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Linking up with Jeanett from Life Rearranged for Insta Friday! I'm @leahheffelfinger if you want to follow along!




Going way back to the beginning of the month, we celebrated Sam's birthday. He only request was that I get my butt in the kitchen and make him a homemade German Chocolate cheesecake. So I had to call up Aunt Sara to get the recipe and tips for how to not to ruin this special cake. But success in the end! Happy Birthday to the Hubs!

I found some spare time a few weeks ago and whipped up this fancy pillow cover with a set of vintage sheets that I picked up at the Goodwill for 5$ --- my kind of shopping!

Fall is officially around the corner, and I refuse to admit that it actually might already be here. I'm not happy about this, and I'm really not happy about Starbucks "Early Arrival" of the pumpkin spice latte....even if they do taste like heaven. But with that comes the need for fire wood, so Sam taught me how to use the chainsaw and we got to cuttin'!

Story of my life - Kona not listening while trying to play fetch. This is what I get. No toy of any kind could persuade her to run around... it's like she's saying "silly Mom, fetch is for dogs. Obviously I'm not a dog...I'm a hooman!"

And another example of the Hooman Dog - chair sitting. And sniffing the newest addition to our library. Love this book BTW, you should all check out Young House Love.

Sam and I took a few days off work to trek across the desert to visit my parents in CA. So I snapped a few photos of the house to carry with me on the days when I miss my hometown the most.

The skateboards were made by my Grandpa, and Dad collected many of these from Ebay to bring a bit of Grandpa into our lives.

Mom and I got to work creating this cute gallery wall about their breakfast nook. I think it turned out perfectly! And the table is filled with vintage marbles, so charming!

While in CA, we swung by our wedding photographers house to have some anniversary pictures taken. This is one of my favorites!

And lastly, back in Arizona, we have some new windows to install in our house, so we took a trip to the Home Depot to purchase some tools and whatnot, and of course, the Hooman Dog decided that walking was just too much. Riding is the way to go.

What have you been up to?

The Master Bedroom: An Update

We've been in our home for just over a year - craziness! It's been so much fun to (slowly) work on decorating each room to have its own personality, collect pieces that speak to our needs, and really make the house US. We've definitely spent more time and effort working on the two rooms that we spend most of our time in - the living room, and the master bedroom. So today, I thought I'd show the how far we've come since moving into the house. 

We started off with this hot mess --- I.E. the mattress on the floor, chair for a night stand, and not a throw pillow in sight. Thank goodness this didn't last long. Our house was built in the late 50's or 60's (I can't remember the exact year) and apparently back then people didn't own many items of clothing, so the room has two teeny tiny closets that could barely fit my clothes, let alone mine AND Sam's. So we needed a solution, and we needed it fast! 

And that's where Sam's handy woodworking skills come in. I was drooling over a photo from a Pottery Barn catalog that unfortunately was about $1200 over our price range when Sam offered to build a replica for me! I wasn't about to say no, since my shoes had no home, and neither did my a lot of other clothes. So that's how we ended up here.

Pardon the messiness in the photo, but check out all the extra storage we gained! 9 cubicles! And we scored the crates from Home Depot for under $10 each - much better than the $60+ baskets that the Pottery Barn catalog showed. But we still had a lot of work to do. The comfy (but very manly) plaid duvet needed to go, and some personality needed to be brought into the room via curtains, frames, etc. 

This weekend I finally got around to staining the crates - I used Minwax's Dark Walnut, and left it on for the minimum time that it suggested - five minutes, to give the crates a nice rustic finish. The addition of some new bedding from West Elm, curtains from Target (a secret about those in a bit) and some frames that were a steal at Marshall's really helped bring the room together.

The throw is from One Kings Lane, and the pillow is one of my creations. Oh, and the cute little orange bowl was a $3 clearance find from Target - it works nicely for corralling all of my nighttime necessities - chap stick, tissues, and lotion.

 

The room is fairly awkward - with windows on two walls, and closets on the other two, the only place to put the bed was under a window. Not wanting our heads to be directly under a streetlight, we opted to put the bed on the far wall. The problem here is that the window is not centered on the wall, leaving us with awkward spacing on either side of the bed - tons of room on one side, and not enough on the other. So we opted to create a faux larger window to help center the bed on the wall. In the top photo you can tell because the sunlight is hitting it just right, the dark space on the left side of the window is actually the wall - but when the sun isn't there (which it isn't most of the day) it appears that our bed is under a much larger window, and the black drapes help to create a sort of headboard. This way we have equal space on each side of the bed. 

Now, about the curtains. I was able to save about $24 by purchasing only 3 panels - hanging two above the bed, and splitting one in half over the other window --- what!? Even though the curtains are hung wider than the window actually is to help the window appear larger, hanging two full size panels was so heavy looking on the window - especially since the curtains are dark. But cutting one in half, I was able to keep the look that I was going for, without weighing down the window. And saving some dollars is a good thing around here too!

So that's the update on the master bedroom. On the list of things to do next:

Some art or mirror to go on the blank wall next to the functioning window.

A statement dresser for the other side of the room (not shown).

A mirror to go above the dresser to help create a dressing area for me in the mornings (help keep the bathroom open for other uses). 

Spiff up the ugly closet doors.

And maybe a rug to keep our feet warm in the winter. 

 

Starting.

Sam and I celebrated our first anniversary a few weeks ago. I can't even begin to tell you how fast this year have gone. It's been incredible, and more everything than I could have imagined. It was harder in someways, easier in lots of ways, and just plain fun on most days. We had an extra hour of time left from our wedding photo package with our photographer, so we jumped at the chance to have some anniversary photos taken. Can't wait to get the rest of them back!

We recently started reading a book together. (We've found that reading together is a good way to begin some awesome conversations - having a common idea to start from, and setting the tone for a great discussion.) But first let me back up....

Months ago, our friends asked us to join them in attending Dave Ramsey's financial class, "Financial Peace University". The class itself probably deserves its own post... maybe another time. But a huge benefit of taking this class was learning about a fantastic writer, Jon Acuff, the author of the book that we're reading now. It's called, "Start.". Basically, the book chronicles the 5 majors steps to "becoming awesome" at something and how to START becoming awesome. I'm nearing the end of the book now, and it's definitely helping me to realize that blogging is not something that I have time for, instead is something that I need to MAKE time for. I may never be awesome at blogging, but it's something that I enjoy, and something that I hope helps to keep our Etsy store open. Jon Acuff would call this step "learning". I read a lot of blogs, more than I probably should admit....but the ladies behind these blogs are such amazing role models and examples of what I could only dream of this blog becoming some day. (If you're interested in seeing a list of the blogs that I LOVE, check it out here.) It's been over a month since I've posted anything here, and multiple months since I was posting regularly. As Jon Acuff states in his book, I'll never be awesome until I actually start - start learning, start making the time, start actually doing what it is that I say I want to do. (Obviously the phrase "actions speak louder than words" comes to mind.)

So...here's a risky move - putting your goals out on the interwebs for all to see, I'm hoping this is a means of holding myself responsible to my dreams. My first move is to get back into blogging, even if it's only one post a week - it's a start, and it's a step towards where I want to be. And I'm hoping that by posting this out here on the web, I'll start to get support for all of you! There ya, go! Welcome back to the blogging world, and until next time!