Married Life

I truly love being married.

This is an actual quote by Eric from last night:

me: [rolling over to snuggle better]

Eric: "Noelle, our marriage is epic."

Hahaha. I love him. And yes. I think so too.

DIY Shelves

Do-It-Yourself is a relative term I guess, because my dad did all the hard work. I only held while he cut or nailed it together. I did do the filling of nail holes with wood filler.

I bought all of my supplies at Home Depot. Pre cut corbels, 8 inch wide wood for the main shelf, and some moulding.

"Measure twice, cut once." Direct quote of my dad, MANY times.

The space in the kitchen is 34 inches wide, so we made my shelves 31 inches, with the knowledge it would be more like 32 when the trim went on.

That piece of wood there is on it's way to becoming a kitchen lovely. =)

Here is my trim, We used this huge miter saw to make the 45 degree angles. Sadly, when I bought all of this I didn't do the math quite right in my head for the extra space these angles would take up in length. So I was 2 inches short for my last piece and had to run to Home Depot for 10 more inches of it. Sad.

Also, the shape I chose is very pretty and I like it. But those little lines were very hard to get the paint into. Time consuming.

Sorry I didn't do a shot of it when it was still wood color. But you can pretend. In this picture the shiny one on the left has paint on the top and the one on the right is only primed. I used a spray paint primer and painted the real white with a brush.

...be patient while it dries Noelle...

Install Day. Yes!

Sorry I don't have a before of my ugly blank kitchen wall, but you can guess from this shot. My kitchen just had a hole in it. When I saw these shelves on Thrifty Decor Chick and Just For Rachel I knew I could do it and that they would be PERFECT. (Again, "I" meaning "we" because Dad did all the hard work.)

Do you like our spiffy measuring system of hold-this-up-because-Noelle-is-too-wimpy-to-do-it-without-help scrap boards?

The corbels came with the little button pieces that cover the screws. Here it is before I painted them. Those little buggers were HARD to get in. Even with the hammer.

Close up of my paint job. =)

I'm still behind. I got these up December 16. And here it is decorated for Christmas. do you see little Santa? It was pretty naked for those first few weeks, I had to collect slowly. The red blocks in the next shot were there in time for Christmas. That helped it look a lot less empty on the top.

And here it is today. I heart these shelves. They make my kitchen SO much better.

The square jar holds cocoa and the round one with the glass stopper holds vanilla. The tall skinny one will probably get olive oil. How cool is that? Decorative shelves in my kitchen not only fabulous looking, but holding food stuff that I actually use!

I got this crackle-y glass jar at Hobby Lobby on clearance for 10 bucks. I think there used to be a lid to come with it that must have broken, fine by me. I didn't pay 50 for it like someone else must have....

And this little guy. I really love him. So cute. I even paid full price for him at Michael's. GUess how much? 2 dollars! Score!

Break down:

all wood supplies: $80

paint: already had

spray primer: $5

So for just the shelves it cost $85. For the Ballard design this is after, shelves this size are $90 each! Woohoo. But wait, there is more.

I got all of that for FREE. That's right. F-R-E-E. Because I had a gift card. Sweet.

I'm linking to Frugal Friday at The Shabby Nest

Lawlor Christmas 2009

I get it. I'm behind. So shoot me.

Kenneth and Shelley were able to come to Arizona for Christmas, this was the first Christmas with everyone since 2003. We only had one day with everyone in the same house at the same time so we took a family picture. It had Eric and Kerra in it who were not in the last one from 2007. BUT it's already outdated because Adria was born. Hahaha. We just can't keep up.

Sweet.

I love this. Shelby is so photogenic. She wasn't even posing for me, I just caught this quickly. Her expression is wonderful.

I look really short next to all of them, but if Mom and Dad stood, she would look REALLY short.

We all pitched in and surprised Dad with a new laptop.

This is a tradition in our house. Dad reads out to and from on each gift where everyone can see. ...unfortunately, with so many people, not everyone can hear.

I zoomed in on this one because I thought my parents looked really good. And happy =)

This is the best one of the whole family group. There are 15 grandkids in this picture.