Hi there friends, if anyone is still out there. It's been a long time. I just needed a break and as my dad said I had "blogger block". During my little hiatus, I've been focusing a lot on life in general. We have been super busy with life. Nothing too exciting, just go go go.
One of my main focuses has been choosing a healthier lifestyle. After the new year, I vowed to get back in shape. After going through some rough things I realized that I had put on at least 20 pounds since we got married. 20 pounds! That is not me at all. I've always been active and I've loved working out, but over the last couple of years that has slipped away. My motivation was gone. As I've written about before I went through a rough time with certain people in my life and I truly think that had a big impact on how I cared for myself and my self-confidence. Well friends, I am happy to report that that person is not here anymore. The new improved me is here with a new body! I started this huge feat with Shaun T and Insanity at my side. If you have not heard of Insanity, it is a 60 day workout program that whoops your butt into shape. Seriously, the hardest workouts I've ever done, but I loved it! It was so rewarding to complete it. I can officially say that with Insanity I lost 15 lbs. and since I finished it I've lost a grand total of 21 lbs.
So that's not all I've been up to, but it is a major part of where I've been. I'm hoping to make my way back into the blogging world. Hope you all are doing well.
We have been wanting to add a pop of aqua in our living room as well as add a new cabinet to replace the old bookshelf we had, so off to Ikea we went. We love Ikea! I mean how can you not love Ikea? It's cheap, modern, functional, and they have the #1 combo at the snack bar! We often make a day of it when we go to Ikea. I knew we could find a cabinet that would work; however, the old black-brown color was getting old and then inspiration hit! Let's do an Ikea hack! If you know me at all, you know that teal/aqua/blue-green is my favorite color in the whole world and that was the automatic thought for this cabinet. We found the cabinet we loved and then it was on with the creative juices. So here it is, our first Ikea hack, along with step by step instructions in case you get inspired :)
Materials:
Piece of laminate furniture
Plastic covering for floor
Zinser primer
Paint color of your choice (we got lucky and found an "oops" paint in the exact color we wanted)
Brushes and mini rollers
Sandpaper
Minwax Polycrylic
A handy hubby
1. Find the piece of furniture you love. Consider the size, shape, functionality, etc. Don't worry about the aesthetics because that's what you are going to change.
2. Prime the bookshelf all over. No sanding required! Let the first coat completely dry then recoat with a second.
3. Once the primer is dry you can paint!
4. Let the paint dry completely. If you want to you can add some texture and distress the piece. We used sandpaper along the edges to give it a shabby-chic look.
5. Polyurethane the entire piece. This will seal the look. I recommend using a sponge instead of brush, this will avoid air bubbles.
6. Let the poly dry and voila, you have a beautiful customized piece of furniture!! I think it came out great!
Today, Brandon and I were cleaning out our fridge before going grocery shopping. Needless to say out fridge shelves were disgusting. There was crud that had leaked and sticky stuff all over. It was gross! With a wrinkled nose I tried to think of a way to avoid this happening again. Then I remembered this fun little pin I pinned on Pinterest. It was for DIY shelf mats that are easily washable. YAY! I went and found the pin and it was so easy! All you need are plastic place mats. Target sells cute patterned ones, so off to Target we went. All you have to do is cut the mat to size using regular scissors and voila! You have a cute and functional fridge shelf again. You can put the mats in the dishwasher and it saves you the headache of removing all the shelves and cleaning them by hand. I'm all for less dish washing!
