Upcycled Fence Wood Turned Bench

Thanks to some recent wind and rain storms, sections of our fence have needed to be torn town and replaced. My husband always said, "It's good wood, we can't get rid of it." Not that I am trying to, but storing scraps of wood isn't easy when you don't have a large garage or yard.

Seeing this bench recently on Pinerest, I asked my hubby to use some of the fence wood to make a bench for our front porch.

Original posting with the picture can be found here. Photo credit: Unknown

Evan liked the look of it, shared he would do something similar, but have his own take on it. When I left, he and my sister-in-law's fiance had barely started, but sent me this picture while I was at my baby shower, so I knew it was coming together well!

Once they finished, it looks a little something like this:

It just needs some pillows and a cushion! I love it and we have gotten several compliments on it.

Fall Wedding at a Winery

One of my friends from college, who I also worked with in the Admissions office got married over the weekend.  It was a beautiful drive out to Hood River where we caught a shuttle up to the ceremony and reception sites.

They used a lot of the local vendors in Hood River, Oregon for their flowers, cake, and more which all turned out so lovely.

Nice to see an arrangements in a black vase vs. the standard clear vase.

Lots of great fall flowers with leaves, dahias, spider mums, and more.

I thought their groom's cake was so unique and an eye-catcher. Adam and Rachel love their dog Bailey (who is always in their Christmas card too), so this cake depicts Adam and Bailey sitting together enjoying the view.

California Beach Wedding

Another trip to California, for another family wedding. This time without hubs, but I knew I would still have a great time. The ceremony overlooked the ocean, the beach, and steep cliffs at Pismo Beach. Gorgeous!

The aisle was decorated with blue puffy balls that the bride made, sprinkled with dried yellow rose petals. Blue and yellow were the colors of their wedding, which are also the school colors of both of their colleges: Michigan and University of California Santa Barbara. 

Look at that view!

 

There was an arbor decorated with shells and gauze, part of the beachy theme!

The blue and yellow bride and bridesmaid bouquets made up of yellow roses, calla lilies, with small seashells, green berries, among other fun flowers.



The yummy cake and a clever cake topper. Real seashells are on the cake.



A very creative and fun seating chart using a wooden surfboard found at a yard sale. The groom's dad spent quite a bit of time cleaning up and refinishing. So thoughtful and unique!

 The names of the guests and their assigned table, are posted on the surfboard below the Catch a Wave sign.

The head table displayed sand dollar shells with Mr. and Mrs. written on them.

A Mappy First Anniversary Present

I couldn't make up my mind on the right present for my little sister and her husband's first anniversary present. I bought their card before their anniversary, but I just didn't have any good ideas for a "paper" present. After coming across a Portland map that my mom didn't need anymore, I knew I wanted to do something with it for them.

I found some ideas on-line and originally thought I would use the entire map, so I bought a large frame for it at Goodwill. After playing around with it for a while, I decided to cut up the map and do something a bit smaller. This way, the art could go on any wall, any shelf, alone or with other frames, etc.

Here are some of the ideas I found on-line:

All super cute and really good ideas. I already had some 10x10 corkboard, so I went to the store and purchased a 10x10 shadow box and short pins. Then I got to work. I decided to cut out hearts of where they met (using a cookie cutter), where they were married, and where they live. Luckily all were in Portland. I was very careful about truly finding the right street on the map as so many of the streets in Portland are called the same thing, but don't continue through, so it is easy to think you have the right street when you don't. I even got on the computer a couple of times to check directions and the computer's map to make sure I was right. 

I gave it to my sister and she really really liked it. She shared with me later that her husband couldn't believe that I had made it. Well good, I am glad they have something to also remember where they first lived together.

White Chocolate, White Coffee or Swiss Coffee

Like I've mentioned, nearly everything in our house was original when we first bought it in 2007. The house was built in 1997, so updates are needed. I am pretty sure that the fireplace has been painted at some point, but the green fireplace with our gray/blue walls is nasty and not working. I decided that an off-white color would look good, a color that would be similar to the cabinet in our kitchen. I thought this would help ensure that two big "pieces" in our family room/kitchen area would compliment one another and not compete.

I also wanted a color that would be a white that we could use on other things in our house. So if moulding or doors need to be painted white in the future, everything will tie together. And so far, it has worked. Our fireplace and now the spindles on our stairs are both Swiss Coffee by Behr.

Before painting the fireplace, I checked a couple of blogs about how to paint brick. Some of their tips proved to be helpful, a couple of other tips did not. For instance, they said to use a pretty nappy roller. This = good. Also shared, was you can use any finish you want. I chose flat. This = bad. I would now do a satin or eggshell finish and plan to do so in the future when I go over the entire fireplace again. This will make it way easier to clean and won't allow gunk and makeup to settle into the paint.

It was also shared that I didn't need to use a primer if the brick that I didn't need a primer if the brick had already been painted. This = good, though I still needed three coats of paint. After two coats, I discovered that the little pin holes were not filling up with color and some of the chunks also looked odd. I decided to fill them with caulking, then painted the third coat over everything. This help a lot and made everything look smooth and uniform.

The entire fireplace took a coat of paint.

Then we have painted our new staircase moulding and spindles with the Swiss Coffee, for this one we bought the Primer and Paint in one since it was raw wood. I have since read that it is best to do a wood conditioner on the raw wood so it takes the paint better and the knots don't end up coming through the paint color.

Behr Soft Denim for Kitchen and Family Room

Spruced up our plain white walls in time for my sister's bridal shower that was being held at my house. Man, it was tough finding the right color for our place though. The goal? Gray/blue walls that seem to be so popular right now. There are so many shades and each look different once on the wall and in the space.

The color was to be used in our entry way from the garage, the family room, and the kitchen. It doesn't have a lot of natural light in those areas, so I didn't want a color to make it too dark and cave like.

Look at that horrible carpet and green fireplace, we need color and updates badly!

The color I chose is part of the new Primer and Paint line from Behr at Home Depot, Soft Denim. Though I thought it leans toward the blue side of things, I feel it was the best color that still seemed like a neutral with our couch, decorations, trim, white cabinets, and wood furniture.

Mid painting, with one coat on the right side and none on the left.

Once the entire space was done, I feel like I am really happy with it. It does make our counters look a bit on the pink side, but they need to be replaced anyway. I love the color with my bronze curtain rod (score from Big Lots) and I think it will look great once I paint that green fireplace white.

I've even tested some other paint colors that look gray/blue on my walls since, but they always come out more on the gray side, so it proves that I made the right color choice. One friend came over and immediately asked what colors my walls are. She shared that she has been looking for a gray/blue color forever and really likes ours. Yay! Friend approved too.

Personalize Cocktail Napkins

My friend Ali got married over the weekend and she had so many wonderful and creative ideas. I had personalized the cocktail napkins for our wedding in 2007, but Ali took it to a whole new level. She ordered several different colors and for each one had a fun saying like, "To a lifetime of eating burgers" and "After 439 miles."

So cute and great way to help wedding guests get to know your relationship a little more than they may have before.