beginnings + endings.

I've always thought the week between Christmas and New Year's is sort of an awkward week. While I am thoroughly enjoying the days off from school and trying to be productive at home, I do find December 26-31 sort of a weird "limbo" between the old and the new. I'm finding that a good use of this week is to plan. It's a great time to reflect on the past year, be thankful for blessings, move on from the disappointments, and decide what you want to accomplish during the next year.

Patrick and I had a very interesting, and overall amazing year in 2011. Patrick got a new job in March (praise the Lord!!), we bought our townhouse in July, and we took some awesome trips with friends and family. I made it through yet another year of pharmacy school. We had a wonderful Christmas, and feel blessed we were able to celebrate with both families on Christmas Day :)

The last few days, we've been trying to set some goals for 2012. Of course, we need to get in shape. Our hectic schedules have not encouraged an active lifestyle, so we're planning to join a gym ASAP. We have also set some financial goals, which are challenging but encouraging at the same time. And finally, probably the most daunting goal of all: to get organized.

Now, don't get me wrong. We are not complete slobs. We're both fairly tidy people, and given the right circumstances can be quite clean and neat. I think once we set up some organizational systems, we'll be able to maintain them pretty easily. The hard part is going to be getting everything organized initially, and figuring out a system that works for us. One nice thing is that we're sort of starting from scratch, since we've only been living in this house for about 5 months, and we're still not "settled". I expect this to be an ongoing process, but I really hope that by this time next year, we will have made significant progress.

I've decided to start with organizing Christmas. This may sound silly, since it's over for this year, but I thought while everything is fresh in my mind and we're going to be putting all the Christmas stuff in storage next week, it's actually a great time to get everything ready for next year.

My mom bought me this book awhile ago, and I'm finally understanding how helpful it is. It's a binder that walks you through the Christmas season - when to buy gifts, organizing your Christmas recipes, putting your decorations in storage, and planning events. It will be so nice to get this out in early November next year, and already have my Christmas season mostly planned out! 

Speaking of a week in limbo, all of our projects seem to be that way, too. Lots of things have been started, but are nowhere close to being finished. 

I'm working on creating my own craft space in the basement. It's going to make our dining room much less cluttered, since I've been using the dining room table as my workspace. The "craft room", as I've been calling it, is a serious mess right now. I'm sort of embarrassed by it. But I'll show you anyway. It's a work in progress. 

Also, we've decided to go ahead and tackle the kitchen island project. We placed our order at Lowe's a couple of days ago, and should have our island by the end of January. We have our old kitchen table sitting about where the island will be so that we can get used to the space. Once we have the island, the table will be moved to my craft space. 

The bad news is, we're going to have to paint everything. Since we couldn't match the cabinets exactly, and they are dingy and need to be repainted anyway, we ordered the island unfinished and we're painting it and the cabinets a pretty, clean white. I think the walls are going to be light brown. Fun times ahead. 

One last thing. Here's a craft I made as a Christmas present :)

I made this for my brother-in-law's girlfriend, Rachel. She's a creative and crafty person herself, so I thought she would enjoy it.

Here it is!

To make it, I painted a canvas a dark charcoal color, then glued leaves I had cut out from scrapbook paper onto it. I painted a center for the flower with gold craft paint, then used Mod-Podge to cover the whole thing. That's it!

Yay! Rachel really liked it :) I like the way it turned out too, and may even make something similar for my own house.

Not yet, though...I've got a few things to finish before I start yet another project!

christmas morning for two.

Last year, which was our first Christmas to be married, Patrick and I started what we think is a great tradition. We decided to have our own little "Christmas morning" together before seeing our families and entering into all the craziness and hustle and bustle. It's really special, and gives us a chance to start our own little family traditions that we'll hopefully continue even when we have kids. Last year, we did this on Christmas Eve, since we were going to my family's house later in the day and they only live about an hour away. This year, we're spending a few days in Knoxville first (Patrick's family lives there), so "Christmas morning" for us was on Thursday the 22nd.

First, we opened our stockings. Patrick went all out this year:

I got craft supplies, hand warmers (I'm always cold), a pretty scarf, earrings, a coffee mug, and some Yankee candle stuff for my car.

Here's the contents of Patrick's stocking:

 He got boxers, a Buckyball, an iTunes gift card, and candy (including some chocolate-covered candy cane "coal" that I got at Trader Joe's, hehe).

After stockings, we made our traditional (does it count as a tradition if we've done it two years in a row?) french toast and bacon breakfast. We like this tradition because it's very adaptable. We made regular french toast the last couple years with a little vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg, but we're thinking we may mix it up and try stuffed french toast next year. We may even try making some different sauces, since I don't like maple syrup.

After stuffing ourselves, we opened our main presents.

Mine was the softest, fluffiest robe ever! :)

Sorry I look super gross here, but I wanted to get a picture. 

I got Patrick a non-blue dress shirt. He loves blue, but nearly all his shirts are that color so this is my attempt to incorporate some grey. 

 I also painted this:

 "It is Well" is one of mine and Patrick's favorite hymns. I painted these to hang in our bedroom. They look more green in this picture that they actually are (thanks, yucky yellow walls) but I was going for a water look. Which I think was quite successful in real life. 

This shows the color a little better: 

Well, there you have it. Our Christmas morning for two. Now it's time to have fun with our families for the next few days! :)

counter clutter.

The bathroom counter. Easily one of the most clutter-prone places in my household (other than the dining room table). Lotion, contact solution, toothpaste, my retainer (yeah, I still wear it, don't judge), hairbands, hairspray, you name it...it's laying around. So gross. We have a cute little linen closet, but the problem is that I want the things I use the most to be more accessible. 

Here's what it looked like before: 

I saw a shelf on Pinterest with tin pails sitting on it, which was originally what I was going for. But when I found this little 3-pegged beauty at Hobby Lobby (purchased with a 40% off coupon), I knew those pails could do so much more.

The little apothecary bottle was 99 cents at Michael's, and is filled with buttons. I don't know about you, but buttons end up everywhere in my house...so this was a good way to corral them. The shell was actually my first gift from Patrick. He found it for me on the beach in Jamaica, where we met (on a mission trip in college). 

I think he already liked me ;) 

Now the counter looks like this: 

Ahhhh, a clutter-free bathroom counter. So nice and easy to clean.

This bathroom still needs loads of work, though. We plan to replace the faucets and knobs (ASAP) with oil-rubbed bronze ones, which will then match the soap dispensers and clock I have in here and tie into the rustic-y look we're going for with the house as a whole. I would eventually like to replace the counters as well, but that involves more cash than my other projects...so it won't be anytime soon. They'll look better with the new paint, anyway, so I can wait.  :)  

We actually have the paint for the walls (see? they're the weird pinky-beige color, ew). The new paint is called Morning Fog by Olympic (you get it at Lowe's). I find it very refreshing and calming. Here's a pic of my shower curtain that it will match. It has a light aqua, grey, and white design. I got it at Target.  

This bathroom is attached to our master bedroom, which has similar colors. Can you tell I really like blue? 

Since we have a SUPER busy couple weeks coming up with Christmas and New Year's, I'm not sure when the painting will get done. Hopefully sooner rather than later! In the meantime, I'm working on making a craft area in our basement... I know, it sounds super dorky, but our house is currently littered with scrapbook paper, canvases, paint, and glitter. Gotta have somewhere to let the creative juices flow, right?

Speaking of crafts, I made a couple things as gifts, but I obviously can't post them on here til next week in case it ruins the surprise. I really like how they turned out though :)  Hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!

you have to start somewhere.

Finally, at long last, the downstairs half bath is nearing completion! We picked a grand time to start it - right before Thanksgiving / my finals - so it's taken a bit longer than we expected. Patrick also ran into more snags than he anticipated by removing the giant wall mirror, which was attached to the wall by some super adhesive - so that resulted in LOTS of spackling, sanding, and extra painting. But it's nearly done! 

Here are the "before" pics again: 

aaaaand after: 

The walls are now a soft grey. It makes it a bit darker than before, but I like it because this isn't a bathroom where anyone will be putting on make-up or anything like that. I think it looks much softer and more comfortable now. 

 The faucet, knobs, and light fixtures - which were all brass - are now brushed nickel. I think the framed mirror (which I bought at Kirkland's a year or so ago for about $30) looks much prettier than the big, impersonal wall mirror. The light switches and plates are also new - I know it sounds like a small detail, but they were gross and paint-covered before, so this looks so much cleaner and more modern.

This has maps of where we met (Jamaica), where we married (Tennessee), and where we honeymooned (Mexico). I know it's a bit cheesy, but I think it's kind of fun, especially since it's in a place that guests are likely to see. I've had that frame since high school, and I think it works well for this purpose. I printed the maps from pictures I found online, used burlap as a border, and wrote the captions below it with a sharpie pen.

I plan to do more with this wall in the future (probably put some sort of pictures around or on either side of this painting), but for now I just wanted to get this off the floor and onto the wall. If you want to see how I painted this, here's the post.

I also want to make the sink area look a little nicer - I'll probably put a basket or apothecary jar with some soaps or something in the corner. This Woodwick diffuser smells awesome, by the way (it's Sunset Beach, I think). It's nice because it's spill-proof. I'm also on the look-out for a cute soap dispenser (I have plans to make my own gallon of Meyer's lemon soap for about $4). 

So, it's not completely finished. But it's definitely an improvement! You have to start somewhere, right? We've bought the paint for the bathroom adjacent to our bedroom, and we're hoping to get that project finished over the holidays as well. I'm super excited about the color...you'll have to wait and see ;) 

falalalala.lala.la.la.

oh my goodness oh my goodness it's almost CHRISTMAS!

I just love Christmas. And now that I have a house, I love decorating for Christmas. Well, I got to decorate last year in our apartment, and that was fun... but this year is even better.

Here's a cute little banner that cost me a whopping $1 to make:

I just bought a couple sheets of scrapbook paper at Hobby Lobby, cut out triangles (I was all professional and stuff and actually measured them) then hole punched the edges and threaded them though some twine. 

Here's a close up of the paper, since it's hard to see in that picture:

I'm not a really big fan of bright red and green, so I stuck with this light blue pattern with white polka dots (reminds me of snow) for the letters, then alternated with this subtle Christmas-y pattern one. I drew the font with a Sharpie based on a cute font I saw online.

Our stockings are kinda goofy and childish (we picked them up on sale last year), and I would really love to replace them.

I want some pretty, neutral-y ones, like these: 

These would be sooo cheap to make if I could sew! But alas, I cannot... all this cute stuff I keep seeing on Pinterest is making me want to learn, though. Hmmm....

I would also like for us to have a pretty tree skirt. Right now we're using an old white tablecloth, and it doesn't even reach all the way around the tree. Why is it that all the tree skirts I find in stores are (a) bright red (b) super shiny gold or (c) velvet? I'm just not a bright red or shiny gold kind of gal, and the texture of velvet gives me the heebie-jeebies. 

Is it so wrong that I want a sort of plain one like the lovely quilted cream-colored one that I was going to have monogrammed from Pottery Barn? It was so sad. I had it picked out, thread color and all, but waited to see if it would go on sale and...they discontinued it. Grrrr.

I've also been working on some ornaments. Here's one I made from a ribbon. 

If you feel like making one (they're pretty easy), here's the tutorial, courtesy of Martha Stewart.

I also made a very special ornament for my dear, sweet husband...although I may like it more than he does. Behold, the snitch!

"I open at the close."

Yeah, I love me some Harry Potter. I didn't come up with this idea on my own, here's the link to where it came from. 

I can't wait til next Wednesday at approximately noon when my last final is over, and I am finally finished with this miserable semester and can enjoy my Christmas break! I'm planning to do lots of house stuff over the holiday so we'll see how that goes. The downstairs bath is coming along nicely so I'll hopefully have pics up soon. :)

this little light of mine.

This house is full of brass. It's yellow, it's shiny...and it's everywhere.

Light fixtures, faucets, doorknobs... it's in pretty much every room. I am not a fan.

My metal of choice (for this house at least) is oil-rubbed bronze. It's that brownish-black wrought iron looking metal that everything in Pottery Barn is made of.

Like this pretty pendant light:

I don't know if you've ever shopped for light fixtures, but they aren't cheap. This little beauty pictured above is $300. Yeah, I know. For one light fixture. The cheapest oil-rubbed bronze pendant light I could find at Lowe's was about $70. Since I need to replace basically every light fixture in my house, you can see how this would get expensive very quickly.

So, I decided that I should salvage any that I could by spray painting them. I saw someone else do this on a blog, and it worked out well, so I decided to try it out on the pendant light in my front entryway.

Here's what it looked like before.

The yellow walls in this picture look super gross since I had to enhance it (it was dark). They're actually a lighter, golden yellow...but we're going to paint them a stone color anyway. 

The rest of the pictures are at my parents' house, in case you're paying attention to the background. 

Anyway, about the light...the glass would not come out. It was sort of tragic. But I was determined to make this happen. So I painstakingly taped up each weird, curvy little panel (front AND back) with paper and painter's tape:

This is the paint we used. It's about $8 at Lowe's. 

They have several other metal finishes as well.

side note: I just love my mom's fall tablecloth. 

Her bright Fiesta dishes look so pretty with it :)

Spray painting: the trick is not to go too heavy. Patrick is a more experienced spray painter than me, so he showed me how to apply a nice light coat so it wasn't all drippy. He would start spraying the paint on the newspaper, then move the stream of paint carefully over the metal. This helps it to be a smooth coat. 

After a second coat of paint and a little Windex, this was the result: 

aaaand, here it is hanging in our entryway:

I'm so happy with the result! I plan to use this trick on several other light fixtures in our house, as well as a mirror in the bathroom and maybe some other hardware...it's such a cheap fix!

ps. just wanted to share a cute little craft I made the other day: an earring holder made from a $2 Goodwill picture frame (that I painted white) + some burlap that I hot-glued to the back. I like how it turned out :) 

I need to clean up this dresser and arrange it a little better, but it's definitely an improvement from having earrings laying all over the place. I'm thinking about attaching a ribbon to the back of my earring holder and hanging it on the wall, but I haven't decided yet.

pps. Here's our Christmas tree, which makes me really happy :)

It's real! If you notice on the floor to the right, we have a pitcher that we keep full of water, along with a turkey baster for filling the tree stand. We discovered last year this is the easiest way for us to water the tree.

I just love Christmas! I have been pinning lots of fun Christmas crafts on Pinterest lately. Hobby Lobby, watch out...I have scoped out your sales online, have a list and a coupon, and I'm coming to see you tomorrow. You have been warned. ;)

color scheming.

It has taken me forever to come up with the color scheme for our house. Well, maybe not forever, but nearly 4 months. I wanted so badly to paint as soon as we moved in. The colors in our house aren't ugly, per se...just kind of blah ones. The living room is butter yellow, the kitchen is really pale blue, and most of the other rooms are either white or sort of an awkward mauvy-putty color. Oh, how I wanted to paint...but my mom said, "Wait Elizabeth! You don't know for sure what you want now. You have to get to know your house first." and, of course, as always... mama knows best :)

Our house has its own little fun personality. It's really charming. There's wrought iron, high ceilings, real hardwood floors, not one but two fireplaces AND an amazing archway connecting the living room and dining room.

Please ignore that hideous chandelier.

Now that we've lived here over 3 months, I feel like I've finally gotten to "know" the house. Cheesy? Maybe. Oh well. I always have and always will continue to personify, well, everything.

Our house is not a bold, "look at me" house. It's not a really fancy house. It's got too much history to be super modern. Our house (to me) is a bit shy and lovely at the same time, with little treasures throughout that make it special (yes, I will probably weep when we eventually move).

That being said, here's the basic color pallet (with a few extras thrown in) that I've chosen for our home.

So, the main things to note are the neutral colors (grey, brown, cream) mixed with some soft accent colors (warm yellow, soft aqua, various shades of green). Not so much the rusty colors. This color collection is called "Rustic Refined" by Sherwin Williams. We aren't using these EXACT colors, but we're going for the same feel. Stone colored walls with little pops of aqua. A soft yellow dining room + our awesome rustic-y table from World Market.

And I'm carrying it throughout the house. This is the kind of house that just flows really well, so although every room won't be matchy-matchy, they'll all have the same soft, neutral-yet-pretty vibe.

I can't wait to see how it all comes together!

p.s. Thanks to my sweet and creative friends Lauren and Kersta who were at my house last Wednesday and helped me solidify my paint choices :)

old house, new ideas.

Hi. I'm Elizabeth.

I never ever ever thought I would start a blog.
Reasons not to blog:
1. I don't do a lot of super interesting activities.
2. I don't have time.

However, as Patrick and I have been working on our house the last couple of days, I keep wanting to post things on Facebook that we're doing. I was going to start an album about fixing up our house and the crafts and recipes I've been attempting (thanks, Pinterest). Then I realized...this is what people blog about. People don't (well, they shouldn't) make Facebook albums of this magnitude.

So, blogging it is.

You should probably know some things about our house, because I'll be talking about it a lot. It's a townhouse located in west Nashville. It was built in 1972, and not much has been done to it since then. We have a main floor with a living room, dining room, kitchen, and half bath. Our upstairs has 2 bedrooms and 2 baths. We also have a finished basement that is really cool with lots of potential, but it kinda creeps me out when I'm home alone. Oh, and we have an extra fun little patio courtyard. It even has a small tree. We share a yard and pool with our neighbors, but that's ok with us since we don't really have time for yard work these days anyway.

We moved into this house in late July/early August, and even though it doesn't feel like we've done that much yet, we really have. We had to replace the HVAC right away. We replaced all the yucky, fire hazard kitchen appliances with pretty stainless steel ones. We've also re-routed the dryer vent, installed an alarm system, and a few other various "need to do" projects.

Now it's time to make this place look pretty.

We're tackling the half bath first. Here's what it looked like when we moved in:

Meh.

I don't mind the white tile/hardwood combo. I also don't mind the black marble counter. I can work with those things. I like that they give it character. The faucet and light fixtures, however, have got to go. We're painting the walls light grey, and I'm using yellow, white, and black accents. This will (hopefully) end up tying in really well with my color scheme for the rest of the house (I'll post about that later).

Anyway, the spackle is still drying from the removal of the big 80's style mirror, so while we're waiting to paint I'll show you the craft I made. I wanted a yellow piece of art to hang in the bathroom that was (a) cute (b) cheap and (c) preferably meaningful. So, when Home Goods and Target did not have a satisfactory decoration, I decided to make something on my own.

I took a plain, $4 canvas from Hobby Lobby, applied some self-made letter stickers, then painted it yellow-golden-ombre. Peeled off the stickers, touched up any mistakes with white paint, and voila! Home-made art. How does one make letter stickers you may ask? Well. Let me tell you. I couldn't find any letter stickers at Hobby Lobby that were big enough for this project. So, I bought some full-page labels at OfficeMax (it's basically a big white sticker the size of a sheet of paper), printed big letters on them (like, size 200 font), cut them out and there you are - custom stickers.

I loooove how this turned out! In case you don't recognize the quote, it's from one of mine and Patrick's favorite hymns, "Come Thou Fount". The last verse is:

"O to grace how great a debtor, daily I'm constrained to be.
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love,
Take my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above."