just a little game of catch-up

well, well, well... look who decided to blog again. ha. its been like 2 months or something crazy like that. we havent been doing much around here, but a lot has been going on, so please be patient with this very unorganized story.

part I:
so, about three weeks ago, will and myself went to go see Mogwai in seattle with our friend tony, while our other friend, shayne, house sat and watched the animals like he usually does. as soon as we got to seattle we met with some old friends and went to some neat bars and got all good and day drunk. the show was awesome and then went to go see our friend james' band play at a different bar. here are some pics!

part of the agreement of me not having to drive was that i had to sit in back the whole time and not  talk at all. ha.

pit stop.

i love seattle!

me and annie. she is gorgeous and so great!

:]]

anyway, blah, blah, blah, long story short we didnt get back to our hotel room until about 5 am. at approximately 5:45 am i woke up to will's phone ringing and it was shayne. apparently someone had thrown a brick through our back window, stole his wallet and keys off the counter and then stole his car. I WAS IN SHOCK!!! we were 5 hours away, completely helpless and probably still drunk. eeeeep. anyway, we ended up driving home after sleeping a little more and came home to find this:

glass was everywhere, and they ruined my green onions. 220 dollars later we got the window replaced and shayne ended up finding his own car four days later, and now those jerks are in jail. hallelujah! 

part II.

the weather in good old spokane has finally gotten a little bit nice. weve been mowing the lawn and weed wacking and pulling weeds and discussing what on earth to do with the gardens. we even splurged and bought one of those blower/sucker/mulchers, (the "thats what she said jokes and endless), and its been really great. we even got ambitious and hung some outdoor lights in our backyard. 

dont i have the cutest husband??? :]

i also thought it could be cute to hang little odds and ends on the fence.

so far all weve got up is a thermometer and two suns from the dollar store.

we picked up these two beauties yesterday and i am thinking they need to go join the party.

part III.

our tax return came last week so did a spur of the moment run to portland. we got to see some of our favorite people!!! 

james, sloan and charlie. i cant get enough of them!

but of course we couldnt go to portland without making a stop at ikea!!! (nothing gets me more excited than a day blown at ikea!!) pretty much we just picked up some decorative items and candles and new sheets and desks. most of this stuff isnt even unpacked but the big accomplishment was the tools for the 98% completion of the frame wall. ahhhhhhh!!!!

we need to do a little more moving around of the frames, but all the frames are finally filled, except one.

so thats what weve been up to. when i get everything all unpacked i will show you all my new treasures and go a little more into detail of what made the cut for the the frame wall.

thrift store day... and other adventures.

the other day i was bored and all alone and feeling very inspired so i went to value village, union gospel mission thrift and ross to see if there was anything that struck my fancy. oooh!!! and boy did my fancy get struck!

one of the projects that i have been dying to do is a diy table from a suitcase seen here:

weve been trying to figure out the perfect coffee table, and its been a challenge because its such a tight squeeze between the couches, so i thought that a custom suitcase table would be fun. luckly i ran across this perfectly green one at ugm.

its in great shape and was only $4.99!

the only sort of lame thing is that it has this "washington" apple sticker on it. but i  kinda like it.

it even has the key to lock it.

i went to home depot after i picked this puppy up to look for some table legs. they didnt have any i liked, so i just bought two 48in dowels that we can cut down and stain and use for legs. i gotta get will to help me with the rest of this project. i dont pre-drill holes well or cut things with saws. it freaks me out.

i also picked up some lavender seeds and two little pots while i was at home depot. i couldnt resist! 

NEXT...

ive been really stoked on glass cloches made from cheese plates. they are all over bloggerland, like here, and i think they are absolutely adorable. so when i stubbled across this one at value village, i couldnt pass it up.

it was only $3.99 and the plate is marble.

a quick coat of black spray paint to clean it up and it looks like new.

this little birdie is just a temporary dweller until i can find a permanent resident.

AND LASTLY...

ive been drooling all over giant wall hanging letters and i almost bought these ones from urban outfitters two weeks ago, but i stumbled across these bad boys at ross and picked them up instead. 

they are a lot bigger and better quality,  i think. 

and for $3.99 each, you cant really go wrong.

i will post pictures and blab more when these great finds get homed and projects finished. :]]

green thumb? it looks flesh colored to me.

yesterday i told you all about my painting experience gone bad and how i was going to garden to make up for it. well, ive got some pictures for you so you can follow along. 

like i said, we picked out a salsa seed kit from home deopt. we also got 2 bags of potting soil, some biodegradable starter planter thingies and 2 planters. 

the "salsa veriety pack" included: roma tomatoes, green onions, cilantro and jalapenos. 

these jiffy pots seemed pretty awesome, but we didnt end up using them. maybe on our next gardening adventure. 

i did two rows of jalapenos and a row of green onions in one planter and 2 rows of tomatoes and a row of cilantro in the other. this is our first time ever doing something like this so i hope it works out. i am thinking that i will have to do some transplanting, but thats ok.

we are going to start them indoors and then move them outside when it gets a little bit warmer, but for now their home is in the kitchen window where we can keep a close eye on them and watch them grow. 

i even made these cute little tags so we remember what is where.

about two weeks ago we were at wal-mart and i found these little starter basil kits for $5. i couldnt pass them up, so i got two. i followed all the directions (except for when it said to plant only five seeds, i dumped about 45 in there) and then 4-5 days later i had little sprouts!

it even came with this super cute little planter and a puck of dirt. ive never seen anything like the dirt puck before. 

its groooowing!!!

i havent had the best luck with plants. i either over water or under water them, but people keep telling me that veggies and herbs are a lot easier to grow, so i am giving it my best shot. we shall see...

ORANGE you happy you get a new bathroom update?

the title of this post is funny for two reasons:

1.) because yesterday at work i messed up the knock knock joke and
2.) because we are painting the bathroom orange... or so i thought.

yesterday as i was driving to post falls to pick will up from work i stopped at home depot and picked a few color swatches for the bathroom. i felt confident on the decisions that i had made and was ready to take the plunge, (haha. bathrooms, plungers... get it?) and make the most of this rainy weekend.

this morning i begged will to wake up and go to home depot with me and get the paint and help me tape the bathroom (he is a waaay better taper than i am) and then i could get started while he had band practice. it seemed to be the best idea ever... until we we got to the paint section. i began to panic and forgot everything that i had previously put so much thought into and decided on. i got the sweats and pulled out a million new swatches impulsively and came up with new schemes and i cry and AHHHHHHHH!!!!! its like i fear color commitment. i have done this with every room we have painted, and it drives me nuts. anyway, after forty five minutes, will finally calmly and very sweetly says, "honey, maybe you just arent ready to do this." and i agreed.

how about a big eff you bathroom. 

so, after the paint section episode i felt like i had to still buy something, i mean i had some hard earned cash burning a hole in my pocket, so we bought some jalapeno, cilantro, green onions, and roma tomato seeds, potting soil and a couple planters. energy focused elsewhere.

old news

no new progress means i can blab about old things that we have done, and that makes me excited.

when we bought the house it was move in ready. like ive said before, my step brother owned the house before us and he did his fair share of up-keep and remodeling. im not completely positive of all the updates that he made, but i know that he installed wooden blinds on the living room and bedroom windows, wired in custom lighting all through the house, knocked out a wall between two bedrooms to make a killer master bedroom and giant walk-in closet, put in a home security system, made a third bedroom in the basement and many more things. the man is amazing. once we moved in it was just a matter of taking what we were blessed with and making it ours.

the first room that we started with was the bedroom. i never took any before pictures, and i am kicking myself in the shin for it now. it is a GIANT bedroom. the carpet was forest green, three of the walls cream, one of the walls was maroon and the trim was white and brushed with brown stain for an antiqued look. when choosing the color pallet i went off of a room inspiration swatch from home depot. even though the bedroom barely replicates the photo now, it was the perfect amount of inspiration to get the ball rolling.

as you can see, we dont have any art on the walls. i have an idea of what i want to make to hang above the bed, but that wont happen for awhile. 

please excuse the dog fur. a fun little fact about us: our two dogs also sleep in bed with us every night. also, thursday is bedding switch out day. (i havent gotten to it yet.)

for the furniture we invested in the edland series from ikea. i just fell in love with that series. we picked up the five and six drawer dressers and two night stands. i think they are completely adorable. for the bed we picked the malm series in a king size. will liked that one and since i had been making all the decisions on the bedroom furniture, i let him pick the bed and mattress. im such a good wife.

the bed is a platform. it took me awhile to get used to the feeling of sleeping so close to the floor. 

i loved the knobs on the edland series dressers and night stands. gives them a vintage feel.

we also picked up this area rug from ikea for $20 bucks. its a little thin, but it covers and protects a big portion of the wood floors. 

 i am having one hell of a time deciding on an accent color for this room. i know i want it to be either red, rose, or maroon. i just cant commit to a color. whichever i pick i would like to incorporate that in with some curtains, a throw blanket and some vases.

on to the living room...

after the bedroom face lift we felt like experts so it didnt take us long to begin tackling the living room. i did take some crappy phone before and progression pictures of this project.

i told you they were crappy phone pictures. :] the old walls were a tanish/peachy color and just didnt give off the vibe that we were going for.

this is a half done moment. look at cute manchester. awwww!

annnd then we were done. we wanted the room to be warm and cozy so we went with a coconut brown wall color and a chamomile yellow for the ceiling. as you can see, will was pretty burnt out. 

and this is what the room looks like today:

since then we have purchased some furniture, and hung stuff on the walls. i guess you can say that i have nested. 

the couch isnt new. we bought that two summers ago from mor furniture. it was the display model and we did get a good deal on it and it is extremely comfy, but its pretty poor quality. it has already gotten a few rips in the cushions (my mother sewed them up) and on the back of one of the sections the wood has been broken. and it just looks frumpy. next time we purchase couches i think we are going to get them from www.lovesac.com. when we were in slc last time we fond out about them. they are pretty awesome. 

our tv stand is new. it is another ikea investment. it is from the hemnes series. its great because it has three drawers that hold everything from extra candles to our dvd collection.

our bookstand from ikea is a work in progress. i am having one hell of time organizing this sucker. for now it is a free-for-all when it comes to storage. 

overall, i feel like the room is gaining that cozy feeling. especially when its night time and the shades are drawn and the candles are lit. nearly perfect.

floors...

we waited about two or three months between the painting of the living room and the laying of the hardwood floors. we also had a wedding and a honeymoon in the middle to keep us busy. we knew that we wanted hardwood floors, there was no question about that, but we didnt know what kind to get; pergo, laminate, real wood, engineered. it was a hard choice. obviously real wood is like 5x more spendy than laminate, but real wood looks and feels a million times better. after weeks of looking and researching and price checking we decided on engineered flooring that was on sale from great floors. engineered flooring is the best of both worlds. it has about a quarter inch of real wood on the top and then like particle board (or something) for the rest. whatever. i dont know the molecular build up of the crap. anyway $5,000 later, we have hardwood flooring all through the bedroom, walk in closet and living room. muah. perfect. 

more crappy phone pics. but here are the boys ripping out the old carpet and pulling up nails. it was a lot of work, so i heard.

and this was the end result. 

and there you go. 10 million words later, you have been educated on the history of the work done to our house.