Happiness List

Ever just have a BAD day? The kind where everything just seems to go wrong, you can't seem to make anyone happy, things just break, and in my case you actually fall UP a flight of stairs as opposed to down them (like a normal human being )..... Ever have one of those days? Well, that was me yesterday and today seemed like it would be the same.

However, I decided to take some advice from my mother and count my blessings instead. 

I have wrote lists of what I was thankful for since I was a child but as an adult I find it getting harder and harder to do. Sometimes its just easier to feel sorry for yourself and wallow in self pity and blagh, blagh, blagh. So, this morning I decided it would be best to have a positive beginning and I began with my usual "I am thankful that ___?" and " I am blessed because___?" but today the list thing just wasn't working for me. I decided to switch things up a bit. Change can be good!

Sometimes all you need is a little visual reminder of happiness to remind you that there is so much to be thankful for...even if it feels like everything is crashing down around you. 

The beach has always been my happy place so I decided to go back there via Instagram and make a little "Happiness list" from the pictures, and so here is what I came up with today. Enjoy! 

 How can you be in a bad mood when you know this beauty exists? I know I cant. 

I'm in LOVE with flamingo's!

Conch stew for breakfast

You can ALWAYS find something to smile about

These are the pictures that helped turn my negative day into a positive one. Nothing fancy, just small Instagram shots.  I really think that today, using visual reminders of happiness worked better than my usual pen and paper " thankful" lists. 

What do you do to stay thankful and happy in hard times? I think I will make a regular habit of this and hope to share many more " Happiness Lists" with you. Until then, here's to being thankful for the small things even when we may not feel like it! 

Hope you all have a "happy" night!

XOXO, 

Nia 

DIY Drop Cloth Ottoman Cover

Happy Sunday Funday! 

My Husband has spent the day watching football (eye roll ) and so I decided to tackle another project that I have been putting off for WAY too long. 

I found this ottoman at a Goodwill for four dollars and decided I would sew a cover for it and give it new life. It was super sturdy and still comfy for putting your feet up. It was just so UGLY! As you can see it needed to be covered BADLY. 

 Before

My dogs love it and use it as their little sleeping place so I needed to find a durable fabric that I could throw in the wash over and over again. I had made my curtains out of canvas drop cloths and they have held up super well and were so cheap too! So I decided to use a drop cloth for this project as well and see how it went. 

I washed the drop cloth several times until it was soft and then just placed the fabric over the ottoman, pinned the sides, sewed and pressed and whala! It was super easy and took about an hour or less.

Its not perfect and I probably could have put more detail into it but hey, its Sunday! I didn't want to waste the whole day on this! 

I think my Sherman is happy with his new bed

I just couldn't get him off of it. 

Not only is this a dog bed and a foot rest but we can now use it as extra seating for when we have get together's! That will come in handy this Holiday season because my family is HUGE! 

I love thrifty finds and I like being able to give them new life on the cheap too! 

I hope your Sunday was as productive as mine has been. And now......an early cocktail hour on this Sunday Funday.

XOXO,

Nia

Our, TOTALLY free, rustic table

Well howdy there blog world! I decided to take a small break from blogging to finish setting up my little Etsy shop but I'm back! It's November already and the Holidays are just around the corner! Eeeek! I'm so excited and have already been working on projects to get my home ready for the festivities. 

Part of getting ready for the holidays was finding the perfect, VERY cheap,  kitchen table. ( Strict budget around these parts ) 

A few months back I had found some awesome leather and metal chairs on Craigslist and I just had to have them.  I bought all four for 100 bucks! What a steal! 
Finding the perfect rustic (round) table to go along with them was another thing. I looked ALL over for months and found nothing I liked. (Or that I was willing to spend money on ) They were all too big, too small, too modern, too ugly....blagh, blagh, blagh

And then....I remembered that we had an old cable spool in the back yard. My husband had found it on the job site awhile ago and we had just been using it for an extra table in the backyard. Sooooo, I asked my hubby if he could make it into a kitchen table for me.....
Well duh, he can make everything! He told me to come up with a plan and we went from there. 

I have seen so many tables made from cable spools and all of them had just kept the whole spool in one piece and then just turned it on its side. I wanted something a little different and this is what we came up with. 

Here you go, A FREE, rustic kitchen table. Just the perfect size for our little dinner nook. 


My Husband started by detaching the top part of the spool and sanding it all down until it was super smooth. I had originally wanted him to use steel rods for the table legs but then we just decided to go with materials we had on hand. 

 We had a few wooden pallets on hand and so my Husband spent the afternoon creating a table base and legs from the wooden pallets. I think it came out so amazing and the best part about it all was that it ended up costing us ZERO, ZILCH...NADA....well, You get the point. 

These chairs are my favorite Craigslist find!
( My pup decided he needed to be in this post) 

 We are still trying to decide what stain to use ( so many choices ) but for now we are keeping it as is, and I LOVE it ! 

 There will be cracks and irregularities in the wood but that doesn't bother us. It gives it such a  rustic feeling...AND that's pretty much the theme around our place. 

So pretty !  

I am so happy we FINALLY have a table. We can eat together now.
 I know, its small but it is perfect for us.

Thanks for stopping by!

XOXO,

Nia

Saturday shenanigans!

Hey ya'll! Happy Saturday. It's been a rainy day in good old Austin Texas but I somehow found a way to drag myself out of bed and tackle a small project I have been putting off.

I found this chair on the side of the road one day and decided I would try and revamp it a little. It had good bones, it just needed a little TLC, so I stuffed it in my little car and brought it home. I decided to fix it up and use it as a side table in our extra bedroom. 

I was going to repaint it but after sanding a bit I realized I really liked the color and decided to just use stain to give it a "worn" look. Then all I had to do was just recover the nasty seat with some scrap fabric I had on hand and voila! New Chair.

Here it is after. I think it came out pretty nice, considering it was "trash" at one point, don't you think?

Hope your Saturday was as semi-productive as mine. 

XOXO.

Nia

Easy-peasy Vodka Margaritas

Have I mentioned I LOVE cocktail hour! Well I do. There's nothing like unwinding at the end of the day with a drinky poo (or two) with the hubs.
Now, I know its fall and all, but here in Texas, its still 90 something degrees out! Its only now getting to the point where you can COMFORTABLY sit out on a patio and watch the sunset, and when I think of patios I think of Margaritas!! Am I alone in this?
I love, love, love margaritas! So much so, that my Husband and I have been known to go on our own "margarita tours" around town. Sooo  fun! However, when we would rather stay home, on our own patio, we make our own version of the margarita, with one slight difference..... We use Vodka in place of the tequila. Why you may ask? Well....

1. Tequila makes me crazy....True story.

2. Tequila makes my husband crazy...Another true story

3. We would like to stay married while enjoying our margaritas

4. I LOVE vodka

Those are good reasons huh? So, here is our little recipe for Vodka margaritas....and psssst, Its SUPER easy!

Vodka Margaritas

12 oz. can of frozen limeade
12 oz. of your choice of vodka
6 oz. triple sec ( triple sec)
24 oz. water (give or take according to taste)

*optional: can add a 12oz. bottle of beer. We love Dos XX and Tecate the best!

Tip: Just use the empty limeade can for the measurements

Serves about 4, depending on the size of your glass of course. (wink, wink)

And there ya go! Easy-peasy. I hope you enjoy them as much as we do. Happy patio weather!

xoxo,

Nia

Our DIY wedding for under 5,000!

When we started to plan our wedding I had NO clue things could add up so quickly and that some of the prices for the smallest things were so big! I found it all ridiculous and so annoying! No way was I going to pay out the wazoo for things we would NEVER use again.

So, we set our budget for 5,000 for everything and vowed not to go over that no matter what. We invited 130 people and planned for 100 on the actual wedding day.

We decided, as a couple, what was most important to us, what was worth the splurge and what we were willing to cut corners on. 

Here is how we did things and I apologize if I left anything out (still new to this ). Hopefully you can find it helpful in some way.

Venue: This was the most expensive BUT the great thing about this place was that they allowed us to bring in our own vendors! This is something to consider when looking for a venue. A lot of places only allow you to go through their vendors and that is where hidden costs start to come into play.
Our venue also had a lot of tables and chairs included in the price so we ended up not having to rent so many. Another perk was that the venue had a sound system already in place and so we were able to Ipod most of the wedding.
Stationary: We made our own and used "vintage" postage to save some MAJOR money. It was unique, cheap and actually came out quite pretty.

  This is how I asked my Flower girl and Ring bearer to be in our wedding. Their own little "invitations" if you will. I found some cute stuff on the cheap to put in the boxes and I wrote a letter to the Flower girl and my Husband wrote one to the Ring bearer. They were heartfelt and the kids loved them! I did something similar for my Bridesmaids as well.

Food/Drinks: We decided to cook ALL of our own food! I know, crazy right? However, we had a lot of great help. Our friends came over the day before the wedding to help and my Husband's friends cooked the brisket the day of. It was a teeny stressful but the savings overshadowed that and the food came out AMAZING!
We served Brisket, beans, Potato salad and green beans. Tortilla chips were set out with my Mother in law's DELICIOUS homemade salsa for cocktail hour. We put the salsa in little mason jars and those doubled as our wedding favors.
We had wine, beer and margaritas and everything was self serve. I found an awesome deal on the wine at a local farmers market and bought 12 bottles each, red and white. We had a keg of beer and also a margarita machine. Also, bottled water and sweet tea for the people who didn't drink alcohol ( which wasn't many )

Cakes: I dislike wedding cakes ( personal preference) so I didn't want to spend a lot on something WE wouldn't enjoy ( selfish, but it was our wedding ) We got some cupcakes from our favorite local bakery and they were so yummy and we were able to get custom flavors!
The Grooms cake was just plain fun, and again, we went with a local bakery and got a fantastic deal. It was a bit of a splurge but worth it when I saw how much he loved it.

Margarita and Mojito cupcakes

Decor: We made most of the decor and found a lot of items at thrift stores.  I found the burlap for the table runners at a craft supply store and used a coupon for 50% off. The centerpiece boxes are actually empty wine boxes which I used paper mache and paint to give it a terra cotta look. The candles we found at goodwill and some were donated. We decided to use a chalkboard instead of paper programs and our flowers were donated by family members.

Here is a break down of all the expenses: 

Invites/save the dates/postage - 70.00

The Venue -1200.00

Food- 200.00 ( all the meat was free via my lovely Mother in law)

Beer/Margaritas - 340.00

Wine -80.00 

Grooms cake - 150.00 

Cupcakes - 150.00

Plates/utensils/mason jars - 170.00

Rentals - 200.00 (tables, chairs, etc..)

Photography - 250 ( Thanks to my very talented Sister in law)

Dress/shoes- 600.00 (via shop on Etsy)

Grooms attire - Free (gift certificate)

Officiant/ Marriage License- 220.00

Rings- 720.00

Decor -120.00

Wedding party gifts-150.00

Flowers- free 

Mariachis- 300.00 ( we just HAD to have them)

For a Grand Total of aprox. 4,920.00

I really tried to make sure and include everything. Little things towards the end can sneak up on you. 

I'm sure we could have spent way less, but in the end, we stayed under budget and had an extremely fun and memorable day. Don't be afraid to ask for help. I was surprised and touched to see our friends and family members come together to help us out. Without them we could never have pulled it off.

Bottom line, you can have a FABULOUS and fun wedding on a budget and don't let anyone tell you any different! 

                                                      xoxo,

                                                          Nia