New Year, New Books

2014 is almost here! 2013 has been a crazy great year for me and I am ready to celebrate a new year! This is the time of year where resolutions always come up. Now I am not usually the type to make resolutions. However, this year, I found a resolution that caught my eye and had to do it! The Indianapolis Star has started a city-wide resolution to read 26 books in a year. That comes out to a book every two weeks and about 20 pages per day. How cool is it that a whole city will keep me accountable? I think pretty cool.

The reason I love this resolution is because I love reading. I have been trying to read more, but I end up just wasting my time watching mindless TV shows (I have fallen into a Bravo black hole this winter break). I know that if I follow this plan that holds me accountable, I will make time for something that I love to do. So, here is the first book I am going to read in 2014: "The Interestings."

I found this book by looking through Gail Werner's Goodreads list. Gail used to be my boss and she always gave me the BEST book recommendations, including my favorite book to date, The Book Thief. Whenever I need a good book, I look at her Goodreads list or her What I'm Loving lists on her blog. On that note, don't be surprised if many of my future 2014 books come from that place ;)

Another book I will be reading is "Teaching with Poverty in Mind: What Being Poor Does to Kids' Brains and What Schools Can Do About It." All of the teachers in my school are supposed to be reading a chapter before each staff meeting. So this will be a bonus book for me. I have started it and it is so eye-opening. As a person who grew up middle-class, it is so helpful as an SLP in a school of poverty to read this book.

What are some of your resolutions this year? I hope they are ones you are excited about! Look out for my #Read26Indy updates in 2014. In the meantime, stay tuned for a post about our annual New Year's Eve party and an overdue booth update. See you next year!!

Big News!!

We have some big news to share with you!! I am graduating with my Master of Arts in Speech Pathology very soon, so I have been job hunting. I am very excited to say that I officially have a job in Indianapolis and couldn't be more excited about it! I finished my school internship on Wednesday and I start my new job tomorrow.

My new job will be quite a drive from Pendleton, so we decided to sell our house and move to Irvington in Indianapolis!! We are very excited and have been working SO hard to get our house ready to sell. We met with our realtor on Wednesday (the wonderful Nathan Pfahler) and it is officially listed. We had a showing yesterday and are hoping it sells fast! You can check out our listing and spread the word for anyone looking for a historic home in Pendleton! Stay tuned for some more details on our move!

Roll out the Red

I want to share with you one of my favorite pieces recently. We found this dresser at Goodwill and fell in love with the shape and ornate original handles. We decided to go bold with this dresser and paint it red. I think it looks so royal with glossy red and original hardware. It just reminds me of glamor. Here is a picture of the finished dresser:

We also added a little table to the booth. We bought the table at a garage sale this summer. The top of the table was just wood and I knew instantly that I wanted to paint it teal. Here is what it looks like:

And lastly, here is what the booth looked like with these pieces. The booth has changed since, but I still like how the pieces looked in the booth!

Stay tuned for more booth updates and a great before and after!

Blue Ribbon Dresser

The booth has been crazy lately, so it's been hard to keep up with posts about the booth! I feel like several of my nights are filled with sanding and painting. Good thing I like it :) We found a cool dresser with fun details and decided to paint it royal blue. Here is the before/during picture:

This picture doesn't include the doors, but the top one has a cool decoration. Here are the after pictures:

While the details were cool, the knobs were not that cool. So we found these knobs at our local True Value and I think they really add to the dresser.

We also added a mid-century modern teal side table:

And lastly, here is what the booth looked like with these two pieces in it:

Stay tuned for me booth updates and fun before/afters!

Follow the brick road

When we moved into our house a couple years ago, there was so much renovation work to do on the inside that we couldn't even think about tackling the outside of our house. So this summer, we thought it might be time to focus on the outside as well. We started the garden and were inspired to work on other parts of our yard as well.

One of my favorite things about our house is our street. The street is in historic part of town with a brick-paved street. We also have a brick path that leads from the front door to the back door. When we moved in our flower beds were lined with awful wood beams that we hated. So we decided to tear them out and replace them with brick. Here is what our house looked like the day we closed:

I know the focus of this is us as happy new homeowners, but if you look closely, you can see the wood beams.

In this picture you can really see the wooden beams. Here are some after pictures with the bricks:

I feel like it adds character to the house and makes me excited to plant flowers in the spring!

This photo captures our porch swing that we love to sit out on and enjoy the weather!

We waited until the fall for this project because all of the bricks were on clearance. 

 

And finally, a cool picture of the bricks at night with the lights we bought this summer as well. Check back soon for another booth update!

 

Deco Desk

Now that the weather has cooled down, things have been moving fast at the booth. Even though this desk has already sold, I still wanted to share it with you. I love the shape of this art deco desk! Here are pictures of the desk:

We got the desk at a garage sale and it was pretty beat up. However, with some sanding and paint, I think it turned out pretty well!

Even though most of the pieces in the following pictures have sold, I still want to show you what the booth looked like with the red desk in it:

Check back for a post about a fall landscaping project we completed at our house and another booth update!

A Hearty Harvest

As summer turns to fall, we have been collecting the last harvest of our garden. It has been a great summer with a cornucopia of vegetables at our disposal. I won't lie and tell you that the garden wasn't hard work. It takes weekly maintenance (at least). However, it is incredibly rewarding to eat the food you have grown. Here are some pictures of our harvests over the summer:

This was one of our first harvests in the summer. We had so many cucumbers from just one cucumber plant!

Definitely a common scene in our kitchen. We had trouble keeping up!

And who doesn't love watermelon?

Since our kitchen was overflowing with vegetables, we decided to find a way to save them for a "time of need" a.k.a. winter. So we stocked up on Ball jars and looked up several canning recipes. We ended up making homemade pasta sauce, tomato soup, salsa, pickles and pesto.

Here is the recipe we used for the pasta sauce. I followed this recipe for the pesto, but I added a step of toasting the pine nuts so they would release more flavor into the pesto. I love to use this recipe with our homemade pesto! It is so delish and easy. For the pickles, we just bought a bag of pickling spices and followed the directions on the bag.The trick to canning anything (including diced tomatoes which we also canned) is to throw them in a jar with some lemon juice. Then, put the lids on an place them in boiling water for about 15 minutes to seal the jars. Then voila, you have canned vegetables!

And finally, here are some pictures of what we canned! If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

I'm so excited we will be able to savor our garden through winter! Stay tuned for a booth update.

Much Needed Return

I know, I know, I have taken a month long hiatus. But I promise to you, a lot has happened in that month. We went on our honeymoon in Hawaii, I started a new internship (at a school), we got a new laptop, and I turned 25. What a crazy month, right?!? Well it has been, at least for me. Don't get me wrong, I love blogging. However, I inadvertently spent the last month living it up and just trying to keep up with life! Anyways, I have missed all of you and I am now back at it.

This post, I wanted to share with you a piece we put in the booth. Now, it isn't currently in the booth. We put it in the booth on a Thursday and it was gone by Saturday (much to our joy). But I liked it so much I thought I should still share it with you. Here is what it looks like:

I love the mid-century modern shape and hardware. I also like how sleek it looks in the royal blue. We also added a red desk (that I will blog about later). Here is what they look like together:

And lastly, here is what the booth looked like with this blue dresser. The booth is much different now, but I promise I will promptly post more updates of the booth.

Thanks for faithfully following! I will be back soon with more booth updates and some more fun DIYs!

Cheers!

Today I wanted to show you a DIY from our wedding that was a gift for our bridal party. This could be used as a gift for anyone at anytime! And it's cheap and easy (my favorite kind of DIY). We took champagne glasses and personalized them by adding a monogram in glitter. Here's what the finished product looks like:

We made some for ourselves in silver to use at the wedding. Kyle took this picture and I love that he got my rings in it!

I think it's a really fun way to add a monogram to the glass!

Here's the tutorial:

What You'll Need:

1. Champagne glasses

2. Letter stickers

3. Spray glue

4. Glitter

Directions:

1. Place a letter sticker in the center of each of the glasses (but not too hard so you can get the stickers off later). Like so:

2. Spay one spritz of spray glue towards the letter. (It's best outside or in the garage to avoid a mess)

3. Pour glitter on the glue and letter.

4. Peel the letters off immediately so they are easier to get off

Only four items needed and four steps! 

On another note, we have had several reasons to cheers in the last week or so. I finished my medical internship and passed the Praxis II in Speech Pathology. As the cherry on top, we are leaving on our honeymoon to Hawaii tomorrow. Once we get back, I'll share all of the beautiful pictures Kyle took and post about our trip. But for now, we are saying "aloha Hawaii!"

Fast Facelift

This saturday we went to Midland and completely rearranged the booth. We have found that when we rearrange, it gives it a fresh look. Then, people see things in a different way and start to buy different items that got passed over before. We were excited to give the booth a little facelift. We also added a art deco waterfall red desk and a mid-century modern side table. Here are the pictures of the desk in the booth:

The desk chair was in the booth before, but I think it goes nicely with the desk. We found the desk chair in a bin at a Goodwill outlet. We restained it and gave it some TLC. Now it looks straight out of history. Here is a wider shot of the desk:

We got this desk at a garage sale. After some serious sanding and paint, it looks pretty nice! In this picture, you can see the convex eagle mirror also. I love that mirror. And here is a picture of the mid-century modern side table:

We got this at an estate sale and just fell in love with the shape. It is vintage, but modern all at the same time! Here is another view of it:

And finally, here are pictures of the whole booth:

Thanks again for checking out the blog! Stay tuned for another wedding DIY (one that you could even give anyone as a gift) and updates about our upcoming honeymoon!

Pretty Pretty Printables

For our wedding my lovely husband Kyle designed everything. One thing I loved most was all of the items we printed to use at our wedding. Despite the many hours I spent cutting, I think they were totally worth doing ourselves. First, I wanted to share one of my favorite printables, the menu. We decided to do round menus in the plates and I love the way it turned out. All of the pictures are courtesy of Gail Werner Photography, an amazing wedding photographer! Here are some pictures:

I love the way it fits in the center of the plate. I also love how Gail capture the menu and the flowers so beautifully!

The next printable I wanted to share is the table names. When Butler University was in Irvington, the Bona Thompson Center (where we had our reception) was the library. For that reason and because I love books, I wanted to incorporate a literary theme. So, we decided to name the tables after famous literary characters. Here are some pictures:

For the head table, we framed the printable. I loved the way it was different from the others. Here is what the other table names looked like:

It was super easy and I really liked the way it turned out. Lastly, I want to share the place cards. For the place cards we baked cake pops and made printables for each cake pop. We cut out the place cards using our die cutter we use for making mobiles. Then, we hole punched the top and bottom and stuck them on the cake pops!

It was so exciting to come to the reception and see my new name displayed at our table! In the next pictures you can see the menu, table name, and place cards:

I really enjoyed seeing the way it all came together! Stay tuned for a booth update and more wedding DIYs.

Wedded Wrap-Up

One of my favorite things about DIY projects is seeing the finished project. Getting our wedding pictures back made me so happy because I got to see all of my hard work come to life. In that spirit, I wanted to share some wedding photos with you that show the finished product of my wedding DIY tutorials. Also, all of the awesome pictures are courtesy of Gail Werner Photography. I HIGHLY recommend her!

The first one I want to share is our silhouette cake toppers! We had a silhouette theme and I just loved how these turned out on the cake! Here is the cake:

Next, one of my favorite wedding DIYs is the letters that hung on our chairs. I absolutely adore this picture of Kyle and I:

One sentimental DIY was the frames I painted and put pictures of family members in. I reimagined these by attaching ribbon to hang them from the pews in the church. I thought it added a nice person touch to the ceremony!

Kyle's parents at their wedding.

My stepdad and I at my parents' wedding!

Speaking of the church and ribbon, I attached ribbon to our fun flower letters to hang from the church doors.

And lastly, I used this DIY project as our card box!

I hope you enjoyed seeing the finished project as much as I did! Soon I will post some wedding DIYs that I haven't shared with you yet and a booth update!