Let there be light!

I made lamps. Seriously! I MADE 2 lamps. Kennedy and I are in the process of (finally) decorating our room. I was out at TJMaxx the other day, scrounging for some decor items, when I came across a couple of vases. I've been wanting to make a lamp (or lamps) for a while now, and these were a perfect way to start, because I didn't have to drill anywhere for the cord.

Here are the vases I found. They were $15.00 each, and actually came with a matching lid. However, one of them was missing a lid, so I was able to haggle a little and get one of them for about 10% off. Score!

Here are my lamp kits. If you look closely, you'll see that one of these was on sale. When I took it to the register, I was able to haggle and get the other one on sale too. At first, I thought they were exactly the same, but when I got home, I realized that one is a push-through switch, and one is a turn-knob. No big deal, because it saved me a couple of bucks! So far, I've saved $4.00!

Here are my other tools. A hot glue gun, and some cork tiles.

I used the cork to plug the top of the vase and hold the lamp kit in place, so I traced a circle and cut it out. This lamp-making thing is so simple, it's ridiculous.

Viola! Tried and true.

Next, I took the threaded tube (that will later hold the lamp wire) and poked a hole through the cork. No cutting necessary, just twist and push through for the perfect-sized hole.

Here's the fun part. I pushed that copper end of the wire through a hole at the bottom of the vase, then threaded it through the metal tube, and there it is! I won't go into detail on step-by-step instructions here, because any lamp-kit you buy will have it's own set of instructions. BUT, you need to follow those instructions to the letter. There are two wires there, and both have a certain place to be fastened. Otherwise, the kit won't work.

My underwriter's knot.

Once the kit was assembled, I pulled out the trusty hot glue gun and glued the wire inside the vase in place, and then I glued the cork in place around the inner-rim of the vase. I can rhyme all the time! I ended up using lampshades that we already had from some other ugly lamps hanging out in a closet somewhere. I also used my left-over cork to glue to the bottom of the lamps, so they wouldn't scratch our wood side tables.

And drumroll, please....

Ta-da!

You can do it, too! Kennedy also made a good suggestion to paint the cork white so it would blend in with the lamps. Also, it would make it look a little less 3's company (if you catch my drift.) He's so smart!

Next, I want to make some lamps out of glass vases. This will require a little more finesse, as I will have to find a diamond-tipped drill bit and drill a hole without busting the vase. I got a good tip from a handy-man about how to do this. I will also be consulting this website when the time comes. Good thing I've been saving all our glass jars from our kitchen, so I can practice!

Next blog post, I'll be addressing the fact that I set our heater to 88 (as high as it would go) about an hour ago, and our house is still only 60 degrees. I'm FREEZING!

Good news to share!

I have finally found a replacement for the once mac-and-cheese shaped hole in my heart, left by Bracco when we moved away from South Dakota.

The best news is that it's at a place you can find literally almost anywhere in the country! It's Panera Bread's NEW Vermont White Cheddar Mac & Cheese.

No, they're not paying me to say this (although, they'd be smart to, as I've told about 4 billion people about this mac and cheese this morning alone.) Try it. Go to Panera Bread for your next meal and try it. It's creamy, cheddary, warm and delicious. You won't find a better match-up, unless you live in Sioux Falls and can go eat at Bracco. But this one is cheaper.

In other news, I've recently stumbled across an AMAZING blog, Knock Off Wood. You can find it over there in my blog roll for future reference. If you're like me, and cannot bring yourself to buy new furniture, this blog gives detailed instructions on how to make exact replicas from your favorite stores like Pottery Barn, West Elm, etc! I'm excited about this! Time to get Kennedy some more tools! (I'm the supervisor; I don't do power tools.)

And finally, our heater sucks. It's literally 55 degrees INSIDE our house. First of all, screw you cold weather. I'm sick of it. I'm supposed to be able to wear shorts and a t-shirt right now. Instead, I'm bundling up as much as I did when I lived 1000 miles north of here. This is ridiculous.

I can't stop staring at that picture of the mac and cheese. I gotta get outta here!

Fuming

Our house is fuming (or fume-y, to be more accurate.) More on that later! Let's start this off right with the CUTEST VIDEO EVER!

That was Elvis as a little baby puppy....I think we'd had him for about 2 months at this point. Love!

Now back to business-as-usual. Which reminds me of the book I'm reading that I need to finish before the month is over. I won't say what book, because it's too embarrassing to admit to. So let's just move on.

I have lots of projects going on... I'm ready to share some, even though some aren't completed (actually, none of them are completed. Maybe this will force me to complete them now that I'm sharing everything with the whole world.

#1.

Here, you can observe the waterfall that took place inside our home gym not even 3 weeks ago.

Here, you can see the amount of water that quickly filled the room.

This was the weekend of the freeze. We were lucky, because a lot of people had their whole homes flooded. We just had a tiny bit of our garage, and this gym covered with rubber flooring, get flooded. (Comma splice, anyone?) So, THANK YOU insurance company, for helping us out with this and covering our deductible. Because of you, we were able to completely re-do a room that would have never gotten done, plus a lot of other things around the house. We will definitely be renewing with you next year, and praying for a hail storm this spring!

I don't have after pictures yet, although it's done. Now I feel the need to actually decorate it. The big debate now is whether or not I would feel un-inspired to work out if Kennedy hangs his Star Wars posters in there.

To give you a hint, I took some color ideas from Stephanie's bedroom for this room. We're excited to not be working out in our living room anymore.

#2. (haha)

Did I mention I got one of these for Christmas?

That leads me to share one of my current projects!

Relax, it's not finished yet. But I have 3 of these chairs (one with arms), that I'm going to be sewing slip covers for. Right now, it's upstairs waiting for me, all pinned up and ready to be sewn. I even made piping for the seams! What is piping, you ask? Google it. Or wait and I'll show you later.

#3.

 I love this movie.

#4. Thrift shopping.

I went thrift shopping today. It's one of my favorite things to do, and I've been doing it nearly all my life. Before it was cool to wear thrift-store clothes, I was wearing them. Not because I was a trend-setter, but because we were poor. Not like, eat of the trash can poor, but like, no new clothes in the middle of the school year poor. 

So, as I'm walking through the 3rd thrift store of the day, basking in the cheapness of all these things, and loving that every thrift store has their radio blaring with Lite-Rock or Oldies, it was all ruined. Some creeeeeeeeeeepy man walked by and said "hello, beautiful." Pause. I didn't respond to this. He was looking at the ground and walking really quickly by, as if he was about to get caught doing this. When I didn't respond to that, he continued "how are you doing today?" Again, I didn't respond. He quickly disappeared and I was left feeling entirely creeped out and MAD that he ruined this thrifting experience for me. Jerk.

But on the bright side, I found a TON at my very first thrift store. Let me share it with you now!

Everything came to $10.61, and I had a $3.00 off coupon! Woohoo!

These were great finds, that with a little polish, are gonna be great accessories in our home!

I'm excited for these...

To become this...

Cute!

And I know what you're thinking about this...

But trust me, it's not staying this way!

I'm thinking it will turn out a little more like this...

More to come, stay tuned!!!

Promises promises

I never know how to title my blog posts. They usually have absolutely nothing to do with what I'm writing about. Then again, my blog posts rarely have a complete and unified theme. So let's continue with that trend.

It's been about a year and a half since I had all 4 wisdom teeth removed. If I remember correctly, the very large bill said all 4 were completely removed with no fragments left behind. Why does it feel like I have another tooth coming in back there? I REFUSE to go through that again. I literally could barely open my mouth to brush my teeth for 2 weeks, there was so much swelling. I'd love to share a picture of how fat my face was during that time, but I did not allow any to be taken. Actually, I wouldn't love to share it. That's why there are no pictures.

Moving on...2010 (Twenty-ten) has proven to be a promising year so far (hey, maybe my titles DO have something to do with my blog posts!) I have about 4-5 different self-assigned projects in the works right now. I'm excited to share these projects (and their outcomes) here soon....very soon. Maybe one tomorrow??? We'll see.

In the meantime, let me give you a very cryptic list of the projects to keep you guessing.

Slipped, Webs, Pipe, Stain, Master.

I feel like that was more trouble that it was worth. Sorry about that.

In addition to all the promising projects I have swirling around in my head, I also have some promising opportunities coming up. I will not say more than that because I am a firm believer that I will jinx it.

It has finally warmed up here...I couldn't handle the 20-30 degree weather we have had here the past few weeks (or month.) Today it was in the 60s maybe? Our house is still freezing. I am currently wearing some of Kennedy's huge sweatpants because I was too lazy to go upstairs to find some (his were in the laundry room.) I feel as though this is now turning into a boring list of my current state, so I think that's a sign that this post has come to an end.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

So what if I'm 4 days late? I didn't feel like updating yet, OK?

Let's get down to business.

I got 3 pairs of shoes and a sewing machine for Christmas. I also got several books (hooray!) and tickets to see Wicked in NYC.  Wicked = amazing! I've had the soundtrack for a couple of years now, I read the book it was based on, but finally....FINALLY I saw the show.

So, obviously, we were in the NYC area over the holidays. It was a great time with the Dean family! I could have stayed forever, if Elvis had come with us. Instead, he was trapped in Texas with my parents spoiling him. He almost died of spoiling, seriously. He didn't even realize we were gone for 9 days. I think he cried when he had to leave my parents. Meanwhile, I couldn't sleep without something warm & fuzzy on my pillow.

Here are a few pictures of our time there!

Kennedy & Me in Times Square!

Next year's Christmas Card from the Dean Kids??? This is us at 30 Rock in front of the tree!

At the MET! This is the real thing.

So of course the touristy thing was a lot of fun, albeit COLD! But the most fun was just sitting and chatting and making fun of each other for various things. The thing I hated most about the trip was spending 12 hours traveling on either end. Note to self: NOT worth it to travel separate from your husband and make 2 stops in between destinations.

Moving on...

The debate has come up much so far this year, but no one has settled the argument yet. So here and now, read this. I have come to the decision for ALL of us, that the year is to be referred to as "Twenty-Ten," for all intents and purposes, except in a formal setting such as a graduation. THEN and only then, may you use "Two-thousand and Ten." I think that's reasonable.

That being said, let's get on with my resolutions goals for the new year.

1. Healthy Lifestyle! - 6 months of junk food and not really exercising is too long. Who knows how much damage I've done to my body in the past 6 months? Well, I kinda know, but a lady never tells! My first goal here is to learn more about healthy cooking, making a conscious effort to be active, and to say NO to almost all temptations (no one is perfect.)

2. Book-of-the-month - Join me if you like, but my goal is to read 12 books this year. I think it's attainable, and possibly passable, but just like my body, my mind needs exercise as well.

3. Half Marathon! - Let's do this again!

4. Bring back the peace sign - Why did we ever stop?

This is the year of goals. I have several smaller goals that I will accomplish, and I'm sure there will be more along the road. Isn't it funny how the year offers so much promise? It's a new starting line.

Here is a New Year's Eve picture to satiate your New Year's appetite!

Peace!