Girly Things and Broken Things

I'm sure by now, we all know that we all love Pintrest. ;) I have pinned so many fun ideas, but have actually completed a few. Here's one:

And, here's a little apron that my mom made for Gemma for Valentine's Day. I'm not sure if she really did, but I'm going to pretend that she got the idea from Pintrest as well. It's made from a dish towel. Super cute and girly!!

On a not-so-happy note, my wedding band broke last Friday. I feel... bare. But, the feeling of just my engagement ring on my finger brings back some fun memories of a time that used to be. Before kids, before chickens, before 18 loads of laundry weekly, when it was just us and love and life! :)

I'm not sure if it can be fixed - my wedding band is a handmade ring that Jeremy had made for me when we were dating for only about 2 years. It has been resized, sandblasted, cleaned, etc. several times. I might just have to get a new one. Anyone have a catalog? :)

Done. Well, mostly...

For the last several months I have been working on redoing my kitchen. We don't have a lot of money for major upgrades, so I worked with what I have on a budget. I think this entire project will cost us $300 or less. My 'Kitchen Makeover' involved painting my cabinets (don't worry - they were not high-quality wood to begin with. It's ok...), painting my countertops (yes,painting them!), painting walls, and installing tile backsplash. That's the 'almost done' part. We have some of the tile, but not all of it and we need to get it up. The other thing that's not quite finished, is the window. Jeremy needs to trim the window. Other than those two things, it's pretty well done!! YAY!!

Our house is not new. Have I mentioned that before? Couldn't remember. Our house is also a pre-fabricated house. I'm pretty sure that it was delivered in two halves and put together on site. Due the type of house it is, it doesn't have things that a 'normal' house might have - like sheet rock. Our walls are wall-board. The design that's on the wall, that IS the wall. So we had to do things a little differently. We had to use oil-based primer on EVERYTHING. Just to keep it from bubbling up and getting ruined. We also had a ceramic tile back-splash around the whole kitchen. When we ripped off those tiles, part of the wall came off with it. So we had to use sheet rock mud to repair that, prime and then paint. It was a process. I did all the work on the cabinets and countertops myself. My dad helped me pull off some of the tiles and my mom helped me prime and paint all the walls. Jeremy will be helping me with the tile.

On to the pictures!!

Here's what I started with:

And this is what we ended up with! I am SO happy with the way it turned out!!!

So now, we have this tile:

And it will look something like this on the walls:

We will put up just a half a sheet all the way around the island and then behind the kitchen sink, all along the north wall. We will completely cover the entire area between the cabinets and counters on the wall behind the stove.

And my mom is making me a curtain for the window. I'm so excited!!

I know these are kinda the halfway reveal pictures. But I will take pictures once the window and tile are done and the curtain is up and it is COMPLETELY done. I can't wait!!!

Thank you to my Mom, Dad and Jeremy for all the help - it's been a long process, but we're almost there!!

Done

I'm almost done with my Christmas shopping. We still have to get something for Jeremy's dad and Mindy's husband, but other than that I'm mostly done.

Last night I just finished up Carter's teacher gifts. I found the idea on Pintrest, right here in fact. Now, you might notice a slight difference in mine and the ones I found, but that's the point, right? Make it your own.

I started with a white mug from Wal-Mart for $1.50. I printed off the letters of the teachers' first initials and taped them on. Then I traced around them with a red fine-tipped Sharpie in the same color as my paint marker.

I got the paint marker at Hobby Lobby for $2.99. There was a variety of colors.

Next, I traced over the Sharpie outline with my paint marker. Some of them I filled completely, some I scribbled in and some I left alone.

Here are the finished mugs. I filled them with Christmas candy. Not too expensive and I think a fairly nice teacher's gift. I may just do this for all of Carter's teachers in years to come.

Oh!! Spoiler alert if one of Carter's teachers (or future teachers) is reading this! ;)