weekend fun!

As I told you last time, we were going to build a mantel this weekend. WE DID IT! :) It was about a two day process with staining, glossing, waiting, & building/putting it up. It was a fun project to do together. I love the finished product. I think I'm going to add a few more nick knacks to it...but for now, I'm satisfied!


The bare wood & the 3 pieces


Blank wall/no mantel

Putting on the finish/gloss

Finished product!

Today in Lubbock there was a "starving artist" paint show. My grandpa & grandma Smith have always had TONS of paintings in their house in Colorado. They love paintings. After my grandpa died we began the process of slowly cleaning out their house. My grandma would tell us "yes" or "no" to things we could take. There was one particular painting that I have loved forever...and we have it. It's a beautiful painting of Italy. It's definitely not a cheap piece. It will always remind me of my grandpa.

We bought one painting today. I really like it. It's going to hang in our bedroom on a white shelve. :) This is just the start of our collections of paintings! We didn't have enough $$ for a frame...but for now I think it looks fine!


All of our Christmas decor & the tree came down today. booo! I will say, it makes the living room even more spacious. But that tree has been up since we moved into this apartment end of November/beginning of December. It was my pride and joy. But, it did force a cleaning session. I've really enjoyed having a vacuum now. I went crazy today vacuuming while Teddy cleaned our kitchen. (LOVE HIM!)

We hung our curtains & ordered 2 more panels for our bedroom. The window is just wide enough that we need 4 panels. The last thing we have to do for our apartment is hang some shelves in our bedroom & add little things (frames & new painting) to the wall...then we will be ALL DONE. We tried hanging up the shelves...but we don't have the small nails we need any longer (lost with all the other nails). So we need to either get some from friends or buy some. I'm so excited to have the whole place finished!!!

Once we get the very last finishing touches done I will post pictures. I kept thinking multiple times today, i just love our apartment. I'm very happy to stay here until next February!

-Kells