Peachy Keen

Dear Blog Friends,
How are you guys? Good weekend? After my weekend, I'm just peachy keen and here's why (in no particular order)

• My best friend is expecting! Due in Feb 2010
• Friday afternoon nap on the beach
• Making homemade milkshakes w/ Nick
• Celebration dinner in honor of selling Mini House!
• 80+ degree weather - Summer FINALLY
• Sunset jog with Dorsey Dog
• Target + H&M = one giddy girl
• An answered prayer
• Detailing & washing my MINI 
• Being featured again on Remodelaholic - woop!

So true! You can buy this here

I have so many ideas for projects but bear with me while I get it together @ Mini House! 

Make it a great week! 

Sold.

Today we sold Mini House, our first home.  It was bittersweet.  From what we know about the buyers, this will be their first home and they have a French bulldog named, Tater Tot. How cute! They wrote us a sweet note about Mini House and I have no doubt that they will love it as much as we did.

When we closed (a little over a year ago!) it was a Friday afternoon and I remember how excited Nick and I were to kick off the weekend off as homeowners! Even better, my parents were out visiting and got to share in our excitement and get a first glimpse before we began all the transformations.

Mini House: June 2009

Throughout my life, I've had the opportunity to live in several homes, in several different states. Each one has such great memories tied to it from Country Club Lane to University Blvd!

There is a song on the radio right now by Miranda Lambert titled "The House That Built Me." The first time I heard it was around the time that we put our house on the market and I remember listening to the words and sitting at a stop light with tears rolling down my face.

Take a listen, the words are perfect.


Any special Homes in your life? I'd love to hear!

Happy Weekend to You! xoxo

Maiden Voyage

Surfs Up! Today Nick and I headed to the beach so he could test out this new wetsuit and surfboard! We've been telling people that we traded in the mountains for the ocean so inevitably Nick retired his snowboards and skis and invested in a beginner surfboard.

En route to Lost Winds Beach

On the way to the beach I was on the phone with my sister and she asked if Nick knew how to surf. Good question.  Answer - yes and no. Yes he has played around on a surfboard once or twice a few years ago but he has no clue what he was / is doing out there.  

Future Pro Surfer? Looks like it to me. 

After snowboarding and skiing for the past 15 years, it is a very humbling experience to pick up a new sport especially surfing. It's 90% paddling out then waiting and more waiting and finally catching a wave. I was playing the role of lifeguard but my services weren't necessary (thank goodness!)  All in all - great first day but I have feeling that Nick is going to be super sore tomorrow morning. ;) 

Nick use to religiously monitor the snow report but now it will be the surf report. From fresh powder to upcoming swells.  I'm slowing learning the lingo... 

Hang Ten and Happy Monday!  

DIY: Pelmet Box

On Saturday we marked off two projects from my our to-do list!  Always a good feeling.

The first project was repairing our gate that I backed into with my MINI.  Oopsie Daisy! Thankfully the gate materials cost around $5 + Nick's free labor.  Now the dent on my car... it will require a little more moolah and a professional...

Thanks Handy Hubby!

Next up was building a pelmet box for our bedroom. I purchased the fabric for this project with the ambition to build it for our bedroom at Mini House #1. I'm glad I waited / procrastinated because the window in our new bedroom is wider. Procrastination paid off (well, this time!)

Here's what ya need:

Fabric -  1 to 2 yards. I used Premier Fabrics 

1x12 wood - Loews

L-brackets - Loews

Batting - Local shop but of course Michaels has it

Powershot Staple Gun & Staples - Best.investment.ever.

Dewalt Power Drill - Nick's personal fav!

Here is my fabric. You can buy it here.  

There are many of ways to build a pelmet box. My sister Allison recently made not one but TWO adorable pelmet boxes by following these instructions from the Little Green Notebook.

We took a slightly different approach. Still easy & inexpensive but instead of duct tape and foam board we used wood and power tools. 

Lowes employee cutting the 1x12 into three pieces

 

Iron your fabric folks! Wrinkles are totally tacky.

Roll out and cut your batting to match the wood

Place fabric, batting & board. Supervisor Dorsey Dog. 

With our fabric, we had to line up the pattern so it would repeat correctly which required us to adjust and re-align several times. If you are borderline crazy like us, it has to be perfect.  

Staple your heart out! 

My advice - there is no such thing as too many staples.  When I did the pair of chairs earlier this summer I learned the importance of ample staples and getting the fabric very taut.

We made ours with three pieces - so repeat the above steps for the sides after you finish the center piece. 

Use the L-brackets to attach the sides

BEFORE

AFTER

Now that it's up, I'm considering some type of trim. I picked up some options at Michaels yesterday. What do you think?

I plan to get Allison's "how-to" guide on making a pelmet box sans power tools (hint, hint Sissy)! Happy Thursday Y'all! 

Dose of Dorsey

I thought the Mini House blog was due for a little bit of Dorsey Dog and truth be told I just don't have it in me to write-up the tutorial for our latest DIY project.  I pinky promise to have a great post up in the next day or so!

Moving on. Dorsey's latest hobby other than sunbathing is catching and eating bugs. It's a little gross, quite helpful and VERY entertaining.  Her most common victim is the "June Bug," occasionally a bumble bee, but all creatures that fly and buzz are fair game.

On Tuesday, Dorsey met her match.  She went one-on-one with what I call a "Mini Dinosaur." Dorsey Dog was non too pleased when she discovered it's vicious pinchers and decided to look and not touch after Round 1.

 The picture doesn't do it justice

This bug that should be in a science museum, not in Mini House!

In other Dorsey Dog News - she is still adjusting (and by adjusting I clearly mean negatively reacting) to the new routine which includes her being home alone for a portion of the day.  Below you will find the "Welcome Home" I received after my first day of work.

Victims: Rug pad and L.L. Bean Dog Bed 

I am happy to report that Day 2 went a little better than Day 1 so hopefully this won't be an everyday occurrence.

Any good / bad dog stories you'd like to share?  Would love to hear them!  Happy Monday Y'all!

Love Birds

Happy Anniversary Pom & Daddy

32 years and counting!

My parents are best friends, teammates, loving parents and now GRANDPARENTS! They are just as much in love today (if not more!) as they were when they went to Prom in High School! How stinking cute!

Happy Anniversary Love Birds!  xoxo

I'm Blushing.

More great news to share! Today I am featured on a favorite site of mine - Remodelaholic! I sent Cassity, the great gal who runs the site, our  Destination sign project (my new fav) and she was so sweet to feature it as a Guest Tutorial.

As I told you last week,  I'm a copycat so Remodelaholic is one of those sites that I check daily for new ideas to "copy" or maybe a better way to put it is say "repurpose." :)

If you are looking for new ideas or how-tos I really encourage you to sign up and be a follower of the site.  The ideas that Cassity and her readers submit are super creative and very do-able.

Ok friends, I'm feeling like a celebrity today so I'm going to treat myself to Starbucks and enjoy it!

Extra! Extra!

Hello hello! I have some VERY exciting news to share - I'm employed! HOORAY!

Today for the first time in a LONG time, I went into "the office."  After working from home in Denver for 18 months, freelancing for a bit, and job searching since we moved to California, what a change.  A very - good - change.

I am super excited about this new opportunity and feel like it is the start of many great things in California!

It won't come as a surprise to most of you to hear that I had my outfit picked out, bag packed and ready by the front door. And of course I had some of those "Back to School" jitters this morning. I'm a dork.

To commemorate my first day - our friend Lucas (who has been visiting us) snapped a picture bright and early. I should have had my work bag on because this shot makes it look like we should be going on a date or such!

"Hi, Ho, Hi, Ho It's Off to Work We Go!"

I'll be in the office Monday - Thursday and blogging in the evenings and on Fridays so stay tuned!

Cheers to Day One and many more to come. xo