2012

It's a brand new year! I've been a terrible blogger, but I will try to be better. The holidays were crazy and now we're getting ready to move again as well as gearing up for the big D, so I don't anticipate things calming down until after B leaves. This year I said I wasn't going to make any resolutions because I never seem to keep them, but I decided to go ahead and do it anyway, so here goes.

Resolution #1- Eat better. Buy more organic, natural foods. Buy less boxed processed foods. Cook things from scratch, and make dinners with real ingredients instead of grabbing a box of something because it's easy. I've been working on this one, but there's always room for improvement.

Resolution #2- Take Sulley for more walks. He loves walks, and I don't take him nearly enough and this will also get me out of the house and exercising. I anticipate this to be happening a  lot more once I move and live near my friend.

Resolution #3- Be as eco friendly as possible. I've already made great strides to make our home a lot more eco friendly and eliminated a lot of unnecessary chemicals. I've replaced our  laundry detergent, cleaning products and soaps with all natural ones that are just so much better for our bodies. We traded in our car for something newer with better gas mileage. I'm going to start composting after we move and I want to replace our cookware with these amazing green pans I found. They are non stick but don't have any of the chemicals that teflon pans have. I also want to eliminate all the plastic tupperware from the house and replace it with glass since the plastic can have harmful chemicals in it, especially when you heat up food in it. Overall I'm just a lot more conscious of the products I buy and where they come from, and I would like to continue that.

Resolution #4- De-clutter and get rid of things we don't need. Moving is going to be the perfect opportunity. I already purged my closet and got rid of a ton of things I don't need/don't wear anymore. I plan on purging the rest of the house as we're packing. I'm sick of having the mentality of 'Oh maybe I'll use it sometime.' So the new rule is if we don't use it, we don't keep it. I anticipate a lot of goodwill trips in my future.

So there we have it, my new years resolutions! I'll have to update my progress as the year progresses so I can see if I actually manage to follow through all of them.

Moving

Holy crap, it's already the middle of September! I can't believe how fast time is flying. The hubs and I are in the middle of moving into a new house, actually townhouse. Hence why I have been absent lately. It sure takes a lot of work to pack up an entire house to move! What a headache, I hope the next time I have to go through this the army will be doing it for me.

I have so many projects I want to work on, it's ridiculous. I absolutely love that a new house is like a blank canvas, I can't wait to start decorating.

I also found a dresser on craigslist that is perfect, it's exactly what I've been looking for, and bonus it's only $30! Now fingers crossed they still have it when I call tomorrow.

I'll most some more once we get moved, I'll get some pictures up and update on some projects.

The File Cabinet Makeover

I bought a file cabinet at Goodwill for $8 in January. It's been sitting upstairs in my spare bedroom since. I haven't even bought folders to organize and file things, everything is just sitting in the drawers like a mess. There were things piled on it, in front of it, it just was not being used to it's full potential.

I told you it wasn't pretty! But not to fear, I had big plans for this little file cabinet.

 In my kitchen I had a cheap brown cabinet from Target that was being used to hold the printer and also to collect junk. I'm not joking basically any random things we didn't feel like dealing with got tossed in there. It was a mess.

 Yikes, not fun to clean out, but it felt good to get rid of all the junk, which is what most of it was. 

I decided to move this little cabinet upstairs to our bedroom for some more storage and the file cabinet would go in the kitchen and hold the printer and we'd actually be able to file things away on a regular basis instead of having it all pile up and be unmanageable. I know it makes so much sense, right?

But I decided that the file cabinet needed a little sprucing because it was a really fugly shade of beige. I picked out a nice sunny yellow color that would be sure to brighten up my kitchen

I just did one coat of primer, which just helps the spray paint stick better, and two coats of the yellow spray paint. It worked out fabulously, and I loved the result, although it was impossible to get a good picture that did the color justice. All the pictures I took either looked really dark or neon, weird I know.

I promise it doesn't look quite that neon in person. After a couple of hours of sorting through stacks of papers and a couple trips to Target for folders, I finally managed to get all of my important documents organized.

And I even had room to store some craft supplies in the top drawer. All in all I would say it was a pretty great success. I love when I can move things around the house to maximize my space instead of having to buy something new.

Good times at Goodwill

It's been awhile since I've gone to a Goodwill to shop. I regularly drop things off after doing a purge of my house. The last time I went I was looking for a file cabinet and I was successful, finding one for only $8.

This trip I was looking for anything I could repurpose. I ended up coming home with a barstool, 4 picture frames, a glass vase, a candle holder and a lamp all for $30! I was super impressed with myself.

My first projects were one of the frames which I decided would be perfect for the print that I have from the Grand Canyon, and the lamp.

Here's what these guys looked like before I got my hands on them.

They were a little worse for the wear, but I knew it wouldn't take much to spruce them up. So I headed over to Lowe's and picked out some spray paint. I decided to do a basic white for the frame and a shade of blue for the lamp

It took a couple of coats to get them looking good, but I was very happy with the result!

DIY projects

I'm in need of some. I LOVE decorating my house, it's one of my favorite hobbies which I really got into when I started working at Pier 1. Problem is, a lot of the stuff there is pretty spendy, and right now I'm trying to save as much as possible while trying to make my house look like a beautiful home. So I have decided I am in need of some DIY projects. I've found some cool ideas that seem relatively easy to do, I just need to find the pieced to work with.


I think tomorrow I'm going to go scouting at Goodwill for some potential projects. There are two Goodwills here in Lacey, so I'm pretty optimistic. One of the things I will be looking for is a picture frame I can paint. I have this beautiful print that I bought at the Grand Canyon, right now it's just sitting on top of my DVD shelves, not really anything special, but I think I want to move it up to my bedroom and put it in a nice frame.

Another is this,

I think it's such a cute idea, and I need a statement piece to either go over my bed, or over my couch in the living room, I haven't decided yet.

Also, it would be great to find some nice bed side tables I can repurpose.

Hopefully I can accomplish some of these while the husband is gone, I'm almost done with the baby blanket I've been knitting and I really need some new projects. I'll update when I find some pieces to work with!

Updates

I am a terrible blogger, I know. Things just got a little crazy and I lacked motivation to update. So here goes my updates.

Weddings. B and I had our reception July 8th and it went beautifully. I got to wear the most amazing dress, we did outside photos in the most beautiful garden(which will be posted later once I get them back from our photographer) and the reception was at an events center. Everything really did go perfectly, the day was wonderful. Really the only letdown was the fact that out of the 20 or so friends I invited only 3 showed up. After many more had rsvp'd and said how excited they were to come. I was really really disappointed. I have no idea why most of them didn't show. I guess it takes things like this to find out who your real friends are. Like my SIL told me, everybody that matters was there. And she was right, I had a fantastic time with my family, it was so wonderful to have them all there and we had a blast dancing and drinking. My brother's wedding is next weekend, and my parents are flying in Wednesday. I am so excited for them to come out here. They haven't seen our place since before we even moved in and they've never seen my brother and SIL's place. We have lots of fun stuff planned for the week they are here.


My birthday. Yet another year has passed and now I'm 23, which is so weird to me. I'm not used to it yet. B got off work early that day and we just hung out, he brought me beautiful flowers. Then we went out to eat at this nice mexican place and then to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, which was the highlight of my night. I thought they did a fantastic job with the movie, and really they couldn't have ended it in a better way. Also the theater we saw it at was probably the most amazing theater I've ever been to. It's in the Lakewood Towne Center and all the seats are reclinable lazy boy type chairs. It is amazing to recline and enjoy a movie, I even brought a blanket with me.

The big D. Yup Deployment. We've got another one on the way. We've been hearing rumors for awhile so it's not a surprise, I'm kind of happy they've finally announced it because now at least we can make more definite plans. SIL and I are getting a place together during the deployment, which we're both pretty excited for. We've gotten so much closer lately which is great, I honestly love hanging out with her and my brother. It'll be so nice to have somebody there for support during the deployment.

That basically covers the big stuff. We've just been enjoying our lovely Washington summer, which is pretty mild compared to the rest of the United States who has been hit with an awful heat wave. I'm definitely happy we aren't a part of that. In fact, I think I've only had my AC on about 3 times this whole summer. We're about to go take advantage of this great weather and grill out some steaks. Happy Sunday everybody!

The Royal Wedding

I have been one of those people who is completely and utterly fascinated with the Royal Wedding. I've been watching every show about it, almost to the point of obsession, I know it's ridiculous. But I love it. I guess it's the hopeless romantic in me.

I even woke up at 1 am to watch the wedding, and even shed a few tears, I know I'm a complete sap. I thought it was the most beautiful wedding I've ever seen. Kate was the epitome of perfection, she looked so regal and elegant. I absolutely loved her Grace Kelly style dress, I thought it suited her perfectly. Her and William looked so in love and radiant, I wish them a lifetime of happiness.