I am going to try this again

So now that I am engaged (omg yay!) I think I am going to try this blogging thing one more time!  We got engaged on May 13 (Friday the 13!) and we are getting married September 21, 2012.  We have our wedding venue booked, meeting with a possible photographer on 7/7 and a few of the MANY diy projects I plan on doing started.

Things I plan to DIY:
1. Card box (3/4 of the way done already, post coming on that)
2. Veil (I cannot believe how expensive they are)
3. All the centerpieces for the 20-something tables (our guest list is huge)
4. Candy buffet
5. Escort cards
6. Invitations (I am SUPER excited to make these)
7. Bride t-shirt to wear day-of (yes, I am a nerd)
8. Decorations for ceremony space (yet to be determined)
9. Random other decor for the reception
10. Possibly the runners or overlays for the tables
11. Plenty of other things I cannot thing of right now!

I have the invites already designed, all I am waiting for is hopefully a sale to order all the supplies.  The great thing about waiting 16 months to get married is that I have plenty of time to make things myself and bargain/sale shop!

I am hoping I can keep to this blogging thing because I really want to document all the projects I will be doing for the wedding =]

2011 Project list updated

I think I will post at the beginning of each month what we checked off our 2011 project list. So since it is now February (how did that happen?!?!) here is what we accomplished in January:

1. Turn coat closet into a pantry 1/2011
2. Repaint kitchen
3. Paint living room This is 3/4 done, just to figure out what color to paint the giant wall!
4. Tile kitchen back splash
5. Install new mailbox and post
6. Fix floodlights on the garage
7. Have a yard sale to get rid of unnecessary junk
8. Get guest bathroom shower functioning
9. Repair the shed
10. Hang the mantle
11. Paint the fireplace
12. Install chair rail in dinging room
13. Repaint master bedroom
14. Install crown molding in master bedroom
15. Have family room walls repaired (I'll tell that awesome story sometime) 1/2011
16. Possibly have family room reinsulated-it is insanely cold in the winter While we were having the family room walls repaired we learned that our walls are made of concrete blocks, so there goes my dreams of having it insulated =/
17. Have outlets in kitchen rewired (we can't use both without blowing the fuse)
18. Fix 3-way switches (we have 4 sets of them in our house and NONE of them work properly, talk about annoying)
19. Refinish table from Salvation Army
20. Refinish table given to me from my Grandmother

So we managed to knock off 2 (3?) of the 20 listed so far...not too terribly bad.  This month I am hoping to finish painting the living room, paint the fireplace and maybe install chair rail in the dining room!  We shall see how it goes =]

The walls are done!

The drywall guy finished our walls last Friday! Once he was done we were left to do the priming and painting.  I think I washed the walls about 3 times and the drywall dust was STILL there in some spots! I finally decided it was good enough and called it a day.  Sunday we spent most of the day applying a coat of primer and two coats of delicious chocolate brown paint.  I wasn't about to paint the entire room unless I absolutely had too.  It is one giant room.  So we painted just beyond the edges of where the walls were patched hoping it would blend in well.  It doesn't look as good as I hoped, but I didn't think it looked so bad that we needed to do the whole room.  I think once we move all the furniture in and hang up pictures and shelves and whatnot it won't be as noticeable.

Here is a sneak peak at the new rug we bought this weekend! (I have waited 10 months to find the perfect rug that wasn't 9 billion dollars):

Isn't it fab? I sure think so.  We picked it up at Lowe's for around $200 (I don't remember how much it was and I cannot find it on the website!)

Pictures coming soon of the completed room!

Wall update

Phil the drywall guy (his official name, obviously) has been working on our walls for two days (well, evenings really).  He called what the previous owners had done to them a "homeowners special" because it was so terrible.  He thinks that the family room may have been a breezeway between the house and the garage at some point.  He said that when the room was finished that the people didn't hang the drywall correctly which is why the walls cracked in the first place.  THEN when they did crack they used soooo much drywall mud to "fix" it it made a huge hump in the wall (which is what it looked like when we bought the house), so eventually the crack just worked its way through the mud.  Awesome.  He said the only way to truly fix the walls and ceiling is to completely tear them out and do it again, which is simply not happening. He said he is doing everything he can to make the cracks not come back again, so lets hope it works!  He should be finishing Friday, so that means I can repaint and put my house back together this weekend!

I am beyond excited to finally be able to hang my floating shelves and awesome prints I bought many months ago!  Here are some during shots of the repair process =]

This is the wall where the TV was in the picture from the last post about this.

 He also helped us out by fixing the cracks under this window.

 Wall opposite the first picture.

ps- I have NO idea why my pictures have that crazy gray strips at the bottom, anyone have any clue?  I just uploaded them from my phone to Picasa and Picasa to here...

All about me =]

I think I should probably introduce myself a little bit...so here we go!

My name is Katie.  I work for my family business....I like my job but my real passion is in decorating and creating beautiful/awesome things.  I think I am awesome, I hope you do too (=p).  I use way too many !!!! and =] so I hope you don't mind.  I live in Cincinnati.  I bought my first home with my amazing boyfriend (soon to be fiancé I hope =]) in March of 2010 and I am throughly enjoying fixing it up and making it our home.  We have two dogs, Kip-Great Dane mix and Blade-Cocker Spaniel/Dachshund mix, and two cats, Sampson and Bojangles.  I drive a Scion xB...Most people think they are ugly but I LOVE my car and think it is amazing.  I am extremely impatient (hence the blog name =p) and sometimes it gets me into trouble.  I love shopping a bit too much.  I have a sickening love for Christmas music and decorations, and well, just Christmas in general =]

Very random, I know, but that is just me!

My walls crack me up...

That's a lie, they crack themselves up.  See?

See that lovely crack there? Imagine that traveling all across the ceiling and down the other wall.  And add the wall under the window doing the same thing.  It's awesome.  Not.  When we purchased the house that part looked just like someone had done a bad patch job, but not cracked at all.  Which is why we went ahead and painted.  Then it cracked and traveled all the way across the room.  We have a guy starting tomorrow to fix them and I could not be more excited! I'll post before and after photos of all the walls/ceiling.  Once he is done I can FINALLY hang up my floating shelves. 

Also, we finally painted the living room.  Well 3/4 of it anyway.  I cannot decide on a color for the giant, first thing you see when you walk into the house wall.  The kitchen is dark gray, the kitchen is cream and red...I am lost on what color to paint it.

Now I'm off to make my house presentable before the repair man comes tomorrow!

Silhouette love.

Have I mentioned how much I love my Silhouette? =P Lol. But for real...I doooo.  I found a website that sells 9x24 inch sheets of vinyl! Rolls of vinyl for it are about $8, which isn't too terribly bad, but if I want just a little but of a certain color I don't want to buy a whole roll! So yay! 9x24 sheets! Each sheet is $1.59 which is totally reasonable.  Click here to check it out.  It is technically more expensive when it comes down to it, but like I said, if you just want a little piece it's reasonable.  Here is what I ordered on Tuesday:

 

Along with the 7 colors of vinyl sheets, I also ordered 2 replacement cutting mats for the machine.  I hate paying shipping with a passion so I figured if I was already ordering vinyl I might as well go ahead and get the mats.

I when I was searching for my brad setting tool (idk the official name of the tool) I found a whole roll of red vinyl I completely forgot I had! I love when that happens =].  So since I found this whole roll I figured I would make some Valentine's Day decorations!

These plate holders are on either side of a mirror that hangs above my buffet in the dining room.  The plain gold chargers were looking a little boring, but now they are as cute as can be!  As soon as V-Day is over I can just peel the vinyl off and do something else! I also read somewhere that you could use clear contact paper instead of the special transfer paper! And it's soooo much cheaper!

I love crafting on days like today.  We are currently getting snowed in and I am making chicken n dumplings for dinner.  Yummmmm.