Sprucing Up

Its officially Fall and its feelin' like Halloween Town over here. I bought a piece of black felt for 10 cents from Joanns and used it to spruce up my yarn wreath. I was going to put "Haunted" but Andrew thought that might not be the best display for the neighborhood. I agreed. "Boo" it is.

I cant wait to buy a Pumpkin! I know the whole point in buying a pumpkin is to carve it, but to be honest, it grosses me out! Martha Stewart must feel the same because she has come up with spooky decals that you can decorate your pumpkin with. I am all over it.

DIY Upholstered Bed

I have been dreaming about an upholstered bed from Restoration Hardware for the past 6 months and Monday I found out you can actually build one. The bed of my dreams at Restoration Hardware pushes the $2000 mark, but we spent under $400 to make it ourselves. The plans we followed used a cheaper wood and estimated $300 for the entire project (upholstery included), but Andrew being the engineer he is opted for the slightly more expensive wood. I am really glad he did too, it really makes a difference in how solid the bed looks & feels. The fabric we used is the most amazing linen. I am obsessed with this fabric. We purchased all the fabric and foam/batting from Joanns. My awesome MIL sent us a bajillion coupons so we saved over $100 on fabric. It tooks us 3 days to finish -a day longer than expected. We both agree the easiest part was the wood work. Granted, I did not participate in that part of the project so ill take his word for it :). Andrew is the bomb.com, he did not complain at all and worked like a little worker bee to get it all done for me. The upholstery was difficult at first because I kind of learned as I went. I left all the corners for last because I didn't know what to do with them. I should mention measuring is super important. We did not have any errors but I kept emphasizing how I wanted to bed to have a couple more inches of room underneath than our last bed. What I did not realize is that our mattress would also raise in height. When we put our box spring and mattress on we laughed a little because it was a bit taller than we expected. At first I thought I would need a running start to jump into bed, but its not bad after we put everything together. Its super nice. We both really love how everything turned out. I am pretty excited that I have left over fabric too... pillows!

Before: Can you say cluttered?! I don't know what I was thinking...

The Supplies
Making the support triangles for the legs

Box spring/mattress support. We have support in the middle as well, but I didnt take a picture.

How we attached the legs

We could not find pre-made legs anywhere so we built and stained them ourself.

The headboard. I forgot to take pictures of the foam and batting stages after this. The plans we followed only attached foam to the front surface, but we attacehd it on the top and sides of the headboard as well. I found our way better because you dont get bumps around the edges after you pull the fabric, which I was super obsessed with making sure that did not happen.

It was the best feeling when we put the box spring in and it actually fit.

Finished!

Totally excited about our new bed.

3/16

I have mentioned it before, and i'll say it again, I love crossing the weeks off til the semester is over! We just wrapped up our 3rd week and in this past week we have had our 1st skills check off, our 1st quiz in theory, and by the end of next week we will have taken our 1st exam in theory. I thought after our 1st quiz I would have a better understanding on what we are expected to know come test time, but I am still confused. I feel like I could study my little heart out and still be unprepared for the exam. I decided it's the way questions are asked and the answers that are provided. 3/4 of the answers are pretty logical and maybe all right, but only 1 is the best answer. So what I really need to do is become an excellent test taker.

Okay thats all the school-talk I have so here is what else we've been up to! (again, via instagram because I keep forgetting my camera)


Andrew moved into a new office. He loves that he has a perfect view of all the planes landing at Bermuda Dunes Airport. I love that it's so much closer to home which makes it easier to bring him lunch on the days that I can. All he needs is a sign to let everyone know he's there!

This one is pretty self-explanatory. The doctor told me theres nothing wrong with my vision but my allergies are causing a problem with my vision. So I got some prescription eye drops. I really cant be bothered waiting for my allergies to clear up so I got a pair of glasses too. Can I just say that I had no idea how difficult it would be to find a pair of glasses. It really didn't help having the saleswoman hovering over me too. I really wanted to give up and try again another day but having her right there made it impossible to bail.

This is just a picture of what most nights look like. I love when 5 o'clock rolls around. There is nothing better than relaxing while cooking and sipping on some wine (or in this case, a skinny girl margarita). I try to take pictures of all the fun things I make but this week it either didn't happen or the photo didn't do it justice :)

Even when he is super sick, he is super cute. When he picked up his prescription he picked up some Airborne for me. What a guy. :)

Yesterday I brought in all of our fall decorations from the garage. I loved seeing it this morning. I cant decide what to put in the birdcage though... I really want to put a scary crow (not to be confused with scare-crow) but I think I need to wait until we are in October for that.

One last thing: Look at my adorable baby niece. We bought her this dress a while ago when she was too tiny to fit, but this morning my brother sent us this picture. I died. She is so cute.

Thanks Giada

I am kiiind of obsessed with Giada De Laurentiis (love her love her show love her recipes). She made this little gem on her show a while ago and I cant believe I've waited this long to make it. It was SO good. I have decided that I've mastered the potato so you should believe me when I say its good too. Andrew gobbled them right up (I may or may not have done some gobbling myself). Do you know what my 2nd most favorite part about this side dish is? It only cost 68 cents! Make this for your favorite person and tell me how it was!

Skills Lab

Thanks to my new friend Kymberly I have this wonderful picture to show you. How cute right? This is Infection Control at its best. Some of my favorite things about this photo are: the accentuated waistline our gowns give us, my hand-on-hip action, and of course the blue headwear. Very nice.
I dont know if I will ever have to actually wear this, but its nice to be prepared right? Right.

An almost normal weekend

Well I can't believe my life these days. From moving to being in nursing school, it all feels so surreal. My theory teacher asks everyday if we feel like nursing students yet and my answer is always "no". And everyday Andrew and I thank our lucky stars we finally feel like we're "home". Lots of changes to get used to and I had no idea how disconnected from real life I would feel or how much I miss my love. This weekend has been so great because I feel like I got to reconnect with my lovebug and even relax. We spontaneously went to PF Changs on Friday and it was so nice just to sit with him and look at eachother and talk about anything BUT school. Confession 1: I kind of talk his ear off about school these days. He wont admit but I know its true. Confession 2: I haven't taken a photo with a real camera since Tuesday, sad habit I have going on, so here are a bunch of photos from our weekend via Instagram.
We spent a little bit of our afternoon by the pool on Saturday.

Woke up super early this morning and were not motivated to make breakfast or coffee.

This is how gorgeous the sunrise was this morning!
I did say this was an almost normal weekend...

Well, thats all the update I have for you now. Happy Labor Day!

School started

We made ourselves a nice little routine, too. It starts with a 5 am wake up call to hit the gym, a dog walk, making lunches, eating breakfast, and getting ready all before 7:30. Its been nice getting up so early and going to the gym because its an excellent waker-upper. This first day of school was another orientation, pretty cake. But the last 2 days have been great, lots of patient care practicing and learning equipment. I can now bathe you, make your bed around you, reposition you, help you in and out of bed, transport you to the toilet, bring the toilet to you, and restrain you. Oh, and I can tie a nice slip-knot. At first I thought it was silly to practice all those things but its actually really hard to get used to touching someone's body (especially when they're male) and repositioning it. And the few hours I'm not at school or sleeping, I have a ton of reading to do. A lot of people are scrambling to make study groups but I am too much of a control freak to let someone outline a chapter for me.

Andrew has been the best. This is what he's done for me every morning I have clinicals:

Isn't he great? I just love him.

First day of school picture!

I cant believe in a few hours my first week will be over. Only 5 more until we start working in the hospital and 10 more after that until Christmas break! I am definitely counting.

I hope you all had a good week too!