real art.

Eric isn't particularly artsy,

but there is one piece that he really appreciates:

The Knight, Death, and the Devil

by Albrecht Durer (1513).

The first year we were dating,

I bought him the print.

This year for his birthday,

I framed that print.

Now our guests get to enjoy it when they stay over.

Eric connects with the determination and focus of the

knight, his horse, and his dog

amid distractions of death and the devil.

Also, the knight's profile looks just like his dad.

platform frame.

Our guest bed needed a frame.

The windows in this room are pretty low,

and there aren't many 3 1/2ft tall headboards out there.

Because of that, I opted for a platform frame.

Maybe I'll try making custom headboard;

that would be in interesting project.

red jacket.

I do not shop online for clothing.

The few times I tried,
I got something like this:

no shape, little interest,

doesn't fit right, with blah buttons.

I got this jacket I don't know how long ago,

and it sat in my closet ever since.

With a few very simple changes
the jacket now looks like this:

Love those pewter buttons.

say cheese.

I'm sure my mom intended these cheese blocks

to be used for serving cheese & crackers

when she gave them to me.

I had different plans ...

The right one is us on the top of our first 

14,000 footer - White Mountain.

The left one is us on the top of Kilimanjaro - 

Africa's highest peak.

They fill the empty space well.

one dollar.

A neighbor was selling this 

cool little table at a yard sale.

It cost $1.

It's so awesome that I didn't even need to 

do any work on it.

Now our porch isn't naked anymore.

drift wood modification.

This was last year's porch Christmas decoration.

I loved it, but I changed it.

This great piece of drift wood was found on a private beach in Big Sur.  

I was there for a friend's bachelorette party.

In addition to providing more stability since it's pretty heavy,

I think it also balances out the large ornaments and offers substance.

I don't really like one better than the other,

but it's nice to have a switch-a-roo.

more plum.

The bed was pretty boring before starting on this room.

Let's be honest, the entire space was pretty boring 

before starting on this room.

I shopped for a new bed spread for a few weeks

but didn't come up with much I liked.

Then I found this duvet cover that went with everything really well.

The plum pattern matches the richness

 of the night table and compliments the green.

Oh, and since I didn't have a luxurious duvet to put in the duvet cover,

I just put a blanket inside instead ... maybe later.

church lamp.

This lamp came free from a "swap and share" our stake had;

 it used to live in our our Stake President's house.

I tried painting it white, 

but that looked terrible.

Then I gave it a lavender bath.

I'm not sure President Jex would even recognize it.

water damaged.

I knew I needed this night table as soon as I drove by it.  

Can you believe someone just abandoned it on the curb?

All the surfaces sanded down pretty easily, except for the top.

Paint wasn't going to cover up that much water damage.

But it was nothing a bit of scrapbook paper 

and mod podge couldn't handle.

I don't usually think any of my projects are "pretty,"

but this one actually.is.pretty!

paint play.

The pure white walls didn't look very nice

next to the antique white floor.

I had a bunch of the antique white

and a good amount of the grasshopper wing green left over,

so ... I mixed 'em.

At first, the result was a drab yellowish color.  Gulp.

Thankfully, I had more green of a similar shade 

left over from something else, 

which gave me this beautiful color that is perfect!

color grading.

This dresser was in my room when I was a teenager.

Since I am terrible at choosing wall color,

I have about 80 paint samples in my garage.

5 of them were used for this update.

The rope pulls are my favorite part.

They were also the only things I had to pay for,

so this "new" dresser only cost me $2.50.

stenciled floor.

Our Guest Room carpet was thrashed:

stains from hair dye,

worn parts in high traffic areas,

and some mysterious melted spots...

I know it doesn't look that bad in the picture,

but I was not a happy camper.

I have envisioned something like this for a while now.

I think it's beautiful, and I wanted to recreate it.

So, while Eric was on a business trip, 

I ripped up the carpet, pulled out the tack strips, 

scrubbed glue, and patched many holes and seams.

I was afraid I was in over my head when after 2 days of hard work

 it still looked this bad:

But, I carried on.

I tried to purchase the stencils in the picture above,

except they were no where to be found ...

so, I made my own.

I painted the base coat, stenciled the designs, 

applied the poly floor finish, and 

vuala!

I'm in love.

There are a ton of imperfections 

due to the crappy sub-floor and homemade stencils,

so instead of hiding the mistakes, I highlighted them.

It's better than I even imagined.