My First Big Project...

Alright folks...this post might be a long one, so be prepared! I would like to share with you what I did over my 3 day weekend. I built a bed. I posted last week about the bed from Pottery Barn that I absolutely LOVE! Here it is again..

And again...This bed costs about 1200. So, I found plans for this bed online here from a blog called Knock-Off Wood) AMAZING stuff, and I can't wait to build more of her furniture!), I enlisted the help of my dad, and off to Home Depot we went!

 I've shopped at Home Depot a lot but NEVER in the lumber department. This was a first for me. It was quite overwhelming and I'm SO thankful that I had my dad there to help me figure things out. I'm pretty confident that I could go back and figure things out on my own now. The next thing my dad helped me with was the cutting...

 There's my dad! Again, I would not have been able to figure that part out without him! THANKS DAD! So we got to cutting, and after about 2.5 hours, we had this...

 oh...and this!

 At this point, it was looking like I purchased something from Ikea that had "some assembly required". I've put together my fair share of bookshelves, so I knew it would be cake from here on out!

 My dad helped with one more thing...putting together the first of the three benches. This one was pretty easy with the 2 of us. The next 2 were all me, so it was a little bit more difficult (yes, my husband helped a little bit...but lets face it...I'm a perfectionist and control freak, so it didn't last very long haha)

 Looking good! I was pretty proud of myself at this point! At the end of day 1, everything was purchased, cut, and put together for the most part!

Day 2 involved trimming out all 3 of the benches. This part was actually pretty easy, but I am definitely investing in a nail gun for my next project!

 Here it is...trimmed out in all it's glory and ready to be patched up, sanded, and painted!

 At the end of day 2, my bed was a beautiful antique white, and was ready to be moved to the room...

 DONE! At the end of day 3 (after work) Eric and I moved all the benches upstairs, added the spacer to support the mattress (no picture of that...it was a little stressful) and now it's done! Isn't it awesome?!?! I'm SO proud!

So, just to recap...here's the bed I wanted.......

and here's the bed I now have...

:) The last step in this process will be to find baskets that fit in the cubby holes, but I'll save that for next month I think. I'm a little worn out for now! Thanks for taking the time to check out this project everyone! Until next time...

Faith.Hope.Love

Now that the honeymoon is over...

I am settling into the "nesting" stage of my life. I've been using every spare minute (except for the 2 hrs I used to watch Bachelor Pad) in the last week and a half to try and get our house up to livable conditions. After not living in my home for 3 weeks, it ended up getting pretty bad. We aren't the cleanliest of couples. Most of the time I'm just too lazy to actually clean, and Eric's idea of cleaning doesn't involve a vacuum, window cleaner, or all purpose anti-bacterial cleaner. We make a great team :) But I'm definitely ready to make a change in our home! I started with the downstairs bathroom, which I will post pictures of later, and got that all cleaned and decorated, and I LOVE it now! And my next project will be this....

I am SO in love with this bed from Pottery Barn! It would fit in perfectly with our master bedroom, and we could definitely use the extra storage! But this bed costs $1200 :( Money that I definitely don't have to spend right now, and even if I did have it, I still wouldn't want to pay that much for a bunch of wood nailed together and painted. So what am I going to do? I'm going to buy some wood, nail it together and paint it! Sounds crazy I know, but recently I have discovered the empowerment of using my own two hands to make something beautiful and functional, so I'm going to give my first real shot at carpentry work. The plans to make this beautiful bed can be found on my favorite blog that I've ever stumbled upon...

Ana White is one of my heroes, and I feel so inspired by her! Why spend thousands and thousands of dollars on furniture if you can just make it yourself? She draws up all the plans herself, and makes them available on her blog for anyone to use! She has plans for pretty much everything you could possibly think of. You can find the plans that I'll be using for this bed here. 

Seems easy enough, right? Well, we shall see! I will definitely be posting about how all this turns out! It could be a great success, or it could be a total failure, but I prefer to look on the bright side! Wish me luck!

ONE MORE THING! I have a question for my 7 followers ha. What are your opinions on painting all the baseboards and trim in my house white?  Right now they are all wood, and it makes everything seem so dark. Anyways, thanks!


Faith.Hope.Love

Time Flies When You're Having Fun...

I never really understood the meaning of this phrase until July 24th, 2010... my wedding day. I'm sure every bride says this, but I'm pretty positive that my wedding was the most beautiful wedding in the whole entire world! (I'm not normally so selfish, but hey, it was my day!...and Eric's) I honestly could not have asked for a more perfect, beautiful, amazing, wonderful day! Ready? Picture time!







We don't have all of our professional pictures back yet, but so far they are turning out perfectly! I can't wait to see the rest!

Like I said, the day turned out perfectly! It didn't all come together quite perfectly, and now I know why they always say that something WILL go wrong...if events had gone even a slightly different way, I may not have had flowers OR a cake!...but thanks to my wonderful amazing mother, she pulled it all off! I swear, if I end up having a tiny fraction of the talent that she possesses, I will be a very very lucky girl. You want to see her work?







That's my beautiful mother. She made the cake, the sugar flowers on the cake, the centerpieces, bouquets, and boutonnieres! Yes...she is VERY talented! It was probably the most stressful experience of her life, but knowing that I have a mom who is willing to go through that just so I can have a beautiful day, and a dad who is willing to deal with my mom in that state just so I can have a beautiful day, makes me a very very very lucky girl.

So here's how the day played out. I woke up at 6:30...went to Gene Juarez to get my hair and make-up done, which was SUCH a fun experience. Went back to the house, got ready, then rushed to the castle! (It wasn't really a castle...more like a really big mansion) Then it was picture time, then ceremony, then reception, then done! It literally all went by that fast! It was all gone in the blink of an eye! I knew it would be. This has been a LONG time coming. And at the end of the day, Eric and I were Mr. and Mrs. Rupert, and I ended up being the happiest girl in all the world! He has always been an amazing boyfriend and fiance, and now he has become on amazing husband! I am so excited about sharing our lives together forever! I love him with all my heart.

Here's a pic of us on our honeymoon in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico!



I can hear it now..."ooo kissing!"...whatever. We are married. We do what we want :)

Anyways, I will have to post about the honeymoon at another time, but all I can say now is that it was AH-MAH-ZING! I can't wait to go back for our anniversary!

So now that my wife switch has been flipped, I'm in a totally different mode. NESTING mode! We've been in our house for over a year now, but I've never wanted to decorate and cook and clean so badly until now! Not sure why, but oh well! Eric's loving it! I have a few projects that I've started working on that I will have to post about later, so for now, thanks for reading! I'm going to go day dream and re-live my wedding day :)

Faith.Hope.Love

Kind of Random...

I know I haven't posted in a very long while, and I promise that I will be doing a wedding update post soon, but I just HAVE to do this first. Kimba over at A Soft Place To Land is doing an AWESOME giveaway of a Silhouette Craft Cutter machine! This machine is amazing and can do SO much, and well, I want to win it. So I'm just doing a shout out so you all can jump over to her post and maybe YOU could be the winner! Thanks for reading!