I'm Jumping on the Bandwagon. . .

So as I have mentioned in a few of my recent posts our home is finally starting to feel finished. Now don't get me wrong our to do list still feels a mile long. However we are reaching a point where I am not sure there will be things to blog about every week.

With that in mind I have decided to branch out a bit, I mean after all I want this to be a lifestyle blog not just a home decor blog. I am going to be putting together my own version of Kendi's 30x30 wardrobe remix. Have you guys ever heard of this? If not here is a synopsis of what I'll be doing:

1. I will pick 30 pieces from my closet (not including accessories) and remix them for the next 30 days. 

2. Unfortunately due to my work schedule (got to love night shift). The 30 days will not be consecutive. This means that what takes most bloggers one month will be taking two months for me.

3. I will do a synopsis of what I wore on Monday's (Thursdays will still be devoted to home/life projects.)

4. I obviously will not be including my work uniform in these 30 pieces. (Besides I do not really find Caribbean blue scrubs to be very fashionable.)
5. No Shopping (for clothing at least): This is probably going to be the hardest part. I find so many things a my favorite thrift shop every time I put a no shopping ban on myself!

So what do you think? Have you ever tried to only wear 30 pieces from your closet? I am hoping this will show me how to wear things different ways and to expand my creative limits when it comes to dressing myself.  This is also going to help with my new years goal of getting dressed everyday. I know shocker right that I do not get out of pj's most days I am off. (I blame night shift!)

I will be back on Thursday with all the pieces from my closet!

Procrastination: The Spice of Life

Back today with just a small update to our kitchen area. Under our microwave in our kitchen was a large blank canvas just waiting for me to add something. Well it turns out I bought that something over a year ago. A friend and I went to Ikea around this time last year and I bought some pieces of their Bygel collection. This is basically a series of bars, hooks, and baskets that all fit together.

Anyway back to finally hanging them. I forgot to pick up screws when I was at Ikea so I lucked out that we have a ton of screws on hand from various other projects. I actually did this project without Jose here to supervise which is tricky because my track record with actually hanging things straight is not so good. Also I had to drill holes in the wall which was terrifying since I just spent an entire day painting this kitchen. So without further ado here is the small update that I think has a big impact.

Have you guys done any bar hanging lately? What about drilled holes in freshly painted walls? What DIY projects make you nervous? (Anything involving holes in the wall are a killer for me).

Fabric Covered Built Ins

Hello and sorry this post is three days late. We went out of town for the weekend and discovered our Internet was down when we got back home. Of course it takes a day or two to fix and so we are here on Wednesday afternoon and its finally fixed.

Enough about my Internet tirade. The real reason for this post is to show off our newly backed built ins. Many of  you might have noticed the built ins in last weeks post about the kitchen being painted. I took a page from Young House Love's book about covering foam poster board with fabric and placing in built ins to give a new look. If you haven't checked out their book yet and you love home decor/craft projects then you are missing out.

Before

After

So step one in this process was to gather my equipment. For this project I only had to buy the foam board because I used some fabric that I got from Walmart about six months ago. I normally do not just buy fabric but it was one dollar a yard and I knew I could find something to do with it. So back to my equipment:

1. Staple Gun

2. Fabric of Choice

3. Foam Board

4. Built in you wish to transform.

5. Exacto Knife

6. Pencil

7. Something with a straight edge (I used one of Jose's legal pads) 

8. Scissors

Next I measured the space between each shelf on the built ins and made my marks. Next I connected the dots using the straight edge on the legal pad. Once this was complete I took the Exacto Knife and cut the board along the straight line.

Then I laid the foam board out on the fabric and cut the fabric large enough for the fabric to wrap around the back and be stapled. Next came the act of stapling the fabric to the foam board. Lesson learned from this: make sure you are on a solid surface that the staples cannot go through. This was a hard lesson for me because at first I stapled our dining table. I am always doing something to injure our poor dining table. Jose thinks I subconsciously do not like our table. I think I am just forgetful and do not always think projects through before carrying them out.

Once the fabric was secured to the foam board I just slid the board into the space behind the dishes and admired my handy work. This is the process I used to complete all six shelves of our dining room built in. Now that I know how easy it is I cannot wait to do our hallway bookshelves!

Any fun projects for you guys over the weekend? Is there a piece of furniture in your home that you absent mindedly cause injury?

The Kitchen got a Paint Job

As I said on Monday I am super excited for this weeks posts. Monday I showed you guys how we finally updated our porch light and today I am going to show you our kitchen transformation. Since I think pictures are worth a thousand words lets start with the before:

And now:

Its such a huge difference. Our kitchen feels ginormous! (I know this is not a real word but gigantic and enormous just do not cut it so why not combine them). Also a new discovery is that our counter tops are actually more grey than blue. So I hate them a little less now. Score! We have a lot more projects for the kitchen but for now a coat of paint made a world of difference. Also please excuse the bisque cabinets. I plan to repaint them white soon. Hope everyone is having a great week!

What have you painted lately? Any rooms? Ever painted a room and felt like you gained square feet?

We Saw the Light. . .

Happy Monday! I am so excited about the things we have to post about this week! Finally we got around to doing some blog worthy house projects this weekend. For starters we finally replaced our front porch light. Now normal people would have probably not replaced the whole light when the bulbs burnt out but we are not always normal. (I mean normalcy is overrated right?) We have wanted to change the porch light for awhile because in order to access the light kit you had to disassemble the porch light itself. Very annoying when you are on a ladder at an awkward angle.

We went to Lowe's this past week to pick up somethings for other projects and decided to bite the bullet and get a new outdoor light. I was immediately sold on the idea but Jose took a little convincing (mostly because he was the one doing the change out). We thought about getting a motion activated light but ultimately decided that this $20 version would suit our needs just fine. Our main reason for this decision was the bulbs. The light we chose takes regular bulbs and the motion activated one used candelabra bulbs. Also the motion activated one still had to be disassembled to change the bulbs.

Jose bravely tackled the light change out. I say bravely because our breaker box is not labeled very well and our home was built in 1938 so when it comes to wiring sometimes things are a little hairy. I think one of the hardest parts was getting the old light down since the existing screws had stripped out.

This guy was found in the process of switching lights. Once again so glad my hubby was doing this!

Once the old light was down Jose followed the directions provided with the new light to put it up. Now we have a beautiful new light that even I can grab the ladder and change the bulb with no problem.

Did you guys tackle any projects this weekend? Any light change outs recently? What about home projects?