Showing posts with label Murfreesboro Livin'. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Murfreesboro Livin'. Show all posts

November 9, 2014

Weekend Chili and Wreath Making

This weekend kicked off with a chili competition with some friends followed closely by some wreath making, house cleaning, and uber organization (more on that in the next post).

As for the chili, I will tell you all that I did not win, sadly.

I worked an awesome recipe that used beer, chocolate, and bacon. Who doesn't love bacon?

Sadly I lost to someone who used beer, chocolate, bacon, and deer meat. Dang it! I need to use buffalo next time. I will not be outdone by lousy deer meat!

After licking my wounds, I decided to distract myself with a little wreath making.

I went to Joann's and purchased the supplies to make 2 very different wreaths.

Wreath #1: The Nursery / Hospital / Delivery Room Wreath

I had an awesome baby shower. I was lucky enough to receive a lot of gift bags stuffed full of a wide variety of tissue paper. One of the ladies at the shower clued me in to a wreath that can be made with all the tissue paper.... I decided to keep it and see what I could cook up.

The final result:




As I said, a lot of tissue paper in some amazing colors! 

The only part of this wreath that was not given to me at the baby shower, is the green foam form wreath that I bought at Joanns for $3.00.

This is what it looks like from the back....


I started with a huge bag of tissue paper collected from the shower. 


Then, I sorted and smoothed it down in a few different piles. I cut the paper along the middle seam, long ways. Then I cut the tissue paper into 5 x 7 squares, approximately.


I then twisted the papers in the middle of the sheet making little tissue flowers.

I placed the "flowers" into holes that filled I poked into the foam wreath with a screw driver and filled with hot glue.


After the tissue was placed all around the wreath, I used a pretty piece of ribbon that was wrapped around a box from my shower to make the loop to hang the wreath from. I made one tail quite a bit longer so I could use it to secure the glitter letter from a different box in the center.

I am quite happy with the final result!


Wreath #2:

I purchased the following:


I was inspired by a wreath made in West Virginia blue and yellow. However, as I have no affinity for any one particular sports team, I decided on teal and white.

Here is the final product....


I made the wreath by making loops with the burlap and securing it to the wreath form with pipe cleaners.

There are 3 loops of burlap.

The inner loop is the smallest, the middle loop is double that size, and the outer loop is 1.5 of the middle loop.

I then made the chevron striped bow and secured it to the wreath with pipe cleaners and added the blue flowers.

Bam! Two wreaths.


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August 30, 2014

Oh, it's nothin'.... Just buyin' a new house!

Call it nesting, call it growing up, or even call it plain crazy; Matt and I bought a new house in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.


We purchased this house at quite a discount, for a few very good reasons..... 

1. The carpet is destroyed, as in; we can clean it for now, but it needs to come up, and soon!
2. Every wall requires paint. Every. Wall. 
3. Can you say vinyl words and lettering galore? Don't believe me, there are no less than 40 different fatheads, works, sayings, prayers stuck to every available wall.

None of this is a deal breaker to us because of the following:

1. I hate carpet and would want to eliminate it anyway. Now I don't have to feel guilty for pulling up perfectly good carpet.... I am pulling up busted carpet.
2. I hate the color brown on my walls. This house has 5 variations on the color brown, to include Burnt Sienna in the dining room. The plan was to paint, now I have a good reason, mainly that I want it to be much lighter, and brown sucks up light.
3. Fatheads and vinyl lettering are easy to remove.

Just like every new homeowner, we have a list of things that need to get done to make this house our own. 

A preview of what I am talking about.....

The Dining room:


1. Paint walls "Smoky Blue" (Sherwin Williams)
2. Paint ceiling and tray "March Wind" (Sherwin Williams)
3. Get a rug in blue and yellow or blue and lime
4. Build apothecary table banquette from plans found on Ana White's website
5. Find a funky mirror for one wall
6. Artwork for adjacent wall, maybe a framed photo of a cow or the beach..... pooh, the Pismo dunes!
7. Strip, and re-wax my dining room table (there are scratches and dings galore.... 7 moves, ouch!)
8. Re-upholster my dining room chairs. Maybe in a fun funky fabric that matches the art and rug, ties them together....

Y'all, that is just one room.... And it is an easy room. 

Poor Matt has things like wainscoting, hardwood flooring, and cabinet installation on his list; not to mention the built-ins in the living room to house the TV, which I am reluctant to put above the mantel at this house.  This house is going to be a long labor of love, tackled room-by-room over many years. 

However, my priorities are:

1. Stain and seal the garage floor (because it is easier to do when it is empty)


Matt has chosen a Valspar semi-transparent stain in "onyx" from Lowes (boom, confetti) for the floor. I will be prepping this for stain today, in hopes that the weather holds out for us to stain this bad boy tomorrow!

2. Completing the nursery walls..... 


The room needs wainscoting and crown molding added and painted. I will most likely paint this room "March Wind" (Sherwin Williams) in preparation for baby-girl Burke's arrival. This room also needs a ceiling fan, because I am not trying to have a SIDS incident.

3.  The Master Bedroom overhaul.....


This room... oh this room..... 

Where to begin:

1. Rip-out carpet, replace with hardwood to match the rest of the main floor (including the master closet)
2. Remove horrible curtains because that window moulding is beautiful and hidden under layers of icky brown
3. Install floating crown to break up the wall and add interest....
4. Paint the walls "March Wind" (Sherwin Williams) and maybe a nice bluey-teal above the crown for definition
5. Art for the walls, maybe a few of my California beach pics framed
6. Purchase a chaise or a chair and footstool, as this room is HUGE and will have a ton of negative space, even with our king-size bed, dresser, and armoire.
7. Pipe dream: recessed lighting (the center light is not ideal)

Those are the priorities. After that, we will address the burnt sienna dining room, the brown (almost black) superman toilet, quasi-functioning (as in lost space due to an unnecessary door and hidden gem of a back wall) laundry room,  and desperately in need of love living room....

I promise you I will get a list together of all the things that I would like to do soon.

Until then, just imagine me hunched over the scrub brush prepping concrete for stain in the 90 degree central Tennessee summer heat.





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