Valentine's Day

It seems to be that Derrick and I will make a tradition of celebrating Valentine's Day on February 13th instead of the 14th.  Derrick had to work on Valentine's Day until 8:00, so we went out for dinner at Stone Creek on the 13th.  It's a fancier place in Plainfield that we hadn't tried yet, and it's at the mall.  It was delicious and right across the road was Coldstone, so we had that for dessert of course! :)  We also rented Abduction with Taylor Lautner in it, and I would say it was a pretty good movie.

On the real Valentine's Day, I had a job in Terre Haute and an evening date planned with my other Valentine!

Kaylan and T.J. got tickets to go to the Pacers vs. Heat game, so Miles and I spent the evening together :)  Once Derrick got off work, he came over too.  We had a romantic Taco Bell dinner, and we watched Gran Torino on TV. 

When we finally made it back to our apartment, I had these beauties waiting for me :)

Derrick spilled the beans that they would be coming since we weren't sure if either of us would be home when they would be delivered, but it was still a lovely surprise :)

Wordless Wednesday

Herringbone Art (Tutorial)

Here is the tutorial on how to make this Herringbone art.  I have had this giant canvas that will be going in our bedroom since Thanksgiving (because I got it on sale, of course!)  I wasn't sure what I wanted to paint on it until I found this amazing inspiration on Pinterest here.  I knew this was what I wanted to do with my canvas.

First up for the tutorial is you need to cover your canvas with paint in the colors you want.  Pretty, huh?

Then I just covered a couple more times until I could not see any white under the paint. 

Next, take your colors and start layering splotches of paint all over.  I think our room is going to be gray with a purple accent, so those were my main colors.  Then I added in a couple blues and a green to add a little spice to it :) 

This is my final product before starting the herringbone process, which quite honestly was the easiest art ever.  And I actually could have left it like this because I really liked it like this too! 

I used Edge Lock painters tape to do my strips.  I laid a few pieces out on my cutting sheet and used my rotary cutter to cut straight 6-inch pieces.   

Then I started to lay them on my canvas.  I didn't know it when I started, but I literally had to measure each piece of tape to make sure my design wasn't going to get all wonky. 

This process too FOREVER!!  Like we're talking 4 hours FOREVER!  It was hard and painful on the old back, but totally worth it! ;)

Finally covered in tape. 

Next I took a few of the tape strips away to have some extra white boxes in the painting. 

And then it's painting time!  I had to do a few coats of the white to get it to cover over the purple.  The only problem with that is I think that lead to a little more bleeding of the white.  One super thick coat of white may have been better. 

Then peel the tape off and voila!!!  A finished canvas!   

Well, almost finished.  I still need to do a final coat around the edge before we can hang it.  There are some imperfections that, of course, I would love if they weren't there, but it gives it character; right?  I think it turned out great and I can't wait to hang it!!

Chalkboard Wall

Also while Kaylan was painting Miles chalkboard desk, she decided to finally paint the chalkboard wall in the house for Miles. 

It was a hit!  Kaylan and I drew Miles a little picture for him to see when he woke up from his nap and then he went right to town coloring too!

Food Reviews

Well, we have been trying some new Pinterest recipies lately.  On Super Bowl Sunday, we had a pizza day with 8 different pizza, two of them being desert pizza that we found on Pinterest here.

It was delicious!  I give it 5 stars!  It was super easy, and I definitely recommend you try it! 

On Monday Derrick and I tried this Doritos Chicken Cheesy thing, and it was a bust.  We were not huge fans. 

I did think it was good and had good flavor, but it was just a lot of mush and not much substance.  We won't be making it again.  However, if you want to try it yourself, here is this link.

And Tuesday we tried these French dip crescents with Au Jus. 

They were good.  I would give them a 4, but that's mostly because French dips aren't my favorite thing.  I think we'll have them again!  Here's the link.

So all in all, Pinterest is serving as quite the recipe builder with just a couple of fails!  Let me know if you have any Pinterest recipies you love!

Goodwill Saturday

This last week was Goodwill 50% off Saturday.  We missed the half-off Saturday in January because we were back in Iowa, so we were really ready to get some great deals!  Not quite as ready as these people standing outside!

We got there at 8:59 and couldn't believe people actually waited outside, in line for half-off Saturday!

We hit up the usual 3 Goodwills that day and got some good steals!  The best part is Target takes their stuff there, so you can usually get brand new things from Target for sooo cheap! I didn't do as well as I hoped, but my best buy was a brand new game of Life for 50 cents!  You can't beat that.  I also got the Newlywed Game for 50 cents, and I decided to give it to Derrick for Valentines Day :)  Don't tell him!

Kaylan, however, hit the jackpot by finding this Kitchen!  We have been talking about making one for Miles for forever, but who can turn down a cheap brand new kitchen?!

Let me just say putting it together was a chore!  It was at Goodwill because a couple of the parts were missing.  But we improvised and I think it turned out great!  And Miles loves it! :)

We are anxiously awaiting the next half-off Saturday in March! 

Desk and Window Painting

During Super Bowl week, we were really slow with work and it was soooo nice here, so Kaylan and I got lots of stuff done!  We painted Miles' big boy desk, his little cabinet that was Kaylan's when we were kids, and my window!

Here is the desk all painted orange and the top being primed.  I don't have a completed picture of it, but imagine it orange with a sweet chalkboard top!  It's adorable! 

Here is the window I started out with.  Mom brought this home from the glass shop she used to work at a couple years ago, and I'm just not getting around to doing it!! Geesh!

Here is final product!  I love it, and I can't wait to get it hung up! So easy and so cute! :)