Gallery Wall! (Finally...)

I know it has been eons since I last brought up putting together a gallery wall in my living room, but I promise I sorta have an excuse for not actually putting it up until the other day.

I'm not sure if I brought it up at all, but the Navy recently had a large number of lay-offs (yeah, I never thought the military did lay-offs either); it was technically called the Enlisted Retention Board (or the ERB).  This isn't the first or the last time they've done this, but it usually isn't done on this scale.  The Sailor's rate (which is basically military terms for his position) got cut by 25%.  So literally, 1 in 4 people who do what The Sailor does recently were told as of next spring or fall they will no longer be part of the Navy.  Some rates were cut by as much as 70%.

Well, needless to say, if we were going to be kicked out of the Navy at some point next year I had no desire to be hanging pictures throughout the house.  But, thankfully, we found out a few weeks ago that The Sailor is not being cut!

So anyway, back to my gallery wall.  I've had the stuff I wanted to hang up for quite a while now, it was really just a matter of laying it out and hanging it up.  So, the first step was figuring out how I was going to arrange all the frames, which I did on the floor in front of the wall they would eventually be hung up on (Gabby was helping me):

Personal Photo

The next step is actually super clever and unfortunately I can't take the credit for coming up with it, haha.  Basically any blog that I read who has posted about gallery walls brought up using magazine pages to layout how you want to hang the frames up before you actually hang the pieces and all of them attribute the idea to the blog Young House Love.  But yeah, so first I taped together pieces of an old Ok! magazine so they would reflect how big the frames are:

Personal Photo

Then I taped them up on the wall.  Because I was just picking them up off the ground and placing them directly on the wall, it ended up being a mirror image of what I had on the ground, but luckily it didn't really matter:

Personal Photo

Personal Photo

Fun fact - I got lazy after hanging the magazine pages up and ended up leaving it like that for like two days, haha, so classy...

I had also marked on the magazines where the hanging part of the frame was so I just put up the hangers right over the magazine cut outs.  Obviously for any frame that had multiple hanging points I had to use a level to have the the magazine hung up precisely how I wanted the frame to hang; any frame that just had one hanging point was a lot easier.

Personal Photo

Personal Photo

And then I pulled down the magazines, and the hangers were in the perfect spot!

Personal Photo

The wing emblem is actually super deceiving.  It looks like it's made out of metal when in reality it's made out of plastic.  And The Sailor had drilled a hole in one side of it (I have no idea how he had it hanging before) so I got to use my drill to make a hole in the other side so I could eventually nail that sucker up on the wall.  But I actually did that last.  And since I only had little gold nails, after hanging it I used a Sharpie to make the nail heads black, haha.  It worked really well though!

Personal Photo

Personal Photo

The frames that are in the bottom right and all the way to the left don't actually have pictures in them yet.  The one on the left will eventually have a picture of each of the pets in it and the frame on the bottom right will eventually have random pictures of The Sailor and I (and probably the baby) in it.  Here are some close-ups of what I hung up.

On the right side we have a cartoon picture of a type of jet that The Sailor used to work on that is actually signed by the artist, his Air Warfare wing emblem, a quote about Love ("There is only one happiness in life - to love and be loved" - George Sand), a decorative quote/general words of wisdom about Life, and a random frame:

Personal Photo

 And in the middle we have a drawing of a bridge that The Sailor actually drew (he's so talented), a quote about Life ("Life is not measured by the breaths we take, but the moments that take our breath away"), and The Sailor's "Shellback" certificate.  You become a "shellback" when you're in the Navy when you cross the equator for the first time on deployment. There's a ceremony - which I think is just a politically correct way of saying they haze the younger sailors.  Either way, the certificate is really pretty!

Personal Photo

I love how the whole thing turned out.  And I love that the walls in my living room aren't bare anymore.

Do you have any plans to create a "gallery wall" in your home?  Or do you already have one (and if you already have one, did you use the magazine trick)?

Until next time...

PS - I just had to share this...Every night Gabby, Lola, and Tom all try to snuggle with me on the couch, and last night I just happened to catch a picture of it.  Yes, I am under that grey blanket, lol, and Gabby is snuggling with my foot:

Personal Photo

Yay - My Kitchen Looks Like Someone Actually Lives There!

I apologize in advance for having a third post of the day.  The other two posts I wrote 2 flipping days ago, but I was having issues getting the pictures to save on the public computers in the community center (yeah...I still don't have the shit I left in Pittsburgh), so this is a three post kinda day!

In case you forgot, when The Sailor and I got to California the only furniture we had was a mattress, a TV (that counts as furniture, right?), and a hideous TV stand (that I'm still working on replacing).  In the tiny ass hell hole apartment, it didn't really matter, because well, it was a hobbit hole.  Once we moved into our massive house on base it was a problem.  We moved all our stuff in, and it still didn't look like anyone actually lived there, haha.

Although I'm still working on most of the house, I'm happy to announce the kitchen/dining area is 99% complete and actually looks like people live in our house!

I had slowly but surely been filling the actual kitchen up (with a microwave, white board, etc.) and last week not only did my dining set that we ordered like a month ago finally come in, I also got a great deal on a shelf from Marshall's.  What's even cooler about the shelf is that I had been keeping my eye on it for a while, but I wasn't willing to pay $100 for it.  Even when it was marked on sale, it wasn't worth it (I forget what the original sale price was).  But last week, I finally bought it!

Tom likes it, too

Guess how much it cost.

No, seriously, guess.........................................................................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................................................................

Personal Photo

That's right..$35!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I love looking at the "Compare at" price, even though I don't 100% believe that's how much it would actually cost half the time, but whatevs.  So, originally, the shelf was worth $195 but I got it for $35...That's 82% off the retail price bitches!

Then, like two days after I got the sick nasty deal on my wicked awesome dining area shelf, I got the call my dining set was in (finally - 1 to 2 weeks my ass)!  So, I went and picked that up and put it together, which was actually super easy to do.  Side note - it was actually more time consuming to break down all the boxes and fold them to the point where they would fit in my recycling bin. Et voila - my kitchen/dining area finally look complete (although I have 1 more project planned).

Personal Photo

 Check out my festive centerpiece.  Yeah, that's totally all from Marshall's and cost me about $7 for everything.  The bowl is actually really pretty and will stay there year round, and the crap in the bowl is good for October and November!

Personal Photos

 It's actually the super naked wall to the right of the cabinets that I have another project planned for.  Any ideas on where I can find a cool looking, mismatched fork, spoon, and knife?  The only place I can think of is my Papa's house, lol, and he might find it kind of odd if I ask for one setting of cutlery...

Personal Photos

 The clock on the right hand wall in the photo below totally has a fork and a knife for minute/hour hands and a hanging spoon for the seconds.  I flipping love it.  I love it even more because I found it at Ross Dress for Less for $7.99!!!  However, the swinging spoon totally teases poor Gabby.  She sees a spoon and she assumes there's food involved.  She has no idea why there's a spoon swinging from side to side on the wall.

Personal Photos

So, there you have it, my 99% complete kitchen/dining area; what do you think?

Until next time...

Living Room Storage DIY

So, my living room is kinda broken up into two areas because of how we have the couches/TV set up.  The "TV section" has been pretty much done (although I might do an accent wall in the next few months) but the other space has been pretty bland.  Eventually my gallery wall will be the focal point on the one complete wall in that area and I decided to get a table of sorts to put along that wall.
I searched on Craigslist forever for an affordable sofa table (you know the long, skinny ones people put behind couches) but nothing was popping up.  Then I decided to potentially take the plunge and buy a new one.  Well, those fuckers are expensive, so that wasn't gonna happen.  Then one day I was browsing the home section at Target and I stumbled upon those cube-shaped storage units and decided one of those would be perfect, so I bought a 3x3 one.

This is the picture from the box, lol

You should know me well enough by now to understand I wasn't just going to leave it as is (wouldn't that be silly?).  Step one in making it something I would actually use in my house was painting it since normal wood veneer is lame.  I chose to paint it with Martha Stewart's "Glacier" paint.  Since it was a piece of furniture I chose high gloss, and all I did to prep it was prime it, since it was brand freaking new.

All the pieces

I used a mini foam roller for the paint and it worked like a charm.

Because I can't help but make every project into a huge production in order to achieve my vision, I obviously wasn't done there either. 

These cube thingies have flimsy backs to like half of the storage cubes so I figured I would do something with those.  Since they come folded in half, it would have been a total pain in the ass to try and paint them, so I had to come up with something a little more creative.  I ended up settling on plastering pretty scrapbook paper to them (which was perfect because each cube is 12x12 just like scrapook paper is).

I found a stack of paper that I thought worked well for the project and picked out 5 patterns that I liked.

Personal Photos


Then I through some Mod Podge (the glossy kind - oh how I love Mod Podge) on the fake piece of wood and placed the paper on it.  To make sure there weren't any bubbles or anything, I used the Mod Podge brand decoupage tools, and finished it off by painting a thin layer of Mod Podge over the paper to 100% seal it to the fake wood. Plus it made it shiny, which made it look fancier than just a piece of scrapbook paper, lol.

Personal Photo

Considering I had never actually done this with scrapbook paper before, it turned out pretty awesome.  And, I couldn't be happier with how the storage unit as a whole turned out!

Personal Photo

Personal Photo

The added storage will be super useful once the baby arrives, but for now I would like to find 1 or 2 things to put on top for visual interest.  I've been lusting over these candlesticks turned candy jars I found on Pinterest, but I've yet to find any reasonably price candlesticks for the project, but I think these would be the perfect touch.

Via Pinterest


Once I find the right candlesticks, I'll probably do mine in yellow, and actually put up all the pictures for my gallery wall the "other" section of the living room will look much better.

What do you think of my refinished storage unit?  Or do you just think I'm crazy for refinishing a brand new piece of furniture?

Until next time...

DIY Coasters

So yeah, I mentioned in my end table overhaul post that along with refinishing the actual end table I decided to make some super easy, coordinating coasters.  A) they're pretty cute (if I do say so myself) and B) they are super functional and will protect my beloved table from being damaged!

So, it was for serious the easiest project ever. Ever.

Originally, my plan was to find some cheap-o coaster at Marshall's or Wal-Mart or some place like that and then fancy them up to my liking, but then I found a four pack of little wooden circles at Michael's for like a buck so I picked those suckers up and ran with it.  Since the color scheme for my living room is yellow, teal-ish blue, and grey (you can check out my inspiration here) and the table itself was grey I decided to paint them blue.

Personal Photos
Supplies

Spray painting little wooden circles is super easy.  Then, I used my stenciling supplies from my end table project to add a little visual interest...

Personal Photos
Stenciling Supplies

Finally, I sealed those suckers off with a spray acrylic coating, et voila, the cheapest, easiest DIY coasters on the planet...

Personal Photos

I really like cheap, simple, functional, attractive projects, so I couldn't be happier with how this one turned out, lol.

Have you had any super simple and highly successful DIY projects lately?

Until next time...

DIY Matting & Framing

This was seriously a new challenge for me, and I'm not gonna lie - I found it quite difficult.

I preach that when you are doing a DIY project you cannot expect perfection, but I still want things to turn out really nice!  And this project was hard to accomplish that for sure.  If you remember {from this post} I found some decorations The Sailor had that were really cool looking but horribly framed. So, this past week I decided to mat and re-frame them.

Well, they were not normal sizes at all!  Getting a frame is easy enough, it just has to be bigger than what you're framing, lol.  But then to fill the gap between the picture/certificate you have to get a mat that fits.  Well, those didn't exist for the two things I was framing, so I had to custom cut them - and this was the part that was not fun.

Personal Photo -
The pictures how The Sailor had framed them (lol), the
new frames, the mattes, and the cutting supplies.

For the first one, a cartoon-ish picture of a jet that The Sailor used to work on that was signed by the artist, at least I was able to buy a pre-cut mat, but then I had to make the opening bigger.  That's easy enough - measure the picture, draw out how much bigger the hole has to be, and cut it.  I used an acrylic ruler and a rotary cutter.

Personal Photos

This sounds easy enough, but seriously, those mats are freaking hard to cut, even though I have a nice rotary cutter that I take good care of.  And getting a clean cut is difficult!  I finally got it cut, and since I measured twice (to cut once {like my Dad always says, lol}) the picture fit perfectly.  Then I actually smoothed out the edges with a nail file, haha.  Hey, don't hate, it works!

Then, the second piece, which is a really cool looking certificate thing (not even sure what it's exactly for, lol {I'm a horrible Navy Wife sometimes} but its super cool looking) was so big I couldn't even find a pre-cut mat to work off of, so I just had to buy a massive poster board type thing that is actually matting material.

So first, I had to cut it down so it was the correct outside dimensions.  For that I traced the standard poster/picture that came in the frame and then just used scissors to cut it out.  Then I measured and cut out the opening in the middle the same way I did with the first piece (nail file and all).

Personal Photos

I am happy with how they turned out, it was just a lot more frustrating than I had anticipated:

Personal Photos

Now I'm one step closer to starting my gallery wall!

Do you have any tips for custom cutting framing mats in case I have to do it again in the future?

Until next time...

End Table Overhaul

Since I had successfully completed my first furniture refinishing project, I decided to get started on my next. This time I decided to redecorate an end table I had gotten off Craigslist for our living room.  Here it was at the beginning of the project:



Personal Photo

 There was nothing wrong with it necessarily, but it was boring.  And I don't like boring.  And I have a lot of time on my hands since I don't have a baby (yet) but still don't have a job.  In case you forgot, my color scheme for my living room is yellow, grey, and teal-ish blue (you can find my inspiration here on Pinterest) so the first step was to clean the crap out of the sucker and sand it down like woah. Then I decided to spray paint it grey (since the couches are yellow and I have a different teal-colored-furniture project planned for the space already).

Personal Photo -
"Classic Grey" Krylon Spray Paint

Obviously I wasn't going to leave the thing plain and grey (you should know me better than that!) and originally I planned to find a cool grey/yellow/teal fabric and somehow affix it to the lower shelf.  First problem - I couldn't find a fabric I liked.  Second problem - I wasn't even 100% sure how I was going to accomplish what I was envisioning in my head.  I probably would have used Mod Podge (I love me some Mod Podge) somehow, but the bottom line is, I wasn't sure how it would turn out.  So, on to plan B - stencil on my own pattern!

Personal Photos -
Stenciling Supplies

Since I had never stenciled (in my adult life at least, I'm sure I did as a child at some point) I decided to not cheap out on my supplies at all and I went Martha Stewart all the way.  I had the stencils themselves, tape, spray adhesive (to prevent bleeding outside the stencil), stenciling paint brushes, and obviously paint.  From there I decided to just wing it, to be quite honest.  I mainly wanted to do the lower shelf, but I decided to add a bit of an accent on the top as well.  I wasn't following any specific pattern or anything, just kinda following my instincts.  And it turned out flipping awesome, if I do say so myself!

Personal Photos

The colors are exactly what I wanted and the pattern is fun, but definitely not in your face.  I'm not gonna lie, in real life it does not look as perfect as it does in the photos, but it's a flipping DIY project - I don't expect it to end up looking perfect.  It does, however, look pretty damn cool in my living room! Before I could put it to use though, I decided to finish it off with an acrylic spray.  Mainly to protect the actual table (from dogs, and drinks, and life in general as an end table) but also to protect the stenciling.  I trust krylon spray paint to hold up pretty well, but I'm not 100% sure about Martha Stewart craft paints...

Personal Photo -
Krylon "Crystal Clear" Acrylic Coating

Once that had ample time to dry (I'm pretty sure the directions said 2 hours, and I gave it an extra hour outside just to be safe) my lovely project was ready to be put to use:

Personal Photos
PS - the throw pillows are from Target

Ummmm...I'm obsessed.  I want to invite people over my house just so I have people to show it off to.  Yeah, I'm just that self-centered, haha.  I also made some DIY coasters to coordinate with the table (as well as protect it even more from getting drink-damage) but that'll be a different post for a different day.

Are you as impressed with my table overhaul as I am?

Until next time...

PS - you'll probably notice this post was obviously not composed on my phone.  Mainly because I was able to insert photos throughout the post (not to mention my phone probably would have exploded if I tried to publish a post with this many pictures).  Unfortunately this does not mean I have my computer yet (I think my friend Shannon back in Pittsburgh is holding my shit hostage just to have something to complain about since she has a perfect baby {who doesn't cry}) - instead I chose to use one of the public computers in the "Community Center" in base housing since there were so many pictures.

Random Updates

I blame moving for feeling like I've fallen behind. In reality I missed one, maybe two, of my normal posts, but I honestly feel like SO much has happened, so I'm just gonna do an update post...

1 - We moved! Yes, we're in our house on base, and I couldn't be happier. Our house is awesome, but it'll be WAY more awesome once we get more furniture, lol. And once we get a few more pieces I'll be happy to share the whole place with you. For now you'll have to settle for a picture of the outside (below).

2 - I quit my job at Michael's. I know, I'm pathetic. But honestly, its quite a hike from our new place, so the commute isn't really worth 4 hours of minimum wage. And standing in place on a cement floor was giving me back spasms. I asked if I could be switch to working on the sales floor, thinking walking around would hurt less and they said no - I was hired to be a cashier. So, eff them. I'm over it!

3 - I forgot to take an 11 week photo of my belly growth. I'm kinda pissed at myself for it. But in the grand scheme of things, its no big deal.

4 - I think the end of my first-trimester-exhaustion is in site. First of all, I've actually been cooking dinner. And not feeling disgusted by it. And yesterday I brought the dogs on not one, but two walks (a short - 25 minute - one in the morning and a longer - 40 minute - one in the evening) and I went to the gym! I did 3.5 miles on the treadmill, running some and speed walking the rest! It felt great! And this morning I brought the dogs on a short walk and I'm getting ready to head to the gym soon! Go me!

5 - The Sailor may be shipped out as early as next week. Hopefully we'll get more details today.

6 - I'm making all sorts of decorating/DIY plans. But, I'll just share them with you all as I actually start them, I just wanted to give you something to look forward to, lol.

Ummm, I think that's all for now!

Until next time...

Re-dressing the Dresser - Part 4

THE BIG REVEAL!

In case you missed them, please go back and read parts 1-3 before checking out the big reveal...

http://amandaleaps.blogspot.com/2011/09/re-dressing-dresser-part-1.html

http://amandaleaps.blogspot.com/2011/09/re-dressing-dresser-part-2.html

http://amandaleaps.blogspot.com/2011/09/re-dressing-dresser-part-3.html

Okay, now that you're all caught up...so I already went over painting the dresser and giving some new life to the totally 80s-tastic hardware, but the biggest pain in my butt was actually fixing up the mirror. First of all, its round and had a gold (aka 80s-tastic) frame. On top of that the base was in rough shape.

My original plan was to spray paint the base white like the dresser then carefully hand paint the frame blue to match the hardware.

First problem - even after the fresh coat of paint, the base still looked like shit. So, plan B...paint the really ugly bit blue. Turns out, this looks flipping awesome. And it brings out the chevron-esque design! In case you didn't know, chevron designs are totally in right now. Don't believe me? Just check out the new line of clothes and housewares for Target (
http://www.target.com/c/Missoni/-/N-5ouwb )! Yeah - told you so! Chevrons flipping everywhere...

Second problem, which I totally anticipated, but it still sucked, was painting the damn round frame! It was impossible to not get paint on the mirror! So, I did what any girl would do when you can't paint within the lines...I got my manicure kit, haha. Q-tips, cotton balls, nail polish remover, and even a cuticle pushy thingy. I painted with reckless abandon (aka - got paint all over the mirror) then cleaned the whole disaster up with nail polish remover.  Seriously, that shit is a life saver. If I had a toolbox, I would keep nail polish remover and q-tips in it.

And there you have it!  That's how I transformed a shiny, beat up, 80s-tastic dresser/mirror combo into a classy, updated piece of furniture! Since its used, before I put anything in it I want to line the drawers with contact paper, and I still need to find a decent dresser for The Sailor to use, but all in all, I'm very happy with how my first furniture re-do went! What do you think of the finished product?

Until next time...

Mleh - I'm still computer-less and for some reason a) my phone just made this whole post italics. Sorry, but I'm not re-typing it. And b) it won't let me rotate the picture, so you're stuck tilting your head to the side. Deal with it!

Re-dressing the Dresser - Part 3

The hardware on the dresser was gold :: gag :: and although I want to get new, snazzy hardware eventually, I just didn't feel like spending the money on it right now. So instead, I painted the existing hardware!

Step 1- clean the crap out of the existing hardware.

Step 2- paint it.

And...you're done! Super easy, and it totally gave new life to these handles!

Until next time...

Re-dressing the Dresser - Part 2

In case you missed it, be sure to check out Part 1 first:
http://amandaleaps.blogspot.com/2011/09/re-dressing-dresser-part-1.html

So, I had my dresser/mirror combo and all my supplies, so all that was left was to get to work! The process of re-finishing furniture isn't difficult, its just time consuming.

Step one: clean the crap out of it. Especially if it was purchased from a hoarder. For this I used an all-purpose cleaner and a sponge. Easy peasey.

Step two: sand that sucker down. I used a super fine sandpaper since the dresser is a particle board type material with a shiny finish to it (rather than solid wood).

Step three: wipe it down with a damp paper towel to get rid of any dust from standing. Wait for it to be 100% dry before moving on.

Step four: paint away! Again, because of the material, I chose to use spray paint rather than paint and a brush. Since I had prepped the hell out of it and it was white to begin with I painted without priming it first. The whole project took two coats of paint, so I don't regret foregoing the primer.

Et voila! You're as good as done! I wasn't done at this point, haha, but if you were just refinishing a basic dresser, you could be.

I'm still not gonna show you the actual furniture yet (I'm saving that for the big reveal - I know, I'm such a tease) but we're almost there, I promise!

Until next time...

Re-dressing the Dresser - Part 1

This morning I'm pretty sure I bought a dresser from a recovering hoarder. But I'm getting ahead of myself...(I just couldn't help but start the post with that - admit it, that's an awesome opener)
So, as I've told you before, we came to Cali with minimal furniture. By minimal, I mean a mattress, a TV stand, and a TV. We already got our yellow couches and today I went and picked up a dresser that I found on Craigslist! Which, its about damn time, cuz as fun as it is to have the majority of your clothes just sitting around in piles in your bedroom, I'll be happy to actually be able to put my clothes away!
So the dresser was actually a decent ways away, so I used the GPS on my phone to find the house. Lucky for me, my phone is really considerate and likes to send me on the scenic route, so at least it was amusing for me! (See the photos below - yes, I'm a horrible person and took pictures while driving)
When I finally got there, I was a little taken aback...this woman is a fucking hoarder! There is stuff EVERYWHERE! Well, I think she's technically a recovering hoarder since she's selling a bunch of her stuff. If she hadn't been waiting for me, I totally would have taken a picture of the piles of furniture and dog crates this woman had in her back yard! Another thing that was totally photo worthy, but socially unacceptable to photograph was the woman herself. Please imagine this...older woman, probably in her 60s. She had SUPER long grey hair in a braid going down her back and huge chandelier earrings on. Then she was wearing a very large, floral print top and plaid capris. Under the capris she had on nylons that had visible runs on the ankles and multi-colored ked sneakers. She was a site to see amongst her piles of stuff!
So, I take a look at the dresser and mirror, and everything looked good, so I paid the $50 and started heading back to the general area of our apartment. Part of me just wanted to go home and sleep, but I decided to go get some supplies I would need to refinish this sucker first.
I went to Home Depot for cleaning solution, sandpaper, and spray paint. I was super pumped cuz they give a 10% off military discount. Not super pumped that I got fucking carded buying spray paint though! I blame my stupid pregnancy acne for it though.
Then I headed over to Michael's to get a blue accent color paint and all their paints were 40% off! Yatzee! And I also got paint brushes for the accent color.
Then I went and did some random shopping before I came home and now I'm ready to take a nap, lol. What - I did a lot today compared to what I've been doing lately! I'm not even gonna show you the dresser yet - I'm gonna let the anticipation build first. That, and its still in the truck since The Sailor isn't home yet, haha.
I might start the project tomorrow, or I might learn how to knit...we'll see how I feel tomorrow! Have you refinished any furniture? How did it turn out for you?
Until next time...

Simply putting a picture in a frame isn't "framing" it!

But The Sailor seems to think so, haha.

Seriously, he has some pretty damn cool looking posters/certificates/Navy stuff and they're just haphazardly thrown in (ugly) frames! Right now the horribly framed cool things are just sitting in the "dining area" of our tiny ass apartment (we're just using it as storage since our apartment is literally the size of a studio, just with a few added walls) but once we get into base housing I'd like to create a "gallery wall" type effect in our staircase. If you have no idea what I'm talking about do a Google image search of "gallery wall staircase" and you'll see what I mean - I don't want it QUITE as busy as the images that come up.

We already have the super cool certificate thingy and cartoon drawing of one of the jets The Sailor used to work on (I just have to re-frame them) (they're pictured below). He also has some Navy plaque things that I haven't taken pictures of. Then I'd like to display a few of our wedding photos and pictures of our four-legged babies. And finally, there's a picture of The Sailor from his last deployment where he's giving the thumbs-up to a jet that is going to leave that I absolutely love; I'd like to get it blown up and frame that as well.

I know I'll need to gather up a few more things to truly make the gallery wall that I'm envisioning, but I think I'm off to a good start! What do you think?

Until next time...

Please take a moment to laugh at what a guy The Sailor is as you notice how horribly these things are framed...seriously, its hilarious...

More Mama Drama

So, I told my Dad I was pregnant and he was more concerned about me making a trip home than the baby currently growing in my uterus. Then I called my mom, and she ignored me, again...So, I decided to tell my sister - I mean, at least she is talking to me (Sister R not crazy Sister K). So I told her. And she told my Mom and crazy Sister K.  And my mom is still ignoring me!!!!!

Seriously woman!?!? You find out your youngest daughter is pregnant with your first grandchild and you still won't talk to her? And don't even try to give me crap about how I should have been the one to tell her...I fucking tried. I called every day for 5 days and she ignored me.

Mleh. I'm just so peeved. And now Sister R is saying she's "worried" about me. Won't tell me why though. I get that its probably weird to have your baby sister get married and pregnant before you, but I'm not a baby. I've lived on my own for almost 4 years now. I haven't "lived" anywhere near my family for over 6 years! To say that I'm independent would be an understatement. Everyone outside of my family constantly comment on how I don't act like I'm 23. And its like she doesn't believe me that we wanted this!

Yup, this was a completely planned pregnancy. I guess for some that's hard to believe, but its true...so, believe it!

I'm just so sick of them. The way they're acting is just reaffirming why I didn't want them involved with my wedding. These women are nothing but drama 24/7!!!

Ok, I think that's enough venting for now. I feel like this is a backwards "road to recovery." Isn't it usually anger, then sadness, then acceptance? I think I went anger, sadness, now back to anger. I guess I'll get to acceptance eventually...

On a happier note I've been compulsively looking at nursery decor. Right now my favorite (for a girl - fingers crossed) is jungle bedding with a neutral zebra rug, the coolest giraffe wall decal ever and super pale neutral walls. The bedding set pictured below is from overstock (you can see a larger version on my pinterest board - http://pinterest.com/navy_wife/nursery-ideas/ - as well as other nursery inspiration) and comes with a classic bumper. Well, in case you didn't hear, bumpers kill babies. No, seriously, they have been found to lead to suffocation. But instead of just tossing it, I would turn it into throw pillows or other decor! What do you think of my inspiration so far?

Until next time...

Decorating around a yellow couch...

The Sailor and I found some really nice (and inexpensive) couches on Craigslist and we picked them up last weekend. The couch actually drops back like a weird sleeper sofa/futon (see the picture below). The only downside is - they're yellow.

Or so I thought! After doing some googling I realized decorating around these couches has the potential for being really fun! And trust me, they're actually a pretty yellow (my camera phone is making it look dingy).

Since I was finding tons of pictures online that I loved, I decided to finally try out a website I had heard so much about in the wedding circuit - Pinterest! And I'm officially obsessed. This is the most addicting website ever, especially for someone who is gearing up to decorate a whole house and is pregnant!

In case you don't know what Pinterest is, its basically a site that allows you to make virtual collages and keeps a reference back to the original source of the image. It's awesome!!!!! And you can check out the direction I'd like to go in with our living room here: http://pinterest.com/navy_wife/how-to-decorate-around-a-yellow-couch/ ! The board has a lot of color combo references (I'm planning on yellow, aqua, and grey) and some pictures of the general feel I'll be going for.

So we already have the couch/loveseat (which I plan on getting professionally cleaned eventually to try and brighten them up a bit) and we have a tv stand that is plain wood that I plan on refinishing myself. Then I hope to find a few end tables and/or coffee table on the cheap at a yardsale or on Craigslist that I can refinish to coordinate with the tv stand and I have a few other DIY projects I have planned to really make the space feel homey without breaking the bank (that I'll share with you as I actually work on them). Add some blankets and throw pillows and - BAM - we will have the perfect living room!

I really can't wait to get started! I don't wanna get any more furniture until we're actually in base housing, but I will be keeping my eyes peeled for blankets/pillows/textiles in general that go along with my vision in the meantime.

Until next time...