Crazy about Pallets!

(This post was from 11/15, but for some reason just posted today and I don't know how to change the date.. so just imagine that I posted it then!)


 I went to town on some pallets this weekend...

Wanna seeee?

Headboard for our KING SIZE BED we're getting for Christmas. This is a QUEEN in front of it. Do not think I'm measurement-stupid and over-did it. I did that on purpose :) ALSO bed will be on a platform eventually, so the plywood won't be showing!

Shelf for my cookbooks. I sliced a pallet in half (my craftsmanship is remarkable with a sawzall. Look at those straight lines...) One day I might fix that.

Inspiration: http://www.theroosterandthehen.com/how-to-make-a-pallet-headboard/ 

But, this is what I did instead...
 I bought a boatload of pallets (literally, you could load them into a boat) and white washed most of them. I had some Kilz Ceiling paint leftover, so I mixed 1 part paint to 3 parts water and whisked it to a milk-like texture and just overinduldged all my pallets with said waterpaint. It gave them a weathered- almost mold covered- look and I LOVE it. Obviously, you can see the ones that hadn't gotten it yet, but this was step 4. (1- purchase pallets fpr $1 each from sketchy individual named Stooooneyyyy 2- paint 3-rip them to pieces)

We'll start with 4. Lining them up how I want them on the headboard. I kind of wanted to stagger them like bricks, but due to how anal I am (the ends wouldn't have matched up because they would have been fresh-cut wood edges against the weathered looking sides and I would have had to repaint every SINGLE piece to make it work), and how lazy I am (see previous parenthesis comment about the amt of work it would have taken), I thought this was better! It also was more sanity-saving than staggering would have been. Oh MY, someone would have gotten hurt!

Step 6. Complete.

Step 5. Then I made sure all were painted and lined up. Again. And took 4 of the insidey pieces from the pallets (they're like 2x4s but I don't know the measurements other than it's not 2 OR 4...) to give it an outside even edge on each side...
Step 6. Have children sit in front of it and look freakin ADORABLE.


  

Step 7. Nail to perfectly-measured plywood.  This SHOULD HAVE been the easiest part, as I sawed most of the nails off and just had to pop out 3 per board to nail in the original holes and leave the rest of the original nails, but my foresight when ripping the pallets apart was not the greatest and half of them had the center nail still in them... but beaten down into submission. That had to be removed from half of them--- which took us well past dark and into 50 degree weather. I was soon told to come inside and stop playing out in the dark & cold.

Step 8. Completely unnecessary. Come inside and not freeze to death.

I brought this inside, too, just so it didn't get eaten or infested with bugs on the ground... or bird-pooed on over night. At this time, we realized why other people just NAIL the BOARDS into the WALL instead of putting it on Plywood. It weighed about 200 pounds at this point. (Or maybe 70, but 200 sounds more realistic. I don't know)

After step number 7 was completed the next morning, we had to hang this. At this point- with all the planks on it- the board now weighed about 500 pounds (again, probably more like 100, but really... 500!).
Step #9. Find Studs, make fancy-pants stud-marker-things out of thumb tacks, yarn, and heavy objects. 
That's right, Fancy. Pants. We had to know where the studs where the whole time D was screwing this bad boy into the wall, but couldn't really think of another way besides my extra special way.  

Step 10. Find 10 friends to hold this 1000 lb beast to the wall while someone who knows how to use a screwgun thing screwguns it to the studs. 

Don't have 10 friends, you say?  I guess I could just hold it while D screws it into the wall.

I could just hold it while I remove my arms from their sockets. Yeah. Heavy. Hard to hold. 2 people.

But I wanted it hung that day, so I had to hold it all by myself. I may have gotten splinters in my chest and face at this point, because I was just using my whole body to push it against the wall. I'm thrifty like that.

(Speaking of splinters... you would not believe how many baby splinters I had in my arms, legs, and butt from sitting on and moving this stuff around. Next time, don't wear leggings/tights. Wear real pants. Good to know. Note taken.)

FINISHED PRODUCT 

So beautiful. Now we need to redecorate the bedroom...

This will look so good when we get our new King Size BED!

I am excited!

♥ EM

More stuff I made...

I made some more stuff today...
Totes stole idea from Pinterest.  New favorite website on which to waste my days!

I made hanging Ball Jar lanterns to hang on the fence.
Plan- To put citronella votives inside them and light them on evenings we want to play out in the yard. Much cuter than our Tiki Torches that used to be screwed into the fence!

This is the beginning... Quart-sized Ball jars, steel wire, wire clippers and some pliers. Once I got the hang of it, I was pretty quick at making them!




That is our back-door neighbors' massive house. Yeah- house is the little triangle in the front... then they built a million-square-foot recording studio with rooms above it on to the back of their house.
Look silly? Yes.
Make the house hard to sell in the future? Obviously, yes... as it has been listed on Zillow for 3 years.
Awesome.

Oh and there's Teenie Weenie licking her shoulder bc that shirt tastes deeelish!

Here's the final product!
I had a brain fart and couldn't think of HOW to get little dots on the inside of the jars, so I thought- OOH! Swirleys like an iced coffee!!!

I then figured out that you PUT the DOTS on the OUTSIDE.
Viola!  I may not be the brightest, but now all the little jar babies in the yard will look like they're full of lightening bugs when they're glowing.
YAY!

I am excited.

Maybe one day I'll post pictures of the canvasses, fabric squares, and other things I've made recently...

One day!

(PS 2 blogs, 1 week. This might be a record)

That's All.

So, Can I just tell you how much I love my husband?
Not only does he NOT push me out of bed when I tough-talk him in my sleep, but he also does such a fantastic job of being patient and understanding when I'm being irrational/overly-emotional, he sings stupid songs to me (& makes them up as he goes), and he does some other pretty ridiculous things in order to surprise me or make me smile.

With the help of one of my friends, I recently had an epiphany! She and I were talking about random crap and something came up about stupid little arguments that we get in as couples. She then looked at me and said something like, "Yeah you argue about the direction the towels should be rolled, and he leaves his underwear in the floor, but really you should consider yourself lucky to have someone you love that you can share your life with."

That hit me pretty hard. I don't know why, but I have assumed that people would rather hear the negative than the positive. I suppose it could be that I remember when I was last single... I was incredibly bitter for a lot of that time. I would see happy couples and say, "awww so sweeeeet..." then in my head call them phony or stupid or whatever other horrible thing I could think of. I was only happy when I saw other people miserable, because that's where I was. I wanted friends there with me! I wanted to hear about the stupid crap that makes people mad at each other and all the negatives of relationships, because I wanted to convince myself that they're all like that. That it wasn't just me who was unhappy in a past relationship, or it wasn't just me who had been struggling for the past couple of years just to put on a happy face while in public with my boyfriend.
Why do we do that?  Of course now, I think that was so stupid and immature and petty and horrifically hateful of me.

So, yeah. We do nit pick at one another. He may leave clothes in the floor or look at the same dirty dishes for days on end like they're going to clean themselves. (And it would have to be him because I never do that... right?) We may get irritated with each other over something stupid and one of us (also, of course, not me...) may sit and pout for a couple hours on a Saturday morning.  He rolls over and snores/breathes in my face; I have been known to roll over and accidentally throw an elbow to his cheek/nose... But all of that stuff, that crap that really doesn't matter in the long run? That's all the absolute minority of interactions between the two of us.
Really, I feel incredibly blessed to have found the one person with whom I wish to spend the next 1039389021 days and months and years.  I feel so very lucky to be "SO YOUNG" and already wake up beside the person I'll be waking up beside when I'm old, wrinkly, and listening to our grandkids run around.  The honest truth is, I long for weekends not ONLY because I'm not working during that time, but because that is additional time  that I get to spend with him.  Whether we're doing anything or not, I'm perfectly content just sitting together. We have an amount of fun together that should be considered illegal. In fact, some times it may be... I'm kidding... sort of.

   What I guess I'm trying to say is, marriage is pretty awesome.  You should try it!
I love my husband more that I ever knew it was possible to love another person... ever. It's actually a pretty incredible feeling.

Yes, today's pictures are from us @Halloween... we were a S'more. 

Gag, ick, so cheesy, I know.  Sounds like somebody's just jealous. 

Got to work on this Day/Date thing...

OK, so apparently I need to work on this whole "knowing what day it is" thing.

I know.

It sounds weird.

Mostly because I write case notes all day and have to sign and fill out the date... then STILL don't know what the date or day is. I say this because I spent half the day thinking today was 7/26 even though I knew it was 7/19. I even talked Donnie into going to dinner to an event that is planned for NEXT MONDAY NIGHT. Holy moly. You'd think they'd have some kind of contraption that could tell you what the day/date was so you didn't have to keep up with it in your head. Someone should invent that... and name it something crazy- like CALENDAR!

(the name is still in the works, not too sure that's the right word for the idea...)

(There is no point to this picture, it's just pretty.)

I'm thinking that it may have something to do with the total of 8 hours of sleep I got this weekend? Or maybe something to do with the amount of work that I feel like I have left to do this month and the lack of time I have in which to do it.

Who knows?

Anywho, my weekend:

Saturday, we "slept in" (9 am) and bummed around alllll day until about 3 when we started getting ready for a photo session with Kate Whitmore.

We met her in Mboro and she took a bunch of pictures of us being all lovey dovey and stuff... the couple she cheated and let me see on the back of the camera looked SO GOOOOOD! (Check out the sneak peek here) I can't wait to see the rest of them!! I have never had someone take pictures and get so excited- I loved every second of it! She definitely made it easy to feel comfortable and pretty and stuff with her excitement she radiated from behind the camera.

We then went to eat with the free meal tickets that we got the last time we ate at Ryan's (it was disgusting... but this time it was better...) Then to Wall Street, where we sat for about 5 hours. Apparently they sell Long Islands for $4. Ginormous. We came home (with an additional passenger) about 2. Donnie and I were going to bed at 3:30, heard Screeeech, POP! Yeah, someone lost control, skidded through a yard, and slammed into the side of our neighbor's house. So I called the cops, and we had a neighborhood block party in our jammies until about 4:30 am. Everyone is fine- house not really hurt, truck pac-man shaped, but driver was fine. He "wasn't drunk" but admitted to drinking previously in the evening. Apparently was just mad and lost control of the car, then you know what happened- bc I just typed it 3-4 lines ago.

(Did you forget already??)

We met several neighbors that we hadn't met yet, so that was exciting! And found out about the people who lived in our house before us. Mom & 2 sons; good kids, joined bad group of kids and then potentially began breaking into houses. One day, truck shows up, never see 'em again. The kids have been seen a couple of times, and probably were the little crapbags that broke in to the house between our first and last contract and smoked stuff in the bathrooms. Whatever.

So, that was fun. Then woke up at 8:30. Couldn't go back to sleep.

Sunday we spent most of the day trying to fix our washer (yeah, overflowed again. Sweet.) and cleaning camping supplies to give back to my bro.

Mostly best part- Saturday evening. LOOOOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVED it!

If you ever need pictures for something, I would HIGHLY SUGGEST using Kate Whitmore.

She's super fantastic! But be prepared to listen fast, because she talks as fast as I do when I get excited! I had forgotten how fun it was to talk to other people at speeds most individuals just hear as buzzing. :o)

I don't like picture-free posts much, so I had to add something.

This, my friends, is Donnie's favorite female-restroom-graffiti.

In anticipation of football season...

GO PACK GO

(Yes, that's green nail polish on the side of a bathroom stall)