fun fall.

So I realize that I have not blogged in a few days. Then I couldn't really think of what I would blog about. Then I thought I'd write about the fun things ahead for this lovely fall season!

...in no particular order....

1) The fall weather has finally arrived in Augusta, and I am so loving these cooler days.

2) A fun wedding coming up for college friends! So excited for them and their adventure they're about to start.

3) I do love when the fall comes around and 'my tv shows' start back up. It's my guilty pleasure to come home and catch the new Once Upon A Time (why oh why did Snow and Charming get torn apart again?!) & Revenge (come on Jack!) on Sunday night. Two entirely different realms of drama, but whatevs. And don't get me started on Modern Family. I love that show. I feel like Claire and I are two peas in a pod.

4) Throwing my brother and his wife, Gena, a baby shower! Along with Gena's friends, we've put our heads together to plan a fun time and look forward to celebrating them at a baby shower in November. I can't wait have a nephew!

5) Burnett family Thanksgiving. A few days before Thanksgiving we're headed to Mama and Papa B's to eat some yummy food.  I'm in charge of homemade pumpkin bread!

6) Scott family Thanksgiving. Heading to my parents house on Thanksgiving for even more food and more pumpkin bread :)

7) Ummm. Breaking Dawn Part 2 comes out in a few weeks. Yes I'm 26. And yes, I'm excited. :)

8) One of my best friend's, Katy, has a new blog Single, Party of One. I love when she posts something new because it's pretty amazing. Check it out!

9) Crockpot meals.

10) Candy corn...I've already finished one bag....

hello fall

Oh, how I love the fall. There's just something about the leaves changing, the cooler weather, the smells, the pumpkins, the boots, the scarves! And of course the decorations! I personally like to decorate for the fall as a whole and not just Halloween/Thanksgiving separately. Why? Because then I can leave up my fall decorations for October AND November. Then they'll get put away for Christmas, but that's a whole other department of fun :)

I tend to get overwhelmed when I walk into craft stores so I needed an idea to go off of.  I searched Pinterest (duh) and found some ideas I liked and kind of put them together to form a main idea.  And it's not fall without a cinnamon broom!

Also, massive pumpkin at the market.

Happy Fall!

what a wonderful day

So I haven't blogged in days (or weeks). Oops.

But today was a great day! It's my birthday! And I'm so very blessed with people that made it awesome. I enjoyed every message, phone call, card, text, and cake :) My hubby got me some fun boots, and I received other fun goodies from my awesome family, friends, and coworkers.

So thank you people. I'm so thankful for all of you! I can't wait to see what 26 has in store!

what a summer!

Labor Day has come and gone, as well as the summer. Except for the heat. But what I love is that fall is on the horizon. And y'all. I love the fall. But with the end of summer I can't help but think back to all the shenanigans and adventures.

1) Purchasing our very first home. Our house hunt started at the end of March, and at the beginning of June we closed. This all coming a few weeks after we thought about waiting to buy a home. Such a crazy, fun, sometimes frustrating experience. But well worth it. Definitely an unexpected blessing!

2) Traveling to Scotland & England! Have I mentioned why I wanted to travel to Scotland? Oh, I have? :) What an incredible trip that was. SO fun and got to see and do so many things. The best part? Getting to experience it with my hubby. And while in London I visited some of Kate's (the Duchess, that is) fave stores which was fun. I even purchased some Zara tops. Now I feel like we should be friends.

3) Completed lots of DIY projects! Our living room is finally complete, and since it's where we do most of our living, it's nice to have everything in its place. (Don't be deceived, there are still plenty of projects I'd like to complete :) )

4) Finding out I'd be an AUNT!!! My brother, Michael, and his wife, Gena are expecting their first child-a boy! I. Can't. Wait!

5) My mom, Gena, and I went to St. Augustine for a girls trip. We stayed at an awesome B&B and had so much fun.

6) Had a reunion with my BFFs.  Talk about shenanigans. Just kidding. Sort of. Gotta love cornhole tourneys and girl talk :)

7) A great Labor Day weekend in Hilton Head with the Burnett crew. Talk about a relaxing way to end the summer! And I just love the beach.

So thankful for such a fun summer. Now I'm looking forward to cooler weather, trips to the mountains, changing/falling leaves, boots, cardigans, scarves-the list could go on!

lamp facelift

I've had this floor lamp for a while.  It's a nice lamp, but it needed a facelift.  This project was so darn easy. All you need is a can of spray paint, tape, and a couple grocery bags.

First I got a grocery bag, covered the top of the lamp and the cord, and used the tape to secure them.  I read a lot of different techniques on prepping the lamp, sanding, using adhesive spray paint first, etc. Yeah, I didn't do any of that. I just chose what color and what finish to paint with and sprayed away.

I intended to head over to Marshall's or TJMaxx and look for a new lamp shade, BUT, why spend the money when I have some jute left over from a previous project that I could use to spruce this one up. So that's what I did.

There you have it. A very simple and affordable way to spice up a new lamp! Toodles.

diy burlap curtains

Oh, how I love our new curtains! A few weeks ago, I searched Pinterest tutorials on how to make your own burlap curtains. So with a lot of help from my wonderful mother (thanks, Mom!) I now have them hanging in our den. It's pretty darn easy. And burlap is very inexpensive. So here we go!

First, purchase burlap! I would say get more than enough just to be safe. You can always cut any excess off. Also, get your burlap according to how long/wide you want your curtains to be. Next, my mom sewed a hem on the top of the curtain, probably about a half an inch. We bought a curtain rod and my favorite part- rings with clips on them! All you need to do is simply clip the curtains onto the rings and put the rings through the rod. We frayed the bottom of the curtains slightly as well.

There you have it! DIY burlap curtains. It adds a lovely rustic touch to our living room and I find them to be pretty awesome :)

diy pallet coffee table

Since my husband and I moved into our new home, I've been wanting to make a new coffee table. Our previous coffee table-while a cool idea in theory-not so practical in real life. I'd found an old window that had been made into a coffee table and painted it red. I thought it was really unique, it just didn't work as a coffee table.

I loved the idea of using pallets as a coffee table. I'd seen all kinds of ideas on Pinterest and finally came across this tutorial. My parents and I set to work on this project but had to tweak it a little, or a lot, whatevs. We started with four pallets (which you can ask for at Lowe's or Home Depot) but they did not have the wood boards all the way across. We chose the two best-one as the base and one as the top, the leftovers in case we messed up. The plan was for my dad to pull some of the boards off from one of the spares to fill in the gaps for the top pallet (you following?). Turns out, the wood split whenever he tried to do that. Back to the store we went and bought some boards that my dad cut according to size and nailed them straight across on the top of one of the pallets.

After lightly sanding them, we stained both pieces. I used Dark Walnut stain made by Minwax. One coat was all we needed. To give the table some height, my dad cut some 4x4s (which we stained as well) and put four in the middle and four as the legs. My husband even pitched in and varnished it for me :) Definitely make sure you varnish! I added some felt on the bottom of the legs just to be safe it wouldn't get on the carpet.

And there you have it. Sorry I don't have any pictures for the 'during' process. It was really hot that day so that's my excuse. But I do have a pic of the final product!