Window Shutter to Wall Decor

Woohoo for Wednesday, half way to the weekend, people! Do you all ever get a DIY project idea, buy at least part of the materials, and then it doesn't happen? No, it's just me? Well anyways, I finally did a project I've been meaning to do for a while now.

This past weekend, I had some time at home and decided to finally complete a project I had been wanting to do since I first joined Pinterest. One of my very first pins was to re-do an old shutter and make it something for inside our home. I have had the shutter for a while (it's went through 2 house moves with us) so it was time to use it for what I had bought it for in the antique shop when I got it. One reason that I loved the project was that it was pretty inexpensive. I got the shutter for around $5 (it's been so long I don't remember exact amount). Then spray paint was $3.97 and sand paper was $2.97. I already had vinyl and my cameo at home so those three items were all I needed to purchase, oh, and the $1 plastic table cloth I bought as a drop cloth.

I started by sanding off the dark green paint, which I found out also had grey paint underneath it. After this project, I've learned that I definitely need to invest in a small electric sander before doing this again. My arms were so sore! I got the main space and the edges sanded like I wanted, but I left the middle part unsanded. Since my spray paint was both primer and paint, it worked well and just covered the middle parts that I didn't sand.

I did one coat, let it dry for 10 minues. Sprayed another coat, let it dry for 10 minutes, and then sprayed any areas that needed a little extra.

While the paint dried, I got on my computer and created our name in my silhouette studio and cut out the vinyl. After the paint was dry I transfered our name to the top and wa-la, a mail organizer and wall decor! We plan on hanging it in our office area, but we still need to attach a bracket to the back.

This was an easy project that I really enjoyed... and now I also enjoy not having a random old green shutter laying around that needs fixing.

And just because we enjoyed it so much, here is a picture from our fire in our fire pit last night, and yes, we had s'mores. We are having the youth group over Friday evening so we wanted to test it out first, success!

So much!

Hello everyone!  With all of the hustle and bustle of getting things ready for the wedding and finishing up my junior year of school, blogging seemed to be put on the back burner for me.  However, I never stopped reading... just posting.  Well, I have decided to get into it again and hopefully do a better job than I did before.  There has been so much that has happened in the last few months so it is going to take a little while to get you caught up... 3-2-1, here we go!
My last post was in March, so I will try to briefly recap each month since then, in April, I was completely consumed in school, finishing my short term practicum, final assignments, ect.  I was going home every weekend to get wedding "stuff" taken care of, whether it was getting invitations ready, taking bridal pictures, or stuffing kiddie bags, there was always something that needed to be done.  Then we get to May.  May started off by ending my junior year with  exams, and then the 7th was Preston's (my husband for those of you  who don't know) college graduation.  Sadly, I do not have a picture of him in his cap and gown on my new computer or I would share.  Moving on... the next 6 days were busy busy busy... because on the 7th day, I married my best friend.  The ceremony was amazing and we had a wonderful reception, everything went to smoothly.  Well, other than our ring bearer not wanting to go down the aisle, but hey, he's cute.  Here are some moments of our big day:

Me and my Daddy-O

"I DO"

Mr. and Mrs. Riffe!

Wedding Party

Our Family

Getting ready to eat!

Father/Daughter

silly picture :)

We are so thankful for the many blessings we had throughout our wedding, including the showers, attendance, prayers, and thoughts that were with us as we started our new journey together.  Well, soon after the reception came to an end, it was time to head to Cincinnati... we had a 7am flight to catch the next morning, a flight to Miami we were boarded to glorious Carnival cruise ship, Glory!  We were so excited about our trip, especially since Preston had never been on a cruise before.  We made it to Miami and got through security at the cruise terminal lickity split with no problems.  The only wait we had was right before we boarded due to a storm.  We got on the cruise and we were off to Grand Cayman, Cozumel, Belize, and Isla Roatan (Honduras).  As you can imagine, we had a wonderful vacation that included snorkeling with sting rays and checking out the Mayan ruins!  Pictures don't do the trip justice, but I'll try to give you a little peak of how much fun we had!

First time on our balcony!

Our fabulous view

snazzy!

Cozumel :)

Belize

2nd elegant night... we lookin' fiiiine :)

bliss.

 We returned from our honeymoon at 4:30am, yes, you read that correctly, 4:30am.  We had flight delays in Chicago- it was storming as result of the storms/ tornadoes in Joplin.  We are happy to be home safe and sound.  We had a day to get things settled, and then I began working my summer job.  I had a work study in house keeping and let me tell ya, it was hard  exhausting!  In June we celebrated Preston's 23rd birthday.  We had a visit from Nana and PawPaw that we enjoyed and I baked/decorated a cake for Preston.  In July we really just continued the basic stuff, with an addition to a fun trip to King's Island amusement park.  Now it is August and school has started back.... but hey, it's senior year- almost finished!  I am currently working on getting my practicum placement set in stone and I am sure you will hear all about it when I know where I am going.
I know I have left out details, but now that I have got you somewhat caught up with our lives for the past few months I can continue posting... see you next time!

Brooke