Shelf Life

We decided to tackle a small, hanging over our heads project this weekend of hanging some floating shelves in our dining room. The shelves were a free hand-me-down gift from Nate's grandmother who moved to a new apartment and couldn't take them with her. We thought it would be the perfect halftime-of-the-football-game activity.

...Why is it that "quick" projects always go a little haywire?

Regardless, we got it done, the second half proving to be a much smoother process after hacking our way through the first. Here, have a look-see:

Dining Room Before (a dark and gloomy day, as you can see)

Screws and Drywall Anchors

 And here's where it all began to head a little southward...

Drywall anchors crack and break... In the wall...

...Not pretty. Our thought? "That's weird. Let's try again."

Clearly the second attempt went much better.... Or you know. Not.

But that shelf (left) finally went up, and the other 2 were smooth sailing.

Our gorgeous wedding gift Dansk serveware up on display, yay!

First draft - You know I'll be adding and subtracting for a while probably.

So happy how the shelves and silver gleams transition into the living room.

Let's save you some scrolling and have one last before and after, shall we?

I love the whole effect, and is it just me or does the room look larger? Thrilled to have our pretty Dansk 'Fjord' serving ware out to see every day, and I'll admit: A little smug over how nicely these new shelves transition into the shelf and decor in the living room.

As for the breaking drywall anchors and holes in the wall: We didn't realize that there was a horizontal beam behind the wall on the left, thinking only of looking out for vertical studs. After realizing we were blowing apart anchors because they were hitting solid wood, we scrapped 'em and screwed straight into the beam. As for the holes, that's what spackle and touch up paint were made for, right?

Or, we could just hang the shelf over those holes and say we'll fix them later... *ahem*...

Hooray for hand-me-downs!

P.S. The candles came from Ikea, and we used the two shortest guys in the set as our unity candle lighters in our wedding ceremony. Another fun way to incorporate wedding leftovers without them being "wedding-y".

Random Round Up: Fall Weekend

The rain has arrived, but I'm still loving fall and all that comes with it.

Brach's Mallowcremes... Gets me every year.

At least gray skies make for bright leaves.

Does this movie still really need a caption? An all-time fave.

Dessert at the in-laws: Smoked brownies with raspberries and vanilla

Produce De-Coded

Wow, I can't believe how this week has sped by. Apologies for the radio silence - Coming home dog tired has really cut in to my creativity of late. Thought I'd throw out this photo I found on my Facebook feed recently since I found it pretty interesting - Who knew?

click photo to enlarge

I know I'll be checking out those stickers more closely on the next grocery run. I have at least two more weeks in the training I'm doing at work - Hoping to hit my stride so I can find a little more balance... And do a little more blogging.

Happy, happy Friday! It's certainly my favorite day this week.

Random Round Up: Rejuvinating Weekend

We're nearing 80 days of no rainfall here, which is utterly and completely unheard of (as in, we broke a 1922 record yesterday at 70-something days). It's wreaking havoc on my sinus headache prone self, but getting out and enjoying it has become priority one after a cool summer and impending months of wet.

The new iPhone comes with a panorama capability - Click to enlarge and see the train/beach/gorgeous-ness.

 

Apples sauteing in spices - The smell of fall!

Day lilies blooming like crazy.

The sweetest: Sleepy pup on my shoulder.

Sushi date at my favorite place.

This is happening. Sorry Tuck!

Walkin' on a cloud with new Saucony tennies. (Thanks for the gift card, work!)

Wiped.

To sum up, this is how I'm feeling after a very long work week:

image

Looking forward to a weekend full of downtime, sushi, and a DVR full of Project Runway and Fashion Police.

Happy Friday Friends & Fam!

Please Be Seated

We have a window seat!!

Okay, well sort of. But it is officially installed and I have enjoyed it in all it's un-cushioned, un-trimmed glory multiple times already. Check out all the hard work that went in over the weekend - And take note, this program has been shortened to fit the time allotted... It really took almost 8 full hours of labor. Huge thanks to my dad and hubs!!!

They're too fast for a prelim shot - Carpet already up and pad out!

Trim removed and Nate cleaning up the crumbs.

Giant clamp in use.

More giant clamping.

Tucker taking in the chaos - Bench in and new bottom trim on!

Lots and lots (and lots) of this in the garage.

Not even finished fully and it's glorious!

Like it was always meant to be! See the puggle in the corner? Let's zoom in...

Loving this amazing autumn weather.

So needless to say, we still have some things to do - Let's take a look at the list, shall we?
*Build & Prime
*Paint
*Rip out carpet underneath structure (and eventually put in flooring - can't WAIT for that)
*Remove baseboard trim from wall and place on bottom of bench (we went with new in the end)
*Fill holes and touch-up paint (this one's new to the list now that the construction dust has settled)
*Adhere vertical decorative (and seam-hiding) trim to body of bench
*Adhere trim to front lip of seat cover
*Make cushions

We're really getting there - Feels much more real now that it's in and the baseboard trim is on. That really just sealed the reality deal for me. More work is slated to happen in a couple weeks when a piece my dad took home to rework comes back for installation. You know I'll keep you posted!

Random Round Up: Family Fun

It felt like an extra long weekend since we kicked it off on Thursday (although still went to work on Friday), and was chock full with activities, great food, and parent-visits.

A is for Apple Pie

B is for Banana Oatmeal Muffins

C is for [Plum] Cake - Made from plums from our tree (and SO DELICIOUS).

Stadium Sunset during a massive UDub vs Stanford upset. Yay Huskies!

Tucker recovering after my parents and their dog Shiloh hit the road Sunday.

...And yes, LOTS of forward motion on the window seat! More on that to come soon. Happy October y'all.