Finished Chairs

We finished the chairs!!! These chairs have been a long time in the making, but finally Mom and I had enough time to get these done this past weekend and I think they look pretty awesome! Next to the table that Dad also made (he has a carpentry hobby that I have picked up one or two things on) for when we move in, I think they look pretty awesome! The top parts are actually curved, which don't show too well in the pictures, making them harder to do, but I think Mom did awesome with her old sewing machine!

These chairs are going to look awesome in our new place. I can't wait to give you guys a tour when we move in less than two weeks! The countdown starts!!!

We are getting all the rest of our stuff together and I may have more posts coming up with tips for moving and things that I realize along the way. More updates to come!!

Love,

Sara :)

Progress on Chairs

Remember me mentioning a few weeks ago that I started redoing some chairs that are going to be in the new apartment Morgan and I are moving into at the end of the month? Well, I finally got my act together and went out and bought fabric for the cushions! Not only that, but between me, mom, and dad (he supplied our staple gun) we figured out how to get the bottom cushions together. I even managed to make it into a one person job! As of now, all the bottom cushions are done, we are just trying to figure out how to do those pesky top cushions....especially since sewing really isn't one of my strong suits. I think I know how to use mom's sewing machine? (Yea, that bad!)

This is the finished product, what do you think of the print? I'm pretty excited! I can't wait to move and get things rolling! Although it is super nerve racking to go through all the financial stuff, it is entirely worth it in my opinion to get away from home and finally get the chance to do my own thing. What kinds of projects are you guys working on now?

Random fact: I'm dog-sitting this weekend!! Not only that, but I'm joining Matt and part of his family for an outing to an outdoor sports show for her birthday. I'm super excited and hopefully the weekend goes well!!

Love,

Sara :)

Wait...It's February?!

Where on earth did January go?! Ok, yes, it is a few days into February, but I kind of tend to sign out of reality during the weekends and January just seemed to have gone by so fast. Maybe being busy is what was doing that. I hope that you all had a wonderful beginning to 2014. I've got a few things going on this month that I wanted to try and start now, in hopes that I am able to do much better at posting for this month than I did last month...

Well, first off, a friend and I are looking for an apartment! We are planning on moving before summer (fingers crossed!) to Brown Deer, which is about 30-40 minutes south of where we currently live with our parentals. As of now we have not picked a place, but we are looking and that is super exciting! So, hopefully this month I will be able to update you all on that and the craziness and excitement of moving! This also means that I will be doing some DIY stuff to get ready for moving as well as after moving (because I have not for a while and my mind and fingers are itching for activity!) starting with reupholstering a set of dinning room chairs that we may end up using (stay tuned!).

Also, I'm two months into my new job as a personal trainer, meaning that I am supposed to have a handle on what I'm doing. While I would not say that I am an expert or extremely good by any stretch, I would say that I am for sure learning and I'm getting to that stage slowly but surly :). I'm also working on dropping some of my times at my first job that are affecting my current work. Since personal training is what I want to do (at least for now) I think concentrating on that would be a good idea, so I'm going to try to slowly drift away from my last job in hopes of putting more focus and energy into the training job.

It's February, and that means Valentine's Day! While I did have to remind Matt (twice...) about the date, he now has it written down and we are going to have a date day, probably on the 15th since we both work until late on the 14th. Besides, I think it's all worth it and hopefully we will have some fun :D Any suggestions for a place for dinner or activities?

I also found my camera (yay!!) while I was cleaning this past weekend! This means that I can start trying to take better pictures. Although, I am still saving up for a nice camera (or a video camera, I still have not decided) it's nice to have something other than my iPhone to take pictures.

I can't wait to do more during February and get a handle on everything that I'm doing :P It is going to be a very, VERY busy month!

Love,
Sara :)

ps. As you've probably noticed, we've been playing around with the style of the blog. I owe this to Matt, who really seemed to get into it last night and we found a new style that may or may not be changing again :P

DIY Paper Flag

My family and I have been members at the YMCA for years. Today was my first day volunteering for them this summer. Last summer, I had an internship with them where I learned about how a YMCA is run and what goes on in the different areas. Every summer, our Y has a golf outing fundraiser that attracts some of the biggest donors of the year. This year I'm helping out with some of the prep work. For instance, this craft that I'm showing today is actually meant for the auction.
I really enjoy arts and crafts time, so this project was actually a lot of fun for me :P Ready?

Supplies
-shaped sheets of paper, 2 for each flag (I had triangle, but any shape will work)
-double sided crafting tape (I used Elmers)
-spray on crafting glue
- paint stirring sticks
-some sort of surface that you can get covered in the sticky glue and can throw away later

To start off you're going to want to spray both the inside of one of the halves of the flag, and the side of the stirring stick that will be on the sprayed side of the paper, with the spray on super glue! Then stick the two together, leaving enough of the stick out so that you can hold onto it.

Grab your double sided tape and run the tape as some extra stickage on the paper. Then spray the opposite side of the paint stick where the second piece of paper will go. Press down on the paper and try and get it as even as possible. And...

Tada!! You have yourself a paper flag! These can be used at sporting events (as long as there isn't rain...), auctions, celebrations,  or any other event you can come up with :)

Enjoy!

Love,

Sara :)

Paper Flowers

Hey all!
I'm sorry it's been really busy in my life here and I haven't had a lot of time to well, come up with blogging ideas.
I guess I should start off with an update, I am running my first 5K on Sunday!! I am so excited for this and I really can't wait to do this! Hopefully there will be some pictures that day and I can share them with you later :)
Anyways, I found some old sheet music yesterday and decided to make some cute buds out of it! so I've been cutting up a version of "Today Was A Fairytale" by Taylor Swift and making little paper flowers! I will say that the song was originally for a wedding I played violin in, but I didn't end up even playing it. So here's my pretty little musical flower buds :) I don't know exactly where I came up with the idea, probably from Pinterist or the like :P

 materials you will be needing :) You can use any sort of paper, colored looks pretty cool too! But for this particular project I used old music.

 Cut out a circle, it doesn't have to be perfect, otherwise your flower will look too fake.

 now cut your circle in a spiral fashion, again doesn't have to be perfect, try to not vary too much on the size of the swirl strips, makes it easier later, the bigger the swirls the teller your flower can be :)

 now roll up your swirl until you reach the end, hold it tightly.

 Now let go of the tight swirl and hold the forming flower lightly in your hand.

Finally, add some glue on the circle bottom of your flower in order to make the flower shape stick. Make as many as you can/want and loo how pretty they look :D I'm trying to find a place in my room to keep them! Any ideas?

Following: my finished flowers! No two are the same :) just like my days! Just the way I enjoy life :D

Alright, this is my first crafting post, and I have to say that I do enjoy these DIY and crafts :P There may be more of these coming later! We shall see :)

Love,

Sara :)

Where I've Been Looking....The Sweetest Occasion

Alright, so as a blogger, I also look at other blogs for some inspiration as well as for ideas of things for me to do! Recently I stumbled upon a blog called The Sweetest Occasion. I have already spent so much time looking at her different DIYs, wedding pictures, drink mixes and fashion plans. I can't help it, I would go so far as to call it slightly addicting :P
Being pretty new to blogging, or so, I find that looking at other blogs that have become successful really helps me to develop and learn about what I can do to improve my own blog. The Sweetest Occasion has already taught me two things: be yourself and consistency! Being yourself is important and that's what people seem to like (whoda thunk?! haha) and readers like consistency, they like to know that there will be another blog posting ever so many days or every day or every week day or the such.
DIYs are some of my favorite things to look at. While I'm a bit slow on the actual doing part of it, I'm working at it! I hope to get some things going this summer and maybe on into the year if I get the time (which may or may not happen...). Some of my favorite DIYs that I have found so far on The Sweetest Occasion include:

• Potted Herb Favors - I would probably end up using these as more of actual pots for myself, but giving is always nice too!
• Painterly Party Wares - I'm thinking maybe for my next party? Blue or purple would look amazing as well as the pink!
• Bon Voyage Garland - while this is from another blogger, it is still I found it on The Sweetest Occasion, and since I and friends of mine travel a lot, I feel like this would be appropriate :)
• Glitter Dot Swizzle Sticks - I do like glitter as much as the next girl haha, and I just had my first swizzle (a grapefruit swizzle from Water Buffalo, DELICIOUS!), so these appealed to me right away

So I think you should all go check out this blog cause it's pretty awesome! A kudos bar for you my dear, your blogging makes me smile because it always has such bright ideas and is pretty to see as well as to read.

Thanks all!
Love,
Sara :)