a little san fran

well, husband has been on orders for the past month...so i made a very last minute trip to see him for a full 24 hours. so thankful for summer time and the opportunity for spontaneous moments like these. 

since he is training in san francisco, we spent the majority of the day being the ultimate tourists...gazing at the skyline and enjoying the best of clam chowder bread bowls that pier 39 has to offer.

we walked up and then down the telegraph hill steps. 

and a few more miles of walking to find the most important destination...a little ghirardelli amazing'ness. later we caught a movie, got some delicious pho and then i was off for the drive home, in order to make it back for the manic monday c: the perfect trip to see my love. 

a graduate and a summer

well, hello and welcome c:  it was been a long, incredible two years but i officially have my education specialist credential in moderate~severe disabilities...yahoo! {and you better believe i have my hands in the air, doing a happy dance right now}. i am so blessed to have gone through the program i did and excited to pursue the calling God has placed on my heart.

here's to my husband, who has been nothing but supportive of my insane and ridiculously stressed`out`self. boy do i love him.

and now here's to the summer break. we have quite the budgeted list of home improvements and i'm excited to share each and every one`of `them.  HAPPY SUMMER c:

banquet seating dreamin'

yesterday my lovely friend and i were sitting at my kitchen table studying {no school hasn't started yet...we're just nerds} we of course got off the topic of reading interventions and began mastering up some plans to put banquet seating in the kitchen. why banquet seating? because it's cozy, it's cute, there's pillows involved and there's the practicality of adding a little more seating in our tiny eat`in kitchen. check out the picture to the left, wouldn't it be the best for reading a book or a guest to hang out while i'm putting the final touches on dinner c:  plus, who doesn't love eating on a booth? isn't that what we always wait the extra few minutes for at restaurants...i'm just saying c;
{via}
any who, i began to go a little banquet seating research crazy {i wanted to be extra prepared when i presented yet another project to my husband}. here's what i found.

custom made ones like {this} cost upwards of $4000. yikes, i don't believe i'll ever be okay with spending that much for something my hiney will sit on! then i remembered seeing instructions on 'how to turn cabinets into seating' awhile back...so i started to research the 'do it yourself ' route. 

here's a tutorial made with ikea cabinets. {Cape 27 Blog} used two at $100 a piece...i estimate we would need four to five of them. so that's getting a little pricey. 

{Budget Wise Home} just straight up bought plywood, trim and a piano hinge and got the project done. she claims it cost under $100...since we want to do two sides i'll estimate about $200. 

so there you have it, the possibilities. now every time i walk into our kitchen i just sigh and dream of my future seating arrangements and yummy pillows. i mean look at our little place...isn't it just begging to have some banquet seating?

ps. i gave this persuading presentation to my husband and he said yes c:

and it begins...

my plate wall.

according to my husband, it's something that would have been on his great grandmother tilly's wall. but once i put it up he said, "meh, it doesn't look THAT bad" c:

for me, it just makes me happy. currently it's a little sparse, a little bland and i may need to put them a little closer together...but it's a start c:

some old, some new

our little mantel made up some old, some new, a little thrifting and a sweet gift. 

thought process behind it...bought the clock from hobby lobby and decided there wasn't going to be a color scheme or plan to the living room, just things that make me happy and color. then i seriously walked around my house with a dear friend and began collecting random things. 

 

this picture was hanging above our couch...however that was the determined area where my soon to be plate wall will hang, so we found it a new home on the mantel. and the item on the left, well, i'm not sure what to call it. it belonged to a candle thing we had and doesn't really have any function but i thought it was cool looking and it gives that side a little height c:

the so so sweet Christmas gift from nicole. succulents in monogram mugs...does it get any cuter?

left`hand picture, frame in front {you tracking?} was a clearance find a while back from michaels. the frame behind it was from one of my best yard sale hits ever, my mom and i left with boxes full of teaching stuff and about a dozen old wooden frames for the grand total of five dollars. i did a light coat of heirloom white spray paint and roughed it up with sand paper. the vases are from a kohl's steal. they were already eighty percent off...then add on another coupon and i believe the three of them were only a couple dollars c:

so there you go. some old, new, reused, clearanced and prettiness. husband thinks i'm weird {but what's new} having all the randomness and empty frames just chillin` on the mantel but my heart is happy and our the room feels cozy. 

intro to anthro

with the husband gone for drill this weekend, i was free of home improvements to this little house of ours with electrical wiring and shelf building. don't get me wrong, i love everything about making these walls our home in a functional way but it lacked color and warmth and every`day coziness. since we bought this house in summer the first round of decorations were the red, white and blue's, then fall came and finally the finale of season decorating with christmas. taking down christmas was hard, not only because i was dealing with the post christmas blues but our home became bare and i realized i had only decorated for seasons, not thinking of the other six months of the year. 

okay, so back to the part about the husband being gone...i spent an entire day experiencing hobby lobby, west elm and anthropologie for the first time and soaked up every second of it with one of my favorites. first off, let me remind you i'm from a smaller isolated city, where it was a big game changer for target to come into town. i never even knew about these places before i moved here. i had seen west elm and anthropologie magazines and every now`and`then on pinterest. i adored the style but could never bring myself to purchase at that price. until my dear friend informed me of their clearance section. usually i'm the queen of clearance, but i assumed the price cuts would not be enough for my cheap self...how i was ever`so misinformed. and let me tell you, i was ever`so happy to be wrong.

well, there are my purchases and here is my plan...a pretty plate wall and pops of color. no color scheme, just stuff found around the house and a few new things c:

ps. as for hobby lobby, i'm not sure if i have a good excuse for never going before this weekend...but am so thankful i did because it blows joanns and michaels out of the water.

life lately, Christmas and future posts

school schedule to Christmas mode has been quite an easy transition. crafting gifts, running Christmas errands and baking goodies is way more fun than being confined to my office analyzing data and living off coffee. lately we've been drinking lots of peppermint hot cocoa and playing ongoing games of scrabble. my favorite past time the last few weeks has just been sitting in the living room, candles lit, tree lights sparkling and simply soaking up Christmas. lynnee has also had it pretty rough lately, not not just any cat can average eighteen hours a day sleeping under the Christmas tree c:

we spent Christmas at the in`laws and never left the house for two beautiful days full of family, eating everything yummy and opening up heartfelt gifts. the best memory was seeing the boy's face when the last step of his scavenger hunt was sitting in the living room and having his new coast guard helicopter flown to him. and {as you can imagine} he's been flying and pestering others with it every since c; even though we weren't in our home town we continued their family tradition of remembering the reason for the season by enjoying coconut ice cream balls and singing happy birthday to our Jesus. in between all of our relaxing and familiness we still squeezed in a photo shoot for our new year family card. 

now for future posts...there have been quite a few projects going on around this home and they've all remained on my camera, very much needing to be uploading and posted. this one of my many goals before school starts up. another project{s} is to offset the post Christmas blues by re`vamping our guest bedroom. so lots of laminate painting, lamp shade decorating and all things crates soon to come c: