A cushy table? YES!

I love littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com. She inspires my pants off, no joke. Love that lady and she does all her cool junk with 3 little baby nuggets running around in a studio apartment in New York. Deserving of an award? I think yes. She is one of the best and best known bloggy ladies in all the land. So needless to say she inspired my lazy butt to do this next project because if it's good enough for her snazzy digs it's good enough for my messy suburban base model bad boy. I can only show you a few pictures of my new ottoman/cushy table because I'm at work (WHAT?!) and only have my cellular device.

Ottoman with the rest of the room!



Side view with seriously crappy lighting.

Here's the basics of what I did... I bought an old coffee table from KSL for like $25. It is solid oak and is super sturdy. I cleaned it up and spray painted the legs a dark brown. Then used a matress cover someone gave me as the foam. Spray adheasived the crap out of it and stuck it on. Then covered with Primer Print's cheveron pattern. I love this fabric so very very much. So the end result is the most comfy, squishy place to put your feet after a long day, for realz. Andy has now decided that other coffee tables are inferer for foot placement and must put a pillow on them before his feet go on top. Spoiled? Not one bit :).
On the job front, I bit the bullet and went back to the temp agency. I don't know why I act like it's a terrible thing. They are awesome to work with and have a really fast placement rate. I guess I just feel like I "failed" again at finding a job on my own . Anyway, I'm on a very very short assignment at the Art Institute of Salt Lake, like only 3 days. I'm filling in for the front desk manager that went on vacation. I feel like this placement is a good way to ease myself back into working. Going from waking up whenever I want to having to be at work by 7:30 is a hard ajustment for me (I'm not a morning person AT ALL). So I feel like it's good to start out somewhere that I kind of don't worry about my first impression because I know it will only be a few days and not a position that could "blossom" into something. No worries, the people are super nice, the experience is good, the work is easy, and I get paid to pintrest all day.
I hope everyone has awesome plans for the weekend, mine consist of a baby shower on Saturday that is going to be a bunch of fun! I might post pictures of the decorations and stuff on Monday. And OF COURSE, Harry Potter 7.2 tonight! I'm a nerd and I accept it.

IT'S ALIVE!

Hello friends and family! I am, in fact, still alive. I just lost my posting mojo for a while. But I'm here and ready to inform... Maybe entertain, you be the judge.

So last time I posted I told you about the sweet art project I did with the state shapes. Now I will show you how the whole thing came together. First I gathered a bunch of random frames from around my house, tj maxx clearence isle, and salvation army and started by laying them on the floor to find layouts I liked....

It started out something like this

Added a little more....

Changed it around...

And I still couldn't decide. So I made templates out of wrapping paper and taped them on the wall. That took FOREVER but it was a good way to "live" with a design without really committing. Since you know how I feel about committment. Anyway, I didn't totally love that design but I left it for a while 1. because I'm lazy, 2. because I couldn't decide what I liked best, and 3. because my wall looked like a giant candy cane, which is AWESOME! (The wrapping paper was from Christmas and was silver and red matallic, love!). People would come into the house and look at the wall and say things like "New art?", "Well that's interesting." and "What the hell, Stacie? Really?" My response... "I really like candy canes, DON'T JUDGE!". Anywho, after I played with the layout a little bit on the wall and on the floor again I figured out what I liked. (Please don't judge my crappy cell phone pictures)



End Result!

Here's what it looks like with my sweet new pillows and new wall color. LOVE IT! Who loves that $10 KSL reading lamp? I do, a lot.
I hope this fulfills all of your blogging cravings... Tomorrow, my coffee table ottoman project.

Art Coolness

I know I said I would be back on Friday but then a stomach bug entered my life and I didn't leave my awesome bed. Anywho, the art project is finished and I'm stoked.
A while back I found these prints through some other blogs and such....

I flipping love it! But when I went to go buy one from the etsy shop, they were closed! I kept waiting because the prompt said they were going to be gone for 2 weeks. They lied. I hate waiting so I decided I could do it myself (damn it!).
First step, picking out the colors and junk.... I went with grey, yellow, and white. Snazzy. Here's how this went down:

Pick which color you want the stripes to be... I picked grey. (it doesn't look grey in this picture for some reason but it is). My mom and I cut them into 1.5 in strips. Next arrange them...

I wanted them evenly spaced so I used an extra strip as the spacer. Stick down the strips and move your spacer.
Next up, making your states. (I didn't take pictures of this because I was half asleep doing it). If you live in an easy shaped state (Utah) you can knock this out in like 3 seconds, but if not it may take some time a few computer print offs. I was doing one Utah and one Missouri. After they were both cut out I centered the striped page in the mat and then placed the state on the page. Then I drew a little heart over where each one of us is from (collective "awww" please).

 

BAM! I loves them a lot! 

Craziness and Pretty Pictures

That's right folks, I suck. I'm back dang it! And I promise I will keep you updated on life at Casa de Wolf (or like my parents say WOOF). Speaking of my parents they were just here with a van load of goodies for my house(!!!). I am now a full fledged Crafty Lady, with a sweet desk and a cricket machine. I hope the world is prepared for this amount of awesomeness! Speaking of my new (to me) sweet desk it now resides in my almost fully remolded basement (insert high kicks and dance moves here). I say almost because we don't have the moldings up and it's still kind of a mess but it will look sweet when it is done. The giant screen is up and we have already been watching stuff down there.. I have to say Glee looked awesome. Anywho, while my parents were here I not only roped them into helping me in the basement but we also repainted my living room and kitchen. You might be asking yourself, "Why would this woman want to repaint said rooms?" And the answer is pretty simple, I'm insane. Yep folks, I could be one crayon short of a full box but I'm cool with it. But at least this time I think I'm done painting for a while. I LOVE this color!

I went with Stormy Weather by Olympic paint. The paint SUCKED but the color is basically amazing. It's the perfect mix of gray and beige. I wanted the walls to be a neutral so if I get bored with the decor (which happens all the time) I could just change out my pillows and accessories. And on these walls I have a few things in the works. I'm thinking there will be a gallery wall involved... SHAWWEEET! Who doesn't love a good gallery wall?

Andy would freaking kill me if I did this but it looks way cool.

I really like this one different but alike.

I love that it's all different and those gloves in the middle are just cool.

It's not symmetric and for some reason I'm ok with it.

This needs to happen.

"Scattered Thoughts" kind of describes my brain and I dig it.

This reminds me of something my sister is doing with "C"s

I found how to make that ampersand and it might be happening in the near future.

How classy are you and there is a big fish involved! WOOT

Probably my ultimate favorite. Look at how cheery that is!!

Anyway I will leave you for today... I will come back tomorrow with some sweet art projects I'm working on.

Lead Paint...

I think I might be losing my mind. I've been seriously thinking of going back to school recently (cue round of applause). But the problem is... Where do you even start?! I have a few ideas of things I would like to do... I have it narrowed down to basically:

1. Nonprofit Management

2. Interior Design

Incredibly different things. So how exactly do I decide what I want to do? Which leads me back to one fundamental question... Why the hell is this so hard? Let's step back and break this bad boy down... 

1.

Why do I want to go into nonprofit management?

I have always been very interested in leaving my community better than when I found it, let that be in a small or significant way. I love to help people, which I think, is why I became a Psychology major in the first place.

What could I do with the degree?

I am currently involved with Women's World Health Initiative so maybe I could move up in this organization. I would also be qualified to apply for management positions within other nonprofits.

The title of the program is Community Leadership so technically I could work in any organization in a leadership/management position. But this is geared more toward nonprofits and government based learning.
Does it truly interest me?
Simple answer, yes. I think this would be an extremely rewarding and interesting career path. Is it something I think is "fun"? Probably not. One thing that does concern me is the bureaucracy of government. I'm not a politically driven person and I feel like this might force me to become one.
2.
Why do I want to go into interior design?
Since I was very small I liked to be creative. Let that be drawing, painting, sculpting, or rearranging furniture. I truly can't tell you how many times I rearranged my furniture in my bedrooms all the way through college. I remember helping my mom rearrange her furniture, so really it's her fault (just kidding, kind of) and I always liked to take pieces of furniture and make them my own.
What could I do with the degree?
I could work under other more established designers for a few years and then maybe move into my own business. I know this degree is a little more limiting but I think there are opportunities out there, you just have to search. I contacted a local designer/blogger today to see if there is a possibility for an internship with her (nervous!!).I'm a little scared that I could very well end up in the same position I'm in right now.
Does it truly interest me?
In every single way. I love the fact that I could be creative on a daily basis and I would be able to work with people. But I'm a little more hesitant because this doesn't exactly fall under the "responsible grown up job" category.

So in the end I'm truly torn between doing something that is interesting and responsible and something that is completely awesome and a little terrifying. What should one do?

Catch Up

Sorry I've been slacking on the bliggity blog lately but in my defense, I had a lot going on. So to make up for it I will be catching you up on life around here and somethings I have in the works...
Do you remember the volunteer position I applied for with the Women's World Health Initiative? Well I got the position! Woot! I know the position is voluntary (read: unpaid) but I'm pretty excited to be getting experience is something. Anyway, Tuesday was my first meeting with everyone, which was really fun! I love planning events and fundraisers and that's what we were doing!
Next up, our big trip! It was pretty awesome. This was the first time Andy had really been on a big vacation like this, and I won't lie, I was concerned. We vacation very very differently. I'm the kind of person that if you put me on the beach or next to a pool with a book I'm good all day. Not Andy he wants everything planned and the be busy the whole time. So I kept reminding myself that we should compromise... I compromised, he kind of just got his way. EXCEPT for my afternoon nap and the last day of the trip! That's right folks, I'm a 2 year old and had to take a nap every afternoon because someone got me up everyday at 7 because "We might miss SOMETHING!" In fact, one day I refused to set the alarm and therefore we slept until 9:30am! When he asked me what time it was he almost had a heart attack because we probably missed something really cool... I didn't care. lol. Anywhoo, we saw some awesome things, ate some amazing food, and got completely spoiled by being together all the time (what can I say, we like each other).
The only downside to the vacation is that a few of the bags we took (read: borrowed bags) got completely SMASHED! Like every piece of metal, plastic, wood and fabric had been shattered or ripped. To be honest I was impressed that they could pull that off. After realizing how bad the bags were we looked inside to find out that the ENTIRE bottle of mouthwash had spilled on most of our nice clothes, awesome. At least they smell minty fresh. Oh well, nothing a good washing won't fix. And speaking of washing, our dryer had been giving us trouble... Oh since we bought it almost 2 years ago. I refused to start the laundry when we got back until we got it figured out (because doing the laundry to leave took almost a WEEK because nothing would dry!). So Mr. Andy went out and tried vacuuming out our dryer vent... It filled the vacuum pretty quick. Next step call the professional! 2.5 hours, 3 different hoses, a broken pipe and a ridiculous amount of attachments later we have a completely clean dryer vent and a dryer that actually does it's JOB!
So that's basically what's been going on around here.... So I leave you with some pictures of our pretty trip :).

Andy and I waiting to go snorkeling in Tortola

Andy won a contest! We got $150!

Andy deep sea fishing in St. Lucia. But I caught the only fish.

In Barbados we went to a mahogany wood carving place. Way cool!

In St. Vincent we went to the botanical gardens... This is a cashew fruit and the nut that you eat is on the bottom!

Andy and I in Aruba :)

All the pretty buildings in Carocao

I think we're on to something...

Since friday when I posted about my new game plan I got a call for a phone interview for one of the positions I posted! Yay! Anywho, I'm not going to stop applying just because something good happened. So today I applied for 2 positions, one is an accounting intern with Volunteers of America, Utah and the other is an Advancement Associate with the McGillis School.
For the first position, it doesn't sound very awesome being an "internship" but I think it could really be a good opportunity. This would be a paid internship (sweet) and it would be building on what I learned in my last position at Salt Lake Community Action Program.
Next up, the McGillis School which is a private school here in Salt Lake that is very academically strenuous bu they also focus much of their teaching time on making sure their students are good citizens and people. Of course because it is a private school they rely heavily on donations and fundraisers to keep the school running. Basically that's what I would be doing. Helping keep track of donors, parents, and alumni and helping fund raise. This is a full time position (awesome!) and it sounds like a challenging and rewarding position.
In other news, Andy and I are trying feverishly to get ready for our cruise. I mean we are dusting off our shorts and t-shirts and trying to see what still fits and if it will all fit in our suit cases. Danger! I'm an over packer like NONE OTHER and Andy doesn't believe in over packing (I don't know what planet he is from but I admire it). I mean if I'm going on a weekend trip I take at least 6 pairs of underwear because "you never know", healthy? I'm not sure. Do you think there are any "must haves" for a long trip (other than copious amounts of underpants)?

New Game Plan

Apparently I am still seriously sucking on the job front, so that is where this blog is going to come in handy. I am going to post the jobs I'm applying for on here so you can keep me accountable. I will also be going over some of the things that are frustrating me or making me very happy. So here we go...
Today I sent off an email to the executive director of Heart To Heart Adoptions here in Salt Lake to see if they have any internship/part time work that I could possibly do. I have been tossing around the idea of going into the adoption field for quite some time but I finally got the nerve today to do something about it. Here's praying for a response that is favorable.
Next up is Development Project Manager at Women's World Health Initiative, this is a non paid internship position but it's seems right up my ally so I'm going to apply. I think they are looking for people still in college but maybe I could use that to my own advantage. Anyway, this organization is pretty flipping awesome and I think the work would be not only helping others but truly helping me establish some legit experience. Read a little more about the organization here.
I'm hoping something happens soon or I might try my hand at making curtains soon... Dangerous.
Wish me luck.

Walmart Fabrics, Who Knew?

The other day I some time to kill so I was wondering around WalMart. I realized my walmart still has a fabric section, I thought they were taking them out of all of the walmarts. Anywho, I did a quick browse and found some surprisingly nice fabric! I only took pictures of two that I found but they have potential.

This black and white striped fabric was a heavy canvas and at $9.95 that's not too bad for the weight of the fabric. Perfect for curtains or shades. Here are some inspiration pictures I found. I wish I was dramatic enough to make this work in my house, maybe you could!

Kitchen

Shower Curtain

Living Room

Roman Shades that you can make yourself

I think it would look really cool in a bedroom with a bed in front of the window so it works as a headboard. Snazzy.
Next up is this silk fabric I found.

I love it! If I knew how to sew this $5 fabric would be a maxi dress for my up coming cruise. Oh love it! Here are some dresses I LOVE and this fabric would look AWESOME.

Sexy Eva!

This is probably my favorite, someone make this for me.

I like this neck tie thing, but does that ever hurt anyone else's neck?

I was surprised that they had more trendy fabrics now, in college all I could find were care bears and other weird designs there. So maybe it's worth another look.

Mission Complete (kind of)

I finally finished the dining room last night! Time to see pictures :). Let's start with the befores...

The dining area... Not bad, just blah.

We couldn't figure out a buffet so we used a book shelf on it's side...

See those flower prints? They will be reincarnated in the new room.

My only pop of color.

This is with the table fully extended. I should have taken a picture with the leaf out.

The dining area... I had basically no direction with this part of the house. I just threw stuff together and it just wasn't working for me. There really was no color in the area at all. Also the chairs we were using needed to head back to their original owner soon anyway. So I thought this gave me the perfect opportunity to redo everything!
Here's how the process went... I moved everything out except the table. So I could start with a blank slate. Then to the fabric stores I go. I picked out this AWESOME print at JoAnns as the "inspiration fabric. All of the colors for the room came from this fabric. 

I love it so very much.

I wanted to use durable and colorful outdoor fabric for the chairs because I had this recurring nightmare that I would get all of the chairs covered in my beautiful inspiration fabric and then at the first family dinner someone would spill a whole cup of red kool-aid on them. I was literally freaked out. So next up, a trip to calico corners for some outdoor fabric. Here is what I ended up buying for the chairs...

Colorful enough to not show every little spill and still interesting with the geometric pattern.

Then it was a trip to Lowes to match up all of the colors in the inspiration fabric to paint. This proved extremely smart. I had to return my sample of the fabric to JoAnns but I could keep the swatches in my purse so if I found something I liked I could see if it coordinated. I used the turquoise color in the fabric to paint the dresser which you have seen many times now. Remember what the dresser and chairs looked like before?

Straight out of 1972, LOVE IT!

Beautiful but Granny-ish.

Ready for the end result? HERE YOU GO!

I love it!

Do those fabric panels look familiar? They were the flower prints!

How do you think I did? I know there are a few things that need to be done such as; the space needs a rug (but those darn things are so expensive and it's hard to find what I truly want), the lamp shade needs to be covered (I just can't decide what to cover it with), there will be a framed picture over each tan chair (which are the same white Ikea chairs that I simply dyed in the washing machine), and finally I am commissioning my mom to make some pillows for the chairs because I can't sew :). Anyway, there's the room and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.