Archives for July 2014

Becky’s Guestroom

July 17, 2014 By amusingmjblog 2 Comments

PS… I also updated the photos on the House Tour Page, so be sure and check them out!

I showed y’all a bunch of posts this spring from my brother’s wedding (if you missed them go here, here, here, and here). Well they have been busy over at their house turning his house into their house. Which by the way is a pretty tricky transition (or at least has been for the several couples I know who have done it!). But they are doing an awesome job, and I’ll show you their new bathroom renovation once it is complete!

But on to the topic at hand. The guest bedroom. When AJ was ‘decorating’ (and I use that term loosely) the guest bedroom was perfectly functional but not very pretty. Unfortunately I don’t have a picture of it, but picture a bed on a metal frame, extra sheets and blankets and you’re pretty much there. When Becky moved in, she had her old bedroom set that they decided to use in the guest room. And it is beautiful!!!

Since my college rival’s color is purple, its never been a color I go to, but I love this beautiful gray with lavender!

The monogram in the picture below was on the mantle at their wedding, so it has even more significance.

This awesome wall decor was made by the ever talented Judy (Becky’s mom) for her old bedroom. and is made out of scrapbook paper, but it makes an awesome wall decoration (and can be perfectly customized to any room!!). This would be an excellent dorm decor idea!

It is such a beautiful room and a lovely place for people to stay! (Which means now I have to share my parents with them when they come to stay!)

Want to see more of AJ’s house? Click here, here and here!

Filed Under: AJ's House, Guest Room

The Aliens have left the building

July 10, 2014 By amusingmjblog 2 Comments

Okay now that I’ve updated you on all my summer travels (here and here), I’ll show you one of the projects I managed to squeeze in! When I moved into my house 3 years ago one of the things I really didn’t like was the light fixture over the kitchen table, which you can see here:

It may not seem like much of a big deal, but the first thing I thought when I saw this was that the alien ships were landing all over my dinner plate. AND its the first thing you see when you walk in from our garage (how we enter the house 99% of the time). So it was pretty high on my I WANT TO CHANGE THIS NOW list. (don’t worry… that’s just a mental list, not written down anywhere). But I also knew that I wanted it to be a night light fixture and much to my chagrin… those things don’t come cheap! So I did what any smart girl did, and asked for it for my birthday. And by asked for it, I mean sent my husband an email with a link to a picture of it :). Here’s the link in case any of you want to pass that along to someone who loves you.

But it was so worth it because look how pretty it is! (PS that’s the same table, just with it’s leaf extended below and not above)

It has 4- 60 Watt bulbs, so it gives off quite a bit of light, especially down onto the table, which is perfect. And I like the fun weave pattern it casts on the ceiling:

And now the view as you walk in from the garage is much more appealing and much less 80s spectacular.

Filed Under: Kitchen, Lights

4th of July

July 9, 2014 By amusingmjblog 2 Comments

This last weekend the husband and I had the opportunity to spend 4th of July weekend with my sister-in-law’s parents at their place on the river in South Texas. It was a fantastic weekend to get away from the busy-ness of life and relax. We literally did nothing but eat, sleep and swim and it was glorious. They have a beautiful home outside of Houston on the Colorado River. Its the perfect beachy-cottage and was an excellent place to get away!

Judy and Tommy are some of my favorite people!! Judy is one of my craft buddies, so we always get to talk crafts, DIY and quilting– she just finished Becky’s t-shirt quilt and is inspiring me to get mine back out to finish!!

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And Tommy– our fearless captain for the weekend is one of the best storytellers I’ve ever heard, he had me in stitches most of the weekend. He even let Reese drive the boat!

And I can’t forget Duke, the yellow lab who is getting on up there in age (but an excellent subject for pictures!)

Tommy was also our chef for our shrimp boil (ps… de-heading and de-veining shrimp– kind of gross) which made for some awesome pictures!

And one of the few pictures I got of myself during the weekend!

Since working on my photography skills is one of my priorities this year, I decided 4th of July would be an excellent chance to snap a few photographs and test out some long exposure photography. I’m pretty pleased with the results!!

Fireworks and sparklers made for some pretty fun long exposure attempts:

And when we went over to the marina to watch the fireworks show, I killed some time trying to take this shot:

As I was attempting to take the shot above, lightning struck at the very end of my long exposure giving me one of the coolest photographs I’ve ever taken!! (ps.. all of these photos are completely un-edited)

I’m pretty sure I couldn’t recreate that picture if I tried, but I’m kind of excited about it, and am thinking about finding a place to print and put it up in my house!

The 4th of July has all of my favorite things: sleep, food, friends and some family!!