It's 007 Style!!

We have been working on our fireplace for what seems like forever. I was a bit over confident in our ability to knock out a full fireplace renovation in a month, which I mentioned here. I will try to not make this super wordy, and it's hard for me to give detailed instructions on what we did, when Brandon did almost all the work. I did, however, offer many words of encouragement. :)

The Original Fireplace

This isn't the best picture, but you can see that we have a door on one side of the fireplace and a huge window on the other. It was not easy to come up with a plan.

The first thing Brandon did was score, and gently remove the mantle. It was other the top huge, and way too high.

He then pried all the marble pieces off the wall, and cleaned the mess so it looked a little more manageable.

And this is what we lived with for several months. It was so intimidating for both of us, but especially for Brandon. This was WAY outside out realm of expertise. Not to mention that the walls weren't straight and the two sides weren't flush with the wall, so we knew whatever we did was not going to be even. So in the mean time, I decided that I could do something ... paint the inside. I know this isn't for everyone, but I really like the clean look that it gives the fireplace. Now we used regular latex primer and paint, because we are NOT planning on actually using our fireplace. If you are, please use heat resistant paint. It is very important to clean and vacuum your fireplace before painting it. I cleaned mine several times.

Brandon then filled some of the holes and gaps with concrete. After everything was as good as it was going to get, he put up the backer-board.

Then everything stayed like this for a couple months. This was an extremely slow process. It didn't realize it would be so difficult. So far, all the projects that have been done in the house have been extreme. Brandon really wanted to make sure he did it to the best of his ability. He really wanted to make sure I LOVED it.

Next he tiled and grouted. I LOVE our tile, and Brandon did it SOOO well.

At this point, I was beyond excited. I could see it in my mind, and knew it would look awesome. Brandon and I then had a several week discussion. We wanted to make sure that we agreed with what our design for the mantle would be, and that Brandon fully understood what I wanted, so he could then create it.

Here's the evolution of our mantle. This is all Brandon. Once we agreed on the design, he figured out all the dimensions and what would need to go where.

And here it is today! (Ignore the smudged inside. I still need to repaint that) The TV even pulls out and swivels. Definitely 007 style!! 

And just so everyone remembers how far we've come...

Something New

This post is going to be a little different from my other posts. I have recently felt that I need to expand this blog's focus. While I still want to include our house projects, I want to also write more about my spiritual walk the Lord, and our adventures as a family. This will definitely be a work in progress, and will take a lot of getting used to, but I feel the Lord is tugging at my heart to do this.

I am in no way an expert on Scripture, and everyone may not agree with what I say. However, it is definitely important for me to write about ALL aspects of my life, including Christianity. Even if no one ever reads this blog, I want to be able to say that I was completely transparent and open with any readers that I do have. I want complete honesty, especially with myself. I know that I will stumble, and make many mistakes in all areas of my life, and I want to be able to share the ups and downs of EVERYTHING!!

I pray that God will guide me in what to write in order to bring the most glory to Him. I pray that He will be pleased with how I try to share His word with others, and that He will raise this blog up to be all that He wants it to be.

I know that the Lord has great plans for me, and my family. He tells me so in the Bible. "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." - Jeremiah 29:11 This blog may not be in His big plans, but it may just be a wonderful way for me to document my everyday life with Brandon, and my growing relationship with Christ. However it goes, I am so excited for the journey, and I hope any readers will stick around to provide encouragement, feedback, and to help me grow in my spiritual walk. Thanks!!

Truth Be Told Art

It seems like it is so hard for me to keep up with this blog. I really am trying, but between work, Girl Scouts, and just everyday living, this little blog just gets left out. So today, I am going to show my blog some love, and show a fun project I participated in with the women from my small group at church.

I participated in my first Truth Be Told Art over two years ago. This was shortly after it got started. I was newly married, and so eager to create a personalized piece of art to showcase on our walls. The fact that it would also show God's word was a wonderful bonus for me! So off I went to participate in a painting class when I had NEVER painted before. My brother, Clay, got all the painting genes in my family! I got to spend wonderful time with Christian women from my work.

For my first time, I thought I had done pretty well. I chose one of my favorite verses Psalm 37:4, "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." I feel like it really speaks to God's faithfulness. This is right beside the door that we leave out of every day. It is nice to see a positive and Godly message before you go out into the world each day.

The newest Truth Be Told Art I have done was the Georgia design. It was so much fun to paint, and was a wonderful joy and blessing to spend quality time with the women from my small group at church.

I am looking forward to our next painting party. We will be painting a Christmas ornament with scripture. There is nothing more pleasing to be than to decorate the walls of my home with the word of the Lord!! If you are interested in participating in a Truth Be Told Art session, they travel all over Georgia, and a little outside Georgia. I pray that one day, the company will be all across America.

Hootie Hoo

I have discovered that I have a quirky fondness for random ceramic objects. My recent purchase has been named Hootie. Hootie was a Kirkland's find for only $8. I go into Kirkland's to check out their curtains they had on sale, and only leave the store with Hootie. I also kind of followed Brandon around the store with Hootie, and made random hooting noises. I probably definitely embarrassed him!

Now all I need is a ceramic blowfish, and I will have Hootie and the Blowfish!! Maybe like the one below, but all white.

- Ashley

Mirror Makeover

Wow!! It's been a while. This is actually a project I just finished today, and thought I would end my large absence from blogland with. I have seen awesome chalkboards all over pinterest lately and wanted to make my own. Unfortunately, I wanted mine to be really big, and I couldn't figure out how we were going to go about making one. And by we, I mean Brandon! :) As we were throwing out ideas, I happened to remember a big mirror I had gotten a while ago from a hotel furniture liquidation store.

This is the original mirror. (You can tell we had recently moved in!!) It was the perfect size, so I decided to make the mirror into a chalkboard. Here are the steps I took, and it turned out pretty well.

1. I got primer spray paint (Valspar Primer from Lowe's) and primed the inside mirror part.

2. I then spray painted the outside frame section. It was okay if the spray paint got on the mirror part, because I would be painting over that with black chalkboard paint. I can't remember the exact spray paint color, but it was by Krylon.

3. Then I taped off my edges. Make sure that you use a good painters tape. I recommend Frog Tape. It's a little more pricey, but it hasn't caused me any issues in the past. I didn't use it on my project, and I regret it. I just used some off brand that I had on hand and there was a lot of bleed through.

4. Once everything is taped off good, start painting. You don't need to use a good brush around the edges, because chalkboard paint will just ruin it. On the inside part, I just used a small roller. I ended up having to do 3 coats of paint, and I let them dry 24 hours between each coat. This is what my can recommended. 

5. Once everything was dry, I took the paint off and then coated the entire chalkboard in chalk. I've read that this helps seal it and helps it erase better in the future. It seemed to do fine on mine, and I'm not sure if this step was necessary but I would rather be safe than sorry.

6. Then I borrowed my brother's projector to trace my design onto my chalkboard. There are other ways to do this, and many other tutorials online, but this was what I had handy. It worked fine; just make sure you don't bump the projector. The finished product is below.

I used this design from http://blog.jennimullinix.com/spring-cleaning-our-hearts/. It looked like this originally.

And here is my chalkboard up on the wall. I am so excited about changing it out for the holidays. It really is the perfect size. I definitely wanted it over-sized!! :)

It's good to be back!!

- Ashley

No Longer Naked

... and I don't mean me. Our kitchen has been living in a state of nakedness for quite some time. This is probably due to the fact that I had NO idea how much time painting kitchen cabinets really took. Let me tell you. It takes an amazingly long time. I think ours took so long, because we added trim to our doors.

 Anyway, this is the kitchen that we lived out of for the first month and a half of living in our house. Luckily everything was easy access. Huh, I could make a dirty joke here, but I'll refrain. Mainly because my mom reads this. That would be awkward. Moving on!

Getting the trim and everything done was really Brandon's job. And can I just say, I am SO proud of Brandon. I told him what I wanted, and he did a great job of bringing to life my vision. Especially considering he has never really had a chance to do projects like this. He caught on quick, and worked his fanny off.

Once he got everything cut, he starting nailing them to the doors. This took some tweaking to figure out how to do it just right. Unfortunately, I have no pictures of this process. Now that the doors have pretty molding on them, it's my turn. I typically get the painting jobs.

 This is not primed. Once I cleaned them of dust from the sanding, I got to work on priming and painting. It was very exciting to see the finished product.

 Obviously these aren't the best pictures. I'm still saving up for a really good camera. Anyway, when we went to put the doors on the cabinets we realized that some of the hinges had red paint on them. Apparently the previous owner didn't take the doors off the hinges to paint. While this may be a good idea for big doors, like your front door, not so much for cabinet doors. I refused to have pops of red throughout the kitchen. A pop over to Lowe's (does that make me sound magical? I just had a Harry Potter fantasy of apparating over to Lowe's for last minute supplies.), and I got some metallic spray paint in Oil Rubbed Bronze. Looks much better!!

 Then we put them on the cabinet boxes. The kitchen obviously has a long way to go. And recently I have thought a lot about open shelving on top. That idea may pass, but I am really loving the cabinets.

And there you have it!! It still needs hardware, and other things that are swimming around in my head, but for our first home improvement project I would give us a really high fives. Like the highest of high fives. I'm suddenly channeling Barney Stinson.

Take it to the Hoop!

I think it's the cheerleader in me that made me choose this title. I'm a little odd, but at least I realize that about myself. :) I wanted to put my new years resolutions/goals on here. Goals, get it? Take it to the hoop! Are those even called goals? Don't know and don't care. I find it funny, so that's all that matters. :)

I try not to choose too many in order to make them more real and doable. I also like the idea of someone else other than myself, and my husband, seeing these. It makes me hold myself a little more accountable. So, without further ado, here are my goals for 2013.

1. Tackle one big project a month. And by this I mean the projects that will take more time and/or money. Obviously, January is the month of the kitchen. My project for February? Hopefully my fireplace. It needs a face lift, and I can't really paint the living area without redoing it right away. Here is what it looks like now.

While a lot of people may think this looks good, it's just not my jam. I want something that has some interest, but is still neutral enough for me to be able to change up the accessories around the room without it looking odd. Here are some fireplaces that tickle my fancy.

picture from Screaming Meme 

picture from Pig and Paint

Obviously, I really like tile paired with a traditional fireplace surround. I need to find a tile that has interest, but isn't so bold that Brandon would truly hate looking at it everyday. 

2. Be realistic. The process of trying to make a house a home is never ending. I need to make sure that I remember that the house will not always be perfect, mainly because two imperfect people live in it. I need to remember that parts of the house will probably be disaster zones for quite some time. I will probably have some project going on, big or small, that requires part of the house to temporarily become a disaster. This is okay and not the end of the world. I also want to make sure that I am realistic in the time it's going to take to complete projects or save up the money for them. 

3. Add a daily devotional to my everyday routine. While I am usually pretty good about praying everyday, at some point during the day, I find it difficult to actually sit down and just have time for me and the Lord. The one thing that I should definitely be finding time to do, and I'm not! I'm going to make it my mission to find a daily devotional that will help me be more accountable. Hopefully, once I develop the routine, it will be so ingrained that I will do it without really thinking about it. Here is an example of what I am looking for.