1 Hour Love Day Banner

I love love. Does that make sense? I feel so good when I hear, see or feel love. Only one day a year seems a little on the skimpy side. But everyday is Valentines Day in my house. We say I love you, a lot. But part of me gets sickened by the gross amounts of pink and red Valentines Day seems to exude. Don't get me wrong I still use those sometimes, but not to excess. I like seeing shades of blush and raspberry instead.

I made this whole banner start to finish in under 1 hour. Perfect nap time project! I saw something similar a long time ago (aka pre-pinterest). So I did my best to create something similar.

What you will need:

Paint Chip Samples in your favorite colors. 

Chipboard or Card Stock (Cereal boxes work great!)

String

Sharpie (a pen/pencil would work fine too)

Scissors

Hole punch (aka my meat fork)

A sleeping baby helps too

oh and some flowers from Trader Joe's

Make a heart, on the card stock and use it as a template onto the samples. 

I choose Glidden samples because they were the biggest solid color ones. The multi-tone samples would be neat too. Honestly the rest is self explanatory, you cut them out and string them together!  I did use my meat fork to produce evenly spaced holes. 

If you need step by step instructions for how to poke holes and string them together. I will happily send you the number to my 7th grade home-ec teacher Mrs. Armbruster. 

I have a ton of 3M command strips and I always use them on stuff like this. I cut out 2 extra hearts to make end caps for the banner. 

HAVE A HAPPY LOVE DAY!!

oh, and make sure to hang it out of reach. 

Chalk Board Door + Bonus

So sorry for another delay... my excuses are so lame. But now my computer is set up on my kitchen counter with a wireless card installed and I am good to go! (I am hunting for a desk) If you follow me on instagram, you saw we had a busy week, from the Maya Hayuk mural on The Bowery, play dates with favorite friends and being locked out of the apartment by my toddler. 

As we were moving in we realized we had not painted the back of the front door! It was still that hideous green/gray color of years past. I was ready to whip out my paint brush and paint it off white like the rest of the walls. But my brilliant husband suggested a chalk board! (how cool is he?) I honestly could of slapped my for head with a dramatic "Why didn't I think of that?!"

I gave the back door a good washing and sanding to help the paint stick to the old paint. 

Everything was covered and taped. What would we do without blue tape?

Product of Choice.

After the first coat, I did 3 coats just to give it good coverage.

VERY IMPORTANT: It is imperative to have a toddler wrapped around your legs while you are painting. Absolutely key.

After waiting the designated 3 days (or almost 3 weeks) I conditioned the door with a chalk layer.

Rub it in, while asking your tired husband to take pictures of you doing it. After I rubbed it all in I washed it off and started doodling.

It made for a very entertaining morning watching him color and doodle all over the door. 

I was also planning on painting the front door this month as well. Then the Polar Vortex hit. And we haven't had an above freezing in awhile. I think my feet are actually getting used to socks! But it has been way too cold to paint the front door. But as a bonus here is what color it will be!

Weekend? What Weekend?

Title inspired by Kristen Jasper. 

This weekend was a long one. Brandon was running all over between Manhattan and Brooklyn. We ran into an issue with our Ikea Kitchen order. They couldn't give us a price quote on installation because they didn't have our "digital rendition" on file, when we had been expressly told by 2 different people that our drawings and plans would be fine. Nothing is as easy at it seems at first. But we got it straightened out and should get our quote this week. We could do the installation of the cabinets to save some money, but at this point we want it done right the first time. 

Our weekend was also complicated by Duke having super high fevers all weekend. Which was such a bummer. Poor little guy had no other symptoms except for a high fever. We were at the doctors Saturday afternoon, and had to stay home from church on Sunday. Being home bound while there was so much going on at the apartment was a bit tough, but I loved how extra snugly Duke was. So we made the most of it by watching Charlie Browns Christmas (multiple times) and taking naps together.

It isn't mudded yet in this picture but we dropped the ceiling (just a couple inches) in the kitchen to match the living room. So now it's one straight flush line. Brandon has been doing so much for this project.

Side note: we both have really broken in (ruined) a pair of jeans, my favorite Paige's are now my "work pants" (but don't judge me if you see me out in public with them) Brandon has (had) a really great pair of dark jeans that have been over there one too many times and have suffered the consequences. 

Bathroom is coming along, its been completely covered in green board and cement board. It's ready to be tiled and then painted. 

We raised the shower head well over a foot from its old location. Why do people insist on having such short shower heads? I'm short and it even drives me nuts. 

Another Living Room shot. Yes, we are still waiting on the doors. Home Depot says a delivery date of 12/25..... Is Santa Clause bringing them?

Our plumbers were here this weekend going over the pipes to make sure everything was OK. Once the tile is in and grouted they will come back to put on our new shower fixtures (which are pretty and shiny). 

After getting home I realized I didn't take a single picture of the kitchen besides this:

All I can say is "LAYERS" I guess that is the best way to describe this place. Brick behind the insulation, then it's lathe, plaster and drywall. I never want to open up any of these walls ever again. If (when) we ever do this again, I want to take a week and remove all the plaster. Its awful stuff, especially this horse hair plaster. It's very very heavy. 

But our electrician is finished, it too way to long but he is done. He'll be back to finish installing all the light fixtures and everything, but the general wiring is done. We are so excited about it. One less contractor and one more thing off our to do list

More work ahead this week but its starting to really look like a home! Our construction guy Carlos keeps saying "Getting closer!" and "Looks Good"

Weekend Purchases

Saturdays are officially our Home Depot shopping days. Duke has been such a trooper, we go armed with necceseties to keep him entertained in the stroller, an iPad and goldfish. 

We ordered doors, floors and so many electrical outlets and switches.

I love the look of these Jen Weld doors. We had originally thought to get a six panel door, but I decided I liked this simpler look more. We were going to get the model with a full sized mirror on the back but it made the door hollow, which is what we didn't want. So we skipped it in favor of a solid core door. We have no idea yet what kind of handle we want. Knob or handle? 

We chose Prefinished Maple Hardwood Flooring. The color is called "Maple Amber". We could have absolutely choose to put in the engineered flooring, but we have that in our current apartment and we really don't like it. Its cracked in several places and some areas feel as if they will soon be splintery. So we opted for real 3/4 inch hardwood floors.

When we were at Home Depot about a month ago, we spotted these Legrand Adorne light switches and outlets. They are so fantastic. We are totally saying adieu to boring and dull! We bought these for every light switch and outlet. Even though we chose white switches and white gang plates. I was drooling over the white trimmed plates, but they would have killed my entire budget. 

I love getting to pick out our finishes. Its more fun than buying drywall screws, let me tell you. We could have put standard wall sockets and switches in but we absolutely love the look and feel of these. It will be hard to leave them one day. 

Found Door in the Kitchen

This was behind one of the hollow walls in the kitchen. We decided to peek through and found a door! (???) I initally thought it was kinda cool. But its really not. There is a broken panel (not our doing) and its boarded closed. It would be expensive to fix the door. But if we take it down we can gain several inches for my proposed "mud room". That light blue all through out the kitchen was probably really pretty at one point. Not the depressing gray it is now. 

There are at least 8 different layers of wall paper in here. I am going to try to photograph some of them in better light. They are actually really pretty. I'll keep everyone updated on the wall paper.