Favorites on Friday

Okay, I have seen this on other blogs, so I am going to try to do a weekly post like this.  I'm going to warn you that it may not always get done on Friday because I have this disease called procrastinitis (my fellow nursing friends might be familiar with that one!).  Anyways, here is may list of favorites from the week.

1.  My number one favorite is actually two things that both kind of equal the same thing.  I am officially a college graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing!  The top photos is from my nursing pinning ceremony (you can learn what a pinning ceremony is here), and the second is from my graduation ceremony.  I cannot tell you how excited I am to be done!  It has been a long three years (year round), but well worth it.  I have learned so much about myself, what I want to do with my career, and have made some of the most amazing friends along the way!

2.  Enough of tooting my own horn.  Another one of my favorite things this week is buckeye balls.  What is a buckeye ball you ask?  Well it pure peanut butter, chocolate goodness rolled into a bite-sized ball.  You can make them with or without rice crispies, I prefer them without- more peanut butter.  My mom brought us about two dozen this past weekend, and they were gone by Wednesday night.  I do want to add that Carl did try to hide the buckeye balls from me in the freezer and ended up eating about 2/3 of them.  He is quite sneaky.

3.  My third favorite is also food- I love to eat.  If you are ever at a Sam's Club (like a Costco) pick up a tub of their Artisan Fresh Spinach Artichoke Dip and a bag of Stacy's simply naked Pita Chips- you will thank me, or curse me for eating the whole thing yourself, I don't know.  I'm not a huge spinach artichoke dip gal, but this stuff is sooo good.  I will probably serve this at every get together just so I can eat the crap out of it and people won't judge me for it.

4.  Number four is my Keurig, single-cup brew system, or what I like to call my simply amazing coffee maker.  Carl and I bought this bad boy over the summer, and it was worth every dollar spent.  I use this thing daily.  It brews the exact same cup of coffee every-single-time.  This would make a great Christmas or Hanukkah present for any coffee or tea lover (it makes tea and hot chocolate too).

5.  Last on my list is a staple in my winter wardrobe.  I absolutely love Mossimo Supply Co. long sleeve shirts from Target.  I have both v-neck and crew in multiple colors.  They are just the right heaviness for a long sleeved shirt, they fit super, and they don't stretch out weird like other shirts.  Every time they are on sale (which happens pretty much once a month), I buy two or three new colors.

There is my list.  Stay tuned for another round next week!

-B

Old Door Re-do

Carl and I found this old door kind of by accident.  We were looking through my father-in-law's garage and workroom for something entirely different when we came across a multitude of old doors.  I was pretty stoked!  One phone call and the door was ours!  The door we picked was covered in about 10 layers of paint and shellac, but definitely had potential. 

Of course I forgot to get a picture before Carl started to strip and sand it, but this photo isn't too far off from the original condition.  It was basically covered in the dark brown shellac- including the hardware which was stripped down.

Next, the door was primed and painted with a white semi-gloss we had left over from other projects.

I then hand painted our last name and the year we were married with a black acrylic paint.  I'm pretty sure a vinyl decal would work just as well- I just haven't invested in an electronic vinyl cutter yet.

I used an electric hand sander to distress the door, taking the paint off mostly on the edges and a bit on the flat surfaces.  I started using just a piece of sand paper, but I realized it was going to take me forever-and-a-day to get anywhere, so I upgraded my tool!  

The last thing we did was put wood stain on to age it a bit.  We painted on Minwax Polyshades in Antique Walnut Gloss with a foam brush, let it set for about 2 minutes, then wiped the stain off with a rag.  We also tried to let the satin soak in a little more on the parts were wood was exposed.

 

  To hang it on the wall we, or maybe just Carl, hung a 2x2 on the studs that was about 6 inches shorter than the width of the door.  

We then placed the hinges of the door on top of the 2x2 and placed a screw on either side of the hinge into the 2x2 to hold the door in place.  Screws were also put in the hinges straight into the wall, but that was more for looks.  (Please excuse my flash-photography, it is quite a dreary day in Minnesota- so natural light is pretty terrible.)

-B

The First of Many...Hopefully

I have finally made it to blogland!  I am excited to finally post my projects, some tutorials, life happenings, and anything else that I come up with!

-B