Eminence Canoe Trip Photos

Paul and his crawdad

The girls (minus grans)

The first day it rained so hard the raindrops where coming back out of the water. It would seem as it didn't bother me as much as it did Paul! Love the expression!

Moms and Me! (Paul photobombing in the background!)

Paul's big catch of the trip.

Everywhere we went Paul had to see if he could get into trouble. Dainty rope tied to a tree looking like it could snap? Sure...Lets swing off of it and see what happens!

Nevertheless it was an amazing trip! I'm glad Paul had a good time with my side of the family as well. He seems amazed that Missouri rivers could be that clear!

Chandelier, Oh Chandelier

Right now I'm completely obcessed with chandeliers. I currently have two that I have been redo-ing. One is finished and about to be hung (pictures coming when this actually happens). The one that is already done goes with the papasan that is featured in the post before this. It will hang over it and provide me a little slice of book reading heaven.

The other one is bigger with 10 lights instead of 5 but kinda looks somewhat like the picture below. Right now it is a brassy sort of gold but depending on what color coverlet I have yet to buy it will be a matching color.


(via Pinterest)

Also, lately I have been a reading machine. I go through about 2 books a week or so depending on whether I work my 3 day 12 hour weekends or just my 2 day 12 hour.  Needless to say when I get on a roll with one of my books almost all other things cease importance to me (except Pinterest of course!) When I say all other things I mean keeping up with my blog or making my bed haha.

Some of the books I have been reading lately that I will highly suggest are:
Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah
Just Breathe by Susan Wiggs
Summer by the Sea by Susan Wiggs
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
Anything by J.R. Ward
A Summer Affair by Elin Hilderbrand

I am a big Susan Wiggs fan and just picked up Dockside to read. If there is anything worth noting I pretty much read anything! Drop a suggestion! I'm trying to get as much reading done this summer because once school starts in August I'm afraid my reading for pleasure won't be available! Nursing school will OWN ME!

Papa-WHAT?!

A couple posts ago I said that I was going to unveil a project that Paul's mother and I worked on. This project was a bit harder than we thought it was going to be. We didn't have pattern to work with so we used newspaper and taped them together. It turned out GENIOUS!!
Paul wasn't the happiest when I called him one morning and told him I needed him to come pick up something I'd gotten from a garage sale (I mean really, I need to break him before he's obligated to do these things for me down the road!)

He had no idea why I would want some hand me down papasan that looked like this one looked. Like such a boy, he didn't see my big picture that I had for this baby!

Here is the before:

Here is the after: 

After a nice little spray paint party at my friend Hayley's (Firefighter's Family) the frame looked 100% better and I found a nice pattern that I though would pop off of it!

I will also add that I made the pillows on top of it after I finally got my sewing machine. It was my first ever something sewn. I pray they hold up!

I'm already enjoying sitting in this chair more than what I was before! 

Let Freedom Ring!

I'm back from my vacation(s)....One turned into two!

First of all Paul and I took a trip down to South Missouri to go canoeing with my side of the family! It was such a relaxing weekend. The first trip down the river it rained the entire day so it wasn't much fun. The second day however it was nice and warm and sunny and BOY was it nice! Such clear water that you could see the bottom with all the fishies swimming around.

Photos will have to be uploaded later due to the fact that my parents have the only waterproof camera.

Then we headed on up to Madison, Wisconsin to see Paul's side of the family. His sister has 7 month old twins and his two cousins just had babies a week apart from each other in February. Needless to say it was never a quite house!

Saturday night we went out to a lakehouse to watch the fireworks over Lake Mendota. Here's a picture I got while on a boat ride before the sunset.

Floating on the river!

This weekend I'm floating on a couple rivers in South Missouri. Ready to relax and maybe catch some fish! If you're visiting from Better After then thank you for stopping by. I know my blog is pretty new but Ive had my crafty pants on lately and hopefully some of you will enjoy what I've got planned.

My future mother in law helped me make a cover for a papasan this week and once I get back from my vacation I will be sure to post. I couldn't believe how well it turned out so I'm excited to show everyone!

And once again thank you for the praises on the lyre chair! I had a lot of fun making it and was please with my first project!

On a Better Note

Officially this is the first project that hands down I've done completely by myself. I painted, I cut, I stapled, I painted again!

Drumrolllllll pllleeasseee....and Voila!

Before:

After:

This chair is a Goodwill find for 3 dollars. I liked it originally because I used to be an Alpha Chi Omega and one of the of our symbols was a lyre (3 stringed harp in the center..) After I started the project I decided that I wanted to reupholster the seat and make it lyrical.

First of all, I'm not a great painter. I don't draw straight lines and as much as I wish I could say I freehanded this, who am I kidding. My BFF Google found me the clef note that I had to trace and I freehanded that much...I do paint inside the lines when I have to!

I hope it looks as good as I think it does but I'm the owner/creator so I'm slightly biased :-)

A Brighter Bloom

Once upon a time I found this sad little lamp. I'm sure back in the 70's this lamp was a hit but nowadays it was resembling a sad pale yellow flower.

The lamp shade alone was enough to put an allergetic into a sneezing frenzy. The thing was caked with dust! I loved the ceramic details though so I couldn't walk away from a dollar deal.

The first step to getting this flower back to a brighter bloom was to give it a Sun Yellow face lift. Then it was on to the shade. I tore off the pleated...well I'm not sure what it is but it was none the less hideous! You can also see that the desk was redone which you can see here.

Off to Wal-Mart to get some fabric. I wanted to do a burlap wavy shade but I figured it would have been TOO much detail so I went with the one fabric that I saw and actually liked. (Our Wal-Mart doesn't have a fabric section)

Viola! A new life is born and I'm really happy about it! It really brightens up the room and it'd definately not wilting anymore!

Overall the project costed me around 8 dollars or so:

Lamp + Shade = $1

Spray Paint = $3.24

Fabric = $3.87

(with scraps left over than I can reuse somewhere else)

Now I'm off to make so music (hint: little teaser of what's to come!)