Guest Bath Mirror Upgrade

Ever since we've moved into this house (3 years ago), Chris has wanted to replace the standard, plain mirror in the guest bath with something nicer, more modern. I agreed, however until we were able to get this great mirror from his grandparents house to fix up to our liking, it wasn't possible. So here is the guest bath before:

Like I said, very standard - rectangle mirror held in place by those plastic brackets. So, I took it off

and used the bathroom wall color paint to fill in the blank space (after filling the bracket screw holes and sanding down the wall). I had just a small sample of the original color we painted a few years ago that I had gotten for touch-ups. There was plenty in there to cover the area I needed. I also sanded the wall again after the first coat of paint and did a second coat so that it looked like it blended into the original.

 
Here's the fabulous mirror we got from Chris's grandparents house. The outside rim has great detailing - it was gold and there was a wooden strip on the inside so I knew I wanted to paint it before hanging it in the bathroom.

I started with a light colored brown for a base coat that I wanted to show through my top coat. I covered it pretty evenly, covering the original.

Here it is pretty much covered. Don't you love my colorful scrap paper I used to cover the mirror :)

Then using the semi-gloss dark, dark brown that we had left over from painting our kitchen and guest bath cabinets, I painted the mirror frame again. Loving that the light brown was showing through on the detailed edges.

Here's a look up close!

And here's the finished mirror in its new home on the newly painted wall. We both love it!!! So much that I had to put a little fall arrangement in the corner of the vanity. Now, we would like a new, fabulous light fixture to go above the new mirror. We'll see!!

Shadow Box

This is an appropriate post considering we just celebrated our anniversary. We received this shadow box as a wedding gift three years ago...and I did nothing with it all this time :)

It's cute with the vinyl cut-outs on the front of the glass. It's been hanging in our bathroom all this time and after I re-did the mirror in the bathroom (I will post that project transformation soon) Chris said that this either had to go or that I should do something with it because it was too plain! So, I thought I could handle this project and wa-la:

Here it is with some great wedding memories! A couple of pictures of us, my Tennessee garter, a bell that guests rung at our departure, a wedding program, a handkerchief I carried around my bouquet, some petals from the aisle, and the bracelet that I wore on our wedding day! It was really fun putting it together...I should have done it a long time ago! Chris was right, it looks much better now and is back in it's place in the guest bath.

Three Years and Counting!

Last Tuesday, October 11th, Chris and I celebrated our third wedding anniversary! Three years...that's a lot of time. When my friend reached her third anniversary she remarked that it's much longer than most celebrity couples. Marriage doesn't mean what it used to (what it should) to a lot of people today, so I'm very thankful for Chris, our marriage, and the ways that God continues to bless us and help us mature in our marriage.
Looking back to the fall of 2008...

Here's the happy couple walking back up the aisle! Look how young we looked...oh how we've aged each other. haha. We waited until after the ceremony to have pictures taken together. For all who attended you'll remember that we had to run on a delay because of a wreck that happened on the interstate. We probably should've changed to taking them before so that everyone could get to the food sooner. Oh well.

And here we are with Chris's family!

















And with my family!                                                                   And the two of us!
























To celebrate our three year anniversary we went to Flemings! And how did we do that?? Some friends of ours gave me a gift card after I had helped "clean" and "fix" their own wedding video for their ceremony last year. So, we held onto it with the intentions of using it for our anniversary and it was worth the wait!

Chris got a steak!!














Kate got a steak too!












And we got dessert! They have the best lava cake! We took home the carrot cake and ate it the next evening. YUM!

It's GAMEDAY!!!!

I do wish I was on Ole Rocky Top to see The Rock in person since my brother and his friend took over for today's game against Georgia. If you're not familiar...we've got UT's coach Derek Dooley and his father, a former Georgia coach on the other side. Soooo a rivalry yes, but a respectful depiction of it by of course highlighting Dooley's orange pants! "Like" Project Phantom on Facebook to support the artists and to see some awesome pics. I'll be cheering loud tonight!

I LOVE Taking Food to New Parents

Because then we get to hold the baby!! Baker is so very, very cute. We love him a lot already and can't wait to spoil him. In the meantime we're trying to help out his mom and dad by taking them din din. I found this Grilled Chicken Bruschetta recipe by linking up from Pinterest. Check out the link for a delicious meal! Chris is the grillmaster so he gets a lot of the credit for this dish. The only changes I made were that I didn't have fresh basil in the house and I didn't use the Parmesan cheese...which both would've only made it even better. It was very light and tasty. The bruschetta just makes it! We already marinated our chicken this way when we grill. Sorry I didn't a picture of my finished product. We had to hurry and put it together after working all day so we could hurry and see the baby and watch Modern Family with the new mommy and daddy...who are doing a great job already! I'm sure I'll be making this one again soon.

Cleaning My Car Always Makes Me Feel....

GUILTY! Guilty for not taking better care of the things I've been blessed with. I would say I'm a pretty good housekeeper. But, when it comes to cleaning out my car, I am not at the top. After I got home from helping my dad at a construction site today, I threw in a load of laundry, gritted my teeth, and threw away car trash, shop vac'd the interior, tried to fight some stains on the upholstery and used the Armor All on alllll the dust. It was Great! Cleaning is so therapeutic. I really am thankful for my car and I try very hard not to talk about wanting another car while I am sitting in the Camry. That would offend her. :) 

In other news, Chris and I are fighting colds...that I developed sometime after the wedding over a week ago. Trust me, it affected my running last week. I can only hope I haven't passed it to my running partner, Coco. Because we need a couple of good running weeks leading up to the 15th. It also caused me to wear a mask when visiting some of our favorite people and their new baby at the hospital on Saturday evening.
We're taking food to them on Wednesday. I CAN NOT WAIT! I've been stalking their facebook like crazy to see new pictures. Luckily, Chris has a "high-tech" phone and can actually receive pictures unlike me. Sad face.

Chris had his second interview with a company in Franklin last week and though he didn't get the position he interviewed for he does go in for a testing of skills on Friday to see if he matches up with another entry-level position at that company. Very positive! Especially since I haven't had anything going for me in a whileee.