Back to sugar. Who doesn’t love sugar? Uh…….me??? I don’t really have a big sweet tooth (more of a salt kinda girl), but I did finally find a use for the sugar in my pantry and a cheap solution to my annoying dry skin.

Every year for Christmas I buy my Mom a nice sugar scrub and every winter when I’m complaining about my dry, itchy skin she raves about how  she couldn’t live without her scrub and how I should really buy some for myself. Except for I’m not willing to splurge $15.00 dollars on myself (yes, I know I’m cheap. Alex has worn off on me.). Instead, I hopped over  to  Martha’s page and found a simple recipe for sugar scrub . There are literally hundreds of variations on the web for this recipe and I substitute the carrier oil for baby oil that had aloe (extra important for dry skin) mixed in.

Even though, I’m not a cooking expert this was fool-proof. Total cost: maybe $8.00 (give or take a few cents). I’ve been able to make several batches from my initial supplies, which is nice because I can be as liberal as I want with the amount I use. I’ve also given a few canisters ($2.00 at Wally World) away as winter pick-me-ups. A quick tip, if you apply before you get in the shower I find it really increases the softness of your skin  AND be careful in the tub with the oil. Happy Scrubbing!

P.S.  Alex was willing to try on his new daisy dukes for me (insert tiger purr), but the pictures were a little to rated for the blog. ; )

MY FIRST SEWING MACHINE!!! The gift card was actually from my grandfather which makes this a little extra special since his mom (my great-grandmother), Mrs. Jerene Linville was an expert seamstress.

I actually have a little  experience sewing from when I was a little girl. I was an active participant in 4-H and my first and favorite projects were sewing projects. My neighbor/future teacher/future co-worker/ second mom – Kay, was my sewing instructor and together we created Holstein cow shorts, a navy blue pants suit with a stripped jacket, and a red A-line dress. I even cashed a couple checks on my threads by winning “Grand-Champion” at the county fair and placing once at the state fair. But like most things, sewing was pushed aside for my love of soccer.

Fast forward 13 years and I’ve retired from the pitch and I’m back at the sewing machine. I’ve actually completed a few projects since purchasing my new Brother, but my shoulder bag/purse, made out of Alex’s old Khakis and a pillow case, turned out the best.  I didn’t use a pattern or any specific directions, but if you are interested there are 100′s of blogs who have directions that can help you.

My incredible husband has a very bad habit of putting pens in his pockets. Not that bad of a habit, except they usually bust and ruin his pants. Thank-goodness I’ve unveiled my crafty side, ruined pants make  free material!

I started off by cutting one leg as close to the crotch as I could.

I made the widest portion of the pants the bottom of the bag. Not much sewing on this part, just a straight stitch across the bottom and an angled stitch on the corners to round her off.

Have an old pillow case around? Yes? Me too. Which made a perfect liner for my bag.

I used the bottom half of the right pant leg to cut a small square that I then sewed to the liner to make a pocket for my must haves, like my  Chap( I hate digging in my purse for it, mostly because I wrecked once while doing so – eeekkk!) . I also attached the liner to the bag.

Next, I chopped off the left leg to make a strap (I forgot to take pictures of the strap process, but I ended up sewing two doubled lengths together to get my length – I wanted the bag to be long) and then attached each strap end to the inside side of the bag.

Start to finish I probably spent about an hour on this project, but the best part is it was 100% FREE!!! (I already had the thread too!)

And Alex has a new pair of shorts to wear this summer when he’s mowing the grass. ; )

Sexy!

Anywho, I thought I’d share some of my projects I’ve been crafting up while jammin’ out.

Sweetgum-Fruit Wreath

I don’t know why, but I have always thought Martha Stewart was annoying. I mean, she is good at everything she does. She could take a fifty year old newspaper and turn it into the most glourious craft project ever. Despite my personal feelings for Martha I knew I wanted to try her Sweetgum-Fruit Wreath for our winter wreath. Almost every house on Lynnwood has a Sweetgum tree, so “gum balls” are in no shortage. It ended up being super simple and her tutorial was very helpful.

Her tutorial suggested using floral wire to insert the sweetgums, but I used toothpicks on my styrofoam base and they worked perfect. I dabbed a little bit of hot glue inside each sweetgum just for reenforcement.

I also attached my ribbion differerntly. I used hot glue and a thumb tack and it has held up great.

The total cost was less than $15.00 (I got a little crazy with the spray paint). Not only was this project simple and cheap, but it looks beautiful on our front door!

We’re super excited to get our brand new couch today!! This will only be the third piece of furniture we have bought for our house, everything else has been hand-me-downs. Which is great, but it’s time to leave the 1997 couch behind. We asked our families to give us only money this year so we could outfit our new room to fit our style. Luckily, we are blessed to have an awesome family who made it possible to give the ole’ blue and green plaid couch the boot (R.I.P Plaid Monster – all I’m going to say is it’s a good thing you can’t tell stories.)

We opted for a sectional for a couple of reasons – 1.) It fits the space better than a couch/love seat combo and 2.) it will provide for lots of extra seating for entertaining (which hopefully will be happening very soon).

Merry Christmas to us!!

Alex and I are both excited to kick back and relax tonight on the sectional, but I’m really excited to start planning out a mood board with rugs, tables, lamps, art, storage, etc… ooohhhhh so pumped!

Even though I’ve been bogged down with school (teaching) and school (being a student) things have been poppin’ on Lynnwood. The biggest news is we finally finished “the side room”  a.k.a our family room! Really it was all Mitch, Alex, and Diana down the homestretch. I went on away with a few teachers to the beach on my fall break only to return to a completed living space! It was an awesome surprise and all my honey’s idea!

Rather than go into the  details of the finishing touches, I thought I’d post the progress pictures; from the beginning to the end.

Side Room - Before

Demo

During

Mitch attaching 2x4's to drop the ceiling.

Mud Time!

Priming and Painting

So after a year and half we finally completed Our favorite room in the house. We’ve moved all of our old furniture in the room for now, although we’ll be purchasing a new couch for Christmas. We rarely leave the space. It’s just so cozy and so ours! Of course these pictures can’t tell half of the good memories (and a few nightmares)  that were made during this process. BIG, HUGE, GIGANTIC, HUMONGOUS thanks to Mitch and Diana, who without none of this would be possible. Extended thanks to Uncle Sam and the first time homeowners tax credit,  My Mom (Julie), David, Big Matt, Sarah, and of course Bella Corey Wells (supervisor).

Pottery Barn $159.00

Ceramic garden stools. They can be used (as I demonstrated for Alex) in the garden, as extra seating inside or outside, or even a small table.The possibilities are endless, but at $159.00 this was not a possibility for mi casa. But guess what I found at Big Lots:

Big Lots $20.00

Yep $20.00! Ceramic AND better details. This baby is currently serving as a foot stool in my office and is perfect when I’m spending time working on my online class. Bargain find of the summer……so far.

Of course, hardwood flooring comes with a price tag and in most cases a hefty price tag. I wanted hardwood. Alex wanted something economical. Thankfully, we live in the 21st century and laminate is here to make us both happy! We shopped around at Lowe’s and Home depot and they did have some good deals, but Alex still wasn’t willing to “splurge”. He got on Lumber Liquidators website and found out that there is in fact a store in Lexington and they had some crazy deals!!

Not only did they have great prices but they had a very wide variety to choose from. Everything from laminate to bamboo flooring (one day my friend, one  day.). In the end we settled on a very light laminate from Utopia.

Is it the highest quality? Probably not, but it did come with a 10 year warranty. Is it exactly what we’ve always dreamed of having in our home? No, we actually are more cherry or mahogany people. But did it fit into our budget and look great. YES and YES! Including the padding (which helps control moisture) and 330 sq. feet of laminate, we spent a whopping $300.oo for our new floor! Alex was beyond thrilled with the savings and I was happy as a lark because I got what I wanted.

They offered professional insulation, which I would recommend if you haven’t laid laminate before or don’t have an amazing father-in-law to do it. Thankfully, I have the latter. Of course as my grandfather would say “you get what you pay for.” And we paid $300 for new flooring, meaning it wasn’t going to be a walk in the park to lay. The first four rows posed a problem. Because this room used to be a carport the floor is not exactly level, making it very difficult to get each piece in correctly. We also found on the Google people who had used Utopia also had problems getting the floor started, but after the first few rows things went very smoothly. It took Mitch and Alex about 6 hours to get the first four rows laid . Alex made me stay at my parents house because he thought I would flip out, so I don’t know a ton of details about the problems that occurred. After a good night’s rest, the next day was much more successful.

Because the fireplace sits at an angle Alex had to cut several of the pieces in order for them to fit just right.

It took us three days to purchase and lay the floor. I can’t tell you how amazing it is to walk to the shower on something else besides worn 1960′s linoleum. Not mention, along with the paint color (details to follow), the room is much lighter.

This time last week this is what the room looked like:

As you can see every seam has been covered with drywall mud and it had been sanded twice already.

Now, the way this show works is, Mitch and Diana (in-Laws of the century!) come over at night. Alex helps Mitch do the “man” stuff and Diana and I tell them how to do the “man” stuff. Then at the end of the night I get a few projects I can complete the next day while I’m home enjoying summer break. My job on this day? Sand everything on the lower half of the room. Sounded easy enough. I just needed the 220 grit drywall sandpaper and a mask. I’m sure this task would have been easy for a person who can actually breath during normal life, but since my asthma and allergies make my life hell, this was grueling for me. I doubled up on the masks and wore safety glasses. Three hours later   ( it should not have taken that long) I had finally finished.

That night Mitch and Alex finished the upper portion of the room. After a quick cleanup the space was starting to look like an actual room.

My kitchen table on the other hand…….

My Kitchen Table

needed some serious help, as did the rest of our house! Everything was covered in drywall dust, it looked like our house had been abandoned for 30 years and the floors were even worse. Luckily for me Ms. Diana is an expert cleaner ( she doesn’t miss a speck of dirt) which is nice when your house is in the shape our’s was.

Right now we’re dealing with an unbelievable amount of drywall dust. I don’t, but for some reason I just didn’t think people were serious when they said dust would be everywhere once we got done sanding. I was right. They lied. It’s EVERYWHERE and ANYWHERE in this place! So, tomorrow will devoted to cleaning the entire house (since I also gave up on that about a month ago) and maybe a little painting.

KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN! Updates are on the way!!!

All of the drywall is up, with the exception of the fireplace area, but that’s a special project so we’re saving that for last. I attempted to help Mitch out with drywall but I just ended up creating more work for him with the mess I made.  So far there are two coats of mud up. We’re hoping that we’ll be ready to paint by this weekend or at the beginning of next week!

Before

Demo

Drywall

Mud Time!

Looks like June 5th may be possible after all!