Projects Galore!

Hey ya'll! OH man this post is gonna be full of my latest little projects around the house and I hope you enjoy.  It kind-of explains my neglect of my blog here lately.  (that among other things!) :S  

Other than our house projects, we haven't gone anywhere outside of the Anchorage area.  Two Sundays ago we went redneck fishing in Anchorage.... yup, I said REDNECK FISHIN'! (because that's what it was)  We were fishing in the river by train tracks, in this thick, slippery, goopy gray mud.  There were only few spots you could (sort of) walk down through and even then the pace you walk is slower than molasses! (I finally had empathy for snails... haha)  To top it off, the etiquette in this river was gone.  Layne and I, and two other friends were fishing from the bank when a group of guys come wading down the river and literally stop RIGHT IN FRONT OF US TO FISH!!!!! They were casting in towards the bank at us...as if we weren't there casting out already!! It was, as I'm sure you can tell by my typing, a very annoying redneck day.  The only thing we came close to catching is one of those folks in the face! phew! Ok, so on to my fun projects....

We finally finished painting the downstairs bathroom/laundry area and it's awesome! I ripped out the old UUGGGGGLLLYY cabinet and Layne put up the new mirror and new light fixture.... ahhh much better! I then painted my laundry area a very happy happy color (so it would cheer me up while doing laundry because I HATE doing laundry!! While the area is still not decorated, the walls are at least DONE! :D

BEFORE....

AFTER!

I also took on a little project when Layne was at work.  My pantry door (along with all our kitchen cabinets) were haunting me with their painful old fake wooden "glow".  Soo I decided to tackle the only thing I could...the pantry door.  I wanted to make it a chalkboard so I could write on it and because I thought it would bring a cool charm to the kitchen.  I want a country/rustic style kitchen and home and this is my humble attempt.... 

                              I will probably add more to this, but it works like a charm for now! I used a primer and then Valspar Chalkboard paint.  I highly recommend!

I've also done small projects, spent hours sifting through wedding pictures and picking some out to develop, multiple trips to various craft stores, Walmart, the BX, and Costco.
Lots of grocery trips and shopping for our home.  I finally found some awesome chairs for our kitchen table (at a garage sale!)!  I  put on a burlap runner I bought at Michael's on the table, added an awesome antique lantern, then the chairs...and I'm one step closer to my country/rustic style!  I also purchased this old ugly metal corner shelf.  After 3 layers of paint, with a final top coat color, I have a quaint and colorful shelf for my kitchen. I may distress it some to let the other colors poke through, but we'll see. I'll show a finished kitchen picture once I'm actually "finished"!

BEFORE

DURING

 

DONE!

I have a lot of "P" letters I acquired as gifts from the wedding, so I took one of the larger ones and spent two days strategically wrapping twine to use... somewhere! It was a project a bit harder than I thought only because of the shape. I think I may add it to my wreath and put it on our front door...hmmm!

I made the wreath last night but decided to add one of the smaller "P"s to it instead- so this one below still needs a home...

When my mom and mother-in-law get here tonight, I finally will get to REALLY decorate my home and put up our dozens of pictures, and buy some much needed furniture for various areas of our home.  I CANNOT WAIT to see them! Moms always know what to do and how to decorate! =)

 This past Friday Layne and I had a chill night and finally went to see a movie!  We saw The Dark Knight Rises in IMax and it was awesome!! I highly recommend seeing it...if you liked the other Batman movies anyway.  Saturday Layne and I went down the road to hike a short trail called Thunderbird Falls with Dan and Michelle.  There were some pretty crazy steep hills and we made a trek through the river, hopping stone to stone in order to have a better view of the waterfall!  We got a better view and got wet in the process from the sprays of the waterfall.  It was very cool.  =)

We have our first house guest... Bernie! He's our neighbors dog (we are watching him while they are in Seattle) and is the happiest little thing I've ever seen! Rajah is gonna have a great little friend up here. =) 

He's already acting like he owns the place! ;)

My mom, Layne's mom, and my sweet Rajah will be here in 5 hours!! I'm so excited!! Im praying that my poor little pup doesn't die of a heart attack on the route up either! She probably thinks we sent her away forever! =(   

This Saturday we are driving to Seward (or close to it)  for a 7 hour cruise and at some point we will go to the Alaska State Fair (among dozens of other things)! I'm looking forward to this week with them very much.  I wish they were able to bring my entire family up here! Oh well! I hope everyone has a wonderful rest of the week! 

TTFN, 

Jenni