Hello, from Rissy!

Rissy just wanted to stop by to say hello!

Tufted Headboard

One of the major projects I did in our guest room was a tufted headboard. The hardest part? Those stupid buttons!!! They hurt my fingers so badly after stretching the fabric around the button and hooking it on the teeth, but the pain was worth it. For much less than I would have paid to buy one, I got this beauty below!


Here's the headboard breakdown:

Styrofoam - $20.00
Fabric - $6.00 (On super clearance!)
Buttons - $9.00
Batting - $12
TOTAL - $47!

First I cut the styrofoam to the size I wanted. Then I measured where I wanted the buttons placed on the headboard . After that, my friend Abby and I staple gunned the batting around the Styrofoam.

Then comes the ironing...

Once that was done we just had to stretch the fabric around the foam/batting.

And nail gun it. The funnest part!

Ahh! These buttons were the death of me. Seriously! I finally got one sewed to the headboard!

SNEAK PEAK of my new guest room! The white/damask fabric will be the curtains. And yes, somehow I found the same exact fabric on Etsy to match the lamp shade!

Posting it to the wall is the next thing to do. I can't wait until that's up! More pics to come when the whole room is finished!!!

We have trees people!

A few months ago I got some black oak tree decal from my friend Abby. She bought white ones awhile ago and they accidentally sent her black ones which I ended up buying from her. I wasn't sure exactly what I was going to do with them, but when I decided to redo the guest room I thought they would go well with the black/white/grey/purple theme.

Last night as the boys (Colin, Abby's husband Adam, and TJ) got liquored up, ate pizza and played poker, we jumped into our sweats, put our hair up and applied the decals to the wall. I think they turned out pretty cute! Thanks for all your help Abby! (<--Seriously amazing designer!)

Here's a peak at the decals in the unfinished guest room!

Before, finally finished painting the wall!

Abby putting on a branch.

The finished product! This room is so small we didn't have much room to work with the bed and armoire in the room. We just had to scoot things out of the way when we needed extra space!

Headboard pictures to come next week hopefully. Buttons are made (most of them), materials are bough, now I just have to put it together!

Sew many projects...

As I'm in the process of redoing our guest room, I'm trying to do as much DIY (do it yourself) on a budget as possible. I recently bought purple on one side, black on the other fabric from Joann's for $2/yard marked down from $12. I bought 5 yards since it was such a good deal, and decided to make some pillows. I finished 2 yesterday. The checkered one is a little boring, but the flower one turned out pretty fun. I hand made all the fabric flowers - which took forever!!! Of course the bottoms aren't finished, I still need to add a zipper. When Colin came home from work, I think he almost passed out from the mess in the living room! The next one I do will be striped with flowers, but I think I need a sewing break!

Sneak Peak!

See this beauty below? Yep. $7 at Good Will. I know you're probably asking yourself how I got so lucky as to snag the lovely gold and green lamp up. ;) When my friend Abby helped me come up with this project I thought she was nuts. I mean seriously, how ugly is this!?! After a couple coats of primer, some funky purple paint and a new damask shade ($12 at Ross), I think this rock turned into a diamond!

I also went to Good Will and bought a bunch of picture frames, primed, painted purple, and will be adding black and white pictures in them for a wall collage. One of the frames is in the last picture.

From ragged to chic!

A couple weeks ago I bought a really good quality night stand off Craigslist. This obviously is an older piece of furniture, but super heavy and constructed well. I decided to revamp it for my guest room I'm redesigning. Here's the before picture.

After sanding, (which I forgot to take a picture of) I painted on a coat of primer.

Then spray painted it white to match the black/white/grey/purple themed room. I bought purple knobs to coordinate.

Here's the finished product! I think it turned out pretty good and am really excited to see the room all put together. I have a few more projects then it'll be done!

Metolius River Camping

Colin and I went camping with our good friends TJ & Alaina and Abby & Adam at the end of July. We were planning on camping at Suttle Lake near Sisters Oregon, but there was literally NOTHING available! After some phone calls to the rangers office and some driving around scoping out sites, we FINALLY found a decent one. In fact, it was one of 3 available in the whole Deschutes National Forest!

Our site was right on the river and just beautiful! Although the water was freezing, the girls took a 5 hour trip to Suttle Lake to soak up some sun and go antique shopping in the little town of Sisters.

Duke and Rissy came along too. They had to be chained up most of the time but loved hanging out with us. Rissy liked the fast river water a little too much. She jumped in on Sunday morning right in front of me and wasn't a strong enough for the current. I ended up in the river to save her in my sweats! Poor thing. She just doesn't know her size or strength yet!

Here are a few pictures from the trip. Enjoy!

Mr. Duke sunbathing

Rissy watching the fly fisherman fishing.

Miss Trudie! Somehow she got a hold of a piece of leftover corn.

This picture makes me smile. :)

The boys playing poker.

The girls playing rummy.

Girls trip to big lake for a little sunshine and floating.

The only couple picture I took all weekend!

Only in McCleary...

Colin played in a softball tourney in (teeny, tiny) McCleary, WA about an hour from my parents house in July. Colin, our friend Dustin and I loaded up in Granny and Gramp's RV and hit the road for a 3 hour, very shaky, car trip. It was super cold, and not sunny AT ALL. Luckily, we had my sister visit Saturday morning whom brought bacon covered maple doughnuts. Goss. BUT, Colin and his buddies loved them! I was happy eating the cookie crumble one. Later that day, my parents came and watched Colin play. We then went to a really good bbq place. Yum!

The boys didn't play very well so the tourney was short lived, which meant we had to find something to do. SO, we hit up the local dive bar and had at it! Karaoke, chair bull riding, and too much to drink which caused a pretty good hangover in all of us. And I've got the evidence below. :)

My home run hitting machine!

Yes, this is McCleary where you can park in the outfield to watch the tourney.

If he can make a goofy face, I can too!

No shower, no makeup, scary!

Cheerleaders! Ashley and I.

Boys will be boys...

A few drinks in

And some pretty sweet sweats from Gramps...

And we've got chair bull riding!

Only in McCleary will a bar let you do this.

Vintage Nimicks...

I've been a terrible blogger lately but wanted to share this awesome picture from Laura and Justin's wedding. Isn't this neat? It's like, modern vintage. I love it!

5 Years...and still going strong

Yep, that's right. 5 years from the day we met. I'd say that's an accomplishment! I can't believe he stuck around through my crazy and constant house renovation ideas, and that I'm still here after dealing with his obsessions like a 135 gallon fish tank! I guess that's what makes the world go round and our lives a little bit more...eventful. ;)

I just looked up the traditional gift for a 5 year anniversary. It was...wood! Although I don't consider Colin and I dating 5 years an anniversary, I definitely got wood all right. A whole forest full! (See above post)

So, happy 5 years to my wonderfully patient and sometimes crazy boyfriend, Colin. I hope 5 years one day turns into 70!

Nimick Wedding

This last weekend was the wedding of my sister and her husband Justin (weird to say!).The day was pretty gloomy but it didn't end up raining for the outside ceremony. Instead, it held of until the reception where it poured like crazy. Good thing we were inside!

The ceremony was nontraditional and fun. Low key, short. Perfect. The reception was beautiful in the Puyallup Pavilion. Everyone ate a ton, danced their feet off and had a great time until 1am. We even had a beer bong event and the best candy bar ever! The best part? We got to drive down to the ceremony and home in a short bus. Yep. A short bus loaned to us by a friend. Decked out with a tv playing music videos. :)

It was nice visiting with out of town family and friends like my grandmas from Colorado and Missouri, my aunt/uncle/cousin from Virginia, my uncle from Oregon and my other aunt/uncle from Idaho/Montana and my mom's good friend from California. Even though it was a short visit it was fun to see everyone!

Also, a very happy 28th birthday to Colin! His birthday was the same day as the wedding so he got a giant celebration!

Here are a few pics of the rehearsal, wedding prep and actual wedding...Enjoy! We sure did!