Summer Time and The Living's Busy

Summer is upon us and it has been for awhile. Shortly after school got out we went "home" to Houston for a couple of weeks and got to visit with family and friends. I really enjoyed our visit, but it also made me realize just how close we are to moving. I'm already starting to freak out a little bit about moving, the idea itself is so overwhelming to me. We flew home from Houston on our anniversary, then rushed over to church for band practice, I think we finally made it home around 10.
After that we got to play house for a couple weeks. Kyla got to stay with us while Megan finished up teaching and packing up her classroom. We had SO much fun with her, it was amazing getting to know her and to bond with her. She adores Joel, and would anxiously wait for him to come home for lunch everyday. She just left and went home on Wednesday, and our apartment is quiet again.
Joel and me have both finished our first round of summer school with A's all around  : ] But are already back in classes and pushing on! Now that Kyla's gone we are planning on rearranging the living room completely and the dinning area. I rearranged the bedroom shortly before we left for Houston and LOVE it!! I know that we only have a short time left in Virginia but I really want us to enjoy it and get the most out of our apartment. Joel is getting more room for his desk and I am getting a.....
CRAFT CORNER!!! I could not be more thrilled to have a spot for all of my craft stuff!
I have a few projects that I'm going to be working on this week!

where did all of our space go?

 Things in our apartment are constantly changing, furniture gets rearranged  household swag gets added and taken away. We are blessed with an issue that not too many newlyweds have, we simply have too much furniture, and it's all quality furniture. I mean we have a complete bedroom set, a dinning room table and hutch, a huge solid wood bookcase, a couch, an entertainment stand, side tables, a desk...the list goes on and on. Joel moved into our apartment with a bed- in less than a year we've filled it to capacity( well not really because I always seem to find something else). We are rapidly outgrowing our one bedroom apartment, and with Joel starting his own business even more space is needed, space that our apartment lacks. Even if we scaled down our furniture we would still be lacking in room. I've gotten to the point where I am hesitant to decorate anymore because I want to move so badly, and Joel does too. We've been debating if we should break or lease or not since at least November. I wish that space was the only factor in this debate--but it's not, we are also beyond frustrated with our landlords. They can never fix things that need to be fix, or maintain things that they should maintain. We rent a managed property, yet so many things go mismanaged. It takes us months to get them to fix things, or to get them to send people to do the tings that they are responsible for, our outside goes unmaintained. The most frustrating thing is that every time I inquire why something still hasn't been taken care of (there are things STILL needing to be done that we're to be completed prior to us moving in) they say that they are just trying to keep rent down. We are good tenants, we pay our rent on time every month, we live up to our end of our lease, but we both feel that they don't. Renting is so frustrating right now!!!(thanks for letting me rant)

Now onto more fun topics...like bulletin boards.
I have had an obsession with looking for a decent sized, quality bulletin board since May. However, bulletins of decent size and good quality are outrageously overpriced. So I tried to dismiss my dream of a beautiful bulletin board in my living room. Well in one of my many random trips to the various thrift stores, I found the perfect one.
Joel and me stopped into the Habitat for Humanity store one day after lunch, and there in the isle of frames was my bulletin board! It had a solid frame and solid cork, not the cheap stuff! It was also priced half off for the day, it cost me a grand total for $2.50. Of course I could never have a plain bulletin board in my house, so I set off to find some spray paint, and had the perfect color in my collection at home. I began by lightly sanding the wood frame, then I spray painted the wood frame green (I taped off the rest of the board).

I had decided to use the fabric that I had leftover from recovering my dinning room chairs! I used a special spray adhesive that Joel had in his collection that worked on fabric. I adhered the fabric:)

 I'd still like to add some ribbon...I'm debating if I should paint the frame a different color as well. This project essentially only cost me the $2.50 that I payed for the board, since I had everything else on hand/leftover from other house projects.

Making your money work for you and your decor :)

I love to add things to our apartment. Not a month passes when something doesn't change at our apartment. Updating decor and adding small touches are something that I do constantly, but without breaking the bank. Some of my favorite things in our apartment cost less than $10.00 to do.

I picked up all of these vases at various local thrift stores for around .20-.50 cents a piece. When I got them they were all different colors, some where white, green and some where clear. I picked up some navy spray paint and went to town on my vases. They all vary in size but my favorite thing is the different textures that they have.  They sit on top of our bookshelf and not only add interest but pick up the navy tones in our rug.

 Halfway

Finished Product :)
I deiced that I wanted to add something to our room, I was thinking about doing something to our lampshades but couldn't decide what to do, so I decided to change up our headboard. This project was so simple and took about 30 minutes from start to finish, and cost me less than a dollar to do. Being a crafter I have some major crafter tools :) Joel just got me a new cricut expression for Christmas! But I used the silhouette for this (I don't have one but my mother does :)) I found a damask print that resembled our bedding, sized it appropriately, and cut the vinyl. The hardest part about this project was the application. Since it was an intricate design i used transfer paper, measured and centered it on my headboard and applied it. I was very pleased with how it turned out!

I also like to make things for other people. I made these for my sister, one of her best friends is getting married next weekend and she wanted something sentimental to include with their gift. I hope that they like it.  There's nothing that I love more than handmade gifts, it's so special to get something that someone created for you.

I'm currently planning a few projects, and really trying to think of a way to add some more sparkle and charm to our apartment. Any suggestions would be welcomed :) I'm also working on mastering the art of couponing ( I've already mastered it for home, now for food and household items)!

My First Big Project

My husband moved into our current apartment in April of 2010 and I suppose that's when my quest began. When he first moved in we had a bed, a microwave some Navy friends had given us before moving, and my tv from college and a entertainment stand from a family at our Church. Our next addition was a beautiful solid wood bookcase that I found at the thrift store. I was so excited about putting our apartment together but wanted to be mindful of our budget so I searched for deals and decided that this was not the furniture we were going to have forever so it didn't have to fit my taste. Our next purchase was a bedroom set from craigslist. I got a headboard, rails, two side tables, a tall dresser, and a long dresser with a mirror for $200.00 all solid wood. It wasn't my taste but I was excited to have a dresser, Joel had been using one form my parents guest room.

  We already had rails so we gave those to someone in our church. Our apartment was slowly beginning to come together, we also acquired a couch from some friends at Church (we have a great Church family), the week of the wedding we got our dinning room table and china hutch- again only $200, beautiful solid wood, and it came from my Aunt and Uncle which made it even more special to us! Well the wedding came and went, and of course all of our family from out of town wanted to see our place. So the day after the wedding they helped us bring all of our gifts home and saw our new place.  When I showed them the bedroom I told them that while I wasn't thrilled with the style I loved having dressers. My sister in-law told me that I could refinish it and make it my own- I told her that would have to wait until we moved closer to them so she could help!  I was nervous to try anything on my own, so months passed, and then I decided that I was going to do it. Since I was nervous, I decided maybe my first sanding and refinishing job should be small. I bought a roll top desk off craigslist and that's what started it all. After conquering the desk I was ready to start our bedroom. It took some time, and I recruited the help of my husband with the moving and some of the sanding. I chose a black satin stain for our bedroom and love how it came out! Once the sanding, staining, and sealing was done it was time for new hardware! I went to countless stores, and spent hours online looking at hardware until I finally narrowed it down to two choices. Joel helped me pick, I was so thrilled when they finally came in! Our staining makeover, and new hardware ran us $110, making our furniture $310. Since I didn't use all of our bedroom budget it got rolled over to my housewares! If you are considering embarking on a DIY project, go for it! You never know what your capable of until you try!