Wednesday night fun times!

On Wednesdays, D bowls in a league... this means I'm home alone and free to play as I please!

Tonight's project: Transfer images on to stretched canvas.

I'm cheap. Since this was the first try, I wanted to go as cheap as possible, so I printed out 2 pictures of our kiddos at an undisclosed location (that's right, SECRETS!) and got the smallest canvases I could find. Because they're cheapest. Yep.

Step 1:  Print picture on regular printer paper. Use gel medium to adhere picture (I flipped the picture around before printing it, as they transfer backwards) to canvas. Cover canvas in one good flat coat of this stuff.  I was told (by Pinterest) to get medium gloss gel medium or something, but I ended up with this stuff and it apparently worked just fine!

Glue the pics on to the Canvas with ^^ That stuff... looks like this... 

'

Step 2: Smooth out lines on paper with something flat... credit card, ruler, or... you know, cardboard from the new glitter you just bought... :)

Step 3: WAIT forEVER for it to DRY.  (And by forever, I mean about 3-4 hours)
Step 4: Douse the paper with water from a squirt bottle til it soaks through... pull/ball/roll off the paper slowly.

 Rub gently and the paper will start to rub off.

I rubbed the edges of each picture to make them look all jagged, too. So that's neat. :)  ALSO, Carmen is too dark. I kept re-wetting and re-rubbing to get all the paper off of her picture so that I could see her & accidentally rubbed off some of the picture. Oh well. That adds to the novelty, right? 

Carmen's finished picture... note the white spots where I rubbed the picture off. Haha oops. 

Tini's completed picture... 

Step 5: When the canvas is pretty much dry, swipe with a medium-thick layer of the gloss/gel medium stuff again to set it. This way- you won't continue to wipe off the picture! YAY!

I am so excited to know how to do this! You better believe that I will be doing this with every dang picture from NOW ON.

Oh- relatives, loved ones, etc... you're welcome. You're welcome for your awesome pictures you'll be getting done like this for the rest of your lives!

Enjoy! 

♥ 

EM

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

Missed a whole month!

So, I missed an entire month! I am so sorry to the 2 people who read this blog.
I'm sure your life has been empty and boring while awaiting my next words.
Well I would just like to say...
   You're welcome.

I'm feeling pretty crappy tonight (allergies), but I thought I would update a little bit again.
As far as my 101 in 1001, I think that I have only completed 3 more things...
Here we go!

#33- Keep fresh flowers in the house for 2 months straight- Thanks to my husband (and my nagging, of course), this was completed May 26th. However, it is still going on. I have 2 still-live flowers currently in the house. We'll see how long they last- or if they get replaced.


Currently, these are hanging out around the house...

#42- Wear a scarf as an accessory (not just to keep warm)-
While in Denver for work, I pulled this look off.

Impressed? You should be! Also in the picture, you can see the progress I'm making toward blonde(r). I will get there, slowly but surely!

#95- Stay up all night with my husband (for no good reason)
- This was also thanks to our friends Kris, Jeannie, and Danny- we went out a couple of weeks ago, and didn't get home til almost 4... then were playing darts until almost 5 and someone noticed that the sun was coming up, so we went out on the front porch and watched the sun come up, then went to bed for the next 5 hours.  It was a super fun night, and I wish all weekend nights could be that awesome! However, I am sure our neighbors are glad that doesn't happen often, as several most likely heard us talking loudly while waiting on the sun. I'm just glad none of them woke up and came outside!!

OK that's all I have for now; I'm going to bed with a bottle of nyquil!
-EM

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. 

WORLD CHAMPIONS

There was this one football game last night...  Only a few people watched it, though, so I don't think everybody knows what happened yet!

Apparently there were these two teams playing for this bowl? :) It must be pretty awesome because people keep saying it's super. 

Yes, this was the scene during the game. He sits right in front of the TV so that they can hear him better. If you didn't know, we are Packers fans. The Pack beat out the Steelers last night to win the Super Bowl and become the world champs! It was pretty exciting! I don't remember much about the game, since the party was at our house and I was running back and forth the entire time, but what I saw of it was GREAT! 

Once the Packers stopped the Steelers' drive in the very end of the 4th Quarter, this is what we saw:

That's right, everyone giving him High Fives because--- I don't know if I've told you before or not, but--- D not only coaches the team, he's also the Offensive and Defensive Coordinator, QB Coach, Lineman coach, and best friend of every member of the team.  Yes, that's everyone giving him high fives for him winning the game! haha 

I love my husband. He's perfect in every way! 

26. Get current on Criminal Minds Season 5- and SNOW DAY!

Last night it snowed 4-5 inches, which means SNOOOOOW DAY!

Snow day means watch DVDs of stuff all day! Which means we finished Season 5 of Criminal Minds.  Now I can check #26 off... YESSSS! :-)
(If you would like to see the rest of my 101 in 1001, click here)

AND we made a snow man & snow cream! Today has been super fantastical!

 The girls also enjoyed themselves... See? If they aren't the most precious things ever, I just don't know what could be!