Happy Thanksgiving!!

Though really I suppose it's Happy Black Friday! I work in retail, so for me it's not all that happy. And I work for a store that got to be open on Thanksgiving, so super fun time there. While it was definitely not the best Thanksgiving I've ever had, I still have much to be thankful for.

Our three dogs drive me crazy at times, but our house would be empty without them. I have a lot of laundry to do, but it's wonderful we are able to afford clothes for ourselves, a washing machine and dryer to clean them, and this house to keep us warm. I'm grateful I have a dependable vehicle that gets me safely to and from my job, that will hopefully last for years to come.

I got to spend time with my mom and my "other" mom (my best friend's parents invited us over), and while I did not see my husband as much as I would have liked, I'm very thankful that we were able to get married while my dad was still alive and able to enjoy himself. It's been a rough year, and I'm so very grateful my husband has been so supportive through all of this.

And now it's on to Christmas! I did not venture out for any Black Friday deals this year, but I've decided Cyber Monday really appeals to me much, much more. Picking something out while in my pj's and having it shipped to my door is definitely the way to go. Although, I hope the hubs isn't home when it gets delivered!

Born Again TV Stand

Today my productivity is falling a little short of what I need to accomplish. Which is why it feels good to have this project done and put in place. It's like making a to do list, and putting something on it you've already done, just so you can cross it off. But it still feels pretty good.

Anyway, in my grand tradition, this project has been about a year in its completion. Major hangups include procrastination, and choosing a color for the inside. Don't worry about the mess in the background - it's still on my to-do list ;)

I love the way it came out! And my little helper in the corner. Hubs helped me pick the color for the inside, and I think it's pretty fabulous. Here's the before picture:

As you can see, I chose to keep the original hardware. I actually really liked it, and it's one of the reasons I liked this piece of furniture in the first place. The challenging part came with the veneer - painting veneer is HARD. Especially with all the little crevices in the doors and drawers. There are some paint chipping problems, but I think it helps it to look "antique" with the peeling paint. If it gets too bad, I'll touch it up at some point.

Here you can see the spot where the paint isn't sticking very well.

Since I don't notice it from a distance, I'm not going to worry about it right off. I also had my handyman cut a hole in the back so I can keep the base to the surround sound and our dvd player on the inside. It has definitely cleaned up this little TV corner from what it used to be, and is another step towards us living like grown ups.

Here's a before picture of the inside of the drawers:

I really liked the look of the old newspaper, but in the end I decided to paint it green because it just all went together better that way.

And another picture, because I just like it so much!!

Our First Anniversary

Hard to believe a year has gone by since our wedding!! Then again, so much has happened in the past year that it feels like forever ago. Our anniversary was yesterday, Mr. Fabulous had to work and I stayed home and looked through all of our pictures and listened to music as I made an effort to clean the house. That effort mostly failed as I spent a long time putting together his paper gift.

We attempted to go out to dinner at the restaurant where we had our first date (they also catered our rehearsal dinner), but we forgot that since it was Sunday, they were closed. Instead of going to a different restaurant, we decided to get some chicken wings at the grocery store and go home and eat them in our pj's. My mom made us a replica of our cake top, and we ate that with some champagne. All in all, it was a pretty good night!

This is us at the grocery store. He's looking at me because he thinks I'm crazy for taking our picture, yet he's the one who ends up looking crazy ;) 

Our cake! And champagne! My mom did a great job recreating her masterpiece from last year.

And finally, his gift. 52 pieces of paper with ideas for us to do in the coming year until our next anniversary! I had originally seen a similar idea as a wedding gift suggestion, and then I searched the internet for 52 date ideas and saw that some other wives had done this (or something similar) for their first anniversary. Let me tell you, 52 things is harder than it sounds. I ran out of ideas after 12, which is why I was eagerly searching the internet for 40 more. I had them all written down, but when I copied them onto the colorful paper for the jar, I threw the list away. Oops! But I'll let you know each week what he chooses! 

Of course when John opened it, he had to take a few out and see what was in there, but I wouldn't let him read all of them. I tried to keep it to things that cost little or no money, a lot of them are things we always say we're going to do, and then never do them. A few are season specific, so I hope we choose them in the right season! It's hard to built a snowman or go ice skating in the summer, but I guess part of the challenge will be making it happen no matter what. And the general idea is to get us out of our habit of having dinner and watching tv each evening. 

Here's to a year of fun and adventure!