a table: finally finished!

it's friday again. and aren't you lucky? i've finally finished something!

finally, i finished painting our patio table to match the little side tables austin painted green last weekend. and boy, was it a lot of work. by far the hardest thing i've ever done. first, i had to deconstruct the whole table.

then i began to paint. my arm has never been so sore.

the hardest part, was reconstruction. it's always easy to take things apart, but ten times harder to put them back together, right? now, i could have made things a lot easier on myself by waiting for austin's help over the weekend, but no. i wanted to do this on my own. and besides, the neighbors saw me working on it, so i couldn't let them see the table beat me. but alas, after about two hours of cursing at the pieces patiently working step by step, the table finally came back together!

so here she is, in all her green glory, combined with our new patio chairs we got last weekend at home depot and the umbrella we grabbed at target {which conveniently match perfectly}.

i like the green table with the brown on the chairs. i didn't want a whole matchy-matchy set.

i even replaced the bolts with much better ones {ones that don't have to be removed twist by twist with a stupid pair of pliers. grrrr.}.

so there it is. we have a beautifully painted table, chairs, umbrella and side tables to enjoy many cookouts around this summer.

anyone want to come over?

finally finished something!

it's been quite a while since i've had a finally finished friday. but alas, this week i have actually completed a few things {just a few, don't get too excited}.

finally, i finished my letter cube project for my shelves in the living room. so now where it used to just say "the heards" on the one shelf, it says "est 2010" on the other shelf. yay!

finally, i found {so i finished looking?} a food and water bowl holder for juliet. it's cute and bone shaped.

unfortunately, she's terrified of it. so now she grabs a piece of food and runs away from the bowls to chew it. but that seems about right.

finally, i finished hanging our beautifully framed diplomas.

ok. so they're hanging in the {heinously decorated but not my fault} kitchen.

not really the most normal place for diplomas, i agree. but gloria got them matted and framed and they look so nice. since we don't really have an office there isn't a "normal" place to hang them. so for now, the kitchen will have to do. at least they're on display somewhere, right?

and finally, i finished having to wait for all my daffodils from mom's garden to bloom {it's a stretch for finally finished friday, i know. get over it}. aren't the little ones pretty? and they smell fantastic.

who knows how long it may be until my next finally finished friday, so enjoy it! can i blame the lack of progress in the house on having started "working" again? meh. i'll take it.

friday, crafts & guests.

whoa. lots of things to post today.

first, it's finally finished friday and here are the things i've finally finished this past week.

finally, i finished finding flowers for the shelf on our wall of frames.

{i felt so accomplished when i got this up on the shelf. but then i realized something, this is only one of the four shelves in my living room that needing something to be put on them... now i still have three shelves to decorate, but with what? i don't think i need a vase of flowers on each shelf. but i have no idea what to put on the shelves!}

finally, i finished the moss topiary i wanted to make.

i started with the white planter from austin and some foam.

and then i began constructing. at this point, it looks like a person's head with hair, so i just thought it was funny.

and the finished product!

what do you think?

and lastly, finally i finished making a kilt.

you might be wondering why i would make a kilt. you also might be wondering why i would make such a tiny kilt.

that brings us to the "guests" part of this post. austin and i had a visitor last night.

this little guy!

i introduce to you paxton jude.

he's a little over a month old and he's pretty darn cute. {and p.s. he's joee's baby, we didn't steal him or anything.}

joe had this little guy to himself last night, so austin and i got to spend a little bit of time with him as well. and, of course, the tiny kilt is for paxton!

now you might be wondering why i would make a tiny kilt for a tiny baby. austin's fraternity, phi delta theta, has a tradition of wearing kilts on the day they get new members {at least their chapter does} and that day was today, so of course paxton needed his own kilt to fit in with all the guys. and his little shirt says "my daddy is a phi." adorable.

even though austin is at work, i took a trip down to campus to give the phi delt guys my support. here's all the guys that were there today in their kilts with the sweethearts, me and kailan. oh and paxton's in there, too!

so that's that. finished things, crafting, and our houseguest!

and lastly, just because someone has been absent from the blog for a while, here's julie-boo!

framed and hooked.

this finally finished friday, i'm happy to report, i have a few more finally finished things! {i'm really on a roll here lately, aren't i?}

finally, i finished framing the photographs my mom took when she was in college. i've used these pictures in every place i've lived for about the past 7 years, but i've just used them without frames because i didn't think they were regular frame sized. but i'm an idiot. and it turns out that 11x14 frames are actually relatively easy to find. so i bought them. and i framed the pictures. and they continue to look awesome on the shelves in our living room.

finally, i finished our coat hook corner. since we've been in this house, our coats have had to rest on the back of the couch, or on the end table, or even the floor. but not anymore! austin's mom gave us another floating shelf similar to the ones we have throughout our living room, so i painted it black and had austin hang it up high and we then put hooks in the wall below it to hang our coats on. and i put another of mom's pictures on the shelf.

{don't worry about that hole in the wall above the circuit box, you just have to pretend it's not there}

so that's what i've finished this week. now i just need to find a few things to put on the shelves along with the pictures. i feel like they just look a little lonely up there. but i have no idea what kind of things to put on the shelves. suggestions welcomed.

framed and finished.

this finally finished friday, i'm happy to report i have finished more things around the house!

finally, i finished a picture to put in the frame over our bed. for the past six plus months, there has been an empty frame hanging over our bed. now, it has a pretty picture of austin and me on our wedding day, right next to some artwork from my cousin morgan and the red hearts austin bought me in jamaica.

i matted the picture with the same paper we used on our cupcake stand for the reception. so now it has even just the slightest bit more meaning tied to it.

finally, i finished framing our marriage certificate, too!

above the certificate, i put a fun picture of austin and my bridesmaids.

i used the same cupcake stand paper for the certificate.

and below the certificate, a fun picture of me and the groomsmen.

so those are the two things i've finally finished this week. hopefully i can get some stuff done in the upcoming seven days to have more for next finally finished friday.

i may have lied.

i fail at finally finished friday.

not fifteen minutes ago did i claim to have finally put away all of the christmas decorations and now i've realized i'm a liar.

i found these stinkers hanging on the curtain rods, left behind and forgotten. shoot. but for now, i'll just place them in this little corner to await austin's arrival so that he can put them in the attic with the rest of the christmas decor.

{to be honest, i'm just too lazy to climb up there again}

it's that time again.

finally finished friday is here again. and i actually have a few finished things {hence the post, or else i would have pretended not to notice it was friday}.

finally, i finished putting away the christmas decorations. i think mom always had us take them down on or near the first of january, but joee told me i wasn't allowed. apparently, the 7th of january is the approximate day that the wise men would have arrived at the manger to visit baby Jesus. he says in his culture {he's mexican, p.s.} they celebrate this by leaving their shoes out on the night of the 6th and they get a present in their shoes on the morning of the 7th. therefore, i couldn't take down our decorations until then.

{ i had no presents in my shoes this morning}

finally, i finished burning all of the pictures i had from 2010 to cd's for safekeeping. i try to do this every six months or so, especially since my computer is ancient and who knows what might happen to all my memories.  not to mention the great hard drive debacle of 2007 in which i lost every picture i'd every taken...

finally, i finished putting pictures in the empty frames hanging on the living room wall. i absolutely had to do this today, because once i took down the christmas decorations, including the wrapping paper over the frames, i couldn't stand to look at empty frames...

so that's that. pictures and christmas.

by the by, i start work tomorrow. well, staff meeting and training. but work nonetheless. and yes, it's on saturday {ugh} and yes, i have to drive all the way to cleveland {double ugh}. but hopefully all will go well.

and i mean cleveland, tennessee, of course. not cleveland, ohio.

finally finished friday: 2010 edition.

ladies and gentlemen, today is the last day of 2010. lots {and lots} has happened this year. big changes. good changes. a few bad changes, but everything happens for a reason.

and now, i present to you, this year in review.

in january, i was working at sor, back home in virginia. i miss working there so much {i also just miss working}. here's chelsea, me and erica at our holiday party.

in february, austin turned 24. we were supposed to go see motion city soundtrack in north carolina for his birthday, but it snowed. a lot. so we couldn't make it. but i went skiing in my front yard.

in march, my sister turned twenty one. i went down to north carolina to spend her birthday weekend with her.

in april, my julie boo turned five years old. we {meaning me, juliet and sophie} had a little party for her.

in may, austin graduated from utc and began working at life care center.

and my sister threw a wedding shower for me. katie and lindsy surprised me!

lots happened in june.

i moved out of elliston to chattanooga.

my little brother seth graduated from high school {this picture is from last fall at his senior night football game}. now he's attending appalachain state and playing snare in the marching band there.

our friends threw a couple's shower for austin and me with all our friends. and in the same night we met charlie daniels {for real}. here's danielle, me, austin and katie at riverbend watching the charlie daniels band.

i had my bachelorette party with all my girls {don't worry about that birthday sign}.

oh yeah, we got MARRIED on june 26. it was perfection.

and we went to jamaica, austin planned the whole trip without me knowing any details of where we were going.

in july, we celebrated the 4th with rj and lindsy.

in august, rar j graduated from utc and moved to memphis to start grad school.

in september, we celebrated dinger's second birthday. he got presents and a cake {of some seafood mixture}.

in october, we celebrated my twenty-fourth birthday and we went to utc's homecoming game. here's sarah, katie and me at tailgating before the game.

we had our zombie dinner party and halloween.

in november, we went to the cabin in georgia to spend the weekend. juliet loves the outdoors.

we saw motion city soundtrack at variety playhouse in atlanta.

and in december, i did the mainx24fashion show dressed as sally.

joee and copper moved in with us.

and we had lots of christmas, festivus and family fun!

and that's our year in review. i hope you all have had a wonderful year and we wish all the best to you and your's for 2011.

happy new year!