Cute, Easy Bookmarks

I made some super easy bookmarks since Brad and I have been reading so much lately! 

Before, Brad was using a receipt for a bookmark so I figured he deserved something a little cuter :) 

I used just a plain old large tongue depressor that I bought from the beauty supply store for waxing. I'm sure you can get them from any craft store too! 

Then, all I did was write cute quotes on them with a gel pen! 

I made them a little distressed with a silver and gold sharpie, but I'm sure you could paint them too or use markers! 

^^these ones say, "BOOKS let you TRAVEL without your feet ever leaving the ground" and "I thought love was only true in fairytales & then I met you."

The sky is the limit with these!

^^this one says, "That's the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet off the ground."

^^this one was for Brad:) The other side is one of the others shown above! 

They work perfectly, super cute, and SO cheap! 

Comment pictures if you make them!

Front Yard Remodel

So, as most of you know from pulling up to our house, we have had nothing but dirt in our front yard for some time now...

We pulled out all the old grass and stones in order to redo everything, but didn't get to putting in the new stuff UNTIL just a few weeks ago! 

Brad and his dad put down all new sod for the front lawn and all fresh mulch using a no-dig edging as the divider. 

Since the sod comes in roles, they need to be cut to fit!

Eventually, the lines between the rows will fade as the grass grows and fills the gaps. 

We are watering pretty frequently right now, since the temp outside hit triple digits! 😁

But here it is:) 

The lower area is still dirt for the time being, until Brad buys a new truck and we can get a few loads of sand! We are going to power wash and lay all of the slabs of shale down again with the sand between! 

 

It used to look like this: 

It was actually a lot of maintenance and always looked bad because of the weeds! I couldn't pull them fast enough! 

Because of this, we are going to lay a new weed barrier and then the sand on top and between the shale slabs to prevent weeds from growing in the cracks. 

Here's some of my pinspiration: 

So excited! 

On a side note, Brad also let me buy a new toy from Home Depot that I am absolutely SO happy about! 

It's a BACKPACK BLOWER!! 😜😜

We used to have a baby one like this:

But now...... 😈 

BEST BLOWER EVER. 

:) 

Final touches on our bedroom

We finally were able to order new doors for our bedroom closet. The track was all bent out of shape and I accidentally shattered one of the mirrors a few months ago (Oops). The new doors were the last thing we were waiting on because we couldn't finish the floor until we figured out what we were going to do about the closet! 

^^the last piece is missing - we didn't know if we were going to lay laminate into the closet. 

Since we made the decision to buy the new doors, we took off the door track FINALLY and painted our bedroom the same color of the downstairs, getting rid of the "beige" once and for all! 

Also, last night Brad measured and cut the new baseboards and this morning I painted them! 

 

Next step, putting them on! 

First, I put them all into their correct places called a "dry fit" to make sure all the cuts were right! 

And they were! Yay! 

My dad brought over his air compressor and we used that with the nail gun and finishing nails! 

We had to be sure to push the baseboards DOWN towards the floor while nailing them in place, as not to leave gaps. We made this mistake in the past while doing the living room! 

**The nails are placed about every 16 inches apart on the studs.

Next, after nailing the floorboards into place, I put a small amount of wood filler into the hole where the nail was inserted. Also, in any cracks and joints between baseboards/door frames, I filled it with the wood filler as well. 

**using your fingertip and creating a smudge works well! 

After allowing that to dry, Brad sanded over the filler with very fine grit sand paper, then painted over the top with our white touch up paint! 

... And here is the final result! 

Today I am going to look for a new comforter that is shades of gray, tan, and brown to fit the room! Other than that and some new closet doors, we are finally DONE with our bedroom! Yay! 

👍👍👍👍