The big reveal: backyard edition

Since the moment we got married and my house became our house, we knew we wanted to extend our patio. But there's just something about owning two homes, working your hiney off to get one ready to sell, and having 9 months of two mortgages that can kill your appetite for a big project. So instead we sat on our existing back porch and dreamed up what we would do someday to make our backyard our little dream spot.

And then one day we saved enough money, Mr. Right made a few phone calls, and a few days later we had our new patio! I'm in love.

In March 2008 my dad and I built the stone patio you see closer to the house. Here's a throw-back picture so you can see our process. Don't I look sporty holding that... (um, is that an axe? I'm not really sure what it's called.)

And as you can see, my sweet dad did a little bit most of the work himself. On that patio I've hosted big parties, studied long hours, and enjoyed romantic dinners with that man of mine.

But anyway, fast-forward four years, and we decided that it would be worth it to hire someone to build the patio for us. Mr. Right drew up the plans, marked everything off in the backyard, and then Jesus and his assistant Abraham (I promise I'm not making that up) poured the concrete and laid the bricks, which had been collecting dust in my garage ever since I built my house.

Those poles you see sticking up will soon be a pergola, and we'll be draping lights between them. I'm a such a sucker for twinkle lights - I will probably sit out there and just gaze at them every night. We're also going to put in climbing vines on the poles to add some texture and we have some landscaping plans with the yard to the left. I think the goal is to have nothing left to mow when we finish.

The patio furniture has special sentimental meaning - that same table and chairs used to live on Mr. Right's grandparents' patio and he he has special memories of sitting on their patio as a child, soaking in all of their stories. We may be adding another larger table, but that one will probably always be our favorite.

My husband surprised me with a sweet love note in the form of my very own vegetable garden, right off the patio and directly in front of my sewing studio window. We have an inside connection with the greatest soil/fertilizer known to man-- there's perks to having in-laws who own cows (unlimited free fertilizer) and a giant compost pile. Of course, I worriedly asked Mr. Right "Are you putting all that compost (ahem... cow poop) in your SUV?" 

He just laughed at me. This happens a lot when I ask city slicker questions like that.

Of course not. (I bet you would have wondered the same thing.)

In the meantime I'm busy researching fall vegetable gardens. To my uber cool, livin off the land, vegetable gardening blogosphere friends (ahem, Stephanie), I welcome any tips for this vegetable planting newbie. Because I really have no idea what I'm doing.

I've already christened my porch with a few quiet mornings and evenings spent gazing at our handiwork. Last week, while Mr. Right was working late at the church, I enjoyed a Paleo dinner alone on our patio, where I propped my feet up in a chair, leaned back and enjoyed an episode of The Bachelorette on my laptop.

It was magical. So was the watermelon. And for the record, that's low fat chicken sausage. And while we're clarifying things, I must confess that that's store-bought zucchini, since my zucchini plants had to be sacrificed to put in the porch.

It was worth it.

Pillows

You know I love to quilt, but I've been looking for some quicker, less-expensive projects to serve as gifts (and who knows, maybe one day can go in an Etsy store to fund my fabric stash). I've had some ideas for pillows swimming around in my head for a year now, and finally had time between quilt projects to give two of them a try.

Ruffle My Feathers Pillow

Lately I've been obsessed with ruffles and this gal was easy-peasy. I just sewed up a stack of ruffles and then machine-stitched them onto a matching square of fabric. I used a light-weight cotton and hand-stitched it shut at the bottom. This became a birthday gift to a dear friend. 

We've Come Full Circle Pillow

This pillow was inspired by a set of pillows we got as wedding gifts from Crate & Barrel. Ever since I got it, I've wanted to recreate it on a smaller scale. I just took some felt I had leftover from making a Christmas wreath, used a few items I had laying around my sewing studio to trace the circles, and then hand-stitched them onto a matching square. Next time I do this I'll probably do it on my machine, but I was a little worried that my free-motion quilting might be a bit wobbly on those little circles. 

I think I may make some in red and white, or green and white, for Christmas presents. They would be so cheerful!

DIY Ruffled Table Runner

Lately anytime I have a day off from work, I spend it locked in my craft room, creating things. 

It makes my heart so happy. 

Good Friday was no exception. I finished my nephew's baby quilt A WHOLE WEEK EARLY. Typically I finish quilts around midnight the night before I give them away, but my sister's baby shower isn't until next weekend, so I had time to spare. This was my fastest quilt yet... I started it March 10 and finished it April 6. I can't WAIT to show you pictures of this adorable quilt made from vintage baby fabrics and featuring some of the straightest lines I've ever sewn. It was like a quilting miracle. I think it's my fancy new machine.

Now I just have to wait two more months until I can see Baby Luke use his new quilt. Gah, I am so excited to meet him.

But I digress... I finished the baby quilt and still had some spare time so I decided to whip up a spring table runner from some old burlap I found on sale last Christmas. I also had some old white linen ruffles lying around that were leftover from my ruffled Christmas tree decorations. 

I thought about sewing the ruffles on the ends of the burlap, but I felt like it needed more color. That's when I found this gorgeous green and berry fabric from my stash that needed a good home. And so I did this:

To learn how to sew a ruffle, you can watch this video and look at the first technique. However, I only made one line of stitching on my ruffles instead of her two. (Shhh... don't tell anybody but it was incredibly easy - but to impress folks we'll act like it was really complicated.)

To make my table runner, I simply laid my patterned fabric over a wider burlap backing and then hand stitched the ruffle over the place where the two fabrics met, conveniently hiding the raw seams. My stitches were loose and messy, hidden by the very forgiving ruffle, and weren't required to be very strong since it will simply sit on top of my table - durability isn't a big deal. I could have sewn this on my machine but I didn't want the rough burlap to dull my needle.

I then stitched my ruffle to the other side and frayed the edges of the burlap. About one hour after I started my project, I had this: 

It's a perfect fit for our beloved rustic barn table. Pottery Barn has a similar table (but not as cool as ours) for almost $2,000. I think Mr. Right paid $100 for his. I fell in love with the table (which features a frame made from real oxen yokes and handmade chairs) even before I started dating him... and now I have both!

Sometimes you're just lucky like that.

Our "new" buffet

My sweet in-laws gave us this dresser over a year ago - someone had given it to them, and we told them we'd love to refinish it and use it as a buffet for our dining room. The drawers are nice and wide and would be perfect to hold dishes and place mats and all of our fancy serving ware. 

And then this beautiful dresser sat in our garage for over a year. First I was sick, then we put our rent house on the market, then I hit my busy season with work, and next thing we knew, it was the dead of winter and much too cold to tackle a garage project.

But last weekend after lazily watching a Saturday morning movie with Mr. Right as we recovered from our California trip, I got a wild hair to work on the dresser.

It's really a fabulous piece of furniture - look at those curves! This 300 pound solid wood beauty had lived in a little girl's bedroom for many years and been well-loved. It was time for her to get a makeover. 

First, I sanded off the rough edges and scratches with our electric sander. Because of the primer we chose, we didn't have to completely remove the finish, just make it smooth. 

We decided to use spray paint on this project, and I'm so glad we did - it was a total dream! Take it from a girl who has used a paint brush on all of my previous furniture projects - this was SO MUCH FASTER.

First, we used KILZ primer in white to prime it for painting. My only complaint is that it went on a little rougher than I would have liked.

While the primer was drying I ran to the grocery store then stopped by the local hardware store to pick up white high gloss spray paint. By the time I got home an hour later, the primer was dry and we were ready for round two - painting.

I used 2-3 coats of spray paint, which went on really smoothly. We had a few drips, but nothing we couldn't fix. The whole thing took about 30 minutes, as opposed to several hours of painting with a brush. I will forever be a spray paint kind of girl.

We debated about what type of hardware we would buy (and since we had 12 drawers, we knew that was going to be pretty expensive), but my interior designer sister suggested we just spray paint the original hardware black since it's still an interesting shape.  

And five minutes and one can of spray paint later, we had black hardware that looked brand-new.

Then came the hardest part - we had to let it dry overnight. I was so tempted to go ahead and move it into the house because I couldn't wait to see how it would look in our dining room - but I was good and my patience was rewarded... everything dried perfectly.

The next day Mr. Right and I carried it into the dining room and I installed all of the hardware and then added padded white drawer liners to protect our dishes from sitting directly on the wood. Now our beloved buffet houses our china, chargers, place mats and other accessories, and I love it because everything has its own compartment. It's a disorganized organized girl's dream!

And of course, we left a little note to remember our project.

Yoyo's and chocolate explosions

Here's what I've been up to lately...

I've turned these:

...into these for an event. I'll admit I was quite pleased with my very novice flower-arranging skills. I figured when in doubt, stuff in more flowers! It's like the other age old rule... more cow bell.

I'll also let you in on a little hint. I accidentally dropped that gorgeous turquoise vase on my tile kitchen floor, which caused a nice long crack on one side. It was only a few hours before the event and I couldn't bear to use a regular glass vase as a back-up, so I did the poor girl's solution... I found a glass vase in my cabinet that fit inside the turquoise vase, filled that one with water, and then made the flowers full enough so that you couldn't see the smaller vase on the inside. It worked perfectly, and nothing leaked. (In case you're wondering, the vases came from the garden section of Hobby Lobby and the flowers came from Market Street.)

In addition to novice flower arranging, I'll admit that I've eaten one or two of these lately:

I know... don't judge me. This one is called chocolate explosion. Isn't that the greatest name ever for a chocolate bit of heaven? Don't worry, I spent an hour at the gym last night sweating off this little piece of perfection so that I don't have an explosion when my pants rip from being too tight. This is one of the perks (or detriments, depending on your outlook) of being an event planner... sometimes you have to do tastings... for cake. Trust me when I tell you that this cake is AMAZING.

In my spare time, I've started a new yoyo quilt. I haven't quite finished my last quilt, but after so many months of hand-quilting the same project, I got burned out. Don't worry, I'll pick it back up, everything is still handy in a basket next to my birthday chaise lounge (a gift last year from Mr. Right). But in the meantime, I've been hankering to learn how to make a yoyo quilt, and after watching a few YouTube videos (you can learn anything on YouTube) and buying a yoyo maker (which I highly recommend, otherwise I don't know how it would be possible to make them all the same size), I've started on my first quilt. Here's what I got after the first night:
It's not much - only two colors out of the 10 or so I bought, and that's not the pattern I'm going to use, but it gives you an idea of just how cute they are. Let me tell you, those little yoyo's are so soft and cuddly and make me want to smile as I work on them. It's my new favorite thing (I think I even like them better than the chocolate explosion). And even better, the options for quilt patterns is limitless, because there's no cutting/stitching/measuring/sewing like a regular quilt... all I have to do is stitch these little circles together in whatever design I want to make. Since I prefer my quilts to have an Anthropologie feel to them, mine probably will just be patternless... all mixed up and funky.

This is my color inspiration - mostly grays with little pops of soft yellows and a few whites and blacks to give it more depth.

And in case you don't know much about yoyo quilts (don't feel bad, I didn't either before I started) here are some of my favorite yoyo inspirations:

This teeny-tiny yoyo quilt (this is about the size of my yoyo's... they're so delicate looking):

Or this beautiful thing:

Or this one, which includes an oh-so-wonderful tutorial:

To my very favorite blog friends... what's your latest project or inspiration? You know I love new ideas!

Arts & Crafts: Felt Flower

Don't you just love Pinterest? Yesterday, on my day off, I made this:

Thanks to this tutorial:

Instead of making a pillow, as previously planned, I used to to make gift wrap for a 1-year-old's birthday party and one of my best friend's birthday presents (belated because she's in El Salvador working in an orphanage, how cool is that?). Instead of using a gem for the flower center, I made my own center out of rolled-up twine and hot glue.

Don't you just love arts and crafts?

Done

Day 22... We finished the house!

Well, finished is a relative term. But it means that I don't have any more all-day work days. I need to go lay down a few shelf liners below the sinks, and we need to change out some bathtub faucets... just little things that really aren't a huge deal.

We're done. I'm so excited I don't even know what to do. Please join me in praying that it sells quickly, and that God will be glorified, even in the selling of our home.

The progression of the home renovation project

I never thought I'd be grown up enough to own one house... much less two.

Mr. Right and I currently own two houses - we had a "his" and "hers" before we got married, then combined into "ours" and after letting his old roommates rent "his" after we got married, we're now ready to have just one. ONE.

But before we can sell the house, we needed to give it a small facelift. He bought it as a foreclosure and did some major upgrading to it about two years ago. But after phase one, his plan was to start phase two... and then he fell in love with me. So phase two got put on hold.

So now we're on week three of the house facelift, which has included some major landscaping, repairing a fence, grinding a stump, painting two bathrooms, completely refinishing the kitchen cabinets, refinishing two sets of bathroom cabinets and some built-in shelves, painting trim, door ways, and touching up paint. Oh, and cleaning, installing new lighting and bathroom mirrors, getting the carpets cleaned and stretched, replacing outlet covers...

The list is never-ending.

And here is how it has gone so far.

Day 1: This is going to be a breeze. I bet I finish painting these two bathrooms before lunch - they're small, how hard can they be? I'm going to be just like one of those girls on HGTV. Maybe I could start a design blog like this couple. Or this girl.

Day 1... 10 hours later: Oh my gosh, what have I gotten myself into? After 10 hours of hard labor, all I have to show for it is one painted bathroom and a half-finished one? Seriously?! Thankfully I got to work indoors, whereas my husband spent those 10 hours doing major landscaping tear-out, then came inside to install new bathroom lighting.

Day 3: My friend was so sweet to come help me paint the kitchen cabinets. See, this work stuff isn't so bad! I bet it only takes two coats.

Day 5: I'm smart - I downloaded a book on tape to listen to while I paint those cabinets. By the time I finish Water for Elephants, I bet those cabinets look amazing! But... not sure two coats will be enough.

Day 7: Still working on those cabinets... and everything I own (including my clothes, my purse, my phone, my hair, my car, my dog) has white paint on it. And after the third coat... it still needs more.

Day 8: I have the best mother ever... she worked a whole day helping me with those kitchen cabinets. And yet we're still not done... uh oh. Who knew it would take one coat of primer and THREE coats of paint?!

Day 11: My husband spends a whole day getting rid of junk left behind at the house, going to the dump, and doing various manly things around the house that involve copious amounts of sweat. For the record, he looks really cute in a tool belt.

Day 13: Well, I just finished that 14-hour audio book... and yet the cabinets are still there. I may not see a swimming pool until July at this rate. Mr. Right grinds a stump and tills some dirt... more manly things that I'm thankful he knows how to do, because I don't. Anxiety has started to build as I enter my third weekend of painting.

Day 15: Kitchen cabinets are done! Now on to the 25 other projects on our list. Thankfully, my mom came back to prime bathroom cabinets, and my mother-in-law spent the whole day cleaning for us. My father-in-law helps us take down window screens so we can wash windows. My husband builds a fence. Oh, and the air conditioning goes out (just a minor break, praise Jesus), but $250 later, we're back in business. After everyone leaves, I have a minor nervous breakdown about the 24 other projects still on my list. Somebody pass me some chocolate, or a Mexican wedding cookie (my current obsession).

Day 16 (Today): I can completely cross off one bathroom and one bedroom off my list. And the kitchen. And the living room. And I'm about to cross off bathroom #2. Things are progressing... maybe we will finish this after all. I download another audio book.

Tomorrow marks Day 17 of our extreme home makeover. For the first time since the morning of Day 1, I think I can see an end in sight. My hope is to be done next weekend. And after we sell, I can all but guarantee you that I will not (1) paint anything at my house this summer, (2) start a home renovation blog, (3) take my leisurely weekends for granted.

One more week.

Sand between our toes

This has been a crazy, intense 2011. In addition to settling in with my new husband and getting our house and our lives (and our bank accounts) intermingled and organized, I threw 10 very large special events in just 11 weeks, all while being sick and feverish and very, very tired. So you can imagine that our little vacation to the beach hit at exactly the right time.

We did a lot of resting last week - we jetted over to Rosemary Beach, Florida with Mr. Right's side of the family for a wonderfully relaxing family getaway. We stayed in a gorgeous beach house and did nothing but read novels and build sand castles and take two-and-a-half-hour naps and eat, and eat, and eat. It was glorious.

I spent one of my favorite mornings sipping coffee with Mr. Right and his grandmother on this porch, listening to her weave tales about her long life. We just soaked up her wisdom and enjoyed some good advice and sweet stories from this godly matriarch, who has a habit of saying "I'll just tell Jesus..." when you need prayer. I want to be like her when I grow up.

Rosemary Beach is filled with gorgeous beach house-mansions, and this one was our absolute favorite. It faced the water and can be yours for an easy-peasy $12,000 a week. Not exactly in the budget for this minister's wife, but we did steal a few pictures on that movie-worthy front porch. Strangely enough, this makes me want to start wearing more teal and mustard... I love that combination.

Maybe it was the humidity, or all the saltwater, but I fell more googly-eyed for my husband on this trip than ever before. It was a total treat to get him all to myself for a whole week, without work or responsibilities or a schedule to keep. We rode bikes and swam and even had a date night that involved crab cakes and a walk on the beach. The sound of those waves is just intoxicating.

And, he built me the most tremendous sand castle a girl could ever ask for.

This was our home for the week, complete with wrap-around porches and a gourmet kitchen. I could really move here without blinking. Do I smell a church plant on the coast?

I fell in love with this thing (I can't remember what they're called), and asked Mr. Right to promise me that someday, at some point in our marriage, we can have one of these in our back yard. Lucky for me he's handy, so I'm confident that he could build it, and I'm pretty sure I could hot-glue some ivy to it if we don't manage to grow any. Can you imagine the candlelit dinners we could have under that thing? Sigh.

But now it's back to reality... and like always, we managed to start another huge project - this time it's getting a house ready to go on the market. I'm up to my eye balls in paint right now... you can tell what color our kitchen cabinets are by the tell-tale paint that I can't seem to wash off my hands, arms, legs... even my hair. But man, is it turning out cute!

Hodge-Podge... big time!

This is what happens when I take a break from writing for awhile. Everything starts churning in my head, bubbling up to the surface, and next thing I know there's ten topics that I want to cover. 

First of all, you won't be hearing from me for awhile. Again. I know, you should probably give up on me altogether. This time is for a very FUN reason though... I'm about to set off on my third European adventure in the past four years! Hooray! This time I'm going with a wonderfully sweet girlfriend of mine, and I already know that God is going to bless us with exciting adventures, good conversations, and fun memories. 

Our cruise ship will have an Internet cafe, so there's a slight chance I may sneak in a post or two, but it depends on if (a) they charge by the minute to use their WiFi, and (b) if I can tear myself away from all the Mediterranean fun long enough to write. So if not, bear with me, and I promise to post lot's of pictures very soon!

On to the next thing...

My youngest sister graduated from Baylor yesterday! She, Sarah, and I are all fifth generation Baylor alums... our family has gone to Baylor since 1885. A great great aunt, a great grandmother, my grandfather, both my parents, and now all three of us, plus a future brother-in-law who is a Baylor Bear. And I can't forget my genius British aunt who taught here for a few years. My family's blood flows thickly with the green and gold goodness of the Baylor spirit. 

Ick, I look a little creepy in that photo. It was horribly humid, and I was a bit tired, and well, I could come up with many more excuses... but oh well, sometimes a gal just ends up taking a creepy photo... I guess that's life. But I do love how excited both my parents look in that photo. I'm sure they're breathing a huge sigh of relief that they finally got all three daughters through school.

Here's a photo of something I got Lins for graduation... this shirt makes me laugh so hard, I almost want to become a nurse simply so I can wear it. Which reminds me of a Seinfeld episode where the guy converts to Judaism simply for the jokes. But I digress...

Speaking of weddings... I wrote awhile back about Lindsay's wedding dress debacle. I'm not sure if I ever wrote about the resolution... basically David's Bridal did in fact do the right thing and fixed her dress (I think it was the fifth alteration) for free. Apparently the curse of the ill-fitting dress must run in the family, because I went to pick up my bridesmaid dress this morning from the tailor, and mine didn't fit either. My alteration guy was smart though... I could tell he was about to accuse me of gaining weight, preventing my dress from properly zipping up, but I gave him a look that said "Sir, I dare you to even suggest that I would gain enough weight in one week to cause my dress to be about four sizes too small," and I think he got the point. So instead we're going to try letting out the part he took in. Hope this dress survives until the big day!

I've been on a crazy organizing kick lately. I've cleaned out every closet, cabinet and drawer in my house over the past month. It's what happens when I finish with school and suddenly find myself with a few hours of spare time. But as you can see, the compulsive cleaning was necessary. Check out my before and after pictures:

Before (I promise, this is exactly how it looked when I opened the door... everything falls right on your head):

After:

Now onto the hardest project of all... packing! I'm not sure how a gal packs for such a long get-away, one that includes 4-wheeling across the Greek countryside, formal dinners on a cruise ship, leisurely walks along a Spanish beach and miles of trekking through Rome. I may win the award for most luggage on a trip... I'm off to go see if I can weed anything out.

I did it...

Well kids, I crossed over to the dark side. I joined Twitter. I didn't want to... it was totally against my will. I don't have time for yet another Web 2.0 program that will probably help me waste valuable time that I can never seem to find enough of anyway. 

But I did it for work. I'm supposed to be a social networking guru. I need to know all of the new and innovative ways to promote my organization, and doing that means I've gotta know the latest technology tools. I'm already a webmaster (times three, actually), a blogger, a Facebook user, a former MySpace junkie, and now I guess I'm a Twit. The sacrifices I make for work...

So do me a favor and look me up so I have some friends to tweet with. Because goodness knows I have no idea how to find you on there. The whole thing seems rather silly and redundant. Then again, I said that at first about Facebook, and now I think it's pure genius. 

Oh, and my professor is making us start a blog to share info with other classmates about social media junk. From what I can tell, I think we're graded based on the traffic we generate and the comments we get from readers. Which means that I may be calling in a favor and asking you to visit our silly little site to make up some random comment so you can help a girl get her A. I'll let you know soon... if you help me out, maybe I'll come wash your car or paint your living room. he he.

First quilt is finished!

My first quilt is complete! If this quilt were a dog, it would be a sad, scraggly mutt that walks with a limp and is so ugly, he's cute. It would be a mutt with bristles and burs stuck in his fur, and feet that track in mud all over your white carpet. But the more you know that mutt, the more you love him and realize that he's way better than any purebred. Because he's yours.

My quilt is kind of like that. Sad, scraggly, a little lop-sided, but something made out of love. It was birthed through sacrifice (namely an unfortunate facial injury), but I'm proud of it, and I enjoyed making it. Here are some photos (if you squint, it almost looks good).





I have already bought the supplies for quilt #2. No old lady patterns for me, this one is going to be pink and brown and sparkley.