DIY Wall Art

I've been trying to figure out what to put up on my living room walls for awhile now.  After sifting through thrift stores and retail stores, I couldn't find anything I liked very much or could afford, so I decided to make my own wall art.  I am NOT an artsy, crafty person.  But after searching through Pintrist for some ideas, I realized that even without being an artist, I could learn how to stencil some words on canvas and create a customized piece of wall art. 

I only used this color--Raw Umber. 

I used one part paint and two parts water and brushed on the paint to "antique" the canvas.  

 The hardest part was deciding what I wanted the words to say.  I decided on some of the lyrics from Andy and my first dance at our wedding--Marry Me, by Train.  

You can see the first row of letters I did on the far right are a little messy.  I used too much paint when trying to fill in the stencil.  Oh well...it give's it character right? Although the letters are crooked and a little messy, I'm so proud of myself.  I've always been so intimidated of crafts and art because I don't feel like I have any talent in that arena, but after this first project I'm excited to learn more!

 I'm going to do a second canvas with more of the lyrics and get them hung on those wall as soon as I've finished. I'll update you with photos when they're complete!

Mini Caprese

This is the easiest, prettiest appetizer, ever. 

All you need:

• Cherry tomatoes, halved
• Fresh mozzarella balls, halved
• Fresh basil
• Balsamic Vinegar
• Olive Oil

Stack tomato, basil and mozzarella on a toothpick.

Arrange on a plate.

Drizzle balsamic and olive oil on top. 

That's it. 

Garage Evolution And A Fence

My husband is cleaner and more organized than I am.  As our garage kept filling up with boxes, miscellaneous items, tools and more projects than time, you can imagine his frustration when he couldn't find basic items like his hammer or the measuring tape.  The garage is a serious man cave.  It's bigger than a two car garage and is my husbands reprieve (if it's organized, which it now is).  Here is a shot of the garage as we were first moving in.

 There is stuff everywhere, but at least there is room to walk around.  

The frustration was starting to set in as the space filled up.

Slowly but surely things are starting to get organized.  

On to a different topic. 

This is a view of the back yard.  The far right building is Andy's man cave. See the makeshift wood/metal fence lined with chicken wire? That fence separated our yard from our tenants yard.  For more privacy we decided to build a better fence.

So much better. 

If we could only make our yard bigger! 

Take Me Away

Last week Andy and I packed up for a 4 day trip to a little beach town in Neskowin Oregon and met up with his sister and parents.  It was a much needed getaway chock full of food and rest.  I'm having a hard time adjusting to a normal schedule after sleeping in and doing nothing; hopefully next week I'll be back with regular posts. 

The drive up to the beach house...Andy's uncle generously offered it to us to enjoy!

This was our view from the house.

Don't you love a wall of windows...I covet a house like this. 

 The Taylor women picking fresh blackberries.

 It was my in-laws 40th anniversary...Andy cooked up an amazing meal of Cioppino. 

 The meal was a precursor to the evening.  In honor of their anniversary, we created an Italian themed evening because we are sending them off to Italy--their dream destination.  My sister in law organized 90% of the evening (Thank you Amy!!) It was such a special night and we couldn't be more excited for our parents.  (We just wish we could go with them!)

The New Family Addition

I've been so busy lately I haven't had time to visit the blog world.  I've got lots of updates coming, but in the mean time, I wanted to introduce you to the newest member of our family! He's a 50 pound Wheaton terrior mix and just as sweet as can be!

Augustus McCray

If any of you are Lonesome Dove fans, you'll get the reference.  I got to pick out the dog...the hubby got to pick out the name.  He's a serious cowboy fan. 

Opening Night

Life has been so busy with the house I've rarely mentioned our progress planting a little church community in Tacoma.  There have been about 15-20 of us who have met every Sunday night in someone's living room.  But we recently found a little coffee shop in the area of Tacoma we really want to do ministry in.  We took over the space last Sunday and to kick off our new space we held an open mic night.

 Via {LMR Photography}

We feel that from the moment we're born until the moment we die we're all on a faith journey and our Maker is calling us home.  We are a group of eager Christ-followers, agnostics, deists, recovering fundamentalists and a few not-too-sure-what-we-areists. No matter where you're at on that faith journey, if your curious, questioning, seeking, or growing in your relationship with Jesus, we ask you to come as you are and explore this thing called faith.

 If you're in Tacoma and want to stop by to check it out, you can join us on Sundays at 7:30 at 2201 South 6th Ave.

Pillows & Projects

I finally received my new pillow covers in the mail!  They look so much better with my grey walls than the blue toned pillows I had before.

I also just ordered some new blinds to replace the plain old Bali blinds that the house came with.

We've rearranged the house a few times to figure out the best fit for furniture. (This pic is before we painted the walls grey). 

We actually prefer the placement of the furniture in the above picture.  The plan was to build or buy two book shelves to go on either side of the brown couch and along each side of the window.  Unfortunately, the baseboard heater is placed under that window, and we would have to pull the furniture and bookshelves out too far which just looks weird.  

So we switched the couches around and have decided to get a wide book shelf to put the the left of the brown couch.  We've gone back and forth between buying a book shelf or building one.  The problem is that we don't want typical tall book shelves.  All of our furniture is pretty low...we need the book shelf to balance the room out, so we want the height of it to reach the middle of the window in the picture. After looking for a bookshelf with our custom dimensions with no luck, we've Andy has decided to build one.  In fact, he's at Home Depot right now as I blog.  I'll keep you posted with the update!

The Secret Room

There is a third story to our home that I quickly decided was going to be my space.  In our old apartment, my "office" was my tiny kitchen table.  I was soooo looking forward to having an office and a place to put my stuff since I work from home.  It actually turned out to be more than just by office.  The closet in the master bedroom is teeny tiny.  There is no way one women (much less a couple) could fit even a modest wardrobe in there.  I decided that Andy should keep the closet and that we should use the third floor loft space as my office/closet/guest room/storage.  It's still very much a work in progress. The space is shaped like an attic, so the ceiling is low and has all sorts of angles. Here are a  few views (keep in mind that it's not fully unpacked--so it's still pretty messy). 

That little nook is my office.  I love the space because there is a wide window that overlooks the front yard, so I can see if company or the delivery man is approaching.  

 The space on the right is the stairway up from the master bedroom.

 Cube storage from Target.  (I still need stuff to fill it).

A close up of my very messy desk.  I don't love the desk...I got it for free at an estate sale, but the drawers are too long and narrow and my chair doesn't slide all the way in.  (I hope Andy eventually builds me one!)

 There is a big post in the middle of the room (which is awkard) so you can see half of the exposed closet Andy built for me.

Here is a view from one end. 

This is the back of the room and the view when coming up the stairs.  That entire space will be the "guest" space.  That big lump in the center of the room is an aerobed--once it's fully inflated it will pretty much take up that entire space.  Those boxes of books will eventually be unloaded once Andy builds our book shelf.  In the mean time...our guests will share space with our storage.

I spend the majority of my day in this space...and I absolutely love it!

Kitchen Project: Part 3

This wasn't really a project, more of an annoyance that I wanted to fix, especially after installing new floors.  Whoever we bought the house from put cheap plastic bathroom molding in the kitchen.  (Why would you do this when they put in new granite counter tops?  Uber tacky). 

 

So we ripped those suckers off.

 And replaced it with real molding. 

Ahhhh...so much better.

Kitchen Project Part 2

Our kitchen had cheap vinyl flooring.  I didn't absolutely hate it, but I definitely didn't love it.  There is real hardwood throughout the house, but installing real wood in the kitchen wasn't in our budget (and from what I hear not recommended).  We weren't planning on re-doing the floors; it was in impulsive decision at Home Depot one night.  So we bought Hickory wood flooring laminate and some paint (I hated the color of the walls) and went for it!  Here again is a before pic of the floor and wall color:

 We started the flooring at about 6pm...

 

Laying the laminate was pretty easy.  Getting around edges and corners however was a huge pain in the butt.

By 1am I was totally spent...Andy stayed up a couple more hours to finish the project.  

 I love the new look...and if you look at the walls you'll see the yellowish hue is gone. (Sorry, I forgot to take a bigger shot of the walls).   The color is Oyster from Behr.  (Did you know there was a gazillion shades of white? It took me forever to decide on it!)