Sneak Peek!!

I. Am. So. Excited!!!!! 

My new Drab 2 Fab project excites me SO much that I just couldn't wait to show you!

You may see an old dusty denim couch missing a cushion.....but the first thing I thought when I laid eyes on this beauty was "OH MY GOD. I have to have this!"

I'm gonna make you wait for the price I paid and the reveal. 

{honestly, I just don't have enough fabric to cover it or it would already be done! Until then, it sits under my carport begging me to work on it!} 


{eeeek!} I can't WAIT to get started!

Drab 2 Fab: Foot Stool

I found this DRABULOUS foot stool at goodwill a couple weeks ago. I really didn't NEED it, but I knew it would be perfect for my blog. {You guys have created a monster out of me!}

For this price, I KNEW I would find a place for it! $4.99!

Turns out, this foot stool has been recovered THREE times. Here's a silly pic Jd caught of me as I ripped into the second layer.

A lot of times, I like to clean the top layer fabric and just cover right over it because it is SO much easier. This was not even an option for this project. ALL three layers were in absolute horrid condition. The fabric was LITERALLY turning to sand as I tried to rip it off. GROSSED me OUT! Whoever recovered it the second time (in like 1970) used REAL nails to tack it into the wood. The nails were SO old and rusted I thought I would NEVER get them all out. 

These are a few of the tools I used. Isn't that little hammer adorable? Jd bought me that a couple years ago for Christmas. I LOVE that hammer!

Two EXTREMELY sore and cut up arms and shoulders later, I thought I was making good progress, only to realize that bottom fabric had to come off also. I began to question at this point why I was even working on this stupid foot stool. 

It took me almost a full hour to get ONE side of this layer off. I tried about 15 different methods, but whoever originally covered it made SURE that the dang material was tight and would be there for the rest of it's life. 

I got one side off and quit for the day. My arms were SO sore that I was in tears when I went to bed!!! 

Day 3: I was DETERMINED to get this thing finished, plus I had finally decided where it's home was going to be, so I kicked into high gear.

I wanted to make a drastic change, so I decided to paint the legs high-gloss white (which I got from my own personal paint store out in my storage shed, Ha!)

I wanted to try something new and give the cushion a cute accessory. I picked up two packs of cover buttons for $1.39 each at Walmart. They are super easy to use. I figured it couldn't be THAT hard to sew onto the cushion.

I think I always learn the hard way. After doing three buttons (out of four), I learned that it is MUCH easier to use a needle and thread ONLY to get the button area tight and THEN apply the button. I could barely touch the tips of my pointer fingers for two days because they were so sore.

It was finally time for the fun part: The electric stapler!

I cut the fabric so that there was just enough to tack to the underside of the stool, positioned it in the middle and started stapling.

I stapled all along the sides of the cushions, and four staples (on the cushion) where the buttons were just to make it a little tighter.

For the stool to be so small, I was very surprised at hard of a project it turned out to be. It really would have been easier to BUILD the stool, but the legs would have been expensive to buy. In the end, I was very happy at how it turned out. This is the first project I took all the way down to the wood, now that I learned the hard way, the next time will be much easier. So, yes, I would do it again! :)

 

The fabric is from Polka Tot Designs and matches the bedding on her crib. I got one yard on sale for $4.00. Adorable, right!?

The foot stool's NEW home is under the window in Khloe's room. (I have an upcoming blog featuring everything in K's room, which is why I didn't picture it there).

My vision for this footstool:
A bright, sunny day, placed under the oak tree with Khloe sitting, all by her big-girl self on the stool while Mommy snaps 3,359 pictures of her! During the day, Khloe will quietly (HA!) sit reading books. At night, Khloe will tuck her teddy bears and baby dolls in as they lay on the stool and sleep the night away.

Totally worth those sore arms!!! ; ) 

Total Cost: Around $12.00

You know you love it!

The Neighbor's Trash = Heather's Treasure!!

I found this patio table, along with two side tables at a Goodwill in Memphis a couple years ago. I can't remember exactly how much I paid for it, but it was super cheap. I think maybe $10 for the whole set. The table didn't come with the glass top, but I knew I could make something for it. I stole the chairs from my Grandma's backyard. HA!

I have a couple boxes of tile left over from the kitchen floor and planned on using it, but was going to have to buy the cement board and the glue to apply it. You know I'm too cheap to do all that.

A couple weeks ago, I noticed our neighbor across the street put a pile of wood out by the curb. I convinced John David that we had to have it. Being the amazing husband he is, he went and picked it up and added it to our growing wood collection!{love him} Turns out there were some really expensive pieces of wood in the stack! Score!

I have to admit, this project was John David's design. He took three large mismatched pieces of wood (all of which came from the neighbor's curb) made a base for them to sit on and then screwed it to the metal base. 

He used the skill saw to even out the wood pieces and then sanded the top and the sides down.

I have had this one small can of stain for probably three years now and I must have used it for fifteen projects. This small can goes a long way! The only part I have in this project was the staining.

And VOILA! The neighbor's trash = Our Treasure!!

Total Cost: Super Cheap.

Love that husband!

And LOVE Grandma!! :)-

Happy 4 Years John David!

If you know me, you know that I adore my husband. You know, that I have been head-over-heels for that John David Tullos since the day we met. This is my mushy-gushy blog about my husband of four precious years, filled with tons of love, lots of laughter, and maybe a couple drops of tears. You have been warned.  

A stroll down memory lane: 

Picture from our first date. Something is obviously going on with the lighting in the pic because I don't think John David or myself have EVER been that pale. I mean, we look like Bella & Edward. {NOT that that's a bad thing by any means! lol}

Oh, sweet young love. I adore this pic.

I remember when we first started dating my Grandma asked me “Heather, why do you call him John AND David? Why John David? Why not just John?” “BECAUSE Grandma, that’s his name.” Since medical school, his friends now refer to him just as “John.” I am not transitioning to this new name very well. Plus, it’s hard for new people to understand what I am calling him since it comes out as “Jonavvid.” It’s just impossible for me to call him John now.

We met eight years ago. He was a freshman at Ole Miss and I was a senior in High School. Our first kiss was after a very exciting night of cow-tipping with a group obviously country, and a little bit redneck, friends. Romantic, right!? Three months later, he told me he loved me, in the sweetest way anyone ever told me, BUT if I revealed that story to all of blog world, he WOULD kill me. Just know it was super-sweet.

Fast-forward four years later, John David got down on one knee and FINALLY asked me to marry him. To say I was excited, is an understatement. I jumped up and down, did a little dance, jumped up and down again, hugged him and then danced again. I had NO idea that he was secretly recording this. I searched for the video on my computer but couldn't find it. I will have to go through his computer to find that video.

Finally engaged! 

After almost 8 months of engagement, we had a fairytale wedding in my small hometown church. Of course, it’s only fairytale if you don’t know about how my two BEST friends dropped the top of my wedding cake. Or, how I nearly killed the three of us the day before the wedding while driving. You also may find it completely weird that my wedding coordinator was John David’s previous girlfriend for like 3 years and is also one of my best friends. But, HELLO, you know it wouldn’t be “Heather’s World” without a little bit of craziness. And I laughed at all the above the day of the wedding! It wouldn't have mattered if the whole cake was smashed on that day. All that mattered was that we were getting married. And nothing could have taken my smile away on that day!

He even dipped me. {love}

So, after living in the same place for twenty years, I packed everything I owned and moved to Jackson where John David was in med school. I am not even gonna lie. Most of the time it SUCKED. He was rarely home, and on the occasion he was, he was super busy studying. We were broke. We lived in a crappy house.  I thought med school and living in that house would never end. We reminded each other that ONE day we would look back on the days of "finding a live possum IN OUR LIVING ROOM" and "having no heat for an entire winter" or "screwing a 2x4 to the back door to keep it shut" would make us laugh hysterically, but at the time, it wasn't funny. At all.

Then came Khloe Brooke. From the day I found out I was pregnant, I never one time worried about what kind of father John David would be. There is not one thing that John David wouldn’t do for me if he was able to. He has ALWAYS treated me like I was his prize. I knew that from the moment our first baby was born, he would be there. For me, for her, for us.

Proud Daddy

To understand just how deep my affection goes, you have to know a few things about my husband.

• John David is the guy that has told me EVERY single night for almost eight years now to "have sweet dreams." It started one night after I had a bad dream and since then he has not missed one night!
• John David is the guy that wears a pink shirt only because I want us to match.
• He is the kind of guy that will stop and pick me up breakfast after working a 36 hour shift.
• John David is the guy that tells me how beautiful I look when I have my hair in a pony tail and wearing an old tshirt that I found in the bottom of my dresser.
• He is the guy that will break into a random dance and then tell me what the name of it is (that he randomly made up) JUST to make me laugh.
• He is the guy that takes me so see Twilight even though he knows I am going to tell his friends and they are going to forever tease him about it.

I adore John David and I adore his family. Something I value so highly is having amazing in-laws. Without a shadow of a doubt he WE would not be where we are today without his parents. Johnny & Teresa have been, and continue to be, incredible role models to both John David and myself. I adore the relationship they have with their son, and the respect and adoration John David has for his parents. I only hope that together we can raise Khloe half as well. I consider my self to be the luckiest daughter-in-law to such wonderful parents.

Johnny, Teresa, Me, Jd, Susan, Becca at The Long Coat Ceremony

A very special friend of mine once told me that John David and I were the only married friends she had that she thought “actually loved each other.” She said that she hoped to have a marriage like ours. I think this is the best compliment we could ever receive. Like any other relationship, we have our ups and downs, but at the end of the day, all we have is each other and the world we create together. I hope we never stop creating something worth living for!

We were both really sick in this picture, but I love it because sometimes you just need your hunny to hold ya! : )

Today we are celebrating our fourth wedding anniversary. For the first time, we are celebrating this anniversary as THREE. John David, Heather AND Khloe. Even though it's a crazy and challenging life being's this doctor's wife, I love being MY husband’s wife and I LOVE being his baby momma.

Happy Anniversary to the only man I know that could put up with such a dramatic girl! I love you always!

This is Love.

As for his secret to staying married: "My wife tells me that if I ever decide to leave, she is coming with me."
-- Jon BonJovi

Adirondack Chairs

I am getting SO excited for summer. I was born in August. I am a summer baby! For the first time in my life, I spent MAYBE a handful of days outside last summer. I was preggo and super sicko. My beautiful in-ground pool just sat there collecting leaves as I layed on the couch day after day. This year is going to be a TOTALLY different story!

Of course, you know, I don't have a lot of money, but I am hoping to dress up the back yard on a small budget. Here's what I'm thinking:

• A couple of large flowering pots to put on either side of the diving board
• Patio table with a big umbrella
• A few nice chairs to layout on
• Flower beds to run along the sides of the pool
• I'm HOPING I can grow some sunflowers along the back of my fence. (I have not been known to have a good green thumb, but I am hoping to change that THIS year!)
• Fire pit

I have been checking goodwills for all the above. So far, I have a patio table and umbrella (thanks Susan!). If you have any of the other that you are not using, I will be more than happy to take it off your hands. Ha!

So, I have been eying these "Adirondack Chairs" for quite some time now. The cheap plastic kind are around $20.00 a piece. I knew that wasn't going to happen. So I decided that they couldn't be THAT hard to build. I found some directions online, and enlisted my hubby's help.

Have I mentioned how much I adore my husband for helping me?

 My first attempt at using the skill saw.

And it was a pretty straight cut. Yay me.

 

Presenting our homemade Adirondack Chairs:

We couldn't just stop at ONE. We had to have the pair!

I am going to make a cushion. I'm just waiting on the outdoor fabric to go on sale.

I already had the turquoise paint AND the all the wood needed for the first chair so it didn't cost us anything to make.

The second chair we had to buy the wood. Total cost: $9.00.It took about 3.5 hours total sanding, painting, cutting and putting together. Totally worth it!

I am in LOVE with these! Now that they turned out so well, I'm wanting to make a bench to go on the other side of the pool! I will have to wait until my hubby's next break because he is too afraid of me using the skill saw by myself. {wimp}

Much thanks to my gorgeous husband for helping me and posing for pictures just so you guys could see every step along the way. *Muah*

-- If you are interested in making these chairs, let me know and I can send you the step-by-step directions and cut list.

Happy 5 months Khloe!

Khloe just keeps growing and growing and making mommy extremely sad at how big she’s getting! I have a few tears every single time I pack up a new round of her clothes every few months.

She has changed so much over the past month. She talks non-stop.  From the moment she’s awake, until she is asleep it’s just chatter! The first day she started doing this, John David and I were in the car and we laughed the whole way at her. Recently, I’ve noticed that she will be half way awake during naps and will talk/sing her self back to sleep.

We are almost ready for size 2 diapers. I finally had to pack up the 3 month onesies {tear}. She can still wear some of her 3 month outfits, but for the most part it’s 3-6 month. 

She is still sleeping about 12 hours at night and takes at least 3 naps a day, a lot of times four. The last time she caused me to miss sleep was when she was 2 months and was on a 3 hour feeding. Amaaazing!

My little drama queen gave mommy and daddy a scare last week. What we thought was a slight cold turned into RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus ). The cough got so bad that she would stop breathing. Thankfully, I got her to the doctor in time and her oxygen levels were not yet bad enough to put us in the hospital. Antibiotics won’t treat this infection, so we’ve just had to wait for it to run it’s course and give her breathing treatments every four hours in the meantime.  Watching your baby sick and feeling so helpless has to be one of the worst parts of parenting. 

 

Although I know it’s bad, I have to admit that watching her suck on her thumb is absolutely adorable. It’s pretty much non-stop now. Yesterday I was giving her a breathing treatment and she somehow managed to get her thumb through the hole on the side and got that thumb in her mouth. It was really cute.

She’s started eating cereal once before bed. She still hasn’t mastered the spoon. Most of the food ends up on the high chair and running down her bibs, but she gets a little better every day. I’m excited to introduce her to real baby food in the next couple weeks. The plan is I am going to attempt to make homemade baby food for her. There are a ton of benefits to doing it and it’s cheaper. So, we will see.

She has perfect control of her head. I love watching her pick her self up when she’s laying on her tummy. I think it’s only a matter of time before she can sit up on her own.

She’s definitely teething. The pediatrician said she thought she was going to get her first tooth a little earlier than expected. I change her clothes at least twice a day from all the DROOL. Hopefully, this is why she is wanting to suck her thumb so much and it won't be an impossible habit to break when the teething stage is over. Hopefully!

You hear it over and over again when you are pregnant; just wait until that baby is here. Two weeks before I had Khloe, I was really worried about how our lives were going to change. Looking back, it kind of aggravates me how people can speak that kind of fear into your life. I told John David a couple weeks ago, that if you really think about, our lives have not changed THAT much (other than we are broke from diapers and formula ha). We still travel, we still go to dinner, we still go to the movies, we do pretty much the same things we did before, but now we have this adorable little girl that we kiss on at night. Obviously, when she’s mobile things will be more interesting, but for now, our lives are complete and we love every minute of her. 

Did I mention how Khloe has taken over my TV? And how I now know the theme song to EVERY cartoon she watches? 

Here's her most recent 5 month pics. Enjoy!

There's that John David frown again.

 I love her hair!!!

{squeal!} Don't you just want to BITE those chunky legs!?!?

 This is her new thing. She (like Mariah Carey) is obsessed with her left leg. She wants to raise/show it/flaunt it constantly.

If those aren't HEATHER eyes, I don't know what is! :)