WAITING

I am sitting on a blanket waiting for fireworks to begin. As the show is not scheduled for another 3 hours, I thought I'd take advantage of this rare bit of free time and post something on this blog!

Lately, any documentation of my life has been through the use of instagram and my little phone camera. Here are some of those pics illustrating the last month of our lives.

MY APOLOGIES

During my month's absence, I received a few features and awards that I never responded to or gave thanks for. I thought I'd apologize and (hopefully) gain some forgiveness for my poor bloggy etiquette.

1.) What an honor to be featured twice by this fabulous blog! Once for my paper mache hive and a second time for paper snowflakes. Thanks!

2.) The JS Chronicles blog left a comment about nominating Our Small Town Idaho Life for a Kreativ Blogger Award. Unfortunately, by the time I tried to get back to them, the blog had been made private (oops). So as I'm not sure what the rules are for receiving such an honor, I'll just say thank you, thank you! 

3.) And then The Blissful Bee was kind enough to present my blog with the Liebster Award. From what I understand, "Liebster" is German for dear, beloved, or favorite. They are generally given to younger blogs with fewer than 200 followers. What an honor to be recognized! Now, I am asked to pass on the favor to a few favorites of my own.

These are several favorite blogs I've already mentioned before: 

• The Koivisto Perhe- Documenting the life of an LDS Kansas girl living in Finland with her Finnish husband. 
• Letters from Coco- A blog as lovely and sweet as its writer, Nicole. Her faith in God is refreshing.
• Playing House- A look into the life a mother of three little ones in a way that is poignant, real, and so fun.

And a new one I've been enjoying lately:

• Jenny B- This girl has got such an eye for STYLE. I love her pictures, her crafts, her food, and I want to eat her baby girl's preciousness.

That's all for today, folks. If you haven't already, go check 'em out.

HOW TO BUILD A (cheaper) BOARD & BATTEN WAINSCOT

Wow. It feels like forever since I blogged. Sorry about the long absence, but moving has been--and continues to be--a crazy, all consuming task. I know I owe you a tour, but everything is still a wreck! And posting a tour seems like such a long, daunting task right now. I think I need to ease my way back into this blogging thing.

So, here's a tutorial on the board and batten wainscoting...using old pictures already edited on my computer. 

We always loved this look, but felt it was more costly than we wanted for all that extra wood. Then we found a cheaper way that requires a lot less, but looks just as nice. 

We installed it in the front room, entryway, and the master bedroom. I'll use the front room to demonstrate the process. 

Here is the sitting room with bare drywall and mud. If you notice, there is no texture yet. 

When we did apply the texture, we only hit the areas of the walls above where the wainscot would be. The bottom section was left smooth. This would create a contrast between the two and mimic the look of flat wood panels (after being painted).

1.) Using a nail gun, 1x6 baseboards were installed along the bottom of the walls. 

2.) Next, 1x4 battens were set  vertically on top of the baseboards and nailed into place about 20 inches apart. 

3.) 1x4's were then attached in a horizontal line above, parallel to the baseboards to build shadow boxes.

4.) The shadow boxes were capped with 1x2's that created a shelf-like look at the top.

Here is a closer look at the 1x2 wood at the top.

Finally, a piece of decorative molding was installed just below the "shelf" of 1x2's with a pin nailer. 

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Then there came the exhilarating (not!) task of filling in every blasted nail hole with putty, sanding them down, and caulking every blasted seam in prep for paint. 

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My only advice at this point is to enlist every family member, friend, neighbor, pool guy, mail man, etc., you can find to help with this. If you have as much trim as we do, you'll be glad you did.

Using a sprayer, semi-gloss white paint completely transformed the look. Even without using any flat paneling, the wall in each shadow box appeared smooth and seamless with the battens. 

I wish I had a picture of Andrew when he was finished with this. White brows and lashes just aren't his best look.

If I didn't witness the process myself, I never would have assumed the bottom section was actually the wall rather than wood.

I love the finished, contrast-y look of the painted, textured wall above the clean, white glossiness.

Not using the real wood paneling saved us an estimated $800-$1,000 through the entire house.

Just for fun, here's a before of the entryway...

...and an after! 

You should see it now with the wood floors! Aghhh...and you will! Soon!

Until then,

Rachel

P.S. I was featured by Remodelaholic for this post! I am also linking up here. 

CATCH UP

I know it's been a long time. Between the end of a school year, moving out of our home of nearly 5 years, and moving into a house practically still under construction...blogging has been low on the priority list. I am typing this from my phone while I wait for Andrew in the Home Depot parking lot.

I promise that once our life (and Internet connection) settles back to normal I'll have so many fun things to share with you: painting tips, cedar siding, bamboo blinds, our leaky skylight fiasco, wood pallet ceiling diy, concrete countertops diy, wood floors, and the building of some new wood furniture! But here's a sneak peek of the gorgeous kitchen I spent all day wiping down. I LOVE our kitchen. I promise photos with a real camera in the near future.

KATIE'S SENIOR PHOTOS

I was honored when my lovely friend, Katie, asked that I take her senior pictures. She has such a soft, natural beauty that my camera loved to capture. With her permission, I'm sharing a few of my favorites. 

The lighting was delicious.

And she has an easy, ready smile that I am envious of. 

Love this!

Pretty blue eyes.

She played the violin through high school. 

What a beautiful instrument!

It was a special treat to shoot in this orchard, at sunset, while being serenaded by the violin...

It almost makes me think of a Thomas Kinkade painting.

Southeast Idaho is all in bloom right now.

She felt that an important part of high school for her was a love of reading and writing. This inspired these next few.

This makes me want to back with my own book. So serene!

This sun flare may be a bit dramatic...but I love it all the same. Doesn't she kind of look like Taylor Swift?

I had a blast taking these pictures and learned so much from the experience. Thanks, Katie!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME.

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The brownie pan to end all brownie pans. Andrew won't come home anymore to find every single edge piece carefully carved out with only the gooey middle left behind.  

Ha! Who am I kidding...now there'll be nothing left!

My purse exploded with a strange sound on our way out for dinner. What I found inside was Andrew's cleverly hidden gift to me: my very first smart phone. 

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I hope to learn to operate it in the near future. Keep me in your prayers.

I received the sweetest, homemade birthday card from my little sister. I labeled it for you so you would understand the story. Cute, huh? Her likenesses are impressively accurate.

In case you're wondering, this is not from one of my 5-year old twin sisters. Or the eight-year old. It's from my twenty-four year old sister in grad school. But it tops the list as one of my most favorite birthday cards ever. 

Did I tell you Lane is living with us right now? Well, he is. And he enthusiastically announced that his gift to me would be homemade gyoza. 

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Even if I didn't LOVE the stuff (which I do), I never would have argued with him. He and Andrew lit up like Christmas trees discussing all of the Japanese ingredients they would need to purchase. 

Deep concentration. Lane and I are filling the won ton wrappers and sealing them shut with water. The insides consist of cabbage, pork, mushrooms, and a whole lot of spices and herbs I've never seen before.

Gyoza...pot stickers...mandoo...about the same delicious thing. We ate lots and lots of them with sticky rice and chopsticks while I tried to follow Andrew and Lane's story swapping about their crazy experiences in Japan. 

Anyway. It's official. I am 27 now. I suppose I should start feeling like an adult sometime soon...

When did you guys start feeling "adult-like?"