Babybel sculptures

I came home the other day to find that Zach had made me a heart, out of wax from a piece of Babybel cheese. The next day it had been transformed into a rose. So cheesy sweet.

Then I started to wonder if anyone else had made a Babybel sculpture. And through the power of Google, my question was instantly answered. Yes.

Source

What can you make out of Babybel wax?

Table before and after

My mom saved this little table from her neighbor's garbage, and it eventually found it's way to our house. I don't know what it looked like originally, but someone had tried to strip the paint off of it at one point. I kind of liked the unfinished look, but it was a little too unfinished and had some pretty bad water rings on top.

Before

I gave the top a couple coats of Minwax dark walnut stain, and painted the base with Glidden's Elegant Lace in eggshell (which was free, thanks to Glidden's customer appreciation promo). I also used a bit of brown glaze to bring out the details.

After

Right now our living room is a sea of beige: beige walls, beige couches, beige tile. I've been slowly working my way around the room, priming and painting the trim, and hope to get some color on the walls soon.

White Coat Ceremony

Zach had his White Coat Ceremony today, where he was presented with his coat for pharmacy school. Class starts Monday for the class of 2015!

Peppers and Berries

Before we left Austin I dug up a couple plants from our garden, including a blackberry plant and two jalapeno plants. They survived the trip to Houston and one of the jalapeno plants is even making peppers. Hopefully we will be able to get some things in the ground this spring.

Craft Table

Aside from a few scratches, most of our furniture made it to Houston safely. However, there was one casualty... the glass top on my craft table.

My craft table is very dear to me, for obvious reasons (how could I do all my sewing and crafting without a good craft table?), but most importantly, because Zach built it. Just for me. With his own two hands, and a lot of love. I'm relieved it was just the glass that broke; although a bit pricey, it's easy to replace.

Which brings me to a long overdue post about how my craft table came to be.

I've actually been using the table for over a year now, but have never got around to sharing it. I guess I've been too busy crafting. Below is the sad little craft table I was using before, something I took from my mom's garage. Not much surface space and very wobbly.

Before

My mom bought me an old door at a consignment store, and I thought it would be great as a table top. So last year for my anniversary gift,  Zach turned it into a table...

He used turned porch posts for the legs, and did the rest of the wood work, including the scalloped apron, by hand. He even included a drawer, with dovetail joints, for easy access to all my sewing notions. (Drawer pull from Anthropologie).



Galveston Trip

Zach and I took a short trip to Galveston to celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary. We spent a little time on the beach, did some window shopping on the Strand, and enjoyed a couples massage at Moody Gardens.

A lesson in Utility

One of the nicest things about our new house is the laundry room, which despite the hot water heater taking up space in the corner, is quite larger than what we're used to. For us, the best way to use the extra space was to install a utility sink. Between all the messy projects we do, and the shiny new sink we'll be putting in the kitchen, we knew it would be well worth it.

We spent a few weeks looking on Craigslist for a utility sink, but in the end found the best deal on Home Depot's website. Most of the plumbing supplies were bought at Habitat for Humanity ReStore for next to nothing, which helped us keep the cost of the project under $60.

The hardest part of the project was connecting the sink to the waste pipe used for the washing machine. Zach removed some of the drywall to get to the existing waste pipe, then re-plumbed it so he could attach a P-trap from the sink to the waste pipe.

Once the drywall was patched, re-textured, and primed, the sink was ready to go in. We used two hosepipe splitters, or Y-connectors, to attach the faucet to the water lines for the clothes washer.

Image source

Since we're replacing the kitchen sink and faucet, we used the old kitchen faucet for the utility sink.

If you're wondering what those funny cylinder things are, they're water hammer arresters. You can find them at your local home improvement store.

Please ignore the half finished paint job. This room is a work in progress.