Thank You

The other day I was cleaning up and discovered that there 5 piles of get well cards lying around the house. 5! I gathered them all together for a picture, then realized that these were just the cards that are visible. . . I'm sure more have been accidentally thrown away, used as bookmarks, or succumbed to the crack behind the couch.


Thank you everyone for the cards, prayers, facebook messages, and emails. Tyler and I really feel so blessed to have so many concerned friends who are rooting for us. Cancer is scary (even when you're dealing with the most treatable kind with the highest survival rate) but having good friends makes it so much more bearable. We feel so lucky to know the people we know, and while we are far from many friends, we still feel your love and support. Thanks for caring. We will keep you posted on what happens next, for now we wait and hope the radiation did its job. Prayers are definitely needed and appreciated!

P.S. On the plus side, I've discovered that way more than the 9 followers of my blog actually read this little sucker. Who knew?! I feel so loved that people actually want to waste time reading about our ho-hum lives! And I promise, if you follow and comment on my blog, I will feel WAY more loved! :)

My Birthday Gift to Tyler

So this year for Ty's birthday, I went all sentimental and crafty. . . something WAY out of my league. But I figured why not try something new? I'm unemployed with all the time in the world, I can afford a more personal gift this year!


Basically it is a collage of the mementos from our dating days. I've been keeping this stuff forever in a folder, unbeknownst to Tyler. I think I was saving them for the day I became a scrapbooker, but I know that will never happen. And I thought that these "artifacts" deserved some TLC instead of being shoved in the filing cabinet. So I got my craft on. I made these collages to fit in this pack of frames I picked up on clearance forever ago.


Tyler loved it. He was completely shocked that I would save half of the things I did. But seriously, how could I throw away the movie tickets from our first date as boyfriend/girlfriend? And how could I throw away the bag from Kay Jewelers where he bought me pearl earrings? And the program from the play we saw on the night we got engaged? We have a lot of sweet memories jam packed into these frames, and we love em. And now we have something to put on the wall!
Oh, and the big S is something I made out of scrapbook paper. I just found a font that I liked and printed off an S in the largest size possible that would fit on a piece of paper. It was my pattern to cut the S out of scrapbook paper and I glued it onto white paper. Voila! Instant art.


We're pretty pleased with something being put on our blank wall. Problem is, we have blank walls in our bedroom too, and I'm wondering if this belongs there because it is more of a sentimental collage. Thoughts? For now it's staying in the living room because I'm so happy to have something up on that wall and I don't know what else to put there. But once I focus on our bedroom, I may have to do some rearranging.

Happy Birthday Tyler!

Sunday was Tyler's birthday! And I officially win the award for worst wife of the year by taking only 2 pictures on his birthday, and they are both of his cake. But honestly we had a blast! I made breakfast in bed for him and let him open one of his presents early (a white shirt that he could wear to church that day haha). Then we went to church and I didn't even get mad at him when he made us late and arrive halfway through the opening hymn!

We learned a very important lesson that day. When you arrive to church late and scram to find an open seat it is most important that you sit next to a cute little family with kids who are avid crayon/coloring book fiends. We sat next to a 4 year old girl who was coloring, and she was so excited when Tyler sat next to her that she promptly gave him a page from her book and a crayon and told him to color with her. Basically, it was the best day of church ever for Tyler, who got to color all during Sacrament Meeting with an adorably cute 3 year old boy and 4 year old girl.

We got home and had a relaxing afternoon together, watching movies and snuggling/napping on the couch. Then we had Tyler's requested birthday dinner: steak and baked potatoes. Man food, right? It was glorious. Then I started working on assembling the cake I baked earlier and frosting it. It was heaven. Oh, and the cake is the same homemade recipe that Tyler used when he baked me a cake when we first started dating. Seriously, it won my heart over. What guy bakes a cake for a girl just because? I swooned and fell for him HARD that day. It was only fair I try my hand at baking this cake. And it turned out beautifully! I bought round cake pans specifically for this day and they are wonderful.

Then we opened presents. Tools and clothing. . . what every 26 year old wants, right? More on my gift to him tomorrow.Apologies for the crap pictures. . . cell phone camera + rushing for a pic before guests arrived = horrible picture

Then we had friends over for cake and ice cream. We had such a great time having people over! It's so nice to have people fill up our house! We had a blast with friends and playing with their kids (Tyler played hide and seek for about an hour with them in our backyard. . . I think that was the best present he could have received!). All in all, it was a wonderful day that we really enjoyed, despite the lack of pictures. Seriously, I think it was one of the best birthdays yet. I hope they keep getting better and better!

Weekend Project

This weekend I decided that it was time for our 90s chairs to get an update. You see, our dining set was Tyler's family's old set that they kept when they replaced their table and chairs. Tyler and I were lucky to inherit this set when we got married, and Tyler gets all sentimental when he sits at the table for dinner and he can see his homeschool writing imprints in the table. Anyway, according to him, this set is from 1994. It's in great condition though! But the dark checkered fabric just wasn't cutting it for me, so I reupholstered it! Tutorial found here.

All it takes is a screwdriver, staple gun (and staples obviously), and whatever fabric you want. You basically just take off the seats of the chairs with the screwdriver. Now you're left with this weird cushion seat. Just cut your fabric so that you have enough to overlap on all sides (according to the lady at the fabric store, it is 3/4 yard, but I didn't measure it, I just eyeballed what I thought was enough).

Then you make sure the fabric is straight and centered on the front, and start stapling away! The corners are a little tricky, I found I had to cut the fabric to make the corners lie flat, but it was still totally do-able! I love the finished result! A fresher fabric that brightens up the room and doesn't look like it is from 1994.The before and after fabrics. Much better!

Oh, and I'm scotch gard-ing my chairs since they are for the dinner table and I don't want to ruin my new found fabric. You could use a more wipe-able fabric (vinyl), but I didn't want to go for the diner look, and I chose regular fabric. I just bought some scotch gard to protect them. I figure the $12 was worth the insurance policy on my new chairs.

What I love about this is that you just simply place your new fabric over the existing one, no ripping or shredding needed. It's just simple and easy and you can do your whole dining room set in one morning! So tell me, have you reupholstered anything? How did it turn out? Any other tips for beginners like me?

Pet Peeve

Those drivers who drive for what seems like an eternity with their turn signal on.

UGH!

More Domestic Goddess Stuff

So, first off, apricots are a no go. Unfortunately, it's just an off year for them and there are very few places that actually sell them. So no canned apricots or apricot jam.

But, I am happy to introduce the newest member of the Smith house! Meet our new coffee table!


This used to belong to some friends of ours and I commented on how beautiful their table was out on their balcony. They immediately told us to please take it off their hands! Apparently it was given to them from family, and they had no place for it, so outside it went on their balcony, forgotten and forlorn. Since we have a box covered with a blanket for our coffee table, anything was an upgrade for us! And you can't beat free!

So we took it home and tore it apart to repaint it. We then discovered that the top of the table was warped from the Oregon rains and was beyond our refinishing abilities. No problem though! A quick trip to Home Depot and we found the exact same size top for the table to just replace! And since we took it apart, we knew how to attach the new top to the existing frame. Yahoo!
So we bought the hunk of wood, sanded everything down, and primed it. After a few coats of black semi-gloss paint we now have a beautiful, functional coffee table! We are so happy to have something that looks like it's meant to be in our living room!

We were contemplating whether to paint it white or black, but we went with black with the idea that we now know how to repaint it white if we want to change it later on. Thoughts? Even though it is dark, it doesn't feel like it overpowers the room in my opinion. But I may change my mind in a couple of weeks haha.

I was so nervous to refinish anything for fear of ruining it. But when it's free, I thought this was a great place to start for me! It's definitely not perfect, but I've learned a ton for future reference. Have you guys refinished furniture before? What has your experience been?