Turning 1970s office into a wedding chapel and so much more

In June, my sister Heather and I signed the lease for a 2000+ square foot building that we intended to turn into a Wedding Chapel. We worked along with our husbands, parents and children to turn this:

In to this:

And this:

In to this:

We took the ceiling down and replaced it with bead board and lots of trim. Heather and I learned to use a table saw and many power tools without fear. We learned to measure once and cut 2 or 3 times is very, very frustrating.  We learned the difference between "Tree Housing It" and the right way. But we still prefer to "Tree House It" whenever possible.

We found beauty in small things, like this mound of saw dust that signified 12 hours of hard work.

We found strength to climb ladders and hold our hands above our head until they were shaking. Yes, that's me on the green ladder, along with James (Heather's fiance) , Kaleb (my son) and Joe (my husband).

 

Heather prying off years of old plaster that was attached to our cinder block exterior wall.

 

In the midst of it all....

Heather and James got married...in our almost finished Chapel. I officiated it. (This was at the end of the night still working in wedding dress and tuxedo.)

 

Our Dad seen here on top of cabinet had a heart attack. Not here, at home a few weeks after this photo.

Me, my 3 sisters, my brother and parents were brought so much closer. And Dad is doing great. He even let us do a huge family selfie at the hospital.

My daughter, Samantha got married. James officiated, our Chapel and family did all of the work for a "Pop Up" Wedding at my In-Law's river property. It was a magical night.

It has been quite a summer. We opened Something Blue Wedding Chapel and Boutique on October 10th. I hope you will check out the rest of our chapel over on our website: www.SomethingBlueChapel.com I built the website using WordPress in my spare time. :)

How was your summer?

Second Oldest Daughter Graduating and where does the time go?

 Sabrina is graduating High School on Saturday.

 She wore this hot dog hat most of our vacation. Fearless girl.

 This was the first day of 4th grade for Sabrina and the first year that we all lived in the same house. Samantha the oldest pictured here in 7th grade is my daughter. Sabrina and Kaleb are Joe's children who we have had the pleasure of having custody of and raising for the last 10 years.

Here are all of our girls. Miss Sophie hating the hat her sisters put on her. She was never one for photos.

Wishing Sabrina wings so that she may soar.

 Where does the time go?

Uncommon Goods AquaFarm Review

A few weeks ago I was contacted by UncommonGoods.com to see if I would like to review one of their unique store items. We chose the AquaFarm by Back To The Roots. This little fish tank comes with absolutely everything you need (including a coupon for a .99 cent beta fish at Petco) to house a fish and grow wheat grass on top through a process called Aquaponics.

What is Aquaponics? The adorable all recyclable packaging says, "it is a closed-loop, sustainable farming system that combines traditional aquaculture (raising aquatic animals in tanks) with hydroponics (cultivating plants in water). 1. Fish produce ammonia-rich waste 2. Beneficial bacteria in the water convert ammonia into nitrites. These naturally occurring bacteria grow really well on the rocks in the net pots and tank. 3. Nitrates are toxic to fish, but amazing food for plants! As the plants constantly uptake nitrates as their food to grow, they are also cleaning the water for your fish. This clean water then falls back into the tank."

 

Does it work? We were a little skeptical about growing wheat grass in rocks with just a little water that gets filtered up from the fish tank, but after 3 days we had 1 inch sprouts and after 2 weeks they are about 6 inches long. My husband (the health nut) drinks wheat grass so he thinks this is amazing. We have had a lot of fun learning about aquaponics as a family. We tried to sprout spinach in the two cups above that are empty. The spinach hasn't taken yet but we are going to give it a little more time. Wheat grass grows fast, like an 1/2 inch a day.

The label on the tank is removable and re-positionable. We opted to keep it on but here is a picture of the tank without it. We are really enjoying this. 

Have you checked out UncommonGoods.com ? 

Here are some links to other Uncommon Goods products that are on my Christmas lists:

www.uncommongoods.com/product/pick-punch

http://www.uncommongoods.com/product/kinetic-sand

www.uncommongoods.com/occasions/christmas-gifts/christmas-gifts

I will be doing a lot of my Christmas shopping at UncommonGoods.com it's full of unique Earth friendly items. I love this part of their mission statement:

"Handmade, Recycled and Organic Products
We're committed to offering you a creative and exciting merchandise assortment and are working with our suppliers - from artists to small manufacturers - to make their products in a more socially and environmentally responsible manner. Since our founding, we've featured products that contain recycled components and have not sold products containing leather, feathers or fur - our goal is to sell no product that harms humans or animals."

I hope you will check them out.

*Disclosure: This is a sponsored post for UncommonGoods.com they provided me with an AquaFarm for review purposes. As always my post contains my unbiased opinion.

You ever had one of those mornings?

Mine started this morning at 2 a.m., after I had stayed up until midnight trying to meet a deadline for my web design business. Lately, I have found that the only time I can actually blog or design is after 10 pm, when the kids are all finally in bed. My husband, Joe, got home at 2 a.m. from work (nightshift) and decided he wanted me to carry on a conversation with him. I spent most of that time saying, “Huh?” cause I couldn’t stay awake. When he finally gave up and went to sleep, I was wide AWAKE. I laid there thinking about the design I was working on, for what felt like hours and finally drifted off.

Then, what felt like seconds later, I was startled awake by… STOMP, STOMP, STOMP… STOMP, STOMP, STOMP… STOMP, STOMP…



My 16 year old daughter, Sabrina is in the room directly above mine. She has hardwood floors (major mistake) and high heals on. Stomping from bedroom to bathroom every 2 minutes. (I kid you not.) This was at 6 a.m., Joe wakes up and says, “What the hell is going on?” So I crawl out of bed go to the bottom of the stairs and yell up at her to take her shoes off and stop doing laps from room to room. “Dad worked last night, remember?” A teenage, snarky, “OK” comes down the stairs at me.

So I’m up and do my morning routine, make Sophie’s lunch, scrounge for lunch money for the teens. Then at 7, I wake up Sophie, who, like her Momma, is NOT a morning person. She cries, EVERY morning. She just wants to stay in bed. She gets angry when I brush her hair and refuses to brush her teeth. This battle is daily and no matter how early this kiddo goes to bed, this is how our morning goes. Somewhere in the midst of this, my 14 year old son decides that this lovely hat rack…



… that I just put in my foyer and have yet to blog about… was sturdy enough to hold his 5 foot 6 inch, 100+ pound body weight… Why?

Out it came, molly screws and all. Imagine 2 huge holes in the drywall. As he was trying to put it back on the wall, all I could say was, “Put it on the floor and walk away.” I was seeing red at this point.

We piled into the van, Sophie fighting every step of the way, refusing to wear her glasses today because her nose hurts… We drove the 15 min to Sabrina’s school then down the road to Sophie’s. Kaleb is the only one who rides the bus because he is the only kid I have in the local school district. 3 kids, 3 different schools. I would explain but this post is going on forever and I don’t want to bore you too much. I do have a point… or at least I think I do.

So after I drop off the girls, I hit the coffee stand, my vise. Totally not on my diet and I have been avoiding it for months, but today I deserve a treat and I really, really need the caffeine.



As I am digging through my purse at the coffee stand, hoping I still have some cash, I take a closer look at my little pink purse. The one I’ve been carrying for the last month. It’s too small but it’s the one I bought to remind me of Cindy. The one that is suppose to hit me on the head and fill me with gratitude.

And it hit me. I gave the girl at the stand my cash with huge tears in my eyes and she probably thinks I have gone completely MAD and maybe I have, I don’t know. But at that moment I was so grateful for my life and my crazy family that I just popped. I pulled my mini van along side the road and sat there and wept. Why?



You all know Donna at Funky Junk Interiors, right? Cindy was her nephew’s wife. Mother of 2. She lost her battle with cancer with less than 2 weeks notice and well, every since then, I’ve been carrying that little pink purse to remind myself how precious life and family is. I cannot imagine not having my crazy husband who wants to talk to me at 2 am or my crazy, inconsiderate, loveable kids. I cannot imagine these babies growing up without their Mother or this man being on his own. So I wept, for my life and for hers.

Life is so precious. Sometimes we need a reminder. I know I do. Thank you Donna and you Cindy for reminding me.

Zebra and Pink Sweet 16 Party

Last weekend, we threw a Sweet 16 Birthday party for our daughter, Sabrina. It was held at the Emerson Courtyard, a lovely multi building facility with the most spectacular gardens. I have been given the opportunity to build a website for this new venture and was allowed to use the facility so that I when I write for their website, I will first hand experience there. It was a wonderful experience!



This was the food table. It was eventually covered in fruit and kids style food: hot wings, chicken nuggets, mini tacos, bagel pizzas, chips… well, you get the idea. I used a 4 x 15 foot canvas drop cloth for the bottom table cloth. It covered 2 six foot tables with extra drape on either end. Then I took 4 yards of zebra print fabric and cut it in half (down the center fold) for the table runner. For the pink runner, I used 4 yards of pink broad cloth and cut it down the center fold of the fabric and then down the center again. I actually just ripped it because this was done on site. {I’m fearless like that.}



We set the table under the chestnut tree in the courtyard and decorated the tree with tissue paper flowers. I had never made them before; so I watched a You Tube video to learn how. {Oh, technology, how I love you!} Watch the video HERE. I used coordinating ribbon to tie the flowers instead of string. I also hung one of my revamped chandeliers in the tree. I just added solar lights. I placed a few of the paper flowers on the table in between candles tied with zebra print ribbon. I use these tall white candles for most parties by just changing out the ribbon, you can have a fast and easy, functional decoration.

Not bad for 2 Costco plastic picnic tables, draped in drop cloths, eh? The gardens here are stunning. I will have to do a post dedicated to them. It was an honor to be able to use this facility.

 

Here is a close up of the paper flowers and chandelier. Yes, I even found zebra print tissue paper.

 

This was the crowd at dinner. It was still light out at 7 but eventually the party moved indoors to a large room in on the lower level of the main house. We decorated it with paper streamers, more paper flowers and a disco ball. There was incredibly loud music and pink and black balloons spread all over the floor. I regret not taking the time to take photos of it but I ran out of time.

Right before we called the kids for cake, I snapped a few after dark photos of the courtyard table. For the table I used the half the pink fabric and folded the zebra print fabric in half to be the top table runner. I plan to use the fabric again for pillows or a throw blanket for Sabrina. It will be a good keepsake. We had fun shopping for it and it worked out so well for the party.

 

LED Christmas lights strung from the tree gave us light and ambiance.

 

We really ran with the zebra theme, as you can tell by the cake and Sabrina’s dress. She had a great time. I think her friends did too. It was a magical night, definitely one she and her friends will remember.

I had so much fun planning and decorating it with Joe, Grandma Cindy and Grandpa Denny, who did tons of running and climbing ladders and cooking. It would not have been so special with out all of their help and attention to detail.

Dog Days of Summer Come to an End

Last weekend we spend the day at the river with family.

“Lounging in the summer sun, the dog days of

summer are nearly done.” ~ Author Unknown

{"Dog Days" (Latin: diēs caniculārēs) are the hottest, most sultry days of summer.}

We have had the warmest summer I can remember. It has been wonderful. Even Grandma Great enjoyed the view of the river from her wheelchair.

I love just sitting in the sun enjoying the weather and conversation. Today, I brought along a special treat for the ladies.

Thanks to She Speaks and Arbor Mist Frozen Wine Cocktails, we were able to enjoy the perfect frozen drink for the day.  I froze them the night before and kept them in the cooler on ice, when it got especially warm out, we sampled them. They come in three flavors: Blackberry Merlot, Strawberry White Zinfandel, White Pear Pinot Grigio. The White Pear Pinot Grigio was my favorite. But all of the flavors were delicious. They are all sweet but with that little bitter wine taste that we all love.
The girls enjoyed our frozen Wine Cocktails while the men played a few rounds of house shoes.


It was a lovely day. I know that next summer, we will be spending a lot more time here. And I will definitely bring these Arbor Mist frozen wine along.


  Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned in this post for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe my readers will enjoy. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Slowing Down

Yesterday our internet was down throughout our community. At first, I was very crabby about it but there really was nothing I could do about it. My deadlines as a graphic designer and blogger would have to wait.

After driving our teen, Sabrina to cheerleading practice, Sophie said to me, “Mom, let’s go on an adventure.” It melted my heart.

My In-Laws own this amazing plot of land right on the Coeur d’Alene river, not far from town. It is just recreational. No power, no buildings just grassy fields, trees, sunshine with a river running through it. It’s heavenly.



Sophie got her first fishing pole this summer and just loves to cast it. She has caught a few tiny fish here but always throws them back because they are “her friends.”



This is where I spent most of my time. Watching Sophie on our “adventure.” Sometimes I guess, you just have to slow down and seize the day. Summer is slowly slipping away. The kids start school in just a few weeks. Fall will come. We divide our time between work, running teenagers to various events and working on our house. We haven’t just slowed down and enjoyed the summer, yet. I figure she is only 6 for a little while, I need to treasure it. So this afternoon, we are checking out again and going on a different adventure. Probably huckleberry picking or bike riding, free but fun stuff.

My blog post about my Master Bath can wait another day, right?

Carpe Diem, my friends!

~Danylle