2013 Begins

Hi, I'm back.....!

Apparently 2013 is going to be the year of accepting that I'm not a steady blogger, but enjoying posting when I can and sharing with the Web at large random things in the goings on of Julie's life in a blogshell!

2013 has started out with many a plans in the making and lots of time spent with friends.

Mr. Man and I have many goals for our first full calendar year as a married couple.  As with any real life situation, they range from the perfectly mundane, like needing to buy a new toaster & updating a lampshade, to the more extravagant and time consuming,  like wanting to travel to Italy and work towards paying off the car.  Well, as for those 4 things I just mentioned, 3 of the 4 can already be checked off the list!

The only one I have photographic evidence of for you is the new lampshade.  It sits in the corner of our living room on the lamp that we use every day whenever we're home, and it adds just enough detail to make me smile, but not be too busy.

The plain yellow-tinted shade that came with the lamp was really starting to bother me.

The other new item in this picture is the box wrapped in fabric.  I was inspired by the Young House Love book that's sitting on top of it to add some texture/pattern to the space, and the sample piece of fabric I had for another project fit the bill perfectly.  I'll use it for storage eventually as well, but for now it's just a fun detail for our living room.

Mr. Man went to the store the other day and got us a brand spankin' new Cuisinart 4 slice toaster.  We were even able to use some leftover gift cards from the wedding/shower last year, so that one was a gift-bonus.

and...We are going to Italy!!  The trip is officially booked, with deposits down and airlines already sending me "Notice of Changes" emails as our scheduled flights' departure times change by 2 minutes.

We will be in Italy for 11 days and traveling to many different cities.

 

2013, I already love you!

Some Young Lovin'

That's Young House Lovin' to be exact!!

Anyone ever heard of the Awesomeness that is the blog Young House Love?  Well if you've known me for more than 5 minutes you've probably heard of it, because I'm kind of obsessed!

How obsessed you ask...

Well, I'm obsessed enough to have DIY art inspired by them hanging in my bathroom:

And, obsessed enough to have trudged my butt out in this:

For 2 minutes of this:

And a very special this:

Yes people, that is Sherry & John Petersik, next to Moi, at West Elm in Boston after they just signed my copy of the DIY handbook they wrote together.

This couple is truely amazing.  They have been married 5 years, have a beautiful daughter at home, and the make their living, TOGETHER, both working at home writing this amazing blog.  Somehow they have time in their days to do multiple projects, take photos before, during, and after said projects, edit those photos, upload those photos, and write 2 blog posts per day, all while taking care of their 2 year old.  Did I mention that they do all of this together, 24/7 as husband and wife and they both work at home...and they haven't killed each other!

That alone is worthy of a drive out in the snow people, but honestly, they are so super cool in person, totally exactly how they sound on the blog.  They make you feel as if you really know them and you're their new bff.

Even though listening to their suggestion to buy the book at the signing location instead of online cost me an additional TEN dollars more than I could have gotten it for on Amazon...I guess I still like them since their book is so great!

So glad I could make it to the signing and get to meet them, and I can't wait to start doing some projects from their book!

(don't worry I'll keep you posted on any projects that get done!)

Thanksgiving Again

I have no idea how this year has flown by so fast that it's already Thanksgiving... but nonetheless

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

I hope all of you readers out there are celebrating this holiday warm and safe and dry with family and friends.  I know there are many people out there that have been devastated by storms in the past few weeks that may find it hard to be thankful this year which just makes me even more thankful for what I have been blessed with in my life.

Among many, many other things...I am thankful for....

These awesome ladies!

 This very special man!  :)

Love you Babe.

 Amazing vacations!

 This beautiful, perfect, little angel.



Organize Much?

I don't pretend that I'm a great housekeeper, or that I make the absolute best use of space in our Condo., but occasionally I do break out the "Organize/Clean/Clean-Out" gene.  Last weekend was one of those times.

With Mr. Man driving his oil truck all over MA on a Saturday, I was left with some time on my hands.  What did I do with that time you ask?  Well, I did this.....

 That's right, I took everything out of that pesky corner cabinet.  You know the one, where you can't really reach everything, and You're never really sure what's made it all the way to the back of that top shelf waaaay back in the corner.

Well I discovered my friend that what made it to the back of that shelf... was 3 boxes of Baking Soda!  Yea, apparently 3 separate trips to the store I had Baking Soda on the brain, but not quite enough to remember that I was experiencing deja vu.  So if any one was thinking of getting me Baking Soda for Christmas... don't, I'm good.

There was one good thing that came out of this realization...

The corner cabinet that started out as this:

Became this: 

I dunno about you, but I call that a Saturday well spent!

Let's just hope it can stay like this and that the organization is contagious and all the other nooks and crannies of this house catch that fever!!

Project for Baby

As you all know my best friend had a baby recently.  I have been very much enjoying making things for this new little "niece" of mine!  There have been quite a few Pinterest inspired happenings.

The first one was the "string of name" that you saw in a previous post.  Her mama and dada have since hung that up as part of their nursery corner decorations.

My favorite project though I think has to be awarded to the Mobile!

This is such a simple idea, though time consuming, and I'm already working on another one for another special baby in my life since I loved it so much!

First starting out with a template from Pinterest I traced and cut out all my needed circles and lay them out like the tutorial instructed. [sorry couldn't get the pic to turn in blogger land]

Then I painted a Dowl, and with hubby's help, cut it in half to create the perfect launch point for all of my strands.

I LOVE the way it looks from the adult view... I just hope Milana likes it as much as I do!!

"Man, getting awesome gifts from Auntie Julie is hard work!!"

 

btw: baby sleeping on my chest =  one of the best feelings in the world!

White Dress?

This picture is from our Engagement party.  We took a few of just the two of us before the party got goin'.  The pictures don't do it justice, but I Loved this dress!!

I didn't love it as much as my wedding dress, obviously, but this dress was fun and flowey and even had some Bling-Bling to it.  Tell me what girl wouldn't like that right!?!

Just this past weekend we attended a friend's wedding, wishing them well on their new path together.  When trying to figure out what I wanted to wear for this joyous event, my mind kept roaming back to this dress!  I know, I know, I can't wear a white dress to someone else's wedding, that's so not cool!  But... what if I had this dress in another color....?

I thought about dyeing the dress, but with the many layers of different fabrics, and the bling-bling all together, that was not a viable option.  So taking a long shot in the dark, I went to the store where I got my White Dress (Mom picked it out for me, Thanks Mom!), even though it had been over a year since my white one was purchased... and what do you know, on a Clearance rack, in the back, all alone, was One dress, in my size, and...in exactly my color!!

 

Thank You to the Retail Gods!
Oh, and her dress was kinda pretty too! :-)

Ch..Ch..Changes

There are a lot of things that have changed since my Man and I have gotten married.  Some psychological and some concrete, some have been harder to get used to than others, but some have been fun to look forward to.

One thing that I've been looking forward to is this project that I've had on my mind for quite a while now.  When I first moved into the condo, I went with a friend to the "Plaster Fun Time" nearby and painted an "F" which has hung on the door for the past 3 years proudly boasting my last initial and my artsy nature.  But now that that "F" is no longer my last initial, I had to come up with another boastable product...

So the "C" was born:

Below you can see it's infancy stages:

I printed a basic block letter from online, and put my nails in at regular intervals.

Toddler:

Once I had all the nails in, the paper was pulled off, pretty much clean with minor tweezer pulls for those pesky minor pieces that I could get off.



Full Grown:

Embroidery thread is then looped around the nails in succession, trying to keep the pattern relatively even and balanced.

This baby now hangs on our front door!!

I am so happy to have it done, and to have had my Hubs hang it on the front door yesterday while I was at work.  It's still makes me do a little double-take when I get to my new front door, but then it makes me smile as I learn to own my new last name.

I also used this technique to make a gift for my favorite baby girl: