My Grandma

I came home tonight to an empty home.

No beautiful little woman sitting on her red couch, watching golden girls, looking up at me when I walk in saying "theres my love!".

Notice the red couch

No one to tell "I love you roomie" as she shuffles to the stairs to head to bed. 

Tomorrow morning, when I walk up from my room, She won't be there with her cute little smile, as she looks up from her bible.

I have absolutely no words to describe how unbelievably blessed I was to live with my grandma for 6 months. My grandma is moving on to better care in an assisted living home. Walking in to this empty home... it really hit me. 

 Holding my niece Francesca

As I sit here in my grandpas favorite chair, looking at an empty red couch, I really miss her. My Grandma.

Jesus, You are good. Jesus, You are faithful. 

It is all pure selfishness that I want her to stay here. But we all know this is whats best for her. She is in SUCH good hands!! I think my entire family is glad my superhero Auntie M found such an amazing home. 

I'm not sure if I've said this before but, I have the most amazing family. Ever. I have these crazy aunts who would do just about anything for anybody! If I grow up to be like them when I'm older, I'll know I did SOMETHING right!

I realize this isn't it. Grandma lives just 20 minutes away. I'm still going to go and watch our golden girls and the odd couple together. Bring her some chocolates that I know she loves. Talk about how much we love those swiffer commercials with the cute old couple... you know what I'm talking about!! And try and soak up as much of her wisdom as I can! 

I pray for a marriage like theirs.

Jesus, give my grandma peace as she has her first night away from her home. Give my entire family peace tonight.  

I love you so much Grandma!!

{L}

Shower Cleaning Made A Little Easier

I stopped going on pinterest for a while. So much to do and so little time. I didn't have time to be sucked in to pinning a million different pins.

One day, I decided to make pinterest work for me, instead of against me. I decided that I would actually use the valuable information- not just place it on a back burner of my ever-growing boards. I came across this little treasure (might I add with the instructions IN the caption, my fav!) and decided to actually do it. I put it together, loved it, and ACTUALLY use it! I also added a young living essential oil twist. Getting excited to what it is?

Here is one of the many sites that provide this- I just had to share as well! I am TERRIBLE at routine cleaning outside of my kitchen. So when I saw this, it was a no brainer. Where has this been all of my life! You keep it in your shower. After each shower, wipe down the sides and the tub. Plus, my version is chemical free! I also use it in my bathroom sink. Works so well and so simple!

Here is what you need:

Source

source

Source

Use a 1:1 ration with this and keep it in your shower! I promise you will love it! After trying this (yes, it works great without the oil too!) I had to, of course, incorporate young living oils! I added a couple drops of  lemon for the antibacterial properties and a great fresh scent! 

Happy cleaning!

Thank You

I can't shake this feeling of happiness, nor do I want too. This ecstatic bubble I've been living in this past year... especially these last few months. They never have to go away. They can keep growing and flourishing into my beautiful life. 

This past year has had some extreme up's with a handful of extreme downs. And I love that I'm at this point in my life where I can see God in every single aspect of those moments. Those moments of relationships broken, dreams being fulfilled, best friends moving away, additions to our family and the unfortunate loss of one of the best men I've ever known.

My grandpa who passed in November with my Sister Bethany.

I'm moving out of my parents house in the next few days and I have just been slapped in the face with this feeling of emotional bliss... Thankfulness... surreal gratitude?? My words can't completely describe this feeling. I feel like we go through hard ships and find ourselves on our knees asking God to provide, to take away our pain, to fix our problems. We really worship Him and ask all these things of Him but, when He actually does provide and we aren't "needing" his help, we don't give Him the praise or thanks. We almost forget about Him until we find ourselves needing his help again.

Not this time. I have this constant praise for Him. Without Him, I would have come out of those hard ships a completely different person. He's heard my cries, He's put me back together after I've been torn apart, He's been my rock. How can I not give him even just the simplest of thanks?

Here's a fun little recap of my last year:

Graduated Aveda Institute

Absolute wonderful job with the best bossman EVER!

Hudson Elek was born

Bought a car

Inez Leona was born

Learned that just because my best friend decided to move an hour and a half away from me, she is still always there for me and I'm incredibly happy that she talked me into doing this crazy blog which helps us stay connected.

Baby Stewie is on it's way and is due on my birthday 

I've been given the opportunity to plan/coordinate a fashion show with this amazing woman at work

New relationships with some pretty incredible people

And now I'm moving in with my Grandma and I'm so blessed to be able to spend some quality time with her.

Can't seem to thank Him enough!!

Blessed.

{L}

Estate Sale Find

If you remember all the way back to my Craft List, the last item (and favorite item) was taking old, used, vintage pieces of furniture and refurbishing them.

A couple sundays ago, my friend Elisa, mama and I went to an estate sale in our neighborhood. First off, I'd like to note that estate sales are a little weird. wasn't a fan.... EXCEPT that I found this little treasure for 1$. 

And now, after a couple weeks of this smoky smelling stool sitting in my bedroom, it was time to revamp!

First things first... unscrew the legs and take off the gross leather!

 Now, to start my project!


I needed new cushion for my stool and found some cut up egg crate in my basement. I doubled that up and cut it to the exact shape of the wooden piece.  For extra added cushion I stuffed some pillow fluff in between the two egg crates... the more the merrier.

My mom had found some fabric she liked online and bought a yard or two of it. She wasn't sure what she was gonna use it on, so she let me use some for this stool (can't go wrong with free). It just so happens to go perfectly with my decorations!

She also had some left over piping she had used on outdoor furniture last year. Grabbed a hold of that for around the stool.

So... goes to my next step... Cut out your pieces. 

I started off by making the piping and sewn the edges of the top piece, piping and edging together so when turned complete, it fit around the stool. 

Once I had that sewn together, I took the legs of my stool. They are wooden and painted black with a metal piece at the bottom. I slightly sanded the wooden part down to make the paint stay on longer and headed to home depot with some fabric.

They have a small 8 oz paint jar you can purchase that you can have matched to whatever color you'd like. I brought in a matching fabric that I had, that I'm going to incorporate into my room as well, that had a fun color in it. I had Pat from home depot make it my paint color. 

 Yes, I did this on my kitchen counter, hence the butter dish.


I applied about 4 coats of paint on the legs, wood and metal part, for it to look even. While those dried, I went back to my base with an automatic stapler, flipped it so the bottom was up, evenly stretched the fabric and stapled it to the bottom. Something about using a power tool makes me feel indestructible! (is an automatic stapler a power tool?)

Once the legs dried, I screwed them back on the stool and voila! Brand new stool!

 

 I only spent $1 on the stool and $3 on paint. Everything else I had available to me at home. 

$4 for a stool that perfectly matches my decorations, learned to reupholster, fun project to do for a night... Can't beat that!

  

{L}


Partying at A Bowl Full of Lemons

This Old House - Update

The projects are endless, and the cash flow is small! Out next project was in the bathroom. We were planning on saving up for it and then.. baby surprise! Our projects have been put on hold.

We had a problem with our shower leaking into our kitchen. Maybe you remember this:
 
From this post.

Showering in plastic was not ideal, but we had to do what we had to do so stop more damage from happening in our walls.

We finally decided it was time and had a lot of bids from different companies on a new, custom shower surround. This bathroom creates a lot of difficultly for remodeling within a very tight budget- especially with the curved ceiling and and window. We finally decided to go with Home Depot.

We were looking forward to a one day project from a big company that stands behind their work. The immediate result looked pretty good, but we had a lot of problems. The installer had to come back multiple times and never fixed problems we had. A couple weeks ago we discovered the shower was still leaking because of a bad calking job. He finally came back, fixed that, and fixed our damaged wall. It wasn't the greatest experience, but at least they continued to try to help us.

The result looks nice and updated, and still keeps the character of the bathroom. Bye-bye nasty old tile! It works! Always remembering to be thankful for a home, even through the irritating moments and to keep a positive attitude.

{S}