Bachelorette Recap

Hi Friends! Sorry again for the silence last week. I was in Tampa for work, and was either really lame and working and going to bed early, or out having fun and not remembering to blog! We had a good week with gorgeous weather (hello 38 degrees this morning in Atlanta...not appreciated) and really good food. But I was happy to be home Friday night, and actually enjoy a low-key weekend in Atlanta for the first time in a while. Unfortunately, I've been a little sick with either sinus issues or a cold, but I'm slowly nursing back to health thankfully. Must be healthy for the big wedding weekend in NC! I took it easy most of this weekend, but John and I did go to the shooting range with some Half Off Depot coupons yesterday. It was really fun! It was my first time ever going to a range or shooting a gun, and I enjoyed it. I had pretty good aim too!

Back up to the bachelorette weekend. We had such a great time! I think we all had a lot of fun at Dip n Dab making beautiful paintings and drinking wine. Saturday we shopped the day away, and then had a fabulous dinner complete with belly dancers at Taverna Plaka followed by a VIP table at the Gold Room in Buckhead. Needless to say, we made sure the bachelorette had a fantastic weekend!

In other news, I finally bought and iPad and I could not be happier. I wish I had done it sooner! It made my travel last week so much more enjoyable! And now I can play Words with Friends and Hanging with Friends (for any of you who might be interested). Yay!

Now just a few workdays to get through before I hit the road to NC to help my dear SCD tie the knot this weekend!

Bachelorette weekend!

I'm so excited that one of my bffs Sara and (most of) her bridal party will be arriving on my doorstep tomorrow afternoon for her bachelorette weekend! We have some very fun things planned, which I'll have to share later because Sara is a reader of this blog and I can't spoil any of the surprises. I'll just say that food, paint-penning and crowns will be involved. Yay!

21st Birthday Throwbacks :)

My house is officially clean and ready for visitors. Its amazing how much having a house guest will get your behind in gear to do things around the house. In the past three weeks alone, I finished painting my bedroom, moved some furniture around, hung some pictures, made a headboard, created an entire guest bed and shoved lots of extra things that had been lying around the guest room floor in a closet. My house is a new place!

I hope you all have fabulous weekends, and I'll report back on all the bachelorette fun next week!

Throwback

This morning at work we were discussing some childhood throwbacks--mainly the teal and purple of the early 1990s Charlotte Hornets. Did anyone else out there have a purple and teal windsuit? I know I did! And does anyone else remember having a lifesize cutout of Muggsy Bogues in your elementary school classroom? I know I do! This article pretty much sums up all that was good about the Hornets in the early 90s. Good times.

Headboard Project

Its finally done! I have a real fabric headboard made by me (and my boyfriend), and a real bed in my guestroom! The results were awesome too, and I was pleasantly surprised at how easy the project was overall. I was not a good blogger, and did not remember to take pictures along the way, but i'll spell out step-by-step the supplies you'll need and how to make your very own fabric headboard for less than $150 in less than a day!

Supplies:
-Fabric, $70 (I ordered mine on sale from JoAnn's, and got 4 yards. Way more than enough for a queen bed, plus a have some leftover for probably 2 medium sized pillows/shams)
-Particle Board, $18 (Got a big sheet at Home Depot--4x6 size I believe)
-Quilt Batting, $20 (Bought a large roll of medium thickness batting at Walmart)
-Staples, staple gun, tacks ($3), hammer and a power saw (John already had all the tools, but you could easily purchase an inexpensive staple gun at any craft or home improvement store, and rent the saw)

Total cost: about $115

Step 1: Cut the particle board in your desired shape. I did a slight curve in the middle, as you can see in the photos. We did this out in the drive way, and it took maybe 10 or 15 minutes to sketch the shape and do the cutting. Very easy!

Step 2: Set up shop in a large area of floor in your house. Lay the batting out flat on the floor, put the particle board on top and pull all the edges tight. Cut off excess batting (I left about 2 inches around the perimeter for stapling.

Step 3: Staple, staple, staple. I put my staples about 1.5 inches apart, and they held up well. Particle board it a very hard material, so I hammered my staples in to make sure they were secure. Put extra staples in the corners, because the folded fabric is extra thick.

Step 4: Pick up the headboard with batting secured to it, and lay out fabric cut to your headboard's size. Pull tightly around the edges, and cut away any excess (the same way you did in step 2). I left a little more fabric around the perimeter (maybe 3 inches).

Step 5: Staple or tack the fabric. Since my upholstry fabric was very thick, especially with the battling underneath, I used plain gold, round-top tacks. I positioned each one (about 2 inches apart) and hammered them all in to make sure the fabric was secure. Remember to constantly pull the fabric tight to ensure that it will be even (especially if you are using a patterned fabric like I was).

Voila, you are finished! You can take it a step further, and actually attach the headboard to the bedframe or to the wall, but for now mine is just on the floor behind the bed and its working out fine. I may bolt it to the frame in the future to add some extra height, but just having it against the wall definitely works in a pinch (and my pinch, of course, is getting the room ready for bachelorette weekend on Friday!). This project was easy, inexpensive and not very time consuming. I love the outcome, and am so glad I didn't pay the hundreds of dollars I've seen similar headboards go for online!

Sorry for the blackberry photos, as usual!

Too.Much.Fun.

Hi friends,

I apologize up front for abandoning the blog for most of October, but I've had good reason! So many good things have been happening, that I haven't found myself in front of my computer with extra time to share. I'm going to try to get back on the wagon now though. Here's a few things that have been going on lately with me:

-Went to Alabama, and really enjoyed myself. I spent a week in Florence & Sheffield, and had a great time! I even remembered to take a few photos, so you all could go on a virtual walking tour :)
-Visited John's parents in Thomson, GA a couple of weekends ago, and enjoyed some time with his family.
-Flew home to NC last Wednesday and had a blast. One of the best long weekends in recent memory. Had an amazing day at the State Fair with my fam, and then a fabulous homecoming weekend at Wake Forest, the Best Place In The World. Pictures to come, but last night I was too exhausted to upload anything.
-Had lunch with childhood bff Julie while I was home, and I'm thrilled that she asked me to be the maid of honor in her upcoming wedding. There is so much fun planning to be done (including a shower hosted by me, so if you have tips, send them my way please!).

So, I've basically been eating and drinking too much, and have been having too much fun. There are worse predicaments to be in. Need to get back on the healthy eating wagon, and get my butt in gear to clean & fix up my house before the bachelorettes descend upon me this weekend. I'm excited about that, too!

In other news, the headboard is finally finished, and has been assembled into a real life bed in my guest room! Pictures/tutorial to follow, but really--it was insanely easy, and I'm really happy with the results. Huge thanks to John for doing all the hard work parts :)

I hope y'all have been doing well lately and having as much fun as me! I feel like i've been in a constant state of tired, but its been so, so worth it. I have the best friends in the whole world. xoxo

Good Things Happening

Greetings from the Quad Cities! I'm in Sheffield/Florence, Alabama this week for work, and I'm really enjoying myself here. I've been twice before, and I remembered having fun here, but I've really grown to like Florence on this trip. The weather is amazing (think 78 degrees and sunny), the scenery is gorgeous (I drive over a big bridge over the Tennessee river to get to work from the hotel in the morning) and the town is so quaint. Big trees and big old houses, very cute shops and a local university (UNA). I had a very long walk through the downtown yesterday, and its so pleasant to see an old downtown in a little town that's actually bustling. I'm looking forward to another walk today, and hopefully i'll get some pictures to share with y'all.

That's pretty much been my whole week thus far, just working and enjoying some small town life. Not looking forward to a 5 hour trip back to Atlanta tomorrow, but things could be worse :) I am, however, looking forward to a long-overdue haircut on Friday, and a trip to Raleigh and Winston-Salem next week! Oh, and a holiday from work on Monday (thank you, Christopher Columbus!). Homecoming, the State Fair, so many friends and family...it might just be too much for me to handle. Then after that, I'm hosting SCD's bachlorette weekend in Hotlanta and am taking another trip home after that for her wedding. I am so so looking forward to the next month's worth of activities. And on top of that, my best friend from childhood, Julie, and her fiance Michael just got engaged last week and have set a date for March 24! That's my half birthday :) I can't wait to be in both of these weddings. So much fun to celebrate my favorite people!

You know what else is fun? Eating at Bojangles. Yum.

And, something else? Seeing my fridge fill up with pretty invites (thanks, Sara :).