Chalkboard Love

Since I have been doing a little catching up around here, I thought I would go ahead and share my new chalkboard creation. It all started with a mirror I found on Craig’s List for $30 back in January (I know, I’m so behind on sharing!). It was big, gold, and beautiful. Plus that lady selling it lived on my way home from work. I was meant to have it.

Then I had to find a place to put it. The more I thought about it, the more I liked my idea to turn it into a chalkboard and hang it in the dining room over our wine cabinet. Which meant I had to take down these shelves (the ones my sweet husband put up for me while I was at work one day- I love sweet surprises...you have to peak behind the people to the left to see them on the wall. I forgot I lost my before pictures on my phone; this is the best I could find)).

When I think of all the work I put into getting this mirror into place, it’s kind of exhausting. I had to unscrew the previous shelves, patch the screw holes with putty, put touch up paint over the putty, scrub 30 years of dust of the mirror frame with a toothbrush, apply 2 coats of spray primer, 3 coats of white spray paint, 3 coats of chalkboard paint (due to my blue tape peeling off some around the edges), and the actually hang the mirror! Oh well, it was totally worth it.

Isn’t she lovely? I broke her in with one of my favorite scriptures—Romans 12:12 “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” (Chalk board paint recipe here. Color is Ashen by Olympic in Dutch Boy paint.)

I also went ahead and switched up the stuff I had on top of our cabinet. I found this little wooden canoe-like thing to hold chalk at our local thrift store for $2.

The pots and plants I stole from our living room. Then I found this little crystal bird thingy in a box I had stored from our wedding. I believe it was a shower gift that I never got around to taking out of the box. Doesn't it have that perfect spring-like feel to it?!

All in all I am pretty pleased with my new addition to the dining room. I hope to share a few other changes I had made around the house and give a basement update soon!

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I also managed to squeeze in a birthday last month. Guess how old I turned...

Gma Leslie made me her famous chocolate cake- delicious!! Someone's either lazy or they don't know how to spell happy birthday. It's wasn't me...promise.

Brandon made me homemade ice cream (it's in my cup).

I love that guy. He took me skiing for my birthday. So here is a short recap of trip #2 in March...

We flew to New Mexico. Brandon worked Monday through Thursday while I lounged around at the hotel catching up on sleep and movies. The lansdcape in New Mexico is different-- desserty. It's mostly brown with a few mountains sprinkled in the background.

On Fri, Brandon took off work and we toured Albuquerque. It was nice to finally see where my husband spends half of his life. We went to the nuclear weapons museam. There is some pretty scary stuff there. I would hate to see one of these go off...

I am not sure how many warheads come off that thing, but it's alot!

Then on Saturday we went skiing up in Santa Fe. It was beautiful. It snowed the night before, so we had fresh powder in the morning! Here we are on the mountain...

I hope we go back next year. I forgot how much I missed skiing...and the mountains.

 
If only Missouri had mountains...

Spring Showers

It wouldn't be spring without a shower or two right?! Which is exactly why Emily and I decided to plan an oh-so-fun shower for our prego friend Mary. See her cute baby bumb...

There is a baby in there...seriously, crazy stuff to me! I'm glad she is having kiddos first. I will learn everything I need to know from her ; )

We invited her closest friends and family and reserved some chocolate fondue at the Melting Pot. Delicious, melted chocolate. What more could a group of girls ask for?

Sorry ladies, I apparently only took action shots...

I wish I had more pics to share of all the fun shower details, but alas my phone (with which I take 90% of my pics) decided to die that very morning, after I took pictures of all the games, decorations, and favors the night before. Thank goodness I had the shower to cheer me up after that devestation! I just love these two ladies to pieces...

Can't wait to meet Baby Murphy in June; 2 months and counting!

Whoops!

I skipped a whole month of blogging! I can't beleive its been that long. I guess its all that March Madness buzz everyone's talking about...wait does that only refer to basketball? I feel like it refers to my life.

It's never my intention to leave for long periods of time, but I spent half of my month in other states. I figured I'd start witha short recap of my first trip. After rotations ended I spent some time down in Texas visiting Gpa and Gma Daugherty (this is how they sign things--Gpa and Gma--I'm not being a lazy typer). They live all the way down in Rio Hondo. It's further south than South Padre Island. They live off the River. This is them on their porch. My Gma wears her hair in a pony tail with about 10 clips holding back her shorter hairs. It makes me smile everytime I see it. I wish I had a close-up to show you just how cute it is.

Gpa has been declining in health and Gma has been busy taking care of Gpa, so we spent some time helping clean up their place. See me raking off broken limbs from their carport left from the last hurricane...

We also rebuilt their porch overhang that was taken off by a hurricane. We like to be extra safe. This is why he have 2 people holding on to my brother Aaron while he screws in the ceiling piece ; )

It wasn't all work and no play though. We got to feed their fish donut seeds everyday (this is what Gma calls cheerios). They know all their fish by name. It's really quite impressive, because there is a lot of fish in their pond.

We got a group shot on their bridge over their pond. Doesn't it make you want to break out the power washer?! We wanted to, but Gpa said it would just get dirty again.

Visiting the grandparents is kind of one of those bitter sweet experiences. It is always sad leaving, because you never know if they will make it till the next time you see them. My Gpa acutally just called yesterday to tell me he wouldn't be able to make it to my graduation; he's back on the oxygen tank almost 24/7. He brought tears to my eyes telling me how much it meant to him for me to be getting my degree; it's the sweetest thing he has ever said to me.

Hope we get to make some more memories, and cherishing the ones we have.

Dreaming of Sunshine

I must be dreaming of sunshine, cuz I keep picking out things in yellow...

That's my new $10 lunch bag & $13 pair of flip-flops. I LOVE Target!

Don't forget to get your flip-flops early before sizes start selling out ; )

This Can't Be Safe

I think they put warnings like this....

on ladders for a purpose.
Unfortunately, my husband still decided to do this...

Hummm...definitely not safe ; )
Oh well, the stairway is finally painted!

Here is our color scheme for downstairs...

The stairwell is "Smooth Stone"  by Glidden (behind the other colors)
The downstairs walls are "Silver City" by Ralph Lauren in the Suede finish (the smaller square- its textured)
& The ceiling is sprayed with "It's Getting Late" by Dutch Boy (the dark gray color)
Yes, we like to mix things up-- Thank you Home Depot for having Ralph Lauren paint on sale!

And on a really exciting note, the pallet project is making progress!!! Check out out our fireplace wall...

This wall makes me smile from ear-to-ear...now that's a big smile : )
Can't wait for the other two walls by the stairs to be covered in pallets as well....eek!

Pallet Power

Yes, pallet power. It's our new basement endeavor. I blame it all on Katie and her "boyfriend" over at BOWER POWER. See their new amazing nursery wall in all its rustic gloriousness...

Apparently Katie and me share a thing for old wood ; ) Sincere apologies to our husbands boyfriends...ha!

So, the pallets have taken power. See our garage...

See our basement floor...

Hear the sound of the nail gun in the background...
Oh wait, only I can hear that.

Oh well. Happy President's Day on ya!