A Pinterest Filled Weekend

This past weekend, I decided to tackle some of the projects that I had pinned and have been wanting to get done. Some stuff I already had, some stuff I had the ideas in my head of what I wanted to do - just no time!

Here's what I got up to:

Homemade Laundry Detergent - recipe found here I was way more excited than one should be to make laundry detergent. I spent about $30 to get all of the supplies - including a cute glass jar to put the detergent in (that was $10). The jar pictured is not mine, I don't have my lettering on mine yet! It was pretty easy to do and should last us about 9 months or so!

Christmas Card Books - Instructions found here So apparently, I we have a problem called hoarding. I We do not like to throw away cards/announcements/thank yous...it's kind of ridiculous. If you have given or sent either of us a card in the last 6 years we seriously probably still have it - I'm not joking.

My completed Christmas 2011 book

While doing this project, I discovered how obsessed in love I was with Chris when we first met. I would write cute little notes and cards to him. Gave him cards every monthly anniversary and such. That slowly drifted into just the essential dates...annual anniversary, birthday, fur baby Father's Day, Valentine's Day, Christmas. It's fun to look back at the stuff I would say. I'm pretty shocked that he actually asked me to marry him after all of that :)

Pile of cards that I gave Chris over the years

Some of the other books I did. I decided that Chris's cards I gave him are better off in a box since there are soooo many!

Chalkboard Paint Wine Glasses - instructions found here The chalkboard paint part was done in April for my m-i-l's  birthday gift. I needed to decorate the upper glass part. I haven't technically given these to her yet - her birthday was in May, but I did tell her that she's getting another grandchild on her birthday so I thought the wait could be worth it :) I also told Chris that a steady stream of birthday gifts may not be such a bad thing either. It's a surprise that you don't know you're getting until it's here!

Finished glasses

With the erasable chalk writing

The glass says "It's my birthday and I'll wine if I want to"

Photo to Canvas - Instructions found here This project was super easy and low cost. I made 5 canvas prints for our bathroom for $30 and I still have 4 large canvases left over for future projects. I got the canvases at Michaels which happened to be on sale and I had a 25% off everything coupon. I printed my pics at Costco for an incredibly cheap price. I already had modge podge and paint for the edges. I love this project and will be doing some more for the baby's room!

Some of the pics and canvases (2 8x10 prints)

2 5x7 prints

Apply modge podge on top of pics

Finally a use for my old accounting books that I've been hoarding holding on to for future use

 pic from our last trip to Captiva

 pic from our honeymoon, lovely sunset on the beach

 Costco had pics that you can print from their website. This is in Death Valley - this pics may get changed in the future. The great thing about this project is that you can update photos by just applying new pics over old ones!

 Fish in the aquarium in Chicago from last summer. How hilarious looking are these guys?! They have a huge bump on their forehead and their profile is so human like

My favorite and biggest print - sunset from our honeymoon. The pic is beautiful and serene. Will be very relaxing while I'm laying in the tub dreaming of Captiva!

One piece of advice I can give from doing this project is to see what size canvases you can purchase before ordering your prints. I had a little issue with finding the correct size canvas after I ordered the prints and had to re-order the large print. It was only a $6 mistake but could've been avoided.

We also tended to our much over-grown garden and put up a fence to keep woodchucks out! One got in a couple weeks ago and ate up all my lettuce and half of my broccoli plants. Oscar didn't like the woodchuck either!

I'm excited to meet up with some of the MN Blogger girls tomorrow night! I hope to see you there!

Makeover Monday - Master Bathroom

So, this post was all written and ready to go a month ago...I went in to post it one morning at work and somehow it got deleted and disappeared. I was NOT happy since I had spent quite a bit of time uploading pics and commenting. Anyways, here is our almost finished master bath. Enjoy!

The inspiration that I found on Pinterest

Before Pictures

Huge double sink vanity with a ton of crap essentials in the middle

Big ugly mirror

Outdated light fixtures and a lovely floral wall paper border at the ceiling. Also note the white vinyl flooring

Picture of the vanity cabinets once I removed all of the doors/hardware and had stripped the finish off

My wood staining party

More staining

We opted to lay down a heating pad under our tile so our feet can be toasty in the winter

Tile down and ready to be grouted

Almost finished product:

View from the entrance

Bathtub area (pics to hang on the wall got completed this past weekend - post to come)

Window looking into the backyard

The door is currently off, it needs to be stained. This why the project is not complete yet. Hopefully get that tackled soon!

Shower

I spray painted all of the towel racks/bars/rings and toilet paper holder a matte black color. I like the way they look and   it saved quite a bit of money! 

View of the vanity - new lights and mirrors. The original plan to construct a frame to go around the existing mirror proved to be a little expensive and very time consuming. My husband is very busy in the spring/summer. We bought the mirrors at Home Depot for about $50 each and sold the old mirror on Craigslist for like $25. Not too bad of a trade-off. My husband and I built the center shelving unit. I really like the way it turned out and that our clutter is more contained in the cute baskets I got at Target. We also swapped out the cabinet hardware with a chrome handle instead of the bronze. Love the look!

Front view of the vanity

 Overall, I'm so happy with the way everything turned out. We totally revamped our bathroom on a pretty reasonable budget. The most expensive thing was the decision to get the heated flooring. I think we'll be happy when December/January rolls around! The most time consuming thing was staining all of the cabinets. I LOVE the way they turned out, but it was quite a bit of work. The product I used has been used in our house before and I hate working with it, but the end result is always worth it!

Baby Girl Got Moves

Yesterday was a pretty exciting day in the life of a pregnant lady!

Last night while eating dinner I told Chris that I was pretty sure that on Sunday night when I was reading in bed the baby kicked. The baby {supposedly} kicked so hard that the iPad resting on my tummy lifted up on one side. I was shocked and thought I must be going crazy(er). I put the iPad down and rested my hand on my tummy to feel another kick, but didn't feel anything and figured I was either imagining things or extremely tired and should sleep. So off to sleep I went.

Well, my craziness was put at ease last night. Chris and I were watching America's Got Talent and I started feeling some movement again. I put my hand on my tummy and I could feel the baby kicking me. I immediately told Chris and made him put his hand there. She must've gotten shy and wouldn't kick for him so he took his hand away. I put my hand back and shortly after she was kicking away again. I put Chris's hand back and we had so much fun feeling her kicking and dancing away in there.

Chris was supposed to work last night and ended up finding someone to work for him since he worked during the day and has plenty of work lined up the rest of this week. I am so happy and thankful that he was home.

Yesterday was also exciting because I scheduled two 3d/4d ultrasound appointments. In June, I asked Chris if we could look into getting one done and just check out the cost. I was extremely excited to find an office in Bloomington, MN that does great work and at reasonable prices (in my opinion). Here is the website if you live in the Twin Cities and are interested in checking them out. I called and spoke to one of the owners who is also the guy that will be performing the ultrasounds. He was extremely nice and answered all of my questions and concerns. The business is family-owned and seems to be a great place to go with state of the art equipment. Our first appointment is on my birthday, August 7. I can't imagine a better way to spend my birthday :) The second appointment is on Sept 7. We'll get lots of pictures and a DVD of each appointment. I'm so excited to see our little baby soon! I'll do a post after our first appointment to let you know how our experience was in case you are considering going there.

On Thursday we're leaving to go to Minot, ND (my hometown) for the weekend. I'm really not looking forward to the 8+ hour car ride (hey Kelly, can we borrow Greg to fly us over there, haha) but I am looking forward to seeing my family and spending some time with my niece and nephews!

If I don't post before then, I hope you have a great weekend!