Raised Flower Bed

Hello long lost bloggers.. It's been a while.. I've been busy, to say the least. Working 2 jobs, living with my college student husband (who just graduated June 14 - woohoo!!) current change of jobs, raising our 4 fur-babies, and blogging wedding on my work blog, MonogramWedding & of course the usual house projects and upkeep. Holy Moly! Things seem to be calming down a little bit and I can finally breath and get some sleep, and now catch up on some blogging!

If anyone knows me, you might know that I am a little impatient. When I want something done, I want it done, now! Which could be why in the heart of "spring showers" I was creating a raised flower bed along our back fence and traipsing through our swamp of a yard with buckets of sand and dirt (because it was too wet to use a wheel barrow) and hauling by hand arm fulls of slate for the retaining wall. Looking back, I probably could have waited a month, or 2, but I got it done and absolutely LOVE it! I can't believe we had NOTHING along our back fence before. {I completed this project in April}

{our yard is clay, so until it stops raining for about a month, our entire backyard is a swamp! Thank goodness for rainboots!}

Our street flooded back in January, it was the craziest weirdest thing. Our whole street was like a river. We literally had neighbors boating by.. the water got as high as our front yard so we went out and got free sand bags, just in case. Thankfully the water never got to the house, but it was scary! I used the sand bags from that to build up my base for my raised bed. I left the sand in the bags and lined the fence. Then I went to a sand bag drop zone and got more loose sand to put on top, then added dirt. I got my plants from Leon Nursery in Sherwood. They had a Groupon for $19 for $40 worth of plants. I had $10 in Groupon bucks so I got the deal for $9! I ended up spending $57, but since I had the Groupon, it was really only $26 total! What a deal for my pretty new plants! The slate retaining wall was made from free slate we got last spring from a good friend {remember this post?} The rock path in front was created last weekend by my mom when we did a major yard makeover! {more on what we did coming soon!}

My mom also planted some Clematis which hopefully will grow up the fence! I LOVE how the whole thing turned out and enjoy looking out our kitchen window and seeing some color!

Giveaways & Freebies!

If anyone knows me more than 5 minutes, chances are you know I love a good bargain/deals/coupons/giveaways,.. and I hardly EVER buy anything at full price. Well right now there are 2 great giveaways I have to share..

The first giveaway is on the blog, Kids, Clutter, and Chaos, a kids product review site + recipes, party ideas, and everyday chaos. I don't have kids {besides my fur-babies} but you don't have to be a momma to appreciate a good product, a giveaway, or healthy recipe! Right now through April 30th at 11:59pm EST you can hop on over to Kids, Clutter, and Chaos to participate in "Avoiding April Showers Giveaway Event" and enter to win a beautiful Uppercase Living Blume necklace and 50 custom notecards from MonogramWedding.com! Go here to enter: {here!}

If you don't know much about either Uppercase Living or MonogramWedding, Kids, Clutter, and Chaos, also reviewed both companies so you can learn a little more about them! Check out her review on Uppercase Living {here!} See her review of MonogramWedding.com {here!}

The 2nd giveaway is another sponsored by MonogramWedding. Become a fan of their Facebook page and comment on this cute label with your wedding song! Whomever gets the most "likes" will win 100 free custom waterproof labels! 

The song that captures the most "likes" by Friday,  April 27th at 4:00pm PST wins!!! Good Luck!

Great uses for these custom labels:
*Return Address
*Gift Tags
*Water Bottles
*Part Favors
*Label your kids toys!
*Decoration
*.....whatever your heart desires!

Who doesn't love a good product, especially when you can get it for free!? So hurry and enter to win these great two giveaways!

2012 Home Tour

We're constantly making changes. Here's a tour of how things look like this month.

{our new/old lucite coffee table we got off craigslist - originally from CB2}

{dining room/kitchen}

{our new puppy Watson! & the hallway}

 {the guest room}

{our 1 and only bathroom}

{our bedroom}

{our home office}

Office Update

I've slowly been making some good progress on the office makeover that I started back in September! In early October I broke down and bought the desk I wanted from Overstock, it was a PAIN IN THE BUTT to put together, and blood, sweat, & tears were shed {literally} from Adam and I trying to put it together, but in the end, it really is perfect! We also finally got our TV we've had since last Christmas hung on the wall! AND the latest & greatest news is we got new office chairs!!! My parents got Adam and I office chairs for our Birthdays! {our birthday's are only 2 weeks from each other} I was probably more excited for the gift than Adam, but I'm sure he really appreciates them since he was using my old vanity stool to sit on :) There are a few things I still want to do, but I am totally happy with the progress! Here's a look:

{we drilled a hole through the wall to the other side - Adam's closet & guest room, to hide the cords!}

{I found this PERFECT frame at an antique store months ago and painted it white, of course!}

{these fabulous black & chrome modern side chairs were given to us by a very special friend last February, I love them! and they are so perfect in our new office!}

{ordered "live to CREATE to live" from UppercaseLiving! The wire curtain rod is from IKEA}

{I've had this lamp for YEARS - I still Love it! These side tables Adam found at Goodwill for $4 each! they are so cute and such a perfect size - I'm debating painting them, probably will, but not until spring}

{& our new chairs! so cute! so perfect! Happy Birthday to us! Thanks Mom & Dad!}

In case you don't remember, the old office can be seen here and here! SOooo much better now, if I do say so myself! ;)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

I love Christmas! Everything about it. The lights, the tree, the decorating, the spirit, the parties, the giving, the food, the time with family... everything! This year it started to look a lot like Christmas a bit early in our home. Usually we put up lights the weekend before Thanksgiving - turn them on the day after - then get our tree that same weekend, then decorate the house. This year we've had Christmas decorations around our home since October!! The reason; I'm doing a Christmas Craft Bazaar, along with Adam's Mom & Aunt the first weekend in December. Every free moment I've had has been devoted to making wreaths, painting, glittering, & using a LOT of hot glue! We have wreaths hanging from every door in our house, the dining table is stacked high with projects, and we've all got glitter on us. I'm excited for the sale to be here soon & hope that my items are a hit! Once all these items for the sale are out of the way, I can finally start decorating our home for Christmas for real.

The Town & Country Christmas Bazaar is at the Linn County Fair & Expo Center in Albany, December 2nd-4th. 

{here's a peek at some of my items}

Let there be light!

Here's my reveal - finally - the my CB2 delivery, 

I MADE A BUBBLE LIGHT CHANDELIER! 

I've been eying these DIY bubble chandeliers for some time now and just never had the right spot for it. That was until I re-did the bathroom. I found this fabulous mirror on craigslist and fell in love with it, I had to have it.

 

Once I painted it white, of course, and we hung it up, it just completely clashed with our standard boring bathroom light fixture. The detailing on top of the mirror touched the wall mount and the shape was just not right. That's when I thought a chandelier would be the perfect solution - then I thought Bubble Light Chandelier! and a few months later.. that's what we have!

It was a piece of cake to make and if you're interested go here: {here} Rachel from the Small Notebook did a WAY better job at a tutorial than I ever could. But here's a pictorial of what I did.

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Much better - I love it! The only thing left to do is hide the cord going up the wall. I'm thinking I need to get something like {this} then paint it to blend in with the wall. to be continued...

Special CB2 Delivery!

Yahoooooooooo!!!!

I've been eying something that I've wanted to make for practically the last year and I keep just putting it off, until now. Hopefully tomorrow I have an update about what it is.. YEAH! :)