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Thrift store therapy { & a pregnant friend project!}

This weekend allowed for some quality time with one of my favorites digging through other people's junk at a few local thrift stores. Ever hear of "retail therapy"?

Well, my own personal version comes in the form of "Thrift Store Therapy".

Here are my {Fab Four} thrift store finds:

1.

Frames! It seemed like it was Christmas in {August} when it came to finding unique, ornate frames, perfect for spray painting. I am soon to start working on a headboard ledge project (we've scrapped the farm-house door headboard project, as the master bedroom decor seems a bit too modern for such a piece. Let me know if you're interested in an old door!)

We also found several large frames for a project Im working on with my good friend, Debbie, so STAY TUNED for full DIY details on that!

2.

These lamps were U.G.L.Y. They were originally in Mister's bachelor pad, the bases a rusty brown, and the shades, a plastic mosaic tile-work of corresponding poop browns. It was horrible. But, I fell in love with the scrolling legs of the lamp-bases, and don't you know it, I just HAD to turn it into a rehab. After painting the bases a Colonial Red to match our red accent wall, I decided that, in the interest in lighting, the brown plastic shades just could not be salvaged. I figured that somewhere down the line, I'd need to bite the bullet and pay full price for some matching small shades. THEN, these 1.99 Goodwill specials found me. They are in perfect condition, and fit the bases {like.a.glove}. Swear! It was meant to be.  And if you're wondering where the heck these are sitting? Well, for now, it's a secret. Its our current living room make-over project that Im dying to finish, but until it is, these lamps are all you get!

3.

I've found that watering cans are no cheap find, so when I found this big vintage yellow one, for only $3, my heart melted. This old metal can cannot WAIT for me to plant some succulents in it!

4.

Find of the summer! This may not look like much, but oversized pictures with very pronounced frames are hard to find on the cheap, even in thrift-o-land. So when my thrifting companion, Debbie, & I stumbled upon {this} for only 1.99, we were shocked. We actually stood and mulled it over for a minute trying to figure out what on earth we could do to this, both of us coming to the conclusion that we just didn't have any projects for it. Shame..

Enter, our pregnant friend Holly! Why do we love Holly? Holly is already nesting. What does that mean for a good friend who has to always have something to style and/or rehab? Endless projects! {Thank you Holly, you have NO idea what you're doing for my decorating addiction!}After re-arranging Holly's living room, and making re-decorating plans for the rest of her abode, a simple comment was all it took to leave me high-tailing it back to Salvation Army for the 2nd time that day, for this frame.

What did we make this into, you ask!?

Happy 17 Weeks, Holly-pop! I love you!

The Wedding photos {& More!} that you've been waiting for!

We've been in decision mode for the past month or so after receiving our wedding pictures back, on how to share these "en mass" with family & friends. Beyond the immediates, our family is pretty spread out across the US, and unfortunately, we don't get to see them as often as we'd like.

Upon getting our photos back, we had a specific plan of attack.

First, print out photos for our house: check!

Second, take advantage of awesome 4x6 print sale at local drugstore to pass out to local family and friends as desired: check!

Third, make wedding album: CHECK!  {this is a big "check" for us, as it feels like almost every minute of free time has gotten sucked into making a great coffee table book, all 154 8.5x11 pages! Kevin lovingly pointed out the other day that "we don't even have a coffee table, Chelle. Bless him...anyway, we expect our book to arrive in the next 7-10 business days, at which time we will gleefully be running to our respective families' households to show 'er off! Then, we'll post a digital link on our blog so that out-of-towners don't have to miss out on the fun!}

Fourth, compile all wedding photos {all 744 of them!} in one place for easy online viewing: check! Yes, we know there are a million sites out there just ITCHING to gain our online photo-storage/display business, but it was a hard choice trying to figure out just how we wanted to house these online. Enter, Shutterfly. We created a free sharing site, which ended up being crazy user-friendly. So user-friendly, in fact, that we got a little carried away and turned our into a sharing site that houses not only our wedding photos, but all of our engagement photos, bridal shower event photography, "saying yes to the dress" black & white photo-shoot, and more. It's like an entire wedding experience, on one site. It's beautiful. And the best part? You can order prints right from the site! Enjoy!

http://kevinmichellemaywedding.shutterfly.com/

Down the road, we envision creating another one of these, for family photos, ect. We can add family members' email addresses as "members" to our sites, and they get updates whenever we post new photos. Genius, Shutterfly, genius!

Fifth, Decide on Canvas print image: We received a free canvas print from David's bridal, so the next decision is going to be choosing one, just ONE image to "canvasize" (?). Also, we have no idea where we're hanging this, but at this point, we really don't care. :)

Sixth, make engagement photography coffee table book. That's right, not only did we receive a free canvas image from David's bridal, we also received a free, 20 page photo-book from Shutterfly. Size this is a much smaller book, we decided it would be perfect to show-case all of our engagement photos. In the end, this will save our walls the heartache of getting covered in photos when I go overboard and can't decide which ones to choose. {Our wedding photo book is from Picaboo, so we're interested to see which, if either, turns out better}

Seventh, Print out photos for Christmas. Christmas this year is going to be stress free! I am in the process of creating some great photo-gifts for this year's Christmas festivities, along with a few other unmentionables (no spoilers, sorry!)

Thank you for your patience in waiting for these photos, we're excited to finally share them! Feel free to order prints as you like!

Putting those old wine bottles to use

I think we collected about 500 {okay, more like 50} wine bottles for our wedding centerpieces:

Now that the big day has come and passed, we've got several pinterest-inspired DIY crafts around the bend, mainly for holidays and such. One thing, though, that I've been doing in the meantime, is wrap them in yarn. We have 4 on our banister at the top of the stairs, one in each color, and now, we've added one to the downstairs. This wine bottle is very impressive in size, being over 2x as tall as a standard sized wine bottle. It was practically BEGGING me to wrap it in yarn, and well, ask and you shall receive.

I initially planned to put this on top of our movie armoire, here:

{p.s., that super large matted frame, was an old painted image purchased for Goodwill for 1.99! Don't pass these up when you find them people!}

But, I quickly discovered that it's towering heights covered up our wall decal and made the space look too cluttered.

So, it ended up finding a home on the mantle ledge, and we like the height that it creates in that space. Wine bottle, free. Yarn, 2.99. Easy DIY project. DO it! {Also, if you need any free wine bottles, I know where you can get some!! ME!}

I beg  you not to judge my dirty fireplace. :)

I may go around this one more time to make it one layer thicker, because in certain light, you can still see the wine bottle label. That'll teach me to be lazy. oh well. I may just turn it around. The jury is still out on that one. :)

Cupcake Glam

I swoon over the sight of a great swatch of fabric.I got this apron and tea towel set as a gift from Mom-n-law tonight and am instantly in love with this print. It's mod pop of color and retro vibe made me fall HARD. I have a secret love for all things apron and a not so secret love for all things tea towel. The crazy-awesomer the print, the better. I love opening my drawer and seeing tea towel overload in cheery, crazy prints! Call me weird, but if I'm going to spend a reasonable amount of time in my kitchen preparing food, cleaning, washing, repeating, I want to be surrounded by stuff that makes me smile. And an interesting print, my readers, does JUST that. Have you ever tried a tea towel? They are amazing, no print or awesome print. What things are secret must haves in your kitchen?

Farm Animals and Gelatin served on a rose petal

Our weekend went a little something like this:

Sunday afternoon, we all road-tripped down to Grandpa and Grandma H's farm (err--ranch?? Im not sure what you call it) to Celebrate grandpa's birthday. We had a great time eating Grandma's amazing food, looking at wedding photos, walking through the garden, petting all of the little farm kitties with Jaxen, and hanging out with the horses. Jax wasn't too sure about them at first, but eventually warmed up to the idea. 

Isn't this birthday boy such a cutie!!! :) 

Little Gardener

Fence-climbing (with some help from Grandpa)

KITTY!

Only if Mamma does it

So BIG!

So adventurous and independent, our little nephew!

Nice horse! 

This was a sharp contrast to our Saturday night, which was spent at one of the fanciest restaurants in town. Chelle's dad bought a 6-course wine dinner from a silent auction and we've been waiting all year to go! This place is special to us, as we've all only been here one other time: the day we got engaged. It was fun to go back, and be in that atmosphere again.

 First up: strawberries & Champagne

 And then: Tomatoes & mozzerela

 And: Wild Mushroom ravioli

 INTERMEZZO: Champagne & Chocolate gelatin served on a rose petal to cleanse our palette. (WILD!!)

Finally: Filet Mignon & Asparagus with Garlic Au Jus

The end: Guinness Chocolate cake & espresso

Alien-eyes!

Our weekend was finished with a:

It felt great to unwind, just us two, sitting at our own little family's kitchen table that we have years to fully grow in to, remembering the fun times we had this weekend. Dinner felt very fresh and summery, with grilled BBQ bacon ranch chicken wraps, summer tomatoes from grandma's garden, and homemade pineapple sorbet, washed down with some lemon iced tea!

I'd say the best way to sum up our weekend would be "All-encompassing". We spent a lot of time school-working and work-working, making memories with family, and enjoying a relaxing Sunday dinner, just us two. 

It's great to feel fancy sometimes, dressing up and eating food you never get to eat, and can barely pronounce. It's great to escape and be in the peaceful country without all of life's distraction. Nothing to decide but which tomato is ready to be picked, and which horse wants to have it's nose petted next. 

But most of all, its great to spend weekends with family, making memories, no matter what, and where, those memories are.