A Little Laundry Room Sunshine

Who loves doing laundry? No one, right!? Well, our laundry "closet" left a lot to be desired, beyond the fact that no ones loves laundry.  And, yes, our laundry is in a closet. Anyone else have that? I have literally never seen it like that before! 

I wish I had taken a BEFORE picture, but it was bad. Ugly scratched up white-ish walls with holes from old shelves. Here are our IKEA (read: yes, again, we LOVE IKEA!) shelves, newly reorganized. I used up the rest of our black wedding picture frames and added bright colorful inspirational art to make me feel excited to do laundry. It's a good idea, right?! 

The walls are the same color as our lower level bathroom, so leftover paint = no money spent! I love the bright yellow/gold tone and how cheerful it is. It complements our living room color well, so when the closet doors are open, it doesn't look too much.

Happy laundering!

Office Makeover Revealed!

A while back I mentioned how our our office was a disaster, and I had big plans in store for it! I didn't have much money to spend, and so I focused on making a few of the simple touches that made a big difference.

I wanted to try a photo collage on the wall. I add the black frames already, but I scored some lovely frames from Hobby Lobby in their clearance/broken section and from Goodwill. After spraypainting the frames white, you could no longer see the cracks in the broken ones, or the hideousness of the old ones. I printed off some of my favorite quotes from the internet (thank you Pinterest for your help with that!) I arranged the frames on the floor before putting them up on the wall. I love how it looks!

Wall Photo Collage

Tom had an interview in Chicago, so he conveniently stopped by IKEA, which was very trusting of me. Tom isn't a shopper...except at IKEA! We had picked out all of our items online, and he only bought a few extras! ;) I love the rug ($25) and the white table ($30) and it is amazing to me how cheap you can get great stuff there, love IKEA! I splurged on those adorable Chevron pillows from Etsy ($30 for two).

The sitting area

Other than those purchases, I had everything else, it was just a matter of spraypainting bronze geese, re-arranging furniture, oh, and of course, painting the walls that cool grey color. Tom put in new baseboards after we painted. Nice work!

I love how these turned out!

Here is the whole room:

The only things left on the to-do list: Tom organizing his desk, and hanging those pictures in the corner. It feels like a library now, I just need a day to go in with a good book and a cup of coffee and sit on the couch to read!

The Countdown Begins...

...we are one month away from Match Day! Match Day is the (exciting, stressful, joyful, overwhelming, crazy) day where Tom finds out where he matched into Residency and will dedicate the next 4 years of his life! Tom is really exciting about the field he has chosen--OBGYN, and I can't wait to see where God leads us in life!

Here are the details of what we know so far, in no particular order:
-The ceremony is at Busch Stadium (Go Cards!) and we get a tour, and even get to go on the field!
-The dress is semi-formal.
-I'm already off school that day (March 15) which is very convenient.
-It is just going to be me and Tom at the event.
-I bought a new fabulous black lace dress that I cannot wait to debut!
-Tom gets a song played when they announce his name, what a rock star! Hint: it's a Jason Aldean song.
-Alcohol is being served starting at 10am, aka, when the doors open. Should make for an interesting day.
-They won't announce his residency position to everyone, he will come back to his seat and we'll open the letter together to see where we will live for the next 4 years.
-I need to learn how to use the video camera that we got for Christmas, because I want to DOCUMENT this!
-After the announcing, we'll be served a lunch. Then, there might be bar hopping....we'll see about that!
-We are telling our parents at dinner, then having dessert at my parents to end the festivities.
-I might be an emotional wreck, but I will be exhausted by the end of the day.
-Pray I don't get sick, this all happens the week of freakin' conferences!

Match day is becoming real. Yikes! I'm so excited to just know what is happening, where we are going, and not be in this state of the unknown.

The Best of 2012

I'm been reminiscing about the past year. I realize most people do this for New Year's, but this is the end of my "reign" of Teacher of the Year for 2012. This past week we voted for the TOY 2013, and my fabulous coworker Lori will now hold the title. But, that means, I had to return by banner, give up my premiere parking spot, and I can no longer use it to get my way! ;)

Being nominated and winning Teacher of the Year was the highlight of my 2012, and quite frankly, one of only a few good things I can see when I look back over the past year. It was certainly the best! So, here is the moment of the year, the best of 2012:

 Teacher of the Year Video

And, here's to hoping 2013 will be even better!

Keepin' it classy!

I'm so excited about this little DIY! I debuted it at my Staff Holiday Party last month (and forgot to post, oops!) and it was fun! Our events are byob, so this was perfect!  It took less than 5 minutes and was so worth it. I simply bought a glass candlestick at Hobby Lobby for $1.50. Then, I took a red solo cup, which I already had, and used super glue to attach the red solo cup to the candlestick. Done and done. Then, fill, drink and repeat!

Supplies:
Candlestick
Red Solo Cup
Super Glue

There's nothing classier than drinking from a red solo cup!

Cheers!

*Idea: Hallmark Stores (selling their version for over $10.00.)