10th Anniversary of my 21st Birthday

I suppose I should acknowledge the passing of my birthday if for no other reason than to thank everyone for all the kind wishes and wonderful presents!

I've never been one to make a big deal of my birthday, I guess I just don't like other people having to "fuss" over me. And as time goes on I dread turning yet ANOTHER year older. I'm not really sure when I stopped wanting to live to be 100 but it must have been quite a long time ago now since I can't even remember!

But as much as I'd love to crawl into a dark hole until the day passes my friends and family don't allow that to happen! In fact every year my BFF, Pirrello, plans my party for me, which I just love! This year she planned a pot luck dinner for me on Saturday; all I had to do was provide plates and eat! Pirrello and our other BFF's brought over hoards of delicious food and we had ourselves a little Italian feast (for a few days)! They really are the BEST!! I guess I won't mind growing old as long as I get to grow old with them!

Roxy and Oliver tried to top this with a gift of their own - rolling in deer poop! Within 5 min. they found a nice pile in the backyard and were happier than pigs finding some fresh mud! I was not quite so excited - good thing for them I'd already had a drink in me.

Then Sunday our families came over for ice cream cake! And I was spoiled with a Joann's gift card and this awesome book from my sister:

She tells me she is investing in my business early!

My SIL, BIL, and nieces got me this pretty votive candle holder.

It is so ME! Everything about it screams my name. And while I wanted to have it out for everyone to always see I think I'm going to selfishly put it in our bedroom b/c it goes so perfectly.

(sneak peak of our bedroom - which is next up on "drab to fab")

Dave got me the new sewing machine I was hoping for. I still love my old sewing machine and we will continue our close knit relationship but I was ready for an upgrade! I can't wait to read through the instruction manual and give my new CS6000i a practice run. Be on the look out for a bunch of new projects!

And when Dave told me the kids (Roxy & Ollie) present didn't come yet I was expecting a DVD or maybe a book so I wish he could have seen my face when I got home to this waiting on our doorstep!

So now I have no excuses for taking over the entire dinning room table for weeks at a time with my sewing machine and all the crap that comes along with it! I just have to figure out where I can set my new sewing table up that will still give me access to the tv...that may be tricky! I might have to come to terms with not being able to sew and watch tv at the same time.

If that's not all enough I still have to pick out a handful of books from MIL & FIL for my Kindle that Dave surprised me with a few weeks ago - that will keep me more than busy through the summer!

All of that, on top of the incredible number of birthday wishes I received made my weekend so very special. Everyone was waaaay to kind as they always are to the girl who wants to hide under the nearest rock for the day!

THANK YOU!!

From Drab on the way to Fab: Wood Paneled Bedroom

In honor of our 2 year anniversary as home owners I'm going to be posting some of the things we've done to make the house we bought into our home.

Exibit 1: Bedroom #1


We actually lived in this bedroom while we were preparing the Master Bedroom for moving in! From afar it just looks like your typical 70's style wood paneling. But don't be fooled my friends, this wood paneling was MUCH more special than that old boring stuff! Of course I had to take pictures to prove it (because unless you saw it with your own eyes you wouldn't believe it).




It's amazing we got any sleep with all those critters watching us!

The big debate we had was whether to paint over the wood paneling or remove it. We went back and forth with this for some time, reading a lot online and after pulling away some of the paneling and seeing it was both glued and nailed to the walls it was easy to make the decision.

We put down 3 coats of primer before actually putting down a couple coats of the color we picked. Dave put some new double cell honeycomb insulating shades on the windows and I made up the bed with our old bed set and we had ourselves a frumpy guest bedroom.



Until I found a new bed set on sale that matched (actually there were at least 3 I had to choose from - apparently this shade of sea green is a big hit this year).

Typical Oliver just being Oliver:
(In the 5 minutes it took me to bring all the old sheets downstairs to put in the wash he found himself a nice place to enjoy his bone!)


I think the new bed set makes the room look much nicer! Now I just need to find some material for curtains and we have to get some crown molding put up (I've come to terms with the fact that nothing is ever 100% finished and there's always going to be something else we have to do - and if we ever even get to an end point I'm going to want to re-decorate anyway!)