Roaring Out of Her 20's

Nikki turned 30 last week and her long time friend Megan threw her the most amazing roaring twenties themed party ever! With the help of Nikki's mom of course. Everybody dressed up in 1920's clothing, 1920's music was in the background, and there was even a cigarette girl.

I didn't include a lot of pictures of non-family just in case they didn't want to be blogged but I couldn't help but include this adorable family shot of Nikki and her parents. They are such a great family!

Mom was obviously the perfect person for this party. She was dressed to the nines and she provided my whole outfit.

She also had a duster jacket from 1917 in her shop which was perfect for Dad.

 

This is Nikki and Justin's new sunroom that they just added onto the front of their house. It is seriously amazing and it transforms at night with these twinkle lights.

Derrick looked perfectly 20's and all it took was a fedora and suspenders. It was his era and he definitely pulled off the look.

We're entering a time of constant celebrations and this was the perfect kick-off event!

Smarty Pants Deer Curtains

 The guest room has curtains and I think they definitely make the room look more complete.  I ordered the fabric online from Spoonflower and it was easy enough to hem them into curtains that are the perfect length for this room.

The curtain rod is made out of copper piping from Lowes just like the living room curtain rods. I still love this look and I love the simplicity of the caps at the ends of the rods. I had to get a thicker rod...3/4" as opposed to 1/2" so it didn't bow in the middle but I am actually loving the thicker look.

I just ordered bigger curtain rings though...they are only an inch in diameter so they barely fit on the rod and don't open and close smoothly. Larger rings should fix that problem.

Look how cute these deer are! I love them!

Name the fig!

Derrick and I have a new plant in our life and I hope so so so bad he doesn't die! I've wanted to get a fiddle leaf fig for a while but I've heard they are so finicky and hard to care for. At $50 a pop they aren't exactly the type of plant I want to just give it a go with...I want this thing to live forever!!!

So..first of all...he needs a name. Send me your suggestions! He's definitely a he.

Second of all....do you like my plant stand? I built it! I was inspired by directly copied this one from Urban Outfitters....except mine was $15 instead of $70. And these were the cheapest ones I could find of this style! My $15 was the pot! The actual stand was completely made out of scrap wood I had in the garage.

It looked easy enough so I just came up with a plan in my head an forged ahead! I had a couple 1x2s in my scrap pile and was able to piece out enough of it for four 18 inch pieces and two 11 inch pieces.

I had to figure out the criss-crossy part on the bottom and I didn't have a great tool to notch out the puzzle piece part so I used a hand saw to cut tiny little notches in the center and then broke the pieces out with a pair of pliers.

They aren't perfect but it totally worked!

See? You can't even tell that the insides are a little rough.

I used my kreg jig to join the center cross to the legs and then I just used wood glue to join the cross hatched section together. I clamped it for 24 hours and it was solid as a rock!

I started out with a grey-wash stain and I wasn't feeling it so I mixed the grey with some walnut and darkened it up a bit.

It's still really light and natural looking but I really love it. One coat of poly and I called it a day. Now that I type that out loud...I think I should probably do another coat.

Also....ps...ceramic pots are expensive. Why?? I found this one at Lowes and it was banged up so she gave me 50% off. I acted very concerned about the scuff marks, solemnly accepted my 50% and tried not to happy dance out of the store too quickly.

Apparently with fiddles you have to find a sunny spot and never, ever, ever move them or risk angering them and making them die. Overwatering is also an issue. Derrick has committed to helping with the fig by never watering it. What a guy!

Recent Smiles

Just a conglomeration of recent things that have made us smile.

I'm in a plant mood...I recently got a fiddle leaf fig (post to come) and it's gotten me in the mood to have plants all over the whole house. I thought a little pot of succulents might be a good start. I've heard the thicker the succulent, the easier they are to keep alive, so we shall see.

Buffalo Bills vs. Seattle Seahawks had us divided last Monday night. My team won.... :)

Best update ever. I switched out the light switch for our front porch light to a timer switch. Now the front porch lights come on everyday at 5:30 and go off automatically every night. It's so nice, especially with it getting dark so early now.  It was easier than I thought and I now want to put every light switch on a timer. Derrick is holding me back on that one.

Crosby and I went on a long walk with a friend yesterday morning. When I got out of the shower last night, I came into our room to this sight. Hilarious.

The guest room curtains are up! I'll do a full post on these this week but I'm loving having them done. I used the same copper pipe from Lowes that I used for the living room...I just went up a size....and I'm loving the look and the price!

The week was a little rocky for us, and so many others, but I've been encouraged by the people we surround ourselves with and we're looking positively to the future. Remember what keeps you smiling and go and do those things! Have a great weekend!

Numb.

Numb.

I'm just completely numb. I'm just sitting in my living room staring straight ahead.

I was actually surprised to open my front door this morning and see that everything still looked the same as it did yesterday. That's how much my world is rocked right now.

I don't do politics. And I especially avoid it on this blog because I know people have different thoughts and opinions but I am so scared and so upset and so numb right now. And I'm embarrassed. I don't want to be lumped in with the hate and bigotry and sexism.

Love Love Love. I'm just going to repeat that all day. Love Love Love. Be nice to people, people! We're in this together now and the only thing we can control is showing everybody else love, love, love.

Bathroom Mirror..Finally!

The guest room is still getting tweaked....aka curtains are getting sewn today...but the mirror in the bathroom finally got switched out too.

I ordered a mirror that was on back order and it finally came in about two weeks ago. Up until that point I had a temporary mirror just leaning against the vanity.

Alison was in town so I recruited her for mirror holding and picture taking :)

 

I love the mirror I ordered...it's an old fashioned swivel type with a brass finish. My only complaint is it isn't quite as big as I was picturing but I think it still works in the space.

It came with heavy duty anchors which is great because it's a heavy duty mirror. I don't know why this happened though....does anyone know? I'd love to hear it! Maybe I drilled the pilot hole to small? The drywall bubbled around each anchor. The mirror covers it so it's not a big deal but I just wonder if I did something wrong here.

I also stripped a screw...womp womp. I hate when screw heads are so soft the drill bit flattens them. This screw isn't going anywhere, unfortunately. It's not very noticeable...except for the fact that I just posted it for the world to see!

See? Smaller than I thought. I still like it though! It looks good in the room and is a definite upgrade to the builder basic mirror and the temporary leaning mirror.

This is inspiring me to replace all of our mirrors now....it's easy and make a huge difference!

Go Vote!

Election day is next Tuesday and you can avoid the crazy lines by voting early!  I just googled Early Voting in NC and a map came up showing me where the early polling places were. We didn't need our IDs or our voter registration card. It's super easy!! And we only waited 15 minutes tops.

Go do the right thing and vote! You can't complain later if you don't vote now!