Thursday, December 31, 2009

Something Up My Sleeve

Don't you just love doing a little something special for someone else? I decided to take on the tasks of helping my little sister furnish her future college apartment. Although she will be living in the dorms the first year, it is never too early to start collecting some fun furnishing a little at a time, right?! So far I have scooped up this bedspread for $36 from Urban Outfitters here. Teal is one of her favorite colors. I also got 10% off for creating a UO sign in account which helped cover some of the shipping costs...wahoo!

My next project is painting this $40 Craig's list dresser gray (no, that is not my gold shad carpet...hehe). I picked up a small can of Dutch Boy paint named "fire steel" and some hand sanders tonight...let the fun begin! If she is lucky I may even offer to paint the headboard she already own the same color too : )

I also scored 3 white ceramic vases of mismatched patterns and height along with an empty rectangular frame which I plan on turning into a jewelry holder to hang above her dresser for a grand total of $2.24 from my local thrift store. Since I got such a killer deal at the thrift store I splurged at WalMart and spent $9 on a few small white bowls/trays for her to organize her rings and bracelets on top on the dresser in. Trust me, I can't wait to reveal her new furnishings to her for her birthday this summer!

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Remember This?

It's the dresser we found on Craig's list forever back. I know, its been too long.... I almost forgot about it too ; ) Either way, I finally found some time to posts some before and after pics!

Here it is before. It really was a clean, nice looking dresser. I am a big fan on the wood look, but the finish didn't quite compliment our darker wood floors. After some Internet browsing, I found some pics on Working Woman's blog here. Seriously loved the inspirational posts : )
And thus the idea for this color came about. I would love to share how the dresser was painted, but I didn't have to paint a lick! My sweet husband stripped and painted the whole dresser himself why I was in St. Louis. I can tell you the whole process involved CitrusStrip, a seagreen color undercoat, and an antique top coat.
Good things can be done when I leave my man alone. On the other hand, you can also come home to a plethora of speakers surrounding your television too. I can't wait till those speakers find a new home in the basement...ha.

Christmas Break Bliss

Oh Christmas Break how I love thee! I can't believe this will be the last 2 week Christmas Break I will ever get- sad ) : This exactly why I am taking full advantage of everyday, and by this I mean sleeping in till 10am...ha! But seriously, I feel like am getting so much done despite my extra sleep in the mornings.

This was also the first year Brandon and I put up our very own Christmas tree, so here it is in all its glory...
Alright, I am not a professional Christmas tree decorator. We got our tree and all the green and silver ornaments/ribbon 75% off at Wal-mart's after Christmas sell. Our slim selection of ornaments come from each year we've been together. I love reading other people's blogs and seeing how their trees have changed over the years, so I went ahead and posted my first attempt at decorating my own tree so I look back and smile later. Maybe next year I will even find a tree topper!

So what have the Leslie's been up to?
Caulking and painting all our window trim
Putting pictures in the picture display
Insulating/Drywalling the basement
Refinishing the Craig's list chairs
A few other random not so exciting projects

And I acutally plan on sharing some pitcures all of the progress a little at a time. I just had the chance to look back at all my previous posts, and it was so fun seeing my year in review. Can't wait to see what 2010 brings!!!

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Fall Back

Ahhh...I did again. I lost track of time. Please excuse me. Life is busy.

I collected a few pictures to show you what I have been up to. It's really isn't exciting, but it's my life. I am loving every minute of it.

This is my husband helping my grandpa wire his t-bucket. This is the first time the car has been all together since my grandpa bought it forever ago. He took it to a car show. I like car shows...when they are warm. I froze at this one ) :

But we got free bread bowls. Yep, free bread bowls from the car show. Weird...I know. So I made cabbage soup for the first time. I don't think I made it right. It didn't look as good as Brandon's mom's does. It still tasted good though.

We also participated in Christmas in October. It is a huge deal in Kansas City. The hubs was a house captain. He did all the prep work. He kept things really organized...notice all the tools and supplies scattered around the yard ; ) We did a ton of work, but we had to leave early. There were shootings down the street and the cops made us leave. Makes you appreciate living in a safe neighborhood...huh.


We got a new toy for Cove. It is the duck. She played with so much it wore her out. She fell asleep with two toys on her belly. She doesn't normally snuggle with her toys like this, so I snapped a picture. Love that smelly little pup.


We also caught my sisters last volleyball games ever. Isn't it bitter sweet being a senior in high school? Her team was awesome this year. They won their conference and won every single tournament...wahoo for 1st place! She is number 25. Sorry for taking a picture of your butt...


We also celebrated our niece, Emarea's, 4th birthday. She is adorable. Aren't those curls precious! This wasn't taken on her birthday. This was at BWWs. She loves arcade games...typical kid!


And yes, we celebrated Halloween. We had 5 trick-or-treaters before leaving for our friend's house. It was fun seeing the neighborhood kiddos dressed up. I feel guilty not being around to see the rest. We left a bowl of candy on our porch for them. Surprisingly, there was still candy in the bowl when we got back.
Finally, we almost finished painting out house. The process has been a little drawn out. We still have another section of wood rot to replace. I will share pics soon.
It feels really late. I have been thrown off all day. As much as I hate daylight savings time, I wish we got an extra hour in everyday...I could use it to clean this house....ha.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Have a Seat

I made up my mind to find some chairs. I wanted to find two matching chairs to put in my living room underneath my new picture collage. I did some research online and found out even the cheapest chairs from Wal-Mart and Target that are upholstered run around $100 a piece minimum...ouch ) : So I started up the Craig's list search. Here is how the rundown went...

I first came across these. They were labeled 1941 French Chairs for $75. I liked the button back look, but I wanted to find chairs for less than $30/chair. I offered $60. It's two weeks later and I still have not heard back. Don't you hate that?
So, I found these two Thomas of Martinville chairs for $80. Again, I offered $60. I thought with a big squishy pillow on the back they might be pretty comfortable. This time I wrote in my email, "Thanks for letting me know either way." I heard back...they were firm at their $80 asking price. I appreciated their honesty and moved on.
I contemplated these chairs for a minute. They were Eames Knoll steelcase chairs for $85. I looked at them several time, then realized they were a little too contemporary for my taste. There was also a set of Queen Anne style captain chairs for $30 that I offered on. They weren't exactly what I was picturing, but I figured for the price why not?! I was too late; someone else had snatched them up...

That's when I came across these. They looked like the 1941 French Chairs above, just with a little more wear on the seats. These two matching caned chairs came with the high asking price of....$25...for both! That's right. I didn't hesitate offering the full asking price on these beauties. We picked them up this morning. Turns out the lady was moving states and was selling a whole house full of solid wood furniture. If I had more money I may have offered to unload her of some more pieces.

So, I am thinking of painting them white. And reupholstering them with a fun fabric like this one.

It may take me a while. Maybe Christmas break? I will be sure to share when they are finished : )

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Picture Collage Without Pictures

Here is a quick run down on my my latest, almost-completed project...a picture collage.

It all began when I saw Joi's picture collage on her blog.
I had a blank wall in my living room, and it looked fun.
Then I realized I like things more matchy, so I searched for another picture for inspiration.
I found this one from Lettered Cottage.
I don't know, somehow all the frames being black made it suit my taste a bit closer (does this make me boring...probably)
So I went to the store and bought the thinnest frames I could find. I will spend a lot of time looking at these from the side angle in the dining room, so I didn't want them to stick out too far.
Then I cut out a bunch of wrapping paper in picture frame size sheets to try and figure out how many pictures frames I would need to make a collage I liked.
It took me 3 tries, but I finally decided on this one with Lynn's input:
Then I has to do to 3 Wal-Marts to buy enough frames of each size.
It sounds worse than it was. I have 3 close Wal-Marts to me anyways, so I just went to a different one each time I needed to make a Wal-Mart trip.
Then I had to make a 4th trip to buy the nails to hang them...oops!

I also may have bought my friend Chinese for lunch just so she would help me hang them...gotta love friends! Trust me- it was way easier too with someone there to help hold things up and take measurements!
So a million measurements later, we only had to move 5 of the frames after initially hanging them...ha!
It turned out like this:


Now I am just waiting for my sister, the photographer, to get me pictures to put in them.
I would also like to get a couple chairs and little table to make a cute little sitting area along this wall, but for now, empty picture frames will do ; )

Saturday, September 5, 2009

I Love Lamp

Here is a quick before and after picture of one of the projects I was able to complete this week.
It really isn't that dramatic, but it sure makes me happy.

This is a simple black lamp Brandon got for free from Uncle Doug back in college. We have been using it in our living room because the light in here is really dim. However, we really don't have anything black in our living room, so it kind of looked out of place.

So, I bought some spray paint from Wal-Mart and changed the color.
I believe the new color is called Satin Nickel by Krylon.

My friend Mary walked me through the basic of spray painting (yes, I have never spray painted before).
She told me to put light coats and let it dry in between.
I learned why...it runs when you put on to many coats to quickly...oops!

I would have taken the after picture in the light, but Brandon only lets me quit working outside when it is dark....j/k. But seriously, we have been working hard. Really hard.
Our gutter project has been turning into more projects. Lets just say while working on the gutter we discovered a whole section of roof that was leaking on our porch that required patching and board replacing. We also found a whole wall of our garage was infested with ants. Brandon had to rip a whole wall of our garage off (the rest of the garage is cedar...I am not sure why this wall isn't). Then he had to kill approximately a trillion ants with this crazy spray stuff that made my father in law hurl. We have yet to replace the missing wall as it got dark on us tonight.
So tomorrow we will be back outside replacing a wall, hanging one more section of guttering, and painting.
Did I tell you were are changing our house color.
All the paint is on sale at Home Depot for Labor Day weekend.
We bought over $300 worth of paint- yikes!
It may take a few weeks to get our whole house painted due to the unexpected leaks and ants, but I will be sure to post before and after pictures.

Friday, September 4, 2009

Paint and Gutters

It's my week off and my hands are covered in paint, caulk, and glue. Brandon took some time off work during my week off to make some much needed repairs/updates on the house. Take for instance the picture below. This section had no guttering at all. That meant that when it rained the water poured right onto our wood porch in front of the gate. Last winter this porch was a sheet of ice, and my butt was a little sore more than once from it! Luckily, my handy dandy husband was willing to purchase some guttering and install it himself. And why just stop here, he decided to replace all of our worn out guttering this week while he was at it.
The bad part about making small repairs/updates is that you start noticing bigger repairs/updates that need to be made. Say like a few dozen rotted out boards. This means that I have been priming and painting board after board to replace the ones Brandon has been ripping out. If you noticed the dark spot missing a board in front of Brandon and the board kind of hanging down next to it, they are both already primed and painted ready for hanging in the morning.

All this hard work makes me want a nap...
It seems to wear poor Cove out too ; )
In between painting I have managed to fit in a few of my own projects, so I will try and share them soon!

Monday, August 24, 2009

It's Been a Long Time Coming

I can't wait.
Next week I have a whole week free from rotations, work, drugs.
It will be my first full week off since last year August.
Sad- I know.
Awe... sweet life!
I have a million things floating around in my head that I want to accomplish, including writing a few more blogs.

I feel as though my cup of tea keeps overflowing without time to clean it up.
My week off is a time to catch up, accomplish, and reflect.
If only I had more than one week.

So, please stay tuned...plans are in the making.

Speaking of reflecting, this is my last full week in St. Louis. Ever. No more 4 hour drives home. No more 4 hours drives back. No more beautiful arch peaking through the skyline. No more hour walks with Lynn in the evening. No more calling Emily at 6pm when she gets of work while I am on the road to pass the time. No more nights at the girls house with Liz and Andrea trying to control what is on the tube. No more trying new places that Ashton loves to eat at. No more rides with Kelsey reflecting over career choices and men. I will miss my friends. I will not miss the drive.

In case you read this and realized that my blog has become boring, uneventful, and all out drab, I highly recommend you head here. Be warned...Rebecca June's blog is addicting!

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Eye Candy

I love flats. They are comfortable and cute.
I feel too tall in heals (I am only 5'7" but I still feel tall).
I have fallen in love with these flats. I always love buckles. Is it weird to have buckles on shoes? I hope not, I like them.
They come in other colors, but I think I like the gray ones. I don't own any gray shoes. The color gray makes me think of freckles chick. If you don't read her blog, you should. She is hilarious and also loves gray.

Do you spell gray gray or grey? I think I have seen it both ways. I am a terrible speller though, so please don't spell things the way I spell them. Crap, I just looked back at the website and they spell it grey. I would be wrong....oops!

What do you think? I have never spent $80 on a pair of shoes before.
(okay, I have running shoes that are worth more, but my dad bought me those, so they don't count in my book)
Maybe the hubs will get me them for me for our anniversary. Then I could wear them when he takes me out on a hot date. I highly doubt the probability behind this. I have to force him to even buy new shoes for himself when his are falling apart...
I can always dream right?!

Where Has The Time Gone?

I have been busy. A little too busy.
I have missed blogging.
Every time I get on here to blog, I spend so much time reading all the other funny/inspiring blogs, I run out of time to blog myself.

If I would have found more time I would have shared about:

My grandparent's 50th wedding celebration- it was fun and funny...
My grandparent's don't have the typical lovey dovey relationship you picture in a couple married 50 years. In fact, if they were not Catholic, I think they would be divorced. But they are Catholic, so they are not divorced. And they have 6 kids. And they are funny. We still celebrated their 50 years together, and I am so glad we did. We have an amazing family who still knows how to have a good time no matter how many crazy ups and downs everyone faces.


My friend Emily coming into town for the weekend...
I knew the weekend was going to be good times as soon I I figured out I was heading to the wrong train station to pick her up! But we a good time. I made her eat with my in-laws. I made her put up with our dog licking her feet obsessively, and I made her spend most of Saturday on the lake fishing, only to catch one fish! She is probably glad we don't live closer so she doesn't have to go through all that more often ; ) But seriously, I am so glad she came to visit and see our new place.


The end of an amazing rotation...
My first rotation was at St. Luke's East. It is an amazingly nice hospital. Their staff is top notch. I now dream about returning their to work. I am contemplating doing a year residency, starting next summer, just to make this dream come true. I couldn't have asked for a better first rotation, even though they made me work my butt off. Now if only they like me as much as I liked them!


My 4th of July weekend....
It started with my sister's 18th birthday. I can't believe she is getting so old! She is such a gorgeous person inside and out. I hope she has an amazing senior year. If you have been following my blog, you may remember she is a talented sewer. She also is a talented, up-and-coming photographer. I can't wait to see where she goes in life. But enough about her, it was also my dad's birthday that weekend (hers is the 3rd his is the 4th). I got spend an afternoon with him. I helped him pick out his gift for Kara (an amazing ring I hope she likes) and bought him lunch at Olive Garden. Then we celebrated with firework at lake Viking and then firework at my niece and nephew's house. We blew a lot of stuff up. We ate a lot of food. I can't wait to do it all again next year.


Our new found friends...
Don't you just love when you meet people that you instantly connect with? There really isn't much to this story. Brandon made friends with a guy named Jeremy who started working for Honeywell this year. I made friends with his wife while we were watching the hubs's play softball together at corporate challenge. They are another young, newlywed couple like us. They are fun, and full of life. I have enjoyed each time we have hung out this summer. They even make home-made ice cream... who wouldn't like hanging out with them!
Hope I didn't bore you with the recap.
Maybe I will write another blog and show you the cute shoes I found online...give you a little eye candy to hold you over until I write again in another month...
(I intend for this to be a joke, but please forgive me if it becomes reality)

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Garage Sale Season

I think I may have mentioned this before, but I will mention it again. I love garage sales. Isn't it fun looking at the things other people have collected over the years?! Plus, you can snag the occasional "can't live without" item, for pocket change prices...love it! Well, even though I have been hitting up garage sales, Brandon and I actually took the time to sort through some items that we had accumulated and participated in our own neighborhood garage sale this weekend (gotta love the free advertising). Here is a picture of some of the things we had left on Saturday...
Don't worry, Brandon's parents, my parent's, and Gma Leslie all brought stuff over too. We aren't that big of junk collectors ; )

So, we added up all those 25 and 50 cent stickers, and the total come to...
Over $220 dollars (you don't think we added up every nickel and penny did you). Brandon and I actually made just over $100 ourselves. Now, what to spend the extra cash on?
I am thinking the guest bath. Brandon is thinking a paint sprayer. Decisions, decision...

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Coupons and Cabinets

I finally found the time to put of cork boards in the inside of my cabinets. I got the idea from John and Sherry from This Young House. Here is how the process went...

I picked out the cabinets that I wanted to put the cork board up in. I picked the two next to the stove by the refrigerator because that is where the coupons usually start stacking up.
Then I measured the inside of the cabinet by marking a piece of paper. I used this paper to make slits in the cork board before finally cutting it with one of those razor blade knife things...My husband made me promise not to chop off a finger before he kindly handed his over.
Then I attached the cork board using the nice little Commando Velcro attachments. The cork board comes with permanent stickers to attach them with, but I didn't know if the next person to own our house would appreciate those.
It took two sized down cork board squares to fill up the inside of my cabinet. Apparently John and Sherry's cabinets are much larger than mine, because the used three whole squares with space between them on theirs! Good thing I only bought one package of 4 cork boards at Hobby Lobby.

Finally, I added the pictures/coupons I have been saving with little thumb tacks. This cabinet got my Pottery Barn cataloge cut-outs...
And this one got my coupons....
Don't you just love saving money with coupons?! And don't you just hate it when you get to the store and realized you forgot to grab them ; )

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Doesn't Everyone Have Family Haircut Days?

Sorry, didn't mean to disapper from the blog world for so long. Time is passing by too quickly this summer. I have quite a few blogs I have been meaning to write. I will be satisfied to write this one before crashing tonight though. So...

I got my hair chopped of for Lock of Love. I had been growing it out for 4 years.
See, it was pretty long...
My aunt measured out a million little pony tails to 11 inches. It has to be 10 inches to donate. We did 11 to be on the safe side....

My aunt owns her own hair salon in a retirement village. She is an awesome hair dresser. It seriously is the best thing ever to have an aunt who does hair. We use and abuse her probably a little too much. Notice the short hair in this picture. We were goofing off under the dryers...
The funny thing about this evening is that we didn't really plan it. It just happened that some of our cousins wanted hair cuts the same night. See, here is Landon getting a summer buzz...
And Aunt Kelly, cousin McKenna, cousin Connor, and cousin Lauren...

And Uncle Vinnie and cousin Cayman munching on chips and queso from On the Border...yum!
It was like a family reunion at the hair salon. It was fun seeing everyone. I think we all enjoyed the unplanned get together. Well, maybe not Connor...

He isn't the biggest fan of scissors next to his head. I can't really blame him ; )

Friday, May 22, 2009

A Little Fun from Last Weekend

Brandon was in a fishing contest last weekend. It was part of the corporate challenge competition at his work. He has to win the try-outs (another fishing tournament in itself) in order to compete in it. Well, him and his partner Matt beat out some old timers and woke up before the sun came out for a little fishing action on Smithville lake. The weather was cold, and the fish didn't bite so well. In fact, they only caught two fish.
See fish #1...
And fish #2
(I am sure Brandon would like for you to know that he caught both of them even though Matt is holding up his fish, which looks bigger, for the picture)
Well, what do you know...there 2 bass got them 2nd place metals at the tournament! Most of the other teams were only able to catch crappie. It takes a lot of crappie to equal the weight of one bass. They got 2nd place by the weight of their bass.
See them supporting the Honeywell shirts....
Brandon also got his fourwheeler running. He said I had to take a picture of it running for my blog, since I showed it before it was running.
He wouldn't slow down, so I only got crazy blurry action shots...
We also took Cove to the Lake last weekend. It was her first time going to a real lake (we have only taken her to the pond at Bass Pro Shop). Let's just say she is going to be a water dog. It only took her a minute on the dock before she jumped right off without us knowing it! Good thing she knows how to swim.
Here she is shaking off the water after Brandon helped her back up on the swim dock...
Rotation are keeping me busy...real busy. That's okay though because I am learning a lot. I may become a weekend blogger at this rate.
Did I tell you I chopped off my hair? My sister took pictures, so I will share. She has been out of town all week, so I will forgive her for taking so long to get them to me. Hopefully I will see her tomorrow.
Happy Memorial Day Weekend...please take some time to remember the ones that made the ultimate sacrifice for the freedoms we enjoy today.

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Why oh Why

Why oh why did something have to run into my windshield? My last drive home from St. Louis (well for 5 weeks), and something slams into my windshield in the middle of a rain storm. The odd things was that there wasn't anything around me. Brandon analyzed the crack and determined that it must have came from more of a blunt object like a bird (I hope not) rather than a rock. What ever it was sure did make a loud noise! I knew I hit something, but couldn't see the cracks in my glass till I finally drove out of the down pour ) :
These little cracks ended up costing me $155 to replace my windshield...darn my luck! If it really was a bird, I bet it is thinking the same thing...

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

The End of a Chapter

The last final is taken, the binders are closed, the books are packed up. StLCoP class of 2010 is officially forever done with classes. Although I am thrilled with the realization that I will never again take finals, the thought of separating from the friends and place I called home for the past 5 years is a little sad. Before I start the next chapter in my life called rotations, I wanted to reflect on things I will miss. Because I am a lover of food, I am going to miss some of my favorite places to eat, including Little Maggiano's, The Old Spaghetti Factory, and Jimmy Johns (we don't have a close one back in KC).


Here is a pic of some of us riding the metro down to The Old Spaghetti Factory from I would guess 2nd year (I will not miss being asked for money while waiting for the metro). I really like Ashton's green coat in this pic- cute!
Besides food, I know I will miss my BFFs even more. We have pulled each other through some tough times together, and I don't know what I would do without them. I know our paths and life will start moving different directions, but we will only continue to be great friends despite the miles between us. I cherish the relationships I have with both of you. I will never be able to watch Saturday Night live and not think of Lynn or eat at BreadCo and not think of Emily. We always found ways to have fun despite the studying. See, here is Lynn flipping me off...haha.


And Emily's fish face at the CPK.

I will also miss the great group of girl friends we had going (sorry, I uploaded the first group picture I saw and then realized it was missing quite a few of you). It is crazy how school has brought us all together, and interesting that despite all the differences we all have formed great bonds over the years. I love all my StLCoP ladies dearly.


School would have been miserable without such a great group of friends. It is the BBQs in the girls back yard, the crazy games we would play, eating Knox blocks at our group meetings Sunday nights to go over cases, watching Grey's together, sharing the "good" info we learned from facebook creeping, rides home with Kelsey, and so much more that I will miss. We really made some wonderful memories together.
Yes, I will miss my days at StLCoP. We may have had some tough classes and some tough professors, but we made it through together. So here is to us and the memories we made that will last a lifetime...