Oh...Hello...

Yeesh.  It has been way.too.long since I've last written.  I was just thinking about my sad little blog a couple days ago and how it's been a while since I've actually even visited the site, let alone contemplated writing another post.

We've just been so.dang.busy.  I love me some holiday-goodness, but me-oh-my is it exhausting.  I was able to take vacation at work (because Christmas and New Year's fell on Tuesdays, I would have only had to work 3 days, but I decided to take them off; you just can't beat an 11-day vacation for the price of 3 days!), and I told myself I'd be able to catch up on A LOT.  Well that just did not happen.

When Jeremy wasn't working, we were running around visiting with family and treating ourselves to more holiday spoils.  When he was working, I was hanging out with my family, caring for a puppy who had just been snipped (nothing says MERRY CHRISTMAS like getting neutered) ... oh, did I forget to mention that we are now a 3 dog household?  Because we are.  Sometimes I ask myself why we thought adding a third dog was a good idea, but they're just too precious (and they've allowed me to further put off the idea of children; I just ain't ready!).

The babies - Stella (2, chihuahua) is on the left and our newest addition, Tucker (6 months, jug) is on the right.

Our old man Gambit (9, lab/golden retriever mix).  He's officially the least of our worries (except for his rare fudge-butt episodes ... wait, was that TMI?)

To top off the insanity that was the end of December, I was just in some kind of funk that I couldn't shake.  I've never experienced depression before, but I think it's safe to say that I did during the last few months of 2012.  December was a rough month all-around for me, from being self-conscious (more so than usual anyway) of my appearance/weight, to being stressed about grad school and work, to seeing an ex-friend of mine who hurt me more than she may ever know (and thus, bringing back really sad, sad feelings for me during an event that has been a much anticipated family tradition of ours since I was a very little girl). 

Oh man was December rough.  And I knew it.  But after talking to Jeremy just before New Year's, he told me that he's been aware of the funk I've been in since about October.  It made me really sad to think that not only was I depressed for so long, but that I didn't fully realize it.  Nor did I realize how it was affecting my husband.  My rock.  The person who ALWAYS has my back and my best interests in mind.  I decided during that conversation with Jeremy that I needed to change, not just for me, but for him.  For our marriage.  For my family.  And for everyone around me.  And I knew by changing that I couldn't just [pretend] to be happy all the time.  I need to understand how good God has been to me.  How much I have to be thankful for EVERYDAY.  How beautiful my life is.  I need to cherish every precious aspect of my life because it is, in fact, a precious thing.  I don't want to waste my life being sad over NOTHING.  I can change the way I look - I can exercise, I can change my eating habits, etc. etc.  I have a job and a steady income.  I have a beautiful home, a wonderful husband, and three hilariously awesome pups.  And I have my family - they're so supportive and uplifting and gracious and helpful and and and.  How can I possibly justify being sad/down when I have these things?

With that said, I've made a couple private resolutions (that I haven't even shared with my husband) that will hopefully force me to focus on these things and help me find the real, true, genuine happiness I've been lacking.  Here's to 2013.  A new year, a new start; hopefully a new found drive to blog more ... BRING IT ON!

Who's da basket...

The title of this post is not implying that we're basket cases over here (although some opinions may differ).  It IS however reminiscent of the more commonly used phrase "Who's da bomb?"  Oh wait ... no one says that anymore?  Oh well, I'm totally bringing it back.  And I'm changing it slightly.  So, back to the question at hand ... who's da basket?

Kalasa's the basket!  KALASA is actually from one of my all time favorite places on earth, Ikea!  Oh, and she's not actually a basket.  She's a plant pot - she came with a plastic insert and everything.  Did I mention that she was $16.99?  Because that's the most exciting part about this whole project.

I've been looking for a light to replace the "cookie-cutter" pendant that we inherited with our home (and this unsuitable attempt that I thought could work - we tried the $29.99 version which only came in silver and was about twice the size of the ones I linked to).  Young House Love's Sherry and John Petersik (HI GUYS, I LOVE YOU AND I TOTALLY BEGGED MY HUSBAND TO GIVE YOUR BOOK TO ME BEFORE CHRISTMAS BECAUSE I JUST COULDN'T WAIT AND I READ IT IN TWO DAYS.  AND YES THIS REQUIRES ALL CAPITALS) have referenced Shades of Light several times (click here to see just how many) so I decided I would try my luck there.  [Sidebar - Sherry and John, or Jerry as I lovingly refer to them as, probably don't read my baby blog, but my love for them totally calls for a shout-out].

Back to the task at hand.  Upon visiting the Shades of Light website, I found "the one."  I was head over heels in love with this light:

My favorite parts?  The green (I LOVE green) and the rustic, charming look.  The downside?  The price - 229 bones for a light just is NOT my idea of a good time (Jeremy's neither).  I thought about giving up my love of green for the alternate blue or white/grey, both of which are secondary favs of mine, but they were smaller and would look a little...dinky...above my large dining room table (which seats six).  It didn't help that they were $199 and $189 respectively.  It was decided.  They were just too much.

I checked back several times for discounts.  And I considered the fact that Shades of Light is a sponsor of Jerry's YHL and offers a 10% discount on all purchases, but I still couldn't justify the price.  So, after browsing through the YHL site for inspiration, I came across this post where they built a pendant light for their laundry room.  And something clicked.  I don't know why I didn't think about it before, but that post totally instilled the confidence in me to DIY this light.  After all, the Hemma Light Kit from Ikea is only $5 and I KNEW I could find a bushel basket for less than $224.  With that, I googled "bushel baskets" and found several places where I could purchase them online (including Etsy).  The baskets ranged from $10-$15, but the shipping was a solid $14 across the board, so I didn't purchase anything.  Instead, I decided I'd hold out for some trips to JoAnn Fabrics and Michaels (I even considered Home Depot and Lowes) to see if they had anything I could use. 

Yesterday, Jeremy and I decided to take a trip to Ikea (the closest store is about an hour away, so I was PUMPED when Jeremy agreed to go on a Friday night, especially when we weren't sure how we'd fare when it came to traffic) to return the unsuitable light I mentioned above and to pick up some curtains for the kitchen (more on that later).  We were strolling through their beautifully organized and stocked aisles of gloriously affordable home decor when I spotted her.  KALASA was sitting there in a bunch of stacks of herself.  Jeremy agreed that she was quite beautiful and that she could be used to git-er-dun.  So we snagged her at the aforementioned price of 17 bones.  HOLLA!  She's white (which is perfect in case we decide to paint her down the line), she's wooden, so drilling a hole through which we could thread the light kit wouldn't be a problem, and she was LARGE and in charge!  She's deeper than what I had originally planned for, but she works wonderfully as a shade and I love her.

As Jerry stated in their post about the laundry room light that they made (referenced above), the $5 (again, HOLLA) light kit from Ikea comes with a plug on the end of the cord, but by clipping the plug off and exposing the wires, we (and by we, I mean Jeremy) were able to  hard wire it to the ceiling junction box (as you would with any other traditional ceiling light).  You can see in this picture the ceiling canopy kit that we used to affix the cord to the ceiling (and hide all the wiring) which I believe may be the same one Jerry used in their light pendant project.

It came with gold hardware, so Jeremy took some of my white nail polish and gave them a couple coats.  We'll need to go back and touch them up, but they certainly aren't gold anymore, so I'm not too worried about it.  Jeremy just drilled a hole a smidge smaller than the circumference of the cord and then threaded the cord through the hole (there are no pictures of this process because I'm sick ... BOO ... and Jeremy hasn't QUITE caught on to the whole DIY blogging thing (where the more pictures you have, the easier it is for readers to follow along).  Oh well.  He hung this light, raised the curtain rod in the kitchen and is still in the process of installing a storm door (it's 8:00 p.m., mind you), all while taking care of my sick butt, so he's totally forgiven.

Here she is, swayin' away:

And a close up of her all lit up and glowy-like:

B-E-A-UTIFUL!  The other kitchen lights are off, so you can see how much she lights up the room (I was worried that her depth would keep her from lighting the room up sufficiently, but I am happy to report that is not the case).

Here's a breakdown of the cost:
-HEMMA cord set (from Ikea) - $5.00
-KALASA plant pot (from Ikea) - $16.99
-5" White Canopy Kit (from Home Depot) - $5.97
-TOTAL:  $27.96 (or right around $30 with tax)

Also, please, please, please don't judge our mess.  Jeremy's at the tail end of his cold and I just started mine, so cleaning has kind of taken a back seat this week.  I also NEED to keep Ms. Singer out on the table to remind myself that I need to finish my friend's pillows by WEDNESDAY. 

I promise I'm still working on an updated house tour.  I promise those of you who haven't visited us that we don't live in an empty house (please reference the 2 images above ... at least you can see we have a hutch, a table and six chairs!)  I'm hoping to catch up on my blogging during the Thanksgiving weekend, but I'll definitely let you know via Facebook when that happens!

Thanks for reading!

Jen

Falling Off...

I really need to blog everyday.  Like ... I just need to.  I don't write as often as I'd like to and this here little blog-o-mine is such a perfect outlet.  Thus, I really need to blog everyday.

I don't have any house updates, but I'm working on it.  Jeremy and I are planning a BIG, sweeping, whirlwind (a la Hurricane ... superstorm? ... Sandy) of a home-purge this weekend.  AKA, we're planning to go through the rooms in our home that are currently filled with junk and haven't been even remotely touched since we move in (which is now almost SEVEN MONTHS AGO).  Yeesh.  On the list are the guest bedroom (which doesn't resemble a bedroom in the slightest ... as in, there is no bed, no dresser, no nighstand ... nothing.  nada.  zilch), the office (which is the LAST place I'd want to settle down on a work-from-home day) and the garage. 

OH the garage.  Talk about junk-central.  There are a bazillion bins of stuff that I brought over from my parents' house that I'd love to go through.  Some of the sentimental stuff I'll (obviously) be forced to hold onto while some of the other "space-fillers" will have.to.go.  Jeremy and I are planning to create a "Sell" bin so that when Spring time rolls herself on around, we can plan a garage sale and make some dollaz ;-).  I'm going to shoot for a post on Sunday or Monday encapsulating all we plan to tackle (featuring lots of before and after photos) so be sure to check back then.

In the meantime, leave me some inspiration to help get me into that blogging everyday thing.  I've included some "instructions" above the comments field.  Unfortunately Blogger isn't always the most intuitive thing, so follow my directions to successfully leaving a comment.  Oh...and follow me!  I'm not quite sure how she did it, but my sister is following me.  She is currently my one and only follower and SHE'S GETTING LONELY!

Thanks for reading!
Jen

Bare Grillz

OK, so this post actually has nothing to do with the baring of teeth (for all of my friends raised outside "the 'ville," grillz=teeth), but it DOES have to do with the baring of our, well, BARE home (as it was when we entered it for the first time).

Feast your eyes upon this nakedness ... and get your heads out of the gutter ;-).  Please note, Jeremy and I have been working our [clothed] butts off to make sure that every square inch of this little ditty receives some tender love (I know, I know, that was SUPER corny)!  Although it no longer looks this empty, I wanted to give you all the opportunity to see what we're working with and how we're working with it.  So without further ado, here she blows:

FIRST FLOOR

That's the front door.  I apologize for the pink glow ... must have been my rose-colored glasses ;-)

 

This is the room that you enter when you walk in the front door.  This will be Jeremy's "man cave."

Another terrible picture, but you get the jist.  This is the half bath (this house also has 2 full baths!).

The middle door there is the door we use the majority of the time to enter and leave.  It goes out to our 2 car garage!  The door to the right of it is a coat closet and the door to the left of it houses the hot water heater and a bunch of other junk electronic things that make our house work.

SECOND FLOOR

This is mighty dark, but we didn't have our overhead lights (aka ceiling fan) installed yet.  The room that I was standing in to take this picture is our living room.  The room that I'm photographing is the kitchen/dining room.

The lights are off, but there's so much light in our huge kitchen/dining room!  We love our big sliding glass door ... it shows off our sparkly cherry hardwood floors (that, honestly, usually aren't sparkly ... 1 large hairy dog will do that I guess) and our MILES (sarcasm) of corian countertops!

There's that big sliding glass door I was talking about.  It leads out to a pretty spacious deck which looks over our driveway.  That low hanging lamp there was one of the first things we tackled when we moved in.

The right side of our living room and the stairs to the third floor.

And last, but not least, a terrible picture/angle/etc. of our living room.  Although this picture does it absolutely NO justice, the living room has not 1 but 2 tall windows that let in tons of light (given we open the blinds).  Look for MUCH better pictures in my IN PROGRESS post.

THIRD FLOOR

The guest bathroom located at the top of the steps.  Not very big, but it gets the job done .... er, I guess, you can get the job done there?

The master bedroom.  Picture me doing a happy dance/cartwheels ... or maybe you don't want to picture me doing that :).  This room has two gloriously big windows that let in tons of light.  The square footage of this room is also impressive ... it fits our king bed, 2 dressers and 2 night stands and still leaves plenty of room to walk around/happy dance/do cartwheels.

That's the doorway to our master bathroom.  Love.

His and her sinks ... again, LOVE.

His and her shower heads. 

Our walk-in closet.  It's big and roomy, but those wire shelves have GOT.TO.GO!

This is the guest bedroom.  All 2 inches of it (sarcasm again, but it IS really small).  I don't have a picture of our office, also located on the third floor.  Imagine this room mirrored to the right.

The laundry room.  I have some grand dreams for this little space ... just have to convince the hubby.

The hallway.  It's tight.  And not tight as in "awesome."  The sliver of a doorway there to the right is the guest bath.  That's the master bedroom straight ahead.  To the immediate left is the laundry "room," and if you turn exactly 180 degrees, your facing the entries to the guest room and office.  See? Tight.

That's all she wrote.  But really, our house isn't enormous (1600 sq.ft give or take a few), but it's no cardboard box either.  We love it, we love making it ours, and we love that you're joining us on this crazy journey!

Thanks for reading!

Jen

Etsy Shop GRAND OPENING!

I'm still working on a post with lots of shots of our home as it was when we moved in.  In the meantime, I just wanted to inform you that I've officially opened an Etsy Shop!  After seeing so many people be successful in opening their own Etsy shops, and eventually businesses, I've decided to take the dive.

I'm beginning by creating custom, personalized, unique invitations and save-the-dates for those planning a special event.  I offer a design consultation (a separate charge) where I plan out with you (the buyer) to discuss the event and decide on a design.  From there, I'll create two to three drafts of a design which I'll then send to you to pick your preference and suggest any final changes.  From there, I'll make the final changes (if applicable) and send the file out for printing.

If you or anyone you know is planning a wedding, baby shower, birthday party, or other special event, please keep me in mind.  I'm excited to help you!  Click the image below to visit my Etsy shop!

Thanks for reading!
Jen

Blogging Round 2: Ding Ding!

It's taken me a little over a year, but I've finally built up the courage to re-start blogging. I'm hoping to be much more dedicated to this little blog than I was to the first. I'm also hoping that this will serve as a place where family and friends near and far can take part in the joys our new home has brought/is bringing/will bring us.

As most of you know, Jeremy and I bought our first house in April and we've been working hard to make it feel like "home." It's a brand new town home built to our specs, but we're leaving no square-inch unloved! Over the course of these past 6 months (wow ... has it really been 6 months already?!), Casa Vargas has started taking shape. Don't get me wrong ... there are still many, MANY things on our to-do list, but what's the fun in doing everything at once?!

I had planned to include some pictures of the home as it was when we first purchased it, but I'm facing some technical difficulties (shocker, but I guess that's the world of blogging, eh?). Stay tuned for these gloriously bare pictures as well as future posts with the updates we've made so far and the DIY adventures and challenges we face along the way!

Thanks for reading!

<3Jen