Projects Abound!

What do two temporarily unemployed college grads do with themselves each day you ask... projects of course! Here is a look at what we have done this week.

To start things off, while we were in Seattle over Christmas we went to the Harry Potter exhibit at the Pacific Science Center as a family. At the end of the exhibit you had to walk through a gift shop, where they sold lots of HP replica items. We were there with my nephew Addison, and he wanted a wand really bad. Unfortunately, the were like $70, so that didn't happen. But then my mother in the Joanne-esque spirit of volunteering others to do things said that I could make a wand. I made one while we were there in Seattle, but I think I carved it a little too thin and it ended in disaster. So here is my Harry Potter wand version 2.0. It is thicker and shorter than the other one, and hopefully much more durable.



I think that at some point last week we both realized that in about two weeks we are going to have a little baby to bring home with us and thought, "Maybe we should get ready for that..." So this week we got serious about getting the nursery ready.

This is a changing table that my mom found for sale on the side of the road somewhere.


This is the outline of the frolicking lamb that was on the front of the door after I had sanded it off. I wish we would have gotten a real before picture, because the cheesiness of it was pretty epic.


And here is the finished product after I gave it one of those miracle spray paint jobs that are often found on other people's blogs. Katalyn was the chief designer, and I just did my best to make her vision come to life. Doesn't it look like something from Pottery Barn?


Rochelle had the nursery painted pink for Zoey, but we didn't want to risk damaging Joshua's (or whatever his name turns out to be) manhood by putting him in a pink room, so we decided to paint it.


We did it green beneath the chair rail and cream above it. Feel free to notice how good the changing table looks in there. Also, feel free to notice the cushion on top of the cedar chest.


Katalyn used her immense sewing skills to make that cushion. She even made her own piping, which as I understand is kind of a big deal.






Katalyn's aunts found us this great rocking chair on KSL. Here she is just all ready to be a little mom. Pretty cute, huh?


And here are some more pictures of the nursery. And this is the finished crib, that we were priming in the last post.



Here is a sneak-peak of the living room. Katalyn also sewed these curtains. Isn't she talented?


Well, that's it for now. Next week we will hopefully have some more exciting projects to post.

An Extremely Overdue Update

To start from way back, Katalyn had her birthday in November and we made red velvet cupcakes from scratch. It sure took a whole lot of red food coloring, but they were really good and we had a fun day.


Now to fast forward to the present. We've moved into Bill and Rochelle's house (Casey's brother and sister-in-law) and have been working on a lot of home improvement projects. We'll show you the kitchen in this post, as all the others are still works in progress. We'll update as they're completed.

This is the awful "grapes of wrath" wallpaper border we took down. It was originally below the chair rail in the dining area of the kitchen.


Here's the wall with the grapes gone, but before we painted it. Casey worked really hard on getting the border off.


Here's the ceiling fan that was in the same room. We've discovered since moving in that we HATE ceiling fans. Note to selves: Never buy a ceiling fan.



Here is the finished product of the dining room area...well, we're still planning on putting up curtains, and the table is usually cleared off, but we're sure you all understand. :) Please take note of the cool light fixture. We stayed up really late working on it, and Casey taught me all about electrical wiring as he was learning it for himself. It was a fun adventure, and now we know how to install light fixtures!


Here's a little preview of one of the projects we're currently working on. Casey's mom got us a changing table and crib, and we've been painting the crib. Here's the priming stage. (Katalyn felt safer wearing her chemistry lab goggles...and it looked cool.) Also note that you can finally see that Katalyn is pregnant, now that she's full term. We're pretty excited about that.



Stay tuned for the rest of our home improvement projects! Coming up: baby crib, living room, and bedroom/master bathroom.