with valid reason!) but I am back, my friends! Who knew life would get so incredibly busy this summer? I thought summer was for laying in my crystal clear pool (thanks to my wonderful pool boy/husband.) Unfortunately (or fortunately, however you choose to look at it,) I have been busy training to become a teacher! I have finished about 120 hours of classes all about teaching, I have passed a test that qualifies me to teach 4 subjects in grades 4-8, and I am busy plugging away at job applications. I am a little worried at how close to the start of the school year it is, and me without a job, BUT I must have faith that I will find something!

So with all of that plus my normal responsibilities, you can see how I have had little time to do household projects, let alone blog about them.

And the truth is, where do I even begin??? I feel like I almost have to reintroduce myself to all 5 of you reading. Thank you for still reading.

Let's just refer to this post as a photo-dump. That way, I do not have to follow any rhyme or reason in this post. It will be somewhat of a stream-of-consciousness picture book. If there has never been such a thing, well here it is now!

Last I blogged, I had just come home from a dear friend's wedding, followed by some fun time with Stephanie & our mother-in-law, Jennifer.

Here we are at Jennifer's wedding. This seems to be the only decent photo we have where Kennedy isn't drenched in sweat. Unfortunately, we tend to lose track of time dancing at weddings and forget to get photos before-hand.

The wedding was beautiful, magical, sentimental, and perfect. Here are a couple of photos of the bride - I hope she doesn't get mad at me for blogging about her....

Jennifer got married, and it was in and of itself a milestone event, but the post important part of that weekend was that Jaclyn & I found a tree to hang off of like animals.

So, good thing! We were starting to get worried we'd never be able to scratch that off our bucket lists.

Next, I jetted over to St. Louis for a fun conference. Here are Stephanie & I with a couple of celebrities!

So that's the abbreviated recap of my past month. The rest was spent in a classroom, learning how to teach. 

Now I can't leave without sharing at least ONE project. I've really been able to get a few things done in the past month, so perhaps I'll share things worth sharing over the next few blog posts. Unless I decide to take another month off.

This one is something I've been looking to do for a while now, but haven't been able to find the right frame. I'd been trying to find an old, cheap framed photo or painting that I could convert into a cute bulletin board for my laundry room. It was really feeling kind of monotone in there for a while, and I thought a cork board would warm it up a bit.

Here's the before thing:

A little paint, distressing, glue and cork board, and I had a nice, new addition to my laundry room! And the whole project cost me $3.00 (for the frame.) I already had the paint & the cork in my house!

Now that my busy season is winding down, I have a long list of household to-dos to do (how'd you like that?). Expect more updates - CHEAP updates!

Bizzy

Holy rainy season, Batman!

That's right, our drought here in the DFW has been cured as of last Thursday. And so began the onslaught of T-storms...ahhhh, one of my favorite seasons here is the storm season! (Except when it strikes your nearest power line down.) Luckily, that hasn't happened to us this year!

Last year, while living with my parents, the T-storms struck down the power lines in their neighborhood. So when night fell, we busted out the candles & flashlights. I think only one flashlight actually had working batteries, and we've never really been a big candle family. Needless to say, it was dark.

So what did we do??? We played the "questions game," introduced to us by my sister-in-law, Caroline. Maybe one day Caroline could write a guest post and explain the game! It's fun, but for some reason I have no energy to teach it....Whattaya say, Caroline??

Speaking of being too tired to teach something, I have no tutorials to share of my own. However!!! I've been reading other's blogs, and slowly collecting tutorials of projects that I find to be amazing & easy! Today, I'll share the links to those. Another day, perhaps I will begin to work my way through them...

Prudent Baby's fabric flower hair clip

MADE's recycled grocery totes

Ollibird's menu planner

Prudent Baby's braided fabric headband

Enjoy!

Photo Twist

Sometimes I want to frame a photo, but then I think it's missing something. Then, a couple of years ago I stumbled upon a neat little craft to jazz up photos.

Guess what photo I decided to use? That's right, a photo of MY DOG. I just can't seem to stay away. I wonder if I'll ever love kids as much as I love my dogs? At this point, I just don't see how it's possible...

Anyway, the twist to which I am referring is making a photo 2-D. I had already made one of cute Elvis when we first got him, so I decided I needed to get Cece caught up in the shrine department.

Notice the subtle "pop-out" of the photo. Here's the photo I decided to use of Cece:

She's just so freaking cute!

I used the following materials: several copies of the photo above, a black foam sheet, scissors, craft glue.

First, I decided how many layers I wanted in the photo. I generally stick with 3 layers, because any more gets complicated and takes too long and runs the risk of looking messy. So for this photo I went with the background/Cece's head, then her muzzle, then her round button nose.

Like so:

I had printed out 3 copies of the photo, and then cut one layer from each. Later, I decided that I could get away with only destroying 2 layers and keep the 3rd as a spare copy, like so:

Ok, and sorry but for some reason my computer thinks it's hilarious to UN ROTATE photos that I have previously rotated. So then I get side-ways photos. Loooove it.

Then I took the black foam sheet and traced the top two layers on it. Then I cut the traced areas out and glued them to the photo layers.

That traced section is actually traced onto a foam sheet that has a sticky side. Then I just had to peel the white backing off it and stick it on. But if you can't find that, then just glue it like I said before...

THEN, (and here comes the hard part,) glue all your layers together.

That's all! I am loving these easy 5-minute crafts lately. All of the results with barely any work.

Here's my finished result:

It was totally an accident, but that top spike of Cece's hair ended up hooking around the photo mat. I liked it and kept it because I thought it made the photo pop out more. Also, the frame I used is a semi-shadow-box frame from Hobby Lobby (half off!) I find that it works best if you are 2-D'ing your photos, so it doesn't get all smashed and defeat the purpose.

And here is a photo of my dog shrine/kitchen decor:

Any questions?

Hello Yellow!

This blog is long overdue for a little sprucin' up! This feels a little more summer-y. Also, here's to hoping this will inspire me to get some other projects done.

It's been a long time since I've said "I'm bored," but it happened to me today. Actually, it kind of crept up on me in the last couple of weeks. My sleep pattern has been awry since Jennifer's Bachelorette party, which is causing my days to be filled with naps.

Note to self and others: Don't stay out 'til 3am. Just don't do it!

Anyway, bored means I just don't want to do anything. LORD KNOWS I have plenty to do around here. Instead, I'll just complain about it and not do it. 

EXCEPT FOR THIS!

The following project is a little variation on the Custom Etched Bar Glasses post. This time, I took a handy little gift card to Hobby Lobby (Thanks Mel & J.T.!) and found some amazing green glass jars on clearance! The big one was $5 and the smaller one was $3. Cha-ching! Or, score? 

I left Hobby Lobby with intentions of brandishing the jars with dog bones, or dog paws, or some cute dog pun. I wrestled over it all day, thinking it would "just be so cute" to etch one or all of those things on each jar. After all, I have been wanting some cute jars to display dog treats for a while now.

Then my judgement got the better of me, and I decided that dog-related decor is a slippery slope. Same with cat-related decor. I am, for now, going to keep it to a minimum by only decorating with photos of my dogs, and giving & receiving birthday cards with pictures of dogs doing hilarious things. (That might also be a slippery slope, but I'll keep you posted.) 

Here's the project:

Chalkboard Jars

What you need:

- Glass or ceramic jars

- contact paper

- craft knife

- chalkboard paint 

Draw some wavy rectangles on a piece of contact paper. Stick it to the jar. Make sure most of the jar is protected by contact paper if you are using Chalkboard spray paint. If you decide to go the paint-on route, then you should be good...

Here's what mine looked like after I was done with the spray paint.

Then once it was dry, I peeled off the contact paper and voila! This was a nice, easy, quick project, that semi-cured my boredom.

Because when you're bored, you want to see quick results so you can go back to sulking and watching re-runs of The Nanny, but still feel like you accomplished something today.

As far as what I'm going to write on the little chalkboards, it will be dog related. For now. But I like the versatility that the chalkboard surface offers. Maybe one day I'll use it to label a specific kind of cookie or snack. Or "KEEP OUT".

Milestones

This is my 90th post! Ten more and maybe I'll bake (photoshop) a cake!

Today is also my birthday! I am FINALLY 26....I thought it would never get here! (kidding...who actually looks forward to a 26th birthday?)

Funny story, even though I'm 26, I am still getting turned away from night clubs at friend's bachelorette parties for looking 12. Apparently my ID also looks fake. But who's gonna be laughing in 26 years when I look 26? ME! That's who!

But that's neither here nor there.

Things at our house have been at a standstill as far as renovating/decorating/remodeling. For one, I am STILL trying to find a full-time job, over a year later.  Not that I'm complaining, because I love staying home with the dogs.

Another reason for our standstill is that it's finally been warm enough to use our pool. Like every day. So when we decide to make time for lounging poolside, we are pushing aside progress on the house. Our pool has never looked better, though! Come over and swim with me sometime!

Slowly, but surely, we are making some progress on the office. But I have a feeling it would be going a lot faster if I could just get motivated. We'll see what this weekend holds.

So, while I do not have anything to share house-wise, I do have a fun little project that anyone can do (homeowners or not!) I guess I'm on a bit of a craft kick.

I'm not sure where I heard about this, but it had to be a combination of reading other blogs and googling. It's one of those "'twas blind but now I see" type of deals, where I didn't even know this craft existed!

Custom etched bar glasses

This is a little gift-set that I whipped up for a dear friend's "Stock the Bar" wedding shower. Great party, by the way! I had never heard of this type of shower, but it was so much fun, and the happy couple got lots of goodies for their home bar.

I asked Jennifer (the bride) to send me 4 inside jokes that she and her fiance have. Something that they would hear and only they would know what it meant. (I'm not sure why I felt the need to explain what an inside joke is, but let's just consider it part of the tutorial.)

Here's what you'll need for this project:

-4 glasses (or however many you want!)

-exacto/craft knife

-contact paper

-pen or marker

-glass etching cream (just so you're prepared, it's like $8 for a 1-2oz bottle, but a little goes a long way!)

Those are the basic things you will need. You may find a way to be more efficient using other tools, or you may want to customize this to your own needs (i.e. Margarita or Martini glasses, or a mirror!)

First, I drew the letters onto a square piece of contact paper. I didn't like the way it looked, so then I typed and printed the letters out and traced them onto the white contact paper by layering them and holding them up to a window. It was really quite complicated and difficult, so I suggest using clear contact paper. (White was what I had lying around, so that's what I used.)

(This was my first attempt when I hand-wrote it. I later took this off and started again.)

After I peeled the back off of the contact paper, I tried my best to center and level the sticker onto the glass, smoothing out all bubbles.

Then I took my exacto/craft knife and traced around the parts that I wanted gone (i.e. all the black marker.) You can see where I started to do that above. This is a very time-consuming, hand-cramping part, but take care to be exact so your edges aren't all jagged! Don't worry about scratching the glass because the exacto/craft knife isn't sharp enough to do that.

Once all the necessary pieces are cut out, apply the etching cream liberally and let it sit for a while. (I let mine sit for like 5 minutes, but I think it would have done better to sit for a lot longer...)

Also, I suggest you wear rubber gloves, because this stuff is pretty strong.

Once you're satisfied with how long it has sat there, eating away at the surface of the glass, rinse with water. I also wiped my clean with a damp paper towel to make sure I didn't leave behind anything that would etch where I didn't want it.

Dry with a dry paper towel, then peel off the contact paper.

Really? That's it???

It was so easy to do! The hardest and most time-consuming part is definitely cutting out the contact paper. However, if you decided to do something else, like a silhouette, it wouldn't take as much time.
I actually saw something really cute on Etsy where they made a dog treat jar with the silhouette of different dog breeds. It was A-freakin'-dorable, and if I didn't have a couple of mix-breeds, I would definitely be making it!

Maybe I'll get a glass jar and put a paw-print on it?

(Careful, Sara! Your house is on the verge of having too many dog-related decor items!)

I think the bride loved the glasses, and if not, well she didn't tell me! After writing this post, it makes me want to go etch the heck out of everything in the house!

Aaaaand we're back!

I can't remember if I've used that title before, but if I have, oh well. My hiatus seems to have come to an end. Whether coincidence or subconscious, I don't know, but it has fallen on the exact same day that I am finally rid of all things bothersome concerning the dreadful fence fire.

Please re-read that last sentence out loud. With a British accent. I won't tell you how, but trust me, it is relevant to the fence fire.

Now when I say I'm back, I don't mean I'm going to write another post about how annoying that whole "FF" ordeal was ("FF" is code for Fence Fire, in case you didn't catch it...) No. When I say "I'm back," I mean, I have a new project to share! And I'm in love with it. Even KENNEDY is as excited about it as I am.

(Not to say he doesn't ever praise or appreciate my work, but I believe much of it is of little consequence to him.) Did I even use "of little consequence" correctly? I'm just in Jane Austen/proper/British mode or something....

SO MUCH GOING ON IN MY HEAD RIGHT NOW!

Let's talk about this project. And while I'm at it, I'll go ahead and provide a tutorial. This project was inspired by a project done over at http://www.susieharrisblog.com. She did an entire board full of type-writer keys and numbers. It is amazing. I'm definitely going to be making it for our office (when I finally get around to working on it...)

Type-writer Keys Vanity Coat Rack

(TKVCR)

Materials needed:

1 - 1x8, cut to size of your preference

Black craft paint

Round things (paper plates, cups?)

Printer

Pen

Brown paint or stain

Polyurethane

Mountable coat hooks

Some screws and stuff

I literally had everything I needed for this project in my garage. The mountable coat hooks were bought at Pier 1 a while back with this project in mind, but they were like a buck each. Hobby Lobby (aka HEAVEN) has a large variety of knobs and hooks. Knobs would be cute mounted as a coat rack (I know, because my mother-in-law did it. And it is cute.)

1. So first I cut that 1x8 down to about 40". You can do more or less depending on your space or what have you.

2. I primed the board (back and front) with white primer. Then I measured out for spacing purposes and traced 4 circles using a small paper plate.

Can you see my pencil marks? The flash was pretty bright... Just look closely. You'll see that I did, indeed, trace circles.

3. I painted the inside of the circles black. (..with black craft paint. If you have a different type of black paint lying around, use that instead! It really doesn't matter.)

Here they are all painted in. Sorry for the funky camera angles....

4. I printed out the letters in my last name to fit. Based on the size of the circles, I knew I needed letters the size of 1/2 a sheet of paper. Not to get complicated, but using photoshop, I was able to size them correctly. The font I chose was a 350 point Georgia (caps lock). 

So it was pretty big. But you want the letters to be the correct scale. If they are too small, then it won't look like type-writer keys anymore. But if that's what you wanna do, then go for it!

For some reason, the photos I took for this project look horrible. Maybe because I kept turning my flash off. So that's why.

5. Center the letter within the circle and trace over the letter using a ball point pen. TRACE HARD, so the lines show up. Then, take a slightly smaller sized circle and trace inside the black circle. (see below)

Because the paint was pretty fresh, it actually picked it up where I traced. So it's nice and easy to see. That's important, because...

6. Paint inside the letters with white paint. Also, paint over that new circle you just traced, BUT don't paint all the way around. Just do it in spots so it looks a little worn..

(Look closely at the white border circle to see what I mean.)

7. Then right after it dries (maybe 30 minutes later?)...Take it out back and rub some brown paint/stain on it. Rub lightly for less distressing. Rub a little harder for more distressing. Rub more brown paint along the edges and corners for a more aged look.

8. Once that dries, give it a quick coat of polyurethane to protect any more paint from chipping off.

So that's how you paint the sign! I gather I don't need to add steps on how to attach your hooks. 

So I attached the hooks, and I also attached a couple of picture hangers on the back so it would be easy to hang. Just thought I'd throw that out there too. But I won't hold your hand through that. Mostly because I didn't take picture of those steps.

But I WILL show you one more final project picture!

I think this project took a couple of hours to do. The thing that took the longest was painting in those letters. Is your name like 16 letters long? Then make the circles smaller. Or, just use the first initial. Or make a monogram! Possibilities are endless.

Yay for me! And yay for you if you decide to make this.