Pinterest Challenge: Running Tutus

Today we are linking up with some great ladies for the 2013 Winter Pinterest Challenge.  The idea is to re-create a craft, DIY, whatever that you've Pinned into something useful for yourself.  Thanks for hosting this fun party: Young House Love, Bower Power, Decor and the Dog, and The Remodeled Life.

I'm sure y'all have seen this Pin floating around for running tutus.  You can buy them on Etsy or make them yourself.  They can be made in any size: for yourself, your child, or your fur-child.

We are running a St. Patty's race with one of our good friends in a couple weeks.  The race encourages the participants to wear kilts.  But we don't have kilts?!?!? So we opted for tutus!!!



What you'll need:

Ribbon (enough to go around your waist and extra to tie a bow)

Toile (about 3-4 yards in a variety of colors)

Because we are doing a St. Patty's race, we bought green ribbon, shamrock green toile, white toile and gold toile.

You will cut the toile double the length of the actual skirt.  We cut our strips 2 inches by 24 inches.  Go ahead and cut a lot, you'll use all of them ;)

Tie the ribbon on 2 chairs so that it hangs securely.  Now attach your toile.  Fold it in half and then loop it through itself.  You'll repeat this about 100 times!

Once your skirt is at the desired puffiness, you're done!!

And if you have some leftover, make one for your furry friend :)

DIY Boyfriend Bouquet

Morning everyone!  How was your weekend!

Julia and I attended a fun wine tasting event on Friday for an up & coming business, but you'll have to check back in a few weeks for an update.  The company doesn't go "live" until mid March.  We spent a decent amount of time working on the #GuestroomMakeoever creating cornice boards, touching up paint, installing some furniture - it finally is beginning to look like a a Guestroom!!  I also found some time to meet up with friends on Saturday for dinner at TnT, the best mexican restaurant ever!

------------------------------ Time for a craft --------------------------------------

The other week was Valentine's, the most loving & romantic day on earth ;)  The BF's work schedule has been pretty hectic lately so our plans were kind of altered last minute.  Our night was spent watching our favorite shows and eating our favorite pizza, and I was glad to have my Valentine with me.  He makes doing the most mundane things seem so fun!

I'm a lucky girl and the BF spoils me with pretty flowers.  I wanted to give him something that would be just as pretty, a DIY Boyfriend Bouquet!

To make you will need:

wooden skewers

vase

tape

yarn/ribbon

candy

cuties

power bars

Fill your vase with cuties and reese's (the BF's favorite).  Tape power bars on to the wooden skewers.  Tie yarn around the power bar where the tape went.  Arrange your bars in the vase.

I think he really enjoyed coming home on Valentine's Day to be surprised by his pretty arrangement :)  I also had a puzzle made from a picture I took on our Chicago trip.  Over Christmas we both really enjoyed putting together a puzzle, so I thought it would be the perfect gift for him.  And it's personalized because it's from one of our trips :)

Friday Five

 

Happy Friday!!!

 

Do you have any big plans for the weekend?  We will be working on the guestroom makeover.  It's almost done we just have to make a few things for the room.  It would be so much easier if this were our full time job but it's not...so this makeover is taking some time :)

 

 

 

Here are my favorite things this week:

 

1. Dinner with items found in the fridge and pantry.  This concoction contains chicken, quinoa, sweet potato, peas, peanut, lo mein noodles, and a soy ginger salad dressing....it was absolutely delicious!

 

2. Walks with my favorite puppy!  We have been so lucky in Georgia - it already feels like Spring!  So Lilly is getting to go on a lot of walks.

 

3.  Runner Tutus!  We are running in a St. Patrick Day race on March 10th around Atlantic Station so we made tutus the other night with our friend that is running with us.  Plus we couldn't leave Lilly out so she got one too :)

 

4. Guess what?!?!?!  After looking for 4 months I (Julia) got a job...yippee!! I'm working as an accountant and so far I am really enjoying it!  Also, everyone is super nice which definitely helps!

 

5.  To celebrate my new job one of my sweet friends got me a new lunch box and coffee mug with my initial on it.  I love them!! I take my lunch to work everyday so they will get a lot of use!

 

 

We hope you have a great weekend!!

 

 

 

 



 

Guestroom Makeover: The Paint Color

Morning everyone!

This past weekend Julia and I worked really hard painting the Guestroom.  This included trim, crown molding, windows, doors, closet doors, walls and ceiling.  It was a lot, but we got it done!!

We went with Olympic Paint from Lowe's, flat paint with primer.  The old walls were a dark gray/brown color, so we needed good paint that would cover them.  This one room took 1 gallon of white trim paint, 1 gallon of ceiling paint and 2 gallons of wall paint.  The walls just soaked up the light blue!

It's difficult to see the color through these pictures (it probably wasn't a good idea to use our iPhone and not a real camera).  But doesn't the room look so fresh and relaxing?!

Please note the gorgeous crown molding, it really pops against the blue walls and ceiling.

This week the owner had hardwood floors installed, don't they look awesome!  Julia and I are so excited to get to work this weekend.  We'll be working on art work, painted furniture, cornice boards, and more!  Next week the bed will be delivered and then we'll just be arranging furniture. 

What type of paint do you use?

Do you prefer dark/rich colors? Or light/airy colors?

Guestroom Makeover Part I

Guestroom Makeover Part II

Guestroom Makeover Part III

Guestroom Makeover Part IV

Guestroom Makeover Part V

Young House Love Book Signing Event

The other week Julia and I stood in line for 2.5 hours waiting to meet John & Sherry from Young House Love.  The wait was definitely worth it!

 

 

We were even more excited when they commented on our tweet!  Because my sister is so loving, she feels it's necessary to inform complete strangers that I color my hair ;)  I guess it helped John & Sherry remember who we are!??!

 

 

John & Sherry were so nice!  We only had time for a quick chat, but I have so many questions to ask them!??!?  Like how did you make blogging a full time career? When did you know blogging was your passion?  Do you have days when you can't think of anything to blog about?  What advice would you give a new blogger?

 

Thanks for including Atlanta for your Book Tour! 

 



The Friday Five!

Happy Friday everyone!

How was your Valentine's Day?

 

I spent mine with my favorite Valentine, the BF :) 

Last night we had a casual dinner (Fellini's pizza & salad) and watched our favorite shows.  Tonight we're going to officially celebrate with dinner at The Spence!

 

The BF surprised me with pretty pink roses and a spa gift card yesterday.  He got me the spa gift card because lately I've been asking him to rub my shoulders & back.  I guess he no longer wants that job ;)

 

Moving on to the Friday Five:

 

 

1.  Monday night I had dinner with my Mom and Julia.  We went to my favorite mexican restaurant and it was fajita night!  Everything was so yummy! 

 

2.  Before dinner the 3 of us had our nails done.  We all had the sport pedicure which includes extra leg massage and a scrub.  A great way to start the week!

 

3.  Julia and I attended the Ash Wednesday service at church.  The message was about forgiveness and to not hold grudges.

 

4.  The BF surprised me with these gorgeous pink roses!

 

5.  Catching up on our favorite TV shows: The Office, The Americans, Justified, Top Chef, Modern Family... the list goes on!

 

 

Enjoy the weekend! 

 

 

Guestroom Makeover: Crown Molding

Happy Valentine's Day Southern Color Readers!! We love you guys!

In honor of V-Day I baked and decorated sugar cookies yesterday with my favorite 3 year old.  The only bad thing...I gave up dessert for Lent :(. 

This past weekend we installed crown molding to the Guestroom we are making over for a friend.    Actually...that is kind of a lie.  Elizabeth and I supervised our dad and friend install crown molding this weekend.  Some things should be left to the experts and our dad is definitely an expert after installing crown molding in his house.  So instead of giving y'all a tutorial on how to install crown molding we are just going to give you some tips and pictures on our experience with crown molding.  

 

 

Here is what the room looked like before crown molding.  Don't the ceilings look so smooth?!? We removed the popcorn ceiling several weeks ago.

One of the most important tools when installing crown molding is a miter saw.  But make sure your saw blade is sharp!  We had three dull blades so after about an hour of burning wood we decided to buy a new blade.    

 Here's another great tip:  Measure twice!! And if you're still not confident in your measurement measure again.  Or add half an inch to your measurement.  It's better to cut the molding too long than too short!

Elizabeth is such a great supervisor!!

After measuring twice it's time to cut the crown molding!!

Now it's time to install the molding!  This job is so easy if you have a cordless nail gun!  Also it helps to have extra hands to hold the molding in place while one person nails.

It took us about 4 hours to install crown molding in the guestroom.  Not bad at all and it really makes the room look great!

The last step to this installation is caulking the seams and filling in the nail holes.  This part isn't that exciting so we didn't take any pictures.  Once the trim is caulked and the holes are filled in and sanded then you can paint.  We painted the trim white but you'll have to come back for the guestroom reveal to see the finished product!!

{August 2013: This post has been updated to include pictures of the finished product.  The above pictures are of crown molding that has not been painted, the walls have not been cleaned from the popcorn ceiling debris, etc.  Below are pictures of crown molding we installed, the nail holes have been filled, the molding has been painted, and the walls & ceiling have been painted.  We hope you like the finished product as much as we do!}

 

Hope you have a great Valentine's Day!! This will be my first V-Day alone in 10 years but I'm looking forward to spending it eating pizza and watching a movie with my favorite puppy dog!

What are your plans?



Bridal Shower Banners

Happy Fat Tuesday! 

Laissez les bons temps rouler!

Almost a year ago exactly we were in New Orleans, not celebrating Mardi Gras, but celebrating our now sister-in-laws Bachelorette Party!  New Orleans is such a neat city, full of tons of history.  Who all has been there for Mardi Gras?

(Mardi Gras, 2008)

Can I just say for the millionth time: I love our Silhouette Cameo!! 

I try to come up with any excuse possible to use it! 

This past weekend our mother hosted a bridal shower for a friend's son's fiance so we offered to help make some decorations for it. 

For the centerpieces we wrapped mason jars in ribbon and filled them with tissue paper flowers.  We already had all of the mason jars (we found them all on our grandparents farm) and ribbon so this project was very inexpensive.  We used two different ribbons to wrap the mason jars - a white lacy one and purple one.   We hot glued them to the mason jar and then glued paper flowers (bought from Michaels) in the middle to cover up the where the ribbon met. 

Doesn't the table runner material look familiar?!? I made it with the leftover fabric from my outdoor pillows.

Here's the first banner we made.  It says "Bride to Be" and hung in the dining room.

Here's another table cloth we made.  We found the fabric at Hobby Lobby and it matches the other fabric perfectly!  This was very easy to make just cut the fabric out in a square and hem the edges.



With some of the leftover purple ribbon we tied a bow to a white plate and then personalized it with the bride and groom's names and their wedding date.  Elizabeth and I think they picked a perfect day to get married.  It's really one of the best days of the year because it's also our birthday!!

This banner says "Mimosa Bar" and was hung above the mimosa bar that included prosecco and three types of juices.  I used chevron cardstock for the back of this banner so it's kind of hard to see the letters in the picture but I promise it looked a lot clearer in person!

Here's one more banner we made for the shower!  This one hung over the fireplace where all of the presents were placed for the happy couple.

If you're thinking about getting a Cameo I highly recommend it!! It would have taken us hours to make these banners if we didn't have the Cameo.  They look so professional and are a great way to personalize a party!