Another House Project-{table}-

  Well, remember that pinkish-purple, pepto bismol colored table?  It is finally finished being re-made.  It is made anew!  And I have to say, that I think I like it very much.  :)
  I found this table in Canton when I went with my mother and sister... my brother was taking pictures for one of the booths there so we decided to make a shopping day of it.  The table was $15, the paint was technically free (I got it from my mother.  But she got it for 50 cents.), and the labor was free ;).  Not bad for a new table.
  I had been looking for a small table just like this one everywhere.  I looked at Home Goods, World Market, and on the world wide web, but had no success.  There aren't very many tall, little tables out there I found, and the ones that are out there are around $100.  So you can imagine how happy I was to find this bargain.

  Here is the pepto bismol pink! How glad I was to be rid of it.  haha... I'm not a fan of pink and especially not this shade of pink.
  The funniest part about it is, the other day Layton and I were in Target and I saw a table this exact color on clearance... I understood why it was on clearance right away.  ;)

  To those of you that might like this shade of pink... I do not mean to offend.  We all have our colors we like.  I just tend to be an orange, blue, red, green, yellow person.

  And I have found that those that like the color orange the best tend to not like pink at all.  They just aren't very good friends. :)

Here is the new color... I also am a fan of the distressed style.

I love the look and what all you can do with it.

The casual, rustic, and practical aspects of it also appeal.

  We use the table now in our living room.  It sits in the corner by our stairs with the key bowl on it.  It also has the picture frame Joe gave us for Christmas on it with photos he took at our family vacation last October.

  I think the thing I liked best about this table was that it was so versatile.  For now it will go in our living room, but I don't really like furniture that can only be used for one purpose (or at least for the most part).

  I like that this table could eventually go in a bathroom, entry way, kitchen, or nursery.  Since we do not know what our future house will look like, it is hard for me to buy furniture for specific spots right now.  Though I do look forward to those days when you know exactly what you want for a certain spot and you go hunting for it.  :)

  This is the other project I worked on today.  My sweet sister Stephanie found this tack board for $4!

  I have it in my kitchen right now with aprons hanging on it and recently it has collected coupons and other odd papers, but now it will be a wonderful picture board.

~Enjoy your Wednesday.  Only two days till the weekend!

A Dallas Adventure...

   So, last Saturday Layton and I used some Christmas money we had gotten and went to the Dallas Aquarium.  It was so very fun!  We both enjoyed a day out together.  And we decided beforehand that we were going to take our time and not rush... just a relaxing day, so that was really nice.  :)
  First we went to Starbucks... Layton's idea.  :)

He got a vanilla spice latte because his throat was bothering him.  :-/

I got a White Mocha Frappe with toffee nut... So good!

It's by far my favorite.

   Then to the Aquarium we went... traffic wasn't too bad which was really nice and we got there rather quickly.  Though once we got got of our car we realized it was very good we were going to do an inside expedition... it was really cold out side and windy.

   As your walking in there are already animals which is fun.  We purchased tickets and then started our adventure through the rainforest.  It was pretty crowded which was a bit of a bummer, but not to bad.  All the exhibits were really fun.  There were monkeys, birds, turtles, fish, sharks, and so much more.

This guy was one of the free range birds and he had landed on a branch right above our heads.

Our camera does not do him justice... his colors were beautiful.

This guy was hilarious.  Layton and I laughed at him for a while.

They are tiny little monkeys and they move super fast.

And I loved his mustache... :)

At one point he even jumped onto the fence right in front of us.

This was taken in the main aquarium part...

He loved swimming on the glass.

The crazy part is he looked huge and I went to another aquarium one time and they said that the glass makes everything look 20% SMALLER!  Craziness.

Flamingos!  They were orange, not pink, which was interesting.

Afterward we went to the Dream Cafe.

It was suggested by Ben and Rhiannon and was pretty good.

They serve brunch and lunch, so Layton got pancakes and I got chicken enchiladas.

   We had a marvelous time and I would definitely say it is worth going to.  And it is always just fun to take a little road trip and do something you have never done before.  =D
   Now it is another weekend, starting tonight...
~Enjoy your loved ones and all the blessings God has given you!

Our First Christmas

   I know, it has been a while since Christmas, but we have been so busy that I am just now getting to this blog post.  :)

   We had a wonderful first Christmas.  And the best part to me was not the gifts or the decorations on the tree or the wonderful food, but the company... I could not stop thinking about the blessing of being married to this wonderful man.  Many of you do not know Layton and my's story, but if you are interested in knowing it, let me know and we can have coffee sometime.  There were many, many times that I thought Layton and I would never be married and then to be married and celebrating our first Christmas together was such a wonderful time.  A great time of reflection and gratitude.

   And then on top of all of that it is just fun to celebrate the birth of Christ with the people you love most.  :)

Upon Layton's request, I made chocolate chip waffles.

I also made homemade whip cream to go with them... so very yummy.  :)

Layton with his milk mustache...

He is in love with milk and would drink it constantly if I let him.  :)

Then we opened our HUGE stockings.....

I think we were both more excited to see the other person open theirs, though we were both curious as to what the other one got us.

I got Layton the new Kutless cd, A journal, Reese's pieces, mint M&Ms, white chocolate reese's, nutella snack, almond joys, scrabble titles (to play speed scrabble), and last but not least, Tim Hawkins tickets.  =D

Layton got me three candles, also Reese's pieces, A huge bag of coffee, truffles, burt's bees, Andes mints (my favorite), fuzzy socks, three sets of knitting needles, and last but not least, an iTouch.  =D

   We had a wonderful time and great fun.  Afterwards we went to my parents for dinner and fun. :)  I hope you all had a blessed Christmas and a wonderful New Year!

~Keep warm this cold, rainy day.  :)

Tis the Season

   Merry Christmas everyone!  It is just a little over two weeks away until Christmas...  :)
  Since it is Layton and I's first Christmas married I was afraid that we would have zero decorations.  Thankfully, my wonderful mother gave us some of her stuff, we were able to go get a little tree, and I knitted stockings for us to hang.  It has all gone together and ended up looking very festive.
  Here is a look into our Christmas decor this season...

Our Tree... He is short and fat and we love him very much.  :)

Ignore the color of the table (it is my next house project, hopefully).

This is on the corner by our stairs... we had leftover ornaments and then the silent night is from my sweet mama.

Our stockings!

They turned out just as I was hoping they would, though they are HUGE!  There is no way we will ever be able to fill them.  :)

A close up... Don't they look good?!?

Though I found out very quickly that L's are a lot easier to do than K's.

And then last, but not least... our snowmen.  :)

  Merry Christmas everyone!

Enjoy God's great gifts this season... 

Bathroom Decor

   So, I had felt like our apartment was getting more and more put together, but the room that bothered me the most was our bathroom... it was very plain with nothing on the walls and no cuteness to be found.  ;)
   My wonderful sister Stephanie found a bargain on some glassware and that laid the foundation for what is now our bathroom decor.

This is by far my favorite part... I bought these little letters at JoAnns, painted them and then sanded them to make them look a little distressed.

Our wonderful shower curtain.  It took me quite a while to find a shower curtain that I liked... I'm a little picky and we have kind of a weird blue as our colors, which made it even harder.  But I am definitely satisfied with what we ended up with!

These little shelves are above the toilet and by the shower...

I thought we need to personalize the room a little.  :)

And lastly, what is in the little glass jars?...

The most wonderful bath salts from Central Market.

They have been soaked in Essential Oils, so they smell wonderful and some of them are really strong.  They probably have about fifteen different scents.

   That is all... I hope you are all enjoying this fine Texas weather.

~Merry Christmas

Happy Birthday to Me!

   I know, I am so horrible far behind on my posts... I feel like a have ten waiting to get on here.  ;)  Novembers are always super crazy for my family and being married this year did not change that.
   Our Novembers in the past have always looked about like this... finish volleyball season, start basketball season, my uncles birthday, then my birthday, then my grandfathers birthday, then my sweet daddy's birthday and then a day or two (or like this year) or the day of is Thanksgiving.  Needless to say, I feel like I have been running non-stop and once I thought it was all over and done, I came down with the stomach bug on Friday.  In everything give thanks!
   So anyways, back to this post... two weeks ago, on November 13th, my lovely sisters and mama and me went to Old Town Grapevine to have brunch and shop around.  We had an absolute blast and it was a great way to celebrate my birthday.  And I told my sisters and mama that they would be apart of a blog post, so here it is.  ;)

I got a caramel macchiato and french toast.  It was really good.

The best part about brunch was everyone was sampling everyones plates, so we got to try a lot of different stuff.

I am part of a very loverly family.  :)

Left--Tori and I messing around.

Right--Stephanie with her John Henry (aka future prince charming).

This was in one of the shops... Not that Tori would ever have this in her house, but it totally reminded us of her.  :)

Me and my sweet mama.  It was a wonderful birthday and I greatly enjoyed it.

~Enjoy the family God has blessed you with (spiritual family and earthly one)!

Primed, Painted, and Perfect!

   Sorry it has been so long... I have been struggling with yet another sickness. But I think I am almost on the other side, and just in time for my birthday.  :)

   Anyways, Layton and I went garage sailing a few weekends ago and found a great bargain!  We found two bar stools for $5 each.  All wood and wonderful!  Only problem... they were hideous!  haha... So, we had a home depot gift card, went out and bought some paint and a-painting we went.  :)

before

Yes, those are paint splatters.  Yes, I did sand them for a long time.  And yes, they are still not perfect.  :)

after

And this is how they are now.  Much better, right?  I am excited at how they turned out.

   So, this is what I have been doing recently.  I took a break from knitting my dress and now I am taking another break and knitting Christmas stockings.  :)  I will blog about them as soon as they are done!

  In the mean time, enjoy your evening, drink lots of mint hot cocoa, and have fun with your family.  And of course, don't forget to thank God for all of those things and many, many more.