What I’m Feeling Friday No.5

Hey there again! This week has lasted 5 years, so I am very thankful that Friday is here and the weekend begins soon. Today I am actually going to start with something that I’m NOT feeling. I think everyone will agree with this:

1. Leo still didn’t earn an Oscar! This year he was up for his performance in The Wolf of Wall Street. I haven’t seen the movie, but there hasn’t been a Leo role I didn’t like. He’s been nominated 5 times, and has not won any time! He was in two fantastic movies last year- Wolf of Wall Street and The Great Gatsby. Gatsby was one of the most gorgeous films I have ever seen. Everything was so fantastical and amazing. Love it. Here are the roles Leo has been nominated for:

1994: Nominated in “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape” for Best Actor in a Supporting Role

2005: Nominated in “The Aviator” for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

2007: Nominated in “Blood Diamond” for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

2014: Nominated in “The Wolf of Wall Street” for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role and Best Motion Picture of the Year

Now, I will admit that this year he was up against some great contenders (12 Years a Slave, Dallas Buyers Club, etc.). I totally think the winners deserved it. They definitely earned it. But, I’m thinking, this man has been nominated 5 times, FIVE times. Come on, you gotta give this guys an award! He really is my favorite actor, in my book he can do no wrong. I’m really just hoping he doesn’t give up and keeps creating top notch work. Love you Leo!

2. Greys and Scandal are back on! Whoop Whoop! April chose Jackson (there was really no competition there) and I am so excited to see how things play out with Sally Langston on Scandal! I’ve watched both of these shows since day one, and I’ve definitely invested some long hours into Greys. I’m sure Greys will be coming to a close within the next couple seasons, and I am okay with that. Its been a good ride and I would totally be okay if it finished.

3. Ender Game (the movie). I finally got around to watching Enders Game last weekend. Now, the storyline was altered from the book, but I think they did a decent job with their changes. This book isn’t as popular as Harry Potter or Hunger Games, so they needed to appeal to a wider audience that has never heard of the book before. I definitely miss some of the back story that they don’t add into the movie, and I didn’t like some of the things they added (a supposed romantic relationship between Ender and Petra), but overall it wasn’t as bad as I anticipated.

I’m excited for this weekend, just relaxing and catching up on some crafts.

–L

Plate Wall

I really think the dining room is becoming one of my favorite rooms. I hated the dining area in our old apartment. The laundry closet was right off of it and the kitchen was immediately on the other side. There wasn’t enough room and there really wasn’t any flow. Such is the life in an apartment I guess. Now that we have more room in our current dining area I feel a lot more confident i decorating it.

I have enough room for a china cabinet that I received from my Grandmother and there is enough room on the other side of the table for a buffet! Such a big improvement from apartment living where you can barely squeeze four chairs around a table. I am planning on purchasing a buffet or dresser off craigslist and refinishing it on the blank wall. Which brings me to this project: The Plate Wall.

Of course, this was inspired by something I saw on pinterest. You can see a couple of them here and here. My thought was to take the plate wall and add a buffet to use as extra entertaining space. I still haven’t found a buffet to my liking, but hopefully it will come around soon.

The first step in the plate wall was to collect plates for the wall. This was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. I found plates from my house, flea markets, thrift stores, and Anthropologie. It took me about 3 months to find 8 plates that I really liked. The next step was finding a way to secure the plates to the wall. There are really two different options when it comes to plate hanging.

There is the wire hanger: this has four grippers that fit on the plate. You can then use the metal frame in the middle to hang on the wall.

This one is an invisible plate hanger: you stick the yellow part to the plate and the metal ring at the top is what you hang it onto the wall with.

They were both about the same price, so that didn’t sway me either way. I really liked the idea of the invisible plate hanger. The metal plate hanger grippers can still be seen from all angles, so for me it wouldn’t be aesthetically pleasing. I bought 8 of the 4″ invisible plate hangers. They are for use with plates up to 12″ in diameter. None of my plates were that big or heavy, but I liked the extra peace of mind with the 4″.

It was really easy to apply them. You wet your fingers and then rub them on the back of the adhesive disk. Once the glue is a bit tacky you apply it to the back of your plate. Let it sit overnight to fully adhere and you are good to go!

To hang the plates on the wall the first thing I did was find the center. My wall happened to be 8×8, so the middle was easy to find. From there I figured out how far up, down, left and right I wanted the plates to be spaced on the wall. I winged it when it actually came to hanging the plates on the wall.

After we had them all hung, we slammed the doors and jumped up and down to make sure they were all secure on the wall.

I really feel that when I get the buffet in there the room will feel almost complete! I am in love with this buffet from my pinterest page. The blue is a bit off from what I have going on, but I feel like it is a good start.

Here is where we started:

And here is the current state:

To Do List for the Dining Room:

1. Paint

2. Plate Wall

3. Stain Table- I really want this table. So I’m thinking after I stain the one we have now it can go in the basement as a game table.

4. A new light fixture- I’m in love with drum shades, so naturally I was attracted to this shade.

5. Add a buffet in a fun color under the plate wall.

6. Rug for under the dining table.

We are making progress people!

–L

What I’m Feeling Friday Vol. 4

Hello again. Here are a few things I’m digging this week:

1. These initial necklaces from the etsy shop OliveYewJewels. I love that they are lowercase and thicker than some other initials I’ve seen. I also love the play on words in their name-OliveYewJewels…get it? I love you Jewels. So fun. They make an assortment of jewelry, and I want all of it. If you follow their Facebook page you get 10% off your first order!

2. Chive and Onion cream cheese. I discovered it at Aldi this week and I am hooked! My favorite way to eat it lately is to put it on some sandwich skinnies with some honey ham. So good. I feel like I could eat 12 a day.

3. My hands have been so dry lately its painful. I work in the warehouse once a week at work and every time I would even get near paper I swear I got 15 paper cuts. I stocked up on The Body Shop Hemp Hand Protector and it has given me so much relief! If you don’t like the smell of Hemp they have other options like almond and wild rose. I just picked up Hemp because a friend recommended it, I think next time I will go with almond. I feel like it is usually a safe choice when it comes to fragrance.

We are supposed to get some nasty winter weather this weekend- snow, sleet, and ice oh my! Hopefully we don’t get hit too hard with ice, that is my least favorite! It will make for plenty of opportunity to snuggle up with a good book though! Plus the Academy Awards are on Sunday so it will give me an excuse to stay in and watch.

 

–L

Update:: Flowers in Vase

The Tulips and Crocus are sprouting! It only took a few days for the roots to start growing, and now the stem is coming up too!

Excuse the towels, there is a bad air leak in that window and weather stripping we put in isn’t cutting it. The new windows should be installed in 2 weeks!

Look at the back one! It is shooting off like a rocket! It is so exciting to see these guys grow, life is amazing.

El Hubs thinks the roots make the bulbs look like aliens. Haha. I think I agree with him!

–L

Feeling Planty

Since I started the little project of growing Tulips/Crocus in vases last week, I’ve been leaning towards all things green. I have two existing plants in my dining room that have need a little facelift for a while. I received them from my Grandma last fall, and I love getting things from my Grandma! They are little succulent plants. They were outside at her place, so they were pretty dirty and in some plain black/green plastic containers.

 

 

I’ve been meaning to buy new planters to put them in, but keep forgetting or putting it off to focus on other things. Saturday we had an absolutely beautiful day. It was 65 degrees and glorious! I organized the garage and got to work on this project!

I decided to try spray painting the containers a fun color so they would pop a bit more. To protect the plants I put some plastic bags around them and the dirt. Ideally you would paint the containers before planting, but I did it the other way around since they came to me already painted.

 

I used two plastic bags and some painters tape to secure the bags over the plants and dirt so that the spray paint wouldn’t get on them. I chose two spray paints that I had on hand since this was a spur of the moment project. One was Valspur called “Deep Sea Blue” and the other was Rustoleum silver metallic spray paint.

 

 

I painted the two pots the blue and the bowl the silver. Each one took two coats for full coverage. The pots had writing on them, so that was the main reason for the two coats.

After letting them dry for 30 minutes I brought them back inside and put them back on the china cabinet. I love the result!

 

They look much more cheerful and finished! I’m very happy with the results.

–L

What I’m Feeling Friday no. 3

Hello there again! Welcome to the 3rd edition of ‘What I’m Feeling Friday.’ I’m just here to share the things that I’m digging (do people still say that?). Anyway, here we go!

1. Downton Abbey. Have you watched it? It is amazing. It makes me wish I lived in the early 1900’s in England. Well, minus the war and everything, but I’ll take all the other. The Dowager Countess is so witty and sassy. I love it.

 

I’m beginning Season 3 right now, so no spoilers please! I know something bad happens at the end of the season and I want to find out for myself! If you are ready to go off into the fantastical world that is the early 1900’s, filled with servant drama, and scandal that in today’s world is everyday happenstance, then buckle your seatbelt and join the ride!

2. Herringbone Floor Tile.

 

Our master bath has carpet in it and it is really gross. I daydream about some creamy gray/white herringbone tile to replace it. Check out my pinterest boards for more herringbone styles.

3. Sweet Potatoes. How delicious! I hated them when I was a kid, and now I can’t get enough! I would have them in a car, I would have them in a bar, I would like them cooked with steak or even baked. Wait. I started to go Dr. Seuss on you. Sorry. My favorite way to have them is in the form of fries. Ooh baby. All you have to do to get them crispy is toss them with a bit of olive oil and cornstarch and then bake them. Crispy, golden goodness. All day, errday.

4. The Justin Timberlake Pandora station. It plays a great mix of upbeat tunes for when I need a little pep in my step. It plays a good variety of JT, Michael Jackson, N’SYNC, and every collaboration between JT and Jay-Z. In my world JT and Jay-Z can do no wrong when they team up. It is amazing.

–L

Growing Bulb Flowers in a Vase

I’ve seen many places over the internet that have advertised growing bulb flowers in a vase. The idea is that you can cut the flowers off and keep regrowing them, essentially having fresh flowers in your home year round. Winter has been especially harsh this year, so I’ve been missing things of color. Even though they always die, flowers to me are a thoughtful gift that I always appreciate. So, after El Hubs gave me a gorgeous arrangement in an even more gorgeous vase, I decided I needed some life brought back into the house.

 

How amazing is this vase? I’m so excited to use it again and again!

I don’t have the greenest thumb, so this is definitely a test to see how long I can keep these things alive.

The first step in this process is to gather your supplies:

 

I used Tulip and Crocus bulbs, bought at Lowes. For my filler I used sea glass from Michaels, and then 2 vases that I already had at the house. The total was $15, but if you need to buy vases you need to account for more.

The next step is filling the vase about a 1/3 of the way with the filler. You can use marbles, rocks, or like I did sea glass. It all depends on how you want it to look.

 

From there add the bulbs in, with the pointy side facing up. I did one vase of crocus and one vase of tulips, but if you wanted to you could mix them.

 

Then add fresh water to the vase, but make sure it does not actually touch the bulbs. You don’t want to submerge them in water.

 

See how on mine the water is just barely not touching the bulbs? Aim for that, or even a little less water.

Put the vases in a sunny window and wait for them to grow! You should see roots sprouting within a couple days.

 

I’ll let you know how mine turn out! I’m excited at the prospect of having some life in the house! It seems that winter has finally let up here, and we are actually in the high 50’s and low 60’s this week! I know Gizmo is especially excited about the warm weather, he has been spending a lot of time outside lately chasing the squirrels. I know a lot of us were starting to get cabin fever from being cooped up in our houses for so long, I know I am planning on taking full advantage of the warmer weather!

-L

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We have a very odd way to get into our crawl space. There is a door in the basement that allows access to the crawl space. Its been a bit of an eye sore since we moved in.

I thought of staining the wood a darker color or painting it white (we are planning on painting the trim white soon), but finally decided to paint it the same color as the walls. With it being it the same color as the walls it would blend in and not be as noticeable.

I started by taking the doors and hinges off and laying them out on a tarp. I primed the wood doors and trim with 1 coat and 3 coats of paint. The paint color is Wheat Bread by Behr.

I used some leftover metallic spray paint to cover the hardware, they were previously gold.

After letting it all dry for about half a day I put it all back up.

I feel like it is a much fresher look, and it definitely blends in to the wall more than it did before. You might notice something new next to the T.V. Dave bought me an electric fireplace for the basement. It has been wonderful these past few days having it to make the space a little cosier. I plan to make it a bit more substantial by adding some more moulding to it and building a bigger mantle around it. It does have actual wood around it, so I might paint/stain it in the future so it matches more with our other furniture.

Overall, I think this is a big improvement. I’m very pleased with how it turned out!

Before:

After:

-L

What I’m Feeling Friday No.2

1. This week I’m feeling Trader Joes. For real yo. We don’t have one here in Springfield, MO, and it is very depressing. They have Charles Shaw wine (Two Buck Chuck anyone??), Puff Corn, amazing selection of chocolate, and anything else your stomach heart desires. I had to go up to Kansas City for work this past weekend and I made sure I stopped in there before I came home. Our best friends are obsessed as well, so I made sure to stock them up too. Some of our favorites are: Trader Joe Joes (delicious snack cookies with better ingredients), sriracha-spicy sauce that goes with everything/on everything, puff corn-if you haven’t tried it you need to. Its heaven! And last but not least- Charles Shaw wine. It is amazing. They go in after each wine season in California, buy up all of the leftover grapes and make wine. Some years are better than others, but its only $2.99, so you aren’t shelling out a bunch of money for something that “might” be good.

When I went on Monday before I came back I loaded up with 2 cases of wine and a ton of sriracha. The cashier gave me a pretty weird look until I mentioned I live out of town. Then he pretty much understood I was stockin’ up on the good stuff until I could come back again. Moral of the story- Trader Joe’s is legit.

2. T-Shirts with witty phrases on them. Case in point: this shirt from lookhuman.com.

and this shirt from ThugLifeShirts on Etsy. They pretty much have a shirt for every aspect of life.

3. The oxford comma. I’m serious peeps. It is an important part of life. See below example:

Plus, Hugh Jackman appreciates the oxford comma. That should be reason enough to use it.

4. 2013 SOCHI OLYMPICS!!!!!!!

I love the Olympics. For real. Nothing makes me feel like an American like the Olympics. All of the athletes coming together, supporting each other, and just rocking it at their events. Have you seen Meryl Davis and Charlie White in the Free Dance? Chills. It gives me chills. Go Check it out here.

That is most likely how I will be spending my entire weekend. OLYMPICS for the win!

–L

No Soda for Me

I’ve recently stopped drinking soda. Its been a tough battle so far. There have been many days where I’ve looked at my co-workers and said something along the lines of “I would cut someone for a Dr. Pepper.” And I would have if it had come down to it. Dr. Pepper is my go-to soda. Heck, its my go-to drink anytime of anywhere.

I got to the point where I was drinking 3-4 sodas a day. I cut back around the summer of 2013, I told myself only 1 a day. That did not work for me. When I would get stressed out I would just say, I will have 2 today instead of 1. Then 2 turned into 3 and so forth. So I’ve decided to completely stop drinking soda.

Now, I’m not completely crazy. I have not cut out caffeine, I still have a cup of coffee in the morning to get my fix. If I were to stop caffeine altogether I’m pretty sure you would find me in the fetal position on the floor. And then I probably would cut someone. The first couple weeks of no soda I was drinking 3 cups of coffee a day. I realized I was just replacing soda with something else, so I’ve cut back on that. One thing that has helped me is to pack snacks for throughout the day. I was getting about 1,000 calories a day from drinking soda, so my body is still used to that. I’ve started bringing apples, oranges, almonds, and yogurt to work with me so that I snack on those things before I pour myself another cup of coffee.

I’m at a little over a month now, and the hardest part at this point is water. The first few weeks of no soda weren’t too bad. I drank a lot of water and was constantly running to the bathroom to pee (seriously, it was like 10 times a day). Now, water has become a bit boring for me and I started drinking less of it. So to keep it interesting I have started putting lemon in my water. If I get bored with that I might switch to berries.

I have seen an increase in my energy levels, and I have been sleeping much better at night. I would like to start exercising more and overall become more healthy. None of this has to do with losing weight, it has to do with how I view my health. I think most everyone knows that soda is not good for you. Most people just really do not care, and I will admit I was one of those people. I valued the sweet taste of my Dr. Pepper over my health. One of the people in my life who I have seen this directly benefit has been my friend Chelsea. Several years ago Chelsea started clean eating and doing yoga. She became a vegetarian, which I will not do, but I do think that I can take her experience and apply it to myself.

One of the things that has kept me true so far is to be really honest with myself. Instead of giving in and having a soda, I have asked myself “Do I really want a soda or am I just hungry or stressed?” Most of the time it is because I am stressed. So I have learned to recognize those things and make a better decision because of it.

-L