exploring

now that we're finally settled in and school's off to a good start, it's about time i start working on some projects. i figured there had to be someplace better than hobby lobby for fabric, so i goodled 'fabric in chicagoland'

and this huge store kept popping up. yea, it looks a little sketch, but it had over a hundred good reviews. i was also prepared to dig and sweat because that was in the reviews too...

so on labor day, i drove the 40 minutes into the city and found it.
it was impressive. rooms and rooms of fabric. for cheap. like under $10 a yard. sweeet.

plus notions galore.

tons and tons of buttons

any color zipper you could think of.

piping

and all colored lace

tons of shelves of ribbons

and tassels

plus rows and rows of fabric, plus piles and piles on top of that.

sadly, i didn't find the amazing fabric i was dreaming of to recover some craigslited chairs, but i didn't leave empty handed. and it was a great little exploration.

happy day

oh yea

we're now official illinois-ians

but have no fear - one of my kindergarteners today asked me why i kept saying ya'll. im clinging to those southern roots.

ikea's rast makeover

somehow, in all the moving, we didn't make it up with with our bedside tables.

problem 1 - i put a lot in the big, 3 drawers of my old table, besides the lamp on top and all.
problem 2 - there were about a million other things i wanted to get for our new place besides bedside tables.

so on our first trip to ikea, we picked up these unfinished Rast chests for about $30 each.



if you google 'ikea's rast makeovers' you'll get a ton of awesome ways people have finished these chests, but the most popular, by far, is some version of *this* makeover, based on one originally found in Style at Home magazine. I needed something quick and easy, so we went ahead and copied it as well.

after we put them together, james hauled all the pieces down to the parking lot for me. i primed and painted the drawers with benjamin moore's chantilly lace and stained the outside piece. now this wood isn't exactly the highest quality, prettiest wood, so i'm glad we just stained the outside piece.

i tried to make the cheap little knobs look pretty, but there was no helping them, so i ordered these knobs from *here* for a serious steal. unfortunately, when we got them, i realized i bought the wrong kind to fit into the pre-drilled holes in the drawers. to fix it, i ended up tossing the back piece and just using the square pulls.



and the finished product -



i'm super pleased with how they turned out and - even better - love all the great storage in all those drawers.

happy day

cherishing this promise today

look who came to see us!!

Gracie!!!
sweet grace made the long trek to see us this week and we had a blast with her. ok, we actually did a whole lot of nothing, but we were so happy she was here!

our only plans the whole week were to go downtown on saturday and, of course, it was pouring rain when we woke up sat morning. but that didn't stop us.

we tried out the water taxi this time (in the rain) and it was so fun! definitely better than walking the 9 blocks to the magnificent mile. great views.

it meant the world to us for grace to drive all the way up here. thanks for coming gracie! we love you!

new school... again

i started school this week and can i just say, i hate being the new kid? because of my intense fear of walking into a room by myself, "meet and greet breakfast" sounds a lot like "chinese water torture" to me.

surprisingly, i'm still alive and here to say i made it through.

this is my first go-round at a christian school and wow.
really wow.

we started off wednesday morning with praise and worship led by the youth group's lead band and finished the day off with an early screening of the new movie by the Love Dare guys, Courageous. Popcorn, drinks, and movie candy were definitely involved. (by the way - you have got to go see this movie when it comes out! it is aaa-maaa-zing. take everybody you know. amazing.)

although i've always had it in my heart, i've never started the year with such a passion to serve the Lord in my job. needless to say, i'm really enjoying my job -

and the kids don't even come for another 2 weeks!

lazy sunday afternoon

yea right.
my hubby is amazing.
i'm more just nail and go.
he's more measure, check it twice, and use 3M strips to avoid holes.
his walls look way better than mine.
and the best part?
he didn't complain once.
even though this wasn't the only wall of pictures he hung.
yep, he's amazing.

where did all my time go?

umm. to pintrest. i'm pretty sure hours go by without me knowing it.
not really, but close.



i used to have tons of saved bookmarks on my computer of all my favorite projects in blogland, but then everybody started raving about pintrest. it sounded like this heaven of a place where you can bookmark all your favorite stuff on the internet and check out other people's favorite finds.

problem was, you had to have an invite to join, so i'd just stare awkwardly like the one left out of the party.

UNTIL one of my favorite bloggers offered to send out some invites and she actually sent me one! it was a good day.

so if you'd like an invite, send me your email and i'll pass it on! i think i can send out 10.

but just remember - i warned you - your time will start disappearing.

the last box...

has finally been unpacked.
and that makes me happy.

all the others have actually been unpacked since last week but this particular box was making such a great bed side table that i hadn't gotten around to unpacking it. and what-do-you-know, the shower rings i've been looking for were in the bottom of it, of course.

for the first time since we got married 4 years ago, all of our china and wedding gifts are actually in our house instead of storage. for some reason, that also makes me happy.

so just watch out. i could throw a fancy-shmancy party at any given moment.
as long as i wasn't actually cooking the food.

ok, off to now organize the closets that i threw everything in last week when unpacking.