We survived Vegas

I'm back in WI.  Tan, tired, and broke.  Sounds like a good time to work on some free house projects, right?  I thought so.  That is what we'll be doing all weekend, and I will hopefully be catching up with my favorite blogs as well.  I took next to no photos on this trip, lame for a blogger, I know.  I did snap a couple shots of our 'GO' room at the Flamingo, it was pretty rad.

I loved the hot pink accents and that groovy white vinyl headboard!  The bathrooms have tv's in the mirror.  I watched Friends while I was getting ready one day - the one where Ross and Rachel get the hot nanny 'Molly' - in case you were wondering.....

Our room overlooked the Bellagio fountain show, so that was pretty awesome.  However, we were underwhelmed by the strip attractions, I can't say anything really stood out. We went to the VooDoo lounge on top of the Rio for the awesome views, unfortunately the vodka tonic I got tasted like the bartender made it with dishwater.  And it was $10.  Wah Wah. 

This is before I actually tried the drink. 

I think Shaun's was better than mine.  Or maybe he has lower standards.

At least we got to look at this for awhile.  The view, not the dudes on the stairs.  We did not get one photo of the two of us over the entire trip.  Bummer.  But we got some neat individual shots using the 'nighttime' shooting mode on the Rebel.  Without even trying, the lights created some awesome effects. 

Cool, huh?  I thought so.

Ta ta for now

Despite my hatred for airports, crowds, hotel staff, overpriced drinks and packing 20 outfits for a 5 day trip (I'm a terrible overpacker), we will be flying to Vegas tomorrow for a Labor Day getaway.  That being said, things will be very quiet around here.  I could set some posts to publish automatically, but that would involve creating posts ahead of time which doesn't happen around here.  Instead, we will be sitting at the Flamingo GO pool with drinks in our hands and not a care in the world. 

And I will look like this while lounging there:

BWAHAHA!  OK, moving on....we have been working on a project in the future den/tv room for a little while.  It involves this back wall that I never fully showed in pics before: 

There is a reason we didn't paint it back in March.  I'll be back next weekend with some deets!  Have a great holiday weekend, everyone!

Not just for cups

I love cup hooks.  They are holding up my curtains in both of our porches, and they do it so well.   

Add the cup hooks to some 3 foot, 1/2" oak dowels from Home Depot, cut in half with the miter saw and primed and painted white:

Pick up some cheap 1/2" dowel caps from Hob Lob and prime and paint white:

Use your smallest drill bit to make the holes in the ceiling.  Screw cup hooks into the ceiling and WALAH.

You have a mini curtain rod that cost you a few bucks. 

And if you even want to take them down, you only need a little spackle to fill those tiny holes.  LOVE.

I think I may have put this picture on the blog 17 times by now.  Who cares, it looks nice.  Here is the naked end again, just to be fair. 

I think the dowels cost 2 bucks each, the dowel caps were $1.50 (2 packs at half off) and the cup hooks were a couple bucks too.  Curtains are from Ikea, they were $15 for two - so $30. 

Total cost, around 35 bucks!  Does anyone actually use cup hooks for cups anymore?  Shouldn't they come in cute colors and be marketed as rod holders?  I think I may have found a good business plan.  Good thing I just advertised it on the internet.  Dang.   

Congrats!

Congrats to ME for making it one year in the blogiverse, and congrats to my CSN giveaway winner, The Cape on the Corner!

I got such a great response, thank you all for reading my little blog!  What's on deck for the next 12 months?  Well, I'm starting to get into the thick of my wedding planning, so I hope that you won't mind if I throw a couple crafty wedding projects on here once in awhile?  I promise some big house projects are in the works, too.  Have a great week, everyone! 

Trash to treasure

Ok, our free loveseat was not trash.  In fact, it's a very nice solid piece of furniture that is currently sold for a lot more than 'free' on This End Up's website.  When our neighbor a few houses down was giving this away in their driveway, Shaun made me proud and TOLD ME ABOUT IT instead of shielding my eyes and talking about ice cream to distract me. 

By some stroke of luck, we actually had my parent's truck that day, so we drove a few houses down and picked it up.  They even had a couch to match, but it was gigantic and our porch was, uh, full of crap.  So I turned it down and now I'm kicking myself while staring at my mostly empty porch that could use another seating area!  Oh, well.  This thing sat covered with a pink sheet until last month.  And there was a lot of this going on.....

I swear I love both my cats, this one just loves getting his photo taken, so I oblige!  I voted to keep the piece wood because I thought it would be cool against the white walls, but Shaun really wanted to paint it.  So I let him win and helped him take it outside for a makeover. 

We lightly sanded, then used BIN to prime and Behr Premium in semi-gloss Ultra Pure White for the finish coats.  I admit I got a little sad when he did these first strokes of primer! 

Did you catch the 80's pastel southwestern cushions?  Here's a closeup of that mess!

A local upholstery shop quoted me $300 to recover these rectangles of foam, so I said HELL TO THE NO to that.  There are companies online that make cushion covers specifically for This End Up furniture, but the fabrics you get to choose from look mostly like this:

Um, why do they all look like they are made from 70's muppet fur?  I'm so confused.  Not a beige cotton or natural twill to be found.  So, for now it has a 96" long linen drape from Target tucked around the cushions, and that works well enough. 

Do you think we should've kept it wood, or does the white paint look better?

Blogiversary Giveaway!

So, I realized last week that I am staring down my one year anniversary of having my face in a computer at all times starting Russet Street Reno.  Wow, so much has happened since then!  To celebrate my ability to 'stick to it' for the last 12 months, I thought I'd give my readers a treat in the form of another CSN giveway!  I have been so happy with all my purchases from CSN, from my copper torches...

to the sexy ceiling fan in our porch...

I have been so pleased with the customer service and quality of the items.  This is important to me, because I would never promote a company that I wouldn't purchase from myself.  Although CSN certainly needs no introduction to most of us, for those unaquainted with the sweet splendor of over 200 stores selling furniture like bistro sets and kitchen brands like Le Creuset, just trust me that they are awesome. 

Giveaway details:
The prize: one $60 gift certificate to any of the 200+ CSN Stores!

How to enter: just leave a comment on this post.  Please make sure I can contact you by either an email address in the comment, or a link to your email on your blog. 

How to enter again: if you want to blog about my giveaway, I will give you an extra entry!  Please leave a second comment with the link to your post if you do this. 

Deadline:  The giveaway will close on Sunday August 29th at midnight, so I can announce the winner on Monday, my one-year blogiversary. 

GOOD LUCK!!

Where the heck am I?

I'm a terrible blogger.  I've been eating chips and salsa all week and that is why I can't come to the computer.  I blame it on Jenny @ Anything Pretty for posting the ingredients for the 'zesty' salsa that she made.  I was so inspired that I actually went to the grocery store that evening and purchased Ball jars.  This does not happen at my house, trust me.  Just like Jenny, all the ingredients came from our garden except for the prissy cilantro that is TOO GOOD to grow for home gardeners.  Also like Jenny, an entire jar disappeared within a very short time.  I still have alot left, though. 

It is chunky and deliciously spicy because I threw some jalapeno seeds in there.  I swear, if I didn't make it myself I would think it had crack in it.  Shaun also thinks this salsa is the bomb diggity....too bad I couldn't recreate it easily.  I certainly didn't measure out all those ingredients, I just kept using the food processor on everything and mixing it together until it tasted like happiness and rainbows.  Walah!