Dear 18 year old me,

         As I was driving home from dinner at my parents' house tonight (where I did not finish my second glass of wine because I knew I would be getting in my car later), I found myself cursing the probably-16-year-old driver weaving in and out of traffic behind me.  As I cursed this young girl who was now driving approximately 5 inches from my tail, I remembered that it wasn't long ago when that was ME weaving in and out of traffic and flying down Germantown Parkway.  I got to thinking about how at only 22 years old, I have found myself in such a different place than I was in only a few short years ago.  Not only did this make me feel slightly old and extremely uncool (darn), but it also made me want to go back in time and shake the crap out of myself.

        

Dear 18 year old me, 

(eh, more 15-19 year old me),

Your quest to find yourself and your reason is long-lived, but trust me, it will not be found in that handle of vodka.  Your self worth is not measured in how many tequila shots you can take or how fast you can drive your car.  Stop trying to impress everyone and then beg for their respect.  No one will respect you until your respect yourself. 

Your parents are your friends.  Regardless of what you may think, they are on your side.  Believe it or not, they do want what is best for you.  They are not mean nor are they overprotective.  They love you.  One day you will have a little girl of your own and you will finally understand this unconditional love and uncontrollable fear for her.

You are not fat.  Love your body.  Take care of your body.  Do not abuse your body.

Learn about moderation.  In every aspect of life.

Stop saying "I hate you."  You do not hate your parents, nor do you hate the boy who broke your heart.  You do not hate that girl who called you fat, nor do you hate that friend who kissed your crush.  What you don't see is that each of these people are here for a purpose and are instrumental in you finding yourself.  

You never know when it is the last time you will see or talk to someone.  Do not say something you will regret.

Think before you start that car.  Have you had anything to drink? If so, call mom.  I promise, she will be far less angry picking you up from this party than she will be picking you up from jail.  It is not worth it.  

Driving intoxicated is not cool.  Driving fast is not cool.  Texting while driving is not cool.  Driving like a bat out of hell is not cool.  It is dangerous.  There are children and families and elderly in the cars around you.  Do not compromise their life or your own for a text message or a "crazy night out".  One day when you are driving your little girl around, you will get it.  

You may not know exactly who "you" are, but try to be the "you" you know.  Stop looking for yourself in everyone else.  They will only mold you into what THEY are and what THEY want, rather than what YOU are and YOU want.  

You will have your ups and downs.  Days when you have never been happier and days when you are drowning in tears.  Remember, every day is an important chapter in your life, carefully constructing you into the person you are becoming.  

Enjoy the ride.  Wear your seatbelt.  And relax. 

             

$3 Furniture Makeover

Austin and I moved into our home about three months ago from a tiny two bedroom townhouse.  The new house is much larger, 3 bedroom, and is on 4 acres of land.  We love the house and the location.  However, there are a few issues with it.  

A. This house is outdated.  It is 40 years old and I am not sure it has been updated in 40 years.  I'm talking this weird golden brown trim, ugly cream/almost yellow walls, really ugly carpet, brown beat up cabinets.. you get the point.  It is rough.  But the house itself has so much potential!

B.  We don't know what we want to have for dinner, much less where we see ourselves in 5 years.  Therefore, we are scared to buy a house until we know where we want to settle down.  SO, we are renting this home.  That being said, I don't want to put a lot into this house because.. well, its not mine.  So, we are trying to avoid painting walls and all that good stuff.  Trust me, though, it is everything in me not to rip these carpets out with my bare hands.

C.  We came from a tiny townhouse into a home well over twice its size.  We do not have a lot of furniture and the furniture we do have does not fill the wall space of this house.  But why buy all new furniture for a house that you don't know you are going to live in even next year?

All this to say, while the house has potential, it is a little rough right now.  We kind of just threw furniture in here when we moved in and nothing really makes sense.  And it is starting to drive me absolutely crazy.  I have to make some sense out of this home.

So, many of my blogs will be about the little home makeovers that I will be doing around here.  Like I said, I do not want to spend a ton of money on this house seeing as I do not own it.  Many of my blogs will be DIYs and things of that sort for the house.  

That was a ridiculously long introduction for this, but here we go.

$3 Furniture Makeover!

I have recently seen a ton of people refurbishing old furniture to make it new again.  I really loved the look that everyone was getting, so I decided to give it a try.  I am not an artist at all.  I actually am horrible at art.  So I was nervous.  But I actually have grown to be obsessed with this and I think my whole house is going to be furnished by the end of the weekend if I keep this up.

So, first step is finding the furniture you want to paint.  Austin and I went thrifting and antiquing one day when we came across this thrift store with some pretty beat up furniture in the back.  Back as in behind the store.. it was basically a junk yard.  But everything back there was less than $5! 

So I found two pieces that I thought could have potential.  They were rough, but I tried to see past the spiderwebs and broken pieces.

This black thing had a door on the front of it, but when I touched it it fell apart.  It was extremely beat up and looked like it came from the bottom of a dumpster.. but I felt like it had potential.  Not a lot, and it was hard to see.. but I felt like the potential was there.  Plus it was $2.98... I mean, what do I have to lose?

Then I saw this little guy.  It is actually a hutch for a desk, but I immediately saw a bench.  I have been wanting a bench of some sort to put in my kitchen, so I was pretty stoked to hear that this was also only $2.98.  Again, what is to lose at that point?

So after squeezing me, Austin, Stella, and both of these pieces of furniture into my 4Runner, I hurried home to get started.  

At one of the antique stores I had visited that day, they were selling chalk paint.  I had been searching for Annie Sloan chalk paint in Memphis, but I was having trouble finding any retailers.  I did not want to order any online because, well, I was ready to start on this project today.  So I got some of the chalk paint from the antique store.. $12 for a tiny container.  But I was okay with that and I figured two of those containers would be plenty for the black thing.  We can worry about the bench later.

The great thing about chalk paint is that it actually has a chemical in it that does not require you to strip, sand, or prime anything before using it.  Chalk paint is made to go directly onto any surface.  This is my kind of painting.

So I went for it and I painted the black thing a limeish green/blue and white. 

Then, this morning, I went to the Memphis Flea Market and found a guy selling rugs for $5 a piece.  I bought five.  With no idea of where I was going to put them.. but it was another "what do I have to lose" type thing.

So, I put my little new painted chest/bookcase at the end of my hallway over one of my new $5 rugs. 

I am pretty excited by the way it turned out!

Now to the hutch turned bench.  

I went to Home Depot to grab some of their chalk paint for the bench.  It was only $8 for the tiny container compared to $12 at the antique store.

When I was there, I got to talking to this woman about what I was working on.. explaining to her that I am new to this.  She told me that flat paint is ultimately the same thing as chalk paint and much less expensive.  She showed me Klean- Strip Easy Liquid Sander Deglosser and said that if I put that on any surface, I could paint right over it with a flat paint and it would be the same as chalk paint.  DONE.

I got that plus she mixed me two colors of a flat paint and put them in the same size tiny sample container as the chalk paint.. but these were only $2.  And you have a much larger color selection.  Perfect.

It turned out pretty nice.  I was fairly happy with the liquid sander deglosser.  I'm not convinced that a spray primer wouldn't have ultimately done the same thing, but that is okay.

I love the way it turned out.  I used two shades of green, however one is so light that it is basically white.  It just has the tiniest tint of green in it.  I love it.  I put it in the kitchen over another one of my $5 rugs. I am pretty much obsessed.

I have five more pieces of furniture in my garage just waiting for me to paint.  So, I'll be updating this as I go along.  

For $6, I'd say I did pretty good on these two pieces!

Stella's first birthday

Meet Stella. 

  

We were blessed with this little angel on June 30, 2013.
After a year of a lot of fun and not a lot of sleep, it was time for a party.
Stella is ONE!

I decided to have her party at our home- which is slightly outdated, on about 4 1/2 acres of land, and we just moved in about 2 months ago.  I had a lot of work to do.  

PINTEREST is my best friend, just FYI.  

When people first arrived to our home, they walked up to find this at the end of our driveway: 

Stella's throne.

Slightly obnoxious, but it is what it is.  I had seen precious vintage high chairs all over Pinterest and I was obsessed.  So, I found my great grandmother's highchair from when she was a baby and I painted it a light pink.  It wasn't perfect, but it was pretty darn close.

The arch was given to us from Stella's namesake's mother, so of course she needed to sit under it.  The "red carpet," which was pink of course, was ordered from Etsy, along with her outfit.

I had a hard time getting a good picture of the outfit considering she was all over the place, but this was it:

Naturally she ripped the bow out after about five minutes and the tutu didn't last much longer, but it is the thought that counts.  

Due to the fact that it was about 90 degrees outside, most of the party took place inside.  

In the kitchen, there were two tables set up for food and drinks.

For the food table, I used a pink linen table cloth from Party City, and a burlap runner from Hobby Lobby.  The banner hanging across the window was from Hobby Lobby, as well as the matching chalk board on the table that I had also used in her one year photo shoot.  Also from Hobby Lobby are the backless frames on either side of the window that I used to hang pictures of Stella on.

For drinks, we had an "adult lemonade" and a "kid's lemonade." 

For those not offended by the adult lemonade, it was a mixture of lemonade concentrate, sprite, tequila, and beer.  It was delicious.

The two dispensers are from Target, as well as the mason jars we used as glasses.  I got 24 jars and then put plastic cups on the table just in case.  The pom poms hanging above were from Amazon, and so are the pink paper straws.  I also used a burlap runner on this table.

Outside in the sunroom, we had my personal favorite table- dessert.  Our desserts were from Whimsey Cookie Company and Nothing Bundt Cakes- both in Memphis, TN.  If you are from Memphis and have never had either of these, you are missing out and need to get to it.  If you are not from Memphis, both are well worth a trip here.  Seriously.

So, here is a breakdown of everything on this table:

The little cupcake stands in the back were used as "party favors" for the kids.  The stands are from Hobby Lobby, and inside them was little "bundtinis" from Nothing Bundt Cakes.  Basically, cupcakes but better.

I'm not sure if you can see it, but in the middle of the table, behind the big cake, there is a glass rhinestoned cupcake stand holding Stella's personal smash cake- Also from Nothing Bundt Cakes.

In front of that is the large cake for everyone, from Nothing Bundt Cakes, of course.  It was flipping delicious.

On either side of the cake is the Whimsey Cookies.  On one tower we had mini cookies and on the other is the large cookies.  These cookies were and always are a hit.  They are incredible.  I didn't order them in time to have them custom made, but I got lucky because they had cute birthday ones in the right colors already made.  It was fate.

At the end of the party, we asked everyone to come outside.

First, Stella walked down her pink carpet for everyone.  Most people had not seen her walk yet, as she had just started about two weeks prior.  So everyone cheered as she walked down the pink carpet. She loved every second of it and was laughing and clapping with everyone.

We then sat her in her chair and it was time for her to get her 

first hair cut!

Stella's Aunt Amber is a hair stylist, so we thought it would be special for her to give Stella her first hair cut in front of everyone.  Especially since EVERYONE had been asking me when I was going to cut her mullet.  It was time.

Next we opened presents.

Then came Stella's favorite part of the night:

"Smash Cake"

Everyone told me that babies don't actually eat much of the cake. 

Not my kid. She ate the whole thing.  And loved every second of it.

In the end, I'd say it was a success.  And again,

Happy birthday, Stella!