DIYing Project 1

Phil and I have been quite inspired lately, ever since we stumbled upon THIS lovely blog. Tuesday I had a day off work and Phil took off too, so we used the day to create some pretty nifty DIY projects. Here's our first masterpiece, an upholstered headboard!

Step 1: The frame: 2 24X30 art canvasses...

Step 2: Apply brackets so canvasses are nice and tight together..

Step 3: Thick quilt batting staple-gunned to frame...

Step 4: Lay out nice, thick, upholstery fabric underneath (make sure it's ironed!)

Step 5: Staple-gun fabric over batting to frame...

You can fold the corners just like this (kinda like a present)...

Wah-lah!!!

The finished product:

I think it looks awesome! 

We accomplished all of that in just a couple hours and with less than 40 bucks!

Stay tuned for more DIY projects! I'm getting more and more creative :)

-Lacy

Sometimes I sit and dream...

For those of you that don't know, I have the swine flu. I've been sick since last week so I have been doing a lot of laying around, sitting, and dreaming. I don't know if it's good or bad, but I just lay around and think about my life all day. Sometimes it's depressing and sometimes it's quite uplifting. However, most of the time the laying around leads me to get on YouTube, where I find the most exquisite female talent and am lured in for hours at a time. The music I find is so beautiful, so unique, that my only wish is to sing it myself. I wish my life wasn't so busy so I could actually spend some time writing and performing. I love to sing, I always have. I have written several of my own songs, but they just don't muster up to what these ladies have come up with. Let me give you a taste...

Things that would make Columbia even better...

We absolutely love Columbia. It was a great college town, and now that we're out of college we have been able to see the other great things that this little city has to offer. Columbia has FABULOUS local restaurants. All of our favorite places to eat are local eats here! (Flatbranch, Buckingham's, Addison's, Chim's Thai Kitchen, Bambino's, CC City Broiler...) There are amazing parks and trails and things to do outdoors. Columbia offers several neat festivals and events downtown - many of which are free! There is a lot to do if you have kids, and no, we don't have any children of our own but it Columbia does earn some brownie points for the future should we decide to stick around. Honestly, Columbia is a great place to live! Lots to do, great schools, etc. etc. etc. There are just a few things that are missing that would truly make this place perfect. Here they are below...

1. Marshall's or TJ Maxx - a MUST for clothes and household decorations
2. Trader Joe's - the best for unique and inexpensive food items
3. A good donut shop - key word is "good"
4. A neat fabric shop - Hobby Lobby doesn't have enough to offer
5. A true art store - ditto
6. Some mountains - ha
7. A Beach - haha

(Okay, okay, obviously ANYWHERE would be more perfect if it had mountains or a beach....)

Maybe someday we'll have 1-5??? 

Lacy

More pics from my "beginner" photographer husband...

All were taken on my OLD-AS-DIRT film camera! Not too shabby!!!

The best kind of love...

The best kind of love forgives.

It addresses weakness and it strives to be better.

The best kind of love laughs hard for no reason.

It shares in joy and in pain.

The best kind of love stays up late sharing stories.

It listens, agrees, and critiques. 

The best kind of love is all about giving.

It seeks no purpose other than the fulfillment of another.

The best kind of love is sacred and special.

It is only known by two.

The best kind of love is thankful and unknowing.

It survives through any storm.

The best kind of love is you and me.

This crystal ball...

Things have started to pick up. It's not like full-time teaching and full-time grad school was crazy enough! This week has already been nuts and it's only Tuesday. We only get more nuts from here. (That's what she said!) I have a few constant thoughts in my head. First, the program I'm in is quite exquisite. I am learning an ENORMOUS amount of great info and I really can tell I am going to be a great teacher once I am out of this tunnel. (Tunnel could be replaced with several other analogies.) While that's great and wonderful, my second thought is that my life would be much less stressful if I were a singer or a wedding planner (my other two dream jobs). But then I remember that singers and wedding planners don't have quite the impact on the world that teachers do. Though they may make a person's day better, I am sort of in charge of lives. 

Tonight in class one of my professors gave us this great little analogy about all the "balls" we are currently juggling. (My immature self of course chuckled under my breath.) But back to the point - we are juggling all of these rubber balls, and only one that is crystal. The rubber balls are things like the curriculum, my relationships with kids, my homework for grad classes, grading, waking up on time, being on my A-game, dealing with discipline, differentiating my lessons to meet the needs of all my kids, etc. etc. etc. All of those things are SUPER important, but if you drop one of them, they just bounce back. The crystal ball is the special one. The crystal ball CANNOT be dropped. The crystal ball is my family, my love. While I am a master juggler, this year especially, I cannot drop that crystal ball. If you drop  THAT ball, it will shatter. Most times you can't fix a broken crystal ball...

I guess it just spoke to me because it is the thing I've been most worried about - not being the wife that I should, the listener I should, the best friend, the aunt, the daughter, etc. For those of you that are closest to my heart, please know that I love you more than the world. And while you might feel like you are unimportant to me, you really are the ones that keep me going. You have pushed me to this place. You have made it possible. You are my home, where my heart can rest. I truly appreciate you and I really hope I don't "drop the ball" with you this crazy year!

And now back to my research...

Lacy

.pumpkin fest.

Yesterday we continued our annual tradition of going to the Hartsburg Pumpkin Festival. We had a great time eating foods that are bad enough for you already they shouldn't be deep-fried, looking at undesirable harley t-shirts, and oooohhhing and aaahhhhing at the trailer lined with confederate flags. The only down side - the pork fritter stand AND the carmel apple stand (aka the best foods at the fest for the past few years) were not there. We resorted to cold corn-dogs and a bloomin' onion. Phil decided to take our old film camera. He hasn't ever used it before, so I am pretty impressed with how well his "beginning" photos turned out!