Paul + Jenn

So. There we were. Armed with all the knowledge an interior decorating mom can give but still feeling so overwhelmed.

And then came Mike.

Mike's your typical good ol' boy. They're not hard to find around here. Apparently, even north Georgia is the Deep South. And I'm ok with that.

Anyhow, Mike, the nice guy, let us roam around the mom and pop furniture store, only popping in to check on us every so often. Here's what we knew about couch types (from my mom):

1) We wanted eight-way hand-tied.

2) We would take a drop-in boxspring.

3) We did not want a no-sag.

Guess what?! Turns out Paul had a lot to say about which couch we chose. And the one he found most comfortable was....

A no-sag (number 3)!!! Which, of course, Mike was totally on board with. Telling us how amazing the brand was...and acting as though the hand-tied had never existed.

And I so needed a break. So we headed to the nearest oasis. Upon arriving at the Chick-Fil-A, I called my mother and I broke it down for her.

She agreed that buying a no-sag at the budget we had from the manufacturer we had in mind was not a bad idea.

You catch that? She said we could wisely buy the no-sag.

So back we went. To Mike. To the mom and pop shop. To the no-sag. And I spent the better part of 30 minutes finding the perfect neutral gray swatch not made of polyester or microfiber or corduroy or leather to cover our couch with. It's ok, though, because Mike explained that I could pick coordinating pillows in a more vibrant fabric. Thanks, Mike. I really hadn't thought about that part of home decor. You know, with a decorator mom...and my homemade headboard...and our self-reupholstered couch...and all.

And I found one. ONE. So, we ordered or couch and skipped happily on our way.

That was Saturday.

On Monday, I received a call. From Mike.

He said the swatch of fabric I had selected was discontinued. So glad he had the most recent 10-pound book of fabrics for us to painstakingly peel through. But. BUT! We were in luck! Mike had picked out several swatches that he thought were close to my choice.

Oh good. I had spent 30 minutes looking through E.V.E.R.Y swatch to find ONE that worked for me...but three others magically appeared. Mike's got the magic touch, you know.

I know you're shocked...but none of them worked out.

So, we cut our losses and took the refund. We're going to sit on it for a while until something better made and more gray comes along. Sad day...but also, bigger savings account. Which, of course, I'm addicted to.

So, in time for Paul's surprise party, I added a pillow and did some redesign:

BEFORE

AFTER

[Sorry. This is the best I can find. You can see that two of the pillows are in the yellow color now. And I'll just tell you that there are four instead of three now.]

Since I already owed the fabric and the euro pillow form, it was a free couch makeover! Pretty thrifty for the interim of having the perfect couch...

First I just want to give a quick shout-out to Christina over at Home Says Hello to say thanks for listing me as one of the "recently discovered great bloggers" in her Reader.

She thinks I'm funny. Hehe.

Thanks, Christina! You're one of my favorite people, too. For real.

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This one time. My husband hated our couch.

Despite the blood, sweat, tears, and love that was put into the little morsel, he thinks it's - get this - "uncomfortable". The nerve!

A little history:

In the days of our youth, many years ago, Paul and I recovered a sofa that was gifted to us with the supervision of one, Susan Cady....interior design extraordinaire (Hi, mom!).

[Always wear the proper headgear when reupholstering.]

[Couch fabric.]

Don't worry, we did it one week before our wedding.

Unfortunately the foam pieces that were the back was unsalvageable. So, our solution was to sew coordinating covers for three large Euro pillows to stack along the back.

THEN unfortunately, the measurement of the pillow did not quite equal what one should cut her fabric to (e.g., pillow is 18x18 but cutting two 18x18 squares and sewing them together yielded a much larger cover). As such, the sad little Euros began sinking into their covers and might as well have been towels thrown across the back of the couch.

I tried to trim and re-sew them, but they were still too big, and I was NOT doing that again (have you ever tried to sew cording? Pain in the rear...).

So! We decided to save up some cash (including some we got for Christmas) and purchase our very first piece of major furniture (not that it would be our first piece...just our first major furniture purchase). That's right, aside from some lamps at Ikea and a large table/desk for $20 at GoodWill, we have yet to purchase a piece of furniture larger than a cheese wheel.

I call it blessings. : )

..and also eclectic.

So off we went to spend our money.

Unfortunately (a third time?!), this post is getting long and a bit boring (and there is much more to tell), so I will have to continue it into a Part 2...on another day...in another world...far far away.

[But really it will be right here on the blog...tomorrow.]

This is a post about why Wilton's Mini Gingerbread Village is from the devil.

If you feel that statement hurts your religion, then you may not want to read the rest of this post.

Except, not for real. I probably won't even mention the devil again. Except for that last time.

But I will mention why, WILTON, you shouldn't expect people to break apart your crispy gingerbread on perforation in preparation to build mini houses.

I shall also mention that a guide explaning what pieces go with what houses would be helpful.

Also, WILTON, I totally get the "mini" part. But let's talk about the difference between mini and miniscule (nevermind that one is probably derived from the other). Dude, a wall was lit.er.al.ly the size of my pinky.

Next time provide complementary tweezers.

And aspirin.

And elves for putting the houses together.

Have you guessed that I've tried this particular kit?

Last weekend, my mother lovingly purchased it in hopes of continuing our annual tradition of putting together gingerbread houses, an age-old tradition begun back in 2009.

She thought, logically I might add, "Oh, 5 houses! I have 5 children/children-in-law/future children-in-law. This will be perfect! One for each person!" And home she skipped to await their arrival.

And then the fateful Sunday fell upon them.

Here's the breakdown: 3 houses had to be put together twice, 5 people sharing ONE tube of quick-drying royal icing, a male responsible for breaking the gingerbread along the perforation, and three hungry men who apparently like stale gumdrops and royal icing.

But seriously. It really was a lot of fun. Although my mom did vow she will not buy that kit again. Here's the photographic evidence for your viewing pleasure:

[Proof of Royal Icing ingestion...of the green persuasion]

[Do not ask me why there is dirt in my front yard or why my pine trees are leaning precariously (but AWAY from the house, I might add). Maybe I care more about family and a nicely sprinkled roof than landscaping. Maybe I want my children to feel free to dig holes! Just wait until I have a son that grows up to be Indiana Jones and then see if you want to criticize my lawn care choices!]

I do hope we continue to carry on this tradition. I just hope WILTON has heard my plight.

You saw the desk transformation but just as a recap:

Black. Demo. White (+new hardware).

So. Paul and I have an awkward master bedroom. And you say to yourself, how'd you fit that new awesome desk in there?

Good question!

The 1980-something builder decided (after filling the hole underneath the driveway with garbage and designing a living room with a fireplace around which it is impossible to gather) that the bathroom door should ABSOLUTELY fall in the middle of the wall and that the entry door and closet door should be centered on the adjacent wall. No big deal, right? Except just for kicks and awesomeness, he decided to put the room’s two windows in the centers of the remaining two walls.

This will be blindingly clear to you in the final minutes of that one video.

The room was clearly set up for two twin beds and not a full, queen, or king bed. We all know how popular that husband-wife sleeping arrangement was in 1980-something. Really.

I suppose we could do the whole pin one side of the bed against the wall thing and maybe squeeze our little double bed in between a window and the wall. That would really be fun. REALLY. Either Paul could climb over me for 3am bathroom time...or I could climb over him when I arise 2 hours later. WIN-WIN!

Not.

So, hence the bed on the window thing...in which we crush the blinds and hang off the bed a foot at the end (yes, even sub-five-foot me) in an effort to AVOID crushing the blinds. We really needed a solution.

So, put the bed in the corner, says everyone en masse. ‘Cept our bed is just a frame...we'd be falling off the back of it. And as a woman who has been kneed in the tailbone twice and kicked LIT.ER.ALLY out of the bed more times than I can count, I can tell you it wouldn't be pretty.

Quick and easy solution? Build a headboard.

Now. Let me just tell you. I took lots of pictures of Paul building the headboard, but apparently the new captain of "saving pictures to computers before deleting them" around here has been falling down on his job.

Basically Paul nailed two 2x4s to a piece of plywood and I covered it (using my handy dandy new staple gun!) with some batting and some fabric my mom gave me for free. Et WALA!

Now we can have a desk AND a bed in ONE room. Schmancy, huh?

Next task? Finish putting up those panels my mom also gave me for free so we no longer have a Google-colors inspired bedroom.

I know I said I would post about the percentage tomorrow, but I forgot it was Theology Thursday. So it will have to come on "FINANCIAL FRIDAY!" as Sean Hannity says *hint hint*.

Ok, Guys.

Paul and I are working our way around the fringe of the DIY world.

I mean, currently we’re not even DIYing our own dinner, but we’ll get there. We’ll get there.

What we HAVE been DIYing (shouldn’t that technically be DingIY? But that doesn’t look quite right, does it? We shall just leave it as incorrect then.) is our bedroom furniture.

Right!?

So this one time, my husband was a church intern. And then, the youth minister/children’s minister/associate pastor/everything-man was called to travel abroad and afar, and no longer had need of his desk made of 2-ply cardboard. So he gifted it to Paul!

When Paul and I were married, I strictly enforced an all black furniture rule in our office and demanded that he paint his desk PRONTO (after all, mine was already black...it just made sense).

Except it didn’t really go down that way. And really, thanks to good ol’ NGCSU and their terrible commitment to ugliness, Paul became quite obsessed with black spray-paint.

Touche’, NGCSU. Touche’.

Anyhow, Paul and I have recently grown into the habit of walking the local Goodwill for hidden treasure. I found a half eaten cheeto, which I promptly donated back to Goodwill by not touching it. But Paul found this for $21:

And you know how we do. That’s right; we painted it black.

So, now, Paul is working toward his dream workspace (which is another post entirely). But I know you are wondering what we did with the free cardboard desk. Well, I will tell you.

We knocked off the top:

And we painted it WHITE-ish! And we put it here (chair is temporary until I can find one I love...)!

[Cell Phone Pic]

And then I bought a $35 lamp from Marshall’s because I loved it, and Paul said we should buy it, but then when I did he was like, “why did you buy that?” and I was all, “you said I could buy it!” and then I plugged it in and it was beautiful and harp music started playing and PB forgot to be mad. (Except also the shade is dented.)

[Cell Phone Pic]

So, now, there is a little corner of our bedroom that is dedicated to sitting and working maybe...or maybe reading...or maybe playing DS...or maybe coloring.

You may be wondering how we squeezed this little desk into our bedroom, being that you are well-acquainted with the layout of our room from this video. And I would love to tell you, really.

Tomorrow.

Mwahahahahahaha!

Also, yes. I have noticed that the percentage count-up has reached 100% (or Critical Mass as one might say from Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves: The Movie). And I will have an answer for that on Thursday. : ) Stay tuned!

So.

We visited my parents this past weekend. As you may recall from my previously mentioning it, my mom is an excellent home decorator. So, I brought proof.

Please enjoy just a few pictures I was able to snap of her home with my phone (because my camera battery died while I was trying to set the time - sorry for the poor quality).

You should know that more items than not were created, including the cool spiky plant thing hanging on the wall in the kitchen (through the french doors in the first picture).

Also, today is my mom's birthday. Happy Birthday, Mama!

(By the way, the "inheritance" references "inheriting the good decorating gene"...as in: I'm hopeful that I did. Just so you know.)

My friend is having a baby! (Oh, did you think it was me? Don't worry, I'll be much sneakier than that...)

We've known this couple for over 2 years now. We met them at church just after we were married, and they were getting ready to be married.

Anyhow, she's having three showers, and her family is chipping in for the furniture, so I wanted to get her something useful but also make it unique.

So here's what I did (WARNING! Extremely fuzzy picture ahead!):

So:

1) I found a plain silver tin at JoAnn's.

2) I bought a box of natural newborn diapers, opened them (not all the way, just the first fold so they're long and skinny), rolled them loosely and secured with a LOOSE rubberband.

3) I held as many as I could up to the side of the tin and tied a green ribbon TIGHTLY, stuffing more diapers as I made them and retying the ribbon as necessary.

4) Then I filled the tin, using diapers to fill and prop as I needed them (like to prop up the little t-shirt that would otherwise be flat in the bottom).

5) Finally, I tied a brown ribbon over the green one (brown and green are their nursery colors).

Of course, I still had plenty of diapers left over, so I just gave her the box (because buying disposable diapers can really add up...so I hear).

Anyhow, Congratulations to my friends on their first baby (a boy!) due the first weekend in October!!

1) I am fully aware of how much of a nerd I am on camera (or always?). It was clearly evidenced to me by my husband's constant eyerolls.

2) I am also fully aware that due to my refusal to stand up straight and suck in, you all get an unsightly view of my belly button. Please excuse.

3) Also, I make very weird faces.

4) Also, I'm sorry that sometimes the lighting from the windows makes everything else look dark : / Hopefully everything is still pretty visible...

5) Also, I am a huge nerd.

Enjoy!

[As always, comments are welcome around here. However, if you wish to avoid receiving an automated message from Webs.com that I cannot turn off, please use the e-mail address I set up: pbjguest@gmail.com. I know it's a pain, but rest assured that things are happening in the background to make some improvements on that.]

So, the home tour didn't happen last night. We were a little busy with something that will probably culminate in a big family decision sometime in the next week. Don't worry; I'll be sure to share it, so stay tuned.

But I'm not giving up on the tour! I'll work hard to get that up for tomorrow's post. So check back then!

As for now, here is a view of the upstairs guest room I mentioned, reminiscent of my old room at my parents' house...because it basically is:

Ok, so the mirror isn't part of the design. That's from the old Dining Room, remember?

And, I'm sorry the pictures are so dark...I had no daylight. : /

Anyhow, stay tuned tomorrow for what could prove to be a pretty good time...

Did I mention this house is huge?

Ok, so, Paul and I used to live in the basement. As such, Mr. Byars financed the installation of a kitchenette and bathroom.

What you are about to see used to be our kitchen, living room, and office/extra bedroom.

In fact, I dug a few pictures out of the archives to give some perspective. They're of P-Butta and Jakester playing Wii Sports, but the apartment is pretty well displayed as well. Well. Well well.

[Note the upside-down table behind the couch that Paul was putting together...]

Ok, so, after we moved upstairs, all of Paul's dad's furniture that we weren't borrowing went down here, as well as anything else the Paul's dad or sister wanted but didn't want to take home with them...

I wish I had taken before pictures. There were boxes and furniture was thrown in here all haphazardly. But one day, I just got an idea and then an itch, and then I just had to go downstairs and do something about it.

So:

[The picture on the right is the same angle as the picture on the left above. ...Huh?]

Now compare the background of the right Wii picture with this:

[I just love how the tablecloth is on crooked. So edgy, don't you think?]

I made us a Craft Room! In the closet in the left corner I have all of my extra fabric as well as scrapbooking supplies.

But guys! That's not all!

We used to have a room we divided by two lovely bookshelves that Paul made (those can be seen here) and a curtain. Behind the curtain was a man to whom we paid no attention. And also a guest bed/room. On the other side was our "office" and the ginormous futon. I can only show you what it looks like now. I do apologize:

[We borrowed the mini fridge from the kitchenette. And yes, I run regularly. On my way to a 5k!]

So that's it. Up the stairs and through that door in the right picture is the guest room which used to be our bedroom. But it's nothing to sneeze at. We just moved the guest room furniture from our current office and set it up almost exactly the same way in there.

And then the basement flooded. Kind of. And we had to get rid of our steal-of-a-deal $50 15x15 piece of carpet. But everything else (which isn't ours) was ok. Figures.

So I may or may not post a house tour tomorrow. It really depends on what can be done tonight. But there will be something up tomorrow, so stay tuned!