I still have paint under my fingernails...

    We have been painting our new apartment like crazy these last two weeks. We started with the cabinets in our bedroom, which were an odd combination of olive green, orange and yellow. They are now white, as is the previously mauve and green stairwell leading to our patio and garage. Both of those projects took three days, each! It seemed like we would be knee deep in white paint forever. But then, we saw the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel.

    Now the good stuff starts! We decided on chevron stripes for the spare room, which will be my office. Our green plaid couch will go in here and I thought a coral color would look perfect on the wall! So, after looking at several tutorials, including this one (a huge help), we got the supplies together and got movin'.

    The blue lines you see were made with a chalk marker that I got a Lowe's for $6-ish. I was amazed at how cheap that was. Anyway, you will need to measure the height and width of the wall, then figure out how many lines you will need to make the size chevron you want. Now that the chalk lines are up you can tape off the chevrons - I used Frog Tape, it looked like this:

    Then we started painting, we ended up using two coats of Valspar's Homestead Apricot (2005-3C) in semi-gloss. I, of course, tried to stay in the lines, but I am such a messy painter it was nearly impossible.

    Once finished we let it dry for a little bit, then we took the tape off. I used a magic eraser to get rid of the chalk lines and paint that wandered out of the tape lines - that worked perfectly because the paint was still a little wet - and voila!

    I absolutely love it!

    Next came the front room wall - I ordered our stencil here, and it has turned out to be so much easier than  I thought! We are just doing one coat of Valspar's La Fonda Deep Blue (4011-7) in semi-gloss, we really like the faded, varied look it gives us. I used painter's tape to tape the stencil to the wall, a level to make sure I had the stencil level, obviously, and a 4" foam roller. Dip the roller in the paint and then roll it a couple times on a paper towel, you don't want too much paint on the roller or it will drip and your stencil lines will not be as crisp (I learned that one the hard way). 

    I will post the photos of the complete rooms soon, we move in on Friday!!

    Have a wonderful Wednesday!

    Erin

Birthdays and a bit of redecorating

    Matt's birthday was Friday and mine today. Matt always reminds me that he's older, albeit by four days, but older is older. I woke up early on Friday to make birthday breakfast for my wonderful husband before he left for a conference in Arizona. He got a gift card to the App Store, an Aggie football signed by Coach Gary Andersen and another prize that has yet to arrive. After he left for AZ, Tempe and I set to work on a big change to our front room. I know that Matt is so busy and we desperately want our little apartment to feel like home, so I decided to take matters into my own hands and paint. I put Tempe in her kennel, for obvious reasons but she still managed to get paint all over her, and painted the crap out of that wall. After that we headed to Salt Lake for a baby shower, my friend Janel is pregnant with twin boys! 

    We spent the weekend shopping with mom, Allie and my aunts Jill and Diane. We ate yummy food and Tempe got to play with her friends! We got good news about Ivy, she took two whole feedings from a bottle - how cool is that - plus her eyes are doing great after her surgery.

    When we got back to Logan on Sunday I hurried off to church to teach Sharing Time, we talked about the blessings Nephi received from following Heavenly Father, it was great fun. I love being in the Primary presidency. When I got home I put up shelves, which was a hilarious sight, I'm glad no one was there to see it. But I did it, all by myself. I am so proud of it! After that we got everything cleaned up and I went to a Primary training where our Stake President spoke about how we need to prepare and teach the children, it was perfectly edifying, he truly is a great man.

    Our friends Ammon and Emma invited me over for an Oscar party, they made such a yummy dinner, where I proceeded to only get five correct guesses, I really wanted Jonah Hill to win, but what can you do? 

    Today I am looking forward to spending time with my husband and admiring our newly decorated wall. 

    Here's to a fabulous 27th year, full of love and hope. 

    An Instagram of what our shelves look like up on the wall, the color is Valspar's Grand Hotel Mekanic Blue in an eggshell finish. Shelves and picture frame from Ikea, Allie made us the monogram, cameras from our grandparents, alligator teapot from Matt's mom, photo of Tempe by Sharon Johnson and those Mickey ears have my name on the back!