Our Kitchen Table Got A Makeover

A few nights ago I put (most of) my ideas for "Project Lundeland" into a powerpoint presentation and sent it to Matt. What is Project Lundeland? It is my plan for putting some of my design ideas into action. I will do a separate post later on the powerpoint presentation in its entirety, but for now here is a snapshot of my first project - the kitchen table. 

We typically have some type of table runner that runs across our little kitchen table. Actually, let me back up to the history of this table. My old roommate Heather (and her old roommate before me) bought it for $75 on Craigslist. When Heather moved to Denver and Matt and I got married, she let us keep it. The table was originally blond wood, which we kept that way for the first year. When we moved into our house Matt stained it a darker wood - which I love. In fact, I am thinking we might even go darker (Matt made the mistake of telling me that was possible). So with the dark wood we usually had lighter table runners on it - with vases and fresh flowers, or a tray with tea sets, etc. I have been wanting to make it look a bit more "elegant/grown up/you know...better/newer/etc (haha)" so with Christmas money from Fred and Karen we bought two new end chairs I have been looking at (on sale) to help give it a different look. 

As far as decorating goes - I am really into that whole rustic, modern, clean, barnyard-sheek (is that even how you spell that word?) look, so that is what I was going for with the pictures below. Total cost outside of the chairs: Burlap and lace ($6.43), mason jars (already had them), sand and candles (gift card from Pier 1). I am IN.LOVE. 

The finished project! I am so happy to use the table runner that Carla and Antonio gave us as a wedding present! It is perfect with the burlap!

Tis the Season for Holiday Treats

Almost every year I make hundreds of chocolate covered pretzels for friends and colleagues at work. I think it is such a fun time to share a little holiday cheer - and everyone just seems to LOVE these pretzels (mom's recipe). Typically I put 6-7 in a holiday baggie tied with a ribbon and a tag. Well I am ALL about mason jars this year. So I bought 2 cases of them and had Tracey help me design the labels (which unfortunately I mis-sized). I think they turned out super cute! I probably made over 350 this year - so that Matt could take a few containers to work as well! Would you believe I only ate 2!

Tracey's "Roaring 20s" 30th Bday Bash

This weekend we had the pleasure of hosting (or rather co-hosting with Becky and Chuck) Tracey's 30th Birthday bash. She wanted a Roaring 20s Speakeasy theme - and that is exactly what she got! I am going to do a separate post on all of the little details, but they were all much appreciated by the fabulous birthday girl. Happy 30th Birthday Tracey!!!!!

The Poker/DIY Photo Booth area

Cardboard Cutouts

Becky and her bouncer husband

What's the password

We had the birthday girl arrive 30 minutes early so she could see all of the party details before the guests arrived!

Birthday girl and the hostesses

Such a cute reaction

Decorations Details. There are live goldfish at the bottom of the vases - goldfish became very popular in the 1920s.

Matt and I went with super formal 1920s wear. Found this dress at LuLu Bees for $38!

Birthday cake was pineapple upside down cupcakes

We spraypainted a black canvas to look like a speakeasy door and had guests come around the back 

Please notice the Speakeasy canvas I painted behind the drink station

Tough guys

Lucky got dressed up too!

Joe raking it in!

Love this guy

Our Big Kid Bed

Our latest DIY project was a headboard for our bed. I don't think Matt nor I have had a headboard since our childhood bedroom sets. When I moved into my first apartment I had a mattress, sheets and a blanket from college. Slowly but surely I stepped it up with a comforter from BB&B, sheets that matched the comforter, throw pillows and a bed skirt. Then Matt and I got married and we got an even nicer duvet cover and higher thread count sheets. But when it came to bed furniture - we just never pulled the trigger. We didn't want to get anything while we were living in the apartment because we would have just had to move it into the house...then we bought a house and there was always something more fun to buy than a headboard/bedroom set. 

Well I am pleased to say we are making progress towards a big kid room - headboard and all! Matt and I are working on serveral DIY projects for our bedroom - more to share later - but for now, check out the fantastic headboard Matt built all by himself. And yes, we now own a circular saw - more powertools for the garage!

DIY Landscaping

Our backyard is going to happen in phases. I would say phase 1 was last Spring when we planted our first "garden" with fun plants from the Farmers Market. It was a good start as the goal was to just add some color and test out various plants.  At the height of the garden last year it looked like this!

Phase 2 happened after Terminex came and told us to get rid of the wooden garden dividers - so we bought stones and Matt put them in as the garden wall. (I can't find the post of this.)

Well this year, Phase 3, was to up the ante a bit on the landscaping - and thanks to an adorable pin on pinterest we had an idea!

This is the right side of the yard showing our "garden/landscaping." Please don't judge because this is post winter. Props to the mint plant still rockin' it! You will notice the blue "facet" plant holder - I had something in store for that this year! You can't really tell but the blue had faded so much from the sun and was starting to flake off!

Our first step was to give some shape to the straight line that was the back wall o' garden. It felt so weird tearing up good grass. lol. Sweet Lucky wanted to be involved in every step of the process! (And yes, Matt did have a burned back after the day was over!)

Laying out the stone - we only had to buy one more stone on each side - $2.49! We also dug up a lot of the hard dirt and mixed in some really good potting soil. You can note that we did the exact same thing on the left side of the yard.

Next up - the cinder block. $1.45 each!

Matt did such a good job of leveling the ground to make sure it was perfect for holding all the blocks in place.

Side bar - You KNOW I love spraypaint - why...because for $2.99 you can completely change the look of something. I wanted this to POP in the garden so this year's color is RED!

LOVE IT!

The sun got in the way - but here is the finished product. The green plants/vines on the ground are going to grow to be a ground cover. Then we have all the herbs panted in the cinder blocks. I am obsessed with it!

For a completely new look, it wasn't an expensive project and I think it looks amazing. On the other side, because it gets more sun we discovered, we planted vegetables in the ground. 

You know I didn't just spray paint one thing. We had these two hanging plant pots that I saved from last year. They were from Home Depot and that yucky brown color. Well that same can of spray paint made them look fabulous!

So Phase 4 is going to be the expensive part - new fence and stone to replace the railroad ties. We are going to see how long we can push that off :)