Chevron Obsessed

So I might have a problem. I am obsessed with chevron. It all started when I recovered a chair last summer for my classroom in a yellow chevron print. It turned out super cute and I was in love from that point on! Now everytime I have to pick a fabric, print, etc., I go for the chevron. Just take a look at my most recent diy projects to see what I mean...
-My first project was a way to keep up with bill payments. I wanted to be able to have all of the due dates in one place. I remembered an adorable idea that a lot of teachers are using in their classrooms... using a frame as a dry erase board! So cute. So I made a printable {with a chevron background of course} that listed all of the bills that we have with room to write when each one is due. Then I put my new printable in a $3 frame {thank you Gardenridge!} and used a dry-erase marker to update my payment dates! Of course it helps that it turned out super cute with the chevron background and adorable fonts!

a close up... cute, right?

It is now hanging on the wall in our kitchen, easy to access, update, reference...

 -My second project was a print to go in our bedroom. That room still needs a lot of love, but it's coming along slowly! After my bill payment printable turned out so cute, I decided to make another printable to add some cuteness to our room. I figured this was a cheap way to have some art for our very blank walls! I found this verse on Pinterest a while back. It is just a portion of what Song of Solomon 3:4 says, but I really like this version ;) Again, I added a chevron background to my document and used some cute fonts to make a super cute printable! Z asked that I make the chevron print any color other than black {to save on the black ink} so I chose a soft blue. But when it was printed, you could not see the chevron at all. Well since I have some extra time on my hands right now, I decided just to color in the chevron print. Crazy I know. But I do love the way it turned out. Grey is possibly my favorite color right now, and chevron in my favorite pattern, so the combination=love!

I put the print in a silver-ish frame that I already had

Sorry for the terrible pic, but I wanted to show what it looks like hanging in our room!

So now you know about my obsession. I'm really wanting to make a few pillows with some chevron fabric. Or maybe curtains for the bedroom with grey chevron. Too much, no? I'm sure more diy projects to come ;)

A Little R&R- A Little RTR

We had such a fun weekend! Filled with relaxing, hanging out, eating, and college football! Which is so not a big deal around here... so they say. Except that when Z wore his Alabama shirt out on Sunday, at least 5 people commented on how we beat Michigan and they were Ohio State fans and then would thank us for beating Michigan! So they do watch some college football around here apparently. It is different though for sure. We watched the big game at our apartment with all of the Alabama fans we know in this city... well except for the doorman downstairs ;) My sweet friend and I made about every kind of football food we could think of... we had so much food- Ha! So yummy! Here are a few pics of our little get together...

Cooking up our football feast!

Matching Roll Tide shirts ;)

The new Mr. and Mrs.!!

My sweet Z :)

 On another note... Lolly and I had a little shopping/girl's date on Monday. We found the Chicago Outlets {which were having a Labor Day Sale and Back to School Sale... cah-razy!!} and a Gardenridge!! Ever been to a Gardenridge?! Best store ever... everything you can imagine to decorate your home for amazing prices. We were in love! Can't wait to go back soon!

A Yummy Mistake... and Happy Weekend!

Yesterday afternoon I decided I wanted to make snickerdoodle cookies. I have never made snickerdoodles and I'm not sure why I even thought of them! But gooey, cinnamon cookies... yes please! I had most of the ingredients that the recipe called for, except for cream of tartar. So I googled again and found a recipe that didn't call for my missing ingredient! I'm not the best at following directions... I tend to skip a step or something and then regret it when I read that it is important to cream the butter and sugar first. Well this is what happened whilst making the cookies... I really just started dumping all of the ingredients in the bowl and then realized there was a certain order of operations to achieve delicious cookies :/ I also didn't want to wait for my butter to reach room temperature, so I stuck it in the microwave for a few seconds... a few seconds too long unfortunately so it was almost melted a bit too soft. I really wasn't off to a great start with these cookies! Then the real problem occurred when I realized I had halved all of the ingredients except for the eggs. So I had two eggs thrown in the bowl before realizing I only needed one. These cookies were turning into a disaster! I went ahead and mixed the ingredients but found that it was going to be impossible to shape the dough into cookie balls... I had more of a cake like batter. So cake it would be! I poured the batter in a greased 8x9 cake pan, sprinkled the cinnamon sugar on top, and swirled it all together. So I meant to make snickerdoodle cookies... but I ended up making snickerdoodle-ish coffee cake!

It actually turned out pretty yummy! It was even better a few minutes ago with a cup of coffee ;) Z said it tasted like the yummiest thickest cinnamon toast, ha. I guess I'll have to try snickerdoodles again... and actually follow the recipe next time!
On another note, we are really glad it's almost the weekend around here. We're also pretty excited to watch some football tomorrow!! The doorman from Alabama has a Bama t-shirt and hat set out on the front desk today, ha! Gotta love a little roll tide so far from home ;) Have a great weekend friends!

DIY Project Finished {well, close enough}

We have been talking about our need for curtains since moving into our condo... Z really wanted curtains because of the intense afternoon sun that we get. I agreed that curtains would help eliminate the awful glare and all, but there were a few hurdles to the curtain solution. First, our living area has a whole wall of windows... floor to ceiling... that span almost the entire wall. That meant we were looking for curtains to cover 16 ft x 10 ft. Both impossible to find and incredibly expensive! Second, I kind of liked the look of no curtains. I love the view and the light and I really just didn't want to pay a fortune to cover that up! Well when I got back from staying with my parents, Z had thought up his own solution for the intense afternoon sun...

He had the air mattress blown up and propped in front of the windows, ha! I didn't really want curtains, but I really didn't want an air mattress propped against our windows. So I decided to come up with a solution {not involving an air mattress} to our curtain dilemma. My mom had told me about an idea to use painter's drop cloths for curtains. I googled it and found lots of examples of this very same idea. It seemed like the perfect solution... I could make them myself, make them the size that I needed, and it was very affordable! I knew that I would have to add fabric at the bottom to make the curtains long enough so I found examples of this as well. I headed out to pick up the supplies I needed for my diy drop cloth curtains with fabric... I bought 2 6x9 drop cloths at Home Depot for around $10 each! I also bought clip on curtain rings at Home Depot. I bought fabric that was 50% off at JoAnns to add to the bottom of my curtains. And I already had steam-a-seam to use for the edges...

Clip on curtain rings

Drop cloth ready to be made into curtains

The fabric I found half off at JoAnns! I'm still not sure that the color was right, but oh well!

First I washed and dried my drop cloths. Thankfully they came with already finished edges. I cut my fabric in half to give me two pieces, 6 ft wide and about 2 ft long. I went ahead and used the steam-a-seam to finish the top and bottom edges of my fabric. {I just followed the directions on the package, super simple} Then I pinned the fabric pieces to the bottom of each drop cloth {I measured and all so that they would be the same ;)} I really wanted to use my awesome sewing machine... but I never have before and I didn't think this was a good practice project! So hand stitching it was... this part about drove me mad!! I used an extra sturdy thread and a needle and attached the fabric to the drop cloth by hand...

Don't look at the stitching too closely... it is not perfect by any means! But it worked. Last I used steam a seam to finish the sides of my fabric. I didn't really get any pictures of the process, but there are plenty of step by step instructions that you can google for this diy project. Here are the pictures of the {almost} finished product...
First the before...

And now...

I'm not 100% sure that I love how yellow the fabric looks :/

We are still working on the curtain rod... It was going to cost another small fortune to buy a curtain rod that was 16+ feet long. So I found another diy solution to use electrical conduit from Home Depot for about $1.50 per 10 feet! We had to purchase a 10 foot piece and a 7 foot piece and a connector to be able to span the entire window with a little extra on each side. Z attached hooks to both sides of the windows to hold the rod. But once we put the curtains up, we realized that the rod was flexing big time. So now we have to figure out a middle support for the rod :/ Oh well. I am really excited to see the completely finished project once we have the rod fully supported!!

An Update and a DIY Project in the Making

Well I think Z is finally feeling better. He felt pretty crummy all weekend, even after a doctor's visit and antibiotics :/ Yesterday we went back to the doc for him to get a shot so hopefully he's over being sick!! We had a very relaxing weekend considering he wasn't feeling well and I had been gone for a week and a half. It was so nice just to hang out at home with him! We did venture out on Sunday, but the weather was drizzly/rainy so we didn't stay out long. But anyways... not a whole lot going on here this week. Z has made some pretty big strides with his business so that is exciting! Also, I tried my hand at a little diy project. I don't want to share any pics until I'm finished {so close!!}, but this has turned into an all day affair. Z helped me get some of the supplies last night, and I'm really excited to share the before and after pictures soon ;)

Back in the Windy City!

Well we're back from our little trip to Alabama! Z actually got back late Sunday, and I stayed until yesterday to spend some time with my parents. I loved having a few extra days with them!! Poor Z has been sick since he got back, and I wasn't even here to take care of him :/ he survived though and even managed to clean the apartment before I got back! Sweetest husband ever ;) Z met me at the airport last night when I finally arrived. I ended up missing my connecting flight out of Atlanta so my arrival was a bit later than originally planned. Flying alone is not on my favorites list! But anyways, it feels good to be back home {although I keep calling Alabama home, so I think I'm just confused at this point, ha!} with my sweet hubby! And we're already looking forward to another visit to watch Z's brother play football soon!
Everything about our trip was great but so busy!! Almost immediately after we arrived in Alabama, Z left town for the bachelor trip. I got to spend the day with some of my besties from the school I taught at the past few years. Two of my sweet friends have new babies and I was in love from minute one! I hardly spent a second without a sweet baby in my arms ;) We even went by the school so I could see everyone's classrooms. It was so much fun, but it did make me sad that I won't be there this year :/ The rest of the trip was filled with wedding stuff, family time, and seeing old friends! It really was such a fun time, and it went by way too fast!
I wish I had more pictures of our trip. I knew this would happen. I'm just not that great at snapping photos and then I always regret it later. But here are a few we ended up with between my camera and Z's phone...

Waiting for our plane!

The bridal party at the bridesmaids' luncheon

Love!

Enjoying time with sweet friends

My beautiful mom!

And my awesome brother... thought he was going to catch my hair on fire between the sparkler and all of the hairspray!

Such a great time with friends after the wedding!

Unfortunately, that's all I have! I didn't even get a picture of the bride and groom! Or any at the rehearsal dinner. Boo! Oh well. Everything was perfect and we're super excited for the new Mr. and Mrs.!!
I'm missing my family big time today but glad to be home with Z! Hope you have a wonderful weekend friends!

Leaving on a Jet Plane... and Happy Anniversary

First of all, happy anniversary to my wonderful parents!! Thank you for always showing us an example of what love looks like! Love you both!!!

The other big news for today is we are headed home!!! As soon as Z gets off, we're hopping on a train to catch a plane to sweet home Alabama :) We're super excited to see everyone and celebrate with our friends at all of their wedding festivities! And truth be told, we're pretty excited to eat some Taco Casa and El Rincon too ;) I probably won't be blogging much for the next week or so. But I'll be sure to have lots of pictures when I get back. And now I have to go wash clothes, clean house, pack... Can.not.wait!!!