mirror mirror on the wall

While we were on our honeymoon we stopped at a Yard Sale to check it out. I fell in love with a super ornate mirror and we took it home for $5. Well, love might have been a strong word at the time. I loved the shape, the detail, but not the finish. Basically, I loved the potential of the mirror. Here it is in it's original glory. {yes, our dining room pendant is awesome}

I don't want to offend you if you like gold, and I admit it looks good it certain places, but our living room is not that place. :) So, I took a can of cream spray paint, a disposable bowl, and a brush {unconventional, but I work with what I have}, and painted the mirror. I made sure to miss a little so the finish would show through enough to give it a warm vintage look. Here's the mirror now, hanging pretty in the living room. What do you think?

DIY cork board

A couple of years ago, I was the secretary for Tidewater Baptist Temple. On one of my paper runs to Office Max, I noticed a cork board made from wine corks. It was way overpriced, and that day I decided that I was going to make my own. I don't drink, but many of my extended family members do. I mentioned the cork board to them and asked them to save me their wine corks. So, for the past couple of years, every time I see my Grandparents, or my Uncle Jeff, I get a gift bag full of corks. Every Christmas there has been a little bag under the tree full of {you guessed it} corks. I kept them all in the same wicker basket, and continued adding to it until we moved to Knoxville. Once we got here, I knew it was time. I went to Hobby Lobby and spent $4 on a foam board. I spent another $3 on some loctite glue.


Here's the set-up.

After one row of corks, the entire bottle of glue was gone. I don't know what I expected, but it wasn't that. I was not willing to spend $3 on glue for every row of corks. Matthew made the brilliant suggestion to try my trusty hot glue gun. He's a smarty pants. :) So, I did. It was easy-peasy. I am thrilled with the end product. It's way cooler than the one I saw for sale, and it was about 1/8 of the price. After I finished, Matthew used his leatherman to cut off the extra foam and attach a wire to the back so we could hang it in our {almost finished} living room. What do you think?

And then a close up.

There's something fulfilling about doing something yourself to make your home a prettier place. I love it. :)

hand-dyed love birds

While we were home, my brother Andrew gave us a wedding present. It amazes me how spread out the cards and presents have been. It's been like an on going celebration. :) Andrew and I are both semi-crafty. We enjoy the same sort of awesome things. He had already told me that it was something I could hang on the wall, and so {as an art sucker} I was excited. When we walked into my parents house Andrew met us at the door with, "I hand dyed this shirt." Not even, "Hey Amanda and Matt! I hand dyed this shirt." He just got straight to the important stuff. Well, it turns out that our present was equally important. Andrew found a picture of two love birds and decided to hand-dye white tee-shirts, cut them up, and then sew them together to make us a super unique piece of art. Here it is. Fabulous, right? :)

the cavalier hotel

A couple of weeks ago we got the chance to steal a weekend off before school starts back up. We spent the weekend (as most of you know) in Hampton Roads. The weekend began with the newest Nowak Family Production premier of "Martha", and it was stepic {that's a mix of stellar and epic, for those of you fine people who've never heard it}. After that, we played a mixture of the usuals {swamp man, catch phrase, ultimate ninja destruction, and some made up game sort of like soccer but involving a floor buffer} and then headed back to my parents house for a shower and good night's sleep. The next morning mom made chili eggs {fabulous} and then we headed over to Matt's parents house to meet up with his family. The Thompsonowaks {Our sister/brother-in-law} were in town from Philly, and we continued the Nowak family traditions with some serious Thrift Store shopping. My favorite score from this trip was our new mustard colored ottoman. We have one of those awesome {hand me down from my Grandparents} couches that has a recliner built into each end, but my husband and I don't like to sit so far apart from each other, and so one of us gets the footrest, and the other sits in the middle, wishing he/she had a footrest. This ottoman is the perfect solution.

Matt had the genius idea to tuck it under the chair when not in use, and it has done its job perfectly. After thrift store shopping we broke away from the family and made our way down to where the highway hits the sand. I have lived most of my life in Virginia Beach {with the exception of Pensacola for a couple of months, Knoxville for a year and a half at school, and a semester in the UK}, and I bet I haven't gone to Virginia Beach more than 100 times. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think so. It's a little depressing to think about. Anyways, we went down to the beach to spend the night in The Old Cavalier Hotel. If you know anything about the Old Cavalier Hotel, you should know that it is old {duh} and it's expensive. "So, why did you randomly go there you money wasters you?" {that was you talking} Because, originally we were going to get married on July the 31st, before we decided that May the 21st made way more sense. So we had already booked the Cavalier for this weekend. Here's the hotel as we approached it.

Gorgeous, isn't he? :) Yes, yes he is. The foyer was no disappointment either. If I ever had David Bromstead ColorSplash a room, this is the place I would take him for my inspiration. I love the colors and the details. 

Next stop? Our bedroom. Originally we had booked the honeymoon suite, but we downgraded since we had already had our honeymoon. We expected a decent room, with a partial ocean view, but that's not what we got. What we got was three whole windows of this:

Hello, Virginia Beach! :) It was the perfect weekend, full of family time, and alone time.