It turned into a monster.....

  "It's no big deal!"  "Just a little paint and all will be well."  "We've done this tons of times, this time won't be any different."

  These are the things Layton and I said to each other before we started the big painting project... not knowing how big of a deal it would turn into.  =P

  It was a little bit of a last minute project.  Layton hated the paint color that was through the entire house and the living room had bugged him the most.  Not only was it a terrible khaki/gold/sometimes-looked-green color, but we had brown walls, brown carpet, and brown flooring through the dining room.  Everything was this weird khaki/brown!  So finally we decided to do something about it.

  I have to admit early on in this post that I was so afraid of getting anywhere near the color that was already on the walls that I swung a little bit too far in the other direction.  I have now learned my lesson... a lesson that all first time home owners and self fixer-uppers need to learn... the paint WILL look brighter when it is all over the walls.  :)  All of that to say it is brighter than what I wanted, but Layton loves it and it is better that khaki/green/gold.  ;)

  So here is our painting journey that turned into a monster...

  This is the before color... it's kind of hard to see in the weird lighting.  

  And here is Layton cutting in way up high.  :)  I did not want anything to do with the high stuff.  Usually I wouldn't care, but pregnant I didn't trust myself and my clumsiness.  The yellow looks really yellow next to the khaki which made me really nervous at first.

  So, we got the first coat of paint on and realized that we were going to need 3 coats, not 2.  It wouldn't have been a huge deal, but I was almost in my third trimester of pregnancy and just don't move very fast, Layton had some work and then on top of that we both came down with a stomach bug.  So this "small" painting project took about 3 weeks from beginning to end.  ;)

  And here it is... This isn't the best photo of color, but it's the same spot I took the other one so I figured why not.  ;)

  

  This is my house almost back in order.  I was so very glad once everything was put back where it went and everything was clean once again!  I get easily stressed out in a messy house.  :)  (this is probably the best picture of the color)

  And a preggo picture against the newly painted wall.  Third Trimester!!!  Glad to have this big project out of the way before this little one gets here!  :)

DIY Fireplace White Wash

  We are slowly, but surely, remodeling our house.  Trying to take our time and really figure out what we want before getting our hands dirty.  ;)  We finally got to our fireplace and got step 1 done: White washing.

  It is a super simple process, though a little time consuming because of the steps.  We love how it turned out though and are super thrilled with the new look.

  BEFORE:

  I do love the look of brick, but am pretty picky about the color of the brick I like.  Layton is not a huge fan of brick and so he didn't like this brick at all.  We knew we wanted to change it up and we went with white washing over painting completely.

IN THE PROCESS:

  In the midst of it... It was definitely a longer project then we thought it would be.  All the sites I researched it on made it sound so simple, but it definitely doesn't get done in an hour.  Don't get me wrong though... the outcome was definitely worth the time put into it.

AFTER:

  It's done...!  At least for now.  We might go back and put another coat on, but for now we like it the way it is.  We are in the process of painting out living room/dining room and are waiting to see what it looks like with the new paint color on the wall.

  So what do you think?  White washing a success?

My Latest Project

  Life has been crazy and hectic, as I'm sure it has been for more people.  God has been teaching and molding, life has continued to move quickly, change has happened....
  I have finally gotten out of the "I'm so sick I can't function" stage of pregnancy.  Slowly my energy returns and with it the urgency of wanting to get things done better this baby gets here.  :)  So, I have slowly begun to work on projects I have been wanting to do for a while.
  The latest one is this earring rack...

  I love the way it turned out.  Layton helped me put it together using precut frame pieces from Hobby Lobby, Gorilla glue, and chicken wire from Home Depot.  It was super easy and then I painted it and distressed it with an ink pad.  :)
  Not a huge or glorious project, but it is a small step to getting everything done before June!  Only 20 weeks till this baby gets here and I am going to be as ready as I can be.  ;)

Hinkle Colorado Vacation

  Catch-up post number 1.
  We went to CO with Holly, Larry, and Chewy back in August.  It was a lot of fun and we all really enjoyed getting away.  Though it was a lot of car time since we went to 3 different destinations.
  There was lot so laughter and talk, games and hiking, telling each other not to panic while in the mountains and telling Chewy to scoot over!  :)  Coffee, sights, and fresh air.
  Our first stop was to see Kim and her family.  She was a high school friend of Holly's and they hadn't seen each other in 23 years!  We stayed with their family in Denver and got to go up to Estes Park.  It was a lot of fun getting to know new people and see new places.  :)

  This is Kim's family.  The girls were so sweet!  They adopted these two girls and then have three grown kids of their own.  :)

  We stopped at the cutest little coffee shop on the way up the mountain.  But sadly we found out a couple weeks after we got home that it is no longer there, due to the big flood that went through Estes.

  We stopped half way up the mountain and did some hiking and enjoyed the fresh air and time out of the car!  We had been in the car for 14 hours the day before this, so stretching our legs was a much needed experience.  :)

Oh the love!  ;)

Beautiful, beautiful!!!

We made it up the mountain safe and sound.  It was super cold at the top so we didn't stay up for too long.  :)  And then it was quite an adventure getting back down the mountain and out of Estes due to a bike race that was taking place that day.

  Next stop in our trip was to see Holly's mom and her husband Ed.  We enjoyed our time with them and it was a little more relaxed which was nice.  We played games, went to coffee, walked the dogs, and went ATVing in the mountains.  Lots and lots of fun!

  Playing dominos.  We were all laughing so hard that I couldn't get a good picture.  =P

Attempting to get the second four wheeler out of the truck without unhooking the trailer.  They got it, but I was quite nervous the whole time.

Half way up this mountain...  We stopped at this beautiful waterfall and an abandoned gold mine close by.  Needless to say... the boys did get gold fever.  You will see more of that later on.

  And our last stop of the trip was to see Holly's dad and his wife Wina.  They were super sweet the whole time we were there.  Continually try to give us anything and everything we wanted.  While we were there the guys went dirt biking, we went hiking in the mountains and had a picnic lunch, had dinner with Holly's brother Rick, and went tubbing down the river one day.  Lots of fun and we enjoyed all the sunshine.  :)

The waterfall we hiked to when we were up in the mountains. Absolutely beautiful!

My beautiful mother-in-law.  :)

The guys with gold fever.  They panned and panned and panned.  I thought they would never quite so we could get to Rick's in time for dinner.  ;)

And this is from the day we went tubbing.  It was beautiful weather and the water was perfect.

  The next day we headed home.  We had a wonderful time but were definitely ready to get back to Texas and all we had left there.  It was a really long ride home, but we worth the trip.  :)  Next time maybe we can make this trip while it is snowing...  :)

Birthday Blessings

  I know, it really has been forever.  But I have to admit... updating my blog has been nowhere near number 1 on my priority list.  Between still getting settled in from the move, not having internet for quite a while, and then finding out that baby Hink is on the way, and all the sickness that has come with that news, I have not even thought about the blog until last week.
  So now, I am going to attempt to do better.  I have quite a few "catch-up" posts to do, but those will come later.  :)

  On with life... my birthday was this past week.  The big 21!!!  I was absolutely pampered all day.  :)  My husband made breakfast for me that morning and then we acted like we had never grown up by playing the wii for a little while.  After that the real celebrating began...

  First stop was a lunch date at Cheddar's.  Definitely one of my all time favorite restaurants.  :)  This is the onion ring appetizer... it is huge so don't expect to be hungry after eating these.  ;)

  And my sweet husband let me get a Dr. Pepper for my birthday!!!  I have decided to do one a month... and maybe one day I will give them up for good.

  Then it was movie date to go see the new Thor movie!  It was really good and we both enjoyed ourselves.  A very fun day out, but it definitely wore me out.  :)  I came home and crashed out on the couch.
  On top of all the wonderful things my husband did, I got many encouraging texts, facebook posts, and phone calls throughout the day.  I am one very blessed lady!!!

~Enjoy your weekend!  And the beautiful weather outside!!!

Pallet, Signs and Paint

  Okay. Here it is... The latest project. :)

  I really enjoyed working on this one and I had been looking forward to it for quite a while.

  Layton helped out a little. ;) He tore the pallet apart, cut the wood for me, and made sure I didn't mess it up while putting it together. :)

  And I took it from there... The sanding, painting, and hanging. So are you ready to see it?

  I worked on it for an evening and a day... It really didn't take very long at all and I absolutely love how it turned out.  So in case you want to do this sign or something like this, here is what I did step by step.

  First Layton brought home a pallet from work... He broke down the pallet so that I had 5 boards. I knew what size I wanted and just got enough boards to make the size. If you didn't have a pallet I would buy fence slats. He cut the length down to what I wanted. My sign was 16x20.

  Then I sanded each board down a little, just so that you wouldn't get any splinters by working with the wood. I wanted my wood very rustic, do I didn't sand much. I left all the nail holes and dents in the wood because I like what they add. :)

  Then come painting... I painted each slat with 1 coat of paint/primer. Make sure you get in all the crevices. I thought about sanding mine a little after this to make it even more rustic, but decided against it.  Then we bought baskets and 3/8 in. screws and put the boards together. At that point you should have this....

  Make sure you decide what side of the slat you want in front! These brackets were my favorite, but you could use hinges too.

  After that things get time consuming. ;) You either need a cricut or some stencils for this next part. I used my cricut to cut out my letters in the size I needed. I also used two different fonts, but you wouldn't have to. After that you place them in the board and see if you need to make any changes. At this point you should have this...

At this point I made sure I liked the spacing between the lines and all of that. Then I took a pen (you could use a pencil) and outlined the letters. This takes a while since the wood is so ruff. After that you start filling in all your letters with a very small paint brush. I bought the sample size paints at home depot. Sometimes you can find these on sale for 50 cents, but they might not be the color you like. I put the coats of orange on and one coat of charcoal grey. The nice thing about doing a rustic sign is you can't rally mess this part up... If you're painting isn't perfect it just adds more character. ;)

  And here it is, all hanging and beautiful. :)  I used the teeth hangers, but you could do wire too.  I love how it looks next to our wedding pictures. 

  So there you have it. A homemade sign that you couldn't buy that cheap! Change it up, make it your own, that's the fun in it. :)

~ God bless and happy crafting!

Torchy's Tacos

  So, this will be short and sweet... if you have not been to Torchy's Tacos then you must go this week!  haha...
  Layton and I journeyed there on a close friends suggestion.  We went with some friends of ours and everyone loved it.  It can be a little pricey for tacos, but for a fun date it is great.  :)

   Layton being silly.  :)  He was serious about his tacos.  I can't remember all the tacos we all tried, but our friend Andy tried a fried avocado taco and said it was great.

  These are my tacos... I had a sausage taco and a pulled brisket taco.  They were both amazing and the sauces they give you are out of this world.  :)
  Also, before you get out of your chair and run over to Torchy's... Remember to order their wonderful queso.  They make it with guacamole in the middle and a little of Torcy's special sauce over the top.  A most if you are to go!
  Please comment any fun restaurants you enjoy in the fort worth, arlington area.  We are always up for trying something new!