Birthdays and Microwaves!

Last Thursday we celebrated my 25th birthday-that's right, I'm now a quarter century old! That night we celebrated with cake and presents, but saved my special lunch for the weekend since I had signed us up to take dinner over to some old friends with a new baby. Chris surprised me with a picnic basket full of fun, cupcake centered baking accessories, and my much anticipated new couch pillows-pictures coming soon. :-) The flowers were Evan's idea...he is one sweet & thoughtful kiddo! On Saturday, my family came up and had lunch with us. My mom and I share close July birthdays, so it's nice to celebrate together. :-) Afterwards, the girls went out shopping while my dad stayed behind to help Chris install our new over the range microwave. We've been talking about it for so long, it was nice to see our home improvement plans spring to life!

Thanks to my handy manny's, the microwave went in relatively easily, and looks great! I just love my kitchen and am so thankful for this new upgrade. Hopefully this will really help to set our home apart when we eventually put it on the market-which God willing will be very soon! Unfortunately our shopping trip was not as successful, with a limited space of time and a sick sister in the car-but hey, that's life! By the end of the day Chris and I were beat and settled in for a very early bedtime-the best kind of Saturday if you ask me!

Chris and I had a special lunch at Ragazzi's to top off the long birthday weekend, and it was mmm mmm good! Their bread sticks are to die for-my mouth waters just to think of them...the doughy garlic goodness, swimming in butter and sprinkled Parmesan cheese....yum! It's a relatively new restaurant in our area, so to top it off we get their coupons in our money mailers regularly, making it a Scott family favorite for sure! After lunch we said good riddance to our outdated and overworked space hoarder of a microwave, and took a short trip to BabiesRUs before bathtime, church(Chris played for the youth at a local church here in Raleigh) and a movie. I love my life at 25!

Here are my parents standing beside our newly installed microwave, holding perhaps my favorite present of all. :-)

Bathroom Makeover: A Whale's Tale

This past weekend our bathroom got a fun facelift and was swept out from formal Bed Bath & Beyond chic to a kid friendly under the sea theme. We love the new, bright colors and the whales are just too cute :-) As some extra icing, we think it's pretty gender neutral and will be a great kid bathroom for a long time to come. In our future "house house," I can't wait to carry over the theme with a touch of chocolate paint; no doubt blue and brown are a favorite pairing to my creative heart.

Before...

A Whaletastic after, voile!

Here, there, everywhere!

The takeover has begun. Slowly but surely all things baby have invaded the Scott household. A welcome change, but a change nonetheless. Things like...

More laundry to fold-I'm basking in the cuteness for now!More clutter-Even Evan's room is getting a little cluttered-fortunately Piper is keeping close watch over the misc. toys and things.More home makeovers-Our formal guest bath upstairs is beginning to look less and less "adult" and will soon get a kid friendly makeover. For now, the whale tub and it's many hooded towels and bath toys will have to sit tight.

More stuff-Chris and I LOVE this bouncer. It's super soft and colorful, plays our ipods, vibrates, and also complements our living area very nicely! It's currently sitting by the couch; not pictured is the stroller parked on the opposite side of the living room. On the horizon, we'll have to find some space for a high chair eventually, and how could I forget...the take-a-long swing!
Obviously a change is a comin'! While I just love our new shared space, I can't wait to break free of this townhome living! For now, I'm thoroughly enjoying the new and exciting baby things -here, there and everywhere :-)

If these walls could talk...

...they'd say "We love our new curtains!!"

Sweet Sweat Equity

Introducing adventures in doing it yourself….Our Fantastic Floor Makeover!

After a bear of a project like this, I am happy to exclaim “WE DID IT!” For over a year Chris and I have been talking about our dream hardwood style laminate floor, and now it’s a reality. After countless conversations, calculated planning, months of saving, and days of hard labor, we can finally sit back and enjoy our brand new living room floor.
Very early in the process, I had bright idea that we could make HGTV proud and do it ourselves- saving a ton of money in labor made it a no-brainer. Of course we weren’t alone. Thank goodness for the experienced hand of my dad, who was such a trooper to come up and help us install our floors. After a backbreaking day of hard work laying, hammering and jigsaw-ing away, I’m happy to say that the end result was completely worth it.

Was it unbelievably more intense than I thought? Yes! Did we totally underestimate the amount of work and elbow grease required? Absolutely! Would we consider doing a project of this magnitude again on our own? Debatable, lol!

I’m so proud of my dad and Chris. Both of them were such hard, patient workers! The floors look phenomenal, far better than I had hoped even. This past week has been like Christmas morning waking up to them! Plus, I feel so much cleaner to be rid of that awful carpet! Piper’s a huge fan of the floors as well, and is enjoying the retreat of a cool floor from the hot summer sun.

The finished product!

Without a doubt-and despite the crazy hard work- doing it ourselves was twice as gratifying as it was challenging. I’m glad that we were good stewards of our money, and knowing we put in the hard work to get these floors down gives us a heightened appreciation for their value and care.

While we installed the actual floors in one(FULL) day, the process from beginning to end took a few days, and we still have some minor ends to tie up. It all started with moving the furniture on Wednesday, losing our tv in the process, lol. Then on Thursday we reached the point of no return as Chris and I tackled the daunting task of pulling up our carpet. That part was'nt so bad, it was the glue and carpet tacks that really took the cake, ugh! Not to mention the insane amount of dirt and dust living under our floors…I thought the sweeping would never end. Finally on Friday my dad met us bright and early and we worked all. day.long. On Saturday we moved all of our furniture back and I swiffered like I’ve never swiffered before-I don’t think I’ve ever be that excited to clean a floor! After we finish recovering(it's been a week already, lol) we'll have to put down quarter rounds, and figure out some minor transition details on our own…but after beating this bear of a project, I feel like we tackle anything.

Praise the Lord, we made it! I am SO thankful for the opportunity to finally realize this long awaited goal of ours. Moreover, I'm so glad that we got it done with all of our fingers and toes intact, and with no major setbacks or defeats. God is so good to us :)

Not pictured:

One very loud and unhappy puppy who did not enjoy being left outside all day.

Two pounds of sawdust and wood chips covering our front porch.

THREE pitchers of Cherry limeade drank throughout the day.

Countless trips to Lowes Hardware-yes, we are officially homeowners!

New Sewing Projects

I just love the pattern for this oh-so-cute and simple apron I made. It couldn't be easier-you can even make it from dishtowels(though I couldn't resist this adorable fabric-love the houses)! It's the perfect apron for a little helper in the kitchen :) I found this pattern here.

Speaking of easy, I was surprised to find another great pattern for baby bibs. January is baby shower month for me, and I'm so excited to make these as gifts. Here are my trial runs...courtesy of this fun site.

Last but not least, here is my slightly modified pillow case dress. I sewed(sew?) this one a few months ago but am just now getting around to posting. You can find this pattern online at "Red Instead Blog."

Too much fun!

Adventures in Buttonholes and Ric Rack

I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to make this o-so-cute jumper for a certain cousin of mine. And while it's not without its share of novice mistakes, I'm pretty pleased with my first adventure in adorable jumper sewing :)
For this project, I mustered up the courage and learned how to make a buttonhole- as opposed to taking the easier velcro route. I was so excited to learn that my machine has it's own buttonhole function; it made the job so much less intimidating. I'm so glad I took the tortoises way on this one, and I'm happy to report that while it's certainly a learning experience, sewing a buttonhole was not all that scary!

In addition to my first buttons/buttonholes, I also pulled out the Ric Rack on this one. "Ric what?" It's that pink, zig zagy trim at the bottom of the dress, and one of my new favorite accessories. I just love my new hobby...who would've thought fabric could be so fun!

Adventures in Tote Making

Alas my latest sewing endeavour-the simple tote. As I am still climbing the learning curve of sewing, this very easy project was met with much trial and error. Thankfully, with a little perseverance and some serious pep talking, I finished my project with success. Whew! And to think, I was starting to worry... The second time around was much much easier than the first, and I have to say the third time was a charm. This isn't the greatest picture in that you can't see the little details-i.e the folded over/top stitched top and my mad ribbon skills- but that may be a good thing, lol. It's true, practice does make better :) I'm so excited to start putting my budding sewing skills to good use for gift giving, these totes are just the perfect Christmas/Birthday present(or at least a fun and stylish wrapping for them)!

And of course, Piper(camera hog extraordinaire) had to get in on the picture! What a cutie :)

Scrapbooking anyone?

Oh boy...
I bought a scrapbook at Michaels today. My plate of creative hobbies has quickly grown over me like a monstrous weed...and I love it! Of course I had told myself that I'd eventually get into scrapbooking again- maybe in a few years or when we start to have children, but hey, what better time than the present? Curse those Michaels coupons.

Against all odds, I have told myself that I will not go completely berzerk over scrapbooking-precious time and resources do not allow for it(although there is a new "Archivers" store near us and boy do they have some cute paper!). In any case, I refuse to accumulate an unoranized stack/box of pictures. After all, what's the point of even taking them if your not going to enjoy them?

And while I don't plan on going to Michaels every other day and spending countless hours cutting up pictures and tons of money on zig zag sissors and fun stickers, I am nonetheless so excited to rekindle my relationship with scrapbooking :)

Adventures in Aprons

So I tackled my first official sewing pattern last week-what a disaster! The pattern was of a very cute apron, both long and short, with a dainty ruffled edge. Not only was it written in another language(literally and figuratively), but it was also incredible assuming(that I was an experienced seamstress) and not "Sew Simple" as the title would suggest.

After way to much time reading the pattern instructions over and over again,I threw in the towel(I then did not stand back and watch as Piper mercilessly tore the pattern and it's carefully cut peices to shreds, and I certainly did not encourage such bad behavoir-nope, not me). So I decided to make my own apron, a la carte! Miles of milestones later, I came out with this:

I was pleasantly surprised at my hard work and am so proud of my first apron. Yes, it has its rough edges, and no, the back does not look nearly as good as the front-but that's okay. I was worried that by the time I had slightly found a clue that I had cut down the fabric so much and it would be way to small for me. It barely passes for my size, and would be a great child sized apron I decided. I'm sure the next time around it will be much easier-after all practice does make better.

In other news:
*As you may notice, I accidentally deleted my previous blog background(oops) and in looking for the original, stumbled across one I liked even better! A sweet mistake.

*This upcoming Sunday we will celebrate the two year anniversary of our Church, how exciting :)

*Last but not least, drum roll...we are beach bound this weekend! Hopefully we will have some sunny weather for our few days in Wilmington. Piper is coming with us too; stay tuned for pics!

Adventures in Sewing Part I

My first sewing project...not completely perfect, but a success nonetheless! (Just don't look too closely, lol :)

(I covered the floral patterned pillows, not the blue colored)

I love my new sewing machine, and can't wait to start on more projects. Once you get over the learning curve, it's not so complicated after all ;)

Painting Pottery

BubbleShare: Share photos - Powered by BubbleShare

Yesterday we went to "Clay Funk" to pick up our freshly fired pottery that we had painted for our anniversary. I painted a coffee cup for Chris, and he made me a laddle for the stove. I was very impressed with how they turned out, and happy to see that the kiln burned away some of my imperfections with the paint brush. I give us two thumbs up!

Getting Crafty...

Before....and After. A success!!!!

Fun with Fabric!

Lately, I am overwhelmed with the sense to be creative! Chris and I went to the "Mill Factory Outlet" today, which is like the mecca of all fabric stores. So many to choose from, it's almost overwhelming. I have many new projects in mind. To start small, I'm going to try and "upholster" a picture frame made of unfinished wood(thanks Michaels, just $1.99!!!). If all goes well, I would like to learn to make curtains, pillows and much more! (I feel like sometimes I have these great ideas, but have zero coordination to back them up!)
Sewing is a skill that I would love to aspire to in the future. Other than being a fun and creative outlet, I believe it can also be very cost efficient. And chances are, if you can't find exactly what your looking for, you can probably make it!