Vermont must be beautiful this time of year... all that snow

If you don't know where the title of this post came from... then shame on you. Consider yourself defriended. Jkjk. But seriously, look it up.

I have lived in Georgia for 18 years now, and in my eighteen years I have seen snow (real snow, like on the ground snow) only a handul of times. Winter 2010/2011 was an exception to Georgia's I-refuse-to-ever-snow rule. We have received real snow three, count it THREE, times so far this year. This post is about the snow event that happened back in January.

This little event lasted over a week, kept many of us home from work for days,  included a horrible layer of ice, and is lovingly known to metro Atlantans as "Snowpocalypse 2011." It was a lot of fun and I am really excited to share these pictures with you. I know it's been a while since it happened, but my blogging hiatus kept me from sharing. I hope you are not soooo over snow by this point.

My friend Kellie over at My Sixties Home made a great point about taking photos of your house in the snow in case you ever find yourself in the middle of selling your home. Well, we aren't planning on going anywhere anytime soon, but this is our first home and we will most likely not live here for the rest of our lives. Having these shots will hopefully help us to sell our house one day! Thanks for the idea, Kellie!

I had to walk across the driveway covered in ice in order to get these shots. As I stepped off the curb I felt myself start to fall.... with my brand new Canon DSLR camera in my hand. I was so worried about my camera that I just threw both of my hands up in the air. Who does that? Apparently me. Sorry, tush.

I spent the first couple of snow days locked in at my parents house. My husband was out of town, so it was a blast playing in the snow with my siblings (and let's just be honest, my mom is out there sledding down hills right alongside us) just like we were kids again.

After a couple days of being locked in the house we found ourselves in need of some Cool Ranch Doritos. We walked 9 miles, barefoot, uphill both ways to get to the closest Walgreens which just so happened to be open. Thank you, Dorito Gods. These pictures were taken with my Blackberry.

The world was Crosby's skating rink....

I don't know about you, but cabin fever + Dayle = delicious baked goods. Snowpocalypse 2011 resulted in some tasty pumpkin bread. Yum!

I don't want this blog to turn into the boring things I do, but this is the science of home.... and days like this make up my own idea of "home." And you were there, and you were there, and even YOU were there! (Wizard of Oz? No? Come ON!)

****As much fun as we had during Snowpocalypse 2011, the hubs and I have been really enjoying the Springlike weather that showed up sometime last week. BIG things are happening in our backyard, and I can't wait to show you! Look for those posts in the next couple of days!*****

Better late than never?

Ok folks, if you read a home decor blog even one single time back in 2010 you probably saw a little project called a "book wreath." That's right, a wreath..... made of book pages. Can a wreath be any more fabulous? I think not. Cousin Ashley and I decided that, instead of purchasing gifts, we would create Christmas gifts for one another back in December of Twenty Ten. Cousin Ashley made me my awesome framed burlap "Koester" sign currently hanging on our walls. I made her a book wreath.

A book wreath that I still haven't given her.

I'm the worst. But I'm doing a lot better than I did with Ashley's Christmas gift from 2009.... yikes.

I believe Lindsay over at Living with Lindsay was one of the first bloggers to officially tackle this project. Her directions are very clear and humorous at the same time. The title of her post is "Librarians, Please Avert Your Eyes"..... sorry, Momma Irvin :(

This project was made with supplies stolen from my own craft room or purchased from the dollar store. I started with a wreath form, hot glue gun, wood stain, a foam brush and a couple of craptastic books from the dollar store (my apologies to the author of said craptastic book)....

I painted the edges of my books using wood stain and a small foam brush I had on hand. This step is completely optional, but it gives the pages a uniform and "antiqued" look to the wreath. I followed Lindsay's directions on how to roll and glue on the book pages. The first layer, the layer that would sit against the wall, goes on the "back" of the wreath form.....

You want this layer to be as flat as possible, so I flipped the whole thing over and set my purse on top of it. My purse weighs at least 39 lbs.....

I continued with the rolling, gluing, rolling, and gluing. I tried to create a variety of rolls. A variety of rolls? What does that even mean? I don't know... some were like cones, some were double rolled... just watch Lindsay's video and then it will all make sense......

 

I used every single one of the pages from the two dollar store books and I was left with a lot of gaps and holes in the wreath. I wanted it to be really full so I found an extra copy of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban that I had lying around the house, stained the edges, and then used those pages to fill in the remaining empty spots of the wreath. Wait... you don't have multiple copies of each of the Harry Potter books? Shame on you.

Cousin Ashley requested a black ribbon on the inside of her wreath. What Cousin Ashley wants, Cousin Ashley gets.... even if the ribbon didn't quite sit flatly on the book pages and it gave me an eye twitch ;)

Take a look at the final product and let me know what you think.....

And, um... unless you live in the Sahara desert, you probably don't want to hang a book wreath on your front door. And if you do live in the Saraha desert, you probably don't want to hang a book wreath on your front door.

Here's what a book wreath can look like living on the perfect little spot on your wall!....

...... now who is going to make ME a book wreath!?!? ;)

Blogging hiatus... O-V-E-R!

Sheeee's baaaack! Have you missed me? Huh? Huh? Aww, shucks... you have. Stop it, you're making me blush!


Enough of the narcissistic flattery? Ok fine.


As you may have noticed, I went on a month-long blogging hiatus. School picked back up (both teaching and my graduate program) so I decided to focus on that for a while. Besides, after a full day of teaching.... all you want to do is put on your footie pajamas and watch Friends. All. night. long. And order pizza for dinner every night. And then go to bed at 8:30. Teachers, am I right or am I right?!

I finally feel like I am back in my groove and not quite so overwhelmed. I had about two months of "vacation" between my semesters and I guess it has just taken me a while to pick things up again. This mood left me feeling really uninspired which, in turn, then left me feeling extremely unmotivated. I have done some little projects here and there since school started again, but not as much as I would have liked.

Sooooo..... in order to keep myself feeling inspired and motivated, I am going to make some promises. And you, my faithful thirty three followers, are going to hold me accountable for those promises. And then I will be mad at you.... but then I will love you again. Because you will be right.

My promises to you:

1.) To be a more active follower. I explore blogland and read/follow so many fantastic blogs, but I need to be better about telling those bloggers that I really enjoy what they have to say. I would want the same thing from my readers, so I promise to get better.


2.) To blog more often. Not just for the sake of blogging, but because I want to show the world (and by the world, I mostly mean my mom and my sister and my grandma if I can ever get her to read this thing) what makes up the science of my home. I'm growing up, I'm married, I have a house... I want to share my journey. This means that I will not be afraid to blog about even the smallest, most insignificant, unworth (in my mind) projects/thoughts/stories/whatever.


3.) To keep things interesting. I don't want my blog to become boring to read so I promise to add some pepper. Pep in the step of my blog. I mean, so many ridiculous things happen in my life on a daily basis. My blog should make you pee your pants it's so awesome. Ok maybe just smile.



Today's post was just to announce that I am returning from my hiatus. Look for new and exciting blog posts starting tonight!! Be sure to return if you want to read about the awesomeness that is....

- My very first attempt at a book wreath (I'm so two thousand and late on this trend, I know)

- Snow! Snow! And more snow!

- A trip to Scott's antique market in Atlanta

- Learning how to be fashionable and trendy.... at the age of 26.

- Crosby