High Five For Friday!

1) This time next week I will be knee deep in the water somewhere and my only worry will be if the tide is going to reach my chair! Hallelujah. We’re going to be camping in a tent. With a window unit to keep cool. We’re civilized tent campers if nothing else!


2) Tomorrow I’m going to get my first ever Brazilian Wax. TMI? I’m sure. But, that’s what blogs are right? TMI all the time. So, now you know. If you see me waddling around somewhere tomorrow, that’s why! Lord help me.

3) I am wearing my new tennis shoes today. Yay for casual Friday at work and comfy friggin’ feet! Seriously, I am over heels and wedges. They’re cute and I’ll always wear them, but they kill my feet.

4) I’m planning to win the Powerball Saturday night. We were making plans last night about what all we’re going to buy Monday morning. I can hardly wait! But seriously…how unbelievable would it be to be $550 Million Dollars richer?

5) It’s FRIDAY people – get excited!!

Jerrod + Alana: The Engagement

Something about these two love birds and this awesome location made this one of my favorite shoots yet!

Alana “does” my hair. I say it that way because “does” typically implies something ongoing. Well it still counts as ongoing if it’s only once a year…right? What can I say, I don’t do much with my massive hair! Jerrod plays softball with David. The girls get to hang out at the ball field while the boys play. Fun fun!

We’ve all been waiting for this engagement to happen for quite some time, so when it finally did, I was absolutely thrilled for them! Then Alana asked if I would take engagement pictures and I jumped at the opportunity. They are two of the nicest most grateful people you’ll ever meet and I am so honored to be a part of their story!

I couldn’t post just a few. There were too many favorites. Gorgeous people picture overload ahead!

Jerrod proposed to her with this canvas he painted with one of her favorite sayings.

So sweet!

 

 

 

Elk Elk Baby–Spring Pinterest Challenge!

I’ve been into antlers lately…

They’re sprinkled around the house.

I collected them from my Dad who had them in his house growing up.

Then recently I got a very happy call from my Grandma who offered me a set of elk antlers. She got them from Jackson Hole, WY several years ago and said they have been collecting dust for the past couple of years.

I told her I’d love to have them but gave my usual disclaimer that I couldn’t guarantee they wouldn’t be painted. She okay’d it and I started brainstorming!

My first thought was to paint them a gorgeous glossy white but then I came across painted antlers. More specifically, Katherine Nichols at The Painted Antler.

Via

Gorgeous, no? Seriously, you must go check out the eye candy on her site.

Anywho, that’s when I decided I wanted to paint mine in a color-block fashion too.

I brainstormed forever on colors and ended up with Silver, White and Sea Glass green. I used acrylic paint from Hobby Lobby.

First things first I taped off the sections with painters tape. I tweaked them along the way but decided on this general design.

Helpers are not required for this part but it’s always nice to have company.

I went back and forth but ultimately decided not to prime them. I’m glad I didn’t. It wasn’t needed, the paint covered really nicely. One coat would have been just fine, but I put two on to make sure it was a solid layer.

Doing what I love!

Weird stuff…according to David.

I planned to paint the natural sections white but I re-evaluated and decided to leave the small sections original. I wanted it to still look authentic and not store bought.

I bought a $2 wooden plaque from Hobby Lobby and painted it white. I should have sanded the edges, but I didn’t think about it until it was too late. I decided after some googling that a European Mount was how I needed to mount it to the plaque.

I picked up a nut and bolt from Walmart as well as a pack of washers.

Oh and I used the back to test paint colors!

There were two prong like pieces sticking out from those back corners but a few clamps of the pliers and they broke right off. I needed a flat backside to mount it to the plaque.

 

I drilled a pilot hole and put the bolt through….

I then set the antlers on the plaque, and fed the bolt through the hole and put the washer and nut on top and screwed it tight.

Now that the skull was attached to the plaque I had to figure out how to put it on the wall.

But first, and most importantly, where would it go?

This is when it’s handy to have a helper. My hubby held it everywhere I could possibly want it and I took pictures so I could analyze it later.

He loves this part of my projects. Or not.

Fast forward another week and I finally got the balls courage to hang it. That sucker is heavy and more than two feet wide. I had to make sure it was hung sturdy.

Enter, my can-do-anything-Dad!

Every time my parents stop by for a visit, my Dad somehow gets put to work. What starts as a “Hey Dad, I am planning to do X,Y,Z…what do you think?” always turns into a “Let me take a look…oh well here just let me do it!”

Works for me! Thanks again Pops!

So that’s the story of the antlers on the wall.

Oh and we’re not hunters, in fact we feed the deer on the lot next door with corn! We love zee animals.

Taken a few days ago out of our bathroom window.

I do love a good antler decoration though, if it’s given to me I’ll take it.

That peeking stenciled wall always makes me smile.

So what do you think? A little weird? Or right up your alley?!

I really love them and the fact that they’re from my Grandma and a place that’s so special to her, it makes them even better!

PS that giant succulent on the counter is REAL. I l-o-v-e it. For $10 at Home Depot and my added succulent obsession, I couldn’t pass it up!

She Bangs

A few years ago I hopped on the bang train. It was a really quick ride before the blunt bangs turned into side bangs within about 3 weeks.

 

Circa 2011

Well, I’ve been wanting to do something different, so I whipped out the ol’ craft scissors (you know, the sharp ones for fabric only) on a Sunday evening on a whim.

“I’m going to be in the bathroom a while babe…don’t come find me until I’m done. It could be bad, I’m hacking off my bangs.”

 

I watched a few YouTube videos and I was ready.

*Mistake #1 – see how much hair I let down on my left side? No bueno. That’s now the fat side of my bangs.

chop chop chop

I’m smiling because I hadn’t looked in the mirror yet.

And then I did. That is dead sexy.

What in the world did I just do? Some things are not meant to be done yourself…

At this point I turned red, my heart started pounding, and I got really nervous.

OH NO, really, what was I thinking. Not to mention this was the Sunday night before a huge division meeting at my work that week, in which I’d have to be giving several presentations.

Yeah, I didn’t plan that one out too well.

So an hour later and hundreds of hair pieces stuck all over my face and chest, here’s what I ended up with.

It could have been much worse. I’m mostly happy with how they turned out. I’m going to let them grow out a little bit and then get them properly hacked off by a professional.

I learned my lesson not to do it again!

An Organized Pantry…and Some Blood

We hadn’t yet organized the pantry since moving in 3 months ago when everything was just thrown in with no rhyme or reason.

It was a disaster and has been on my TO DO list for a while but Bunko did me in.

My GMa saw the inside of my pantry and said something along the lines of “Tamara I cannot believe your pantry is such a disaster! Everything else is so nice and organized and I’m very glad to see it’s junky somewhere!”

Ha!

So that lit a little fire under my hiney to get that thing organized.

I had dozens of beautiful pinned pantries on Pinterest.

However, it’s a pantry for goodness sake. If I’m spending $$$ for nice baskets and gorgeous apothecary jars, they’re going where they can be seen regularly. Not behind a closed door.

So I hit up Wal Mart for El-Cheapo plain white baskets.

I tried Target first but they were about twice as much. Eh, no thanks.

Wally World baskets will do the job.

It was now organized, but definitely needed some pizazz in the form of chalkboard labels!

I cut out labels with my cricut. I keep chalkboard vinyl in stock and whipped it out for this occasion.

Love this stuff – find it at Hobby Lobby!

I was cutting the vinyl with my rotary cutter to fit the mat when something bad happened…

DON’T SCROLL DOWN IF BLOOD GROSSES YOU OUT!

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One minute I’m just sitting there imagining my pretty new tags and the next minute I hacked a chunk of my finger off.

See it? Follow the tip of the arrow…it was still stuck on the blade. Nice!

From underneath you can really see the missing corner of my finger.

Makes my insides do the willy dance!

I’m such a wuss. It hurt like the dickens.

However I’m sure it doesn’t compare to when my Dad cut his finger nearly completely off with a table saw.

I’ll have to find those pictures for you guys!

Anywho, I cried and was sure to get a picture for the blog.

Then after it finally stopped bleeding it was back to work.

The Cricut could take the cutting from there.

I just peeled and stuck them to the baskets then went to town with the fun part, writing on the labels!

I love this pen, but it’s hard to get off my boards. I used it on these though since they wouldn’t really be changed often. I also recently read that using a magic eraser would remove this pretty good.

Don’t judge the unhealthy contents of our pantry…focus on the pretties!

The top shelf needs some help too but for now, this is a good start!

Our trash can goes at the bottom but no one wants to see that!

And I still capital L-O-V-E the chalkboard for lists. I use it all the time. I am 100% pleased with the paint too. It writes great and erases perfectly clean with the swipe of a wet paper towel.

I also got a drawer pull from Lowes and hung it to hold chalk!

Perfection.

Nothing like a little bit of blood, sweat chalk, and tears going into a project!