Lamp Re-Vamp!

I recently used some spray paint to re-vamp a few lamp bases I purchased from the thrift shop. I love how adorable they turned out and I love even more how in-expensive they were!

 I believe the pink lamp was $4.94 and the red was $6.50.


After a little spray paint and some cute lamp shades, here are the final products!


Ta-Da! I think they turned out lovely..what do you think?! I wasn’t sure how the paint would stick, but it has stayed on really well, surprisingly!

Iced Vanilla Coffee

International Delight has come out with my NEW FAVORITE THING in the whole wide world...

Iced Vanilla Coffee!!!!

This stuff is seriously goooood.  I'm a lover of McDonald's Iced Vanilla Coffee and Starbuck's Iced White Mocha, so when we saw this new product in our local Kroger, I had to try it out!

It's inexpensive and so easy! It's sold in the milk section, next to the coffee creamers.  All you have to do is shake it up & then pour it over a glass of ice...and, ta-daaa, you've just started your summer day off right!

Our Quick Trip to Chicago

This past weekend, we jumped on a plane on Friday night and landed in Chicago around midnight! Saturday morning, we woke up and had the opportunity to attend and be a part of Nana’s (Kyle’s Grandmother) Memorial Service.  She was a wonderful and beautiful lady who we will miss SO much.  It was a pleasure to be able to travel back to Kyle’s home for the weekend to spend time with family and remember our sweet, sweet Nana. 
Here is a picture of me with Kyle’s Nana & Papa at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin in July of 2008. Nana & I were stylin’ wearing the same sunglasses!

Her Memorial service was perfect and beautiful.  All of her grandkids spoke and did a wonderful job portraying her beauty & the legacy that she’s given to her family.  Listening to each person speak and thinking about Nana reminds me of Proverbs 31.

“A wife of noble character, who can find? She is worth far more than rubies.

Her husband has full confidence in her.She brings him good all the days of her life

….She sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for her tasks

….She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come.

She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue.

Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her

…Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.”

After Nana’s Memorial service, we spent some nice quality time with the family.  We ate lots of food, played games, ate more food, got to catch up on life, and then ate even more food.  It was great fun.  Here’s a picture of all of Papa & Nana’s grandkids.  {Katie, if you are reading this…I stole this picture from you! Thanks for taking it..I’m kicking myself for not getting my camera out!}

On Sunday, we enjoyed time together with Kyle’s parents and siblings! The weather was perfect, so we played a little “Up the River, Down the River” outside on the deck.  We played this game a lot this past summer on our Alaskan Cruise…so it was fun to play it again.

Here we are as a little fam…and, then there’s Corey, Kyle’s younger brother…ha! I couldn’t help myself…I had to zoom in.  This pic is so GREAT! I didn’t even noticed that he made this face until I uploaded my pictures onto our computer a few minutes ago. HA!

While playing cards, we spotted a little bunny in the yard! Although, after trying to feed the bunny some carrots and helping him (because we thought he was hurt), we decided that the bunny was just messed up in the head.  He was doing flips and jumps and other strange movements I’ve never seen a bunny do before…it was quite odd.

We played a few games of knockout basketball and Kyle & his older brother Chris played golf in the front yard. Not sure how the game actually worked? All I know is I kept seeing golf balls fly OVER the house. Interesting. Looked fun, though! Meanwhile, Jodi and I entertained ourselves by doing cartwheels and riding bikes.

After about a 48 hour visit, we headed back to the airport to began our long adventure back to Dallas.  Chicago had some severe thunderstorms on Sunday evening, so our flight kept getting delayed. 
Here we are sitting & waiting FOR.EV.ER. at the Chicago O’Hare airport.  At least we found some nice chairs to sit in, right?!


Needless to say, we arrived back to our house in Dallas around 4:00 a.m. And, yes, our alarm clock went off at 6:00 and Kyle had to be at work by 7:00 a.m. It was a loooong day, but we’re slowly catching back up on sleep!

Refinished Bedside Table

A few weeks ago, I found this lovely little bedside table at a local thrift shop down the street.  All of the shop’s furniture that day was 50% off, so I picked this up for only $20!

 

After a little bit of sanding & a few coats of paint…it looked like new! And, even better, I already had the paint, so it was no extra cost!

After shots of my lovely little bedside table:

I’m really liking this green color scheme.  Thanks to my sweet friend Amy for the new Pottery Barn lampshade! It ties in so well with my grandmother’s green chest of drawers.

I also changed out the knobs on the drawers.  I also already had these knobs from a previous item of furniture that I’m no longer using, so I put them on the drawers! I thought it was pretty great that this wasn’t an additional cost. {Kyle thought that was great, too. Ha!}

And, here’s our finished Guest Room! You can read more about our Guest Bedroom if you click HERE!

How to keep your Fruit Fresh!

A few weeks ago my Mom shared this tip for keeping your fruit from going moldy that’s recently changed our lives.  Well, at least when it comes to eating fresh fruit!
The worst thing in the world is spending money on delicious fresh strawberries or grapes and then 2 days later when you pull them out of the fridge to eat, you find mold! Ew! So, what’s the trick? Well, I’ve tried this trick a few times with my fresh fruit & it’s worked well so far! So, I thought I’d share this little piece of wisdom…Thanks Mom for sharing this with me!

Prepare a mixture of 1 part Vinegar (White Vinegar or Apple Cider Vinegar) and 10 parts water. Dump your berries into the mixture and swish them all around.  Drain the mixture and rinse your berries/fruit if you want, then pop in the fridge! {Rinsing isn’t really necessary because the water/vinegar mixture is so diluted, you really can’t taste the vinegar.}


The Vinegar kills any mold spores or bacteria that could be on the fruit.  This trick has kept our fruit fresh in the fridge for close to a week longer! Hope this little tip comes in handy for you, too!

Picture Gallery Wall

Our master bedroom has this huge blank wall that I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with.  A few weeks ago I finally decided to do a collage of pictures  to cover the blank space. I’ve been collecting the frames we had already as well as other wall hangings around the house.  I also bought a couple of cheap-o frames at the thrift store and spray painted them the colors I wanted them to be! (All of the gray & white frames you see were spray painted). This was my first attempt at spray painting picture frames & it really worked well! Overall,  I really like how it turned out. It’s a mixture of all of our favorite pictures. And by golly,  it sure is a LOT of pictures!

Here we go…

Below are frame ideas from Pinterest..

 Click here to see the burlap frame with the verse written in sharpie marker.
The marker is easy to remove & change the writing with finger-nail polish remover.

Click here to see the heart map picture frame idea. 
These hearts represent four significant places:
1.Where we met (Waco, Texas)
2. Where we got engaged (Chicago, Illinois)
3. Where we go married (Abilene, Texas)
4. Where we live now (Dallas, Texas)


Many of the pictures are from our years of dating.  If you look closely, you can see a few photos from various Baylor functions, the day of our first kiss in downtown Chicago in the snow, and even when Kyle was the coach of my sorority’s intramural soccer team my sophomore year of college.  This was before we were even dating & before we really knew each other! But, someone captured the picture of us standing next to each other in the huddle during the prayer before the game. We had no idea what was coming our way!!! 

And, of course, many of the photos are from our wedding day!


I also found one of the most helpful tips {from Pinterest} to hang these frames.  One of the most FRUSTRATING things in the entire world is making sure the nail is in the right spot when you are attempting to hang frames or art.  You know what I mean? You could end up with 42 holes in your wall after trying to hang just a few frames! Next time you decide to drill a nail into your wall, check this trick out: Using toothpaste to hang picture frames.

The lady from this blog used toothpaste, but I found that lotion worked better for me.  It wasn’t as messy and I could just wipe off the dot of lotion on the wall onto my hand instead of cleaning it off with a towel.

All you have to do is put a dot of lotion on the back of your picture frame that you want to hang. Place the lotion on the picture hook on the back of the frame, hold the frame on the wall exactly where you want it to go, & then remove the frame.
You should have a small dot of lotion on the wall that will tell you where to place the nail!


This method worked GREAT for me. I didn’t have to re-nail any of my frames!

And now I have a wall full of lovely memories to look at each morning when I wake up.

Graduation

This past weekend, we celebrated my brother’s graduation from Baylor!

Friday night, we visited with family that was in town to see everyone & celebrate Randall.
We got to see this cutie-pa-tootie, Mr. Ethan who is now 18 months!

                                                                                                                         {blowing kisses}

We also hung out at Common Grounds with Kyle’s cousins & Aunt who were also in town for Taylor’s graduation!


Then, we watched Randall graduate on Saturday!




We had lunch together, too!




Congratulations Randall!