DIY Trouble

We played a game last Sunday with some friends called "Loaded Questions."

Ever heard of it?

Someone reads a question, everyone writes down an answer,

then that someone has to guess who said what.

There was a lot of laughing involved.

One question was, 

"What always takes more time than you thought it would,

and still never turns out as good as you thought it would?"

We agreed to ignore the many inappropriate answer choices.

Then, it took me all but two seconds to write down:

"Pinterest projects."

When they read through all the answers, I immediately knew Michael's:

"My spouse's Pinterest projects."

Poor guy. And I think he even wrote his answer faster than I wrote mine.

I can't blame him. Our latest project beat.us.down.

We learned a lot of lessons, all of them the hard way.

The upside: When SO many things go wrong,

the situation becomes funny now instead of later.

Up above is our entertainment center we inherited from some 4th year dental students,

who moved out right when we moved in (so nice of them!).

I decided it was meant to be red. Simple, achievable goal, yes?

False.

You guys. 

Pinterest and blogs...they deceived us. 

They make things sound so simple. We make things so complicated. 

So, pride swallowed, here are all our lessons learned:

(and all you painters and professional Pinteresters out there are not allowed to judge.)

• Don't listen to Ace Hardware Man who tells you spray paint is the best way to go for a large piece of furniture.
• Don't buy spray paint that only appears to be maroon, but is, in reality, stop sign red.
• Don't spray paint in the dark, no matter how excited you are.
• Don't spray paint when it's windy, no matter how excited you are.
• Don't spray paint the inside of a large piece of furniture if you're not prepared to get high.
• When you prop the detached doors up to protect the inside from getting painted, don't pick up the entertainment center to move it. Doors will fall, potentially breaking the glass (we are lucky).
• Don't make the previously listed mistake four (4) times, because that's a big blow to your confidence levels. (We are seriously lucky.)
• Don't pull the little white thing out of the nozzle. It's not a stopper. It's what keeps your spray paint from working like a small hose. 
• Don't let your small-hose spray paint drip. It looks bad even after multiple, multiple layers.
• Don't feel bad when you have to sand away all the drips from your hose-like sprayer.
• Don't be afraid to buy all new colors of spray paint after you admit that stop sign red will never grow on you in your living room.
• Do spray thin layers. Let it dry. Spray again. That's not just a suggestion, even if you think the bottle makes it sound like one.

There were so many other lessons learned...

I hope some of those help any of you out there. 

Or I hope I at least come back and read this post once I've forgotten all the pain that was this project and I'm innocently gearing up for another painting attempt.

But when all is said and (mistakes are) done, our final project isn't too shabby!

Just don't look at it too closely when you come over.

My new DIY definition is 

Don't Initiate Yet.

We got way too excited...

next time: more research, more time prepping,

and more...common sense. :)

But yes, it was definitely meant to be red. I love it!

If you're ever getting depressed from the blogs and pinteresters who remodel every room in their house on a Monday,

in seven simple steps,

just because they finished cooking gourmet meals for the whole week and they're bored...

You can come read about our happy failures.

We're cool with it.

And just like that...

Happy six months!

Are you surprised it has already been that long?

Us, too. Busy six months.

We like marriage a lot.

Here's to six more!

(and then forever.)

Mormon Moment

Did you love General Conference? This weekend was full of great teachings.

My favorite takeaway principle: 

happiness is outside of your circumstances, you are in charge of your own.

There really is so much to be happy about.

(from Dieter F. Uchtdorf's talk.)

I follow a blog about that principle here, 

and it always uplifts me.

The weekend also had some big changes.

Boys can go on missions at 18, and girls at 19....!!!

This blew my mind.

I totally would have gone on a mission at age 19. 

Who's with me on that one?

But no regrets.

My life has played out better than I could have ever planned,

so I'm not even bitter at all.

I'm happy outside of these circumstances.

Bonus point?

Here's an interesting infographic to close out your conference weekend,

from the LDS newsroom.

Power to the Greeks

Guys.

Remember when I went on and on about my ever-deepening love for Greek Yogurt,

and all its substitutional wonders?

Check out this conversion chart from Chobani's blog.

I'm telling you.

This stuff is probably the most noble of olympic sponsors ever.

I'm not even mad about the endless stream of

commercials they played during the games.

Thanks for sending me the link, Larissa!

Yum.....

Into the Weekend

Lesson learned:

Salsa is not as much fun to make as raspberry jam,

if your food processor is acting smarter than you.

But, when your husband comes home to play the hero,

and teaches you that the outlet is to blame...

and you make amends with your food processor,

apologizing for all your wrongly made accusations....

You get some yummy stuff.

So yummy that when the wonderful 

maintenance man comes to fix the evil outlet,

he walks away with a jar for saving the day.

Thanks Pam, for the delicious recipe!

We're headed to a food truck party tonight! Rain and all.

 Then, we are excited to listen to our church leaders this weekend:

Come join us!

P.S. If any of you out there are sad that England gets new episodes of Downton Abbey now,

and Americans have to wait [very very im]patiently until January...

Just go here.

Kind of a sketchy site, but definitely worth it.

Writing Club Wednesdays | Not a Kid Anymore

Prompt: The moment you knew you were no longer a child.

I thought I wasn't a kid anymore when I could finally ride my bike.
But then, I asked my mom for a dollar so I could ride my bike to the Shave Ice Shack. Still a kid.

I thought I wasn't a kid anymore when I finally finished every single Nancy Drew book.
But then, I had to ask my mom to drive me to the library for something new. Still a kid.

I thought I wasn't a kid anymore when I got my driver's license.
But then, I got a speeding ticket the same day and came home and cried. Still a kid.

I thought I wasn't a kid anymore after my first kiss.
But then, I came home and cried about that too. Still a kid.

I thought I wasn't a kid anymore when I moved out of the house.
But then, I called my parents every day from campus. Every day with laundry questions, cooking questions, dating questions, questions about questions...never more of a kid.

I thought I wasn't a kid anymore when I moved out of the country.
But then, I got lost. A lot. And never felt smaller, but never felt more eager. Still a kid.

I thought I wasn't a kid anymore when I graduated college.
But then, I went into the world and never felt smaller, again. Still, a kid.

I thought I wasn't a kid anymore when I got married.
But then, we looked at each other. Two kids. In love. But, two kids.

I thought I'd stop being a kid. I thought it a lot of times, and expected it to happen after many made up deadlines.

But then, I get to where I think that moment is and I still just feel like...me.

Does everyone still feel like a kid?

The fact that I still own my baby blanket doesn't help. But it does help me sleep.

Life Before Monday

Life has been good. We're going to give major credit to Fall for that one.

Best time of year by far, right? Right. 

(It's my blog, so you summer-lovers don't have a say right now.)

Since my job offer, my days haven't changed all that much.

But they DID go from feeling totally aimless to total...

vacation time.

Hence the mornings spent in grandma slippers, seen above.

And the time spent learning random skills, seen above.

You can't call that little chain there a skill yet, but just you wait. I've got big plans for crocheting.

Ok, just these and this. So not big...but, definitely medium. 

I even bought 1,000 (count 'em) popsicle sticks today so I can make this, too. 

Crazy? Maybe. But I'm taking advantage of my last week of funemployment.

And guys, it's October. Have you stocked up on your Count Chocula yet?

Don't ask me why this is just an annual cereal. Maybe they're just not sure how to re-brand,

so they've painted themselves into a Halloween corner.

Anyway, it tastes like chocolate Lucky Charms, 

but SO much more magically delicious than the original.

It's the only reason I tolerate Halloween. That, and Reeses Pumpkins.

Don't hate.

p.s. We just got home from a fun-filled weekend in Evansville!

We rode horses, had a bonfire, laughed a lot with family, watched these great talks,

and just wished weekends didn't fly right by.

Now, we're home with Michael's dad's beautiful fresh tomatoes,

and we're ready to make yummy salsa! Come try some :)